THE PRACTICAL POCKET COMMENTARY: Critical and Explanatory. BY THE REV. ROB'T JAMIESON, D.D., REV. A. R. FAUSSET, A. M., AND THE REV. DAVID BROWN, D.D., Professor of Theology, Aberdeen. WITH A BIBLE DICTIONARY, COMPILED MAINLY FROM DR. WM. SMITH'S STANDARD WORK, AND A COPIOUS INDEX. With Maps and Illustrations. NEW TESTAMENT-VOLUME III. ROMANS-CORINTHIANS-GALATIANS. CHICAGO: H. R. THOMPSON & CO., 499 WABASH AV. NEW YORK: W. M. PERKINS, 40 FULTON ST. BOSTON: D. I. CARSON, 35 BROMFIELd St. ΤΗ INTRODUCTION. THE EPISTLE OF PAUL THE APOSTLE TO THE ROMANS. HE GENUINENESS of the Epistle to the Romans has never been questioned. It has the unbroken testimony of all antiquity, up to Clement, the apostle's "fellow-laborer in the gospel, whose name was in the book of life" (Philippians, 4. 3), and who quotes from it in his undoubted Epistle to the Corinthians, written before the close of the first century. The most searching investigations of modern criticism have left it untouched. WHEN and WHERE this epistle was written, we have the means of determining with great precision, from the epistle itself compared with the Acts of the Apostles. Up to the date of it the apostle had never been at Rome (ch. 1. 11, 13, 15). He was then on the eve of visiting Jerusalem with a pecuniary contribution for its Christian poor from the churches of Macedonia and Achaia, after which his purpose was to pay a visit to Rome on his way to Spain (ch. 15. 23-28). Now this contribution we know that he carried with him from Corinth, at the close of his third visit to that city, which lasted three months (Acts, 20. 2. 3; 24. 17). On this occasion there accompanied him from Corinth certain persons whose names are given by the historian of the Acts (Acts, 20. 4), and four of these are expressly mentioned in our epistle as being with the apostle when he wrote it-Timotheus, Sosipater, Gaius, and Erastus (ch. 16. 21, 23). these four, the third, Gaius, was an inhabitant of Corinth (1 Corinthians, 1. 14), and the fourth, Erastus, was "chamberlain of the city' (ch, 16. 23), which can hardly be supposed to be other than Corinth. Finally Phebe, the bearer, as appears of this epistle, was a deaconess of the Church at Cenchreæ, the eastern port of Corinth (ch. 16. 1). Putting these facts together, it is impossible to resist the conviction, in which all critics agree, that Corinth was the place from which the epistle was written, and that it was dispatched about the close of the visit above mentioned, probably in the early spring of the year 58. Of The FOUNDER of this celebrated church is unknown. That it owed its origin to the apostle Peter and that he was its first bishop, though an ancient tradition and taught in the Church of Rome, as a fact not to be doubted, is refuted by the clearest evidence, and is given up even by candid Romanists. On that supposition, how are we to account for so important a circumstance being passed by in silence by the historian of the Acts, not only in the narrative of Peter's labors, but in that of Paul's approach to the metropolis. of the deputations of Roman "brethren" that came as far as Appii Forum and the Three Taverns to meet him, and of his two years' labors there? And how, consistently with his declared principle- not to build upon another man's foundation (ch. 15. 20) - could he express his anxious desire to come to them that he might have some fruit among them also, even as among other Gentiles, (ch. 1. 13), if all the while he knew that they had the apostle of the circumcision for their spiritual father? And how, if so, is there no salutation to Peter, to among the many in his epistle or, if it may be thought that he was known to be elsewhere at that particular time - how does there occur in all the epistles which our apostle afterward wrote from Rome not one allusion to such an origin of the Roman Church? The same considerations would seem to prove that this church owed its origin to no prominent Christian laborer; and this brings us to the much litigated question. For WHAT CLASS of Christians was this epistle principally designedJewish or Gentile? That a large number of Jews and Jewish proselytes resided at this time at Rome is known to all who are familiar with the classical and Jewish writers of that and the immediately subsequent periods; and that those of them who were at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost (Acts, 2. 10), and formed probably part of the three thousand converts of that day, would, on their return to Rome, carry the glad tidings with them, there can be no doubt. Nor are indications wanting that some of those embraced in the salutations of this epistle were Christians already of long standing, if not among the earliest converts to the Christian faith. Others of them who had made the apostle's acquaintance elsewhere, and who, if not indebted to him for their first knowledge of Christ, probably owed much to his ministrations, seems to have charged themselves with the duty of cherishing and consolidating the work of the Lord in the capital. And thus it is not improbable that, up to the time of the apostle's arrival, the Christian community at Rome had been dependent upon subordinate agency for the increase of its numbers, aided by occasional visits of stated preachers from the provinces; and perhaps it may be gathered from the salutations of the last chapter that it was up to that time in a less organized, though far from less flourishing state, than some other churches to whom the apostle had already addressed epistles. Certain it is that the apostle writes to them expressly as a Gentile church (ch. 1. 13-15; 15. 15, 16); and though it is plain that there were Jewish Christians among them, and the whole argument presupposes an intimate acquaintance on the part of his readers with the leading principles of the Old Testament, this will be sufficiently explained by supposing that the bulk of them, having before they knew the Lord been Gentile proselytes to the Jewish faith, had entered the pale of the Christian Church through the gate of the ancient economy. It remains only to speak briefly of the PLAN and CHARACTER of this epistle. Of all the undoubted epistles of our apostle this is the most elaborate, and at the same time the most glowing. It has just as much in common with a theological treatise as is consistent with the freedom and warmth of a real letter. Referring to the headings which we have prefixed to its successive sections, as best exhibiting the progress of the argument and the connection of its points, we here merely note that its first great topic is what may be termed the legal relation of man to God as a viclater of His holy law, whether as merely written on the heart, as in the case of the Heathen, or, as in the case of the Chosen People, as further known by external revelation; that it next treats of that legal relation as wholly reversed through believing connection with the Lord Jesus Christ; and that its third and last great topic is the new life which accompanies this change of relation, embracing at once a blessedness and a consecration to God, which, rudimentally, complete already, will open, in the future world, into the bliss of immediate and stainless fellowship with God. The bearing of these wonderful truths upon the condition and destiny of the Chosen People, to which the apostle next comes, though it seems but the practical application of them to his kinsmen according to the flesh, is in some respects the deepest and most difficult part of the whole epistle, carrying us directly to the eternal springs of Grace, to the guilty in the sovereign ove and inscrutable purposes of God; after which, however, we are brought back to the historical platform of the visible church, in the calling of the Gentiles, the preservation of a faithful Israelitish remnant amid the general unbelief and fall of the nation, and the ultimate recovery of all Israel to constitute, with the Gentiles in the latter day, one Catholic Church of God upon earth. The remainder of the epistle is devoted to sundry practical topics, winding up with salutations and outpourings of heart, delightfully suggestive. CORINTHIANS. THE authenticity of this epistle is attested by Clement of Rome (Ep. to Corinth. c. 47), Polycarp (Ep. to Philipp. C. 11), and Irenæus (adversus Hæres. 4. 27,3). The city to which it was sent was famed for its wealth and commerce, which were chiefly due to its situation between the Ionian and Ægean seas on the Isthmus connecting the Peloponese with Greece. In St. Paul's time it was capital of the province Achaia, and the seat of the Roman proconS'il (Acts, 18. 12). The state of morals in it was notorious for debauchery, even in the profligate heathen world; so much so that "to Corinthianize was a proverbial phrase for "to play the wanton;" hence arose dangers to the pu rity of the Christian church at Corinth. That church was founded by St. Paul on his first visit (Acts, 18. 1-17). He had been the instrument of converting many Gentiles (ch. 12. 2), and some Jews (Acts, 18. 8), notwithstanding the vehement opposition of the countrymen of the latter (Acts, 18. 5), during the year and a half in which he sojourned there. The converts were chiefly of the humbler classes (ch. 1. 26, &c.). Crispus (ch. 1. 14; Acts. 18. 8), Erastus and Gaius (Caius) were, however, men of rank (Romans, 16. 23). A variety of classes is also implied in ch. 11. 22. The risk of contamination by contact with the surrounding corruptions, and the temptation to a craving for Greek philosophy and rhetoric (which Apollos' eloquent style rather tended to foster, Acts, 18. 24, &c.) in contrast to Paul's simple preaching of Christ crucified (ch. 2. 1, &c.), as well as the opposition of certain teachers to him, naturally caused him anxiety. Emissaries from the Judaizers of Palestine boasted of "letters of commendation" from Jerusalem, the metropolis of the faith. They did not, it is true, insist on circumcision in refined Corinth, where the attempt would have been hopeless, as they did among the simpler people of Galatia: but they attacked the apostolic authority of Paul (ch. 9. 1, 2; 2 Corinthians, 1o. 1, 7, 8), some of them declaring themselves followers of Cephas, the chief apostle, others boasting that they belonged to Christ Himself (ch. 1. 12; 2 Corinthians, 10. 7), while they haughtily repudiated all subordinate teaching. Those persons gave out themselves for apostles (2 Corinthians, 11. 5, 13). The ground taken by them was, that Paul was not one of the twelve, and not an eye witness of the gospel facts, and durst not prove his apostleship by claiming sustenance from the Christian church. Another section avowed themselves followers of Paul himself, but did so in a party spirit, exalting the minister rather than Christ. The followers of Apollos, again, unduly prized his Alexandrian learning and eloquence, to the disparagement of the apostle, who studiously avoided any deviation from Christian simplicity (ch. 2. 1-5). In some of this last philosophizing party there may have arisen the Antinomiam tendency which tried to defend theoretically their own practical immorality; hence their denial of the future resurrection, and their adoption of the Epicurean motto, prevalent in heathen Corinth, "L.ct us cat and drink, for to-morrow we die" (ch. 15). Hence, perhaps, arose their connivance at the incestuous intercourse kept up by one of the so-called Christian body with his step-mother, during his father's life, The household of Chloe informed St. Paul of many other evils; such as contentions, divisions, and lawsuits brought against brethren in heathen law courts by professing Christians; the abuse of their spiritual gifts into occasions of display and fanaticism; the interruption of public worship by simultaneous and disorderly min'strations, and decorum violated by women speaking unveiled (contrary to Oriental usage), and so usurping the office of men, and even the holy conimunion desecrated by greediness and revelling on the part of the communicants. Other messengers, also, came from Corinth, consulting him on the subject of (1.) the controversy about meats offered to idols; (2.) the disputes about celibacy and marriage; (3.) the due exercise of spiritual gifts in public worship; (4.) the best mode of making the collection which he had requested for the saints at Jerusalem (ch. 16. 1, &c.). Such were the circumstances which called forth the first epistle to the Corinthians, the most varied in its topics of all the epistles. In ch. 5. 9, I wrote unto you an epistle not to company with fornicators," it is implied that St. Paul had written a previous letter to the Corinthians (now lost). Probably in it he had also enjoined them to make a contribution for the poor saints at Jerusalem, whereupon they seem to have asked directions as to the mode of doing so, to which he now replies (ch. 16. 2). It also probably announced his intention of visiting them on his way to Macedonia, and again on |