tense, and denotes the then present experience of the apostle at the time of his writing: The love of Christ (Christ's love for men) now constrains us ("holds us in bounds"-Meyer); and this is the ever-present and abiding experience of all like the apostle. Having judged (koívavτaç) is the aorist participle, and points to a definite judgment which he had formed at some past time—probably at, or soon after, his conversion. The statement that one died (årévavev, aorist singular) for all, points to that great historic event which, above every other, exhibited the love of Christ for men. "Apa ol Táντεç ȧπédaνоv, therefore the all died-"the all," who meet the condition specified in the next verse, and "live unto him who for their sakes died and rose again," are conceived as having died with Christ. They were crucified with Christ, united with him by the likeness of his death (Rom. vi, 5, 6). Compare also Col. iii, 3: "For ye died (not ye are dead), and your life is hidden (KÉKρUTTAL, has become hidden) with Christ in God." That is, ye died at the time ye became united with Christ by faith, and as a consequence of that death ye now have a spiritual life in Christ.

"With regard to the tenses of the verb," says Winer, "New Testament grammarians and expositors have been guilty of the greatest mistakes. In general, the tenses are employed in the New Testament exactly in the same manner as in Greek authors. The aorist marks simply the past (merely occurrence at some former time-viewed, too, as momentary), and is the tense employed in narration; the imperfect and pluperfect always have reference to secondary events connected in respect to time with the principal event (as relative tenses); the perfect brings the past into connexion with the present, representing an action in reference to the present as concluded. No one of these tenses, strictly and properly taken, can stand for another, as commentators often would have us believe. But where such an interchange appears to take place, either it is merely apparent, and a sufficient reason (especially a rhetorical one) can be discovered why this and no other tense has been used, or it is to be set down to the account of a certain inaccuracy peculiar to the language of the people, which did not conceive and express relations of time with entire precision." "

2

1 When Christ died the redeeming death for all, all died, in respect of their fleshly life, with him; this objective matter of fact which Paul here affirms has its subjective realization in the faith of the individuals, through which they have entered into that death-fellowship with Christ given through his death for all, so that they have now, by means of baptism, become buried with him (Col. ii, 12).-Meyer, in loco.

9 New Testament Grammar, p. 264. Comp. Buttmann's Grammar of the New Testament Greek; Thayer's Translation, pp. 194–206. Andover, 1873.

The grammatical sense is to be always sought by a careful study and application of the well-established principles and rules of the language. A close attention to the meaning and relations of words, a care to note the course of thought, and to allow each case, mood, tense, and the position of each word, to contribute its part to the general whole, and a caution lest we assign to words and phrases a scope and conception foreign to the usus loquendi of the language -these are rules, which, if faithfully observed, will always serve to bring out the real import of any written document.

Context, Scope,

fined.

CHAPTER VI.

CONTEXT, SCOPE, AND PLAN.

THE grammatico-historical sense is further developed by a study of the context and scope of an author's work. The word and Plan de- context, as the etymology intimates (Latin, con, together, and textus, woven), denotes something that is woven together, and, applied to a written document, it means the connexion of thought supposed to run through every passage which constitutes by itself a whole. By some writers it is called the connexion. The immediate context is that which immediately precedes or follows a given word or sentence. The remote context is that which is less closely connected, and may embrace a whole paragraph or section. The scope, on the other hand, is the end or purpose which the writer has in view. Every author is supposed to have some object in writing, and that object will be either formally stated in some part of his work, or else apparent from the general course of thought. The plan of a work is the arrangement of its several parts; the order of thought which the writer pursues.

The context, scope, and plan of a writing should, therefore, be studied together; and, logically, perhaps, the scope should be first ascertained. For the meaning of particular parts of a book may be fully apprehended only when we have mastered the general purpose and design of the whole. The plan of a book, moreover, is most intimately related to its scope. The one cannot be fully apprehended without some knowledge of the other. Even where the scope is formally announced, an analysis of the plan will serve to make it more clear. A writer who has a well-defined plan in his mind will be likely to keep to that plan, and make all his narratives and particular arguments bear upon the main subject.

announced.

The scope of several of the books of Scripture is formally stated by the writers. Most of the prophets of the Old Test- Scope of many ament state the occasion and purpose of their oracles books formally at the beginning of their books, and at the beginning of particular sections. The purpose of the Book of Proverbs is announced in verses 1-6 of the first chapter. The subject of Ecclesiastes is indicated at the beginning, in the words "Vanity of vanities." The design of John's Gospel is formally stated at the close of the twentieth chapter: "These things are written that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye may have life in his name." The special purpose and occasion of the Epistle of Jude are given in verses 3 and 4: “Beloved, while giving all diligence to write to you of our common salvation, I found (or had) necessity to write to you exhorting to contend earnestly for the faith once for all delivered to the saints. For there crept in stealthily certain men, who of old were forewritten unto this judgment, ungodly, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Master, and our Lord Jesus Christ." The purport of this is, that while Jude was diligently planning and preparing to write a treatise or epistle on the common salvation, the circumstances stated in verse 4 led him to break off from that purpose for the time, and write to exhort them to contend earnestly for the faith once for all (ẵπağ, only once; "no other faith will be given."-Bengel) delivered to the saints. The scope of some books must be ascertained by a diligent examination of their contents. Thus, for example, the Book of Genesis is found to consist of ten sections, each beginning with the heading, "These are the generations," etc. This tenfold history of generations is preceded and introduced by the record of creation in chapter i, 1-ii, 3. The plan of the author appears, therefore, to be, first of all to record the miraculous creation of the heavens and the land, and then the developments (evolutions) in human history that followed that creation. Accordingly, the first developments of human life and history are called "the generations of the heavens and the land" (chap. ii, 4). The historical standpoint of the writer is "the day" from which the generations (niin, growths) start, the day when man was formed of the dust of the ground and the breath of life from the heavens. So the first man is conceived as the product of the land and the heavens by the word of God, and the word 877, create, does not occur in this whole section. "The day" of chapter ii, 4, which most interpreters understand of the whole creative week, we take rather to be the terminus a quo of generations, the

Plan and Scope of Genesis seen

in its contents.

day from which, according to verse 5, all the Edenic growths be gan; the day when the whole face of the ground was watered, when the garden of Eden was planted, and the first human pair were brought together. It was the sixth day of the creative week, "the day that Jehovah God made (nivy, in the sense of effected, did, accomplished, brought to completion) land and heavens." Adam was the "son of God" (Luke iii, 38), and the day of his creation was the point of time when Jehovah Elohim first revealed himself in history as one with the Creator. In chapter i, which records the beginning of the heavens and the land, only Elohim is named, the God in whom, as the plural form of the name denotes, centre all fulness and manifoldness of divine powers. But at chapter ii, 4, where the record of generations begins, we first meet with the name Jehovah, the personal Revealer, who enters into covenant with his creatures, and places man under moral law. Creation, so to speak, began with the pluripotent God-Elohim; its completion in the formation of man, and in subsequent developments, was wrought by Jehovah, the God of revelation, of law, and of love. Having traced the generations of the heavens and the land through Adam down to Seth (iv, 25, 26), the writer next records the outgrowths of that line in what he calls "the book of the generations of Adam" (v, 1). This book is no history of Adam's origin, for that was incorporated in the generations of the heavens and the land, but of Adam's posterity through Seth down to the time of the flood. Next follow "the generations of Noah (vi, 9), then those of his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth (x, 1), then those of Shem through Arphaxad to Terah (xi, 10–26), and then, in regular order, the generations of Terah (xi, 27, under which the whole history of Abraham is placed), Ishmael (xxv, 12), Isaac (xxv, 19), Esau (xxxvi, 1), and Jacob (xxxvii, 2). Hence the great design of the book was evidently to place on record the beginning and the earliest developments of human life and history. Keeping in mind this scope and structure of the book, we see its unity, and also find each section and subdivision sustaining a logical fitness and relation to the whole. Thus, too, the import of not a few passages becomes more clear and forcible.

of Exodus.

A very cursory examination of the Book of Exodus shows us Plan and Scope that its great purpose is to record the history of the Exodus from Egypt and the legislation at Mt. Sinai, and it is readily divisible into two parts (1) chaps. i-xviii; (2) xix-xl; corresponding to these two great events. But a closer examination and analysis reveal many beautiful and suggestive relations of the different sections. First, we have a vivid narrative

of the bondage of Israel (chaps. i-xi).. It is sharply outlined in chapter i, enhanced by the account of Moses' early life and exile (chaps. ii-iv), and shown in its intense persistence by the account of Pharaoh's hardness of heart, and the consequent plagues which smote the land of Egypt (chaps. v-xi). Second, we have the redemption of Israel (chaps. xii-xv, 21). This is first typified by the Passover (chaps. xii-xiii, 16), realized in the marvels and triumphs of the march out of Egypt, and the passage of the Red Sea (xiii, 17-xiv, 31), and celebrated in the triumphal song of Moses (xv, 1-21). Then, third, we have the consecration of Israel (xv, 22-xl) set forth in seven sections. (1) The march from the Red Sea to Rephidim (xv, 22-xvii, 7), depicting the first free activities of the people after their redemption, and their need of special Divine compassion and help. (2) Attitude of the heathen toward Israel in the cases of hostile Amalek and friendly Jethro (xvii, 8– xviii). (3) The giving of the Law at Sinai (xix-xxiv). (4) The tabernacle planned (xxv-xxvii). (5) The Aaronic priesthood and sundry sacred services ordained (xxviii-xxxi). (6) The backslidings of the people punished, and renewal of the covenant and laws (xxxii-xxxiv). (7) The tabernacle constructed, reared, and filled with the glory of Jehovah (xxxv-xl).

These different sections of Exodus are not designated by special headings, like those of Genesis, but are easily distinguished as so many subsidary portions of one whole, to which each contributes its share, and in the light of which each is seen to have peculiar significance.

Plan of the

Many have taken in hand to set forth in order the course of thought in the Epistle to the Romans. There can be subject and no doubt, to those who have closely studied this epistle, Epistle to the that, after his opening salutation and personal address, Romans. the apostle announces his great theme in verse 16 of the first chapter. It is the Gospel considered as the power of God unto salvation to every believer, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. This is not formally announced as the thesis, but it manifestly expresses, in a happy personal way, the scope of the entire epistle. "It had for its end," says Alford, "the settlement, on the broad principles of God's truth and love, of the mutual relations and union in Christ of God's ancient people and the recently engrafted world. What wonder, then, if it be found to contain an exposition of man's unworthiness and God's redeeming love, such as not even Holy Scrip ture itself elsewhere furnishes ?" 1

In the development of his plan the apostle first spreads out before 1 Greek Testament; Prolegomena to Romans.