HOW TO STUDY THE 
 NEW TESTAMENT 
 
HOW TO STtm^E"-THE 
 NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 THE EPISTLES (SECOND SECTION) AND THE 
 REVELATION 
 
 By henry ALFORD, d.d. 
 
 LATE DEAN OF CANTERBURY 
 
 STRAHAN AND CO. 
 56, LUDGATE HILL, LONDON 
 
 1872 
 
 [Fifth Edition.'] 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 26 
 
 THE EPISTLES— 
 
 I. THE EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS 
 
 II. THE PASTOAAL EPISTLES THE FIRST 
 
 EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY 
 
 III. THE PASTORAL EPISTLES THE EPISTLE 
 
 TO TITUS ..... 57 
 
 IV. THE PASTORAL EPISTLES THE SECOND 
 
 EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY . . . "] I 
 
 V. THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS . . 83 
 
 VI. THE GENERAL EPISTLE OF JAMES . I44 
 
 VII. THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER . . I72 
 
 VIII. THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER, AND 
 
 THE EPISTLE OF JUDE . . . 205 
 
 IX. THE EPISTLES OF JOHN . . . ^37 
 
 THE BOOK OF REVELATION . . .278 
 
THE EPISTLES 
 
 (second section) 
 
I. 
 
 THE EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS. 
 
 PHILIPPI is remarkable as the first Euro- 
 pean city in wliich the Gospel was preached. 
 In Actsxvi. [2^ etc.j we have the account of St. 
 PauPs arrival and proceeding there. It may 
 suffice to remind the reader now^ that he was 
 ^^ shamefully entreated " there (i Thess. ii. 2), 
 and that this circumstance combined with 
 others of which we are not aware, and with his 
 personal fervour of affection^ to knit up a bond 
 of more than ordinary attachment between him 
 and the Philippian church. That church had 
 begun with a discourse to a few pious women 
 by the side of the little river Gangites ; it grew 
 to become the affectionate and only helper of 
 the Apostle in his necessities on two several 
 occasions : immediately after his departure from 
 
2 Hovo to study the New Testament. 
 
 Philippi (see Phil. iv. 15, 16; i Thess. ii. 2), 
 and again shortly before this Epistle was written 
 (see Phil. iv. 10, 18 ; 2 Cor. xi. 9). 
 
 I have elsewhere expressed the thought_, that 
 this fervid attachment of St. Paul to the Philip- 
 pian church may perhaps be traced to the cir- 
 cumstance that we find very few traces of Jews 
 at Philippi. There was no synagogue there, 
 only a '' place for prayer '^ by the riverside : 
 the opposition to him arose, not from Jews, but 
 from the masters of the maiden whom he had 
 dispossessed. And thus the element which 
 everywhere else offered the bitterest resistance 
 to him, was wanting, or nearly so, here; and 
 his fervent affection met with a worthy and en- 
 tire return. 
 
 But we must not imagine that Jewish uiflu- 
 ence was entirely absent at Philippi. We have 
 traces of it, Phil. iii. 2-6. But it seems mainly 
 to have come among the Philippians from with- 
 out, not from persons of their own body. 
 
 We find an interesting trace of the fact that 
 female converts were the first to receive the 
 Gospel at Philippi, in the message sent to 
 Euodia and Syntyche, chap. iv. 2, 3, and the 
 
Philippians, 3 
 
 testimony borne to them, " inasmuch as they 
 laboured with me in the Gospel/^ (See correc- 
 tions below.) 
 
 Philippi was probably visited again by the 
 Apostle on his journey from Ephesus to Mace- 
 donia, Acts XX. I J and he is recorded to have 
 revisited it in Acts xx. 6, on his return to 
 Asia. But of the state of the church from the 
 time of his first visit, all we know is to be ga- 
 thered from this Epistle, and from a few scat- 
 tered notices in other Epistles. 
 
 They were, though liberal to him in his need, 
 yet poor: see 2 Cor. viii. i, 2. They were in 
 trouble, probably from persecution : see 2 Cor. 
 viii. 2; Phil. i. 28-30. They were in danger 
 of, or already involved in, quarrel and dissension 
 (see chap. ii. 1-4; i. 27; ii. 12, 14; iv.) : bu* 
 from what cause, does not appear. 
 
 The object of the Epistle appears to have 
 been the pouring out of the affectionate and 
 grateful heart of the writer on account of the 
 supply of his need in imprisonment, received 
 from his Philippians through Epaphroditus. 
 Of course, in such a writer, this would lead also 
 to a rich pouring forth of the sympathies and 
 
 B 2 
 
4 How to shidy the I^ew Testament, 
 
 counsels of his paternal Christian lieart^ which 
 under the guidance of the Blessed Spirit have 
 become a precious treasure of refreshment^, con- 
 solation, and knowledge, for all ages of the 
 Church. 
 
 No Epistle receives more light from the ap- 
 preciation of the time when, and place where, it 
 was written. And on these points there is no 
 reasonable doubt. Its own testimony plainly 
 points out Rome as the place, and the latter 
 part of the Apostle's imprisonment as the time. 
 For in it salutations are sent from those of 
 CaesaPs household (chap. iv. 22), and the londs 
 of the writer are said to have become manifest 
 in all the palace {prcetorium : chap. i. 13). As 
 to the precise portion of his imprisonment to 
 which the letter belongs, we may gather this 
 from its tone, and from the attendant circum- 
 stances implied. Let us compare it with the 
 three contemporary Epistles which have come 
 last under our notice — those to the Colossians, 
 Ephesians, and Philemon. In them, there is a 
 freer and more cheerful tone as regards himself, 
 and the preaching of the Gos})el, and the fu- 
 ture : see, for instancy, K ph. vi. 19, 20 ; Philem. 
 
Philippians. 5 
 
 23 ; whereas in this there is a prevailing spirit of 
 anxiety and sadness^ evidently belonging to an 
 other period^ and a different state of things as 
 regarded himself. He speaks of the possible 
 death of Epaphroditus as bringing to him^ if it 
 had happened_, " sorrow vpon sorrow" i. e. in 
 addition to sorrow already existing. He seems 
 now to stand face to face with death^ and to be 
 deliberating which w^ay he should incline^ whe- 
 ther to dissolve and be with Christ_, or to abide 
 with them (chap. i. 20_, and following). 
 
 And besides these indications^ there are others, 
 relating to surrounding circumstances, which 
 seem to necessitate some considerable lapse of 
 time since the commencement of his imprison- 
 ment. The preaching oi the Gospel was no 
 longer his doing, but that of others (chap. i. 
 13-18). The Philippians had heard of his im- 
 prisonment, had raised funds and sent them by 
 Epaphroditus, had hearrd of the sickness of the 
 latter, who had had time to learn the effect of 
 the news on them (chap. ii. 26), and was now 
 recovered, and ready to go back to them. So 
 that several journeys from Rome to Philippi had 
 taken place, and these not rapid and for a spe- 
 
6 How to study the N'av Testament. 
 
 cial object^ but casual. Again, it appears from 
 chap. ii. 23, that he expected a speedy decision of 
 his cause, which could hardly have been the case 
 during the period indicated in Acts xxviii. 30. 
 Now the circumstances of St. PauPs imprison- 
 ment tally very exactly with the indications thus 
 furnished. At first, it appears to have been 
 mild, and to have left him a considerable degree 
 of liberty and ease of mind. But the year after 
 it began (a.d. 62), Burrus, the Praetorian prefect 
 who influenced Nero tor good, died, and the 
 spirit of Nero^s government rapidly altered for 
 the worse. It would not be improbable that 
 shortly after that time the Apostle would be de- 
 barred the enjoyment of his own hired house, 
 and be placed in stricter custody; and then 
 some of those who had had custody of him be- 
 fore would spread the knowledge of ^Miis bonds" 
 in the palace, as related chap. i. 13. 
 
 If we come now to consider the character and 
 style of the Epistle, we shall find these to be pe- 
 culiar, and in some respects, without example in 
 the other letters of the Apostle. The style is 
 discontinuous and abrupt, passing rapidly from 
 one theme to another (see, as examples, chap. 
 
Philippians. 7 
 
 li. 18, 19-24, 25-30; iii. 1-2, 3, 4—14, 15. 
 etc.) j full of earnest exhortations (chap. i. 27 ; 
 iii. 16; iv. !_, etc.; 4, 5, 8_, 9); affectionate 
 warnings (chap. ii. 3, 4, 14, etc. ; iii. 2, 17-19) ; 
 disclosures of his own spiritual condition and 
 feelings (chap. i. 2i-26_, — ii. 17, — iii. 4-14, — iv. 
 12; 13) ; declarations of the condition of Chris- 
 tians (chap. ii. 15, i6,^iii. 2, 20, 21); and of 
 the sinful world (chap. iii. 18, 19) ; of the lov- 
 ing counsels of our Father respecting us (chap, 
 ii. 4-1 1); and the self-sacrifice and triumph of 
 our Redeemer (chap. ii. 4-11). 
 
 As to the character of the Epistle, it is full of 
 love, — -overflowing with expressions of affection. 
 See, among other proofs of this, chap. i. 8 ; ii. 
 1 , 12; iv. I . We see how such a heart, pene- 
 trated to its depths by the Spirit of God, could 
 love. We can see how that feeble frame, 
 crushed to the very verge of death itself, shaken 
 with fightings and fears,- burning at every man's 
 offence, and weak with every man's infirmities, 
 had yet its sweet refreshments and calm resting- 
 places of affection. We can form some esti- 
 mate, if the bliss of reposing on human spirits 
 who loved him was so great, how deep must 
 
8 How to study the New Testament. 
 
 have been his tranquilhty — how ample and how 
 clear his fresh spring of life and joy in Him of 
 whom he could write, " Yet it is not I that live, 
 but Christ that liveth in me/^ and of whose 
 abiding power within him he felt, as he tells his 
 Philippians, '' I have strength for all things in 
 Him that giveth me power/^ (See corrections 
 below, p. 14.)* 
 
 After what has been said of the style of this 
 Epistle, it would be in v^ain to attempt to range 
 its contents under any continuous heads of 
 thought. But we may indicate its principal 
 portions and divisions, and remark, as we do so, 
 on some of the precious and important passage? 
 which abound in it. 
 
 After the address and greeting (i. i, 2), the 
 Apostle gives thanks for their fellowship regard- 
 ing the Gospel (3-5), expresses confidence that 
 God will continue and perfect the same (6-8), 
 and prays for their increase in holiness unto the 
 day of Christ (9-1 1). Then follows a remark- 
 able passage (12-26), in which he describes his 
 condition at Rome : his feelings and hopes, 
 
 * 'New Testament for English Readers.' Introduction to 
 Epistle to Philippians. 
 
Philippians. 9 
 
 Here we have evidence of a considerable change 
 in his personal anticipations since the writing of 
 the earlier Epistles. In 2 Cor. he had expressed 
 the most confident expectation that he should 
 not be unclothed, but clothed upon, at his de- 
 parture out of life. Earlier still, in i Thess., he 
 had spoken of ^Sve which are alive and remain^' 
 at the Lord^s coming. But now that years 
 have passed, and that change seems imminent, 
 he speaks of his desire to " depart and be with 
 Christ.^^ I need not point out to the intelli- 
 gent reader how beautiftil and true this is ; nor 
 remind him how foolish and suicidal a course it 
 is to refuse, as some do, in a narrow and super- 
 stitious spirit, to recognize indications like this 
 of changes in the apostolic mind. If St. Peter, 
 as we know, was long in being thoroughly per- 
 suaded of the obsoleteness and irrelevancy of 
 Jewish ordinances, why should not St. Paul 
 have passed through different states of expecta- 
 tion re2;ardinp^ that of which neither man nor 
 angel knows ? 
 
 From chap. i. 27 to ii. 18, we have exhorta- 
 tions to united firmness, to mutual concord, to 
 humility, and, in general, to earnestness in reli- 
 
lo How to study the New Testavierd, 
 
 gion. In ii. 5-11^ where the example of Christ 
 is upheld as an incentive to humihty and mu- 
 tual love, w^e have one of the most weighty and 
 glorious passages in the Apostle's writings; 
 weighty, because it sets forth the whole doc- 
 trme respecting the pre-existence, deity, humi- 
 liation in humanity and suffering, and glorifica- 
 tion of our blessed Lord; glorious, because it 
 does this in such words as have fixed themselves 
 in every Christian heart, and have contributed 
 more, perhaps, than any other ever written, to 
 form in our minds that complex image of Him 
 whom we adore, of which no scorn or unbelief 
 can ever deprive us. It is true, it is for us in 
 England marred by one grievous mistranslation 
 (see corrections, p. 16), which has taken away 
 much of the majesty from its opening descrip- 
 tion of the Saviour. 
 
 In chap. ii. 19-30, we have additional no- 
 tices respecting the Apostle's state in his impri- 
 sonment, and announcements of his intended 
 mission of Timotheus, and his actual mission of 
 Epaphroditus. 
 
 Chap. iii. begins a new strain, that of guard- 
 ing against certain Judaizers, who, it would ap- 
 
Philippia7is. 1 1 
 
 pear, were by this time creeping into the church 
 at Philippic and disturbing the simphcity of its 
 faith. This warning he enforces (verses 1-16) 
 by his own example_, who_, having everything in 
 which fleshly trust might be reposed, had yet 
 cast aside all for the excellency of the knowledge 
 of Christ Jesus his Lord : and had forgotten the 
 pride of the past for the prize of the future. In 
 the course of this description of his own inner 
 resolves, we have some of St. PauPs very no- 
 blest utterances — words of beauty and of power, 
 which will dwell in the heart of the Church, 
 and of every Christian in the Church, till the 
 Lord comes again. From verse 17 to chap. iv. 
 I, we have a solemn exhortation to follow this 
 example, a fervid warning against the enemies 
 of the cross of Christ, and, by contrast to them, 
 a glorious description of the home and hope of 
 us Christians. The hortatory part of the Epis- 
 tle ends with an affectionate entreaty (iv. i) to 
 steadfastness. 
 
 And then the letter draws to a close with in- 
 junctions to individuals (2, 3), and to them all 
 (4-9). In verse 3, we have one of those in- 
 stances of St. PauPs beautiful expression of 
 
1 2 How to study the Ahw Testament, 
 
 Christian courtesy, which we had to notice at 
 the end of the Epistle to the Romans. When 
 he requests his " true yokefellow ^' (who this 
 was is uncertain) to help Euodia and Syntyche, 
 seeing that they laboured with him in the 
 Gospel; he includes in this category Clement 
 also, and other his fellow-labourers, nameless 
 here, but whose names are recorded elsewhere, 
 even in the Book of Life. 
 
 From ver. lo to 20 he thanks them for the 
 supply to his need which they had remitted, and 
 takes occasion to say that he does not complain 
 of want, but has strength for all things in Him 
 that giveth him power. And with a parting 
 salutation and benediction, the Epistle closes. 
 
 We proceed to give our usual amount of 
 '^ corrigenda ^^ in the authorized English ver- 
 sion. And first, of places where our translators 
 have not the best and most ancient reading of 
 the text. 
 
 In chap i. 11, for ^'fruits . . . which arc,'* 
 read '^ fruit . . . which is." Verses 16 and 17 
 are arranged thus in all the ancient authorities : — 
 '' These indeed out of love, knowing that I am 
 set for the defence of the Gospel : but the others 
 
Philippians. 13 
 
 out of self-seeking (see corrections, p. 15) pro- 
 claim Christ, not sincerely, thinking to raise up 
 (so all the oldest MSS.) tribulation to my bonds/^ 
 The English version has the verses transposed. 
 In ver. 28, for " hut to you of salvatio?i/' the 
 oldest MSS. read, ^^but of your salvation.-'^ 
 Some very ancient ones read, ^'but to us of 
 salvation." 
 
 In chap. ii. 5, all the oldest MSS. read, 
 " Have this mind in you," instead of "Let this 
 mind he in you.'^ In ver. 9, for '^ a name," all 
 our oldest MSS. have " the name." In ver. 30, 
 the words " of Christ," are omitted by one of 
 the oldest MSS., and variously read by others; 
 an almost sure sign that the original text did 
 not contain them. 
 
 In chap. iii. 11, for "the resurrection of the 
 dead," all our oldest authorities have "the re- 
 surrection from the dead," i. e. that blessed and 
 holy first resurrection, in which the dead in 
 Christ shall rise before the rest of the dead 
 (Rev. XX.). In ver. 12, for "J am apprehended 
 of Christ Jesus/' read " I was laid hold of (viz. 
 at my conversion) by Christ." In ver. 16, for 
 " let us walk hy the same rule, let v^ mind the 
 
14 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 same thing" read, with our three most ancient 
 MSS. (others having it variously), "walk on by 
 the same path/' In ver. 21, the words "that 
 it may be/' are omitted in the most ancient 
 MSS. If we leave them out, we shall have to 
 supply, " so that it shall be." 
 
 In chap. iv. 13, read and render, "I have 
 strength for all things in him which giveth me 
 power." In ver. 23, all the oldest MSS. have, 
 i'or " he with you all. Amen," " be with your 
 spirit," omitting the "Amen" 
 
 The chief places in which our translators have 
 wrongly or inadequately rendered the original 
 are the following : — 
 
 In chap. i. 6, " hath hegnn " should be " be- 
 gan." In ver. 7, for " to think this of you all" 
 " to be thus minded for (/. e. on behalf of) you 
 all;" and for "I have you in my heart " substitute 
 "you have me in your heart." In ver. 8, for 
 "record" "witness;" and for " /"// the bowels 
 oj Jesus Christ " " in the tender heart of Christ 
 Jesus." In ver. 9, for "judgment," read " per- 
 ception." In ver. 10, for " approve," " discern." 
 In ver. 11, for ^' ly," "through." In ver. 13, 
 for "arc," "became;" and for " i// all other 
 
Philippiaiis. 1 5 
 
 places'^ '"''to all others/^ In ver. 14^ '' majiij ^' 
 should be ^^most/^ In ver. 16 (ver. 17 in the cor- 
 rected text, see pp. 12, i'^)," contention'' should 
 have been " self-seeking.^^ The word cannot 
 mean contention : see on Rom. xi. 8. In the 
 same verse "preach" is better "proclaim," and 
 "preached,'' in ver. 18, "proclaimed." In ver. 
 18 also, "will" ought to be "shall." He is 
 speaking, not of his own determination to re- 
 joice over the proclaiming of Christ, but, as the 
 correct words show, of his conviction that this 
 proclaiming of Christ shall ultimately turn out 
 a cause of joy to him. Ver. 22 should run 
 thus : — " But if to live in the flesh, this be to me 
 fruit of my labour, then what I shall choose I 
 know not:" i. e, if the continuance of my life 
 in the flesh is to ensure fruit of my apostleship, 
 then I am placed in a difiicultv of choice. In 
 ver. 25, for "joy o/' faith," "joy in your faith." 
 In ver. 26, read " that in me your matter of 
 boasting may abound in Christ Jesus, through 
 my presence with you again." In ver. 27, for 
 "let your conversation be as becometh," the 
 words "conduct yourselves worthily of" would 
 even better express the meaning; and for "your 
 
1 6 How to study the N'ew Tcstainent, 
 
 affairSj'' substitute "your state." In ver. 28, 
 for"o/God/^ "from God." In ver. 29, for 
 " it is given/^ " it hath been given." 
 
 In chap. ii. i, "consolation^' should be" ex- 
 hortation." The word in the original means 
 both ; but, as " comfort " follows, it is not 
 likely that the same idea would be repeated in 
 two consecutive clauses. In the same verse, for 
 "bowels and mercies** read "tenderness and 
 compassion." In ver. 2, for " heing of ojie 
 accord, of one mind" " with united souls being 
 of one mind." In ver. 3, " strife " should be 
 " self-seeking." It is the same word as that 
 mistranslated "contention" in chap. i. 17 (16). 
 In ver. 6, " thought it not robbery to be equal 
 with God" is altogether wrong, both in render- 
 ing and in the sense conveyed. The idea — if 
 there be any idea conveved by these unfortunate 
 words — is, that Christ, not being on an equality 
 with God originally, yet assumed this equality, 
 thinking it no wrong, no robberv, to do so. 
 Nothing can be further from the mind of the 
 Apostle, as expressed in the original words. 
 That mind is, that Christ, being, previously 
 existing, on an equality with God, did not re- 
 
Philippians, 1 7 
 
 gard this His equality,, this His loftiness and 
 glory, a thing to be held fast by Him, but gave 
 it up and emptied Himself so as to become man. 
 And the very plain words in which this is ex- 
 pressed are : ^' Who, existing (or being) in the 
 torm of God, deemed not his equality with God 
 a thing to grasp at/^ i. e. a matter for Him to 
 retain, as one who grasps what he is afraid to 
 lose. Thus, by keeping close to the original, 
 the whole pre-existent majesty of Christ is set 
 before us, and '^ the mind which was in Christ 
 Jesus ^^ is described in all its self-abandonment 
 of divine love. In ver. 8, the words should 
 stand, " becoming obedient even unto death^ 
 and that the death of the cross.^"* In ver. 9, 
 for "hath highly exalted him, and given hi?n/' 
 " exalted him exceedingly, and gave him '^ — the 
 reference being, not to His present state only, 
 but to the events, of the Ascension, and the glori- 
 fication of Him by the Father. In ver. 10, for 
 ^^that at the 7iame of Jesiis every knee should 
 how" it should stand "that in the name of 
 Jesus every knee should bend.''' As the words 
 stand in the authorized version, they seem to 
 enjoin the practice of "bowing the knee" at 
 
 c 
 
1 8 How to study the A^ew Testameiit. 
 
 the name of Jesus, i. e. when the name of 
 Jesus is uttered. But we venture to say that no 
 such meaning was in the mind of the writer. 
 He intended to convey that the purpose of this 
 exaltation of the Lord Jesus was, that in His 
 name should all prayer be made ; that no man 
 should come to the Father but through Him. 
 He himself shows what meaning he attached to 
 the phrase ^'^ bowing the knee/^ in Eph. iii. 14: 
 ^^ For this cause I bow my knees unto the 
 Father . . . that he would grant you. . . ." 
 It is with him an expression for offering up 
 prayer. It were much to be wished that such 
 indefensible senses of Scripture texts might be 
 universally by honest men abandoned, and that 
 we might no longer be told that St. Paul, in the 
 sublimest part of his most sublime description 
 of the glory of our exalted Redeemer, is laying 
 down a rule for a mere outward gesture when 
 His name is mentioned. But, until we in Eng- 
 land have the honesty to face the question of a 
 corrected version of Scripture, this and even 
 worse perversion of its sacred words will con- 
 tinue. 
 
 In vcr. 12, ''work out'' ought to be ''carry 
 
Philippiaiis, 1 9 
 
 out/' We do not work out our own salvation, 
 for we are saved by grace ; but we do carry out 
 our ow}\ salvation. The intent of the rendering 
 " work out '^ may not have been originally 
 wrongs but as the term is now used, it gives a 
 wrong idea, and one inconsistent with the asser- 
 tion ill the next verse. " 0/his good pleasure" 
 should be " for his good pleasure." The mean- 
 ing is not that God worketh in us to will and 
 to do as He pleases, but that He worketh in us 
 to will and to do so as to fulfil, in the direction 
 of. His good pleasure ; so that His will is sub- 
 served by our willing and doing. In ver. 15, 
 for '^ rehuke" read '^ reproach." In ver. 16, for 
 " that I may rejoice/' read " for a boast to me." 
 In ver. 1 7, for '' if I he offered/' ^' if I am even 
 being poured out." He alludes to present, not 
 merely to possible, circumstances, and regards 
 his own blood as the libation being poured out 
 over the sacrifice, as the Jews poured wine (see 
 Numbers xxviii. 7, xv. 4, etc.). In the same 
 verse, and in ver. 18, for '^rejoice ivithj" ^^con- 
 gratulate." In ver. 21, for ''all" ''they all." 
 In ver. 25, for " messenger/' read, as in the 
 original, '' apostle." The English translators 
 
 c 2 
 
20 How to study the N'ew Testame^it. 
 
 had absolutely no right to contribute to false 
 impressions respecting ecclesiastical names by 
 misrendering the plain terms occurring in 
 Scripture. 
 
 In chap. iii. 2, for " dogs ^^ and ^' evil workers/' 
 " the dogs/^ '' the evil workers/^ I may observe 
 that the strange, un-English term, ^^the con- 
 cision," is the only rendering possible for the 
 contemptuous word which St. Paul uses to de- 
 sio-nate the Judaizing party. What he says 
 is, " Beware of, I will not say the cira/wcision 
 (for that is an honourable name, as I will pre- 
 sently show you,) but the co/zcision — the mere 
 amputation — the cutting off of the flesh, and no 
 more." He reserves the word aVa/mcision, in 
 its true sense, for Christians. In ver. 5, for 
 "an Hebrew of the Hebrews," which conveys 
 little meaning to the English reader, " an He- 
 brew descended from Hebrews." In ver. 6, 
 "blameless" does not express enough. The 
 oriirinal is ^Miavinir become blameless." Per- 
 haps ^Miaving lived blameless" would be best in 
 English. In ver. 7, for "counted" "have 
 counted." He is describing, not merely some 
 occasion on which he did this, but his long- 
 
Philippians. 21 
 
 since settled frame of mind. Then in ver. 8, it 
 should be " nay more^ and I still count them all 
 but loss for the sake of/^ etc. ^' Win ^^ would 
 be better " gain.^' hoss and gain are opposed 
 when speaking of commerce, which is the 
 Apostle^s illustration here ; loss and winnings 
 when speaking of play, which is not. In ver. 
 9, ^^ of God by faith/' misses the original. It 
 is ^^from God upon my faith/^ i.e. which is be- 
 stowed by God as consequent on faith on my 
 part. In ver. 10^ for " l'ei?ig made coiformahle 
 unto/' "being conformed to the likeness of." 
 In ver. 12^ for " attained/' "obtained.-'^ It is a 
 wholly different word from that rendered " at- 
 tained " in the last verse_, and ought not to have 
 been rendered by the same word in English. 
 And it should proceed^ " or are already made 
 perfect : but I press on (same word as in ver. 
 14 below), if so be that I may lay hold on that 
 for which also I was laid hold on by Christ." 
 And in ver. 13, for " apprehended/' "laid hold." 
 In ver. I4_, for "high/' "heavenly." In ver. 
 18, for "have told/' "told/^ viz. when he was 
 with them. In ver. 19, better keep the word 
 " perdition " for the Greek word constantly so 
 
22 Hoik) to study the N'ew Test a^n cut. 
 
 rendered_, instead of ^' destruction. '^ Great mis- 
 chief has been done by our translators, leading 
 to the confusion of many Scripture terms, from 
 a fancy, which they themselves avow in their 
 preface, of varying in different places the read- 
 ing of the same word in the original. Some- 
 times, it mitst be done. The same Greek word 
 expressed two ideas which the same word in 
 English will not express. But they did it, as 
 they confess, for mere variety^s sake. In ver. 
 20, for "conversation ,'' which has to the English 
 reader no meaning, substitute '' country. ^^ The 
 original word means the " state " to which we 
 belong as citizens. For " the Saviour,^^ " a 
 Saviour." In ver. 21, for " onr vile bodi//' '^the 
 body of our humiliation •/' and for '^ his glorious 
 body/* " the body of his glory ;" another in- 
 stance of the way in which our version dilutes 
 and loses the meaning and majesty of the 
 original. For "the working ivhereby/' "the 
 working of his power whereby." 
 
 In chap. iv. 2, " Euodia,? " should be 
 " Euodia." It -is a woman that is spoken of. 
 In ver. 3, " help those women which laboured," 
 ought to be, " help them (the women just men- 
 
Thilippians. 23 
 
 tioned), inasmuch as they laboured/' Inver. 4, 
 for " and again I say,^' " again 1 will say it/' 
 In ver. 6, for " careful for /^ ^'^ anxious about/' 
 for " prayer and supplication" '^ your prayer 
 and your supplication/' In ver. 7, " keep " 
 means "guard/' The words have now become 
 so familiar to English ears^ that it would be pity 
 to make any change; but the fact should be 
 borne in mind. For " through Christ Jesus/' 
 should stand " in Christ Jesus." In ver. 8, for 
 " honest," " seemly " would approach nearer to 
 " venerable/' which is the literal sense of the 
 original word. For " if there he any virtue, and 
 if there he any praise" read, " whatever virtue 
 there is, and whatever praise/' In ver. 9, erase 
 " have" and for " seen" write " saw." In ver. 
 II, erase ^^ have" and write for " in whatsoever 
 state I am," "in the state in which I am." 
 He alludes to one special occasion on which the 
 Lord taught him this; probably to that time 
 when (2 Cor. xii. 9) He said to him, " My 
 grace is sufficient for thee." In ver. 12, for 
 " everywhere," " in each ;" and for " I am in- 
 structed," " have I been instructed/' Ver. 13 
 has been already corrected, in noticing the read- 
 
24 How to study the N'cw Tcsta?nent. 
 
 ing (see p. 14). In ver. 14, for "ye have well 
 done,'' " ye did well/^ In ver. 15, for " as 
 concerning/' " in an account of/^ In ver. 1 7, 
 for "a gift/' "the gift/' and for ''fruit;' 
 "the fruit.-" In ver. ig, for " /^y Christ Jesus/' 
 "in Christ Jesus." In ver. 2o_, for "Now," 
 "But/' and for " God and our Father," "our 
 God and Father;" and for "glory," "the 
 glory." 
 
 The reader will see by these corrections that 
 the Epistle to the Philippians is one in which, 
 more than in most, the delicate and important 
 points in translation have been missed in the 
 English authorized version. He will be able 
 to estimate, by making the corrections, how 
 much of good sense and wisdom there is in the 
 cry of danger, directly any one advocates a re- 
 vision of that version. He will learn on which 
 side to range himself in the controversy, which 
 is sure one day to come — whether on the side 
 of God, and God's truth, and reverence for His 
 word, and common honesty, or on that of 
 those who, in the old spirit of timidity and 
 faithlessness, love quietness rather than truth, 
 
Philippians, 25 
 
 and are content to keep back from their coun- 
 trymen the genuine word of God^ for the 
 sake of preventing unpleasant inquiries being 
 made. 
 
THE PASTORAL EPISTLES. 
 
 WE have now come to the consideration 
 of three Epistles, addressed, two to Ti- 
 mothy and one to Titus, having for their pur- 
 port exhortations and directions regarding the 
 pastoral work of a minister in the Church — 
 hence called the Pastoral Epistles. 
 
 For the genuineness of these, there is no lack 
 of external evidence. They are quoted by some 
 of the very earliest Christian writers, and are 
 ranged by Eusebius among the number of ca- 
 nonical books universally acknowledged. 
 
 But, at first sight, these Epistles seem to pre- 
 sent a few internal difficulties, which I proceed 
 to state and to deal with. 
 
 The first of these is, that they apparently deal 
 with things and persons which belong to a later 
 
The Pastoral Epistles. 27 
 
 age than that of the Apostles. The heretics 
 repeatedly mentioned in them (see i Tim. i. 3, 
 4, 6, 7, 19; iv. 1-7; vi. 3, etc.; % Tim. ii. 16-23; 
 Tit. i. 10, II, I4_, 16; iii. 9, 10) have appeared 
 to some to belong to later times, and their te- 
 nets to systems' undeveloped in the apostolic 
 age. Now, we may notice respecting these 
 heretics two facts — first, that there are un- 
 doubed traces of Judaism about them : they 
 professed to he teachers of the law (i Tim. i. 7); 
 they commanded to abstain from meats (iv. 3) ; 
 they are described as consisting of those of the 
 circumcision (Tit. i. 10) ; as causing men to at- 
 tend to Jewish fables (ver. 14) ; as bringing in 
 strifes about the law (iii. 9). But they are not 
 the Judaizers of the Apostle's former Epistles. 
 They seem no longer to uphold the law as a 
 rule of life, nor, as in the Epistle to the Colos- 
 sians, to have founded on it the superstitions of 
 angel worship and of the imagination; nor 
 even, as in that to the Philippians, to have 
 merely shown a declension from superstition 
 into godlessness. These stages of downward 
 progress seem to have passed by, and they are 
 involved in a total apostasy from God and from 
 
28 How to study the N'eiv Testament. 
 
 good. They had lost all true understanding of 
 the law (i Tim. i. 7) ; they had repudiated a 
 good conscience (ver. 19); they were hypocrites 
 and liars (iv. 2) ; they were branded with im- 
 morality (iv. 2) ; thev were of corrupt minds, 
 using religion to better themselves in this world 
 (i Tim. vi. 5; Tit. i. 11); they were insidious 
 and deadly in their attacks, and subverters of 
 the faith (2 Tim. ii. 17) ; they proselytized and 
 victimized foolish persons to their ruin (2 Tim. 
 iii. 6, etc.) ; they were polluted and disbelievers, 
 with their very mind and conscience defiled 
 (Tit. i. 15) ; they confessed God with their 
 mouths, but denied Him in their works — they 
 were abominable and disobedient^ and for every 
 good work reprobate (Tit. i. 16). Now this 
 description admirably suits that which is fur- 
 nished to us in the Epistle to the Hebrews, and 
 in those of St. Peter and St. John. In those 
 we are led to the same inference as here, that 
 the heresies and false teachings of the apostolic 
 age gradually issued in laxity of life and morals. 
 The once strict legality of Judaism broke ^own 
 when the Jewish polity itself, and its temple, 
 were removed, and the loose Asiatic elements 
 
The Pastoral Epistles. 29 
 
 which were mingled with it gave their licen- 
 tious character to its profession. These consi- 
 derations would tend to fix these Pastoral 
 Epistles later than any other remaining wri- 
 tings of St. Paul ; but no other more formid- 
 able result need follow from this form of our 
 first difficulty. That there should be found in 
 them traces of the first beoinnin^s of Gnosti- 
 cism_, a heresy which afterwards became wide- 
 spread and formidable^ is no more than we 
 might expect^ seeing that this heresy had its 
 rise immediately on the close of the apostolic 
 age^ and doubtless had been taking shape in the 
 Eastern churches for some time before. 
 
 Another difficulty is, that in these Epistles a 
 kind of ecclesiastical order seems to be subsist- 
 ing which indicates a farther advance in hier- 
 archical development than could have been 
 reached in the apostolic age. But this is really 
 not so. We find in them deacons, presbyters, 
 and bishops ; the latter being men selected 
 from among the presbyters to bear rule in the 
 churches, with very little, if any, of the specialty 
 of the church officers now so named. The di- 
 rections here given are entirely of a moral^ not 
 
30 How to study the A'^cw Testament. 
 
 of an ecclesiastical kind; and are such as are 
 naturally accounted for by the fact that here 
 alone is the Apostle writing to those concerned 
 in selecting such men; and that the prevalence 
 of heresies, and the approaching removal of 
 himself from the scene, made him anxious to 
 leave such warnings behind him. 
 
 Another objection is, that the expressions an^* 
 modes of thought are peculiar, and divergent 
 from those in St. PauPs recognized Epistles. 
 Now we are perfectly ready to admit the fact 
 here stated. We shall below give a list of the 
 principal of these peculiar expressions. And 
 the process of thought is certainly not that of 
 the earlier Epistles. But two considerations 
 come in to account for this circumstance : one 
 is general, the other particular. The general 
 one is this, that frequently the style and manner 
 of writing of the same author is very various, 
 according to the circumstances under which, 
 and the persons to whom, he happens to be 
 writing; and the particular one, that we happen 
 to possess in the writings of St. Paul himself, a 
 curious indication of a circumstance which cer- 
 tainly did affect his diction and style. He ge- 
 
The Pastoral Epistles. 3 1 
 
 nerally wrote with the aid of an amanuensis, 
 and we may venture to say that the help of such 
 amanuensis was had recourse to not merely for 
 the mechanical putting on paper of the Apostle's 
 dictated words, but also for the putting of his 
 thoughts into smooth and flowing language. 
 We seem to know thus much from the fact 
 that where St. Paul evidently writes without 
 such help, as, e. g., in the Epistle to the Gala- 
 tians, and in the doxology at the end of the 
 Epistle to the Romans, he does adopt the same 
 kind of fervid and rough style. The Epistle to 
 the Galatians, it is true, differs so widely in sub- 
 ject from these, that we do not find a close re- 
 semblance in words ; but in the doxolog)^ just 
 mentioned the resemblance to these Epistles is 
 very striking; so striking that, as I have else- 
 where remarked,* we might almost conceive 
 him to have taken his pen off while writing one 
 of these Pastoral Epistles, and to have written 
 that doxology under the same impulse. 
 
 Still, I do not mean to say that our difficulty 
 on this head is altogether removed. There re^ 
 main many expressions and ideas found in these 
 
 * New Testament for English Readers, vol. ii., Introd., p, 103. 
 
32 How to study the N'cw Testa7ne7tt, 
 
 Epistles_, and found nowhere else. Such are, 
 " It is a faithful saying/' and the like (i Tim. 
 i. 15; iii. I ; iv. 9; 2 Tim. ii. 11 ; Tit. iii. 8) — 
 a phrase which seems at this time to have dwelt 
 much on the mind of the writer; " godliness/' 
 ^' godly'' (i Tim. ii. 2; iii. 16; iv. 7; vi. 11 ; 
 2 Tim. iii. 5, 12 ; Tit. i. I ; ii. 12) — a term oc- 
 curring in this sense only here and in 2 Peter, 
 and doubtless to be accounted for by the fact of 
 the word having become at this time prevalent 
 in the Church as a compendious term for the 
 religion of Christians; "sober- (or sound-) 
 minded/' and its derivatives (i Tim. ii. 9, 15; 
 iii. 2 ; 2 Tim. i. 7; Tit. i. 8 ; ii. 2, 4_, etc., 12) — a 
 term found also in the Apostle's other writings, 
 as in Rom. xii. 3 ; 2 Cor. v. 13, but probably 
 coming into more frequent use as the quality 
 itself became more and more necessary to the 
 welfare of the Church (see i Pet. iv. 7). The 
 epithet "sound" or ^^ healthy/' applied to doc- 
 trine (i Tim. i. 10; vi. 3, 4; 2 Tim. i. 13; iv. 
 ^; Tit. i. 9, 13; ii. I, etc. 8), one of the most 
 curious peculiarities of these Epistles, arises 
 probably from the writer's observance of the 
 t^rocess of corruption of the springs of moral 
 
The Pastoral Epistles, 2>2) 
 
 action by the growing heresies of the time ; 
 " jahles'' (i Tim. i. 4 ; iv. 7; 2 Tim. iv. 4 ; Tit. i. 
 14), the heretical legends having by this time 
 assumed so definite a shape as to deserve this 
 name (see also 2 Pet. i. 16). ^^ Questionings'^ (i 
 Tim. i. 4; vi. 4; 2 Tim. ii. 23 ; Tit. iii. 9), ^'ap- 
 pearance'' [" epiphany'^), used of the coming of 
 our Lord (i Tim. vi. 14 ; 2 Tim. iv. i^ 8 ; Tit. ii. 
 I3)_, instead of the more usual word '' coming/^ 
 or ^'' presence.^^ "To deny" (i Tim. v. 8; 2 
 Tim. ii. 12;, 13 ; iii. 5 ; Tit. i. 16; ii. 12), found in 
 2 Pet., I John, and Jude, but never in St. PauPs 
 other writings. It may have been a word for 
 apostasy, which came late into use as the fact 
 itself became usual. It is evidently taken from 
 our Lord^s own declaration, Mat. x. '^'^, etc. 
 " To decline" or "avoid" (i Tim. iv. 7; v. 11 ; 
 2 Tim. ii. 23 ; Tit. iii. 10), a word confined to 
 St. Luke, St. Paul, and the writer of the Epistle 
 to the Hebrews. " Saviour" spoken of God 
 (i Tim. i. I; ii. 3 ; iv. 10 ; Tit. i. 3; ii. 10), 
 also found in Luke i. 47; Jude 25. "Profane" 
 (i Tim. i. 9; iv. 7; vi. 20; 2 Tim. ii. 16); only 
 elsewhere found in Heb. xii. 16; interesting, as 
 is also "unholy" (i Tim. i. 9; 2 Tim. iii. 2), 
 
 D 
 
34 How to study the New Testmnent. 
 
 as marking the fact of the progress of heresy 
 from doctrine to practice. Besides, we have 
 the terms, "to maintain constantly^' (i Tim. i. 
 7; Tit. iii. 8) ; " to pitt in mind," 2 Tim. ii. 14; 
 Tit. iii. I (2 Pet. i. I2; 3 John 10 ; Jude 5), a 
 word which would naturally come into use as 
 time wore on and the danger of forgetfulness 
 came with it; and other less infrequent words.* 
 
 If now we look back over this list, we shall 
 find it almost entirely to consist of such words 
 as the alteration of circumstances since the 
 writing of the former Epistles would have 
 tended to introduce. So that it seems rather 
 an argument for, than against, the genuineness 
 of the Epistles, 
 
 The same may be said of another objection 
 which has been brought against them in point 
 of style. In the composition of all three Epis- 
 tles we have this peculiarity, that the writer is 
 constantly given to digress from his main sub- 
 ject to speak of general truths (see i Tim. i. 15, • 
 ii. 4-6; iii. 16; iv. <S-io; 2 Tim. i. 9, 10 ; ii. 
 11-13, I9~2^^ ^^'' '-' 1*^^ ^^^^- ''• ''~H; i'i- 
 
 * The above account is mainly taken from my ' New Testa- 
 ment for Inglish Readers,' vol. ii., Introd., pp. 103-5. 
 
The Pastoral Epistles. 35 
 
 3-7) ; and even that which is said by way of 
 contradiction appears in this form (i Tim. i. 8- 
 10; iv. 4, 5; vi. 6-10 ; 2 Tim. ii. 4-6; Tit. i. 
 15) After such digressions or general com- 
 monplaces^ the writer usually recurs_, or finally 
 appeals to, and falls back on, previous exhorta- 
 tions or instructions given to his correspondent 
 (i Tim. iii. 14, 15; iv. 6, 11 ; 2 Tim. ii. 7, 14; 
 iii. 5; Tit. ii. 15; iii. 8). Now what can be 
 more like St. Paul than these supposed objec- 
 tions to his authorship of these Epistles ? These 
 must be ascribed to a late period of his career. 
 What more natural than that he should have 
 passed from reasoning out and elaborating great 
 doctrines, to urging, and repeating, and dilating 
 upon, truths which have been the food of his 
 life? ^^ There is a resting on former conclu- 
 sions, a stating of great truths almost after the 
 manner of proverbs and set sayings, a constant 
 citation of the time gone by, which lets us into 
 a most interesting phase of the character of the 
 great Apostle. We see here rather the succes- 
 sion of brilliant sparks than the steady flame- 
 burning words indeed, and deep pathos, but not 
 the flames of his firmness, as in his discipline of 
 
 D 2 
 
36 How to study the 7\vzc Tcstaincnt. 
 
 the Galatians, not the noon of his bright, warm 
 eloquence, as in the inimitable psalm of love (i 
 Cor. xiii.)/' 
 
 We may also trace the tokens of advancing 
 age, and the faster hold of individual habits of 
 thought and mannerism, which characterize the 
 decline of life ; in the habit of going off, on the 
 mention of anything which reminds him of 
 God^s mercies to himself, or of his own suffer- 
 ings on behalf of the Gospel, into a digression 
 on his own history, feelings, and hopes. See i 
 Tim. i. 1 1, etc. ; 2 Tim. i. 1 1, etc., 15, etc. ; ii. 9, 
 10; iii. 10, II ; iv. 6, etc. This phenomenon is 
 not found in the Epistle to Titus; and naturally, 
 as Titus had not, like Timothy, watched as a 
 companion the official course of the Apostle. 
 
 The whole course of these considerations, and 
 of others which I have taken into account in 
 my larger work, tends to make us rest in the 
 profession of the Epistles themselves, and the 
 universal belief of Christians, that these Epistles 
 were veritably written by St. Paul. 
 
 We have now before us the somewhat diffi- 
 cult task of assigning any time during the 
 Apostle's life which will suit for the writing of 
 
The Pastoral Epistles. 3 7 
 
 these Epistles. It has already abundantly ap- 
 peared that they cannot be fixed with any de- 
 gree of probability during any part of the his- 
 tory contained in the Acts. The state of he- 
 resy^ the development of church polity exhi- 
 bited in them, cannot have arisen during that 
 period. This same consideration serves to show 
 their inseparableness one from another. Their 
 style and diction, the motives which they set 
 forth, the state of the Church, and the state of 
 heresy which they describe, are the same in all 
 three; we must assign them to one and the 
 same period, — and that the very latest of the 
 Apostle's career. I have elsewhere argued this 
 point at length, and it would be hardly possible 
 to make that argument intelligible in an abridged 
 form. The result of it has been that I have 
 seen reason to believe all three Epistles to have 
 been written after St. PauPs liberation from the 
 imprisonment with which the history in the 
 Acts concludes : the first to Timothy and that 
 to Titus, in the interval between that and a 
 second imprisonment ; the second Epistle to 
 Timothy, during that second imprisonment. I 
 have supposed him, on his liberation, to havt 
 
3 8 Hoii) to study the N'ew Testament. 
 
 journeyed eastward, as he anticipated (Philem. 
 22; Phil. i. 26; ii. 24). He then seems to have 
 visited Ephesus in spite of his confident anti- 
 cipation (Acts XX. 25) that he should never 
 see it again. Other journeys — among them the 
 famous one reported by Clement of Rome, " to 
 the bounds of the West ^■' (whatever that may 
 mean) — seem to have occupied three or four 
 years. On his leaving Ephesus, he appears to 
 have commissioned Timothy to remain there, 
 and to have gone into Macedonia (i Tim. i. 3). 
 Perhaps the first Epistle was written there : but 
 the words, "I besought thee to remain in Ephe- 
 sus as I went to Macedonia" seem to show that 
 the sojourn in Macedonia was over, and that he 
 was now elsewhere. Where, we cannot pre- 
 sume to say. In some place evidently where he 
 was likely to be detained beyond his expecta- 
 tions (i Tim. iii. 14, 15); which circumstance 
 strengthened his desire to send this letter of 
 warning, and exhortation, and direction, to his 
 son in the faith. 
 
 Somewhere about this time, he appears to 
 have visited Crete in company with Titus, and 
 to have left him there to complete the organi- 
 
The Pastoral Epistles. 39 
 
 zation of the Cretan churches. Those churches 
 had probably been previously founded. The 
 same development of heresy is found in them as 
 at Ephesus, though not the same ecclesiastical 
 organization: compare Titus i. 10, ii-i5> i^> 
 iii. 9-1 1, with i. 5. The heresy had been de- 
 veloping under Judaism, and thus its ripeness 
 coincided here with an infant state of the Chris- 
 tian Church. The Epistle to Titus was pro- 
 bably written from Asia Minor; the Apostle 
 was on his way to winter at Nicopolis in Greece. 
 With this view the notices in 2 Tim. also a^rree. 
 Since he last communicated with Timothy he 
 had been at Miletus and Troas_, both in Asia 
 Minor, and probably also at Corinth : see 2, 
 Tim. iv. 13, 20. I have elsewhere* made it 
 probable that his journey was from Crete by 
 Miletus, Ephesus, Troas, perhaps to Corinth, 
 and thence to Nicopolis. There it is not im- 
 probable that he was arrested, as implicated in 
 the charges made against the Christians after 
 the fire in 64 a.d., and sent to Rome. Arrived 
 there, he is treated no longer, as before, with 
 
 * ' New Testament for English Readers,' vol. ii., Introd., p. 
 118. 
 
40 Hoii) to study the Nezu Testament, 
 
 courtesy, but as a common criminal (2 Tim. ii. 
 9). All his Asiatic friends avoided him except 
 Onesiphorus, who sought him out_, and was not 
 ashamed of his chain (2 Tim. i. 16). Demas, 
 Crescens, and Titus, had left him. Tychicus 
 he had sent to Ephesus. Only Luke was with 
 him. Thus circumstanced, he writes the second 
 Epistle to Timothy, most likely to Ephesus (2 
 Tim. ii. 17; iv. 13), earnestly begging him to 
 come before winter (2 Tim. iv. 21). He. writes 
 from prison, in expectation of his execution (2 
 Tim. iv. 6). He had been already once brought 
 before the authorities, and had made his defence. 
 None of his friends had dared to appear with or 
 for him : but God was with him, and he was 
 delivered out of the mouth of the lion. Soon 
 after this, the second Epistle was written. How 
 soon, we cannot say : his expressions do not 
 seem to point to a very recent event. Universal 
 tradition relates that he was beheaded under 
 Nero. If so, it cannot well have been before 
 the last year of that emperor's reign, 67-68 a.d. 
 And probably this second Epistle to Timothy 
 was written but a few months before his' death. 
 Having now attempted a general account of 
 
I TiniotJiy. 41 
 
 the character and date of the three Eplstles_, I 
 will deal with them severally in order ; not re- 
 peating, but taking for granted, what has already 
 been assumed respecting them. 
 
 And first of the first Epistle to Timothy. 
 This disciple was the son of a Jewish mother 
 (Eunike, 2 Tim. i. 5) and a Gentile father 
 (Acts xvi. 1-3);, at either Derbe or Lystra. He 
 must have been converted by the Apostle him- 
 self, as he calls him his ^^ true child in the faith.'' 
 This may well have been, as St. Paul paid two 
 visits to those parts (Acts xiv., xvi.). The youth 
 was well reported of by the Christians there, and 
 eminently suited the Apostle's purpose, being a 
 link between Jews and Greeks ; so he took him 
 with him to help in the missionary work, having 
 first circumcised him, to remove the obstacle to 
 his gaining access to the Jews. 
 
 I give shortly, with dates, the Scripture no- 
 tices of him, to serve as a guide to the under- 
 standing of these Epistles : — 
 
 In A.D. 45, he was converted by St. Paul 
 during his first missionary journey, at Lvstra. 
 Tn the autumn of a„1). 51, he was taken to be 
 
42 How to study the N'ew Testament, 
 
 St. PauPs companion, and circumcised (Acts 
 xvi. 3, A.D. 52), sent from Beraea to Thessa- 
 lonica, on occasion of St. PauPs going by sea 
 to Athens (Acts xvii. 14; i Thess. iii. 2). 
 Then, together with Silas, he joined the Apostle 
 at Corinth (Acts xviii. 5 ; i Thess. iii. 6). During 
 the winter of this year, he was wath St. Paul at 
 Corinth (i Thess. i. i ; 2 Thess. i. i). a.d. 57, 
 spring, he was with St. Paul at Ephesus (Acts xix. 
 22), and was sent thence into Macedonia and to 
 Corinth (Acts xix. 22; i Cor. iv. 17; xvi. 10). 
 During the winter of this year, he was with St. 
 Paul (Rom. xvi. 21). In the spring of a.d. 58, 
 he was journeying with St. Paul from Corinth 
 to Asia (Acts xx. 4). In a.d. 62 or 67,, he was 
 with St. Paul in Rome (Col. i. i ; Philem. i ; 
 Phil. i. i). Where he was from a.d. 63 to 
 A.D. 66 is uncertain. In a.d. 66 or 67, he was 
 left by St. Paul in charge of the church at 
 Ephesus, and the first Epistle was written. In 
 A.D. 67 or 68 the second Epistle was written, 
 and he set out to join the Apostle at Rome. 
 What became of him afterwards is uncertain. 
 
 He was set apart in a solemn manner for the 
 ministry by St. Paul, with laying on of liis own 
 
I TiviotJiy, 43 
 
 hands and those of the presbyters^ in accordance 
 with prophetic utterances of the Spirit (i Tim. 
 i. i8 ; iv. 14; 2 Tim. i. 6). This probably 
 took place as a consecration for his particular 
 charge at Ephesus. 
 
 His character appears to have been earnest 
 and self-denying^ but by no means exempt from 
 timidity^ and backwardness to deal with the 
 difficulties of his ministerial work. We see a 
 trace of this in i Cor. xvi. 10, also in i Tim. 
 iv. 12; V. 23 ; 2 Tim. i. 5, 7 ; iii. 10. These 
 weaknesses seem to have increased when the 
 second Epistle was written : for in that the 
 Apostle speaks earnestly, and even severely, on 
 the necessity of boldness in dealing with the 
 difficulties and errors of the day. 
 
 In the first Epistle to Timothy, after the ad- 
 dress and greeting (chap. i. i, 2), the Apostle 
 specifies the object with which Timothy was left 
 It Ephesus (3, 4), and characterizes the false 
 teachers (5-7) ; he then digresses to the true 
 use of the law which they pretended to teach 
 (8-10), and its agreement with the Gospel with 
 which he was entrusted (11); thence to his 
 own conversion, for the mercies of which he 
 
44 Hovo to study the 7\ tzc Testament, 
 
 expresses his fervent thankfulness (12-17). 
 Then he returns to his exhortations to Timothy 
 (18-20). Then with ch. ii. he begins his regu- 
 lations for public prayers, prescribing first that 
 intercessory prayer be made for all (ver. 1-4) ; 
 digressing into a proof of the universality of the 
 Gospel (4-7) j returning to the part to be taken 
 by the male sex in public prayer (8), which 
 leads him on to speak of the proper place and 
 subjection of women (9-15). Ch. iii. is taken 
 up with precepts concerning overseers over the 
 presbyters (1-7), and deacons, or ministering 
 officers (8-13). Then inverses 14-16 he brings 
 these directions to a close, by a solemn state- 
 ment of their object, and their glorious import. 
 In chap. iv. he describes future false teachers 
 (i_5) * directs Timothy how to proceed respect- 
 ing them (7-1 1) ; and follows this up by general 
 exhortations to him to be diligent and watchful. 
 The 5th chapter contains general directions to 
 him for the government of the Church. These 
 are composed of (ver. i, 2) directions respecting 
 his behaviour towards the elder and younger of 
 either sex; concerning widows (3-16); con- 
 cerning the elders or presbyters (17-19); con- 
 
I Timothy, 45 
 
 cerning church discipHne (20-25) ; and certain 
 advices respecting his own conduct in regard to 
 others and to himself. In chap. vi. the Apostle^s 
 exhortations pass from ecclesiastical to civil re- 
 lations. First he prescribes the duties of Chris- 
 tian slaves (i^ 2) ; then he digresses into a de- 
 signation of those who oppose such wholesome 
 teaching {y-6) ; coming back to the main sub- 
 ject of his exhortation in directions concerning 
 the desire of riches (6-10) ; and then again 
 digressing into general injunctions and adjura- 
 tions to Timothy, and into a doxology springing 
 out of them (11-16), and again returning to 
 his exhortations to the rich (17-19). Then 
 with a solemn personal address to Timothy to 
 keep the trust committed to him_, and avoid the 
 rising errors of Gnosticism_, the Epistle ends. 
 
 It will at once be seen by the reader how dif- 
 ferent such a summary is from that of any of 
 St. PauPs earlier Epistles — how wanting in their 
 coherent and logical continuity. And he will 
 see in this a remarkable illustration of the truth 
 of that which we have been maintaining con- 
 cerning these Epistles — that they belong to a later 
 and distinctive time and manner of the writer. 
 
4-6 How to study the N'ew Testa^nent, 
 
 It remains that we point out^ as usual, the 
 errors in reading and in rendering which dis- 
 figure our Authorized Version. 
 
 In chap. i. i, for "Jesus Christ'^ read " Chrit-t 
 Jesus/^ This may seem of small consequence, 
 but the latter form seems to prevail most usually 
 in these Epistles, and has been altered, in for- 
 mulae like this, to the more usual arrangement. 
 In ver. 4, for "godly edifying,^' the true reading 
 is most likely " God's dispensation -/' i. e. God's 
 dispensation towards man, which is, consists in 
 (the) faith. The difference between the two 
 words in Greek is only that of a single letter. 
 " Edifying '' is oikodomia ; " dispensation " is 
 oikonomia. Ver. 12, beginning, omit " andJ^ 
 In ver. 16, read "Christ Jesus.'' In ver. 17, 
 omit "wise'' with all our oldest authorities. 
 It probably got into the text here from RomaiiS 
 xvi. 27 ; Jude 25. 
 
 In chap. iii. 3, omit " not greedy oj filthy 
 lucre." It probably came in from Tit. i. 7. In 
 ver. 16 is one of the most remarkable varieties 
 of reading in the New Testament; a variety 
 whose evidence depends on the most minute 
 observation, being a question of the original in- 
 
I Timothy, 47 
 
 sertion or omission of a single stroke. Our 
 Authorized Version has, " God was manifest in 
 the flesh/^ All our most ancient authorities 
 but one have, "^Svho was manifest in the flesh/^ 
 Now " God '^ is, in Greek, Theos, and was usu- 
 ally written in an abbreviated form, Ths. ; in 
 Greek letters, 0C. "Who'' is in Greek, OC. 
 So that the evidence turns on the insertion or 
 omission of the horizontal stroke. The ques- 
 tion has been now very thoroughly examined, 
 and the evidence for " who " is justly regarded 
 by biblical scholars as overwhelming. The only 
 ancient authority that has not " who/' has still 
 the relative pronoun, but in the neuter gender, 
 "which," to agree with "mystery." Of course, 
 the person spoken of is Christ; and the testi- 
 mony to His divinity is just as express and clear, 
 whichever word be read. 
 
 In chap. iv. 6, all the earliest MSS. have 
 "Christ Jesus." In ver. 10, instead of "suffer 
 reproach," many of our earliest MSS. havt 
 " strive." In ver. 1 2, omit " m spirit J^ 
 
 In chap. V. 4, omit "good a?id." In ver. 16, 
 the words " man or" are omitted by most of tht 
 ancient MSS., but contained in others, and in 
 
48 lloi^ to study the New Testament, 
 
 the most ancient version. The safest plan is to 
 bracket them, as ot uncertain authority. In 
 ver. 20, some of our ancient MSS. have, " But 
 them tluit sin.'' In ver. 2J, read '^ Christ Je- 
 sus." 
 
 In cliap. vi. 5, for ''perverse dlsputhig/' read 
 " incessant quarreHing.'^ At the end of the 
 verse the words "from such withdraw thy elf 
 should be omitted, with all the oldest MSS. 
 In ver. 7, for '^ and it is certain we can/' read, 
 with the two most ancient MSS., "because 
 neither can we.'' Tlie meaning is somewhat 
 difficult, and that appears to have occasioned 
 the alteration. In ver. 17, omk " the living.'' 
 In ver. 19, for "eternal life," read "the true 
 life." At the end, omit "ylnicn."'^ 
 
 The principal errors of defective rendering ap- 
 pear to be the following : — 
 
 In eh. i. I, for "/'//," substitute " according 
 to." In ver. 2, for " wy oic/r son," "my true 
 clnld;" and for "God our Father," "God the 
 Father." In ver. 3, for "that they teach no 
 
 * In my * New Testament for English Readers,' the clause 
 " Grace be with thee," has been inadvertently printed twice over 
 in the text. 
 
I TimotJiy. 49 
 
 other doctrine '^ " not to be teachers of strange 
 things." At the end of ver. 4, "so do" is a 
 mere insertion of the translators — the sense in 
 the original is broken off. In ver. 9, "Knowing 
 this " is ambiguous. It really refers to the user 
 of the law : but it looks as if it referred to 
 " we." Better write, " if a man use it lawfully, 
 and be aware of this." In ver. 9, "murderers" 
 (twice) should be ^'"smiters." In ver. 10, "men- 
 stealers" should be " slavedealers ;" and "sound 
 doctrine " should be " the sound doctrine." In 
 ver. II, "the glorious Gospel" should be "the 
 Gospel of the glory." In ver. 13, ior " inju- 
 rious" "an insulter." In ver. 16, "all long- 
 suffering" should be "the whole of his long- 
 suffering." In ver. 17, "Now" should be 
 " But ;" and " the king eternal " should be 
 "the king of the ages." In ver. 18, for "son 
 Timothy," " my child Timothy." " The pro- 
 phecies which went before on thee" is, to say the 
 least, clumsy. Better, "the former prophecies 
 concerning thee." For "a good," "the good." 
 In ver. 20, for "may learn" "may be taught by 
 chastisement." 
 
 In ch. ii. I, " first of all " should be joined 
 
 E 
 
50 Hoiv to study the New Testament. 
 
 with " I exhort :" ^^ I exhort thee first of all, 
 that," etc. In ver. 2, for '^ honesty ^^ '' gravity." 
 In ver. 3, for ^^God our Saviour" ^^our Saviour, 
 c-ven God." In ver. 4, for " knowledge, '^ "cer- 
 tain knowledge." In ver. 5, for " the man 
 Christ Jesus'' a more accurate rendering would 
 be, " Christ Jesus, himself man." In ver. 7, 
 for " was ordained," " was appointed :" and for 
 "a preacher," " q.\\ herald." In ver. 8, "men" 
 implies the male sex, as distinguished from 
 "women," further on. No English reader 
 would suspect this. Render therefore " the 
 men," and lay the emphasis on " men " in 
 reading. In ver. 9, " shame/ac^c^ness " is a 
 modern corruption and blunder of printers of 
 our Bible. " Shamefast " was an adjective 
 like "stedfast," meaning "modest:" and the 
 substantive is " shamefastness," not "shame- 
 Jacedness ;" and so stood, before our wiseacres 
 altered it. In ver. 14, for ''was in the trans- 
 gression," " hath become a transgressor." In 
 ver. 15, for " /'// childhenring" "through her 
 childbearing ;" i. e. shall be kept safe through 
 her childbearing. The notion that this means 
 shall be saved "through the child-bearing," 
 
I Tijuothy. ^i 
 
 7. e. through the incarnation of our Lord_, though 
 supported by great names, does not appear to 
 me to be tenable. For " sobriety/' " sober- 
 mindedness." 
 
 In chap. iii. i and following, we may perhaps 
 retain the word " bishop," if it be clearly un- 
 derstood that the office here mentioned has 
 really nothing in common with our ^*^ bishop- 
 ricks." These "bishops" were simply presby- 
 ters. See Titus i. 5, 7. In ver. 2, " sober- 
 minded " is better than "sober:'' it is a quality 
 of mind, not a habit of life, that is meant. In 
 ver. 3, for "given to wine/' "a brawler." In 
 ver. 6, for "condemnation/' render '"^judgment." 
 In ver. 7, for " reproach/' render " the re- 
 proach." In ver. 10, begin, "and moreover 
 let . ."; and for " being found blameless/' " if 
 they be not under reproach." In ver. 11, for 
 " their wives/' substitute " the women." It is 
 not at all likely that the wives of the deacons 
 are meant, as it would thus be very strange to 
 go back again to the deacons in the next verse ; 
 the deaconesses are intended, — those women 
 who served the office of deacon. In ver. 13, 
 "purchase to themselves a good degree" now 
 
 E 2 
 
5 2 How to study the A^ew Testament. 
 
 bears a meaning quite irrelevant. Substitute, 
 " obtain for themselves a good standing-place/' 
 or *^'' position/^ if you will. In ver. 14, for 
 " hoping,^^ " though I hope ;" " hoping " gives 
 the contrary meaning to that intended. In ver. 
 \6, "into glory/^ should be " '\n glory.^' 
 
 In chap. iv. i/'Now" should be"Howbeit/' 
 introducing a contrast from all these glories just 
 described. " Doctrines of devils " might per- 
 haps be more clearly expressed, "teachings of 
 demons.-" In ver. 3, "speaking lies in hypo- 
 crisy " should be, " in the hypocrisy of speakers 
 of lies.^' The latter part of ver. 6 should run 
 thus : " training thyself in the words of the 
 faith, and of the good doctrine, whose course 
 thou hast followed.'^ In ver. 8, instead of 
 " prqfiteth little'' " profiteth for a little,'' i. e. is 
 of some use. The Authorized Version gives a 
 sense implying the contrary: " profiteth little'^ 
 meaning, " is of no (or hardly any) use." In 
 ver. 10, for "trust in" ''^have set our hope on.'' 
 In ver. 12, for "he thou'' "become." In ver. 
 13, "to the reading, to the exhortation, to the 
 doctrine." In ver. 15, "make these things thy 
 care ; in these things be employed." 
 
I Timothy, ^2> 
 
 In ch. V. I, " entreat '^ should be '"'' exhort/^ 
 In ver. 3, ''Honour" had better be " Take into 
 consideration:^' honour_, by placing them on 
 the church's roll as fit objects for charitable 
 maintenance. " Nephews " should be " grand- 
 children." It perhaps had that meaning in 
 King James's days, but has not now. "At 
 home" should be " to their own family." Thus 
 would be avoided the stupid mistake of taking 
 this, " let them learn to show piety at home" as 
 a text for a sermon on " family religion/' with 
 which it has nothing to do : " piety " meaning, 
 of course J Jilial affection. In ver. 5, for " trust- 
 eth in" " hath set her hope toward ;" and " sup- 
 plications and prayers" should be, "her suppli- 
 cations and her prayers." In ver. 8, " an infi- 
 del" would be better expressed, "an unbe- 
 liever." The word hfidel now carries a diffe- 
 rent meaning from that intended. In ver. 11, 
 our translators have thrown the meaning into 
 confusion by the words " they will marry " giv- 
 ing the idea of the mere future of the verb 
 " marry /' whereas the original is " they desire 
 to marry," — their thoughts and wishes become 
 unsettled, and are fixed on another marriage. 
 
54 How to study the Neii) Tcstaincnt, 
 
 In our version^ it is the act of marrying which 
 brings the judgment : an entire perversion of the 
 Apostle^s meaning, which is, that it is brought on 
 by the roving and faithless state of mind. In 
 ver. 12, for ''having damnation ,' "having a 
 judgment/^ and for ''have cast off/' "made 
 void." In ver. 14, "the younger women'' is 
 altogether beside the purpose, and, it is to be 
 feared, has been so rendered in bad faith, in 
 order to cast a slur on second marriages. The 
 Apostle has been treating of widows^ and this is 
 said of widows, and not of women in general — 
 a saying which, however it might express his 
 mind, would here be irrelevant. It ought to 
 stand, " the younger widows," or even, literally, 
 "the younger ones." In ver. 16, "let them 
 relieve them " is ambiguous. It should be " let 
 such person relieve them." In ver. 17 and 19, 
 "elders" would perhaps be better expressed 
 " presbyters," as it is of church officers that he 
 is here writing. In ver. 18, "the ox that tread- 
 eth out " gives a wrong meaning. It should be 
 "an ox while he is treadinir out." For "re- 
 ward" should stand "hire," as in Luke x. 7, 
 where the words arc the same. In ver. 25, 
 
I Thnothy, ^^ 
 
 " they " ought to be " those :^^ it is not the per- 
 sons, but the works, that is meant. 
 
 In ch. vi. 1, as so often, ^^ servants'' should 
 be '' bondmen," and the sentence should run, 
 "Let as many as are bondmen under the 
 yoke." A portion of ver. 2 yields no sense, be- 
 sides being an impossible rendering of the ori- 
 ginal, and violating the simplest rules of gram- 
 mar. Instead of " hut rather do them service, 
 because they are faithful and leloved, partakers 
 of the benefit, '' should stand " but serve them 
 all the more, because they who receive the be- 
 nefit (of that additional service) are faithful and 
 beloved" (are their fellow Christians). In ver. 
 ^,^' gain is godliness,'' which, as it stands, is 
 without meaning, should be, "godliness is 
 gain," or, " a gainful trade " — i. e. that their 
 Christian profession is to be made a means of 
 worldly enrichment. In ver. 8, for " let us be 
 therewith content," "we shall be sufficiently pro- 
 vided." In ver. I2, '' of faith" should be " of 
 the faith;" and ''art also called," "wast called;" 
 and "hast professed a good profession," "didst 
 confess the good confession." In ver. 13, 
 " quickeneth all things " would be more plainly 
 
^6 How to study the New Testament. 
 
 expressed/'endueth all things with life;" ^^wit- 
 nessed a good confession ■''' should be " testified 
 the good confession." In ver. 16^ "whom no 
 man hath seen " should be " whom never man 
 saw." In ver. 17, ''uncertain riches^' should be 
 ''^the uncertainty of riches." In ver. 20, for 
 " avoiding profane and vain lahhlingSj and oppo- 
 sitions of science falsely so called/' should stand 
 " turning away from the profane babblings and 
 oppositions of the falsely-called knowledge" — 
 I. e. the gnosis, from which the Gnostics were 
 named. In ver. 21 j for " grace/' ''the grace [of 
 God]." 
 
III. 
 THE EPISTLE TO TITUS. 
 
 WE have arrived^ in the course of perform- 
 ing our present task^ at the last wri- 
 tings which remain to us from the pen of St. 
 Paul. The general consideration of the " Pas- 
 toral Epistles/^ that group of which they form 
 partj was gone through in our last chapter. To 
 that chapter we must refer the reader to justify 
 the statement which we now assume : that the 
 Epistle to Titus was probably written after a 
 visit to Crete in his company, resulting in his 
 being left there to complete the organization of 
 the churches. St. Paul was perhaps in Asia 
 Minor, on his way to winter at Nicopolis in 
 Greece. 
 
 Of Titus there is this remarkable circumstance 
 to be noted, that he is never once mentioned in 
 
5 8 How to study the New Testament. 
 
 the Acts of the Apostles. And this, though he 
 was one of the most vakied and trusted of St. 
 PauPs companions. We in vain endeavour to 
 account for this omission by any reasonable hy- 
 pothesis. Was he identical with some one or 
 other of the companions of the Apostles_, known 
 in the Acts under another name ? If we try 
 them all in order_, some seem to answer the re- 
 quisites for such identity. It has been fancied 
 that the fact of his ultimate desertion of the 
 Apostle, apparently mentioned in 2 Tim. iv. lo, 
 has caused him to be passed over in the narra- 
 tive. But this would require the supposition 
 that the Acts were not published till after 2 
 Timothy was written, which, to say the least, is 
 highly improbable. So that we must leave this 
 omission of the name of Titus in the Acts as 
 one of the unsolved problems of Scripture. 
 
 The first notice of him, in respect of time, is 
 found in Gal. ii. i, 3 ; where be is said to have 
 been of Gentile origin, and to have been taken 
 by Paul and Barnabas up to the council of 
 Apostles and elders at Jerusalem (see Acts xv. 
 1, etc.). He thus falls under '' certain others of 
 them '^ who are said to have been sent up with 
 
Titles. 59 
 
 the two Apostles_, Acts xv. 2. We further 
 learn from Gal. ii. that he was uncircumcised, 
 and that St. Paul^ in order to assert his inde- 
 pendence, would not allow him to be subjected 
 to that rite (Gal. ii. 3). He had been, from 
 the terms used in addressing him in this Epistle 
 (i. 4), originally a convert made by the Apostle 
 himself. 
 
 The next notice of him occurs in 2 Corin- 
 thians, where he is mentioned in several places. 
 St. Paul sent him forward with two other bre- 
 thren unnamed, from Ephesus to Corinth, to 
 ascertain the effect of his first Epistle on the 
 church there, and also to set on foot a collection 
 for the poor saints at Jerusalem (2 Cor. viii. 6 ; 
 xii. 18). On the Apostle^s departure from 
 Ephesus for Greece, he tarried awhile at Troas, 
 where '^ a door was opened to him by the Lord/^ 
 but " having no rest in his spirit because he found 
 not Titus his brother,^^ he left them, and crossed 
 into Macedonia (2 Cor. ii. 13). Arrived there, he 
 was comforted, in his anxiety about the Corin- 
 thian church, by the coming of Titus, and not 
 by that only, but by the consoling message which 
 he had brought, itself indicating the complete 
 
6o How to study the Nczv Testa7ne7it. 
 
 accomplishment of that for which he had been 
 sent (2 Cor. vii. 6-15). The other portion of 
 his commission had been carried out with equal 
 alacrity and zeal. Indeed he anticipated the 
 wish of the Apostle^ and of his own accord 
 undertook promptly the completing the collec- 
 tion for the saints (2 Cor. viii. 6, 16, 17). He 
 is spoken of in the highest terms as being St. 
 PauPs partner and fellow-helper (ver. 23) ; and 
 in ch. xii. 18, his unity of spirit and action with 
 the Apostle is confidently appealed to. 
 
 And now for about ten years (a.d. 57-67) we 
 lose sight of Titus altogether_, i. e. until the no- 
 tices which our Epistle supplies. Here we find 
 him left in the island of Crete by St. Paul, for 
 the temporary purpose of carrying forward the 
 correction of those things that were defective 
 (ch. i. 5). He was to work this out by esta- 
 blishing presbyteries, the members of which are 
 called bishops (ch. i. 5, 7) in every city. He 
 was (ch. iii. 12) to stay there a very short time, 
 as he was, on the arrival of Tychicus or Arte- 
 mas, to come to the Apostle at Nicopolis. The 
 idea of his being what we now understand as 
 " bishop " of the Cretan church is a pure fiction. 
 
Titus. 6 1 
 
 and is inconsistent with the commands given in 
 this Epistle_, and with subsequent facts. Those 
 facts are related in 2 Tim. iv. lo^ where it is 
 impHed by the statement that he was one of 
 those who had left the Apostle,, that he had re- 
 joined him after the visit to Crete. There he 
 is stated to have gone to Dalmatia; nor is it 
 possible altogether to divest ourselves of the im- 
 pression that some blame is cast on him for that 
 journey. We may easily imagine that the 
 yearning desire of the aged Paul, now close on 
 his departure, for the society of his former fel- 
 low-labourers, may have led him to speak in a 
 saddened tone of their dereliction of him, even 
 in cases where it was not, as in that of Demas, 
 actually owing to unworthy motives. The di- 
 rection of Titus^s departure was to Dalmatia; 
 and there we lose sight of him. The traditional 
 reports respecting him are merely built on the 
 sacred text, and in part, as we have seen, on 
 that text misunderstood. 
 
 It is natural that we should next seek for 
 some notices of the Cretan churches, among 
 which the mission of Titus was to be discharged. 
 
 The only plausible account that can be given 
 
62 How to study the New Testament. 
 
 of the origin of these churches is, that they 
 owed their beginning to some of those Cretan 
 Jews who are related to have been witnesses of 
 the miracle on the day of Pentecost (Acts ii. 
 1 1). They do not seem to have come under an 
 Apostle^s care_, until St. Paul visited them, and 
 left Titus to superintend their ecclesiastical or- 
 ganization. If this view be correct, it will fur- 
 nish a complete and interesting explanation of 
 their condition as shown by our Epistle. They 
 had been long founded, yet were in an elemen- 
 tary and unformed state. The errors in them 
 were almost exclusively Jewish (ch. i. lo, 14; 
 iii. 9), and the Apostle's visit had brought out 
 the Judaistic element into open hostility to 
 him. 
 
 The character of the Cretans quoted by the 
 Apostle (ch. i. 12) with approbation, out of the 
 Cretan poet Epimenides, is abundantly illus- 
 trated by the testimonies of ancient writers. 
 Livy, Plutarch, Polybius, and Strabo, testify 
 to their love of gain, their ferocity and fraud, 
 their disregard of truth, and general depravity. 
 
 The contents of the Epistle may be briefly 
 summed up thus. After the address and greet- 
 
Titus. 6-3^ 
 
 ing (ch. i. 1-4), the Apostle dwells on the rea- 
 son for Titus being left in Crete, and gives him 
 directions what sort of persons to appoint to the 
 office of elders in its cities (5-9). The mention 
 of ^^ rebuke of gainsayers ^^ being a part of the 
 elder^s duty, leads on to a description of these 
 opponents, and their special character as natives 
 of Crete (10-16). 
 
 Then (ch. ii. i — iii. 11) follow directions to 
 Titus how to exhort the believers of various 
 classes, and how to comport himself. The 
 minor divisions of this portion may be thus ar- 
 ranged : — Ch. ii. i-io, instructions as to what 
 exhortations should be given to, — aged men (i, 
 2), aged women, who are in their turn to ex- 
 hort the younger women {'>>~^} younger men 
 (6), setting to all these a pattern in his own per- 
 son of good works and sound words (7, 8), and 
 bond-servants (9, 10) : the duties of these last, 
 and, indeed, of all classes, being grounded on 
 the moral purpose of the Gospel respecting us 
 (11-14). This part winds up with a collective 
 and emphatic command to Titus to speak these 
 things, and in so doing, to maintain his own 
 authority. 
 
64 How to study the New Testament, 
 
 Then follow (ch. iii. i^ 2), rules concerning 
 behaviour to those without : grounded (3-7) 
 in the consideration of our own state as Chris- 
 tians, and change of state out of carnal life. In 
 this last section, the Apostle makes a weighty 
 statement as to the effects of our admission into 
 Christ's church through '^ the font of regenera- 
 tion " (see corrections below) : verses 8-1 1 are 
 occupied with general rules for Titus, — what to 
 enjoin concerning good works, what to avoid, 
 how to act towards heretics. Then (ver. 12- 
 14) follow various directions as to his own 
 movements, and as to those concerning whom 
 commissions are given him : and the Epistle^ 
 concludes (15), with salutations and greetings, 
 and the apostolic benediction. 
 
 I now subjoin the usual list of corrections of 
 the English version. First, those which are ne- 
 cessitated by the testimony of ancient MSS. 
 and authorities : — 
 
 In ch. i. 4, omit ^^ mercy ^^ and ^' the Lord,^^ 
 and read " Christ Jesus.'' 
 
 In ch. ii. 5, for "keepers at home" read 
 " workers at home." It is a difTerence of one 
 letter only in the Greek, the former meaning 
 
Titus. 6^ 
 
 being expressed by '' oikou?-ous/' the latter by 
 " oikourgoiis.'^ All our oldest MSS. have the 
 latter word. In ver. y, omit "sincerity" In 
 ver. 8, for "you" read " us/' At end of Epistle^ 
 omit "Amen." 
 
 The corrections required owing to imperfect 
 rendering of the original^ are as follows : — 
 
 Ch. i. I, for "according to" read "for:" for 
 "acknowledging" read "knowledge:" and for 
 "after" read "according to." In ver. 'Z, for 
 " hefore the world hegan" read " before eternal 
 times." In ver. 3, for " in due times" read "in 
 its own seasons:" for "hath manifested" 
 "made manifest:" for "through preaching," 
 "in the preaching:" for "which is committed 
 unto me" "with which I was entrusted:" and 
 for " God our Saviour" " our Saviour, even 
 God." In ver. 4, for "mine own son" "my 
 true child." In ver. 5, for " left I thee" " left 
 I thee behind," viz. when I myself departed. 
 The full meaning of the word gives a more cor- 
 rect idea of the temporary nature of Titus's 
 mission, in that he was shortly to follow. For 
 "set in order" "further set in order;" here, 
 again, the full meaning of the word casts light 
 
 F 
 
66 How to study the New Testament. 
 
 on the facts. The " setting in order ^' had al- 
 ready been begun by the Apostle himself. For 
 " ordain," " appoint." There is no hint of 
 what is commonly known as " ordination/^ in 
 the verb used. For *' had appointed," ^'^pre- 
 scribed." In ver. 6, ^'blameless" — here and in 
 the next verse — would be better expressed, 
 ^^ under no imputation." '' Faithful" means 
 "believing/^ and were, perhaps, better so ex- 
 pressed. For ^Vio/" " dissoluteness." In ver. 7, 
 for ''given to wine," ''a. brawler" (see the cor- 
 rections in our last chapter, p. 51) : for ''given 
 to filthy lucre," " greedy of gain." (See p. 55.) 
 In ver. 8, for "good men," substitute "good- 
 ness:" and for "sober," "sober-minded." In 
 ver. 9, for "as he hath been taught," "accord- 
 ing to the teaching," i. e. which is delivered by 
 us, the Apostles. For " by sound doctrine both 
 to exhort and to convince," " both to exhort in 
 the sound doctrine, and to rebuke." In ver. 10 
 omit "and." In ver. 11, for "who subvert," 
 "seeing they suljvcrt:" for "for filthy lucre* s 
 sake," " for the sake of base gain." The En- 
 glish version lo.)ks as if the disgraceful epithet 
 attached to t'le lucre generally, whereas it at- 
 
Titus. 67 
 
 taches to their conduct in obtaining it. In ver. 
 \2, the form " Cretians'^ need not be retained, 
 as neither should '^ Cretes '' in Acts ii. t j : the 
 ordinary form_, '' Cretans,^^ would be better in 
 both places. In ver. 14, '^ men that turn from 
 the truth" should be "men that turn them- 
 selves away from the truth.^^ As the English 
 version stands_, it looks as if it were the fahles 
 and commandments that turned people from the 
 truth. In ver. 16, "they profess," should be 
 "they make confession.''^ This is important. 
 The English version admits the idea that they 
 profess, without having, the knowledge_, whereas 
 the point of the Apostle^s accusation is their 
 own confession of the fact that they know God, 
 and their denial of Him in their works. For 
 " works," read " their works.^^ 
 
 In ch. ii. I, ''sound doctrine," as so often, 
 should be " the sound doctrine/' i. e. the apo- 
 stolic setting forth of the Christian faith; not, 
 any kind of wholesome teaching. In ver. 2, for 
 " temperate," " discreet." For " in faith, in 
 charity, in patience," read " in their faith, in 
 their love, in their patience/' In ver. 3, for 
 'false accusers," "slanderers." For " given to 
 
 F 2 
 
68 How to study the New Testament. 
 
 much wine,'' ^^ enslaved to much wine/^ In 
 ver. 4, for " that they may teach the young wo- 
 men to he sober J to he lovers of their hushands,'' 
 read ^''that they may instruct (or school) the 
 young women to be lovers of their husbands.*^ 
 In ver. 5, '^ obedient" would be better "submit- 
 ting themselves/^ In ver. 6_, for ''young men," 
 "the younger men/^ and for "likewise," "in 
 like manner.^^ In ver. y, for " in doctrine," " in 
 thy doctrine.^' In ver. 9, as in former cases, 
 ''servants" ought rather to be " bond-servants/^ 
 or " slaves.-'^ For " he obedient," " submit them- 
 selves.-'^ " To please them well in all things," 
 would be more intelli2:ible in the servants^ own 
 phrase, " in all things to give satisfaction.^' For 
 "answering again," read "contradicting." For 
 " God our Saviour," " our Saviour, (even) God." 
 The distinction is important; the Father, not 
 the Son, is meant; see i Tim. i. i. Read ver. 
 II, "For the grace of God was manifested, 
 bringing salvation to all men, disciplining us, 
 in order that," etc. In ver. 13, for " the glori- 
 ous appearing," "the manifestation of the glory." 
 Read, for distinction's sake, " of the great God, 
 and of our Saviour Jesus Christ." I should say 
 
Titus, 69 
 
 that many interpreters^ among whom is Bishop 
 Ellicott^ hold ^^the great God and our Saviour^' 
 both to apply to ^^ Jesus Christ ;^^ and that it is 
 to assert strongly the other view that I would 
 here insert the second ^' of." See the subject 
 discussed in my ' New Testament for English 
 Readers/ In ver. 14, '^himself" is emphatic. 
 It is not to be read " who gave himself," but 
 "who gave himself." 
 
 In ch. iii. i, for " to he subject ^^ read " to 
 submit themselves." For " to principalities and 
 powers, ^^ read '^ to governments^ to authorities." 
 In ver. %, for " gentle, ^^ " forbearing." In ver. 3, 
 for " sometimes,*' "once;" and for ^'deceived," 
 " led astray." In ver. 4, " love of God our Sa- 
 viour towards man appeared *' would be better 
 "love towards men of our Saviour God was 
 manifested;" "love-towards-men" is one word, 
 "philanthropy/^ in the Greek, and so is best 
 kept together. In ver. 5, for " works of right- 
 eousness which we have done," read "works 
 wrought in righteousness which we did." In- 
 stead of " hy the washing of regeneration^* read 
 "through the font (or laver) of regeneration." 
 The word which our translators have rendered 
 
70 How to study the Akiv Tcstaine7it. 
 
 'Svashing'^ cannot by any possibility have that 
 sense, always meaning the vessel in which the 
 washing takes place. For ^^ renewing" "the 
 renewing." In ver. 6, for " which," " whom/' 
 viz. the Holy Ghost. For ''shed on us abun- 
 dantly" " poured out on us richly." Ver. 8 
 should run, " Faithful is the saying " (viz. that 
 just preceding), "and these things I will that 
 thou affirm constantly, in order that thev which 
 have believed God may be careful to practise 
 good works." In ver. lo, be careful to place a 
 comma after the word "heretick;" and read, 
 " after a first and second admonition, avoid," i. e. 
 decline intercourse with; ''reject" is too strong, 
 as the command implies no act, but simply ab- 
 staining from intercourse. In ver. ii, for " suh- 
 verted," "throughly perverted." Ver. 14 should 
 run, " Moreover, let our people also learn to 
 practise good works for the necessary wants," 
 etc. In ver. 15, for "greet" "salute:" it is 
 the same word as before. 
 
THE SECOND EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY. 
 
 ' I ^HIS is the latest written of all the remain- 
 -^ ing letters of St. Paul. For all particulars 
 respecting the person addressed in it, see our 
 second chapter (pp. 41-43.) It appears uncer- 
 tain from the Epistle whether Timothy was still 
 in Ephesus or not. Some notices in it seem to 
 point that way. From ch. i. 18, it looks as if 
 Onesiphorus lived at Ephesus; and inch. iv. 19, 
 the household of Onesiphorus is saluted. In ch. 
 ii. 17, Hymenaeus is stigmatized as a teacher of 
 error, who can hardly be other than the Hyme- 
 naeus of I Tim. i. 20. With him in that place 
 appears an Alexander ; and a smith of that name 
 is mentioned as having done the Apostle much 
 harm, in 2 Tim. iv. 14; and again an Alex- 
 ander is mentioned as having been put forward 
 
72 Hoii) to study the A\-zv Testament. 
 
 by the Jews (to clear them ?) during the tumuh 
 at EphesLis, Acts xix. o^o^. Besides these notices, 
 the whole circamstances disclosed by the two 
 Epistles agree, especially in the matter of the 
 false teachers stigmatized in them. Local notices 
 also come slightly in aid. Timothy is instructed 
 to brino; with him articles which St. Paid had 
 left at Troas ; and he would pass by Troas in 
 journeying from Ephesus to Rome. 
 
 But here one or two difficulties present them- 
 selves. In ch. iv. 12, St. Paul writes, "Tychi- 
 cus I sent to Ephesus." This seems as if it 
 could hardly have been written to a person who 
 was himself in that city. Again in ver. 20, he 
 says he "left Trophimus at Miletus sick." 
 Now, considering that Miletus is only a few 
 miles from Ephesus, and Trophimus was an 
 Ephesian, it would seem hardly likely that the 
 notice would be put in this form. All we can 
 say to these difficulties is, that there may be 
 ways of clearing them up which cannot now be 
 investigated, owing to our ignorance of the cir- 
 cumstances. Both these notices are introduced 
 with a "but," by way of exception to those 
 which have gone before. There may have been 
 
2 Timothy. 73 
 
 some good reason why the Apostle should in- 
 form Timothy of the difference between the de- 
 parture of Tychicus and those of the others, and 
 betw^een the voluntary tarrying behind of Erastus 
 at Corinth, and the unavoidable abiding of Tro- 
 phimus at Miletus. Further we cannot say : but 
 can only repeat the maxim, that a difficulty, which 
 more knowledge might enable us to answer, must 
 not be allowed to weigh against positive evidence. 
 
 The other notice, in which Timothy is di- 
 rected to " take up ^^ Mark and bring him to 
 Rome, is rather in favour of Timothy being at 
 Ephesus : as the last notice of Mark (Col. iv. 
 10) was of his being sent to Colossae, apparently 
 to be a resident minister there : and thus he 
 might easily be sent for from Ephesus to accom- 
 pany Timothy. 
 
 At the time of writing this Epistle, St. Paul 
 was at Rome, awaiting a second hearing before 
 Nero. The immediate occasion of sending it 
 appears to have been one personal to himself. 
 He was anxious to have Timothy and Mark 
 with him at Rome (ch. i. 4; iv. 9, 11, 21). But, 
 besides this, the occasion was a solemn one : too 
 solemn to allow him to confine himself to mere 
 
74 How to study the New Testafueiit. 
 
 outward matters. He was conscious that his own 
 death could not be long delayed : he was uncer- 
 tain whether he should live to see his " child in 
 the faith/^ Therefore he sends him fatherly in- 
 structions and exhortations^ which were not un- 
 needed in his present circumstances. For it is 
 evident, from several expressions in the Epistle, 
 that the courage and perseverance of Timothy 
 appeared to the Apostle to be in danger of giving 
 way (see ch. i. 5, 7 ; iii. 10) : and this, espe- 
 cially in the general dereliction of St. Paul by his 
 fellow-workers, would naturally be to him a 
 subject of deep affliction. He therefore urges 
 on his child in the faith the duties of perseve- 
 rance and energy, and enforces them by the 
 consideration of his own approaching removal. 
 ^^ And thus we possess an Epistle calculated for 
 all ages of the Church : in which, while the 
 maxims cited and encouragements given apply 
 to all Christians, and especially to ministers of 
 Christ, in their duties and difficulties, the affect- 
 ing circumstance in which the writer himself is 
 placed, carry home to every heart his earnest 
 and impassioned eloquence."* 
 
 * 'New Testament for English Readers,' vol. ii. Introduc- 
 tion, p. 152. 
 
2 Twiothy, 75 
 
 The contents of the Epistle may be thus sum- 
 marized : — 
 
 After the address and greeting (ch. i. \, 2), 
 the Apostle makes a thankful declaration of 
 love, and of anxiety to see Timothy, introducing 
 the way (3, 4) by mention of the faith of his 
 maternal relatives (5), to an exhortation to him 
 to be firm in the faith, and not to shrink from 
 suffering (6-8), which he enforces by the glorious 
 character of the Gospel and free mercy of God 
 in it (9-1 1), and by his own example (11-14). 
 •Next he passes to the notice of the falling off of 
 certain brethren (15), and of the faithful and 
 affectionate conduct of Onesiphorus. In ch. ii. 
 1-13, he urges general considerations tending 
 to enforce steadfastness in the faith, and in 14- 
 26, he applies these general exhortations to the 
 "hir^'ii;;^ and conversation of Timothy, espe- 
 cially with reference to the false teachers. In 
 ch. iii. 1-9, he warns him of bad times to comf., 
 in which men shall be ungodly and hypocri- 
 tical : nay, he cautions him against such men as 
 already present, and doing mischief. In 10-17, 
 he contrasts the education, knowledge, and life 
 of Timothy, with the character just drawn of 
 
76 How to study the A^cw Tcstcwicnt. 
 
 the opponents, and this by way of reminding 
 and exhortation. This exhortation waxes into 
 earnest adjuration, in ch. iv. 1-8, to the fulfil- 
 ment of his office, in prospect of general defec- 
 tion from sound doctrine, and of the Apostle^s 
 speedy departure from this life. The remain- 
 der of the Epistle (9-22) is spent in directions 
 to Timothy to come to Rome, in notices of his 
 own state and of that of others, and in saluta- 
 tions to and from others, ending with the usual 
 benediction. 
 
 Our lists of corrigenda are as follows : — 
 First, corrections of reading. In ch. i. i, for 
 "Jesus Christ/' read " Christ Jesus /^ so also in 
 ch. ii. 3. In ver. 15, for " PInjgelliis" read 
 " Phygelus.'^ 
 
 In ch. ii. 3, for " Thou therefore endure 
 hardness,^^ read " Suffer afflictions.-" In ver. 
 13, for "he cannot/' " for he cannot." In ver. 
 19, for " Christ/' ^' the Lord." 
 
 In ch. iii. 15, for " hast known/' " knowest." 
 
 Ch. iv. 1 should run, " I adjure thee before 
 
 God, and Christ Jesus, who shall one day judge 
 
 the quick and dead, and by his appearing and 
 
 his kinirdom." In ver. 14, for " the Lord reward 
 
2 Twiothy, 77 
 
 him," " the Lord shall reward him/^ In ver. 
 15^ for " he /zo^/i greatly withstood," "he greatly 
 withstood/^ In ver. i8_, beginnings omit " And." 
 At the end, omit ^^ Amen." 
 
 The corrections in rendering are : — 
 In ch. i. 1, for " my dearly beloved son" 
 " my beloved child." In ver. 3^ for " that 
 without ceasing" read " how unceasingly." In 
 ver. 5, for " is" " was :" the Apostle would 
 hardly call to remembrance a thing then present : 
 it is the faith which was in Timothy when they 
 parted that he calls to remembrance. In ver. 
 6, "putting on" w^ould be better expressed as 
 usualj " laying on." In ver. 7, for " hath not 
 given us" " gave us not :" for "fear" " cow- 
 ardice :" and for " a sound mind" " correction :" 
 the literal meaning of the word being, admoni- 
 tion of others, that they may be of a sound 
 mind. In ver. 8, for " be thou partaker of the 
 afflictions of the Gospel," " suffer affliction with 
 me for the Gospel." In ver. 9, omit " hath ;" 
 and for " before the world began," " before 
 eternal times." In ver. 10, for " is now" 
 " hath been now :" for " hath abolished," " abo- 
 lished :" for " immortality," " incorruption." 
 
78 How to study the New Testame^it, 
 
 In ver. 11, for "aw appointed a preacher" 
 "was appointed an herald." In ver. 12, for 
 '* believed,'' "trusted.'' In ver. 13, for "Hold 
 fast the form of sound ivords which thou hast 
 heard of me,*' " Take an example of the sound 
 words which thou heardest from me/' viz. that 
 which the Apostle has just said^ " I know whom 
 I have trusted/' etc. The rendering of the 
 English version is absolutely untenable. In ver. 
 15, for "he turned/' "turned." In ver. 17, 
 for "very diligently ,' "the more diligently/' 
 viz. on account of my chain. 
 
 In ch. ii. I, for "son/' "child:" and for 
 " be strong," " be strengthened." In ver. 2, 
 for " hast heard/' " heardest :" and for " who," 
 " such as." In ver. 4., for " that warreth," 
 "serving as a soldier:" for " this life/' "life:" 
 and for "hath chosen," "chose." In ver. 5, 
 for " strive for masteries " (a most extraordinary 
 rendering), " strive in the games :" and for 
 "lawfully," "according to the rules." " The 
 husbandman that laboureth" (ver. 6), gives no 
 idea of that which is meant. The emphasis is 
 on the fact of his labouring, i. e. being actually 
 engaged in the work^ whereas the English ver- 
 
2 Timothy. 79 
 
 sion throws the emphasis on ^' husbandman :^' 
 read_, therefore^ " the labouring husbandman \^^ 
 and for ^''must be first partaker/' which looks as 
 if he was to partake before labouring, " ought to 
 partake first of the fruits/' In ver. 7, for " Con- 
 sider" " Understand :" and for " and the Lord 
 give thee understanding" ".for the Lord shall 
 give thee clear apprehension/' In ver. 8^ read 
 " keep in remembrance Jesus Christ, raised from 
 the dead_, of the seed of David, according to my 
 Gospel/' In ver. 9, for " is not bound/' '' hath 
 not been bound." In ver. 11, for "be dead" 
 "died." In ver. 12, for '^ suffer " "endure/' 
 for " deny" " shall deny." In ver. 14, for 
 " words to no profit" " words, a thing tending 
 to no profit." In ver. 15, for "shew" "pre- 
 sent /' for " that needeth not to be" " not /' 
 and for " dividing the word of truth" " laying 
 out the word of the truth." In ver. 16, omit 
 "and vain" In ver. 18, for "have erred" 
 " went astray." In ver. 19, for " the foundation 
 of God standeth sure" " the firm foundation of 
 God standeth." In ver. 22, for "flee also" 
 " but flee /' and for " but," " and /' for " cha- 
 rity," " love." In ver. 23, " irregular " is 
 
8o How to study the N'av Testavient, 
 
 nearer to the sense of the word than ^^un- 
 learned" In ver. 24, for " patiejity" read 
 ^^ patient of wrong." In ver. 25, for " acknow- 
 ledging" '' knowledge." In ver. 26, for " re- 
 cover themselves" "return to soberness;" and 
 for " who are taken captive by him at his will" 
 " having been taken captive by him in pursu- 
 ance of God's will." 
 
 In ch. iii. i, for " this know also," read " but 
 know this ;" and for " perilous" " grievous." 
 In ver. 2, for " covetous" " lovers of money ;" 
 and for ''blasphemers," "evil speakers." In 
 ver. ^, ior " truce-breakers," "implacable;" for 
 " despisers of those that are good," " haters of 
 good." In ver. 4, for " heady, highminded," 
 " headlong, besotted with pride." In ver. 5, 
 for " a form," " an outward form ;" for " deny- 
 ing," "having denied;" and for "such," 
 " these also." In ver. 7, for " knowledge," 
 "full knowledge." In ver. 8, for "resist," 
 "withstand;" for " of corrupt minds," "cor- 
 rupted in their minds." In ver. 10, for " hast 
 fully known," " wast a follower of;" for " cha- 
 rily," "love." In ver. 11, for "what peisecu- 
 iions," " such persecutions." In ver. 13, for 
 
2 Timothy, 8i 
 
 ^'seducers'' " impostors/' In ver. 14, for '' hast 
 learned and hast heen assured of/' " learned and 
 wast assured of/' and for '' of whom,'' '^ from 
 what teachers." Ver. 16 ought to run, ^' Every 
 Scripture inspired by God is also profitable/' 
 etc. For '* reproof," read " conviction;" and 
 for " instruction," " discipline." In ver. 17, for 
 "perfect," '^^ complete ;" and for '^ all good 
 works," " every good work." 
 
 In ch. iv. 1, for ''charge," "adjure;" for 
 " shall judge," '' is about to judge/' or, " shall 
 one day judge." In ver. 2, "urgent" would 
 now be better understood thQ.n '' instant ;" for 
 ''reprove," "convict." In ver. 3, for "sound," 
 " the sound." In ver. 4, for " shall he turned," 
 " shall turn aside." In ver. 5, for " watch thou," 
 " be thou sober ;" and for " make full proof of," 
 " fulfil." In ver. 6, for " am now ready to he 
 offered," " am now being poured out " (the ex- 
 pression is sacrificial). In ver. 7, for "a good 
 fight/' " the good fight ;" the literal rendering 
 is, " I have striven the good strife." In ver. 8, 
 for "a crown/' "the crown;" for "give me/' 
 "award me/' and for "love," "hath loved." 
 In ver. lo^ for "hath forsaken," "forsook/' 
 
 G 
 
82 How to study the New Testameiit, 
 
 and for '' is departed," ^' departed." In ver. 
 12, '^but Tychicus I sent." In ver. 14, for 
 " coppersmith," read " smith " merely. In ver. 
 16, ^' stood with me" should be, ^' stood forward 
 with me," viz. to give support to me ; and for 
 '' I pray God it may not" ''^ may it not." In 
 ver. 17, for '^ fully known" " fulfilled." In ver. 
 18, for ''glory" *^the glory." In ver. -lo, for 
 " Milet?m," '' Miletus." 
 
V. 
 
 THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS, 
 
 A REMARKABLE Epistle stands in our 
 Bibles^ at the end of those universally 
 attributed to St. Paul. It is addressed "To the 
 Hebrews.^' It bears no writer^s name. It con- 
 tains but one personal notice :* that he who 
 wrote it called Timothy " our brother/' and 
 that he intended to visit those whom he was 
 addressing, in his company. If we seek for 
 indications of the place where it was written, 
 we find but one, and that ambiguous : " They 
 of Italy salute you.^' This might be written 
 from Italy, and might designate the whole of 
 those among whom the writer was ; or, which 
 is more probable, it might be written to Italy, 
 and might mean that those Italians who wert 
 
 * For ch. X. 34 is not one ; see corrections, p. 128. 
 
 G 2 
 
84 Hoiv to study the A^eiv Testamefif. 
 
 with the writer sent greeting to their fellow- 
 countrymen. So that this notice leaves us still 
 in uncertainty. 
 
 Our search for the probable time of the 
 Epistle being written will be more effectual. 
 Indications of a later date than most of the 
 New Testament Epistles are undoubted. We 
 read (chap. ii. 3) that the " great salvation " of 
 the Gospel " which began to be spoken by the 
 Lord/^ had been " confirmed '' to the writer 
 and his readers "by them that heard Him." So 
 that the first Christian generation of those who 
 had heard the Lord Himself^ was at all events 
 nearly passed away; or, to restrict the reference 
 within the narrowest limits, the writer himself, 
 and his readers, did not belong to that genera- 
 tion. Again, from chap. xiii. 7, w^e learn, that 
 the first leaders of the church addressed had 
 brought their Christian lives to an end, and 
 were proposed as examples with reference to 
 that end. Again, we find, in chap. x. 32, that 
 some very grievous persecution is brought to the 
 readers' mind as having happened in "the for- 
 mer days." All this seems to establish the in- 
 ference above mentioned, viz. that we are deal- 
 
Hebrews. 85 
 
 ing with a letter written far on in the apostolic 
 period^ if not indeed in the age next following 
 that period. 
 
 The occasion and object of writing our Epistle 
 are not difficult to discover. The enmity of the 
 Jews to the Gospel of Christy now in an ad- 
 vanced stage, had brought a double danger on 
 the church ; on the one hand^ that of persecu- 
 tion^ on the other, that of apostasy. And this 
 latter was the principal peril of Jewish converts. 
 The following of Jesus of Nazareth had by this 
 time become separated off, in the eyes of those 
 in power, from the profession of Judaism ; and 
 was granted no place in the toleration which 
 the world^s rulers extended to the ^^ licensed re- 
 ligions.^^ This being so, the temptation to fall 
 back into Judaism was naturally great. And 
 the object of the Epistle is to show the folly and 
 danger of such apostasy, by proving that the 
 Gospel is every way superior to the former co- 
 venant ; by exhibiting from the Scriptures, and 
 from the nature of the case, that Jesus Himself 
 was every way superior to both the messenger 
 and the high-priests of that former covenant. 
 
 This main argument, filled out and illustrated 
 
S6 Hoii) to study the N'cw Testament. 
 
 by corollaries springing out of its different parts, 
 and expanding in the directions of encourage- 
 ment, warning, and example, occupies the 
 Epistle. 
 
 But now comes up the question. Who was 
 the writer ? And this question has never been 
 satisfactorily answered. Origen asked it, in the 
 third century of our era; and answered it in the 
 remarkable and expressive terms, " God know- 
 eth.^^ In very early days, various persons were 
 suspected as likely to have been its author. In 
 the earliest citations of it, those by Clement of 
 Rome, no writer's name is mentioned. At 
 Alexandria we find it, about the middle of the 
 second century, attributed to St. Paul; and a 
 reason is given for that Apostle having con- 
 cealed his name, viz. that he might not at the 
 outset provoke the hostility of his countrymen. 
 
 The same school believed that it was written 
 for Hebrews in Hebrew, and translated into 
 Greek by St. Luke. On this we shall have 
 more to say by-and-by. 
 
 We have already mentioned a saying of Ori- 
 gen's. His own opinion is given in several 
 places of his writings. He holds that it is clear 
 
Hebrews. 87 
 
 to all who are accustomed to judge of style^ or 
 are well-read in the apostolic writings, that the 
 Epistle is not St. PauPs, but has been written 
 by some one who has embodied in his own style 
 and form the thoughts of the Apostle. That 
 some church, or churches, regarded it as St. 
 PauPs, he confesses; but says that tradition 
 which had come down to his time was divided, 
 some reputing that Clement, who became 
 Bishop of Rome, wrote the Epistle, others that 
 it was Luke, who wrote the Gospel and the 
 Acts. 
 
 But it is remarkable that from another part 
 of the North African church we have a different 
 account. Tertullian, at the beginning of the 
 third century, expressly ascribes the Epistle to 
 Barnabas, the companion of St. Paul ; and this 
 as matter of tradition ; calling it '^ a writing 
 under the name of Barnabas.^' 
 
 If we look westward, we find it asserted that 
 Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons, together with Hippo- 
 lytus. Bishop of Ostia, the port of Rome, denied 
 the Pauline authorship of the Epistle. Coming 
 to Rome itself, we are told by Eusebius (century 
 iv.), that even to his time, some at Rome main- 
 
88 How to study the New Testament. 
 
 tained that it was not the Apostle^s ; and by 
 Jerome^ that among the Romans even to his 
 day, it was not accounted the work of Paul the 
 Apostle. The result of the early testimonies 
 which I have elsewhere* collected and com- 
 paredj is that in no part of the church, except 
 at Alexandria, does there seem to have existed 
 any idea that the Epistle was written by St. 
 Paul, and even in that church itself, there is no 
 reliable trace of a tradition of the Pauline au- 
 thorship. In fact, there was in the most an- 
 tient times, as there is now, great uncertainty 
 as to this matter. The general cast of thought 
 was recognized as Pauline, and some one or 
 other of the Apostle's companions was credited 
 with the authorship ; Barnabas, Luke, and Cle- 
 ment being all selected, in one place or another, 
 for that honour. 
 
 As we advance into later times, we find the 
 idea that St. Paul was the writer, gaining ground 
 here and there, until it became well-nigh uni- 
 versal. The farther j)eople were from the pri- 
 mitive times, the more positive did they be- 
 
 * Introduction to the Epistle to the Hebrews, ' New Testa- 
 ment for English Readers,' vol. ii. 
 
Hebrews. 89 
 
 come ; a phenomenon not unusual with secular 
 writers likewise. Here and there, it is true, 
 some man of learning and candour was found, 
 who was not content wdth general opmion, 
 and looked into both testimony and internal 
 evidence for himself: and in such cases, the 
 Pauline authorship was for a while denied; but 
 they were very rare. Nor was the primitive view 
 revived, till the approach of that great crisis 
 w^hen men^s thoughts began to be turned from 
 accepting to searching. Among the Roman 
 Catholics, Ludovicus Vives and Cardinal Cajetan 
 expressed themselves in the ancient manner 
 about this Epistle shortly before the Reforma- 
 tion. Erasmus spoke his mind plainly, and 
 supported his opinion at length, that the author 
 could not have been St. Paul. Luther main- 
 tains this, after his manner, even more strongly; 
 and in one passage of his commentary on Gene- 
 sis, hazards the conjecture that the writer of the 
 Epistle to the Hebrews may have been Apollos. 
 Calvin speaks to the same effect, in words well 
 w^orth quoting : " Who composed it, is hardly 
 worth caring about. Some have thought him 
 to be Paul, some Luke, Barnabas, or Clement. 
 
90 How to study the New Testament. 
 
 I know that in the time of Chrysostom_, it was 
 very generally received by the Greeks among 
 St. PauPs ; but the Latins thought otherwise, 
 especially those who were nearest to the times 
 of the Apostles. Nothing w^ill induce me to 
 acknowledge Paul as its author. For those who 
 say his name was purposely suppressed because 
 it was odious to the Jews^ allege nothing to the 
 point. For if it were so, why should he have 
 made mention of Timotheus ? By this indica- 
 tion he betrayed himself. But the manner of 
 teaching and style betoken another than Paul ; 
 and the writer confesses himself to have been 
 one of the disciples of the Apostles (ch. ii. 3), 
 w^hich is repugnant in the last degree to the 
 teaching of Paul.'^ 
 
 The Council of Trent very curiously took 
 upon itself the decision of this question, which 
 was doubtful in view of the remotest Christian 
 antiquity, and thus closed the inquiry for Ro- 
 manists. It is equally curious, to see the most 
 learned of their modern commentators trying to 
 evade the anathema of their council, and to es- 
 cape censure for venturing to approach, half- 
 way, the views of men whom their Church 
 Jjolds to be saints. 
 
Hebrews, 9 1 
 
 In the modern Protestant Churches^ the Paul- 
 ine authorship has been very generally held by 
 thost who have not looked into the matter^ and 
 not uncommonly by men who have more or less 
 done so. In England, fair unprejudiced in- 
 quiry has in this, as in other biblical matters, 
 been rare. Scholars have made up their minds 
 that the Epistle must be St. PauPs, and have 
 coerced its phenomena accordingly. Some of 
 the more ardent of them have not spared very 
 strong language as to the necessary unsound- 
 ness in the faith, and weakness in judgment, of 
 those who take the other side. But searchers 
 for truth in this country have too long been sub- 
 jected to this kind of treatment, to be much 
 affected by it now. And it will not deter us 
 from setting down, for the use of the plain 
 English reader, the reasons why we believe that 
 the Epistle cannot possibly have been written by 
 St. Paul. 
 
 I. Because the more we study the Epistle, 
 and the more we perceive the connection, in 
 thought and feeling, between the writer and St. 
 Paul, the more we perceive personal identity to 
 be absolutely incompatible. A different tinge 
 
92 How to study the N'ew Testament, 
 
 is given to the same or similar thoughts : the 
 spirit^ and the very manner, of citations from 
 the Old Testament, are distinct in the two; so 
 is the method of argument : the rhetorical load- 
 ing and accumulation of sentences is unknown 
 to the Apostle; the clauses in this style, even 
 where the declamation is fervent, are nicely 
 poised and balanced, a feature wanting in the 
 most marked manner in St. Paul ; the connect- 
 ing particles, and those of inference, in the 
 original language, are entirely different from 
 those used by him in any of his Epistles. We 
 may sum up this paragraph in the sensible and 
 decisive words of Origen, a most able and ac- 
 complished Greek, ^^That the character of the 
 style has not the individual peculiarity of that 
 of the Apostle, every one who knows how to 
 judge of the difference of phrases will acknow- 
 ledge." 
 
 2. Because in ch. ii. 3, the writer speaks of 
 himself as among those who had received the 
 Gospel from the Apostles and those who had 
 heard the Lord. Of course this passage, stand- 
 ing as it does directly against the idea of St. 
 Paul, who always upholds his independence of 
 
Hebrews. 
 
 93 
 
 man's teachings having written it_, has to be 
 explained away by the PauHne party. This 
 they commonly do by supposing the writer to 
 be for the moment putting himself in the same 
 category as his readers. Now^ common as such 
 a practice is among authors, we may safely say 
 that of all men, and in all circumstances, St. 
 Paul, writing to Jews, would be the least likely 
 to adopt it. Compare, with any such idea, his 
 abrupt and energetic protests in Gal. i., ii., and 
 if the idea be not abandoned, all we can sav is 
 that some minds must be very differently con- 
 stituted from our own. 
 
 3. Owing to the absence of direct personal 
 authorization of the Epistle. St. Paul informs 
 us that this was his practice in every Epistle 
 (2 Thess. iii. 17). Now the reason suggested 
 for the Apostle's name being suppressed in this 
 Epistle is, the knowledge that its mention might 
 render the letter unacceptable to the Jews, to 
 whom it was written. To say nothing of sup- 
 pression for such a reason being wholly alien 
 from his character, we can hardly suspect St. 
 Paul of such gaucherie as, while he had this 
 •purpose, to have inserted the notice about " our 
 
94 How to study the New Testame^it, 
 
 brother Timothy/' which would at once excite 
 suspicion. Then again^ the idea of the name 
 of the writer being, as matter of fact, unknown 
 to the church who received the letter, is of itself, 
 even without taking into account the personal 
 notices occurring in it, simply absurd. 
 
 For these and for other reasons, which I have 
 elsewhere stated at length, I cannot, on any 
 consideration, accept the idea that St. Paul 
 wrote this Epistle. Such an hypothesis would, 
 to my mind, destroy what is infinitely more 
 valuable than the mere formal sanction of an 
 Apostle's name, viz. the analogy or proportion 
 of the faith, according to which the sacred 
 writers wrote as moved by the Holy Ghost, If 
 the whole fabric of human intellectual and 
 habitual identity is to be so completely broken 
 down, and its rules set at nought, as would be 
 the case on this supposition, I submit that there 
 would be an end of the very foundations on 
 which rests our acceptance of the Gospel itself. 
 
 If then St. Paul did not write this Epistle, 
 who did ? 
 
 I. Evidently some one well acquainted with 
 the teaching and habits of thought of that great 
 
Hebrews. 95 
 
 Apostle of the Gentiles. The school to which 
 the Epistle belongs is that of St. Paul. 
 
 2. But not some one writing at St. PauPs 
 dictation, nor a mere translator of his words. 
 Against both these ideas every part of the 
 Epistle is equally a protest. The writer of this 
 Epistle was also its author. 
 
 3. A Jew. This has, I believe, never, and 
 surely can be never doubted. 
 
 4. Not a pure Jew, but a Hellenist, i. e. one 
 brought up in Greek habits of thought, and in 
 the use of the Greek Septuagint version of the 
 Old Testament. His citations are, with one 
 exception, exclusively from that version, even 
 where it does not agree with the Hebrew text. 
 
 5. One deeply imbued with the thoughts and 
 language of the Alexandrian school of Judaism. 
 "The coincidences in thought and language 
 between passages of this Epistle and tlie writings 
 of Philo, the Alexandrian Jew, are such as no 
 one in his senses can believe to be fortuitous.^^* 
 The writer was, by birth, or, at all events, by 
 training, an Alexandrian. 
 
 6. Not an Apostle, nor a contemporary of the 
 * * New Testament for English Readers,' vol. ii., Introd. p. 175. 
 
g6 How to study the Akw Testament. 
 
 Apostles in the strictest sense_, but one who had 
 heard from eye and ear-witnesses. 
 
 7. Not a dweller in or near Jerusalem; for 
 he takes his descriptions not from the Jewish 
 temple there^ but from the prescribed ordinances 
 in the text of the Septuagint version. 
 
 8. One who lived and wrote before the de- 
 struction of Jerusalem. For had this been 
 otherwise^ it is hardly possible that all traces of 
 such a break-up of the Jewish w^orship and 
 polity should have been wanting in the Epistle, 
 directly pertinent as they w^ould be to the great 
 argument. 
 
 9. A person of considerable note and in- 
 fluence among those to whom he was writing. 
 This appears, both from the tone used through- 
 out the Bpistle, and from such expression? as 
 "that I may be restored to you ^^ (ch. xiii. 19J. 
 
 There are several persons, companions or 
 disciples of St. Paul, who might be discussed as 
 to the probability of their having written the 
 Epistle. The names of Barnabas, Luke, Silas, 
 Mark, Clement, Titus, A polios, Aquila, at once 
 occur to us; Timotliy, otherwise perhaps as 
 likely a person as any, being of course excluded 
 
Hebrews. 97 
 
 bv his beino; mentioned in ch. xiii. 2^ as a iliffe- 
 rent person from the author. 
 
 Of these Titus is excluded by the fact of his 
 being a Greek (Gal. ii. 3), and uncircumcised. 
 The same circumstance would seem also to ex- 
 clude LuKE^ who is (Col. iv. 10-14) numbered 
 among those of the uncircumcision. And in 
 consequence, most of those who assign to him 
 the composition of the Epistle in its present 
 form, suppose him to have merely worked in 
 subordination to St. Paul. There is much in 
 some parts of the style of our Epistle which 
 tends to remind one of St. Luke^s writings, but 
 at the same time there is sufficient difference, as 
 I have elsewhere pointed out, between the two, 
 to make it most improbable that he should have 
 been its author. He had derived his style from 
 the same Alexandrian training, and his doctrine 
 from the same father in the faith ; but the two 
 men were essentially different. 
 
 Mark has never had the authorship attri- 
 buted to him. There are no points of similarity 
 to his writings ; he does not seem to have been 
 joined for any long time to St. Paul ; and pro- 
 bably he was no Hellenist, but a born Jerusalem 
 Jew (Acts xii. 12). h 
 
98 How to study the New Tcstameiit. 
 
 This latter reason (Acts xv. 12) would exclude 
 Silas, who otherwise would satisfy the condi- 
 tions well. 
 
 Clement of Rome may have written it, and 
 we have seen ahove that some were of this 
 opinion. But there are two reasons against it. 
 First, we have an undoubted Epistle of Clement 
 to the Corinthians ; and its style and character 
 are entirely distinct from those of the Epistle to 
 the Hebrews : and, secondly, had he been the 
 author, there could hardly fail to have been a 
 tradition to this effect in the church at Rome, 
 which, as we have seen, there was not. 
 
 The strongest claim of any which antiquity 
 has asserted, is that which has been advanced 
 for Barnabas. But even this was not gene- 
 rally upheld; indeed it appears to have been 
 asserted without doubt, by Tertullian only. 
 We have an Epistle of doubtful genuineness 
 purporting to be written by Barnabas. If that 
 be genuine, the matter is decided, for never 
 were two writings more entirely exclusive each 
 of the other's views than this letter and our 
 Epistle. If, as is probable, that work is spurious, 
 we must judge the claim on its own grounds, 
 
Hebrews, 99 
 
 and then we find, that though several of the re- 
 quisites seem to meet in Barnabas — such as his 
 being a Levite, not of Judaea, but of Cyprus 
 (Acts iv. ofi), his companionship of St. Paul 
 during his earlier missionary journeys (Acts xi. 
 22 — XV. 36), and the name given to him by the 
 Apostles (^^ son of exhortation/^ which is per- 
 haps the likelier rendering in Acts iv. 0^6) ; yet 
 there are some considerations which seem to 
 invalidate his claim. He seems to have been, 
 though a Cyprian by birth, yet a Levite ov 
 Jerusalem (Acts ix. 27; xi. 22), and as such 
 thoroughly acquainted with the usages of the 
 Jerusalem temple, which, as we have seen, our 
 writer can hardly have been. But there is only 
 this one objection; and it is fair to say, that if 
 no more likely name can be found, that of Bar- 
 nabas stands as yet foremost. 
 
 Aquila was a Jew of Pontus, resident ordi- 
 narily at Rome, but found by St. Paul at 
 Corinth, on his first arrival there (Acts xviii. 2). 
 He became a zealous forwarder of the Gospel, 
 and a frequent companion of the Apostle (Acts 
 xviii. 18; I Cor. xvi. 19; Rom. xvi. 3; 2 Tim. 
 iv. 19). He was a man of considerable account 
 
 H 2 
 
100 How to study the N'eiv Testament. 
 
 and ability : he and his wife Priscilla had risked 
 their lives for the Gospel : the church assembled 
 in their house ; and they were able to instruct 
 in the way of Christ even such a man as Apollos_, 
 who was mighty in the Scriptures. 
 
 But here again w^e have no positive evidence 
 that Aquila personally was capable of the work. 
 He is never mentioned without his wife^ Pris- 
 cilla or Prisca; and frequently her name pre- 
 cedes his (Acts xviii. i8; Rom. xvi. 3; 2 Tim. 
 iv. 19) : an arrangement so unusual of old, that 
 some very sufficient reason must have existed 
 for it. Add to which, it does not seem that 
 any supporter of his claim has ever appeared, in 
 ancient or in modern times. 
 
 There is but one name left, that of Apollos. 
 In him certainly more requisites meet than in 
 any other man. He is introduced in Acts xviii. 
 24, as " a Jew, an Alexandrian ly birth, an elo- 
 quent man, mighty in the Scriptures." Every 
 word here is in his favour. As we go on, more 
 requisites still are found fulfilled. He appears, 
 by St. PauPs own account, to have been only 
 second to him in the church at Corinth. No 
 words could better describe the relation of this 
 
Hebrews, loi 
 
 Epistle to those of the Apostle than his own^ 
 " I planted_, Apollos watered " (i Cor. iii. 6) : 
 and we seem to trace not a few indications on 
 St. PauPs part, of just the difference of style in 
 the teaching of Apollos and his own_, which we 
 here find_, in his frequent renunciations of excel- 
 lency of speech or wisdom. And as to those 
 matters which seemed to make it difficult to 
 l^elieve the Epistle written by Luke_, or Clement 
 or Barnabas, they all conspire in favour of 
 Apollos. What words could more accurately 
 describe the teaching of our Epistle than these, 
 " He mightily convinced the Jews, and that 
 publicly, showing by the Scriptures that Jesus 
 was the Christ''? 
 
 Again, his relations to St. Paul are just those 
 which seem to have existed in the case of the 
 writer of whom we are in search. He received 
 the Gospel from Aquila and Priscilla, and there- 
 fore in its Pauline form. But combined with 
 this we have an independence of St. Paul in 
 fact, which ensures for this writing the place in 
 Christian teaching which it ever has held in the 
 history of the church. Apollos began and car- 
 ried on his Christian teaching; at Corinth, with- 
 
102 How to study the New Testament, 
 
 out the personal superintendence of the Apostle. 
 His line of arguing with the Jews, if the Epistle 
 be hi?_, proceeds, not on the covenant of God 
 with Abraham, but on the High Priesthood of 
 Jesus, and the all-sufficiency of His sacrifice. 
 Not the righteousness by faith, but the life of 
 faith with its triumphs, is celebrated by this 
 writer ; his teaching is consistent with, but it is 
 not dependent on, that \v. St. PauPs Epistles. 
 
 Again, the kind of semi -anonymous character 
 of this Epistle receives some sort of solution, if 
 we suppose Apollos to have written it. He has 
 indeed no reason for strict concealment of him- 
 self, but there is a strong reason why he should 
 not put himself prominently forward. In the 
 first Epistle to the Corinthians we discern un- 
 mistakably traces of a rivalry between the two 
 methods of teaching at Corinth ; but we gather 
 as plainly, that this rivalry did not in any way 
 affect the teachers themselves. St. Paul con- 
 stantly and honourably mentions Apollos as his 
 fellow-helper; and in chap. xvi. 12, we find, 
 that he had exhorted Apollos to accompany to 
 Corinth the bearers of the Epistle, but could 
 not prevail on him ; showing at the same time 
 
Hebrews. 
 
 103 
 
 the generous confidence of the Apostle_, and the 
 unselfish modesty of Apollos, rekictant to incur 
 the chance of being set at the head of a party 
 in opposition to the Apostle. 
 
 This same spirit, though not towards the same 
 object_, is shown, supposing he wrote the Epistle, 
 by his not announcing his name at the opening, 
 and sending no blessing in his own person. Yet 
 he does not write as if he meant to remain al- 
 together unknown ; he inserts personal notices, 
 and mentions circumstances which would be 
 unintelligible, unless the readers knew who was 
 writing to them. Thus, and it seems to me 
 thus only, do the two-sided phenomena of our 
 Epistle receive any satisfactory solution; utterly 
 unintelligible as they are on any hypothesis of 
 Pauline authorship or superintendence. 
 
 That Apollos was the writer of the Epistle to 
 the Hebrews, appears first to have been a guess 
 of Luther^s. It has since his time been main- 
 tained by some distinguished names among the 
 Germans ; the best known of which to us En- 
 glish are Tholuck, Bleek, and De Wette. 
 
 It has become the fashion among English 
 upholders of the Pauline authorship, to laugh to 
 
1 04 How to study the New Testa77ient. 
 
 scorn this, and every other attempt to decide 
 the question on its own merits. But we trust 
 the time is come when the pubHc in this coun- 
 try will no longer he led by strong language and 
 vehement rhetoric in biblical matters, but will 
 insist on dealing with every question simply and 
 entirely on its merits. 
 
 We now proceed to inquire for what readers 
 our Epistle was written. Clearly_, of course, 
 for Jewish believers. No trace is found in 
 it of its readers having been converted from 
 heathenism, as is often the case in St. PauFs 
 Epistles. If, then, to these Judaeo-Christians, 
 to whom among them? i. Not to the 
 general body scattered over the world : for 
 a local habitation is throughout assumed, and 
 a peculiar situation as to past and coming 
 persecution : the writer hopes to visit them 
 in company w ith Timotheus : they are greeted 
 by '^ those from Italy.^' 2. Not to Jewish 
 Christians dwelling in Jerusalem. For this 
 writer uses, almost without exception, the Sep- 
 tuagint version of the Scriptures, which had no 
 authority in the Jerusalem church : he writes 
 not only in Greek, but in such Greek as would 
 
Hebrews, 1 05 
 
 require not simply knowledge of that language as 
 a medium of communication^ but also acquaint- 
 ance with its more elegant forms and ways of 
 thought : whereas the Jerusalem church was 
 ever as far as possible from possessing this ac- 
 quaintance. Besides^ no Grecian Jew^ brought 
 up in Alexandrian learning, could have had such 
 a relation to Jews in Judaea as we find subsist- 
 ing in this Epistle between the author and his 
 readers; certainly least of all could the Apos- 
 tle himself; and, next to him least of all could 
 Apollos and Timotheus. Again, on this hypo- 
 thesis, what could be meant by " They of (from) 
 Italy salute you ^^ ? If the writer was in Rome, 
 how unlikely that he should speak thus ! If 
 elsewhere, how unaccountable that he should 
 send a salutation specially from Italian Jews to 
 Jerusalem Jews ! Again, ch. ii. 3 would apply 
 to any church rather than to that at Jerusalem, 
 where there must have been many living who 
 had seen and heard the Lord for themselves. 
 Yet more, the notice of ch. vi. 10, ^^who have 
 ministered to the saints, and yet do minister/-' 
 would be eminently unfitting as addressed to 
 the Jerusalem church, seeing that it, during the 
 
1 06 How to study the New Testament, 
 
 Apostolic age_, was required to be subsidized by 
 other churches; and in the PauHne language, 
 the " saints/^ in this phrase^ always means, the 
 believers in the Holy City. 
 
 If not, then, to Jerusalem, seeing it evidently 
 was written to a body of no small dimensions, 
 let us see, dismissing smaller churches from our 
 account, whether those in the greater cities of 
 gospel history will fit its phenomena. Corinth 
 is excluded by ch. ii. 3, seeing that the church 
 there was founded by St. Paul, who was not 
 one who had heard the Lord for himself. 
 Alexandria has a somewhat stronger claim : 
 there were the greatest number of Jews, next to 
 Jerusalem : in the neighbourhood was a Jewish 
 temple (at Leontopolis), whose arrangements 
 more nearly corresponded with the descriptions 
 in our Epistle than did those at Jerusalem ; and 
 from thence the Epistle seems first to have 
 issued into public recognition. Besides which, 
 the lanffuai2;e and thought are Alexandrian, 
 But nearly the same objections lie against Alex- 
 andria, as were just now urged against Jerusa- 
 lem; and the salutation ^^They from Italy ^' 
 would be equally unmeaning. 
 
Hebrews, 107 
 
 It has long appeared to me^ that Rome is the 
 only place which at all answers the conditions 
 of our inquiry. The church there had been 
 founded by no Apostle proper_, but by such as 
 Andronicus and Junias^ who were in Christ be- 
 fore St. Paul (Rom. xvi. 7) — by primitive be- 
 lievers, who had seen and heard the Lord. 
 Here it was that the various and strange doc- 
 trines sprung up in Judaistic Christianity. 
 Here only again do the personal notices find 
 easy and complete solution. Timothy had so- 
 journed there in company with Paul the pri- 
 soner : and the words, " they from Italy salute 
 you/^ would be easy and natural, if the writer 
 were addressing Roman Jews from some such 
 city as Corinth, or Ephesus, or Alexandria, or 
 indeed from anywhere out of Italy. The no- 
 tices of persecution again, ch. x. 32, and of the 
 loss of their leaders, ch. xiii. 7, find natural so- 
 lutions, in the expulsion of Jews by Claudius, 
 and the subsequent persecution by Nero. Se- 
 veral minor reasons concur to induce me in be- 
 lieving that the Roman Judsean believers were 
 those to whom our Epistle was directed. If it 
 were written by one who, remembering that the 
 
io8 How to study the Neiv Testament, 
 
 great Apostle had written to that church his 
 greatest Epistle, shrank from putting himself 
 into rivalry with him, and for this reason sup- 
 pressed formal mention of his name, this cir- 
 cumstance, while it might prevent that name 
 from being handed down in that church, would 
 be enough at all events to bring about the con- 
 stant and decisive testimony of the church at 
 Rome, that the Epistle was not St. PauPs. 
 
 From what has been said, it will be easily 
 gathered, that the date to be assigned to the 
 Epistle will be between the death of St. Paul, 
 and the destruction of Jerusalem_, i. e, between 
 the years a.d. 68 and a.d. 70. 
 
 We now come to the consideration of this 
 great Epistle itself. 
 
 And first let us take a survey of its contents. 
 The main argument consists in the demonstra- 
 tion of the superiority of the Gospel to the 
 former covenant, and shews, both from the 
 testimony of the Jewish Scriptures themselves, 
 and from the nature of the case, that^ the Lord 
 Jesus transcended all the messengers and high- 
 priests of the former covcnaut. This argument 
 
Hebrews. 109 
 
 flows on in its main stream throughout the 
 whole Epistle : but it is enriched by various 
 tributaries : and the writer pauses here and there 
 to examine the course of this or that accessory 
 argument, and resumes again his great purpose. 
 
 The first great division of the Epistle extends 
 from i. I to ii. i8_, and lays down the following 
 points. After manifold revelations in former 
 times, God has now revealed Himself to us in 
 His Son (i. 1-4), who is greater than the angels, 
 the dispensers of the law (i. 4-14), though for a 
 time He was made lower than the angels, and 
 subjected to sufferings, in order to be, as our 
 High Priest, our reconciler to God (ii. 5-18). 
 
 Then in the next division (iii. i-iv. 16), 
 which in the main runs parallel with the former, 
 the writer demonstrates that the Son of God 
 was greater also than Moses : and infers from 
 the course and result of his proof, that we 
 ought both on account of the majesty of our 
 High Priest, and on account of His human 
 sympathies with us, to hold fast our Christian 
 confession. 
 
 Now, with ch. v., comes on the great subject 
 of the High Priesthood of Christ, treated on its 
 
I lo How to study tJie Ncii) Testament, 
 
 own ground and merits. This discussion lasts 
 till ch. X. 1 8, occupying the middle and principal 
 portion of the Epistle. 
 
 First, the necessary qualifications of a High 
 Priest are recounted : (v. 1-3) that he must be 
 taken from among men, and (4-10) that he 
 must be appointed by God : and Christ is proved 
 to have fulfilled them both. Then (v. ii-vi. 
 20) the writer enters on a digression, — before 
 entering on a comparison, to which his argu- 
 ment led him, of Christ with Melchisedec, — 
 complaining of the low state of spiritual attain- 
 ment of his readers (11-14), warning them of 
 the benefit of progress and the peril of falling 
 back (vi, 1-8) ; but at the same time encourag- 
 ing them, by God^s faithfulness in bearing in 
 mind their previous labour of love and in His 
 promises generally, to persevere in faith and 
 patience to the end (vi. 9-Z0). 
 
 Having accomplished this, he returns to the 
 consideration of Christ being a High Priest 
 after the order of Melchisedec : and herein sets 
 forth (vii. i-io) what that priesthood of Mel- 
 chisedec was, — its nature, as eternal (1-3); as 
 superior to the Levitical (4-10). Tiien (ii-i",) 
 
Hebrews, i j i 
 
 the further proof of the superiority of Christ^s 
 priesthood with the Levitical : in that (11-14) 
 He sprang from a tribe not appointed as the 
 priestly tribe by the law, thus setting aside the 
 law; in that (15-19) He was made priest not 
 after the law of a carnal commandment, but 
 after the power of an endless life, thus impugn- 
 ing the former commandment as weak and 
 unprofitable; in that (20-22) He was made 
 with an oath, which those former priests were 
 not; in that (23, 24) they by reason of their 
 transitoriness were many, whereas He was one 
 and unchangeable. 
 
 Then in ch. viii. (1-13) the writer shows that 
 not only is Christ personally as a High Priest 
 above the sons of Aaron, but the service and 
 ordinances of the covenant of which he is High 
 Priest are better than those of that to which 
 they belong. 
 
 This comparison of the two covenants is in 
 ch. ix. extended to considering the liturgical 
 apparatus which the former covenant prescribed, 
 and its means of access to God, as contrasted 
 with the supreme efficacy of the blood of Christ. 
 Then the subject of the heavenly tabernacle 
 
1 12 Hoii) to study the N'cii) Testament, 
 
 and holy place is touched, and the future 
 prospect of Christ appearing from thence is 
 opened. 
 
 In ch. X. 1-18 we have the solemn conclusion 
 of the whole argument. First (i-io), Christ's 
 voluntary self-offering, as contrasted with the 
 yearly offerings of victims under the law, is the 
 carrying out of God's real will; then (11-14) 
 Christ's priestly service, in contrast to the daily 
 repeated service of the legal priests, is for ever 
 perfected by one high-priestly act, which issued 
 in His kingly exaltation and waiting till His foes 
 be subdued to Him; then (15-18) Christ's 
 finished work is the inauguration of that new 
 covenant before mentioned, in which, the law 
 being written on the heart and sin put away 
 and forgotten, there is no more need for sin- 
 offering. 
 
 Now comes the grand conclusion of the 
 Epistle (x. 19-xiii. 25) : the --nforcing upon us 
 of our duty in the interval of waiting between 
 the beginning and the accomplishing of our sal- 
 vation. 
 
 This course of exhortation may be thus di- 
 vided : to enter boldly into the holiest place (x. 
 
Hebrews. 113 
 
 -19-22); to hold fast our profession (23); to 
 stir up one another (24^ 25), in consideration of 
 the fearful punishment which awaits the rejec- 
 tion of Christ (26-31), and in remembrance 
 of the sufferings which the readers underwent 
 when first converted (32-34). Then follows a 
 repeating of the exhortation not to cast away 
 confidence_, in consideration of the speedy- 
 coming of Christ. This leads to the mention 
 of FAITH ; and to the citation of the great 
 Pauline watchword_, though not quite in the 
 Pauline sense: "The (or, my) just man shall 
 live by faith.'' 
 
 This again leads to a grand digression, occu- 
 pying ch. xi., on the triumphs of Faith, as 
 shewn in the holy men and women of old. 
 Thus this chapter constitutes the Hymn of 
 Faith, as i Cor. xiii. was the Hymn of Love ; 
 the two being the highest flights of impassioned 
 rhetoric in the Apostolic Epistles. 
 
 Then ch. xii. opens (i-ii) with exhortation, 
 mixed with reproof, on looking back at all these 
 witnesses, and also at Jesus, who had gone 
 through suffering to glory, not to faint in the 
 conflict with sin j nor to forget the law of our 
 
 I 
 
114 How to study the New Testament. 
 
 Father, who visits us with chastisement that we 
 may bring forth the fruits of righteousness. 
 This exhortation was begun* at x. 19, and broken 
 off by the insertion of all those examples of the 
 nature and triumphs of faith. It has acquired 
 new strength by the interruption, and is now 
 pressed directly home upon the reader. It is 
 further carried on in verses 12-17, in pressing 
 on them that they ought rather to promote the 
 running the Christian race by others, and to 
 take care, following peace and holiness, that 
 there be no bitter root of sin amons; them which 
 might deprive them of the promised blessing. 
 And this is enforced (18-29) ^Y pressing on 
 them the high dignity of their position, and the 
 absolute finality of the call which was beins; 
 made to them. They had drawn near, not to 
 the terrors of Sinai, but to the joys and glories 
 of the heavenly Jerusalem, in the last dispensa- 
 tion, and under an invitation which shall never 
 be renewed. 
 
 Ch. xiii. (1-16) contains various exhortations 
 to Christian practice, — especially to the imita- 
 tion of the faith of their leaders who had de- 
 parted in the Lord, — to firmness in the faith. 
 
Hebrews, 1 1 5 
 
 and to the following of Jesns^ who suffered out- 
 side the camp_, to teach us to bear His reproach. 
 
 Then xiii. 17 to end is occupied with con- 
 cluding exhortations and notices. 
 
 The great object of the whole Epistle clearly 
 is, to stop defections from the faith, and to con- 
 firm the wandering. To this its various horta- 
 tory conclusions tend, — to this, all its solemn 
 warnings. These the writer sows thick up and 
 dow^n his Epistle : recurring to them at every 
 turn (see ch. ii. 2, 3; iii. 6, 12 ; iv. i, 11, 14, 
 i5; vi. I, 4-6, II j X. 23, etc. ; xii. i, etc., 
 25, etc., 28). 
 
 He fortifies his argument and his exhorta- 
 tions continually by quotations from the Scrip- 
 tures, taken, as we observed before, almost ex- 
 clusively from the Septuagint Greek version. 
 These quotations he treats as they were under- 
 stood in the Jewish schools : witness especially 
 that respecting Melchisedec, which in character 
 strongly resembles that used by St. Paul respect- 
 ing Hagar and Mount Sinai in the Epistle to 
 the Galatians (ch. iv.). The whole complexion 
 of the Epistle is highly rhetorical : fervent, yet 
 majestic, and nobly balanced ; eminently prac- 
 
 I 2 
 
1 16 How to study the New Testa7nent. 
 
 tical, yet always grounding practice directly on 
 great first principles ; severe (see ch. ii. 2, 3 ; 
 iv. II, 13; vi. 4-8; X. 26-31 ; xii. 25-29; xiii. 
 4), yet in severity full of compassion and kind- 
 ness (witness ch. ii. 15; iv. 15; vi. 9, 10, 18; 
 vii. 25; X. 19-22, 32-39; xii. 12, 13; xiii. 
 20-22)- It stands entirely alone among the 
 New Testament Epistles, as the production of a 
 .totally different mind from those of their wri- 
 ters. St. PauPs letters are, so to speak, forged 
 red-hot from the fervency of his inner spirit : 
 the ordinary rules of connection and composi- 
 tion all give way before his heat of purpose : in 
 argument he glances to the right and left, above 
 and below — suddenly flying off at a word, as 
 suddenly returning, but not to the point whence 
 he diverged. His mental character may be de- 
 scribed as knowledge and power all fused into 
 the hot stream of his holy feeling : and this has 
 to be taken into account before we can enter 
 into and set the true value upon not only ex- 
 pressions, but whole passages in his writings. 
 On the other hand, the writer of the Epistle to 
 the Hebrews is an instance of a mental charac- 
 ter not without, nay, penetrated by, the sacred 
 
Hebrews. 117 
 
 fire of zeal, yet thoroughly tempered by the 
 most mature learning and accomplished dialec- 
 tic skill : in the one case the vehicle of the in- 
 spiring Spirit was the scholar absorbed by the 
 saint and the man ; in the other, that vehicle 
 was a saint and a man chastened by the calm- 
 ness and finish of the scholar. Again, in St. 
 Paul we have ever to take into large account 
 the personal element : he subdues it, he apolo- 
 gizes for it, but it will break through neverthe- 
 less : it is ^' I Paul" almost in every sentence; 
 and in the later Pastoral Epistles, as is the wont 
 in men^s advancing years, this is even more 
 marked still. It has often been said that there 
 is no man of the past, of whom we know so 
 much as of the great Apostle of the Gentiles. 
 Now to this, the style of our Epistle stands in 
 marked contrast. No effort for a special pur- 
 pose could ever make such a total difference as 
 to the egoistic element. All through, the 
 writer includes himself among those whom he 
 is addressing : and when at the end he for a 
 moment speaks separately of himself, it is in 
 that shrinking apologetic manner, which con- 
 stitutes it as remarkable an exception as the 
 
1 1 8 How to study the New Testament. 
 
 other is a notable rule. Yet once more — it is 
 almost impossible for St. Paul to reprove with- 
 out some shade of irony. His sensitive quick- 
 tempered nature was ever glancing from himself 
 to others^ from others to himself: was ever 
 sporting with sounds and meanings in the fllck- 
 erings of a playful fancy. Nothing can be 
 more distinct from all this than the calm gra- 
 vity of reproof^ the simpleness of earnest seve- 
 rity, which abound in the Epistle to the He- 
 brews. Well might Origen pronounce the man 
 void of the power of distinguishing character, 
 who could imagine that one and the same per- 
 son could, even by the most artificial disguise, 
 have produced both. We never see so clearly 
 the individual character of the Epistle to the 
 Hebrews, as when we compare it, fairly and 
 without bias, with the Epistles of St. Paul. 
 
 Before passing to our lists of corrigenda, it 
 may be well that we should say something on 
 two or three matters in the Epistle which seem 
 to present unwonted difficulty. 
 
 The first among these is the pointed reference 
 to the ANGELS in the opening chapter. Why 
 should they here be brought in ? Who had set 
 
Hebrews, 119 
 
 the angels against the Son of God, or had ima- 
 gined that He was inferior to them ? The an- 
 swer must be sought in the current Jewish theo- 
 logy, founded on facts mysteriously, but none 
 the less really, implied in the Old Testament. 
 St. Paul had stated of the law (Gal. iii. 19), that 
 it was " ordained by angels in the hand of a 
 mediator.^^ Mankind, and Israel as represent- 
 ing mankind, stood in separation from God by 
 sin ; and angels, divine messengers, stand as 
 mediators between man and God. God com- 
 municates with man by these as His representa- 
 tives : man with God by Moses, as his. Thus 
 God and man approximate, but are not iden- 
 tified : no union took place : whereas in the 
 Son, God and man no longer approximated, 
 but became personally identical. God no longer 
 adapts Himself to the capacities of man in an 
 appearance by angels, but reveals the fulness of 
 His nature in the Man Christ Jesus. Thus it is 
 for the Writer to show how both mediators, the 
 Angel of the Covenant in the Old Testament, 
 and Moses, found their higher unity in Christ. 
 
 Observe by the way, that coincidently with 
 the direct assertion of the Deity of our Lord in 
 
I2;0 How to study the New Testament, 
 
 the Epistle, it reveals to us more than we knew 
 before by any direct assertion of Scripture con- 
 cerning the human experience of our Divine 
 Saviour. The declaration in ch. ii. i8, that it 
 is His temptation which has enabled Him_, by 
 personal experience, to succour those that are 
 tempted; the equally plain declaration, ch. v. 8, 
 that ^^ He learned His obedience from the 
 things which He suffered/^ — these and some 
 others like them would be set down as rank 
 heresy, if first uttered now by any among our- 
 selves ; and are usually treated with neglect, or 
 dishonestly explained away, by those among us 
 (and they are very many) who shrink from re- 
 ceiving the truth and fulness of our Lord^s 
 manhood. 
 
 Ch. iv. 9, " There remaineth therefore a rest 
 to the people of God,^' or more plainly and in- 
 telligibly, '^^ There is yet reserved therefore a 
 keeping of Sabbath for the people of God,^' is 
 misunderstood, often from ignorance, not sel- 
 dom in spite of knowledge. The words mean 
 simply this : The rest, or Sabbatism, which God 
 spoke of in the words, ^^ If they shall enter into 
 my rest," did not mean entering into the Pro- 
 
Hebrews. 121 
 
 mised Land under Joshua^ for they are said in a 
 Psalm of David long after Joshua. Therefore 
 their fulfilment is yet to come: and the solemn 
 threat yet endures in all its power. The words 
 have absolutely nothing to do with the question 
 of Sabbatical obligation, one way or the other. 
 
 There is a difficult saying in verses 12, 13 of 
 this ch. iv._, concerning the Word of God. First 
 of all, it is not the Personal Word which is 
 here spoken of. This writer does not use the 
 well-known term Logos (signifying in St. John, 
 this personal Word) in this sense : everywhere 
 speaking of our Lord as the Son, not as the 
 IVord of God. Nor again is it the writte?i word 
 of God that is meant, further than that it con- 
 veys to us the wo7'd spoken by Him while alive. 
 Next, " the dividing of soul and spirit," does not 
 mean of soul from spirit, but of, — into and 
 through, — both soul (man^s lower invisible por- 
 tion) and spirit (his higher portion). Then in 
 ver. 13 the expression ^'^ naked and opened," 
 is one whose full force it is very difficult to 
 apprehend. The word rendered ^^ opened," 
 signifies '^ with throat bent back," and is 
 supposed by some to point to the practice of 
 
122 How to study the New Testame7it. 
 
 bending back the heads of criminals led to exe- 
 cution, that they might not escape the gaze of 
 the multitude. But however that may be_, it at 
 all events signifies entire denudation and expo- 
 surCj so that nothing whatever is hidden. 
 
 Another difficult passage occurs in ch. vi. 4- 
 6 : where we must be careful, in whatever in- 
 terpretation we give, to avoid two mistakes : 
 first, the softening of the word " impossible " 
 into '' difficult J ' which some have done, thus 
 depriving the solemn verse of all meaning, and 
 reducing it to a mere truism ; second, the sup- 
 posing, with Calvin and his school, that the 
 persons here pointed out are not true and sin- 
 cere believers. The writer specially accumulates 
 one description of them on another, to prevent 
 such a misconception. On the other hand, we 
 must not understand the passage as if it limited 
 the divine power, to which nothing is impos- 
 sible. There is here no barring of God's grace, 
 but only a formal precluding, by the very terms 
 of the hypothesis, of a renewal to repentance of 
 those who have passed through, and rejected for 
 themselves, God's appointed means of renewal. 
 Much of what has been said will also apply to 
 ch. X. 26, 27. 
 
Hebrews, 123 
 
 That which is said about Melchisedec, in ch. 
 vii. 1-3, has excited some curious speculation 
 both in ancient and modern times. That he 
 was the Holy Ghost^ or an angel, or Shem, or 
 Ham (!), or Enoch reappearing on earthy or 
 even our Lord Himself, before He took our 
 fleshj have all been opinions entertained by 
 writers entitled to respect. The question can 
 never be settled : but we may say this_, that the 
 writer seems to assign to him some mysterious 
 solitariness and superiority, which he would 
 hardly have done had he regarded him merely 
 as a man, King of Salem in Abraham^s time. 
 It would have been ridiculous to assert by 
 ^Svithout father, without mother, without ge- 
 nealogy, having neither beginning of days nor 
 end of life," that he, like a hundred other peo- 
 ple, is simply mentioned in the narrative with- 
 out these particulars being specified. The wri- 
 ter evidently meant more than this. 
 
 An incalculable quantity of idolatrous non- 
 sense has been written by the less scrupulous 
 Roman Catholic commentators on ch. xi. 21, 
 where they follow, as convenient for their pur- 
 pose, the rendering of the Vulgate^ long ago 
 
1 24 How to study the New Testainefit. 
 
 condemned as a blunder by Jerome_, '^ and 
 adored the top of his staff." How great the 
 nonsense is, may be seen by the comment of 
 one of their approved writers, Cornelius a La- 
 pide : " Rightly do the Fathers of the second 
 Nicene Council prove, from this adoration of 
 Joseph^s staff, the adoration and cultus of 
 images, and teach that it does not stop with 
 the image, but is referred and passed on to the 
 prototype/^ The fact is that the same Hebrew 
 word, according as it is pointed, signifies staff 
 or Led. Even if we take it " staff" in Gen. 
 xlvii. 31, yet there is not a word of worship 
 and images : and it was not Joseph^ s, but his 
 own staff, toward which, or on which Jacob 
 bowed. The reader may take this as a fair spe- 
 cimen of the trumpery arguments by which 
 Romish practices are defended. It is but just 
 to add, that by their really great and learned 
 expositors, such as Estius and Justiniani, not a 
 word is said here of any such idea. Almost as 
 much nonsense has been talked by the high 
 Anglican party on the expression, ch. xiii. 10, 
 " We have an altar," as if it sanctioned the 
 calling the Lord^s table by that name. Loosely 
 
Hebrews. 125 
 
 indeed^ and improperly^ that name may be used 
 of the Lord^s table : but here the usage must 
 end. As the Lord^s body was broken on the 
 Cross once for all_, so is that breaking symbo- 
 lized when we break the bread in the commu- 
 nion : but as it is heresy to regard the Holy 
 Communion as a repetition of the Lord^s sacri- 
 ficCj so is the term ^^ altar/^ in any strictness, 
 quite inapplicable to the Lord^s table. And no 
 such application is sanctioned here. The altar 
 spoken of is the Cross_, on which the one Vic- 
 tim suffered once for all. 
 
 We proceed to give our usual lists of correc- 
 tions of readings and renderings. First^ of 
 readings. 
 
 In ch. i. 2, for " in these last days/^ read " at 
 the end of these days." In ver. 3, omit ^^ ly 
 himself ^^ and " our '^ (see corrections of render- 
 ings, p. 129). 
 
 In ch. ii. 7, the words ^'and didst set him over 
 the works of thine hands/' though found in some 
 of our oldest MSS., are wanting in the Vatican 
 MS. and others, and have probably found their 
 way in from the Psalms : they should therefore 
 be omitted. In ver. 9, there is a remarkable 
 
1 26 How to study the JVeiu Testa77ient, 
 
 reading in some ancient MSS.^ versions^ and 
 Fathers. Instead of " by the grace of God/^ 
 they read ^'^ except/^ or ^^ without, God." The 
 variation is occasioned by similarity of words in 
 the Greek. It is difficult to assign any sense to 
 the reading mentioned, and it is hardly too 
 much to say that it must have originated in 
 mistake, especially as the received reading has 
 abundant ancient authority. 
 
 In ch. iii. i, omit " Christ." In ver. 6, the 
 words "firm unto the_ end'' are omitted in the 
 Vatican MS. and some other ancient authorities. 
 They seem to have come in from ver. 14, where 
 they are undisputed. In ver. 8^ for " tempted 
 me, proved me/' read with all the oldest MSS., 
 " tempted in proving." In ver. 10, for " that 
 generation" read '^this generation." 
 
 In ch. iv. 2, there is some uncertainty. All 
 the oldest MSS. but the Sinaitic read "un- 
 mingled as they were in faith with them that 
 heard it ;" and this authority predominates. 
 The Sinaitic MS. reads, in meaning, as the 
 received text, but has a different word. 
 
 In ch. V. 4, for " hut he that is called oj 
 God/' read " but only when called of God." 
 
Hebrews, 127 
 
 In ch. vi. 3, some of our oldest MSS._, for 
 ^^ will we do,^' read " let us do." The former 
 seems more probable. In ver. 10, for "your 
 work and lahour of love,^' read^ with all our 
 oldest authorities^ " your work and your love." 
 The words '^ lahour of" seem to have come in 
 from I Thess. i. 3. 
 
 In ch. vii. 14^ for "priesthood" read " priests." 
 In ver. 17, for "he test'ifieth" read " he is testi- 
 fied of;" or_, in better English, " this testimony 
 is borne concerning him." At the end of ver. 21 
 omit the words " after the order of Melchisedec" 
 
 In ch. viii. 4, for " For if" read " Yea, if." In 
 ver. 4, for " priests that offer," " those that offer." 
 In ver. 1 1 for "neighbour," read ^^fellow-citizen," 
 In ver. 12 omit " and their iniquities." 
 
 In ch. ix. 14, for "your" is most probably 
 to be read " our." At this point, at the word 
 " purify," the great Vatican MS. terminates. 
 We thus lose the most valuable witness for the 
 ancient readings, and are obliged henceforward 
 in many cases to speak with less certainty. 
 
 In ch. X. 9, omit " God." In ver. 11, for 
 "priest," read ^Miigh-priest." In ver. 34, for 
 " my bonds," "them that were in bonds" is the 
 
128 How to study the New Testament, 
 
 more probable reading. In the same verse^ for 
 ^' in heaven,'^ read '' of your own/^ or ^^ for your- 
 selves." In ver. 38_, for " the just shall live hy 
 faith,'' the earliest MSS. read '' my just man 
 shall live by faith :" one, however (and the early 
 Syriac version), has, " The just man shall live by 
 my faith.-*^ The reading, '"''my just man," ap- 
 pears to have the preponderance. The copies of 
 the Septuagint version in the place of Habakkuk 
 (ii. 4) vary in the same manner. 
 
 In ch. xi. 3, for " things which are seen were,'' 
 read "that which is seen was." In ver. 11, 
 for " and was delivered of a child when," " even 
 when." In ver. 13, omit, with apparently all 
 our authorities, the words " and were persuaded 
 of them." 
 
 In ch. xii. 7, all our ancient MSS. read, 
 instead of ^'Ifye endure chastening," " It is for 
 chastisement that ye are enduring." 
 
 In ch. xiii. 4, for " hut," read "for." In ver. 
 9, for " cairied about," read " carried away." 
 In ver. 11, the words ''for sin" are either 
 omitted, or variously placed, by the most ancient 
 MSS. : a pretty sure sign of spuriousness. They 
 should therefore be omitted. 
 
Hebrews, 129 
 
 The chief changes rendered necessary by more 
 accuracy in rendering are the following : — 
 
 In ch. i. I, for ^^ at sundry times'^ substitute 
 " in many portions/^ For ^^ hy the prophets ^^ 
 and " hy his Son/^ " in the prophets/'' and " in 
 his Son/^ It was of course hy, but the text 
 conveys more than that : God spoke in the pro- 
 phets, being resident in them ; and in His Son, 
 who is God inhabiting our nature. A king 
 speaks by his amhassadors, but not in them. 
 " Hath spoken '' should be '' spake/' and " hath '' 
 should be left out in ver. 2. In ver. 3, for 
 '' person/' " substance.''^ '^ All things '' is not 
 forcible enough : it is not all things, one by one, 
 that He upholds, but " the all things,^' i. e. 
 " the universe.^' For '^ when he had hy him- 
 self purged our sins,'' substitute (see readings, 
 p. 125) '' when he had made purification of 
 sins." Before " Majesty,'' omit " the." In 
 ver. 4, for " heing made," " having become." 
 For " hath hy inheritance ohtained," " hath in- 
 herited." In ver. 5, for "a Father" ^^as a 
 Father," and for " a son," '^ as a son." In ver. 
 6, for " he hringeth in," '^ he hath introduced." 
 In ver. 7, for '^ spirits," " winds." In ver. 8, 
 
 K 
 
1 3 o How to study the New Testament. 
 
 for " a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre oj 
 thy kingdom" ^' and the sceptre of thy kingdom 
 is the sceptre of righteousness." In ver. 9^ for 
 ^' hast loved," ^Movedst;" for ''hast hated," 
 "hatedst/' for ''hath anointed/' "anointed/' 
 In ver. 10, for "hath laid," "didst lay.-" In 
 •er. 13, for "said he," "hath he said.'' In ver. 
 14, for "to minister for them," "for ministry 
 on behalf of them." The Authorized Version 
 gives a wrong impression. The ministry is not 
 a waiting upon men^ but a service of God. 
 The expression is as accurate as that in Col. i. 
 7, "a faithful minister of Christ on your be- 
 half." 
 
 In chap. ii. 1, for " lest at any time we should 
 let them slip," "lest we be diverted from them." 
 The vierb signifies to flow past, to fall off, or de- 
 part from a course. In ver. 2, for "was stead- 
 fast," " became binding." In ver. 3, for " neg- 
 lect," "have neglected." For "which at the 
 frst began," " seeing that, having begun." 
 For " and," " it." For " him," " it." In ver. 4, 
 for "bearing them witness/' "bearing witness 
 to it" (see Mark xvi. end). For '^ gifts," 
 "distributions." In ver. 8, for " ftast put," 
 
Hebrews, 1 3 1 
 
 " didst put/^ Ver. 9 should stand thus : " But 
 him that is made a httle lower than the angels, 
 even Jesus, we behold on account of his suffer- 
 ing of death, crowned with glory and honour/^ 
 etc. In ver. 10, for ''Captain,'^ "Author/^ or 
 '^ Leader :^^ so also in chap. xii. 2. In ver. 12, 
 being a quotation, ^^ church'' will be better ^*^ con- 
 gregation/^ as it stands in Ps. xxii. 22. " Sing 
 praise unto thee," should be '^ sing of thee.^^ In 
 ver. 14, for ^' death" (first time), " his death ;" for 
 '' had," " hath.^' In ver. 15, for 'Uhem who," ^^as 
 many as.'^ Ver. 16 should stand, ^^ For, as we 
 know, it is not angels that he helpeth, but it is 
 the seed of Abraham that he helpeth/'' In ver. 
 17, omit " made ;^' for ''he," "become/^ for 
 "reconciliation," ^^ expiation.-'^ Ver. 18 should 
 run thus : '' For he himself having been tempted, 
 in that which he hath suffered, he is able to suc- 
 cour them that are tempted." 
 
 In chap. iii. 2, for " who was faithful," 
 ^^that he is faithful;" and for "appointed," 
 ^^made" (see this insisted on and explained in 
 my Greek Testament) . In ver. 3, for " was 
 counted," " hath been counted ;" for " hath 
 huilded," "established." In ver. 4, for "some 
 
 K 2 
 
1 3 2 How to study the New Testament. 
 
 mun" which might mislead, " some one •/' and 
 for " huilt/' '' established.-" In ver. 5, '' his ''' 
 means God's : this being one of the instances 
 where our version might be made more per- 
 spicuous by the use of a capital letter. In ver. 
 6 J " his own " should be again " His/' i. e. 
 God's. For '^rejoicing/' "matter of boasting." 
 In ver. y, omit ^^ will." In ver. 11, for " So/' 
 ."According as." In ver. 12^ for " a/zy/' which 
 may be plural, " any one." The same applies 
 to ver. 13, where for "sin/' read "his sin." In 
 ver. 14, for "are made/' "have become." In 
 ver. 15, for "while/' "for." Ver. 16 should 
 stand, " For who, when they had heard, did 
 provoke ? Nay, was it not all that came out of 
 Egypt by Moses?" In ver. 18, iov " believed 
 not/' " disobeyed." 
 
 In ch. iv. I, for "left us/' "still left us;" and 
 for " to come/' " to have come." In ver. 2, for 
 " was the Gospel preached/' " have good tidings 
 been preached ;" for " the word preached/' " the 
 word of hearing." In ver. 3, for " rest/' (first 
 time), "the rest;" for " he said/' "even as He 
 hath said." In ver. 4, for " spake/' " hath 
 spoken." In ver. 6, for ^- it remaineth/' "it 
 
Hebrews, 
 
 ^^Z 
 
 still remaineth/' omit " must ;^' and ^oy " un- 
 lelief," " disobedience." In ver. 7, omit 
 " ivill" In ver. 8, for '^ Jesus,'' read " Joshua ;" 
 and for '' he/' " He," viz. God. Read in ver. 
 9, ^^ There is yet reserved therefore a keeping of 
 Sabbath for the people of God." In ver. 10, 
 omit " is ;" and for ^' hath ceased," '^ rested." 
 In ver. 11, for ''fall after the same example of 
 unbelief" " fall into the same example (i. e. 
 kind — type) of disobedience." In ver. 12, 
 for " quick/' " living ;" and for " powerful/' 
 '^active." Omit "asunder:" see remarks on 
 this verse at p. 121. For "and of the joints 
 and marrow/' read "both joints and marrow." 
 The expression is used to denote the thorough- 
 ness of the penetration of soul and spirit; it 
 passes through them even to their joints and 
 marrow. For " intents/' " ideas." In ver. 
 14, for " into the heavens/' " through the 
 heavens;" and for "profession/' "confession." 
 Read ver. 15, "For we have not an high priest 
 unable to sympathize with our infirmities ; but 
 rather one in all points tempted in like manner, 
 yet without sin." In ver. 16, for "in time of 
 need/' " while yet there is time." 
 
134 How to study the New Testament. 
 
 Ch. V. I should begin " For every high priest 
 being taken from among men^ is appointed/' 
 etc. In ver. 2, for ^' them that are out of the 
 way,'^ read "erring." In ver. 7, for ''was 
 heard in that he feared'' "having been heard 
 by reason of his reverent submission.^' In ver. 
 8, for "obedience by/' "his obedience from.'' 
 In ver. g, for "author," "cause." In ver. 10, 
 for " Called of God an," " Being addressed by 
 God as." In ver. 11, for "ye are," "ye are 
 become." In ver. 12, for "when," "though." 
 Read " ye again have need that some one teach 
 you the first principles/' etc. For "strong meat" 
 " solid food /' so also in ver. 14. 
 
 In ch. vi. 1, for " the principles of the doctrine 
 of Christ," read "discourse concerning the be- 
 ginning of Christ." In ver. 2, for " baptisms," 
 " washings." The word is not that commonly 
 used for baptism, but the same as that in Mark 
 vii. 4, and in ch. ix. 10, for washing. In ver. 6, 
 for " If they shall fall away," " When they have 
 fallen away." In ver. y, for " the earth which 
 drinketh in," "land which hath drunk in/' for 
 "herbs," "herbage/' for "by whom," "for 
 whom." In ver. 8, " But if it bear briars and 
 
Hebrews, 135 
 
 thorns/' etc. In ver. 10, for ^^ unrighteous to for- 
 get ,'' '' unjust, so as to forget." For " have 
 shewed/' '^ shewed •/' and for " have ministered/' 
 "ministered." In ver. 11, for ''to/' 'Svith re- 
 gard to." In ver. 12, for " be/' " become." In 
 ver. J y, ior '' confirmed it/' "interposed." In 
 ver. 18, for ''it was impossible for God/' "it 
 is impossible for God ever." In ver. 20, for 
 " IVtiither the forerunner is for us entered, even 
 Jesus/' "where as forerunner on our behalf 
 Jesus entered;" and for "made/' "having 
 become." 
 
 In ch. vii. 3, for "continually/' "for ever." 
 In ver. 5, for " who receive/' " when they re- 
 ceive." In ver. 6, for " received/' " hath 
 taken;" and for "blessed/' "hath blessed." 
 In ver. 9, for "payed tithes in Abraham/' 
 "hath payed tithes by means of Abraham." 
 In ver. 11, for "therefore/' "again." For 
 "under it/' "on the ground of it;" for "re- 
 ceived/' " hath received ;" for " another/' ** . 
 different ;" and for " and not be called/' " and 
 that he should be said to be not." In ver. 
 13, for "another/' "a different." For "no 
 man gave/' " no man hath ever given." In 
 
136 How to study the New Testajitent. 
 
 ver. 14, for ^'sprang/' "hath arisen.-'^ Ver. 19 
 should run thus : {" for the law made nothing 
 perfect), and there is a bringing in of a better 
 hope, by which/^ etc. ; putting vo stop at end of 
 ver. 18. Ver. 20 should stand "And inasmuch 
 as it was not without an oath." In ver. 21, for 
 "said,'' " saith." In ver. 23, for "were viamj 
 priests'' "are appointed priests in numbers;" 
 and for " were not suffered/-' "are not suffered." 
 Ver. 26, for " separo/^/-' " separated." In ver. 
 27, for "once," "once for all." In ver. 28, for 
 " consecrated," " made perfect." 
 
 In ch. viii. i, for "sum," "chief;" for "is 
 set," "sat." Before "majesty/' omit "the." 
 In ver. 2, for " snnctucmj ," " holy places." In 
 ver. 3, for "ordained," "appointed." In ver. 
 4, for " he should not he," " he would not even 
 be/' for "gifts," "the gifts." In ver. 5, for 
 "example," "delineation;" for "heavenly," 
 " the heavenly ;" and for " to make," " to com- 
 plete." In ver. 6, for " was," " hath been." In 
 ver. 8, for "make . . . with," "accomplish . . . 
 upon." In ver. 9, for " made with," " ap- 
 pointed to;" and in ver. 10, for "make," 
 " establish." 
 
Hebrews. 1 3 7 
 
 In ch. ix. I, for "then verily^^ ^^ now ac- 
 cordingly." In ver. 2, " For the tabernacle was 
 established ;" for " the sanctuary," " the holy 
 place/' In ver. 3, for " Holiest of all," " holy 
 of holies/' In ver. 6, for " ordained," " ar- 
 ranged '," for " went," " enter.'' In ver. 7, 
 om\l '' wejit ;" for ''offered," ^^offereth;" and 
 for "errors," '"'' ignorances." In ver. 8_, for 
 " was not yet," " hath not yet been ;" and below, 
 for " was," " is." Begin ver. 9, " The which 
 tabernacle is a parable for the time now pre- 
 sent;" for "were," ''"are;" end the verse, 
 " having no power to perfect in conscience him 
 that serveth." In ver. 10, for " which stood," 
 " consisting." Before " carnal/' omit " and." 
 In ver. 11, for "being come," "having ap- 
 peared ;" for "good things," " the good things ;" 
 for " hy a," " through the ;" and for " building," 
 **^ creation." In ver. 12, twice, for ''by," 
 " through ;" for " once," " once for all." In 
 ver. 13, for "purifying," "purity," In ver. 
 15, for "the new testament," "a, new co- 
 venant ;" for " by means of death," " death 
 having taken place ;" for " redemption," " pro- 
 pitiation ;" for " testament," " covenant ;" for 
 
ij,^ How to study the New Testa^nent. 
 
 ''eternal;' ''the eternal/' In ver. i6, ''testa- 
 mejit'^ would better^ perhaps, be "testamentary 
 covenant/' It is the same Greek word as that 
 rendered ''covenant" before, but now signifying 
 a testament of bequest. In ver. 17, for "after 
 men are dead^' "in the case of the dead.'' In 
 ver. 18, for " the first testament was;' "hath the 
 first testament been.'^ In ver. 19, for "the 
 hook;' "the book itself." In ver. 21, for 
 " blood;' " the blood." In ver. 22, for " almost 
 all things;' " one may almost say, that all 
 things." In ver. 23, for "patterns;' "figures;" 
 for "things;' "the things." In ver. 24, for 
 " is not entered;' " entered not ;" before " holy 
 places/' omit " the " for " the figures;' " coun- 
 terfeits;" for " to appear;' " to be made mani- 
 fest." In ver. 26, for " appeared;' " been 
 manifested ;" for " the sacrifice of himself" 
 "His sacrifice." In ver. 28, for "Christ;'' 
 " the Christ :" the article is here significant, 
 and ought to have been retained. 
 
 In ch. X. I, for "good things;' "the good 
 things;" for "offered;' "offer;" for "the 
 comers thereunto;' " them that draw near," viz. 
 to God. In ver. 7, for " conu^" " am come." 
 
Hebrews. 139 
 
 In ver. 8_, for ^^ sa'id,'^ '^ saith /' also in ver. 9. 
 In ver. lo^ for ''are sanctified/^ "have been 
 sanctified." " Once-for-all " should be written 
 as one word_, "for all" not meaning "on behalf 
 of all men/^ but being simply part of the ad- 
 verb. In ver. 12, the words "for ever" may be 
 joined alike to what goes before and to what 
 follows : and this should be left open to the 
 reader by erasing the comma which follows 
 them in the Anglican version. In ver. 14, for 
 ''are sanctified," "are being sanctified:" the 
 participle is present^ yet our translators have 
 rendered it by the same tense as the perfect 
 participle in ver. 10. In ver. %o, for " hath 
 consecrated" " inaugurated/' or " opened." In 
 ver. 2i_, for "an high priest," "a great priest." 
 In ver. 23, for "faith" " hope." In ver. 26, for 
 " sacrifice" " a sacrifice." In ver. 27, for " look- 
 ing for" "receiving /' and for "fiery" "a fiery." 
 In ver. 28, for " despised" " hath despised -" 
 for " died" " dieth." In ver. 29, for " thought 
 worthy" "found worthy." In ver. 32, for 
 " after ye were illuminated" " when ye were 
 first enlightened." In ver. 33, for " whilst" 
 "in that" (twice). In ver. 0^6, for "after ye 
 
140 How to study the New Testa7ne7it. 
 
 have done the will of God, ye might receive/^ 
 '' ye may do the will of God and receive/^ In 
 ver. 38, for " any man,^' " he -/' and for " shall 
 have,^ " hath/^ In ver. 39, for ^' of them who 
 draw hack,'' '' of backsliding ;'' and for '' of 
 them that heVieve'' " of faith.'' 
 
 In ch. xi. I, for '^ substance/' '' confidence/' 
 Ver. 2 should stand^ " For therein had the el- 
 ders testimony borne to them." In ver. 7, for 
 "moved with fear," "taking forethought." In 
 ver. 8, read "Abraham, when called, cj^eyed, in 
 going out/' etc. In ver. 9, iov" promise" (first 
 time), "the promise." In ver. 10, "the city which 
 hath the foundations." In ver. 13, "pilgrims" 
 should be " sojourners." In ver. 14, the idea 
 of the words rendered "seek a country" is much 
 better conveyed by " seek after a home." In 
 ver. 15, for "to have returned," "to return." 
 In ver. 16, for "country," "home." In ver. 
 19, for "was able to raise him up," " is able to 
 raise up." In ver. 21, for "both the sons/' 
 " each of the sons." In ver. 23, for " he was j 
 proper child," "that the child was comely." In 
 ver. 31, for "believed not," "were disobedient;/' 
 and for " when" " because." At end of ver. 
 
Hebrews, 141 
 
 34^ omit "the'' (twice^ before " armies ^^ and 
 "aliens^^). Ver. ^^^ for "and/' ^^ut/^ In 
 ver. '^j, for "tormented'' "m misery/^ 
 
 In ch. xii. i^ for "the sin which doth so easily 
 beset us," " sin, which doth naturally enwrap 
 us." In ver. 2, for " finisher, " "perfecter;" 
 and for " the shame/^ ^^ shame." In ver. 3, ^^him 
 that hath endured such contradiction at the 
 hands of them that sinned against him;" for 
 " and faint in your minds," " fainting in your 
 souls." In ver. 5, for "forgotten," " quite for- 
 gotten ;" for " children," " sons." In ver. 8_, for 
 "are" (first time), "have been made." In ver. 
 10, for " might," " may." In ver. ii_, for "are," 
 "have been." In ver. 13, for "let it rather," 
 " may rather." In ver. 14, for " holiness," 
 " sanctification." In ver. 15, "lest any man 
 falling short of the grace of God, lest any root 
 of bitterness springing up, trouble you;" and 
 for "many," "the greater number." In ver. 16, 
 for "morsel of meat," "meal." In ver. 22, after 
 " Jerusalem," — " and to an innumerable com- 
 pany, the whole host of angels and the assembly 
 of the first-born," etc. At end of ver. 24 omit 
 " that of" In ver. 28, for " moved," " shaken ;" 
 
1 42 How to study the N'ew Testament. 
 
 for ^^ grace," "thankfulness/^ for ^^ reverence 
 and godly fear" " reverent submission and 
 fear." In ver. 29, for '^ For" " For indeed." 
 In ch. xiii. 3^ for ''as hound" "as if bound." 
 In ver. 4^ " Let your marriage be held in ho- 
 nour in all things_, and let your bed be unde- 
 filed." In ver. 6, for ''may boldly say," "ever 
 boldly say ;" and for " what man shall do unto 
 me," " what shall man do unto me ?" putting a 
 semicolon at ^' fear." In ver. 7, for " have," 
 " had ;" for " who have spoken," " such as 
 spoke ;" and at end, " the end of whose life 
 considering, imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is 
 the same," etc. In some copies of our Testa- 
 ment, e. g. Bagster's Polyglot Edition, verse 7 is 
 stupidly j(;ined to verse 8, only a colon being 
 pJaced between, as if " Jesus Christ," etc., were 
 an explanation of "the end of their conversa- 
 tion." The original will not admit of any such 
 rendering. Ver. 8 begins a new subject. At 
 end of ver. 9, " in which they who walked were 
 not profited." In verses 12 and 13, "outside" 
 conveys the idea now, better than " without." 
 In ver. 14, for "one to come," "that which is to 
 come." In ver. 15, for "the sacrifice," "a sa- 
 
Hebrews, 143 
 
 crifice;" and omit ^'oiir.'^ In ver. 17, for 
 "grief," 'lamentation/^ In ver. 18, for "to 
 live honestly, '^ " to behave ourselves with seem- 
 liness/' In ver. 20, for " Now,'' " But.^' In 
 ver. 21, for "working,'' '^ doing/^ and for 
 "glory," ''the glory .^' In ver. 22, "my ex- 
 hortation." In ver. 24., " they from Italy." 
 
 The reader will suspect from this long list of 
 corrigenda^ what is the fact^ — that this Epistle 
 is one of the least satisfactory parts of the Au- 
 thorized Version. The liberties taken with the 
 tenses and constructions of the orio^inal have 
 
 D 
 
 been unusually great. 
 
 A merely fragmentary correction, like the 
 present, represents but imperfectly the work 
 needful to be done, before the English reader 
 has thoroughly in his possession this magnifi- 
 cent Epistle. 
 
VI. 
 
 THE GENERAL EPISTLE OF JAMES. 
 
 AT the end of the Epistles stand seven which 
 bear the title of Catholic, or General. 
 Like most of the titles of New Testament 
 books, this is inaccurate. For of these seven 
 Epistles two, the 2nd and 3rd of John, are ad- 
 dressed to individuals; and two more to a de- 
 signated circle of readers, viz. that of James to 
 " the twelve tribes which are in the dispersion," 
 and the ist of Peter to "the elect strangers of 
 the dispersion throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cap- 
 jiadocia, Asia, and Bithynia." Consequently, 
 these four out of the seven have no more claim 
 to the title " general " than have any of St. 
 PauPs Epistles, or that to the Hebrews. Three 
 only are addressed to Christians universally : 
 two by plain statements — 2 Peter, to ^' them 
 
James, 145 
 
 that have obtained Hke precious faith with us/' 
 Jude, to ^^ the called^ beloved in God the Fa- 
 ther_, and preserved for Jesus Christ ;" and one 
 by impHcation^ viz. i John. 
 
 Of these seven Epistles we come now to con- 
 sider that which stands first in our Bibles^ and 
 is in many respects the most remarkable. The 
 preliminary question on approaching a writing 
 bearing the name of James_, must be^ Who was 
 its author ? 
 
 There is^ we may observe in limine, one of 
 the Apostles bearing this name, the son of Ze- 
 bedee and brother of the Evangelist St. John, 
 whom we may at once exclude from the inquiry, 
 he having been removed by martyrdom, as we 
 read in Acts xii. 2, too early perhaps (see how- 
 ever below) to allow of matters having reached 
 that state in which we find them in this Epistle: 
 but principally as not answering to the remark- 
 able personal characteristics found in anothei 
 James, of whom we shall immediately have to 
 speak. 
 
 But on admitting this, we immediately find 
 ourselves in controversy. There is an apostolic 
 person spoken of continually in the Acts under 
 
 L 
 
J 46 How to study the New Testament. 
 
 the simple name of James^ who appears to have 
 been president of the church at Jerusalem. See 
 Acts xii. 17; XV. 13^ etc.; xxi. 18. The same 
 person is called by St. Paul, "^the Lord^s bro- 
 ther/^ Gal. i. 19. And this same James would 
 seem to have been the author of our Epistle. 
 The way in which he announces himself, simply 
 as "James/' with no such addition as when 
 Jude in his Epistle styles himself " brother of 
 James/' points to a position of distinction such 
 as the person in the Acts occupied. 
 
 But this being conceded, as it is pretty gene- 
 rally, the question arises, Who was this James ? 
 Was he identical with ^'^ James the son of Al- 
 phaeus," whose name we find in the catalogue 
 of the Twelve ? If we duly consider the follow- 
 ing circumstances, we shall, I think, conclude 
 that this cannot have been. 
 
 In John vii. 5, it is stated that our Lord's 
 brethren did not believe in Him. No exception 
 is there mentioned, though it is St. John's prac- 
 tice to mention exceptions where they existed 
 (see John vi. 22, 23). Nay, the original lan- 
 guage of that statement is such as to render it 
 imperative on us to believe that none of our 
 
James, 147 
 
 Lord's brothers did at that time believe on Him. 
 Now what was that time ? It was_, by the 
 shewing of John vii. i {"After these things *'), 
 subsequent to the circumstances mentioned in 
 John vi., and ending with the discourse of our 
 Lord, in which He said_, " Have I not choser 
 you twelve V So that after the Twelve had 
 been chosen, it was the fact that none of Jih 
 brethren believed on Him. Therefore not one 
 of His brethren was of the number of the 
 Twelve. This at once, and to my mind, deci- 
 sively proves that '^ James, the Lord^s brother," 
 was not the same person as '' James, the son of 
 Alphaeus.'' 
 
 In a popular account of the Epistles, such as 
 the present, this reason may be enough. I have 
 adduced several others as corroborative of it in 
 the Introduction to this Epistle in my " New 
 Testament for English Readers." I will only 
 add here, that primitive tradition speaks deci- 
 sively for the distinctiveness of the two persons. 
 Eusebius, quoting the more ancient testimony 
 of Hegesippus, states that ^*^ James the brother 
 of the Lord received the government of the 
 church (at Jerusalem) together with the 
 
 L 2 
 
1 48 How to study the New Testament, 
 
 Apostles^ — that James who from the Lord^s 
 time even to us has been surnamed ^ the Just / 
 for/^ he adds, ^^ there were many bearing the 
 name of James." 
 
 I shall therefore at once assume that James, 
 the writer of our Epistle, was the famous bro- 
 ther of the Lord ; not the Apostle, the son of 
 Alphaeus. That St. Paul appears to call the 
 brother of our Lord an Apostle, Gal. i. 19, is 
 no argument against such an assumption; for 
 even if he does, there were others so denomi- 
 nated besides the Twelve; and it is very doubt- 
 ful whether the phraseology of that verse need 
 imply that James was called an Apostle at all. 
 On this assumption then, let us now proceed to 
 state what is known of this " James the brother 
 of the Lord.'' 
 
 We have already seen that he was not a be- 
 liever in the Messiahship of Jesus at the time 
 indicated by John vii. 0^-^. When did his be- 
 lief begin ? We may safely assume that it had 
 not begun when our blessed Lord on the cross 
 committed His mother to the charge, not of 
 any of His brethren, but of John, the beloved 
 disciple. But it would seem that the events of 
 
J'a77ies. 1 49 
 
 the crucifixion and resurrection did produce this 
 behef: for in Acts i. 13 we find the Lord^s 
 brethren expressly mentioned as forming part of 
 that band^ who^ with the apostles and the mo- 
 ther of our Lord_, were assembled in the ^' upper 
 room" after the ascension. An appearance of 
 our risen Lord to ^^ James" is mentioned by St. 
 Paul, I Cor. XV. 7 : and a most interesting tra- 
 dition of the early church, connecting this ap- 
 pearance with his conversion, may at least serve 
 to shew that the idea of such a connection is 
 not an unnatural one. 
 
 James appears, from the order of enumeration 
 in St. Matthew and St. Mark, to have been the 
 eldest among the Lord^s brethren. He ever 
 bore the character of a just and holy man. It 
 is but natural that the members of such a family 
 should have walked in the commandments and 
 ordinances of God blameless. We seem to see 
 a trace of such a fact in the saying of the cousin 
 of the family to our Lord (Matt. iii. 14) at a 
 time when, by his own shewing (John i. 31), he 
 did not know Him to be the Messiah. An in- 
 teresting particular respecting the brethren of 
 the Lord is furnished by St. Paul in i Cor. ix. 
 
150 How to study the New Testa7nent. 
 
 5, that they were married men. From the ge- 
 neral way in which he there speaks there can be 
 no doubt that he includes in his assertion James 
 with the rest. And this may serve to shew us 
 in what sense we are to take_, and in what sense 
 we are not to take^ the description given us of 
 James in the testimony of Hegesippus before 
 referred to as quoted by Eusebius. He is there 
 described as being a rigid ascetic,, and parti- 
 culars are given respecting his personal habits 
 as to endurance in prayer and self-denial^ which 
 though they may not be literally true, yet at all 
 events point to his character as being one of 
 rigid abstinence and devotion. In all proba- 
 bility this course of life did not first begin after 
 his conversion, but had been his habit from 
 youth. Such a person, the chief of the near 
 relatives of our Lord, so famed for holiness and 
 justice, would be sure on his adopting the Chris- 
 tian faith at once to assume a distinguished 
 place in the Jerusalem church. The fact that 
 the Apostles themselves were destined rather to 
 carry the Gospel over the world, than to take 
 the fixed command over any one local church, 
 would leave that post of pre-eminence for him 
 
James. 1 5 1 
 
 who, though not of the number of the Twelve, 
 was as near as possible their equal in dignity 
 and in nearness to their Divine Master. This 
 his presidentship or episcopate over the church 
 at Jerusalem seems to have been acknowledged 
 as early as the imprisonment of Peter (Acts 
 xii.), i. e. about a.d. 44, fourteen years after the 
 ascension. Nor let this seem unlikely. Less 
 than half the time had sufficed to raise the per- 
 secutor Saul to the same dignity, and we cannot 
 say that a special appearance of our risen Lord 
 may not in the one case have had the same 
 weighty significance which we know it had in 
 the other. 
 
 After this we find James introduced, and 
 simply by this name, as the president or bishop 
 of the metropolitan church. In the apostolic 
 council, in Acts xv., he gives his judgment last, 
 and as apparently that one which decided the 
 matter in question. On St. Paul reaching Je- 
 rusalem, in Acts xxi., we find him, on the day 
 after his arrival, entering in to James, it being 
 added that all the elders were present ; and the 
 whole description shewing that the visit was a 
 formal one to a man in authority. 
 
1 5 2 How to study the New Testament. 
 
 This is the last mention of James in ihe Acts. 
 But St. Paul furnishes testimony in his Epistles 
 to the same facts. In his apologetic narrative 
 in Gal. ii._, he states that on his first visit to Je- 
 rusalem after his conversion^ he saw ^' James 
 the Lord's brother :'' and at the time of the 
 apostolic council before mentioned^ he ranks 
 James with Cephas and John as " pillars '^ of 
 the church. In the further progress of that 
 narrative we find that the consistency of Peter 
 was shaken in the matter of brotherly inter- 
 course with GentileSj by " some who came from 
 James/' whose influence caused him to fall back 
 into Judaistic strictness and withdraw himself 
 from the Gentile brethren. This clearly shows 
 how greatj and of what kind_, the influence of 
 James was. 
 
 At the time when he disappears from the his- 
 tory in the Acts^ he was most likely about sixty 
 years of age. Further account of him is to be 
 sought from tradition, and from the Jewish his- 
 torian, Josephus. From this latter we have an 
 account of his martyrdom ; that he was stoned 
 under the high-priest Ananus, between the death 
 of Festus and the arrival of his successor Albi- 
 
yamcs, 153 
 
 nus to govern Judsea. Another account^ from 
 Hegesippus, is given by Eusebius, full of strange 
 incidents^ and savouring largely of the fabulous. 
 And Hegesippus goes on to say, that the siege, 
 and miseries inflicted on Jerusalem just after, 
 were a judgment from God on account of the 
 murder of James the Just, referring to Josephus 
 as saying the same : in whose writings, however_, 
 nothing of the kind is to be found. 
 
 We may sufficiently glean out of the fore- 
 going notices the character of James. He ap- 
 pears to have been a strict observer of the law, 
 moral and ceremonial : and, though not unwill- 
 ing to recognize the hand of God in the Gentile 
 ministry of Paul and Barnabas, yet he seems to 
 have himself remained attached to the purely 
 Jewish form of Christianity. The following 
 observations of Dr. SchafF, in his Church His- 
 tory, will throw light on his character as con- 
 nected with our Epistle : — 
 
 ^' Had not a Peter, and above all, a Paul, 
 arisen as supplementary to James, Christianity 
 would perhaps never have become entirely 
 emancipated from the thrall of Judaism, and 
 asserted its own independence. Still there was 
 
154 How to study the New Testament, 
 
 a necessity for the ministry of James. If any 
 could win over the ancient covenant people^ it 
 was he. It pleased God to set so high an ex- 
 ample of Old Testament piety in its purest form 
 among the Jews_, to make conversion to the 
 Gospel^ even at the eleventh hour, as easy as 
 possible for them. But when they would not 
 listen to the voice of this last messenger of 
 peace, then was the measure of the divine pa- 
 tience exhausted, and the fearful and long- 
 threatened judgment broke forth. And thus 
 was the mission of James fulfilled. He was not 
 to outlive the destruction of the holy city and 
 the Temple. According to Hegesippus, he was 
 martyred in the year before that event, a.d. 
 69." 
 
 Next to the author of our Epistle, the readers 
 for whom it was intended demand our inquiry. 
 These are evidently Christians : the writer calls 
 himself a servant of Jesus Christ; but they are 
 as evidently Jews : for the expression, " to the 
 twelve tribes which are in the dispersion,^' can 
 bear no other than a literal meaning. And 
 Jewish terms and notices are found prevalent 
 throughout : as, for example, in ch. ii. 2, where 
 
Ja77zes. 155 
 
 the place of assembly is called " synagogue ^^ (see 
 corrections of rendering, p. 168) j in ch. ii. 19, 
 where the unity of God is brought forward as 
 the central point of faith; in ch. v. 12, where_, 
 in the prohibition of swearing, the forms com- 
 mon among the Jews are adduced. And the 
 moral errors which the writer combats, are all 
 of that kind which may be referred to carnal 
 Judaism as their root. The law is continually 
 appealed to, and the erroneous estimate of mere 
 observance of ordinances is corrected, ch. i. %%. 
 
 The condition of these Jewish Christian 
 churches may be gathered out of the Epistle. 
 They had been tried by manifold trials, ch. i. 2. 
 They were composed of rich and poor, and their 
 tendency was to despise and oppress their poorer 
 members. They had received and had perverted 
 the doctrine of justification by faith, supposing 
 it to mean that they could be saved without a 
 holy life. Their state was evidently far from 
 satisfactory; and the writer occasionally deals 
 sharply with them. 
 
 The place and time of writing are not equally 
 plain. As to the former, there can hardly be 
 more than one opinion. The fixed residence of 
 
1^6 How to study the New Testament. 
 
 the writer, and the centre of his influence, was 
 Jerusalem. If James, the Lord's brother, 
 wrote the Epistle, it was written from thence. 
 But as to the date, opinions have widely dif- 
 fered. We have, it is true, the destruction of 
 Jerusalem as a fixed terminus, after which it 
 cannot well have been written. Are there any 
 other points of time which we can fix with at 
 least proximate certainty ? 
 
 It has been thought that one such mio^ht be 
 found in the date of the publication by St. Paul 
 of the doctrine of justification by faith only; for 
 that the passage James ii. 14, etc., could not 
 have been written before such publication had 
 taken place. But I do not think this reasoning 
 sound. It would hardly be possible, supposing 
 Paul to have enounced this doctrine previously, 
 that James should have made no allusion to the 
 fact. His very strong words would surely in 
 this case have been guarded so as to apply only 
 to the misunderstanding of his brother Apostle's 
 words; while those words themselves would 
 have been in some way respectfully mentioned. 
 It is far more, probable that the language used 
 in this Epistle belonged to a former period of 
 
yames, 137 
 
 the " faith and works ^' controversy, and was 
 aimed at a Jewish reliance on orthodoxy with- 
 out a holy life. And as to the same examples 
 being cited by both Apostles, and by the writer 
 of the Epistle to the Hebrews, that proves no- 
 thing^ beyond the fact that the cases of Abra- 
 ham and Rahab were common-places, taken by 
 both sides to support their views. 
 
 As to the idea that James had seen and used 
 various Epistles of Paul, I have controverted it 
 in detail in the Introduction to this Epistle in 
 my " New Testament for English Readers/^ 
 The expressions supposed to be borrowed from 
 the Pauline Epistles are in fact no more than 
 expressions peculiar to the controversy, which 
 must have been used whenever and by whom- 
 soever it was entered upon. 
 
 Another note of time in the primitive church, 
 by reference to which the date of this Epistle 
 may be discussed, is, the council held at Jeru- 
 salem in A.D. 50, and related in Acts xv. And 
 here I believe we are on safer ground still. The 
 dispute which led to that council concerned the 
 duties of Christian believers as to the ceremo- 
 nial observance of the Jewish law; and in it 
 
1 3 8 How to study the New Testamerit. 
 
 certain orders were made^ regulating their con- 
 duct in future. Now in this Epistle we have 
 no indication whatever of such a question hav- 
 ing arisen, much less any reference to the order 
 given by that council. The whole of the writ- 
 er's views and arguments belong to a period an- 
 terior to that council. He tacitly assumes the 
 obligation of Jewish Christians to keep the law 
 of Moses, which he could not have done had 
 he written after that decree. 
 
 If we place the Epistle about a.d. 45, we 
 shall, I believe, satisfy all the requirements 
 found in its text. This would give fifteen years 
 since the great Pentecost for the errors in prac- 
 tice, which we find here rebuked, to gain ascen- 
 dancy, as it would also for the Jewish Christian 
 churches of the dispersion to have attained the 
 degree of organization (simple and elementary 
 enough, it is true) which appears in the Epistle. 
 
 And this has been the opinion of a great ma- 
 jority of recent commentators and historians. 
 
 The character of the Epistle is moral, rather 
 than doctrinal. The readers had fallen into 
 many faults incident to their character and po- 
 sition. Their outward trials were not producing 
 
yames. 159 
 
 in them that confirmation of faith, and that 
 steadfastness, for which they were sent, but they 
 were deteriorating, instead of improving under 
 them. St. James therefore wrote his exhorting 
 and threatening Epistle, to bring them to a 
 sense of their Christian state under the Father 
 of wisdom and the Lord of glory, subjects as 
 they were of the perfect law of liberty, new- 
 begotten by the divine word, married unto 
 Christ, and waiting in patience for His advent 
 to judgment. 
 
 The letter. is full of earnestness, plain speak- 
 ing, holv severity. The brother of Him who 
 opened his teaching with the sermon on the 
 Mount, seems to have deeply imbibed the 
 words and maxims of it, as the law of Chris- 
 tian morals. The characteristic of his readers 
 was the lack of living faith : the falling asun- 
 der, as it has been well called, of knowledge 
 and action, of head and heart. And no por- 
 tion of the divine teaching could be better 
 calculated to sound the depths of the treach- 
 erous and disloyal heart, than this first expo- 
 sition by our Lord, who knew the heart, of 
 the difference between the old law, in its exter- 
 
1 6o How to study the New Testavient, 
 
 nality^ and the searching spiritual law of the 
 Gospel.* 
 
 The main theme of the Epistle may be de- 
 scribed as being the " perfect man^^ in the per- 
 fection of the Christian life ; the " doer of the 
 perfect law ;'' and his state and duties are de- 
 scribed and enforced_, not in the abstract_, but in 
 a multitude of living connections and circum- 
 stances of actual life, as might suit the tempta- 
 tions and necessities of the readers. 
 
 St. James begins by a reference to their 
 "temptations/' exhorting them to consider them 
 matter of joy, as sent for the trial of their faith, 
 and accomplishment of their perfection, which 
 must be carried on in faith, and prayer to God 
 for wisdom, without doubt and wavering. The 
 
 * The connection between our Epistle and the Sermon on the 
 Mount has often been noticed. I subjoin a list of the principal 
 parallels ; ch. i. 2, Matt. v. 10-12 ; ch. i. 4, Matt, v. 48 ; ch. i. 
 5, V. 15, Matt. vii. 7, etc. ; ch. i. 9, Matt. v. 3 ; ch. i. 20, Matt. v. 
 22 ; ch. ii. 13, Matt. vi. 14, 15, v, 7 ; ch. ii. 14, etc., Matt. vii. 
 21, etc. ; ch. iii. 17, 18, Matt. v. 9 ; ch. iv. 4, Matt. 4, 24; ch. 
 iv. 10, Matt. V. 3, 4; ch. iv. 11, Matt. vii. i, etc.; ch. v. 2, 
 Matt. vi. 19; ch. v. 10, Matt. v. 12; ch. v. 12, Matt. v. ^^^ 
 etc.; and from other discourses of our Lord, ch. i. 14, Matt. xv. 
 1 9 ; ch. iv. 1 2, Matt. x. 28. Compare also the places where the 
 rich are denounced with Luke vi. 24, etc. 
 
jf antes. i6i 
 
 worldly rich are in fact not the happy^ but the 
 subjects of God's judgment : the humble and 
 enduring is he to whom the crown of hfe is 
 promised (ch. i. 1-12). 
 
 Then he comes to treat of a '^ temptbig" 
 which is not from God, but from their own 
 lusts. God on the contrary is the Author of 
 every good and perfect gift_, as especially of their 
 new birth by the word of His truth. The in- 
 ference from this is that, seeing they have their 
 evnl from themselves, but their good from Him, 
 they should be eager to hear, but slow to speak, 
 and slow to wrath, receiving the word in meek- 
 ness, being thoroughly penetrated with its in- 
 fluence, in deed and word, not paying to God 
 the vain " religious service " of outward confor- 
 mity only, but that of acts of holy charity and 
 a spotless life. 
 
 The second chapter introduces the mention 
 of their special faults : and as intimately con- 
 nected with ch. i. 27, first that of respect of 
 persons in regard of worldly wealth (ii. 1-13) ; 
 and then that of supposing a bare assensive 
 faith sufficient for salvation without its living 
 fruits in a holy life (ii. 14-26). Next, the ex- 
 
 M 
 
1 62 How to study the New Testament, 
 
 hortation of ch. i. 19, " slow to speak, slow to 
 wrath," is again taken up; and in ch. iii. 1-18, 
 these two particulars are treated, in the duties 
 of curbing the tongue and the contentious tem- 
 per. 
 
 This last leads naturally on in ch. iv. 1-12 to 
 the detection of the real source of all contention 
 and strife, viz. in their lusts, inflamed by the 
 solicitations of the devil. These solicitations 
 they are to resist, by penitence before God, and 
 by curbing their proud and uncharitable judg- 
 ments. Then he turns (iv. 13 — v. 6) to those 
 who live in their pride and worldliness, in as- 
 sumed independence on God, and severely re- 
 proves the rich for their oppression and defraud- 
 ing of the poor, warning them of a day of re- 
 tribution at hand. 
 
 Then, after an earnest exhortation to patient 
 endurance (ch. v. 7-1 1) and to abstain from 
 words of hasty profanity (v. 12), he takes oc- 
 casion, in prescribing to them what to do in 
 adversity, prosperity and sickness, and as to 
 mutual confession of sin, to extol the efficacy of 
 prayer (v. 13-18), and ends with pronouncing 
 the blessedness of turning a sinner from the 
 error of his way. 
 
y antes, 163 
 
 The Character of the Epistle is thus a mixed 
 one : consolatory and hortatory for the believing 
 brethren ; earnest, minatory, and polemical, 
 against those who disgraced their Christian 
 profession by practical error. Even in ch. ii. 
 14-26, v^here alone the writer seems to be com- 
 bating doctrinal error, all his contention is rather 
 in the realm of practice : he is more anxious to 
 show that justification cannot be brought about 
 by a kind of faith which is destitute of the 
 practical fruits of a Christian life, than to trace 
 the ultimate ground, theologically speaking, of 
 justification in the sight of God. 
 
 As regards the style and diction of our Epistle, 
 Huther has well described it as being " not only 
 fresh and vivid, the immediate outflowing of a 
 deep and earnest spirit, but at the same time 
 sententious, and rich in graphic figure. Maxim 
 follows after maxim, and the discourse hastens 
 from one similitude to another : so that the 
 diction often passes into the poetical, and in 
 some parts is like that of the Old Testament 
 prophets. We do not find logical connection, 
 like that in St. Paul : but the thoughts arrange 
 themselves in single groups, which are strongly 
 
 M 2 
 
164 How to study the New Testament, 
 
 marked oflffrom one another. We everywhere 
 see that the author has his object clearly In 
 sight, and puts it forth with graphic concreteness. 
 Strong feelings produce strong diction : and 
 the style acquires emphasis and majesty by the 
 climax of thoughts and words ever regularly and 
 rhetorically arrived at_, and by the constantly oc- 
 curring antithesis." 
 
 The introduction and putting forth of the 
 thoughts also are peculiar. " The writer ever 
 goes at once into the midst of his subject; and 
 with the first sentence which begins a section, 
 — usually an interrogative or imperative one, — 
 says out at once fully and entirely that which 
 he has in his heart : so that in almost every 
 case the first words of each section might serve 
 as a title for it. The further development of 
 the thought then is regressive, explaining and 
 grounding the preceding sentence, and concludes 
 with a comprehensive sentence, recapitulating 
 that with which he began." (' N. T. for En- 
 glish Readers,^ Introd. vol. ii.) 
 
 It now remains that we indicate as usual the 
 necessary corrections in readings and render- 
 
James, 1 6^ 
 
 First, for readings. 
 
 In ch. i. 12, for '' the Lord;' read '' He." In 
 ver. 1 9, for " Wherefore,'^ read " Ye know it." 
 The difference is only that of one letter in the 
 Greek. In the same verse, for " let every man^' 
 " but let every man." In ver. 2,6, omit " among 
 you:' 
 
 In ch. ii. 3, omit "unto him" and "here/' 
 In ver. 4, omit " then " (see also corrections of 
 renderings, p. 168). In ver. 5, for "this v^orld," 
 "the world." In ver. 10, for "shall keep the 
 whole law, and yet offend" "hath kept the whole 
 law, and yet hath offended." In ver. 13, omit 
 "and." In ver. 18, for "without thy works," 
 " without works," and for " my faith," " faith." 
 In ver. 19, for "there is one God" read " God 
 is one." In ver. 20, the ancient MSS. are 
 divided between " dead " and " idle.''^ The 
 latter is the more probable, seeing that the other 
 is the undoubted reading below in ver. 26. In 
 ver. 24, omit " then" 
 
 In ch. iii. 3, for "Behold," read "But if," 
 erasing the following comma, and the "and" 
 before the second " we." In ver. 5, for " how 
 great a matter a little fire kindleth" read (see 
 
1 66 How to study the New Testament, 
 
 also corrections of renderings^ p. 169) " how 
 great a forest is kindled by how small a fire/' 
 In ver. 6_, for ^^ so is the tongue among our mem^ 
 herSy^ " the tongue is that one among our mem- 
 bers." In ver. 8, for " unruly,'' read '' restless." 
 In ver. 9^ for '' God, the Father," read '^ the 
 Lord and Father." In ver. 12, for '' So can no 
 fountain loth yield salt water and fresh/' read 
 '^neither can salt water bring forth sweet." 
 In ver. 17, before "without hypocrisy/' omit 
 " and." 
 
 In ch. iv. 1, before '^ fightings/' repeat " from 
 whence come." In ver. 2, put a period at " war/' 
 and proceed, " Ye have not because ye ask not." 
 In ver. 4, omit " adulterers and." He calls all 
 adulteresses, inasmuch as they had broken their 
 marriage covenant with God_, their spiritual 
 husband. In ver. 5, for " the spirit that dwelleth 
 in us," "the spirit that He placed in us" (see 
 also corrections of rendering, p. 170). In ver. 7, 
 for '^ resist," read " but resist." In ver. 11, for 
 "awJ judgeth/' "orjudgeth." In ver. 12, for 
 " There is one lawgiver" read " One is the law- 
 giver and judge/' for "who art thou," "but 
 who art thou /' and for " another," " thy neigh- 
 
James, 167 
 
 bour/^ In ver. 13, for ^^ to-day or to-morrow/' 
 '^to-day and to-morrow/' In ver. 14, for '^ It 
 is even a vapour" " For ye are a vapour/' 
 
 In ch. V. 5, omit " as " (see also corrections of 
 renderings^ p. 170). In ver. (), for " condemned^'' 
 read "judged." In ver. 11^ for "endure" 
 read " have endured ;" and for " the patience of 
 Job, and have seen the end," " the patience of 
 Job : behold also the end." In ver. 16 , for 
 '^ confess " "confess therefore." In ver. 19, for 
 " Brethren," " My brethren." 
 
 The necessary, and advisable, corrections of 
 rendering are, as usual, far more numerous. 
 
 In ch. i. I, for "scattered abroad" substitute 
 " in the dispersion." In ver. 3, for " the trying 
 of your faith worketh patience," " the proof of 
 your faith worketh endurance." In ver. 4, for 
 " patience," " endurance ;" for " her," " a ;" 
 and for " wanting nothing" which is ambiguous, 
 ' deficient in nothing." In ver. 5, for " lack," 
 " is deficient;" for "liberally," "simply." In ver. 
 6, for " wavering " and " waver eth," " doubting " 
 and " doubteth." Ver. 8 should stand, " He is 
 a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways ;" 
 and ver. 9, thus : " Let the brother who is low. 
 
1 6 8 Hoiv to study the Neii) Testament, 
 
 glory in his exaltation : but the rich glorieth in 
 his humiliation/' etc.; and ver. ii, thus : '^ For 
 the sun arose with its heat, and dried up the 
 grass, and the flower thereof fell away, and the 
 beauty of the form of it perished : so also shall 
 the rich man wither in his ways." In ver. 12, 
 for " tried,'' " approved -," and for " hath pro- 
 mised/' " promised.'' In ver. 13, for ''of God/' 
 " from God /' and proceed, " for God is un- 
 versed in evil, and He tempteth no man." In 
 ver. 17, for "is from," " cometh down from/' 
 and omit " and cometh down." For " lights'* 
 *' the lights of heaven." In ver. 21, for " super - 
 fluittj of naughtiness," "superabundance of ma- 
 lignity/' and for "engrafted," "implanted." 
 In ver. 25, for " looketh," " hath looked /' and 
 omit " therein," and " the" before "work." In 
 ver. 26, for "seem to he," "thinketh that he is." 
 In ver. 27, for " God and the Father," " Him 
 who is our God and Father." 
 
 In ch. ii. 2, for "come" (twice), "hath 
 come /' and for " assembly," " synagogue." 
 Ver. 4 should stand, " Is not this to doubt 
 within yourselves, and to become judges, of evil 
 thoughts ?" In ver. 5, for " Hath not God 
 
yames, 169 
 
 chosen,'* " Did not God choose ;" for " rich,'* 
 *' to be rich ;" for '' hath promised/^ " pro- 
 mised/' In ver. 7, for " worthy," '' goodly/' 
 In ver. 8, for " If/' " Yet if/' In ver. 10, for 
 "he is*' "hath become." In ver. 17, for 
 " dead, being alone," " dead in itself." In ver. 
 21, for " had offered/' "offered/' In ver. 22, 
 for " seest thou/' " thou seest/' omitting the 
 note of interrogation. In ver. 25, omit "had" 
 twice. In ver. 26, for " the spirit," " spirit/' 
 
 In ch. iii. i, for " masters," substitute 
 " teachers." In ver. 4, for " the governor 
 listeth," " the desire of the helmsman willeth/' 
 In ver. 5 (see above under corrections of read- 
 ings, p. i66), for "matter," read "forest." In 
 ver. 6, for " a world," " that world." In ver. 7, 
 for "kind," "nature," and for "mankind," "na- 
 ture of man" In ver. 11, for "place," "clift" 
 or " chink." In ver. 13, for " a good conversa- 
 tion," " his good conduct." In vers. 14, 16, 
 for "strife," "rivalry." In ver. 17, for "par- 
 tiality," "doubting." In ver. 18, for " of them 
 that make peace," " by them that work peace." 
 
 In ch. iv. 2, for "desire to have," substitute 
 "envy/' In ver. 4, for "w /A^ enemy," "be- 
 
1 7c How to study the New Testame?it, 
 
 Cometh an enemy." Begin ver. 5, " Or do ye 
 think." The quotation should run thus: "The 
 spirit that Replaced in us jealously desireth us" 
 (see also corrections of readings, p. 166). In ver. 
 8, for '' purify,^' "make chaste." In ver. 15, 
 '^for that ye ought to say" is ambiguous. Better 
 thus^ " instead of your saying." For " we shall 
 Live and do'' " we shall both live and shall do." 
 In ch. V. 2, for "are'' "are become." In 
 ver. 3, for " cankered" " rusted through ;" and 
 for "a witness against yon/' "a testimony to 
 you." For " Ye have heaped treasures together 
 for the last days" " Ye laid up treasure in the 
 last days." In ver. 4, for "reaped down," 
 "mowed." For " which is of you kept hack hy 
 fraud, crieth," " which is held back, crieth out 
 from you," i. e. from your possession, from the 
 chest or coffer where you have placed it. In 
 ver. 5, for " as in a day," " in the day." In 
 ver. 9, for "^rwc?g^^," "murmur." In ver. 10, 
 omit "suffering." In ver. 11, for "endure" 
 " have endured ;" and for "patience," "endu- 
 rance." In ver. 1 2, for " into condemnation," 
 "under judgment." In ver. 13, for "psalms," 
 "praise." In ver. 14, for "church," "congre- 
 
James. 171 
 
 gatlon/^ End ver. 15^ '^ even if he have com- 
 mitted sins, it shall be forgiven him/^ Begin 
 ver. \6j '' Confess therefore one to another your 
 transgressions/^ Read the latter clause of this 
 verse, "The supplication of a righteous man 
 availeth much in its working/^ In ver. 19, for 
 " do err/' " be seduced." In ver. 20, for " the 
 sinner/' '' a. sinner;" and for ''hide" "cover/* 
 
I 
 
 VII. 
 
 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 
 T surelv cannot be without some emotion 
 
 that the student of the Gospels and Acts 
 approaches a letter written by one of whom he 
 knows so much both as Simon son of Jonas, 
 and as Peter the Rock of the Church. But the 
 letter, we may safely say, is usually approached 
 without any emotion or expectation whatever. 
 Our Bible readers in England are, for the most 
 part, utterly unappreciative. This or that is in 
 the Scriptures. Its authority is, as it ought to 
 be, decisive. It is cited as one would cite a 
 statute of the realm. It is forgotten, that He 
 who has given us the Scriptures, has not issued 
 them in the form of a code of statutes. He 
 who does nothing without reason, has clad, so 
 to speak, his youngest Church in a coat of manv 
 
I Peter, 173 
 
 colours. The Christian Scriptures carry their 
 divine truths to the human soul by a series of 
 human pictures, most of them highly and vari- 
 ously coloured. What should we say of him 
 who should pass through a picture gallery dwell- 
 ing on nothing but the abstract lessons to be 
 derived from the pictures ? Should we not say 
 that for such an one art existed in vain ? And 
 such has been the result of what we may call the 
 '' mouth-piece ^^ theory of Scripture inspiration, 
 as held by, I fear, a great part of the English 
 public. It has effectually cooled down the 
 whole great warm life of sympathy, affection, 
 appreciation, which ought to move and work 
 around every Scripture book. Not so did the 
 ancients. They held the authority of Scripture 
 to the full, as earnestly and tenaciously as we 
 can. But these were their ways of citing: 
 ^' Hear what says the beloved Apostle, he who 
 lay gathering truth on the breast of Jesus;" 
 " Listen to Paul, to him whose words I seem to 
 hear, not as words, but as claps of thunder;" 
 ** Will you not hear Peter, him to whom the 
 Great Shepherd said ' Pasture my sheep ? ^ " 
 And so the divine words came in each case. 
 
1 74 How to study the New Testarnent. 
 
 wedded as it were to the winning music of a 
 human character ; carried into men's hearts by 
 a throbbing Hfe whose pulses coincided with 
 their own. O that we too read Scripture thus ! 
 that we spent less energy on making the Bible 
 into a fetish_, and more on a fearless and child- 
 like search after its living voice ! 
 
 Peter is about to speak. And he speaks in a 
 letter concerning which there has never been 
 any reasonable doubt that it is his true voice. 
 Primitive fathers, living in close succession 
 almost from the apostolic times — Polycarp, the 
 disciple of St. John, Irenaeus, Clement of Alex- 
 andria, Tertullian — all quote it again and again 
 unhesitatingly : and Eusebius, summing up the 
 views of those before him, writes, ^^ One Epistle 
 of Peter, that called his first, is universally re- 
 ceived : this Epistle the elders of old, in their 
 writings, have used as undoubted." If the 
 modern sceptical school have ventured to ques- 
 tion its authenticity, it has been only as consis- 
 tent with their practice of attacking every Scrip- 
 ture writing, and has served in this instance 
 most notably, as I have shown elsewhere,* to 
 
 * ' New Testament for English Readers.' Introduction, vol. 
 ii., pp. 232—234. 
 
Peter, 
 
 n 
 
 show how weak are the arguments against the 
 Epistle, and how easily capable of a reasonable 
 answer. 
 
 Peter then speaks. Let us look for a few 
 moments at the speaker himself. 
 
 Simon, the fisherman of Capernaum, was 
 brought to Jesus by his brother Andrew ; and 
 the Lord looking into his character, named him 
 Petros, or Cephas, or the Rock. After an 
 interval of partial following, perhaps of fickle- 
 ness and vacillation, and even falling back (com- 
 pare Luke v. 8, which can hardly be otherwise 
 accounted for), he became a permanent follower, 
 and the most ardent and forward of the follow- 
 ers, of Jesus. 
 
 It is not my purpose to follow Peter through 
 the well-known incidents of his apostolic life. 
 His forwardness in reply and profession of warm 
 affection, his thorough appreciation of our Lord^s 
 high Office and Person, the glorious promise 
 made to him as the Rock of the Church on that 
 account (Matt. xvi. i6), his rashness, and over- 
 confidence in himself, issuing in his triple denial 
 of Christ and his bitter repentance, his reassu- 
 rance by the gentle but searching words of his 
 
176 How to study the New Testa7nent. 
 
 risen Master (John xxi. 15, etc.), — these are fa- 
 miliar to every Christian child : nor is there 
 any one of the leading characters in the Gospel 
 history which makes so deep an impression on 
 the heart and affections of the young and sus- 
 ceptible. The weakness_, and the strength, of 
 our human love for Christ, are both mercifully 
 provided for in the character of the 2;reatest of 
 the Twelve. 
 
 After the Ascension, we find Peter at once 
 taking the lead in the Christian body (Acts i. 
 15, etc.), and on the descent of the Holy Spirit, 
 he, to whom were given the keys of Christ's 
 
 kino-dom — who was to be the stone on which 
 
 o 
 
 the church was to be built, first receives into the 
 door of the church, and builds up on his own 
 holy faith, three thousand of Israel (Acts ii. 
 14-41) : and on another occasion soon follow- 
 ing, some thousands more (Acts iv. 4). 
 
 This prominence of Peter in the church con- 
 tinues, till by his specially directed ministry the 
 door into the privileges of the gospel covenant 
 .s opened also to the Gentiles, by the baptism 
 of Cornelius and his party (Acts x.). But he 
 was not to be the Apostle of the GentiJcs : and 
 
I Peter. 177 
 
 by this very procedure, the way was behig made 
 plain for the ministry of another, who was now 
 ripening for the work in the retirement of his 
 home at Tarsus. 
 
 From this time onward, the prominence of 
 Peter wanes behind that of Paul. The " first to 
 the Jew ^^ was rapidly coming to its conclusion : 
 and the great spreading of the feast to the Gen- 
 tile world was henceforward to occupy the ear- 
 nest attention of the apostolic missionaries, as it 
 has done the pages of the inspired record. Only 
 once or twice, besides the notices to be gathered 
 from this Epistle itself, do we gain a glimpse of 
 Peter after this time. Tn the apostolic councils 
 in Acts XV. we find him consistently carrying 
 out the part which had been divinely assigned 
 him in the admission of the Gentiles into the 
 church : and earnestly supporting the freedom 
 of the Gentile converts from the observance of 
 the Mosaic law. 
 
 This is the last notice which we have of him, 
 or indeed of any of the Twelve, in the Acts. 
 But from Gal. ii. 11, we learn a circumstance 
 which is singularly in keeping with Peter's for- 
 mer character ; that at Antioch, in all proba- 
 
 N 
 
J 7 8 How to study the Neiv Testament. 
 
 bility not long after the apostolic council, he 
 was practising the freedom which he had de- 
 fended there; but being afraid of certain who 
 came from James, he withdrew himself and 
 separated from the Gentile converts_, thereby 
 incurring a severe rebuke from Paul {^ib. vv. 
 14-21). 
 
 From this time, we depend on such scanty 
 hints as the Epistles furnish, and upon ecclesi- 
 astical tradition, for further notices of Peter. 
 We may indeed, from i Cor. ix. 5, infer that he 
 travelled about on the missionary work, and 
 took his wife with him : but in what part of the 
 Roman empire, we know not. If the Babylon 
 of ch. V. 13 is to be taken literally, he passed 
 the boundaries of that empire into Parthia. 
 
 I have enumerated and discussed, in the work 
 and at the place above referred to, the principal 
 ecclesiastical traditions regarding St. Peter. I 
 will here only cite the summing up of that enu- 
 meration and discussion. 
 
 On the whole it seems safest to suspend the 
 judgment with regard to the question of Peter's 
 presence and martyrdom at Rome. That he 
 was not there before the date of the Epistle to 
 
1 Peter, 179 
 
 the Romans (about a.d. 58), we are sure: that 
 he was not there during any part of PauPs im- 
 prisonment there, we may with certainty infer : 
 that the two Apostles did not together found 
 the churches of Corinth and Rome, we may 
 venture safely to affirm : that Peter ever was, in 
 any sense like that usually given to the word, 
 Bishop of Rome, is we believe an idea abhor- 
 rent from Scripture and from the facts of primi- 
 tive apostolic history. But that Peter travelled 
 to Rome during the persecution under Nero, and 
 there suffered martyrdom with, or nearly at the 
 same time with, Paul, is a tradition which does 
 not interfere with any known facts of Scripture 
 or early history, and one which we have no 
 means of disproving, as we have no interest in 
 disproving it. 
 
 It may be permitted us on this point, until 
 the day when all shall be known, to follow the 
 cherished associations of all Christendom — to 
 trace still in the Mamertine prison and the Va- 
 tican the last days on earth of him to whom was 
 committed especially the feeding of the flock of 
 God : to ^^ witness beside the Appian way the 
 scene of the most beautiful of ecclesiastical 
 
 N 2 
 
x8o How to study the New Testa7ne7it. 
 
 legends, which records his last vision of his 
 crucified Lord : to overlook IVom S. Pietro in 
 Montorio, the supposed spot of his death, the 
 city of the seven hills : to believe that his last 
 remains repose under the glory of St. Peter's 
 dome/^* 
 
 Such an one it is then that speaks in this 
 letter. But to whom does he speak ? ^^ To the 
 elect sojourners of the dispersion of Pontus, Ga- 
 latia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.'^ Does 
 this mean the Jewish Christians dwelling in those 
 provinces ? The words '^ sojourners of the dis- 
 pejsion" look like it : the fact of Peter being 
 the Apostle of the circumcision seems to point 
 the same way. But two things are against such 
 a supposition. First, the churches in these pro- 
 vinces were mainly composed of Gentile con- 
 verts : and the Writer, with his views of the 
 
 * Stanley, ' Sermons and Essays on the Apostolic Age,' p. 96. 
 The legend referred to is that related by Ambrose, that St. Peter 
 not long before his death, being overcome by the solicitations of 
 the faithful to save himself, was flying from Rome, when he was 
 met by our Lord, and on asking, " Lord, whither goest thou ? " 
 received the answer, " I go to be crucified afresh." On this the 
 Apostle returned and joyfully went to martyrdom. The memory 
 of this legend is yet preserved m Rome by the Church called 
 " Domine, quo vadis ?" on the Annian way. 
 
I Peter. i8i 
 
 Christian relation of Jew and Gentile^ as shewn 
 in Acts xi. and xv._, would hardly have addressed 
 the Jewish portion only of those churches. 
 Again_, the Epistle itself does not bear out such 
 an idea. Chap. i. 14 would be more naturally 
 addressed to Gentiles than to Jews. Chap. ii. 
 9, 10 is apparently decisive : for it could never 
 surely be said of Jews that they had been called 
 '^ out of darkness/' nor that they were ^^ once 
 not a people^ but were now the people of God.'' 
 Chap. iii. 6 again (see corrections of rendering, 
 p. 202) is best understood, if addressed to Gen- 
 tiles. And in chap. iv. 3 again, it is stated of 
 the readers that they had walked in abominable 
 idolatries. 
 
 Particulars respecting the provinces named in 
 the address will be found in the work above 
 cited. They constituted the field of the Asiatic 
 activity of St. Paul. The churches in them were 
 in much the same condition as when that 
 Apostle delivered his parting address to the 
 Ephesian elders at Miletus (Acts xx.). Here, 
 as there, the elders, or presbyters, are the only 
 ecclesiastical officers mentioned : here, as there, 
 they are exhorted to feed, or shepherd, the flock 
 of God. 
 
1 82 Hoii) to study the N'cw Testaincnt, 
 
 At the time of writing the Epistle, apparently 
 a persecution of some kind was going on. Such 
 expressions as ch. iii. 17, iv. 12-19, can hardly 
 be understood without such an assumption. 
 Judging by ch. iv. 4, 5, it would appear that 
 the persecutors were rather heathen, than un- 
 believing Jews. 
 
 Evidently, from some hints in the Epistle, the 
 churches were not free from blameable tenden- 
 cies. Seech, ii. i, 11, 12, 16; iii. 8-12; iv. 
 9 ; V. 2, 3. 
 
 To these then Peter spoke ; but when, and 
 from whence ? 
 
 As to the TIME, we have the following con- 
 siderations. The elements of persecution seem 
 in it to be rather occasional than systematic; 
 rather local than imperial. The apology which 
 Christians are to give (ch. iii. 15) looks rather like 
 one springing out of personal tyranny, than one 
 to be rendered as a formal matter in open court ; 
 the suffering as evil doers being disconnected from 
 suffering as Christians (ch. iv. 15, 16), seems to 
 point to a time anterior to that when the very 
 name of Christian was identical with that of 
 malefactor. And in this latter case, they could 
 
I Peter, 183 
 
 hardly be exhorted (ch. iii. 15, 16) to live down 
 the charge of evil doing, seeing that they could 
 not put off the name of Christian with which it 
 was associated. These notices seem rather to 
 point to a time when formal persecution had 
 not commenced, but its elements were gathering. 
 Christians were not likely to be molested if they 
 lived a harmless life (ch. iii. 13, 14) ; in some 
 cases they suffered for righteousness^ sake, 
 but such instances were exceptional (i/'.). Dr. 
 Davidson has well remarked, " The trials were 
 not yet excessive. They were alarming in the 
 future. A severe time was approaching. Judg- 
 ment was soon to begin at the house of God. 
 The terrible persecutions and sufferings which 
 the Christians were about to endure, were im- 
 pending." All these notes of time suit best 
 the few years before the outbreak of the perse- 
 cution by Nero : i. e. the date 6^-6"] a.d. 
 
 And the personal notices in the letter tend to 
 corroborate this view. It would appear from a 
 series of inferences, too long for present inser- 
 tion, that the writer was acquainted with the 
 later Epistles of St. Paul. Now the latter was 
 probably set free from his Roman imprisonment 
 
1 84 Hoi^ to study the New Testament. 
 
 in A.D. 6q^. Also Mark, who in Col. iv. 10 
 (a.d. 61-63) ^^ stated to have been with Paul 
 in Rome, and in 2 Tim. iv. 11 (a.d. 67 or 68), 
 to have been in Asia Minor, and coming with 
 Timothy to Rome, is in one Epistle stated to be 
 with St. Peter in Babylon : which assuming (see 
 below) that city to be the well-known capital of 
 Chaldea, he might well have been between those 
 two dates. 
 
 Next as to the place whence Peter wrote. 
 He himself calls it Babylon (ch. v. 13). Is 
 this Babylon on the Euphrates ? We answer, 
 why not? An ancient opinion is quoted by 
 Eusebius and Jerome, that the name here meant 
 Rome, and that the Apostle uses a figurative 
 name for it. But such a sense would surely be 
 inconsistent with every rule of fair interpreta- 
 tion. And so is the meaning thus required for 
 " She that is elect together with you," which is 
 supposed to mean the Roman Church. We 
 might fairly say that if we are to go so far afield 
 for interpretations, Silvanus and Mark must also 
 be some mythical allegorizations. I can have 
 no doubt that all such recondite senses for 
 simple language in a matter-of-fact letter are 
 
I Peter. 185 
 
 beside the mark. The obvious meanhig of Ba- 
 bylon will satisfy all the requirements, as will 
 also the reference of the above-quoted clause to 
 the sister-wife, whom we know, from i Cor. ix. 
 5, St. Peter carried about with him in his mis- 
 sionary journeys. The Epistle is addressed not 
 to churches, but to individuals : it is then but 
 natural, that she that was elected together with 
 them, should be, not a church, but an indivi- 
 dual. Their places of abode are mentioned in 
 the address. Why not his in the salutation ? 
 
 We hold the place then to have been the 
 well-known Babylon. That city, in its decayed 
 state, and its neighbourhood, were inhabited 
 by Jews, long after its other inhabitants had 
 deserted it. 
 
 As corroborative of this view it may be men- 
 tioned, that the countries specified in the ad- 
 dress of the Epistle are enumerated in the order 
 in which one writing from the eastward would 
 place them — viz. from east to west and south ; 
 and that a writer in the sixth century alleges 
 our Epistle as a proof that Christianity had 
 spread beyond the bounds of the Roman empire 
 during the apostolic times. 
 
1 8 6 How to study the New Testament. 
 
 We now come to speak of the ohject of this 
 Epistle. And we find it definitely announced 
 by the writer himself at the conclusion : ^•' I have 
 written in few words, exhorting and testifying, 
 that this is the true grace of God, wherein 
 stand ye/^ 
 
 And as far as the fact of exhortation and tes- 
 timony alternating with and being mingled with 
 one another throughout, there is no difficulty in 
 taking this as a description of the object of the 
 letter. It is not quite so clear what it is which 
 is described as being the true grace of God. I 
 have elsewhere investigated this point,* and have 
 arrived at the conclusion that by the word this 
 is indicated the mass of evangelic teaching which 
 these ^''select sojourners,'^ among whom St. Peter 
 had never himself ministered, had received from 
 St. Paul and his fellow-workers. By this very 
 name, " the Gospel which I preached unto you, 
 which ye also received, /// which ye also stand,'' 
 had the Apostle of the Gentiles called his testi- 
 mony in one of his Epistles (i Cor. xv. i). 
 
 The following table of contents of the Epistle 
 
 ♦ 'New Testament for English Readers,' vol. ii. Introduction, 
 
 p. 24(y. 
 
I Peter, 187 
 
 has been given by Stelger, who has written one 
 of the best commentaries on it : — 
 
 '^'^ Address to the elect of the triune God (i. i- 
 2) : preciousness of that mercy of God which 
 has thus chosen them to sah^ation {'y-^ ; mani- 
 fested even in their temporal trials (6-9). Sal- 
 vation of which prophets spoke, and which 
 angels desire to look into (10-12). Therefore 
 the duty of enduring hope, and of holiness in 
 the fear of God (13-17) ; [considering the pre- 
 cious blood paid as the price of their ransom], 
 (18-21) ; and of self-purification [as begotten of 
 God's eternal w^ord], (22-25) ') ^^^ of growth in 
 the Truth (ii. 1-3) ; and of building up on 
 Christ as a spiritual priesthood (4-5) ; Who is 
 to the faithful precious, but to the disobedient a 
 stone of stumbling (6-10). The duty of pure 
 conversation among the heathen (11, 12): of 
 obedience to authorities (13-17); to masters 
 even when innocently suffering at their hands 
 (18-20) ; [for such is the calling of those, for 
 whom Christ suffered innocently], (21-25), to 
 husbands (iii. 1-6) ; [reciprocal duty of hus- 
 bands], (7) ; all, to one another, being kind and 
 gentle; and even to enemies (8-17); for Christ 
 
1 88 How to study the New Testament, 
 
 so suffered and so lives^ for the living and the 
 dead (18-20) ; and through His resurrection and^ 
 exaltation saves us by baptism (20-22). Thus 
 then die to sin and live to God, for Christ is 
 ready to judge all (iv. 1-7) ; v^'atching, edifying 
 one another, and glorifying God (8-11); sub- 
 mitting to trial as the proof of your participa- 
 tion in Christ's sufferings (12-19). Elders, 
 tend His flock, for His sake (v. 1-4) ; younger, 
 be subject; all, be humble (5, 6); full of trust; 
 vi^atchful ; resisting the devil (7-9) ; and may 
 He who has graciously called you, after short 
 suffering, strengthen and bless you (10, 11). 
 The bearer and aim of the Epistle; salutations; 
 concluding blessing (12-14)." 
 
 When we come to speak of the character and 
 style of this Epistle, we are at once met by the 
 question. Does it bear out anything like the 
 analogy which we should expect to subsist be- 
 tween the character and the writing of St. 
 Peter? And this question may safely be an- 
 swered in the affirmative. 
 
 We will indicate the principal characteristics 
 of the Epistle, and the correspondence will ap- 
 pear as we go on. 
 
I Peter, 189 
 
 The designation of the whole Christian reve- 
 lation as " the grace of God,'' and treatment of 
 it as such_, prevails throughout the Epistle. 
 Compare ch. i. 3^ where it is described as the 
 power of regeneration: i. 10, where it is the 
 salvation promised by the prophets : ii. 19^ where 
 it breaks forth even in sufferings: iv. 10, where 
 it is distributed in spiritual gifts : v. 10, where 
 it is the pledge of continued divine help : iii. 7, 
 where it is itself the inheritance of life: i. 13, 
 where it is the material of the revelation of 
 Christ at his coming. And connected with 
 this same^ is the way in which (i) God^s 
 acts of grace are ever brought forward : e. g., 
 i. 20, His fore-ordination of Christ : v. 10, 
 i. 15, ii. 9, His call of his people: i. 3, 23, His 
 new-begetting of them by His word through 
 Christ's resurrection : iv. 1^, the resting of 
 His Spirit on them: iv. 11^ i. 5, v. 6^ 10, His 
 care for them in ministering strength to them, 
 and guarding them by His power to salvation : 
 and (2) the connexion hetween God and His people 
 insisted on: e.g.j ii. 9, lo; iv. 17, v. 2, gene- 
 rally: iii* 21, where baptism is ^^ an inquiry 
 towards God:'' ii. 19, where '^conscience of 
 
1 90 How to study the New Testament. 
 
 God,'* an expression nowhere else found, is a 
 motive for enduring sufferings : iv. 11, where 
 His glory is the ultimate motive of Christian 
 action. 
 
 And in accordance with this constant setting 
 forth of the reciprocal relation of God and His 
 people, we find our blessed Lord ever introduced 
 as the Mediator : e. g., of things objective, as 
 i. 3, of regeneration; iii. 21, of baptism: of 
 things subjective, as i. 21, of faith and hope; 
 ii. 5, of acceptable works for God; iv. 11, of the 
 power to glorify God. The central point of 
 this mediatorial work is His resurrection, i. 3, 
 iii. 21 ; in subordination to which the other 
 facts of redemption are introduced, even where 
 they occur without any necessary reference to it, 
 as, e. g., i. II, 19-21 ; iii. 18; ii. 24, 25. And 
 those particulars of Christ's agency are princi- 
 pally brought forward, which are connected 
 with the resurrection : e. g., His preaching to 
 the imprisoned spi-rits, iii. 19, etc.; His ascen- 
 sion, iii. 22; His lordship over His people, ii. 25, 
 His future revelation, i. 7, 13, and that with 
 judgment, iv. 5. Everywhere it is less the histo- 
 rical Christ, than the exalted Christ of the pre- 
 
I Peter, 191 
 
 sent and of the future, that is before the Apostle ; 
 the Eternal One, i. 11 ; ii. 25. Even where His 
 sufferings are mentioned, it is ever " Christ^^ or 
 ^^ the Christ :'' not so much the humihated One, 
 as the glorified and anointed One of God, 
 ii. 21 ; iii. 18, etc.; iv. i, 13. And this, partly 
 because their present belief on Him, not their 
 past experience or knowledge of Him, is that 
 which is emphasised, i. 8 ; partly for the reason 
 next to be noticed. 
 
 Another original and peculiar feature of our 
 Epistle is, its constant reference and forward 
 look to the future. Hope has been considered 
 as the central idea and subject of the Epistle : 
 and some have given St. Peter the title of the 
 Apostle of hope. Wherever we consult the 
 Epistle, it is always the future to which the ex- 
 hortations point : whether we regard the suffer- 
 ings of Christ himself, as pointing on to future 
 glory, i. II, iv. 13; or those of His followers, 
 i. 6, 7, 9. Salvation itself is ^' the end of faith,'' 
 i. 9; is the object of living (i. 3) and certain 
 (i. 13) hope, i. 3, 13, 21 ; iii. 15. The same 
 expectation appears as expressed in ^^ honour,' 
 ii. 7; "Ife,'' iii. 10 (compare i. 3); *' glory ," 
 
192 How to study the N'cw Testament, 
 
 V. 4, 10 : and as a constantly present motive, 
 ii. 2 ; V. 4. The nearness of this future blessed- 
 ness throws the present life into the background, 
 so that God^s people are ^^ strangers" and "so- 
 journers," i. J, 17; ii. II. This is ever before 
 the Apostle j both in reference to his readers, 
 iv. 13, and to himself, v. i. 
 
 The similarity between the diction of the 
 Epistle, and St. Peter's recorded speeches in the 
 Acts, has been often noticed. Compare i Pet. 
 ii. 7 with Acts iv. 11 ; i. 12 with Acts v. 32; 
 ii. 24 with Acts v. 30, x. 39 ; v. i with Acts ii. 
 32, iii. 15; i. 10 with Acts iii. 18, x. 43; i. 21 
 with Acts iii. 15, x. 40 ; iv. 5 with Acts x. 42 ; 
 i. 21 with Acts iii. 16; ii. 24 with Acts iii. 19, 
 26. In connection of sentence with sentence 
 also (see below) there is great similarity : com- 
 pare Acts iii. 21, ^^ Christ Jesus, whom it behoves 
 
 of all things which He spoke . . . . ; " 
 
 besides the same spirit, and view of the Gospel 
 facts and announcements, being manifest 
 throughout. Compare, e'.^^., the summary of 
 that part of his first speech which is not re- 
 corded, "save yourselves frojn this crooked gene- 
 ration " Acts ii, 40, with the frequent exhorta- 
 
I Peter. 193 
 
 tions in our Epistle to separation from the 
 heathen world. 
 
 As regards the style of our Epistle, it has an 
 unmistakable and distinctive character of its 
 own, arising very much from the mixed nature 
 of the contents, and the fervid and at the same 
 time practical rather than dialectical spirit of its 
 writer. There is in it no logical inference, pro- 
 perly so called : no evolving of one thought 
 from another. The word ^' wherefr/re" occurs 
 only in connection with imperatives introducing 
 practical inferences : ^' because'' only as substan- 
 tiating motives to Christian practice by Scrip- 
 ture citation or by sacred facts : '^for" mostly 
 in similar connections. The link between one 
 idea and another is found not in any progress of 
 unfolding thought or argument, but in the last 
 word of the foregoing sentence, which is taken 
 up and followed out in the new one.* 
 
 It has been noticed that the same thought isi 
 
 * See e.g., ch. i. ver. 4, " yon " . . . : ver. 5, " u'ho are "... 
 ver. 5, "the last time" . . .: ver. 6, " in ichich " . . . : ver. 7, 
 " Je57<5 Christ " . . . : ver. 8, " ichom ''...: ver. 9, " salvafion^^ 
 . . . : ver. 10, " of ichich . . . the prophets " . . . : ver. 12, *' unto 
 ivhom "... etc. etc. And so we might proceed through the 
 Epistle. 
 
 O 
 
194 How to study the New Testa7itcnt. 
 
 often repeated again^ and in nearly the same 
 words.* This is consistent with the fervid and 
 earnest spirit of the Apostle : which however, as 
 might be expected from what we know of him, 
 was chastened by a sense of his own weakness 
 and need of divine upholding grace. There is 
 no epistle in the sacred canon, the language and 
 spirit of which come more directly home to the 
 personal trials and wants and weaknesses of the 
 Christian life. Its affectionate warnings and 
 strong consolation have ever been treasured up 
 close to the hearts of the weary and heavy-laden 
 but onward-pressing servants of God. The 
 mind of our Father towards us, the aspect of 
 our blessed Lord as presented to us, the prepa- 
 ration by sufferings for our heavenly inheritance, 
 all these as here set forth, are peculiarly lovely 
 and encouraging. And the motives to holy 
 purity spring direct out of the simple and child- 
 like recognition of the will of our Heavenly 
 Father to bring us to His glory. 
 
 All who have worthily commented on the 
 
 • Compare ch. iii. 1 with iii. 16, and with ii. 12; iv. 3 with 
 i. 14 and ii. 11; iv. 12 with i. 6-9 ; iv. 14 with iii. 14, 17, and 
 With ii. 20 ; V. 8 with iv. 7, and with i. 13. 
 
I Peter, 195 
 
 Epistle have spoken in similar strains of its 
 character and style. " Wonderful is the gravity 
 and alacrity of Peter^s discourse, most agreeably 
 holding the reader-'s attention/^ says Bengel. 
 ^' This Epistle has the vehemence agreeable to 
 the disposition of the chief of the Apostles/^ 
 says Grotius. And Erasmus calls it " an Epistle 
 quite worthy of the chief of the Apostles_, full of 
 apostolical authority and dignity, sparing in 
 words, fertile in thoughts/^ etc. And recently 
 Wiesinger sums up thus his characteristic of 
 the Epistle : " Certainly, it entirely agrees in 
 tone and feeling with what we have before said 
 of the character of the Apostle. His warm self- 
 devotion to the Lord, his practical piety and his 
 active disposition, are all reflected in it. How 
 full is his heart of the hope of the revelation of 
 the Lord 1 With what earnestness does he ex- 
 hort his readers to lift their eyes above the 
 sufferings of the present to this future glory, 
 and in hope of it to stand firm against all temp- 
 tation ! He who in loving impatience cast him- 
 self into the sea to meet the Lord, is also the 
 man who most earnestly testifies to the hope 
 of His return : — he who dated his faith from 
 
 o 2 
 
196 How to study the A^cw Testament. 
 
 the sufferings of his Master, is never weary in 
 holding up the suffering form of the Lord before 
 the eyes of his readers to comfort and stimulate 
 them : — he before whom the death of a martyr 
 is in assured expectation, is the man who most 
 thoroughly, and in the greatest variety of aspects, 
 sets forth the duty and the power, as well as 
 the consolation, of suffering for Christ. If we 
 had not known from whom the Epistle comes, 
 we must have said. It must be a Rock of the 
 Church who thus writes : a man whose own 
 soul rests on the living Rock, and who here, 
 with the strength of his testimony, takes in 
 hand to secure the souls of others, and against 
 the harassing storm of present tribulation to 
 ground them on the true Rock of Ages." The 
 whole may be summed up by saying, that 
 the entire Epistle is the following out of our 
 Lord's command to its writer, " And thou, when 
 thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren" 
 
 It remains that we give our usual list of cor- 
 rections of readings and renderings. 
 
 In ch. i. 22, omit " through the Spirit," and 
 for *' with a pure heart," " from the heart.'' In 
 ver. 23, at end, omit ''for ever." In ver. 24, 
 for " the glory of man," read " its glory." 
 
I Peter. 197 
 
 In ch. ii. 2^ after ^^ thereby" at end^ add ^' unto 
 salvation." In ver. 5^ for ^' an holy priesthood,^' 
 read '' for an holy priesthood." In ver. 6, for 
 " Wherefore also" read ^' Because." In ver. 8, 
 read " and he is a stone/^ etc. In ver. 20, read 
 ^'^ but if when ye do well and suffer for it^ ye 
 shall take it patiently^ it is glory, for this is 
 thankworthy with God." In ver. 21, read 
 " suffered for you, leaving you an example," etc. 
 In ver. 25, for ^^ as sheep going astray/' read 
 " going astray as sheep." 
 
 In ch. iii. i, read ^^ so that even if any obey 
 not the word they also shall be won by the be- 
 haviour of the wives." In ver. 7, read " heirs 
 with you" (see corrections of rendering, p. 202). 
 In ver. 8, for " courteous/' read '^ humble- 
 minded." In ver. 9, for '^ knowing that," ^^ be- 
 cause." In ver. 13, for "followers," read 
 "imitators." In ver. 15, for "the Lord God in 
 your hearts," " Christ in your hearts as Lord." 
 For " with meekness and fear," read " but with 
 meekness and fear." In ver. 16, for " whereas 
 they speak evil of you, as of evil doers/' read " in 
 the matter in which ye are spoken against." In 
 ver. 20, omit " once." For "few," read " few 
 
198 How to study the New Testament. 
 
 persons." In ver. 21, for ^^ the like figure where- 
 unto'* read " which, the antitype of that /' and 
 for " lis,'' " you/' 
 
 In ch. iv. I, omit "for us" In ver. 3, omit 
 " of our Ife," and ''us." In ver. 8, for "shall, 
 cover" " covereth." In ver. 14, at end, omit 
 " on their part he is evil spoken of kit on your 
 part he is glorified." The words are not found 
 in any of the oldest MSS. or versions. In ver. 
 16, for " on this hehaf" " in this name/' viz. of 
 Christian. In ver. 19, omit "to him" and 
 " as" with the comma preceding it. 
 
 In ch. V. I, after ''The elders/' insert "there- 
 fore." In ver. 5, for " all of you he siilject one 
 to another, and he clothed with humility," read 
 '' all gird on humility." In ver. 8, omit, " be- 
 cause." In ver. 10, for "us," read ''you." For 
 " make you perfect," etc., read " shall himself 
 make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle 
 you." In ver. ii, for " To Him he glory and 
 dominion," read " To Him be the might." In 
 ver. 12, for " wherein ye stand," read "wherein 
 stand ye." In ver. 14, end, omit ''Jesus," and 
 "Amen." 
 
 In renderings the corrections are, as usual, 
 more numerous. 
 
I Peter. 199 
 
 In ch. i. I, for "scattered'' substitute " (A 
 the dispersion/^ In ver. 2, for " through" " m." 
 In ver. 3, for '^ hath begotten" " begat.-*^ For 
 " by," " through." In ver. 5, for '' by the 
 power" " in the power." In ver. 6, for " where- 
 in" which is ambiguous, substitute " in which 
 time;" and for "through" "m." In ver. 7, 
 for " than of gold/^ " than gold," and for 
 " though it be tried with fire," " yet is tried with 
 fire.*' And for " appearing" " revelation." In 
 ver. 8, for "full of glory" " already, glorified." 
 In ver. 10, for "the prophets have inquired," 
 "prophets inquired." In ver. 11, "the suffer- 
 ings of Christ" ought never to have been so 
 rendered. The Greek expression is far other. 
 It is, " the sufferings towards," or " regarding," 
 or "that pointed at," Christ. Perhaps the 
 nearest our English idiom would be, " the suffer- 
 ings regarding Christ." And then proceed, "the 
 glories that should follow them." In ver. 12, 
 for " the angels," " angels." In ver. 13, for 
 " to the end" " perfectly ;" and for " to be 
 brought," " being brought." In ver. 14, for 
 " obedient children" " children of obedience." 
 Read ver. 15, " but rather after the pattern of 
 
200 How to study the Nav Testament. 
 
 that Holy One which called you_, be ye yourselves 
 also holy in all behaviour/^ Read ver. 17, ^'And 
 if ye call upon as your Father Him vvho/^ etc. 
 In ver. 18, for ^^conversation'' ^^ behaviour." 
 Read ver. 1^, '^ but with precious blood as of a 
 lamb without blemish and without spot_, even 
 the blood of Christ." In ver. 20, for "was'' 
 (first time), " hath been." In ver. 21 ^ for " that 
 .... might he," " so that .... are." In ver. 
 22, for " with a pure heart fervently " (see cor- 
 rections of readings, p. 196), " from the heart 
 earnestly." In ver. 24, for " withereth," " wi- 
 thered," and for '' falleth," " M\." In ver. 25, 
 for "is preached/^ "was preached." 
 
 In ch. ii. I, for " laying aside/^ " having laid 
 aside." In ver. 2, for " the sincere milk of the 
 word'' " the spiritual guileless milk." In ver. 
 3, for "gracious," " good." In ver. 4, for " pre- 
 cionSy" " had in honour." In ver. 5, for " lively'' 
 'living." For "by," "through." In ver. 6, 
 for "precious," "had in honour." In ver. 7, 
 for "he is precious," " is the honour." In ver. 8, 
 for " at the word, being disobedient," " being dis- 
 obedient to the word." In ver. i), for "praises," 
 " virtues." In ver. io_, end, read " which 
 
I Peter. 201 
 
 were unpitied, but now have obtained compas- 
 sion.^^ In ver. 11, for "strangers and pilgrims/' 
 '^sojourners and strangers." In ver. 12^ for 
 " conversation y^' " behaviour :" and for " honest/' 
 " comely ;" and for '^ whereas/' " in the matter 
 in which." Before " behold," omit '' shall" In 
 ver. 14, for " the punishment of," " vengeance 
 on." In ver. 15, for ''foolish men," " those 
 foolish men." In ver. 16, for ''maliciousness," 
 ''your maliciousness." In ver. 18, the original 
 has only " servants, subject unto," etc. For 
 " gentle," " considerate :" for "froward," " per- 
 verse." In ver. 19, for "grief," "tribulations." 
 In ver. 23, there is nothing in the original cor- 
 responding to the word " himself" I would 
 rather supply " them," i. e., those who inflicted 
 those sufferings. In ver. 24, for " being dead," 
 " having died." For " stripes," " stripe." 
 
 In ch. iii. i, again, " he" is not expressed in 
 the Greek. The clause depends, as did ch. ii. 
 18, on the commands which preceded: "Ser- 
 vants, by being subject," etc. : and now, " wives, 
 by being in subjection," etc. In ver. 4, for " in 
 that which is not corruptible, even the ornament," 
 "in the incorruptible ornament." In ver. 5^ 
 
20 2 How to study the New Testament. 
 
 for " trusted,'^ ^^hoped/^ In ver. 6, for '^ whose 
 daughters ye are" ^' of whom ye have become 
 children." For " amazement,'^ '' sudden fear." 
 In ver. 7, for ''dwell," "dwelHng" (see p. 197). 
 In ver. 8 also, as in ver. 7, for '' he ye all" " all 
 being." In ver. 9, no one would dream that 
 ''blessing" (first time) is a participle, agreeing 
 with those addressed ; but so it is. In order then 
 to shew this, I would begin the verse " Not ren- 
 dering to others evil for evil, or reproach for re- 
 proach ; but contrariwise blessing them." For 
 " are" " were." In ver. 10, for " will love life" 
 etc., '' desireth to love life, and to see." In ver. 
 II, for ''eschew" ''turn away from;" and for 
 "ensue" "pursue." In ver. 14, "But and if" 
 is a corruption of " But 07? if," an old idiom in 
 which "an if" is equivalent to if. Instead of 
 it, " But if even." For " of their terror" " with 
 their terror :" with the terror which they feel. 
 In ver. 16, for "whereas" "in the matter in 
 which." In ver.18, for " hath suffered," " suf- 
 fered ;" for " the just for the unjust" " a just 
 person for unjust persons ;" and for " quickened" 
 " made alive," as more intelligible. Ver. 19 
 should run, " In which he also went," etc. On 
 
I Peter. 203 
 
 ver. 21, beginnings see corrections of readings, 
 (p. 198). For '^ the answer of a good conscience 
 towards God" substitute "the inquiring of a 
 good conscience after God/' 
 
 In ch. iv. 2, " that ye no longer should live 
 the rest of your time." For ''to" (twice) ^ read 
 " by/^ In ver. 3, for " wrought" " wrought 
 out." For " when ye walked," " walking as ye 
 have done." In ver. 4, for '' excess" " slough." 
 In ver. 6, for ''also to them that are dead" '^^to 
 dead men also." In ver. 8, for " have fervent 
 charity among yourselves" "having your love 
 towards one another fervent ;" and for " charity" 
 (afterwards), "love;" and for " the multitude" 
 "a. multitude." In ver. 9, for "use," "using;" 
 and for " grudging," " murmuring." Read ver. 
 II, "If any speaketh, — as the oracles of God : 
 if any ministereth, — as of the ability which God 
 bestoweth." For " praise and dominion," " t\vQ 
 glory and the might." In ver. 13, for " inas- 
 much as," " in as far as." 
 
 In ch. V. 1, for " that shall he," " which is 
 about to be." In ver. 3, for " God's heritage," 
 " your portions." In ver. 4, for " shall appear," 
 " shall be manifested." For " a crown of glory 
 
204 Hou) to study the New Testavient. 
 
 thatfadeth not away,'' " the amarantine crown 
 of His glory." The adjective signifies^ not 
 '' unfadingj^ but ^' composed of the flower 
 called amarantus/' the everlasting or unfading 
 flower. In ver. (), for ^' the same afflictions are 
 accomplished J ^ " the very same sufferings are 
 being accomplished/' For " brethren'^ " bro- 
 therhood/^ In ver. ii^ for '^ glory and domi- 
 nion/* " the might/' In ver. 12, for ^' a faith- 
 ful brother unto you, as I suppose, I have written 
 briefly,*' ''^the faithful brother, as I reckon, I 
 have written unto you in few words/' Read 
 ver. 13, "She that is elected together with you 
 in Babylon saluteth you:" viz. Peter's wife, 
 then with him at Babvlon. In ver. 14., for 
 '' uith*' (second time), " to." 
 
VIII. 
 
 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER, 
 AND THE EPISTLE OF JUDE. 
 
 ^TpHIS chapter will differ somewhat froin our 
 -^ previous ones, in that it will have to deal 
 with an Epistle of doubted authenticity, and 
 also to institute a comparison between two 
 Epistles as to a passage strangely identical in 
 both. 
 
 There have been, from the earliest times, 
 grave doubts as to the genuineness of the 
 '^ Second Epistle of Peter/-* I will state briefly 
 the grounds of them. The first is, the entire 
 absence of mention of the Epistle in the earliest 
 Christian writers, and the rareness, and, when 
 apparently occurring, the unsatisfactory charac- 
 ter as to precision, of even any allusions to it in 
 the same writers. The most relied on of these 
 
2o6 How to study the New Testavioit, 
 
 hardly amount to more than the occurrence of 
 a somewhat similar thought in somewhat similar 
 words; and would never have been suspected to 
 be a reference to any other writings except for 
 this inquiry. 
 
 The testimonies to the Epistle, when they 
 begin to appear, are but indirect. The earliest 
 is that of EusebiuSj who relates of Clement of 
 Alexandria, that he, in his expositions of the 
 canonical Scriptures, 'Mid not pass over even 
 the disputed books, such as that of Jude, and 
 the rest of the Catholic Epistles, and that of 
 Barnabas, and that called the Apocalypse of 
 Peter.^' Here, our Epistle is not named, though 
 apparently included in '^ the rest of the Catholic 
 Epistles •/' and after all, the evidence for it, when 
 obtained, is but weak, for it is classed with two 
 books which have been universally rejected from 
 the canon. 
 
 Origen, as reported by Eusebius, says, ''Peter, 
 on whom the Church of Christ is built, over 
 which the gates of hell shall not prevail, has 
 left one acknowledged Epistle : perhaps also a 
 second; for it is doubted about." 
 
 But on the other hand, in Origen's extant 
 
2 Peter and Jude. 207 
 
 vvorks_, he again and again quotes this Epistle 
 as Scripture. It is true that this is in those 
 works of which we possess only a Latin trans- 
 lation ; but this can hardly alter the force of 
 the evidence. The probability is, that Origen 
 quoted in this case as loosely as in that of the 
 Epistle to the Hebrews, which he denies to be 
 St. PauPs, but constantly quotes as St. PauPs. 
 
 Firmilian, disciple of Origen (died in 27c), 
 says that the Apostles ^^ Peter and Paul, in 
 their Epistles, execrated heretics.''^ Now this 
 St. Peter does not do in his first Epistle ; so he 
 must be alluding to the second. 
 
 Eusebius says that one Epistle of Peter, which 
 is called the first, is received and used as un- 
 doubted by the ancient presbyters; that the 
 Epistle called his second is received, but not as 
 among the New Testament writings ; that, ap- 
 pearing useful to many, it has come to be reve- 
 renced with the other Scriptures. 
 
 Jerome says that St. Peter wrote two Epistles, 
 which are named catholic, of which the second 
 is by most denied to be his, on account of the 
 dissonance of style from the former Epistle. 
 But this dissonance he elsewhere ascribes to St. 
 
2o8 How to study the Akii) Testament, 
 
 Peter having used two interpreters^ i. e., writers 
 who put his thoughts into Greek for him. 
 
 After this time, it was generally received as 
 canonical. It is, however, worthy of notice 
 that it is not contained in the ancient Syriac 
 version. 
 
 At the time of the Reformation, the doubts 
 revived ; and several of the chief German critics, 
 including even Neander, entertain them. 
 
 They are based very much, as they were of 
 old, on the alleged dissonance of tone and style 
 from the first Epistle. Now in dealing with 
 such an allegation, we ought to be careful to 
 ascertain, first what the character of the sup- 
 posed writer is, and secondly, what the circum- 
 stances are under which the two Epistles were 
 written. 
 
 As to the former of these, we know that St. 
 Peter was impulsive, of strong feeling, not show- 
 ing great continuity or consistency of thought, 
 but going off irregularly to introduce mysterious 
 and outlying points. So that, with a certain 
 personal identity, we might expect to find this 
 writer not so much repeating himself, as taking 
 up fresh moods ot" mind according to varying 
 
2 Peter and Jude. 209 
 
 circumstances. It may illustrate what I mean, 
 if I adduce another New Testament writer with 
 whom this irregularity and variety were em- 
 phatically not the case : I mean, St. James. 
 If a second Epistle of St. James were handed 
 down to us, as much differing in style from his 
 first as this does from the former one of St. 
 Peter, we should not hesitate a moment to 
 pronounce it spurious. His mind, and view of 
 things, and manner of treating the Christian 
 life, are so stereotyped, that for him to adopt an- 
 other style would seem almost an impossibility. 
 But now let us look at the circumstances — at 
 the occasion and object of this second Epistle, 
 as compared with those of the first. There, we 
 found that exhortation and testimony alternated; 
 that the whole Christian revelation is known as 
 the grace of God, and His acts of grace are ever 
 brought forward : that our Lord is ever intro- 
 duced as the Mediator, and His resurrection 
 ever dwelt on, in itself, and in its consequences. 
 We found that the Christian hope is evermore 
 before the writer, insomuch that some have 
 considered it the central idea and subject of the 
 Epistle. Now nothing can be more different 
 
 p 
 
iio How to study the Nevo Testa77ient, 
 
 than all this from the character of the circum- 
 stances which seem to have ruled the style of 
 the second Epistle. Its general aspect is pro- 
 hibitory and cautionary. There is indeed ex- 
 hortation^ but its key is regulated by this general 
 purpose. The '^ knowledge of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ/^ which the writer so fervently enforces^ 
 is to keep the readers from being led away with 
 the error of the wicked. These wicked are per- 
 sons who denied the lordship of Christ ; which 
 lordship therefore is carefully asserted at every 
 urn. It is remarkable that^ while in the former 
 Epistle, in which grace and salvation were so 
 prominent, the Redeemer is commonly " Christ^ ^ 
 (i. II, 19; ii. 21), or "Jesus Christ" (i. i, 2, 3, 
 7, 13 : ii. 5; iii. 21 ; iv. 11), or " Christ Jesus" 
 (v. 10), — in this He is "our Lord (and Saviour 
 Jesus Christ" (i. i, n; ii. 20; iii. i?>),"our 
 Lord Jesus Christ" (i. 8, 14, 16), or "Jesus our 
 Lord" (i. 2), but never simply "Christ" or 
 "Jesus Christ," or "Christ Jesus." This is 
 strikingly characteristic of the differing attitude 
 of the writer's mind in the two Epistles. In 
 the first, encouragement is to be derived from 
 community of sufl'ering and glorification with 
 
1 Peter and Jude, 211 
 
 Him : therefore His lordly titles are dropped, 
 and His office or person, or both combined, are 
 put forward. But in the second^ where warning 
 and caution against rebellion are in view, we 
 are ever reminded of His lordship by ^^ Lord,'' 
 and for what He has done for us by '^ Saviour/' 
 being His titles. 
 
 But it is not true that in all respects the tone 
 and style of the two Epistles differ. The same 
 view of ancient prophecy prevails in both (see 
 I Peter i. 10-12; 2 Peter i. 19-21 ; iii. 2) : the 
 new birth by the word of God (i Peter i. 22 ; 
 ii. 2) is found again in 2 Peter i. 4: the peculiar 
 term '^ virtues " applied to God is found in both 
 Epistles (i Peter ii. 9; 2 Peter i. 3, corrected 
 reading, p. 229). If we have the expression 
 " without blemish and without spot " in i Peter 
 i. 19, we have " without spot and blameless," 2 
 Peter iii. 14, and indeed ii. 13. 
 
 Two objections have been made to the 
 genuineness of our Epistle, which are not a 
 little curious, as they seem to destroy one 
 another. One is, that the writer seems so 
 very careful to tell us that he is the apostle 
 Peter, thereby betraying that he is not tliat 
 
 p 2 
 
212 How to study the New Testcwient. 
 
 apostle. Taking this by itself^ we may fairly 
 reply that when a writer is cautioning against 
 false teachers, it is very natural for him, as 
 St. Paul did when writing to the Galatians, 
 to assert his own commission and personal 
 qualification as a teacher. It is just what 
 St. Peter himself did in the first Epistle, ch. 
 V. I, etc. But combine this with the other 
 objection ; which is that by ch. iii. 2 the 
 writer distinguishes himself from the apostles, 
 and therefore is not one of them. These ob- 
 jections are made by the same writers. But 
 it is plain that they overthrow the one the 
 other. How can a writer be elaborately trying 
 to make himself out to be St. Peter, and at 
 the same time exclude himself from the number 
 of the apostles altogether ? 
 
 Another objection is the mention of the 
 Epistles of St. Paul made by the writer, ch. iii. 
 15, 16. They are there spoken of as already 
 existing in some number, and as forming part 
 of the canonical Scriptures. But much more 
 has been found in this curious passage than it 
 really imports. It refers not, of course, to all 
 the now rcjnited E})istlcs of St. Paul, as some 
 
2 Peter and Jude, 2j^ 
 
 seem to take it^ but only to all those which the 
 writer had seen ; and it makes no assertion 
 as to the canonical Scriptures, but merely im- 
 plies that certain writings by Christian teachers 
 were reckoned as on a level with the Old 
 Testament Scriptures, and called by the same 
 name. This may have been the case very 
 early ; indeed, by St. Paul giving command 
 that his Epistle to the Colossians should be 
 read in the church at Laodicea, and the Epistle 
 to that church at Colossae, it would seem that 
 he contemplated his Epistles being at once 
 ranked with the Scriptures, which were read 
 in the churches. 
 
 I may mention two or three notes of genuine- 
 ness, which, though they may be considered 
 slight, yet are of interest. In ch. i. 17, 18, 
 the writer refers to his presence at our Lord^s 
 transfiguration. It is a remarkable coincidence 
 that close to that passage we find two uncom- 
 mon words, which both occur in the narrative 
 of the transfiguration in the Gospels. The one 
 of these is 'Uahernacle/' 2 Pet. iii. 13, 14; and 
 it was Peter who proposed on the mount to 
 make three tabernacles: the second is '^exodus/' 
 
214- How to study the TVrzu Testament. 
 
 In the unusual sense of decease or death, 2 Pet. 
 i. 15 ; and we read in Luke ix. 28^, that Moses 
 and Elias appeared in glory, and spake of His 
 exodus (decease), which he should accomplish 
 at Jerusalem. Other coincidences are the use 
 of certain words rarely found in the New Tes- 
 tament, but also occurring in Peter's speeches, 
 or narratives apparently derived from him, in 
 the Acts of the Apostles. Such are the word 
 '' godl'mess/' found abundantly in the Pastoral 
 Epistles of St. Paul, but, besides, only in 2 
 Pet. i. 3, 6, 7, and in Peter's speech in Acts iii. 
 12 : — ^'^ godly,'' 2 Pet. ii. 9, Acts x. 2, 7, where 
 only the word occurs in the New Testament; 
 " being punished/' found in 2 Pet. ii. 9, Acts iv. 
 21 only; '^ the day of the Lord" 2 Pet. iii. 10, 
 Acts ii. 20, the only places where the expression 
 occurs, except i Thess. v. 21. 
 
 ^' Our general conclusion must be in favour 
 of the genuineness and authenticity of the 
 Epistle. The subject is not without consider- 
 able diflBculty, arising mainly from the non- 
 recognition of it in the early centuries. But 
 this is in some measure accounted for by the 
 lateness of its appearance, and is a difficulty 
 
'1 Peter and Jude. 215 
 
 not confined to it alone, but shared by several 
 of the later New Testament writino;s. Another 
 weighty reason in its favour is the immense 
 gulf of difference of style which separates this 
 from even the earliest of the post-apostolic 
 writings. 
 
 "The Epistle is one of those latter fruits of 
 the great outpouring of the Spirit on the 
 Apostles, which, not being entrusted to the 
 custody of any one church or individual, re- 
 quired some considerable time to become gene- 
 rally known ; which, when known, were sus- 
 pected, bearing as they necessarily did traces 
 of their late origin, and notes of polemical 
 argument; but of which, as apostolic and in- 
 spired writings, there never was, when once 
 they became known, any general doubt ; and 
 which, as the sacred canon became fixed, ac- 
 quired, and have since maintained, their due 
 and providential place among the books of the 
 New Testament." * 
 
 The object and aim of the Epistle have been 
 already hinted at; they are best set forth in the 
 
 * ' New Testament foi English Readers,' vol. ii. Introduc- 
 tion, p. 273. 
 
2i6 How to study the Neiv Testmneiit. 
 
 two last verses of it^ as being a caution to the 
 readers against falling from their steadfastness^ 
 and an exhortation to grow in the knowledge 
 of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 To the fervent enforcing of this latter and 
 main purpose ch. i. i-ii is devoted. Then 
 (i. 12-21) the grounds of this knowledge are 
 stated to consist in the apostolic testimony and 
 prophetic announcement. This serves as an 
 introduction to the description of the false 
 teachers and prophets who were coming in 
 among them (ch. ii.). In ch. iii. the further 
 error which should arise, that of rejecting the 
 hope of the Lord's coming, is stigmatized, with 
 a reference to the Epistles of St. Paul, as teach- 
 ing the same truths, but being perverted, like 
 the other Scriptures, by the ignorant and un- 
 stable. The main purpose of exhortation is, 
 notwithstanding many allusive and polemical 
 digressions, kept closely in view throughout. 
 The later portions are all based on the earlier. 
 The whole sprung from a holy desire to build 
 up and confirm the readers, in especial reference 
 to certain destructive forms of error in doctrine 
 and practice which were then appearing, and 
 would continue to wax onward. 
 
 I 
 
2 Peter and Jude. 1 1 7 
 
 On those forms of error themselves more 
 will be presently said^ when we come to speak 
 of the remarkable passage, common to this 
 Epistle and that of St. Jude; and there also 
 we shall deal with the probable date of the 
 Epistle. 
 
 When we inquire for what readers it was 
 written^ we find very few data to guide us. 
 They seem, in part at least, to have been 
 identical with those addressed in the former 
 Epistle (see ch. iii. i); the same seems implied 
 in ch. i. 15. 
 
 The opening address is more general than 
 that of the first Epistle, and seems to extend to 
 all who love the Christian name. The same 
 inference is also confirmed by observing that 
 the whole tone of the letter is more generalized 
 than that of the former one j the peculiar cir- 
 cumstances of persecution, which are there so 
 much dwelt upon, are not adduced here. 
 
 We now come to speak of the Epistle of 
 Jude. And first for its genuineness. This 
 too was doubted in the early ages. Eusebius 
 says ^' Among the disputed books, but still 
 known to most, are the so-called Epistles of 
 
2i8 How to study the N'ew Testaviait. 
 
 James and that of Jude /^ but, he says that it 
 was pubhcly read with the rest in the churches. 
 And prhnitive testimony in its favour is very 
 strong. TertuHian, Clement of Alexandria, 
 Origen, all cite it as Scripture ; and the very 
 ancient catalogue of the Scripture books, known 
 as the Muratorian fragment, speaks of it as 
 genuine and canonical. In later times, it has 
 generally been received as authentic, even by 
 some of those who are fond of questioning 
 in this matter. We may fairly say, that the 
 doubts entertained about the Epistle in early 
 times, and the fact that few traces of it are 
 found in the primitive Fathers, may be accounted 
 for partly from its shortness, partly from its 
 presumed reference to apocryphal sources (see 
 p. 223), partly from its appearing not to have 
 been written by an Aj->ostle. 
 
 The author calls himself, verse i, "servant of 
 Jesus Christ,'' and " brother of JamesJ' The 
 former of these designations is never used alone 
 to designate an Apostle (see Rom. i. i ; Tit. i. i ; 
 2 Pet. i. i). And that this writer was not an 
 Apostle is probable from the second designation 
 also. One who had a direct conmiission from the 
 
2 Peter and Jude, 219 
 
 Lord Jesus Christ is not likely to have dropped 
 all mention of that commission^ and to have 
 adduced a fellow-man as greater than himself, 
 and as bespeaking respect for that which he 
 was about to write. 
 
 It is said indeed in answer to this, that the 
 Apostle Judas (^^not Iscariot^^) is in the Gos- 
 pels called ^' the Irother of James." But first it 
 is uncertain whether we are right in thus filling 
 up what is in the Greek merely "Jude of James," 
 or '^ James's Jude." The supplement was pro- 
 bably an inference from the opening of this 
 Epistle^ and to quote it as evidence here is ar- 
 guing in a circle. 
 
 If we are to inquire how any one should 
 come to call himself "brother of James/^ we 
 are at once led to ask who this James might 
 be. There are two apostolic persons of that 
 name, the Apostle James, son of Alphaeus, and 
 James, "the brother of the Lord,^' bishop of 
 the church at Jerusalem, and, as we have main- 
 tained, the writer of the Epistle bearing the 
 name of James. 
 
 Those who take the former to be here meant, 
 hold the view mentioned above, that this writer 
 
220 How to study the Akw Testament. 
 
 is the Apostle St. Jude. It may easily be in- 
 ferred from what has been said in a former 
 paper on the Epistle of James^ that the latter, 
 " the brother of the Lord/^ is the person whom 
 I believe to be here intended^ and that in con- 
 sequence I hold this writer to be the Judas of 
 Matt. xiii. 55, another brother of our Lord^ and 
 a younger son of Joseph and Mary. 
 
 Some have objected that had this been so, 
 the writer would have styled himself, not " the 
 Irother of James" but " the brother of Jesus 
 Christ" I can only say that any one to whom 
 this seems possible, has his first lesson as to the 
 spirit and feeling of the apostolic body yet to 
 learn. Such a designation would at once stamp 
 an Epistle as spurious, and as belonging to the 
 darker times, when superstition regarded earthly 
 relationship to Christ as matter of reverence. 
 
 Of the personal history of this Judas, one of 
 the Lord^s brethren, we know nothing. Euse- 
 bius relates from Hegesippus, that the Emperor 
 Domitian, being jealous of the survivors of the 
 family of David, sent for and examined two 
 grandsons of this Judas, but finding that their 
 whole property consisted of thirty-nine acres 
 
2 Peter a7id yiide, 221 
 
 of land, out of which they had to pay taxes, 
 and seeing their hands callous with the marks 
 of labour — having also ascertained that the 
 kingdom expected by them was angelical and 
 celestial — he dismissed them. 
 
 All we know respecting this writer must be 
 gathered from the Epistle, as treated of below. 
 
 Its intended readers are not specified any 
 further than that they are Christians. They 
 seem to be Jews, from the altogether Judaic 
 spirit of the Epistle, and from its appeal to 
 Jewish traditions, and perhaps to Jewish books. 
 They dwelt among an abundant and a wicked 
 population : some think in Corinth ; some in 
 Egypt, to which it is said the physical phe- 
 nomena (of verses 12, etc.) correspond; some 
 in a commercial city in Syria. 
 
 The time of writing is in some uncertainty. 
 " The state of the church indicated in the Epistle 
 is one not far advanced in historical develop- 
 ment. The evil men were as yet mixed with 
 the church — rocks of danger in their feasts of 
 love (ver. 12, corrected reading, p. 234). They 
 had not yet been marked off and stigmatized : 
 for this very purpose the Epistle is written. 
 
2 22 How to study the New Testament. 
 
 that these might lie no longer latent in the 
 bosom of the Church. All this points to an 
 early date." * 
 
 In ver. 17, reference is made to previous 
 teaching by the Apostles. But it is so made, 
 as to imply that the persons addressed had 
 heard the Apostles for themselves,, though their 
 presence may have been now removed ; and to 
 make it improbable that the Epistle was written 
 after the apostolic age. 
 
 No mention is made in the Epistle of the 
 destruction of Jerusalem. This we may per- 
 haps judge would scarcely have been so, had it 
 been written after that event. So signal an 
 instance of God^s retributive justice would hard- 
 ly have escaped mention when the writer was 
 writing to Jews, and especially citing examples 
 thereof. 
 
 These considerations induce me to suppose 
 the date to have been before the year 70 a.d., 
 but probably not long before. The Epistle would 
 seem to have been written in Palestine (^'er. 5) 
 but this is quite uncertain. 
 
 * 'New Testament for English Readers,' vol. ii. Intro- 
 duction, p. 304. 
 
2 Pdcr and Jude. 21^ 
 
 The style and tone of the Epistle are those of 
 a rough_, incisive earnestness_, rising, in its de- 
 nunciatory passages, into majesty and elo- 
 quence. The writer seems to have been a plain 
 man, but of a fiery spirit, deeply imbued with 
 Old Testament and traditional zeal. But there 
 are unmistakable signs of a loving heart, beating 
 beneath the rough surface. Not only does he 
 introduce his stern message bv wishes for the 
 multiplication of '^ mercy, peace, and love,^^ but 
 that message itself, and the warning reminiscence 
 of ver. 1 7, both are recommended by the address 
 to his readers as "beloved;" and in verses 22, 
 23, he enjoins compassion towards the erring^ 
 and saving the sinner while hating the sin. 
 
 It is hardly necessary to give a detailed ac- 
 count of the contents. The object — to keep 
 the reader steadfast in the faith — is carried out 
 by fervent denunciation of those who would lead 
 them away from it. It may be worth while to 
 notice the formal recognition, in verses 20, 21, 
 of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. 
 
 Two points of some interest arise. The 
 former of these is the apparent reference to 
 apocryphal books. In ver. 14 a prophecy is cited 
 
224 How to study the N'cw Testament. 
 
 as having been uttered by Enochs the seventh 
 from Adam. This prophecy is found related in 
 the apocryphal ^' Book of Enoch/^ a production, 
 according to some, of the times of Herod the 
 Great; according to others, partly of the Macca- 
 baean period, partly of that of Herod ; but ac- 
 cording to the latest and best writer on the 
 subject (Professor Volkmar), of the time of the 
 sedition of Barchochebas, about 132 a.d. Still, 
 we are in uncertainty whether the passage in 
 question may not have been, either originally or 
 subsequently, inserted into the Book of Enoch 
 from our Epistle; or, again, whether both that 
 and our writer may not have alike taken it from 
 ancient Jewish tradition. The former of these 
 suppositions is rendered likely, from the fact 
 that the particulars respecting the fallen angels, 
 ver. 6, are also found in the Book of Enoch. 
 
 Another passage in our Epistle supposed to 
 have come from an apocryphal source is, the 
 reference to the dispute between the archangel 
 Michael and the devil about the body of Moses. 
 Origen says, " In the Ascension of Moses, of 
 which book the apo6tle Jude makes mention in 
 his Epistle, Michael the archangel," etc. But 
 
2 Peter and Jude, 225 
 
 no such tradition is found in any apocryphal or 
 rabbinical book now extant : and it was more 
 probably matter of tradition only. 
 
 We now come to the comparison of the re- 
 markable passage, Jude 3-19, 2 Pet. ii. 1-19, 
 describing the heretical enemies of the Gospel 
 in terms so similar as to preclude all idea of 
 entire independence. Of course, we have no- 
 thing to do here with persons who would main- 
 tain that each of these passages was a special 
 revelation, wholly independent of the other. To 
 our mind, once admit any such hypothesis, and 
 you destroy Christianity. It has pleased God 
 to rest the facts of his Gospel on human testi- 
 mony, and the doctrines of his Gospel on human 
 teaching by written words. Take out the epi- 
 thet ^'^ human" in these, and you take away 
 that by which the Gospel lays hold on the spirit 
 of man, and you leave it a mere clap of 
 thunder. 
 
 If these considerations of human probability 
 are here, as everywhere else, to be introduced 
 into our estimate of the Scriptures, then we 
 must infer, either that one of these writers saw 
 and used the text of the other, or that both drew 
 
 a 
 
2 26 Hoii) to study the A\zu Testament. 
 
 from a common source, oral or documentary. 
 That both used a common document is most 
 improbable, because the curious concurrences 
 and divergences could not be thus accounted 
 for. Of course_, it is possible that both drew 
 from a common oral source, from some descrip- 
 tion current as an utterance of the Spirit in the 
 apostolic circle. But, looking at the two pas- 
 sages as they stand, this also must be dismissed 
 as highly improbable. There is, as we shall 
 presently see, an mtent, and consistent purpose 
 in the divergences, which keep us from imagining 
 that the two are different reports of what was 
 once the fountain of both. The phenomena are 
 altogether different from those apparent in any 
 parallel passages in the Gospels. 
 
 We are thus reduced to believe, that one must 
 have seen and used the text of the other. And 
 if so, then which was prior to the other ? 
 
 Here T conceive there can be little doubt. 
 Let us look at the objects of the two. Jude 
 tells us that he is describing ** ungodly men, who 
 turn the grace of God into lascivionsness, and 
 deny the only Master and our Lord Jesus Christ." 
 St. Peter is not describing the same persons^ 
 
2 Peter a7id Jude. 227 
 
 though in several points the descriptions co- 
 incide. He is concerned with ^^ false teachers,^' 
 answering to the "false prophets among the 
 people'' of old. These, too, are described as 
 denying " the Master who bought them/' In 
 2 Peter (ch. ii. i) we have but the slightest 
 reminiscence of Jude-'s first historical example of 
 the destruction of the unbelievers, as not being 
 to his purpose, and the words are very curious. 
 Jude says thsit/' the Lord (or "Jesus,^' see correc- 
 tions, p. 234) having saved the people oz^^ of the 
 land of Egypt, afterwards destroyed them that 
 believed not." Of all this Peter retains only the 
 expression "among the people," and omits the 
 rest. Next we remark that Jude^s second ex- 
 ample, the " angels which kept not their first 
 estate, hut left their own habitation/' so instruc- 
 tive as against apostates, shrinks up in the other 
 writer into " angels when they had sinned," and is 
 thereby made into a proof that God regards not 
 the highest dignities in those who turn against 
 him. Here the special and pointed instance of 
 Jude is generalized bv abridgment in Peter. 
 The next example, that of the Flood, is found in 
 Peter alone, adduced with a view of exalting the 
 
 a 2 
 
22 8 How to study the N'ew Testament. 
 
 true prophet,, Noah, the teacher of righteous- 
 ness. But, had Peter written first, is it conceiv- 
 able that Jude would have omitted words so 
 exactly suiting his purpose as those of the latter 
 part of 2 Peter ii. 5 ? I will not weary the 
 reader by going through every verse of each 
 passage, but will leave him in the main to do it 
 for himself, assuring him that he will find the 
 same view, that of the priority of Jude, and the 
 adaptation of his words to a somewhat different 
 purpose by Peter, corroborated at every step. I 
 will cite onlv one more instance of this : In 
 Jude, vers. 8, 9, we have, '^ In like manner these 
 dreamers also defile the fleshy and speak evil of 
 dignities. Yet Michael the archangel, when con- 
 tending with the devil he disputed about the body 
 of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing 
 accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee." 
 Whereas in 2 Peter ii. 10, we read, " Them that 
 go after the flesh in lust of un cleanness, and despise 
 government. Presumptuous, self-willed, they are 
 not afraid to rail at dignities. Whereas angels, 
 though they be greater in strength and might, bring 
 nut railing judgment against them before the 
 Lord.'' Now here the tenth verse in St. Peter 
 
2 Peter and Jude, 229 
 
 would be simply unintelligible taken by itself, 
 and never could have been written^ except as the 
 adaptation of something ampler and more per- 
 spicuous than itself. This instance is, to my 
 mind, decisive of the priority of the passage in 
 Jude to that in 2 Peter. 
 
 This result would remove the time of writing 
 the latter Epistle to close upon the destruction 
 of Jerusalem. Indeed, as there is no especial 
 reference to Jews in it, and as it has no traces 
 of having been written in Palestine, there would 
 be no reason for mentioning that event^ even 
 had it happened. 
 
 It now remains that we should give our usual 
 list of corrigenda for both Epistles, and first for 
 2 Peter. In respect of variation in the reading 
 of the text, the following are required : — 
 
 In ch. i. I, the ancient authorities read not 
 " Simon," but '^ Symeon.''' In ver. 3, for " to 
 glory,' "by his own glory .^^ In ver. 12, for 
 " I will not he negligent," read " I will be 
 sure.'' In the latter part of ver. 21 there is 
 great confusion in the ancient MSS. I have 
 adopted the text of the Vatican MS., " but men 
 had utterance from God, being moved by the 
 Holy Spirit.'' 
 
230 How to study the N'cw Testament. 
 
 In ch. il. 2, the word ^' peniiciotis'' has no 
 authority whatever. All the MSS. have '^Micen- 
 tious/^ In ver. 4, for '^ chains " all the oldest 
 MSS. have " dens." In ver. i^j, omit the words 
 "forever." In ver. 18, for "those that were 
 clean escaped," read " those that are scarcely 
 escaping." In ver. 22, omit "But." 
 
 In ch. iii. 2, for " the commandment of us the 
 Apostles of the Lord and Saviour" read " the 
 commandment of the Lord and Saviour given 
 by your Apostles." In ver. 3, for " scoffers" 
 " scoffers in their scoffing." In ver. 7, for " by 
 the same word," some of the ancient MSS. have 
 " by his word." But it is uncertain which is 
 the true reading. In ver. 9, "to us-ward" 
 should be "to you-ward." In ver. io_, "in tht 
 night" is not found in our three oldest MSS. 
 It probably got in here from i Thess. v. 2. In 
 ver. II, for " Seeing then that all these things 
 shall he dissolved " " Seeing that all these things 
 shall be thus dissolved" is in two of our oldest 
 MSS., and is probably the right reading. In 
 ver. 16, "in which are some things hard to be 
 understood," our three most ancient MSS. have 
 the relative "which" in the feminine gender. 
 
2 Peter and Jude. 23 1 
 
 and therefore referring to ^^ Epistles/^ which 
 has preceded^ not to ^^ things" or "subjects" 
 understood. It will be best^ therefore, to read, 
 "in which Epistles." 
 
 The corrections to be made in the rendering 
 of the original are as follows : — 
 
 In chap. i. i, for " throughtho, righteousness," 
 " in the righteousness ;" for " God and our Sa- 
 viour," "our God and [our] Saviour." It is 
 not probable that the appellations " God " and 
 " Saviour " both belong to " Jesus Christ," 
 which follows. In ver. 2, for " through/' " in." 
 In ver. 4, for " JVhereby/' " through which ;" 
 and for " exceeding/' " his exceeding." 
 "Through lust" is literally, "in," i.e., "existing 
 in lust." In ver. 5, for " beside this/' " for this 
 reason." For " add to your faith/' " provide, 
 in [the exercise of] your faith." In ver. 6, for 
 " temperance/' " self-restraint ;" and for " to/' 
 five times in verses 6 and 7, " in your." For 
 " charity/' " love." In ver. 8, for " in the 
 knowledge," " towards the perfect knowledge." 
 In ver. 9, for "But/' "for." In ver. 19, for 
 " We have also a more sure word of prophecy/' 
 " And we have more secure the prophetic word." 
 
232 How to study the N'civ Testament, 
 
 In ver. 20, for " is of/' " cometh of/' i. e., 
 ariseth from, in its source. 
 
 In ch. ii. I, for '^damnable heresies/' '^here- 
 sies of destruction/' For " Lord," " Master/' 
 In ver. 3, for " through," " in ;" for '^ whose 
 judgment/' "for whom the sentence/' and for 
 " damnation," " destruction." In ver. 4, for 
 " the angels that sinned," " angels when they 
 had sinned." For "to he reserved," "being re- 
 served." In ver. 7, for " the filthy conversation 
 of the wicked," " the behaviour of the lawless in 
 their licentiousness." In ver. 9, for "to he 
 punished," render "punishment," In ver. 10, 
 "dignities" is literally "glories." In ver. it, 
 for " which are," " though they be /' for 
 "power," "strength/' and for "accusation," 
 "judgment." In ver. 12, for "natural brute 
 leasts," " irrational animals/' and for "made," 
 "born." In ver. 13, for "as they that count it 
 pleasure to rest in the daytime," " counting as 
 pleasure that delicate living which is but for a 
 day." In ver. 14, "adultery" is literally " an 
 adulteress/' the object of the unlawful desire. 
 For " cease," " be made to cease." For " be- 
 guiling," "alluring." For "cursed children," 
 
2 Peter and yiide, 233 
 
 " children of the curse." In ver. 18^ for ^' when 
 they speak^^ '' by speaking/^ For '^ through the 
 hists of the flesh, through much wantonness^' 
 " with histSj by wantonness of the flesh/' In 
 ver. 19^ for "servants," ^^ slaves/' In ver. 20, 
 for " through;' " in," 
 
 In ch. iii. 5, for " of old;' " from of old ;" 
 and for " standing out of the water and in the 
 ivater;' " formed out of water and by means of 
 water." In ver. 6, for " wherely;' " by which 
 waters." In ver. io_, for "a great noise;' "a 
 rushing noise ;" for " the elements;' " the hea- 
 venly bodies ;" and for "shall melt with fervent 
 heat," "shall be scorched up and dissolved." 
 In ver. 11, for "conversation;' "behaviour." 
 In ver. I2_, for "hasting unto;' "hastening;" 
 i. e., actually bringing on the coming of; and 
 for " the elements shall melt with;' " the hea- 
 venly bodies shall be scorched up and melted 
 with." In ver. 14, for "of him;' "in his 
 sight/' placed at the end after " blameless." 
 In ver. 16, "ignorant" would better express 
 the meaning than "unlearned." In ver. 17, 
 for " led away with;' " led away together with." 
 The word is^ remarkably enough^ the same as 
 
234 How to study the A'^cw Testainait. 
 
 that used by St. Paul, Gal. ii. 13, with reference 
 to Barnabas, when he was induced to follow 
 the vacillation of St. Peter at Antioch. In ver. 
 18, for "grace, and the knowledge,'' "the grace 
 and knowledge." For ^^ glory,'' "the glory." 
 
 In the Epistle of Jude, ver. 1, for "sanctified 
 hy," all the oldest authorities read " beloved in." 
 In ver. 4, for " the only Lord God," " the only 
 Master." In ver. 5, there is some confusion. 
 Where the Authorized Version has " the Lord," 
 with some of the ancient authorities, others 
 read " God," and these terms are varied and 
 combined in others. But the Alexandrine and 
 Vatican MSS. have "Jesus," which, as being 
 the more difficult reading, was probably the 
 original, and therefore ought to be adopted. 
 For "afterward," all the oldest MSS. have 
 "secondly." In ver. 12, for "about," all the 
 MSS. have "away." In ver. 22, for " of some 
 have compassion, making a difference" the moi-e 
 probable reading is, " some indeed convict, when 
 they contend with you." In ver. 23, " with 
 fear" is omitted by all the oldest MSS. After 
 the word " fire," the three oldest MSS. have, 
 " and of others have compassion with fear. 
 
2 Peter and Jude. 235 
 
 hating even/^ etc. In ver. 25, after the word 
 ''Saviour/' insert, with all the oldest MSS., 
 '' through Jesus Christ our Lord." For '' hoth 
 now and ever/' all the oldest MSS. have "before 
 all time, and now, and to all ages."" 
 
 In the translation the principal needful cor- 
 rections are these : — In ver. 1, for "the servant," 
 '' a servant." For the present end of the verse 
 substitute ''to the called, beloved in God the 
 Father, and preserved for Jesus Christ." In 
 ver. 3, after "unto you" (second time), insert 
 " forthwith." For " once/' " once for all." 
 In ver. 4, for "there are certain men crept 
 in unawares/' " there crept in certain men." 
 Then proceed, "were of old written down in 
 prophecy for this judgment." In ver. 5, for 
 " I will therefore," " I wish therefore to." For 
 " though you once knew this," " knowing as you 
 do all [these] things once for all." In ver. 6, 
 for " jirst estate/' " dignity." In ver. 7, for 
 " are set forth/' " are in like manner to these 
 set forth." For " vengeance/' "just punish- 
 ment." In ver. 8, for " likewise/' " in like 
 manner." In ver. 10, for "those things which/' 
 "whatever things;" and for "what" again. 
 
236 How to study the New Testament, 
 
 "whatever things." In ver. 11, for ^' have 
 gone;' " went ;" and for " Core," " Korah." In 
 ver. 1 2y for " spots/' " the rocks/' on which the 
 love-feasts were in danger of being wrecked. 
 For ''feasts of charity,'' " love-feasts -," the 
 agapae of the early Christians. For " of" 
 " by." For " trees whose fruit withereth," 
 "autumn trees without fruit." In ver. 14^ for 
 " cometh," " came." In ver. 15^ for " convince," 
 " convict." Omit " have " before " ungodly 
 committed/' and for " have spoken," " spoke." 
 In ver. 17, for ''of the apostles," "by the 
 apostles." In ver. 24, for "Now," "But" 
 
IX. 
 
 THE EPISTLES OF JOHN. 
 
 THE First Epistle of John may fairly be as- 
 sumed, from its style, to be by the same 
 writer as the fourth Gospel. But let us see what 
 the early fathers thought on this matter. 
 
 Eusebius tells us that Papias, who was him- 
 self a hearer of the Apostle John, ''^used testi- 
 monies from the first Epistle of John.^^ Irenaeus 
 frequently quotes it, calling its author " John, 
 the disciple of the Lord.^^ So does Clement of 
 Alexandria. Tertullian says that John the 
 Apostle declares many antichrists already to 
 have come into the world, denying that Christ 
 is come in the flesh (i John iv. i, etc.). Cyprian 
 quotes ch. ii. 3, 4, as the words of John the 
 Apostle. The Muratorian fragment quotes the 
 opening words of the Epistle as said by John. 
 
238 I low to study the A^cw Testament. 
 
 The Epistle is tbund in the ancient Syriac ver- 
 sion, which has so few of the catholic epistles. 
 Origen, and Dionvsius of Alexandria, his scho- 
 lar, testify distinctly in its favour. Eusebius 
 enumerates it among those sacred writings of 
 whose genuineness there was no doubt, either 
 then or in old times. And finally, Jerome says 
 that it was received by all ecclesiastics and 
 learned men. Dr. Liicke, the commentator on 
 St. John, observes, that the Epistle must incon- 
 testably be numbered among those canonical 
 books which are most strongly upheld by eccle- 
 siastical tradition. 
 
 Its claim to reception on the ground of inter- 
 nal evidence, is as strong. Any fair-judging 
 man can hardly read the Gospel and this Epistle, 
 without being convinced of the identity of au- 
 thorship, and that in such a way, that neither 
 can be said to be an imitation of the other. 
 Both are original, but both are the product of 
 the same mind. 
 
 All however have not felt this. Tt has been 
 thought by a very few, that the failure of per- 
 sonal notices, the very correspondence in style, 
 as far as it goes, but at tiie same time the en- 
 
The Epistles of John. 239 
 
 feeblement of style^ as compared with the Gospel, 
 betray an imitator rather than the Apostle him- 
 self. If written by him, it could only have been 
 in extreme old age, and decay of power : and in 
 that case, in such a passage as ch. ii. 18, the 
 destruction of Jerusalem must have been men- 
 tioned. But these objections have been tho- 
 roughly answered. There is no such absence 
 of personal notices : witness the opening verses 
 (i. 1-4) as to the writer; ch.. ii. i, 12-14, 18, 
 as to the readers; ch. iv. 1-3, as to false teach- 
 ers; and the warning, ch. v. 21, which certainly 
 reminds the readers of something well known to 
 them. Again, the character of slavish imitation 
 is, as has been said, notably absent. To predicate 
 it of the Epistle is mere reckless assumption. 
 Again, the assertion about its enfeeblement of 
 style is childish. If true, it would rather speak 
 for the genuineness than against it. For who 
 ever would set himself to imitate the enfeebled 
 powers of a well-known writer ? What forger 
 would ever propose that his work should carry 
 half the authority of its prototype ? The style 
 of the Epistle has its peculiarities, as we shall 
 see : but they are certainly not indications of 
 
240 How to study the Ahw Testament. 
 
 enfeebled power. Lastly, the objection about 
 the mention of the destruction of Jerusalem has 
 no weight whatever. We have no right to 
 assume that, writing mainly about general 
 truths, and certainly not for Jewish readers 
 chiefly, the author would naturally introduce 
 such mention. Even if he connected " the 
 last time " wdth that event, it would be not 
 unlike his manner, to leave the event itself in 
 the background of thought, unindicated by ex- 
 press words, as substantiating his assertion, that 
 the last hour was come. 
 
 Other objections have been brought, mainly 
 by the modern sceptical school of Germany ; 
 objections which happily the English mind is 
 hardly capable of appreciating. They are 
 brought by persons who have set aside all 
 laws of evidence, historical and moral, in favour 
 of certain despotic a priori postulates, which are 
 to rule all our conclusions. 
 
 We may with perfect safety assume, that the 
 Epistle was written by the Apostle John; at all 
 events, if he was the author of the fourth Gos- 
 pel, which we hold him to have been. 
 
 The question, for what readers the Epistle 
 
The Epistles of John, 241 
 
 was written, has been curiously complicated by 
 an odd mistake, the. source of which is quite in 
 the dark. In one place of Augustine's writings, 
 the present text represents that father as calling 
 this St. John-'s Epistle to the Parthians ; and 
 the same designation has been repeated by a 
 few writers since. But there is no ground at 
 all for taking it seriously. It may be a corrupt 
 reading in the text of Augustine. Or it may 
 have arisen from some confusion between two 
 Greek words ; but even thus the account of it 
 is not clear. At all events, it may be dismissed 
 from our minds ; and we must go to the Epistle 
 itself to see who were to be its readers. And 
 thus much pretty clearly appears. First, that it 
 was addressed rather to a cycle of churches than 
 to any one church; and next, that that cycle 
 was one embracing mainly Gentile converts. 
 Compare the warning of ch. v. 21, with the 
 fact that very little reference is made to Old 
 Testament sayings or history. Next, that it 
 is written to those who were the spiritual child- 
 ren of the writer. This is evident throughout. 
 Their circumstances and degrees of advance are 
 known to him as they only could be if he were 
 
242 How to study the Ahw Testament. 
 
 their father in the faith. And if this be so, 
 then all Christian tradition points to the 
 churches of Asia Minor, round Ephesus, where 
 the Apostle taught and presided. The same 
 '^ seven churches of Asia" to whom the Apoca- 
 lypse was addressed, were, in all probability, the 
 first recipients of this Epistle. 
 
 As to the time of writing, it is almost certain 
 that this Epistle was subsequent to the fourth 
 Gospel. An acquaintance with the facts of the 
 Gospel history is presumed, and words of our 
 Lord are cited as known, which had occurred in 
 the Gospel. The expressions of ideas ^.; Miliar to 
 the writer are more concentrated than the un- 
 folding of the same in the Gospel ; an almost 
 sure token of a second, not a first time, of 
 writing (compare ch. i. i, 2, with John i. i, 
 etc. ; and iv. 2 with John i. 14). If this be so, 
 the date of the Epistle cannot be much before 
 A.D. 86 (one volume on the Gospels, p. 120), 
 and consequently not much before the Apostle's 
 own death. Internal notes of extreme old a^"«* 
 are very fallacious; and I abstain from adducing 
 those which have been quoted. No more have 
 uc any right to infer, from ch. ii. 18, that the 
 
The Epistles of John. 243 
 
 writer looked on the destruction of Jerusalem as 
 imminent. 
 
 The place of writing is even more uncertain, 
 as indicated by anything in the Epistle. Irenaeu>s 
 states the Gospel to have been written at Ephe- 
 sus. And some ancient subscriptions at the 
 end of the Epistle say the same of it. This 
 seems very probable, but further it is impossible 
 to say. 
 
 In giving a view of the contents and arrange- 
 ment of the Epistle, we may premise that its 
 peculiar style makes such a task very difficult. 
 It is to a superficial observer full of short aphor- 
 isms, and of continual repetitions. It was once 
 the fashion to imagine that there was no con- 
 nection traceable in it. But for the last hun- 
 dred and fifty years, a different and worthier 
 opinion has prevailed. I will not give the 
 various arrangements which have been made 
 of its contents; they will be found in my 
 "New Testament for English Readers,^^ in 
 the Introduction to this Epistle. I will only 
 state that one, which seems to me best to 
 describe what I find in the Epistle : premising 
 that I owe it in the main to Professor Diister- 
 
 R 2 
 
244 How to study the New Testament. 
 
 dieck^ who has written the best modern com- 
 mentary, 
 
 ^'Regarding ch. i. 1-4 as the Introduction, 
 in which the writer lays down the great object 
 of apostolic preaching, asserts of himself full 
 apostolicity, and announces the purpose of his 
 writing, — we find iwo great divisions of the 
 Epistle : the first, i. 5 — ii. 28, the second, ii. 
 29 — V. 5 : on which follows the conclusion, v. 
 6-21. 
 
 " Each of these great divisions is ruled and 
 pervaded by one master-thought, announced 
 clearly in its outset, which we may call its 
 theme. These themes are impressed on the 
 readers both by positive and negative unfolding, 
 and by polemical defence against erroneous 
 teachers : and this being done, each principal 
 portion is concluded with a corresponding pro- 
 mise. And both principal portions tend through- 
 out to throw light on the great subject of the 
 whole, viz.. Fellowship with God the 
 Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 "The theme of th^ Jirst portion is given ch. 
 1.5,' God is Light J and in Him is no darkness.* 
 Consequently, fellowship with Him, on which 
 
The Epistles of John. 245 
 
 depends our joy in Christ (i. 3, 4), belongs only 
 to him who walks in light (i. 6). To walk thus 
 in light as God is light (i. 6, etc._, ii. 8, etc.), 
 and to flee from darkness_, in which there can 
 be no fellowship with God (ii. ii, etc.), forms 
 the first subject of the Apostle^s exhortation. 
 To this end, after showing the relation which 
 this proposition, ^ God is light,^ has to us in 
 regard of our fellowship with God and with one 
 another through Jesus Christ (i. 6, 7), he un- 
 folds first positively (i. 8 — ii. ii) wherein our 
 walking in light consists: viz. in free recog- 
 nition and humble confession of our own sin- 
 fulness : the knowledge and confession of our 
 own darkness being in fact the first breaking 
 in on us of the light, in which we must walk : 
 viz. fellowship with God through Christ, whose 
 blood is to cleanse us from all our sin. 
 
 '^ This our walking in light, whose first steps 
 are the recognition, confession, and cleansing 
 of sin, further consists in keeping the command- 
 ments of God, which are all summed up in one 
 great commandment o^ Love (ii. 3-11). Hence 
 only we know that we know God (ii. 3), that 
 we love Him (ii. 5), that we are and abide in 
 
246 How to study the A^cw Testament, 
 
 Him (ii. 6), in a word that we have fellowship 
 with Him (compare i. 3, 5, etc.), when we keep 
 His commandments, when we walk (ii. 6, com- 
 pare i. 6) as ' He ' i. e. Christ, walked, 
 
 ^'This summing up of all God^s commands 
 in love by the example of Christ as perfect love 
 (John xiii. 34) brings in the negative side of the 
 illustration of the proposition, ' God is Light.^ 
 Hate is darkness : is separation from God : is 
 fellowship with the world. So begins then a 
 polemical designation of and warning against 
 the love of and fellowship with the world (ii. 
 15-17), and against those false teachers (ii. 
 18-26), who would bring them into this con- 
 dition : and an exhortation to abide in Christ 
 (ii. 12-28). All this is grounded on the present 
 state and progress of the various classes among 
 them in fellowship with God in Christ (ii. 12- 
 14, 27). See each of these subdivisions more 
 fully specified in my Commentary. 
 
 ^' The second great portion of the Epistle (ii. 
 29 — V. 5) opens, as the other, with the announce- 
 ment of its theme : ' God is righteous ' (ii. 29), 
 and ' he who doeth righteousness, is begotten of 
 Him.' And as before, ' God is Light' made 
 
TJie Epistles of John. 247 
 
 the condition of fellowship with God to be, 
 walking in light as ^ He ^ walked in light, so 
 now, ' God is righteous ' makes the condition 
 of ' sonship ' on our part to be, that we be 
 righteous, as ' He,^ Christ, was holy. And 
 as before also, so now : it must be shown 
 wherein this righteousness of God^s children 
 consists, in contrast to the unrighteousness of 
 the children of the world and of the devil. 
 And so we have in this second part also a 
 twofold exhortation, a positive and a negative: 
 the middle point of which is the fundamental 
 axiom, ' God is righteous, and therefore we 
 His children must be ricrhteous :' and thus it 
 
 o 
 
 also serves the purpose of the Epistle announced 
 in i. 3, etc., to confirm the readers in fellowship 
 with the Father and the Son, and so to com- 
 plete their joy : for this fellowship is the state 
 of God^s children. 
 
 ^' This, however, as on the one side it brings 
 in all blessed hope and our glorious inheritance 
 (iii. 2, 3), so on the other it induces the moral 
 necessity of that righteousness on which our 
 fellowship with the- Father and the Son, out 
 abiding in Him, rests, grounded on His Love 
 
248 How to study the Nav Testament, 
 
 (iii. 8, 9, lOj etc., iv. 7, etc.). Both sides of 
 the birth from God, that which looks forward 
 and that which looks backward, are treated to- 
 gether by the Apostle. Because we are begotten 
 of God, not of the world, because we are God^s 
 children, not the deviPs (because we know Him, 
 — because we are of the truth,— because His 
 Spirit is in us, — which are merely parallel enun- 
 ciations of the same moral fact), therefore we 
 sin not, therefore we practise righteousness, as 
 God our Father is just and holy : and thus 
 sanctifying ourselves, thus doing righteousness, 
 thus abiding in Him and in His love, as His 
 children, even thus we may comfort ourselves 
 in the blessed hope of God's children to which 
 we are called, even thus we overcome the world. 
 " It will be well to examine more in detail 
 the order in which the exhortation proceeds 
 in this second portion of the Epistle. First 
 after the enunciation of the theme in ii. 29, 
 the Apostle takes up the forward side of the 
 state of God's children, that hope which is full 
 of promise (iii. i, 2) ; then proceeds to the 
 condition of this hope, purifying ourselves even 
 as 'He* is pure (iii. 3). This purifying con- 
 
The Epistles of yohn. 249 
 
 sists in fleeing from sin, which is against God^s 
 command (iii. 4), and pre-supposes abiding in 
 Him who has taken away our sins (iii. 5, 6) : 
 the Apostle thus grounding sanctification in its 
 condition, justification. 
 
 " Having laid down (iii. 7) the positive axiom, 
 *" He that doeth righteousness is righteous even as 
 " He'' is righteous/ he turns to the other and 
 negative side (iii. 8, etc.), contrasting the child- 
 ren of God and the children of the devil. And 
 this leads us to an explanation how the abiding 
 in the love of God necessarily puts itself forth 
 in the love of the brethren (iii. 11-18). Hate 
 is the sure sign of not being from God (iii. 10): 
 love to the brethren a token of being from Him 
 (iii. 18, 19), and being of the truth (ib.) : and 
 is a ground of confidence towards God (iii. 20, 
 21), and of the certainty of an answer to our 
 prayers (iii. 22). 
 
 " This confidence towards him is summed up 
 in one central and decisive pledge — the Spirit 
 which He has given us (iii. 24) : and thus the 
 Apostle is led on to warn us against false 
 spirits which are not of God (iv. i, etc.), and 
 to give us a certain test whereby we may know 
 
250 How to study the A^cw Testa^nent, 
 
 the true from the false. He sets the two in 
 direct opposition (iv. 1-6), and designates the 
 false spirit .as that of antichrist : making its 
 main characteristic the denial of Christ having 
 come in the flesh. This he concludes with a 
 formula parallel to that in the first part (iii. 10): 
 ' Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the 
 spirit of error .' 
 
 " After this (iv. 7, etc.) follows a fuller posi- 
 tive description of that which is born of God. 
 Its very essence is Love ; for God is Love : 
 Love to God grounded on His precious love 
 to us (iv. 7-21) in sending His Son: love to 
 one another, resting on the same motive, and 
 moreover (v. 1-5) because our brethren, like 
 ourselves, are born of Him. And seeing that 
 our love to God and to one another is grounded 
 on God having given us His Son, we come to 
 this, that faith in the Son of God is the deepest 
 ground and spring of our love in both its 
 aspects : and is the true test of being born of 
 God as distinguished from being of the world 
 (iv. 1-6), the true condition of life (iv. 9; com- 
 pare V. 13, i. 2, 3), of blessed confidence (iv. 
 14, etc.), of victory o\'cr the world (iv. 4, v. 4, 
 
TJic Epistles of John. 251 
 
 etc.). And thus the Apostle^s exhortation con- 
 verges gradually to the one point against which 
 the lie of antichrist is directed^ viz._, true faith 
 ill the Lord Jesus Christ manifested in the flesh 
 (v. 5). On this faith rests the righteousness of 
 those who are born of God^ as on the other 
 hand the antichristian character of the children 
 of the world consists in the denial of Christ 
 having come in the flesh. For this faith works 
 by righteousness and sanctification^ as God the 
 Father, and as the Lord Jesus Christ, is right- 
 eous and holy : seeing that we, who are born of 
 and abide in the love with which God in Christ 
 hath first loved us, keep His commandments, 
 viz., to practise love towards God and towards 
 the brethren. 
 
 " So that we see on the one side the simple 
 parallelism of both parts, suggested by the na- 
 ture of the subject : and on the other, how 
 both parts serve the general purpose of the 
 whole work. The righteousness of those that 
 are born of God, who is righteous, is simply 
 the walking in light as God is light : the keep- 
 ing God^s commandments which all converge 
 into one, the commandment of love. And this 
 
252 How to study the N'tw Testament. 
 
 love has its ground and its source in a right 
 faith in the Son of God manifested in the flesh. 
 On our fellowship therefore with this our Lord, 
 depends our fellowship with the Father and 
 with one another (i. 3, 7, ii. 23, iii. 23, iv. 
 7, etc.), and consequently our joy (i. 4), our 
 confidence (ii. 28), our hope (iii. 3), our life 
 (iii. 15, V. 13 ; cf. i. 2), our victory over the 
 world (ii. 15, etc., iii. 7, etc., v. 5). 
 
 " The Conclusion of the Epistle begins 
 with V. 6. It is in two portions, v. 6-12 and 
 v. 13-21. Both of these serve to bring the 
 subject of the whole to its full completion, 
 and, so to speak, to set it at rest. ''Jesus is 
 the Son of God.^ This is the sum and sub- 
 stance of the apostolic testimony and exhor- 
 tation. In the opening of the Epistle it was 
 rested on the testimony of eye and ear wit- 
 nesses : now, it is rested on witness no less 
 secure, viz., on the religious life and experience 
 of the readers themselves. Between these two 
 testimonies comes in the Epistle itself with all 
 its teaching, exhortation, and warning. This 
 last testimony that Jesus is the Son of God 
 is threefold : the water of baptism, the blood 
 
The Epistles of Joh n, 253 
 
 of reconciliation^ the Spirit of sanctification 
 (v. 6-8). These^ in threefold unity^ form God's 
 own witness for His Son (v. 9). Only in faith 
 on the Son of God (v. 10) do we receive and 
 possess this witness of God, the true substance 
 of which is eternal life, bestowed on us in 
 Christ through water, blood, and the Spirit. 
 So that he that hath the Son hath life. 
 
 ^^ And thus we have reached the true goal of 
 all the Apostle's exhortation : ^ these things have 
 I written' (v. 13), answering to 'these things 
 write we/ in i. 4. And it is this — that our 
 fellowship with the Father, and with one 
 another, rests on our fellowship with the Lord 
 Jesus Christ the Son of God j on which also 
 depends our confidence, our hope, our joy, 
 seeing that we have eternal life in faith in 
 the Son of God. As in ch. iii. 22, so here 
 again, he illustrates this confidence by its exer- 
 cise with regard to the answer of our prayers. 
 And of this he takes occasion to adduce one 
 particular example, viz., intercession for a sin- 
 ning brother ; and to place it in its true moral 
 light, viz., as then availing, when the sin in 
 question has not excluded him totally from the 
 
254 How to study the N'ew Testajnent, 
 
 family of life and from holy fellowship with 
 God. Then follow a few solemn sentences, 
 gathering up the whole instruction of the 
 Epistle : the living contrast between the sin- 
 ner and the child of God : bet.ween the family 
 of God and the world : the consciousness on 
 the part of God^s children of their standing 
 and dignity in Christ, the true God and life 
 eternal. And he ends by summing up in one 
 word all his warnings against falsehood in doc- 
 trine and practice, 'Little children, keep your- 
 selves from idols. ^ 
 
 ^''This account has, to my mind, this decided 
 advantage over the others, that it not only 
 arranges, but accounts for the arrangement 
 given : and without any straining of the ma- 
 terial of the Epistle to suit a preconceived view, 
 brings to light its inner structure and parallelisms 
 in a way which leaves on the mind a view of it 
 as an intelligently constructed and interdepen- 
 dent whole." 
 
 As to style, this Epistle stands alone. I 
 cannot avoid quoting, as I have been doing, 
 the description which I have before given in 
 my '' New Testament for English Readers." 
 
TJie Epistles of yoJin, 255 
 
 " The connection of sentence with sentence 
 is shghtly^ if at all^ pointed out. It depends, 
 so to speak, on roots struck in at the bottom of 
 the stream, hidden from the casual observer, to 
 whom the aphorisms appear unconnected, and 
 idly floating on the surface. Liicke well de- 
 scribes this style as indicating a contemplative 
 spirit, which is ever given to pass from the 
 particular to the general, from differences to 
 the unity which underlies them, from the outer 
 to the inner side of Christian life. Thus the 
 writer is ever working upon certain fundamental 
 themes and axioms, to which he willingly re- 
 turns again and again, sometimes unfolding and 
 applying them, sometimes repeating and con- 
 centrating them : so that we have side by side 
 the simplest and clearest, and the most con- 
 densed and difficult sayings : the reader who 
 seeks merely for edification is attracted by the 
 one, and the ^ scribe learned in the Scriptures ' 
 is satisfied, and his understanding surpassed and 
 deepened by the other. 
 
 "The logical connection is not, as in the 
 Epistles of St. Paul, indicated by the whole 
 superficial aspect of the writing, nor does it 
 
256 How to study the N'cw Testatnent. 
 
 bear onward the thoughts till the conclusion 
 is reached. The logic of St. John moves, as 
 Dusterdieck has expressed it, rather in circles 
 than straight onward. The same thought is 
 repeated as seen from different sides : is trans- 
 formed into cognate thoughts and thus put into 
 new lights, is unfolded into assertion and nega- 
 tion, and the negation again closed up by the 
 repeated assertion (i. 6 f., 8 f., ii. 9 f., etc.). 
 Thus there arise numerous smaller groups of 
 ideas, all, so to speak, revolving round some 
 central point, all regarding some principal 
 theme; all serving it, and circumscribed by ■ 
 the same bounding line. Thus the writer is 
 ever close to his main subject, and is able to 
 be ever reiterating it without any unnatural 
 forcing of his context : the train of thought 
 is ever reverting back to its central point. 
 
 " Now if we regard the actual process of the 
 Epistle with reference to these characteristics, 
 we find that there is one great main idea or 
 theme, which binds together the whole and gives 
 character to its contents and aim ; viz., that 
 fellowship with God the Father and our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, in which our joy is complete; 
 
Tlic Epistles of Joh n. 257 
 
 in other words, that right faith in the Son of 
 God manifest in the flesh, in which we over- 
 come the world, in which we have confidence 
 in God, and eternal life. 
 
 " This idea, which pervades the whole Epistle, 
 is set forth in two great circles of thought, which 
 have been already described as the two portions 
 of the Epistle. These two, both revolving round 
 the one great theme, are also, in their inner con- 
 struction, closely related to each other. God is 
 light : — then our fellowship with Him depends 
 on our walking in the light : God is righteous : 
 — then we are only manifested as children of 
 God, abiding in His love and in Himself, if we 
 do righteousness. But for both — our walking in 
 light, and our doing righteousness — there is one 
 common term — Love : even as God is Love, as 
 Christ walked in Love, out of Love became ma- 
 nifest in the flesh, out of Love gave himself for 
 us. On the other side — as the darkness of 
 the world, which can have no fellowship with 
 God, who is Light, denies the Son of God 
 and repudiates Love — so the unrighteousness 
 of the children of the world manifests itself 
 in that hatred which slays brethren, because 
 
 s 
 
258 How to study the N'cw Testament. 
 
 love to brethren cannot be where the love of God 
 in Christ is unknown and eternal life untasted. 
 
 " Such a style and character of the Epistle, 
 not bound by strict dialectic rulcs_, not hurrying 
 onward to a logical conclusion, but loving to 
 tarry, and to repeat, and to limit itself in smaller 
 circles of thought, shows us the simple heart of 
 a child, or rather the deep spirit of a man who, 
 in the richest significance of the expression, has 
 entered the kingdom of heaven as a little child, 
 and, being blessed in it himself, yearns to intro- 
 duce his brethren further and further into it, 
 that they may rejoice with him. In his Epistle 
 Christian truth, which is not dialectic only, but 
 essentially moral and living, is made to live and 
 move and feel and act. When he speaks of 
 knowledge and faith, it is of a moral existence 
 and possession : it is of love, peace, joy, confi- 
 dence, eternal life. Fellowship with God and 
 Christ, and fellowship of Christians with one 
 another in faith and love, each of these is per- 
 sonal, real ; so to speak, incarnate and embodied. 
 
 " And this is the reason why our Epistle ap- 
 pears on the one hand easily intelligible to the 
 simplest reader, if only his heart has any expe- 
 
TJie Ep i sties of Joh n. 259 
 
 rience of the truth of Christ's salvation^ — and 
 on the other hand unfathomable even to the 
 deepest Christian thinker ; but at the same time 
 equally precious and edifying to both classes of 
 readers. It is the most notable example of the 
 foolishness of God putting to shame all the wis- 
 dom of the world. 
 
 " But as the matter of our Epistle is rich and 
 sublime, so is it fitted, by its mildness, and con- 
 solatory character, to attract our hearts. Such 
 is the power of that holy love, so humble and so 
 gentle, which John had learned from Him in 
 whom the Father's love was manifested. He 
 addresses all his readers, young and old, as his 
 little children : he calls them to him, and wdth 
 him to the Lord : he exhorts them ever as his 
 brothers, as his beloved, to that love which is 
 from God. The Epistle itself is in fact nothing 
 else than an act of his holy love. Hence the 
 loving, attracting tone of the language ; hence 
 the friendly character and winning sound of the 
 whole. For the Love which wrote the Epistle 
 is but the echo, out of the heart of a man, an-^ 
 that man an Apostle, of that Love of God 
 which is manifested to us in Christ, that it jn,?.»/ 
 
 s 2 
 
26o How to study the Neii) Testament. 
 
 lead us to the everlasting Fount of Love^ of j^y^ 
 and of life. 
 
 " I may conclude this description, so admi- 
 rably worked out by Diisterdieck, with the verv 
 beautiful words of Ewald, which he also cites : 
 speaking of the ^unruffled and heavenly repose' 
 which is the spirit of the Epistle_, he says, ' It 
 appears to be the tone, not so much of a father 
 talking with his beloved children, as of a glori- 
 fied saint, speaking to mankind from a higher 
 world. Never in any writing has the doctrine 
 of heavenly Love, of a love working in stillness, 
 a love ever unwearied, never exhausted, so 
 thoroughly proved and approved itself, as in 
 this Epistle.''' 
 
 The occasion and object of the Epistle are 
 yet to be stated. The occasion was furnished 
 by the appearance of false teachers in the 
 church. These are indisputably pointed at in 
 ch. ii. 12-14, 18-26; iv. I. But the object 
 goes far beyond the occasion, as will have been 
 seen by the summary already given. ^'^That 
 our joy may be full :" ^*^that ye may know that 
 ye have eternal life, ye which believe on the 
 name of the Son of God," — these are stated to be 
 
TJie Epistles of John. 261 
 
 the aim in the writer^s mind^ over and above the 
 immediate occasion which prompted his writing. 
 
 We now notice the corrections requisite in 
 reading and rendering : — 
 
 In ch. i. 3, after ^^ unto you/' insert ^^also/' 
 with the oldest authorities. In ver. 4, omit 
 ^^ unto you/' and for ''your/' read "our/' In 
 ver. 7^ omit " Christ." 
 
 In ch. ii. 7, for "Brethren/' read "Beloved:'' 
 and at the end of the verse omit " from the be- 
 ginning." In ver. 13, for "write" (third time), 
 " have written." In ver. 23, omit " hut." In 
 ver. 24, omit " therefore." In ver. 27, for " the 
 same anointing/' read, "his anointing:" and 
 for "ye shall abide," read "abide." 
 
 In ch. iii. 1, all the ancient MSS. after 
 "God" insert "and we are:" i.e., in English, 
 "and so we are." In ver. 14, omit "his Iro- 
 ther." In ver. 19, for "we know/' "shall we 
 know." 
 
 In ch. iv. 3, two of our oldest MSS. omit 
 the words "Christ come in the flesh:" still, 
 they are found in the Sinaitic MS., and in the 
 old Syriac version. In ver. 19 omit "him." 
 In ver. 20, for "how can he love God whom he 
 
262 How to study the New Testame^it, 
 
 hath not seen? '^ read "cannot love God whom 
 he hath not seen." 
 
 Ch. V. 7 is perhaps the most celebrated case 
 of interpolation in the whole New Testament. 
 The words " in heaven, the Father, the IVord, and 
 the Holy Ghost : and these three are one. And 
 there are three that hear witness in earth/' are 
 wanting in all Greek MSS. whatever previous to 
 the sixteenth century, when a Greek MS. con- 
 taining them was apparently forged in answer 
 to a challenge from Erasmus : no Greek Father 
 whatever takes any notice of them in expound- 
 ing the passage : the ancient Syriac version 
 does not contain them : the Latin Fathers were 
 long supposed to quote them, but hardly an 
 imagined example of this citation in their works 
 will bear strict examination. There is not the 
 shadow of a reason for supposing the words 
 genuine ; and it is hardly less than disgraceful 
 that they should be retained in the English 
 Bible. Nothing can more completely illustrate 
 the paralyzed condition of the churches of Eng- 
 land, than their want of power, or of will, to 
 deal with a clear matter of this kind. And the 
 apathy to such a duty is only equalled by the 
 
The Epistles of Jo Jin, 26^ 
 
 amazing ignorance which also prevails. Within 
 these few months a considerable book has been 
 published in defence of this spurious passage, 
 the author of which, throughout his volume, 
 has wrongly stated the words which are matter 
 of dispute. Ver. 13 ought to stand, "These 
 things have I written unto you, that ye may 
 know that ye have eternal life; even to you 
 that believe on the name of the Son of God.^' 
 In ver. 18, for '^ he that hath been begotten of 
 God keepeth himself/' we probably should read, 
 " he that hath been begotten of God, it keepeth 
 him.^^ In ver. 20, for ^' and/' "moreover." 
 At the end omit " Amen." 
 
 The principal corrections in rendering fol- 
 low : — 
 
 In ch. i. I, for "of," "concerning." In ver. 
 2, for "/or," "and;" for "show/' "declare." 
 In ver. 5, for " And this/' " This then." 
 
 In ch. ii. I, for "any man sin/' "any man 
 have sinned." In ver. 2, for " the propitia- 
 tion," "a propitiation." The fact, indeed, is 
 so, that He is the propitiation; but so much 
 is not stated here. In ver. 3, for "we do know 
 that we know him/' "we know that we have 
 
264 How to study the New Testament. 
 
 the knowledge of him/'* In ver. 4, for 
 ^^ knoWy' " have the knowledge of/' In ver. 8, 
 for " IS past/^ " is passing," In ver. 9, for 
 " darkness, ^^ "the darkness/' and in ver. 11 : 
 where also^ for " because that darkness/' " be- 
 cause the darkness." In ver. 13, instead of 
 " that is/* supply " that was " (so also in ver. 
 14) ; and for " have known/' " know." In ver. 
 16 J for "pride/' '^ vain glory." In ver. 17, for 
 " passeth/' "is passing." In ver. 18, omit 
 'Tittle;" for ''have heard," "heard;" for 
 " shall come/' " cometh ; " for " are there/' 
 "have there arisen." In ver. 19, for "frovi/' 
 " from among." The words " no doiiht/' and 
 " they went out " (second time) are not ex- 
 pressed in the original. The former words are 
 not required at all, and never ought to have 
 been inserted, as they make the Apostle merely 
 surmise what he positively asserts. The latter 
 words it is almost necessary to supply for the 
 sense. For " they were not all of us/' " all are 
 not of us." In ver. 20, for "But/' "And." 
 "Unction" is better "anointing," as it now 
 
 * In my " New Testament for English Readers," these words 
 arc wrongly printed : " know that we " being omitted. 
 
The Epistles of John. 265 
 
 bears a different meaning. For ^^ that,'^ ^' be- 
 cause/' In ver. 23^ for '^ the same hath iiot," 
 ^^ neither hath he /' for " acknowledgeth" '^ con- 
 fesseth/' Begin ver. 24, " As for you_, let that 
 abide/' etc. Omit "have" (twice). For "shall 
 remain," " abide." For " continue" " abide.'' 
 In ver. 2^, for "he hath promised" "he him- 
 self promised." In ver. 26, for " seduce" " de- 
 ceive." Begin ver. 27,, "And as for you^ the 
 anointing which ye received." For " of" " con- 
 cerning." For " it hath taught," " he taught." 
 In ver. 28, for " when he shall appear," " if he 
 should be manifested." For " he ashamed before 
 him," "shrink with shame from him." In ver. 
 29, for " every one," " every one also." 
 
 In ch. iii. 2, for "the sons," "children." 
 For " it doth not yet appear," " it never yet 
 was manifested." "But" is not expressed in 
 the original. For "when he shall appear," "if 
 it be manifested." For "for," " because." In 
 ver. 3, for "this hope in him," "this hope on 
 Him." " Him" refers to the Lord Jesus ; " this 
 hope, resting on Him;" whereas, as it stands, 
 it seems as if "in him" meant "in himself/' 
 in his breast; and is very generally so read by 
 
266 How to study the Ahw Testament. 
 
 persons not aware of the original. In ver. 8, 
 for " committethy^ '^ doeth/^ In ver. 9_, for 
 "doth not commit sin, for/' ^Moeth not sin, 
 because/' In ver. lo, for "neither he/' ^*^and 
 he.'' In ver. 12, for " not as Cain, who was/' 
 " not as Cain was/' and for " evil/' " wicked." 
 In ver. 13, for "hate/' ''hateth." It is not a 
 supposition, but a matter of fact, that is spoken 
 of. In ver. 14, for " passed/' " passed over." 
 Begin ver. 16, " Herein have we the knowledge 
 of love, that He laid down," etc. In ver. 17, 
 for "good/' ^'^ sustenance;" and proceed, ^*^ and 
 beholdeth his brother having need, and shutteth 
 up his heart from him, how abideth," etc. In 
 ver. 18, for " in word," " in tongue," " with 
 word," "with tongue." In ver. 19, for "as- 
 sure/' " persuade." In ver. 20, for " God is 
 greater/' etc., " it is because God is greater," 
 etc. ; this is the cause why our heart condemns 
 us, because it is echoing the voice of God. In 
 ver. 24, for " dtuelleth/' "abideth;" and for 
 " hath given/' " gave." 
 
 In ch. iv. 2, 3, for " that Jesus Christ is 
 come/' "Jesus Christ come." This ought not 
 to have been changed. It is not a foict about 
 
TJie Epistles of John. 267 
 
 Christy but Christ personally, that we confess, 
 and they deny. In ver. 3, for '' should come,^ 
 ^^cometh/^ In ver. 7, for "for,^ "because.^' 
 In ver. g, for '^ toward/^ '' in regard to.^^ For 
 "sent,'' ''^hath sent." In ver. 10, for ''the 
 propitiation," "3. propitiation" (see on ch. ii. 
 2). In ver. 12, for "His love/' which is ambi- 
 guous, ^^the love of Him." In ver. 13, for 
 "dwell," ^' abide." In ver. 14, for " setit," 
 ^^ hath sent." In ver. 15, for "shall confess," 
 ''confesseth;" and for " dujelleth," ''abideth" 
 (so also in ver. 16, twice). In ver. 16, for 
 " to," " in regard to." Begin ver. 17, " Herein 
 is love made perfect with us, that we have 
 boldness in the day of judgment." In ver. 18, 
 for "but perfect love," "nay, perfect love;" 
 and for " he that feareth," " and he that 
 feareth," prefixing a colon instead of a full stop. 
 In ver. 20, for " hateth," " hate." 
 
 In ch. V. I, for "is horn," "hath been be- 
 gotten." In ver. 2, for " keep," " do " (this 
 does not apply to ver. 3, where the word is 
 different). In ver. 3, place a full stop at "com- 
 mandments," and proceed, "And His com- 
 mandments are not grievous, because all that 
 
268 How to study the New Testament. 
 
 is begotten of God/^ etc. For " that over- 
 cometh,^' "that hath overcome/' In ver. 6, 
 retaining "by water/^ the first time, read the 
 latter part of the verse, " not in the water only, 
 but in the water and in the blood/' Read ver. 
 7 (see the corrections of readings, p. 262) thus : 
 " For they that bear witness are three, the spirit, 
 and the water, and the blood; and the three 
 agree in one." In ver. 9 (latter part) read thus : 
 " for the witness of God is this, that he hath 
 borne witness concerning his Son.'' The end 
 of ver. 10 should stand, "because he hath not 
 believed in the witness that God hath borne 
 concerning his Son." In ver. 11, for "record/' 
 "witness;" and for "hath given" "gave." 
 In ver. 12 (twice), for "life'' "the life," viz., 
 that spoken of in the last verse. In ver. 14, 
 for "in him," "towards him." In ver. 15, 
 dele comma after "us." In ver. 16, for "any 
 man" "any;" for "sin" "sinning;" omit 
 " which is" and the second " he," and end the 
 verse, "conce-rning it I do not say that he 
 should make request." In ver. 18, for "born" 
 "begotten;" and for "that wicked one," "the 
 wicked one." In ver. 19, omit "And;" for 
 
The Epistles of John. 269 
 
 '^ wickedness J ' " the wicked one." In ver. 20, 
 for '^ And" " Moreover." For ^' that we may 
 know him that is true/' ^''that we know the 
 true One;" and for "him that is true" in 
 the next clause^ ^^the true One;" omitting 
 "even." In ver. 2ij "idols" is in the original 
 " the idols/' viz.^ which are about you ; but we 
 can hardly express it thus in English. 
 
 II. We now come to speak of the Second and 
 Third Epistles which bear the name of John. 
 And the first question that meets us is^ their 
 authorship. That they were written by one and 
 the same person^ all seem agreed : they have been 
 compared to twin sisters; their style and spirit 
 is one ; their conclusions agree almost word for 
 word. The important question for us is^ were 
 they written by the author of the former Epistle ? 
 On this there have been some doubts. Let us 
 go to Christian antiquity for its testimony. 
 
 Irenaeus quotes the Second Epistle as from 
 "John_, the Lord's disciple." Clement of 
 Alexandria speaks of St. John's " greater 
 Epistle/' thereby showing that he supposed 
 him to be the author of lesser ones. Dio- 
 
270 How to study the New Testavient, 
 
 nysius of Alexandria, and Cyprian_, testify to 
 the authorship by John. Eusebius^ while he 
 includes the two Epistles among the "ques- 
 tioned " books_, yet himself is a believer in 
 their genuineness. Origen mentions them 
 with doubt. Jerome^ after writing as quoted 
 abov^e of the First Epistle^ proceeds : — " the 
 other two, of which the first word is 'The 
 Elder/ are asserted to be by John the Elder 
 (presbyter), of whom there is shown a sepul- 
 chre, besides that of St. John, at Ephesus." 
 
 This view, that there was another "John 
 the Presbyter," the author of these Epistles, 
 was revived by Erasmus, and has been the 
 opinion of many since his time. But first, 
 the existence of such a person rests on very 
 doubtful grounds; and next, had he existed, 
 he would never have named himself "John the 
 Presbyter," as, in an official sense, it would 
 have conveyed no distinction. It is far more 
 likely, that as St. Paul, writing to Philemon, 
 calls himself " Paul the aged " {preshijtes) so 
 St. John mitrht have called himself " the elder" 
 [presbijteros), meaning the word not in its 
 official, but in its primary simple sense. 
 
TJie Epistles of yoJin. 271 
 
 The internal evidence furnished by style and 
 manner is greatly in favour of the conclusion 
 that the Apostle was the author. Several 
 phrases are identical with expressions in the 
 larger Epistle. Even Irenaeus falls into the 
 mistake of quoting 2 John 7, as from the 
 greater Epistle. 
 
 Passing to the inquiry, for what readers the 
 two letters were written, we may at once dis- 
 pose of the Third Epistle. It is addressed to 
 one Gains (in Latin, Caius). Whether he was 
 Gains of Macedonia (Acts xix. 29), Gaius of 
 Corinth (i Cor. i. 14; Rom. xvi. 23), Gaius of 
 Derbe (Acts xx. 4), or some Gaius different 
 from them all, we have no means of deciding. 
 The name of Caius was so common, that a 
 saying of a Roman bride to her husband was, 
 "^ Where you are Caius, I am Caia /^ i. e., 
 " Where you are master, I am mistress.^^ 
 
 But about the Second Epistle, a curious ques- 
 tion arises. It is addressed in the Greek, to 
 '' eclecte kyria " and her children : the former 
 word, by itself, meaning " elect ;'' the latter 
 meaning ^' lady.'' In ver. 4, " thy children '' 
 are mentioned again ; in ver. 5, '^ kyria " is 
 
272 Hovo to study the New Tcstainent. 
 
 addressed ; and in ver. 13, " the children of 
 thy elect sister '' are mentioned as sending 
 greeting. 
 
 Now here are doubts within doubts. If an 
 individual lady is addressed, which of the two 
 words is, or is either, a proper name? Was 
 she ^' Kyria the elect/^ or was she " the lady 
 Eclecte ?" Either is possible. Or again it 
 might be that neither word was a proper name, 
 but she was addressed as '^ the elect lady ;" and 
 this would be perhaps more according to St. 
 John^s practice, who never names himself, and 
 in his larger Epistle mentions no one by name. 
 But against this we may fairly set the Third 
 Epistle, in which no such practice is observed. 
 
 But there is another possible mode of inter- 
 preting this address. It may have been not to 
 an individual at all, but to a church. And if so, 
 it may have been to some particular church, or 
 to the church universal. 
 
 Now, in weighing the probability of these 
 hypotheses, we may observe that the address 
 of the third Epistle, by the same writer, corre- 
 sponds exactly in form with this : '' The elder 
 to [the well beloved Gaius], whom I love in 
 
The Epistles of John. 273 
 
 truth." Take out the words in brackets, and 
 insert [Eclecte Kyria and her children], and we 
 have the address here. Is it probable that so 
 simple a writer would indicate an individual in 
 one case, and an abstraction in another ? 
 
 Besides, the form of some expressions will 
 hardly admit of such an abstract meaning. 
 *^' The children of thine elect sister greet thee," 
 would at best be a clumsy sentence. We 
 should expect either, " Thine elect sister greet- 
 eth thee," or, " The children of thine elect 
 sister greet thy children." This, and the words 
 of verse 5, " And no.w I beseech thee, Kyria," 
 favour much more the individual than the ab- 
 stract hypothesis. 
 
 Again, we should be thus attributing to St. 
 John, a singularly simple writer, a piece of mystic 
 metaphor which is not elsewhere found in an- 
 cient ecclesiastical literature. For i Peter v. 13, 
 even if it were understood of a church, which I 
 have questioned, would furnish no precedent : 
 no mention of a " lady " being made there. 
 
 On the whole then, I believe that an indi- 
 vidual, and not a church, is addressed. And if 
 so the question, which word is the proper name, 
 
 T 
 
2 74 How to study the N'cii) Testaincnt, 
 
 isj I imagine^ settled for us by the expression^ 
 'Hhine elect sister/^ Both women were ''^ elect •;' 
 which word is therefore the epithet, not the 
 name. Thus Kyria becomes the name. It was 
 not an uncommon one, as commentators have 
 shown from inscriptions. 
 
 This Kyria was a Christian matron, having 
 children, some of whom the Apostle had found, 
 perhaps at a previous visit, walking in the truth. 
 She had a sister, also a Christian matron, 
 whose children were with the Apostle when 
 he wrote the letter. More we cannot say. 
 • Nothing need be remarked on the occasions 
 and objects of the Epistles. These are plainly 
 written on the face of them. The times and 
 places of writing cannot be pointed out with 
 certainty. The similarity in style may perhaps 
 shew that the times of writmg the two could not 
 have been far apart. In 2 John 12 a journey is 
 mentioned : so also in 3 John 10-14. These 
 may refer to one and the same journey. Eusc- 
 bius tells us that St. John, returning after his 
 exile in Patmos, went in circuit round the 
 neighbouring churches, exhorting and making 
 n 2 John 10, a threat- 
 
The Epistles of yoJm. 275 
 
 ening is conveyed to Diotrephes^ which may 
 be in prospect of such a visit. The Epistles 
 would thus belong to a very late period of 
 St. John^s life — after the writing of the Reve- 
 lation. 
 
 If we adopt the account just quoted from 
 Eusebius, Ephesus will seem to be pointed out 
 as the place where both Epistles were written. 
 
 It now only remains that I give the usual 
 lists of corrections ; and first for the readings. 
 
 In 2 John^ ver. 3^ instead of ^' Grace he with 
 yoUy mercy f and peace/' read '^ there shall be 
 with us grace, mercy_, and peace/^ putting only 
 a colon at the end of ver. 2. For '' the Lord 
 Jesus Christ/^ read " Jesus Christ.^^ In ver. 8, 
 for "we" (three times), read ^^ye.^^ In ver. 9, 
 for " transgresseth" read " goeth before [you] ." 
 Omit the words " of Christ " (the second time 
 only). In ver. 12, for "our" '^'^your.-'^ At 
 end, omit "Amen." 
 
 In 3 John, ver. 5, for "and to strangers/^ 
 read ^^who besides are strangers.^' In ver. 7, 
 for " his name^s sake/^ " the name's sake/' In 
 ver. 9, for " I wrote unto" " I wTote somewhat 
 unto." In ver. 12, for "ye know" ^^thou 
 
 T 2 
 
276 How to study the New Testame^it, 
 
 knowest/^ In ver. 13, for '^ to write" "to 
 write unto thee/^ 
 
 The chief corrections in rendering follow. In 
 2 John, ver. i, for " have known," " know." In 
 ver. 2, for " dwelleth" " abideth." In ver. 4, 
 for "found" " have found." For " have re- 
 ceived a commandment" ^^ received command- 
 ment." In ver. 5, for " though I wrote" 
 " writincr.^^ The latter clause of verse 6 should 
 stand, "This is the commandment, even as ye 
 heard from the beginning that ye should walk 
 in it." In ver. 7, for " For many deceivers are 
 entered" "Because many deceivers went forth:" 
 and continue, " into the world, they who con- 
 fess not Jesus Christ coming in the flesh. This 
 is the deceiver and the antichrist." In ver. 8, 
 omit " have" and for " a full reward" read 
 "reward in full." In ver. 10, for "come" and 
 " bring" " cometh " and " bringeth." For 
 " God speed," "good speed" (also in ver. 11). 
 In ver. 12, for " trust" "hope." 
 
 In 3 John, ver. 3, for " the truth that is in 
 thee" "thy truth." In ver. 6, for " have hwne" 
 " bore." For " after a godly sort" which is 
 hardly intelligible, and does not express the 
 
The Epistles of John . 277 
 
 original,, ^Svorthily of God." In ver. 8^ for 
 '' receive/' " support." For '' that we might 
 he/' " that we may become /' and for '' fellow- 
 helpers to/' " fellow-workers for." In ver. 10, 
 for " rememher/' '^ bring to mind." For '' ma- 
 licious words/' " wicked speeches." Ver. 1 1 
 should begin, "Beloved, imitate not evil, but 
 good." In ver. 12, for "report/' "testimony;" 
 and for "record" (twice), "testimony." In ver. 
 13, for " I will not with ink and pen write unto 
 thee/' " I am not willing with ink and reed to 
 write unto thee." In ver. 14, for " / trust I 
 shall shortly see thee/' " I hope immediately to 
 see thee/' 
 
X. 
 
 THE BOOK OF REVELATION. 
 
 1 MRST of all, this wonderful book is an 
 J- Epistle. It is addressed to the seven 
 churches in Asia : and after an introduction, de- 
 scribing how the Lord in glory appeared to the 
 writer, and entrusted him with special messages 
 to each of the churches, it proceeds to relate 
 what further the writer saw in vision on the oc- 
 casion. By far the greater portion of the book is 
 occupied in this relation ; and it is from these pro- 
 phetic visions that its main character is derived. 
 
 We will, as usual, speak first of the author. 
 
 He describes himself as ^^ John," in ch. i. i, 
 4, 9 ; xxii. 8 ; and has been generally taken for 
 the Apostle of that name, the son of Zebedee, 
 the writer of the Gospel and the three Epistles 
 — the disciple whom Jesus loved. This idea is 
 
Tlie Revelation. I'jf^ 
 
 supported by abundance of primitive testimonies, 
 direct and indirect. It may here suffice to cite 
 two of these. 
 
 Justin Martyr, writing between a.d. 139-161, 
 says : '^ Among us a certain man named John, 
 one of the Apostles of Christ, in the Apo- 
 calypse which was made to him, prophesied that 
 those who have believed in our time shall spend 
 a thousand years in Jerusalem, and after this the 
 universal, and, in a word, eternal resurrection 
 and judgment of all together shall take place." 
 
 Irenaeus, himself the disciple of Polycarp, 
 who was the disciple of St. John, and died 
 about A.D. 180, again and again states this 
 book to have been written by John the disciple 
 of the Lord, who^ he afterwards adds, lay upon 
 His breast, and published the Gospel when he 
 resided in Ephesus of Asia. Tn one place, he 
 savs of the enigma about the name of Anti- 
 christ, ^' If it had been fitting for his name to 
 have been openly revealed to this age, it would 
 have been declared by him who saw the Apoca- 
 Ivpse. For it was seen not long ago, but close 
 upon our own generation, near the end of the 
 reira of Domitlan." 
 
28o Hoii) to study the N'ew Testament, 
 
 Numerous other ancient testimonies to the 
 same effect will be found in my '^ New Testa- 
 ment for English Readers/^ vol. ii.. Introduc- 
 tion, pp. 308-312. 
 
 But it would not be fair to conceal that there 
 was doubt on this point, if not from the first, 
 yet very early in the history of the church. 
 About the year 250, Dionysius, bishop of Alex- 
 andria, a man of remarkable research and can- 
 dour, published reasons against the authorship 
 by St. John, founding them mainly on the 
 difference of style and sentiment, and on the 
 fact that the Evangelist John nowhere names 
 himself, either in his Gospel or in his Epistles, 
 whereas this writer does. In which arguments 
 we may notice that Dionysius, in the third cen- 
 tury, has not any advantage over us in the nine- 
 teenth, but that the book is as open to us as it 
 was to him to examine and reason from. He 
 is not a witness, but a critic. 
 
 The historian Eusebius, living not long after, 
 excluded the book from the canon of the New 
 Testament; but on examination his opinion 
 appears to be entirely conjectural, and valueless 
 as evidence. It proves, as indeed does that of 
 
The Revelation. 281 
 
 Dionyslus, that there was not then any ecclesi- 
 astical tradition reputing any one else to be the 
 author : for if there had been, they would have 
 been sure to mention it. Both of them men- 
 tion a certain John the Presbyter, and with a 
 kind of surmise that he may have been the 
 author : but the very existence of this personage 
 is apparently mythical, the idea having arisen 
 from a misapprehension of the title, " the pres- 
 byter,^^ or " the elder," by which St. John calls 
 himself in the addresses of his two smaller 
 Epistles. As far, then, as external evidence 
 goes, the authorship of St. John the Evangelist 
 seems to be established. It is when we look at 
 internal evidence, that this conclusion seems to 
 be beset with difficulties. 
 
 It was well put, as early as by Dionysius (see 
 above), that the Gospel and the larger Epistle 
 of John are full of " the life,'' " the light," the 
 repudiation of "the darkness;" abound with 
 mention of " the truth," of "grace," of '^ joy," 
 " the flesh and blood of the Lord," "judg- 
 ment," " forgiveness of sins," " God's love to 
 us," " His command to us to love one another," 
 " the keeping of God's commandments." Add 
 
282 How to study the Akw Tcstame7it, 
 
 to \vhlch_, we have in them " the judgment of the 
 world/^ of '' the devil/' of " antichrist/' '' the 
 promise of the Holy Spirit/' ^^our adoption as 
 sons by God/' '^'^ the faith" demanded of us, 
 " the Father and the Son." " Whereas/' con- 
 tinues he, "the Apocalypse is most alien and 
 removed from any mention of all these, and 
 does not approach them, nor contain one syl- 
 lable in common with any such ideas." * 
 ' Again, Dionysius says : " We may again 
 notice the total variance in diction and style 
 between . the Gospel and Epistle on the one 
 hand, and the Apocalypse on the other. In 
 those former, you have unobjectionable Greek, 
 and diction, arguments, and arrangement be- 
 tokening a highly cultivated mind. You never 
 find any barbarous word, any solecism, any indi- 
 vidual peculiarity of expression. The writer had, 
 it would appear, by the Divine gift, the word of 
 eloquence, as well as the word of knowledge. 
 Now I do not deny that such an one might 
 have seen the Apocalypse, and received this pro- 
 phetic information : but I see that the writer's 
 
 * We may remark that the mention of " doing His command- 
 ments " in ch. x\ii. 14 docs not exist in the critical text. See 
 corrections, p. 3Z5. 
 
TJie Revelation, 283 
 
 JIalect and language are not accurate Greek, 
 but that he uses barbaric idioms_, and commits 
 solecisms. I need not now enumerate them : 
 for I have not said these things to satirize him 
 — let no one think it, — but only to point out 
 the dissimilarity of the writings/' 
 
 The justice of this statement remains unim- 
 pugned to this day. It is very hard to imagine 
 how the same man, even allowing many years 
 between, could have shewn himself so perfect a 
 master of easy Greek writing at one time, and 
 could have written, at another, so roughly and 
 ungrammatically as he has done in the Apo- 
 calypse. 
 
 As we look further into the matter, the diffi- 
 culty becomes somewhat diminished. The cir- 
 cumstances under which the Apocalypse was 
 written may in some measure tend to ease it. 
 It was of necessity rhapsodical and hurried. 
 Greek was anyhow not the vernacular language 
 of the writer. He may have written it differ- 
 ently when set down to compose a deliberate 
 treatise, and when far from all appliances, and, 
 if tradition may be trusted, in the midst of hard 
 manual labour. 
 
284 How to study the Nezv Tcsta7nent. 
 
 The fact, again, of the writer's favourite ex- 
 pressions and subjects not being found, may in 
 some measure be accounted for by the totally 
 different character of that which he had to 
 write. Still I own all these considerations leave 
 a residuum of difficulty : not enough in my 
 mind to cast a doubt on St. John's authorship, 
 but enough to make us confess, that this is a 
 problem, to the solution of which we have not 
 yet attained. 
 
 As to the place and time of writing, we may 
 safely say that the book must have been written 
 either in Patmos, or on the return from thence. 
 From the peculiarities of style, I should rather 
 incline to the view that it was written in soli- 
 tude, and therefore rather in the island than at 
 Ephesus. The fact related in Rev. x. 4, that 
 the author was about to write down the voices 
 of the seven thunders, favours the view that the 
 writing took place at the very time of seeing 
 the vision. The time has been matter of much 
 debate. Several commentators of some weight 
 have inclined to the belief that the book was 
 written under Nero. The whole of the Fathers 
 testify to the publication at the end of the reign 
 
TJie Revelation. 283 
 
 of Domitian.* The first semblance of a depar- 
 ture from this view is an account by Epiphanius, 
 who placed it under Claudius^ a date utterly 
 preposterous^ and evidently owing to some blun- 
 der. For it makes St. John an extremely old 
 man in the days of Claudius, i. e.^ from eight to 
 fifteen years after the Ascension ; which is con- 
 trary to all tradition. 
 
 The first mention of a Neronic date appears 
 to be in the sixth century; and is found in 
 several writers of later times. It is in reality a 
 view which need not have been made of as 
 much account as it has. For it has no founda- 
 tion in the evidence of Christian antiquity, and 
 originated merely in a desire to interpret part of 
 the prophecy of the reign and fate of the Em- 
 peror Nero. 
 
 I have therefore no hesitation m believino^ 
 that the book was written, as the early Fathers 
 state, about the end of the reign of Domitian, 
 I. e.j about a.d. 95 or 96. 
 
 If we inquire for what readers the Revelation 
 was written, the answer is ready to our hand. It 
 is addressed ^' to the seven churclies of Asia ;" i. e.j 
 of the Roman proconsular province of that name. 
 
 * See the testimony of Irenaus, antt^ p. 279. 
 
2 86 How to study the N'ew Testament. 
 
 But it would be quite a mistake to imagine 
 that the readers of the book were therefore 
 limited to the members of these seven churches. 
 The number itself of seven can hardly have been 
 chosen^ except as symbolical of universality, ac- 
 cording to the writer^s practice throughout the 
 book ; and the wider cycle of readers is evi- 
 dently in his view throughout. 
 
 The state of things in the seven churches 
 marks evidently a period considerably later than 
 that of St. PauPs Epistles addressed to the same 
 parts. The germs of error apparent in those 
 Epistles had expanded into definite sects (Rev. 
 ii. 6, 15) : the first ardour of some churches had 
 cooled (Rev. ii. 4, 5 ; iii. 2), while that of others 
 had further kindled (ii. 19). The days of the 
 martyrdom of Antipas_, Christ^s servant, are re- 
 ferred to (ii. 13) as certainly not recent. Again, 
 Laodicea is described (iii. 17) as wealthy and 
 proud. Now that city was destroyed by an earth- 
 quake between the sixth and tenth years of Nero, 
 and recovered by her own means, unassisted by 
 the state. This would take some years to accom- 
 plish, and still more time would be required to 
 bring about such a state of careless ease as is 
 here described. 
 
The Revelation, 287 
 
 It hardly belongs to my present purpose to 
 relate the history of these cities one by one. It 
 has been done in the Introduction to mv " New 
 Testament for English Readers/^ vol. ii. ; and 
 those who wish to see it further pursued may 
 consult Dr. Smithes ^'Dictionary of the Bible ^^ 
 under the several names. 
 
 I will only remark_, with reference to the pro- 
 phetic declarations contained in the message to 
 the churches, that Ephesus (ch. ii. 5), Sardis 
 (ch. iii. 3), and Laodicea (ch. iii. 16), are now 
 in ruins; Smyrna (ch. ii. 9, 10) is a vast and 
 prosperous city; Pergamos (ch. ii. 13) still con- 
 tains 3,000 Christians ; of Thyatira (ch. ii. 24, 
 25) the same may be said ; Philadelphia (ch. iii. 
 8-1 1) is still a consideiable town. 
 
 The object of the book is plainly declared by 
 the writer himself — that God sent it ^' to show 
 to His servants the things that must shortly 
 come to pass.^' 
 
 Agreeably with this declaration, we have the 
 main portion (ch. iv. i — xxii. 5), consisting of 
 a series of visions prophetic of things to come, 
 or introducing in their completeness allegories 
 involving both things past and future. These 
 
288 Hoii) to study the Ne-w Tcstavient. 
 
 visions are not entirely separate from the episto- 
 lary introduction already spoken of, but from 
 time to time recall its style and character by 
 interjected hortatory sentences. So that the 
 book cannot be considered as a set of prophetic 
 fragments^ but must be viewed as an organic 
 whole. 
 
 And it being thus viewed^ there can be no 
 reasonable doubt among us who receive it as 
 part of Holy Scripture^ that it contains revela- 
 tions from God respecting certain portions of 
 the course of the Church, even down to the 
 time of the end. This confession among Chris- 
 tians of the general object is independent of 
 differences in interpretation. 
 
 We now come to speak of those differences 
 themselves. And, first, we may state that by 
 far the best account of them in detail, indeed 
 the only account accessible to the English reader, 
 will be found in the fourth volume of Mr. El- 
 liott's ^' Horai Apocaly{)ticae.'' He has there 
 done his work very impartially and thoroughly; 
 and those who have studied his account will 
 find themselves masters of the principal theories 
 and the names of their upholders. 
 
'Ilie Revelation. 289 
 
 Our present task will be a far humbler one : 
 to state briefly the theories, and give a very few 
 of the names of the upholders. 
 
 First, there is that known as the ProfierUt 
 view : holding that the whole, or by far the 
 greater part of the prophecy has been fulfilled. 
 This found no favour in ancient times; nor 
 indeed till the commencement of the seven- 
 teenth century. It seems then first to have 
 been propounded by a Jesuit named Alcazar. 
 It numbers Grotius, and our own Hanmiond, 
 among its supporters, and Bossuet, the great 
 antagonist of Protestantism. It has 'Xit<cw taken 
 up in our own times by the most eminent of 
 the German expositors, by Moses Stuart in 
 America, and by Dr. Davidson and Mr. Des- 
 prez in England. 
 
 Secondly, there is the continuous kisturical 
 interpretation; that which holds that the pro- 
 phecy embraces the whole history of the Church 
 and its foes, from the time of its writing to the 
 end of the world. 
 
 This theory again belongs naturally to modern, 
 or comparatively modern times; material enouu-h 
 for its habilitation not having been at hand in 
 
 v 
 
290 How to study the A'cw Testaviciit. 
 
 the earlier ages. It first makes its appearance 
 in the twelith century; and finds a remarkable 
 example in the work of the abbot Joachim 
 (about 1200). PVom that time onwards men 
 became accustomed to associate the apocalyptic 
 Babylon with the Church of Rome, and Anti- 
 christ with the Pope. This view, which was 
 held even within the Romish Church, gained 
 intensity and extent before and at the time of 
 the Reformation ; it was that of the early Pro- 
 testant expositors, and has held its ground in 
 the main among the Protestant churches. In 
 our own time it has again acquired strength by 
 the events of the French Revolution, from 1787 
 to the present time ; it found in that develop- 
 ment new material for adaptation to the terms 
 of prophecy ; it became more precise as to its 
 assigned dates, and more confident as to the 
 arrangement of the future. 
 
 Its most adecjuatc and ablest representative 
 in our own country is the great work of Mr. 
 Elliott, the "HorcT Apocalypticie." While I 
 am compelled to difl'er widely from many of his 
 conclusions, and decplv regret the bitter spirit 
 which he shews towards those who cannot adopt 
 
The Revelation, 291 
 
 them^ I must express my conviction that we 
 have seen no such monograph in England, so 
 thorough, so accurate, so full of honest labour; 
 and must advise my readers of the great advan- 
 tage which they may reap by possessing them- 
 selves of it and studying it. 
 
 The third school of apocalyptic interpretation 
 is that known as the Futurist. Its view is that 
 the whole book, or by far the greater part of it, 
 relates to the times of the Second Advent of our 
 Lord. Thus its historic significance is altogether 
 denied. 
 
 This, of course, was held, but only from the 
 necessity of the case, by the early Fathers. For 
 them all was future, and the history of the 
 Church had as yet no existence, so that they 
 can hardly be fairly quoted as on this side. In 
 modern times, the Jesuit Ribera (about 1580) 
 seems to have been the first propounder of this 
 view. It has been maintained, with much 
 learning and ability, among ourselves by such 
 men as Dr. S. R. Maitland, Dr. Todd, and Mr. 
 Isaac Williams. 
 
 It is hardly the place here to detail the objec- 
 tions which lie against each theory in turn. 
 
 u 2 
 
292 Iloii) to study the N'ew Testajiient. 
 
 My own view is^ that enough attention has not 
 been paid to the structure and phenomena of 
 the sacred book itself. We have approached it 
 too much with our minds made up as to what 
 it must he, and have shut our eyes to what it is. 
 My object in the very imperfect commentary 
 on it which I have pubHshed (for it becomes 
 impossible in such a matter not to refer to 
 one^s own work) has been simply to follow the 
 guidance of the sacred text, without any pre- 
 possessions; examining in each case, whither 
 the text itself and the rest of Scripture seemed 
 to send us for guidance. If a definite meaning 
 seemed to be pointed at in such guidance, we 
 ought to uphold that meaning, to whatever 
 school of interpretation we may seem for the 
 time to belong. If no such definite meaning 
 seem to be indicated, we must confess our in- 
 ability to assign one, however plausible and at- 
 tractive the guesses of expositors may have been. 
 The result of such a method of interpretation 
 will be, apparent want of system : but it surely 
 is the only way which will conduct us safely as 
 far as we go, and will prevent us from wresting 
 the text to favour a preconceived scheme. 
 
The Revelation. 293 
 
 In following this plan^ I seem to see that 
 there are certain landmarks^ or fixed points_, 
 giving rise to canons of interpretation which 
 must not be departed from. Such are, for in- 
 stance^ the following : — 
 
 1. The close connection between our Lord^s 
 prophetic discourse on the Mount of Olives and 
 the line of prophecy in this book. That dis- 
 course has been aptly termed, by Mr. Isaac 
 Williams, '^ the anchor of apocalyptic inte?-preta- 
 tion." It is the touchstone of apocalyptic sys- 
 tems. If it have not guided the expositor, the 
 true key to the book is lost. 
 
 2. The interpretation of the opening of the 
 sixth seal is another such fixed point. The de- 
 scription by which that is followed is the very 
 same which is used throughout Scripture to in- 
 dicate the Great Day of the Lord. Any system 
 under w^hich it is a necessity to interpret this 
 otherwise than of that Great Day of the Lord, 
 stands self-convicted. 
 
 3. Another fixed point is this. The imagery 
 of the seals, trumpets, and vials, severally run 
 on to the time of the end. At the termina- 
 tion of each series, the note is unmistakably 
 
294 HoiD to study the A^cw Testament. 
 
 glv^en that such is the case. Any system which 
 makes the three consecutive one on another, 
 without taking this common ending into ac- 
 count, is thereby convicted of error. 
 
 4. Another such fixed point is found in the 
 vision of ch. xii. i, etc. In ver. 5, we read 
 that the woman " brought forth a son, who 
 should rule (or, shepherd) all the nations with a 
 rod of iron/^ and that "her child was caught 
 up to God and to His throne." All Scripture 
 analogy requires that these words should be in- 
 terpreted of our Blessed Lord, and of none 
 other. Every system which finds it necessary 
 otherwise to interpret them, however plausible 
 may be its fittings to events, and however inge- 
 nious its illustrations by coins and other trifles 
 of the kind, is convicted of error in its first 
 principles, and need not seriously be considered. 
 
 5. Another fixed canon of interpretation is 
 found in the usage of terms by the apocalyptic 
 writer himself. For instance : he often speaks 
 of the Divine Persons; he often speaks of angels. 
 He never mixes one with the other. Any sys- 
 tem which finds it necessary to understand by 
 ^'^an angel," Christ liinisclf, is wrong, and vio- 
 lates the analoev of the book. 
 
The Revelation. 295 
 
 6. Account ought to be taken of the numbers 
 used in the book. These are kept constant to 
 their great lines of symbolic meaning. S>even is 
 the number of perfection ; seven spirits are be- 
 fore the throne (i. 4; iv. 5); seven churches 
 represent the church universal ; the Lamb has 
 seven horns and seven eyes (v. 6). In the seve- 
 ral series of God^s judgments, each complete in 
 itself, seven is the number of the seals, trumpets, 
 thunders, vials. Four is the number of terres- 
 trial extension : four living beings are the sym- 
 bols of creation (iv. 6, etc.) ; four angels stand 
 on the four corners of the earth, holding the 
 four winds of heaven ; four seals, four trumpets, 
 four vials, in each case complete the number of 
 judgments consisting in physical visitations; 
 four angels are loosed from the Euphrates, to 
 slay the destined portion out of mankind (ix, 13, 
 etc.), and in obedience to a voice from the four 
 corners of the altar ; Satan deceives the nations in 
 the four corners of the earth (xx. 8) ; the New 
 Jerusalem lieth four-square, with all sides equal. 
 
 Twelve is the number belonging especially to 
 the Church, and to the appearances symbolicallv 
 connected with her. Twice twelve is the num- 
 
296 Hoii) to study the New Testament. 
 
 her of the heavenly elders; twelve times twelve 
 thousand the number of the sealed elect ; the 
 woman, in ch. xii., has a crown of twelve stars; 
 the heavenly city has twelve gates_, at the gates 
 twelve angels, on them the names of the twelve 
 tribes; also, twelve foundations, and on them 
 the number of the twelve apostles; and its cir- 
 cumference is twelve thousand furlongs ; in the 
 midst of her, the tree of life brings forth twelve 
 manner of fruits. 
 
 Again, the half o^ the mystic seven is a ruling 
 number in the apocalyptic periods. Three years 
 and a half had been the duration of the drought 
 prayed for by Elijah (James v, 17); "a time, 
 times, and the dividing of time^' (= three years 
 and a half), was the prophetic duration of the 
 persecution of the saints in Dan. vii, 25. Thus 
 we find, in Rev. xi. 6, that the two witnesses, 
 one of whose powers is to shut up heaven, that 
 there shall be no rain, shall prophesy 1260 days, 
 i.e. J three years and a half; also the testimony 
 of three witnesses is to endure fortv-two months 
 f= three years and a half), as that of Moses 
 endured through the forty-two stations of Israel 
 in the wilderness. Three days and a half are 
 
TJie Revelation, 297 
 
 the street of the great city; again^ for 1260 
 days is the woman to be fed in the wilderness ; 
 again^ forty-tw^o months is the period of the 
 power of the first wnld beast^ which ascended 
 from the sea (ch. xiii. 5). 
 
 Of these latter periods no satisfactory solution 
 has ever been given. Again and again, the in- 
 terpreters of prophecy have fixed a time for the 
 end of them ; again and again that time has 
 passed unsignalized by any event; again and 
 again_, these interpreters have adroitly shifted 
 on their ground into the as yet safe future, and 
 reappeared before the public with the same con- 
 fidence as if they had not been utterly defeated. 
 Some have held that a *^'day'^ may mean a 
 year, in the face of the occurrence of a period 
 of ^' a thousand years ^^ in the same prophecy, 
 which they ought to, hut do not, interpret to 
 mean 365,000 years. Such inconsistencies, 
 which, if presented for the first time, would 
 ensure the rejection of any system, have been 
 so long before the public that they pass unchal- 
 lenged, and draw down wrath from their perpe- 
 trators on him who, in the cause of common 
 
298 How to study the Avzf Testament. 
 
 honesty, ventures to notice them^ and to point 
 them out for reprobation. 
 
 Such are the principal remarks which T have 
 to make on the rules for the interpretation of 
 this mysterious book : and I will conclude them 
 bv a statement of my own view respecting the 
 character and arrangement of the prophecy, 
 which has resulted from the application of those 
 rules.* And^ first, for the principles on which 
 my interpretation is based : — 
 
 ^^The book is a revelation given by the Father 
 to Christ, and imparted by Him through His 
 angel to St. John, to declare to His servants 
 things which must shortly come to pass : in 
 other words, the future conflicts and triumphs 
 of His church ; these being the things which 
 concerned ' His servants.' 
 
 " Of all these, the greatest event is His own 
 coming in glory. In consequence, it is put for- 
 ward in the introduction of the book with all 
 solemnity, and its certainty sealed by an asseve- 
 ration from the Almighty and Everlasting God. 
 
 * The following statement is quoted, with mere verbal altera- 
 t'ons, from the ' New Testament for English Readers,' vol. ii., 
 Introduction, pp. 35^-363. 
 
TJic Revelation. 299 
 
 ''^Accordingly^ we find every part of the pro- 
 phecy full of this subject. The Epistles to the 
 Churches continually recur to it; the visions of 
 seals, trumpets, vials, all end in introducing it : 
 and it forms the solemn conclusion, as it did 
 the opening of the book. 
 
 ^' But it was not the first time that this great 
 subject had been spoken of in prophecy. The 
 Old Testament prophets had all announced it : 
 and the language of this book is full of the pro- 
 phetic imagery which we also find in them. 
 The first great key to the understanding of the 
 Apocalypse, is, the analogy of Old Testament 
 prophecy. 
 
 " The next is our Lord's own prophetic dis- 
 course, before insisted on in this reference. He 
 himself had previously delivered a great prophecy, 
 giving in clear outline the main points of the 
 history of the Church. In this prophecy, the 
 progress of the Gospel, its hindrances and cor- 
 ruptions, the judgments on the unbelieving, the 
 trials of the faithful, the safety of God^s elect 
 amidst all, and the final redemption in glory of 
 His faithful people, were all indicated. There, 
 they were enwrapped in language which was in 
 
300 How to study the New Testame7it. 
 
 great part primarily applicable to the great 
 typical judgment on the chosen people — the 
 destruction of Jerusalem. When this book 
 was written, that event had taken place : com- 
 pleting the first and partial fulfilment of our 
 Lord's predictions. Now, it remained for pro- 
 phecy to declare to the church God's course of 
 dealing with the nations of the earth, by which 
 the same predictions are to be again fulfilled, 
 on a larger scale, and with greater fulness of 
 meaning. 
 
 ^' In accordance with the analogy just pointed 
 out, I conceive that the opening section of the 
 book (after the vision in the introduction), con- 
 taining the Epistles to the Churches, is an ex- 
 pansion of our Lord's brief notes of comfort, 
 reproof, and admonition, addressed to His own 
 in the prophecy on the Mount of Olives and 
 elsewhere in His prophetic discourses. 
 
 ^^ The first section has set before us the Lord 
 present with His Church on earth : the next in- 
 troduces us at once to His presence in heaven, 
 and to the celestial scenery of the whole coming 
 prophecy. It is to be noted that this revelation 
 of God is as the God of His Church. The 
 
The Revelation. 
 
 301 
 
 Father_, seated on the Throne : the Lamb In the 
 midst of the throne, bearing the marks of His 
 atoning sacrifice : the sevenfold Spirit with His 
 lamps of fire : this is Jehovah the covenant God 
 of His redeemed. And next we have Creation, 
 symbolized by the four living-beings — the 
 Church, patriarchal and apostolic, represented 
 by the twenty-four elders : and the innumerable 
 company of angels, ministering in their glory 
 and might, now by one of them, now by an- 
 other, throughout the course of the prophecy. 
 
 '^ In the next section, the Lamb, alone found 
 worthy, opens, one after another, the seals of 
 the closed book or roll, so that when they are 
 all opened, it may be unrolled and read. One 
 point should be urged, which is very commonly 
 passed over : viz., that the roll is never during 
 the prophecy actually opened, nor is any part 
 of it read. The openings of its successive seals 
 are but the successive preparations for its con- 
 tents to be disclosed : and as each is opened, a 
 new class of preparations is seen in prophetic 
 vision. When the seventh is loosed, and all is 
 ready for the unfolding and reading, there is a 
 symbolic silence, and a new series of visions 
 begins. 
 
302 How to study the New Testament, 
 
 "As regards the seals themselves, the first 
 four are marked off from the other three in a 
 manner which none can fail to observe. They 
 represent, I believe, Christ's victory over the 
 world in His appointed way. We have Him- 
 self going forth to conquer, and in His train, 
 the sword which He came to send on earth, 
 the wars, famines, and pestilences which He 
 foretold should be forerunners of His coming. 
 At each of these appearances, one of the living- 
 beings who symbolize Creation echoes with his 
 ^ Come ' the sighs of the world for the mani- 
 festation of the sons of God. I conceive it to 
 be a mistake, necessarily involved in the conse- 
 cutive historical interpretation, but sometimes 
 found where that is not, to interpret these four 
 seals as succeeding one another in time. All 
 are co-ordinate, all are correlative. 
 
 '' Next to the sighs of Creation for the Lord's 
 coming, we have those of His martyred saints, 
 crying from under His altar. Then, at the 
 opening of the sixth seal, we have reproduced 
 the well-known imagery of our Lord's discourse 
 and of the Old Testament prophets, describing 
 the very eve and threshokl, so to speak, of the 
 
The Revelation. 303 
 
 day of the Lord : the portents wliieh should 
 usher in His coining: l)ut not that coining it- 
 self. For the revelation of this^ the time is not 
 yet. First^ His elect must he gathered out of 
 the four winds — the complete numher sealed, 
 before the judgments invoked by the martyred 
 souls descend cjn the earth, the sea, the trees. 
 First, the Seer must be vouchsafed a vision of 
 the great multitude whom none can number, in 
 everlasting gh^ry. 1'he day of the Lord^s coming 
 is gone by, and the vision reaches forward be- 
 y(;iid it into the blissful eternity. Why? Jjc- 
 cause then, and not till then, shall the seventh 
 seal, which looses the roll of God^s eternal pur- 
 poses, be opened, and the book read to the 
 adoring Church in glory. Then we have the 
 last seal o{)ened, and the half-h(jur\s silence — the 
 Ujeginning,^ as Victfjrinus subhmely says, Sjf 
 eternal rest."" 
 
 "Thus far the vision of the seals necessarily 
 reached onward for its completion. But ther^ 
 is much more to be revealed. God's judgments 
 on the earth and its hihabitants are the subject 
 of the next series of visions. The prayers of 
 the martyred saints had invoked them : with 
 
304 Hoiv to stucCy (he Akw Testament. 
 
 the symbolizing therefore of" the answer to these 
 prayers the next section opens. Then follow 
 the trumpet-blowing angels, hurting the earth, 
 the trees, the sea, the rivers, the lights of heaven. 
 And here again, as before, the first four trum- 
 pets complete these world-wide judgments, and 
 with the fifth the three woes on mankind begin. 
 The previous plagues have affected only the ac- 
 cessories of life : the following affect life itself. 
 
 " In these latter we have the strictest corre- 
 spondence with the foregoing vision of the seals. 
 Two of them are veritably plagues, the one of 
 the locusts, the other of the horsemen. After 
 this sixth trumpet are inserted two episodical 
 passages, the one a vision, the other a prophecy 
 (see below) : then, when the seventh is about to 
 sound, the consummation of God^s judgments 
 passes unrecorded, as it did under the seals; 
 and at the seventh trumpet, we have the song 
 of thanksgiving and triumph in heaven. Such ' 
 remarkable and intimate correspondence carries 
 its own explanation : the two visions of the 
 trumpets and seals run to one and the same 
 glorious termination : the former, in tracing the 
 ccjursc of the wc^rld as rci^ards the Church, the 
 
11 ic Revel a 1 10)1. 305 
 
 latter, in tracing (jlod's juclginciits of vcngt'aiuc 
 on the ungodly clwi;IK'rs on eartli ; loi- it is lor 
 tins that the heavenly song at its eoiulusion 
 gives thanks. 
 
 " It now we turn to the two episodes l)etw('en 
 the sixth and seventh trumpets, we lind them 
 distinetly introductory to that section which is 
 next to follow. A little hook is given to the 
 Sei-r, sweet tt) his month, hut hitter in digestion, 
 With an announcement that he is yet again to 
 j)rophesy to many nations — that a IVesh series 
 oljjrophetic visions, glorious indeed hut vvoelul, 
 was now to he delivered hy iiini. 
 
 ''These hegm hy the measiirenicnt of the 
 temple of God — seeing that it is tlir Church 
 herseir, in her innermost hold, which is now to 
 hcconie the suhject ol the prophecy. The c(Mirse 
 oF tlie two witnesses, recalling to us hy their 
 spirit and power Moseys and I'-lias, is predicted : 
 and during the prediction, one principal figure 
 of tlu: suhse(jueiit visions is hy ant icij)ation in- 
 troduced : the vvild-heast that coineth up out oi 
 the ahyss. That tfiis is so, is at once fatal in 
 my estimation to the continuous historical mter- 
 j)retation. 
 
306 IIoiv to study the Nav Testajneitt. 
 
 " I can give no explanation of the two wit- 
 nesses. I have studied the various solutions, 
 and T own that I cannot find any which I can 
 endorse as being that which I can feel to be 
 satisfactory. I have none of my own. I re- 
 cognize the characters : but I cannot appro- 
 priate them. I do not feel it to be any re- 
 proach to my system, or any disproof of its 
 substance, that there are this and other gaps in 
 it which I cannot bridge over. Nay, on the 
 contrary, if it be a sound interpretation, there 
 must be these : and to find events and persons 
 which may fit the whole, ere yet the course of 
 time is run, would seem to me rather writing a 
 parody, than earnestly seeking a solution. 
 
 "And now the seventh angel sounds; and 
 as before at the opening of the seventh seal, 
 the heavenly scene is before us, and the repre- 
 sentatives of the church universal fall down and 
 give thanks that God's kingdom is come, and 
 the time of the dead to be judged. But though 
 this scries of visions likewise has been thus 
 brought down to the cud of the final consum- 
 mation, there is more yet to be revealed ; and 
 in anticipation of the character of the subse- 
 
TJie Revelation . 307 
 
 qiient visions_, the temple of God in heaven is 
 opened^ and the pause between one and another 
 series is announced, as before between the 
 seals and the trumpets^ and as after at the end 
 of the vials_, by thunders and lightnings and 
 voices. 
 
 ^^And now opens the great prophetic course 
 of visions regarding the Church. Her identi- 
 fication in the eyes of the seer is first rendered 
 unmistakable, by the scene opening with the 
 appearance of the woman and the serpent, the 
 enmity between him and her seed, the birth 
 of the Man-child who should rule over the 
 nations — His ascension to heaven and to the 
 throne of God. Here at least, all ought to 
 have been plain : and here again I see pro- 
 nounced the condemnation of the continuous 
 historical system. 
 
 "The flight of the woman into the wilder- 
 ness, the casting down of Satan from heaven 
 no longer to curse the brethren there, his con- 
 tinued enmity on earth, his persecution of the 
 remnant of the woman's seed, these belong to 
 the introductory features of the great vision 
 which is to follow, and serve to describe the 
 
 X 2 
 
3o8 How to study the A'^ew Testament. 
 
 state in which the Church of God is found 
 during the now pending stage of her conflict. 
 
 " What follows^ carries out the description of 
 the war made by the dragon on the seed of the 
 woman. A wild-beast is seen rising out of the 
 deep^ uniting in itself the formerly described 
 heads and horns of the dragon^ and also the 
 well-known prophetic symbols of the great em- 
 pires of the world : representing, in fact, the 
 secular powders antagonistic to the Church of 
 Christ. To this wild-beast the dragon gives his 
 might and his throne; and notwithstanding 
 that one of its heads, the Pagan Roman Em- 
 pire, is crushed to death, its deadly wound is 
 healed, and all who are not written in the 
 Lamb's book of life worship it. 
 
 " The further carrying out of the power and 
 influence of the beast is now set before us by 
 the vision of another wild-beast, born of the 
 earth, gentle as a lamb in appearance, but 
 dragon-like and cruel in character. This second 
 beast is the ally and servant of the former : 
 makes men to worship its image and receive its 
 mark, as the condition of civil rights and even 
 of life itself. Here, in common with very 
 
The Revelation, 309 
 
 many of the best interpreters_, I cannot fail to 
 recognize the sacerdotal persecuting power, 
 leagued with and the instrument of the secular : 
 professing to be a lamb, but in reality being 
 a dragon : persecuting the saints of God ; the 
 inseparable companion and upholder of despotic 
 and tyrannical power. This in all its forms. 
 Pagan, Papal, and in so far as the Reformed 
 Churches have retrograded towards Papal sacer- 
 dotalism, Protestant also, I believe to be that 
 which is symbolized under the second wild- 
 beast. 
 
 ^^Next, the apocalyptic vision brings before 
 us the Lamb on Mount Zion with the first- 
 fruits of his people, and the heavenly song in 
 which they join, — as prefatory to the announce- 
 ment, by three angels, of the prophecies which 
 are to follow, so full of import to the people 
 and Church of God. These are, first, the pro- 
 clamation of the everlasting Gospel as previous 
 to the final judgments of God : next, the fall of 
 Babylon, as an encouragement for the patience 
 of the saints : third, the final defeat and tor- 
 ment of the Lord^s enemies. After these is 
 heard a voice proclaiming the blessedness of the 
 
3 1 o Hoiv to study the N'cw Testament. 
 
 holy dead. Then follow, in strict accord with 
 these four announcements, (i,) the harvest and 
 the vintage of the earth, and the seven last 
 plagues, symbolized by the outpouring of the 
 vials : (2,) the ample details of the fall and 
 punishment of Babylon : (3,) the triumph of 
 the Church in the last defeat of her Lord^s 
 enemies : (4,) the millennial reign : and finally, 
 the eternity of bliss. But on each of these 
 somewhat more must be said. 
 
 " I think there is reason to interpret the 
 harvest, of the ingathering of the Lord^s people : 
 the vintage, of the crushing of His enemies : 
 both these beinii;, accordini]: to the usaire of this 
 book, compendious, and inclusive of the fuller 
 details of both, which are to follow. 
 
 "The vintage is taken up and expanded in 
 detail by the series of the vials : seven in num- 
 ber, as were the seals and the trumpets before. 
 These final judgments, specially belonging to 
 the Church, arc introduced by a song of triumph 
 from the saints of both dispensations, and are 
 poured out by angels coming forth from the 
 opened sanctuary of the tabernacle of witness 
 in heaven. 
 
The Revelation, 3 1 1 
 
 ^'The course of these jadgmeiits is in some 
 particulars the same as that of the trumpets. 
 The earth, the sea, the rivers, the hghts of 
 heaven — these are the objects of the first four : 
 but ever with reference to those who worship 
 the beast and have his mark on them. At the 
 fifth, as in each case before, there is a change 
 from general to special : the throne and king- 
 dom of the beast, the river Euphrates, these are 
 now the objects : and the seventh passes off, as 
 in each former case, to the consummation of all 
 things. 
 
 " Meantime, as so often before, anticipating 
 hints have been given of new details belonging 
 to the other angelic announcements. At the 
 sixth vial, we have the sounds of the gathering 
 of an approaching battle of God's enemies 
 against Him, and the very battle-field pointed 
 out. After the seventh and its closing formula, 
 Babylon comes into remembrance before God, 
 to give her the cup of his vengeance. Thus 
 then we pass to the second of the angelic an- 
 nouncements — the fall of Babylon. Here the 
 Seer is carried in spirit into the wilderness, and 
 shewn the great vision of the woman seated on 
 
312 How to study the N'ew Testament. 
 
 the beast. I have entered, in my Commentary, 
 into all the details of this important portion of 
 the prophecy : and it is unnecessary to repeat 
 them here. It may suffice to say, that the 
 great persecuting city, the type of the union of 
 ecclesiastical corruption with civil tyranny, is 
 finally overthrown by the hands of those very 
 kingdoms who had given their power to the 
 beast, and this overthrow is celebrated by the 
 triumphant songs of the Church and of Creation 
 and of innumerable multitudes in heaven. 
 
 '^ But here again, according to the practice 
 of which I cannot too often remind the student, 
 a voice from heaven announces the character of 
 the new and final vision which is to follow : 
 ' Blessed are they which are called to the mar- 
 riage supper of the Lamb.^ And now, in the 
 prophetic details of the third of the previous 
 angelic announcements, and of the proclama- 
 tion of the blessedness of the holy dead, the 
 great events of the time of the end crowd, in 
 their dread majesty, upon us. First, the pro- 
 cession of the glorified Redeemer with the 
 armies of heaven following Him, coming forth 
 to tread the winepress of the wrath of Almighty 
 
The Revelat{o7i. 313 
 
 God. Then^ the great battle of the Lord 
 against His foes^ the beast and the false pro- 
 phet_, leagued with the kings of the earth against 
 Him. Then^ the binding of the dragon^ the 
 old serpent, for a season. Then, the first resur- 
 rection, the judgment of the Church, the mil- 
 lennial reign : as to which I have again and 
 again raised my earnest protest against evading 
 the plain sense of words, and spiritualizing in 
 the midst of plain declarations of fact. That 
 the Lord will come in person to this our earth : 
 that His risen elect will reign here with Him 
 and judge : that during that blessed reign the 
 power of evil will be bound, and the glorious 
 prophecies of peace and truth on earth find 
 their accomplishment : — this is my firm per- 
 suasion, and not mine alone, but that of mul- 
 titudes of Christ^s waiting people, as it was 
 that of his primitive apostolic Church, before 
 controversy blinded the eyes of the Fathers to 
 the light of prophecy. 
 
 ^''But the end is not yet. One struggle 
 more, and that the last. At the end of the 
 millennial period, Satan is unloosed, and the 
 nations of the earth are deceived by him — they 
 
3 1 4 How to study the Nevo Testament. 
 
 come up against and encircle the camp of the 
 saints and the beloved city: and fire comes 
 down out of heaven and consumes them : and 
 the devil who deceived them is cast into the 
 lake of fire. Then is described the general 
 judgment of the dead, the destruction of death 
 and Hades, and the condemnation of all whose 
 names are not found written in the book of 
 life. 
 
 '^'^ Finally, in accord with the previous pro- 
 clamation of the blessedness of the holy dead, 
 the description of the heavenly Jerusalem forms 
 the glorious close of the whole.^^ 
 
 It remains that we furnish the reader with 
 the usual list of corrections, in readings and 
 renderings. 
 
 As an introduction to the former of these 
 lists, it may be well to inform him, that in the 
 Revelation we have very few of the really an- 
 cient MSS. to depend upon. The discovery of 
 the Sinaitic MS. has opportunely added to their 
 number; but even with that it amounts only 
 to three. In Erasmus's time, when our present 
 received text was settled, portions of the book 
 did not exist in any Greek text then known : 
 
TJie Revelation. 3 1 5 
 
 and what is commonly received as the original 
 and inspired Greek of those passages is really 
 the composition of Erasmus^ who translated the 
 existing Latin version into Greek. Fortunately, 
 there is between the three most ancient MSS. 
 in this book, singular accordance. They all 
 exhibit the rude ungrammatical text which sub- 
 sequent copyists have corrected into better Greek. 
 This peculiarity is not discoverable in the En- 
 glish, for we are obliged to render even un- 
 grammatical Greek by some intelligible and 
 grammatical English. 
 
 In ch. i. 2, for ^' and of all things that he 
 saw" read " as much as he saw.^^ In ver. 5, 
 for " loved" read " loveth.^' In ver. 6, for 
 '^ kings and priests" " a kingdom, even priests.-'^ 
 At end, omit "and ever." In ver. 8, omit 
 " the he ginning and the ending;" it was proba- 
 bly inserted as an explanation of "Alpha and 
 Omega." For ''the Lord" read ''the Lord 
 God.-*^ In ver. 9, omit *"' who also am" Omit 
 ''Christ" (twice). In ver. 11 omit "I am 
 Alpha and Omegaj the Jirst and the last : and" 
 The words "which are in Asia" are wanting in 
 all our MSS. of every date. In ver. 17, omit 
 
3 1 6 How to study the Neii) Testament. 
 
 ^' unto me" In ver. i8, omit "Amen.'' In 
 ver. 19, for "write'' "write therefore/^ In 
 ver. 20, omit " which thou sawest." 
 
 In ch. ii. I, for " of Ephesus/' read " in Ephe- 
 sus." In ver. 3, for "hast not been weary," 
 " hast not fainted.'^ In ver. 5, omit " quickly" 
 In ver. 7, omit " the midst of." In ver. 9, omit 
 "works, and." In ver. 10, for "Fear none of 
 those things," " Fear not those things." In ver. 
 ]3_, omit "thy works and." For " my faithful 
 martyr," read " my martyr_, my faithful one " 
 (see also corrections of renderings, p. 327). In 
 ver. 15, iw " which thing I hate," read, with 
 all the MSS., " m like manner." In ver. 16, 
 " Repent therefore." In ver. 17, omit "to eat." 
 In ver. 20, for " I have a few things against 
 thee, lecause," read " I have against thee, that." 
 For " that woman," read " thy wife." For " to 
 teach and to seduce," " and she teacheth and se- 
 duceth." In ver. 21, for "of her fornication; 
 and she repented not," read "and she will not 
 repent of her fornication." At end of ver. 22, 
 for "their deeds," "her deeds." In ver. 24 
 (bccrinning), omit "and." And for "\ will 
 put," " I put." 
 
The Revelation. 317 
 
 In ch. iil. 2, for " God;' read '' my God/' 
 In ver. 3^ omit " 07Z //i^^" (first time). In ver. 
 4, read with all the MSS., '^ nevertheless thou 
 hast/' etc. ; and on the same authority, omit 
 ''even.'' In ver. 7, for "he that is holy, he that 
 is true/' read '' the true one_, the holy one.'' 
 For " shuttethj" ^'^ shall shut." In ver. 11, omit 
 "Behold." In ver. 14, for " of the Laodiceans ," 
 read "in Laodicea." In ver. 16, for "cold nor 
 hot" " hot nor cold." In ver. 17, for "wretched 
 and miserable" " the wretched one and the piti- 
 able one." In ver. 18, for " anoint thine eyes with 
 eye-salve" " eye-salve to anoint thine eyes." 
 
 In ch. iv. 4_, for " upon the seats I saw four - 
 and-twenty elders" " upon the four-and -twenty 
 thrones^, elders;" omit "they had." In ver. 6, 
 for " there was" " as it were." In ver. 8 there 
 is considerable confusion as to the number of 
 times which the word " holy " is repeated. In 
 the Sinaitic MS. it occurs eight times ; in the 
 later Vatican nine times; in other MSS. twice_, 
 or six times or eight. In the Alexandrine, and 
 the old versions, there are considerable variations. 
 We probably should read three times. In ver. 
 II, for " Lord," "our Lord and God;" and 
 for '' are," " were." 
 
3 1 8 How to study the Neiu Testafnent. 
 
 In ch. V. 4, "and to read^' inust be omitted. 
 In ver. 5, omit " to loose/' In ver. 6, omit 
 '' and lo." In ver. 7, for '' the hook/' " it/' 
 In ver. 8^ for '^ harps/' "an harp/' In vers. 9 
 and 10 there is considerable variation. In ver. 
 (^,"us" is omitted by the Alexandrine MS., 
 and probably, from what follows, was not found 
 originally in the text. In ver. 10, all the MSS. 
 for " us/' have " them." The Alexandrine 
 MS. omits "unto our God." For "kings and 
 priests/' read " a kingdom and priests " (the 
 Sinaitic MS. has "a. kingdom and priest- 
 hood ''). For " u>e shall reign/' read '^ they 
 reign.^' The reading of the English version 
 rests on hardly any authority. In ver. 11, for 
 " the voice/' the Sinaitic MS. and others have 
 " as it were the voice." For the latter clause of 
 ver. 14, read ''and the elders fell down and 
 worshipped ;" omitting the rest. The Author- 
 ized Version has absolutelv no authority. 
 
 In ch. vi. J, for "seals/' read ''seven seals" 
 (the Sinaitic MS. has "seven/' without "seals"). 
 For " as it were the noise of thunder, one of the 
 four beasts saying/' read " one of the four living- 
 beings saying, as it were the noise of thunder.'^ 
 
The Revelation, 319 
 
 In the same verse^ and In vers. 3^ ^, "j, after the 
 word " Come/^ omit " and see J' In ver. 6, for 
 " a voice,'' read " as it were a voice/' In ver. 
 I J J for " white roles ivere'' '^ a white robe was/' 
 In ver. 12, omit ^' lo ;'' and for ^' the moon,'' 
 "the whole moon/' i. e., "the full moon." 
 
 In ch. vii. 1, for ''these things," "this." 
 From vers. 5 to 8, omit in every case except 
 the first (Judah) and the last (Benjamin), the 
 words "were sealed." In ver. to, for "cried," 
 "they cry." In ver. 14, for " Sir," " mv lord." 
 
 In ch. viii. 7, omit "angel;" and after the 
 word, " earth/' insert " and the third part of 
 the earth was burnt up." In ver. 13, instead 
 of "an angel," read, with all the oldest MSS., 
 "an eagle." 
 
 In ch. ix. 9, for " lattlc," read " war." In 
 ver. 13 the reading is very uncertain. We have 
 but two ancient MSS. here; of these, the Alex- 
 andrine omits "four," and the Sinaitic reads 
 merely, " I heard the voice of the golden altar," 
 etc. In ver. 18, for " these three," read, with 
 nearly all the authorities, " these three plagues." 
 In ver. 19, for "their power," read ^^the power 
 of the horses." Curiously enoucrh the Alexan- 
 
320 How to study the New Testame^it. 
 
 drine MS. has for " horses/^ '^ places/^ but it is 
 probably a mistake between two similar Greek 
 words. 
 
 In ch. X. \, "had uttered their voices" ^^ spoke." 
 In ver. 5, for " hand,'' " right-hand." In ver. 
 II, for "he said/' "they say." 
 
 Ch. xi. I should stand : " And there was 
 given me a reed like unto a rod^ saying." In 
 ver. 4, for "God," "Lord." In ver. 8, for 
 " bodies," " body," and for " our Lord," " their 
 Lord," or "the Lord." In ver. 9, for "bodies," 
 " body," and for "shall see," "shall not suffer," 
 " look upon," and " suffer not." Also in ver. 
 10, for "shall rejoice," "rejoice." In ver. 15, 
 for "kingdoms of this world are become the 
 kingdoms of our Lord," " kingdom over this 
 world is become our Lord^s." In ver. 17 omit 
 " and art to come" 
 
 In ch. xii. 12, omit "the inhabiters of." In 
 ver. 17, omit " Christ." The Sinaitic MS. has 
 "-God." 
 
 In ch. xiii. i, for "I stood .... and saiv 
 . . . .," read " he stood .... and I saw." In 
 ver. 6, for "and them that dwell," read "which 
 dwell." In ver. 7 for "all kindreds, and tongues, 
 
TJie Revelation. 321 
 
 and nations,^' ^'' every tribe, and people, and 
 tongue, and nation/' In ver. 10 there is great 
 confusion. The Authorized Version has hardly 
 any authority. The most probable reading, ac- 
 cording to the most ancient MSS., is : '' If any 
 is for captivity, into captivity he goeth : if any 
 to be slain with the sword, he must be slain 
 with the sword.-'' In ver. 13, omit ''from 
 heaven.'^ In ver. 17, for "the mark, or the 
 name," read " the mark, the name." In ver. 
 18, the number, 666 , is by no means certain. 
 The Parisian MS. (cent, v.) reads 616; and 
 Irenaeus mentions the same discrepancy in the 
 third century. 
 
 In ch. xiv., for " a lamb," " the lamb." 
 For " his Father* s name," " his name and his 
 Father's name." In ver. 2, for " / heard the 
 voice of harperSy' " the noise which I heard was 
 of harpers." In ver. 5, for "for they are without 
 fault before the throne of God'* read only, "they 
 are blameless." The words " before the throne 
 of God" are inserted absolutely without any 
 MS. authority. In ver. 8, for "another angel,'* 
 read " another second angel." After Babylon, 
 insert " the Great." In ver. 9, for " the third 
 
 Y 
 
322 How to study the N'cw Testament. 
 
 angel'' read ^'^ another third angel." In ver. 
 j2yi'or " the saints : here are they that" ^'^ the 
 saints, which." In ver. 13^ omit '^ unto me.'' 
 For '^ a7id their works," " for their works." In 
 ver. 15, omit ^'for thee." 
 
 In ch. XV. 2_, omit " and over his mark." In 
 ver. 3, for '^ King of saints," read '' King of the 
 nations." The Paris MS. reads " King of the 
 acres." King of saints has no authority what- 
 ever. In ver. 5, omit " behold." 
 
 In ch. xvi. I, for "vials/' read " seven vials." 
 In ver. 2, for "upon the earth," read " into the 
 earth." In vers. 3, 4, omit '^ angel;" and so 
 throughout. In ver. 5^ omit " Lord." For 
 "and wast, and shalt be," read '^and wast holy." 
 The text of the Authorized Version is a pure 
 invention, resting on no authority whatever. 
 In ver. 6, omit "for" (second time). In ver. 
 7, for " I heard another out of the altar say," 
 " I heard the altar saying." The Authorized 
 Version rests on only one MS., and that of the 
 twelfth century. In ver. 14, omit the words 
 " earth and of the." The name "Armageddon " 
 is written (H)armagedon, with one d, in the 
 ancient MSS. The aspirate is in the Hebrew 
 
The Revelation. 323 
 
 name^ and in many of our MSS. (the ancient 
 ones not having any aspirates). In ver. 17, for 
 "into,'' ''upon.-" Ovmx." oi heaven;'' the Si- 
 naitic MS. has "of God," shewing by the variety 
 that the words were interpolated. In ver. 18, 
 for " since men were," " since there was a man.'^ 
 
 In ch. xvii. 8^ for "yet is," read " shall come 
 again." The Authorized Version has no MS. 
 authority at all. The Sinaitic MS. reads^ " and 
 is present." In ver. 9^ omit "and." In ver. 
 13^ for "shall give/^ "give." In ver. 16, for 
 "which thou saw est upon the least," read " which 
 thou sawest^ and the beast." 
 
 In ch. xviii. 2^ "mightily " has no MS. au- 
 thority whatever for it. In ver. 3, omit "the 
 wine of." In ver. 6, omit " unto you." In ver. 
 13^ after cinnamon, add, "and amomum" (a 
 famous ointment made from an Asiatic shrub). 
 The omission was probably occasioned by the 
 similarity of readings of cinnamomum and amo- 
 mum. In ver. 14, for "departed," "perished;" 
 and for "thou shalt," "men shall." In ver. 17^ 
 for " all the company in ships," " every one who 
 saileth any whither." In ver. 20, for "ye holy 
 apostles," " ye saints and ye apostles." 
 
 Y 2 
 
324 How to study the N'cw Testament, 
 
 In ch. xix. I J for '^ a great voice'' ''as it were 
 ft foud voice/' For '' Salvation, and glory, and 
 honour, and power, unto the Lord our God'' 
 ''the salvation and the glory belong unto our 
 God." In ver. \2, for "he had a name written," 
 " having names written." In ver. 15, for 
 "fierceness and wrath," " fierceness of the 
 wrath." In ver. 17, for "supper of the great 
 God," "great banquet of God." In ver. 20, 
 for "and with him the false prophet," "and 
 those that were with him^ the false prophet." 
 
 In ch. XX. 9^ omit "from God" In ver. 12, 
 for " small and great, stand lefore God," " the 
 great and the small, standing before the throne." 
 In ver. 14 it should stand, " This is the second 
 death, [even] the lake of fire." 
 
 In ch. xxi. 2, "John" is omitted by all MSS. 
 whatever^ and rests on no authority. In ver. 3, 
 for " heaven, read " the throne." In ver. 5, 
 omit " unto me" In ver. 6, for " It is done," 
 "They are fulfilled." So the Alexandrine MS. 
 The Sinaitic and many later MSS. have only, 
 " I am become the Alpha," etc. In ver. 7, for 
 "all things," " these things." In ver. 10, for 
 " that great city, the holy Jerusalem," " the holy 
 
The. Revelation. 325 
 
 city^ Jerusalem/' In ver. 14^ for " the names,'^ 
 "the twelve names." In ver. 15^ for '' had a 
 golden reed/' " had for a measure a golden 
 reed." In ver. 24, omit "of them that are 
 saved;'' and also omit "and honour." 
 
 In ch. xxii. i_, omit "pure," In ver. 5, for 
 " no night there" " no more night." In ver. 
 6, for " of the holy prophets" " of the spirits of 
 the prophets." In ver. 7^ for " Behold" " and 
 behold;" so also in ver. 12. In ver. 11^ for 
 ''' he righteous still" " still do righteousness." 
 In ver. 12, fox " shall he" "h." In ver. 14^ 
 for " do his commandments" which is the read- 
 ing of the later MSS., " wash their robes/' 
 which is that of the more ancient. The variety 
 is curious. The two clauses in the Greek sound 
 exceedingly like one another^ and hence the 
 mistake. In such a case we are bound to follow 
 the more ancient evidence. In ver. 17, put a 
 semicolon at *^*'come" (third time), and omit 
 "and" before '^whosoever." In ver. 18, omit 
 "For." For "these things," read "them." 
 In ver. i(), for "the hook of life/' read "the 
 tree of life." Omit "and from the things" 
 The last verse should be: "The grace of the 
 
^26 How to study the N'evo Testament. 
 
 Lord Jesus be with the saints. Amen/^ So 
 the Sinaitic MS. The Alexandrine reads, '^ be 
 .vith all" (and no more). The later MSS. 
 read -'be with all the saints.'^ But no MS. 
 whatever reads as the Authorized Version. 
 
 This most numerous crop of corrigenda in 
 the readings is matched by an equally numerous 
 one as regards the renderings. By no book has 
 the Church in this land acted so unfaithfully as 
 by this. She has given her members an incor- 
 rect version of it, in part of human invention, 
 and she has repudiated the blessing pronounced 
 (ch. i. 3) on its public reading. 
 
 It is impossible to give the corrigenda in ren- 
 derings at the same length as we have hitherto 
 done. They occur at every turn. 
 
 In ch. i. 2, for " hare record of the word of 
 God and of the,'' '' testified the word of God 
 and the testimony of the.'^ In ver. 7, for 
 ''clouds," ''the clouds;" and for "kindred;' 
 "the tribes." In ver. 14, for "burned;' "had 
 been burned." In ver. 19, for "hast seen;' 
 "sawestj" for "and the things which are;' 
 "and what things they are;" and for "here- 
 after;' "after these." 
 
The Revelation. 327 
 
 In ch. ii. \, for ^^ / have somewhat against 
 thee, because . . . ./' substitute '^ I have against 
 theCj that . . . /^ In ver. 8, for '^ is alive/' 
 ^'revived/' Put a semicolon at ^^ poverty/' and 
 proceed, removing the parenthesis, ^^neverthe- 
 less thou art rich."*' In ver. 13, for '^ seat/' 
 " throne/' For '' hast not denied my faith/' 
 " didst not deny the faith of me/' In ver. 22,, 
 for ^' will cast/' '' cast." In ver. 27, for " re- 
 ceive as I received/' " as I also have received." 
 
 In ch. iii. 2, for ^' are ready/' " were ready.'* 
 In ver. 5, for '^ hut/' '' and." In ver. 8, for 
 *^f(yr thou hast a little strength and hast kept my 
 word and hast not denied/' " because thou hast 
 little power, and thou didst keep my word and 
 didst not deny." In ver. 10, '*^ didst keep/' 
 and ^^ is about to come." In ver. 16, for "1 
 ivill spue thee/' '^ I shall soon spue thee." In 
 ver. 17, '^''knowest not that thou of all others 
 art the wretched one and the pitiable one, and 
 poor," etc. In ver. 18, for "tried in the fire/' 
 ^^ fresh- smelted from the fire/' In ver. 21, for 
 '' am set/' '' sat." 
 
 In ch. iv. I, for ''a door was opened/' "a 
 door set open." For " the first voice which I 
 
328 How /<? study the .IVau Testament. 
 
 heard was of'^ etc., " the former voice which I 
 heard as ot/^ etc. Not the first voice after the 
 vision, but the former voice, which spoke with 
 him before, is meant. In ver. 2, for " a throne 
 was set ill heaven and one sat/^ ^' a throne was 
 there in heaven, and one sitting." In ver. 4, 
 for ''seats/' "thrones."'^ The word is the same 
 throughout: and the translators had no right 
 to vary it, especially after our Lord^s prophecy, 
 Matt. xix. 28. In ver. 6 and henceforward, 
 the unhappy trans-lation "beasts" should by 
 all means be corrected. The original word is 
 " living beings,^' which might well be retained, 
 sometimes calling them merely '^beings" where 
 they are mentioned several times together. In 
 ver. 7, " caif should be '' steer." It is a 
 young bullock, not a mere calf, that is meant. 
 In ver. 8, for " and they were full of eyes with- 
 m/\ '^ around and within they are full of eyes." 
 In ver. 9, for "sat/' ^^sitteth." In ver. 10, for 
 "fall/' "shall fall;" and for "worship/' "shall 
 worship;" and for "cast/' "shall cast." In 
 ver. II, for ''glory and honour and power/' 
 "the glory and the honour and the might," and 
 ^or " hast created/' " didst create." 
 
The Revelation. 329 
 
 In ch. V. I, for " in the right hand/^ '' on 
 the right hand." The hand was open, and the 
 book lying on it. In ver. 3^, for " no man/^ 
 " no one." In ver. 5_, for '^ hath prevailed to,'' 
 " conquered, so as to." In ver. 6, for ^^ stood a 
 Lamb as it had been slain/' ^^a Lamb standing 
 as if slain." In ver. 8, for ''had taken," ^^took;" 
 and for " saints," '' the saints." In ver. 9, for 
 " sung," '' sing.^^ In ver. 1 2, for '' was slain," 
 ''^hath been slain;" and for ''power," "the 
 power." In ver. 13, for "such as are in the 
 sea," "upon the sea." For "saying," "all 
 saying." 
 
 In ch. vi. 2, for " to conquer," which looks 
 as if it were merely prophetic of the future, " in 
 order that he might," or "in order to, con- 
 quer." In ver. 3, omit "had;" and so in 
 verses 5, 7, 9, 12. In ver. 8, for " Hell," sub- 
 stitute " Hades ;" Hell is the place of punish- 
 ment, as now understood, whereas the abode 
 of the departed is here meant. In ver. 9, for 
 "were," "have been." For "held," "bore." 
 In ver. 10, for " Lord," " Thou Master." 
 In ver. 14, for " departed," " parted asunder." 
 In ver. 16, for "said," "say." In ver. 17, for 
 ' shall be," " is." 
 
^^o Hoiv to study the A^cw Testament. 
 
 In ch. vii. 2, for ^^ ascending from the east" 
 ^^ coming up from the rising of the sun/' In 
 ver. 9, for ^^ no man/' ^^ no one/' In ver. 12, 
 before '^ blessing/' and each of the substantives 
 following, insert '' the." In ver. 14, for " came 
 out of great/' '' come out of the great." For 
 ^^ have washed/' ''^they washed." In ver. 15, 
 for "shall dwell among them/' ^^ shall spread 
 his habitation over them ;" literally, " shall 
 tabernacle upon them." It is very difficult 
 to express the glorious image; but the Author- 
 ized Version is wretchedly short of any render- 
 ing of it. In ver. 17, "feed" is ^'^ tend," or 
 ^^ shepherd." It does not imply the giving of 
 food, but the leading and pasturing. 
 
 In ch. viii. 2, for "stood/' "stand." In ver. 
 3, for "at/' "over." Ver. 4 should stand: 
 "And the smoke of the incense ascended up 
 to the prayers of the saints out of the angel's 
 \iand before God." In ver. 12, for "likewise/' 
 "in like manner." In ver. 13, for ''yet to 
 so2ind/' "about to sound." 
 
 In ch. ix. I, for ''fall/' " fallen." For " the 
 bottomless pit/' " the pit of the abyss," /'. e., of 
 hell. So also in ver. 2. In ver. 6, for "desire/' 
 
TJie Revelation. 331 
 
 "' vehemently desire/^ In ver. 7^ for " unto 
 battle J ' " for war/' In ver. 14^, for ^' in,'* 
 '' on." In ver. 15, for ^' for an hour, and a 
 day, and a month, and a year," '' against the 
 hour, and the day, and the month, and the 
 year." In ver. 17, for ^' of fire and of jacinth, 
 and brimstone," "v^d as fire, and bkie as smoke, 
 and yellow as brimstone." 
 
 In ch. X. I, for ^'' a rainbow," ^^the rainbow," 
 In ver. 3, for ''seven thunders," " t\\t seven 
 thunders." In ver. 6, for " that there should be 
 time no longer," substitute " that there shall be 
 delay no longer." In ver. 7, for " wheji He 
 shall begin to sound," " when He shall be about 
 to sound." For " declared," " declared the 
 glad tidings," " evangelized." In ver. 10, for 
 "was bitter," "was embittered." Ver. 11 
 should run, " . . . . again concerning people, 
 and nations, and tongues, and many kings." 
 
 In ch. xi. 2, for " leave out," " cast thou 
 out ;" for " is given," " was given." In ver. 5 
 (twice), for " will hurt them," " is minded to 
 hurt them." In ver. 6, for " the bottomless 
 pit," " the abyss." In ver. 9, for " they of the 
 people and kindreds," "some from among the 
 
332' How to study the New Testament. 
 
 people and tribes;'' for ^' shall see^* 'Mook 
 upon/' and for " graves, '^ '' a. tomb." In ver. 
 1 1, for "three/' "the three/' In ver. 12, for "a 
 cloud/' "the clouds." In ver. i6_, for "seats," 
 "thrones." In ver. 18, for "reward/' "their 
 reward." In ver. 19^ for " testamejit/' "co- 
 venant." 
 
 In ch. xii. 2, for "cried/' "crieth." In ver. 
 3, " crowns " were better " diadems :" it is not 
 the usual word {stephanoiis) , but diademata. 
 In ver. 4, for " drew," " draweth " [down] ; 
 for "stood/' "standeth." End the verse, 
 " which is ready to be delivered, that when 
 she hath borne, he may devour her child." In 
 ver. 5, for "who was to rule/' "which shall 
 rule." In ver. 10, for "salvation and strength/' 
 "the salvation and the might." For "accused/' 
 "accuseth." In ver. 11, for " hy the blood 
 . . . ./' " by the word/' " because of the blood/' 
 . . . , "because of the word." In ver. 14, for 
 " a great eagle/' " the great eagle." In ver. 
 15 (twice), for "flood/' "river/' and so in ver. 
 16. In ver. 17, for "went," "departed." 
 
 In ch. xiii. \, for "least/' "wild beast;" and 
 so in vers. 2,\l. The same word is used after- 
 
TJie Revelation. 2)2)1) 
 
 wards, but it need not be marked any further. 
 '^'^ Crowns,'^ again, is '^ diadems." In ver. 4, 
 for "which,'" "because he/' In ver. 5, for 
 *' to continue,'^ " to work.'''' In ver. 6, for " in 
 llasphemy/^ "for blasphemies." In ver. 14, 
 " which he had power to do," " which it was 
 given him to work." In ver. 15, for " he had 
 power'' " it was given him ;" for " Hfey' 
 " breath ;" for " loth/' " even." 
 
 In ch. xiv. 3, for ''leasts," " living creatures." 
 For " no man," " no one ;" and for " were re- 
 deemed," " have been purchased." In ver. 4, 
 for "redeemed" " purchased." For " leing the 
 Jirst fruits," " as a first fruit." In ver. 6, for 
 " kindred," " tribe." In ver. 8, for " lecause 
 she made,'' "which hath made." In ver. 13, 
 for "follow them," "follow with them." 
 
 In ch. XV. I, for "the seven last plagues , for ," 
 " seven plagues, which are the last, because." 
 In ver. 2, for " the harps," " harps." In ver. 
 7, for " leasts," " living creatures." 
 
 In ch. xvi. 3, for " as the Hood of a dead 
 man," "blood, as of a dead man." In ver. 8, 
 for " have shed," " shed." In ver. 10, for 
 " seat" " throne." For " was full of dark- 
 
334 How to study the A^ew Testament, 
 
 nesSy^ '^became darkened/^ In ver. 12, for 
 "the kings of the east" "the kings which 
 come from the rising of the sun/^ In ver. 
 14, for "spirits of devils" " t\\^ spirits of de- 
 mons/' In ver. 14, for " hattle" " war." 
 In ver. 16, for "a place/^ '^^the place.'^ In 
 ver. 19, for "great Babylon" "Babylon the 
 great." 
 
 In ch. xvii. 2, for "have committed" "com- 
 mitted ;" and for " have been made," " were 
 made." In ver. 3, for " beast," " wild beast." 
 In ver. 5^ for "harlots" "the harlots;" and 
 for " abominations," " the abominations." In 
 ver. 6, for "martyrs," "witnesses." In ver. 8, 
 for " bottomless pit," " abyss." For " (shall) 
 go," "goeth." In ver. 10, for "there are," 
 " they are ;" and continue,, " the five are fallen^ 
 the one is/' etc. In ver. ly, for "hath put/' 
 " put." 
 
 In ch. xviii. i, for "come down/' "coming 
 down." In ver. 2, for "devils," "demons." 
 In ver. 3, for "have committed/' " committed /' 
 and for " are waxed/' " waxed." In ver. 6, for 
 " hath filed, f II," "mixed, mix." In ver. 8, 
 for " hath judged," "judgcth." In ver. 9, for 
 
TJie Revelation. 2>?)S 
 
 " have committed/^ ^^ committed/^ In ver. 
 11^ omit " shall. '^ In ver. 12_, for " thyine," 
 " citron/^ For " all manner vessels'' '' every 
 article" (twice). In ver. 13, for "souls'' 
 ^'"persons." In ver. 14, for " the fruits that 
 thy soul lusted after are," " the harvest of the 
 desire of thy soul is." For "all things which 
 were dainty and goodly j" " d\\ thy fat things 
 and thy splendid things." In ver. 16, for 
 "decked," ''^gilded." In ver. 17^ for "come 
 to nought," ^^made desolate." For "ship- 
 master" ^' pilot." In ver. 18^ for "what city" 
 ''who;" and for "this," ''the." In ver. 19, 
 for "that," "the;" "wherein," "whereby." 
 In ver. 20, for "hath avenged her," "hath 
 judged your judgment." In ver. 21, for "a 
 mighty angel," " one strong angel." In ver. 
 24, for "were slain/' "have been slain." 
 
 In ch. xix. 3, for "rose up," "goeth up." 
 In ver. 4, for " leasts," " living-creatures ;" for 
 "sat," "sitteth." In ver. 8, for "clean and 
 white," "bright and pure;" for "fine linen," 
 "the fine linen;" for " saints/^ "the saints." 
 In ver. 11, for "sat," "sitteth." In ver. 12, 
 for "crowns," "diadems." In ver. 19, for 
 
^^6 How to study the New Testament, 
 
 ''least,'' ^' wild beast;" for ''war;' "their war/' 
 for "sat;' "sitteth/^ 
 
 In ch. XX. I, iov " hottomless pit," *^^ abyss ;" 
 so also in ver. 2. In ver. 4, for " hands," 
 "hand." In ver. 11, for "sat," "sitteth." 
 In ver. 12, for " the hooks," " books." In ver. 
 13, for " hell," " Hades;" so also in ver. 14. 
 
 In ch. xxi. I, for "there was no more sea," 
 " the sea is no more." In ver. 4, for " all 
 tears" "every tear." In ver. 5, for "sat," 
 " sitteth." In ver. 7, " I will be to him a 
 God, and he shall be to me a son." In ver. 
 
 8, for " whoremongers," " fornicators." In ver. 
 
 9, for "full," "and were full." In ver. 15, for 
 "foundations," " foundation-stones." In ver. 
 24, for " in the light," " by means of the light." 
 In ver. 27, for " worketh abomination, or maketh 
 a lie," " worketh abomination or falsehood ;" 
 for " they," " only they." 
 
 In ch. xxii. 5, for "giueth them light," "shall 
 shine upon them." In verses 8, 9, read " I 
 John am he who heard these things, and saw 
 them. And when I heard and saw," etc. In 
 ver. II, for "let him be hohj still," "let him 
 sanctify himself still." In ver. 14, for "right 
 
The Revelation, 337 
 
 to^^ " power over.^^ In ver. 15^ prefix ^^the^^ 
 to each of the classes enumerated. In ver. 16, 
 for " have sent/' '^ sent ; " for " and the bright 
 and morning star/' '^ the bright morning star/^ 
 In ver. lOj omit " even so." 
 
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