. -.-¦ fJllfeg far the. founding ef 'a CeUtgt in ifAfColenf} •TEMJE-wairvEiattnnr- iuiisiiyftEHr DIVINITY SCHOOL TROWBRIDGE LIBRARY GIFT OF Estate of The Sev. Orville A. Petty WORD STUDIES NEW TESTAMENT BY MARVIN R. VINCENT, D.D, BALDWIN PROFESSOR OF SACRED LITERATURE IN UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, NEW YORK VOLUME in. THE EPISTLES OF PAUL ROMANS PHILIPPIANS CORINTHIANS COLOSSIANS EPHESIANS PHILEMON Ta ptyiaTa & c-yu AeAaAijxa v/ilp n-f £vi±a cart? feat £ojtJ effnv. " The words that I have spoken unto you are spirit, and are life." John vi., 63. NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 1902 Copyright, 1890, by CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS TROWS MINTING AND GOOKBIMDINQ COMPANY, HEW YORK. LIST OF AUTHORS AND EDITIONS, IN ADDITION TO THOSE CITED IN VOLUMES I. AND II. The names of a few works cited in the former volumes are repeated, because of their special bearing upon the writings of Paul. Allen, Alexander V. G. : The Continuity of Christian Thought Boston, 1884. Abbott, Lyman : The Epistle of Paul to the Romans. Sew York, 1888. Alexander, J. A. : The Psalms, Translated and Explained. New York, 1869. Aeschylus : Ed. Paley : 4th edition. London, 1879. Beet, Joseph Agar : A Commentary on St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans. London, 1877. Bingham, Joseph : Origines Ecclesiasticae. The Antiquities of the Christian Church. 2 vols. London, 1878. Bruder, Carolus Hermann : Concordantiae Omnium Vocum Novi Testamenti Graeci. 4th edition. Leipsic, 1888. Brown, David: Commentary on First Corinthians. Schaffs Popular Commentary. New York, 1882. Bushnell, Horace : The Vicarious Sacrifice. New York, 1866. Bruce, Alexander B. : The Humiliation of Christ Edinburgh, 1876. Cook, F. C. : Speaker's Commentary on Exodus. New York, 1872. Conder, F. R and C. R. : A Handbook to the Bible. New York. Chambers, Talbot W. : Notes on American edition of Meyer's Commentary on First and Second Corinthians. Cox, Samuel : The Resurrection. London, 1881. Dickson, William P. : St Paul's Use of the Terms Flesh and Spirit Baird Lecture for 1883. Glasgow, 1883. IT LIST OF AUTHORS AND EDITION& Dorner, J< A : Christliche Glaubenslehre. 3 vols. Berlin, 1879. Dwight, Timothy : Notes on American edition of Meyer's Com mentary on Romans, Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians and Phile mon. Ducange, Carolus D. : Glossarium Mediae et Infimae Latinitatis. Ed. G. A. Henschel. Paris, 1842. Edwards, Thomas Charles : A Commentary on the First Epistle to the Corinthians. London, 1885. Euripides : Ed. Paley. 4th edition. London, 1872. ElHcott, Charles J. : Commentary on the Epistles of PauL 2 vols. Andover, 1872. Ellicott, Charles J. : St. Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians. London, 1887. Eadie, John : A Commentary on the Greek Text of the Epistle of Paul to the Ephesians. 3d edition. Edinburgh, 1883. Eadie, John : A Commentary on the Greek Text of the Epistle of Paul to the Philippians. 2d edition. Edinburgh, 1884. Eadie, John : A Commentary on the Greek Text of the Epistle of Paul to the Colossians. 2d edition. Edinburgh, 1884. Forsyth, William : Life of Marcus Tullius Cicero. London, 1869. Farrar, Frederick W. : The Gospel according to Luke. Cam bridge Bible. Cambridge, 1884. Farrar, Frederick W. : Lives of the Fathers. 2 vols. London, 1889. Farrar, Frederick W. : The Life and Work of St. Paul. 2 vols. London, 1879. Fritzsche, D. Car. Frid. August : Pauli ad Romanes Epistola. 2 vols. Halle, 1836. Freeman, Edward A. : Historical Geography of Europe. 2 vols. London, 1881. Ferrazzi, Jacopo : Manuale Dantesco. 5 vols. Bassano, 1865. Froude, James Anthony : Calvinism. New York, 1871. Godet, F. : Commentary on St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans. Translated by A. Cusin. 2 vols. Edinburgh, 1880. Godet, F. : Commentary on St Paul's First Epistle to the Co rinthians. Translated by A. Cusin. 2 vols. Edinburgh, 1886. Geikie, Cunningham : The Holy Land and the Bible. 2 vols. New York, 1888. LIST OF AUTHORS AND EDITIONS. V Harless, Gottlieb C. A : Commentar fiber den Brief Pauli an die Ephesier. Erlangen, 1834. Heinrici, C. F. Georg: Das zweite Sendschreiben des Apostel Paulus an die Korinthier. Berlin, 1887. Hengstenberg, E. W. : Commentary on the Psalms. Translated by Fairbairn and Thomson. 3 vols. Edinburgh, 1846. Hodge, Charles: Systematic Theology. 3 vols. New York, 1872. Hatch, Edwin : Essays in Biblical Greek Oxford, 1889. Jebb, R. C. : The Oedipus Coloneus of Sophocles. Cambridge, 1885. Jebb, R C. : The Oedipus Tyrannus of Sophocles. Cambridge, 1883. Kingsley, Charles : The Roman and the Teuton. London, 1864. Kingsley, Charles : Hypatia. London, 1874. Lange, J. P. : The Epistle of Paul to the Romans. Translated by J. F. Hurst, with Additions by Philip Schaff and M. B. Riddle. New York, 1869. Lundy, John P. : Monumental Christianity. 2d edition. New York, 1882. Lanciani, Rodolfo : Ancient Rome in the Light of Recent Dis coveries. Boston and New York, 1888. Lenormant Francois : Beginnings of History. New York, 1882. Lightfoot, J. B. : St. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians. London, 1866. Lightfoot, J. B. : St. Paul's Epistle to the Philippians. London, 1869. Lightfoot J- B. : St Paul's Epistles to the Colossians and Phile mon. London, 1875. Lightfoot, J. B. : The Apostolic Fathers. 2d edition. Part H. 3 vols. London, 1885. Lightfoot, J. B. : Essays on Supernatural Religion. London, 1889. Lumby, J. Rawson : The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Philippians. Schaffs Popular Commentary. New York, 1882. Lux Mundi, A Series of Studies in the Religion of the Incarna tion. Edited by Charles Gore. 4th edition. London, 1890. Meyer, Heinrich A W. : Commentaries on Romans, First and vi LIST OF AUTHORS AND EDITIONS. Second Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippiansj Colossians, and Philemon. American edition. Merivale, Charles: The Conversion of the Roman Empire. Boyle Lectures for 1864 New York, 1865. Moule, H. C. G. : The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Ro mans. Cambridge Bible. Cambridge, 1887. Moule; H C. G. : The Epistle to the Ephesians. Cambridge Bible. Cambridge, 1887. Morison, James : A Critical Exposition of the Third Chapter of Paufs Epistle to the Romans. London, 1866. Morison, James : St. Paul's Teaching on Sanctification ; a Critic al Exposition of Romans vi. London, 1886. Morison, James: An Exposition of the Ninth Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans. New edition. London, 1888. Mahaffy, J. P. : Rambles and Studies in Greece. London, 1878. Mtiller, Max : The Science of Language. 2 vols. New York, 1862. Maclaren, Alexander : The Epistles of St. Paul to the Colossians and Philemon. Expositor's Bible. New York, 1888. Newman, John Henry : The Arians of the Fourth Century. London, 1876. Nitzsch, Gregor Wilhelm : Erklarehde Anmerkungen zu Homer's Odysee. Hannover, 1826. Perowne, J. J. Stewart : The Book of Psalms. 2 vols. 3d edi tion. London, 1873. Rossettis Maria Francesca : A Shadow of Dantej Boston, 1872. Raleigh, Walter : History of the World. London, 1614 Symonds, John Addington : Studies of the Greek Poets. 2 vols. New York, 1880. Shedd, William G. T. : A Critical and Doctrinal Commentary upon the Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans. New York. Schaff, Philip, and Riddle, Matthew B. : The Epistle of Paul to the Romans. Schaff's Popular Commentary. New York, 1882. Stallbaum, Godofredus : Platonis Opera Omnia. 10 vols. Gotha, 1833. Salmon, George : A Historical Introduction to the Study of the Books of the New Testament. 3d edition. London, 1888. Stalker, James : The Life of St Paul. New York. LIST OF AUTHORS AND EDITIONS. vii Stanley, Arthur P. : The Epistles of St. Paul to the Corinthians. 4th edition. London, 1876. Stanley, Arthur P. : Christian Institutions. New York, 1881. Schleusner, Johann Friedrich : Novus Thesaurus Philologico- Criticus, sive Lexicon in LXX. 2d edition. 3 vols. Glasgow, 1822. Smith, W. Robertson: The Prophets of Israel. Edinburgh. 1882. Toy, Crawford H. : Quotations in the New Testament. New York, 1884. Tholuck, A : Commentar zum Brief an die Romer. Halle, 1856. Trommius, Abraham : Concordantiae Graecae Versionis vulgo dictae LXX. Interpretum. 2 vols. Amsterdam, 1718. Viger, Francis : De Praecipuis Graecae Dictionis Idiotismis Liber. 2 vols. 3d edition. London, 1824. Westcott Brooke Foss : The Epistle to the Hebrews. London, 1889. Whately, Richard : On Some of the Difficulties in the Writings of the Apostle Paul, and in other parts of the New Testament. 8th edition. London, 1861. Wilson, Daniel, Bishop of Calcutta : Expository Lectures on St. Paul's Epistle to the Colossians. New York, 1846. Wordsworth, Christopher: Greece, Pictorial, Descriptive, and Historical London, 1839. Weiss, Bernhard : A Manual of Introduction to the New Testa ment Translated by A J. K. Davidson. 2 vols. New York, 1889. Weiss, Bernhard : Das Marcusevangelium und seine synoptischen Paralleled Berlin, 1872. Young, Robert : Analytical Concordance to the Bible. Edin burgh, 1880. Young, John : The Life and Light of Men. London, 1866. ESTTRODTJCTiON. The life and labors of Paul are fully treated in well-known and easily accessible works. His language and 6tyle will be discussed in the fourth and final volume of this work. I shall confine this introduction to an account of the several epistlee treated in the present volume. THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. The Roman Church had been for some time in existence when Paul wrote this epistle (see ch. i. 8, 10, 12, 13 ; xv. 23). That he was acquainted with many of its members appears from the salutations in the sixteenth chapter. In Acts xxviii. 15, the existence of the Church is assumed as well known, and the company which meets the apostle at Appii Forum has clear ly the character of a deputation. The date and circumstances of the origin and organization of the Church cannot, however, be certainly determined. The Church consisted of both Jews and Gentiles ; but the predominance of the Gentile element is apparent from the epistle itself (see ch. i. 5, 12-16 ; iii. 27-30 ; iv. 6 ; vi. 19 ; xi. 13, 25, 28, 30 ; xv. 1, 8, 15).* Paul had long desired to preach the Gospel at Rome, but when, apparently, on the eve of accomplishing his wish, his plan was complicated by the necessity of visiting Jerusalem with the collection for " the poor saints." He did not, in any event, contemplate a long stay in Rome, intending to take it en route for Spain. Being thus delayed, he determined to * The student will find a clear summary of the evidences for the Gentile character of the Church in Weiss' " Introduction to the New Testament." x INTRODUCTION. write at once, in order both to meet the immediate needs of the Church and to prepare the way for his personal presence. The epistle was written during his last visit at Corinth (Acts xx. 2, 3), and was despatched by the hands of Phoebe the deaconess,* about a.d. 59. Its authenticity is generally conceded, together with the fact that it was written in Greek, though some Roman Catholic critics have maintained that it was written in Latin. There is nothing surprising in its having been written in Greek, since the Greek language was prevalent at Rome, hav ing become indeed the general language of the world, and the composition of the letter in Greek accords with Paul's Hellenic associations and training. The Latin fathers never claim then- own language as the original of any part of the New Testa ment, and Ignatius, Justin, and Irenaeus all wrote in Greek to Romans. The aim of the epistle is didactic rather than polemic, though it acquires a polemic flavor in its opposition of Christianity to legalism. It is distinguished among the epistles by its system atic character. Its object is to present a comprehensive state ment of the doctrine of salvation through Christ, not a com plete system of christian doctrine. Its theme is, The Gospel, the jpower of God unto salvation to Jew and Gentile alike,' a power because of its revelation of a righteousness of God for believers. In the development of this theme Paul shows that Jew and Gentile are alike violators of divine law, and are consequently exposed to the divine wrath, from which there is no deliverance through works or ordinances, but only through the Gospel of Jesus Christ accepted by faith. In insisting upon this universal condition of salvation, God neither violates His original covenant with Israel, nor deprives Himself of the right to judge sin. The truth of justification by faith is an Old-Testament truth, illustrated in the case of Abraham, and applicable to both Jews and Qentiles. The true seed of Abraham are those who fol- * Some, however, maintain that the epistle was written at Cenchreae, after Paul had left Corinth on his return to Syria. See notes on ch. xiv. 23 ; xvi. L INTRODUCTION. XI low him, not in circumcision but in faith. The saving provi sion in Christ is coextensive with the results of the fall in Adam, and assures present and future salvation to its subjects. The office of the law was to develop and manifest the sin which originated in Adam's fall, and thus to give full scope to the re demptive work of Christ. This truth neither encourages immorality nor convicts God of unfaithfulness to His covenant with Israel. Justification by faith involves personal union with Christ, and consequent death to sin and moral resurrection to newness of life. Grace does not imply liberty to sin, but a change of masters and a new obedience and service. Grace does not do away with God's holy law, but only with the false relation of the natural man to that law ; in which sin made use of the law to excite man's opposition to it, and thus to bring him into bondage and death. This is illustrated from Paul's own experience. The deliverance from this bondage, which the law could not effect, is wrought by the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, which frees from condemnation and initiates a life of sonship inspired and controlled by the Spirit of God. The power of this life appears in the assurance of hope which it imparts amid the trials of this mortal state, a hope founded in the divine election. To the claim that God cannot reject the unbelieving Jew without breaking His own covenant and stultifying His decree, is opposed the doctrine of absolute divine sovereignty, uncon ditioned by human merit or service, but exercised in perfect righteousness and mercy, which are vindicated by God's forming for Himself a people of believers, both Jew and Gentile. It is further shown that this divine economy includes the operation of human free agency no less than of divine sovereignty, and that the rejection of Israel was therefore idue to their blind reliance on their original election, and their refusal of the right eousness which is through faith in Christ. This rejection is only partial and temporary. God has not cast off His people, but has overruled their unbelief for the salvation of the Gen- tiles, who, in turn, shall be the means of the restoration of the Jews. See note at the end of ch. xi. xii INTRODUCTION. The practical and hortatory portion of the epistle, which begins with ch. xii., treats of the cultivation of different graces, civil duties, the right of private judgment, and the doctrine of christian expediency in its relations to weak faith. Critics are not unanimous as to the integrity of the epistle. The authenticity of the doxology has been questioned, and the Tubingen critics declared the fifteenth and sixteenth chapters to be spurious. By some, the greater part of ch. xvi. is sup posed to be addressed to the Ephesians. See on ch. xiv. 23 ; xvi. 25. The epistle is characterized by system, masculine vigor, logic al acuteness, copiousness of thought, and depth of feeling. Logic is backed by history, and christian doctrine and precept are illumined from the Prophets and Psalms. Neither personal feeling nor national sentiment is allowed to turn the keen edge of truth. The opening theme — all alike under sin — is evolved with remorseless sternness. The picture of the moral condition of the pagan world is the work of an eye-witness, and is terri ble in its stark realism. Yet the logic is aglow with intense feeling, which rises at times toward the level of the Ephesian epistle. The emotion is as deep as in Second Corinthians, but less turbulent. The irony of that epistle is almost wholly absent. The opening of the ninth chapter is a veritable sob. The personal expressions are affectionate and laudatory, but the companion and friend who appears in First Thessalonians, Philippians, and Philemon, mostly gives place to the apostle and teacher. The powerful dramatic element in the epistle is over looked in the popular impression of a hard theological treatise. It appears in the forensic moulds in which the great spiritual processes are occasionally cast ; in the embodiment of the an tagonism of sin and holiness in a personal struggle ; in the introduction of objections as by an interlocutor ; in the vivid contrasts of life and death, spirit and flesh, bondage and free dom, condemnation and acquittal ; in the impersonation of the whole creation groaning and travailing for deliverance from the bondage of corruption. The transitions are as easy and natural as the contrasts are sharp. The nervous but steady movement of chs. ii., iii., iv., INTRODUCTION. xiii suddenly subsides with the opening of ch. v., and one can pause and bare his forehead to the sweet air ere he begins upon the new ascent from ver. 12. The first words of the eighth chapter succeed the seventh like a quiet melody given out by flute or horn after the tumultuous harmonies of the ochestra ; and one is conscious of no shock in the descent from the high themes of sovereignty and grace to their applications in common life and duty. The epistle must be grasped entire. No portion of the New Testament lends itself to more dangerous distortions of truth through fragmentary use. No one of Paul's epistles is so dependent for its just effect upon the perception of the relation of its parts to the whole. Its logic and its feeling are inseparable. It answers the highest test of eloquence in stimulating emotion with profound thought, and in fusing thought in feeling. But to acquire such a grasp is no easy task, especially for the English reader. It requires far more than close grammatical analysis, and adjustment of the special theological problems raised by the epistle. The letter must be studied in the light of the whole body of the Pauline writings, and with the largest possible acquaintance with the logical and rhetorical habits of the apostle. The fulness and impetuosity of his thought sometimes render him careless of its arrangement. Sugges tions, striking into the main line of reasoning, are pursued with an eagerness and to a length which may easily divert the reader from the principal track. Possible qualifications of a truth are temporarily neglected in the concentration of thought upon a single aspect. It is not always easy to discover where the mat ter of a parenthesis gives place to the resumption of the main thought ; sometimes indeed the parenthesis is carried on as if it were the main thought. The first member of a proposition often acquires a headway which makes him forget to offset it with its complementary member. His antitheses are not always evenly balanced, and one member may be literal and the other metaphorical. Certain expressions depend for their force upon word-plays which cannot be translated, and prepositions are accumulated with reference to shades of meaning which tax the utmost resources of the translator and commentator. xiv INTRODUCTION. THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE COEINTHIAN8. The account of Paul's first visit to Corinth is given in Acts xvii. He continued there a year and six months, going thence to Syria, and making a brief stay on his way to Jerusalem at Ephesus, to which he returned and remained for over two years. The church at Corinth became the most important of those founded by the apostle, and probably embraced the church at the adjoining seaport of Cenchreae (see on Rom. xvi. 1), and the Christians scattered throughout Achaia (2 Cor. i.l). After Paul's departure from Corinth, Apollos, commended by the Ephesian church, was sent to labor there. Notwith standing his efficiency he involuntarily became the cause of division in the church, as the nucleus of a party which pre ferred his polished rhetoric to the plainer utterances of Paul (1 Cor. iii. 4, 5). Besides this, the characteristic sensuous and pleasure-loving tendencies of the Corinthians began to assert themselves within the church. The majority of the converts were of a low social grade, many of them slaves, and the seductions of the gay city often proved too strong for resistance. The report of these evils, brought to Ephesus by Apollos on his return from Corinth, called out a letter from Paul which is lost, but which is referred to in 1 Cor. v. 9. Additional tidino-s came in a letter from the church to Paul, asking advice on the following points : 1. Celibacy and marriage. Was married life a lower condition than celibacy, or was it wrong in itself ? Were marriages allowable between Christians and heathen ? Should a Christian wife or husband abandon a heathen spouse ? 2. Meats offered to idols. Idol sacrifices were festivals. Gen tile converts refused to abandon the society of their heathen friends, and mingled with them at the idol feasts ; while a meal at a public festival was a substantial help to the poor. Might Christians attend these festivals ? Might they buy in the mar ket the resold meat which had been offered to idols ? 3. Rules in assemblies. Should men cover their heads ? Should women INTRODOtJTTON. XV appear uncovered ? Might women speak and teach in public ? 4. Spiritual gifts. Which was the more important, speaking with tongues or preaching ? What should be done when sev eral began to speak at once ? 5. The resurrection. Some maintained that it was purely spiritual and that it was already past. 6. They also desired to hear something more about the collection for the poor in Judaea, and to have Apollos sent back. The bearers of the letter, Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achai- cus, together with those of the household of Chloe (1 Cor. i. 11), also brought tidings of the factions which had divided the church and the quarrels over the different preachers. Certain Judaic teachers had come, with commendatory letters from Jerusalem, claiming the authority of Peter and impugning that of Paul, declaring that Peter was the true head of the Christian Church and Paul an interloper. A fourth distinct party is supposed by some to be indicated by the words " I of Christ " (see on 1 Cor. i. 10). It also appeared that the assemblies of the church had become disorderly ; that the agapae and the eucharist were scenes of gluttony, brawling, and drunk enness; while the gatherings for worship were thrown into confusion by the simultaneous speaking of those who professed the gift of tongues. Women were speaking unveiled in these assemblies. One prominent church-member was living crim inally with his stepmother. On the receipt of this letter Paul abandoned his intended visit to Corinth, sent Titus to inform the church of his change of plan and to arrange for the collection, and dictated to Sos- thenes the first epistle to the Corinthians. Notwithstanding the subscription of the letter, " written from Philippi," a mis take which grew out of 1 Cor. xvi. 5, it was written at Ephesus, as appears from 1 Cor. xvi. 8, 19. He begins by stating his complaints against the church (i. 10-vi. 20). He then answers the questions contained in their letter : Marriage (vii. 1-40) ; Sacrificial feasts (viii. 1-13). From this he diverges to the insinuations againBt his character and authority, noticing the charge based upon his refusal to receive pecuniary support, and asserting his unselfish devo- xvi INTRODUCTION. tion to the Gospel (ix.). He returns to the sacrificial feasts (x.). Then he passes to the regulation of the assemblies (xi.). The different spiritual gifts and their mutual relation are dis cussed in ch. xii., and Love is shown to be greater and more enduring than all gifts (xiii.). The subject of speaking with tongues is then taken up, and the superiority of prophecy to the gift of tongues is asserted (xiv. 1-40). Ch. xv. discusses the resurrection, and the epistle concludes with references to cer tain personal and incidental matters, including the collection. Authorities are generally agreed in placing the date of the epistle a.d. 57. Its authenticity is conceded on all hands. The key-note of the epistle is struck in two correlated thoughts — the supreme headship of Christ, and the union of believers as one body in and with Him. The former thought finds expression in Paul's humble disclaimer of all merely per sonal authority, and of all right to a hearing save as Christ's agent and mouthpiece. The power of preaching resides in its theme — Christ crucified — and not in its philosophic wisdom nor in the personal culture of its preachers. The gifts and graces of the Church are due to Christ alone. The other thought is the standing confutation and rebuke of all the errors and abuses which have invaded the Church. Faction, fornica tion, litigation, fellowship with idolaters — all are sufficiently condemned by the fact that they break the sacred tie between the Church and Christ, and between individuals and the Church. Union in Christ implies divine order in the Church. The sexes fall into their true relation. The subordinations of the heavenly hierarchies are perpetuated in the Church. Con fusion is banished from public worship, and the mystery of the eucharist is expounded in the mutual love and helpfulness of the participants. Diversities of spiritual gifts are harmonized and utilized through their relation to the one body and the informing power of one divine Spirit — the Spirit of love. Christian expediency, involving individual sacrifice for the com mon welfare, becomes an authoritative principle. This unity finds its crowning exhibition in the resurrection, in which be lievers share the resurrection of their Lord, and enter into final and perfect communion with His glorified life. INTRODUCTION. Xvfi It has been truthfully said that no portion of the New Test ament discusses so directly the moral problems of that age ot of our own. Many of the same questions emerge in the social and church-life of modern times. Such are the rally of cliques round popular preachers; the antithesis of asceticism and christian liberty ; of christian zeal and christian wisdom ; the true relation of the sexes and the proper position and function of woman in the Church ; the assertion of individual inspiration against the canons of christian decency; the antagonism be tween individualism and the subordination of the members to the body ; the resurrection in the light of modern science ; aestheticism and morals. No epistle of the New Testament, therefore, should be more carefully studied by the modern pastor. THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS. Paul's stay at Ephesus was cut short by the riot. He de parted to Troas, and thence to Macedonia (Acts xx.), where he met Titus, for whose arrival he had anxiously waited in order to learn the effect of his letter (2 Cor. i. 8 ; ii. 13 ; vii. 5). Titus' report was both gratifying and disheartening. He had been cordially received, and the epistle had caused penitence and amendment ; but the influence of the anti-Pauline parties had increased, and they were openly assailing Paul's character and insisting on their own superior apostolic claims. Accord ingly Titus was again sent to Corinth with a second epistle, written from some point in Macedonia. The statement of the subscription that it was written from Philippi, lacks evidence, besides being in itself improbable. The date is the autumn of A.D. 57. The epistle is among the least systematic of Paul's writings, for the reason that it was written in a conflict of feeling, in which joy, grief, and indignation struggled for the mastery. Its main motives are three in number. 1. Thankfulness for the effect of his first letter. 2. Indignation at the work and increasing influence of the false teachers. 3. Anxiety for the completion of the collection, and that the Corinthians should xviii INTRODUCTION. imitate the good example of the Macedonian churches. " The three objects of the epistle are, in point of arrangement, kept distinct ; but so vehement were the feelings under which he wrote, that the thankful expression of the first part is darkened by the indignation of the third ; and the directions about the business of the contribution are colored by the reflections both of his joy and of his grief " (Stanley). The style accords with this turbulence of feeling. It is sur charged with passionate emotion. No one of Paul's epistles is so intensely personal. Here only he reveals two of those great spiritual experiences which belong to a Christian's inmost heart-life — personal crises which are secrets between a man and his God. One of these — the thorn in the flesh — is a crisis of agony ; the other — the rapture into the third heaven — a crisis of ecstasy. Bengel's remark is familiar, that the epistle is an itinerary. " The very stages of his journey are impressed upon it ; the troubles at Ephesus, the repose at Troas, the anxieties and consolations of Macedonia, the prospect of removing to Corinth " (Stanley). His self- vindication is not only a remark able piece of personal history, but a revelation of his high sense of honor and his keen sensitiveness. His " boasting," into which he is driven by persistent slander, throws into relief his aversion to self-praise. He formally announces his intention to boast, as though he can bring himself to the task only by committing himself to it. Thrice he repeats the announcement, and each time seems to catch, with a sense of relief, at an oppor tunity for digressing to a different subject. Ecstatic thanks giving and cutting irony, self-assertion and self-abnegation, commendation, warning and authority, paradox, apology, all meet and cross and seethe ; yet out of the swirling eddies rise, like rocks, grand Christian principles and inspiring hopes. Such are the double power of the Gospel for life or death ; the freedom and energy of the dispensation of the Spirit ; suffering the path to glory ; the divine purpose in the decay of the fleshly tabernacle ; the new and heavenly investment of the mortal life ; the universal judgment ; the nature of repentance as dis tinguished from sorrow, and the principles of christian liberal ity. Full and swift as is the torrent, there is ever a hand on INTRODUCTION. XIX the floodgate. In the most indignant outburst the sense of suppression asserts itself. Indignation and irony never run into malediction. We cease to be surprised at the apostle's capability of indignation when we catch glimpses, as we do throughout the epistle, into the depths of his tenderness. It is not strange that such a tempest should set its mark upon the style and diction, especially if we assume that the epistle was dictated to an amanuensis. In some particulars the epistle is the most difficult in the New Testament. The style is broken, in volved, at times obscure. The impetuosity of the thought car ries it from point to point with a rapidity which makes it often hard to grasp the sequence and connection. It is preeminently picturesque, abounding in metaphors which sometimes lie un developed in the heart of single words, and sometimes are strangely mixed or suddenly shifted. Building and clothing blend in describing the heavenly investiture of the believer ; now the Corinthians are a commendatory letter written in the apostles' hearts, now the letter is written by Christ on the Co rinthians' hearts ; the rush of thought does not stop at the in congruity of an epistle on stone and of ink on stone tables; now the knowledge of Christ, now the apostles themselves are a sweet odor. Paul does not huckster the word of God. He does not benumb his converts like a torpedo. Here a word calls up Gideon's lamps and pitchers, there the rocky strongholds of the Cilician pirates. A rapid series of participles carries us through the successive stages of a battle — the hemming in, the cutting the way out, the pursuit, the blow of the enemy's sword. The high citadel is stormed, the lofty towers are over thrown, the captives are led away. Paul bears about a daily death : affliction is a light weight, glory an overwhelming bur den : the fleshly body is a tent, the glorified body an eternal building, or a garment dropped from above. Certain words appear to have a peculiar fascination for the writer, as if they gathered up into themselves the significance of whole masses of thought. Without arresting its main current, the stream eddies round these. Sometimes he dwells on them caressingly, as " the God of all comfort, who comforteth us, that we may be able to comfort with the comfort wherewith we are XX INTRODUCTION. comforted? Sometimes he rings them out like a challenge, as commend, commendation, boast. Sometimes he touches and re touches them with a sarcastic emphasis, as bear with me, bear with them. " So full of turns is he everywhere," 6ays Erasmus, " so great is the skill, you would not believe that the same man was speaking. Now, as some limpid fountain, he gently bubbles forth ; anon, like a mighty torrent, he rolls crashing on, whirl ing many things along in his course : again he flows calmly and smoothly, or spreads out into a lake." The authenticity of the epistle is conceded. Unsuccessful attempts have been made against its integrity, as the effort to show that it consists of three separate epistles, or of two. THE EPISTLES OF THE IMPRISONMENT. This name is given to the Epistles to the Philippians, Ephes ians, Colossians, and Philemon, because they were composed during Paul's first imprisonment at Rome. By a few critics they have been assigned to the period of the confinement at Caesarea. Paul arrived in Rome, under guard, after his shipwreck at Malta, in March, a.d. 61, in the seventh year of the reign of Nero. He was placed in charge of the Praetorian Guard, the mem bers of which relieved each other in his custody, each soldier being chained to his hand. This interruption of his missionary labors was a blessing in disguise. Twenty years of exhausting toil had brought the necessity for rest and meditation. The two years of confinement in Caesarea afforded the apostle the leisure for sinking his thought deeper into the mystery of the Gospel. The effect is apparent in the epistles from his Roman prison. Nothing in these, indeed, contradicts his previous writ ings ; the fundamental themes of the earlier epistles recur, and Philippians in particular exhibits marked parallels with Ro mans. In all Christ is central. In Romans and in the Corin thian epistles there are not wanting instances of the exalted feeling which is so marked in Ephesians, Colossians, and Phi- INTRODUCTION. xxi lippians. The Judaizing insolence, castigated in Galatians, is sharply touched again in Philippians. The relations of Jew and Gentile reappear in Ephesians ; and Christ's headship of the Church, assumed in First Corinthians, is developed and em phasized in Ephesians and Colossians. Nevertheless, the Epistles of the Imprisonment carry us into a new atmosphere. The thought takes new directions and a wider range. The apostle's personality appears in an aspect which it is not easy to analyze, but which carries with it the sense of a broadening and deepening of the whole man. In the discussion of christian truth the points of emphasis are shifted. In the earlier epistles he deals largely with unbeliev ers, in the latter with Christians. In the one he is aiming to initiate union with Christ ; in the other to develop communion. In the one he points to the cross, in the other from the cross to the inheritance of grace and glory which it commands. In the one he emphasizes Christ crucified, in the other Christ risen, ascended, and reigning. In all alike the cross is central, but in these latter epistles it is coordinated with the vast economy of creation, redemption, the Church on earth and in heaven, as it lies entire in the eternal counsels of God. Here the person rather than the work of Christ is in the foreground : here, for the first time in the Pauline writings, the eye is distinctly fixed upon the pre-incarnate Son of God. While in the earlier groups of epistles the moral applications of doctrine are not overlooked, in these, the ethical element is more evenly balanced with the theological. In Philippians the ethical element dominates the theological. The great christological truths are translated into christian experience, and brought to bear as the principles and motives of duty. " No duty is too small to illustrate one or other of the principles which inspired the divinest acts of Christ. The commonest acts of humility and beneficence are to be imitations of the condescension which brought Him from the position of equality with God to the obedience of the cross ; and the ruling motive of the love and kindness practised by Christians to one another is to be the recollection of their com mon connection with Him." * _____ Xxii INTRODUCTION. A difference from the earlier epistles also develops through the new phase of error with which the apostle has to deal. Epaphras announced the appearance of a new enemy in the churches of the Lycus. The point of assault had begun to shift from legalism to philosophic mysticism. Legalism itself be trayed the infusion of Essenic asceticism and Gnostic specula- tiveness. These were the forces which brought to the front the doctrines of Christ's person and of the Church ; the one as the bulwark against the fancy of mediate creation and the affected humility of angel-worship, and the other, in its exhibition of Christ as the head of the body of believers, contesting the claim of philosophy to be the supreme source of wisdom, and the right of legal ordinances to give the law to life. THE EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS. For Philippi, see on Philip, i. 1. With the arrival of Paul at Philippi (Acts xvi.), the Gospel entered Europe. On his departure he left Luke to complete the organization of the Church. He subsequently visited the city twice, after which we hear nothing of the Philippian church until he writes to it from his Roman prison. On hear ing of his transfer to Rome, the Philippians, with the same generosity which they had shown on former occasions (Philip. iv. 15, 16 ; 2 Cor. xi. 8, 9), sent a supply of money by Epaph- roditus, who, on his return, brought this letter. The epistle is unofficial and familiar in character, even the apostolic title being dropped in the opening salutation. In its unsystematic structure it rivals Second Corinthians. It opens with an account of the progress of the Gospel in Rome since his arrival, the efforts of his opposers, and the zeal of his friends, and an expression of his own feelings as to his pos sible death or continued life. An exhortation follows to christ ian unify, courage, and humility, the latter illustrated by the great act of Christ's humiliation. He hopes soon to be re leased : he is about to send Timothy to Philippi ; Epaphrodi- tus has been sick, and is about to return home. Let them beware of the Judaizers — the dogs, the concision. Their arro- INTRODUCTION. xxiii gant claims are contrasted with the rights and privileges of Christians, and the contrast is pointed by his own spiritual history and a recital of the legal privileges which he relin quished for Christ. Then follow an exhortation to steadfast ness, a lament over the victims of sensuality, and a contrast of such with those whose life and hope are heavenly. Two prominent ladies are entreated to reconcile their differences, after which come some parting admonitions to entertain pure thoughts and high aims, and a grateful acknowledgment of the gift brought by Epaphroditus. In the tone of strong personal attachment which pervades the epistle, it resembles the first to the Thessalonians. It con tains no formulated doctrinal teaching, and no indication of the presence of doctrinal errors within the Church. Only the severe allusions in the third chapter, to Judaizers and Antino- mian loose-livers, have the flavor of controversy, and the treat ment of these is not argumentative, but denunciatory, hortative, and expostulatory. The only warning to the Church is against internal dissensions. Christ is set forth, not in His relation to great christian mysteries, but as a living power in personal experience — notably in the apostle's own. The words and imagery reveal occasional traces of the con tact of Stoicism, as citizenship (i. 28 ; iii. 20) ; content, or self- sufficient (iv. 2) ; and the passage, i. 21-27, presents a vivid contrast with the Stoic's theory of life and his justification of suicide. The epistle abounds in picturesque words, as earnest expectation (i. 20); terrified (i. 28); depart (i. 23); robbery (ii. 6) ; holding forth (ii. 16) ; offered (ii. 17) ; not regarding (ii. 30) ; keep (iv. 7) ; learned (iv. 11), etc. See notes. Bishop Lightfoot observes : " The Epistle to the Philippians is not only the noblest reflection of Paul's personal character and spiritual illumination, his large sympathies, his womanly tenderness, his delicate courtesy, his frank independence, his entire devotion to the Master's service — but as a monument of the power of the Gospel it yields in importance to none of the apostolic writings. ... To all ages of the Church — to our own especially — this epistle reads a great lesson. While we are expending our strength on theological definitions or ecclesias- xxiv INTRODUCTION. tical rules, it recalls us from these distractions to the very heart and centre of the Gospel— the life of Christ and the life in Christ. Here is the meeting-point of all our differences, the healing of all our feuds, the true life alike of individuals and sects and churches ; here doctrine and practice are wedded to gether ; for here is the ' creed of creeds ' involved in and arising out of the ' work of works.' " The authenticity and genuineness are generally conceded, though violently assailed by the Tubingen critics. The date of composition is probably about ad. 62, and the epistle is, I think, to be placed in order before the other three.* THE EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS. For Ephesus, see on Apoc. ii. 1. The church in Ephesus was founded during Paul's long resi dence there (Acts xix. 10 ; xx. 31). He left the city immedi ately after the great riot (Acts xix.), and never returned. His last personal contact with the church was when he met its elders at Miletus (Acts xx. 18, 35). There has been much discussion as to the destination of the epistle. The principal views are three: 1. That it was ad dressed to the church at Ephesus. 2. To the church at Laodi- caea. 3. That it was an encyclical or circular epistle, intended for the church at Ephesus along with a body of neighboring churches. Some also have regarded it as designed for the churches of Ephesus and Laodicaea, and others for the Lao- dicaean church along with a circle of churches. I regard the epistle as addressed to the Church at Ephesus. Such was the general opinion of the early church. The words " in Ephesus " (i. 1), though omitted in two important manu scripts, are found in the majority of manuscripts and in all the old versions. The Laodicaean theory f was started by Marcion, who was severely taken to task by TertuUian for altering the title to " the Epistle to the Laodicaeans." Marcion himself in- * Against the majority of authorities. f Advocated by Bishop Lightfoot INTRODUCTION. xxv serted the epistle in his canon as " the Epistle to the Ephes ians ; " and it is significant that no manuscript which omits "in Ephesus" substitutes "in Laodicaea." The encyclical theory rests mainly on internal grounds, such as the general tenor of the epistle, and the absence of personal reminiscences, appeals and greetings, and of local references. But when ad dressing a circle of churches, Paul is wont to specify the fact, as in First and Second Corinthians and Galatians. If the words " in Ephesus" be rejected, the epistle is entirely without local designation, and is catholic rather than encyclical. Moreover, whenever Paul, in the address of an epistle, uses toi? oiavv which are, he follows these with the name of a place, as " at Rome," " at Philippi," " at Corinth." The Ephesian church, so far as is indicated by the letter, furnished no special reason for its composition. It contains no references to the dangers which Paul predicted at Miletus, no allusions to his personal relations with the church, and no salu tations to individuals. Its theme is the Church of Christ, founded in the will of the Father, developed by the work of the Son, and united in him through the indwelling and energy of tlie Holy Spirit. The body of believers is chosen of God : their privilege is adoption : the motive of adoption is grace, its medium Jesus Christ, its element love, its end holiness and the glorification of divine grace (i. 3-6). The work of the Son in this scheme is redemption, remission of sins, and the gift of wisdom and discernment. His central position in the divine plan will appear in the consummation, which will consist in the summing up of all things in Him (i. 7-12). The agent and earnest of this inheritance of believers is the Holy Spirit (i. 13-14). Hence the prayer that the operation of the Spirit may appear in the bestowment of wisdom and revelation (compare i. 8), and of quickened spiritual discernment ; so that believers may recognize the divine call, and experience the hope which it en genders, the riches of the inheritance which it assures (compare i. 11), and the efficiency of the divine power which is exhibited Xxvi INTRODUCTION. and pledged to them in the resurrection and exaltation of Christ (i. 15-22). The election, the call, the redemptive work, the adoption, the personal holiness, the knowledge and discernment— all find their embodiment in the Church, the body of Christ, in which the divine fulness dwells (i. 22, 23). The scope of this plan is universal, including both Jews and Geptiles. Its operation is illustrated in the turning of the Gentiles from their sins, and in the destruction of the national and religious barriers between them and the Jews, making of the two one Church in Christ, the dwelling-place of the Spirit, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ as the corner-stone (ii. 1-22). The inclusion of the Gentiles in the divine covenant is a mystery of which Paul has been made the minister. The intent of this mystery is to manifest through the Church to the heavenly powers the manifold wisdom of God (iii. 2—10). Thus far the theme, the Church, is struck at i. 22, 23 ; ii. 19-22 ; iii. 10. The prayer (iii. 14-21) includes the points already touched — the universal fatherhood of God ; the sonship of Christ ; the work of the Spirit in believers ; the indwelling of Christ by faith ; love as the element of christian life ; knowledge of the deep things of God — and returns to the main theme, the Church. The key-note of the practical portion of the epistle is given in ch. iv. 1 : " Walk worthy of your calling." The practical exhortations contemplate individuals in their relation to the Church. The fundamental duty is unity through the one in forming Spirit (iv. 3, 4). The great factors of church fellow ship are specified : " One Lord " (Christ) ; one principle of ¦" faith," uniting to Christ ; one formal sign, " baptism," mark ing admission to the body of Christ ; one universal " Father," ruling, pervading, and dwelling in all (iv. 5, 6). This unity of the Church includes and is furthered by various manifestations of the Spirit in the form of different gifts ; and the authority of Christ to confer and distribute these gifts is indicated by His descent to earth and Hades, and His ascent INTRODUCTION. xxvii to the glory of the Father (iv. 7-16). In the thought that tne purpose of these gifts is the edifying of the body of Christ, the theme — the Church — is again sounded. Practical exhortations follow, to spiritual renewal, truthful ness, peace, honesty, purity of speech and life, love, godly caution, temperance, holy meditation and christian interchange, gratitude, and the reciprocal duties of husband and wife, in which last the church-theme is once more enunciated in typ ifying by the marriage-rite Christ's love for the Church (iv. 7-v.). The Church includes the household. The exhortations to fidelity in household relations are continued (vi. 1-9). The ideal of the Church and of individual character is realized only through conflict with the evil world and the powers of dark ness, in which the power of God alone can insure victory. Hence the Christian is urged to clothe himself with the divine panoply (vi. 10-18). The authenticity of the epistle has been challenged on the ground of dissimilarity to the other writings of Paul, unusual words and phrases, and a general un-Pauline character in doc trine and diction. As regards doctrine, the charge is beneath notice. As to diction, the argument from unusual expressions would bear equally against the genuineness of some of the best- attested epistles. While there are forty-two unique words in this letter, there are thirty-eight in Colossians, above a hundred in Romans, and two hundred and thirty in First Corinthians ; while the well-known peculiarities of Paul's style are as evident in this as in the other epistles. The epistle has also been assailed as " a mere verbose expan sion " of the Colossian letter. There are, indeed, marked resem blances between the two both in matter and form, and some times literal correspondences, as might be expected in two epis tles written about the same time ; but both the subject and the treatment of the two epistles present too many differences to bear out this charge of amplification. On the contrary, the same subject is sometimes treated more concisely in Ephesians than in Colossians (Eph. i. 15-17 ; Col. i. 3-6 ; Eph. iv. 32 ; Col. iii. 12-14). Ephesians, moreover, contains matter not xxviii INTRODUCTION. found in Colossians (Eph. i. 13-14 ; iv. 8-15 ; v. 7-14, 23-31 ; vi. 10-17). The polemic element in Colossians is wanting in Ephesians. The Christology of Colossians is more metaphysical than that of Ephesians, while the predestinarianism of Ephesians does not appear in Colossians. This epistle presents peculiar difficulties to the student. Dean Alford says : " The difficulties lie altogether beneath the surface ; are not discernible by the cursory reader, who finds all very straightforward and simple. . . . But when we begin to inquire why thought succeeds to thought, and one cnmbrous parenthesis to another — depths under depths disclose themselves, wonderful systems of parallel allusion, frequent and complicated underplots — every word, the more we search, ap proves itself as set in its exact logical place; we see every phrase contributing by its own similar organization and articu lation to the carrying out of the organic whole. But this result is not won without much labor of thought, without repeated and minute laying together of portions and expressions, with out bestowing on single words and phrases, and their succession and arrangement, as much study as would suffice for whole sec tions of more exoteric epistles." While the diction is marked by a peculiar sonorousness and depth of tone, it does not surpass in variety and picturesqueness that of some other epistles, Second Corinthians, for instance. The shorter epistle to the Colossians contains thirty-eight unique words to forty-two in Ephesians. But no writing of Paul equals this in the liturgical majesty of its movement. The Epistle to the Romans is the ever-deepening flow of a Btately river ; Second Corinthians is the rush of a rapid ; Ephes ians is the solemn swell of a calm sea. Not a familiar and personal letter like Philippians and Philemon, it is, equally with these, devoid of official stateliness. Its dignity is that of the seer rather than of the bishop and teacher. It rises at times to the height of apocalypse. The impression of a teacher ex pounding his theme is largely merged in the impression of a great mind and an adoring 60ul mastered and swept onward by the theme. INTRODUCTION. xxix The figure of a cathedral, into which Professor Longfellow has so finely cast his general conception of the " Divina Commedia," equally well, perhaps, even better, suits the Ephesian letter. If the expression may be allowed, that epistle is the veritable high-Gothic of sacred literature ; every line and detail carrying the eye upward, and the whole combining in one great upreach, irradiated with the rich hues of " the many-tinted wisdom of God." Even as St. Ouen mirrors its lines in the font at the portal, the whole magnificent ideal of the Church of Christ condenses itself into the inscription round the baptismal laver — " one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism." Every window is blazoned with its story, but in each the central figure is the same — now the Victim of the cross, now the Conqueror with his train of captives, now the King ascended and throned in light. No partition with its rigid lines sunders the band of wor shippers. Jew and Gentile kneel 6ide by side, every face turned toward the cross. On the very threshold the ear is greeted with a burst of choral thunder. The vast aisles throb with praise, crossed with the minor chords of penitent rehearsal, and the deep sighs of tempted souls struggling with the powers of darkness ; while from the side-chapels float the words of admonition to the newly-wedded, and of homely precept for the children and servants ; and over all the sweet, sad, trium phant tumult is heard the voice of the great apostle, rising with the incense-cloud from before the altar in that wondrous prayer, never surpassed save by the intercessions of Jesus Him self — " That He would grant yon, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man ; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith ; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend, with all saints, what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height ; and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled unto all the fulness of God." XXX INTRODUCTION. THE EPI8TLE TO THE COLOSSIANS. For Colossae, see on Col. i. 2. The Gospel was first preached in the cities of the Lycus by Epaphras (Col. i. 7 ; iv. 12 ; Philem. 23), who may also have founded the churches there. The theory that the church at Colossae was founded by Paul has no sufficient foundation.* The church had never been personally visited by Paul. Though his missionary journeys had carried him into the Galatian and Phrygian country (Acts xvi. 6), the indefinite usage of these terms, the absence of all hints of a visit in the epistle itself, and the notices of his route in the Acts, go to show that his path did not lie through the valley of the Lycus. Ch. ii. 1, appears to indicate that the Colossians were personally unknown to him. The occasion of the letter was the visit of Epaphras to the apostle in prison, and Paul's communication with Colossae in the matter of the restoration of Onesimus. Whether Epaphras shared his captivity or not (see on Philem. 23), he did not re turn to Colossae with this letter, but remained in Paul's com pany (Col. iv. 12) ; and his stay in Rome was long enough to put the apostle fully in possession of the dangers which men aced the Colossian church. Paul took the opportunity of Ty- chicus' journey to Colossae with Onesimus, to send this letter. Phrygia was a favorable soil for the development of error. " Cosmological speculation, mystic theosophy, religious fanati cism, all had their home there." f The leading worship was that of Cybele, the great Mother of the Gods, which was spread over Asia Minor generally, and especially prevailed in Mysia and Galatia. It was orgiastic, accompanied with frenzied dances, bowlings, and self-mutilations. Phrygia was also the home of Ophitism, or serpent-worship. Montanism, with its * This theory was elaborately advocated by Dr. Lardner (" Works," iii., ch. xiv.). Summaries and discussions of liis argument may be found in Alford's and Eadie's commentaries, and in Dr. Davidson's " Introduction to the Study of the New Testament." f Lightfoot. INTRODUCTION. XXxi ecstasy and trance, its faith-cures, its gloomy asceticism, its pas sion for martyrdom, and its savage intolerance, owed to Phry gia its leader ; and the earlier name of the sect was " the Sect of the Phrygians." Under Antiochns the Great, two thousand Jewish families had been transplanted into Phrygia and Lydia ; and while the staple of the church was Gentile, the epistle distinctly recog nizes the presence and operation of Jewish influences (ii. 16-21). The form of error which prevailed at Colossae included three elements : Jewish formalism ; speculative mysticism, represent ing the germs of what afterward developed as Gnosticism ; and Essenism, the medium through which the Jewish and Gnostic elements came into combination. Though Gnosticism, as such, had not developed itself at this time, a knowledge of its principal features is necessary to an intelligent reading of this epistle. It took its name from gnosis knowledge, since it claimed for a select few the possession of a superior acquaintance with truth. Its tendencies were thus exclusive and aristocratic. The Gnostics denied the direct creation of the world by God, be cause God would thus be shown to be the creator of evil. God's creative energy was thwarted by the world of matter, which is essentially evil, in eternal antagonism to God, and with which God could not come into direct contact without tainting His nature. Hence creation became possible only through a series of emanations from God, each successive emanation being less divine, nntil the point was reached where contact with matter became possible. These emanations were called aeons, spirits, or angels / and to these worship was rendered with an affecta tion of humility in approaching the lower grades of divinity, in stead of venturing into the immediate presence of the Supreme. The evil of matter was to be escaped either by rigid abstinence from the world of sense, or by independence of it. The system therefore tended to the opposite extremes of asceticism and licentiousness. Essenism, in the apostolic age, had established itself in Asia Minor. The Essenes combined the ritualism of the Jew with the asceticism and mysticism of the Gnostic. They rigorously xxxii INTRODUCTION. observed the Mosaic ritual, except in the matter of slain sacri. fices, which they refused to offer, regarding their ordinary meals as sacrificial rites. They discountenanced marriage, and foreswore oil, wine, and animal food. Their theology revealed traces of sun-worship. Holding the immortality of the soul, they denied the resurrection of the body. They also held some mystical doctrine of emanations, as agents in creation, akin to that of the Gnostic aeons. Like the Gnostics, they maintained the evil of matter. In this epistle Paul strikes at the intellectual exclusiveness of the Colossian heretics with the doctrine of the universality of the Gospel (i. 6, 23, 28 ; iii. 11). Their gnosis — the pretended higher, esoteric wisdom — is met with the assertion of the Gos pel as the true wisdom, the common property of all believers. The words wisdom, knowledge, full knowledge, intelligence, oc cur frequently in the epistle. TvS>o~io-i