be found in the contemplation of Jesus Christ. Whether he chiefly pointed to the example, the death, or the life beyond death, he does not here explain. But it is impossible not to see, first, that he regarded Him as in the fullest sense the representative of God to man; and also, that by means of that representation, he considered the free, unrestrained spiritual character of the Gospel to be effectually and for ever guaranteed. It is striking (or rather it would be striking, were it not for our long familiarity with the fact) to find that, on turning from the almost impalpable allusions and impliof this Chapter, to the definite and strongly marked outlines of the character of Christ's life and teaching as laid down in the four Gospels, a picture is there exhibited which at once justifies and accounts for the Apostle's assertions. Not only does it present to us an image of holiness and wisdom, which corresponds to St. Paul's transference (so to speak) of the language of the Old Testament to this new object of religious veneration, but it exhibits also, in numerous and unmistakable instances, that sacrifice of form to spirit, that encouragement of freedom and openness and sincerity, which St. Paul here identifies with the name and presence of Christ, in a manner which can only be fully justified by the actual history of our Lord's life. III. It may be worth while to go through the various images which the Apostle has called up in the preceding section. First, there is the commendatory Epistle of the Corinthian Church, written on his heart. Next, the same Epistle written on their hearts and lives, read and re-read by the wayfarers to and fro, through the thoroughfare of Greece. Thirdly, the contrast between this Epistle, written on the tender human feelings, on the vibrations of the wind, by the breath of the Spirit, carrying its tidings backwards and forwards whithersoever it will, with no limits of time or space, like the sweep of the wind on the Eolian harp, like an electric spark of light, and the Ten Commandments, graven in the granite blocks, hard, speechless, lifeless. Fourthly, there rises into view the figure of Moses, as he is known to us in the statue of Michael Angelo, the light streaming from his face, yet growing dim and dark as a greater glory of another revelation rises behind it. Fifthly, the same figure veiled, as the light beneath the veil dies away and shade rests upon the scene; and there rises around him a multiplication of that figure, the Jews in their synagogues veiled, as the Book of the Law is read before them. Sixthly, the same figure of Moses once more, but now unveiled as he turns again to Mount Sinai and uncovers his face to rekindle its glory in the Divine presence; and now again, the same figure multiplied in the Apostle and the Corinthian congregation following him, all with faces unveiled, and upturned towards the light of Christ's presence, the glory streaming into their faces with greater and greater brightness, as if borne in upon them by the Spirit or breath of light from that Divine countenance, till they are transfigured into a blaze of splendour like unto it. (2.) The Difficulties and Supports of his Apostolical Duties. IV. 7-V. 10. 7Ἔχομεν δὲ τὸν θησαυρὸν τούτον ἐν ὀστρακίνοις σκεύεσιν, ἵνα ἡ ὑπερβολὴ τῆς δυνάμεως ᾖ τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ μὴ ἐξ ἡμῶν, In enlarging on the greatness of his task, the point from which he had started in ii. 16., he naturally and insensibly passes to the support which he thence derived in the difficulties which he experienced in carrying it on. "We faint not," is the key of this passage, on which he had already touched in iv. 1., and to which he returns again, as the conclusion of the whole, in verse 16., first dwelling at length on the greatness of the trials which would, but for this hope, have caused him to be faint-hearted. It is possible that here, as in the similar and more elaborate passage, xi. 23—xii. 10., he is induced to enlarge upon them, partly with a view of contrasting his own labours with the inaction of his adversaries, partly with the view of showing that, in the troubles and infirmities which his labours brought upon him, and which his adversaries regarded as derogatory to the Apostolical authority which he claimed, God had a great purpose to answer by manifesting forth His power in the Apostle's greatness. But, on the whole, there is less of polemical argu ment, and more of the natural outpouring of his own feelings in this section, than in most. other parts of the Epistle. The mention of his sufferings is suggested apparently by the words" we faint not" in verse 1., and is, besides, a fuller expression of the dependence on God, which was already expressed in iii. 4. 7. Sè expresses the contrast to the foregoing strain of exultation. τὸν θησαυρὸν τούτον ἐν ὀστ τρακίνοις σκεύεσιν. This figure is taken apparently from the custom of placing gold and silver in earthenware jars. See Herodot. iii. 103., TOÚTOV TÒV φόρον θησαυρίζει ὁ βασιλεὺς (the king of Persia) троπ τοιῷδε· Ἐς πίθους κεραμέους τήξας καταχεῖ, πλήσας δὲ τὸ ἄγγος περιαιρέει, ἐπεὰν δὲ δεηθῇ χρημάτων, κατακόπτει τοσοῦτον ὅσον ἂν ἑκάστοτε δέηTal. And the image of earthenware vessels, as emblems of fragility and poverty, is also familiar to the Rabbis, as is implied in the story given by Wetstein, of the reply of Rabbi Joshua to a daughter of the emperor, who, on taunting him with his mean appearance, was où 8 ἐν παντὶ θλιβόμενοι ἀλλ' οὐ στενοχωρούμενοι, ἀπορούμενοι referred by him to the earthenware vessels in which her father kept his wines, and when, at her request, the wines had been shifted to silver vessels and there turned sour, was taunted by the Rabbi with the observation that the humblest vessels best contained the highest wisdom. The same figure also occurs in later classical authors. Artemidorus, vi. 25., indicates death by the phrase τὸ εἶναι ἐν ὀστρακίνῳ σκεύει. The word ooтpáκivov (it is only used in the neuter) is the Hellenistic, or later Greek, phrase for what in Attic Greek would be κɛраμéovv (see the grammarians Thomas and Mæris, quoted by Wetstein). The expression σκεύος (“ vessel") is frequently used as if it had almost ceased to have a metaphorical meaning, for "the human body." Compare "vessels of wrath and mercy' (Rom. ix. 22. 23.), "the weaker vessel" (1 Pet. iii. 7.), "his own vessel" (1 Thess. iv. 4.), "a vessel unto honour" (2 Tim. ii. 21.). Hence it was natural to bring out this latent metaphor by adding to it the epithet "earthenware" (ooτpaKivois). Compare 2 Tim. ii. 20., where "wooden and earthenware (oσтρákiva) vessels " are contrasted with gold and silver. ἵνα ἡ ὑπερβολὴ τῆς δυνάμεως ᾖ τοῦ Θεοῦ. The reason here given is the same as that in xii. 9. The order of the words invites us to take ý vπερẞon with τῆς δυνάμεως, “ The ex traordinary power." The sense would be better if (with the Vulgate) we could take it, "That the excess, whatever it be, may be of the power of God, and not from man." Comp. vi. 7.: "By the power of God." Rom. i. 16.: The power of God unto salvation." 1 Cor. ii. 5.: "Not in the wisdom of man, but in the power of God." The general meaning is the same, and "the power in either case must refer to his preaching and miracles. ἡ ὑπερβολὴ τῆς δυνάμεως = ἡ ὑπερβάλλουσα δύναμις, xii. 7. Josephus, Antiq. i. 13., ii. 2. 1. 8. ἐν παντί, “ in every direction." Compare xi. 6.; 1 Cor. i. 5. θλιβόμενοι ἀλλ ̓ οὐκ στενοxwpovμevoi, "pressed for room but still having room." For this sense of ißw compare ii. 4.; of σTEVOXwpɛîobai, vi. 4. στενοχωρεῖσθαι, 12. Compare Joshua, xvii. 15. (LXX.) ἀπορούμενοι ἀλλ ̓ οὐκ ἐξαποpouμevol," doubting, but not despairing" (such is the sense of the word elsewhere; John, xiii. 22.; Gal. iv. 20.; Acts, xxv. 20.; and ğaπ. 2 Cor. i. 9.); but here, as in the case of σκεῦος and θλιβόμενοι, the metaphor is more fully drawn out, "losing our way yet not ἀλλ ̓ οὐκ ἐξαπορούμενοι, 9 διωκόμενοι ἀλλ ̓ οὐκ ἐγκαταλει ànλ'oùx πόμενοι, καταβαλλόμενοι ἀλλ ̓ οὐκ ἀπολλύμενοι, 10 πάντοτε τὴν νέκρωσιν τοῦ Ἰησοῦ ἐν τῷ σώματι περιφέροντες, ἵνα καὶ • τοῦ κυρίου Ἰησοῦ. entirely," "bewildered, but not benighted." 9. διωκόμενοι ἀλλ ̓ οὐκ ἐγὼ καταλειπόμενοι. Here, again, Here, again, the meaning of διώκεσθαι and ἐγκαταλείπεσθαι, which in later Greek had come to mean merely "persecuted" and "forsaken," is brought out according to their original signification. "Pursued in our flight or race, but not left behind as a prey to our pursuers." Compare Herod. viii. 59.: oi dé yɛ уKATAλEITÓμEVOL Où σTEдavεûv ται. καταβαλλόμενοι, "struck down, yet not perishing." The phrase is used chiefly for being thrown in wrestling, as in Plutarch, Pericl. p. 156. c. (in the famous speech of the orator Thucydides about Pericles); but also for being struck by a dart, Xen. Cyr. i. 3. 14. 10. For this enumeration of contrasts, the mind and spirit always rising above the outward pressure of distress, compare the character of the Athenian people in Thucyd. ii. 70. It is wound up with the contrast between death and life. "We are dead, and yet we live, because even in life we are dead." For the idea of the Apostle's sufferings being literally a continuation of the sufferings of Christ, see i. 8. For the fact that his sufferings might be called "a perpetual death,” compare xi. 23., "in deaths oft;" and 1 Cor. xv. 31., "I die daily." Tηv vέkpwow is not “dying” (τὸ θνήσκειν), nor "death" (JavaTos); but "deadness," the "mortification," "paralysation" of death, as in the phrase "the deadness (véxρwow) of Sarah's womb." Rom. iv. 19. (Heb. xi. 12.); and "mortify (vεKрwσaтE) your members" (Col. iii. 5.). The word occurs elsewhere only once, in a poem of the 4th century, published under the assumed name of Astrampsychus: vExpoÙs ópŵv νέκρωσιν ἕξεις πραγμάτων. It is as if he had said "We are living corpses." It is a continual" Descent from the Cross." "We bear with us wherever we go the burden of the dead body.” ἐν τῷ σώματι, implying that it is in himself that the deadly pallor and torpor is to be seen ; περιφέροντες pointing rather to the weight of the dead corpse, which, like Joseph and Nicodemus, he carries with him. |