NOTES

NOTES

IN Jude

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LECTURE I

NOTE 1, p. 6.

3 the word Tiσris denotes not fides qua creditur, but fides quae creditur. "It remains, therefore, that the word expresses the truth received; and in this sense the general consent of criticism may be said to accept it." Erasmus paraphrases the apostle's words thus: "Pro fide, hoc est pro sanâ doctrinâ ab apostolis acceptâ quae semel sanctis tradita est, nec alio tempore alia atque alia deberi debet, decertare jubemur." Beza translates: "Pro fide quae semel tradita est sanctis," and adds: “ pro viribus tueamini fidem, sanâ scil. doctrinâ et vitae exemplis." The verdict of the older critics is summed up in "Poli Synopsis Criticorum :" "Fidem hic vocat ipsam doctrinam (Grotius, Beza, Piscator) fidei, videlicet Evangelium (Piscator) per metonym. (Grotius, Piscator, Vorstius) ut Acts vi. 7 (Grotius), 1 Tim. iv. I et alibi saepe (Beza)." Wolfius in his "Curae Philologicae" adopts the paraphrase of Sherlock: "Ut serio teneatis eam, quae vobis tradita est, doctrinam, contra falsos doctores, quos clanculum audio irrepsisse." In this interpretation our English critics unanimously agree. Bloomfield, Alford, Wordsworth, and Webster and Wilkinson adopt it. Schleusner in his Lexicon, among other applications of the word, gives the following: "Objectivè sumitur et ipsam formulam religionis Christianae (quia fidei seu verae in Deum fiduciae praeceptione potissimum continebatur), doctrinam Evangelicam a Jesu et apostolis traditam fidem quae creditur seu objectivam notat." Among the list of expositors who adopt this sense may be specified, Hammond, Whitby, Sherlock, and Doddridge, in our own country; and Bengel, De Wette, Stier, Passow, Huther, and others abroad.

"THREE classes of passages occur. In the one it [mioris] is used with the article in contexts where it can only be understood of the act of faith in the believer. In another class of passages its objective meaning is equally clear; while in a third class of passages the word may bear either meaning."

The passages where the word occurs in the Acts of the Apostles are so exceedingly numerous (213, with or without the article), that no object would be gained by loading the Notes with an exhaustive classification. I therefore give instances only. The word with the article is used in a subjective meaning in Acts iii. 16; xv. 9; Rom. iii. 30, 31 ; iv. 11, 14; Eph. iii. 17; Col. ii. 12; and Philem. 4. It is employed with the article in an objective sense in Acts vi. 7; xiii. 8; Gal. i. 23; 1 Tim. iii. 9; v. 8; vi. 21; Titus i. 13. In the following passages it will bear, consistently with the context, either a subjective or an objective meaning, or both, viz. Acts xiv. 22; xv. 9; xvi. 5; xx. 21; xxiv. 24; xxvi. 18; Rom. i. 12; 2 Cor. i. 24; Phil. i. 17; 1 Tim. iv. 1; 2 Tim. ii. 18; iii. 8; Titus ii. 2. The transition usage of the word appears also when it is used without the article. Its subjective use without the article needs no illustration. But it is used objectively in Eph. iv. 5, and both objectively and subjectively in 1 Tim. i. 2, 4, 19; ii. 7, 15; and Titus i. 4.

NOTE 3, p. 10.

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Tарadobeίon: Tradita divinitus." (Bengel.) 'Apud Arist. Phys. 4: παραδεδομένον, a majoribus traditum.” (Scapula.) σε παραδίδωμι : trado docendo, doceo, instituo, praecipio, narro, Mark viii. 13; Luke i. 2; Acts vi. 14; xvi. 4; Rom. vi. 17; 1 Cor. xi. 2, 23; xv. 3; 2 Pet. ii. 2; Jude 3." (Schleusner.) To give or hand over to another, as a torch in the torch-race, Plat. Legg. 776 b; then in various ways, like Latin tradere, as a kingdom to one's son, correlative to Taрadéxeolαι, Hor. ii. 159; one's son to a tutor, Hor. i. 73; a prize to a winner, Xen. Oec. xx. 28.” (Liddell and Scott.) “ ἐπὶ τὸν ἐξ ἀρχῆς ἡμῖν παραδοθέντα λόγον ἐπιστρέψωμεν.” (Polycarp. ad Phil. c. 7.)

NOTE 4, p. 12.

"THE object for which Christ appeared to St. Paul was not to impart to him a new system of chronology, but to make him a witness to His resurrection, and to enlighten his mind on truths connected with the everlasting well-being of mankind. The supernatural gifts

of the Spirit were communicated, not for the purpose of solving dubious points of history, but to open the minds of the apostles to the end and design of the Incarnation; to reveal to them the great truths of the Christian revelation; to bring to the minds of the apostles whatever Christ had said unto them, and to afford a miraculous attestation to the truth of their testimony. What right have we to assume that because St. Paul was put in trust with the Gospel and supernaturally assisted in the discharge of that trust-so that when he treated of Gospel truth his assertions were to be received not as the word of man, but of God'—or because when he gave commands for the regulation of the Churches, the things which he wrote unto them were the Lord's-that he was inspired with a supernatural knowledge of chronology or history without the smallest support for such an assumption in one single assertion in the New Testament. His Old Testament chronology might have been that which he had learned in the school of Gamaliel. If he had learned a system of chronology there, there is nothing in his assertions concerning his own inspiration, or in the promises of our Lord, which requires us to believe that the defects of Gamaliel's chronology would be corrected by inspiration." (The Nature and Extent of Divine Inspiration, by the Rev. C. A. Row, p. 227.)

NOTE 5, p. 12.

"IT [the modern school of thought] is no longer exclusively negative and destructive, but it is on the contrary intensely positive, and in its moral aspect intensely Christian. It clusters round a system of essentially Christian conceptions-equality, fraternity, the suppression of war, the elevation of the poor, the love of truth, and the diffusion of liberty. It revolves round the ideal of Christianity, and represents its spirit without its dogmatic system and its supernatural narratives. From both of these it unhesitatingly recoils, while deriving all its strength and nourishment from Christian ethics." (Lecky, History of Rationalism, vol. i. p. 185.)

"The general bias of the intellect of the age is in the direction of rationalism. In other words, there is a strong predisposition to value the spirit and moral element of Christianity, but to reject dogmatic systems, and more especially miraculous narratives." (Ibid. p. 191.)

NOTE 6, p. 13.

"THE moral progress of mankind can never cease to be distinctively and intensely Christian, so long as it consists of a gradual approximation to the character of the Christian Founder. There is indeed nothing more wonderful in the history of the human race than the way in which that ideal has traversed the lapse of ages, acquiring a new strength and beauty with each advance of civilization, and infusing its benevolent influence into every sphere of thought and action." (Lecky, History of Rationalism, vol. i. p. 335.)