THE GENERAL EPISTLE OF JAMES.

CHAPTER II.

On faith and works, as justifying.-Ver. 14-26. ON the supposed opposition of James and Paul, see vol. i. pp. 79–88.

CHAPTER III.

My brethren, be not many masters," etc.-Ver. 1. TEACHERS should be substituted for masters, in the translation.

"For in many things we offend all."-Ver. 2.

This translation is very unhappy. "For in many things all of us offend." "For alle we offenden in many thingis."

CHAPTER IV.

It should be,

Wiclif has,

"Do ye think that the Scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? But he giveth more grace: wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble."-Ver. 5, 6.

THE words to which "the Scripture saith" belong, are not found in Scripture (though many commentators refer to Gen. vi. 3, 5; chap. viii. 21; Numb. xi. 29; Prov. xxi. 10), to avoid which some understand them interrogatively, taking the first clause as a general intimation of the infallibility of God; i.e., "Do ye think that the Scripture can speak

falsely?" or, "Does the spirit which dwelleth in us incline us to vehement envy and rage?" Bloomfield paraphrases thus: "Do you think that the Scripture speaketh in vain, or without a very good reason, when it condemns such a worldly temper? No, that you cannot rationally suppose. Do you

imagine that the Spirit of God, which dwelleth in us Christians, leadeth us to covetousness, pride, or envy? No, by no means. On the contrary, unto such as follow his guidance and direction, and excel in love, humility, and moderation, as to the things of this world, He showeth greater favour. Wherefore the Scripture saith," etc.

THE FIRST EPISTLE GENERAL OF

PETER.

CHAPTER III.

"For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the spirit.”—Ver. 18.

NOTHING but a fear of consequences-that is a fear of affording countenance to the Roman Catholic doctrine of purgatory, could have induced such forced and improbable interpretations as have been given of the apostle's words. Let us look at the entire passage.

The first thing to be determined is, the precise import of the words, which it is acknowledged that our translation does not represent. In the Greek texts most worthy of confidence, as Scholz, Lachmann, Tischendorf, and Alford, the article before, spirit, is omitted. The last clause in the 18th verse then reads, "being put to death in flesh, but quickened in spirit." Here the two clauses form what is denominated an antithetical parallelism; "quickened in spirit," is set over against "put to death in flesh," "quickened," being contrasted with "put to death," and "spirit" with "flesh." Now, the laws of the Greek language, in such cases, require us to give the same construction to the two datives, "spirit" and "flesh." Whatever preposition we use in one member of the clause, we must

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employ the same, as an equivalent, in the other member. If we translate manatōtheis men sarki, "put to death in the flesh," we must also render zoopoietheis de pneumati, quickened in the spirit ; and vice versa. It must either be " put to death by the flesh, but quickened by the spirit," or "put to death in the flesh, but quickened in the spirit." But as put to death by the flesh" has no meaning, and if it had, could state only a falsehood, the preposition by will not do in that member of the sentence. Such renderings as the following, by Doddridge, then, must be rejected-"Being indeed put to death in the flesh, by those enemies whom God permitted for a while to triumph over Him, but quickened by the spirit of God, which soon re-animated His body, and raised it to an immortal life."

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Jerome's Vulgate gives it correctly, "died in body, and lived in spirit," with which agrees the Peschito Syriac, the oldest of all versions. Of English versions, we may note Wiclif's, which is, Maad deede sotheli in flesch, forsothe maad quike in spirit ;" Tyndale's is, "Was killed as pertayneynge to the flesshe, but was quyckened in the sprete;" and Coverdale's is, "Was slayne after the flesh, but quyckened after the spirit." We believe all these versions truly give the sense of the original, and set aside many of the interpretations of the next verse.

"By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison."-Ver. 19.

Doddridge paraphrases it thus: "Even that spirit, by the inspiration of which, granted to his faithful servant Noah, going forth as it were in that progress in which he employed him, he preached to 430

those notorious sinners, who, for their disobedience, have since experienced the just severity of the Divine vengeance, and are now in the condition of separate spirits, reserved, as it were, in prison, to the severer judgment at the great day."

Gill, in like manner, says, "The plain and easy sense of the words is, that Christ, by His spirit, by which He was quickened, went in the ministry of Noah, the preacher of righteousness, and preached, both by words and deeds, by the personal ministry of Noah, and by the building of the ark, to that generation who was then in being: and who, being disobedient, and continuing so, a flood was brought upon them, which destroyed them all; and whose spirits or separate souls, were then in the prison of hell; that is, when the apostle Peter wrote this epistle. So that Christ neither went into this prison, nor preached in it, nor to spirits that were then in it when he preached, but to persons alive in the days of Noah, and who, being disobedient when they died, their separate souls were put into prison, and there they were when the apostle wrote." Scarcely more violence could be done to the obvious meaning of words than is here offered to those of the inspired apostle; and there are, perhaps, few passages in the New Testament that have been more tortured than this, lest it should be thought to countenance the Popish doctrine of purgatory. Let the words be understood in their literal and obvious meaning, and we shall not be a whit nearer to purgatory than we were before. Bishop Horsley has expounded what we believe to be the real sense, and to his very able sermon we refer the reader. After having fixed the exact meaning of the terms employed by the apostle-and