Philippians and Philemon - MR Vincent - 1906.pdf

138 PHILIPPIANS [IV. 8
being successively introduced by the
up by the twofold el .
repeated , and summed
:
' true.' God is the norm of truth. That is true in
thought, word, or deed, which answers to the nature of God as
revealed in the moral ideals of the gospel of his Son, who mani-
fests him, and who can therefore say, ' I am the truth '
(Jn. xiv. 6).
Not to be limited to truth in speaking, as Thdrt., Beng.
:
' reverend ' or * venerable.' Exhibiting a dignity which
grows out of moral elevation, and which thus invites reverence.
In class, an epithet of the gods. * Venerable ' is the best rendering,
if divested of its conventional implication of age. Matthew
Arnold (God and the Bible, Pref. xxii.) renders 'nobly serious,'
as opposed to,' lacking intellectual seriousness.'
With the exception of this passage, occurs only in the Pastorals,
and the kindred;only there. (See i Tim. ii. 2, iii.
Tit. ii. 2, 7.) In LXX, of the name of God (2 Mace. viii. 15);
4, 8, 1 1
of divine
laws (2 Mace. vi. 28); of the Sabbath (2 Mace. vi. 11); of the words of
wisdom (Prov. viii. 6); of the words of the pure (Prov. xv. 26).
:
* just.' In the broadest sense, not merely in relation to
men, but according to the divine standard, satisfying all obligations
to God, to their neighbor, and to themselves. (Comp.
Rom. ii. 13.)
:
* pure.' Always with a moral sense. So (2 Cor.
vi. 6). Not to be limited here to freedom from sins of the flesh
it covers purity in all departments of the life, motives as well as
acts. In class,? is ' pure,' * chaste,' in relation to life (as of
female purity, purity from blood-guilt) , or to religious observances,
as of sacrifices. (See Schmidt, Synon. 181, 11.) Both?and
mean pure in the sense of * sinless,' The radical difference
between them is, that is 'holy,' as being set apart and
. , devoted ,as ; absolutely undefiled. Christ is both and
See on i. I. In I Jn. iii. 3, is applied to
Christ, and to the imitation of his purity. In 2 Cor. xi. 2,
of virgin purity. (Comp. Clem, ad Cor. xxi.) In i Tim. v. 22,
of moral spotlessness. In Jas. iii. 1 7, as characterising heavenly
wisdom. (Phil. i. 17), of preaching the gospel with unmixed
motives. '^, which in LXX is used only of ceremonial
purification, has that meaning in four of the seven instances
in N.T. (Jn. xi. 55 ; Acts xxi. 24, 26, xxiv. 18). In the others
(Jas. iv. 8 ; i Pet. i. 22 ; i Jn. iii. 3), of purifying the heart and
soul. Neither, ?;?, nor occur in the Gospels.
and all the kindred words which appear in N.T. are found in
LXX. -^, (Num. xix. 9), not in N.T. For ~/6 (Num. viii. 7),
the correct reading is-. In LXX ayvos is used of the oracles of
God, of the fear of God, of prayers, of the heart, of works, of fire, of a virgin,
of a man free from cowardice, and of the soul. (See Ps. xii. [xi.] 6, xix.
[xviii.] lO; Prov. xix. 13, xx. 9, xi. 8; 2 Mace. xiii. 8; 4 Mace. v. 37, xviii.
7. 8, 23.)
; :