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130 Twoo mss., those in the B. Museum and at Viena, read here Ihso/=. In Ep. 210 §4, St. Basil writes that the name above every name is au'to\ to\ kalei=sqai au'to\n Uion tou= Qeou=.
131 cf. Matt. xiv. 33, and xxvii. 54.
133 1 Cor. I. 24, and possibly Rom. i. 16, if with D. we read gospel of Christ.
135 e.g. John i. 1. cf. Ps. cvii. 20; Wisdom ix. 1, xviii. 15; Ecclesiasticus xliii. 20.
136 To\ polu/tropon. cf. Heb. i. 1.
137 To\n pplou=ton th=j a'gaqoo/thtooj. cf. Rom ii. 4, toou= plou/tou th=j xrhsto/thtooj.
149 I translate here the reading of the Parisian Codex called by the Benedictine Editors iRegius Secundus, too\ eu'meta/bolon katwrqwko/taaj. The harder reading, to\ eu'meta\doton, which may be rendered "have perfected their readiness to distribute," has the best manuscript authority, but it is barely intelligible; and the Benedictine Editors are quite right in calling attention to the fact that the point in question here is not the readiness of the flock to distribute (cf. 1 Tim. vi. 18), but their patient following of their Master. The Benedictine Editors boldly propose to introduce a word of no authority to\ a'meta\bolon, rendering qui per patientiam animam immutabilem praebuerunt. The reading adopted above is supported by a passage in Ep. 244, where St. Basil is speaking of the waywardness of Eustathius, and seems to fit in best with the application of the passage to the words of our Lord, "have fled for refuge to his ruling care," corresponding with "the sheep follow him, for they know his voice" (St. John x. 4), and "have mended their wayward ways," with "'a stranger will they not follow," v. 5. Mr. Johnston, in his valuable note, compares Origen's teaching on the Names of our Lord.
150 So three mss. Others repeat epiotaoi/a translated "ruling care" above. e!nnoomoj is used by Plato for "lawful" and "law-abiding." (Legg. 921 C. and Rep. 424 E.) In 1 Cor. ix. 21, A.V. renders "under the law."
151 To\ th=j gnw/sewj a'gaqo/n: possibly "the good of knowledge of him."
153 cf. note on page 3, on meta/ and so/n.
156 filanqrwpia occurs twice in the N.T. (Acts xxviii. 2, and Titus iii. 4) and is in the former passage rendered by A.V. "kindness," in the latter by "love to man." The filanqrwpi/a of the Maltese barbarians corresponds with the lower classical sense of kindliness and courtesy. The love of God in Christ to man introduces practically a new connotation to the word and its cognates.
157 Or to sympathize with our infirmities.
158 poikilh diako/smhsij. diako/smhsij was the technical term of the Pythagorean philosophy for the orderly arrangement of the universe (cf. Arist. Metaph. I. v. 2. h' o!lh diako/smhsij"); Pythagoras being credited with the first application of the word ko/smoj to the universe (Plut. 2, 886 c.) So mendus in Latin, whence Augustine's oxymoron, "O munde immunde!" On the scriptural use of ko/smoj and a'iw/n vide Archbp. Trench's New Testament Synonyms, p. 204.
159 I Hom. on Ps. lxv. Section 5, St. Basil describes the power of God the Word being most distinctly shewn in the oeconomy of the incarnation and His descent to the lowliness and the infirmity of the manhood. cf. Ath. on the Incarnation, sect. 54, "He was made man that we might be made God; and He manifested Himself by a body that we might receive the idea of the unseen Father; and He endured the insolence of men that we might inherit immortality. For while He Himself was in no way injured, being impassible and incorruptible and the very Word and God, men who were suffering, and for whose sakes He endured all this, He maintained and preserved in His own impassibility."
161 u'phresi/a. Lit. "under-rowing." The cognate u'phre/thj is the word used in Acts xxvi. 16, in the words of the Saviour to St. Paul, "to make thee a minister," and in 1 Cor. iv. 1, "Let a man so account of us as of the ministers of Christ."
165 This passage is difficult to render alike from the variety of readings and the obscurity of each. I have endeavoured to represent the force of the Greek e'k th=j e'toimasi/aj tou= e'f0 h 9mi=n. understanding by "to\ e'f0 h 9mi=n," practically, "our free will." cf. the enumeration of what is e'f0 h'mi/n, within our own control, in the Enchiridion of Epicetus, Chap. I. "Within our own control are impulse, desire inclination." On Is. vi. 8, "Here am I; send me," St. Basil writes, "He did not add ''I will go;' for the acceptance of the message is within our control (e'f h 9mi=n), but to be made capable of going is of Him that gives the grace, of the enabling God." The Benedictine translation of the text is "per liberi arbitrii nostri praeparationem." But other readings are (I) th=j e'f0 h 9mi=/, "the preparation which is in our own control;;:: (ii) th=j e 9toimasi/aj au'tou=, "His preparation;" and (iii) the Syriac represented by "arbitrio suo."
168 prokooph/: cf. Luke ii. 52, where it is said that our Lord proe/kopte, i.e., "continued to cut His way forward."
170 There seems to be here a recollection, though not a quotation, of Phil. iii. 13.
178 a#narnoj. This word is used in two senses by the Fathers. (I) In the sense of a'i/diooj or eternal, it is applied (a) to the Trinity in unity. e.g., Quaest. Misc., . v. 442 (Migne Ath. iv. 783), attributed to Athanasius, ko/uo\n h 9 ou'sia . koino\n to a!narxon. (b) To the Son. e.g., Greg. Naz. Orat. xxix. 490, e'a\n th\n a'po\ xro/non noh=j a'rxh\n kai\ a!naooxooj oo 9 ui/oo\j, ouk a!rxitai ga\o a'po\ oO 9 xroo/nwn despoo/thj. (ii) In the sense of a/naitioj, ""causeless," "originis principio carens," it is applied to the Father alone, and not to the Son. So Gregory of Nazianzus, in the oration quoted above, o 9 ui/o\j, e'a\n w 9j ai!tion to\n pate/ra lamba/nhj, oou'k a!/arxoj, "the Son, if you understand the Father as cause, is not without beginning." a!rxh ga\r ui/oou= parh\r w 9j a !Itioj. "For the Father, as cause, is Beginning of the Son." But, though the Son in this sense was not a!narxooj, He was said to be begotten a'na/rxwj. So Greg. Naz. (Hom. xxxvii. 590) to\ i!dion o!noma tou= a'na/rxwwj gennhqe/ntoj, nioj. Cf. the Letter of Alexander of Alexandria to Alexander of Constantinople. Theod. Ecc. Hist. i. 3. th\n a!narxon au'tw= paru\ tou= patro\j gennhsin o'nati/ qe/taj. cf. Hooker, Ecc. Pol. v. 54. "by the gift of eternal generation Christ hat received of the Father one and in number the self-same substance which the Father hath of himself unreceived from any other. For every beginning is a father unto that which cometh of it; and every offspring is a son unto that out of which it groweth. Seeing, therefore, the Father alone is originally that Deity which Christ originally is not (for Christ is God be being of God, light by issuing out of light), it followeth hereupon that whatsoever Christ hath common unto him with his heavenly Father, the same of necessity must be given him, but naturally and eternally given." So Hillary De Trin. xii. 21. Ubi auctor eternus est, ibi et nativatis aeternitas est: quia sicut nativitas ab auctore est, ita et ab aeterno auctoroe aeterna nativitas est." And Augustine De Trin. v. 15, "Naturam praestat filio SINE INITIO generatio."
184 Heb. ii. 10. cf. Rom xi. 36, to which the reading of two manuscripts more distinctly assimilates the citation. The majority of commentators refer Heb. ii. 10, to to the Father, but Theodoret understands it of the Son, and the argument oof St. Basil necessitates the same application.
186 a'paralla/ktwj e!xei. cf. Jas. I. 17. par0 w= ou'k e!ni parallagh/. The word a'para/llaktoj was at first used by the Catholic bishops at Nicaea, as implying o 9moou/sioj. /Vide Athan. De Decretis, § 20, in Wace and Schaff's ed., p. 163.
195 Col. ii. 3, A.V. cf. the amendment of R.V., "all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden," and Bp. Lightfoot on St. Paul's use of the gnostic term a'po/krufoj.
197 The argument appears to be not that Christ is not the "express image," or impress of the Father, as He is described in Heb. i. 3, or form, as in Phil. ii. 6, but that this is not the sense in which or lord's words in St. John xiv. 9, must be understood to describe "seeing the Father." Xaraktho and moooofh\ are equivalent to h 9 qei/a fu/sij, and morfh/ is used by St. Basil as it is used by St. Paul, - coinciding with, if not following, the usage of the older Greek philosophy, - to mean essential attributes which the Divine Word had before the incarnation (cf. Eustathius in Theod. Dial. II. [Wace and Schaff Ed., p. 203];; "the express image made man, " - o 9 tw= p/eu/mati swmatopoihqei\j a!nqrwpoj xarakth/r.)
The divine nature does not admit of fcombination, in the sense of confusion (cf. the protests of Theodoret in his Dialogues against the confusion of the Godhead and manhood in the Christ), with the human nature in our Lord, and remains invisible. On the word xarakth/r vide Suicer, and on moofh/ Archbp. Trench's New Testament Synonyms and Bp. Lightfoot on Philippians ii. 6.
206 There is a difficulty in following the argument in the foregoing quotations. F. Combefis, the French Dominican editor of Basil, would boldly interpose a "not," and read 'whenever he does not instruct us concerning the Father.' But there is no ms. authority for this violent remedy. The Benedictine Editors say all is plain if we render "postquam nos de patre erudivit." But the Greek will not admit of this.