PREFACE. ΤΗ HE aim of the author, in writing this book, has been to produce such an exposition of the Epistle as might be useful to Christian readers generally, and might at the same time give some special help to students of the original. These objects are by many deemed all but incompatible with each other; and certainly there is very much hazard, in trying to attain both, of failing to a considerable extent to attain either. But that the combination, which has always seemed to the author a desirable one, can be made with success, has been proved by the acknowledged usefulness, and this as regards both objects, of several recent expository works of the kind,—such, for example, as those of the late venerated and beloved Dr. John Brown. In the present attempt a little novelty has been introduced in regard to arrangement, which the author trusts may in some measure obviate the difficulties. This consists in the placing in a division of the book by themselves, of all, or almost all, the discussions and remarks which can be intelligible or interesting only to persons acquainted with Greek. The expository lectures, which occupy the larger part of the volume, were, in substance, delivered from the pulpit in ordinary course of Sabbath ministration. They have since, however, been re-written, and in the course of transcription considerable changes have been made. Some subjects have been treated at greater length than when the discourses were preached; whilst of others the illustration has been shortened, the original fulness appearing less suitable for a book than for a spoken address. The introductions, which in most cases simply repeated in a brief form the main points brought out in the previous lecture, have been omitted; and, to secure continuity of exposition, the practical inferences and applications, which usually constituted the conclusions, have also been left out, the practical character of the whole Epistle seeming to render the retaining of these less needful or desirable than had it been largely doctrinal. The basis of the lectures is a careful exegesis, an endeavour to ascertain the exact shades of thought which the Divine Spirit intended by the words He gave to the apostle. By all who believe not merely that the Word of God is in the Bible, but that the Bible is the Word of God, close attention to the precise force of words and phrases will not be deemed misspent labour. At the same time, the author's aim has been not to write a mere commentary on words, but to bring the apostle, with his human sympathies and his divine inspiration, clearly and fully before the reader, as a friend and counsellor, whose statements and appeals have weight and interest for us as well as for the men of his own time. In the new translation of the Epistle, which stands first in the volume, the aim has been to exhibit, with as little deviation as possible from the Authorized Version, the precise sense of the original, according to the best authenticated text. The text which has been followed is, in the main, that of Alford ;1 but in a few passages the balance of 1 It may perhaps be permitted to the writer, penning this preface while the death of Dean Alford is still but recent, to express the gratitude which, as a student of the Bible, he has long felt to that distinguished editor and probability has seemed to the author to preponderate in favour of a different reading from his. Now and again, in the course of the lectures, in the illustration of passages of the Epistle where the meaning of the original was, in the author's judgment, different from that given by the Authorized Version, but so slightly as not to call for discussion, the rendering of this new translation has been quoted without remark. This is mentioned here, to explain what might perhaps otherwise seem an oversight. In preparing the Notes on the Greek Text, the author's original intention was to confine himself almost wholly to questions immediately connected with translation. But these naturally suggested the discussion also of points bearing rather on exegesis; and thus the notes grew under his hand, until they came to embrace a reference, more or less full, to almost everything in the Greek Text of the Epistle which calls for special comment. He trusts that these fruits of his grammatical investigation of this portion of the Word will be somewhat helpful to other students. In the study of the Epistle, the author has worked with the aid of Calvin, Beza, Bengel, De Wette, Wiesinger, Huther, Lange and Oosterzee, Alford, Poole's Synopsis and Bloomfield's Digest, and of the less strictly critical expositions of expositor of the New Testament, and his sense of the great loss sustained by the whole church of Christ in this country through his comparatively early removal. Nothing is easier than to point out serious faults in Alford's great work; but in the mind of any one who candidly considers the vastness of the enterprise he undertook, the only wonder will be that the faults are not more numerous and more grave. The influence of his labours, in the way of exciting increased interest in the study of the Word of God, has undoubtedly been very wide and deep throughout all sections of the church in Great Britain,—more, probably, than that exerted by any other commentator of our time; and the catholicity of his spirit, and clear evangelical ring of his utterances everywhere on the central truths of our faith, are fitted to have a most bracing and healthful effect on all his readers. b Manton, Neander, Stier, Jacobi, Wardlaw, and Adam. He has been specially indebted to Wiesinger, Huther, Wardlaw, and Adam. He owes very hearty thanks to his friend, the Rev. David Kinnear, B.A. Lond., of Dalbeattie, who has most kindly aided him in the revision of the proof-sheets. It only remains to commend to God this humble attempt to expound a portion of His Word. May He forgive its errors and defects, and graciously employ it in some measure as an instrument for advancing the cause of truth and righteousness! UNITED PRESBYTERIAN MANSE, ARBROATH, |