I am only giving utterance to the genuine sentiments of my inmost soul, when I declare that I cannot contemplate the present condition of my unbelieving Jewish countrymen, without having my heart filled with great sorrow and unceasing anguish. Yes; I appeal to the testimony of my own conscience, enlightened and purified as it is by the Holy Spirit of God, and therefore speaking truly within my soul, as the voice of God himself. This my conscience, I say, bears witness to me that in thus expressing my sorrow, I am speaking nothing but the truth. And not only is my grief for them real and unfeigned; but it is so intense that, if it were permitted to me, I would willingly undergo the most dreadful sufferings, iThe grounds of his distress Paul does not here explicitly state. We easily discover them, however, from the sequel. Even if Paul had not said how deeply it pained him that Israel did not acknowledge her Lord and Saviour, we might still have been able to conceive it, by calling to mind the ardent affection which the apostle cherished for all the churches of his Master, and even for believers individually. It was not enough for the holy man, under his many assaults from without and within, to remember uninterruptedly in his prayers the churches which himself had gathered, and which he continued to love as children (1 Cor. i. 4; Eph. i. 16; Phil. i. 3, 4; 1 Thess. i. 2): he mentions without ceasing those also which, to the honour of Christ, had been gathered by others, nay, every individual, who is known and related to him as a brother (2 Tim. i. 3, 4; Philem. 4), is in prayer present to his soul. In short, he feels the sorrows and the joys of all the members of the great body to which he belongs. 'The care of all the churches,' he cries, 'cometh upon me daily. Who is weak and I am not weak? Who is offended and I burn not? I will very gladly spend and be spent for you, though, the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved.' (See 2 Cor. xi. 28, 29, and xii. 15). So fervent a brotherly love, which affectionately embraced in the Spirit, as fellow-members, all who were engrafted into Christ, and which, eager to unite the whole globe into one church of the Saviour, found not space enough for the vehemence of its operation in all the region from Jerusalem to Illyricum (Rom. xv. 19, 23), could not but glow to incorporate into the Lord's church the peculiar people which, in its maternal bosom, had borne the germ of that church and brought it forth into the world.'-Thol. if only, by my endurance of such torments, I could be the means of rescuing them from that divine displeasure under which they have placed themselves by their rejection of the Saviour. Verily, so strong is my attachment to my Jewish brethren, who, though spiritually separated from me by their refusal to receive the gospel into their hearts, are yet bound to me by the dear ties of earthly relationship, that I feel in my heart that, for their deliverance, I could gladly consent even to be accursed from Christ. Yes: even to be accursed j There are few passages of Scripture on which a greater variety of opinions have been hazarded than the present one, in which Paul expresses his willingness to be an anathema from Christ (áváÐɛμa áπò τοῦ Χριστοῦ)for his Jewish brethren. After a long and careful consideration, I have arrived at the conclusion that every other interpretation of the apostle's language, except that which I have adopted in the commentary, and which is approved by some of the best expositors, both ancient and modern, is both unwarranted by the rules of correct translation and also far too feeble to express that evident intensity of Paul's feelings, which is manifested by the whole passage. Thus Chrysostom, in his homilies on this epistle, protests, with great indignation, against those who weakened the force of the apostles words by supposing them to mean the death of the body. 6 Such commentators, he says, are far, indeed, from a right understanding of Paul's vehemency of affection. • For he who died daily, and could exclaim, in the face of snow-storms of dangers, Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or fa mine, or persecution? who, still unsatisfied with what he had said, though he had gone above the heaven and the heaven of heavens, and passed through the angels and the archangels and all things which are on high, and though he had collected into one things present, things to come, things visible, things intelligible, things grievous, and things good, and omitted nothing, yet, not even thus satisfied, could body forth another non-existing creation:-how could he, meaning to say some great thing after all those things, make mention of a temporary death?' (Ὁ γὰρ καθ' ἑκάστην ἡμέραν ἀποθνήσκων, καὶ νιφάδας κινδύνων θεὶς, καὶ εἰπὼν, Τίς ἡμᾶς χωρίσει ἀπὸ τῆς ἀγάπης τοῦ Χριστοῦ; θλίψις, ἢ στενοχωρία, ἢ λιμὸς, ἢ διωγ μός; καὶ οὐκ ἀρκεσθεὶς τοῖς λεχθεῖσιν, ἀλλ' ὑπερβὰς τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὸν οὐρανὸν τοῦ οὐρανοῦ, καὶ ἀγγέλους καὶ ἀρχαγγέλους καὶ πάν τα τὰ ἄνω περιδραμὼν, καὶ συλ λαβὼν ὁμοῦ τὰ παρόντα, τὰ μέλ λοντα, τὰ ὁρώμενα, τὰ νοούμενα, τὰ λυπηρὰ, τὰ χρηστὰ, καὶ οὐδὲν ὅλως ἀφεὶς, καὶ οὐδὲ οὕτω κορεσθεὶς, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἑτέραν τοσαύτην κτίσιν τὴν οὐκ οὖσαν ὑποστησάμενος, πῶς, ὡς μέγα τι λέγων μετ' ἐκεῖνα πάντα, from Christ. Loving, as I do, my crucified Lord above all things, and longing to be present with him in his eternal glory, and to enjoy those holy pleasures which he has promised to bestow upon all the children of God, I yet feel that, for the salvation of my beloved people, I could bear to make a sacrifice of all my personal blessedness, and remain for ever as an accursed θανάτου τοῦ προσκαίρου ἐμνημόνευσεν ἄν;) 'The objections (says Tholuck) which have been brought against this portentosus amor, as Bucer styles it, arise all from a cool way of contemplating it, which altogether for gets what a loving heart, in the fervour of its passion, is capable of uttering.' It must not be forgotten that, in all such hyperbolical passages as the one before us, the possibility of the case supposed is not at all implied in what is said. Thus, as has been before observed, Paul never supposed it to be a possible thing, that an angel from heaven would preach another gospel (Gal. i. 8): nor did he expect that the Galatians would actually pluck out their own eyes and give them to him (Gal. iv. 15). In the latter passage, the words, if it had been possible (ei duvaròv), are inserted by the apostle; and a similar qualifying phrase must, of course, always be understood in such cases, though it may not be expressed. Even (says Stuart) if we were to suppose the actual possibility of the exchange in question to have been believed by the apostle, it would not imply that he was willing to be a sinner. When Paul says (Gal. iii. 13), that Christ was made a curse (Karáрa) for us, does he mean to say, that Christ took on him the temper of mind which they have who are accursed ? Quid mirum (says Origen) si, cum Dominus pro servis maledictum sit factum, servus pro fratribus anathema fiat? It would imply merely, then, that Paul would be willing, in case he could save the whole nation, to take on himself the miseries to which they were hastening. And a sentiment like this is surely capable of a rational and sober defence. If benevolence would lead Paul to undergo any assignable degree of suffering, in the present life, in order to promote the everlasting welfare of the Jewish nation; would not the like benevolence lead him to undergo any assignable degree of misery, in a future world, for the same purpose, provided that such a purpose could be answered by it? Who can draw the line where benevolence would stop short?' See Exod. xxxii. 32, where Moses, in a similar spirit of affection to that which influenced Paul, prays that he may be blotted out of God's book. Bengel remarks, on these two Scriptural instances of deep affection, that 'the measure of our reasonings does not comprehend it, just as a little child comprehends not the courage of warlike heroes (Eum modulus ratiocinationum nostrarum non capit, sicut heroum bellicorum animos non capit parvulus).' and excommunicated man, self-banished from him whom my soul entirely loves, and apart from whom high, by the Seraphim and Ophannim;* let him be anathema by the whole church, great and small. Let plagues great and real be upon him; diseases great and horrible. Let his habitation be that of dragons. Let his star be darkened with clouds. Let him be an object of wrath, indignation and anger. Let his corpse be given to wild beasts and serpents. Let his enemies and adversaries exult over him. Let his silver and gold be given to others. Let his children be exposed at the door of his enemies; and let posterity be astonished at his fate. Let him be cursed by the mouth of Addiriron and Achtariel, by the mouth of Sandalphon and Hadraniel, by the mouth of Hansasiel and Patchiel, by the mouth of Seraphiel and Sagansiel, by the mouth of Michael and Gabriel, by the mouth of Ra It seems most probable that the apostle, in making use of the expression, an anathema from Christ, had in his mind the terrible forms of Jewish excommunication, some of which are so fearful that we can scarcely read them without a shudder at the evil ingenuity of those who composed them. According to the later Rabbins there were three degrees of excommunication. The first and lightest degree consisted of the removal of the excommunicated person to the distance of four ells from all the members of his family, and lasted a month. The second degree forbade all intercourse for the purpose of learning, buying, selling, eating and drinking. Admission into the synagogue was also denied: though entrance into the temple, probably into the court of the Gentiles, was permitted. The third and heaviest degree, which was called Scham-phael and Mesharetiel.+ Let him matha, utterly and for ever excluded from divine worship and from all intercourse with men. Of this latter form of excommunication, one of the Rabbins writes: "Whoever lies under the bann Schammatha is like fat spread upon a hot furnace, which dries up and returns more.' no The following tremendous form of Jewish excommunication is taken from Buxtorff. See his Lexicon Talm., p. 828. "By the authority of the Lord of lords, let A. B. be an anathema in both houses of judgment, in that above and that beneath; let him be anathema by the holy beings on * Wheels. See Ezek. i. 16. The word is here used to signify a superior order of angels. These are the names of angels. be cursed by the mouth of Zabzabib, and by the mouth of Habbabib, who is the great God; and by the mouth of the seventy names of the great King; and on the part of Tsortak,§ the great Chancellor. Let him be swallowed up, like Korah and his company; with terror and trembling let his breath depart. May the rebuke of Jehovah slay him. May he be strangled, like Ahithophel, by his own counsel. May his leprosy be like that of Gehazi; and may there be no resurrection of his remains. Let not his sepulchre be with that of Israel. Let his wife be given to others. In this anathema let A. B. remain ; These are Cabbalistic names of the Divinity. § Another mysterious name. O! believe me when I there can be no happiness. tell you that my affection for my Jewish kinsmen is not a thing of mere feelings, however deep, or of mere words, however true it is an affection of the most complete self-sacrifice; there is nothing in the very depth of human suffering from which it would shrink, if only it could procure from the exalted Messiah the repentance of my nation, and the forgiveness of its sins.1 And this earnest desire of the apostle to win the Jews to Christ, even, if it were possible, by his own eternal loss, proceeded not only from his natural love for them, as his kinsmen according to the flesh, but also from the recollection of those high and honourable privileges with which God had so richly invested them. The consideration of those privileges, though, as he well knew, they were nothing in themselves, and only valuable according to their use, could not but increase his feeling of disappointment and regret that they had not been used by the chosen and highly-favoured people. Intended, as they were, on the part of God who gave them, to draw them nearer to himself, and by gradually preparing them for the advent of the promised Deliverer, to make them ready to acknowledge and welcome him, m But and let this be his inheritance. m Paul's estimate of the true value of Jewish privileges is clearly seen in his observations on the privilege of circumcision in the earlier portion of his epistle. See ii. 25, where he plainly tells the Jews that circumcision could then only be re To the mind of a Jew, accustomed to tremble at such excommunications, the apostle's desire that he might be an anathema from Christ for his nation must have been inex-garded as profitable, when it led the pressibly striking and affecting. circumcised man to keep God's law. 1 See Acts, v. 31. |