Passages in Paul's Epistles illustrated by one in Ecclesiasticus.

SIR,

Exeter, Oct. 10, 1817. HE importance of the Alex

Testament, and the Greek of the Apocrypha, as helps to the proper understanding of the New Testament, is allowed by all Biblical scholars. The study of them familiarizes us with the dialect employed by the gospel writers, and an attention to their peeuliar uses of Greek words is often the greatest assistance to us in interpreting the same words, when we meet with them in the New Testament. They have also another use which is not, perhaps, so generally attended to. As the works of their own earlier writers, preserved in the Old Testament and the Apocrypha, formed the whole literature of the Jews in our Lord's time, and from their sacred character were universally read and studied; the Evangelical writings not only contain many quotutions from them, but also very numerous allusions to them, where the thought or the words of the more ancient, dwelling on the mind of the later writer, has influenced his mode of expression, and, in some instances, caused an obscurity to those who are unacquainted with the passage he had in view. And as the Hebrew language, at the time of Christ, was understood only by the learned, and most of the quotations from the Old Testament, in the New, are evidently in words of the Alexandrine translation, it is to it that we must look, in order to detect the verbal allusions to the ancient Scriptures, in the language of the Scripture sacred writers, and apply them to the purposes of interpretation.

I think I could produce several examples of the kind of allusion I have mentioned, but my present object, in the remarks I have made, is to introduce an attempt to explain the expression in the Epistles to the Ephesians and Colossians, "Redeeming the time," by comparing it with a sentence in the book of Ecclesiasticus, which, I conceive, the apostle had in his mind when he employed it.

The way in which this passage is most commonly understood," making a good use of the time allowed us upon earth on account of its shortness, and

ble," appears to me extremely unsatisfactory. Locke, with his usual acuteness, seems from the connexion to have discovered the true meaning, though it is evident from his note that he did not know how to derive it from the words. He says, on Eph. v. 16, "St. Paul here intimates, v. 16, that the unconverted Heathens, they lived among, would be forward to tempt them to their former lewd, dissolute lives; but to keep them from any approaches that way, that they have light now by the gospel to know that such actions are provoking to God, and will find the effects of his wrath in the judgments of the world to come. All these pollutions so familiar to the Gentiles, he exhorts them carefully to avoid; but yet to take care by their prudent carriage to the Gentiles they lived amongst, to give them. no offence, that so they might escape the danger and trouble that otherwise might arise to them from the intemperance and violence of the Heathen idolaters, whose shameful lives the Christian practice could not but reprove. This seems to be the meaning of 'redeeming the time' here, which, Coloss. iv. 5, the other place where it occurs, seems so manifestly to confirm and give light to. If this be not the sense of redeeming the time' here, I must own myself ignorant of the precise meaning of the phrase in this place."

Reading the context both in Ephe. sians and Colossians must, I think, convince us that the expression relates in some way to the conduct of the Christians towards the unconverted Heathens. Eph. v. 15-17, “See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is." Coloss. iv. 5, Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, (Gentiles) redeeming the time."

Now let us place the apostle's words aside of the 20th verse of the iv. chap.

of Ecclesiasticus, and see whether there is not some resemblance. Eccl. iv. 20: Συντήρησον καίρον και φύλαξαι ἀπὸ πονηρό.

Eph. v. 16: Eayopatquero ToV καὶνον, ότι οι ἡμέραι πονηραί εισι.

Συντήρεω. "Generatim omne studium intentum et curam circa aliquid significat." Schleusn. in verb. “ Obsereo," Scapula, &c.

Eğayopalu. No. 3, "Toto animo rei alicui deditus sum. Solicite aliquid et caute observo, prouti facere solent mercatores." Schleusn, in verb.

Eccl. iv. 20: "Observe the circum stances in which you are placed, and beware of evil."

Ephes. v. 15, 16, "See then that ye walk circumspectly-paying attention to the circumstances in which you are placed, because the days are evil." Prudently regarding in your conduct towards the Gentiles, your dan gerous situation, living in evil, i. e. vio. lent and persecuting times. Compare Locke's note already given.

It appears to me that the apostle's mode of expression has been influenced by the words of the son of Sirach, which he had in his mind, and that his meaning is illustrated by attention to them.

According to the explanation I have given of Eph. v. 16, and Coloss. iv. 5, we may compare with them the true reading of Rom. xii. 11, " Tw nalρw δουλεύοντες.” ." "Acting with a regard to the peculiar circumstances of the time in which you live." The apostle's meaning in all of them is the same, and it is rather curious that they should all of them have been obscured to the generality of readers, by a false reading or a false interpreta

tarians, who are ignorantly or calumniously accused of practising on the texts of Scripture in order to make them conform with a pre-conceived system, a charge which may be retorted on their adversaries, should be interferences, as they might tend to particularly jealous of these needless afford a colour for the imputation of wanton and whimsical tampering with the passages of holy writ. These observations, Sir, have a reference to Dr. Alexander's novel, and, as I think, most needless exposition of Phil. ii. October [XII. 614-617]. The ex5-11, inserted in your number for planations of this passage by Dr. Price, by Mr. Lindsey, and other eminent biblical critics, are so entirely consistent with the Greek idiom, and with the tenor of Scripture, that, a priori, any new sense would appear wholly uncalled for, and the sense proposed seems to me not only lame but even puerile.

"Though in the form of God," is thought to allude to "the transfiguration on the mount where he (Jesus) assumed a divine or luminous, or supernaturally splendid appearance, his face shining as the sun, and his raiment becoming white as snow."

The words rendered in the common version "thought it not robbery to be equal with God," are said to be literally translateable by the expres sions "thought not of the robbery of being equal with God;" and this is gratuitously supposed to refer to the accusation of the Jews that Jesus "made himself equal to God."

Now, Sir, I must first contest the proposition that Jesus of himself assumed a supernaturally splendid appearance, or that this appearance was indicative of any thing properly divine in the person of Jesus, which it would seem from the phrase assumed is in the

SIR,

Phil. ii. 5-11.

Dec. 21, 1817. Inaments of explication are to be F capricious and re deprecated with regard to the profane authors of antiquity, such innovations must be acknowledged to be still more objectionable when the experiment is made upon the sacred writers. Uni

• Griesbach's reading. En.

a Unitarian in worship, he may adhere to the Gnostic notion of the pre-existence of Christ, for

though

somewhat modified, is the Arian pothesis. It appears from the gospel narrative, that "a bright cloud overshadowed them," and that a voice was heard out of the cloud bearing witness that Jesus was "the beloved son of God." This cloud was probably the Shekinah, or cloud of glory which

rested on the lid of the ark, and which appeared at the door of the tabernacle. At all events, the splendour was symbolical of the local presence of Jehovah, and was only reflected on Jesus. The same transfiguration took place in the instance of Moses: who, on descending from Mount Sinai, was compelled to put a veil on his face, while speaking to the people, because "the skin of his face shone." Yet no one talks of Moses "being in the form of God." As to the strange notion of your Correspondent, that Jesus might have retained this splendour in his person, had he chosen, though the cloud of divine glory which was the cause of it ceased to rest upon him, it is difficult to speak of it in any other terms than as insufferable trifling: what purpose could it possibly answer for the person of Jesus to be constantly irradiated with a supernatural splendour! The fact is assumed merely to prop the argument, that being in the form of God," alludes to the transfigured appearance of Jesus: as if the "taking on him the form of a servant," referred to his voluntary relinquishment of this accidental splendour; declaratory of the local presence of God and of his favour to the "elect, whom he had chosen."

What Sir! when Christ is called "the brightness of the glory" of God and the " express image of his per son," does it mean no more than the visible brightness symbolical of the local presence of God, which reflected on the form of Jesus in attestation of his son-ship? Is not Christ called the "power of God and the wisdom of God"? And is not he who has received of the power and wisdom of God, manifested in the words and works which he spoke and wrought, not of himself, but by the Father, whose spirit rested on him, is not this inspired messenger "in the form or likeness of God"?

That the word yaro literally means thought not of, I am by no means convinced: nor do I see any reason for departing from the rational and scholar-like interpretation, adopted by the eminent men above alluded to: "Who being in the form of God did not esteem it a prey to be equal

with God, or rather, like to God: but divested himself of his glory." Not surely of "the supernatural splendid form which he assumed on the mount:" but of the majesty which he might have displayed, had he employed his miraculous powers for his own aggrandisement: as he was tempted to do, when undergoing the discipline and probation in the desert, described by a scenical allegory indicative of the process in the mind of Jesus, preparatory to his coming forth into the world as the sent of God. To suppose with your expositor, that the "emptying himself of glory," and the "taking the form of a servant," refer to the particular circumstances of his ceasing to exhibit a luminous appearance, and his girding himself to wash the feet of his disciples, is to substitute paltry and insignificant allusions for those grand general characteristics of the ministry of the Messiah, which the apostle had in view. "He who had not where to lay his head," might be said without any violence of metaphor to be" in the form of a servant:" as he who cured madness by a word and raised the dead, might be described as in the form of God, whose representative and agent he approved himself.

His being "in the likeness of men" certainly does not refer to the phantastic heresy of the Doceta: a reference which occurs in the "coming in the flesh" of John; it is in close connexion with the foregoing passages; and alludes to his unostentatious use of the power which he received from God, and which he employed to the glory of the "One God the Father," and for the object of his Messiahship, and never for his own personal advantage. "In the likeness of men," signifies, "under the appearance of other men," or, "as a common man :" allusive to his voluntary obedience in a state of humility and suffering. Samson in Judges xvi. 7, says, that "if they bind him with green withs he shall be weak and be as a man:" which is rendered in the common version “as another man."

C. A. E,

Richard Watson, Bishop of Landaff; written by himself at different intervals, and revised in 1814. Published by his Son, Richard Watson, LL.B. Prebendary of Landaff and Wells. 4to. pp. 551. Cadell and Davies. (Portrait.) 1817.

THE

THE late Bishop of Landaff* was, on many accounts, an eminent man, and public attention has been, for some time, attracted to this publication, which was known to be prepared for the press before his decease. The interest which it has excited, and the controversy which is now carrying on with regard to it in the newspapers, are a tacit homage to the author's importance in society.

In our last volume (XII. 321-327), we inserted a memoir of the Bishop, which the present work proves to have been generally correct. We shall refer to that article in the present review, as also to the other notices of him which are scattered through the Monthly Repository.

RICHARD WATSON was born in August, 1797, at Heversham, † in Westmoreland, in the neighbourhood of which his ancestors had been for centuries "tillers of their own ground; in the idiom of the country, statesmen." In 1698, his father was " appointed head-master of Heversham School, which he taught with great reputation for nearly forty years;" his greatest honour is pronounced by the bishop to have been his educating Ephraim Chambers, author of the Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, out of which has grown Dr. Rees's Cyclopædia. "There are two exhibitions (now of £50 a-year each) belonging to this school, one to Trinity College, in Cambridge, and the other to Queen's College, Oxford." Richard Watson succeeded his school-fellow Mr. Preston, in the enjoyment of that to Trinity College, and when they were both of them bishops, in 1788, (Watson, of Landaff, Preston, of Ferns, in Ire

The Bishop uniformly spells the word as above, with only one L.

In our Memoir written Eversham,

which was much dilapidated, at their joint expense. A Latin inscription by the former, records this instance of their pious regard for the place of their education.

After the senior Watson's resignation of the school, which took place before Richard Watson was born, its reputation declined. Yet here the Bishop was educated, and he says; that he had cause through life to regret his not having had a better classical foundation.

"It has fallen to my lot, not only to be obliged to write, but to speak Latin, and having never been taught to make Latin or Greek verses, it cost me more pains to remember whether a syllable was long or bend a whole section of Newton's Principia. short, than it would have done to compreMy mind, indeed, recoiled from such inquiries; what imports it, I used to say to myself, whether Cicero would have said fortuito or fortuito-Areopagus or Areopagus? And yet I was forced to attend to such things; for a Westminster or Eton schoolmaster would properly have thought meanly of a man who did not know them. My hands have shaken with impatience and Ainsworth or Labbe, about a point, which indignation, when I have been consulting I was certain of forgetting in a month's time. But as I never could remember the face or name of a man or woman whose character did not strike me, so I found it diffi cult to impress on my memory, rules of prosody which I had acquired a contempt for; nor did this contempt arise so much from my ignorance of the subject (for I had, after leaving school, taken great pains due importance which was given to it. I not to be ignorant of it), as, from the un

was confirmed in this sentiment by observing, that the greatest adepts in syllables were not exempt from mistakes. I remember two of the best scholars in the university, Rutherforth and Sumner, in the course of a few weeks, pronouncing in the Senatehouse, the penultimam of panagitys long and short. On another occasion, my friend, Mr. Wilson, of Peterhouse, (afterwards one of the best black-letter judges in England,) having kept under me a very good act in the divinity schools, was censured by two great classics, Bishop of Peterborough and Dr. Symonds, for having read abolita instead of, as they thought, abolita. Even the very learned Mr. Bryant, with whom I was conversing in 1802, on the subject of,