ὑμᾶς σὺν αὐτῷ, χαρισάμενος ἡμῖν πάντα τὰ παραπτώματα, ^{14}ἐξαλείψας τὸ
καθ’ ἡμῶν χειρόγραφον τοῖς
14. ἐξαλέιψας] ‘_having cancelled_’. The word ἐξαλέιφειν, like
διαγράφειν, signifying ‘to blot out, to erase’, is commonly opposed to
ἐγγράφειν ‘to enter a name, etc.’; e.g. Arist. _Pax_ 1181, Lysias _c.
Nicom._ p. 183, Plato _Resp._ vi. p. 501 B. More especially is it so
used in reference to an _item_ in an account, e.g. Demosth. _c.
Aristog._ i. p. 791 ἐγγράφονται πάντες οἱ ὀφλισκάνοντες ... ἐξαλήλιπται
τὸ ὄφλημα.
τὸ καθ’ ἡμῶν κ.τ.λ.] ‘_the bond standing against us_’. The word
χειρόγραφον, which means properly an autograph of any kind, is used
almost exclusively for a note of hand, a bond or obligation, as having
the ‘sign-manual’ of the debtor or contractor: e.g. Tobit v. 3 (comp.
ix. 5) ἔδωκεν αὐτῷ τὸ χειρόγραφον, Plut. _Mor._ p. 829 A τῶν χειρογράφων
καὶ συμβολαίων. It is more common in Latin than in Greek, e.g. Cic.
_Fam._ vii. 18 ‘Misi cautionem chirographi mei’, Juv. _Sat._ xvi. 41
‘Debitor aut sumptos pergit non reddere nummos, vana supervacui dicens
chirographa ligni’ (comp. xiii. 137). Hence chirographum,
chirographarius, are frequent terms in the Roman law-books; see Hesse
_Handlexicon zu den Quellen des römischen Rechts_ s.v. p. 74.
In the case before us the Jewish people might be said to have signed the
contract when they bound themselves by a curse to observe all the
enactments of the law (Deut. xxvii. 14–26; comp. Exod. xxiv. 3); and the
primary reference would be to them. But ἡμῖν, ἡμῶν, seem to include
Gentiles as well as Jews, so that a wider reference must be given to the
expression. The δόγματα therefore, though referring primarily to the
Mosaic ordinances, will include all forms of positive decrees in which
moral or social principles are embodied or religious duties defined; and
the ‘bond’ is the moral assent of the conscience, which (as it were)
signs and seals the obligation. The Gentiles, though ‘not having a law,
are a law to themselves’, ὅιτινες ἐνδείκνυνται τὸ ἔργον τοῦ νόμου
_γραπτὸν_ ἐν ταῖς καρδίαις αὐτῶν, _συμμαρτυρούσης_ αὐτων τῆς
συνειδήσεως, Rom. ii. 14, 15. See the notes on Gal. ii. 19, iv. 11.
Comp. Orig. _Hom. in Gen._ xiii. 4 (II. p. 96).
τοῖς δόγμασιν] ‘_consisting in ordinances_’: comp. Ephes. ii. 15 τὸν
νόμον τῶν ἐντολῶν ἐν δόγμασιν. The word δόγμα is here used in its proper
sense of a ‘decree’, ‘ordinance’, corresponding to δογματίζεσθε below,
ver. 20. This is its only sense in the N. T.; e.g. Luke ii. 1, Acts
xvii. 7, of the Emperor’s decrees; Acts xvi. 4 of the Apostolic
ordinances. Here it refers especially to the Mosaic law, as in Joseph.
_Ant._ xv. 5. 3 τὰ κάλλιστα τῶν δογμάτων καὶ τὰ ὁσιώτατα τῶν ἐν τοῖς
νόμοις, Philo _Leg. All._ i. 16 (I. p. 54) διατήρησις τῶν ἁγίων
δογμάτων, 3 Macc. i. 3 τῶν πατρίων δογμάτων. Comp. Iren. _Fragm._ 38 (p.
855 Stieren) where, immediately after a reference to our text, τοῖς τῶν
Ἰουδαίων δόγμασι προσέρχεσθαι is opposed to πνευματικῶς λειτουργεῖν. In
the parallel passage, Ephes. ii. 15, this is the exclusive reference;
but here (for reasons explained in the last note) it seems best to give
the term a secondary and more extensive application.
The dative is perhaps best explained as governed by the idea of
γεγραμμένον involved in χειρόγραφον (comp. Plat. _Ep._ vii. p. 243 A τὰ
γεγραμμένα τύποις); as in 1 Tim. ii. 6 τὸ μαρτύριον καιροῖς ἰδίοις,
where καιροῖς depends on an implied μεμαρτυρημένον. Otherwise it is
taken as closely connected with καθ’ ἡμῶν, ‘the bond which was in force
against us by reason of the ordinances’: see Winer § xxxi. p. 273, A.
Buttmann p. 80. Possibly an ἐν has dropped out of the text before τοῖς
δόγμασιν, owing to the similar ending ==χειρογραφονεν== (comp. Ephes.
ii. 15); but, if so, the omission must date from the earliest age, since
no existing authorities exhibit any traces of such a reading; see the
note on ver. 18 ἃ ἑόρακεν, and comp. Phil. ii. 1 εἴ τις σπλάγχνα.
A wholly different interpretation however prevails universally among
Greek commentators both here and in Ephes. ii. 15. They take τοῖς
δόγμασιν, ἐν δόγμασιν, to mean the ‘doctrines or precepts of the
Gospel’, and so to describe the instrument by which the abrogation of
the law was effected. So Chrysostom, Severianus, Theodore of Mopsuestia,
and Theodoret, followed by the later commentators [OE]cumenius and
Theophylact. Strangely enough they do not allude to the correct
interpretation; nor (with the exception of the passage ascribed to
Irenæus which is quoted above) have I found any distinct traces of it in
any Greek father. The grammatical difficulty would be taken to favour
this interpretation, which moreover was characteristic of the age when
the battle of creeds was fought. But it has been universally abandoned
by modern interpreters, as plainly inappropriate to the context and also
as severing the substantive δόγμα here from the verb δογματίζειν in ver.
20. The Latin fathers, who had either _decretis_ or _sententiis_ in
their version, were saved from this false interpretation; e.g. Hilar.
_de Trin._ i. 12 (II. p. 10), ix. 10 (II. p. 265 sq.), Ambros. _Apol.
Dav._ 13 (I. p. 698), _de Fid._ iii. 2 (II. p. 499), August. _de Pecc.
Mer._ i. 47 (X. p. 26): though they very commonly took τοῖς δόγμασιν, ἐν
δόγμασιν, to refer to the decree of condemnation. Jerome however on
Ephes. ii. 15 (VII. p. 581) follows the Greeks. The later Christian
sense of δόγμα, meaning ‘doctrine’, came from its secondary classical
use, where it was applied to the authoritative and categorical
‘sentences’ of the philosophers: comp. Just. Mart. _Apol._ i. 7 (p. 56
D) οἱ ἐν Ἕλλησι τὰ αὐτοῖς ἀρεστὰ δογματίσαντες ἐκ παντὸς τῷ ἑνὶ ὀνόματι
φιλοσοφίας προσαγορεύονται, καίπερ τῶν δογμάτων ἐναντίων ὄντων, Cic.
_Acad._ ii. 9 ‘de suis decretis quæ philosophi vocant δόγματα’, Senec.
_Epist._ xcv. 10 ‘Nulla ars contemplativa sine decretis suis est, quæ
Græci vocant _dogmata_, nobis vel _decreta_ licet adpellare vel _scita_
vel _placita_’. See the indices to Plutarch, Epictetus, etc., for
illustrations of the use of the term. There is an approach towards the
ecclesiastical meaning in Ignat. _Magn._ 13 βεβαιωθῆναι ἐν τοῖς δόγμασιν
τοῦ Κυρίου καὶ τῶν ἀποστόλων, Barnab. § 1 τρία οὖν δόγματά ἐστιν Κυρίου
(comp. § 9, 10).
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