αὔξει τὴν αὔυξησιν τοῦ Θεοῦ. ^{20}εἰ ἀπεθάνετε σὺν Χριστῷ
αὔξει τὴν αὕξησιν κ.τ.λ.] By the two-fold means of contact and
attachment nutriment has been diffused and structural unity has been
attained, but these are not the ultimate result; they are only
intermediate processes; the end is _growth_. Comp. Arist. _Metaph._ iv.
4 (p. 1014) _αὔξησιν ἔχειδ’_ ἑτέρου τῷ _ἅπτεσθαι_ καὶ
_συμπεφυκέναι_ ... διαφέρει δὲ σύμφυσις ἁφῆς, where growth is
attributed to the same two physiological conditions as here.
τοῦ Θεοῦ] i.e. ‘which partakes of God, which belongs to God, which has
its abode in God.’ Thus the finite is truly united with the Infinite;
the end which the false teachers strove in vain to compass is attained;
the Gospel vindicates itself as the true theanthropism, after which the
human heart is yearning and the human intellect is feeling. See above p.
183 sq. With this conclusion of the sentence contrast the parallel
passage Ephes. iv. 16 τὴν αὔξησιν τοῦ σώματος _ποιεῖται εἰς οἰκοδομὴν
ἑαυτοῦ ἐν ἀγάπῃ_, where again the different endings are determined by
the different motives of the two epistles.
The discoveries of modern physiology have invested the Apostle’s
language with far greater distinctness and force than it can have worn
to his own contemporaries. Any exposition of the nervous system more
especially reads like a commentary on his image of the relations between
the body and the head. At every turn we meet with some fresh
illustration which kindles it with a flood of light. The volition
communicated from the brain to the limbs, the sensations of the
extremities telegraphed back to the brain, the absolute mutual sympathy
between the head and the members, the instantaneous paralysis ensuing on
the interruption of continuity, all these add to the completeness and
life of the image. But the following passages will show how even ancient
scientific speculation was feeling after those physiological truths
which the image involves; Hippocr. _de Morb. Sacr._ p. 309 (ed Foese)
κατὰ ταῦτα νομίζω τὸν ἐγκέφαλον δύναμιν πλείστην ἔχειν ἐν τῷ ἀνθρώπῳ ...
οἱ δὲ ὀφθαλμοὶ καὶ τὰ οὔατα καὶ ἡ γλῶσσα καὶ αἱ χεῖρες καὶ οἱ πόδες, οἷα
ἂν ὁ ἐγκέφαλος γινώσκῃ, τοιαῦτα ὑπηρετοῦσι ... ἐς δὲ τὴν σύνεσιν ὁ
_ἐγκέφαλος_ ἐστὶν ὁ διαγγέλλων ... διότι φημὶ τὸν ἐγκέφαλον εἶναι
τὸν ἑρμηνεύοντα τὴν σύνεσιν, αἱ δὲ _φρένες_ ἄλλως ὄνομα ἔχουσι τῇ
τύχῃ κεκτημένον ... λέγουσι δέ τινες ὡς φρονέομεν τῇ _καρδίῃ_ καὶ
τὸ ἀνίωμενον τοῦτο ἐστι καὶ τὸ φροντίζον· τὸ δὲ οὐχ οὕτως ἔχει ... τῆς
... φρονήσιος οὐδετέρῳ μέτεστιν ἀλλὰ πάντων τουτέων ὁ ἐγκέφαλος αἴτιός
ἐστιν ... πρῶτος αἰσθάνεται ὁ ἐγκέφαλος τῶν ἐν τῷ σώματι ἐνεόντων (where
the theory is mixed up with some curious physiological speculations),
Galen _Op._ I. 235 αὐτὸς δὲ ὁ ἐγκέφαλος ὅτι μὲν ἀρχὴ τοῖς νεύροις ἅπασι
τῆς δυνάμεώς ἐστιν, ἐναργῶς ἐμάθομεν ... πότερον δὲ ὡς αὐτὸς τοῖς
νεύροις, οὕτω ἐκέινῳ πάλιν ἕτερόν τι μόριον ἐπιπέμπει, ἢ πηγή τις αὐτῶν
ἐστίν, ἔτ’ ἄδηλον, _ib._ IV. p. 11 ἀρχὴ μὲν γὰρ αὐτῶν (i.e. τῶν νεύρων)
ὁ ἐγκέφαλός ἐστι, καὶ τὰ πάθη εἰς αὐτὸν φέρει, οἷον εἰς ἄρουράν τινα τῆς
λογιστικῆς ψυχῆς· ἔκφυσις δ’ ἐντεῦθεν, οἷον πρέμνου τινὸς εἰς δένδρον
ἀνήκοντος μέγα, ὁ νωτιαῖός ἐστι μυελὸς ... σύμπαν δ’ οὕτω τὸ σῶμα
μεταλαμβάνει δι’ αὐτῶν πρώτης μὲν καὶ μάλιστα κινήσεως, ἐπὶ τάυτῃ δ’
αἰσθήσεως, XIV. p. 313 hάυτη γὰρ (i.e. ἡ κεφαλή) καθάπερ τις ἀκρόπολίς
ἐστι τοῦ σώματος καὶ τῶν τιμιωτάτων καὶ ἀναγκαιοτάτων ἀνθρώποις
αἰσθήσεων οἰκητήριον. Plato had made the head the central organ of the
reason (_Tim._ 69 sq.: see Grote’s _Plato_ III. pp. 272, 287,
_Aristotle_ II. p. 179 sq.), if indeed the speculations of the Timæus
may be regarded as giving his serious physiological views; but he had
postulated other centres of the emotions and appetites, the heart and
the abdomen. Aristotle, while rightly refusing to localize the mind as
mind, had taken a retrograde step physiologically, when he transferred
the centre of sensation from the brain to the heart; e.g. _de Part.
Anim._ ii. 10 (p. 656). Galen, criticizing his predecessors, says of
Aristotle δῆλός ἐστι κατεγνωκὼς μὲν αὐτοῦ (i.e. τοῦ ἐγκεφάλοὐ τελέαν
ἀχρηστίαν, φανερῶς δ’ ὁμολογεῖν αἰδούμενος (_Op._ III. p. 625). The
Stoics however (Ζήνων καὶ Χρύσιππος ἅμα τῷ σφετέρῳ χορῷ παντί) were even
worse offenders; and in reply to them more especially Galen elsewhere
discusses the question πότερον ἐγκέφαλος ἢ καρδία τὴν ἀρχὴν ἔχει, _Op._
V. p. 213 sq. Bearing in mind all this diversity of opinion among
ancient physiologists, we cannot fail to be struck in the text not only
with the correctness of the image but also with the propriety of the
terms; and we are forcibly reminded that among the Apostle’s most
intimate companions at this time was one whom he calls ‘the beloved
physician’ (iv. 14).
20–23. ‘You died with Christ to your old life. All mundane relations
have ceased for you. Why then do you—you who have attained your
spiritual manhood—submit still to the rudimentary discipline of
children? Why do you—you who are citizens of heaven—bow your necks
afresh to the tyranny of material ordinances, as though you were still
living in the world? It is the same old story again; the same round of
hard, meaningless, vexatious prohibitions, ‘Handle not,’ ‘Taste not,’
‘Touch not.’ What folly! When all these things—these meats and drinks
and the like—are earthly, perishable, wholly trivial and unimportant!
They are used, and there is an end of them. What is this, but to draw
down upon yourselves the denunciations uttered by the prophet of old?
What is this but to abandon God’s word for precepts which are issued by
human authority and inculcated by human teachers? All such things have a
show of wisdom, I grant. There is an officious parade of religious
devotion, an eager affectation of humility; there is a stern ascetic
rigour, which ill-treats the body; but there is nothing of any real
value to check indulgence of the flesh.’
20. From the theological tenets of the false teachers the Apostle turns
to the ethical—from the objects of their worship to the principles of
their conduct. The baptism into Christ, he argues, is death to the
world. The Christian has passed away to another sphere of existence.
Mundane ordinances have ceased to have any value for him, because his
mundane life has ended. They belong to the category of the perishable;
he has been translated to the region of the eternal. It is therefore a
denial of his Christianity to subject himself again to their tyranny, to
return once more to the dominion of the world. See again the note on
iii. 1.
εἰ ἀπεθάνετε] ‘_if ye died_, when ye were baptized into Christ.’ For
this connexion between baptism and death see the notes on ii. 11, iii.
3. This death has many aspects in St Paul’s teaching. It is not only a
dying _with_ Christ, 2 Tim. ii. 11 εἰ γὰρ συναπεθάνομεν; but it is also
a dying to or from something. This is sometimes represented as _sin_,
Rom. vi. 2 ὁίτινες ἀπεθάνομεν τῇ _ἁμαρτίᾳ_ (comp. vv. 7, 8);
sometimes as _self_, 2 Cor. v. 14, 15 ἄρα οἱ πάντες ἀπέθανον ... ἵνα οἱ
ζῶντες μήκετι _ἑαυτοῖς_ ζῶσιν; sometimes as the _law_, Rom. vii. 6
κατηργήθημεν ἀπὸ τοῦ νόμου ἀποθανόντες, Gal. ii. 19 διὰ νόμου νόμῳ
ἀπέθανον; sometimes still more widely as the _world_, regarded as the
sphere of all material rules and all mundane interests, so here and iii.
3 ἀπεθάνετε γάρ. In all cases St Paul uses the aorist ἀπέθανον, never
the perfect τέθνηκα; for he wishes to emphasize the one absolute
_crisis_, which was marked by the change of changes. When the aorist is
wanted, the compound verb ἀποθνήσκειν is used; when the perfect, the
simple verb θήσκειν; see Buttmann _Ausf. Gramm._ § 114. This rule holds
universally in the Greek Testament.
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