ἥτις ἐστὶν εἰδωλολατρεία, ^6δι’ ἃ ἐρχεται ἡ ὀργὴ
ἥτις κ.τ.λ.] ‘_for it is idolatry_’: comp. Ephes. v. 5 πλεονέκτης, ὅ (or
ὅς) ἐστιν εἰδωλολάτρης, Polyc. _Phil._ 11 ‘Si quis non abstinuerit se ab
avaritia, ab idololatria coinquinabitur’ (see _Philippians_ p. 63 on the
misunderstanding of this passage). The covetous man sets up another
object of worship besides God. There is a sort of religious purpose, a
devotion of the soul, to greed, which makes the sin of the miser so
hateful. The idea of avarice as a _religion_ may have been suggested to
St Paul by our Lord’s words, Matt. vi. 24 οὐ δύνασθε Θεῷ δουλεύειν καὶ
μαμωνᾷ, though it is a mistake to suppose that Mammon was the name of a
Syrian deity. It appears however elsewhere in Jewish writers of this and
later ages: e.g. Philo _de Mon._ i. 2 (II. p. 214 sq.) πανταχόθεν μὲν
ἀργύριον καὶ χρυσίον ἐκπορίζουσι, τὸ δὲ πορισθὲν ὡς ἄγαλμα θεῖον ἐν
ἀδύτοις θησαυροφυλακοῦσιν (with the whole context), and _Shemoth Rabba_
fol. 121. 3 ‘Qui opes suas multiplicat per fœnus, ille est
idololatra’ (with other passages quoted by Wetstein and Schöttgen on
Ephes. v. 5). St Chrysostom, _Hom. in Johann. lxv_ (VIII. p. 392 sq.),
enlarges on the cult of wealth—the consecration of it, the worship paid
to it, the sacrifices demanded by it: ἡ δὲ φιλαργυρία λέγει, Θῦσόν μοι
τὴν σαυτοῦ ψυχήν, καὶ πείθει· ὁρᾷς ὅιους ἔχει βωμούς, οἷα δέχεται θύματα
(p. 393). The passage in _Test. xii Patr._ Jud. 18 ἡ φιλαργυρία πρὸς
ἔιδωλα ὁδηγεῖ is no real parallel to St Paul’s language, though at first
sight it seems to resemble it. For ἥτις, ‘seeing that it’, see the note
on Phil. iv. 3.
6, 7. δι’ ἅ κ.τ.λ.] The received text requires correction in two points.
(1) It inserts the words ἐπὶ τοὺς ὑιοὺς τῆς ἀπειθείας after τοῦ Θεοῦ.
Though this insertion has preponderating support, yet the words are
evidently interpolated from the parallel passage, Ephes. v. 6 διὰ ταῦτα
γὰρ ἐρχεται ἡ ὀργὴ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐπὶ τοὺς ὑιοὺς τῆς ἀπειθείας. We are
therefore justified in rejecting them with other authorities, few in
number but excellent in character. See the detached note on various
readings. When the sentence is thus corrected, the parallelism of δι’ ἅ
... εν οἷς καί ... may be compared with Ephes. i. 11 ἐν hῷ καὶ
ἐκληρώθημεν ... ἐν hῷ καὶ ὑμεῖς ... ἐν hῷ καὶ πιστεύσαντες ἐσφραγίσθητε,
and ii. 21, 22 ἐν hῷ πᾶσα [ἡ] οἰκοδομὴ ... ἐν ᾧ καὶ ὑμεῖς
συνοικοδομεῖσθε. (2) The vast preponderance of authority obliges us to
substitute τούτοις for αὐτοῖς.
6. ἐρχεται] This may refer either to the present and continuous
dispensation, or to the future and final judgment. The present ἐρχεσθαι
is frequently used to denote the _certainty_ of a future event, e.g.
Matt. xvii. 11, Joh. iv. 21, xiv. 3, whence ὁ ἐρχόμενος is a designation
of the Messiah: see Winer § xl. p. 332.
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