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does my soul exclaim, since it has found, in the living house of God, (which is his church,) its nest, and the place of its repose.

I am happy in this house. I am happy even though I dare only dwell in the farthest corner. I know that I have deserved no place of honour in it. How delightful it is for me to know that he will never drive me out, if I do not retire myself! But I will thank him, and joyfully remain for ever and ever.

J. S. B.

Luton.

CRITICAL REMARKS ON COLOSSIANS, II., 16, 17.

(IN REPLY TO PHILONOMOS.)

"LET no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy-day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath-days; which are a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ.”—Authorized Version.

Next to the acknowledgment of the Bible as the sole authority in revealed religion, the sound and faithful exposition of Scripture is a matter of the highest importance, without which the sacred volume might be extensively circulated and perused to little purpose; since human agency, whether under the form of tradition, or of corruption, might simultaneously introduce the most noxious errors, and render the commandment of God of no effect. The passage now proposed for revisal is cardinal, decisive, and unique, and it is, therefore, of the greater consequence that it should be correctly understood. A recent number of the Congregational Magazine contains, under the signature Philonomos, an interpretation of this passage which it is the object of the following remarks to refute; but, previously to opening the discussion, it will be useful to take a rapid view of the general purport and design of the context.*

During his first imprisonment at Rome, which apparently lasted more than two years, the apostle Paul felt a deep anxiety for the welfare of several distant churches, and was prompted by the Holy Spirit to send them pastoral letters; which, having been carefully published and preserved, constitute a large and valuable portion of the New Testament. The two earliest of these epistles were addressed to the Phrygian churches of Laodicea,† and Colosso, the next to the Greek church at Philippi, and the last, which, however, was probably composed a little

* Congregational Magazine for October, 1841, pp. 705, 706.

+ In conformity with the views of several respectable authors, both ancient and modern, it is here assumed that the epistle which takes its name from the Ephesians was really addressed to the Laodiceans. The proof of this assertion may be offered on another occasion.

after the apostle's liberation, but before his departure from Italy, to the Hebrews of Palestine. The three sister churches of Colossœ, Laodicea, and Hierapolis, occupying a district near the confluence of the rivers Lycus and Mœander, seem to have formed a congregational union, whereby, without compromising their separate independence, they promoted each other's edification and improvement. By whose ministry they had been converted and organized is unknown, certainly not by that of Paul, who declares they had never seen him, (Coloss. ii. 1.) but who, being as solicitous for their prosperity as formerly for that of the church at Rome, towards which he was similarly situated, felt the more desirous of instructing them by letter, in consequence of being now prevented from doing so in person. Amongst the numerous admonitions which he gave them on this occasion, he particularly exhorted them, as Gentile churches, to be on their guard against the pernicious influence of Judaizing teachers; who, in spite of the contrary decision long before pronounced by the apostolical council at Jerusalem, were everywhere labouring to subject Gentile converts to the yoke of the Mosaic law, and to their own spiritual domination. The whole of the second chapter of the epistle to the Colossians is devoted to this object, and is not less important at the present moment than when it was first written; inasmuch as, under various forms and pretences, the same disposition to legality and to religious despotism has ever since prevailed, and still continues to impair the purity, and to injure the success of the Gospel. The substance of the false doctrine inculcated by these teachers was, that, unless Gentile Christians were circumcised, and kept the law of Moses, more especially as by them expounded and administered, they could not be saved. In opposition to this fatal error, the apostle informed the Colossians that, Christianity having now been universally proclaimed, the Mosaic covenant would soon be entirely abolished; that with this covenant Gentiles had no direct concern; and that Jews derived no advantage from it in reference to salvation, which, if obtained at all, they must obtain like other men, not by the works of the law, but through faith in Christ. From the authority of the Mosaic dispensation, he therefore assured the Colossians, and through them all Gentile churches, that they were absolutely free, and that it was at once their privilege and duty to preserve their Christian liberty unimpaired, and not allow themselves to be entangled with any yoke of bondage.

In doing this, he employs the language now under examination "Μή, οὖν, τις ὑμᾶς κρινέτω ἐν βρώσει, ἢ ἐν πόσει, ἢ ἐν μέρει ἑορτῆς, ἢ νουμηνίας, ἢ σαββάτων; ἃ ἐστι σκιὰ τῶν μελλόντων, τὸ δὲ σῶμα Χριστοῦ ;” which, in terms not materially differing from those of the authorized version, may be rendered,-"Let no one, therefore, judge you in reference to food or drink, nor in respect of festivals, nor of days of new moon, nor of Sabbath-days; which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance [is] of Christ."-In reciting the several Jewish festivals the

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plural form is here adopted, as better suited to the phraseology of the English language than the singular; but, whatever mode of expression is employed, the meaning, as it appears to the author of these remarks, is plainly this, that, under the Christian dispensation, neither the seventh-day Sabbath, nor any other festival enjoined by the Mosaic law, is in force. Philonomos, on the contrary, in common with many others, contends that the Sabbath-day is not hereby abolished, and that its observance is still divinely commanded. He accordingly translates the word caßßárov, in this passage, sabbaths, and, without adopting any positive conclusion, endeavours to prove that it means either the ordinary days of the week, or the Jewish festivals generally. "After all," says he, "it is highly probable that by the word σaßßárov the apostle did not intend the Sabbath-day. He does not say, rov σαββάτου, but σαββάτων, which was the Jewish name given to the days of the week, and to the periodical solemnities of the passover, pentecost, &c. ;"--and he supports this view by quotations from Lightfoot, Suidas, and Theophylact.

Now, it is the character and criterion of sound interpretation to be legitimate, appropriate, and demonstrative; that is to say, the meaning assigned to any term must be sanctioned by reputable use; of several conceivable meanings that must be preferred which best agrees with the context, and with all the other circumstances of the case; and the meaning which is shown to fulfil these conditions must be regarded as true, to the exclusion of all others. For the word σaßßárov, in the present case, three different senses are proposed, which may be briefly collated as follows.

"Let no one judge you in reference to food or drink, nor in respect of festivals, nor of days of new moon, nor of (festivals,-week-days,sabbath-days,)—which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance [is] of Christ."

The mere juxtaposition of these alternatives is, perhaps, sufficient to decide that the two former are inadmissible, and that the third is the true meaning; but, in order to do full justice to the subject, this conclusion will be regularly proved in accordance with the principles above stated. That the word sabbaths is in a few instances employed in the Old Testament, although never in the New, to denote other Jewish festivals besides the Sabbath-day, is granted; but this cannot be the case here, where it is placed in contradistinction to festivals, and days of new moon, and must therefore, of necessity, mean something different from either. That in the distribution of a subject into parts two of the divisions should be virtually the same, is opposed to common sense, and, of course, incompatible with revelation. Besides, the formula,ἑορταί, καὶ νουμηνίαι, καὶ σαββάτα, festivals, and days of new moon, and sabbath-days,-is frequently used in the Septuagint version of the Old Testament, to intimate the principal sacred seasons

appointed by the Mosaic law; as, for example, in 2 Chronicles ii. 4, “ καὶ ἐν τοῖς σαββάτοις, καὶ ἐν ταῖς νουμηνίαις, καὶ ἐν τᾶις ἑορταῖς Κυρίου, τοῦ Beov hur on the sabbaths, and on the new moons, and on the solemn feasts of the Lord, our God."-See also 1 Chron. xxiii. 31; 2 Chron. xxxi. 3; Nehem. x. 33; Isa. i. 13, 14; Ezek. xlv. 17; Hosea. ii. 11, &c. Now, as in all these parallel instances the word σaßßára is universally acknowledged to signify the seventh-day Sabbath, it cannot be imagined to have any other meaning when employed in a similar connexión by the apostle Paul; but, even admitting that it signified Jewish festivals generally, the seventh-day Sabbath, being one of the principal of them, and that to which the name most properly belongs, would still be included amongst those which he assures the Colossians were foreign to the Christian dispensation; and thus, the supposition, even if admissible, which it is not, would be unavailable to the purpose for which it is designed.

In discriminating between the singular and plural import of the word caßßárov, Philonornos has apparently been misled by Suidas, whose authority in such matters, like that of some of the early Christian fathers, is far froin being infallible, witness his comment on the phrase, “Ovè dè σaßßárov," in Matt. xxviii. 1; which he applies to the evening after the Sabbath, whereas it evidently refers to the morning of the following day. With similar inaccuracy, he affirms that the Jews called the whole week σαββάτα, and not σαββάτον, a statement precisely the reverse of the fact. In the New Testament, the term σaßßárov, once means the week, namely, in Luke xviii. 12.-"Nŋotevw dis Toù σaßßárov, "I fast twice in the week;"-but, in every other instance without exception, both σαββάτων and σαββάτα signify the Jewish Sabbath-day, and nothing else. The plural form, which seems to be merely a Hebrew idiom, occurs in Luke iv. 16;—“ év τĥ hμépa Tv σaßßárov, on the Sabbath-day ;"-also in Acts, xiii. 14, xvi. 13, &c.; and, in several parallel passages of the Gospels, is used by one evangelist, and the singular by another, when speaking of the Sabbath-day. The same form in the same sense is often found in the Septuagint, particularly in the Pentateuch; as for example, in Exodus, ΧΧ. 8-10,-“ Μνήσθητι τὴν ἡμέραν τῶν σαββάτων, τοῦ ἁγιάζειν αὐτήν, Remember the Sabbath-day, to keep it holy;"-and in xvi. 23—26, xxxi. 13—17, xxxv. 2, 3; Levit. xxiii. 3; Numb. xv. 32—36, xxviii. 9, 10; Deut. v. 12-15, &c. It is likewise employed by later Jewish authors who wrote in Greek. Thus Philo mentions," the seventh day, which Hebrews call oraßßára;"-and Josephus observes,-"We rest from labours on this day, calling it oaßßára." Philonomos is equally

*Philo Judæus, Opera, fol. Lutet: Paris: 1640; p. 353, De Abrahamo.-Josephus, Opera, 2 vol.: Oxon, 1720; Antiq. Jud. lib. j. cap. j.; Vol. i. p. 5.

mistaken in supposing that the phrases, pía rov oaßßárwv, &c., and the corresponding Hebrew terms, which he borrows from Lightfoot, properly signify the first day of the week, &c.; for, although it is convenient and allowable thus to translate them, they really signifythe first day of, or from the Sabbath, &c.-So remarks Lightfoot himself, when expounding-" karà μíav σaßßáтwv, on the first day of the week,"-in 1 Cor. xvi. 2.-"In the first of the Sabbath," would the Talmudists say;-and hence, in the same connexion, the sixth day of the week is called the eve of the Sabbath, certainly not the eve of the week.*

From the preceding discussion it results that the word σaßßárov, in this passage, is properly rendered, Sabbath-days, but cannot mean either week-days, or Jewish festivals in general. It will be equally easy to show that, when compared with the context, the former interpretation is appropriate, and the latter incongruous, and therefore inadmissible. For, in this comparison there are only two conditions which require to be particularly considered; namely, the efforts of the Judaizing teachers to impose on Gentile converts their own sacred festivals," Let no one judge you, &c. ;"-and the character of these festivals as types and figures, whereof the reality was furnished by Christianity," which are a shadow of things to come," &c.-If it is asked, What sacred seasons amongst the Jews, distinct from days of new moon, and from the great annual festivals, correspond to these conditions? the answer is obvious. The Sabbath-day was the only other festival which the Jews sought to impose on Gentile Christians; the only other festival which typified that heavenly felicity which remains for the people of God, and which Christ has purchased for them with his blood. Certainly no other day of the week, nor yet the whole collectively, in the slightest degree fulfils these conditions.

In the interpretation here given, many of those who distinguish between the Jewish and the Christian Sabbath will probably concur. By Philonomos, however, this distinction is entirely overlooked. The Sabbath which he advocates is the Sabbath of the Decalogue; and, in the following passage, notwithstanding the apostle Paul's opposite declaration, he firmly maintains that Christ did not, and could not abolish it." On the contrary," says Philonomos, "he assures us that he is Lord of the Sabbath. Besides, the Sabbath-day was instituted, not merely as a type of future things, but as a temporal benefit, to afford rest from labour both to man and beast. And, although some assert that it was appointed for the first time at Mount Sinai, the contrary is clear from Genesis, ii. [1-3;] where we are told that God sanctified that day at the close of his six days' work, as an example to

* Lightfoot, (John, D.D.) Works, in 2 vols folio: Lond. 1684; Vol. i. p. 606; Vol. ii. pp. 271, 792.

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