Chap. xiii.--disobedience causeth god's name to be blasphemed. 1
Therefore, brethren, 2 let us now at length repent; let us be sober unto what is good; for we are full of much folly and wickedness. Let us blot out from us our former sins, and repenting from the soul let us be saved; and let us not become 3 men-pleasers, nor let us desire to please only one another, 4 but also the men that are without, by our righteousness, that the Name 5 be not blasphemed on account of us. 6 For the Lord also saith "Continually 7 My name is blasphemed among all the Gentiles," 8 and again, "Woe 9 to him on account of whom My name is blasphemed." Wherein is it blasphemed? In your not doing what I desire. 10 For the Gentiles, when they hear from our mouth the oracles of God, 11 marvel at them as beautiful and great; afterwards, when they have learned that our works are not worthy of the words we speak, they then turn themselves to blasphemy, saying that it is some fable and delusion. For when they hear from us that God saith, 12 "There is no thank unto you, if ye love them that love you; but there is thank unto you, if ye love your enemies and them that hate you;" 13 when they hear these things, they marvel at the excellency of the goodness; but when they see that we not only do not love them that hate us, but not even them that love us, they laugh us to scorn, and the Name is blasphemed.
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The headings to the chapters have been supplied by the editor, but in so rambling a discourse they are in some cases necessarily unsatisfactory. ↩
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Hilgenfeld reads mou instead of houn; so S apparently. The chapters are usually introduced with houn (nine times) or oste (five times). ↩
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gino'metha; Lightfoot, "be found." ↩
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Literally, "ourselves," heautois; but the reciprocal sense is common in Hellenistic Greek, and is here required by the context. ↩
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Comp. Acts v. 41, where the correct text omits au`tou. The Revised Version properly capitalizes "Name" in that passage. ↩
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C here, and in many other cases, reads humas; comparison of mss. shows that it is a correction of the scribe. ↩
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Lightfoot renders dia` panto's, "every way;" but the temporal sense is common in Hellenistic Greek, and here required by the Hebrew. ↩
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Isa. lii. 5, with pasin inserted. ↩
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Lightfoot reads, kai pa'lin Ouai', following the Syriac. C has kai Dio'. There is difficulty in identifying this second quotation: comp. Ezek. xxxvi. 20-23. Lightfoot thinks it probable that the preacher used two different forms of Isa. lii. 5. ↩
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This sentence is not part of the citation, but an explanation, the words being used as if spoken by God. The Syriac text seeks to avoid this difficulty by reading, "by our not doing what we say." ↩
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Here ta` lo'gia tou Theou is used of the Scriptures, and with distinct reference to the New Testament; see next note. ↩
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In view of the connection, this must mean "God in His oracles;" a significant testimony to the early belief in the inspiration of the Gospels. ↩
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Luke vi. 27, 32, freely combined; comp. Matt. v. 44, 46. The use of cha'ris uemin shows that the quotation is from the former Gospel. ↩
