04.04. II. Affecting the Sense
II. AFFECTING THE SENSE
-------- Aposiopesis; or, Sudden-Silence This is a rhetorical figure, and not a figure of grammar, but it may be placed under the figures depending on omission, because in it something is omitted.
Apo-si-o-pee´-sis is the Greek word
It has been divided under four heads, according to the character of the subject:- 1.Promise.
2. Anger and Threatening.
3. Grief and Complaint.
4. Enquiry and Deprecation.
1. Promise: where some great thing is promised, too great to be conveyed in words
Exo 32:31-32.-“And Moses returned unto the Lord, and said, Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold. Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin--; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written.”
Here it seems that Moses was about to promise something on behalf of the people; but neither knew what promise he could make for them, nor how far he could answer for its fulfilment by them. His sudden silence is solemnly eloquent.
2Sa 5:8.-“And David said on that day, Whosoever getteth up to the gutter--.”
We learn from 1Ch 11:6 that the promise was fulfilled in Joab, who was made chief or captain. Hence these words have been supplied in the A.V. [Note: The Authorized Version, or current Text of our English Bible, 1611.] , as we have explained above, under the figure of Absolute Ellipsis, page 53.
1Ch 4:10.-“And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that thine hand might be with me, and that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me--”
Then there is a sudden silence, as though it were impossible for Jabez to express the manner in which he would give God thanks and declare his praise for His great mercies. But the words that immediately follow seem to show that God was so much more ready to hear than Jabez was to pray, that without waiting for him to finish his prayer it is added, “And God granted him that which he requested.”
Dan 3:15.-“Now if ye be ready that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery and dulcimer, and all kinds of music, ye fall down and worship the image which I have made -- but if ye worship not,” etc.
Here Nebuchadnezzar was ready with his threat of the punishment, but he was careful not to commit himself to any promise.
Luk 13:9 has already been treated under the figure of Ellipsis: but beside the grammatical ellipsis, there is also the rhetorical: “And if it bear fruit--,” as though the vine-dresser would say, “I cannot say what I will not do for it: not only will I not cut it down, but I will continue to care for it and tend it!” The A.V. [Note: The Authorized Version, or current Text of our English Bible, 1611.] has supplied the word, “well!”
2. Anger and Threatening
Gen 3:22.-“And now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever--Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden,” etc.
Here the exact consequences of eating of the tree of life in his fallen condition are left unrevealed, as though they were too awful to be contemplated: and the sudden silence leaves us in the darkness in which the Fall involved us. But we may at least understand that whatever might be involved in this unspoken threatening, it included this fact:-I will drive him away from the tree of life!
Gen 20:3.-“Behold, thou art but a dead man-- for the woman which thou hast taken; for she is a man’s wife.”
Here, we must supply if thou dost not restore her; or, her husband will slay thee. This is clear from Gen 20:7.
Jas 3:1.-“My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation--.”
He does not stop to specify what the many things are, in which those who occupy such positions may give cause of condemnation. This is also to be understood as if it continued “unless we give a right judgment,” etc. (Mat 7:2).
3. Grief and Complaint Gen 25:22.-“If it be so, why am I thus--?”
Rebekah’s words of grief and complaint are not completed. She could not understand why, if Jehovah was intreated and answered Isaac’s prayer, she should so suffer that the answer was almost as hard to be borne as her former condition.
Jdg 5:29-30.-There is a wonderful Aposiopesis here, where the mother of Sisera looks out of her lattice and wonders where Sisera is, and why he does not return. Her wise ladies answered her, “But she repeated her words to herself.” Her soliloquy ends in a sudden silence. Everything is left to the imagination as to how she bears it. All is lost in the sudden outburst Of the song “So perish all thy foes, O Jehovah”! See under Homœopropheron.
Psa 6:3.-“My soul is also sore vexed; but thou, O Lord, how long--?” The words are drowned in grief: “How long shall I be sore vexed? How long [before thou wilt arise?]” Thus his prayer is submitted to the will of God.
Luk 15:21.-“Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son--.”
It is as though, broken down by the grief which the utterance of these words brought into his heart, he could not continue, and say the rest of what, we are told, he had resolved to say in Luk 15:19. Or it is also to show us as well, that the father’s joy to receive is so great that he would not wait for the son to finish, but anticipated him with his seven-fold blessing.
See under Polysyndeton.
Luk 19:42.-“If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace--! but now they are hid from thine eyes.” The blessedness involved in this knowledge is overwhelmed by the tribulation which is to come upon the nation. The continuation of the sense would probably be “How happy thou wouldest have been! How blessed! How safe! How secure! but now they are hid from thine eyes.”
4. Enquiry and Deprecation
Hos 9:14.-“Give them, O Lord: what wilt thou give--?” As though unable to conceive the punishment deserved, the Prophet breaks off and goes back to the thought of Hos 9:11 John 6:62.-“And if ye shall see the Son of Man ascend up where he was before--?” This has already been referred to under Ellipsis (see p. 54). But something more is implied; more than can be supplied by any specific words, such as, “Will ye believe then?” For He did afterwards ascend up, but they still refused to believe!
Acts 23:9.-According to some ancient MSS. all the critical Greek texts read the verse, “We find no evil in this man: but, if a spirit or an angel hath spoken to him--.”
Either the Pharisees were afraid to express their thoughts, or their words were drowned in the “great dissension” (Acts 23:10) which immediately “arose.” For there is a sudden silence, which some copyists have attempted to fill up by adding the words
-------- Meiosis: or, A Be-Littleing (A be-littleing of one thing to magnify another)
Mei-ō´-sis. Greek
It is known also by the name LITOTES, li´-to-tees: Greek
It is used for the purpose of emphasis; to call our attention, not to the smallness of the thing thus lessened, but to the importance of that which is put in contrast with it.
Gen 18:27.-“And Abraham answered and said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes.”
Here Abraham humbles himself; and, alluding to the creation of man out of the dust of the ground (Gen 2:7), he implies much more than he expresses. In calling himself “dust and ashes,” he contrasts himself with the high and holy God whom he is addressing, and takes the place of a man most vile and a creature most abject. So Jehovah uses the same figure in 1Ki 16:2. Psa 113:7, &c. See under Synecdoche.
Num 13:33.-“And we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.” This is the Meiosis of unbelief. To gain credence for their words they exaggerated the size of the Anakim by lessening their own stature. On the other hand, the language of faith used a very different figure. Compare Num 14:9, under the Figure of Ellipsis, page 37.
1Sa 24:14.-“After whom is the king of Israel come out? After whom dost thou pursue? After a dead dog, after a flea,” i.e., you do that which is altogether unworthy of a king, in pursuing one who is as harmless as a dead dog (compare 1Sa 17:43; 2Sa 3:8; 2Sa 9:8; 2Sa 16:9) and as worthless as a flea, which is poor game for a royal hunter (1Sa 26:20).
Ezr 9:8.-“And now for a little space (Heb. moment) grace hath been shewed from the Lord our God.” To magnify the greatness of the grace the Holy Spirit, by Ezra, speaks of the “little space.” The comparison is not to the greatness of their transgressions, which are stated in Ezr 9:6-7, etc., but to their length and the length of the previous chastisement, which had been begun by the kings of Assyria. See Neh 9:32, and Ezr 6:22, where Cyrus, “the king of Babylon” (Ezr 5:13), is called the king of Assyria, having absorbed the kingdoms of Media, Persia, and Assyria, and thus the oppressor, by God’s grace, had become the friend.
Psa 22:6.-“I am a worm, and no man.” Here, as elsewhere, this figure is used to denote a much greater depth of humility and affliction than words can express. So Job 25:6. Isa 41:14. The greater the humiliation, the greater the contrast with His glorification: for He who is “a worm and no man” in Psa 22:1-31 is “Jehovah my shepherd” of Psa 23:1-6, and “the King of glory” of Psa 24:1-10 In these three Psalms we thus have in xxii. “the Good Shepherd” in death (John 10:11); “the Great Shepherd” in resurrection (Heb 13:20; and “the Chief Shepherd” in glory (1Pe 5:4).
Isa 40:15.-“Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing.” And even this fails to convey to our minds the wondrous gulf between the finite and the infinite.
Isa 40:17 : “All nations before him are as nothing: and they are counted to him less than nothing and vanity.”
Mat 15:26.-“It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs.” It is not only not fair, but it is cruel to one’s children thus to deprive them of their food.
See further under the figure of Hypocatastasis.
Mat 18:14.-“Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.”
No! It is contrary to His wish. His will embraces much more than this, it includes:- Predestination (Eph 1:5).
Regeneration (John 1:13; Jas 1:18).
Deliverance from the world (Gal 1:4).
Sanctification (1Th 4:3; Heb 10:10).
Final Preservation, Resurrection, and Eternal Life (John 6:39-40).
Mat 22:3.-“And they would not come.” The Greek is:-
Luk 17:9.-“Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not.” i.e., I think not. More is to be understood than is expressed: i.e., I know very well he doth not thank him. So far from that, he scarcely notices the matter.
John 15:20.-“If they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also,” i.e., as surely as they have NOT kept my saying, they will not keep yours. The whole context shows that this must be the figure of Meiosis.
Rom 10:19.-“I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people.”
Such were we Gentiles. But through grace, “a people” is now being taken out from among all nations (Acts 15:14. Rev 5:9; Rev 7:9), which shall have an existence for ever and ever.
1Co 9:17.-“For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward.” He means gratuitously; but lessens the wording, so as to increase his meaning. See also under Oxymoron.
1Co 15:9.-“I am the least of the apostles.” This is said to magnify the grace of God (1Co 15:10). Whereas, when magnifying his claims, he could say to these same Corinthians, “I suppose I was not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles” (2Co 11:5; 2Co 12:11-12).
Eph 3:8.-“Who am less than the least of all saints.” This marks the apostle’s growth in grace, who a year after could say he was “the chief of sinners” (1Ti 1:15). See also under Oxymoron.
Phm 1:11.-“Which in time past was to thee unprofitable.” This is a Meiosis, for Onesimus was guilty of injury.
Heb 9:12.-“The blood of goats and calves,” (Heb 9:13) “the blood of bulls and of goats.” Here the figure lessens the importance of the sacrifices which were offered under the Law, in order to increase by contrast the great sacrifice to which they all pointed.
Heb 13:17.-“For that is unprofitable for you.” It is really much more than that! It is disastrous and ruinous.
1Jn 3:17.-“But whoso hath this world’s good,” etc.
Here the Greek is
-------- Tapeinosis; or, Demeaning (A lessening of a thing in order to increase it)
Ta-pei-nō´-sis. Greek
Whereas, in Tapeinosis the thing that is lessened is the same thing which is increased and intensified. The figure was also called ANTENANTIOSIS. Ant´-en-an-ti-o´-sis from
2. Negatively.
1. Positively ONE (
We learn from Gen 29:20 that the love which he bore to Rachel is emphasized by speaking of the seven years in which he served for her as “a few days.”
SOME (
Rom 3:3.-“For what if some did not believe?” Our attention is by this at once pointed to the fact that it was in reality the very opposite. It was only “some” who believed, while the nation as a whole did not believe.
1Ti 4:1.-“Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits (
Acts 5:36.-“Theudas, boasting himself to be somebody” (
Gal 2:6.-“But of these who seemed to be somewhat (
SICK, for those who were dead in sins:
Rom 5:6.-“For when we were yet without strength” (
REBUKE, for the great punishment of excommunication.
2Co 2:6.-“Sufficient to such a man is this punishment” (
2. Negatively When the emphasis is made by the use of the negative in order to express the positive in a very high degree, this is the figure of Antenantiosis (see above). When we say of a man that “he is no fool,” we mean that he is very wise; or when we say of a thing, “it is not a hundred miles from here,” we mean that it is quite close at hand. We thus emphasize that which we seem to lessen: e.g., when it is written, “I praise you not,” it means I greatly blame you!
Exo 20:7.-“The Lord will not hold him guiltless:” i.e., He will hold him guilty of breaking the whole law.
Lev 10:1.-They “offered strange fire before the Lord, which he had commanded them not.” Here, the figure is translated. The Heb. is literally, “which the Lord had not commanded them,” i.e., He had very solemnly prohibited it; see Exo 30:9.
Num 21:23.-“And Sihon would not suffer Israel to pass through his border.” Heb.: “would not give permission,” i.e., he did more, he prohibited them, as the verse goes on to explain, and opposed them even to the extent of using force.
Psa 43:1.-“Plead my cause against an ungodly (margin, Heb., ‘unmerciful’) nation.” Heb.
Psa 51:17.-“A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise:” i.e., Thou wilt graciously accept and welcome and bless.
Psa 78:50.-“He spared not their soul from death,” i.e., He gave their life over to the pestilence.
Psa 83:1 (Psa 83:2).-“Keep not thou silence, O God: hold not thy peace, and be not still, O God:” i.e., Arise, O God; and speak; vindicate and deliver me from mine enemies.
Psa 84:11.-“No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly:” i.e., he will give them every good thing, and preserve them from all evil.
Psa 107:38.-“And suffereth not their cattle to decrease:” i.e., will abundantly multiply their cattle.
Pro 12:3.-“A man shall not be established by wickedness:” i.e., he shall be overthrown.
Pro 17:21.-“The father of a fool hath no joy:” i.e., he hath plenty of sorrow.
Pro 18:5.-“It is not good to accept the person of the wicked,” i.e., it is a very hateful thing in God’s sight to do so.
Pro 30:25.-“The ants are a people not strong,” i.e., very weak.
Isa 14:6.-“And none hindereth,” i.e., all help.
Isa 42:3.-“A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench:” i.e., He will strengthen the bruised reed and kindle to a flame the smouldering wick.
Jer 2:8.-“The prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things that do not profit:” i.e., that led to their ruin. So Jer 2:11.
Zec 8:17.-“Love no false oath,” i.e., hate every such oath.
Mat 2:6.-And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda:” i.e., thou art the greatest!
Mat 12:32.-“It shall not be forgiven him:” i.e., he shall have the gravest punishment in this life and in the life to come (Mark 3:29). Just as those, on the other hand, whose sins are forgiven are “blessed” (Rom 4:7).
John 6:37.-“Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out.”
Here, there is very much more implied than is expressed in the literal words. Not only will I not cast him out, but I will by all means receive him and preserve him, and defend him: he shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck him out of My hand. Compare John 10:28, and see further under Ellipsis (page 106) and Repeated Negation and Synonymia below.
John 14:18.-“I will not leave you comfortless,” i.e., I will certainly come to you by My Holy Spirit and be your ever present help and defence. Moreover, I will come again and receive you to Mine own self.
Acts 20:12.-“And they brought the young man alive, and were not a little comforted:” i.e., they were very greatly comforted.
Acts 21:39.-“A citizen of no mean city:” i.e., a very important city.
Tarsus was celebrated as a distinguished seat of Greek Philosophy and Literature. According to Strabo it ranked with Athens and Alexandria in the number of its schools and learned men.
Acts 22:18.-“Make haste, and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem: for they will not receive thy testimony concerning me:” i.e., they will not only reject it, oppose it to the uttermost, but will seek to kill thee.
Acts 26:19.-“I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision”: i.e., I was immediately and altogether obedient. He thus makes his own obedience more emphatic; while by stating it negatively he denies what his enemies implied. They implied that he ought to have been disobedient; but he meets this by asserting that he was “not disobedient,” i.e., most obedient.
Rom 1:13.-“I would not have you ignorant, brethren.” This means very much more than a mere negative wish. It is a strong positive and earnest desire that they might assuredly know and be well instructed.
Ignorance is man’s special human infirmity. Animals know more than man (Isa 1:3). No animal is so helpless as man in the years of infancy.
It is remarkable, therefore, that in connection with the Church of God, and the epistles addressed to churches as such, containing the special instruction neccssary in consequence of man’s ignorance concerning the church as the mystery of God, there are six different occasions on which it is written: “I would not have you ignorant, brethren.”
“SIX” is the number specially significant of man. Man was created on the sixth day; and, wherever in Scripture we have this number or any multiple of it, it always stamps the subject as having to do with Man.* [Note: Many illustrations of this will be found in Number in Scripture, by the same author and publisher.] The significance of these six occurrences of this weighty expression will be seen by those who have patience to work them out in the order in which they are given to us by the Holy Spirit.
Rom 1:13. Of Paul’s purpose to prosecute his great mission and ministry to the saints in Rome. So Rom 15:23.
Rom 11:25. That blindness in part is happened to Israel.
1Co 10:1-11. That the camp in the wilderness was the type of the baptized assembly under the preaching of the kingdom.
1Co 12:1. Concerning spiritual things connected with the Church as the Body of Christ by the baptism with the Holy Spirit.
2Co 1:8. Of the trouble at Ephesus, at the close of his ministry there (Acts 19:1-41), when his preaching the kingdom ends and the revelation of the Mystery begins.
1Th 4:13. Concerning those that are asleep. Their resurrection and translation with the saints that are alive at the coming of the Lord, to be for ever with Him, when the Mystery is completed.
Rom 1:16.-“I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ:” i.e., I count it my highest honour and glory to proclaim it, and to suffer for it, while I have full confidence in its power to accomplish all God’s purposes of grace.
Rom 4:19.-“And being not weak in faith”: i.e., Abraham being very strong in faith.
Rom 5:5.-“Hope maketh not ashamed”: i.e., it enables us to “rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Rom 5:2), and to “joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” This hope, therefore, is no false hope, but will prove a great and eternal reality.
Rom 10:2.-“They have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.” By lessening the terms of the expression, the truth is more strongly stated; and the emphasis is thrown on their blindness and ignorance, which is enlarged upon in the next verse, while zeal and ignorance are combined in verse 19. Hence the expression, “not according to knowledge,” by the figure of Tapeinosis means really with great blindness.
Rom 13:10.-“Love worketh no ill to his neighbour”: i.e., it refuses to work ill, and not only so, but it works good for his neighbour.
1Co 2:14.-“The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God”: i.e., he does more than this, he rejects them, he will not have them: why? “For they are foolishness unto him.” This on the one hand constitutes the guilt of man in the invariable result of the exercise of his “free-will”: while on the other hand it is equally true as to God’s sovereignty; “neither can he know them (lit., get to know them), because they are spiritually discerned.”
1Co 11:22.-“I praise you not”: i.e., I condemn you in this thing.
2Co 2:11.-“We are not ignorant of his devices,” i.e., we are very well aware of them.
Gal 5:21.-“They which do such things, shall not inherit the kingdom of God”: i.e., they shall not only not inherit the kingdom, but shall be cast out into outer darkness and destroyed without remedy.
Heb 11:16.-“Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God”: i.e., God is well-pleased to be their God, and to own them as His chosen people.
Heb 13:2.-“Be not forgetful to entertain strangers”: i.e., make it your business to remember to show hospitality.
Rev 12:11.-“They loved not their lives unto the death.” The fact implied is that they disregarded their life to the point of death, and that because there was One whom they loved more than life and for whose sake they willingly gave it up.
Rev 18:7.-“I am no widow”: i.e., I am well-husbanded and prosperous.
-------- Catabasis (See Anabasis)
-------- Syllogismus; or, Omission of the Conclusion
Syl´-lo-gis´-mus. Greek,
It falls into this division because it is a figure of Rhetoric, in which something is omitted for the sake of emphasis. It is not the omission of words, as such, as in Ellipsis; or of sense, as in Meiosis or Tapeinosis; but it is a figure in which the premisses are stated, but the conclusion is omitted, and left to the imagination to enhance and heighten the effect; as when we say, “it can be better imagined than described.” Indeed, so great is the emphasis which is thus acquired that the Latins gave it other names.
They called it SIGNIFICATIO, because something is signified which is not expressed:
RATIOCINATIO, or Reasoning, because only the Reasons (and not the conclusion) are stated; or, special importance is given to the reasons, even though the conclusion may be given (See Rom 3:1-31) And it is called EMPHASIS, because of the emphasis thus given to the argument which is omitted.
1Sa 17:4-7.-The description of Goliath’s armour and weapons is given; and it is left for us to conclude how great his strength must have been.
Isa 2:3-4.-“Out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks.”
Here the facts, or premisses, are stated, but it is left for us to draw the conclusion as to the marvellous results of this wonder-working word, which going out of Zion shall bring them about. That “Word of the Lord” by which the heavens and earth were created shall presently be spoken and bring peace and prosperity to the nations.
Isa 4:1.-“And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach.” This is the continuation and conclusion of Isa 3:1-26: in which, from Isa 3:18, the punishment of the pride of the “daughters of Zion” is set forth: but it is left for us to draw the solemn conclusion, How great must be the desolation:-the gates, where the husbands of the daughters of Zion used to assemble, now mourn and are deserted; (Isa 3:26. Jer 14:2. Lam 1:4)-and the women whom many men did woo now come and offer themselves to one man, renouncing the legal claim of the wife (Exo 21:10).
Isa 49:20.-Here the greatness of Zion’s blessing and prosperity is shown by the statement of the facts in Isa 49:18-21. It is left for us to draw this conclusion which is left unstated.
Mat 10:30.-“But the very hairs of your head are all numbered,” i.e., therefore how infinite must be the knowledge of our “Father”! how should I not therefore fear Him!
Mat 24:20.-“But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day.” The conclusion is implied:-for then would your troubles and distress be increased and intensified beyond the power of tongue to tell.
Luk 7:44.-“Thou gavest me no water for my feet: but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head.” What is implied is-How much greater therefore is her love than yours! So verses 45 and 46.
1Co 11:6.-“If the woman be not covered, let her be shorn also.” But she is not shorn, therefore the conclusion is, let her be covered.
2Th 3:10.-“If any would not work, neither should he eat.”
Here the conclusion is to be supplied: Every man must eat; therefore every man must work: for it is not meant that a man’s food is to be withdrawn from him.
-------- Enthymema; or, Omission of Premiss En´-thy-mee-ma. Greek
Both are alike, therefore, in being an abbreviated Syllogism.
It is also related to Hypocatastasis (q.v. [Note: Which see.] ), in that it is an implication. But in Hypocatastasis it is an ordinary statement or word which is to be implied; while, in Enthymema it is the premiss of an argument which is left to be supplied. The Latins call it COMMENTUM, a thought or a contrivance, and CONCEPTIO, the wording or drawing up of a statement.
It may be illustrated thus:-“We are dependent; we should, therefore, be humble.” Here the major premiss is omitted-“dependent persons should be humble.” A Biblical example occurs in
Rom 7:1-6.-Here the fact is asserted that law has dominion over a man only while he is alive (Rom 7:1), and this fact is applied to those who died (i.e., were judicially reckoned as having died) when Christ died. So that all the members of the body of Christ died, and therefore the law has no logger dominion over them (Rom 7:5-6). In proof of this, an illustrative argument is used, as to the case of a husband and wife. Both are bound to each other by law: and, while both are alive the union of one of them with another person is unlawful; but, if one be dead, then such a union on the part of the survivor is legitimate. But only one of the cases is given: viz., the death of the husband. The death of the wife is there, but only in thought; and this other premiss has to be supplied by the mind in the course of the argument. So that after Rom 7:3 we must add the other premiss in some such words as these:-
“And if the wife die, I need not say that she is free”; or, “but it goes without saying that if the wife die, of course she is free.”
Wherefore (as the conclusion is given in Rom 7:6) we died in Christ, and are therefore free from that law wherein we were held; for “he that has once so died stands justified (the penalty having been paid) from his sin.
Now if we died with Christ we have been raised also with Him (Rom 6:8. Col 2:12). Thus we were planted together with Him in “His death, and raised with Him (Rom 6:4) to newness of life. And be it noted that this is no mere marriage union. To prevent this conclusion the verb to marry is not used in Rom 7:3-4. There, instead of the usual verb marry, which we should expect to find, we have the verb to become, with the dative case; and must in each instance supply the Ellipsis. In the case of the woman, she “becomes” joined, “becomes” bound under the law to a husband; but, in the case of those who died with Christ, they “become” united to Him as members of His body and “become” His property. Their union with Him is not in Incarnation, but in death, burial, and resurrection; and having died with Him are freed from the Law, instead of being bound to it.
Mat 27:19.-“Have thou nothing to do with that just man.”
Here the fire, and feeling, and urgency of Pilate’s wife is all the more forcible, in that she does not stop to formulate a tame, cold argument, but she omits the major premiss; which is greatly emphasized by being left for Pilate to supply. The complete Syllogism would have been:
1. It is very wicked to punish a just or innocent man.
2. Jesus is a just man.
3. Have therefore nothing to do with punishing him. The conclusion thus contains the proof of each of the premisses on which it rests.
Thus is emphasized one of the four testimonies borne to the innocence of the Lord Jesus by Gentiles at the time of His condemnation.
1. Pilate’s wife (Mat 27:19).
2. Pilate himself, “I am innocent of the blood of this just person” (Mat 27:24).
3. The dying malefactor, “This man hath done nothing amiss” (Luk 23:41).
4. The Centurion, “Certainly this was a righteous man” (Luk 23:47).