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oiJ leg. aj. t. leg. p. ] The masc. is determined by uJmei'". JH ajkrobustiva is used of the uncircumcised: Gal. 2:7; Rom. 2:26.
ceiropoihvtou ] Elsewhere of the Tabernacle and the Temple: Heb. 9:11; Mark 14:58; Acts 7:48; 17:24; Heb. 9:24.

12. o{ti h\te ...] Remember that once ye...that ye were at that time apart from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world. Kairov" retains its qualitative sense: ‘under those circumstances,’ ‘at that season,’ and not simply ‘at that point of time.’
jEkei'no" has the same force as in John 11:49. For the simple dat. compare Eph. 3:5 eJtevrai" geneai'" .
cwri;" Cristou' kovsmw/ ] These five points summarise the wants of the Gentiles in their personal, social, spiritual relations. They were separate from Christ; they were alienated from the divine society which existed, and ignorant of the provisions for one more comprehensive; they were without hope, and without God in a world unintelligible except through the sense of His Presence.
cwri;" Cristou' ] Apart from, without Christ , not as vs. 13 tou' cristou' . The thought is of the personal relationship now recognised and not of the national hope. Comp. John 15:5.
ajphll....ejpaggeliva" ] alienated from (and not simply ‘outside’) the
commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to
(not only unacquainted with but unqualified to enjoy) the covenants of the promise. These words indicate the two most impressive characteristics of Judaism, its inclusiveness (not exclusiveness) and its larger hope. All who accepted its conditions were admitted to its privileges. It claimed no finality, but pointed to a universal Church. But the Gentiles were alienated from (not alien to) the institutions of the people of GOD. By Creation they were fitted for the Divine fellowship; but, though the fundamental promise to Abraham included blessing for them, they had no place in the Covenants by which the blessing was brought closer to the life of the chosen race.
ajphllotriwmevnoi ] Eph. 4:18 ajphll. th'" zwh'" tou' qeou' ; Col. 1:21 ajphllotriwmevnou" sc. tou' qeou' . Alienated from the commonwealth and so excluded from the citizenship.
politeiva" ] Latt. a conversatione ( societate ). For politeiva see Acts 22:28 (citizenship). Here the word expresses the ‘commonwealth’ of Israel as including the spiritual privileges which were conveyed by its divine ordering.
xevnoi t. d. ] Latt. hospites (al. peregrini ) testamentorum. The word xevno" had a technical sense in the city-states of Greece, and carries on the image of the former clause (comp. Eph. 2:19). It is used in the same construction in classical Greek (Soph. OEd. R. 219).
tw'n diaqhkw'n th'" ejpagg .] The one promise was brought nearer to realisation by successive Covenants. The many promises (Rom. 9:4) were summed up in one: Gal. 3:16 f.; 21f. Comp. Heb. 10:36, 11:9 note, 11:13 notes.
ejlpivda mh; e[c. ] ‘We need,’ it has been truly said, ‘an infinite hope’; and faith in GOD alone can give it. Faith in GOD, if we consider what are the grounds of our confidence, alone justifies our belief in the permanence of natural ‘laws.’ By faith alone we enter on the future and the unseen (Heb. 11:1 note) and so find hope. The phrase occurs again in view of death (1 Thess. 4:13).
ejlp. mh; e[c. kai a[qeoi ejn tw'/ kovsmw/ ] There is a strange pathos in the combination. They were of necessity face to face with all the problems of nature and life, but without Him in Whose wisdom and righteousness and love they could find


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