Nielsen’s Nook

Commentary

[1] σου ὁ θεὸς See note in Metzger’s Textual Commentary. To summarize, there is early and good support for αὐτοῦ instead of σου (P⁴⁶ א B). However, the great external witness to σου and the internal difficulty that αὐτοῦ presents both syntactically and grammatically left Metzger’s committee and most scholars to believe that σου ὁ θεὸς was the more likely original.

[2] διὰ τοῦτο would seem to indicate that on account of Christ’s love for righteousness and hatred of lawlessness he was exalted in the way that is being discussed by the writer of Hebrews. Righteousness the likeness of God and that likeness is described in the Law of God, namely the Decalogue. Lawlessness (ἀνομία) would then be the antithesis, the unlikeness of God. Human beings, created as the image of God to be the likeness of God, walking in fellowship with him, chose a course that was unlike God and consequently destroyed fellowship with him. The Son has been exalted because he has as the image of God (i.e., a human being) loved the likeness/righteousness of God and hated the willful unlikeness of God and in his exaltation his people are restored to fellowship with God (c.f., Colossians 1:15-21).

[3] παρὰ when used with the accusative of person may be employed in a comparative sense (BAGD, 611). Luke 13:2 gives another scriptural example of this use of παρὰ. καὶ ἀποκριθεὶς εἶπεν αὐτοῖς· δοκεῖτε ὅτι οἱ Γαλιλαῖοι οὗτοι ἁμαρτωλοὶ παρὰ πάντας τοὺς Γαλιλαίους ἐγένοντο, ὅτι ταῦτα πεπόνθασιν; And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were sinners more than all Galileans because they have suffered these things?” (author’s translation)

[4] This is a direct quotation from Psalm 44:7-8 LXX.

Translation

1 Therefore, when the centurion saw that the Jews had become inclined to quarrel, [a] he placed Polycarp’s body [b] in the middle of the arena, [c] and burned it according to their custom. [d]

[a] φιλονεικίαν readiness to quarrel, eagerness to dispute, inclined to strife (DBLG 5808). St. Luke writes in 22:24 (NA27), Ἐγένετο δὲ καὶ φιλονεικία ἐν αὐτοῖς, τὸ τίς αὐτῶν δοκεῖ εἶναι μείζων. And also there was an inclination to quarrel among them, as to who among them is considered to be the greatest (author’s translation).

[b] αὐτὸν for clarity we have supplied the apparent antecedent for this pronoun.

[c] Again, the arena seems assumed and is supplied for clarification.

[d] This move by the centurion may be some sort of visible power play, reminding the Jews who did not burn their dead, where the authority lay.

Translation

3 Then, unanimously, they decided [1] to cry out loudly to burn Polycarp alive. (For it was necessary that the vision [2] be fulfilled which was revealed to Polycarp upon the pillow, when he saw it burning while praying).

When Polycarp had turned to the faithful with him, he said to them prophetically, [3] “It is necessary for me to be burned alive.”

[1] This impersonal passive dative use of ἔδοξεν (δοκέω) is relatively common in the literature. While the passive dative construction is often discouraged in English usage it is common place in other modern languages such as Russian (e.g., кажется мне что …). BAGD gives glosses for δοκέω followed by an infinitive as it seems best to me and I decided (p 202). The scripture writer Luke uses this δοκέω (aor. form) + dative construction in both the Gospel bearing his name and Acts 15:22, 25, 28. In Luke 1:3 we read (NA27) ἔδοξε κἀμοὶ … σοι γράψαι, κράτιστε Θεόφιλε… It seemed best to me … to write to you, most excellent Theophilus (author’s translation).

[2] See §5.2 for the vision of the pillow.

[3] προφητικῶς St. Polycarp is looking back upon the vision and realizing its significance to what is transpiring in his present station. So the idea of prophetically speaking does not seem to connote a foretelling of anything. However, it does seem to, perhaps, underscore the resolve and boldness of his proclamation to those Christians who were present with him.

Translation

1 And he said many other things also, was being filled up [a] with courage and joy, even his face was filled full of graciousness. For this reason, not only did he not collapse from being terrified [b] by the things said to him; but on the contrary, [c] the proconsul was astounded out of his mind [d] and sent his own herald into the midst of the stadium to proclaim three times, “Polycarp confessed himself to be a Christian!”

[a] ἐνεπίμπλατο (ἐμπί(μ)πλημι) Where the proconsul has threatened St. Polycarp with consumption by fleeting fire (§11.2), St. Polycarp is antithetically filled up with courage and joy. Ezekiel 35:8 LXX reads καὶ ἐμπλήσω τῶν τραυματιῶν σου τοὺς βουνοὺς καὶ τὰς φάραγγάς σου… And your wounded will cover your hills and ravines… (author’s translation). The picture here is that everywhere one would look in the land one would see wounded people covering the land. Luke 1:53 employs the derivative aorist ἐνέπλησεν in the Magnificat: πεινῶντας ἐνέπλησεν ἀγαθῶν / καὶ πλουτοῦντας ἐξαπέστειλεν κενούς (NA27). The hungry are filled up with good things / and the rich have been sent away empty (author’s translation).

[b] ταραχθέντα see note on §5.1.

[c] τοὐναντίον is apparently a conflation of the definite article τό and the word ἐναντίον (see BAGD, 262) and is used to show a logically alternate thought (e.g., on the other hand, on the contrary).

[d] ἐκστῆναι today we might say colloquially that the proconsul “lost it,” referring to a loss of emotional control.

Translation

3 After they granted him permission, [1] he stood up and prayed being full of the grace of God in this manner: [2] for two hours he was unable to keep silent [3] that even those who heard him were fearfully amazed, [4] and so [5] many repented because [6] they had come upon such a revered [7] elder.

[1] ἐπιτρεψάντων (ἐπιτρέπω) BAGD cites as to give permission, to allow. It is used in John 19:38 when Pilate gives permission to Joseph of Arimathea to take the body of Jesus: … ἵνα ἄρῃ τὸ σῶμα τοῦ Ἰησοῦ· καὶ ἐπέτρεψεν ὁ Πιλᾶτος.

[2] We are taking οὕτως more as a means of directing the reader to how or in what ways St. Polycarp was full of the grace of God rather than merely giving some sort of comparative that he was so full of the grace of God. (c.f., DBL 4048).

[3] σιγῆσαι (c.f., ) is the same word with significant parallel used in Luke 19:40 where Pharisees were pleading with Jesus to stop his disciples from exalting him on Palm Sunday: καὶ ἀποκριθεὶς εἶπεν· λέγω ὑμῖν, ἐὰν οὗτοι σιωπήσουσιν, οἱ λίθοι κράξουσιν (NA27) - And answering he said, “I say to you, if these [disciples] will be silent the stones will cry out.” (author’s translation)

[4] ἐκπλήττεσθαι (ἐκπλήσσω) as a passive we render it as to “be amazed, overwhelmed with fright” (BAGD, 244). After the disciples heard the parable of the Rich Young Ruler (Matthew 19:16-30) they are recorded as being ἐξεπλήσσοντο σφόδρα (extremely fearful), such that they respond, τίς ἄρα δύναται σωθῆναι; (Who then is able to be saved?) in Matthew 19:25.

[5] τε indicates the close relationship between St. Polycarp’s actions and the repentance that followed in light of those actions. This is reinforced with the accusative-infinitive clause πολλούς … μετανοεῖν.

[6] We take the ἐπὶ + dative + infinitive construction (ἐπὶ τῷ ἐληλυθέναι) as causal. (c.f., Dan Wallace’s Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics on the “Dative Articular Infinitive”, p 610). There does not seem to be this sort of construction in the NT, though I may be mistaken. Any insights?

[7] θεοπρεπής, fit for God, revered, venerable, godly (BAGD, 356). Does not seem to appear in the NT.

Translation

1 But the most remarkable is Polycarp, who initially - [a] after hearing about it - was not terrified, [b] but was wanting [c] to stay in various places in [d] the city; however, the majority tried to convince him to leave secretly. So he left secretly for a little country house [e] not far from the city and he stayed there with a few companions. Night and day they were doing nothing other than [f] praying for everyone and for the ecclesiastical world [g] that was familiar to him.

[a] Here μὲν indicates an anacoluthic pattern of thought that incorporates a comparison between Polycarp and those who have been discussed before him in the letter, namely Quintus (c.f., BAGD, p 503, entry 2c).

[b] ἐταράχθη (ταράσσω) in its passive form speaks figuratively of being shaken, terrified or troubled. Luke 24:38 provides a NT example: καὶ εἶπεν αὐτοῖς· τί τεταραγμένοι ἐστὲ καὶ διὰ τί διαλογισμοὶ ἀναβαίνουσιν ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ ὑμῶν; And he said to them, “Why have you been troubled and because of what do doubts rise in your hearts?” (author’s translation). However, a more likely example of the sort of contextual use we have here would be found in Matt 14:26, οἱ δὲ μαθηταὶ ἰδόντες αὐτὸν ἐπὶ τῆς θαλάσσης περιπατοῦντα ἐταράχθησαν … , And when the disciples beheld him walking upon the sea, they were terrified… (author’s translation).

[c] ἐβούλετο is an imperfect which describes an ongoing or iterative desire in contrast to a one time or generic desire of the aorist.

[d] The use of κατὰ with the accusative here would seem to denote the idea of staying throughout the city in various places in order to avoid being caught by the authorities and fed to the wild animals. Thus, in stark contrast to Quintus who went looking for persecution, Polycarp took great pains to avoid being captured.

[e] ἀγρίδιον, the diminutive of ἀγρός, here meaning a little farm house or country hamlet (BAGD, LSJ).

[f] The particle ἢ here denotes comparison in a way similar to Acts 17:21, Ἀθηναῖοι δὲ πάντες καὶ οἱ ἐπιδημοῦντες ξένοι εἰς οὐδὲν ἕτερον ἠυκαίρουν ἢ λέγειν τι ἢ ἀκούειν τι καινότερον. Now all the Athenians and the foreign visitors were spending their time on nothing other than speaking and listening to something new (author’s translation).

[g] οἰκουμένη was a term used by the Romans to denote their realm. More commonly the term refers to the inhabited earth. Thus, οἰκουμένην ἐκκλησιῶν here is analogous to “Christendom,” underscoring Polycarp’s ecumenism under pressure.

Translation

2 Therefore, after this the whole crowd, astonished [1] at the nobility of the God-loved and God-fearing Christian people, cried out, “Sweep [2] the atheists [3] away! Let Polycarp be sought out!”

[1] θαυμάσαν (θαυμάζω) is a common verb, often found in the Gospels in the context of the crowd’s amazement with Jesus’ words or deeds. As in the case of the Gospels, the crowd’s cries of amazement on Palm Sunday turned to astonished shouts on Good Friday, “Crucify him!” The wonder of “nobility” is that it simultaneously inspires and provokes the contradicted elements in fallen humanity.

[2] The imperative force of αἴρω here connotes the desire for the forceful removing of Germanikos and all Christians, who had forcefully dragged (different word) the wild animal onto himself. In Lk 11:22 we find τὴν πανοπλίαν αὐτοῦ αἴρει ([The stronger] forcibly removes [the weaker's] armor). Matt 24:39 uses this word in describing how the Flood came and swept away the unsuspecting. Crowds have great behavioral parallel with floods, hence my choice to use “sweep away” here.

[3] Strangely enough, Christians were regarded as atheists during the time of Polycarp because they refused to worship the many gods of the Roman pantheon, namely the emperor Caesar; the consequence of which was to be thrown to wild animals and torn to pieces for the amusement of the Roman populous.

Parts: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

Translation

the forgiveness [1] of sins

[1] When used with ἁμαρτία, ἄφεσις speaks of the forgiveness or “cancellation of the guilt” of sins (BAGD). 1 Esdr 4:62 employs the word to denote “release from captivity” in the context of Israel being allowed to return from exile to rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple. The LXX of Isaiah, regarding the Day of the Lord, is compelled “κηρύξαι αἰχμαλώτοις ἄφεσιν καὶ τυφλοῖς ἀνάβλεψιν” (Isa 61:1 LXX) to proclaim the release of the captives and restoring sight to the blind. Here ἄφεσιν is used to translate the Hebrew דְּרוֹר (dərôr), which has the idea of liberty or free flowing as in Ex 30:23 where it is used to describe myrrh (BDB). So when ἄφεσιν arrives in the NT there is a tremendous history and colorful circumference to its semantic field (cf. this list from BAGD: Mt 26:28; Mk 1:4; Lk 1:77; Lk 3:3; Lk 24:47; Acts 2:38; Acts 5:31). Thus, the nature of the forgiveness Christians confess is one that is liberating and free-flowing, one that deals with the forensic (cancellation of the guilt) and the existential (liberation from sin’s dark grip).

Parts: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

Translation

And in Jesus Christ, his son, the only begotten one, [1] our Lord, who was conceived [2] of the Holy Spirit, born [3] of the Virgin Mary, suffered [4] under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, was put to death, [5] and was buried, [6] after he descended into the lower regions of the earth… [7]

[1] ὸν μονογενῆ comes as the second in a double apposition, which in rendering our translation in this more wooden fashion we attempt to show. The word has to do with the singularly unique place that Jesus occupies as the God-Man.

[2] συλληφθέντα a mysterious word. None of the literature I have access to discusses this.

[3] γεννηθέντα a word rendered born and speaking of Jesus’ incarnate existence into time and space and purposefully different than μονογενῆ which is used to speak of the Son’s eternal relationship to the Father. γεννηθέντα is used in the LXX and NT to speak of biological birth: Job 14:1; Matthew 11:11; Luke 7:28. 1 Clement 30:5 employing an adjectival form of the word reads εὐλογημένος γεννητὸς γυναικὸς ὀλιγόβιος, blessed is woman’s short-lived offspring.

[4] παθόντα (πάσχω) baldly refers to ones experience or treatment; however, even in classical literature it is not often used to refer to positive experiences. The LXX always uses the word to refer to the enduring of suffering and/or death. (BAGD, πάσχω)

[5] θανόντα (θανατόω) especially the death sentence and its execution. There is also a figurative dimension which entails spiritual or eternal death (BAGD).

[6] ταφέντα (ταφή) 1 Clement 16:10 καὶ δώσω τοὐς πονηροὐς ἀντἱ τῆς ταφῆς αὐτοῦ καὶ τοὺς πλουσίους ἀντὶ τοῦ θανάτου αὐτοῦ· And I will give the wicked for his burial and the rich for his death.

[7] Compare the Latin descendit ad inferna with κατελθόντα εἰς τὰ κατώτατα. The Greek seems to be a clear reference to Ephesians 4:9-10. In both the Ephesians passage and the Greek of the Creed, the lower regions (τὰ κατώτατα) is a realm that is not given the identification of Hell as Christians would think of it today or perhaps thought of it by the time the Latin text was received, rendering τὰ κατώτατα as inferna. The underworld in Greek thought was not necessarily the place of eternal punishment after death but simply the place the dead went indiscriminately. Philip Schaff comments, “This clause was unknown in the older creeds, though believed in the Church, and was transferred into the Roman symbol after the fifth century, probably from that of Aquilcia, A.D. 390, where it first appears among Latin creeds…” (Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, p 45, fn 43). I commend the entire note to your reading.

³²And they went to a place called Gethsemane. And he said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” ³³And he took with him Peter and James and John, and began to be greatly distressed and troubled. ³⁴And he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death. Remain here and watch.” ³⁵And going a little farther, he fell on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. ³⁶And he said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” ³⁷And he came and found them sleeping, and he said to Peter, “Simon, are you asleep? Could you not watch one hour? ³⁸Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” ³⁹And again he went away and prayed, saying the same words. ⁴⁰And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy, and they did not know what to answer him. ⁴¹And he came the third time and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? It is enough; the hour has come. The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. ⁴²Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand.” (Mark 14:32-42)

I was talking with my friend Pastor Jeff Hatton of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Waco, Texas this evening at a Southwest Church Planting Network dinner. In an amazing pastoral moment, Jeff listened to far more of my story than I probably should have encumbered him with. I was telling him about how the Lord had burdened me to preach to myself in the midst of a year long fiery trial. In addition, I shared with Jeff that one of the initial passages that the Lord used to teach me about preaching first to myself was Mark 14:32-42, where our Lord suffers the agony of anticipation on the precipice of his execution. Our conversation was cut short as the events of the evening progressed and I did not have the opportunity to clarify what I had in mind by saying that I believed that Jesus seems to “redeem even suffering", which is what I am attempting to do here.

Most of us would very much like to know the future or at least certain parts of it if, we’re the types who enjoy a little suspense. We want to know about the hurricanes and tsunamis that would come and wash us out, hoping that we might avoid them. What we find in the Garden of Gethsemane (Mark 14:32-42) is the one who designed the future, the one upon whom the future is predicated, embracing the uncertainty, the angst of suffering. We ourselves would never do such things – or at least most of us wouldn’t. We have come across people with terminal diseases that talk about gracious contentment in their dire state. Those kind of people used to make me very uncomfortable. I always wondered if it was merely an opiate that they had swallowed to help them cope with the unbearable.

What we find in the Garden of Gethsemane is immeasurably far from being an opiate. Just after the institution of the Lord’s Supper in the Upper Room, (i.e., Jesus’ celebration of Passover with his disciples), Jesus predicts Peter’s threefold denial of him. “Even though they fall away, I will not.” Peter echoed with an emphatic hollowness. Jesus then invites three of the disciples, the so-called ‘inner circle’, to join him in the Garden of Gethsemane. Where the first man, Adam, began in a garden and brought suffering upon the race through disobedience, Jesus the fulfillment of humanness would turn suffering inside out through his obedience as he moved from suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane to the Cross, then from the grave to resurrection glory.

Glory has never come through any other road than the the one that runs through Cross. Earlier James and John had sought glory apart from suffering: “Grant us to sit one at your left hand and one on your right hand in glory” (Mark 10:37). Jesus asks them if they can bear the cup of suffering that he would bear. “We are able,” they naively answered. “The failure to understand what it means to share in Jesus’ destiny and to be identified with his sufferings, rather than privileged status, appears to be the occasion for the isolation of the three from the others.” (Lane, 515) So we find that the three who had thought themselves able to circumvent the Cross – Peter, James and John – now found themselves invited to an object lesson on suffering. Jesus anticipated not only the nine-inch nails measured to inflict acute pain, but also the immeasurable wrath of God that would be poured out upon him for the sins of His people.

Two invitations are given in this passage. There is one to join Jesus in his suffering, to “sit here while I pray” and “remain here and watch” (Mark 14:32,34). The other is the one the disciples chose. It is the invitation to merely cope with a situation out of their ability to control. Three times Jesus asks them to join him by watching and praying for an hour (v 37,38). Three times we find that this ‘inner circle’ denied him, proving that indeed their spirit was willing but their flesh weak (v 38).

The disciples got through this hour in which Jesus was being overwhelmed. His soul was exceedingly sorrowful (v 34). Luke records that even after the Lord had been strengthened by an angel from heaven, "being in an agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground." (Luke 22:44). Only the God-Man could be anxious to the point of sweating drops of blood for only the God-Man could understand what it meant to bear the infinite wrath of God for the sins of his people.

In Jesus we find one who demonstrates an ability to cry out to his God in the midst of great pain and anxiety. In the disciples we find those who merely cope. Coping is that invitation to skate around the outside of pain, to numb oneself and look for deliverance in something other than Christ. The disciples slept. Some of us will turn to the bottle, or television, or entertainment or over scheduling ourselves. These help us get by, so we think. All the while, in circumventing suffering, we fail to see that it is in Christ that suffering itself is redeemed. We fail to see that Christ is not waiting for us on the other side of our suffering in some kind of ethereal platonic heaven. No. He meets us in the midst of suffering in this world, even now.

It is the Cross that makes sense of suffering, giving us hope that suffering is not at the last analysis arbitrary. It often does not make sense and drives us to our wits end. What we find is that Christ is there too, redeeming the madness of suffering, bidding us to walk with him on the road to glory that at every point runs through the Cross.

Suffering will come. There is no avoiding it in this fallen world, for suffering is the reflux of sin’s corruption. For some it comes like the dripping of a leaky faucet, slowly eroding our strength and minds. For others it comes suddenly, unexpectedly, all at once, tragic. The Gospel of Jesus Christ does not lessen the pain or the grief, but it recasts it. And in recasting it, we find that suffering and its cousin death do no longer have the last word. “For if we have been united with [Christ] in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” (Romans 6:5, ESV)

We go where our Lord has gone. We walk the trail that our Lord has blazed to glory. This is not some kind of positivistic mantra of which Christians attempt to iteratively convince themselves. It is the fact of this life that suffering has been recast, that while the sharp edges do in fact cut and we do indeed bleed, we are reshaped and reformed into the likeness of Christ. The one who bled the ground red at Calvary for us, did not bleed to leave us to our own devices, coping our way through this life. Rather he, who has trampled down death by his own death, has sent the Comforter, the Spirit of Christ, to walk with us in victorious union.

Whether you are one who suffers much or little, you will suffer. Jesus, our High Priest at the right hand of God the Father Almighty intercedes for us. He does not intercede as a priest who empathizes through a distant imagination of what suffering must be like, but as one who knows what it is to suffer infinitely the wrath of God for our sins. It is this crucified and risen Christ who is himself our Eucharist, our thanksgiving and hope in suffering.