GRACIOUS

GRASS

task of the Law' (Ro 7'-8*). The legal discipline had taught St. Paul to understand, by contrast, the value and the operation of the principle of grace; he was able to handle it with effect in the legaUst controversy. Grace supplies, in his theology, the one and sufficient means of deliverance from sin, holding objectively the place which faith holds subjectively in man's salvation (Eph 2', Tit 2"). Formally, and in point of method, grace stands opposed to 'the law,' 'which worketh wrath' (Ro 3i=-i» 4", Gal 2"-^ 6*); it supersedes the futile 'works' by which the Jew had hoped, in fulfilling the Law, to merit salvation (Ro 4?-^ 11", Gal 2'«-2», Eph 28'). Grace excludes, therefore, all notion of ' debt ' as owing from God to men, all thought of earning the Messianic blessings (Ro 4<) by establishing 'a righteousness of one's own' (Ro 10'); through it men are 'justified gratis' (Ro 32<) and 'receive the giit of righteousness'(5")-In twenty-two instances St. Paul writes of ' the grace of God' (or 'his grace'); in fifteen, of 'the grace of Christ' ('the Lord Jesus Christ,' etc.). Ten of the latter examples belong to salutation-formulae (so in Rev 22^'). the fullest of these being 2 Co 13", where 'the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ' is referred to 'the love of God' as its fountain-head; in the remaining five detached instances the context dictates the com-bination 'grace of Christ' ('our Lord,' etc.),— Ro 5", 2 Co 8» 12», Gal 1«, 1 Ti 1" (also in 2 P 3"). In other NT writings the complement is predominantly 'of God'; 1 P 5'° inverts the expression^' the God of all grace.' Once— in 2 Th l'^ — grace is referred conjointly to God and Christ. Christ is the expression and vehicle of the grace of the Father, and is completely identified with it (see Jn 1" "), so that Ood's grace can equally be called Christ's; but its reference to the latter Is strictly personal in such a passage as 2 Co 8'. A real distinction is impUed in the remarkable language of Ro 5", where, after positing 'the grace of God' as the fundamental ground of redemption, St. Paul adds to this 'the gift in grace, viz. the grace of ihe one man Jesus Christ,' who is the counterpart of the sinful and baleful Adam: the generous boimty of the Man towards men, shown by Jesus Christ, served an essential part in human redemption.

Cognate to charts, and charged in various ways with its meaning, is the vb. rendered (RV) to grant in Ac 27", Gal 3", Ph 1", Philem «, give in Ph 2', freely give in Ro 8'^, 1 Co 2'^, and (with 'wrong' or 'debt' for object, expressed or impUed) forgive in Lk 7"'-, 2 Co 2'- "I 12", Eph 4»2, Col 2^' 3".

There are two occasional secondary uses of 'grace,* derived from the above, in the Pauline Epp.: it may denote (a) a gracious endowment or bestowment, God's grace to men taking shape in some concrete ministry (so Eph 4', in view of the following context, and perhaps Gal 2'; cf. Ac 7'») — for charts in this sense charisma (charism) is St. Paul's regular term, as in 1 Co 12"' etc.; and (6) a state of grace, God's grace reahzed by the recipient (Ro 5", 2 Ti 2i). G. G. Findlay.

GRACIOUS . — ^This Eng. adj. is now used only in an active sense ="' bestowing grace,' 'showing favour.' And this is its most frequent use in AV, as Ex 33" ' And [I] will be gracious to whom I will be gracious.' But it was formerly used passively also =' favoured, " accepted,' as 1 Es 8'" 'Yea, when we were in bondage, we were not forsaken of our Lord; but he made us gracious before the kings of Persia, so that they gave us food.' And from this it came to signify 'attractive,' as Pr 11" 'a gracious woman retaineth honour,' lit. 'a woman of grace,' that is, of attractive appearance and manner; Lk 422 'the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth,' lit., as RV, 'words of grace,' that is, says Plummer, 'winning words'; he adds, 'the very first meaning of charts is comeliness, winsomeness.'

GRAFTING. — In olive-culture grafting is universal. When the sapling is about seven years old it is cut down

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to the stem, and a shoot from a good tree is grafted upon it. Three years later it begins to bear fruit, its prod-uce gradually increasing until about the fourteenth year. No tree under cultivation is allowed to grow ungrafted; the fruit in such case being inferior. Grafting is alluded to only once in Scripture (Ro 11" etc.). St. Paul compares the coming in of the Gentiles to the grafting of a wild olive branch upon a good olive tree: a process 'contrary to nature.' Nowack (.Heb. Arch. i. 238) says that Columella's statement that olive trees are re-juvenated and strengthened in this way (see Comm. on Romans, by Principal Brown and Godet, ad toe), is not confirmed. Sanday-Headlam say (,ICC on 'Romans,' p. 328): 'Grafts must necessarily be branches from a cultivated oUve inserted into a wild stock, the reverse process being one which would be valueless, and is never performed.' 'The ungrafted tree,' they say, 'is the natural or wild olive,' following Tristram, Nat. Hist, of the Bible, 371-377. Prof. Theobald Fischer inclines to view the olive and the wild olive as distinct species; in this agreeing with some modern botanists ( Der Olbaum, 4 f .) , a contrary opinion being held by others (p. 5). Sir William Ramsay, Expositor, vi. ix. [1905], 154 ff., states grounds on which the oleaster (Eleagnus angustifolia) may be regarded as the plant intended. This is the type to which the cultivated olive tends to revert through centuries of neglect, as seen, e.g., in Cyrenaica. (Prof. Fischer does not admit this iDer blbaum, 69].) When grafted with a shoot of the nobler tree it gives rise to the true oUve. But the two are clearly distinguished by size, shape, and colour of leaves and character of fruit.

No one could mistake the oleaster for the olive; but the case is not clear enough to justify Ramsay in calling the oleaster the wild olive (Expositor, ut supra, 152). Dr. W. M. Thomson, whose accuracy Ramsay commends, citing him in favour of his own view (i6. 154), is really a witness on the other side, quite plainly holding that the wild olive is the ungrafted tree (LB in. 33 ff.); and this is the universal view among oUve growers in modern Palestine. The fruit of the wild olive is acrid and harsh, containing little oil.

Prof. Fischer states that in Palestine it is still ' cus-tomary to re-invigorate an olive tree which is ceasing to bear fruit, by grafting it with a shoot of wild olive, so that the sap of the tree ennobles this wild shoot, and the tree now again begins to bear fruit ' (Der Olbaum, 9). He gives no authority. Ramsay accepts the state-ment without question (Expositor, ut supra, 19), and the value of his subsequent discussion rests upon the assump-tion of its truth. The assumption is precarious. The present writer can find no evidence that such an operation is ever performed. In response to inquiries made in the main olive-growing districts of Palestine, he is assured that it is never done; and that, for the purpose in-dicated, it would be perfectly futile.

Sanday-Headlam seem rightly to apprehend the Apostle's meaning. It is not their view that St. Paul proves a spiritual process credible ' because it resembles a process impossible in and contrary to external nature' (Ramsay, i6. 26 f .) . He exhorts the Gentiles to humility, because God in His goodness has done for them in the spiritual sphere a thing which they had no reason to expect, since it, according to Sanday-Headlam, never, according to Ramsay, very seldom, is done in the natural. The language of St. Paul is justified in either case: it might be all the more effective if the former were true. Mr. Baring Gould's inference as to the Apostle's ignorance only illustrates his own blindness (Study of St. Paul, p. 276). See also art. Olive. W. Ewinq.

GRAPES. — See Wine and Strong Drink.

GRASS, — (1) chat^r — equivalent of Arab, khudra, which includes green vegetables; many references, e.g. 1 K 18», 2 K 19»; tr. 'hay' in Pr 272«, Is 16«, and in Nu 11' 'leeks'; refers to herbage in general. (2) deshe' (Aram, dethe), Jer 14=, Pr 27", Job 38", Is 66"