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Dictionary of the Bible

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PAUL THE APOSTLE

son). But whatever the phrase 'in the name of might formerly have meant among the Jews, St. Paul's language seems to show that the Apostles understood our Lord's words, even in Aramaic, to convey the new truth that baptism is an incorporation into the Name of Jesus, or of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost (Bp. Chase). For a full discussion on both sides see JThSt vi. 481, vii. 186, viii. 161.

Again, of this union with Christ St. Paul makes the Eucharist at once a symbol and an instrument. That Sacrament is not only a union of Christians among themselves ('one bread, one body'), but also a 'partic-ipation in' or 'communion of the body and blood of Christ (1 Co 10'"). It is this feature of the Sacrament that made the Corinthian abuses so heinous, and that makes an unworthy reception by the communicant so serious, 'if he discern not the body' (1 Co ll^^-sz).

This union with Christ cannot be effected by man's own unaided power, but requires grace . It is impossible here to describe all the shades of meaning which St. Paul gives to this word. But we may say in brief that it is God's good favour towards us, not only as a Divine attribute, but as actively operating and as freely given to man through the Incarnation (Ro S^', 1 Co 1<). Hence it is the 'grace of Jesus Christ' (2 Co 13"). It is at once God's good favour towards us and the active help or power which God gives to man to enable him to overcome (Eph 4'), and is 'sufficient' for him (2 Co 12'). Emphasis is laid on the fact that grace is not earned, and it is opposed to a 'debt' (Ro 4«) and to meritorious deeds ('works,' Ro 11*). The word is especially used in connexion with the preaching of the gospel to the Gentiles, of the help given both to the evangelizer (1 Co 3'" etc.) and to the evangelized (2 Co &■, Ac 13« etc.). But in St. Paul the use of it is somewhat more fluid than in Latin theo-logical language, in which 'Divine help' became the crystallized sense.

9. The Catholic Church and Universality of the Gospel. The large subject of the Church can here be referred to only very briefly. St. Paul maintains in Rom. and Gal. the universality of the Church, a society for all the world, which need not be entered through Judaism. Christ has broken down the wall between Jew and Gentile (Eph 3«). His Church is a visible society (Eph 4"') ; one (1 Co 10" 12i3) because God is one (Eph if"); holy because all Christians are called to be saints (1 Co I''), and it is ' cleansed by the laver of water with the word ' (Eph 5™), though it contains some wicked men (cf . 1 Co 5) ; catholic, because for every man (Col l^^: there is no ' inner circle ' of the initiated), and for all nations and ages, and containing all truth (Gal 32" etc., 1 Ti 3", 2 Ti 2"; cf. Jn 16": the name itself is not found before Ignatius); and apostolic (Eph 22"). The last thought is the same as that of Jn 20", for Christians are not a self-constituted body, but are ' sent ' by God ; that is, they are ' apostolic' St. Paul describes the Church under various metaphors. It is the body of Christ (1 Co 12^', Eph 4iz 5'», Col I's. m) because its members are united to (3hrist (see 8 above), and Christ is its head (Eph l^^^t); the idea is led up to by Ro 12' ('one body in Christ'), 1 Co 12'2 ('the body is one'). Also the Church is tlie bride of Christ; the title is implied in Eph ^^- (cf. Rev 21^). It is the house of God (1 Ti 3"), a common metaphor which still gives us the double meaning of 'church' and the phrase ' to be edified ' (Ro 15^ etc.) ; the building, founda-tion, and corner-stone are described in Eph 22™-, where 'each several building' of RV means 'each stone that is built into the one building.' The metaphors of ' body' and 'house' are joined in Eph 412. In another figure the Church is an olive tree, being regarded as a con-tinuation of the old dispensation, new branches (the Gentiles) having been grafted in, and the old ones (the Jews) broken off, though they too may again be grafted in'(Ro ll's-M). See Geafting.

In this Church St. Paul describes a regular ministry ;

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Apostles like himself; apostolic delegates such as Timothy and Titus, whose work, like that of the Apostles, was mainly itinerant; settled or local officers, called bishops (overseers) and deacons (ministers) at Philippi (Ph 1') and in the Pastoral Epistles (no deacons are mentioned in Tit.). Presbyters (elders) are also men-tioned in the Pastoral Epistles (cf. also Ac 11" 15™- 16'' 21" for those at Jerusalem, 14^3 20" for those else-where); and the identity of these with 'bishops' in the Apostolic age seems to be shown by a comparison of these pairs of passages: Ac 20i'- '», 1 Ti 3' 6', Tit l'- ', 1 P S'- 2, though this inference is denied by some. The appointment is by laying on of hands (1 Ti S«; cf. Ac 6»). Timothy is said to have been ordained 'with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery' (1 Ti 4"; probably the body of presbyters is intended), and ' through the laying on' of St. Paul's hands (2 Ti 1«). Nothing is said in the Pauline Epistles of the method of choosing ministers (see Ac 6"). In 1 Co 12^8 St. Paul seems to enumerate not so much names of officials as various works done by the ministry (Apostles, prophets, teachers, miracles, gifts of healings, helps, governments, tongues) ; so in Eph 4" (Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers the last two denote the same persons). In any case the regular ministry did not exclude the existence side by side with it of a ' charis-matic' ministry, gifts of prophecy, tongues, healings, and other miracles being exercised by many outside the official ministry (Ro 12™-, 1 Co 12-14; see also art. Tongues [Gift of]).

The power of exercising discipline in the Church is recognized by St. Paul in 1 Co S', 1 Ti 1=", though the exact force of the phrase 'to deliver unto Satan' is un-certain. It may denote either simple excommunication or the miraculous infliction of some punishment; but the former seems to be the more probable explanation.

10. Eschatology . As St. Paul makes the Resurrection of our Lord the foundation of his teaching, so he insists on the resurrection of the body at the Last Day as a cardinal truth. But in the Epistles he does not always deal with the same side of eschatological doctrine, (o) In the earliest of his extant Epistles (1 Th 4™-) his language is so deeply coloured by his expectation of the immediate return of our Lord, that he says nothing of the time between death and the Judgment, but thinks only of Jesus coming with His saints (3"), at the sound of the trump (41=; cf. also 1 Co 15^2, 2 Es S^), to awaken the sleeping dead (cf. 1 Co 15""- ") all common Jewish figures; for the phrase 'we that are left' cf. 2 Es 7™ 1324. 28. Perhaps the supposed nearness of the Second Advent is reflected in Maran atha, ' The Lord cometh ' (1 Co 1622), but the phrase may mean ' The Lord hath come.' Lest misapprehension of his language should arise, St. Paul adds in 2 Th 2™- the caution that the ' man of sin' must first come, and persecution must arise (so 1 Co 72» if we translate 'the imminent distress'). 'The idea of trouble before the End is common in the Jewish apocalypses. The one thing certain is that the Coming will be unexpected (1 Th 52). (6) In these earliest Epistles nothing is said of the transformation of the body. But in 1 Co IS""- this is insisted on (so Ph 321 ; cf. Ro 823). As the Resurrection of Christ is an assured fact, so that of all men is certain (1 Co 15™-); the resurrection body is at once the same and not the same as the terrestrial body; there is an identity, and yet a change. The resurrection body is a spiritual body, the necessary result of the terrestrial body, just as a particular seed must result in a particular plant, and yet the seed is changed to become the plant (cf: our Lord's similar metaphor in Jn 122'). In the Apoca-lypse of Baruch (1st cent, a.d.) there is the thought of the transformation, but as taking place after the Judgment; the dead in this book rise as they were, in order that they may be recognized (cf . also 4 Mac 922 ' as though transformed by fire into immortality, he nobly endured the rackings '). St. Paul says that this transformation is