- For I could wish, etc.He could not have expressed a greater ardour of love than by what he
testifies here; for that is surely perfect love which refuses not to die for the salvation of a friend.
But there is another word added, anathema, which proves that he speaks not only of temporal but
of eternal death; and he explains its meaning when he says, from Christ, for it signifies a separation.
And what is to be separated from Christ, but to be excluded from the hope of salvation? It was then
a proof of the most ardent love, that Paul hesitated not to wish for himself that condemnation which
he saw impending over the Jews, in order that he might deliver them. It is no objection that he knew
that his salvation was based on the election of God, which could by no means fail; for as those
ardent feelings hurry us on impetuously, so they see and regard nothing but the object in view. So
Paul did not connect God’s election with his wish, but the remembrance of that being passed by,
he was wholly intent on the salvation of the Jews.
Many indeed doubt whether this was a lawful desire; but this doubt may be thus removed: the
settled boundary of love is, that it proceeds as far as conscience permits;^285 if then we love in God
and not without God’s authority, our love can never be too much. And such was the love of Paul;
for seeing his own nation endued with so many of God’s benefits, he loved God’s gifts in them,
and them on account of God’s gifts; and he deemed it a great evil that those gifts should perish,
hence it was that his mind being overwhelmed, he burst forth into this extreme wish.^286
(^285) “Ut ad aras usque procedat.” Ainsworth gives a similar phrase and explains its reason, “Usque ad aras amicus — As far as
conscience permits,” Gell., because in swearing they held the horns of the altar. — Ed.
(^286) Most of those who take this view of the passage express the implied condition more distinctly than is done here. They have
regarded the wish in this sense, “I could wish were it right or lawful.” So thought Chrysostom, Photius, Theophlylact, Luther,
Parcus, Beza, Estius, Lightfoot, Witsius, Mode, Whitby, and others. The words of Photius are given by Wolfius, “He says not,
I wish to be separated, but I could wish, that is, were it possible — μ ,” Stuart and Hodge adopt the same
view. “It was a conditional wish,” says Pareus, “like that of Christ in Matthew 26:39. Christ knew and Paul knew that it could
not be granted, and yet both expressed their strong desire.” See Exodus 32:32
Almost all critics agree that the Vulgate is wrong in rendering the verb optabam — “I did wish,” as though the Apostle
referred to the time, as Ambrose supposed, when he was a Pharisee; but this is wholly inconsistent with the tenor of the passage.
Erasmus, Grotius,Beza, and most others regard the verb as having an optative meaning; being understood after it, as the case
is with μ in Acts 25:22, and in Galatians 4:20
There are two other opinions which deserve notice. The first is, that “anathema“ here means excommunication, and that
“from Christ” signifies from his Church, Christ the head being taken for his body the Church, as in 1 Corinthians 12:12, and in
Galatians 3:27, according to the manner of the Hebrews, as Grotius says, who called the wife by the name of the husband, Isaiah.
4:1. This is the view taken by Hammond, Grotius, and some of the Lutheran divines. But the word “anathema“ has not in Scripture
this meaning, though in after-ages it had attained it both in the Church and among the Rabbins. In the New Testament it occurs
only here and in Acts 23:14; 1 Corinthians 12:3; 16:22; and Galatians 1:8, 9; and the verb μ is found in Mark 14:71; Acts
23:12, 14, 21; and with prefixed in Matthew 26:74. The corresponding word in Hebrew, , rendered “anathema“ by the
Septuagint, means two things: what is separated for a holy purpose and wholly devoted to God, incapable of being redeemed,
Leviticus 27:28; and what is set apart and devoted to death or destruction, Joshua 6:17; Ezra 10:8. It never means excommunication,
but cutting off by death. Compare Exodus 22:20, and Deuteronomy 13:1-11. It has hence been applied to designate a man that
is execrable and accursed, deserving death. So the Apostle uses it in 1 Corinthians 16:22, and Galatians 1:8, 9
The other view is more in accordance with the meaning of the term. It is thought that “anathema“ means an ignominious
death, and that of one apparently separated from Christ; or that he wished to be made “an anathema” by Christ, or for the sake
of Christ, or after Christ, that is, his example. The words create all the difficulty in this case. This is the explanation
given by Jerome, Locke, Limborch, Doddridge, and Scott The first meaning, however, as materially given by Calvin, is the most
obvious and natural.
Both Haldane and Chalmers follow the Vulgate, and put the clause in a parenthesis, as expressing the Apostle’s wish when
unconverted; but there is altogether an incongruity in the terms he employs to express this wish; he surely would not have said
that he wished to be separated from Christ as an accursed thing, for that is the meaning of anathema; for while he was a Pharisee
he deemed it a privilege and an honour even to persecute Christ. And we cannot suppose that the Apostle would now describe
his former wish in terms unsuitable to what it really was, but as he now regarded it. — Ed.