rvice.[G] Instead of this, they should be, as
emancipated slaves often have been,[H] models of enterprise, fidelity,
activity, and usefulness--especially as their masters were "worthy of
their confidence and love," their helpers in this well-doing.[I]
[Footnote E: See Lev. xxvi. 13; Isa. lviii. 6, 9.]
[Footnote F: Supra p. 47.]
[Footnote G: See Matt. vi. 24.]
[Footnote H: Those, for instance, set free by that "believing master"
James G. Birney.]
[Footnote I: The following exposition is from the pen of ELIZUR WRIGHT,
JR.:--"This word [Greek: antilambanesthai,] in our humble opinion, has
been so unfairly used by the commentators, that we feel constrained to
take its part. Our excellent translators, in rendering the clause
'partakers of the benefit,' evidently lost sight of the component
preposition, which expresses the _opposition of reciprocity_, rather
than the _connection of participation_. They have given it exactly the
sense of [Greek: metalambanein,] (2 Tim. ii. 6.) Had the apostle
intended such a sense, he would have used the latter verb, or one of the
more common words, [Greek: metochoi, koinonountes], &c. (See Heb. iii.
1, and 1 Tim. v. 22, where the latter word is used in the clause,
'neither be partaker of other men's sins.' Had the verb in our text been
used, it might have been rendered, 'neither be the _part-taker_ of other
men's sins.') The primary sense of [Greek: antilambano] is _to take in
return--to take instead of, &c_. Hence, in the middle with the genitive,
it signifies _assist_, or _do one's part towards_ the person or thing
expressed by that genitive. In this sense only is the word used in the
New Testament.--(See Luke i. 54, and Acts xx. 35.) If this be true, the
word [Greek: euergesai] can not signify the benefit conferred by the
gospel, as our common version would make it, but the _well-doing_ of the
servants, who should continue to serve their believing masters, while
they were no longer under the _yoke_ of compulsion. This word is used
elsewhere in the New Testament but once, (Acts iv. 3.) in relation to
the '_good deed_' done to the impotent man. The plain import of the
clause, unmystified by the commentators, is, that believing masters
would not fail to _do their part towards_, or encourage by suitable
returns, the _free_ service of those who had once been under
the _yoke_."]
Such, then, is the relation between those who, in the view of Prof.
Stuart, were Christian masters and Ch
|