et, seems to prove that, even at
his time, interpretations were current, in which an attempt was made to
diminish, or altogether to take away, in the case of servants and
handmaids, their participation in those blessings;--interpretations
similar to those of _Abarbanel_, and even of _Grotius_, who thus
paraphrases the verse: "Even to those who seem to be lowest, I will
certainly impart, although not prophesying and dreaming dreams, yet
certain extraordinary and heavenly motions." The antiquity of this
false interpretation is attested by _Jerome_ also, who probably was, in
this respect, altogether dependent upon his Jewish teachers. He
interprets, indeed, the servants and handmaids spiritually, and of such
as have not the spirit of freedom he says: "They shall neither have
prophecies, nor dreams nor visions, but, satisfied with the outpouring
of the Holy Spirit, they shall possess only the grace of faith and
salvation."--In ver. 3, Peter adds [Greek: ano] to [Greek: en to
ourano], and [Greek: kato] to [Greek: epi tes ges], in order to make
the contrast more obvious and striking. All the deviations from the
LXX., and the original text, are thus of the same kind, and intended to
bring out more distinctly what is implied in the passage itself. Not
one of them need to be accounted for by the circumstance, that the
Apostle quoted from memory.

Footnote 1: He says: "The sense in which the universality must be
understood is clearly indicated by what follows. For, it is first said,
in general, 'All flesh,' and afterwards, a specification is added, by
which the prophet intimates, that age or sex will not constitute any
difference, but that God will bring them all, without any distinction,
into the communion of His grace."

Footnote 2: The two parallel members prove, in opposition to _Redslob_
and others, that the verb [Hebrew: nba] here, as everywhere else, has
reference to an ecstatic condition, to the speaking in the Spirit,
although this is by no means limited to a revelation of the future. The
closeness of the connection between prophesying, dreaming dreams, and
seeing visions, is evident from Num. xii. 6, where visions and dreams
appear as the two principal forms of revelation to the [Hebrew: nbia].

[Pg 352]

THE PROPHET AMOS.

GENERAL PRELIMINARY REMARKS.

It will not be necessary to extend our preliminary remarks on the
prophet Amos, since on the main point--v