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verse the dwelling is meant; in the last part of the verse the family is meant; because Christ did not command his apostles to say, Peace be to the timbers, or brick, or stone, that formed the dwelling into which they entered, but, Peace be to the family, the oikos. This more fully confirms the view given in my former argument. Mr. B. says, "Jesus calls his father's house both oikos and oikia,” and refers to John ii, 16; xvi, 2. In the first passage the temple is spoken of, and the word is okoç, because in this case the container is put for the contained, as the temple was the residence of the congregation, the visible family of God." In the other passage he refers to there is no such word in my Bible, and I use the "common version." It is possible he made a mistake, and referred to John xvi, instead of xiv, 2; there the word is oikia, but it refers to heaven, and I suppose the reader will conclude that the earthly temple and the invisible heaven are not exactly the same thing.

The next case he adduces is the case of the OLKOÇ of Stephanas, 1 Cor. i, 16, and xvi, 15. The apostle says, "I baptized also the household (oikos) of Stephanas ;" and in the close of that epistle he mentions the household (oikia) of Stephanas; and says to the Corinthian church, "Ye know the house of Stephanas," &c. In referring to the baptism of Stephanas and his family, he uses the word oukos, but in referring to the family's having "addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints," he uses

the word oikia, evidently alluding to the whole domestic establishment. This is the same course pursued by St. Luke in Acts xvi, 32, "And they spake unto him (the jailer) the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house," (OLKIα)-doubtless the whole domestic establishment were summoned to the preaching, and heard the word of the Lord, but there is no mention of any one inquiring about salvation but the jailer. And when the apostle said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ," he added, "and thou shalt be saved and thy house," (OLKOS)—and he and all his were baptized straightway, and he brought Paul and Silas out of the outer prison, where the preaching took place, into his family apartment, called by Luke his οικος. Where the baptism of Lydia's family is spoken of in the 15th verse, the same word is used. "And when she was baptized and her household, (okos,)" &c., evidently her family and her children are meant, as scholars have said, and as we shall show more fully hereafter. The next evidence Mr. B. adduces is John xi, 20, 31, where the dwelling of Mary and Martha is called both oikos and oikia; but this is no proof against Mr. Taylor's criticism, for he says, "When olkoç is spoken of persons, it denotes a family of children;" but Mr. B.'s proof does not present a case in point, for the passage refers, not to "persons," but altogether to a dwelling house. I suppose the intelligent reader can see the difference.

After adducing the above quotations, address

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ing me, he says, "How conclusively, Mr. S., do these passages show the fallacy of the distinction which your editor' makes between OLKOÇ and oLkia." Then, thinking, I presume, that, conclusive as the evidence he had given already might be, it would not be amiss to "make certainty more certain," he adds an evidence or two more. One we will notice; the other is not material, as it proves nothing to the point, and we have noticed it before. The one we remark upon is Matt. x, 13, "If the house (oikia) be worthy," &c. I suppose this refers, as I said above, to the whole domestic establishment.

are,

In the parallel passage, Luke x, 5, the words "Into whatsoever house (oikia) ye enter, say, Peace be to this house," (oukos)—the minister enters the dwelling (okia) and says, Peace be to the family, (okos.) These words differing sometimes in passages that are parallel, may have arisen out of the carelessness of transcribers, for I suppose they could as easily mistake in transcribing, and put one of those words for the other, as Mr. B. could mistake, as the reader has seen above, in referring to a text for oikia, where no such word exists. I do not blame Mr. B., nor would I blame a transcriber, for an unintentional mistake. Having noticed Mr. B.'s evidence at length, I shall now proceed to adduce some additional testimony in favour of my view.

I do not deny that okos is used figuratively for a dwelling house, because, in such cases,

the container is put for the contained, as is very commonly the case in our own language.

The first proof I shall adduce is from Num. xvi, 27-32, "And Dathan and Abiram came out, and stood in the door of their tents, and their wives and sons, and their little children. And it came to pass that the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up, and their houses (OLKOVÇ.)" Swallowed up their little children as part of their houses.

But it is used to signify infants exclusively. See Deut. xxv, 9; where the law is alluded to which required a brother to take the widow of his deceased brother, and raise up a family for, or to, his deceased brother. If he refused to comply according to the law, then the widow was to loose his shoe, spit in his face, and say, "So shall it be done unto that man that will not build up his brother's house (o:kov.)" But how was the brother's house to be "built up ?" By his raising a family of children, who were to be esteemed the children of the deceased brother.

Again, Ruth iv, 11, 12, "The Lord make the woman that is to come into thine house, or dwelling place, like Rachel, and like Leah, which two did build up the house (oikov) of Israel. And let thy house be like the house (OLKOS) of Phares, which Tamar bare unto Judah of the seed which the Lord will give thee of this young woman." How was the house of Israel built up by Rachel and by Leah? Certainly by the children born to them from time to time. And how was the house of Boaz to become like

the house of Phares, but by the infants to be born to him by Ruth, and which are styled "the seed of this young woman?" One more example from the Old Testament may be quite sufficient. Psalm cxiii, 9, "He maketh the barren woman to keep house, (okw,) and to be a joyful mother of children." In this passage every unbiassed reader will see that the barren woman's heart was to be made glad by infants to be given to her by the Lord, and who were to constitute what is called her "house" or family. Now, to apply the metaphorical use of the word house, as an argument for infant baptism. We read in the New Testament of the baptism of Lydia and her house, and of the jailer and his house, and of Stephanas and his house, or household. The question now is, What did the inspired penmen mean by the word "house," in the record they have left us of these and other family baptisms? They were well acquainted with the meaning of the term in the Old Testament, as sometimes signifying children separate from their parents, and little children, and infants exclusively. The Jews and Greeks, to whom they wrote, attached the same idea to the word. When the Jews then read that Lydia and her house (okos)-the jailer and his house (okos)— and the house (okoç) of Stephanas, were bap tized, what would they, or what could they, understand by the word in those several passages? Would they not understand it according to its most natural import, its most generally received sense? i. e., a man or woman's children by im

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