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130 Pages
Page 63
On Matt. xx. 23. Is not Mine to give, save for whom it is prepared. [452]
"If the Son has not authority over the judgment, and power to benefit some and chastise others, how could He say, The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son'? [453] And in another place, The Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins;' [454] and again, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth;' [455] and to Peter, I will give thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven;' [456] and to the disciples, Verily, I say unto you that ye which have followed me, in the regeneration,...shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.' [457] The explanation is clear from the Scripture, since the Saviour said, Then will I reward every man according to his work;' [458] and in another place, They that have done good shall come forth unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation.' [459] And the Apostle says, We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to what he hath done, whether it be good or bad.' [460] It is therefore the part of the recipients to make themselves worthy of a seat on the left and on the right of the Lord: it is not the part of Him Who is able to give it, even though the request be unjust." [461]
[452] I do not here render with the Arian gloss of A.V., infelicitously reproduced in the equally inexact translation of R.V. The insertion of the words "it shall be given" and "it is" is apparently due to a pedantic prejudice against translating alla by "save" or "except," a rendering which is supported in classical Greek by such a passage as Soph., O.T. 1331, and in Hellenistic Greek by Mark ix. 8. The Vulgate has, quite correctly, "non est meum dare vobis, sed quibus paratum est a patre meo," so far as the preservation of the Son as the giver is concerned. A similar error is to be found in both the French and German (Luther's) of Bagster's polyglot edition. Wiclif has correctly, "is not myn to geve to you but to whiche it is made redi of my fadir." So Tyndale, "is not myne to geve but to them for whom it is prepared of my father." The gloss begins with Cranmer (1539), "it shall chance unto them that it is prepared for," and first appears in the Geneva of 1557 as the A.V. has perpetuated it. The Rheims follows the vobis of the Vulgate, but is otherwise correct. cf. note on Theodoret in this edition, p. 169.
[453] John v. 22.
[454] Mark ii. 10.
[455] Matt. xxviii. 18.
[456] Matt. xvi. 19.
[457] Matt. xix. 28.
[458] cf. Matt. xvi. 27.
[459] John v. 29.
[460] 2 Cor. v. 10.
[461] These last words are explained by a Scholium to the MS. Reg. II. to be a reference to the unreasonable petition of James and John. It will be seen how totally opposed Basil's interpretation is to that required by the gloss of A.V.
Reference address : https://www.elpenor.org/basil/life-works.asp?pg=63
