which through the body is subject to the vicissitudes of time. Eternal (or everlasting) life is that life of the spirit which is independent of change, and is apart from duration. God's being was regarded by the Semitic races as outside of time and space, as a perpetual Now, without before or after. ("I am the I Am." Exod. 3:14.) Man, made in the image of God, becomes a "partaker of the divine nature" (2 Peter 2:4) by the gift of eternal life.

That "eternal life" is not an endless temporal existence appears,

(a.) From the passages in which it is spoken of as something to be obtained by one's own efforts, as (Matt. 19:16) when the young man asks of Jesus what good thing he shall do that he may have eternal life, and Jesus replies that he must keep the commandments, give his possessions to the poor, and come and follow him. Certainly that was not the method to obtain an endless existence, but it was the true preparation for receiving spiritual good. So Jesus tells Peter (Mark 10:30) that those who make sacrifices for the sake of truth shall receive temporal rewards " in this time;" and "in the coming age eternal life” (“ev tự màn tậ ἐρχομένῳ ζωὴν αἰώνιον”). The coming age is the age of the Messiah, when the gift of the Holy Ghost should be bestowed.

(b.) Passages in which eternal life is spoken of as a present possession, not a future expectation. (John 3:36.) "He that believeth on the Son hath (eze) eternal life." So John 6:47, 54, &c.

(c.) Passages in which eternal life is defined expressly as a state of the soul. (John 17:3.) "This is life eternal, that they may know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent," &c.

So (Gal. 6:8) it is represented as the natural result of "sowing to the Spirit;" (Rom. 2:7) of "patient continu

ance in well-doing;" as "the gift of God" (Rom. 6:23); as something which we "lay hold of" (1 Tim. 6: 12, 19).

This view of "eternal life" is taken by all the best critics. Professor Hovey thus sums up their testimony:

*

"On a certain occasion, Christ pronounced it necessary for the Son of Man to be lifted up, 'that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life' (John 3:15) ἔχῃ ζωήν αἰώνιον. Ζωὴν αἰώνιον, says Meyer, who is, perhaps, the best commentator on the New Testament, of modern times, signifies the eternal Messianic life, which, however, the believer already possesses-zn-in this alor, that is, in the temporal development of that moral and blessed life which is independent of death, and which will culminate in perfection and glory at the coming of Christ.' And Lücke, whose commentary on the Gospel of John is one of the most thorough and attractive in the German language, says that the ζωὴ αἰώνιος, which is the exact opposite of ἀπώλεια (destruction), or dávatos (death), is the sum of Messianic blessedness. It is plain, we think, that the life here spoken of as the present possession of every believer in Christ is more than endless existence; it is life in the fullest and highest sense of the word, the free, holy, and blessed action of the whole man, that is to say, the proper, normal living of a 'rational and moral being. The germ, the principle of this life, exists in the heart of every believer; it is a present possession. 6 Whosoever,' says Christ, drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a fountain · πηγὴ of water, springing up into everlasting life.' (John 4: 14.) In another place our Saviour utters these words: He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath eternal life, and shall not come into condemnation, but has passed from death into life' (John 5 : 24) - μεταβέβηκεν ἐκ τοῦ θανάτου εἰς τὴν

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* "The State of the Impenitent Dead. By Alvah Hovey, D. D." Boston, 1859.

tor. Here, again, the believer is said to have eternal life, even now; for he has passed from death into life. Ingens saltus, remarks Bengel, with his customary brevity and graphic power. We translate a part of Lücke's ample and instructive note on this important verse.

"The words, "Has passed from death into life" determine that ze (hath) must be taken as a strict present. For the verb untαßißnner (has passed) affirms that the transition from death into life took place with the hearing and believing. Only if an impossible thought were thus expressed, could we consent, as in a case of extreme necessity, to understand the present eye and the present perfect ueraßéßnuev as futures. And then we should be compelled to say that John had expressed himself very strangely. But if a higher kind of life, a resurrection process prior to bodily death, is represented by "hath," and "hath passed," then (w and anatórios are not to be understood of a life commencing after bodily death, but of the true and eternal Messianic life or salvation, beginning even here. This life does not, to be sure, exclude natural death, but neither does it first begin after this death. (Cf. 5:40.) Even so dávatos cannot be understood of bodily, but only of spiritual death, of lying in the darkness of the world. This interpretation would be justified here, even if Javaros elsewhere in the New Testament denoted uniformly nothing but bodily death. But the metaphorical idea of death stands out clearly in 1 John 3:14; 5:16, 17; John 8:51, 52; 2 Cor. 2:16; 7:10. Similar, also, is the use of the words Javatov (Rom. 7:4; 8:13), and vɛxgós, vençõõν, àлoðνýoziv (Matt. 8:22; Eph. 5:14; Heb. 6:1; Col. 3:5; Gal. 2:19).'

"With the passage now examined may be compared a statement of the apostle John to the same effect, namely: 'We know that we have passed from death into life, because we love the brethren; he that loveth not abideth in death.' John 3:14.) This language, explained with a due regard

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to the preceding context, speaks, evidently, of spiritual death and life, of a passing from one moral condition into another and opposite one. To say that this new moral condition and blessed state is to endure and improve forever, may doubtless be to utter an important truth, but one which does not conflict in the slightest degree with its present existence. It begins in this life; it continues forever and ever.

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"Again: we find our Saviour saying, 'He that believeth on me hath everlasting life;' Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you;' and, The words that I speak unto you are spirit, and are life.' (John 6:47, 53, 63.) By these verses we are taught once more, that the Greek terms which denote life and death, living and dying, were applied by Christ to opposite moral states of the soul. For, observe, (1.) he more than intimates that his words, his doctrines, are the source of present life to those who receive them, and that, by eating his flesh and drinking his blood, he signifies a reception of his words, and so of himself as the Lamb of God. And, (2.) he declares that one who believes has eternal life; that one who eats of the true bread shall not die, but shall live forever; and that one who does not eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of man hath not life in himself.

"Is it not plain that the words life and death, as well as the words bread, flesh, and blood, eating and drinking, are here used in a spiritual sense? Is it not plain that Jesus here speaks of something in the believer's soul which is nourished by Christian truth, and which is at the same time called life? But it is the function of truth to quicken thought and feeling, to determine the modes of conscious life, the character or moral condition of the human soul; and hence the rejection of it may involve the utter want of certain spiritual qualities and blessed emotions, but not the want of personal existence. In still another place we read, 'Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me, though

he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.' (John 11:25, 26.) Christ here affirms that every believer is exempted from death. And it matters not for our present purpose whether the word ¿ov, translated in our version 'liveth,' refers in this passage to physical or to moral life. If it refers to physical life, then our Saviour pronounces the Christian to be already, in time, delivered from the power of death, and in possession of a true and immortal life. But if it refers to moral life, Christ declares that whoever possesses this life, whether in the body or out of the body, is delivered from the power of death; that is, his union with God and delight in him, which alone constitute the normal living of the soul, shall never be interrupted: οὐ μὴ ἀποθάνῃ εἰς τὸν αἰώνα he shall never die.

"And this is life eternal,' says the Great Teacher, 'that they should know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.' (John 17:3.) The best ancient and modern interpreters hold this verse to be a definition by Christ himself of the expression 'life eternal,' so often used by him, according to the record of John. De Wette says, And this is (therein consists) the life eternal; not, this is the means of the eternal life; for the vital knowledge of God and Christ is itself the eternal life, which begins even here, and penetrates the whole life of the human spirit.' Meyer translates thus: Therein consists the eternal life,' and says, 'This knowledge, willed of God, is the "eternal life," inasmuch as it is the essential subjective principle of the latter, its enduring, eternally unfolding germ and fountain, both now, in the temporal development of the eternal life, and hereafter, when the kingdom is set up, in which faith, hope, and charity abide, whose essence is that knowledge.'* The same view, substantially, is presented by Olshausen, Lücke, Bengel, Alford, and many others."

*For iva before a defining clause, see John 6:29; 4:34; 1 John 3:11, 23; 4: 21; 2 John 6.