15. ὁρᾶτεμήτιςκτλ.] ‘ see that none pay back evil in return for evil to any one’ : cf. Romans 12:17, 1 Peter 3:9. The saying, which reflects the teaching of our Lord in such a passage as Matthew 5:43 ff., is often claimed as a distinctive precept of Christianity, and, notwithstanding such isolated maxims from the O.T. as Exodus 23:4, Proverbs 25:21 f., and the lofty spirit occasionally found in heathen philosophers as in a Socrates (see Plato Rep. 1:335), it is certainly true that Christianity first made ‘ no retaliation’ a practical precept for all, by providing the ‘ moral dynamic’ through which alone it could be carried out. On the durative ὁράω see Moulton Prolegg. p. 110 f., and for ὁρᾶτεμή with the subj. cf. Matthew 18:10 (Burton § 2), also P.Oxy. 532, 15 (2./a.d.) ὅραοὖνμὴἄλλωςπράξης. If ἀποδοῖ (à*DbG) is read, it also must be taken as a subj., formed after the model of verbs in -όω (WM. p. 360 n.2). Both forms can be illustrated from the Κοινή, e.g. P.Par. 7, 11 (1./b.c.) ἐὰνδὲμὴἀποδῷ, B.G.U. 741, 27 (2./a.d.) ἐὰνδὲμὴ [ἀ]ποδοῖ: see further Crönert p. 216. The simple δοῖ is found in an illiterate fragment of the 3./b.c., P.Petr. 11. 9 (5), 5 ὅπωςδοῖ.ἀλλὰπάντοτεκτλ.] ‘ but always pursue after that which is good’—ἀγαθόν being used in the sense of ‘ beneficial,’ ‘ helpful’ (utile) as opposed to the preceding κακόν, rather than of what is morally good (honestum): cf. 3:6 note. For the favourite Pauline διώκειν in the sense of ‘ pursue,’ ‘ seek eagerly after’ (Thpht.: ἐπιτεταμένωςσπουδάζιντι) cf. Romans 9:30, Philippians 3:12, where in both passages it is associated with the correlative καταλαμβάνειν: see also Exodus 15:9 εἶπενὁἐχθρόςΔιώξαςκαταλήμψομαι. Outside the Pauline Epp. the metaphorical use of the verb in the N.T. is confined to Hebrews 12:14, 1 Peter 3:11 (from LXX.); cf. Plato Gorg. 507 b οὔτεδιώκεινοὔτεφεύγεινἃμὴπροσήκει.