16. κωλυόντωνἡμᾶςκτλ.] ‘ in that they forbid us to speak to the Gentiles in order that they may be saved.’ The emphasis lies on τ. ἔθνεσιν: it was to the Gentiles (Wycl. hethen men) that the had for its object their salvation. Chrys.: εἰγὰρτῇοἰκουμένῃδεῖλαλῆσαι, οὗτοιδὲκωλύουσι, κοινοὶτῆςοἰκουμένηςεἰσὶνἐχθροί. For the fact cf. Acts 13:45; Acts 13:50; Acts 17:5; Acts 17:13; Acts 21:27 ff. &c., and for a similar instance of ἵνα with its full telic force cf. 1 Corinthians 10:33. On the history of the word ἔθνος, which is here used in its strict LXX. sense of all outside the covenant-people (δΗβΜεΙιΔν), see Kennedy Sources p. 98, Nδgeli p. 46, and cf. Hicks in C.R. 1. p. 42 f. where it is shown that ἔθνος first gained significance as a political term after Alexander and his successors began to found cities as outposts of trade and civilization. Then ‘ Hellenic life found its normal type in the πόλις, and barbarians who lived κατὰκώμας or in some less organized form were ἔθνη.’The attitude of the stricter Pharisaism towards other nations is well brought out in such a passage as 4 Ezra 6:55 f.: ‘ Haec autem omnia dixi coram te, domine, quoniam dixisti quia propter nos creasti primogenitum saeculum. Residuas antem gentes ab Adam natas dixisti eas nihil esse et quoniam saliuae adsimilatae sunt et sicut stillicidium de uaso similasti habundantiam eorum.’There are however occasional traces of a more liberal view, e.g. Pss. Sol. 17:38, ‘ He [the Messiah] shall have mercy upon all the nations that come before him in fear’ ; Apoc. Bar 1:4 ‘ I will scatter this people among the Gentiles that they may do good to the Gentiles’ (i.e. apparently by making proselytes of them, Charles ad loc.).εἰςτὸἀναπληρῶσαικτλ.] ‘ in order to fill up the measure of their sins at all times’ (Vg. ut impleant peccata sua semper). There is no need to depart here from the ordinary sense of εἰςτό with the inf. to denote purpose (cf. v. 12 note), the reference being ‘ grammatically’ to the Jews, but ‘ theologically’ to the eternal purpose of God ‘ which unfolded itself in this wilful and at last judicial blindness on the part of His chosen people’ (Ellic.): cf. Romans 1:24, and for other exx. of εἰςτό introducing a purpose contemplated not by the doer but by God cf. Romans 1:20; Romans 4:11. In acting as they were doing the present Jews were but carrying forward to its completion the work which their fathers had begun , and which had now brought down upon them God’ s judicial wrath: cf. Genesis 15:16 οὔπωγὰρἀναπεπλήρωνταιαἱἁμαρτίαιτῶνἈμορραίωνἕωςτοῦνῦν, and especially our Lord’ s own words recorded in Matthew 23:31 f. ὅτιυἱοίἐστετῶνφονευσάντωντοὺςπροφήτας. καὶὑμεῖςπληρώσατετὸμέτροντῶνπατέρωνὑμῶν. The plur. αἱἁμαρτίαι laying stress not on specific acts of sin, but on sin in the aggregate, is found in all groups of St Paul’ s Epp.; cf. Westcott Eph. p. 165 f. where the different Pauline words for ‘ sin’ are classified, and for a non-Christian use of the word see P.Leip. 119, 3 (3./a.d.) τῶνἁμαρτιῶ[ν] τὰςπονηρίαςσυνεχῶ[σἀ]νορθουμένων. For the unemphatic αὐτῶν cf. WM. p. 193.ἔφθασενδέκτλ.] ‘ Tristis exitus’ (Beng.). The wrath which in 1:10 was represented as ‘ coming’ is now thought of as actually ‘ arrived,’ thereby marking an ‘ end’ in the history of God’ s dealings with the Jewish people. For this meaning of φθάνειν, which in late Gk. (perhaps in accordance with its original meaning, cf. Thuc. 3:49 and see Geldart Mod. Gk. p. 206) has entirely lost the sense of anticipation, cf. Romans 9:31, 2 Corinthians 10:14, Philippians 3:16, and such passages from the papyri as P.Oxy. 237. 6:30 f. (2./a.d.) καὶὅτιφθάνειτὸπρᾶγμαἀκρειβῶς [ἐξ]ητασμένον ‘ and the fact that a searching enquiry into the affair had already been held,’ P.Fior. 9, 9 f. (3./a.d.) φθάσαντόςμουπρὸςτοῖςμναιμίοις (μνημείοις) ‘ when I had arrived near the tombs.’ There is no need to treat the aor. as prophetic, resembling the Heb. perf. of prediction (Findlay): in accordance rather with one of its earliest usages it denotes what has just happened, and is thus best rendered in English by the perf. ‘ is (or has) come,’ cf. Moulton Prolegg. p. 135, and for the survival of this ancient aor. in mod. Gk. see p. 247. WH. read ἔφθακεν in the margin.On ἡὀργή see the note on 1:10, and for the wrath coming upon (ἐπί) the Jews from above cf. Romans 1:18 ἀποκαλύπτεταιγὰρὀργὴθεοῦἀπʼ οὐρανοῦἐπὶπᾶσανἀσέβειαν. The phrase φθάνεινἐπί is found elsewhere in the N.T. only Matthew 12:28, Luke 11:20 : it occurs six times in the LXX. (Hawkins Hor. Syn. p. 51).εἰςτέλος] an adv. phrase = ‘ finally,’ ‘ to an end’ (Vg. in finem, Weizsδcker zum Ende), in accordance with the regular N.T. usage (e.g. Matthew 10:22, Luke 18:5, John 13:1) supported by many passages in the LXX., e.g. Job 14:20; Job 20:7, Pss. 9:7, 48. (49.) 10 where it represents the Heb. μΘπΖφΗη. Some translators however prefer the intensive meaning ‘ to the uttermost,’ ‘ completely’ (Hofm. ganz und gar, Weiss im hφchsten Grade), relying on such passages as 2 Chronicles 12:12 (for μΐλΘμΘδ), 31:1 (for ςΗγΞμΐλΗμΜΕδ); cf. also Pss. Son 1:1 with Ryle and James’ s note. In either case the sense remains much the same, namely, that in the case of the Jews the Divine ὀργί (πάλαιὀφειλομένηκ. προωρισμένηκ. προφητευομένη, Chrys.) had now reached a final and complete end in contrast with the partial judgments which had hitherto been threatened (cf. Jeremiah 4:27 συντέλειανδὲοὐμὴποιήσω). In what exactly this ‘ end’ consisted is not so easy to determine, but in no case have we here any direct reference to the Fall of Jerusalem as Baur and other impugners of the Epistle’ s authenticity have tried to show (Intr. p. 74). The whole conception is ethical, the Apostles finding in the determined blindness of the Jewish people with its attendant moral evils an infallible proof that the nation’ s day of grace was now over, cf. Romans 11:7 ff.For an almost literal verbal parallel to the whole clause cf. Test. xii patr. Levi 6:11 ἔφθασεδὲαὐτοὺςἡὀργὴτοῦθεοῦεἰςτέλος, whence St Paul may have derived it, if it is not to be regarded as ‘ a half-stereotyped Rabbinical formula’ (Lock, Hastings’ D.B. 4. p. 746).