Descrizione:
In the very outset of the life of Christ he comes upon the word Metanoi'a and in a connection which gives it the all-prominent place. He takes in the' significance of its position at once. It conveys the summons Of the herald, and of the herald who was freighted with the good news which the whole New Testament afterwards unfolds. Here in epitome, he naturally thinks, must be all the high Call ing of God. No word therefore in the New Testament can be greater' than this. Hence he must interpret it as a condensed expression of what was originally said in large, and as an expression, also, which was fixed upon long after the event, when everything was understood, as the fit one to carry the'-.great burden. If this is its anticipatory reach, if this is its heralding grasp, he naturally sets about inquiring what is its history and what its elementary weight. When we imagine such a fresh reader of the Greek Testament as this, we place ourselves in the situation to pursue his inquiry. The literal meaning of Metanoia, or rather, the nearest expression to it in English, is Change of Mind, a phrase too much worn by familiar use to be available as a rendering, but an idea capable of many equivalent variations in the English tongue. It will be more convenient, however, for our present purpose to employ the phrase as if its native force had not been thus impaired. What word is more expressive than Change what more comprehensive than Mind. |
