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sometimes greatly perplexed for want of a sufficient variety of prop ^ books . All other denominations of Christians are much better supplied than we are , And we have often wondered , as well as greatly lamented , that some zealous , intelligent Unitarian bookseller in London should not have turned his
attention more to this subject . Is there no one who has the interests of real Christianity at heart sufficiently to do this ? The supposition is injurious . It is only for want of having sufficiently reflected o » the subject .
When they have reflected more , I am strongly persuaded that some one among them will devote a part of his attention to wiping off this reproach and supplying this deficiency . A SOUTHERN UNITARIAN .
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Sir , Oct . 7 th , 1824 . YOUR valuable Correspondent N . in your last Number , ( p . 530 *) endeavours to reconcile the precept of Paul , " Be ye angry and sin not /* ( Ephes . iv , 26 , ) with the direction , which follows soon after , " Let all
anger be put away from you , " ( ver . 31 , ) by supposing that in the former instance the Apostle has the act in his view , and in the latter instance the habit . There is , however , no grammatical reason on which this distinction can be founded : but , on
the contrary , the verb 'OpyfiQeo&e , used in the former instance , and supposed l > y your correspondent to express the act only , may , according to the common mode of using the present tense in Greek , signify either " Be angry , " or * ' Be habitually angry / 9 But , in whichsoever of these two senses the
word be taken , it appears strange that a Chris tan apostle should deliver an express precept to be angry , when all men are sufficiently prone to anger without such encouragement , and ratjier need every motive to guard against it .
Upon the precept , " Be angry and sin not , " Whitby remarks , " These words , though spoken imperatively , are not a command to be angry , but a cautioif to avoid sinful anger / ' The observation appears to me correct ; and it is only to be wished that the learned commentator had stated the
principle on which his criticism may be justified . I have for some years been disposed to regard the expres-
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608 Sense of Ephes . tv . 26 .
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sion of Paul , 'Opy / JJarfrc % a * / a ) ' apap-Tavers as a Hebraism , for which , if he had written classical Greek , he would have said * OpyC < r& £ vT £ <; / wj «^ tapravers . Were I to dwell upon the fact of the occurrence of Hebraisms
in the Greek of the New Testament , it would certainly be out of regard to others of your readers , and not with a view to your learned and able correspondent . But , assuming the fact as granted , I shall suppose that St . Paul wished to convey the following piece
of advice ; " If at any time through the weakness of human nature you are excited to anger , beware of its betraying you into sia . " The words * Opyfo&e ) tTti ; fxij * ocixaprdpsrB would have expressed this sentiment in
correct and Attic Greek . But suppose a Jew had wished to translate this precept into his own language : in consequence of the want of a participle expressing past time , he must have rendered it thus , or according to some similar form , iwtonn ^> K 1 1 TJH ; and this phrase , literally translated into
Greek , would give the very expression which Paul employs , ^ Opyi ^ ea- ^ Y . a \ fAy ' apaprdvtre . The sense here supposed is remarkably suitable to the clause immediately subjoined , " Let not the sun go down upon your wrath ; " in which the apostle gives a very useful practical rule for restraining and terminating the ebullitions of
anger . Such were the reasonings which occurred to my mind on considering the phrase in question merely as the language of a Jew , who was liable even in writing Greek to adopt Hebrew idioms . But the sense of the
passage , which I have supposed , is confirmed , as it appears to me , beyond all reasonable doubt , when it is considered that the precept is not originally Paul ' s but David ' s , and that
it is quoted from the Septuagint Version . It occurs in the 4 th Psalm , and was , probably intended by David as an admonition to the irritable spirits by whom he was surrounded at the court of Saul . In illustration of
David's meaning , I shall take the liberty of quoting a rale from the Syntax of Schroeder ' s Hebrew Grammar , ( lii . 2 , ) in which he adduces this very precept by way of an example : Imperativus nonnunquam couditionem exprimit , alii Impenttivo pr&mtesam ;
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1824, page 608, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2529/page/32/
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