Adumbrations on the Catholic Epistles (Latin, from Stählin)

Contents

1. 1.1On 1 Pet 1: regeneration through Christ's resurrection in us; the soul does not return to a body in this life but rejoins it at the resurrection; the soul becomes incorruptible by grace; the prophets spoke by the Spirit of Christ.
2. 1.2On 1 Pet 2: Christians are a chosen race and royal priesthood offering prayers and souls to God; Christ ‘handed over’ either himself to his unjust judges or them to God for correction.
3. 1.3On 1 Pet 3:10–20: ‘life’ is the Lord and ‘good days’ the saints; Christ was made alive in our spirits and preached to those once disobedient, who heard his voice though they did not see him.
4. 1.4On 1 Pet 3:20–22: God saves even through correction; the angels, powers and virtues subjected to Christ are three orders.
5. 1.5On 1 Pet 4:5–6: the ‘dead’ to whom the gospel was preached are those who were once unbelievers.
6. 1.6On 1 Pet 4:6–5:13: those who fall away are corrected so that they may repent; the Spirit of glory rests on sufferers; and Mark, Peter's follower, wrote his Gospel from Peter's preaching at Rome, as Luke wrote Acts and translated Hebrews.
7. 2.1On Jude: Jude, brother of the Lord through Joseph, humbly calls himself servant; the ungodly were foreknown for judgment; the images of clouds, trees, waves and wandering stars describe unbelievers and apostates; Enoch is approved as a prophet.
8. 2.2On Jude 24: the presence of God's glory means before the angels; the ‘Power’ at whose right hand the Son of Man sits means the holy angels; and Jesus' answer ‘You say’ confessed the truth of their words.
9. 3.1The lemma 1 John 1:1.
10. 3.2On 1 John 1:1–5: ‘was from the beginning’ signifies the Son's eternal generation and equality with the Father; the handling signifies the incarnation, with a tradition that John's hand passed into the Lord's body; ‘God is light’ declares his majesty, not his essence.
11. 3.3On 1 John 1:6–10: there is one way, the monad being God's work; the cleansing blood of the Son is his strong teaching.
12. 3.4On 1 John 2:1–3: Christ and the Spirit are Paracletes; the first-created powers work through lower angels, as with Moses and Samuel; Christ is the propitiation for the whole world, saving all, some through punishments.
13. 3.5On 1 John 2:3–4: the man of understanding (the ‘gnostic’) does good works, but one who does works is not necessarily a man of understanding.
14. 3.6On 1 John 2:5–7: the perfect man of understanding does good through love rather than fear or hope of reward; the old commandment is that of the law and prophets, ‘God is one.’
15. 3.7On 1 John 2:7: the old commandment is the word they heard.
16. 3.8On 1 John 2:8–29: the ‘brother’ to be loved includes the Lord; little children, fathers and young men are stages of the soul's progress; the world as creation is good, but its lusts come from us; the antichrist denies that Jesus is the Christ.
17. 3.9On 1 John 3: we are God's children by adoption, not nature; in the end we shall see him as he is; those born of God do not sin because his word abides in them; the apostles ought to lay down their lives for the brothers.
18. 3.10On 1 John 4:18: love is the perfection of the believer.
19. 3.11On 1 John 5:6–20: the three witnesses are saving powers in the Savior; prayer is heard when we ask what we ought; ‘the world’ in the evil one means worldly men, not creation.