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serves to lay stress upon, or give precision to, the character or nature of what is expressed
in the noun. A notable instance of this is in John 1:1, “and the Word was God”; here a
double stress is on
, by the absence of the article and by the emphatic position. To
translate it literally, “a god was the Word,” is entirely misleading. Moreover, that “the
Word” is the subject of the sentence, exemplifies the rule that the subject is to be
determined by its having the article when the predicate is anarthrous (without the article).
In Rom. 7:22, in the phrase “the law of God,” both nouns have the article; in v. 25,
neither has the article. This is in accordance with a general rule that if two nouns are
united by the genitive case (the “of” case), either both have the article, or both are
without. Here, in the first instance, both nouns, “God” and “the law” are definite, whereas
in v. 25 the word “God” is not simply titular; the absence of the article stresses His
character as lawgiver.
Where two or more epithets are applied to the same person or thing, one article
usually serves for both (the exceptions being when a second article lays stress upon
different aspects of the same person or subject, e.g., Rev. 1:17). In Titus 2:13 the
RV
correctly has “our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.” Moulton (
8 !
, p. 84) shows, from
papyri writings of the early Christian era, that among Greek-speaking Christians this was
“a current formula” as applied to Christ. So in 2 Pet. 1:1 (cf. 1:11; 3:18).
In the following titles God is described by certain of His attributes; the God of glory,
Acts 7:2; of peace, Rom. 15:33; 16:20; Phil. 4:9; 1 Thess. 5:23; Heb. 13:20; of love and
peace, 2 Cor. 13:11; of patience and comfort, Rom. 15:5; of all comfort, 2 Cor. 1:3; of
hope, Rom. 15:13; of all grace, 1 Pet. 5:10. These describe Him, not as in distinction
from other persons, but as the source of all these blessings; hence the employment of the
definite article. In such phrases as “the God of a person,” e.g., Matt. 22:32, the expression
marks the relationship in which the person stands to God and God to him.
(e) In the following the nominative case is used for the vocative, and always with the
article; Mark 15:34; Luke 18:11, 13; John 20:28; (Acts 4:24 in some mss.); Heb. 1:8;
10:7.
(f) The phrase “the things of God” (translated literally or otherwise) stands for (1) His
interests, Matt. 16:23; Mark 8:33; (2) His counsels, 1 Cor. 2:11; (3) things which are due
to Him, Matt. 22:21; Mark 12:17; Luke 20:25. The phrase “things pertaining to God,”
Rom. 15:17; Heb. 2:17; 5:1, describes, in the Heb. passages, the sacrificial service of the
priest; in the Rom. passage the gospel ministry as an offering to God.
(III) The word is used of divinely appointed judges in Israel, as representing God in
His authority, John 10:34, quoted from Ps. 82:6, which indicates that God Himself sits in
judgment on those whom He has appointed. The application of the term to the Devil, 2
Cor. 4:4, and the belly, Phil. 3:19, virtually places these instances under (I).
For
GOD-SPEED
see
GREETING
GOD (without)
(
/
, 112), cf. Eng., “atheist,” primarily signifies “godless” ( , negative),
i.e., destitute of God; in Eph. 2:12 the phrase indicates, not only that the Gentiles were
void of any true recognition of God, and hence became morally “godless” (Rom. 1:19-
32) but that being given up by God, they were excluded from communion with God and
from the privileges granted to Israel (see the context and cf. Gal. 4:8). As to pagan ideas,