66 together with the number of the Olympiad; and then set their statues in the altis, or sacred grove of Jupiter Olympia. 10. These particulars respecting the sacred games of th Grecians, which were held in the highest renown in the day of the Apostles, explain and illustrate various passages in ther writings, the beauty, energy, and sublimity of which consist in metaphorical allusions to these games, from the various gymnastic exercises in which their elegant and expressive imagery is borrowed. -"Do is 1 Cor. ix. 24-27.-" Do ye not know, that they who run in the stadium, run, indeed, all, but one only receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may lay hold on the prize:" Know you not that in the Grecian stadium great numbers run with the utmost contention to secure the prize, but that only one person wins and receives! With the same ardour and perseverance do you run, may receive the garland of celestial glory. You must observe that you all the rules prescribed by Christ, otherwise you cannot hope to receive the prize-"so run that ye may lay hold on the Here it is evident the Apostle places the Christian race in conprize. trast with the Grecian games; in them, only one received the prize, though all ran: in this, if all run all will receive the prize. "Now every one who contendeth for the mastery temperate in all things:" Every one who enters the list as a combatant, submits to the very rigid and severe regimen, They indeed that they may receive a fading crown, but we one that does not fade:" They do this to obtain a fading chaplet, that is only composed of the decaying leaves of a wild olive, but in our view is hung up the unfading wreath of immortality. The crowns for which the Greeks contended in the games, were for the most part of the leaves of trees, which though evergreens soon withered. In the Olympic games, the crowns were of the wild olive; in the Pythian they were of laurel; in the Isthmian, of pines; and in the Nemæan, of smallage, or parsley. The honours likewise of which these crowns were the pledges, by length of time lost their agreeableness and at last perished, being all confined to the present life. But the crown for which Christians contend being a crown of righteousness (2 Tim. iv. 8), and a crown of life (James i. 12; Rev. ii. 10), it never fades, as the Apostle observes in the next clause; that is, there shall never be any period put to the honours and advantages of which this crown is the pledge. "I therefore run, not as uncertainly.” * "The word adŋλws, which we translate uncertainly, has other meanings. I. It signifies ignorantly: I do not run like one ignorant of what he is about; or of the laws of the course: I know that there is an eternal life: I know the way 'he reward being so great, I do not exert myself with just o much agility and strength as is sufficient to secure the >rize; but I exert myself to the utmost, as one who is sensile that the object is worthy the greatest exertion, and that ne is always in the view of his judge. "So I box, as not beatng the air:" I engage as a combatant but deal not my blows in empty air. Kype observes that there are three ways in which persons were said aɛpa depev, to beat the air. (1.) When in practising for the combat, they throw their arms and legs about in different ways, thus practising the attitudes of offence and defence. This was termed σkiaμaxia, fighting with a shadow. To this Virgil alludes when representing Dares swinging his arms about, when he rose to challenge a competitor in the boxing match, Æn. v. ver. 375. αερα Thus glorying in his strength, in open view PITT. (2.) Sometimes boxers were to aim blows at their adversaries which they did not intend to take place, and which the others were obliged to exert themselves to prevent, as much as if they had been really intended; and, by these means, some dexterous pugilists vanquished their adversaries by mere fatigue, without giving them a single blow. (3.) A pugilist was said to beat the air, when he contended with a nimble adversary, who, by running from side to side, stooping, and various contortions of the body, eluded his blows; and thus, by causing him to miss his aim, and frequently, perhaps, to overturn himself in attempts to strike, made him emphatically to spend his strength on the wind. We have an ex that leads to it; and I know and feel the power of it. 2. It signifies without observation; the eyes of all the spectators were fixed on those who ran in these races; and to gain the applause of the multitude, they stretched every nerve; the Apostle knew that the eyes of all were fixed upon him.-1. His false brethren waited for his halting-2. The persecuting Jews and Gentiles longed for his downfall-3. The church of Christ looked on him with anxiety-4. And he acted in all things as under the immediate eye of God." Dr. A. Clarke in loco.—“ The Greek adverb adnλwc," says Dr. Macknight, 66 comes from adnλa, a word which signi fies a thing not manifest or apparent, Luke x. 44. Ye are, we ra vera a adna, as graves which appear not." And he paraphrases the passage as follows. 'I run according to all the rules prescribed, and with the greatest activity; knowing that in no part of the course I am out of the view of my judge, and of a great concourse of spectators.' Christ the judge of the world observes how every man behaves in the station assigned to him, and that with as much attention, as the judges and spectators observed the manner in which the athletes contended." Dr. Macknight in loco, ample of this in Virgil's account of the boxing-match between Entellus and Dares, before cited, which will give us a proper view of the subject to which the Apostle alludes. Homer has the same image of missing the foe and beating the air, when describing Achilles attempting to kill Hector: who, by his agility and skill (poeticè by Apollo), eluded the blow. Hom. b. xx. ver. 445. Thrice struck Pelides with indignant heart, POPE. "But I bruise my body, and lead it captive*, lest, perhaps. having proclaimed to others, I myself should be one not approved." I inure my body to the severest discipline, and bring all its appetites into subjection; lest when I have proclaimed to others, I should at last be rejected as unworthy to obtain it. This representation of the Christian race must have made a strong impression upon the minds of the Corinthians, as they were so often spectators of those games, which were celebrated on the Isthmus, upon which their city was situated. It is very properly introduced with KNOW YOU NOT? for every citizen of Corinth was acquainted with the most minute circumstance of this most splendid and pompous solemnity. What has been observed concerning the spirit and ardour with which the competitors engaged in the race, and concerning the prize they had in view to reward their arduous contention, will illustrate the following sublime passage of the same writer, in his epistle to the Philippians, iii. 12—14. "Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect; but I follow after if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I *The word deλaloyo, is applied to the leading an enemy away captive from the field of battle. It denotes therefore an absolute victory. This and the former word are very emphatical, conveying a lively idea of the Apostle's activity in the battle against the animal part of his nature, and of the obstinacy of his enemy, and so heightening the victory. + We have already noticed that it was the office of the herald, at these festivals, to proclaim the conditions of the games, display the prizes, exhort the combatants, excite the emulation of those who were to contend, declare the terms of each contest, pronounce the names of the victors, and put the crown on their heads. In allusion to that office, the Apostle calls himself Knov, the herald, in the combat for immortality; because he was one of the chief of those who were employed by Christ, to introduce into the stadium such as contended for the incorruptible crown. He called them to the combat; he declared the kind of combat in which they were to engage; he proclaimed the qualifications necessary in the combatants, and the laws of the battle. Withal, he encouraged the combatants, by placing the crowns and palms full in their view. See Drs. Adam Clarke and Macknight, in loco. do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press towards the mark, for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus:" Not that already I have acquired this palm: not that I have already attained perfection; but I pursue my course, that I may seize that crown of immortality, to the hope of which I was raised by the gracious appointment of Jesus Christ. My Christian brethren, I do not esteem myself to have obtained this glorious prize: but one thing occupies my whole attention; forgetting what I left behind, I stretch every nerve towards the prize before me, pressing with eager and rapid steps towards the goal, to seize the immortal palm* which God, by Christ Jesus, bestows. That affecting passage, also, of the same Apostle, in the second epistle of Timothy, written a little before his martyrdom, is beautifully allusive to the above-mentioned race, to the crown that awaited the victory, and to the Hellanodics or judges who bestowed it. "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but to all them also that love his appearing," 2 Tim. iv. 7, 8. The writer of the epistle to the Hebrews-an epistle which, in point of composition, may vie with the most pureand elaborate of the Greek classics- says: "Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. Wherefore lift up the hands that * Every term here employed by the Apostle is agonistical. The whole passage beautifully represents that ardour which fired the combatants when engaged in the race. Their spirit and contention are in a very striking manner described in the following truly poetical lines of Appian, (Pisc. lib. iv. ver. 101), which happily illustrate this passage. We give Jones's translation : As when the thirst of praise and conscious force Prone from the lists the blooming rivals strain, To seize the goal, and snatch th' immortal prize. SS hang down, and the feeble knees: and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way," Heb. xii. 1-3. 12, 13. In allusion to that prodigious assembly, from all parts of the world *, which was convened at Olympia, to be spectators of those celebrated games, the Apostle places the Christian combatant in the midst of a most august and magnificent theatre, composed of all those great and illustrious characters, whom in the preceding chapter he had enumerated, the fancied presence of whom should fire him with a virtuous ambition, and animate him with unconquered ardour to run the race that was set before him.— "Wherefore, seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses," whose eyes are upon us, who expect every thing from the preparatory discipline we have received, and who long to applaud and congratulate us upon our victory, "let us lay aside every weight and the sin that doth so easily beset us:"+ let us throw off every impediment, as the competitors for the Olympic crown did, and that sin that would entangle and impede our steps, and prove the fatal cause of our losing the victory; and "let us run with patience the race set before us," like those who ran in the Grecian stadium: let us, inflamed with the idea of glory, honour, and immortality, urge our course with unremitting ardour toward the destined happy goal, for the prize of our high calling in God our Saviour; looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith" As the candidates for the Olympic honours, during the arduous contention, had in view those illustrious and venerable personages from whose hands they were to receive the envied palm, and who were immediate witnesses of their respective conduct and merit; in imitation of them, let us Christians keep our eyes stedfastly fixed upon Jesus, the original introducer and perfecter of our religion, who, if victorious, will rejoice to adorn our temples with a crown of glory that will never fade; "who, for the joy set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is now set down at the right hand of God" Jesus himself, that he might seize the glorious palm which his God and Father placed full in his view, in order to inspirit him with that ardour and alacrity in the race he had set before him, cheerfully submitted to sorrows and sufferings, endured the cross, contemning the infamy of such a death, and, in consequence of perseverance and victory, is now *Not merely the inhabitants of Athens, of Lacedemon, and of Nicopolis, but the inhabitants of the whole world are convened to be spectators of the Olympic exercises. Arrianis Epictetus, lib. iii. p. 456. Upton. + Entangle by wrapping round. An allusion to the garments of the Greeks, which were long, and would entangle and impede their steps, if not thrown off in the race. See Hallet, in loco. |