[1] _Anethalete to huper emou phronein_. Literally, "_you shot forth_ (as a branch) _thought in my behalf_." (The English perfect best represents this aorist.) The phrase is unmistakably pictorial, poetical. If I read it aright, it is touched with _a smile_ of gentle pleasantry; the warm heart comes out in a not undesigned quaintness of expression. [2] _tapeinousthai_ is used in classical Greek of the falling of a river in drought. Perhaps such an image is present in the language here. [3] _Memuemai_: the verb whose root is that of _mysterion_, _mysterium_, "mystery." In the Greek world "mysteries" were systems of religious belief and practice derived, perhaps, from pre-Hellenic times, and jealously guarded from common knowledge by their votaries. Admission into their secrets, as into those of Freemasonry now, was sought by people of all kinds, from Roman consuls and emperors downwards; with the special hope of freedom from evil in this life and the next. St Paul's use of this phenomenon to supply language for Christian experience is beautifully suggestive. The knowledge of the peace of God is indeed an _open_ secret, open to "whosoever will" "learn of Him." But it is a secret, a mystery, none the less. [4] The word _Christo_ should be omitted from the reading, though perfectly right as a note or explanation.--The _iochus_ is the forth-putting of the _dunamis_--the _action_ of the _faculty_. He is ready to act (or to bear) in a power always latent, always present, through his union with his Lord. The "all things" so met are, of course, the all things of the will of God, the choice of the Master for the servant in the way of circumstance and trial; not the all things of the mere wish or ambition of the servant. [5] _Philippesioi_: the Greek form represents a Latin _Philippenses_, by which the residents in the _Roman "colony"_ would call themselves. So _Corinthiensis_ means not a born Corinthian but a settler at Corinth.--Greek tends to represent a Latin syllable -_ens_ by -_es_: so _Klemes_, _Clemens_. [6] See Acts xvii. 1-15. [7] On the Egnatian road. He made three stages of the distance; Amphipolis, Apollonia, Thessalonica. [8] _Ton karpon ton pleonazonta eis logon hymon_. I venture to render these words as above, as a monetary phrase, relating to principal and interest. It is true that _karpos_ is not found used in the sense of interest, for which the regular word is _tokos_. But it would easily fit into the language of the money-market. And St Chrysostom's comment here seems to show that he, a Greek, understood it thus: _horas hoti ekeinois ho karpos tiktetai_ (_tokos_). [9] For _osme euodias_ see Eph. v. 2. The phrase is common in the Septuagint to render the Hebrew "savour of rest," the fume of the altar pictorially represented as smelt by the Deity.