Verse 35
35. The weak The helpless.
Words An unwritten saying of the Lord, for the record of which we are indebted to this speech of Paul’s.
More blessed ”Plutarch relates that Artaxerxes said, To bestow is more royal than to take away. And Aristotle says: It belongs to a freeman to give rather than to receive. Both of these sayings correspond in expression to the aristocratic views of antiquity. The former refers to the distinction which existed between rulers and the people; the latter to the ancient distinction between freemen and the slaves. Seneca, on the other hand, speaks in reference to the gods when he says: He who bestows benefits imitates the gods; he who takes, the usurers. There is, however, in all these classic sayings a certain aristocratic pride of sentiment, which cannot fail to be perceived. The saying of Christ, on the contrary, is founded on the fact that God is love.” Lechler. It will, indeed, be generally found, on close examination, that passages of the Christian Scriptures which are paralleled by some heathen quotation are rooted in deeper and purer grounds, and infused with a higher life.
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