…A. Absolute Ellipsis:
That is, the omission of words or terms which must be supplied only from
. the nature of the subject.
The omitted word may be a noun, adjective, pronoun, verb, participle, adverb,
or preposition.
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……I. The Omission of Nouns and Pronouns.
……….1. The Omission of the Nominative.
…….. 2. The Omission of the Object or Accusative,
………… etc., after the verb.
…….. 3. The Omission of the Pronoun.
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Where there can be no doubt to whom or to what the noun refers, the pronoun is frequently omitted in the Greek, and in most cases is supplied in italic type in the A.V.
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The omission of the pronoun makes it more emphatic, attention being called more prominently to it.
Matt. 19:13 —“That He should put the hands [of Him] upon them,”
i.e., His hands.
Matt. 21:7 —“And put on them the clothes [of them]”
i.e., their garments, “and he sat upon them.”
This is the reading of the critical editions.
Mark 5:23 —“Come and lay the hands [of thee] upon her” i.e., thy hands.
Where the A.V. does not even put “thy” in italics.
Compare Matt. 9:18, where the pronoun (σου, sou) thy is used.
Mark 6:5 — “And he laid the hands [of him] upon a few sick folk,” i.e., his hands.
So also 8:25, 16:18; Acts 9:17.
Luke 24:40 —“And when He had thus spoken, He showed them the hands and
the feet [of Him],
i.e., as in A.V., “his hands and his feet.”
John 11:41 —“And Jesus lifted up the eyes [of Him],” i.e., his eyes.
Acts 13:3 —“And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid the hands [of them]
on them,” i.e., their hands on them.
Acts 19:6 —“And when Paul had laid the hands [of him] upon them,” i.e., his hands.
Rom. 2:18 —Thou “makest thy boast of God, and knowest the will [of him],”
i.e., his will: the will of God.
Rom. 6:3, 4 —May be perhaps best explained by this figure.
“Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus,
unto his death we were baptized? Therefore we were buried together with him
by the baptism [of him] (i.e., by his baptism) unto death.”
For He had “a cup” to drink of (His death), and “a baptism to be baptized with”
(His burial), and when He died and was buried, His people died and were buried
with Him, and, as the next verse goes on to say, rose again with Him.
So the passage reads: “Therefore we were buried with him by his baptism-unto-death [i.e. his burial], in order that just as Christ was raised from among the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also, in newness of life should walk. For if we have become identified in the likeness of his death, certainly in that of his resurrection also we shall be: knowing this, that our old man was crucified together with [him] in order that the body of sin may be annulled, that we should no longer be in servitude to sin. For he that hath died hath been righteously acquitted from the sin [of him], i.e. his sin.
Now if we died together with Christ, we believe that we shall live also together with him.”
The whole argument lies in this; that we are reckoned as having died with Him,
and as having been buried with Him in His burial (or baptism-unto-death).
(See Matt. 20:23; Mark 10:38, 39; Luke 12:50). Hence all such are free from the dominion and condemnation of sin, and stand in the newness of resurrection life.
This is “the gospel of the glory” (2 Cor. 4:4), for it was by the glory of the Father that Christ was raised, and it is glorious news indeed which tells us that all who are in Christ are “complete in Him” (Col. 2:10), “accepted in the beloved” (Eph. 1:6),
“perfect in Christ Jesus” (Col. 1:28).
With this agrees Col. 2:10-12. “And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power. In whom (ἐν ᾧ, en hō) also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh
by the circumcision of Christ; buried with him in the baptism [of him]
i.e., in his baptism-unto-death, in whom (ἐν ᾧ , not “wherein,” but as it is rendered above) ye were raised together also through the faith of the operation of God, who raised him from among the dead,” etc.
Here, again, the whole argument turns on the fact that the “circumcision” and the “baptism” spoken of are both “made without hands,” and both are fulfilled in Christ. The whole context of these two passages must be studied in order to see the one point and the great truth which is revealed: viz., that in His death we are circumcised and cut off, “crucified with Him” (Rom. 6:6): in His burial (or baptism-unto-death) we are baptized (Rom. 6:4 ; Col. 2:12): and in His resurrection we now have our true standing before God. We have all in Christ. Hence, our completeness and perfection in Him is such that nothing can be added to it. All who are baptized by Him with the Holy Spirit are identified with Him in His death, burial, and resurrection.
Hence, those who are being baptized are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not
(1 Cor. 15:29, see below), for they do not rise if Christ be not raised. But, if Christ be raised, then we are raised in Him; and “Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more … for in that he died, he died unto sin once for all; but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise ye also reckon yourselves dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God, IN CHRIST JESUS” (Rom. 6:8-11).
Eph. 3:17, 18 —“That ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may know what is
the breadth [of it], and length [of it], and the depth, [of it], and the height [of it],”
i.e., of love. “That ye may know what is [its] breadth, and length, and depth, and height, etc.”
1 Tim. 6:1 —“That the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed.”
The R.V. reads “that the name of God and the doctrine be not blasphemed,”
but it is better “the doctrine [of him],”
i.e., his doctrine, as in the A.V.
Heb. 4:15 —“But was in all points tempted according to the likeness [of us]
apart from sin,”
i.e., according to [our] likeness.
From “Figures Of Speech Used In The Bible” by E. W. Bullinger,
(Public Domain) pages 18-20. Adapted for website compatibility.
See original at link. Stream Download.
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