"That the whole creation - Margin, "every creature."
This expression has been commonly understood as meaning the same as "the creature" in Rom 8:20-21. [For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.]
But I understand it as having a different signification; and as being
used in the natural and usual signification of the word "creature," or "creation." It refers, as I suppose, to the whole animate creation; to all living beings; to the state of all created things here, as in a condition of pain and disorder, and groaning and death.
--Everything which we see; every creature which lives, is thus subjected to a state of servitude, pain, vanity, and death.
The reasons for supposing that this is the true interpretation, are,
(1) That the apostle expressly speaks of the whole creation, of every creature, qualifying the phrase by the expression "we know," as if he was drawing an illustration from a well-understood, universal fact.
(2) this interpretation makes consistent sense, and makes the verse have a direct bearing on the argument. "It is just an argument from analogy."
Groaneth - Greek, Groans together. All is united in a condition of sorrow. The expression denotes mutual and universal grief.
(2) this interpretation makes consistent sense, and makes the verse have a direct bearing on the argument. "It is just an argument from analogy."
Groaneth - Greek, Groans together. All is united in a condition of sorrow. The expression denotes mutual and universal grief.
It is one wide and loud lamentation, in which a dying world unites; and in which it has united "until now."
And travaileth in pain together - This expression properly denotes the extreme pain of parturition. It also denotes any intense agony, or extreme suffering; and it means here that the condition of all things has been that of intense, united, and continued suffering;
in other words,
that we are in a world of misery and death.
This has been united; every age has experienced the repetition of the same thing.
Until now - Until the time when the apostle wrote.
Until now - Until the time when the apostle wrote.
It is equally true of the time since he wrote.
It has been the characteristic of every age."
Albert Barnes
