if we suffer Rather endure with brave and manly submission; 2 Timothy 2:10. The submission is followed by sovereignty, as death by life. Cf. Matthew 19:28 -ye which have followed me … shall sit on twelve thrones."

if we denyhim] The ms. authority requires the future if we shall deny him, cf. Matthew 10:32-33. The future there and here indicates -ethical possibility," i.e. what can and may take place, viewed speculatively. Is it not possible that this very phrase of the -Oral Gospel" embodied in Matthew 10:33 may have already found a place in this earliest of hymns?

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