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 THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TH^GiCALSt^ 
 
 CORINTHIANS, 
 
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THE ISTHMUS OF CORINTH. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 CORINTH. ITS SITUATION AND HISTORY. 
 
 At the time of the Apostle's visit, Corinth was the most con- 
 siderable city in Greece. Its commercial importance had always 
 been great. Situated on a narrow neck of land between two 
 seas^ — the far-famed Isthmus — the temptations to prefer com- 
 merce to war, even in times when war was almost the business 
 of mankind, proved irresistible to its inhabitants. The com- 
 mand of the Isthmus was no doubt important in a military 
 point of view ; but at a time when navigation was difficult and 
 dangerous^, the commercial advantages of the position were 
 enormous. Merchants arriving either from the East or from 
 the West, from Italy or Asia Minor, could save themselves 
 the risk of a hazardous voyage round the Peloponnesus, and 
 found at Corinth both a ready market for their wares, and a 
 convenient means of transport. Corinth, therefore, had always 
 held a high position among the cities of Greece 3, though the 
 mihtary genius of Sparta and the intellectual and political 
 eminence of Athens secured to those two states the pre-emi- 
 nence in the best periods of Greek history. But in the decline 
 of Greece, when she had laid her independence at the feet of 
 Alexander the Great, the facihties for trade enjoyed by Corinth 
 gave it the first place. Always devoted to the arts of peace, 
 in such a degree as to incur the contempt of the Lacedae- 
 
 1 Ovid [Met. v. 407) and Horace ((9^. I. 7. 2) call it bimaris Corinthus, 
 
 2 Cape Malea, now St Angelo, was "to the voyages of ancient times, 
 what the Cape of Good Hope is to our own." Conybeare and Howson. 
 Vol. I. ch. xii. 
 
 3 Corinth early founded colonies, of which the most famous were 
 Syracuse in Sicily, and Corcyra, known to the Italians as Corfu, but still 
 retaining in Greek its ancient name KepKvpa. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 monians^, it was free, in the later times of the Greek re- 
 publics, to devote itself undisturbed to those arts, under the 
 protection, for the most part, of the Macedonian monarchs. 
 During that period its rise in prosperity was remarkable. It 
 had always been famous for luxury, but now it possessed the 
 most sumptuous theatres, palaces, temples, in all Greece. 
 The most ornate of the styles of Greek architecture is known 
 as the Co7'inthian. The city excelled in the manufacture of 
 a peculiarly fine kind of bronze known as Corinthian brass 2. 
 Destitute of the higher intellectual graces (it seems never, 
 since the mythic ages, to have produced a single man of 
 genius) it possessed in a high degree the refinements of 
 civilization and the elegancies of life. It was regarded as the 
 " eye ^," the " capital and grace *" of Greece. And when (B. c. 
 146) it was sacked by Mummius during the last expiring struggle 
 of Greece for independence, though it was devoted to the gods, 
 and not allowed to be rebuilt for a century, its ruins became 
 the "quarry from which the proud patricians who dwelt on 
 the Esquiline or at Baiae, adorned their villas with marbles, 
 paintings, and statues^" 
 
 The colony (JuHa Corinthus) founded here by Julius Caesar 
 in B.C. 46 soon restored the city to its former greatness. The 
 site had lost none of its aptitude for commerce. The city rose 
 rapidly from its ruins. The Roman proconsul of Achaia fixed 
 his seat there (Acts xviii. 12). Merchants once more, as of old, 
 found the convenience of the spot for the transport or disposal 
 
 ^ Plut. Apophth. Lac. Agis son of Archidamus, vi. 
 
 ^ Some writers have supposed this aes Corijithiacum to have been 
 the gold, silver and brass melted down in the conflagration which 
 followed the taking of the city by Mummius, But this, which seems 
 intrinsically improbable, is refuted by the fact that the Corinthian brass 
 was well known before the destruction of Corinth. See note in Valpy's 
 Edition on the passage quoted below from Florus, and Smith's Dictionary 
 of Antiquities. 
 
 3 Cicero pro Man. 5. ^ Florus ii. 16. i. 
 
 ^ Stanley, Introdjiction to 1st Corinthians, p. 1. Rome, says Strabo 
 (viii. 6. 23), was filled with the spoils of the sepulchres of Greece, and 
 especially with the terra cotta vases which were found there. Every tomb, 
 he adds, was ransacked to obtain them. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 of their wares, and in the early days of the Roman Empire 
 Corinth became, as of old, a bye-word for luxury and vice. 
 "Non cuivis homini contingit adire Corinthum^" has passed 
 into a proverb, which is also found in the Greek language 2, 
 and which at once points to Corinth as a wonder of the world, 
 and as a place which no man should dare to visit without an 
 ample command of money. The worship of Aphrodite, which 
 had given Corinth an infamous pre-eminence over other cities^, 
 was restored^, and Corinth once more became a hotbed of 
 impurity. And though the names of many of its residents 
 indicate a Roman origin, there can be no doubt that the supple 
 and astute Greek, who had become a prominent feature of 
 Roman society even in the capital^, had re-occupied the city, 
 and gave the tone to the general character of its life. Greek 
 philosophy was then in its decline, and it is to Greek philosophy 
 in its decline that we are introduced in the Epistles of St Paul. 
 Endless logomachies'', personal vanity and rivalries'', a dispo- 
 sition to set intellectual above moral considerations^, a general 
 laxity of manners and morals ^ a preference of individual con- 
 venience to the general welfare^*, a tendency to deny the idea 
 of a future life, and to give oneself up to unlimited enjoyment 
 in this^^ appear to have been the chief difficulties with which 
 St Paul had to contend in planting the Gospel at Corinth. 
 These were in part the characteristics of Roman society in 
 general ; but some of the features in the picture are peculiar to 
 Greece ^2. 
 
 1 Horace, Ep. i. 17. 36. 
 
 2 Strabo viii. 6. 20. The proverb was applied to Corinth both 
 before and after the sack by Mummius. 
 
 ^ The word Corinthian was synonymous with profligacy in ancient 
 times, as it afterwards, by a classical allusion, became in the days of 
 the Regency and of George IV. in our own country. 
 
 ■* A thousand priestesses dedicated to her licentious worship existed 
 at Corinth, and it was the custom to signahse special occasions of 
 triumph by setting apart fresh victims to this infamous superstition. 
 
 ^ Juvenal, Sat. in. 76 — 78. ^ i Cor. i. 17, ii. 13. 
 
 ^ ch. iii. 21, iv. 6, 7, v. 6; 2 Cor. x. 12 (according to the received 
 text), xi. 12. 
 
 8 I Cor. v. 2. ^ v. II, vi. 9, 10. '^^ ch. vi.— xiii. 
 
 1^ ch. XV. 12 Especially the three first. 
 
8 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 It was to such a city, the highway between Rome and the 
 East, that the Apostle bent his steps. It was about the close of 
 the year 51. The time was unusually favourable for his arrival. 
 Not only would he find the usual concourse of strangers from 
 all parts of the world, but there was an unusual number of 
 Jews there at that moment, in consequence of the decree of 
 Claudius that 'all Jews were to depart from Rome^' We can 
 therefore imagine what feelings were in the Apostle's mind as 
 he entered the Saronic Gulf after his almost fruitless visit to 
 Athens. On a level piece of rock, 200 feet above the level 
 of the sea, stood the city itself I Above it the hill of Acro- 
 Corinthus, crowned by the walls of the Corinthian citadel, rose 
 to the height of 1886 feet^. The temples and public buildings 
 of the city, overlaid with gold, silver, and brass, according to the 
 custom of the ancient world, met his eye, and whether glittering 
 in the brilliancy of an Eastern sun, or less splendid in shade, 
 they had a tale to tell him of superstitions to be encountered, 
 and men to be turned from the power of Satan unto God. The 
 hope must have risen strong within him, and was soon to be 
 converted into certainty"*, that God had much people in that 
 city. And as he landed, and beheld the luxury and pride, riches 
 in their selfishness, vice in its shameless effrontery, and poverty 
 in its degradation and neglect, as well as the people of various 
 
 ^ Acts xviii. 1. Cf. Suetonius, Claudius, 25. "Judaeos impulsore 
 Christo (or according to some editions, Chresto) assidue tumultuantes 
 Roma expulit," where the heathen writer, in his contempt for the Jews 
 and their sects, has not taken the trouble to ascertain the facts. Chris- 
 tianity for years afterwards (see Acts xxviii. 21, 22) had failed to create 
 any strong feeling among the Jews at Rome. 
 
 ^ Acts xvii. 34, Corinth did not lie immediately on the sea, but a 
 little inland (see map). Its ports were Lechaeum and Cenchrea (Rom. 
 xvi. i), the former on the Western, the latter on the Eastern side of the 
 Isthmus. The former was connected with the city by the long walls, as 
 in the case of the Piraeus at Athens. Lechaeum was not more than a 
 mile and a half from the city ; Cenchrea was about nine miles distant. 
 
 2 ''Neither the Acropolis of Athens, nor the Larissa of Argos, nor 
 any of the more celebrated mountain fortresses of Western Europe — 
 not even Gibraltar — can compare with this gigantic citadel." Col. Mure. 
 Statius [Thebaid vii. 106) speaks of it as protecting with its shadow 
 the two seas alternately. 
 
 * Acts xviii. 10. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 nationalities who thronged the streets then, as they do still 
 
 in all great maritime cities, he must have felt that, though he 
 might stay there long — his visit lasted a year and a half — yet 
 that there was no time to be lost. He first preached the good 
 tidings to the chosen people, Jews and proselytes^, and was 
 'pressed in spirit^' as he thought of the unusual opportunity 
 which was here afforded him. And when, according to their 
 custom, the Jews reviled his doctrine and refused to listen to 
 it, he shook out his garment and said, 'Your blood be upon 
 your own heads. I am clean, from henceforth I will go to the 
 Gentiles^' And he kept his word. He was encouraged by an 
 influential secession from the Jewish community^, headed by 
 Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, but he never entered the 
 synagogue again. In a house 'hard by V he ministered to the 
 Jews who had attached themselves to him, and to the Gentiles 
 who came to listen to his words. Under the protection of 
 Gallio, the proconsul^, who entertained a true Roman contempt 
 for the Jewish law and all questions arising out of it, he was 
 allowed to minister in peace for 'many days''.' And thus were 
 laid the foundations of the Corinthian Church^. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE CORINTHIAN CHURCH, 
 
 I. Its fotmdation. In the Acts of the Apostles we find that 
 the system adopted by St PauP in founding Christian Churches 
 
 ^ Or perhaps even heathens. Acts xviii. 4 . 
 2 z/. 5. ^ V. 6. ^ z'. 8. 5 ^, 7. 6 J,, i^^ jy, 
 
 ^ V. 18. The Authorized Version has *a good while.' 
 8 For further information about Corinth, see Conybeare and Howson, 
 Life and Epistles of St Paul., Stanley, Introduction to 1st Corinthians, 
 Smith's Dictionary of Geography, and Leake's Morea. There are few 
 remains of antiquity now to be seen at Corinth or the Isthmus. The 
 seven Doric columns figured in Conybeare and Howson's work are all 
 that are left at Corinth, while at the Isthmus, though (see notes on 
 ch, ix. 24) the outlines of ancient remains may still be traced, it needs 
 an intimate topographical acquaintance with the spot to find them out. 
 * We have no account of the method pursued by any other Apostle. 
 
lo INTRODUCTION. 
 
 was as follows. Accompanied by one, and as the number of 
 converts increased, by more than one trustworthy colleague 
 or disciple, he traversed the particular district he desired to 
 evangelise, making as long a stay in each city as circumstances 
 permitted \ The length of his stay usually depended upon 
 the importance of the city, and its fitness as a centre whence the 
 influence of the Gospel might spread to distant parts. Thus 
 Antioch, the capital of Syria, Corinth, the resort, as has been 
 seen^, of men of various nationalities, and Ephesus, the metro- 
 polis of Asia Minor, became successively the abode of St Paul 
 for a lengthened period. The smaller churches he left under 
 the care of elders, selected from his converts, no doubt on the 
 principle laid down in the Epistle to Timothy^, that they should 
 be men who had previously enjoyed a reputation for gravity 
 and sobriety of life. The condition laid down in the same 
 Epistle, that they should not have been newly converted"*, 
 was of course impossible in this early stage of the history of 
 the community. The more important Churches enjoyed the 
 Apostle's superintendence for a longer period ; but it was im- 
 possible, when leaving them, to avoid placing them under the 
 care of men whose Christian profession was immature. Many 
 evils thus naturally arose in communities to which the principles 
 of Christianity were so new. The manner in which these evils 
 were met by the Apostle is worthy of remark. He gradually 
 gathered round him a band of men who were familiar with his 
 teaching and principles of action. When any scandals or diffi- 
 culties arose, and it was impossible to deal with them in person, 
 he despatched some of his companions to the place where their 
 presence was required^ He gave them instructions how to 
 deal with the cases that had arisen^, and further enjoined 
 them to return to him as speedily as possible with a report 
 of their success or failure''. St Paul followed the same course 
 
 ^ He was frequently driven away by the turbulent conduct of the 
 Jews, Acts xiii. 8, 50, xiv. 2, 5, xvii. 5, 13, xviii. 12. ^ Qiy^ j^ 
 
 "^ I Tim. iii. 7. ^ i Tim. iii. 6. 
 
 ^ I Cor. iv. 17; 2 Cor. viii. 6, 16, 17, ix. 5. 
 6 I Tim. i. 3; 2 Tim. iv. i, 2; Tit. i. 5. ^2 Cor. vii. 6, 13. 
 
INTRODUCTION. ii 
 
 in Corinth as elsewhere.* For a year and a half he stayed 
 there, and endeavoured to gain for Christianity a hearing 
 among those who resorted to Corinth from all quarters of the 
 world. He enjoyed unusual opportunities; for the protection 
 of Gallio, and the unpopularity of the Jews with the hetero- 
 geneous mob of Corinth \ prevented the Jews from raising their 
 usual disturbances. As we have already seen, a number of 
 Jews adhered to his teaching, but the majority (ch. xii. 2 ; cf. 
 also ch. viii. 7, note) of the members of the Church were 
 Gentiles, and by far the greater number (ch. i. 26) persons of 
 inferior rank and small intellectual attainments. Among these, 
 as the proportion of Roman names shews (see i Cor. i. 14, 16, 
 xvi. 17 ; Rom. xvi. 21 — 23; Acts xviii. 8, 17), a majority were 
 of Roman origin, while a smaller number were of Greek 
 descent. 
 
 2. Co)idition of the Corinthian Church. St Paul left Corinth 
 in consequence of a determination he had formed to spend the 
 approaching feast at Jerusalem^, a determination which possibly 
 had some connection with the vow under the stress of which 
 he left Corinth ^ In consequence of the earnest entreaty of 
 the Ephesians"* that he would give them the benefit of his 
 presence, he spent three years among them on his rerurn from 
 Jerusalem^ But the latter part of his stay was disquieted 
 by reports of disorders at Corinth^. Certain teachers had 
 arrived at Corinth, imbued with Jewish leanings^, who had 
 brought letters of recommendation with them from other 
 Churches^, and who set themselves to undermine the credit 
 and apostoHc authority of St Paul^, and even, as some have 
 
 ^ According to the received text, it was the Greeks who beat the ruler 
 of the synagogue. It is quite possible that the word has been omitted 
 from some of the best MSB. in Acts xviii. 17, from an idea that the 
 Sosthenes mentioned there was the companion of St Paul, and that, if 
 he were so, he must have been already converted. See note on ch. i. i. 
 For the opposite view consult Paley, Horae Faulinae, ist Ep. to the 
 Corinthians, No. 8, note. 
 
 2 Acts xviii. 21. The feast was probably that of Pentecost. 
 
 ^ Acts xviii. 18. ^ Acts xviii. 10. ^ Acts xx. 31. 
 
 ^ I Cor. i. II. ^2 Cor. xi. 22. ^ 2 Cor. iii. i. 
 
 ^ I Cor. ix. I — 5; 2 Cor. xii. 12, xiii. 3. 
 
12 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 gathered from 2 Cor. x, 5, 6, to persuade the Corinthian 
 Christians to set him at nought altogether. He was a man 
 of no eloquence, they said\ He was ignorant of the rules of 
 rhetoric ^ He had not even the physique of the orator'*. And, 
 besides this, he was no true Apostle. He had not been among 
 the disciples of Jesus Himself-*. And his conduct conclusively 
 shewed that he and his companion Barnabas did not possess 
 an authority co-ordinate with that of the twelve^. His doctrine, 
 too, was irreconcilable with theirs. He was a renegade Jew. 
 He had thrown off the yoke of the Jewish law, whereas it 
 was well known that the original Apostles of the Lord regarded 
 it as binding^. Such intelligence as this was alarming enough 
 in itself. Teachers like these had already alienated from St 
 Paul the members of one Church which he had founded^. But 
 the effect at Corinth was infinitely more mischievous. The 
 whole community had become disorganised. A tendency had 
 arisen to estimate men by their personal gifts rather than by 
 their spiritual powers or their Divine commission. Those who 
 adhered to St Paul's teaching were tempted to throw off their 
 allegiance to his person, and to transfer it to Apollos, the gifted 
 Alexandrian teacher, who had visited Corinth after St Paul's 
 departure^. Some declared that they followed St Peter, who 
 was placed by our Lord Himself at the head of the ApostoHc 
 band^ Others protested that they followed no human teacher, 
 but built their faith on the words of Christ Himself, inter- 
 preted, most probably, just as suited themselves i*^. A general 
 relaxation of discipline followed these dissensions. In their 
 
 1 I Cor. i. 17, ii. 4, 5, 13 ; cf. iv. 3, 19. 
 
 2 t'SiWTT/s T<^ \6y(i}, 2 Cor. xi. 6. 
 
 2 2 Cor. X. 10. ■* I Cor. ix. i. '^ i Cor. ix. 5, 6. 
 
 6 Gal. ii. 7 — 13. "^ Gal. i. 6, 7, iii. i, iv. 16. 
 
 ^ See note on ch. i. 12. ^ ch. i. 12. 
 
 ^0 Some German writers have endeavoured to shew that the Corinthian 
 Church was divided into four distinct and clearly defined parties, owning 
 respectively as their head, St Paul, Apollos, St Peter and Christ. 
 Some have gone so far as to describe precisely the views of these several 
 parties. But even if such defined parties had existed — and this is 
 rendered very doubtful by i Cor. iv. 6 — we have not sufficient inform- 
 ation at our disposal to decide what were the exact tenets of each 
 school. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 13 
 
 intellectual exaltation the Corinthians had passed over a grave 
 social scandal in their body without noticed The Holy Com- 
 munion, by its institution the Feast of Love, had degenerated 
 into a disorderly general meal, in which the prevalent per- 
 sonal and social antagonism was manifested in an unseemly 
 manner 2, in which the poor were altogether neglected', and 
 in which even drunkenness was allowed to pass unrebukedl 
 The women threw off their veils in the Christian congregation, 
 and gave indications of a determination to carry their new- 
 found liberty so far as to be destructive of womanly modesty 
 and submissiveness^ Beside this, the spiritual gifts which 
 God had bestowed upon His Church had been shamefully 
 misused^. They had become occasions of envy and strife. 
 Those who had received them considered themselves justified 
 in looking down upon those common-place Christians who had 
 them not. And as is invariably the case, pride on the one 
 hand begat bitterness and jealousy on the other. The misuse, too, 
 of the spiritual gifts had intruded itself into the congregation. 
 Men who had received such manifest proofs of the Divine 
 favour regarded themselves as released from all obligations to 
 control the exercise of the powers with which they were en- 
 dowed. They interrupted each other, they exercised their gifts 
 at improper times, till the aspect of a Christian congregation 
 was sometimes more suggestive of lunacy than of the sober 
 self-restraint Christianity was intended to produce''. So far 
 had the evil of division proceeded that there were not wanting 
 those who assailed the great cardinal principle of the resurrec- 
 tion of the dead, and were thus opening the door to the most 
 grievous excesses^. Such a condition of a community might 
 well disturb the mind of its founder. St Paul could not leave 
 Ephesus at present, for a 'great door and effectual' had been 
 opened to him there ^. But the occasion was urgent and could 
 not wait for his personal presence. He had already despatched 
 one of his disciples with instructions to proceed to Corinth 
 
 1 ch. V. I, 2. 2 ch. xi. 18, rg. ^ y^ 22. 
 
 * V. 21. ^ V. 5. ^ ch. xii., xiv. ^ ch. xiv. 23. 
 
 * ch. XV. 32—34. ^ ch. xvi. 9. 
 
14 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 as soon as he had transacted some necessary business in 
 Macedonia^. But, probably after Timothy's departure, tidings 
 arrived — if indeed it were not the pressure of his own over- 
 powering anxiety — which induced the Apostle not to wait for 
 Timothy's arrival thither^, but to send messengers at once. 
 Titus, and with him a brother whose name is not given, were 
 therefore sent direct to Corinth 3, most probably in charge of 
 the Epistle with which we are now concerned*. Another 
 reason weighed with St Paul in his determination to write. 
 Some members of the Corinthjan Church had sought informa- 
 tion from him on certain points^, {a) The Platonic philosophy, 
 which had recently invaded the Jewish Church, had placed an 
 exaggerated value on celibacy, and there were many at Corinth 
 who were still sincerely attached to St Paul, and desired to 
 have his opinion^ {b) Another difficulty had also arisen. St 
 Paul was everywhere impressing on his converts the doctrine of 
 their freedom from the obligations of the Jewish law. He 
 went so far as to declare that the Christian was bound by no 
 external law whatever''. There was nothing, in fact, which in 
 itself was unlawful to the Christian^. The lawfulness or un- 
 lawfulness of an act was to be determined by the circumstances 
 of the case. And the tribunal by which these nice points were 
 to be decided was the conscience of the individual. Such large 
 principles as these were likely to be misapplied, and, in fact, 
 they were misapplied. Some Christians considered themselves 
 absolved from all obligations whatever. Strong in their con- 
 tempt for idolatry and idols, they claimed a right to sit at an 
 idol feast, in the very precincts of the temple itself^. That such 
 conduct was highly offensive or dangerous to others was to 
 them a matter of no moment. If those who were scrupulous 
 
 1 Acts xix. 12', I Cor. iv. 17, xvi. 10. ^ gee note on ch. xvi. 10. 
 
 3 -2 Cor. ii. 13, viii. 6, 16 — 18, 22, 23, xii. 18. 
 
 4 See 2 Cor. vii. 6—15, where the arrival of the first Epistle is con- 
 nected with that of Titus'^ The obedience and fear and trembling with 
 which he was received is not only closely connected with the effect pro- 
 duced by the Epistle, but is scarcely intelligible without it. 
 
 5 ch. vii. I. 6 ch. vii. ' Rom. vi. 14, vii. 14, iv. 6, viii. 2. 
 8 ch. vi. 12, x. 23. ^ ch. viii. 10. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 15 
 
 about eating meats offered to idols shunned their company as 
 that of men guilty of gross and open apostacy, they ridiculed 
 their narrow-mindedness. If others were tempted by the license 
 they claimed to relapse into idolatry, they considered it to be 
 no concern of theirs^. And their abuse of Christian liberty 
 and of the principles the Apostle had laid down, did but add 
 to the confusion already existing in the Corinthian Church. 
 {c) There were sundry minor questions on which St Paul's 
 opinion was asked. The chief of these was a difficulty which 
 had arisen out of an expression of his, in an epistle now lost, in 
 which he bade them "not to company with fornicators 2," In 
 the heathen world, and in Corinth especially, such a command, 
 if literally carried out, would involve an almost entire cessation 
 of intercourse with the heathen. It was necessary to decide 
 these questions at once, and so to give free course to the Chris- 
 tian life of the Corinthian Church. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 DATE, PLACE OF WRITING, CHARACTER AND GENUINENESS 
 OF THE EPISTLE. 
 
 I. Date and Place of Writing. It was to the state of affairs 
 described in the preceding chapter that the Apostle addressed 
 himself in the Epistle under our consideration. In the spring of 
 the year 57, before his departure from Ephesus for Macedonia, 
 he wrote to his Corinthian converts. The subscription to this 
 Epistle in the A. V. states it to have been written at Philippi. 
 This mistake is due to a mistranslation of ch. xvi. 5. See note 
 there. Calvin remarks further that the salutation in ch. xvi. 19 
 is not from the Churches of Macedonia, but of Asia Minor. 
 Aquila and Priscilla, too (Acts xviii. 2, 18, 26; cf. i Cor. xvi. 19), 
 appear to have taken up their abode at Ephesus. If, in conclu- 
 sion, we compare the narrative in Acts xx. with i Cor. xvi. 
 
 1 Ibid. 2 ch. V. 9. 
 
i6 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 5, 8, we can have little doubt that the Epistle was written at 
 Ephesus. 
 
 2. Character of the Epistle. No Epistles give us so clear 
 an insight into the character of St Paul as the two Epistles to 
 the Corinthians^. Beside the deep and fervent love for God 
 and man, and for the object of his preaching, Jesus Christ, 
 both God and Man, visible in all his Epistles, we have in these 
 Epistles the most remarkable individual characteristics. A large 
 portion of the first Epistle is occupied with personal matters. 
 In the first four chapters the Apostle deals with the divisions 
 in the Corinthian Church, and these divisions, as we have 
 seen, were caused by the intrigues of those who sought to 
 disparage his qualifications and Apostolic authority. The 
 character, therefore, of his preaching, the source of its in- 
 spiration, the nature of his work, the sacrifices he made for 
 the Gospel's sake as a proof of his sincerity, are subjects 
 which take up a large part of the earlier portion of the 
 Epistle. Again, in the ninth chapter, when he is about to 
 refer once more to his own practice, he suddenly remembers 
 that that very practice has been turned into a pretext for 
 denying his Apostolic commission, and he enters into an 
 animated defence of it. Some of the most marked character- 
 istics of St Paul's style, as revealing to us the nature of the 
 man, are to be found in the Second Epistle. Such are the 
 impassioned vehemence of his self-vindication, his deep anxiety 
 and affection for his converts, the sternness which contends 
 with his love, his sudden deflections from the main argument 
 as some subsidiary idea or illustration occurs to him, the 
 irony mingled with his rebukes, peculiarities which reach their 
 climax in that Epistle. But in this, specimens of these pecu- 
 liarities are to be found. There is a striking instance of some 
 of them in ch. iv. 8 — 13, and in ch. ix. i. But for eloquence of 
 the highest order, such as is displayed in the magnificent 
 panegyric on love in ch. xiii., no Epistle can compare with this. 
 And there is no passage in any other Epistle which for depth 
 of spiritual insight, felicity of illustration and force of argument 
 
 ^ See Conybeare and Howson, Vol. 11. p. 28, 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 combined, approaches the passage in which the doctrine of 
 the Resurrection is at once defended and developed. One 
 particular faculty, the shrewd common-sense of St Paul, which 
 has received far less attention than it deserves, is more plainly 
 manifested in this Epistle than any other. A very large por- 
 tion of the Epistle is taken up with practical matters. It is 
 "Christianity applied to the details of ordinary Hfe\" And 
 no one can have read the part of the Epistle which extends 
 from ch. v. to ch. xiv. inclusive, without being struck with the 
 keenness of the Apostle's discrimination, which sends him at 
 once to the root of the matter, and enables him to decide 
 on the broadest and most intelligible ground what is per- 
 missible to the Christian, and what not. Witness his decisive 
 condemnation of the incestuous person, ch. v. i — 5, and of 
 fornication, ch. vi. 12 — 20, as well as the basis on which they 
 rest. Observe the way in which he deals with the question of 
 marriage in ch. vii., and, above all, with the delicate and diffi- 
 cult case when the one party has been converted to Christianity, 
 and the other has not {z>v. 12 — 17). Observe the broad dis- 
 tinction he draws between the lawfulness of a thing in itself, 
 and its permissibility in all cases, in the discussion of the 
 question of meats offered in sacrifice to idols (chapter viii. and 
 X.), as well as the calm decision with which he rules (in ch. 
 xiv.) that supernatural gifts need as much unselfishness and 
 discretion in their use as those which come to men in the 
 ordinary course. It is characteristics like these which mark 
 the Apostle off as a man sui generis^ and while they often add 
 tenfold to the difficulty of understanding him, have given to 
 his writings a conspicuous place, even in the New Testament 
 itself. 
 
 3, Gettume7iess. It is to their remarkable originality, as 
 well as the fact that they obviously arose out of the state of 
 the Corinthian Church immediately after its foundation, that 
 these Epistles owe the fact that, with one or two others, their 
 genuineness has never been seriously disputed. It would be 
 impossible for a forger, especially in an age when the writing 
 
 ^ Robertson, Lectures on the Corinthians, 
 I. COR. 2 
 
i8 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 of fiction had not been reduced to a system, to have invented 
 an Epistle so abounding in local and personal allusions, and 
 to affairs of immediate moment, without hopelessly entangling 
 himself in contradictions. And these two Epistles also possess 
 a testimony to their authenticity which no other book, even of 
 the New Testament, enjoys. Whereas most ancient writings 
 are identified by some allusion or quotation in a writer three or 
 four centuries later than their author, a chain of testimony 
 from the very first establishes the fact that this Epistle, in 
 the form in which it has come down to us, proceeds from the 
 hand of St Paul. Our first witness is Clement of Rome, the 
 friend and companion of St Paul (Phil. iv. 3), and afterwards^ 
 Bishop of Rome. About the year 97 (though some would place 
 it as early as 68), forty years after this Epistle was written, 
 and during the troubles which befel the Christians in the reign 
 of Domitian, Clement wrote to the Corinthians in reference to 
 some disputes which had arisen there of the same kind as 
 those of which St Paul had complained. This Epistle of 
 Clement possessed high authority, and was often bound up 
 with the New Testament and read in church ^ In it he thus 
 writes, " Take into your hands the Epistle of the blessed Paul, 
 the Apostle. What did he first write to you in the beginning 
 of the Gospel .'* Of a truth he enjoined you spiritually concern- 
 ing hi7nself and Cephas and Apollos, because even then you 
 had begun to shew partialities^." Polycarp, again, the disciple of 
 St John, quotes i Cor. vi. 2 as the words of St PauH. In the 
 shorter Greek edition of the Epistles of Ignatius, who was 
 Bishop of Antioch, and had been known to the Apostles % 
 there are many quotations from this Epistle, though its author 
 is not named ^. Irenaeus, the disciple of Polycarp^, and of 
 others who had seen the Apostles^, not only quotes this Epistle 
 
 1 Euseb. EccL Hist. ill. 4. 
 
 ^ Ibid. III. 16. It is found in the famous Alexandrian MS. of the 
 NT., one of the oldest still existing. 
 
 ■' Clement, ist Ep. to tlie Corinthians, ch. 47. 
 -* Epistle to the Fhilippians, ch. xi. ^ Eus. Ecd. Hist. ill. 22. 
 
 ^ The genuineness of this edition is, however, denied by some. 
 " Against Heresies, ill. 3. 4. ^ Ibid. iv. 32. i. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 19 
 
 as the work of St Paul, but mentions it as having been written 
 to the Corinthians ^ After his time it is needless to multiply 
 quotations. At the close of the second or the beginning of 
 the third century, Tertullian, a learned and able writer, not only 
 quotes it but devotes a considerable part of his Treatise against 
 Marcion to an analysis of its contents, and from that time 
 onward it has unhesitatingly been accepted as the work of 
 the Apostle St Paul, and as one of the canonical writings of the 
 Church. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 DOCTRINE OF THE RESURRECTION. 
 
 There is no other passage in the New Testament which 
 treats of the Christian doctrine of the Resurrection with such 
 force and fulness as the fifteenth chapter of this Epistle. This 
 doctrine is the keystone of the Gospel arch, and formed, as we 
 learn from the first record of the proceedings of the Christian 
 Church, the chief feature in the preaching of its first Apostles. 
 They 'gave witness' of the Resurrection of the Lord 'with 
 great power^'; they grieved the Sadducees by 'teaching through 
 Jesus the Resurrection of the dead^'; they regarded themselves 
 as specially concerned to be 'witnesses of the Resurrection*.' 
 It was evidently the leading feature in the teaching of St Paul. 
 In his sermon at Athens he preached 'Jesus and the Resurrec- 
 tion^.' And when, years afterwards, he stood to answer for his 
 heresies at a tribunal of his fellow-countrymen, his first remark 
 was ' of the hope and Resurrection of the dead am I called in 
 question V We are therefore prepared to find him laying 
 especial stress upon this doctrine. We shall not be surprised 
 to find him preferring it to all others. It is to him the articuhis 
 
 ^ Book III. Against Heresies, n- 9; iS- 2. In V. 7. i he calls it the 
 First Epistle to the Corinthians. 
 
 - Acts iv. 33. '^ Acts iv. 2. ■* Acts i. 22. 
 
 ^ Acts xvii. 18. * Acts xxiii. 6. 
 
20 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 stcxfitis ant cadentis ecclesiae. Without it there is no Christianity^ , 
 no deliverance from sin ", no future life^. To deny it is to give the 
 lie to all his preaching^ And therefore he takes especial care 
 to bear witness to \\\Qfact. 
 
 I. His words on this point are well worthy of study, for upon 
 the fact of the Resurrection depends not only the whole doctrinal 
 system of Christianity, but the whole question of the credibility 
 of the Gospel History. An acute writer has lately observed 
 that the whole question of miracles stands or falls with the 
 capital miracle of the Resurrection of Christ ^ If that miracle 
 be once conceded, it is but splitting straws to discuss the 
 possibility or probability of minor miracles. If it be denied, 
 with it goes the whole claim of Christ to be considered in any 
 special or peculiar sense the Son of God, We are therefore 
 forced to give marked attention to what was very probably the 
 first written account we have of the Resurrection of Christ ^ 
 And here we may remark (i) the fearless tone of the Apostle^. 
 There is, as Robertson has observed, the "ring of truth" about 
 the whole chapter^. There is no hesitation, no half-hearted- 
 ness. The language is not that of a man who says " I hope'" or 
 " I believe," but ^I k?iow that my Redeemer liveth, and that He 
 shall stand at the latter day upon the earth^.' We may observe 
 further (2) the tmie when the Apostle was writing. It was about 
 twenty-five years after the Resurrection 1°. There were plenty 
 of witnesses still alive who could be interrogated about what 
 they themselves had seen and heard. Nor was there any diffi- 
 culty in the investigation. Jerusalem was by no means difficult 
 of access from Corinth, and abundant opportunity existed for 
 disproving the assertions of the Apostle if such disproof were 
 possible. Lastly observe (3) the nature of the testimony. 
 Instead of being vague and confused, it is definite and precise. 
 
 1 Ch. XV. 14. 2 ., ^^ 3 ^. 18. 4 J,. IS 
 
 ^ Ecce Homo, p. 10 (4th edition). 
 
 ^ Unless we suppose the Gospels of St Matthew and St Luke to 
 Imve been already written. See notes on ch. xi, 23, xv. 3. 
 ^ Ch. XV. I — 20, 30 — 34. 
 
 ^ Lect. XXVIII. on the Epistles to the Corinthians. 
 3 Job xix. 25. I'' See note on ch. xv. 15. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Names of living men are given \ men who had themselves 
 publicly stated that they had eaten and drunk with Jesus after 
 He had risen from the dead^. Occasions are mentioned, and 
 the greater part of five hundred persons are stated to be still 
 living, who saw the fact with their own eyes"^. No clearer 
 evidence could be given that, as the Apostle said on another 
 occasion, this thing 'was not done in a corner'*.' 
 
 II. We may remark next on the mode of the Resurrection. 
 Christ, Ave are told, is the last Adam^, a second progenitor, 
 that is, of a mankind. A new and grander humanity is intro- 
 duced into the world by Him. Its law of operation is spiritual, 
 not natural "^ ; that is to say, it comes into the world not in the 
 ordinary course of nature, but by means which are above and 
 beyond that course''. The means whereby the first rudiments 
 of the manhood which is from above is communicated to man is 
 faith^, that is, the practical acknowledgment of the facts of the 
 unseen spiritual universe^. It saves man by the gradual incor- 
 poration into his very nature of that spiritual humanity which is 
 given to the world by Christ ^^ And if this process be in full 
 operation at death, if the humanity of Christ be then dwelling in 
 man, if he have 'the earnest of the Spirit ^\' through Whom 
 that humanity is imparted^^, his resurrection is secured^^. His 
 body then is as a seed planted in the ground. It contains 
 within it the principle of an imperishable life, a principle which 
 at the end of a period of any length soever, will assert its power. 
 But not at once ^"*. For (i)" the literal resurrection is but adevelop- 
 
 1 Ch. XV. 5, 7. 2 Acts X. 41. 3 ch. xv. 6. 
 
 * Acts xxvi. 26. ^ Ch. XV. 45. 
 
 * St John i. 13, iii. 5; I Cor. ii. 4, 5, xv. 50; Tit. iii. 5, 6 ; James 
 i. 18; I Pet. i. 23. 
 
 7 St John iii. 3; i Cor. xv. 47; 2 Cor. v. 17; Gal. vi. 15; Heb. 
 vii. 16. 
 
 8 St John iii. 16 — 18, vi. 40, 47; Rom. iii. 25; i Cor. xv. i, 2, &c. 
 
 9 Heb. xi. I. 1^ St Matt. xiii. 33; St John vi. 53—60, xiv. 23, 
 xvii. 23; Rom. vi. 5, 6 ; Gal. ii. 20, &c. 
 
 1^ 2 Cor. i. 22; Eph. i. 13, 14. 
 
 ^2 St John iii. 5, 6, 8; Rom. v. 5, viii. i — 17; i Cor. vi. 19; Gal. 
 iv. 6, 7; Eph. ii. 22; Phil. i. 19; Tit. iii. 5 (Greek) ; i John iv. 13. 
 ^2 St John vi. 54 ; Rom. viii. 1 1 ; i Cor. xv. 37, 38, 42, 43, 44, 52 — 54. 
 1-* I Cor. XV. 28. 
 
22 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 ment of the spiritual." It is from "spiritual goodness" that we 
 can " infer future glory^." The spiritual life must manifest its 
 presence here in antagonism to all that is evil and base, in 
 sympathy and in active cooperation w^ith all that is great and 
 glorious and like Christ, if it is to assert its power hereafter in 
 victory over the grave. And (2), this great conflict, necessary in 
 the world as well as in every individual soul, must have been 
 fought out, not merely in the individual but in the race, 
 before that victory is obta,ined. The natural life in the world 
 at large, as in the individual, must precede, and eventually 
 be * swallowed up' by the spiritual^ All that 'opposeth and 
 exalteth itself against the kingdom of righteousness must 
 be brought into captivity before the spiritual principle can have 
 its perfect working^ Even death itself must cease to be^ And 
 then the power from on high will transform our body of 
 corruption into a spiritual machine of vast and exalted powers^ 
 As the germ of hfe of the future plant is contained in the 
 seed planted in the ground, so there will be a link of connec- 
 tion between the new body and the old''. As the same germ, 
 by the law of its being, attracts to itself material particles 
 suitable to its needs as it unfolds to its full perfection, so 
 will it be with the spirit of man after the Resurrection''. But 
 the transformation will involve no loss, except of what is 
 known and felt to be a hindrance and a burden^. The 
 new body will be a development of, not a substitute for, the old. 
 'This corruptible' will 'put on incorruption' and 'this mortal' 
 will 'put on immortality^.' We shall not 'be unclothed, but 
 clothed upon, that mortality may be swallowed up of life ^".' And 
 this wondrous change will be due to the fact that Christ, in His 
 new and glorified humanity, dwells in the hearts of those who 
 are united to Him by faith. He will ' quicken our mortal bodies, 
 
 1 Robertson, Lecture XLiii. on Epistles to the Corinthians. 
 
 2 I Cor. XV. 46, 53, 54 ; 2 Cor. v. 4. ^ j Qq^^ xv, 25. * i Cor. xv. 26. 
 5 I Cor. XV. 42 — 44, 53; 2 Cor. v. i — 4; Phil. iii. 21; Col. iii. 4; 
 
 I John iii. 2; Rev. i. 13—16. 
 « I Cor. XV. 36 — 38, 42 — 44. 7 I Cor. xv. 38. See note. 
 
 8 Rom. viii. 23; 2 Cor. v. 2, 4. ^ i Cor. xv. 53. 
 
 10 2 Cor. v. 4. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 23 
 
 on account of His Spirit that dwells in them.' ' If Christ be in 
 you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life, 
 because of righteousness'^,^ that is, -His Righteousness, appro- 
 priated and inwrought in us by faith. ' If we have been planted 
 together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the 
 likeness of His Resurrection^': 'for as in Adam all die, even so 
 in Christ shall all be made alive^.' And that because 'whoso 
 eateth My Flesh and drinketh My Blood,' whoso assimilates 
 and makes his own by taking it into himself the new and 
 Divine Manhood of the Son of God, ^ haih eternal life, and I 
 will raise him up at the Last Day'."^ 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 ANALYSIS OF THE EPISTLE. 
 
 Part I. The Divisions in the Corinthian Church. 
 Ch. L— IV. 
 Section i. Salutation and Introduction, i. i — 9. 
 
 (a) The persons addressed r, 2. 
 
 (/3) Salutation of grace and peace 3. 
 
 (7) Thanksgiving for the mercies vouchsafed to the 
 
 Corinthian Church 4 — 9. 
 
 Sectioji 2. Rebuke of the Divisions in the Corinthian Church, 
 i. 10 — 17. 
 
 (a) Exhortation to unity 10. , 
 
 (/3) Reason for this exhortation. Report concerning the 
 
 divisions at Corinth 11, 12. 
 
 (7) Christ, not Paul, the centre of the Christian system 13 — 17. 
 
 Section 3. God's message not intended to flatter the pride of man, 
 i. 17—24- 
 
 (a) The preaching of the Cross intended to destroy 
 
 men's confidence in their own wisdom 17 — 21. 
 
 (]3) Therefore it would of course disappoint men's na- 
 tural ideas of power or wisdom among Jews or 
 Gentiles 22, 23. 
 
 (7) Yet to those who can appreciate it, the doctrine of 
 the Cross can prove to be both power and 
 wisdom 24. 
 
 1 Rom. viii. ro. ^ Rom.vi. 5. 
 
 3 I Cor. XV. 22. * St John vi. 54. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 (5) And this because God is so infinitely above man 
 that the least evidence of His greatness is far 
 above man's highest efforts 25. 
 
 (e) The character of the first converts to Christianity 
 
 regarded as a witness to this truth 25 — 29. 
 
 (f) Christ the true source of all excellence 3c, 31. 
 
 Section 4. The wisdom of the Gospel discernible by the spiritual 
 faculties alone, ii. i — 16. 
 
 (a) St Paul e-chewed all human wisdom, that God 
 
 might have all the glory I — 5. 
 
 (^) Not that he had no wisdom to impart, but it was 
 wisdom of a different character from that of 
 man 6 — 8, 
 
 (7) For it came by the revelation of God's Spirit 9, 10. 
 
 (5) Who had perfect means of knowing what He re- 
 vealed II. 
 
 (e) This is the Spirit the Christian teachers have re- 
 ceived and by Whose influence they speak 12, 13. 
 
 (i* ) The man who does not raise himself above this life 
 has no faculty wherewith to apprehend these 
 things 14, 
 
 (1;) It belongs alone to the man who possesses spiritual 
 
 faculties, has the Mind of Christ 15, 16. 
 
 Section 5. The partizanship of the Corinthians a hindrance to 
 spiritual progress, iii. i — 4. 
 (a) The Corinthians were incapable of entering into 
 
 this spiritual wisdom i, 2. 
 
 (j3) Because they looked at the man, not at his message 3, 4. 
 
 Section 6. Christian Ministers only labourers of more or less 
 efficiency, the substantial work being God's, iii. 5 — 23. 
 
 (a) Men are but instruments, God the efficient cause . . . 5 — 8. 
 
 (/S) Man's duty is to build properly on the true foun- 
 dation, Jesus Christ 10 — 15, 
 
 {7) Responsibility incurred by those who undertake to 
 
 teach in the Church 16, 17. 
 
 (5) Need for them to renounce the wisdom of this world 18 — 20. 
 
 (e) Conclusion, 'Let no man glory in men,' /or all 
 
 things are God's 22, 23. 
 
 Section 7. The true estimation of Christ's ministers, and the true 
 criterion of their work, iv. i — 7. 
 (a) Christian teachers, as 'ministers of Christ,' and 
 . stewards of the mysteries of God,' outside the 
 
 sphere of human judgments i — 5, 
 
 (/3) St Paul desires to put down personal rivalries in 
 
 the Church 6, 7. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 25 
 
 Section 8. Contrast between the Corinthian teachers and St Paul, 
 iv. 8—21. 
 (a) The Corinthians enjoy all the temporal benefits of 
 
 the Gospel, St Paul bears all the burden 8 — 13. 
 
 (/S) St Paul's object to lead the Corinthians into con- 
 formity to the Gospel 14 — ^7- 
 
 (7) He will use severity for this end, if other means fail 18 — 21. 
 
 Part II. Moral Disorders in the Corinthian Church. 
 Ch. v.— VII. 
 
 Section i. The case of the Incestuous Person, v. i — 8. 
 
 (a) The offender to be expelled i — 5* 
 
 (P) Reason: because the leaven of evil sunders men 
 
 from Christ 6 — 8. 
 
 Section 2. Application of the same principle to offenders generally, 
 v. 9-13. 
 (a) The duty of refusing to hold intercourse with 
 offenders to be confined to those within the 
 
 Church 9— II. 
 
 (/3) Because those only who are within the Church are 
 
 within the sphere of its judgment 12, i}^. 
 
 Section 3. The way to settle disputes in the Christian Church, vi. 
 I — II. 
 (a) The sin of going to law in the heathen courts re- 
 buked 1—7. 
 
 (j3) The graver crimes which led to such lawsuits re- 
 buked 8 — 1 1 . 
 
 Section 4. The guilt of the Fornicator, vi, 12 — 20. 
 
 (a) General principle. The lawfulness of all actions 
 in themselves. Limitation (i) that they must not 
 injure others, (2) that they must not interfere 
 
 with our mastery over ourselves 12. 
 
 (j3) Practical application 13 — 20. 
 
 (r) Comparative unimportance of questions con- 
 cerning food 13. 
 
 \ (2) Immense importance of the question of for- 
 nication 13 — 20. 
 
 {a) Because fornication is a violation of the 
 
 fundamental laws of the human body... 13. 
 {b) Because the body was created for and 
 
 redeemed by Christ 13, 14. 
 
 ■» (t) Consequently fornication violates the union 
 between God and the body He has 
 created for Himself 15 — 17. 
 
26 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 {d) Therefore the sin of fornication has a 
 
 special guilt of its own i8. 
 
 \ [e) Aggravated by the fact that Christ has 
 
 made the body the temple of His Spirit 19, 20. 
 
 Section 5. Advice concerning Marriage and Celibacy, vii. i — 9. 
 
 (a) General principle. Celibacy the state preferable in 
 itself, marriage the more necessary under ex- 
 isting circumstances i , ^ — 9. 
 
 (/3) Duties of married persons 3 — 5. 
 
 Section 6. Mutual obligations of Married Persons, vii. 10 — 16. 
 
 (a) General instruction. Married persons not to live 
 apart or to contract second marriages during 
 the lifetime of their former partners 10 — 14. 
 
 {/3) Modification under special circumstances, where one 
 party is converted to Christianity while the other 
 remains in heathenism 15, 16. 
 
 Section 7. Christianity not intended to revolutionize the relations 
 between the believer and society, vii. 17 — 24. 
 
 Extension of the above principle generally 17, 24. 
 
 Special application 
 
 (a) to Jews and Gentiles 18, 19. 
 
 (j8) to slaves 20 — 23. 
 
 Section 8. General instructions concerning the marriage of Virgins, 
 vii. 25 — 28. 
 
 (a) Celibacy preferable, marriage allowable 25 — 28. 
 
 (jS) Marriage to be contracted in a spirit of self-denial 29 — 31. 
 (7) For marriage tends to produce care, and care is alien 
 
 to the spirit of the Gospel 32 — 35. 
 
 (5) The duty of a father towards his daughter 36 — 38. 
 
 Section 9. Second marriage of women, vii. 39, 40. Permitted but 
 not advised. 
 
 Part III. Social and Ecclesiastical Disorders in the 
 Corinthian Church. Ch. VIII.— XIV. 
 
 Division i. The question of meats offered in sacrifice to idols, 
 viii. — xi. I. 
 
 Section i. The question discussed, viii. 
 
 (a) To be settled rather by love than knowledge I — 3. 
 
 (/3) The enlightened Christian knows that an idol is 
 
 really nothing 4 — 6. 
 
 (7) But all are not equally enlightened 7. 
 
 (5) The question being in itself indifferent, we are 
 bound to consider what are likely to be the 
 results of our conduct 8—13. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 27 
 
 Section 2 (parenthetical). St Paul's defence of his Apostolic au- 
 thority, ix. I — 14. 
 This authority, and his right to receive maintenance at the hands of 
 the Church, having been questioned (z/. i, 4 — 6), St Paul shews : 
 (a) That the Corinthian Church is itself a standing 
 
 guarantee of his Apostleship i. 
 
 (/3) Three illustrations of his right to maintenance by 
 
 the Church (see notes) 7. 
 
 (7) The principle further illustrated from the Law 8 — 10. 
 
 (5) Spiritual benefits deserve at least temporal recom- 
 pense II. 
 
 (e) The principle has been conceded in the case of 
 
 others 12. 
 
 (^) Further illustrations from the temple service 13, 14. 
 
 Section 3. (Return to main argument, see end of ch. viii.). St 
 Paul's own use of his Christian liberty is restrained by the 
 thought of the needs of others, ix. 15 — 23. 
 (a) This was his object in preaching the Gospel without 
 
 charge 15 — 18. 
 
 (j8) His practice being to ignore self for the profit of others 19 — 23. 
 
 Section 4. Exhortation to self-restraint, ix. 24 — 27. 
 
 (a) All need self-restraint in the Christian course 24, 25. 
 
 (^) St Paul himself finds it no easy task 26, 27. 
 
 Section 5. Example of Israel a warning to Christians, x. i — 14. 
 (a) In spite of great privileges, want of self-restraint was 
 fatal to the majority of the Israelites in their 
 
 pilgrimage i — 10. 
 
 (^) Christians must take heed by their example 11 — 14. 
 
 Section 6. The danger of eating meats offered to idols shewn from 
 the example of sacrificial feasts in general, x. 15 — 22. 
 
 (o) Eating at the Lord's Table brings a man into com- 
 munion with Christ 1 5 — 1 7. 
 
 (/3) The same principle applied to Jewish sacrificial meals 18. 
 
 (7) The idol is itself nothing, but its worship involves 
 the recognition as divine of other beings than 
 God 19, 20. 
 
 (5) We must either decide for God or His enemies, 
 
 we cannot have fellowship with both 21, 22. 
 
 Section 7. Practical directions on the subject, x. 23 — xi. i. 
 The principle (ch. vi. 12) being restated in v. 23, it follows : 
 (a) That we are to aim at the profit of others, not our 
 
 own 24. 
 
 ()8) That we need have no scruples of our own on the 
 
 point 25—27. 
 
 (7) But that we are to respect the scruples of others ... 28. 
 
28 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 (5) Not that they have a right to lay down principles of 
 
 action for us 29, 30. 
 
 (e) But that ive are bound in all things to seek God's 
 
 glory and the edification of our neighbour 31 — xi. i. 
 
 Division 2. The conduct and dress of women at the Public 
 Services of the Church, xi. 2 — 16. 
 
 (a) God's order in the world 3. 
 
 (jS) Men should be uncovered, women covered in the 
 
 congregation 4 — 6. 
 
 (7) Reason. The covering in the congregation the sign 
 
 of being under authority while there 7 — 12. 
 
 (5) Argument from sense of natural fitness 13 — 15. 
 
 (e) Argument from the custom of the Churches 16. 
 
 Division 3. Disorders at the Lord's Supper, xi. 17 — 34. 
 (a) Divisions, self-assertion, and disorder in the congre- 
 gation 1 7 — 22 . 
 
 (/3) Institution of the Lord's Supper 23 — 26. 
 
 (7) Manner in which it should be observed 27 — 34. 
 
 Division 4. Abuse of Spiritual Gifts, xii. — xiv. 
 
 Section i. Their origin and character, xii. i — 11. 
 
 (a) How to discern their nature i — 3- 
 
 (/3) The Spirit the same, his operations manifold, their 
 
 object the profit of the Church 4 — 11. 
 
 Section 2. Comparison of the unity of the body, and the unity of 
 the Church, xii. 12 — 31. 
 (a) Analogy between the body and the Church, each 
 
 being made up of many members, yet being one 
 
 organized whole 1 2 — 14 
 
 {^) Absurdity of setting up separate interests in the 
 
 body 1 5 — : i 
 
 (7) Each member of the body possesses its own proper 
 
 gifts, and receives its due share of honour 22 — 26 
 
 (5) Application of these principles to the Christian 
 
 Church 2 7 — 3 1 
 
 Section 3. The excellencies of Love, xii. 31 — xiii. 13. 
 
 (a) Importance of love xii. 31 — xiii. 3 
 
 (j3) Character of love 4 — 7. 
 
 (7) Permanence of love 8 — 13. 
 
 Section 4. Superiority of the gift of prophecy to that of tongues, xiv, 
 1—25. 
 ■ (a) Prophecy superior to the gift of tongues, in that it 
 
 is a means of edification i — 5- 
 
 (,8) Reason. Unknown tongues not understood in the 
 
 congregation 6 — 19. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 29 
 
 (7) The result of their public use, confusion instead of 
 
 edification 20 — 23. 
 
 (5) The opposite result produced by prophecy 24 25. 
 
 Section 5. Regulations to insure decency and order, xiv. 26 — 40. 
 
 (a) Rebuke of self-assertion 26. 
 
 (fi) Rules for the use of tongues 27, 28. 
 
 (7) For prophecy 29 — 31. 
 
 (5) Laid down because spiritual gifts should be under 
 
 the rule of right reason 32, 33. 
 
 (e) The public ministrations of women forbidden 34 — 36. 
 
 (^ Exhortation to obedience and order 37 — 40. 
 
 Part IV. Doctrine of the Resurrection. Ch. XV. 
 
 Section i. Establishment of the fact, xv. i — 11. 
 
 (a) It formed part of St Paul's preaching i — 4. 
 
 (jS) It was testified to by sundry well-known eye- 
 witnesses 5 — 7. 
 
 (7) St Paul himself, whatever his Apostolic claims, had 
 
 seen the Risen Lord 8. 
 
 Section 1. The Resurrection of Christ the foundation of all Chris- 
 tianity, XV. 12 — 19. 
 (a) The resurrection of other men depends entirely 
 
 upon it 12 — 14. 
 
 (/3) To deny it is to destroy the credit of the Christian 
 
 ministry 15. 
 
 {7) As well as Christian faith, and hope, and deliver- 
 ance from sin 16 — 19. 
 
 Section 3. The place of the Resurrection of Christ in the scheme 
 of Redemption, xv. 20 — 28. 
 (a) The Resurrection of Christ the first-fraits of His 
 
 Work 20. 
 
 (/3) For as man was the instrument of our death, so man 
 
 was destined to be the instrument of our life ... 21, 22. 
 (7) In the Divine order, Christ must precede His 
 
 members 23. 
 
 (5) And reduce, as Mediator, all that opposes God into 
 
 submission to Himself 25 — 27. 
 
 (e) In order that He may finally deliver up the 
 
 Kingdom to the Father, and God may be all in 
 
 all 24, 27, 28. 
 
 Section 4. Argument from the lives of believers, xv. 29—34. 
 
 (a) Those who are baptized for the dead 29. 
 
 (|S) Those who undergo suffering for Christ's sake 30 — 32. 
 
 (7) Danger of a contrary doctrine leading to a re- 
 laxation of morals 33, 34. 
 
30 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Section 5. Manner of the Resurrection, xv. 35 — 53. 
 
 (a) Analogy of the seed : (i) it rises again ; (2) there 
 
 are different kinds of seeds 35 — 38. 
 
 (/3) There are various genera in animal life 39 . 
 
 (7) There are diversities among the heavenly bodies ... 40, 41. 
 (5) Therefore there will be (i) diversity, (2) change in 
 
 the Resurrection bodies 42 — 44. 
 
 (e) The change will be from the natural to the spiritual, 
 
 through Christ the life-giving spirit 44, 45. 
 
 (f ) Priority of the natural to the spiritual 46 — 49. 
 
 (7;) The change consists in the translation of corruption 
 
 into incorruption 50 — 53. 
 
 Section 6. Result of the Resurrection, — Victory, xv. 54 — 58. 
 
 (a) The believer's victory over death 54 — 5 7. 
 
 (/3) Christian exertion in this life not thrown away 58. 
 
 Part V. Sundry Practical Directions. Conclusion. 
 Ch. XVI. 
 
 (a) Directions concerning the Collection i — 4. 
 
 (j3) Information concerning St PauFs impending visit... 5 — 9. 
 
 (7) Concerning Timothy and Apollos 10 — 12. 
 
 (5) Exhortation to earnestness and love 13, 14. 
 
 (e) Concerning Stephanas and his companions 15 — 18. 
 
 (f) Salutations 19 — 21. 
 
 (1;) Solemn warning 22. 
 
 \q) Benediction 23, 24. 
 
I. CORINTHIANS. 
 
 Ch. I. I — 9. Salutation and Introduction. 
 
 PAUL, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the 1 
 will of God, and Sosthenes our brother, unto the 2 
 church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are 
 sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in 
 
 Ch. I. 1 — 9. Salutation and Introduction. 
 
 1. called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the zuill of God] S t Paul 
 here as elsewhere asserts his Divme commission. This was necessary 
 because a party had arisen which was inclined to dispute it. We read 
 in the Epistle to the Galatians of the ' false brethren unawares brought 
 in ' whose doctrine he was compelled to withstand and to assert the 
 Divine origin of his own ; and in the second Epistle to the Corinthians 
 we find many allusions to those who rejected his authority, as in ch. iii, i , 
 V, 12, X. 2, 7, 10, and the whole of chapters xi. and xii. They no doubt 
 laid much stress on the fact that St Paul had not received the call of 
 Christ as the Twelve had (see notes on ch. ix.), and also on the different 
 complexion his doctrine, though the same, necessarily bore, from the fact 
 that it was mainly addressed to Gentiles and not to Jews. It is worthy 
 of remark that in the two Epistles to the Thessalonians, written before 
 the controversy arose, no such clause is found, while after the commence- 
 ment of the dispute the words or some equivalent to them are only 
 absent from one epistle addressed to a church. 
 
 Sosthenes our brother] Literally, the torother. He was probably not 
 the Sosthenes mentioned in Acts xviii. 17, who was an opponent of the 
 faith, but some one well known to the churches in the Apostolic age. 
 
 2. to them that are sanctified in Christ fesus] Literally, to them that 
 have been sanctified. The word here rendered sanctify means (i) to 
 consecrate to the service of the Deity, and hence (2) to purify, make 
 holy. The word here partakes of both senses. Those who have become 
 united to Christ by faith have not only been dedicated to Him, but have 
 been made partakers of His holiness by their participation in the Life 
 that is in Him. But such persons were by no means as yet free from 
 actual sin, as chapters v., vi., viii., xi. conclusively prove. "The Church 
 of Christ, abstractedly and invisibly, is a kingdom where no evil is ; in 
 the concrete, and actually, it is tire Church of Corinth, Rome, or 
 
32 I.CORINTHIANS,!. [w. 3— 5. 
 
 every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, 
 
 3 both theirs and ours : grace be unto you, and peace, from 
 God our Father, andy>w;/ the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 4 I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of 
 
 5 God which is given you by Jesus Christ; that in ^wtxy thing 
 
 England, tainted with impurity. And yet, just as the mudded Rhone is 
 really the Rhone and not mud and the Rhone, so there are not two 
 churches, the Church of Corinth and the false church within it, but one 
 visible Church, in which the invisible lies concealed." Robertson, On 
 the Corinthia7iSy Lect. II. 
 
 called to be saiuts\ Literally, called saints — because the faculty of 
 saintliness, if not actual saintliness itself, had been communicated to 
 every member of the Church. The only difference between 'saints' 
 and *them that are sanctified' is that the latter expression has reference 
 to a past act of God's mercy, the former to the present condition of 
 those who have benefited from it. 
 
 with all that in every place call tipon the name of Jesus Christ ojir 
 Lord\ The Epistle, which dealt with so many and such weighty truths, 
 was not to be treasured up as the peculiar heritage of the Corinthian 
 Church, but was to be regarded as the common possession of the uni- 
 versal Church of Christ. Or perhaps it is better, with Olshausen, to 
 regard the Apostle as reminding the Corinthians that they form only a 
 part, and that but a small one, of the whole Church of Christ, a considera- 
 tion which their self-satisfaction was leading them to forget. 
 
 3. grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord 
 Jesus Christ^ The close association of these words — for the preposition 
 is not repeated twice — has been held to imply the oneness of substance 
 of the Father and the Son. It is also remarkable that the grace and 
 peace are said to come from our Lord Jesus Christ equally with the 
 Father. The same formula is to be found in the greeting of every 
 epistle. But the most remarkable instance of this form of speech is 
 certainly that in i Thess. iii. 11 and 2 Thess. ii. 16, 17, where the 
 Father and the Son stand together as nominatives to a verb in the 
 singular. Grace is here used in the signification of favour, kindness, 
 rather than in the usual theological signification of Divine assistance. 
 The Apostle is speaking of that Divine favour in the sunshine of which 
 the believer is privileged to dwell, and which produces peace of mind as 
 its natural effect. For it is a cardinal point of his teaching that ' there 
 is henceforth no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, who 
 walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.' It is to be remembered 
 that our word grace is derived from the Latin gj'atia, the original signifi- 
 cation of which I?, favour, kindness. 
 
 4. the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ'] Rather, 
 perhaps, the favour of God 7vhich is given you in Jesus Christ. "We 
 are to conceive of Jesus Christ as filled with grace and as pouring it out 
 upon the human race" (Olshausen). Or rather perhaps, All gifts are the 
 result not of our merit, but God's good-will, and are not only given to 
 us by Jesus Christ, but are results of His indwelling in the soul. 
 
vv. 6—9.] I. CORINTHIANS, I. 33 
 
 ye are enriched by him, in all utterance, and /;/ all 
 knowledge ; even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed 6 
 in you : so that ye come behind in no gift ; waiting for the ^ 
 coming of our Lord Jesus Christ : who shall also confirm 8 
 you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom ye were 9 
 called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our 
 Lord. 
 
 5. in every thing ye are enriched\ Rather, Ye were enriched, i. e. at 
 your baptism, when you entered into the covenant-union with Christ. 
 The gifts of utterance, knowledge and the Hke, were the result of the 
 favour of God towards you. It appears evident from the rest of the 
 Epistle that the Apostle was thinking rather of the powers conveyed to 
 the Corinthians by their translation into Christ, than of the use they had 
 made of them. The Corinthians as a body were not as yet remarkable 
 for their Chi-istian knowledge, though many individuals had no doubt 
 made great spiritual progress. 
 
 in all utterance'] Literally, speech, discourse. 
 
 6, 7. even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in yon : so that ye 
 come behind in no gift] The testimony of Christ was St Paul's preaching 
 concerning Christ. It was * confirmed' by the outpouring of His Spirit. 
 
 co?ne behind] should rather be translated fall short. No comparison 
 with other Churches seems to have been intended. 
 
 the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ] The word in the original and in 
 the margin of the English version is revelation. But this is not always 
 equivalent to coming. The 'revelation of Jesus Christ' unquestionably 
 means (i) the Last Day in such passages as 2 Thess. i. 7 and i Pet, i. 7, 
 and the same is the case with St Luke xvii. 30. But on the other hand, 
 in passages such as 2 Cor, xii. i ; Gal. i. 12, 16, ii. 2, it means (2) the 
 fuller revelation of the mysteries of God's kingdom; while in Rev. i. i, 
 it signifies (3) the unfolding of things to come. The second of these 
 three meanings would seem most appropriate here. The testimony of 
 Christ, confirmed originally by the inward witness of the Spirit, receives 
 additional confirmation by the gradual unfolding of things Divine, until 
 the believer, fully grounded in the faith, stands without reproach before 
 Christ at His coming. 
 
 8. blameless] is the exact equivalent of the Greek, which signifies 
 free from reproach. It is worthy of remark that "blame," though the 
 
 Saxon termination "less" has been appended to it, is itself a word of 
 Greek origin. It is identical with "blaspheme," the original meaning 
 of which is, "to speak ill of," and has reached us in an abbreviated form 
 through the French. 
 
 9. God is faithful] It will not be God's fault, but our own, if the 
 promises of the last verse are not realized. 
 
 the felloiuship of his Son Jesus Christ] The important word here 
 xtndQXGd fello7uship has unfortunately different renderings in our version. 
 Sometimes, as in ch. x. 16 (where see note), it is rendered conwiunion ; 
 
 I. COR. % 
 
34 I- CORINTHIANS, I. [vv. lo, ii. 
 
 10 — 17. Rebuke of the Divisions i?i the Corinthiafi Church. 
 
 Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, tliat ye all speak the same thi?ig, and that there 
 be no divisions among you ; but that ye be perfectly joined 
 together in the same mind and in the same judgment. For 
 
 and in 2 Cor. vi. 14, where it is dius rendered, another word is rendered 
 fellowship. In 1 Cor, ix. 13, it is rendered distribution. Its usual 
 signification would appear to be the sharing together. Joint participation 
 as common possessors of any thing. But it is impossible to go so far as 
 Cremer in his Lexicon of the N. T. and assert that it never has the 
 active sense of coinvinnication, in the face of such passages as Rom. xv. 
 -26 (where it is rendered distribution); 1 Cor. ix. 13. Here it refers to 
 the life which by means of faith is common to the believer and his Lord. 
 Cf, Gal. ii. 20. 
 
 10—17. Rebuke of the Divisions in the Corinthian Church. 
 
 10. I beseech you, brethren'\ The Apostle now enters on the subject 
 of the divisions among his Corinthian converts, for which his introduc- 
 tion (see next note) was intended as a preparation. 
 
 by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ^ St Chrysostom says that the 
 reason why the name Jesus Christ appears so often in the introduction 
 (it occurs eight times in nine verses) is the desire to censure indirectly 
 the schisms existing in the Corinthian Church by reminding its members 
 of Him in Whom they were made one, and Whose name told of nothing 
 but love and peace. 
 
 atid that there be no divisions amo77g yoti] The margin has 'schisms,' 
 the original o-xtV/uara. But the recognized theological sense of the word 
 ' schisms ' renders it unsuitable here, where the idea is rather that of 
 divisions in, than separation from, the Church. 
 
 but that ye be perfectly joified together'\ The Apostle is hardly to be 
 supposed here to require absolute unity of opinion, a thing impossible 
 among men, but rather that mutual affection which would knit the 
 disciples together in all essentials, and would prevent all acrimonious 
 discussion of non-essentials. The word rendered joined together is lite- 
 rally fitted together, as the fragments in a piece of mosaic, in which 
 each minute portion exactly fills its proper place. 
 
 in the same mifid and in the sa?ne Judgmetitl The word translated 
 mind, which is kindred with the Latin nosco and our knozv, has the 
 signification in the N.T. (1) of the organ of perception, mind, intellect, 
 (2) of the perception which is the result of the action of that organ, 
 understanding, and (3) of the intellectual conviction which the under- 
 standing imparts. The latter is the meaning here. For an example of 
 (i) see ch. ii. 16 and note; of (2) see Rev. xiii. 18. In Rom, vii. 25 it 
 would seem to have (4) a meaning which includes moral as well as 
 intellectual qualities. The word rendered judg?nent does not mean 
 judicial sentence, but Yikt Judgment in English it is often equivalent to 
 
V. 12.] I. CORINTHIANS, I. 35 
 
 it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them 
 which are of the house of Chloe, that there are conten- 
 tions among you. Now this I say, that every one of you 
 saith, I am of Paul ; and 1 of ApoUos ; and I of Cephas ; 
 
 opinion. See ch. vii. 25, 40; 2 Cor. viii. 10. It is rendered advice m 
 the latter passage. 
 
 11. For it hath been declared tinto me of yon, my brethren, by them 
 which are of the house of Chloe'] The" aorist here seems to imply some 
 special occasion on which St Paul met his informants, and received the 
 intelligence which pained him. Of Chloe nothing is known. 
 
 12. A^07a this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Fanl] The 
 idea of some commentators that there were defined parties in the Apostolic 
 Church under the leadership of Apostles and their Master, a Paul- 
 party, a Peter-party, a Christ-party, is refuted by ch. iv. 6, where 
 St Paul plainly states that he had replaced the names of the antagonistic 
 teachers at Corinth by that of himself and ApoUos, in order to secure 
 his rebukes from assuming a personal form. 
 
 Afollosl See Acts xviii. -24—28. From this passage we gather that 
 he was a Hellenistic Greek, of the school of philosophical Judaism 
 w^hich flourished at that time at Alexandria, and was an admixture of 
 the doctrines of the Platonic philosophy with those of the Jewish 
 religion. It is possible that he may have been a disciple of the cele- 
 brated Alexandrian teacher Philo, who was contemporary with the 
 Apostles. Learned and zealous, he could not be confined within the 
 bounds of any particular school, but diligently acquainted himself with 
 all the movements which sprang up in the Jewish Church. Thus he 
 became a disciple of John the Baptist, whose doctrines had been widely 
 spread abroad by that time (Acts xix. i — 3), and as his fervent spirit 
 was allied with the gift of eloquence, he speedily endeavoured to com- 
 municate to others the new light he had received. He is described as 
 being ' accurately instructed in the things concerning the Lord,' 
 although he knew ' only the baptism of John. ' By this we are not to 
 understand a perfect knowledge of the system of Christianity, or it 
 would have been impossible for Aquila and Priscilla to have explained 
 it to him 'more accurately.' His knowledge was probably confined to 
 the Baptist's witness to Christ as the Messiah, to the more general Wi^rrt/ 
 teaching of Christ, as contained in the first three Gospels, and to those 
 remarkable glimpses of the inner mysteries of God's kingdom (see 
 Matt. iii. 9; St John iii. 27 — 36, and compare St John viii. 39; Rom. 
 ii. 28, 29, ix. 7) which our Gospels shew the Baptist to have had. But 
 with that deeper teaching as a whole, confided by Christ to His 
 disciples, and afterwards given to the world in the preaching and 
 writings of the Apostles, and in the Gospel of St John, he had no 
 acquaintance when he came to Ephesus. Endowed with this know- 
 ledge through the instrumentality of Aquila and Priscilla, he became 
 an effective preacher of the Gospel, and filling St Paul's place when the 
 latter had left Corinth, 'he mightily convinced the Jews, and that pub- 
 licly, shewing by the Scriptures that Jesus was Christ.' But disgusted 
 
36 I. CORINTHIANS, I. [vv. 13—17. 
 
 13 and I of Christ. Is Christ divided ? was Paul crucified for 
 
 14 you ? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul ? I thank 
 God that I baptized none of you, but Crispus and Gaius ; 
 
 15 lest any should say that I had baptized in mine own name. 
 
 16 And I baptized also the household of Stephanas : besides, 
 I know not whether I baptized any other. 
 
 17 For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the 
 
 possibly by an attempt on the part of some (see note on ch. xvi. 12) 
 to set him up as a rival to St Paul, he left Corinth and returned to 
 Ephesus, and we know not whether he ever visited Corinth again. 
 Cephas] See St John i. 42. 
 
 13. Is Christ divided?] Some editors read this affirmatively, ** Christ 
 is divided," instead of interrogatively as in the text. But the latter is 
 preferable. St Paul would ask if Christ, into Whose Name the whole 
 Church has been baptized, and Whose Body (Eph, i. -23) the whole 
 Church is, can thus be split up into portions, and each portion appropriated 
 by one of the parties he has mentioned. 
 
 was Paul crucified for yoit? or we}-e ye baptized in the name of Paul T\ 
 Rather, into the name of Paul. To baptize ' into ' a name signifies 
 something more than to baptize in a name. Had St Paul used the 
 latter phrase here, he would have been rebuking those Christians who 
 called themselves disciples of any other but Christ. But he is also 
 reminding them that the 'Name' of Christ, standing as it does for 
 Himself, is the only way of salvation, that Christ is the only Head 
 of the Church, and he disclaims any attempt to claim for himself that 
 close connection with the inner life of all who profess belief in Christ, 
 which is the prerogative of Christ alone. Cf. St Matt, xxviii. 19 ; Acts 
 iii. 16, iv. 12. 
 
 14. Crispus and Gains'] The special honour seems to have been 
 accorded to Crispus of baptism by the hands of St Paul, because he was 
 * the chief ruler of the synagogue ' (Acts xviii. 8). Gaius, 'mine host, and 
 of the whole Church ' (Rom. xvi. 23) must not be confounded with Gaius 
 of Derbe (Acts xx. 4), nor with the Macedonian Gaius mentioned in 
 Acts xix. 29, Gaius or Caius was a very common Roman name. 
 The Epistle to the Romans was written at Corinth. Paley {florae 
 Paulinae, ist Epistle to the Corinthians viii. ) remarks on the minute 
 yet undesigned agreement between the Epistles and the Acts. We 
 must not fail to notice also that the Corinthian Church was by no 
 means an exclusively Gentile community. See Acts xviii. 12, 13. 
 
 15. in mine own name] Rather, into my own name. 
 
 16. Stephanas] Probably the bearer of the Epistle. He is mentioned 
 in ch. xvi. 15, 17. 
 
 17. For Christ sent me not to baptize^ but to preach the gospel] "Even 
 the less learned can baptize perfectly, but perfectly to preach the Gospel 
 is a far more difficult task, and requires qualifications which are far 
 more rare." — Augustine. 
 
w. i8— 21.] I. CORINTHIANS, I. 37 
 
 gospel : not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ 
 should be made of none effect. 
 
 18 — 31. God's Message 7iot intended to flatter the pride 
 
 of 7nan. 
 For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish 18 
 foolishness ; but unto us which are saved it is the power of 
 God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of 19 
 the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding 
 of the prudent. Where is the wise? where is the scribe? 20 
 where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made 
 foolish the wisdom of this world ? For after that in the wis- 21 
 dom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased 
 
 not with wisdom of ivords\ Rather discourse, as in v. 5. Here the 
 matter of the discourse as well as its expression is meant, though the latter 
 is probably the predominant idea. For it is impossible to study the 
 philosophy of the Apostolic and post-Apostolic period without seeing 
 how much it consisted of word-play. 
 
 18—31. God's Message not intended to flatter the pride 
 
 OF MAN. 
 
 18. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness ; 
 but unto us which are saved it is the power of God'\ Literally, to them 
 that are perishing foolishness, hut to us who are being saved it 
 is the (or a) power of God. The connection of this verse with the preced- 
 ing is not quite clear. It may, however, be thus explained : The doctrine of 
 the Cross is folly to those who are perishing, because they conceive of some 
 inherent excellence in humanity, whereas the Cross proclaims and justifies 
 God's sentence of death against the human race. The same doctrine is 
 the power of God to those who are in the way of salvation, because 
 it is through faith in Christ's Blood alone that man can be justified from 
 sin, crucified to the old man, and united to the new man which is created 
 in righteousness and true holiness. Cf. Rom. i. 16, iii. 22; Eph. iv. 22, 
 23; Col. iii. 9, 10. 
 
 19. For it is writteii\ In Isaiah xxix. 14. 
 
 20. Where is the tvise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of 
 this world ?'\ i.e. "the wise generally, the Jewish scribe, the Greek dis- 
 puter." — Dean Alford. "The words 'of this world' apply not to the 
 disputer alone, but to all three." — De Wette. 
 
 hath not God jfiade foolish'] Rather, did not God make foolish, i. e. 
 when He proclaimed the Gospel of salvation through Christ. Cf. Is. 
 xliv. 25. 
 
 21. For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew 
 not God] We have here a contrast drawn between God's wisdom and 
 
38 I.CORINTHIANS,!. [vv. 22— 25. 
 
 God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that 
 
 22 believe. For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek 
 
 23 after wisdom : but we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews 
 
 24 a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto 
 them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the 
 power of God, and the wisdom of God. 
 
 25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men : and 
 
 that of man. Man's wisdom could but inquire and argue. God's 
 wisdom had decreed that by such means man should only learn his 
 weakness. 
 
 it pleased God by the foolishness of p7'eaching\ Rather, with the Rhemish 
 version, by the foolishness of VdA preachings i.e. of the gospel. The word 
 translated preaching should rather be rendered what is preached. It is 
 called foolishness (r) because 'those who were perishing' thought it so; 
 (2) because it required no high intellectual gift, but simple faith in a 
 crucified and risen Lord. This abnegation by man of his natural powers 
 was the first step in the road to salvation. But we are not to suppose 
 that after man had thus surrendered those powers to God in a spirit 
 of childlike faith, he was not to receive them back regenerated and 
 transfigured. 
 
 22. the yews require a sign'\ The plural, 'signs' 'miracles,' is the 
 better supported reading here. The Jews (Matt. xii. 38,xvi. 1 ; Markviii. 
 II ; Luke xi. 16; Johnii. 18, vi. 30) required external attestations of the 
 power of Christ, and especially that of the subjugation of the world to 
 His kingly authority. The Greeks sought dialectic skill from one who 
 aspired to be their teacher. 
 
 23. but we preach Christ crucifed] The Christian doctrine was the 
 very reverse of what Jews and Greeks demanded. Instead of Messiah 
 upon an earthly throne, triumphant over his enemies, instead of a skilful 
 and original disputant, the Christian preachers speak of a condemned 
 criminal. As a temporal Prince He had no pretensions to notice. To 
 the title of philosopher, at least in the Corinthian sense of the term, 
 He had no claim. His one argument was His Life and Death. What 
 wonder if this doctrine were to the Jews an offence, and sheer nonsense 
 in the ears of the inquisitive and argumentative Greek ? 
 
 a stnmblingblock\ The expression used here is the same as in the 
 Septuagint version of Is. viii. 14. 
 
 24. bttt unto them which are called, both Jezvs and Greeks, Chi'ist the 
 power of God, and the zuisdoni of God] His power enabled them to 
 shake off the yoke of sin and conform their lives to the pattern of His. 
 His wisdom consisted in speaking what He knew and testifying what 
 He had seen (St John iii. 11), in declaring those heavenly truths hitherto 
 concealed. 
 
 25. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, &c.] What 
 was folly in the eyes of the Greek, or weakness in the eyes of the Jew, 
 was yet far wiser and stronger than their highest conceptions. The re- 
 
2Q 
 
 vv. 26—30.-] I. CORINTHIANS, I. 39 
 
 the weakness of God is stronger than men. For ye see your ^6 
 callmg, brethren, how that not many wise men after the 
 flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: but God 27 
 hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the 
 wise ; and God hath chosen the weak tJwigs of the world to 
 confound the things which are mighty; and base things of as 
 the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, 
 yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that 
 are : that no flesh should glory in his presence. But of him 3 
 are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom. 
 
 velation of God in the man Christ Jesus — the foolishness of God, the 
 Infinite allying itself to the P'inite — was the perfection of the Divine 
 Wisdom; the crucifixion of sin in the Death of Christ — the weakness 
 of God ; God suffering, dying — was the highest manifestation of Divine 
 Power, in that it destroyed what nothing else could destroy. For who- 
 soever unites himself to Christ by faith in His Blood acquires the faculty 
 of putting sin to a lingering death, 
 
 26. For ye see your calling, bret/u-enl or perhaps, Behold your calling. 
 So Vulgate, Wiclif and Tyndale. The Apostle adds an illustration of his 
 paradox in v. •25. The truth is exemplified in the growth of the Christian 
 Church. Its law of progress is the very opposite to that of all ordinary 
 bodies. Not the powerful in rank, authority, and intellect, but the poor, 
 the uneducated, the uninfluential, were first attracted to Christ, until by 
 "a progressive victory of the ignorant over the learned, the lowly over 
 the lofty, the emperor himself laid down his crown before the Cross 
 of Christ." — Olshausen. Thus the real weakness of man and his in- 
 capacity unaided to attain to God were demonstrated, and God's 
 object, the depriving humanity, as such, of all cause of self-satisfaction 
 (v. 29), attained. It is necessary to add here that the word translated 
 ''calling^ does not mean what we usually understand by the words 
 vocation in life, but rather ' ' the principle God has folloTiied in callitig 
 yoii'^ { Beza) ; cf. Eph. iv. i, where the same Greek word is translated 
 vocation, and is followed by wherezvith. 
 
 27. to confound\ Literally to disgrrace, bring to shame. That 
 which is disgraced can have no ground for self-glorification. 
 
 28. and things luhich are not] i. e. ' things which by comparison are 
 non-existent' — things which by the side of other things of higher im- 
 portance in our human eyes appear to us as nothing. Yet these, in the 
 counsels of God, are to change places, and more than change places, 
 with things that are highly regarded in the sight of men. 
 
 30. 0/ him are ye in Christ Jesits] Humanity is nothing in the 
 sight of God, except it be created anew in Christ Jesus.. By virtue of 
 His Incarnation it becomes wisdom, not by means of human research 
 but by Divine Revelation ; righteousness, not by works done in obedi- 
 ence to law, but by the infusion of the Spirit of righteousness into 
 
40 I. CORINTHIANS, I. 11. [vv. 31 ; i— 3. 
 
 31 and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption : that, 
 according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him 
 glory in the Lord. 
 
 Ch. II. The wisdom of the Gospel discernible by the 
 spiritual faculties alone. 
 
 2 And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with 
 excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the 
 
 2 testimony of God. For I determined not to know any thing 
 
 3 among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I 
 was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much 
 
 the soul by Christ ; sanctification, (i. e. the setting apart to the working 
 of a principle of holiness), not by human merit, but by a Divine law 
 of growth ; redemption, (i. e. the paying the price of our deliverance 
 from the captivity in which we were held by sin), because we were lost 
 but for the Atonement made by Christ for our sins. 
 
 31. He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord\ The whole work of 
 salvation is of God. The Corinthians, like many others since, were 
 inclined to take some of the credit to themselves. The Apostle reminds 
 them to Whom it is due. These words are a paraphrase of Jer. ix. -23, 
 24. 
 
 Ch. II. The wisdom of the Gospel discernible by the 
 
 SPIRITUAL FACULTIES ALONE. 
 
 1. And I, brethren, when I came to you] The Apostle now begins to 
 justify his preaching. It was not that of one skilled in the fashionable 
 argumentation of the day, and that for the reasons already set forth. 
 
 the testimony of God] St Paul's testimony concerning God ; the wit- 
 ness he gave to His combined love and justice, manifested to the world 
 in the Life and Death of Jesus Christ. 
 
 2. J^or I determined not to kno7v any thing among yon, save Jesus 
 Christ, and him crucified] He had come to deliver a testimony con- 
 cerning God, and as we have seen, that testimony must needs result in 
 the humiliation of man. Accordingly, its matter is very simple. All 
 he knows is Jesus Christ, and even Him as having been reduced, in His 
 humanity, to a condition which to the purely human apprehension 
 appears one of the deepest disgrace. The words a7id Hij7i crucified may 
 be rendered thus, and even Him as having been crucified. 
 
 3. And I was with you in weakness] No personal advantages 
 assisted his preaching : no eloquence, save that of deep conviction ; no 
 self-confidence; nothing but self-mistrust, anxiety, the deepest sense of 
 unworthiness, combined with an infirmity of body, which was a great 
 trial to the Apostle, and of which he makes frequent mention. See 
 2 Cor. X. lo, xi. 30; xii. 5, 7, 9, 10; Gal. iv. 13, 14. 
 
w. 4—8.] I. CORINTHIANS, II. 41 
 
 trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with 4 
 enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the 
 Spirit and of power : that your faith should not stand in the 5 
 wisdom of men, but in the power of God. 
 
 Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect : 6 
 yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this 
 world, that come to nought : but we speak the wisdom of ^ 
 God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God 
 ordained before the world unto our glory: which none of 8 
 
 4. in demonstration of the Spirit and of power'\ Not persuasive (7ret<9o?s) 
 arguments, but appeals to the conscience and to the influence of a higher 
 power. It is doubtful whether we should translate ' the Spirit ' here, 
 as though the Holy Spirit were meant, and more than doubtful whether 
 we should interpret ' power ' of miracles as generally understood. The 
 Apostle is perhaps rather referring to that conviction of sin, righteousness 
 and judgment (St John xvi. 8), which the Spirit of God produces in the 
 spirit of man, and of the power to produce a change of heart and life 
 which is the leading characteristic of the gospel. This view seems 
 confirmed by the next verse, in which St Paul says that the ground of 
 our faith is not the wisdom of men, but the power of God. 
 
 6. Ho7vbeit we speak wisdoni] Is there, then, no wisdom possible 
 for a Christian? no sphere for the exercise of those faculties of the 
 intellect which we received from God ? the hearer may say. Certainly, 
 says the Apostle, (for to say otherwise would be to contradict the 
 Jewish Scriptures, especially Prov. i. — ix.), but it must take as its start- 
 ing-point the truths revealed by Christ, and it will be proportionate, not 
 to the secular knowledge or intellectual power of the inquirer, but to his 
 moral and spiritual attainments, that is, to his proficiency in the doctrine 
 of Christ. 
 
 amo7ig them that are perfect^ Perfect, i.'e. fnll-grotvn, that which has 
 reached its end. The great majority of the Corinthians were at present 
 babes in Christ (ch. iii. i). Their notion of wisdom was earthly — argu- 
 ment, disputation, " free inquiry." 
 
 7. the wisdom of God in a mystery] The distinction between 
 faith, wisdom and knoidedge in St Paul's writings would appear to 
 
 be this. Faith is the fundamental principle of Christianity, whereby 
 the life of God in Christ is received into the heart ; wisdom is the 
 power of insight into things Divine revealed to faith ; kno^vledge the 
 effect of Christian experience and study upon him who possesses the life 
 of faith. For mystery see ch. iv. i. 
 
 hidden] Not only from men but also from angels and heavenly 
 powers. See Rom. xvi. 25; Eph. iii. 10; i Pet. i. 12. 
 
 which God ordained before the luorld] Literally, before the ages. 
 Cf. Acts ii. 23, iv. 28 ; Eph. iii. 9 ; Col. i. 26 ; Rev. xiii. 8. The whole 
 scheme of man's redemption was in the mind of God from all eternity. 
 The fall of man and his restoration, the wondrous fact of salvation 
 
42 I. CORINTHIANS, II. [vv. 9— ii. 
 
 the princes of this world knew : for had they known z/, they 
 9 would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is 
 
 written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither 
 
 have entered into the heart of man, the things which God 
 10 hath prepared for them that love him. But God 
 
 hath revealed than unto us by his Spirit : for the Spirit 
 It searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what 
 
 through Christ, were decreed in the counsels of the Most High before 
 the world was. 
 
 8. which none of the princes of this world knnv\ These words seem 
 to be written for the instruction of the class of persons who attach import- 
 ance to the opinions of those high in position and influence — the princes, 
 or rather riders of this world, its statesmen. Such persons, the Apostle 
 points out, are apt, in spite of, or rather in consequence of, their 
 worldly wisdom, to make strange mistakes. The crucifixion of Christ 
 was a memorable instance of the shortsightedness of worldly policy. 
 Not a single calculation of those who compassed the Saviour's death 
 was destined to be fulfilled. Pilate did not escape the emperor's dis- 
 pleasure. Caiaphas (St John xi. 50) did not save Jerusalem. The 
 Scribes and Pharisees did not put down the doctrine of Jesus. 
 
 the Lord of glory^ The majesty of the Lord, designedly contrasted, 
 says St Chrysostom, with the ignominy of the Cross. Perhaps there 
 is also an allusion to ' ' our glory " in the last verse, of which He is 
 the source. Cf. St James ii. i. 
 
 9. But as it is written^ Eye hath not seen] There has been much 
 discussion whence these words are derived, but they are quite suf- 
 ficiently near to the passage in Is. Ixiv, 4 to be regarded as a quotation 
 from thence. It is unreasonable to require greater literal accuracy 
 in the citation of words from the O. T. than is customary in a modern 
 preacher, who is frequently content with giving the general drift of the 
 passage he quotes. Such a practice was even more likely to exist 
 in days when the cumbrous nature of books prevented them from being 
 so readily at hand as at present. We can hardly suppose, with some 
 modem divines, that the passage is a quotation from the liturgy of 
 the Apostolic Church, for Origen, Chrysostom, and Jerome, are alike 
 ignorant of the fact. 
 
 10. /or the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God\ 
 In this and the next verse we gather (i) the personality of the Holy 
 Ghost, (2) His distinction from the Father. He not only searches 
 the deep things of God, which He could not be described as doing 
 were He identical with the Father, but though on account of His 
 perfect knowledge of the Mind of God He is likened to the spirit 
 of man which is one of the component elements of his being, the 
 Apostle speaks of the one as the * spirit of a man which is in him, ' 
 but of the other as the Spirit which is from {U, proceeding out of) 
 God. 
 
vv. 12—15.] I. CORINTHIANS, 11. 43 
 
 man knoweth the t/imgs of a man, save the spirit of ma a 
 which is in him? even so the t/ii?igs of God knoweth no ma?t^ 
 but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit 
 of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might 
 know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which 
 things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom 
 teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing 
 spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth 
 not the things of the Spirit of God : for they are foolishness 
 unto him : neither can he know thejn, because they are 
 spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth all 
 
 searchet/i] *' The word to search is here indicative not of ignorance, 
 but of accurate knowledge, at least if we may judge from the fact 
 that this is the very phrase the Apostle has used even of God, saying, 
 ' He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the 
 Spirit.' " — Chrysostom. The knowledge, in fact, as z^. i r shews, is of 
 the same kind as the knowledge of the spirit of man concerning what 
 passes within his breast, though, of course, infinitely more complete. 
 
 12. Aori< we have received '[ Literally, we received, i. e. when we 
 became disciples. 
 
 thai we might /mow] The word here signifies to perceive, rather 
 than to gather by the exercise of the reason. Such things as the 
 Spirit reveals to us are discerned as clearly by our spirits as the 
 things visible to sense are discerned by the eye. 
 
 13. comparing spiritual things ivith spiritual] These words have been 
 interpreted in several ways, (i) Wiclif renders them ^^ maken a liknesse 
 o/(i.e. explaining) spyritual things to goostli men. ^^ (2) The Vulgate and 
 English versions render the Greek word by compare. (3) Some in- 
 terpret, explaining spiritual things in spiritual ways ; (Luther so renders 
 it). (4) Another explanation is, explaining spiritual things by spiritual, 
 i. e. interpreting the Revelation of God by the inward promptings 
 of the spirit. The first would seem preferable and most agreeable 
 to the context, for St Paul is speaking of the doctrine he delivered, 
 which he says is unintelligible to the natural man, but capable of 
 being brought home to the understanding of him who possesses spiritual 
 qualifications. 
 
 14. But the natural man irceiveth not the things of the Spirit of 
 God] The natural man — {animalis, Vulgate), that is, the man whose 
 perceptions do not extend beyond the region of the intellect, the part 
 of his being which he has in common with the animal creation, — can 
 never attain to the things of the Spirit. The term must not be under- 
 stood in the same sense as our word animal now bears, i.e. as equi- 
 valent to sensual. Cf. Jude 19, where the word is translated sensual in 
 our version. 
 
 because they are spiritually discerned] There is but little analogy 
 between mental and spiritual discernment, or rather processes (see 
 
44 I. CORINTHIANS, II. III. [vv. i6 ; i. 
 
 i6 things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who hath 
 known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct 
 him ? But we have the mind of Christ. 
 
 Ch. III. I — 4. The partizanship of the Corinthians 
 a hindra?ice to spiritual progress. 
 3 And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto 
 
 next note), which the Apostle has been contrasting throughout the 
 whole of this chapter. The one is the result of knowledge, investi- 
 gation, argument : the faculties which produce the other are sharpened 
 by self discipline, humility, communion with God, love of Him and 
 the brethren. To those who are thus exercised many things are clear 
 which are mysteries to the most learned and the most acute. 
 
 15. But he that is spiritual jiidgeth all things'] The word which 
 is used in this and the preceding verse, which is translated discerned 
 in the last verse, in the text of this verse hy jndgeth, and in the margin 
 by discerneth, signifies in every other passage in the N. T. to 
 examine, and is so rendered by the Vulgate (see Acts iv. 9, xii. 19 ; 
 St Luke xxiii. 14, and ch. ix. 3). It must therefore be interpreted 
 of the process rather than of the conclusion, of the exact scrutiny 
 to which the spiritual man can subject all things, while he himself 
 is beyond the scrutiny of others who do not possess the means of 
 making it. "The Gospel in its essence is neither theoretic, abstract, 
 nor reflective, nor even imaginative : it is historical, but this history 
 is Divine. The preaching of the Gospel is a revelation of God's doings. 
 When belief is well established, then, and then alone, may God's acts 
 become subjects of theory or research among the members of the 
 Church, and even then so far only as the whole investigation proceeds 
 from faith. Of such an inquiry faith could never be the consequence. 
 In God's Spirit alone has faith its origin." — Olshausen. 
 
 16. For who hath knotun the mind of the Lord] See note on i. 10. 
 The Hebrew of Is. xl. 13, here quoted, has spirit, the Septuagint mi7td. 
 St Paul here follows the Septuagint, which is nearer to the original than 
 our version, 'Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord?' The literal 
 translation is, * Who hath measured the Spirit of the Lord?' As none 
 but the believer possesses the mind of the Lord, and as none can venture 
 to assume a position of intellectual superiority to Him, the assertion 
 in the preceding verse is established. The possession of this mind of 
 Christ renders him who has it a mystery to him who has it not. The 
 workings of his soul, thus enlightened by a higher power, are inscru- 
 table to those who are destitute of spiritual vision. We must not 
 omit to notice that in the passage which the Apostle here quotes as 
 referring to Christ the original has Jehovah. See also Jer. xxiii. 18. 
 
 Ch. III. 1—4. The partizanship of the Corinthians 
 A hindrance to spiritual progress. 
 1. And /, brethren, cojild not speak nnto yoti as unto spiritual] 
 The Apostle has said much of the superiority of the wisdom which is 
 
vv. 2—6.] I. CORINTHIANS, III. 45 
 
 spiritual, but as unto carnal, a^en as unto babes in Christ. 1 2 
 have fed you with milk, and not with meat : for hitherto ye 
 were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. For ye 3 
 are yet carnal : for whereas there is among you envying, and 
 strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men ? 
 For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I atn of 4 
 Apollos ; are ye not carnal ? 
 
 5 — 23. Christian Ministers only labourers of 7?iore or 
 less efficiency, the substantial work bei?tg God's. 
 
 Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by s 
 whom ye beheved, even as the Lord gave to every man ? I 6 
 have planted, Apollos watered ; but God gave the increase. 
 
 the result of spiritual illumination. He now warns the Corinthians 
 that the majority of them do not possess it, or at best but in the 
 scantiest measure, and thus remain on the threshold of the Christian 
 life. 
 
 3. For ye are yet carnal'\ The word carnal conveys a stronger 
 reproach than natural (ch. ii. 14). The latter, as we have seen, 
 signifies the man whose hopes and desires are bounded by the limits 
 of the physical principle of life. The former is applicable to those 
 who are under the dominion of their sensual passions. He inculcates 
 a truth which may seem strange to our ears when he tells his Co- 
 rinthian converts that a taste for religious controversy is a sign of 
 the strength of the animal nature in man. His language is less re- 
 markable though not less true, when he reminds us {v. 2) that an 
 appetite for religious strife prevents us from discerning the deeper 
 truths of the Christian faith. If it be asked how 'they who are 
 sanctified in Christ Jesus, called saints' can at the same time be carnal, 
 we may answer, with Olshausen, that the spiritual man becomes carnal 
 when he mingles his old unregenerate views with the new element 
 of life he has received in Christ. 
 
 as me}i\ Rather, after the manner of men. 
 
 4. are ye not carnal?} The majority of MSS. and versions read 
 *men' here, instead of 'carnal,' It is difficult to account for the 
 latter word having crept into the text, if it be not the true reading, 
 whereas its correction by a transcriber into carnal would seem obvious 
 and natural. If it be the true reading, it must mean 'purely human,' 
 not sharing that Divine, regenerate life which is the special privilege 
 of faith. 
 
 5 — 23. Christian Ministers only labourers of more or 
 
 LESS efficiency, THE SUBSTANTIAL WORK BEING God's. 
 
 6. I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase] The 
 Apostle would lead his converts to rise from the thought of those who 
 had ministered the Gospel to them, to the thought of Him whom 
 
46 I. CORINTHIANS, III. [vv. 7—10. 
 
 7 So then neither is he that planteth any things neither he 
 
 8 that watereth ; but God that giveth the increase. Now he 
 that planteth and he that watereth are one : and every man 
 shall receive his own reward according to his own labour. 
 
 9 For we are labourers together with God : ye are God's hus- 
 ,0 bandry, ye are God's building. According to the grace of 
 
 God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I 
 have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. 
 But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. 
 
 they ministered. Man does but obey the Divine command in his 
 ministerial work, the results are God's. See note on v. 9. It is to 
 be observed that both here and in ch. i. 12, St Paul's account of him- 
 self and Apollos is in precise agreement with that of St Luke in the 
 Acts. In Acts xviii. we read of the Church of Corinth being founded 
 by St Paul. In the latter part of that chapter and in ch. xix. i, we 
 read of Apollos' visit to Greece, and his stay at Corinth. The remark 
 in this Epistle is a purely incidental one, but it coincides exactly 
 with the history. St Paul founded the Church, Apollos 'mightily 
 convinced the Jews and that publicly,' thus carrying on the work 
 St Paul had begun. See Paley, Horae Ftmlinae, ist Ep. to Co- 
 rinthians v., who points out the argument derivable irom hence for the 
 genuineness of both this Epistle and the Acts. 
 
 8. he that planteth and he that watereth are one\ As though to 
 make his depreciation of man as emphatic as possible, the Apostle 
 uses the neuter gender here. The instruments are one thing, parts of a 
 vast piece of machinery which God has put in motion for the salvation of 
 the world. As channels of Divine grace it is our duty to forget their 
 personality. 
 
 9. For %oe are labotirers together tvith God} The Apostle now gives 
 the argument another turn. From man's point of view the preachers 
 of the Gospel are mere instruments in God's hands. Not so from 
 God's. He regards them as responsible beings, responsible to Him 
 for the work they do. But the results are still God's and God's alone. 
 The ministers of Christ may be fellow-labourers with God, but the 
 husbandry, the building, are God's, and not theirs. 
 
 10. According to the grace of God luhich is given tinto me, as a 
 'cvise masterbnifder'] Rather, 7i>hich was given to me, i. e. A^•hen he 
 laid the foundation. St Paul now desires to identify himself with the 
 teachers of the Corinthian Church, so far as they were really carrying 
 on the work which he had begim. His object is to combat the 
 individualism which had led the Corinthian Church astray. If their 
 teachers be genuine ministers of Christ, it is but one work that they 
 are carrying on. They are merely proceeding with the superstructure 
 of that which the Apostle had founded. Comparison of their personal 
 claims with those of St Paul, and still more an attitude of antagonism 
 to him and to one another, are entirely out of place. 
 
 But let every man take heed} A fresh subject is here introduced. AVe 
 
vv. II— 16.] I. CORINTHIANS, III. 47 
 
 For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which n 
 is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation 12 
 gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble ; every 13 
 man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare 
 //, because it shall be revealed by fire ; and the fire shall try 
 every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide 14 
 which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If 15 
 any 7}ian's work shall be burnt, he shall suffer loss : but he 
 himself shall be saved ; yet so as by fire. Know ye not that 16 
 
 are now told of what kind the labour of a minister of Christ is to be, 
 and what his reward. There is, there can be, but One Foundation, 
 but there are many ways of building on that foundation. 
 
 11. than that is laid, which is Jesus Chrisf] " He does not say TeOivra, 
 laid, but Kei/xevov, lyitig, of His own accord." Wordsworth. There is a 
 reference here to the prophecy in Isai. xxviii. x6, which is quoted and ap- 
 plied to Christ in i Pet. ii. 6. See also Eph. ii, 10, and Ps. cxviii. 22, 
 quoted and applied to Himself by Christ in Matt, xxi, 42. It is to be 
 noticed that it is no doctrine about Christ, but Christ Himself thzt is laid 
 as the foundation. For upon Christ every act of the Christian, every 
 faculty the Christian possesses, nay, his very life depends. ' Without 
 Me,' i.e. cut off from Me, separated from Me, 'ye can do nothing,' 
 St John XV. 5. See also ch. i. 9, and note. '' Without the evidence of 
 this inward life in men, it is impossible to imagine either Christian or 
 Church." — Olshausen. "The Apostle preached Christ— Christ the 
 Example— Christ the Life— Christ the Son of Man — Christ the Son 
 of God — Christ risen — Christ the King of Glory." — Robertson. 
 
 12. A'^ow if any man build tipon this foundatio7i\ It must be 
 remembered that it is not the conduct of Christians, however applicable 
 the principles here enunciated may be to it, but the doctrine of teachers 
 which is spoken of here. The materials mentioned are of two classes, 
 those that will endure fire, and those that will not. We may dismiss 
 from our consideration such preaching as is dictated by vain-gloiy 
 or self-interest, for the simple reason that it is not building upon Christ 
 at all. The two kinds of preaching thus become, on the one hand 
 that which leads to permanent results, the glory of God and the real 
 well-being of man ; and on the other, that which, though the ofispring 
 of a genuine zeal, is not according to knowledge. 
 
 13. it shall be revealed by fir e^ Rather, it is revealed in fire, being 
 that in which the judgment day shall consist, i e, in the fire of God's 
 judgment, fire being one of His many attributes (Heb. xii. 29 ; Deut. 
 iv. 24 ; ix. 3; Ps. 1. 3; xcvii. 3; Is. Ixvi. 15, 16; Mai. iii. 1, 3; 2 Thess'. 
 i. 8). As fire does, so does God in the end thoroughly search out 
 and destroy all that is vile or refuse, all that is not thoroughly genuine 
 and durable. 
 
 15. yet so as by fire\ The absolute equality of all in the world to 
 come is no part of St Paul's system. * One star differeth from another 
 star in glory' (ch. xv. 41). But the history of the Apostle himself 
 
48 I. CORINTHIANS, III. [vv. 17—21. 
 
 ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth 
 
 17 in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall 
 God destroy ; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye 
 
 18 are. Let no mail deceive himself. If any man among you 
 seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that 
 
 19 he may be wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness 
 with God. For it is written. He taketh the wise in 
 
 20 their own craftiness. And again. The Lord knoweth 
 the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain. 
 
 21 Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are 
 
 is a sufficient evidence that God will not punish with the loss of 
 His presence the man who has acted up to the highest dictates of a 
 conscience not yet fully enlightened. The work perishes, but he 
 who believed himself to be actively serving God when in fact he was 
 doing nothing shall not be driven into the outer darkness. " Sincerity 
 does not verify doctrine, but it saves the man ; his person is accepted, 
 though his work perish." — Robertson. Yet he will be saved 'so as 
 by fire.' Surely the ' smell of fire ' may be said to pass on him 
 who sees all those works which he so honestly believed to be for God 
 vanishing as worthless stubble in the searching trial which will * purge 
 away all the dross' of our human doings, and leave only what is of 
 real value in God's sight. 
 
 16. Know ye not that ye are the temple of God] *'Na6s, sanctuary, 
 more sacred than lepov ; the Holy Place in which God dwells, valei" — 
 Wordsworth. Another view of the subject is now abraptly introduced. 
 The figure \nv. 10 is resumed, but is applied, not to the ministers, but to 
 the people. As the teachers are to avoid unprofitable questions and seek 
 'that which is good to the use of edifying,' so the taught are to shun 
 all that may 'do harm to the temple of God, that is the Church at large, 
 for what is true of the individual (ch. vi. 19) is true of the community. 
 This figure of speech is a common one in the N. T. See 2 Cor. vi. 16; 
 Eph. ii. 21, 22 ; i Tim. iii. 15; Heb. iii. 6 ; i Pet. ii. 5. 
 
 17. If any man defile'\ Rather, if any man do hurt to the temple 
 of God, to him shall God do hurt. The word is the same in both 
 members of the sentence, and cannot therefore be rendered by the 
 word defile. 
 
 18. let him become a fool, that he may be wise\ Let him account 
 himself a fool, put himself on a level with the ignorant and un- 
 intellectual, set no store by his worldly knowledge or intellectual 
 powers, for they are of no account before God. A child-like willingness 
 to be taught is the first step toward the true wisdom. 
 
 19. it is written] In Job v. 13. 
 
 20. And again] This passage occurs in Ps. xciv. 11. 
 
 21. Therefore let no man glory in men] We are to regard men as 
 nothing in themselves, but in reference to their fellow-men solely as 
 the instruments of a divine purpose, like all other things God has 
 
w. 22; 1,2.] I. CORINTHIANS, III. IV. 49 
 
 yours ; whether Paul, or ApoUos, or Cephas, or the world, 22 
 or life, or death, or things present, or things to come ; all are 
 yours ; and ye are Christ's ; and Christ is God's. 23 
 
 Ch. IV. I — 7. The true estimation of Chrisfs ministers 
 and the true criterio?i of their work. 
 
 Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, 4 
 and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover it is 2 
 
 suffered to exist {v. 22), a purpose beginning and ending with God, 
 Whose we are, and for Whom alone we have been called into being. 
 Even death itself has a part in that purpose, since through Christ 
 it has become the gateway to everlasting life. See Collect for Easter 
 Eve. 
 
 23. Christ is Goers'] Even He is not existing apart and for Him- 
 self (cf. St John v. 19 — 30), but is for ever united and conjoined with 
 His faithful ones in the God and Father of all. * I in them and Thou 
 in Me, that they may be made perfect in one.' St John xvii. 23. 
 
 Ch. IV. 1 — 7. The true estimation of Christ's ministers 
 
 AND the true criterion OF THEIR WORK. 
 
 After having pointed out the light in which the teachers of Christianity 
 should be regarded, the Apostle in this chapter goes on to point 
 out the practical difference between those who preach themselves and 
 those who preach Christ, and urges all to a life like his, that he may 
 have no need of rebukes when he comes. 
 
 1. Let a man so account of us] * Of the things of which we have 
 spoken this is the sum.' We are not to be regarded for any quali- 
 fications we may have of our own, but simply as ' the servants of the 
 Most High God.' 
 
 and stezvards of the mysteries of God] Literally, house-ruler, or 
 house- feeder. Cf. German Hanswalter from walten to rule, and 
 the English house-keeper. What a steward's office is, we learn from 
 St Matt. xxiv. 45. And he is appointed to dispense the mysteries 
 of the Gospel. This word is derived from a word signifying to close, 
 to shit, and was in the old Greek civilization used to denote those 
 rites which were only permitted to the initiated, and were kept a 
 strict secret from the outside world. Of such a kind were the wellr 
 known Eleusinian mysteries, which were kept every fifth year at 
 Eleusis in Attica, the rites of the Bona Dea, which were observed at 
 Rome, and those of Isis and Mithras, which were of Egyptian and 
 Persian origin. (See Article " Mysteria " in Smith's Dictionary of An- 
 tiquities. ) The word is used in Scripture in two senses, { i ) for things 
 hidden from the ordinary understanding, (2) of things formerly concealed 
 in the counsels of God but revealed to those who believe the Gospel. 
 We have examples of the former meaning in ch. xiii. 2 and xiv. 1 
 of this Epistle, in 2 Thess. ii. 7, and in Rev. i. 20. The latter sense 
 is met with in Rom. xvi. 25 ; Eph. iii. 9 ; Col. i. 26, &c. The present 
 
 I. COR. A 
 
50 I. CORINTHIANS, IV. [vv. 3—5. 
 
 3 required in stewards, that a man be found faithful. But 
 with me it is a very small tlwig that I should be judged of 
 you, or of man's judgment : yea, I judge not mine own self. 
 
 4 For I know nothing by myself; yet am I not hereby 
 
 5 justified : but he that judgeth me is the Lord. Therefore 
 
 passage appears to include both meanings. The ministers of Christ 
 are to nourish their people on the knowledge of the truths of His 
 Gospel, a knowledge (ch. ii. 10 — 16) revealed only to the spiritual. 
 No instance of the word in its more modern Greek sense of Sacra- 
 ments is to be found in Holy Scripture. In the Septuagint it is 
 frequently found in the Apocrypha (as in Tobit xii. 7, 11), but the 
 only instances of its occurrence in the Canonical books are in the Sep- 
 tuagint translation of the book of Daniel, ch. ii, 18, 19, 27 — 30, 4.7, 
 ch. iv. 9 (where it is the translation of a Chaldaic word signifying 
 "a thing hidden," which in our Authorized Version is translated secret) 
 and in Is. xxiv. 16, where, however, the translators, as those of the 
 Vulgate, appear to have been misled by the similarity of the Chaldee 
 word to a Hebrew one. Luther, Ewald, and the English version 
 translate the word by 'leanness.' It is also found in some editions 
 in the Greek of Prov. xx. 19. Cf. for similar sentiments to the above 
 passage, Tit. i. 7, and i Pet. iv. 10. 
 
 2. Moreover it is required in stewards'] The majority of MSS. 
 and versions read hei-e at the beginning of this verse. The sense 
 would then be, "in this world, moreover, it is customary to make 
 diligent inquiry for a trustworthy man." . 
 
 3. But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of 
 you, or of man^s judg?nent'\ Faithfulness is no doubt more urgently 
 required in the discharge of this duty than of any other. But it is 
 not man's province to make the inquiry, but God's. The word trans- 
 lated judged is the same which is used in ch. ii. 14, 15, and should 
 be translated 'tried,' 'examined.' As the Apostle 'could not speak 
 unto the Corinthians as spiritual' (ch. iii. i), for they were 'men' 
 and * walked as men ' {vv. 3. 4), so he altogether refuses to admit 
 their right, or that of any other purely human tribunal, to institute 
 an inquiry into his motives. The word irdjnsXzXed judgmettt is 'day' 
 in the original. As instances of the use of the word day as in some 
 sense equivalent to judgment, we may adduce the Latin diem dicere, 
 to appoint the day of trial, and our word daysman, i. e. arbitrator, as 
 in Job ix. 33. So Chaucer, Chanonnes Yemannes Tale, lines 15, 16: 
 
 ' ' Lene me a mark, quod he, but dayes thre 
 And at my day I will it quyte the." 
 And the Dutch dagh vaerden to fix a day, daghen to cite, as in a 
 legal process. 
 
 4. For I know nothing by myself ; yet am I not hereby justified] 
 '/ know nothing by myself (/ know nought by myself, Tyndale) 
 signifies I know nothing against myself, like the Latin "«z7 conscire 
 sibV in Hor. Ep. I. 61, or the nil mihi conscius sum of the Vulgate 
 here. The expression "I know nothing by him," as equivalent to 
 
V. 6.] I. CORINTHIANS, IV. 51 
 
 judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who 
 both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and 
 will make manifest the counsels of the hearts : and then 
 shall every man have praise of God. 
 
 And these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred 6 
 to myself and to Apollos for your sakes ; that ye might learn 
 in us not to think of me7i above that which is written, that no 
 
 "I know nothing against his character" is a common one in the 
 North of England. Instances of this expression in old English writers 
 may be found in Davies' Bible English. St Paul, as in Acts xxiii. i, 
 gives the Corinthians to understand that he is not aware of any wilful 
 dereliction of duty on his part. See i Cor. i. 12. We can hardly 
 suppose that one who was so conscious of his many infirmities (see 
 ch. ix, 27, XV. 9 ; Eph. iii. 8; i Tim. i. 13, 15) supposed himself to be 
 altogether free from faults. The next verse implies the contrary, and 
 ■we read in an Epistle written long afterwards (Phil. iii. 13), that he 
 did not consider himself 'already perfect,' but as pushing on towards 
 his only ideal of perfection, the character of his Master, Jesus Christ, 
 
 yet am I not hereby justified^ "There may be many sins which we 
 commit without being aware of them." — Chrysostom. Consequently 
 God, and He alone, has power to pronounce sentence upon our doings. 
 
 6. Therefore judge nothing before the titne] The precept is here applied 
 to the relation of teacher and taught which is laid down generally in 
 St Matt. vii. i and Rom. ii. i. It is our duty to listen to the teaching 
 of God's ministers, test it humbly yet candidly and sincerely, by the aid 
 of God's word, to 'hold fast that which is good' and act upon it 
 (i Thess. v. 21), but to avoid all scrutiny and imputation of motives, 
 since to search the Aeart is the prerogative of God alone. "Learn not to 
 judge, for we do not know the secrets of the heart. We judge men by 
 gifts, or by a correspondence with our own peculiarities, but God judges 
 by fidelity." — Robertson, 
 
 6. And these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred^ The 
 word in the Greek translated in a figure transferred signifies to change 
 the shape of The Vulgate renders transfigzcravi, Wiclif transfigured, 
 Tyndale described in mine own person, the Geneva version, / have 
 figuratively described in mine own person. St Paul changes the names of 
 the persons, substituting himself and Apollos for the teachers most in 
 repute at Corinth, that he might thus avoid personality. But the prin- 
 ciples laid down in the preceding chapters were to be applied universally. 
 
 not to think of men above that which is written] The words to think 
 are not to be found in many ancient copies. In that case we must 
 translate, that ye may learn in us the precept. Not above %vhat is written. 
 Wordsworth quotes in illustration of the construction : 
 
 "Observe 
 The rule of not too much, by Temperance taught." 
 
 Paradise Lost, Bk. XI. 1. 528. 
 
 is written'] i.e. in the Old Testament Scriptures. We have no 
 certainty that any part of the New Testament was written at this time, 
 
 4—2 
 
52 I. CORINTHIANS, IV. [w. 7—9. 
 
 7 one of you be puffed up for one against another. For who 
 niaketh thee to differ /r(?w another t and what hast thou that 
 thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive //, why dost 
 thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it ? 
 
 8 — 16. Contrast betweefi the Corinthian Teachers a?id 
 
 St Paul. 
 
 55 Now ye are full, now ye are rich, ye have reigned as kings 
 
 without us : and I would to God ye did reign, that we also 
 
 9 might reign with you. For I think that God hath set forth 
 
 save the two Epistles to the Thessalonians, and probably that to the 
 Galatians. The only place in the New Testament where the term 
 Scripture is applied to the books of the New Testament is 2 Pet. iii. j6. 
 See ch. ix. 10; x. 11 ; xv. 3, 4, 45, 54. St Paul either refers to Jer. ix. 
 -23, 24, or to passages which speak of God as the source of all know- 
 ledge, such as Deut. xvii. 19, 20; Josh. i. 8; Ps. i. 2, cxix. 99, 100; 
 Prov. viii. ix., &c. 
 
 7. For who maketh thee to differ from anotherl Cf. St John iii. 27; 
 James i. 17. All the gifts they had received were of God, and this fact 
 excluded as a matter of course all boasting or self-satisfaction. The 
 Vulgate translates 'maketh thee to differ' by discerno, with the signifi- 
 cation given above. This throws a light on the meanhig of our English 
 word discern in ch. xi. 29, where see note. 
 
 glory\ Rather, perhaps, boast. See note on ch. v. 6. 
 
 8 — 16. Contrast between the Corinthian Teachers and 
 St Paul. 
 
 8. Now ye arefiill, now ye are rich'\ Here we have one of the sudden 
 turns of feeling so remarkable in the Apostle's style. Abruptly breaking 
 off at the word 'boast,' he dashes off into an animated and ironical 
 apostrophe. 'I may well say 'boast' for boasting is your crying sin, 
 but it is boasting in yourselves, not in God. All your wants spiritual 
 and temporal now are satisfied, you have become rich, you are reigning 
 like kings. But in your self-satisfaction you give not a thought to those 
 whose labours have made you what you are. Would that it were really 
 with you as you imagine it to be ! Then we might hope for some re- 
 mission of our trials, distresses, humiliations. But at present all the 
 sorrow, suffering, shame is ours, while either in fact or in fancy you are 
 enjoying all the good things given to Christians, immunity from suffering, 
 quiet of conscience (Rom. viii. i), wisdom, honour, inward satisfaction.' 
 The word translated y}/// has the sense of being satiated with good things, 
 (Vulgate, saturati). Some editors read the verse as a series of questions. 
 But the affirmative form strengthens the irony of the passage. 
 
 without us\ Though St Paul had admitted the Corinthians into the 
 same blessings as he enjoyed himself, he had no share in their blessings. 
 
 and I would to God ye did reig7i, that we also might reign with you] The 
 Apostle does not regard the persecutions and distresses he underwent 
 
w. lo— 12.} I. CORINTHIANS, IV. 53 
 
 us the apostles last, as it were approved to death : for we 
 are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to 
 men. We are fools for Christ's sake, but ye are wise in 
 Christ ; we are weak, but ye are strong ; ye at-e honourable, 
 but we are despised. Even unto this present hour we both 
 hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and 
 have no certain dwelling place ; and labour, working with 
 our own hands : being reviled, we bless ; being persecuted, 
 
 as desirable for their owti sake, but only as means to an end. The 
 empire of evil is not to be destroyed without a conflict, and the sufferings 
 endured by Christ's servants are the evidences that it is going on. But 
 the best of those who are thus contending for the truth may lawfully 
 wish that the conflict were over and the reign of the saints begun. 
 Such a wish, in fact, appears to be expressed by the words, ' Thy king- 
 dom come.' 
 
 9. Fo7' I think that God hath set forth its the apostles last, as it were 
 approved to dcat}i\ So the original version of 161 1. Our modern Bibles 
 read appointed with Tyndale and Cranmer. Cf ch. xv. 31; Ps. xliv. 
 22; Rom. viii. 36; 2 Cor. iv. ri. It is possible that we have here, as 
 in I Thess. iv. 17, an expression of that expectation of Christ's speedy 
 coming which we know was general among the Christians of the Apostolic 
 age. We know (Mark xiii. 3-2) that the Apostle's inspiration did not ex- 
 tend to this subject. However this may be, the Apostles are represented 
 as coming last in a procession of gladiators, as devoted to death, (Ter- 
 tullian renders the word bestiarios, "appointed to fight with beasts," see 
 ch. XV. 32,) and the whole universe, angels and men, as spectators of the 
 conflict. Cf. Heb. x. 33; xii. i. The image is taken from the Isthmian 
 games which were held near Corinth. See notes on ch. ix. 24 — 27. 
 
 10. We are fools for Chrisfs sake] Rather, on account of Christ, i.e. on 
 account of His doctrine, which was looked upon as folly (ch. i. 23 ; ii. 14). 
 
 ye are wise in Christ] Prudent, Wiclif ; prudentes, Vulgate. It is 
 scarcely necessary to explain that this language is ironical. They were 
 unquestionably 'prudent' in this, that they spared themselves the 
 labours and anxieties in which St Paul was so ' abundant' (2 Cor. xi. 23). 
 
 11. Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst] The 
 Apostle would point out to his converts the true glory of the Christian 
 minister. Labour and suffering for Christ's sake are the marks of the 
 servants of God, not self-conceit and self-praise. 
 
 12. and labour, wo7'king with our own hands] Consult Paley, 
 Horae Patdinae, ist Ep. to Corinthians, No. vi., for a full discussion of 
 the remarkable coincidence between this passage and the speech to 
 the Ephesian elders in Acts xx. 34, where, though the words were 
 spoken on a different occasion, and are related by a different author, we 
 find statements exactly corresponding. St Paul, in this Epistle written 
 from Ephesus, and in that speech spoken at Ephesus, states that he 
 laboured with his own hands there, and in l^oth cases the remark is 
 dropped undesignedly. The coincidence is the best proof possible of the 
 
54 I. CORINTHIANS, IV. [vv. 13—16. 
 
 13 we suffer //,• being defamed, we intreat : we are made as the 
 filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all tJmigs unto 
 
 14 this day. I write not these thmgs to shame you, but as my 
 
 15 beloved sons I warn you. For though you have ten thousand 
 instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers : for in 
 Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel. 
 
 1 7 Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me. For this 
 
 genuineness both of Epistle and narrative. See also ch. ix. 6 and 
 Acts xviii. 3; I Thess. ii. 9; 1 Thess. iii. 8. 
 
 being reviled, we bless] Compare St Matt. v. 5, 38 — 45 ; St Luke 
 xxiii. 34; St John xviii. 23; i Pet. ii. 23. 
 
 13. we are made as the filth of the world"] The word here translated 
 filth means (i) that which is removed by cleansing and (2) an expiatory 
 
 sacrifice, one who is delivered up to destruction, like Jonah, to save 
 others as guilty as himself. St Paul does not assert that he is such a 
 sacrifice, but that he is like one, because by his sorrows and sufferings 
 many souls are brought to Christ. Cf. Col. i. 24, and Bp Wordsworth 
 in loc. 
 
 and are the offscotiring] Literally, as the offscouring. This word in 
 '' the original is derived from a verlD signifying to rub, scrape, shave. 
 It has similar significations to the preceding : ( i ) that which is removed 
 by rubbing, (2) a sacrifice for the benefit of others. Suidas in his 
 Lexicon states that it was a custom among the Greeks in times of 
 calamity to cast a victim into the sea as a sacrifice to appease Poseidon, 
 the god of the sea, with the words, "Be thou our offscouring." In 
 virtue of the humiliations and distresses endured by St Paul, he repre- 
 sents himself as becoming the refuse of mankind, in order that by this 
 means he may bring blessings innumerable within their reach. So 
 Tobit v. 18, *' Let the money be sacrificed as nought for the sake of the 
 child;" and Ignatius (to the Ephesians, ch. 8), "lam your off-scouring,''* 
 i.e. I am undergoing these afflictions for your sakes, and similarly in the 
 Epistle attributed to St Barnabas (ch. 6), in all which places the same 
 word is used. 
 
 of all things'] Better, of all men. 
 
 14. / ivrite not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons I warn 
 you] The object of the foregoing passage might be mistaken, and there- 
 fore the Apostle refers to the mutual relation between himself and the 
 Corinthian Church. His object is not reproach, but the amendment of 
 their lives. It is the rebuke of a father, not the strong language of a 
 man justly indignant. 
 
 15. yet have ye not many fathers] We have here an interesting 
 example of the fact that the spirit rather than the letter of Christ's 
 commands is to be observed, and that one passage of Scripture is not to 
 be strained so as to contradict another. * Call no man your father on 
 earth,' says Christ (St Matt, xxiii. 9): that is, as explained by the 
 present passage, in such a spirit as to forget Him from whom all bemg 
 proceeds. 
 
vv. 17—19.] I. CORINTHIANS, IV. 55 
 
 17 — 21. Mission of Timothy j to be followed^ if iiieffectiialy by 
 
 strong measures on the part of St Paul hi??iself. 
 cause have I sent unto you Timotheus, who is my beloved 
 son, and faithful in the Lord, who shall bring you into re- 
 membrance of my ways which be in Christ, as I teach every 
 where in every church. Now some are puffed up, as though 18 
 
 1 would not come to you. But I will come to you shortly, 19 
 
 in Christ Jesns I have begotten yoii] i. e. because Jesus Christ dwells 
 in His ministers, and their work is His. Cf. ch. iii. 5 — 9. 
 
 16. be ye folloivers of 7ne\ Literally, imitators. W\\\gdite, imitatores. 
 St Paul's was no spurious -humility, such as has too often taken the 
 place of real gospel humility in the Christian Church. He could ven- 
 ture to refer to his own example, where his conscience told him he had 
 honestly striven to carry out his Master's commands. 
 
 17 — 21. Mission of Timothy, to be followed, if ineffectual, 
 
 BY STRONG MEASURES ON THE PART OF ST PaUL HIMSELF. 
 
 17. For this cause have I sent unto you Timotheusl Literally, I sent, 
 i. e. before this epistle was written, see note on ch. xvi. 10. St Paul's 
 affection for the gentle and somewhat timid Timothy is a remarkable 
 trait in his character. From almost the beginning to the end of his 
 ministry he had, not even excepting St Luke, no more trustworthy, 
 affectionate, and faithful friend, nor one who more thoroughly under- 
 stood his mind. Cf. Phil. ii. 19, 20, 22; i Thess. iii. 2; i Tim. i. 3; 
 
 2 Tim. iii. 10, It may be also valuable to remark how the common 
 life of the believer and his Lord is ever present with St Paul. If 
 Timothy is 'faithful and beloved,' it is 'in the Lord;' if St Paul has 
 'ways,' they are 'in Christ.' For Timothy's parentage and connexion 
 with the Apostle, see 2 Tim. i. 5, and Acts xvi. i. It will be observed 
 that the statement here undesignedly made is in precise agreement with 
 Acts xix. 22. See Paley, Horae Faulinae, in loc. 
 
 my belffved son, and faithful in the Lord] rather, my beloved and 
 faithful child in the Lord, implying that Timothy owed his conversion 
 to the Apostle, cf i Tim. i. 2, 18; 2 Tim. i. 2; where the same word 
 is used which is here translated 'son.' 
 
 who shall bring you into remembrance] A delicate hint that they had 
 forgotten them. 
 
 my ways which be in Christ] An equally delicate hint that they are 
 not St Paul's ways only. 
 
 as I teach every where in every church] An additional reason why 
 they should not be set aside at Corinth. 
 
 18. Now some are puffed up, as though I would not come to you] See 
 note below, ch. v. 2. As the whole of the Second Epistle to the 
 Corinthians shews (see for instance, ch. x. 1), there were those at 
 Corinth who depreciated St Paul's authority. Such persons persuaded 
 themselves that they had so undermined his reputation that he would 
 
$6 I. CORINTHIANS, IV. [w. 20, 21. 
 
 if the Lord will, and will know, not the speech of them which 
 
 20 are puffed up, but the power. For the kingdom of God is 
 
 21 not in word, but in power. What will ye? shall I come unto 
 you with a rod, or in love, and m the spirit of meekness ? 
 
 not dare to come again to Corinth, and they grew more self-asserting 
 in consequence. But though St Paul submitted to contempt and insult 
 from without, he demands the respect due to his office from those within. 
 He bore the reproach of the infidel and scoffer : among his own people 
 he acts upon the precept, 'Let no man despise thee.' Paley remarks 
 on the undesigned coincidence between this passage and 2 Cor. i. 15 — 
 17; it. I. It appears that there had been some uncertainty about the 
 Apostle's visit. It was this which had led some of his opponents to 
 assert that he would never shew his face at Corinth again. 
 
 19. if the Lord u<ill~\ See James iv. 13 — 15, who "justly derides that 
 rashness among men, in that they plan what they shall do ten years 
 hence, when they are not certain that they shall live another hour." 
 Calvin in loc. The Roman Catholic commentator, Estius, makes a simi- 
 lar observation. 
 
 not the speech of them which are piiffed up^ hit the power"] The power 
 that is derived from Christ, which He Himself possessed to influence 
 the heart of man. Such seems to be the more usual meaning of the 
 word di'va/jLLS in St Paul's Epistles. Cf. Rom. i. 16; i Cor. ii. 4, &c. 
 It includes, no doubt, the power of working miracles, for with one or 
 two exceptions, the miracles of the gospel were manifestations of Christ's 
 powder to deliver humanity from the dominion of evil and its conse- 
 quences. 
 
 20. not in word, but in power] See note on ch. i. 5, where the M^ord 
 here used is translated utterance. In the last verse it is translated speech. 
 Like our words sermon and discourse^ it contains within itself the notion 
 of matter and oral delivery. Of what the Apostle meant by power, we 
 are scarcely fit judges. We have been too familiar with them from 
 childhood to be able to comprehend what pozver the Apostles' words 
 must have had upon the hearts and lives of those who heard them. 
 We may gain some slight idea by comparing them \vith the best 
 passages of the earliest Christian writers after the Apostles; and still 
 more by comparing them with the utterances of the Greek sophists and 
 dialecticians of the time. The kingdom of God, St Paul would remind 
 his hearers, i, e. His sovereignty over the human heart, is not simply an 
 affair of the intellect, but of the spirit. It does not consist in the 
 acceptance or establishment of certain propositions, but in influence over 
 the life and conscience. 
 
 21. with a rod] That is either (i) with some commentators, e. g. 
 Chrysostom, the resolution to deliver the rebellious over to Satan (see 
 next chapter). If this be the case, the word 'power' in the last verse 
 must include power to do harm. But it is better (-2) to refer the ex- 
 pression to the severity of language which the Apostle would be com- 
 pelled to use, if there were no signs of improvement when he came. 
 This falls in best with the fatherly relation, involving of course the 
 
w. I, 2.] I: CORINTHIANS, V. 57 
 
 Ch. V. I — 8. The case of the i?tcestuous person. 
 
 It is reported commonly that there is fornication among 5 
 you, and such fornication as is not so much as named 
 amongst the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife. 
 And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he 2 
 
 idea of correction, in which he describes himself as standing towards 
 the Corinthian Church. See v. 15, and compare Prov. xiii. 24; xxiii. 13, 
 14, &c. The words 'spirit of meekness' in the last part of the verse 
 confirm this last interpretation. The literal translation is Hn a rod,' 
 referring to the spirit in which the Apostle was to come. ' Am I to 
 eome to you in a spirit of correction, or in a spirit of meekness ? ' 
 
 Ch. V. 1—8. The case of the incestuous person. 
 
 1. // is reported conunoiily that there is fornication amojtg you\ This 
 explains the mention of the 'rod' in the last verse. 
 
 and such fornicatio7i as is not so much as named amongst the Gentiles] 
 Two considerations of some importance, bearing on Church history, are 
 suggested by this passage. The first is, that we must dismiss the idea, 
 that the Christian Church at the beginning of its career was a pattern 
 of Christian perfection. The Corinthian community, as described here 
 and in chap. xi. 21, was lamentably ignorant of the first principles of 
 Christian morality and Christian decency, and we see how the Apostles 
 had to begin by laying the very foundations of a system of morals among 
 their depraved heathen converts. It is probable that nowhere, save in 
 the earlier years of the Church at Jerusalem, was there any body of 
 Christians which was not very far from realizing the Christian ideal, and 
 which was not continually in need of the most careful supervision. The 
 second point is that St Paul's idea of discipline seems to have differed 
 greatly from the principles which were creeping into the Church at the 
 end of the second century. See v. 5, and compare it with 2 Cor. ii. 
 5 — 8, which seems plainly to refer to the same person. In spite of 
 the gravity of the crime— it would seem' (2 Cor. vii. 12) that it was 
 committed while the father was alive — we find here nothing of the long, 
 in some instances life-long, penance which had become the rule of the 
 Church for grave offences before the end of the third century. It is, 
 perhaps, hardly necessary to remark that by the words ^father's wife,'' 
 stepmother is meant. But the language of the Apostle seems to imply 
 that she had been divorced by the father and married to the son, a pro- 
 ceeding which the shameful laxity of Corinthian society rendered pos- 
 sible. See note on ch. vii. 10. Estius, however, thinks that the son 
 was living publicly with his father's wife, as though she were his own. 
 
 2. And ye are (lit. have been) pnffed up, and have not 7-ather mourned] 
 Puffed up. Vulgate, inflati. Tyndale, ye siuell. Wiclif, are bolnun, i. e. 
 swollen with pride. It sheds a terrible light upon the self-satisfaction 
 of the Corinthian Church, that it was not disturbed by such a scandal as 
 this. 
 
58 I. CORINTHIANS, V. [vv. 3—5. 
 
 that hath done this deed might be taken away from among 
 
 3 you. For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, 
 have judged already, as though I were present, concertii?ig 
 
 4 him that hath so done this deed, in the name of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, 
 
 5 with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver such a one 
 
 might be taken away from among you] The power of excommunication , 
 that is of separating from the Christian society those whose lives were a 
 disgrace to the Christian profession, has always been a power claimed 
 by the Church of Christ. Our own Church declares that it is "much 
 to be wished" that such discipline could be restored among ourselves. 
 But the power has unquestionably been misused, and the consequence 
 of its abuse has been to a great extent to take away its use. 
 
 3. /verify, as absent in body] Cf. Col. ii. 5 ; i Thess. ii. 17. Here 
 we have the method of excommunication pursued in the Apostolic 
 Church. It is important to observe it narrowly. First, it is to be 
 remarked that the Apostle is acting not only as the president, but as the 
 founder of the Corinthian Church. Next we remark that the whole 
 Church at Corinth was associated with him in the work. "When ye are 
 gathered together, and my spirit." Hence it came to pass that in primi- 
 tive times it was usual for such acts of discipline to be carried out in the 
 presence of the Church or congregation in which the offender was 
 accustomed to worship. Thirdly, it is observable that such excommu- 
 nication was pronounced 'in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ,' that 
 is, with His authority and in accordance with His Divine Law of purity 
 and love, whereby, while hating the sin, He desired to convert the 
 offender. 
 
 have judged already] This may either be taken (i) as in the Author- 
 ized Version, with the word concerning inserted before hhn that hath so 
 done this deed, or (2) these last words may be regarded as the accusative 
 after "deliver," and the word "judged" taken absolutely. The former 
 appears preferable, but the whole passage is very intricate. 
 
 concerning him that hath so done this deed] Literally, he that bath 
 perpetrated this deed in such a manner, i.e. as though to add to 
 the guilt and shame of it by his way of doing it. 
 
 4. in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ] This may be taken (i) 
 with *I have judged' in z/. 3; (2) with when ye are gathered together, or 
 (3) with to deliver such a one iinto Satan. Of these (i) and (3) are pre- 
 ferable to (2), which would involve an awkward inversion in the 
 order of the words. It implies either (i) the solemn promulgation of 
 the sentence by St Paul, in the name and with the authority of 
 Christ, or (2) the equally solemn delivery of the offender over to Satan. 
 All assemblies of the Christian Church were gathered together in the 
 Name of Christ. 
 
 with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ] This has been taken (i) 
 with when ye are gathered together, and (2) with to deliver such a one 
 unto Satan. The former is preferable. The Corinthian Church, when 
 
V. 6.] I. CORINTHIANS, V. 59 
 
 unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may 
 be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Your glorying is not 6 
 good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole 
 
 assembled in the Name of Christ, and acting under the authority of its 
 chief pastor, one of Christ's Apostles, vras armed with a spiritual 
 power from Jesus Christ to pronounce and carry out the awful sentence 
 which follows. 
 
 6. to deliver stick a one ttnto Satan for the destruction of the flesh\ 
 Two explanations of this passage demand our notice, (i) It has been 
 understood of excommunication, as though he who was excluded from 
 the Christian Church was thereby solemnly given back to Satan, from 
 whose empire he had been delivered when he became a Christian. The 
 'destruction of the flesh' and the salvation of the spirit are then 
 explained to mean that mortification of carnal concupiscence and that 
 amendment of life which the sentence is calculated to produce. But it 
 is better (■2) to understand it of some temporal judgment, such as befell 
 Job in the Old Testament, Ananias, Sapphira, and Elymas the sorcerer, 
 in the New. Such an idea was common among the Rabbis (see 
 Stanley's note). It falls in with such passages as St Luke xiii. 16; 
 2 Cor. xii. 7 (where ' messenger ' may be translated ' angel '), as well 
 as M^ith ch. xi. 30 in this Epistle. The punishment was intended for 
 the discipline and ultimate recovery of the spirit. Some have doubted 
 whether this is possible, but we may bear in mind the acute remark of 
 Meyer, that though "it is with an antichristian purpose that Satan 
 smites the man, against his own will the purpose is made to serve God's 
 aim of salvation." He also notices that it is not the body but "Ca^ flesh, 
 i.e., carnal appetite, that is to be destroyed by the chastisement. A 
 similar instance of deUvery to Satan is to be found in i Tim. i. 20. 
 Whether the power was confined to the Apostolic age or not is a 
 point we cannot determine with certainty. 
 
 such a one] The force of the expression in the original is a man of 
 that sort, the person capable of such a deed. 
 
 that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord yesus\ "Human 
 punishment rests upon three grounds: (i) it is an expression of Divine 
 indignation; (2) it aims at the reformation of the offender; (3) the 
 contagious character of evil ; a little leaven leaveneth the whole 
 lump." — Robertson. For the day of the Lord Jesus see ch. iii. 13, iv. 5, 
 and Rom. ii. 5, 16. 
 
 6. Your glorying is not good'\ Rather, that state of things of 
 which you glory is not good. The word here translated glorying 
 signifies that whereof a man glories, and is so translated in Rom. iv. 2. 
 Cf. ch. ix. 15, 16 ; 2 Cor. i. 14, v. 12, ix. 3, &c., where the same word is 
 used, but is variously translated in our version. The Corinthians are 
 once more reminded how little cause they had for self-glorification. As 
 long as they permitted such an offender to defile their society they were 
 in a measure partakers of his sin. 
 
 a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump\ The presence of a very small 
 amount of evil in the Christian society imparts a character to the whole 
 
6o I. CORINTHIANS, V. [vv. 7, 8. 
 
 7 lump ? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be 
 a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our 
 
 8 passover is sacrificed for us : therefore let us keep the feast, 
 
 — a truth only too fully exemplified in the after-history of the Christian 
 Church. From the evil that has crept into the Christian society men 
 have taken occasion to deny its divine origin. The student of history 
 will remember how dexterously Gibbon contrives to throw discredit 
 upon Christianity by enlarging upon the shortcomings of the early 
 Church, and by evading the comparison between its moral elevation 
 and the shocking demoralization of heathen society. The same words 
 are to be found in Gal. v. 9. 
 
 7, Purge out therefore the old leaveii\ Reference is here made to 
 the Jewish custom of searching for leaven, which is mentioned in the 
 Talmud, and which probably existed in the Apostles' time. Because 
 Scripture speaks of 'searching Jerusalem with candles,' Zeph. i. 12, 
 they used to carry out this custom of searching for leaven with great 
 strictness, taking a candle and "prying into every mousehole and cranny," 
 as St Chrysostom says, so as to collect even the smallest crumb of 
 leavened bread, which was to be placed in a box, or some place where a 
 mouse could not get at it. This ceremony, as Lightfoot tells us ( Temple 
 Service, ch. xii. sec. i) was prefaced by the prayer, "Blessed be Thou, 
 O Lord our God, the King everlasting. Who hast sanctified us by Thy 
 commandments, and hast enjoined the putting away of leaven." The 
 custom exists among the Jews to this day. The scrupulous care in 
 removing the smallest particle of the bitter substance adds force to St 
 Paul's injunction. Not the slightest trace of bitterness and vice and 
 wickedness was to be left among Christians, since they kept continual 
 feast upon the Flesh and Blood of the Paschal Lamb, even Jesus Christ. 
 See the discourse in St John vi., itself delivered before a Passover. 
 
 that ye may be a nnv lutnp, as ye are wileavenedX as ye are (called to 
 be) unleavened, i.e. purged free from 'vice and wickedness' (z/. 8), "so 
 be also in fact." See note on ch. i. 2, and Rom. vi. 3, 4. The Christian 
 community was to be a ' new lump,' because it was placed among men 
 as a new society — a society, the object and aim of which was to keep 
 itself free from the defilements of the rest of the world. The word trans- 
 lated lianp signifies properly a mass of dough, from a verb signifying to 
 mix, knead. 
 
 Christ our passover'] Meyer here remarks that St Paul regards Christ 
 as having been slain on the day of the Paschal Feast. We may add 
 that he also explains how the Last Supper was called by Christ a Pass- 
 over (St Luke xxii. 15). For in truth it was a real Passover, though not 
 the Passover of the old, but of the new Law, a standing witness to the 
 fact that Christ has become our continual food (cf. Aquinas, Lauda 
 Sion, cited by Dean Stanley, "Novum Pascha novae legis "). Christ 
 was the Passover, (i) because He was the Lamb slain from the founda- 
 tion of the world (Rev. xiii. 8), of which the Paschal Lamb was a 
 type (cf. St John xix. 36) ; (2) because His Blood, sprinkled on the soul, 
 delivers us from the destroying angel; (3) because we feed on His 
 
V. 9.] I- CORINTHIANS, V. 6i 
 
 not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and 
 wickedness ; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and 
 truth. 
 
 g — 1 2. Applicatio7i of the same principle to offenders 
 
 generally. 
 I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with 9 
 
 Flesh and Blood (St John vi. 51—57), and are thereby nourished for 
 our escape from the ' land of Egypt, the house of bondage.' This 
 is why we are to purge out the old leaven, because Christ, the Paschal 
 Lamb, has been slain, and we are bidden to keep perpetual feast on 
 Him. It is not improbable (see ch. xvi. 8) that this Epistle was written 
 about the time of the Passover. On this point consult Paley, Horae 
 Paulinae in loc. 
 
 is sacrificed^ Literally, was sacrificed, i. e. once for all. Cf. Heb. vii. 
 •27, ix. 25, 26, X. 10. The more literal translation of the passage is, for 
 our Passover was sacrificed, even Christ. 
 
 8. keep the feast] Rather, keep festival, referring to the pei-petual 
 feast the Christian Church keeps on the Flesh and Blood of her Lord. 
 Not 'the feast' as in our version, which would imply some particular 
 festival. 
 
 malice an J wickednessl Rather, perhaps, vice and wickedness, cf. ch. 
 xiv. 20. 
 
 sincerity and trutK\ The word here translated sincerity is derived 
 either (i) from a word signifying to revolve, as though rejecting by 
 its rapid revolution all extraneous matter, or (2) by most etymologists 
 as from the rays of the sim, which by their searching character would 
 immediately reveal the presence of any impurity. It would, therefore, 
 seem to mean transparent honesty of purpose and character. 
 
 9 — 13. Application of the same principle to offenders 
 generally. 
 
 9. / wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fortiicators] 
 From the particular case, and the reflections it suggested, we now 
 come to general rules of conduct on this subject. The Apostle would 
 not have his converts flee from the world, as so many did in later 
 ages, but remain in it and leaven it. This course must bring them into 
 contact with many ungodly men, whose evil example they must not 
 follow, but whom they cannot altogether avoid, unless they would retire 
 altogether from the active business of life. But if any member of the 
 Church bring dishonour on the Christian name by such sins as those 
 which are named, the Christian is bound to shew his sense of such 
 flagrant inconsistency and hypocrisy, by refusing even to sit down to a 
 meal with him. It is not difficult to follow the spirit of such an 
 exhortation now, though it may be impossible to observe its letter. 
 We cannot help meeting men of depraved morals and irreligious lives in 
 business or in general society ; we can, nay we must, refrain from 
 making such persons our associates and intimates. 
 
62 I. CORINTHIANS, V. [w. 10—13. 
 
 10 fornicators : yet not altogether with the fornicators of this 
 world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idola- 
 
 11 ters ; for then must ye needs go out of the world. But 
 now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any 
 man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, 
 or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner ; 
 
 12 with such a one no not to eat For what have I to do to 
 judge them also that are without ? do not ye judge them 
 
 13 that are within? But them that are without God judgeth. 
 Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked 
 person, 
 
 in an epistle] The Greek has the Epistle, and as in 2 Cor. vii. 8 the 
 same words are used in reference to this Epistle, it has been concluded 
 that mention is here made of a former Epistle which is now lost. Estius 
 calls attention to the fact that in 2 Cor. x. 10 St Paul speaks of his 
 'letters' as though he had written more than one to the Corinthian 
 Church. It is not probable that all St Paul's letters have come down to 
 us, and therefore we may conclude, with the majority of commentators, 
 that the reference is to an Epistle no longer extant. 
 
 10. or xvith the covetous] The word used here in the original is 
 derived from two Greek words signifying to have more. Hence it 
 signifies (i) one who has more than enough, (2) who desires more than 
 enough of whatever kind, (3) one greedy after money. In some passages 
 it, and the substantive and verb of similar derivation, are used of 
 sensual sin, as in Eph. v. 3 ; i Thess. iv. 6. In this verse, as well 
 as in Eph. v. 5, and Col. iii. 5, these words are connected with 
 idolatry; either (i) because the love of riches is a kind of idolatry 
 (i Tim. vi. 17) or (2) because the idolatrous rites of heathenism were so 
 frequently stained with sensual indulgence. The verb formed from it 
 generally signifies to overreach, take advantage of. Thus in 2 Cor. ii. 1 1 
 it is translated 'get an advantage of,' in vii. 2 'defraud,' and in 
 xii. 17, 18 'make a gain of.' Dean Stanley illustrates its use by the 
 word covet as used in the Tenth Commandment; first in the ordinary 
 sense of covetousness, 'thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, 'and 
 next in the sense of sensual desire, 'thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's 
 wife.' We may also compare the words greed and greedy^ which coming 
 from the Anglo-Saxon grcedan to cry, and kindred with the Gothic 
 greitan, the Lowland Scotch greet, and the Italian gridare, words of 
 similar signification, have diverged from one another in sense, and are 
 used, the former exclusively of gain, the latter of the indulgence of 
 appetite. 
 
 11. I have written] Literally, I wrote, i. e. in the former Epistle. 
 called a brother] i. e. as being so in name only. 
 
 an extortioner] Latin rapax, a kindred word to that used in the 
 original. Distinct from the covetous man in that he uses force rather 
 than fraud to deprive men of their property. 
 
 12, 13. For what have I to do to judge them also that are without?] The 
 
yv. I, 2.] I. CORINTHIANS, VI. 63 
 
 Ch. VI. I — II. The way to settle disputes in the 
 Christian Church. 
 
 Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go 6 
 to law before the unjust, and not before the saints ? Do a 
 
 connection of thought in this and the next verse is as follows: "You 
 have supposed me to have been urging you to abstain altogether from 
 any kind of intercourse with sinners. You misunderstood my meaning. 
 I only meant to refer to the members of your own community. As you 
 might have gathered from your own practice, which is confined to the 
 Christian body, I have no authority to deal with those without. They 
 are in the hands of God." And then he abruptly adds, 'Cast out the 
 wicked man,' or 'the evil thing.' The word therefore (literally 'and') 
 is absent from many MSS., and has been supposed to have been 
 introduced from the Septuagint version of Deut. xiii. 5 ; xvii. 7 ; xxi. 
 21, &c. In the Greek the wordj^ in v. 12 is emphatic, and the words 
 those that are within scarcely less so — 'it is those that are within that 
 ye judge.' Some editors would read the following words as a question, 
 'Doth not God judge those that are without?' 
 
 Ch. VI. 1 — 11. The way to settle disputes in the Christian 
 Church. 
 
 1. Dare any of yoii^ hazwg a matter against another^ The principle 
 is here laid down which is to guide Christians in their lawsuits. Dis- 
 putes about property are treated by the Apostle as matters of the most 
 trifling import. To call in the unbelievers to settle the disputes of 
 Christian brethren was an act of audacity almost beyond the belief of the 
 Apostle {v. i), and in marked contrast to the feeling prevalent in the 
 Christian Church at its first foundation (Acts iv. 32). It were far better for 
 a Christian to suffer the utmost wrong, than to bring such a reproach upon 
 the name of Christ {v. 7). The disputes of Christians were therefore settled 
 by private arbitration, a custom which continued until Christianity was 
 formally established as the religion of the Roman Empire. In the 
 so-called Apostolical Constitutions, which were drawn up in the second 
 or early in the third century, we find a provision that these private courts 
 of arbitration should be held early in the week, that any disputes which 
 might arise might be set right before the following Sunday. Such 
 courts of arbitration have given place to the Christian courts of law, 
 before which it often becomes necessary for a Christian to plead, lest 
 violent or covetous men should dissolve the framework of society. Yet 
 the principle of this passage should guide us still, of regarding mutual 
 love as of more importance than 'the things that pertain to this life,' 
 of preferring rather to suffer wrong than to appeal to the law, unless 
 some more important matter is at stake than our individual loss or in- 
 convenience. 
 
 and not before the saints'] Cf. St Matt, xviii. 17, where we have 
 a precept of Jesus Christ concerning the settlement of differences in 
 the Christian Church. 
 
64 I. CORINTHIANS, VI. [vv. 3, 4- 
 
 ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if 
 the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge 
 
 3 the smallest matters ? Know ye not that we shall judge 
 angels? how much more things that pertain to this life? 
 
 4 If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, 
 set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church. 
 
 2. the saints shall jtidge the worldX i. e. at Christ's second coming. 
 See St Matt. xix. 28, St Luke xxii. 30, and Dan. vii. 22. 
 
 are ye umvorthy to judge the smallest matters .?] The word here 
 translated viatters, and in ver. a^ jtidgments, has the following sig- 
 nifications: (i) tribunals; (2) causes brought before such tribunals ; 
 (3) the trial held in such courts ; (4) the proofs whereby the trial is 
 decided. Of these (4) is out of the question here. If we do not accept 
 (2), which is the rendering of our version, we must either translate 
 Are ye timuorthy to preside aver the most unhnportant tribunals 1 or 
 Are ye unworthy to hold trials of the most insignificant kind'i 
 
 3. Kncno ye not that we shall judge angels?] Cf. 2 Pet. ii. 4, and 
 Jude 6. Some have thought that good angels are here meant. But 
 it is difficult to see how (i) men could pronounce sentence upon their 
 conduct openly, or (2) acquit or censure them by the silent sentence 
 of a consistent life. For in the first case there would be no sentence 
 to pronounce, and in the second it would be they who would judge 
 the holiest man that ever lived, and not he who would judge them. 
 " The interpretation squares well with the argument. We shall judge 
 devils, who not only were so noble in their original condition, but are 
 still even when fallen immortal beings. VTtidt then ! shall the paltry 
 things which concern the belly be withdrawn from our decision ? — 
 Calvin. "The good angels are not hereafter to be judged, but they 
 will form a part of Christ's glorious retinue when He comes to judg- 
 ment." — Wordsworth. 
 
 4. judgments] domes, Wiclif. See note on ver. 2. The meaning 
 (2) seems the only admissible one here, inasmuch as Christians were 
 not likely as yet to possess secular tribunals or to hold secular trials in 
 the technical sense of the word. Secular caitses they had, and as we 
 see, they carried them before the heathen courts. 
 
 set them to judge] This passage may be taken in three ways, (i) 
 as in our version, imperatively, set them to judge, i. e. the matter is 
 so trivial that any person, even the most contemptible for his under- 
 standing in the Church, is quite fit to undertake the settlement of it. 
 Or, (2) indicative, ye are setting, as though it were the heathen w^ho 
 were the most despised in the Church. Or (3) as a question, /y it 
 your custom to set such persons to settle such matters ? much less 
 then should you bring them before the heathen, who in points of moral 
 perception are infinitely below the least esteemed members of the 
 Christian Church. Of these (i) is preferable as falling m best with 
 the context : while (2) is open to the objection that it was not the 
 custom of Christ or His Apostles to represent one's fellow-men, even 
 though they were heathen, as fit objects of contempt. 
 
vv. 5—9.] I. CORINTHIANS, VI. 65 
 
 I speak to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise 5 
 mail amongst you ? no, not one that shall be able to judge 
 between his brethren ? But brother goeth to law with 6 
 brother, and that before the unbelievers. Now therefore 7 
 there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law 
 one with another. Why do ye not rather take wrong? 
 why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded ? 
 Nay, you do wrong, and defraud, and that your brethren, s 
 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the 9 
 kingdom of God ? Be not deceived : neither fornicators, 
 
 least esteevieci\ Literally, thought nothing of. 
 
 5. / speak to your shatne\ ' You are not to suppose me in earnest. 
 I only say this to shame you for the undue value you set on- the things 
 of this life. Such matters might fitly be left to the decision of the 
 most insignificant member of your community. But there is no necessity 
 for that. Surely there are plenty of persons among you who are com- 
 petent to settle such questions, and thus save you the scandal of 
 carrying your disputes before the heathen, when you have pledged 
 yourself to lead a life above such considerations.' 
 
 6. But brother goeth to taza] "It is not a question between eccle- 
 siastical and civil courts, but between Law and Equity, Litigation 
 
 and Arbitration The remedy is not more elaborate law, nor cheaper 
 
 law, nor greater facility of law, but more Christianity." Robertson. 
 Cf. note on ver. i. 
 
 aftd that before the unbelievers'] Rather, before unbelievers, the 
 fact of appearing before unbelievers at all on such matters being the 
 point to which attention is directed. "Beside the scandal of such a 
 proceeding, as exposing their internal differences to the eyes of the 
 heathen, there were certain formularies to be gone through in the 
 heathen law-courts, such as adjurations by heathen deities, which would 
 involve them in idolatrous practices." Wordsworth. Cf. also Blunt, 
 Lectures 071 Ch. History, pp. no, 149. 
 
 7. Why do ye not rather take wrong?] Cf. St Matt. v. 38 — 42. 
 
 8. Nay, you do wrong, and defraud, and that (your) brethj-eii] Not 
 only are you not willing to suffer injury, but you inflict it, and you 
 inflict it upon those with whom you are conjoined in relations as 
 affectionate as the ties of blood. * One is your Master upon earth 
 and all ye are brethren.' And this was not to be a convention or 
 a sentiment, but a fact ; witnessed to by the affectionate name "the 
 brethren " by which everywhere Christians were known. 
 
 9. Know ye not that the unrighteoics shall not inheHt the kingdo7n 
 of God?] The Apostle in this verse sums up what he has been saying 
 in this chapter and the last. First generally, the unjust, wrong-doers, 
 shall not inherit the kingdom of God, that is, His final kingdom 
 in the ' restitution of all things,' for which we daily pray. He then 
 proceeds to particulars, and declares that all who lived for themselves, 
 
66 I. CORINTHIANS, VI. [w. 10—12. 
 
 nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of 
 10 themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor 
 
 drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the 
 n kingdom of God. And such were some of you : but ye are 
 
 washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the 
 
 name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. 
 
 12 — 20. The guilt of the Fornicator. 
 12 All thifigs are lawful unto me, but all things are not 
 
 whether set upon sensual indulgence or upon gain, would deprive 
 themselves of the inheritance obtained through faith in Christ. 
 
 10. no7' coz<etoiis\ See note on ch. v. 10. 
 
 vor drunkards, nor revilers] Here, as in ch. v. 11, where the same 
 v/ord is translated railer, we have the inevitable conjunction between 
 drunkenness and strife. 
 
 11. bid ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified'] 
 The past tense is employed in the original — 'ye were washed, sancti- 
 fied, justified.' The allusion is to baptism, where by a solemn pro- 
 fession the disciple entered into covenant with — and ^o put on (see Gal. 
 iii. 27) Christ. The meaning oi ye were washed in the Greek is either 
 ye washed these things from you, or ye washed yourselves clean from 
 them, cf. Acts xxii. 16. There has been much controversy as to the 
 meaning of the words sanctified and justified here, as their position is 
 inverted from the usual order in which they stand. It is best to 
 take sanctified in the sense of dedicated to a holy life {halowed, 
 Wiclif), see note on ch, i. 2, and justified as referring to the actual 
 moral righteousness of life which is brought about by union with 
 Christ through the operation of the Spirit. See also Rom. i. 17. 
 
 in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spijit of cur God] 
 The name of Christ stands for His power, almost, we might say, 
 for Himself. The original has 'in the Spirit' not by the Spirit 
 of our God. Therefore something more is probably conveyed than 
 a mere instrumental agency, though the Greek iv is often used in 
 this way (as in ver. 2 of this very chapter). A comparison of this 
 passage with others in which the indwelling of the Spirit is implied, 
 as in ver. 19 and Rom. viii. 11, teaches us that the Holy Spirit is the 
 instrument of our sanctification and justification by virtue of our dwelling 
 in Him and He in us, making Christ's death to sin, and His life in 
 righteousness an accomplished fact in our hearts and lives. See also 
 St John iii. 6. 
 
 12 — 20. The guilt of the Fornicator. 
 
 12. All things are lawful unto me] In this and the next two 
 verses the main argument of the rest of the Epistle is sketched out, 
 though not in the order afterwards followed by the Apostle. At 
 
 ' present he takes them in the order of their importance. First he 
 
V. 13.] I. CORINTHIANS, VI. (^j 
 
 expedient : all things are lawful for me, but I will not be 
 brought under the power of any. Meats for the belly, and 13 
 
 touches on the comparatively unimportant question of the distinction of 
 meats, treated of at length in ch. viii., x. Then he alludes to the re- 
 lations of the sexes, the subject of ch. vi. 12 — vii. 40. And lastly he 
 speaks of the great doctrine of the Resurrection, which stands in a 
 close practical relation to the two foi-mer, and which is dealt with 
 in ch. XV. The words in this verse appear to have become a watch- 
 word with some among the Corinthian Christians. Starting from 
 the doctrine of Christian liberty taught by Christ (St John viii. 32, 
 36), and proclaimed with one mouth by His Apostles (Rom. viii. 2 ; 
 James ii. 12 ; i Pet. ii. 16), they declared that the Christian was 
 bound to a ' service ' which was ' perfect freedom.' St Paul ac- 
 cepts the principle, but with limitations. No actions were in thetn- 
 selves unlawful, he was ready to admit, provided (r) that they were 
 in accordance with God's design in creation; (2) that they were cal- 
 culated to promote the general welfare of mankind; and (3) that 
 we were masters of our actions, not they of us. Bengel well remarks : 
 *' Saepe Paulus prima persona eloquitur quae vim habent gnomes 
 in hac prsesertim epistola. Ver. 15, x. 23, 29, 30, xiv. 11," and 
 throughout Rom. vii. 
 
 but all things ai'e not expedient^ The word expedient {profitable, 
 margin, spedefid, Wiclif) from ex and pes, signifies originally, the 
 condition of one who has his feet free; and hence that which frees us 
 from entanglements, helps us on, expedites us, as we are accustomed 
 to say. Its opposite, that which entangles us, is similarly called an 
 impediment. Cf. the word speed. The sense "that which is ad- 
 visable for the sake of some personal advantage," "expedient" as 
 opposed to what is based on principle, is a more modern sense of 
 the word. Hence the meaning here is profitable : i. e. for others as 
 well as ourselves. Cf. ch. vii. 35, x. 33, where the derivative of 
 the verb here used is translated ' profit. ' Robertson gives a valuable 
 practical illustration of the principle here laid down. " In the North 
 on Sunday, men will not sound an instrument of music, or take a 
 walk except to a place of worship. Suppose that an English Christian 
 found himself in some Highland village, what would be his duty? 
 ' All things are lawful ' for him. By the law of Christian liberty 
 he is freed from bondage to meats and drinks, to holidays or Sabbath 
 days ; but if his use of this his Christian liberty should shock his 
 brother Christians, or become an excuse for the less conscientious 
 among them to follow his example, against the dictates of their own 
 conscience, then it would be his Christian duty to abridge his own 
 liberty, because the use of it would be inexpedient," or rather, unprofit- 
 able. 
 
 brought under the power of any\ Compare the use of the same 
 Greek word in St Luke xxii. 25, 'exercise authority,' and also in 
 ch. vii. 4. 
 
 13. Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats] This is a matter of 
 comparatively trifling importance. Meat is a necessity for our present 
 
68 I. CORINTHIANS, VI. [w. 14, 15. 
 
 the belly for meats : but God shall destroy both it and 
 them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the 
 
 14 Lord ; and the Lord for the body. And God hath both 
 raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own 
 
 15 power. Know ye not that your bodies are the members of 
 Christ ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make 
 
 undeveloped life ; in the world where hunger and thirst will be no more 
 it will no longer be so. And therefore both it, and the organs formed 
 to digest it will be no longer wanted. 
 
 Naiv the body is not for fornication'] St Paul is led, by the importance 
 he attaches to this point, to treat it first. The abominable licentiousness 
 of heathen cities in general, and of Corinth in particular (see Dean 
 Stanley's note on ver. 12) had led to a general conviction that the body 
 was for fornication. St Paul contradicts this, and most emphatically 
 proclaims that what was always permitted among heathens, and even 
 in some cases enjoined as a religious rite, was distinctly in itself an 
 unlawful act, not excusable on the plea of necessity, which he had 
 admitted in the case of meats, nor, like them, a question of "nicely 
 calculated less or more," but contrary to the laws laid down by God for 
 man, and calculated to deprive men of the blessings of the Resurrec- 
 tion. 
 
 but for the Lord] i. e. Jesus Christ. The body is not formed to serve 
 a purely material end, but is the instrument of the spirit, and its end the 
 glory of God, through Christ. 
 
 and the Lord for the body] Because from our point of view Christ 
 came that we might serve and honour Him in our bodies. This 
 sentence answers to ' meats for the belly, and the belly for meats,' 
 above. 
 
 14. and ivill also raise up us] Unlike the belly, whose functions 
 shall cease, the body, through its Lord, is destined to an enduring life. 
 We are taught in Rom. viii. ir, in ch. xv., and by that much neglected 
 article in the Creed, *' The Resurrection of the Body," that Christ came 
 to save, sanctify, and raise again, not our souls only, but our bodies. 
 
 by his own power] Our version has rendered definite here what 
 in the original is indefinite. It is impossible to say for certain whether 
 the word " His" refers to the Father or to Christ; but the analogy of 
 St John V. 21, 25, 28, xi. 25, and especially 2 Cor. iv. 14, would lead us 
 to the conclusion that Christ is here meant. But see Eph. i. 19, 20. 
 There seems to be a distinction implied in the Greek of this verse 
 between the raising of Christ, who saw no corruption, and the raising 
 us from our state of corruption and almost annihilation, through the 
 power of Christ. 
 
 15. Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ ?] This 
 solemn truth, that by our calling as Christians we are so closely united 
 to Christ as to be 'members of His Body, of His Flesh and of His 
 Bones ' (Eph. v. 30) is employed here to remind us of the restrictions 
 placed upon our Christian liberty. Our body is Christ's, nay it is, in a 
 
vv. 16—19.] I. CORINTHIANS, VI. 69 
 
 them the members of a harlot ? God forbid. What ? know 16 
 ye not that he which is joined to a harlot is one body? for 
 two, saith he, shall be one flesh. But he that is joined 17 
 unto the Lord is one spirit. Flee fornication. Every sin is 
 that a man doeth is without the body ; but he that com- 
 mitteth fornication sinneth against his own body. What ? 19 
 know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy 
 Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are 
 
 sense, a part of Christ Himself. It may not be used in violation of the 
 laws imposed upon it from the beginning by God. Nor may it be used 
 to the detriment of others, who equally, with ourselves, belong to 
 Christ. And the sin here reproved leads to all kinds of misery and 
 wretchedness, and that because (ver. 18) zV is a violation of the eternal law 
 of God impressed upon the human body. 
 
 16. for tzuo, saith he, shall be one fleshy No words could more plainly 
 shew than these and the preceding, what a monstrous perversion the 
 sin here mentioned is of the mysterious union between the sexes sanctified 
 by God in Holy Matrimony. No words could more strongly imply 
 than those which follow, that he who is 'joined to a harlot' thereby 
 separates himself from the Lord. 
 
 17. he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit] Literally, cleaveth, 
 to tlie Lord. No words, save perhaps those in St John xvii., could 
 more forcibly express the closeness of the union between Christ and His 
 faithful disciple. 
 
 18. Every sin that a man doeth is tvithoiit the body] That is, every 
 other sinful act which affects the body approaches it from without and 
 affects particular rnembers. But this sin takes the body itself as a whole 
 and makes it an instrument of sin. For it is a violation of the funda- 
 mental law impressed upon man from the beginning, whereby it is 
 decreed that a man shall cleave to his wife, and to her alone, and they 
 twain shall be, or rather, become one flesh, Gen. ii. 24. This view is con- 
 firmed by the fact that the word here translated sinneth, means "to go 
 astray," "to miss the mark;" so that the words 'sinneth against his ozvn 
 body"* miply the running counter to the objects for which the body 
 is created. If this be the correct interpretation of the passage, the 
 practice of polygamy is here condemned. 
 
 sinneth against his o^vn body] Cf Rom. i. 24. 
 
 19. kno7o ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost] 
 See note on ch. iii. 16, and cf 1 Cor. vi. 16 ; Eph. ii. 21, 22 ; i Tim. iii. 15 ; 
 2 Tim. ii. ■20 ; Heb. iii. 3 ; i Pet. ii. 5. Observe also that God in Christ 
 acts through the Spirit (cf. ver. 11, 15 of this chapter), so that 'we are 
 the temple of God' because 'the Spirit of Goddwelleth in us.' Nothing 
 can be more effectual than the thought of such an inhabitation, as being 
 the result of our Christian calling, to restrain us from the sin here 
 mentioned. 
 
 which ye have of God] Rather, wlioin ye have from God, re- 
 ferring to the Holy Spirit. Cf St John iii. 5, xiv. 26, xv. 26; Acts 
 
-JO I. CORINTHIANS, VI. VII. [vv. 20; i. 
 
 20 not your own ? For ye are'- bought with a price : therefore 
 glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are 
 God's. 
 
 Ch. VII. I — 9. Advice concerning Marriage and Celibacy. 
 7 Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me : 
 
 ii. 33. For the use of "which" for "whom," cf. 'Our Father which art 
 in heaven,' and Tit. iii. 6. 
 
 ye are not your own] Cf. ch. vii. 22 ; Rom. vi, 18, 22 ; St John viii. 
 36 ; also Rom. xiv. 8. The Scriptures frequently remind us that 
 we have passed from slavery to sin into slavery to Christ, the latter 
 slavery, however, being the true freedom of man, enabling him to fulfil 
 the law of his being. 
 
 20. ye are {lit. were) dotig/if wif A a _price] the " one sufficient Sacri- 
 fice, Oblation and Satisfaction made for the sins of the whole world " by 
 the Death and Passion of our Saviour Christ. Cf. Acts xx. 2S ; i Pet. 
 i. 19; 2 Pet. ii. I ; Rev. v. 9, &c. 
 
 afid in yotcr spirit^ which are God's] These words are not found in 
 many of the best MSS. and versions, and they somewhat weaken the 
 force of the argument, which is intended to assert the dignity of the 
 body. They were perhaps inserted by some who, missing the point of 
 the Apostle's argument, thought that the worship of the spirit was un- 
 duly passed over. 
 
 Ch. VII. 1 — 9. Advice concerning Marriage and Celibacy. 
 
 1. No7U concerni7ig the things whereof ye wrote unto me] The newly 
 converted Corinthians had evidently found themselves in a difficulty 
 concerning marriage. The Jews in general, whatever ascetics like the 
 Essenes and Therapeutse among them may have done, set a high value 
 upon it; while the best of the heathen philosophers were inclined to 
 depreciate it, and certain sayings of our Lord (see St Matt. xix. 5 — 12) 
 seemed to support their view. The Corinthians had evidently written 
 to consult St Paul on the point. The Apostle's advice may be thus 
 summarized : that though the unmarried were, from their freedom from 
 all entangling ties, most at liberty to serve God in any way that He 
 might put before them, and though in the present season of temptation 
 and persecution (vv. 26, 28) the unmarried would be spared much trial 
 and anguish which would fall heavily upon married persons, yet that it 
 was the duty of those who, in an unmarried state, were in danger of 
 offending against that solemn law of Christian purity which he had just 
 laid down, to "marry, and so keep themselves undefiled members of 
 Christ's Body." The growth in these luxurious days of habits at variance 
 with the simple and unostentatious life of the true Christian, places great 
 difficulties in the way of those who would follow St Paul's advice, and 
 is, therefore, the cause of an amount of immorality and misery which it 
 were better to prevent than to be compelled to cure. 
 
vv. 2—7.] I. CORINTHIANS, VII. 71 
 
 // is good for a man not to touch a woman. Nevertheless, 2 
 to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and 
 let every woman have her own husband. Let the husband 3 
 render unto the wife due benevolence : and likewise also 
 the wife unto the husband. The wife hath not power of 4 
 her own body, but the husband : and likewise also the 
 husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife. 
 Defraud you not one the other, except // be with consent 5 
 for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and 
 prayer, and come together again, that Satan tempt you not 
 for your incontinency. But I speak this by permission. 5 
 and not of commandment. For I would that all men were 7 
 even as I myself. But every man hath his proper gift of 
 God, one after this manner, and another after that. 
 
 2. Nruertheless^ to avoid fornicatioii] Literally, on account of the 
 fornications, i. e. the habitual practice of this vice in the Church of 
 Corinth. See note on ch. vi. 13. We are not to suppose (see Meyer) 
 that we have the whole of the Apostle's view of marriage, but simply 
 that which connects itself with the question that has been asked him. 
 To understand the doctrine of marriage, as generally delivered in the 
 Christian Scriptures, we must compare St John ii. ; Eph. v. 23 — 30; 
 I Tim. V, 14; Heb. xiii. 4; i Pet. iii. i — 7. "These are questions of 
 casuistry, which depend upon the particular case, from which word the 
 term casuistry is derived." Robertson. 
 
 let every man have his aimi wife, and let every zvoman have her own 
 hnsband'\ Calvin remarks that we have here a prohibition of polygamy. 
 
 3. due bejievolence^ The better supported reading is what is due, 
 the debt. 
 
 4. The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband : and 
 likezidse also the husband hath not pozver of his ozvn body, but the zvife'\ 
 We here are reminded of the valuable principle that in everything con- 
 nected with the duties of married life each should consult the comfort, 
 well-being, and happiness of the other before their own, and should be 
 especially careful that they do not, by any selfishness on their part, 
 ' cause their brother to offend.' 
 
 5. that ye may give yotirselves to fastijtg and prayer^ The best 
 MSS., most of the Fathers, and many of the best versions, including the 
 Vulgate, omit the word 'fasting.' 
 
 Satan] Cf. i Pet. v. 8. 
 
 6. by permission'] i.e. by tvay of permission on the Apostle's part to 
 the Corinthian Church, not of God to him, as it is sometimes mis- 
 understood. The original signification of the word thus rendered is 
 agreetnetit. Thence it comes to mean per?nissio7i, indulgence, concession. 
 Vulgate, indulgentia ; Calvin (and Estius), venia ; Beza, concessio ; 
 Wiclif, w^, giving leave ; Tyndale, offaveour. 
 
 7. every man hath his proper gift of God\ Cf. St Matt. xix. il. 
 
72 I. CORINTHIANS, VII. [vv. 8—12. 
 
 8 I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, It is good 
 
 9 for them if they abide even as I. But if they cannot con- 
 tain, let them marry : for it is better to marry than to burn. 
 
 10 — 16. Miihial obligations of Married Persons. 
 
 10 And unto the married I command, 7*?/ not I, but the Lord, 
 
 11 Let not the wife depart from her husband : but and if she 
 depart, let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her 
 
 12 husband : and let not the husband put away his wife. But 
 to the rest speak I, not the Lord : If any brother hath a 
 
 10 — 16. Mutual obligations of Married Persons. 
 
 10. yet not /, but the Lordly The Apostle is quoting our Lord's words 
 in St Mark x. 11, 12. No distinction is intended between what he, as 
 a private individual enjoined, and what God. commanded. "He never 
 wrote of himself, being a vessel of the Holy Ghost, Who ever spoke by 
 him to the Church." Dean Alford. 
 
 Let not the ivife depaj-t from he7' husband'\ Literally, be separated, 
 but not implying that the separation took place without her consent. 
 The Apostle would seem here to be speaking of voluntary separations^ 
 not of such violations of the fundamental principle of marriage (see ch. 
 vi. 15 — 18) as are glanced at in St Matt. xix. 9. So St Chry-sostom on 
 ver. 12 : "Here there is hope that the lost member may be saved through 
 the marriage, but in the other case the marriage is ah-eady dissolved^ 
 Such voluntary separations were contrary to the command of Christ, 
 and could only be allowed (see ver. 15) under very exceptional circum- 
 stances. 
 
 11. but and if she depart] Literally, be separated, as above. 
 There were great facilities for divorce, both under the law of Greece 
 and Rome, in St Paul's day, but the facilities were greater for the hus- 
 band than for the wife. At Athens the husband could dismiss his wife 
 at will. At Sparta failure of issue was regarded as a sufficient reason^ 
 Thus the Ephors, we are told by Herodotus (v. 39) sent for Anaxan- 
 drides and urged him, lest the race of Eurysthenes should be ex- 
 tinct, to put away his wife. Something similar is related by the same 
 historian (vi. 61 — 3) of Ariston. So in Roman law, the husband had 
 originally the full disposal of the wife's person and liberty, but this 
 harsh regulation was resented by the wives, and in the days of the empire 
 the wife also obtained the power of divorce. Cicero and Caesar both 
 divorced their wives. Juvenal {Sat. vi. 229, 230) speaks of the fatal 
 facility of divorce, possessed by the wives in his day : the then accepted 
 theory being that whatever put an end to conjugal affection was sufficient 
 to dissolve marriage. See Art. Divoj-tium in Smith's Dictionary of 
 Antiquities, and Merivale's History of Rome, Vol. iv. The Jewish law 
 of divorce was also very lax. See St Matt. v. 31, 32; Deut. xxiv. i. 
 
 12. But to the rest speak /, not the Lord] That is, there has been no 
 precept given by Christ Himself in the particular case now referred to. 
 
vv. 13—15.] I. CORINTHIANS, VII. 73 
 
 wife that believeth not, and she be pleased to dwell with 
 him, let him not put her away. And the woman which 13 
 hath a husband that believeth not, and if he be pleased to 
 dwell with her, let her not leave him. For the unbelieving 14 
 husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife 
 is sanctified by the husband : else were your children un- 
 clean j but now are they holy. But if the unbelieving 15 
 
 therefore St Paul falls back on the general inspiration given by Christ 
 to His Apostles. Compare ver. 40 (where see note), and St John xvi. 
 13. "Christ lays down the general rule, the Apostles apply it to par- 
 ticular emergencies. " Stanley. 
 
 If any brother hath a wife that believeth not^ This, the case where 
 one of the two persons already married is an unbeliever, the most diffi- 
 cult of all, is here dealt with, and the sacredness of the marriage tie 
 maintained under circumstances the most unpromising. The only case 
 in which 'a brother or sister is not under bondage' to its obliga- 
 tions is where (ver. 15) the unbelieving partner insists upon a separa- 
 tion. 
 
 13. let her not leave himl The word here is the same which in the 
 last verse is translated ^ptct away.'' 
 
 14. is sanctified^ In both members of the sentence the original has 
 hath been sanctified, i. e. by the conversion of the believer to Christian- 
 ity. The sacred character imparted by Christianity has, since it imparts 
 union with Christ the Lord of all, a power to overbear the impurity of 
 the non-Christian partner in wedlock. Meyer's note is very striking 
 here. He says that "the Christian sanctity affects even the non- 
 believing partner in a marriage and so passes over to him that he does 
 not remain a profane person, but through the intimate union of wedded 
 life becomes partaker (as if by a sacred contagion) of the higher divinely 
 consecrated character of his consort." And this is because matrimony 
 is " a holy estate instituted of God." For the much stricter view under 
 the Law, Dean Stanley refers to Ezra, ch. ix., and Nehemiah ix. 2, 
 xiii. 23 — 28. But these marriages were contracted in defiance of the 
 prohibition in Exod. xxxiv. 16; Deut. vii. 3, 4, a prohibition rendered 
 necessary by the surrounding idolatry and its attendant licentiousness. 
 They stand upon a different footing to marriages contracted before 
 admission into covenant with God. 
 
 else were your children tinclean, bnt now are they holy"] This prin- 
 ciple applies also to the children of such a marriage. The sanctity, 
 i, e. the consecration, of the parent possessing the life of Christ, and 
 living in holy wedlock with an unbelieving husband or wife, descends to 
 the child, which from its birth may be regarded as 'holy to the Lord.' 
 "Which we may not so understand as if the children of baptized 
 parents were without sin, or grace from baptized parents derived by 
 propagation, or God by covenant and promise tied to save any in mere 
 regard of their parents' belief: yet to all professors of the name of Christ 
 this pre-eminence above infidels is freely given, that the fruit of their 
 
74 I. CORINTHIANS, VII. [w. i6, 17. 
 
 depart, let him depart. A brother or a sister is not under 
 bondage in such cases: but God hath called us to peace. 
 
 16 For what knowest thou, O wife, whether thou shalt save 
 thy husband ? or how knowest thou, O man, whether thou 
 shalt save thy wife? 
 
 17 — 24. Christia?iity not intended to revolntionize the 
 relations between the believer a?id society. 
 
 17 But as God hath distributed to every man, as the Lord 
 
 bodies bringeth into the world with it a present interest and right to 
 those means wherewith the ordinance of Christ is that His Church shall 
 be sanctified." Hooker, Ecclesiastical Polity, Book v. Ix. 6. This 
 holds good, however, only of such marriages as were contracted before 
 conversion. Christians were forbidden in ver. 39 and in 2 Cor. vi. 14, 
 to contract such marriages. 
 
 15. A brother or a sister is not under bondage (literally, enslaved) in 
 such cases] The Roman Catholic divines, e. g. a Lapide and Ambrosi- 
 aster, as well as the Canon law, held that in the case of the heathen 
 partner refusing to live with the other when he or she embraced Christ- 
 ianity, the Christian was justified in contracting a fresh marriage. See 
 Wordsworth, in loc. 
 
 to peace] The marginal in peace is to be preferred, as signifying the 
 spirit in which God called us. 
 
 16. For what knowest thou, wife, zvhether thou shalt save thy hus- 
 band?] Until the 14th century the meaning of this passage was sup- 
 posed to be that the believing partner was not to leave the unbeliever, 
 in hope of bringing about his conversion. See i Pet. iii. i. But Lyra 
 then pointed out that the opposite view was more agreeable to the con- 
 text. The preceding verse recommends departure, and the following 
 verse, beginning with a qualifying particle ^ but'' or more literally 
 except, only, seems to imply that the advice in ver. 15, 16 was to be 
 looked upon as referring to a particular case and was not to be tortured 
 into a general rule. For the insisting on marriage rights when the 
 unbelieving party to the contract was desirous of severing it was an 
 attem.pt at compulsion which was undesirable in itself, and might not, 
 after all, be followed by the salvation of the unbeliever. Dean Stanley 
 remarks on the influence of the earlier interpretation upon history in 
 such marriages as that of Clotilda with Clovis and of Bertha with Ethel- 
 bert of Kent. 
 
 17—24. Christianity not intended to revolutionize the 
 relations between the believer and society. 
 
 17. But as God hath distributed] The permission to live apart from 
 a heathen husband or wife is given only to meet a special case, that in 
 which the unbelieving partner demands the separation. The general 
 rule is, rcjnain in the condition in which you were called. That was the 
 
vv. 18—22.] I. CORINTHIANS, VII. 7^ 
 
 hath called every one, so let him walk. And so ordain I 
 in all churches. Is any man called being circumcised ? let is 
 him not become uncircumcised. Is any called in uncir- 
 cumcision? let him not be circumcised. Circumcision is 19 
 nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping 
 of the commandments of God. Let every man abide in the 20 
 same calling wherein he was called. Art thou called beina; 21 
 a servant ? care not for it : but if thou mayest be made 
 free, use it rather. For he that is called in the Lord, being 22 
 
 rule which St Paul was giving to his converts wherever he went. He 
 now proceeds to give two remarkable illustrations of his principle, cal- 
 culated at once to arrest and fix the attention of the Corinthians. He 
 applies it to the relations of Jew and Gentile; and to those of slave 
 and freeman, and thus shews that Christianity was not intended to 
 introduce a violent revolutionary element into society, but to sanctify 
 existing relations until the time came that they could be amended. 
 "Christianity interferes indirectly, not directly, with existing institu- 
 tions." Robertson. Cf. St Luke xii. 13 — 15. 
 
 18. Is any man called being circtimcised ? let him not becojue nncir- 
 cumcised'^ Many Jews, we are assured, were ashamed of their Judaism, 
 and were desirous to obliterate all the outward signs of it. (i Mace, 
 i. 15.) This feeling would receive an additional impulse from conver- 
 sion to Christianity. But St Paul believed that, once a Jew, a man was 
 *a debtor to do the whole law' (Gal. v. 3). He acted upon this view 
 of the case himself (Acts xviii. 21, xxi. 26) in marked contrast to the 
 Judaizing teachers (Gal. vi. 13), but with one exception under special 
 circumstances (Acts xvi. 3). Therefore he urged those who were called 
 in Judaism not to abandon the customs of their nation. 
 
 Is any called in imcircumcision ?] That the Gentiles were free from 
 the obligation of the Jewish law was decided in the conference held at 
 Jerusalem (Acts xv.) and after some wavering (Gal. ii. 11 — 21) it was 
 set at rest, principally by the courage and clear-sightedness of the great 
 Apostle of the Gentiles. 
 
 19. Circumcision is not/nng] It was not circumcision in itself that 
 had any value, but the obedience to a divine command. 
 
 20. Let eveiy vian abide in the same calling wherein he was called'] 
 See note on ch. i. 20. It is not what we call man's "vocation," but 
 God's act of calling that is spoken of. 
 
 21. icse it rather] This may either be interpreted (i) " \\?>e freedom,'" 
 or (2) "use slavery.'''' Dean Stanley remarks of this passage that its 
 interpretation "is one of the most evenly balanced questions in the New 
 Testament." But the context, the position of the word koX in the former 
 part of the sentence (its literal translation would seem to be but even if 
 thou canst be made free), and the fact that the word translated use has 
 often the sense undergo, endure (for examples see Dean Alford's note), 
 make it probable that the second is the correct interpretation, and that 
 
76 I. CORINTHIANS, VII. [vv. 23—26. 
 
 a servant, is the Lord's freeman : likewise also he that is 
 
 23 called, being free, is Christ's servant. Ye are bought with 
 
 24 a price ; be not ye the servants of men. Brethren, let every 
 man, wherein he is called, therein abide with God. 
 
 25 — TyZ. General Lis f ructions concerning the Marriage of 
 Virgins. 
 
 25 Now concerning virgins I have no commandment of the 
 Lord : yet I give my judgment, as one that hath obtained 
 
 26 mercy of the Lord to be faithful. I suppose therefore that 
 
 the slave is here instructed to refuse freedom if offered. And the 
 strongest objection to this interpretation, namely, that Christianity has 
 always allowed men to occupy a position of more extended usefulness if 
 offered to them, is obviated by the fact that St Paul does not absolutely 
 forbid his converts to accept liberty ; he merely instructs them to prefer 
 to remain in the condition in which they were called, unless some very 
 strong indication of God's will bade them leave it, such as was mani- 
 fested in the case of Onesimus. See Ep. to Philemon. The doctrine 
 of Christian liberty was intended to make men free ifi, not froin, the 
 responsibilities of their position. But as St Peter reminds us (i Pet. ii. 
 16; 2 Pet. ii. 19) the doctrine of Christian liberty could be abused. It 
 was abused when it induced among the newly-converted a restlessness 
 and dissatisfaction with their lot, which would have rendered Christianity 
 a source, not of peace, but of confusion (cf. ver. 15, and ch. xiv. 33). 
 
 22. the Lord's freeman'] Rather, freedman, the Latin libertus. 
 So Beza, Calvin and the Vulgate, and the margin of our version. The 
 English translators generally seem to have missed this point. 
 
 Christ'' s servant] For this expression, cf. Eph. vi. 6 ; James i. i ; 
 1 Pet. i. I ; Jude i. 
 
 23. be not ye the servants of men] Literally, slaves of men. Let your 
 minds and spirits be free, whatever may be your outward condition, 
 i. e. be indifferent to mere external relations altogether, for though man 
 may enslave the body he cannot enslave the soul. 
 
 24. with God] Literally, before God. A repetition of the precept 
 of ver. 20, under a more solemn sanction. The believer is reminded 
 Who it is that hath ordained his condition, as a sufficient reasott that he 
 should be contented with it. 
 
 25 — 38. General Instructions Concerning the Marriage of 
 Virgins. 
 
 26. virgins] i. e. unmarried women. St Paul now returns to the 
 question of marriage. But before he enters upon the question of the 
 marriage of virgins, he treats, according to his usual rule, of the general 
 principle of which theirs is a particular case. The time is short, and 
 he would have all as free from care as possible. 
 
vv. 27— 30.] I. CORINTHIANS, VII. 77 
 
 this is good for the present distress, / say, that it is good for 
 a man so to be. Art thou bound unto a wife ? seek not 27 
 to be loosed. Art thou loosed from a wife? seek not a 
 wife. But and if thou marry, thou hast not sinned ; and if 28 
 a virgin marry, she hath not sinned. Nevertheless such 
 shall have trouble in the flesh : but I spare you. But this 29 
 I say, brethren, the time is short : it remaineth, that both 
 they that have wives be as though they had none ; and they 30 
 that weep, as though they wept not ; and they that rejoice, 
 as though they rejoiced not ; and they that buy, as though 
 
 26. the present distress] The literal rendering of the word here 
 translated distress is necessity^ and it is so translated in ver. 37. But it 
 frequently in the New Testament, as in the Septuagint, has the sense of 
 distress, as in StLukexxi. 23; 1 Cor. vi. 4, xii. 10; i Thess. iii. 7. Here 
 it means either (i) 'the great tribulation' which was to precede our 
 Lord's coming (see St Matt. xxiv. ; St Mark xiii. ; St Luke xxi.; Rev. 
 vii. 14), or (■2) the general distress and anxiety which attended the pro- 
 fession of Christianity in those times. 
 
 so to be\ " thus to be," as explained in the next verse. 
 
 28. trotible i?i the JlesK\ Tribulation, either as-Monica, when she 
 saw her son Augustine falling into sin and infidelity, or as many other 
 Christian parents whose souls the ' sword ' of the executioner was destined 
 to ' pierce through,' as they beheld the martyrdom of their children. 
 
 but I spare you\ Either (i) the Apostle from his tenderness towards 
 them spares them the recital of the many sorrows that will befall them, 
 or (2) he is anxious to spare them the sorrows themselves. 
 
 29. But this I say, brethren^ The conclusion of the whole matter. 
 The time is short, the world is passing away. In whatever condition a 
 man is, let him live in a constant state of readiness to abandon it at the 
 bidding of God. Let him keep his soul unfettered by the ties, the 
 enjoyments, and above all, the cares of this life. There are several 
 w^ays of rendering this passage, but they do not materially affect the 
 meaning. 
 
 the time is short] Not time in the general sense. The word here 
 signifies a definite space of time. Cf. the English version of i John ii. 
 18, 'the last time.' The word translated short is rather shortened, 
 "Compressed." Robertson. " Living many years in one." Stanley. 
 
 30. they that rejoice, as thoiigh they rejoiced 7iot] " Look round this 
 beautiful world of God's: ocean dimpled into myriad smiles; the sky a 
 trembling, quivering mass of blue, thrilling hearts with ecstasy; every 
 tint, every form, replete with beauty. God says, 'be glad.' Do not 
 force young, happy hearts to an unnatural solemnity, as if to be happy 
 were a crime. Let us hear their loud, merry, ringing laugh, even if 
 sterner hearts can be glad no longer ; to see innocent mirth and joy does 
 the heart good. But now observe, everlasting considerations are to 
 come in, not to sadden joy, but to calm it We are to be calm, 
 
78 I. CORINTHIANS, VII. [vv. 31—35. 
 
 31 they possessed not; and they that use this world, as not 
 3^ abusing it : for the fashion of this world passeth away. But 
 I would have you without carefulness. He that is un- 
 married careth for the things that belong to the Lord, how 
 
 33 he may please the Lord : but he that is married careth for 
 the things that are of the world, how he may please his wife. 
 
 34 There is difference also between a wife and a virgin. The 
 unmarried woman careth for the thijigs of the Lord, that she 
 may be holy both in body and in spirit : but she that is 
 married careth for the things of the world, how she may 
 
 35 please her husband. And this I speak for your own profit ; 
 not that I may cast a snare upon you, but for that which is 
 
 cheerful, self-possessed ; to sit loose to all these sources of enjoyment, 
 masters of ourselves." Robertson. 
 
 31. as not abusing it\ Perhaps better, as not using it to excess. 
 So in ch. ix. 18. 
 
 for the fashion of this world passeth a7C'aj'] Rather, is passing away, 
 as a scene in a theatre (see Stanley and Alford's notes). This transla- 
 tion brings out more clearly the belief of the early Church in the speedy 
 coming of Christ. 
 
 32. I/e that is tinmarried careth for 'the things that belong to the Lord] 
 One great reason why the Apostle recommends celibacy is the freedom 
 that it gives from anxiety about worldly matters, the opportunity it 
 offers of "attending upon the Lord without distraction." But the 
 Apostle does not desire his advice to be a snare to entangle those who 
 feel that they can serve God with less distraction in the married state. 
 He leaves it to all to decide for themselves according to their sense of 
 what is most desirable and becoming in their own case. The words 
 translated here 'care,' 'carefulness,' have the idea, as in St Matt. vi. 
 25, 27, 28, 31, 34 (where our translation has 'take thought'), of trouble, 
 anxiety. 
 
 34. There is difference also] The text is here in great confusion, and 
 there is great variety of punctuation among the editors. The Vulgate 
 and Calvin, who are followed by many modern editors, translate thus : 
 I/e that is married careth for the things of this life, how he jnay please 
 his wife, and is distracted. And the unmarried wonian and the virgin 
 (some read tin?na?-ried virgin) careth for the' things of the Lord. There 
 are two objections to this rendering : (i) The term unmarried woman 
 is a singular one to apply either to a widow, or to a married woman 
 living apart from her husband; and (2) it is difficult to see how the 
 Apostle could commend the latter in the face of his express prohibi- 
 tion of separation save in the particular case mentioned in ver. 15, 16. 
 Wordsworth translates, "The wife and the virgin, each has her appointed 
 lot,'''' thus keeping the original meaning of the word here used. See also 
 ver. 17, where it is translated distributed, and also 2 Cor. x. 13 and 
 ch. i. 13. - 
 
vv. 36, 37.] I. CORINTHIANS, VII. 79 
 
 comely, and that you may attend upon the Lord without 
 distraction. But if any man think that /le behaveth himself 36 
 uncomely toward his virgin, if she pass the flower of /ler 
 age, and need so require, let him do what he will, he 
 sinneth not : let them marry. Nevertheless he that standeth 37 
 stedfast in /iis heart, having no necessity, but hath power 
 over his own will, and hath so decreed in his heart that 
 
 35. attend upon the Lord] Literally, sit conveniently before (or 
 beside) Him. Dean Stanley refers to Martha and Mary m St Luke 
 X. 39 — 41, as an exact illustration of this expression. ^Martha is 'cum- 
 bered with much serving,' Mary sits at Jesus' feet. 
 
 36. his vi'rg-in] i. e. /its daughter. The advice here given is to 
 parents. In St Paufs time, and in most continental countries now, it 
 is the parents who decide on the marriage of their children. In France, 
 and in some other foreign countries, the young people very often do 
 not even see one another before they are contracted. But St Paul 
 thinks it might in some cases be 'unseemly' conduct on the part of a 
 parent to refuse a proposal of marriage for a daughter who desired to 
 serve God in the married state. 
 
 if she pass the flower of her age] Rather, if she have fully attained it. 
 
 and need so require] Literally, and so it ought to be ; that is, if it be 
 fair and reasonable that the wish of both parties should be carried out, 
 and it would be harsh to act otherwise. Some think that the reference 
 is to the disgrace incurred by a maiden, especially a Jewish maiden who 
 had passed the age of maturity, and was still unmarried — a disgrace 
 which also attached to a Jewish father who had not provided a suitable 
 marriage for her. Cf. Ecclus. vii, 25, " Marry thy daughter, and thou 
 hast performed a weighty matter." See also Ecclus. xlii. 9. The 
 Rabbins advised rather that a slave should be released as a husband 
 for the daughter, than that she should remain unmarried. Others, again 
 think that the danger of sin (ver. 2, 5, 9) is here referred to. See 
 Ecclus. xlii. ro. 
 
 let them marry] i. e. the daughter and her lover. 
 
 37. having no necessity] This might be the case either (r) if the 
 maiden be not specially desirous for the married life, or (2) if her hand 
 be not sought in marriage, or (3) if, when sought, she be unwilling to 
 accept the proposal. The language of the Apostle embraces all three 
 suppositions. 
 
 but hath pozuer over his own will] The legitimate authority of the 
 parent is great, but he has no right to treat his children as mere 
 chattels. He can only be said to have 'power over his own will ' 
 when he can act without selfishly thwarting the reasonable wishes of 
 those whom God has committed to his care. 
 
 and hath so dec7-eed in his heart] " If in other lighter actions nothing 
 is permitted to children without the authority of their parents, much less 
 is it desirable that freedom should be given them in contracting matri- 
 mony." Calvin. 
 
So I. CORINTHIANS,. VII. VIII. [vv. 38— 40; u 
 
 38 /le will keep his virgin, doeth well. So then he that giveth 
 /ler in marriage doeth well j but he that giveth /ler not in 
 marriage doeth better. 
 
 39, 40. The Seco7id Marriage of Women. 
 
 39 The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband 
 liveth ; but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be 
 
 40 married to whom she will ; only in the Lord. But she is 
 happier if she so abide, after my judgment : and I think 
 also that / have the Spirit of God. 
 
 Ch. VIII. I — 13. The Question of Meats offered in 
 Sacrifice to Idols. 
 8 Now as touching things offered unto idols, we know that 
 
 keep hisvi7'gh{\ i.e. to keep her at home unmarried. 
 
 39, 40. The Second Marriage of Women. 
 
 39. The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband livetli] Cf , 
 Rom. vii. 2. 
 
 if her husband be dead'\ Literally, if her husband sleep, or rather, 
 perhaps, be laid to sleep, the word generally used of the death of 
 Christians, and even of the saints of the old covenant. See St Matt. 
 xxvii. 52; St John xi. 11; Acts vii. 60, xiii. 36. St Paul uses it in 
 ch. xi. 30 and ch. xv. 6, 18, 20, 51, and in i Thess. iv, 13, 14, 15. The 
 same idea is found in St Matt. ix. 24. and in the parallel passages in St 
 Mark and St Luke, but the word employed in the Greek is different. 
 The writers of the Old Testament also described death thus, as, for 
 instance, in Deut. xxxi. 16; i Kings ii. 10; Dan. xii. 2. Thus death 
 is robbed of half its terrors. It is a condition of partially, not wholly, 
 suspended consciousness ; a waiting of the soul, in union with its Lord 
 (i Thess. iv. 14) until the great awakening. Calvin remarks that to 
 infer from this passage that the soul, separated from the body, was 
 without sense or intelligence, would be to say that it was without 
 life. See 2 Cor. xii. 2. 
 
 only in the Lord\ Cf. 2 Cor. vi. 14. The marriage of widows was 
 discountenanced, but not forbidden. Under certain circumstances it 
 was even enjoined. See i Tim. v. 9, 11, 14. But under all circum- 
 stances mixed marriages were to be avoided. 
 
 40. and I think also that I have the Spirit of God] Not that there 
 was any doubt in the Apostle's mind on this point. The word used 
 implies full persuasion that in the advice he had given he was speaking 
 imder the direction of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 Ch. VIII. 1—13. The Question of Meats offered in 
 Sacrifice to Idols. 
 
 There is a great general similarity between this chapter and Rom. xiv. 
 
V. 2.] I. CORINTHIANS, VIII. 8l 
 
 We all have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity 
 edifieth. And if any man think that he knoweth any thing, 
 
 The question comes before the reader there in a somewhat different form. 
 There rules are laid down concerning clean and unclean meats ; here 
 about meats offered in sacrifice to idols. There the weak brother is a Jew ; 
 here he may be also a Gentile. See note on ver. 7. But this difference 
 only brings out in stronger relief the identity of the principle, as laid down 
 in ch. vi. 12 of this Epistle (where see note). Matters of this kind are 
 purely indifferent in themselves. It is only so far as they are likely to 
 affect the conduct of others that they become important. The Christian 
 was not to be over-scrupulous ; not to fret himself about the lawful- 
 ness or unlawfulness of this or that particular act, but to consider all 
 questions of this kind on the broad general ground of the welfare of the 
 community, and therefore, as a matter of course, of the individuals who 
 composed it. By the decision in Acts xv. 23 — 29, the Gentile converts 
 were specially forbidden to eat meats offered to idols. Why does St 
 Paul, it may be asked, make no reference to that decision here, and in 
 some cases give a different one ? It would seem that the directions 
 given in Acts xv. were intended for special circumstances, and not for an 
 universal rule. The letter containing them was addressed only to the 
 churches of Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia, and was probably intended to 
 allay the violence of the dissensions between Jewish and Gentile con- 
 verts. 
 
 1. as touching things offei'ed tinto idols'] These were the parts of the 
 sacrifice not consumed by fire, but reserved, as in the Jewish peace- 
 offei-ings (see Lev. vii. 15, 16, xxii. 30), for the use of the priest and the 
 worshipper. Sometimes (see ch. x. 25) the meat not consumed was sold 
 in the shambles as ordinaiy butcher's meat, without any notification that 
 it had ever formed part of a sacrifice. "Most public entertainments," 
 says Dean Stanley, "and many private meals, were more or less re- 
 motely the accompaniments of sacrifice This identification of a sacri- 
 fice and a feast was carried to the highest pitch among the Greeks. 
 Sacrifices are enumerated by Aristotle {Ethics viii. 9), and Thucydides 
 (11. 38), amongst the chief means of social enjoyment." Hence the 
 difficulty referred to in the present chapter was likely to be an extremely 
 pressing one. Among the Jews (Num. xxv. 2 ; Ps. cvi. 28) to partake 
 of these sacrifices was strictly forbidden. See also Rev. ii. 14. For a 
 description of heathen sacrifices, see Homer, //iad, Book I. 606 — 13. 
 Cf. also Horace, Odes ill. viii. 6, 7: "Voveram dulces epulas et 
 album...caprum." 
 
 we hiow that we all have knozuledge] Some have supposed a paren- 
 thesis commencing at 'we all have knowledge,* and including the 
 whole passage between these words and 'we know that an idol,' &c., 
 in ver. 4, where the construction in ver. i is resumed. But it is better 
 to regard the parenthesis as beginning at ' Knowledge puffeth up,' and 
 extending thence to the end of ver. 3. These words are not to be 
 regarded as ironical. Admission into the Christian Church brought 
 .with it a vast amount of spiritual, and even intellectual, enlightenment 
 
82 I. CORINTHIANS, VIII. [w. 3, 4, 
 
 3 he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know. But if any 
 
 4 ma7i love God, the same is known of him. As concerning 
 therefore the eating of those things that are offered in 
 sacrifice unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in 
 the world, and that there is none other God but one. 
 
 **I do not undertake to teach you as men destitute of knowledge; but 
 ye are to be admonished to use what ye have well and prudently." 
 Estius. This commentator further remarks that there is no contradiction 
 between this verse and ver. 7, inasmuch as here it is knowledge generally 
 that is spoken of, whereas there a particular sort of knowledge is meant. 
 The meaning of this apparent digression is, "We all know that 
 Christians, by virtue of their fellowship with Christ, possess knowledge ; 
 but it is not upon their knowledge that they are to rely, 'And yet shew 
 I you a more excellent way.'" 
 
 bnt charity edifieth'] Rather, love. So Tyndale. Nothing has done 
 more to obscure the connection between different passages of the New 
 Testament, and to weaken our sense of the identity of sentiment between 
 its different writers, than the use sometimes of the English word love, and 
 sometimes of the word charity, derived from the Latin caritas, to translate 
 the Greek word uniformly used throughout. To edify means to build up, 
 a metaphor taken from the gradual building of a house {aedes), and applied 
 either (i) to the gradual foraiation of individual character, or (2) to the 
 growth of the Christian Church. The word is found in both significa- 
 tions in ch. xiv. 4, but it is more commonly used in the second. See ch. 
 xiv. throughout; Eph. iv. 12, 16, &c., and note on ch. iii. 17, vi. 19. 
 * It is love that edifieth ;' love that builds up both the character of the 
 individual man and the society, each member of which is 'chosen in 
 Christ,' to be 'holy and without blame before God in lave.^ 
 
 2. And if any man think that he knmveth any thing, he knoweth 
 nothing yet as he ought to knozu] We have knowledge, certainly, but it 
 is by no means perfect knowledge. Cf ch. xiii. 12. And therefore 
 let us not presume to act upon our imperfect knowledge, as though we 
 were ' as gods, knowing good and evil ;' but let us give a thought to the 
 condition of our neighbour, with whom we are conjoined by ties so 
 close. 
 
 3. But if any man love God, the same is knoivn of hini] Cf i John 
 iv. 7, 8. But it is observable that St Paul, dealing with inquisitive 
 and argumentative people like the Corinthians and Galatians, takes care 
 to invert the phrase, so as to exclude all glorying on the part of man. 
 In Gal. iv. 9 he corrects himself when speaking of knowing God, and in 
 this Epistle, written afterwards, he seems carefully to avoid the expres- 
 sion, and to speak, both here and in ch. xiii. 12, rather of being known 
 by God. So in St John vi. 37, 44, 45, 65, the same doctrine is taught 
 by Christ Himself. "The knowledge of God presupposes the being 
 known of Him : the soul will not vivify with life from above until God 
 has drawn nigh." Olshausen. 
 
 4. we knozv that an idol is nothing in the 7itorld] Some have rendered, 
 that there is no idol in the zuorld, but the rendering in the text gives the 
 
vv. 5—8.] I. CORINTHIANS, VIII. Ss 
 
 For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven 5 
 or in earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many,) but 6 
 to us t/iere is but one God, the Father, of whom are all 
 things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by 
 whom are all things, and we by him. Howbeit there is not ^ 
 in every man that knowledge : for some with conscience 
 of the idol unto this hour, eat it as a thing offered unto 
 an idol ; and their conscience being weak is defiled. But a 
 
 clearest sense ; "A name without a thing, a mere figment of the human 
 heart." Estius. 
 
 5. as there be gods many., and lords 7nany\ The Apostle does not say 
 there are many gods or lords, but only that the gods of the heathen are 
 called so. Calvin reminds us that the sun and moon, which have been 
 deified by some, are but our servants, and that other so-called gods of 
 the heathen are but deified powers of nature, or deified men. 
 
 6. to 7is there is hit one God, the Father, of whotn are all things'] 
 There is but one eternal First Cause and fountain of existence. Compare 
 for the whole passage Eph. iv. 5, 6. "The ancient doctors have not 
 stuck to call the Father the origin, the cause, the author, the root, the 
 
 fountain, and the head of the Son The Son is from the Father, 
 
 receiving His subsistence by generation from Him. The Father is not 
 from the Son, as being what He is from none. " Bishop Pearson, On t/ie 
 Creed, Art. I. 
 
 and lue in hini] Rather, as margin, for Him. 
 
 by ivhom are all things'] God the Son, the Eternal Word or Reason 
 of the Father, is the Agent by Whom He works in the creation, 
 preservation, redemption, regeneration of all things. Cf. St John i. 
 3, 10; Eph. iii. 9 ; Col. i. 16; Heb. i. 2, 
 
 7. Howbeit tiiere is not in every man that knowledge] See note 
 on ver. i. 
 
 for so77ie with conscience of the idol] Some editors read by fa- 
 miliarity with instead of 7mth conscience of. If so, we must understand 
 the passage of Gentile converts, who by long habit had become so 
 accustomed to the idea of the personality of the idol that they could 
 not shake it off. The words unto this hour confirm this reading. 
 It was very difficult for Gentile converts to shake off their heathen 
 notions. Many of the heresies of early times were due to these in- 
 vincible prepossessions, as is also the belief in magic and witchcraft, 
 W'hich in all nations has long survived their conversion to Christianity. 
 If, on the other hand, we read conscience, it means either (i) con- 
 scientious dread of becoming in any way connected with the idol, 
 or (2) conscientious apprehension of his personality, as though the 
 meat were in some sense his property, and the eating of it an act of 
 worship. 
 
 and their conscience being weak is defiled] He is mistaken in his 
 idea that the idol has a real existence, but as long as he entertains 
 that idea, he is bound to act up to it. Cf Rom. xv. 14, *To him 
 
 6—2 
 
84 I. CORINTHIANS, VIII. [vv. 9, la 
 
 meat commendeth us not to God : for neither, if we eat, 
 are we the better ; neither, if we eat not, are we the worse. 
 But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours 
 9 become a stumblingblock to them that are weak. For if 
 any man see thee which hast knowledge sit at meat in the 
 idol's temple, shall not the conscience of him which is 
 
 that esteemeth anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean.' See also 
 w. 20, 23 of the same chapter. 
 
 8. But nieat commendeth tis not to God'\ Rather, presenteth us. 
 Cf. 1 Cor. iv. 14; Col. i. 22, 28. The same word is used in Rom. 
 xiv. 10 (where it is translated stand, literally, be presented). Cf. eh. 
 vi. 13. It is not Christ's creature, doomed to perish, but Christ 
 Himself that shall present us to God. The use of meats, like that of 
 all outward things (cf. Col. ii. 22) is a matter of absolute insignificance 
 in itself. They are of no real advantage to us, if we use them ; to 
 abstain for the sake of abstaining is a matter of equal indifference in 
 God's sight. The only question of real importance is, what effect 
 will our conduct have on others ? 
 
 9. this liberty of yonrs'X Rather, rig'lit. Under ordinary circum- 
 stances we have a right to act upon our rational convictions. But 
 this right has its limits, see ch. vi. 12, and note. We are bound to 
 respect the scruples of the conscientious, though perhaps unenlightened 
 man. In this particular case there are those who conscientiously 
 regard an idol as having a real existence, and anything offered in 
 sacrifice to it as its property, and therefore as unfit to be partaken 
 of by Christians. The perceptions of such persons may be far from 
 clear, but their motives are pure and worthy of respect. We may be 
 wiser than they, but we must be careful that we do not by our wisdom 
 betray them into sin. 
 
 become a stimiblingblock to thei?t that are iveaU\ " What reality 
 is there in your religion if you look at men struggling in darkness, 
 and are content to congratulate yourselves that you are in the light?... 
 Slaves — idolaters — superstitious — alas ! is that all that we have to say ?'' 
 Robertson. 
 
 10. .For if any man see thee which hast knotvledge sit at meat in 
 the idoVs temple^ St Paul would seem here to be putting an extreme 
 case. He supposes the more enlightened believer to have carried 
 his views of the non-existence of idols to their utmost possible limits, 
 and to have seated h'mself in the idol temple, and partaken of the 
 food which to his eyes is as fit for food as any other, if it be partaken 
 of with thanksgiving (ch. x. 25 — 30 ; 1 Tim. iv. 3). He points out 
 the terrible danger such a man runs of inducing others to regard 
 idol-worship as a thing indifferent, to relapse into idolatiy and to 
 ruin their souls. Some commentators, supposing it impossible that a 
 Christian could be found in the idol temple, have rendered "• at an 
 idol sacrifice,'' but the analogy of other similarly formed Greek words 
 confirms the rendering in the text. 
 
yv. II— 13; I.] I. CORINTHIANS, VIII. IX. 85 
 
 weak be emboldened to eat those things which are ofifered 
 to idols ; and through thy knowledge shall the weak brother n 
 perish, for whom Christ died? But when ye sin so against 12 
 the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, ye sin 
 against Christ. Wherefore, if meat make my brother to 13 
 offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest 
 I make my brother to offend. 
 
 Ch. IX. I — 14. St Paiirs Defence of his Apostolic Authority. 
 Am I not an apostle ? am I not free ? have I not seen 9 
 
 11. shall the lueak brother petdsJi\ Some read, the weak brother 
 is perishing. Cf. Rom. xiv. 15. 
 
 12. ye sin against Christ'\ Cf. St Matt. xxv. 40, 45. For the 
 reason of this compare St John xvii. throughout, as also such passages 
 as Rom. xii. 5; Eph, i. 23, iii. 17, iv. 15, 16; Col. ii. 19; and 
 ch. X. 17, xii. 27 of this Epistle, where the indwelling of Christ in 
 the individual believer is taught. 
 
 13. / zvill eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my 
 brother to offend] "This abridgment of their liberty is a duty more 
 especially incumbent on all who are possessed of influence." Robertson. 
 And Estius remarks how St Paul in his ardour for the conversion of 
 souls, was ready not only to abstain from meats offered to idols, but 
 from meat altogether, rather than be a stumbling-block in another's 
 way. Cf St Matt, xviii. 6 ; St Mark ix. 42; St Luke xvii. i, 2. 
 
 Cii. IX. 1 — 14. St Paul's Defence of his Apostolic 
 Authority. 
 
 1. A>n I not an apostle? am I not free 7\ This chapter is devoted 
 to a defence of the Apostolic authority of St Paul, but there is an 
 under-current of thought connecting it with the last which may easily 
 be missed. In ch. viii. St Paul has been exhorting the Corinthians 
 to sacrifice their own personal predilections for the benefit of others. 
 In ver. 13 he declares himself to be ready to act upon this principle 
 to the uttermost. But some may say, " Fine doctrine this, but does 
 the Apostle practise what he preaches?" Robertson. He is about to 
 give a proof of his sincerity by referring to his sacrifice of self for the 
 good of others, when he anticipates in his mind the reply, You have 
 no power to do otherwise : you are not an Apostle at all ; and he 
 replies to each of these statements in his usual fervid way, by asking of 
 each of them, Is it really then true ? This connection of ideas is strength- 
 ened if with the majority of MSS. and the Syriac and Vulgate versions 
 (so Wiclif, Whethir I am not free? am I not Apostle?) we transpose 
 the two clauses, and read, ^^ Am I not free? am I not an Apostle? 
 The argument is admirably summarized by Bp Wordsworth thus : 
 "Am 1 not free? Am I not an Apostle? A"^ I not>w/r Apostle?" 
 
S6 I. CORINTHIANS, IX. [w. 2— 5. 
 
 Jesus Christ our Lord? are not you my work in the Lord? 
 2 If I be not an apostle unto others, yet doubtless I am to 
 
 you : for the seal of mine apostleship are ye in the Lord. 
 J Mine answer to them that do examine me is this : Have 
 5 we not power to eat and to drink ? Have we not power 
 
 to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other apostles, and 
 
 ^ave I not seen Jcsiis Christ our Lord?^ One distinction drawn by 
 St Paul's opponents between him and the other Apostles was that 
 they had seen and associated with Christ, while he had not. He rebuts 
 this in the form of a question. He had seen the Lord (i) in the way 
 to Damascus (Acts ix. 3, 17); {2) after his return to Jerusalem (Acts 
 xxii. 17, cf. ver. 14 of the same chapter, and Acts ix. 26; Gal. i. 18) ; 
 (3) at Corinth itself {Acis, xviii. 9, where observe that the Greek word 
 does not signify dream, since it is used of the burning bush in Acts vii. 
 31 as well as of the transfiguration in St Matt. xvii. 9) ; (4) on some 
 occasion not specified (■2 Cor. xii. i), but probably during the Apostle's 
 sojourn in Arabia (Gal. i. 17), unless indeed it be the vision above- 
 mentioned in Acts xxii. 
 
 2. for the seal of mitie apostleship are ye in the Lord] If any 
 Church had less right than another to question his Apostolic authority, 
 it was the Church of Corinth, which he had founded (ch. iv. 15), 
 and on which so many spiritual gifts had been poured forth (ch. i. 
 5, 7, ch. xiv.). The Corinthians at least needed no other proof of 
 the genuineness of his mission. "If any one wishes to know whether 
 I am an Apostle, I will shew him yourselves; among whom are 
 manifest and indubitable signs and proofs of my Apostolate ; first the 
 faith of Christ, which you have received at my preaching ; then many 
 and various gifts of the Holy Ghost." Estius. For the word seal see 
 St John iii. 33, vi. 27 ; Rom. iv. 11. A seal is used as the attestation 
 of the genuineness of any document. Thus the existence of the Co- 
 rinthian Church was the attestation of the genuineness of St Paul's 
 Apostolic authority. 
 
 3. Mine answer to them that do examiite 7ne is this] The Judaizers 
 of whom we hear in the Epistle to the Galatians and in Acts xv., are 
 now heard of here also, and this Epistle seems to have stirred them up 
 to a still stronger antagonism, for St Paul is obliged to travel over the 
 same ground in his second Epistle, and with much greater fulness. 
 St Paul, therefore, though he 'transferred in a figure to himself and 
 Apollos' what he had said with reference to the Corinthian teachers, 
 had nevertheless in view also some who disparaged his authority. It 
 is worthy of note that the terms ansxuer and examine in the original 
 are the usual legal expressions (Olshausen), as though the Apostle 
 conceived himself to be on his trial. 
 
 4. Have we ttot poiuer to eat and to drink?] i. e. at the expense of 
 the Church, cf. St Luke x. 7. This privilege, said St Paul's opponents, 
 was confined to the original twelve Apostles of the Lord. 
 
 6. Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife] The ordinary 
 
vv. 6, 7.] I. CORINTHIANS, IX. 87 
 
 as the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas ? Or I only and 6 
 Barnabas, have not we power to forbear working ? Who 7 
 
 interpretation of this passage is (i) that St Paul here asserts his right, if 
 he pleased, to take with him a wife who was a member of the Christian 
 body, and to have her maintained at the expense of the community. 
 The word sister, like the words brother, brethren, is equivalent to 
 'member of the Christian Church' in Rom. xvi. i; St James ii. 15 ; 
 1 John 13 (perhaps) and ch. vii. 15 of this Epistle. This privilege was 
 claimed by the other Apostles with a view, as Stanley suggests, of ob- 
 taining access to the women, who in the East usually dwelt apart. But 
 there is (2) another interpretation which would translate the word here 
 rendered wt'fe by woman (as in the margin of our version), and suppose 
 that the tie which connected St Paul with the Christian woman he 
 claimed to ' lead about ' with him was nothing but that of their common 
 Christianity. In support of this view St Luke viii. 2, 3, is quoted. 
 This opinion can be traced back as far as Tertullian in the second 
 century. But St Paul speaks of only one such person, and it is 
 improbable that in a society so corrupt as the heathen society of 
 that age everywhere was, the Apostles of Christ would have run 
 so serious a risk of misconstruction as would have been involved 
 in such a practice. The conduct of Simon Magus, who led about 
 with him a woman of scandalous character, the misinterpretations 
 so common in the Apostolic age of the innocent affection of the 
 Christians for each other, and of their nightly meetings, shew how 
 necessary prudence was. Besides, this interpretation misses the point of 
 the argument, which was, that the origmal twelve Apostles claimed the 
 right to throw not only their own maintenance, but that of the members 
 of their families, upon the Church. The various readings found in this 
 passage would seem to have been introduced to support the view that a 
 wife could not here be intended. 
 
 the brethren of the Lord] These have been regarded (i) as the chil- 
 dren of Joseph and Mary, (2) the children of Joseph by a former wife, 
 (3) as the kinsmen of our Lord, the word brother having been used in 
 Hebrew to denote any near relation. See Gen. xiii. 8, xxix. 12; Lev. 
 X. 4. The question has been hotly debated, (i) or (2) seem more 
 natural; but in support of (3) we find from Scripture and ecclesiastical 
 history that the names of our Lord's brethren James and Joses and 
 Simon and Judas were also the names of the sons of Alphseus, who 
 were our Lord's cousins. See St Matt. xiii. 55, xxvii. 56; St Luke 
 xxiv. 10; St John xix. 25. Also St Matt. x. 3; St Mark iii. 18; St Luke 
 vi. 16; and Eusebius, EccL Hist. in. 11, 32. See Professor Lightfoot 
 on the Epistle to the Galatians. Also Professor Plumptre on St James, 
 in the present series. 
 
 6. Or I only and Barnabas] St Paul and St Barnabas (i) resigned 
 their claim to support on the part of the Church, (2) they were not of 
 the number of the twelve, (3) they were left by the Apostles to under- 
 take the sole charge of the missions to the heathen (Gal. ii. 9). On 
 these grounds a charge was brought against them that they were no 
 
88 I. CORINTHIANS, IX. [vv. 8— lo. 
 
 goeth a warfare any time at his own charges ? who planteth 
 a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who 
 feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock ? 
 
 8 Say I these things as a man ? or saith not the law the 
 
 9 same also? For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou 
 shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth 
 
 loout the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? Or saith 
 he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, 
 this is written : that he that ploweth should plow in hope ; 
 and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of 
 
 true Apostles of Christ. For Barnabas, see Acts iv. 36, xi. 22, 25, 29, 
 xii. 25, xiii. I, 2, 50, xiv. 12, xv. 2, 12, 37; Gal. ii. i, 9, 13. 
 
 7. Who gocth a warfare any time at his own charges ?] The charge 
 is now refuted on five different grounds. The first argument is derived 
 from the analogy of human conduct. Three instances are given, (i) the 
 soldier, (2) the vine-dresser, (3) the shepherd, who all derive their sub- 
 sistence from their labours. 
 
 8. Say I these things as a man .?] i. e. from a purely human point of 
 view. Cf. Rom. iii. 5 and Gal. iii. 15. This ^^rc/z^ argument is drawn 
 from the law of Moses, and its force would be admitted by the 
 Judaizing section of St Paul's opponents. 
 
 9. Doth God take care for oxen ?] Luther and Estius are here fully 
 of one mind against those who suppose the Apostle to mean that God 
 does not care for oxen. "God cares for all," says th« former, and the 
 latter gives proofs of this care from Holy Writ, for example, Ps. xxxvi. 
 6, cxlvii. 9. But the precepts of the law were illustrations of general 
 principles which extended far beyond the special precepts contained in 
 it. Such a precept was that in Exod. xxiii. 19, ' Thou shalt not seethe 
 a kid in his mother's milk,' cf. xxxiv. 26; Deut. xiv. 21, which had in 
 view the general principle of the cultivation of a spirit of humanity. 
 As an instance of the superior humanity of the Jewish law. Dean Stan- 
 ley mentions the fact that "the Egyptians had an inscription, still extant, 
 to this effect," and that in Greece there was a proverb, "the ox on the 
 heap of corn," to describe a man in the midst of plenty which he could 
 not enjoy. In this and many other instances we have to bear in mind 
 that ' the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.' St Paul applies this 
 passage from the Old Testament in an exactly similar manner in i Tim. 
 v. 18. It occurs in Deut. xxv. 4. 
 
 10. he that thresheth in hope sho2ild be partaker of his hope"] In this 
 verse we may observe ( i ) that the word translated treadeth out in ver. 9 
 is here rendered threshing, because the usual Eastern mode of thresh- 
 ing corn was by means of oxen. See Art. "Agriculture" in Smith's 
 Dictionary of the Bible, and Kitto's Biblical Cyrlopcsdia. The flail 
 appears to have been occasionally used for the lighter kinds of grain 
 (Ruth ii. 1 7), and threshing instruments are occasionally mentioned in 
 fhe later books of the Old Testament, e. g. 2 Sam. xxiv. 22 ; i Chron. 
 
vv. II— 14.] I. CORINTHIANS, IX. 89 
 
 his hope. If we have sown unto you spiritual tki?igs, is it 
 a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things? If others 
 be partakers of this power over you, are not we rather? 
 Nevertheless we have not used this power; but suffer all 
 things, lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ. Do ye 
 not know that they which minister about holy things live 
 of the things of the temple? a?id they which wait at the 
 altar are partakers with the altar? Even so hath the Lord 
 ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of 
 the gospel. 
 
 xxi. 23; Isai.xli. 15. And (2) we find in many MSS. the reading Uhat 
 he that thresh eth may do so in hope of partaking.'' The text is in some 
 confusion here. 
 
 11. If'we have soitni unto you spiritual things] St Paul's third argu- 
 ment is drawn from the principles of natural gratitude. If we have 
 conferred on you such inestimable benefits, it is surely no very burden- 
 some return to give us our maintenance. Not, says Estius, that the 
 one is in any sense the price paid for the other, for the two are too 
 unequal : but that he who receives gifts so invaluable certainly lies 
 under an obligation to him who imparts them — an obligation which he 
 may well requite by ministering to his benefactor in such trifles (see Acts 
 vi. 2 — 4) as food and drink. Cf. Rom. xv. 27 ; Gal. vi. 6. 
 
 12. If others be partakers of this poiuer over yon, are not roe rather?] 
 Fourth argument. You have admitted the cogency of these arguments 
 in the case of those who have less claim upon you than we have, to 
 whom (ch. iv. 15) you owe your Christian life itself. 
 
 Nevierthelcss we have not used this potver] St Paul is now about to 
 enter upon the argument from which he was diverted by the thought 
 which flashed across his mind in ver. i. But another argument occurs 
 to him, which he states in the next verse. 
 
 suffer] Rather, perhaps, endure. Cf. ch. xiii. 7; i Thess. iii. i. 
 The word is used of vessels which endure pressure without breaking. 
 
 13. Do ye not know that they which minister about holy things] 
 Fifth argument. The Jewish priests are maintained by the sacrifices of 
 the worshippers. See Lev. vi. 17; Num. v. 8 — 10, and especially 
 xviii. 8—20. So also Deut. x. 9, xviii. i. This was an argument of 
 which in dealing with Jews it would not have been well to lose sight. 
 Whether an Apostle or not St Paul was at least occupied with sacred 
 things, and so had a claim to live, or rather eat, the literal translation 
 (see margin feed) by means of the work he was doing. 
 
 partakers with the altar] The sacrifices were apportioned out according 
 to rule. Part was consumed on the altar; part was given to the priest; 
 part was consumed by the worshipper. See passages cited in the last 
 note. 
 
 14. Even so hath the Lord ordained] In St Matt. x. 10, and St Luke 
 X. 7. 
 
go I. CORINTHIANS, IX. [w. 15— I/* 
 
 15 — 23. S^ Paufs use of his Christian liberty is restrained 
 by the thought of the needs of others. 
 
 15 But I have used none of these things: neither have 
 I written these thifigs, that it should be so done unto 
 me : for // were better for me to die, than that any man 
 
 16 should make my glorying void. For though I preach the 
 gospel, I have nothing to glory of: for necessity is laid 
 upon me ; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel ! 
 
 17 For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward : but if 
 against my will, a dispensation of the gospel is committed 
 
 15 — 23. St Paul's use of his Christian liberty is restrained 
 
 BY the thought OF THE NEEDS OF OTHERS. 
 
 15. But I have 7ised none of these things] Having disposed of the 
 objections against his claims to Apostleship, he proceeds to the instance 
 he had been intending to give of his voluntary abandonment of his rights 
 as a Christian for the sake of others. Thus he vindicates his own con- 
 sistency, shewing that the doctrine he laid down in ch. \\. 12, and which 
 he again asserts in ver. 19 of this chapter, is a yoke which he not only 
 imposes upon others, but willingly bears himself. 
 
 thaji that any 7na7t should make my glorying void] A remarkable in- 
 version in the order of the Greek here has led some editors to prefer a 
 different reading, which is found in some MSS., and which may be thus 
 rendered : (i) It were better for me to die than my groimd of boasting — no 
 one shall make {it) void ; or {2) It 7i)ere better for me to die iha?i — no one 
 shall make my groimd of boasting void. But the latter introduces an un- 
 finished construction more harsh than is usual in St Paul's Epistles. The 
 word here translated glorying is translated in the next verse * a thing 
 to glory of.' See note on the same word in ch. v. 6. 
 
 16. necessity is laid ttpon me\ See Acts ix. 6, xxii. 11. 
 
 17. For if I do this thing willingly'] Whether St Paul did his work 
 willingly or unwillingly, he could not escape his responsibility. He had 
 been chosen (Acts ix. 15, xiii. 2; Rom. i. 5, xv. 16; Gal. i. 15, 16 ; 
 I Tim. ii. 7; 2 Tim. i. 11) to bear the good tidings to the Gentiles, and 
 no man can disobey God and be guiltless. If he willingly obeyed God, 
 he had a reward in the consciousness of having done his duty (ver. 18) ; 
 if not, he still had been entrusted with the task. Cf. St Luke xvii. 10. 
 
 rrcuard] Rather, wages. Cf. St John iv. 36; St Matt. xx. 8, and 
 St Luke x. 7, where the same word is used. 
 
 dispensation] Literally, stewardship, the work of one who has to 
 dispense provisions or stores. The original meaning of the word dispen- 
 satioii, which is akin to spend, is the giving forth, as out of a store. So 
 Dr Woodward, in his Natural Philosophy, writes, " This perpetual cir- 
 culation is constantly promoted by a dispensation of water promiscuously 
 to all parts of the earth." And Latimer writes, " I pray you, what is 
 to be looked for in a dispensour ? This, surely; that he be found 
 
w. 18—21.] I. CORINTHIANS, IX. 91 
 
 unto me. What is my reward then? Vcri/y that, when I 18 
 preach the gospel, I may make the gospel of Christ with- 
 out charge, that I abuse not my power in the gospel. For 19 
 though I be free from all men^ yet have I made myself 
 servant unto all, that I might gain the more. And unto 20 
 the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews ; 
 to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I 
 might gain them that are under the law ; to them that are 21 
 without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, 
 but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that 
 
 faithful, and that he truly dispense and lay out the goods of the Lord," 
 Sermoti on the Unjust Stezva7-d, preached before Convocation, June 
 6th, 1536. Hence it came to have the meaning of a course, or order, 
 of God's providence, distributed or appointed by Him to man. But 
 this is not the meaning here. WicHf renders distending is bitaken to 
 me. Tyndale, office. 
 
 18, What is my reward then?] Literally, wages (see last verse). 
 Either (i) as in our version, the preaching the Gospel without charge, 
 and the consciousness of having served God faithfully thus obtained ; or 
 (2) as some would interpret, suspending the construction until the end of 
 ver. 19, the satisfaction of having made more converts than any one 
 else. But this involves (i) a harsh construction, and (2) a motive which 
 appears foreign to the Christian character. For though St Paul in ch. 
 XV. 10 says, 'I laboured more abundantly than they all,' it is in no 
 spirit of vain-glorious boasting. The translation 'reward' somewhat 
 obscures the meaning. Christ had said, 'The labourer is worthy of his 
 hire,^ or wages. St Paul refers to this in ver. 17, In this verse he 
 asks what his wages are, and replies that they are the preaching the 
 Gospel without charge. 
 
 without charge] This was St Paul's usual ground of boasting. We 
 find it in his earliest Epistle (i Thess. ii. 9 ; cf, 1 Thess, iii, 8). It 
 formed part of his appeal to the Ephesian elders (Acts xx. 33, 34), and 
 in the fervid defence of himself which we find in the Second Epistle to 
 the Corinthians it occupies a prominent place. See 1 Cor. xi, 7 — 12. 
 
 19. made myself servant] Literally, enslaved myself. 
 
 the more\ Not necessarily more than other people, but as our version 
 implies, 77iore than he would otherwise have gai?ied. 
 
 20, unto the Jews I becatne as a yew] As in Acts xvi. 3, xviii. 18, 
 xxi. 26, xxiii. 6, xxvi. 4, 5, 6, 22, 27. Some of these passages, though 
 they refer to events which occurred after these words were written, are 
 none the less useful as illustrations of St Paul's principle of action, 
 
 21. to them that are without law, as without lau>] Literally, to the 
 lawless, as a lawless man, i.e. to those who had received no external 
 laws or statutes from God. St Paul's accommodation to the prejudices 
 of Gentiles may be seen in Gal. ii, 3, 12, 14. 
 
 being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ] Cf. Gal. 
 
92 I. CORINTHIANS, IX. [vv. 22—25. 
 
 12 are without law. To the weak became I as weak, that I 
 might gain the weak : I am made all things to all men^ that 
 
 23 I might by all means save some. And this I do for the 
 gospel's sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you. 
 
 24 — 27. Exhortation to Self-restraifit. 
 
 24 Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but 
 
 25 one receiveth the prize ? So run, that ye may obtain. And 
 
 vi. 2. A kind of apology is here made for the use of the term lawless. 
 It was only intended in the sense just explained. Even a Gentile was under 
 some kind of law (Rom. ii. 14, 15), and no Christian could rightly be 
 called lawless, for he was subject to that inward law written in the heart, 
 of which Jeremiah had prophesied (xxxi. 33), even the law of the Spirit of 
 life (Rom. viii. 2), which, though it had set him free from a slavish 
 bondage to ordinances (Col. ii. 20), had not set him free from the obli- 
 gation to holiness, justice, and truth which is involved in the very idea 
 of faith in Jesus Christ. 
 
 22. To the weak became I as weak'] i. e. by an affectionate conde- 
 scension to their prejudices (ch. viii. 13 ; cf. Rom. xv. i ; 2 Cor. xi. 29). 
 
 I am made (literally, become) all things to all me^i] Not in the sense 
 of sacrifice of principle, but by the operation of a wide reaching 
 •sympathy, which enabled him, without compromising his own convic- 
 tions, to approach all men from their most accessible side. See notes 
 on ver. 20, 21, and ch. x. 32. 
 
 24 — 27. Exhortation to Self-restraint. 
 
 24. Knoiu ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one 
 receiveth the prized Not that this is the case in the Christian course, 
 but that each should manifest the same eagerness and sustained effort as 
 if the prize could be given to one only. The Corinthians are now ex- 
 horted to follow the example of their teacher in all self-mistrust and self- 
 restraint. There can be little doubt that there is an allusion here to the 
 Isthmian games, which took place every three years at a spot on the sea- 
 coast about nine miles from Corinth. This was one of those festivals 
 "which exercised so great an influence over the Grecian mind, which 
 were, in fact, to their imaginations what the temple was to the Jews and 
 the triumph to the Romans." Stanley. At this period, he remarks, the 
 Olympic games, the chief national institution of the Greeks (see Art. 
 "Olympia" in ^\m\\\!?> Dictionary of Antiquities), had possibly lost some 
 of their interest, while the Isthmus had been the centre of the last expiring 
 struggle of Greek independence, and was destined to be the place where, 
 a few years after the date of this Epistle, Nero stood to announce that 
 the province of Achaia had received the honour of Roman citizen- 
 ship. 
 
 in a race] Literally, in the stadium, or race-course. See Art. 
 " Stadium " in Smith's Dictionary of Antiquities. This was a fixed course, 
 
y\'. 26, 27.] I. CORINTHIANS, IX. 93 
 
 every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all 
 things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown ; but 
 we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncer- 26 
 tainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air : but I 27 
 keep under my body, and bring // into subjection : lest that 
 
 oblong in shape, with one end semicircular, fitted round with seats, 
 that the spectators might see all that went on. It was "not a mere re- 
 sort for public amusement, but an almost sacred edifice, under the 
 tutelage of the patron deity of the Ionian tribes, and surrounded by tlie 
 most solemn recollections of Greece; its white marble seats rising like a 
 temple in the grassy slope, where its outlines may still be traced, under 
 the shadow of the huge Corinthian citadel, whicli guards the entrance to 
 the Peloponnesus, and overlooking the blue waters of the Saronic Gulf, 
 with Athens glittering in the distance." Stanley. 
 
 prize\ Greek, ^pa^eXov, from whence, through the late Latin word 
 bravium, comes our English h-ave. See note on next verse. 
 
 25. And eve?y man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all 
 things'] The temperance of which the Apostle speaks was no light 
 matter. For ten months had the candidates for a prize at these games 
 to abstain from every kind of sensual indulgence, and to undergo the 
 most severe training of the body. See Horace, De Arte Poetica, 412, 
 and Epictetus: "Wouldest thou conquer at the games? Thou must be 
 orderly, spare in food, must abstain from confections, exercise at a fixed 
 hour, whether in heat or cold, drink no cold water, nor wine." 
 
 a corruptible crown] "A garland of olive, parsley, bay, or pine." 
 Stanley. 
 
 but we an incorricptible] Cf. 1 Tim. ii. 5, iv. 8; James i. 12; i Pet. 
 V. 4; Rev. ii. 10, iii. 11. There was no impropriety in this comparison. 
 The Greek games were free from many of the degrading associations 
 which gather round those athletic sports so rapidly gaining ground 
 "among ourselves. They had the importance almost of a religious rite, 
 certainly of a national institution, and they were dignified with recita- 
 tions of their productions by orators and sophists. Herodotus is even 
 said to have recited his history at the Olympic games. 
 
 26. not as uncertainly] i.e. 7tjith no definite object, but "looking to 
 some goal," as St Chrysostom observes, and that goal the salvation of 
 himself and others. 
 
 so fight T] The Christian career is not merely a race, but a conflict, 
 and a conflict not only with others, but with oneself. St Paul had to 
 contend with the fleshly lusts of the body, the love especially of ease, the 
 indisposition to hardship and toil so natural to humanity. See Rom. 
 vii. 23; and for the life of pain and endurance to which he had enslaved 
 himself, ch. iv. of this Epistle, ver. 9 — 13, and 2 Cor. xi. 23 — 28. 
 
 not as one that beateth the air] That is, not as one who struck out at 
 random, but as one who delivered his blows with effect. Cf. Virg. 
 y£«. V. 377, Verberat ictibus auras; 446, Vires in ventum effudit, and 
 the German '^^ ins Blaiie hinein.^'' 
 .. 27. but I keep tinder my body] Literally, I strike under the eye, 
 
94 I. CORINTHIANS, X. [v. i. 
 
 by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself 
 should be a castaway. 
 
 Ch. X. I — 14. The Example of Israel a Warning to 
 Christians. 
 
 10 Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be 
 
 I beat black and blue. So the ancient Latin version of Irenaeus renders 
 it Corpus jnc7ini lividum facio. The Vulgate, less forcibly, cast i go. 
 Tyndale, tame. The same word is used in St Luke xviii. 5 of the effect 
 of the repeated complaints of the poor widow. Cf. Shakespeare, King 
 John, Act II. sc. I, ^^ BethuTfiped \Vi\.\\ words." 
 
 and bring it into stcbjectionl Literally, lead it into slavery. The 
 body was to be the absolute property of the spirit, to obey its directions 
 implicitly, as a slave those of its master. Rom. vi. 19. By a series of 
 violent blows on the face, as it were, it was to be taught to submit itself 
 to the dictates of its superior. 
 
 lest whoi I have preached to others., I myself should be a castaway^ 
 
 Castaway, Gr. ddoKi/xos, one regarded as unworthy. Except in Heb. 
 vi. 8, this word is everywhere else translated reprobate in the New Tes- 
 tament, and so here in the Vulgate reprobiis. Wiclif, repreuable. No 
 strength of religious conviction, we are here warned, can supply the 
 place of that continuous effort necessary to ' make our calling and elec- 
 tion sure.' Some have regarded the word 'preached' here (literally, 
 heralded) as having a reference to the herald who proclaimed the victor 
 in the games. Dean Stanley reminds us that the victor sometimes 
 announced his own success, and that Nero did so (cf. Suetonius, Nei'o, 
 c. 24) a short time after this Epistle was written. But this somewhat 
 misses the point of the Apostle's meaning, which, if it is to be regarded 
 as keeping up the metaphor derived from the games, is, that after 
 having, as herald, proclaimed the victory of others, he himself contends 
 ftnd is worsted. 
 
 Ch. X. 1 — 14. The Example of Israel a Warning to 
 Christians. 
 
 In this chapter the direct argument concerning meats offered to idols 
 is resumed in ver. 14. The first fourteen verses of this chapter, like 
 chapter ix., are parenthetical. But if we read '■for'' with the best 
 MSS. and versions, instead of the '■moreover'' of our English version, 
 we are to understand that there is a very close connection between this 
 and the last verse of the preceding chapter. See ver. 12. We are 
 taught in ver. i — 14, (i) that the possession of great privileges does not 
 secure us from danger. But this is not the only link of connection. 
 We learn, (2) that the worst sins of Israel were the direct result of 
 idolatry, and hence a strong argument is derived against regai-ding 
 idolatry as a light matter (ver. 14). And perhaps, with De Wette, 
 we may also regard the actions of the Israelites as awful examples, 
 (3) of the abuse of freedom^ the danger which was just now most likely 
 
w. 2—4.] I. CORINTHIANS, X. 95 
 
 ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, 
 and all passed through the sea ; and were all baptized unto 2 
 Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and did all eat the 3 
 same spiritual meat ; and did all drink the same spiritual 4 
 
 to befall the infant Church. "They were tempted to think that all 
 things were safe to do, because all things were lawful." Robertson. 
 
 1. / would not that ye shoidd be ignorant'\ A characteristic expres- 
 sion of St Paul. Cf. ch. xii. i, and Rom. i. 13, xi. 25; 2 Cor. i. 8; 
 I Thess. iv. 13. 
 
 all our fathers] The emphasis on ^ alP here — it is repeated five 
 times — serves to point out the moral that though all without exception 
 received the privileges, the greater number were very far from using 
 them aright. The lesson is still more closely driven home in ver. 11, 12. 
 The Israelites were as much the people of God as we, yet most of them 
 fell. Why should we think, then, that we have less need for watchful- 
 ness than they ? Some have thought that the expression ' otir fathers ' 
 implies that St Paul was here speaking to Jews only. But this is not 
 necessary. For (i) he might have used the expression as being himself 
 a Jew, and (2) the Israelites were the spiritual progenitors of the Chris- 
 tian Church. See Rom. iv, t6, ix. 5. 
 
 were under the cloud] Cf. Exod. xiii. 20 — 22, xiv. 19, and xl. 34 — 38 ; 
 Num. ix. 16 — 23, xiv. 14; Deut. i. 33; Ps. Ixxviii. 14, cv. 39. 
 
 passed through the sea] Exod. xiv. ; Num. xxxiii. 8 ; Josh. iv. 23 ; 
 Ps. Ixxviii. 13. 
 
 2. and were all baptized unto Moses] The passing through the cloud 
 (Exod. xiv. 19) and the sea was a type of Christian Baptism, in that he 
 who passes through it exchanges a state of bondage for a state of free- 
 dom, the hard yoke of a Pharaoh for the fatherly care of God, and this 
 in consequence of his folloMdng the guidance of a leader sent by God. 
 The Israelites were baptized ' unto Moses^ because by passing through 
 the cloud and the sea they had become connected with him, dependent 
 on his commands and guidance. 
 
 3. and did all eat the same spiritual meat] The manna (Exod. 
 xvi.), "inasmuch as it was not like common bread, a product of nature, 
 but came as bread from heaven (Ps. Ixxviii. 24; Wisd. xvi. 20; St John 
 vi. 31), the gift of God, Who, by His Spirit, wrought marvellously for 
 His people." Meyer. Cf. also Neh. ix. 15. 
 
 4. and did all drink the same spiritual drink] This miraculous 
 supply of water, vouchsafed on two occasions (Exod. xvii. i — 6; Num. 
 XX. 2 — 11) belonged, like the manna, not to the natural, but to the spi- 
 ritual order of God's Providence, which has its necessary points of con- 
 tact with the lower and more contracted natural order, and issues in 
 what we call miracles. Hence they were types of still greater miracles, 
 which belong however more exclusively to the spiritual order of things, 
 namely, the nourishing the Christian Church with the " spiritual food of 
 the Body and Blood of Christ." In this sense, St Augustine ( Tract. 26 
 super Joannem) says well, " Sacramenta ilia fuerunt, in signis diversa 
 §ed in re quae significatur paria," because it was Christ who was the 
 
96 I. CORINTHIANS, X. [vv. 5, 6. 
 
 drink : for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed 
 
 5 them: and that Rock was Christ. But with many of them 
 God was not well pleased : for they were overthrown in the 
 
 6 wilderness. Now these things were our examples, to the 
 
 miraculous support and preservation of the Israelites in the wilderness, 
 as well as of Christians in their pilgrimage through the world. 
 
 for they drank of that spintual Rock that follozvcd thcni] The Tar- 
 gums of Onkelos and Jonathan speak of a 'well' which followed the 
 Israelites in their wanderings. In the Bcmidbar Rahbah (c. i.) it is a 
 Rock, in shape like a bee-hive, which rolled continually forward to 
 accompany the Israelites on their way (for the tradition consult 
 Wetstein, or Schottgen). Our great Rabbinical scholar Lightfoot 
 rejects this interpretation, and believes that the expression refers, 
 not to the rock, but the streams which issued from it, and which 
 were gathered into pools wherever they encamped. It was to this, 
 and not to the rock, that the words in Num. xxi. 17 are supposed 
 to be addressed. Estius cites Ps. Ixxviii. 16 and cv. 41 in support 
 of the same view. See also Deut. ix. 21, 'the brook that de- 
 scended from the mount.' Meyer thinks that the tradition was a 
 later invention of the Rabbis, since the Targums in their present shape 
 cannot be traced back farther than the second century. It possibly 
 grew out of an older tradition, here referred to, that a spiritual power 
 invisibly accompanied the Israelites, and ministered to their temporal 
 wants. 
 
 and that Rock ivas Chrisf] See last note but one. Christ was the 
 true source of all their nourishment, and He went with them whither- 
 soever they went. He, the Angel of the Covenant (Exod. xxiii. 20, 
 11, 23, xxxii. 34; Josh. V. 13) was their guide and their support. Cf. 
 St John iv. 10, 14, vii. 37, 38. For the term Rock, as applied to 
 God, see Deut. xxxii. 4, 15, iS, 30, 31, 37; Ps. xviii. i, and many 
 other passages in the Psalms too numerous to quote. We can hardly 
 dismiss this passage without quoting Bengel's remark; "Had there 
 been more than two Sacraments, St Paul would have pointed out some 
 spiritual resemblance to them. " 
 
 6. zi'ith many of thtm'\ Rather, most. The point aimed at is, that 
 in spite of their high privileges and great opportunities, the majority of 
 them were destroyed. Cf. Heb. iii. 17. Joshua and Caleb only, 
 Num. xiv. 38, were permitted to enter the promised land. See also Num. 
 xxvi. 64, 65. 
 
 6. Now these things 7i>ere our examples] Literally, t3npes of us. 
 In figure of us, Wiclif. The word here used is derived from ti'/tttw, to 
 strike, and signifies (i) a viark, stroke of any kind, impressed or engra- 
 ven, 'print,'' St John XX. 25; {2) an image, figure, as in Acts vii, 43; 
 (3) an example, pattern, Acts vii. 44 (where the word is rendered 
 fashion), cf. Heb. viii. 5 ; (4) type, in the recognized sense of the word, 
 that of a person or circumstance designed by God to foreshadow some 
 other person or circumstance in the future, Rom. v. 14; (5) as equi- 
 valent to purporty substance of a letter or address, Acts xxiii. 25 j (6) 
 
7-9] 1. CORINTHIANS, X. 97 
 
 intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also 
 lusted. Neither be ye idolaters, as ^aere some of them -, as 7 
 it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, 
 and rose up to play. Neither let us commit fornication, s 
 as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and 
 twenty thousand. Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of 9 
 
 forjjt, outline^ substance, as of a system of doctrine or morals (like the 
 derived word viroTinroiais in 2 Tim. i. 13); Rom. vi. 17; (7) Example 
 in the matter of conduct, for imitation or wai-ning, Phil. iii. 17 ; i Thess. 
 i. 7; I Tim. iv. 12, &c. Either this, as in our version, or (4) is the 
 meaning here, or it may include both meanings. God impressed such 
 a character upon the Jewish history — or rather perhaps it was the 
 natural result of the similar position in which Christians now stand to 
 that occupied by the Jews under the law — that it foreshadowed the 
 history of the Christian Church. This idea is carried out more fully 
 than in this Epistle in reference to the Old Testament generally, in the 
 Epistles to the Galatians and Hebrews. Here it is simply used to 
 point out the way in which the warnings of the Jewish history are 
 valuable to Christians. 
 
 as t/iey also histed'\ St Paul gives five instances of the Israelites' sin. 
 First the desire for food other than God had given them. Num. xi. 4, 
 
 33» 34- 
 
 7. Neither be ye idolaters'] Tyndale characteristically renders ^^wor- 
 shippers of images." See Exod. xxxii. 6. 
 
 to play] Dancing (see Stanley and Alford in loc.) was probably in- 
 cluded, as it formed part of the worship of the heathen deities. Cf. 
 
 Horace, "Quam nee ferre pedem dedecuit choris sacro Dianae cele- 
 
 bi-ant die." Odes, ii. 12. 19. But the original Hebrew word has a 
 wider signification, to sport, to laugh, exactly the same as the kindred 
 word from which is derived Isaac, "he shall laugh," so named from 
 Sarah's laughter. The same is the case with the Greek word irai^eiv, 
 used here. 
 
 8.. Neither let us commit fornication] i. e. the natural result of joining 
 in the impure worship of Ashtaroth, or Astarte, the Syrian Venus. The 
 temple of Aphrodite, on the Acro-Corinthus, contained a thousand 
 priestesses devoted to the same licentious worship. See Introduction. 
 The warning in the text was, therefore, by no means needless. The 
 occasion referred to is that related in Num. xxv. i — 6. 
 
 three and twenty thousand] In Num. xxv. 9 we find 24,000. The 
 actual number would no doubt be between the two, so that both 
 here and in the book of Numbers only round numbers are given. "Our 
 Apostle saith not definitely three and twenty thousand perished, but 
 three and twenty thousand at the least." Lightfoot. 
 
 9. Neither let us tempt Christ] Whether we read Christ here with 
 the authorized version, or 'the Lord' with many MSS. and editors, 
 makes but little difference. In either case Christ is meant. Who, as 
 the Angel of the Covenant (see note on ver. 4), was the guide of the 
 
 1. HiR. ■■ 7 
 
98 1. CORINTHIANS, X. [w. 10--13. 
 
 1^ them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents. Neither 
 murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were 
 
 11 destroyed of the destroyer. Now all these thifigs happened 
 unto them for ensamples : and they are written for our ad- 
 monition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. 
 
 12 Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest 
 
 13 he fall. There hath no temptation taken you but such as is 
 common to man : but God is faithful, who will not suffer 
 you to be tempted above that you are able ; but will with 
 the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be 
 
 Israelites throughout all their wanderings. What it was to tempt 
 Christ we may best learn from the Old Testament narrative. See Num. 
 xiv. 22. It was to try Him, to see whether He would be as good as 
 His word, whether He would punish their sin as He had declared He 
 would. The word in the original means to try to the uttermost. For 
 the occasion referred to see Num. xxi. 6, though this is not the only 
 ■ occasion on which the Israelites were said to have tempted God. 
 
 of serpents] Literally, by the serpents, i. e. the well-known fiery 
 flying serpents mentioned in Moses' narrative. 
 
 10. Neither vmrmitr ye\ See Exod. xvi. 2, xvii. 2; Num. xiv. 
 2 — 29, xvi. 41. 
 
 of the destroyer] The angel of death. Cf. Exod. xii. 23, Wisd. xviii. 
 25, where nearly the same Greek word is used in the Septuagint as here. 
 Cf. also Gen. xix.; 2 Sam. xxi v. 16; i Chron. xxi. 12, 15, 16, 20; 2 Kings 
 xix. 35; 2 Chron. xxxii. 21; Acts xii. 23. Estius concludes from Jude 
 5, 9," that this was the Archangel Michael, but the passage does not 
 seem to warrant the conclusion. 
 
 11. ensa^nples] Here, as in ver. 6, the word, in the original is types, 
 or perhaps with some editors we should read ' typically' See note on 
 ver. 6. 
 
 12. let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall] K warn- 
 ing against the over-confidence too common among the Corinthians. 
 See chapter i. throughout; ch. iii. 18, iv. 8. It is not sufficient to have 
 been admitted into the Christian covenant; we need watchfulness, in 
 order to use our privileges aright. Cf. Rom. xi. 20. 
 
 13. There hath no temptation taken yon bnt such as is cominon to man] 
 Adapted to human powers (dvdpcoTrtvos). A consolation, as the last 
 veise was a warning. These words were intended to meet an ob- 
 jection that it was impossible to walk warily enough — impossible to 
 adjust aright the boundaries of our own freedom and our brother's need. 
 Every temptation as it comes, St Paul says, will have the way of escape 
 provided from it by God. AH that a Christian has to do is to live 
 in htimble dependence upon Him, neither perplexed in the present nor 
 anxious for the future. Cf. 2 Pet. ii. 9. 
 
 will with the temptation also make a 7oay to escape] The original is 
 stronger — with the temptation will make the way of escape also. 
 
w. 14-16.] I. CORINTHIANS, X. 99 
 
 able to bear it. Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from 14 
 idolatry. 
 
 15 22. The danger of eating Meats sacrificed to Idols shewn 
 
 from the example of Sacrificial Feasts in ge?ieral. 
 I speak as to wise fnen; judge ye what I say. The \l 
 cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion 
 of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, 
 
 14. Wherefore, my dearly beloved, fiee from idolalry] A return to the 
 main argument in ch. viii. An idol is nothing, and meats offered to 
 idols are nothing; but idolatry is a deadly sin, and so also is whatever 
 tends to promote it. 
 
 15—22. The danger of eating Meats sacrificed to Idols 
 
 SHEWN FROM THE EXAMPLE OF SACRIFICIAL FeASTS IN 
 GENERAL. 
 
 15. / sj>c'ak as to wise men; Judge ye what I say'] Even in the 
 plenitude of his Apostolic authority, he does not forbid the Cormthians 
 the exercise of their reason. They, as well as he, have the unction 
 from above (i John ii. 20, cf. ch. ii. 12), and can therefore discern the 
 force of what he says. See also ch. xi. 13. 
 
 16. The cicp of blessing zuhich zve bless] Resumption of the argument. 
 First reason against taking part in an idol feast. We communicate 
 together in the Body and Blood of Christ, and we are thereby debarred 
 from communion with any beings alien to Him; a communion into 
 which, by the analogy of all sacrificial rites, we enter with the beings to 
 ■whom such sacrifices are offered. See ver. 20. The term cup of 
 blessing is a Hebraism for the cup over which a blessing is to be pro- 
 nounced, whose characteristic it is to be blessed. It was the name given 
 to the cup over which thanks were given at the Passover. Lightfoot. 
 
 which we bless] Over which we pronounce the words of blessing and 
 thanksgiving commanded by Christ. See St Luke xxii. 20 and ch. 
 
 is it not the co?nmtmion of the blood of Christ?] '' Comynyng,'' 
 Wiclif. See ch. v. 7. " The word communion is stronger than par- 
 taking," Chrysostom. The idea is that of a meal on a sacrificed victim, 
 which is Christ Himself, the true Paschal Lamb, by feeding on Whom 
 all who partake of Him are made sharers of His Flesh and Blood, and 
 thus are bound together in the closest fellowship with Him. The fact 
 of this Eucharistic feeding upon Christ is adduced as the strongest reason 
 why Christians cannot lawfully take part in idolatrous rites. It is as im- 
 possible to exclude here the active sense of "communication" (see note 
 on ch. i. 9), as it is to confine the word to that signification. It must be 
 taken in the widest possible sense, as including Christ's feeding His 
 people with His Flesh and Blood, and their joint participation in the 
 
 ne. 
 
 lie bread which we break] Calvin here characteristically contends 
 
 same. 
 
loo I. CORINTHIANS, X. [vv. 17—19. 
 
 r7 is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we 
 being many are one bread, mid one body : for we are all 
 
 10 partakers of that one bread. Behold Israel after the flesh : 
 are not they which eat of the sacrifices partakers of the 
 
 ty altar ? What say I then ? that the idol is any thing, or that 
 
 that the Eucharistic loaf was handed from one to the other, and that 
 each broke off his share. But it is obvious that the words are such as 
 could be used by any minister of the Christian Church, of the solemn 
 breaking of the bread in obedience to Christ's command. And it may 
 be further observed that only Christ is said to have broken the bread at 
 tlie first institution of the Eucharist. The Roman Catholic commentator, 
 Estius, here, however, agrees with Calvin. The breaking of the bread, 
 he says, was first performed " a presbyteris et diaconis," and afterwards 
 "a caeteris fidelibus." The language of St Paul is not precise enough 
 to enable us absolutely to decide the point. 
 
 the cofjwmnion of the body of Chj-ist\ Wiclif, taking; Tyndale, par- 
 taking. See note above on the communion of the Blood. 
 
 17. For we being many are one bread, and one bodyi\ "As one loaf 
 is made up of many grains, and one body is composed of many mem- 
 bers, so the Church of Christ is joined together of many faithful ones, 
 united in the bonds of charity." Augustine. So Chrysostom and 
 Theodoret, and our English bishops Andrewes and Hall. Cf. ch. xii. 12 ; 
 Gal. iii. 28; Eph. iv. 4; Col. iii. 15. 
 
 for we are all partakers of that one bread'\ Literally, for we all partake 
 of the one bread. See St John vi. 35 — 58. As the bread passes into 
 our bodies and becomes a part of each of us, so the Body of Christ, 
 which the bread is the means of conveying, enters into and becomes 
 part of each of us. Calvin reminds us that here St Paul is not 
 dealing so much with our love towards and fellowship with one 
 another, as with our spiritual union with Christ, in order to draw the 
 inference that it is an unendurable sacrilege for Christians to be 
 polluted by communion with idols. 
 
 18. Behold Israel after the flesh^ Second reason (see ver. 16). As 
 the Christian sacrificial feasts, so are those of the Jews. 
 
 are not they tuhich eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar?] "In a 
 strict and peculiar sense — the altar having part of the animal, the par- 
 taker another part." Dean Alford. The word here tvsim\3.ted partakers 
 is not the same as in the last verse. It is, like the word translated com- 
 miinion, from koivos, common, and implies that the altar and the 
 worshipper share together in the victim. Bengel remarks that "he to 
 whom anything is offered, the things which are offered, the altar on 
 which they are offered," and he might have added those who offer them, 
 "have communion with each other." If, therefore, any one knowingly 
 partakes of an idol sacrifice, as such (it would seem that some went so 
 far as to contend that Christians might do so), he makes himself 
 responsible for the worship of the idol, and all the evils with which that 
 worship is connected. 
 
 19. JVhai say I then ? that the idol is any thing] St Paul does not 
 
-22.] I. CORINTHIANS, X. 
 
 which is offered in sacrifice to idols is any thmgl But I say^ 20 
 that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice 
 to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye 
 should have fellowship with devils. Ye cannot drink the 21 
 cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils : ye cannot be 
 partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils. 
 Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger 22 
 than he ? 
 
 mean to say here, any more than in ch. viii. 4, that an idol, or the god 
 represented by it, has any real objective existence, or that the sacrifices 
 offered to such idols are the property of any such being as that they are 
 intended to represent. But for all that, it may stand as the representa- 
 tive of that which has a very real existence indeed ; the kingdom of evil, 
 and those beings which maintain it. 
 
 20. they sacrifice to devils^ and not to God] Third reason. The 
 worship of idols is a worship of devils. The words here used are found 
 in Deut. xxxii. 17, and similar ones are found in the Septuagint version 
 of Ps. xcvi. 5 ; cf. Ps. cvi. 37. The point of the argument is shewn in 
 the last words of this sentence, 'ajid not to God. ' As they were not sacri- 
 ficed to God, they were sacrificed to His enemies, the 'evil spirits,' 
 'daemons,' not 'devils' properly, for this word is confined to the 
 'prince of this world' (St John xii. 31), 'which is the Devil, 
 and Satan'* (Rev. xx. 1). Such beings as these are no mere con- 
 ceptions of the fancy, but have a real and active existence. Their 
 power over humanity when Christ came was great indeed. Not 
 only was their master the Prince of this world (see above and cf. St 
 Luke iv. 6), but the fact of demoniacal possession was a proof at once of 
 their existence and influence upon man. 
 
 fellowship] Translated conwiunion in ver. 16. See note on ch. i. 9. 
 
 21. Ye cannot drijik the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils] See 
 note on ver. 18, and for the nature of heathen sacrifices note on viii. i. 
 The cup of devils was the libation with which the meal commenced. 
 It was the cup of devils ( i ) because it was the cup of worship to beings 
 other than God, which He Whose name was Jealous (Exod. xxxiv, 14, 
 cf. XX. 5) and Who 'will not give His glory to another' (Isai. xlii. 8) 
 had forbidden, and (2) because the Avorship of many of the gods was a 
 distinct homage to the powers of evil, by reason of its polluting nature. 
 Such worship obviously unfitted those who took part in it for fellowship 
 with Christ. Cf. also 2 Cor. vi. 15, 16. 
 
 22. Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy 1] i.e. as the Jews had done 
 to their cost. See note on last verse. Cf. also Num. xiv. ; Deut. i. , 
 xxxii. 2 1 (see note on ver. 19 and observe that it was idol worship 
 which provoked God); Ps. xcv. 8; Heb. iii. 16. The same word is 
 found, with the same translation, in Rom. x. 19, xL 11, and in ver. 
 14 of that chapter it is translated /roz't'/^'^ /<? emidation, 
 
 are we stro7igcr than he ?\ So as to be able to resist His wrath. 
 
 * See note on St Matt. iv. 24 in Mr Carr's Commentary in this series. 
 
I02 I. CORINTHIANS, X. [w. 23—26. 
 
 23 — Ch. XL I. Fraciical diredmis on the subject of Meats 
 offered in Sacrifice. 
 
 23 All things are lawful for me, but all thijigs are not ex- 
 pedient : all things are lawful for me, but all things edify 
 
 24 not. Let no 77ian seek his own, but every man another's 
 
 25 wealth. Whatsoever is sold in the shambles, that eat, 
 
 26 asking no question for conscience sake : for the earth is 
 
 23 — Ch. XI. 1. Practical directions on the subject of 
 Meats offered in Sacrifice. 
 
 23. All things are lawful for me\ A repetition of the words in 
 ch. vi. 12, with a more emphatic enunciation of the doctrine that the 
 great limiting principle of liberty is our neighbour's edification. It is 
 scarcely possible to help seeing in this repetition a confirmation of the 
 view that the words were originally St Paul's own, but had been used in 
 a sense in which he did not intend them to be used. 
 
 edify not] See note on ch. viii. i. 
 
 24. Let no man seek his own, but every man another's wealth"] Ra- 
 ther, the profit of Ms neighbour. Cf. Rom. xv. i, 2, 3; Phil. ii. 4. 
 The conclusion is moral, not positive. No rule is laid down about 
 eating or not eating any kind of food as a matter of importance in 
 itself. ^Yith such things the Gospel has no concern. What St Paul 
 does prescribe, relates to the effect of our conduct upon others. 
 See Rom. xiv. throughout. It will thus happen in our case, as 
 in that of the Apostle, that what may be quite wrong under one set 
 of circumstances may be quite right in another, as in Gal. ii. 3 
 and Acts xvi. i. See also notes on ch. viii. It may be interesting to 
 remark how these questions were treated by the theologians of later 
 times. Estius gives several examples of the casuistry of the Latin 
 Fathers. St Augustine decides the case of those who, pressed by hun- 
 ger, might be tempted to eat of food in an idol temple when quite 
 alone, by saying that if they know it to have been offered to idols, they 
 must refuse it. St Jerome decides that the invocation of idols and 
 daemons makes such food unclean. St Gregory commends the virtue of 
 some unlettered Christians who preferred rather to be slain than to eat 
 meats offered to idols which their Lombard captors endeavoured to 
 force upon them. The Greek Father St Chrysostom, however, remarks 
 that St Paul does not suffer the Christian to question what it is he buys, 
 but simply to eat whatever comes from the market. 
 
 25. IVhatsoei'er is sold in the shambles] This and the two follow- 
 ing verses are directed against over-scrupulousness. Some Christians 
 were afraid to buy meat in the public market, lest it might have been 
 offered in sacrifice to an idol. See note on ch. viii. i. 
 
 asking no gnestioti for conscience sake] Rathe;', entering" upon no 
 inquiry. This may be interpreted (i) as directing, that no inquiry 
 was to be made, lest the answer should suggest conscientious scruples, 
 or (2) as urging that no conscientious scruples need be felt which should 
 
vv. 27—29.] I. CORINTHIANS, X. 103 
 
 the Lord's, and the fulness thereof. If any of them 27 
 that believe not bid you to a fcast^ and ye be disposed to 
 go; whatsoever is set before you, eat, asking no question 
 for conscience sake. But if any man say unto you, This is 28 
 offered in sacrifice unto idols, eat not for his sake that 
 shewed //, and/^r conscience sake: for the earth is the 
 Lord's, and the fulness thereof: conscience, I say, not 29 
 thine own, but of the other's : for why is my liberty judged of 
 
 lead to any necessity for making inquiries. The latter is more in 
 accordance Avith the robust morality of the Apostle, and with the 
 context. The conscience need not be sensitive upon such points; it 
 need not suggest entangling difficulties, where in truth there were none. 
 This is better than to suppose with some, that information was to be 
 kept back in order to avoid anxiety on the part of the scrupulous. 
 
 26. for the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof\ See Ps. 
 xxiv. I. Cf. Ps. 1. 12. It is not the eating of meats that is sinful. 
 *An idol is nothing in the world,' and all creatures are made by God, 
 and ai^e therefore fit for food, (Cf. i Tim. iv. 4.) But knowingly to 
 countenance idolatrous rites, to give to another the glory due to the one 
 True God alone, is a grievous sin. Therefore the whole question of 
 sinfulness depends, not on the meat, but on the knowledge of him who 
 eats it, what kind of meat it is. If he does not know that it has been 
 offered to an idol, he may dismiss all scruples, for it is only this know- 
 ledge, and not the perishable meat (see ch. vi. 13), which makes him 
 partaker of the 'table of devils.' So ver. 27. 
 
 27. If any of them that believe not bid you] i. e. to a feast in a pri- 
 vate house. Although some of the Corinthians had gone so far as to 
 declare that a Christian might innocently sit at meat in the idol temple, 
 confident in his conviction that an idol was 'nothing in the world' 
 (ch. viii. 10), yet the Christian religion could not permit them thus to 
 abuse their freedom. To sit at meat in the idol temple was directly to 
 countenance idol worship, and thus to become 'partaker' of the 'table 
 of devils.' 
 
 28. But if any man say tinto yoii. This is offered vi sacrifice nnto 
 idols'] i. e. if (r) one of your fellow-guests should display scruples of 
 conscience, or (2) a heathen should be likely to draw the inference that 
 you approved of idol worship. The reading lepbOvrov confirms the 
 latter, that in the text the former interpretation. " This altogether. alters 
 the case. You are no longer simply eating with thankfulness the food 
 set before you as the gift of God. The question of idolatrous Avorship 
 is now introduced. If your own conscience would permit you to eat, 
 you have to consider whether your conduct might lead another to sup- 
 pose that you regarded participation m the worship of idols as permis- 
 sible to a Christian." Most MSS. and Editors omit the words, 'For 
 the earth is the Lord's, &c.' in this verse, as a mere and meaningless 
 x-epetition from ver. 26. 
 
 2 J. zi'hy is my liberty Judged of another mans conscience?] This 
 
104 I. CORINTHIANS, X. XI. [vv. 30; i, 2. 
 
 30 another inaji's conscience ? For if I by grace be a partaker, 
 why am I evil spoken of for that for which I give thanks ? 
 
 31 Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do 
 
 32 all to the glory of God. Give none offence, neither to the 
 
 33 Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the Church of God : even 
 as I please all 7tien in all things, not seeking mine own 
 
 11 profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved. Be 
 ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ. 
 
 2 — 16. The Conduct and Dress of Women at the Public 
 Services of the Church. 
 2 Now I praise you, brethren, that you remember me in all 
 
 and the following verse are a little obscure, but the sense appears to be 
 that no man has a right to interfere with the liberty enjoyed by an- 
 other, save so far as his own conduct and conscientious convictions are 
 likely to be affected thereby. In fact the Apostle's words in ver. 28, 
 29, 30 may be thus paraphrased. " For conscience sake. Not that you 
 are to feel conscience-stricken, as though you had yourself been doing 
 something wrong, and given your neighbours a rigjit to blame you. No 
 man has any such right. You were doing no harm. You had a perfect 
 right to eat what was set before you with gratitude to God for what He 
 had given. No, it is not of your own, but of your neighbour's con- 
 science, that I was speaking. To him you would be doing harm in- 
 calculable, if you allowed him to suppose that there was no sin in wor- 
 shipping idols." 
 
 30. dj' ^ace] Rather, ivith g7'atcfulness. 
 
 31. Whether therefore ye eat, or drink] The glory of God, that is to 
 be the end of all your actions. In themselves, eating and drinking are 
 things indifferent, but there are circumstances in which they may be 
 matters of the highest importance. In our own day, for instance, the 
 question of using or abstaining from intoxicating liquors is one which 
 ought to be dealt with on the same principles as those which St Paul 
 has laid down in this chapter. Such a question should be approached 
 and decided on one ground alone, namely, whether by using them or 
 abstaining from them we shall best promote the glory of God. 
 
 32. Give none offence] This verse and the next explain the words, 
 * I am made all things to all mejt,'' ch. ix. 11. 
 
 neither to the Jczus] This question is dealt with fully in Rom. xiv., 
 where the question of eating or abstaining from meats regarded by the 
 Jews as unclean, is decided upon precisely the same principles as those 
 laid down in this chapter. 
 
 Ch. XI. 1. This verse belongs to the former chapter, and concludes 
 the argument, as in ch. iv. 16. 
 
 2—16. The Conduct and Dress of Women at the Public 
 Services of the Church. 
 2. Now I praise you, brethren, that you remember me in all things] 
 
V. 3.] I. CORINTHIANS, XI. 105 
 
 things, and keep the ordinances, as I delivered the7n to you. 
 But I would have you know, that the head of every man is 3 
 Christ ; and the head of the woman is the man ; and the 
 
 There is no contradiction between this verse and v. 17. The ordinances 
 which St Paul had delivered to the Corinthians had been faithfully 
 kept ; but the principles of Christian liberty and Christian brotherhood 
 had been, in some instances, unsatisfactorily carried out. He therefore 
 proceeds to give other ordinances on matters which required immediate 
 attention, leaving {v. 34) those of less pressing importance till he himself 
 arrived at Corinth. The ordinances in the present chapter relate (i) to 
 the conduct of women in the public assemblies, and (2) to the Lord's 
 Supper. 
 
 ordinances] The margin has traditions ; praecepta, Vulgate {comaujide- 
 ments, Wiclif). The signification of the Greek word is things delivered, 
 and it is derived from the verb translated delivered in this verse, just 
 as tradition is derived from trado, to deliver or give over. These 
 'traditions,' or rather, 'ordinances,' were of three kinds; (i) regu- 
 lations for the government of the Church, as here and in 2 Thess. 
 iii. 6; {2) statements concerning doctrine, as 2 Thess. ii. 15; or (3) 
 concerning fact, as in ch. xi. 23, xv. 3, which are spoken of as having 
 been ' delivered ' by the Apostle. The doctrines of the Rabbis are 
 spoken of as ' traditions' in St Matt. xv. 2; Gal. i. 14. 
 
 as I delivered them to yoii\ * ' Large principles, when taken up by 
 ardent and enthusiastic minds, without the modifications learnt by ex- 
 perience, are almost sure to run into extravagances, and hence the spirit 
 of law is by degrees reduced to rules, and guarded by customs." — Ro- 
 bertson, Lect. XXI. on ist Ep. to Corinthians. The whole lecture is 
 extremely valuable. 
 
 3. Bnt I woidd have you kno%v\ According to St Paul's invariable 
 rule, the question is argued and settled upon the first principles of the 
 Christian Revelation. In the sight of God all men are equal ; yet 
 without distinctions of rank and office society could not exist. But 
 equality and order are reconciled by the revelation of God in Christ. 
 
 the head] " In the idea of this word dominion is especially expressed. 
 As in the human organisation the exercise of dominion over all the 
 members proceeds from the head ; so in the family, from man ; in the 
 Church, from Christ ; in the universe, from God." — Olshausen. 
 
 of every juan is Christ^ See Eph. i. 22, iv. 15; Col. i. 18, ii. 19. 
 As the head directs the body, so ought every member of Christ's Body 
 to be governed and directed by Christ. 
 
 the head of the zvoinan is the man] Cf. Eph. v. •23. "It appears that 
 the Christian women at Corinth claimed for themselves equality with 
 the male sex, to which the doctrine of Christian freedom and the removal 
 of the distinction of sex in Christ (Gal. iii. 28) gave occasion. Chris- 
 tianity had indisputably done much for the emancipation of women, who 
 in the East and among the Ionic Greeks (it was otherwise among the 
 Dorians and the Romans) were in a position of unworthy dependence. 
 But this was done in a quiet, not an over-hasty manner. In Corinth, 
 
io6 I. CORINTHIANS, XL [vv. 4, 5. 
 
 4 head of Christ is God. Every man praying or prophesying, 
 
 5 having his head covered, dishonoureth his head. But every 
 
 on the contrary, they had apparently taken up the matter in a fashion 
 somewhat too animated. The women overstepped due bounds by 
 coming forward to pray and prophesy in the assemblies with uncovered 
 head." — De Wette. Such persons are here reminded that according to 
 God's word (Gen. iii. 16 ; i Tim. ii. 12, 13) woman was designed to be 
 in subjection, both in society and in the family. Of this last, woman's 
 chief sphere, man Avas, by God's ordinance, the head. Yet (see below, 
 V. 5) she is on an equality with man in her iiidividiial relation to Christ. 
 the head of Christ is God] Cf. ch. iii. 23, viii. 6, xv. 28, and notes. Also 
 St John xiv. 28. Possibly this may be added to prevent the idea from 
 gaining currency that the interval between man and woman was in any 
 degree comparable to that between Christ and man. And it also implies 
 that the whole universe is one vast system of orderly gradation, from 
 God its Creator downwards. 
 
 4. Every man praying or prophesyitig, having his head covered] We 
 have two propositions in this and the following verse : the first concerning 
 the man, the second concerning the woman. "It was the custom of the 
 Jews that they prayed not, unless first their head were veiled, and that 
 for this reason ; that by this rite they might shew themselves reverent and 
 ashamed before God, and unworthy with an open face to behold Him." 
 — Lightfoot. He quotes many passages from the Rabbis, of which one 
 from Maimonides may suffice. "Let not the Wise Men, nor the scholars 
 of the Wise Men pray, unless they be covered." This veil was called the 
 Tallith. Grotius (see Alford in loc.) gives many details about the custom 
 of heathen nations. It appears that the Romans and Germans used to 
 pray veiled, from the same motive as the Jews, while the Greeks were 
 accustomed to perform their sacred rites unveiled (though St Chrysostom 
 asserts the contrary of this). But the Christian custom was not, as 
 Meyer seems to think, due to the Hellenic custom being followed in the 
 Hellenic churches, but is rather to be explained by this passage, and by 
 2 Cor. iii. 14, 18. The Christian no longer approaches God weighed 
 down by shame and sin. It is his privilege to gaze undazzled on the 
 glory of God with face unveiled, since he is 'no longer a servant, but a 
 son,' Gal. iv. 7. ^^ Capite mido, quia nan erubcscimiis,^'' Tertullian, 
 Apology, ch. XXX. "The question here is of a veil, not of a hat." — De 
 Wette. But the effect of St Paul's decision has been in the Christian 
 Church to do away with the custom of uncovering the feet and allowing 
 the head to remain covered (Exod. iii. 5), which is still in existence 
 among the Jews and Mohammedans. For prophesying, see note on 
 ch. xiv. I. 
 
 dishonoureth his head] Either (i) Christ, 'the Head of every man,' 
 by the non-acknowledgment of redemption through Him. Or (2) his 
 o^vn head, as not bearing in mind that his body and spirit had been 
 bought with a price, and were therefore Christ's, and thus high in the 
 favour of God. 
 
 5. Bnt roery woman that prayeth or prophesieth] This refers, of 
 course, to the public assemblies of the Church, vrhere the woman 
 
vv. 6, 7.] I. CORINTHIANS, XI. 107 
 
 woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered 
 dishonoureth her head : for that is even all one as if she were 
 shaven. For if the woman be not covered, let her also be 6 
 shorn : but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or 
 shaven, let her be covered. For a man indeed ought not to 7 
 cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of 
 
 appears, not in her individual character, but as the member of a com- 
 munity. She must therefore perform her devotions in this latter 
 character, and her attire must bear witness to the fact that she is 
 subordinate to those of the other sex in whose presence she worships. 
 Alone, of course, or in the presence of her own sex only, she has the 
 same privilege of approaching God unveiled, that man has. Some 
 difficulty has been raised about the words 'or prophesieth.^ It has been 
 thought that the woman was here permitted to prophesy, i. e. in synaller 
 assemblies, and that the prohibitions in ch. xiv. 34, and i Tim. ii. 12, 
 referred to the more general gatherings of the Church. The subject is 
 one of some difficulty (see Acts ii. 18, xxi. 9), but it is perhaps best, 
 with De Wette and Calvin (who says, ' ' Apostolum hie unum impro- 
 bando alterum non probare") to suppose that the Apostle blames only 
 the praying in public with uncovered head, and reserves his blame of 
 the prophesying for ch. xiv. 34. As for the prophetic gifts of the daugh- 
 ters of Philip the evangelist, Acts xxi. 9, they were probably reserved 
 for assemblies of their own sex. 
 
 with he7' head iincoveredl i.e. without \he pephun or shawl, which (see 
 Art. in Smith's Dictionary of Antiquities, and Dean Stanley's note), used 
 ordinarily as a covering for the body, was on public occasions thrown 
 over the head also. In Oriental countries, however, the women wore, 
 and still wear, a veil. 
 
 dishonoureth her head'\ " As the man honours his head by proclaiming «• 
 his liberty, so the woman by acknowledging her subjection." — Calvin. 
 Cf. Num. v. 18. 
 
 for that is even all one as if she ivere shaven'\ i.e. she might just as well 
 be shaven, as appear in the public assemblies with her face entirely un- 
 covered. 
 
 6. bnt if it be a shame for a woman to he shorn or shaven"] i.e. with 
 her hair either cropped close or shaven. This was considered a disgrace. 
 It was the sign of a slave (see Aristophanes, Birds, 911), or of one in 
 mourning and humiliation (Deut. xxi. 12). 
 
 7. For a man indeed ought not to cover his head"] The Apostle now 
 gives reasons for what he has just said. His first argument is that to 
 appear uncovered in the congregation denotes the having no visible 
 superior there. But woman has a visible superior, namely, man. To 
 this fact, when she appears in public, her very dress should testify. See 
 also V. 10. 
 
 forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God] Additional reason 
 for the Apostle's directions. Man is God's image (Gen. i. 26, 27, v. i, 
 ix. 2, 6), inasmuch as he is the highest of all living beings in the visible 
 
io8 I. CORINTHIANS, XL [vv. 8— ii. 
 
 8 God : but the woman is the glory of the man. For the man 
 
 9 is not of the woman ; but the woman of the man. Neither 
 was the man created for the woman ; but the woman for the 
 
 10 man. For this cause ought the woman to have power on 
 
 11 her head because of the angels. Nevertheless neither is the 
 
 world. Y\S.% glory, i.e. the manifestation or representation of His glory, 
 on account of the dominion over all things in the world committed to 
 him (Gen. i. 26, 28, iii. t6). As he is thus a visible representation of 
 God, he is not to veil his head, the noblest part of his body, in the 
 public worship of the Church. 
 
 the woman is the glory of the man] Woman is not the manifestation 
 or representation of the glory of God on earth, inasmuch as she is 
 subject to man, and therefore cannot properly represent Him Who has 
 no superior. But to all inferior beings she represents and is scarcely 
 distinguishable from man, and therefore manifests and shares his su- 
 periority ; reflects it, as the moon does the light of the sun, to use (and it 
 may be said, to complete) the simile of Grotius here. See Alford's note. 
 
 8. For the man is not of the tvoman'] Second argument, drawn from 
 the creation of mankind. The narrative in the book of Genesis esta- 
 blishes two facts, (r) that woman had her being originally through man, 
 and not, as man, directly from God ; and (2) that she was created for 
 man's advantage, and not man for hers. Not that we are to suppose, 
 with some, that woman is in no sense to be regarded as the image and 
 glory of God, but that man is so immediately, she mediately, through 
 man. 
 
 10. For this cause ought the ivoman to have power on her head] That 
 is, as in the margin of our version, * a covering in sign that she is under 
 the po7t>er of her husband.' An hilyng {hiille, veil), Wiclif. Third argu- 
 ment, drawn from the presence of the angels at Christian worship. The 
 '^vord translated power here is rather, the right to exejxise pozver, au- 
 thority, as in St Matt. x. i. ; St Luke iv. 36, &c. Hence it has been 
 suggested in the notes on ch. ix. 4, 5, 12 that it has sometimes, 
 though not here, the signification of right. In this place the abstract 
 is put for the concrete, the authority itself for the token of being under 
 authority. For an instance of the use of the veil in this way we may 
 refer to Gen. xxiv. 65, where Rebekah veils herself in token of sub- 
 mission, as soon as she comes into the presence of her husband. We 
 are not to exclude the idea of feminine modesty, but to regard it as in- 
 cluded in the idea of being under authority, of which modesty is a kind 
 of natural acknowledgment. Neither are we to confine the idea to 
 viarried persons, as the margin of our Version does, but to regard it as 
 applying to the mutual relations of the sexes generally. The passage 
 has sorely perplexed the commentators. The various explanations of it 
 may be found in Stanley and Alford m loc. 
 
 because of the angels] This passage has also been explained in various 
 ways (see the commentators just mentioned). It is best on the whole to 
 regard it as an intimation that the angels, though invisible, were fellow- 
 worshippers with men in the Christian assemblies, and were therefore 
 
vv. 12, 13.] I. CORINTHIANS, XI. 109 
 
 man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, 
 in the Lord. For as the woman is of the man, eve?i so is the 
 man also by the woman ; but all things of God. Judge in 
 yourselves : is it comely that a woman pray unto God un- 
 
 " spectators of the indecency," and liable to be offended thereat. "When 
 therefore the women usurp the symbol of dominion, against what is right 
 and lawful, they make their shameful conduct conspicuous " in the eyes 
 of the messengers of God. Thus Calvin. Erasmus paraphrases it well: 
 " If a woman has arrived at that pitch of shamelessness that she does 
 not fear the eyes of men, let her at least cover her head on account of 
 the angels, who are present at your assemblies." For some remarkable 
 Oriental illustrations of the interpretation that evil angels are here 
 meant, see Dean Stanley on this verse. 
 
 11. Nevertheless neither is the man without the luoman^ " St Paul's 
 teaching from v. 7 onward might possibly be misinterpreted by the men 
 so as to lead them to despise the women, and by the women so as to 
 lead them to underrate their own position." — Meyer. He goes on, how- 
 ever, to treat the passage as referring chiefly to married persons, whereas 
 it refers to the two sexes in general, as constituent parts of the Christian 
 community, each having its own peculiar excellencies and special gifts, 
 every one of which is necessary to the perfection of human society. We 
 may remark how in Christ alone were the various qualities of humanity 
 so blended that He united in Himself the perfections of the masculine 
 and feminine characters. 
 
 12, For as the zvovudi is of the man] i.e. by creation (Gen. ii. •22), 
 even so is the man also by the tvoman] By birth. 
 
 but all things of God] We are not to dwell too much on the inter- 
 mediate links in the chain of causation, but to remember that all 
 human beings exist by God's ordinance, and that therefore each has 
 his own rights as well as duties, which cannot be neglected without 
 injury to the Divine order of this world. 
 
 13 — 15. Judge in yourselves...] Return to the argument in v. lo. An 
 appeal is now made to our natural feeling of what is proper and becom- 
 ing. Man, as his sphere is the world, and as he is the highest of God's 
 creatures in it, needs no covering to hide him from the gaze of others. 
 Woman, as being, whether married or unmarried, under the dominion 
 of man, receives of God's providence the covering of her long hair, 
 whereby she may veil herself from the gaze of those who are not 
 her natural protectors. 
 
 is it comely] Decet, Vulgate. Bisemeth it? Wiclif. Our version 
 follows Tyndale here, and is equivalent in our modern language to Is it 
 proper? Is it becoming? "It is impossible," remarks Robertson, " to 
 decide how much of our public morality and private purity is owing 
 to the spirit which refuses to overstep the smallest bound of ordinary 
 decorum." And again, "Whatever contradicts feelings which are uni- 
 versally received," that is " in questions of morality, propriety, and 
 decency," "is questionable to say the least." 
 
no I. CORINTHIANS, XL [vv. 14—17. 
 
 74 covered ? Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a 
 
 15 man have long hair, it is a shame unto him ? But if a woman 
 have long hair, it is a glory to her : for her hair is given her 
 
 16 for a covering. But if any man seem to be contentious, we 
 have no such custom, neither the churches of God. 
 
 1 7 — 34. Disorders at the Lord's Supper. 
 
 17 Now in this that I declare tmto you I praise you not, that 
 
 nncovered\ Not hilid (veiled) on the heed, Wiclif. Bare hedded, 
 Tyndale. 
 
 14. Doth not even nature itself teach yoic\ This argument from 
 nature must not be pressed too far. St Paul is speaking of the natural 
 sense of what is fitting in those whom he addressed. In early times the 
 Greeks and the Romans wore long hair, and the Gauls and Germans 
 did so in St Paul's o\\-n time. So Homer continually speaks of the 
 " long-haired Greeks." St Chrysostom remarks that those who addicted 
 themselves to philosophy in his day wore their hair long. But this was 
 mere affectation. Cf. Horace, De Arte Foetica, 297, 
 
 "Bona pars non ungues ponere curat, 
 Non barbam, secreta petit loca, balnea vitat." 
 But the general verdict of society has been that appealed to by the 
 Apostle. " This instinctive consciousness of propriety on this point had 
 been established by custom, and had become (pmLs (nature)." — Meyer. 
 
 15. it is a glory to her'] The true glory of every creature of God is 
 to fulfil the law of its being. Whatever helps woman to discharge the 
 duties of modesty and submissiveness assigned to her by God is a glory 
 to her. 
 
 for her hair is given her for a covering] A mantle, or cloak. Literally, 
 something flung aronnd the body. It is worthy of remark that the 
 Vestal Virgins at Rome wore their hair short, or confined by a fillet. 
 They may, however, have been regarded as protected by their sacred 
 character. 
 
 16. But if any man seem to be contentions] Some commentators refer 
 these words to what follows ; but it would seem best to apply them to 
 
 ' what has gone before. The Apostle would deprecate further argument, 
 and appeal to the custom of the Churches as decisive on a point of this 
 kind. See note on ch. xiv. 33. 
 
 we have no such custom, neither the chirches of God] The word 
 custom has been interpreted (i) as referring to contention, "it is not 
 our custom to be contentious," or (2) to the practice of permitting 
 women to appear unveiled at the services of the Church. The latter 
 yields the best sense. This appeal to the Churches must not be under- 
 stood to imply that all Churches ought in all respects to have the same 
 ritual. But in a matter such as this, involving the position of women in 
 Christian society, it were far wiser for the Corinthian Church to follow 
 the universal practice of Christendom. 
 
I. CORINTHIANS, XI. 
 
 you come together not for the better, but for the worse. For is 
 first of all, when ye come together in the church, I hear that 
 there be divisions among you ; and I partly believe //. For iq 
 there must be also heresies among you, that they which are 
 approved may be made manifest among you. When ye come 20 
 
 17—34. Disorders at the Lord's Supper. 
 
 17. Ncnu in this that I declare unto you I praise you not] St Paul was 
 able to praise the Corinthians {v. 2) for their attention to the injunctions 
 he had given them. He could not praise them for their irregularities in 
 a matter on which their Christian instincts ought to have enlightened 
 them. The disorders at the administration of the Eucharist were such 
 as ought not to have needed correction. 
 
 that you come together not for the better, but for the 7oorse\ Literally, 
 unto the better and unto the worse, i.e. they were the worse, not the 
 better, for meeting together for worship. 
 
 18. For first of all] Either ( i ) we must take this to apply to this 
 and the next verse, and the second cause of blame to commence with v. 
 20, or (2) we must regard it as applying to the whole of this chapter, 
 and then the next cause of blame will be the abuse of spiritual gifts, 
 which is treated of in chapters xii. — xiv. The latter is the more probable, 
 for many of the commentators seem to have been misled by the technical 
 theological sense which was attached to the words schism and heresy'vsx later 
 ages, a sense which seems to have been unknown to the Apostle. The 
 divisions of which the Apostle speaks seem to have been social and 
 personal rather than theological or ecclesiastical. See note on z'. 21. 
 
 in the chtnrh] Not the building, for there were no churches in the 
 sense of buildings devoted to Christian worship then, but in the assembly. 
 
 divisions] Margin, schisms. Wiclif and Tyndale better, dissencion. 
 Dissidia, Calvin. Vulgate, scissuras. See note on ch. i. 10. 
 
 19. heresies] Sects, Tyndale. Rotten (i.e. factions), Luther. This 
 word is variously translated in our version. In the Acts (v. 17, xv. 5, 
 xxiv. 5, xxviii. 22) it is usually translated sect. But in Acts xxiv. 14 and 
 in Gal. v. 20 and 2 Pet. ii. i, it is rendered, as here, by the word 
 heresy. It signifies the deliberate choice of a doctrine or line of conduct, 
 as opposed to receiving it on authority. St Paul must be understood as 
 saying that not only will there be dissension and division among Chris- 
 tians, but that some of them will go their own way in spite of the 
 instructions both in doctrine and practice delivered to them by Christ's 
 Apostles. So St Chrysostom and many other Greek Fathers. Cf. Acts 
 XX. 29; I Tim. iv. i; 2 Tim. iii. i — 5; 2 Pet. ii. 1; Jude 18; also 
 ch. xiv. 38. 
 
 that they luhich are approved tnay be made manifest among you] The 
 Greek is not simply so that, but in order that, as though God had per- 
 mitted these evils to arise in order to test the faith and patience of 
 Christian men. Cf. St James i. 3 ; i Pet. i. 6, 7. 
 
 approved] Probati, Vulgate ; 56Ki/xoi, he who has been trie<l and has 
 
112 I. CORINTHIANS, XI. [vv. 21, 22. 
 
 together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the 
 
 21 Lord's supper. For in eating every one taketh before other 
 his own supper : and one is hungry, and another is drunken. 
 
 22 What? have ye not houses to eat and to drink inl or despise 
 
 stood the trial. It is the opposite of ddoKifwi, reprobate^ rejected ; 
 see ch. ix. 27. doKifiLov, a noun derived from this word, is translated 
 trial'm the passages cited in the last note. Cf. St James i. 12, where 
 the words when he is tried should rather be rendered having become 
 approved [doKifios), and 2 Cor. xiii. 7. 
 
 20. into one place] Literally, to (or at) the same place. See Acts i. 
 15, ii. I, iii. I, and ch. vii. 5 of this Epistle. It is the only phrase which 
 we find applied to the ptace of the Christian assembly. See note 
 on V. 18. 
 
 this is not to eat the Lord^s sicpper] Better, perhaps, it is not to eat 
 a supper of the Lord's institution. The absence of the article, the 
 apparent antithesis between a supper of Christ's and a supper of one's 
 own devising, and the presence of the article in Rev. i. 10 {the Lord's 
 Day), confirm this rendering. It is not merely that the conduct of the 
 Corinthian Christians was inconsistent with taking part in the Sacra- 
 ment of Christ's Body and Blood, but that it was in no sense a supper 
 of Christ's institution of which they partook. "The question arose," 
 says Dean Stanley, " whether the majesty, the tenderness, the awe of 
 the feast should be lost in a senseless orgy." 
 
 21. For in eating roery one taketh before other his own supper] 
 Rather, for in the eating, i. e. 7vhen ye eat. Every passage relating to the 
 Eucharist in the N. T. leads to the conclusion that it took place at the 
 end of a social meal, such as the Last Supper itself. See Acts ii. 42, 
 46, XX. 7, II. It was called the Agape, or feast of love, and was 
 like the ^pavos of the Greeks, to which, very frequently, each brought 
 his own portion. See Art. £rani in Smith's Dictionary of Antiquities. 
 The divisions among the Corinthian Christians {v. 18) were of the kind 
 which we are accustomed to denominate " sets " in a small society, — 
 cliques and coteries, which were the product, not so much of theological, 
 as of social antagonism. Thus the members of the Corinthian Church 
 were accustomed to share their provisions with members of their own 
 "set," to the exclusion of those who, having an inferior social position, 
 had few provisions, or none, to bring. Hence while one was only too 
 well provided with food, another had none. 
 
 and another is drunke?i\ We have no right, with som.e commentators, 
 to soften down the force of this word, as though no such abominations 
 were possible at Corinth. The permeation of the Christian community 
 by the Spirit of Christ (see note on ch. v. i) was a more gradual process 
 than is generally supposed. 
 
 22. have ye not houses to eat and to drink in?] \. e. If all you came 
 together for were to satisfy your own hunger, you might just as well eat 
 ami drink at home. But the Lord's Supper was instituted for a three- 
 fold purpose. It was (r) a practice intended to bind Christian people 
 together in mutual love (see Acts ii. 42—47, iv. 32—35), (2) it was 
 
vv. 23, 24.] I. CORINTHIANS, XI. 113 
 
 ye the church of God, and shame them that have not? 
 What shall I say to you ? shall I praise you in this ? I praise 
 you not. For I have received of the Lord that which also I =^3 
 delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in 
 which he was betrayed took bread : and when he had given ^4 
 thanks, he brake itj and said, Take, eat : this is my body, 
 
 designed as the solemn commemoration of the great Act of Love where- 
 by Jesus Christ offered Himself upon the Cross for the sins of men (see v. 
 26), and (3) it was the means whereby He fed His people with the 
 "spiritual food of His most blessed Body and Blood." See ch. x. 15, 16. 
 
 or despise ye the church of God] Not the material building (see above, 
 V, 18), but the Church gathered together in it, called out of the world, or 
 called together (the Greek favours the first, the analogy of the Hebrew 
 the latter explanation) to be the habitation of God through the Spirit. To 
 introduce into this the petty jealousies and antipathies of human society 
 was to despise the great and glorious Body, in which God was j)leased 
 to dwell. 
 
 and shame them that have not] Not "those who have no houses," 
 '■'■ han jwone,''^ Wiclif, but as the margin, them that are poor; qui sont 
 pauvresy De Sacy. The word in the original is rather stronger than 
 shame ; it is equivalent to disgrace. 
 
 23. For I Iiave received of the Lord] Literally, For I received of 
 the Lord. Reason why St Paul could not praise the Corinthians. Their 
 conduct was a gross profanation of a rite which had been so solemnly 
 instituted by Christ. These words, especially if we notice the emphatic 
 use of the pronoun, seem to imply that St Paul had received from the 
 Risen Lord's own lips (see ch. ix. i and note) the account of the institu- 
 tion of the Holy Communion which he now gives the Corinthians. He 
 does not say ' from the disciples of the Lord, ' but ' from the Lord ' 
 ("An authentic explanation given by the Risen Christ concerning His 
 Sacrament," — Olshausen). And it is remarkable that while it differs in 
 some respects from that given by St Matthew and St Mark, this account 
 by St Paul corresponds closely to that found in his friend and disciple 
 St Luke's narrative. This circumstance is a strong corroboration of the 
 evidence for the authenticity of both Gospel and Acts, for it confirms the 
 evidence we have that both were written by one closely connected with 
 St Paul. Some have thought that we have here the earliest account of the 
 institution of the Lord's Supper ; but the Gospel of St Matthew was 
 possibly in existence by this time, and if we are to regard 2 Cor. viii. 
 18 (see Collect for St Luke's Day) as referring to the Gospel of St Luke, 
 that, too, must have been in existence before or about the time when this 
 Epistle was written. 
 
 24. and when he had given thanks] St Mark has 'blessed,' St 
 Matthew, according to some copies, 'blessed,' to others, 'gave 
 thanks.' St Luke agrees with St Paul. From the Greek word used here 
 this sacrament derives its name of Eucharist^ or thanksgiving. 
 
 and said] Inasmuch as the words of institution have been the 
 
 I. COR. 8 
 
114 I. CORINTHIANS, XI. [v. 25. 
 
 which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. 
 
 25 After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had 
 
 supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood : 
 
 occasion of one of the longest and bitterest controversies that have ever 
 divided the Church of Christ, it is well to inquire very closely tvhat He 
 said. And first, there are varieties in the reading here, occasioned by 
 the practice, so common among the early transcribers of the N. T., of 
 endeavouring to assimilate the various historical passages to one another. 
 Thus the majority of MSS. omit 'Take, eat,' here, and it is probably 
 introduced from St Matthew xxvi. 26. Then some MSS. omit the word 
 broken, but the majority of MSS. retain it, and its omission renders the 
 sentence rather harsh. Thus, then, the words of institution, as recorded 
 by St Paul, are as follows: 'This is My body, which is [being broken] 
 for you; this do in remembrance of Me,' i.e. to sei've as a memorial of Me ^ 
 or to preserve My memory. Let us next take St Luke's account of it, 
 derived either from St Paul or from the same source as his. ' This 
 is My body, which is given for you; this do in remembrance of Me.' 
 St Matthew and St Mark simply give the words, 'Take, eat: this is 
 My body.' 
 
 in remembrance of me\ The word here translated remembrance signi- 
 fies (i) the act of recollection, and (2) that which enables us to recollect, 
 reminds us of a thing. In the Septuagint it is used in the heading of 
 the 38th and 70th Psalms as a translation of 'to bring to remembrance.' 
 In Num. X. 10 the Septuagint uses it (3) to translate a Hebrew word 
 signifying memorial, i.e. some visible and tangible object which exists in 
 order to bring to mind a past event. Cf. Heb. x. 3. 
 
 25. After the saj)ie manner also he took the cup, ivhen he had stepped] 
 The words in the original, though translated differently, are precisely the 
 same as those of St Luke, and seem to imply (see also St Luke xxii. 17) 
 that while the bread was administered at supper, the cup was ad- 
 ministered after it. 
 
 saying] The literal translation of the words is, This cup is the New 
 Covenant in My Blood; this do whensoever ye drink it, ht remetnbrance 
 of Me. St Luke gives us the words as follows : ' This Cup is the 
 New Covenant in My Blood, which is being poured forth for you ;' St 
 Matthew, 'Drink ye all of it, for this is My Blood which is of the 
 New Covenant, which is poured forth for many unto the remission of 
 sins;' St Mark, 'This is My Blood, which is of the [New] Covenant, 
 which is poured forth for many.' It is obvious that no one report of 
 these important words can be pressed to the exclusion of the rest. 
 
 new testament] This is unquestionably the original meaning of the 
 word thus translated in Classical Greek. It is derived from a word 
 signifying to put thoroughly in order, and is used of that complete 
 arrangement of his worldly affairs which a man is accustomed to make in 
 a will. See perhaps for this meaning Heb. ix. 16 (though the question 
 is much debated). In other places in the N. T. it is used, as in the 
 Septuagint, in place of the Hebrew Bejith, a covenant or agreeynent 
 between two parties, one of which sometimes is God. For an example 
 
vv. 26—28.] I. CORINTHIANS, XL 115 
 
 this do ye, as oft as ye drink //, in remembrance of me. For 26 
 as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew 
 the Lord's death till he come. Wherefore whosoever shall 27 
 eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily, 
 shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let 28 
 
 of this sense see Gal. iii. 15. Here it would appear to include both 
 senses, for (i) it was a covenant that Christ entered into with man, and 
 (2) it was His Death which gave it validity. 
 
 26. For as often as ye eat~\ These words are not those of Christ, but 
 of St Paul. St John iii. 31 — 36, and Gal. ii. 15 — 21 are somewhat 
 similar instances, but in them it is by no means certain that we have a 
 commentary by the writer on the speech he records, but quite possible 
 that the passage forms part of the speech itself. 
 
 ye do s/iew] Tell, Wiclif. Annuntiabitis, Calvin and the Vulgate. 
 Annoncerez, De Sacy. Some (e.g. the margin of the English Bible) take 
 this imperatively, but it is better as in the text. If Meyer be right in 
 supposing that the word here used is never employed except in the sense 
 oi oral proclamation (see ch. ii. i, ix. 14 of this Epistle; and Phil. i. 16, 
 18; Col. i. 28, as examples of its use by St Paul), we have here strong 
 grounds for affirming that the words of institution formed part of the 
 form of celebrating the Sacrament, even in Apostolic times. The word 
 occurs ten times in the Acts of the Apostles, always in the sense of pro- 
 claim. 
 
 the Lord's death'\ Since this Sacrament was instituted as a memorial 
 of Christ's Death upon the Cross.- 
 
 //// he come] As long as the Christian Church shall last, this Sacra- 
 ment will continue to be celebrated for the object for which it was insti- 
 tuted. However widely divided on other points. Christians have agreed 
 in carrying out this prediction for more than 1800 years. 
 
 27. and drink this cup] Literally, or drink the cup. Many 
 Protestant translators have evaded the force of the or, from a fear lest 
 they should thereby be countenancing the denial of the Cup to the laity. 
 See Alford, Stanley, Meyer, De Wette, who, while rejecting a rendering 
 clearly incorrect, point out that the fear which prompted it was quite 
 needless. Calvin renders boldly by aut; Wiclif and Tyndale by or. See 
 also note on v. 25. 
 
 unworthilyf] "Not merely," says Estius, "with a mind distracted by 
 worldly thoughts, though that is not to be commended, but in an 
 irreverent spirit," in a frame of mind unsuitable to so solemn an act; 
 without faith in, or a thankful remembrance of, the great mystery therein 
 commemorated; and, above all, in a spirit which regarded what is 
 essentially the Supper of the Lord as a supper of one's own, and therefore 
 as one at which it was lawful to be selfish, or intemperate, or both. 
 
 shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord] Either (i) shall be 
 punishable for 'crucifying the Son of God afresh, and putting Him 
 to an open shame' (Heb. vi. 6), "as though thou thyself didst shed the 
 blood," Theophylact; or (2) for committing an offence against the Body 
 and Blood of Christ, since ' ' the participation presupposes a moral condi* 
 
 8—2 
 
ii6 L CORINTHIANS, XI. [vv. 29, 30. 
 
 a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and 
 
 29 drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh un- 
 worthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not dis- 
 
 30 cerning the Lord's body. For this cause many are weak and 
 
 tion which must be in keeping with this most sacred commemoration ; but 
 if the condition of the communicant be of an opposite kind, then the holy 
 Body and Blood, into communion with which we enter through such 
 participation, can only be abused and profaned." — Meyer. The word 
 here translated giiilty {reus, Vulgate) signifies the condition in which a 
 man becomes amenable to punishment. Cf. St Matthew v. 21, 22, where 
 the word is translated m danger of the judgment, council, hell-fire (see 
 also St Mark iii. 29), and xxvi. ()(i, guilty of death, i.e. of a capital 
 crime. St James ii. 10, guilty of all, i.e. liable to the same penalty as 
 though he had broken all. 
 
 28. examine himself] Preve, Wiclif. Probet, Vulgate. That is, 
 test himself, ascertain his own condition (Gal. vi. 4). The same word 
 is used of the weather, and of God's times and seasons (St Luke 
 xii. 56); of beasts of burden (St Luke xiv. 19); of moral questions 
 (Rom. ii. 18); of the Will of God (Rom. xii. 2); of the action of fire 
 (i Cor. iii. 13). Sometimes it refers to the results of the process, think 
 fit, approve, as in Rom. i. 28, xiv. 22 ; i Cor. xvi. 3. Here it means 
 that the communicant is to institute a scrutiny into his o\\ti heart and 
 motives (cf. 2 Cor. xiii. 5), with a view of ascertaining whether his 
 "moral condition" (see note on last verse) be really "in keeping" with 
 the sacred feast to which he is bidden. See the answer to the question 
 "What is required of them who come to the Lord's Supper?" in the 
 Church Catechism. Also cf. Jude 12. 
 
 29. damnation] Rather judgment, as in the margin. Wiclif, do7ne 
 (as in ch. vi. 4). \jx\h.tx, gericht. Wwlgnte, judicium. "The mistrans- 
 lation in our version has," says Dean Alford, "done infinite mischief." 
 Olshausen reminds us how in Germany a translation (see above) less 
 strong than this, yet interpreted to mean the same thing, drove Goethe 
 from "Church and altar." Of what kind the Judgment is the next verse 
 explains. That it is not final condemnation that is threatened, v. 32 
 clearly shews (Alford, De Wette). Some MSS. and editors omit "un- 
 worthily" here. It may have been introduced from v. 1']. If it .be 
 omitted, the sense is that he who eats and drinks without discerning 
 (see next note) the Body of Christ, invites judgment on himself. If it 
 be retained, we are to understand that he who partakes unworthily, 
 invites God's judgment on him because he does not discern the Lord's 
 Body. The latter is the reading of the ancient versions. 
 
 discerni7ig\ Dijudicans, Vulgate. Discernens, Calvin. Dass er nicht 
 unterscheidet, Luther. Wiseli demynge, Wiclif. Because he maketh no 
 difference of, Tyndale (after Lifther). The word discern properly signifies 
 to perceive distinctiojts, to distinguish. Thus Shakspeare, 
 
 "No discerjier durst wag his tongue in censure," 
 
 Henry VIII. Act I. Sc i, 
 i.e. no one who might have been inclined to exalt one king at the ex- 
 
vv. 31—34.] I. CORINTHIANS, XI. 117 
 
 sickly among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge our- s^ 
 selves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, 32 
 we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be con- 
 demned with the world. Wherefore, my brethren, when ye 33 
 come together to eat, tarry one for another. And if any 34 
 man hunger, let him eat at home ; that ye come not together 
 
 pense of the other. So the word discreet originally meant one who had 
 the power of rightly distinguishing. The Greek word sometimes means 
 to distinguish, or even to cause to differ' (ch. iv. 7)." In the passive, in 
 which it most frequently occurs in the N. T., it signifies to be made to 
 differ, to doubt. Here, however, the word is used in its primary signifi- 
 cation (cf. St Matthew xvi. 3, where the same word is used with the 
 same translation), and means to decide after a thorough inquiry [search 
 out, Chrj'sostom) to pierce through the impediments opposed by sense, 
 and thus to come to a right conclusion of what is actually offered to faith 
 in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, rather than with some, to 
 discriminate bettoeen the Body of the Lord and other kinds of food. 
 the LoixTs body] Some MSS. and editors read the body. 
 
 30. For this cause many are weak and sickly aviong you] If the body 
 be the temple of the Lord (ch. vi. 19), we can well understand how a 
 crime against His Body and Blood {v. 27) would deprive the body of 
 any Christian who committed it of His presence, and predispose it to 
 sickness and even death. This is the judgment of which the Apostle 
 speaks in v. ig. Cf. also St John v. 14. 
 
 a7td many sleep] Literally, a considerable number, even more than 
 the number of those who are weak and sickly. For sleep, see ch. vii. 39. 
 
 31. For if we zuoidd judge ourselves] Perhaps better, with Dean Stanley, 
 if "we had judged ourselves, these judgments (i.e. weakness, sickness, death) 
 ■would not have fallen upon us (though the rendering in the text is 
 grammatically accurate). Such consequences are surely serious enough 
 to make any one hesitate to trifle with so solemn an ordinance. The 
 word here translated ^W^^ is the same as that rendered discern in verse 
 29. Here it means to pass a thorotcgh and therefore an accurate judg- 
 ment. Tyndale renders rightly judged. Kichteten, Luther. Wiclif and 
 the Vulgate as before. 
 
 32. chastened] Cf. Ps. xciv. 12; Prov. iii. 11, 12; Heb. xii. 5 — ri. 
 that we should not be condemned with the world] A clear proof that 
 
 damnation is an incorrect translation in v. 29. 'The world' here is 
 not the Divine order of things as established by God's ordinance, as in 
 ch. iii. 22 ; St John i. 10, but as thrown into disorder by man's sin. See 
 St John xiv. 17, XV. 18; i John ii. 15, 16, &c. 
 
 33. Wherefore, my brethren] The conclusion of the whole subject. 
 Every one is to wait till a fair and orderly distribution of the food has 
 been made ; and each is to remember that this is not an ordinary meal 
 for the purpose of satisfying hunger, but the solemn commemoration of 
 the Lord's Death. A meal for the purpose of satisfying hunger had 
 Ijest be taken at home, to avoid the profanation which the Apostle has 
 condemned. 
 
ii8 I. CORINTHIANS, XII. [v. i. 
 
 unto condemnation. And the rest will I set in order when 
 I come. 
 
 Ch. XII. I — II. Spiritual Gifts ; their origin a?id character. 
 12 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have 
 
 34. that ye come not together unto condemnation'] Rather, as mar- 
 gin, judgment. The same word is used here as in v. 29. 
 
 Ajid the rest 7vill I set in order when I come] Great changes in the 
 order of administration of Holy Communion were rendered necessary 
 by the abuses which so soon sprang up in the Christian Church. 
 From an evening meal it became an early morning gathering (see 
 Pliny, £/>. x. 42, 43), who says that in his day (about a.d. 110) 
 the Christians were accustomed to meet " before it was light." (Cf. 
 *' antelucanis coetibus" TertuUian, de CoronA 3.) And the Agapae 
 were first separated from the Lord's Supper and then finally abolished 
 altogether. See Neander, Hist, of the Church, vol. i. § 3, who 
 remarks that in the earliest account we have of the mode in which 
 Holy Communion was celebrated (in the Apology of Justin Martyr, 
 written about a.d, 150) there is no mention of the Agapae. Simi-. 
 larly Gieseler, Compendium of Eccl. Hist., sec. 53, note. "So the 
 form of the primitive practice was altered, in order to save the spirit of 
 the original institution." — Stanley. 
 
 Ch. XII. 1 — 11. Spiritual Gifts ; their origin and character. 
 
 ' ' We have often to remind ourselves that this Epistle was addressed 
 to a Church in a state of faction. One cause of rivalry was the merits 
 of their respective teachers; another was the endowments of various 
 kinds given to the members of the Church." — Robertson. This and 
 the next two chapters are concerned with the great outpouring of spiri- 
 tual energy which followed the preaching of the Gospel. St Paul deals 
 with it in his usual manner. He characteristically lays down broad 
 principles in this and the next chapter before he proceeds to the details 
 of ch. xiv. He is specially solicitous to do so here because of the 
 danger, so often since experienced in the Church (see ch. xiv. 32), of the 
 belief that a condition of great spiritual exaltation absolved men from 
 the necessity of consulting their reason. The Apostle teaches that 
 spiritual gifts are no less to be restrained in their exercise by consider- 
 ations of decency, of order, of what is due to others, than gifts of a 
 more ordinary kind. Therefore he takes occasion to shew {vv. i — 11) 
 that all gifts proceed from one source, and that miraculous powers are 
 no more gifts of the Spirit than some others not supposed to be miracu- 
 lous, and then {vv. 12 — 30) that neither he who possesses them has any 
 ri"-ht to despise him who does not, nor he who does not possess them to 
 envy him who does, since 'each has his own proper gift of God.' He 
 goes on further (ch. xiii.) to point out the 'more excellent way' of 
 love, and finally, in ch. xiv., proceeds to lay down the regulations neces- 
 sary for the preservation of order in the Christian assemblies. 
 
 1. concerning spiritiial gifts] Rather (i) spiritual persons, or better 
 (2) spiritual matters, agencies. The word gifts is not in the original. 
 
vv. 2-5.] I. CORINTHIANS, XII. 119 
 
 you ignorant. Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away 2 
 unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led. Wherefore I give 3 
 you to understand, that no via7i speaking by the Spirit of 
 God calleth Jesus accursed : and that no man can say that 
 Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. Now there are 4 
 diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are 5 
 
 I would not have yotcignorant] See note on ch. x. i. 
 
 2. that ye were Gentiles\ Most modern editors read 'that when ye 
 were Gentiles' here. The similarity of 6're and dVi, and the fact that 
 the introduction of the former produces an unfinished construction, may 
 have led to its omission. But if omitted we should be driven to the 
 conclusion that the Corinthian Church was an exclusively Gentile com- 
 munity, which would contradict Acts xviii. 8, 13, and possibly ch. viil. 
 and x. I — II (where see notes). 
 
 unto these du?nb idols] Literally, 'unto the dumb idols.' The word 
 dumb (see note on next verse) draws attention to the contrast between 
 the voiceless idol and the delusive utterances of its pretended priests or 
 priestesses, as at Delphi, Dodona and elsewhere. Cf. for the expression 
 Hab. ii. 18, 19. Also Ps. cxv. 5; Wisd. xiii. 17 — 19; Baruch vi. 8, 
 
 3. Wherefore] The connection of thought is as follows. When you 
 were heathen you were carried hither and thither by the pretended 
 utterances of your gods, and believed whatever they might tell you. 
 But now you must no longer be the sport of circumstances. There are 
 certain fundamental principles by which you may try the utterances of 
 those who would teach you. Cf. an extremely similar passage in 
 I John iv. I — 3. This caution was very necessary in the infant Church. 
 In spite of the warnings of St Paul and St John, many were entrapped 
 by the blasphemous ravings of men like Simon Magus, Menander and 
 the Ophites (or Naassenes, worshippers of the serpent), as we learn from 
 the writings of Irenaeus and Hippolytus. Cf. i John ii. 19. 
 
 by the Spirit of God] Literally, in the Spirit; i. e. inspired by Him. 
 
 accursed] Margin (and Greek), anathetjia. See note on ch. xvi. 22. 
 
 that yesus is the Lord] Perhaps, Jesus is Lord. 
 
 btct by the Holy Ghost] Literally, in the Holy Ghost (or Spirit), see 
 above. Not a single true word can be spoken but by the agency of the 
 Spirit of God. As far as the confession that Jesus is Lord goes, he who 
 makes it is under the influence of the Holy Ghost. It is remarkable 
 that St Paul has in mind in this passage those who deny the Divinity of 
 Christ ; St John, in the similar passage just quoted, the sects, which 
 arose afterwards, who denied His Htananity. 
 
 4. gifts] xapto-Atara, ch. vii. 7, special powers vouchsafed by God, in 
 addition to the ordinary 'fruit of the Spirit,' Gal. v. 22, which last was 
 within the reach of every Christian who would use ordinary diligence. Cf. 
 Rom. xii. 6 — 8, i Pet. iv. 10, 11, where the same word is used as here. 
 
 but the same Spirit] The unity of the source is strongly insisted upon, 
 to put an end to the mutual jealousy of the Corinthians. And it is 
 remarkable that each person in the Blessed Trinity is introduced to em- 
 phasize the argument, and in contrary order (as Estius remarks), .in order 
 
120 I. CORINTHIANS, XII. [w. 6— 9. 
 
 6 differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And 
 there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God 
 
 7 which worketh all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit 
 
 8 is given to every man to profit withal. For to one is given 
 
 9 by the Spirit tlie word of wisdom ; to another the word of 
 knowledge by the same Spirit; to another faith by the same 
 
 to lead us step by step to the One Source of all. First the Spirit, Who 
 bestows the 'gifts' on the believer. Next the Lord, to Whom men 
 render service in His Church. Lastly God the Father, from Whom all 
 proceeds, Whose are all the works which are done to Him and in His 
 Name. Cf. ch. iii. 7, 9, 23, viii. 6. 
 
 5. diffe7-ences\ The Greek word is the same in w. 4, 5, 6. It is 
 used in the Septuagint (i Chron. xxvi. i; 2 Chron. viii. 14; Ezra vi. 18) 
 of the divisions or courses of the Priests and Levites. 
 
 administrations\ Rather, as margin, ministeries, i. e. services ren- 
 dered to Christ and His members by His disciples. Wiclif s rendering 
 is, and dyiierse set'uyces ther ben, but it is al 00 Lord. 
 
 6. operations^ evefj'yrjfiaTa. Worckyngis, Wiclif. Calvin renders 
 factdfas, but explains this to mean effectus. The Apostle here is speak- 
 ing of active power [iuepyeLa), not latent as in i. 18 (where see note). 
 The influences to which he now refers are actually at work, and pro- 
 ducing results, in obedience to an impulse received from Him. Cf. 
 Rom. vii. 5 and St Matt. xiv. 2. 
 
 atl in air\ i. e. "every one of them in every person on whom they 
 are bestowed." So ch. xv. 28; Eph, i. 23; Col. iii. 11. 
 
 7. to profit zuithal] God's object is ever the well-being of man. If 
 man is to become one spirit with God (ch. vi. 17), his object must be the 
 same. See notes on ch. vi. 12, viii. i, 9 — 13, x. 23. 
 
 8. the tvoj'd of wisdoni] Rather, discourse Of wisdom, i, e. discourse 
 characterized by and disseminating wisdom. See note on ch. ii. 7. 
 I have ventured to regard wisdom as the direct effect of intuition, 
 kjiowledge as the result of a process. See ch. viii. i. This was the 
 view taken by St Paul's contemporary Philo, and by the Gnostics who 
 immediately succeeded him. Wisdom, according to Philo, was the 
 highest of the Divine attributes, and human wisdom a reflection 
 of the Divine. Wisdom, according to the Gnostics, was an ^on or 
 emanation from Divinity; Gnosis or knowledge the process whereby 
 man attained to the comprehension of things Divine. Clement of Alex- 
 andria, however, reverses the definition. Knowledge, according to him, 
 comes directly from God, wisdom is the result of teaching. Stromata 
 VII. 10. St Chrysostom takes the view which has been taken above. 
 
 the ivof'd of knoiuledge'\ See last note. See also ch. xiii, 2, where 
 knowledge is distinguished from the perception of mysteries. For other 
 interpretations consult Alford's note. 
 
 9. faith'] Not the rudimentary principle which was the essential con- 
 dition of all Christian life, but that higher realization of things Divine 
 which enables a man to remove mountains (St Matt. xvii. 20; ch. xiii. 2). 
 
vv. lo— 12.] I. CORINTHIANS, XII. 121 
 
 Spirit ; to another the gifts of heaUng by the same Spirit ; to 10 
 another the working of miracles ; to another prophecy ; to 
 another discerning of spirits; to another diveis kinds of 
 tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: but all n 
 these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to 
 every man severally as he will. 
 
 12 — 31. Compar'ison of the Unity of the Body and the Unity 
 of the Christian Church. 
 
 For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all 12 
 
 the gifts of healing] As in St Mark xvi. 18; Acts iii. 7, 8, v. 15, 16, 
 ix. 34, xix. II, 12; St James V. 14, 15. 
 
 10. the luorking of miracles] Literally, results produced by the 
 active exercise of powers, as in Acts v. i — 11, ix. 40, xiii. 11, xvi. 18. 
 
 prophecy] See note on ch. xiv. i. 
 
 discerning of spii'its] Wiclif, knowynge. Tyndale, judgement. This 
 word is derived from the verb translated discern in ch. xi. 29, where 
 see note. Here it signifies the faculty of forming a correct judg- 
 ment on the utterances of spirits. Cf. i John iv. i. The word only 
 occurs here and in Rom. xiv. i and Heb. v. 14. In the former place, it 
 is rendered by an adjective, 'doubtful'; literally, discerning of dispu- 
 tations ; in the latter by a verb. 
 
 divers kinds of tongues] These were either ( i ) outpourings of prayer 
 and praise in a language unknowji to the speaker or (2) (as Dean Alford 
 in loc.) in a language not ordinarily intelligible to any man. The gift 
 of tongues may possibly have included both (see notgs on ch. xiv.). But 
 it is impossible — with Acts ii. 9 — 11 before us, and bearing in mind the 
 fact adduced by Bishop Wordsworth in his commentary on that passage, 
 that we never hear of any one of the Apostles sitting down to learn a 
 foreign language, whereas with all other missionaries this is generally 
 the first thing of which we are told — to exclude the idea oi foj-eign lan- 
 guages here. " Qui multis gentibus annunciaturus erat, multarum 
 linguarum acceperat gratiam." — Jerome. 
 
 to a7iother the interpretation of tongues] See ch. xiv. 5, 13, 26, 27. 
 
 11. bzit all these loorketh that one and the selfsame Spirit] This 
 consideration absolutely excludes all boasting, all possibility of setting 
 up one gift as essentially superior to another. It is worthy of remark 
 that what is predicated of God in v. 6, is here predicated of His Spirit. 
 The word translated worketh is the same in both places. " The Spirit 
 worketh, not is worked. He worketh as He will, not as He is bidden." 
 — St Chrysostom. 
 
 dividing to every man severally as he ivilf] Cf. Heb. ii. 4. 
 
 12 — 31. Comparison of the Unjty of the Body axd the 
 Unity of the Christian Church. 
 
 12. For as the body is one, and hath viany members] This simile is a 
 
122 T. CORINTHIANS, XII. [v. 13. 
 
 the members of that one body, being many, are one body : 
 
 13 so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into 
 
 one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether 7ve be 
 
 bond or free ; and have been all made to drink into one 
 
 very common one. It is used on several occasions by the Apostle. See 
 Rom. xii. 4, 5; Eph, iv. 16, v. 30; Col. ii. 19. It was even familiar 
 to Gentile minds from the well-known apologue of Menenius Agrippa 
 in Livy ii. 32. Cf. Shakespeare, Coriolanus, Act I. Sc. i. For other 
 examples see Alford in loc. The point here is somewhat different. 
 The unity of the body in the fable above-mentioned centres in the idea 
 of the body politic. In the Christian scheme the unity is found in 
 Christ, of Whose life all His members partake. 
 
 so also is Christ\ The Apostle, like Christ Himself in the parable of 
 the Vine in St John xv. (as also in ch. xvii.), identifies His members 
 with Himself The life they live (Gal. ii. 20) is no longer theirs but 
 His. They have put on the new man (2 Cor. v. 17; Eph. iv. 24; Col. 
 iii. 10), the second Adam (ch. xv, 45, 47) Who was created afresh in 
 the Image of God. And the result is the identification of themselves 
 with Him. So that they are His Body (Eph. i. 23), as filled with Him, 
 Who filleth all things. 
 
 13. For by one Spirit\ Literally, in one Spirit, i.e. in virtue of His 
 operation. 
 
 are we all baptized] Literally, were we all baptized. All is the work 
 of the Holy Spirit — the first arresting of the thoughts and awakening the 
 dormant instincts of the spirit of man, the gradual process whereby con- 
 viction is produced and strengthened, until at last the inquirer formally 
 enrolls himself as a member of the Church of Christ, 'which is His 
 Body,' Eph. i. 23, and becomes entitled to all the privileges which 
 belong to the members of that body. Cf. St John iii. 3 — 5, and notes on 
 ch. i. 5. 
 
 into one body\ "Does baptism teach of a difference between Chris- 
 tians? Does it not rather teach that all the baptized are baptized into 
 one body?" — Robertson. 
 
 whether we be Jews or Gentiles'] Literally, as margin, Greeks. Cf. 
 Gal. iii. 28; Eph. ii. 12 — 17; Col. iii. 11. The Gospel of Christ was 
 intended to abolish all national animosities, and to unite all men in one 
 brotherhood, inspired by the Holy Spirit. 
 
 whether we be bond or free] See notes on ch. vii. 21, 22. 
 
 and have been all made to drink into one Spirit] The word into is 
 omitted in many MSS. Some would translate, as in ch. iii. 6, 7, 
 watered. Such is St Chrysostom's interpretation. The usual significa- 
 tion of the word is io give to di-ink, as in ch. iii. 2, and St Matthew 
 x. 42. But the aorist tense here, as well as the unusually large number 
 of various readings, seems to lead to the conclusion that the reference is 
 to Baptism (St Chrysostom refers it to Confirmation), and not, as the 
 words would seem at first sight to imply, to the Holy Communion. If 
 this be the case, they refer to the altered condition of him who has 
 
w. 14—20.] I. CORINTHIANS, XII. 123 
 
 Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many. If the J5 
 foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the 
 body; is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall 16 
 say. Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body ; is it 
 therefore not of the body? If the whole body ivere an eye, 17 
 where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where 
 were the sm.elling? But now hath God set the members 18 
 every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him. And 19 
 if they were all one member, where were the body ? But 20 
 
 entered into fellowship with Christ. Henceforward the Holy Spirit 
 becomes an abiding possession with him, guaranteed by the Christian 
 covenant (see St John iii.3 — 5, as above, and iv. 14, vii. 38, 39, xiv. 16, 1 7, 
 XV. ■26, xvi. 7, and cf. St Matthew iii. 11) so long as he himself is willing 
 to be bound by the terms of that covenant. This change of relation to 
 God, involving as it does a change of habits, dispositions, tempers, 
 nature, in fact, is called in Scripture the neiv birth. 
 
 14. For the body is not o?ie member, but many\ The same leading 
 idea is kept in view — the diversity of functions, offices, gifts, but the 
 unity of the body. No more complete or apposite illustration could be 
 given. The body is one thing, animated by ojie soitl, belonging to one 
 being, yet with an infinity of various parts, each contributing by their 
 action to the fulfilment of 07ie and the same purpose, the life and usefulness 
 of the man. 
 
 17. If the Tvhole body were an eye, where were the hearing?'] "Observe 
 here the difference between the Christian doctrine of unity and equality, 
 and the world's idea of levelUng all to one standard. The intention of 
 God with respect to the body is not that the rude hand should have the 
 delicacy of the eye, or the foot have the power of the brain." — Robertson. 
 "To desire such an equahty as this," says Calvin, "would produce a 
 confusion which would bring about immediate ruin." The duty of each 
 is to do his work in the place in which God has set him, with a proper 
 consideration for the rights and the needs of his brother Christians who 
 occupy other positions in the world. "If each man," continues 
 Robertson, "had the spirit of self-surrender, the spirit of the Cross, it 
 would not matter to himself whether he were doing the work of the 
 main-spring or of one of the inferior parts." 
 
 18. But now hath God set] Literally, But now (that is, as the case 
 stands) God placed, i.e. at creation. 
 
 as it hath pleased him] Literally, as He willed. See last note. St 
 Paul would have us draw the inference that our own peculiar disposition 
 and talents are appointed us by God, that we may perform the special 
 work in the world for which we were designed. We are not therefore 
 to repine because we do not possess the qualifications which we see pos- 
 sessed by others, but to endeavour to make the best possible use of the 
 gifts we have. 
 
 19. if they were all one member^ where were the body?] The Christian 
 
124 I. CORINTHIANS, XII. [vv. 21—25. 
 
 21 now are they many members, yet bid one body. And the eye 
 cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee : nor again 
 
 22 the head to the feet, I have no need of you. Nay, much more 
 those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, 
 
 23 are necessary : and those members of the body, which we 
 think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more 
 abundant honour ; and our uncomely /^r/j- have more abun- 
 
 24 dant comeliness. For our comely pai'ts have no need: but 
 God hath tempered the body together, having given more 
 
 25 abundant honour to that part which lacked : that there 
 should be no schism in the body; but that the members 
 
 Church, as St Paul continually teaches, was a body ; that is, an organism 
 which contained a vast number and variety of parts, each one with 
 its own special function. But if all had the same purpose and work, 
 the body would cease to exist. 
 
 22. Nay, much moi'e those members of the body, which seem to be more 
 feeble, are necessary'] The more feeble parts of the body, those, that is, 
 
 which are most delicate, least able to take care of themselves, are by no 
 means the least valuable. The eye or the brain, for instance, are more 
 necessary to the well-being of the body, than other stronger and ruder 
 organs. 
 
 23. and those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable, 
 upon these we bestow (literally, these we surround witb) more abundant 
 hono2ir'\ i.e. by our admission that they are necessary to us. "The 
 meanest trades are those with which we can least dispense. A nation 
 may exist without an astronomer or philosopher, but the day-labourer is 
 essential to the existence of man." — Robertson. 
 
 and 07ir uncomely parts have more abimdant comeliness'], Those parts 
 which we are accustomed, from their 'uncomeliness' (rather, perhaps, 
 unseemliness, since the word here used conveys an idea of shame), to 
 conceal by clothing, do nevertheless perform nearly all the most im- 
 portant and necessary functions of the body. 
 
 24. tempered] So Wiclif. Disposed, Tyndale. Temperavit, Vulgate. 
 Literally, mingled together. 
 
 25. schism] i.e. discordance of aims and interests. See notes on i. 10, 
 xi. 18. God had specially provided against this by giving to those who 
 occupy the less honourable and ornamental positions in society the com- 
 pensation of being the most indispensable portions of it. The 'comely 
 parts' — the wealthy, the refined, the cultivated, the intellectual — obtain 
 honour and respect by the very nature of their gifts. God has signified 
 His Will that due honour and respect should be paid to those to whom 
 it is not instinctively felt to be owing, by so ordering society that we 
 cannot do without them. But our class distinctions and jealousies, our 
 conflicts between capital and labour, shew how little Christians have 
 realized this obvious truth. 
 
w. 26—28.] I. CORINTHIANS, XII. 125 
 
 should have the same care one for another. And whether a-s 
 one member suffer, all the members suffer with it ; or one 
 member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it. Now 27 
 ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular. 
 
 And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, 28 
 
 but that the members should have the same care one for another\ All 
 wars, insurrections, confli<:ts between class and class, arise from forget- 
 fulness of the fact that the interests of all mankind are identical. Nor 
 can this forgetfulness be charged upon one nation or one class of society. 
 "The spirit and the law of the Life of Christ is to be that of every 
 member of the Church, and the law of the Life of Christ is that of 
 sympathy. How little, during the eighteen hundred years, have the 
 hearts of men been got to beat together ! Nor can we say that this is the 
 fault of the capitalists and the masters only. It is the fault of the 
 servants and dependents also." — Robertson. 
 
 26. Aitd ivhether otie member suffer, all the members suffer with ii\ 
 This is a matter of the most ordinary experience in the human body. A 
 pain in any portion, even the most remote from the seats of life, affects 
 the whole. A glance at history will shew us that it is the same with the 
 body politic. Whatever is physically, morally, or spiritually injurious to 
 any one portion of society, or of the Church of Christ, is sure in the long 
 run to produce injury, moral and spiritual deterioration to the rest. 
 
 or one member be honoured, all the mejubers rejoice with it'\ St 
 Chrysostom eloquently remarks here, "Is the head crowned? All the 
 man is glorified. Do the lips speak? The eyes also laugh and rejoice." 
 This part of the verse is as true as the former. Whatever tends to exalt 
 the character and purify the aims of any one class in society, is sure in a 
 greater or less degree to affect every other. If the one thought is calcu- 
 lated to alarm us by calling our attention to the infinite mischief which 
 may be wrought by one act of thoughtlessness or selfishness, it is an 
 immense encouragement to be reminded by the other that no work for 
 good, undertaken from unselfish motives and carried out in an unselfish 
 spirit, can possibly be without effect. 
 
 27. Nozo ye are the body of Christ, and me?nbers in partictdar'\ We 
 here return to the proposition oivv. la, 13, rendered more definite and 
 intelligible by what has since been said. The Apostle now says (i) that 
 collectively, Christians are the body of Christ, individually they are His 
 members; (2) that of these members each has its several office {v. 28); 
 and (3) that none of these offices is common to the whole Christian body, 
 but each belongs only to those to whom it has been assigned i^v. 29, ■ 
 30)- 
 
 28. God hath sefl Literally, placed, i.e. when He founded the 
 Church. See verse 18, of which this is the application. 
 
 first apostles'] The Apostles, the founders and rulers of the Church, 
 were first placed in their responsible office. St Matt. x. i ; St Mark 
 iii. 13, 14; vi. 7; St Luke ix. i. The call of other disciples to a less 
 responsible post is recorded in St Luke x. i. Cf. also Eph. iv. 11. 
 
126 I. CORINTHIANS, XII. [v. 29. 
 
 secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, 
 
 then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of 
 
 29 tongues. Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teach- 
 
 secoitdarily prophets] Secondarily, i.e. in the second rank in the 
 Church. It may however be translated secondly. Prophets were those 
 who by special gifts of inspiration (see ch. xiv. 1, and note) enhghtened 
 the Church on the mysteries of the faith. 
 
 thirdly teachers] Those who with more ordinary gifts, by the exer- 
 cise of the reason and judgment, expounded the oracles of God. St 
 Chrysostom remarks that they taught wdth less authority than the pro- 
 phets, because what they said was more their own, and less directly from 
 God. 
 
 miracles] Literally, powers, or faculties {virttites, Vulgate). See 
 note on ch. i. 18. Here it no doubt includes miracles. See ch. iv. 19, 
 10, V. 4 and notes. 
 
 helps] Helpyngis, Wiclif ; helpers, Tyndale. The best commentators 
 are agreed in explaining this to mean the assistance of various kinds 
 which Christians are able to render to each other, such as succouring 
 the needy, tending the sick, teaching the ignorant, and the like. See 
 Acts XX. 35, where the verb from which this word is derived is rendered 
 support (i. e. ' the weak '). Stanley, however, would regard it as supply- 
 ing the omission of words which occur in the similar list in vv. 9,10, and 
 refer it to the help given to him who speaks with tongues by interpreta- 
 tion. See V. 30. 
 
 governments] Governailis, Wiclif ; governors, Tyndale ; gubei-^iationes, 
 Vulgate. This would naturally mean the powers which fit a man for the 
 higher positions in the Church. But Stanley (i) for the reason above 
 assigned, as well as (2) from its position and (3) from the fact that it is 
 employed in the Septuagint (Prov. i. 5, xi. 14, xx. 18, and xxiv. 6), as 
 the rendering of a Hebrew word signifying ivise foresight, would refer 
 it to the discerning of spirits. But the Hebrew word is derived from a 
 word signifying a rope, and the proper signification of the word, as of 
 the word here used, is the steersman's art, the art of guiding aright the 
 vessel of Church or State. 
 
 diversities of tongues] See note on z'. 10. *' Seest thou where he 
 hath set this gift, and how he everywhere assigns it the last rank ? " — 
 St Chrysostom. 
 
 29. Are all apostles?] The common priesthood of every Christian 
 (i Pet. ii. 5, 9) no more precludes the existence of special offices of 
 authority in the Christian Church than the common priesthood of the 
 Jewish people (Exod. xix. 6) precluded the existence of a special order 
 of men appointed to minister to God in holy things. The Apostle 
 appeals to it as a notorious fact that all were not apostles or prophets, 
 but only those who were called to those offices. Accordingly there is 
 scarcely any sect of Christians which has not set apart a body of men to 
 minister in holy things and to expound the word of God. " Were all 
 teachers," says Estius, "where were the learners?" The question here, 
 however, is rather oi gifts than of the offices to which those gifts lead. 
 
vv. 30, 3i; I.] I. CORINTHIANS, XII. XIII. 127 
 
 ers? are all workers of miracles? have all the gifts of 50 
 healing ? do all speak with tongues ? do all interpret ? But 31 
 covet earnestly the best gifts : 
 
 Ch. XII. 31 — Ch. XIII. 13. The Excellencies of Love. 
 
 • And yet shew I unto you a more excellent way. 
 
 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, 13 
 and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a 
 
 ^. But covet eantestlyl So Tyndale. Sue, Wiclif. Sectamini, Calvin. 
 Vexli^a^^ desire eagerly. Literally , be envious, or jealous of. Aefmdamhii, 
 Vulg. Cf. Acts vii. 9, xvii. 5, and ch. xiii. 4. It is translated zealously affect 
 in Gal. iv. 17, 18. It perhaps implies an indirect rebuke of the envy felt 
 by many Corinthians for those ivJio possessed the best gifts. It is as 
 though St Paul had said, "if you are envious at all, be envious ^^r the 
 gifts, not of those who have received them." 
 
 the best gifts'] Some copies read the greater gifts (see note on v. 4). 
 The best gifts were (see ch. xiv.) those which were most calculated to 
 promote the edification of the Church. But they were also precisely 
 those (see next chapter and Gal. v. 22), which so far from being 
 peculiar to the individual, were within the reach of all Christians alike. 
 
 Ch. XII. 31— Ch. XIII. 13. The Excellencies of Love. 
 
 and yet shew I unto yoic a 7nore excellent way] Literally, and further- 
 more I shew you an eminently excellent way, i. e. the way of love, 
 described in the words that follow. This was the secret which could 
 reconcile an ardent desire for the best gifts with contentment with what 
 one had ; which could harmonize the various powers of the individual 
 members of the Church for the general good. Calvin complains, and 
 not without cause, of the " inepta capitis sectio " here. The words at the 
 head of this note belong to what follows, rather than to what goes 
 before. 
 
 1. the tongues of men] i. e. the languages of mankind. See notes on 
 ch. xiv. 
 
 and of angels] The Rabbis (see Lightfoot in loc. ) speak of the 
 languages of angels. It is possible that St Paul may be referring to 
 this notion. But he himself also speaks (2 Cor. xii. 4) of hearing ' un- 
 speakable words which it is not lawful for a man to utter,' when he was 
 '.caught up to the third heaven.' 
 
 and have not charity] Tyndale (who is followed by Cranmer and 
 the Geneva Bible), love ; Vulgate, caritas. The force of this eloquent 
 panegyric on love is impaired, and the agreement between the various 
 writers of the New Testament much obscured, by the rendering 
 charity, instead of love. See note on ch. viii. i. The aim no doubt 
 of the Vulgate translators was to avoid the sensuous associations which 
 the Latin word amor suggested. But the English word charity has 
 never risen to the height of the Apostle's argument. At best it does 
 
128 I. CORINTHIANS, XIII. [vv. 2, 3. 
 
 2 tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, 
 and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge ; and though 
 I have all faith, so that / could remove mountains, and have 
 
 3 no charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my 
 goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be 
 burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing^ 
 
 but signify a kindly interest in and forbearance towards others. It is 
 far from suggesting the ardent, active, energetic principle which the 
 Apostle had in view. And though the English word love includes the 
 affection which springs up between persons of different sexes, it is 
 generally understood to denote only the higher and nobler forms of that 
 affection, the lower being stigmatized under the name oi passion. Thus 
 it is a suitable equivalent for the Greek word here used, which (see Dean 
 Stanley's note) owes its existence to the Bible, since it does not appear 
 in Classical Greek, and is first found in the Septuagint translation of the 
 O.T. 
 
 sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbaT\ So Wiclif and Tyndale. The 
 Apostle refers here to Ps. cl. 5, where the Hebrew speaks of ' cymbals 
 of sound ' and ' cymbals of clangour,' and the Septuagint renders 
 almost by the same words as St Paul. Cf. ch. xiv. 7, where the differ- 
 ence between an unmeaning noise and real music is spoken of. 
 
 2. all faith'] In the sense of ch. xii. 9, where see note. 
 
 so that I conld remove monntains] A quotation of words recorded in 
 St Matt. xvii. 20, xxi. 11. Whether St Matthew's Gospel were already 
 written or not, these words had reached St Paul, and this must be regarded 
 as a confirmation of the truth of the Gospel narrative. It is remarkable 
 that they appear in a different form in St Luke (xvii. 6). 
 
 I am nothing] The Apostle does not say that it is possible for a man 
 to have all these gifts without love. He only says that if it were possible, 
 it would be useless. But real {a.ith., in the Scripture sense, without love, 
 is an impossibility. Cf. Gal. v. 6; Eph. iii. 17, 19, iv. 13 — 16; 
 St James ii. 18 — 26. True Christian faith unites us to Christ, Who is 
 Love. 
 
 3. And tho2igh I bestow all my goods to feed the poor] It will be 
 observed that the words ' the poor ' are not in the original. Coleridge 
 (see Dean Stanley's note) says, " the true and most significant sense is 
 ' though I dole aivay in monthfiils all my property or estates.^ " So 
 Olshausen, Meyer, to feed any one by putting morsels into his mouth, Cf. 
 St Matt. vi. I, 2. The word here used is akin to \I/co/jlloi', a morsel ; see 
 St John xiii. 26. Were we to take the word charity in its ordinary 
 English sense of liberality to the poor, the passage would contradict 
 itself. It is quite possible to have charity without love. 
 
 and though I give my body to be burned] There is such a thing even 
 as martyrdom in a hard, defiant spirit ; not prompted by love of Christ, 
 but by love of oneself ; not springing from the impossibility of denying 
 Him to W^hom we owe all (compare Polycarp's noble words, "Eighty 
 and six years have I served Him, and what has He done that I should 
 
vv. 4—7.] I. CORINTHIANS, XIII. 129 
 
 Charity suffereth long, and is kind ; charity envieth not ; 4 
 charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave 5 
 itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, 
 thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in 6 
 the truth ; beareth all things^ believeth all things^ hopeth all 7 
 
 deny Him?"), but from the resolution not to allow that we have been in 
 the wrong. Such a martyrdom would profit neither him who suffered it, 
 nor any one else. 
 
 4. Charity st{ffereth long, and is kind] The first the passive, the 
 second the active, exercise of love ; the one endurance, the other 
 beneficence. 
 
 vaunteth not itself] The word here used is derived from the Latin 
 perperus, vicious, boastful. Both this and the next sentence have refer- 
 ence to the manner in which excellencies he actually possesses are re- 
 garded by one imbued with the spirit of love. Cf. Rom. xii. 3. 
 
 5. doth not behave itself toiseemly'] The Vulgate renders imseemly 
 by ambitiosa; Erasmus by fastidiosa ; Wiclif by coveitons ; doth not 
 fi-awardly^ Tyndale. But see note on ch. xii. 23, where a word of 
 
 similar derivation occurs. Also ch. vii. 36; and cf. Rom i. 27; Rev. 
 xvi. 15, Here it means ' is not betrayed by a sense of superiority into 
 forgetfulness of what is due to others.' 
 
 seeketh not her ozun] See ch. x. 24, 33. 
 
 is not easily provoked] ov irapo^vveTac. The * contention ' between 
 Paul and Barnabas is, according to the Greek, a Trapo^ucr/xo's. Acts xv. 
 
 39- 
 
 thinketh no evil] So the Vulgate and other versions. Rather, im- 
 puteth not the evil, i. e. bears no malice. St Chrysostom explains it by 
 " / > not suspicious.'" See Rom. iv., where the word is translated in- 
 differently ' reckoned ' and ' imputed.' 
 
 6. rejoiceth not in iniqtiit)>\ Cf. Ps. v. 4, 5, * Thou art not a 
 God that hath pleasure in wickedness : thou hatest all workers of ini- 
 quity.' And Hos. vii. 3; Rom. i. 32 ; 2 Thess. ii. 12. 
 
 but rejoiceth in the truth] Better, as' margin, and Vulgate, 'witli the 
 truth. Love rejoiceth with the victory of Truth in the world, and at 
 the consequent decline of unrighteousness, which is the opposite of 
 truth. Cf. 2 Thess. ii. 10; 2 John 4. 
 
 7. beareth all things] Stiffe?'s, Vulgate, and so Wiclif and Tyndale. 
 See note on ch. ix. 12, where the same word is used. Here it means to 
 endure patiently indignities and affronts, save of course where the well- 
 being of others requires that they should be repelled. 
 
 believeth all things] " Not that a Christian should knowingly and 
 willingly suffer himself to be imposed upon; not that he should deprive 
 himself of prudence and judgment, so that he maybe the more easily 
 deceived; but that he should esteem it better to be deceived by his 
 kindness and gentleness of heart, than to injure his brother by needless 
 suspicion." Calvin. "It is always ready to think the best ; to put the 
 most favourable construction on anything ; is glad to make all the allow- 
 
 I. COR. 
 
I30 I. CORINTHIANS, XIII. [w. 8— ii. 
 
 8 things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth : but 
 whether there be prophecies, they shall fail ; whether there be 
 tongues, they shall cease ; whether there be knowledge, it 
 
 9 shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy 
 
 10 in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that 
 
 11 Avhich is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I 
 spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a 
 
 ance for human weakness which can be done without betraying the truth 
 of God." Dr Coke. Similarly Erasmus and Wesley. 
 
 hopeth all things] (i) Of man, of whom love will ever hope the best, 
 and deem reformation possible in the most hardened offenders ; and 
 (2) of God, that He will bring good out of evil, and that all the evils of 
 this life will issue ultimately in the triumph of good. 
 
 endureth all things] Sustains to the end, with unshaken confidence 
 in the goodness of God, all the persecutions and afflictions of this life. 
 
 8. Charity never faileth] The Vulgate and some MSS. read faileth. 
 Tyndale renders, faileth 7iever azvaye. In the Septuagint (as in Job 
 XV. 33, and Is. xxviii. i, 4) the word is used of a fading flower. In 
 Rom. ix. 6, it is applied to the Word of God. 
 
 whether there be p7'ophecies, they shall fail] Another word is here 
 used in the original for the word translated fail. It should rather be 
 rendered be brought to an end, literally be worked out. It is translated 
 brought to nought in ch. i. 28, while in v. 10 it is rendered done away, 
 \nv. II ptit azvay, and in the latter part of this very verse vanish away. 
 The utterances of the inspired man (see ch. xiv. i) are, we are here 
 told, no longer of any value to us when we are face to face with the 
 facts of which he was wont to speak. 
 
 tongues] Either (i) speaking with tongues, which as a sign (see ch. 
 xiv. 22) will be unnecessaiy when we are confronted with the reality 
 and need no more signs and wonders to compel our attention to it. Or 
 (2) divers languages, which shall cease when the curse of Babel is re- 
 moved in the 'holy city. New Jerusalem' which shall cume down 
 from heaven, and in which all things shall be made new. 
 
 7vhether there be knozvledge, it shall vanish away]. Rather, be brought 
 to an end. See last note but one. Knowledge (see note on ch. xii. 8) 
 as the result of a process, the outcome of olsservation, argument, 
 balancing of probabilities — for all these form part of our earthly know- 
 ledge — is but partial and incomplete (see next verse), and vanishes in a 
 moment before the actual presence of what is. Wisdom, says Estius, 
 will not in like manner vanish, because its perfection consists in the 
 vision of God. 
 
 9. and tve prophesy in part] All inspired utterances are but partial 
 revelations of Divine Truth. 
 
 10. done away>] See note on v. 8. 
 
 ■ 11. I thought as a child] Better as margin, I reasoned. The same 
 Greek word is used here as in v. 5, Uhinketh no evil.' See note 
 there. 
 
vv. 12, 13; I.] I. CORINTHIANS, XIII. XIV. 131 
 
 child : but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 
 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to 12 
 face : now I know in part ; but then shall I know even as also 
 I am known. And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these 13 
 three ; but the greatest of these is charity. • 
 
 Ch. XIV. I — 25. The superiority of the gift of prophecy to 
 that of tongues. 
 Follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts., but rather 14 
 
 when I became a man^ I put away childish t hi tigs] Rather, since I 
 have become a man, I have brought to an end (see note on v. 8) the 
 things of the child, referring, not so much to the act which put away 
 these things, as to the fact that they had been put away finally and irre- 
 vocably. 
 
 12. For ncrw we see tlirough a glass] Literally, by means, of a 
 mirror. Fer speculum, Vulgate. Bi a mirour, Wiclif. Meyer re- 
 minds us that we are to think rather of the mirrors of polishecl metal 
 used in ancient times, the reflections of which would often be obscure 
 and imperfect, than of our modern looking-glasse?.. 
 
 darlzlyX Literally, in an enigma. DarJie speaking, Tyndale. An 
 enigma (in English, riddle) is properly a question, such as the Sphinx 
 propounded to GJ^dipus, couched in obscure language, the answer to 
 which is difficult to find. Cf. Num. xii. 8, and Prov. i. 6, where the 
 Hebrew word is translated in the Septuagint by the word used here by 
 St Paul. Also Tennyson, Miller'' s DaiigJiter, 
 
 "There's something in this world amiss 
 Shall be Jinriddled by and by." 
 
 face to face] Cf. Num. xii. 8, to which the Apostle is evidently 
 referring. Also Job xix. 26, 27 ; i John iii. 2 ; Rev. xxii. 4. 
 
 then sJiall I knoiu even as also I am hnazmi] The word in the ori- 
 ginal signifies thorough, complete knowledge. ' I am known,' should 
 rather be translated I was hno7an, i.e. either (i) when Christ took know- 
 ledge of me (Meyer), or (2) I luas {previously) Jznown. It is God's know- 
 ledge of us, His interpenetrating our being with His, which is the cause 
 of our knowledge. Cf. Gal. iv. 9; ch. viii. 3. Also St Matt. xi. 27, and 
 St John xvii. throughout. 
 
 13. And non.ij abideth faith, Jiope, charity] All these will remain in 
 the life to come. Faith, the vision of the unseen (Heb. xi. i), with its 
 consequent trust in God ; hope, which even in fruition remains as the 
 desire of its continuance ; and love, as the necessary condition of our 
 dwelling in God and God in us. See note on ch. xii. 31. 
 
 but the greatest of t/iese is cJiarity] "Because faith and hope are our 
 own : love is diffused among others. " Calvin. 
 
 Ch. XIV. 1 — 25. The superiority of the gift of prophecy 
 
 TO THAT OF TONGUES. 
 
 1. desi7-e'\ Literally, he zealous for, envious of. See note on ch. 
 
 Q — 2 
 
132 I. CORINTHIANS, XIV. [vv. 2—6. 
 
 2 that ye may prophesy. For he that speaketh in an imhioum 
 tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God : for no 77iaii 
 understandeth hi7n; howbeit in the spirit he speaketh 
 
 3 mysteries. But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men 
 
 4 to edification, and exhortation, and comfort. He that speak- 
 eth in an imknown tongue edifieth himself; but he that 
 
 5 prophesieth edifieth the church. I would that ye all spake 
 with tongues, but rather that ye prophesied : for greater is 
 he that prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues, 
 except he interpret, that the church may receive edifying, 
 
 6 Now, brethren, if I come unto you speaking with tongues, 
 what shall I profit you, except I shall speak to you either by 
 revelation, or by knowledge, or by prophesying, or by doc- 
 
 xii. 31. The best gifts (see note there) were those that were within the 
 reach of all. Still there was no reason why a Christian should not seek 
 other special gifts from God by prayer. See ver. 13, and St James 
 i. 5. 
 
 but rather that ye may prophesy'] The gift of prophecy, as is abund- 
 antly evident from the whole of this section, was not confined to the 
 prediction of future events. As Kingsley remarks, the prophet was 
 "not only a _/2>r^- teller but a y^r/A-teller," one who communicates the 
 moral and spiritual truths which he has received by direct revelation 
 from God, 
 
 2. For he that speaketh in an unknown iongiie\ The word tinknozvn 
 is not in the original. The word translated tongue signifies a hinnan 
 lanpcage'm ch. xiii. i. Cf. Rev. xiii. 7, xiv. 6, xvii. 15. 
 
 speaketh not unto men, hut unto God] Because the language is not 
 the language of those to whom he is speaking, and therefore what he 
 says is hidden from them. For mysteries, see ch. iv. i. 
 
 4. He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself] Not 
 necessarily because he understands what he is saying, but because 
 his spirit, stirred up by the Spirit of God, is led by the experience of the 
 inward emotion to praise God. Estius. See v. 14. 
 
 but he that prophesieth edifieth the church] The profit of the brethren 
 is ever St Paul's object. Cf. vv. 6, 12; ch. vi. 12, &c. Prophecy is to 
 be preferred to the gift of tongues because it is more directly useful. 
 See note, ch. xii. 28. 
 
 6. fior greater is he] Cf. ch. xii. 31. 
 
 except he interp7'et] This passage clearly implies that a man might 
 speak in another language without himself knowing what he was saying, 
 see V. 14. Some, however, regard the speaking with tongues as ecstatic 
 utterances in n* human language, such as took place among the 
 Montanists in ancient, and the Irvingites in modern times. See 
 Stanley's introduction to this section. Cf. note on ch. xii. 10. 
 
 6. by revelation] That which comes directly to the spirit from on 
 high. 
 
vv. 7—14.] I. CORINTHIANS, XIV. 133 
 
 trine ? And even things without life giving sound, whether 7 
 pipe or harp, except they give a distinction in the sounds, 
 how shall it be known what is piped or harped? For if 8 
 the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare him- 
 self to the battle ? So likewise you, except ye utter by the 9 
 tongue words easy to be understood, how shall it be known 
 what is spoken ? for ye shall speak into the air. There are, 10 
 it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of 
 them is without signification. Therefore if I know not the n 
 meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh 
 a barbarian, and he that speaketh shall he a barbarian unto 
 me. Even so ye, forasmuch as ye are zealous of spiritual 12 
 gifts, seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the church. 
 Wherefore let him that speaketh in an unknoum tongue pray 13 
 that he may interpret. For if I pray in an unknown tongue, 14 
 
 by knowledge\ That which is gained by observation and study, see 
 ch. xii. 8. 
 
 hy prophcsying\ The outward expression of that which has come 
 from above by revelaiion. 
 
 by doctrine] Or rather, teaching, the outward expression of know- 
 ledge. See the distinction between the prophet and the teacher in ch. 
 xii- 28. 
 
 7. except tkey give a distinction in the sounds] The effect of a melody 
 depends entirely upon the distinction of its musical intervals. The 
 effect of speech in like manner is dependent upon its being the commu- 
 nication of definite ideas. 
 
 8. J^or if the trumpet give an uncertain sonnd] An itidistiiict sound, 
 that which conveys no clear impression to the mind. The muster, the 
 charge, the rally, the retreat, are each indicated by a definite order 
 of musical intervals upon the trumpet, or they would be useless for the 
 purpose of calling soldiers together. So words are useless to mankind 
 unless they represent things. 
 
 9. words easy to be understood] Literally, a well marked discourse, 
 language which has a clearly discernible meaning. 
 
 10. without signification] Literally, without sound, dumb. Cf. 
 Acts viii. 32, and ch. xii. 2. 
 
 11. the meaning of the voice] Literally, its force. 
 
 a barbarian] This word is here used in its original signification of 
 one 7vhose speech is unintelligible. 
 
 unto me] Literally, in me, i.e. in my estimation. 
 
 12. spiritual gifts] Literally, as margin, spirits, a word obviously 
 standing here for the gifts of the Spirit. 
 
 seek that ye may excel] i. e. by prayer, see next verse. Excel should 
 rather be translated abound. Be plenteous, Wiclif. Have plenty^ 
 Tyndale. 
 
134 I. CORINTHIANS, XIV. [vv. 15—18. 
 
 15 my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful. What 
 is it then ? I will pray with the spirit, and will pray with the 
 understanding also : I will sing with the spirit, and I will 
 
 i6 sing with the understanding also. Else when thou shalt 
 bless with the spirit, how shall he that occupieth the room 
 of the unlearned say Amen at thy giving of thanks, seeing 
 
 17 he understandeth not what thou sayest ? For thou verily 
 
 18 givest thanks well, but the other is not edified. I thank 
 
 13. pray that he may interpret'^ Cf. vv. i, 5. This passage may 
 mean (i) pray that he may receive the faculty of interpretation, or (2) 
 pray in such a language as he has the power of interpreting, 
 
 14. my spi)'it prayeth, but my imderstanding is unfriiitftd'] The 
 afflatus of the Spirit suggests the words of prayer to the possessor of the 
 gift. He is conscious that he is fervently addressing the Giver of all 
 good in a spirit of supplication. But his consciousness goes no further. 
 He does not know what he is saying. 
 
 15. What is it thai .?] " What is the purport of what I have been 
 saying ? That it is desirable that the spirit and understanding should 
 combine in all the public utterances of a teacher." 
 
 16. Else when thou shalt bless'\ A further argument. Even your 
 prayers and thanksgivings are useless, for none can respond to them. 
 Some commentators, e. g. Dean Stanley, have supposed the Eucharistic 
 blessing to be meant (see ch. x. 16). This, though probable, is by no 
 means certain. That it Avas some well-known form of blessing or 
 thanksgiving is however clear from what follows. 
 
 with the spirif] i.e. in an unknown tongue. See note on 7/. 12. 
 
 he that occupieth the room of the ttnlearned^ Roo7n (tottos), as in St 
 Matt, xxiii. 6; St Luke xiv. 7, 8, &c., stands ior place. Wiclif renders 
 it here hy place. Cf. " office and roome,''' Hollinshead's Scotland. The 
 word rendered here unlearned signifies (i) a private person, layman, 
 one who holds no office. Hence (2) it comes to signify a man who has 
 no special or technical knowledge of any particular art or science, as in 
 Acts iv. 13; 2 Cor. xi. 6, just as a lawyer calls those laymen who are 
 not versed in law. Therefore the meaning here most probably is (with 
 Meyer and Bp. Wordsworth) "those Avho have no special gift such as 
 that of prophecy, or tongues." Some would render ' the layman s 
 place,'' and regard it as referring to the seats set apart for the laity in the 
 assembly. But the majority of commentators would render he who fills 
 the situation of the not specially endoived. St Clement of Rome uses 
 TOTTOS in this latter sense in his Epistle, ch. 40. 
 
 Amen] Literally, the Amen, the well-known response, either opta- 
 tive, "So be it," or affirmative, "So it is," as common in the synagogue 
 as in the Christian Church to any prayer or thanksgiving. See Nehe- 
 miah v. 13; Rev. v. 14. Justin Martyr (circa 150) uses the same 
 language concerning the response to the Eucharistic prayer in his day. 
 
 17. tho7/ verily givest thanks weW] Well, either (i) as referring to the 
 fact that thanks were given — it is well to give thanks — or, (2) to the 
 
w. 19-22.] I. CORINTHIANS, XIV. 135 
 
 my God, I speak with tongues more than you all : yet in 
 the church I had rather speak five words with my under- 
 standing, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten 
 thousand words in an unkno7C'n tongue. Brethren, be not 
 children in understanding : howbeit in malice be ye children, 
 but in understanding be men. In the law it is written, 
 With ;;/^;/ of other tongues and other lips will I speak 
 unto this people; and yet for all that will they not hear 
 me, saith the Lord. Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not 
 to them that beUeve, but to them that believe not : but pro- 
 manner and spirit in which that action was performed — koKCjs, nobly, 
 honourably. Some would translate givest thanks by celebratest the 
 Eucharist. See ch. xi. 23. 
 
 the other'] i. e. he who fills the layman's place. 
 
 18. / thank my God, I speak with tongues 7nore than you all] St Paul, 
 no doubt, had the gift of interpretation. Yet apparently he did not 
 often exercise in public, whatever he may have done in private, the gift 
 of speaking with tongues unknown to his hearers. See next verse. 
 
 19. yet in the church] " Whatever I may do in private, I should 
 desire my public ministrations to be for the instruction and edification 
 of the flock, and not for my own individual glorification." 
 
 teach] The word in the original is that from which our word cate- 
 chize is derived. The same word is used in St Luke i. 4; Acts xviii. 25, 
 xxi. 21, 24; Rom. ii. 18, and twice in Gab vi. 6. It signifies to make 
 to resound thoroughly in any one's ears. The importance of sermons 
 and catechetical teaching in public worship is thus indicated, as well as 
 their proper object, the instruction and edification of the flock. See 
 V. 24. 
 
 20. hoiobeit in malice be ye children] This is subjoined lest the 
 Apostle should be charged with contradicting his Master, There is a 
 sense in which all Christians must be children. What it is the Apostle 
 tells us. They were to be children in malice, or rather perhaps vice. 
 Compare on the one hand St Matt. xi. 25, xviii. 3, xix. 14; i Pet. ii. 2; 
 on the other, ch. iii. i; Eph. iv. 14; and Heb. v. 12. See also St 
 Matt. X. 16; Rom. xvi. 19. 
 
 men] Literally, perfect, i.e. of ripe age. Cf. ch. ii. 6; Phil. iii. 15; 
 Heb. v. 14. 
 
 21. In the law it is writteit] The law here stands for the whole Old 
 Testament, as we might naturally expect from St Paul's habit of regard- 
 ing the whole of the Mosaic dispensation as a progressive order of things 
 having its completion in Christ. See Rom. iii. 19; Gal. iii. 23, 24, 
 iv. 5; Heb. ix. 8, 10. St John uses the word in the same manner; 
 X. 34, xii. 34, XV. 25. The passage is from Isaiah xxviii. 11, 12. 
 
 22. Wlierefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to 
 thein that believe not] The passage here quoted has been regarded as 
 a prophecy either (i) of the Day of Pentecost, or (2) of the Babylonish 
 
136 I. CORINTHIANS, XIV. [vv. 23—25. 
 
 phesying serveth not for them that believe not, but for them 
 23 which believe. If therefore the whole church be come 
 
 together into one place, and all speak w^ith tongues, and 
 
 there come in those that a7'e unlearned, or unbelievers, will 
 14 they not say that ye are mad ? But if all prophesy, and there 
 
 come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is con- 
 25 vinced of all, he is judged of all : and thus are the secrets 
 
 of his heart made manifest ; and so falling down on his 
 
 face he will worship God, and report that God is in you of 
 
 a truth. 
 
 captivity. The latter is more probable, and in that case it becomes 
 not an argument, but an illustration. The occupation of Jud^a 
 by the Assyrian and Babylonian troops had been a sign to God's 
 people of their unbelief and its punishment, and the unwonted speech 
 they had been doomed to hear was to them a call to repentance, 
 especially when viewed in the light of the prophecy of Moses in Deut. 
 xxviii. 49. In a similar manner the miraculous gift of tongues was still 
 (see next verse), as at the Day of Pentecost, a call to the outside world 
 to examine and inquire into this new thing which had come to pass, to 
 acknowledge in it the finger of God, and to "repent and be baptized for 
 the remission of sins." Cf. Acts ii. 7 — ^12, 41. 
 
 23. If therefore the whole church be cof?ie together into one place'\ ewl 
 TO avTo. The usual word for the place of assembly, as in ch. xi. 20; 
 Acts ii. I. However well calculated the gift of tongues might be to 
 arrest and compel attention when used properly, it is clear, says the 
 Apostle, that its introduction at the public assemblies of the Church was 
 not a proper use of it, unless {v. 27) it were restricted in its use by wise 
 rules. If not so restricted, so far from its being a sign to unbelievers, it 
 would give them, as well as the great body of the Christian laity, occa- 
 sion of complaint, and even ridicule. 
 
 «//] Not necessarily at/ together, as some have supposed, but that no 
 other means of communication was adopted by any dnt the unknown 
 tongue. Meyer. 
 
 24. he is convinced of alii Rather, he is convinced by all, i. e. the 
 prophets whose discourses he hears. The word signifies (i) to prove by 
 argument, and comes therefore to be used (2) of the conviction pro- 
 duced by argument. Cf. St John xvi. 8, where th6 word however is 
 rendered repi-ove. For an instance of the word ^of in the sense oi*" by'' 
 see Shakspeare, Much Ado about N'othing, Act i. Scene i, 'I am loved 
 ^all, only you excepted.' 
 
 he is Judged of all] Rather, he is examined by all. The exhortations 
 of the preacher place him, as it were, upon his trial. For the word 
 here used see ch. ii. 14, 15, iv. 3, 4, ix. 3, x. 25, 27, and notes. 
 
 25. and thus are the secrets of his heart made tnanifest\ The nature 
 of Christian /r^/Zzt'o/ is here plainly shewn. See note on z/. I. ''And 
 thus' is omitted by most modern editors. 
 
vv. 26—28.] I. CORINTHIANS, XIV. 137 
 
 26 — 40. Regulations to insure decency atid order. 
 
 How is it then, brethren ? when ye come together, every 26 
 one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, 
 hath a revelation, hath an interpretation. Let all things be 
 done unto edifying. If any man speak in an u?ikno7i>n tongue, 27 
 let it be by two, or at the most by three, and that by course ; 
 and let one interpret. But if there be no interpreter, let him 28 
 
 that Godis in you of a tnith'\ Literally, that God is really in you (or 
 among you). This description of the effect of prophecy upon the un- 
 believer is in no way contrary to the assertion in v. 22. There the 
 Apostle is speaking of a sign to attract the attention of the unbeliever ; 
 here his attention is already attracted. He has come to the Christian 
 assembly, and is listening to the words spoken there in the name of Jesus 
 Christ. Unless his conscience is 'seared with a hot iron' there will be no 
 further need of signs to induce him to give his attention to what is spoken. 
 
 26 — 40. Regulations to insure decency and order. 
 
 26. hath a psalvi\ The Apostle here reproves another fault. Not only 
 are the Corinthians ambitious rather of the gifts which attract attention, 
 than of those which do good to others, but in their exercise of those 
 gifts they are utterly neglectful of Church order. Each member of the 
 teaching body (ch. xii. 29 forbids us to include the whole Church) had 
 his own special subject to bring before the Church ; some hymn of praise, 
 unpremeditated or otherwise, some point of Christian doctrine to enforce, 
 some hidden mystery to reveal, some utterance in a foreign tongue, or 
 some interpretation peculiar to himself of such utterance. This he 
 desired to deliver just when the impulse seized him to do so, and all 
 with a view of asserting himself, rather than of promoting the common 
 welfare. The consequence was an amount of disorder which prevented 
 the striking picture of the true effects of Christian prophecy in the 
 last verse from being ever realized. For the various gifts mentioned 
 in this verse see vv. 2, 6, 13, and notes. The word psalm must be 
 understood of a song of praise addressed to God, such as the Psalms 
 of David, though it is by no means to be confined to them. Cf. Eph. 
 v. 19. ^ 
 
 Let all things be done nnto edi/yingi See ch. vi. 12, viii. i, x. 23, xii. 7 ; 
 2 Cor. xii. 19, xiii. 10. The Apostle corrects two errors in this section; 
 (i) the disorderly manner in which the services of the Church were 
 carried on; (2) the practice of women speaking in the public assembly. 
 
 27. let it be by two, or at the most by three'\ Because the long utter- 
 ance in an unknown tongue would weary the Church without a sufficient 
 corresponding benefit. 
 
 and that by course'] Literally, and in turn. 
 
 and let one interpret"] Let there be one, and only one, interpreter of 
 each speech ; for if the second interpretation were the same as the first it 
 were unnecessary; if different, it would be perplexing. 
 
138 I. CORINTHIANS, XIV. [vv. 29—32. 
 
 keep silence in the church; and let him speak to himself, 
 
 29 and to God. Let the prophets speak two or three, and let 
 
 30 the other judge. If afiy t/mig be revealed to another that 
 
 31 sitteth by, let the first hold his peace. For ye may all pro- 
 phesy one by one, that all may learn, and all may be com- 
 
 32 forted. And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the 
 
 28. in the churcl{\ These words imply that the utterance was to he 
 reserved until the speaker found himself in private, since in the Church it 
 could only serve for an opportunity of useless display. 
 
 29. Let the prophets speak two or three'\ The same rule was to hold 
 good of preaching. Those who felt that they had something to com- 
 municate must notwithstanding be governed by the desire to edify their 
 brethren. The Church M'as not to be wearied out by an endless succes- 
 sion of discourses, good indeed in themselves, but addressed to men who 
 were not in a condition to profit by them. It would seem that two or 
 three short discourses, either in the vernacular, or, if there were any one 
 present who could interpret, in some foreign tongue, took the place 
 in Apostolic times of the modern sermon. "Let the presbyters one by 
 one, not all together, exhort the people, and the Bishop last of all, as 
 the commander." Apostolical Constitutions (circ. A.D. 250) II. 57. 
 
 and let the other jndgel Either (i) the other prophets, or (2) the whole 
 congregation. If the former be the correct interpretation, it refers to the 
 gift of discerning of spirits (ch. xii. 10). The latter may be defended on 
 the ground that St Paul constantly (ch. x. 15, xi. 13) appeals to the 
 judgment of his disciples, and that he considered (ch. xii. i — 3, cf. 
 
 1 John ii. 20, 27) that allihc people of God had the faculty of discerning 
 the spiritual value to themselves of what they heard in the congregation. 
 For the word translated y?/^^ see ch. xi. 29, 31, and note. 
 
 30. If any thing be revealed to another'\ If it should appear that sonie 
 special message from God had been sent to one of the prophets during 
 the discourse of another, the first was to bring his discourse to an end as 
 soon as might be, in an orderly manner, so as to give the other an 
 opportunity of saying what had occurred to him. 
 
 31. For ye 7nay all prophesy one by otie\ Not necessarily at the 
 same meeting of the Church, which would be in contradiction to 
 what has just been said [v. 29)', nor that the permission Avas extended 
 to the whole Christian body. All were not prophets, the Apostle tells 
 us (ch. xii. 29), and it is clear that none but prophets could prophesy, 
 since prophecy (ch. xii. 28, xiii. 2, xiv. i, 5, 22) was a special gift of 
 the Spirit. 
 
 comfoj-tedl The word has the sense of comfort and exhortation com- 
 bined, and is most nearly equivalent to our encourage or cheer. See 
 
 2 Cor. i. where the word and the verb from which it is derived are 
 translated indifferently comfort and consolation. In ch. iv. 16 of this 
 Epistle it is rendered beseech. In a great many passages, as for instance 
 in Acts ii. 40, it is rendered exhort. From this word is derived the title 
 Paraclete^ rendered Cojfiforter in St John xiv., xv., and xvi., and 
 
vv. 33, 34.] I. CORINTHIANS, XIV. 139 
 
 prophets : for God is not the aiiihor of confusion, but of 33 
 peace, as in all churches of the saints. 
 
 Let your women keep silence in the churches : for it is 34 
 not permitted unto them to speak ; but they are co?nmanded 
 
 Advocate in i John ii. i. The derivative is rendered exhortation iA 
 3, and another word is employed for comfoTi. 
 
 32. And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets\ The 
 possession of a special gift from on high has, from Montanus in the 
 second century down to our own times, been supposed to confer on its 
 possessor an immunity from all control, whether exercised by himself or 
 others, and to entitle him to immediate attention to the exclusion of 
 every other consideration whatsoever. St Paul, on the contrary, lays 
 down the rule that spiritual, like all other gifts, are to be under the 
 dominion of the reason, and may, like all other gifts, be easily misused. 
 A holy self-restraint, even in the use of the highest gifts, must character- 
 ize the Christian. If a man comes into the assembly inspired to speak 
 in an unknown tongue, the impulse is to be steadily repressed, unless 
 there is a certainty that what is said can be interpreted, so that those 
 present may understand it. If he comes into the assembly possessed with 
 some overmastering idea, he must keep it resolutely back until such time 
 as he can give it vent without prejudice to Christian order, without 
 injury to that which must be absolutely the first consideration in all 
 public addresses — the edification of the flock. Estius justly remarks that 
 the difference between God's prophets and those inspired by evil spirits 
 is to be found in the fact that the latter are rapt by madness beyond 
 their own control, and are unable to be silent if they will. And 
 Robertson illustrates by a reference to modern forms of fanaticism the 
 truth that "uncontrolled religious feeling" is apt to "overpower both 
 reason and sense." 
 
 33. for God is 7tot the authof of confusion, but of pence'] Confusion ; 
 literally, unsettlement. Cf. St James iii. 16. Also St Luke xxi. 9, where 
 the word is rendered covwiotion. As in the natural, so in the moral and 
 spiritual world, God is a God of order. The forces of nature operate by 
 laws which are implicitly obeyed. If it be otherwise in the moral and 
 spiritual world, God is not the author of the confusion, but man, who 
 has opposed himself to His Will. 
 
 as in all churches of the saints'] It is a question whether these words 
 belong to what goes before or what follows. If to what goes before, it 
 would seem as though a hint was intended that these disorders were 
 peculiar to the Corinthian Church. If to what follows, it is a repeti- 
 tion of the argument in ch. vii. 17, xi. 16, and it would then appear 
 that the Apostle had especial reason to fear insubordination on the 
 question of the position of woman in the Christian assembly, and that 
 he therefore fortifies his own authority by an appeal to the universal 
 custom of the Church of Christ. 
 
 34. Let your women keep silence in the churches] The position of 
 women in Christian assemblies is now decided on the principles laid 
 down in ch. xi. 3, 7—9. 
 
HO I. CORINTHIANS, XIV. [vv. 35—39. 
 
 35 to be under obedience, as also saith the law. And if they 
 will learn any things let them ask their husbands at home : 
 
 36 for it is a shame for women to speak in the church. What ? 
 came the word of God out from you ? or came it unto you 
 
 37 only ? If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, 
 let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you 
 
 3S are the commandments of the Lord. But if any man be 
 39 ignorant, let him be ignorant. Wherefore, brethren, covet to 
 
 as also saith the law\ In Gen. iii. 16. 
 
 35. let them ask their husbands at hotne\ Rather, 'their own 
 husbands.' The women were not only not permitted to teach (see 
 r Tim. ii. 11 — 14) but even to ask questions in Church, a privilege, says 
 Grotius, permitted to men, but denied to women, among the Jews. It 
 seems to be assumed that the unmarried ones would not think of doing 
 so. This rule applies in its strictness only to the East, where women 
 were kept in strict seclusion, and only permitted to converse with their 
 male relatives. Calvin remarks, " When he says husbands, he does not 
 prohibit them, in case of need, from consulting the prophets them- 
 selves; for all husbands are not qualified to give information on such 
 subjects." Estius allows the right of women to consult pious and 
 prudent men, so long as it be done without giving occasion of scandal. 
 
 for it is a shame\ The original is even stronger. It is disgraceful. 
 
 36. What ? came the woj-d of God oat from yoic ?\ The self-assertion 
 of the Corinthians was so great that they needed to be reminded that 
 they had received the doctrine of Christ through the ministry of St 
 Paul, and that it had not originated among themselves. 
 
 or came it tmto yott only?] i.e. to you alone. They owed a duty, not 
 only to those who had preached the gospel to them, but to other 
 Churches, whose example could not be safely neglected. See note on 
 
 ^^' 33. 
 
 37. If any man think himself to be a prophet] Since there were 
 many appointed teachers (see ch. xii. 28, 29) who were not prophets, 
 the test of the prophetic character was not ordination, but the 
 possession of the prophetic gift. If any man fancied he possessed that 
 gift, he was required to submit himself to the test of his willingness 
 to obey God's appointed founder and ruler of the Church. 
 
 or spiritual] i.e. possessed of any special spiritual gift. 
 the com.mandments of the Lord] i.e. Christ. See ch. vii. 10, 12, 40, 
 xi. 2. 
 
 38. Biit if any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant] Some editors 
 read ^ he is ignored'' instead of '■let him be ignorant.'' If we take the 
 reading in the text, which seems preferable, the sense is that St Paul 
 will give himself no further trouble about one whose insubordination 
 proves him to be no real prophet of God; if the reading which some 
 would substitute for it, the signification is that God will neglect him 
 who neglects the commandments of His Apostle. Cf. ch. viii. 3. The 
 
^'^^ 4o; i, 2.] I. CORINTHIANS, XIV. XV. 141 
 
 prophesy, and forbid not to speak with tongues. Let all 4° 
 things be done decently and in order. 
 
 Ch. XV. I — 58. The Doctrine of the Resnrrectio7i. 
 Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I 15 
 preached unto you, which also you have received, and 
 wherein ye stand ; by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in 2 
 
 Vulgate renders ignorahitiir ; and Wiclif, He schal be nnlm(nve ; Tyndale 
 renders as in the text. 
 
 39. Wherefore, brcthren'\ The Apostle, as is his wont, sums up the 
 whole section in a few concluding words. Prophecy is a gift to be 
 earnestly sought (see for covet, the note on ch. xii. 31). Speaking with 
 tongues is a gift not to be discouraged. 
 
 40. Let all things be dotie decently and in order] Rather, * only let,' 
 &.C. For decently see Rom. xiii. 13, where the same word is translated 
 honestly. Also i Thess. iv. 12, and ch. xii. 23, where a word of 
 similar derivation occurs, and is translated comeliness. In ch. vii. 35, 
 the adjective of the same derivation is rendered comely ; in St Mark xv. 
 43 and Acts xiii. 50, honoicrablc. Its original meaning is well formed. 
 Compare the Latin j^rwa; for beauty, and the English shapely. For in 
 order, cf. v. 33. The Christian assembly should be a reflection of the 
 universe, where y^rw and order reign supreme. 
 
 Ch. XV. 1—58. The Doctrine of the Resurrection. 
 
 1. Moreover, brethren, I declare imto you the gospel ivhich I preached 
 unto yon] This gospel was indeed good tidings. Beside the fact that 
 Christ had been offered for our sins {v. 3) St Paul, as well as the rest of 
 the Apostles (z/. 11), taught that He had risen again in order to com- 
 municate to us that new and Divine life whereby our own resurrection 
 should be assured — a life which should make the human body, though 
 laid in the grave, a seed from whence in God's own good time, a new 
 and more glorious body should arise. This chapter is one of the 
 deepest and most mysterious in the Bible, It is the one exception 
 to the statement in ch. iii. that St Paul was unable to feed the 
 Corinthians with meat ; for it ranks with the profound exposition of the 
 principles of Justification in the Epistle to the Romans, and the weighty 
 but most difficult enunciation of the doctrine of God's foreknowledge 
 and man's call in the first chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians. The 
 chapter may be divided into six parts. See Introduction. 
 
 which also you have received] Rather, which ye received, that is, 
 when it was preached. 
 
 and zvhereinye stand] Stand fast, that is, against the assaults of sin. 
 Cf. Rom. V. 2 ; 2 Cor. i. 24; Eph. vi. 11, 13, 14. Our faith in Christ, 
 the giver of the new life of holiness, can alone defend us from evil. 
 
 2. by which also ye are saved] i, e. are in a state of safety, the verb 
 being in the present tense. The idea includes safety from sin as well as 
 its punishment. See St Matt. i. 21. 
 
142 I. CORINTHIANS, XV. [vv. 3—6. 
 
 memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed 
 
 3 in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I 
 also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to 
 
 4 the scriptures ; and that he was buried, and that he rose 
 
 5 again the third day according to the scriptures : and that he 
 
 6 was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve : after that, he was 
 seen of above five hundred brethren at once ; of whom the 
 
 ifyc keep in viemoiy what I preached unto yoii\ Literally, if ye hold 
 fast the discourse with which I proclaimed good tidings to you. 
 
 3. For I delivered unto y on first of all that tvhich I also received^ The 
 close resemblance of this passage to the Apostles' Creed shews that this 
 summary of the doctrines of our faith is actually what it professes to be, a 
 short compendium of Apostolic teaching. Irenaeus, a writer in the 
 second century, and a careful observer of Apostolic tradition, gives a 
 very similar summary in his treatise against Heresies, Book ill. c. 4. 
 Dean Stanley calls attention to the fact that this bold affirmation of the 
 truth of the Resurrection, possibly the earliest we have (see above ch. xi. 
 23) was written barely twenty-five years after the event. St Paul does not 
 state here from whom he received his doctrine, but he must have 
 acquired some elementary instruction in the first principles of the 
 Christian faith from his intercourse with the disciples (Acts ix. 19), 
 and even at his admission into the Christian body. And what he had 
 received from others he tested by examination of the ScrijDtures, by 
 prayer and silent communing with God, till it became his oiun, by reve- 
 lation and by that inward conviction which none but God can give. See 
 Gal. i. 12, 16. 
 
 died for our sins'] Cf ch. i. 18, v. 7, viii. 11. Also St Matt. xx. 
 ?8 ; St Mark x. 45 ; Rom. v. 8 — 10; 2 Cor. v. 14, 15; i Tim. ii. 6; 
 I Pet. 1. 19, &c. 
 
 accoj'ding to the scripttiresl What Scriptures? Those of the O. T, 
 clearly. Those of the New (see ch. iv. 6 and note) were hardly any 
 of them in existence. If it be asked what Scriptures of the O. T. are 
 meant, we may refer to Ps. xxii. ; Is. liii. , as well as to Gen. xxii. ; Deut. 
 ix. 24 — 26; Zech. xii. lo. For the same words in the next verse see 
 Ps. xvi. 10; Is. liii. 10; Hos. vi. 2; Jonah ii. 10. This latter passage 
 having been applied to the Resurrection by Christ Himself (St jNIatt. 
 xii. 40, xvi. 4), may not unnaturally be conceived to be among those St 
 Paul had in his mind here. 
 
 4. xuas buried, and that he rose again] Literally, was buried and hath 
 risen again, the aorist referring to the single act, the perfect to Christ's 
 continued life after his Resurrection. 
 
 5. of Cephas] See St Luke xxiv. 34. St Paul and St John alone 
 use the Aramaic form of the Apostle's surname, the foniier only in this 
 Epistle and once in the Epistle to the Galatians. This, coupled with 
 the fact that St John only uses the Aramaic form in the narrative in ch. 
 i. 42, is one of those minute touches which speak strongly for the 
 genuineness of his gospel. 
 
VV.7— II.] I. CORINTHIANS, XV. 143 
 
 greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen 
 asleep. After that, he was seen of James ; then of all the 7 
 apostles. And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one 8 
 born out of due time. For I am the least of the apostles, 9 
 that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I per- 
 secuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am 10 
 what I am : and his grace which was bestowed upon me was 
 not in vain ; but I laboured more abundantly than they all : 
 yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. There- n 
 fore whether it were I or they, so we preach, and so ye 
 beheved. 
 
 7. of Jamcs\ It would seem from this (see Stanley and Alford) 
 that St James was an Apostle. But it does not necessarily follow that 
 he was one of the twelve. See Professor Plumptre's elaborate note 
 on the brethren of our Lord in the Commentary on St James in this 
 series. 
 
 8. of me also, as of one born out of due thne] Deed boncn, Wiclif. 
 The word here (after Tyndale) translated horn out of due time refers to 
 a birth out of the usual course of nature (of. Ps. Iviii. 8), about which 
 there is therefore, (i) something violent and strange. Such was the 
 nature of St Paul's conversion, an event unparalleled in Scripture. 
 Moreover, (2) such children are usually small and weakly, an idea 
 which the next verse shews St Paul also had in mind. St Paul saw the 
 Lord on moi-e than one occasion. See note on ch. ix. i. 
 
 9. because I persecttted the cJunrJi of God\ Acts vii. 58, viii. 3, 
 ix. I. Cf. Gal. i. 13; i Tim. i. 13, 
 
 10. But by the grace of God I am what I am'] St Paul is willing to 
 admit his personal inferiority to the other Apostles, but such willingness 
 does not lead him to make a similar admission regarding his zvork. 
 For that was God's doing, not his, or only his so far as God's grace 
 or favour enabled him to perform it. See ch. i. 30, iii. 6, 9, and cf. 
 St Matt. x. 20; 2 Cor. iii. 5; Eph. iii. 7; Phil. ii. 12, 13. 
 
 / laboured more abundantly than they all] St Paul does not hesitate 
 to place his labours for the Gospel's sake on a par with, or even above, 
 those of the twelve. The work of an Apostle of the Gentiles must 
 necessarily have been more arduous than that of an Apostle of the 
 Jews. 
 
 11. Therefore zvhether it were I or they, so we preach, and so ye 
 beliefed] The word preach (derived from the Latin praedicare, to 
 proclaim) has now acquired the conventional sense of discoursing 
 publicly about religion. The word used by St Paul refers to the 
 work of a herald, the formal proclamation of matters of importance 
 by one who was commissioned to make it. The substantial identity 
 of the message, by whomsoever it was at first delivered, is a matter of 
 fact, as the writings of the Apostles and Eyangelists plainly shew. " By 
 
144 I. CORINTHIANS, XV. [vv. 12, 13. 
 
 12 Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, 
 how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the 
 
 13 dead ? But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is 
 
 his earnestness in saying this, the Apostle testifies to the immense value 
 and importance of historical Christianity." Robertson. 
 
 12. how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?'] 
 There were three different schools of thought among those outside the 
 Christian Church which denied the doctrine of the Resurrection from 
 the dead. The first was the materialistic school, represented by the 
 Epicureans among the heathen and by the Sadducees among the Jews. 
 They thought that man would entirely cease to exist after death, and 
 that any other idea was only the result of man's vanity and his insatiable 
 longing after existence. The second, in which the Stoics were the 
 most prominent body, taught, what amounted to the same thing, the 
 Pantheistic doctrine of the ultimate reabsorption of the soul into the 
 Divinity from which it had sprung, and therefore the final extinction 
 of the individual personality. The third school, of which the disciples 
 of Plato were the chief representatives, while maintaining the eternal 
 personality and immortality of the soul, regarded matter as the cause of 
 all evil, the only barrier between the soul and the Absolute Good, a 
 thing, in fact, essentially and eternally alien to the Divine, and thei^e- 
 fore could not conceive of immortality except through the entire 
 freedom of the soul from so malignant and corrupting an influence. 
 Hence the doctrine of the Resurrection of the Body was the princi- 
 pal stumbling-block in the way of an early reception of Christianity. 
 It aroused the antagonism of an influential section among the Jews 
 (Acts iv. I, 2, V. 17, xxiii. 6 — 9), and was considered by heathen 
 philosophers inadmissible and absurd (Acts xvii. 32). This doctrine 
 for many centuries has proved the principal hindrance to the progress' 
 of Christianity. It produced the numerous Gnostic sects, which were 
 willing to accept the doctrine of eternal life through Christ, so long as 
 it was not encumbered by the necessity of believing in the resurrection 
 of the body. The Manichaeans and their followers maintained for many 
 centuries a conflict with the Christian Church, mainly on this point, and 
 were able for many years to boast of so distinguished a convert as 
 St Augustine, who describes them, after his return to the Church, as 
 holding that "Christ came to deliver not bodies but souls." De Haer. 
 46. For information concerning the tenets of the heathen philosophers 
 on this point, the student may consult Archer Butler's Lectures on 
 Philosophy ; for the early Christian heretics, Neander and Gieseler's 
 Church Histories^ and Hansel's Gnostic Heresies, and for both Ueberweg's 
 History of Philosophy. 
 
 13. But if thei'e be no resurrection of the dead] The question has 
 here been raised, against whom was St Paul contending? against those 
 who maintained the immortality of the soul, but denied the resurrection 
 of the body, or those who maintained that man altogether ceased to 
 exist after death ? Verses 1 9 and 32 would appear to point to the latter 
 class, but this (see note on z/. 17) cannot be affirmed with certainty. 
 
vv. 14, 15.] I. CORINTHIANS, XV. 145 
 
 Christ not risen : and if Christ be not risen, then is our 14 
 preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we 15 
 are found folse witnesses of God ; because we have testified 
 of God that he raised up Christ : whom he raised not up, if 
 
 There were some, moreover (see 2 Tim. ii. 17, 18), who perverted 
 St Paul's teaching (Rom. vi. 4; Eph. ii. 6; Col. ii. 12, 13, iii. i) into 
 the doctrine that the resurrection taught by the Apostles of Jesus was 
 the spiritual awakening from sin to righteousness, the quickening of 
 moral and spiritual energies into activity and predominance. The fact 
 would seem to be that St Paul so contrived his argument as to deal 
 with all antagonists at once. The whole question whether there were 
 a future life or not, according to him, depended on the fact of Christ's 
 Resurrection. If He were risen, then a resurrection of all mankind 
 was not probable, but certain. If He were not risen, then there was 
 not only no resurrection, but no immortality, no future life at all (cf. 
 2 Tim. i. 10; Heb. ii. 14, as well as vv. 45—49 of this chapter). 
 
 then is Christ not rise/i] If a resurrection from the dead be im- 
 possible, the principle embraces the Resurrection of Christ Himself, 
 which, if this postulate be granted, becomes at once either a mistake 
 or an imposture. And since, on the Apostle's principles, there is no 
 hope of a future life but through Him, we are driven to the conclusion 
 — a reductio ad absiirdinn — that "the answer to His prayer 'Father, 
 into Thy hands I commend My spirit,' was Annihilation! that He 
 Who had made His life one perpetual act of consecration to His 
 Father's service received for His reward the same fate as attended 
 the blaspheming malefactor," Robertson. And we must infer also, he 
 continues, that as the true disciples of Christ in all ages have led purer, 
 humbler, more self-sacrificing lives than other men, they have attained 
 to this higher excellence by "believing what was false," and that there- 
 fore men become more "pure and noble" by believing what is false 
 than by believing what is true. 
 
 14. vaiiil i. e. useless^ in vain, as we say. Literally, empty. Vulg. 
 inanis. " You have a vaine faith if you believe in a dead man. He 
 might be true man, though He remained in death. But it concerns you 
 to believe that He was the Son of God too. And He was 'declared to 
 be the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead.' 
 Rom. i. 4." Dr Donne, Sermon on Easter Day. 
 
 15. Yea, and we are found false witnesses^ Not only is our authori- 
 tative proclamation of Christ's Resurrection useless, but it is even false, 
 though it has been made from the beginning. See Acts i, 22, ii, 24, 
 iii, 15, 21, iv. 2, 10, 33, V. 30, X, 40, xiii, 30, 33, 34, &c. Dean 
 Stanley reminds us that this Epistle was written within twenty-five years 
 of the event to which it refers with such unhesitating confidence. Yet 
 that event is not merely affirmed, but is actually made the foundation 
 of the Apostle's whole argument. "There is a certain instinct with- 
 in us generally which enables us to detect when a man is speaking 
 the truth, ...Truth, so to speak, has a certain ring by which it may be 
 known. Now, this chapter rings with truth." Robertson. It certainly 
 
 I. COR. 10 
 
146 I. CORINTHIANS, XV. [vv. 16—20. 
 
 i'^ so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then 
 17 is not Christ raised : and if Christ be not raised, your faith 
 is is vain ; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are 
 19 fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we 
 £0 have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. But 
 
 has not the appearance of having been written by a man who was 
 endeavouring to persuade others of what he did not believe himself. 
 
 of God] i. e. concerning Him, but the genitive (which is here found 
 in the original) implies also that they had claimed to be God's special 
 ministers and witnesses. 
 
 17. yozir faith is vain ; ye are yet in your sins\ Christ came, 
 not only to make reconciliation for sin, but to free us from it, Cf. 
 Rom. vi. II — 23, viii. 2. And this He did by proclaiming a Life. 
 He first conquered sin Himself. Then He offered the acceptable 
 vSacrifice of His pure and unpolluted life to God in the place of our 
 corrupt and sinful lives. And then, having at once vindicated the 
 righteousness of God's law and fulfilled it, He arose from the dead. 
 Having thus led sin and death captive, He redeemed us from 
 the power of both by imparting His own Life to all who would enter 
 into covenant with Him. Thus the Resurrection of Christ was the 
 triumph of humanity (see v. i\) over sin and death; the reversal of the 
 sentence, 'the soul that sinneth, it shall die.' Had He not risen from 
 the dead, humanity had not triumphed, the sentence had not been 
 reversed, man had not been delivered from the yoke of sin, and there- 
 fore those who had 'fallen asleep' could never wake again, "None 
 of these things would have taken place, had He not emerged victor 
 from the conflict by rising again." Calvin. 
 
 18. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Chj'ist'] See note on 
 ch, vii, 39, "The word does not apply to the soul, for that does not 
 sleep (Luke xvi. 22, 23, xxiii, 43), but it describes the state of the 
 bodies of those who sleep in Jesus," Wordsworth. 
 
 are perished] "You are required to believe that those who died in 
 the field of battle, bravely giving up their lives for others, died even as 
 the false and coward dies. You are required to believe that when there 
 arose a great cry at midnight, and the wreck went down, they who 
 passed out of the world with the oath of blasphemy or the shriek of 
 despair, shared the same fate with those who calmly resigned their 
 departing spirits into their Father's hand ;" in short, "that those whose 
 affections were so pure and good that they seemed to tell you of an 
 eternity, perished as utterly as the selfish and impure. If from this you 
 shrink as from a thing derogatory to God, then there remains but that 
 conclusion to which St Paul conducts us, 'Now is Christ risen from the 
 dead,'" Robertson, 
 
 19. 7ve are of all men most viiserable] Literally, more to be pitied 
 than all men. Because of the sufferings and labours and persecutions 
 they endured for a creed which was false after all. See notes on ch. iv. 
 9-13. 
 
\^. 21-23.] I. CORINTHIANS, XV. 147 
 
 now is Christ risen from the dead, a7id become the firstfruits 
 of them that slept. For since by man catne death, by man sr 
 came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all 22 
 die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every 23 
 man in his own order : Christ the firstfruits ; afterward they 
 
 20. But ncnv is Christ risen from the dead] St Paul considers it 
 needless to argue the point further. He appeals not so much to the 
 reason — -on points like this (see ch. ii. 14) it is likely to deceive us — as 
 to the moral instincts of every human being. Of course a man has 
 power to stifle them, but they tell him plainly enough that love of 
 purity and truth, desire of immortality, belief in the love and justice 
 of God, are no vain dreams, as they would be if the ' wise man died 
 as the fool ' (Eccl. ii. 16). Accordingly, the Apostle now [vv. 20 — 28) 
 proceeds to unfold the laws of God's spiritual kingdom as facts which 
 cannot be gainsaid. He may appeal (as in vv. 29 — 32) to his own 
 practice and that of others as a confinnation of what he says. But from 
 henceforth he speaks with authority. He wastes no more time in 
 discussion. 
 
 and become the firstfruits of them that slept] The firstfruits (Lev. 
 xxiii. 10) were \.\\.q first ripe corn, under the Law, solemnly offered to 
 God, a fit type of Him Who first presented our ripened humanity 
 before the Throne of God, an earnest of the mighty harvest hereafter to 
 be gathered. 
 
 21, For since by 77ian came death] Cf. Rom. v. 12, 17, vi. 21, 23; 
 James i. 15; and the narrative in Gen, iii, 
 
 by man came also the resurrection of the dead] Athanasius remarks 
 that here we have not trapa. but Ilo., as pointing out that even in Jesus 
 Christ man was not the source, but the means of the blessings given to 
 mankind in Him; that He took man's nature in order to fill it, and 
 through it us, each in our measure, with all the perfections of His 
 Godhead, "As by partaking of the flesh and blood, the substance of 
 the first Adam, we came to our death, so to life we cannot come 
 unless we do participate in the flesh and blood of the Second Adatn, 
 that is, Christ. We drew death from the first by partaking of the 
 substance; and so we must draw life from the second by the same. 
 This is the way; become branches of the Vine and partakers of His 
 Nature, and so of His life and verdure both." Bp Andrewes, Serm. 2 
 on the Resurrection. 
 
 22, For as in Adam all die] In the possession of a common nature 
 with Adam all mankind are liable to death. 
 
 even so in Chiist shall all be made alive] By possession of a common 
 nature with Christ all shall partake of that Resurrection to which He 
 has already attained. Cf. St John v. 21, vi, 27, 39 — 58, xi. 25. 
 
 23. But every man in his ozcn order] This explains why the last 
 verb in v. 22 is in the future, Christ's resurrection must necessarily 
 precede in order the resurrection of the rest of mankind, for as in the 
 world at large, so in every individual, the natural necessarily {v. 46) 
 precedes the spiritual. Christ's mediatorial work was, in truth, but 
 
148 T. CORINTHIANS, XV. [v. 24. 
 
 ?4 that are Christ's at his coming. Then cometh the end, when 
 he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the 
 Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all 
 
 begun when He ascended to His Father. It continues in the gradual 
 destruction of the empire of sin, the 'bringing into captivity every 
 thought to the obedience of Christ ' (2 Cor. x. 5). Meanwhile the 
 natural order for the present still exists. We live under it, subject to 
 the law of sin and death, until Christ, having first destroyed the 
 former {ziv. 24, 25), shall finally, as a consequence, destroy the latter 
 {v. 26), and then, and not till then, shall we be made fully partakers of 
 the completed work of Christ. 
 
 Christ the fa'stfruitsX Cf. Acts xxvi. 23; Col. i. 18; Rev. i. 5; also 
 St John xiv. 19. "How should He be overcome by corruption, \Yho 
 gave to many others the power of living again? Hence He is called 
 ' the first-born from the dead,' ' the firstfruits of them that slept.' " 
 Cyril of Alexandria. 
 
 at his coviing\ The word here translated coming is most nearly ex- 
 pressed by our English word arrival. It implies both the coming and 
 having come. See ch. xvi. 17; 2 Cor. vii. 6. It is the usual word used 
 for the Second Coming of Christ, as in St Matt. xxiv. 3, 27, 37, 39, and 
 I Thess. iii. 13, iv. 15. We are not restored to life until Christ comes 
 again, because not till then will the present, or natural order of things, 
 be brought to an end, and the spiritual order of things be finally and 
 fully inaugurated, so that ' God will be all in all.' See succeeding 
 notes, and note on last verse. 
 
 24. Then cometh the end'\ The end, the completion, that is, of the 
 present order of things, when sin and death cease to be, and ' the 
 kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of 
 His Christ,' Rev. xi. 15. 
 
 when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father\ 
 The passage suggests to us the idea of a prince, the heir-apparent of the 
 kingdom, going out to war, and bringing the spoils and trophies of his 
 conquest to his father's feet. Such an idea must have recurred with 
 fresh vividness to the minds of the early Christians a few years after- 
 wards, when they saw Titus bringing the spoils of the holy city of the 
 old covenant, the ' figure of the true,' to his father Vespasian, and 
 must have led them to look forward with eager expectation to the time 
 when types and shadows should have their end, and the kingdom be 
 the Lord's, and He the governor among the people. At the Last Day, 
 Christ as man shall receive the submission of all God's enemies, and 
 then lay them, all His triumphs, all those whom He has delivered 
 captive from the hand of the enemy, at His Father's feet. "Not," 
 says Estius, "that Christ shall cease to reign," for *of His kingdom 
 there shall be no end,' St Luke i. 33 (cf Dan. vii. 14; Heb. i. 8, ii. 8), 
 Init that He will, by laying all His conquests at His Father's feet, pro- 
 claim Him as the source of all authority and power. There were certain 
 heretics, the followers of Marcellus of Ancyra, who taught that Christ's 
 kingdom should come to an end, holding the error of the Sabellians 
 
vv. 25—27.] I. CORINTHIANS, XV. 149 
 
 authority and power. For he must reign, till he hath put 25 
 all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be 26 
 destroyed is death. For he hath put all things under 27 
 his feet. But when //^saith, all things are put under /«';;;, 
 
 that Christ was an emanation from the Father, and would be finally re- 
 absorbed into the Father's personality. It is supposed that the words, 
 " Whose kingdom shall have no end," were inserted in the Nicene 
 Creed at the Council of Constantinople, A. D. 381, with a view to this 
 error. The words, God, even the Father-, are perhaps best translated 
 into English by God the Father. So Tyndale renders. 
 
 when he shall have put doxvn all rule and all authority and powe)''] 
 Put dozun, literally, brought to an end. See ch. xiii. 10. All ride, 
 that is, all exercise of authority save his own; pnncehead, Wiclif; all 
 aiUhority, that is, the right to exercise dominion; all power (virtus, 
 Vulg. ; vertii, Wiclif, see note on ch. i. 18), that is, all the inherent 
 faculty of exercising authority. For earthly relations, such as those of 
 father, magistrate, governor, prince, are but partial types and manifes- 
 tations of the Divine Headship. Even Christ's Humanity is but the 
 revelation and manifestation of the Being of God. But * when that 
 which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done 
 away.' Such human relations shall cease, for they shall be no more 
 needed. Cf. Col. ii. 10. 
 
 25. For he nmst 7-eig)i\ i.e. Christ as Man and Mediator. For at pre- 
 sent we can only discern God through the medium of Christ's Humanity. 
 Cf. St John xii. 45, xiv. 9. In the end, we shall be able to ' see Him 
 as He is,' i John iii. 2. For the present He must reign in His Church, 
 in His sacraments and ordinances, in His ministers, ecclesiastical and 
 secular (Rom. xiii. 4, 6), all of them (see last note) the reflex of His 
 power as He sits at God's Right Hand. 
 
 till he hath put all enemies tinder his feef] Either (r) the Father, Who 
 put all things under His Son, or (2) Christ, Who puts all things under 
 His own feet. The analogy of Ps. ex. i (cf. St Matt. xxii. 44) would 
 cause us to suppose the former; the grammatical construction, as well 
 as the course of the argument, the latter. The enemies are all who 
 ' oppose and exalt themselves above all that is called God or an object of 
 worship' (2 Thess. ii. 4), and therein especially pride of rank, wealth, 
 intellect, reason, whatever casts off or disowns the universal empire of 
 God. Cf. Eph. i. 21, 22; Phil. ii. 10, iii. 21 (in the Greek); Heb. i. 4. 
 "This passage," says Cyril of Jerusalem, "no more implies a cessa- 
 tion of the reign of Christ than the words ' from Adam until Moses ' 
 (Rom. V. 14) imply a 'cessation of sin after Moses.'" 
 
 26. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death'] Cf. Rev. xx. 14. 
 Death shall be the last of all, because (Rom. vi. 23) it is the 'wages of 
 sin,' and must continue to exist until sin has come to an end. Then 
 what we know as death, the separation of soul and body, the disso- 
 lution of the complex nature, of man into its constituent elements, shall 
 henceforth cease to be. 
 
 27. For he hath put all things under his feet] Here the meaning 
 
I50 I. CORINTHIANS, XV. [v. 28. 
 
 // is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things 
 
 iS under him. And when all things shall be subdued unto 
 
 him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him 
 
 that put all things under him, that God may be all in all. 
 
 clearly is (see Ps. viii. 6, and the rest of this verse) that the Father hath 
 put all things under the feet of the Son. "All things are put under His 
 feet," says Cyril of Alexandria, "because He made all things." St 
 John i. 3, 10; Eph. iii. 9; Col. i. 16; Heb. i. 1. 
 
 it is manifest that he is excepted^ which did put all things binder hin{\ 
 This passage ought to be compared with the analogous one in Heb. ii. 
 7 — 9. Each of these supplies what is wanting in the other. In the 
 one we have the Son, the manifestation of the Father's glory and love, 
 bringing everything in this lower world, which the Father has put 
 under Him, into the most complete subjection to, and the most entire 
 union with, His Heavenly Father. In the other we see the Eternal 
 Father, while permitting, for His own wise purposes, the humiliation 
 and suffering of Christ, doing so in order that all things should finally 
 be put in subjection to 'His Beloved Son, in Whom He was well 
 pleased.' 
 
 28. And when all things shall be suhdtied tinto hint] If everything is 
 put under Christ, it is in order that there may be no divided empire. 
 ' I and my Father are One,' He said (St John x. 30). Cf. St John 
 xvii. II, 22, as well as ch. iii. 23, xi. 3 of this Epistle. 
 
 then shall the Son also hijnself be subject nnto hi?}t that put aH 
 things under hint] This passage is one of great difficulty. Athanasius 
 gives two explanations of it ; ( i ) in his treatise De Incarnatione, that 
 Christ is subject to God not in Himself, but in His members; (2) in 
 his first dialogue against the Macedonians (so also Chrysostom), that 
 Christ is subject not by the nature of His Divinity, but by the dispensa- 
 tion of His Humanity. "For this subjection," he further remarks, 
 "no more involves inferiority of ^jj-mr^, than His subjection (St Luke ii. 
 51) to Joseph and Mary involved inferiority of essence to them." 
 Hooker remarks (3) of Christ's mediatorial kingdom on earth, that 
 "the exercise thereof shall cease, there being no longer on earth any 
 militant Church to govern," and regards the passage as referring 
 to the surrender, on Christ's part, of that mediatorial kingdom at the 
 end of the world. Cyril of Jemsalem (4) regards the subjection as 
 one of voluntaiy siirrender, as opposed to necessity. But perhaps (5) 
 the true explanation may be suggested by the passage in Phil, ii., as 
 translated by some, ' He snatched not gi-eedily at His equality with 
 God.' Though He were God, yet He was always a Son. And the 
 object of His mediatorial work was not, as that of the unregenerate man 
 would have been, to obtain this kingdom for Himself, but for His 
 Father. See St Matt. xxvi. 39; St John v. 30, vi. 38, vii. 18, viii. 50, 
 54; Eph. i. 10. So that the disorder and confusion of the universe 
 shall henceforth cease, and one vast system of order, peace and love 
 shall reign from the Father and source of all things, down to the 
 meanest creature to whom He has given to have eternal life. And 
 
V. 29.] I. CORINTHIANS, XV. 151 
 
 ■ Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if 29 
 the dead rise not at all ? why are they then baptized for the 
 
 this was the object of His Resurrection from the dead. See last 
 note. 
 
 that God may he all in all] The restoration of God's kingdom over 
 the moral and spiritual part of man was the object of Christ's Mission 
 on earth, St Matt. iii. 2, iv. 17, v. 3, 10, vi. 10, 33, and ch. xiii.; St John 
 iii. 5, 17; Rom. viii. 2, 4. This was to be brought to pass by 
 means of the revelation of the Divine perfections in the Man Christ 
 Jesus, St John i. 14, xiv. 8 — 10; Col. i. 19, ii. 9. God was thus 
 revealed to us, that we might obtain fellowship with Him. vSee St John 
 xvi. 23 — 28; Rom. V. 2; Eph. ii. 18, iii. 12; Heb. x. 20. "Therefore 
 He is called the doof, and the 7uay, because by Him we are brought 
 nigh to God." Athanasius. And thus in the end each believer 
 will have immediate and individual relations, not only with the Man 
 Christ Jesus, but with the whole of the Blessed Trinity. See note on 
 ch. xiii. 12. For all in all see ch. xii. 6. Theodoret remarks that the 
 same expression is used of Christ in Col. iii. 11. Cf. St John xvii. 22, 23, 
 xiv. 23, xvi. 7, 13, 14; I John ii. 24, iv. 13. 
 
 29. Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead] St Paul 
 now abruptly changes the subject, and appeals to the conduct of 
 Christians as a witness to their belief. This is again a passage of 
 extreme difficulty, and it would be impossible to noticp one tithe of the 
 explanations which have been proposed of it. We will only touch on 
 three : { i ) the natural and obvious explanation that the Apostle was 
 here referring to a practice, prevalent in his day, of persons permitting 
 themselves to be baptized on behalf of their dead relatives and friends. 
 This interpretation is confirmed by the fact that Tertullian, in the third 
 century, mentions such a practice as existing in his time. But there is 
 great force in Robertson's objection: "There is an immense impro- 
 bability that Paul could have sustained a superstition so abject, even by 
 an allusion. He could not have spoken of it without anger." The 
 custom never obtained in the Church, and though mentioned by 
 Tertullian, is as likely to have been a consequence of this passage 
 as its cause. Then there is (2) the suggestion of St Chrysostom, that 
 inasmuch as baptism was a death unto sin and a resurrection unto 
 righteousness, every one who was baptized was baptized for the dead, 
 i.e. for himself spiritually dead in trespasses and sins; and not only 
 for himself, but for others, inasmuch as he proclaimed openly his faith 
 in that Resurrection of Christ which was as efficacious on others' 
 behalf as on his own. There remains (3) an interpretation suggested 
 by some commentators and supported by the context, which would 
 refer it to the baptism of trial and suffering through which the disciples 
 of Christ were called upon to go, which would be utterly useless and 
 absurd if it had been, and continued to be, undergone for the dying 
 and for the dead {vv. 6, 18). The use of the present tense in the verb 
 baptized, the close connection of the second member of the sentence 
 with the first, and the use of the word baptized in this sense in St 
 
152 I. CORINTHIANS, XV. [w. 30—32. 
 
 31 dead ? And why stand we in jeopardy every hour ? I protest 
 by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I 
 
 32 die daily. If after the manner of men I have fought with 
 beasts at Ephesus, what advantageth it me, if the dead rise 
 
 Matt. iii. ii and xx. 22, are the grounds on which this interjDretation may 
 be maintained. 
 
 30. Ajid why stand we in jeopardy every hotirf] Not only those who 
 were daily being baptized for the dead witnessed to the universal belief 
 among Christians in a resurrection, but the lives of daily peril in which 
 St Paul and the other missionaries of the Gospel lived were sufficient 
 evidence that they did not conceive all their hopes to be summed up in 
 this life. 
 
 Jeopardy'] Pereil, Wiclif. Jeoperty, Tyndal. This word is derived 
 from the Yr&Vich.jeii parti, drawn game. It is speltyz^/ar/zVby Chaucer, 
 and is mentioned by Ben Jonson as one of three English words only in 
 which the diphthong eo appears. The others are yeoman and people. 
 Leopard was probably a trisyllable in his day. The other derivations, 
 jeii. pej-dii, given by Minsheu in his Ductor in Lijigiias, published in 
 161 7, and J^ai pei-dtt, seem less agreeable to the meaning of the 
 word, which clearly indicates a position of the utmost danger, in which 
 the chances for death and life are equal. Cf. Shakspeare's "at the 
 hazard of a die." 
 
 31. I protest by your rejoicing] The word here rendered r,?;b/a«^ is 
 translated boasting in Rom. iii. 27, and less correctly whereof I may 
 glory in Rom. xv. 17. It may mean either (i) that St Paul boasted of 
 the fruits of faith in his Corinthian converts, or better (2) that their 
 boasting in Christ was also his by reason of their common indwelling in 
 Jesus Christ, Whom he had been permitted to minister to them. Cf 
 2 Cor. i. 14, iii. 3. He makes this asseveration, because it was to that 
 daily death of his (ch. iv. 9 — 13) that they owed their conversion. 
 
 / die daily] Cf. Rom. vi. 3, 4, 11, vii. 24, viii. 13, 36; 2 Cor. i. 9, 
 iv. 10 — 12; Gal. ii. 20, v. 24, vi. 14; Col. ii. 20, iii. 3, 5. The death 
 of Christ was a death to sin, a death which must be imitated in His 
 disciples by their putting all the sinful affections of their bodies to a 
 lingering death. But such a task they would never be likely to under- 
 take, but for the prospect of a Resurrection. 
 
 32. If after the nianner of men] After man, Wiclif. Either (i) as 
 margin, ' to speak after the manner of men,' or (2) for purely hiunan 
 a7id temporal objects, like those of men in general. See for this expression 
 ch. iii. 3, and Rom. iii. 5, Gal. i. 11, iii. 15. 
 
 / have fought with beasts at Ephesus] It must have been a metaphori- 
 cal, not a literal fighting with beasts of which the Apostle spoke. His 
 Roman citizenship (Acts xvi. 37, xxii. 25) protected him from being 
 thrown to the lions in the arena. And it is generally believed that he 
 eventually died by the sword, as a Roman citizen. He means to say 
 that he contended with men who had the passions of beasts (as in Acts 
 xix. 29 — 34, though it is not certain that this particular event had yet 
 occuiTcd). So did Ignatius afterwards, Mho, referring to the demeanour 
 
vv. 33—35.] I. CORINTHIANS, XV. 153 
 
 not? let us eat and drink ; for to morrow we die. Be 33 
 not deceived : evil communications corrupt good manners. 
 Awake to righteousness, and sin not: for some have notst 
 the knowledge of God : I speak this to your shame. 
 
 But some man will say. How are the dead raised up ? 35 
 
 of the Roman legionaries by whom he was conducted to Rome, says, 
 "I am bound to ten leopards, that is, a troop of soldiers, who are 
 only made worse by kindnesses." Cf. Ad Ro?na7ios 5. 2 Tim. iv. 17. 
 Also Ps. xxii. 20, 21, XXXV. 17. 
 
 7vhat advantagdh it 7?ie] i.e. as we should say, where is the use of it f 
 let us eat and drink ; for to morrowwe die\ "With our hopes of 
 immortality gone, the value of humanity ceases " and life becomes not 
 worth living. " Go, then, to the sensualist. Tell him that the pleasure 
 of doing right is a sublimer existence than that of self-indulgence. 
 He will answer you... 'The victory is uncertain, present enjoyment is 
 sure. '...Do you think you can arrest that with some fine sentiment 
 about nobler and baser being? Why, you have made him out to be 
 base yourself. He dies, you tell him, like a dog. Why should he live 
 like an angel?... The instincts of the animal will be more than a match 
 for all the transcendental reasonings of the philosopher." Robertson. 
 Perhaps the words, ' if the dead rise not,' should be .taken in connec- 
 tion with this sentence, rather than with that which precedes. 
 
 33. ez'il comnninications corrupt good ma7iners'\ This passage is 
 taken from the Thais of Menander, and like Acts xvii. 28 and Tit. i. 
 12, shews that St Paul was familiar with classical literature. 
 
 34. Awake to righteous7tess'\ The word here translated ' Awake ' 
 signifies to arise from the stupefaction of a slumber produced by over- 
 indulgence (cf. ch. vi. II, xii. 2). The word translated 'to righteous- 
 ness,' literally righteously, may either mean (i) as is just and proper, 
 or (2) to what is just and proper, or (3) as in our version, so as to become 
 righteous. The Vulgate renders by yV/j-//, W^iclif by yVw/^ wtvz. Tyndale 
 truel}\ Luther recht (i. e. rightly, properly), Calvin juste. Diodati has 
 giustamente. De Sacy follows the Vulgate. 
 
 for sofjie have not the knozuledge of God'\ The original is remarkable; 
 some have ignoi-ance of God. So Wiclif. Cf. ch. xiv. 38. As there 
 were some among them who denied the resurrection, so there were 
 some who were ready to pervert such denial to every form of fleshly 
 indulgence. See Phil. iii. 18, 19; 2 Pet. ii. 10, 18 — 22; Jude 4, 7, 
 8, 10. 
 
 I speak this to your shaine^ The original is even stronger, to shafne 
 you. To reucrence, Wiclif, following the Vulgate. To youre rebuke, 
 Tyndale. Ad pudoreju incutiendufji, Calvin. St Paul was usually very 
 anxious to spare the feelings of his converts (2 Cor. i. 23, ii. 3). But 
 when the question was of making shipwreck of Christian purity, he had 
 no such scruples. See 2 Cor. vii. 9, xii. 20, xiii. 2, 10. 
 
 35. B7it some vian will say, IIot.v are the dead raised up ?'\ We now 
 proceed from \hQ,faci of the resurrection to its manner, a question which 
 
154 I. CORINTHIANS, XV. [vv. 36, 2>1. 
 
 36 and with what body do they come ? Thou fool, that which 
 
 37 thou sowest is not quickened, except it die : and that which 
 thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but 
 
 the Apostle discusses as far as v. 54, where he begins to treat of its 
 result. 
 
 and with what body do they come ?] It was the doctrine of the Resur- 
 rection of the body which was the stumbling-block of many hearers of 
 the Gospel. Estius remarks that the Pharisees taught that men would 
 rise again with bodies possessing in every respect the same functions as 
 those in which they were laid in the grave. This was a difficulty to 
 many, especially to the Sadducees. See St Matt. xxii. 23 — 33. To 
 remove these difficulties St Paul now explains the nature (Trot'os) of the 
 Resurrection body, and of the process whereby it is brought into being. 
 
 36. Thou fool] Literally, man without understanding. In- 
 sipienSy Vulg. Unzvise man, Wiclif. The stronger term fool (Aicop6s) 
 (except in ch. iii. 18, iv. 10) seems in the Scriptures to imply mo?'al 
 as w'ell as intellectual error. 
 
 that which thou soiaest] The word thou is emphatic in the original : 
 "Thou who art mortal and perishing." Chrysostom. "The force 
 or emphasis may be gathered thus. If God doth give a body unto that 
 seed which thoii sowest for thine own use and benefit, much more will 
 the same God give a body unto the seed which He himself doth sow." 
 Dr J. Jackson. 
 
 is not quickened, except it die\ " Thus what they made a sure sign of 
 our not rising again he makes a proof of our rising." Chrysostom. 
 Cf. St John xii. 24. It is a law of the spiritual as well as the natural 
 world that decay is the parent of life. From the Fall came corruption, 
 from ' the likeness of sinful flesh ' a new and higher life. Humanity 
 died to sin in Christ : it arose again to righteousness in Him. 
 
 37. and that which thou soiuest'] "There are two parts in this 
 similitude : first that it is not wonderful that bodies should arise again 
 from corruption, since the same thing happens in the case of the seed ; 
 and next that it is not contrary to nature that our bodies should be 
 endowed with new qualities, when from naked grain God produces so 
 many ears clothed with a wonderful workmanship." Calvin. Tyndale 
 renders. And zvhat soiuest thou ? 
 
 thou sozvest not that body that shall be] "The same, yet not the 
 same. The same, because the essence is the same ; but not the same, 
 because the latter is the more excellent." Chrysostom. The iden- 
 tity of the body does not depend upon its material particles, because 
 physicists tell us that these are in a continual flux, and that in the 
 course of seven years every material particle in the body has been 
 changed. Personal identity depends upon the principle of continuity. 
 The risen body arises out of that which has seen corruption, in the 
 same way as the plant out of its germ. The length of time that 
 elapses is nothing to Him to Whom ' a thousand years are but as one 
 day. ' But as the seed is to all appearance very difflsrent to the plant 
 which arises from it, although science tells us that it contains that 
 
vv. 38—40.] I- CORINTHIANS, XV. 155 
 
 bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other g7'ain : 
 but God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to 3S 
 every seed his own body. All flesh is not the same flesh : 39 
 but tJwe is one /C'/;/^ (?/ flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, 
 another of fishes, and another of birds. There are also 40 
 celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial : but the glory of the 
 
 whole plant in miniature, as the Body of Jesus after His Resurrection 
 was endowed with many strange and new qualities (St John xx. 19, 26) 
 so as often to be unrecognizable by His disciples (St Luke xxiv. 16, 
 31, 37; St John XX. 14, xxi. 4) though yet it was the same body (St 
 Luke xxiv. 39, 40; St John xx. ^o, 27); so we learn that the body we 
 sow in the grave is 'not that body that shall be,' but that the resur- 
 rection body— the spiritual body — while it exhibits visible and unequi- 
 vocal signs of its connection with the body out of which it has arisen, 
 will be possessed of many wondrous faculties which are denied to us 
 here. See notes on next verse and on vv. 42 — 44, and cf. Rom. viii. 11 
 (margin), Rev. xxi. 4. 
 
 but bare gratji] i.e. naked grain. A nakid com, Wiclif. Our ver- 
 sion follows Tyndale here, only substituting grain for come. 
 
 38. but God giveth it a body as it hatli pleased hini] Literally, as 
 He willed. Cf. ch. xii. 1 1 (where however the word is not the same 
 in the Greek). " Life even in its lowest form has the power of assi- 
 milating to itself atoms." Robertson. And these are arranged and 
 developed according to the law that God has impressed on each seed. 
 
 and to every seed his own body] " That body with which it is raised 
 may be called its own body, and yet it is a new body. It is raised 
 anew with stem and leaves and fruit, and yet all the while we know 
 that it- is no new corn : it is the old life in the seed reappearing, de- 
 veloped in a higher form." Robertson. 
 
 39. A/l flesh is not the same flesh] The same principle is now ap- 
 plied to animate which has been applied to inanimate nature. There 
 are different varieties and forms of bodily life (adp^). The Apostle in 
 this and the two following verses lays down the doctrine (see note on 
 V. 42) that the life hereafter will depend in every way upon the life 
 here ; that the body raised will correspond to the body sow^n ; that the 
 character impressed upon it during this life will remain with it through- 
 out eternity. And this not merely in the broad general distinction 
 between good and bad (see Gal. vi. 7, 8) but in the minuter shades of 
 individual character. Recent editors, following the best MSS. and ver- 
 sions, place fishes in their proper place, last in the text, as in zoological 
 order. 
 
 40. There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial] The principle 
 is now further extended to the heavenly bodies, and another argument 
 thus drawn from the close analogy which subsists between the king- 
 dom of nature and the kingdom of grace. Meyer, De Wette, and 
 Alford consider the heavenly bodies to be those of angels. But we 
 nowhere read of angels having bodies, though we read of their assuming 
 
156 I. CORINTHIANS, XV. [vv. 41— 43. 
 
 celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. 
 
 41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the 
 moon, and another glory of the stars : for one star differeth 
 
 42 from a?iother star in glory. So also is the resurrection of 
 the dead. It is sown in corruption ; it is raised in incor- 
 
 43 ruption : it is sown in dishonour ; it is raised in glory : it is 
 
 visible forms. Chrysostom refers the phi-ase to the resurrection bodies. 
 This is unquestionably the meaning of eirovpavLos in v. 48: but here 
 it would seem to be in more strict opposition to eiriyeLos, that which 
 exists on the eaj-th^ since the Apostle refers to the sun, moon, and stars 
 as * heavenly bodies ' in the next verse. 
 
 hit the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is 
 another'\ The celestial body is superior to the terrestrial. In like 
 manner, and to a similar extent, shall the risen body surpass the present 
 human organism. 
 
 41. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon} 
 The argument is pushed a step farther. The celestial bodies are not 
 all alike. They differ in beauty and excellency. And so to all eternity 
 it shall be true of men raised and in possession of their heavenly bodies, 
 that 'one star differeth from another star in glory.' So Chrysostom 
 on V. 38. " Augustine elegantly says, 'splendor dispar: coelum 
 commune.' " Wordsworth. An erroneous interpretation of St Matt. xx. 
 10 has led some to the conclusion that all rewards shall be exactly alike 
 in the world to come. As the Apostle here shews, the analogy of 
 nature makes against this in every way. And the passage just cited has 
 reference not to the equality of rezvards, but of the principle on which 
 such rewards are given. The labourer is rewarded, not for length of 
 service, but for the spirit in v/hich that service has been rendered. 
 
 42. So also is the resurrection of the dead] The fact is now plainly 
 stated that all shall not possess the same degree of glory in heaven. 
 ' So,^ i.e. as has been before stated. But St Paul goes on to deal less 
 with the fact than with the manner in which the fact is accomplished. 
 
 It is sown in corruptioji ; it is raised in inco7-rnption'\ Cf. Rom. 
 viii. 21 ; Col. ii. 22; 2 Pet. i. 4 for corruption (in the Greek). And for 
 incorrtiption see Rom. ii. 7, Eph. vi. 24 (margin), 2 Tim. i. 10, and 
 Tit. ii. 7. The English version in the first and third of these passages 
 renders by inunortality, in the second and fourth by sincerity. The 
 rendering in the text is the more accurate. 
 
 43. it is so%vn in dishonour; it is raised in glory"] The dishonour is, 
 of course, corruption, with its revolting accompaniments. What the 
 glory will be we may learn, to a certain extent, from the Transfiguration 
 of our Lord, and from the account of the majesty and splendour of 
 His Resurrection-Body in Rev. i. 13 — 16. Cyril of Jerusalem, after 
 citing Daniel xii. 3 and St Matt. xiii. 43, goes on to say that "God, 
 foreseeing the unbelief of man, gave to the smallest of worms to emit 
 beams of light, that thereby might be inferred what was to be looked 
 for in the world to come." 
 
vv. 44, 45.] I. CORINTHIANS, XV. 157 
 
 sown in weakness ; it is raised in power : it is sown a u 
 natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a 
 natural body, and there is a spiritual body. And so it is 45 
 written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; 
 
 7/ j's scTuin in toeakness; it is raised in J>ozc>cr] For pmvcr see note on 
 ch. i. 18. What the loeakness is, we scarcely need to inquire. Decay 
 of strength and vitality, ending in the absolute powerlessness of death, 
 is the destiny of the body which is to be laid in the grave. But when it 
 is raised, not only can it never be subject to the same weakness again, 
 but it will be endowed with new faculties, as superior to those of the 
 former body as those of the plant are to those of the seed. 
 
 44. it is scnvn a natural body ; it is raised a spiritual body"] For the 
 word natural see ch. ii. 14. The 'natural body' is the body accom- 
 modated to, and limited by, the needs of the animal life of man. Man 
 possesses a spiritual life through union with Jesus Christ, but his present 
 body is not adapted to the requirements of such a life. It is called a 
 'body of death,' Rom. vii. 24 ('this body of death,' in the E. V. 
 'the body of this death.' 'The corruptible body (Wisd. ix. 15) 
 presseth down the soul,' and we groan under its weight, and look 
 earnestly forward to its redemption (Rom. viii. 23 ; 1 Cor. v. 2, 4). But 
 the spiritual body will not only be a body in which the spiritual 
 principle dominates the whole organism (Theodoret), but it will be 
 adapted to the needs of that principle, and therefore will be possessed 
 of powers hitherto unknown. So St Chrysostom. See also last note 
 and 2 Cor. v. i, 'we have in the heavens a house not made with hands.' 
 "The earthly and celestial body are not identical, but not absolutely 
 different ; the elements of the former are employed in the formation of 
 the latter, the operation of Christ in believers gradually transfomis the 
 one into the other." Olshausen. This remark, however, leaves out of 
 sight the fact that however gradual the transformation of the natural 
 man into the spiritual man in this life, it is completed by a process 
 which is not gradual, namely the Resurrection. 
 
 There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body] Most modern 
 editors have received the better supported reading, ' if there is a natural 
 body, there is a spiritual one also.' It is also the reading of the 
 Vulgate and of Wiclif. The reading in the text, which is that received 
 by Tyndale, is the more easy to understand, but perhaps it is for that 
 very reason that it has been substituted for the other. If we receive it, 
 the passage is a simple assertion of the existence of a spiritual as well as 
 of a natural body. If we prefer the other, it affirms that the life spiritual 
 of necessity demands a proper vehicle as much as the life natural ; 
 that if the latter has — and we see that this is so — a body corresponding 
 to its demands, it follows that the life spiritual will have one also. 
 
 45. Afid so it is 7oritten] In Gen. ii. 7. This applies only to the 
 first part of the verse. But did not St Paul know that the words had 
 been uttered, and would one day be recorded, which make it true also 
 of the second part? See St John v. 21, vi. 33, 39, 40, 54, 57, xi. 25. 
 
 The first man Adam was made a living sotil\ Rather, became a living 
 
158 I. CORINTHIANS, XV. [v. 46. 
 
 46 the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. Howbeit 
 that was not first luhich is spiritual, but that which is 
 
 soul. The word here translated sotiU the adjective formed from which 
 is rendered by the word natural in the last and in the next verse, is trans- 
 lated indifferently by life and soul in the N. T. As instances of the 
 former see St Matt. x. 39, xvi. 25 ; of the latter, St Matt. x. 28, xvi. 26. 
 We must not press this so far as to say that before Christ came man had 
 no TTvevfjLa or spiritual nature (though the Hebrew word corresponding 
 to TTvev/JLa is noticeably absent in Gen. ii. 7), but we are justified in 
 saying that until Christ recreated and redeemed humanity the higher 
 nature existed only in a rudimentary state, in the form of an aspira- 
 tion after higher things, and that it was overborne and subjected by 
 the lower, or animal nature. "Adam Avas therefore a 'living soul,' that 
 is, a natural man — a man with intelligence, perception and a moral 
 sense, with power to form a society and to subdue nature to himself." 
 Robertson. 
 
 t/ie last Adavi\ So called because Christ was a new starting-point of 
 humanity. Thus to be in Christ is called a 'new creation,' 2 Cor. v. 17 
 (cf. Gal. vi. 15). He is called the 'new man,' 'created after God in 
 righteousness and holiness,' Eph. iv. 24; Col. iii. 10, Whom we are 
 to 'put on,' Rom. xiii. 14; Gal. iii. 27. "For being from above and 
 from heaven, and God by nature and Emmanuel, and having received 
 our likeness, and become a second Adam, how shall He not richly 
 make them partakers of His Own Life, who desire to partake of the 
 intimate union effected with Him by faith? For by the mystic blessing 
 we have become embodied into Him, for we have been made partakers 
 of Him by the Spirit." Cyril of Alexandria. 
 
 a quickenmg sph-if] See texts quoted under 'it is written,' and last 
 note; also Rom. vi. 11 (Greek); 2 Cor. iii. 6, 17; Eph. ii. 5; Col. ii. 
 13, iii. 4. "He does not call the second Adam a '//W;/^ spirit,' but a 
 life-giving one ; for He ministers the eternal life to all." Theodoret. 
 The word 'quickening'' means that which gives life, as we speak of the 
 '■'quick and the dead" in the Creed. The idea of activity to which 
 the word quick and its derivatives is now confined, comes from its 
 original idea of life. We use the word lively in a similar manner. The 
 word is really kindred to the Latin vivus and the French vie. 
 
 46. Hoivbeit that was not first which is spirituar\ See note on v. 23. 
 " The law of God's universe is progress." Robertson. His whole 
 lecture on this passage will repay study. He shews how the Fall was 
 an illustration of this law, a necessary consequence of a state of mere 
 natural life; a "step onward," if for the time "downward." He traces 
 it in the history of nature and of nations, and finally applies it to 
 individuals, and shews how our natural feelings and affections are the 
 sources of our spiritual ones ; how the moral life, the fulfilment, that is, 
 of the law of our being as discerned by natural religion, the living up 
 to the light we have (cf. Rom. ii. 14), leads up to the spiritual life, 
 and how temptation and sorrow, themselves the fruit of a state of 
 things undeveloped and incomplete, are necessary elements in the forma- 
 
vv. 47—49] I. CORINTHIANS, XV. 159 
 
 natural ; and afterward that which is spiritual. The first 47 
 man is of the earth, earthy : the second man is the Lord 
 from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are 48 
 earthy : and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are 
 heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, 49 
 we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. 
 
 tion of the perfect, the spiritual man. Cf. Heb. ii. 10. Thomas Aquinas 
 remarks how the law holds good in nature, even of one and the same 
 being, that what is imperfect precedes what is perfect. 
 
 47. The first man is of the eaj-th, earthyl See Gen. ii. 7. The 
 word earthy (xoi'v'o's from %oi?s, dust) is an allusion to the ' dust of 
 the ground ' in that passage, in the Septuagint xoi;s. 
 
 the second man is the Lord from heaven] The Vulgate reads, is from 
 heaven, heavenly. Tyndale follows the Vulgate, and also Wiclif, who 
 translates however, the secunde man of heiiene is heiiefieli. Alford reads 
 the second man is from heaven, with the majority of MSS. and versions. 
 The law of progress, above referred to, is illustrated by the creation of 
 the second man. The first man was 'dust of the ground,' and God 
 breathed a breath of life into his soul. But the second man is not 
 created anew altogether, but takes the first man as the starting-point of 
 the new life. By the agency of the Holy Spirit Jesus Christ took our 
 flesh in the womb of the Blessed Virgin, being a new creation, but not 
 directly from heaven. See note on e/. 21. This passage bears a strong 
 resemblance to St John iii. 31 ; and in the reading we have mentioned 
 the resemblance is even stronger than in the authorized version. The 
 margin of St John iii. 3 may also be compared. 
 
 48. As is the earthy'\ i. e. Adam. Man, when united to Christ by 
 faith, partakes of both natures. He is liable, therefore, still to the 
 weakness and infirmities of the former. "This infection of nature doth 
 remain, yea in them that are regenerated." Art. IX. And this he must 
 bear to the end. He must be subject to the law of the natural order of 
 things, before he attains fully to the law of the spiritual order. He 
 must receive the wages of sin, namely death. But, possessing faith in 
 Christ, he possesses the imperishable principle of life. 
 
 as is the hcavejtly] i. e. Christ. ' When that which is perfect is come, 
 then that which is in part shall be brought to an end. ' ' Mortality shall 
 be swallowed up of life : ' the old Adam shall be done away in Christ. 
 Cf Phil. iii. 20, 21. 
 
 49. And as we have borne the image] The image or likeness. In 
 this present life we are like Adam : in the next we shall be like Christ, 
 cf. Rom. viii. 29; 2 Cor. iii. 18; Phil. iii. 21; Col. iii. 10; i John 
 iii. 2. 
 
 "we shall also bear] So Tyndale. Many MSS. read '■let us also bear' 
 in this passage. But St Paul is not exhorting here, but teaching {'■^ xvon 
 esse exhortationem, sed puram doctrinam." Calvin). And, moreover, 
 the exhortation would seem a little out of place, since "regeneration 
 cannot be obtained by striving or even by faith itself, it is an act of 
 
i6o I. CORINTHIANS, XV. [vv. 50—52. 
 
 50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot 
 
 inherit the kingdom of God ; neither doth corruption inherit 
 
 5T incorruption. Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall 
 
 52 not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in 
 
 positive grace." Olshausen. Tertullian, however, remarks expressly 
 that St Paul says 'let us bear,' speaking in exhortation, not in doc- 
 trine. So Chrysostom, whom — with the Vulgate — Wiclif follows, 
 translating '•'- ho-e we also f while Theodoret, on the contrary, says that 
 St Paul here was not speaking hortatively, but proiDhetically. 
 
 50. Now this I say, brethren'\ We enter here upon a ncAV phase of 
 the argument. The Apostle now tells us how this great result shall be 
 accomplished. We cannot inherit eternity as we are : a change is 
 necessary. And this change will in the end be a sudden one, but will 
 consist rather in the modification of the external conditions of the body 
 than in any destruction of its essential properties. See note on v. 53. 
 
 that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God] It is not the 
 material particles of our body which endure for ever. They are subject 
 to corruption and dissolution. It is the spiritual principle of life which 
 abides, and like the seed, attracts to itself such material particles as 
 shall serve it for a suitable habitation. (See notes on w. 37, 38.) The 
 early heretics mentioned above, v. 12, caught eagerly at this verse as 
 disposing of the idea of a material resurrection. But the early Fathers 
 of the Church shewed conclusively that it was not to be so understood. 
 They cited St Luke xxiv. 39 to prove that Jesus Christ had 'flesh and 
 bones' after His Resurrection. And we may observe, moreover, that in 
 St Paul's language 'flesh and blood' stood for our ordinary humanity, 
 as distinguished from everything of a spiritual nature. See Rom. viii. 
 I — 10; Gal. i. 16; Eph. vi. 12. 
 
 neither doth corruption inherit ijtcorruption'] An additional proof of 
 what has just been stated. Our ordinary flesh and blood is by its very 
 nature destined to corruption. It is not with such flesh and blood that 
 we can become partakers of the incorruptible life. 
 
 51. Behold, I shezu yoti a mystery] See note on ch. ii. 7, iv. i. 
 Human reason unaided is of course incapable of arriving at the truth 
 on a point like this. 
 
 We shall not all sleep] There are two other very important readings 
 of this passage. The first, that of the Vulgate and of Tertullian, is 
 o>nnes quidem restirgemns, sed non omncs- immutahimiir {alle ive schulen 
 rise aghen, but not alle 7ve schitllen be chaiingid. Wiclif). The other is, 
 we shall all sleep, but %ve shall not all be changed, which is found in some 
 important MSS. and versions. There seems little reason to doubt that 
 the reading of our version is the true one. The others have probably 
 arisen from the fact that St Paul and his contemporaries did sleep. But 
 he was obviously under the impression (see i Thess. iv. 17) — an im- 
 pi-ession in no way surprising, even in an inspired Apostle, when we 
 remember St Mark xiii. 32 — that the coming of Christ would take place 
 durinsf his life-time, or that of some at least of those whom he addressed. 
 
vv. 53, 54.] I. CORINTHIANS, XV. 161 
 
 the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump : for the trumpet 
 shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and 
 we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on 53 
 incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So 54 
 when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and 
 this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be 
 brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swal- 
 
 Estius gives six reasons against the received reading of the Vulgate, of 
 which two appear by themselves to be conclusive. First, that the 
 reading 'we shall not all be changed,' is not suited to the words 'in a 
 moment, in the t^vinkling of an eye ' which follow ; and next, that this 
 reading is in direct contradiction to the words 'we shall be changed' in 
 the next verse. 
 
 but -we shall all be changedl "For we who have gone to rest in faith 
 towards Christ, and have received the earnest of the Spirit in the time 
 of our corporeal life, shall receive the most perfect favour and shall be 
 changed into the gloiy which is of God." Cyril of Alexandria (on 
 St John X. 10). The Apostle explains that this change shall also take 
 place in those who 'are alive and remain' until the coming of the Lord. 
 See Phil. iii. 21. 
 
 52. in a i7ioment'\ The literal meaning of the word here used is, 
 that which is so small as to be actually indivisible. 
 
 in the ttinnkling of an eye\ Some MSS. read poir^ for ptTTT?, i. e. the 
 downward motion of the eyelid (literally, the inclinatioji of the scale), 
 for the rapid movement suggested by the word titinkling. The latter 
 suits the context best. 
 
 at the last trwnp\ Some have referred this to the last of the seven 
 trumpets in Rev. viii.— xi. See especially Rev. x. 7. But this cannot 
 be, since the visions recorded in that book had not yet been seen. It 
 must therefore mean the trumpet which will sound on the last day. 
 Cf. St Matt. xxiv. 31 and i Thess. iv. 16. 
 
 and we shall be changed^ The zoe is emphatic ; therefore the Apostle 
 here expresses once more his belief that he Mali be alive at the coming 
 of Christ ; for, "since the last times were already come, the saints expected 
 that day from hour to hour." Calvin. 
 
 53. For this corruptible must put 07t i7tcorruption, and this 7?iortal 
 must put on immortality] Cf. 2 Cor. v. 4. The Apostle has just said 
 that 'flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God,' He now 
 explains in what sense these words are to be taken. The mortal body 
 is not destroyed entirely and created again. "Change," says Tertullian, 
 "must be dissociated from all idea of destruction. For change is one 
 thing, destruction another." It receives an addition of qualities which 
 it did not possess before. It is ' clothed upon' with immortality. That 
 which was corruptible is now freed from that liability ("sanctified and 
 cleared from all impurity." Irenaeus). That which is mortal is swallowed 
 up, and disappears in the vastness of the life which knows no end. See 
 note on v. 38. 
 
 I. COR. b U 
 
i62 T. CORINTHIANS, XV. [vv. 55—57. 
 
 55 lowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? 
 
 56 O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is 
 
 57 sin ; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to 
 God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus 
 
 54. Death is nvallozued up in victory] The English version trans- 
 lates Is. XXV. 8, the passage here quoted, by ' He will swallow up death in 
 victory.' But the literal meaning of the word so translated is ' for ever,' 
 and the Vulgate here renders ' in sempiternum,' though the Septuagint 
 frequently, but not here, renders it by victory, following the analogy of 
 the Syriac and Chaldee, where a kindred word signifies victory. The 
 verb also is in the perfect tense in the Hebrew, as speaking of the fixed 
 purpose of God, and is here rendered by the aorist, and thus referred to 
 the Death and Resurrection of Christ, in which, by ' the determinate 
 purpose and foreknowledge of God,' death 'was swallowed up unto 
 victory.' 
 
 55. O death, where is thy sting?] This quotation follows neither the 
 Septuagint nor the Hebrew of Hos. xiii. 14. The former is 'Where is 
 thy penalty, O death, where is thy sting, O Hades ? ' following, most 
 probably, a different reading from the present Hebrew text, which runs 
 thus: 'I will be thy plagues, O death, I will be thy pestilence, O 
 grave ' (or ' Hades,' for the Hebrew word has both significations). See 
 next note. 
 
 O gi'ave, ivhere is thy victory ?] In the Greek, Hades. The Vulgate 
 (which is followed by Tjmdale) as well as most of the best MSS. read 
 death here for Hades. So do Irenaeus and Tertullian, writing in the second 
 century. But the ancient Syriac version reads Hades. Bishop Words- 
 worth suggests that the text was altered from a fear lest the passage should 
 give any countenance to the idea of a god of the shades below, known 
 to the Greeks by the name of Hades. But in later Greek and in the 
 Septuagint its use to denominate the place of departed spirits was well 
 established. 
 
 56. the strength of sin is the law] That the sting of death should be 
 sin is very easy to understand. It is not so easy at first sight to ac- 
 count for the introduction here of St Paul's favourite doctrine (see 
 Rom. vii.) that 'the strength of sin is the law.' Yet the sequence of 
 thought may be discovered. What gives sin its power at that supreme 
 moment is the fact that it is the transgression of the righteous Law of 
 an all-wise and all-holy being. (Rom. vii. 12, 14; i Tim. i. 8.) 
 
 57. But thanks be to God, which giveth zts the victory through our 
 Lord Jesus Christ] This sense of having transgressed that righteous 
 law need disturb us no longer. Our shortcomings have been fully 
 atoned for by the Life and Death of Jesus Christ. The mortal part of 
 us must pay the penalty due to sin (Rom. vi. 23), but the spiritual part 
 
 ^remains unsubdued, because it is united to Him Who has fulfilled the 
 law, has taken our condemnation upon Himself, has acknowledged its 
 justice on our behalf, and has enabled us through fellowship with Him 
 to attain to the victory over evil which He Himself has attained. 
 
vv. 58; I.] I. CORINTHIANS, XV. XVI. 163 
 
 Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, 58 
 unmoveable, ahvays abounding in the work of the Lord, 
 forasmuch as you know that your labour is not in vain in 
 the Lord. 
 
 Ch. XVI. I — 24. Sundry practical directions. Conclusion. 
 
 Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have 16 
 given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye. 
 
 58. Therefore, my beloved brethreti] The aim of St Pavil is always 
 practical. Even this magnificent passage comes to what from a merely 
 oratorical point of view is a somewhat tame conclusion, a conclusion how- 
 ever which, regarded from the point of view of Christian edification, is 
 full of beauty. "Be not weaiy in welldoing," the Apostle would say. 
 " Labour on in faith and courage till life comes to an end. For your 
 life is hid with Christ in God ; and therefore your efforts and struggles 
 here are not thrown away. Not one of them shall be lost sight of 
 before the Eternal Throne. " 
 
 Ch. XVI. 1 — 24. Sundry practical directions. Conclusion. 
 
 1. Now concerning the collection for the sainfs\ i.e. 'the poor saints 
 (see note on ch. i. 1) at Jerusalem,' Rom. xv. 26. The same subject is 
 mentioned in ch. viii. , ix. of the second Epistle. The disorganized state 
 of Judaea at this time, as described in the pages of Josephus, may 
 account for the systematic efforts which were then being made through- 
 out the Gentile Churches for their aid. This collection is mentioned in 
 Rom. XV. 26, written after the Apostle's arrival at Corinth. Another 
 reason for this Gentile liberality is given there. Jerusalem was the 
 source whence all the blessings of the Gospel had flowed. It was fitting 
 that some recompence, however inadequate, should be made. Cf. ch. 
 ix. II. St Paul says here that he had instructed the Galatian Churches 
 to send their contribution, and in Gal. ii. 10 we find that it was a 
 special matter of agreement between himself and the other Apostles 
 that he should ' remember the poor, ' i, e. of the Church ^t Jei-usalem. 
 St Luke does not mention the collection in its proper place in the Acts, 
 but the incidental reference to it in a speech made long after by the 
 Apostle, and recorded in Acts xxiv. 17, is adduced by Paley in his 
 Horae Faiilinae, as a remarkable instance of undesigned agreement be- 
 tween this Epistle and the narrative in the Acts, and as strong evidence 
 of the authenticity of both. 
 
 as I have given orde?-] Rather, as /gave 07-der. 
 
 to the chirches of Galatial Hardly in the visit recorded in Acts xviiL 
 23, for (though (see Paley, florae Faiilinae) they are the last Churches 
 recorded to have been visited), that visit took place nearly three years 
 previously (Acts xx. 31, cf. xix. 10, 21, 22), but in some short visit not 
 recorded, or by letter or message. The Corinthians had received their 
 instructions a year before the date of the second Epistle (2 Cor. viii. 10, 
 ix. 2), and therefore several months before the first was written. 
 
i64 I. CORINTHIANS, XVI. [w. 2, 3. 
 
 2 Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay 
 by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be 
 
 3 no gatherings when I come. And when I come, whom- 
 soever you shall approve hy your letters, them will I send 
 
 2. Upoji the first day of the weekl Some Greek copies read the word 
 translated 'week' in the plnral. Hence Tyndale renders, in some 
 saboth daye, and Calvin, more literally, on one of the sabbaths. Wiclif 
 connects these words with the preceding verse. So also do ghe on 00 dai 
 of the woke. This verse, Acts xx. 7, and Rev. i. 10, are the only passages 
 in Scripture which notice the practice instituted from the very first 
 among Christians of observing the day of the Lord's Resurrection 
 with especial reverence. But though it is clear enough, from the univer- 
 sal consent of Christians, that they were accustomed to meet together 
 for worship on the Lord's Day, we cannot infer it from this passage. 
 See next note. 
 
 lay by hwi] i. e. at home (Tyndale, apud se, Vulg.), not in the as- 
 sembly, as is generally supposed. " He does not say 'bring it at once,' 
 lest the giver should be ashamed of the smallness of his contribution ; 
 but first lay it up by thyself, and when it is worthy of collecting, then 
 bring it." — Chiysostom. He speaks of a custom in his time of placing 
 a small box by the bed-side into which an offering was to be put when- 
 ever prayer was made. 
 
 in store'] Literally, treasuring up. The words that follow are 
 governed by this participle, treast^'ing up whatsoever he hath been pros- 
 pered with. So Vulg. Keeping that that plesith to hi77i. Wiclif. 
 
 as God hath prospered him] The word God is not in the original. 
 Literally, whatsoever he may be prospered in. The word originally 
 signifies to have a good journey, and is so translated in Rom. i. 10 
 (where, however, it has the same meaning as here). See also 3 John 2. 
 This common feeling between men of different nationalities, and widely 
 separated by distance, was altogether the creation of the gospel, and is 
 being increasingly recognized in our own age. See Robertson. 
 
 that there be no gatherings when I come] The word here translated 
 gatherings is translated collection in v. i. Wiclif and Tyndale have 
 gathering in both places. The rendering in the text is Tyndale's. In 
 the original the language is more emphatic, that when I co77ie^ the 
 gatherings may not take place then. So Vulg. 
 
 3. whojnsoever you shall approve by your letters] The word your is 
 not in the original. The passage may be translated in two ways ; ( r) as 
 in the text, which follow.s Tyndale and the Vulgate, and supposes that 
 St Paul would, im.mediately on his arrival at Corinth, send to Jenisalem 
 those who had been previously nominated by the Corinthian Church, or 
 (2), with Wiclif (/ schal sende hem bi epistlis) and Chrysostom, taking 
 ' by letters,' with ' I will send,' and referring the words to the letters of 
 commendation (Acts xviii. 27; Rom. xvi. i ; 2 Cor. iii. i) St Paul in- 
 tended to give to the bearers of the Corinthian relief fund. It is worthy 
 of notice, (i) that while on matters of grave import St Paul gives au- 
 thoritative directions to his converts, on matters of lesser consequence 
 
vv. 4—7.] I. CORINTHIANS, XVI. 165 
 
 to bring your liberality unto Jerusalem. And if it be meet 4 
 that I go also, they shall go with me. Now I will come 5 
 unto you, when I shall pass through Macedonia : for I do 
 pass through Macedonia. And it may be that I will abide, 6 
 yea, and winter with you, that ye may bring me on my 
 journey whithersoever I go. For I will not see you now by 7 
 the way ; but I trust to tarry a while with you, if the Lord 
 
 he prefers that they should govern themselves, and (2) that as Chrysos- 
 tom remarks, St Paul is especially anxious not to take charge of the 
 money himself, lest he should be charged with having devoted any of it 
 to his own use. See ch. ix. 18, 19 ; 1 Cor. xi. 7 — 9, xii. 16 — 18. 
 
 liberality] Literally, grace. " He studiously refrains from using the 
 word alms." — Estius. 
 
 4. they shall go tvith me] Under no circumstances would St Paul 
 take charge of the money himself. It was, moreover, fitting that mem- 
 bers of the Corinthian Church should have the pleasure, as well as the 
 credit, of presenting their bounty in person to those who were to be the 
 recipients of it. 
 
 5. / will come iinto you, when I shall pass through Macedonia] 
 Rather, * when I have passed through Macedonia. ' Here the Apostle 
 announces the change of a purpose previously intimated — whether in 
 the lost Epistle, or in some other manner, it is impossible to say — of 
 coming first to Corinth, passing on to Macedonia, and returning to 
 Corinth. See 2 Cor. i. 15, t6. The reason of this change is given in 
 2 Cor. i. 23, ii. i, vii. 8 — 12, xii. 20, 21, xiii. 2, 10. For the imputations 
 which it brought on the Apostle, see 2 Cor. i. 1 7. 
 
 for I do pass through Macedonia] This passage has been translated, 
 for I am passing through Alacedonia, a rendering which is shewn to be 
 erroneous by v. 8, in which St Paul announces his intention of remain- 
 ing at Ephesus for some time longer. But it has led to the incorrect 
 note at the end of the Epistle in our version, which states that the 
 Epistle was written at Philippi. See Introduction. 
 
 6. And it may be that I zvill abide] Better, that I shall abide. The 
 Apostle (Acts XX. 3) was enabled to carry out this half promise. 
 
 and winter with you] The navigation of the Aegaean was dangerous 
 in the winter (Acts xxvii. 9, 12). 
 
 bring me on my journey'] Literally, send me forward. " The recognized 
 word for helping forward on a journey or a mission." — Stanley. See 
 Acts XV. 3, XX. 38, xxi. 5 ; Rom. xv. 24, &c. 
 
 7. For I zuill not see you now by the way] See passages cited in note 
 on V. 5, for the reason of this. St Paul feared that he might have to 
 adopt some strong measures against those who resisted his authority, 
 and he was very anxious to remain long enough at Corinth to obliterate 
 every feeling of unkindness which those measures might be calculated to 
 produce. 
 
 if the Lord permit] See James iv. 15, and of. ch. iv. 19, and Heb. 
 vi. 3. 
 
i66 I. CORINTHIANS, XVI. [vv. 8—12. 
 
 f-^ permit. But I will tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost. For 
 a great door and effectual is opened unto me, and f/iere 
 
 10 are many adversaries. Now if Timotheus come, see that he 
 may be with you without fear : for he worketh the work of 
 
 11 the Lord, as I also do. Let no 7nan therefore despise him : 
 but conduct him forth in peace, that he may come unto me : 
 
 12 for I look for him with the brethren. As touching our 
 
 8. Biii I 7utll tarry at Ephesus vntil Pentecost'\ The narrative in 
 the Acts agrees most minutely with this passage. We there find that 
 St Paul had formed his plan of visiting Greece some time before he 
 carried it into effect (Acts xix. 21); that he sent Timothy to Macedonia, 
 whence it was intended that he should proceed to Corinth (Acts xix. 22, 
 cf. V. 10 of this chapter, and ch. iv. 17), and that ' many adversaries' 
 arose who hindered the Apostle from following him. Cf. v. 9, and 
 Acts xix. 23 — 41. 
 
 9. For a great door'\ The use of door in the sense of oppoiimity in the 
 N. T, is remarkable. It is a favourite word with St Paul. See 2 Cor. 
 ii. 12 ; Col. iv. 3. St Luke has adopted it from him, Acts xiv. 27. 
 And it is also to be found in the same sense in Rev. iii. 8. This verse 
 also strikingly corroborates the narrative in the Acts. Cf. Acts xix. 
 19, 20. 
 
 and effectiiaT\ i. e. calculated to produce results. 
 
 10. Now if Timotheus coined See note on iv. 17. The question 
 whether Timothy arrived at Corinth before the Apostle, or whether he 
 was detained in Macedonia until St Paul came thither, is one which 
 admits of no certain decision. Dean Alford thinks Timothy arrived 
 there first, and supports his view by the considerations, (i) that his 
 mission is announced in terms too precise to be lightly given up, and 
 (2) that its abandonment would have exposed the Apostle to an ad- 
 ditional charge of inconsistency of which we never hear. But, on the 
 other hand, it is remarkable that while we hear a good deal in the 
 second Epistle of Titus' mission and the report he brought back (ch. ii. 
 13, vii. 6, 13, viii. 6, 16 — 18, xii. 18), there is not a word said about 
 Timothy's arrival at Corinth, or of his return to St Paul, although 
 (ch. i. i) he was with St Paul when that Epistle was written. 
 
 see that he may be with you zvithojit fea7-\ Paley and the late Professor 
 Blunt have remarked on the remarkable agreement of this passage with 
 what we elsewhere learn of the character of Timothy. For ( i ) he was 
 young (i Tim. iv. 12), and (2) he seems to have been deficient in 
 courage (i Tim. v. 21 — 23, 2 Tim. i. 6, 7, 8, ii. i, 3, 15, iv. i, 2). If 
 this be the case, there would be special need for this injunction, in the 
 condition in which the Corinthian Church then was. And Timothy 
 must then have been very young indeed. After ten years had passed 
 away, the Apostle could still say, 'Let no man despise thy youth.' 
 
 11. conduct him fort h^ This phrase is translated bring on a journey 
 in V. 6. See note thei'e. 
 
 ivith the brcthren\ i.e. those who took charge of this Epistle. Cf. 
 
vv. 13—17.] I. CORINTHIANS, XVI. 167 
 
 brother Apollos, I greatly desired him to come unto you 
 with the brethren : but his will was not at all to come at 
 this time ; but he will come when he shall have convenient 
 •time. Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like 13 
 men, be strong. Let all your things be done with charity. 14 
 I beseech you, brethren, (ye know the house of Stephanas, 15 
 that it is the firstfruits of Achaia, and that they have ad- 
 dicted themselves to the ministry of the saints,) that ye sub- 16 
 mit yourselves unto such, and to every one that helpeth 
 with z/j-, and laboureth. I am glad of the coming of Ste- 17 
 
 passages cited in the first no^e on v. \o and 2 Cor. viii. 12, 23, ix. 3, 5. 
 They were no doubt sent straight from Ephesus, and they might either 
 find Timothy there, or he might reach Corinth after them. In either 
 case he was to return with them. 
 
 12. tone hijig our brother Apollos] See note on ch. i. 12. St Paul was 
 anxious to have put Apollos, as a man of weight in the Corinthian 
 Church, in charge of his letter. But Apollos steadfastly declined to go, 
 fearing that his presence might foment, instead of a;llaying, the disorders. 
 Titus and Apollos are found in close intercourse with each other and 
 with St Paul many years later in Tit. iii. 13. 
 
 but his xinll zvas not at all to come at this time] The original is even 
 stronger, but it was not at all his will to come now. 
 
 when he shall have convenient time\ i. e. when he shall consider it a 
 suitable time. 
 
 13. qicit you like men, bt stro7ig\ Rather, be strengthened, implying 
 that the source of strength was not in themselves,^ "If you think 
 Christianity a feeble, soft thing, ill adapted to call out the manlier 
 features of character, read here." — Robertson. 
 
 14. Let all yonr things be do?ie with charii)i\ i. e. let everything you do 
 (literally everything of yours) be done in love. 
 
 15. the house of Stephanas] See note on ch. i, 16, 
 
 the firstfruits of Achaia] Not necessarily the very first converts, but 
 atnong the very first. See Rom. xvi. 5. 'Achaia' is used by St Paul 
 to denote the Peloponnesus, now called the' Morea. 
 
 to the ministry of the saints] Rather, to service for the saints. The 
 context would imply that they had not confined themselves to ministering 
 to the temporal necessities of the saints, but had given valuable assistance 
 to St Paul in his spiritual ministrations. See next verse. 
 
 16. that ye submit yourselves] See Eph. v. 21; i Pet. v. 5. 
 helpeth zmth us] There is no ns in the original. A general assistance 
 
 in the work of the Church seems to be what is meant by the Apostle. 
 Some would connect it with 'such,' and regard it as a direction to be 
 willing to submit to the authority of all who were willing to work with 
 the household of Stephanas. 
 
 and labouretli] The Greek word implies toil, i.e. the exertion which 
 labour entails. 
 
i68 L CORINTHIANS, XVI. [vv. 18—22. 
 
 phanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus : for that which was 
 
 18 lacking on your part they have suppUed. For they have 
 refreshed my spirit and yours : therefore acknowledge ye 
 
 19 them that are such. The churches of Asia salute you. 
 Aquila and Priscilla salute you much in the Lord, with the 
 
 20 church that is in their house. All the brethren greet you. 
 Greet ye one another with a holy kiss. 
 
 22 The salutation of me Paul with mine own hand. If any 
 
 17. Fojiimafus and Achaicus^ Fortunatus is referred to by Clement 
 as the bearer of his Epistle. See Introduction, Ch. III. Nothing is 
 knoA\Ti of Achaicus. 
 
 that which was lacking on your part'\ i.e. the void occasioned by your 
 absence, not the pecuniary need of the Apostle as in 2 Cor. xi. 9 (cf. 
 Phil. ii. 30). For the Apostle there says that it is his boast, of which no 
 man shall deprive him, that he has never cast any of the burden of his 
 maintenance upon the Corinthian Church. See also ch. ix. 
 
 18. For they have refreshed my spirit ajid yours'\ This "is a concise 
 expression of the same consciousness of identity of feelings and interests 
 which expresses itself so strongly in 2 Cor. i. 3 — 7." — Stanley. These 
 Corinthians are reinvigorated, through a perfect interchange of sympathy, 
 by the joy that is imparted to St Paul by the presence of one of their 
 number. For the expression itself Stanley refers to 2 Cor. vii. 13. 
 
 acknmi<ledge'\ Or, recognize, i. e. as your natural leaders and superiors. 
 
 19. The chw-cJies of Asia sahite you\ See Introduction, Ch. III. p. 15. 
 Aquila and Priscilla'] See Acts x\dii. 2, 18, 26. From Rom. xvi. 3 
 
 (where Priscilla is called Prisca), we find that they returned to Rome as 
 soon as it was safe to return thither. The message of Aquila and 
 Priscilla to the members of the Church which had received them in their 
 necessity, is one of the minute points of agreement which do so much to 
 establish the authenticity of the various books of Scripture. 
 
 2vifh the church that is in their house\ Cf. Rom. x^d. 5. The ex- 
 pression may mean (i) their family, or (2) less probably, the congrega- 
 tion which was accustomed to meet there for worship. Cf. Col. iv. 15 ; 
 Philemon 2. 
 
 20. All the breth)-eii\ i. h. "the whole Ephesian Church." — Alford. 
 
 with a holy kiss] The word holy is added to guard against miscon- 
 ception in an impure age. The spii-it in which it was to be given was that 
 which was to regulate the intercourse of Timothy Math the other sex. 
 (i Tim. V. 2.) The kiss of peace (see Rom. x^^. 16; 2 Cor. xiii. 12; 
 1 Thess. V. 26; I Pet. v. 14) once formed a prominent part in the ritual 
 of the Church. It is still retained in the East, where the men and 
 women sit, and salute each other, apart. In the Roman ritual the pax, 
 a small piece of metal or wood, which the priest kissed, and afterwards 
 sent round for the congregation to kiss in turn, was substituted for it. 
 In our own Refonned Liturgy it has been abolished. 
 
 21. The salutation of me Paid with mi)ie oion hand] It was the 
 custom of St Paul to employ an amanuensis. See Rom. x\i. 22. But 
 
vv. 23, 24.] I. CORINTHIANS, XVI. 169 
 
 man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema, 
 Maran-atha. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with 23 
 you. My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen. 24 
 
 in order that the Epistle should be recognized as his, it was his custom 
 to add a sahitation in his own handwriting, which he wished to be 
 regarded as a token of genuineness. 2 Thess. iii. 17. See also Col. iv. 
 18 and Gal. vi. 11 (where it seems to be implied that St Paul wrote the 
 whole of that particular Epistle himself). 
 
 22. If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christi The word here trans- 
 lated love applies to the intimate and familiar personal affection sub- 
 sisting between individuals, rather than the wider and more general 
 feeling of love usually enjoined in the N. T. It is the word used when 
 our Lord for the third time asks St Peter the question 'Lovest thou me?' 
 (St John xxi. 17). Christians are to cultivate a feeling of personal 
 loyalty and affection for Jesus Christ, such as a soldier feels for his 
 general, or a disciple for his master. And this though they have never 
 seen Him. As the natural precedes the spiritual (ch. xv. 46), so the 
 love for Christ as Man must precede, and lead up to, the love for Him 
 as God. See notes on ch. xv. 23, 28. 
 
 let him be anathema'\ The word is derived from two Greek words 
 signifying to set apart, and is equivalent to the Hebrew chere7?i, which 
 denotes something devoted to destruction for God's honour's sake, as the 
 city and spoil at Jericho, Joshua vi. 17. See also Tev. xxvii. 28, 29. 
 
 Ma7'an-athd\ Two Syriac words Maran, atha, signifying either (i) our 
 Lord is come, or (2) our Lord is coining. If the former, the meaning is 
 'our Lord is come, beware how you treat Him.' If the latter, it will 
 be 'our Lord is coming, and He will judge those who have set Him at 
 nought.' Cf. Phil. iv. 5; James v. 8, 9. Lightfoot cites Mai. iv. it>, 
 the last words of the last prophet, ' Lest I come and smite the earth with 
 a curse'' {cherem). It is difficult to account for the Aramaic form of the 
 word, unless we suppose with some that the utterance of the formula in 
 the Apostle's own language was likely to be more impressive. For 
 this and the foregoing word consult Smith's Dictionary of the Bible. 
 
 24. My love be zvith you all in Chi-ist yestis. Amen] See note on 
 ch. iv. 17. This affectionate commendation of the Corinthians to the 
 favour of Christ, coupled with the assurance of his own unchanging 
 affection, must have sounded very striking in the ears of a community 
 accustomed to Gentile modes of thought. Compare the curt and cold 
 'Farewell' at the end of Claudius Lysias' letter in Acts xxiii. 30. Much 
 of the beauty and significance of this conclusion is lost to us by over- 
 familiarity. It is worthy of note that the Epistle begins and ends with 
 Jesus Christ. See note on ch. i. 10. 
 
INDEX I. 
 
 Achaia, 167 
 
 Achaicus, 168 
 
 Acro-Corinthus, 8, 97 
 
 Aegaean, navigation of dangerous in 
 
 winter, 165 
 Agapae, 118 
 Anaxandrides, 72 
 Angels, to be judged by men, 64 
 Aphrodite, worship of, 7, 97 
 Apollos, 35, 36, 46, 167 
 Apostohc Constitutions, 63 
 Aquila, 35, 168 
 Arbitration, 63 
 Ariston, 72 
 
 Ashtaroth, Astarte, 97 
 Augustine, 77, 144 
 
 Baptism, 36, 66, 95 
 
 Barnabas, 87 
 
 Bertha, 74 
 
 Body, the, temple of the Holy Ghost, 6g ; 
 
 unity of, 123 — 125 
 Bread, breaking of, 100 
 Brethren of the Lord, 87, 143 
 
 Caesar, 72 
 
 Celibacy, its advantages, 71, 72, 77, 78 
 
 Christ, Divinity of, 44, 148 ; the Foupda- 
 tion, 47; our Passover, 60; the Rock, 
 96; His subordination to the Father, 
 49, 82, 150 ; identified with His mem- 
 bers, 122 ; Church, the, His Body, 
 124; all things under His feet, 149, 
 150 
 
 Christianity, not intended to revolution- 
 ize society, 75 
 
 Cicero, 72 
 
 Clement of Rome, his quotation of this 
 Epistle, 18 
 
 Clotilda, 74 
 
 Clovis, 74 
 
 Corinth, morals of, 3 ; importance of, 6 ; 
 luxury of, 7 ; colonies of, 5 ; a Roman 
 colony, 6 ; capture of, by the Romans, 
 6: seat of the Roman proconsul, 6; 
 Bimaris, 5 
 
 Corinthian Church, foundation of, 9 ; 
 composition of, it; condition of, 11 — 
 13. 35, 44. 52. 53, 55, 57 ; disorders in, 
 57, 63, 81, 84, 105, III, 112, 118, 137; 
 divisions in, 11 — 13, 35, in, 137; reli- 
 gious difficulties in, 14, 15 
 
 Cup, denial of to the laity, 115 
 
 Custom of the Churches, appeal to, no, 
 139 
 
 Death will be destroyed last. 149 
 Discipline in the Primitive Church, 57 
 Dissolution of marriage, 72, 74 
 
 Epicureans, 144 
 
 Epistle to the Corinthians, date of, 15 ; 
 whence written, ib. ; character of, 16, 
 17; genuineness of, 18; analysis of, 
 23 — 30 ; incorrect subscription of, in 
 A. v., 15, 165 
 
 Epistle, lost, to the Corinthians, 62, 165 
 
 Ethelbert, 74 
 
 Equality in the life to come, 47 
 
 Eucharist, 113 
 
 Excommunication, mode of, 58 
 
 Fornication, 68, 6g 
 Fortunatus, 168 
 
 Gaius, 36 
 Gallio, 9 
 Gifts, spiritual, 118 
 
 Hair, long, to be worn only \>y women, 
 
 no 
 Historical Christianity, importance of, 144 
 History, Jewish, its typical character, 95 
 Holy Ghost, Divinity of, 121 ; personality 
 
 of, 42; proceeding from the Father, 
 
 121 
 
 Idols, meats offered to, 81 — 85, 100—103 
 
 Ignatius, 152 
 
 Institution of Holy Communion, words 
 
 of, 114 
 Irerueus quotes this Epistle, 18; his 
 
 summary of the faith, 142 
 Isthmian games, 53, 92, 93 
 Isthmus, 92, 93 
 
 Julia Corinthus, 6 
 
 Justin Martyr gives the earliest account 
 of the administration of Holy Com- 
 munion, 118 
 
 Knowing God, 82, 131 
 Knowledge, value of, 81 
 
 Latin Fathers, casuistry of, 102 
 Law of Moses, humanity of, 88 
 Lawfulness of actions in themselves, 67 
 Lawsuits before heathens condemned, 63, 
 
 64, 6s 
 Liberty, Christian, 67 
 Lord's Supper, object of, 112, 113 
 
INDEX I. 
 
 171 
 
 Malea, Cape, 5 
 
 Manichaeans, 144 
 
 Marcellus of Ancyra, 148 
 
 Marriage, 72, 76, 79; imparts a sacred 
 character to those who are not Chris- 
 tians, 73 ; second, 80 
 
 Meats, distinction of, 81 
 
 Monica, 77 
 
 Naassenes, iig 
 
 Natural, the, precedes the spiritual, 158 
 
 Nero, 92, 94 
 
 Olj^mpic games, 92, 93 
 Onesimus, 76 
 Ophites, iig 
 
 Parents, duty of as regards marriage 
 of children, 79 
 
 Paul, St, Apostolic authority of, 12, 
 31, 85, 86 ; founder of the Corinthian 
 Church, 54, 86; a Roman citizen, 152 ; 
 becomes all things to all men, 92 ; em- 
 ploys an amanuensis, 168 ; had seen 
 the Lord, 86 ; institution of Holy Com- 
 munion revealed to him, 113; his cha- 
 racter as revealed in this Epistle, 16, 
 17; quotes heathen authors, 153 
 
 Philo, 35 
 
 Platonic doctrine concerning matter, 144 
 
 Polycarp, quotes this Epistle, 18 
 
 Prisca, Priscilla, 35, 168 
 
 Prophets, their inspiration under their 
 own control, 139 
 
 Quotations from O. T., 42; from heathen 
 authors, 153 
 
 Rebekah, 108 
 
 Resurrection, fact of, 20, 142, 145 ; man- 
 ner of, 21 — 23, 154 — 161 ; denial of, 
 144, 145 ; doctrine of, a hindrance to 
 the reception of Christianity, 144 ; all 
 not alike in, 156 ; that of Christ neces« 
 sarily before ours, 147 
 
 Roman citizenship, privileges of, 152 
 
 Sabellians, 148 
 
 Sacraments, 96 
 
 Sacrifices, heathen, 81 ; Jewish, 89 
 
 Saronic Gulf, 8, 93 
 
 Searching for leaven, 60 
 
 Separation of married persons, 71, 72 
 
 Simon Magus, 119 
 
 Sosthenes, 11, 31 
 
 Spirit, the, opposed to the letter, 54 
 
 Stephanas, 36, 167 
 
 Stoics, 144 
 
 Style of St Paul, 16, 17, 52 
 
 Tallith, 106 
 
 Tertullian analyses this Epistle, 19 
 
 Threshing, 88 
 
 Timotheus, 55, 166 
 
 Undesigned coincidences, 36, 46, 55, 56, 
 166, 168 
 
 Veiling the head, 106 — no 
 Vestal virgins, no 
 
 Women, position of in heathendom, 105 ; 
 dress of in the Christian assembly, 107 — 
 no; public ministrations of, 107, 139; 
 forbidden to speak in the Church, 140 
 
 INDEX II. 
 
 WORDS AND PHRASES EXPLAINED. 
 
 Administrations, 120 
 
 Agape, 112 
 
 Amen, 134 
 
 Anathema, 169 
 
 Because of the angels, icS 
 
 Appointed to death, 53 
 
 Approved, in 
 
 Attend upon the Lord, 79 
 
 Awake to righteousness, 153 
 
 Baptize into, 36 
 
 Baptized for the dead, 151 
 
 Barbarian, 133 
 
 Beateth the air, 93 
 
 Bestow my goods to feed the poor, 128 
 
 For the better, in 
 
 Blameless, 33 
 
 Born out of due time, 148 
 
 Carnal, 45 
 
 Castaway, 94 
 
 Casuistry, 71 
 
 Celestial bodies, 155 
 
 Cephas, 142 
 
 Charity, 82, 127, 128 
 
 XaptcTfi-aTa, 119 
 
 Church in the house, 168 
 
 Collection for the saints, 163 
 
 Comforted, 138 
 
 Coming, 33 
 
 Commendeth, 84 
 
 Communion, 3^, 34, 99, 100, loi 
 
 Comparing spiritual things with spiritual, 
 
 43 
 Confusion, 139 
 Conscience of, 83 
 Convinced, 136 
 
INDEX II. 
 
 Covet earnestly, 127 
 Covetous, 62 
 Crown, 93 
 
 Damnation, 116 
 
 Day (in the sense of judgment), 50 
 
 Death is swallowed up in victory, 162 
 
 Decently, 141 
 
 Deliver unto Satan, 59 
 
 Destroyer, 98 
 
 There is difference, 78 
 
 Discern, 52, 116, 117, 121 
 
 Dispensation, 90 
 
 Distress, 77 
 
 Divisions, 34, m, 121 
 
 Door, 166 
 
 Edify, 82 
 Examine, 116 
 Examples, 96 
 Expedient, 67 
 Extortioner, 62 
 
 Fail, 130 
 
 Faith, 41 
 
 Fellowship, 33, 34, loi 
 
 Filth, 54 
 
 Firstfruits, 147 
 
 Fought with beasts, 152 
 
 Gain the more, 91 
 Through a glass, 131 
 Glorjing, Glory, 59, 90 
 Governments, 126 
 Grace, 32 
 By grace, 104 
 Guilty of, 115, 116 
 
 Hades, 162 
 Have not, 113 
 Helps, 126 
 Heresies, 111 
 
 Jeopardy, 152 
 Judge, 117 
 Judgment, 34 
 Justify, 66 
 
 Keep under, 93, 94 
 
 Kiss of peace, 168 
 
 Knowledge, 41, 120 
 
 To know anything by oneself, 50 
 
 Last Adam, 158 
 Lay by him, 164 
 Love, 82, 127, 12S 
 
 Malice, 61, T35 
 Maran-atha, i6g 
 Mind, 34 
 Moment, 161 
 Mystery, 49 
 
 Nad?, 48 
 
 Nature itself, no 
 Natural, 43> i57 
 
 Offscouring, 54 
 Operations, 120 
 Ordinances, 105 
 
 Perfect, 41, 135 
 
 By permission, 71 
 
 To play, 97 
 
 Power of God, 38, 41 
 
 Power on her head, 108 
 
 Preach, 94, 143 
 
 Preaching, 94 
 
 Prize, 92 
 
 Prophet, prophesy, 132 
 
 Quickening, 158 
 
 Redemption, 39 
 
 Remembrance, T14 
 
 Revealed by fire, 47 
 
 Revelation, 33 
 
 Reward, 91 
 
 Rod, 56 
 
 Room of the unlearned, 134 
 
 Saints, 32 
 
 Sanctify, Sanctification, 31, 39, 66, 142 
 
 Saved, 141 
 
 Schism, 34, 124 
 
 Scripture (as used by St Paul), 52, 142 
 
 Second man, 159 
 
 Set them to judge, 64 
 
 Shew, 115 
 
 Sincerity, 61 
 
 Sister, 87 
 
 Sleep, 80 
 
 We shall not all sleep, 160 
 
 Soul, 158 
 
 Spiritual body, 157 
 
 Spiritual rock, 96 
 
 Stadium, 93 
 
 Stewards, 49 
 
 Strength of sin is the law, 162 
 
 Tempt Christ, 98 
 Testament, 114 
 Thresheth, 88 
 Time is short, 77 
 
 Unseemly, 129 
 Unworthily, 115 
 Use it rather, 75 
 
 Vaunteth not itself, 129 
 
 Which (for who), 70 
 Wisdom, 41, 120 
 Without law, 91 
 Word of Wisdom, 120 
 For the worse, iii 
 
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