THE LIBRARY

THE UNIVERSITY

OF CALIFORNIA

iv.

GIFT OF

The Estate of

S* H. Cowell

-^•'^ '^.^.

./• -»^ -i-":

«-.

K^^^^

"4f

Digitized by the Internet Archive

in 2007 with funding from

IVIicrosoft Corporation

http://www.archive.org/details/epistlesofstpaulOOstanrich

THE

EPISTLES TO THE CORINTHIANS

By the same Author.

LECTURES on the HISTORY of the JEWISH

CHURCH. Abraham to the Destructiox of Jerusalem. 3 vols. 8vo.

LECTURES on the HISTORY of the EASTERN

CHURCH. Plans. 8vo. 12s.

CHRISTIAN INSTITUTIONS, or Essays on Eccle-

siastical Subjects, 8vo. 155.

SINAI and PALESTINE, in connexion with their

History. Plaris. Svo. 14?.

The BIBLE in the HOLY LAND : being Extracts

from the above Work for the use of Schools and Young Persons. Woodcuts.
Fcp. Svo. 2s. 6d.

HISTORICAL MEMORIALS of CANTERBURY.

niustrations. Post Svo. 7*. M.

HISTORICAL MEMORIALS of WESTMINSTER

ABBEY. Illustrations. Svo. 155.

LIFE and CORRESPONDENCE of DR. ARNOLD

of Rugby. 2 vols, crown Svo. 12s.

SERMONS in the EAST preached during the Tour

of the Prince of Wales. Svo. 9s.

BISHOP STANLEY'S ADDRESSES and CHARGES.

Svo. 10s. &d.

MEMOIR of EDWARD, CATHERINE, and MARY

STANLEY. Post Svo. 10s. Gd.

SERMONS on PUBLIC OCCASIONS preached in

Westminster Abbey. Svo.

The BEATITUDES and SERMONS ADDRESSED

to YOUNG PERSONS in Westminster Abbey. Post Svo.

THE

EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL

COEINTHIANS

WITH CRITICAL NOTES AND DISSERTATIONS

J^JU^ . K ^ T: Grv^-vCtiSu-^

By ARTHUE PENRHYN STANLEY, D.D.

DEAN OF WESTMINSTER

CORRESPONDING MEMBKR OF THE INSTrrUl'E OF FRANCE

Jfifl^ (gbxtbn

LONDON
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET

1882

I-OSDON : PBrNTKD BY

HPOTTISWOODK AKD CO., NKW-8THEKT SQDARB

ASD PAULIAMEST STUBET

GIFT
^d to Libk

PEEFACE

THE FOURTH EDITION.

With the exception of some few corrections and some
abridgments in the Preface, this is a reprint of the
third edition. To have reconsidered the details of the
text in accordance with the progress of criticism in
these later years would have been impossible for the
Author and perhaps profitless for the reader.

Dkanery, Westminster
November 10, 1875.

166

PEEFACE

In many respects every commentary on the Epistles
of St. Paul must traverse the same ground, and pursue
the same plan. But, partly as a justification of enter-
ing afresh on a field so often trodden, partly as an ex-
planation of the design of this work, it may be advisable
briefly to state the peculiarities of the Apostle's argu-
ment generally, and of these two Epistles in particular,
which I have endeavoured to bear in mind.

Unlike the style of regular treatises, the language
of St. Paul's Epistles partakes in an eminent degree of
the roughness and abruptness of the most familiar let-
ters, whilst it also labours with the fervour and vehe-
mence of the most impassioned oratory. Dictated for
the most part, not written, his Epistles partake of the
character of speeches rather than of compositions. He is
in them the speaking Prophet, not the silent Scribe. He
almost always conceives himself as ' present in Spirit ; '
as ' speaking ' to his readers face to face ; his Epistle, in
his mind, becomes himself ; and through it he appears
among them as Elijah before Ahab, as himself before
Eelix. Every sentence is aimed at some special object
— is influenced by some immediate impulse — is lit up
by some personal joy, or darkened by some personal
sorrow or apprehension. For this reason it is neces-

Vlll PEEFACE.

sary, beyond what is required in ordinary writings, to
keep constantly before us both the Apostle and his
readers ; what they expected from him, what he expected
from them, and what was the mood or association
with which he dictated, not merely the Epistle in
general, but, so far as we can ascertain, each particular
portion.

Further, the Apostle's style is of that irregular and
complex kind which often requires an analysis of every
particle of a sentence, in order to exhibit its structure
and purpose. In some respects its outward aspect closely
resembles that of two men, very different from each
other and from him — Thucydides and Oliver Cromwell.^
In all three there is a disproportion between thought
and lano^uao-e, the thouo'ht strainino* the lano-uao^e till
it cracks in the process — a shipwreck of grammar
and logic, as the sentences are whirled through the
author's mind — a growth of words and thoughts out
of and into each other, often to the utter entangle-
ment of the argument which is framed out of them.
In the case of St. Paul, there are also peculiar forms of
speech, which he finds it impossible to resist, and which
whilst, from their frequent recurrence, they help to ex-
plain each other, almost always act with disturbing
force on the sentences in which they occur. Such,
for example, is his habit of balancing two parts of a
sentence against each other — the joint product, as it
were, of the Hebrew parallelism and the Greek syllo-
gism or dilemma. Or again, the unexpected burst

^ No Greek scholar need be re- ; the Protector (as edited by Mr.

minded of the characteristics here
intended in the style of Thucydides.
No one who reads the speeches of

Carlyle) can fail to see what is in-
tended in the case of Cromwell.

PEEFACE. IX

into doxology or solemn asseveration. Or the appro-
priation of the arguments of those against whom, or for
whom he is pleading, to his own person — the ' trans-
ferring ' to himself ' in a figure ' what properly belongs
to others. Or the long digressions, almost after the
manner of Herodotus, suggested by a word, a remi-
niscence, an apprehension. Or the sudden rise into
successive stages of flight, through the various stages of
spiritual life, not halting till he reaches the throne of
God ; the exact image (if one may borrow an illustra-
tion from common literature) of the ascent of faith, so
beautifully portrayed in Sou they 's description of the
upward voyage of the Glendoveer to Mount Calasay.

Yet, further, it has been attempted to follow out,
not only the train of argument and the construction
of sentences, but the image presented by each separate
word. Never was there a truer description of any
style than that which Luther gives of the style of the
Apostle ; ' The words of St. Paul are not dead words ;
they are living creatures, and have hands and feet.'
Each word has, as it were, a law, a life, a force of its
own. It has grown up under the shade of some adja-
cent argument, or it has been tinged with the colouring
of its Hebrew original, or of some neighbourmg pas-
sage in the version of the Seventy, or has been animated
with a vigour before unknown, through the Christian
and Apostolical use to which it is now for the first time
applied. And it propagates itself through new sen-
tences, words, paragraphs, chapters, grown out of it as
out of some prolific seed of the natural world.

Yet again, the arguments and words of the Apostle,
unlike those of common writers, have furnished mate-

X PKEFACE.

rials for systems, for opinions, for doctrines, for prac-
tices — sometimes rightly, sometimes wrongly deduced
from them ; but still so far connected with them, that
the image of the Apostolical Epistles can never be com-
plete, unless we note the associations with which the
lapse of many centuries has invested them.

And, finally, there is hardly any considerable section
of the Epistle that has not exercised some important
influence, or contained some important lesson, for all
the future history of mankind ; some truth, which is
here for the first time clearly set forth — some duty,
which is here most energetically urged — some trait of
the Apostle's character, which is here most completely
illustrated.

So to draw forth the contents of the two Epistles has
been my object in the following pages. To this object I
have endeavoured strictly to confine myself. To enu-
merate the conflicting interpretations of each passage,
except where the various interpretations themselves are
necessary to represent the meaning or complete the
history of the passage — to frame new systems from the
text of the Apostle — or to justify and attack existing
systems by his language — would have been to divert
the attention from the very subject which requires the
closest concentration. Such a course will, perhaps, dis-
appoint some readers ; but it is a course which may
safely be left to vindicate itself. JS^ot only must we re-
member, according to the old saying, that the Scripture
is its own best interpreter ; but also that, by bemg left
to interpret itself, it actually yields new instruction
which else would be lost or overlooked. To any one
who thus carefully endeavours to reproduce ' the argu-

PREFACE. xi

ment, the whole argument, and nothing but the argu-
ment ' of the Apostle, the page, which before seemed
dead and colourless, will be lit up at once by living
pictures, by the lights and shades of many trains of
complex thought, which belong strictly to its history,
and can only be arrived at through a study of its history.
Words and ideas which have often been confined to the
use of particular sections or parties of the Church, when
seen in their original meaning and connexion recover
their independence, and once more have visibly a long
race to run through the mouths of many generations.
The direct, practical, personal application which the
Apostle's arguments had, at the time when they were
originally used, if at first sight it might seem to limit
the universality of their meaning, on second thoughts
opens, deepens, and widens their application a hundred-
fold, in proportion as we see the close connexion which
they had with the practical life of man.

Thus much would apply to most, if not to all, of the
Pauline Epistles. The two Epistles to Corinth have a
special interest of their own. In the first place, they are,
in one word, the historical Epistles. The First Epistle
to Corinth gives a clearer insight than any other
portion of the New Testament into the institutions,
feelings, opinions of the Church of the earlier period of
the Apostolic age. Written, with the exception of the
two Epistles to Thessalonica, first of any of St. Paul's
Epistles, and, so far as we know, first of any of the
writings of the New Testament, it is in every sense the
earliest chapter of the history of the Christian Church.
The Second Epistle, though possessing less of general
interest, is yet the most important document in relation

XU PREFACE.

to the history of the Apostle himself. No other portions
of the New Testament throw an equal amount of light
at once on his personal character and feelings and on
the facts of his life. The illustrations which the First
Epistle furnishes of the general history of the Apo-
stolical Church, the Second Epistle furnishes of the
biography of St. Paul. Both these lessons it has been
the purpose of the following pages to draw out as fully
as possible.

It may be further remarked, that the two Epistles
to the Corinthians disclose a remarkable passage in the
Apostle's life, as a distinct whole. The incidents, on
which the two letters turn, have a continuous interest
— a beginning, middle, and end of their own. Some-
thing of the same kind may be seen in the Epistles
to the Thessalonians, and also in the four Epistles of
the Roman Imprisonment. But in none can we trace so
clearly, as in the two successive addresses to Corinth,
the fluctuations of feeling — the change of plan — the
effect produced by the tidings from his converts on the
Apostle — by the conduct and words of the Apostle on
his converts. Writers of fiction sometimes tell their
story through epistolary correspondence. The story of
the real life of the Apostle is told through the medium
of the two letters to the Corinthians ; and it has been
here attempted to present that story in its different
aspects, as it is gradually unrolled before our eyes.

The arrangement, which has been planned with a
view to these several points, is as follows :

Each Epistle, and each Section of each Epistle, is
prefaced by a statement of the circumstances necessary

PEEFACE. xili

to render intelligible the position which the Apostle
takes up. Each Section, wherever the case admits of
such a distribution, is followed by a statement of the
results, either in Christian history or Christian truth,
which that Section has contributed to establish. In
some instances, as in the 11th, 12th, and 14th Chapters
of the First Epistle, these remarks have necessarily as-
sumed the form of distinct Essays on the several sub-
jects of the Apostolical Eucharist and Worship, and the
Gifts of the Spirit. But, as a general rule, they are con-
fined to the especial object of each particular argument.
To each Section I have attached a Translation and
appended a Paraphrase of its contents. For the prin-
ciple on which the Translation is made, I refer to the
note at the end of the Preface. The Paraphrase is
intended to bring out the meaning of the respective
Sections, as explained in the preceding annotations.
The risk, thus incurred, of diluting, and, it may be
feared, at times lowering the dignity and simplicity of
the original, is obvious. But the convenience of pre-
senting the argument in a brief summary is such as to
overweigh the contrary disadvantages.

In the Xotes, I have, as a general rule, given only
such quotations as seemed absolutely needed to establish
the points in question ; and have also excluded all re-
ference to individual commentators. It will, of course,
be understood that, so far as they were known to me,
they have all been consulted ; and it is hoped that no
interpretation of a passage has been rejected or adopted,
without due consideration of the arguments that have
been urged for or against it. Special explanations or
annotations are mentioned only in the following cases :

XIV

PREFACE.

namely, where the interpretations have in themselves
a distinct historical value, as representatives of great
schools of theology, or where, as often in the case of
Bengel, the wisdom or beauty of their expression
demands a distmct record ; or finally, where the works
referred to are repertories of quotations from Jewish or
classical authors, as in the case of Wetstein, Schottgen,
Lightfoot, and Heydenreich.*

The genuineness of these Epistles has never been
disputed ; and, as the internal evidence is a sufficient
guarantee of that genuineness without any external
support, it is needless to say more on this subject than
to point out the great interest, attaching to two abso-
lutely undisputed documents of such importance to
the history of the period. Whatever facts or statements
are proved by these Epistles, will be accepted as proved
by the severest criticism that has ever been applied to
any ancient remains of whatever kind.

The Text is that which Lachmann has published as
the nearest approach to the authentic text of the first
three centuries. The grounds for preferring his text to
any other are elsewhere stated.^ It may be enough
here to observe, that whilst, on the one hand, the differ-
ences between this and the Received Text very rarely
afi*ect the sense, on the other hand, they materially in-
crease the force and simplicity of the style ; and it

^ Most of the commentaries on the
Epistles to the Corinthians are con-
tained in the great collections, an-
cient and modem, of annotations
on the New Testament. The special
writers on these two Epistles are
fewin number,— Heydenreich, Bill-
roth, Osiander, Meyer, and Reiche,
in Germany, are the most important.

To these I would add a MS. com-
mentary on a large portion of these
Epistles by Mr. Bonamy Price, to
which I had the advantage of access
several years ago, when I tirst under-
took this work.

^ See Professor Jowett's Preface
to the Epistles to the Thessalonians.

PKEFACE. XV

is this consideration which to one unskilled in MSS.
is the most convincing proof of their antiquity. There
is a rudeness in form, an abruptness in construction,
a vivacity in expression, which convey an irresistible
impression of primitive originality, analogous to that
which is produced by an ancient edifice compared with
a modern imitation.

The variations in the Received Text^ are inserted
at the foot of the Text, with the exception of such as
are of perpetual recurrence (such as ovto) for ouro)?,
and ia-TLv for ecrri before vowels). In the Commentary
they are only noticed in cases either where the authority
is nearly equal, or where they suggest some general
remark.

For the sake of understanding the occasional refer-
ences to the MSS., as well as with the view of giving in
a concise form the basis of the Text which has been
followed, it may be as well to extract from the pre-
faces of Wetstein, Tischendorf, and Dean Alford, in their
respective editions of the New Testament, the names
of the chief MSS. on which the Greek text of the Epistles
to the Corinthians is founded.

The two Epistles to the Corinthians are contained,
with more or less completeness, in about twelve uncial
MSS. written between the 4th and 9th centuries.

At the close of the Second Epistle I have subjoined,
in an Appendix, the apocryphal correspondence between
the Corinthians and St. Paul, preserved in the Church
of Armenia.

In the Authorised Version of 1611, the Epistles

. ^ The only important variations I 15, xiii. 3, xv. 51 ; 2 Cor. x. 12,
are those in 1 Cor. vii. 5, 33, ix. | xii. 1.

XVI PEEFACE.

were translated by the Fifth out of the Six Companies
or Committees appointed for the whole work. It con-
sisted of seven persons, Dr. Barlow, Dr. Hutchinson,
Dr. Spencer, Mr. Fenton, Mr. Eabbett, Mr. Sanderson,
Mr. Dakins ; each of whom translated a part, to be
submitted to the revision of the whole Committee.

To which of these, therefore, the translation of the
Epistles to the Corinthians in its present form is to be as-
cribed, cannot now be ascertained. But inasmuch as the
version of these Epistles in 161 1, in common with that of
the whole Bible, was professedly based on the ' Bishops'
Bible ' of 1568, and inasmuch as the alterations from that
earlier Version are very slight, the virtual translators of
the Epistles to the Corinthians, as we now have them, are
those who were concerned in that work in the reign of
Elizabeth. Of these, the name of the translator of the
First Epistle is learned from the initials affixed, G. G.
— Dr. Gabriel Goodman, Dean of Westminstei. The
Second Epistle having no such marks, its translator is
not known. ^

I have given here the text of the Authorised
Aversion, with such corrections only as were required
for the sake of more faithfully representing the sense of
the original.

See ' The English Hexapla/ pp. 143, 156.

CONTENTS,

Pkeface to the fourth Edition

Preface

Introduction to the First Epistle .
Corinth at the Period of the Epistles
Corinth, the Capital of Greece
The Corinthian Church the chief Example

Church ....
Outward Appearance of Corinth .
Internal Condition of Corinth .
Greek Civilisation
Foreign Elements
Arrival of St. Paul

Teaching of St. Paul .

Importance of the Crisis .

Effect of his Teaching .

His Removal to Ephesus .
Disorders of the Corinthian Church

Tidings of these Disorders

Situation of St. Paul at the Reception of

Arrival of a Letter from the Corinthians
The First Epistle

Scene of the Epistle ; Ephesus

Time of the Epistle ; Spring .

Amanuensis ....

Contents of the Epistle

Eftects of the Epistle

of a

them.

Gentile

PAUK
V

Vll

Mode of indicating Variations prom the Authorised Versio]^ 20

XVlll CONTENTS.

FIRST EPISTLE.

PAOK

Plan of the Epistle 21

Salutation and Introduction. Chap. I. 1-9 . . . . 22
The Apostolical Salutations ...... 24

Charges against the Corinthians. Chap. I. 10 — VI. 20.

(I) The Factions. Chap. I. 10— IV. 20 .... 26

(1) Description of the Factions. Chap. i. 10-17 . . 31

TJie Apostle's Vieiv of Party Spirit . . . . 34

(2) Simplicity of the Apostle's Preaching. Chap. i. 18 —

ii. 5 36

T7t6 Gross of Christ 44

(3) Contrast of Human and Divine Wisdom. Chap. ii. 6 —

iii. 4 48

The Apostle's Vieio of Spiritual Wisdom . . . 54

(4) The Leaders of the Parties. Chap. iii. 5 — iv. 20 . 58

The Apostle's View of the Relation of Teachers and
Taught . . . . • 73

(II) The Intercourse with Heathens.

Chap. IV. 21— VI. 20 75

(1) The Case of Incest. Chap. iv. 21— v. 13 . . . 75

(2) Digression on the Lawsuits. Chap. vi. 1-8 . . 85

(3) The case of Incest, resumed. Chap. vi. 9-20 . . 89

Apostolic Liberty and Apostolic Discipline . . 94

Answers of St. Paul to the Letter or the Corinthian Church.
Chap. VIL 1— XIV. 40.

(I) Marriage. Chap. VII. 1-40 98

The Apostle's View of Celibacy . . . .117.

(II) The Sacrificial Feasts of the Heathens.

Chap. VIII. 1— XL 1 123

(1) General Warning. Chap. viii. 1-13 .... 126

Christian Self-denial . . . . . . . 134

(2) His own Example of Self-denial. Chap. ix. 1 — x. 14 . 136

The Apostle's View of Teachers 162

(3) Apostolical Communion. Chap. x. 15 — xi. 1 . . 164

TjvH of the SacHficial Feasts . . . . .167
The Apostle's View of Things Indifferent and of Self-
denial . . . . . . . . . 175

CONTENTS. XIX

PAQK

(III) Worship and Assemblies. Chap. XI. 2— XIV. 40.

(1) Disuse of Female Head-dress. Chap. xi. 2-16 . . 181

The Apostle's View of Social and National Distinc-
tions ......... 190

(2) Disputes in the Public Assemblies, and especially at

the Lord's Supper. Chap. xi. 16-34 . . .193
The Apostle's View of the Lord's Supper . . . 205

(3) The Spiritual Gifts. Chap. xii. 1— xiv. 40.

{a) Unity and Variety of Spiritual Gifts. Chap. xii.

1-30 210

The Miracles and the Organisation of the Apostolic

Age 223

(6) Love, the greatest of Gifts. Chap. xii. 31— xiii. 13 228
The Apostolical Boctrine' of Love . . . . 237

Chap. xiv. 1-25 243

Tlie Superiority of Prophesying to Speaking with

Tongues ........ 258

The Office of the Understanding in Christian

Worship 269

(d) Necessity of Order. Chap. xiv. 26-40 . . .273

Apostolical Worship 277

The Resurrection of the Dead. Chap. XV. 1-58 . . 283

(1) The Resurrection of Christ. Chap. xv. 1-11 . . 285

The First Greed and the First Evidence of Chris-
tianity 294

(2) The Resurrection of the Dead. Chap. xv. 12-34 . . 296

The Apostle's Hope of Immortality . . . .311

(3) The Mode of the Resurrection. Chap. xv. 35-58 . . 314

The Apostle's View of a Future State . . . 325

Conclusion of the Epistle. Chap. XVI. 1-24 . . . . 328

XX CONTENTS.

SECOND EPISTLE.

Inteoduction.

PAGE

Occasion of the Second Epistle 345

The Apostle's Departure from Ephesns . . . . 345
His Anxiety to hear of the Effects of the First Epistle . 345

Arrival at Troas 346

Meeting with Titus at Philippi . . . . . . 346

Tidings from Corinth 347

Punishment of the Incestuous Marriage . . . . 347

Revolt of the Jewish Party 347

Contribution for Jerusalem ....... 348

Style of the Epistle 348

Its Contents 349

Effect of the ISecond Epistle 351

Later Traces of the Jndaizers in the ' Clementines ' . . 352

Plan of the Epistle 355

Salutation and Introduction Chap. I. 1-11 .... 356
The Apostle's Sympathy 360

(I) The Tidings beought bt Titus. Chap. I. 12 — ^VII. 16.

(1) The Apostle's Confidence in the Corinthians. Chap. i.

12— ii. 11 . • . 363

His Relation to the Church . . . . .377

(2) The Arrival of Titus. Chap. ii. 12-16a . . . 378

The Meeting luith Titus 381

Digression on the Apostolical Mission.
Chap. II. 16&— VI. 10.

(1) The Plainness and Clearness of the Apostolical Service.

Chap. ii. 16&— iv. 6 383

The Openness of the Apostolical Service . . . 383

(2) The DifiBculties and the Supports of the Apostle.

Chap. iv. 7— V. 10 407

His Prospect of Death . . . . . .421

(3) The Apostle's Motive for his Service. Chap. v. 11 —

vi. 10 423

The lieconciliation of the World hy Chris fs Death . 440

The Arrival op Titus. Chap. VI. 11-13 .... 448

Digression on Intercourse with Heathens.

Chap. VI. 14— VII. 1 . . . . .448

CONTENTS. XXI

PAGE

The Arrival of Titus, resumed. Chap. VII. 2-16 . . 454
The Apostle's Delight in Human Intercourse . . . . 461

(II) The Collection for the Churches in Jud^a.

Chap. VIII. 1— IX. 15 463

(1) The Example of the Macedonian Churches. Chap.

viii. 1-15 ........ 464

The Poverty of Christ 474

(2) The Mission of Titus. Chap. viii. 16-24 . . . 476

(3) The Spirit in which the Collection is to be made.

Chap. ix. 1-15 485

(III) The Apostle's Vindication. Chap. X. — XIII.

(I) The Apostle's Assertion of his Intention to exert his

Apostolical Authority. Chap. X. 1-6 , . . 496

(II) His Boast of his Claims. Chap. X. 7— X[I. 18 . . 503

(1) Reality of his Boast. Chap. x. 7-18 .... 504

(2) His Excuse for it in his Affection for the Corinthians.

Chap. xi. 1-15 . • 513

(3) His Excuse for it in his Weakness. Chap. xi. 16 —

xii. 10 . . 524

The Sufferings of the Apostle ; the Thorn in the Flesh 545

Explanations, Warnings, and Salutations.

Chap. XII. 11— XIII. 18 553

The Epistles to the Corinthians in relation to the Gospel

History.

Historical Character of the two Epistles . . . , . 569

Their Relation to the Gospels 569

(I) Allusions to Sayings of Christ 570

(II) Allusions to the Acts of the Life of Christ . .573

The Nativity — The Ministry and Miracles, 573.
The Passion, 574. The Lord's Supper— The
Resurrection, 575. The Ascension, 576.
Resemblance to the Gospel according to St. Luke 576
(HI) Allusions to the Character of Christ . . . . 577
The New Era of His Appearance, 577. His Wis-
dom—Truth, 580. Freedom— Toleration, 581.
Gentleness — Love. Strength perfected in
weakness, 582.

XXll CONTENTS.

FAGK

(IV) Causes of the Apostle's Silence 584

The Life and Death of Christ the Subject of his

Oral Teaching 584

The Spiritual Character of all his Teaching . 585
Effect of the Life of Christ on the Apostle's Writ-
ings and Character . . , . . . 687

APPENDIX.

The Apocryphal Epistles of the Corinthl/^s to St. Paul,
AND OF St. Paul to the Corinthians, preserved in the
Church of Armenia . . ... . . . 591

.>'

INTRODUCTION

FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS.

Corinth, at the time of the Christian era, was very different
from the city of which we read in the narratives of
Thucydides and Xenophon. The supremacy which thTperiod
had been enjoyed at earlier periods of Greek history of the
by Argos, Sparta, Athens, and Thebes, in turn, had, ^^^^ ®^*
in the last stages of that eventful drama, come round to
Corinth, often before the ally and rival, but never till the last
years of its independent existence the superior, of the other
Grecian commonwealths. When the native vigour of the
other states of Greece had been broken by the general sub-
mission to Alexander and his successors,^ Corinth rose at once
to that eminence which the strength of her position as the key
of the Peloponnesus, and the convenience of her central situa-
tion for purposes of communication and commerce, would
naturally have secured to her. Accordingly, the last glory of
the Martinmas summer of Greece, in the days of the Achaean
League, was shed almost exclusively on Corinth. ^ Here the
nominal independence of the Greek nation was proclaimed by
Flamininus. Here also descended the final blow by which
that show of freedom was destroyed by Mummius. The great-
ness of the closing history of Corinth is best attested by the
greatness of its fall. The triumph of Mummius was the most
magnificent which the temple of Capitoline Jove had ever

^ An excellent description of the
state of Corinth at this period is to
be found in Leake's Morea, vol. iii.
c. 28. Compare also the quotations
from classical authors in Wetstein's
Notes on 1 Cor. i. 1 ; the Life and
Epistles of St. Paul, by the Rev. W.
J. Conybeare and the Rev. J. S.

Howson, vol. i. ch. 12 ; and the
article ' Corinthus ' in Dr. Smith's
Dictionary of Greek and Roman
Geography.

^ ' Corinthus totius Grsecise lumen. '
— Cic. pro Leg. Man. 5. ' Achaise
caput, Grsecias decus.' — Florus, ii.
16, 1.

<^1

2 FIRST EPISTLE.

witnessed. As a storehouse of Grecian art and civilisation, it
seems to have been held equal to Athens itself. For months
and years it became the quarry from which the Roman nobles
adorned their villas with marbles, paintings, and statues. The
mass of gold, silver, and bronze, melted down in the general
conflagration, was so great that the rich material formed from
it was currently known in the empire under the name of
' Corinthian brass.' A still stronger proof of the importance
of the city was furnished by the precautions which the con-
querors took against its again becoming the centre of that
national life of which it had been the last home. The inhabit-
ants were entirely disarmed, and, for a hundred years, it was
literally a city of ruins.

The recollection of its greatness in the last days of Greece,
as well as the natural advantages of its situation, caused Ju-
lius Caesar to select it as the site of a Roman settlement,
which he established under the title of ' Colonia Julia Corin-
thus,' or ' Laus Juli Corinthus,' in the same year (b. c. 46) in
which, in pursuance of his usual policy, he founded a similar
colony at Carthage. This ' New Corinth ' accordingly became,
Corinth, ^^^^ ^^^ predecessor, but by a more direct and formal
the capital acknowledgment, the capital of the whole of the
o reece. gQy^}jgj,jj division of the Roman province of Greece,
known by the name of ' Achaea ; ' in other words, — inasmuch,
as this southern division comprehended the whole country
south of Thessaly, and as the northern division of ' Macedonia '
had never imbibed thoroughly the spirit of Grecian culture, —
the capital of Greece itself.

This peculiarity in the political position of Corinth, which
aturally drew the steps of the Apostle to its walls, lends a
special interest to the two Epistles addressed to its inhabitants.
When labouring there, he was labouring not merely for Corinth,
but for the great people of which it was now the representative ;
the Epistles which he wrote to the Christians of Corinth were
in fact — as is implied in the opening ^ of the second — Epistles
to the whole Greek nation : they included within their range
not merely Corinth the capital, but Athens the university, of
Greece ; and spoke not only to those who had listened to him
in the house of Justus and Gains or the synagogue of Crispus,

^ 2 Cor. i. 1 : * The church of God which is at Corinth, with all the
saints which are in all Achaia.'

INTRODUCTION. 3

but to those who had heard him beneath the shade of the Acro-
polis or on the rock-hewn seats of the Areopagus. Most of the
Churches to which his Epistles were written, although nomi-
nally Gentile, were communities in which the Jewish element
was predominant, or exposed to influences which rendered his
notice of it predominant. The First Epistle to Co-
rinth, alone of the larger Epistles, addresses itself to rinthian
a Church where the Gentile element is stronger than Church,
the Jewish; or, at least, where Christianity is expressly exampTe of
exhibited in its relation to the feelings, customs, and a Gentile
difficulties, not of Jewish, but of Gentile Christians. ^^^ '
The importance with which these Epistles are thus invested is
evident. Greece, indeed, was now a subject-province without
life or energy of its own ; Grecian religion and philosophy
were very different from what they had been in the days of
Pericles ; the illustrations of these Epistles have to be sought,
not from Plato, but from Plutarch ; not from Sophocles, but
from Meander ; not from the unadulterated purity of Athenian
taste and knowledge, but from the mixed populations and mixed
belief of a degenerate race, bound together under the sway
of the proconsul Gallio. Still, with every drawback, we are
here allowed to witness the earliest conflict of Christianity
with the culture and the vices of the ancient classical world ;
here we have an insight into the principles ' which regulated
the Apostle's choice or rejection of the customs of that vast
fabric of heathen society which was then emphatically called
' the world ; ' here we trace the mode in which he combated ^
the false pride, the false knowledge, the false liberality, the
false freedom, the false display, the false philosophy to which
an intellectual age, especially in a declining nation, is con-
stantly liable ; here, more than anywhere else in his writings,
his allusions and illustrations are borrowed not merely from
Jewish customs and feelings, but from the literature, the
amusements, the education, the worship, of Greece and of Rome.^
It is the Apostle of the Gentiles, as it were, in his own pe-
culiar sphere, in the midst of questions evoked by his own

1 See 1 Cor. v. 1-10 ; vi. 1, 10, ] ^ See i. 17 ; iii. 4, 18-23 ; iv.

12 ; vii. 12-24 ; viii. 1-13 ; ix. 21, , 7-13 ; vi. 4, 12-20 ; viii. 1-7 ; x.

22 ; X. 20, 21; xi. 2-16. The grounds 1 1-15, 23-33 ; xii. ; xiv. ; xv. 35-41.

of these allusions, and of all which | ^ g^^ jij ^^ 2, 13 ; iv. 9, 13 ; ix.

follow, will be explained in the notes I 24-27 ; xi. 14 ; xii. 12-26 ; xv. 31,

on the Epistles. i 33 ; 2 Cor. ii. 14-16 ; v. 10.

4 FIRST EPISTLE.

peculiar mission, watching over churches of his own creation; 'if
not an Apostle to others, doubtless to them,' ^ not pulling down,
but building up, feeling that on the success of his work then,
the whole success and value of his past and future work de-
pended. ' The seal of his Apostleship were they in the Lord.'^
From this general character of the Church of Corinth, we
Outward ^^^ ^^^ descend into the minuter details, which illus-
appearance trate more particularly the circumstances under which
of Corinth, the First Epistle was written. The outward aspect
which the city of Corinth presented at the time of St. Paul is
well known. From the summit of the Acrocorinthus, or huge
rocky hill at the foot of which the town was situated, the eye
takes in at a glance, what is slowly conveyed by books, the
secret of its importance, as in classical, so also in sacred his-
tory. To the right and to the left extend the winding shores
of the ' double sea,' whose blue waters, threading their way
through islands and promontories innumerable, open to east
and west the communication which made it once and again the
natural resting-place in the Apostle's journeys. From that
little bay at Cenchreae he was to take his departure from Ephesus
and Jerusalem ; up the course of that western gulf lay the
direct route to Kome and to the far West, which even now he
hoped to follow, and along which, at his second visit, he sent
his Epistle to the Romans. In front lie the hills of northern
Greece ; and on the coast of Attica, discerned by the glitter of
its crown of temples, the Acropolis of Athens, the last scene of
St. Paul's preaching before he crossed the Saronic gulf. Be-
hind rise the mountains of Peloponnesus, the highlands of
Greece ; into their remote fastnesses there was no call for the
Apostle to enter ; and accordingly, in the city which guards
their entrance, we see, in all probability, the southernmost
point of his future travels. What was the appearance of the
city itself we know to a certain extent from the detailed de-
scription of it by Pausanias one hundred years later. At
present one Doric temple alone remains of all the splendid edi-
fices then standing ; but the immediate vicinity presents various
features to which the Apostle's allusions have given an im-
mortal interest. The level plain, and the broken gullies of the
isthmus, are still tjlothed with the low pine, which can still be
identified by its modern name {irzvKrf),^ from whose branches

^ 1 Cor. ix. 2. ^ See Sibthorpe's Flora Grseca,

^ Ibid. vol. X. p. 39, pi. 949.

INTKODUCTION. 5

of emerald green were woven the garlands for the Isthmian
games, contrasted by the Apostle ^ with the unfading crown of
the Christian combatant. In its eastern declivities are to be
seen the vestiges of that * stadium/^ in which all ran with
such energy as to be taken as the example of Christian self-
denial and exertion. On the outskirts of the city may be traced
the vast area of the amphitheatre,^ which conveyed to the
Corinthians a lively image of the Apostle's ' fighting with
beasts,''* or of his ' being set forth as the last in the file of
combatants appointed unto death,' a ' spectacle to the world,
to angels, and to men.'-^ Around stood the temples resting
on their columns — columns of the * Corinthian order' which
made the name of ' Corinthian buildings ' (Ephyra^ae aedes)
proverbial for magnificence ; and which, standing as they did in
their ancient glory amidst the new streets erected by Caesar on
the ruins left by Mummius, may well have suggested the com-
parison of the ' gold, silver, and precious " marbles," ' surviving
the conflagration in which all meaner edifices of wood and
thatch had perished.®

It is not so easy to imagine the internal as the external
aspect of the city. That it was again a flourishing internal
town is clear. The commerce which had been sus- condition
pended during its century of desolation, had now had ^ °"° '
nearly another century to recover itself; and the attempt of
Nero to dig a canal through the isthmus, very nearly about the
time of the Epistle, shows the importance attached to it as an
emporium between the East and West. The Isthmian Greek civi-
games, too, which even during the time of its desertion lisation.
had still been celebrated under the charge of the neighbouring
state of Sicyon, attracted many strangers to the spot every
alternate year, and were afterwards continued even down to
the time of. Julian.'^ Though less remarkable for its wealth
than in its earlier days, it must have been conspicuous, as is

1 1 Cor. ix. 25.

^ 1 Cor. ix. 24, ' race. ' Leake's
Morea, iii. 286.

^ 1 Cor. iv. 9. The remains of the
theatre are close to the stadium.
(Leake's Morea, iii. 286.) Those of
the amphitheatre are nearer to the
forum. (lb. 244.) Its area is 290
feet by 190, i.e. considerably larger
than that of Verona. At one end
are the remains of a subterraneous

entrance for wild beasts or gladiators.
As Pausanias does not mention it, it
may be later than the time of the
Apostle.

'^ 1 Cor. XV. 32.

"> 1 Cor. iv. 9.

« 1 Cor. iii. 12. See Pans. Cor.
i. 3 ; ii. 7. Heydenreich, Prolegom.
in Ep. 1. ad Cor. p. vii.

^ Paus. Cor. 2. Libanius, D. xxv.

FIRST EPISTLE.

implied in various passages in these Epistles,^ amongst the
poverty-stricken towns of the rest of Greece.^ With the con-
fluence of strangers and of commerce, were associated the
luxury and licentiousness which gave the name of Corinth an
infamous notoriety,^ and which, connected as they were in the
case of the Temple of Aphrodite with religious rites, suffici-
ently explain the denunciations of sensuality to which the
Apostle gives utterance in these Epistles^ more frequently and
elaborately than elsewhere. On the other hand, it was cele-
brated for maintaining the character of a highly polished and
literary society, such as (even without taking into account its
connexion with Greek civilisation generally) furnishes a natural
basis for much both of the praise and blame with which the
First Epistle abounds, in regard to intellectual gifts.^ ' At
Corinth, you would learn and hear even from inanimate objects ^
— so said a Greek teacher within a century from this time —
' so great are the treasures of literature in every direction,
wherever you do but glance, both in the streets themselves and
in the colonnades ; not to speak of the gymnasia and schools,
and the general spirit of instruction and inquiry.'^

Thus far it was merely the type of a Greek commercial
Foreign city, such as might have existed in the earlier ages
elements. Qf Grecian history. But the elements of which its
population was composed were, in great part, such as Perian-
der would have been startled to find under the shadow of his
ancient citadel. The Greek language here, as elsewhere in
Greece and in the East generally, was, except on coins and in
legal documents, the general medium of communication. But
to many of the Corinthians, as to the Apostle himself, it was
doubtless an acquired tongue. The new inhabitants, to the
Romans at least, w^ere known by a new name, to distinguish
them from the old Greek inhabitants ; not ' Corinthii,' but

^ 1 Cor. iv. 8 ; xvi. 2 ; 2 Cor. viii.
2, 10 ; ix. 2, 5-11.

^ Lucian introduces Mserichus as
Tov rikovaiov, rov ndw ttKovctlov, tov
€ic KoplvOov, TOV TToWas oXKadas
ixovra, ov dveyjnos 'Apiorias, nXoixnos
Koi avTos cov. — Dial. Mort. xi. 1. See
also the passages from Aristides and
Alciphron, quoted by Wetstein on
1 Cor. i. 2.

^ In the words KopivdidCea-BaL, Ko-
ptvOia Kopa, &c. It is needless to

refer more j)articularly to the nu-
merous passages quoted at length in
Wetstein on 1 Cor. i. 2, from Aristo-
phanes, Plato, Cicero, Strabo, Dion,
Chrysostomus, Athenseus, Lucian,
and Eustathius.

* 1 Cor. V. 1 ; vi. 9-20 ; x. 7, 8 ;
2 Cor. vi. 14-vii. 1.

^ 1 Cor. i. 22-ii. 16 ; i. 4, 5 ; iv.
7, 8 ; viii. 1 ; x. 15 ; xiii. 1-9 ; xv. 35.

^ Aristides in Neptun. p. 23, in
Wetstein on 1 Cor. i. 2.

INTRODUCTION. 7

' Corinthienses.' ^ The settlement of Csesar consisted not of
native Greeks, but of foreigners;^ some, doubtless^were Italians,
descendants of the first colonists from Cassar's army.^ But
most even of the original settlers were freedmen ; * and with
this ao^rees the fact that the Corinthian names which occur in
the New Testament'^ are mostly such as indicate a servile
origin. It is also probable that the much closer intercourse
between Greece and the East, which had been brought about
by the conquests of Alexander, would make itself especially
felt in a commercial city like Corinth. The Orontes (to
use the expression of Juvenal) would certainly have mixed its
waters with those of Pirene before it was finally blended with
the Tiber. And at this moment there was a reflux of the
Jewish population from Rome back towards the East, in conse-
quence of the decree of exile lately published by the Emperor
Claudius.^ A Jewish synagogue existed with its rulers ; and
it is evident that the Apostle's converts were familiar with the
phraseology of the Old Testament. Even of those who appear
as bearing distinctly Greek or Roman names — Erastus, So-
sthenes, Crispus, and Justus — two at least were Jews, and one
a proselyte. Situated as it was, half-way between Rome and
Ephesus, men of all nations seem to have been constantly
passing and repassing to one and the other through Corinth.
Aquila of Pontus, with his wife Priscilla, are heard of now at
Rome,^ now at Corinth,^ now at Ephesus.^ Phoebe of Cen-
chreai goes without difficulty from Corinth to Rome.^° Fortu-
natus, Achaicus, and Stephanas went from Corinth to visit the
Apostle at Ephesus. ^^

* Festus : * Corinthienses ex eo dici
coepemnt, ex quo coloni Corinthum
suntdeducti, qui antea Corinthiiaunt
dicti.' This was after the analogy
of Hispanienses and Hispani, SicUi-
enses and Siculi. In Greek the dis-
tinction was not made, else the
Epistles would have been addressed
TTpbs Kopivdiels. There is not the
least reason to infer from this, or
from any other of the facts here
mentioned, thatLatin was habitually
spoken at Corinth ; and the whole
structure of the Epistles repels such
an hypothesis.

^ Paus. Cor. 2 : KopivBov oIkoxktlv
ovbiis Tav dp^aicov — '4ttolkol di otto-
OToXeWes VTTo 'Poijjiaioiv.

^ TO arparuoTiKdv. — Plut. Ccesar,
0.5.

^ Strabo, viii. 520 A. : ttoXvv^ 8i
Xpovov €pT]p.os p-eivaaa rj KopivBos due-
Xrjcpdr} ttoXlv vtto Kaicrapos rod deov
8ia rrjv evipviau (ttoikovs Trip.'^avTos
Tov dnekevdepLKOv yepovs TrXei'errovy.
He visited Corinth just after the
settlement.

^ 1 Cor. i. 14, 16 ; xvi. 17 ; Rom.
xvi. 21-23 ; Acts xviii. 8, 17.
^ Acts xviii. 2.
■^ Rom. xvi. 3, 4.
^ Acts xviii. 1, 2.
^ 1 Cor. xvi. 19.
^° Rom. xvi. 1.
" 1 Cor. xvi. 17.

8 FIRST EPISTLE.

Such was the city of Corinth at the time when the Apostle
Arrival of entered its walls. From the wealthy and luxurious
St. Paul, inhabitants themselves that visit could have attracted
but little attention. A solitary Eastern traveller (for St. Paul
was alone ^ when he arrived) would be lost at once in the con-
stant ebb and flow of strangers crossing each other at the
Isthmus. But by the Apostle his arrival must have been
regarded as of supreme importance. It was the climax, so to
speak, of the second, and in some respects the greatest, of his
journeys. On his previous voyage he had been accompanied
by Barnabas and Mark, both closely connected Avith the parent
Church at Jerusalem, and Barnabas possessed of an authority,
outwardly at least, hardly inferior to his own. Now, for the
first time, he had left Antioch completely independent ; Silas
and Timotheus were subordinate to him, not he in any sense to
them ; the world was all before him where to choose, and he
was evidently determined to press on as far as the horizon of
his hopes extended. These hopes were, indeed, even then con-
fined to Asia Minor ; but, when thrice overruled by preter-
natural intimations,^ he at last took the resolution — memorable
for all time — of crossing over into Europe. It would seem as
if, from the first, he had resolved to reach Corinth. The whole
tone of the narrative is that of an onward march ; and, although
his departure from most of the Macedonian cities was hastened
by the violence of the Jewish residents, it is obvious that he
was proceeding gradually southward ; and when he arrived at
Athens, he paused there, not as a final resting-place, but merely
to wait for Silas and Timotheus,^ and at last, impatient of the
delay ,^ took his departure and arrived at Corinth. Here was
the capital of Achaia, and beyond this, so far as we know, he
never advanced. Here, not for a short period of three weeks
(as mostly heretofore), but for a time, hitherto unparalleled in
his journeys, of a year and a half, he found his first Gentile home.

In Corinth, as elsewhere, he first turned to his own coun-
trymen. The house of Aquila and Priscilla, always open to
strangers,^ provided him with an abode ;^ and there, in company
with them, according to the rule which he had already adopted
in Macedonia,^ he maintained himself by manual labour in the

^ 1 Thess. iii. 1.

2 Acts xvi. 6, 7, 10.

^ Acts xvii. 15, 16.

^ 1 Thess. iii. 1.

^ 1 Cor. xvi. 19 ; Rom. xvi. 5.
^ Acts xviii. 2, 3.
"' 1 Thess. ii. 9.

INTRODUCTION.

trade of tent-making, which he had learned in his childhood in
his native city ; and his frequent allusions to it imply that his
appearance at Corinth in this capacity left a deep and lasting
impression. For some weeks he taught in the syn- Teaching
agogue, apparently as a Jew; warned, perhaps^ by his of St. Paul.
experience in the northern cities, of the danger of exciting an op-
position from the Jews before he had established a firm footing.
But, on the arrival of his two companions from Macedonia,
probably with the tidings of the zeal of the Thessalonian Chris-
tians, which incited him to write to them his two earliest Epis-
tles — he could no longer restrain himself, 'he was pressed
in the spirit,' and * testified to the Jews that Jesus was the
Messiah.'^ Instantly the same hostile demonstrations, the
same burst of invective,^ which he had encountered at Thes-
salonica and Beroea, broke out in Corinth also. But he was
now determined to stand his ground; and, instead of giving
way to the storm and leaving the place, he fulfilled the precept
of the Gospel,^ partly in the letter, partly in the spirit; he
stood up in the synagogue, and, in the face of his indignant
countrymen, shook out from his robes the dust, not of the city,
where he determined now more than ever to remain, but of the
synagogue, which he was determined now finally to abandon,
and, leaving the responsibility on themselves, declared his in-
tention of * going henceforth to the Gentiles.' He had not
far 'to go.'"* Hard by the synagogue itself was the house of
a proselyte, Justus, which he turned immediately, so to speak,
into a rival synagogue. His congregation consisted partly of
the Jews who were struck by his teaching, amongst whom was
to be reckoned Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, whom he
baptized with his own hands. ^ But it included the increasing
number of Gentile converts, amongst whom the household of
Stephanas were the earliest. In the midst of this mixed au-
dience he 'sat,'^ after the manner of the Rabbis, and taught
with unabated fervour 'the Cross of Christ.'^ The only fur-
ther interruption which he sustained from the hostility of his
countrymen, was the tumult, headed by Sosthenes,the successor
of Crispus: but this was baffled by the imperturbable indif-
ference of the proconsul Gallio, who, in accordance with the

^ Acts xviii. 5.

'^ avriTao-aofievoiVj ^\aa(l)r)fiovvTa}v.
Acts xviii. 6.
•' Matt. X. 14.

TTopevaofiai. Acts xviii. 5.
^ 1 Cor. i. 14.
^ cKadta-e. Acts xviii. 11.
7 1 Cor. ii. 2.

FIRST EPISTLE.

principles of the Roman law, as well as with the philosophical
calmness of his own disposition, positively refused to hear a case
which appeared to him not to fall within his jurisdiction.^

How critical this epoch was considered in the Apostle's
Import- lif^i is evident from the mention of the vision which
ance of the appeared to him on the night of his expulsion from
crisis. ^^^ synagogue, in which the Lord exhorted him to lay
aside all fear, and to speak boldly. The promise to the original
Apostles, 'I am with you,' was distinctly addressed to him,
combined with the declaration that the reward of his labour
would be great — 'for I have much people in this city.'^ The
language used in the vision implies both the anxiety under
which he laboured, and the importance of his not giving way
to it; as though he felt that he was now entering on a new
and untried sphere, and needed special support to sustain him
through it.

That the result justified the experiment is known to us from
-gg. „ the First Epistle. To a degenerate state of society,
his teach- such as that which existed in the capital of Greece
"^S- at that time; to a worn-out creed, which consisted

rather in a superstitious apprehension^ of unseen powers than
in any firm belief of an overruling Providence; to a worn-out
philosophy w^hich had sunk from the sublime aspirations of
Plato and the practical wisdom of Aristotle into the subtleties
of the later Stoics or Epicureans; to a worn-out national
character, in which little but the worst parts of the Greek mind
survived, — the appearance of a man thoroughly convinced of
the truth of his belief, dwelling not on rhetorical systems, but
on simple facts, and with a sagacity and penetration which even
the most worldly-minded could not gainsay, must have been as
life from the dead. There were some converts '^ doubtless from
the wealthier citizens; but the chief impression was produced
on the lower orders of society: 'not many mighty, not many
noble, not many wise,'-^ but slaves and artisans formed the class
from which the Christian society at Corinth was mainly drawn.

^ See the description of his cha-
racter in the quotations in Wetstein
on Acts xviii. 12.

^ Acts xviii. 10.

^ See the sketch of Paganism, in
the first chapter of Neander's His-
tory of the Christian Church.

■* So Erastus the treasurer of the

city, olKovofios TTjs TToXecos (Rom. xvi.
23), and Crispus, the president of
the Jewish synagogue (Acts xviii.
8 ; 1 Cor. i. 14), are mentioned by
name. Compare 1 Cor. xi. 22 ; vii.
30, 31 ; and xvi. 2 ; 2 Cor. ix. 7, 10.
° 1 Cor. i. 26.

INTKODUCTION. 1 1

Through all these converts ran the same electric shock ; they
became a distinct body, separate from their countrymen and
neighbours, and in their own persons they exhibited the most
remarkable outward proof of the reality of their conversion ;
not, indeed, by their altered lives, for in this respect they were
often greatly deficient, but by the sudden display of gifts of all
kinds, such as they had either not possessed before or possessed
only in a much lower degree. To the Apostle himself they
looked with a veneration which must have been long unknown
to any Grecian heart. No other Christian teacher had as yet
interfered with his paramount claim over them ; he was ' their
father;'^ and by his precepts ^ they endeavoured to regulate
the whole course of their lives.

It was after eighteen months' residence amongst such fol-
lowers that the Apostle took his departure from the -gj^ ^^
port of Cenchreae for Ephesus. This great city now moval to
became his home even more than Corinth had been Ephesus.
before. Thither he returned, after a short interval spent in
Judaea,^ and followed nearly the same plan as that which he
had adopted at Corinth; first trying to establish his footing
in the synagogue, and then erecting a separate school or syna-
gogue in the house of one of his converts. Thus passed away
three years from the time of his departure from Corinth.
Towards the end of this period he received accounts which
greatly agitated him. The Corinthian Church, like almost all
the early Christian societies, combined two distinct elements :
first, that consisting of Jews or of proselytes, formed from the
class which the Apostle had originally addressed, and therefore
exercising considerable influence over the whole body of which
it was the nucleus ; secondly, the mass of Gentile converts
which sprang up during the latter stages of the Apostle's
preaching, and which at Corinth, from the peculiar circum-
stances of the case, must have much outnumbered the
others.'* While St. Paul remained at Corinth, the ^f ^xie Co-
jealousy between these two sections of the Church had rinthian
lain dormant; but when he was removed, their animo-
sities, encouraged no doubt by the factious spirit so inveterate
in the Greek race, burst forth ; and the Christian community
was divided into various parties, formed by the various crossings

^ 1 Cor. iv. 14, 15 ; 2 Cor. xi. 2. I ^ ^^ts xx. 31.

^ napadoa-eis. 1 Cor. xi. 1. ^ See 1 Cor. xii. 2.

12 FIRST EPISTLE.

of these two main divisions. The Gentile party was in the
ascendant, both from their superior numbers, and also from
the as yet undiminished influence of the Apostle. But,
whether from the visit of Peter and *the brethren of the
Lord,' ^ or teachers preaching in their name, or from some un-
known cause, the Jewish party ,^ after St. Paul's departure,
gained sufficient ground to call themselves by a distinct name,
and to impugn his authority, first covertly,^ and then a few
months later, openly and vehemently.* In the interval be-
tween his first and second visit to Ephesus, the Corinthian
Church had also received the instructions of the great Alexan-
drian teacher Apollos, who had been sent thither by Aquila
and Priscilla ; and his name thus had become a rallying point-
for one section of the Church, — probably that which hung
halfway between the extreme Jews and the extreme Gentile
party. Apollos himself had left Corinth, and returned to
Ephesus;^ but his partisans still continued to foment the
factions. To the evils of this party spirit was added the ten-
dency of the Gentile faction to carry their views of freedom
to the extreme of license. The profligacy which disgraced the
heathen population of Corinth was not only practised, but
openly avowed, by some of the advocates of Christian liberty.^
The disputes were carried to such a pitch, and the boundaries
between the heathen and Christian parts of the community
were so little regarded, that lawsuits between Christians were
brought into the Roman and Greek courts of Justice.^ The
sacrificial feasts were attended without scruple, even when held
in the colonnades of the temples.^ The Christian women threw
off the head-dress which the customs of Greece and of the East
required:^ the most solemn ordinance of Christian brotherhood
was turned into the careless festivity of a Grecian banquet. ^^
And even the better points of their character, which had
formed the basis of the Apostle's commendations and of their
own advance in Christian knowledge and power, had been
pushed to excess. The strong taste for intellectual specula-
tion, which three centuries of political servitude had not been

1 1 Cor. ix. 5.

- The more detailed representation
of this party is reserved for the notes
on 1 Cor. i. 10, and the Introduction
to the Second Epistle.

3 1 Cor. ix. 1-5.

* 2 Cor. x.-xii.

^ 1 Cor. xvi. 12.
« V. 1 ; vi. 10.
' vi. 1-8.

8 viii. 4-13 ; x. 14-33.
« xi. 2-16.
10 xi: 17-34.

INTKODUCTION.

able to subdue in the Greek mind, led them to attach an
undue importance to those points in their teachers, or in
Christianity itself, which most nearly resembled the rhetorical
display or the logical subtleties in which the sophists and rhe-
toricians of later Greece indulged : hence apparently the slight
put by some on the simplicity of the preaching of Paul ; ^
hence the exaltation of purely intellectual excellences, and (as
in the case of the Crucifixion of Christ, and the general
Resurrection) the exaggeration of purely intellectual diffi-
culties ; ^ hence, in some instances, an adoption of the extreme
view of some of the old philosophers, regarding an entire
separation from the world as necessary ; ^ hence an over-esti-
mate of those preternatural gifts which tended to astonish and
excite, and an unjust depreciation of those which tended only
to instruction and to improvement.'* These views, combined
with an overweening consciousness of the position which the
Corinthian congregation held in the Christian world as the
most highly favoured of all the Gentile churches, not only in-
duced them to look down with contempt on all other Christian
bodies,'^ but also soured in the hearts of individuals the milk
of human kindness, and extinguished the hght of Christian
love, which ought to have been the characteristic mark of
every Christian society.^ With these dangers, which, as pro-
ceeding chiefly from the Gentile element in Corinth, affected
the larger part of the community, were united others from the
opposite quarter. The Jewish part of the Church was not
likely to amalgamate easily with such excessive views of
liberty as were popular at Corinth ; and, although at present
they were not sufficiently powerful to make their influence
generally felt, yet their exaggerated scruples, on the subject
of sacrificial feasts^ and of mixed marriages, increased the
difficulties of the Gentile believers ; ® and there were, besides,
mutterings of discontent and suspicion against the Apostle,
which already foreboded the storm that was to break out a few
months later against his character and authority.^

It is not to be supposed that St. Paul was unprepared
for such intellisence. The constant communication between

1 ii. 1-5.

2 i. 17, 18 ; ii. 1 ; viii. 1 ; xv. 35.
^ vii. 1-5.

■* xii. 1-xiv. 40.

* i. 2 ; iv. 7, 8 ; vii. 17 ; xi. 16 ;

xiv. 36.

« vi. 1 ; viii. 1 ; xii. 1 ; xvi. 14.
' viii. 1-12.
8 vii. 12-16.
^ ix. 1-8.

14 FIRST EPISTLE.

Corinth and Epliesus must have brought him continual in-
Tidings of formation of the state of the Corinthian Church ; and
these dis- he had Sent Timotheus, his favourite pupil, to recall
to them the image of his teaching and life, which he
knew from report was in danger of losing its hold upon their
recollections ; and probably also (though this is not expressly
stated) to communicate to them the intention which he had
then formed, of leaving Ephesus at the beginning of the
spring, crossing the -^gean Sea to Greece, and paying two
visits to Corinth, — one immediately on his landing, and a
second later on in the year, after seeing the Churches in
Macedonia. Timotheus ^ was accompanied by Erastus,^ in all
probability the same as the treasurer of Corinth, who would
thus be in a position to recommend him to the Corinthian con-
gregation. But,^ after the departure of these two men, the
rumours became still darker; and two points in particular
seem to have determined the Apostle to take some strong
measures to check the growing evil. One was the information
which he received from the household of Chloe — whether resi-
dent at Corinth or at Ephesus it is difficult to say, — that the
factions had reached a formidable height,'* and that their dis-
putes had descended even into social life and destroyed the
solemnity of Christian worship.^ The other, and more alarm-
ing, was the fact of an incestuous marriage, scandalous even
to the heathen, of a man with his father's wife.^ This, com-
bined with the general accounts of their state, was sufficient
to induce the Apostle to send at once to Corinth without
waiting for the announcement of the arrival of Timotheus, to
insist upon the expulsion of the offisnder from the Christian
community,^ and then to delay his own visit to Corinth till
after his visit to Macedonia, so as to leave time for his injunc-
tions and his warnings to have their proper effect.^

The circumstances of the Apostle himself at this conjunc-
ture were such as to render the reception of this news peculiarly

^ iv. 17 ; Acts xix. 22. | grounds for this assumption will

^ Acts xix. 22 ; Rom. xvi. 23 ; 2 | appear in the notes on 2 Cor. ii. 1 ;

Tim. iv. 20. 1 Cor. v. 9.

^ It is assumed throughout these I ^ 1 Cor. i, 10-iv. 21.

pages that there were no visits of i ^ xi. 18.

St. Paul to Corinth besides those i * v. 1.

mentioned in Acts xviii. 1 ; xx. 2 ; i '^ v. 3.

and no Epistles except the two now i ® xvi. 1, 6, 7 ; 2 Cor. i. 15 ; ii. 9.

extant in the New Testament. The

INTEODUCTION. 15

trying. Whilst the Corinthian Christians had been thus in-
dulging their own speculations and passions, and gjtuation
absorbed in the contemplation of their own greatness of St. Paul
and disrnity, he had for three years been continuing ^^ ^J?® ^^~

^ "^ . •Till • 1 ception of

his labours in a city hardly less important than these

Corinth itself, — the capital of Asia Minor, as Corinth tidings.
was of Greece. In Ephesus he had supported himself, as in
Greece, with his own hands,^ and devoted himself, with all
the fervour of his impassioned character, and at the risk of
his life,^ to the superintendence of the Church.^ His labours,
too, had extended from Ephesus to the cities in the adjacent
district ; and probably in some of these journeys he under-
went those hardships of which he speaks as recent, ' perils
from the robbers ' in the neighbouring mountains, who after-
wards seized on a later Apostle in the same vicinity : * ' perils
from the " river-torrents," ' which so characterise the winter-
travels of all those regions.^

It may therefore easily be conceived that the Apostle would
seize the first opportunity for the expression of his . .
own wounded feelings, and of his sense of the sin of letter from
his converts. Such an opportunity presented itself ^{j? Corin-
in the arrival at Ephesus of three trustworthy mem-
bers of the Corinthian Church — Fortunatus, Achaicus, and
Stephanas,® bearing an epistle from that portion of their body
(at this time by far the largest) which sincerely reverenced the
Apostle's authority, asking for a solution of various questions
which their internal disputes had suggested, on the subject of
marriage, of the sacrificial feasts, and of spiritual gifts,^ and
containing also assurances of their general adherence to his
precepts.^ A reply to these questions required a detailed letter
from himself ; and this at once afforded an occasion for the out-
pouring of his thoughts and feelings. The combination of
these circumstances rendered it the most important emergency
in which (so far as we know) he had ever been called, up to
this time, to express himself in writing. Whether the The First
Epistle to the Galatians was composed before or after Epistle.
this period, it is impossible to determine. But great as were
the principles involved in that controversy, the situation of the

xii. 1,

1 Acts XX. 34.

^ 2 Cor. xi. 26, 27.

•" lb. 31.

« 1 Cor. xvi. 17.

3 1 Cor. XV. 30-32.

^ vii. 1 ; viii. 1 ; x

^ Euseb. H. E. iii. 23.

8 xi. 2.

16 FIKST EPISTLE.

Churches in Galatia — in sechidecl villages in the heart of Asia
Minor — bore no comparison with the situation of a congrega-
tion placed before the eyes of the whole civilised world in the
capital of Greece. That congregation, in which the Apostle had
laboured with unusual exertions, and apparently with unusual
success, was torn by factions, and marred by extravagances
which would bring disgrace on the Christian name, and
break up the foundations of Christian society. The feelings of
St. Francis, in foreboding the corruptions of his Order ; of
Luther, on hearing of the insurrection of the peasants of Suabia,
or the enormities of the Anabaptists of Munster, — afford a faint
image of the Apostle's position in dealing with the first great
moral degeneracy of the Gentile Churches. But if the import-
ance of the crisis demanded the utmost energy, so also it
demanded the utmost wisdom. Of all the Epistles, perhaps
there is not one so systematically arranged, or in which the
successive steps of the Apostle's mind are so clearly marked, as
this ; and we can therefore unfold, with more than usual con-
fidence, the process of its composition.

The Apostle was at Ephesus. It is perhaps too much to
g » presume that any traces of the scenes from which
the Epis- he wrote are discernible in his Epistle ; nor are the
!J®^ features of that city so marked as those of Corinth.

Yet the remains of the stadium, and of the theatre,
still visible in the grassy sides of Mount Prion, may have
suggested or confirmed the allusions already mentioned to the
athletic and dramatic spectacles of Greece. And the magni-
ficent pile of the Temple of Artemis, which overhung the
harbour, must have presented to him, even in a more lively
form than his recollections of Athens and Corinth, the splendour
and the emptiness of the Pagan worship of that age.

The Epistle was sent from Ephesus, or from some spot in the
rj,. » neighbourhood of Ephesus,^ at the close of the three
the Epis- years spent there by the Apostle,^ but whether before
^^\ or after the tumult of Demetrius is uncertain. It must

have been written in the spring, as Pentecost is spoken
of ^ as not far distant ; and, if so, the allusions it contains to the
Jewish passover * become more appropriate. The precise date

1 1 Cor. xvi. 5, 8, 19 (cp. Acts
xviii. 24, 26) ; xv. 32.
^ Acts xix. 10 ; xx. 1, 31.

3 1 Cor. xvi. 8.

4 V. 7, 8 ; XV. 20.

INTRODUCTION. 17

after the Christian era can only be fixed by a general deter-
mination of the chronology of the Acts. For practical purposes
it is, however, sufficient to say that it must have been twenty
or thirty years after his conversion, and in the early part of the
reign of Nero.

It was written, with the exception of the few last lines, not
by the Apostle's own hand, but by an amanuensis ; ^ Amanuen-
not in his own name alone, but in that of Sosthenes sis.
also, — whether the successor of Crispus, as president of the
Corinthian synagogue,^ or another of the same name, cannot be
determined. This, then, is the group which we must conceive
as present, if not throughout, at least at the opening of the
Epistle. There is Paul himself, now about sixty years of age,
and bearing, in the pallor and feebleness of his frame, traces^ of
his constant and recent hardships ; his eyes at times streaming
with tears of grief and indignation ; '^ the scribe, catching the
words from his lips and recording them on the scroll of parch-
ment or papyrus^ which lay before him. Possibly Sosthenes
was himself the scribe ; and, if so, we may conceive him not
only transcribing, but also bearing his part in the Epistle ; at
times with signs of acquiescence and approbation, at times, it
may be, interposing to remind the Apostle of some forgotten
fact, as of the baptism of the household of Stephanas,^ or of
some possible misapprehension of what he had dictated.

He opens his Epistle with that union of courtesy and sa-
gacity which forms so characteristic a feature in all Contents of
his addresses, and at once gives utterance to expres- the Epistle.
sions of strong thankfulness and hope, excited by all that was
really encouraging in the rapid progress of the Corinthian
Church.7

The preface is immediately succeeded by the statement of
his complaints against them.® First, he touches the most
obvious evil — that of the Factions,^ which he pursues through
the several digressions to which it gives occasion. Then, after
a short explanation of the motives of his Epistle, of the mis-
sion of Timotheus, and of his delay in coming to Corinth,^^ he
proceeds to the case of the Incestuous Marriage,^^ which forms

1 xvi. 21.

^ Acts xviii. 17.

3 Gal. vi. 17; 2 Cor. xi. 27; iv. 10.

* 2 Cor. ii. 4.

5 See 2 John 12 ; 2 Tim. iv. 13.

« See i. 16.

' i. 1-9.

« i. 10-vi. 20.

» i. 10-iv. 13.
10 iv. 14-21.
" v.-vi. 20.

18 FIRST EPISTLE.

the chief practical occasion of his address, and is accompanied
by the solemn and earliest extant form of the expulsion of an
offender from the Christian society.^ This subject, like that
of the Factions, is followed out through the various thoughts
near or remote which it suggests ; in part, perhaps, in a note
or appendix subsequently added.^

Having thus dismissed the immediate grounds for censure,
he proceeds to answer in detail the questions contained in their
letter.3 This letter we may conceive him to have unrolled
before him, in order to glance at each of their difficulties, as he
turns to their objections, sometimes quoting their very words,
sometimes re-stating them in his own language.'' Of these, the
first relates to the subject of Marriage ; ^ and there he is care-
ful to point out that his advice rests solely on his own autho-
rity, not, as usually, on the express command of Christ. The
second relates to the subject of the Sacrificial Feasts ; ^ in
discussing which his mind is for a moment drawn aside from
the immediate object of the Epistle by the recollection of that
darker enemy which, in the now increasing Jewish faction,
aimed its insinuations at his character and authority.^ The
third point in the letter of the Corinthians was a profession of
adherence to his precepts for the regulation of their assem-
blies,^ in connexion with which they had a question to propose
to him regarding the spiritual gifts.^ But before the Apostle
could answer this, he was reminded of the complaints, which
he seems to have heard from other quarters, of the conduct of
the women in the Christian assemblies,^^ and of the factious
spirit which had disturbed even the solemnity of the Lord's
Supper ; ^^ and it is not till he has disposed of these that he
returns to the question of the Gifts.^^ It is in the discussion of
this question that he bursts forth into the fervent description
of Christian Love, which, as it meets all the various diffi-
culties and complaints in the whole course of the Epistle,
must be regarded as the climax and turning point of the
whole. ^^

Whether the doubts respecting a future Resurrection had

1 V. 3, 5.

2 V. 9-vi. 9.

* vii. 1-xiv. 40.

* vii. 1 ; viii. I ; xi. 2 ; xii. 1.
s vii. 1-40.

* viii.-xi. 1.
^ ix. 1-7.

8 xi. 2.

» xii. 1.
10 xi. 3-16.
" xi. 17-34.

X. XI. XIV.

INTRODUCTION. 19

been communicated in their letter or from some other source,
it is impossible to determine. The subject from its greatness
stands alone, and has all the completeness of a distinct compo-
sition, in its beginning, middle, and end.^

, With this the Epistle, properly speaking, terminated. But
there still remained the time and mode of its transmission.
Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus, who had brought the
letter from Corinth, though intending ultimately to return
thither, were at present at Ephesus, apparently with the inten-
tion of remaining some time longer.^ Timotheus, who would
otherwise have been a natural messenger, had just departed.^
Apollos, whose connexion with Corinth and presence at Ephe-
sus would have enabled him to undertake the duty, naturally
held back from visiting a city where his name had been made
the watchword of a party.'' But there was a little band of
Christians to whom had been deputed the charge of collecting
contributions, under the Apostle's sanction, for the Christian
poor in Judea.^ These men were now at Ephesus ; and Titus
— one of St. Paul's Gentile converts — apparently from some
personal interest in the welfare of the Corinthian Christians,
begged to be allowed to accompany them to Corinth, whither
they were proceeding immediately to prepare the collection
which the Apostle, on his subsequent arrival, was to carry or
send on to Jerusalem.^ Such precautions show the critical
position in which the Apostle felt himself placed in regard to
the Corinthian Church. But, although the closing words of
the Epistle relate to the matters of external business with
which these precautions were connected, it is only by implica-
tion that his feelings are perceived; and the Epistle is con-
cluded (with the exception of one severe expression which
seems to betray the anxiety and indignation working within ^)
with the usual calmness and gentleness of the Apostle's parting
salutations.®

The immediate effects of the First Epistle must be reserved
for the Introduction to the Second ; but the reverence Effects of
with which it was regarded in the next generation theEpistle.

XV.

2 xvi. 17.
s xvi. 10.
^ xvi. 12.
5 2 Cor. viii. 17-24.

6 2 Cor. xii. 18 ; 1 Cor. xvi. 1-5,
and the Notes on xvi. 12.
' xvi. 22.
8 xvi. 1-24.

20 FIRST EPISTLE.

may be inferred from the language in which it is alluded to
in the epistle of Clement to the same Church about fifty years
later : ' Take up the Epistle [evidently the First Epistle] of
the blessed Paul, the Apostle ; what was it that he first wrote
to you in the beginning of the Gospel ? Of a truth it was
under the guidance of the Spirit that he warned you in his
Epistle, concerning himself, and Kephas, and ApoUos, because
as well then as now, you formed parties.' ^

1 Clem. Ep. i. 47.

The Greek text is printed from Lachmann's text, with the
variations from the Received Text indicated below. The
variations of the English translation from the Authorised Ver-
sion speak for themselves.

nPOS KOPIN&IOTS A\

FIEST EPISTLE TO THE COEINTHIANS.

PLAN OF THE EPISTLE.
Salutation and Introduction. Chap. I. 1 — 9.
Charges against the Corinthians. Chap. I. 10 VI. 20.

The Factions. Chap. I. 10 IV. 20.

1. Description of the Factions. Chap. i. 10 — 17.

2. The Simplicity of the Apoatle's Preaching. Chap. i. 18 — ii. 5.

3. The Contrast of Human and Divine Wisdom. Chap. ii. 6 — iii.4.

4. The Leaders of the Corinthian Parties. Chap. iii. 5 — iv. 20.

The Intercourse with Heathens. Chap. IV. 21 VI. 20.

1. The Case of Incest. Chap. iv. 21— v. 13.

2. Digression on the Lawsuits. Chap. vi. 1 — 9a.

3. The Case of Sensuality resumed. Chap. vi. 96 — 20.

Answers of St. Paul to the Letter of the Corinthian
Church. Chap. VII. 1 XIV. 40.

Marriage. Chap. VII. 1—40.

The Sacrificial Feasts of the Heathens. Chap. VIII. 1 XI. 1.

1. General Warning. Chap. viii. 1 — 13.

2. His own Example of Self-denial. Chap. ix. 1 — x. 14.

3. The Evil of the Sacrificial Feasts. Chap. x. 15— xi. 1.

Worship and Assemblies. Chap. XI. 2 XIV. 40.

1. Disuse of Female. Head- dress. Chap. xi. 2 — 15.

2. Disputes in the Public Assemblies, and especially at the Lord's

Supper. Chap. xi. 16 — 34.

3. The Spiritual Gifts. Chap. xii. 1— xiv. 40.

a. Unity and Variety of the Spiritual Gifts. Chaps, xii. 1 — 30.
h. Love, the greatest of Gifts. Chap. xii. 31 — xiii. 13.

c. The Superiority of Prophesying to Speaking with Tongues.

Chap. xiv. 1—25.

d. Necessity of Order. Chap. xiv. 26 — 40.

The Resurrection. Chap. XV. 1 58.

1. The ResiuTection of Christ. Chap. xv. 1 — 11.

2. The Resurrection of the Dead. Chap. xv. 12—34.

3. The Mode of the Resurrection of the Dead. Chap. xv. 35 58.

The Conclusion. Chap. XVI. 1 24.

FIKST EPISTLE: CHAP. I. 1—8.

Salutation and Introduction.)

TIATAO'X [kXt/tos] aTrocrroXo? ^^picrTOv *l7)crov 8ta 6e-
XyjlJLaTO^ 6eov, koL ^oiadivrj^; 6 dSeXc^d?, \fj iKKkr)crLa tov
OeoVy ^TjyLaafJievoLS iv yj>i(TTco 'Ir)orov, Tjj ovarj ev Kopiv6(o^
k\.7)Tols ayioLSy crvv iracriv tols eiriKoKovpiivoi*^ to oz^o/xa
rod Kvpiov rjfJLCov 'Ir)crov ^lcttov ev wavrl tottco, '^ avTcov
KOL rjfjicov^ ^-^dpL^ vplv Kol elprjvrj oltto Oeov Trarpos rjixcov
Koi KvpLov 'Irjaov ^lcttov.

■ 'IrjcoD ;^pt(rToC. * t^ o^ari iv K. tjj. iv XP- '^vcov. '' mrSiv re itot.

^ T)AUL, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, through the \\ill of
-t God, and Sosthenes our brother, '^unto the Church of God, to
them that are hallowed in Christ Jesus, to the Church which is at
Corinth, to them that are called to be holy, with all that call upon
the name of Jesus Christ our Lord in every place, theirs and ours :
3 grace unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and fi*om the Lord
Jesus Christ.

I KXrjTos aTTocTToXo?. The two
words together are only used
here, and in Rom. i. 1. KXr}T6<;
may be, ' called to be a believer
as an Apostle,' according to its
usual sense (in verse 2, and vii.
20, 21) ; or, more simply, ' called
to the state of an Apostle.'

Sosthenes is possibly the mler
of the synagogue in Acts xviii.
17 ; at any rate, a Christian well
known to the Corinthians ; as is
implied both by the manner in
which he is mentioned in the
Epistle (whether as the com-
panion or amanuensis of the
Apostle) and also by the addi-
tion 6 a8cX<^og, ' the brother,' i.e.
' the person well known to the
Christian brotherhood.' Com-
pare the same expression applied
to Apollos, xvi. 12 ; to Timo-
theus, Col. i. 1 ; to Quartus,
Rom. xvi. 23 ; and a similar use
of it especially in 2 Cor. viii. 18.

Eusebius (H. E. i. 12) makes him
one of the Seventy Disciples.

2 rrj iKKk-qa-La. Here, as in all
the Churches founded by himself,
he addresses the actual assembly
or congregation of Christians ;
an expression which, in the case
of those with whom he was not
personally acquainted (as in Rom.
i. 7 ; Col. i. 2 ; and, perhaps, Eph.
i. 1), is omitted.

7jyLacrfJL€voLs . . . kX^tols ayloL^y
' called ' or ' converted ' ' to a
state of holiness.' The inver-
sion of the usual order of kA^o-is
(' calling,' ' conversion ') and
dytacr/xos (' holiness,' ' sanctifi-
cation ') exemplifies the freedom
of the Apostle's language. (Com-
pare ver. 11.) There is some-
thing almost rhythmical in the
inversion of the clauses in B. D.
G. as preserved in Lachmann's
text.

cn)v TraaLv rots iTTLKoXovfievoi^ . •

SALUTATION AND INTEODUCTION.

^ EirvapLa-Ta) toj 0eS fJLOV iroivTOTe irepi vfjicop ctti rfj
■yapLTL rod Oeov rfj SoOeicrrj vplv iv ^l(ttco IrjcroVy ^ort eV
TTavrl i7T\ovTLa6r)Te ev avrS, iv Travri Xoyco koI Trdcrr)
yvaxrei, ^ KaOcos to piapTvpiov Tov yjpicrTov i^e^aicodr) iv
vpZvy ^ oiare. vfxas fjurj v(jTepeicr6aL iv jJbTjSevl ^apLcrp.aTi,
aTre/cSe^^o/xeVous tt^v aTroKoXvxjJLV tov Kvpiov rjixcov 'It/ctou
Xpt'O'TOv' ^6s /cat fie^aLcoo-ei vfias ecos TiXov<; aveyKkq-

* I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which
■was given you in Christ Jesus, ^that in every thing ye were en-
riched by Him, in all utterance and in all knowledge : <^even as the
testimony of Christ was confirmed in you : ^so that ye come behind in
no gift, waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ : ^Who shall
also confirm you unto the end blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus

. . rjfxCjv. This may be, (1) 'I
address not only the Christians
of Corinth, but those of Achaia
generally,' as in 2 Cor. i, 1 : (2)

* I address not only the natives
of Corinth, bat the numerous
strangers who are passing to and
fro throngh it : ' but rather, (3)

* I address and salute not only
you, but all Christians through-
out the world.' This last sense
seems required by the emphasis
of the latter part of the sentence,
iv rravTi tottw, and avroiv kol
i7/x(ov, i.e. * in other parts of the
world besides your own : He is
the Lord of all of them, no less
than of me and of you.'

iTTLKaXov/JiivoLs TO ovojJLa. In
the LXX. this is the translation
of the Hebrew D^n K-Ji^, the
general idea of worship or praise.
In the New Testament it ex-
presses the further idea of calling
to aid (comp. Acts ii. 21 ; ix. 14,
21 ; vii. 59 ; Rom. x. 13, 14 ; 2
Tim. ii. 22) ; and, as illustrated
by popular use, KatVapa irrLKa-
Xcio-dai, ' to appeal to the Empe-
ror,' Acts XXV. 11, 12, &c. As
applied to our Lord, it implies
the consciousness of Him not
only as Lord, but as Saviour
and Deliverer.

5 iTrXovTLordrp-e, *ye were en-
riched,' i.e. ' at the time of your
conversion, when the favour of
God was bestowed upon you,'
referring to the words, ry x«P*"

6 TO fxaprvpiov. The testi-
mony borne to Christ by the
preaching of Paul was confirmed
by the gifts which followed on
their conversion. Compare ' The
seal of my Apostleship are ye in
the Lord,' ix. 2.

7 This refers to those gifts
of insight into the unseen world,
which were to sustain them iii
their expectation of the time
when the veil of this outer
world should be withdrawn
{airoKoXvxlfLv) and Christ Himself
revealed to their eyes. Comp.
Tit. ii. 13 ; Phil. iii. 20.

8 * And this hope will not be
baffled, for He who has begun a
good work in you will continue
ii to the end.' o? refers (not to
Christ, but) to God. For (1)
Kttt ^e^atojo-ct evidently refers
back to e/SejSaiwOr] in 6. (2) iv
T. rjfxipa T. K. rj. 'I. ^. would eke
be Tjfxepa avTov. (3) 6 ^€09 is
the general subject of the whole
sentence, and therefore repeated
in verse 9. For the sense, com-

FIKST EPISTLE: CHAP. I. 9.

T0i>9 ^ TTj yjfjiepa tov Kvpiov rjfjicov ^Irjcrov ^icrov. ^iricr-
To<; 6 6e6^, 8i' ov iK\.ij6r)Te et? Koivcoviav tov vlov avrov
'Irjcrov ^LCTTov tov Kvpiov rjficov.

Christ. ®God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the communion
of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

pare Phil. i. 6 : ' Being confident
of this very thing that He who
hath begun a good work in you
will continue it till the day of
Jesus Christ.' The assurance
that all will in the end be well
with God's servants is implied

in the very notion of religious
faith. The more we look upon
ourselves as dependent beings,
the more impossible does it seem
that God should ever loosen the
link which connects us with
Himself.

Paraphease of Chap. I. 1 — 9.

Paul, whose mission to be an Apostle rests on the 2vill of God
Himself, and Sosthenes united with him in Christian brother-
hood, send their usual Christian greeting to the Corinthian
congregation, as well as to all other believers, icho are equally
with them uior shippers of our common Lord Jesus Chinst.

My first feelings are thankfulness for the manifold gifts of
knowledge and teaching given to you at your conversion, and
hope that God will continue the good work which He has thus
begun.

The Apostolical Salutations.

The praise here bestowed upon the Corinthian Church, though
not greater than that with which the Epistles to the Romans,
PhiUppians, Colossians, and Thessalonians are opened, is re-
markable in this instance as being addressed to a Church
which, in the course of the two Epistles, is thought deserving
The Apo- of severe censures. But in considering this, it may
stle's seiec- be observed that the praise there bestowed on faith
goodpoints ^^^ holiness is here almost confined to gifts such as
in his knowledge and wisdom, which were obviously not in-

rea ers. compatible with the moral degradation into which
some of the members of the Church had fallen. And it is in
accordance with the Apostle's usual manner to seize, in the

THE APOSTOLICAL SALUTATIONS. 25

first instance, on some point of sympathy and congratulation,
not merely from a prudential policy, but from natural courtesy
and generosity. It is a trait well illustrated by all his speeches
in the Acts. Perhaps the opening of the Epistle to the Gala-
tians is the only exception.

This practice of the Apostle is an exemplification of a
general rule, according to which Scripture presents r^j^^ i^^^^^
strongly the ideal of the whole, without describing and the
the defects and sins of the parts. The visible society ^^^^l^
of Christians was to the Apostles, in spite of its many
imperfections, the representation of Messiah's kingdom upon
earth : — ' Ye are a royal priesthood, a peculiar people.' And
thus, although the Christian congregation in each city or
country was distinct from the heathen community in which it
was situated, it yet so far partook of the character of what is
now called a national Church, that it was, as it were, the
Christian representative of that community. A Christian of
Corinth or Ephesus might travel backwards and forwards from
one to the other ; but, however great were the disorders of the
one or the excellencies of the other, there was no call upon
him to exchange the communion of the one for the communion
of the other, unless he actually ceased to be a permanent resi-
dent in the city of Corinth or of Ephesus, as the case might
be. The supposed duty of gaining proselytes from Christian
communities different from our own, and the consequent di-
vision of Churches by any other than their local and national
designations, are ideas alien to the Apostolic age ; and have
grown up in modern times, and, it may be added, in Western
countries. In the East, the ancient view, in this respect, still
on the whole prevails.

' Spartam nactus es : banc exoma,' was a maxim of Apo-
stolical, no less than of Grecian wisdom. No Church of later
ages has presented a more striking example of corruption or
laxity, than was exhibited at Corinth. Yet the Apostle does
not call on his converts to desert their city or their community ;
and he himself steadily fixes his view on the better and the
redeeming side.

FIKST EPISTLE.

CHARGES AGAINST THE CORINTHIANS.
Chap. I. 10 IV. 20.

The first great division of the Epistle, I. 10 — IV. 20, is
based on the information which the Apostle had received from
Corinth : and of this information, the first and most pressing
subject was that which related to The Factions.

THE FACTIONS.

Chap. I. 10 IV. 20.

In the ensuing section we have the earliest account of eccle-
siastical party, — of that spirit which has in subsequent ages
been proverbially the bane of the Christian Church. But,
though in principle the same, in form it is so different from the
divisions of later times that a clear statement of the difference
is necessary to prevent confusion.

In the first place, this is the earliest instance of the ap-
Meaningof plication of the word 'schism' {a'x^Lcrfxa) to a moral
'schism.' diyision.^ But, instead of the meaning usually as-
sio-ned to it in later times, of a separation from a society, it is
here used for a division within a society. These factious or
* schisms,' therefore, in the Corinthian Church, must not be
considered as dissentient bodies outside the pale of the rest of
the community, but as recognised parties of which the commu-
nity itself was composed ; corresponding not to such divisions
as are caused by the existence of Protestant Churches outside
the Church dependent on the See of Rome, or Dissenting
Churches outside the Established Church of England, or
Maronite and Nestorian Churches outside the Greek Church,

^ In classical writings it is always
applied to actual rents of stone, gar-
ments, nets, or the like, as in Matt.
ix. 16 ; Mark ii. 21. The only other
passages in the NewTestamentwhere

it is used in the sense of ' discord,*
as here, are in St. John's Gospel
(John vii. 43; ix. 16 ; x. 19). The
classical word for which ax^o-fxa is a
substitute is ardais.

THE FACTIONS. 27

but to internal divisions, such as are occasioned by the conflicts
between the several religious or monastic orders in the Greek
and Koman Churches, or between political and theological
parties in the nations and Churches of northern Europe.

In the second place, the grounds of dissension were wholly
different from any with which we are familiar. They Grounds of
were, doubtless, aggravated in Corinth by the conflux tlivision,
of various elements, the result of its commerce and situation,
and by the tendency to faction which had long characterised
the Greek race, and been stigmatised as the peculiar malady
{v6(Tos) of the old Greek commonwealths. But the especial
occasion was the same which was to be found in all the Churches
of the Apostolical age, and which has never since been found
in any. At no subsequent period have Christian communities
been agitated as all then were by the rivalry and animosity of
Jewish and Gentile converts. Jewish converts to Christianity
have, in later ages, been in such small numbers, and with so
little distinction in their character, that their influence, as such,
on the rest of the community has been almost nothing. In the
first century it was just the reverse. Even in Corinth, the
most exclusively Gentile of all the primitive Churches, they
formed the basis of the community ; and the difl&culty of re-
conciling their scruples and meeting their prejudices was one of
the chief tasks which the founder of the Church had to fulfil.
We must conceive two classes of men brought into close con-
nexion, and taught to look upon each other as brothers and
friends, of whom one part, in the present instance the more
numerous, had but recently relinquished the worship of
Grecian divinities, and still considered acts of gross immorality
as either innocent or indiflferent, and the future Life, if not in-
credible, at least diflficult to be believed ; whilst the other part,
comprising the most earnest and energetic portion of the society,
consisted of men, Jews either by birth or by religion, who still
retained all the Jewish rites of circumcision, of the Sabbath,
of abstinence from particular kinds of food, and of attendance
at the Jewish festivals. No equal degree of contrariety has
ever since been found within the bosom of the same religious
society. In large nations, it is true that the differences between
Protestants and Roman Catholics may mount in some instances
nearly to the same pitch ; but in such cases the fusion has not
been attempted, and the two bodies have lived apart, if not in
open separation, from each other.

28. FIRST EPISTLE.

Parties ^^ *^^ third place, the professed watchwords of

named these parties were the names, not of any subordinate
A^o^ Ues teachers, but of the Apostles themselves and their
and their immediate followers, — * I am of Paul, I of Apollos, I
followers, ^f Kephas, I of Christ.'

It has sometimes been doubted whether these were the
designations actually used by the Corinthian parties. ' These
things,' says the Apostle, ' I have in a figure transferred
(fjLSTscT'^yfjLdTtcra) to myself and Apollos for your sakes ; ' as if —
so it has been said — he had used the names of himself and
Apollos instead of the real names of unknown leaders, in order
either to avoid mixing himself up in their party disputes, or to
impress more forcibly upon them the futility of these rival
claims, which even in himself and Apollos would be out of
place, much more in those who really made them. But this
would not apply to the use of the name of Kephas ; and it is
clear that the Apostle in this instance merely expresses his in-
tention of confining himself to those who called themselves after
his name and that of Apollos, in order to show that his censure
was aimed, not only against his Judaising opponents, but
against the factious spirit itself, by which those who claimed to
be his partisans were no less animated than those who claimed
to be his enemies. Such appears to have been the course
adopted also in the opening of the argument,^ where he im-
mediately selects the party which said, ^ I am of Paul,' as the
chief instance of the sin common to them all.

And to this we may add the testimony of Clemens, writing
within fifty years from this time to the very same Church, and
contrasting the factions of his days with those in the days of
St. Paul. ' The blessed Apostle Paul,' he says, ' wrote to you
about himself and Kephas and Apollos, because then as well as
now you formed parties. But that party spirit was less sinful,
because it was directed to Apostles and a man approved by
them.' 2

That these parties followed the great division of Jew and
^, Gentile which ran through all the Churches of this

ties of Ke- period, and that the adherents of the former ranged
phas and themsclvcs under the name of Kephas, and those
of the latter under that of Paul, will hardly be
doubted : and it would seem probable that the party of Paul

i. 13-16. '' Clem. Ep. i. 47.

THE FACTIONS.

was in the ascendant during the period of the First Epistle^
which chiefly attacks such sins as would belong to the Gentile
portion of the community ; and the party of Kephas, during
the period of the Second Epistle, which expressly attacks a
formidable body of Judaisers. And the connexion of these
latter with Kephas is further confirmed by the appeals which
they would seem to have made to his example and authority,
in the only passage where their presence is certainly indicated
in the First Epistle, and in the stress laid by St. Paul on the
error of St. Peter in his address to a similar party in Galatia.^
That the followers of Apollos, or as he would be more
correctly called Apollonius, must have been closely The party
connected with those of Paul may be inferred both of Apollos.
from the association of Apollos with the disciples of Paul in the
Acts,^ and from the constant union of their names in this
Epistle.^ The contrast of the expressions, Paul 'planting,'
Apollos ^ watering ; ' Paul * laying the foundation,' another
' building ; ' agrees with the account in the Acts, speaking of the
effects of the mission of Apollos to Corinth as subsequent to
the visit of Paul. The frequent allusions to human wisdom and
learning in the early chapters'* would agree with no party so
well as with that which professed to follow the Alexandrian
Jew, * eloquent, mighty in the Scriptures.'^

Whether the words ' and I of Christ ' {syco Bs ^j^pto-Toi))
refer to any distinct party, must remain doubtful. The party
One would be glad with Chrysostom so to read the of Christ.
passage, as if the Apostle, after enumerating the other names,
had broken off with the indignant exclamation, ' But / am of
Christ.' Had, however, such an antithesis been intended, some
more decisive expression (such as syo) Ss IlavXos 'x^piaTov) seems
almost necessary to prevent the ambiguity which otherwise
arises. And that there was some party laying claim to an ex-
clusive connexion with the One !N"ame which, as the Apostle
implies,^ ought to have been regarded as common to all, is
strongly confirmed by the subsequent argument, ' If any man
trust to himself that he is Christ's, let him of himself think

1 1 Cor. ix. 5 ; Gal. ii. 11-14.
These passages, as well as that just
quoted from Clemens, sufficiently
refute the hypothesis of Theophylact
and CEcumenius (on Gal. ii.), and of
Eusebius (H. E. i. 12), that another

Kephas, not the Apostle, is meant.
~ Acts xviii. 26, 27.
^ iii. 4 ; iv. 6 ; xvi. 12.
^ i. 17-28 ; ii. 1-6.
^ Acts xviii. 28.
6 1 Cor. i. 13.

30 "FIRST EPISTLE.

this again, that as he is Christ's, even so are we Christ's ; ' ^
and, although with less certainty, by the claims, apparently, of
the same persons to be considered ^ Apostles of Christ ' and
* ministers of Christ.'^ The context of the Second Epistle,
where the above passages occur, implies an allusion to the Juda-
ising Christians of the Corinthian Church. If so, they would
naturally dwell on their national and lineal connexion with
' the Christ,' the ' anointed Messiah,' ' the son of David ; '
and ' the outward appearance,' the ' carnal and fleshly ' argu-
ments, on which they prided themselves,^ would be based on
their intercourse either with ' Christ Himself after the flesh,' '^
or with the original Jewish Apostles, who had seen Him,^ or
with ' the brethren of the Lord,' ^ especially James, as the head
of the Church of Palestine. '^

Of these Factions, other indications have been supposed to
Extinction ^^^^^ in other parts of the New Testament, and the
of the writings immediately following upon them. But the
Parties. ^^^ certain traces, besides those already referred to,
are the indisputable allusions to a supposed hostility between
Peter and James on the one hand, and Paul on the other, in
the ' Clementines,' a work of about the date a.d. 212-230.
With this exception, it is a remarkable fact that the Factions
once so formidable, have never been revived. Never has any
disruption of the unity of Christianity appeared of equal im-
portance ; never has any disruption which once appeared of
importance (mth the exception, perhaps, of the Paschal con-
troversy) being so completely healed.

1 2 Cor. X. 7.

2 2 Cor. xi. 13, 23.

3 2 Cor. V. 12 ; x. 2, 3, 7.
^ 2 Cor. V. 16.

5 1 Cor. ix. 1.

6 1 Cor. ix. 5.

^ Comp. especially Gal. ii. 11, 21.

THE CORINTHIAN FACTIONS.

Descbiption of the Factions.

^^UapaKaXo) 8e vfjuaq, aSeX<^06, 8ta tov ovofiaTos tov
Kvpiov rjfxa)v ^Irjcrov ^pccrroi), Iva to avTO XeyrjTe Trai^re?
Kol, fjir) rj ev vplv cr)(CcriJiaTa^ ^re 8e KaTiqpTicrixivoL iv rat
avTO) voLy KOL iv rrj avrrj yvco[jLrj. ^^iSy)\coO'rj yap fiOL wepl
vjxcov, aSeX(j)OL fxov^ vwo tcov X\6rj<;^ otl eptSes iv vfjuv elcTLv.
^^Xeyo) 8e rovTo, otl iKacrTO<; vixcov Xeyet 'Eycj fiiv elpLL
IlavXov, iyo) Se ^AiroXXco, iyco 8e Ki^c^a, iyoi 8e ^lcttov,
^^ (JLefiepLCTTaL 6 ;(/)to-TOS. /X17 ITavXos iaTavpcodrj ^wepl

» vnep vfiuv.

^° Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that ye all say the same thing 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 it was declared unto me of you, my brethren,
by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions
among you. ^'^ Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of
Paul; and J of A polios ; and I of Kephas ; and J of Christ. "Christ

10 Tra/oaKaXw = * obsecro.' A
mixture of entreaty and com-
mand.

Slo. tov ovofiaro?, i.e. as the
bond of union, and as the most
holy name by which they could
be adjured. The connexion of
this with Koivwviav in verse 9 is
the link between this and the
preceding paras^raph.

tva TO avTo XiyrjTe, * call your-
selves by one common name,'
instead of those various names
which are afterwards noticed :
opposed to l/caoTO? Xeyct. Comp.
Arist. Pol. ii. 3, 3. Sl6 ia-n
Travrag to avTO Xeyctv wSt /jlcv
KoXov, . . . aXX ov SvvaroVy wSl 8'
ovOeu ofiovorjTLKov.

KarqpTLcrixivoi ' restored,' Kar-
a/oTt^w, though capable of a more
general signification, is usually
employed, as here, with the sense
of ' restoring ' or * completing '
something which has been set
wrong. Compare Matt. iv. 21,

where it is used of the mending
of the nets. Here it is probably
suggest-ed by the literal meaning
of * (Txicr/AaTa,' rents.

KarapTLCTTYjp was the acknow-
ledged phrase in classical Greek
for a reconciler of factions. So
Herodot. iv. 161.

vovs- Probably no greater
difference than between KapSta
and \jrvxri in Acts iv. 32.

11 vTTo T(x)v XA.0779, probably
the slaves of Chloe going to and
from Ephesus and Corinth on
business.

€pt8€9, here used as identical
with o-xiV/xaTtt ; divisions not
from but within, the society.

12 Xeyo) 8c TovTO. 'What I
mean is.' Comp. Eph. v. 32.

€Kao-T09 vfxOiv. * There is none
of yon who has not joined one or
other of the parties.'

13 iJi€fxipi(TTai 6 ;(pio-T05, ' Christ
is divided,' Lachmann's punc-
tuation is both more striking.

FIRST EPISTLE: CHAP. I. 14—17.

v^icxiv Tj €ts TO opofjia JJavkov ifianTLO-OrjTe ; ^* ev^oipio-Tco
tS Oeca ^fjLOv, OTL ovhiva vfjicop i/SdiTTLcra, el [jltj KpicoTroi/
Koi Taiiov, ^^ Iva yurj Tts €17717 on els to ifjiov ovofxa ^ e^an-
TLO-67)Te, ^^ ifidTTTLcra Se kol top ^recjiava oXkov Xolttoj/
ovK olSa el TLva dWov efiaTTTLcra* ^^ ov yap aTrecrTeike

* Om. fxov. " ifidiTTKra.

is divided. Was Paul crucified for you 1 or were ye baptized in the
name of Paul? ^*I thank my God that I baptized none of you, but
Crispus and Gains ; ^^lest any should say that ye were baptized in mine
own name. ^^And I baptized also the household of Stephanas ; besides,
I know not whether I baptized any other. ^"^For Christ sent me not to

and also agrees better with the
context, than that of the Received
Text. Had it been a question,
' Is Christ divided ? ' one vsrould
expect 1X7] fie/x.^ as in the follow-
ing clauses. It is an abrupt and
mournful summing up of the
statement of their divisions :
' By your factions, Christ, who
lives in the Christian society,
and by whom you should be
united, is torn asunder.' And
then, after a pause, follows the
burst of indignation : ' Surely it
was not Paul who was crucified
for you, and into whose name
you were baptized ! It was not
Paul who died for you, or to
whom you died ! (Compare for
the connexion, Rom. vi. 2, 3.)
He takes his own party for the
specimen of the evil of which he
complains, as being the one in
which it most forcibly strikes
him, and also in which he can
best denounce the sin of party
spirit itself, without being sup-
posed to be influenced by oppo-
sition to the views or claims of
the hostile factions. It is the
first instance of the ' transfer-
ring ' of which he speaks in iv. 6.
(For this sense of /xe/tc/otcrTat see
Mark iii. 26.)

14 eu^apio-Tw T(3 ^cw, * I

thank God that it so happened
even without my express inten-
tion.'

Crispus as the ruler of the
synagogue (Acts xviii. 8), and
Gains (or Cains) as the Apostle's
host (Rom. xvi. 23), would na-
turally be the two most obvious
of his converts, and most pro-
minent in his recollections.
' Crispus ' was a common name
of Jews. Lightfoot ad loc.

16 This addition of the bap-
tism of Stephanas seems to be a
subsequent correction. Stepha-
nas and his household (for this
is the most natural meaning of
the words — like ot d/x-c^t ^re^a-
vdv) were his earliest converts,
xvi. 15, 17.

OVK oTSa, ' I do not remember.'
Compare 2 Cor. xii. 2 ; Acts
xxiii. 5.

1 7 ' So little concern have I
with baptizing, that it is not
properly part of my mission.' In
the injunction, Matt, xxviii. 19,
the principal command is, as here,
to ' make disciples ' (ixaOrjrev-
aare) ; ' baptizing ' (^aTrri^ovrcs)
is introduced subordinately, as
the mode by which the nations
are to be made disciples. So also
in Mark xvi. 15, 16, the duty of
* proclaiming the Gospel ' (^Krjpv-

THE CORINTHIAN FACTIONS.

fie * [6] ^LcrTO<; iBairri^eLV, dXX' evayyekit^ecr 9 ai ovk iv
(ro(j)La \6yoVy iva jJirj KevcoO^ 6 crTavpos tov ^piajov.

» Om. d before xP'^'^'^^^-

baptize, but to preach the Gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the
cross of Christ should be made of none effect.

^aT€ TO €vayyi\iov) with its sub-
sequent effects of 'believing,'
and of ' signs following,' corre-
sponds to what the Apostle here
calls * preaching the Gospel '
(evayyeXi^ea-Oai) ; ' baptism ; '
(f3a7rTL(rOeL<s) is mentioned once
subordinately, as an explanation
of ' believing ' (Trio-rcro-a?). Such,
too, was the practice : preaching

was the mission of the Apostles
as of our Lord before them ; the
administration of baptism was
performed by inferiors (John
iv. 2). Comp. Acts viii. 12, 16,
and by implication Acts ii. 41 ;
ix. 18 ; X. 48 ; xix. 3, 5, 6.

Xoyov, ' mere words.' (Comp.
Arist. Eth. vii. 9, § 1 ; x. 9.)

Pabaphrase of Chap. I. 10 — 17.

First let me entreat and command you, in the name of our com-
mon Master, to lay aside these party watchwords by ivhichyou
call yourselves, remembering that by them you divide Christ
Himself, You especially who profess to follow me as your
leader, attend to tchat I, your leader, tell you. Surely the
very act of your admission into the Christian society showed
you that there teas One greater than Paul, who died for you,
and to whom you died. There was nothing in that first be-
ginning of your Christian life which brought you into any
special connexion with me. With three exceptions, you were
baptized not by me, but by others ; and thus it was providen-
tially ordered that you should have no pretext for attaching
yourselves to me as the head of a party. And this reluctance
of mine to baptize is also in accordance with the duty imposed
upon me. My mission from Christ was not to form a party,
— no, nor even a society, or a Clnirch, — but to declare the
glad tidings of the Gospel. To that great object all else was
subordinate.

34 FIRST EPISTLE.

The Apostle's View of Party Spirit.

The Apostle here denounces party spirit as a sin in itself,
p irrespectively of the right or wrong opinions con-

spirit in it- nected with it ; and the true safeguard against it is
self an evil. ^^ ^j^g recollection of the great bond of fellowship
with Christ, which all have in common. ' Christian us mihi
nomen est,' said an ancient bishop, in answer to some such
distinction; ' Catholicus cognomen.'

The first duty of the Apostle was to lose himself entirely
in thie cause which he preached. The most important
greater details or forms — even though it were the organisa-
than the tion of the Christian society through the rite insti-
tuted by Christ Himself — were so insignificant in
comparison, that St. Paul spoke of them as though he had no
concern with them. How often in later times have the means,
the institutions of the Christian Church, taken the place of the
end ! Antiquity, novelty, the formation of a church or party,
the attack on a church or a party, a phrase, a ceremony, a
vestment, each has in turn overbalanced the one main object
for which, confessedly, all lesser objects are inculcated. To all
these cases the Apostle's answer applies : * Christ sent me not
to baptize, but to preach the Gospel.'

The sin of the Corinthians consisted not in the mere adoption
The sa- ^^ eminent names, but in the party spirit which at-
credness of taches more importance to them than to the great cause
no warmnt "^'liich all good men have in common. Even the sacred
for party name of Christ Himself may thus be desecrated ; and
spirit. ^g ^YiQ Apostle here rebukes those who said * I am of
Christ,' no less than those who said ' I am of Paul, of ApoUos,
and of Kephas,' so in the Gospels we read that our Lord Him-
self refused ^ to take the title of * good,' and that He Himself
' baptized not, but His disciples.' ^ If the holiest name of all
can thus be made a party watchword, if Christianity itself can
thus be turned to the purposes of a faction, much more may
any of its subordinate manifestations. The character of our
Lord is distinguished from almost all others by the fact both
that it rises far above any local or temporary influences, and
also that it has, for the most part, escaped, even in thought,
from any association with them So the character of the

^ Luke xviii. 19. ^ John iv. 2.

THE APOSTLE'S VIEW OF PARTY SPIRIT. 35

Apostle, although in a lower measure, vindicates itself in this
passage from any identification with the party which called
itself after his name ; and is a true example of the possibility
of performing a great work, and labouring earnestly for great
truths, without losing sight of the common ground of Chris-
tianity, or becoming the centre of a factious and worldly spirit.
It is by catching a glimpse, however partial, of the wild
dissensions which raged around and beneath the Apo- Theextinc-
stolical writings, that we can best appreciate the 5,^" P^ ^^^
unity and repose of those writings themselves ; it is the Apo-
by seeing how completely these dissensions have been stolic age.
obliterated, that we can best understand how marked was the
difference between their results and those of analogous di-
visions in other history. We know how the names of Plato
and Aristotle, of Francis and Dominic, of Luther and Calvin,
have continued as the rallying point of rival schools and sys-
tems long after the decease, and contrary even to the inten-
tions, of the respective founders. But with regard to the
factions of the Apostolic age it was not so. The schools of
Paul and Apollos, and Kephas, which once waged so bitter a
warfare against each other, were extinguished almost before
ecclesiastical history had begun ; and the utmost diversity of
human character and outward style has been unable to break
the harmony in which their memories are united in the asso-
ciations of the Christian world. Partly this arose from the
nature of the case. The Apostles could not have been the
founders of systems, even if they would. Their power was
not their own, but another's : " Who made them to differ from
another ? what had they which they had not received ? ' If
once they claimed an independent authority, their authority
was gone. Great philosophers, great conquerors, great here-
siarchs, leave their names even in spite of themselves. But
such the Apostles could not be without ceasing to be what
they were ; and the total extinction of the parties which were
called after them is in fact a testimony to the divinity of their*
mission. And it is difficult not to believe that in the great
work of reconciliation, of which the outward volume of the
Sacred Canon is the chief monument, they were themselves
not merely passive instruments, but active agents ; that a
lesson is still to be derived from the record they have left of
their own resistance to the claims of the Factions which vainly
endeavoured to divide what God had joined together.

36 FIRST EPISTLE : CHAP. I. 18-11. 5.

THE FACTIONS (continued).

The Simplicity of the Apostle's Preaching.

Chap. I. 18—11. 5.

The course of the argument in the previous section would
have led us to expect a continuation of the reasons why the
Apostle was not sent to baptize. But having stated that he
was sent to preach the Gospel, he is diverted from the pre-
ceding train of thought by the recollection that the preaching
of the Gospel had itself been made a subject of contention
and party feud. He may have been either taunted by his ad-
versaries with af want of that human learning and eloquence
on which the Greek rhetoricians prided themselves, and by
which Apollos was distinguished ; or he himself as ' the chief
speaker' (comp. Acts xiv. 12), with Apollos, may have been
set up by the Gentile party, in opposition to the simple un-
lettered instructions of Kephas or of James. The latter is
most favoured by the context and the nature of the case, espe-
cially if we may suppose that the party of Apollos was practi-
cally identified with that of St. Paul. At any rate, the ten-
dency of the whole passage is not to claim, but to disclaim,
for himself and the Gospel, the ' wisdom of words ' which the
Corinthians seemed to expect ; lest the subject of his teaching
should, by his mode of teaching, be ' deprived of its inherent
power ' {KEvcoOfif comp. Rom. iv. 14) ; lest the form in which
he taught should be inconsistent with the humiliation of the
lesson.

And the glad tidings which he proclaimed was, by a
mournful paradox, the Cross of Christ (o crTavpos rov •^^^pvarov).
The humiliation of Christ, as expressed in the shameful death
of the Crucifixion, was in itself the centre of the Apostle's
teaching, and at Corinth was in this respect especially needed
as an antidote to the pride of the ambitious sects and vain
Greeks.

THE APOSTLE'S PREACHING.

The Simplicity of the Apostle's Preachixg.

^^'O Xoyo^ yap 6 tov crravpov rol^ [xev anoWviiiuoL^
lxo)pia icTTLV, rols 8e crw^o/xeVot? rjfjilv SvvajxLS Oeov icrriv.
^^yiypairraL yap ^AttoXco ttjv o'0(j)Lap rcov G-o<^(x)Vy Koi ttjp
(TW^fjiv TOP crvveTO)v atfeTrjcro). ^^ttov aocpos ; ttov ypafi-

^^ For the word of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto
us which are saved it is the power of God. ^'^For it is written, ' I will
destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the prudence
of the prudent. ^° Where is the wise ? where is the scribe ? where is the

i8 6 Xoyo9 yap. ' The true
power of the Gospel is in this
very Cross which is so despised.'

6 Adyo9. ' There is a word,'
* an eloquence,' which is most
powerful, ' the eloquence of the
Cross ' (referring to o-o^ta A,o-
yov)^

Tois aTToAAv/xeVots. Unbe-
lievers are regarded by St. Paul
as already perishing ; believers
as already saved. ' A sweet sa-
vour .... in them that are
saved, and in them that perish '
(2 Cor. ii. 15).

19 yiypaTTTai yap. This gives
the reason for Svva/xi? : ' Grod's
power is greater than man's
wisdom, for you will remember
how this is set forth in the Pro-
phets.' He then, as often, com-
bines two distinct passages in
one quotation. Both are from
Isaiah, nearly as in the LXX.
(1) Isa. xxix. 14, ' I will de-
stroy,' &c. The original mean-
ing is, that the wisdom of the
pretended leaders of the Jewish
people shall be confounded by
the judgments of God. The
LXX. has Kpvxl/oi where the
Apostle has d^er^o-a). The He-
brew is ' shall perish ' and ' shall
disappear.' (2) Isa. xxxiii. 18,

* Where is the scribe ? ' &o.
The original meaning is a burst
of triumph over the defeat of
Sennacherib : ' Where is he who
exacted and weighed the tribute,
and who counted the towers of
Zion as if they were his own ? *
These words the Apostle applies
generally ; adopting, apparently,
the common phraseology of the
Rabbis on the subject. See
Lightfoot's quotation :
' God showed to Adam
Every generation, and the disputers of

it;
Every generation, and the wise men of

it;
Every generation, and the scribes of

it;
Every generation, and the governors of

it.'

20 The ' wise man,' (ro<^6<;,
probably refers specially to the
Greeks, as the word especially
used by themselves, e.g. in the
derivatives <^tXoo-o<^os, cro</)to-r7y?.
The ' scribe,' ypafx/xarevs, is the
Jew. It is only in the sense of
a Jewish ' expounder of the
Law ' that it can be classed with
(ro<f>6<s, and (rvtjjTrjT'q^. When-
ever it is used generally, or in
reference to Gentiles, it merely
means ' clerk,' or ' secretary,' un-
less, perhaps, in Ecclus. xxxviii.

FIKST EPISTLE: CHAP. I. 21—26.

fiarev? ; ttov crvl7]T7)T'q^ rov alcovo^ tovtov ; ov)(l ijJLcopavev
6 deo^ TTjv cro(j)Lav tov KocrfJiov ;^ '^^eTreLdrj yap iv rfj o-o(f)La
rov 0eov ovk eyvo) 6 Koaixos 3ta T179 crot^ta? tov Oeov^ €v-
S6K7)0'ev 6 6eo<s Sta Trjs fxoipCas tov ACT^puy/xaro? crwcrat

Add

disputer of this age 1 ' Did not God make foolish the wisdom of the
world ? ^^ For since in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew
not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that

24. The * disputer,' crv^r/Tryr^?,
seems to be a word descriptive
of the popular disputations which
took place in rival schools (comp.
Acts vi. 9 ; ix. 29). tov atwvos
TOVTOV refers to all the three, and
is to be slightly distinguished
from k6(tixov, the first referring
to the transitory, the second to
the visible and material, charac-
ter of the present world. The
general identity of meaning in
the two words is proved by their
use in iii. 18, 19.

These expressions acquire ad-
ditional force by a comparison
with the Rabbinical belief that
the cessation of Rabbinical wis-
dom was to be one of the signs
of the Messiah's coming (see the
quotations from the Mishna in
Wetstein ad he), and that this
was expressly foretold in Isa.
xxxiii. 18. Analogous to this
was the belief of Christians that
the oracles of the heathen world
ceased on the birth of Christ.

21 iv rrj (TOcfiLa tov Oeov may
be, (1) ' God ordained in His
wisdom that the wisdom of the
world shall not be the means of
arriving at a knowledge of God ; '
(in which case comp. Acts xiv.
16, ' God in times past suffered
all men to walk in their own
ways,' and xvii. 30, * the times
of this ignorance God winked
at,' also Romans iii. 25, ' the

" passing over," irdpea-iv, of sins
that are "gone before," Trpoye-
yovoToiv, through the forbear-
ance of God ; ') Or (2) ' When
all the wisdom of God had been
displayed, the world was still
unable to arrive at the know-
ledge of God.' Compare the
general context in Rom. i. 16-
21, where the Apostle argues in
like manner that the Gospel is
shown to be the power of God
to those who believe, because in
spite of full light the Gentile
world had rejected the know-
ledge of God. In either case
the general sense of the end of
the sentence will be, ' The world
was not converted by His wis-
dom ; and therefore He chose
to confound it by saving, not
the world, but the believers, (if
one may so say) through His
folly.'

8ta T^5 (Tocfiia^ ■D^Q^y thus be
either ' its wisdom,' or the re-
petition and explanation of iv
T§ (T0<f)La TOV Oeov, ' through the
wisdom which I have just men-
tioned.'

6 Koa-fioq, * the world of Gen-
tiles,' is opposed to ol Trto-rcvov-
TC9, 'the believing world; ' and
in the next verse * the world ' is
expanded into ' Jew and Greek,'
and ' those that believe ' is ex-
plained by 'we.'

THE APOSTLE'S PEEACHING.

22 '

9 s ^ V

" eireLOT}

KOi 'louS

aiOL cr7)[xeLa airov-

Tovs TTLO'Tevovraf;'

[j.ev ^larov iaTavpcufxevov^ 'louSatots fxev cTKoivSaXov,
^eOvecFiv Se jxajpLav^ ^"^avrot? 8e Tol^ kXt^toI?, 'lovSatot? re
Acal EWrjcFLV^ -)(pi(TT0V Oeov Svpafjuv kol Oeov crocfyCav'
'^^ OTL TO jjicjpop Tov Oeov CrO(j)CiiT€pOV TCOV dvOpCOTTCOV icTTlVy
KOL TO acrSevkf; tov Oeov Icr^poTepov tcov av6po)Trov ^iaTiv. j vl
^^/BXeVere yap ttjv kXtJctlv ufxcov, aSeXc^ot, otl ov ttoXXoi
(To^oi KOLTa (rdpKa, ov ttoWoI SvvaTOL, ov ttoXXoi evyeveisi

ar]/j.€iov.

'E\\Tj<ri for ^9v€(ni'.

Lachm. ed. 1 omits eVnV.

believe ; '^^ since both Jews require signs, and Greeks seek after
wisdom, 2^ but toe preach Christ crucified, unto Jews a stumblingblock,
and unto Gentiles foolishness ; "^^but unto ourselves that are called,
both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God :
^^ because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of
God is mightier than men. ^^For ye see your calling, brethren, how
that there are not many wise men after the flesh, not many strong

22 Unless a new sentence is
begun here, cTrctSrj resumes the
first eVctSrj in 21, and introduces
an amplification of the ground
already stated there.

'lovoatoi . . . "EAAr/vc?. * Cha-
racters like the Jews — like the
Greeks ' (implied in the omis-
sion of the article). The repe-
tition of Kttt expresses 'each in
their own way,'

<nr)jx£La, ' signs,' has the same
general meaning of ' outward
visible wonders to gratify the
craving of superstition ; ' as cro-
<f>ia is ' an inward completeness
of system to gratify the cra-
vings of the intellect.' In its
plural form it agrees with John
iv. 48.

^3^ 24, 25, i7/xet5. 'We, Apos-
tles and Christians.'

■XpuTTov ia-ravp. k. t. X. * Christ,
to whom, in His humiliation
the Jews have a religious, the
Greeks an intellectual, objection,
but who, to us, who are called
to believe in Him, though still

the same Christ, is a greater
manifestation of power than any
sign in Heaven or outward mi-
racle ; a greater manifestation
of wisdom than any system of
human learning, inasmuch as He
is the power and the wisdom,
not of man, bat of God.'

*The power of God, as de-
livering from the bondage of
sin ' (compare Rom. viii. 3) ;
'the wisdom of God as en-
lightening our understandings '
(compare Ephesians i. 8, 9, 17,
18).

0-77/Aeta, (TKavSaXov, SvvafXL^, on
the one hand, correspond to ao-
(fita, ixwpta, cro</>ta, on the other.

Observe the repetition of xpc'
(TTov. ' He, in whom the unbe-
lievers saw only the crucified
malefactor, was, to the believers,
the power and wisdom of God.'

26 It was a general, though
not a universal rule {ov ttoXXol,
not ovSets), that the first con-
verts were from the humblest
and most illiterate classes. The

PIKST EPISTLE : CHAP. I. 27—11. 1.

^^ aWa ret jxcopa tov Kocrfxov efeXefaro 6 ^edg, [tVa ^ Karai-
(Tvyvrj Tovs cro^ov^, koL tol acrOevrj tov koct^jlov i^eke^aro 6
C7€0sJ, Lva KaraKj^vvrj ra L(j\vpa,^° Kai ra ayeinr) tov koct-
jjiov Koi TOL e^ovdevrnjiiva i^eXe^aTO 6 6e6s^ ^tol fxr) ovTa^
Lva Ta ovTa KaTapyr^crrj^ ^"^ on cos fJi^rj Kav^-qcrrjTai Tracra
crap^ iv(x)Tnov ^tov 6eov' ^^i^ avTov Be vfiets iaTe iu
^ptcrrw ^Irjcrov^ 09 iyevrjOrf ^ cro(^ia riplv diro 6eov, 81/caio-

" rovs (TO<povs Karaicrxvyr).
d ouToG for TOV deov.

Kol before to fxr].

" Kavx^orerai.
* Tifiiv aocpia.

men, not many noble, ^''but the foolish things of the world God chose
to confound the wise, and the weak things of the world God chose to
confound the things which are mighty, -®and the base things of the
world and the despised things God chose, — things which are not, to
make to vanish away things which are ; ^^ that no flesh should boast
in the presence of God. ^"^But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who
was made wisdom unto us of God, and righteousness, and holiness,

few exceptions that occur in the
New Testament itself are Ni-
codemus and Joseph, Sergius
Paulus, Dionysius the Areopa-
gite, Apollos, Barnabas, and the
Apostle himself. Of the origi-
nal Apostles it was probably true
without exception. A doubtful
tradition of Bartholomew's high
birth is all that has ever been
alleged to the contrary.

Trjv kXtjo-lv, ' the manner of
your conversion to Christianity '
(see on vii. 20).

Kara (rapKa, ' outwardly,'^ tov
Koarjxov tovtov.

^Xe-n-ere may be either impera-
tive or indicative, ' see,' or 'you
see.'

27, 28 TO, /xiopd, opposed to
aoffiOL, — TOL aaOevrj to SvvaTOc, — to.
dycvrj kol to, i^ovOiinrjjxiva (com-
pare vi. 4) to cvyevets-

Ta /jirj ovTa, the climax of the
whole. ' God has not only made
the Gospel to prevail over wis-
dom and power and rank, but
has created it out of nothing ;
that so, in our redemption as
well as our creation, we might

be wholly dependent upon Him '
(compare Rom. iv. 17).

Kttt is inserted before to, /^^
ovTtt in B. C^. D^. J. and the
Received Text, and is omitted
in A. CKBK E. (?)F. G. and in
Lachmann. If the omission is
correct, the words to. fxr] ovTa
are not an addition to, but a
summary of, the successive ideas
of the previous verse.

30 What in 27-29 is ex-
hibited on its negative, is here
exhibited on its positive side.
' God is our creator ; and there-
fore we are to confide in none
and in nothing besides Him.
He is our Creator ; and therefore
you are certainly His children,
born again into the world
through Christ, who, as the
first-born of this new creation,
was made {kyivrjOyf) to us the
true source and exemplar of di-
vine wisdom.' Comp. Rom. xi.
36, where the same truth is
stated — that frotn the Father
through the Son all things exist ;
that, in opposition to all thp
wisdom and power of the world,

THE APOSTLE'S PKEACHINa.

crv^rj T€ Koi aytacr/xo? kol oLTroXvTpcocTLS, ^^Iva KaOojs ye-
ypaTTTai 'O Kav^(ofJi€vo(; iu Kvpico Kav^dadcti.

II. ^ Kayoi Ikdoiv Trpo^ v/x-a?, dbekcfyoi, rfKOov ov KaO^
virepo^qv Xoyov ^ <TO(pLas KarayyeWoiv vfJilv to fjiaprv-

and redemption ; ^Hhat according as it is written, ' he that boasteth, in
the Lord let him boast.'

II. ^ And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency

Christ alone contains the true
divine wisdom. With this as-
sertion the antithesis properly
closes^ as is shown by the posi-
tion of the words, ' Christ was
made wisdom unto us of God.'
But here, as elsewhere, the
Apostle's feeling overflows, and
adds (what is not strictly
needed) that Christ, besides
being our wisdom, is also ' both
our righteousness and our holi-
ness ' (StAcatoo-uvry re kol dytao-yuds),
' the one as truly as the other —
the source and exemplar of both.'
That this is the force of the jux-
taposition of the words is evi-
dent from re kul. Compare vi.
11. This is the earliest passage
in St. Paul's writings which
contains the germ of Rom. iii.
21-25, and the structure of
teaching built upon it.

Kttt aTToAvrpwo-ts. 'And yet
more, He is our ransom from
all evil ; in Him we all receive
that ransom by which our mor-
tal natures shall be set free
from the bondage of corruption.'
That this is the full meaning of
the word is implied by its occu-
pying the climax of the sentence.
Comp. Rom. viii. 21-23. Each
of the three words has the double
meaning both of an inward act
and of an outward result ; em-
bracing on the one hand ' right-
eousness, holiness, freedom ; ' on
the other ' acquittal, consecra-
tion, deliverance.' It is for the

expression of these complex
ideas, — complex in thought,
though simple in fact, — that
the mixed Greek of the N. T.
forms so adequate, the Latin
languages of modern Europe so
imperfect, a vehicle.

31 'Thus our very boasting
is an expression of our depend-
ence.' The quotation is a con-
densation of Jerem. ix. 23, 24 :
' Let not the wise man glory in
his wisdom, neither let the
mighty man glory in his might ;
let not the rich man glory in his
riches ; but let him that glorieth
glory in this, that he under-
standeth and knoweth me, that
I am the Lord which exercise
lovingkindness, judgment, and
righteousness in the earth.' The
words ' in the Lord ' probably
contain a latent reference in the
Apostle's mind, not merely to
God generally (as in 29), but to
Christ Jesus specially (as just
described in 30).

II. I What he has said gene-
rally, he now exemplifies in him-
self.

Kayw. ' And in my own acts,
too, this was true. As the Gos-
pel is, so also am I its Apostle.'
For a similar argument, in re-
gard to truthfulness and since-
rity, as here to simplicity, viz.
that as his teaching was, so
must be his own character and
practice, see 2 Cor. i. 17-20 ;
and iii. 7-12. Kat has, in part,

FIRST EPISTLE: CHAP. 11. 2—5.

ISei

piov Tov Veov. ^ov yap eKpLva tl ^Lbevai ev vfjuv, et [xr]
'Iiqcrovv ^picTTOv^ koI tovtov io-Tavpcofjuepov. ^'^Acdyo) iv
dcrOeveia kol ev (f)6l3(t) kol ev rpop^o) 7roKk<£ iyevofjirjv 7rpo9
T;/xa9, ^ Kal 6 \6yos fiov kol to KijpvyiJid fjLOv ovk ev Tret^ot?
^cro<^ta9 \6yoL<;^ akW ev dirohei^L Tn^ev/xaros /cat Bwdiiecos,

■ TOV etSeVot Tl. '' Kal iyd. « avdpwirivTjs for ffoipias.

of word or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. '^For
1 ^ determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and
Him crucified. ^And in weakness and in fear and in much trembling
was I with you'; "^and my word and my preaching was not with enticing
words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power ;

^ Or judged.

the sense common in Thucy-
dides, ' in fact: ' as, e.g. Thucyd.
vi. 64 : oTTcp KoX KareXa^ov.
virepoxrjv, ' excelling others.'
TO fxaprvpiov tov Oeov (in B.
D. E. F. G. J.). 'My testi-
mony of what God has done in
Christ.' The reading of fxva--
rripiov in A. C. is probably trom
verse 7.

2 OVK eKpLva TL ciSevat, * I de-
termined to know nothing ' (ovk
cKpLva, like ov cf>r]fjLt, not ' I did
not determine,' but ' I deter-
mined not'). The reading of
the Rec. Text, tov ctSeVai, is
supported by only one ancient
MS. (J.) ; but for a similar con-
struction, compare Acts xxvii. 1,
iKpiOrj TOV aTTOTrActv.

'You will recollect that my
preaching was no philosophical
system ; for it was confined to
the exhibition of Jesus Christ,
and that not in His glory, but
in his humiliation, in which you
were called upon to share.

3 Kayio, 'and J,' as in verse
1 ; here repeated as expressing
still more emphatically the ab-
sence of human power, not only
in his practice, but in his per-
son.

'Weakness,' alluding to the

infirmities mentioned in 2 Cor.
X. 10; xi. 30; xii. 5, 9, 10.
' Fear and trembling,' i.e. anxiety-
occasioned by a consciousness
of his weakness. Compare the
same expressions used of the re-
ception of Titus, 2 Cor. vii. 15 ;
and of the behaviour of ' slaves.'
Eph. vi, 5.

4 X6yo<s, ' the form,' KYJpvyfid,
the ' substance ' of his preach-
ing.

Trei^oi?, probably an adjective
for TTiOavols^ after the analogy
of </)ct8o9 and /xT/xo?. Not found
in classical writers. ' Corinthian
words ' was a popular expression
for exquisite phrases. (Wetstein
ad loc.)

avdpoiTTivrj's ( ' human ' ) , in-
serted before cro^ia^ in A. C.
and Rec. Text, was probably
added from a fear lest ' wis-
dom ' itself should seem to be
disparaged.

ev aTToSeilct, 'in the proofs
given by the Spirit and the
power which was in me.' The
words (TTvev/xttTos, Swa/xecos) re-
fer to the preternatural gifts,
whether of the Corinthians or
of himself.

Compare the whole argument
of 2 Cor. xi. 21— xii. 10.

THE APOSTLE'S PEEACHING.

^ti^a 7] TTtcrrts v^xcov /xt) tJ ei' <jO(pia avupcoircoVy aAA. ei^ ot»-
vdfxeL Oeov.

^ that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power
of God.

Longinus (Fragment i. ed.
Weiske, p. 112) alludes to the
abrupt and unsystematic style
on which the Apostle here
prides himself, — 'Paul of Tar-

sus was the first who maintained
positive assertion without elabo-
rate proof ' {TrpQiTOV . . . Trpo'i-
(rTOLfx€vov SoyfiaTos avaTroSecKTOv) .

Paraphrase of Chap. I. 18 — II. 5.

The Gospel tchich I preach is no system of mere words, fair
without, hut hollow unthin. I did nothing to conceal the sim-
plicity and the offensiveness of the humiliation of Him whom
1 preached, Tnatvery humiliation, expressed in its strongest
form in the Cross on lohich He died, has in itself a power
to convince the hearts of men far beyond any system of hu-
man philosophy : and in Him whom the proud Jew and the
intellectual Greek reject as a crucified malefactor, His follow-
ers recognise the true satisfaction of all their wants. Nor is
it only in Christ, hut in His followers, that the same law is
visible ; you have only to look at the quarters from which the
ranks of Christians are filled, to see that you owe nothing to
your own wisdom, or power, or station, hut all to God ; by
whom you have, in the person of Christ, been called, as if to
a new existence, in this His second creation. He is your true
wisdom ; and not only so, — your righteousness, and holiness,
and freedom. What I have thus stated generally teas realised
to the letter in my own practice ; in my determination to preach,
not theories, but the fact of Chris fs Crucifixion ; in my own
personal insignificance, as contrasted tcith the greatness of my
cause.

FIRST EPISTLE.

The foregoing passage is important as containing a state-
The Cruci- "^®^^ ^^ ^^^ main subject of the Apostle's preach-
fixion the ing. A similar and somewhat expanded description
^^Tof^his ^c^^^'S ^^ ^ CJor. XV. 3-8, which makes it to consist in
teaching at the Setting forth of the Death and the Resurrection
Corinth. of Christ. Both agree in the selection of the close of
our Lord's life as the chief topic of his addresses : ' I delivered
unto you first of all . . . how that Christ died for our
sins . . . was buried . . . and rose again.' The statement in
this passage takes us a step further, and tells us that the
Apostle chiefly dwelt on the manner of the Death — The Cross
of Christ,^ Christ crucified,'^ And when we compare this
language with that of the nearly contemporary Epistle to the
Galatians/ ^ before whose eyes Jesus Christ had been evidently
set forth, crucified among them,' it is clear that the subject,
though here capable of a peculiar application to the intellectual
pride of the Corinthians, was habitual to St. Paul during this
period of his life. Two points are described as specially com-
mending it to him at Corinth: (1) its sunplicity, and (2) its
humiliation. A third point appears more prominently in the
other Epistles — its sufferings.

1. It was, as he says, characteristic of ' Jews ' to demand
„ ' sio^ns ' or ' portents.' The especial ' sign ' which they

Absence of » ^ ^ ./., r^^ ^

the mira- sought was that 01 some manifestation of the * She-
culous. chinah,' or Divine glory, in the Heavens, to encom-
pass the Messiah. But the tendency was more general : it was
that craving for the marvellous and miraculous, which still
characterises Oriental nations, which appears in the license of
Arabian invention and credulity, and which in the Jewish na-
tion reached its highest pitch in the extravagant fictions of
Rabbinical writers. The proverb ' Credat Judaeus ' shows the
character which they had obtained amongst the Romans for
readiness to accept the wildest absurdities ; and this disposition
to seek for signs is expressly commended in the Mishna."^ To
a certain extent this tendency is met by the Gospel miracles.
' This^ w^as the beginning of " signs" {arj^sicov) which Jesus
did : ' ' Jesus of Nazareth,^ a man approved of God among you
by miracles and wonders and signs.' Yet on the whole it is
discouraged: *A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh

1 1. 17. M. 23 ; ii. 2.

3 Gal. iii. 1.

* See the quotations at length

in Reiche's Commentary, on 1 Cor.
u. 22.

^ John ii. 11. « Acts ii. 22.

THE CKOSS OF CHRIST. 45

after a sign,^ and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the
sign of the Prophet Jonas.' ' Except^ ye see signs and won-
ders, ye will not believe.' And what is thus intimated in the
Gospels, is here followed out by the Apostle. In answer to
this demand for ' signs,' he produced the least dazzling, the
least miraculous part of the whole of the career of our Lord —
the simple fact of His Crucifixion. The more ample we sup-
pose the evidence for the Gospel miracles, or the more porten-
tous their nature, so much the more striking is the testimony'of
Christ and His Apostle to the truth that it is not on them that
the main structure of Christian faith is to be built up. The
tendency in human nature, especially in Oriental nature, is
acknowledged, and, to a certain extent, satisfied. But it is dis-
countenanced as unworthy of the highest and best form of
Christian Revelation.

This simplicity of teaching, which was a rebuke to the
superstitious cravings of the Oriental and the Jew, .,^ »
was also a rebuke to the intellectual demands of the phiio-
European Greek. The charm which the former found ^ophical
in outward miracles the latter sought in theories of
philosophy. The subtlety of discussion, which had appeared
already in the numerous schools of Greek speculation, and
which appeared afterwards in the theological divisions of the
fourth and fifth centuries, needed not now, as in the time of
Socrates, to be put down by a truer philosophy, but by some-
thing which should give them fact instead of speculation, flesh
and blood instead of words and theories. Such a new starting
point was provided by the Apostle's constant representation of
the homely yet strange event which had taken place within their
own generation in Judsea, — the Crucifixion of his Master. Its
outward form was familiar to them, wherever the Koman law
had been carried out against the slaves and insurgents of the
East. It was for them now to discover its inward application
to themselves.

2. And this brings us to the second point of view from
which the Crucifixion is here regarded, namely, its humiliation.

In order to enter into the force of this, we must picture
to ourselves a state of feeling which, in part from the -p
eflPect produced on the world by this very passage and tion of the
the spirit which it describes, is entirely removed from ^^°^^-

Matt. xvi. 4. 2 jojjjj j^^ 43^

46 FIRST EPISTLE.

our present experience. Not only is the outward symbol of the
Cross glorified in our eyes by the truth of the religion which it
represents, but the very fact of the connexion between
Christianity and humiliation is to us one of the proofs of its
divine excellence.^ But at its first propagation, as is the case
even to this day in parts of the world external to Christendom,
it was far otherwise. The Crucifixion was and is a ' scandal '
to the Jewish nation, as a dishonour to the Messiah. Christ
has been called by them in derision * Toldi,' ^ the man who was
hanged ; ' and Christians, ' the servants of him who was hanged.'
And in the Mahometan religion, both as now professed and as
set forth in the Koran, the supposed ignominy of the Crucifixion
is evaded by the story that the Jews, in a judicial blindness,
seized and crucified Judas instead of Christ, who ascended from
their hands into heaven. ' You do not think that those brute
Jews nailed the Lord Isa [Jesus] to a cross ? ' was the indig-
nant question of an intelligent Mussulman to an English travel-
ler. ' Oh no ! they never nailed Him ; He lives for ever in
Heaven.' The objection thus felt by Jews and Mahometans to
the Crucifixion as a degradation of the Messiah, was felt by the
educated classes of Greek and Roman society as a degradation
of the Religion itself; encumbered as it thus was, in their eyes,
with associations so low, and addressed, as they would say, to
classes so contemptible as the beggars and slaves of the Roman
Empire.

Nothing shows the confidence of the Apostle more strongly
Exaltation than the prominence which he gives to an aspect of his
of the teaching so unpopular. In the Epistle to the Philip-
Cross, pians (ii. 5-8) he pursues the subject home with a
like courage through the several stages of humiliation, * of no
reputation — the form of a " slave " ' — even to ' the death of the
Cross.' But this passage contains the earliest statement, we
might almost call it prophecy, of the triumph of Christianity,
not only in spite, but by means, of this great obstacle. What
the Apostle assumed as certain in the first beginning of the
struggle has now been confirmed by the experience of many cen-
turies. The Cross which, with all its associations, conveyed no
thoughts to the Greek, the Roman, or the Jew, but of the lowest
and most infamous punishment, is now enshrined in our most
famous works of art, in our greatest historical recollections, in

See a celebrated passage in Milman's Bampton Lectures, p. 279.

THE CROSS OF CHEIST. 47

our deepest feelings of devotion. The Apostle's personal de-
fects, on which he dwells with such trembling anxiety, are now
so entirely forgotten, that the world will not even endure to be
reminded that they ever existed. The society which consisted
almost exclusively in the first instance of the lower orders,
chiefly of slaves and freedmen, and which for three centuries
numbered amongst its converts none of the poets, historians, and
philosophers, who still headed the literature of the Roman Em-
pire, has now embraced within itself all the civilisation of the
world. The inhabitants of the palaces from which were taken
the splendid works of artthat adorn the galleries of the Vatican
have disappeared before the inhabitants of the catacombs, whose
rude ill-spelt epitaphs and barbarous sculptures may be seen be-
side them. , The Christian religion has triumphed in defiance,
not only of persecution, but of the follies and weaknesses for
which the writers of the first ages of the Christian Church have
been often and justly censured.

What was most remarkably exhibited in the first rise
of Christianity has been exhibited in a less remarkable degree
in its different forms subsequently. The immense impression
produced by some of the saints of the middle ages, as well as by
some of the least cultivated intellects of later times, as amongst
our own Nonconformists, is a testimony to the same truth on a
mailer scale. So Bonaventura pointed to the Crucifix as the
source of all his learning ; so Bunyan has exercised a lasting in-
fluence through the ' Pilgrim's Progress.' But the first shock
was the greatest. The apparent insignificance of the Apostle,
the novelty and the offensiveness of the truth, and of the image
under which the truth was conveyed, — can never be repeated
or equalled.

3. Very briefly must be mentioned, as not prominently
brought forward in this Epistle, but as appearingin the suffering
almost contemporary Epistle to Galatia, the image of of the
suffering conveyed in the Crucifixion : * God forbid ^^°^^-
that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,
by whom the world is crucified to me, and I unto the world.' ^
This is the aspect of it most familiar in the Gospel history,
where ' taking up the cross ' is equivalent to following Christ
through hardship and difficulty. ' The cross of Christ,' says
Luther,^ * signifies all afflictions of all good men, whose suffer-
ings are the sufferings of Christ.'

1 Gal. vi. 14. 2 Luther on Gal. vi. 14.

FIRST EPISTLE : CHAP. II 6—10.

THE FACTIONS (continued).
Contrast of Human and Divine Wisdom.

^^ocfytavSk XaXovfiev iv rot? reXetot?, <TO(f)Lav 8e ov tov
alcovo<; tovtov ovSe tcov ap^ovTOiv tov alcovo^ tovtov rcov
KaTapyovfievojv^ '^dXXa Xakovfiev ^6eov (TO(j)Lav ev fxvcr-
TrjpLO)^ T7]v aTroKeKpvfJLfxei'rji^, f)v Trpooypicrev 6 9eo<; npo rcov
alcovojv €19 So^av t^/xwi^, ^rjv ouSet? tcov ap^ovroiv rov
ai(xivo<; TOVTOV eyvcoKev (et yap eypcocrav^ ovk av tov KvpLOV

* (Tocplav 06oO.

^Now we speak wisdom among them that are perfect ; yet not the
wisdom of this age, nor of the princes of this age, that vanish away ;
■^but we speak God's wisdom in a secret, the hidden wisdom, wliich
God ordained before the ages unto our glory ; ® which none of the princes
of this age knew (for had they known, they would not have crucified the

6 ' But although we abjure
human wisdom, there is a true
wisdom which we speak to those
who are fit to receive it.'

reXctot?, ' fuUgrown,' as op-
posed to vrjTTioi^ iii. 1.

7 fxvcrTT^pLov has its ordinary
sense of ' a secret made known
to the initiated.'

€t9 So^av rjjxoiv, ' in order that
by its revelation we might re-
ceive glory ; that glory which is
the highest gift of God to His
children.' Compare John xvii.
10, 23 ; Rom. viii. 21. This
'glory' now becomes the subject
of the sentence.

8-12 yv refers to Bo^av. rov
alS)vo<s TOVTOV refers to Trpo twv
aluivwv. ' That which belonged
to eternity was not likely to be
known to those who lived in
time.' The earthly and spiri-
tual powers of this world, in an
evil sense, are here identified, as
in Matt. iv. 8, 9 ; Eph. vi. 12 ;
and (in reference to the Cruci-

fixion especially, as in this pas-
sage) Luke xxii. 53, ' When I
was daily with you in the
temple, ye stretched forth no
hands against me ; but this is
your hour, and the power of
darkness.'' For their ignorance
comp. Luke xxiii. 34, ' Father,
forgive them ; for they know
not what they do.' For the
same thought of the ignorance
of the evil spirits in regard to
the Crucifixion, carried out to a
fanciful excess, yet still from its
early date illustrating this pas-
sage, see Tgn. ad Eph. c. 19, koI
tkaOe TOV apxovTa tov a/wvog tov-
tov 7) TrapOevta Mapia? Koi 6 to-
K6T09 avrrjs ofxoLO}? koi 6 OavaTO<;
TOV KvpLov, Tpia fJivcTTrfpLa Kpavyrj^,
OLTLva iv rj(Tv^ia Oeov lirpaxOr).

The words Kvpiov t^? So^s
seem to be used with reference
to So^av : 'Him who alone was
sovereign Lord of that glory,'
like apxr]yo^ TTjfi t,(iirj<^, Acts iii.
15; apx^jyos T^? o-iOTTjpias, Heb.

HUMAN AND DIVINE WISDOM.

ttJ? Sofr/? i(TTavp(t)crav)y ^dXX.a KaOcoq yeypaTTTau ^A 6(f)-
^aXjLto? ovK elSei' kol ov<; ovk 7]K0V(Tev Kai iirl Kaphiav
dvOpcoTTOV OVK dve^T), ^oaa rjTOLjJLacrev 6 9eo<; rots dyairco-
criv avTOV* ^^-qfjuv Se ^ oLireKaXviljev 6 ^€0? Std tov irvev-

^ 6 Qehs k'jreKd\v\pe.

h for '6<Ta.

Lord of glory) ; ^but as it is written, ' what eye saw not, nor ear
heard, neither entered into the heart of man, what great things God
prepared for them that love Him.' ^°But unto us God revealed them

ii. 10. So^s here, as S6$av in
7, is nsed perhaps with special
reference to the shame of the
Cross.

9 oAAct. * Nay, rather ; ' the
opposition to ovSeU cyvwKev bein^
first brought forward in rj/uv 8e,
verse 10.

KaOoi's yiypaTTTaL. These words
imply that the quotation which
follows is from the Old Testa-
ment. There is no instance of
any apocryphal book (as in Jude
9, 14) being introduced by this
formula. And, in fact, it seems
to be taken from Tsaiah Ixiv, 4

(LXX.) OLTTO TOV al<ji)VO<; OVK rjKov-

cra/xev, ovSe ol 6<fi0aXfjLol rjfxijjv eTSov
0€ov TrXrjv crov kol to. c/aya o'ov, a
7roiyo-€L<s rot's VTrofxevova-iv eXcov,
slightly coloured by the recollec-
tion of Isa. lii. 15 (LXX.) oh
OVK avrjYyiXrj .... oiJ/ovtul, kol ol
OVK aKrjKoaa-L (rvvqa-ovai, and Ixv.
17 (LXX.) tcrrai yap 6 ovpavo<;

KttlVO?, K.T.X. KOL OV fXTJ fJLVr](rOC}(rL

Ttov TrpoTcpcov, ovSe ov /jlyj liriXOrj
avToiv cTTt Tr)v KapStav. The varia-
tion from the original text is not
essentially greater than in other
quotations, e.g. that in i. 19, 20,
from Isa. xxix. 14 ; xxxiii. 18 ;
and it is apparently quoted as
such in Clem. Rom. i. c. 34
(where see the annotations in
Dr. Jacobson's edition).

It is therefore singular that
the Fathers generally held that
it was taken, either (as Chryso-

stom, Theodoret, Theophylact)
from some lost prophet, or (as
Origen) from an apocryphal
work called The Revelation of
Elijah (Fabricius, Cod. Apoc.
Vet. Test. i. 1077). This agrees
with the vehemence with which
Hegesippus (in a fragment pre-
served in Photius, Bib. Cod. 232)
appears to repudiate these words
altogether. He charges with
'lying and vain speaking those
who use this language {Tov<i
TOLvra <^a/teVovs), as contradic-
tory both to the Scriptures gene-
rally and to our Lord's speech,
" Blessed are your eyes, for they
see; and your ears, for they
hear." '

The words, both in the ori-
ginal context of Isa. Ixiv. 4, and
in their position here, refer not
(as they are usually applied
in quotations) to a future state,
but (as is implied in the passage
just quoted from Hegesippus) to
the spiritual blessedness or glory
which is to be attained in the
present life by believers, and
which the Apostle proceeds to
explain in the next verses.

ID Tjplv 8e, ''to us,' i. e. be-
lievers generally, but with a spe-
cial reference to himself. The
quotation is left unfinished, and
he resumes the antithesis to ver.
8, ' The rulers knew not, but to
us God revealed it.'

dTTiKoXviJ/e, 'revealed by spi-

FIKST EPISTLE: CHAP. IT. 11—16.

jjLaroc, • ^ TO yap irvev^a Trdvra ipevva, /cat ret /3d6r) rov
Beov. ^^Tt9 yop oihev dvOpcoTTCjv tol tov dvOpcoirov^ el fjirj
TO TTvevfJia TOV dv0p(i)7Tov TO iv avTco ; ovTcoq koX tol tov
6eov ovSels ^^eyvcoKev, el ijltj to nvevfia tov Beov. ^'^ij/xei?

» avTOv after Trvev/jLaTos. *• olSev for 4yv(t3K€v.

by the Spirit : for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of
God. '^ For who of men knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit
of man which is in him ? even so also the things of God knoweth no one
but the Spirit of God. ^-But it?e received, not the spirit of the world,

ritual insight into things invisi-
ble ; ' as in 2 Cor. xii. 1.

10-16 'This is so: (1) Be-
cause the Spirit alone can give
this insight (10, 11) ; (2) Be-
cause ive have received this Spirit
(12-16).'

10 The ' Spirit ' is spoken of,
in the Old Testament, as the
source of all wisdom, Job xxxii.
8 : in Psalm cxxxix. 7, it is the
penetrating glance of the Divine
knowledge.

ipevvay ' knows through deep
inquiry,' Rom. viii. 27 : Psalm
cxxxix. 1.

TO. ^dOr}, ^ the profoundest se-
crets of God, whether of His
acts or of His nature.' Comp. to,
paOia TOV %arava. Rev. ii. 24.

For the general sense, com-
pare Matt. xi. 25-27, ' I thank
Thee .... because Thou hast
hid these things from the wise
and prudent, and hast revealed
them unto babes .... no man
knoweth the Son but the Father:
neither knoweth any man the
Father save the Son, and he to
whomsoever the Son will reveal
Him.'

11 'It is an inward, not an
outward vision.' The very word
TTvevfjia (spirit) implies, when
used of God, the same conscious-
ness of things divine which,
when used of man, it implies
with regard to things human.

For a similar comparison of the
human and divine Spirit, see
Rom. viii. 16, 26.

TO TTvevfjLa TOV Oeov is not the
Spirit in the Divine nature as
strict!}^ opposed to the spirit in
human nature (which would
have been expressed by to ttv. t.
0. TO iv avTw, as before, to ttv.
TOV avO. TO iv avTw)y but in the
more general sense required by
the context of the whole passage:
' The Spirit of God, whether in
the Godhead or residing in man,
is the true bond between God
and man.'

oT8ev and €yvioK€v may be
slightly distinguished, as in their
similar juxtaposition, John xxi.
17 ; oTSev being the more obvious
apprehension, as by the senses,
€yvwK€v the more subtle, as by
the mind. (See 2 Cor. v. 16.)

12 This comiminication of the
Spirit is now expressed more de-
finitely in the words to e/c tov
Oeov.

rjfxciq, as in verse 10, is ' be-
lievers generally, but specially
the Apostle,' i. e. he conceives of
the experience of other Christians
through his own, as in Rom. vii.
7-25.

TO TTvev/Jia TOV Koa-fiov. ' The
spirit of mere human wisdom.'
k6(tixo<;, the world, not as in op-
position to God, but only as
alienated from Him.

HUMAN AND DIVINE WISDOM.

Se ov TO TTvevfJia tov Kocrfjiov iXd^ofJiev, aXXa to Trvevfia to
e/c TOV Oeov, Iva elScofJiev tol vtto tov deov ^apicrOevTa rjfJilv^
^^a /cat Xakovixev ovk iv StSaAcrot? avOpcoTTLvrjf; crocjjLas Xd-
yot<?, dXX' ev StSa/crois Tr^'eu/xaro?, ^TrpevfJiaTLKol<; Trvevp.a-
TLKOi avyKpivovTes. ^^ i/zu^tfco? 8e dvOpcoiros ov Several tol
TOV TTvevfJiaTo^ TOV 6eov* fjicopta yap avTco icTTiv, /cat, ov
hvvaTai yvoivai^ on Tn^ev/xart/cai? dvaKpiveTai. ^^6 8e
TTvevfiaTLKos dvaKpivei ^ [tol] iroivTa, avTos Se vtt' ovScj^o?
dvaKpiv€Tai. ^^Tl<; yap eypco vovv Kvpiov, 09 crvfi^L^dcreL
avTov ; rjfJLels Se ^povi/ Kvpiov e^ofxev.

• a-yjou after irvev/xaros. ^ avuKpivei fihv irdvra. " vovv xpt<^'''oC.

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 Spirit teacheth ; inter-
preting spiritual things to spiritual men. ^^Now the natural man
receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God : for they are foolishness
unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually judged
of. ^^But he that is spiritual judgeth of all things, yet he himself is
judged of by no man. ^^ For * who knoweth the mind of the Lord, that
he may instruct Him ? ' But we have the mind of the Lord.

Toi )(apL(rO€vra=i ocra rp-otfiaa-eVf
in verse 9, ' the glory and bles-
sedness of Christians ; ' perhaps
with a slight allusion to the
Xapio-fiaTa.

13 Here he returns more di-
rectly to the subject of wisdom,
from which, in 8-12, he had
slightly digressed, recalled by
TO TTvev/xa tov Koa-fiov : ' As our
wisdom is not of this world, so
neither is our manner of commu-
nicating it. Our very language
is the immediate result of our
spiritual insight.' Comp. apprjra
pry/jtara a ovk i$bv avOpwirio XaX^-
crat, 2 Cor. xii. 4.

o-vyKpLvovres (not ' comparing,'
but) ' interpreting and explain-
ing ' (as in LXX. Gen. xl. 8, 16;
xli. 15 ; Daniel v. 12, 15, 26).
irvevixaTiKoZ^ maybe either neuter,
* by spiritual things,' or mascu-
line, to 'spiritual men.' Pro-
bably the latter, as in Gen. xli.

12, (Tvv€Kpiv€v rjfuv, * ho inter-
preted to us.*

14 ' But from its being spi-
ritual, the natural man cannot
receive it, as he has no spiritual
insight.'

xpv^LKOf;, * man without com-
munion with God.' See, for the
threefold division of 7n/€v/xa,
i/^vx>7, and o-cu/xa, 1 Thess. v. 23.

avaKpcveTat, 'judged of.' See
iv. 3, 4.

15 'The spiritual man has a
new faculty by which he judges
all, but cannot be judged by any
who have it not. He under-
stands the language in which
other men speak, but they under-
stand not the language in which
he speaks.'

16 'No one can judge him,
for he has the Spirit of God, and
no one can instruct the Spirit
of God.' The quotation is from
Isaiah xl. 13. The Apostle re-

E 2

FIRST EPISTLE: CHAP. III. 1—4.

HI. ^^Kayo)., dSeXc^ot, ovk riSvvij07)v XaXrjcraL vfiLV w?
7rv€VfJLaTLKo7<;, dXX' &)? ^ aapKivoL^;^ w? vqirioif; iv -y^picrTio.
^ydXa v/xct? inoTLcra, ^ov fipcofxa' ovttcd yap ihvpacrOe.
dXX.' ovSe [eri] vvv Svvaade' ^ en yap crapKiKOi icrre.
OTTOv yap iv vplv ^i^Xos koX Ipi?,^ ov^t crapKiKOL icrre /cat

» Koi ^7ei.

. Tjdiivao'df . . . o(;Te.

Kol Sixoa-raalai after epts.

III. ^And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual,
but as unto fleshly — as unto babes in Christ. ^I ?ave you milk, not
meat ; for hitherto ye were not able to bear it. ^ Neither yet now are ye
able ; for ye are yet carnal. For whereas there is among you envying,

gards vov? as identical with
TTvevfia, and uses it here, from its
being the word used in the LXX.
where it is, in fact, a translation
of D-n.

a-vfiPifid^cLv is the common
word in the LXX. for ' instruct.'

The readings of Kvpiov (in B.
D.^ F. G.) and xpioTov (in A. C.)
are almost equally balanced. If
the latter, the variation of the
word, where the sense is the
same, is quite after the Apostle's
manner, as in ii. 11, and 2 Cor.
16 (otSa/xev and iyvwKafjicv)

2 Cor.

X. 1, 2 (TrapaKoXit) and Seo-

III. I Kctyo), as in ii. 1 : ' What
I have just been saying was ex-
emplified in our practice,' the
connexion being, that, as he had
not been able to preach the Gos-
pel in the words of human wis-
dom, because it was not in him-
self or in the Gospel, so he had
not been able to preach it to
them in its divine wisdom, be-
cause they, not having the spi-
ritual faculty, were not fit to
receive it.

o-apKtVot?, a stronger expression
for i/ruxtKots.

In verse 1, A. B. C.^ D.^ read
o-apKtvot?. In verse 3, D.^ F. G.
read a-dpKivoi, and A. B. C. D. E.
J. crapKiKOL. If there be a dis-
tinction intended between the
two, it must be that trapKtvo? ex-
presses the nature, and o-apKtKo?
the character. But this is too
refined for the Apostle's mode of
argument ; and it therefore seems
most natural to suppose that
here, as in Rom. vii. 14 ; Heb.
vii. 16 (Lachmann), crdpKLvo? is
merely the classical correction for
the Hellenistic a-apKCKos.

vrjTTLOL^, opposed to TcXetot?, in
ii. 6. The word VT/Trto?, and,
generally speaking, the figure of
' infancy,' is never used by St.
Paul in a good sense. Comp.
Gal. iv. 3 ; Eph. iv. 14.

2 yaXa. The figure of ' milk,'
which is naturally suggested by
vrj-TTLoi'Sj is common in Rabbinical
phraseology for instruction to
beginners, who are called ' suck-
lings,' nip'i:^n. See Lightf. ad
he. and compare 1 Pet. ii. 2 ;
Heb. V. 13.

y8pw/>ta, * solid food ' = o-repea
Tpo4>rj in Heb. v. 12. The verb
is easily supplied from eVoTto-a.

3 OTTOV, ' since,' as in old
Ensrlish ' where ' for ' whereas.'

HUMAN AND DIVINE WISDOM. 53

/carol dvOpcoTTOv TrepLTrareLTe ; ^ orav yap ^eyrj rts ' Ey oj /acV
€t/xi Ilavkov erepos Se, 'Eya> ^AiroWciiy^ovK avOpcoTToC icrre;

* ovxl crapKiKoi for ovk HvdpcDvoi.

and strife, are ye not carnal, and walk as men ? ^ For while one saith, I
am of Paul ; and another, I am of ApoUos ; are ye not men ?

4 ai/^/30)7rot, 'mere men.' Com- I ttov in verse 3; ix. 8 ; xv. 32;
pare the expression Kara avOpu)- I Rom. iii. 5 ; Gal. i. 11 ; iii. 15.

Paraphrase of Chap. II. 6— III. 4.

Wliilst, however, I disclaim any support from mere human wis-
dom, there is a wisdom which I might have declared to you
had you been Jit to receive it ; a wisdom which has for ages
been concealed, and which is even now concealed, from those
who sway the destinies of this lower world, but which was for
ages designed in the counsels of God for the glory of true be-
lievers, — a glory unknown to those who in the pride of human
power devoted to a shameful death Him who teas the Lord of
Glory, unfathomable by any human sense or imagination, but
now revealed to tis by the Spirit, not of the world, but of God,
whereby alone we have nn insight into those divine mysteries
of which none else is or can be conscious.

And as the subject of this wisdom is spiritual, so also is
the manner of communicating it; there is a divine language
which is known to those who have received the new spiritual
faculty of Christians, which is unknown to those who are
guided only by their natural human intellects. This also was
exemplified in my own conduct to you ; for this is the reason
why I was unable to speak to you on more exalted subjects :
it was impossible to introduce them into a sphere of jarring
passions and factions which stunt the growth of the spiritual
faculty within you.

54 FIRST EPISTLE.

The Apostle's Yiew of Spiritual "Wisdom.

In considering what was the human wisdom which in this and
the previous section is disparaged by the Apostle, it is neces-
sary to bear in mind that it was not the highest, but the
lowest, form of intellectual eminence with which he was im-
mediately confronted : not the vigorous and lofty aspirations
of Aristotle and Plato, but the hollow and worn-out sophistries

Opposition ^^ *^^ ^^®* ^^^^ ^^ *^® Greek rhetoricians. Still,
of Intellect although a different turn would doubtless have been
and given to the whole argument, if St. Paul had written
in the better days of Greece, if the living power of
the Gospel had been met, not by a dead form, but by a power
which, though of lower origin, and moving in a different
sphere, was still living like itself, the general truth here urged
remains the same. It is not by intellectual, but by moral and
spiritual excellence, that the victories of the Gospel have been
achieved ; Religion is not Philosophy ; Christianity is a reli-
gion, not of Exaltation, but of Humiliation,

But, although the two spheres of intellect and of Christ-
Spiritual ianity are thus distinct, the Apostle also wishes to
AVisdom. show that there is in Christianity an element which,
though not itself intellectual, is analogous to that by which
intellectual wants are gratified ; as though he had said,
' Although the Christian lives in a w^orld of his own, yet in
that world he is independent of all beside (what the Greek
philosophers would have called avrdpKrjs), and the higher he
rises in that world, the more fully his Christian stature is de-
veloped, he will find every craving of his nature the more
completely satisfied.* This element of Christianity he here
introduces under the names of ' wisdom ' {crocj^La), ' the Spirit '
(to TTvsvfMo), and (in speaking of his relation to the Co-
rinthian Church) ' solid food ' (^pM/iia), as distinct from ' milk '
{ydXa), by which they had been actually fed. Taking into
comparison the other passages (John iii. 12 ; xvi. 12 ; Heb. vi.
1), where a similar contrast is drawn between the higher and
lower stages of Christian progress, the following seem the
natural results of his language : —

It is not any exhibition of new Christian truths or doctrines,
such as his view of righteousness by faith, or of our Lord's na-
ture. There was no practical occasion for the introduction of

THE APOSTLE'S VIEW OF SPIRITUAL WISDOM. 55

these to the Corinthian Church, and without some such practical
occasion it would be against his manner to insist upon them.
So far as there was any occasion for them, he does not scruple
to mention them in this very Epistle, i. 30 ; v. 7 ; vi. . 1 1 ;
XV. 24. There was nothing in the Factions (iii. 1-5) which
would of necessity have incapacitated them from receiving
truths of this kind. Nor does there appear any reason for ap-
plying the name of ' wisdom ' to these truths more than to others
which in this Epistle are unfolded at length, e.g. those which
are discussed from the 12th to the 15th chapters.

It would seem, therefore, that the most natural meaning of
the words is to be found in the deep spiritual intui- intuition
tions which have always been regarded as the highest ^^ moral
privilege of advanced Christian goodness, which were
possessed in an extraordinary degree by the first converts.
' A pure heart penetrates the secrets of heaven and hell,' is one
of the many sayings of this kind which abound in the celebrated
work on * The Imitation of Christ ; ' the ' beatific vision ' has
always been regarded by theologians as the consummation both
of our intellectual and moral perfection; and the analogy
which is here drawn between the perceptions of the human
intellect and the perceptions of the enlightened spirit might
be illustrated abundantly from the biographies and the devo-
tions of good men in all ages. What this was in its highest,
or at least in its most extraordinary, form in the Apostolical
age, may be seen in the account of St. Paul's own rapture in
2 Cor. xii. 1-4, or of St. John in the Apocalypse (Rev. i. 10 ;
iv. 2), where the Apostles are described as being literally
* caught by the spirit ' into another world, and hearing and see-
ing things beyond the power of man to conceive or to utter.
What it was in its more ordinary form may be seen in the
whole atmosphere of St. John's First Epistle, especially in the
connexion between Love and Knowledge which pervades it
throughout, and which is remarkably illustrated by St. Paul's
description of Love in this Epistle (xiii. 8-12). See also Kom.
xi. 33, 34; Eph. i. 8, 17, 18.

This use of the passage also accords with the special words
employed. The phrase ' wisdom,' although suggested Connexion
in the first instance by the contrast of the earthly of
philosophy which he had been disparaging, derives .Jory,'"'
its religious sense chiefly from the constant use of and
the word in The Proverbs and in Ecclesiasticus, where '^P^^^^-

FIEST EPISTLE.

it is applied, not to the gaining of new truths, theological or
natural, but to a deeper practical insight into moral truth.
This general sense is further limited in this passage by the in-
dication of its subject, namely, the ' glory ' or blessedness of
Christians, which in verses 8-10 assumes such a prominence
as to be almost identified with the ' wisdom ' itself that seeks it.
And the faculty, the state, by which this wisdom is obtained, is
described emphatically as ' spiritual,' — ' the spirit.' The word is
chosen partly from the frequent use of the phrase both in Greek
and Hebrew, to express the intellect,^ — chiefly as expressive of
a direct connexion with God. It is the * inspiration ' which in
Scripture is ascribed to every mental gift,^ but which is
specially applicable to the frame of mind which (to use the
modern form of speech founded on the same metaphor) ^ breathes
the atmosphere' of Heaven.

The same sense also agrees with the general context and
The A - occasion. When the Apostle says, * But to us God
stle's revealed it by His Spirit,' the use of the first person,

example, jjgj,^ ^^ elsewhere, indicates that, though speaking of
believers generally, he especially refers to his own experience.
The consciousness of his spiritual gifts, especially of his spiritual
insight into things invisible, was always present with him, and
never more so than at the period of these two Epistles.^ And
this tendency to dwell on the inward, as distinct from the out-
ward blessings of the Gospel, — on the things which ' eye hath
not seen nor ear heard,' as distinguished from the things which
the eyes of the first Apostles had seen, and their ears had
heard, — was a peculiarity of St. Paul's teaching, noticed even
by his adversaries, and apparently attacked by them on the
ground of the expressions used in this very passage.''

As this sense best suits the circumstances of the Apostle
himself, so also does it suit those of his hearers.

The Corinthian Christians, as was observed before, had no
„. , especial need, nor, if they had, was there any especial
of the Co- impediment to their reception, of new intellectual
rinthiaus. truths. But a higher consciousness of the Divine pre-
sence ; a knowledge deep and comprehensive, as being rooted

^ See especially ii. 11, 16 ; and
Gesenius m voce n-l"!, 3, c. d.

^ See Exod. xxxi. 3 ; Job xxxii.
8, &c.

3 See xiv. 18 ; 2 Cor. xii. 1-4.
* See notes to the Introduction
to Second Epistle, mh finem.

THE APOSTLE'S VIEW OF SPIEITUAL WISDOM. 67

and grounded in love ; an insight into the spiritual world,
— were gifts which on the one hand the Apostle might well
long to give them, and which were yet on the other most alien to
their state of faction and bitterness. How could they, who
were absorbed in their strifes and contentions, enter into the
atmosphere of peace which surrounds the throne of God ?
How could they, who were for ever insisting on particular
names and party watchwords, enjoy the vision where all else is
lost in the sense of communion with Christ ? Controversy and
party-spirit may sharpen the natural faculties of shrewdness
and disputation ; but few sins more dim the spiritual faculty by
which alone all things are rightly judged. These disputes and
rivalries were * of the flesh ' {aapKiKol), no less than the sensual
passions which are commonly so classed ; and if so, they have
no place in heaven, they are directly opposed to * the Spirit.'

FIRST EPISTLE: CHAP. III. 5—11.

THE FACTIONS (continued).
The Leaders of the Corinthian Parties.

^^Tl ovp icTTlv ^A7roXka><; ; tl Se iaTiv lTavXo9 ; Sta-
KOVOL, Bl a)v iiTLcrTevcraTe^ koX kKaarco o)? 6 Kvpio^ eScoKev.
^iyo) i(f)VTevcra^ 'AttoWcos eiroTio'ev^ ak\a 6 6eo<; iqv^avev^
"^ oidTG. oijTe 6 <f)VTev(OP icrriv tl ovre 6 ttotl^cdp^ dW 6

" tIs ovv iarl UavXos, ris 8e 'AttoAAws, oAA' ^ ;

^ What then is Apollos ? and what is Paul ? Ministers by whom
ye believed, even as the Lord gave to each one. ^I planted, Apol-
los watered, but God gave the increase ; ^ so that neither is he that

5 From the general tone of
what follows it seems (6-15)
that even in the preceding
verses (iii. 1-4) there was some-
thing of an apology for himself ;
as if the Corinthians, or at least
the party of Apollos, had said,
' Apollos has led us on from
these simple beginnings ; you
have done nothing for us, ex-
cept laying the foundation.' To
which he answers, (1) In iii.
1-4, ' I could not do anything
more, because of your own inca-
pacity.' (2) In iii. 5-9, 'We
are all insignificant in God's
sight ; both he who lays the
foundation and he who builds
upon it.' (3) In iii. 10-15, ' At
the same time, the great work is
done by him who lays the found-
ation : though the superstruc-
ture may be very imperfect.'

TL ovv 'AttoAAws ; ' What is
Apollos, or Paul (for once I
recognise your party names) ?
Mere instruments (8taKovoi),
through whom you were con-
verted ' (c7rtcrT€vo-aT€, as in Rom.
xiii. 11). The difference of the
reading of the more ancient
MSS. from the Rec. Text is
here remarkable, (1) as more

abrupt and startling — rt ^or tis,
and oAA' 17 omitted : (2) as giv-
ing the true order of the names
— ' Apollos and Paul ' (Apollos
being evidently the prominent
name here appealed to by those
whom the Apostle chiefly cen-
sures) ; whilst later MSS. have
inverted the order, to give to
the name of Paul its usual and
natural pre-eminence.

KOL cKacrra) k. t. X- ' And only
with the powers which their
Master (6 KvpLo<;, compare Rom.
xii. 5) distributed to each of the
teachers.' Compare Rom. xii.
3 : eKacrro) ws 6 ^eo? i/xeptae.

KOL = KOL ravra. ' And this
too.'

6 i(f>VTev(Ta — cTroTto-e. This
contrast agrees with the history
in Acts xviii. 27-xix. 1, where
the influence of Apollos at Co-
rinth is spoken of as distinct
from, and subsequent to, that
of Paul. This is strangely para-
phrased by some of the Fathers,
' Ego catechumenum feci —
Apollo baptizavit.' See Opta-
tus De Chrism. Donatist. Book
V. p. 90.

7 TL, ' anything great.' Com-
pare Gal. ii. 6.

LEADEKS OF THE CORINTHIAN PARTIES.

av^dvoiv ^€05. ^6 (fyvTeiJcov Be Kai 6 noTii^cop ev eicnv,
eKacTTOS Be tov IBlov yucrOov XT7/xi//eTat fcara tov IBiov
KOTTOV. ^Oeov yap icrfxeu crvvepyoi' Seov yecopytov, Oeov
OLKoBofiii] ecTTe. ^^ Kara Tr)v ^dpiv rov Oeov rrjv BoOelcrdv
jJLOi COS cro(/)09 dpy^LTeKTcov Oep^ekiov ^e6r)Ka, aXXo? Be eiroi-
KoBofiel. eKacTTos Be jSkeTrerco ttcjs eVoiKoSo/xei. ^^ 6ep.eKiov

» redeiKa.

planteth any thing, neither he that watereth ; but he that giveth the
increase, even God. ^ Now he that planteth and he that watereth are
one, and each one shall receive his own reward according to his own
labour. ^For we are God^s fellow-labourers : God's husbandry, God' a
building are ye. ^^ According to the grace of God which was given unto
me, as a wise masterbuilder 1 laid the foundation, and another
buildeth thereon. But let each one look how he buildeth thereon.
^^For other foundation can no one lay than that lies there, which

8 Xi^fiif/eTaL, i.e. ' not from
man, but from God, who can
judge of the value of each man's
labour ; ' the germ of iv. 1-5.

9 The position of Oeov shows
tjiat it is emphatic all through
this verse.

yap gives the reason for ev.
' Their object is the same
(though their modes of work-
ing are different), /or it is God
who is our fellow-labourer — it
is God who is your husband-
man and householder, and there-
fore they cannot be set against
each other.'

ia-fievj ' the teachers,' ia-rcj
* the taught.'

yewpytov, ' a field ' = arvum.
The word occurs only in this
place in the N. T. Probably
from this metaphor arose the fre-
quency of ' Georgius,' ' George,'
as a Christian name.

With oLKoSofx^ the figure is
changed from a field to a house
— from agriculture to architec-
ture, in order to bring out more
clearly the difference between
the various kinds of work.

ID Kara t^v xaptv. Referring
to €Kao-T<f) . . , eScDKcvinS. Com-

master of the

pare Rom. xii.

dp;(tT€/CT<»)V,

works.'

(T0(f>6s, * as a " skilful " or
" clever " architect.' Compare
Ex. XXXV. 25, 35 ; xxxvi. 1
(LXX.) ; so Ecclus. xxxviii. 31 :
CKacrTos ev toJ epyw cro^i^eTaL. The
words (ro(fio^ ap^LreKTiov occur in
Isa. iii. 3 (LXX.).

eKaoTos K. T. A.. The general
character of the warning implies
the same wide participation in
the duties of teaching, as is im-
plied in the state of the Corin-
thian Church indicated in chap,
xii. For the Apostle's claim to
have founded their Church, com-
pare iv. 15 : ' I begot you.'

OefxeXiov yap. The connexion
is : ' Let every one take heed
how he builds a swperstructure ;
for the foundation has been laid
once only for all, by me ; the
superstructure is now the sole
task that remains.'

7rcu9, ' with what materials '
(see verse 12).

cTTotKoSo/xet. OLKoSojjLe'iv in the
N. T. has constantly the sense
of 'advancement' or develop-
ment of the moral character.

FIRST EPISTLE: CHAP. III. 12—15.

yap SXKov ouSet? hvvaTai Beivai irapa. tov Keifievov^ 09
ecTTLV )(pi(TTo<; lr)(Tovs. €i oe rts eTroLKobofxeL ein tov
defieXiov^ -^pvcrov, apyvpov, \l0ov^ TipLiov^^ ^vka, ^(opTov,
Kokdprjp^ ^^e/cacrrou to ipyov (^avepov yevrjcreTaL' rj yap
Tjixepa Br)\coa-€i^ otl iv irvpl aTTOKakvTrTeraiy koX eKacrTov

* 'Itjo-oOs d xpto-Tc^j. •• Add rovrov.

is Christ Jesus. ^'^But if any one build upon the foundation gold,
silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, ^^each one's work will be
made manifest : for the day will declare it, because it is revealed in

In this place, as in viii. 10, it is
used in a bad, or at least a neu-
tral sense.

II Oe/jieXiov, sc. XlOov (mascu-
line in Hellenistic Greek).

Trapa, ' beyond,' or ' besides '
(as in Romaic for the compara-
tive). Christ Jesus, i.e. 'not
any theory concerning Christ,
but Christ Himself ' (as in ii.
2) : hence the name at full
length : ' the Historical Person
of Christ, the one unchangeable
element of Christianity ' (De
Wette). Comp. Heb. xiii. 8 :
' Jesus Christ, the same yester-
day, and to-day, and for ever.'

For the metaphor, compare
Matthew xxi. 42 ; Ephes. ii. 20 ;
1 Pet. ii. 6 (' the chief corner-
stone ').

12 The metaphor here passes
on to the building of different
edifices on the same foundation.
' There may either be a palace
or a hovel.'

Xpva-ov K. T. X. Compare the
* gold, silver, and stone ' of the
Athenian Parthenon in Acts
xvii. 29.

XlOov<; rLfXLov<s may be 'costly
marbles ; ' but more probably
' jev^els,' as in Rev. xxi. 19.

$vXa, ' boards or posts ' for the
walls.

Xopros, ' dried grass ' for the
interstices in the mud walls.

KaXajxT), ' straw ' for the

thatched roof. See Suidas in
voce.

As the * wisdom of the full-
grown ' in ii. 6-iii. 4 was spi-
ritual, not intellectual, insight,
so here the succeeding verses
(14-18) show that the super-
structure is moral, not theoreti-
cal, advancement.' ' Some say
that these words are spoken in
reference to doctrines ; to me,
however, it appears that he
speaks concerning practical vir-
tue and vice, and that he is pre-
paring for the accusation of the
incestuous person. Of gold, sil-
ver, and precious stones, he
speaks on the one hand as the
emblems of virtue ; of wood,
hay, stubble, as the opposites of
virtue, for which hath been pre-
pared the fire of hell.' (Theo-
doret.)

13-15 'The nature of every
one's work or superstructure
shall sooner or later be known ;
for the Great Day of the Lord
is at hand, which shall dawn in
a fl.ood of fire. The house of
gold and silver shall be lit up by
its dazzling brilliancy; but the
house of wood and thatch shall
be burnt up. And not only so,
but whereas the builder whose
work can endure this trial shall
be rewarded, the builder whose
house is consumed will lose his
reward, having nothing to show j

LEADERS OF THE CORINTHIAN PARTIES.

TO ipyOV OTTOLOV kcTTlV TO TTVp ^ OVTO SoKlfJL(io'€L

TO epyov ^fJievcL o eTrcoKoSofJLrjcrev, fiLcrOov XijixxjieT ai

14 ^

» Om. avT6,

fire ; and the fire will prove each one's work of what sort it is. ^*If
any one's work abide which he built thereon, he shall receive a reward :

and though he himself, as having
built on the true foundation, will
'Saved as by be saved, yet he will
^®'' come out singed and

scorched as by an escape out of a
burning ruin.' Although the
argument is passing into a more
general application, yet the
thought of the teachers is still
predominant; and the point on
which he insists is, that if bad
moral consequences are, through
the means of their instruction,
developed from the fundamental
truths of Christianity which he
had taught ; their instruction,
so far from deserving to be
highly prized, will by God's
judgment be condemned as
worthless, and they themselves
will escape that judgment with
difficulty. It is possible that
this whole image, as addressed
to the Corinthians, may have
been suggested, or illustrated,
by the conflagration of Corinth
under Mummius ; the stately
temples standing amidst the
universal destruction of the
meaner buildings. (See Paus.
Corinth, passim.}

epyov in later Greek and in
architectural language, is used
for a building, like ' opera ' in
Latin. 1 Esdr. vi. 10 : ra epya
ravra ^c/x-cXtoCrc. Herodian, Hist,
i. : TrXcto-Ta kol AcaAAto-ra epya
Trj<s TroAcw? KarcKar].

rj rjfJLepa, ' the Day of the
Coming of the Lord.' See Heb.
X. 25 ; Rom. xiii. 12, in which
last passage, as here, there is

implied the dawn of light after
the long night of this mortal
life. Possibly the idea of ' judg-
ment,' as in iv. 3, is mixed up
with it. Possibly also, the idea
of the mere lapse of time, like
'longa dies' in Latin. (See
Grotius ad loc.)

Compare Malachi iii. 1, 2,
3 ; iv. 1 : ' The Lord shall sud-
denly come to His Temjple. . . .
But who may abide the day of
His coming ? ... for He is like
a refiner's ^ire . . . and He shall
purify the sons of Levi. Be-
hold the day cometh that shall
burn as an oven, and all that do
wickedly shall be stubble (Ka-
Xa/xT/).' And although not ex-
pressjy stated, it is implied that
the day is near, as a trial which
would sweep away the very fa-
bric which was reared before
their eyes.

Also it may be, ' the full day-
light shall show it : ' like the
French expression ^ en plein
jour.' (See notes to iv, 3.)

aTTOKaXvTTTeTat, * the Day is to
be revealed * (the ' praesens fu-
turascens,' as in Matt. xxv. 13,
31, &c. ; John xxi. 22, 23).

iv TTvpL, i.e. according to the
usual image under which the
Last Day is represented; coming,
not with the dawn of a common
morning, but in a blaze of fire,
in the midst of which Christ
Himself shall appear. (2 Thess.
i. 8 ; ii. 8.)

KaTaKarja-eTat, Hellenistic for
the Attic KaTaKavOrjQ-eraL.

FIRST EPISTLE: CHAP. III. 16—18.

TLV0<; TO epyov fcara/caT^crerat, ^rjjJLLcoOiqo'eTai, auro? Se cro)-
urjcreTai, ovtcos oe ojq oua irvpo^. ^ ovk OLoare otl vao<;

^^if any one's work be burned, he will suffer loss, but he himself shall
be saved, — yet so as through fire. ^^Know ye not that ye are God's

^rjixituBricreTai [rov /xto-^ov], ' he
shall lose his reward,' not ' shall
be punished.'

avTos Sc (Ti}i6r}(T€rai. The same
fire which throws a halo of ^lory
round the good (iv. 5 ; Matt,
xiii. 43 ; Rev. xxi. 24 ; Judg. v.
31 : Pan. xii. 3), and destroys
the bad (2 Thess. ii. 8; Rev.
xviii. 8 ; xx. 9), also purifies the
imperfect. The personal faith
of the teacher saves himself from
destruction, but it is at the cost
of pain and suffering — in this
instance, of seeing his work de-
stroyed and his labour lost — as
a merchant who escapes from
shipwreck, but at the cost of his
property. Compare the fire in
Dan. iii. 22, which, whilst it
burnt the executioners, was to
the three children ' as it bad been
a moist whistling wind ' (Song of
the Three Children, 27).

Compare the 'baptism of fire,'
in Matt. iii. 11, 12, which sup-
plies the same images of illumi-
nation, destruction, and purifi-
cation ; and the ' salting with
fire,' in Mark ix. 49, both for
preservation and destruction. At
the same time, although the pas-
sage naturally suggests the idea
of purification, or of suffering,
the primary idea is simply that
of a difficult escape.

o)? expresses that the Apostle
is speaking^ metaphorically.
. 8ia TTupos, ' through the midst
of the fire ; ' apparently a pro-
verbial expression in Hebraistic
Greek, like 'prope ambustus
evaserat,' Liv. xx. 35. SeeZech.
iii. 2 ; Amos iv. 11 (both Ik ttv-

p6<s) ; Ps. Ivii. 4 (Sea Trypoq). ck
7rvpo5 crwauv, Artemid. Oneiroc.
i. 50 ; Aristid. in ApoU. p. 26.
For a similar confusion of the
two meanings of Sid, see 1 Pet.
iii. 20 : S l ea-wOrja-av 8l vBaroq.

The whole passage is famous,
as having given occasion to two
interpretations, each generally
received in its time, and now
rejected. First, that of Chryso-
stom, CEcumenius, and Theophy-
lact ; that ' the false teacher shall
be preserved in the fire of hell
for ever,' — which is equally con-
demned by the words and by the
spirit of the Apostle. Secondly,
the opinion of many Roman Ca-
tholic writers, that it alludes to
the fire of purgatory. But this
argument is contrary to the
whole context, which represents
the salvation as taking place at
the same moment as the confla-
gration and the coming of the
day of the Lord. It will proba-
bly be no longer used even in
controversy, since its formal con-
demnation by the great Roman
Catholic commentator Estius.

1 6 He here returns to the
general argument against party-
spirit, and thus passes from the
image of a building in progress
to the image of a building com-
pleted, and from the image of a
building generally to that of the
Temple in particular, as in Eph.
ii. 20, 21.

vab<s Oeov is not ' a Temple,'
as if one out of many, but ' God's
Temple,' presented in every por-
tion of the Christian society.
Under this more definite figure

LEADERS OF THE CORINTHIAN PARTIES.

ueov e(TT€ Kai to Trvevfjua tov ueov oiKei €P vixiv ; "-' ei rt?
Tov vaov TOV Oeov ff)9€ipeL, ^Oepei ^avTov 6 6e6<;' 6 yap
vao<; TOV ueov ayios eaTuv, ocTLve^ ecrre v/xets. ^° fjirjoeL<;
kavTov e^aTraTOLTO) ' el ris So/cet croc^os eti^at ip vplv ev toj

' TovTov for avr6v.

temple, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you 1 ^^ If any one destroys
the temple of God, him will God destroy ; for the temple of God is holy,
which ye are.

^^Let no one deceive himself : if any one seemeth to be wise among
you in this age, let him become a fool, that he may become wise.

he continues to insist on the
danger incurred- by those who
corrupted the Christian society
by their false teaching, and,
having before said that such a
one would escape with loss and
difficulty, he here goes a step
farther, and speaks only of the
punishment, without speaking of
the escape.

(f>0€ipeLv in the LXX. and in
the New Testament seems to
have lost the sense of 'defile,'
and merely to retain that of
'mar' or 'destroy.* See the
use of the word in Exod. x. 15 ;
Isaiah xxiv. 3, 4. It is not the
word usually employed for di-
vine judgments, but is here
adopted for the sake of describ-
ing the punishment by the same
word as the offence : ' God re-
quites like with like.' Comp.
Acts xxiii. 2, 3 : 'Ananias com-
manded to smite (tvtttciv) him
on the mouth. Then Paul said
unto him, God shall smite (tvtt-
T€Lv /xcAAct) thee, thou whited
wall.'

The Authorised Version, fol-
lowing the Yulgate (violavent
. . . difperdef), has used two
different words in the transla-
tion for the one word of the ori-
ginal.

17 The image of the Temple,
— even the etymology of the

Greek word (vaos, vaUiv) — leads
him to the indwelling presence of
the Spirit of God.

OLTivi^ refers not to vaos, but
to ayto5, * and ye are holy.'

18 He now returns to the ge-
neral subject begun in verse 5,
dropping any particular reference
to the difference between the
foundation and the superstruc-
ture — between himself and Apol-
los (iv. 6), — and condemning
generally the tendency to mag-
nify one teacher above another
for his intellectual gifts, on the
ground,

(1) That rhetorical gifts are
in themselves worthless (18-
21);

(2) That the differences cre-
ated by these gifts amongst the
teachers, are much less than
what they have in common (21-
23);

(3) That God alone can judge
who is worthy of true approba-
tion (iv. 1-5).

firjScU kavrov c^aTraraTW, ' let
not any one deceive himself by
too high expectations of himself,'
referring to SoKct.

19 For aiwv and k6(t/xo<;, see
on i. 20.

Trapa tw Ocw, * in God's judg-
ment.' Compare Rom. ii. 13.

The quotation seems to be from
Job V. lo (LXX.) : 6 KaToXa/x-

FIEST EPISTLE : CHAP. III. 19— IV. 1,

aiwi't TovTcp, fjLcopo^ yevecrOo)^ Iva yevrjTai oro(j)6^. ^^tj yap
o'0(f)La Tov KOCTfJLOv TovTOv fJLcopia TTapoL^ 6e(Z icTTLU. ye-
ypairrai yap 'O Spacrao/jLevo^ tov<; croc^ou? ii/ Tjj iravovpyia
KoX TToXiv KvpLO^ yivaxTKeL Tovs 8ta\oytcr/xovs

avTCJV.

• Add Ty, and so Lachm. Ed. 1.

**For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written,
'He that taketh the wise in their craftiness.' ^^And again, 'the Lord
knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.' -^Therefore let

ySavwv a'o<f)Ov^ cv rfj (f>povrj(r€L. It
is remarkable, (1) as being the
only reference to the Book of
Job which the New Testament
contains, with the exception of
the historical allusion in James
V. 11 ; (2) as being taken from
the speeches, nob of Job, but of
Eliphaz ; and (3) as being so
altered as to be scarcely recog-
nisable : 8pa(rcro/>i6vo5 (possibly a
provincialism) is substituted for
KaToXaixpdvwv, as a stronger and
livelier expression ('grasping'
or ' catching with the hand ; ' so
LXX. Ps. ii. 12 ; Lev. ii. 2 ; v.
] 2 : and so Herod, iii. 13 ; Jos.
B. J. III. viii. 6 ; Dionys. Ant.
ix. 21), and Travovpyta for cf>po-
vYjau, which gives the passatre a
darker meaning (see Arist. Eth.
vi. 12, § 9, where the two words
are opposed as the worse and
better forms of wisdom).

ev T^ Travovpyca, i.e. either,
(1) 'by means of their own
craftiness ; ' or (2) ' in the midst
of it.'

2o From Ps. xciv. 11 ; lite-
rally from the LXX. (xciii ) ex-
cept in the substitution of cocfiiov
for the original dvOpcoirwv. But
there seems to be a reminiscence
of the original in the next
words, €v dv^pwTTots, ' in mere
men.' Compare the note on
verse 4.

21-23 Tavra yap vfiiov. Both
words are emphatic : ' ah things

'All things' — not are yours.'

merely this or that teacher, bat
all of them alike — ' exist not for
their own power or glory, but
for the sake of you their disci-
ples.' * The Church was not
made for the teachers, but the
teachers for the Church; Paul,
Apollos. and Kephas, each with
their different gifts, strongly
contrasted as they are, are yet
united by being your common
property.' This was all that
the argument required ; but he
is carried on, according to his
manner when the privileges of
Christians come before him (see
Rom. viii. 38 ; xi. 33), to dilate
on the whole range of God's gifts
to them. And, as the idea of
the teachers breaks itself up for
the sake of greater vividness
into the several parts of Paul,
Apollos, and Kephas, so also the
idea of the world is expanded to
its utmost extent, not merely in
the lower sense of worldly great-
ness (19, 20) which had sug-
gested the word in this place,
but in the sense of the whole
created universe, and as grow-
ing out of this, or contained in
it, the utmost con<^rasts which
imagination can suggest, whe-
ther in life or death — in the pre-

LEADERS OF THE CORINTHIAN PARTIES.

ei^ avtfp(t)7T0Lq' iravra yap oiiojv ecTTiv^ ^etre iiauAo? etre
^TToXXws etre Kiq^aq^ eire KocrfJLO^ etre {0)17 erre 6dvaro<;^

€LT€ iv€(TT(x)Ta €LT€ fJLekXoVTa, TTOLVTa UjJiWP,^ ^"^ U/^Cei? Sc

Xpt'O'TOVt xpicTTos 8e ^€ou^ IV. ^ouTcos rjfJLOL^ Xoytl^ea-Sct)

» Add eVriV.

no one boast in men : for all things are yours, '^-whether Paul or
Apollos or Kephas, or the world or life or death, or things present or
things to come,— all are yours, -^and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's.
IV. ^ So let a man account of us, as servants of Chri&t, and stewards

sent or the future state of exist-
ence. .

' All this is yours ; but then '
— (partly as a warning to the
taugrlit as well as the teachers,
partly from the natural impe-
tus, as it were, of the sentence,
which bears him up to the his^h-
est sphere of human thought) —
' remember that this vast con-
catenation of the universe does
not end here. Even you, who
are the lords of all creation, who
form as it were the link between
earth and heaven, yourselves are
but part of that golden chain
which must be followed up till
it unites you to Christ, and even
further vet, up to the presence
of God Himself.' Thus he draws
the twofold lesson, — 'You who
are thus united with the highest
objects in the universe must not
degrade yourselves to become
the followers of any but Christ.
You, although the lords of all,
are still the servants of Christ,
as He also pleased not Himself,
ut did the will of His Father.'
,Tt is possible that the last words,
* but Christ of God,' may have
Veen inserted to obviate any ex-
flusive inference which might
liave been drawn by the party
' of Christ,' had he dosed with
the preceding words. But it
may also be only the last result
of the climax of his sentence

(comp. xi. 3).

IV. I To this twofold lesson
the following argument imme-
diately attaches itself, which is,
like the preceding, obscured by
being addressed partly fiii- 21-
23 ; iv. l-6a) to the Church ;
partly (iii. 12-15; 18-20; iv.
6b, 7y 8) to the teachers. ' The
particular wisdom of the several
teachers is nothing in compari-
son with that Christianity which
is possessed by all of you (iii.
22, 23) ; you are to regard us
not as superhuman (iii. 18-21),
but as subordinate to Christ ; as
mere stewards, whose only busi-
ness is to preach faithfully the
secrets of God which have been
intrusted to them.

ovTta^ refers to w?. In classi-
cal Greek it would be roiotjrov?,
otot av etev VTrrfpiraL.

av6p(jD7ro<;, ' anyone ' (like L*'''!^ ;
or 'man' in German).

v7rr]p€Ta<:. More emphatic than
SovkoL or even than Slclkovol, as
in iii. 5, as expressing subordina-
tion ; being the word used in clas-
sicalGreek for the inferior officers,
as contrasted with the superior
magistrates (apxovTe^), and also
for a drudge, servant of all ivorh,
underling. Compare for the gene-
ral sense, Luke xxii. 26 ; 2 Cor. i.
24 ; and the ideal of a Christian go-
vernor or teacher preserved in the
Papal title ' Servus Servorum.'

FIEST EPISTLE: CHAP. IV. 2-6.

avOpoiTTO<;, 0)9 uTTTjperas ^kttov koI olKov6fjLOv<? fivcTTr)-
pio)v Oeov '^^wSe. XoLirbu CpqT^irai iv tols oiKovopioi^ Iva
771(7X09 Tt9 evp^Ofj. ^e/iot 8e €t9 iXd^icrTov iarip Iva u(^'
vfjLCDV avaKpiOo) rj vtto avOpcoTrCvrjs rjfX€pa<i' dXX' ovSe
i^avTov avaKpivo) ^ (^ovhev yap e/xai;rw crvvoihay aXX' ovk

of the mysteries of God here. ^Moreover it is required in stewards,
that one be found faithful. ^But to me it is a very small thing that I
should be judged by you, or by man's day : yea, I judge not mine
own self ^ (for I know nothing against myself, yet not by this am I

OLKov6^(yv<;. Compare verse 2,
and ix. 16, 17 {olKovofiCav -Trcirt-
cTTcv/xat) ; and for the general
sense xv. 10 : ' Not I, but the
^race of God ; ' Luke xvii. 10 :
' We are unprofitable servants ; '
Acts iii. 12 : ' Why look ye
upon us, as though by our own
power ? '

/xvcTTT^pia, ' truths hidden once,
but now revealed to Christ's ser-
vants.'

2 If SSc (in A. B. C. J)\ F.
G. and most of the Versions) is
preferred to o Be, Xolttov has pro-
bably something of its modern
Romaic sense of therefore' (as
in Acts xxvii. 20) : and wSe
must be ' in this matter ' (as in
Bev. xiii. 10, 18; xiv. 12; xvii.
9). In his second edition Lach-
mann joins it to Oeov, in his first
to Xolttov.

^ryrctrat B. t,7]T€tT€ A. C D.
lrjTy]T€ G. The confusion arises
from the similarity of sound, as
in Romaic, between e and at.

' All that remains to be said
about us is this : Do not praise
or blame us ; only require us to
be faithful.'

3-5 The main point is to
warn them against being over-
hasty in their praise (see espe-
cially oXA,* OVK cv TOirro) SeSt/catco-
/Attt, and TOTc 6 cTratvo?) ; but the
expressions IjxoX Se ets iXd^Lo-roVf

and TO, KpvTTTa Tov cTKOTov;, indi-
cate that they were also to be
warned (as before in iii. 1-9)
against disparaging Paul in com-
parison with the others.

3 e/xot Se, (1) 'to speak in my
own person,' as ii. 1 ; iii. 1 ; or,
(2) ' to speak for myself, what-
ever others may say.'

Lva avaKpiOoi for dvaKpLOrjvai,
substitution of tva with the sub-
junctive for the infinitive, as in
Romaic.

dvaAcpt^o), 'judged of,' or 'in-
quired into,' whether for blame
or praise ; see iii. 15, 16.

dvOpwrTTLvqf; rjfxepa^, probably
used in contradistinction to 17
rjfxepa tov Kvpiov, but also per-
haps suggested by the use of
rjixipa, for 'judgment,' accord-
ing to the analogy of ' diem
dicere ' in Latin, ' days-man ' for
' arbiter ' in English, ' dagh
vaerden' and 'dag hen,' to 'sum-
mon,' in Dutch. As, however,
there is no instance of this use
in common Greek, Jerome (Qu.
ad Algasiam, 10) supposes it to
be a Cilician provincialism. (See
also note to iii. 13.)

4 ovScv yap kfxavTw o-wotSa,
' I know nothing within ' or
'against myself.' He speaks of
himself in reference to his re-
lations with the Corinthian
Church. (The translation of

LEADERS OF THE CORINTHIAN PARTIES.

iv TovTcp SeStK-atco/iai), 6 8e avaKpCvcov fie Kvpi6<; kcmv.
^ iocrre fxrj irpo Kaipov tl KpCvere^ ecos av ekOrj 6 Kvpioq^ 09
Kol (f)a)TLcr€L TOL KpVTTTa Tov cT/coTOv? /cttt (j)av€pa)(TeL ra<;
^ovXd<s T(x)v KapSicov. KOL Tore 6 eiraivos yej^rjcreTaL
iKoicrrco oltto tov Oeo£.

^TavTa Se, aSeXc^ot, fJL€Tecrxr)fxdrLcra eU ifiavTov kol
ATTokko) OL ufJLa<;^ tj^a e^ yy/xw' fJLaurjTe to fxr) vnep a

• Lachm. ed. I. 'AiroAAc^y. *• virhp h yeypaTrrai.

justified), but He that judgeth me is the Lord. ^ Therefore 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 each one have his praise from God.

^Now these things, brethren, I transferred in a figure to myself
and to Apollos for your sakes ; that in us yQ might learn not to be

the Auth. Yersion, 'by myself,'
is an obsolete, though still a
provincial, form of speech for
the same thought.)

Compare 1 John iii. 20 : 'If
our heart condemn us, God is
greater than our heart, and
knoweth all things.'

Kvpto9, i.e. ' Christ,' as appears
from the next verse.

5 t6t€, *then, and not before,
shall the due approbation be
awarded.'

6 €7ratvos, ' his own due praise.'
Compare Rom. ii. 29.

(ZTTo TOV Osov, ' f I'om God after
the judgment of Christ.'

6 fiereaxT^f^oLTLa-ay 'I said all
that I wishtd to say about the
party leaders in the persons of
myself and Apollos, in order to
exemplify with less ofPence in
the case of those parties what
belongs equally to the party
of Kephas ; and in the case
of Apollos and Paul themseh es
what may be said even with
greater force of the subordinate
leaders.' For similar instances
of this 'transferring' see notes
on ix. 20.

€v -qfuvj ' in our examples.'

TO /Mrj vTTcp a ycypaTTrat. Great
confusion prevails here in the
MSS. (1) A. B. C. read 5. D.
E. F. G. J. o. (2) (f>pov€iv oc-
curs in C. D^. E*. J. and most
of the Versions, and is omitted
in A. B. D^ E>. F. G. and the
Vulgate. (3) D. E. omit fiy.
(4) D\ reads iv vfuv for cv
rifXLV. (5) F. G. omit to. a
best suits the sense, which im-
plies a reference, not to a single
passage, but to the general spirit
of many passages, ^povetv is
required to complete the gram-
matical sentence, and probably
was inserted to avoid the ab-
ruptness of the omission. The
sense, therefore, will be : ' Learn
that well-hnown lesson, not to go
beyond what the Scriptures pre-
scribe' (like the classical pro-
verb, ne quid nimis).

The phrase yeypaTrraL natu-
rally points to such passages in
the Old Testament as those
quoted in i. 19, 31 ; iii. 19.

ets VTTcp TOV ivos . . . Kara tov
eTepov, 'for the one of your two
teachers against the other ; ' al-
luding to the reference ja> t made
I to himself and Apollos.
V 2

PIRST EPISTLE: CHAP. IV. 7—12.

yiypaiTTaiy^ Iva jirj et? vnep tov ivo^ (fyvanovcrOe Kara tov
irepov. ^ tl<; yap ere hiaKpivei; tl Se e)(et9 o ovk eXaySe?;
el Se Acal eXa^e?, tl Kav^aaL ws p.y] Xaficov ; ^rfSrj k€ko-
p€(r/JiePOL icrre^ rjSr) eTrXouTTjcrare, ^wpt? rjfJLcov i^acnkev-
Kot cxfyekov ye e^acrtXevcraTe, ti^a koX rj[Jiel<; vp^iv

* Add (ppovelv.

crare.

above the things which are written, that no one be puffed up for the
one against the other. ' For who maketh thee to differ from another ?
and what hast thou that thou didst not receive ? and if now thou didst
receive it, why dost thou boast, as if thou didst not? ^Even now ye
are full, even now ye are rich, without us ye reigned as kings, and I

Lva jx-q (f>v(novcr$€. This and
Gal. iv. 17 (tva t,r]\ovT€) are the
only violations in the N. T. of
the rule of Attic Greek, which
requires a subjunctive with lva.

8 He writes as if with the
bitterness of feeling with which,
from time to time, he contrasts
his deserts and his fortune (cf.
XV. 19) ; and as if reminding
them that those who were op-
posed to him need not take so
much pains to disparage him, he
was low enough already.

K€Kope(r/Ji€voL . . . tTrXovrrycraTe.
In his first edition, Lachmann
gave additional liveliness to the
sentence by an interrogative
punctuation ; and this at any
rate is the sense of the clauses.
' Do you think you have already
reached the end of your Chris-
tian career? Have you made
every advance which is possible
in Christian knowledge ? ' (re-
ferring to the boast of their
oIkoSo/jlt^, or development, in iii.
8-10) ; cySao-tXevcraTC ; ' Are you
indeed at the head of the Chris-
tian world — first in the glory of
the Messiah's kingdom ? ' (Com-
pare i. 2 ; xiv. 36.) For the
metaphor of wealth, comp. 2
Cor. viii. 9 ; Revelation ii. 9 ;
iii. 17 ; Matthew v. 3. For that
of reigning, comp. vi. 2 ; Matt.

thought in

xix. 28; Luke xxii. 30: 2 Tim.
ii. 12.

i]Srj, ' even now,' indicates the
extravagance of supposing that
they had at that time grasped
all the gifts which belonged
only to the kingdom of Christ,
not yet come.

Xwpt? rj/jiwv points to the ab-
surdity of their setting them-
selves up above, or indepen-
dently of, the Apostles. Com-
pare the same
15.

oc^eXov K. T. X. 'your reign,
your prosperity, is indeed good
in itself, if it were not for the
proud and sectarian spirit which
disfigures it.' Compare Gal. iv.
17, 18 : ' They zealously affect
you, but not well ; yea, they
would exclude you, that ye
might affect them. But it is
good to be zealously affected
always in a good thing, and not
only when lam present with you.'

yap, in 9, depends on this
clause.

9 ' Ye sit enthroned as kings ;
we are appointed as victims in
the last act of the world's his-
tory ; the whole world, whether
angels or men, are the specta-
tors, and our death is the end.'
The imagery is drawn from the
games (Oiarpov) in the amphi-

LEADERS OF THE COEINTHIAN PARTIES.

orvfi^acnXevcrcoiJiev. ^Sokco yap,

^€09 r)fJia<; tov<; oltto-
CTToXov; eo^ctrov? cxTreSetfei', wg eTnOavariov^;, on Oiarpov
iyevrj6rjiL€V rco Kocrfxco kol ayyi\oi<; koX avdp(x)TTOL<^.

^^rjfJL€LS fJiCOpOL oca -^LCFTOV^ V/>t€t9 0€ (ppOl^LfJLOL eV ^tCTTOJ '

r)jjLf2<; aadeveLSf vfiel^; 8e Icr^vpoL* iffxeLS evSo^OL^ rjfJi€L<; 8e
dTLfJiOL. ^^a)(pL tt}? dpTL a>pa<; kol ireivoyixev kol Sti/zw/xei'
/cat ^yviivirevoyiev koX KoXa(f)L^6iJLeda koL dcTTarovixeu ^'^/cat

• Add Srt after 70^. ' •yvixvr\T€voixfv.

would ye had reigned, that we also might reign with yon. ^For I
think God set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed unto
death, for we were 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 mighty ; ye ^re honourable, but we are despised.
^^Even unto this present hour we both hunger and thirst and are naked
and are buflFeted and have no certain dwelling-place, ^^and labour work-

theatre. The remains of a sta-
dium and amphitheatre, which
may have been so used, are still
to be seen at Corinth (see Intro-
duction, p. 5).

For the phrase '■ angels and
m«n,' comp. xiii. 1.

ec^aTOv? . . €7rt^avaTt'ov5, ' the
last appointed to death.' These
words seem .to refer to the band
of gladiators brought out last
for death, the vast range of an
amphitheatre under the open
sky well representing the mag-
nificent vision of all created
beings, from, men up to angels,
gazing on the dreadful death-
struggle ; and then the contrast
of the selfish Corinthians sitting
by unconcerned and unmoved at
the awfal spectacle. Compare
Seneca's description (Provid. ii.)
of the wise man struggling with
fate : ' Ecce spectaculum dignum
ad quod respiciat intentus operi
suo Deus.'

Tov^ aTro<TT6Xov<i. What fol-
lows shows that he is thinking
chiefly of himself; but the ex-
pression itself includes also the
original Apostles.

10 As verses 8 and 9 con-
tain an elaborate contrast, so in
verse 10 the same idea is still
continued in a series of shorter
contrasts, rising, however, out
of the plaintive strain of verse 9
into a swell of triumphant exul-
taticm, in the full consciousness
that his sufferings were united
with the sufferings of Christ,
and inv-ested (so to speak) with
a similar glory. The three con-
trasts correspond to those in i.
27. ^

1 1 a;j(pt T^? apri wpa?, ' even
at the moment of my writing
my wants stare me in the face.
It is now as when you knew me
at Corinth.*

yv^viT€vofjL€v, * we shivcr in
the cold.' (Compare 2 Cor. xi.
27.) The form in the Rec.
Text, yvfJivr}T€vofji€v, has arisen
from the similar pronunciation
of t and rj.

axrTaTovfJL€v (the word occurs
only here) ' homeless,' a pecu-
liar grief in the ancient world .
Compare Matt. viii. 20 ; x. 23 ;
Heb. xi. 37.

K07nu>fJL€v ipy. rah t8. \^p(Tiv,

FIRST EPISTLE: CHAP. IV. 13 — 19.

KOTTLMfiev ipya^ofievoi rat? iSiat5 \€pcrLV^ \oihopovp.evoi
evKoyovfxev^ SicoKOfxevoi ave)(6fjie0a, ^^ ^\a(T(l)iqyLOv^evoL
TTapaKaXovfJiev, wg irepLKaOdpixaTa tov Koafxov iyevijOrjiJLeT/,
TTOLPTcov 7repL\ljr)fJLa llw? apn.

^^OvK ipTpeircov u/xa? ypacjxo ravra, dXX' w? reKva fiov
ayaTTYjTOi vovdercx). ^^ lav yap fxypLOVs TraiSayoryovs ^c^re

ing with our own hands ; being reviled we bless, being persecuted we
suflfer it, ^^ being defamed we exhort,— as the filth of the world were
we made, the offscouring of all things unto this day.

^^I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved children
I warn you. ^^For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ,

That he had worked with his
own hands at Corinth appears
from Acts xviii. 3; 1 Cor. ix. 6;
2 Cor. xi. 7-12 ; and that he
was doing so at the time of his
writing this Epistle, appears
from Acts xx. 34.

1 2 XoiSopovfji€voi K. T. X. ' And
not only do we suffer, but with
none but the Christian weapons
of resistance.' Comp. Matt. v.
39, 44. This is the earliest in-
stance of such language being
used.

p\a(r<f>rjfxoviJi€voL B(e sil.). D.
E. F. G. J., 8v<r<f)7)fJiovfJia/ot, A.
C. in either case ' calumniated.'
TrapaKaXovfJiev : (1) * we ^ offer
consolation ; ' or (2) as in 16,
*we entreat men to follow our
example.' Compare 2 Cor. i. 3.
TreptKaOdp/xaTa and Treptifnrjfiay
both have the original signifi-
cation of 'offscourings,' as in
Arrian, Diss. Epict. iii. 22, and
Jer. xxii. 28 (Symm.), but also
the additional sense of 'scape-
goat,' or ' expiatory sacrifice,'
specially applied to human vic-
tims such as those described in
Arnold's Rome, iii. 46.' In clas-
sical Greek KaOapfxa is the usual
word for such human victims
(Schol. ad Aristoph. Plut. 454,
Eq. 1133). But TrepLKaOap/xa is
60 used in the only place where

it occurs in the LXX. TrepiKoiO.
SI StKawv avo/Jio<s, Prov. xxi. 18.
In like manner Trepiifrrjfia is used
in Tobit v. 19, apyvptov ....
TrepLij/. TOV TratSiov yjpiwiv yivoiTO,
and is so explained in the Lexi-
cons of Cyril, Hesychius, and
Suidas ; the last gives as an in-
stance that such a victim was
generally addressed with the
words TrepLifrtjjjia i^/xwv yevov (ex-
plained as CTiDTrjpia or oLTroXvrpoi-
o-ts), and then cast into the sea,
as if a sacrifice to Poseidon.
See the quotations in Grotius
ad loc.

14 He drops the severe irony
of the last three verses, and ex-
presses the same feeling more
directly, and in gentler lan-
guage.

ovK ivTpiirwv k. t. A. 'Yon
must understand that when I
thus write, it is not a disgrace
to you.' For this sense of ev-
TpeTTco, see vi. 5 ; xv. 34 ; 2 Thess.
iii. 14 ; Tit. ii. 8. The general
meaning of the word is ' to turn
the mind in upon itself.'

15 'I have a right thus to
address you ; for the obligations
which you have subsequently
contracted to your other teachers
can never supersede your ori-
ginal obligations to me as your

LEADERS OF THE CORINTHIAN PARTIES.

iv ^lo-TO), dXX' ov TToXXov? TTare/oa?* iv yap ypi(TT(^
^Ir)(jov Sta Tov evayyekiov iyo) vfiaq iyevvrjcra. ^^napa-
KoKco ovv v/x,a9, fxip.iqTai fjiov yivecrOe. ^' S<a tovto eire/ii/fa
viuv TifJLoOeov, OS icrTiv ^fJLOV TeKVOV aya7rr)Tov kol iriaTov
iv KvpLO), 09 vfJLaq dvafJLvyjaei ret? oSou? jxov ras ez^ -)(pL(TT^
^'It^ctoi;, Ka6(o<; iravra^ov ev Trdcrrf iKKkrjcria StSacr/co).
^^&i9 /x,i9 ip-)(OjX€vov Se ftou TTpos u/Act? e^vcFKiiOrjcrdv Tive<;'
^^ iXevcroixai Se rax^ojs 7r/>09 u/xas, eai' o Kvpio<; Oekrjcrrj^ /cat
yvcocroiJLaL ov tov Xoyop rcov Trecjiva'Lcoixevcjv, dXkd ttjv Sv~

* T^Kvov fiov, *■ Om. 'IrjcoC,

yet have ye not many fathers : for in Christ Jesus I begot you through
the gospel. ^* Wherefore I exhort you, be ye followers of me. ^'For
this cause I sent unto you Timotheus, who is my beloved child and
faithful in the Lord, who shall put you in mind of my ways which be
in Christ Jesus, as I teach every where in every church. ^^But some
were puffed up, as though I were not coming to you. ^^But I will
come to you shortly, if it be the Lord's will, and will know, not the

founder' (the same sense in
other words as in iii» ^9).

7rat8ay<oyov5, the slaves who
took children to school, and
acted as their tutors. Compared
with the use of the word in Gal.
iii. 24, 25, it expresses the harsh
and despotic sway of those other
teachers ; thus agreeing with 2
Cor. xi. 20.

fivpiovs, though hyperbolical,
expresses the great number of
teachers, in accordance with the
general impression conveyed by
1 Cor. xii.

1 7 Timotheus was sent before
his from Ephesus; Acts xix.
22. ^ ^

TeKVOV ayaTnyrdv. This refers
to his conversion by St. Paul
(Acts xvi. 1) ; and tbe phrase
seems to be used here in refer-
ence to TC/cva ayaTnjToij in verse
14 ; as though he said, ' I sent
Timotheus, who stands to me
in the same relation that you
stand.' Possibly the reason of
the injunction to Timotheus to

remind them of St. Paul's teach-
ing, rather than to teach them
himself, was from Timotheus*
youth. See note on xvi. 10.

Slol tovto refers to [xifx-qTaL fiov
yCveaOcy as appears from os vfias
avafxvyaret tol? o8ov9 /jcov.

19 e'av 6 KvpLO<s deXrja-rj. The
usual formula, as in James iv.
15 ; see also Acts xviii. 21 ;
Rom. i. 10 ; 1 Cor. xvi. 7. The
same suspicions had been excited
of his vacillation or duplicity of
purpose, which he afterwards
contradicts in 2 Cor. i. 15-17,
and which now might be re-
vived by the coming of Timo-
theus instead of himself. This
therefore suddenly breaks off the
affectionate strain in which he
had been addressing them, and
precipitates the introduction of
the severe censure on the in-
cestuous Corinthian, to which
the following words, yvwaofxaL .
. . 7rpavTr]To<s ('21 \ a,re a pre-
lude.

72 FIRST EPISTLE: CHAP. IV. 20.

vajxiv ^^ov yap iv Xoyoi rj /^acrtXeca tov 6eov, dXX' iu

word of tliem wliich are puffed up, but the power : '^^for the kingdom of
God is not in word, but in power.

20 ov yap iv Xdyw. Comp. i. 17.

Paraphrase of Chap. III. 5— IV. 20.

Think not because I have confined myself to this simple preach-
ing that I am inferior to the other teachers, wliose loisdom and
whose progress in Christian knowledge you prize so highly.
All such distinctions are as nothing compared with the source
from which alone they spring, namely, God. All such progress
is as nothing compared with the permanent importance of the one
unchangeable foundation, namely, Jesus Christ ; nay, more,
although it may be truly valuable, it may also be most per-
nicious, as icell as most perishable ; its author escaping
because of his oivn right intention, but in itself leading to fatal
sijis, — fatal both to the purity of the Christian society and to
the safety of him tcho perpetrates them. All such wisdom is
€is nothing compared with that Christianity which you all pos-
sess in common. However great your several teachers may
appear in your eyes, or in their own, even though it be myself
and Apollos, remember that you were not made for them, but
they for you; und not they only, but the whole universe, past,
present, and to come ; if only you bear in mind that, as these
things depend on you, so you depend on Christ, and Christ on
God. Remember, also, that your teachers only preach what
they have been told, not what they invent; that, whether you
blame or praise them, it is not by your judgment but by God's
that they must stand or fall. And they too — they and all of
you — must rem.ember that their gifts are not their own, but
God's. Great indeed are those gifts — I do not deny it; and
deep indeed in comparison is the degradation into which we
the Apostles are sunk. Yet even from that degraded state
there is a lesson which you might well learn, — the lesson of
self-denial and humility. And this at least, the lesson of
example, is one which yny relation to you as your founder well
^^ntitles me to urge upon you, lwu>ever much in points you may

RELATION OF TEACHERS AND TAUGHT. 73

be tempted to follow others. This is the lesson which I have
told Timotheus to impress upon yon, though I shall also come
in person to impress it upon you by my own presence.

The Apostle's View of the Relation of Teachers and
Taught*

The mere structure of the argument, which makes it difficult to
distinguish when the taught are addressed, and when identifica-
the teachers, is instructive ; as indicating, first, the ^if" ^^
historical fact that there was at this early period of the and
Apostolic age no marked distinction between these l^Jsciples.
two classes ; and, secondly, the moral warning that the sins of
party-spirit are shared, although not in equal degree, by the
leaders and the led. But the dangers on which the Apostle
chiefly dwells are those which arise from an undue estimation
of the teachers.

The great stress laid throughout, but especially in iv. 1-5,
on not overrating their spiritual instructors, even j^^^. ^^
though they be Paul and Apollos themselves, «hows indepen-
that there are times and circumstances when the ^*^o<^e.
Christian's duty lies not in submission to authority, but in
questioning it ; that there is a religions danger in excessive
veneration, as well as in excessive independence (see notes on
2 Cor. i. 24).

The object of the passage is not to exalt, l>ut to depreciate
the teachers. They are only the humblest servants, not the
representatives, of Christ. They are not in possession of what
is denied to others. They are not masters of the secrets of
God, but only stewards, whose main duty is to be accurate in
arranging and dispensing what is not their own, but another's
property, — .only intrusted for a time with what really belongs
to God alone, and is revealed at His pleasure to His Church.

Lastly, the whole of this first division of the Epistle is im-
portant as bearing on the general question of divisions
in the Christian Church. In it we hav^ a proof that Ura of^the
it was not merely the errors or the hostilities of sect Apostle
or party, but the spirit itself of sect and party, even chTgf of
when it conferred glory on himself, that the Apostle party-
denounced as the sign of an nnehristian or half- ^^'^^^'
christian society. He warned them that not only their sins and
their Judaism, but their ' strifes ' and ' divisions ' of whatever

74 FIRST EPISTLE.

kind, were proofs that they were ' carnal and walked as men ; '
he * transferred in a figure to himself and Apollos ' all that he
would teach them of the evil of the Factions generally, in or-
der that they might fully understand how his language was free
from all personal feeling. What was deserving of con-
demnation he condemned ' for their sakes,' in whatever form it
might be found, whether it made for him or against him.
Here too we meet with the most express contradiction to the
suspicions alwa3^s natural to low minds, that a character which
exercised so vast an influence must have been intent on self-
exaltation. He tells them that he ' rejoices that he had baptized
none of them, but Crispus and Gains, lest any should say that
he had baptized in his own name ; ' he conjures them ' so to
account of him,' not as an independent teacher and master, but
merely as ' a subordinate minister (virrjpsTTjv) to Christ,' as a
humble ' steward ' whose only object it was faithfully to expound
* the secrets of God ; ' not to think that their favourable judg-
ment would justify him before God, but to wait patiently to
the end of all things, for ' then,' and not before, ' shall every
man have praise of God.' And here also we see the true secret
of freedom from party-spirit, true always, but in the highest
degree true of the Apostles ; when he represents the nothing-
ness of himself and all other teachers, how wise soever, in com-
parison with the grandeur of their common cause, with the re-
collection that they were ' in Christ Jesus, who of God was
made unto them wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification,
and redemption.' ' All things are yours,' however strong their
outward contrast, * whether Paul, or Apollos, or Kephas, or
the world, or life or death ; all are yours ; for ye are Christ's,
and Christ is God's.' These last words, setting forth as they
do the distinctness of character and mind on the one hand, and
the unity of object and spirit on the other, sum up the point of
view from which all human differences, whether within or with-
out the Scriptures, ought to be regarded. These differences
are not concealed or overlooked ; but they are made to enhance
the greatness of Christ and of God. The consciousness of
great gifts and actions (iii. 5-10; iv. 7-14) may be united
with a complete dependence on a higher power and wisdom
than our own. The consciousness of great imperfection in de-
tail, and of great difference of views and characters (iii. 12-15,
22, 23), need not interfere with a strong sense of practical
unity and sympathy.

THE CASE OF INCEST. 75

THE
CHARGES AGAINST THE CORINTHIANS (continued).

The Case of Incest.
Chap. IV. 21— V. 13.

From the subject of The Factions the Apostle passes to the
second piece of intelligence brought to him at Ephesus (appa-
rently not by the household of Chloe, but by popular rumour),
namely, that there was in the Corinthian Church a free indul-
gence of heathen sensuality, and in particular one flagrant case
of Incest, in which the whole society had acquiesced ^nthout
remonstrance. This, practically speaking, forms the crisis of
the whole Epistle. It is, as it were, the burst of the storm,
the mutterings of which, as Chrysostom observes, had already
been heard in the earlier chapters (iii. 16; iv. 5, 20, 21), and
of which the echoes are still discernible, not only in this Epistle
(vii. 2 ; X. 8, 22 ; xv. 33), but also in the Second Epistle, the
first half of which (chapters i. to vii.) is nothing less than an
endeavour to allay the excitement and confusion created by
this severe remonstrance.

But the Apostle, in rebuking this one crime, is led to con-
sider the whole question of The Intercourse of Christians
WITH THE Heathen World ; and hence arise the complica-
tions of the latter portion of this section.

FIRST EPISTLE : CHAP. IV. 21, V. 1—5.

^^ Tl OeXere; iv pdf^hc^ iXOca tt/so? u/xa?, rj iv dyoLTTrj
TTvevfJLaTL re ^ iTpavTrjTos ; v. ^ oXws aKoverai iv vixiv nop-
veta, /cat TOLavTrj iropveia 17719 ovSc ez/ rot? eOveaiv^ o)(tt€
yvvaiKa TLva tov Trarpo? e^etz/. ^/cal v/xels 7re(f)V(TLCL>i.L€V0L
icrre /cat ov^^t [xaWov iTrevdrjcraTe^ Iva ^oipOfj €/c fxeorov
v/xojz/ 6 TO ipyov tovto TroLijcra^ ; ^iyo) fxev yap ^olttoji' tw
crw/xart, irapcbv he tco TrvevpLari^ rjB-q KeKpiKOL ^s irapoiv

• irpaSTTiTOS. * Add oj/o/xa^erat. <= e'lap^jj. ^ is a7r«y.

'^^ What will ye ? Am I to come unto you with a rod, or in love, and '
the spirit of meekness 1 v. ^It is reported certainly that there is forni-
cation among you, and such fornication as is not even among the
Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife. '-^And are ye puffed
up ? and did not rather mourn, that he that did this deed might be
taken away from among you ? ^For I verily absent in body, but
present in spirit, have judged already as though I were present him that

21 €v pd/^Swu The word is
used in reference to verse 6,
^ Shall I come to yon as a stern
master, or as a gentle father f '
It may perhaps allude to the
flagellation in the synagogue
which succeeded to the tirst
admonition by words. ' They
chastise him first with words,
then with .the rod,' according to
Deut. xxi. 18. (See Schottgen
ad loo.)

V. I oAcos merely adds force
to the assertion (compare Arist.
Pol. ii. 4, 5, oXios crvjxj^aiveLV dv-
dyKYj). ' There is absolutely re-
ported to be,' &c. Compare vi.
7 ; XV. 29 ; Matt. v. 34.

aKoverat iv vfuv, ' is reported
as existing amongst you.'

roiavrr} . ^ .. . .o)(rT€, ' of such
a kind as that .a father's wife
should be the person.' Such
cases, though not absolutely un-
known in Roman society, were
regarded with horror. Com p.
Cicero, Pro Cluentio, 5, 6 :
' Nubit genero socrus, nuUis

auspiciis, nullis auctoribus, fu-
nestis ominibus omnium omni-
bus. O mulieris seel us ineredi-
biie, et prseter banc unam in
•omni vita inaudituDi.'* In this
case the father was still alive;
compare 2 Cor. vii. 12.

yvvaxKa tov Trarpos. The usual
Hebrew expression for ' step-
mother,' see Levit. xviii. 8, and
the R-abbinical quotations in
Lightfoot ad loc. From the
omission of all notice of the
woman, it would seem that she
was not a Christian. That it
was a marriage, and not merely
.a concubinage, is evident from
the language used to describe
it, ^X^'-^ — TTOiT^o-a? — KaT€pyacrd]X€'
vov.

2 Possibly a question, as in
the Syria e version and Greek
Fathers. The sense is the same.

J ya/9, ■'■ and he miast be re-
moved ; for 1 at least, whatever
you may do, have determined,'
&c.

THE CASE OF INCEST.

TOP ovTco<; TovTO KaTepyacrdfjievov^ ^ev tco ovofxaTu rov kv-

piov \y]iiiov] ^Irjcrov^ crvva^Oevroiv vfxwv kol rov ejJLOv
Trreu/xaro? avv Tjj Swd/JLei tov Kvpiov [rnxcov] 'Irjcrov^
^ TTapaSovvai tov tolqvtop toJ aarava ei9 oXcOpov Trj<s crap-

■ Add xP'o'Toi'. ^ Add xf"<^''"oO.

so wrought this, ^in the name of our Lord Jesus, when ye and my
spirit are gathered together with the power of our Lord Jesus, *to
deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the

ovT(o<;, 'under the circum-
stances,' as in John iv. 6.

4, 5 €1/ Tw oj. T. K. 17. 'Irjorov,
*in the name of our Lord
Jesus ; ' apparently the formula
which was used.

(TvvaydevToiv vfiu>v. As here,
so in Clem. Rom. L c. 44, the
rulers of the early Corinthian
Church are described as having
been appointed 'with the ap-
probation of the whole Church ''
((rvv€vhoKr]crd(rr]? rrj<s c/cKXryo-tas ttcx-

KOL rov ifxov 7j-v€t;/xaT09, ' by
a perpetual inter-communion of
spirit ' foomp. xvi. 18 ; Col. ii.
6 ; and 2 Kinffs v. 26).

<Tvv rfj Bvvdfiei^ ' with the help
of His power present with the
Christian assembly,' as promised
Matt, xviii. 20 ; xxviii. 20.

TrapaSowat k. t. X. ' to deliver
him over to the powers of evil,'
Dpiiverance from whom all evil,
to Satan, whether moral or phy-
sical, is derived ; as in the case
of the demoniacs, and of the
woman ' whom Satan had bound
these eigrhteen years' (Lukexiii.
16), and the ' thorn in the flesh '
sent bv the ' ang^el of Satan ' (2
Cor. xii. 7). Cf. TrapcScoKa rw
a-arava, 1 Tim. i. 20 ; TrapaSlSoifjiL
(TOL avTov, Job ii. 6. (So in the
Eabbinical writing-s quoted on
this passaore by Wet stein and
Lisfhtfoot, the ' deliverance ' of
Job to Satan is frequently

spoken of, and Solomon 'de-
livers' two Cushites to Satan,
who carries them to Luz, where
they die.) The fact, that in the
ordinary forms of excommuni-
cation in the first four centuries
this phrase does not occur, in-
dicates that it was regarded as
descriptive of a power which
had become extinct. (See Bing-
ham's Ant. XVI. c. ii. § 15.)

€15 oXeOpov TTJ? (rapK6<s, * to the
destruction of the flesh.' (1)
Some physical evil is implied —
probably sickness or death of
the ofi*ender. This evil may be
viewed either as the indirect
result of his removal from the
Christian society, and so becom-
ing the prey of Satan, the lord
of the heathen world (compare
1 Thess. ii. 18) ; or, more pro-
bably, as the direct result of the
Apostle's sentence. Compare
the case of Ananias (Acts v.
5-10) and Elymas (Acts xiii. 8-
11), and the general intention
of Matt. xvi. 19 ; xviii. 19 ;
John XX. 23. A similar con-
nexion of sickness and death
with moral evil, or with a moral
purpose, is implied in xi. 30 ; 2
Cor. xii. 7, 9. (2) The object
of the infliction was not penal,
so much as remedial (tva to
TTvev/xa crwOrj). Compare the
parallel passage, 1 Tim. i. 20,
' that they may learn not to
blaspheme.' Thus the sense is

FIEST EPISTLE: CHAP. V. 6—8.

fcds Lva TO TTvevfia crcoOy kv rfj rj^xepa tov Kvpiov \^'Y]ix(t)V
^l7)(T0V -^LCTTov]. ^ ov KaXov TO Kav)(7)fxa vficop. ovK otSare
OTL fXLKpa i,viJi7) okov TO cf)VpafJia t^vpiol; * eKKaOdpaTe ttjp

■ Omit Tjfiwv and xpicTTov.

spirit may be saved in the day of oiir Lord Jesus Christ. ^Your boast-
ing is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole
lump ? 'Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump,

the same as in iii. 15, namely,
that the offender shall through
present suffering be saved at the
last. Compare for the whole
passage Job i. 6-ii. 10. The
interpretation of Tertullian and
Ambrose, ' that the individual
may be destroyed in order that
the Church may be saved,' is
characteristic of the age of the
writers, but has no foundation
either in the actual words, or in
the general spirit of the Apostle.

6, 7 ov KoXov TO Kav'^rjiiia,
' you have no right to boast of
your gifts, and of your spiritual
perfection, whilst this sin re-
mains amongst you unreproved ;'
alluding, perhaps, to expressions
in their letter to him.

OVK ot8aT€, ' is it that you do
not know that a little leaven
leavens the whole lump ?' The
expression seems to be prover-
bial, inasmuch as it occurs again
in Gal. v. 9 ; and the same image
of the rapid spread of leaven, to
indicate the growth of great re-
sults from small beginnings, is
the groundwork of Matt. xiii.
33. The sense is the same as
in XV. 33, where the precept is,
as here, confirmed through a
proverbial saying. There may
have been a classical proverb to
this effect, as Plutarch speaks of
the flamen of Jupiter abstaining
from leaven on account of its
deleterious effect on the whole
lump (Qu. Rom. 114-118, 162-

170). The Rabbis compare con-
cupiscence to leaven, because a
little corrupts the whole man.
Such is also the force of Matt,
xvi. 6, 12 : ' Beware of the lea-
ven of the Pharisees.' But the
mention of leaven suggests to
him the further image of the
Jewish passover. It is as
though he said, ' You know the
scene ; you know how, when the
lamb is killed, every particle of
leaven is removed from every
household ; every morsel of food
eaten, every drop drunk in that
feast, is taken in its natural
state. This is the true figure
of your condition. You are the
chosen people, delivered from
bondage, you are called to begin
a new life, you have had the
lamb slain for you in the person
of Christ. Whatever, therefore,
in you corresponds to the literal
leaven, must be utterly cast out ;
the perpetual Passover to which
we are called must be cele-
brated, like theirs, uncontami-
nated by any corrupting influ-
ence.'

The allusion may have been
suggested by the time of the
year when the Epistle was writ-
ten, apparently (xvi. 8), a short
time before Pentecost, and there-
fore with the scenes of the Pass-
over, either present or recent, in
his thoughts.

MS. D. re ads Soko2 for Ivfxot
iKKaOdpariy ' cleanse out.' A

THE CASE OF INCEST.

Koi yap TO TTctcr^a ^rjfJLcov irvdrj xpLCTTOs^ ^aJcrre iopTa^oj-

* vtrhp r]fjLcoy iOvdrj.

as ye are unleavened : for our passover also was sacrificed, even
Christ. ^ Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither

strong expression to denote the
complete removal of leaven en-
The Pass- joined in Exod. xii. 15 ;
over. and carried out in later

times with such extreme puncti-
liousness, that on the fourteenth
day, they searched with candles
even into the darkest holes and
corners, to see whether any re-
mained. (See Chrysostom ad
loc, and the quotations from the
Rabbinical rubrics in Lightfoot,
i. 953.) This practice at the
time of the Passover, among the
Jews of modern Poland, extends
to the removal of all fermented
liquor of every kind. For the
early use of the Apostle's me-
taphor, see Ign. ad Magn. 10
(whether genuine or not) : ' Yttc/s-
OeaOe ovv rr/v KaKr]V ^vfirjv ttjv
TraXaLiaOeicrav, rrjv ivo$Lara<rav,
KOL fjLiTajSdXXea-Oe cis viav ^v/xr/v
xd-pi'TO':. Also Justin. Dia. c.
Tryph : Ato Kat fiera ra? eirra
Yjix€pa<; TOiV d^v/xo<^ayt(ov veav t,v-
jxrjv cfivpacraL cavroi? 6 Oeos Tra-
p^yyetA.€, TOvreoTLV, oAAcov cpyojv
vpa^LV KOL fjirj Twv TraXatiov kol
(fiavXiav rijv fjLifxrja-LV.

tva 7JT€ viov </>vpa/>ta, ' that you
may be -practically what you are
theoretically ; that, as you are
ideally without leaven, so you
may be actually a new regene-
rate society.' Comp. Gal. v. 25 ;
Rom. vi. 3, 4.

TToXaiav — viov. The words
are used emphatically to indi-
cate the new state of existence
to which Christians were called,
as the Israelites of old at the
Exodus. ' All things are be-

come new,' 2 Cor. v. 17 ; Rev.
xxi. 5.

Kol yap, * and you are bound
to be free from corruption ; for
in another respect, in addition to
the new life to which you are
called, there is a parallel be-
tween you and the Israelites, —
in the Passover.*

TO Trda-xO' is used both for the
Feast, and also, as here, for the
Pasclial Lamb. (See Exod. xii.
21 ; Matt. xxvi. 17, 19 ; Mark
xiv. 12 ; Luke xxii. 7 ; ^uW,
<f>ay€iv, €TOLfxdl€LV, TO ira.(T\aS)

vTrep rjfxiov, ' for us ' is omitted
in A. B. C^ D. E. F. G. The
whole stress, therefore, is on the
act of dying : ' In the ancient
slaying of the Paschal Lamb,
our Paschal Lamb was slain ; for
that Lamb was Christ.' Com-
pare X. 4, ' " The " rock was
Christ;' 2 Cor. iii. 17, 'The
Lord is "the" Spirit.'

The word ^vo-ia is applied to
the death of Christ, in Heb. ix.
26 ; X. 12. In the verb Ova)—
which only occurs here with
that application — it is diflScult
to say how far the distinct idea
of ' sacrifice in honour of God '
(as in Acts xiv. 13, 18) is
brought out, or how far it is
used merely in the general sense
of ' slay ' (as in Acts x. 13 ; xi. 7 ;
Matt. xxii. 4 ; Luke xv. 23 ;
John X. 10). In the parallel
places, Rev. v. 6, 12, the expres-
sion used is the general word
' slain,' or ' wounded ' (ia-<f>ayfxi-
vov).

The context points the allu-

FIRST EPISTLE: CHAP. V. 9—10.

/JL€V fXT) kv C^ixT) TTaXaia, /xT^Se ev C^fJLrj Aca/cias /cat 7rovrjpLa<;,

^''Eypa\\fa vytlv kv rfj eiTLO-ToX^, fjirj crvvavaixiyvvcrOai

with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread
of sincerity and truth.

^I wrote unto you in the epistle, not to keep company with forni-

sion to the * lamb witliout hle-
mish* (Exod. xii. 5): Be ye
pure, even as He is pure. An-
other resemblance, which could
hardly have been overlooked,
was that the Paschal Lamb (as
still in the Samaritan sacrifice)
was roasted on a cruciform spit.
8 copra^oj/xev, ' let US keep the
feast,' i.e. the perennial feast
(without any especial reference
to the annual celebration of the
Jewish Passover or the Chris-
tian Easter). Well expressed
by Chrysostom, ad loc.

a^vixoi<; agrees with apTOL<s.
ctXtKptvciag, ' transparent since-
rity.* dXr/^eia?, 'truthfulness.^
One would rather have expected
some antithesis (not to false-
hood, but) to impuritv. It
would seem as if the particular
case of the incestuous person
had passed out of the Apostle's
thoughts, and he were referring
here rather to the insincerity of
their claims to spiritual perfec-
tion, as in verse 6.

9 It has been often contended
that the words * I wrote to you
the " Epistle '

I wrnte

nntoyonin (typaxlra VfUV iv Trj

the Epistle.' ^^^^^^xji), must refe'r
to a previous epistle, containing
the command here referred to ;
as a like phrase in 2 Cor. vii. 8
evidently refers back to the
First Epistle. Against this mnst
be urged: (1) That there is no
other trace of the existence of
such an epistle, unless it be in
the manifestly spurious one pre-

served in the Armenian Church.
(2) That the whole manner of
introducfng the subject of the
Incest (especially in verses 1, 6,
7) is unlike what misrht have
been expected, had he already
mentioned this or a kindred sub-
ject. (8) That vvv Se in verse
11 is in reference (not to a cor-
rection of a former Epistle, in
which case it would have been
vvv 81 ypdfjioi, but) to the mean-
ing which he now puts on what
he has just written. (4) The
reference of the phrases iv rfj
iTno-ToXfj and typax^a to the pre-
sent Epistle (as in the similar
application of the word's in Rom.
xvi. 22 : 1 Thess. v. 27 ; Col. iv.
16 : 1 Cor. ix. 15), may be par-
tially explained by the f^ct of
the amanuensis, who mio*ht re-
gard the whole letter which he
was transcribing as * the Epistle,'
distinct from himself. At the
same time it must be observed
that all these passasres, except
1 Cor. ix. 15, occurring at the
end of the Epistles to which
they refer, are in some measure
distinct from the Epistles them-
selves ; a circumstance which
accounts for what would other-
wise be a very unusual mode of
expression. Hence when the
same expression occurs in the
middle of the Epistle, we are
doubly compelled to suppose
that some break has occurred
in the course of the argument.
Such a pause may have taken
place at this point, from the in-

THE CASE OF INCEST.

TTOpvoi^* ov TravTO)<; rot? iropvoi'^ rov KoafJiov tovtov rj
rots irXeoveKTaLS ^ /cat apira^iv rj etSwXoXctr/aat?, eirel ^ ax^ei-

• Add Kal. *• ^ for Kal. " o</)etA€T6.

cators : ^^ not altogether with the fornicators of this world or with the
covetous and extortioners or idolaters, for then must ye needs go out

troduction of some such addi-
tion or after- thought, as was
not unnatural from the extreme
importance which (as we see
from the Second Epistle) the
Apostle attached to a right un-
derstanding of his directions on
this especial point.

He may be conceived as re-
turning to the argument in this
passage, perceiving that it was
necessary to correct the too ge-
neral inference which might be
drawn from his previous words.
In this case, the sense would be :
* In what I just wrote to you in
my Epistle, I laid down a general
command (v. 6-8) ; as it is,
what 1 really meant by writing
to you was a command not to
associate with sinners who are
Christians.' It might be asked
further whether there are not
indications that the whole pas-
sage (v. 9-vi. 8) is, in some
sense, a distinct note or inser-
tion,* a postscript not merely to
V. 6-8, but to V. 6-8 and vi. 9-
20. For :

(1) Whereas vi. 1-8 is evi-
dently attached, at least by-
verbal associations, to v. 9-13 ;
yet vi. 9-20 joins on naturally to
V. 8, without any allusion to the
Lawsuits (with one exception,
which shall be noticed hereafter,
at the beginning of vi. 9).

(2) Although the general com-
mand alluded to in v. 9-11 may

be found in the substance of v.
6-8, it w^ould certainly be more
appropriate if it could be referred
to vi. 9, 10. ,

(3) Similar corrections or di-
gressions may be noticed in a
smaller degree in other passages,
particularly xv. 21-28 ; 2 Cor.
vi. 14-vii. 1 ; Rom. xvi. 17-20.
(Compare the remarkable pas-
sage in Liv. iv. 20, called by
Niebuhr — Hist, of Rome, ii. p.
456 — the only instance of a note
in any ancient author.)

This question, however, need
not interfere with the general
consideration of the passage,
from which, on any hypothesis,
V. 9-18 must be regarded as a
digression, growing out of v. 6-
8, whilst vi. 1-8 grows in like
manner out of v. 12, 13, and vi.
9-20 is a return to the general
subject of V. 1-8.

lo ov 7rdvT(ji<s, 'not in every
case.'

Tov Koa-fiov TovTovy ' thc heathen
world.'

7rA.€ov€KTats, properly ' avari-
cious,' or ' grasping.' ,
This is its general ^ *°''**'"^'-
sense both in classical authors
and in the LXX. ; and so it is
used in 2 Cor. ii. 11 ; vii. 2 ; ix.
5; xii. 17, 18; Luke xii. 15; 2
Pet. ii. 14 ; probably Mark vii.
22 ; Rom. i. 29. But in all the
other places where it occurs in
the K T.— Eph. iv. 19; v. 3,

* This has been already conjectured by two Englishmen, -
(quoted in Heydenreich), and Dr. Arnold (MS. notes).

r. Edwards

FIRST EPISTLE: CHAP. V. 11, 12.

Xere apa ck tov KoayLOV i^ekOeiv. ^^^vvv Se eypaxjja vfili/
(JLTJ crvvavajJiLyvvcrOaL^ idv rt? aSeX^os oi^o/xa^d/Aej^os y nop-

vuvl Se.

of the world. "But now I wrote unto you not to keep company, if any
one that is called a brother be a fornicator or covetous or an idolater or

5; Col. iii. 5; 1 Thess. ii. 5;
iv. 6 ; 2 Pet. ii. 3 — (TrXcove^ia,
TrXcovcKTeo)) — it is most naturally,
in some passages almost neces-
sarily, interpreted as 'sensuality.'
in this particular instance, and
in vi. 10, either sense will suit
the context, the ordinary sense
best agreeing with the juxtapo-
sition of apTra^i and of KXeTrrat,
the extraordinary sense best
agreeing with the general con-
text. The extraordinary sense
of ' sensuality ' (if that be here
intended) may be either: (1)
From the general sense of ' self-
indulgence,' as in English the
word ' greed,' anciently used for
' covetousness,' has, in its later
form of ' greediness,' passed off
into the sense of ' gluttony.'
Comp. the use of the word
' covet ' in the two clauses of the
Tenth Commandment, as applied
both to the ' wife ' and the
' house ' of our neighbour ; es-
pecially if Augustine's division
of that Commandment be adopt-
ed. Or (2) it may be from some
accidental connexion of the word
TrXeove^ca with ' idolatry ; ' whence
its use for the sensuality which
so often accompanied idolatry.
This last view is slightly con-
firmed by the use of the word
1?V3 (which usually means, and
is translated, ' covetousness ' or
'rapine') in Ps. cxix. 36, 'In-
cline my heart unto thy testi-
monies, and not to covetousness;^
where the context would rather
require the sense of 'idolatry,'

as in verse 37. This connexion
of thought also appears in Col.
iii. 5 : T-qv TrXcovc^tav, tjtl^ ecrrtv
€t8a)AoXaTpeta.

apira^, ' plunderer.' It is diffi-
cult to see why this crime „
should have been intro- "'"^* '
duced into an enumeration which
concerns sins of sensuality. Pro-
bably it is suggested by the ge-
neral meaning of TrAcoveKrat?, to
which word in A. B. C. W. F. G.
it is joined not by ^ (Rec. T.),
but by Kttt, which would make
the connexion between the words
closer.

etSwAoXarprys. This, as Grotius
observes, is the earliest eiSwAo-
known instance of the ^o.'^pv:-
use of this word. etScoXov is used
as the expression for 'false gods '
by the LXX., but this compound
never. In its etymological sense,
which has been followed in all
the European languages into
which it has passed, it signifies
a ' worshipper of images,' or of
'false divinities.' But in the
New Testament, this, although
part, is never the whole of its
meaning. In all the passages
where etSwAoAarpeta occurs, it
is either implied or expressly
stated that it relates to the sin,
not of worshipping a false god,
but of sensuality, by which the
act of false worship was so fre-
quently accompanied, especially
at Corinth : thus, in x. 7 this
explanation of it is given from
the words in Exodus, which
refer, not to the worship, but to^

THE CASE OF INCEST.

vo<; rj 7r\eov€KTrj^ rf etSwXoXarpT^S rj XotSo/oo? rj [leOvcro^ rf
dpna^, Tw TOLovTO) ixrjSe (TvvecrOieLV. ^^ri yap fioi ^tov<s

* Kal Tovs e|a>.

a railer or a drunkard or an extortioner, with such an one no not to eat.
^'^ For what have I to do to judge them that are without 1 do not ye judge

the licentious rites ; in Eph. v.
5 ; Col. iii. 5, it is explained
as synonymous with 7r\eoviKTr)<;,
whiph in those places, as here
also, is probably used, not for
' covetous,' but for ' sensual.'
That such is the meaning of it
in this passage is also almost re-
quired by the fact that, though
it is conceivable that a professed
Christian (dScA^os ovo/xa^o/xcvo?)
should be guilty of sensuality, it
is not conceivable that he should
be a professed heathen ; and the
word ilS(i)\oX.dTpr)s, if taken lite-
rally, could hardly signify less
than this.

CTTCt 6cfi€LX.€T€ ttptt, * clsO yOU

must come out from the society
of heathens, which you cannot
do.' This implies that 'the
world ' here signifies not so much
'the world' in its darker sense,
as the whole fabric of the society
of the Roman empire. It was
not till the great dissolution,
moral and physical, brought into
that society by the calamities of
the fourth and fifth centuries,
that the idea here impressed
upon the Christian mind began
to give way. Down to that
time the world of the Empire,
although contaminated by much
evil, was regarded as the im-
perishable framework under
shelter of which the Christian
found his appointed home. See
Tertullian passim^

II vvvhi, 'but as it is.' Comp.
Rom. iii. 21.

eypaij/a. ' The meaning of

what I wrote was,' &c.

6voixa^6fM€vo<Sf to be taken, not
with 7r6pvo<s, but with d8eX(f>6^.

XoiSopo^s. See note to vi. 10.

arvv^a-dUiv, ' to eat together,'
i.e. in common meals.

12 yap, 'I make this limita-
tion of my command, for,' &c.

TOVS c^w. Col. iv. 5 ; 1 Thess.
iv. 12. It was the usual Jewish
phrase for heathens ; see Light-
foot on Mark iv. 11.

The punctuation may be very
differently arranged: (1) ovx^.

TOVQ €(T(1) V/JL€L<S KpLV€T€, TOVS Sc €$(0

6 deos KpLV€L. ' What have I to
do with judging those that are
without ? No : it is these who
are within that ye must judge ;
and those who are without God
judges.' In Romaic, ' no ' is the
universal meaning of ov^t.

Or (2) a question at KptvcTc.
' Is it not those within that you
are to judge ? the rest God will
judge.' Or (3) a question at
Kpivei. * Is it not that you must
judge those within, but that God
will judge those without ? ' The
3rd is the most natural ; the
sense is the same in all.

The difference between KptVct
( ' judges ' ) and Kpivd ( ' will
judge ') does not affect the sense.
The Versions (by which alone, in
the absence of accents, we can be
guided) incline to Kptvct.

i^dpare tov Trovrjpov is the usual
formula for punishment on great
crimes, see Deut. xiii. 5 ; xvii.
7 ; xxiv. 7, &c. Also 2 Kings
xxiii. 24. Theodoret and Augas-
2

FIEST EPISTLE: CHAP. V. 13.

cgw KpLveLv ; ov^t tovs ecro) v/xct5 KpLvere, ^°tov^ oe egco o
0c OS ^KpLvel; i^dpare top irovqpov i^ vfiayv avTotv,

* Kpivei. KoX i^afiure.

them that are -vrithin, ^^but them that are without God will judge ? put
away from among yourselves the wicked person.

tine read to irovyjpov^ and inter-
pret it, ' Put away evil from
fimongst you. ' The reading of /cat
i$ap€LT€ is probably from Deut.

xvii. 7, xxi. 21, &o. (LXX.): /cat
iiapels Tov Trovqpov ii vfuov av-

DIGRESSION ON THE LAWSUITS.

DIGRESSION ON THE LAWSUITS.
^ Chap. VI. 1—8.

The connexion of this paragraph with the preceding seems
to be, ' As we have nothing to do with judg- judgment
ing the heathen, so we ought not to go to law o^ Jews
before them, or suffer them to judge us.' This ^|^jjg ^/^ "
question was not new. It was held unlawful Heathen
amongst the Jews for any Jew to bring a law- ''°"^^®-
suit against his countryman before a Gentile judge, on the
ground that in Ex. xxi. 1 it is commanded ; * These are the
judgments which thou shalt set before ' — not the Gentiles,
but * them ' — the Jews. ' If any one brings the judgments of
Israel before the Gentiles, he profanes the name of God, and
honours the name of an idol. They who so do give occasion
to the strangers to say, " See how harmonious are they who
worship one God." ' ^ This right of settling their own disputes
was conceded to them by the Komans ; ^ and hence the speech
of Gallic to the Jews who attacked St. Paul.^ In the first
beginning of Christianity, when the Christians were regarded
by the Romans as a Jewish sect, and when they regarded them-
selves as having succeeded to the sacredness of the Jewish
Church, the same rule would naturally be held to apply. The
existence of separate courts for the disputes of Christians amongst
themselves, is implied in this passage. The Apostolic Con-
stitutions * and the Clementines,^ in language evidently founded
upon this text, imply the existence of such courts at the time
when those works were compiled, i.e. apparently about A. D.
150. In one passage,^ the nature of the proceedings is de-
scribed as follows: ' Let your courts {hiKaa-rrjpia) take place
on the second day of the week (Ssvrspa aa^^drwv)! n order
that if a reply be put in to your decision, by having leisure
i^ahsLav) till the Saturday {o-afi^drov) you may be able to in-
vestigate the reply, and reconcile the opponents on the Sunday

^ See Wetstein and Schottgen ad
h. loc.

2 Joseph. Ant. XIV. x. 17; XVI.
vi. 1.

^ Acts xviii. 14, 15.

^ II. 4, 5, 46, 4r.
5 Ep. Clem, ad Jacob. 10 Epist.
s. 146.
« Apost. Const. II. 47.

86 FIRST EPISTLE.

(sis Tr}v KvpiaKrjv). Now let there be present at the court both
the deacons and the presbyters, judging without respect of per-
sons, as men of God, with justice. When then both the per-
sons {irpoacoircov) have appeared, as the law also directs, they
who have the quarrel shall both stand in the midst of the court
(KpiTTjplo)); and when you have heard them, give your votes
with a scrupulous conscience, endeavouring to make them both
friends before the decision of the bishops, lest a judgment
against the offender should go out over the earth.' ^ The diffi-
culty only arose when both the parties were Christians; when one
of them was a heathen, then it was thought lawful to prosecute
before a heathen tribunal : hence the story of St. Julitta, who
prosecuted a pagan for theft, but refused to go on with the
trial, when the magistrates insisted on her renunciation of
Christianity.^

Under these circumstances, it was natural that the same
^controversy which in a mixed society of Jewish and Gentile
Christians ran through so many other departments of human
life, should be felt here also ; and that the Gentile Christians
should still wish to carry on their litigations in the same courts
to which they had been previously accustomed, and to indulge
the same litigious spirit which had characterised the Greek
nation from the time of Aristophanes downwards. But in
whatever way this tendency may have originated, the Apostle,
in his attack upon it, treats it altogether irrespectively of any
previous Jewish or Gentile custom, and condemns it solely on
the ground of the low view which it implied of the greatness of
a Christian's privileges, and the closeness of the bond of
Christian brotherhood.

^ See Heydenreich on 1 Oor. vi. 1 for all these passages at length.
* Basil, Horn, 5, in Estius ad h, I.

DIGRESSION ON THE LAWSUITS.

The LAWSUITS;

YI. ^ToXfxa Tt9 vfJiMV TTpayfxa e)(cov Trpog rov erepov,
KpCvecrOaL im tcjv olSlkcov kol ov)(i iirl tcov ayioiv ; '^rj*
ovK oiSare ort ol dytoi top koctijlov Kpivovcri; Kat el iv

• Cm. ¥t.

^ Dares one of you, having a matter against another, to be judged
before the unrighteous and not before the saints ? ^Know ye not that
the saints shall judgfr the world ? and if the world shall be judged by

VI. I ToX/xd, * Can any one
endure ? ' Bengel : ' Grandi
verbo notatur Icesa majestas
Christianorum.*

Kpiv€<FOat = ' go to law.' So
Matt. V. 40.

2. -^ OVK otSarc ; ' Can you be
ignorant ? ' referring, as in. v. 6 ;
vi. 9, 16, 19, to a well-known or
axiomatic truth.'

' A time will come when the
Christians, now so humble and
degraded in the sight of the
heathen world, shall sit in judg-
ment upon that very world ; '
applying to the whole Church
what was- said of the Apostles,
Matt. xix. 28; Luke xxii. 80;
and with a reference to Dan.
vii. 22 (LXX.). It is an ex-
pression of the complete triumph
of good over evil, which will be
on© day manifest to all the
world, when those who have
shared the humiliation of Christ
here on earth shall also share
His- exaltation. Compare iv. 8;
2 Tim. ii. 12; and- especially
Rev. ii. 26 ; xx. 4-6. The other
afspeot of the final judgment,
which represents not the victory
of the good and the restitution
of all things, but the universal
account to which will be called
the whole human race, good. and

bad alike, is not here brought
forward ; but is no more incom-
patible with it than the judg-
ment which in this life is exer-
cised by the example and teach-
ing of the goodj is inconsistent
with God's present government
of the world, which extends to-
all alike. See John xii. 31, 47,
48, where the same ambiguity
exists. Bengel : ' Occulta Sanc-
tis majestas est suo tempore re-
velanda.' And in verse 3, as in
iii. 22, when once the view of
the Christian's exaltation, is
opened before the Apostle's
mind, it has no bounds, but ex-
tends to the Majesty on High,
where Christ sits on the right
hand of God,. ^ angels, and au-
thorities, and powers, being
made subject to Him.' Whether
good or bad angels are intended
is left undefined in all these pas-
sages. .

Eor this general identification
of Christ with His people, see
vi. 15 ; xii. 27 ; John xv. 5. For
an elaborate examination of all
the opinions on this passage, see
Heydenreich ad loe.

iv v/juv : (1) 'in your pre-
sence ; ' or, (2) ' by your exam-
ple ; ' in either case, ' by means,
of. ' See Acts x.vii. 31.

FIRST EPISTLE: CHAP. VI. 3-10.

vfjLLV Kpiverai 6 Koo-fJiO^;, avd^LOi icrre KpLTTjpLcov Ikaxicrroyv ;
^ ovK otSare on ayyekov; KpivovjJiev ; jjliJtl ye JSlcotlkol.
^/3LcoTLKa pL€v ovv KpLTrjpia eav ^xrjTe, tov^ i^ov6evr)ixivov<^
iv rfj iKKXr)(TLa, rovrou? KaOitjere. ^irpos ivTponrjv vp2v
XaXcu* ovT(xi^ ovK ^eui i.v vplv (TO(j>o<; ^ovSeig, 6s SvvyjcreTaL
StaKplvai ai^a fxecrov tov dSeX(j)Ov avTov ; ^dWd dSekcfiot;
fxerd dS€\(f)Ov Kpiverai, koI tovto eirX dirio-TOiv, ^ r^S-q [xev

iffTlV.

ovVi ely.

you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters ? ^do ye not know that
we shall judge angels ? how much more things that pertain to this
life. ^If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, those
who are least esteemed in the church, set them to judge. ^I speak to
your shame : is it so that there is not a wise man among you, that shall
be able to judge between his brethren 1 ^ but brother is judged with

Kpiverai^ * is to be judged,' as
aTTOKokimTerai in iii. 13.

avd^LOL ia-re ; ' are ye unfit to
be entrusted with the most tri-
fling cases ? ' iXaxt(TTOiv corre-
sponding to f3i(DTiKa^ as et . .
Kpiverai to ovk . . . KpLVOv/xev.
KpLTTjpLov, properly 'judgment-
seat.' In Apost. Const, i. 47,
KptTrjptov (for the place of judg-
ment) is specially distinguished,
from SLKaarrrjpLov (the persons
composing the court).

jjirJTL y€ (iioiTiKo. ; ' Much more
judgments relating to ordinary
life,' as in Luke xxi. 34.

jxrJTLye, * not to «ay — nedum?

^LbiTLKos in classical Greek

simply means ' belonging to the

support of life ; ' but

relates to this life ' as distin-
guished from ' what relates to a
future life.' The Latin transla-
tion of ^ittiTLKa in this passage
by ^ scBcularia,* is probably one
of the first instances of the use
of that word in its modern
sense of 'worldly,' as opposed
to ' spiritual,' instead of its an-
cient sense ' belonging to a cycle
of a hundred years ; ' and from

this has sprung the signification
of the word ' secular ' in modern
European languages.

4 ' At any rate, if you must
have courts on matters of this
life, set those as judges who
are least esteemed. The least
esteemed amongst those who
shall judge angels, are surely fit
to judge those trifling matters.'
Then, suddenly moving from
what was ideal to the actual
matter of fact, ' I say this, not
to exalt, but to reprove you.
Is it really come to this, that
there is no one amongst your-
selves whom you can trust for
common justice ? '

KaOi^erc, 'place on the judg-
ment-seat,' from the fact that
the judge then, as now, sat.

5 ava fiicrov k. t. A. The full
expression here would be dm fju

TOV dS. aVTOV l^TOV KpLVOfJiivOV K.

TOV €Tepov dS.] as in the LXX.
j)assim wherever dva /xia-ov oc-
curs. In this passage the latter
clause is, for brevity's sake,
omitted.

7 ^877 fxev ovv. ' This at least
is at once clear.*

oA.o)9, ' certainly,' as v. 1.

DIORESSION ON THE LAWSUITS.

ou^ oXcos rjTTTjfxa iv vfXLU icTTiv, on Kpifxara l^^ere /le^' kav-
T(x)v. 8ta Tt ov^i ixaWov ahiKelcrOe; Sta ri ov^i [jlolWov
arrocTTepeicrOe; ^dXXa v/xet? dSi/cetre koI airoo-TepelTe, /cat ^i
^rovro aSeX(j)ov^. '

brother, and that before unbelievers. '^Now therefore there is certainly
a fault among you, because ye have judgments one with another. Why
do ye not rather endure injustice ? ^ Why are ye not rather defrauded ?
Nay, ye do unjustly and defraud, and that your brethren.

TfTTqixa, * a falling short of
Christian proportion — a gap in
the full complement of Christian
virtues.'

8 v/xet?, 'you Christians.' The
passage is remarkable as being
founded on the spirit of Matt. v.
40.

THE CASE OF INCEST (resumed).
Chap. yi. 9—20.

^*H ovK otSare on dSt/cot ^ Oeov ^aaikeiav ov KXrjpopo-
pLTjcrovcn; Mrj irXavacrOe' ovre iropvoi ovt€ eiScoXoXdrpau
ovre iJLOL^OL ovre /xaAa/coi ovre apcTevoKoirai ovre
KXirrTai ovre irXeoveKTai ovre fieOvcroL^ ov XotSopot, ovp(

^Know ye not that the unjust shall not inherit God's kingdom ?
Be not deceived : neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor
effeminate nor abusers of themselves with mankind ^°nor thieves nor
covetous nor drunkards, not revilers, not extortioners, shall inherit God's

9 If the digression ends here,
then 17 OVK oiSare . . . KXrjpovojxy]-
(Tova-L ; is the link between the
subject of the Lawsuits (aSiKot
referring to dSiKetre) and the
general argument. See on v. 9.

M^ TrX-avaaOe. See on iii. 8.

/xaAa/coi, ' effeminate.' For
the darker sense which the word

probably bears here, see the quo-
tations in Wetstein ad loc.

For elSioXoXdrpat, TrAcovcKTat,
IxWvcroL, apTraye?, see on v. 10.

10 /cAcTTTat, ' thieves.' This
is probably introduced in refer-
ence to the Lawsuits.

XoiSopoL. This connexion of
' reviling ' with the sins of sen-

FIRST EPISTLE: CHAP. VI. 11—15.

apTTaye<;, ^acrikeiav Oeov ov Kki^povoixTjcrovcnv. ^^ koX
Tavrd TLve<; rJTe' aXXa aireXovcracrOe, akXa r)yidadr)Te,
dWd ehiKai(t)6iqTe iv rco ord/xari tov Kvpiov ['j^jnoii'] ^Irjcrov

^'^ndvra fxoL e^eariv, dXX' ov Trdvra cru/xc^epet ' irdvTa
[XOL e^eorriv^ dXX' ovk iyoj i^ovo-LaaOTJaofxaL vtto tivo^.

kingdom. "And such were some of you.:, but ye were washed, but ye
were hallowed, but ye were justified in the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ, and in the Spirit of our God.

^~A11 things are in my power, but all things are not expedient : all
things are in my power,. but J will not be brought under the power of

suality, may be either; (1) That
in the idolatrous feasts animosi-
ties were wont to arise, as seems
implied in the similar juxtaposi-
tion, Rom, xiii. 12; Gal. v. 20;
or, (2) That it is used, like
jSiofioXoxiOi in Aristotle, and /jl(d-
poXoyla and evrpaireXia in Eph.
V. 4, for ' gross conversation.*

1 1 Ttves, ' in part ; ' to modify
the positiveness of the assertion.

' Ye were- washed, and so can-
not be again unclean; conse-
crated, and so cannat be again
polluted ; acquitted, and so can-
not be again condemned.' The
variation of the usual order of
these words shows that no espe-
cial stress is laid by the Apostle
on their precise mode of succes-
sion (compare i. 2). Here they
all refer to the first conversion.

' Ye were washed ' has an
allusion to baptism, but is not
formally identified with it any
more than are the two other
words. (Comp. Titus iii. 3, 5;
Heb. X. 22.)

So also, ' in the name of the
Lord Jesus,' has an especial, al-
lusion to the words used at bap-
tism, yet refers to all the three
words. Cp. for the formula
Acts xix. 5 ; 1 Cor. v. 4. The

middle voice (aTreXouorao-^c) makes
it properly, ' Ye washed or bathed
yourselves ' in the waters of bap-
tism. Comp. the same expres-
sion Acts xxii. 16, where, as
usually, the act of baptism is
represented as a voluntary effort
on the part of the convert. Pro-
bably when any large number
was baptized, they did actually
immerse each other or them-
selves ; a« now in the bathing
of the pilgrims in the Jordan ;
or as in the baptism of the thou-
sands of Saxons in the Swale,
whilst Augustine stood on the
bank. The force of diro is, ' ye
washed yourselves clean.^

1 2 ' All things are in my
power.' These are the Apostle's
own words, quoted as an argu-
ment against him. ' True, I
have said, "all things are in my
power ; " but it is no less true
that all things are not accordant
with the interests of our na-
ture.' * True, all things are in
my power ; but J, as a Chris-
tian, will not be brought under
their power.' (Observe the play
of words on c^ecrrt and e^ovo-ta-
(tO-^&ojjlchl.) Bengel : ' Stolidus
esset viator,, qui in medio campo
viam habens, semper in ripa et

THE CASE OF INCEST.

^^TOL ^pcofxara rrj KoCkia, koI Y) KOiXia toi^ ySpw/xacrii^ '
6 Se deos Kol TavT7]u /cat ravTa Karapyrjaei. to Se crajfia ov
TTJ TTOpveia, dXXa rw Kvptco koL 6 Kvpuos rco crcofJ^aTL' 6
Se ^€09 KOL Tov Kvplov Tjyeipev koX r]iJia<; ^i^eyelpei Sta ttJ?
SvvdjJieci}^ avTOv. ^^ovk otSare on tol acofJiara vfjiojv fJieXr)
-^LCTTOV icTTiv ; apa^ ovv tol [xeXy] tov ^icttov TTOLrjao)

■ vixas (R. Steph. Tf/uLtis) i^ey€pe7.

any. ^^ Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats : but God shall make
to vanish away both it and them. But the body is not for fornication,
but for the Lord and the Lord for the body : ^^and God both raised the
Lord, and raises up us by His strengtii. ^^ Do ye not know that

margine undis proxima ambula-
ret. At sic multi vivunt etiam
in piis habiti. Potestas penes

penes res, qnibus
debet,' St. Paul

li deles, non
utitur, esse
speaks of himself here as repre-
senting the Christians in gene-
ral ; so in Rom, vii. 7-25. In
these aphorisms especially, he
uses the singular nupaber : com-
pare viii. 13 ; v. 23, 29, 30 ;.xiii.
l-3;xiv. 11.

The context of this passage
and of X. 23^ where the same
saying is repeated as the watch-
word of Christian liberty, shows
that it liad reference to the
great casuistical question re-
specting sacrificial meats, which
occupied the attention of all
gentile Christians, And the
transition from an assertion of
the indifference of this, to an
assertion of the indifference of
the sins of sensuality, strange
as it may now seem, was more
natural then, from the frequent
connexion of licentious rites with
idolatrous worship; and nowhere
more so than at Corinth. (See
the quotations in Wetstein on i.
1.) Accordingly, in the decree
of the Apostles at Jerusalem
(Acts XV. 29), this was made
the ground of the joint prohi-

bition of * things offered to idols,
and of fornication.' Such also
was the confusion implied in the
error of the Nicolaitans (Rev. ii.
14), who held the teaching of
Balaam—' to eat things sacri-
ficed to idols, and to commit
fornication.*

It is on the special distinction
between these two things that
St. Paul insists,

13, 14 Food ia formed for
the stomach, and the stomach
is formed to digest the food ;
but no such connexion exists
between the person of man and
the objects of his sensual grati-
fication : food, and all that re-
lates to it, are in thsir own
nature perishable ; but the per-
son of man, by its connexion
with Him who is imperishable,
is also itself imperishable. ' N'ot
that which goeth into the mouth
defile th a man ; but that which
Cometh out of the mouth, this
defileth a man,' Matt, xv, 11
and 17-20.,

a-Cjfia, ' the person ; ' i. e. not
merely the body, but the frame-
work, as it were, of the whole
human being. Hence, in verse
14, ' us ' (r}/xa<?) is used instead.

15 The Church is the ' body'
of Christ : its individual mem-

FIEST EPISTLE: CHAP. VI. 16—20.

7r6pv7)<; fJieXrj ; fxrj yevoLTO. ^^y) ovk otSare ort 6 /coXXaJ-
fievo^ TTJ TTopvy ev croiixd icTTiv; '^Eaovrai yap Ij^iqcriv] ol
hvo etg aapKa fxiav. ^^6 8e Ko\X(ofjievo<s tS Kvpico evirvevp^d
i(TTiv. ^^(j>evyeT€. ttjv Tropveuav. ttolv dfxdpTrjfJLa, o idv
TTOLTJar) dvOpojTTOS, e/cT09 Tov (TcoixaTO^ ecTLV 6 Se ttoo-
vevcov €19 TO LOLOV cTw/xtt afiapTavei. "^^fj ovk otoare otl to
(TCJfJLa vfJLCov vaos tov iv vplv dyiov Tn^eu/jLard? IdTiv ; ov

your bodies are members of Christ ? shall I then take the members of
Christ and make them members of an harlot ? God forbid. ^^ Know ye
not tiiat he which is joined to the harlot is one body? for 'the two/
saith He, ' shall be one flesh.' ^^But he that is joined unto the Lord is
one spirit. ^^Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth, is without
the body ; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own
body. ^^Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost

bers are His * limbs.' It is a
more vivid specification of the
previous expression, ' the body
is the Lord's.'

1 6 Gen. ii. 24, €ts=Heb. 7
' so as to become.'

The words 'they two ' (ot hvo)
are not in the Hebrew text, but
occur in the Samaritan Penta-
teuch and in the LXX.

For this use of KoXXao-Oai, or
of the corresponding Hebrew
word, compare Genesis xxxiv. 3 ;
Deuteronomy x. 20 ; xi. 22 ; —
' cleave.'

rfj TTopvr), the article implies
her relation to him.

17 cV TTvev/jLa. This is an ex-
pression analogous to rj xfrvx^] ftta
in Acts iv. 32 ; but the word
TTvev/xa is here used instead, in
consequence of the purely spiri-
tual character of the relation be-
tween Christ and His followers.

18 'AH other sins are in
themselves partial, they do not
degrade your whole nature, phy-
sical as well as moral; not so
sensuality.'

19 The body^ not the soul or
spirit, of man is represented as
the temple of the Spirit. The

Spirit does not inhabit, but per-
vades and is identified with, the
soul or spirit. The body is the
abode of the spirit of man] it is
therefore the temple of the Spirit
of God.
1 TO a-oifw. (falsely corrected in
A^. J. into TO. a-wfiara) means
' your several bodies,' but is in
the singular for the sake of
agreement with vao?, the plural
of which to Jewish usage must
have been almost unknown ; al-
though in this case he must have
meant that each Christian was a
temple in himself. Whether the
question ends at ia-TLv, or at
eavTwv, makes no difference in
the sense — ' you have the Spirit,
not from yourselves, but from
God ; and thus your whole being
is not your own, but His.'

20 rjyopd(T6rp-€ yap TLixrj<;, ' you
are not your own masters ; for
you are the slaves of God, you
were bought by Him, at the
time of your conversion.' The
expression ' bought with a price,'
is in itself general, and intended
only to express their complete
dependence on God ; as in Rom.
vi. 18, 22, ' Being made free

THE CASE OF INCEST.

ex€T€

OLTTO 0€OVy /cat ovK i(Tr€ eavTcov

^^rjyopdcTOrjTe yap
So^daaTe 817 top 6eov ev tS croiyiaTi v/xoiz/.*

* Add, KoX iv rcf irvevfiaTi v/xwv drivd iffri rov deuv.

which is in you ? which ye have of God, and ye are not your own ; '^^for
ye were bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body.

from sin, ye became the " slaves "
(SovAot) of righteousness . . the
" slaves " of God.' Compare vii.
23, ' Ye " were bought with a
price ; " be not ye the '* slaves "
of men.' In both passages the
predominant notion is, not of a
ransom from slavery (as in the
passages where special allusion

is made to ' the blood of Christ,'
Matt. xxvi. 28; Col. i. 14; 1
Pet. i. 18, 19 ; and perhaps Acts
XX. 28), but of a price paid for a
slave.

8o^ao"aT€ 8t^. Srj is here used
as a cheering or hortatory ex-
pression, like TirXaOt Br], Kpahi-q
(Od. XX. 18).

Paraphbase of Chap. IV. 21— VI. 20.

I shall be compelled when I come to deal severely ; for you have
not only adopted the low worldly tone of the heathen world in
its factious spirit and its intellectual pride, but also in its im-
moral practices. Of these the most flagrant is the case of
incest, viewed with abhorrence even by heathens, but by you
with indulgence and self-complacency. This must not be ; in
the strength of that Divine power, by which things absent be-
come present, and by tvhich judgments follow on the sentence
of Christ's Apostles and Christ's people, I transport myself in
spirit to your assembly, and there deliver over the offender to
the adversary, in the hope that present suffering may lead to
future safety. Common sense tells you of the bad influence
exercised by one corrupting element. The perpetual pas sover
which we keep as the redeemed people of God, reminds you
that you ought to put away every particle of this evil leaven
from amongst you. It is possible that this prohibition of in-
tercourse may be applied too universally to the whole heathen
world; you must remember, therefore, that I was alluding
only to gross sinners of your own society. Of sinners who still
remain in the outer world of heathenism, neither you nor I are

94 FIKST EPISTLE.

judges, hut God alone. In speaking of the judgment of
heathens you ought to reflect that, as you are not to judge
them, neither ought you to allow them to judge you. You
have not the excuse of being unfit to judge your ovm causes of
disputes ; the time loill come when even the proud heathens them-
selves, nay, even the angels, will, have to abide your judgment,
when you come to share Chrisfs final triumph. Much more,
therefore, are you worthy to judge the petty trials of this life ;
much less are you justified in calling one another to judgment,
and making heathen judges witnesses of your own wrong deeds.
But whether you separate yourselves noto,or not, from the
vices of the surrounding heathen, a separation will come at
last. The kingdom of God will wholly exclude them, as your
own profession of Chrisfs religion ought tvholly to exclude
them now. They are indeed bitterly inconsistent with the very
idea of Christianity ; and whatever I have said, or may say,
of Christian liberty with regard to various kinds of food, gives
no excuse for these vices. The outward framework of your
immortal souls ivas not created, like its lower organs, for mere
animal gratification, but for union loith its immortal Lord,
It is not like food, perishable ; but like Him, imperishable.
Every sensual sin separates from Christ the bodies which
ought to form one living Christ on earth — every such sin pro-
fanes the bodies ivhich, as the abodes of God's Spirit, ought
to be as holy as God's Temple,

Apostolic Liberty and Apostolic Discipline.

The peculiar interest of this Section is the picture which it
presents of the early Church in its intercourse with the heathen
world. Its relations to the heathen worship are exhibited in
1 Cor. viii. -x. and its relations to the heathen government in
Rom. xiii. 1-10; 1 Pet. ii. 11-17. But its relations to
heathen society, as such, in the matters of every-day life, are,
for the most part, exhibited only here.

At Corinth, as elsewhere, the separation from heathenism
had in the first instance been sudden, abrupt, and complete ; a
passage from darkness to light (vi. 11 : comp. Actsxxvi. 11);
a rupture, tearing asunder, even with an exaggerated violence.

APOSTOLIC LIBEETY A^^D DISCIPLINE. 95

the ordinary ties of domestic life (vii. 12-24) and of established
custom (xi. 13-16). But in a short time a reaction began to
take place ; not only had the factions and rhetorical subtleties
of the Greek mind insensibly coloured the progress of the new
society, but the barriers between heathen and Christian morals
seemed to be levelled to the ground ; and the gross vices which
bore the peculiar mark of the former, and from which the latter
had seemed to promise an entire exemption, rushed in like a
flood, in one instance (v. I) exceeding the usual license even of
the low code of heathenism itself; whilst the peace and
harmony, that alone could preserve the rising society from dis-
solution, were scattered to the winds by litigious quarrels, which,
however natural in the populace of Corinth and Athens, ought
never to have arisen in a Church almost contemporary with
those who ' were of one heart, and one soul, and had all things
in common.'

The Apostle of the Gentiles was regarded both by his op-
ponents and his supporters at Corinth as the cham- r^j^g ^ ^
pion of liberty. His sanction would be pleaded in stle the
defence of practices which brous^ht the Christian champion

^/ . , ° . offreedom;

and Gentile world into closer union with each
other. Hence the peculiar significance of this part of the
Epistle. We have here the checks placed by the Apostle him-
self on his own principles, the limits beyond which Christian
liberty becomes heathen license, the example for all ages of
what is and what is not really latitudinarian. Perhaps the most
remarkable part of his conduct is that he is not staggered by
this sudden revulsion or excess of freedom. He still sees in
the Corinthian Church, corrupted as it is, the germ of a new
creation.^ He still repeats the same great truth, ' All things
are lawful for me,' which had been so grievously perverted.
Unlike the vacillating reformers or speculators of other times,
who are unable to control the spirit which they have evoked, and
' back recoil they know not why, e'en at the sound themselves
have made,' he remained steadfast to the cause which he had
undertaken, and, as we see irom his later Epistles, hesitated
none the less to preach ' his Gospel' where it was needed, be-
cause in the instance of Corinth it had been so greatly exagge-
rated. But whilst thus firm in his original convictions, and of
he instantly laid down practical remedies, such as im- morality.

See V. 7 ; vi. 2, 11, 20.

96 FIRST EPISTLE.

mediate expulsion of the worst offender from the Christian
society, and the entire prohibition of the settlement of Christian
quarrels in heathen courts of law. It is obvious that these
measures, being designed to meet an immediate and temporary
emergency, cannot, even if we had greater means of under-
standing the circumstances, be made precedents of universal ap-
plication. They could only be obeyed literally in a Christian
society as strongly marked off from the surrounding world, as,
in spite of all its corruptions, was the Church of Corinth ; so
animated by one spirit that its decisions could, like those of
Corinth, be pronounced by the whole assembly of its members ;
and so evidently bearing on the front of those decisions the
marks of Divine wisdom, that we could expect them to be con-
firmed by the immediate workings of God's providence. But
the general principles of the Apostle's advice are of universal
application, especially in the cautions by which the measures
he recommends are accompanied.

First, even in that age of Divine intuitions and preter-
^. . natural visitations, he limits the subjects of expulsion

tions of from the society to gross and definite vices. No en-

Apostolic couragement is sjiven to pry into the secret state of
discipline. ° ° . ^ -^ ^

the heart and conscience, or to denounce mere errors

of opinion or of judgment. Secondly, even when insisting
most strongly on entire separation from heathen vices, he still
allows unrestricted social intercourse with the heathens them-
selves. He forbears to push his principle to a Utopian extra-
vagance ; he acknowledges the impracticability of entire sepa-
ration as a decisive reason against it, and regards the ultimate
solution of the problem as belonging not to man, but to God.
Thirdly, whilst strongly condemning the Corinthian quarrels,
as in themselves unchristian, he yet does not leave them with-
out a remedy, and so drive them to the still more objectionable
course of going before heathen judges. He recognises the fact,
and appeals to their own self-respect to induce them to appoint
judges of their own ; thus giving the first Apostolical sanction
to Christian Courts of Law ; in other words, departing from the
highest ideal of a Christian Church, in order to secure the
purity of its actual condition. Lastly, he lays down the
general truth, that between all other outward acts and the sins
of sensuality there is an essential difference ; that the liberty
which Christianity concedes to the former, it altogether with-
holds from the latter ; that those sins are utterly inconsistent

APOSTOLIC LIBERTY AND DISCIPLINE. 97

Bot merely with any particular relation existing between
Christianity and heathenism, but with the very idea of Chris-
tianity itself. Great as are the freedom and the variety of
language in the New Testament respecting all other outward
acts, these alone are condemned as always and under all cir-
cumstances, at variance with the true Christian character.

It is a striking proof of the change effected by Christianity,
that whereas in Eastern nations the word for ' holy ' was used
for the worst kinds of sensuality, from the notion that those
who practised them were consecrated to Astarte,^ the corre-
sponding word in the New Testament (^djios) is used almost
always by St. Paul with a special reference to moral purity.

^ See Gesenius, Thesaurus, in voce K^IJ?. Compare especially 1 Thess.
iv. 3-r.

98 FIEST EPISTLE.

THE ANSWERS OF ST. PAUL TO THE LETTER OF
THE CORINTHIAN CHURCH.

Chap. VII. 1 XIV. 40.

Besides the news of the factions and of the sensualities of the
Corinthian Church, which had reached him through the house-
hold of Chloe or through popular rumour, the Apostle had
received a letter from the Corinthians themselves, containing
certain questions, which he proceeds to answer in the remaining
part of the Epistle.

MARRIAGE.

Chap. VII. 1—40.

The first question of the Corinthian Christians related t o
the scruples which were entertained by some of them on the
subject of Marriage. From one or two expressions (as in
vii. 18), and from the great probability that the Jews were
more likely to be scrupulous than the Gentiles, it might be
argued that these scruples originated in the Jewish party.
But, on the other hand, it would seem that (except by the
Essenes), marriage was always regarded by the Jews as a
duty ; ^ so much so, that he who at the age of twenty had not
married, was considered to have sinned : whilst, in the Gentile
world generally, the tendency to celibacy was at this period
so strong, that laws were enacted by Augustus, on his succes-
sion, to counteract it ; ^ and in this feeling against marriage
many of the Greek philosophers shared, chiefly from prudential
motives. ' An sapienti ducenda sit uxor ? ' was an established
question to be discussed ; and the answer was usually in the
negative.^ The context also leads us to conclude that, if the
question proceeded from any particular portion of the Co
rinthian Church, it must have been from the party that called
themselves after the Apostle. It was evidently put to him,

1 See Iken, Ant. Judaism. Pt.III. I ^See Hor. Carm. Saec. 17.
c. 1, § 2. I 3 See the quotations in GrotiuSjOd! Zoc.

MAERIAGE. 99

not by those who disparaged, but by those who deferred to his
authority ; and he was well known himself, both by tempera-
ment and feeling, to inchne to single life,^ and was for that
reason disparaged by the Jewish party, in comparison with the
married state of Peter and of the Lord's brethren.^ If there
be any part especially addressed to the Jewish Christians, it
would be that relating to the mixed marriages. How strong
the feeling against these was amongst the stricter Jews after
the return from the captivity, is evident from the Books of Ezra
and Nehemiah, which may be instructively compared with this
Chapter.

1 1 Cor. vii. 7, 8. ^ 1 Cor. ix. 5.

H 2

100

FIKST EPISTLE: CHAP. VII. 1—5.

VII. ^Ilepi Se a)V iypdxjjaTe /xot. koKov avOpojirco yvvai-

ras TTopvaas e/cacrros ttjv eav-

^ Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me : It is good
for a man not to touch a woman. '^ But on account of fornications, let

VII. The difficulty of the Co-
rinthians seems to be contained
in the words, * It is good not to
touch a woman ; ' which divided
itself into two questions : (1)
Whether the unmarried were to
marry ? (2) Whether the married
were to remain in their married
state ?

Of these, the first question di-
vided itself into two : —

(a) What was the duty of
unmarried persons themselves ?
which is answered in 2, 8, 9.

(6) What was the duty of
parents to their unmarried chil-
dren ? which is answered in 25-
39.

The second question also di-
vides itself into two : —

(a) What was the duty of
married persons generally ?
which is answered in 3-7.

(h) What was the duty espe-
cially of those who were married
to heathens ? which is answered
in 10-24.

I KoXov. Much ingenuity has
been employed by the advocates
of celibacy in making this word
mean 'lofty' or 'noble,' and
by the advocates of marriage in
depreciating it to mean ' con-
venient for existing circum-
stances.' The obvious meaning
is the true one. It is used (as
in Aristotle and the Greek moral
writers generally) for 'good,'
like 'pulchrum' in Latin, op-
posed to ' turpe ' = alcrxpov —
* bad ; * and the only limitation

to be put upon it is that which
is supplied by the context. If
the sentence had been con-
structed with the full comple-
ment of classical particles, it
would have been KaXov fxev : the
omission of these particles is so
frequent in St. Paul as to be
given by Jerome as a proof of
the Apostle's imperfect acquaint-
ance with the Greek language.
(See Erasmus ad loc.)

aTTTecrOaL, i.e. in marriage, like
yj3. Jerome (adv. Jovinian) in-
terprets it of simply touching.

2 The Apostle adopts the Co-
rinthian statement as his own,
and asserts it as a general prin-
ciple to be true, but with modi-
fications which he now proceeds
to specify. He states that, though
there are reasons which make
the single state more eligible,
yet these are overborne practi-
cally by greater evils on the
other side, arising from the
temptation to sin, which would
thereby be opened. And first,-
for this reason, he recommends
(or permits) marriage to those
who are unmarried.

Blcl Ttts TTopi/ctas. ' In conse-
quence of the sensual sins of the
time' (as inverse 5), i.e. 'lest
their general prevalence might
tempt you to join them.' The
plural alludes to the various
kinds of immorality, as specified
in vi. 9, 10.

i)(€T(ii. The contrast between
Trjv iavTOV ywaiKa and tov lSlov

MARRIAGE.

101

Tov yvvaiKa i^iTOi koX eKoicrTr) tov lSlop dvSpa e)(€T(o. ^ry
yvvaLKL 6 avrjp ttjv ^ocfteLkrjv aTToStSdrw, 6/xotQ>s [Se] /cat
rj yvvTj T(o avSpC. ^rj yvvrj tov ISlov crcofjLaTO<; ovk i^ov-
cria^et, dXXa 6 avrjp' o/xoiws Se koX 6 avr)p tov ISlov ctcj-
/x-aros OVK e^-ovcrta^ei, dXXct rj yvvrf. ^ fxrj airoo-TepeiTe
aXXijXov^, el ^jltj tl av e/c (TVfJL(j>(ovov 7rpo§ Kaipov^ Lva ^ cr^o-
\da-rjT€ Trj Trpocrev^rj /cat ttoKlv eVt to avTo^rjTe, Iva fir)

■ 6<p€iKofi.€i/Tjv eijvoiau. •» (rxo\d(T}T€ r-p vrtcmia Kal. ' (rvvepxf<rd€ for ^re.

every one have his own wife, and let every woman have her own hus-
band. ^Let the husband render unto the wife her due, and likewise also
the wife unto the husband. ^ The wife hath not power over her own body,
but the husband : and likewise also the husband hath not power over his
own body, but the wife. ^ Defraud ye not one another, except with con-
sent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to prayer and be together

avSpa is a difference of idiom,
which runs all through the New
Testament. l8lo<s is never -ased
for yvvrji nor cavrov for dm^pf in
speaking of ' husband and wife ; '
perhaps from the seeming in-
appropriateness of using eavrov,
except in the relation when the
one party is, as it were, the pro-
perty of the other ; perhaps from
the importance of pointing out
that the husband is the natural
adviser of the wife.

3 The second modification is,
that, for the same reason, when
married, they are still to con-
tinue in the married state. For
the true reading, 6cfi€LX.rjv ( = ' de-
bitum tori '), t-^v 6<f)€tX.oix€vr]v ev-
voLdv of the Received Text must
have arisen as a periphrasis in
public readings of the Epistle.
Compare evvoiav in Jos. Ant. xvi.
7, 3 ; xvii. 3, 1 ; Dio Chrys. p.
52 ; and cf)L\o(f)pocrvvrj and (fnXoTrj^
in classical writers (Wetstein ad
loc).

5 On these words of the Apo-
stle was afterwards founded the
practice of married persons
living apart from each other

through the season of Lent.
Later copyists have here made
three corrections in accordance
with the exaggerated notions of
their own time.

(1) (TxoXaoT/Tc has been cor-
rected to o-xoXa^r/re, from a de-
sire to give the Apostle's precept
a general, instead of a merely
special and temporary applica-
tion. The word itself, with the
dative case, implies ' devotion to
anything ' — especially used of
devotion to studies or to a master.
(Compare ' vacare rei.')

(2) The allusion to ' fasting *
(ttj vrj(TT€La Kttt) has been added,
partly perhaps suggested by Acts
xiii. 2; xix. 23, which contain a
similar conjunction of fasting
with solemn prayer. In Mark
ix. 29, there is, as here, a variety
of reading, though in favour of
vr)(rT€La.

(3) (Tvvepx^o-Oe (R. Steph. avv-
ipXTfo-de) has been substituted
for TjTi, as giving to the married
state a less permanent character
than the Apostle ascribes to it.
For the phrase cTvat cVt to avro,
compare Acts ii. 1. The true

102

FIRST EPISTLE: CHAP. VII. 6—14.

7r€tpa^27 v/;tas 6 crarai^as Sta ttjv aKpacrCav vjjlcov, ^tovto
Se Xeyo) /caret crvyyvcoixr)!^, ov /car' inLTayijv. ^ Oekco ^Se
Trai^ras avOpcoTrov^ etvai ois /cai ifJuavTov dW e/cao'Tos
tStoi/ ^e)(e6 xapLCTfJia cac ^eou, ''o /xei' ourca?, 6 Se ovro)?.

^-4ey(y Se rots aydyioi^ koX rats X^P^^^i i^^^^ov avTols
iav ^ [^ovTcjs] ixeivo)(TLV m /cayw • ^ et 8e ovk iyKparevovTai,

d'}.

yafxrja-aTcocrav KpeiTTOv yap eariv yafirjcrai yj irvpov-
crOai' ^^Tols Se yeyafJbrjKocrLv TrapayyeXkco ovk iyco, dXXa

» yhp for Se.
^ Add ^(TTti/.

'' Xoipifffia ex*'* ° ^^ M^'' •

* Omit oStus, and so also Lachm. Ed. 1. '

. . ts Se.
Kpe7a'ffov.

again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency. ^Now I say this
by permission, and not of commandment. "^And I would that all men
were even as I myself : howbeit every one hath his own gift of God,
one after this manner, and another after that.

^Now I say to the unmarried and to the widows. It is good for
them if they so abide even as I; ^but if they cannot contain, let them
marry : for it is better to marry than to burn. ^^ And unto the married
I command, — not J, but the Lord, Let not the wife depart from her

reading in the three cases rests
on the best MSS., A. B. C. D. E.

r. G.

6 o-aravas. 'The adversary,
who is always on the watch.'
Comp. Job i. 12.

Sia T^v aKpaa-iav. See on verse
2.

6 Kara arvyyviofJLTjv. This fixes
the sense of ix^roi in verse 2,
which the Apostle saw was liable
to misunderstanding.

7 xapto-jLta. This word, which
is usually employed for preter-
natural gifts, is here used for
moral and natural gifts.

8 Aeyw Be. 'Now, what I
mean is this.' Gomp. i. 12. He
here sums up his previous advice,
as if wishing to express it more
clearly for the different classes :
first, for the unmarried, verse 8,
of which the substance is the
same as verse 2 ; secondly, for
the married, in verse 10, with an
additional advice respecting se-
paration ; which leads him,
thirdly, to the new subject of

mixed marriages, which he dis-
cusses in 11-24 ; first, on its own
merits, 11-17 ; secondly, on the
general ground of Christianity
not changing the social condition
in which it finds us (18-27).

9 OVK ly Kparevovr ai must be
taken as one word, as a substi-
tute for aKparevovTai, which is
not admissible. (See Wetstein.)

10 The contrast here is, not
between the Apostle inspired
and the Apostle uninspired, but
between the Apostle's words and
an actual saying of our Lord, as
in Matt. v. 32 ; xix. 3-10 ; Mark
X. 11; Luke xvi. 18. The
Apostle follows the account in
the two latter Evangelists, in
omitting the exception to the
rule (TrapcKTO? Aoyov Tropvctas),
mentioned in Matt. v. 32. But
no stress can be laid upon the
omission in this place, because
he is speaking only of those cases
where there was a wish to sepa-
rate, without reference to adul-
tery.

MAEEIAOE.

103

b Kvpio<;, yvvoLKa oltto avhpos [Jir) ^xoipttjecrBaL ^^{iav 8e
/cat ^oipicrOfj^ ixeviro) aya/xos rj rw dvSpl KaTaWayrjTOji)
KOL dvopa yvvaiKo. firj dffnevai. ^^rots Se XotTTOts ^Xeyco
ey<u, ou^ 6 KvpLO^^ el tls d8eX<^os yvj^at/ca e)(€L OLincrTov
KoX ^avTT) avvevSoKel oIkclv /xer' aurou, /117 dtpiiro) avTriVy
^^ KoX yvvT) 17TIS e)(€c dvhpa aTnarTOV koI ^ovro^ crvvevhoKei
OLKeiv [xer avT7j<?, firj dcj^ieTco tov ^dvhpa' ^^'t^yiacrraL yap

Xaopiffdripai
avTi].

* a\n65.

" avT6v for rhv ikvSpa.

husband ^^ (but and if she depart, let her remain unmarried or be reconciled
to her husband) and let not the husband put away his wife. ^'~ But to the
rest say I, not the Lord : if any brother hath a wife that believeth not
and she be pleased to dwell with him, let him not put her away, ^^ and
the wife which hath an husband that believeth not and he be pleased to
dwell with her, let her not put away her husband. ^* For the un-

11 The Apostle speaks of the
women first, probably because,
according to the natural ten-
dency of the female character,
the religious scruples of the
wives on this subject had been
greater than those of the hus-
bands. Compare the vehemence
of the Jewish women against St.
Paul, Acts xiii. 50 ; and see also
1 Pet. iii. 1.

Xopta-Ofj, the natural expres-
sion for the wife, as not having
power to dismiss her husband ;
a<f>L€vai, the milder form for the
husband, although it is in verse
13 used also for the wife. The
words are taken from the phrase-
ology of legal divorce ; but the
cases here spoken of are not so
much regular divorces as acci-
dental separations, eav 8e kol
X^pi-crOyy * If she should in fact be
separated,'

12 Tots Se XotTTots. He now
returns to the case of mixed
marriages. This implies that
previously he had been speak-
ing only of marriages where
both parties were Christians.
On this subject he here de-

clares that he had not, as in
the other case, any actual pre-
cept of our Lord to refer to, and
therefore took it upon himself to
advise ; whence we may observe :
(1) The confidence with which,
in the absence of any such direct
declaration of Christ, he puts
forward his own judgment. (2)
The natural distinction between
the sayings of Christ, and the
sayings of the Apostles, as here
exemplified ; Christ laying down
the general rule, the Apostles
applying it to the particular
emergencies which arose out of
the relations of the particular
Churches with which they had
to deal.

13 d<fiUTO) TOV avSpa. Here is
a deviation from the phraseology
of verse 10, perhaps occasioned
by the Christian being regarded
as the superior party. But the
Greek and Roman law permitted
the wife as well as the husband
to seek divorce. (Plut. Ale. 8 ;
Gains, i. 127.)

14 iv Tw aScXc/xj), 'in the
brother,' i.e. 'in her Christian

104

FIBST EPISTLE: CHAP. VII. 15—16.

6 dinjp 6 aina'TOS iv rfj yvvaiKi^ koX y^yiao'TaL yj yvvrj rj
dina-TOs ip tw *d8eX<^a5, iirel dpa rd reKva vfjia>v dKaOap-
Ta ecTTLV, vvv be ay La ea-TLV, ^"^ €c oe o aTTtcrros ^oipiL<ETai^

• avipl for aSe\<f>^.

believing husband is hallowed by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is
hallowed by the brother ; else were your children unclean, but now are
they holy. ^* But if the unbelieving depart, let him depart. The brother

husband.' 'By virtue of the
Christianity of her husband.'

He here appeals to the com-
' Then are ^^^ feelin g of the Chris-
the children tian society, which re-
^^' garded the children of

Christian or mixed marriages as
belonging to God's people, in
order to show that in like man-
ner the unbelieving partner
must, from marriage to a Chris-
tian, also be classed amongst
God's people.

The passage, on the one hand,
is against the practice of infant
baptism in the Apostle's time.
For (1) he would hardly have
founded an argument on the de-
rivation of the children's holi-
ness from their Christian parent
or parents, if there had been a
distinct act by which the chil-
dren had themselves been ad-
mitted formally into the Chris-
tian society ; and (2) he would
not have spoken of the heathen
partner as being ' holy ' in the
same sense as the children were
regarded as ' holy,* viz. by con-
nexion with a Christian house-
hold, if there had been so obvious
a difference between the condi-
tions of the two, as that one was,
and the other was not baptized ;
(3) his argument thus under-
stood exactly agrees with the
Rabbinical rule about the baptism
of proselytes : ' If the female
proselyte is with child, there is
no need to baptise the child on

its birth ; for the mother's bap-
tism becomes a baptism for it.'
(Jebamoth, f. 78, 1).

On the other hand, the pas-
sage asserts the principle on
which infant baptism is founded,
(1) That family ties with a
Christian do in themselves con-
secrate those who are bound by
them ; and (2) That the children
of Christian parents may there-
fore be considered as amongst
the people of God, and that from
this would follow the natural
consequence that the whole
family would participate in the
same rites as belonged pro-
perly, and in the highest sense
only, to those members or that
member of it who was strictly a
believer : Bengel : * Est matri-
monium Christianum, est soboles
Christiana.' Such is the view
taken of the passage by Hooker.
(Ecc.Pol.V.lx.6.) Thus the in-
fluence of the mother naturally
prepared the son to receive
Christianity, even when the
father was adverse ; as in the
case of Timotheus, Augustine,
and Chrysostom.

rjyiaa-Tai. i.e. * is consecrated
to God by the marriage.'

eTTct apa, ' since in that case.'
Compare verse 10.

aKaOapra, 'profane' -- 'ex-
cluded from God's people ; ' as
in the case of ' unclean ' meats.
Compare Acts x. 14.
i vvv Se, ' but as it is.'

MAKKIAGE.

105

y(t)pi<[J.a6o). ov SeSouXwrat 6 aSeXc^os rj rj dSeXc^r) iv
TOL<; TOLOVTOL<;' ev Se elprjvrj KeKXrjKev r)fJias 6 Oeos. ^^tC

yap otoas, yupatt €i tov av

ivSpa

a(ocr€L<s ; rj ri oTSas, avepy

or the sister is not enslaved in such cases : but God hath called us in
peace. ^^ For what knowest thou, wife, whether thou shalt save thy
husband ? or what knowest thou, husband, whether thou shalt save

15 * It is true that the unbe-
lieving partner is consecrated by
the believing partner; but do not
carry this so far as to oppose se-
paration if it is desired, and con-
duces to peace. For the chance
of converting the heathen partner
is too remote to justify the breach
of harmony which such conduct
would occasion.'

This is not so much a permis-
sion of separation, as an assertion
that, if on other grounds a sepa-
ration has taken place, there is
no obligation on the Christian
partner to insist on a union, with
a view to the ultimate conversion
of the other. It is as though he
said : ' The general rule for Chris-
tians is, as our Lord declared,
that marriage is indissoluble : but
there is the special case (not
spoken of by Him), of those
marriages where only one partner
is Christian ; and in those no
one is bound to force the law of
Christianity on the reluctant hea-
then.'

cv 8e flprjvrj k€kX.7JK€v, in oppo-
sition to 8e8oi;A,(oTat. ' This is no
binding law for Christians ; on
the contrary, the first duty to
which we have been converted is
to live in peace with one another.'

16 yap is a reason for the
whole previous sentence. 'Do

not insist on a reluctant

TJnbeliev- . n ,i i

ing husband union ; lor tnou know-

fn^'gwSr" ®^* ^o* whether there

is such a prospect of

converting thy heathen partner as

to make such a union desirable.'
This interpretation is the only
one compatible with the obvious
sense of verse 15, and of the ex-
pression TL otSa? (not €t /xrji but)
ct (rwo-€t9 ; and is also in harmony
with the general tenor of the
Apostle's argument, which is not
to urge a union, but to tolerate
a separation. It is thus a so-
lemn warning against the gam-
bling spirit which intrudes itself
even into the most sacred mat-
ters, and is a remarkable proof
of the Apostle's freedom from
proselytism. Taken by itself, ct
might possibly be taken as iden-
tical with €t /xij — as in the ana-
logous Latin phrase, ' Haud scio
an ? ' and the Hebrew phrase,
* Who knows if ? ' equivalent
to ' It probably will happen '
(see 2 Sam. xii, 22 ; Joel ii. 14 ;
Jon. iii. 9) ; and accordingly the
sense put on the words was, * Re-
main together, for perhaps thou
mayest save thy partner,' till De
Lyra (in the 14th century) point-
ed out the objection to it. The
verse so understood has probably
conduced to the frequent in-
stances of the conversion of un-
believing husbands by believing
wives. Even the stern severity of
Chrysostom relaxes in its pre-
sence into the declaration that
' no teacher has such an effect in
conversion as a wife ; ' and this
passage, thus interpreted, pro-
bably had a direct influence on
the marriage of Clotilda with

106

FIRST EPISTLE: CHAP. VII. 17—21.

KV-

€L T7JV yvvaiKa crojcrei^; ei fir) eKacrrco ws efxepucrev o
pLOs, eKacTTOv ojs KeKkrjKev 6 ^^ed?, ovtcos TrepiTraTeLTO). Koi
ouTCtiS ivTOLS iKKKrqcriai^ Tracrai? BiaToicrcrofJiaL. ^^ irepLTeTfJiyj-
fteVos Tis IkXtjOt); /xt) iTnonrdaSa}''' iv aKpo^vo-Tia ^Ke-

KXrjTaCTLs; p^r) TrepLTepvicrOo). ^^7) TrepLToprj ovBei/ ecmv,

" 6 deSs.

^ KVpiOS.

Note. MS. C. is deficient between iTria-irda-eu'] and lyd^ea-eai, ix. 6,

* Tis iK\T}d7i for KeK^rjTai tis.

thy wife ? " But as the Lord distributed to every one, as God hath
called every one, so let him walk . And so ordain I in all the churches.
^^ Was any one called, being circumcised ? let him not become uncir-
cumcised. Has any one been called in uncircumcision ? let him not

Clovis,and Bertha wIthEthelbert,
and consequently on the subse-
quent conversion of the two great
kingdoms of France and England
to the Christian faith. However,
although this particular interpre-
tation be erroneous, yet the prin-
ciple on which it is founded is
sufficiently expressed in the 14th
verse, which distinctly lays down
the rule that domestic union can
reconcile the greatest differences
of religious belief.

17-24 He proceeds to ground
his advice on the general rule
that Christianity leaves our social
relations where it finds them.

17 ci firj, ' only.' This verse is
rather the conclusion of the pre-
vious sentence than the begin-
ning of the next. ' I have nothing

more to

say,

unless it he this.

For a similar irregularity in the
use of €1 fxyj see 2 Cor. iii. 1, and
the notes thereon.

The reading of the ancient
MSS. — 6 Kvptos with ijxipLo-e, and
6 Oeos with K€K\r]Kev — is remark-
able, as assigning the distribution
of the natural gifts and stations
of life, probably from the analogy
of the gifts of the Spirit, to Christ
as ' the Lord ; ' whilst the calling
of men to the Gospel by their
conversion is ascribed (as also in

verses 15, 24) to God.

From this general conclusion
springs a series of parallel in-
stances in confirmation of it : —

First Example. ' The Gentile
is not to become a Jew, nor the
Jew a Gentile.' The religious
distinction between the Jew and
Gentile is so completely lost sight
of by St. Paul, that he here classes
the division between them, not
among the spiritual, but the
purely social differences of the
human race.

18 iKXrjOr] . . . K€KXrjTaL, ' con-
verted to Christianity.'

iTTLcnrda-do), SC r^v aKpo^vcrTcav.
Whilst in the ancient Eastern
world circumcision was regarded
as a special sign of civilisation,
and the Israelites by adopting
it again were supposed to roll
off ' the reproach of Egypt ' (see
Bosenmiiller on Joshua, v. 9 ;
Ewald on Ezek. xxxii. 19, 24-
32), in later times it was re-
garded by the Greek and Ro-
man world as an opprobrious
mark of barbarism ; and, accord-
ingly, some Jews, in their desire
to accommodate themselves to
Grecian usages, endeavoured to
efface it. For this practice see
1 Maccabees, i. 15 ; Jos. Ant.
XII. V. 1; Buxtorf, Lex. Talm.

MAERIAGE.

107

Kol Tj oLKpofivcTTLa ovSip icTTiVy oXkoL T7]pr]cn<i ivToXcov Oeov.
^^eKacTTos iv rrj KkyjcreL rj CKkijOr], iv TavTy yevero). '^^ Sou-
be circumcised. ^^ Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing,
but the keeping of the commandments of God. ~^ Let every one abide
in the same calling wherein he was called. ^^ Wast thou called being a

1274 ; Celsus De Re Med. vii.
35 ; and the other passages in
Wetstein ; and an Essay of
Groddeck, ' De Judaeis praepu-
tiumattrahentibus,' appended to
Schottgen's Horae Hebraicae, vol.
ii. p. 1159.

19 In this, as in the two ex-
actly parallel passages, Gal. v.
6, vi. 15, the first clause is the
same, ' Circumcision availeth
nothing, nor uncircumcision ; '
thus asserting the two sides of
the Apostle's principle of indif-
ference to the greatest of the
Jewish ceremonies, exemplified
in his own conduct by the cir-
cumcision of Timotheus on the
one hand, and by the refusal to
circumcise Titus on the other
hand. The peculiar excellence
of the maxim is its declaration
that those who maintain the
absolute necessity of rejecting
forms are as much opposed to the
freedom of the Gospel as those
who maintain the absolute ne-
cessity of retaining them. In
contradistinction to this positive
or negative ceremonialism, he
gives, in the several clauses of
each of the three texts, his
description of what he maintains
to be really essential. The
variation of the three passages
thus becomes valuable, as ex-
hibiting in three several forms
the Apostle's view of the essen-
tials of Christianity — 'Keeping
the commandments of God,'
' Faith working by love,' * A new
creature.' These describe the
same threefold aspect of Chris-

tianity with regard to man, which
in speaking of God is described
under the names of the Father,
the Son, and the Spirit. In this
passage, where man is viewed
chiefly in his relation to the
natural order of the world, the
point which the Apostle wished
to impress upon his hearers was,
that in whatever station of life
they were, it was still possible
to observe * the commandments
of God * (perhaps with an implied
reference to the two great com-
mandments. Matt. xxii. 36-39).
In the two passages in the Epistle
to the Galatians (v. 6 ; vi. 15),
the more distinct reference to
faith in Christ, and to the new
creation wrought by His Spirit,
is brought out by the more
earnest and impassioned charac-
ter of the argument.

20 e/caofTOs ev Trf KArja-ei y
iKkriOrj, Iv Tavrrj /xeverw. . calling.'
The usual explanation
of this passage has been : ' Let
every one remain in the state of
life to which God has called him ; '
and from the Latin rendering —
' vocatio ' — of the Greek kX^o-is
has flowed the peculiar sense
which the words ' vocation,*
' calling,' &c. have acquired in
most European languages, as
applied to professions and con-
ditions of life. That such an
interpretation suits the general
context of the passage is obvious ;
and the hold which it has thus
acquired on the language of
Christendom, is a good instance
of the instinct with which the

108 FIRST EPISTLE: CHAP. VII. 22.

\o^ iKXijOrjs; fJt^T] croL joteXeVw aW el /cat Svvacrai iXevOepo^

slave ? care not for it ; but if thou mayest be made free, use it rather.

spirit of the Apostle has sometimes
been caught, in spite and almost
in consequence of a mistake of
the letter, as in other instances
the spirit has been lost through
an adherence to the letter. That
this explanation of the words is
mistaken, can hardly be doubted;
for (1) he is not speaking in this
particular in stance of a profession
or ' calling ' in our sense of the
word, but of the state of circum-
cision or uncircumcision of Jew
and of Gentile. (2) The word
K\y]<TL<s, KaX.€Lv, &c. (though in
Dion. Hal. Ant. iv. 20, used in a
somewhat analogous sense, as a
Grecized form of the Roman
word ' classis ') is in the N. T.
never applied to anything else
than the call of God to His
kingdom through conversion ;
and is so applied here throughout
the rest of the context, as in
verses 17, 18, 21, 24. As used,
therefore, in this particular in-
stance, the sense, although harsh,
must be, ' Seek not to change
from circumcision to nncircum-
cision, or from uncircumcision to
circnmcision. Either of these
two states has been sanctified by
its being the one in which God
chose to call you to a knowledge
of Christ. Let every one rest
contented with that mode of
calling hy wliicJi he was called at
his conversion. Do not seek a
new mode of conversion ; the
mode which you have experienced
is sufficient.' Bengel : — ' Status,
in quo vocatio quaeque offendit,
instar vocationis est.* Compare
i. 26.

Second Example. 2 1 ' The
slave is not to become free.'

The question here is, whether to
understand IXivOepCa or SovXeia,
after xp^^^'- ' whether the sense
is, ' Take advantage of
the offer of freedom;' Sien'
or, ' Remain in slavery,
though the offer is made.'
It is one of the most evenly
balanced questions in the inter-
pretation of the New Testament.
(1) xprja-acTnaj either be ' choose,'
or 'make use of,' although it
leans rather to the former, and
thus favours the first interpreta-
tion. (2) el KUL may either be,
* If, besides, thou hast the offer,'
or, ' Even if thou hast the offer,'
although it leans rather to the
latter, and thus favours the
second interpretation. The sense
of this particular verse favours
the first ; for, unless the Apostle
meant to make an exception to
the rule which he was laying
down, why should he introduce
this clause at all ? The sense of
the general context is in favour
of the second: for why should
the Apostle needlessly point out
an exception to the principle of
acquiescence in existing con-
ditions of life, which he is so
strongly recommending ? The
language and practice of the
Apostle himself, as described in
the Acts, favour the first inter-
pretation — e. g. his answer at
Philippi, ' they have beaten us
without a trial, and imprisoned
us, being Roman citizens ; . . . .
nay, let them come themselves
and take us out ' (Acts xvi. 37) ;
and to the tribute at Jerusalem,
' but I was free born ' (Acts xxii.
28). The general feeling of the
church, as implied in the Epistles

MARRIAGE.

109

yeuicrdaij fxaXKop ^prjcrai. ^^6 yap iv Kvpio) K\rj0els Sov-
Xos oLTreKe-uOepo^ Kvpiov io-TLv 6fJLOiO)<i^ 6 iXevdepos kXtj-

' Sfioioos Kai.

^^ For he that was called in the Lord being a slave, is the Lord's freed-
man : likewise he that was called, being free, is Christ's slave. ^^ Ye

and in this passage, favonrs the
second interpretation ; it would
hardly have seemed worth while
to grasp at freedom in the pre-
sence of the approaching dissolu-
tion of all things ; and the
apparent preference thns given
to slavery may be explained on
the same grounds (see verses 29,
30) as the apparent preference
given to celibacy. The com-
mentators before the Reformation
have chiefly been in favour of the
second ; since, in favour of the
first ; but Chi'ysostom observes
that, in his time there were some
who adopted the view favourable
to liberty ; as also, th ere have been
some Protestant divines (e. g.
Luther) who have adopted the
view favourable to slavery. The
argument, though very doubtful-
ly, seems to incline to the second ;
and the whole parage is then
expressive of comfort to the slave
under his hard lot, with which
the Apostle sympatliises, and
which he tenderly alleviates (as
in Philem. 16, 17), though not
wishing him to leave it. And
if, as is probable, the prospect of
liberty, to which the Apostle
alludes, aiose from the fact of
the master being a Christian,
this sense of the passage would
be still further illustrated and
confirmed by 1 Tim. vi. 2 : ' Let
not [the slaves] that have be-
lieving masters despise them,
because they are brethren, but
rather serve them (dAAa yJaXKov
ZovXeviriaa-av).

22 6 iv Kvptw K\r]9€L<;. The
words, ' in the Lord,' which in
themselves are superfluous, are
here added for the sake of the
play on the word KvpLo<s, ' the
master of the slave ; ' iv Kvpuo
KXrjOels is thus equivalent to the
phrase KXrjTot^ dyioL<s in i. 1,
'converted, or called by the
name of the Lord's servants.*
' He who has been converted so
as to be in communion with the
Lord, though a slave, is the
Lord's freedman ; ' i.e. (not in
the common sense in which a
man is said to be the freedman
of his former master, but) in the
general sense in which a man
may be said to be the freedman
of him who has made him free.
(€A€t;^€pos= liber ; d7r€X€v^e/oos=
libertus.)

23 This may be taken either:
(1) parenthetically, like the first
interpretation of verse 21, and
in connexion with it, ' You are
Christ's freedmen, do not become
slaves if you can avoid it ; '
alluding, possibly to the practice
of 'auctoratio,' or selling of one's
self, frequent in great slave-
markets such as must have been
at Corinth (see Petron. Sat. 117,
quoted in Heydenreich, ad loc.) ;
or, (2) as part of the general
argument, * You are Christ's
freedmen, do not allow your
outward condition of slavery to
degrade you into becoming really
slaves of men ; therefore rest
contented in your condition ; ' or,
(3) As a general moral growing

110

FIRST EPISTLE: CHAP. VII. 23—28.

0€L^ 8ouXo9 icTTLV ^icTTOv. ^^TLfxrjs TjyopdcrOrjTe* jjurf
yiveaOe hovkoi dvOpcoircov. ^^eiFcacrros iv w iKXijOrj, dSeX-
<^oi, ei> TOVTCp jxeveTO) irapd ^OeS.

^^Ilepl Se Tcjv TTapOivoiv kTnrayrjp Kvpiov ovk €)(0),
yva>fjir)v 8e SCScofjiL ws rjXerjjJL€vos vno Kvpiov 7TLcrT0<; elvai,
^^vofxi^o) ovp TovTO Kakov vTTOLp^eiv hid Tr)v kvearcxicrav

were bought with a price ; become not the slaves of men. "* Let
every one wherein he was called, brethren, therein abide with God.
2^ Now concerning virgins I have no commandment of the Lord, but I
give mv judgment as one that hath obtained mercy of the Lord to be
faithful ^^ [ suppose therefore that this is good on account of the present

out of the whole passage, and
suggested by some association
or circumstance with which we
are not acquainted. ' You are
Christ's fi'eedmen, do not become
the slaves of human power or
opinion, by wishing to alter your
station either from fear of others,
or at their instigation.'

If there were more ground for
the third, it would make the best
sense ; but on the whole, the
second is most suitable to the
context. Any way it is an as-
sertion of the spiritual freedom
imparted by Christianity, and
intended to counteract any servile
spirit, which might have been
encouraged by the doctrine of
acquiescence in slavery.

ti/atJs rfyopdcrOrjTe. See vi. 20.

24 €v w eKXrjdr], ' in the condi-
tion in which he was converted.'

Trapa ^c(3, ' in the presence of
God,' i.e. ' he is nearer to God
by remaining in his station, than
by retiring from it. ' If the third
interpretation of verse 23 be
correct, then there will be a
naturalcontrast intended between
avOpwTTCiiv and Trapa ^ew : ' Do
not, by changing your position-'
become the slaves of men^ when,
by remaining in your position.

you are in the presence and
neighbourhood of God.^

25 Another question seems to
have been put, concerning the
duty of parents in giving their
daughters in marriage . Trap^ei/wv,
though it might include men,
here is ' young women.'

Here, as in 12, he replies that
in this case, which, like the
former, was a particular emer-
gency not falling under any
general rule, he had no command
of Christ to give, but spoke with
the authority of an Apostle.

This passage has furnished the
two words yviofiTj and cTrtray^,
which the vulgate translates
' consilium ' and ' praeceptum,'
' advice ' and ' command,' the
origin of the famous distinction
of later times between ' counsels
of perfection,' and ^precepts.*
(Cp. 2 Cor. viii. 8-10.) In this
passage the distinction lies only
in the fact (as in verse 6) that one
was a command of Christ, the
other his own opinion, although
pronounced with Apostolical au-
thority.

TTto-Tos, 'trustworthy, as a
steward of the Gospel ' (iv. 2 ;
1 Tim. i. 12).

26-36 He first repeats his

MAERIAaE.

Ill

avdyKiqVi on KaXov avOpcoTrco to outoj? etvai. ^'^SeSecrai
yvvaiKL ; (jlt) ^t7T€(, Xvo-lv • XeXvcrat 0,770 yvvaLKo^ ; fJ^rj ^yJTeL
yvvaiKa. eav oe KaL ya[JLi^a-rjs, ov^ iqixapre^^^ /cat eavyrjfJLrj
[17] irapOevo^, ov^ rjfxapTev OX'lxJjlv 8e rrj o-apKL e^ovcriv ol

» 'yi\fxris.

distress, that it is good for a man so to be. ^^ Art thou bound unto a
wife ? seek not to be loosed : are thou loosed from a wife 1 seek not a
wife. ^^But and if thou art married, thou didst not sin, and if the
virgin married, she did not sin : but such will have trouble in the

general opinion, as before in
verse 1, but now with the addi-
tion that his reason for prefer-
ring the single state is the ap-
proaching distress ; and, through-
out, his opinion is given with a
special reference (see verses 28,
34) to the particular case of the
unmarried daughters, now before
his mind.

26 8ta T^v ev€(rT(U(rav avdyK-qv.
< The present This was taken by early-
distress.' commentators to mean

* on account of the inconvenience
entailed upon you by the press-
ing cares of marriage ; ' so as to
make it a general rule applying
alike to all times. But such an
interpretation is incompatible
both with the words and context.
For (1) avdyKT] is used in 2 Cor.
vi. 4; xii. 10; 1 Thess. iii. 7;
and especially Luke xxi. 23 (co-rat
avdyKT] fJL€yaXr]), for * distress ; '
and in the LXX. is used to trans-
late ni^-l^ftp = ^Xii/rts. (Ps. cxix.
143 ; Zeph. i. 16.) (2) iv€a-Tu>.
<Tav is not ' pressing ' in any pas-
sage in the N. T., but is always
used either for 'present' (as in
iii. 22 ; Rom. viii. 38, in both
which it is opposed to fxiWovra ;
Gal. i. 4 ; Heb. ix. 9), or for

* impending' (as in 2 Thess. ii. 2 ;
2 Tim. iii. 1). And this suits
perfectly the general context in
28-31. The allusion is to the
impending calamities which form

the groundwork of Matt. xxiv.
8, &c., which were known to the
Jews as the ' pangs of the Mes-
siah,' the natural accompani-
ments of His coming, and which
were fulfilled in the disturbances
which burst over the Roman
world on the death of N'ero.

The form of the sentence
seems to be an anacoluthon. on
KaXov dvdpoiTTia to ovTOi^ {sc. irap-
Oevov) etvat is a repetition of

TOVTO KoXoV V7rdp)(€LV.

KaXov here is used as in verse
1, but is in this place qualified
(1) by the annexed reason, 8ta
TYjv dvdyKrjVf (2) by the positive
assertion in verse 28 (ovx
Tjixaprev) of the lawfulness of
marriage.

dvOpfOTTu} is general, for women
as well as men.

28 iav Se Koi yafxyj(rrj<;. ' If,
further, thou art married, there
was no sin in the act.'

■q Trap9ivo<s. The article seems
to mean ' the unmarried daughter,
of whose case I speak.'

iyu) Be v/x-cuv cfyeiSo/xai. Either :
(1) ' I refrain from dilating on
these evils, to save you from the
pain of hearing them ; ' see 2
Cor. xii. 6 ; or, (2) ' I give you
this advice to save you from these
afflictions.* The emphatic eyw
(in contrast to ol tolovtol) favours
the second. The old explanation,
' I allow marriaofe to be lawful.

112

FIRST EPISTLE : CHAP. VII. 29—34.

TOLOVTOL^ iyo) Se vfjucov (j)€LSofJLaL. ^^TOVTO 8e (j)rj[JiLi aSe\(l)OL^
^6 Acaipo? orvveoTTaXfJievo^^' icTTLV, to Xolttov iva /cat ^olh/ov-
T€s yvvaiKa<; w? jut) e^ovre^ (ocriv^ ''^ /cat ot fcAatoz^Tes o)<; fXTf
KkaiovTe^i koL ol ^aipovre^ o)? ^17 ^aipovTe^, koI ot ayopd-
tpvre^ a)<; firj Kare-^ovTes^ ^^ kol ol -^cofjievoL ^tov Koap^ov
COS /xt} Karaxp^H-^^oi ' Trapdyei yap to cr^T^/^a roG koo-jjlov

* Srt i Kaip6s. ^ rh \onr6u icrriu, = Omit oi. '^ t^ K6(r/xef rovrcp.

flesh, but J spare you. ^^ But this I say, brethren, the time is short,
that henceforth both they that have wives be as though they had none,
^^ and they that weep as though they wept not, and they that rejoice as
though they rejoiced not, and they that buy as though they possessed
not, ^^ and they that use this world as not abusing it : for the fashion

as a condescension to your in-
firmities,' is contrary to the spirit
of the Apostle.

29 TovTO Se <f>r)fii. Not expla-
natory like Xeyo) 8c tovto in i. 12,
but for emphasis.

(TvvecTTaXixevos, ' short,' ' con-
tracted into a small compass,' —
as we say, * living many years in
one.' Compare Matt. xxvi. 45 :
* The hour is at hand.'

iva, i. e. 'This is the object
of the calamities in God's provi-
dence.'

TO Xolttov may be taken : (1)
with Lva, ' that for the future ; '

(2) as the nominative to eo-n, 'it
remains that they should be ; '

(3) with o Kaipos orweo-TaX/A€vos,
' The time is short for the future '
(i.e. till the Advent). The first,
as in Lachmann's punctuation, is
the best.

30 Karexovres, ' possessing to
the full,' as in 2 Cor. vi. 10; and
as d7r6;j(ovo-i in Matt. vi. 2.

3 1 Kara^wfjievoL, ' using to
excess.' Compare ix. 18, and see
also xi. 32. ' This,' says Bengel,
'is a true description of Chris-
tian self-denial. It is not pos-
sessed by those, qui habent ut
qui habeant et diuhabituri sint.'

XpyjcrOai never occurs with an
accusative in the New Test, ex-

cept in this place ; also in clas-
sical Greek only twice (Xen.
Ages. xi. 11 ; and a Cretan in-
scription, Bockh, Corp. Inscr. ii.
400). Hence the true reading
Tov Koa-fxov of A. B. D'. F. G. is
altered to tw Koa-fno in D^.E.J.K.
TTapdyec yap to (T^p.a, ' for the
outward scene or fisfure

/. ■ 1 . T -, . ° . * The fashion

of this world is passing of this world
[or is to passl away, passeth

t i? x-L X 1 away.'

before the great change
which shall bring about the resti-
tution of all things.' For the
sense see Kev.- xxi. 1 : ' And I
saw a new heaven and a new
earth : for the first heaven and
the first earth were passed away.'
The whole passage well illus-
trates the feeling of the early
Church, in expectation of the
near approach of the Second
Advent. For the words comp. 2
Esd. xvi. 40-44: perhaps imi-
tated from this : ' In those evils
be even as pilgrims upon the
earth. He that selleth let him
be as he that fleeth away ; and
he that buyeth as one that will
lose; he that occupieth merchan-
dise as he that hath no profit by
it; and he that buildeth as he
that shall not dwell therein ; he
that soweth as if he should not
reap ; so, also, he that planted

MAEKIAGE.

113

TOVTOVj u€ko) oe u/xas aixepifivov; eLvai. o ayajjios /xe-
pifjiva ra rov Kvpuov, ttws apea-j) tco Kvpico. ''''o oe yafir)-
ora^ ixepniva ra rov KoafJiov, 7r(o<s ^apecrr) rrj yvvaiKi^
^^ K(U ixefiepLCTTaL, /cat rj yvvrj rj aya/xo9 kol tj irapOivo^

* apecrei. * Mefi4pnTTai ri yvvrj Koi rj irapQivos.

of this world passeth away, ^^ but I would have you without carefulness.
He that is unmarried careth for the things that are of the Lord, how 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, ^^and is divided. Both
the wife who is unmarried and the virgin who is unmarried careth for the

the' yineyard as lie that shall not
gather the grapes. They that
raarry as they that shall get no
children; and they that marry
not as the widowers.' For the
actual realisation of this by the
Christians, comp. Arrian (Epiot.
iv. 7) : ' The Galileans are to
their wives and children as
though they made nothing of
them, or had them not.' Also
Ep. ad Diogn. 5, 6. For the
general sense comp. 2 Kings v.
26 ; Isa. xxiv. 1, 2 ; Ezek. vii.
12 ; 13 ; Matt. x. 37.

32 ^eXd) Sc. This begins a
new thought, though immediate-
ly connected with the preceding,
like cyo) 8c ifidv <^€i8o/jtat in
verse 28.

32, 33, 34 The variation of
reading and punctuation in this
passage has more influence on
the meaning of the text, than in
any other in the Epistle. The
best sense is produced by re-
taining (with A. B.) Kttt after
fxcfi€pL(TTai, and by omitting rj
aya/xos after yvvrj (with D. E. F.
G. J. K.). In that case the
sense of the whole passage (32-
34) will be : ' I wish that you
should have no worldly anxiety.
The unmarried man has indeed
anxiety, but it is for the cause of
Christ; but the married man
has the additional anxiety about
■worldly matters, and the gra-

tification of his wife and is thus
divided between the in- ^ai Mf/^epi-
terests of Christ and «''■*'
of the world. In like manner
both the married and the un-
married woman have an anxiety
to please Christ, and be ready
for His coming ; but the married
woman has besides the additional
anxiety to please her husband.'
The sense of ^i^iptcrrai thus cor-
responds to its meaning in i. 13,
i.e. 'is distracted' (like yutcp-
firjpiiev in Homer, which Eus-
tath. (on II. i. 189) explains by
fxepL^icrOai), and to aTrepto-Trao-TOJ?
in verse 35, whereas in the Re-
ceived Text and Authorised
Version, it must bear the harsh
meaning, ' the wife and the un-
married woman are different from
each other. ^ The change of tense
from fiepifxva to the perfect in
fjL€fji€pi€rTaL may be accounted for
by the absence of any present
form /Acpt^cTttt. The severity of
the condemnation of the married
state, as if it allowed only of
care for the things of this world,
is considerably mitigated by this
reading, which ascribes the evil
not to its exclusively worldly
character, but to its division of
interests.

If 7) aya/AOs is (with A. B.)
retained after yvvrj, the sense
will then be ' the widow.*

Tischendorf has the Kat after

114

FIRST EPISTLE: CHAP. VII. 35—39.

7) ayafxos fxepifJiva ra rov KvpCov, Iva rj ayia [fcai] ^Tft>
(rcjfJLaTL Kal tS TrvevfJiaTu' rj Se ya/XT^cracra fxepifjiva tol tov
KOCfJiov, 770)9 apecrrj ro) avopi. ""tovto oe irpo^ to v/jlcji/
avTcov ^ aTJiMcf^opov Xeyo), ov^ tVa ^po^ov vplv eVtySaXo),
dXXa TTpos TO evo^rjfxov kol ^ evirdpeSpov rw KvpLO) arrepi-
cnracTTO)^. €i oe ns acr^ixoveiv em ttjv irapuevov avTov

» Kal ffw/JLari Ka\ wpevfiaTi. ^ apecei. <= crvficpepou. ^ evirpdcreSpov.

tilings of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit : but
she that is married careth for the thmgs of the world, how she may 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 seemly, and that ye may attend
upon the Lord without distraction. ^^ But if any one suppose that he

fxefxipia-Tai, but loses the advan-
tage of it by a punctuation
similar to that of the Rec.
Text.

35 This is a qualification (like
verse 6) to prevent misunder-
standing.

TO v/Awv avToiV (TVficfi.f ' this is
for yoitr own advantage.'

l3p6xov i7n/3dX.ui is a metaphor
taken from hunting (Xen. Yen.
ii. 5), apparently not from lay-
ing a trap, but from throwing a
lasso; so that the sense here
would be (not ' a snare for your
consciences,' but) ' a violent ne-
cessity on your wills.'

cuTrapeSpov, /xept/xva, aTrcpia-ira-
aro)?. The image conveyed by
these three words is exactly ex-
pressed by the story in Luke x.
39-42, of Mary '' sitting by the
side of Jesus' feet ' (tt a p a /ca-
Ota-aa-a. comp. cuTrapeSpov), and
Martha * who was cumbered (ttc-
pteo-TTctTo) with much serving,'
and ' careful (/Acpt/xms) about
many things.'

For the use of /xept/xva for
* anxiety,' see Matt. vi. 25, 27,
28, 34.

36 He returns to the more
especial subject of the unmar-
ried daughters, apparently sug-

gested by the word eva-xyj/J'OV
(^= TO Trpiirov).

' I give this advice with a
view to what is becoming; but
if any father thinks,' &c. What
follows may be either, (1) ' That
he is behaving unbecomingly to
his unmarried daughter, by ex-
posing her to the temptations
to which she is liable from not
being married ; ' or, (2) ' Tha^
he incurs what is unbecoming, by
having an unmarried daughter
in his house.'

In behalf of the first may be
urged: (1) The probable sense
of d(r)(rjP'OV€i in xiii. 5 ; (2)
The temptation of the daughter,
seemingly implied in the words
virepaKfjios . . . yafxetTOiorav ; (3)
The greater suitableness of this
sense with the words eVt rrjv
TrapOevov.

In behalf of the 2nd may be
urged : (1) The numerous ex-
amples of d(r)(r}fjt.oveiv, in the
sense of * incurring shame,'
quoted in Wetstein ; (2) The
undoubted disgrace which at-
tached to a Jewish (and perhaps
generally to an Eastern) father
from his daughter remaining un-
married. See Ecclus. xlii. 9 :
' The father waketh for the

MAEEIAGE.

115

vofjLL^ei^ eav fj v7repaAC/A09, kol ovtojs 6(j)ei\eL yivecrOaiy o
Oekei TTOteiTCf)* ov^ d/xaprai^et, yafieiTcocrap. ^^os Se ecTTrj-
K€V ^ev TTj KapSia avTOv eS/oato?, fJLT) e^oiv avdyKr)v^ i^ov-
(Tiav Se l^ei Trepl rov ISlov ^eXTj/xaro?, kol tovto KeKpuKev
iv Trj (*) KapSta,^ rrjpeiv ttjv iavTOv napOevov, /caXais
^TTOirjO'ei, ^^(ucrre /cat 6 ^yafjii^cjv ^ttjv irapOivov kavrov
/caXo)? TTOtet, */cat 6 pLT) ^yafiC^cov Kpeiaaov ^TroirjaeL.
'^"yvvrj oeoeraL e<p ocroi^ ^ovov Qr) o avrjp auxT^s* eav oe

• eSpaios iv r^ KapSia. om. outoiJ. *" KapSia avrov, rov Tf]piiv.

« irotc?. ^ iKyafil^wv. * Om. t^j/ irapQivov eavrov.

' 6 8e. * xote?. ^ SeSerot »/d/A(jp.

(*) Lachm. omits ISla here on a mistaken belief that it is omitted in B. It is,
however, both in A. and B., and should be restored.

behaveth himseK unseemly toward his virgin, if she pass the flower of
her age, and need so require, let him do what he will : he sinneth not,
let them marry. ^'^ But he that standeth steadfast in his heart, having
no necessity, but hath power over his own will, and hath so judged in his
heart, that he will keep his own virgin, will do well. ^^ So then he that
giveth his own virgin in marriage doeth well, and he that giveth her not
in marriage will do better. ^^ The wife is bound as long as her husband
liveth ; but if her husband be fallen asleep, she is free to be married to

daughter when no man knoweth,
and the care for her taketh away
sleep: when she is young, lest
she pass the flower of her age '
(Trapa/c/xacny) . And it was a
Rabbinical saying. 'If your
daughter be past the marriage-
able age, release your slave to
give him to her for a husband.'

ovToos o^etXet, i. e. ' by reason
of the temptation or sin into
which she has fallen.'

ya//,€tT(ocrav, i. e. ' the daughter
and her lover.'

37 eSpaiog, of firm character,
and therefore not swayed by ap-
prehensions of this kind.'

fjirf €^a)v avdyKrjv, ' under no
compulsion from his daughter's
character or temptations ; ' op-
posed to ovToi<s oc^etXct.

iiovoTLav 8k exet, 'but having
the power of doing what he likes,
without regard to external cir-
cumstances.'

•nypctv, ' to keep her at home.'
The construction of rov Trjpuv
K€KpLK€v (as in D. G. and Rec.
Text) is justified by Acts xxvii.

The whole tone of this passage
is determined by the assumption
(natural in Greek and Jewish
society) that the daughter, whilst
yet in her father's house, had no
will of her own in the matter ;
he was entirely responsible for
her, and hence the application to
him of some expressions (as in
37), which seem properly only
applicable to her. See Grotius,
ad h. loc,

3 9 One more question remains :
' Whether widows are to marry
again ? ' Here we have the germ
of the metaphor in Rom. vii. 1-
6; from which later copyists
have inserted vouco, omitted in
A. B. BK F.

iv KvpL(o, ' as in communion

116

FIRST EPISTLE: CHAP. VII. 40.

KOi^rjOfi 6 avrjp,"' ikevOepa io-Tiv w Oekeu yafJLTjOrjvaL^ fiopov

Kvpi(a

[xaKapLcoTepa Se €<ttlv eav ovtcj jJi^ivri^ Kara
SoKCJ 8e Kayo) wvevfia 0eov e^eii^.

■ Add avTTJs.

whom she will, only in the Lord. ^But she is happier if she so abide,
after my judginent : and I also think that I have the Spirit of God.

with Christ : ' referring especi-
ally to marrying a Christian
husband.

40 SokC), * I trust.'

Kayio. ' I, as well as other
brethren.' This he adds to give

weight to his advice, aa having
the authority of the Spirit,
though not supported by any
direct saying of our Lord. Cp.
ver. 25.

Paraphrase of Chap. YII. 1—40.

In ansioer to the questions of your letter I reply :

I. That the single state is best. But with the following
qualifications :

( 1 ) That, because of the numerous temptations to sin, mar-
riage is good for all who cannot control their passions,

(2) That for the same reason married persons should not
separate from each other, except on great and solemn occasions,

for a time ; and against complete separation there is an express
prohibition recorded from Christ Himself implying, that, if a
separation should have taken place, the parties are not at liberty
to marry again,

(3) That in the case of marriages between heathens and
Christians, for which no express command has been left by
Christ, but for which I speak with Apostolical authority, the
heathenism of one of the parties is no reason for separation
(except lohere the continuance of the union would lead to dis-
cord), on the ground : (a) That family ties with a Christian
consecrate to God^s service, and so unite together those who in
themselves are of different religions, (b) That there is a
general presumption (on which I act not only at Corinth but
everywhere) in favour of remaining in the same outward cir-
cumstances as those in which we were ivhen converted to
Christianity, This rule applies not only to marriage, but to

MAREIAGE. 117

every condition of life ; for example, to the ttvo greatest dif-
ferences of station which can be conceived, the great national
distinction of Jew and Gentile^ and the great social distinction
of slave and free. In the first, remember that, ivhether Jew or
Gentile, in both states you can keep the true commandments of
God, In the second, remember that, whether slave or free, you
must never lose the true spiritual freedom of the Gospel,

II. In answer to your second question, about the duty of
giving your unmarried daughters in marriage, it is again a
case on which no express command has been left by Christ.
But I venture again myself to reply with Apostolical autho'
rity : —

(1) That the single state is best: (a) On account of the
impending distress, which ought not, indeed, to dissolve existing
ties, but is a reason against your forming new ties amidst the
approaching dissolution of all human relations ; (b) On ac-
count of the new cares which the married state imposes, and
which are especially unsuitable when we ought all to be looking
with undivided attention to the service of the lord.

(2) But that, if there is any fear of a breach of Christian
decency by the delay of marriage, then the daughter is to be
allowed to marry,

III. Widows had better not marry again, but they may.

The Apostle's View of Celibacy.

In considering the Apostle's recommendation of celibacy, it is
necessary to remember that we have here only half, as it were,
of the Apostolical mind. If, indeed, this passage stood alone in
the New Testament, we might then be justified in taking it as
an absolute preference of the single to the married state. But,
inasmuch as there are other passages^ which speak of marriage
not only without condemnation, but with high commendation, it

^ Col. iii. 18, 19 ; Eph. v. 22-33 ; Heb. xiii. 4 ; 1 Pet. iii. 1-7 ;
] Thess. iv. 4.

118

FIEST EPISTLE.

is obvious that the passage before us must be understood as
The Apo- expressing only one side of the truth. ^ And it is also
stle's view clear that of the two, it is this passage which must be
given not qualified and corrected by the others, not vice versa,
his whole inasmuch as he is here addressing himself to the answer
^^®^* of a particular question put to him under particular

circumstances ; in the others he is speaking without reserve on
the general duties of a Christian life, and in Eph. v. 22-23 the
marriage state, so far frombeing spoken of as a state of defilement
or inferiority, represents the highest communion of which human
society is capable, that between Christ and the Church. This
conclusion, to which we should arrive, even before a considera-
tion of the passage in detail, is greatly strengthened by such a
consideration. The preference of celibacy, although stated
absolutely at first (vii. 1, 7, 8), is afterwards expressly founded
on the impending calamities of the time (vii. 26-31), and, ap-
parently in connexion with this, on the greater freedom thereby
afforded from worldly cares (vii. 32-35). In one instance,
that of the recommendation to widows not to marry (vii. 8, 40),
we have in a later Epistle a precept,^ by which this very
recommendation is expressly reversed ; and, whilst there is no
trace in this passage of any belief in the superior sanctity or
purity of celibacy in itself, the prohibition of marriage on that
ground is elsewhere ^ classed among the signs of a false and
dangerous system.

And further, that the Apostle's view was not identical with
Different ^^ ascetic views which prevailed a few centuries
from later later is remarkably illustrated by the fact, that there
asce icism. ^^ ^^ portion of the Epistles where the hand of later
copyists and interpreters, endeavouring to conform the text to
their own notions, is more clearly visible. It is sufiScient to
refer to the notes, showing the alteration of o-xoXdarjTS to
(T')(o'\d^7]T£, and rjrs to avvEp')(T)a6£, and the addition of vrjo-rslaf
in vii. 5 ; the alteration of fjusfispto-rai, in vii. 34, and perhaps
of Tr)v 6<f>sCkr]v in vii. 3 ; also the obviously strained interpre-

^ Bengel : — ' Ssepe Apostoli in
Epistolis de conjugio agunt. Unus
Paulus semel, nee sponte sua, sed
interrogatus cselibatum suadet, idque
lenisdme.' With the exception of
the last clause, which is an over-

statement of the case, this is a fair
summary of the whole argument.

~ Such is the probable sense of
vecoTepas in 1 Tim. v. 14.

3 1 Tim. iv. 1-3.

THE APOSTLE'S VIEW OE CELIBACY.

119

tations of koXov in vii. 1, of jvrofjLrjv in 25, of svsaTcocrav in 26,
and of ^slBofiat in 28.

Again, his preference must be taken with three strong quali-
fications : First, it is evident that the Apostle's Qualified-
peculiar temperament, which he himself describes i. As being
(vil 7) as favourable to celibacy, has here found g^'^j^^j^^l'^ls'
its natural expression. If according to the Jewish natural tem-
story ' of his early affection for the High Priest's perament.
daughter, he had ever entertained the intention of marriage, it
had been long abandoned ; and he was now distinguished from
his brethren (ix. 5, 6) as the only unmarried Apostle. But
he never confounds his individual peculiarity with Christianity
itself. His whole language indicates the struggle between the
two. He warns us that it is he who speaks, and not Christ.
He claims for his recommendation no higher authority than
what the reason of the particular time demanded.

Secondly, he states what that reason was : namely, the im-
pending calamities which, though not here expressly h. as
stated to be the precursors of the end of the world, given in
were then generally understood so to be ; and this tkm of the
brings us to a point on wliich we are forewarned by end of the
Christ Himself, that even Apostles might be in error,
for ' of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no not the
angels in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.'

Thirdly, his expressions must be taken with the qualifications
arising from the fact, that the moral and spiritual ad-
vantages of Christian marriage had not yet developed g^yen with-
themselves. To a certain extent the highest form of out regard
Koman marriage exhibited an image of the union of ^ai pur- °"
man and wife for high moral purposes ; and the same poses of
may be said of some of the Jewish marriages re- ^^^^^^S^-
corded in the Old Testament and the Apocrypha. But even
in these the sterner rather than the gentler affections were
called forth ; and, in the Greek and Eastern provinces gene-
rally, marriage was little more than what the Apostle describes
it, good only as preventing worse evils. The rule laid down

^ Epiph. adv. Hser. xxx. 16. It
has been argued (though without
sufficient ground to bring convic-
tion), that St. Paul must have been
once the father of a family, else he

could not, by the Jewish law, have
been a member of the Sanhedrin.
(See Conybeare and Howson, Life
of St. Paul, vol. i. p. 95, 2nd ed.)

120 FIEST EPISTLE.

by the Koran,^ probably for the same reason, resembles that of
the Apostle. We have seen that his denunciations of Greek
wisdom must not be extended, without qualification, to that
higher philosophy of Socrates and Plato, which to him was only
known through the representations of the later sophists and
rhetoricians. In like manner, his denunciations of marriage
must not be extended, without qualification, to that intimate
union of pure domestic aflTections, which rose out of the com-
bination of the Teutonic and Christian elements, and produced
a state of life as far beyond the Apostle's view, as the free
commonwealths of modern Europe, or the growth of Christian
art, philosophy, and literature.

But, while thus distinguishing between a general rule and
Conclu- a particular recommendation, there is, doubtless, a
Bions. preference accorded to celibacy ; and taking this pre

ference as it stands, two practical inferences may be deduced
from the broad principle which, as thus stated, it contains : —
First, there are extraordinary circumstances in Christian, as
I Sanction ^^^^^ ^^ ^^ political life, under which the ordinary rules
of extra- of right or of expediency may be suspended or super-
ordinary gede^ by a higher claim. The Apostolical preference
under ex- of a single life in consequence of the then impending

traordi- calamities still holds ffood in analogous circumstances ;

nary cir- , ,

cumstan- and what is here confined to the question of marriage

c®s- niay, under such circumstances, be considered to apply

to all other domestic and social ties. Philosophical historians
have truly felt that the monastic system was to a great extent
excused, if not justified, by the fact that it originated in an age
when it seemed the only refuge from the dissolution of the ex-
isting fabric of society. An absolute dictatorship, whether of
pope, or bishop, or emperor, has often been defended on the
ground that it met the emergencies of a crisis of danger and
transition. The enforcement of the celibacy of the clergy in the
middle ages, doubtless, in part arose from the just instinct that
they would else have sunk into an hereditary feudal caste.
No one can deny that domestic ties must occasionally be severed
by extraordinary calls, political, military, or religious. All these
are instances of the adoption of a rule in peculiar circumstances,
which the Apostolical advice teaches us not to condemn at
once, even though it may seem at variance with the broader

1 Koran, iv. 20 ; Ix. 10-12.

THE APOSTLE'S VIEW OF CELIBACY. 121

principles of Christian life laid down in other parts of the New
Testament. What may be the circumstances which call for
such measures is a matter to be determined in each particular
case. It is enough that this passage exhibits one example, and
sanctions the natural feeling which, in times of great excite-
ment or calamity, forbids the entanglement of such earthly
ties and cares as in ordinary times are not only allowed but
commanded.

And it may not be out of place to recall a celebrated instance
of a similarly emphatic preference of celibacy, on precisely
similar grounds, not of abstract right, but of special expediency,
in the well-known speech of our great Protestant Queen, when
she declared that * England was her husband,' and ' all
Englishmen her children,' and that she * desired no higher
character or fairer remembrance of her to be transmitted
to posterity, than this inscription engraved on her tombstone,
" Here lies Elizabeth, who lived and died a maiden Queen." ' ^

Secondly, over and above this direct and immediate lesson,
there is also the more general truth, implied indeed n. Ob-
inmost parts of the New Testament, but seldom stated servance of
so expressly as in this passage, that the practice of the not of the
highest duties of Christianity is compatible with every If^*^®^' of
station and condition of life that is not in itself un- mendT^"^"
lawful. If even the degraded state of slavery be con- ^^<^°*
sistent with the cultivation of the true spirit of Christian liberty,
if even the great religious divisions of Jew and Gentile may be
regarded as alike compatible with the true service of God, then
in all other states of life equally the spirit of Apostolic injunc-
tions may be observed where, in the letter, they seem most
disregarded. Freedom from earthly cares may be maintained
in the married as well as in the single state ; indifference to
worldly gain may exist in riches, no less than in poverty ; our
nearness to God depends not on our desertion of one religious
community for another, but on our keeping His command-
ments in whatever religious community His providence has
placed us, whether circumcision or uncircumcision.

. . . there are souls that seem to dwell
Above this earth — so rich a spell
Floats round their steps, where'er they move,
From hopes fulfiU'd and mutual love.

* Hume's Hist, of England, vol. v. p. 13.

122 FIKST EPISTLE.

Such, if on high their thoughts are set,
Nor in the stream the source forget,
If prompt to quit the bliss they know,
Following the Lamb where'er He go,
By purest pleasure unbeguiled
To idolise or wife or child ;
Such wedded souls our God shall own
For faultless virgins round His throne.

There are in this loud stunning tide

Of human care and crime.
With whom the melodies abide

Of th' everlasting chime ;
Who carry music in their heart
Through dusky lane and wrangling mart.
Plying their daily task with busier feet.
Because their secret souls a holy strain repeat.*

^ The Christian Year : Wednesday before Easter, and St. Matthew's day.

SACEIFICIAL FEASTS OF THE HEATHENS. 123

ANSWERS OF ST. PAUL (continued).

The Sacrificial Feasts of the Heathens.

Chap. VIII. ] XI. 1.

The subject of the three following Chapters, which is con-
tinuous though interrupted by digressions, appears to be, like
that of the previous Chapter, an answer to one of the questions
sent to him by the Corinthian Church, namely, whether it was
lawful for Christians to join in the sacrificial feasts of their
heathen fellow- citizens.

The question is one of those which, though of hardly any
interest to ourselves, occasioned the greatest practi- gtatement
cal difficulty in the Apostolical age. It was to the of the Con-
heathen converts nearly what the observance of cir- ^roversy.
cumcision and of the Mosaic ritual was to the Jewish con-
verts, or what in later times the maintenance of castes has
been to the converts of India. The act of sacrifice amongst
all ancient nations, was an act not merely of religious wor-
ship, but of social life. In most cases, only a part of the
victim was consumed as an offering to the god ; the rest fell
to the portion of the priests, or was given as a banquet to
the poor, or was sold again in the market for common food,
either by the priests, or by such sacrificers as could not afford
or did not wish to undergo the expense of the whole victim.^
Hence most public entertainments, and many private meals,
were more or less remotely the accompaniments of sacrifice ;
most animals killed for butchers' meat had fallen by the hand
of the sacrificer : the very word for ' feast ' in the Hebrew
language (n3T) was identical with ' sacrifice,' and from thence
in Hellenistic Greek, the word originally used for ' killing in
sacrifice ' (Jdvsiv) was diverted to the general signification of
' killing,' as in the well-known passage ' Rise, Peter, kill
{Ovcrov) and eat' (Acts x. 13). This identification of sacri-
fice and feast was carried to the highest pitch amongst the
Greeks. ' Sacrifices ' are enumerated by Aristotle (Eth. viii.
9, § 5) and Thucydides (ii. 38) amongst the chief means of

^ See Heydenreich, ad loc.

124 FIRST EPISTLE.

social enjoyment ; and, in this later age of Greece, it may well
be conceived that the religious element was even still more
entirely thrown into the shade by the festive character of the
meal which followed. The feasts which take place amongst
the lower orders in Spain, on the carcasses of the bulls killed
in the great national bull-fights (' Fiesta dos Toros '), afford a
good illustration of the practice. At Corinth the conquerors
in the Isthmian games used to give a banquet to the people,
immediately after the sacrifices, in the temple itself of Poseidon.^
That these banquets often took place in temples appears from
the stories which relate how Claudius and Vitellius, in their
ungovernable greediness, rushed in from the streets to partake
of the feasts round the altar.^

Under these circumstances it is easy to imagine the diversity
of views which must have sprung up in the Gentile Churches.
On the one hand, the mass of the Christian converts would
attach no importance to the act of feasting on sacrificial food :
it was, they would urge, merely a common meal with which
the heathen ceremony that had furnished its occasion or ma-
terials was not essentially connected; and, even if it were,
there could still have been no religious significance in joining a
rite which, from the very nature of the case, was to them abso-
lutely without meaning. On the other hand, the more scrupu-
lous Jewish converts would shrink from any contact with the
pollution of heathen worship. It was one of the main points of
dispute between the rigid Karaites and laxer interpreters, and
extended not only to sacrificial victims, but to sacrificial wine,
garments worn by heathen priests, wood from idolatrous
gardens or groves. To oflPer ' polluted bread ' upon the altar
of the Lord, or to eat the meat of idolatrous princes, had been
condemned by the warning of Malachi (i. 7-12), the good
example of Daniel (i. 8), and Tobit (i. 10, 11), and the evil
example of Israel at Baalpeor (Numb. xxv. 2 ; Ps. cvi. 28).
The flesh which had once been ofifered to a heathen divinity
could never, they would urge, be fit for a Christian meal ; to
use it even in ordinary circumstances would be an encourage-
ment of the practice of sacrifice, much more to partake of the
banquets which took place in the precincts of the temple itself,
and on the scene of those licentious orgies with which the
heathen worship was so often accompanied. It is one of the

Grotius, ad loc. - Sueton. Claud, c. 33, 44 ; Vitell. c. 33.

SACEIFICIAL FEASTS OF THE HEATHENS. 125

complaints brought by the Jew Trypho in his argument with
Justin,^ that many who were called Christians ate things
offered to idols, and said that there was no harm in doing so.

The importance of the controversy which thus arose is ob-
vious. Closely as the whole social life of the ancient world
was interwoven with its religious worship, the decision of this
question affected the whole relations of the Christian society
with its heathen neighbours ; and, in fact, involved all the
similar, though more complicated, questions discussed in the
four first centuries of the Christian Church, respecting the
lawfulness of attending on the spectacles, or receiving the
honours, of the Roman Empire. Accordingly this, although
the chief, is not the only passage in which the point is discussed.
In the Epistle to the Romans we see the excess to which the
scruples of the weaker brethren were carried, even to the pitch
of abstaining altogether from animal food,^ as, in the Nicolai-
tanes^ of the Apocalyptic Churches, we see the excess of the
indifferentist party, who plunged without restraint into all the
pollutions, moral as well as ceremonial, with which the heathen
rites were accompanied ; and it was to obviate the scandal oc-
casioned by these differences, that, in the decree passed by the
assembly of Jerusalem a short time before this Epistle was
written, the first condition imposed on the Gentile converts
was abstinence from * meats offered to idols.' *

Such was the question which agitated the Corinthian Church.
In Chap. vi. 12-14, the Apostle had already pointed out the
distinction, which some of his converts appear to have over-
looked, between the ceremonial pollution of the sacrificial food
and the moral pollution of the heathen. He now proceeds to
answer the question more directly and more generally.

1 Dial, cum Tryphone, p. 253. I » Rev. ii. 14, 15.

2 Rom. xiv. 2, 21. * Acts xv. 29.

126

FIEST EPISTLE: CHAP. VIII. 1—3.

THE SACRIFICIAL FEASTS OF THE HEATHENS.

General Warning.

vin. ^IlepL Se tcov elSoikodvTcov olSafjiev on Travre^
yvcocriv e)(Oixev. 7] ypcocns (J^vctlo'l^ tj 8e aydirr) ot/coSo/xei.

^ Now as touching things offered in sacrifice unto idols we know that
we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, but love edifieth. - If

VIII. I It is evident that
here, as elsewhere in this Epistle,
he chieflj addresses, not the
scrupulons, but the unscrupulous
portion of his hearers ; not the
party of Kephas, but of himself
or of ApoUos. From this section
of his converts he seems to quote
the language by vsrhich they de-
fended their freedom of practice ;
appropriating it, after his manner,
to himself, and to a certain extent
adopting and strengthening it
(verses 1-6). For similar cases
of this identification of himself
with his readers, see iv. 6, Rom.
vii. 7. This being the general
thought of the first sentence, the
construction of its particular
portions is, as usual in these
cases, greatly entangled, and has
been variously put together. The
following on the whole seems
most probable : —

(1) 7r€pl 8k Twv elScaXoOvToiv,
' now concerning things offered
to idols,' is merely the statement
of the subject, as in vii. 1, ttc/dI
8e wv iypd\l/aTe jhol ; and vii. 25,
Trept Be twv Trapdiviav ; and xii. 1,

TTCpt Se TWV 7rV€VfXaTLK(i>V.

(2) otSajxev OTL ttoivtcs yvwo-tv
exofievj ' we are sure that we all
have knowledge,' is the expression
of the Corinthians themselves,
adopted by the Apostle in the

first instance as his own statement
of the case. (Compare in verses
10, 11, 'thou that hast know-
ledge,' * thy knowledge.') It
was true of those who made the
claim, that they all had know-
ledge ; it was also in a certain
sense true of all Christians, as he
proceeds to explain in the 5 th
and 6th verses, that by the very
profession of the Christian faith
they all might be expected to
have this knowledge. But as in
vi. 12, he had been obliged to put
a limitation on the general truth,
* All things are lawful for me,' so
here he is obliged to put a similar
limitation on * All have know-
ledge.' This limitation is intro-
duced, first, by the abrupt dis-
claimer of the inference which he
saw might be drawn from the
Corinthian statement ; distin-
guishing between the effects of
knowledge and of love, and the
nature of true and false know-
ledge (2, 3) ; secondly, by dis-
carding altogether the formula
' All have knowledge,' and be-
ginning the sentence over again
in verse 4, so as to express the
same sense in clearer language :
and, thirdly, by the direct state-
ment in verse 7, that ' there is
not in all that knowledge ; ' a
correction which is an obvious

SACEIFICIAL FEASTS OF THE HEATHENS.

127

^et ^Ti9 SoKei ^ iyvoiKivai tl, ovttoj eyvco Kadojs Set yvcovai*
^el Se Ti9 ayarra tov deou, ovtos iyvojcrTaL vtt ovtov,

* el 5e 'TIS. ^ elSevai n, ovSeirco ovShv eyvwKe.

any one think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he
ought to know : ^ but if any one love God, the same is known by Him.

instance of the mode in which
the truths of Scripture are often
set forth by the union of two
apparent contradictions.

Twv €l8(ii\o6vTO)V=T(i)V aXi(Tyy}-
/jLaTOiV T(t)v ctSwAcof, Acts XV. 20 ;
and the phrase conveys the same
sense as is afterwards expanded
into TTcpt TTj's y8pw(reo)s tcov eiSwXo-
OvTUiv in verse 4.

rj yvwcrts. The absence of any
particle is to be explained by the
abruptness of the interruption.
The knowledge of which he
speaks is not secular knowledge
as distinguished from Divine or
theological, but knowledge of
Divine things without love —
knowledge by itself, as distin-
guished from knowledge of Di-
vine things with love. Bengel :
* Scientia tantum dicit, " Omnia
mihi licent." Amor addit, " Sed
omnia non expediunt." ' It is
the same contrast that is to be
drawn out more at length in Chap,
xiii. ; but as there he is led to
speak of it chiefly by insisting on
the superiority of active useful-
ness to spiritual ecstasies, so here
he is led to speak of it by insist-
ing on the superiority of that
love which shows a regard to the
consciences of others, over that
knowledge which rests satisfied in
its own enlightened insight into

'Know- *^® ^^^^y ^^ human
ledge puff- superstition. * Know-
eth up.' ledge such as this may
indeed expand and enlarge the
mind ; but it is by mere inflation,
as of a bubble, which bursts and

vanishes away (^vcrtot). Love
alone succeeds in building up an
edifice (otAcoSo/xct), tier above tier,
solid alike in its superstructure
and in its basis, so as to last for
ever.' Comp. iii. 9.

2 As pretended * wisdom '
(o-ocfiLa) was the chief source of
the factions or schisms of the
Corinthian Church, so pretended
' knowledge ' (yvwo-ts) was the
chief source of its scandals ; and
accordingly he still proceeds to
enlarge on the contrast which he
had set forth in verse 1 : * And
after all, knowledge without love
is no real knowledge ; if there be
any one who thinks that he has
almowledge of the Divine nature,
and may therefore act as freely
as he likes about the empty folly
of the heathen sacrifices, he
ought to remember that he knows
nothing yet, in this life, as it
really requires to be known.

€t TL<s 8oK€L. Compare, for the
turn of the expression. Gal. vi.
3 : el yap Sokcl tls exvai tl, fjLTjBev
wv, </)p€va7raTa cavTov. 1 Tim. vi.
3 : €t Tts €T€po8i8a(rKa\.€L . . . rerv-
<f>o)Tai.

ovTTO), ' not yet,' i.e. ' not in
the infirmities of this mortal
state.' Compare 1 Cor. xiii. 12:
*now we see through a glass,
darkly ; but the7i face to face ;
now I know in part; but then
I shall know even as also I am
known.'

3 ' If any one love God ' (tov
Oeov). From the love of man
— which must be the sense of

128

FIRST EPISTLE: CHAP. VIII. 4—6.

^wepl ttJs ^p(o(T€(o<; ovv tcjv elScoXoOvTOJV olSafxev on ovSki/
elScoXov iv Kocrixcp, /cat on ovSel<; ^eo?^ el fxrj els* ^ kol

eehs

erepos.

*As touching therefore the eating of things offered in sacrifice unto idols,
we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no God

dyoLTrrj in verse 1 (see xiii. 1) — he
passes insensibly in verse 2 to the
love of God, partly because God
is the implied, though not ex-
pressed, subject of the previous
clause, partly because He is the
only worthy and adequate object
of Christian love. (1) For the
connexion of knowledge and love,
see 1 John iv. 7, 8 : ' every one
that loveth is born of God, and
knoweth God ; he that loveth
not, knoweth not God, for God is
love.' Ho substitutes * is known
of Him,' for 'knows Him,' to
express that man can, in this life,
hardly be said, in any sense, to
know God, It is sufficient to be
the object of His knowledge,
which in itself implies that we
are brought into so close a rela-
tion with Him, as to be the object
of His care and love, and ulti-
mately, therefore, to know Him.
Bengel : ' Cognitionem passivam
sequitur cognitio activa (cf. xiii.
12). Egregia metalepsis — cog-
nitus est, adeoque cognovit.' (2)
For this identification of God'^
knowledge with His love, com-
pare Exod. xxxiii. 17 : ' thou hast
found grace in my sight, and I
know thee hy name.' Also John
X. 3 : ' He calleth his own sheep hy
name.' (3) For the identification
of God's knowledge of man with
man's knowledge of God, com p.
the similar blending of the spirit
of man with the Spirit of God in
Rom. viii. 15, 16 ; 1 Cor. ii. 11 ;
also John x. 15, ' as the Father
knoweth Me, even so know I the

Father; ' and. (4) for the general
turn of the whole expression, as
implying that every part of our
redemption, but especially our
knowledge of God, is more
properly His act than ours :
1 Cor. xiii. 12, *then I shall
know, even as also I amhiown*
(KaOo)<s liriyvisio-O-qv) \ Gal. iv. 9,
' N'ow, having known God, or,
rather, having heen hnown by
Him ; ' Phil. iii. 12, * If I may
apprehend that for which also I
am apprehended (KareX'^/jLcfiOrjv)
by Christ.' For the unexpected
substitution of one thought and
word for another, see ix. 17, x. 18.

4 ovv resumes the sentence
broken off at y yvoioris. Compare
(TvvepxoiJiivwv ovv, xi. 20.

ovSkv ttSwXov iv k6(t/x(o. The
context of ovdds ^eos and the
position of €v Koa-fjuo would lead
us to take ovSev not for ' nihil ; '
but for ' nullum,' and translate
' there is no such thing as an
idol (i.e. a pagan divinity) in
the universe.' But as the word
etSoiXov (idol) can hardly be used
in this abstract sense in Greek
any more than in English, and as
in X. 19 it is not so much the
non-existence as the nothingness
of the idol which is asserted, it is
on the whole better to adopt the
more common interpretation, ' an
idol is nothing, — has no strength
and no meaning in any part of
the universe ; its existence is
confined to the mere image in
the temple, and has no further
influence elsewhere.' This agrees

SACRIFICIAL FEASTS OF THE HEATHENS.

129

yap el irep elcrlu \ey6fxevoL 6eol eire ev ovpavo) eire ctti
^yrj<i, cjcTTrep elcrlv Oeol ttoXXoi kol KvptOL ttoXXol, ^[dWJ

rrjs yns.

but One: ^for though there be that are called gods whether in heaven or
on earth, as there be gods many and lords many, ^ yet to us there is but

with the use of the word in the
LXX. as a translation of ' Elilim,'
i.e. 'nothings,' the Hebrew word
of mockery for the false gods
(Ps. xcvii. 7 ; Hab. ii. 18, &c.).
See also Isa. xli. 22, and the
Rabbis, as quoted on this passage
by Wetstein.

Kol OTL ov8€l<; Oeb<: €i jxrj cts.
This, whatever be the meaning
of the previous clause, is not so
much an addition to it, as an ex-
planation of it, which is further
expanded in verse 5. The phrase
itself is from the Pentateuch,
passim.

5 ' For although it be granted
that in the heathen phraseology
there are, in different parts of
the universe, to be found many
who bear the name, some of
Gods, some of Lords, yet with
Christians it is not so. They
acknowledge but One to whom
the title of God is properly due,
namely, the Universal Father;
and One alone to whom the title
of Lord is properly due, namely,
Jesus Christ.'

In this passage the actual ex-
istence of the heathen divinities
is neither affirmed nor denied,
but left in obscurity. He asserts
only that the vast hierarchy of
divinities which met their ears
and eyes, in the common par-
lance and customs of Greece and
Asia, ranging from the heights
of Olympus down to the caves
and streams of Grecian valleys,
imposing as it might be, had for
Christians no practical import-

ance. They had but one Su-
preme Source and Centre of the
universe, on whom they had
been taught to look, not as a
mere name, but as a loving
Father ; and with Him, One Su-
preme Controller of the uni-
verse, no dim hero of distant
ages or remote influence of
planetary regions, but Jesus
Christ, living in their own times,
almost within their own know-
ledge. The heathen dwelt in a
world of complicated shadows ;
Christians lived in a world of
simple realities.

Xeyo/jLcvoi. ' Called by the
name of gods ' (see 2 Thess. ii.
4). The word conveys a certain
sense of unreality, like Aoyot, Xc-
yciv, in Aristotle, Ethics, vii. 9,
X. 9 : ' mere words.'

' In heaven or on earth ; ' divi-
sions of the world, and alluding
to the supposed habitations of
the pagan divinities ; corre-
sponding, perhaps, to the usual
divisions in Greece between the
0cot 'OXvfjLTriOL and ©eot Ittl^Oo-
vLOLy and at Rome between the
Dii majores and Dii minores.

wcrirep elalv Oeol ttoXXol kol kv-
pioL TToXXoL. The stress is on
TToXXoL, 'm-any.^ 'If there are
those who bear the name of
gods, as, in fact, there are many
who do so.'

KvpLOL, 'lords,' is added, partly
for the sake of the full antithe-
sis, in the next verse, of els kv-
pto5, partly to exhaust the whole
nomenclature of the pagan di-

130

FIEST EPISTLE: CHAP. VIII. 7—9.

rjfjuv €19 ^€09 6 TraT'qp, ef ov tol Travra /cat i^/xets et? avrov,
Kol cTs KvpLoq ^Ir)(TOvs xpicTTO^;, hi ov TOL irdvTa koI i^/xets
St' avTov, ^dXX' ou/c ei^ iraaiv rj yvcjcn^;. Tuve^ Se ttj
^o-WTjOeia icos apn tov elScjXov w? elhcoXoBvrov icrOiOvcnv,

one God the Father, of whom are all things and we for Him ; and one
Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things and we by Him. "^ Howbeit
there is not in all that knowledge ; but some by intercourse with the idol
unto this hour eat it as a thing offered in sacrifice unto idols -, and their

vinities, Kvpto? being the Greek
correlative of the Syrian ' Baal,'
which is the usual title of the
false divinities in the Old Testa-
ment. It also may have refer-
ence to such expressions as ' God
of gods, and Lord of lords'
(Deut. X. 17); *0 Lord our
God, other lords besides Thee
have had dominion over us '
(Isai. xxvi. 13) ; where ' Adonai '
— usually employed in reference
to Jehovah — is used for false
' lords,' as Kvpio? here. If it
points to anything specific in the
Greek mythology, it would be to
the heroes or demi-gods, such as
Hercules.

6 rjfuv, * to ns,' ' in our judg-
ment as Christians, whatever
others may hold.'

For the distinction between
the ideas of 'Father' and 'Lord,'
as applied respectively to God
and to Christ, compare the salu-
tations of all the Epistles, and
especially xv. 24. The preposi-
tions ii and ci?, as applied to the
Father, in contrast with 8ta, as
applied to Christ, represent the
Father as the original source
and ultimate object of all things,
Christ as the instrument by
which they came into existence.
See John i. 3 ; Heb. i. 2, 3 ; Col.
i. 16. In the last of these pas-
sages, the expression ' for Him '
(ets avTov), which is here used

to express the relation of man
to the Father, is there applied to
Christ alone. In Rom. xi. 36,
all three are applied equally to
God.

7 Thus far St. Paul had stated
the reasons for regarding the sa-
crificial feasts as matters of in-
difference, by giving an account
of the knowledge which all
Christians might be supposed to
have. Now begins the antithe-
sis to the sentence, in the state-
ment of the reverse side of the
question — the practical difficul-
ties, instead of the ideal perfec-
tion of the Church ; inasmuch
as the knowledge (17 yvwcrts)
which he has just described as
properly belonging to all Chris-
tians, is not actually found in
all.

Try (Tvvrj6€La . . . tov ciSwA.ov.
Lachmann's reading of a-vv-qOiia,
which is supported by A. B.,
would be ' by familiar inter-
course.' But it may have been
a correction of (rvveihr)-
crei, m D. E. F. G. J.
The strange use of the word
crwctSrytris might be explained
by the Apostle's turn for etymo-
logical argument. The idea of
' knowledge ' under various ex-
pressions, otSa, ciScVat, &c., runs
through this passage (viii. 1, 2,
4, 7, 10, 12), and thus the com-
pound (TwuhrjcTL^ might be used,

SACRIFICIAL FEASTS OF THE HEATHENS.

131

KOL Y) (Tvveihr)(Ti^ avT(x)v aorOeur)^; ovcra iiokvveTan. ^^poi^ia
Se rjfxas ov ^TTapaaTTja-ei tw 6e(^' ovre^ iav /xt) (j)dyo}-
fxev, TrepLcro-evoiiev^ ovre iai^^ (j)dyo)[xep, vcrrepoviieOa./ y
'"^ l3Xe7r€Te Se firj ttw? rj i^ovcrca vficov avrrj Trpocr/co/i/ia

» iraplffTTiffi. *• oijTe yap iav (payufx^v. " e'eii/ fxi}.

Lachm. Ed. 1. oirc iav /x^ (pdyufiiv, ixTTCpov/jLeOa, oire iav (pdywixev, irepiaffevofjLev.

conscience being weak is defiled. ^ But meat will not commend us to
God : neither if we eat not, are we the better, neither if we eat, are we
the worse. ^ But look lest by any means this power of yours become a

as occupying a middle position
between onr words ' conscious-
ness' and * conscience,' some-
what in the sense in which we
speak of ' conscious guilt or inno-
cence.' Thus here it would be
' a conscious awe of the idol,' as
in 1 Pet. ii. 19, ' a conscious awe
of God,' like atSws in classical
Greek.

In the order of the words,
Lachmann, with B. D. E. F. G.
places co)9 apri between o-vi/ctSry-
o-€t and Tov eiSwAor, the Received
Text, with A. J., places it be-
tween €t8(uXov and w? elSuyXoOv-
Tov. The former is probably
correct, and, if so, is an instance
of the violent transposition of
words which often breaks up the
order of St. Paul's sentences.
(See note on verse 11.) The
sense would be the same in
both ; ' eat even at the present
moment.'

d(T6€vr]<s ova-a would more pro-
perly be acrOevoiv oi/todv, and pro-
bably arises from the Apostle's
tendency to personify all the
feelings he describes. do-^evT^s
is (not 'giving way to temp-
tation,' like aKpaxTJ?, but) 'ill
instructed,' ' not attained to full
Christian strength.' Comp. Rom.
xiv. 1, XV. 1. For the general
idea as contrasted with ' edifica-
tion,' or 'perfection,' see Eph.
iv. 13-16.

fioX-vvcrai, 'is defiled by the
sense of sin, which would not
have been the case in a stronger
conscience.' Comp. tvtttovtc?, in
verse 1 2.

8 /?pto/xa Si, K.T.X. ' The whole
question of food is in itself ab-
solutely indifferent.' This is an
objection to the scruples just
mentioned, although stated so
•generally as to meet the en-
lightened objector also, and is
parallel to the statement about
circumcision and uncircumcision
in vii. 19. Compare Matt. xv.
17, and (apparently in reference
to the same subject) 1 Cor. vi.
13, ' meats for the belly and
the belly for meats ; ' and Rom.
xiv. 17, ' the kingdom of God is
not meat and drink ; ' where, as
here, the primary thought is
that there is no religious excel-
lence in ahstaining from food.
The meaning is still more
strongly brought out in the
order of eav fxr] cfidyuyfiev, Treptcr-
(revoixev, and iav cfxxyoifxev, v(TTe-
povfjieOa, in A^ D. E. F. G. J.
which Lachmann has adopted in
his second edition, against A^
B. which read idv fxrj cf)dyo}/x€v,
vcTTepovfJieOa, ovre idv KJidyioixev
7repL(rcr€voix€v.

ov Trapao-TT^o-et, ' will not bring
us near to God.'

9 ySXeTrerc Si. ' But, though
you have this liberty, &c., be-
k2

132

FIRST EPISTLE: CHAP. VIII. 10—13.

yevrjTai to7<; ^ aa-Oeviaiv, ^^ lav yap Ti<; ISy [ere] tov
evovTa yvoiCLV ev elScoXeia) KaraKeifJieuov, ov)(i r) crvpeiorjcn^
avTov aorOevovs ovtos oiKohoixiqdricreTai €L9 to to. etSwXd-
Ovra iaOUiv ; ^^^airoWviai yap 6 acrOevoiv iv rfj crfj

* aadevovcriv. ^ Koi aTroAetrat 6 acrd. aZeXcphs iirl t^ <t^ yvcixrei, 5t' hv Xpiards.

stumblingblock to them that are weak. ^°For if any one see thee which
hast knowledge sit at meat in the idol's temple, shall not the conscience
of him which is weak be edified to eat those things which are offered in
gacrifice to idols ? ^^For he that is weak perishes through thy knowledge

ware.' Here, as in verses 1-6,
the objeetionp, though appro-
priated by St. Paul, are more or
less understood to come from the
Corinthians.

iiova-ia, ' right,' refers to the
phrase Travra jjlol €$€(ttl, vi. 12.

lO iv eiScoAeio) KaraKCtfievov,
'enjoying a sacrificial feast in
the precincts of a temple.' ctSw-
Aetov is only used by Jewish
writers, apparently to avoid de-
signating heathen temples by
the sacred word vaog, used to
express the temple of Jerusalom.
(1 Mace. i. 47, x. 83.) It is a
kind of parody on the names of
temples as derived from the di-
vinities to which they are dedi-
cated, ®r](T€LOV, 'Hpatov, &c.

KaTaK€i]x€vov, ' lying,' the usual
word for presence at a feast,
taken from the practice of dining
in a recumbent posture.

o LKohoiJiy]6rj(Tcr at, which else-
where occurs only in a good
sense, is here used in a bad
sense, with a kind of irony: ' He
will have made an advance, but
in the school, not of good, but
of evil.' Calvin : ' ruinosa aedi-
ficatio.' It is used in a had
sense in Malachi iii. 15, avoiKoho-
ixovvrat ttoioCvtc? avofxa. Com p.
,Ios. Ant. xvi. 6 : €15 vovOea-iav

aVTOiV OLKOOOJxQiV aVTOV9.

What in x. 14 is condemned
on its own account, is here con-

demned only for the sal^e of
others ; that being the point of
the argument with which alone
the Apostle is here concerned :
— ' He will have been built up,
but with a building that leads to
nothinsf.'

1 1 aTToWvTai yap 6 acrdevwv
€v T7J a~fj yrojoret, 6 d8eA.<^o?.

The sense of Lachmann's
reading is the same as that of
the Received Text, but it ren-
ders the peculiarities of the
style much more striking. airoX-
XvTttt, for aTToXeiTat, expresses
more strongly, not ' will perish,'
but *is at this moment perish-
ing.' yap (A. has ovv), for Kat,
gives the reason for a suppressed
sentiment of grief at the sin
of the weaker brother: ' [Alas,
that it should be so ! for then]
there will be a ruin of the weak-
minded man by means of thy
enh"q-htenment.' The separation
of ev 777 yvoi(T€L from aTroAAvrat,
to which it belongs, is after the
Apostle's usage of throwing the
important word out of its natural
place to the end of the sentence :
see ix. 10, x. 27, xv. 19. A.nd
the isolated and final position
thus given to 6 aBe\<f>os gives a
pathetic close to the whole sen-
tence ; ' that weak-minded man
is no less than thy Christian
brother, to save whom Christ
gave Himself up to death.' tV,

SACRIFICIAL FEASTS OF THE HEATHENS.

133

yv(x)(Tei, 6 dSeX-c^o? St' ov ^tcrros aTriOavev. ^^ovro)^ Se
oniapTdvovTe<; els rous dSeX(^ov9 kol tvtttovt€<; avTcov Trjp
(rvv€Lhr)aLU acrOevovo-av^ el<; ^pio-rov d/xa/DraVere. ^^Zioirep
€t ^pa>fJLa (TKavSakL^eL rov ahek<^6v [mov, ov fxr) (fxiycj Kpea
eis Tov alwva^ Iva (jlt) tov ahe\(^6v p.ov crKavhaXicro).

— the brother for whom Christ died. ^^But when ye sin so against the
brethren and wound their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ.
^^Wherefore, if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh for
ever,* lest I make my brother to offend.

" Gr. while the age lasteth. .

for cTTt, expresses more fully that
this knowledge is the cause of
his ruin. For the contrast thus
exhibited between the self-sacri-
fice of our Lord's love for man,
and the self-indulgence of the
Corinthians' knowledge, com-
pare (in a similar context) Rom.
XV. 1-3: *We tbat are strong
ought to bear the infirmities of
the weak, and not to please our-
selves. Let every one of us
please his neighbour for bis good
to edification ; for even Christ
■pleased not Himself.^ Comp. also
chap. xi. 1.

1 2 TVTTTOvTes, ' striking a con-
science or mind already weak.'
Bengel : ' Sicut jnmentum lassum
verberibus urgetur.'

ct9 ^LCTTOV d/Aapraverc, COmp.
Matt. XXV. 40 : ' Inasmuch as ye
have done it unto one of the

least of these my brethren, ye
have done it unto Me.'

Kpea, i.e. ' animal food of any
kind,' in allusion to the extreme
scruples of those who, from fear
of the meat in the shambles
being sacrificial, confined them-
selves entirely to vegetable food.

6ts TOV alb)va, ' for ever,' which
in other passages of St. Paul's
Epistles is usually rendered by
the plural, cts tous aicuva?, being
the literal translation of dViu?-
The hyperbolical character of
the expression may be compared
with E,om. ix. 3.

The whole argument closely
resembles Rom. xiv. 19-22,
even to the particular phrases
employed : comp. ^pthfxa, oIkoSo-
fxrjs, (fiayelv Kpea, Trpoa-KOfx/JLa, (tkuv-
SoAt^erat, aaOevuv KaraXve.

134 FIEST EPISTLE.

Paeaphrase of Chap. VIII. 1 — 13.

Yo?ir argument on sacrificial food {though imphjing a dispro-
portioned estimate of knowledge, which, compared with love,
is worthless, whether as an instrument of Christian progress,
or as a means of insight into things divine) is on the whole
correct. The sacrificial food may of itself be lawfully eaten ;
because we, as Christians, know full well that to us the vast
array of heathen divinities is a mere illusion, and that our
only religious relations are those in which we stand to the
Father of all, and to our Master, Jesus Christ,

There are, hoivever, some of your number who, not having
attained to this belief, to the measure of the stature of the ful-
ness of Christ, are still tossed about by the scruples of their
Jewish education, and still, when they eat the food of which
part has been offered to heathen divinities, regard themselves
as partaking in an idol sacrifice, and with an inward horror of
the idol in whose presence they conceive themselves to be. It is
true that the whole matter of food is in itself absolutely indif-
ferent, and that, in a religious point of view, no one is the better
or the worse for it. But it is not indifferent, if, by the example
of those luho without scruple join the banquets in the precincts
of an idol temple, those who have scruples are induced to do the
same, that being a sin to them which to others is an advance
in Christian liberty, and thus ruin is brought on those to whom
we are bound by our ties of Christian brotherhood, and to save
whom from this very ruin Christ denied Himself even to death
on the cross. He lives in and for them ; and it is, therefore,
not only against them, but against Him, that you offend;
and rather than incur this guilt, rather than forsake the ex-
ample of tender love which He has exhibited, 1 ivill never think
of touching a morsel of flesh, if I think that thereby I should
ensnare to sin one who is my brother.

It may l)e observed, that in the whole of the fore-
going passage, but especially in its conclusion, there is, if not
a direct allusion to our Lord's words, a new duty acknow-
ledged, which probably was first inculcated in our Lord's

CHRISTIAN SELF-DENIAL. 135

teaching, namely, the paramount obligation on men to regard
the scruples of their ill-instructed brethren : — ' Whoso shall
offend one of these little ones which believe in Me, it were
better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck,
and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.'^ The
martyrs in the time of the Maccabees (2 Mace. vi. vii.) in-
curred death rather than violate the law by eating forbidden
food ; but it was reserved for St. Paul to declare that he
would incur death rather than offend his fellow-Christians by
an act of the abstract lawfulness of which he had himself no
doubt. Such a delicacy of morality is seldom found to elicit
such a depth of enthusiasm ; and this special instance of its
application involves all those finer feelings of toleration and
res^ard for the rights of conscience, almost unknown in heathen
times, rare even in Christian times, and most rare when com-
bined with a firm and earnest conviction of truth and false-
hood.

1 Matt, xviii. 6.

136 FIKST EPISTLE.

SACRIFICIAL FEASTS OF THE HEATHENS (continued).

His own Example of Self-Denial.
IX. 1— X. 14.

The concluding verse of Chap viii. with the present Section
which springs from it, is an illustration and example of that
intense sympathy which the Apostle elsewhere (2 Cor. xi. 29)
describes, in the words, * Who is weak, and I am not weak ?
who is offended, and I burn not ? ' The mention of the loss of
the weak-minded Christian, and of the sin thereby committed
against Christ Himself, rouses him from the impartial calm
with which he has hitherto held the scales of the contest between
the over-scrupulous and over-indulgent parties, now siding with
one, and now with the other ; and he plunges into the breach
himself, in order by his own example to put to shame the cold
and tardy reasonings of his less susceptible followers. But as he
makes this sudden change from the second to the first person,
as he turns this glance into the recesses of his own life, past,
present, and future, as far as thought could reach {sl9 rov
aiMva), he feels a momentary check, from the recollection that
there were those amongst his readers who would, if not in the
particular instance of which he is speaking, at least in one
closely connected with it, ascribe his self-denial, not to its real
motive of Christian love, but to his alleged inferiority to the
other Apostles of Christ. It would almost appear as if he had
properly concluded the subject at viii. 13, and then resumed
it from this new point of view, on the arrival of fresh tidings
from Corinth, informing him of the imputations which he now
proceeds to dispel.

Of all St. Paul's acts of humiliation and self-devotion, that
which, if not the most striking, was the most habitual, and, in
his case, the most peculiar, was his maintaining himself, not
at the cost of the societies which he converted, but by the labour
of his own hands as a Cilician tentmaker. It was at Corinth
that this practice is first mentioned in the Acts (xviii. 3) ; and
from the stress laid upon it here and in the Second Epistle (xi.
7,8,9,10; xii. 14-18), it would seem that at Corinth it
attracted most attention, and was most constantly practised.

HIS OWN EXAMPLE OF SELF-DENIAL.

137

though he also refers to it as his well-known custom at Thessa-
lonica (1 Thess. ii. 8-10; 2 Thess. iii. 7-9), and at Ephesus
(Acts XX. 34).^ In all these cases it is introduced, as here,
with the same general consciousness of its being the most
obvious instance of love and self-denial to which he could
refer ; and in Acts xx. 34, 35, the moral deduced from it is
similar to that enforced in this passage : ' That so labouring ye
ought to help the weak.' But this example would lose con-
siderably in force, if it were asserted that he had no right to
maintenance from the Churches, and that consequently his labour
was the result, not of self-devotion, but of necessity. That this
was asserted is clear, not only from this passage, but from the
implied argument in 1 Thess. ii. 1-6, 9 ; 2 Thess. iii. 8, 9 ; and
2 Cor. xi. 7-9, xii. 16, 17, where he vindicates himself (in
connexion with this subject) against the charge of ' covetous-
ness,' declares that ' he might have been burdensome to them,
as an apostle of Christ,' that he took nothing from them, * not
because he had not the power,' and that they thought by so
doino* he had ' committed an offence.' This charge seems to
have been one out of the systematic series of attacks levelled
against him by the Judaizing Christians, who could not bear to
see their great antagonist assume the same lofty position in
the Church as was occupied by the original Jewish Apostles of
Jerusalem. One mark of their position had always been their
maintenance, at the Lord's command, by those to whom they
preached (see 1 Cor. ix. 14 ; Matt. x. 9, 10 ; Luke x. 7). This
right of maintenance seems to have been so habitually claimed
by them, that its abandonment by St. Paul, instead of awaken-
ing a higher admiration for his apostolical goodness, roused in the
suspicious minds of his enemies, partly doubts of his apostolical
dignity, partly doubts of his Christian sincerity, which were
ready to burst forth the moment that the subject of his self-
support was mentioned. In illustration of this opposition may
be mentioned the jealousy which, on this very same ground,
was roused against Socrates and Plato by the professed sophists.^

^ For the whole subject of the
Apostle's trade of tent-making, see
Conybeare and Howson, Life and
Epistles of St. Paul, vol. i. pp. 51,
416. Every Jew learned a trade ;
tliat of making tent-cloths or ' Cili-
cium' (the name by which the
fabric was known in the commerce

of the time) was roost natural to the
Apostle, as a native of Cilicia ; and
at Corinth, the great resort of travel-
lers, there would be a special demand
for them.

^ See Grote's History of Greece,
vol. viii. pp. 482, 483.

138 FIRST EPISTLE.

Such, apparently, were the recollections which crossed the
course of the Apostle's thoughts at this point in the Epistle.
On the one hand was the scene of the tentmaker's trade at
Corinth, where the few hours of leisure, after the long ar-
guments in the synagogue and the market-place, were con-
sumed with Aquila and Priscilla in the uncongenial labour of
weaving the long goat's hair of his native hills into the sack-
cloth or the tent-cover, for the Greek fisherman or wandering
Arab. On the other hand was the dogged stupidity, or the
implacable animosity of his adversaries, who were ready, with
their cold insinuations, to contrast, as they supposed, the en-
forced meanness and degradation of Paul of Tarsus with
the conscious dignity and repose of the Apostles at Jeru-
salem, or of those who claimed to be their legitimate repre-
sentatives at Corinth. To set forth this voluntary abnegation
of a right, and to assert the right itself, is accordingly the two-
fold object of this digression. But as the abnegation could
not be shown to be voluntary until the right which had thus
been questioned was vindicated, what would else have been
the natural order is inverted ; and he breaks off from the
triumphant assertion of his self-denial in viii. 13, to answer
the charges of the Judaizers, who, by the time that he wrote
the Second Epistle, had become so rampant as to claim his
almost exclusive attention, but who, in this Epistle, are noticed
here alone.

HIS OWN EXAMPLE OF SELF-DENIAL.

139

IX. ^^OvK elfJiX iXevOepos; ovk ei/xl olttocttoXos ; ov;(c
^Irjcrovv tov Kvpiov rjfJLCtiv ecopaKa; ov to epyov p,ov v/^et?

• OifK eifil ottJo-toA-Os ; Ovk elfxl iXevdepos ; Ovx^ ^Irjaovv Xpi(Tr6v.

^Am I not free 1 am I not an apostle 1 have I not seen Jesus our Lord 1
are not ye my work in the Lord 1 ^ If I be not an apostle unto others,

I The order of the words in
Lachmann's text, ' Aminot free ?
am I not an Apostle ? ' is not only
that of the most ancient MSS.,
but is also in conformity with the
sense. His freedom and not his
Apostleship was uppermost in his
thoughts, and was the special
occasion of the digression. * Am
I not free to eat or not to eat ?
Yes, and am I not free from the
necessity of working with my
own hands, like a slave ? '
(Comp. verse 19, where this is the
force of ikcvOepos.) From this he
instantly proceeds to the vindica-
tion of his Apostleship, on which
this freedom was grounded; and
from this again to the two chief
^^^ signs of Apostleship ;

Apostle's namely, 1st, the sight
authority, ^f ^^le Lord; 2nd, the
practical effects of his teaching.
The first of these signs was, from
the nature of the case, regarded
as necessary to constitute an
Apostle. What the vision of
God had been to the older pro-
phets, that the sight of Christ,
especially of Christ risen from the
grave, had been to the Apostles.
See Acts i. 22. Intercourse
with the Lord had invested the
Twelve with their original au-
thority ; the alleged absence of
such intercourse in the case of
St. Paul, therefore, was urged
against his claims to the Apostle-
ship. Compare 2 Cor. v. 16 ; and

also the Clementine Homilies
(xvii. 19), which express openly
what we gather from these
passages by implication. To this
charge he opposes his assertion
that he, as well as the others, has
seen the Lord. The passage does
not necessarily limit the appear-
ance to one occasion, and may
include some of these visions
which are mentioned in 2 Cor.
xii. 1-4; Acts xviii. 9, xxii. 17.
But, when compared with 1 Cor.
XV. 8, it points chiefly to the oc-
currence at his conversion. Acts
ix. 4, in which, according to these
and other intimations (Acts ix.
17, xxvi. 16, xxii. 14, 15), though
not according to the direct nar-
rative of the Acts (which here,
as elsewhere, understates rather
than overstates what we learn
from St. Paul), there was a visible
manifestation of Christ Himself.
The second sign of Apostle-
ship, which corresponds to what
is elsewhere termed the gift of
the Spirit, blends with the state-
ment of the fact something of
a pathetic appeal to the Co-
rinthians themselves : ' You are
the last men who ought to have
questioned the authority, of the
genuineness of which you are
yourselves the most striking
proof.' For similar expressions
to the Corinthian Church, comp.
2 Cor. iii. 2, 3, xii. 12. Bengel :
'Ex ecclesia fidelium argumen-

140

FIRST EPISTLE: CHAP. IX. 2—7.

iaT€ iu KvpCo); ^el aXXot? ovk elfxl aTrocrroXo?, aXXa ye vfjuv
elfJLL' 7} yap (T<f)payi<; ^ ^xov rrjs aTrocrToXrjs v/^et? icrre iv
KvpCco. ^7} ifjirj airokoyia toIs ifJie avaKpivovcriv ^io-Tiv avrrf.
^jxrj OVK exofJieu l^ovaiav ^ayeiv koI irieiv; ^ p,r) ovk evo-
fji€v k^ovcriav aSeXc/)?)!/ yvvaiKa irepidyuvy wg koI ol konrol
aTTOo-ToXoL kol ol aSeXc^ol tov Kvpiov KalK7)(j)as; ^^ [jlovos

• rris ifjLTJs for fiov ttjs, * outtj eVrt.

yet doubtless I am to you : for the seal of mine apostleship are ye in the
Lord. ^Mine answer to them that judge me by questioning is this.
^Have we not power to eat and to drink ? ^ Have we not power to lead
about a sister, a wife, as well as the other apostles and the brethren of

turn sumi potest pro veritate
evangelii et religionis Chris-
tianse.' Compare Coleridge's say-
ing, ' The two great proofs of the
truth of Christianity are Christi-
anity and Christendom.''

' In the Lord ' (cV Kvpiio) both
in verse 1 and 2 applies to the
vs^hole sentence, expressing as if
unconsciously the atmosphere in
which he moved and lived. Com-
pare vii. 39.

2 Compare iv. 15.
o-<^payts, seal — ' attestation.'

3 a-TroAoyta, ' defence,' as in a
court of justice.

oLvaKpia-Ls, ' examination,' as by
magistrates at a trial, see Acts
iv. 9, xxiv. 8, xxviii. 18 ; Luke
xxiii. 14. Here we see a direct
allusion to his antagonists.

avTT], namely, what he has just
said ; ' This contains all my de-
fence. I have no more to add
to it.'

4 ixrj OVK t)(pjx€v, ' Surely we
are not without power,' &c.

€^ov(rtav, ' the right,' or ' li-
berty.' Comp. viii. 9 ; also vi. 12.

<l>ay€Lv KOL 7rt€tv, ' to eat and to
drink,' i.e. ' to be maintained at
the public cost.' Compare the
use of the word rpo(f>y] in classical
Greek, for the support or pay of
soldiers.

5 dSeX<ji7]v ywat/ca, ' a Chris-
tian woman as a wife, also to be
maintained at the public cost.'

The fact of these women ac-
companying their husbands on
their journeys may be explained
by the necessity of females to
gain access to and to baptize the
female converts in Greece and
other oriental countries ; the sam e
necessity which gave rise to the
order of Deaconesses. .

The notion of some of of the
the Fathers, that the ^P^^ties.
women here alluded to were not
wives, but companions, like those
who attended Christ in the Gos-
pels, is untenable. The word
yvvoLKa would in that case be
superfluous, and the argument
requires that they shall be re-
garded, not as maintaining the
Apostles (like the women in
Luke viii. 2, 3), but as being
maintained along with them,
which could only apply to their
wives. This misunderstanding
of the passage either originated
or confirmed the institution of
women called dSeX^at, crvveLo--
aKTai, or dya7rr;Tat, which, in
consequence of the great abuses
springing from it, was abolished
by the Council of Nicasa.

Two facts are here implied :

HTS OWN EXAMPLE OF SELF-DENIAL.

141

lyoi KoX Bapvd^a<; ovk e^o fiev i^ovcr tav ^jjltj ^ ipydt^ecr 9 ai ;
^ TL<i crTpaTeverai lSlols 6\pcovLOL<; irore; T15 (j)VTeveL a/xTre-
Xcopa Kol ^Tov KapTTOV avTov OVK iadiei; ^rt? Trot/xatVet

» rov fx-f]. ^ The hiatus in C, which began at vii, 18, ends here.

" iK Tov Kaptrov. ^ *H ris.

the Lord and Kephas ? ^or I only and Barnabas, have not we power to
forbear working ? ' Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges ?
who planteth a vineyard and eateth not of the fruit thereof ? who f eedeth

IbI, That Paul v^as unmarried,
which agrees with vii. 7; 2nd,
That the Apostles generally were
married, which agrees with the
common tradition respecting all
of them but St. John. Peter
and the brethren of the Lord are
mentioned especially, as being
those most esteemed by the Jew-
ish party, at whom the Apostle
here glances, — Peter, as the
head of the Jewish Church ; the
brethren of the Lord, as closely
connected by earthly lineage
with our Lord, and one of them
probably the head of tbe Church
at Jerusalem. That Peter was
married agrees with the mention
of his mother-in-law. Matt. viii.
14 ; Mark i. 30 ; Luke iy. 38 ;
with the (doubtful) allusion to
his wife in 1 Pet. v. 13; and
with the traditions about his wife
and children in Clem. Alex.
Stromat. vii. 52, 53. Her name
was said to be Concordia or
Perpetua. (GrabeadSpicil. Patr.
i. p. 330.) The statement that
' the brethren of the Lord ' were
married agrees with the mention
of the grandsons of Jude (Euseb.
H. E. iii. 20) ; but throws some
doubt over the common tradition
which represents the chief of
them, James the Just, as single.
(Epiph. Hser. Ixxviii. 14.)

This is the only mention of
Barnabas in conjunction with
St. Paul, since the date of the

quarrel, in Acts xv. 39.

7, 8 He now proceeds to de-
fend his right, partly from the
nature of the case, partly from
the Old Testament.

First, The analogy of other
occupations. He selects three :
the soldier in the Roman armies
always receives his regular pay ;
the owner of a vineyard eats of
the grapes of his own vineyard ;
the shepherd is supported by the
milk of the flocks which he tends.
The example from the army, like
most of the military expressions
in the Epistles, is true only of the
later ages of Greece and Rome ;
when the voluntary service and
mixed pursuits of the ancient
soldiers (comp. Thucyd. vi. 31 ;
Liv. V. 8) were superseded by the
regular profession of a standing
army.

a-TpaT€V€Tai, ' serves in
army.' Comp. Luke iii. 14.

oi/^wvta, ' pay,' ' stipendia.'

<f>vT€V€L d/xTTcAwva refcrs
appears from Matt. xxi. 33) to
the vintage of the owner of the
vineyard. d/ATreAwv is (not ' a
vine,' but) a ' vineyard.'

€K TOV ydkuKTos, i.c. * from the
proceeds of the sale of the milk,'
or ' from the food made out of
the milk.' For a similar juxta-
position of soldiers and labourers,
see 2 Tim. ii. 4-6.

Secondly, The sanction of the
Old Testament, as conveyed in

the

(as

142

FIEST EPISTLE: CHAP. IX. 8—12.

7roijJivr)v Kat Ik tov yakaKToq Trj<; Troi^vq^^ ovk icrOUu; ^ fir)
/caret avOpoiTTOV ravra kaXo), r) ^kol 6 v6fJL0<; Tavra ^ov
Xeyei; ^ iv yap T(f ^Mojvcrecof; vojjlco yiypairrai Ov (fyLfxco-

* ^ ovx^ Kal.

Om.

Mwerecoy.

a flock and eateth not of the milk of the flock ? ^ Speak I these things as
a man ? or saith not the Law the same also ? ^ For it is written in the
law of Moses ' thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth

the command to allow the ox to
eat the corn which it was
employed in treading, Deut. xxv.
4. It is remarkable that the
Apostle should rest his argument
on a text apparently so remote
from his object, especially as its
immediate context,. Dent. xxiv.
19-22, contains commands re-
lative to gleaning, which directly
confirm his previous position
But (1) the moral and general
character of the preceding con-
text might appear to justify its
extension to the whole passage ;
and, (2) there was an apposite-
ness in the selection of this com-
mand, partly as an introduction
to the metaphor of threshing and
sowing which follows in the
next verse, partly from the pro-
verbial character of the precept,
which occasions its introduction
in a similar context in 1 Tim. v.
18. Compare the quotations from
Ex. iii. 6, and 1 Kings xix. 5,
in Mark xii. 26, and Luke xx.
37 ; and in Rom. xi. 2 ; under
the names of ' the bush,' and of
* Elijah.'

8 Kara avOpoy-n-ov, i.e. ' merely
by human motives,' or 'in human
language.'

Tttirra, * these things,' i.e. ' the
substance of what has just been
said,' in verse 7.

9 dXoMVTa, either by treading
"with its hoofs, or by dragging a
threshing-machine. The huma-
nity of the Jewish law was in

this, as in many instances, dis-
tinguished from that of Gentile
nations. (See Michaelis on the
Mosaic Law, iii. § 130.) Com-
pare the well-known Egyptian
inscription in the tombs of El
Kab or Eilithyia ; and the Greek
proverb for plenty which cannot
be enjoyed, ^ov<s i-rrl a-wpw (' the
ox on the heap of corn ').

M-^ Twv /3ocov ixeXeL tw ^ew,
K.rX 'The real purport of this
passage to us is, not the care for
oxen, but the lesson of humanity
to men.' Comp. Philo, de Oflfe-
rentibus, p. 251 : ' The Laiv
speaks not in behalf of creatures
without reason, but in behalf of
those which have sense and
reason.' See a similar quotation
from Rabbi Manahem on Deut.
xxii. 6, in Heydenreich.

This is one of the many
instances where the lesson which
is regarded as subordinate is
denied altogether, as in Hos. vi.
6, ' I will have mercy, and not
sacrifice,' and Ezek. xx. 25, ' I
gave them statutes which were
not good.'

yap gives the reason for the
implied assertion : ' In conse-
quence of our wants the law
speaks, for it is written,' &c.

By ' us ' he means not the
Apostles, but men generally ; and
the conclusion which he draws
relates, not to the spiritual, but
to the literal harvest ; viz. that
the example of the ox justifies

HIS OWN EXAMPLE OF SELF-DENIAL.

143

o"ei9 l3ovv aXoojvTa. /xt) toju ^ocov fxikei tg) OeS, ^^rj Si'
T^/xa? irdi'Tcof; \iyei; hC rifxas yap iypdcfir), otl *6(/)etX€i ctt'
eXTTtSt 6 dpOTpicov dpOTpiav, koI 6 akocov^ irr eXTrtSt rov fxe-
re^eiv. ^^ el rjixels vyuv rd Tn^eu/xartfca iaireipafjiev, fieya el
rjfjiel^ Vfjicov to. crapKLKa OepCaofxei' ; ^^el dWoL tt}? ^v/xoii/ e^ov-
crta? ixsTe^ovcTLv^ ov jjloXXov rjiJie'L^ ; dW ovk i^^prjo-dfjieOa rrj

out the corn.' Doth God take care for oxen, ^°or saith He it altogether
for our sakes ? For our sakes no doubt it was written, because he that
plougheth ought to plough in hope, and he that thresheth in hope of par-
taking. ^^ If we sowed unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if ice
shall reap your carnal things ? ^^If others be partakers of this power over
you, are not we rather ? Nevertheless we did not use this power ; but

the practice of rewarding the
labourer by a share in the fruits
of the earth, which he has helped
to produce. But the imagery of
the literal harvest naturally
suggests the idea of the spiritual
harvest ; and in the next verse,
the spiritual alone is spoken of.

lo Lachmann's text, ctt' eATrtSt
Tov /xcTc^ctv, instead of r^s eA-TrtSo?
. . . €7r' cXttcSl, avoids the double
difficulty of the meaning of r^g
cA-TTiSos, and the position of cV
eA.7rtSt. Yet on this account it
is suspicious, and the common
reading (D^ E. J. K.) might be
justified ; ttjs eXTrtSos being used
for the ' fruit of his life ; ' and
cV cXttlBl being at the end of the
sentence, because the previous
eV eA-TTtSt prevented its insertion
at the beginning. For similar
transpositions compare viii. 11,
X. 27, XV. 19.

The mention of the figures of
ploughing and threshing bring
him to that of sowing and reap-
ing, which here, as in Hos. viii.
7; Gal. vi. 7, 8; 2 Cor. ix. 6,
express the ideas of retribution
and reward (compare Koran ii.

263). This brings him to the
personal conclusion of his ar-
gument ; that, if for no othi r
reason, from mere feelings of
gratitude, he who had conferred
upon them such spiritual gifts
(to. Trv€VjjiaTLKd) might expect in
return the support of outward
life ; especially when they con-
ceded it in the case of others,
who were not, as he was, the
founders of their Church. For
the gifts, comp. xii. 1, xiv. 1, and
Rom. i. 11.

The fact that other teachers,
and those of the Jewish party,
were maintained by the Corin-
thian Christians, is implied in
2 Cor. xi. 20 : 'Ye sufi'er if a
man devour you, if a man tahe
of you:

11 yfl€L<i, VfUV . .

are all emphatic. ' If we for
you sowed a spiritual seed, ought
not you for us to give a carnal
harvest ? ' Lachmann and the
Received Text (with A. B. K.)
read ^cptVo/xev, Tischendorf (with
C. D. E. F. G. J.) OepLo-uy/jLev.

12 T)}? vfX(x>v 6^ovo-ta9, ' the
right over you,' compare Matt.

rjixeis v/jLiov,

144

FIRST EPISTLE: CHAP. IX. 13—15.

i^ovcTia ravTTjt aXXa iravTa (TTeyofxev, iva fjnj ^nva iy-
KQTTrjv oojfxev TO) evayyeKiO) tov ^^ptcrrou. ^"^ovk oiOaTe on
ol TO. lepd ipyai^ojxevoL Ik tov lepov IcrOiovo'iv ; ol TOJ
BvcTiacrrrjpio) irapeSpevovTes^ ro) 6v(jia(TT7}pio) crvfipLepi-

* eyKOTrrjv riva.

•» irpofffSpevovres.

we bear all things, lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ. ^^Do ye
not know that they which minister the things of the temple live of the

X. 1 ; John xvii. 2, where, how-
ever, it is used rather in the
sense of ' power.'

oAA' ovK €\pYj(Taix^6(x. He re
comes the antithesis to the whole
of the previous argument. ' Such
was our right, but we did not use
it ; nay, rather than use it we
endure all manner of privations,
in order to prevent any hindrance
to the progress of the Gospel,
which might be raised by the
charge of interested motives.'
(Comp. 1 Thess. ii. 3-10.)

For o-T6yo/Atv see on xiii. 7.

13 At this point it would
seem that he was at last about
to embark on the main subject
of this Chapter — the example of
his own self-denial. But in the
very next verse he seems to
recommence his argument from
the beginning ; first repeating his
right in verses 13, 14, and then
reasserting in verse 15, almost
in the same words as here, his
determination not to use it. That
there is a pause, or break at the
end of verse 12, is further indi-
cated: (1) By the use of the
word €.ypa\f/a in verse 15, which,
though it can be used of the
Epistle on which the writer is
engaged, can only be naturally
explained by some such suspen-
sion in the argument. Comp. note
on V. 9. (2) By the phrase ovk
otSare, which, taken in conjunc-
tion with its repetition iu verse

24, implies that, in the practical
application of this argument, he
addresses himself first to the
Jewish converts, with an appeal
to Jewish customs (13-23) ;
secondly, to Gentile converts with
an appeal to Gentile customs
(24-27). A similar distinction
of argument, as addressed chiefly
to Jews or to Gentiles, and each
division marked by the same
words at the commencement, is
in Rom. vi. 3-14, 16-23.

He begins, then, with urging
his example on the more Jewish
of his converts ; but as these
were not in immediate danger of
being led away by the temptation
of the heathen sacrifices, and
were also those who most ques-
tioned the sincerity of his self-
denial, he addresses them by
reiterating his right to a main-
tenance, and founding it on
sanctions which they could not
question.

The particular form of the
argument probably alludes to his
own especial right : ' You may
deny that I am an Apostle, you
cannot deny that I preach the
Gospel.' He had spoken, inverse
12, of his anxiety to remove
every obstacle from the progress
of ' the Gospel ; ' the exulting
strain of Isa. Hi. 7, ' the feet of
them that preach the Gospel'
(comp. Rom. xii. 15), seems to
fill his mind ; and on the men-

HIS OWN EXAMPLE OF SELF-DENIAL.

145

tpvTai. ^^ouTO)? Koi 6 Kvpio<; hiira^ev Toi^ to evayyeXtov
KaTayyeXkovaiv eK tov evayyekiov t,rjv ^^^iyo) 8e ov
Ke)(pr][JiaL ovhevl tovtcov. ovk eypaxpa Se ravTa, Iva ovto)<;
yevTjTaL iv iixoi' koXov yap pLOi p^oXkov OLTroOavelv^ rj to

• iyi) Sh eitStyl i^pvCf^M^ rovrwv.

temple ? — they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar.
^■*Even so the Lord appointed that they which proclaim the gospel should
live of the gospel : ^^but I have used none of these things. Neither did
I write these things, that it should be so done unto me: for it were better

tion of that word, he stops to
urge the additional plea which
it would give him for claiming
a support : ' What the Temple
was to the Old Dispensation,
that the Gospel is to the
New ' . . . ' As under the Jew-
ish system it was the highest
honour to minister to the altar,
so now the highest honour is to
preach the Gospel ; and as those
who devote themselves to the
former received their sustenance
from the countless gifts which
were brought to the Temple,
and the countless victims laid
upon the altar, so the appoint-
ment of the Lord Himself, when
on earth (Matt. x. 10, Luke x.
7), secured to those who go from
country to country, announcing
the glad tidings of His appear-
ance, a maintenance from those
who heard them.* Thus, this
metaphor of the Jewish priest-
hood is applied to the proclama-
tion of 'the Gospel ' in Rom.
XV. 16: lepovpyovvra to cvayy.
For the support of the priests,
see Numb, xviii. 8 ; Deut. xviii.
1 ; Jos. Ant. iv. 4.

ipyd^€a-6ai is used in the Old
Testament sense of ' sacrifice,'
like pi^€Lv and facere.

€K TOV tcpov, ' the Temple.'
(Comp. the speech of the Zealots
in Jos. B. Jud. V. xiii. 6 : Set tovs
T(3 va<3 o-Tparcvo/xeVovs €k tov

vaov Tp€cfi€aOaL.) The present
tense indicates that he alludes to
the still existing practice.

Each of these arguments would
have especial weight with Jewish
Christians, the first, as derived
from their own institutions ; the
second, as an express precept of
our Lord to the Jewish Apostles
in Palestine.

13 TrapeSpcvovTcs, see vii. 35.

15 'But I have used none of
these things, I [emphatically],
whatever others may have
received (see verse 12), have
abstained from pressing my right
(K€xpr)/JLaL referring to Ixprja-djxiOa,
verse 12) ; nor did I lay before
you the statement of my right (as
contained in verses 1-12) with
a view of claiming or enforcing
it; for I had rather die than
abandon the chief boast of my
life.' (For the vehemence of the
expression, comp. Rom. ix. 3.)

The above is the general sense ;
the details of the last words de-
pend on the variations of reading.

(1) Kokov yap fjLoi fxaWov oltto-
Oav€iv, 17 TO Kav^^rjfjLOL /xov Iva rt?
K€vw(Ty (Rec. Text with K.).
(/ccvwo-ct, A. B. C. D.)

The violent inversion of the
words in the second clause is
the chief objection to this, which
is the received reading. Iva
K€Vioa~rj = the infinitive Kci/wcrai,
which has, according to the usage

146

FIEST EPISTLE: CHAP. IX. 16—18.

Kair^rjfJLa fjLOV ovbeis Kevcocei. "^^ eav yap euayycAt^w—
/xat, ovK ecTTiv jxoi KavxVI^^' oLvdyKT) yap [xol eVi/cetraf
^oval yap fioC iariv, iav [xtj evayyeXicrcjfJLaL. ^^ el yap

• Tyo ris K€vuaT). *" oval Se fioi . . . evayyfXl^ufiai.

for me to die, than my boasting : no one shall make it void. ^^For
though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of : for necessity is
laid upon me ; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel. ^'For if

of modem Greek (va Kcvoxny),
superseded the old infinitive.

(2) KoXov yap fxoL /xaXXov olttO'
6av€LV, ^ TO Kavx^fJM. /JLOv. ovSeU
Kevwa-ei, A. B. D. A. adds firj
after ovSei?, and reads Kaivtoo-€t,
which is (according to the modern
pronunciation),onlyamisspelling
of K€VM(T€L. F. G. read rts Kcvoicret
without tva, which, according to
the punctuation, would suit the
sense of either reading. ' It is
better that I should die than that
my boast [should die] ; no one
shall overthrow it.* To this the
objection is : (a) the harshness
of supplying aTroOav^iv to to
KavxnfJ^ ' (^) the use of fxoL in-
stead of e/xot, if an antithesis were
intended between himself and his
boast. The harshness, however,
of this is obviated if we may
suppose an anacoluthon occa-
sioned by his fervour : ' I had
rather die than that my boast '
(he was going to say) ' shall
come to nothing ; ' but he turns
vnth horror from the thought,
and breaks oat into the triumph-
ant assertion : ' No one will be
able to make it void.'

(3) vrj TO Kavxrj/jid jxov, a con-
jecture of Lachmann's in his first
edition. * I protest by my boast ;
no one shall overthrow it ; ' which
suits the meaning, and forms a
natural introduction to ovSct?
Kevo><T€t, and would be justified
by vr) Tr]v vjxeTepav Kav;(T70'tv, xv.
31. But the sense of either of the
existing readings is suflBciently

I good to render any conjectural
I emendation needless.
I 1 6, 17 'In preaching the
I Gospel I do but discharge a duty.'
j The connexion seems to be : 'I
must retain the boast ' (or, as we
should say, merit) * of preaching
the Gospel withoutremuneration:
else I should have no boast, or
merit of which to boast. The
preaching of the Gospel is in
itself no merit, but an irresistible
necessity, a bounden duty which
if I do perform 1 have no praise,
but which if I do not perform I
am denounced with the woe of
the Divine judgment; for it is
only if I do it with a willing
heart (as I do) that I can claim
a reward ; if I do it unwillingly,
I am merely like the slave
in charge of the household,
who has no thanks for his ser-
vices.' This sense must, however,
be qualified by the peculiar
construction of the Apostle's
argument. He seems to stat^,
not merely that * preaching the
Gospel with a maintenance,' but
'preaching the Gospel at all,'
precluded boasting. The argu-
ment, drawn out fully, would
have required that /xovov or some
similar expression should have
been added to cvayyeAt^w/xat.
This contradiction is occasioned
by a sudd en transition of thought,
frequent in the Apostle's style,
and specially characteristic of
it, when he speaks, as here, of
' hoasting' He can hardly men-

HIS OWN EXAMPLE OF SELF-DENIAL.

14:

eKcov TovTO TTpoi(r<Tco, fJLLcrOov €)(co* el Se clkcjv^ oiKovoixiav
7r€7ricrr€u/xat. ^^rt? ovv fxoi icrriv 6 fjnados ; Iva evayyekt-

I do this thing willingly, I have a reward : but if against my will, I have
been entrusted with a stewardship. ^^What then is my reward ? That

tion a ' boast ' without instantly
recalling it. Comp. Rom. iv. 2-
4 : 'A^paa/x .... ej(€i KavxrjfxoLy
oAA' ov 7r/oo5 Oeov . . . . tw Se cpya-
^o/xcvo) 6 {JLLcrOos ov Xoyt^crai Kara
Xapiv. 2 Cor. xii. 1 : KavxacrOai
Set, ov (rvfx<fi€pov fx€v. In one sense
he clings to his boast, in another
sense the necessity of preaching
the Gospel sweeps-it away. And
thus the construction of verse 17
was probably meant to be, etre
yap €K(i)v, etre a/ccov, OLKOVofxtav
TrcTTia-revfjiaL. But, as in 2 Cor. v.
13, he turns etrc i^ccrrrjiJia/, cire
(r(D(f)povoviJL€Vf into etre e^eo-r/y/xcv,
©€(3 • ctre (TOicf>povovix€v, v/xtv, SO
here he throws into the first
clause the words fxLaOov I^^j
which bring back into the sen-
tence his ground for boasting.
For such a sudden intrusion of
a new thought compare cyvwcrrat
in viii. 3.

Two points may be observed
here: (1) The freedom with
which he speaks of * reward,'
' boast,' ' acts beyond what are
absolutely necessary,' in the com-
mon language of men; regardless
of inferences. (2) The strong
sense of the irresistible impulse
of the first preaching of the Gos-
pel. He refers no doubt to such
commands of our Lord, as, ' Go,
teach all nations ' (Matt, xxviii.
1 9) ; or, ' Depart, for I will send
thee far hence unto the Gentiles '
(Acts xxiii. 21) ; but his lan-
guage further implies that he
could not conceive the possibility
of disobedience to their com-
mands, or to the instincts which
they awakened. What seems to

us an act of heroic zeal, seemed
to him an act of ordinary ^^

J i. 'J. 11 The

duty; it was only by Apostle's
some still loftier act ^°^^-
of self-devotion that he could
hope to raise himself above the
common sphere of inevitable
work. He felt that he was merely
an instrument in the hand of God,
with no power in himself of re-
tarding or promoting the advance
of those mighty truths which had
only to be uttered in order to be
appreciated.

For the image of the slave or
steward (otKovo/Aiav TrcTricrreu^at),
compare the close o^ the parable,
in Luke xvii. 10 : ' When ye have
done all those things which are
commanded you, say, We are
unprofitable " slaves : " we have
done that which was our duty to
do : ' and still more 1 Cor. iv. 1,
where the same word is used,
* Let a man so account of us, as
stewards (oIkovo/xovs) of the
mysteries of God.'

1 8 He returns to the expres-
sion which he had used before
(/jLLo-Obv e^w), 'I have a reward
for preaching the Gospel will-
ingly,* and asks in what it
consists, to which the answer is,
' my reward is that I have no
reward.' He looks for no higher
reward or pay (the word fXLaOov
being used on purpose ; comp.
1 Tim. V. 18, a|i05 6 ipydrr)^ rov
fXLcrOov avrov) than to preach the
Gospel without pay ; he hopes for
no higher freedom (returning to
the image of a slave implied in
olKovofxiav TreTTto-rev/Aai) than to
become the slave of all.

148

FIEST EPISTLE: CHAP. IX. 19—24.

Jd/Aei/09 aSdwavov Orjcroi to cvayyeXiov^ , eU to /at) fcara-
')(prjaacr9aL Ty i^ovcria fJLOV iv to) evayyeXCco. ^^ ikevdepo^
yap o)v e/c rravTcov, Tracnv ifxavTov iSovXo)o-a, Iva tov<;
irXeiovas Kephrjao)' ^^Acal iyevojxrjv rots 'lovSatov? a>9
'lovSatos, Lva 'lovSatoug KepSijaco' rots vtto vofiov ws vtto

VOfXOV, IXTj COV aVTOS VTTO VOfJiOV^, Iva TOV<; vtto VOfXOV Kep-

* Add rod Xpi(TTOv. *• Omit fx}) iiv ahrhs irrrh vS/xov.

when I preach the gospel I may make the gospel -vr-ithout charge, that I
abuse not my power in the gospel. ^^For though I be free from all, yet
I made myself a slave unto all, that I might gain the greater part ; ^^and
unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain Jews ; to them that
are under the law as under the law (not being myself under the law), that I

Karayfirja-acrOaL^ ' use to the
full.' Comp. vii. 31.

€v T(3 cvayycAtw, * conferred
upon me by preaching the
Gospel.' Comp. verse 14.

19 ' The proof of my sincerity
in what I say lies in my whole
life : ' hence yap : ' Though I was
free to take my own course (as
in verse 1), I did not hesitate
to become the slave of all.' In
the first instance the idea of his
enslavement to all is suggested
by the servile labour which
he had nndertaken, as distinct
from the free independence which
he might have enjoyed as an
Apostle ; bnt he rapidly passes
from this to his accommodation
to the various feelings of all his
converts, in the hope that of this
mass he might gain the greater
part (tva tov^ 7rX.uova<; KepSTycro))
to the cause of Christ. For the
same transition from the idea of
servile labonr to that of serving
generally, compare Phil. ii. 7
(8ovA.ov).

KepS-qcro) is used with reference
to fjLLo-Oo^. The gain of his converts
was his pay.

20-22 In the enumeration of

his acts of accommo-

't'^'luS' ^a^ion, it is, as might

be expected, chiefly

with regard to the Jewish or
scrupulous converts that he
speaks. Self-denial for their sakes
was what he wished to impress
upon all ; to conciliate them
was the especial object of this
argument. The only exception,
therefore, is the clause in 21,
and that is introduced with an
apology. The tenses (cyevo/xr/v,
&c.) indicate that he chiefly
refers to his stay at Corinth.

' To the Jews, as a Jew.'
This he proved by zeal for his
country (Rom. ix. 3), by Jewish
observances (Acts xvi. 3, xviii.
18, xxi. 26). 'To those that
were under the law,' i.e. (as dis-
tinguished from 'lovSaioig) Jew-
ish proselytes, or Jewish converts
to Christianity. ' To them that
are without law, as without law.'
This he proved by non-observ-
ance of the law, by the rejection
of circumcision, intercourse with
Gentiles, or by accommodation
to their language and arguments,
as in Acts xiv. 16, 17; xvii.
28; 1 Cor. viii. 1-7, ix. 24-
27. The word by which he here
describes himself (avofjLo^, ' with-
out law,' ' lawless ') is the expres-
sion used to designate him in the
forged Epistle of Peter to James
(c. 2) in the Clementines; and,'

HIS OWN EXAMPLE OF SELE-DENIAL.

149

Tols aaOeveaLP ^[ws] a(T0evT]s, tVarou? d(T6€PeL<; KepSijcra)'

TO 19

23 d

iracriv yeyova rravTa, ii'a 7ravTco<; TLPa<; crcocroj,
irdvTa 8e Trotw 8ta to evayyekiov^

tj'a cruy/cotj^oit'os

avTou yevoiiiai. ""ovk oLoare otl ol ev crTaOicxi Tpe)(ovTes

8tc

06^ . . . XpiffT^ . . . KepB-fjffco avdixovs.
TO. iravra.

*• Lachm. Ed. 1. omits [ws].
d rovro.

may gain them that are under the law ; ^^ to them that are without law as
without law (being not without law to God but under the law to Christ),
that I may gain them that are without law; '^-to the weak became I as weak,
that I may gain the weak : I am become all things to all men, that I may by
all means save some. '^^And all things I do for the gospel's sake, that I
may be partaker thereof with you. '^^Know ye not that they which run in a

seems therefore to have been a
vj? ell-known term of reproach
against him among the Juda-
izers. Possibly it is on their
account that he guards .himself
against its misapplication in the
ensuing parenthesis ; which is,
however, the natural expression
of his wish not to appear, even
for a moment, independent of
God, — rather to have become still
more dependent on Dim by his
subjection to the law, not of
Moses, but of Christ. Bengel :
— 'Paulus non fait anomus
nedum antinomus.'

22 ' To the weak,' i.e. ' to the
scrapulous,' as in viii. 7-12 ;
Kom. xiv. 1, 2. This stands last,
and by itself, as the practical end
of all that he had been saying.

Tots Trao-tv, ' to' all, in short, I
have been (yeyova) all the con-
ceivable forms of which humanity
will admit' (Travra).

TravToos, 'by all means,' the
double meaning, as in English.

(Twcru), as in vii. 16, ' convert.*

23 He here comes back to the
great cause for which he did all
this — ' the Gospel.'

With the concluding words of

the last verse, a new thought is
introduced : up to that point he
had been speaking of his self-
denial for the sake of others ;
here he begins to speak of it as
for his own sake. It is no longer
'that I may save some,' but
' that I may be partaker of the
Gospel with you ' (i.e. as well
as you). ' Do not think that I
do not require this for myself.
In order to do good, we must be
good. To extend our Christian
liberty to its utmost verge is
daugerous, not only for others,
but for ourselves.' This argu-
ment, of which the key-note is,
' Let him that thinketh he stand-
eth, take heed lest he fall ' (x.
12), is supported, first, by his
own example (ix. 24-27), se-
condly, by the warning of the
Israelitish history (x. 1-15).

24 The self-denial which he
practised for his own sake, like
that which he practised for the
sake of others, is introduced by
a familiar analogy ushered in by
the same phrase ('know ye not,'
ovK otSare) as in verse 13 ; the
difference being that, while there,
when his object was chiefly to

150 FIRST EPISTLE: CHAP. IX. 25.

Trdvres [Jl^v Tpi)(ov(Tiv^ ets he XafJL^dveL ro ^pafieiov ; ovTa)^
race run all, but one receiveth the prize 1 So run, that ye may obtain.

Isthmian
games.

impress Ms right on the Jewish
converts, the sanction was drawn
from Jewish institutions, so here,
when his object is chiefly to im-
press their duty on the Gentile
converts, the sanction is drawn
from Gentile institutions. In-
stead of referring, as before, to
the Temple of Jerusalem, with
its array of Priests acd Levites,
he now refers to the far nearer
image of those celebrated festi-
vals, which were to the Greeks
what the Temple was to the
Jews, and the Triumph to the
Romans, and of which the most
lively instance then to be seen
was in the Isthmian
games of Corinth. The
Olympic games still
maintained their pre-eminence
in theory, and in practice they
outlasted all the others, till the
reign of Theodosius, and as such
are alone alluded to by Chryso-
stom in his comments on this
passage ; but at the period of
these Epistles the chief interest
of Greece must have been con-
centred in the Isthmian games.
There the nominal independence
of Greece had been proclaimed
by Flamininus, and there Nero,
standing in the midst of the very
' stadium ' here mentioned, a few
years after the date of this
Epistle, announced from the
Bema the gift of Roman citizen-
ship to ail the province of
Achaia ; as also did Titus, a few
years later ; and there the Apo-
stle, during his stay of a year
and a half, must have witnessed
the celebration in which, every
third summer, all the Greek and
Roman residents in Greece, but

especially of Achaia, took part
at the peculiar festival of their
capital city.

It must be remembered, in
reading the Apostle's allusions,
that from the national character
and religion of the Greeks, these
games derived an importance
which raised them above the
degrading associations of modern
times. How intense an interest
these contests still excited may
be seen from Suetonius's graphic
description of the agony of Nero
in his desire to succeed ; an
exaggerated instance, doubtless,
but yet illustrative of the general
feeling. (Suet. Nero. cc. 23, 24.)
The ' stadium,' or ' race-course,'
of which he speaks, was not a
mere resort for public amuse-
ment, but an almost sacred edi-
fice, under the tutelage of the
patron deity of the Ionian tribes,
and surrounded by the most
solemn recollections of Greece,
its white marble seats rising like
the foundation of a temple in the
grassy slope where its outline
may still be traced, under the
shadow of the huge Corinthian
citadel, which guards the en-
trance of the Peloponnesus. The
race, 'in which all run,' the
pugilistic contests in which they
strove not ' to heat the air,' were
not merely exhibitions of bodily
strength, but solemn trials of the
excellence of the competitors in
the ' gymnastic art,' which was
to the Greeks one half of human
education. As the friends and
relatives watched with breathless
interest the issue of the contest,
they knew that the victor would
be handed down to posterity by

HIS OWN EXAMPLE OF SELF-DENIAL.

151

iyKpareveraL* iKeivot [xev ovv Iva ^daprov (rTe(j)avov \d-

^^Now every one that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things :
they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but ive an incorruptible. ^^ J

having his name sung in those
triumphal odes, of which Pindar's
are the extant model, and his
likeness placed in the long line
of statues which formed the
approach to the adjacent temple.
(Paus. Corinth, ii. 1, 7.) The
* prize ' (to jSpa/^etov) which he
won from the appointed judges,
who sat in state at the end of
the course, was such as could
awake no mean cr mercenary
motives ; its very simplicity at-
tested its dignity ; it was a gar-
land (<TT€cfiavo<s) of the Grecian
pine (TrevKrj), which still, under
its classical name, clothes with
its light green foliage the plains
of the Isthmus, and which was
then consecrated to the sea-god,
around whose temple its groves
(Paus. Corinth, ii. 1, 7) were
gathered. (See Conybeare and
Howson, c. 20.)

Such was the imagery before
the Apostle's mind when he wrote
these words, not indeed with that
distinct realisation which is cha-
racteristic only of modern times,
but in its effect only to be con-
ceived by us through such a
realisation. Corresponding to the
earthly greatness of the scene to
which he allades, is the more
exalted greatness of that to which
he compares it, as in the contrast
of earthly with heavenly wisdom
in the parable of the unjust
steward. (Luke xvi. 1.)

The application of the meta-
phor of the race to the progress
of the Christian, here occurs for
the first time. Afterwards, com-
pare Phil. iii. 12, 14, KaraXa/Selv

and jSpa^elov, as here ; 2 Tim.
iv. 7, 8 : rbv ayiova .... rov
Spofxov. ... 6 (rTecf>avo^ ; Heb.
xii. 1 : TpexoifJiev . . . dywva. The
argument is : ' It is not enough
merely to run — all run ; but as
there is only one who is victo-
rious, so you must run, not
with the slowness of the many,
but with the energy of the
one.' This imagery, as might be
expected from discourses de-
livered in Palestine, never occurs
in the Gospels.

oiiTO)5, i.e. * as the one who
gains the prize.'

Iva, ' so that in the end ye may
win.'

KaTa\d/37]T€, i.e. to ySpaySetov.

25 6 dycovt^o/jt.€vo9, * who con-
tends in the public games.'

€yKpaT€V€Taiy ' exercises self-
control.' The discipline lasted
for ten months preparatory to
the contest, and was at this time
so severe as to be confined to
the professional athletes. See
JBlian, V. H. iii. 30, 10, s. 2, II,
s. 5. It chiefly consisted in
diet, and is thus described by
Epictetus (Ench. c. 29, § 2):
' Thou must be orderly, living
on spare food ; abstain from con-
fections, make a point of exer-
cising at the appointed time, in
heat and in cold, nor drink cold,
water, nor wine at hazard ; in a
word, give thyself up to thy
training master as to a physician,
and then enter on the contest.'
Compare, too, the passages quoted
by Wetstein.

The same metaphor of training
occurs exactly in 2 Tim. ii. 5;

152

FIRST EPISTLE: CHAP. IX. 26— X. 1.

l3a)(rLV, rjixeiq Be a<l>6apTov. '^^e

OV/C (IStJXcOS, OVTOi^ TTVKTeVO) &>S

VTTCOTnd^o) fxov TO crw/xa /cat BovXaycoyco, ^i-q ttws aXXoig
KTjpv^as avTo<; dSd/ct/xos yevcoiiai.

eyoj Toivvv ovrco^ rpe^co oi?
ovK depa Sepojp, ^' dW

therefore so run not as uncertainly, so fight not as one that beateth the
air, 2'but I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection, lest that
by any means, when I have been a herald to others I myself should be-
come disapproved.

iav 8e KOL dOXfj Tt5, ov o-rc^avovrat,
iav fxrj vojxLfxois (i.e. ' according
to the rules ') aOXrjar).

(fiOaprbv <TT€<f)avov, ' a garland
of olive, parsley, bay, or (as
observed under verse 24) pine.*

acfiOapTov. In 2 Tim. ii. 5, iv.
8, the crown is spoken of, as
here, in direct connexion with the
metaphor of the Christian contest.
It also occurs in Rev. iii. 11, and
"under the figure of a never-fading
garland, in 1 Pet. v. 4 (d/jLapavrt-
vov) ; James i. 12 ((rrc^avos rrj^
^oiTJs, a crown of living flowers
and leaves).

26 TOLwv, merely a particle of
transition.

ovrojs . . . u)9, ' I run in such
a way as not to be uncertain ; I
fight in such a way as not to beat
the air.' Compare iii. 15, iv. 1.

OVK dB-qXiiis, i.e. ' so as to be
sure of the prize,' or ' with a sure
footing.' (See 2 Mace. vii. 34 ;
1 Tim. vi. 17.)

ovT(i}<s TTVKTevo). This introduces
a new image from the same field ;
the metaphor of the race not
expressing sufficiently the active
and aggressive character of the
course needed, he takes a figure
from the pugilistic or pancratias-
tic combats. The self-mastery,
which in the previous verses he
had described as preparatory to
the contest, he here describes as
part of the contest itself; the
self, which in the previous verse

was the same in the metaphor and
in the reality, is here represented
as the antagonist which he has
to subdue.

ws OVK depa Scpwv, i.e. ' with firm
blows, reaching the adversary.'
(See Wetstein ad loc.)

27 vTruiTrtd^oi is for vTrcoTrta^wi/,
in antithesis to Sepiov . ,>
(comp. ivrpeTTtiv and
vovOctQ), iv. 14), ' My blows are
so direct that they cover my ad-
versary — and that adversary my
own body (fiov to o-w/jui) — with
bruises ; not only so, but I lead
it captive like a slave, as the victor
leads the vanquished.' There is
a variation in the form of the
word which leads to a slight
variation of sense. (1) vTrorn-td^oi
in A. B. C. J)K from vTrcomov,
— the part of the face under
the eye — is 'to give a black
eye,' and thence ' to bruise,' and
still more generally ' to fatigue '
or ' vanquish,' as in Luke xviii.
5 (of the importunate widow),
and in Aristoph. Pac. 533, vttw-
TTiaa-fxivai ttoAci?. In this case
the word is a pugilistic metaphor,
and follows up TrvKrcvw. (2)
VTroTnd^o) F. G. J. K. V7r07net,0)
D^. are the Doric and Attic forms
of the same word vTroTrie^w, ' I
oppress,' or ' subject.' The com-
pound occurs in the Fathers only,
but the word Trte^w or Trta^o),
frequently in the Gospels, as in
Luke vi. 38. In either case, the

HIS OWN EXAMPLE OF SELF-DENIAL.

153

X. ^ Ov OeXco ^yap vfjua^ ayvoeiv^ aSeX(^ot, otl ol Trarepe^s
rjfxojv 7rdvTe<s viro Tr)v ve(l)i\rjv rjaav koX iro.vTe'i Sea r^g

• 0e'A&J Se.

X. ^For I would not that ye should be ignorant, brethren, how that
all our fathers were under the cloud and all passed through the sea; -and

thing" meant is his self-denial, as
shown chiefly through the re-
fusal to receive a maintenance,
and thereby being compelled
to work with his own hands,
as though he had said, ' My
hands (at x^^P^'* ct^'Tat, Acts
XX. 34) have been worn away
with the black tentcloths, my
frame has been bowed down with
this servile labour.' Compare
iXevOepo^ . . . iSovkoxra, ix. 19.

He then recurs to the training
necessary for the contest : ' This
I do, lest, after having declared
to others what they ought to do,
I should myself be rejected as
unworthy of the prize.'

'TheHerald.' mu ^ 't

1 he word Krjpv^a^,

' having proclaimed,' is often
used in the sense of ' preaching *
or ' announcing ' the Gospel.
But, as it is here used abso-
lutely, we may more naturally
take it, as ' having exercised the
office of herald,' with a double
allusion, first to the usual reli-
gious meaning of the word ;
secondly, to the herald who pro-
claimed the prizes at the games.
This new complication of the
metaphor is rendered less vio-
lent by the fact, that the office
of the herald itself was an object
of competition, and that some-
times, as in the case of Nero, the
victor in the games was also se-
lected as the herald to announce
his success.

d^oKt/Aos is nsed in a general
sense, as ' unworthy of
the prize,' though pro-

ofio/cijLios.

bably with especial reference to
the examination of candidates
before the contest. It may be
observed, that this word, which,
in all other passages except Heb.
vi. 8, is translated in the Autho-
rised Version 'reprobate,' is
here (probably from a Calvin-
istic scruple) translated 'cast-
away.'

X. I He follows up his own
example by stating, in the second
place, the warning furnished by
the history of Israel : ' It is pos-
sible that I may be rejected ; it
is needful for you to follow my
example of abstaining from the
fall enjoyment of our liberty ;
because the whole history of the
Old Testament teaches the lesson
of distrust of ourselves.' yap,
which is the right reading in-
stead of oe, gives the reason for
a86KLiJio<s in ix. 27, and thus
connects the two arguments to-
gether.

The stress is on Trai/rcs : ' All
enjoyed the privileges, and yet
only a few availed themselves of
them.' ' Many were called, but
few were chosen.' Compare the
parallel expression in the parallel
clause, ix. 24, ' All run, but one
receives.' Here, the sense would
be clearer if, as there, /xei/ fol-
lowed on 7ravT€?.

' Our fathers ' (jjixmf^ is re-
markable as addressed to readers,
many of whom were Gentiles.
But, as he has been speaking of
himself just before, he naturally
passes to the thought of the Is-

154

FIRST EPISTLE: CHAP. X. 2—5.

6a\da(Trj<; SltjXOov^ '^/cai Travre^ et? rov Mcovcrrjv ^i^air-
TLcrOrjcrav iv rfj ve<^i\rj kol iu rfj Oakdo-crrj^ ^ koX iravTe^
TO avTo ^ TTvevixaTLKOv e^ayoi^ ^pcofia ^ koL irdvTe^ to avTo
^TTuevfJLaTiKov eiTLOV TTO/xa {^emvov yap e/c TrvevfJiaTLKrjs olko-

• idairriffavTO. ^ rh avro fipu/ia. " rh avrh irSfxa.

were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 'and did all eat
the same spiritual food "* and did all drink the same spiritual drink (for

raelites as his own ancestors.
We must also bear in mind how
many, even in Gentile Churches,
had already been Jewish prose-
lytes.

2 The privileges selected are
such as correspond most nearly
to the two Christian sacraments.
This is the only passage where
they are thus brought in juxta-
position .

cv tt} vecfiiXrj koi . . . OaXdacrrj,
'under the cloud,' i.e. 'over-
shadowed by the cloudy

'The Cloud.' ..^ . •', . •'

pillar, as in baptism we
pass under the cloudy veil of
water,' ' through the sea,' as
' through the waters of baptism.'
This agrees with the Rabbinical
representation of the cloud. ' It
encompassed the camp of the
Israelites, as a wall encompasses
a city.' Pirke, Eleazar, c. 104,
as quoted by Dr. Gill. Compare
also Numb. xiv. 14 : ' Thy cloud
standeth over them.'

/cat Travre? i/SaTTTLa-Orjcrav. ' And
thus were baptized into the dis-
pensation of Moses.' Comp. Ex.
xiv. 31 : 'They believed the
Lord and His servant Moses '
(after the passage of the Red
Sea). Although l^aTrTio-Orjcrav
occurs in A. C. D. E. F. G. yet
it may be a correction of i^air-
TLaavTo B (?). J. K. which is
the natural expression for the
voluntary pledge involved in
Christian baptism. Compare
aTrekovcracrOe, in vi. 11.

CIS rov Mwvcrrjv, used as a pa-
rallel to €tS TOV -^lOTOV.

4 The food and drink are
parallel to the Lord's Supper.
The word ' spiritual ' (irvevfjia-
T6Kov) is employed partly from
the preternatural character of
the sustenance, as described in
Exod. xvi. 14, xvii. 6 ; Numb.
XX. 2-11 , and with regard to the
manna, in especial reference to
its descent from heaven, and its
designation in Ps. Ixxviii. 24,
25, as 'the bread of heaven,'
and * angels' food ; ' comp. Jo-
seph. Ant. iii, 1, 6; Oelov ^pco/xa
/cat TrapdSo^ov- But it also re-
fers, and especially in the case
of the water, to the glory which
was reflected on the earthly ele-
ments from their relations to
Christ. The 'cloud' and the
' sea,' though evidently used
here as figures of baptism, had
not been brought into the fixed
circle of Messianic ideas ; there-
fore to them the word is not ap-
plied. But the manna and the
water seem to have been long
understood as figures of Him
who was to supply all the long-
ings of His people, and they are
accordingly so used in John vi.
50 : ' I am the bread which
cometh down from heaven,' and
John vii. 37, 39 : 'If any man
thirst, let him come unto Me
. . . (this spake He of the
Spirit).* With regard to the
manna, no explanation was

'Km OWN EXAMPLE OF SELF-DENIAL.

155

Xov0ovcn]<; irlrpa^;, rj ^werpa 8e ^v 6 ^(pLa'TOs) ' ^dXX' ovk

^ 7] 5e irer pa.

they drank of the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was

needed. But for the allusion to

'TheEock ^^^ ^^^^ ^^ explana-
which tion was needed, and

followed.' • • 1 ii

IS given, because the
tradition to which it refers is not
contained in the Old Testament.
This tradition maintained that
there was a well formed out of
the spring in Horeb, which ga-
thered itself up into a rock, ' like
a swarm of bees,' and followed
the people for forty years, some-
times rolling of itself, sometimes
carried by Miriam ; and always
addressed by the elders when
they encamped, in the words of
Numb. xxi. 17 : * Spring up,
well.' See the Targums, as
quoted by Wetstein, Schottgen,
and Heydenreich.

In accordance with this notion,
the Rock of Moses, as pointed
out by the local tradition of
Mount Sinai, is not a cliff in the
mountain, but a detached frag-
ment of rock, about fifteen feet
high, with twelve or more fis-
sures on its surface, from which
the water is said to have gushed
out for the twelve tribes. This
local tradition is as old as the
Koran, which mentions this very
stone (ii. 57, vii. 160) ; possibly
as old as Josephus, who describes
the rock of Moses as ' lying be-
side ' (7rapaK€Lfji€vr}v^ the moun-
tain, Ant. iii. 1, 7. Here, as
elsewhere, the Apostle sees no-
thing of the outward history ex-
cept in its reference to Christ,
aheady in the wilderness, the
Life and Guide of His people.
Hence his allusion to the tradi-
tion, which would have been out
of place had the actual facts of

the history occupied the promi-
nent place in his thoughts, be-
comes intelligible if he used the
story as a vehicle to convey the
idea of the ever-present power
of Christ. Instead of adhering
to the Mosaic narrative, which
represents the miraculous ap-
pearances of the water as isolated
facts at the beginning and at
the end of the wanderings, he
adopted the story which endea-
voured to bridge over the inter-
val between the two, by repre-
senting the cliff (sela) at Kadesh
to have been identical with the
roch (tzur) which had been
struck at Mount Horeb. But,
in adopting this representation,
he guards himself Irora any
literal agreement with it : the
word ' spiritual ' (7rvei;/x,aTtK^s)
raises our thoughts at once to
the figurative sense in which
alone it could be applied to the
rock ; and the concluding words,
' but the Rock was Christ,*
seem specially inserted to im-
press upon his readers, that,
whatever might be the facts of
the history or tradition, the only
Rock which was in his mind at
the moment was the Messiah
(6 xpicrro?), as in the case of
' Christ our passover,' v. 7. He
was, in a far higher sense than
the actual cliffs of Hor or Horeb,
the rock which was always in
view with its shadow to protect,
and its waters to refresh them,
at the end, no less than at the
beginning, of their long wander-
ings.

Christ has the same relation
to the Spirit as the rock to the

1.56

FIRST EPISTLE: CHAP. X. 6—10.

iv Tois TTkeiocTiv avTcov ^yjvSoKTjcrev 6 0e6^' KaT€(TTp(0'
Orjcrav yap iv rrj ipyjfJLCo. ''raura Se tvttol rjjjicjp iyevyjOrj-
crav, €19 TO jJirj elvai r)fJia<; iTriSvixiqTa^ KaKwv, kolOu)^ kolk^I-
voL iTreOvfXTjcrav. ^ firjSe elSoiXokdrpai yivecrde, Ka6(xi<; TLve^
avT(x)v^ ^0)<J7r€p yiypaiTTai EKadicreu 6 \ao<; (fyayelp /cat
TTtet^, /cat avecTTrjcrav jraiQeiv, ^ firjBe nopvevcofjiev, /ca^ws

Christ) : ^but with the greater part of them God was not well pleased : for
they were overthrown in the wilderness. ^ Now these things were our ex-
amples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also
lusted. "^ Neither become ye idolaters, as were some of them, as it is written,
* the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.' ^Neither let

water ; it is from Him that the
Spirit flows (corap. John vii.
37), and one is here put for the
other, as in 2 Cor. iii. 17 : ' The
Lord is " the " Spirit.' For a
similar interpretation see Gal.
iv. 24, where by aXXrjyopovficva
he expresses nearly the same
idea as by Trveu/Aart/c^g here ; and
for the sense of TrvevfiaTLKo^; for
' typical,' — seen in the light of
the Spirit, see Hev. xi. 8 (•^ts
KaXetrat Trvev fiarLKios Sooo/xa).

For the traditional compari-
son of the Messiah to the rock,
see Philo, Alleg. 11, 21 : Quod
deterius potiori ins. § 31 ; and
the Targums on Isaiah xvi. 1
(quoted in Wetstein). For the
comparison of God to a rock in
the desert, see Psalm xci. 1, 2 ;
Isaiah xxxii. 2.

5 ' Such were their privileges.
But they were not saved there-
by from the heaviest judgments.
Out of the whole number who
partook of these blessings, the
greater part perished.'

yap, i.e. ' We know that it is
SO; for this is the proof.' Com-
pare Luke vii. 47, ' Her sins are
forgiven her, hecause she loved
much.'

KaT€(TTp(i)6rj(TaVy ' their bodies
were left to moulder away on the

sands of the desert.' The word
is taken from KaTe'orrpwo-ev, Numb,
xiv. 16. For a similar argument,
see Heb. iii. 17.

6 ravra 8e tvttol. ' In these
things we may see our own mo-
dels.' TVTTo? is generally used
for a model as an example ; here,
for a model as a warning. The
parallel is drawn from such sins
of the Israelites as most resem-
bled those to which the Corin-
thians were liable.

einOvfjirjTa^ Ka/cwv, ' desirous of
evil things,' probably a general
phrase, ' with your appetites set
on evil rather than on good.' If
it has a more special allusion, it
must be, in the case of the
Corinthians, to the idol feasts,
and of the Israelites, to the flesh-
pots of Egypt and the quails,
Numbers xi. 4, 18, 33.

7 ctSwXoXarpat, i.e. ' by coun-
tenancing or partaking in the
rites attendant on the feasts.'

wa-irep yey/oaTrrat, i.e. 'in the
matter of the golden calf ; ' the
quotation is from Ex. xxxii. 6, in
the very words of the LXX.

Trai^etv, ' to dance,' as in the
heathen ceremonies, both of Syria
and of Greece.

8 TTopvevoifjLcv, i.e. ' by joining
in the licentious rites, which, es-

HIS OWN EXAMPLE OF SELF-DENIAL.

157

TLve<; avTcov enopvevcrav Kai ^eTreaav jjna r)fJLepa eiKocn

Ttz^€9 avTOiv iireipacrav /cat viro tcop 6(j)€(op ^aircoXovTo,
^^fjLr)8e yoyyv^^ere, KaOcos^ TLve<; avTOiV iyoyyvaav koI airo)-

cireaou.

rhv Xpicrrhv, KaOiis Kai rives.

'» iv fiia, and so Lachm, Ed. 1.

^ Lachm. Ed. 1. airdWvvTO. ^ Ka6ii)s Kai rives.

us commit fornication, as some of them committed and fell in one day
three and twenty thousand. ^Neither let ns tempt the Lord, as some of
them tempted and perished by serpents. ^° Neither murmur ye, as some

pecially at Corinth, were blended
with the worship of Venus.' For
this juxtaposition of the two,
compare Acts xv. 29 ; and notes
on 1 Cor. vi. 12.

hropvevcrav., i.e. in the matter
of Baalpeor, Numb. xxv. 1-9,
where, as well as in Philo,
Josephus, and the Rabbis, the
number is 24,000, not, as here,
23,000. The variation must be
referred to the original text of the
Apostle, not to any subsequent
error or correction of the copyists,
as they, if they altered it at all,
would have been more likely to
have altered in conformity with
Numbers than against it.

9 cKTTCtpa^w/xev tov Kvptov, ' Let
us not tempt Christ by going to
the verge of our Christian
liberty,' as in the expression
* tempting God ' in Matt. iv. 7.

KvpLov (B. C.) ^cov (A.) per-
haps corrections of xP"5"toi/ (D.
E. F. G. H. I. K.) But Kvpiov
and ')(fii(rr6v equally refer to
Christ's presence in the Old
Testament, as implied in verse 4 ;
Jude 5 ; Heb. xi. 26. And he
here has the special reason for
the thought, that he wishes to
bring before the Corinthians (as
in viii. 12), that it was against
Christ, their loving Redeemer,
that they sinned, in this abuse of
their liberty.

Ka6<x)<s T6VCS iireLpaa-av. This
would most naturally refer to
Massah at Horeb, Exod. xvii. 7.
The destruction by serpents,
however, was on a later occasion,
Numb. xxi. t).

lo yoyyv^ere, i.e. ' do not com-
plain against the authority of
Paul as an Apostle ' (referring to
the argument in ix. 1-10).

cyoyyro-av, i.e. in the matter of
Korah, where the judgment was
a plague. Numb. xvi. 49.

TOV oXoOpevTov, i.e. the De-
stroying Angel — ' the Angel of
Death,' from the LXX. trans-
lation 6 6\o0p€v(jDv, Exod. xii. 23.
Compare Ps. Ixxviii. 50, where,
by a reverse process, what is in
Exod. xii. 23 called the ' Angel '
is called the * pestilence.* See
also the Rabbis in Lightfoot.
For a curious resemblance to the
words and to the general sense
of this passage, com p. Judith,
viii. 25-27, where, as here, the
Israelites are warned not to give
way to their trials, because God
tries them onlv as He tried their
fathers (Tretpo^et r}jjia<; KaOa koI
Tov<s TTttTcpa? T^/xcuv) . Thus far the
Greek; but the Vulgate adds:
' Illi autem qui mutationes non
suscepernnt cum timore Domini,
et impatientiam suam et im-
proprium murmurationis suas
contra Dominum postularunt,

158

FIRST EPISTLE: CHAP. X. 11—14.

\opTO VTTO Tov okoOpevTOv. ^^TovTa §€ [Trai^Ttt] "ru7ri/ca)9
crvvif^aivov eKeivoi<;^ iypdcj)!/] Be irpos vovOecriav rjfJLOJV^
cts ovs TO. Tekr) to)v al(x)vo}v ^ KaTTjVTT^Kev. ^^wcrre 6 hoKtxyv
earravai pAeTrercu ixi) Trecrrj. 7reLpacrfJLo<; i>/i,a9 ovk clat^-
<j)ep €1 jJLT) dp0p(i)7nvo<; ' Trtcrro? be 6 ^eds, 69 ovk idorei v/xa?
ireLpacrOrjvaL virep o BvvacrOe^ dWd TTOLija-ei crvu t&j ttci-

' rvvoi trvtf4fiaivov.

KaTr^vrrjarev.

of them murmured, and perished by the destroyer. "Now all these things
happened unto them for examples, and it was written for our admonition,
upon whom the ends of the ages are come. ''^Wherefore let him that thinketh
he standeth take heed lest he fall. ^^ There hath no temptation taken you
but such as is common to man : and God is faithful, who will not suffer
you to be tempted above that ye are able, but will with the temptation

exterminaii sunt ah exieroninatore,
et a serpentibns perierunt.'

11 TVTTtKws is only used here
in the New Testament, and hence
perhaps the substitution of tvttol
in D. E. F. a. J.

(rvviftatvov (plural) refers to
the events in detail ; lypa^-q (sin-
gular), to the record as a whole.
' These events occurred histori-
cally to t/iem^ but the record of
them was made for us, who, far
removed from them, have been
overtaken by the last great days
of the world's existence ; ' ' heirs
of all the ages.'

TO. riXy) Twv attovcov, the same
as (TwreXeta atoivos, Matt. xiii. 39,
the plural nominative resulting
from the plural genitive, the
plural of atwv being here used, as
elsewhere in St. Paul's Epistles.

KaTi]VT7]K€v, * camc down, as to
their natural resting-place.'

1 2 ' Therefore, with these
warnings before us, let no one
be so proud of his Christian pri-
vileges, as to think that he is
above the danger of falling.' For
other indications of pride and
over-consciousness of superiority
in the Corinthian Church, comp.
i. 12, iv. 8, xiv. 36.

13 Ha passes abruptly from
a warning to an encouragement :
' Let every one take heed lest
he fall ; for he can avoid falling,
inasmuch as he is not exposed to
insuperable temptations ' (avOpd)-
TTLvos, ' on a level with human
powers ') ; 'on the contrary, he
may rely on the justice of Grod,
who will not overwhelm us but
by our own fault.' The passage
expresses (what we find often in
the Psalms), that the faithfulness
or justice of God, rather than
His mercy, is the sure ground of
hope.

rrjv cKySatrtv, 'the means of
flight.'

v7r€V€yK€iv refers to the whole
sense of the passage : ' You. will
be able to escape, and to bear up
against your difficulties.'

14 This warning against idol-
atry immediately following indi-
cates that the temptation spoken
of was in the idol feasts.

* You are indeed in great
difficulties ; all the grandeur, all
the beauty, all the festivity of
heathen life, are around you to
tempt yon to fall into the same
sins as those which overcame
the Israelites ; but still, by all

HIS OWN EXAMPLE OF SELE-DENIAL.

159

7r€/9, dyaTrrjToi fjiov, (j)€vyeT€ diro tt}? elScoXoXaTpeias.

also make the way to escape that ye may be able to bear it. ^^Where-
fore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.

the motives which I have laid
before you, I conjure you by the
love which I bear to you (dya-
TTTjTOL fJLov), uot merely to avoid
the idol feasts for the sake of

others, but to fly from them
yourselves ; for to partake of
them is, in fact, to partake of an
idolatrous rite.'

Paraphrase op Chap. IX. 1 — X. 14.

When I speak of the self-denial which 1 would exercise
rather than entangle any Christian in sin, I speak of what
you know that I bear out by my habits of daily life. Yes,
you know that such is my habitual course, you know the
toil and servile labour of tentmaking which I undergo for
your sakes, of my own free will, and in spite of my Apo-
stolic dignity. It is indeed a voluntary self-denial, for my
right to support from the Churches is undoubted. lam an
Apostle as truly as the original Twelve, I, like them, have
seen the Lord Jesus. I have, to you at least, given the most
incontestable signs of my Apostleship, by your conversion. And
therefore the refusal to receive maintenance from you is not, as
some would insinuate, because I have not the right to ask it. 1
have this right as fully as the most favoured of the Twelve,
as fully as even Peter the first of the Apostles, and the imme-
diate kinsmen of Christ Himself ; and this right I claim, first,
on the qeneral grounds vihich apply to all occupations : to
the soldier, who receives his pay for fighting ; to the planter of
the vineyard, who eats the grapes of the vineyard; to the shep-
herd, who supports himself on the milk of the flocks and herds
which he feeds. And I claim it also under the sanction of a
higher authority than any human custom ; the command which
allows the ox to eat of the corn which it treads out, applies in
principle to men also, for whose sake this, and all the commands
about the brute creation, are recorded ; and this principle fully

160 FIRST EPISTLE.

justifies the practice of rewarding the labourer by a share in the
harvest lohich he has helped to produce. What is thus true of
the literal, is true also of the spiritual harvest^ the seeds of
which I have sown amongst you, and which now flourishes so
abundantly ; and in claiming from you a maintenance in re-
turn, I should not be claiming, like the earthly labourer ^ a
reward the same in hind, but one far inferior, a reward merely
of perishable outward maintenance in return for a harvest of
imperishable spiritual gifts. Nor, again, should 1 be claiming
anything which you refuse to grant to others, but only what you
do grant to those teachers who with all their pretensions have
none comparable to mine who am your founder. Such is my
right ; but I decline to exercise it, and endure all manner of
privations, rather than, by incurring the slightest suspicion of
interested motives, to impede the advance of the glad tidings of
the coming of the Anointed Deliverer.

Let me, then, urge my example upon you ; but first I must
again reassert my right ; the right which grows immediately out
of that glad tidings which it is my great mission to proclaim,
and. ichich by our Lord's own command as surely entitles its
heralds to a maintenance^ as an occupation in the service of the
Temple entitles its priests to a share in the sacrificial gifts and
offerings. Yet this right, whatever others may have done, as I
said just now, I have not used. And when I said it, remember
that I said it not, as some would insinuate, with a view of ex-
torting money from you by other means. So far from using
any covert means of procuring a maintenance from you, nothing
could induce me to forfeit the only merit I have. To proclaim
the glad tidings on which my right is founded, is no merit in
itself; it is the discharge of an inevitable duty, for which I
deserve no more thanks thaji a slave who administers his master^s
property. A reward I have, it is true ; but that reward is to
receive no reward ; it consists in the pursuance of my mission
without reward, and therefore without suspicion and withov.t
offence. And you know that I am sincere in what I say ; my
whole life attests it. Not only have I, in this matter of the
maintenance, changed the personal liberty which I might justly
have claimed, for degrading and servile labour; butthat I might
gain converts, even a few out of the mass of the unbelieving
world, I accommodated myself amongst you to the feelings alike
of Jews and Gentiles. Above all, I always showed my sym^

HIS OWN EXAMPLE OF SELF-DENIAL. 161

pathyfor the weak and unenlightened conscience. And all this
I did and do in order that /, as icell as those whom I converted,
might share in the gladness of those tidings which I proclaimed
to them.

I have been speaking up to this time rather for those Jewish
converts who question my right, than for those Gentile converts
who abuse theirs. But my last words recall me to the recol-
lection of the necessity of self-denial, for the sake, not only of
others, but of ourselves. As certainly as the Jews know the
right conferred by sacred services on those who minister in
them, so surely do Gentiles know the eagerness of those who in
the great national games of Greece contend for the prize, and
the rigid discipline practised by them beforehand. Let this be
an example to you, remembering only ho2v much greater is your
reward than the pine-leaf garland of the Isthmian games.
Such too is my practice, not less eager or less severe ; and the
enemy ivith whom I contend is my own body, which bears in the
marks of its hard service the proof of my self-denial. He who
has been the herald of the contest and of the prize to others,
must beware lest he himself be rejected at the end of the day as
worthless. For indeed no privileges, however exalted, are able
to secure us against the danger of temptations, as we know
from the example of our ancestors in the faith. They, like us,
had their Baptism in the Red Sea, and in the shadow of the
cloudy pillar. They, like us, had their Eucharist in the manna
and in the water from the rock ; the rock lohich followed them,
according to the tradition, throughout their wanderings ; the
rock which was no less than Christ. All alike were so favoured;
and yet of all, except two, the carcases were left bleaching in
the desert. In their sins we see the likeness of those to which
we in these latter days are tempted ; the idolatrous rites, the
sensuality of heathenism, the abuse of Christian liberty, the
murmurs against authority. Beware, then, lest you fall. So
far from being exposed to superhuman difficulties, God's justice
will always give an issue from your trials, if only you will
avail yourselves of it. And so, though your temptations to
idolatry are great, yet you can and ought to escape from them.

162 FIRST EPISTLE.

The Apostle's View of Teachers.

In some respects the preceding Section resembles the discussion
on Marriage in Chapter vii. The Apostle lays down a general
principle, from which his own conduct is an exception. Both
the principle and the exception derive remarkable illustration
The prin- ^^^^ ancient history. The general principle is the
ciple main- same as that which Plato asserts in the first book of
Bato^ ^^ *^^ Kepublic, that all professions, the highest as well
as the lowest, have two aspects : that which ministers
to the public good (svspysTiKTj), and that which supports the
individual during his ministrations (fiLaOapvijTt/crj), The more
unselfish and benevolent is the main object of the profession,
the more is the need for a maintenance of the man to whom
that object itself yields nothing. Such precisely is the Apostle's
argument on behalf of the rights of the first Apostolic teachers,
which has become the basis in later times of the endowment of
a separate order of clergy. But to this general rule, which he
lays down for others, he makes an exception against himself;
and this, again, coincides with the similar stress which the
greatest of heathen philosophers laid on the distinction between
himself and the regular teachers of his time. They received pay
The ex- for their instruction ; he vehemently repudiated it. ' So-
ample en- crates,' says Mr. Grote,^ ^ considered such a bargain
forced by ^g nothing Icss than servitude, robbing the teacher of
all free choice as to persons or proceeding ; and as-
similated the relation between teacher and pupil to that between
two lovers, or two intimate friends, which was thoroughly dis-
honoured, robbed of its charm and reciprocity, and prevented
from bringing about its legitimate rew^ard of attachment and
devotion, by the intervention of money payment.' This was
the Apostle's feeling towards his converts ; and although the
actual order of the world, as he himself acknowledges, would
render it almost impracticable as a general rule, yet it is
impossible not to appreciate at once the loftiness of his senti-
rp, ,. ment and the force of his argument. In an age or in a
gious au- society, where the minds of men are disposed readily to
thority of acquicsce, there is usually no authority greater than
that of an order of established teachers. But in a

^ Hist, of Greece, vol. viii. p. 482 ; founded on Xenophon, Mem. i. 2, 6.

THE APOSTLE'S VIEW OF TEACHERS. 163

time of unsettlement or inquiry, such as was the Apostolic age,
and, it may be added, our own, the authority of a layman in
religious matters is usually far higher than that of a clergyman ;
and for this reason, that every sentiment which he utters on
such subjects is regarded as spontaneous, disinterested, and un-
professional, to a degree not felt in the case of the regular and
established organs of instruction. Such a lay position, if one
may so speak, the Apostle here labours to vindicate for himself.

164 FIRST EPISTLE.

Apostolical Communion.

The concluding verse of the last Section has brought hint
back to the original subject of the sacrificial feasts ; but
whereas he dwelt before only on the scandal to others, he now,
in accordance with the train of thought begun in ix. 23,.
dwells chiefly on the evil to themselves. And the sense of
this evil is enhanced by the recollection incidentally intro-
duced in X. 3 of the only Christian institution which bore
any resemblance to these feasts. This argument from the
Eucharist he introduces by an appeal, not, as before, to his
own authority or example, but to their common sense and
reason. It was a practice with which they were all familiar
as with an institution which belonged equally to the whole
society. It was an argument which, with their boasted logical
acumen, they must recognise as self-evident.

That Christ is one with His people, is a truth which pervades
the whole of St. Paul's teaching. The peculiarity of this
passage is that, for the sake of a more direct contrast with the
idol feast, he urges the closeness of this communion, not in
Christian life generally, but in the feast or meal of the Eu-
charist. The reality of this communion he enforces chiefly by

two arguments.

First, he refers them to the words of the institution, with
which, as we know from xi. 23, they were already familiar.
Every expression points back to the scene of the Last Supper,
as if he said, ' The cup, the words of blessing, the bread with
the act of breaking, bring before our minds the memorable night
when He said, " This is the new covenant in my blood, this is
my body," and therefore you know what is implied in drinking
of that cup, and eating of that bread.'

It is observable that, whereas in all other passages the bread
is mentioned before the cup, according to the order of the
original institution, here and in verse 21 the cup is mentioned
before the bread, probably from the turn given to the whole
passage by the parallel in the heathen feasts, where the libation
preceded the meal.

The plural form {svXoyovfisv, kXco/jlsv) probably points to the
fact that the whole society in some manner took part in the
blessing of the cup and the breaking of the bread. This is re-

APOSTOLICAL COMMUNION. 165

quired by the turn of the argument which, especially in verse
1 7, implies that the ' communion ' was ajoint act of all, « xhe com-
and which here implies that this joint communion con- munion.'
sisted, not in ^ drinking ' and ' eating,' but in ' blessing the
<5up ' and ' breaking the bread.' This joint act may have been
performed either by themselves actually assisting in the blessing
and the breaking, or as represented by the president of the
feast, whilst they, in the case of the blessing, responded to it by
the Hebrew ' Amen ' (as must be inferred from xiv. 16).
From the expressions used in Acts ii. 46 (' they,' i.e. the be-
lievers generally, ' breaking bread '), and xx. 7 (' they came
together to break bread '), it would seem that, at least, in the
€ase of the bread, it was a joint action ; and such is the opinion
€ven of the Roman Catholic commentator, Estius.

' Communion ' (Kotvayvui) is here alone used of the Eucharist,
and is the origin of the name as applied to it. The predomi-
nant idea of the word in this place is that of union with Christ
(as in i. 9), in contrast, as it afterwards appears in verse 20,
to * union with demons.' But the especial allusion to the
Eucharist leads him to express this union in the stronger lan-
guage ' communion of the Mood . . . and of the body ... of
Christ,' as suggested by the words of the original institution,
which coincided with the sentiment of entire identification,
elsewhere expressed under the same forms of speech (as in
John vi. 50-56); and here of especial importance for the
argument against the idol feasts. ' You are one with Christ,'
he would say, ' because you are one with each other ; and this
too is expressed in the Christian feast.' The thought is sug-
gested to him: (1) By the sense always latent in the word
KOLvo>vLa, not merely of a participation, but of a joint partici-
pation ; so that, although it is capable of application to a single
person, it almost always involves the notion of several. (2)
By the nature of the ceremony itself. Having, for the reason
above stated, begun with allusion to the cup, he proceeds to the
bread, or 'loaf' (such is the meaning of rov dprov), which,
unlike the modern mode of celebration, seems to have been
placed whole on the table, and then divided into its several
portions ; thus representing the idea, so frequentin the Apostle's
writings, of the one community, with various parts and functions,
but united in their common Head. Jamblichus (in his Life of
Pythagoras, p. 18) says that, ^ according to the barbarian custom
in former times, all friends agreed together over one loaf ' {iirl

166 FIRST EPISTLE.

ha aprov avvisa-av), (3) By the use of the word ' Body ' (o-cofjia)
' The Body of Christ. This, in St. Paul's language, almost al-
of Christ.' ^ays means, not His literal corporeal frame, but that
new body which is His by virtue of His union with Hi&
followers, namely, the whole Christian society. Compare vi. 15^
xii. 12, 27 ; Eph. i. 23, ii. 16, iv. 4, 16, v. 30 ; Col. i. 24. The
exceptions to this usage are Phil. iii. 21, ^fashioned like unto
His glorious body ; ' Col. i. 22, ' you . . . hath He reconciled
in the body of His flesh through death ; ' and perhaps Bom. vii,
4, ' dead to the law by the body of Christ.'

This idea of the Apostle is entirely different from that
which in later times has usually been attached to the act and
words of the institution of the Eucharist. The word ' Com-
munion,' however, as handed down from those times, has not
altogether lost this double meaning. And now and then, amidst
expressions tending altogether in other directions, fragmentary
glimpses occur of the ancient Apostolic doctrine. ' Faith,' say&
Ignatius (Ep. ad Trail, c. 8), ' is the flesh of the Lord ; Love
is His blood.' And in the Second Prayer after the celebration
of the Communion in the Church of England, we stumble
on the solitary phrase which embodies the Pauline thought :
' very members incorporate in the mystical body of Thy Son,
which is the blessed company of all faithful people.^

EVIL OF THE SACEIFICIAL FEASTS.

16'

^^o)s ^povtyLOL^; Xeyw Acptz/are u/xeis o <^7y/x,i. ^^ro Trorrjpiov
rrj^ euXoyias o evXayovfiev, o^^t Koivoivia^ tov at/xaro? toi)
^iCTTOv iaTLt^ ; tov aprov ov KkcopueVj ov^l Koivcxivia rov
a-(ofiaTO<; tov ^picTTOv Icttiv ; ^^ otl els dpTOSy €V crcofxa ol
TToXkoL icrfiev ol yap TrdvTes Ik tov evos dpTov pLere^oiiev.

* Lachm. Ed. 1. Koivwvia eVrlj/ rov a'ifx.

^*I speak as to wise men ; judge ye what I say. ^^The cup of blessing
which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ ? the
bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ ?
"For we being many are one bread, and one body : for we are all par-

15 w? (f>povLjjiOL<;, i.e. 'in your
acknowledged character of wise
men.' Comp. i. 5, viii. 1, v/xct?,
i.e. *you, as distinct from me.'
Comp. 2 Cor. i. 24.

16 ' The cup of blessing' oc-
curs only here in the New
Testament. It is in allusion to
the fourth and most sacred cup
at the Paschal feast, which was
so called from the words pro-
nounced over it : * Blessed be
Thou, Lord our God, the King
of the world, who has created
the fruit of the vine.' (Lightfoot
ad he.}

cvXoyelv, as used in the LXX.,
is properly, ' to speak well of,'
hence 'to praise,' 'to congra-
tulate,' and it may thus be applied
with equal propriety to God and
to man. The Hebrew word Tin,
of which it is frequently a trans-
lation, means in the first instance
'to kneel,' and hence its original
application is, ' to worship,' or
' praise God ; ' and its application
to man is only secondary. evXoyCa
is used here, as in xiv. 16, and
Matt. xxvi. 26 (compare Luke
xxii. 19), as equivalent to €vxa-
picTTLa, the only difference being
that €vXoyia expresses the form,
and cvxapwTTta the substance of

the speech. The one is * a bless-
ing of God,' the other, ' a thanks-
giving to God.' But there is
the further thought that by this
thanksgiving or ' grace,' the
object so spoken of is consecrated
to God's service. Comp. 1 Tim.
iv. 4, 5 : ovh\v OLTTofiXyYrov /xird
€ V xa pia-T ia^ Xa/x/^avofjievov'
dyta^crat yap Std Xoyov Oeov
KOL €VT€v$€(t)s. Hcuce ariscs the
application of the word to in-
animate objects, o €vAoyov/Aev,
'over which we pronounce our
blessing of God.' So ' He blessed
the loaves,' Luke ix. 16, and
(on one occasion only) in the
Old Testament, 'He doth bless
the sacrifice ' (1 Sam. ix. 13 :
evXoyel t^v Ovcrcav, LXX.). By
a like confusion the elements of
the bread and wine were after-
wards called by the name of
' thanksgiving ' or ' Eucharist.'
Comp. Justin, p. 93 ; tov €v;(a-
piarOeyTOs aprov koI olvov koI vSaros
. . . fcat ^ rpocfir] avrrj KaXetrat Trap'
yfxwv ev)(apL(TTLa.

1 7 oTt €1? . . . . ot TToAAot icrfiev.
The argument is as though he
said, ' In the cup you jointly
partake of the blood of Christ,
according to His words. But in
the bread you jointly partake of

168

FIRST EPISTLE: CHAP. X. 18—21.

^^ pKiirere tov ^la-parjX Kara crdpKa' ^ovx o^ icrOiovTcs rag
6v(TLa<; KOLVoiVol TOV OvaiacrTrjpiov elcriv ; ^^tl ovv (jyrjfJLL ;
OTL ^ elSctiXoOvTov TL icTrlv rj oti^ eihojkov ri ecTiv ; ^^dXX'
OTL ^ a OvovcTLv Sat/xoz^iots /cat ov OeS Bvovcriv, ov diKoi he

» ovxi. ^ Transpose cXZuKov and ilZuK6evT6v.

" 6uei TO, (EQvti, Sai/jLovlois Ovei, kuI ov 0e^.

takers of that one bread. ^^ Behold Israel after the flesh : have not they
which eat of the sacrifices communion with the altar 1 ^^What say I
then ? that what is offered in sacrifice to idols is anjrthing or that the
idol is anything ? '^^Nay, but that the things which they sacrifice, *they

the body of Christ by a still
clearer argument. For what is
the meaning of the one loaf with
its several parts, except to set
before us that one loaf and one
body which we are collectively ?
(ot TToXXot, see xii. 12.) For this
is the meaning of that solemn
act in which we all (ot Trai/Tcg,
not one or two only, but the
whole society) partake, not of
separate fragments, but of the
one complete loaf (Ik tov cvos
apTov). And this one body,
which we thus prove ourselves
to be by this act, is the body of
Christ of which we partake in
the Eucharist.'

1 8 The practice of the Israel-
ites is introduced to im-
sacri'fices. P^^ss npon his readers,
in a case more familiar
to them than Grecian customs,
the necessary connexion of all
sacrificial feasts with the worship
to which they belonged.

' Israel after the flesh ; ' i.e. the
Jews literally, as distinct from
' the Israel of God,' Gal. vi. 16.
Here, as in Gal. iv. 3, 8, 9 ('the
beggarly elements of the world '),
the Apostle speaks of the Jewish
nation and system, as if, in
comparison with the Christian
society, they were nearly on a
level with the Gentile nations
and Pagan worship, much as we
might now speak of the sacrifices

of the Mussulmans or Samaritans.
The Jewish sacrifices of which
he here speaks were not the sin-
offerings (which were entirely
consumed on the altar), but
those called ' peace-offerings ' or
* thank-offerings.'

For the practice of eating the
remainder of sacrifices, see Lev.
viii. 31 : Deuteron. xii. 18, xvi.
11.

The somewhat harsh expres-
sion ' have communion with the
altar,' seems to be substituted
for what we should naturally
have expected, ' with God ; '
partly in order to bring more
vividly before them the connexion
of the feasts with the altar from
which they were taken, but
chiefly because ' communion with
God ' was too high a thought to
be brought down to the level of
the mere outward ceremonial of
the fleshly Israel. For this sub-

comp. viii.

stitution of words
ix. 17.

19, 2 o The suppressed con-
clusion of the last verse would
be, ' So you by partaking of the
heathen feasts partake of their
worship.' And this recalls the
assertion in viii. 4, that the
heathen divinities had no real
existence. As though he said,
' When I speak thus, do I contra-
dict what I said before ? No ; but
what I say is this (aXX! on).' As

EVIL OF THE SACRIFICIAL FEASTS.

169

vfias KOLVcovoif^ roiv haniovioiv ytveaOai. ^^ ov hvvacrOe tto-
TTjpiov Kvpiov TTLveiv KoX TTOTrjpiov SaijJLOVLcov^ ov Svvacrde

sacrifice to devils and not to God/ and I would not that ye should have
communion with devils. ^^Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the
cup of devils, ye caiuiot be partakers of the Lord's table and of the table

in viii. 4 he had said that what-
ever might be the notions of
heathens about their divinities,
at any rate for Christians those
divinities had no real existence ;
so here conversely, he says, that
whatever might be the feelings
The hea- ^^ Christians about the
then Deities false divinities, still to
♦Demons.' ^^le heathen they had
a real existence. And in proof
of this he quotes from the
LXX. version of Dent, xxxii. 17,

t-OvcaV SaL/JLOVLOLS KOX ov ^€0).

From this passage his meaning
has often been taken to be that,
although the particular divinities,
as conceived under the names of
Jupiter, Venus, &c., were mere
fictions, yet there were real evil
spirits who, under those names,
or in the general system of pagan
polytheism, beguiled them away
from the true God. (So Ps.
xcvi. 5, TTcin-es ol Oeol twv iOviov
Saifiovca.) Such certainly was
the general belief of the early
Christians. But the strong de-
claration in viii. 4, reiterated
here in verse 19, of the utter
non-existence of the heathen
divinities, renders it safer to
understand him as saying that
in the mind of the heathen
sacrificers, whatever Christians
might think, the sacrifices were
really made to those whom the
Old Testament called SaLfxovLa.
It is in fact a play on the word
^atfiovLov. The heathen Greeks
(as in Acts xvii. 18, the only
passage where it is so used in
Biblical Greek) employed it as

a general word for ' Divinity,'
and more especially for those
heroes and inferior divinities, to
whom alone (according to the
belief of this later age), and not
to the supreme rulers of the uni-
verse, sacrifices as such were
due. The writers of the New
Testament and the LXX., on
the other hand, always use it of
'evil demons,' although never
perhaps, strictly speaking, for
the author of evil, who is called
emphatically ' Satan,' or * The
Devil.' It is by a union of these
two meanings that the sense of
the passage is produced. * The
words of Deut. xxxii. 17 truly
describe their state, for even
according to their own confession,
although in a difierent sense,
they sacrifice to demons.' A
similar play on the same word,
although for a different object,
occurs in the Apology of Socrates,
where he defends himself against
the charge of atheism, on the
ground that he believed in a
demon (8at/xovtov) ; and that
demons (8at/xovta) being sons of
gods (OeCjv TratScs), he must
therefore be acknowledged to
believe in the gods themselves.

There are here great varieties
of reading ; but none important,
except that Marcion reads ort

UpoOvTOV TL eCTTLV ^ elSoiXoOvTOV Tt

ia-Tiv; an alteration apparently
made in order to place Jewish
sacrifices {UpoOvra) on the same
level as heathen (elSwXoOvra).

2 1 He now turns to the prac-
tical conclusion that there is

170

FIRST EPISTLE: CHAP. X. 22—27.

Tpa7r€^r]<; KvpCov ^eTe)(€LV kol Tpa7ret,y)s Saifioviajv. ^^^
7rapatpf]\oviJiev tov Kvpiov ; fjirj Icr^poTepoL avTov icrfjiii/ ;

• Add fioi.

of devils. ^^Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy ? are we mightier than
He?

**A11 things are in my power, but all things are not profitable : all

a real incompatibility between
Christianity and partaking in the
sacrificial feasts as such. ' The
enp of demons ' is the bowl
(^Kparrjp) of libation which was
poured forth at the beginning of
a feast or of a sacrifice; hence
to drink of the wine of libation
was regarded by the Rabbis as a
sign of apostasy (see Wetstein).
' The table of demons ' may
either be the table for the meal
following upon the sacrifice, or
the more solemn banquets laid
out, as in the Roman lectisternia,
on tables attached to the altars.
(Macrob. Sat.ii. 11.) The phrase
TpoLTre^a Ttu BaLfioviio occurs in
Isa. Ixv. li (LXX.). * The table
of the Lord,' as distinct from
* the cup of the Lord,' is the table
on which the bread is
Tawe?""^'' placed. The use of
the word agrees with
the description of the actual
ceremony in xi. 20-34 ; the
Lord's Table being the natural
accompaniment of the Lord's
Supper (xi. 20). For the general
ar^ment compare 2 Cor. vi. 15.
The incompatibility is height-
ened, and in part suggested, by
the recollection that one of
Christ's peculiar works was the
casting out of demons.

2 2 r] 7rapat,'r]XovfX€v rov Kvpiov ;
' Or if we think we are able to
unite these discordant elements,
are we prepared to challenge the
Lord to anger ? Surely we are

not stronger than He ? * The
words are a continuation of the
same quotation in Deut. xxxii.
17-21, as that from which the
words of verse 20 are taken : koX.

€t8€ KVpLOS KOL i^TjXoXTe . . . Kttt

etTrev . . . AvtoI Trape^TJXwadv fxe
iir ov Oew, Trapw^vvdv p.€ iv T0t9
€l8ioXols avToiv(comp.also Baruch
iv. 7, 8). There is the same
play upon Kvpcoq here, as upon
SaifxovLa in 19 : ' Shall we pro-
voke the jealous Lord who has
in the Law denounced idolatry,
by mixing His cup and His table
with that of devils ? '

For this identification of Christ
with ' the Lord ' of the Old Tes-
tament, comp. verses 4 and 9.

The expression 7rapat,r)Xovjx€v
is taken from the metaphor of
marriage between God and His
people, which pervades large por-
tions of the Old Testament, es-
pecially Hosea and Ezekiel. The
strength of the expression would
seem to indicate that they had
continued the celebration of the
Eucharist with an idol feast.
Compare xi. 30, where in speak-
ing of a similar subject he alludes
to the judgments provoked by it.
23 The transition here is so
abrupt that one would almost
imagine the ensuing section to
stand entirely by itself, merely
as a practical summary of the
whole question, especially as the
argument is taken up again from
the original point of view which.

EVIL OF THE SACEIFICIAL FEASTS.

171

eo'TLV^ dXV ov TTGLVTa otAcoSo/iet. ^^/xTySeis to iavTOv t^qreiTO)^
aXXa TO Tov eripov.^ '^^irav to iv fjuaKcXXco Troikovyievov
icr6L€Te fir)Skv avaKpivovT^^ Sta tt^v crvveih7]a-LV* '^^Tov
^ Kvpiov yap y) yrj koX to TrXyjpcofxa aur^s. ''^^ et ^'rt? KaXei
vfias T(x)v a7ri(TT0)v koX Oikere TropevecrdaL, ttolv to napaTL-

■ Add %Kaffros.

rov yap Kvpic

■I 5e

things are in my power, but all things edify not. '^^Let no one seek his.
own, but that which is another's. ^^ Whatsoever is sold in the shambles,
that eat, not asking* questions for conscience sake : ^^for 'the earth is the
Lord's, and the fulness thereof.' ^'^If any of them that believe not bid

• Gr. judging.

had been dropped since ix. 23.
But the allusions to the Eucharist
in verses 26, 28, 30, still furnish
a thread of connexion. Here, as
in vi. 12, an impassioned appeal
of the Apostle, expressing the
contrariety between the profes-
sion of Christians and the practice
of heathenism, is broken off by
what seem to be the words of an
objector, * all things are lawful,'
which St. Paul takes up, adopts
as his own, and proceeds to
justify and moderate. The first
qualification, ' all things are not
expedient,' is the same as in vi.
12. The second, 'all things edify
not ' (oi/co8o/i,€t), is peculiar to
this passage, and is used in re-
ference to the argument already
begun in viii. 2. * This indif-
ference about idol feasts does
not, as you suppose, advance a
man in Christian knowledge or
holiness ; it may tend only to
retard him.' Comp. viii. 10.

24 * Every man's actions affect
his neighbour's welfare as well
as his own.'

25 Now follow the practical
rules ; and first, the concessions
to latitude.

/xaKcXXoi/, a Latin word, which
Plutarch uses to explain the

Greek word KpewTrwXtoi'. It was
also used by the Rabbis, jvlpD.

fxrjSku dvaKpLvovTes, * asking no
questions, whether the food is or
is not from the flesh of victims.'

Sta T^v (rvv€L87](Ttv, ' because of
the religious scruple which it
may excite, whether in your-
selves or in others.'

26 ' The earth is the Lord's,
and the fulness thereof,' from
Ps. xxiv. 1, was the common form
of Jewish thanksgiving before
the meal (see Wetstein, ad loc.) ;
and hence probably it was the
early Eucharistic blessing, and
thus alluded to in this place,
' This, therefore, is not inconsis-
tent with the cup of blessing
and the table of the Lord.'

TOV KvpLov, used ambiguously
for ' Christ,' and the Lord of
the Old Testament, as in 22.

TO TrXrjpuifia, i.e. ' that which
fills it.' For the general sense
compare 1 Tim. iv. 4.

27 The invitation supposed is
to a private meal, not in the
temple. For the transposition
of Twv aTTto-Twv comp. viii. 11, ix.
10, XV. 19.

Oe\€T€, 'are anxious to go.^
This shows that the persons
addressed are the enlightened
party.

172

FIRST EPISTLE: CHAP. X. 28-XI. 1.

diixevov vfjuv icrOueTe fJirjhev avaKptvovTes 8ta ty)!/ crvvei^T]'
(TLV, ^^eav be rts v/xtz^ einr} Tovto lepouvrov ecmv, jjltj
iaOiere Sl kKeivov tov yirjVvcravTa koX ttjv avveiSyjo'LV.^
^^ crvveihrjCTiv 8e \iyo) ov^i T'qv iavTOv, aXXa ttjv tov eripov.
Iva TL yap r) iXevOepia fiov Kpiverai viro ak\7j<; crvveiSn]-
cre(o<s ; *^^ el ^ iyo) ^dpiTi /xere^^w, rl ^SXacrt^i^/iov/tiai virep ov

* elSuXddvTOv. ^ Add TOV yhp Kvpiov tj yrj Kol rh irK-fipa/xa avTrjs. ® el Se,

you to a feast and ye desire to go, whatsoever is set before you eat, not
asking questions for conscience sake. -^But if any one say to you Hhis
is offered in sacrifice unto idols/ eat not for his sake that showed it and
for conscience sake. -^Conscience I say not thine own, but that of the
other. For why is my liberty judged by another conscience ? ^'^If I by
grace be a partaker, why am I evil spoken of for that for which I give

28 Tts. Not the host (who
would not be again introduced in
this way), but one of the guests,
either a heathen who wished to
put the Christian to a test, or a
Jew who wished to point out the
danger. UpoOvrov (A. B. H.) is
a neutral word, elSwXoOvTov (C.
D. E. F. a J. K.), a contemp-
tuous one.

29, 30 Here follows a com-
pressed dialogue, like Rom. iii.
1-8. St. Paul says, 'By the
religious scruple I mean, not that
of the enlightened, but of the
weak Christian.' To which the
enlightened Christian answers,
* Why, what is this (tva ti yap) ?
What is the reason that my
liberty is to be condemned by a
scruple in which I have no con-
cern ? If J eat with a grateful
thanksgiving, why am I to be
'Why is exposed to calumny
my liberty for a meal for which
judged?' J g.^g thanks?' To

this St. Paul returns no direct
answer, but turns it ofi" abruptly
with the general conclusion in
verse 31 : 'If you give thanks
to God for what you do, remem-
ber that every act, even in eating
and drinking, must be done to
His glory, and if to His glory,

then without offence to any.' As
in Rom. iii. 1-8, instead of an-
swering the objector, he abruptly,
and as if still continuing the
objector's sentence, says, ' whose
condemnation is just.' The
abrupt introduction of the words
of the opponent may be explained
by the supposition that he is
quoting the words of the Corin-
thian letter, as in vi. 12, vii. 1,
viii. 1, X. 23, xi. 2. Compare
Rom. xiv. 8, where, after stating
the indifference of days and of
meats, he concludes, 'Whether
therefore we live qr die, we are
the Lord's.'

KpLverai, 'is brought under
judgment,' with an allusion to
avaKpLvovT€<s in verses 25, 27.

XapiTt, ' by grace,' and evx^pf'-
(ttCjj ' I give thanks,' seem to
refer to the Eucharistic blessing,
as in 26, and to imply that it
accompanied the social meal.
Compare' ver. 31, illustrated
by Col. iii. 17 : ' Whatsoever ye
do in word or deed, do all in the
name of the Lord Jesus, giving
tlianhs (evxapt'O'TovvTes) to God
and the Father by Him.'

l3\a(T(fiY)ixovfjLaL, ' misrepresent-
ed.' Compare Rom. ii. 24 and
xiv. 16.

EVIL OF THE SACEIFICIAL FEASTS.

17a

^^ eire ovv iadteTe eire Trivere elre tl ttol-

^'^ OLTrpOO-KOTTOL

KOL

eyo) €V)(apLcrTO) ;

eLT€y TTavra eU So^av 6eov TTOietre.

'lovSaiOLS yLvecrOe Kal "EWrjcTLV kol rrj iKKXyjcria tov Oeov,

'^'^Kauo)^ Kayco TTavra TracTLV apecTKO), ixrj LprjTcop to eixavTOu

^ crviJi(j)opov, dXXa to tcov ttoXXwi/, Iva acodoicriv. xi. ^ p^i-

fjLTjTaL i^ov yiveo'de^ /ca^ws Kayo) ^lcttov.

■* YtVec^e KoX ^lotfSaiois.

ffVflipipOV.

thanks? ^^ Whether therefore ye eat or drink or whatsoever ye do, do.
all to the glory of God. ^^Give none offence, neither to Jews nor Greeks,
nor to the church of God, ^^even as I please all in all things, not seek-
ing mine own profit, but that of the many, that they may be saved.
XI. ^ Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.

31, 32 'To the glory of God/
i.e. 'so that God may
•Eating receive praise (comp.
ingtothe VI. 20; Matt. V. Id)
gS/°*^ from your acts being
such as to cause no
offence, either to Jews, as shrink-
ing from the heathen sacrifices ;
or to Gentiles (comp. 28), as
Thatching for your acquiescence
in their idolatry, in order to
justify themselves; or to the
chosen people of God, convened
for their most solemn ordinance.'

IctOUlv Kttt TTtctv, is used in
speaking of the Lord's Supper,
xi. 22.

The form of consecrating all
human acts to God, was already
in use amongst the Jews, by
whom, as now amongst Mussul-
mans, every act was performed

'in the name of God.' The
peculiarity of the Apostolic pre-
cept seems to be that it points
out liow every meal may in
reality be eaten to the glory of
God; namely, by consideration
for the feelings of others. Epic-
tetus, on being asked how anyone
could eat so as to please God,
answered, 'By eating justly,
temperately, and thankfully.'

dpio-KO) of itself has (like ape-
(TKo<s) something of a bad sense.
Comp. Gal. i. 10.

Twv TToAAwv, not ' many ; ' but
* the many,' the whole mass with
whom he had to deal.

XI. I He here returns to his
own example, as in ix. 1-16, and
to the example of Christ, as in
viii. 11.

174 FIRST EPISTLE.

Paraphrase of Chap. X. 15 — XI. 1.

You must keep yourselves distinct from acts of idol worship, both

for your oion sake and for that of others. And the allusion just
madeto the Eucharist suggests an additional reason for doing so,
such as will come home to the common sense of all, especially of
you who pride yourselves on your wisdom. You know that
when loejoin in Messing the cup, not of heathen libations, but
of our sacred Christian meal, we join, as Christ Himself has
taught us, in partaking of His blood ; yet more, token we join
in breaking the loaf, we join in partaking of His body ; for the
very meaning of that joint act is to express that loe, the
Christian society, are as truly one body, the body of Christ,
<xs the various particles of bread are one compact loaf. Such
is the closeness of communion loith Christ, into which our
Christian feasts bring us. It now remains, on the other hand,
to point out how closely the sacrificial feasts of the heathens
bring them into connexion with the objects of their ivorship.
It is involved in the very principle of sacrifice. Look at the
Jewish sacrificial feasts, with tvhich all Jeioish converts are

familiar, and remember how entirely those feasts are identified
with the altar, on which the victims are killed, and upon which
their blood is sprinkled. However much the social elements
may appear to prevail, yet the religious element lies at the basis
of the feast. And so in the heathen sacrifices, although the

Jalse divinities to whom they are offered, have for us no real
existence ; yet the very words, lohich they use to designate those
divinities, serve to identify their act of sacrifice with that which
is described in the Law as a sacrifice, not to God, but to
demons. If then their libations be shed, and their table be
spread for demons, it is manifestly inconsistent with the sacred
cup which you drink, the sacred meal of which you partake in
the name of Him whose ivork on earth teas to destroy and
drive out demons, it is an insult to His majesty ; and as wv
read in the same passage of the Law, ichich speaks of the
heathen sacrifices. He will be roused to jealousy, and by visible

Judgments compel us to acknoioledge His power.

The conclusion, then, of the whole argument is, that
although in the highest sense, all these matters, as relating
not to things inward but outward, are absolutely indifferent, yet
that indifference must always be subject to two qualifications :

THINGS INDIFFERENT AND SELF-DENIAL. 175

(1) That the welfare of the whole Christian man must he
attended to. (2) That advance in Christian holiness must
not be impeded, whether in ourselves or in others ; for in all
things we must consider others rather than ourselves.

The practical result therefore is that, although you may
eat of meat sold in the shambles, and accept invitations to
feasts in the houses of heathens, without scruple ; yet, if any
one try to test your belief by reminding you that it is part of a
sacrificial feast, then abstain. The thankful enjoyment of all
God^s gifts, ichich constitutes the essence of a Christian meal,
-ceases at once when it offends the religious scruples of others.
In every meal, and in every act, we must so conduct ourselves
as that praise and honour may return to God. This can only
he by avoiding carefully everything which may ensnare either
the Jewish or the Gentile portion of the community, or the
Christian community itself as convened for its solemn meals in
the presence of God. This is my oion conduct, as I have
already set it before you, and this is what I entreat you to
imitate in my acts of habitual self-denial, as I imitate the self-
sacrifice of Christ Himself,

The Apostle's View op Things Indifferent and op Self-denial.

In the three foregoing Sections there are two main subjects,
one rising out of and above the other. First, the settlement
of the question of the sacrificial feasts. Secondly, the general
lesson of self-denial enforced by the Apostle's own example.

(1) Of these subjects, the first may be regarded as one
branch of the more general question of ' things in- Contro-
different,' discussed in Rom. xiv 1-xv. 13. It versyre-
exhibits the Apostle's treatment of the difiiculties ' things in-
which always arise when a purer religion comes into different.'
contact with false or imperfect forms of worship, which from
long establishment have become so interwoven with social
usages as to appear, in fact, inseparable. In the Apostolical age
the chief point around which this controversy settled was the
sacrlficialieasts. In TertuUian's time, when the sphere of the
collision had become more general, and when the earlier
difliculty had been, to a great extent, laid to sleep, heathen
€ither by the authority of the Apostle or by the sub- sacrifices ;

176 FIEST EPISTLE.

sidence of the Jewish scruples on unclean meats, the question
heathen related rather to the attendance on public amusements,
amuse- or the service in the Roman armies, and occasioned
^^^^' the two celebrated treatises 'De Spectaculis,' and
' De Corona Militis.' In a yet further stage of this collision
of Christianity with Paganism, the question of the lawfulness
of attendance on pagan or semi-pagan rites was exchanged for
the question of the lawfulness of transplanting them into the
Christian soil. And lastly, within the bosom of the Christian
secular Church itself, there has always lingered an echo of the
pursuits, older controversy, in the question whether amusements
or practices which belong to heathen times, or to the more se-
cular course of the world, are of themselves to be shunned as
profane.

The decision of the Apostle in regard to the abstract view of
Decision the casc is clear and positive. Whereas up to this
in their time, not only Jewish doctors, but Christian Apostles,
by^the had deemed that Gentile converts should altogether
Apostle, abstain from a feast of meats offered to idols, St. Paul
declares that, in itself, it contained no pollution ; that, unless
expressly asserted to be a religious ceremony, it might be fairly
treated as a social meal, to be celebrated with the usual forms
of Christian devotion. The same principle had, indeed, been
involved in the precept and example of Gamaliel, who, when
reproached with bathing in the baths of Ptolemais (Acre) in an
apartment where there was a statue of Venus, replied, * The
bath was not made for the statue, but the statue for the bath.'
But it was reserved for the Apostle to make this principle, not
merely the rule of a philosophical school, but the law of the
whole Christian world. In all the circumstances which have just
been described as giving birth to similar questions, the main
tendency, the genius (if one may use the expression) of Chris-
tendom, has followed, sometimes, perhaps, even with exagge-
by Ter- rated freedom, in the wake of the Apostle's decision,
tullian, « Loca non contaminant, sed quae fiunt in locis,' was
the verdict with which even the fervent Tertullian closed the
question about the entrance into temples and theatres. Gre-
by Gre- go^y ^^^ Great advised Augustine of Canterbury not to
So^» destroy, but to Christianize, every heathen building

and every heathen custom in Britain. John Wesley's well-
known saying,whenhe adapted profane tunes to sacred
^^' songs, is but an expression of the common sense of

THINGS INDIFFERENT AND SELF-DENIAL. 177

Christendom. If Christianity gave the death-blow to the spec-
tacles of the amphitheatre, it was not on account of their ido-
latrous rites, but of their cruelty. If the licentious and super-
stitious parts of the pagan ritual disappeared on the ^^^ .
conversion of the Empire, the great mass of its usages Christen-
has been retained wherever any Christian ceremonial ^o"^ 8^"
of any extent has been maintained. If a few ardent
spirits have been, in later times, eager in denouncing as profane
all secular arts and amusements, they have failed in producing
any deep impression on the bulk of the Christian community,
which has always been wont, often it may be with injustice, to
regard their efforts as the sallies of a sectarian and mistaken zeal.
(2) Such, in spite of the qualifications with which he guards
it, is the abstract principle laid down by the Apostle, Union of
especially in viii. 8, x. 23, 25, 26, 27. But the true toleration
moral greatness of this passage consists, not in its gardfor
announcement of Christian liberty, but in its exhibi- scruples.
tion of Christian love. It expresses the rare union of wide
toleration with tender sympathy ; such as at once elevates
characters above the mere mass either of thinking or of feeling
men ; such as presents, in the contemplation of the human
mind, a sense of interest and beauty, analogous to that which
is awakened in the physical world by a view containing the
varied elements of mountain and lowland scenery. With the
deepest conviction of the utter indifference of meats in them-
selves, and of the utter groundlessness of the scruples raised
concerning them, the Apostle checks himself in full view of
the liberty which he forbore to grasp, with the sentiment, ' I
will not eat flesh whilst the world standeth, lest I make my
brother to offend.' This is the expression of his self-denial in
its first fervour of love. The second stage of his example dis-
closes it, in its more general form, under the strictest control of
forethought and sagacity; — ' I have become all things to all men,
if by any means I might save some.' The third and last stage
is summed up in the words, often since repeated by preachers
and teachers as matter of course, but then uttered with all the
freshness of real humility and awe, so unlike any hierarchical
or philosophical pretensions, so strongly contrasted even with
his own Apostolical greatness, that translators have tried to
soften down the vehemence of the expression, ' I " bruise " my
body and bring it into " slavery," lest when I have preached
to others I myself should be " proved unworthy.'-' '

178 FIEST EPISTLE.

Few later parallels to this double phase of the Apostle's
character can be found. Something of the self-denying versa-
tility of the Apostle, becoming, for no selfish object, but for a
great public cause, ^ all things to all men,' was seen in some of
the chief Roman Catholic saints of the seventeenth century.
Such seems to have been Philip Neri, founder of the Oratorias
— such, some of the better spirits of ^ the Society of Jesus,' es-
pecially Francis Xavier. He, it is true, was much which they
were not : the other great characters of the sixteenth century
exhibit the freeness and breadth of Christianity as these exhibit
its fervour and tenderness ; in any case a mechanical copy of
either him or them is impossible. But it is not unimportant to
ask how much and how little of his example are still applicable ;
how far reckless disregard of scruples is really inseparable from
the one side of human character, or craft and submissive servility
from the other; how far the tenderness and pliancy of the
ancient Greek or the modern Spaniard or Italian can be united
with the fixed conviction of the ancient Jew, with the truth
and freedom of the modern Englishman or German.

WORSHIP AND ASSEMBLIES. 179

ANSWERS TO THE LETTER OF THE CORINTHIANS

(continued).

Worship and Assemblies.

XI. 2 XIV. 40.

The opening words of this Section, which apply more or less
to all that follows in xi. 2-xiv. 40, imply that, as in vii. 1, viii.
1, he still has before him some letter or statement of the Co-
rinthian Church, from which he quotes and adopts their argu-
ment, followed probably by questions. 'You claim *' my praise
for remembering me and keeping my commands as I com-
manded you ; " ' to which he replies here, as in xi. 1 7 and 22,
that they have his praise, but with certain grave exceptions,
which he proceeds to specify.

The first exception of the Apostle relates to the abandon-
ment of the usual Grecian head-dress by the Corinthian
women, when they met in the Christian assemblies. In order
to understand the stress laid by the Apostle on what would
seem to us a matter of comparative insignificance, we must
recall the importance attached in the ancient world to dress,
as indicative of national customs or moral habits, j
In the early days of Greece, the longer or shorter of dress in
garment which a man wore at once declared whe- *^® ancient
ther he belonged to the Ionian or Dorian race ;
in other words, it was an index to the gods of his worship, the
mode of his education, the moral and religious ideas which
formed the basis of his character. And, although this was pro-
bably worn out before the first century of the Christian era,
yet the language of the Roman satirists, especially Juvenal,
points to the moral importance of deviations, however slight,
from the national costume.^

Amongst the fashions of dress which admitted of no variation,
was that which Greece (with the exception of Lacedaemon) re-
tained in common with the Oriental nations gene- Head-dress
rally, of women always appearing in public with of women.
their heads covered (not, indeed, with a veil, but) with the

^ See the notes of Ludovicus Capellus, on xi. 4.
k2

180 FIEST EPISTLE.

' peplum/ or shawl, which they commonly wore on their
shoulders, but on public occasions threw over their heads like
a hood. The Theban veil (Dicaearch. Descr. Grasc. x.), and
that of Tarsus (Dio Chrys. Orat. 1), are described as covering
the whole face except the eyes, as still in Mussulman countries.
Great stress was laid by the latter Jewish authorities- on the
veiling of the women ; and though they were unveiled in the
synagogues, this was because they were shut off from the men,
and so in private. ^ The special covering here meabt is described
in xi. 15 as a mantle [irspi^oXaiov). This word, in the only
other passage where it occurs in the New Testament (Heb. i. 12,
from Ps. cii. 26), and in all the passages in the LXX. Ver-
sion of the Old Testament, means, according to its derivation,
a mantle or covering wrapt round the body, like iin^oXacov,
which is used indifferently for a ^mantle,' as in Judg, iv. 18 ;
or for a * kerchief on the head, Ezek. xiii. 18; and so
in Mark xiv. 72, sTn/SaXcDv sKXaisv probably signifies, ^ he
drew his mantle ' (the Oriental hyke) ^ over his head, and
began to weep.' In this passage the Apostle would refer to
the ' peplum,' which the Grecian women used ordinarily as
a shawl, but on public occasions as a hood also, especially
at funerals and marriages ; of which last an instance is given
in a woodcut in ' Smith's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities '
{Peplum), representing the reception of the bride thus hooded,
by her husband bareheaded, at the door of the nuptial
chamber, and thus exhibiting, in a lively form, the contrast
here intended.

This costume the Corinthian women had ventured to disuse,
in the Christian assemblies, where, as one may suppose, they
would urge that, all distinctions of sex being done away in the
presence of Christ, it was unworthy the dignity of a Christian
prophetess to wear the badge of seclusion, almost of servitude,
which belonged to her only as a Grecian wife.

See the Rabbis, quoted in Wetstein and Lightfoot, on xi. 5.

DISUSE OF FEMALE HEAD-DKESS.

181

^^EiraLVco Se vfias,^ on iroivra fjiov ixefJivrjcrOe kol Kadco^
irapeScoKa vfuv tols TrapaSocrets /care^^ere. ^ Oe\co Se u/xa^
eiSeVat otl 7ravro<; dvSpos rj fcec^aXi^ 6 ypiCTTO^ icrriv^ /ce-
^aXT7 8e yvvaiKo^ 6 av-qp^ Ke(j)a\r) Se ^ [roi;] \pLcrTox) o ^edc.

• Add d5eA</)of. * Omit rod.

*Now T praise you, that ye remember me in all things and keep the com-
mands as I commanded them to you. ^But I would have you know that
the head of every man is Christ, and the head of woman is the man, and

' Traditions.*

2 The words TrapeSwKa, Trapa-
Soorets, as applied to
the teaching of the

Apostles, are used for the
communication sometimes of
practical regulations, as here,
2 Thess. iii. 6, and Acts xvi. 4 ;
sometimes of facts, as in xi. 23,
XV. 3 ; sometimes of warnings,
as in 2 Thess. ii. 15. They
correspond to TrapayycAAw, ira-
payyeXia, in classical Greek. The
verb is well expressed by the
Latin * trado,' as in the phrase

* docendo^ narrando, trado.'' The
word * tradition,' formed from
the less frequent substantive

* traditio,' in its present sense
implies ' handing down orally
from generation to generation,'
a meaning alien to passages like
the present. Here the word is
best expressed by ' command ' or

* communication ; ' such ' com-
mand ' being sometimes oral,
sometimes written (2 Thess. ii.
15), but always delivered, not

* traditionally ' through many
links, but direct from the teacher
to the taught.

3 *But I would have you
know ' (^e\a) Se v/>tas ciSevat,
OfXoi v/xas ovK ayvoeiv) is the
usual formula by which he pre-
faces an objection or a warning,
X. 1, xii. 1, 2 Thess. iv. 13.

The argument springs from the
relation, so often insisted upon,
between Christ and the human
race, the image being here more
vividly brought out than in vi.
15, X. 16, by the representation of
Christ, not only as the body, but
as the Head. From this rela-
tion, to which alone the metaphor
properly applies, he illustrates
the relation of the man to the
woman ; being thereby enabled
to turn the metaphor into an
argument directly bearing on
the practical question ; as though
he said, ' If the man is thus the
head of the woman, then, in a
religious sense, her head is not
her own ; it is the type or like-
ness of her husband.' The last
words, explaining the relation
of Christ to God, result from the
usual tendency of the Apostle
to fill up the whole view of his
readers with the subject of which
he is speaking. See iii. 23 ; and,
for the general truth conveyed
in the expression, see xv. 27.
For the illustration of the rela-
tion of husband and wife by the
relation of Christ and man, see
Eph. V. 23.

In describing this truth, ar-
Op(x)7ro<s would have been the
natural word to use with refer-
ence to Christ, as in xv. 45 ;

182

FIRST EPISTLE: CHAP. XI. 4—9.

^Tras avrjp irpocrev^^oixevos rj TTpocjyrjTevcov
€)(Oiv Karaicr^vei rrjv Ke^aXy]v avTov, ^

Kara Ace(^aX^9
TTttcra Se yvvrj

the head of Christ is God. ■* Every man x-raying or j)rophesying having
his head covered dishonoureth his head. ^ But every woman that prayeth

but for the sake of the contrast
with ' woman,' he has changed
it to avrjp. (See note to verse 9.)
4 The practice of men praying
with covered heads is attacked,
not because any such peculiar
custom existed at Corinth, but
for the sake of illustrating the
practice of the women. The
Romans (see Servius ad ^n. iii.
405) and the Jews prayed with
their heads veiled ; and the Jews,
like all Oriental nations, still
express reverence by uncovering,
not the head, but the feet, and
add to the common covering of
the hat or turban that of the veil
or 'tallith.' The pertinacity
with which, in modern syna-
gogues, they keep their heads
covered, is partly derived from
the practice of the Levites in
the Temple, partly from the laws
of Maimonides for Jews in Ma-
hometan countries. (Capellus
ad loc.) If, therefore, St. Paul
alludes to any existing custom as
a sanction for his position that
men should pray uncovered, it
must be that of the Greeks, who
usually went bareheaded, not
only (as is still the case in
Greece) in common life, but in
worship. (See Macrob. Sat. i.
8, iii. 6, quoted by Grotius on
this passage.) The context im-
plies that he is speaking only of
public prayer and prophesying.
He begins by attacking, not the
practice itself, but the exag-
gerated feeling from which it
proceeded. ' Internally and spi-
ritually there is no longer any
distinction of sex ; but viewed

externally, there is a graduated
scale in creation, which no in-
ward change can invert. Christ,
the second Adam in this new
creation, is to the whole human
race, and to every member of it,
as the head to the body. In like
manner man, although one with
the woman, is yet as the head,
without which her existence
would be incomplete. And so
(to go back to the example of
Christ, and see this principle of
subordination carried into the
very highest sphere of all) God,
although one with Christ, is yet
the Head from which He comes
and to which He returns.'

Kara KCcfiaXyjs e^cov (^scil. Til SO
Esther vi. 12, LXX.) ; ' He dis-
honours his head.' Both the lite-
ral and the metaphorical sense
are included. ' He dishonours his
head by an unseemly effeminate
practice (see note on verse 14) ;
and thereby Christ, who is his
spiritual Head.' The head, as
being the symbol of Christ, is
treated with the same religious
reverence as is the body, in vi.
19, as being the temple of the
Spirit.

5 For the prophesying of
women in the Christian Church,
see Acts ii. 18, xxi. 9.

dKaTaKaXvTTToi may be * bare-
headed,' or (as in 2 Cor. iii.
18, dvaKeKaXv/xyaevos) ' unveiled,'
probably the former; implying
the absence, not of a veil for the
face, but of a covering for the
head. This agrees better with
Plutarch, Quaest. Rom. c. 11
(where the nearly corresponding

DISUSE OF FEIHALE HEAD-DRESS.

183

Trpocrev)(Ofi€vr) rj 7rpo(l)r)Tevovaa aKaTaKokvirTco rrj Ke(l>a\7J
KaTaLcr)(yP€L 7r}v /cec^aX^i^ ^avrrj^. tv yap icmv koL to avTO
rrj i^vp'qp.ivrj. ^ el yap ov KaTaKakvirTeTai yvvrj^ koX kel-
pdcrOco ' el 8e alo-)(pov yvvaiKL to KeipaaOai tj ^vpaaOai,
KaTaKokviTTecrOo). ^ ai^rjp fxep yap ovk o^eikei KaTaKa-
XvTTTeadai ttjv Ke(^a\riVy eiKcov koX Sofa Oeov virdp^oiV
^71 yvvi] he 8ofa dvhpos icTTLV. ^ov yap ecTTiv dvrjp e/c
-yvvaiKOS, dWd yvvy] ef dvhp6<;* ^ Ka\ yap ovk eKTiaOy)

^ kavTTis. " Om. 7].

or prophesieth with her head unveiled dishonoureth her head. For that
is even all one as if she were shaven. ^For if the woman be not veiled,
let her also be shorn : but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or
fihaven, let her be veiled. "^For a man indeed ought not to veil his head,
forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God ; but the woman is the
glory of man. ^For man is not of woman, but woman of man : ^for

words dTrapaKoAvTrra) r^ KefftaXyj
are used simply as the equivalent
of the Latin *aperto capite'),
with the comparison to the hair
of the woman, with the stress
laid on the head, and with the
mention of the Tnpi^oXaiov in
verse 15.

Here again, in the word ' head '
is contained the double allusion
both to her own head, and her
husband's as represented by it.
This disgrace is illustrated by
the comparison of the loss of the
head-dress to the loss of hair,
which in Greece, as well as in
Judaea, was regarded as a special
mark of infamy in a woman (see
Aristoph. Thesmoph. 838), as
being confined either to women
of bad character (comp. Tac.
Germ. 19) ; or else to cases of
mourning and vows, as amongst
the Jews and Romans (Deut.
xxi. 12 ; and see the classical
quotations in Grotius and Wet-
stein ad loc, and Smith's Classi-
cal Dictionary, Coma and Yes-
talis).

6 KetpaaOaL, ' cropped or cut
short.' ivpaa-Oat, 'shaved.'

7-9 is the resumption of the

argument of verse 3, only that
the relation to Christ is here
dropped, and the relation of man
to God, as based on the early
chapters of Genesis, substituted
for it. * He is created in the
image of God, and therefore is
the reflex of the glory of God,
" being crowned with glory and
honour, and having therefore
dominion over the works of God"
(Ps. viii. 5, 6 ; Gen. i. 26) ; and
he, therefore, ought to have
nothing on a head which repre-
sents so Divine a majesty, nothing
on a countenance which reflects
so Divine a glory. (Compare for
the last image, 2 Cor. iii. 18.)
But the woman is a reflex of the
glory not of God, but of man ; he
intercepts the glory of the Divine
countenance ; as all his outward
manifestations have reference to
God, so all hers have reference to
man Hence we read in Gen. ii.
21, that the woman was " taken
out of the side of man," and the
reason of this {koI yap) was that
the woman was made to be an
" help meet for man," when " it
was not good that he should be
alone."' (Gen. ii. 18.) The

184 FIRST EPISTLE: CHAP. XI. 10.

avrjp Sta t^u yvvaiKa, aXKa yvvrj Sta tov avhpa. ^^hiau
neither was man created for the woman, but woman for the man. ^^For

quotation from Gen. ii. 21 is thus
a result of that from Gen. ii.
18 ; and the quotation from the
latter, a reason for that from
the former. The whole stress,
as often in Scripture, is fixed on
one word, and all the rest of the
imagery is, as it were, left to
shift for itself. Such is here the
case with the word 'glory.'
Taken strictly, the woman is as
much the image of God as the
man ; and the words in Gen. i. 26
are in the original addressed to
male and female equally, under
the common name of 'Adam,' or
' man.' ' God created man in
His own image, male and female
created he them ' (see Gen i.
27, and comp. Gen. v. 1, 2).
But this was not to the purpose
of the Apostle's present argu-
ment, and he therefore puts out
of sight the relation of woman to
God, by omitting altogether in
her case the word ' image,' and
dwelling only on her subordina-
tion to man, for the sake of
which alone he had brought
forward the contrast of the great-
ness of man. The general cha-
racter of man, under the Hebrew
• name answering to av^pwTro?, on
which the passage of Genesis
dwells, is here, as in verse 3,
merged in the word dv-^p, which
only expresses his relation to the
woman.

lo The general sense of this
text, as gathered from the con-
text, can be nothing more or less
than an assertion of the subordi-
nation of the woman to the man.
But in the difficulty of its several
portions, it stands alone in the
New Testament, unless perhaps

we except Rev. xiii. 18, or GaL
iii. 20. Each part has its own
peculiar obscurity.

(I) ' Power on her „

i_ 1 , ,/. / , V « 'Power on
head, c^ovo-tav cm rry? her head.'

K€(fiaXrj<;. The nume-
rous conjectural emendations
are : (1) iiov^tav, a supposed
Latinism, for ' exuviae.' (2) l^ov-
crtW, a supposed derivative of
€^ts, ' a habit,' or a mistranslation
of ' habitum,' on the hypothesis
that the Epistle was written in
Latin. (3) i$Lovora, ' when she
goes out.' (4) i^ ova-ta'?, ' ac-
cording to her nature.' (5)
i^ovata, ' the woman who is the
glory of the man.' (6) Kava-iav,
' a broad-brimmed Macedonian
hat.' (7) A Grecised form of
the Hebrew word ' cesooth,*
' casooi,' — ' a covering.'

Rejecting all these conjec-
tures, the simplest explanation
would be that iiovaia is an
unusual name for a ' veil,' or
' covering.' Various approxima-
tions to such a sense have been
discovered. In Arculphus, a.d.
700 (De Sanctis Locis) ; and in
Paulus (Pand. Flor. iii. D.) a.d.
200, quoted in Columesius ' Ob-
servationes Sacrae, p. 22, the word
' imperium ' occurs amongst an
enumeration of female ornaments*
So ' impera ' and ' imperia ' are
used in Digest. 23, 10, 34, 2, and
' Regnum ' is used for the im-
perial crown, from the time of
Constantino downwards (see
Ducange in voce). In Hebrew,
inn ' radid,' which in Isa. iii. 23 ;
Cant. V. 7, is used for a ' veil,' is
derived from the root 111, m"k
' radad, radah,' ' to subdue.' But

DISUSE OF FEMALE HEAD-DRESS. 185-

TovTO 6(^eiX€ rj yvvrf i^ovaCav ^xeuv iirl tt]<; Ke(j)a\rj<; StcL
this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the

the root from which * radid ' is
derived, is not necessarily that
of * power,' but ' of drawing out
as over a surface * (as in 1 Kings
vi. 32). In Greek the only in-
stance ever adduced of such a
use of the word e^ovo-ta, is the
phrase iiova-iav TpiX(i)fJiaTO<s in
Callistratus ('EKc^/aao-ct?, p. 896),
which, however, even if it be the
correct reading, has no reference
to dress ; but, as in p. 907 of the
same work, expresses the form or
quantity of the hair.

Such are the only instances
which the learning of seventeen
centuries has been able to pro-
duce in illustration of the mean-
ing of iiova-iav as a ' veil.' They
cannot go further than to show
that there may have been a
Cilician provincialism, of which
no other example is extant, but
of which the Latin and Hebrew
analogies may afford a slight
confirmation. It remains, there-
fore, to suppose that the Apostle
uses the phrase to signify ' the
symbol of the man's power over
the woman, as expressed in the
covering of the head.' It is true
that, over and above the harsh-
ness of the expression, there are
several grave objections to this
use of the word, i^ova-ta in these
earlier Epistles (1 Cor. viii. 9,
ix. 4, 5, 12, 18 ; 2 Cor. x. 8, xiii.
10; 2 Thess. iii. 9) does not
mean ' dominion ' but * right ' or
* liberty.' The phrase (Ixovtrav

Diod. Sic. i. 47 — ' three king-
doms,' i.e. 'three crowns'),
commonly quoted to justify this
use of the name of the thing
signified for the symbol, though

natural where the power spoken
of belongs to the person, would
be unnatural when applied to.
the power exercised over that
person by some one else. Still,,
in default of any better expla-
nation, it may be urged that
e^oucrta in the Gospels and later
Epistles is used constantly for
'authority,' or ' dominion,' that
in one instance (e^ovcrtaa-^rycro/Aai,
vi. 12) there is an indication of
such a use in this Epistle, and
that the fact of the veil or hood
being used in marriage would
suggest the idea of its being a
symbol of the husband's power,
especially if the root of the He-
brew word (as above mentioned)
were present to the Apostle's
mind. For a similar instance of
the Apostle's recurrence to the
root of the Hebrew words which
he Grecises, see 2 Cor. iv. 17.
Nor should we forget the Roman
* capitis diminutio ' which the
woman underwent on taking the
veil in the ' confarreatio.^ So
that the sense would then be r
' Because of this subordinate re-
lation, the woman ought to bear
upon her head the mark of man's
dominion over her,' in allusion
to Gen. iii. 16, ' He shall rule
over thee.' Compare a similar
allusion in Gen. xx. 16, where
in the LXX. rt/xr; (whether in
the sense of ' honour ' or ' fine ')
is used to translate the Hebrew
n-1D? 'a covering;' and for a
somewhat similar train of thought
and expression in the Apostle
himself, 1 Cor. xii. 22, 23.

(II) Thus far the .Because of

sentence, though harsh, *^e Angeis/
would be complete in itself. But

186

FIEST EPISTLE: CHAP. XI. 11, 12.

Tous dyyeXovs. ^^ TrKrjv * ovTe yvvri ^wpts avSpo<; ovre avrjp

* oyre dvTjp %6opts 7t;i'atKbs, o(;t6 yuv^ X^P^^ audphs,

angels. ^^Nevertheless neither is woman without man nor man without

in the next words, in addition to
the reason for the covering taken
from subordination to man, is in-
troduced another reason, *0n
account of the angels.' Here
again all the conjectural emenda-
tions are to be rejected. As:
(1) 8ta TOLS dyeXas, * on account
of the crowds.' (2) Sea tovs
ttycXatovs, 'on account of the
men who crowded in.' (3) 8ia
Tovs dvSpa?, ' on account of the
vulgar' or 'the gazing men.'
(4) ^ta Tov<s cyycA-acTTas, ' on ac-
count of the mockers.' (5) Sea
Trj<s dyyeXta?, ' throughout [the
whole of] her [divine] message.'
(6) 8ta Tovs ox^ovs, ' on account
of the mobs.' Also all the inter-
pretations founded on peculiar
uses of the word dyye'Aovs or 8td :
as, (1) 'On account of the
Bishops or rulers.' (2) 'On
account of the spies sent to
watch the assemblies.' (3) * On
account of the messengers sent
by the bridegroom to see the
bride before marriage.' (4) An
adjuration * by the angels ' (8ia
for vrj). (5) 'On account of
divorces' — as a translation of
the Latin term ' nuntius ' for a
bill of divorce. It remains,
therefore, to take the words in
their obvious sense, ' on account
of the angels.* In part, the in-
troduction of this new idea might
be explained by the belief implied
in early Christian writers (Tert.
de Orat. c. 12 ; Orig. c. Gels. v.
233 ; Apost. Const, viii. 4) that
the angels were in a special man-
ner present at Christian worship ;
and that the women were to veil
their heads in imitation of them,

as theij (Isai. vi. 3) veiled their
faces in the presence of God.

But the close connexion with
the preceding argument implied
in the words 8ta tovto requires,
if possible, a more distinct allu-
sion than this to the duty of the
woman's subordination to man,
which is the main subject of the
sentence. The following train of
thought, though beset with diffi-
culties, may render the intro-
duction of the words more intel-
ligible. The Apostle had dwelt
on the necessity of this subordi-
nation, as shown in all the pas-
sages in the early chapters of
Genesis, where the relation of
the sexes is described, viz. Gen.
i. 26, ii. 18, 23, iii. 16. The
mention of these passages may
have carried on his thoughts to
the next and only kindred pas-
sages in Gen. vi. 2, 4, in which
those relations are described as
subverted by the union of the
daughters of men with the sons
of God, — in the version of the
LXX. the angels, ol dyyeXot. In
this case the sense would be ' In
this subordination of the woman
to man, we find the reason of the
custom, which, in consequence of
the sin of the angels, enjoins
that the woman ought not to
part with the sign that she is
subject, not to them, but to her
husband. The authority of the
husband is, as it were, enthroned
visibly upon her head, in token
that she belongs to him alone,
and that she owes no allegiance
to any one besides, not even to
the angels who stand before the
throne of God.' The 'fall of

DISUSE OF FEMALE HEAD-DEESS.

187

12/'

p^copis yvvaiKO<; ev Kvpio)* "^(ocnrep yap tj yvvq eK tov

woman in the Lord ; ^-for as the woman is of the man, even so is the

the Angels' thus spoken of is
the same as that indicated in
Jude 6, 2 Pet. ii. 4, where the
context shows that the fall there
intended is supposed to be at the
time not of the creation, but of
the Deluge, not from pride but
lust. The connexion of this text
with the veil or head-dress is
illustrated by earlier Christian
writers. The apocryphal work
called the Testament of the
Twelve Patriarchs, speaks of the
watchers (iypi^opoi) before the
Flood being attracted by the
women adorning their heads and
faces; a practice which, it is
said, they pursue because they
have not authority (eiova-Lav) or
power over man. (Fabric. Cod.
Apoc. V. T. i. 529.) In Tertul-
lian the thought occurs re-
peatedly. See De Orat. c. 22,
' Propter Angelos ait velari
oportere, quod angeli propter
lilias hominum desciverunt a
Deo ; ' De Virg. vel. 7, * Propter
ungelos scilicet quos legimus a
Deo et coelo excidisse propter
concupiscentiam fornicatorum.'
In the Eastern world generally
there are traces of the same
belief, both in the Jewish and
Mussulman traditions. It was
said by Rabbi Simeon, ' If a
woman's head (or hair) is un-
covered, evil spirits come and
sit upon it, and destroy every-
thing in the house.' (Wetstein
ad loc.) A strange story is con-
tained in the earliest accounts
of the revelations of Mahomet:
* Khadijah said to Mohamed
after his first vision, " If the
Angel appears, let me know."
Gabriel again appeared, and he

said to her, "I see him." She
placed him first on her left, then
on her right shoulder, and asked,
"Seest thou him still?" He
answered, " Yes." Then she
said, " Turn and lie on my
bosom." When he had so done,
she asked again, " Seest thou
him ? " He answered, " Yes."
Then she took her veil from her
head, and asked, " Seest thou
him still ? " This time he
answered, " No." Then she said,
*'By God, it is true, it is true; it
was an angel, and not a devil." '
On this story the Arabian bio-
grapher remarks : ' Khadijah
knew from Waraka that a good
angel must fly from before the
face of an unveiled woman,
whilst a devil would bear it well.*
(Weil's Mohamed der Prophet,
p. 48.)

It is possible that, if the words
Sta TOV? ctyycAovs be SO taken,
the word kiova-Cav might be un-
derstood, not as the sign of the
husband's power over the woman,
but (in the sense most agreeable
to the usage of the word itself)
as the sign of the power or dig-
nity of the woman over herself,
protecting her from the intru-
sion of spirits, whether good or
evil. In that case compare its
use in vii. o7 : e^ovcrtiav ej^et Trcpt
TOV lSlov OeXi^iJiaTOS.

Finally, we must ask why a
train of argument, other- _

° , , 1 , Connexion

Wise simple, should be with con-
thus abruptly interrupt- ^^*^-
ed by allusions difficult in them-
selves, and rendered still more so
by their conciseness. The most
natural explanation seems to be
that he was led by a train of as-

188

FIKST EPISTLE: CHAP. XI. 13-15.

avSpos^ ovTO}<; kol 6 avrjp Sta r-^g yvvaiKo*;^ ra Se iravTa Ik
Tov Seov. ^^ iv vjMv avrot? Kplvare' Trpeirov icrrlv yvvauKa
aKaraKoXvTTTOv tco 6e(p tt pocrev^ea 6 ai ; ^^^ ovhk rj (j)vcrL<^
avTTj StSctcr/cet v/xa?, on avrjp [lev iav /co/Aa, drt/xta avrco
ecrrtj', ^*^yvi^a be eav KOfxa, oof a avr?; eariv; on rj KoyiTf
avTi Trepi^okaiov SeSorai avrfj,

man also by the woman ; but aU things of God. ^^ Judge in yourselves :
is it comely that a woman pray unto God unveiled'? ^^Doth not even
nature itself teach you, that if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto
him, ^^but that if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her ? for her
hair is given her instead of a covering.

sociation familiar to his readers,
but lost to us. Such is the allu-
sion in 2 Thess. ii. 5, 6, 'Re-
member ye not, that, when I was
yet with you, I told you these
things ? And now ye Jmow what
withholdeth, &c. An argument
in their letter, a conversation, a
custom to which he had before
alluded, would account not only
for the introduction of the pas-
sage, but for allusions which, as
addressed merely to a local or
transitory occasion, might well
be couched in terms so obscure
as to forbid in effect, if not in
design, any certain or permanent
inference from them for future
ages. The difficulty of the text
is, in fact, the safeguard against
its misuse.

1 1 A qualification of verse 9,
'Although there is in this sub-
ordination, yet in their commu-
nion with Christ each is neces-
sary to the other, and both are
subordinate to God.'

TrXrjVf 'only.' iv KvpM, as we
should say, ' in Christianity.'

12 Referring to the creation
of woman in Gen. ii. 22, and the
birth of man.

CK 6€ov. For the climax com-
pare iii. 23.

14 A short summary of the

argument, as in x. 15-18, here,
as there, appealing to their com-
mon sense.

7] (f>v(n<5, nature, i.e. 'the na-
tural distinction of the long
tresses of the woman.'

Here, as in verses 4 and 7, the
example of the man is brought
forward only for the sake of the
contrast. Strictly speaking, the
natural argument does not apply
so strongly here. But at the time
the Apostle wrote, the j^^^^^^
long hair in a man was of men
regarded as a mark condemned.
either of effeminacy or savage
manners. Amongst the later
Romans, especially after the year
B.C. 300, the long locks by which
their ancestors were distin-
guished were laid aside, and the
derivation of ' csesaries,' the hair
of the male sex, from ' csedo,*
to cut, although etymologically
false, is historically true. And
Juvenal speaks of the gathering-
up of the thick tresses into a
golden head-dress, as the last
climax of effeminacy and profli-
gacy — Reticulumque comis aura-
tum ingentibus implet, Sat. ii.
96. In the East, men usually
shave the whole head, leaving
only one long lock.

DISUSE OF FEMALE HEAD-DRESS. 189

Paraphrase of Chap. XI. 2 — 15.

/ now come to the regulations on particular subjects, which I laid
down, and which on the whole you have well observed ; but there
are exceptions which I shall proceed to notice.

First, there is the disuse of the head-dress by the women, in
their public prayers and prophesyings. The gradations and
distinctions of nature are not destroyed by Christianity ; on the
contrary, the order of the successive stages of life and being is
more clearly revealed by the opening of new spheres above the
range of this visible world. Christ is the ruling and control-
ling power, the universal prototype of every man, as the man is
of the woman, and as God is of Christ Himself Now, the
best illustration of all these relations is that of the head to the
body ; for this reason, the human race, the Christian society,
and every member of each, is represented as part of Chris fs
body ; He being, as it were^ the head from which they derive
their intelligence, their dignity, their life. The head, there'
fore, whether of male or female, is naturally invested with
peculiar importance ; and we cannot treat with indifference
the customs which enjoin that when the man appears in public,
and therefore in the public worship of God, his head, which
represents his Divine Master, is not to be profaned by those
artificial coverings or ornaments, invented by the effeminacy
of later times. In like manner the woman is to appear with
her head, the symbol of her husband, not defrauded of that
seemly covering which nature suggests by the long tresses
which it has given her, and which general custom has con-
firmed by making a shaven head the mark of female infamy.
Even in the primeval records of the human race, in those
solemn passages which speak of the first institution of the re-
lations of the sexes, you will see the grounds of this distinction.
There we read that, whilst man represents the nature and the
majesty of God, woman represents the majesty of her husband.
It is from the uplifted open countenance, the ^ os sublime,' of
man, that God is to receive glory ; it is from the covered
head and veiled face of woman created from his side, and
for his companionship, that man is to receive glory. There-
fore his authority is to be seen visibly resting on her head in
the covering which shrouds her from the view of those angelic

190 FIRST EPISTLE.

beings who, as we read in those same primeval records, were
the first to break through the sacred relation of man and
wife, the first to entice her from that subjection to which God
had appointed her. It is not meant that in Christianity
either man or wife is independent of each other. Each by the
very fact of their origin is dependent, one on the other^ and
both on God.

But it needs no elaborate arguments to convince you of
this ; it is enough to appeal to the mere teaching of stature.
Think of the degraded effeminate appearance presented by a
man with long tresses of hair. Think of the glory in which a
woman seems to be enveloped ivith her long hair flowing round
her, the very image of the folds of the hood or mantle which
is thrown about her in imitation of it.

The Apostle's View of Socul and National Distinctions.

The practical effect of this Section on the customs of Christ-
endom is well known. Whatever may have been its reception
in the Church of Corinth, the recommendation of the Apostle
has been so strictly observed in later times, that, in contradis-
tinction to the practice which prevails in Jewish synagogues
and Mussulman mosques, no man would, as an ordinary rule,,
be found in a Christian place of worship with his head
effect of covered : no female with hers uncovered.^ What was
the Apo- [j^ i\^Q first instance laid down as a sanction of the
commen- Grecian peplum in Christian assemblies, and as a re-
dation. straint on the first excitement of Christian converts,
is now observed in countries to which the details of Greek
society are wholly unknown, in which ebullitions of wild
fanaticism are the last evil to be dreaded in Christian worship.
It is instructive to witness this instance of unconscious obedi-
ence to the incidental recommendation of one who then felt
himself called upon to enforce it by a complicated and elaborate
argument, which has in its turn afibrded, by two obscure ex-
pressions (xi. 10), an occasion for the diligence and ingenuity

* Holland is an exception. In i only. See Ludovicus Capellus on
Dntch congregations, men uncover ! xi. 4.
their heads during the Psalmody I

DISUSE OF FEMALE HEAD-DEESS. 191

of scholar after scliolar in the whole field of philological and
antiquarian learning.

But it is of more importance to ascertain the principles
involved in the Apostolic rule. The first is the asser- principles
tion that Christianity does not directly affect the social involved :
relation of the sexes. That it has indirectly afiected ^jq^ ^f [^^
it, is indeed proved by the whole state of domestic so- sexes not
ciety in modern Europe, in part, doubtless, owing to affected by
the infusion of Teutonic customs, but in part, at least, Christian-
owing to the gentleness and tenderness of the Christian ^^^'
character, as well as to the direct assertion of the spiritual
equality of the sexes, not only in the Gospel narrative, but by
the Apostle himself in his declaration that ' in Christ Jesus
there is neither male nor female.'^ But here, as in the case of
slavery, it wa^ of the highest importance to the success of the
destined amelioration, that it should take place by a gradual
development of Christian principles, not by an abrupt revo-
lution. To what excesses the alleged indifference to the dis-
tinction of sexes led in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th centuries is well
known ; and it was, therefore, not without reason that in the
first burst of excitement which accompanied the announce-
ment of Christian freedom, the Apostle should throw himself
across its path, appeal to the earliest records of society, the
simplest instincts of natural taste and decency, and suppress
the first outward mark of the exception claimed by Christian
prophetesses from ordinary social customs. The choice of the
flag has been known to turn the tide of human revolution, not
because of its colour or of the ideas which its colour represented,
but because of the spirit of those who proposed it. The rejec-
tion of the Grecian head-dress maybe considered as the triumph
of Apostolical order over fanatical anarchy, not because it was
itself less orderly or less becoming, but because of the feeling
which had prompted its adoption.

And this brings us to the second point worthy of note in this
advice; namely, the solemn sanction given by the Apostle
to what might be thought merely a local or national fashion.
In this instance it resulted in great measure from the 2. Sanction
importance then attached to the outward manifesta- of legal
tions of character in costume ; ^ and the same may tionaT"
be said of the allusions to dress in other parts of usages.

* Gal. ill. 28. ^ See Notes on verses 3, 5, 14.

192 FIRST EPISTLE.

the Epistles.^ But it is also remarkable as showing how com-
pletely the Apostle identified himself with what was, as far
as appears, a merely Grecian custom ; belonging in part, in-
deed, to the Oriental world generally, but in part, peculiar to
the Greeks. Seeing that it was an ancient national practice,
he felt that it ought as fully to receive the sanction of the
Christian Church, as if it had come down from Abraham or
Moses. And if the thoughts with which he brings it into
connexion seem almost too sacred for an occasion and subject
comparatively so insignificant, we must remember that the vivid
consciousness of the presence of Christ in all things justified to
him the outward expression of that which to us can only exist
inwardly and ideally. To one thoroughly penetrated with the
religious and serious sense of natural objects,

the meanest flower can give
Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.

And in like manner, to one who lived in the intense conviction
that on him lay the awful responsibility of bringing the whole
world in to communion with Christ, there was no custom so
trivial — the head-dress, the flowing tresses of the woman, the
relation of husband and wife, the relation of women to society
in general — that did not recall to his mind their conunon rela-
tion to Christ and to God. It was not that the veil of the
woman (in modern phrase) ' symbolised ' the supremacy of
Christ, but that, even in an avowedly secular and Gentile
practice, he was reminded of the truths which he had to
deliver.

1 See xii. 23 ; 1 Tim. ii. 9 ; 1 Pet. iii. 3 ; James ii. 2.

DISPUTES IN THE PUBLIC ASSEMBLIES. 193

ANSWERS OF ST. PAUL (continued).

Disputes in the Public Assemblies, and especially at the
Lord's Suppee.

XL 16—34.

In order to enter into the following passage, it is necessary
to form some conception of the celebration of the Eucharist
in the Apostolical Church. The earliest recorded instance of
the practice may be taken as a type of the rest. ' They con-
tinued daily, with one accord in the Temple (of Jerusalem),
and breaking bread from house to house {kXmvtss ts Kar oIkov
dprov), did eat their meat in gladness and singleness of heart,
praising God and having favour with all the people.' Acts
ii. 46. That this has reference to the Communion is clear
from the emphatic expression of * breaking bread,' repeated
from verse 42 : ^ They " were attending " on the Apostles'
"teaching," fellowship, and breaking of bread, and prayers,'
where the insertion of the expression between two directly
religious acts, clearly indicates that it has itself a religious
character. ' Breaking bread ' would be obviously insufficient
to describe a common meal ; whereas, if we suppose it to have
been the chief act of the Eucharistic Supper, and to have been
in fact its earliest name, we can understand how it was used
to express the whole ordinance. Compare the recurrence of
the same words (dprov sKkaasv) at the opening of each of the
four accounts of the institution, and in the allusion to it in
X. 16 (rov dpTov ov KXcofjLsv), From this account, then, we
gather two things : (1 ) That it was an act of religious worship ;
the expression of Christian devotion in private, as the Temple
service was the expression of general devotion in public.
(2) That it was in some manner either directly connected with
or a part of a common daily meal. The words ^ daily ' (kuO^
rifispav), ^ in their private houses ' {/car oIkov), * partook of their
food ' (fiersXd/ji^avov rrjs rpocprjs), conjointly taken, admit of no
other interpretation.

With these indications agree all the other passages which
mention it. In Acts xx. 7, we read that * the disciples came
together at Troas, on the first day of the week to break bread.''

194 ' FIRST EPISTLE.

Here again the mention of the first day of the week (compare
1 Cor. xvi. 2) indicates something of a religious character in
the meeting of the disciples, while, at the same time, all the
accompaniments are those of an ordinary parting meal ; the
lateness of the hour, from evening to midnight, and from mid-
night till the break of day ; the long conversations {o/jLcXrjo-as
not having yet acquired its historical sense of 'preaching');
the taking of nourishment for the journey, which is imme-
diately connected with the mention of the Apostle's departure
— KXdaas aprov fcal ysvcrd/jbsvos. . . . ovrco9 £^r)\6sv, where
ysvo-dfjLsvos implies not merely ' eaten,' but ' made a meal '
(compare Acts x. 10 ; Luke xiv. 24).

More doubtful, perhaps, but still in the same direction, is
the narrative of Acts xxvii. 35, which relates how on board
the ship St. Paul ' took bread, and gave thanks to God : and
when he had broken it, he began to eat. And then were they
all of good cheer, and themselves partook of the food.' That
this was an ordinary meal is obvious ; and as a great proportion
of the crew were heathens, it could not have been, in the same
sense as in the two previous passages, regarded as a full cele-
bration of the Eucharist. But the exact copy of the words of
the first institution could hardly have occurred, without intend-
ing to imply that there was at least a pointed reference to it in
the Apostle's act.

The only remaining allusions in the New Testament are
those contained in this Epistle, which still confirm the practice
as we find it in the Acts. Thus in x. 16-22, although the
cup is more prominently brought forward in opposition to the
heathen libations, the main argument implies, as in the Acts,
that the breaking of the bread was the most significant part of
the ceremony ; through it the partakers became, or intimated
that they were, ^ the body of Christ.' In like manner the
union of the religious with the social dementis also apparent,
both in the comparison with the manna and the water in the
wilderness — which if used with a higher meaning, were yet in
the first instance employed for common sustenance — and also
with the idol feasts which, though connected with sacrifices,
were yet in themselves social banquets. Hence in both cases
the expression used is (not ' the altar of demons,' the ' altar of
the Lord,' but) ' the table of demons,' ' the table of the Lord.'
So too, the phrases used for the celebration, in x. 16, 30 —
' blessing,' " thanksgiving,' indicate the thankful offering of the

DISPUTES IN THE PUBLIC ASSEMBLIES. 195

heart to God, and ' the communion of the body and blood of
Christ' (jcoivoivia, x. 16) implies a solemn sense of identification
with Christ ; whilst, on the other hand, the plural expressions
and the general turn of the argument (x. 4, 16, 17, 21) imply-
that throughout the ceremony, not merely one or two indi-
viduals, or selected portions of the community, but the whole
community of Christians as such, with all their imperfections
and errors, bore their part. And a comparison of x. 2 1 with
X. 30 indicates that some even conceived it possible to celebrate
the ^ breaking of bread ' in the act of partaking of a feast of
sacrificial food, where heathens were present.

Such was the institution of which the Apostle proceeds to
speak in the passage now before us, and which there ^, -g _
presents substantially the same image. It is a social charist a
meal, where the hungry looked forward to satisfying supper.
their wants (xi. 34), and where some indulged even to excess
(xi. 21). It is a supper, that is, not merely a morsel of bread
and a drop of wine taken in the early morning, or in the seclu-
sion of an Eastern noon, but the regular substantial meal of
the day; a supper {hslirvov, xi. 20, 21) at the usual hour after
the sun had set, and therefore in its time, as well as in its
festive accompaniments, recalling 'the night'' (xi. 23) of the
original ins.titution, and agreeing with the account of the part-
ing meal at Troas, in Acts xx. 7. Everything in outward
form still continued as it was in the earliest recorded instance
of its celebration, in Acts ii. 46. But the inward spirit of
harmony, which, at that time, made it the natural expression
of the feelings of ' those who had all things in common ' (Acts
ii. 44) — the exulting joy {a^aXKiao-Ls), the unoffending and
unoffended simplicity (acpsXorrjs), which would then have made
disputes at such a moment impossible — had now begun to wax
cold. The sacred meal, which seemed the most fitting expres-
sion of the whole Christian life, where all things, ' whether they
ate or drank,' could be done ' to the glory of God,' seemed in
danger of being swallowed up in worldly disputes of precedence
or even of revelry. That these were the kind of disputes which
the Apostle here attacks seems clear, both from the context of
the passage, ' If any man seems to be contentious,' ' I hear
that there are divisions,' ' parties ' (xi, 16, 18, 19), ' among
you,' and also from the specific allusions to such discords in
xi. 21, 22, 33. But in what way they originated is diflftcult to
perceive clearly. The most probable explanation seems to be,

o 2

196

FIKST EPISTLE.

that, as in a Greek dining-club^ {spavo^), it was often the
practice for the richer members of the club to supply the wants
of the poorer ; so here the banquet, which was chiefly provided
by the rich, was designed to be enjoyed by all equally and at
the same time as an expression of Christian unity. But this
was not observed ; the same distinctions of rank in the Christian
assemblies, against which St. James (ii. 1-4) protests to hi&
Jewish hearers, broke out on these occasions in the Gentile
Church at Corinth ; the richer members, following, probably,,
the example of the common Grecian clubs, seized upon the
portion of the food which they had brought, before the poorer
members could get hold of it (see xi. 21), alleging, in their
defence, that they were hungry (xi. 34), and could not wait ;
and the consequence was a scene of general disorder (xi. 21),.
and a complete disruption of the unity which the feast was
intended to promote. The practice of the Grecian clubs wa&
for each guest to eat that which he brought with him in his
own basket (Athen. viii. 17, p. 365). And the rule recom-
mended by Socrates in order to prevent disorder (Xen. Mem.
iii. 14, 1) was, as hereby St. Paul, that they should not begin
to eat till the contents of each basket were placed in public on
the table.

It was to put down this practice that St. Paul here brings
forward more strongly than had been before customary, the
religious, as distinguished from the social, character of the
supper ; and by recalling to their minds the solemnity of the
original institution, impresses upon them the danger they
incurred by such desecration of it. Not merely had the order
of the assembly been disturbed, but the original institution,
so emphatically alluded to in x. 16-22, of partaking in one
and the same loaf, one and the same cup, was rendered im-
possible. The practice mentioned by Irenaeus (Fragm. Venice
ed. vol. ii. p. 10), of offering part of the bread and wine as
oblations, was probably a vestige of the original Christian
practice of placing all the food that was brought on the
common public table, and then partaking of it — a practice
here urged by the Apostle in opposition to the heathen
custom of the Corinthians.^

^ See Boeckh's Public Economy
of Athens, i. 264.

^ See the remarks of Dean

Blakesley, in his ' Prselectio Acade-
mica in SchoHs Cantabrigiensibus
habita,' 1849.

DISPUTES IN THE PUBLIC ASSEMBLIES.

197

Disputes in the Public Assemblies, and especially at the
Lord's Supper.

^^El 8e Tt9 So/cet (fnkoveLKOs elit^at, T^/xeis Toiavr'qv aw-
rjdeiav ovk e^o^xeVy' ovhe at eKKk'qcricLi tov deov. ^^tovto 8e
TrapayyeWo),^ ovk eTraivoyv on ovk et9 to Kp^lcrcrov oXk' ets
TO Tjcrcrov crvvep^ecrde. ^^wpcorov fxeu yap (Tvvep^op.{voiv
vficoif ev^ iKK\r)0'La olkovco (r^Lcrfxara iv vjjllv virdp-^eiv, kol
jjiepo^ TL TTLcrTeva). " oeL yap /cat aipecret? eu v^jliv etvai, Lva

TrapayyeWwv ovk eiraivu

Kpei

rirrov.

4v T^.

^^Now if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom,
neither the churches of God. "Now this I declare, not praising you that
ye come together not for the better but for the worse. ^^For first of all
when ye come together in the church I hear that there be divisions among
you; and I partly believe it. ^^For there must be sects among you, that

1 6, 17 These verses may be
referred either to the preceding
or to the following context. The
latter seems preferable, as the
word <f>L\6v€LKo? points rather to
party strife, such as that in verse
18 and in i, 12 ; and with this
agrees the reading of tovto Se
"TrapayyeAAcj ovk iTratvuiv, A. B. C^
F. G. instead of irapayyiXXiov ovk
€7ra6vw, C^. D^. E. J. K. or Trapay-
yiXXo), OVK cTratvw, D^ — 'This
precept against discord I give,
not praising you in this re-
spect.'

OVK cTratvwv refers apparently
to the words in verse 2, — ' I
praise you generally, but not for
this.'

crvvipx^a-Oe refers to their meet-
ings generally.

Kpua-(Tov and rjorcrov (both pro-
bably pronounced at this time, as
in Romaic, with the same sound
of the Italian i) are apparently
put in juxtaposition, for the sake
of the play on the sound. Comp.

the repetition of irapa in verse
23.

18 It would seem from the
words TrpCiTov fjL€v, as well as
from the stress laid upon the
divisions in verses 16-19, that
he had intended to speak at
length of them here, but had
been interrupted by his wish to
proceed at once to the question
of the Lord's Supper, and either
did not resume it at all, leaving
it amongst the subjects reserved
for future discussion in verse 34,
or else resumed it in a different
form in xii. 1.

jxipos Ti, i.e. (not merely 'in
part,' but) ' in great part.' See
Thucyd. i. 23, vii. 30.

iv iKKXrjcTLa, ' in public assem-
blies ; ' the article omitted as in
English ' when you meet in as-
sembly,' i.e. ' assembly- wise.'

1 9 atpccretg. The context shows
that this is merely an
aggravated form of
ax^a-fxaTa. ' I believe that there

198

FIRST EPISTLE: CHAP. XI. 20—23.

[*Acat] ol SoACtjLLOt (ftavepol yivoiVTat kv vfjuv. ^^ crvvep^oixivctiv
ovv vfJLcov iirl to avro ovk ecmv KVpiaKov heiirvov (fyayeiv
^^ eAcacrro? yoLp to lSlov Seiirvov TTpoXafJi/Bdvei iv tS (fyayelv,
Koi 09 jxev TTCLva, 09 8e fieOvei. ^"^ fJirj yap otActa9 ovk e^^Te
els TO icrOUiv /cat Triveiv ; rj ttJs eKKkiqcrias tov Beov Acara-

• Om. Kai.

they whicli are approved may be made manifest among you. ~^AVhen ye
come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's
supper; "^^ for in eating every one taketh before other his own supper,
and one is* hungry, and another is drunken. ^'What! have ye not housea
to eat and to drink in ? or despise ye the church of God, and shame them
that have not ? What am I to say to you ? do I praise you m this ? I

are divisions amongst you; for
there must even (koL) be sects,
in order to test those who are
really good, and who rise above
them.' The word 'party' or
* sect ' expresses both the more
neutral sense in w^hich it is usu-
ally employed (Acts v. 17, xv.
5, xxiv. 5, 14, xxviii. 22), and
the darker sense in which it oc-
curs here, and in Gal. v. 20 ; 2
Pet. ii. 1. Justin Martyr (Dial,
cum Tryph. 35) attributes the
words tcTovTai (r;(t(r/x,aTa koi alpi-
crcts to Christ.

yap expresses the reason (not
for the Apostle's belief, but) for
the fact. * There are divisions,
for it is a part of God's provi-
dence that there must be.' Com-
pare Matt, xviii. 7, ' offences
must needs come.'

20 CTTt TO avTO=ayu,a, 'at the
same place and time.' Comp.
Acts i. 15, ii. 44, iii. 1.

OVK ^oTLv, K. T. A. ' In youT
meetings there is no such thing
as eating the LoixVs Supper ; for
it is rather the case that each
takes his own supper before ano-
ther, as he eats ; and the conse-
quence is, that whilst one has
not been able to partake of the
bread at all, another has even
drunk to intoxication the wine

reserved for the end of the
feast.'

KvpLUKov SetTTVov. Though the
epithet is here used in contra-
distinction to iStov, yet the adjec-
tival form, as in KvpiaKrj rjfxepa
(Rev. i. 10), indicates that it
was already the fixed name of
the institution.

2 1 CI/ T(3 ^ayetv is ' in the
meal.' For its position at the
end of the sentence, comp. viii.
11, ix. 10, XV. 19.

The phrase ' takes before ano-
ther,' implies that each man
helped himself; that there was
nothing corresponding to what
in later times is called ' an ad-
ministration of the supper.' Com-
pare the expression ' the bread
which ice hreah,^ in x. 16. Ter-
tuUian, De Coron. Mil. 3, speaks
of this as the original practice,
and notices the change in his
own time.

OS fiiv, 'the poor man,' os Si
' the rich man.'

fjicOveL. The use of this word
in John ii. 10, shows that it need
not be alw^ays taken of intoxi-
cation; but this is its natural
meaning in most passages. See
Matt. xxiv. 49 ; Acts ii. 15 ; 1
Thess. V. 7.

22, 23 jxrj yap OLKLa<; ovk cx^re ;

DISPUTES IN THE PUBLIC ASSEMBLIES.

199

<f)poveLT€^ Koi Karaicr^veTe tov<; fXTj €.^ovTa<;; ri^ etTTw

23 >

^"^ eyo) yap

VfJLLP; eiTaiv(o v/xa? ev tovtco ; ovk enaLvo).

irapeka^ov airo tov Kvpiov o koI irapeScoKa vfjuv, on 6

" Tt vfiiv eHirw

^ iiraiveffw iifias ; 'Ev rovrcf ovk iiraivu.

praise you not. ^^For I received of the Lord that which also I com-
manded you, that the Lord Jesus the same night in which He was be-

* Why surely ye are not without
houses ! '

T^s iKKXr](TLa<s tov Oeov, ' the
whole assembly, which you thus
divide and distract, and yet in
which God dwells.' Comp. x. 32,
where the phrase is also used
with regard to the public assem-
blage for the Eucharist.

KaTat(r;(vi/€T€, i.e. ' by making
their poverty apparent.*

Tovs /XT] €xovTa<;, * the poor.'
Compare Luke iii. 11.

Tt ctTTO) ; * what am I to say ? '
alluding, as in verse 17, to verse
2. * However much you think
yourselves deserving of praise
for having kept my commands
(TrapaS6(r€L<s), you have not done
so ; for my communication from
the Lord, which I commanded
(TrapiSiDKo) to you, was quite
otherwise.'

cyo), in contradistinction to
their practice — ' J, whatever you
may have done or thought.'

TrapeXa^ov (xtto tov Kvptov. The
word Trapa, rather than airo,
would have been most natural ;
but ttTTo may have been chosen
here to avoid the triple repeti-
tion of irapd. The use of the
words TrapeXajSov and TrapiSiOKa,
as in XV. 3, is against his deri-
vation of the fact from imme-
diate revelation. But the intro-
duction of the phrase ' from the
Lord ' may perhaps mean that
he had had confirmed to him by
revelation, what he already knew
as a fact.

23-27 The ensuing verses
form probably the earliest record
of the institution of the Eucha-
rist, and they contain also the
earliest recorded speech of our
Lord. Twenty years,
indeed, had elapsed EfiStu-
since their utterance; tionofthe

, , ,, v Euchanst.

but there can be no
doubt that the Apostle regarded
them as perfectly authentic. To
explain them at any length, or
to adjust their relation to the
other three versions in St. Mat-
thew, St. Mark, and St. Luke,
would be to encroach on ques-
tions belonging only to the Gos-
pel narrative; yet those who are
familiar with those questions
will observe : (1) That their al-
most exact coincidence with the
account in St. Luke is impor-
tant, as confirming the tradition
of the author of that Gospel
being the same as the companion
of St. Paul. (2) That in this,
the most ancient record of cer-
tainly one of the most important
speeches of our Lord, it is possi-
ble to discern elements of the
discourses in St. John's Gospel,
viz. vi. 35-58, XV. 1-6. (3)
That even in the four extant
versions of this short passage,
there are yet verbal variations of
such an extent as to show that
it was the substance, rather than
the exact words, which the
Apostle and the Evangelists
aimed at producing. (4) That
there is all the appearance of a

200

FIRST EPISTLE: CHAP. XI. 24—26.

KvpLOS ^Ir}<TOv<^ iv rfj vvktI y ^ TrapeStSeTo eka^ev apTOv
"^^ KoX cvxapLCTTrjcras eKkacrev koL eLTrev ^'Tovto fJLOv ecTTiv
TO (Tcofjia TO virlp vfxcjv^ tovto TTOtetre els ttjp ifxrjv dvoifi-

» irapediSoTo. ^ Add Adfi€T€, (pdycre. " Add KX^fuvov.

trayed took bread ^^and when He had given thanks He brake it and said
*this is my body, which is for you; this do in remembrance of Me/

familiar and fixed formula, espe-
cially in the opening words. (5)
That it implies on the part of his
hearers a full acquaintance with
the history of the Betrayal and
Passion, as, indeed, the Apostle
himself implies in the phrase o
KoX TrapeSoiKa, and also in the
previous allusions to the words
of the institution, in x. 16.

The word TrapeStSero in the
sense of * betrayal ' is curious, as
following on TrapeSwKa, in the
sense of ' communicated ; ' but
its frequent occurrence in the
Gospel narrative for the Be-
trayal leaves no doubt that such
is its sense here. Comp. a like
variation of meaning in 2 Cor.
ii. 7, 8, Trapa/caXecrat, TrapaKoXG),
Rom. xii. 13, 14, SicoKovreg . . .
Stw/covras. Possibly the play on
the three compounds of Trapd is
intentional. The imperfect tense
of TrapaStSero expresses ' the plot
was preparing'' — ' was to be.'

aproVf ' a loaf or cake of
bread.' See x. 17.

24 TO crw/xa to VTrep vfxmf (A.

B. C^.), KXi^yp^evov C\ J}\ F. p.

G.J.K.),^pv7rro>iw(D.). Both
from authority, and from its
abrupt simplicity, to virep v/xdv
is the probable reading, — ' this
is my body, which is for you.'
If so, kXoj/xcvov was omitted be-
cause of the Apostle's strong
sense of the ideal or spiritual
nature of the Lord's body, as so
fully expressed in x. 16, 17. The
omission may also have arisen

jfrom a fear lest it should contra-
dict John xiv. 36, ' A bone of
him shall not be broken ; ' for
which same reason, dpv-n-Tofjievov
('bruised') was probably sub-
stituted in D. If kXo)/x€vov be
genuine, it is used in reference
to the hreahing of the bread, and
hence the present tense (comp.
ov k\(i)ix€v, X. 16). The word
kXw/x€vos is, however, applied in
Josephus B. J. ii. 12, to the
breaking and distorting of the
body by torture.

TovTO TTotetre, 'this do,' — ap-
plied both to the bread and the
cup — must refer to the ' thanks-
giving' just described (e^xapt-
o-rrjo-as) : ' Give thanks to God in
remembrance of Me, in all your
meals.'

The phrase, 'the cup when
He had supped,' here, ,^^^^^^
and in Luke xxii. 20, after
is the more remarkable, ^^pp®^-'
because the general description
of the Gospel narrative would
lead us to suppose that the
breaking of the bread as well as
the blessing of the cup succeeded
the supper, whereas the emphatic
insertion of these words between
the two implies that the bread
was blessed at the commence-
ment, and the cup at the end, of
the supper. That the cup closed
the meal agrees with the bless-
ing of the cup after the Paschal
feast, like a ' grace ' at the end ;
as the blessing of the bread had
been like a ' grace ' at the be-

DISPUTES IN THE PUBLIC ASSE^IBLIES.

201

vrjCTLv. ^^axjaurcos kol to iroTijpLOV jxeTo. to deiirvrjo'aL^
Xiycxiv Tovro to TroTTjpiov rj Kaivrj SiaOiJKr) icTTlp ev Tca
ifxS at/xari* tovto Trotetre, 6(rdKL<; ^ iav 7rivr)Te, ets ttjv
€fxr)i/ avajJivrjaiv. ^^oaaKLS yap eav ecruir^Te tov apTov

TOVTOV Koi TO TTOTrjplOV

TTLPTJTe^ TOV OoUaTOV TOV KVpiOV

^ Add TQVTO.

"2^ After the same manner also the cnp when He had supped, saying * this
cup is the new covenant, in my blood : this do ye, as oft as ye drink it,
in remembrance of Me.' ^^For as often as ye eat this bread and drink

* In my
blood.'

ginning (see Mishna, Pesachim,
cap. X. 7).

Iv T<3 €/A(3 at/xart, * in my
blood.' This form, pe-
culiar to this passage
and Luke xxii. 20,
fieems to mean : ' This cup is
the new covenant signed or
written in my blood,' with a
double allusion to the libations
which accompanied every ancient
treaty (whence the word cnrov-
^at, 'libations,' came to mean
* treaty' or 'truce'); and also
to the blood either of sacrifices,
or, as in Arabian customs (Herod,
iii. 8), of the parties contracting
the treaty. Compare Heb. ix.
15-20.

* The new covenant,' as dis-
tinct from the Mosaic. See Ex.
xxiv. 8 : ' Behold the blood of
the covenant, which the Lord
hath made with you.' For this
use of Iv ToJ at/xart, compare
' Whom God " set forth " (Trpoe-
S^To) a propitiation, through
faith, in his blood' (ev not ets),
E/om. iii. 25.

26 ba-OLKLs yap iav ctr^tr^TC, k.t.X.
This verse contains, strictly
speaking, not the words of our
Lord, but of St. Paul. But the
two are allowed to run into each
other, so that it cannot exactly
be defined where one ends and
the other begins. Compare par-
allel instances in John iii. 16-

21, and 31-36. These words
are emphatically intro-
duced, in order to indi- l^ye^S
cate the continuance
and identity of the original meal
through its subsequent celebra-
tions : ' not only on that one
occasion, but on all future occa-
sions.' There may also be the
further object of showing that
in the original institution, the
intention was that they should
commemorate the Lord's death,
not only on stated occasions, but
at all their mealSf * ivhenever they
ate bread and drank wine.'

Two characteristics of the Eu-
charist are here given : .gj^^^
(1) KarayyeAAere. ' You forth the
preachf^ or 'announce,' Jeath^'
according to the con-
stant usage of the word (ii. 1,
ix. 14, Acts passim). 'The
Lord's Supper is a living sermon ;
an acted discourse.' (2) It was
intended to supply, by a visible
memorial, the absence of the
Lord, ' until He come,'
the sense being brought He^Jime.'
out more strongly by
the near expectation of His re-
turn. Comp. Matt. xxvi. 29.

Both points are well expressed
by Bengel : ' Hebc memoria est
intima et vividissima, ut est
liberorum erga parentes, sponsse
vel conjugis erga maritum, fra-
tris erga fratrem, cum fide,

202

FIRST EPISTLE: CHAP. XI. 2]

-30.

KarayyeWere, oi^pis ov ^ekOrj. ^' axrre 09 av i(j6irj roi/

aOTOV^ rj TTLVYj TO TTOTTipiOV TOV KVpLOV d^ttflCt)?, eVO^/O^

ecrrai tov crw/xaro? /cat tov at/xaros rov Kvpiov, "^^oo-
Ki[Jia^€Tco Se dvOpcoTTOs kavTov^ koX ovtojs e/c tov dpTov

• Add Sv. ^ Add toCto;/, « Om. rod.

the cup, ye proclaim the Lord's death till He come. '^'^ Wherefore who-
soever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily, will be
guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. ^^But let a man prove

'Un-
worthily

amore, desiderio, spe, gaudio, ob-
sequio conjuncta, summam status
Christiani complexa. Haec ratio
viget a clausula ultimi cum dis-
cipulis convivii usque ad adven-
tum. Hoc mysterium dtio tempora
extrema conjungit.^

27 This is the conclusion:
* Therefore he who partakes of
this feast unworthily, is guilty
of a sin against the body and
blood of Christ.' As in x. 16,
he had referred to the original
words of Christ to show of what
they partook ; so here he refers to
the same words, to show against
what they sinned. As
in vi. 18, 19, he had
shown that sensuality
was a sin against the temple of
the Spirit, and in viii. 12, that
indifference to another's welfare
was a sin against Christ, so here
he shows that to partake of the
Christian meal in a manner un-
worthy of its meaning, was to
offend against the majesty of
what Christ had Himself called
His body and His blood.

^ TTLvri, * or drink ' (B. C. D.
E. F. G. J. K., Vulgate, Italic,
and Syriac versions),
is the true reading,
' Whoever partakes of either part
of the feast unworthily,' im-
plying, like the words, ' after
supper,' in verse 25, that, in his
conception of the supper, the
bread and the cup were not, as

Or drink.'

now, inseparably united; but
that the cup succeeded the bread
after a long interval ; and that
therefore a profanation which
might apply to one, would not
of necessity apply to the other.
Probably from the wish to ac-
commodate the text to the change
of custom, or from hostility to
the Roman Catholic practice of
administering the bread without
the cup, the English translators
have unwarrantably rendered -5,
' and.' /cat for ^ occurs only in A.
an.d in 3 cursive MSS.

ej/o;(os is usually followed by a
dative; but in the New Testa-
ment more frequently, as here,
by a genitive. It is used of the
punishment incurred by guilt (as
in Matt. xxvi. QQ ; Mark xiv. 64 ;
Heb. ii. 15), of the law infringed
by guilt (James ii. .10), and of
the tribunal which awards the
punishment (Matt. v. 21, 22).
The present case presents a mix-
ture of the two last uses.

28, 29 avOp(x)7ro<;, see on iv. 1.
In this and the following verses,
the phrases, SoKLjxal&o) iavrov,

ScaKpLVOiV TO (TUifXa, Si€KpLVOjX€V

iavTov's, appear to ex-
press the same act ; theSy.'^^
whilst the consequences
of the omission of this act are
expressed by Kp7/xa IctOUl, and
eKpivo/xeOa. BLaKpivo) is used in
this passage for the sake of the
play upon Kpivio, ' to judge ' (see

DISPUTES IN THE PUBLIC ASSEMBLIES.

203

eauLeTCt) Kai €k tov woTrjpiov TTiveTO)' ^^o yap eauLcov /cat
irivoiv "^ Kplfjia kavrco eaOiei koI iriveiy [jltj SiaKpivcov to
(Tcofjia. oia TovTo ev vixiv ttoKKol acrt/e^'ets Acat appco-

* Add ava^icos. * Add rod Kvpiov.

himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup : ^^for he
that eateth and drinketh eateth and drinketh judgment to himself, if he-
do not " discern the body. ^^For this cause many among you are weak

» Or judge.

verses 17 and 23) ; but in itself
it never means * to judge ' in the
sense of ' condemning,' but, as
here, only in the sense of ' dis-
tinguishing ' or * discerning.'
(Comp. xiv. 29, where it is used
of the distinguishing of true from
false prophets. ) The sense, there-
fore, will be : ' Let every one
examine the state of his heart
and mind, i.e. to see whether he
is likely to be guilty of the pro-
fanation here condemned ; for, if
he does not so examine himself,
if he does not discern that the
body of the Lord is in himself,
and in the Christian society, if
he does not discern in the united
loaf the likeness of the united
Christian society, then heavy
judgments will follow.' This is
harsh ; but not more so than
other explanations, and it has[the
advantage of giving a uniform
sense to StaKptVw throughout, and
of agreeing with the Apostle's
final conclusion in verse 34.
* The body of Christ,' here as
elsewhere in the Apostle's lan-
guage (see the Introduction to
X. 16), is not the literal frame of
the Lord, but the body which He
has left behind Him on earth, in
the human race — the Christian
society, or its members severally.
This general truth is here, as in
X. 1 7, and in the passages there
quoted from the Fathers and the
Liturgy, stated in regard to the

Eucharist, as if St. Paul saw in
our Lord's words, ' This is my
body,' a declaration that the
bread or loaf which He broke
was the symbol of the spiritual
Body, composed of the many
grains of Christian souls, com-
bined in one unbroken mass.
If this truth were recognised,
then the Lord's Supper would
be properly celebrated; but, if
Christians regarded themselves
as having no connexion with
their brethren, the Supper would
be profaned, and turned into a
common meal. This meaning is
strengthened by the true reading
of A. B. C^ omitting tov Kvpiovy
which is found in C^ D. E. F.
G. J. K. Had the Apostle meant
to say that ' the body ' spoken
of was physical or the personal
body of Christ, he would not
have left it thus ambiguous, but
would have added the words
of ' the Lord Jesus,' or expres-
sions to that efi'ect. As the text
stands, though he doubtless refers
back to ' the body of the Lord,'
in verse 27, the phrase is so
generally expressed as to leave
to his readers the application to
themselves or to the whole
society. This is also the pro-
bable reason for the omission of
all reference to the ' cup ' and
* the blood. ' And thus the trans-
lation of the -^thiopic Yersion,
' if his soul be not pure,' though

204

FIEST EPISTLE: CHAP. XI. 31—34.

CTTOtj Koi KoiiJLwvTai LKavoL. '^^61 * §€ iavTOvs SieKpLvoixev,
ovK av iKpLvofj^Oa* ^'^ KpivofjievoL Se vtto Kvpiov iraihevo-
fieOa, Iva jxrj avv tw Kocrfxcp KaTaKpi6(x>p.ev. "^^aJcrre, dSeX-
^01 fJLOV, crvvepxop'evoL ets to (bayeiv dWniXovs e/cSevecr^e.
"* €t T15 Treiva^ ev olko) ecrtfieTO), iva fxr} ets Kpufia crvv^p-
Xy)0'6e. ra 8e Xolttol o)s olp e\0o) Ziard^op.aL.

6t 5e' ris.

and sickly, and some sleep. ^^But if we would discern* ourselves, we
should not be judged : ^^but when we are judged we are chastened by
the Lord, that we should not be judged to condemnation with the world.
^^Wherefore, my brethren, when ye come together to eat tarry one for
another. ^Uf any one hunger, let him eat at home, that ye come not
together unto judgment. And the rest wiU I set in order whenever I
come.

» 6?r judge.

not an exact version of the words
^jLT) SiaKpLviov TO cTw/Aa, truly repre-
sents their spirit.

dva|t(o?, ' unworthily,' though
expressing the sense more clearly,
is superfluous, and rests only on
the authority of C^. D. E. F. G.
J. K.

30 In the sicknesses and
deaths which prevailed at Co-
rinth the Apostle calls upon the
Corinthians to witness the judg-
ments on their profanation of the
Supper. It may be that these
sicknesses were the direct con-
sequences of the excesses which
seem implied in verses 22 and
34 ; but in any case there must
have been some connexion not
evident to us, which would lead
the Corinthians to recognise the
truth of his remark.

appaicrroL, a stronger word than

31 ' If we were in the habit
of discerning our own condition
rightly, we should not be incur-

ring these judgments from God.'
This is the force of the imperfect
tenses. Comp. Gal. i. 10 ; Heb.
viii. 4 ; Luke vii. 39 ; xvii. 9.
For the general meaning see note
on verses 28, 29.

The position of * ourselves '
(lavTous) makes it emphatic.

It is impossible in English to
preserve the play on the words
8i€KptVo/>t€v, €KpLv6fJie6a, and Kara-
KpLOCjjxev.

32 KpLvo) is here represented
as a middle stage between Sta-
KpLvoi and KaraKpivoi. For the
contrast of Kpivoy and KaraKpu/w,
compare ;j(pa)/x€vot and Kara^^pw-
fievoL, vii. 31 ; ej^ovrcs and Kare-
XovT€?, 2 Cor. vi. 10. For the
general idea, compare v. 5 ; 1
Tim. i. 20 : TrapeSoiKa rw (rarava,
tva 7rai8€vO(x)(TL [xrj f^Xaacfiyjixciv.

33 iKSix^aOe, 'wait for the
arrival of the poorer brethren,'
as in xvi. 11. Compare verse 21.
This is the practical conclusion
of the whole subject.

ST. PAUL'S VIEW OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. 205

Paraphrase op Chap. XI. 16 — 34.

I now proceed, in the second place, to condemn the party spirit
and divisions which prevail in your public assemblies ; which
must indeed be expected, because it is necessary that the good
should be thereby tested; but of this hereafter. One of the
most fatal instances of these divisions is that between the rich
and poor, which takes place at the meal where you celebrate
the Last Supper of the Lord. You remember the account
of its original institution, as I communicated it to you from
Christ Himself; you remember how He called the bread His
body, and the cup the covenant sealed by His blood ; and hoiv
He spoke of it as continuing for a memorial of His death
until His return. Every unworthy celebration of this meal,
therefore, is a sin against His body and blood. His body is
the whole Christian Society ; it is in yourselves, if you will
hut look for it there. To partake of the supper without this
consciousness of solemn communion with Him and with each
other, is to provoke those judgments of sickness and death
which have in fact been so frequent amongst you. To judge
ourselves is the only way of avoiding the judgment of the
Lord, whose institution we else profane ; as His judgment by
these outward misfortunes is the only way to save us from
that heavier judgment which awaits the unbelieving world.
Therefore, to sum up the matter practically, remember that in
these feasts you must wait for each other ; and those who come
merely for the sake of eating and drinking, had better take
their meals privately at home.

The Apostle's View of the Lord's Supper.

It has been truly said, though with much exaggeration, that
for many centuries the history of the Eucharist might be
considered as a history of the Christian Church. Certainly
this passage may be regarded as occupying in that history a
point of remarkable significance. On the one hand, it shows

206

FIRST EPISTLE.

US the most sacred ordinance of the Christian religion as it was
Celebra- Celebrated by those in whose minds the earthly and
tion of the ^\^q heavenly, the social and the religious aspect of life
as a social were not yet divided asunder. We see the banquet
meal. spread in the late evening, after the sun had set behind

the western ridge of the hills of Achaia ; we see the many
torches ^ blazing, as at Troas, to light up the darkness of the
upper room,' where, as was their wont, the Christian com-
munity assembled ; we see the couches laid and the walls hung,*
after the manner of the East, as on the night of the betrayal ;
we see the sacred loaves,^ each representing, in its compact
unity, the harmony of the whole society ; we hear the blessing
or thanksgiving on the cup,'* responded to by the thunder of the
joint •• Amen ; ' we witness the complete realisation in outward
form of the Apostle's words, suggested doubtless by the sight
of the meal and the sacrament blended thus together, ' Whether
ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of
God.' ^ ' Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the
name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father
by Him.' ^ Perhaps the nearest likeness now existing to this
union of social intercourse with religious worship, is to be
found in the services of the Coptic Church. The Eucharist is
there indeed even more divested of its character of a supper,
than in the Western Churches. But there is an air of primitive
freedom, and of innocent enjoyment, blended with the prayers
of the general service, which, bearing as it does the marks of
long antiquity, conveys a livelier image of the early Christian
assemblies than anything which can be seen in Europe.'^

This is one side of the picture ; but there is another side.
Disorders which imparts to this passage its peculiar interest.
Already the difficulties of bringing an ideal and an
actual life together make themselves felt. As the
falsehoods of Ananias and Sapphira profaned the
community of property at Jerusalem, so the excesses
and disorders of the Corinthian Christians profaned
the primitive celebration of the Eucharist. The time

attendant
on this
mode of
celebra-
tion ; and
the Apos-
tle's re-
medy.

15.

^ Xa/ATraSfj iKaval, Acts xx. 8.

^ dvayeiov icrrpcoiievov, Mark xiv.

3 1 Cor. X. 17, xi. 29.
* xiv. 16.
^ X. 31.

6 Col. iii. 17.

' Such at least was the impression
I derived from the one occasion on
which I witnessed the worship of
the Copts in their cathedral at
Cairo.

ST. PAUL'S VIEW OF THE LOKD'S SUPPEE. 207

was come, when the secular and the spmtual had to be dis-
entangled one from the other ; the ' simplicity ' and ^ gladness '
of the first Apostolical communion was gradually to retire
before the Apostolical rebuke. The question arose whether
the majesty, the tenderness, the awe of the feast should be lost
in a senseless orgy ; and it is (humanly speaking) by means of
this verdict of the Apostle against the Corinthian Church, that
the form of the primitive practice was altered, in order to save
the s]pirit of the original institution. It is of the more im-
portance to remember the extent of the danger to which the
celebration of the Eucharist was then exposed, because a great
part of its subsequent history would seem to be a reaction, in
part just, in part exaggerated, against the corruption which
then threatened it ; a reaction encouraged by the extreme
severity with which that corruption is denounced by the
Apostle, and which was itself called forth by the greatness of
the crisis. By the beginning of the second century, ' The
Lord's Supper ' had ceased to be a ^ supper,' ' and Gradual
was celebrated by day, although in some Egyptian change in
cities the practice of partaking of it on the evenings of celebra-
of Saturday still continued in the fourth century .^ <^Jo»-
Instead of the practice, according to which every member of
the congregation took of the elements himself, after the time
of TertuUian ^ the administration was confined to the chief
minister. The social meal was divided from it under the
name of ' Agape,' or ' Love-feast,' but still continued to be
celebrated within the walls of churches as late as the fifth
century, after which it disappears, having been already con-
demned by councils on account of abuses similar to those here
described at Corinth.'' The daily celebration as recorded in
the Acts had already ceased, if not before, at least in the
second century, when it was usually confined to Sundays and
festivals.'' Thus the Eucharist became more and more set
apart as a distinct sacred ordinance ; it withdrew more and
more from the possibility of the Corinthian desecration, till at

1 Plin. Ep. X. 97. I tury is probably to be ascribed, not

2 Sozomen, A. E. vii. 19. | to a restoration of the primitive
^ Tert. De Cor. Mil. 3. | feeling, but to the increasing im-
^ Bingham's Antiquities, book XV. ! portance attached to a physical

ch. 7. I participation in the consecrated

^ The subsequent revival of the j elements,

daily celebration in the fourth cen- I

208 FIRST EPISTLE.

last it was wrapt up in the awful mystery which has attached
to it, in the highest degree, in the Churches of the East,
but in some degree in the Churches of the West also, both
Protestant and Roman Catholic. Beginning under the simple
name of * the breaking of bread/ and known from this Epistle
by the social and almost festive appellations of the ' Com-
munion,' and ' the Lord's Supper,' — it first receives in Pliny
the name of ' Sacramentum,' and in Justin Martyr that of
' Eucharistia ; ' both, indeed, indicating ideas of strictly Apo-
stolical origin, though more closely connected with the words,
and less with the act, than would have been the case in the
first Apostolical times ; till in the days of Chrysostom it pre-
sents itself to us under the formidable name of the ' Dreadful
Sacrifice.'

A study of the two views as now set forth side by side,
will probably lead to the conclusion that as, on the one hand,
the general view of the Apostolical practice, its simplicity, and
Lessons to ^*^ festivity, have been in later times altogether set
be derived aside ; SO, on the other hand, the severity of his
froni the denunciation against unworthy partakers has been

spirit of n 1 • 1^11

the primi- too generally and too rigorously enforced ; because
tive cele- the particular object, and the particular need of his
rebuke at that time, have not been clearly under-
stood. The Holy Communion can never be again exactly
what it was then ; and, therefore, although his words will
always impart to the great ordinance of Christian worship
a peculiar solemnity, yet the real lesson which they convey
relates now more directly to such general occasions as that
out of which his warning grew, than to the ordinance itself.
I The joy and almost merriment of the first Christian converts
after the day of Pentecost could not now be applied to the
I Eucharist as it was then, without fear of painful profaneness
\ and levity. But the record of it implies that with a serious /
and religious life generally there is nothing incompatible
in the free play of cheerful and innocent gaiety. In like
manner, although we cannot without superstition imagine
that the judgments which the Apostle denounced will fall on
a desecration of the Communion different in all its circum-
stances from that which occurred at Corinth, yet there may
and of the ^tiU be an irreverence towards sacred things, a want
Apostle's of brotherly kindness, a dulness in discerning the
rebu e. presence of Christ, even in our common meals, which

ST. PAUL'S VIEW OF THE LOED'S SUPPER. 209

may make us fear ' lest we eat and drink condemnation to
ourselves.' And in the Communion itself the Apostle's words
are instructive as reminding us that ^ the body of the Lord,'
to which he looked, was, as elsewhere in his writings, so here,
' the body ' which is represented by the whole Christian
society. It is an application of our Lord's words, not the
meaning of those words themselves : but still it is an applica-
tion doubly appropriate, first because it represents the unity
and community of interests, feelings, and affections, which the
Lord's Supper, both in its institution and in its continuance
was designed to produce ; and, secondly, because that very
unity of the body of Christ's disciples is one chief purpose,
constantly attributed in the Gospels and Epistles to the Death
of Christ, which the Lord's Supper was specially designed to
show forth.

210 FIRST EPISTLE.

ANSWERS OF ST. PAUL (continued).

Unity and Variety of the Spiritual Gifts.
XII. 1—30.

One of the chief characteristics of the Apostolical age was the
possession of what are here called ' spiritual gifts,' the signs
that there was moving to and fro in the Church a mighty
rushing wind, a spirit of life, and freedom, and energy, which
stirred the dry bones of the world, and made those who felt
its influence conscious that they were alive, though all around
was dead. Before this consciousness of a higher power than
their own, the ordinary and natural faculties of the human
mind seemed to retire, to make way for loftier aspirations, more
immediate intimations of the Divine will, more visible manifes-
tations of the Divine power. Every believer, male or female,
old or young, free or slave, found himself instinct with this
new life, varying in degree and according to the strength of
his natural character, but still sufficiently powerful to be a
constant witness to him of the reality of the new faith which
it had accompanied. It resembled in some degree the inspira-
tions of the Jewish Judges, Psalmists, and Prophets ; it may
be illustrated by the ecstasies and visions of prophets and
dreamers in all religions ; but in its energy and universality, it
was peculiar to the Christian society of the Apostolical age.

It may easily be conceived that this new life was liable to
much confusion and excitement, especially in a society where
the principle of moral stability was not developed commen-
surately with it. Such was, we know, the state of Corinth.
They had, on the one hand, been ' in everything enriched by
Christ, in all utterance, and in all knowledge,' ' coming behind
in no gift' (i. 5, 6, 7); but, on the other hand, the same con-
tentious spirit which had turned the most sacred names into
party watchwords, and profaned the celebration of the Supper
of the Lord, was ready to avail itself of the openings for vanity
and ambition afforded by the distinctions of the different gifts.
Accordingly, various disorders arose ; every one thought of
himself, and no one of his neighbour's good ; and as a natural
consequence, those gifts were most highly honoured, not which

UNITY AND VAEIETY OF SPIRITUAL GIFTS. 211

were most useful, but which were most astonishing. Amongst
these the gift of tongues rose pre-eminent, as being in itself
the most expressive of the new spiritual life ; the very words,
* spiritual gifts,' ^ spiritual man ' {irvsv^arLKa, xiv. 1 ; irvevfiarL-
Kos^ xiv. 37), seem, in common parlance, to have been exclu-
sively appropriated to it : and the other gifts, especially that
of prophecy, were despised, as hardly proceeding from the
same Divine source. To combat this particular exemplifica-
tion of the factious and disorderly spirit which he had noticed
in xi. 16-19, the Apostle proceeds to show: («) That all the
gifts^ which were bestowed upon the Church, equally pro-
ceeded from the Spirit (xii. 1-30). {b) That Love was to be
their guide in all things (xii. 31-xiii. 13). (c) That therefore
the most useful were also the most exalted gifts (xiv. 1-25) ;
and (rf) That order was to prevail throughout (xiv. 26-40).

p 2

212

FIRST EPISTLE: CHAP. XII. 1—5.

xn. ^Ilepl Se T(t>v TrvevfJiaTLKOJV, dSeXc^ot, ov Oekco v/xa?
dyi^oeiv. ^otSare otl ^\_oTe\ iOvr) ^re, tt/oos tol elBcoXa tol

* Om. Sre.

^ Now concerning the spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you
ignorant. ^Ye know that when ye were Gentiles, carried away unta

XII. I Ilcpt 8k Twv TrvevfjuxTL-
Koiv. The construction is the
same as in vii. 1, 25, viii. 1.
TTvev/xaTtKwv is probably neuter,
as in the parallel constructions
of vii. 1, viii. 1, and as in the
use of the word in ix. 11, xiv. 1.

ov OiXw, ' I would not have
you ignorant,' as in x. 1, xii. 1.

2, 3 The stress in these two
verses is laid on the last clause,
and the argument would pro-
bably be rendered clearer by a
greater use of particles, as if it
were ttot\ ixkv Wvtj ^re, . . . vvv
Be 7rtcrT€voi/T€s. * 'AvdOc/Jia ' fiev
' 'Ii/crovs ' ovSet5 . . . AaXSv Aeyct,
* Kvptos ' 8e "Iiycrovs ' ovScts Xeyet
€t fX7] iv TrvevfxaTL dyto).

The argument is : ' You main-
tain that the influence of the
Spirit is confined to its most
striking manifestations. But you
know that, by the mere fact of
your conversion, you passed from
a state where all was dead and
dumb, to a state of life and con-
scious speech. Such being the
contrast of your former and your
present state (Sto), I remind you
(yvwpi^oi, compare xv. 1), that
as certainly as no true prophet
or speaker with tongues (cv
TTvcvyotart Oeov AaXwv, compare
xiv. 2) can utter the words
which renounce the Name of
Jesus, so the words by which we
acknowledge His sovereignty,
and thereby pass from heathen-

ism to Christianity, simple as
they sound, are gifts of the
Holy Spirit, no less than those
more remarkable gifts which
usually claim to themselves the
name.'

2 5tl 6t€, a. C. D. E. J. ; 5ti,
B. F. Gr. If 0T€ is kept, the con-
struction is an anacoluthon.

Two things are expressed by
this verse: (1) The dead «Dumb
silence of the state of i<iois.'
heathenism, the 'idols ' or images
standing ' dumb,' ' voiceless ^
(acfioiva), with neither mouths to
speak, nor ears to hear, silent
amongst their silent worship-
pers: 'The oracles are dumb.'
This is contrasted with the
music and speech of Christianity,
' the sound as of a mighty rush-
ing wind' (Acts ii. 2), 'the
voice of many waters,' which
resounded through the whole
Church in the universal difiusion
of those gifts of which he was
here especially speaking — pro-
phesying, and, above all, of the
gift of tongues. (2) The un-
conscious irrational state of hea-
thenism, in which the worship-
pers were blindly hur- 'Even as ye
ried away by some over- ^^e^e led.'
ruling power of fate, or evil
spirit of divination, or priestly
caste, without any will or reason
of their own (aTrayo/xevot o)<5
av ^yeo-^e), to worship at the
shrines of these inanimate idols.

UNITY AND VARIETY OF SPIRITUAL GIFTS.

213

^(f)cjva CO? av rjyeaOe airayofJievoL. ^Sto yvoipttfi) vfXLV on
ouSet? iv irvevixaTL Oeov Xakoji \eyei 'AvdOefxa ^^Ir)crov<;,
Kol ouSets SvvaTaL enreiv ^KvpLO<; Irjaov^^ el fjurj iv irvev-
^ StaioecretQ Se yaoicTixdroiv elcriv, to 8e

jjuaTL ayicp.

siaipeaei'^ oe ^apuo-fiaTcov eLcnv, to oe avTo

TTPevfia' ^ KOL Statpeaet? SuaKOVLcov elcriv^ koX 6 avTos kv-

'l7]ffOVV.

^ KVpiQV 'ItJO-OUJ/.

-these dumb idols even as ye were led . . . ^Wherefore I make known to
yon that no one speaking by the Spirit of God saith, ' Cursed is Jesus ' :
and no one can say ' The Lord Jesus/ but by the Holy Spirit. "^Now
there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit ; ^and there are diver-

This is contrasted with the con-
sciousness of an in-dwelling
Spirit, moving in harmony with
their spirits, and controlled by
a sense of order and wisdom.
Possibly in these words there
was the further intention of im-
pressing upon them the supe-
riority of the conscious over the
unconscious gifts of the Spirit.

3 The words 'Am^e/Aa ^l-qaovs
'Jesus ^'^^ Kvptos 'Iryo-ovs (ac-

anathema.' cording to the reading
of A. B. C, which produces
a much livelier sense) were
probably well known forms of
speech. 'Jesus is accursed,'
would be the test of renouncing
Christianity, either before the
Roman tribunal (compare * male-
dicere Christo,' in Plin. Ep. x.
97), or in the Jewish synagogue ;
prolDably the latter, if one may
judge from the word 'Anathema.'
^ Jesus the 'Jesus is the Lord,'
Lord. would be the form of

professing allegiance to Christ
at baptism, as ' He commanded
them to be baptized in the name
of the Jjord^ ' they were baptized
in the name of the liord Jesus, ^
Acts X. 48, xix. 5. For a similar
formula applied to attest the pre-
sence or absence of the Spirit,
compare 1 John iv. 2, 3.

If there be any difference in-

tended between the ' Spirit of
God ' and the 'Holy Spirit,' it is
that the first is a more general
expression, the latter confined
to the Spirit as animating the
hearts of Christians.

4-6 This connexion is : 'If
every utterance of a Christian is
inspired by the Holy Ghost, then
we must allow that a vast va-
riety of gifts may all proceed
from the same Spirit, — a vast
variety of services exist under
the same Master, whose sove-
reignty was acknowledged by
means of that Spirit, — a vast
variety of efEects proceed from
the same God, who acts by that
Spirit.'

8e is not ' but,' as in opposi-
tion to what has been said, but
'now,' as something said in ad-
dition. The first clause alone is
essential, as depending directly
on the previous assertion with
regard to the Holy Spirit; the
second is suggested by the words
' Jesus is the Lord ; ' the third,
by the words ' the Spirit of Qod.^
But, although suggested in the
first instance by the immediate
context, the threefold division
also refers to the distinction of
the Father, the Son, and the
Spirit, elsewhere either expressly
or by implication brought for-

214

FIRST EPISTLE: CHAP. XII. 6—1

pios' ^ Koi StatpeVets evepyrjfJLaTcov el(Tiv, 6 8e avrog* deo^
6 iuepy(x)v tcl TrdvTa ii/ ttolctlp. ^ iKoicrTcp 8e StSorat rf
(f)av€p(x)o-LS Tov Tn^ev/AttTOS TT/oos TO crviJL(j)epov. ^w fiev ya/>
Slol tov TTvevixaTOs SiSorat Xoyos cro^ta?, a\Xw 8e Xoyo?
yj'tucrews Acara to avTo irvevfJia, ^ kTepco [8e] ttlo-tls iv T(o

aiiTos ioTTi.

sities of ministries, and the same Lord ; ^and there are diversities of
workings, but it is the same God who worketh all in all. ^But the
manifestation of the Spirit to each one is given for profit. ^Fortoone
is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom ; to another the word of know-
ledge according to the same Spirit ; ^ to another faith, in the same Spirit ;

ward in the New Testament.
The three parts of the sentence
are respectively different phases
of the same idea, — ' gifts, ser-
vices, effects, — the Spirit, the
Lord, God.' The gifts are spoken
of primarily as proceeding from
the Spirit, because they are re-
garded as its most direct mani-
festations ; what is sometimes
called receiving 'the (jifts of the
Spirit ' is in other passages
called receiving ' the Spirit.* (See
Acts X. 44, 45, 47; Gal. iii. 2, 5;
Acts viii. 17, 18.) Then, viewed
as itistruments in the hands of a
higher power, the modes of their
employment are considered as
services (8taKoviat) rendered to
Christ the Lord and Master of all
believers. Lastly, in their effects
(cvc/oy^/mra) on the world, they
are considered as drawing all
their efficiency from God, the
cause of all power : the gift of
the Spirit may exist, the work
in which it is employed may be
the service of Christ ; but God
alone can enable it to produce its
due eff^ect. Comp. iii. 5, 6 : ' Paul
and ApoUos are ministers (8ta-
KovoC) : they planted and watered '
with the gifts of the Spirit, ' but
God gave the increase.'

7 ' As the source of these gifts

is the same, so also is the object ;
namely, the benefit of others.'
As the previous sentence is in-
serted to repel the general asser-
tion of an inequality of gifts, so
this is inserted to repel the dis-
pamgement of prophesying in
particular. For this sense of to
(rv/jL(f)€pov see x. 23.

8- ID He now proceeds to
give at length the proof of the
6th and 7th verses, returning
once more, in the 11th, to the
same general conclusion, that
the gifts, however various, had
a common Divine source.

The following enumeration in-
cludes three divisions.

(1) Mental 'gifts.' 'Knowledge'
is spoken of as such in ,^

1. 5, 6. And so 'Wis- ledge'and
dom ' in Jas. i. 5 ; Eph. ' Wisdom.'
i. 17; CoL i. 9; and 'faith' in
Luke xvii. 5, are described as
sought and received from God,
in language more emphatic and
distinct than is used in speaking
of 'love,' 'hope,' or other more
general virtues. For the explan-
ation of ' wisdom ' and ' know-
ledge,' see ii. 6, 7. ' Wisdom '
(cro<^ia) expresses something more
discursive and argumentative, as
in St. Paul ; ' knowledge ' (yvw-
crts) something more intuitive, as

UNITY AND VAKIETY OF SPIEITUAL GIFTS.

215

TTvevfJiaTL, ^^aXkcp Se ivepyrjyLaTa Svpdfxecov^ dWo)^ 7rpo(l>r)-
reta, aXXo)^ hiaKpiaeis Trvevfidrcov^ erepco^ yivr) yXcocrcrcjp,
dXKo) Se ^ SL€pfJi7)V€La y\o)crcro)v ^^wdvTa Se Tavra evepyei
TO tv KoX TO avTo TTvevfJia, Siaipovi^ tSia eKdaTO) KaOco';

* avT(f for €vl.

" Add 5^.

epfxr]V€ia.

to another the gifts of healing, in the one Spirit, ^^to another the working
of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discernments ' of spirits, to
another divers kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues:
'^but all these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit, dividing to each

* (?;• judgments.

in St. John. * The word,' or
* utterance ' (Xoyo?), is added to
express that it vp^as through their
communication in teaching that
these gifts became known. (Comp.

'Faith.' \^;^ '^^'^K ^V^-

shaken trust m U-od,
which in the Epistles to the Ro-
mans and Galatians is described
as changing the heart, is de-
scribed here, in xiii. 2 ; in Matt,
xvii. 20; and Luke xvii. 6, as
expressing itself in preternatural
energy.

(2) As * wisdom and know-
ledge ' are the basis of ' prophe-
sying and divers tongues,' so
faith is the basis of * gifts of
healing and miracles,' and hence
the immediate transition to
^^ ,. , these. 'Gifts of heal-

' Healing.' . , ^ , , ,

mgs {j(apL(TiiaTa lafjLa-

Twv). The plural is used to ex-
press the healing of various dis-
orders. That this was amongst
the most common of the extra-
ordinary gifts may be inferred
both from its frequent mention
in the Acts, and also from James
V. 14 : ' Is any sick among you,'
&c.

' Effects of miraculous powers '
(^Ivipyqixara Swa/xewv). The pa-
rallel in verse 28, where 'powers '

(Swaficts) alone is used, shows
that this, and not * effects,' is the
emphatic word. Svva/Acts expres-
ses not the miracles themselves,
but the power or virtue residing
in him who worked them, and
iv€pyrj/xaTa SvvdfX€OiV is therefore
the full expression for these
powers displaying themselves in
action, as Adyos aortas indicates
wisdom displaying itself in ut-
terance.

(3) For prophecy and the gift
of tongues, see xiv. 1. The dis-
cerning of spirits (i.e. the dis-
crimination between those pro-
phetical gifts which were true
and those which were false)
stands in the same relation to
prophecy, as the interpretation
of tongues to the gift of tongues.

1 1 He here again sums up their
variety by reasserting their unity.
The word ' worketh ' (evcpyct) is
here applied to the Spirit as it
had in verse 6 been applied to
God ; the personal agency of the
Spirit being here more strongly
expressed than in verse 4, as is
also implied in the words 'as He
wills' (Ktt^ws PovXcrat), where
the verb, although united to a
neuter noun, implies that its sub-
ject is a person.

216

FIEST EPISTLE: CHAP. XII. 12—21.

jBoTjXeraL. ^^KaOdrrep yap to orcofxa ev ecrriv KoiX fJLekrj
TToXXa €Yet,* TTOLvra 8e tol fieXr) rov crw/xaro?^ TroWa ovra
€1/ ecTTLv (Tw/xa, ovTCt)'; /cat o ')(pLcrTO<;' ^^ Kau yap ep evi
TTvevfJiaTL rjixeis iravTe^ ets ev crw/xa iPaiTTLcrdrjiJLev, etre
'lovSatot €LTe '^EWrjve^^ eire BovXol etre ekevdepoi^ /cat
Trdvre^ ^ ev jrveviia iTTOTiad-qyiev. ^^ koX yap to crw/xa ovk

" e;tet rroAAo. ^ adsixaros rov kv6s. • 6ts eV.

one severally as He wills. ^^For as the body is one and hath many
members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one
body, so also is Christ : "for in one Spirit also were we all baptized into
one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or freemen ; and were
aU made to drink one Spirit. ^^For the body also is not one member,

1 2 The argument is confirmed
, , „ by the analogy of the

Analogy of •'. ,. . . ^J

the human Spiritual to the na-
^*^y- tural body. According
to the metaphor so strongly
brought forward in this Epistle,
' Christ ' is here used for the
Christian Society, by which His
body is represented. See x. 17,
xi. 29.

13 This explains and gives the
reason for the former expression.
' I say, so is it with Christ ; for
by the one Spirit which we par-
take we were baptized into the
one body of Christ.'

* In one Spirit (cv kv\ ttvcu-
fiarC) refers to the idea of ' bap-
tism by the Spirit,' ' plunged,
enveloped in the rushing blast of
the Divine breath.'

' Into one body ' refers to the
formula, ''into the name of
Christ.' Compare Matt, xxviii.
19.

* Whether Jews or Greeks,'
&c. This must be introduced
only as being the kind of unity
most prominently represented in
baptism. Compare Galat. iii. 27,
28 : 'As many of you as have
been baptized into Christ have
put on Christ. There is neither
Jew nor Greeks there is neither

bond nor free, there is neither
male nor female, for ye are all
one in Christ Jesus.

tv TTvevfjia €7roTL(T$r)iJiev, ' were
all made to drink one Spirit.'
(J. reads icfuoTLaOrjfxev for tVoTt-
(rdtjixev, a curious instance of the
use of cfjoiTL^d) for ySaTrrt^w in
ecclesiastical Greek, in which
this variation originated.) This
is an amplification of the pre-
ceding ; TTvevfxa rising above
crw/xa, as i7roTL(rOr]ix€V above eySaTr-
Ti(rOr)ix€v. ' We were made par-
takers, not only of the outward
body, but of the inward life and
Spirit which animates it (comp.
Eph. iv. 4 : ' there is one body
and one Spirit^), we not only
passed through the waters of
baptism, but the Spirit by which
we were baptized passed into us ;
we were penetrated by it through
and through, even into our in-
most spirits.' There is in ctto-
TLcrOrjfjiev the double sense of
' were watered,' which connects
it with baptism, and ' were given
to drink,' which connects it with
the idea of nourishment, and
possibly, therefore, with the cup
of the Lord's Supper (comp. x.
4). The same play on the word
appears in iii. 6, where the

UNITY AND VAEIETY OF SPIEITUAL GIFTS.

217

icTTLV eu jU,e\o9, aXka ttoWol. ^^eav eLTrr) 6 7rou§, '^Otl ovk
elul Yetp, OVK et/xt e/c tov crcofJiaTOS', ov irapa tovto ovk
€aTLV e/c TOV (TCJfJiaTos. Kau eoiv enrrj to ol»9, Utl ovk et/xi
ocjiOakfJiOS, OVK et/xl €ac tov acofJiaTOS, ov irapa tovto ovk
iaTLv €K Toi} crcJiJLaTOS' ^^ el o\ov to croj/xa 6<jf>^aX/xos, ttov
rj oLKOt] ; el okov olkot], ttov rj ocr^pr^cns ; ^^^vvv he 6 6eos
eOeTO TOL fieKyjy ep eKacrTov avTotv iv tgj croiyLaTL KaOcos
7)6e\'q(Tev* ^'^ el 8e rjv [ra] iroivTa ev /llcXos, ttov to crcofxa;
^^vvv he TToXXa [ftei^] fieXTy, ev he cro)fjia. ^^ov Swarat

» vwl.

but many. ^^If the foot shall say, 'because I am not the hand, I am
not of the body,' it is not on that account not of the body. ^^And if the
ear shall say, * because I am not the eye, I am not of the body ; ' it is not
on that account not of the body. "If the whole body were an eye, where
were the hearing ? if the whole were hearing, where were the smelling ?
^^But now God set the members, every one of them in the body as He
willed : ^^and if they were all one member, where were the body 1 ^°but
now are they indeed many members, but one body. ^^And the eye
cannot say unto the hand * I have no need of thee,' nor again the head

phrase * Apollos watered ' (ctto-
TL<T€v) conveys the first of these
meanings, and the phrase, ' I fed
you with milk' (ydXa v/xas ctto-
Ttcra), conveys the second.

14-18 In order to answer the
argument of those who main-
tained that the gift of tongues
was the only manifestation of
the Spirit, be enlarges on the
necessity of variety in the con-
stituent parts of the human
frame, and the acknowledged
use of each.

14 Kol yap gives the reason
for Travres in the previous verse.
* I say that we all received life
and strength from one Spirit,
for so also it is in the human

body, which does not consist of
one limb, but of many.'

15 ou Trapa tovto ovk €(Ttlv, ' It
is not, therefore, no part of the
body.' Trapa tovto, * on this ac-
count,' ' along of this.'

18 vvv Se. 'But as it is (as

the human frame is really con-
stituted) there is not one predo-
minant sense or faculty, but
many.'

KaOw'i rjOeXrjcrev, i.e. * not ac-
cording to man's fancies but
God's pleasure.'

19 In the previous verses, he
has set forth the variety of the
human frame ; in these, 19-26,
with a view to the confusion
which arose out of the exagge-
rated estimate of one gift in the
Corinthian church, he sets forth
its unity, ttov to o-(o/>ta ; ' What
would become of the organisa-
tion of the body as a whole ? '

20 vvv Se. As in verse 18.

2 1 As a practical consequence
of this joint variety and unity in
the human body, he sets forth
the mutual dependence of the
different senses and limbs ; again,
with the view of reproving the
contempt with which the gifts
of teaching were regarded by

218

FIRST EPISTLE: CHAP. XII. 22—28.

[§e] ""6 6(f)0a\ixos eLTTeiv Trj ^eipi Xpdav aov ovk e^w, rf
TTokiv 7) Ke(f)a\rj rots irocriv XpeCav vfjicov ovk e)(a>* ^^akXd
TToWco iiaWov TOL BoKOvvTa fxeXr) rov craj/xarog dcrOeveaTepoL
VTTap^eiv avayKaia earriVi ^ /cat a ooKOVfJiev afrip^orepa eupau
Tov acofjiaros, tovtols TLfxrjv TrepicrcroTipav TrepLTiOefxev^ kol
Ta dcr^ixova rjiJLcov evcr^rjfiocrvprjv TrepiccroTepav e^et, "^^ra
Se evcrx'jP'Oi^a r)fJL(ov ov •)(peLav exet. dWd 6 6eo^ crvveKe-
pacrev to crw/ia, rco ^ vo'Tepovixeva} irepiaaorepcLV Sovs TifJiTJv,
Lva pjT) y or^tcr/Aa iv rw crw^art, dWd to avTo vrrep

» Om. 6.

vcrrepovvTi.

to the feet ' I have no need of you :' -'-nay, much more those members
of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary, ^^ and those members
of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow
more abundant honour, and our unseemly parts have more abundant
seemliness, ~^and our seemly parts have no need. But God tempered
the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part
which lacked, ^^that there should be no division in the body, but that

those endowed with the gift of
tongues.

2 2 oAAa TToAAw /xoAAov. ' Not
only do the hand and foot stand
in need of each other, but even
the feeblest and humblest parts
of the body are by common con-
sent invested with an artificial
dignity, as if to compensate for
their natural insignificance or
unseemliness : ' alluding to the
almost universal instinct of fit-
ness or of decency which has
dictated, on the one hand, the
use of ornaments ; on the other
hand, the necessity of clothing.

The passage indicates the
same strain of argument as forms
the basis of ix. 3-15, appealing
to the natural feelings of men on
the subiect of dress.

Ta a(TU€V€(rT€pa, art/i-OTcpa, a-
(TxqiJ^ova, are best left undefined,
as the Apostle has left them ;
the words being accumulated and
varied designedly, so as to in-
clude all parts of the human
frame, without particularly spe-

cifying any.

vTrapx^i-v bere seems to retain
its classical sense, ' to be in their
own nature weak ; ' distinguish-
ed from etvat in verse 23, ' to be
by general consent unhonoured.*

23 TijxrjVTrepiTtOcfxev. The word
7repLTi6efX€v (comp. Matt, xxvii.
28 ; Mark xv. 17) points to
dress ; and if so, rt/x^v may pos-
sibly have been suggested by the
passage in Gen. xx. 16, where
it is used by the LXX. for ' a
covering of the eyes.'

The covering of the body, and
uncovering of the face, is pro-
bably one chief point of the con-
trast.

24 6 Oeo<s crvveKepaa-ev, ' God
through these natural instincts
provided a compensation.'

25 The particular expressions
used here, o-xto-/ta, ixepipA/oio-Wy
Tracrxct, So^a^crat, (rvyxoi^p^h ' di-
vision,' 'care,' 'suffering," glory,'"
' joy,* may all be taken for the
physical and involuntary sym-
pathy of the human frame, as.

UNITY AND VAKIETY OF SPIRITUAL GIFTS.

219

aXX.ijXcoi' fiepLfJivcoaLv ra fxekr). ^^ koL eu ^tl Trdcr^ei iv
fieXo9, crvfJL7T(i(T)(eL Trdvra ra [xeXyj • etre Sof ct^erai ev [leXoSy
crvy^aLpei iravTa rd fxiXyj. '^"v/xets 8e icrre crw/xa ^ptcrrov
/cat ixeXrj eK fxepovs. '^^/cai ous jxev eOero 6 Oeos hf Trj

the members should have the same care one for another. ^^And whether
one member suffer, all the members suffer with it ; or one member be
honoured, all the members rejoice with it. ^^ Now ye are the body of
Christ and members in particular. ^^And God set some in the church,

Chrysostom explains crvyxatpeiy
* The mouth speaks, and the eyes
laugh and sparkle.' But they
also indicate that the Apostle's
mind was chiefly fixed on the
moral application of these natu-
ral phenomena ; and that in this
application he has strayed be-
yond the limits of the particular
subject of the gifts into the con-
templation of Christian unity
generally, of which he had spo-
ken in verses 14-19. Compare
verse 13. And the momentary
fervour by which this passage is
distinguished from the rest of
the argument arises from the
consciousness of his own intense
sympathy, as already described
in viii. 13, ix. 19-22, and as
given almost in the same words
in 2 Cor. xi. 28, 29: 'That
which Cometh upon me daily,
the care (jj /xept/xva) of all the
Churches. Who is weak ? (rts
acrOevei) and I am not weak ? '

26 8o^a^€Tat, ' glorifi.ed.' If
this has any precise reference
to the parts of the body, it is
another illustration of the signi-
ficance (as in verse 23, xi. 2-14)
which the Apostle attaches to
the ornaments (as crowns, &c.)
to which it probably would al-
lude.

27 vjxcLs Se ecTTC aw/xa ^to"TOv
Kol ixiXrj €K fxipovs. The greater
elevation of the previous passage

had prepared the way for the
transition from the statement of
the analogy to its moral applica-
tion. 'But you, the Christian
society, — as distinct from tha
bodily organisation, of which I
have just been speaking, — you
are, collectively speaking, the
body of Christ ; as, individually,,
you are His limbs.' Compare
vi. 15 : ' know ye not that your
bodies (i.e. your individual bo-
dies) are members of Christ ? '

28-30 This general applica-
tion is now unfolded in detail:
ov<s fxev iOcTO 6 Oibs Iv rrj ckkAt;-
orta, corresponds to vvv 8c 6 Oibs
lOtTo TO. fJieky, in verse 18 : 'As
in the natural body He placed
the various limbs, so "in the
Church" (iv rrj iKKkyja-La being
used with especial reference to
the public meetings, comp. xi.
20) He placed men endowed
with different gifts.' It is evi-
dent from the context, and from
comparison with the parallel
passage in Eph. iv. 11-16 : (1)
that he is speaking here, not of
offices, but of gifts : (2) that the
gifts which he enumerates were
not enjoyed by two or three or-
ders only, but by the whole of
the Christian society.

ov<s fxev would naturally have
required ovs 8e in the next clause,
but the form of enumeration is
exchanged for Trpwrov, Sevrepov^

220

FIEST EPISTLE: CHAP. XII. 29, 30.

iKKXrjcTLa irpcoTov aTTOcrroXov?, Sevrepov TTpo(j)rjra<;, TpiTOv
SiSaor/caXovs, eireira SvvdjJLeLs, eireura^ papier piar a lapaTOiv^
dvTikijxjjeLS^ KvfiepvijaeLS-, yevyj yXojcra-cov. ^^ p^rj Traz^res
aTTOcrToXoL ; prj irdures TrpoiprJTaL ; prj Trdvres 8i8acr/caXot;

eiTa.

first apostles, secondly prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles,
after that gifts of healings,helps, insights, divers kinds of tongues. ^^Are

TptTov, as that again is exchanged
for cTretTa, eTrecra.

eOero refers to the first fonnda-
tion of the Church. This enu-
meration stands midway between
that of the gifts in verses 8-10,
and that in Eph. iv. 11 ; less
abstract than the first, and (as
might be expected from its pri-
ority in time) less concrete than
the second. To a certain extent
the gifts of 'knowledge and
wisdom,' correspond to the ofi&ces
of ' Apostles, prophets, and
teachers.' ' Apostles ' are placed
first, as the founders of the
Church (comp. Eph. ii. 20, and
Rev. xxi. 14), and as endowed
in the highest degree with spi-
ritual gifts. The name expresses
the character of those who had
either been immediately sent
forth by Christ Himself, or who
had been raised to a level with
the Twelve by direct revelations
from Him.

For the juxtaposition of ' pro-
phets ' with ' Apostles,' compare
Eph. ii. 20 ; iv. 11. For the word
itself see ch. xiv.

2g[Si8d(TKaXoL, 'teachers.' These
, also are noticed in Eph.
IV. 11 ; Acts xm. 1, in
the same order, and by implica-
tion in Rom. xii. 7. The name
expresses the function of regular
teaching or expounding, as dis-
tinct from the inspired and im-
passioned preaching of the ' pro-

Helps.'

phets.' Of all these ' gifts ' it is
the one which approaches most
nearly to an established order of
clergy.

For the rest of the gifts com-
pare verses 9, 10. Two are added
here, which are there not ex-
pressly named, ' helps '
(di/TtXiji/^ets) and ' go-
vernments ' (Kv^€pv>7o-€ts) . If, as
is possible, they designate gifts
like those mentioned in the ana-
logous part of the enumeration
in verses 8, 10 ; then none are
more likely to be alluded to than
the two here omitted, viz. ' in-
terpretation of tongues ' (c/a/xT^-
v€La yXwo-o-wv), and ' discern-
ments of spirits ' (StaAcptorets irvev-
yaarwv).

avTL\r]if/L<s as used in the LXX.
is not (like SiaKovia) help minis-
tered by an inferior to a supe-
rior, but by a superior to an in-
ferior (see Ps. Ixxxix. 18 ; Ecclus.
xi. 12, Ii. 7) ; and thus, whilst
inapplicable to the ministrations
of the deacon to the presbyter,
would well express the various
helps rendered by those who had
the gift of interpretation, to the
congregation at large, or to those
who were vainly struggling to
express themselves intelligibly in
their strange accents. 'Govem-
Kvl3epvr](TLs, which in the ™ents.'
New Testament occurs only here,
is in the LXX. always used as
the rendering of niP-ian)!), ' wise

UNITY AND VARIETY OF SPIRITUAL GIFTS.

221

layidTCDv; imtj TrdvTe^ yXcocrcraLS XaXovonv; firj TrdvTes Siep-
fjLTjvevovo-Lv ;

all apostles ? are all prophets ? are all teachers? are all miracles? ^^have all
the gifts of healing ? do all speak with tongues ? do all interpret 1

foresight,' &c., as in Prov. i. 5,
xi. 14, xxiv. 6. So in the nn-
pnblished * Glosses on the Pro-
verbs,' quoted by Schleusner, it
is explained as kTnarrrnx'q Tuiv
7rpaTT0fjL€V(aVj and in Hesychius
(apparently in explanation of
this very passage), Kv/3€pvi^(T€i<;
are said to be irpovorfrLKoX iTTLo-Trj-
fiai Koi <f)povT^<T€is. This meaning

would exactly accord with the
' discernments of spirits,' and
thus the two enumerations would
as nearly as possible coincide ;
and we should then have words
(otherwise wanting) to which
the Apostle may be supposed to
refer in verse 30, ' Do all inter-
pret ? '

Paraphrase of Chap. XII. 1 — 30.

With regard to the gifts of the Spirit, you must not confine your
appreciation of them to any one class. If you compare your
present state with the Mind unconscious condition in which
you were before your conversion, you must he aware that even
the simple acknowledgment of Christ as your Lord, which you
made at your conversion, was an utterance of the Spirit of
God; and you may therefore conceive that, however vai'ious
are the gifts bestowed upon you, they all equally proceed from
the breath of the Spirit ; even as the services which they enable
you to perform are all wrought for the one Master whom you
acknowledged at your conversion; and as the effects which
they produce are produced by the power of God from whom
the Spirit comes. And as they all issue from the same source,
so they have all the same end, namely, the benefit of others.
This unity of origin and object is in no way contradicted by
the variety of the gifts, moral, preternatural, or spiritual, and
may be illustrated by the analogy between the framework of
the human body and that of the body of Christ, which is the
very form assumed by the Christian society in consequence of

222 . FIRST EPISTLE.

its par'ticipation in these spiritual gifts. In the human hody
no one limb or organ is allowed to separate itself from the
rest, or absorb the rest into itself without self-destruction ; so
that, on the one hand, the independence of the separate senses
is preserved, and, on the other hand, the unity of the organisa-
tion as a whole ; and the consequence of this joint variety and
unity is a mutual dependence of the several limbs and faculties
upon each other, so that even the most insignificant and
obscure have parts to perform, which the general consent of
mankind has delighted to honour and adorn. Now, what the
several limbs are in the natural body, that the individuals
ivlio compose the Christian society are in the body of Christ.
Every individual believer has some gift, hut not the same.
There are the Apostles, the messengers of Christ Himself, the
prophets with their inspired utterances, the teachers with
their ordinary training and learning, the extraordinary
powers inherent in some, the gifts of healing, the interpreters,
the discerners of spirits, the speakers with tongues ; these are
all different from each other, and none need encroach on the
others' functions.

UNITY AND VARIETY OF SPIRITUAL GIFTS. 223

The Miracles
AND THE Organisation of the Apostolic Age.

This Chapter is the most detailed contemporary record extant
of the extraordinary powers which manifested themselves in
the Christian society during the first century. They resolve
themselves into two classes: (1) Those which relate
to healing, and which exactly correspond with the healin*.
description of the miracles of Peter and John,^ and
with the allusions in James v. 14, 15 : ^ Is any sick among you ?
let him call for the elders of the church : and let them pray
over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord ;
and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord
shall raise him up; 'and in Mark xvi. 18: 'They shall lay
hands on the sick, and they shall recover.' (2) The gifts of
teaching, which are here classed under the names of
* prophets,' ' teachers,' * knowledge,' ' wisdom,' are teaching.
implied rather than expressly claimed in the authority
which the narrative of the Acts ascribes to the numerous
speeches of the Apostles. But to gifts of this kind allusions
are expressly made in the intimations in Matt. x. 20, and John
xvi. 13, of ' the Spirit speaking in the disciples,' and * guiding
them into all truth.' And to the same effect are the passages
in Rom. xii. 6, 7, 8 : * Having then gifts differing according to
the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us pro-
phesy according to the proportion of faith ; ... or he that
teacheth, let him wait on teaching, or he that exhorteth, on
•exhortation ; ' Eph. iv. 7, 11 : ' Unto every one of us is given
grace .... He gave some, apostles ; and some, prophets ; and
some, evangelists ; and some, pastors and teachers ; ' 1 Pet. iv.
10, 11 : 'As every man had received the gift, even so minister
the same one to another. ... If any man speak, let him speak
as the oracles of God.' The Apostle seems to claim this gift for
himself, both by implication in all his Epistles, and expressly in
1 Cor. vii. 40 : ' I think that I also (i.e. as well as others) have
the Spirit of God.' Of the special gifts of prophesying and
speaking with tongues, there will be another occasion to speak

' Acts iii. 1-10, V. 12-16, ix. 33-42.

224 FIRST EPISTLE.

in considering the 14th chapter. In the highest development
of these various forms of the gift of teaching, we find the only
direct recognition of what in modern language is called * in-
spiration ; ' and although the limits of such a gift, and the
persons in whom it existed, are never clearly defined, the de-
scription of it is important, because, unlike the other gifts, its
results can still be appreciated. We cannot judge of the gifts
of healing ; their effects have long since passed away. But we
can judge of the gift of teaching by the remains which it has
left in the writings of the New Testament ; and these remains
incontestably prove that there was at that time given to men
an extraordinary insight into truth, and an extraordinary power
of communicating it.

It is important to observe, that these multiplied allusions
Universal i^^ply ^ State of things in the Apostolical age, which
diffusion of has certainly not been seen since. On particular oc-
ese gi s. ^jg^g^Qjjg^ indeed, both in the first four centuries, and
afterwards in the middle ages, miracles are ascribed by con-
temporary writers to the influence or the relics of particular
individuals ; but there has been no occasion when they have
been so emphatically ascribed to whole societies, so closely
mixed up with the ordinary course of hfe. It is not main-
tained that every member of the Corinthian Church had all
or the greater part of those gifts, but it certainly appears that
every one had some gift ; and this being the case, we are
enabled to realise the total difference of the organisation of the
Apostolical Church from any through which it has passed in its
later stages. It was still in a state of fusion. Every part of
the new society was instinct with a life of its own. The whole
atmosphere which it breathed must have confirmed the belief
in the importance and novelty of the crisis.

But yet more remarkable, both as a proof of the Divine
power and wisdom which accompanied this whole manifestation,
,^ , and also as affording a lesson to after times, is

Modera- .1.11* i i 1

tion in the the manner m which the Apostle approaches the
Apostle's subject, and the inference which he draws from it.
appeal to His objcct in enumerating these gifts is, not to en-
the gifts, large on their importance, or appeal to them as
evidences of the Christian faith ; it is to urge upon his readers
the necessity of co-operation for some useful purpose. Such
a thought at such a moment is eminently characteristic of
the soberness and calmness which pervade the Apostle's writ-

UNITY AND VAEIETY OF SPIRITUAL GIFTS. 226

ings, and affords a striking contrast to the fanatical feeling
whicli regards miracles as ends and not as means ; and which
despises, as alien and uncongenial, the ideas of co-operation,
subordination, and order.

This chapter has a yet further interest. It is the intro-
duction of a new idea into the Sacred Volume. I* j^e d -
has been truly observed, that the great glory of the trine of
Mosaic covenant was, not so much the revelation of ^^^}'^^

unitv.

a truth before unknown, as the communication of

that truth to a whole people ; the first and only exception

which the Eastern world presented to the spirit of caste and

exclusion. But even in the Chosen People this universal

sympathy with each other, and with the common objects of

the nation, can hardly be said to have been fulfilled as it was

intended.

The idea of a whole community swayed by a common feel-
ing of interest and affection, was not Asiatic, but European.
It was Greece, and not Judoea, which first presented the sight
of a TToXis or state, in which every citizen had his own political
and social duties, and lived, not for himself, but for the State.
In the Old Testament, the duty of brotherly concord was en-
forced, not by the lively image of the body and its members,
but by the wholly different metaphor of the dews of Palestine
and the priestly oil.^ It was a Roman fable, and not an Eastern
parable, which gave to the world the image of a ' body politic,'
in which the welfare of each member depended on the welfare
of the rest. And it is precisely this thought which, whether
in conscious or unconscious imitation, was suggested to the
Apostle, by the sight of the manifold and various gifts of the
Christian community.

The image of the Christian Church, which the Apostle here
exhibits, is that of a living society in which the various faculties
of the various members were to perform their several parts, —
not an inert mass of mere learners and subjects, who were to
be authoritatively taught and ruled by one small portion of its
members. It is a Christianisation, not of the Levitical hier-
archy, but of the republic of Plato. It has become in after
times the basis, not of treatises on Church government, but of

^ Ps. cxxxiii. 1-3. For the fre-
quent use of the figure first known
through the fable of Menenius

Agrippa, see Heydenreich and Wet-
stein ad loc.

226 FIRST EPISTLE.

Butler's Sermons on the general constitution of human nature
and of human society. The principle of co-operation, as gene-
rally acknowledged in the economical and physical well-being^
of man, was here to be applied to his moral and spiritual im-
provement. But there was the fear lest an object so high and
abstract as the promotion of man's moral welfare might be lost
in the distance. Something nearer and more personal was re-
quired to be mixed up with that which was indistinct from it&
very vastness. The direct object, therefore, of Christian co-
operation, according to St. Paul, was to bring Christ into every
part of common life, to make human society one living body,
closely joined in communion with Christ. And lest this com-
parison of the Church with the human body might in one re-
spect lead to error, because there resides such a sovereignty in
the brain or head, that in comparison of its great activity some
of the other members may be called passive ; therefore the
functions of the head in the Christian Church are by the
Apostle assigned exclusively to Christ Himself.^

This idea of Christian community in the Apostolical age,,
was kept up, not only by the universal diffusion of the spiritual
gifts, but by all the outward institutions of the Church ; by
the primitive mode, as already described, of celebrating the
Lord's Supper ; by the co-operation of the whole community
in the expulsion or restoration of offenders ; by the absence, as
would appear from this chapter, of any definite form of govern-
ment or constitution ; and, in the Church of Jerusalem, by the
community of property.

Of these institutions most, if not all, had, even before the
Applica- termination of the Apostolical age, been either greatly
tionof the modified or had ceased to exist; and the gifts, from
statement which the institutions derived their life and spirit,
to modern had, as the Apostle himself anticipated, almost, if
society. ^^^ altogether, vanished away. But the general
truth which their existence suggested to St. Paul is still ap-
plicable to the natural gifts which constitute the variety of all
civilised society. The earliest form of the Christian society
was, as it were, a microcosm of the world at large ; what was
supplied to it in its first stage by miraculous intervention, is

^ For this whole subject of the I times, see the instructive passages m
idea of the early Church and its Arnold's Fragment on the Church,
relations to the institutions of later I pp. 149, 150.

UNITY AND VARIETY OF SPIRITUAL GIFTS. 227

to be sought for now in the natural faculties and feelings
which it has comprehended within its sphere. And therefore
it is truly a part of Christian edification to apply what St. Paul
and St. Peter ^ have said of the diversity and relative import-
ance and final cause of the first extraordinary display of the
gifts of the Spirit, to the analogous variety of the gifts of
imagination, reasoning powers, thought, activity, means of
beneficence. Variety and complexity are the chief charac-
teristics of civilisation ; and it is one of the many indications
of the new birth of the world involved in the introduction of
the Gospel, that these very same qualities, by which human
society is now carried on in nations and in Churches, should
thus appear impressed on the face of primitive Christianity.
A new word has lately come into existence, to express the ne-
cessary interdependence of men and of nations ; but no better
definition of ' solidarity ' can be given than the old words here
first uttered : ' Whether one member suffer, all the members
suffer with it ; or one member be honoured, all the members
rejoice with it.'

1 Rom. xii. 6-8 ; 1 Cor. xii. 28 ; 1 Pet. iv. 10, 11. See Arnold's Ser-
mons, vol. ii. 217 vl 300.

228 FIRST EPISTLE.

Love, the Greatest op Gifts.

XII. 31— XIII. 13.

The Apostle, in the preceding verses, had pointed out the
necessary variety of the gifts ; he had asked indignantly
whether there was indeed anything in the actual state of
God's dispensations to warrant the attempt to subordinate all
gifts to one ; and then it would seem as if, after his manner, he
suddenly paused. The very fervour of his own rapid questions
has brought before him vividly the angry jealousy with which
the Corinthians grasped at one out of these many gifts, and
that, though the most startling, the least useful. Already, in
speaking of the Factions, and of the scandals occasioned by the
sacrificial feasts, he had seen how much they thought of them-
selves, and how little of others ; and he now wishes to urge
upon them that far above any other gift — far above even the
gift of tongues, or the gift of knowledge, is the gift of Love,
which would teach them that the true measure of the value of
gifts was their practical usefulness.

On this connexion with the general argument, Bengel well
remarks : ' Characterem amoris, quem Paulus Corinthiis, et
characterem sapientiae, quem Jacobus item iis, ad quos scripsit,
cap. iii. 17, attemperavit, utiliter inter se conferas, adhibito
loco, 1 Cor. viii. 1.'

There is no word which exactly renders the signification of
'A7a7r?;. ^ Caritas' was diverted from its usual meaning
^" ^' by St. Jerome, to serve this purpose, evidently from
a feeling that the Latin * amor ' was not sufficiently spiritual.
And from this word, in slightly altered forms, have been de-
rived the words by which its force has been usually expressed
in French, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, and English. In itself
' charity ' would not be an unsuitable rendering. But in English
the limitation of its meaning by popular usage has so much
narrowed its sense, that the simpler term * Love,' though too
general exactly to meet the case, is now the best equivalent.
It is used in the German Versions (Liebe), and was used in
the older English Versions down to 1582, as it is still in the
present version, wherever it occurs in the writings of St, John.

LOVE, THE GKEATEST OF GIETS.

229

^^ZrjXovTe 8e ra ^apLCTfiara toL ^ fjuei^ova* kol eri KaO'
v7repl3o\rjv 68ov vp2v SeLKVvjJLL. Xlli. ^ eaz^ rai? yXcocrcraLS
Tcov dvOpcoTTCop Xoko) KOL T(ov dyyikoiv, dyoLinqv Se yir) e^w,
yiyova ^aXfcos r^^oiv 7) KVfJLJBakov dXakd^ov,

" TO. Kpcirrova. ^ Kal idu.

^ Kav e^o>

^^But seek zealously the greater gifts : and yet show I unto you a
more excellent way. xiii. ^ Though I speak with the tongues of men
and of angels, yet have not Love, I am become sounding brass or a
clanging cymbal. ^And though I have prophecy and understand all

31 ^riXovTC 8e TO, ^aptV/xaTa ra
fiet^ova. * The humblest gifts are
not to be despised; but if you
are to be envious of any, if you
are to be desirous of acquiring
any, desire not the worst, not
the most useless, but the best ;
such as the gift of prophecy,
which conduces to the good of
others.' That such is the mean-
ing appears from the parallel in
xiv. 1, where * rather that ye
may prophesy ' corresponds to
' the best gifts ' here. For the
bad sense implied in tprjXovre
compare verse 4 (ov t^-qXoi). For
a similar play on its good and bad
senses see Gal. iv. 17, ' They
zealously affect you (^r;A.ov(n),
but not well. . . . But it is good
to be zealously affected {tpriXov-
a-Oai) always in a good thing.'
For this qualification of the
general sentiment which he had
been expressing just before, com-
pare Matt, xxiii. 23 : ' These
ought you to have done, and not
to leave the other undone.'

Ka^' vireppokyiv is to be taken
with 6S0V. Compare a/x,apTcoA.os
Ka^' virepjSoXrjv, like ^ par excel-
lence,^ Rom. vii. 13.

68 w, ' way of life.' Compare
the use of 17 686<s for ' Christi-
anity,' in Acts ix. 2, xix. 9, 23,
xxiv. 14, 22.

XIII. 1-3 There is a climax
in the passage throughout.

Without Love the greatest
gifts are worthless, even though
they be :

(1) The gift of tongues, verse

(2) The gift of prophecy, and
of knowledge, and of faith, verse
2.

(3) The gift of zeal for man
as shown in outward acts, verse
3.

And in each case the conclu-
sion corresponds to the expres-
sion used in the first part of the
sentence. He speaks throughout
in the first person, as in Rom.
vii. 7-25, personifying, as it
were, human nature in himself.

The gift of tongues is men-
tioned first, as it was against the
exaggerated estimate of this that
he had chiefly to contend. The
expression is hyperbolical, like
viii. 13, or Rom. ix. 3, but still
based on a real feeling. * Though
the utterances of this gift in-
cluded all that both worlds could
express of great and glorious ;
yet without Love to harmonise
them, they would be but jarring
and unmeaning discord.' For
the phrase ' men and angels,'
comp. iv. 9.

230

FIEST EPISTLE: CHAP. XIII. 3.

7rpO(j)7)TeLav koI elScj tol fJLVcrTtjpLa iravra koX iracrav Tr)v
yv(i)(TLV^ /cat iav e)((o TracravTrjv ttlcttlv axTTe oprj ^ fieOiCTTd-
vaL^ ayaTTrjv Be iirj e^a), ^ ovOiv elfiL. ^"^ Kav xpcoixLcro) iroivTa

* fieOiffTdveiv. ^ ouSeV. = /cot iav if/wni^oo.

secrets and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so that I could
remove mountains, but have not Love, I am nothing. ^And though I

b^'^^^ musical

;j(aA,Kos ^X'*^'^' ' sounding brass,'
is a general name for
instruments
(not a trumpet, for
which he would have used the
word o-aXTTty^, as in xiv. 8).

aXaXalov, ' clanging.' In Ps.
cl. 5, two different kinds of cym-
bal are spoken of, rendered by
the LXX. Kvix/3aXoL<; €v>yxoi?j and
KVfi^(xX.OLS dXaXay/xov, ' the
well- tuned cymbal,' and ' the loud
cymbal.' The last is the one
here alluded to. Apion the gram-
marian was called the ' cymbalum
mundi.' (Plin. Prsef. Hist. ISTat.)
The force of the epithets depends
on the unmeaning character of
the sound of cymbals, compared
with the significance of real
music ; compare xiv. 7, where
the same contrast is implied be-
tween the gift of tongues and the
gift of prophecy.

He proceeds next to speak of
prophecy, as the gift of which he
himself thought most highly, and
which he wishes to contrast with
that of tongues, as spoken of in
the preceding verse. For its
connexion, as here, with the gift
of knowledge and with faith, see
xii. 8, 9, 10 ; and Rom. xii. 6.

2 TravTtt TO, fxvcTTT^pLa, ' the
whole range of God's secrets.'
(An inexact expression for etSw
TO, jxva-TYJpia Trdvra koI c^w 7ra<Tav
rrjv yvwo-tv.) Comp. Rom. xi.
33, TTtto-av T^v yvwa-Lv ' all the
knowledge in the world.'

TTLCTTLV, ' all

Traaav rrjv
faith in the world.

the
in the same

sense as in xii. 9. For the phrase
' to move mountains,'
compare^ our Lord's 2^^tBins:
saymg m Matt. xvii.
20, xxi. 21. It seems to have
been a proverbial expression.
Compare the Rabbinical passages
quoted by Heydenreich ad loc. ;
and Lightfoot on Matt. xxi. 21,
where the most distinguished
teachers are called ' uprooters of
mountains.' Compare also the
well-known story of Mahomet,
and the Eastern proverb, ' Man
may go to man, but not moun-
tain to man : ' and the legends of
similar miracles of St. Gregory
of Caesarea and of St. Nonnosus,
in Estius.

ovOiv el/XL, * though I seem to
have control over the whole
spiritual world, I am nothing.'

3 From the gift of prophecy,
with its accompanying graces,
he proceeds to the outward ex-
pressions of Love itself.

Kav if/ojixLcro) iravra to. VTrdp-
vovra aov, accordino^ to ^ ,^
tne use or if/o)/jLLC,(ji}, m
Rom. xii. 20 ; Numb. xi. 18, may
be taken in the general sense of
' supplying food,' governing, like
TTOTtlio, a double accusative, so
that here tov tttwxov must be
understood. But it may also be,
according to the etymology, ' If
I divide all my goods into mor-
sels.' Coleridge in a MS. note
on this passage says : ' The true
and most significant sense is,
" Though I dole away in mouth-
fuls all my property or estates."

LOVE, THE GREATEST OF GIFTS.

231

ra VTrap^ovTOL [jlov^ ^ kolv irapahoi to crcjixd fxov Iva ^ Kav-

■ K<d idv. ^ Lachm. Ed. 1. 'iva Kavxh<fo'fi-o-i.

dole away all my goods, and though I give my body to be burned, yet
have not Love, it profiteth me nothing. ^Love suffereth long. Love is

Who that has witnessed the alms-
giving in a Catholic monastery,
or the court of a Spanish or
Sicilian bishop's or archbishop's
palace, w^here immense revenues
are syringed away in farthings
to herds of beggars, but must
feel the force of the Apostle's
half satirical xJ/iofjLia-o) ? '

The Received Text and Lach-
mann, on the authority of C. D.
G. and the Latin MSS. read Iva
KavOi^cruifjiaL. Lachmann in his
first edition, on the authority of

'Give my ■^•^•' ^Cads, iva KttVX^-

bodyto cro}fji,aL. If the former
l>e burned.' reading, ?i/a KavOy^awfiai,
be correct, the sense would be
that, as in the first clause he ex-
cludes services to men, so here he
excludes zeal for God. And the
warning would apply to such spu-
rious martyrdoms as took place
from time to time in the early
Church, not from conscience, \)ut
from ambition. Compare Cy-
prian's Letters ; Hieron. ad. Gal.
V. ; and the story (quoted by
Heydenr. ad loc.) of Sapricius, a
Christian of Antioch, who, on his
way to martyrdom, refused to
forgive his enemy Nicephorus.
Already in the Apostle's time
Gentile instances of such self-
inimolation were well known :
Calanus burnt himself before the
army of Alexander. And, still
more to the point, another Indian,
apparently a Buddhist, at Athens,
in the time of Augustus (Strabo
XV. 1, 73; Dio Cass. liv. 9 ; Pint.
Vit. Alex. 69). His tomb at
Athens may have been seen by
St. Paul with the inscription

' Zarmochegas, the Indian from
Bargosa (i.e. Barygaza), accord-
ing to the ancient customs of
India, made himself immortal
and lies here.' To this, therefore,
the Apostle would naturally
refer, and the very words, irvpt
TO (rCjfjLa 7rapaSoi/T€s, are used by
Josephus (B. J. vii. 8. 7) in
speaking of such Indian fanatics.
See the whole story well dis-
cussed by Bishop Lightfoot (on
the Colossians, p. 156). He ob-
serves that it would also illustrate
the other reading, tva Kav)(rjcr<a~
/Attt, the motive of the Buddhist
at Athens being, according to
Dio Cassius, vtto (fyLkoTifica^ or
€ts cTTtSet^tv. This reading (* that
I may boast '), of which the con-
struction, though harsh, is borne
out by 2 Cor. xi. 16 (w? acfipova
hi^aaOi fxe, tva Kayo) fXLKpov tl Kav-
X^o-(u/xat), perhaps agrees better
with the context. It would seem
to be still a continuation of the in-
stances of self-denying benefi-
cence : ' Though I sacrifice not
only my property, but my bodily
ease and comfort ; ' ' though I give
up,' not strictly the life (which
would be ^xWj ^^ ^^ Acts xv.
26), but the means of life ; what
in classical Greek would be /?tos,
as distinct from ^wrj. If so, he
alludes to the hard life which he
led by his determination to main-
tain him self by his own labour, and
which was the especial subject of
his boasting, as of an extraordi-
nary merit. Compare ix. 2 7 (vTroy
TTid^it) fiov TO crwfia^j and ix. 15, 16,
where, as here, he applies to it
the same expression Kavxi^fjio.

232

FIRST EPISTLE: CHAP. XIII. 4—8.

fjLaKpoOvjJiei^ ■^(prjcrTeveTaL rj ayaTTT]^ ov ^rjXol [r) dyotTTT^],
ov TreprrepeveTau ov (fyvcnovTai, ^ovk dcr)(r)fjLoveL, ov tpqTei
rd eavTTj?, ov irapo^vverai^ ov XoyitjErai to KaKOV, ^ov
^aipei €771 rrj dSiKua, avy^aipei 8e rfj akrjOeLay ^ irdvTa

" ovdev.

kind ; Love envieth not ; vaunteth not herself, is not puffed up,^ doth
not behave herself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked,
thinketh not evil, ^rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth with the truth,
^beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all

* It profiteth me nothing.' This
is said to express that, in spite of
such vast exertions, no result
follows. Compare Matt. xvi.
26 : ' What shall it profit a man
to gain the whole world ? '

4-7 He now drops his own
example and personifies Love
itself, as in Rom. v.-viii. he per-
sonifies Sin, Death, and the Law,
and in 2 Cor. viii. 12, the virtue
of Christian Zeal (jrpoOvixia), and
as Wisdom is personified in the
Books of Proverbs, Wisdom, and
Ecclesiasticus. The enumeration
of qualities begins with especial
reference to the gifts, and then
rises above them, like the argu-
ment in xii. 10, 11.

(1) fxaKpoOvfxcL, ^rjorreveraif ov
t,riXoL. Lachmann's punctuation
gives an expressed nominative
case to each of these first three
attributes. ' Love bears long
with offenders ; there is a kind-
ness in Love ; there is no envy
or jealousy (comp. t,r]\ovT€ in xii.
31) in Love.'

(2) 7r€p7rep€v€TaL, cfivcnovTai, dcr-
X>7/Aovet, relate to the humility
inseparable from true Love, irep-
Trepeverai (from the old Latin
word ^perperus,' a braggart, see

Polyb. xxxii. 6, 5, xl.

shows itself off,'

from

aXa^ovev€(r6aL, which is 'to pre-

as distmguisnea

tend to qualities which one has
not.' (Compare iveTrepTrcpevardfjirjv,
in Cicero ad Att. i. 14.)

<f>v(novTai, * is inflated with
vanity,' see viii. 1.

dcrxoH-ovet, * is disorderly,^
' eccentric,' apparently with the
notion of pride implied (as in
vii. 36), alluding to the disorders
occasioned by the use of the
gifts. See xiv. 40 : irdvTa ivcrxrf-
lx6vo}<s yivea-doi. Chrysostom in-
terprets the word, ' does not re-
fuse to perform degrading acts,'
as if he had read do-x^/xoi/et, in-
stead of OVK d(TXy]P'OV€L.

(3) ov t,r]Te'L TO, iavTT]^, ov 7ra-
po^Verat, ov Xoyi^crat to kukov.
These three indicate the unself-
ish placid qualities.

ov t,r)T€L, ' grasps not at her
own rights' (what in classical
G-reek is expressed by cXao-o-ov-
arOai), see x. 24, 33.

ov Trapo^vveraij ' is not pro-
voked to anger.'

ov Aoyt^erat, ' does not impute
or store up in her calculations
the injury she has received.'

(4) ov ^atpei cTTt rfj dStKta,
(Tvy^aipci 8e T77 dXrjOeLa. All
these qualities express the sym-
pathy and self-denial of Love for
others. Injustice and Justice
(for -this is here the sense of
IXrjBeia as opposed to dStKta)
are here personified as well as

LOVE, THE GEEATEST OF GIFTS.

233

(TT iy eiy TrdvT a TTicrrevei, TrdvroL cXtti^ci, irdvra vTrofieveL. ^r}
dydirr) ouSeVore ^TrLTrrei. eire 8e Trpo^T^retat, KaTapyr^Orj-
aovTai* elre ykcocrcrai^^ iravcrovTaL' eire yi^wcri?, Karapyrj-

» €/c7rt7rT€t. " Note. MS. C, is deficient between yKSxraaC] and [yitez/ ^ twj', xv. 40.

things. ^Love never faileth. But whether there be prophecies, they
shall vanish away ; whether there be tongues, they shall cease ; whether

Love, and the sense is, * She has
no pleasure in the advance of
Wickedness, but she shares the
joy of the triumph of Goodness.'
Compare 8 John, 4.

Travra o-rcyct may be : —
(1) * conceals faults in a
neighbour ; ' according to the
„ general sense of Prov.

' Bears all » ^ ^ , .

things' X. 12. o-Tcyo) m J^jCcIus.

(o-reyeO. yiii. 17^ is thuS USCd :

' Consult not with a fool, for
he cannot keep counsel ' (o-rc^at).
And in classical writings, com-
pare Eur. Phcen. 1214 ; Soph.
Phil. 136 ; CEd. Tyr. 341 ; Thuc.
vi. 72. For the sense of the
passage so understood, compare
an interpretation sometimes put
on 1 Pet. iv. 8, ayaTrq KaXv7rT€.i
Tr\rj6o<s a/xaprttoi/. But KaXvTrroi
there, as in James v. 20 ; Rom.
iv. 7 ; Ps. xxxii. 1 ; Clem. Ep.
ad Cor, i. 49, is probably used
for * covering,' not in the sense of
* concealment,' but of ' expiation.'
The other sense, however,
is preferable : (2) ' bears all
things,' i.e. 'endures,' or, 'is
proof against,' ' all reproaches
and hardships,' which is the
sense of the word in the only
other passages where it occurs
in the N. T. (1 Cor. ix. 12 : 1
Thess. iii. 1, 5). The metaphor
is taken from a ship or roof which
does not leak (-(Esch. Suppl. 184;
Thuc. ii. 94; Plat. Rep. 621;
Crit. Ill, D.), or troops warding
off an assault (Thuc. iv. 34;
Diod. Sic. xi. 32), or ice bear-

ing weight (Diod. Sic. iii. 33).
Cyprian apparently read orrepyct
(by the same confusion of MSS.
that occurs in Soph. CEd. Tyr.
11), so as to make the enumera-
tion of arepycL, 7rL(rT€V€L, IXttl^h
agree with the subsequent men-
tion of Love, Faith, and Hope.

iravTa Trto-rcvet, Trai/ra eATrc^ct,.
Travra VTro/jLCViL. All these words
relate, in the first instance, to
the feelings of Love in respect
to man. ' She believes all that
is told her, without mistrust, she
hopes all good of every one, she
endures all vexations.' But the
words, TTtcTTts, cATTtg, VTro/xoviy,
having acquired a religious sense
by their frequent use in relation
to God, here rise above their con-
text ; and so the earthly sphere
within which his view of Love has
hitherto been confined, breaks
away, and in the next verse he
ascends a loftier height to tell
us of its future fortunes, vTrofxivet
especially leading him to it, by
the higher sense which it has
here, as in Rom. v, 4, and which
thus distinguishes it from o-rcyet.

8 T7 dyoLTrr] ovSeiroTC ttltttu.
' This is the last and crowning
glory of Love, that it is im-
perishable.'

TTtTTTct, ' loses its strength ; ' so
Rom. ix. 6 : ov\ oXov Se otl cKTreTr-
T(iiK€v 6 Xoyos Tov Oeov, and in
LXX. Job XV. 33 ; Isa. xxviii. 1,
4, where it is applied to the
fading of flowers.

Here the description of Love-

234

FIKST EPISTLE: CHAP. XIII. 9—13.

Orjcrerai.
(jyr)T€vofJiev
Tapyrj OrjcreT au

€K fxepov^; yap yti'ajcr/co/xev Kau eK ixepov<s irpo-

^^orav he ekOrj to reXetoi^, ""to e/c fiepovs Ka-

^'^oTe Tjix-qv vrj7no<;^ iXoXovv 0)9 viJ7rL0<s,^

i(j)p6vovT^ a)<S VT]7TiO^^ iXoyL^ofJLTjv fc)s vijiTLOf;' ore'^ yiyova
avijp, KaTTjpyqKa tol tov vyjttlov, ^^ /BXeirofJiev yap apTi 8t'

* T(JTe r6.

ws V7]Tnos iKaXovv, etc.

ore 5e.

there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. ^For we know in part and we
prophesy in part : ^°but when that which is perfect is come, that which is
in part shall vanish away. ^^ When I was a babe, I spake as a babe, I
understood as a babe, I thought as a babe : since I am become a man, I
have made the things of a babe to vanish away. ^^ For now we see through

closes. But St. Paul now re-
turns to the especial object for
which he had introduced it, and
proceeds to contrast the perma-
nence of Love with the perish-
ableness of the gifts on which
they so prided themselves.

' Prophecy,' ' tongues,' and
' knowledge,' are mentioned, as
being the three already con-
trasted with Love, in verses 1
and 2.

* Knowledge ' is taken in the
sense of the spiritual gift in xii.
8 ; and the limitations of it, al-
though applying analogously to
all human knowledge, must be
understood accordingly.

9 Ik /x€pov<;. The stress is on
these words : ' Only partial
glimpses of the truth are re-
vealed in prophecy ; only partial
glimpses of the truth are received
in the intuitions of knowledge.'
The passage is important, as
showing a consciousness of the
imperfection even of revealed
knowledge. Compare 1 John iii.
2 : ' It doth not yet appear what
we shall be.'

10 orav Se ekOrj to riXeiov.
We should more naturally say,
' When we go to that which is
perfect.' He, in expectation of
the return of his Lord, says,
' "When that which is perfect is
•come to us.'

1 1 He here once more returns
to himself, as the representative
of man in general ; and ,
the illustration which child'
follows is probably sug- ('^'^'o?).
gested by the word reX.€iov, ' per-
fect,' * full-grown,' reXaos and
vTJTTtos being naturally opposed
to each other as in ii. 6, iii. 1.
In the word vt^ttlo? ('infant,*
rather than 'child') he follows
out his etymological scent of the
word (' speechless,' as infans in
Latin), and uses it in this pas-
sage to express the imperfection
of the loftiest sounds of earth,
compared with what shall be
hereafter. The several words
used have a perceptible, though
remote, reference to the three
gifts just before mentioned. ' The
gift of tongues shall be as the
feeble articulations of an infant '
(for XoAw, as applied to those
gifts, see xiii. 1, xiv. 2-6, 23) :
' the gift of prophecy and dis-
cernment of spirits shall be as
an infant's half-formed thoughts '
{cf>poveiv has the double sense of
' thoughts,' and of ' wisdom : '
compare the analogous use of
(TOcfiLa and Kvl3epvrj(r€Ls in xii. 8,
28, in relation to prophecy) :
' the gift of knowledge shall be
as the infant's half-formed rea-
sonings ' (compare viii. 2 : * If
any man think that he knoweth

LOVE. THE GREATEST OF GIFTS.

235

'iaroTTTpov iv alviyixaTiy Tore Se TrpocrcoTrov irpo^ TrpocrojTTOV*
upn yLvcocFKO) e/c fxipov^^ rore 8e iTTtyvaxrofJiaL Ka6cb<; Kal
iTreyvcoaOrjv ^^vvvl Se p.ivei TTtaTi^; cXtti? dydTrrj^ rd rpia
ravTa' fieil^oyv §6 tovtcov rj dyaTTrj.

•a glass darkly, but then face to face : now I know in part, but then shall
I know even as also I am known. ^^And now abideth Faith Hope Love,
these three ; but the greatest of these is Love.

* Through
a glass.'

anything, he knoweth nothing
yet as he ought to know ').

ore in classical Greek would
•be cTTctSiy.

1 2 Si icroTTTpov may be : (1)
* through a window ' (of
transparent stone, or
whatever other sub-
stance was used for admitting
light into ancient houses), in
which case compare the Rab-
binical saying, * All the prophets
saw through a dark glass, ]\Ioses
saw through a bright glass.'
("Wetstein, Schottgen ad loc.)

But (2) more probably
* through the means of a mirror,'
as in James i. 23; and for the
sense, compare 2 Cor. iii. 18.
Ancient mirrors were usually
'(not of glass, but) of polished
metal. The expression, ' through
(Sta) a mirror,' may arise from
the illusion that what is seen in
the mirror seems to be behind it,
-and so seen through it.

iv alvLy/xaTL, ' in a dark simili-
tude,' ' in a mystery ' (in the
modern sense of that word).

irpocroiTTOv Trpbs TrpocroiTrov. The
whole sentence has an allusion
to the vision of God by Moses,
;as in 2 Cor. iii. 18. Comp. 2
Cor. V. 7, ov Sia €l8ov<; ; and
-N^umb. xii. 8 : a-TO/xa Kara o-ro/xa
XaXrjcra) avrw, iv ctSet, Kal ov Sl'
•alvLyfxaTOiv, kol ttjv So^av Kvpcov
<T8e.

iK ixepov<;, k. t. \. 'now my
knowledge is partial, then it will
be as full as the Divine know-
ledge.* For the same conscious-

ness of this contrast, see viii. 3 ;
Gal. iv. 9 ; 2 Cor. iii. 5 ; Phil,
iii. 12. Philo de Cherub. § 32,
pp. 159, 160 : vvv OT€ ^Q)/x€v yvw-
pi^ofxeOa fiaXXov ^ yvo)pL^o/x€V.

13 Having dwelt on the tran-
sitory nature of all other gifts,
he -concludes by recapitulating
what gifts alone are permanent,
and by declaring that even of
these Love is the greatest.

wvl Se is (not ' at this present
time,' distinguished from the
future, which would be expressed
as in verse 12 by aprt, but) ' as it
is,' ' as matters stand, amidst the
perishable nature of all besides.'
(Comp. wvl 8c eypa\j/a, v. 11 ;
vuvL Se ^Lo-Tos iyrjyepraL, XV. 20.)

fi€V€L ... TO, rpta Tttirra, * there
remain unchanged these three
great gifts, and these three only.'
He has already said, that Love
cannot fail ; and it would seem
as if he here recollected the two
other virtues which he usually
classes with Love, and wished to
indicate that they also were im-
mortal. Comp. 1 Thess. i. 3,
* your work of faith and labour
of love, and patience of hope : '
1 Thess. V. 8, 'the breastplate of
faith and love ; and for an hel-
met, the hope of salvation : ' and
Col. i. 4, 5, ' your faith in Christ
Jesus and the love which ye
have to all the saints, for the
hope that is laid up for you in
heaven.' They are specially
mentioned as being those quali-
ties which most evidently raise
man to a higher world.

236 - FIKST EPISTLE.

Paraphrase of Chap. XII. 31— XIII. 13.

Such is the variety of gifts set before you ; all necessary , none to-
he despised. But if there he any at ivhich you aim with more
than usual ardour, take those ivhich are really the best ; and
even if you attain these, remember that there is a loftier height^,
a serener heaven beyond, in comparison with which all, even
the best, are as nothing. LoVE alone can prevent the noblest
utterances of the gift of tongues from sinking into a jarring
. discord; LoVE alone can give reality to the revelations of pro-
phecy, the intuition of knowledge, the energy of faith ; LovE
alone can give value even to the most heroic outward acts of
self-denial and beneficence. Look at her as she stands before
you, portrayed in her full proportions ; look at her kind un-
ruffled countenance, so unlike your factions and rivalries ;
look at her freedom from the envy with which you regard each-
other^ s gifts ; look at her freedom from the display, the false
pretensions, the vulgar insolence which disgrace your public
meetings ; look at her refusal to press her own rights, to take
offence, or to bear malice : how unlike your selfish and liti"
gious spirit ; look at her sympathy with all that is good; her
endurance, her trustful and hopeful character, embracing as
it does all that is greatest in her two accompanying gracesy
Faith and Hope. She continues, and so loill they with
her. For look, lastly, at her imperishable freshness ; what a
contrast to the transitory character of all other gifts. The
gift of tongues shall cease of itself lohen the occasion for it is
gone. The gifts of prophecy and of knowledge, being in their
own nature imperfect and partial, shall pass away when this
earthly system shall pass away before the coming of that
which is perfect. Then, and not before, shall the inarticulate
utterances and the half-formed conceptions of our present
infantine state be exchanged for the full-grown faculties of
the man ; then, and not before, shall the dimly seen images
of the earthly glass be exchanged for that perfect vision of
Divine things which was enjoyed by Moses ichen he stood loith
unveiled face on the mount, and received in his countenance-
the reflected glory of God Himself. But till that time is
come, we can conceive of the future only through these three
great gifts, which exist noio, and loill continue hereafter ;
namely. Faith and Hope, which live as the handmaids of
the greatest of all, LovE.

APOSTOLICAL DOCTEINE OF LOVE. 237

The Apostolical Doctrine of Love.

The foregoing passage stands alone in the writings of St. Paul,
both in its subject, and in its style. This Epistle q,.
finds its climax here, as that to the Romans in the ofthe
conclusion of the 8th chapter, or that to the Hebrews, ^^pistle.
in the 1 1 th. Whatever evil tendencies he had noticed before
in the Corinthian Church met their true correction in this one
gift. To them, whatever it might be to others, — to them, with
their factions, their intellectual excitements, their false preten-
sions, it was all-important. Without this bond of Love he
felt that the Christian society of Greece would surely fall to
pieces, just as its civil society in former times had appeared
to philosophers and statesmen to be destined to dissolution,
without the corresponding virtue of ^tXta or mutual harmony.
Therefore, although in a digression, he rises with the subject
into the passionate fervour which in him is only produced
by a directly practical object. Unlike the mere rhetorical
panegyrics on particular virtues, which are to be found in
Philo and similar vrriters, every word of the description tells
with double force, because it is aimed against a real enemy.
It is as though, wearied with the long discussions against the
sins of the Corinthian Church, he had at last found the spell
by which they could be overcome, and uttered sentence after
sentence with the triumphant cry of ' Eureka.'

The particular motive for the introduction of the passage
in this place was, as we have seen, the wish to impress upon his
readers the subordination of gifts of mere display, such as the
gift of tongues, to gifts of practical utility, such as prophecy.
And analogously the same truth still needs to be impressed :
*to all but one in ten thousand,' it has been well said,
* Christian speculation is barren of great fruits ; to all but one
in ten thousand. Christian benevolence is fruitful of great
thoughts.' Such is the directly practical result ofthe chapter.
But the very style shows that it rises far above any immediate
or local occasion. On each side of this chapter the tumult of
argument and remonstrance still rages : but within it, all is
<jalm ; the sentences move in almost rhythmical melody ; the
imagery unfolds itself in almost dramatic propriety ; the Ian-

238

FIKST EPISTLE,

guage arranges itself with almost rhetorical accuracy. We
can imagine how the Apostle's amanuensis must have paused,
to look up in his master's face at the sudden change in the-
style of his dictation, and seen his countenance lighted up as it
had been the face of an angel, as this vision of divine perfection
passed before him. What then, let us ask, is the nature and
origin of that new element of goodness, of which this is the
earliest detailed description?

In the first place, the word dydirr] is, in this sense, altogether
'Aydirr] pccuHar to the New Testament. It is a remarkable
peculiar f^ct that the word, as a substantive, is entirely un-
New Tes- known to classical Greek. The only passage where
tament. it is quoted in Stephens's Thesaurus as occurring
is in Plutarch's Symposium; and there it has been subse-
quently corrected by Reiske from dyaTrrjs o)v to the participle
dyairrjo-div. The verb dyairav, indeed, is used in classical
Greek, but in the lower sense of acquiescence, esteem, or
caressing. It is in the LXX. we first find it employed, to
designate what we call ' love ; ' and it is there introduced
(probably from its likeness in sound to the Hebrew words ') to
represent 2ns and 33y {aliab and agab) both words expressive
of passionate affection, drawn from the idea of panting, aspiring
after a desired object. The substantive dydirri is used almost
entirely for sexual love, namely, in Jer. ii 2 ; 2 Sam. xiii. 15,
and throughout the Canticles. It only occurs besides, in a.
more general sense, in Eccles. ix. 1, 6. But in Wisdom vi. 19,
dyaTTTj T^pTjais vojjlwv TraiSstas ; on the other hand, in Prov^
X. 12, it is (pLkla, In all these instances the word is probably
suggested by the Hebrew feminine form nnr]K {ahabah). In
the New Testament, on the other hand, when used simply, and
unexplained, it is equivalent to benevolence based on religioua
motives. The Old Testament (in the word aliab) exhibited
the virtues both of conjugal affection and of friendship ^ pass-
ing the love of women,' as in the case of David ; it exhibited
also, throughout the Psalms, the same passionate devotion
transferred from man to God ; it exhibited, lastly, the same
feeling emanating from God Himself towards His peculiar
people, the spouse of His choice, the daughter of Zion. The

* So amongst others ^apis is used
as the translation of birah, a palace;
yrj, for gaij a ravine, and goi, people;

/3«/ios for hamah, a high place. See
Appendix to ' Sinai and Palestine,*
§ 81.

APOSTOLICAL DOCTEINE OF LOVE. 239'

Greek world exhibited in a high degree the virtue of personal
friendship, which was, indeed, so highly esteemed, as to give
its name {<f>i\la) to affection generally. Domestic and conjugal
affection, strictly speaking, there was not. The word which
most nearly approaches to the modern notion of love (spcos) ex-
pressed either a merely sensual admiration of physical beauty,
or, in the philosophical language of Plato, an intellectual
admiration of ideal beauty. The writers who at Alexandria
united the last efforts of Grecian philosophy with the last
efforts of Jewish religion, went a step in one sense beyond
both the Old Testament and also the Greek literature, though
in another sense below them both. Benevolence to man, as
man, expressed in the word ' philanthropy ' {(pLXavOpcoTria'',
occupies a very prominent position in the writings of Plato.
But whilst this quafity breaks through the narrow limits in
which the passionate yearning of the Hebrew dispensation was
confined, it loses its intensity. It becomes an abstraction to
be panegyrised, not a powerful motive to be acted upon.

In contradistinction to all these, and yet the crown and
completion of all, is the Love, or dydTrrj, of the New its mean-
Testament. Whilst it retains all the fervour of the ^°g-
Hebrew aspiration and desire, and of the personal affection of
the Greek, it ranges through as wide a sphere as the compre-
hensive benevolence of Alexandria. Whilst it retains the
religious element that raised the affections of the Hebrew
Psalmist to the presence of God, it agrees with the classical
and Alexandrian feelings in making its chief object the welfare
of man. It is not Religion evaporated into Benevolence, but
Benevolence taken up into Religion. It is the practical exem-
plification of the two great characteristics of Christianity, the
union of God with man, the union of religion with morality ;.
Love to man for the sake of Love to God ; Love to God
showing itself in Love to man.

It is, perhaps, vain to ask by what immediate means this new
idea was introduced to the Apostle's mind ; it may be that thi&
very passage is the expression of his delight at first
fully grasping the mighty truth which henceforth was ^ o^igi°«
never to pass from him. But the impression left by the words
rather is, that he assumes it as something already known ; new,
indeed, in its application to the wants of the Corinthian Church,,
but recognised as a fundamental part of the Christian revela-
tion. It is perhaps not too much to say that this is one of the

240 FIEST EPISTLE.

ideas derived expressly from what he calls ' the revelations of
the Lord.^ It is, in all probability, from the great example of
self-sacrificing love shown in the life and death of Jesus Christ,
that the Apostle^ and through him the Christian world, has
received the truth, that Love to man for the sake of God is
the one great end of human existence. ^ A new command-
ment He gave unto us that we should love one another, as He
loved us. Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay
down his life for another.' Until Christ had lived and died,
the virtue was almost impossible. The fact of its having come
into existence, the urgency with which the Apostle dwells upon
it, is itself a proof that he had lived and died as none had ever
lived and died before. This is confirmed by observing that the
word and idea which thus first appear in the Avritings of
St. Paul receive their full meaning and development in those
of St. John. To the minds of both these great Apostles, amidst
all their other diversities, ' Love ' represented the chief fact
and the chief doctrine of Christianity. We can hardly doubt
that, in the case of St. John, it was drawn from the example
or teaching of Christ Himself. At any rate, the concurrence
of the two Apostles in this doctrine is a strong testimony to its
derivation from a common source superior to them both.

Finally, it is instructive to contrast the Apostolical view
of Love with the later representations of it : —

First, the course of language, here as elsewhere, is a strik-
ing proof of the inferiority of the popular conception of the
virtue to this its original portraiture. This is exemplified in
the two senses which the word ^ Charity ' (derived from the
Latin ^ version of or^cuirT]) has acquired, at least in the English
language.

Usually it is employed for ' almsgiving,' as in the phrases
an ^ act of charity,' an ^ object of charity,' a ^ charitable insti-
tution.' Yet this is the very sense with which the Apostle
especially contrasts his own employment of the word. When
he says, ' though I give my goods to feed the poor, and have
not charity, it profiteth nre nothing,' it is as though he had
foreseen the corruption of his own language, and had said,
* though I have in its fullest extent " Charity " in the sense in
which the word will hereafter be used, and have not " Charity "
in the sense in which alone it should properly be used, it pro-

^ See note on xiii. 1.

APOSTOLICAL DOCTRINE OF LOVE. 241

fiteth me nothing.' And this primitive contrast between the
inward spirit and the outward expression of Love is the more
remarkable, because it is specially Eastern religions that have
tended to make the act of almsgiving stand for the virtue of
which it is but one form. Of the five articles of the Mussul-
man creed, almsgiving is the only moral truth. In the Jewish
religion, at the time of the Christian era, the word correspond-
ing to ^ duty ' or ' righteousness ' had been confined, in like
manner, to outward acts of beneficence.^ In the Greek Church,
although the word for ' Love ' (dyaTrrj) has been preserved from
its Western degradation, the word for ' Mercy ' (sXsrj/jLoa-T^vT])
has been corrupted into the visible acts of mercy — so much so
that in the Western languages its original meaning has disap-
peared ; and we know it now only in ^ eleemosynary ' institu-
tions, or in the more familiar form ' alms,' in which the out-
ward contraction is a fitting type of the contraction of the
inward spirit. Against all these corruptions, as well as against
the belief, often prevalent in the middle ages, of the necessary
duty of indiscriminate bounty, the Apostle's doctrine is a salu-
tary protest.

There is another sense in which the English word ' Charity '
is sometimes used, — namely, ' toleration ' or ' forbearance,'
as when we speak of a ' charitable construction,' in ' charity
with our neighbours.' But this sense, though founded on the
words which describe Charity as ' thinking no evil,' and ' not
easily provoked,' inadequately expresses its full signification.
The mere passive virtue of toleration, though it is a direct
result of Christian Love, is yet but a very small part of it.
As there may be almsgiving without Love, so there may be
toleration without Love. Here, again, our conceptions of
Charity soon ^ come to an end,' but this new ' commandment '
of Christ and His Apostle ' is exceeding broad.'

Lastly, this Chapter agrees with St. John's representa-
tions in setting forth the paramount importance of Christian
Love as the highest truth and duty of the Christian dis-
pensation. In the great controversies which have agitated the
doctrines of Christendom, this supremacy of Love, both as a
revelation of the Divine essence, and as the duty of man, has
hardly been recognised. Whilst churches and nations have been
rent asunder for the sake of proclaiming some statement re-

^ See note on 2 Cor. ix. 9.
S

242 FIRST EPISTLE.

specting the nature of subordinate gifts, sucli as faith and
knowledge, or of subordinate means of grace, such as the-
sacraments or the modes of Christian worship, few have heeded,
still fewer have maintained for life and death, the supremacy^
of what the Apostles declare to be the greatest of all gifts, the
most unfailing of all the ways of approach to God.

Yet the well-known story of the last words of St. John, that
in the command of mutual love was contained the substance
of the Gospel, does not go beyond the declaration of St. Paul,
that of all the gifts of God, Charity is the most excellent, the
most immortal ; that even Faith and Hope are inferior to Love^
To a certain extent this truth has been acknowledged in later
times by the veneration shown to persons who have specially-
exhibited this virtue, whether in its passive form, as Ken,
Fenelon, Fletcher of Madeley, or in its active form, as Xavier
and Elizabeth of Hungary. These, rather than Dominic or
Calvin, Luther or Loyola, are the characters which the world
especially calls by the name of ' Christian.' This chapter^
too, has, even from unwilling witnesses, always commanded
assent. ' Nothing,' says John Wesley, ' is more common
than to find even those who deny the authority of the Holy
Scriptures, yet affirming, " This is my religion ; that which i&
described in the thirteenth chapter of the Corinthians." Nay,,
even a Jew, a Spanish physician, then settled at Savannah, used
to say, with great earnestness, " that Paul of Tarsus was one of
the finest writers I have ever read. I wish the thirteenth
chapter of his first letter to the Corinthians were wrote in
letters of gold ; and I wish every Jew were to carry it with
him wherever he went." He judged (and herein he certainly
judged right) that this single chapter contained the whole of
true religion.' ^

' The Scripture that the Baron de Rentz most studied next
to the Life of our Blessed Saviour, to qualify himself for all good
works, was St. Paul's description of Charity, in the thirteenth
chapter of his First Epistle to the Corinthians. And whosoever
is exercised in the virtues there described will not run in vain,
nor labour in vain.'^

* Deus non est fides,' says Bengel, 'Deus non estspes, sed
Deus est Amor.'

^ Wesley, Sermons, vol. iii. p. 46.
« Ibid. Life of M. de Rentz.

GIFTS OF TONGUES AND OF PROPHECY. 243

THE GIFT OF TONGUES AND THE GIFT OF PROPHESYING,

XIV. 1—40.

At this point of the Apostle's argument it becomes necessary
to form some notion of the nature of these gifts and their rela-
tion to each other.

I. The gift of ' prophesying,' or of the ' prophets.' The
word ' Prophet ' {7rpo(f>rjT7)s) was derived in the first ' Pbo-
instance from the interpreters who spoke forth or ^^ets.*
expounded the unintelligible oracles of the Pythoness of Del-
phi, or the rustling of the leaves of Dodona. In a metaphori-
cal sense it was used of poets, as interpreters of the Gods or
Muses. It was then adopted by the LXX. as the best equi-
valent of the nahi or ^ prophet ' of the Old Testament. Ac-
cording to the common Jewish tradition, prophecy expired with
Malachi ; and there is no recorded instance of it between his
time and the Christian era. It is true that the name is applied
to Zacharias and Anna, and also to the Baptist and to Christ.*
But the frequency of the gift was regarded as the special sign
of a new dispensation, and as such its universal diffusion is
described at the day of Pentecost. ^ Your sons and your
daughters shall prophesy . . . and on my servants and on my
hand-maidens I will pour out ... of my Spirit ; and they shall
prophesy.'^ In the subsequent narrative of the Acts, pro-
phets and prophetesses are described in all Christian congrega-
tions — at Jerusalem, at Antioch, at Caesarea.^ In all the
Epistles, the gift of prophecy occupies a conspicuous place.
The Apocalypse is called ' a prophecy,' * and it often mentions
* the spirit of prophecy,' and ' the prophets ' in the Christian
Church.^ In all these cases in the New Testament as in the
Old, and it may be added in the Koran, the prominent idea is,
not that of prediction, but of delivering inspired messages of

^ Matt. xiv. 5, xxi. 11, 46 ; Mark
xi. 32 ; Luke i. 67, 76, ii. 36, vii.
26, 28, 39, xiii. 33 ; John iv. 19,
ix. 17.

^ Acts ii. 17, 18.

^ Acts xiii. 1 ; xv. 32 ; xxi. 9.
* Rev. i. 3, xxii. 7, 10, 18.
5 Ibid. xix. 10 ; xi. 3, 6, 10, 18 ;
xvi. 6 ; xviii. 2Q, 24 ; xxii. 6, 9.

B 2

244

FIEST EPISTLE.

warning, exhortation, and instruction : * building up, exhorting,
and comforting ; ' ^ ^ convincing, judging, and making manifest
the secrets of the heart.' ^ The ancient classical and Hebrew
sense prevails everywhere. Epimenides and Mahomet on the
,one hand, Elijah and Paul on the other, are called ^ prophets,'
not because they foretold the future, but because they en-
lightened the present.^

II. ' The gift of tongues ' is a much more difficult subject.
The most important passages relating to it are (1) Those
Gift of contained in this chapter, and the allusions to it

Tongues, in xii. 10, 28, as

divers kinds of tongues

{jSVTJ

yXcoaacov), and xiii. 1 : ' Though I speak with the tongues of
men and of angels.' (2) Mark xvi. 17 : ' They shall speak
with new tongues ' (yXaxraaLs XaXrjaovcn Kaivals). (3) The
descriptions of the gift at the day of Pentecost, Acts ii.
3-21; at the conversion of Cornelius, Acts x. 46; at the
€onversion of the twelve disciples of John the Baptist, Acts
xix. 6. (4) The more doubtful allusions, Luke xxi. 15: ^I
will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries
shall not be able to gainsay.' Eph. v. 18 : ^ Be not drunk with
wine, wherein is excess (compare Acts ii. 13); but be fiUed
with the Spirit ; speaking " in " yourselves (XaXovvrss kavrols)
in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making
melody in your hearts to the Lord.' 1 Thess. v. 19 : ^ Quench
not the Spirit ; despise not prophesyings.' 1 Peter iv. 11:
' " Each one as he " has received " a " gift .... if any
*^ one " speak (\a\sl), let him speak as the oracles of God.'

The only allusion to this gift as still existing after the
Apostolic times, is in Irenaeus : "^ ' We hear many brethren in
the Church, having prophetical gifts, and by the Spirit speak-
ing in all kinds of languages.' Many speculations occur in the
later Fathers on the subject ; but their historical testimony to
the nature of the gifts may all be summed up in one sentence
of Chrysostom, in his comment on this chapter : ' This whole
place is very obscure ; but the obscurity is produced by our
ignorance of the facts described, which are such as then used
to occur, but now no longer take place.'

From these data we may attain the following conclusions : —

^ 1 Cor. xiv. 3.
^ Ibid. 24, 25.

^ So also formerly in English ;

as in Taylor's ' Liberty of Prophesy-
ing.'

Adv. Hser. vi. 6.

GIFTS OF TONGUES AND OF PEOPHECY. 245

The gift in question is described as something entirely new
in the Apostolical age. ' They shall speak with new \. its
tongues.' ^ The effect on the spectators at the day of novelty.
Pentecost is of universal astonishment.^ It is described as the
special mark following upon conversion ^ (whether immediately
before baptism,* or immediately after ^). It is, moreover^
spoken of as in an especial manner a gift ^ of the Spirit,' that is,
the new manifestation of God in the hearts of Christians. Hence
its appearance at the day of Pentecost : ' They were all filled
with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues
as the Spirit gave them utterance.' ^ Hence the ^ speaking with
tongues ' was the sign that Cornelius had ^ received the Holy
Spirit.'^ Hence, when Paul placed his hands on the disciples
at Ephesus, ^ the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spake
with tongues.'® Hence the very name of ^the Spirit' and
* spiritual gifts ' seems to have been appropriated to this gift,
at Corinth and elsewhere. Compare the argument in xii.
1-13, and the particular expressions in xiv. 1, 12, 14, 37 ;
and perhaps 1 Thess. v. 19 ; and Eph. v. 18.

It was closely connected with the gift of prophesying. This
appears not only from these chapters where the two
are always compared, as being, though different, yet nexion
homogeneous (see xii. 10, 28 ; xiii. 1 ; xiv. 1-6, ^^ F^"
22-25), but from the notices in the Acts. In Acts
ii. 17-21, Peter, in his justification of himself and the other
Apostles, describes it under no other name than ' prophesying ; '
and in Acts xix. 6, the converts are described ' speaking with
tongues and prophesying.' To the same effect is the connexion
in 1 Thess. v. 19, where ' quench not the Spirit ' is followed
by ^ despise not prophesy ings.'

It was distinguished from prophesying by consisting, not of
direct warning, exhortation, or prediction, but of 3, Devo-
thanksgiving, praise, prayer, singing, and other ex- tion^l.
pressions of devotion : ' pray with a tongue ; ' ' my spirit
prays ; ' ^ I sing in the Spirit ; ' ' thou givest thanks in the
Spirit ; ' ^ 'we hear them speaking the wonderful works of
God.' ^^ ' They heard them speaking with tongues, and mag-

^ Mark xvi. 17.
2 Acts ii. 7, 12.
^ Mark xvi. 17.
* Acts X. 46.
5 Ibid. xix. 6.

^ Acts ii. 4.

7 Ibid. X. 44, 46, 47.

8 Ibid. xix. 6.

9 1 Cor. xiv. 14-16.
^0 Acts ii. 11.

246 riEST EPISTLE.

nifying God.' ^ * Speaking ... in psalms and hymns and
spiritual songs, singing and making melody ... to the Lord,
giving thanks always.' ^

It would appear that these expressions of devotion were out-
4. Expres- po^^rings of the heart and feelings, rather than of the
sion of the understanding ; so that the actual words and meaning
feelings. y^Q^Q almost always unintelligible to the bystanders,
sometimes to the speakers themselves. 'He that speaketh
with a tongue speaketh not to men, hut to God; for no one
heareth ; and in the Spirit he speaketh mysteries ; ... he
that speaketh with a tongue edifieth himself^ [and not the
Church].^ ' If I come to you speaking with tongues, what
shall I profit you ? ' ** ' Let him that speaketh with a tongue
pray that he may interpret.' ^ ^ If I pray with a tongue, my
spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful.' ^ ' If thou
givest thanks in the Spirit, how shall he that fiUeth the place
of the unlearned say Amen to thy giving of thanks ; for he
knoweth not what thou sayest.' '^ ' I had rather speak five words
with my understanding that I may instruct others also, than ten
thousand words with a tongue.'® ^Making melody in your
hearts.^ ^ To the same effect are the passages which describe
the impression produced on bystanders : ' If all speak with
tongues, and the unlearned or unbelievers come in, will they
not say that ye are mad ? ' ^° * Others mocking said. They
are full of new wine.' ^^ Compare also Eph. v. 19, where the
injunction ' to be filled with the Spirit ' and to ' speak in
themselves,' is preceded by the prohibition, * be not drunk with
wine.'

Thus far there is no difficulty in combining the several ac-
counts. It was a trance or ecstasy, which, in moments of great
religious fervour, especially at the moment of conversion, seized
the early believers ; and this fervour vented itself in expres-
sions of thanksgiving, in fragments of psalmody or hymnody
and prayer, which to the speaker himself conveyed an irre-
sistible sense of communion with God, and to the bystander an
impression of some extraordinary manifestation of power, but

1 Acts X. 46.

' 1 Cor. xiv. 16.

2 Eph. V. 19.

« Ibid. 19.

3 1 Cor. xiv. 2, 4.

9 Eph. V. 19.

* Ibid. 6.

10 1 Cor. xiv. 23

« Ibid. 13.

11 Acts ii. 13, 15

« Ibid. 14.

GIFTS OF TONGUES AND OF PROPHECY.

247

not necessarily any instruction or teaching, and sometimes even
having the appearance of wild excitement, like that of madness
or intoxication. It was the most emphatic sign to each indi-
vidual believer that a power mightier than his own was come
into the world ; and in those who, like the Apostle Paul, pos-
sessed this gift in a high degree, ' speaking with tongues more
than they all,' ^ it would, when combined with the other more
remarkable gifts which he possessed, form a fitting mood for the
reception of ' God*s secrets ' {jjLva-Ttjpia),^ and of ^ unspeakable
words, which it is not lawful for man to utter,' ' being caught
into the third heaven,' and into ' Paradise.' ^ And thus the
nearest written example of this gift is that exhibited in the
abrupt style and the strange visions of the Apocalypse, in
which, almost in the words of St. Paul, the Prophet is de-
scribed as being ' in the Spirit on the Lord's day,' and ' hear-
ing a voice as of a trumpet,' ^ and seeing ' a door open in
heaven,' and * a throne set in heaven,' ^ and ' the New Jeru-
salem,' ' the river of life,' and ' the tree of life.' ^

But a difficulty arises when we ask, what was the special
form which these outpourings of devotion and these 5. The
prophetic trances assumed ? This must be sought in * Tongues.'
the names by which they were called: (1) 'Speaking with
tongues ' {\a\£Lv yXaxTo-ats) ; ^ ' speaking with a tongue '
(\a\cov j\(aa(T7]).^ (2) ' The tongues ' (at yXojaaai) ; ^ 'a
tongue ' (yXcoaaav) ; ^^ ' kinds of tongues' (j^ivr) yXcocraojv),^^
(3) ' Speaking with other tongues ' (\a\slv STipais yXcoo-crais),^^
' speaking with new tongues ' (yXcocro-acs XaXrjcrova-Lv Kaivals),^^
The use of the word ' tongue ' {yXcocro-a) need not neces-
sarily imply a distinct language of a nation, which in the New
Testament is usually expressed by SloXsktos,^'*^ We may
therefore conclude that the word yXwaaa was applied to this
spiritual gift, partly from the fact that the word ^ in classical
Greek was sometimes applied to strange uncommon expres-

1 1 Cor. xiv. 18.

2 Ibid. ii. 7, iv. 1, xiv. 2, xv. 51.
* 2 Cor. xii. 4-6.

^ Rev. i. 10.
^ Ibid. iv. 1, 2.
« Ibid. xxi. 1, xxii. 1, 2.
' 1 Cor. xiv. 5, 6, 18, 23, 39 ;
Acts X. 46, xix. 6.

« 1 Cor. xiv. 2, 4, 13, 14, 19, 27.
» Ibid. 22.

10 1 Cor. xiv. 26.

11 Ibid. xii. 28.
^"^ Acts ii. 4.

13 Mark xvi. 17.

1* Acts i. 19, ii. 6, 8, xxi. 40, xxii.
2, xxvi. 14. The exceptions are in
the expressions, ' nations and peo-
ples and tongues,^ Rev. v. 9, vii. 9,
X. 11, xi. 9, xiii. 7, xiv. 6, xvii. 15.

248 FIRST EPISTLE.

sions, as in Aristotle,^ partly from the circumstance that in the
use of this gift ' the tongue ' was literally the organ employed,
the mind, as it were, remaining passive, whilst the tongue gave
utterance to words of which the speaker was hardly conscious.
That these meanings were both intended to be conveyed, is
confirmed by the manner in which kindred expressions are used.
When, in xiii. 1, the Apostle says, ' Though I speak with the
tongues of men and of angels ' {rals ykaxro-ats twv avOpcoircov
\d\co KoX TMv dyysXcov), the last word shows that he was not
thinking of languages or dialects, but of every conceivable form
of speech or style. And when, in xiv. 9, he says, ' So, ye,
unless ye utter by the tongue (^Sia rrjs jXcoo-arjs) a clear sound,*^
he uses the word in reference to the phrase so often repeated
in the immediate context, ' speaking with a tongue ' (XaXmv
yXcocro-r)). Probably, however, this peculiarity of style or speech
was, if not always, yet occasionally heightened by the intro-
duction of foreign words or sentences into the utterances thus^
made. The expressions ' kinds of tongues,' ^ ' new tongues,' ^
^ other tongues,' ^ though they need not of necessity imply any-
thing more than a variety or a novelty of modes of expression,
yet become more appropriate if something of a new language,
or of different languages, were united with these new or various
modes. This is the impression conveyed by the comparison of
the ' speaker with tongues ' to a ' barbarian ' ^ (i.e. a foreigner),
and of the sign of tongues generally to the sign of foreign
languages — ' other tongues and other lips ' (srspoyXaxraocs koI
')(sCk£(Tiv sTspcov) ^ — spoken of in Isaiah xxviii. 11. And such,
however it may be explained in detail, must be the meaning
of the first recorded appearance of the gift on the day of
Pentecost. The stress laid on the variety of nations there
assembled, and the expressions ^ ^ every man heard them in
his own language ' {rfi ISla StaXsKTO)), ' how hear we every man
in our own language, wherein we were born ? ' ' we hear them
speak in our tongues ' (iv rats i^/jLSTEpais yXooacrat^), can hardly
be explained on any other supposition than that the writer
meant to describe that, at least to the hearers, the sounds
spoken seemed to be those of distinct languages and real dia-
lects. If this account is to be taken literally, it would imply

Rhet. iii. 3, 4 ; Poet. xxi. 6.
^ 1 Cor. xii. 10, 28.
^ Mark xvi. 17.
* Acts ii. 4.

6 Ibid. 21, 22.

7 Acts ii. 6, 8, 11

GIFTS OF TONGUES AND OF PKOPHECY. 24^

that the fervent expressions of thanksgiving which on that
occasion, as on others, constituted the essential part of the gift,
were so far couched in foreign dialects as to be intelligible to
the natives of the several countries. The emphatic record of
this peculiar characteristic of the gift, viewed in connexion
with the general spirit and object of the Acts, seems designed
to point out the gift of various tongues as the natural result
and sign of the first public manifestation of a religion specially
designed to break through the barriers which divide man from
man and nation from nation. Such a significance, however
suitable to the occasion of the first revelation of a Universal
Church, would not be equally appropriate in the more ordinary
manifestations of the gift. True, the eifect described as occurring^
on the day of Pentecost might grow out of it. But, even here,
as Xavier is said to have understood and made himself under-
stood by the Indians, without knowing their language, and as,,
even in common life, persons in a highly wrought state of feel-
ing are enabled to understand each other, though not speaking
the same language, so this gift, which, above all others, lifted
the speaker out of himself, might have the same effect. And
the peculiar form of language ordinarily used as the vehicle
of communication at that time, would contribute to the same
result. Hellenistic Greek, compounded as it was of Greek,
Latin, and Hebrew, and instinct with that peculiar life and
energy which we see it assume in the various styles of the New
Testament, especially in St. Paul and in the Apocalypse, was
almost in itself a ' speaking ' in ' divers kinds of tongues.' It
has often been remarked, that the spread of this dialect by the
conquests of Alexander was a providential preparation for the
spread of the Gospel ; and there is nothing more strange in
the development of this peculiar language into the gift of
tongues, than in the development of the natural powers of
strength and intellect into the gifts of * ministry,' of ' wisdom,'
and of 'knowledge.' All the various elements of Aramaic
and Hellenic speech, latent in the usual language of the time,
would be quickened under the power of this gift into a new
life, sometimes intelligible, sometimes unintelligible to those
who heard it, but always expressive of the vitality and energy
of the Spirit by which it was animated.

Still it must be observed, that even if foreign words were
always part of its exercise (of which there is no proof), there
is no instance and no probability of its having been ever used

250 FIRST EPISTLE.

as a means of instructing foreign nations, or of superseding the
necessity of learning foreign languages. Probably in no age
of the world has such a gift been less needed. The chief sphere
of the Apostles must have been within the Roman Empire,
and within that sphere Greek or Latin, but especially Greek,
must have been everywhere understood. Even on the day of
Pentecost, the speech of Peter, by which the first great con-
version was effected, seems to have been in Greek, which pro-
bably all the nations assembled would sufficiently understand ;
and the speaking of foreign dialects is nowhere alluded to by
him as any part of the event which he is vindicating and
describing. The Epistles, in like manner, were all written in
Greek, though many of them are addressed to the very nations
whose presence is described in the Acts on that occasion ; the
people of Judaea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, and the
dwellers at Kome. When the Lycaonians addressed Paul and
Barnabas in the speech of Lycaonia,^ there is no mention of
Paul and Barnabas answering them in that language. A very
ancient tradition describes Peter as employing Mark for an
interpreter.^ Irenaeus, who alone of the early Fathers alludes
to the gift of tongues, and that in a manner which seems to
imply diversity of language,^ wa'S himself obliged to learn the
Gaulish language. And, lastly, the whole chapter now in
question is inconsistent with such a supposition. The Church
of Corinth is described as full of speakers with tongues, and yet
evidently no work of conversion was going on, nor any allusion
made to such a work as a possible object for the gift. Yet
had such an object been within even its distant scope, the
argument almost imperatively demanded that the Apostle
should have said, ' Why do you waste so great a gift on those
who cannot profit by it, when you might go forth beyond the
limits of the Empire to preach with it to the Scythian and
Indian tribes ? '

The subject must not be left without reference to similar
Illustra- manifestations which may serve, either by way of
tions from contrast or resemblance, to illustrate its main pecu-

Paganism; ^^^^.^^^^^^ j^ ^^^ p^g^^ ^Oj.^^ the ApOStlc's WOrds *

themselves remind us of the unconscious utterances which

^ Acts xiv. 11. I ^ Adv. Haer. vi. 6.

=^ Eus. H. E. iii. 39. ^1 Cor. xii. 2.

GIFTS OF TONGUES AND OF PKOPHECY. 251

accompanied the delivery of the ancient oracles, when the
Pythoness with her ejaculations stood to the interpreters of
the oracle in a relation similar to that which existed between
the speakers with tongues and the prophets. In the Jewish
dispensation we may compare the burst of song and from
trance, which accompanied the first great display of Judaism;
the prophetical spirit in the time of Samuel — ^ a company of
prophets coming down from the high place with a psaltery, and
a tabret, and a pipe, and a harp before them,' and prophesying ;
and ' the Spirit of the Lord ' descending upon those who wit-
nessed the spectacle, however unprepared for it before, so that
they too caught the inspiration ' and prophesied also,' and were
' turned into other men,' and passed days and nights in a state
of ecstasy and seclusion.^ The trance of Saul, compared with
the Psalms of David, is a true likeness of the ' tongues ' com-
pared with the ' prophesyings ' of Corinth.

But it is in subsequent periods that the nearest outward
likenesses to the gift of ' tongues ' can be found. The wide
difference between the character, intellectual, moral, and spiri-
tual, of the early Christian Church, and that of the sects in
which such later manifestations have appeared, places a deep
gulf between the Apostolical gift and these doubtful copies.
Still, as the preaching, the teaching, the government, the gifts
of knowledge, of wisdom, of ministry, which appear in the
Apostolical age, are illustrated by the analogous institutions
and faculties of less sacred times, so the excitement and free-
dom of the early Church may be illustrated no less from the
expressions of later enthusiasm. Such phenomena, however
inferior to the manifestations of the Apostolical times, have
their origin in the same mysterious phase of human life and
human nature, which, with so much besides of the most op-
posite character, was included in the wide range of the spiri-
tual influences of Apostolical Christianity.

The earliest of these manifestations was the alleged ecstatic
state of the Montanists at the close of the second century.

'There is at present a sister amongst us,' says Tertnllian,
* who has obtained the gift of revelations, which she from Mon-
receives in the congregation or solemn sanctuary by tanism;
-ecstasy in the Spirit, who has converse with angels, sometimes, even
with the Lord, and sees and hears sacred truths {sacramenta)^ and

1 1 Sam. X. 5, 6, 10 ; xix. 20-24.

252 FIRST EPISTLE.

discerns the hearts of some, and ministers remedies to those who-
want them. Also, according as the Scriptures are read, or the
Psalms sung, or exhortations (adlocutiones) uttered, or petitions
presented, so from these several sources materials are furnished for
her visions. We had happened to be discussing something about
the soul, when this sister was in the Spirit. After the conclusion
of the service, and the dismissal of the congregation, she, after her
usual manner of relating her visions (for they are carefully recorded
that they may be examined), amongst other remarks, said, " the soul
was shown to me in a bodily form, the spirit appeared, but not of an
empty or shapeless quality, but as something which gave hope of
being held, tender and bright, and of an aerial hue, and altogether
of human form." '

The paroxysms which, attended the preaching of Wesley
furnish an instance in later times. Another, more nearly to the
point, was the utterance of strange sounds among the persecuted
from the Protestants of the South of France, at the beginning-
Prophets of of the last century, commonly called the ' Prophets of
' Cevennes.' Descriptions of this movement are to be
found in the ' Histoire des Pasteurs,'by Peyrat ; the ' Troubles
de Cevennes,' by Gibelin ; and the ' Eglises de Desert,' by C.
Coquerel. Their appearance in England excited the ridicule
of Lord Shaftesbury in his ^ Characteristics,' and called forth,
in answer to him, an ' Impartial Account of the Prophets,'
published by an eye-witness.^ These accounts are chiefly re-
markable, especially the last-named, as bearing testimony to
the good character and general sobriety of the persons profess-
ing to be inspired.

But the most important of these manifestations, as the one
, „ claiming the most direct connexion with the Aposto-

the fol- lical gifts, was the so-called ' gift of tongues ' in the
lowers of followers of Mr. Irving, about 1831-1833. Of the
exercise of this gift accounts are here subjoined from
two eye-witnesses : the first a believer in its Divine origin at
the time he wrote ; the second a believer and actor in the trans-
actions which he describes, but at the time that he wrote, re-
jecting their Divine, though still maintaining their supernatural
(though diabolical) origin.

(1) * As an instance of the extraordinary change in the powers of
the human voice when under inspiration, I may here mention the

^ ' A letter to a Friend.' London : Morphew, 1800,

GIFTS OF TONGUES AND OF PEOPHECY. 253

•case of an individual whose natural voice was inharmonious, and
who besides had no ear for keeping time. Yet even the voice of
this person, when singing in the Spirit, could pour forth a rich
strain of melody, of which each note was musical, and uttered with
a sweetness and power of expression that was truly astonishing,
and, what is still more singular, with a gradually increasing velocity
into a rapidity, yet distinctness of utterance, which is inconceivable
by those Avho have never witnessed the like ; and yet, with all this
apparently breathless haste, there was not in reality the slightest
agitation of body or of mind. In other instances the voice is deep and
powerfully impressive. I cannot describe it better than by saying
that it approaches nearly to what might be considered a perfect
state of the voice, passing far beyond the energies of its natural
strength, and at times so loud as not only to fill the whole house, but
to be heard at a considerable distance ; and though often accompanied
by an apparently great mental energy and muscular exertion of the
whole body, yet in truth there was not the slightest disturbance in
either ; on the contrary, there was present a tranquillity and com-
posure both of body and mind, the very opposite to any, even the
least, degree of excitement.

* Every attempt at describing these manifestations, so as to
convey an accurate knowledge of them to others, is sure to fail,
since, to have any adequate perception of their power, they must be
both seen and felt. Yet, were it otherwise, my conscience would
scarcely allow me the liberty of entering into so minute a detail ;
for the consciousness of the presence of God in these manifestations
is fraught with such a holy solemnity of thought and feeling, as
leave neither leisure nor inclination for curious observation. In a
person alive to the presence of the Holy Ghost, and overwhelmed
by His manifestations beside and around him, and deeply conscious
that upon his heart naked and exposed rests the eye of God, one
thought alone fills the soul, one way of utterance is heard, " God be
merciful to me a sinner." Nor can the eye be diverted from the only
sight that is then precious to it, far more precious than life itself;
*' The Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world." ' ^

(2) ' After one or two of the brethren had read and prayed,
Mr. T. was made to speak two or three words very distinctly, and
with an energy and depth of tone which seemed to me extraordinary,
and it fell upon me as a supernatural utterance which I ascribed to
the power of God ; the words were in a tongue I did not understand.
In a few minutes Miss E. 0. broke out in an utterance in English
which, as to matter and manner, and the influence it had upon me, I
at once bowed to as the utterance of the Spirit of God. Those who

^ A Brief Account of a Visit to I Scotland. Published by J. Nisbet,
some of the Brethren in the West of | London, 1831, pp. 28, 29.

254

FIEST EPISTLE.

have heard the powerful and commanding utterance need no descrip-
tion ; bnt they who have not, ' lay conceive what an unnatural and
unaccustomed tone of voice, an intense and riveting power of ex-^
pression, with the declaration of a cutting rebuke to all who were
present, and applicable to mj own state of mind in particular, would
effect upon me, and upon the others who were come together, ex-
pecting to hear the voice of the Spirit of God. In the midst of the
feeling of awe and reverence which this produced, I was myself
seized upon by the power, and in much struggling against it was
made to cry out, and myself to give out a confession of my own sin

in the matter for which we were rebuked.' ' There was in

me, at the time of the utterance, very great excitement ; and yet I
was distinctly conscious of a power acting upon me beyond the
mere power of excitement. So distinct was this power from the
excitement, that in all my trouble and doubt about it, I never could
attribute the whole to excitement.^ .... I read the fourth chapter of
Malachi ; as I read the power came upon me, and I was made to read
in the power. My voice was raised far beyond its natural pitch,
with constrained repetitions of parts, and with the same inward
uplifting, which at the presence of the power I had always before
experienced.' ^ ' Whilst sitting at home a mighty power came upon
me, but for a considerable time no impulse to utterance ; presently,
a sentence in French was vividly set before my mind, and under an
impulse to utterance, was spoken. Then, in a little time, sentences
in Latin were in like manner uttered ; and, with short intervals,
sentences in many other languages, judging from the sound and the
different exercise of the enunciating organs. My wife, who was
with me, declared some of them to be Italian and Spanish ; the
first she can read and translate, the second she knows but little of.
In this case she was not able to interpret nor retain the words a&
they were uttered. All the time of these utterances I was greatljr
tried in mind. After the first sentence an impulse to utterance con-
tinued on me, and most painfully I restrained it, my conviction being
that, until something was set before me to utter, I ought not to yield
my tongue to utterance. Yet I was troubled by the doubt, what
could the impulse mean, if I were not to yield to it ? Under the
trial, I did yield my tongue for a few moments ; but the utterance
that broke from me seemed so discordant that I concluded the im-
pulse, without words given, was a temptation, and I restrained it,
except as words were given me, and then I yielded. Sometimes
single words were given me, and sometimes sentences, though I could

^ Narrative of Facts characteris-
ing the SupernaturalManif estations,
in Members of Mr. Irving's Congre-
gation and other Individuals, in
England and Scotland, and formerly

in the writer himself, by Robert
Baxter : 2nd edition, Nisbet, Lon-
don, 1833, pp. 5-7.

^ Narrative of Facts, &c. p. 12.

GIFTS OF TONGUES AND OF PEOPHECY. 255

neither recognise the words nor sentences as any language I knew,
except those which were French or Latin. ^ . . . My persuasion
concerning the unknown tongue, as it is called (in which I myself
was very little exercised), is, that it is no language whatever, but
a mere collection of words and sentences ; and in the lengthened
discourses is, most of it, a jargon of sounds ; though I can conceive,
when the power is very great, that it will assume much of the form
of a connected oration.' ^

It must again be repeated that those instances are brought
forward, not as examples of the Apostolical gift, but ^, .
as illustrations of it. But, however inferior they may stle's en-
have been to the appearances of which they were imi- <^ea,your to
tations or resemblances, they yet serve to show the the use of
possibility of the same combination of voice, and ec- ^^^® S^^^ ^^
stasy, and unknown ox foreign words, as has been de-
scribed in the case of the Apostolic gifts ; they show also how,
even when accompanied by extravagance and fanaticism, such
a manifestation could still be, in a high degree, impressive and
affecting. It was the glory of the Apostolic age that, instead
of dwelling exclusively on this gift, or giving it a prominent
place, as has been the case in the sects of later days, the allu-
sions to it are rare and scanty, and (in the chapter now before
us) even disparaging. The Corinthian Christians, indeed,
regarded it as one of the highest manifestations of spiritual in-
fluence ; but this was the very tendency which the Apostle
sought to repress. The object of this Section of the Epistle,
as of the whole discussion on spiritual gifts of which it forms a
part, is to restrain, moderate, and reduce to its proper subor-
dination the fervour, the eccentricity, so to speak, occasioned
by these gifts, and to maintain beyond and above them the
eternal superiority of the moral and religious elements which
Christianity had sanctioned or introduced.

In this respect, as in many others, the mission of the Apostle
was analogous to that of the ancient prophets. There Analogous
was, indeed, in the early Christian Church no fear totheanti-
(except from the Jewish party) of an undue develop- teachin°^^^
ment of that ceremonial and hierarchical spirit, against of the
which the Prophets and Psalmists, from Samuel and ^^op^e^s.
David downwards, had so constantly lifted up their voices to
assert the supreme importance of justice, mercy, and truth; of
obedience above sacrifice ; of a broken and contrite spirit above

1 Narrative of Facts, &c. pp. 133, 134. ^ j^j^j pp -,3^^ -,^35

256 FIRST EPISTLE.

burnt offerings of bulls and goats. It was from an opposite
quarter that these great spiritual verities were endangered in
the beginning of the Christian Church ; but the danger was
hardly less formidable. The attractions of miraculous power,
of conscious impulses of a Divine presence, of a speech and an
ecstatic state which struck all beholders with astonishment,
were the temptations which, amongst the primitive Gentile
Christians, threatened to withdraw the Church from the truth,
the simplicity, and the soberness of Christ and of Paul, as the
stately ceremonial of the Jewish worship had, in ancient times,
had the like effect in withdrawing the nation of Israel from the
example of Abraham and the teaching of Moses. That the
gifts were not less necessary to sustain the first faith of the
Apostolical Christians, than the Levitical rites were to sustain
that of the Jewish people, does but render the illustration more
exact. Isaiah and Amos protested against the corruptions of
the ancient Jewish priesthood. The Apostle himself, in the
Epistles to the Komans and Galatians, protested against cir-
cumcision and the rites of the Mosaic Law. So in this chapter
he protests against all those tendencies of the human mind
which delight in displays of Divine power, more than in dis-
plays of Divine wisdom or goodness, — which place the evidence
of Grod's Spirit more in sudden and wonderful frames of feeling
and devotion than in acts of usefulness and instruction, — which
make religion selfish and individual rather than social. Gregory
the Great warned Augustine of Canterbury not to rejoice that
spirits were subject to him by miraculous power, but that his
name was written in the Book of Life through the conversions
which he had effected. The attempts of Paley to rest Christ-
ianity solely upon its external evidence have, in our own times,
been rejected by a higher and more comprehensive philosophy.
The great body of the Christian Church has, in all ages, given
little heed to the extraordinary displays of power, real or pre-
tended, by particular sects or individuals. In all these cases
the warning of the Apostle in this chapter has been at hand,
to support the more rational and the more dignified course (if
so it may without offence be called), which minds less enlight-
ened, and consciences less alive to the paramount greatness of
moral excellence, may have been induced to despise. The
Apostle's declaration, that ' he himself spake with tongues '
* more than they all,' when combined with his other qualities,
is a guarantee that the Apostolical gift of tongues was not im-

GIFTS OF TONGUES AND OF PEOPHECY. 257

posture or fanaticism. But, on the other hand, his constant
language respecting it is no less a guarantee that gifts such as
these were the last that he would have brought forward in vin-
dication or support of the Gospel which he preached. The
excitable temperament of Eastern as compared with Western
nations may serve to explain to us, how conditions of mind, like
that implied in the gift of tongues, should have accompanied
without disturbing a faith so sober, so lofty, so dispassionate, as
that of the Apostle. But it also makes that soberness the more
remarkable in the Apostle born and bred in this very Oriental
atmosphere, where, as is still shown by the exercises of the
Mussulman dervishes, nothing is too wild to be incorporated
into religious worship ; where, as is still shown by the ready
acceptance of the legends of Mahomet and the Mussulman
saints, nothing is too extravagant to be received as a miracle.
He acknowledged the fact, he claimed the possession, of this
extraordinary power ; and yet he was endowed with the wis-
dom and the courage to treat it as always subordinate, as often
even useless and needless.

258

FIRST EPISTLE: CHAP. XIV. 1—5.

The Superiority of Prophesying to Speaking with

Tongues.

XIV. ^AioiKere rr)v ayoLTrrjv^ tprjkovre Se ra TTuevixaTiKa,
fjLoXkov Se tVa 7rpo(j}7jTev7jTe. ^6 yap XaXcov yXaxrcrr) ovk
dvOpcoTTOLS XaXet, dXXa * 0€^ ' ovSels yap d/couet, TrvevyLari

^ Follow after Love, but seek zealously the spiritual gifts, but rather
that ye may prophesy. ^ For he that speaketh in a tongue speaketh not
unto men, but unto God: for no one heareth, but in the spirit he speaketh

XIV. I The Apostle, having
concluded his description of
Love, for a moment pauses before
lie returns to the special subject
from which this description had
been a digression, and breathes
one more fervent commendation
of it to the Corinthians : ' Follow,
pursue Love.' (Stw/cto is thus
used in Romans ix. 30, 31, xii.
13, xiv. 19 ; 1 Thessalonians v.
15.) He then resumes the ar-
gument which he had abandoned
in xii. 31, and this is the force
of hi.

tpfjKovTf. Se TO. TTvevftartKa, ' you
are right in earnestly desiring
the gtfts of the Spirit.' For
^lyXovre, see note on xii. 31. ra
TrvevfjiaTLKa is * the gifts of the
Spirit' generally, but with a
special reference to the gift of
tongues.

fxaXXov 8e Lva Trpo(j)7)T€V7jT€, ' but
more than anything else desire
the gift of prophecy.' lva is
here passing into the Romaic
sense, in which it is used as
a substitute for the infinitive.
Compare for this use, verse 12 ;
and Matthew vii. 12 ; Mark vi.
8, 25.

2 ITow follow the reasons for
his preference of prophesying to
speaking with tongues, as derived

from the greater usefulness of
prophesying. It is a particular
inference from the general truth,
which he has just given in his
description of Love.

The first contrast is between
the isolation of the speaker with
tongues by his communion with
God alone, and the usefulness of
the prophet to others by his
a/cting as a teacher.

ovSets ttKovet, i.e. ' hears so as
to understand,^ as in verse 16,
OVK otSev. He does not mean
literally that no sounds were
heard. Compare for the same
ambiguity the account of St.
Paul's conversion, Acts ix. 7,
where his companions are de-
scribed as ' hearing the voice '
(d/covoi/res rrjs (fxovrjs) ; but in
xxii. 9, as ' not hearing it ' (ttjv
cfxovrjv OVK ^Kovcrav^. Comp. also
Mark iv. 33 : ' He spake the
word unto them ... as they were
able to hear' (aKovecv). Gen.
xi. 7 : ' Let us confound their
language, that they may not
understand one another's speech.'
xlii. 23 : ' They knew not that
3 o&QT^h. understood.^ Isaiah xxxvi.
11 : ' We understand the Syrian
language' (all d/covetv in LXX.).
/xvcTTTJpLa. Here, as elsewhere,
' God's secrets ; ' here, however,

SUPEKIOEITY OF PROPHESYINa.

259

Se XaXei ixvorTrjpia' ^6 Se '7Tpo(l)r)T€vcov avOpcoTrou^ \a\el
OLKoSoiJLrjv Kol TTapdKkrjCTW Koi TrapafJivdCav. ^6 XaXcop
y\o}(Tcrrj iavTov oiKoSo/xet, 6 Se TTpo(l)r)T€V(ov iKKXr)crLap oIko-
Sofiel. ^ Oeko) Se Trdvra^ v/>tas XaXeiv yXwcrcrais, fiaXkoT/
Se iz^a 7rpo<f)r)T€vrjT€' fjiei^oiv ^Se 6 7rpo(l)7)Tev(ov rj 6 Xakcov
yXaxrcraLS, iKTos ei /^it) SLepfirfvevr)^ Iva rj eKKXiqcria oIkoSo-

» 7&P for 8e.

mysteries : 'but he that prophesieth speaketh unto men edification and
exhortation and consolation. *He that speaketh in a tongue edifieth
himself, but he that prophesieth edifieth the church. ^ I would that ye
all spake with tongues, but rather that ye prophesied : but greater is he
that prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues, except he interpret,
that the church may receive edifying. ^But now, brethren, if I come

not, as elsewhere, in the sense
of secrets revealed, but in the
sense (nearly approaching to the
modern meaning of the word
* mystery ') of secrets concealed.
The only other instance is Rev.
xvii. 5 : * Mystery, Bahylon the
Great,^ &c.

3 oiKoSofjirjV KOL Trapa.KK'qa'LV koX
TrapafivOcav. These three words
convey the object of Christian
prophesying : —

oiKoSoftiyv, * building up by
successive stages of enlighten-
ment and advancement in good-
ness.' Compare especially Eph.
iv. 12, 13.

TrapaLKXTja-Ls, * exhortation ' or
-* consolation ' (see note on 2
Cor. i. 3), as in the word ira-
pdKXrjTos, 'comforter,' which may
mean either ' strengthener ' or
' consoler.' How closely con-
nected was this gift with pro-
phesying, may be seen in the
fact that the name of ' Barnabas,'
*the son of prophecy,' is ren-
'dered in Acts iv. 36 vl6<s Trapa-

irapafjivOia shares with irapd-
KXr}<rL<s the sense of ' consolation,'
but with a more tender shade
of meaning. The form, irapa-

fxvOiov occurs, as here, in con-
junction with TrapoLKXrja-Lg, in Phil,
ii. 1 : 'If any consolation, if any
comfort of love ; ' and Trapa/xvOov'
fjL€VOL with TTapaKaXovvres, in 1
Thess. ii. 11. Bengel: ^ Bxlior-
tatio tollit tarditatem ; consolatio
tristitiam.'

4 The second contrast is be-
tween the speaker with tongues,
as building up only his own
soul ; and the prophet, as build-
ing up the souls of the Christian
congregation. This mention of
the edification of the speaker's
self is not inconsistent with ver-
ses 13, 14, which imply that he
did not understand what he said.
The consciousness of ecstasy and
communion with God would have
an elevating efiect, independently
of any impression produced on
the understanding. See note on
verse 14.

For Xva, see note on verse 1.

cKTos €6 firj. Here, as in xv. 2 ;
1 Tim. V. 19, piT] is pleonastic.

SL€pp,r)vevy, i.e. the speaker
himself. See verse 13.

6 vvv Se, 'but as it now
stands ; ' i.e. ' if the tongues are
there and no interpreter.'

He gives these four gilts or
2

260

FIEST EPISTLE: CHAP. XIV. 6—14.

fjLTjp Xd^rj. ^vvv^ Se, aS€\(l)OL^ iav ekSco irpos u/^as ykoicr-^
crats \a\o)v, ri vfias Qi<f>e\rj<jo), iav fjirj vixiv Xakyja-co rj h/
dTroKokvxjjeL rj iv yj/axrei rj iv 7rpo(j)r)T€La rj iv BiSa^fj; ^ o/aw?
rd dxfjvxO' (fxovrji' SiSovra^ etre auXog etre KiOdpa, idv Stacrro-
\.r)v Tov (j)06yyov ^ /xt) So), ttw? yvoicrOrjo-eTai to avkovyievov
rj TO KiOapitpixeuov ; ^ koL yap idv dSrjXov (j^coj^i' crdXiny^
8ft>, TL<s TrapacTKevda-eTaL et? TToXefjuov ; ^ ovtcos koL u/xet? Sua
Trj<; y\(ocr(rrjq idv jjirj evcrqfJLOv Xoyov ScoTe, ttw? yvoxrOrjcreTaL
TO \a\ovpLevov ; icreo-Oe ydp ek depa XoKowTe^. ^^rocraGra,

vvvi.

^ rdls (pd6yyois.

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 teaching? "^ Even things without life giving sound, whether pipe or
harp, except they give a distinction of sound, how shall it be known what
is piped or harped ? ^For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who
shall prepare himself for the battle ? ^ So likewise ye, except ye utter
by the tongue a word easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is

utterances, as exhausting all the
modes of teaching.

(1) a7roKdXvif/i<;, 'unveiling of
the unseen word,' as in ' The
Apocalypse.'

(2) yvwcrts, ' insight into Di-
vine truth,' as in the ' wisdom '
of ii. 6.

(3) Trpo^T/Teta, ' message of
exhortation or consolation,' as in
verse 3.

(4) SiSaxT), ' regular teaching,'
like the continuous teaching of
our Lord's discourses and para-
bles ; as in Acts ii. 42.

7 He illustrates his argument
by a general reference to sounds.

o/Aws TO. aijrvxo- This drawn
out in full would be, koi to.
aifrvxa, Kanrep axf/vxa- ovra, o/xw?,
* lifeless instruments, though life-
less, yet,' &c. Compare Gal. iii.

15 : O/XCOS dvdpWTTOV K€KVp(0/JL€Vr}V

hiaOrjK-qv ovSet5 d^cret, and for a
like condensation see Rom. ii. 1.
The flute or pipe (avXo?) and
harp (KiOdpa) are mentioned as
the only two kinds of instrumen-

tal music known in Greece.

(l>66yyos is used only here and
in Rom. x. 18. As distinguished
from (fioivi^ it expresses musical
sounds. (fiOoyyov (not tov cjiBoy-
yov) is the real reading of B.
Lachmann adopted tov in ignor-
ance.

yvoi(r6rj(T€TaL to avXovfxcvov ;
* How shall the particular note
of the pipe be recognised ? '

8 He adds another instance of
a different kind.

TToXcfjiovj not ' war ' (as usual),
but (as in Rev. xvi. 14) 'battle.'

9 He now applies what he has
said, as in the analogous passages
of xii. 27-31, and xv. 35^1.

Bid T^s yX(i)(r(T7]<;, ' through the
tongue,' i.e. as compared with
the various instruments he has
just mentioned, but also probably
with a special reference to the
gift of ' speaking with a tongue '
(see p. 247).

€var]/xov, ' intelligible.'

ID He now pushes his range
of comparisons further, so a^ to

SUPEREOEITY OF PROPHESYING.

261

€t Tv-)(OL^ yevrj (j)0)V(ov ^elcrlv iv KocrfJicp^ koI ovSh/^ a(])Ct)vov*
^^iav ovv fJLTJ elScj rrjv SvvafJLiv ttJ? (fxovrjS', ecro/xai tco
XakovPTL )8ap/5a/oo5, kol 6 XaX&v iv ifiol ^dpl3apos. ^^ov-
TCt)5 /cat vjiels, irrei ^rjXcoTai icrre Trvevf^aTCJi/, wpos rrjv
olKoSofJLTjj^ T7J<; iKKXrjcria^ ^rjreLTe Iva TrepLcraevyjTe. ^^Slo^
6 XaXft)!^ yXcocrcrrj Trpocrev^icrOoi Iva hiepynqvevrj. ^^iav
[yap] Trpocrexr^aijxaL yXcocrcrr), to Trvevfxd fiov ir pocrev^er ai^

^ ovShv avTwv.

AiSirep.

spoken ? for ye shall speak into the air. ^^ There are, it may be, so many
kinds of sounds in the world, and nothing is without sound : "therefore
if I know not the meaning of the sound, I shall be unto him that speaketh
a barbarian, and he that speaketh a barbarian unto me. ^^Even so ye,
forasmuch as ye are zealous of spirits, seek that ye may abound to the
edifying of the church. *^ Wherefore he that speaketh in a tongue let
him pray that he may interpret. "For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit

include the various languages of
men.

(fxDvrj, though used in verse
8 for the trumpet, is here ex-
tended to human language, as
in the LXX. (Genesis xi. 1, 7 ;
Deuteronomy xxviii. 49 ; Isaiah
liv. 17), and often in classical
writers.

€1 rvxoLy a common expression
to express doubt about numbers
(see Dionys. Hal. iv. 19, fivpciov
-^ SLcr/xvpLoiv el Tv^otj Sii^d other
examples in Wetstein). See also
XV. 37.

aicfioivov, 'without a distinct
«onnd.'

1 1 SvvafjLiv, ' meaning,' ' force.'
fSdpf^apo?, a ' foreigner ' (i.e.

one who does not speak the
Oreek language). ' Barbarus
hie ego sum, quia non intelligor
uUi,' Ovid, Trist. v. 10.
€v ifjioi, ' in my judgment.'

12 He now applies the whole
argument to the Corinthians.

^■jyXtoTat. See note on verse 1.
For the construction compare
^r}Xo)Tr]<s ®€0v. Acts xxii. 3.

irvevfiaToiv, ' spirits,' used for
■* spiritual gifts,' as Swa/^ets for

'workers of miracles,' xii. 29
(compare also xii. 10, xiv. 32),
and here, as in verse 1, used
specially, though not exclusively,
for the ' tongues.'

7rpo5 r^v olKoSofirjv r^s CKKXrf-
(Ttas, ' to the building up of the
Church,' is put first for the sake
of the emphasis laid upon it.

iva TrepLcra-evTjTe. See note on 1.

13 Trpoaevxea-dtj) 'iva Supfirj-
vevrj, ' pray that he may in-
terpret.' This implies that the
speaker himself had not necessa-
rily an understanding of what
he was saying. In order to ex-
plain it to others, he had to pray
for a separate gift, that of 'in-
terpretation.' Comp. xii. 30 :
' do all speak with tongues ? do
all interpret ? ' which implies
that the two gifts were not of
necessity united in the same
persons.

14 He illustrates the useless-
ness of the gift to others by
showing the uselessness of it in
the case of prayer. The repeti-
tion of the word ' pray ' (Trpoo--
evxecrOaL) implies that in verse
13 as well as 14 it is used for the

262

FIEST EPISTLE: CHAP. XIV. 16, 16.

6 Se vovs fJLOV aKapnos icrriv. ^^ri ovv icTTiv; TTpocrev^o-
fiai tS TTvevfxaTit Trpoo-ev^ofJiaL Se kol tw vol' i/zaXw tco'
TTvevp.aTij xpakcj "" kol tS vol, ^^ iireliav ev\oyrj<^^ Trvevp^aTi^

■ T\ia\u 5e KoL vot. *» evXoyfjffrjs rep.

prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful. ^^ What is it then ? I will
pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also : I will
sing with the spirit, I will sing with the understanding also. ^^ Else if

'inspired prayer with tongues,'
as though the sense were, ' So
important is it for this gift to
be turned to practical use, that
the special object, to which the
speaking or praying with tongues
should be directed, is the ac-
quisition of the gift of inter-
pretation.'

TO TTvcv/Att, * the spirit,' is used
for the moral and spiritual affec-
tions united with the Spirit of
Christ, or the Spirit which is
the life of the Spiritual gifts.

6 vovs is *the mind or intel-
lectual element,' as in Phil. iv. 7,
Luke xxiv. 45. The effect here
described, the use of words
which touch the feelings without
conveying any distinct notions to
the understanding, is illustrated
by the state of the disciples of
Irving (see pp. 263-265). Such
too is the impression produced
on the uneducated, not only, as
Estius weU remarks, by public
prayers, of which the general
object is understood, though the
particular sense is unknown, but
by the words of Scripture, which
often strike the heart more from
the general spirit they breathe,
than from any special meaning
of the words themselves.
aKapTTo?, ' without result.'
1 5 Tt ovv icTTLv ; ' what then
is the consequence to be deduced
from all this ? ' (Comp. verse
26 ; Acts xxi. 22 ; Rom. iii. 9,
vi.l5.)

Trpoa-eviofjiaL is the reading in

B. and Latin versions. Trpoa-
€vio>fxai A. D. E. F. G. 'If
I am to pray with my spirit, I
will pray also with my under-
standing.' From this he passes
to another manifestation of the
tongues, that of singing. Comp.
Eph. V. 19 : ' Speaking to your-
selves in psalms and hymns.*
James v. 13 : 'Is any among
you sad ? let him pray. Is any
merry? let him sing psalms.*^
(See p. 245.)

1 6 As the wrong use of the
gift comes again before him, he
passes back from the first person
to the second. The mention of
' singing ' suggests the especial
purpose to which singing wa&
applied ; namely, thanksgiving,
and the special inconvenience
which would arise from the
thanksgiving being offered in an
unintelligible form, as though
the sense were, ' Sing with the
understanding ; for, unless you
do, the thanksgiving will be use-

The * thanksgiving ' or ' bless-
ing ' of which he speaks, seems
to be that which accompanied the
Lord's Supper, and whence it de-
rived its name of the ' Eucharist. *■
In this connexion the words ev-
XoycLv and ev-^apiarruv were used
convertibly, as appears in all the
accounts of the institution (see
on xi. 24). In answer to this
thanksgiving the congregation
uttered their ' Amen.' ' After
the prayers,' says Justin (Apol.

SUPERIOKITY OF PEOPHESYINa. 263

6 OLvaTrXrjpcov tov tottov tov ISkotov ttcos ipeu to dfXTJv inl
thou bless with the spirit, he that occupieth the room of the unlearned how

c. 65, 67), ^ bread is offered, and
wine and water, and the president
offers up according to his power
'The prayers and thanksgiv-

Amen.' ^^gg ^j. once, and the
people shout the Amen (to dfxrjv
as here). The president offers
praise and glory to the Father
of all, through the name of His
Son and of the Holy Spirit, and
at length returns thanks to God
for having vouchsafed us to par-
take of these things. When he
has finished the prayers and
thanksgivings, all the people
present shout, saying "Amen,"
which is the Hebrew for " So
be it." '

The *Amen' thus used was
borrowed from the worship of
the Synagogue, and hence pro-
bably the article is prefixed as
to a well-known form. It was
there regarded as the necessary
ratification of the prayer or
blessing. *He who says Amen
is greater than he that blesses '
(Berashoth viii. 8). 'Whoever
says Amen, to him the gates of
paradise are open,' according to
Isaiah xxvi. 2, whence they read

* Open ye the gates, that the
righteous nation which keepeth
the Amen, may enter in ' ( Wet-
stein ad loc). An * Amen,' if not
well considered, was called an

* Orphan Amen * (Lightfoot ad
loc). ' Whoever says an Orphan
Amen, his children shall be
orphans ; whoever answers Amen
hastily or shortly, his days shall
be shortened ; whoever answers
Amen distinctly and at length,
his days shall be lengthened'
(Berashoth, 47, 1 ; Schottgen
Ud loc). Compare the use of

the word as uttered by the vast
assembly of pilgrims at Mecca,
to express their assent to the
great sermon at the Kaaba
(Burton's Pilgrimage, iii. p.
314).

So in the early Christian
liturgies, it was regarded as a
marked point in the service ; and
with this agrees the great so-
lemnity with which Justin speajcs
of it, as though it were on a level
with the thanksgiving : * the
president having given thanks,
and the whole people having
shouted their approbation.' And
in later times, the Amen was
only repeated once by the con-
gregation, and always after the
great thanksgiving, and with a
shout like a peal of thunder.

6 dva7r\r]pC>v tov tottov tov
tStwTov. ' He who, in conse-
quence of his not understanding
the tongues, is to the speaker
with tongues what an unlearned
person is with regard to a
learned.' This also must be the
sense of tStwriys in ver. 23, 24.
The blessing was not valid, un-
less it was, as it were, ratified by
the ' Amen ' of the whole con-
gregation . In the only two other
passages where ISlwttjs .^^^
occurs in the New Tes- ' '""'*'
tament, it has reference, as here,
to speech : 2 Cor. xi. 6, iSiwTrjq
TO) Xoyo). Acts iv. 13, dypd/x-
fxaTOL ela-t, KOL tStwrat, in reference
to Trapp-qcria.

The word tStwrr;? was adopted
by the Rabbis merely spelling it
in Hebrew letters (see Lightfoot
ad loc).

6 dvaTrhqpCiV tov tottov, * He
wbo fills the condition or situa-

264

FIRST EPISTLE : CHAP. XIV. 17—21.

Ty cry ev^apia-ria; iTreiSrj tl Xeyet? ovk olSev ^^ av fikv
yap Kokojs €V)(apL(TT€L<;, dXX' 6 erepo^ ovk otAcoSo/xetrat.
^^ €.v^api(TT(xi T(p 6ea)^^ ttolvtcov vpiCDV [xaXkov ^yXcocrorr) XaXw *
^^dXXa iv iKKkyjcTia OeXco TreWe Xoyovs, ^rw vot fJLOvXakrj'
crai, Lva kol dXkov^ KaTrj)(T]cr(o, rj fjivpCovs Xoyovs iv
yXcoaay.

'^^ '^SeX^oi, /xt) TratSta yivecrOe rai*; (f)p€crLV, dXXd rrj

* Add fiov.

** yXwffcrais \a\uv.

"= Sio Tov vo6s fiov.

shall he say the Amen at thy giving of thanks ? since what thou sayest he
knoweth not ; ^^for thou indeed givest thanks weU, but the other is not
edified. ^^I thank God, I speak with a tongue more than ye all ; ^^yet in
the church I would rather speak five words with my understanding, that
I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in a tongue.

^° Brethren, become not little children in your minds, howbeit in

tion ; ' also a Hebraism naturally
used in speaking of the forms of
worship, mostly borrowed from
the Synagogue. Buxtorf, Lex.
Talmud, p. 2001. For this sense
of TOTTo^ see Ecclus. xii. 12.

17 KoAws. * You do well to
give thanks ; it is meet and right
so to do.' (Comp. 'Ye call me
Lord and Master, and ye say
well,' KaXC)<s Xeyere, John xiii.

13.)

18 He returns to his own
case.

ev^apLCTTiii T(3 ^ew may either
be : (1) 'I thank' God that I
speak,' &c., or (2) 'I thank
God in the Spirit, and I speak,'
&c., so as to take ev^apLo-rio in
the same sense as in verse 17.
But the first mode is probably
right, as best agreeing with the
following sentence, and the
change of the meaning of the
word is not greater than occurs
elsewhere (see note on xi. 23) ;
or, (3) according to A. cvx^pto-roi
T(3 ^€(3 TrdvTOiv vfxu)V fxaXXov
yXwo-oT/, ' I thank God, more
than you all, with a tongue.'

For the Apostle's power of
-speaking with tongues, compare

the description of his visions and
revelations in 2 Cor, xii. 1, 2.

1 9 oAAo, ev cKKA>y(rta, ' but
whatever I may do in private, in
an assembly I had rather, &c.'

oAAovs KaTr))(7]cr(j}f ' instruct
thoroughly.'

20 He concludes with an ap-
peal to their common sense like
that in xi. 14, ' I speak as to
wise men ' (^povc/xots).

rats ^pecrtV. The word only
occurs here in the N. Test.

TeA.€tot, ' full grown.' For the
same contrast of childishness and
manliness, compare ii. 6, ' We
speak wisdom among the fall
grown ' (ev reXctots) : iii. 1, ' I
could not speak to you as spi-
ritual, but as infants ' (vr/Trtots) :
xiii. 10, 11, ' When that which
is full grown {to riXuov) is come,
then that which is in part shall
be done away. When I was an
infant (vt/ttios), I spake and
thought as an infant ; but when
I became a man (dvTyp), I put
away infantine things (ra tov
vrpriov) . '

vi^TTia^cre seems introduced to
strengthen TratSta. ' Be, if you
will, not childlike only, but in-

SUPERIORITY OF PROPHESYINa.

265

€1/ Tft>

KaKia viqiridt^ere^ raiq 8e (fypecrlv rekeioi yCveaOe, ^^
vofjio) yiypaiTTaiy otl ev erepoyXwcrcrots koX iv ^eikecriv
^krepoiv kaXiJG-a) rco XaS tovtco^ kol ouS' ovtcos elcraKov

€T€pOlS.

malice be ye babes, but in your minds become perfect men. ^^ In the la-w-
it is written, that ' with men of other tongues and with lips of others will
I speak unto this people, and yet for all that will they not hear me, saith

fantine in wickedness.' The verb
occurs nowhere else in the New
Testament.

21 He follows up this appeal
to their own judgment by an ap-
peal to the Old Testament, iv t(3
vofJLio yeypaTTTai. 'It is written
in the Law.' Here, as in John
X. 34, xii. 34, XV. 25, ' the Law '
is used for the Old Testament
generally, instead of being, as
usual, confined to the Pentateuch.
The whole passage is from Isaiah
xxviii. 9-12 : ' Whom shall he
teach knowledge ? and whom
shall he make to understand doc-
trine ? them that are weaned
from the milk, and drawn from
the breasts. For precept must
be upon precept, precept upon
precept ; line upon line, line upon
line ; here a little, and there a
little : for with stammering lips
and another tongue will he speak
to this people. To whom he said,
This is the rest wherewith ye
may cause the weary to rest ; and
this is the refreshing : yet they
would not hear.' The general
sense seems to be that, as they
mocked the prophet for teaching
them as if he was teaching chil-
dren, he answers that God shall
teach them indeed with words
that they could not understand,
through the invasion of the As-
syrian foreigners. The Apostle
must have read and quoted the
passage as describing that God's
speaking to the Israelites through

the lips and language of a foreign
people would be in judgment, and
not in mercy, and would have no
effect. Hardly a word in this
quotation coincides with the
LXX. : 8ta <fiavXi(TfjMV ^etXecov,
8ia yAwcrcras erepa?, on XaXrjcrovcn

T(U XaU) TOVTW, X€.yOVT€'i avTOts,
TovTO TO dvoLTravfia tw TrcLVwvTL

KOL TOVTO TO aVVrpLfJifXa, KOL OVK

rjOeXrjaav dKoveiv.

iT€poyX(i)a(roL<s is peculiar to
this passage in the New Testa-
ment. It is used, however (a.d.
150), by Aquila in his translation
of this very passage in Isa. xxviii.
11, and of Ps. cxiv. 1 (' strange
language '), and it illustrates the
meaning of * other tongues ' (Ire-
pats yXwo-o-ats), in Acts ii. 4.
The word is used for 'foreign
languages ' in Polyb. xxiv. 9, § 5
(Wetstein).

It must be observed that, al-
though the general sense is thus
represented by the Apostle's quo-
tation, yet the words of the last
clause on which he lays so much
stress, as proving the f ruitlessness
of foreign tongues, ' and not eve^i
so shall they hearj' in the original
passage relate, not to the foreign
language, but to the intervening
words which the Apostle has left
out, and which seem to refer to
the obscure language of the pro-
phet's former teaching.

The passage may have been
suggested to his memory by its
mention of children and of child-

266

FIEST EPISTLE: CHAP. XIV. 22—25.

crovTat /lou, Aeyet Kvpios* (ocrre at ykcacrcrai et? crrjixeiov
elcTLV ov TOLS TTiaTevovcTLV aXka toIs aTrtcrrots, rj Be irpo-
(p7)T€La OV TOis aTTtcTTOts aAAtt TOL<; TTiG'TevovcTiv. ^eav ovv
ekOrj^ rj eKKky^cria oXrj ctti to avTo kol 7rdvT€<s ^\a\(oa-LV
y\(x)(T<jaL^^ elcrikOoicnv 8e iStwrat ri aTTtcTTot, ovk epovaiv

» ffvvixQy, and so Lachm. Ed. 1. ^ •yXdxrffa.is XaKaxriv.

the Lord.' ^^ Wherefore the tongues are for a sign not to the believers
but to the unbelievers, but prophesying not for the unbelievers, but for
the believers. ^^ If therefore the whole church be come into one place
and all speak with tongues, and there come in those who are imleamed

ish teaching, of which he had
himself just spoken in verse 20.
2 2 From this quotation, or
rather from the special words
which it contains (' tongues,' and
' they shall not hear '), he draws
a conclusion against the gift of
speaking with tongues. ' If this
be so, " the tongues " are a sign of
God's presence, not to those who
are converted but to those who
refuse to be converted, that is, a
sign not of mercy, but of judg-
ment. But prophesying is a
sign of Grod's presence, not to
those who refuse to be converted,
but to those who are converted,
and is thus a sign of mercy.'

23, 24 He confirms this by the
actual fact, and presents the two
opposite pictures of what would
be the effect on persons who
had not either of the gifts in
question, according as the whole
congregation had one or the
other. If the congregation spoke
with tongues, the effect would be
mere astonishment, and an im-
pression that they were all seized
with frenzy; but if they pro-
phesied, the effect would be con-
viction that there was really a
Divine presence among them,
enabling them to discern the se-
crets of the heart.

In each case, to make his ar-
gument stronger, he imagines the

whole society present, and every
member of it exercising his gift.
If they all spoke with tongues,
the confusion would be increased,
because this would imply that
there were none to interpret. If"
they all prophesied, this would
increase the wonder and the ef-
fect, because the man would feel
that, not one eye only, but a
thousand eyes were fixed on his
inmost soul. Hence the repeti-
tion of ' all ' four times over, and
the expressions 'the whole
Church ' and 'the same place.'

iStwTiys is a ' person without
the gift of tongues, or of pro-
phecy ; ' 'a layman,' in the-
sense of one without the know-
ledge of any special branch of
knowledge. See note on verse-
16.

a-n-to-To?, a ' heathen,' as in vi.
6, vii. 12-15 ; not in the stronger
sense in which he has just used
the word in verse 22, of * a
heathen who refuses to be con-
verted.'

The two words together in-
clude all who could possibly be af-
fected, 'Christians without the
gifts,' and ' heathens.'

For the impression of madness
produced on those who saw tbe-
gift of tongues, compare Acts ii.
13 : ' These men are full of ne^-
wine.'

SUPEEIOEITY OF PEOPHESYINa.

267

OTL fiaCvecrOe; ^^iav Se wdvTe^ 7rpo(l)rjT€V(ocTiv, elcreXOrj Se
TLS aTTtcrros rj ISlcottj^;, eXey^erat vno ttcivtcov^ avaKpiverai
ra KpvTTTa ttJs /capStas avTov (j^avepd yuve-

25 a

,, KoX oijTCJs irecroiv ctti TrpocroiTrov TrpocrKVvrjo-eL Toy

Tat,

0€(w, dirayyeWcov on ^ovrois 6 Oeos iv vjjllv icrriv.

Add Kal ovTu.

^ 6 &ehs ovTus.

or unbelievers, will they not say that ye are mad ? ^^ But if all prophesy,
and there come in an unbeliever or one unlearned, he is convinced by all,
he is judged by all, ^^the secrets of his heart become manifest, and so-
falling down on his face he will worship God, and report that of a truth
God is in you.

This would be the passage
where, if the gift of tongues had
been given for the purpose of con-
verting foreign nations by speak-
ing foreign languages, the Apostle
would have pointed it out ; the
more so, as both * unbelievers '
and * foreign tongues ' are alluded
to in verses 22, 23, and 24. See
Introduction to this Chapter, pp.
247, 248.

24 The description which fol-
lows describes the intended effect
of all Christian preaching. Al-
though both the ' unlearned ' and
the * unbeliever ' are mentioned,
it is evident that the latter is
chiefly in the Apostle's mind, and
hence aTrtcrros is in this second
clause put before tStwr^s.

i\€y)(eTaL vtto ttcivtoov. ' He is
rendered conscious of his sins by
all.' ' One after another of the
prophets shall take up the strain,
and each shall disclose to him
some fault which he knew not
before.' For this sense of eXeyxw
see John xvi. 8.

avaKpCverat vtto Travrwv. ' He
is examined and judged by all.'
* One after another shall ask
questions which shall reveal to
him his inmost self, and sit as

judge on his inmost thoughts.'
For dvaKpLvu) see its constant use
in this Epistle, ii. 14, 15, iv. 3,
4, ix. 3, X. 25, 27.

25 TOL KpvTrra t^9 Kap8ta9 avrov
<f>av€pa ytverat. * The secrets of
his heart become manifest.' Com-
pare the description of * the word
of God,' which probably includes
prophesying or preaching, in
Heb. iv. 12, 13 : ' Piercing even
to the dividing asunder of soul
and spirit, and of the joints and
marrow, and is a discemer of
the thoughts and intents of the
heart. Neither is there any crea-
ture that is not manifest in His
sight.'

Kttt ovTws irea-oiv C7rt TrpoctorroK
Trpo(TKvvri(T€L T(3 ^cw, * Aud as a
consequence he will fall prostrate
before God.' Compare the effect
of Samuel's prophesying on Saul,
' He lay down all that day and
night,' 1 Sam. xix. 24.

(XTrayyeAAtov on ovrcog o ^co9^
ev iplv ka-Tiv. ' Carrying away
the tidings that the God, whom
he has thus worshipped, is truly
among you.' ' Deum vere esse
in vobis et verum Deum esse qui
est in vobis.' (Bengel.)

268 FIRST EPISTLE.

Paraphrase of Chap. XIV. 1 — 25.

Let Love he your great aim ; hut admire and cherish at the same
time the gifts of the Spirit, chiefly the gift of prophesying.
The gift of tongues only informs a man^s self; the gift of pro-
phecy informs others. The gift of tongues must he inferior to
prophecy, unless it is accompanied with the gift of interpreta-
tion, or with the usual gifts of teaching. As musical instru-
ments are useless, unless their notes are distinguishahle ; as the
different sounds of the human voice are useless, unless they are
understood hy those who hear them ; so these gifts are useless,
unless they are rendered intelligihle. He, therefore, who has
the gift of speaking with a tongue, should pray that he may
have the gift of interpretation. This should he the very oh-
ject of his prayer when he prays with a tongue ; else such a
prayer, though elevating to his feelings, is useless to his under-
standing. Both in prayer and praise the feelings and the
understanding should go together. If the Eucharistic thanks-
giving he uttered in a tongue, he loho does not understand the
tongue, and who is thus in the condition of an ignorant man,
cannot give his ratification of the thanksgiving in the solemn
' Amen ' of the congregation ; the thanksgiving may he good,
hut it is of no use. Thankful as I am for my possession of
this gift in an extraordinary measure, I yet had rather speak
flve words to instruct others, than any numher of ivords in a
tongue. My dear hrothers, consider the matter hy your own
common sense ; he children, he infants, if you tvill, in wicked-
ness ; hut in mind he not children, but full-grown men. You
rememher the passage in the Old Testament which speaks of
* other tongues^ and of the ^people not hearing.^ So it is still.
The ' tongues ' are a sign, not to those who will helieve, hut
to those who will not helieve ; whereas prophecy is a sign to
those who will helieve. Conceive the whole congregation col-
lected, and every memher speaking with tongues ; the impres-
sion on a heathen, or on a man without this gift, will he that
you are mad. But conceive the same congregation, with every
memher prophesying, and the effect will he that a stranger
will feel that hy every memher of that congregation he is con-
vinced of sin, and his thoughts judged, and his heart laid open ;
and he will acknowledge hy act and word the presence of God
amongst you.

OFFICE OF THE UNDEKSTANDING. 26^

The Office op the Understanding in Cheistian Worship.

The importance of the general principle established by the
Apostle in this Section, as declaring the superiority of a religion
of moral action to a religion of mere reverence or contempla-
tion, has already been noticed. This principle is here applied
to Christian worship.

There has always been a tendency to envelop the worship of
God in mystery and darkness. To a certain extent. Mystery of
this is inevitable and desirable. The communion with Worship.
the Infinite and Invisible can never be reduced to the same
precise laws as those which regulate our ordinary acts. The
awful reverence which, in the Old Testament, represented Him
as dwelling in darkness unapproachable, and the seraphs as
veiling their faces before Him, can never be safely discarded.
The feelings with which the most refined and exalted spirits of
humanity adore the Maker of all things, the Friend of their
own individual souls, can never be reduced to the level of the
common worldly worshippers of every-day life. So much will
probably be granted by all, and a deep truth will be recognised
in the ancient ceremonial forms by which, in the Jewish and
Pagan rituals of ancient times, and some Christian rituals of
modern times, this feeling was encouraged. But the utter life-
lessness into which these forms have degenerated, when the
understanding has been shut out from any participation in them,
shows that this tendency may be carried to such an excess as
to destroy the very feeling which it was meant to foster.

It is in this Chapter that the counter-principle is most em-
phatically stated. The precept, ' Be not children in under-
standing ; howbeit, in malice be ye children, but in impor-
understanding be men,' is to be found in substance tanceofthe
in many parts of the Gospels and Epistles. But in standi'ngin
this passage it is directly applied to that very province Christian
of religious worship in which the intellect is often ^°^^^^P-
supposed to have no part or place.

Two practical directions the Apostle gives, by which the
understanding was to be restored to its proper posi- i. The
tion in the worship of God ; each called forth by the °^°^® ?^
peculiar circumstances of the case, and obvious in be*intef- ^
itself, but at times overlooked or neglected. The ligi^le.

270 FIRST EPISTLE.

first is, that the worship shall be conducted in a form intelligible
to the people. To pray or praise in the spirit, but without the con-
currence of the understanding; to utter thanksgivings, to which
the congregation cannot give a conscious assent ; to utter
sounds, however edifying to the individual, without interpret-
ing them to the congregation, is, in the Apostle's view, essen-
tially inconsistent with the true nature of Christian worship.
It was thus not without reason that this Chapter became the
stronghold of those attacks which were made in the sixteenth
century on the practice of conducting the service in a dead
language. But neither the prohibition of unintelligible sounds,
nor of an unintelligible language, is so important as the main-
tenance of the positive principle, that worship must carry along
with it, so far as possible, the whole nature of man. It
is possible that the language used may have ceased to be habi-
tually spoken, and yet be sufficiently understood ; or, on the
other hand, that the words used may belong to a living language,
and yet that the service shall be such as the congregation can-
not follow. On the one hand, extempore prayers, or dumb
show, as in modern sects, — ancient prayers, Latin prayers,
music, art, an elaborate ritual, amongst older Churches, — may
each fall under the Apostle's censure, so far as they deprive the
worshipper of a free access to the actual sense and meaning of
the acts in which he is engaged. Or, on the other hand they
may each in their turn promote the Apostle's object, so far as
they tend to bring that sense and meaning home to the memory,
the imagination, the understanding, the reason, the conscience
of the worshipper, educated or uneducated, civilised or unci-
vilised, as the case may be. As ^ there are so many kinds of
voices in the world, and none of them is without signification,'
so also, ' there are so many kinds of worship in the world, and
none of them is vrithout signification,' to Greek or Roman, Ger-
man or Englishman, barbarian or Scythian. To discover the
true ^ voice ' in which to reach the mind and heart of the wor-
shipper, the true ^ interpretation ' by which the gift of prayer
and praise, always more or less difficult to be understood by the
people, can be rendered intelligible, should be the one great ob-
ject of every form of worship. In proportion as this is not
sought, or as darkness and mystery are directly encouraged, in
that proportion superstition and profaneness will creep in, be-
cause the ' understanding' will remain ' unfruitful,' and the difier-
ent parts of the congregation will be 'as barbarians to each other.'

OFFICE OF THE UNDERSTANDING-. 271

Secondly, and as a consequence of this, is to be noticed the
:great stress laid by the Apostle on practical instruc- 2. instruc-
tion as a part of worship. He had rather speak ' five tion a part
words with his understanding that he might teach ° ^°^^ ^^'
others,' than * ten thousand words in an unknown tongue.'
That ^ the Church may receive edifying,' and that his hearers
' may prophesy to edification, to exhortation and comfort,' is
his chief desire. The object of prophesying is specially de-
scribed as ^ convincing,' 'judging,' and ' making manifest the
secrets of the heart,' and its effects are produced directly on the
mind and conscience of the hearer. The description indeed re-
sembles strongly the results of the teaching of Socrates, whose
life, as it represents the most stimulating power ever brought
to bear on the human understanding, so also in many respects
forcibly illustrates the first spread of the Gospel. ' To him the
precept "know thyself," was the holiest of all texts. . . .
To preach, to exhort, even to confute particular errors appeared
to him useless, so long as the mind lay wrapped up in its habi-
tual mist or illusion of wisdom : such mist must be dissipated
before any new light could enter. . . . The newly created con-
sciousness of ignorance was alike unexpected, painful, and
humiliating — a season of doubt and discomfort, yet combined
with an internal working and yearning after truth never before
experienced.' ^

These emphatic declarations are a sanction, not merely of
the importance of what is strictly called preaching, and of the
•objects which all preaching should have in view, but of educa-
tion itself as a part of Christian worship. What was supplied
in the Apostolical age by the special gift of prophesying, must
now be supplied by all the natural gifts which enable a man to
be a wise teacher and counsellor of those around him. The
principle has been recognised in the worship of most Churches,
from very early times. The ' sermon,' and the ' catechism ' (of
which the name is derived from the word used by the Apostle
in this very Chapter, Xva koI aWovs KaT7)')(rja(o ^), occupying as
they do a prominent place in the services of almost all the
Western Churches of Christendom, vindicate by long precedent
this important element. It is true that these institutions have
often taken a colour from the ritual in which they have been
incorporated, rather than given that ritual a colour of their own

1 Grote, Hist, of Greece, VIII. pp. 603, 608. « xiv. 19.

272 FIRST EPISTLE.

They themselves have often become forms, instead of makinor
the rest of the service less formal ; have been concerned with
abstract propositions, rather than with practical improvement ;,
have tended to make the taught dependent on the teacher, in-
stead of ^ building him up ' to think and act for himself. In
proportion as this has been the case, the Apostle's comparison
of the relative value of the gift of tongues and the gift of pro-
phesying is no less important than it was at Corinth. A dis-
course, a lesson, a series of catechetical questions and answers,
though always useful as a witness to the Apostolical principle
of edification, may be as completely without effect and without
response in the congregation, as the gift of tongues which in
the bystanders produced only indifference or astonishment.
On the other hand, if these parts of the Christian service are
conducted with the power and the insight which the Apostle
describes as their true characteristic, the conscience of the
hearer responding to the voice of the teacher, the Apostle
assures us that God is there in a ' Eeal Presence ^ — these are
his very words (ovtcos sctti) — which may indeed exist in other
portions of Christian worship, but which is nowhere else so
distinctly asserted as in this.

NECESSITY OF ORDER.

273

ixov e^et, hiia)(r)v e)(€L, ^ dTroKoiXvijjLV ej^et, yXcjccrav evei
ipfjLrjveuav e^ei* irdvTa Trpos OLKoSofJirjv ^yivicrOo}. ^^

eire

yXcocrarj rts XaXet, Kara Svo rj to TrXeicrTOV Tpeis, Kal dvd

* Add v/xojv. ^ yKwCffav e^et, airoKd\v\pip ex^i. * yeveffdu.

^"How is it then, brethren ? when ye come together, each one hath a
psalm, hath a teaching, hath a revelation, hath a tongue, hath an inter-
pretation : let all things be done unto edifying. ^' If any one speak in a
tongue, let it be by two or at the most three, and by course, and let one

The comparison of the two
assemblies, one consisting of
speakers with tongues, the other
of prophets, suggests to the
Apostle a general conclusion to
the whole discussion on the gifts ;
namely, the necessity of preserv-
ing order.

Tt ovv l(TTLv ; * What, then, is
the practical result of all this ? '
Compare verse 15. 'The fact
is that, whenever you meet for
worship, each of you has some
gift which he wishes to exercise.
One has a song of praise (i/roA-
/xov), (see note on 15) ; another
has a discourse (StSa^^), (see
note on 6) ; another has a reve-
lation of the unseen world (aTro-
KdX.v\f/Lv), (see the same) ; an-
other has a tongue (yXwo-o-av) ;
another has an interpretation of
tongues' (ep/xiyvetav).

This was the state of things
which had to be corrected. The
first general rule which he gives
is, TrdvTa TTpos OLKoSo/xrjV yivicrOoi.
* Let all these gifts be arranged
for the building up and perfect-
ing of the whole.' Compare Eph.
iv. 11, 12, 13.

27 He exemplifies this, first,
in the case of the tongues
(27, 28) ; next, in the case of
the prophets (-29-36).

etT€ should have been followed
by €tT€, in verse 29 ; but the
construction of the sentence is
lost in passing from one thought
to the other. The direction for
the speakers with tongues is,
that they shall not speak in.
groups of more than two, or at
the most three ; and that of
these, only one shall speak at a
time. This implies that there
had been a danger lest the whole
assembly should be engrossed by
them, as in verse 23, and also
lest all should speak at once.
There was to be one interpreter,
to prevent the difficulty noticed
in verses 13-17, of the assembly
not understanding what was said.
If there was no one present with
the gift of interpretation, then
the speaker with tongues was to
repress his utterance, and con-
tent himself with inward com
munion with God. ev iKKk-qa-ia
may, however, indicate that he
might speak in private, though
not in public. The nominative
case to o-tyaTO) is (not o ip/nrjvev-
T-qSt but) o XaXQiv yXuicrcrrj. Com-
pare for this construction Luke
XV. 15, possibly Acts vi. 6.

dva fxepoq, 'in turn.' This
may either be, that in each
group each shall speak in turn,

274

FIRST EPISTLE: CHAP. XIV. 28—36.

Kai €19 OLeptxy)V€veT(i) ^^eav

XaXetTft) Kol TO) 0eS,

/I€p09, ACat €19 Oi€plJir)V€VeTOJ'

cnydTO) iv iKKkiqcria^ iavTO) Se
''^^TTpo^rai Se hvo rj rpei^ XakeiTcjcrav, /cat ol dWoL Sta-
Kpiveroicrav' ^^ idv Se dWco dTroKakv(l)6rj KaOrjfxevo}^ 6
TrpoJTOS o-iydro). ^^ SvvacrOe yap Kaff eVa Trdvre^ 7rpo4>y]-
reveiv, Lva iravTe'S iiavBdvoicriv koX Trdvre^ TrapaKokcovTaL*
^^ KOL TTvevjxaTa 7rpo(f)r)T(ov it po(f)rjr ai^ vTToracrcreTat * ^^ ov
ydp icTTLV dKaTaorTacrCa<; 6 6e6<;, dWd elpTJvrj^. a»s iv Tracratg

interpret : ~^but if there be not an interpreter, let him keep silence in
the church, and let him speak to himself and to God. ^^ Let the prophets
speak two or three, and let the others judge: ^^if anything be revealed
to another sitting by, let the first be silent. ^^ For one by one ye can all
prophesy, that all may learn and all may be comforted : ^^ and the spirits
of the prophets are subject to the prophets : ^^for God is not the author

or that each group shall speak in
turn.

29 He next directs the con-
duct of the prophets. They may
come, apparently, in any num-
bers ; but only two or three are
to speak, and the rest are to
interpret, or discern the meaning
and value of their prophecies.
TrpofjiyJTaL, ' prophets,' is the sub-
ject of the whole sentence, im-
plying that those who had the
gift of discernment (StdtKpto-ts)
(see note on xii. 10) were in-
cluded under the class of pro-
phets.

30 ' If, whilst one of the pro-
phets is speaking, another has a
revelation to impart, he is to
stand up and utter it, and the
first speaker is to sit down, and
be silent.' It was of more im-
portance to catch the first burst
of a prophecy, than to listen to
the completion of one already
begun.

KaOrjixevio, ' sitting and not
speaking.' This implies that
the prophets stood whilst they
spoke.

31-32 He justifies this com-

mand by showing that there was
time and room for all to exercise
their gift.

Svvaa-Oe, ' you have it in your
power.'

The stress here, as in verse
24, is on Travres, ' aU.' * You
can all prophesy, and then every
member of the assembly in turn
will receive his own proper in-
struction and exhortation.'

32 ' And this is not diflBcult ;
the spirits of the several pro-
phets are subject to the prophets
in whom they reside.' For the
same personification, so to speak,
of the spiritual gifts, see verse
12, tpfjXoyral TrveuyactTwv ; xii. 10,
SiaKpL(T€Ls TTvevfidTOiv. Tho ab-
sence of the article implies that
this control of the prophetic im-
pulses by the wills of the pro-
phets was an essential part of
the prophetic character ; ' Pro-
phets' spirits are subject to pro-
phets.' This distinguishes these
impulses from those of the hea-
then pythonesses and sibyls.

^;^ ' The reason of this sub-
jection is, that God, from whom
these gifts proceed, is a God not

NECESSITY OF ORDER.

275

Tais eKKKiqcTiai^ to)v ayioiVy ^*ai yvvaiKe<; €V rai? eKKArj-
crtat? (TiydToxTav ' ov yap ^ iTTirpeTreTai avraZ^ \akeiv, ak\a

* VTroTacrcreo'Ocoorav, Ka6cb<s kol 6 vofJLos Xeyei. ^^ ei 8e ri
fxaOelv 6ekovcriv^ kv OLKcp Toif^ iStov? avSpas kTrepoirdroicrav '
alcrxpov yap kcrriv yvvaiKi XaXeiv iv iKKkrjcria^ ^^rj d(f>
iffxcov 6 \6yo^ Tov Oeov i^rjXOev 77 els vfjuds [jlovovs KaTrjv-

• Add v^jiuv. ^ iiriTeTpairTai. " vTrordcrcriffOai. ^ yvvai^lv iv iKK\7)cria, KaXeiv,

of confusion but of peace. ^*As in all the churches of the saints, let the
women keep silence in the churches : for it is not permitted unto them
to speak ; but let them be under obedience, as also saith the law. ^^And
if they desire to learn any thing, let them ask their own husbands at
home : for it is a shame for a woman to speak in the church. ^^What !

of instability and uncertainty,
but of peace.'

o)? iv Trao-atg rat? iKKXrjartaLs
Twv ayL(j)v, though in the older
texts joined to the preceding,
has, since the time of Cajetan,
and rightly, been joined to the
following, the connexion being
the same as in xi. 16. Lach-
mann, in his second edition, has
further deviated from the com-
mon punctuation, by attaching
Twv dytwv to at yvvaxKeg, which
is rendered possible, though not
necessary, by the omission of
vfxo)v in A. B. If so, the sense
will be, ' As in all the assemblies,
let the wives of the saints keep
silence in the assemblies.'

34,35 One particular instance
of confusion growing out of the
neglect of order in the control
of the gifts, was the speaking of
women in the assemblies. This
custom, like that of appearing
unveiled (xi. 3-16), he condemns
on the ground that he forbade it
in all the assemblies of Christians.
The speaking of women was also
expressly forbidden in the syna-
gogues. (See Wetstein and
Lightfoot, ad loc.)

' The law.' Gen. iii. 16. Com-
pare the same argument in 1
Tim. ii. 11-14.

He anticipates the objection,
that possibly the women might
wish to ask questions in the
assembly, by pointing out that
their husbands were their na-
tural guides.

Tovs iStovs, * their own hus-
bands.' See on vii. 2.

These two verses (34, 35) are
in D. E. F. G. placed at the end
of the chapter.

36 He concludes with a ge-
neral warning of obedience to
his authority. Throughout the
Epistle there has been an indi-
cation of the assumption which
the Corinthians made, of taking
an independent course, apart
from all other Churches, and
from the claims of St. Paul him-
self ; and therefore he here re-
minds them that they were not
the first or only Church in the
world. Compare on i. 2, iv. 8,
ix. 1. ^

6 Aoyos TOV Oeov, ' the word of
God ; ' in especial reference to
the gifts of speaking and pro-
phesying. Compare Heb. iv. 12.
There is perhaps an allusion to
Isa. ii. 3 : 'Out of Zion shall go
forth the law, and the word of
the Lord from Jerusalem.'

Kar-^vrqa-ev, ' found its way to
you.' See x. 11.

T 2

276

ilEST EPISTLE : CHAP. XIV. 37—40.

CTTtyu'oxT/cerft), a ypd(f)0) vfjuv^ on Kvpiov ecmv evToXij.^
^^€1 8e Tt9 ayvoet, ^ayvoeuTaL. ^^atare, ahekcfyoL [/xov],
C;r)\ovTe to 7Tpocl>r}TeveLV, kol to Xakeiv ^ fxr) KOikvere {}.v\
yXwcrcrats* ^^TrdvTa ^hl evcr)(rjii6vco^ kol /cara Toi^LV
yivecrdo).

' Sri rod Kvpiov elcrlv evrdXal.
' yXdoffcrais fir) KcoKvere.

^ ayvodru.
^ Om. 5e.

went the word of God out from you? or came it unto you only? ^'If
any one think himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge
that the things that I write unto you are a commandment of the Lord.
*^But if any one know not this, he is not known.* ^^ Wherefore, my
brethren, seek zealously to prophesy, and forbid not to speak with
tongues: *^but let all things be done with seemliness and in order.

• Or God knows not him.

37 €t Tts 8oK€i. * If any one
claims to be a prophet, or especi-
ally endued with spiritual gifts.'
irvevjjiaTLKO's seems here, as in
verse 1, to be almost synonymous
with XaXwv yXworoT/. For the
form, 'If any seem,' compare
viii. 2 : ' If any one seems to
know anything,' and Gal. ii. 6 :
* Those who seem to be some-
what' (ot 8oKOVVT€s).

eTrtytvwo-KeTo) : ' Let him prove
his inspiration by recognising,
that the words which I write,
are no less than commandments
of the Lord.' There are many
various readings ; ivToXau, ei/-

ToXrj, KVptOV, 0€OV TOV KVptOV.

KvpLov kvToXri is in A. B. The
analogy of vii. 10 and the word
KvpLov naturally imply a precept

of Christ, that is, either some
words now lost to us, or else the
general authority of Christ's
teaching.

38 dyvoetrat, A. D. F. G., 'he
is ignored by God: God is
ignorant of him.' dyvoctVa), B.
C. E., ' let him be ignorant.' If
the former reading is preferred,
then compare viii. 2, 3, xiii. 12 ^
if the latter, it is a contemptuous
expression of indifference as to
the opinion of such a one, how-
ever great his pretensions.

39, 40 This is the summary of
the whole. Verse 39 sums up
xiv. 1-25, verse 40 sums up xiv.
26-38.

For t,7]XovT€, see on xii. 31.
For €v(rx7]ix6vo)<;, see on xiii. 5.

APOSTOLICAL WOKSHIP. 277

Paeaphease of Chap. XIV. 26—40.

Your general state is this: At your assemblies every one comes
with some gift which he wishes to exercise. The rule for your
guidance must be the building up of the whole society. The
speakers with tongues are not to engross the whole assembly, or
to speak all at once ; two, or at most three, are to come, and of
these each is to speak singly, and none without an interpreter.
If prophets come in large numbers, two or three only are to
speak, and the rest are to be judges of what they say. Each
prophet is to have his opportunity of speaking, that every
member of the congregation may receive his proper instruction
and consolation. It is essential to the office of a prophet to
have the spirit within him under control : for God loves not
confusion, but peace. For the salrne reason the women are
not to break through their natural subjection by speaking in
the assemblies. They are not even to ask questions, except
from their husbands, who are their natural guides.

To these directions you ought not to oppose yourselves on
any plea of fancied pre-eminence or exclusiveness. If any
one prides himself on his spiritual or prophetical gift, let him
prove it by recognising in these words of mine a Divine com-
mand ; if he cannot recognise it, he is not recognised by God.
The conclusion, therefore, is to aim chiefly at prophecy without
discouraging the gift of tongues ; and the great rule is to do
everything with order and decency.

Apostolical Worship.

It may be important to sum up all that this Epistle, com-
bined with other notices, has presented to us on the
subject of Christian worship. (I) The Christian of any
assemblies of the first period of the Apostolical age, fixed
unlike those of later times, appear not to have been °' ®'*
necessarily controlled by any fixed order of presiding ministers.
We hear, indeed, of ' presbyters,' or ^ elders ' in the Churches

278 • FIEST EPISTLE.

of Asia Minor,^ and of Jerusalem. ^ And in the Church of
Thessalonica mention is made of ' rulers ' (TrpoLcrra/jusvovs'
vfjbSv) ; ^ and, in the Churches of Galatia, of ^ teachers ' {tS
H:aT7)')(^ovvTL).* But no allusion is to be found to the connexion
of these ministers or officers, if so they are to be called, with
the worship of the Apostolic Church, and the omission of any
such is an almost decisive proof that no such connexion was
then deemed necessary. Had the Christian society at Corinth
been what it was at the time when Clement addressed his
Epistle to it, or what that at Ephesus is implied to have been
in the Ignatian Epistles, it is almost inevitable that some refer-
ence should have been made by the Apostle to the presiding
government which was to control the ebullitions of sectarian
or fanatical enthusiasm ; that he should have spoken of the
presbyters, whose functions were infringed upon by the pro-
phets and speakers with tongues, or whose authority would
naturally moderate and restrain their excesses. Nothing of
the kind is found. The gifts are to be regulated by mutual
accommodation, by general considerations of order and useful-
ness ; and the only rights, agaiust the violation of which any
safeguards are imposed, are those of the congregation, lest ' he
that fills the place of the unlearned' (i.e. as we have already
seen, ' he that has not the gift of speaking with tongues ')
should be debarred from ratifying by his solemn Amen the
thanksgiving of the speaker. The gifts are not, indeed, supposed
to be equally distributed, but every one is pronounced capable
of having some gift, and it is implied as a possibility that ^ all '
may have the gift of prophesying or of speaking with tongues,
n. The (II) Through the gifts thus distributed, the

worship worship was carried on. Four points are specially

carried on . . -,

through mentioned:

the gifts. (1) Prayer, This, from the manner in which it

1. Prayer, is Spoken of in connexion with the tongues, must
have been a free outpouring of individual devotion, and one in
which women were accustomed to join, as well as men.^

(2) What has been said of prayer may be said also of

' Praise ' or ^ Song^ '\\ra\fi6s.^ We may infer from

°^^' Eph. V. 19, where it is coupled with 'hymns and

odes ' {v/jLvots Kal whals), that it must have been of the nature

1 Acts xiv. 23.

2 Ibid. xi. 30 ; xv. 6, 22, 23.

3 1 Thess. V. 12.

4 Gal. vi. 6.

5 xiv. 13, 14, 15 ; xi. 5.

xiv. 15, 26.

APOSTOLICAL WOESHIP. 279

of metre or rhythm, and is thus the first recognition of Chris-
tian poetry. The Apocalypse is the nearest exemplification
of it in the New Testament.

(3) Closely connected with this is Thanksgiving, The
* song of the understanding ' is especially needed in 3, Thanks-
the giving of thanks.^ In this passage we have the giving.
earliest intimation of a liturgical form. Although the context
even here implies that it must have been a free effusion, yet
it is probable that the Apostle is speaking of the Eucharistic
thanksgiving for the produce of the earth ; such as was from a
very early period incorporated in the great Eucharistic hymn
used, with a few modifications, through all the liturgical forms
of the later Christian Church. And from this passage we
learn that the ' Amen,' or ratification of the whole congrega-
tion, afterwards regarded with peculiar solemnity in this part
of the service, was deemed essential to the due utterance of the
thanksgiving.

(4) ^ Prophesying,' or ' teaching,' is regarded (not by the
Corinthians, but) by the Apostle, as one of the most 4, prophe-
important objects of their assemblies. The impulse syi^g-

to exercise this gift appears to have been so strong as to render
it difiicult to be kept under control.^ Women, it would seem
from the Apostle's allusion to the practice in xi. 5, and prohi-
bition of it in xiv. 34, 35, had felt themselves entitled to speak.
The Apostle rests his prohibition on the general ground of
the subordination of women to their natural instructors, their
husbands.

(Ill) The Apostolical mode of administering the Eu-
charist has already been delineated at the close of m. The
Chap. xi. It is enough here to recapitulate its main Eucharist.
features. It was part of the chief daily meal, and, as such,
usually in the evening ; the bread and wine were brought by
the contributors to the meal, and placed on a table ; of this
meal each one partook himself ; the bread, in one loaf or many,
was placed on the table ; each loaf or cake was then broken into
parts ; the wine was given at the conclusion of the meal ; a
hymn of thanksgiving was offered by one of the congregation,
to which the rest responded with the solemn word, ^ Amen.'

These points are all that we can clearly discern in the
worship of Apostolic times, with the addition, perhaps, of the

1 xiv. 16. 2 xiv. 32.

280 . FIEST EPISTLE.

fact mentioned in Acts xx. 1 , and confirmed by 1 Cor. xvi. 2,
that the first day of the week was specially devoted to their
meetings.

The total dissimilarity between the outward aspects of this
Eflfects of worship and of any which now exists, is the first
this state impression which this summary leaves on the mind.

of the T» . , 1 • . • • T 11

^arly -t>ut this nnpression is relieved by various important

Church. considerations. First, when we consider the state of
the Apostolic Church as described in the Acts and in this
Epistle, it is evident that in outward circumstances it never
I. No could be a pattern for future times. The fervour of

forms of tjjg individuals who constituted the communities, the
obliga- smallness of the communities themselves, the variety
tion. and power of the gifts, the expectation of the near

approach of the end of the world, must have prevented the
perpetuation of the Apostolic forms. But if Christianity be,
as almost every precept of its Founder and of its chief Apostle
presumes it to be, a religion of the Spirit, and not of the
letter, then this very peculiarity is one of the most character-
istic privileges. No existing form of worship can lay claim
to universal and eternal obligation, as directly traceable to
Apostolic times. The impossibility of perpetuating the pri-
mitive forms is the best guarantee for future freedom and
progress. Few as are the rules of worship prescribed in the
Koran, yet the inconvenience which they present, when trans-
planted into other than Oriental regions, shows the importance
of the omission of such in the New Testament.

But, secondly, there are in the forms themselves, and in
p . . the spirit in which the Apostle handles them, prin-
ples laid ciples important for the guidance of Christian worship
down. jn all times. Some of these have been already indi-
cated. In this last concluding Section, the whole of this
advice is summed up in two simple rules : —

' Let all things be done unto edifying,' and ^ let all things
be done decently and in order.'

^ Let all things be done unto edifying,'' ^

' Edifying ' {oLKoBojjLr}) has, as already noticed in xiv. 3, the

peculiar sense both of building up from first prin-

thingsbe ciplcs to their practical application, and of fitting

done unto each member of the society into the proper place

edifying.' ^j^^^^j^ ^^^ growth and rise of the whole building

1 xiv. 5, 12, 17.

APOSTOLICAL WOKSHIP. 281

require. It is ^ development/ not only in the sense of un-
folding new truth, but of unfolding all the resources contained
in the existing institution or body. Hence the stress laid on
the excellence of ' prophesying,' as the special gift by which
men were led to know themselves (as in xiv. 24, 25, ' the
secrets of their hearts being made manifest'), and by which (as
through the prophets of the older dispensations) higher and
more spiritual views of life were gradually revealed. Hence
the repeated injunctions that all the gifts should have their
proper honour ; ^ that those gifts should be most honoured by
which not a few, but all, should benefit ; ^ that all who had the
gift of prophecy should have the opportunity of exercising
that gift ; ^ that all might have an equal chance of instruction
and comfort for their own special cases.

' Let all things be done decently and in order,'' *
' Decently ' {svaxvi^ovays) ; that is, so as not to interrupt
the gravity and dignity of the assemblies. ' In 2 « j)^.
order' (Kara tcl^iv) ; that is, not by hazard or im- centlyand
pulse, but by design and arrangement. The idea is ^° order.'
not so much of any beauty or succession of parts in the
worship, as of that calm and simple majesty which in the
ancient world, whether Pagan or Jewish, seems to have
-characterised all solemn assemblies, civil or ecclesiastical, as
distinct from the frantic or enthusiastic ceremonies which ac-
companied illicit or extravagant communities. The Roman
Senate, the Athenian Areopagus, were examples of the former,
as the wild Bacchanalian or Phrygian orgies were of the
latter. Hence the Apostle has condemned the discontinuance
of the veil,^ the speaking of women,^ the indiscriminate ban-
queting,^ the interruption of the prophets by each other.®
* The spirits of prophets are subject to prophets,' is a principle
of universal application, and condemns every impulse of re-
ligious zeal or feeling which is not strictly under the control
of those who display it. A world of fanaticism is exploded
by this simple axiom ; and to those who have witnessed the
religious frenzy which attaches itself to the various forms of
Eastern worship, this advice of the Apostle, himself of Eastern
origin, will appear the more remarkable. The wild gambols

1 xii. 20-30.

2 xiv. 1-23.

3 xiv. 29-31.

4 xiv. 40.

5 ix. 1-16.

6 xiv. 34.

7 xi. 16-34.

« xiv. 30-32.

282 FIRST EPISTLE.

yearly celebrated at Easter by the adherents of the Greek
Church round the chapel of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem,
show what Eastern Christianity may become ; ^ they are living
proofs of the need and the wisdom of the Apostolical precept.
To examine how far these two regulations have actually
affected the subsequent worship and ritual of Christianity, to
measure each Christian liturgy and form of worship by one or
other of these two rules, would be an instructive task. But it
is sufficient here to notice that on these two points the Apostle
throws the whole weight of his authority ; these two, and
these only, are the Rubrics of the Primitive Church.

'Sinai and Palestine,' Ed. iv. 465-471.

THE EESUKKECTION OF THE DEAD. 28 ^

Chap. XV. 1—58.

There does not appear to be any connexion between this and
the preceding Chapters. Both the importance and the pe-
culiar nature of the subject here discussed, would naturally
occasion its reservation for the last place of the ^^ j^^ ^q_
Epistle. The other questions had touched only the niers of
outskirts of the Christian faith ; this seemed to reach the Eesur-
its very foundation. It is evident from the expression
in the 12th verse (^How say some among you?'), that the
Apostle is combating some teachers in the Corinthian Church,
who denied, as it would seem, not the Resurrection of Christ,,
but the Resurrection of the dead generally.

Of this tendency in the Jewish section of the Church,,
occasioned apparently by the Oriental, .or, as it was ^^^ q^^_
afterwards called. Gnostic abhorrence of matter, we entai or
have a specimen in the teaching of Hymenaeus and J^^^^h,
Philetus, who said that ' the Resurrection was already past ; ' *
evidently meaning thereby, that there was no resurrection,
except in the moral conversion of man. But of any oppo-
sition to this tendency there is no trace in the Apostle's argu-
ment; and the particular aspect of Judaism exhibited by
HymenjBus and Philetus belongs to a later period. It seems,,
therefore, more natural to identify the Corinthian teachers
with the Epicurean deniers of the Resurrection, such ^^^ ^ ._
as the Sadducees in Judsea,^ and in the very Church curean and
of Achaia to which this Epistle ^ was addressed, the ^r®^^-
Athenian cavillers, who ^mocked when they heard of the
resurrection of the dead.''* With this agree not only the
general circumstances of time and place, but also the particular
allusions to them; not as corrupting, but as contradicting, the
received teaching of the Apostle ; as resting their objections
to it, not on any refined notion of matter, but on its philo-
sophical difficulties ; ^ combining pretensions to knowledge with
laxity of morals.^

It is a remarkable instance of the great latitude which

1 2 Tim. ii. 17, 18.

2 Matt. xxii. 23.

* See notes on i. 1.

^ Acts xvii. 18, 32.

5 XV. 35.

6 xy. 33, 34.

284 FIRST EPISTLE.

prevailed in the Corinthian Church, that these impugners of
Not ex- *^^ Resurrection remained within the Christian se-
cluded ciety ; and that their position was not deemed, either
ChSch.^ by themselves or the Apostle, as necessarily incom-
patible with the outward profession of Christianity.
Still, to the Apostle's mind, the Resurrection of the dead was
a matter of no secondary importance. If we may take the
The Apo- account in the Acts as a just illustration of the lan-
stle's view guage of his Epistles, we find him declaring that it

surr^Itfon". ^^^ *^® ^^^^^ *^^*^ ^^^^ ^^ preached, and for
which he suffered ; ^ and in the Epistles themselves,
although nowhere so fully set forth as in this Chapter, it is
always assumed as the great end of the believer's hope.^ It
is the one doctrine which Saul the Pharisee transfers to Paul
the Apostle. In the Acts he represents himself to be the
Pharisaic victim of a Sadducee persecution. It is the link
between his past and present life. It is the same promise to
which, before his conversion, with the rest of the twelve
tribes, instantly serving God day and night, he had hoped to
come.^

The same, but yet how different ! He now no longer
dwelt on the elaborate exhibition of the future life, as decked
out with all the figures of Rabbinical rhetoric. There was
now a nearer and dearer object in the unseen world, which
threw into the shade all meaner imaginations concerning it,
all lower arguments in behalf of its existence. That object
was Christ. He was a believer writing to believers; and
therefore the one fact which he adduces to convince and to
warn his readers, is the fact of the Resurrection of Christ.
And this may account for his toleration of those whom he is
here opposing. Though differing from him in the hope of
their own resurrection, he felt that, in their belief in Christ
and Christ's Resurrection, they were united with him. In
this great agreement he overlooked even their great difference
— their common love and faith in Christ brought him nearer
to them, though doubting the Resurrection of the dead, than
to the Jewish Pharisees, who, though believing it, had no
sympathy with his love of Christ.

^ Acts xxiii. 6, xxiv. 15, 25,
xxvi. 8.

2 See Rom. vi. 8, viii. 11 ; 2 Cor.

V. 10 ; 1 Thesa. iv. 14.
^ Acts xxvi. 7.

EESUEKECTION OF CHEIST.

285

XV. ^Tvoipitfii 8e v/xtz/, aSekcfioC, to evayyikiov o evrjy-
yekLo-dfJLTjv vfuv, o kol Tra/oeXa^ere, ev w kol ecrrT/zcare, ^Sl
ov KOL (T(o^ecr0€y TLVL Xoycp evrfyyekLcrdfJirjv vfuv, el fcarc-

* Now, brethren, I would have you know the Gospel which I preached
unto you, which also ye received, and wherein ye stand, ^by which also
ye are saved, if ye keep in memory with what word I preached the Gospel

iiS6^

pel

XV. I TviopL^oi. In all the pas-
sages where this is used
in the earlier Epistles
(1 Cor. xii. 3; 2 Cor. viii. 1;
Gal. i. 11), it has the signification
of ' remind,' ' call to your atten-
tion.' In the later Epistles
(Eph. vi. 21 ; Col. iv. 7 ; 2 Pet. i.
16), and in all the passages
where it occurs in the passive
voice (including Romans xvi.
26), it has the signification of
* discover.'

'The Gospel' (to euayyiXtov)
is not necessarily limited
TheGos- ^o ^i^e historical facts
of the death and the
resurrection of Christ, as stated
in the ensuing verses. In Gal. i.
11, and probably in Romans i.
16, X. 16, xi. 28, it is used for the
announcement of the universality
of the Gospel, in which sense he
speaks of it occasionally as ' my
Gospel ' (to cvayyeXtov fJiov), Rom.
ii. 16, xvi. 25, Still the histori-
cal meaning of the word is al-
ways implied, and is here pre-
dominant.

2 The repetition of kol is
partly to make a stronger asser-
tion — ' which m fact you re-
ceived ' (see Thucyd. vi. 64),
partly to express the successive
stages of the climax : ' It is not
only the glad tidings which you
received from me (TrapeXa/Jerc, as
in verse 3, corresponding to ira-

peSuiKo), as an historical fact;
but it is also that on which you
take your immovable stand (see
Rom. V. 2 ; 2 Cor. i. 24) ; and
not only so, but also the means
by which you are to be saved at
the last.' For this sense of o-w-
^ea-Oc compare Acts ii. 47 ; 1 Cor.
i. 18 ; 2 Cor. ii. 15.

In English it would be ex-
pressed by the repetition of the
antecedent : ' that Gospel which
you received, that Gospel on
which you stand, that Gospel
through which you are saved.'

TLVL A.oya) evrjyyeXiord/JLTjv vfuVy
€t KaT€X€T€. lu tlicso words there
is a mixture of two constructions.
The first part, tlvl . . . eorjyycXi-
a-diJirjv, is intended to modify the
harshness of the expression yvw-
pL^d) TO evayyikiov : * I remind
you of the Gospel, i.e. of the way
in which I preached it.' The
phrase tlvl Xoyw is the same kind
of redundancy as in the expres-
sions Adyos crocf>LaSy A,dyos yvw-
o-€(05 (xii. 8), 6 Xdyo5 tov CTavpov
(i. 18), and merely calls atten-
tion to the manner, as distinct
from the subject, of his preach-
ing, i.e. to the fact that he had
first of all preached to them
the Death and Resurrection of
Christ.

€t KaTc^cTe depends partly on
evTjyycXLo-dixrjv, * this was the way
I preached to you, if you remem-

^86

FIRST EPISTLE: CHAP. XV. 3—5.

;(€T€, I/CT09 el fxr) e'iKy €7ricrTeucraTe. ^irapeScoKa yap vfjuv
kv TTpcjTOLS o Koi TTapiXa^ov^ on ^lctto^ airedavev virep

unto you, unless ye believed in vain. ^ For I delivered unto you first of
all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according

bar it,' partly on crw^co-^c, ' you
are saved if you hold it fast,'
affording another instance of the
Apostle's manner of throwing
back an important word out of
its natural place to the end of the
sentence. See on viii. 11.

e/CTos €1 fti) iiK-fj €7rt(rT€vcraT€,
* and you do hold it fast, if your
conversion is to have its proper
fruits.'

eTTto-TcvcaTe, ' received the faith
at your conversion.' Comp. Rom.
xiii. 11.

eKTos el fXTj is a pleonasm, as
in xiv. 5. For this sense of ct/cVy,
see Rom. xiii. 4, and especially
Oal. iii. 4, iv. 11.

3 ' You remember hoiv I
preached the Gospel, for it was
thus ; in the first place to declare,^
&G. : yap connects iv Trp^roi'S
with TiVt Xoyo), but also perhaps
expresses the connexion of the
whole sentence, ' You remember
all this, for this was my course.'
For the sense of irapehoiKa and
wapiXaftov, compare their similar
use in xi. 23.

' That Christ died for our sins.'
He begins the account
^^fj°f of his ' Gospel ' not
with the birth or in-
fancy of Christ, but with His
death. This may result merely
from the fact that the Resurrec-
tion is the point to which he calls
attention, and that therefore he
does not go further back in the
history than the event out of
which, so to say, the Resurrec-
tion originated. But the lan-
guage rather leads us to infer that
the statement of the death occurs

first, because it was actually the
first point in the Apostle's mode
of teaching, thus confirming his
declaration in i. 18, 23, ii. 2,
that the Crucifixion was the
great subject of his first preach-
ing at Corinth. And this also
agrees with the general strain of
the Epistles, in which the Death
and Resurrection are the main
points insisted upon, as in Rom.
iv. 25 ; Eph. i. 7-23 ; Col, i. 14-
23 ; 1 Tim. iii. 16.

' For our sins,' i.e. not merely
' in our behalf,' which would have
been vvep t^/awv, as in Rom. v. 8 ;
nor 'in our place,' which would
have been avrl -^/xwv, but ' as an
offering in consequence of our
sins,' ' to deliver us from our
sins.' For the general sense of
vTTcp in this connexion, see on 2
Cor. V. 15. (Compare for the
meaning 8ta to, irapain jj/xara, in
Rom. iv. 25, and Trept tcov apuap-
Ttwv T7/x-(ov, in Gal. i. 4, and 1 Pet.
iii. 18 ; also Heb. x. 6, 8, 18, 26,
xiii. 11.)

* According to the Scriptures.*
That great stress was .according
laid on the conformity to the
of our Lord's death to ^"p'^"''^^-
the ancient Scriptures, appears
from the frequent references to
them, especially in the writings
of St. Luke. Thus xxiv. 25-27 :
' fools, and slow of heart to
believe all that the prophets have
spoken . . . and beginning at
Moses and all the prophets, He ex-
pounded unto them in all the
Scriptures the things concerning
Himself.' Also xxiv. 44-46 :
' All things must be fulfilled,

EESURRECTION OF CHEIST.

287

T(t)V dfJiapTLcov Tjfjicjv Kara ra? ypa(j)ds, ^ kol otl Ira^yy, kol
OTL kyrjyepTaL Trj rjfJidpa rfj rpiTrj^ Kara tols ypa(f)ds., ^ kol

* T17 rpirri v/xepa.

to the Scriptures, *and that He was buried, and that He has been raised
the third day according to the Scriptures, ^and that He was seen by

which were written in the law of
Moses and in the prophets and in
the Psalms concerning me. Then
opened he their understanding
that they might understand the
Scriptures : ' and xxii. 37 : ' This
that is written must yet be accom-
plished in me : for the things con-
cerning me have an end.' Acts
iii. 35 : * Then Philip began at
the same Scripture.^ It is evi-
dent from the general tenor of
these passages, that the * Scrip-
tures ' alluded to are chiefly the
prophets ; and from the two last-
quoted that the prophecy chiefly
meant is Isa. liii. 5-10. Com-
pare the quotation in 1 Pet. ii. 24.
In the next clause the second
introduction of the words, 'ac-
cording to the Scriptures,' refers
equally to the Burial and the
Resurrection, and perhaps ex-
plains the connexion of the Burial
(not as in the present creeds with
the Death, but) with the Resur-
rection. The passages referred
to are such as Ps. ii. 7 ; Isa. Iv.
S (in Acts xiii. 33-35) ; and
(in allusion to the third day)
Hosea vi. 2 ; but specially Ps.
xvi. 10 : * Thou shalt not leave
my soul in hell, neither shalt
thou sufier thine Holy One to
-see corruption,' as in Acts ii.
25-31, xiii. 35-37, where the
same contrast is drawn between
the grave and the deliverance
from it. The mention of the
Burial in this very brief summary
of facts agrees with the emphatic
account of it in every one of the

four Gospels, there, as here, in
connexion with the Resurrection.
So 1 Pet. iii. 18, 19.

The force of the perfect iy-q-
ycprai seems to be * has been
raised and is alive.' See on
verse 12.

4 The details of the Resurrec-
tion which follow, are probably
introduced, not as actually form-
ing parts of that which the
Apostle taught ' first of all ' (cv
irpdiToi'i), but in confirmation of
it, for the special object which
he now had in view ; and ac-
cordingly in the next sentence
the construction is no longer de-
pendent on 7rape8(i)Ka or irapi-
Xa^ov.

5 locjiOy) is the word used for
these appearances in

St. Paul (here and in after th^^^
verses 6, 7, and 8, and Res»n-ec-
1 Tim. iii. 15), in St. "" ''
Luke (xxiv. 34, w</)^r7 !St/xwvt),
and in the Acts (ii. 3, ix, 17, xiii.
31, xxvi. 16), and is the phrase
usually employed elsewhere for
supernatural appearances as of
angels (Luke i. 11, xxii. 43), of
Moses and Elijah (Matt. xvii. 3 ;
Mark ix. 4 ; Luke ix. 31), or of
God (Acts vii. 2, 26, 30, 35).
In the other Gospels (Mark xvi.
9, 12, 14 ; John xxi. 1, 14) the
appearances after the Resurrec-
tion are expressed by icfidvrj, icfja-
vepcticreVy and ecfiavepioOrj.

The appearance to Peter is
nowhere directly men-
tioned in the Gospels, ° ^ ^'
but is implied in the exclama-

288

FIRST EPISTLE: CHAP. XV. 6, 7.

OTL co^Of) Kr)(f)a, elra rot? 8wSeK:a. ^ iireira a>(f)0r} kirdvop

■ 7r\efous.

Kephas, then by the twelve, ^After that He was seen by above five
hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain unto this

tion of the Apostles on the return
of the disciples from Emmaus,
*the Lord is risen indeed, and
hath appeared to Simon ' (Luke
xxiv. 34). The prominence thus
given to Peter, agrees with that
assigned to him generally in the
Gospel narrative. For the name
' Kephas,' see note on ix. 5.

The appearance to ' the Twelve '
naturally coincides with
Twelve- ^^® appearance to the
ten Apostles, on the
evening of the day of the Resur-
rection, recorded in Luke xxiv.
36 ; John XX. 19. ol SwBeKa is
merely the expression to desig-
nate the college of Apostles, like
'duumviri,' or 'decemviri,' in
Latin. Judas certainly was ab-
sent, if not Thomas.

6 Thus far the appearances
would seem to be given in
order of time, and so probably
throughout, as indicated in the
expression, ' last of all ' (ecTxaror),
in verse 8, although the classical
precision of Trpwrov, Sevrepov, cTra,
K. T. A. is lost in the mere alter-
nation of cTTctra and ctra.

The only appeai-ance of the
Gospel narratives which
hundred^ ^^^ ^® identified with
this to the 500, is that
to the disciples in Galilee, Matt.
xxviii. 16, 17, 18, where from the
expression 'but some doubted,'
it has been sometimes argued that
there must have been others pre-
sent besides the eleven Apostles,
who alone are expressly men-
tioned. The number of those belie-

vers to whom our Lord is here said
to have appeared far exceeds the
sum total of believers (120) men-
tioned in Acts i. 15, as assembled
in Jerusalem after the Ascension.
If it were the meeting in Gali-
lee, the larger number might
perhaps be accounted for by the
effect of our Lord's teaching as
still preserved in the scene of His
original ministrations. If, as is
perhaps implied by the order in
which it occurs, it were some
meeting at Jerusalem not men-
tioned in the Gospels, then we
must suppose that the numbers
were swelled by Galilean or other
disciples, not yet dispersed after
the concourse of the Passover.

For €7rdv(ji TrevTaKOCTLOLSy instead
of €7rav(o -^j compare TrpaOrjvai
eTrdvix) SrjvapLwv TpiaKoa-imv, Mark
xiv. 5, and Ex. xxx. 14, xxxix.
3. (LXX.) diro (.iKoaaeroxxs kol
kirdvoi. Chrysostom says that
some in his time took eTrdvoi to
be, ' in the sky,' or ' on a hill.'

itfidTrai may be, either ' once,'
i.e. ' on one occasion, but on one
occasion only ; ' or ' at once,' i.e.
'to the whole number, not at
different times, but at the same
time.' The first will agree best
with the usual meaning of the
word, the second with the con-
text.

ot TrXciove?, ' the majority.'

ficvovcTL, ' continue alive.' For
a similar use of the word /xevw,
comp. John xxi. 22, 23. The sur-
vivors are mentioned as so many
living witnesses of the event

EESURRECTION OF CHRIST.

289

» Add Kal.
present, but some are fallen asleep. '^ After that, He was seen by James,

which had taken place between
twenty and thirty years ago. By
speaking of those who had died
in the interval, he may perhaps
imply that, if there were no Re-
surrection (comp. 1 Thess. iv. 15),
there would then be, as it were,
a special injustice done to those,
few as they might be, who had
been tantalised by the glimpse of
another world in the vision of
their risen Lord, without the hope
of sharing in it themselves. To
them would apply almost literally
the words, ' Then they also
which have fallen asleep in
Christ have perished ' (verse 18).
For iKOLfirjOr](rav, compare vii. 39,
xi. 30.

7 The appearance to James is
elsewhere only men-
' tioned in the 'Gospel
of the Hebrews : ' * But the Lord,
when He had given the linen gar-
ment to the servant of the high
priest [this apparently alludes in
some manner to the story in Mark
xiv. 51], went to James and ap-
peared to him. For James had
sworn that he would not eat bread
from that hour in which he had
drunk the cup of the Lord, until
he should see Him risen (resur-
gentem) from the dead. "Bring,"
said the Lord, "a table and
bread ; " he brought a table and
bread, and He blessed it, and
broke it, and gave it to James the
Just, and said to him, " My bro-
ther, eat thy bread because the
Son of man is risen from the
dead " ' (Hieron. Catal. Scriptor.
in Jacob.).

The vow of James in this pas-
sage is founded apparently on our

Lord's speech in Matt. xxvi. 29
(' I will not drink of the fruit of
the vine, until that day when I
drink it new with you in my
Father's kingdom ') ; and agrees
with the ascetic traits ascribed
to James (Eus. H. E. ii. 23).
The whole story coincides with
the assertion (John vii. 5) that
'His brethren believed not in
Him.' On the other hand, it
would be difficult to reconcile the
immediateness of the appearance,
as implied in this narrative, with
the order in which it is here re-
lated, not amongst the first, but
amongst the last of the appear-
ances ; an arrangement which
agrees better with the tradition in
Eusebius, that the appearance to
James was a year after the re-
surrection. The same argument
also tells against a recent, and
not improbable conjecture, that
if Cleopas, in Luke xxiv. 18, is
Alphseus, his companion may
have been his son James; and
that thus the appearance at Em-
maus may have been the one here
spoken of.

The only special appearances
here recorded are those to the
two chief Jewish Apostles, Peter
and James, who are also singled
out from the rest in Gal. i. 18,
19, ii. 9, 11, 12, and, by implica-
tion, in 1 Cor. ix. 5, and in this
case, each is introduced as usher-
ing in an appearance to the
Apostles collectively.

The appearance to ' all the
Apostles ' may be iden-
tified with that in John ^^^^H^.
XX. 26 ; in Matt, xxviii.

290

FIEST EPISTLE: CHAP. XV. 8—10.

*IaKco/3cp, cTra rot? aTTOcrroXot? Tracriv. ^ecr^arov Se iravToyv
oicnrepei rco e/crpw/iart co^Ot) KajioL. ^ eyco yap elyn 6

then by all the apostles. ^But last of all — as by one born out of due

16; or in Acts i. 4; the last is
most probable.

The word Tracrtv is added :

(1) To indicate an appearance
to the Apostles, not singly but
collectively, like i<f>d7ra$ in verse
6 ; or (2) To mark the contrast
of the appearance to James.
' First to James, then not only to
James, but to all,' in which case
it would be an argument in fa-
vour of the identity of James of
Jerusalem with James the son of
Alphseus.

The first is most in accordance
with the position of the words,
which, in case the second inter-
pretation were right, would in
classical Greek be tol<s Tracriv or
Tots aXXot? aTTOO-ToXot?, But the
order of the sentence, especially
as regards the last word, is so
frequently disturbed in this Epi-
stle (see note on viii. 11), that on
the whole the latter interpreta-
tion may be preferred as best
agreeing with the sense. The
variation of phrases in St. Paul
is so frequent that no stress can
be laid on the distinction between
Tot9 ScoSeKtt in ver. 5, and rot?
aTToo-ToXots here.

T(3 eKTpw/iart is probably 'the
untimely offspring,' as in Job iii.
6, 16 ; Eccles. vi. 2. (LXX.) ;
the Apostle calling himself so,
partly in allusion to the abrupt-
ness of his conversion, partly to
his inferiority to the other Apo-
stles as explained in the next
verse, ' the least of the apostles,
who am not meet to be called an
apostle.' The corresponding word
dbortivm, in Latin, was meta-

phorically applied, as here, to
such senators as were appointed
irregularly (Suet. Oct. c. 35, 2).
The word itself is of Macedonian
Greek, and corresponds to the
Attic a/jL^Xw/jia. The article is
prefixed, as referring to the ge-
neral fact of abortions. Theo-
phylact says that some in his
time took it to be ' the last child '
{v(TT€pov yewrjfjLa) ; a meaning
which would suit the contrast
equally, but can hardly be ac-
cepted without more authority.

uxfiOyj Ka/xoi. The word here
applied to the appearance of our
Lord to St. Paul, is the ^^^ ^^
same as that used in the st. Paul
indirect allusions to it '^''^•
in the Acts (ix. 17, xxvi. 16),
and agrees with St. Paul's own
expression in ix. 1 : ' Have I not
seen {ovk cw/oa/ca ;) the Lord
Jesus ? ' In both these passages
he must refer chiefly, if not ex-
clusively, to the vision on the
road to Damascus (Acts ix. 1).
Here, as in many other instances,
the account in the Acts under-
states what the Apostle says of
himself. Nothing is there given,
except the dazzling light and the
voice. Whether, however, it is
that the Apostle conceives the
whole scene as making up the
impression here described, or
whether he speaks of some distinct
appearance not expressed in the
narrative in the Acts, it is evident
that both here and in ix. 1, he
considers himself to be a witness
of the Resurrection, as truly as
the other Apostles ; though long
afterwards, as is implied by the

EESUEEECTION OF CHRIST.

291

iXa^tcrro? to)v olttocttoXcov, 09 ovk elfXL uKavos KakeLcrOai
aTrdcTToXog, StdrtlSt&ifa Tr)v eKKXr)aCav tov 6eov* ^^^dpni

time, — He was seen by me also. ^For J am the least of the apostles,
that am not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church
of God: ^°but by the grace of God I am what 1 am: and His grace which

words, ' to one born out of due
time.' The only other direct
allusion which his Epistles con-
tain to the fact, in Gal. i. 16,
* God was pleased to reveal His
Son in me ' (d7roKa\vx{/ai iv i/xoL),
implies an inward rather than
an outward vision.

9 The greatness of the vision
awakens in him the thought of
his own unworthiness, and there-
fore, instead of proceeding at
once to the result of his mission,
he dwells for a moment on the
humiliating circumstances which
distinguished it from the call of
the other Apostles. ' I say " to
one born out of due time," and
"last of all," for I (iyui yap),
whatever may be the case with
them, am the least of the
Apostles.' The ground of this
keen self-reproach was the fact,
naturally recalled to him by the
circumstances of his conversion,
that he had ' persecuted the
Church of God.' The expression
' persecute ' (StwKco), or * perse-
cute the Church of God,' seems
to be appropriated in an especial
manner to St. Paul. It is used
by himself of this act, in Gal. i.
13, 23 ; 1 Tim. i. 13 ; and in the
Acts ix. 4, 5, xxvi. 11 ; the last
passage (iStwKov cw? Kal ci? ras
€^(1) TToAct?) indicating the pe-
culiar appropriateness of the
word in his case, from its original
sense of ' pursuing.' The ex-
pression ' the Church of God ' is
used for the sake of greater
solemnity, perhaps also to mark

more strongly his sense (as in
Gal. i. 13), that the Christian
society which he persecuted had
superseded the ancient Church
in the name of which he perse-
cuted.

iKttvo?, 'fit,' see 2 Cor. iii. 5.

A like digression, occasioned
by the mention of his mission, is
found in Eph. iii. 8, where the
expression 'the least of the
apostles ' is carried out into the
still stronger expression 'less
than the least of all the saints '
(€\a)^i(TTOT€pio TrdvTOiv Ttoi/ dyiuiv).
Another is' 1 Tim. i. 12-16,
where, as here, there is the al-
lusion to his persecution of the
Church, — ' who before was a
blasphemer and persecutor (8t-
wK-nys) and injurious ; ' with
still more vehement expressions
of self-abasement — ' sinners, of
whom I am chief.' In all these
three passages the contrast be-
tween his present and his pa'^t
life is naturally connected with
the goodness of God by which
the change was effected. In this
passage the thought is coloured
by the historical character of the
Epistle. He here expresses his
sense, not only of what he had
been, but of what he actually felt
himself now to be. ' By the
grace of God I am what I am.'
And the force of this is explained
by what follows. ' And His
grace was not in vain ; yea, I
toiled more abundantly than
they all.' It is a correction of
his strong expressions ; a protest

V 2

292

FIRST EPISTLE: CHAP. XV. 11.

8e 0€ov elfJbl 6 eljJLL, kol t) X'^P^^ avrov r) eU e/Ae ov Kevr)
iyevTJOr)^ dXka TrepicrcroTepov avTcop TrdvToyv e/co7rtaora, ovk

was bestowed upon me was not in vain ; but 1 laboured more abundantly

against the possible misconstruc-
tion of his words by those to
whom he had previously alluded
in the same indirect manner, in
ix. 1-5, when there was a ques-
tion of his right to the Apostle-
ship, — 'though I am the least
of the Apostles, though I am not
fit to bear the name which I bear,
though it is but by the goodness
of God that I am anything, yet
still I am what T am ; it is not
for nothing that God's goodness
was so wonderfully shown to-
wards me. Although my right
to the name of an Apostle may
be doubted, even by myself, yet
my exertion has been greater
than that of any of the Apostles.'
Compare the whole passage of
2 Cor. xii. 7-12.

K€vrj, '■ vain,' i.e. ' without
fruits,' as in 14 and 58. His
exertions are at once the effect
and the repayment of God's fa-
vour.

iKOTTLacra, ' I toiled,' as in
Matt. vi. 28 ; Luke v. 5 ; Acts
XX. 35 ; E,om. xvi. 6. For both
words see Phil. ii. 16, ovk eis
Kevbv eKOTTLaa-a.

This thought of self-exaltation
is but momentary, and he returns
to the feeling of dependence and
humiliation from which he had
started — * Yet not I, but the
grace of God which is with me.'
For this complete merging of his
own personality in the conscious-
ness of a higher power working
with and in him, compare Gal.
ii. 20, ' I live, yet not I, but
Christ liveth in me ; ' and in a
bad sense, Rom. vii. 1 7, ' Not I,

'■ The
ffrace of
God.'

but sin that dwelleth in me.' In
this passage, as often elsewhere,
he describes his higher power as
17 X'^pt-'i ''"OV Oeov. The
exact sense is, ' The
gracious countenance
and free goodness of God, mani-
festing itself in His gifts ; ' and
hence, as in the analogous word
dyaTTjy (Love), the meaning fluc-
tuates between the abstract attri-
bute of God, and its concrete
exemplifications in the qualities
or faculties of the human heart
and mind. Such are the shades
of meaning which it bears, as
thrice repeated here; 'By the
undeserved goodness of God ; ' —
' the goodness of God which ex-
tended itself to me (rj ct? e/x.e,
not iv ifxot) ' — * the goodness of
God which toiled with me {o-vv
e/xot).' In this last expression
the goodness of God is personi-
fied, as elsewhere Sin, Death,
Love. (See note on xiii. 4.)
' By my side was another Power,
sharing in my toils and difficul-
ties. It was the Good Hand of
God.' Compare Oeov arvvepyoi,
iii. 9; 2 Cor. vi. 1. This sense
is brought out more strongly by
the omission of rj before criiv, in
B.D». F. G.

1 1 He now sums up his whole
argument by merging whatever
differences there might be be-
tween him and the other Apostles
in the one fact, which both alike
had to announce. ' Whether it
were I or they,' implies again
the consciousness of a supposed
rivalry between his claims and
those of others, and helps to ex-

EESUEEECTION OF CHRIST.

29a

ctre €KelvoL, ovtws Kripvcrcrofjiep, Kai ovtco's CTrto'Teucrare.

7] aw.

than they all, yet not J, but the grace of God with me. "Whether,
therefore, it were I or they, so we preach, and so ye believed.

plain the short interruption in
verse 10,

' ovTws Kr]pv<T<Toix€v z such con-

tinues to be our message ! guch
at your conversion was your
belief (cTrto-Tevo-arc).'

Paraphrase of Chap. XV. 1—11.

/ now call to your remembrance, in conclusion, the stihstance of
the glad tidings ivhich I announced to you, and the mode in
which I told it; glad tidings indeed of which you hardly
need to he reminded, since you not only received it from me,
but have made it the foundation of your lives ever since ; and
not only have made it the foundation of your lives, but are
to be saved by it now and hereafter y if only you hold it fast
in your recollection, if your conversion was anything more
than a mere transitory impulse. Yes, you must remember it ;
for it was among the very first things which I told to you, as
it was among the very first which I learned myself. It was:
That Christ died for our sins, fulfilling in His death the
prophecies concerning One who was to be wounded for our
transgressions and bruised for our iniquities, and whose soul
was to be an offering for sin. That He was laid in the
sepulchre, and that out of that sepulchre He has been raised
up and lives to die no more, again fulfilling the words in the
Psalms, which declare that His soul should not be left in the
grave, and that the Holy One should not see corruption. 1
told you also, as a proof of this, that he appeared to Kephas,
chief of the Apostles, and then to the Apostles collectively.
Next came the great appearance to more than five hundred
believers together, the majority of whom are still living to
testify to it, though some few have carried their testimony
with them to the grave. Then again came a twofold appear-
ance ; this time not to Kephas, but to his great colleague,
James, and afterwards, as before, to the Apostles collectively.

294 FIRST EPISTLE.

Last of all, when the roll of Apostles seemed to he complete,
was the sudden appearance to me ; a just delay ^ a just humi-
liation for one whose persecution of the congregation of God^s
people did indeed sink me below the level of the Apostles, and
rendered me unworthy even of the name, and makes me feel
that I owe all to the undeserved favour of God. A favour
indeed which was not bestowed in vain, which has issued in a
life of exertion far exceeding that of all the Apostles, from
whose number some would wish to exclude me ; but yet, after
all, an exertion not the result of my oivn strength, but of this
same Favour toiling with me as my constant companion. It
is not, however, on any distinction between myself and the
other Apostles, that I would now dwell. I confine myself to
the one great fact of which we all alike are the heralds, and
which was alike to all of you the foundation of your faith.

The First Creed, and the First Evidence op Christianity.

The foregoing Section is remarkable in two points of
view : I. It contains the earliest known specimen of what may
y , be called the Creed of the early Church. In one

form of sense, indeed, it diifers from what is properly called a
Creed. Creed, which was the name applied, not to what
new converts were taught, but to what they professed on their
conversion. Such a profession is naturally to be found only
in the Acts of the Apostles ; as an impassioned expression of
thanksgiving, in Acts iv. 24-30 ; or more frequently as a
simple expression of belief, in Acts viii. 37 (in some MSS.),
and in Acts xvi. 31, xix. 15. But the present passage gives
us a sample of the exact form of the oral teaching of the
Apostle. It cannot be safely inferred that we have here the
whole of what he means to describe as the foundation of his
preaching ; partly because of the expression * first of all,'
partly because, from the nature of the case, he brings forward
most prominently what was specially required by the occasion.
Still, on the whole, the more formal and solemn introduction
of the argument, ^ I delivered, I received,' as in xi. 23, and
the conciseness of the phrases, ^ died,' * was buried,' and the
twice-repeated expression ' according to the Scriptures,' imply

THE FIEST CREED. 295

that at least in the third and fourth verses we have the original
formula of the Apostle's teaching. And this is confirmed by
its similarity to parts of the Creeds of the first three centuries,
especially to that which, under the name of the Apostle's
Creed, has been generally adopted in the Churches of the
West.

Of the details of this primitive formula, enough has been
said. But it is important to observe also its general character.
Two points chiefly present themselves, as distinguishing it
from later productions of a similar nature : ( 1 ) It is I.
a strictly historical composition. It is what the Historical.
Apostle himself calls it, not so much a Creed as a ' Gospel ; '
a ' Gospel ' both in the etymological sense of that word in
English as well as in Greek, as a * glad message,' and also in
the popular and ancient sense in which it is applied to the
narratives of our Lord's life. It is the announcement, not of
a doctrine, or thought, or idea, but of simple matters of fact ;
of a joyful message, which its bearer was eager to disclose, and
its hearers eager to receive. Dim notions of some great
changes coming over the face of the world, vague rumours of
some wide movement spreading itself from Palestine, had
swept along the western shores of the Mediterranean ; and
in answer to the inquiries thus suggested. Apostle and Evan-
gelist communicated the ' things that they had seen or heard.'
Thus the Apostle's * Gospel ' was contained in the brief sum-
mary here presented, and such a summary as this became the
origin of the * Gospels,' and, according to the wants of the
readers, was expanded into the detailed narratives which still
retain the name of ' glad tidings,' though, strictly speaking,
that name belonged only to the original announcement of their
contents.

(2) Amongst the various forms of the creeds of the first
four centuries, there are only two (those of Tertul- jj^
lian ^ and of Epiphanius ; ^ from whom, probably, it was Grounded

derived in the Nicene Creed) which contain the ex- ^ \^® ^^^

^ Testament.

pressions here twice repeated, 'accordmg to the
Scriptures,' and in those two probably imitated from this place.
The point, though minute, is of importance, as helping to bring
before us the different aspect which the same events wore to
the Apostolical age and to the next generations. If in so

Adv. Prax. c. 2. ^ jj p i22.

296 riEST EPISTLE.

compendious an account of the facts of the Gospel history, the
Apostle twice over repeats that they took place in conformity
with the ancient prophecies, it is evident that his hearers must
have been not only familiar with the Old Testament, but
anxious to have their new faith brought into connexion with
it. Later ages have delighted in discovering mystical antici-
pations or argumentative proofs of the New Testament in the
Old ; but these words carry us back to a time when the events
of Christianity required, as it were, not only to be illustrated
or confirmed, but to \)Q justified by reference to Judaism. We
have in them the sign that, in reading this Epistle, although on
the shores of Greece, we are still overshadowed by the hills of
Palestine : the older covenant still remains in the eye of the
world as the one visible institution of Divine origin ; the
' Scriptures ' of the Old Testament are still appealed to ^vith
undivided reverence, as the stay of the very writings which
were destined so soon to take a place, if not above, at least
beside them, with a paramount and independent authority.

II. This passage contains the earliest extant account of
Earliest ^^ Resurreclion of Christ. Thirty years at the most,
account of twenty years at the least, had elapsed, — that is to
rection^of ^ay, about the same period as has intervened between
Christ. this year (1875) and the Crimean War of 1853;
and, as the Apostle observes, most of those to whom he
appeals as witnesses were still living ; and he himself, though
not strictly an eye-witness of the fact of the Resurrection,
yet, in so far as he describes the vision at his conversion,
must be considered as bearing unequivocal testimony to the
belief in it prevailing at that time. Its importance in regard
to the details of the appearances shall be noticed elsewhere.*

The Resureection of the Dead.
Chap. XV. 12—34.

In the preceding verses the Apostle had carried himself and
his readers back to the time when he first came among them,
and when they had eagerly embraced the message which he

^ See Essay * On the Relation of the Epistles to the Gospel History,'
at the end of this work.

THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD. 297

bore of the Resurrection of Christ. He had recalled to them
the enthusiasm with which they had received it ; the stead-
fastness with which they clung to it ; the hopes which it held
out to thera.^ He had recalled also the very words {tIvl Xoyw)
in which he had announced it ; the successive scenes by which
it had been attested ; the appearances to Peter and James the
greatest of the elder Apostles ; the appearances to all the
Apostles in a body ; the appearance to the whole company of
believers, with some of whom they might themselves have
conversed ; the appearance, lastly, to himself, himself a living
proof of the reality of the vision ; the vision a certain sign of
the reality of his Apostleship. On this one point, amidst
their other differences of character and calling, himself and
the other Apostles, himself and his readers, were all agreed.

And now what was, or ought to be, the result of this agree-
ment? 'If the chief announcement concerning Christ be,
that He has been raised from the dead, how is it possible for
any of you to maintain that there is no such thing as a resur-
rection of the dead ? It is a burst of indignant surprise,
which is immediately followed by a rapid exhibition of the
irreconcilable character of the two statements. The argument
would seem to imply that those who denied the general
Kesurrection, still admitted the Resurrection of Christ; but
this is not quite certain, because in his appeal to the Resur-
rection of Christ he may be addressing himself, not to the
false teachers themselves, but to the Corinthians who might
be deluded by them ; and the great particularity, with which
he has enumerated the several witnesses of the Resurrection,
may be taken to indicate that there were some who doubted
it. But however this may be, he assumes the truth of the
fact here, and uses it as the chief answer to his opponents.
The connexion which he endeavours to establish between the
denial of the general Resurrection, and the denial of Christ's
Resurrection, although it may be coloured by his prevailing
idea of the identification of Christ and His followers, appears
in this instance to rest on the simple argument, that if they
denied any such thing as a resurrection, they must deny it in
every instance, and therefore in the case of Christ, as well as
of the dead generally.

^ XV. 1. TrapeXa/Sere . , . ea-TTJKare. , . (rco^fo-^e.

298

FIRST EPISTLE: CHAP. XV. 12—19.

13
rat

€L

el Se )(pLcrTo<; KiqpvcrcTeTaiy on Ik veKpcov iyrfyeprai, ttw?
\iyov(TLV ^iv vfuv nve^ otl avdcTTacri^ veKpcjv ovk €<ttlv;

ei Be avdcTTao-i^ veKpatp ovk e<jTiv^ ovhe ^tcrro? eyyjyep-
Xpi'O-T0<5 OVK iy-qyepTai, Kevov dpa ^ [/<al] to
KyjpvyfJLa rjfxcji', Keprj^ /cat 7) Trtcrrts v/xwz/, ^^ evpKjKoixeOa
he KOI \jjevSofidpTvpe<i tov 0eov, on ep^apTVprjcrapLev Kara
Tov Oeov OTL TjyeLpev tov voicttoj', ov ovk rjyeipeu el irep
apoL veKpoi OVK eyeupovTai. ^ eu yap veKpoi ovk eyeipovTaiy

' Tives eV vfjuv.

" Om. Kal.

/cevT) 8e Kai.

^~Now if Christ is preached that He is raised from the dead, how say-
some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead ? ^^ But if
there is no resurrection of the dead, neither is Christ raised : ^^and if
Christ be not raised, then also our preaching is vain, vain also is your
faith, ^°and we also are found false witnesses of God, because we testified
of God that He raised up Christ ; whom He raised not up, if so be that
the dead are not raised. ^^For if the dead are not raised, then is not

12-14 To the minds of the
deniers the phrase dvao-raats
v€Kp(i}v probably conveyed only
the notion of the general resur-
rection, more especially as the
usual word for Christ's resusci-
tation is not avacrrrjcraL, but (as
throughout this Chapter) iyei-
petv. Still the denial by impli-
cation, and if expressed univer-
sally (not 7} dmo-raorts t co v vck-
pcov, but av dcr T acr fi veKpwv),
would exclude in every shape the
possibility of a revival from the
grave.

K€v6v, KevTJ : ' unmeaning is my
preaching, because the Resurrec-
tion was its subject ; and your
faith, because it rested on this
preaching.' The idea of Christ's
higher nature, which might ex-
empt Him from the ordinary law
of death, does not here enter into
consideration.

15-19 He proceeds to explain
these two assertions : the futility
of his preaching in 15, 16 (evpt-

(TKojjieOa . . . iyrjy^pTai) ; the fu-
tility of their faith in 17, 18 (et
Se . . . ajTOiXovTo) .

First. ' Our preaching is un-
meaning, because we are then
discovered to have borne false
testimony of God's acts' They
had been specially chosen to be
witnesses (iJidpTvp€<s) of this very
fact, Acts X. 41, ii. 32, iii. 15,
xiii. 31.

Kara tov 6eov is : either (1)
' with regard to God,' with a
latent allusion to the sense of
'invoking;' or (2) 'against
God,' i.e. ' imputing to Him
what He has not done.' Com-
pare Matthew xxvi. 62, xxvii.
13 ; Deuteronomy xix. 15, 16
(LXX.) ; and for the sense
1 John i. 10.

17, 18 Up to this point his
argument has been (not ' if
Christ be not risen, there is no
resurrection,' but) ' if there be
no resurrection, then is Christ
not risen.' Now, he advances a

THE KESUREECTION OF THE DEAD.

299

ouSe x/^tcrros iyrjyepTaL. ^^ el Se ^ptcrro? ovk iyajyepTai,
fMaTaCa rj ttictti'^ vfJLOjp^ \_i(TTLv~\j ert ecrre if rat? a/;ta/3rtat?
vfjLCJV, ^^dpa Koi ol Konxy]OevTe'^ ev )(pl(ttS aircoXoPTO. ^^€t

Omit

Christ raised : "and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain, ye are yet
in your sins, ^^then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ perished.
^If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most

step further, and after having in
15, 16 shown that by the denial
of the general resurrection his
preaching would be rendered un-
meaning, he now in 17, 18 shows,
secondly, that by the consequent
denial of the resurrection of
Christ, their faith would be ren-
dered unmeaning (/xarata^ Kcvrf
in verse 14), for there would be
this twofold result :

(1) That if Christ be not
risen, they would not rise from
the death of sin. Compare Rom.
vi. 1-11.

(2) That if Christ be not
risen, those believers who are
already dead have perished. This
last is put as the climax of the
whole argument. One of the
most harrowing thoughts, as we
see from 1 Thess. iv. 13, to the
Apostolical Christians, was the
fear lest their departed brethren
should by a premature death be
debarred from that communion
with the Lord which they hoped
to enjoy ; and in itself nothing
could be more disheartening to
the Christian's hope, than to find
that Christians had lived and
died in vain.

By 'thovse who have fallen
asleep in Christ,' the Apostle
means ' those who have died in
communion with Christ' — 'the
Christian dead ' (like ' the dead
in Christ,' ot ve/cpot ol iv ^^ptcrro) :
Rev. xiv. 18; 1 Thess. iv. 16).
And here, as in xv. 51 and

1 Thess. iv. 15, he distinguishes
between these and those who
will live to witness the end.
Possibly he alludes to those of
whom he had spoken in verse 6,
as having in an especial manner
fallen asleep, with Christ in im-
mediate prospect.

Observe the connexion be-
tween the spiritual and the lite-
ral resurrection, of both of which
our Lord's resurrection is equally
the pledge. Compare Rom. viii.
10, 11 ; John y. 24-29.

KOLfxrjOevT€^ . . . aTTcuAovTO, * when
they died . . . they perished en-
tirely ; ' corresponding in the fu-
ture world to ecTTi iv rats a/xap-
Ttats in this. ' The living will
be left in sin, the dead will be
left in death, which is the con-
sequence of sin,' in opposition to
<T0)t,€(T6aL. Compare 2 Cor. ii.
15: 'In them that are saved,
and in them that perish.'

19 He still dwells on the deep
sadness of the conclusion to
which the denial of the resurrec-
tion would bring them. If in
this sentence we are guided by
the easiest sense, then the word
' only ' (ixovov) must be con-
nected with iv rfi ^wry ravrri, and
its transposition to the end of
the sentence must be regarded as
one of the strangeuesses of style
noticed under viii. 11. But, if
we can rely on the position of the
word, and the tense of i7A.7rtKores
ecr/xeV, then the word ' only ' re-

300

FIEST EPISTLE: CHAP. XV. 20—24.

'^fi l^V '^oLvrrj ^ev ypicrrco rfXTTLKore^ icrfiev ixovov,
iXeeivoTepoL ttolvtcov dvOpcoTTcop iarjjLev. '^^vvvl 8e ^ptcrro?

b 21

eyrjyepTaL e/c veKpcov, airap^ T(t>v KeKOLfxrifJievcov. "^ eireu

Br)
yap Sl dvOpcoTTOv ^Odvaros, kol Sl dvOpcoirov dvacTTacn^
veKpojv, ^ (ocnrep yap ev T(o AoajXTravTe'; aTrouvrjo-Kovcnv,

» ij\iriK6T€S iff/xhv iv Xpiffr^ fi6vov. ^ Add iyevero. « 6 BduaTos.

miserable. ^^But now is Christ raised from the dead, the first fruits of
them that sleep. ^^For since by man came death, by man came also the
resurrection of the dead. ^2^^^ g^g j^ Adam all die, even so in Christ

fers to the whole clause, the
stress being specially laid on
rfXTTLKOTcs icTfjieVj ' If Tve have
nothing but a mere empty hope
in Christ which will never be
fulfilled.' ' If we have hoped to
the end, and done nothing more
than hope.' (Comp. Rora. viii.
24, ' Hope that is seen is not
hope.') The use of ^wrj, as dis-
tinct from a state, for a period
of existence, is very rare in the
New Testament, and occurs only
here and in Luke xvi. 25.

iXecLvoTcpoL, ' more wretched
than all who are not Christians.'
' We have fallen from the great-
est of hopes, which we have pur-
chased at the greatest of costs.'
For the force of the expression
see on verse 32.

20 From this gloomy thought
he breaks off into the joyful con-
trast, suggested by the fact that,
in spite of these speculations,
Christ has risen ; and that as in
His not rising the Christian's
hope of immortality would have
perished, so in His resurrection
the whole human race rises also.

wvl 84, ' but as it is,' as the
case actually stands. For the
idea see Col. i. 18, apx^ tt/xoto-

T0/C05 €K VeKp(x)V.

aTTapxq, ' *^® ^^^^ fruits,' or
first sheaf, to be followed by the
whole harvest, alluding to the
first fruits of the passover in

Lev. xxiii. 10, 1 1, on the second
day of which feast a sheaf of
ripe corn was, for the first time,
offered on the altar, as a conse-
cration of the coming harvest.
Compare the allusion to the
Paschal feast in v. 6. Both
probably were suggested by the
time of year when the Apostle
wrote.

Tuiv KCKot/jirjixevoiv is put, in-
stead of Tu)v veKpCjv, as the natu-
ral expression for the Christian
dead, of whom the Apostle is
chiefly thinking.

21, 2 2 The reason of this con-
nexion between His resurrection
and ours is, that He is the repre-
sentative of the whole human
race (see xii. 12) in this its se-
cond creation. (Comp. Rom. v.
12, 18.) There is also the idea,
which in the Gospel appears not
as much with regard to the Re-
surrection as the judgment, that
man must in some sense be re-
deemed, raised, judged, by man.
Hence the constant expression
' the Son of Man,' applied to
Christ. The second part of the
argument, where ' man ' is in-
dividualised in Adam and Christ,
explains the first part. * As in
the Adam (iv tw 'ASoi/a), so in the
Messiah (iv T^)^LaT(o), or Second
Man.' For the application of
the name of ' the Second Adam '
to the Messiah, see Schottgen on

THE EESURKECTION OF THE DEAD.

301

our&>9 Koi kv rw ^picrr^ 7rdvT€<; tjCDOTTOLiqOrjcrovTaiy ^^eKa-
(TTO^ Se kv T(o ISicp rcty/xarc airapxv XP^o'tos, eireira ol
^Tov ^pLCTTov kv Tjj wapovaia avTov, '^^elra to Te\o<;, orav
^ irapahihol ttjv ^aatXeiav rw 6eco kolL Trarpi^ orav Karap-

• Om. rov.

* irapaS^.

shall all be made alive, ^'but every one in his own order : Christ the
first fruits, afterward they that are Christ's at His coming, '^^then the
end, when He shall deliver up the kingdom to God and the Father, when
He shall have made to vanish away all rule and all authority and power.

verse 17. Here, as in Rom. xi.
32, the Apostle is not thinking
of the fate of the wicked, but of
the universal love of God and
the universal power of Christ.

t,oiOTroiy]6'rj(TovTaL must, accord-
ing to the general use of the
word, be taken of resurrection
to life eternal.

23, 24 What follows is not
strictly necessary to the argu-
ment ; but here, as often (see on
iii. 23, xi. 3), when he speaks
of the glory and exaltation of
Christ, he carries it up to the
highest point, where it loses it-
self in the glory of God ; as if
fearing lest the harmony and
continuity of the Divine order
should in any way be inter-
rupted ; lest the soul should halt
in its upward flight, at any lower
resting-place than the presence
of God Himself.

In 1 Thess. iv. 13-17, as here,
the Apostle implies a first resur-
rection of the followers of Christ
at the moment of His coming ;
and in Rev. xx. 13, 14, xxi. 3,
4, 22-25, there is the same ge-
neral description of the over-
throw of death, and of the ab-
sorption of all power and glory
and outward rule, into the imme-
diate presence of God.

The whole resurrection of the
human race is represented as one
prolonged fact of which the

resurrection of Christ is the first
beginning.

ray/xart, i.e. ' troop, as in an
army,' see (in Wetstein) Jos. B.
J. III. iv. 2 ; Plutarch. 0th. c.
12 ; where rdy/m. is used as
synonymous with A-eycoii/, as
though the scene were presented
of troop after troop appearing
after their victorious general.

ol Tov xptoTov, i.e. ' believers,*
see 1 Thess. iv. 16 ; Rev. xx. 4.

24 TO T€Xo<;, ' the end of the
world,' see Matt, xxi v. 13.

orav, ' whenever the time
comes for His giving up.'

T^v /Saa-iXeiav, ' His reign ' (see
Rev. xix. 15). The article is
explained by what follows.

The especial object of intro-
ducing in this place the destruc-
tion of power and authority is
for the sake of showing that
Death, the king of the human
race, will be destroyed in their
destruction. When all the sins
and evils for the restraint or
punishment of which power and
authority exist, shall have been
put down, then all power and
authority, even that of Christ
Himself, shall end, and fear of
' the Lord ' shall be swallowed
up in love of ' the Father.'

Karapyrja-rf, He=' Christ.'

TTtto-av i^ovcrtav, k. t. A. * All
power oi every kind, of man,
of Death, and lastly of Himself,

302

FIKST EPISTLE: CHAP. XV. 25—29.

yyjcrrj TTOLcrav ap^r]v koI Tracrav k^ovcriav KalhvvaixLv. ^^Set
yap avTov ^acrikeveiv, axP''^ ^^* ^V '^rdvTaq tovs kyOpov^
[avTovJ VTTo Tov^ TTOoa? avTov. "ecr^aros €)(opo<i Karap-
yeirai 6 Odvarof;. '^^ Trdvra yap vneTa^ev vtto tov<; TrdSa?
avTOV. orav Se eiiTrj [ort] iravTa viroriTaKrai, hrjkov on
e/cTos Tou vTroragaz^To? avro) ra iravra' ^^orav be virorayr)
avrS rd iravTa, Tore [/cat] avTos 6 vlo^ vworayijcreTaL tcj

IV &v.

* Om. avToi

^^ For He must reign, till He hath put all His enemies under His feet.
'^^'The last enemy that is made to vanish away is death. -^For ' He put
all things under His feet.' But when He saith, that ' all things are put
under Him/ it is manifest that He is excepted who did put all things
under Him : ^^and when all things shall be put under Him, then shall
also the Son Himself be put under Him that put all things under Him,

whicli intervenes between the
supreme government of God and
the creatures He has made.'

25,26 Set yap jSacTikcveLV. The
reign of Christ here spoken of
may be either between the first
resurrection and ' the end ; ' or
more generally from the time of
His ascension ; in which case
compare the description of its
beginning in Eph. i. 20-23, where
many of the same expressions
recur : ' He set Him at His own
right hand in the heavenly
places, far above every princi-
pality, and power, and might,
and dominion, and put all things
under His feet.'

Christ must reign (/3ao-tA.ci;etv)
till Death, who is personified as
being the rival king (Rom. v.
14), is destroyed (Rev. xx. 14).
Then, and not till then, will the
object of Christ's reign be fully
accomplished. The context shows
that 'until' (axpis ov) marks
the limit beyond which Christ's
reign is not to extend.

Set, i.e. according to the pro-
phecy in Ps. ex. 1.

Orj, He = Christ as in 24.

ytipy a reason for KaTa/oyTytry.

27 orav 8c €17777, i.e. in Ps. viii.
6. What is in the first instance
said of man generally, is here,
as in Heb. ii. 7 ; Matt. xxi. 16,
applied to the Messiah, as the
representative of man.

VTrira^ev and rov VTroTd^avTog
refer to God.

28 This final subordination of
the Son to the Father is appa-
rently the object of the digres-
sion, which closes with it.

' That God may be all in
all.' This passage, as .That God
expressing what the may be aii
Apostle looked to as ^^ *^^'
the consummation of the world,
must be regarded as the con-
summation of all his teaching.
In almost all later systems of
religion and philosophy, there has
been an element corresponding to
this Apostolic aspiration, a belief
that God is, or is to be, every-
where, and in all things. The
Apostle's words (6 ^€09 iravra iv
Traatv) may almost seem to have
given birth to the name literally
based on them,though now always
used in reproach, ^ pan-theism.^
It is not necessary here to dis-
tinguish these words from the

THE EESUKRECTION OF THE DEAD.

303

vTTOTa^avTL avTO) TOL TravTay Iva rj 6 ^eos ^iravTa ev ttolctiv.
^^€7r€L TL Troi-qarovaiv oi paTrri^o/xevot vTrep tojv veKpcop ; eu

• TCI irdura.
that God may be all in all. '^^Else what shall they do who are baptized

grosser, or the more exclusive
forms of this belief to which the
name of pantheism is usually ap-
plied. But the expression shows
that such a belief in God's uni-
versal and all-pervading presence
was not inconsistent with the
reverence for the Divine nature
and the sense of human responsi-
bility which run through all the
writings of St. Paul. Two points
seem especially intended : —

First, this is the most striking
instance of the mode in which he
always endeavours to carry up
the feelings of his readers from
Christ to God. His intention is
not to lower or disparage the
Divine union of Christ with the
Father, but to point out that
there is a height yet beyond,
from which all the blessings of
redemption no less than of crea-
tion flow. It has sometimes been
customary to represent God as
the object of fear ; Christ as the
object of love; God as the source
of justice, Christ as the source
of mercy. The Apostle's object
here is, if one may so say, directly
the reverse : Christ is spoken of
as the representative of autho-
rity, of control ; God is spoken of
as the Infinite rest and repose,
after the close of that long
struggle for which alone power
and authority are needed. The
Pagan views of the Divinity
never shrnnk from multiplying
the agencies, the persons, the
powers of God ; wherever an
operation of nature or of man
was discernible, there a new

deity was imagined. It is this
feeling which the Apostle
throughout combats. Even if in
this present world a distinction
must be allowed between God,
the Invisible Eternal Father, and
Christ, the Lord and Ruler of
man, he points our thoughts to a
time when this distinction will
cease, when the reign of all in-
termediate objects, even of Christ
Himself, shall cease, and God
will fill all the universe (Travra),
and be Himself present in the
hearts and minds of all (cv
Trao-tv) .

Secondly, the Apostle here
brings out, not only the Unity,
but the spirituality of the God-
head. All the outward institu-
tions which had held men to-
gether, even the massive frame-
work of Roman society, with its
vast array of rule and power —
even the reign of Christ Himself,
holding together as it does the
Churches which ' walk in the
fear of the Lord ' (Acts ix. 31) ;
— shall cease in that intimate
communion of man with God,
which is the last and highest
hope we can look forward to :
' I saw no temple in the city :
for the Lord God Almighty and
the Lamb are the temple of it.
And the city had no need of the
sun, neither of the moon, to
shine in it : for the glory of God
did lighten it, and the Lamb is
the light thereof,' Rev. xxi. 22,
23.

29 The connexion here is one
of the most abrupt to be found in

304

FIRST EPISTLE: CHAP. XV. 30.

6\o}<s veKpol ovK iyeipovTai^ tl koL j^aTrritflVTai virkp*

» xiirep Twv vcKpwv ;

for the dead ? If the dead are not raised at all, why are they then

St. Paul's Epistles. Digressions,
like that in verses 20-28, are
frequent, but they are usually so
wound up as to bring the Apostle
again to the point from which he
digressed. But in this instance
be leaves the new topic just at
the moment when he has pursued
it, as it were, to the remotest
point, and goes back to the gene-
ral argument as suddenly as if
nothing had intervened. The
two instances most similar are,
V. 9-vi. 8 ; 2 Cor. vi. 14-vii. 1.
Here, as there, the confusion may
possibly have arisen from some
actual interruption in the writing
or the material of the letter; the
main argument proceeding con-
tinuously from verse 20 to verse
29, and the whole intervening
passage, 21-28, being analogous
to what, in a modern composi-
tion, would be called a note.

He has said in 19, ' but for
the resurrection, we should be
the most to be pitied of all men.'
*Then, if the resurrection has
not taken place, as a pledge of
the general resurrection which is
to come, what will be the mean-
ing of the action of those who
are baptized for the dead ? what
is the meaning of our incurring
hourly danger ? '

Tl TTOLi^a-ovcnv ot paiTTitpfxevoL
would be more regular if it were
riTrovrjcrovo-L f^aTTTi^oixevoi ol Pairr. ;
' what will then be their object
in being baptized ? ' like ri Trotctrc
KA.aioi/TC9, Acts xxi. 13. It may,
however, be put absolutely as
here, tl TroLov/xev, in John xi. 47,
'What is the meaning of doing
as we do ? '

Such is the general sense of
the passage. The interpretation
of the particular words ' baptized
for the dead ' (ot ySaTrrt^d/xcvot
vTTcp Twv j/€K/3(oi/) is Very obscure.

Their natural signification,
' those who are baptized
in behalf of the dead,' foShe™
is strongly confi.rmed by ^^^^'
finding that there were some
sects in the first three centuries
who had this kind of baptism.
Tertullian (adv. Marcion. v. 10 ;
Res. Cam. cap. 48) and Chryso-
stom (Horn. 40, in 1 Cor. xv.)
speak of it as existing amongst
the Marcionites, who flourished
chiefly a.d. 130-150 ; and Epi-
phanius says, in his chapter on
the Corinthians, that there was
' an uncertain tradition handed
down, that it was also to be
found amongst some heretics in
Asia, especially in Galatia, in the
times of the Apostles.' From
Chrysostom we learn that ' after
a catechumen was dead they hid
a living man under the bed of
the deceased ; then coming to
the dead man they spoke to him,
and asked him whether he would
receive baptism ; and he making
no answer, the other replied in
his stead, and so they baptized
the living for the dead.' From
Epiphanius we learn that their
object in so doing was, ' lest in
the resurrection the dead should
be punished for want of baptism,
and not subjected to the powers
that made the world ' (Haer. 28,
6), to which must be added the
opinion of Hilary (Ambrosias ter),
that it was done ' in the case of
unexpected death, in the fear lest

THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD. 305

avTO)v; "t6 Acai r)[JLeL<; KivovvevoyLev iracrav copav ; /cat/
baptized for them 1 ^*^Why also stand we in jeopardy every hour ? ^^ I

the dead should either not arise
at all, or rise to evil.' In spite of
these testimonies to the existence
of the practice, every ancient
writer (with the exception of the
one last quoted) repudiates the
notion of any allusion to it in this
place ; evidently from the fear of
seeing any Apostolic sanction be-
stowed on a custom which seemed
to them superstitious. Yet there
are considerations which mitigate
the strangeness of the passage.
St. Paul's mode of speech and
action abounds in instances of
accommodation to the feelings
and opinions of those addressed,
without any expression of con-
demnation on his part. Such is
his frequent adoption of reason-
ings founded on the allegorical
interpretation of the Old Testa-
ment, as being the arguments
acknowledged by his readers.
See the allegory of Hagar and
Sarah, in Gal. iv. 21-31, * Tell
me ye that desire to be under the
law, do ye not hear the law ? '
Such, again, is the speech at
Athens, Acts xvii. 23, where it
is not necessary to suppose that
St. Paul actually believed the
Unknown God of the Athenians
to be the true God, but only that
he availed himself of the oppor-
tunity of the inscription on their
altar to introduce the truth
amongst them. Such, again,
were his own accommodations to
Jewish practices, of vows, obser-
vances of feasts, &c., as recorded
in Acts xviii. 18, 21, xxi. 26,
which we cannot, consistently
with Gal. iv. 10, suppose that he
really valued, but which he adop-
ted in conformity with the prin-

ciple laid down in 1 Cor. ix. 22,
' I am made all things to all men.''

And, if it be urged that the
practice here mentioned was so
superstitious that the Apostle
could not have alluded to it with-
out repudiating it ; if even Chry-
sostom, three centuries later,
could not speak of it (as he says
himself) without bursts of
' laughter,' we must consider the
probable circumstances of the
case.

Even if we take it at its worst,
it is not more strange than the
universal practice of the ancient
Church in administering the Eu-
charist to infants, and that of
placing the Eucharistical ele-
ments in the mouths or in the
hands of the dead, or than the Jew-
ish practice that in case any one
died in a state of ceremonial un-
cleanness, which would have re-
quired his own ablution, some one
else then received the ablution for
him. (See Lightfoot, ad loc.)

But there is a higher point of
view, from which it might have
been regarded. There was then,
as always, the natural longing
of the survivors to complete the
work which untimely death had
broken off; and in that age, when
the self-devotion of a Christian's
life was concentrated in the one
act of baptism, it might have
seemed fitting that where the
conversion had not been com-
pleted, the friends of the dead #
should step, as it were, into his
place, and in his name undertake
the dangers and responsibilities
of baptism, so that after all the
good work would not have been
cut off by death, bat would con-

306

FIRST EPISTLE: CHAP. XV. 32.

rjfjiepav anoOpijcrKa), vrj ttjt/ vfjierepav Kavxqcy^v^ "dSeXc^oi,

* Om. a5e\(poi.
protest by your boasting, brethren, which I have in Christ Jesus our

tinue * confirmed to the end,
blameless in the day of Jesus
Christ' (i. 8). This endeavour
to assume a vicarious responsi-
bility in baptism is the same as
afterwards appeared in the in-
stitution of sponsors ; and the
striving to repair the shortcom-
ings of the departed is the same
v^hich, in regard to the other
sacrament, still prevails through
a large part of Christendom, in
the institution of masses for the
dead. In the Apostolical age,
too, these feelings would be ren-
dered more natural by the belief
in the near approach of the
coming of the Son of man, when
the living might expect to pre-
pare the way for the dead whom
they personified ; and the whole
practice would appear most con-
formable to the Apostle's spirit,
if we could suppose, as seems
rather implied in the words, that
those who were thus baptized for
the dead, had not been them-
selves baptized before, but now
for the first time, from a mixed
feeling of love for the dead and
devotion to Christ, entered upon
the hardships of a Christian's
life. Such a feeling and practice
we can easily imagine to have
existed, even amongst those
whose faith in the general re-
surrection had either been ob-
scured or shaken; an inconsis-
tency indeed, but such as is often
found in moments of great en-
thusiasm, or characters exposed
to counter-influences ; and such
as the Apostle might naturally
have laid hold of, as in the above-
mentioned instance in the speech

at Athens, to enforce his own
argument.

And finally, though the Church
of Corinth was subject to the
Apostle's authority, yet it ap-
pears by numerous passages both
to have claimed and to have re-
ceived from him so much inde-
pendence, as to make it by no
means a matter of course that
he should feel called to reform
all their practices ; and the words
themselves convey, not indeed a
reproof, but a distinction be-
tween his own practice, and that
to which he alludes, rwv vcKpwv
implies (not the dead generally,
but) a particular class of the
dead : and rjixcis, in the next
clause, implies that the Apostle
has been speaking just before of
others distinct from himself.

On the whole, therefore, this
explanation of the passage may
be safely accepted : (1) As a
curious relic of primitive super-
stition, which, after having pre-
vailed generally in the Apostoli-
cal Church, gradually dwindled
away till it was only to be found
in some obscure sects. (2) As
an example of the Apostle's
mode of dealing wnth a practice
with which he could have had no
real sympathy ; not condemning
or ridiculing it, but appealing to
it as an expression, although dis-
torted, of their better feelings.

The other interpretations,
which all require an alteration or
addition to the words of the text,
are : (1) ' What shall they gain
who are baptized /or the removal
of their dead worls ? ' (2) ' What
shall they gain who are baptized

THE EESUERECTION OF THE DEAD. 307

T?!^ ej(a) ei^ XP^^'^V irjaov tco Kvpicp rnxojv. ^^ et /cara avupoi-
Lord, I die daily. '^If after the manner of men I fought with beasts at

for the hope of the resurrection of
the dead?' (Chrys.) (3) 'What
shall they gain who are baptized
into the death of Christ ? ' (4)
' What shall they gain who are
afflicted (compare Luke xii. 50 ;
Mark x. 38) for the hope of the
resurrection of the dead ? ' (5)
' What shall they gain who are
baptized at the moment of death,
with a view to their state when
dead ? ' (alluding to the prac-
tice of deathbed baptisms). (6)
' What shall they gain who are
baptized into the place of the
dead martyrs ? ' (7) ' What shall
they gain who are baptized into
the name of the dead (John and
Christ) ? ' '(8) ' What shaU they
gain who are baptized in order
to convert those who are dead in
sin ? ' (9) ' What shall they gain
who are baptized 07ily to die ? '

(10) ' What shall they gain who
are baptized over the graves of
the dead ? ' (i.e. martyrs, &c.)

(11) * What shall they gain who
are baptized when dying, as a
sign that their dead todies shall
he raised ? ' (12) ' What shall
they gain who are baptized for
the good of the Christian dead ? '
i.e. to hasten the day of the re-
surrection hy accomplishing the
number of the elect.

rjiJi€L<s, ' the Apostles,' as in iv.
9, but chiefly himself.

Kol may refer merely to the
continuation of the argument, but
has more force if the ' baptism
for the dead ' involved real dan-
gers and cares : — ' I die daily ; '
and compare 2 Cor. iv. 10, ' al-
ways carrying about the dying
of the Lord Jesus in our body.'

31 vrj TTjv v/xeTC/aav Kuv^rjaiv.

This contains two peculiarities :
(1) The adjuration by his boast-
ing, as of the thing most dear to
him. Compare Lachmann's con-
jecture on ix. 15 (in connexion
with his first edition), as if vrj to
Kavxr}iJid /xov was his favourite
oath. (2) v/xercpai/ for Trept vfjuov,
i.e. ' by my boast of your excel-
lences,' as in ix. 2 ; 2 Cor. iii. 3.
(Comp. Thucyd. i. 33, <f)6^io rw
vfjLeripio, Rom. xi. 31, t<3 v/jtcrepo)
cA.€ct.) This would justify the
reading of A. rjfjieTcpav, but that
it seems like a correction.

iv •)(pLa-Tia 'Irycrov, 'in Christ
Jesus.' These words are, strictly
speaking, taken with t^*^, but
they also refer to the whole sen-
tence. See note on viii. 11.

32 Kara ai/^pwTTOV, * with only
human hopes,' partly as in ix. 8,
so that the whole stress of the
sentence is laid upon it ; i.e.
'without the hope of immor-
tality,' — ' as far as man could
see.'

iO-qptOfxd-^a-a, ' I fought with
beasts.'

(1) Against taking .5,,.^,^^
this literally, observe with wild
(1) The improbability ^'^*'-'
of such a punishment for Paul
as a Roman citizen ; or of his
escaping, had he been exposed
to it. (2) The omission of it in
Acts xix. 9^1 (when, if at all,
it must have taken place), and
in 2 Cor. xi. 24-28, where so re-
markable a danger could hardly
have been passed over. (3) The
fact that the tumult of Acts xix.
29-41, took place (not in the
Roman amphitheatre, but) in the
Greek theatre, where such ex-
hibitions were not usual. (4)

308

FIRST EPISTLE : CHAP. XV. 33, 34.

TTOv idrjpLOfJLa^rjora iv E(j)€o-(p^ ri jjlol to oc^eXo?,* ei veKpol
ovK iyeipovTai, ^dycofxei' /cat 7TL0)fJi€V' avpiov yap olttoOvt]
aKOfxev

^''^fjLT) TrXavacrOe. ^OeipovcTLv 7]9rj ^^rjo-O* 6/xtXtai

• See note.

Ephesus, what advantageth it me? If the dead are not raised, 'let us
eat and drink ; for to-morrow we die.' ^^Be not deceived. * Evil com-

The use of snch words meta-
phorically, from the familiarity
of the image of the gladiatorial
combats, as in iv. 9, ' appointed
last ' — ' a spectacle to angels and
men ' (cTrt^avartovs, ort Oearpov) ;
2 Tim. iv. 17: 'and I was de-
livered out of the mouth of the
lion.' Compare with this the
announcement to Herod Agrippa
of Caligula's decease, ' the lion
is dead.' The phrase occurs in
Pompey's speech in Appian (Bell.
Civ. p. 273), OLOis 6r)pL0L<; fJLaxo-
fieOa, and still more, precisely in
Ign. Rom. c. 5 : oltto Evptas fte^pi
*P(jo/x>7s 6r}pL0ixax(i> Sta y^s kol 6a-
Xda-ar)?, alluding to the guard of
soldiers whom he proceeds to call
' the leopards.'

(II) For taking it literally,
observe: (1) That the metaphor
would be more violent here than
in Ign. Rom. c. 5, where it is
evidently drawn from the actual
prospect of the wild beasts in the
amphitheatre. (2) That the
'Asiarchs' (who are mentioned
in Acts xix. 31, as restraining the
tumult of Demetrius) appear in
Polycarp's martyrdom (Eus. H.
E. iv. 15) to have had the charge
of the wild beasts. (3) That, al-
thongh there are no remains of
an amphitheatre at Ephesus, yet
traces of a stadium' are to be
seen ; and in the case of Poly-
carp, wild beasts were used in
the stadium at Smyrna. (4) That
the young men at Ephesus were
famous for their bull-fights.

Artemidor. i. 9 (Wetstein). (5)
That iv 'E(j>€(T(o seems a forced
expression, if the allusion is
merely to opponents generally.

On the whole, however, the
metaphor is most likely. It may,
in connexion with Ephesus,
have been suggested partly by
the above-mentioned bull-fights,
partly by the speech of Herac-
litus, in which he called ' the
Ephesians ' by this very name of
'beasts' (Orjpta). This would
be in accordance with the vein
of classical quotation opened in
the next verse.

Whatever be the danger, it
must be the same of which he
speaks in Rom. xvi. 4 (?) ; 2
Cor. i. 8 ; Acts xx. 19.

The legend of his battle with
wild beasts (Niceph. H. E. ii.
25) was probably founded on
this passage.

32 €t vcKpol OVK iycLpovTai, es-
pecially if the second interpreta-
tion of Kara dvOpurTrov be right, is
best joined with the following.
'Let us eat,' &c., is taken from
Isaiah xxii. 13 (LXX.), but pro*
bably meant to allude to the
Gentile forms of Epicureanism of
which Horace is the well-known
representative. (See Wetstein,
ad loc.)

2,^ He checks himself in this
half -ironical strain, and solemnly
warns them against the heathen
contaminations by which they
were surrounded ; though still
drawing his imagery and Ian-

THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD.

309

KaKai. ^^ eKvy)\\jOLTe OLKaio)<;, /cat (jltj afiapraueTe' ayvco-
aCav yap 6eov rii^es €)(ovaLV. irpos it^Tponrjp vplv ^kakco.

• \4yci).

munications corrupt good manners.' ^^ Awake to righteousness, and sin
not ; for some have not the knowledge of God. To your shame I apeak
this.

gnage from the heathen world.
' Be not deceived ' is the common
formula of warning against sen-
sual sins ; see vi. 9.

<^6upov(Tiv rjOy) XPW^^ 6/xtAtai
Ka/cat. This Iambic verse is
Menander's quoted from the Thais
proverb, of Menander (see Me-
nand. Fragra. Meineke, p. 75),
although Clem. Alex. (Strom, i.
14, 59) calls it a tragic Iambic ;
and Socrates (H. E. iii. 16)
quotes it as proving that St. Paul
read Euripides. It shows the
Apostle's acquaintance with hea-
then literature, and, to a certain
extent, his sanction of it ; as in
his quotation from Aratusin Acts
xvii. 28, and Epimenides in Tit.
i. 1 2. Menander was famous for
' the elegance with which he
threw into the form of single
verses or short sectences, the
maxims of that practical wisdom
in the affairs of common life,
which forms so important a fea-
ture in the new comedy. Antho-
logies of such sentences were
compiled by the ancient gram-
marians from Menander's works,
of which there is still extant a
collection of several hundred
lines, under the name of Fi/w/xat
fxovoa-TLyoL.' (Smith's Diet, of
Classical Biography, p. 1033.)

The maxim is aimed against
the seductive effect of language
such as that which he has just
quoted, and each word is em-

phatic. — ' Character (r/Orj) may
be undermined by talk (6/AtXtat) :
Honesty (xpw''^) ^^7 ^® under-
mined by roguery (Ka/cat).'

The form ^p^yo-Ta, which occurs
in A B.D.F.F.G.J.K. and all the
MSS., seems to show that it had
lost its character as a verse, and
become a proverb. The reading
Xprj(rO\ although retained from
tiie Received Text by Lachmann,
has no authority, and is pro-
bably an alteration to suit the
metre.

34 €KV7j{J/aT€ 8t/cat(09. Alluding
still to the revelry and evil con-
versations in verses 32, 33, Le
says : ' Wake up from your
drunken orgies.' For this spe-
cial sense oi iKv^cjioi, see Gen. ix.
24 ; 1 Sam. xxv. 37 ; Joel i. 5
(LXX.). For this sense of
SiKaLojq (^=a;crT6 St/catoD? ett'at),
see the annotations on aTrtcrrajs
in Thucyd. i. 21.

Koi fxrj afxapTdv€T€ seems to
have a double sense, tirst, as
merely explaining 8t/<aiw9, but,
secondly, as expressing that this
waking was to be a true wake-
fulness, a knowledge not like the
boasted knowledge of the false
teachers, but one without sin
(compare Eph. iv. 26). Hence
the expression dyvwcrtW yap.

' Some,' i.e. the same as in
verse 12. ' I speak to your
shame ' (as in vi. 5).

310 FIRST EPISTLE.

Paraphrase of Chap. XV, 12—34.

If, then, you all acknowledge that the revival of Christ from the
grave is the one great subject of our message concerning Him,
how can there be found any of your number so inconsistent as
to deny a resurrection from death ? If there be no such thing
as resurrection from death, then even the revival of Christ
has not taken place ; and of this the consequence would be,
that our message and your faith would be alike unmeaning:
Our message, because we are then convicted, not only of falser
hood, but almost of blasphemy, in having ascribed to God, in
the revival of Christ, an act which, if there be no resurrec-
tion, is impossible : Your faith, because, if Christ was never
revived from the grave, then the pledge of your revival from
the death of sin is lost; you, ivho are still alive, are still
under the dominion of sin; those who have already died in
the hope of sharing His life are lost and perished. With a
prospect like this, with a hope in Christ belonging only to this
life, and never to be realised, no human lot could he more
pitiable than ours. But this is not so ; Christ has been
revived from the grave, and that not for Himself only, but as
the first of the long succession of those who have fallen asleep
in death. Death prevailed in the world through man ; as we
read, that in the person of the first man, Adam, the sentence
of death was pronounced on all. In like manner, through
man also is to be the resurrection from death, inasmuch as in
the person of the Second Man, the anointed Messiah, the
pledge ivas given of future life to all. None shall be ex-
cluded; all shall rise ; all shall be delivered from the power
of death. First, is Christ Himself; then, His true followers
at the moment of His return. Then will be the end of all
things, when our relations to Christ shall be lost in our rela-
tions to Him who is supreme above all. But that end shall
not be, till Christ has put down every power, however mighty,
ichich now sways the destinies of the world. He shall continue
His reign till, in the words of the Psalm, 'all enemies shall be
subdued under His feet; ^ all enemies, and amongst them the
last and greatest. Death himself. Yet, however highly Christ
is exalted as the Lord ivho sits on the right hand of God, as

THE APOSTLE'S HOPE OP IMMORTALITY. 311

the Son of man who is crowned with ^lory and honour, there
is yet a higher sphere beyond ; and when His work is over,
He Himself will retire from the victorious contest, and God
shall he the One pervading principle of the universe. Such is
the full length of the prospect opened to us hy the revival of
Christ ; else, indeed, we should he, as I said before, objects of
the deepest commiseration ; all our strongest feelings, all our
most active labours, would have been without an object. What
would then be the meaning of those who, in their affection for
their departed friends, are baptized for them, and for them
undergo the responsibilities and hardships of a Christianas
life ? What would be the meaning, in our own case, of our
hourly exposure to danger and death ? It is no exaggeration.
1 protest to you, by that which is dearest to me in the world, —
my pride in you my converts which I have in Him in whose
name 1 suffer, — I protest to you, that I am daily on the verge
of the grave. And, to take the most recent instance, if I had
rested only on human hopes when I fought the other day at
Ephesus as if with wild beasts in the amphitheatre, what
would have been my gain ? No : if there he no resurrection,
we must speak in the language, not of those high spirits who,
even in the heathen world, despised all danger in the hope of
immortality, but rather of those Epicurean sensiialists, whose
very words have been anticipated by the prophet Isaiah : * Let
us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.^ Be not deceived by
the sensual arguments, ivhich really prompt this denial of the
resurrection. Even the heathen proverb warns you that good
characters are not proof against the contamination of evil
words. Wake from your drunken revelry to a sense of duty ;
for there are those among you who know nothing of God and
His povier. To your shame be it spoken.

The Apostle's Hope of Immortality.

The preceding argument is the earliest and greatest instance
of the Christian argument for a future life. It is to Argument
the New Testament what the Phaedo of Plato and the for a fu-
Tusculan Disputations of Cicero are to the heathen ^^^ ^ ^'
philosophy. The belief in a future life is elsewhere urged.

312 FIRST EPISTLE.

assumed, implied ; but here alone we are able to trace tbe new-
elements which the Apostle regards as carrying fresh convic-
tion to his Greek converts, and to himself as a Pharisee. The
belief itself was familiar to both ; but it is here asserted on
grounds which, both to Gentile and to Pharisee, were alike
unknown before.

The whole argument, though branching out in various
grounded f'^^™^, resolves itself into the belief of one fact —
on the Re- the resurrection (or, as the Apostle here calls it, the
of Chriir ^^*'^'^^0 of Christ. For, first, he appeals to this ge-
neral belief as justifying the possibility of a belief in
a general resurrection : ' If the dead are not raised, then is
Christ not raised.' One instance of a victory over death is
enough to prove that it is not intrinsically absurd. And,
secondly, he regards it as an instance which proves not only
the possibility, but the necessity of such an issue for the human
race : 'Christ is the first fruits of the dead.' He, the Messiah,
opens a new era in the history of the world ; He goes before,
and all others necessarily follow. And thirdly, on the belief
in Christ and on Christ's resurrection, the Apostle has staked
everything. If it is to lead to nothing further than this storm
and tumult and strife, in which an Apostle's life is of necessity
passed, then the greatest hopes that ever were raised will be
disappointed ; the greatest energies that ever were exerted will
have been employed in vain.

Such is the substance of the argument when divested of its
peculiar form and of its digressions. Philosophical arguments
there are none, beyond what Cicero had already stated,^ when he
argued that, but for the instinct of immortality, no one would
be so mad as to spend his life in toils and dangers. Theological
arguments there are none, beyond what may be found in Rab-
binical treatises,^ which in outward form expressed the belief
that the Messiah would come at the end of all things, and that
God would then swallow up Death. But there is a life and
force here breathed through them all, which makes us feel that,
whereas they were before like the dry bones of the prophet,
they now ' live, and stand on their feet, an exceeding great
army.' The Apostle's argument is in fact, though not in form,
the same as that of our Lord to the Sadducees : ' God is not a
God of the dead, but of the living.' ' If He called Himself

1 Tusc. Disp. i. 15. ^ See Wetstein on xv. 24, 54.

THE APOSTLFS HOPE OF IMMOETALITY. 313

the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, then those whom He
brought into so close a connexion with Himself must partake
of His life.' So here St. Paul argues that so great an event
as the resurrection of Christ cannot end in nothing ; the faith
which has been built upon it, the converts that have been won
by it, the hopes that have been raised upon it, the new epoch
that has been begun with it, must extend beyond the grave,
even to the utmost limits of human imagination. He does not
say, * We are miserable now, and therefore must be compen-
sated by a reward hereafter ; ' but, * We shall be miserable noio,
if our faith is not a substance, but a delusion ; and it will be a
delusion, unless our life reaches into the next world, as Christ's
life has reached.' He does not say, * The Messiah is to come ;
and then, in order to fill up His glory and show His power, the
dead shall rise ; ' but, ' The Messiah has come ; already in this
life is the beginning of another ; the succession of resurrections
is now opened, which shall not be closed till all be completed.'
In this, as in almost all the Apostolical teaching, the whole
strength and impulse of the argument are derived from the
fervour with which the Apostle embraced the thought of
Christ's appearance and work on earth. As logical or rheto-
rical arguments, his reasonings may be such as were already
in existence, or such as may appear to us inconclusive ; but as
consequences from the acknowledgment of the grandeur (if one
may so say) of the event which had transfixed and absorbed hia
whole imagination and being, they are irresistible. They may
fail of themselves in persuading us of a future state, but they
cannot fail in persuading us of his intense conviction of the
reality of Christ's resurrection ; and not of its reality only, but
of its supreme importance as a turning-point in the destinies of
the human race. And in proportion as this is impressed upon
ourselves, in that proportion will our belief in a future state be
as unshaken as his ; and this Chapter be used, as it always has
been used, for the consolation and hope of all mourners.

314

FIRST EPISTLE: CHAP. XV. 35-43.

The Mode of the Resurrection.

^^'^XX' epet 719 Ucos iyetpovTat ol veKpoi ; ttolq) Se crw/xart
ep^ovTai; aippoiv, crv o aTreipeiSy ov C,o)07roLeiTaL, eav
fjLrj aTToddvr)* ^^ kol o crTretpet?, ov to acopia to yemjcropevov
cr7r€tp€i9, dXXa yvpvov kokkov^ el tv)(ol, ctltov rj tlvo^ tcjv
XolTTCov* ^^6 Se 0eo^ ^SlScoctlv avTCo crcopa Ka0(os 'qOeXrjcrev^

* "Acppov. ^ avTif 5iSw<ri.

^5 But some one will say, ' How are the dead raised up ? and with what
body do they come?' ^'^Fool ! that which thou sowest is not quickened,
except it die ; ^^ and that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body
that will be, but bare grain, it may be of wheat, or of some of the other
kinds of grain ; ^^but God giveth it a body as He willed, and to each of

35 The Resurrection itself
having been thus maintained, the
Apostle proceeds to answer ques-
tions, which arose from a too
literal and material conception of
it. This he does by pointing out
the greatness of the change
necessarily effected by death, and
the consequent impossibility of
transferring our notions of this
life unaltered to that which is to
come.

cyctpovrat, epxovrai^ ' are to be
raised, are to come.'

o-(o/xaTt. Throughout this pas-
sage, the corresponding modern
notions would be better conveyed
not by the word ' body,' but
' organisation,' or ' framework.'

36-38 The first analogy used
by the Apostle is that of corn,
which is an instance, not merely
of existence being preserved in
spite of change, but of change
being absolutely necessary for its
perfection. Comp. John xii. 24.

36 a<f>po}v, ' Fool ! ' This ex-
pression, as elsewhere in the New
Testament (see especially Luke
xi. 40, xii. 20), indicates a

stronger moral condemnation
than would be pronounced on a
mere scrupulous inquirer, and is
in favour, therefore, of taking
the harsher view of these ob-
jectors.

cru. ' Thou' is emphatic here,
as if saying, ' Learn by thine
own experience ; ' — ' the very
seed which thou thyself sowest ; '
— ' even in the case of ordinary
human sowing.'

37 €1 Tvxoij ' perhaps ; ' see xiv.
10.

Twv Xoi^roiv, i.e. o-Tre/Sjaartov.

rjOeX-qa-ev, ' as He willed,' refers
back to the original act of crea-
tion. The present operations of
nature are not the result of ac-
cident, but of one original Divine
law.

38 CAcao-Tw Twv o-TTcp/xarcuv lSlov
(To)/JLa. Comp. Gen. i. 11.

The second analogy is sug-
gested by the last words of the
preceding one. As each seed
has its own peculiar type, so each
order of creation has its separate
composition: and hence, from
the endless variety of organisa-

THE MODE OF THE EESURRECTION.

315

/cat eKacTTcp rwv crnepfjiarcov lOiov crcojjia. " ov iracra crapg
r) avTT) crdp^, aWa dWrj fxev ^ dvOpcoTrcov^ dXKrj 8e crdp^
KTTjvcov, ^dWrj §€ [crapf] ttttjvcop, dWr) Se l^dvoiv, ^^ koX
crw/xara eTTOvpavia^ /cat crcofiaTa iiriy eia* dWd irepa ^ fxev
rj T(x)v iiTovpavLOJV 8dfa, irepa Se rj tcov i.7nyeio)v. ^^dXXrj
Sofa r)\LOV^ /cat dWrj Sofa crek-qi'rjSf /cat dXkr} Sofa dcrTe-
pcov darTTjp ydp dcrrepos Siacfyepeu iv So^r). ^^^ovto)<; /cat rf
dvdcTTaorLS T(xiv veKp(x)v. cnreiperai iv (j)6opa, iyeiperai iv
d(l)6ap(jia* ^^ cnreiperai iv drt/xta, eyetperat ev So^rj' crTret-

■ rh tSiov. ^ Add <rhp^. « ftAArj 5^ ix^ww, ^A.A?j Se irr-nvuiv.

* The hiatus in MS, C. which began in XIII. 8. ends at [/*€»/ ^ twj/.

the seeds its own body. '^All flesh is not the same flesh : but there is
one of men, another flesh of beasts, another flesh of birds, and another
of fishes. ^^ There are also heavenly bodies, and bodies terrestrial :
but the glory of the heavenly is one, and that of the terrestrial is another.
"^^ There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and
another glory of the stars : for star difiereth from star in glory. ^'^ So
also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption, it is raised
in incorruption : ^^it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory : it is

tions in things seen, he argues
the possibility of a new organisa-
tion yet lo be disclosed hereafter.

39 KTrjvwv, * quadrupeds; ' pro-
perly, ' beasts of burden.'

40 (Tw/xara cTrovpavta. In the
first instance he means the
angels ; with the ' glory ' (8o^a)
of the light, which is described
as attending their appearance
(comp. Matt, xxviii. 3; Acts
xii. 7). But he passes to the
wider sense which includes the
stars, according to the modern
phrase, ' heavenly bodies,' or as
in the contrast drawn by Galen
(De Usu Part. 17, 6, in Wetstein
ad loc.) between to, avco crw/xara
(expressly meaning thereby the
sun, moon, and stars) and to,
yry'tVa crwfJLaTa. And the word
' glory ' especially leads him to
dwell on this new analogy, as
illustrated by the variety of the
celestial phenomena themselves.

41 'I say not star, but stars ;
for even in them there is a

difference.' The object of the
clause is (not to indicate a dif-
ference between the future con-
ditions of the blessed, but) to
give a new instance of the end-
less subdivision of variety in this
world.

42 He now applies these ana-
logies to the resurrection. There
is no word which can be precisely
selected as the nominative to
o-TTcipcrat and cycipcrat. The sense
requires a-w/>ta : the construction,
-^ avda-Taa-Ls. This indeterminate
meaning is best rendered 'There
is a sowing,' ' there is a raising.'
Throughout this parallel, the
image of the verb is taken
from the seed ; the image of the
substantives, from the variety of
visible organisations. Compare
the whole passage with 2 Cor.
V. 1, 2, and Phil. iii. 21 : 'Who
shall change our vile body (to
(Tiiiixa Trj<; raTretvcoo-eoj? r][xiov^ into
the likeness of His glorious body
(t(3 (Tw/Aart TTJs So^s avrov).

316

FIRST EPISTLE: CHAP. XV. 44—49.

perai €v acrueveia, eyeiperai €v ovvafJueL' cnreipeTat orcofxa
i/zu^t/cdi^, iyeiperai crai/xa TTvevixariKov, *et icrTiv crcofxa
xfjv^LKOVf^icTTLV KOL TTvevfJiaTLKOP. '^^ ovTcos KOI yiypaiTT ai'
Eyivero 6 Trpcoro^ [^dvOpcjiros^ ^ASoljx eU xpv^rjv i^cjcrav^ 6
ecrp^aros '-4Sa/x eis irvevpia ^coottolovp, ^^ dXh! ov iTpwTou

• Omit el. ^ KoX ea-riv ccofxa wevfi.

sown, in weakness, it is raised in strength : ^^it is sown a natural body, it
is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a
spiritual. "^^And so it is written, ' The first man Adam was made a living
Boul;' the last Adam a quickening spirit. ^^Howbeit that was not

44 * A natural body ' (o-w/xa
xfruxiKov) is, as the name implies
(not simply a dead corpse, but)
'a body animated by the prin-
ciple of animal life ; ' according
to the threefold division of human
nature (1 Thess. v. 23) taken by
St. Paul, partly from the Aristo-
telian phraseology, partly from
the new ideas of Christianity.

The * spiritual body ' (crw/Aa
TrvevfiariKov) is the organisation
animated by the Divine life
breathed into it from the Spirit
of God.

€t eaTLV (Twfxa x^-^ikov, tcrriv koI
TTvevfjLaTLKov. He argues that, if
there is a lower stage, there will
also be a higher stage.

45 The contrast is suggested
and confirmed by the words of
Gen. ii. 7 (LXX.), which is
quoted literally, with the addition
of the words Trpwros and 'A8a/x.
The quotation is made for the
sake of the implied contrast,
which, to the Apostle's mind,
followed from the already exist-
ing Rabbinical doctrine, that
Christ was the second Adam.
' The last Adam is the Messiah.'
(Neve Shalom ix. 9, Schottgen
ad loc.) The contrast between
the ' quickening spirit ' (jrvcv^a
^(ooTTotow) of the Second Adam,

and the * living soul ' (^vxri

^(OO-a) of the first, may The Second

have been suggested by Adam.
the Rabbinical distinction drawn
between the words in Gen. ii. 7 :
' The Lord breathed into Adam,
the breath of life ' {irvoriv ^co^s),
and ' he became a living soul '
(^vxr}v ^oicrav) ; as though the
first were a higher life imparted
to man from above, and the
second a lower animal life which
he acquired by his fall. ' " And
God breathed the breath of life."
See what man is to do, to whom
God gave a holy soul, that He
might give him the life of the
world to come. But he, by his
sins, turned himself to the animal
soul of brutes.' Jalkath Raboni,
fol. 17, 1. ' It is not written,
" He made man a living soul,"
but "Man became a living soul."
Man of himself turned to the life
of creatures taken from the earth,
and left the life created above,
w^hich gave life to its possessor.
Rabbi Tarchum said, " Let us
return to that which at first
dwelt in us." ' (Schottgen on
1 Cor. ii. 13, 14)

TTvevfia t,o}07roLovv, i.e. * not
merely a soul alive in itself, but
a spirit which gives life to
others.' Compare John v. 21,
vi. 63, xi. 25, xiv. 6.

THE MODE OF THE EESUREECTION.

317

TO TTvevfxaTLKov^ aXka to xlfvx^LKov, eneLTa to irvevfJiaTLKOv.
^^6 7rpa)T0<; dv9pco7TO<s iK yrjs ^o't/co9, 6 SevT€po<; avOpcoirof;'^
eg ovpavov. °oto9 o ^ot/cos, tolovtol /cat ol ^ot/coL, /cai olo<s
o ewovpavLos, tolovtol Acat oi eirovpavLOL* ^/cai Kaucos €(po-
picrap.ev tyjv CLKova tov yoLKOv^ ^ (popeacofxev kol ttjv elKOPa

» Add 6 Kvpios.

(popeffofjiev.

first which is spiritual, but that which is natural, and afterward that
which is spiritual. ^^The first man is from the earth, * earthy: the
second man is from heaven. "^^As is the earthy, such are also the earthy:
and as is the heavenly, such are also the heavenly. "^'And as we bore
the image of the earthy, let us bear also the image of the heavenly.
» Or. of the dust.

46, 47 oAA' ov Trponov to ttvcv-
fxaTLKov. ' But the spiritual body
is not the first ; ' in allusion to the
first and second Adam, as en-
larged upon in verse 47. Earthy
(xotKos), more properly ' of dust,'
i.e. as described in Gen. ii. 7,
ypvv Xaftwv oltto tyJ<s yrj^.

'From Heaven' (i$ ovpavov).
Althoup^h this need not imply
more than our Lord's Divine
origin generally, as in John iii.
13, yet the precision of the
contrast seems to point to some-
thing more particular, as e.g.
His miraculous birth or the
heavenly form assumed by Him
since His resurrection. Philo
(De AUeg. Leg. i. 12, 13 ; Mund.
Opif. c. 46) explains the two
accounts of the creation in the
first and second chapters of
Genesis, as referring to the double
creation, first of the heavenly
(ovpdvLo<s) or ideal man, then of
the earthly (y^tVo?) man. From
these passages, or from a common
source, the expressions may have
come to the Apostle. The dif-
ference consists : (1) in the in-
terpretation of the 'heavenly
man,' not in an ideal sense, but
as exemplified in Christ ; (2) in
the fact, that Philo's interpreta-

tion, which makes the heavenly
precede the earthly, is based on
the two passages Gen. i. 27, ii.
7 ; whereas the Apostle's in-
terpretation, which makes the
earthly precede the heavenly, is
based on the two clauses of Gen.
ii. 7. ^

47 6 KvpLo^ (A. D^. J. K., omit-
ted in B. C. D'. E. F. G.) is pro-
bably an interpolation. It wag,
as Tertullian asserts (in Marc,
ii. 10), substituted by Marcion
here for avOp(07ro<s, as in verse 45
for 'A8a/A, to support his notion,
that the human body of Christ
was brought with Him from
heaven ; and then, having been
thus incorporated in the text,
it was turned by Chrysostom
against the supporters of this
very opinion in the fourth cen-
tury.

48 ' The earthy ' (ol xot/coi),
= men in their mortal state ;
' the heavenly ' (ol iTrovpdvLoi) ,
= Christians after the resur-
rection.

49 The mere contemplation of
Christ ought to transform us into
His likeness not only hereafter
but now. See 2 Cor. iii. ] 8, iv.
11 ; Rom. viii. 29 ; Phil. iii. 21 ;
1 John iii. 2.

318

riRST EPISTLE: CHAP. XV. 50—62.

Tov eirovpaviov. ^^tovto Se (j^yjfJi'i, dSeXc^ot, ort crapf koL
at/xa /SacnkeLav Seov KXrjpovofxrjo-aL ov BvvavTaL, ovhe rj
(fiOopa T7)v 0L(j)6apcrLav ^ Kk^qpovoixTjcrei. ^^l^ov jjLvaTrjpLOV
vplv Xeyo). 7rdvre<; [/i-ei^] ^ KOLixTjdrjcrofjieOa^ ov noivTes 8e

' KKripovofieT. ^ fx.hv ov Koifx. iravres 5k aWay. See note.

^°Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the
kingdom of God, neither shall corruption inherit incorriiption. ^^ Behold
I tell you a mystery. We shall all sleep, but we shall not all be changed,

nrt

<f)ope(Toifi€v in A. C. D. E. F.
G. J. K. Vulgate and Fathers
has so great a preponderance of
authority over cfiopia-oixev in B.
that in spite of the hortatory
character which has no con-
nexion with the context, it must
be preferred. The wish to re-
tain the narrative character of
the passage, as well as the like-
ness of sound between the two
words according to the later
pronunciation of Greek, may
account for the confusion. He
blends together (as in Rom. vi.
5) the change of death with the
change of conversion — ' as before
our baptism we bore (e^opeVa/xcv)
the likeness of mortality, so now
let us bear the likeness of
Christ.'

50, 5 1 He winds up the whole
argument by a solemn conclu-
sion. 'But this I say ' (tovto
8e <f>y]jJ^t) is his mode of calling
attention to an emphatic warn-
ing, as in vii. 29 : ' Whatever
may be the speculations concern-
The ing the resurrection,

Change. q^^^ whatever the an-
swer to them, this is certain,
that human nature with its sin-
ful infirmities (o-ap^ koL at/xa, as
in Matt. xvi. 17) cannot inheiit
the kingdom of God ' (com-
pare vi. 10) ; the human body,
if it is to rise again, ninst be
entirely changed.

tSov jJLvcrTi^pLOV vfuv Aeyo).

' Behold — look my words full
in the face — they contain a
truth, which we are slow to
recognise, but which is true
notwithstanding.' ixva-rypiov is
used here as in ii. 7, Eph. iii.
3-5, for what was once hid, but
now revealed to and by him. It
may be doubted whether the
expression refers to the par-
ticular description which follows,
of the change of those who will
be alive at Christ's coming ; or
to the statement, immediately
preceding, of the general change
needed for all. In favour of the
more particular reference, is the
parallel passage in 1 Thess. iv.
15, 'This we say unto jou. by
the word of the Lord.' In favour
of the more general reference is
the solemn declaration already
made — ' This I say,' in verse
50, and the fact that in si-
milar expressions elsewhere, the
Apostle usually refers rather to
his preceding than to his suc-
ceeding words.

Of all the various readings
of this perplexed passage that of
the Received Text as contained
in B. D3. E. J. K. is the best,
TravTCs fih/ (B. om. /xkv) ov KOi/xrj-
Orjcrofjiida. Travre? 8e oAAayT^cro-
/ji€6a, ' We shall all of us, not
die, but be changed ; ' i.e.
' AUhough it is by no means
certain that all of us (i.e. myself
and the Corinthians) shall die,

THE MODE OF THE KESUEEECTION.

319

dXXay^cro/xe^a, ^^ip OLTOfxa)^ iv pnrrj 6(j)9a\fjiov, ev rfj l<T\drri
adkiTLyyL' craXTrtcrei yctp, /cat ol veKpol ^ avacrTricrovTai

• iyepO-fiffoVTai.

^"^ in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump : for the
trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall rise incorruptible, and we shall

yet it is certain that we shall all
of us be changed.' The passage
is personal to himself and his
readers, and is written under the
same expectation as that which
appears in the parallel passage of
1 Thess. iv. 15-17, and in the
expressions of vii. 29, and Phil,
iv. 5, that the end of all things
would take place within that
generation.

KOL/jLacrOaL is not precisely
identical with ciTro^vrJo-Keiv, al-
though often used as equivalent
to it ; expressing rather the sleep
consequent on death, than the
act itself of dying. The words
therefore do not assert the posi-
tive immunity of the last sur-
vivors from the death which he
had spoken of in verse 22, as the
common lot of all mankind, but
rather that the act of dissolution
or death will take place at once
and in the moment of their
change.

The other readings, ttcivtcs (ol
TrdvTe^, A.) /xev (ftcv ovv, F. G.)
KOi/MrjOrjcroixeOa, ov (ot, A.) 7ravr€5
8c aXXayyjcrofjieOa A. C. F. G. Lach-
mann), or Travres />tcv avaa-rqcro-
jxeOa ov TravTC? Se aXXayrjaofieOa
(D^ and Vulgate), either contra-
dict tlie context, or require aX-
Xayyja-ofjLeOa to be taken in two
different senses ; and the follow-
ing clause, €v drofjuo, k.t.X., which
applies to an affirmative state-
ment, like aXXayrjcroixeOa, does
not apply to a negative state-
ment, like ovK aXXayrjaoixeOa.
The defence of the Beceived

Text is given at great length
and with great fairness by
Estius. Similar variations are
to be found in the MSS. of
clause 38 of the Athanasian
Creed. The Received Text
expresses the particular truth
present to the Apostle's mind, in
reference to himself and his
hearers. The two other classes
of readings probably ventured
on the correction from a wish
to express the abstract truth,
without any such reference.

5 2 cv oLTo/jut), K.T.X. ' We, the
living, shall be changfed, and it
will be in an undivided point of
time, by a process not like the
slow corruption and decay of
death, but sudden, rapid, divine.'
iv rrj l<r')(a.Trj araXiruYyi. The
stress is not on the gradual
solemnity, but on the abruptness
of the change ; therefore the last
trumpet is not the last of the
seven with which, according to
the E-abbis, the resurrection was
accompanied, but the trumpet
which shall sound then for the
last time, having before sounded
on all the great manifestations of
judgment. (Ex. xix. 16 ; Ps.
xlvii. 5 ; Zech. ix. 14 ; Isa. xxvii.
13.) For the trumpet at the last
day see 1 Thess. iv. 16 ; Matt,
xxiv. 31, and the seven trumpets
in Rev. viii.-xi.

o-aATTto-ei, sc. 6 craXTTLKTrjs. It is
(not ' the trumpet shall sound,'
but) * he ' (i.e. ' he whose office
it is ') ' shall sound the trumpet.'
Comp. Herod, ii. 47, iir^av dvay.

320

FIRST EPISTLE: CHAP. XV. 53—55.

d(j)0apToi, Kol r)fJieL<; aXkayrjo-ofJLeOa. ^^ Bet yap to ^Oaprov
TOVTO ivSvaacrOaL d(j)OapcrLav kol to OviqTov tovto ivSvcra-
crOaL dOavaoriav. ^^oTav he to <^9apTov tovto ivSvcrrjTaL
d(f)Oap(Tiap Koi to Optjtov tovto ivhva-qTai ddavacFLav, t6t€
yevijaeTaL 6 Xdyos 6 yeypa/x/xeVo?, KaTeiroOr] 6 6dvaTo<s ets

be changed. ^^For this corruptible must be clothed in incorruption, and
this mortal must be clothed in immortality. ^^But when this corruptible
shall be clothed in incorruption and this mortal shall have been clothed
in immortality, then shall be brought to pass the word that is written,

So in some MSS. of the Vulgate,
' canet enim.' o-aATrtoret is bar-
barous Greek for o-aA.7rty^ci.

Kttt is a Hebraism, ' at the mo-
ment of the trumpet's sound, this
shall be,' as in the wording of Ps.
civ. 29, 30, 32. The two subse-
quent clauses may be either:
(1) united, as both depending on
o-oATTtcrct, ' At the moment of the
trumpet's sound, the dead shall
be raised and the living shall be
changed ; ' or, (2) the first clause
may be united with o-aXTrto-ct, and
the second made dependent on it,
* At the moment of the resurrec-
tion of the dead which shall take
place at the trumpet's sound, the
living shall be changed.' This
last agrees more naturally with
the whole context, which calls
attention, not so much to the re-
surrection of the dead, as to the
change of the living adduced in
illustration of it.

^/xci?, i.e. 'we the living ' =
Tyyucts 01 TTcptXctTTo/xevoi, 1 Thcss.
iv. 15, in opposition to the dead
just mentioned.

53 Set yap, k.t.X. ' We, the
living, shall be changed, because
our corruptible bodies must be-
come incorruptible, like the dead
who are raised incorruptible, and
our mortal bodies must assume
the immortality which saves them
from the necessity of that death

which in this life they will have
escaped.'

54 The singular number, and
the demonstrative pronoun, to
fjiOapTov T ovr o^ and to Ovrjrov
TOVTO, both indicate that he is
speaking in the first person, and
points to his own actual body,
' This corruptible, this mortal
frame, with which I am invested.'
Compare at x^^P^'^ ai;Tat, ' these
hands of mine,' Acts xx. 34 ;
this 'body of death,' Rom. vii.
24 ; 'in this ' habitation ' we
groan,' 2 Cor. v. 2. For the
general image of longing for a
new and heavenly clothing (evSv-
a-ao-Oat), see 2 Cor. v. 2, 3 ; Phil,
iii. 21.

54, 55 The argument closes
in a burst of almost poetical fer-
vour (as in the corresponding pas-
sage, Rom. viii. 31). Although
connected with the subject on
which he had just been speak-
ing, viz. the transformation of
himself and of those who might
be expected themselves to live
till the last day, yet it applies
more or less directly to the whole
preceding Section : ' When this
last and final change shall have
been effected, when the last ves-
tiges of corruption and death
shall have passed away in the
last survivors of the human race,
then it may truly be said that

THE MODE OF THE KESUERECTION. 321

VLKO<;. ^^Uov crov^ Odvarey ''to vIko^ ; ttov (Tov^ ^ Odvare^

' rb Kevrpov ; ^ o[5tj.

* Death is swallowed up in victory.' ^^ Where, death, is thy victory ?

death has ceased to exist ; then
shall be fulfilled (for this sense of
y€v^(r€Tat, see Matt. v. 18) the
word which has been written
long ago ' (6 A.oyos 6 yeypafi-
/w,€vos) .

This passage (like the quota-
tions in i. 19, 20, ii. 9 ; Rom. iii.
10, ix. 25, 26 ; 2 Cor. vi. 16-
18; 1 Pet. ii. 6-10; Mark i.
2, 3) is made up of two distinct
passages in the Old Testament,
Isa. XXV. 8, Hosea xiii. 14, con-
nected together, partly by the ge-
neral subject, partly by the word
vtK09. In the first, the Apostle
almost entirely adheres to the
Hebrew text, and departs from
the LXX. ; in the latter, almost
entirely adheres to the LXX.
and departs from the Hebrew.
(I) Isa. XXV. 8 in its first ap-
plication refers to the
deliverance of Israel
(apparently from Sen-
nacherib), and the re-
maining part of the passage
(' the Lord God will wipe away
tears from off all faces ') is, in
Rev. xxi. 4, applied, as the for-
mer part here, to the destruction
of Death. It is rendered by the
LXX. KareTTtev 6 OdvaTO's io-;(V(ras,
* Death was strong and swal-
lowed up.' This version, which
is against the whole tenor of the
context, is not noticed here, and
KareTToOrf 6 OdvaTO<s cts vtKO?,
' Death was swallowed up in
victory,' is an accurate transla-
tion of the original words y?5
nv^^ ri5»n, 'He will -destroy
death for ever,' except that, (1)
y ?? is taken passively, ' is swal-

' Death
swallowed
lip in
victory.'

lowed up,' for ' He will swal-
low up.' (2) y^5 is taken for
'swallow up,' instead of the
more general meaning of ' de-
stroy ; ' a variation occasioned
by the frequent use of KaraTrtVeiv
in this sense by the LXX. ; and
in this place it suits better with
€i<s vtK09, ' swallowed into vic-
tory.' The Rabbis also said, ' In
the days of the Messiah, God will
swallow up death ' (Wet stein ad
he). (3) nV.^? means 'altoge-
ther,' and this is the conven-
tional sense borne by the words
€ts vt/cos, whenever they are em-
ployed by the LXX. to translate
it. But St. Paul takes it not in
this conventional sense of ' altoge-
ther,' but literally 'into victory,'
and thus makes it the link of
connexion between this and the
passage from Hosea xiii. 14.
That he should use the expres-
sion at all, is a proof that in this
quotation, one of the very few
which approximates more to the
Hebrew than to the LXX., he
still has in his mind not a He-
brew, but a Greek text — probably
from some other version or read-
ing than that contained in our
present LXX.

(II) The quotation from Ho-
sea xiii. 14, which in its origi-
nal sense applies to the deliver-
ance of the northern kingdom of
Israel from its troubles, is in the
Hebrew ^2^15 \l^ n).]p ^ni"] M8<
SiN^, ' I will be thy plagues, 6
Death ; I will be thy destruction,
grave.'

The LXX. Version is ttov tj
BiKT} aov, 6dvaT€j ttov to Kevrpov

322

FIKST EPISTLE: CHAP. XV. 56—58.

''to Kevrpov ; ^^to be K^vrpov rov davarov r) a/za/OTta, rj oe

* rh v7kos.
"Where, O death, is thy sting? ^^But the sting of death is sin, and the

a-ov aSr), ' where is thy judgment,
O death ? where is thy goad,
grave ? ' ttov arises from n*i5»
* where ? ' having been read for
*nfr?, ' I will be ; ' a change si-
milar to that made also by the
LXX. translators in verse 10 of
the same chapter. StKiy, 'judg-
ment,' is founded on the mean-
ing which D''")3'l sometimes bears
of ' lawsuits,' as in Ex. xviii.
16, xxiv. 14. K€VTpov,=' goad,'
as in Prov. xxvi. 3 (LXX.),
appears to be founded on an
attempt to go back to the root of
lipp, viz. ntOj^, 'to cut,' Kivrpov
being in like manner the sub-
stantive derived from kcvt^Iv.
•The sting From this text the
of Death.' Apostle makes several
variations : (1) Instead of hiK-q,
he appears to have read vU-q,
which is altered further into
vLKos, for the sake of bringing it
into closer connexion with vt/cos
in the preceding quotation from
Isaiah. This gives a different
turn to the whole passage. It is
still used by him to express
generally the overthrow of Death,
but that overthrow is now de-
scribed, not as in the Hebrew
and LXX. as a punishment in-
flicted on Death, but as the an-
nihilation of his power. Hence
result further variations. (2)
<Tov is changed from a subordi-
nate to a principal place in the
sentence, as if the sense were,
* Where is thy victory, the vic-
tory on which thou wast wont
to pride thyself? ' (3) Kevrpov,
instead of meaning the 'goad,' I
or ' stroke of God's wrath ' on I

Death, now means the weapon
borne hy Death. (4) In conse-
quence of this strong personifica-
tion, Odvare is substituted for
aSy in all the best MSS. AK B.
C. D. E. E. G. and in the Latin
Versions (A^ omits the first
clause, TTOv crov, Odvare, to vlkos ;),
whereas aSiy only occurs in A^.
J. K., evidently to suit the pas-
sage in the LXX. This agrees
with the usage of St. Paul, who
never employs the -word aSr}?, but
frequently personifies Death as
an active living power (xv. 26 ;
Rom. vii. 24). (5) According to
B. C. the order of the two clauses
is inverted ; ' victory ' and ' the
sting ' changing the places given
in the LXX. version of Hos.
xiii. 14. This variation (which,
as in the case of aSrj, is altered
back in A2. D. E'. F. G. J. K.
to suit the LXX.) was probably
made to bring together, as nearly
as possible, the two words v2ko<s
which connect the quotations.

56 It is diflBcult to determine
whether death is here repre-
sented as a monster armed with
a sti7ig (like the scorpions of Rev.
ix. 10), or, more probably, as a
person bearing a goad (Acts ix.
5) to annoy the world. In either
case. Sin is the weapon with
which Death inflicts his wound,
and the Law is the element which
gives poison to the sting, or force
to the blow. The difficult— to
modern readers almost inexplic-
able, thought of the connexion
of Sin w^ith the Law is here ex-
pressed for the first time in the
Apostle's writings; and is the

THE MODE OF THE KESUERECTION.

323

hlhoVTl rjfliV TO vIkOS StCt TOV KVpLOV TJlJiCOV 'irjaOV XpLCTTOV.

^^a)(Tre^ dSeX^ot jllou dyaTnyrot, khpaioi yiveaOe, d/xera-
KLVTjTOL, wepLcrcrevovref; iv tco epyco tov Kvpiov Trdi^roTC,
eiSdres on 6 fcoTTO? vfjicov ovk ecmv Kevo^ ev Kvpio).

strength of sin the law ; ^^but thanks be to God, whogiveth us the victory
through our Lord Jesus Christ. ^* Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye
steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, foras-
much as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.

germ of what is afterwards fully
developed in Rom. v. 12-21, vii.
7-24. The natural overflow of
the sentence into this thought
shows its familiarity to his mind.
It is as if he could not mention
Sin, without adding that ' the
strength of sin is the law.*

For a similar extension of the
argument to thoughts not neces-
sarily connected with it, but in-
troduced from their close asso-
ciation with his whole frame of
thinking and writing, compare
i. 30, iii. 23, xi. 3.

57 At the thought that Death,
and with Death the two enemies
Sin and the Law, with which he
himself had so long struggled,
were now overcome, he breaks
forth into an abrupt thanksgiv-
ing, in which the argument ia
finally dissolved. Compare Rom.
vii. 25.

B. D^ read i/ciko? for vIko's, in
all three places, and are followed
by Jerome on Hos. xiii. ; Tertull.
De Res. Carn. 51, 54; Cyprian
ad Quir. iii. who read ' in conten-
tione,' or 'm contentionem.^ The
change, by likeness of pronunci-

ation, was easy from vt/co? to vct-
Kos, and the substitution of vetKos
for SiKT) in the LXX. would then
be more natural. But it is more
probable that the reading vct/cos
arose from a misreading of vt/co?,
and the sense, especially of verse
57, agrees better with vlkos,
which is the usual form in later
Greek for vlkt}. There is the
same confusion of readings be-
tween vcLKos and vlkos in Hos.
X. 11 ; Jer. iii. 5 ; Amos i. 11
(see Estius).

58 The sudden subsidence of
so impassioned a strain of tri-
umph, into so sober a conclu-
sion, is a remarkable instance of
the practical character of the
New Testament teaching. The
expressions eSpaiot, d/xcTaKti/ryrot,

OVK t(TTLV K€VOS €V KVpLlO, all haVO

special reference to the resur-
rection, and to the doubts con-
cerning it. The last words,
' abounding in the work of the
Lord,' 'your labour in the
Lord,' may refer to the homely
duty which forms the substance
of his subsequent remarks in the
following chapter.

T 2

324 FIEST EPISTLE.

Paraphrase of Chap. XV. 35—58.

It may he said, however, that though the revival of the dead is
in itself possible and probable, yet there are difficulties attend-
ing the manner of it. To all such foolish questions there is a
ready answer :

I. From the analogies of nature.

(1) The change from seed into corn shows how life may be
attained only through the medium of death, and hoiv identity
may be preserved, in spite of a total change of form.

(2) The variety of organisation, both in the animal and
material creation, is an instance of the vast extent to which
new combinations of organisation can be carried, and shows
the possibility of such combinations in the spiritual world,

far beyond our present conceptions.

II. From the nature of the case.

(1) We know the different principle of natural life in the
First Man, or parent of the old order of creation, and of
spiritual life in Christ, the Second Man, as the parent of the
new order of creation. This leads us to expect, not an identity,
but a change of organisation when that new order is fully
accomplished.

(2) However hard to conceive, however long unknown, yet
the truth is certain^ that change, and not continuance, is the
mode by which we shall pass into the spiritual world. Even
those of us who are still alive at the coming of the Lord, though
escaping the sleep of death with its dissolution and decay, will
not escape a change. It will be sudden and instantaneous,
butittoillbe complete; this mortal frame will avoid the actual
stroke of mortality, and be clothed with its immortal vestment.
Then will be fulfilled the ancient song of exultation over Death,
he will be lost in victory — his victory will be transferred to 2is
— he and his weapon Sin {that weapon ivhich owes its edge to
our old enemy the Law) will be destroyed, through our Lord
Jesus Christ; and this victory comes to us from God Himself .
Therefore remain unmoved by fear or doubt ; be active in the
work of your Master, looking forward to the completion and
reward of your labours as certain.

THE APOSTLE'S VIEW OF A FUTUEE STATE. 325

The Apostle's View of a Future State.

This passage exemplifies the soberness of the Apostle's view
of a future life. He enters into no details, he appeals change,
to two arguments only ; first, the endless variety of °°^ 9°°'

1 1 1 1 Ti 1 PI tmuity, to

the natural world ; secondly, the power ot the new ^e expect-
life introduced by Christ. These two together fur- ed ;
nish him with the hope that out of God's infinite goodness and
power, as shown in nature and in grace, life will spring out of
death, and new forms of being wholly unknown to us here
wall fit us for the spiritual world hereafter. On one point
only he gives a distinct and solemn assurance, namely, that
change, and not identity of form, was the lot which awaited all ;
not only those who were already dead, but those who might be
still living when the end came. So firmly was the first gene-
ration of Christians possessed with the expectation of living to
see the Second Coming, that it is here assumed as a matter of
course ; and their fate, as near and immediate, is used to illus-
trate the darker and more mysterious subject of the fate of
those already departed. That vision of * the last man,' which
now seems so remote as to live only in poetic fiction, was, to
the Apostle, an awful reality ; and is brought forward to express
the certainty that, even here, a change must take place ; the
greatest that imagination can conceive. The last of the human
race will have passed away ; but in that moment of final disso-
lution, the only thought that is present to the Apostle's mind
is not death, but life and victory. The time was approaching,
as it seemed, when, in the words of a modern author, ' not the
individual only, but the species of man would be transferred to
the list of extinct forms,' and all the generations of men would
be ' gone, lost, hushed in the stillness of a mightier death than
had hitherto been thought of.' To us the end of the w^orld,
though indefinitely postponed, is a familiar idea ; then it was
new in itself, and its coming was expected to be immediate.
As in the trial of his individual faith and patience,^ it was
revealed to him that ' Christ's grace was suflacient for him ; ' so
also in this trial, which appeared to await the whole existing

1 2 Cor. xii. 8, 9.

326 FIRST EPISTLE.

generation of men, it was also declared to him ^in a' revealed
' mystery,' that in that great change ' God would give them
the victory ' over death and the grave, ' through Jesus Christ.'
The question with which the passage opens, and which in
later times has often been asked again with elaborate minute-
ness, ' How are the dead raised up, and with what body do
they come ? ' is met with the stern reproof, ' Fool ! ' The
doctrine of ' the resurrection of the body ' is a phrase which
does not occur in the New Testament, and which, so far as it is
here touched upon, is rather repudiated than asserted. He re-
cognizes the fact that the difficulties which have been raised
respecting a future life are mostly occasioned by the futile
endeavour to form a more distinct conception of it than in our
mortal state is possible. The inquiry which he answers is like
that of the Sadducees, ^ In the resurrection whose wife shall she
be of the seven ? ' and the spirit of his reply is the same as that of
our Lord, ' In the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given
in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven. . . . God
is not the God of the dead, but of the living.' All that the
and jden- Apostle directly asserts is that, whatever be the form
tity of be- of existence after death, it will be wholly different
change of f^om the present, and that the infinite variety of nature
form. renders such an expectation not only possible, but

probable. His more positive belief or hope on this subject
must be sought in 2 Cor. v. 1-6. But from the two passages
combined, and from such expressions as Rom. viii. 23, ' the
redemption of our body ; ' Rom. viii. 11, ^ He that raised up
Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies ; '
Phil. iii. 21, ' Who shall change our vile body, that it may be
fashioned like unto His glorious body ; ' thus much may be
inferred ; — that the Apostle's idea of a future state is not fully
expressed by a mere abstract belief in the immortality of the
soul, but requires a redemption and restoration of the whole
man. According to the ancient creed of Paganism, expressed
in the well-known lines at the commencement of the Iliad, the
souls of departed heroes did indeed survive death ; but these
souls were not themselves ; they were the mere shades or ghosts
of what had been; ^ themselves ' were the bodies left to be
devoured by dogs and vultures. The Apostle's teaching, on
the other hand, is always that, amidst whatever change, it is
the very man himself that is preserved ; and, if for the pre-
servation of this identity any outward organisation is required.

THE APOSTLE'S VIEW OE A FUTURE STATE. 327

then, although ' flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of
heaven,' God from the infinite treasure house of the new-
heavens and new earth will furnish that organisation, as He
has already furnished it to the several stages of creation in the
present order of the world. ' If God so clothe the grass of
the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven,
shall He not much rather clothe you, O ye of little faith.'
' Ye do err, not knowing . . . the power of God.'

328 FIRST EPISTLE.

THE CONCLUSIOX.

Chap. XVI. 1—24.

The conclusion of this Epistle, as of that to the Romans,
Ephesians, Colossians, and the Second to Timotheus, is taken
up with matters more or less personal and secular. Of these
The Col- ^^^ fii'st is the collection amongst the Gentile
lection for Churches for the poorer Christians in Judaea. From
Chrfstkns whatever cause, there was at this period much poverty
of Pales- in Palestine, compared with the other Eastern pro-
vinces of the Roman Empire. The chief allusions
contained in the Apostolical Epistles to the duties of the rich
towards the poor, are those which we find in connexion with
the contribution here mentioned, and in the Epistle of St.
James (ii. 1-6, v. 1-6), and that to the Hebrews (xiii. 16;,
both addressed, if not to Judaea, at least to Jewish commu-
nities. And with this agrees the great stress laid in the
Gospels on the duty of almsgiving. We learn also from the
account of the last struggle for independence in Josephus, how
deeply the feelings of the poor were embittered against the
rich in Jerusalem, so as to give to the intestine factions of that
time something of the character of a social war.

This was in part occasioned by the greater density of
population in Palestine, compared with the thinly inhabited
tracts of Greece and Asia Minor; in part by the strongly
marked distinction of rich and poor, which had been handed
down to the Jews from the earlier periods of their history,
where we are familiar with it from the denunciations of Isaiah,
Jeremiah, and Nehemiah. The Christians, besides, were, as a
general rule, from the poorer classes (James ii. 5), and would
be subject to persecutions . and difficulties on account of their
religion (Heb. x. 34). From the mention of the poor as a
distinct class in the Christian Church, in Acts xi. 29 ; Gal ii. 10,
and in the passages relating to the contribution now in question,
it would seem that the community of property at Jerusalem must

THE CONCLUSION. 329

have either declined or failed of its object ; and may have even
contributed to occasion the great poverty which we thus find
prevailing in the period of twenty or thirty years after its
first mention. So pressing was the necessity at the time when
St. Paul first parted from the Church of Jerusalem, that an
express stipulation was made in behalf of this very point
(Gal. ii. 10). ^ To remember the poor ' was the one link by
which the Apostle of the Gentiles was still bound to the
Churches of Judaea. This pledge was given, probably, before
his second journey. But it was not till his third and last
journey, that the preparations were made for the great contri-
bution of which he now speaks. From this passage, confirmed
indirectly by Gal. ii. 10, vi. 10, it would appear that he had
first given orders for the collection in the Churches of Galatia.
From 2 Cor. viii. 10, ix. 2, it also appears, that the orders
here given to the Corinthians had been received by them a
year before the time of the Second Epistle, and therefore some
months before this Epistle.

At this time, he liad not quite determined whether to
take it to Jerusalem himself; possibly he had the intention of
going at once to the West, and even afterwards when he had
left Ephesus and reached Macedonia (2 Cor. viii. ix.), he was
still doubtful whether the Corinthian collection would be
suflBciently large for his purpose. But by the time that he
had actually arrived at Corinth, his exhortations in this and
in the Second Epistle had raised the desired sum ; and in
writing from thence to Rome, he announced his intention of
taking it at once to Jerusalem (Rom. xv. 25, 26); an intention
which he fulfilled during his last visit (Acts xxiv. 17). See
further the notes on 2 Cor. viii. and ix.

330

FIRST EPISTLE : CHAP. XVI. 1—5.

XVI. ^Ilepl Se Trj<s Xoytag ttJ? eU rous dytous bicrirep
Scerafa rat? e/c/cXTycrtats r^g PaXaria?, ovrw? /cai u/xet?
TTOiTjcraTe. ^ /caret /xta^' ^cra/BfiaTov eKacTTOS iffMcov nap'

■ (rafiPdrtcv.

XVI. ^Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I appointed to
the churches of Galatia, even so do ye. ^ Upon the first day of the week

1 \oyLa=(Tv\X6yr} in classical
Greek (see Wetstein for the
The col. word), in the Vulgate
lection. « collecta.' The word
' collecta ' is used for the assem-
blies in which the collections took
place, as in Jerome's story (ad
Gal. vi.) of the last words of St.
John, which were uttered ' per
singulas coUectas.'

ets, ' for the benefit of.'
SteVa^a, ' I gave orders when I
was there.'

rats €KKXy]crLaL's T7J<; VaXaria^,
i.e. ' the Churches of the several
cities or villages of Galatia.'
This arrangement must have
been made in the journey, de-
scribed in Acts xviii. 23, as is
confirmed by the allusion which,
in his Epistle to the Galatians
(ii, 10), he makes to such a con-
tribution . Ben gel : — * Galatarum
exemplum Corinthiis, Corinthio-
rum exemplum Macedonibus,
Macedonum et Corinthiorum ex-
emplum Romanis proponit. 2
Cor. ix. 2 ; Rom. xv. 26. Magna
exemplorum vis.'

2 Kara /ziav (rajSftdTOv. * On
every first day of the week.' /xta
•The first ^f^^[^o.Tov is a literal

day of the translation of the He-
week, brew phrase, 'one of
the sabbath, two of the sabbath,'
&c. i.e. one after the sabbath,
two after the sabbath. (See

Lightfoot on Matt, xxviii. 1.) So
rjfxipa fxLa ~ ' the first day,' Gen.
i. 5. This is the earliest mention
of the observance of the first day
of the week. The collections
were to be made on that day, as
most suited to the remembrance
of their Christian obligations.
And from this verse, or from the
practice implied by it, has been
derived the custom, still con-
tinued in almost all Christian
Churches, of offerings for the
poor on Sundays, or at least at
the times of the Holy Communion.
It is to be observed, however,
that there is nothing to prove
public assemblies, • inasmuch as
the phrase Trap' cavrw (' by him-
self, at his own house ') implies
that the collection was to be
made individually and in private.
This is confirmed by the exhor-
tation, in allusion to the same
subject, in 2 Cor. ix. 7 : ' Let
each man give as he has deter-
mined in his heart, not grudgingly
or of necessity : for God loveth
a cheerful giver.' The word
Oya-avpiCoiv, 'hoarding,' or 'trea-
suring up,' also implies that the
money was to remain in each in-
dividual's house till the Apostle
came for it.

o TL av cvoSojTat, 'as he may
have prospered '=Ka^(os euTro-
pctTo Ti9, Acts xi. 29, and KaOd
iav exVy '^ ^^r. viii. 12. Properly

THE CONCLUSION.

331

iavrS TiOeTOi Oiqcravpit^oiv o tl av euoSwrat, Iva /xt/, oTav
eXOo), t6t€ \oyiai yivcxiVTai. ^orav Se TrapayeVco/xai, ou?
^av SoKLjJid(TrjTe, Sl eTrio'Tokcov rovrov^ Treixxjjo) OLTreveyKeiv
rrjv -^dpLV vfjuatv eU ^lepova-aXijfJL' ^idv Se ^ d^Lov rj tov
KOLfjie TTOpevecrdaii avv ifxol nopevcrovTai. ^ikevcrofxai 8e
Trpos v/xas, OTav MaKeSovCav Siekdco* MaKeSovCav yap

• idv. " ikv 5c ^ &^iov.

let each one of you lay by him in store, as it hath prospered him, that
there be no gatherings when I come. ^And when I am with you, whom-
soever ye shall approve, them will I send by letters, to bring your gift *
unto Jerusalem. '^And if it be meet that I go also, they shall go with
me. ^Now I will come unto you, when I have passed through Macedonia:

• (tt. grace.

it signifies ' having a good jour-
ney,' as in Rom. i. 10.

t6t€ . . . ytVcovrat, * be going on
at the time when I come, and
when I ought to be occupied
with higher matters.'

3 0V5 av SoKi/xdcrrp-e. The Co-
rinthians themselves were to
choose their agents, probably to
prevent the possibility of misap-
propriation, as others had been
chosen for a like purpose by the
other Churches. See 2 Cor. viii.
18-20.

8t' cTTio-roXcov. The plural is
used, because there are several
persons. The word is probably
to be taken with irifXAJ/ui. Com-
pare orvcTTaTtKwi/ €7ri(rToA.o>i/, 2 Cor.
iii. 1.

;^apt9 is used for the contribu-
tion here as in 2 Cor. viii. 4.

4 cai/ 8e a^tov rj, * if it be
worth my journey.' This ex-
pression of doubt shows that he
did not settle his final plan
(Rom. XV. 28-32) till his arrival
at Corinth.

5-9 The second point, to
which the mention of the collec-
tions naturally brings him, is his
journey to Corinth ; and here he
has to announce that his earlier

His plan.

plan, which he had communicated
to them previously, was now
altered. This plan had
been (as we learn from
2 Cor. i. 16) to cross over the
^gBBan from Ephesus to Corinth,
to go thence through Greece to
Macedonia, and then to return
for a second visit to Corinth :
whereas now he determines to
pass first through Macedonia,
and make one visit only at Co-
rinth at the end of his Grecian
journey. This alteration was
made (2 Cor. i. 23) in conse-
quence of the tidings brought to
him of the disorders in the Co-
rinthian Church, that he might
leave time for his First Epistle
to have its due effect, before he
interposed with them personally.
The chano^e, as we see from 2
Cor. i. 17-23, X. 2, gave occa-
sion for much misapprehension,
the correction of which is one
object of the Second Epistle.

5 MttKeSoviW yap 8L€p)(0fJiai.
' I say, " when I have passed
through Macedonia, "/or it is now
my intention to do so, instead of
coming to you at once.' 8tep;j(o-
fjLai, ' I am to pass.'

He omits here the usual phrase

332

FIRST EPISTLE: CHAP. XVI. 6—10.

fidcra), Iva vfiei^ fxe TrpoTrefJixprjTe ov iav Tropevcj/Jiai. 'ou
OeXo) yap vfia<; apri iv TrapoSco ISeiv' iXiritfi^ ^yap xpovou
TLva iTTifxeivai irpos vfJ.as, iav 6 Kvpios ^iTTLTpexpr). ^ iiri^

Se for 7a/).

eTTirpiTrr}.

for I am to pass through Macedonia, ^ and it may be that I will abide,
yea and winter with you, that ye may send me on whithersoever I go.
' For I will not now see you by the way ; for I trust to tarry a while with
you, if the Lord will permit. ^Bufc I will tarry at Ephesus until Pente-

* if the Lord -will,' which shows
that even in that early age the
forms of religious speech and
feeling were not universally fixed.
Afterwards, in verse 7, he adds
it : here he uses thfe ordinary
expression tv^oV, 'as it may
happen.'

As he was still at Ephesus,
Siepxo/JLai is to be taken in the
future sense, common in the New
Testament ; — not ' I am pass-
ing,' but ' I am to pass.'

6 Trapa^et/xacrw. ' 1 will stay
with you through the winter'
(i.e. ' till the navigation of the
^gaean is again open, so as to
enable me to sail for Syria').
This intention, of which he here
expresses some doubt, he ful-
filled, so far as to pass the three
later months of the year in Sou-
thern Greece (Acts xx. 3), leav-
ing it in the spring of the follow-
ing year, as appears from the
mention of Easter in Acts xx. 6.
It might be inferred from this
passage (oi; iav 7ropcvco/xat), as
from verse 3, that he was un-
certain at this time whether he
should go eastward or westward
from Corinth.

Lva v/xets. ' I remain with you
in order that you, and no other
Church, may have the pleasure
of helping me forward.' He is
addressing himself to the feeling

so often touched in the Second
Epistle.

TrpoTrifnlrrjTc. This is the re-
ceived phrase for ' helping for-
ward on a journey or mission.'
See Acts xv. 3, xx. 38, xxi. 6 ;
Rom. XV. 24; 2 Cor. i. 16; Tit.
iii. 13 ; 3 John 6.

7 apTL, i.e. ' now according to
my present, as distinguished
from my late, intention.'

€1/ 7ra/3oSa), ' merely passing by
Corinth, on my way to Mace-
donia.'

eav 6 KvpLo<; iTriTpeifrr]. Compare
Heb. vi. 3 (iav iTnTpiirQ 6 ^eo?) ;
1 Cor. iv. 19 ; James iv. 15 (iav
6 Kvpto? 6fXrj(rrf). The former
phrase is somewhat stronger than
the latter, indicating not merely
permission, but giving the power
to do the thing desired.

8 CTTtjotevoi h\ iv 'E<^€o-a) cws r^s
TrcvTTyKoo-TT}?, ' I shall stay on at
Ephesus until the end of the
spring,' i.e. while the navigation
of the ^gsean is closed. For
the reluctance to make voyages
in the Mediterranean in winter,
compare Horace, Od. i. 4. 2,
where 'Trahuntque siccas ma-
chin se carinas,' is mentioned as
one of the signs of spring.

' Pentecost ' is mentioned here,
merely as a mark of time, as
' the Fast ' in Acts xxvii. 9.

This passage may be taken as

THE CONCLUSION.

333

lJL€V(o Se iv 'E(j)€o-(p ecDS Trj<; TTevTrjKoo-rrj*;' ^ OvpcL yap [jlol
avicoyev fxeyoXt) koI ivepynj^;, kol avTiKeipLevoi ttoWol.

^^^Eav Se ekOr) Ttju-o^eos, /SXeirere Iva d^d^a>9 yivr^rai

cost. *For a great door and effectual is opened unto me, and there are
many adversaries.

^° Now if Timotlieus come, see that he may be with you without fear :

a mark both of the place and
time of the writing of the Epistle.
cTn/xevio implies that he was now
at or near Ephesus, and the men-
tion of Pentecost implies that
it must have been a short time
before that season ; which thus
agrees with the apparent allusion
to Easter, as in v. 7, xv. 20.

9 Ovpa, ' opportunity.' Com-
pare 2 Cor. ii. 12 ; Col. iv. 3 ;
Acts xiv. 27.

di/eoryev is later Greek for dv-

CWKTat.

fxcyaXr) alludes to the extent
of his preaching; ivepyrjq, to its
effect ; the former word includ-
ing both the sign and the thing
signified in the metaphor, the
latter the thing signified only.
Two inducements for the Apostle
to stay, are a wide sphere and a
powerful opposition. Grotius : —
* Quod alios terruisset, Paulum
invitat.' He alludes, on the one
hand, to the spread of Christi-
anity in the neighbourhood of
Ephesus (Acts xix. 20), and on
the other hand, to the opposition
of Pagan (xix. 23) and of Jewish
(xix. 33, XX. 29) enemies.

IO-I2 The third point is the
explanation of the character and
conduct of his two friends, Timo-
theus and Apollos. Timotheus
had been sent from Ephesus to
Greece (A.cts xix. 22), though
from the expression there (eav
c\%) it seems that there was
some doubt whether he would
reach Corinth. The object of

his mission was (iv. 17) to re-
mind them of the Apostle's ex-
ample and teaching. Mission of
from which they were Timotheus.
in danger of deviating. But St.
Paul seems to have feared lest
his gentle and timid character
(both of which are hinted at as
impediments to his usefulness in
1 Tim. iv. 12 ; 2 Tim. i. 6, 7, ii.
1) should not command the re-
spect due to him. Hence this
exhortation.

a<{>6^(t)<s — ev elprjvrjf in allusion
to his timid character, iv elp-ijvr]
^'incolumis,' safe and sound.

He also speaks of Timotheus
as an exact counterpart of him-
self, and as the one of all his
companions best able to enter
into his feelings. For this same
fact see iv. 17 ; Phil. ii. 20, 22.

ySXcTTCTc Lva. For the con-
struction com.pare 2 John 8.

TO yap epyov Kvptov, as in xv.
68 ; Pbil. ii. 30 (xpi<TTOv).

Trpo7ri/xif/aT€. See verse 6.

/xcra Tcov d8eA<^a»v. This may
refer to the companions of Timo-
theus, of whom one (Acts xix.
22) was Efastns ; but, from the
short manner in which the phrase
is introduced, he more probably
alludes to the persons of whom
he proceeds to speak in the next
verse.

Besides the mission of Timo-
theus to impress upon the Co-
rinthian Church the feelings of
the Apostle himself, a task for
which Timotheus, by his close

334

FIRST EPISTLE: CHAP. XVI. 11—14.

TTpos vfxaq' TO yap epyov Kvpiov epya^erau w? ^ Kayco.
^^ fJiy] Tt5 ovv avTov l^ovOevqcrrj. TTpOTrefjixpaTe 8e avTov kv
elpyjinrj, Iva ekOrj Trpos ^ifxe' e/cSe^^o/xat yap avrov fxera

^^IlepX Se ^AttoWo) tov dSeXc^ov, iroWa TrapeKokecra
avTov Iva "^Xdrj npo^ v/iag /i-era tcov aSeXffycov Kal 7rdvT(o<;
ovK rjv dikiqpia Iva vvv eXOrj, iXevoreTau Se orav evKaLpyjarj.

• Kal iydo. ^ irp6s fie.

for he worketh the work of the Lord, as I also do. "Let no man there-
fore despise him : but send him on in peace, that he may come unto me :
for I wait for him with the brethren.

^^As touching our brother ApoUos, I greatly exhorted him to come
unto you with the brethren : and his will was not at all to come at this
time ; but he will come when he shall have convenient time.

intimacy with St. Paul, was pe-
culiarly fitted, there was another
later mission despatched at the
time of his writing this Epistle,
with the view, partly of carrying
the Epistle and enforcing the
observance of its contents, partly
of urging upon the Church the
necessity of completing their
contributions before the Apostle's
arrival (2 Cor. viii. 6, xii. 18).
Mission of This mission was com-
Titus. posed of Titus and two
other ' brethren ' (2 Cor. viii. 18,
22, 23), whose names are not
mentioned ; Titus having been
chosen for this, as Timotheus for
the other, probably from his
greater energy and firmness of
character. That the mission
thus described is the one to
which he here alludes can hardly
be doubted. The words irapaKa-
Xftv and aSeX^ds are used in the
same emphatic and recognised
sense, in both passages ; and as
the mission there spoken of was
previous to his writing the Se-
cond Epistle, it can be referred
to no occasion so obvionsly as
that which is here described.
These accordingly are -the bre-

thren who would, as he expected,
find or wait for Timotheus at
Corinth, and return with him.

It would seem, however, that
the Apostle's original wish bad
been, that the head of this mis-
sion should have been, not Titus,
but Apollos. Apollos, since his
visit to Corinth (named in Acts
xviii. 27, and implied in this
Epistle, iii. 6), must have re-
turned to Ephesus ; and he, both
from the distinction which he
enjoyed in the opinion of his
fellow- Christians (i. 12, iv. 6;
Acts xviii. 25), and from his
previous acquaintance with the
Church of Corinth, would have
been the natural person to send
upon such a mission. The most
obvious explanation of his refusal
to comply with the Apostle's re-
quest, would be the fear lest his
presence should encourage the
faction which called itself by his
name, and which apparently was
the most powerful at this precise
time. It is a slight confirmation
of the identity of this mission
with that of Titus, that the only
later occasion on which the name
of Apollos occurs in the New

THE CONCLUSION.

335

Kpajaiovcrde. ^* TrdvTOL vixcov iv aydirr) yivecrOo).

» Om. Kai.

^^ Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, and be strong.
^^ Let all your things be done with love.

Testament, is in the Epistle to
Titus (iii. 13), where they are
spoken of as living together.

13, 14 These verses had best
be regarded as a short summary
of the exhortation which he con-
ceives that both Timotheus and
Apollos would give them. The
words are expressive of a com-
bat : —

ypr]yop€LT€, * be watchful ; '
' have the eyes of your mind and
conscience open to all that is
going on around you : the enemy
is advancing; the last day (see
verse 22) is approaching : be on
your guard.'

(TT-qKiTe cv rfj 7rt(7T€t, ' stand
unshaken in your faith against
the enemy.' Compare xv. 58,
' be ye steadfast, un moveable ; '
and (more exactly) Eph. vi. 13,
14, ' stand, therefore, having
your loins girt about with truth ; '
and 2 Cor. i. 24, ' by faith ye
stand.'

dv8pt^€(r^€, [Kttt] KparaLovaOe.
The two words occur frequently
together in the LXX. and form
one phrase, ' Nerve yourselves
for the contest.' See Ps. xxvii.
14; xxxi. 24; 1 Sam. iv. 9 ; 2
Sam. X. 12.

avSpL^€(T6e occurs often in clas-
sical writers ; Kparaiova-O^ never.

Kttt, which is found in A. D.
E. and the Versions, is omitted
in B. G. ; probably from an at-
tempt to reduce the whole sen-
tence to conformity, without
perceiving the conventional cha-
racter of the phrase.

14 iravTa v/xiov a/ ayaTnj
yiviaOtii. As the previous words
set forth the sterner, so these set
forth the gentler side of Chris-
tian duty with an allusion to the
Factions and to chap. xiii. Chry-
sostom well says: Xiyu Tprjyo-

p€LT€y 0)S Ka$€vS6vTU)V ' ^Tr/KCTe,

d)S araXevo/jLcvoiv ' 'AvSptlea-Oe kol
KparaLovaOe, oi's /xaXaKevovTioy'IIdv-
Ta iv dyoLTrrj, ws (TTa(TLa^6vT(ov.

15 Here the Epistle would
properly have ended ; but there
were still some remarks to be
made on individuals belonging
to the Corinthian Church itself.
There were now with the Apo-
stle three men recently come
from Corinth, possibly with the
letter of the Corinthians (viii.

1).

The * house of Stephanas,' in
verse 15, must be the « House of
same as that mentioned Stephanas.'
in i. 16, where it appears that
they were, not only the earliest
converts of St. Paul at Corinth,
but amongst the few who were
baptized with his own hands.
The Stephanas of verse 17 (as
implied in the words of verse 15,
and of i. 16,- which mention the
household, apparently in contra-
distinction to the master) was
probably one of the slaves of tbe
Stephanas of verse 15, andhad re-
ceived his name from his master.
The two remaining names are
also more like those of slaves
than of native Greeks. ' Eortuna-
tus ' occurs again in the Epistle
of Clement, as the name of the

336

FIRST EPISTLE: CHAP. XVI. 15—19.

^^ UapaKakco Se u/ia9, dSeX(/)or otSare rr)v oiKiav Hre-
4>ava, OTL ecTTLV airapyrj Trj<; ^^ata? kol et? hiaKoviav tol^
aytot9 €Tagav eavTOVs' lvol Kai v/xeis V7roTacrcr7)(rtf€ Toi<;

^^Now I exhort you, brethren (ye know the house of Stephanas,
that it is the first fruits of Achaia, and that they appointed themselves to
the ministry of the saints), ^^that ye also appoint yourselves to be under

bearer of that Epistle to the
Church of Corinth, in company
with Valerius Bito and Claudius
Ephebus, apparently two Greek
freedraen enrolled in theValerian
and Claudian families. (Clem.
Ep. I. ad Cor. i. 59.) ' Achaicus '
indicates either a Greek slave,
so called by his Roman masters,
or an Eastern slave, so called
from the land of his adoption.
Whether, however, the Apostle is
here speaking of one or of two
groups, it is certain that in both
cases he is speaking of Corinthian
Christians, to whose authority he
wishes to enforce obedience. The
ambiguity of the precise subject
of the sentence in some degree
affects its construction also : tva,
in verse 16, may depend either
on TrapaKoXu) or on otSare, i.e.
either (1) 'I exhort you to
obey,' &c. (comp. TrapeKoXovv . . .
iva . . . aif/uiVTai, Matt. xiv. 36,
and the use of vd, for Iva, in
Romaic), or (2) ' you know such
persons in order to,' &c. The
first is the best, in which case
the construction requires that
TrapaKoXC) should be the principal
verb in the sentence, and otSare
. . . iavTovs thrown in parenthe-
tically. A similar interruption
of a similar commencement, may
be seen in Eph. iv. 1.

oi8aT6 is indicative, there being
no instance of such a form in the
imperative.

OLTrapxq' ' Eirst fruits of the
harvest which was to follow.'

Compare Rom. xvi. 5, where
Epsenetus is called 'the first
fruits of Asia,' or according to
some MSS. ' of Achaia.' If the
latter, then he may have been one
of the household of Stephanas.
Possibly in this case the meta-
phor is coloured by the allusion
to the offering of the first fruits at
the passover (see note on xv. 20),
introduced in connexion with the
thought elsewhere (Rom. xv. 16)
expressed, that the Gentile con-
verts were the offering which he
presented to God.

15 'Axaias, i.e. * Southern
Greece.'

€ts SittKovtav T0t9 dyiot?. This,
viewed in connexion with verse
1, where rovs ay covs is also used
without any qualification, proba-
bly refers to the contribution for
the Christians in Judeea.

15 h-a^av kavTOv<i. The stress
is on eavTov?, ' appointed tliem-
selves,' i.e. ' of their own accord,'
in the first burst of zeal which
followed their conversion (comp.
the classical quotation in Wet-
stein).

16 Lva KOL v/aet9 VTrorda-crrja-Oe.
The emphatic v/xet? is in allnsion
to the play upon h-a^av and vtto-
TaGra-rjcrOe, and the sense is, ' You
know the zeal with which the
household of Stephanas appointed
themselves to their work. I ex-
hort you that you, for your part,
should appoint to yourselves the
task of obeying them.'

THE CONCLUSION.

337

17.

T0L0VT0L<; /cat TTavTi TO) crvvepyovvTi Kai kottkovti. ^' yaipo)
Se cTTt TTj irapovcTLa Srecjiava kol ^ ^opjovvarov /cat ^^at-
/cov, ort TO ^vfJL€T€pov vcrT€pr)ixa ^ avTol aveTrkrjpoicrav'

iiTiyva}-

^^ aveTTavaav yap to e/xoz/ rrvevp^a /cat to vfxwi/
cr/cere ovv rovs rotourov?.

^^ ^crTTa^oi/rat Vjitas at e/c/cAT^crtat rr^s ^<Tta5. acTTra-

• ^ovprovvdrov.

VflWV.

• OUTOi.

such, and under everyone that helpeth with them, and laboureth. "Now
I rejoice at the coming of Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus : for
that which was lacking on your part they supplied : ^^for they refreshed
my spirit and yours. Therefore acknowledge ye such.

^^ The churches of Asia salute you. Aquila and Priscilla salute you

Toi? Totovrot?, ' such as the
household of Stephanas.'

(TvvepyovvTi, ' That works with
them,* and the force of the a-vv is,
as it were, carried on to KOTrioivrL.

17 xatpo) Se. This is probably
a resumption of the previous
subject, as the conclusion ctti-
yvwcrK€T€ ovv Tovs TOLovTov<;, in
verse 18, seems like a final sum-
mary of verse 16, and it is after
St. Paul's custom to bring out a
point in which he is deeply inter-
ested a second time.

Trapovo-ta, * arrival.'

From this verse it may be in-
ferred that Stephanas, Fortu-
natus, and Achaicus, were now
at Ephesus ; nor is there any
proof that they carried back this
First Epistle, which, as implied
in verse 12, was probably sent
by Titus.

TO vfX€T€pov v(rT€pr)fxa avTol ave-
Tr\rjpiii(Tav. ' They in their own
persons supplied the void occa-
sioned by your absence from me.'
Compare Phil. ii. 30.

18 aviirava-av yap ro ifjuov
TTvevfia KoX TO vfxwv. * For they re-
freshed, reinvigorated my spirit,
and by a necessary consequence
of our sympathy, yours also.' It
is a concise expression of the

same consciousness of identity of
feelings and interests, which ex-
presses itself strongly in 2 Cor.
i. 3-7. For the words compare
dvaTreTravrat to 7rvev/xa avrov (i.e.
of Titus), 2 Cor. vii. 13.

€7nyv(i)(TKeT€, * acknowledge : '
* recognise as your guides ; ' like
ciScVai, in 1 Thess. v. 12, and
jLvdio-Koi (as distinguished from
lirLCTTajxai) in Acts xix. 15 (or
from otSas) in John xxi. 17.

19-21 The salutations are
threefold : (1) Those from the
Churches of Asia (eV/cXryo-iat rJ}?
'Ao-ia?). Here, as in xvi. 1, the
plural is properly used to denote
the Christian congregations in
ihe several cities of proconsular
Asia, of which the chief are the
seven enumerated in the Apoca-
lypse, all situated within the
limits' of the Roman province
called ' Asia.' From this pas-
sage as well as from Rev. i. ii.
iii. and Col. iv. 16, it would seem
that they were all connected
with each other in the same
circle of Christian brotherhood.

(2) The salutation from the
congregation in the house of
Aquila and Priscilla. Aquila was
— like his namesake, the transla-
tor of the Old Testament — a

338

FIRST EPISTLE: CHAP. XVI. 20—23.

i^ovTaL v/xag iu Kvpico iroWa ^AKvXa^ kol ^ITptcr/ctXXa crvp
rfj Kar oXkov avTwv eKKkiqcria. '^^ aaTTdtpvTai v/i-o-s ol
aSeX^ot Travre^;, dcnrdcracrde dWn^Xov^ iv (j)iKri^aTi dyico.

■ Lachm. Ed. 1. TipltrKa.

much in the Lord with the church that is in their house. ^^All the
brethren salute you. Salute ye one another with a holy kiss. ^^The

' Livia ' and
and * Dru-

Jew, from Pontus. (Acts xviii.
Aqniia ^O His wifs is men-
and tioned so prominently

risci a. -wherever her husband's
name occurs — in four instances
(Acts xviii. 18, 26 (in some
MSS.) ; Kom. xvi. 3 ; 2 Tim. iv.
19) preceding it, — as to indicate
that she was distinctly known,
not merely in connexion with
him but on her own account al-
so. She is called Prisca in the
Epistles (Rom. xvi. 3 (except
in Rec. Text) ; 2 Tim. iv. 19),
and Priscilla in the Acts (xviii.
2, 18, 26); so
' Livilla,' ' Drusa
silla,' are used for the same
person (see Wetstein on Romans
xvi.). In this place the name is
Prisca in B. Priscilla in C. D. G.
They accompanied St. Paul from
Corinth to Ephesus, and there
remained whilst he went on to
Jerusalem (Acts xviii. 18, 26).
Hence the connexion with the
Corinthian Church, implied in
this salutation, and their presence
at Ephesus, at the date of the
composition of this Epistle. The
expression * the Church in their
house,' which is repeated in
connexion with their names in
Rom. xvi. 3, implies a congrega-
tion distinct from that of the
native Ephesians, probably of
foreign settlers like themselves,
such as had naturally brought
them into connexion with Paul
at Corinth, and subsequently
with Apollos at Ephesus (both

strangers in the respective cities
where the meeting was effected,
Acts xviii. 2, 26). The greater
earnestness and devotion ex-
pressed in their greeting {h
KvpLia TToAAa, ' a full Christian
greeting ') would be naturally
occasioned by their intimacy
with the Corinthian Church.

(3) The salutation of ' all the
brethren.' Who is here meant
was clear to the Corinthians, but
obscure to us. It may be : either
the Christians of Ephesus ; or the
brethren spoken of in verses 11,
12 ; or a general summing up of
all the Christians within reach
of his communication, as in Rom.
xvi. 16 ; 2 Cor. xiii. 13. The in-
junction to salute each other with
a sacred kiss is repeated in Rom.
xvi. 16 ; 2 Cor. xiii. 12 ; 1 Thess.
V. 26. It was the common form
of affectionate Eastern < The Holy
salutation, transferred ^^s'
to the forms of Christian society,
and hence the epithet of ayiw,
* holy.' The practice continued
in Christian assemblies, chiefly
at the time of the celebration of
the Eucharist (Justin Apol. i.
65). The regulations of the
Apostolical Constitutions, viii.
11, and the Canons of Laodicea
(Can. 19), enjoin that before the
Communion, the clergy are to
kiss the bishop, the men amongst
the laity each other, and so the
women. On Good Friday it was
omitted, in commemoration of
the kiss of Judas. Down to the

THE CONCLUSION.

339

^^' O acTTraor/xo? rfj ijxfj X'^^'P^ IJavXov. ^^ ei rt? ov <^tXet
Tov KvpLOV, rjTco avaUefJia. jxapavaUa. ^^rj X^P''^ ^^^ Kvpiov

• Add 'Irjo-ovv xpi<rj-<Ji'.

salutation of me Paul with mine own hand. ^^ If any one love not the
Lord, let him be Anathema. Maran-atha. ^^The grace of the Lord

fifth centary (Augustin. contra
Pelag. iv. c. 8) it was given after
Baptism, and was afterwards
superseded by the salutation
' Peace be with thee.' It was
technically called y clp-jvrj, ' the
Peace ' (Cone. Laod. Can. 19).

It is still continued in the
worship of the Coptic Church.
Every member of the congrega-
tion there kisses and is kissed
by the priest. In the Western
Church it was finally laid aside
in the thirteenth century.

21 He winds up the saluta-
tions with his own farewell,
Autograph Written (not like the
signature, ^est of the letter by an
amanuensis, but) by his own
hand. The expression occurs
besides in 2 Thess. iii. 17 ; Col.
iv. 18 ; in the former passage,
with the addition ' which is a
sign in every Epistle.' This
attestation was probably confined
to such Epistles as especially
needed it from being addressed
to Churches who questioned his
authority, or amongst whom, as
in the case of Thessalonica (2
Thess. ii. 2), doubts had arisen
as to the genuineness of his com-
munications. Accordingly in the
two instances in which his au-
thority was most violently as-
sailed, — Corinth at the time of
the Second Epistle, and Galatia,
— the Epistles to those Churches
were apparently written, not
merely in the conclusion, but the
former in great part — Chapters
X. to xiii. (see 2 Cor. x. 1), — and

the latter throughout (Gal. vi.
11), by his own hand.

The amanuensis of this Epistle
was probably Sosthenes (see i.
1). Although it is not expressly
stated, yet it seems probable that
the whole of the rest of the con-
clusion was, like the salutation,
in the Apostle's own handwrit-
ing, which would account for the
greater solemnity and abruptnes3
of the sentences.

22 €6 TtS ov <^tA.€t TOV KVpiOV.

This peculiarity in the use of
<fi(X€Lv for dyaTTcij/ (compare espe-
cially Eph. vi. 24) is occasioned
probably by the fact that ov ^tAct
is taken as one word, a milder
expression for /Ato-et, like ovk iy-
KpaT€vovTai in vii. 9 for aKpa-
TcvovTttt ; and for this purpose ov
(fnXet was more natural than ovk
dry aTra.

dvaOc/xa is 'accursed,' as in
xii. 3 ; Rom. ix. 3 ; Gal. i. 8 ;
Mark xiv. 71 ; corresponding to
the Latin ' sacer,' and to the
Hebrew ' cherem.'*

' Maran-atha ' is a Syriac for-
mula in Greek characters, signi,
fying * The Lord has Maran-
come,' or ' The Lord **^^-
will come.' The word ' Maran '
is the longer form of ' Mar,* the
Chaldee (or later Hebrew) word
for ' Lord,' and used as such in
Dan. ii. 47, iv. 19, 24, v. 23, fa-
miliar also as the title of eccle-
siastical dignitaries in the Syrian
Church. ' Atha ' is frequently
used in the poetical books of the
Old Testament for ' comes,' and

340

FIRST EPISTLE: CHAP. XVI. 24.

Irjcrov ')(pLcrTOv fietf vficov. i) ayairr) yiov [xera 7ravT0)V
vfxcov iu )(pLaT(p 'Irjcrov. ^[o'/xt^i^.]

* Add Ilphs Kopivdiovs irpdrrj iypdtprj airh ^iXitnrwv 5to Sret^ova koI
^ovprovudrov Kal 'Axa'iKou Kal Ti/xod4ov.

Jesus Christ be with you. '^^My love is with you all in Christ Jesus.
Amen.

8o also in Chaldee. See Dan. iii.
2, vii. 22 ; Ezra iv. 12, v. 3.

The whole phrase is introduced
in the original language, in order
to eive greater force to the pre-
vious curse ; as in like manner
the Syriac ^ Abha' is preserved
in Rom. viii. 15 ; Gal. iv. 6 ; and
Hebrew words, such as ' Abad-
don,' ' Armageddon,' are re-
tained in the Apocalypse.

Maran-atha would seem to
follow the curse in verse 22, as
Amen in some MSS. follows the
blessing in 23, 24. But the pre-
cise meaning of the phrase is am-
biguous. If it means ' The Lord
has come,' then the connexion is,
'the curse will remain, for the
Lord has come, who will take
vengeance on those who reject
Him.' Thus the name 'Maro-
nite ' is sometimes explained by
a tradition that the Jews, in
their expectation of a Messiah,
were constantly saying ' Maran '
(Lord), to which the Christians
answered ' Maran-atha,' i.e. 'The
Lord is come ; why do you ex-
pect Him ? ' and hence the name
' Maronite ' as applied to Jews,

and especially Spanish Jews and
Moors, who confessed ' lfara/?i, '
but not ' Maran-aiha ' (see Es-
tius). If it means * The Lord
will come,' then the connexion
will be, ' This is the curse, and
beware how you incur it, for the
Lord is at hand.' Compare (in
support of this view) a similar
abruptness of introduction in
Phil. iv. 5, 'The Lord is at
hand.'

There is no proof of any such
phrase in the Jewish liturgies.
The word ' anathema ' occurs
frequently in later ecclesiastical
censures ; the words Maran-atha
never. (See Bingham, Ant. xvi.
ii. § 16.)

23 17 x^P'^- ' '1'^® favour or
goodness.' See note on 2 Cor.
xiii. 13.

24 17 ayaTTTf, i.e. ccrri.

The subscription, which is
contained in no ancient MSS., is
manifestly incorrect, being a false
inference from Siepxofiai in xvi.
5. From verse 8, it is certain
that the Epistle was written,
not from Philippi, but from
Ephesus.

THE CONCLUSION. 341

Paraphrise of Chap. XVI. 1 — 24.

There are still some practical remarks to be made in conclusion:

I. Remember to have the money for the poor Christians
in JudcBa ready when I come ; and the best way of having it
ready is that which I formerly suggested to the congregations
in the cities of Galatia, namely, that every one should on
every Sunday lay by something privately ; and then, when I
arrive, it shall either be sent by your approved messengers, or
taken by myself to Jerusalem, according as it may seem
deserving of one or the other mode of transmission,

II. 1 wish to announce to you that I have changed my
plan. Instead of coming to you on my way to Macedonia, I
shall come to you after I have been in Macedonia, and remain
with you, not as I had formerly intended, on a transient visit,
but for a long time, probably through the winter. Meantime
I shall remain at Ephesus till the beginning of summer ; for
I have great opportunities to use and powerful obstacles to
surmount.

III. Timotheus will probably ?iot have reached you so
soon as this Epistle ; but, whenever he does come, encourage
and reassure his timidity and his youth ; remember that he
is a true I'epresentative of myself, and send him on to meet
me, for I expect him to return with the Christians who bear
this letter,

IV. Apollos would have been the natural person to have
accompanied them, and I earnestly entreated him to do so ;
but he steadily refused ; though he will come, when the cause
for his present refusal is removed.

In conclusion, remember how great a conflict you have to
carry on. Be on the alert, stand fast in your faith, nerve
yourselves for the battle ; and, at the same time, let all he
done in the spirit of Christian love,

V. / have yet a few words to add. You know the slaves
and family of Stephanas ; how they were my first converts
in Greece, and how they made it their business to serve the
poorer Christians, Be it your business to obey them and all
like them. And you know how I rejoice in the arrival and
presence of Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus ; how they

342 FIEST EPISTLE.

Jill up the void of your absence ; how they lighten the load,
both of my spirit and of yours, by communicating your
thoughts to me and mine to you. Such are the characters
that you ought to recognise and esteem.

VI. Receive the salutations of the congregations in the
cities of proconsular Asia. Receive the salutations of the
congregation of foreign settlers, which meets in the house of
your former friends, Aquila and Priscilla. Receive the salu-
tations of all the Christians in this place. Salute each other
by the sacred hiss of Christian brotherhood. Receive my
own salutation in my own handwriting.

VII. In conclusion, may he who turns away from our
Lord without love be doomed to the curse which is his proper
judgment. Maran-atha. May the goodness and the blessing
of our Lord be with you. My Christian love is with you all.
Amen.

END OF THE FIRST EPISTLE.

THE

SECOND EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS.

INTEODUCTION

SECOND EPISTLE TO THE COEINTHIANS.

Or all the Epistles of St. Paul there is none so personal as
the Second to the Corinthians. Its occasion lay in Occasion of
the peculiar complication of circumstances which took the Second
place in the interval between the two Epistles. If ^^^
the Introduction to the First might be called * The State of
the Corinthian Church,^ the Introduction to the Second might
be called, with equal propriety, * The Effects of the First
Epistle,^

'i'hat Epistle had been conveyed, or, at least, immediately
followed by Titus. To him the Apostle had entrusted the duty
both of enforcing its commands, and of communica- The Apo-
tinor to him its results ; whilst he himself, after a stay ^^^® ^ ^*^"

n IT-.! 11 parture

01 some weeks at Ephesus, was to advance by easy from
stages through Macedonia to Corinth. The stay at Ephetus.
Ephesus was probably cut short by the riot of the silversmiths ;
his departure is described ^ as taking place immediately after
and in consequence of it. From hence he went to Troas, and
from thence to Macedonia.^ It was a journey overcast with
perplexity, sorrow, and danger. Possibly the recollection of
the recent tumult at Ephesus still weighed upon his mind ;
possibly some new conspiracy against his life had jj-^ ^j^^j_
been discovered on the road ; but his expressions ^ ety to hear
rather imply that the gloom and misery which op- ^V'^^ «
pressed him were greatly enhanced, if not occasioned, the First
by his anxiety about the reception of his Epistle at Epistle.
Corinth. His bodily constitution, never strong, seems to have

Acts XX. 1. 2 jj 12, 13. 3 i. 4, 8-10, ii. 13, vii. 5, 6.

346 SECOND EPISTLE.

been bowed down almost to the grave by this complication of
sorrow.^ All was dark around him ; and all was darkened
into a still deeper night by the fear lest his influence in his
favourite Church should be extinguished by his own act in his
own Epistle. His beloved Timotheus, who was now with him,
either had never reached Corinth, or had returned before the
arrival of the First Epistle ; he, therefore, could give his
master no comfort on the one subject which filled his thoughts.
Corinth, and Corinth only, was the word which would then
have been found written on the Apostle's heart ; and Titus
was the only friend who could at that conjuncture minister
balm to his troubled spirit. His first hope of meeting was at

Troas : ^ thither vessels sailed from the opposite coast,
Arrival at ^^ when the Apostle himself a year later returned by

that route from Corinth ; ^ and thither, therefore,
Titus might already have arrived from the same city. But
the Apostle waited in vain : some unexpected delay retained
the faithful friend, and added new pangs to the Apostle's
anxieties. Even his apostolic labours, at other times his chief
consolation in trouble, had now no charms for him ; of the
great opportunities which were opened for him at Troas, and of
which a year later he gladly availed himself,'* he could now
make no use ; and bidding farewell to the disciples in that city,
he embarked for Macedonia, probably as once before,^ to
Neapolis, and thence by land to Philippi. There, amidst the
familiar scenes of his first European journey, he passed on his
onward route, cheered by the zeal of his Macedonian converts:^
but still distrustful and oppressed, his ' flesh had no rest,' he
was ' troubled on every side ; without were fightings, within
were fears.' "^

,j . At last the long-expected day came: Titus

with Titus arrived, and arrived with tidings, not indeed wholly
atPhihppi. satisfactory, but suflBciently cheering to relieve the
Apostle at once from the chief load of care which had weighed
down his spirit ; and, for the rest, though agitating, yet calcu-
lated rather to call forth his energetic indignation than to
overcloud and distress him.

The First Epistle had been received, and, by those for whom

1 i. 8.

2 ii. 13.

^ Acts XX. 5, 6.

* ii. 13 ; Acts xx. 6.

5 Acts xvi. 11, 12.
« viii. 2.
^ vii. 5.

INTKODUCTION. 347

it was mainly intended, entirely appreciated. The licentious
party who, whether from misunderstanding or per- rp-^j-^^
verting the Apostle's teaching, had used his name trom Co-
as a watchword for their excesses, were humbled. "°^^-
Some complaints were raised against the Apostle's change of
purpose in not coming to them direct from Ephesus ; ^ some
cause still remained for fear lest the intercourse with tbe
heathen should be too unrestrained ; * but on the whole, the
submission of the mass of the Corinthian Church to his
directions was complete. They received Titus with open
arms ; ^ and, in the matter of the incestuous marriage, the
correction of which had been the chief practical subject of the
First Epistle, they had been struck with the deepest
penitence ; "^ an assembly had been convened, and a mentofthe
punishment inflicted on the oflfender ; ^ and although incestuous
this sorrow for themselves, and this severity towards ° *

the guilty person, had passed away before Titus's departure,^
and the sin itself had been forgiven,^ yet there was nothing to
indicate any disinclination to follow the spirit of the Apostle's
teaching. Thus far all had gone beyond the Apostle's expec-
tations ; in the one point in which his command might seem to
have been only partially followed out, in the temporary cha-
racter of the penalty inflicted on the incestuous person, his
mind was relieved even more than if they had literally observed
his orders. They had judged, he almost seemed to think, more
wisely in this respect than himself; ^ and generally he felt that
confidence between them was now restored,^ and that he was
now more inseparably united with them in that union in their
common Lord, which none but Christians knew.^°

Mingled, however, with this good news were other tidings,
not wholly unexpected by the Apostle, for he had already
anticipated something of the kind in his First Epistle,^^ but
still demanding new and distinct consideration. The Jewish
party at Corinth, which claimed especially the name -^^^^^^ ^^
of Peter, and apparently that of Christ also,^^ had the Jewish
at the time of the First Epistle been so insignificant P^^^y-

1 i. 15-ii. 1.

* ' ii. 10.

2 vi. 14-vii.

8 vii. 12, ii. 9, 10.

3 vii. 13-16.

9 vi. 11, vii. 16.

4 vii. 7-11.

10 i. 5, 6, iii. 2, 3.

5 ii. 6.

11 1 Cor. ix. 1-6.

« vii. 8.

12 See note on 1 Cor. i. 10

348

SECOND EPISTLE.

in itself, or so insignificant when compared with the greater
evil of the opposite party, as to call only for a few passing
notices from the Apostle. It had, however, even then reached
a sufficient height to question his apostolic authority ; ^ and, in
the interval, apparently from the arrival of a new teacher or
teachers, with letters of commendation ^ from some superior
authority, probably from Jerusalem, the opponents of the
Apostle had grown into a large and powerful party ,^ consti-
tuting even ' the majority ' of the teachers ; * openly assailing
the Apostle's character, claiming almost despotic dominion
over their followers,^ insisting on their purely Jewish origin,^
and on their peculiar connexion with Christ,^ on their aposto-
lical privileges,^ and on their commendatory letters.^

These two subjects, the general acquiescence of the Corin-
thian Church in the Apostle's injunctions, and the claims of
the Judaizing party, must have been the chief topics of Titus's
communication. The first and prominent feeling, awakened in
St. Paul's mind, was one of overwhelming thankfulness for
relief from the anxiety which he had, up to that moment, felt
for the effects of his Epistle ; next, indignation at the insinua-
tions of his adversaries. To give vent to the double tide of
emotion thus rising within him, was the main purpose, there-
fore, of the Second Epistle. A third subject of less importance,
but which gave him a direct opportunity for writing, was the
necessity of hastening the collection of the sums to
tion for^" ^^ Contributed by the Corinthians to the wants of the
Jerusa- Christian poor in Judsea. He had already spoken
^^^' of it in the close of his First Epistle ; but his sense

of the need of success had been further impressed upon him
by the generosity of the Macedonian Churches, of which his
recent stay among them had made him an actual witness.

As in the occasion, so also in style, the contrast between
the First and Second Epistle is very great. The First is the
most, the Second the least, systematic of any of the
the Epi- Apostle's writings. The three objects of the Epistle
fetle ; ^j.Q^ jjj point of arrangement, kept distinct. But so

vehement were the feelings under which he wrote, that the

1 1 Cor. ix. 1-6.

2 2 Cor. iii. 1, x. 12.

3 i. 12, 17, iii. 1, X. 1, xii. 21.
^ ii. 17.

5 i. 24, ii. 17, xi. 13, 20.

6 xi. 22.

7 V. 16, X. 7, xi. 13, 23, xiii. 3.

8 xi. 5, 13.

9 iii. 1, V. 12, X. 12, 18.

INTRODUCTION. 349

thankful expression of the first part is darkened by the indig-
nation of the third; and the directions about the business of
the contribution are coloured by the reflections both of his joy
and of his grief. And in all the three portions, though in
themselves strictly personal, the Apostle is borne away into
the higher regions in which he habitually lived ; so that this
Epistle becomes the most striking instance of what is the case,
more or less, with all his writings : a new philosophy of life
poured forth, not through systematic treatises, but through
occasional bursts of human feeling. The very stages of his
journey are impressed upon it : the troubles at Ephesus, the
repose at Troas, the anxieties and consolations of Macedonia,
the prospect of moving to Corinth. ' Uni versa E pistol a,' says
Bengel, ' itinerrarium refert, sed praeceptis pertextum praestan-
tissimis.' ^

Through this labyrinth of conflicting emotions it is now
necessary to follow the Apostle. As in the First its
Epistle, so in this, we must conceive him, at least at Contents,
its outset, dictating his thoughts to an amanuensis, in this
instance, probably to the youthful disciple Timotheus, whose
name, in the opening of the Epistle, fills the place which, in
its predecessor, had been occupied by that of Sosthenes.

The first feeling to which he gave utterance after the
formal salutation, is one of unbounded thankfulness for deli-
verance from his anxiety, and of the entire sympathy which
existed between himself and his converts.^ This feeling is
first checked by the recollection that their sympathy with him
was not so complete as his with them, in consequence of a
suspicion of double-dealing and double-speaking on his part,
chiefly grounded on his change of purpose in not coming to
Corinth as expressed in his former Epistle. This charge he
turns aside for a moment to explain and to justify ; to point
out that he had relinquished his earlier design only to leave
scope for the First Epistle to work its own effects, and this
leads him to express his cordial acquiescence in the conduct
which they had pursued in reference to the oflfender who had
been the chief cause of the severity in his previous address.^

By this turn he is again brought to the point from which

^ Gnomon, on 2 Cor. i. 8. See
also his arrangement of the con-
tents of the Epistle in his commen-

tary on 2 Cor. i. 1.
^ i. 3-]l.
» 12-ii. 11.

350 SECOND EPISTLE.

he had diverged, and proceeds to give a regular account of his
journey from Ephesus to Macedonia, and of his meeting with
Titus.^ He has hardly touched upon this before the narrative
loses itself in an impassioned thanksgiving, which would pro-
bably have interrupted it only for a moment, but that a sudden
turn is given to his thoughts, as if by an actual apparition of
those dark and insidious enemies whom he felt to be dooforinor
his path and marring his work wherever he went.^ He knew
that he was sufficient to carry through his task of offering up
the sacrifice of the Gentile world to God ; but he knew also
that his opponents were not ; and he felt that the difference
between himself and them — betw^een his openness, suspected as
be w^as of the reverse, and their duplicity — was the natural
result of the openness and simplicity of the Gospel, contrasted
with the dimness and ambiguity of the law.^

To proclaim this Gospel, however, was his glorious task ; *
and to this task he felt himself adequate, in spite of all the
difficulties and distresses, which only made him more conscious
of his Divine support, and more eagerly look to the higher life
of which his present life was but a poor and unworthy prelude.^

He has now wandered far away from his direct object ; but
he has arrived again at one of the points which brings him
into sympathy with his converts. If another life and a judgment
of Christ are impending, then there is no room for double-
dealing. Christ's love draws him to Himself and to God. In
Christ's death, he felt that he had died ; in the reconciliation
of the whole world which Christ had effected, he calls on them
to share ; in the name of Christ and of his own sufferings for
Christ's sake, he calls on them to seize the opportunity now
offered, of a complete change of heart and life.^

In that burst of feeling all barriers between him and them
melt away ; and he now at last (after one short and unaccount-
able interruptiony closes these successive digressions with the
fervent account of the arrival of Titus and his own satisfac-
tion.^

In conjunction with the arrival of Titus was another point
of immediate, though of subordinate, interest. The reception
of Titus at Corinth had been so enthusiastic that Titus was

2 ii. 14, 16.

3 iii. 1, 12, 18.
* iv. 1-6.

5 iv. 2-v. 10.

6 v. 11-vi. 10.
'^ vi. 14-vii, 1.

8 vi. 12, 13, vii. 2-16.

INTEODUCTION.

351

now ready to be the bearer of this Second Epistle also ; and
in company with two others appointed for this special purpose,
to urofc upon the Corinthians the necessity of having their
contribution for Judaea ready for the Apostle's arrival.^

Thus far all had been peaceful ; there had been occasional
allusions to lurking enemies, but on the whole the strain of
the letter was cheerful and calm. But henceforward a change
comes over it, the adversaries are now attacked face to face.
Timotheus is no longer coupled w^ith the Apostle ; it would
almost appear as if St. Paul took pen and parchment into his
own hands and wrote the Epistle himself. First comes the
warning against the false pretences of his opponents ; ^ then
a vindication of his own claims ; ^ crossed at times by protes-
tations of his own sincerity against their insinuations,'* and
bitter irony against their despotic demands on obedience,^ but
closing: in an elaborate enumeration of his own exertions and
dangers, as the best proof of his apostolic mission and au-
thority.^

Once more he repeats the apology for bis apparent egotism,
and repels the insinuation of duplicity ; ^ and then with a final
warning and assurance of his intention to visit them, the
Epistle closes.

Of its effect nothing is known. The two Epistles of
Clement to Corinth, the second of them of more than Effect of
doubtful authority, are the only records of the Cor- *he Second
inthian Church for the next three centuries. Factions ^^^
are described in the first of these as still raging; but the
Apostle's authority is recognised, and there is no further
trace of the Judaizing party. But it still lingered in other
parts of the Church, and in the curious apocryphal work
entitled the 'Clementines,'® written some time before the

^ viii. and ix. I have assumed
this as the most probable explana-
tion of the passage . But th e Apostle's
language raises a question whether
the mission spoken of in viii. and ix.
is not the same as that in xii. 18,
1 Cor. xvi. 12.

2 X. 1-18.

3 xi. 1-6.

* xi. 7-15.
5 xi. 16-20.

« xi. 21-xii. 10.

' xii. 11-18.

* The Clementines are published
in Cotelier's edition of the *Pa-
tres Apostolici/ and in a separate
volume by Schwegler, and are the
subject of an elaborate treatise by
Schliemann. They consist of : 1.
The ' Homilies ' or Conversations.

2. The Epistle of Peter to James.

3. The Adjuration of the Presbyters

352

SECOND EPISTLE.

beginning of the third century, but containing the last indi-
cations of the struggle which first appears in this Epistle and
that to the Galatians.

The following are the most remarkable instances : —

1. St. Peter is represented as the Apostle not only of the Circum-
Later traces cision, but of the Gentiles ; all the glory of St. Paul is
^Pj^^^e Juda- transferred to him (Ep. Pet. ad Jac. c. 1 ; Horn. ii. 17,
• Clemen- "^- ^^)- Compare 2 Cor. x. 14, 15, and contrast Gal. ii.
tines.' 9, 11.

2. Although Peter is spoken of as * the first of the Apostles '
(Ep. Clem, ad Jac. i. 3), and as appointing Clement to the See of
Rome (ibid.), yet James is described as superior in dignity both to
him and Clement (Ep. Pet. ad Jac. 1 ; Ep. Clem, ad Jac. 19), and
to all the Apostles (Rec. i. 66-68) ; as ' the Lord and Bishop of the
Holy Church, Bishop of Bishops, ruling the Churches , every where,
the Bishop, the Archbishop ; ' * the Chief Bishop,' as opposed to
Caiaphas * the Chief Priest ' (Ep. Pet. c. 1 ; Ep. Jac. c. 1 ; Recog.
i. 66, 68, 70, 72, 73). So the Ebionites 'adored Jerusalem as the
house of God.' (Iren. Hser. i. 26.) Compare 2 Cor. 1. 24; xi. 5,
20, and contrast James i. 1 ; 1 Pet. v. 2.

3. St. Paul is never attacked by name ; but the covert insinua-
tions are indisputable.

(a) St. Peter is represented as warning St. James against * the
lawless and foolish teaching of the enemy ' (tov ixOpov dvOpatrrov),
who perverts ' the Gentiles from the lawful preaching of Peter,' and
misrepresents Peter *as though he thought with the Gentiles, but
did not preach it openly.' (Ep. Pet. ad Jac. 2.) Compare Gal. ii.
12, 14. The ' enemy ' (homo inimicus) takes part in a conspiracy
against the life of James, and receives letters from the High Priest
to persecute Christians at Damascus. (Recog. i. 70.) Compare
Acts ix. 1.

(6) St. Peter warns his congregation to beware of ' any apostle,
prophet, or teacher, who does not first compare his preaching with
that of James, and come with witnesses, lest the wickedness,' which
tempted Christ, ' afterwards, having fallen like lightning from
heaven* (comp. Acts xxvi. 13, 14), 'should send a herald against
you, and suborn one who is to sow error (TrXdvr^v) amongst you
as it suborned this Simon against us, preaching in the name of
our Lord, under pretence of the truth.' (Hom. xi. 35.) Compare
2 Cor. iii. 1, X. 12-18, v. 12.

by James. 4. The Epistle of Cle-
ment to James. 5. The ' Recogni-
tions.' 6. The Epitome. A com-
plete text of the Homilies (including
the Epistle of Peter to James, and

the Adjuration of the Presbyters)
has been published by Dressel, from
a MS. in the Vatican Library not
before collated.

INTRODUCTION. 353

(c) The parallel which is suggested in the foregoing passage
between St. Paul and Simon Magus is carried out still further
in other passages, which actually describe the Apostle under the
name of Simon. St. Peter maintains that, as Cain preceded Abel,
and Ishmael Isaac, so ' Simon preceded Peter to the Gentiles, and
that Peter then succeeded to him as light to darkness ; ' that ' the
false Gospel must come first from some deceiver (vtto TrXdvov rtvo?),
and then, after the destruction of the holy place, the true Gospel ;
were he known, he would not have been received ; but now, not
being known (dyi'ooviJievo<;), he has been trusted to ; he who does
the deeds of those who hate us, has been loved; he who is our
enemy,. has been received as a friend; being death, he has been
longed for as a saviour ; being fire, he has been regarded as light ;
being a deceiver (TrAavos), he has been listened to as speaking the
truth.' (Horn. ii. 17, 18.) Compare 2 Cor. vi. 8, 9, x. 13-16 ;
Acts xxi. 28.

In an argument between Simon and Peter, in which the former
insists on the superiority of visions as evidence to our Lord's dis-
courses, the latter on that of actual intercourse, Peter oonclndes as
follows : * If, then, Jesus our Lord (o 'Iryo-ovs rifitov) was seen in a
vision, and was known by thee and conversed with thee, it was in
anger with thee as an adversary that He spoke to thee through
visions and dreams, and even through outward revelations. But
can any one be made wise to teach through a vision ? If thou
sayest that he can, why then did our Master abide and converse
with His disciples, not sleeping but awake, for a whole year ? And
how shall we believe the very fact that He was seen of thee ? And
how should He have been seen of thee, when thou teachest things con-
trary to His teaching ? And if by having been seen and made a
disciple by Him for one hour, thou becamest an Apostle, then ex-
pound what He has taught, love His Apostles, fight not with me
who was His companion. For me, the firm rock, the foundation of
the Church, even me thou didst "withstand " openly (dvO€(rTrjKa<s).
If thou hadst not been an adversary, thou wouldst not have
calumniated me, and reviled my preaching, to deprive me of credit
when I spoke what I had heard myself in intercourse with the Lord ;
as if I were to be blamed, I whose character is so great. Or if thou
sayest that I was condemned by my own act (KaTeyvcocr/xeVov), thou
accusest God who revealed Christ to me, and attackest Him who
blessed me because of that revelation. But since thou wishest
truly to work with the truth, now learn first from us what we
learned from Him ; and when thou hast become a disciple of the
truth, then become a fellow-worker with us.' (Hom. xvii. 10.)
Compare Gal. i. 1, 12, 15-20 ; 1 Cor. ix. 1 ; 2 Cor. x. 16, xi. 1-5,
and especially St. Paul's own words (Gal. ii. 11) in the account of
the feud at Antioch, — dvTea-rqVj . . . Kareyvwafievo^.

A A

npos KOPiNeiorx b.
SECOND EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS.

PLAN OF THE EPISTLE.
Salutation and Introduction. Chap. I. 1 — 11.

The Tidings brought by Titus. Chap. I. 12 YII. 16.

1. Confidence of St. Paul in the Intentions of the Corinthian

Church. Chap. i. 12— ii. 11.

2. The arrival of Titus. Chap. ii. 12— 16a.

Digression on the Apostolical Mission. Chap. II. 166 VI. 10.

1. The Plainness and Clearness of the Apostolical Service. Chap.

ii. 166— iv. 6.

2. The Difficulties and Supports of the Apostolical Service. Chap.

iv. 7— V. 10.

3. St. Paul's Motive for his Service. Chap. v. 11 — vi. 10.

4. The Arrival of Titus (continued from ii. 16a). Chap. vi.

11—13 ; vii. 2—16.

5. Digression on Intercourse with Heathens. Chap. vi. 14 — vii. 1.

The Collection for the Churches in Jud^a. Chap. VIII. 1 ■

IX. 15.

1. The Example of the Macedonian Churches. Chap. viii. 1 — 15.

2. The Mission of Titus. Chap. viii. 16—24.

3. The spirit in which the Collection is to be made. Chap. ix.

1—15.

The Assertion of his Apostolic^ Authority. Chap. X. XII. 10.

1. Assertion of his Authority. Chap. x. 1 — 6.

2. Digression on his Boast of his Claims. Chap. x. 7 — xii. 10.

a. The Reality of his Boast. Chap. x. 7 — 18.

6. His Boasting excused by his Afiection for the Corinthians.
Chap. xi. 1 — 15.

c. His Boasting excused not by his Power, but by his Weak-
ness. Chap. xi. 16 — xii. 10.

Concluding Explanations, Warnings, and Salutations. Chap. XII.
11 XIII. 14.

▲ ▲2

856

SECOND EPISTLE: CHAP. I. 1—6.

Salutation and Introduction,'

UATAO^ airocrToko^ ^Irjcrov ^picrTov Sta 6eKrjixaT0<; Oeov,
Koi TifxoOeo^ 6 dSeX<^d9, rfj eKKkiqcria tov Oeov rrj ovcrrj

iu KopivOo) (Tvv TOi<; ay tot? Traaiv rot? ovcriv iv 6\r) rrj
^A^aCa. ^^apt9 vixiv ^ koI elp-qvrj oltto Oeov Trarpo^ vfjiwp
/cat Kvpiov *Ir)o-ov ^picrTov.

^EvXoyrjTos 6 Oeo^ kol iraTr^p rov Kvpiov rjixwv *Ir)crov

• MS. C. begins with [koI elfyftur}.

*T)AUL an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timotheus
J- our brother, to the church of God which is at Corinth with all the
saints which are in all Achaia. ^ Grace to you and peace from God our
Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

^Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father

I, 2 For the general language
of tlie salutation, and for the
words 6 a8€Xcf>b<s, 'A)(ata, see note
on 1 Cor. i. 1, 2. Timotheus,
who, in the First Epistle, was
prevented from appearing in the
salutation by his absence on the
journey described in 1 Cor. iv.
17, xvi. 10 ; Acts xix. 22, has
now returned, and resumes his
usual place by the Apostle's side.

3 €v\oyrfTO<; 6 Ocos. This
phrase, which occurs in Eph. i.
3, is parallel to the more usual
form of the Apostle's thanksgiv-
ing ev^apiOTUi T(3 ^€(3.

In the fulness of his thankful-
ness, he at once proceeds to in-
vest the abstract names of ' God '
and ' the Father' with the attii-
biites of which he was now him-
self most conscious. ' Blessed be
God, i e. the God of comfort ;
blessed be the Father, i.e. the
Father of mercies,' the inversion
being occasioned partly by the
convenience of the construction,
which required that Trapa/cXiyo-eo)?
should be continued into the next

sentence, partly by the fact that
the first of the two expressions
(' the Father of mercies') is the
more natural and obvious of the
two. It was possibly suggested
by the phrase in the opening of
Jewish prayers, 'Our Father,
Merciful Father ! ' But it is used
here in a more personal sense :
and the genitive tcuv otKrtp/xwv is
not merely a Hebraism, but com-
bines the two ideas that God's
essence consists in mercy, and
also that He is the Father and
source of mercies. Compare ' the
Father of glory,' Eph. i. 17;.
* the Father of spirits,' Heb. xii.
9 : ' the Father of lights,' James
i. 17; 'the God of hope,' Rom.
XV. 13. In the same way the
next phrase expresses that God
is the Author of comfort. This
is the earliest passage in the New
Testament where the words ira-
pa/cXr7o-ts,7rapaKaXwi/,are vapiKkr,-
applied to God ; as, in <^'5-
St. John's writings, they are
applied more precisely to The
Son and The Spirit.

SALUTATION AND INTRODUCTION.

357

y^piCTTOv, 6 iraTiqp T(x)v olKTipfxcov Koi 0eo^ 7racr7^9 rrapa-
Kkrj(Teo}<;^ ^6 TrapaKoKctiv T^/ia? iiri irdcrrj rfj dXi^^ei t^/xwi/,
€is TO hvvao-Oai r]fJia<s irapaKokeiv tov^ iv Trcicrrj dXixjjeL Sea
Trjq 7rapaK\rjcr€a><s rj<s TrapaKokovfieOa avTol vtto tov 0€ov,
^ OTL KaOco<; vepioro'eveL ra 7ra6rjfJiaTa tov ^picrTOv €t5
TjfJias, ovTO)^ Sua ^tov ^piaTov Trepicrcrevei /cat t] irapd-
kXtjctls TjyiOiv. ^€176 Sc ^XtySo/xc^a, VTTep Trj<; vfjicjv irapa-

' Oni. rod.

of mercies and God of all comfort, ^wlio comforteth us upon all our
trouble, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble by
the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted by God, ^for as the
sufferings of Christ abound in us, so by Christ aboundeth our comfort
also. ^Now whether we be troubled, it is for your comfort and salvation,

4 €7rt Trdar) tt} 6\l{(/€l rjfxwv . . .
* in any kind of affliction that
befalls me' or 'them.' The
article in the first phrase is
only used in consequence of the
more particular application of it,
defined by the genitive rj/xiov.

5 7r€pLcra€V€L ra iraOrj^aTCL ....
CIS T7/>tas, ' the sufferings under-
gone by Christ in His own person
overflow to us ; ' with the double
meaning that the sufli'erings of
Christ pass from Him Ho us,'
and that they are to be found ' in
us' in a superabundant measure.
See Rom. v. 15.

OVTC09 8ta ^(/DtO-TOV Tr€pi<r<r€.v€L KoX
yj 'trapdKXrjarLS T^/icov, ' so also
through Him in whom we all
suffer together, the comfort,
which we ourselves possess from
God, passes over abundantly to
you.'

The general sense of the pas-
sage is based on the idea that he
was one with Christ, and through
Christ with all Christians. ' It
is of the very nature of spiritual
things that they cannot be con-
fined within themselves. Freely
we have received, freely we give.
The comfort which we feel our-
selves, ■ communicates itself to

you. Because Christ suffered,
therefore we suffer ; because He
comforts us, therefore we are
able to comfort you.* For the
transference of the sufferings of
Christ to the Apostles, see iv.
10; Heb.xiii. 13; Phil. iii. 10;
Rom. viii. 17. And in still
nearer connexion with this pas-
sage, Col. i. 24, ' the afflictions of
Christ in my flesh.' Matt xx.
23, * ye shall drink of my cup.'

' The example of suffering and
of comfort in me shows that if
you are similarly afflicted, you
will be similarly comforted. This
is the course of Christian salva-
tion ; your experience will be
like mine.'

6 €tT€ Sc, K.T.A.. There is con-
siderable difference in the order
of the words in the M8S., but
none in the sense : (1) B.D.E.F.
G.J.K. and Lachm. as in the Text
above. (2) A.C. ctrc 8k Oki/So/jLcOa,
virep .... o-oiTrjptas ' etre irapaKa-
kov/xeOa, VTrep rrj^ vfxdv TrapaKXrj-
(rews, T)}? iv€pyov/jL€vr]<s iv viro/jLovrj
. . . . TrdaxofJiev • kol rj cAtti? rj/xCjv
yScySaid vTrep v/xC)v, k.t.K (3) Re-
ceived Text, made by. Erasmuy
from the Latin versions, combined
with the Greek MSS. but not

358

SECOND EPISTLE: CHAP. I. 7—11

K\y]creo)<; Kai crcoTrjpLa^ ttJ? ivepyovixivri<^ iv virofxovrj twu
avT(x)v iraOrjiJidTctiv Siv kol rjiMei^ 7rdcr)(0fJL€U, ^ kol t) iXnl^
7)fji(ijv /3e^aLa virep vp.Q)V eire TrapaKokovfJieOa, virep tt}?
v/xw^' TrapaKXTjcrecos /cat (rcoTTjpia^, ^etSore? on ^a)<; kol-
vcovoL icrre roiv wadrjiJLoiTOJV, ovtcos kqI rrjs TrapaKXij-

^ Ov yap Oekofxev v/^a? dypoeiu, dSeXc^ot, ^Trepl ttJs
^\ti//ea)9 r^fxan^ rrj? yevop.iv7^^ ^iu rfj 'Acria, otl KaO' virep-

' Transpose ; and read eifre rrapaKaXov^i^Qa .... (rwTrjpias. Kot rj i\irU . . . vjjlwv.

offtrep.

" virep.

* Add Tifuv.

which is eflfectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also
suffer, '^and our hope of you is stedfast : whether we be comforted, it is
for your comfort and salvation, knowing that as ye are partakers of the
sufferings, so shall ye be also of the comfort.

® For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which
happened in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure above strength,

found exactly (either in his time
or since) in any Greek MS. : ctre
Se OXi/^o/xeOa .... 7rd(r)(0fjL€v ' eire
TrapaKaXovjjieOa^ virep ttJs v/xwv 7ra-
paK\r](T€(i)^ Kttt croiTTjpias. koL t] cA-ttI?
r]fji5)v jSe^ata virep v/awv. EtSdreg,
K.T.X. The first is the most for-
cible. The general sense is the
same in all, whether the words kol
rj cXtti? rjjjiwv /?c^ata virkp vfxwv
are to be placed in the first
clause, after Trao-xo/xev, or in the
second, after crwrT/pta?. A com-
parison of V. 13 shows that
OXi^ofxeOa and irapaKaXovfJieOa are
in each case to be repeated, —
' whether we are troubled, it is
for your salvation that we are
troubled, . . . v^h ether ive are com-
forted, it is for your comfort
that vje are comforted, knowing,'
&c.

ivepyov/xanrjs, here, as always,
is middle, not passive, — 'exercis-
ing its powers.'

7 €i8oT€9 should more properly
be ctSdrwv. But the participle is
used in the same abrupt manner

as elsewhere ; e.g. Rom. xii. 9-
13, xiii. 11.

8 He explains his meaning,
by referring to the actual danger
and consolation which led him to
these remarks. The w^ord OXliJ/ls,
the greatness of the peril, and
the comparison of it in verse 5 to
the sufferings of Christ, suggest
some outward persecution at
Ephesus, such as may have oc-
curred in the tumult of Demetrius
(Acts xix.), or as is referred to
in 1 Cor. XV. 32, ' I fought with
beasts at Ephesus.' On the other
hand, the words i^apT^OyjjjLev,
avToil iv kavToh, and the general
context, point either to illness or
to inward care occasioned pro-
bably by his anxiety for the Co-
rinthian Church : also had he
alluded to the tumult at Ephesus,
he would have probably used the
expression Iv 'E^eVw, as in 1 Cor.
XV. 32, not ev rfj 'Aa-ia. Here, as
elsewhere, we may observe the
understatement, in the Acts, of
his sufferings.

SALUTATION AND INTRODUCTION.

359

7)fJia<; Koi Tov ^rjv' ^a\X' avTol iv eaurot? to aTroKpijxa
Tov Oavdrov icrynKaiJLev, Iva fxri 7re7TOL96Te<; a>fjiep i(f)'

e(T^KapL€V,

10*

€.avToZ<;t aX)C iirl r<w Seco tm eyeipovn tov<; veKpov^^ '^ os
CAC t7)Xlkovtov BavoLTov ippvcraro 17/1019 [/cat ^yovcrerat], et?
ov rj\iTiKap.ev \oti\ kol en pvcrerai, ^^ crvvvTTovpyovvrcov
KoX vficov virep r)fJLa)v rrj Seiycret, tVa €/c noXXcoif TTpoacJircov
TO €19 T7/xa9 xapLcrfJia 8ta ttoXXwv €V)(apLcrTr)d^ virkp rjfJLcov.

ifiap-f}d. virep Zvvaiiiv.

^verai.

insomuch that we despaired even of life : ®but we ourselves had the
sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but
in God who raiseth the dead, ^°who delivered us out of so great a death
and will deliver, in whom we trust that He will also yet deliver us, ^^ye
also helping together by prayer for us, that, for the gift bestowed upon
us by the means of many, thanks may be given from many faces on our
behalf.

9 dAA', *nay,'=* tmmo.*
(XTro/cpt/xa, 'When I have asked

myself what would be the issue
of this struggle, the answer has
been " Death." '

10 Oavdrov, * peril of death,'
as in xi. 23 ; and 1 Cor. xv. 31
(^aTToOvqcTKO}) .

1 1 ex TToAAwv Trpoo-wTTCDv is pro-
bably to be taken with cv^a-
pi(TTr]6fj, since the thanksgiving
more properly proceeded from
the Corinthians, the gift to the
Apostle through them, TrpwcrwTrojv
may have the later Greek sense

of person ; but it is more in con-
formity with the otherwise in-
variable usage of the New Testa-
ment to make it * that thanks
may be sent up from many up-
turned/aces.'

The use of the word xctpto-/Aa
for ' deliverance from affliction '
shows the general application of
the phrase to what are now
termed natural occurrences.

crvwTrovpyovvT(i)v, * helping with
me.* For the thought see iv.
15, ix. 12.

360 SECOND EPISTLE.

Paraphrase of Chap. I. 1 — 11.

I return my usual thanks to Him in whom wp. recognise not only
the supreme God, hut the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ ;
the Father also, from whose fatherly mercy all mercies de-
scendy the God who is the source of that strengthening comfort
which in manifold forms is sent to support us under manifold
forms of ajffliction. Thus we in turn may be called to sup-
port others in like ajflictions by the example and the sympathy
of the comfort which we ourselves enjoy ; for as we are ideri-
tified with Christ in His sufferings, so also are we identified
with you through Him in our comfort. Your comfort, in
fact, is the end and object of our existence : if we suffer, it is
for your welfare ; if tve are comforted, it is that out of your
like sufferings may grow a like comfort. What my sufferings
were you know ; how the hope of lije itself seemed to vanish
away ; and it is from that depth that I have been raised, by
the deliverance for which I now thank God, and which was
the result of your prayers.

The Apostle's Sympathy.

The thanksgiving with which the Epistle opens, furnishes the
key-note to the ensuing six chapters.

Two feelinsrs rise in his mind the moment that he beo^ins to
address the Corinthians, and cross each other in almost equal
proportions. The first is an overwhelming sense of gratitude
for his deliverance from his distress, whether it were the
actual dangers to which he had been exposed at Ephesus, or
the inward trouble which he suffered from his anxiety for the
Corinthian Church. The second is the keen sense which
breathes through both the Epistles to Corinth, but especially
through the Second, of his unity of heart and soul with his
Corinthian converts. Not only did he naturally pour out his
deepest feelings to them, but he felt that they were one with
him in his sorrows and in his joys ; that his comfort and deli-

THE APOSTLE'S SYMPATHY.

361

verance would be shared by them, as it had been the result of
their prayers. He may have also been influenced partly by
the desire to begin from that serene atmosphere of thankful-
ness and love, which would soon be disturbed in the course of
the Epistle ; and partly by the anxiety, here as in his other
Epistles, to exhibit his relations to his converts in the most
friendly aspect, and to dispel at once by his own frankness the
cloud of suspicion which, as we see from many subsequent
passages, intervened between him and them. But it is out of
keeping with the irregular and impassioned tone of this Epistle
to suppose that any such secondary considerations were put
prominently forward as the groundwork of a formal and deli-
berate plan.

There are two remarks of Bengel on this portion of the
Epistle, which sum up its characteristics well. First, jjis ex-
* Experientiae quanta est necessitas : qua qui caret, perience.
quam ineptus magister est I ' Secondly, * Communio Sanc-
torum in corde Pauli, Titi, Corinthiorum, aliarum Ecclesiarum
exercita, egregie representatur in hac Epistol^. Hoec corda
fuere quasi specula imagines inter se reciprocantia.' The
sympathy with which the Apostle makes himself one with his
converts — their joys his joys, their sorrows his sorrows, their
thoughts his thoughts — is a striking instance of the manifold
susceptibility with which he was endowed, and of his capacity
for throwing himself into the position of others — becoming * all
things to all men,' ^ transferring ^ the feelings of others to his
own person. It is the same largeness and depth of His ver-
heart which embraced so wide a circle of personal satility.
friends; which * suifered when the weaker brother suffered,'^
which would not allow him to ' eat meat whilst the world
standeth lest he make his brother to offend.' It is the Gentile
side of his character, which so remarkably qualified him for his
mission to the Gentile world ; the Christian or religious form
of the proverbial versatility of the Grecian mind, and of the
significant maxim of the Roman poet, ' Homo sum, humani
nihil a me alienum puto.'

For the right understanding of the Epistle, this identity of

1 1 Cor. ix. 22.

2 Rom. vii. 7-23 ; 1 Cor. iv. 6,
vii. 1, viii. 1-6. The closest re-
Bemblance to this passage in its

expression of personal affection is
1 Thess. ii. 7-12.

3 2 Cor. xi. 29 ; 1 Cor. viii. 13.

362 SECOND EPISTLE.

feeling between the Apostle and his converts must be borne in
Double mind throughout. It accounts for a large portion,
current of even in detail, of the peculiarities of the style and
®® ^°^' language ; the double self, which creates, as it were,
a double current of feeling and thought, now taking the form
of passionate sympathy, now of anxiety, now of caution and
prudence ; the plural number, which he employs in this Epistle
even more frequently than elsewhere for himself, as if including
his readers also.

It is also important as the liveliest instance of the real
communion or community of feeling introduced by Christianity
into the world. Never had there been seen amongst heathens
so close a bond between those who had no local, natural, or
hereditary connexion with each other. And it thus exemplifies
a universal truth. The Apostle did not think it beneath him
to show that he rested his claims on his capacity of thoroughly
Effect of understanding those with whom he dealt. Let them
sympathy, ggg that he cared for them, that he loved them, and
he felt that all else was as nothing in the balance. Sympathy
is the secret of power. No artificial self-adaptation, no merely
official or pastoral interest, has an influence equal to that
which is produced by the consciousness of a human and per-
sonal affection in the mind of the teacher towards his scholars,
of the general towards his soldiers, of the Apostle towards his
converts.

HIS .CONFIDENCE IN THEIR INTENTIONS. 363

THE TIDINGS BROUGHT BY TITUS.
Chap. I. 12— VII. 16.

His Confidence in the Intentions of the Corinthian Church.
Chap. I. 12—11. 11.

The connexion of this section with the preceding is this :
' Your intercessions and your sympathy will, I trust, continue ;
for my intercourse with you has been always frank and open.'
With this declaration of conscious uprightness, he enters on
the reply to a charge which weighed so heavily on his mind, as
to be one of the chief reasons for his writing. His coming,
announced in 1 Cor. xvi. 5-8, had been long delayed ; even
Timotheus, who had been sent before (1 Cor. xvi. 10), seems
never to have arrived. Titus only had appeared as the
Apostle's deputy ; the threat of Divine vengeance upon the
offending sinner (1 Cor. iv. 21, v. 5) had not been fulfilled.
Accordingly, when Titus returned to St. Paul, it was with the
tidings, on the one hand indeed, that the Corinthian Church
had to a great extent complied with his injunctions ; but, on the
other hand, that in consequence of these delays there had
arisen insinuations that he had broken his word, that he
practised worldly wisdom, and wrote one thing to the eye and
another in reality (i. 12, 17, x. 10). Against these insinua-
tions the Apostle remonstrates with the indignation natural to
an honourable mind unjustly suspected. At the same time, it
must be observed that, till the 10th chapter, this indignation
is kept within bounds : it is only by covert allusions that we
discover, in the earlier part of the Epistle, the real occasion of
his remarks : and as if restrained partly by affection, partly
by prudence, his chief object here seems to be so to conciliate
his readers, as to prevent an open rupture.

364

SECOND EPISTLE: CHAP. I. 12— Ifi.

His Confidence in their Intentions.

^^7) yap Kav)(y](Ti<; rjixcov avrr) Icttlv^ to fiapTvpLOv ttJ?
crvveiSujcrecos r^^xoiv^ on iv ^ayi6rr)Ti koi elkuKpiveLa
^'tov Oeovy ovK iv crocfyia aapKLKjj aXX.' eV ^dpiTi 6eov,
dp€crTpd(l)r)ixev iv rco /cdcr/xo), TreptcrcroTepaJS 8e Trpos v/xa?.
^^ov yap akXa ypd(l)OiJL€i' vplv [dXX*] r) a dvayivctXTKere ri

air\6TT]Ti, for ayi6TT]Ti.

** Om. Tov.

^^For our boasting is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in
holiness and sincerity of God, not in carnal wisdom but in the grace of
God, we had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly to
you- ward. ^^For we write no other things unto you than what ye read

12 Whether ayto-nyrt (A. B.
aTTAoTrjs C- ^- a-^d Lachmann)

and or aTrXoT-qTL (D. E, F.

iy.6rr„. ^ j ^^^ ^^^ rp^^^^j ^^

the right reading, the context
tixes the general sense. etXiKpc-
v€ta is ' transparent sincerity,' as
in ii. 17 ; 1 C'or. v. 8. aTrXoTrjTL
therefore would be * singleness
of view,' according to its ety-
mological meaning, as in xi. 3 ;
Eph. vi. 6 ; Col. iii. 22 ; and
ajLOTrjTL would be ' purity of mo-
tive.' Compare 1 Thess. ii. 3,
ovSk i^ OLKaOapcTLas, ovt€ iv SdXo).

The word dyto-ny? occurs else-
where only twice : 2 Mace. xv. 2
(of the consecration of the Sab-
bath) ; Heb. xii. 10 (of the holi-
ness of God). TOV Oeov expresses
that his sincerity is ' imparted by
God,' as in Rom. iii. 21.

ev (To^ia aapKLKy, k. t. A. ' not
relying on maxims of worldly
prudence, but on the sustaining
favour of God.' Compare 1 Cor.
ii. 4.

iv Tw Koa-fno .... v/aSs. ' This
sincerity was manifested before
the heathen (comp. 1 Cor. v. 10),

but still more before you,' allud-
ing either to his display of pre-
ternatural gifts, in which case
he refers to the words * in the
grace of God ' — or to his refusal
of maintenance from them, in
which case he refers to the words
' in holiness and sincerity.'

13 ' I have no hidden mean-
ing in what I write. I am not
one person when absent and
another when present (compare
X. 1) ; I write nothing else than
what you see on the surface of
my letter, and recognise in my
conduct now, and will still fur-
ther recognise at the final judg-
ment, when your present miscon-
structions of me will be changed
into the perfect recog- ..^y,,^^,^
nition that I am your , and
glory, as truly as you '
are mine.' For the play on the
words dvayivwa-Ko} and iiriyL-
vcucTKCD, compare Julian's cele-
brated speech, eyvcov, dveyvwi/,
/careyvov: and in this Epistle,
•yivwo-KO) and dvayivtutrKw, in iii. 2 ;
crvyKptvoi and dvaKpiVto, in 1 Cor.
ii. 13, 14 ; KpLvo), StaKptVo), and

HIS CONFIDENCE IN THEIR INTENTIONS.

365

Koi iinyLvaxTKeTe. ekiritjcty Se on ^Iw? Tekov<; hriyvoiCTC.dO^.,
^^ Kadcjs KOL ineyvcjTe rjixa^; ano fxepov^, otl Kav^-qiia Vficov
icr^ev KaOdirep koX vfielq rnxCov ev rfj rjfJi^pa tov Kvpiov
[t^/xwi^] ^Irjcrov.

^°Kai ravTYj rfj TreTTOLOrjcrei i^ovkoixrjv ^irpoTepov Trpo^
VfJias €kueiv, Lva oevrepav ^apiv €)(r)Te, ^°/cat ol vficop

'6ti

^ iAdelv wpoTepov.

or indeed acknowledge. And I trust that ye shall acknowledge to the
end, ^^as also ye did acknowledge us in part, that we are your boast even
as ye also are ours in the day of our Lord Jesus.

^'^And in this confidence I was minded before to come unto you that
ye may have a second grace, ^®and to depart by you into Macedonia and

KaraKpLvo), in 1 Cor. xi. 29, 31,
32, &c. If anything further is to
be sonsrht in the words than the
resemblance of sound, dvaytvw-
a-KO) may refer especially to the
Epistle, eVty tvwo-Kw to his condnct
(^dveorTpacf>r)iJL€v) .

KaL=^ in fact.'

For this contrast between their
present imperfect and their future
perfect knowledge of his true
character, compare 1 Cor. xiii.
12, where nearly the same words
are usen, apn ytvooc/coo €k fxepovi;,
TOT€ Sc e7rtyv(o(ro/tat Ka6o)<; kol eire-
yv(i)(r6rfv. In both cases, the
aorist, iTreyvMO-Orjv, CTrcyvwrc, is
used with the signification of the
present. tTriyivwo-Kw combines
the sense of ' recognition ' with
that of 'complete knowledge,'
in which last sense it is used
especially in vi. 9, xiii. 5. For
the general sense compare 1 Cor.
iv. 3-5.

14 According to the punctua-
tion (1) of the Received Text, or
(2) of Lachmann, otl may be
either : (a) ' because we are your
joy,' giving the reason for his
conviction that his true character
would be recognised at last ; or,

(h) * that we are your joy,' de-
pendent upon CTTLyvwcrccrOe.

€V rfj rjixipa tov Kvpiov rjfJLiov
may be made indifferently to re-
fer either to the words immedi-
ately preceding, or to the whole
sentence, as in Rom. ii. 16.

15 TavTrj TTJ TriiroLOrjCTii, 'in
this conviction thnt you would
recognise my sincerity.'

TrpoTcpov, i. e. * before going
into Macedonia.'

tva BevTepav X^P'^ ^XV^^i
' that by paying you a visit be-
fore going to Macedonia, the visit
which I intended to pay you after
my return from Macedonia may
thus be (not the first, but) the
second.'

Xctptv, ' favour of the Apostle's
presence.'

TrpoTre/iicfiOrjvaL, ' to be assisted
on my journey to Jerusalem.'
Compare 1 Cor. xvi. 6, 11.

16 BuXOelv (B. C. D3. J. K.
Rec. Text), 'to pass through
Achaia,' as in 1 Cor. xvi. 5 ;
aTTcXOetv (Lachmann with A. D*.
F. G.), 'to depart.' The au-
thorities being so nearly divided,
the better sense of SlcXOciv, and
the probability that d-n-eXOeLv is a

366

SECOND EPISTLE: CHAP. I. 17—19.

^oLTreXdeLV els MaKeSovCav /cat ttoXlv oltto MaKeSovias
iXOeiV TTpos vfias kol v<l> vficop 7rpo7r€iJL(j)07JvaL et? T7)v
^lovSauai/. ^^ TovTO ovv ^ /BoyXofJievos fJ^t] tl apa rrj e\a<^pia

SieXdeTv.

*• fiov\fv6fJI.€P05,

to come again from Macedonia unto you and by you to be sent on toward
Judaea. ^'' When I therefore was thus minded, did T use lightness, or the
things that I purpose, do I purpose according to the flesh, that with me

correction, are in favour of the
former.

The plan which he here men-
Changes m tioi^s as originally to
tiie Apostle's havc been pursued by
''^^"'- him, was: (1) to have

crossed the ^g^ean from Ephesus
to Corinth (as in Acts xviii. 19
he had crossed from Corinth to
Ephesus) ; (2) then to have
passed by land through the north
of Greece to Macedonia (as he
had, in Acts xvii. 14, 15, xviii.
1, passed from Macedonia to
Corinth, as he in fact did pass,
in Acts XX. 3, from Corinth
to Macedonia) ; and (3) finally
to return, either by land or sea,
from Macedonia to Corinth, and
thence sail for Jerusalem. In-
stead of this he had already, at
the time when he wrote 1 Cor.
xvi. 5, 6, abandoned the direct
voyage to Corinth, and deter-
mined to go by Macedonia to
Corinth, and thence to Jerusalem
(1 Cor. xvi. 3). To this plan
he finally adhered (Acts xx. 2,
3). The original plan may have
been conveyed to the Corinthians
by Timotheus, who left Ephesus
for Corinth before the First
Epistle was despatched, and who,
even if he never reached Corinth,
may still have been the means of
communicating the Apostle's re-
solution. This is confirmed by
the fact that, in the beginning of
the First Epistle, there are traces

of the earlier plan discernible.
See 1 Cor. iv. 19 : * I will come
quickly to yon,' which more na-
turally agrees with the direct
voyage, than the circuitous route
through Macedonia. By this
change of plan, perhaps made in
the course of that Epistle, he se-
cured a longer time at Corinth
than could be managed in two
flying visits (1 Cor. xvi. 7), and
left a longer interval in which
they might recover the effects of
his First Epistle (i. 23, ii. 2, xii.
20, 21).

17 The misconstruction thus
occasioned was twofold, a suspi-
cion of some sinister motives,
Kara (rapKa ^ovXcvofiat — a charge
of levity, ry iXaf^pia e^prjcrafxyjv,

pirj TL apa, ' surely I did not.'

rrj €X.acf)pLa. The article pro-
bably indicates the levity with
which he was charged.

For the construction with
€)(prj(rdfJLr)v, compare TroXXfj irap-
py)(Tta ^(pco/Ac^a, iii. 12. The dif-
ference of the tenses, ixpw^M^
and (^ovXivofxai, is occasioned by
the different sense required. If
he was guilty of levity, it was
when he changed his purpose. If
of worldly motives, he was still
actuated by them now.

Iva y Trap' €/xol to vat vat Kat to
ov ov. His object is not so
much to assert his right of
changing his resolution, as to
assert that, although he had ap-

HIS CONFIDENCE IN THEIK INTENTIONS,

367

€)(P'rjo'dfJL7)V, rj a jSovXevo fiaiy Kara crdpKa ^ovXevofxaL,
Lva Tj Trap e/xoi to ^at I'at Kai to ov ov ; ^"^TnaTo^; be o
^eos, on 6 Xdyos rjixajv 6 tt/oo? v/xa? ov/c ^ecTTLV vol kol
OV. ^o Tou c'eov yap vtos Irjcrovs xpi(TTo<^ o ev vp.iv

• iy^yero for eo-Tii/.

*> 'O 7ap ToD 0€oi;.

there should be ' yea yea,' and * nay nay ? ' ^^But as God is faithful, our
word toward you is not 'yea' and ' nay.' ^^For the Son of God Jesus
Christ who was preached among you by us, by me and Silvanus and

parently given up his original
stedfast- plan, he still in fact and
nessofthe in spirit adhered to

Apostle. .^. ^^^^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^^

short visits which they had
lost, they would now (see 1 Cor.
xvi. 7) be compensated by one
long visit at the end of his whole
journey. For this reason he
never directly states his change
of purpose, but leaves it to be in-
ferred from the statement of his
original plan in verse 16, com-
bined with the fact that, at the
time when he wrote the present
Epistle, he was on his way, not to
Corinth, but Macedonia ; and ac-
cordingly, in what follows, it is
only the * Yes,' and not the ' No,'
which pervades his argument.

These words, therefore, are a
part of the question ' am I ac-
tuated by worldly motives, in
such a manner as to gi ve way to
inconsistency ; that I should say
" yes " at one time, and " no " at
another; promise to come, and
then break my promise ? No : I
promised to come, and I shall ful-
fil that promise.' In this case, it
is an objection that the article
before the first vat and the first
ov loses its force, and that the re-
duplication is only for the sake.of
emphasis. But the article may
be accounted for as in ttj iXa<f)pLa
— * in such a way as that you

should see in me that inter-
change of " yes " or " no " of which
you complain.' And the redu-
plication is justified by the simi-
lar use of it in Matt. v. 37 : io-roi
8c 6 Adyos vfUjjVf Nat vat Ov ov,
and (in the case of vat) by the
frequent iteration in the Gospels
of ' Amen, amen,' the Hebrew
form of vat.

18-20 The Apostle's life was
so bound up with his teaching,
that, in the mind of his opponents,
the charge of personal levity was
immediately transferred to his
teaching ; and he in like manner
considers that the vindication of
his conduct depends on the vin-
dication of his teaching. Compare
ii. 17-iv. 6, where he similarly
repels the insinuation of dupli-
city, and 1 Cor. ii. 1-5, where
he shows that the simplicity of
the subject of his teaching is to
be found also in the manner of it.

18 TTto-To? 8e 6 Oeo?. * So true
as it is that God is faithful, so
true is it that my communications
are not variable.' Compare xi.
10; Rom. xiv. 11.

6 Xdyos is purposely indefinite,
in order to include both his per-
sonal communications and his
preaching.

19 At the thought of the sub-
ject of his preaching, he at once
ascends into the higher sphere

368

SECOND EPISTLE: CHAP. I. 20—22.

St' rjfjicju KiqpvyOei^^ St' e/xov /cat XCkovavov koI TifioOeov,
ovK ^iyevero vol /cat ov, aXXa i^at iv avrco yeyovev
^^ocrat yap eVayyeXtat Oeov, iv avTca to vai* ^hio /cat

€(rTi for iyevfTO.

** Koi iv avT(f for Zih koX Zi avrov.

Timotheus, was not ' yea ' and ' nay,' but in Him has been ' yea,' '^^For
all the promises of God in Him are ' yea : ' wherefore also by Him is

ever present to his thoughts, from
■which he returns in verse 22, to
resume his personal defence ; ' I
have said that my words to yon
are not mixed up of "yes " and
" no, "because He who is the great
subject of our preaching, not of
my preaching only, but of my
colleagues' also, was not a mix-
ture of " yes " and " no ; " on the
contrary, His whole life has been
summed upin one eternal "Yes;"
for in Him all the promises of
God received their true fulfil-
ment.'

' TheSonof God, Jesus Christ.'
stedfast- W"ord is heaped upon
nessof word to cxpress the
greatness of H im whom
they preached, and so to aggra-
vate the impossibility of His
connexion with any littleness or
levity. The names of Silvanus
and Timotheus are introduced
partly in order to intimate the
unity with which they taught of
Him ; partly not to arrogate too
much to himself. The tense of
the phrase * was not yea and
nay ' {ovk iyevcro) shows that it
refers to the certainty, which,
as a matter of history, attended
on His words and deeds : com-
pare 'As the Father said unto
me, so I speak.' ' Now speak-
€ st thou plainly, and speakest no
proverb.' * He taught them as
one having authority, and not
as the Scribes ' (John xii. 50,

xvi. 29 ; Matt. vii. 29). The
tense of the phrase ' has been
yea in Him ' (vat iv avrw yiyovev)
comprehends also the thought
that not only were His words
based on immovable certainty,
but that in His life and works the
promise of God Himself was jus-
tified and fulfilled, — ' is and has
been, and is still producing its
results.' Compare for these
allusions to the truthfulness and
certainty in Christ's historical
character, xi. 10, ' as the truth of
Christ (rf aXrjOeLa ILpio-rov) is in
me.' Compare also John xiv. 6,
' I am the truth' and xviii. 37, ' to
this end was I bom . . . that I
should bear witness to the truth*
and (in still nearer conformity
with this passage) Rev. iii. 7,
' He that is true,'' and Rev. iii.
14, ' the Amen, the faithful and
true witness.' .

2o To the Greek vat is here
added the Hebrew ' Amen,'
partly to give greater emphasis,
as in the Apocalypse, where the
most solemn expressions are
given both in Greek and Hebrew,
partly in allusion to the ' Amen'
of the Gospel narratives, partly
as the close of an impassioned
passage, which he ends, as usual,
with a doxology, to which the
* Amen ' of the public assemblies
formed the natural accompani-
ment. See 1 Cor. xiv. 16, and
note thereon.

HIS CONFIDENCE IN TflEIR INTENTIONS.

369

'^M

8i' avTOv TO dfJLrjv T(o deco tt/do? So^av St' rjixojj/.
8e fie^ai<s)v rjfJias (TVu vfilv et? ^l(ttov kol )(pL(ra^ rjfJia^
^€09, ^^6 /cat a(l>payLadfJievo<; rjixas kol Sous toj^ ^dpa/Sojva
Tov 7r^€v//,aro9 ei' rat? AcapStats rjixo)!/.

*Amen' unto the glory of God by us. '^^Now He who confirmeth ua
with you in Christ and anointed us is God ; ^^ who also sealed us, and
gave the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.

2 1 With the doxology the di-
gression properly ends ; but one
thought lingers behind, which he
must express before he returns
to his personal defence. As in
1 Cor. iii. 23, xi. 3, XV. 24-28,
he passes on from the greatness
of Christ to the Divine greatness
still beyond, so also here, after
having represented Christ as the
one subject of his preaching, and
the one consummation of the Di-
vine promises, he still thinks it
necessary to ground the stedfast-
ness of his faith on the ultimate
basis of all hope and trust, God
Himself: ' Christ is faithful and
immovable ; and He who makes
us faithful and immovable with
Christ, is no less than God.'

ySejSatwv is the emphatic word,
connecting this with the preced-
ing verses.

rjfias (Tvv v/xLV is inserted with
a view of introducing on every
occasion his sense of complete
union with the Corinthians, as
in verses 4-7.

€ts XP'-^'^^^^ ' ^^^^ Christ, so
that we become more and more '
(this seems the force of the pre-
sent tense in ySeySaiaiv) 'identified
with Him.'

)QiL(Tas, 'He who anointed us
to be like the Anointed.' Ob-
serve the connexion of ;(pto-Tos
and xpLo-as. For the application
of the word to Christ see Acts

X. 38, to believers generally, as
here, 1 John ii. 20.

226 Kttt (T(f>payLcrdixevo<s /cat Sou?
TOV apa/3S}va. The tenses of these
words, as of xp^cra<;, point to the
moment of conversion, when the
gifts of the Spirit were first
given, as in Acts ii. 38, x. 44,
xix, 6 ; and the figure of ' seal-
ing,' as in Eph. i. 13, iv. 30,
and of the * earnest ' or * pledge,'
indicates the assurance conveyed
by those gifts, of the reality of
the union with Christ, into which
they had been baptized.

apa^wv is used twice besides
(v. 5 ; Eph. i. 14) in a similar
context, for the first instalment
paid as a pledge that the resfc
will follow. It is so used by the
Greek orators, and by the earlier
Latin writers. A. Gellius (xvii.
2) speaks of it as a word con-
sidered in his time (a.d. 120-
150) to be vulgar and superseded
by ' Arra,' which is the substi-
tute for it in later Latinity. The
same word ' erabon ' is used in
the same sense in Hebrew, Gen.
xxxviii. 17, 18, from *" arah,' to
' mix ' or ' exchange,' and thence
' to pledge,' as Jer. xxx. 21,
Neh. V. 3. It was therefore
probably derived by the Greeks
from the language of Phenician
traders, as 'tariff,' 'cargo,' &c.,
are derived, in English and other
modern languages, from Spanish

B B

370

SECOND EPISTLE: CHAP. I. 23—11. 6.

^'Eyo) 8e fJidpTvpa tov deov cVt/caXoO/xat iirl ttjv ifxr^v
^v^/yju, OTL ffteBofxevos vfxcov ovKeTt rjXOov els KopivOov.
^^ov^ OTL KvpLevojxev vfjicjv Tr}s TTtcrreG)?, aAAa crvvepyoL
icrfxeu r-^? x^P^^ vficov • Ty yap Tricrrei icTiJKaTe. Ii. ^ e-
Kpiva Se ifjiavT(^ tovto to firj ttoKiv iv ^Xvirr) npo^ vfxas

• irdkiv i\df7v iv Xinrri.

*'But I call God for a witness upon my soul, that to spare you I
came no longer unto Corinth. ^^Not for that we have dominion over
your faith, but are fellow-workers of your joy : for by faith ye stand.
II. ^ But I determined this with myself, that I would not in sorrow come

traders. In this verse it is apa-
jSojva in A. F. G. J. appa(3u)va in
B. C. D. E. In 2 Cor. v. 5 ; Eph.
i. 14, it is appal3o)va in almost all
the MSS.

23 He now returns to the
question of the delay of his visit ;
and as in the preceding verses
(i. 17-22) he had defended it on
the ground that it was not really
a change of purpose, so now he
defends it on the ground that
it was occasioned by tenderness
for them.

cyo) 8c, *J, -whatever my op-
ponents may say.'

€^t rrjv ifJLrjv xjrvxqv ' (1) ' a-
gainst my soul,' i.e. if I speak
falsely ; or, (2) ' into the pre-
sence of my soul to testify that
I speak the truth.'

^€t8o/xevo5 vfjuov, ' that I might
not have occasion to exert my
power to the full, and take ven-
geance on your sins.'

ovK€TL, ' no more.' * I gave
up the thought of coming.'

24 ovx OTL (for ovK epoi oti).
'When I speak of sparing you, I
do not mean that I had or have
at any time despotic control over
your faith, your Christian life.
We are but co-operators with
you in producing, not your grief,
but your joy ; and so far from
our being the masters of your

faith, it is by your faith that you
stand independently of us.'

KvpL€vojx€v is suggested by the
idea of authority implied in ^et-

So//,€V09.

;(apas, 'joy,' is introduced in
contrast to the grief which he
wished to spare them.

TTJ yap TTLareL is the reason for
ovx ^'''' KvpL€vo/jL€v, thc intervening
clause being passed over as pa-
renthetical, as in Mark v. 41,
42, xvi. 3, 4.

II I, 2 €KpLva 8e c/xavrw,
* for myself,' i.e. ' for my own
happiness, as well as yours.'

ttoXlv iv XxnrQ 7rpb<s vyu,a? iX-
Oetv. In all the best MSS. iv
XvTTr] is put thus early in the
sentence, as the most emphatic
word.

ttoXlv is taken with iXBuv.
Xvirri is used in opposition to ;!^a-
pas in i. 24.

* My second visit shall not
be painful; for in giving you
pain before, my only object was
that I might have joy now.*.
The abruptness is occasioned by
the vividness with which the of-
fending party at Corinth starts
into sight. ' If I ever give you
pain, who can enliven me, ex-
cept he to whom I have given
pain [and who is thereby induced
to repent] ? ' Then applying

HIS CONFIDENCE IN THEIH INTENTIONS.

371

iK$eLV. ^€t yap iytii \viTa> v/x,a§, /cat *Tt$ 6 evc^pat-
pwv fJL€ €1 fxYf 6 Xv7roviJL€vo<; ef ifiov ; ^kol iy paxpa^
TovTo avTo, Lva firf ikOcov kvirrjv ^ej^o) a(j) &p cSet fie
^atpeu-', wenoiOotys itrl wdvras v/jtct? on rj ifir) x^P^
irivrxiiv Vfi6}v icrriv. "^e/c yap 7roXkrj<; ^Xtt/iecus /cat crvi^-
0^179 /capSta? cypaijta vixlv 8ta iroWtov 8a/cpuwz/, ou;)^
ti^a XvnrjOrJTe^ aXKa Trjv aydnriv lva yvcoTe, 7ju e)^a>
Treptcrcrorepcus €19 vp-a?./ *^ct Se ri9 XeXwr^/ce^', ovac epe

• t(s ixrrif.

*> Add u/Atj;.

• Lachniv Ed. 1. cxa^.

again to you. ^For if I make you sorry, who is he then that maketh m&
glad but the same who is made sorry by me? ^And I wrote this same
unto you, lest when I came I should have sorrow from them of whom I
ought to have rejoiced, having confidence in you all that my joy is the
joy of you all. ^For out of much trouble and anguish of heart I wrote
unto you with many tears, not that ye should be made sorry, but that
ye might know the love which 1 have more abundantly unto you. ^But

this general statement respecting
his conduct to the particular cir-
cumstances of the First Epistle,
be proceeds: 'And accordingly
1 wrote that very passage in the
First Epistle [vie. 1 Cor. iv. 8,
18-vi. 11], in order that I
should have no more pain occa-
sioned to me by your miscon-
duct ; trusting that, as my chief
joy comes from your good con-
duct, you, with that community
of feeling which subsists between
us^ would give me the joy which,
as being mine^ will also he yours.*
For the abruptness of Kat, see
verse 16, koX rrpo^ Tuvra tls
Ikvlvos; Luke xviii. 20, mx rts

4 ' For I wrote to blame you
with great reluctance, my only
object being to show my love for
you.* The passage gives a lively
picture of the feelings with which
he wrote the First Epistle. For
the ' many tears,' compare Acts
XX. 19, * serving the Lord with
many tears.'

«K and 8ia, ^ out qf & broken

and oppressed heart my words
flowed through (5ta) tears.' Sta
expresses, ' amidst floods of
tears ; ' or, ' with eyes dimmed
by tears.'

T^v ayai'mjv iva. For this in-
version of iva compare 1 Cor. ix.
15.

5 The position of ifxe aiid
TravTUs v/m?, as emphatic and an-
tithetic to each other, shows the
general sense to be, that the sin
of the offender, whom from deli-
cacy he avoids more especially
mentioning, was felt by St. Paul
chiefly because it gave pain
to them. He impresses upon
them that he is satisfied with the
measures which they had ad-
opted, and acquiesces in any act
of indulgence which they might
have shown him. It can hardly
be doubted, from a comparison
of this passage with ch. vii. that
the horror excited by the First
Epistle against the offender had
been very great, and that one
main object of the Apostle is to
moderate it.

B B 2

372

SECOND EPISTLE: CHAP. II. «— 10.

XeXvmjKev, aXka oltto iJLepov<; (Iva fxr) iiri^/^apca) 7rdvTa<;
i5/xas. ^iKavov rw tolovtco rj iiriTLfJiLa avTT) rj vwo twv
irX^iovoiVy ^wcTTe Tovvavrlov ^fxakkov vfxas xapicraa-dai kol
TrapaKokecraL, fxij ttcos rfj irepLcro-oTepa \vTTrj KaraTroOrj 6
TOioGro?. ^Sto TrapaKokoj v/xa? KvpaxraL els avTov aydirr^v

• Lachm. Ed. 1. omit fxaWov.

if any have caused sorrow, he hath not made me soiTy, but in part you
all (that I may not overcharge you). *^ Sufficient to such a man was this
punishment, inflicted by the greater part, "^ so that contrariwise ye ought
rather to forgive him and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be
swallowed up with overmuch sorrow. * Wherefore I exhoi-t you to esta-

ctTTO jjJpov<i (tya firf em^apiii)
may thus relate ,{1) either to the
offender, — * I say •' in part," that
I may not press too heavily upon
him;' or (2) to the Corinthian
Church,— ' I say that he has
grieved, not me, but you, lest I
should take too much upon my-
self.' (cTTtySaptO, like KVpUVOfJL€V

in i. 24, and Atto /xepov; inserted
to qualify the strength of Travras
and reduce it to the level of tcov
TrXeiovwv afterwards; in which
case comp. Rom. xi. 25, 7r(opto(ns
airo fxepov; to) 'Io-pa^\ yiyoveu.)
But some expressions indicate a
disposition to leniency in the
Corinthian Church, which the
Apostle, whether from a prudent
lear of a reaction in favour of
the offending person, or from a
real tenderness towards him,
eagerly meets, as it were, half
way. Thus the word cTrtrt/Aia
(' punishment'), although it may
be extended to mean the extreme
sentence of separation recom-
mended in 1 Cor. V. 4, is more
naturally referable to some milder
punishment; and the tenses of
XapicraorOaL and ;^apt^€0-^€, in
verses 7 and 10, although they
may be supposed to refer to what
he expected in the future, are
naturally expressive of what had

been done, or was being done at
that time.

6 LKavov. ecTTi or Icrrto may be
understood equally well. LKavov
possibly in the legal sense of
' satisfaction,' as in Acts xvii. 9,
X.afi6vT€<; TO 'tKavov.

7} vTTo Twv TrXeioviDv is the sen-
tence or the reprobation (Xvirrj)
expressed by the majority of the
meeting of the whole Church ;
see 1 Cor. v. 4.

7 WCTTC TOVVaVTLOV /XoXXoV V/AttS

)(apL(Taa-$aL kol TrapaKaActrat. This
seems to depend on t/cavoi/. ' It
is cause suflScient for you to for-
give him.' irapaKaXia-at must
here have the sense, not of ' ex-
horting,' but of ' comforting,'
as in i. 3, 4 ; and yet irapaKaXu)
in the next verse has the sense,
not of ' comforting,' but of ' ex-
horting.' For a similar juxta-
position of the same word in two
diff'erent senses, see 1 Cor. xi.
23 : TrapeOioKa, TrapcStSoro.

TTJ irepicrcroTepa Auttt/, ' by the
excess of his grief.'

6 TOLovTo<i, the usual expression
of the Apostle, like 6 8eti/a, when he
alludes to a well-known person,
without wishing to specify him
more particularly. Comp. xii. 1, 2.

8 This expresses his agree-
ment in any act of conciliation

HIS CONFIDENCE IN THEIR INTENTIONS.

373

^cts TOVTO yap /cat eypaxim, Iva yvoi Tr\v SoKt/jxriv viicov, ^el
€t9 iravTa vtttjkool eare. ^" (o oe tl ^apLQecrtre, Kayco • Kau^

• Lachm. Ed. 1. jf. '' koI ^yt^.

blish your love toward him. ^ For to this end also did I write, that I
might know the proof of you, whether in all things ye be obedient. ^^To

which they had adopted or might
adopt, throwing the whole weight
of his apostolical authority into
this act of * loosing,' by the
Christian society, as he had be-
fore thrown it (in 1 Cor. v. 4)
into the act of * binding.'

KvpCxraL, ' confirm.' This fa-
vours the supposition that they
had already commenced some
milder course, which he here
urges them to continue.

Bengel : — ' Kvpo<s est penes
amorem, non penes tristitiam :
naajestas regiminis et disciplinae
ecclesiasticae sita est in amore.'

9 €ts TOVTO yap kol eypaif/a,
* you may safely exchange
harsher for gentler measures ;
for the object which I had in
writing so severely in 1 Cor. v.
4,. 7, is fulfilled, now that I see
how readily you obeyed me.'

It is a hyperbolical expression
of his gratitude to them, as
though his object had not been
the reformation of the offender,
but the trial of their obedience.
Compare vii. 12 : ' Though I
wrote unto you, I wrote not for
his sake that had done the
wrong, but that our care for you
in the sight of God might ap-
pear.' Compare, also, 1 Cor. ix.
9, 10 : ' Doth God care for oxen ?
Or saith he it altogether for our
sakes ? For our sakes.'

€ts TOVTO, i.e. ' for this object
which 1 proceed to state.'

Kttt, * in fact,' as in i, 13.

T7JV 8oKiixr]v vjjiCiv, * your proved
sincerity.' The words are a con-

fusion of two constructions — tva
yvQ) Trjv V7raKor]V v/^wv, and iva
o-xti> BoKLfjirjv vixwv. Compare,
however, Phil. ii. 22, ttjv 8c Sokl-
firjv avTov -yivwo-KCTC.

lo (S 8c TL xapiil,iaB€. Here he
implies,, not only that they are
going to forgive, but that they
are, or have been forgiving : un-
less, which is hardly likely in
so personal an argument,, he is
laying down a general principle.
And following up the train of
thought opened in i. 23, 24, he
insists on their independent au-
thority to forgive ; going even so
far as to say that, even if he had
taken upon himself to forgive, it
would have been not of his own
impulse, but for their sakes ; and
that this forgiveness was as truly
in the name and person of Christ,
as had been the former act of
condemnation, 1 Cor. v. 4.

If Ke^dpta-fiat, as most inter-
preters take it, be transitive (as
in Acts xxvii. 24; Gal. iii. 18),
then, whether the reading be o
or <S, the meaning will be, ' for
in this, as in all else, my chief
motive is my sympathy for you.
Whatsoever [or whomsoever] I
have in any previous time for-
given, 1 have forgiven for your
sakes.' If it be passive, then the
meaning will be, ' for your wel-
fare is the chief thing to be con-
sidered, in this as in all besides;
for even the forgiveness which I
have myself received was for
your sake, for the services which
I might render you.* X^P*-^^'

374

SECOND EPISTLE: CHAP. II. 11.

yap ^ iyco o K€)(dpLcriiaL, et Ti Ke)(dpi(Tixai, hi v/xa? iv
TTpocrcoTra) ^pucTTOV, ^^Lva fxr) nXeoveKTrjOcopiev virb tov
(TaravoL' ov yap avTov ra voiqyiaTa ayvoovp,ev.

• ^7ci> 6? Tt KexdpKT/JMi ^ K6X(i/>«r/iai.

whom ye forgive any thing, / forgive also : for if I have forgiven • any
thing, what I forgave for your sakes forgave I it in the face of Christ,
^' lest we should be defrauded by Satan : for we are not ignorant of his
devices.

• Or 'have been forgiven.'

fat and 'XP'-pwOevraf l^^aplarOy), \a-
pLaOrfcrofxaL are SO used in Acts
iii. 14; 1 Cor. ii. 12; Phil. i. 29;
Philem. 22 ; and the sense, ' I
have had something forgiven to
me,' is justified by the analogy
of TTCTriVrcv/xat' Tt, Rom. iii. 2 ; 1
'Cor. ix. 17. For the general
sense of the passage thus under-
stood, compare 1 Cor. xv. 10 :
' by the grace (x^pts) of God I
am v^hat I am : and His grace
which was bestowed upon me
was not in vain ;* and for the
humility of the expression, ' if I
really have been forgiven,' com-
pare 1 Tim. i. 13, 'I obtained
mercy because I did it igno-
rantly ; ' 1 Cor. iv. 4, ' yet am I
not hereby justified.' In the
former case €ya> will be, ' I as
well as you : ' in the latter, ' I as
well as the offender.' Both
would make good sense. The
<5ontext, and the transitive use of

Kcxa-pLcr/xai elsewhere in the New
Testament, are in favour of the
first.

€v TrpocrtoTTO) )(pi<TTov is probably
connected with Ke)(dpL(rfxaL. Com-
pare iv r}fxipa, Rom. ii. 16, where
the same ambiguity of construc-
tion occurs. It must be (not
merely ' in the
which would be

cvwTTtov, KarevavTi
more strongly)

presence of,'

expressed by

ivavTtov^ but

as if Christ

Himself were looking on.'

I I IVa fX,y 7rXeOV€KTTjO<JJfJL€V VTTO

TOV a-aTava. ' I forgive, and you
forgive, lest by withholding such
forgiveness sinners should be
driven to despair, and so Satan,
the great adversary, should win
an unfair advantage over us.'
Compare 1 Cor. vii. 5 : ' Come
together that Satan tempt you
not for your incontinency.'

TO. vo-jfxara, * his designs
against Christ's kingdom.'

HIS CONFIDENCE IN THEIR INTENTIONS. 375

Paraphrase of Chap. I. 12 — II. 11.

I rejoice in my deliverance ; I trust in the continuance of your
sympathy ; for I am conscious of my perfect sincerity to all,
but especially to you. There is nothing kept back, as my
enemies would insinuate, from you ; my letters have no double-
meaning, my writings and my life are both equally open to
your inspection ; and all misconstructions will be cleared
away in the perfect knowledge and perfect sympathy which
you will have in the great day when all shall be revealed, and
we shall know and be known entirely. If you fully under-
stood this, you need have no fear of any levity or any double
dealing in the recent delay of my visit to you. My original
plan, it is true, had been to pay you two visits ; one on my
way to Macedonia, one on my return from it. But if you
now find out I am writing from Macedonia before I visit you,
you must not suppose that I have broken my former promise,
and that what I have said one day, I unsay the next. God
knows how contrary this would be to the whole spirit of my
communications with you ; how contrary, above all, to the
spirit and character of Him who is the one subject of the
teaching of myself and of my colleagues alike. The Son of
God, who appeared amongst us in the person of Jesus Christ,
spoke and acted in no vacillating manner. The ' Yes^ the
emphatic ' Amen^ which was the especial mark of all His
Divine discourses, was but the expression of the perfect con-
summation of all the Divine promises in Him, the foundation
of the solemn praises which we offer to God, from whom those
promises came ; Who, at our conversion, gave both to us and
to you {for we cannot be separated) a pledge of the gifts of
the Spirit, of our complete identification with Christ in this
certainty and firmness as in all besides, we being anointed by
the same Divine /Spirit that anointed Him. God knows (to
return from this general assurance to my own particular
case), God knows that it was from no weakness or duplicity
that I delayed my visit. It was simply that I might not be
obliged to use my authority severely against you. And when
I speak of my authority now, or at any other time, I claim

376 SECOND EPISTLE.

no despotic control over that faith in which yon stand inde-
jpendently of any human teacher. All that I now wish is to
help in making your happiness, which is my happiness. And,
therefore, I was resolved for my own sake, that my second
visit to you should not be in sorrow either to yourselves or to
me. For if I cause sorrow on my coming to you, the very
countenance tchich should have greeted me with smiles greets
me instead with the sorrow which I have myself occasioned.
This was my ohject in using the severe language of my First
Fpistle, that the sorrow which I felt for the sin committed
amongst you might be removed ; and that I might thus feel
the happiness which, as being mine, I felt sure would become
yours also. This was my object ; and not any wish to cause
you sorrow, but to show you tke love which I bear to yon
above all ; as is well testified by the heart-breaking anguish
and bitter tears which that Fpistle cost me. And this sorrow,
so far as it was occasioned by one of your society, was in
fact, not so much my sorroio as in great measure the sorrow
of all of you. If was not, therefore, my concern, but yours,
to punish him ; if I interpose at all, it must be not in my
own behalf, but in his. The punishment, which the majority
of the Christian society has inflicted upon him, is sufficient ;
the course now to be pursued is of forgiveness and consolation',
lest he should be driven to despair. Whatever marks, there-
fore, of Christian love you have shown towards him, may
safely be continued ; by the punishment which in obedience to
me you have inflicted upon him, you have fulfilled my object
in writing to you. Whatever marks of forgiveness you show,
have received my full approbation ; it is for your sakes, and
because of your forgiveness, and not from any impulse of my
own, that I have exercised forgiveness myself [as it is for
your benefit that Ihave been myself forgiven^ in the presence
of Him who is always watching lest an opportunity of evil
should be given to the Adversary,

HIS RELATIONS TO THE CHURCH. 377

The Apostle's Relations to the Church.

This passage well exhibits the Apostle's relations to his
converts. First, in the repudiation of the charge of duplicity
and vacillation, it discloses his keen susceptibility to ^T[is
attacks of this kind. His sensitiveness is such as we suscepti
should hardly have expected in a character of such ^ ' ^*
intense devotion to great objects ; but it is a natural conse-
quence of the peculiar feeling of high honour and courtesy
which runs through the Apostle's writings, and which, as Paley
and Coleridge have well observed, makes him a strikincr
example — they might almost have said the first example in any
great detail — of what is now called by the untranslatable name
of ' gentleman.'

Secondly, it is historically instructive, as containing the
virtual retractation of the censure in 1 Cor. v. 1-G. It is an
instance of the Apostle's loosing, as the former passage is of
the Apostle's binding. It is an instance of the ready for-
giveness of the Apostle, as soon as the need for anger was
gone ; thus exemplifying, in a practical case, as he himself
observes in ii. 10, the great peculiarity of the Gospel Hisconces-
morality. It is an instance, also, of the wish to allow sionstothe

, ^, . . . 1.1 1 • freedom of

the Christian society as much mdependent action as the com-
possible ; the very opposite of a despotic hierarchical munity.
ambition. * Not lording it over their faith.' ' By faith,'
their own faith, ' they stood.' The penalty is inflicted ' by
the majority.' ' To whomsoever they forgave, he forgave.' (i.
24, ii. 6, 10.) The Apostle treats his converts as his equals.
Even to a Church which needed the assertion of his authority,
he yet forbears to press his claims ; and thus shows what large
concessions could be made even at such a time to the principle
of Christian freedom.

378

SECOND EPISTLE: CHAP. II. 12—14.

The Arrival of Titus.
Chap. II. 12—16.

12»

E\0a)v 8e €19 TTjv TpcjdSa els to evayyekiov tov ^lcttov,
vpas [JiOL av€(pyfJi€U7)S iv Kvpica^ ^^ovk ecrxv<(^ aveaiv

^- But when I came to Troas for the gospel of Christ, and a door was
opened unto me of the Lord, ^^I had no rest in my spirit, because I found

Troas.

12 He resumes the main sub-
ject of the arrival of Titus. ' Let
me then put aside all these ques-
tions about my delay, and let me
place before you the scene at
Troas. Although with every
facility for pursuing the mission
which I had long hoped to ac-
complish in those parts, I was so
distracted by not receiving the
expected tidings from Corinth,
that I tore myself away from the
disciples of Troas, and embarked
for Macedonia.'

T-^v TpwaSa. The article pos-
sibly indicates the region of
' the Troad,' rather than
the city. The city
had been built by Antigonus,
under the name of Antigonia
Troas ; was afterwards called
Alexandria Troas (Conybeare
and Howson, vol. i. pp. 301,
302) ; and was at this time a
Roman ' colonia Juris Italici,'
and regarded with favour by the
Roman Emperors, as the repre-
sentative, though at a consi-
derable distance, of the ancient
Troy, of which, throughout the
middle ages, and still by the in-
habitants, it has been supposed
to occupy the site. St. Paul had
only been prevented from staying
there on his first visit (Acts xvi.

8) by the vision which called
him into Macedonia, and on the
return from his present journey
(Acts XX. 3-6) was received
there with much enthusiasm,
and remained for more than a
week. These indications of the
held of labour thus opened for
him, agree with the expressions
here used, cts to evayyiXcov^
' with the view of preaching the
Gospel,' and Ovpa's dvcwyju-ei^?,
' a great opportunity offered for
preaching.' See note on 1 Cor.
xvi. 9.

kv KvpLio, ' in the sphere of the
Lord.'

13 ovK €cr)(7}Ka avecriv rio irvev-
fxaTL jMov, ' my spirit drove me
forwards,' as in the first visit to
Troas, Acts xvi. 8, when ' the
Spirit suffered them not' to
stay.

TO) fjLri evpetv, by reason of the
non-arrival of Titus ; Troas hav-
ing been appointed on this
occasion, as in Acts xx. 5, for
the place of rendezvous. The
perfect has here the same force
as the prcesens Mstoricuni, in giv-
ing a living image of what is
past.

aTTOTa^ct/xevog, ' having taken
leave,' Acts xviii. 18, 21 ; Luke
ix. 61 ; Mark vi. 46. avrots, i.e.

THE ARRIVAL OF TITUS.

379

Tft> TTveijfiarL ftov, rol /it) evpelv fie Tirov rov dSeX<j>6v
fjLOv, aXka oLTTOTa^diJievos avTols i^XOov els MaKeSoi/iav.
^^Tw 8c 0e^ X^P^^ '^^ irdvTQTe dpiafi^evovrL 17/10,9 ev

not Titus my brother, but taking my leave of them I went on into Mace-
donia. ^^Now grace* unto God, who always leadeth us in triumph in

• Or ' thanks.'

* the disciples at Troas.' Com-
pare his parting with them in
Acts XX. 7.

k^XOov, « I went forth: ' The
same phrase is used for the de-
parture to Macedonia in Acts
xvi. 10, XX. 1, apparently to
mark the transit from Asia into
Europe.

14 This would have been the
natural point at which to enlarge
on the details of Titus's message.
But it would seem as if the re-
collection of the relief was so
overpowering that, without even
mentioning it, it breaks out in a
strain of thanksgiving similar to
that in i. 3-10, but more im-
passioned ; and in the course of
this, the whole importance of his
office bursts upon him in such
vivid colours, that he is unable
to withdraw his gaze from the
vision which thus opens before
him, with one distant vista after
another. The main thread is not
resumed till vi. 11-13, vii. 2-16,
in language so exactly harmoniz-
ing with that in these verses
(12, 18) as to leave no doubt
that we have there the thoughts
which had been here so abruptly
intercepted.

TravTore, * always,' i.e. ' even
from the deepest distress.'

cv TravTt TOTTO), ' in every place,'
i.e. 'at Corinth, as well as Mace-
donia and Troas ; * his thoughts
travelling from one part of his
Apostolical sphere to another;

the electric spark of his- influence
being communicated no less by
his letter to Corinth than by his
preaching to Macedonia and
Troas.

0pta/jif3€vuv is properly, * to
lead captive in triumph,' as in
Col. ii. 15, and as in all classical
authors (see Wetstein, ad loc.) ;
and probably retains that signi-
fication here, expressive of the
complete dependence of op,.
the Apostle on Grod, and <^y-^^veiv.
of the over-ruling of all his
anxiety to good ; he being him-
self the sacrifice. (Comp. Phil,
ii. 17, oAA' €t /cat cTTTO'So/xat.) But
the sense of conquest and degra-
dation is lost in the more general
sense of ' making us to share His
triumph.' Compare the like ex-
tension of sense in verbs in cvcd,
e.g. /jLaOrjTevcLVy properly, as in
Matt, xxvii. 57, 'to be a dis-
ciple ; ' but in Matt, xxviii. 19,
xiii. 52 ; Acts xiv. 21, 'to make
disciples : ' ySao-tAcveiv, properly
' to Z^e a king ; ' but often in the
LXX. as in 1 Sam. viii. 22, xv.
11, 'to make a king : ' ^opevetv^
properly, ' to dance ; ' but in
Eur. Here. F. 688, 873, 'to
make to dance.'

The idea of the Roman tri-
umphal procession, in the eyes of
the then existing world the most
glorious spectacle which the ima-
gination could conceive, and in
its general features familiar even
to those who had never witnessed

380

SECOND EPISTLE: CHAP. II. 15, 16.

Tft) ypicTTCo KoX TTjv ocTfJirjv T^9 yvaxreoji; avTov (j)ave-
povvTL Sl Tjixctiv iu TTavTi TOTTw, ^^ oTt ^KTTGv evcoSia icTfJiei/
TO) Oeqj iv tol<; cr<s)lpixlvoi<; /cat iv Tot? aTToXXv/xeVot?, ^^^oi?
/x€^' ocr/x')) *e/c Oavdrov cij OdvaTov, ols 8e oct/lii^ e/c ^wrjs
CIS ^coijv.

■ o<r/i^ Oavdrov . . . oa/i^ Coorjs.

Christ and maketh manifest the savour of His knowledge by us in every
place, ^^ for we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are
saved and in them that perish, ^^to the one a savour from death unto
death, and to the other a savour from life unto life.

it, seems to suggest the thought
of the odours, whether from the
altars smoking with incense in
the open temples (Pint. ^m.
Paul. c. 32), or from the sacri-
fices offered up on the arrival of
the procession at the temple of
the Capitoline Jupiter (Jos. B. J.
yil. V. 6).

15 As applied to the know-
••r X T- rledffe of God revealed

Metaphor of , , ° ■, -, . 1 •

the odour of through his preaching,
sanctity. ^]^-g thought cxpresses
the invigorating and quickening
effect of the new element of
life, Christianity permeating the
world as a cloud of frankincense.
This figure he details more at
length in the following verses.
His own life, as diffusing the
knowledge of God, is now the
fragrant odour rising up before
God, as in the primitive sacri-
fices. Gen. viii. 21, * the Lord
smelled a sweet savour ; ' Lev.
i. 9, 'a sweet savour unto the
Lord' (ocr/x-^ cvwSta?, LXX.).
And this odour is given forth,
because of his union with Christ :
it is not his act, but Christ's ;
hence the emphatical position of
Xpto-Tov in the sentence. The
two ideas, of his own self-sacrifice
(as in Eph. v. 2), and of his offer-
ing up his work to God (as in

Phil. iv. XS ; Rom. xv. 16), are
blended together.
Compare Col. ii. 15.
16 The metaphor of the odour
suggests the double effect which
his preaching might have ; ac-
cording to the Rabbinical image,
so frequent as to be almost pro-
verbial, by which human life
and action, and especially the
Law, is spoken of under the
figure of a scent, either deadly
or salubrious. (See Wetstein
and Schottgen ad loc.)

This passage is the origin of
the metaphor, once so common
in the religious language of
Christendom, as in popular be-
lief to have been even re-con-
verted into a fact, of ' the odour
of sanctity,' applied in both the
Eastern and the Western Church
to the beneficent influence of a
holy life followed by a holy death.
For aTToXXvfxivoL^ and crw^o-
IJL€voL<5, see 1 Cor. i. 18. The re-
petition of the phrases, ck Oavdrov
€t? Odvarov — ck ^torjs ct? ^<Ji»yv, is
in the Apostle's manner. Comp.
Rom. i. 17, €/c TriVreca? ei? TrtarLV :
2 Cor. iv. 17, KaO' vTr€p(3oXrjv ets
v7r€p/3oXrjv. They are, in fact,
Hebrew superlatives, expressed
by repeating the emphatic word
twice.

THE MEETING- WITH TITUS. 381

Paraphrase of Chap. II. 12 — 16.

/ came to Troas, and had a great field open before me. But I
was so anxious for news from you, that not finding ^itus there,
I passed over the ^gean, and came to Europe. There, thanks
be to God, I heard the tidings that out of mg feeble efforts God
had brought the spectacle of a glorious triumph, and that the
incense of the triumphal sacrifice in my life and teaching had
penetrated far and wide, Alas ! that there should be a darker
side ; for to some it is not the scent of life and health, but of
poison and death.

The Meeting with Titus.

In these few abrupt words we have a glimpse of the outward
scene which witnessed the events and feelings on which the
whole of this Epistle is founded. It is but a glimpse, closed
almost as soon as revealed. We cannot dwell on the striking
thought of the Apostle standing day by day on the wooded
shores of that classic region, under the heights of ^^ , ._
Ida, vainly expecting the white sail of the ship which cal asso-
was to bring back his friend from Corinth. We cannot ^^wtions at
allow ourselves to thread with him the maze of the
lofty islands of Lemnos and Tenedos, and Samothrace, as he
sought once more the great continent to which, from that same
city of Troas, he had five years before been invited by the
vision of the Macedonian stranger. The more attractive these
associations are to us, the more conclusive is the proof, furnished
by the absence of such allusions in this Epistle, how slight was
their effect on the mind of the Apostle : even the description
of the actual meeting with Titus, so full of dramatic interest,
is dissolved in the burst of thankfulness which expresses itself
in imagery borrowed not from the neighbouring localities, but
from the gorgeous spectacles in the Imperial City as yet unseen
and remote.

But the most remarkable feature of the passage is the

382 SECOND EPISTLE.

sudden transition from the bright to the dark side of the pic-
Conscioiis- ture, from the thought of the benefits to the thought
?h*f M^ of the evil effects of his teaching. Probably here, as
of Chris- elsewhere in this Epistle, his consciousness of the sym-
tiamty. pathv between himself and the Corinthian Church is
checked by the recollection of his opponents, which immediately
afterwards breaks in upon his joyous strain, in a long and
complicated digression. But this feeling of the double aspect
of Christianity, of its failures side by side with its successes, of
its judgments and responsibilities side by side with its blessings
and privileges, — is characteristic, not only of this juncture of
the Apostle's life, nor of his writings only, but of all parts of
the New Testament. * The falling and rising again of many
in Israel,' * a sword ' and * a fire upon earth,' ' the Son of man
finding no faith when He comes,' are amongst the many in-
stances in w^hich, as here, a shade of pensive and melancholy
foreboding goes along with the most triumphant exultation ;
most unlike the unqualified confidence and security of the
partial and one-sided views of Religion, which, within or
without the pale of Christianity, have from time to time
appeared, — most like the mingled fortunes of good and evil
which have been the actual condition of Christendom, as
recorded in history.

OPENNESS OF THE APOSTOLICAL SERVICE. 383

DIGRESSION ON THE APOSTOLICAL MISSION.

The Plainness and Cleakness or the Apostolical Sebtice.

Chap. IL 16 6— IT. 6.

A DOUBLE train of thought here comes across him, and chokes
his further utterance. First, the consciousness roused within
him, by his own impassioned expressions, of his high respon-
sibility, vents itself in the question, * And who is sufficient for
these things ? '

But, secondly, this sense of the greatness of his mission,
and of his own inadequacy to fulfil it, is so blended with the
thought of his opponents (latent in the previous verses) as to
call out the feeling that, though he was not worthy, much less
were they ; that though he was not worthy, he still was free from
the charges of dishonesty and meanness which they brought
against him ; that though he was not worthy in himself, yet he
was worthy by the help of God, who had raised him to a level
with the office to which he had been called. The confluence of
these three contrasts is protracted from ii. 17 to iv. 6, and thus
the direct answer which might have been expected to the
question in ii. 16, — -* In his own strength no one is sufficient,'
is exchanged for the suppressed answer ' [/ am sufficient], for
I stand on a ground different from that of my opponents, or
from that which they ascribe to me.' But still the implied
answer is in iii. 5, 6, where he explains in what sense he was,
and was not ' sufficient ; ' and the course of the argument
showing how he was at last enabled to accomplish the vast
work set before him, is resumed in iv. 1 for a moment, and then
at still greater length in iv. 7-16.

384

SECOND EPISTLE: CHAP. II. 17~III. 1.

Plainness of the Apostolical Service.

/cat npos ravra rt? uKavos ; ^ ov yap ecr/xei' 0)9 ol
TToWol KaTnjXevovre^ top koyov tov Oeov^ aW a>s ef
elKiKpLveia's, d\X' w? e/c 6eov ^ KarivavTi, deov iv ^{.ctt^
XaXovfiev.

• Karevwriov rod Seov.

And who is sufficient for these things ? "For we are not as the many
who corrupt the word of God, but as of sincerity, but as of God before
God speak we in Christ.

1 6 The abruptness of the con-
nexion is shown by the abrupt-
ness of the construction. (For a
similar use of Kat, comp. verse 2,
Kol Ti<s 6 €V(f>paLV(x)V ;)

ravra relates to the responsi-
bilities just described.

17 ot TToAAot (A. B. C. K.), or
us it is still more strongly given
in D. E. F. G. J. ot XolttoL ' The
mass' (not of mankind in general,
nor of the church, but) of the
teachers who claim to discharge
the functions of which he has
just been speaking. It shows
the isolation of the Apostle, —
* Athanasius contra Mandum.'

KaTTiyXevoi/rc?. This (see the
like instances quoted on verse
14) is a neuter verb, having an
active sense. KaTrz/Xevo)
KaTTTj evo). ^^ ' to be a retail deal-
er;* but when joined with an
accusative, 'to make a trade
of ; ' and as the original word
signifies a petty merchandise,
so when used actively, it usu-
ally has a bad sense, either of
' making an interested use,' or
(from the practice of adulterating
wine by petty tradesmen) of
' corrupting.' For its use in
both these senses in classical
authors, see Wetstein ad loo. In

the New Testament, it is never
used, except in this place. As
applied to ' the word of God '
(i.e. the teaching of a knowledge
of God, as in verse 14), it may
either be ' to corrupt ' and ' fal-
sify ' (like ^oXovvre^ rov \6yov
TOV Oeov in iv. 2), or ' to make a
dishonest gain of it..' For the
general sense comp. 1 Thess. ii.
3-5 : ' our exhortation was not
of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor
in guile . . . neither at any time
used we flattering words . . . nor
a cloke of covetousness ' (J.v irpo-
<f>d(r€L 7r\€ov€$La^). The parti-
cular allusion is probably to the
charge brought against him of
endeavouring to extort money
from them through Titus or other-
wise (see xii. 15-17), and he re-
torts the charge upon those who
were themselves liable to it from
their own selfish actions (see xi.
12-20).

(I)? €$ etXi/cptj/cta?, ' we speak as
one who was perfectly sincere
would speak.' For the word see
note on i. 12.

6K ^eoD, ' as one who was sent
by God ; ' enlarged into the ex-
pression which follows, — 'as
actually in the presence of God.'

iv xptcTTi^, to be taken with

PLAINNESS OF THE APOSTOLICAL SERVICE.

385^

III. ^^Ap^oyLeOa ttoXlv €avTOV<; ^(TVViCTTav; rj fir) XPV'
tfilJieu cti5 ^ [Tre/o] rive'; cvorTaTiKcov cTrtcrroXaii/ npo^ v/aoLs

• avvurriveiv ; Ei /t^. See Note. •* Omit itSp.

^Do we begin again to commend ourselves? or need we, as some
others, epistles of commendation to you or from you ? ^ Ye are our epistle,

XaA.o9/i,ev, * in communion with
Christ.' Both expressions occur
in a similar context, xii. 19.

Ill I The protestation of his
T-^i. < sincerity in connexion

Letters of . ,/ , i?

commenda- With the greatness ot
tion. jjjg mission, suggests a

charge which his opponents
brought against him (iv. 2, v.
12, X. 12), that he had no com-
mendatory letters from the Apo-
stles or from other Churches,
as they had ; and that he, there-
fore, was wont to commend him-
self by self-exaltation, or by
dishonest shifts. Hence, the fre-
quent emphasis on ' commending
ourselves^ (eavrovs (rvvLcrrav)^ iii.
1, iv. 2-5, X. 12, and hence the
connexion of this apparently ir-
relevant topic with the asser-
tions of his openness and sinceri-
ty, ii. 17, iii. 12, iv. 2. Instances
of such letters are expressly re-
corded in the commendation of
Titus and his companion in this
very epistle (viii. 17-19) and in
Acts xviii. 27, where Apollos is
described as having come to this
very Church of Corinth, with
letters from Aquila and Pris-
cilla, requesting the brethren to
receive him. In later times let-
ters having the same designation
(Epistolae commendatoriae") were
granted by bishops to clergy tra-
velling through other dioceses.
If the opponents in question
were Judaizers, it is probable
that the letters od which they
founded their claim to reception
were from the Church or Apo-

stles of Jerusalem, like those
' who came from James ' (jivh
oLTTo 'IttKw^ov), Gal. ii. 12. And
it would appear that one of the
objections to the Apostleship of
St. Paul was the fact that he
produced nothing of the kind,
but came on his own authority
— ' not of men, neither by man ;
not conferring with flesh and
blood ; neither receiving the Gos-
pel of man, neither being taught
it ; ' but by the immediate ' re-
velation of Jesus Christ ' to him-
self personally (Gal. i. 1, 12, 16).
In like manner, the Clementine
Homilies (xi. 35) represent St.
Peter as warning his audience
against ' any Apostle, prophet, or
teacher, who does not first com-
pare his preaching with James,
and come with witnesses.* (See
Introduction, p. 352.)

'Apx6/Ji€6a TToXtv, K.T.X. He
is checked in his onward flow
of self-defence, by the expected
taunt of his adversaries : ' Here
at the very opening of his Epistle
begins the old story of his self-
commendation.' The expression
TTttXtv, ' again,' ' a second time,'
if it has more than a general
allusion to his former conduct,
must refer to such passages in
the First Epistle as ix. 15, 21.

(TwurTav in B. D ^. (rvvLcrTdvcLv
in A. C. D3. E. I. K. If ^ fx^
(adopted by Lachmann from C.
D. E. F. G. and all the Versions)
be the right reading, the con-
struction is clear, — * or are we
in want of commendatory epi-
C

386

SECOND EPISTLE: CHAP. III. 2, 3.

r) ef vfjiiov^ ; ^ rj iTTLCTToXr) rjfxcov vjiei^; iare, iyyeypafifievrj
iv rais KaphCaus rjfiwv^ yLvcja-KOfxeprj koI avayLvcocTKOixevr)

* Add avffrariKSiv.
written in our hearts, known and read by all men, 'manifestly declared

ptles,* &c. (fjii^=num). But this
is probably a correction (from
like pronnnciation) of the more
difficult, bnt nearly equally sup-
ported reading of €t jx-q
"''^' (in A. B(esil.). J.K.).
If, therefore, we take ci /x^ xR{i
^ofiev as the true reading, it is
* [No, we do not commend ourselves]
unless we are in want of com-
mendatory epistles,' the clause
being the reason for a suppressed
answer to the question, 'do we
commend ourselves ? ' as ii. 17 is
the reason for the similarly sup-
pressed answer to the question
in 16.

€^ vfjuov, * from you to other
Churches.' For the power
claimed over other Christians by
the Church of Corinth, see 1 Cor.
xvi. 36.

2 ' I want no letters of com-
mendation ; you, my converts,
are my real letter.' This meta-
phor of the letter he gives in two
different forms. First, he con-
ceives of them as written on his
heart, according to the image
familiar in all languages, by
which that which is most dear
and cherished is supposed to be
written on the heart. ' When I
die, Calais will be found
■written written on my heart,'
he^ was the well-known ex-
pression of the expir-
ing queen of England. And the
same thought runs through this
Epistle : vi. 12, ' our heart is
enlarged, ye are not straitened
in us ; ' vii. 3, ' ye are in our
hearts.' So Phil. i. 7 : ' I have
you in my heart.'

But, secondly, on this image,
the almost unconscious expres-
sion of his sympathy with them,
he bases his representation of
the manner in which they were
to him instead of a commendatory
letter; and in so doing imper-
ceptibly passes to the more ob-
vious metaphor in which he con-
ceives the letter to be written on
their hearts by Christ, so that
they should be by their lives a
commendation of him to them-
selves and others : ' The letter
of commendation which I have
to give is no other than your-
selves, a letter written on my
heart, bound up with my inmost
affections; but a letter, also,
plain and open to all the world,
with no secret meaning or double
dealing ' (alluding to the charge,
already noticed in i. 19), ' known
as widely as your faith and love
is known ; a letter, therefore,
which commends me with far
greater authority than any out-
ward testimonials, for it is a letter
written not by man but by Christ,
not with perishable, but im-
perishable materials.' For the
play on the words ytviDO-KOfievrj
and avayivoiCTKOfxivr) (as in Eng-
lish we might say ' read and re-
read') compare avayLvwa-Kere and
eVtytvwo-KCTc in i. 13. The ima-
gery of the following words is
from the ancient mode of writ-
ing; but the metaphor seems
here, as in the preceding words,
to have been distorted ; a Gen-
tile notion, as often in St.
Paul, being blended with a re-
collection from the Jewish Scrip-

PLAINNESS OF THE APOSTOLICAL SERVICE.

387

VTTo TTOLVToyv avOp(i>7T(x)v^ ^ <j>av€povfJi€voi OTt ioTe iiricTTokrj
^LCTTov BiaKovrjOeLcra v(j> r^jJLCoi/, iyyeypaixfjievri ov fxikavi
dkXa irvevfiaTi Oeov ^coptoSj ovk iv irka^iv XlOCvms aXX

to be an epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink but with
the Spirit of the living God, not in tables of stone but in fleshy tables of

tures (e. g. in ii. 14, 15). The
usual writing materials for let-
ters at this time were (see 2 John
12) papyrus and ink, to which
accordingly the allusion is made
in the words ov fxiXavi, Compare
the Rabbinical proverb, ' A boy
learning is like ink on new parch-
ment; an old man learning is like
ink on old parchment.' (Schott-
gen, ad loc.) But the expression
* by the Spirit of the living God,'
seems to have awakened the
thought of * the finger of God '
which wrote the Ten Command-
ments on two tables in the wil-
derness. Hence seems to be de-
rived the mixture of two in-
congruous images — ink (which
would not apply to stone) and
tables of stone (which, strictly
speaking, were not employed for
epistles). For the association of
the two expressions * Spirit ' and
'finger' of God, compare Matt
xii. 28, * If I by the Spirit of God,'
with Luke xi. 20, * If I with the
finger of God cast out devils.'

hwiKovqOiicra v<f/ rjfMav may be
either: (1) 'You are a letter
dictated by Christ through me
as an amanuensis,^ still keeping
up the figure in verse 2 of the
Corinthians themselves being the
Epistle ; or (2) ' You have in
your hearts a letter of Christ (i.e.
His commands) brought to you
by me,' passing on to the effects
of their conversion as described
in verse 3. For the stress laid
on the fruits of his preaching as
the proof of his apostolical au-

thority, comp. 1 Cor. ix. 2, 3;
' the seal of mine apostleship
are ye in the Lord^ Mine an-
swer to them that examine me
is this.'

The contrast of the law of the
living Spirit in the human heart,
and of the letter af the Law on
stone, is suggested by the often
quoted passage in Jer. xxxi. 33,
to which he himself refers in vi.
16. The metaphor of ' the tables
of the heart ' may have been de-
rived from the recollection of the
phrase in Pro v. iii. 3, vii. 3
(though not in LXX.), and the
contrast of the heart of stone and
the heart of flesh, in Ezek. xi. 19,
xxxvi. 26.

•TrAa^tv KapStats (rapKtVat?, * ta-
bles which are hearts of flesh.'

In the preceding inaage of *" the
Epistle/ two ideas are brought
out : first, the inward^as opposed
to the outward testimony of the
Apostle ; secondly, its openness
and simplicity, as opposed to con-
cealment and obscurity. Each
of these in turn suggests a fur-
ther comparison of the mode,
with the subject, of his teaching,
analogous to the transition in i.
18-20, from the assertion of his
personal firmness and decision to
the firmness and immutability of
Christ. In each case he starts
with a resumption of the argu-
ment as it was left in ii. 17,
' Who is sufficient to sustain the
Apostolical responsibilities ? As-
sisted by the consciousness of
your support and sympathy, I

c c 2

388

SECOND EPISTLE: CHAP. III. 4—6.

iv 7r\a^\v ^fcapStats crapKuvaL^. ^ TreTroCOrjcnp Se roiavT-qv

€)(0iJLep Oia Tov \pia-Tov irpo^ top Oeov.

■ KapUai.

OV^ Ort IKCLVOl

the heart. ^Now such confidence have we through Christ to God- ward.
^ Not that we are sufficient to think anything of ourselves as from our-

feel that I am.' This is the feel-
ing expressed in verse 4 (' such
is our confidence *), and aejain in
verse 12 (' having such a hope ').
But in each case this personal
feeling is absorbed into the gene-
ral contemplation of the nature of
his service ; in the first instance,
into the consideration of the glory
and life of the Gospel as op-
posed to the dimness and death
of the Law ; in the second, into
the consideration of the openness
and freedom of the Gospel, as
opposed to the obscurity and
mystery of the Law. Thus the
Apostle not only delineates the
general character of Christianity
(as is his wont) in reference to
an incidental and personal cir-
cumstance, but this delineation
is set forth in an express contrast
to the Law, and he, for the first
time, introduces into this Epistle
a polemical element unknown to
the First, but found in the Epi-
stles to the Romans and Galatians.
Even in ordinary writings, when
the author throws himself into a
hostile attitude, we look round to
see what enemy he is menacing ;
much more in the Apostolical
Epistles, where almost every truth
is elicited by some directly prac-
tical object. The concluding
portion of the Epistle reveals to
us the connexion of ideas in the
present case. The same insinua-
tions which are indirectly glanced
at here, in ii. 17, iii. 1, 2, are, in
X. 1-18, xi. 5-15, openly at-
tacked, and the party from whom

they proceeded are expressly de-
clared to belong to the Jewish
Christians, xi. 22. If conscious
in the interval between nessof the
the First and Second ^^^^^^^
Epistles the Judaizing party
had grown to such a height
as to assail the Apostle in the
stronghold of his influence, it is
not surprising that their image
shonld be constantly before him,
and that, in repelling their
charges, his sense of the great-
ness of his mission should be
enhanced by a consciousness of
its superiority to the ancient and
decaying system to which they
were still enslaved.

roiavT-qv, i.e. ' such as is in-
spired by your testimony, and
such as I have expressed in ii.
16, 17.'

8ta TOV ypLCTTov, ' my confidence
is entirely through Christ;' a
correction of any assertion of his
own independent power.'

Trpo? TOV ^coj/, ' a confidence
which will stand the test of
God's trial,' as in Rom. iv. 2, v. 1.

5 OV^ OTL LKaVOL l(TjX€.V. Tho

connexion is through the implied
meaning of TmroiOr^criv, i.e. ' con-
fidence that I have the sufficiency
spoken of in ii. 16 ;' and the re-
petition of the word here proves
the identity of this train of
thought with that on which he
then entered. ' Not that my
sufficiency of which I am con-
fident, is my own,' &c.

ovx ort, the usual phrase for
ovK ipCi) OTL, as in i. 24.

PLAINNESS OF THE APOSTOLICAL SEKVICE.

389

ea-fxev ^Xoyi^ecrOai n a(^' iavTotv w? *<f ^avTcov, dXX' ri
lKav6Tr}<s rjficjp cac tov deov, ^09 Kal LKdvcDO-ev v/xas 8ta-
Kopovs KaLvrjs BLaOiJKrjs^ ov ypdfXfiaTO<; dXXa Tn^eu/xaros*

» d^' eavTwy \oyl<raffdal ri. *• lourav.

selves, but our sufficiency is from God, *who also made us sufficient
ministers of a new covenant, not of a letter but of a spirit ; for the letter

Xoyi^ea-Oai ri, 'to judge or
conclude anything out of our
own sufficiency.' Compare the
parallel passages of x. 7 (where
it occurs with a.<f/ eavrov), and
xii. 6 ; and for the general sense
comp. 1 Cor. iv. 1-4 (where the
word also occurs), ' Yet am I
not hereby justified.*

acf> cavTwv, ' from our own re-
sources.*

ws i$ avTwv, *with the confi-
dence that it is from our own
hearts : ' opposed to ck tov ^eov,
and also for the sake of accumu-
lating phrases, as in ii. 17.

6 OS Kal,=qui idem, * the same
God who' (with reference to
iKavoi immediately preceding)
' made us sufficient to be * Sta-
Kovovs, as in the common Greek
phrase TratScvciv ao^ov (' to edu-
cate so as to make wise '), tutttciv
v€Kp6v (' to strike so as to kill ').
The word SiaKovo<s, * servant,*
or * instrument,' refers back to
SiaKovrjOeia-a in verse 3.

KaLvrj<; StaOrJKr}^, ' not of an old
and worn-out covenant; but of
'Anew * ^^"^ covenant, in-
covenant.' stinct with youthfulness
and energy ; ' and then this neiv-
ness leads him back to the image
of the living Epistle of the Co-
rinthian Church, and the dead
letter of the Mosaic Law, as set
forth in verse 3 — 'a new co-
venant which consists not in a
writing like the Law, which
could do nothing but pronounce
the sentence of death on those

who disobeyed it : but in a Spirit
which, according to the very na-
ture of spirit, which is the prin-
ciple of animation, breathes life
and vigour into the soul.' For
the words ' new covenant ' (Katvrj
SLaOrJKrf), see 1 Cor. xi. 25, ' The
new covenant in my blood ; *
from which expression of our
Lord they are probably derived.

Observe the omission of the
article before Sia^Ty/cry?, ypa/A/xaros,
TTvev/jLaros.

The connexion of the ideas
of 'life' and 'spirit,' spirit and
as expressed in the ^e.
words ^(DOTTouL and irvevfxa, is ob-
vious, and is to be found in John
vi. 63, ' the words that 1 speak
. . . they are spi7'it and life.' 1
Cor. XV. 45, a ' quickening (^wo-
TToiovv) spirit.' Rom. viii. 11,
' He shall quicken your mortal
bodies by his Spirit.' Gal. vi. 8,
'He that soweth to the Spirit
shall of the Spirit reap life.'
But the connexion between the
ideas of ' death ' and the ' letter '
is less clear. In most of the pre-
vious passages just quoted, the
' Spirit ' is opposed, not to ' the
letter,' but to 'the flesh;' and
though we now frequently con-
trast ' the letter ' and the ' spirit,'
yet it is this very passage which
had made that contrast familiar
to us.

In the first place, by ypafifiay.
'the letter,' is meant Letter and
the sacred books of the Spirit.
Old Test., as appears from the

390

SECOND EPISTLE: CHAP. III. 7—12.

/ TO yap ypdfjifia ^ airoKTaiveiy to 8c Tn/evfia ^woTTOtet. "^ el
0€ ij ocaKovLa tov uavarov ev

• diroKTCiVct.

ypafifiaTL evTervncDfievr)

* ypififiofftv.

killeth, but the spirit giveth life. ^But if the ministration of death
engraven in the letter on stones was made in glory, so that the children

general nse of the cognate
word, yf>a<f>rj, ' the Scriptnre,* of
the derived word ypa^fAJxreik
(' scribe ' or ' interpreter of the
sacred books ^^ ^^^ ^^ *^® word
ypafAfxa itself (in the plural).
' The writings (rot? ypdfiixaa-t)
•of Moses,* John v. 47 ; ' the sa-
cred writings ' (to. Icpa ypdftfiaTa),
2 Tim. iii. 15 ; Joseph. Ant. X.
X. 4. These expressions, though
occurring in the LXX., are never
there used for the sacred books.
Probably, the nomenclature at
this time arose from the fact,
that to the Jews \the Old Testa-
ment stood in the relation of
' literature ' generally, and hence
was called by the name which
the Greeks applied to their own
literature. (Compare the use of
ypdfifiaTCL in this general sense,
John vii. 15 ; Acts xxvi, 24.)
And the expression would be still
further fixed by the increasing
attention of the Jews to the
actual writing of the words and
letters of the sacred books as dis-
tinguished from their contents.
Hence the Apostle brings out
to the surface of the word the
meaning which thus lay latent
within it ; and hence his use of
it (wherever it occurs in the
singular number), not simply for
the Hebrew Scriptures, but (in
a bad sense) for the mere out-
ward book or ordinance, as con-
trasted with the living power of
the Gospel. ' Circumcision in
spirit and not in letter ' (Rom. ii.
27-29). 'The oldness of the

letter and newness of the spirit *
(Bom. vii. 6).

Having so used the word, he
ascribes to it, as to the Law, the
introduction of death into the
world through sin, without the
power of alleviating or averting
it. See Eom. v. 12, vii. 9, viiL
2, 3 ; 1 Cor. xv. 56 ; Gal. iii. 10,
21. And so here the livincf tes-
timony borne to his authority in
the Corinthian Church suggests
strongly the contrast of the
dreary death-like atmosphere
which surrounded the old graven
characters on which his oppo-
nents rested their claims.

The thought of the tables of
stone carries the Apostle more
fully into the Mosaic account of
their -descent from Sinai ; and he
argues from the glory which (as
described in Exod. xxxiv.) then
environed them, that his mission
must be more glorious still. All
the words — tov Oavdrov, iv ypdp.-
fjMTij h'TeTVTTMjjL^vTjy )uO(H^ — are
meant to express the inferiority
of the ' Mosaic covenant,' ' bring-
ing not life but death ^ — carved
mechanically, in precise charac-
ters, on hard stones.^ With the
same view, r^r KaTapyovfAivrjv is
added at the end of the sentence,
to leave this as the final and em-
phatic expression.

7 The Received Text, with
A. C. D3, E. J. K. and almost all
the Versions, reads iv ypd/xfiacrLVy
Lachmann, with B. D^ F. G., €v
ypdfjifjiaTi. The first would refer
to the actual letters j the second,

PLAINNESS OF THE APOSTOLICAL SERVICE.

391

*Xt^oi9 lyevTjOy) kv So^y, ojcrTe fjur) SvvacrOai aTevicrai tov<^
vious 'Ia'par)\ et? to irpocrcoTrov ^ Majvaecos Sta ttjp 86^av

TOV TTpOO-CJTTOV aVTOV TTJV KaTapyOVfJLeVTjV^ ^TTO)? OV)(l

fiaWov 7) StoLKOvCa tov TrvevfJLaTO<s ecrrat kv Sofr; ; ^ei yap
'^Tjj ZiaKOvia ri^s /carafcptcrea)? Sofa, ttoXXw pJaWov Trepicr-
creveL rj SiaKOvCa Trj<; SLKaiocrvinfj^ ^86^. ^^Kalyap'ov
SeSd^-acrrat to SeSo^acrfievov kv tovtco ro) fiepet., ^eiveKev
Trj<; VTrepfiaXXovcrrjf; So^t^?. ^^el yap to KaTapyovfMevop
8t,a Sd^Tys, TToWo) [jiaWov to p^ivov ip B6^. ^'^e)(OPTe<s ovp

• Add iv.
«» Add iK

• oi/Sh SeS,

ij SiaKovia.

of Israel were not able to look stedfastly on the face of Moses for the
glory of his face (which glcry was to vanish away), ^ how shall not the
ministration of the spirit be rather in glory ? *For if the ministration of
condemnation have glory, much more doth the ministration of righteous-
ness abound in glory. ^° For even that which has been made glorious
has had no glory in thia respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth-
^^For if that which vanisheth away was in glory, much more that which
remaineth is in glory. ^'^ Having then such hope, we use great plainness

to the general fact of the
writing.

cycn}^ *came into exist-
ence.'

9 7-^? KaTa.Kpi(T€(a<i and t^s 8t-
Katotrvn;? are here opposed, as
Oavdrov and Trvcv/iaro? in verses
7, 8. For this use of hiKaLoa-vvrj
see 1 Cor. i. 30.

10 This strange use of the
perfect SeSo^ao-Tat and BiSo^aa-fJii-
vov is from Exod. xxxiv. 29, 35
(LXX.)

ev TQvTio Tw /Acpet, * in this in-
stance of Moses.' Compare ix.
3. The neuter gender gives to
the sentence the turn of an ab-
stract proposition —' In this par-
ticular instance was fulfilled the
general rule, that a greater glory
throws a lesser glory into the
shade.'

1 1 TO Karapyov/xevov is con-
tinued in thought from t^v Karap-
yovfievrjv in verse 7.

8ta 8d^r;s, ' in a state of glory.'
For this variation of iv and Bid.

compare €k and Btd, Rom. iii. 30,
Bid and cv, Rom. v. 10.

1 2 He now once more resumes
the subject of his direct inter-
course with the Corinthians.
' Having such a hope * is the re-
petition of the words in verse
4, ' we have such confidence *
{TT€Troi6r](TLV B\ roiavrqv €)(OfX€v) ;
but by the intervening vision of
the glory of his work, what was
there ' confidence * is hare filled
out into ' hope.'

TToWrj Trappyja-ia )(p(afi€Oa, ' we
speak openly, and plainly, and
confidently,' in opposition to the
insincerity with which he was
charged by his opponents, and
with which they are charged by
him, ii. 17. As before in 5-11,
the life and spirituality, so here
the openness of the Apostleship
is contrasted with the darkness
of the Law. The imagery of
Moses descending from the
Mount is still continued ; but,
whereas the previous contrast

392

SECOND JilPISTLE; CHAP. III. 13, 14.

TOiavTTjv iXiriSa ttoWtj irappiqa-ia ^(pw/Ac^a, ^^ koI ov
KaOdirep ^Mojvarj^ eTiSei KdXvfifxa inl to TrpocrooTroif
^avTOV npos ro fXT] drevidaL tovs vlov<s 'laparjX ct? to

» Mwarjs.

^ «avr9v.

of speech, " and not as Moses put a veil upon his face, that the children
of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which was vanishing

was between the tables of stone
and the living words of the
Spirit, the contrast here is be-
tween the veil of Moses and the
unveiled face of the Apostle.

The whole transaction in
Tiieveii Exod, xxxiv. 33, 34,
of Moses, ig allegorized. From
the literal story he passes to that
which the story is conceived to
represent, viz. the concealment
of the transitory character of the
Mosaic Law. For this kind of
allegorizing, compare Gal. iv. 25 ;
1 Cor. X. 2-4. Here, as in Gal.
iv. 21, 31, he regards the Jewish
people of his own time as com-
pletely separate from himself and
from Christians.

13 KOI 01), i.e. TiOffiev KaXv/xfia

CTTl TO TrpoarOiTTOV TJlXOiV.

Trpos TO fir] dvT€Vi(TaL, k. t. X.
The most natni*al view of the
passage in Exod. xxxiv. 30-36,
is that which represents the veil
as worn by Moses during his
speech to the people, in order to
hide the glory of his counte-
nance. In this sense the Erglish
version inserts the word ' till '
in verssc 3b, and other versions
understand |FI*1 in a pluperfect
sense — 'he had put on the veil.'

But the Hebrew words of

Exod. xxxiv. 33, most

^rsS" readily agree with the

the veu of LXX. and Vulgfate ver-

Hoses.

sions : /cat cttciS^

7ravo-€ XaXwv . . . iTriOrjKCv ctti to
Trpoaoyrrov avroi) KaXv/JifJia. ' Im-
pletisque sermonibus posuit ve-

lamen super faciem suara.' ' And
when he had made an end of
speaking with them, he put a
veil on his face.' With this
agree Exod. xxxiv. 34, 35, as
translated both by the LXX. and
by modern versions, which imply
that the veil was not put on till
the close of his speaking with'
the people, when he resumed it
until the moment of his again
returning to the Divine presence ;
the Vulgate, however, giving
another version, founded appa-
rently on a different reading
( DritJ for '^m, ' with them,' for
' with him*), 'sed operiebat ille
rursus faciem suam, si quando
loquebatur ad eos.*

Whether or not the LXX. be
a correct reading of the exact
words of the original, the close
resemblance of the words in
verses 10 and 16 to the LXX. of
Exod. xxxiv. 30, 34, leaves but
little doubt that this was the
version which furnished the basis
of the Apostle's allegory. The
meaning of that version must be,
that the veil was put on, not to
conceal the glory, but to conceal
the fact that the glory vanished
away, as soon as he had ceased
to speak to them ; being re-
kindled by the light of the Di-
vine presence, but again fading
away when he had ceased to
speak the Divine message. To
this sense of the transitory cha-
racter of the glory the fi^equent
repetition of the word Karapyov-

PLAIN ESS OF THE APOSTOLICAL SERVICE.

393

TeXo'S Tov KarapyovfJiepov. ^^aXX' iTrcopcoOr) tol voTJfjLara
avTCJT/. oi)(pL yap Trjs crijfJLepov ^rjjjiepa^ to avTo /caXv/A^a

■ Omit riiu.4pas.

away. ^^But their thoughts were hardened. For until this very day the
same veil remaineth in the reading of the old covenant, since its vanish-

/x€vo<; refers, in verses 7, 11, 12,
13, 14. With this also will best
agree the explanation of the
words Trpos to fxr] arevicrai tovs
VLOvs 'laparjX eis to reAos rov Ka-
Tapyovjxevov. If the Apostle is
supposed to adopt what is now
the usual mode of regarding the
transaction in Exod. xxxiv., then
the sense of these words must be
' in order that the sons of Israel
might not gaze on the end of
that which is passing away, i.e.
on Christ as the fulfilment of the
Mosaic Law.' But, in that case,
he ascribes directly to Moses an
intention which only could be
conceived as existing in the order
of Providence, and also abruptly
introduces the antitype into the
type. If, however, it be taken
according to the LXX. version,
then the sense will bo : ' We
put no veil on our teaching, as
Moses did on the glory of his
countenance ; we have no fear
as he had, that our glory will
pass away.' In this manner, to
TcAos obtains its natural meaning
of ' destruction,' which alone
suits it when thus connected
with TOV KaTapyov/x€vov, though
the sense of ' completion ' may
be appropriate in other passages
where, as in Rom. x. 4, the in-
stitutions or words have direct
reference to the objects which
they are designed to fulfil.

14 The thought of the veil,
which prevented the people from
recognising the perishable cha-
racter of the glory of Moses,

throws him back on the thought
that this veil still continues on
their hearts, so as to prevent
their recognition of the perish-
able character of the Law, which
not only was represented in the
person of Moses, but derived
from him its usual title (as in
Acts XV. 21). And this meta-
phor was rendered still more
appropriate by the fact that in
the synagogues the Jews prayed
and read with veils upon their
heads — the Tallith, or four-cor-
nered white scarf, still seen in
the Jewish and Samaritan wor-
ship. (See Cony beare and How-
son, St. Paul, vol. i. p. 185.)

A similar idea may have been
present to the Evangelist's mind
in recording the rending of the
curtain of the Temple (Matt,
xxvii. 51).

dAAa, * nay, so true is this,
that, not their eyes, but their
thoughts, were hardened and
dulled ' (iTTwpioOr}) : see iv. 4.

Tyj<s TraAatag hiaOriKrjq. Nothing
more strongly expresses the
Apostle's conviction of the ex-
tinction of the Jewish system
than this expression of the ' Old
Covenant,' applied to the Jewish
Scriptures within thirty years
after the Crucifixion.

fX7] dvaKaXvTrTO/Jiivov otl iv
Xpio-T^ KaTapyetTai : ' the fact
not being to them unveiled that
the Old Covenant is done away
in Christ.' The word avaKoAu-
TTTOfievov may possibly agree with
KoXyfifULj but it must be taken as

394

SECOND EPISTLE: CHAP. III. 15—17.

inl TTf avayvcocrei ttJ^ TraXatas SiaOiJKT]^ fxevet, fjurj avaKa-
XvTTTOfJievov ^OTL €V ^1(77(0 /carapyeiTat, ^^dXX' eiw? cn]fJi€-
pov, ^r)PLKa av dvayivaxTKrjTaL Mcovcry]^, KoiXvjXfJia iirl rrji/
KapSiav avTOiv /cetrai. ^^rjvtKa 8* olp iincrTpexljrj npb^

'St*. •* Tjv'iKa avayivdarKerai Maxrrjs.

ing away in Christ is not unveiled to them, '^but unto this day, whenever
Moses is read, a veil lies upon their heart. ^*But whenever he shall turn

' When he
turns to
the Lord.'

a nominative absolute. 17 TraXaia
BiaOT^KTj is the nominative to Ka-
Tapyeirat, corresponding with the
previous verse, where it is not
the veil, but the glory, which is
described as being ' done away.'

15 dAA' loos (TT^fiepOV, K. T. \.

This is a resumption and further
explanation of oAA' cTroopw^ in
verse 14.

16 This verse is based on the
LXX. of Exod. xxxiv. 84 : rjVLKa
8' av ei(r€7ro/3€V€TO Mwvcr^s Ivavrt
KvpLOv AaActv auT(j), irepLypeiTO to
KoXvpLfxa €0>s Tov €K7rop€ve(rOai,

-^vUa, ' whenever,' is used
here alone in the New
Test., being (like SeSo-
iacrrai and ScSo^atr/u-efov
in verse 10) taken from Exod.
xxxiv. 34.

The nominative to kirKTrpi^
must be 'Moses.* No other
nominative case will answer the
purpose, ' Israel ' being too re-
mote, and ^ KapBU (' the heart ')
not sufficiently prominent ; and
such a nominative is required
for TreptaLpetrai, which, when
compared with Trcptrypetro in
Exod. xxxiv. 34, must be (not
' is stript off,' but) ' strips off.'
In Acts xxvii. 20, Trepti^peiro is
indeed used passively, and in-
stances to the same effect may
be found in classical writers ; but
in the LXX. amidst numerous
instances of the active sense
mostly, as here, with regard to
dress, instances of its passive

sense are very rare. Each clause,
beginning with riviKa, will then
correspond, and the parallel with
Exod. xxxiv. 34 will be pre-
served. Moses is thus taken for
the representative, not only of
the Old Covenant, but also of
the people of Israel, as the Apo-
stle in the next verse identities
himself with all Christians, and
as in iii, 23 he had spoken of the
Epistle of Christ, as written in-
differently on his heart or on
theirs.

The passage turns on the
double meaning of the word Ku-
piov (' the Lord '), which in
Exod. xxxiv. 34 is used for
Jehovah, and here, as usual, for
Christ. ' When Moses in the
person of his people turns again
to Him who is our Lord now,
as he went of old time to Him
who was their Lord in Sinai,
then he strips off the veil from
his face, and from their hearts,
and then the perishable nature
of the Law will be made ma-
nifest in the full blaze of the
Divine glory.' Comp. Ps. Ixxx.
19 (Ixxix. 20, LXX.), Kvpi^, . . .
€7rL(rTpeil/ov yfxas kol lirL^^avov to
7rp6(TO)7r6v (TOV KOL (TOiOrja-ofJLcOa.
Compare Acts ix. 35 ; 1 Thess.
i. 9, where k-ma-Tpixlni is used for
conversion to Christianity.

17 *0 Se KVpLOS TO TTVeVfX,a. icTTtv.

The allegory which has hitherto
been confined to Moses and the
veil, is now carried a step higher,

PLAINNESS OF THE APOSTOLICAL SERVICE. 395

KvpioVy irepiaipeLTaL to KoXvixfjia, ^^6 Se Kvpios to Tn/eO/xa
to the Lord, He taketh away the veil. "Now the Lord is the Spirit:

* When I speak of Israel turning
to the Lord, I speak of their
turning from the letter to the
Spirit which is behind the letter,
even as Moses turned to the Lord
on Mount Sinai behind the Law
and the veil.' Compare for the
form of speech, 'The passover
the Christ,' 1 Cor. v. 7 ; ' The
rock {rj TTcV/oa) was Christ/ 1
Cor. X. 4. ' The Lord of the
old dispensation, whom Moses
saw on Sinai, is, in the new dis-
pensation, the SpiriV

ov Bk TO TTvevfia xvptoii, eXeu-
,$€pLa. This is to explain why
the veil is taken off, on turning
to the Lord. ' If by " the Lord "
is meant " the Spirit," that Spirit
being the Spirit of " the Lord "
in the Christian sense of the
word, i.e. *' of Christ,*' then we
have the best assurance that the
result must be freedom, — free-
dom from all obstacles inter-
vening between us and God, —
the glorious freedom of the sons
of God (Rom. viii. 21) ; the free-
dom wherewith " Christ has
made us free " from the Law and
its consequences ' (Gal. v. 1, 13).
The connexion between the Spi-
rit and freedom lies partly in the
general sense of liberty which
pervades the word Spirit, both
in its etymological and in its de-
rived significations., to Trvoj/xa
oTTov $i\€i TTvct (Johu iii. 8) ; to
TTvevfia Siatpovv . . . Kadcos (SovXe-
rat (1 Cor. xii. 11) ; partly in the
particular sense in which ' the
Spirit ' is throughout these chap-
ters opposed to ' the letter,' as
the source of life, and energy,
and liberty. And the analogous

stress laid upon the veil in 1 Cor,
xi. 4-16, would lead one to ima-
gine that here, also, the thought
of ' freedom ' was in part sug-
gested by the removal of the re-
straint or burden of the veil : in
part by the fear which made the
Israelites shrink from looking on
the face of Moses, unveiled, Exod.
xxxiv. 30 (€<fio/^yOr](rav kyyiaat
avT<3). Compare Gal. iv. 4, 5, 6 :
' God sent forth His Son ... to
redeem them that were under the
Law ... God hath sent forth the
Spirit of His Son into your
hearts, crying, Abba, Father.'
And still more nearly, Rom. viii.
15 : ' Ye have not received the
spirit of bondage again to fear ;
but ye have received the Spirit
of adoption, whereby we cry,
Ahha, Father'

1 8 We at last reach the climax
which should naturally have fol-
lowed immediately upon the un-
finished sentence at the begin-
ning of the comparison in verse
12 ; but which, by the inter-
vening digressions, is now di-
lated to enlarged proportions,
such as the additional .eonflux of
images required.

rjfxet'i Se iravrcs. As Moses had
in the previous verses .wg^u'
been made the repre-
sentative of the whole people of
the Jews, so in the parallel to
him, the Apostle places not
merely himself, but all believers ;
the word ' all ' (Trai/rw) being
inserted with emphasis, because
the plural T7/>i€ts alone would,
according to the frequent use of
this Epistle, only indicate him-
self.

396

SECOND EPISTLE: CHAP. III. 18.

icTTLV ov 8e TO TTvevfJia Kvpiov^ ^ikevdepia. ^^t^/acIs Se

• Add €«6i.

and where the Spirit of the Lord is, is liberty. ^^But we all with un-

avaK€Ka\.vfifJi€V<o irpocrti)7ria. * We
•with ^^V ^6 proceeds to say,

unveiled < whether Apostles or
^°** not, you who are written

upon my heart, as well as I who
wrote the word of Christ on your
hearts, stand out before the
world, not like Moses with a veil
to conceal the fading away of
our glory, but with our counte-
nances open and unveiled before
God, and open also and unveiled
before the world for all to see.'

rr}v ho^av Kvptov, ' the glory
. The glory ^^ Christ is to us what
of the the glory of God was to

Moses.' Here, again,
by the double sense of the phrase
'the Lord,' the vision of the

* glory' of God (rj So^a fJiov), to
Moses in Ex. xxxiii. 19-22, im-
mediately before the story of the
veil in xxxiv. 30, 34, is trans-
ferred to the vision of Christ en-
joyed by all believers. By ' the
glory of Christ' is meant the
glory, the greatness, the Divine
excellence, above all, the truth,
which made His life on earth

* the light of the world,' the

* Light of light.' Comp. iv. 4 ;
and also John i. 14, 17, 'we be-
held His glory ; ' John ii. 11,
' this did Jesus, and manifested
forth His glory ; ' John xvii. 5,
' glorify me with the glory which
I had with Thee before the world
was.'

KaroTTTpt^ofievoL. This word
KaronrpL- occurs uowherc besides
^o^si-ou either in the New Tes-
tament or the LXX. The sense
of KaToirrpL^uv in the active is,

* to show in a mirror.' KaTOTrrpi-

^€o-^atin the middle is, therefore,
properly, ' to look at oneself in a
mirror.' (See Wetstein ad loc.)
This sense being plainly inappo-
site here, there remain two pos-
sible meanings, both of which the
word would bear: (1) .Behoid-
' beholding as in a mir- ing as in a
ror,' or, 'showing to ^^^'
oneself in a mirror.' Of this
there is one example in Philo,
Leg. Alleg. p. 107, where Moses,
in a rhetorical paraphrase of the
speech in this very same Exod.
xxxiii. 13, is represented as say-
ing : fjLTfSk Ip-^avLo-Oii-qf;, fxySe Ka-
TOirrpKTaifji'qv Iv aXKxo TivX rrjv arp/
tScav r) iv crol tw Oe^. The sense
would then be, ' We with faces
unveiled, as Moses when he went
into the presence of God, behold
the glory of Christ.' Bat, though
in itself the sense is admissible,
the context is much against it.
KaroTTTpt^o/xevot cannot be used of
' beholding ' simply, because in
that case the Apostle must have
used the word aTevtitw, as already
twice before, in verses 7, 13.
Nor would the image of the
mirror, if we consider the stress
laid upon it in 1 Cor. xiii. 12,
be altogether merged here. And
if it were thus taken to mean
' beholding not face to face, but
in a mirror,' it runs counter to
the general spirit of the passage,
which is intended to express, not
a distant, but an intimate rela-
tion with God, more intimate
even than the vision of Moses ;
to which, as an exhibition only
of the outward attributes of God
(Exod. xxxiii. 19, 20, xxxiv.

PLAINNESS OF THE APOSTOLICAL SERVICE. 397

TrdvTes avaKeKoKvfJLfJLevcp TtpocrcoTrcp T7]v ho^av Kvpiov koltott-

veiled face reflecting as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are changed

6, 7), this word might, as by
Philo, be not improperly applied.
Christ is spoken of as the
' image ' or ' likeness ' (cikwk, iv.
4 ; Col. i. 15), ' the effulgence '
(aTravyacr/xa, Heb. i. 3) ; but still
in Him we see all the Divine per-
fections, ' we beheld (iOeaa-d/xeOa)
His glory, the glory as of the
only begotten of the Father,'
John i. 14. Still less would
there be any such distinction
drawn in this passage, where
Christ and God are studiously
blended in one under the common
name of Kvpto? ('the Lord').

We come, therefore, to the
« Reflect- sense (2) of ' reflecting
ing.osin as in a mirror.' It is
a g ass. j^g^ possible that both
meanings might be combined by
an allusion to the bright metal
mirrors then in use, so as to
render it ' beholding the glory,
as we look at a light in a bright
mirror of brass or silver, which,
as we look, is reflected hack on our
faces.' But this is far-fetched,
and though there is no actual
instance of the sense of ' reflect-
ing,' yet the fact that a Greek
writer like Chrysostom under-
stood it here in that sense, shows
that there was in his time no-
thing in the usage of the word
to make it impossible. And this
sense is undoubtedly the one
most agreeable to the context.
The point of contrast between
the Christian dispensation as re-
presented in himself and tbe
Jewish dispensation as represen-
ted in Moses or his opponents, is
not so much the greater clearness
of knowledge as the greater open-
ness of dealing and teaching ex-

hibited by Christians. The veil
is described as concealing not
the light, but the evanescence of
the light ; and, in like manner,
the removal of the veil is de-
scribed as disclosing not higher
revelations, but greater liberty.
Christians ' having, like Moses,
received in their lives the re-
flected glory of the Divine pre-
sence, as Moses received it on
his countenance, are unlike Moses
in that they have no fear, such
as his, of its vanishing away, but
are confident of its continuing to
shine in them with increasing
lustre. In this confidence they
present themselves without veil
or disguise, inviting instead of
deprecating inquiry, with no-
thing to hold back or conceal
from the eager gaze of the most
suspicious or the most curious.'
For the general view that the
Christian's life is the reflex of
the glory of Christ and of God,
compare 1 Cor. xi. 7 : ' The man
ought not to veil (KaraKcxAvTrreti/)
his head, forasmuch as he is the
image and glory of God ' (where
there is the same thought of the
veil) : and also the verses imme-
diately following the present
passage, in iv. 4, 6, where all the
expressions imply (not the con-
templation of the Divine glory
by man, so much as) the influx
of the Divine glory into the heart
of man.

T7JV avTTjv clKova fX€TafJiOpcf>OV~
fxeOa. The lustre of
the Christian light will foi-mefi"
(unlike that of Moses) '^^^^.,
increase rather than
diminish. ' We are transfigured,'
i.e. (as is implied by the present

398

SECOND EPISTLE: CHAP. III. 18— IV. 2.

rpilpixevoLj TrjP avrrjv ei/cdva ix€Tajxop(l)OvixeOa airo So^rjs
into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Lord the Spirit.

tense) * we are continually under-
going a transformation in the
same likeness as that which we
reflect,' i.e. * the likeness of
Christ.' Compare crufi/>top<^ov$
rrjs €tKovos rov vlov avrov, Rom.
viii. 29 ; 'As we have borne the
image (ctKova) of the earthly, we
shall also bear the image of the
heavenly,' 1 Cor. xv. 49. The
words with which Dr. Arnold
closed his last lectnre on the
New Testament were, in com-
menting on the parallel passage,
1 John iii. 2 : ' We know that
when he shall appear, we sball
be like him ; for we shall see him
as he is.' * Yes,' he added with
marked fervency, * the mere
contemplation of Christ shall
transform us into His likeness.'
(Arnold's Life, p. 615.) The
word fX€Ta/jLop(f>ov(r6€ is used in
Rom. xii. 2, for 'a transforma-
tion,' in the sense with which
we are familiar from the * Me-
tamorphoses ' of Ovid ; in this
place it has the milder mean-
ing which it bears in Matt. xvii.
2, where it is nsed for the
* Transfiguration.' The con-
struction seems to be /xcrafiop-
ff)OVfic6a ware rrfv avrrjv avrw
elKova yevicrOaL. It might possi-
bly, however, be t-^v avri^v, op-
posed to 7rai/T€9, — 'we all, how-
ever various in character origi-
nally, are transformed into the
same character.'

aTTo So^5 €19 So^av. This is
'from glory onc of the numerous ex-
mtx) glory ; ' pressious which are to
be found in St. Paul to indicate,
not so much a progression, as a
completeness and eniireness in
the subject of which he is speak-

in g. See note on ii. 16, ck Oa-
vdrov €19 Odvarov. * The glory
which is reflected ends not in ex-
tinction, like that of Moses, but
continnes and continues still as
far as human thought can reach.'
' Our transformation begins and
ends in glory.'

Ka.6d.7rip OLTro Kvpcov wevfxaTOS ■
'Our glory is not tran- .,^^^,^^
sitory, but perpetual. Lord the
coming as it does from ^P"^*-'
the Lord the Spirit.* d-jro must
here be ' from,' both because it
has just before been used in that
sense in dirb B6^<s, and also, be-
cause the word /xcrajjiopcfiov/jLeOa
suggests not so much the idea of
an agent by whom the transfor-
mation takes place, as the source
from which the light proceeds.
Kvptov TTvev/xaTO^ is an expression
so harsh and unusual, that any
explanation of it must be equally
so. But the identification of 6
KvpLos with TO TTvcv/jta, in verse 1 7,
and the omission of the article
here, are in favour of considering
it as, in a certain sense, a proper
name framed for the occasion, to
express the thought that, as He
from whom the glory proceeds is
the Spirit of life and freedom,
therefore extinction and conceal-
ment are henceforth impossible.
This compound substantive (for
such it seems to be) may be com-
pared to such Hebrew phrases of
the LXX. as KvpLo<s 6e6<i, Deut.
iii. 24 : Kvpto9 ^aaiXcv^, Deut. ix.
26 ; KvpLo<s, KvpLos, Ps. cxl. 8 ; kv-
pio9 2a^a<o^, 1 Sam. xv. 2.

* The new name, the new epi-
thet by which the Lord must be
known is Spirit.'

PLAINNESS OF THE APOSTOLICAL SERVICE.

399

€t? 86^av. KadaTT^n oltto kvolov 7rvevuLaT0<;. ^^- ^Sta touto,

nrep airo Kvpiov Tn^eu/xaro?.
€)(OVT€<^ Trjp hiaKOVLOLV TavTTjv KaOais yjkerjOrjp.eVj ovk * iyKa-
KovfieVf ^dXXa aTreiTra/ie^a tol KpvTTTa Trjs alcrxyvrjs, ft^rj

•• iKKOKOVfiiW.

IV. ^ Therefore, having this ministry as we received mercy, we faint
not, '^but we renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking iu

TV I He now resumes the
thread of the general argument,
which he had twice taken up in
iii. 4 and 12 ; but with the differ-
ence that from the confidence
which he possesses in the great-
ness of his task, he now draws
a new conclusion, not ' we use
great plainness of speech,' as in
iii. 12, but ' we faint not ; ' a
conclusion which, as it is more
directly an answer to the original
question, ' Who is sufficient for
these things ? ' in ii. 16, so is it
the basis of the ensuing chapters,
iv. 7-v. 10. But, with one of
the inversions peculiar to this
Epistle, he has hardly entered on
this new topic before he drops it
again. The charge of insincerity,
which had occasioned the digres-
sion, iii. 1-19, still lingers in
his recollection, and accordingly
he turns round upon it, as if to
give it one parting blow before
he finally dismisses it from his
mind. Hence iv. 2-6 are still
closely connected with iii. 1-18,
whilst the new subject begun in
verse 1 is not resumed till verse
7, where it is expanded in all its
parts, so that the true apodosis
or close of the sentence com-
menced here does not occur till
verse 16, where the same words
are repeated : * for this cause we
faint not.^

'Sta TovTo refers to the sub-
stance of the preceding chapter,
as involved in the words exovres
T^v BuLKoviav ravTTjv, For a simi-

lar construction compare Rom.
ii. 1.

l^ovTCS T^v StaKovLav ravTTjv
takes up the thread from e^ovrcs
TOLavrrjv iXiriSa in iii. 12.

SiaKovLav, * task ' or ' service '
(referring to iii. 6-9) ; ' the ser-
vice of the Spirit, the acting as
the instrument of the Spirit,'
either as in iii. 3, like the scribe
who writes its dictates on the
heart, or, as in iii. 18, like Moses
who reflects its glory on the
countenance.

Ktt^ws -^XerjOrj/jLeVf to be taken
with CX0VTC9 K. T. A. ' having this
task, as we have been thought
worthy of it.' Compare 1 Cor.
vii. 25, yvto/j.rjv 8k SiSoj/xL, a)S
r/X^rjixevos vtto Kvpiov 7rt(rTos etvai.

lyKaKovfiev, ' we are weary, de-
sponding,' Luke xviii.
l;Gal.vi.9. The word '^'''^''"''•
as regards the New Test, occurs
only in St. Paul and St. Luke.

2 ' Supported by the con-
sciousness of the greatness of
our mission, we faint not ; but,
if so, it is because we trust that
we come before you with clean
hands and pure consciences ; the
openness of which I have just
been speaking (iii. 1-18) is the
secret of our strength.' (Com-
pare ii. 17 ; 1 Thess. ii. 3.)

ra KpvTTTa t^9 aL(rxvvr]s, ' the
hidden things of shame,' i.e. ' the
secrets of which men are ashamed
to speak.' The contrast here
would lead us to suppose that he
is speaking of dishonesty* Yet

400

SECOND EPISTLE: CHAP. IV. 3, 5.

7r€pnraTovvT€<; iu Travovpyta^ fJirjBe So\ovvt€<; top \6yov
Tov Oeov, dWa rfj ^avepciicreL Trj<; akrjOeia^ ^ (rvvi(TTdvre<i
eavrou? 7rpo9 Trdo-av crvveiBrjcnv dvOpcjTrcjv ivoi-mov tov

* (rvVlCTTUVT^S.

craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by the mani-
festation of the truth commending ourselves to every conscience of men

the words themselves, especially
when compared with c^ aKaOap-
(Ttas in 1 Thess. ii. 3, suggest the
notion of sins of sensuality.
(Compare Eph. v. 12 : to. Kpvcfyrj
yevofxeva vtt avTwv aicrxpov ccttl
/cat \4yeLv.) If so, it alludes to
some practice of his opponents,
or to some charge against him-
self, to us unknown, and receiv-
ing no light from the context.

fXT} TrcptiraTOvvTCs iv Travovpyta,
=/Jiri eK irXdvrjs, 1 Thess. ii. 3

jjLrj 80A0VI/T6S TOV \6yov tov Oeov
=/>f^ €/c 86\ov, in 1 Thess. ii. 3.
See ov KaTr7)\€vovT€s tov \6yov
TOV Ocov, ii. 17.

TYJ cf>avepu)cr€i Trj<s aX7]6eLa<;. This
* manifestation of the truth ' ap-
plies both to the Apostle's con-
duct (as in ii. 17) and teaching
(as in iii. 12), and also to the
conduct of his converts (as in
iii. 2, 3 : avayivoio-KOfJievr) vtto irdv-
TO)V dvOptJiTTOiv. (fiavepovfxevoL otl
i(rT€ liria-ToXrjy k. t. A.,).

(rwta-TavT65 eaurovs : i.e. ' This
is our true commendation,' as in
iii. 1. TT/oos Trdcrav crvveiSYjo'LV dv-
Opuyrrow is nearly the same as Trpo?
(rvv€Lh7)(TLV TrdvTwv dvOpiiyrroyv, the
expression arising in order to
bring out more strongly the feel-
ing that in this, as in other parts
of his conduct, he was' all things
to all men.' ' We commend our-
selves, not to this or that indi-
vidual, but to all. Some, indeed,
there are, between whom and us
there is a veil, as in the case of
Moses and the Jewish people ;

but these are they to whom our
mission is not a mission of life,
but of death (as in ii. 16) ; the
veil is not in my teaching, but
on their hearts (as in iii. 14),
and so they cannot receive the
rays of the glory of Christ.'
Compare vi. 12 : 'Ye are not
straitened in ns, but ye are
straitened in your own hearts.'
' Our Gospel ' (to cvayyekiov
rjfxiDv) is ' the good tidings which
we preach,' 4-6. The thought
of ii. 16 is here brought out
with a more than usual severity ;
perhaps, because, as in iii. 14,
he was thinking of Judaizing
teachers.

In connexion with this dark
view he introduces the . ^j^^ q^
singular expression ' the of this
God of this world ' (for '^''''^^'
Satan), so as to express in the
strongest manner the contrast
between Satan as the author of
all da^-kness, and Christ and God
as the authors of all light- The
nearest approaches to it are
Eph. ii. 12, ' The prince (apx^iv)
of the power of the air ;' Eph.
vi. 12, ' The rulers of the dark-
ness of this world ; ' and John
xii. 31, xiv. 30, 'the prince of
this world.' These very words
are applied to Satan by the
Rabbis, ' The true God is the fiist
God, but Samael is the second
God.* (See Wetstein, ad loc. ;
and Eisenmenger, Ent. Juden-
thum, i. p. 827.) It is as if he
said, ' There are some so entirely

PLAINNESS OF THE APOSTOLICAL SERVICE.

401

Oeov. ^el Se /cat ecrriv K€K(xKvixyLevov to evayyekiov rjfjiojv^
eV 7019 OLTroXXvfJievoLS ^.(ttIv KeKaXvfJLjJievoi', ^iv of? 6 Oeo<^
rov aioivo^ tovtov iTvcfyXcocrev tol votjfJLaTa rcov airicrTCjjy
et9 TO fjLT) avydcrau^ top ^oiTicrixov tov evayyeXiov Tfj<?
Sof>75 TOV ^piaToVy 09 icFTLv eLKOJV TOV Oeov ^ (ou yap
iavToijs KTjpvcra-oiJLev dXXa ^'Irjo-ovf ^piaTov KvpioVy iav-

Add avTo7s.

Xpicrrhv 'lr}(Tovv.

in the sight of God. ^But if our gospel be veiled, it is veiled to them
that perish, ^in whom the god of this age bhnded the thoughts of those
who believe not lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is
the image of God, should blaze upon them ^ (for we preach not ourselves

lost to a sense of right, that the
adversary of good is to them
what be is called in the Rabbini-
cal language, their God.' Comp.
Phil. iii. 19, ' whose God is their
belly;

Irecaeus (Adv. Haer. iii. 7), in
order to avoid a Gnostic infer-
ence from the passage, and after
him, Origen, Tertullian, Chry-
sostom, Augustine, OEcnmenius,
Theodoret, and Theophylact, by
a violent inversion of the words,
connect tov atwvo? tovtov with
TO, voriixcLTa, so as to make the
sense, ' in whom God blinded
the thoughts of this world in the
nnbelieving.'

crv^Xo)o-€i/ TO, i/Q^/xara = ctto)-
pijiSif) TO. voTjixaTa in iii. 14.

Twv d7rt'(rTa)V=a)a"Te aTrtcrTovg
eTrat. avyda-ai, * shine with ra-
diant lustre.'

elKoiv TOV Oeov is inserted in
order to trace the source of the
light of Christ up to God him-
self. (Comp. i. 21 ; 1 Cor. iii.
23, xi. 3, XV. 24, 28.) 'Light
streams from Christ, as the like-
ness of God ; for He who shone
in our hearts so as to light them
up with the glory which dwells
in the face of Christ, is the same

as He who saiJ, "Let there be
light." '

\dfxi(/€L (A. B^), 'shall shine,'
for Xdfjuf/ai (C. D3. E. F. G. J.
K.), 'to shine,' makes it more
lively.

iv trpo(T(iyjr<a •)(pia'Tov might fa-
vour the interpretation which
makes iii. 18 to be the contem-
plation of God's glory in Christ,
and not the reflection. But the
phrase is too general to require
this. (See ii. 10.)

The 5th verse is occasioned by
the stress laid on the person of
Christ in verse 4. ' I say, " the
glory of Christ ; " for it is He,
and not ourselves, that we declare
to you. Jesus is your master
(Kvptov), we are your slaves (8ov
Xov<s) ; ' in which there seems a
double allusion : (1) to the
charge of exercising despotic
control over them (comp. ov kv-
pie.vop.ev in i. 24) ; (2) to the
charge of commending himself
(compare cavrous crwtcrTaveiy, iii.
1);

'Ivyo-QW ')(pt(TTOV KVpLOV, ' WC

preach not ourselves, but Jesus
Christ whom we acknowledge as
"The Lord." ' Compare 1 Cor.
xii. 3, ' jS'o man can say, Kvptos
'Irjcrovs.*

D D

402 SECOND EPISTLE: CHAP. IV. 6.

T0U9 §e Sov\ov<; vjicjv Slol 'Irjcrovv)^ ^otl 6 deo^ 6 enrcov
^Ek (TKOTOvf; <^ws ^Xdfirjjei, 09 eXa/xi/zei' iv rats AcapSiat?
7]IJL(x)v Trpos ^(iiJicrixov rrj^ yvoiaeoi^ ttjs So^s ^ avTov iv

7rpO(T(x}TrO) ^)(pL(TTOV.

» XoLfiipai. *" Tov deov. " Add 'Irjaov.

but Jesus Christ the Lord, and ourselves your slaves for Jesus' sake),
^for that God who said 'the light shall shine out of darkness,' is He
who shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of His glory-
in the face of Christ.

Paraphrase of Chap. II. 16 — lY. 6.

Such are our responsibilities. And who is sufficient to meet them ?
We have, at least, this sufficiency that, unlike our adversaries,
unlike the character which they impute to us, our conduct is
transparently sincere. And this sufficiency, like all our
sufficiency, comes not from men ; not like that of our adver-
saries, from commendatory epistles ; hut from God, and from
the work which God has enabled us to accomplish. You,
the Corinthian Church, are the commendatory Epistle ; your
names, your interests are written in our hearts; our deeds,
Chrisfs work through us, are written in your lives. He is the
author of this joint Epistle, which we bear as His messengers
in our hearts, which we wrote as His scribes on your lives.
And this is an Epistle written, not with perishable ink, but
with the Finger, the Spirit, of God, who lives for ever ; not
like the old commandments ivhich the Finger of God wrote
on tablets of stone, but written on the tender tablets of your
human hearts. For this is the characteristic, not only of our
conduct, hut of the dispensation under which we act. The
covenant ivhich we serve is not like that which our adversaries
serve, an old and decaying, hut a new covenant ; a covenant
written not once for all in sacred letters, which have no power
to speak or move, hut in a living and moving atmosphere of
Spirit ivhich, by its very nature, gives neiv life and energy to
all connected with it, as surely as the mere letter and ivriting
of the Mosaic Laiv brought with it sin and death. Yet even
that service of the old covenant, even at the very moment
when this attribute of deadness was most plainly shoivn, was

PLAINNESS OF THE APOSTOLICAL SERVICE. 403

glorious: even at the moment that 3Ioses brought down from
Sinai the ten stern commands, engraved mechanically on hard
stones, in lifeless characters, the glory on his face, though
it was to vanish in a few moments, was so bright that the
Israelites could not gaze upon it. How much more glorious,
then, is our service which relates, not to lifeless letters, but to
a life-giving Spirit ; not to hard condemnation, but to perfect
restoration, which is not to vanish away, but to last for ever.
With such a hope of our sufficiency as this gives, a suffi-
ciency which comes direct from God through our communion
with Christ, we cannot but be as sincere and open in our
dealings with you, as the dispensation of which ice are the
instruments is itself sincere and open. In the Jewish dispen-
sation, to which our adversaries cleave, and to which their
conduct may be likened, you have just been reminded how
Moses put a veil upon his face, at the close of his discourse,
that the Israelites might not continue their gaze up to the
moment when the glory should fade away. In like manner
when, at this day, Moses is read to them in the synagogues, a
veil, like the veil which they actually wear in the synagogue
service, lies upon their hearts ; they cannot see that the glory
of the law which is read to them is to vanish away in Christ.
But there is another and brighter side to the story in the
Book of Exodus, which also may have its counterpart in the
present time. We are told that, when Moses turned back to
the presence of the Lord on the mountain, he stripped the veil
from off his face, and again held undivided communion with
the Lord. What thus took place in the case of Moses, will
again take place ivith the people of Moses, when they also
turn to the Lord. And ' the Lord ' of Mount Sinai means,
in this case, ' the Spirit,^ the life-giving Spirit which dwells
behind the written characters of the Mosaic Laic, and which
confers the freedom belonging of necessity to the Spirit and.
all its operations ; and the veil being thus taken away from
our faces, we all, you as well as we, shall receive the full
reflection of that Divine glory which will transfer us into
a brighter and still brighter likeness of the Divine presence,
coming from the Lord, who is also the Spirit, working, not on
tables of stone, but on our spirits. Therefore we have nothing
to conceal ; our only commendation is that we disclose our-
selves as if in the sight of God for every one to examine^ If
there be any veil still remaining between us and you, it is on

1) D 2

404 SECOND EPISTLE.

your side, not on ours ; it is a veil interposed by the God of
this dark and blind and unbelieving world, to whom some
surrender themselves — not by the true God who is repre-
sented faithfully to you in our Lord and Master Jesus, whose
slaves we are, and to Whom alone, not to ourselves, do we
wish to subject your minds. He is the true God, who, at the
beginning said, ' Let there be light ; ' and who now pours into
your hearts the full blaze of His glory from the face of Jesus
Christ,

The whole argument of this passage is so interwoven with
personal allusions, and with illustrations from a particular
interpretation of a single passage in the Old Testament, that
there is a difficulty in deducing any general truth from it
directly. But the indirect conclusions from it are important.
I. There is no other passage in which freedom, and open-
Freedom ness, and absence of mystery and concealment, are
and open- go strongly put forth as characteristic of Christianity.
Christi- The reserve and stiffness, which the Apostle here
anity. ascribes to the Mosaic covenant, was exemplified to
a still greater degree in the other religions of antiquity, in
the priestly castes of India and Egypt, in the mysteries of
Greece and Rome. In fact, the original excellence of the
Mosaic dispensation had, in a great measure, consisted in the
difference which existed on this point between itself and Pagan
systems, namely, absence of any hidden ritual or doctrine.
Still, the importance that attached to the sacred books in which
the revelation was contained, partly from the necessity of the
case, partly from the exaggerated veneration with which they
were regarded by the later age of Judaism, tended gradually
in this respect to assimilate the Jewish system to the old reli-
gions ; and it is the change from this spirit which Christianity
effected, and of which this chapter is one of the most striking
manifestations. To it we owe, even in words, the contrast
between ' the letter ' and * the Spirit,' which is now so familiar
that few remember the source whence it comes ; even after the
passage was written its full purport was long overlooked. The
expansiveness, the comprehensiveness, the free inquiry, the
truth-seeking spirit of the modern, as distinguished from the

PLAINNESS OF THE APOSTOLICAL SEEVICE. 405

ancient world, is thus not only sanctioned but originated by
the most authentic documents of Christianity. There may
have been much, in the subsequent history of the Church, at
variance with the spirit of this chapter. But since it was
written, and so long as its spirit is any way carried out, there
never have been, and there never will be in Christendom, any
institutions like the Eleusinian mysteries, like the Egyptian
castes, or like the Jewish Rabbinical schools of the ages before
and after the Christian era.^

II. The Apostle further asserts his conviction that this
new life and freedom were to be found in the contem-
plation of Jesus Christ. Whether be chiefly pointed Example
to the example, the death, or the life beyond death, ^f Free-
he does not here explain. But it is clear, first, that

he regarded Him as in the fullest sense the representative of
God to man ; and also, that by means of that representation,
he considered the free, unrestrained spiritual character of the
Gospel to be effectually and for ever guaranteed. And on
turning to the definite and strongly marked outlines of the
character of Christ's life and teaching as laid down in the four
Gospels, a picture is there exhibited which at once accounts
for the Apostle's assertions. Not only does it present to us an
image of holiness and wisdom, which justifies St. Paul's trans-
ference of the language of the Old Testament to this new
object of religious veneration, but it exhibits in numerous in-
stances, that sacrifice of form to spirit, that encouragement of
freedom and openness and sincerity, which St. Paul here
identifies with the name and presence of Christ.

III. It may be worth while to go through the various
images which the Apostle has called up in the prece- Succession
ding section. First, there is the commendatory of images.
Epistle of the Corinthian Church, written on his heart.
Next, the same Epistle written on their hearts and lives, read
and re-read by the wayfarers to and fro, through the thorough-
fare of Greece. Thirdly, the contrast between this Epistle,
written on the tender human feelings, on the vibrations of the
wind, by the breath of the Spirit, carrying its tidings back-
wards and forwards, whithersoever it will, with no limits of

^ Chrysostom and most of the j punishments of the Law ; Origen, to
Greek Fathers take the words ' the i the uselessness of the historical sense
letter killeth ' to refer to the capital 1 of Scripture.

406 SECOND EPISTLE.

time or space, like the sweep of the wind on the ^olian harp,
like an electric spark of light, — and the Ten Commandments,
graven in the granite blocks of Sinai, hard, speechless, lifeless.
Fourthly, there rises into view the figure of Moses, as he
is known to us in the statue of Michael Angelo, the liffht
streaming from his face, yet growing dim and dark as a greater
glory of another revelation rises behind it. Fifthly, the same
figure veiled, as the light beneath the veiled dies away, and
shade rests upon the scene ; and there rises around him a mul-
tiplication of that figure, the Jews in their synagogues veiled,
as the Book of the Law is read before them. Sixthly, the
same figure of Moses once more, but now unveiled as he turns
again to Mount Sinai and uncovers his face to rekindle its
glory in the Divine presence ; and now again, the same figure
multiplied in the Apostle and the Corinthian congregation
following him, all w^ith faces unveiled, and upturned towards
the light of Christ's presence, the glory streaming into their
faces with greater and greater brightness, as if borne in upon
them by the Spirit or breath of light from that Divine counte-
nance, till they are transfigured into a blaze of splendour like
unto it.

HIS DIFFICULTIES AND SUPPOETS.

407

The Difficulties and Supports of his Apostolical Duties.
Chap. IV. 7— V.^10.

^"E^o/xez/ §e rov Oiqaavpov rovrov iv 6(TTpaKLV0L<; cFKeve-
OLV^ Iva 7] virep/BoXr] tt}? Suz/a/xew? y rov Oeov kol (jltj i^

■^ But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of
the power may be of God, and not of us, ^ troubled on every side yet jiot

In enlarging on the greatness
of his task — the point from which
he started in ii. 16, — he insen-
sibly passes to the support thence
derived in the difficulties which
he experienced in carrying it on.
' We faint not,' is the key of
this passage, on which he had
already touched in iv. 1, and to
which he returns again, as the
conclusion of the whole, in verse
16, first dwelling at length on the
greatness of the trials which
would, but for this hope, have
caused him to be faint-hearted.
Here, as in the more elaborate
passage, xi. 23-xii. 10, he may
be induced to enlarge upon them,
partly with a view of contrasting
his own labours with the inaction
of his adversaries, partly with
the view of showing that, in the
troubles which his adversaries
regarded as derogatory to his
Apostolical authority, God had
a purpose to answer by manifest-
ing forth His power in the Apo-
stle's weakness. But, on the
whole, there is less of polemical
argument, and more of the natu-
ral outpouring of his own feelings
in this section, than in most other
parts of the Epistle.

7 8e expresses the contrast to
the foregoing strain of exult-
ation.

Tov O-qa-avpov rovrov kv ocrrpa-

KtVots (TK€veo-Lv. This .^

r, • . 1 Treasure

Ilgure is taken appa- inearthea

rently from the custom "^^^^^^s-'
of placing gold and silver in
earthenware jars, as was the
practice of the Persian kings,
described in Herodot. iii. 96.
Compare also the Rabbinical
story given by Wetstein, of the
reply of Rabbi Joshua to a
daughter of the emperor, who,
on taunting him with his mean
appearance, was referred by him
to the earthenware vessels in
which her father kept his wines ;
and when, at her request, the
wines had been shifted to silver
vessels and there turned sour,
was taunted by the Rabbi with
the observation that the hum-
blest vessels best contained the
highest wisdom. The same figure
also occurs in later classical au-
thors. Artemidorus (vi. 25) in-
dicates death by the phrase rb
ctvat iv ocrrpdKLVc^ o-zcevet. Comp.
2 Tim. ii. 20, where ' wooden
and earthenware (da-rpoLKLva)
vessels' are contrasted with ' gold
and silver.'

The expression (rK€vo<; ('ves-
sels') is frequently used, as if
it had almost ceased to have a
metaphorical meaning, for ' the
human body.' Compare ' ves-

408

SECOND EPISTLE: CHAP. IV. 8—12.

Tjixcov^ ^ev TravTi OXi^ofxepoL dXX' ov crTevoyci)pov^xevoi, airo-
povixevoL dXX! ovK i^airopovyievoL^ ^SicoKOfJievoL aXV ovk
iyKaraXeiTTOfJievoL, KaTa/BaWofJievoL aXK ovk aTToXXu/Aej^ot,
^^TTavTore rrjv veKpojcnv tov ir)crov ev tco crcoixaTL Tre-

* TOV Kvpiov 'Irjcrou.

distressed, perplexed but not in despair, ^persecuted but not forsaken,
cast down but not perishing, ^^ always bearing about in the body the

sels of wrath and mercy ' (Rom.
ix. 22, 28) ; ' the weaker vessel '
(1 Pet. iii. 7) ; ' his own vessel '
(1 Thess. iv. 4) ; ' a vessel unto
honour ' (2 Tim. ii. 21). Hence
it was natural to bring out this
latent metaphor by adding to it
the epithet ' earthenware.'

TOV Oeov. The reason here given
is the same as that in xii. 9.
The order of the words invites
us to take rj vTrep/^oXrf with rrjs
Svvdix€o}<s, ' the extraordinary
power,' as in Joseph. Ant. I.
xiii. 4 ; II. ii. 1. Comp. vi. 7,
' by the power of God,' and 1
Cor. ii. 5, ' not in the wisdom of
man, but in the power of God.'

8 €v TravTL, ' in every direc-
tion.' Compare xi. 6, and 1 Cor.
i. 5. ^

BXi^ofxcvoi oAX' ov a-T€va)(oipov-
fievoL, ' pressed for room but still
having room.' For this sense of
Okt/So) compare i. 6, vii. 5 ; of
crTevo^wpeio-Oat, vi. 4, 12,

nTropovfJievoL aXX! ovk l^arropov-
fx€voL, ' doubting, but not de-
spairing ' (such is the sense of the
words elsewhere ; John xiii. 22 ;
Gal. iv. 20; Acts xxv. 20, and
2 Cor. i. 8) : but here, as in the
case of a-Kevos and OXlJ^ojxo/oi, the
metaphor is more fully drawn
out, — 'losing our way, yet not
entirely,' — bewildered, but not
benighted.'

9 SicoKO/xevot oAA' OVK lyKa-
TaAet7ro/>tcvot. Here, again, the

meaning of duoKca-Oat and cy-
KaraXeiTreor^at, which in later
Greek had come to mean merely
'persecuted' and 'forsaken,' is
brought out according to their
original signification. ' Pursued
in our flight, but not left behind
as a prey to our pursuers.' Com-
pare Herod, viii. 59 : ol Si ye
iyKaTaXeLTTOfJievoi ov crT€cf>avevvTat.

KaTa^aXX6/jL€voi, ' struck down,
yet not perishing.' The phrase
is used chiefly for being thrown
in wrestling, as in Plutarch,
Pericl. 8 (in the famous speech
of the orator Thucydides about
Pericles) ; but also for being
struck by a dart, Xen. Cyr. i.
3,14.

ID For this enumeration of
contrasts, the mind and spirit
always rising above the outward
pressure of distress, compare the
character of the Athenian people
in Thucyd. i. 70. It is wound
up with the contrast between
death and life, — 'we are dead,
and yet we live, because even in
life we are dead.'

For the idea of the Apostle's
sufierings as a continuation of
the sufferings of Christ, .^^^^
see i. 8. For his ' per- deadness
petual death,' compare °^ ^^"^*^-'
xi. 23, ' in deaths oft ; ' and 1
Cor. XV. 31, ' I die daily.'

TTjv veKpoya-LV is not ' dying '
(to Ov-^a-Ketv), nor ' death ' (Od-
varos), but ' deadness ; ' the
' mortification,' ' paralysation ' of

HIS DIFFICULTIES AND SUPPORTS.

409

pL(j>€povT€<;y Iva Koi Tj t<cj)r) tov ^Irjcrov ev rco crcofiaTL r)fxa)P
4>avepo)6fi* ^^del yap 7)iJieL<i ol {wi^re? ets Odvarov irapahi-
SofieOa Sua 'Irjcrovv, Iva Kal r) Cfiir) tov 'Ir)(Tov (j^avepojdrj
iv rrj Bvy^rfj aapKL rjfjicoj/. ^^^ coo-re 6 ^Odvaro^; Iv rjpAv ivep-

* Add fteV.

dying of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our
body : "for we who live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake,
that the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our mortal flesh.

death, as in the phrase ' the
deadness (ve/cpwo-tv) of Sarah's
womb,' Rom. iv. 19 (comp. Heb.
xi. 12) ; and ' mortify (vcKpw-
o-are) your members ' (Col. iii.
5). The word occurs elsewhere
only once, in a poem of the 4th
century, published under the
name of Astrampsychus : vc/cpovs
opwiv veKpwartv c^ets Trpay/ActTwv.

It is as if he had said, ' we
are living corpses.* It is a con-
tinual ' Descent from the Cross.'
' We bear with us wherever we
go the burden of the dead body ; '
€v Tw crw/juiTL implying that it is
in himself that the deadly pallor
and torpor is to be seen ; ttc-
pL(l)€povT€<s pointing rather to the
weight of the dead corpse, which,
like Joseph and Nicodemus, he
carries with him.

tva Kttt T7 ^a)>7, ' in order that
the life as well as (/cat) the death
may appear.' By the * life,' he
means not merely ' the outward
physical life,' nor yet merely
' the life on earth,' but the life-
giving power, moral and spi-
ritual, which Christ possessed
both on earth and beyond the
grave. Compare Rom. v. 10,
' we shall be saved by His life ; '
John xiv. 12, ' because I live,
ye shall live also.' Their deli-
verance from danger and death,
and their spiritual power and
life, was to be a proof to the
world that Christ was still living.

1 1 The same union of the two
ideas of physical and moral life
is continued in the phrase, * we
who are alive ' (rffxel^ ol ^wvtcs).
' We, living as we are, with our
life sustained by Christ, are yet
given over to death.' rjfxiLs is
emphatic ; partly from its con-
nexion with ol ^ojvT€5, as, in 1
Thess. iv. 15, ' we are living '
are distinct from those who are
already dead ; partly from the
contrast with the Corinthians,
expressed in verse 12, ' we die
that tjou may live.'

TrdvTore is ' at any conceiv-
able time ; ' act is ' continuously
through all time.'

8ta 'Irja-ovv, 'for the sake of
Jesus.' This makes it clear that
he is speaking of sufferings for
the sake of the Gospel.

iv rrj OvrjTTJ crapKt, ' in our
literal mortal bodies ' (compare
Rom. vi. 12, viii. 11) ; " not
merely in our outward life (iv
Tco o-w/xart), but in this my bodily
frame, Christ's power will be
shown.'

12 Up to this point he has
dwelt on the consolatory . fact
that, though he was exposed to
danger and death, the power of
Christ always restored him to
life. A new thought now comes
across this argument (as in i. 4-
11) ; namely, that his sufferings
were for the good of his Corin-
thian converts ; and that in the

410

SECOND EPISTLE: CHAP. IV. 13—16.

yetrat, rj Se ^corj iv vfjuv. ^^ ej^oi^re? Se to avTo TTvevfxa rrjg

7rtcrT€a)9, /caret ro yeypaix^iivov ^ETricTTevcra^^ 8to iXaXyjcra,

Kal TjiJiei's TncrTevofxeu, Sto kol XaXo^}/x,€^', ^^eiSdre? ot6 6

» Note. MS. A. is deficient between iiria-reva-a] and [e| ifxov, xii. 6.

^2 So then death worketh in us, but life in you. ^^But having the same
spirit of faith, according as it is written *I believed, and therefore I
spake,' we also believe, and therefore speak, ^^ knowing that He who

life which they enjoyed through
him, was a pledge that he should
hereafter share in that same life.

* Death,' as before, is physical
death ; ' life,' as before, is both
physical and spiritual.

eVcpyetrat, 'is active.' Comp.
for the sense 1 Cor. iv. 8-10.

13 €xovT€s Si is immediately
connected with the preceding
clause. ' But though there is
this contrast between our death
and your life, yet still we go on
confidently with our work, trust-
ing that in your life we shall
share, through your intercessions
for us.'

TO avTo TTvev/xa r^? Trtcrreajs, may
either be : (1) ' with the same
spirit of faith as the Psalmist,'
which suits better the recurrence
of the word cTrto-rcvo-a in the quo-
tation, but furnishes an awkward
construction. Or (2) ' with the
same spirit of faith as you the
Corinthians ; ' which gives an
easy construction, and agrees
with the union between himself
and them, expressed in verses 13
and 14, but is without any point
of connexion with the words of
the immediate context. If (1),
compare for the involved con-
struction Rom. ii. 1. It should
have been either €xovt€<; to
irvevfia ttJs TrurTew? Kara to ye-
ypafx^ivov, or t)(pvT€<i to ovto
irveiS/Aa 7^5 TrtVrco)? o yiypairTai.
If (2), compare i. 24, ' By faith
ye stand.'

The quotation is from Ps. cxvi.
10 (LXX. cxv. 1), and was pro-
bably suggested by the context of
the previous verses : ' Thou hast
delivered my soul from death,
mine eyes from tears, and my
feet from falling. I will walk
before the Lord in the land of
the living. I believed, and there-
fore have I spoken.' The Apo-
stle connects it with his argu-
ment by using the words of the
Psalmist in the sense which
applied best to his own case.
cTTto-revcra, which, in the Psalm,
seems to be, 'I trusted that God
would save me,' is here used
more precisely for ' I trusted in
the unseen future goodness of
God ; ' as in v. 7, ' we walk by
faith, nut hij sight.' iXdkrjcra,
which in the Psalm seems to
refer to the speech of the Psalmist
following, is here used for the
preaching and teaching as of the
Apostle ; as in ii. 17 ; 1 Cor. iii.

I, xii. 3, xiii. 1, xiv. 2, 34, 34.
According to the meaning of to
avTo, Kol rjixel<; may be either,
' we as well as the Psalmist,' or
' we as well as you.'

14 etSore? v/xlv. For

the general sense see Kom. viii.

II. For this sense of etSoreg,
' being convinced,' see Eom. v.
3 ; 1 Cor. XV. 58. The passage
forms an exception to the general
expectation of the Apostle (i. 13,
14 ; 1 Cor. XV. 51, 52, i. 7, 8 ; 1
Thess. iv. 15), that he and his

HIS DIFFICULTIES AND SUPPORTS.

411

eyetpas top Kvpiov ^Irjcrovv koX rjfJias * aifv ^Itjctov iyepel
Koi TTapaorTTjcrei avv vfuv. ^^ra yap Trdvra Sl v/xo,?, tW
7) X^P^^ TrXeopdcracra Slol TOiV irXeiovcov rrjv ev^apiariav
wepLcraeva-r} eh T7]v ho^av tov Oeov. ^^Sto ovk iyKaKov-

* Sia 'Irjcoi;.

raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also with Jesus and shall
present us with you. ^^For all things are for your sakes, that the
abundant grace may on account of the thanksgiving of the many abound
to the glory of God. ^^ For which cause we faint not, but though our
outward man is destroyed, yet the inward man is renewed day by

converts should live till the time
of the Lord's coming — an excep-
tion caused, probably, by the
strong anticipation of death from
which (i. 8) he had but just re-
covered.

(Tvv 'Irjcrov is not necessarily
' in company with,' but ' sharing
His condition.' Comp. xiii. 4.

Trapaari/cret <rvv v/xlv, 'will
make us share the light which
yon even now seem to enjoy, and
will present us both to Christ.'
Compare 1 Thess. iv. 17.

1 5 TO, yap TTOLVTa 8t' v/>tas, ' He
will present us with you ; for all
things, whether life or death, or
things present or things to come
(comp. 1 Cor. iii. 22) are for
you.*

Iva r) x^P^5, 'in order that
God's goodness, which, through
the prayers of the greater part
of you, has become greater to
me, may make your thanksgiv-
ing greater, and so God's glory
greater also.' Compare the pa-
rallel passage, i. 11. The Apo-
stle does not distinguish strongly
between his deliverance from the
immediate danger to which he
had been exposed (i. 8), and his
deliverance from death itself.

The construction requires that
TrepLo-a-evy should be transitive
(as in ix. 8 ; 1 Thess. iii. 12 ;
Eph. i. 8).

TrXeomo-ao-a is used with a re-
ference to Sta rcov ttXclovijov and
€v)(apL(TTiav to x^P*'^' ' tbat more
may produce more,' ' that grace
may produce gratitude.' Comp.
Phil. i. 19, 'I know that this
shall turn to my salvation
through your prayer.'

1 6 He now resumes the as-
sertion of his determination to
bear up against his trials, which
he had begun to unfold in iv. 1 ;
and, as in the preceding verses
(10-15), he had gradually passed
from his daily troubles to the
consideration of death itself, so
here he passes gradually from
the daily dissolution of his out-
ward frame by long hardships
and infirmities, to its total disso-
lution by death (iv. 16-18, v.
1-10). Every vestige of self-
defence or attack vanishes, and
we have in this passage the full-
est expression of the Apostle's
individual hopes and fears with
regard to the future world.

The contrast here drawn be-
tween the ' outward ' and ' the
inner man,' though illustrated
by the contrast in Rom. vii. 22
between the ' law of the mem-
bers ' and ' the inner man,' and
in Eph. iv. 22 ; Col. iii. 9, be-
tween ' the old man ' and ' the
new man,' is not precisely the
same. Those contrasts relate to

412

SECOND EPISTLE: CHAP. IV. 17— V. 1.

fjiev, dXX.' et /cat 6 efoj tjjjlcjp avOpcono^ hia^Seiperaiy aX)C
6 ecro)^ TjiJLcov avaKaivovrai rjfJiepa kol rjfxepa. ^' to yap
TTapavTLKa i\a(j)pov tyJ<; OXixpecos rjpLOiv Kaff vTrep/SoXrqv eU
V7T€p^o\rjv alcxiviov ^dpo^ S6^r)s KaTepyat<^Tai rjfJUP, ^^/j^t)
CTKOTTOvvTOiv rjfxcjv TOL ^XeTTOfxevcL ahXa TOL jxr) fiXeTTOfieva •
TOi yap ySXeTTO/xera irpocTKaLpa, ra 8e /at) /SXeTTOiieva alcxivia.

* icrwOev.

day. ^'For our light trouble which is but for a moment worketh for
us a far more exceeding eternal weight of glory, ^^ while we look not
at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen : for
the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen

the diflference between the sen-
sual and the moral nature, ' the
flesh ' and * the spirit ; ' this, to
the difference between the mate-
rial and the spiritual nature,
' the body ' and ' the soul.' Com-
pare a line ascribed to Michael
Angelo : * The more the marble
wasteSjthe more the statue grows.'

avaKatvovTat, ' receives new
powers.' Compare Col. iii. 10 ;
Rom. xii. 2 ; Tit. iii. 5.

"^fiipa KOL rjjjiepa. A Hebraism
for ' from day to day,' not found
in LXX. but a literal translation
of nV) n)\ See Eth. ii. 11, iii. 4.

17 Each word here is stu-
diously set against the other.
irapavTCKa is ' for the present mo-
ment ' — often in classical writers
(see Wetstein, ad loc), here
alone in the N. T. — opposed to
atcoviov, 'for the lasting future.'

TO iXacfipov is used as a sub-
stantive (compare to yvrjcrcov, viii.
8 ; TO jxoipov, TO dcr^ei/es, 1 Cor. i.
25) ; and is opposed to /3dpo^, as
Trj<s 0\L\l/€(t)<s to S6^<s. ^dpo<s is
used with So^a probably from
the fact that 133 is both ' to be
heavy ' (Job vi. 3 ; Gen. xviii.
20), and 'to be glorious' (as in
Isaiah Ixvi. 5), the substantive
1-133 always having the meaning
of ' glory ' or ' honour.' (Comp.

gravitas, in Latin.) See a similar
use of the Hebrew metaphor and
the Greek word corresponding,
in ' bowels and mercies,' Phil,
ii. 1.

KaO' vTTepf^oXrjv ct? vTrepfSoX-qv
cannot be tixed precisely to any
one word in the succeeding
clause. It is a Hebraism, — a
translation, so far as the Greek
idiom would allow, of "l'&?!0 *l'Np
' exceedingly, exceedingly.' (See
note onii. 16.)

The construction of this pas-
sage even in detail (compare
especially the use of the neuter
adjective for a substantive) is
like Thucydides.

iS fxrj a-KOTTOvvTOiV, ' so long as
we do not fix our attention
upon,' (Phil, ii, 4) to, /xt] fiXeiro-
jxeva ; comp. Heb. xi. 1, ' the
evidence of things not seen' (ov
^AeTTo/xevcov). The use of />t^ in
this passage, and ov in Heb. xi.
1, is merely from the Greek
usage, which requires /at; after
the article, and ov where the
article is not used. The ex-
pressions of the shortness of the
visible world might be applicable
to any age, but are no doubt
strengthened here by the expec-
tation of the coming of the Lord.

TTpoa-Kaipa, ' for the temporary
season of this life.'

HIS DIFFICULTIES AND SUPPORTS.

413

V. ^ oLOa/jieu yap otl eav rj cTTtyetog rjjjicjv oiKia tov (tktjpov^
KaroXvOrj^ oIkoSoixtjv e/c 0eov e^o/xez^, oiKLav ayeipoiroirjTOV

are eternal, v. ^For we know that if our earthly house of the tabernacle
were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands.

aloivia, ' for the successive
ages of God's kingdom.'

V. I ' I am indifferent to the
decay and wearing away of my
present outward frame ; because
I know that another and high-
er organisation is awaiting me
hereafter, a higher life which
shall not extinguish my present
being, but give me new powers
engrafted upon it.' His lan-
guage may apply to the change
of death generally ; but it has
especial reference to his feeling
(as in 1 Cor. xv. 53) that he
shall probably be one of those
who will be alive at the coming
of Christ : hence the wish ex-
pressed in verse 4, that he might
not lose his present body, but
have it expanded into something
higher — a wish at any time na-
tural, but which receives its pe-
culiar expression from the feeling
just described. Hence also the
doubt in V. 1, ' if the house be
destroyed.' The explanation of
'Thehabi- ^^^^ abrupt transition
tationofa^ from the figure of a

a emac e. jjQ^gg ^^ ^^j^^ ^q ^j^g^^

of a garment, may be found in
the image,familiarto the Apostle,
both from his occupations and
his birth-place, of the tent of
Cilician haircloth, which might
almost equally suggest the idea
of a habitation and of a vesture.
Compare the same union of me-
taphors in Ps. civ. 2, ' Who
coverest thyself with light as
with a garment : who stretchest
out the heavens like a curtain
[of the tent].'

The word ' tent ' (cr/c^vos) lent

itself to this imagery, from being
used in later Greek writers for
the human body, especially in
medical writers, who seem to
have been led to adopt the word
from the s^i7z-materials of which
tents were composed. (See Wet-
stein, ad loc.)

In philosophical language it
retained the idea of transitori-
ness, like our word '■tenement-,*
and hence the original meaning
would at once be elicited, as in
the case of all the words in iv.
7-9. Compare 2 Pet. i. 14, ' the
laying aside of my tabernacle
((r/o/vw/xaro?) is at hand;' Wis-
dom ix. 15, (yewScs cr/c^vo?)
' earthly tabernacle.'

otKta TOV (TK-qvov<i. The geni-
tive is to define the nature of the
habitation.

€7rty€to9, i.e. (not *of earth,'
= XotKo?, but) 'upon the earth.'
Compare 1 Cor. xv. 40, * bodies
terrestrial,' opposed to ' from
the heavens.'

KaraXvo) is used especially of
the destruction of a house. See
Matt. xxiv. 2, xxxvi. 61 ; Gal. ii.
18. The Yulgate (from a false
etymological scent)

, T , . , n • ^ Dissolved.

translates it dissol-
vatur ; a slight departure from
the original meaning, which the
Auth. Vers., by adopting the
word nearest to the Vulgate —
^dissolved,' has still further wi-
dened ; the word having now
lost the sense of ' disunite ' and
' break,' which was once at-
tached to it both in Latin and
English. (Compare 2 Peter iii.
11, 12.) From this translation

414

SECOND EPISTLE: CHAP. V. 2—4.

ai(x)viov iv Toi<; ovpavols. ^kol yap iv tovto) CTTevd^ofiev,
TO OLK-qTTJpLov Yjixcoi' TO cf ovpavov iTTeuSijaacrOaL Ittitto-

eternal in the heavens. -For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be
clothed upon with onr habitation which is from heaven, ^if so be that

has perhaps originated the word
' dissolution ' for ' death.'

oLKoSofjiyjv. The word retains
its usual active signification so
far as to make the words Ik Oeov
directly dependent upon it; 'a
building which grows up from
the hand of God.* Compare
Heb. xi. 10, ' " the " city which
bath foundations, whose builder
and maker is God.'

exofjicv, i.e. ' the moment that
our present house is destroyed,
that very moment a new habita-
tion awaits us in heaven.' Ac-
cording to the representation in
1 Cor. XV. 51, ' we shall all be
changed in a moment ; ' 1 Thess.
iv. 17, 'we shall be caught up
in the clouds.'

a^cLpoTroirjTov, ' Not like the
tents, in which I live, and which
I make with my own hands.' In
this, as in the next expressions,
alwviov iv Tot9 ovpavoi<s, he speaks
rather of a habitation into which
he is to enter, than of a body
which he is to assume. The
expressions 'made' or ' not made
with hands,' and 'in the hea-
vens,' could not properly be ap-
plied to a body.

2 Kat yap is more an expla-
nation, than a reason, of the
preceding. See iv. 10, 11.

'Ev TovTw, i.e. o-K^vet, ' in this
my tenement,' pointing, as it
were, to his own body, as in Acts
XX. 34, ' these hands.' See note
on 1 Cor. XV. 54.

crTevdt,ofxeVj 'we groan,' i.e.
' with longing to be free,' Com-
pare Rom. viii. 23, ' we groan

within ourselves, waiting for the
redemption of the body.'

TO oLKrjTrjpLov. The word is
used instead of o-k^i/o?, to get rid
of the notion of instability.

e^ ovpavov. Here again the
idea of the actual body is lost in
the idea of a habitation or ves-
ture descending, like the sheet
of Peter's vision (Acts x. 11),
or 'the new Jerusalem, coming
from God out of heaven,' Rev.
xxi. 2.

iirevSva-aa-Oai, ' to be clothed,
as with an upper or over gar-
ment.' So i7r€vSvTr}<; for the
'fisher's coat,' John xxi. 7. He
uses this word instead of ivSv-
aaaOaL purposely, from the strong
expectation that he in his out-
ward bodily form might still be
alive at the end; although it
would apply also to the general
hope of a restoration after death.

3 There are two variations in
the text here : —

(1) etTTcp, Lachmann, with B.
D. E. F. G. and eiyc Rec. Text,
with C. J. K. The usage, however,
of these two words in the N'ew
Testament is not suflBcientlypre^
cise to affect the general sense of
this passage. It is a confident
expectation expressed with that
degree of uncertainty which na-
turally belongs to the future,
especially to the future life. Had
he been speaking of a certain
matter of fact, he would have
said, not elye Kat but Kat yap, as
in the next clause. Kat (whether
ecTrep or ctyc be adopted) serves
as a connecting particle between

HIS DIFFICULTIES AND SUPPORTS.

415

6ovvT€<;^ ^ei ^7T€p Koi ivSvcrdfjievoL ov yvfivoi evpeOrjoroixeOa.
^KOi yap ol ovTes ev rw o-Kijvei crrevatpiJieu ^apovp.€voL,

* ei'76.
being clothed we shall not be found naked. "^ For we that are in the

this and the previous clause. 'If
in fact,' or ' since in fact,' like os
/cat t/cavcocrev in iii. 6, and 6 kox
80VS in V. 5. For the half-doubt
expressed compare Phil. iii. 11,
' if by any means I might attain
unto the resurrection of the
dead.'

(2) iv8v(rdfx.€voL, Lachraann and
Rec. Text, with B.C.D^. E. J.K.
and the Versions ; c/cSvcra/xevot,
Griesbach, with D^. F. G. and
the Fathers. But the latter is
probably a correction to avoid
the apparent contradiction be-
tween iv8v(rdix€voi and yv/xvoL,

The sense would be much the
same whichever reading were
preferred. If iKhvcdfLevoL^ it
would be ' in the hope that, after
laying aside our present garment,
we shall not be left naked.' If
ivSva-d/xevoL, ' in the hope that,
after having put on our heavenly
.garment, we shall be found, not
naked, but clothed.' evSvo-a/xevot
would be used instead of iirevSv-
crdfjL€voL, because he is here con-
trasting, not one state of clothing
with another, but simply a state
of clothing with a state of naked-
ness ; because he is thinking, not,
as in verse 2, of the survival, but
of the possible extinction of his
present body by the assumption
of the heavenly body. The ex-
pression ' naked ' (yvfxvoi) natu-
rally follows from the metaphor
of the whole passage. But there
is a peculiar propriety in it, sug-
gested by the use of the figure in
Greek writers for disembodied
spirit. (See Wetstein.) And in

later times of the Christian
Church, naked figures, both in
painting and poetry, are (perhaps
from this passage) the usual re-
presentation of souls in purgatory.
Compare the story in Herodotus,
V. 92, of the Corinthian queen,
who appeared to her husband
after death, intreating him to
bum dresses for her as a cover-
ing for her disembodied spirit;
and also the practice of offering
garments on the tombs of the
Plateean heroes. (Thucyd. iii.
58, and Arnold's notes.) The
figure of a vestment for the soul
was often used by the Rabbis,
but in the sense of the (moral)
image of God. See Schottgen,
Hor. Heb. ad lac.

It is clear from 1 Cor. xv. 35-
54; IThess. iv. 13-17,
that from the strong ad- cSe!i"'
ditional impulse given but clothed
by the first Apostolic ^ ^'
preaching to the belief in a future
state, and from the near expec-
tation of the end of the world,
there rose in the minds of the
early Church various diflBculties
about the manner in which the
great change would take place.
One apprehension was, lest those
only who were alive at that day
would share in its glory (1 Thess.
iv. 13). Another, that the actual
body would have to pass into the
unseen world (1 Cor. xv. 35). A
third, a fear lest in the transition
all connexion with the present
life would be lost. It is this
which comes across the Apostle
here. Intense as was his yearn-

416

SECOND EPISTLE: CHAP. V. 5-10.

^i(f> w ov Oikofiev iKBvoracrOaL, aW iTrevhycrao-Oai, Iva
KaraTTodrj to Optjtov vtto Trj<; ^oirjs. ^6 he Karepyacrdfiei'o^
7jfxa<; €19 avTO tovto 6e6<;^ 6 Sous T^fiiv top appa/Scova tov

• iireiSi) for 6^' ^.

tabernacle do groan, being burdened, not for that we would be unclothed,
but clothed upon, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. ^Now He
that wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who gave unto us the

ing to be delivered from his bur-
den of the worn-out perishing
frame, and to be at home with
Christ in a new and heavenly
mansion, yet he still clung to the
past and present, as the links to
connect him with the future.
And in this case, the feeling
would be increased by the belief
that from the near approach of
the coming of Christ he might
even hope to escape death alto-
gether, not losing his bodily ex-
istence, but findingit transfigured
into something higher. There is
the same conflict of feeling in
Phil. i. 21, 22, 23, 24, ' to me to
live is Christ, and to die is gain.
. . . what I shall choose I wot not
. . . for I am in a strait betwixt
two, having a desire to depart, and
to be with Christ ; which is far
better : nevertheless to abide in
the flesh is more needful for you.'
Therefore, after having described
his desire for the new habitation,
the curtains of the new taber-
nacle, in which to envelope him-
self, he adds : ' I desire this, in
the fond, the confident, hope, that
when the time comes, as come it
will, for this change of earthly
for heavenly garments, I shall
not be left a naked disembodied
spirit ; for the groans which I
utter in the tabernacle of the
body are uttered, not so much
because of the oppression of this
outward frame (^apov/i-cvot), not
no much from a wish to be en-

tirely freed from the mortal part
of our nature, as from the hope
that it will be absorbed into a
better life.'

c0' (S, ' because,' as in Rom. v.
12.

KaraTToOrj. So 1 Cor. xv. 54,
' Death swallowed up.' Proba-
bly he refers to the same passage,
Isa. xxv. 8.

5 He concludes his argument
by referring the great change to
God, according to the frequent
practice by which he runs all
things up to their Highest
Source. Compare i. 21 (where
the expressions are nearly the
same as here) ; iv. 6 ; also 1 Cor,
iii. 23, and xv. 28.

Karcpyaaa/tcvos, ' worJced us
up.^ The word always expresses
an elaborate effort as if against
diflBculties.

eis avTo TOVTO, i.e. * for the
change from mortal to immor-
tal.'

For appaf3(t)v see i. 22. Com-
pare Rom. viii. 11, ' He . . . shall
also quicken your mortal bodies
by His spirit that dwelleth in
you.'

6 The following verses (6-
10) are intermediate, but in
this and the succeeding section,
6-8 being the conclusion of the
thoughts contained in v. 1-5, as
9, 10 form the prelude to what
follows in 11-14.

Oappovvres . . . Oappov/xev is an
anacoluthon. The image is still

HIS DIFFICULTIES AND SUPPOETS.

417

TTvevfJiaTO^. ^ Oappovvre^ ovv TravTore, koI etSore? on ivhrj-
p^ovvre^ iv tco crcofiaTL iKSrjjJLOviJiev airo tov KVpiov ' Sta
7rL(TTea)<; yap TrepLTraTovfjiev, ov 8ta etSovs, ^ Oappovjxei' Se
Kol evSoKovfJiei' jxaXXov iKSrjfJLrjcraL e/c tov crcofjLaTO<; koI
ipSrjfJLrjcraL TTpo^ tov Kvpiov ^^lo koI (fyLXoTLfxovfJLeOa, etre
eVST^/Aowre? etre iKSrjfiovvTe^^ evapeorToi auro) elvac. ^"--^

TOV^

earnest of the Spirit. ^Therefore we are always bold, and know that
whilst we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord : "^ for we
walk by faith, not by sight, ^ but we are bold and are pleased rather to
be absent from the body, and to be at home with the Lord. ^Wherefore
we are eager, whether at home or abroad, to be acceptable to Him.
^^For we must all be made manifest before the judgment seat of Christ ;

of a habitation (cvSry/xeti/ and
iKBrjfxuv, ' to be at home ' and
' abroad '), passing into that of
a country, as in Phil. iii. 20,
Tjfxdv yap TO TToXtrevfia iv ovpavots.
Heb. xi. 13, ^evot koL TrapcTTLSrjfLOL
€7rt Tr]<s yrjs.

7 8ta, as in ii. 4, * in a state
of.'

cTSo?, 'ontward sight,' nearly
as in Luke iii. 22, o-aj/xaTtKu) ctSet.

TTcptTrarov/xev, ' pass our lif^»,'
' vei'sari,^ though possibly the
original metaphor of walking, is
brought out to continue the idea
of travelling conveyed in ckSt;-
/uctj/, ' our pilgrimage or journey
i> on trust, and not because we
see our home.'

8 7rpo9 TOV Kvpuov. Compare
Trpbs TOV OeoVj John i. 1. It im-
plies close union.

9 Here a new idea is intro-
duced, to be afterwards more
fully developed ; not merely that
of encouragement under his
troubles, but of incitement to his
duties.

(^iKoTiiJiua-OaL is ' to place one's
honour in getting an object per-
formed.' So in Rom. xv. 20;
1 Thess. iv. 11.

For the phrase * whether at
home or abroad* (i.e. ' in the
body or out of the body, alive or

dead, at Christ's coming '), com-
pare Rom. xiv. 8 ; Phil. i. 20 ;
1 Thess. V. 10.

lo Tov<i yap TrdvTas, ' I am
anxious to be well pleasing to
Him ; for I as well as all of you
shall have my secret thoughts
made known.' For <f>av€p(t}Orjvai,
see note on following verse.

KOfxta-qTat, ' reap the fruits of.'

TO, SiOL TOV Sio/Aaros properly
' through the means of the
body ; ' but probably with less
precision here than in the clas-
sical usage. It connects this
with 6K TOV a-wfiaTos in verse 8.
The Vulgate reads ^roiiria, i.e.
tSta for 8ta.

7rpo9, ' in consideration of.'

etre KaKov. Tischendorf (with
C. and some of the Fathers) sub-
stitutes <j>avXov for KaKov B. (e
sil.) D. E. F. G. J. K.

The chief characteristic of tho
judgment here brought out, is
that of the complete revelation of
the deeds of man, as in 1 Cor. iv.
1-6. Comp. Rev. xx. 12, ' the
hoohs were opened.'

The image of Christ on the
judgment seat, is the same as
that in Rom. xiv. 10 (where,
however, in the best ,^^^ .^^„_

MSS. it is ' the seat of ment seat

God ') ; and the expres- °^ ^^^'^* '
E

418

SECOND EPISTLE: CHAP. V. 10.

yap TTOLvra^ i^/xa? (j)avepa)6rjvaL SeT ifXTrpocrOeu rov ^riixaTo<;
Tov ^picTTOv, Iva K0jXLO"r)TaL eKacFTO^ TO, Sia tov cw/Aaro?,
7rpo9 a eirpa^ev^ eire ayaOov etre KaKov.

that each one may receive the things done in his body, according to that
he did, whether good or bad.

sion is peculiar to these two
passages, being taken from the
tribunal of the Roman magistrate
as the most august representa-
tion of justice which the world
then exhibited. The ' Bema '
was a lofty seat, raised on an
elevated platform, nsnallj at the
end of the Basilica, so that, the
figure of the judge must have
been seen towering above the
crowd which thronged the long
nave of the building. So sacred
and solemn did this seat and its
platform appear in the eyes, not
only of the heathen, but of the
Christian society of the Roman
empire, that when, two centuries
later, the Basilica became the
model of the Christian place of
worship, the name of /8^/xa (or
tribunal) was transferred to the

chair of the bishop ; and this
chair occupied in the apse the
place of the judgment seat of the
praetor. In classical Greek, the
word prjiJia was applied (not to
the judgment seat, which did not
exist in Grecian states, but) to
the stone pulpit of the orator.
In the LXX. it is used twice for
a 'pulpit,' N'eh. viii. 4; 2 Mace.
xiii. 26 : elsewhere, as in Acts

vii. 5, for

In the N.

T. (with the exception of Acts
vii. 5) it is always used for a
' judgment seat.'

The more usual figure for The
Judgment is a ^throne' (Opovoq).
Compare Matt. xxv. 31, ' He
shall sit on the throne of His
glory; ' Rev. xx. 11, a great
white throne ; ' Dan. vii. 9, ' His
throne was like a fiery flame.'

Paraphrase of Chap. IV. 7 — V. 10.

JSuch is the mission which I have received, so important, and so
open and iinreserved ; and, as God in His mercy has entrusted
we icith it, I cannot faint or groio weary under it. I cannot
faint, though there is m^ich reason why I should. In order
to show that this extraordinary work is Divine and not
human, I am encompassed with all outward infirmity, which
thus becomes a proof, not of my weakness, hut of God's power.
My worn-out fragile frame is like an earthenware vessel
enclosing some costly treasure. Whichever way I turn, I am
pressed by difficulties ; but a passage of escape opens before
me. I am bewildered in my course, but I find my way again.

HIS DIFFICULTIES AND SUPPORTS. 419

/ am pursued hy the enemy, hut not left behind as a prey to his
attacks. I am trampled under foot, hut not to death. I carry
luith me, at every moment of my course, the marks of pallor
and torpor and lifelessness as from the corpse of the Lord
Jesus ; hut it is only that I may show forth more clearly the
same ' life in death ' that He showed in rising from the grave ;
for my whole life, from heginning to end, is perpetually given
up to death for the sake of Jesus, in order that in this per ish^
able framework of corruption the living power of Jesus may
be shown. Death works his will in me, whilst life ivorks her
loill in you; you are safe, because I am in peril; you live,
because I die. But in spite of this contrast between my death
and your life, I am sustained by the faith which is described
in the Psalm. ' I believe,^ I have faith in the unseen ISaviour,
' and therefore I speak ' the message of the Gospel, with the
full confidence that, however different our positions n.ow, the
time will come when the resurrection of the Lord Jesus will
extend to me as well as to you ; when you will receive the best
proof that all which is done by and for me is done by and for
you ; when the gift of life given to me through your united
prayers will call forth a still fuller burst of thankfulness
from you to the glory of God. With this confidence, as I said
before, ' I cannot faint ;^ there is a nature, a being, a man, in
my outward frame, which is gradually decaying ; but there is
another being in my inner self, which is day hy day restored:
there is a pressure of affliction; but it is overbalanced a
hundred thousand fold by the heavy weight of glory, tvhich
lasts, not like the affliction for a short passing moment, but
for an immeasurable future ; for I fix my view, not on what
is visible, hut on what is invisible, knowing that the visible
is temporary, the invisible belongs to the ages of God. The
habitation in which I now dwell on the earth, is like the tent
which I travel with, or which I made with my own hands ;
like the tent, to which the human body is so often compared,
it may he taken down and destroyed : hut there is another
habitation, a solid building, whose builder and maker is God,
made by no art of hands, like the tent of human tentmakers,
but belonging to the ages of God, awaiting me in the regions
of heaven. In this my present tent I groan under the heavy
weight of the longing desire for that new habitation which will
envelop me within its curtains from above. Not that I wish
to leave this present life with its vesture of human affections

E £ 2

420 SECOND EPISTLE.

and thoughts; hut I fondlj/ trust, that this old vesture will
receive a new vesture over it, that this mortal frame will only
cease hy heing swallowed up in a higher life. And the ground
for my trust is, that He who has fashioned and worked out
my existence for this termination, is no less than God Himself,
rcho has given a clear pledge of the future, by that earnest of
the life-giving Spirit of tvhich I before spoke.

With this confidence, therefore, and feeling that our ichole
journey through life is sustained by trust in what we do not
see, not by the presence of what ice do see, I am tvell pleased
to think that the time is coming when this banishment from
my true heavenly home will be ended, and when I shall be with
the Lord at home for ever.

And the thought of this future home, not only gives me
confidence, but impresses upon me my awful duty. For the
time is coming tvhen I, ivith all of you, must be made com-
pletely known before the judgment seat of Christ, in order that
each may receive the reward of the acts done in the earthly
habitation, and through the instruments of the body.

THE APOSTLE'S PEOSPECT OF DEATH. 421

The Apostle's Prospect of Death.

This passage stands alone in the insight which it gives us into
the Apostle's feelings, under the sense of approaching decay
and dissolution. The burst of triumphant exultation over the
power of death, in Rom. viii. 30-39 and 1 Cor. xv. 51-58, is
more an expression of the sense of God's love through Christ
than of any personal expectation for himself. The description
of the coming of the Lord, in 1 Thess. iv. 15-19, is for the
comfort of his readers, not of himself. The two passages
which most bear comparison with this — 2 Tim. iv. 6-8 ; Phil,
i. 20-24 — whilst expressing the Apostle's personal feelings
respecting his end, represent his calm expectation of an event
brought on by external circumstances, as a soldier on the eve
of battle, rather than his contemplation of death in itself as
the natural termination of the exhausted powers of nature. It
is this last view which in this section is brought before us.
Whatever may have been the precise nature of the deep de-
pression which marks the opening of this passage, it is evident
that all the mournful feelings which crowd upon the mind
under the pressure of anxiety, of sickness, of hardship, were
now heavy on the Apostle's heart. He is ^ in the valley of
the shadow of death.' He had been ' pressed out of measure,
above strength, insomuch that he despaired even of life : ' he
'had the sentence of death in himself: ' he had been just
' delivered from a great ^ death : ' he had ' no rest in his ^spirit : '
he felt that he was a ' fragile earthen ^ vessel : ' he was like a
soldier in battle, ' pressed into a corner,' ' bewildered,' ' pur-
sued,' ' trampled ^ down : ' he was ' a living corpse,' always
* delivered up to ^ death,' his ' outward man ^perishing,' the
^ earthly house of his tabernacle ' might at any moment 'be
^destroyed.' Two feelings emerge from this ' horror
of great darkness.' First : It is instructive to observe shrinking
the Apostle's shrinking from the disembodied state ^^^m
beyond the grave, and his natural sympathy with

^ i. 8, 9, 10.
2 ii. 13.
^ iv. 7.
* iv. 8, 9.

5 iv. 11.

6 iv. 16.
' v. 1.

422 SECOND EPISTLE.

the awe with which many good men have regarded the ad-
vance and process of death. There is no Platonic doctrine
of a vague and impalpable immortality ; no Stoic affectation of
rising above the ordinary feelings of humanity. It is (on a
lower scale) the same picture which is presented to us in the
agony of Gethsemane, ' Father, if it be possible, let this cup
pass from me.' It is the Christian and Apostolical expression
of the feeling described in the well-known lines of Gray —

For who, to dull forgetf ulness a prey,

This pleasing anxious being e'er resigned ?

Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day,
Nor cast one longing lingering look behind ?

And, secondly, there is the confidence that he will pass into a
2. His higher state, in which, amidst whatever changes, his
trust in personal being will be continued. His moral state
tinuity "of will not be taken from him, but will be transfused
existence, into something higher. What he has done in the
passage through this life will be revealed for retribution of
good or evil before the judgment seat of Christ. This is the
hope which at once sustains and warns him. There is a world
around him which he does not see, but which he believes to
exist ; a habitation, a vesture awaiting him in heavenly regions ;
a home with the Lord, where he wiU arrive when his journey
is ended. And, finally, there is a judgment seat, where he will
be rewarded or punished. The thought of the Judgment seat
blends with the thought of home, as in the Psalms the rock on
which the spirit of the Psalmist reposes is not so much the
mercy as the justice of God. Even in these moments of
earnest longing for rest, Christ is still, not only the Friend,
but the true and faithful Judge, at whose hands the Apostle is
content to receive that which is his due.

HIS MOTIVE FOR HIS SERVICE.

423

St. Paul's Motive for his Service.
Chap. V. 11— VI. 10.

EtSdres ovp tov (f>6^op tov Kvpiov av0p(o7rov<; Treido-
fieVf deS 8e TTecftavepojfjieOa' iXTTL^co 8e kol iu rat? c^u^'€tSrf-
crecTLV viJLOJv TTecfyavepoJcrdai. ^^ou '^ttolKiv eavTOv^ avvi-

' Add yap.

" Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord we persuade men, but we
have been made manifest unto God ; and I trust also to have been made
manifest in your consciences. ^- We commend not ourselves again unto

II The Apostle, in the pre-
ceding verses, after describing
the support which in his troubles
he received from the prospect of
a better life hereafter, was car-
ried on to speak of the energy
which this prospect imparted to
his labours (verse 9). In order
to reach that home for which
he longed, he, with all the rest
of the world, must pass before
the judgment seat, where every
thought would be disclosed to
Christ Himself (verse 10). And
now the thought of that hour
brings before him the insinua-
tions of concealment and dis-
honesty, which he had before
answered (iii. 1-iv. 6), and he
once more protests the sincerity
of his conduct (11-13), appeal-
ing, first, to the overwhelming
motive which impelled him (14-
21) ; secondly, to his own self-
denying conduct (vi. 1-10). It
is the climax of the first part of
the Epistle.

6l8oT€S OVV TOV (fio/SoV TOV KVptOV,

' knowing that there is this fear-
ful aspect of the Lord, I proceed
on my task of winning over men ;
but whilst I do so, it is to God
that my thoughts are manifested,

as clearly now as they will be at
the judgment, and as I trust
they are manifested clearly before
your several consciences ' (o-vj/ct-
Srjo-ecnv). For the phrase dvOpu)-
TTOvs ireiOofiev comp. Acts xii. 20,
Gal. i. 10, where it is used in a
bad sense, which illustrates its
use here, ' I am devoted, as they
say, to making friends of «ie?A,'
and hencG the immediate anti-
thesis, ' No : it is not man, but
God, whose approbation I seek.'
In classical Greek the addition
of /AeV would have cleared up the
obscurity.

TTCcfiavepMfxeOa refers to <;^ave/oa)-
Orjvai in verse 10. Observe tho
tense, ' Our manifestation to God
has already taken place.' For its
connexion with the words avvec-
^r;crts and (xvvi(TTdvop,€v compare
iv. 2 : Trj (f>avepu)(T€L Trj<; aXfjOeia^
crvvLO-TavTes cavrous 7rpb<s iraa-av
(rvvei^-qcnv dv^pwTrwi/ cvcottiov tov
Oiov. For the general sense see
1 Cor. iv. 5.

12 The mention of their
doubting his sincerity recalls
what he had already said in iii.
1, iv. 2, about the commendatory
letters, — the charge that, instead
of bringing commendations from

424

SECOND EPISTLE: CHAP. V. 13—15.

(rrdvofxei' vfjuv^ aXka d(f)opfJir)v SlS6vt€s v[juv Kav)(ijfxaTO<;
vnep Tjixcjv, lvcl ^X^te 77/309 rov^ eV TrpocrcoTTCp Kav)(Oj-
fiei^ovs KOL ^ fJLT) iv KapSia. ^^etre yap i^ecrrrjixev, Oeo)'
eire aa)(j)povovix€Vy vplv. ^^tj yap dyaTrrj tov -^larov

* KOi ov Kapdia.

you, but give you occasion of boasting on our behalf, that ye may have
somewhat to answer those who boast in face, and not in heart. For
^^ whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God : whether we be sober, it is
to you. ^^ For the love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus judged.

others, he was always commend-
ing himself. ' My object is not
to commend myself, bnt to give
you an opportunity of boasting
in my behalf against my oppo-
nents.' He assumes, with some-
thing of an ironical tone, that all
that they wished was to vindi-
cate him. (After c^'^Te, supply
KavxrjfJ-oi-) This is the most ex-
plicit mention of his opponents
in this part of the Epistle, and
is to be compared with the more
open attacks of x. 2, 7, xi. 18,
' They pride themselves not on
any deep sympathy such as lies
ut the bottom of my heart for
you (iii. 2, iv. 5, vi. 11), but on
their outward pretensions, their
dignified appearance, as con-
trasted with my weak presence
Xx. 10), their Jewish descent
(xi. 22), their commenda-tory
letters (iii. 1).*

13 It is impossible to deter-
mine precisely the allusions in
i^€(TT7]/ji€v ('we are mad,' corap.
Mark iii. 21) and a-w^f^povdv/xev
(' we are of sound mind,' comp.
Acts xxvi. 25). The 'madness '
may allude, either to the extra-
vagant freedom, as it was
thought, with which he spoke
of his own claims (see xi. 1, 16,
17, where he himself calls it by
the name of 'folly'), or more
generally to the enthusiasm
which led Festus to call him mad

(Acts xxvi. 24). The ' sound-
ness of mind,' which also was
misunderstood, may have been
the accommodation to all men (1
Cor. ix. 20), which led to the
insinuation of worldly wisdom
(2 Cor. xii. 16 ; 1 Cor. ix. 18,
19). In either case, it was not
himself that he wished to serve.
His seeming enthusiasm came
from devotion to God ; his seem-
ing worldliness, from devotion to
man.

14 ^7 yap dyoLTrrj rov ^qjlcttov
(rvv^xet •i7/xa9, ' the love 'which
Christ has shown is what holds,
presses, urges me forward.' That
this is the meaning of ' the love
of Christ ' appears from the fol-
lowing context. Compare E,om.
V. 5, 'the love of God,' and
Rom. viii. 35, ' who shall sepa-
rate us from the love of Christ ? '
where, as here, the context shows
that, though it may include the
love awakened in man to Christ,
it chiefly means the love of
Christ to man.

o-we;(ei is always used of some

strong outward pressure, as of a

crowd (Luke viii. 45), ,^

„ ^ . , -1 • 1 Con-

or 01 anxiety and sick- strains,'

ness (Phil. i. 23 ; Luke '^''^'^^'•

iv. 38, viii. 37 ; Acts xxviii. 8).

15 KptVavra? tovto^ 'the love
which Christ has shown by that
great example of love in His
death, constrains us to forget

HIS MOTIVE FOR HIS SERVICE.

425

crvvi^ei T7jLta9, ^^ Kpivavra^ rovro, otl^ ew virep Trdvroiv

diretfavev apa ol iravTe^ aTriSavov

» et eTs.

ycai

VTrep

TTaVTCOV

that one died for all : then all died : ^^ and He died for all, that they who
live should not henceforth live to themselves, but to Him who died and

onr.«elves, and to devote ourselves
to God and to you ; because at
our conversion we came to this
decision, that He died, He alone
and once, for all.' That Christ's
death was the great proof of
His love, compare John xv. 13,
' greater love hath no man than
this, that a man lay down his
life for his friends.' That 6
XptfTTos is the nominative case to
oiTriOavev, and cts vTrep tt/vtoov is
in apposition with it, seems prov-
ed by the consideration that else
6 ets would have been the more
natural expression, and also by
the parallel passage, 1 Pet. iii.
18, XptcTTos aira^ ircpl a/xaprtcov
rjfiu)V aTreOav€Vi St'Kato? virkp dSt-
K(Dv, where a-n-ai corresponds to
€LS, TTcpt dfxapT. rjfjuuiv to xnrep irav-
T(oj/, and the construction of St^

KtttO? VTT. dStKCOV to €1? VT7. iraVTOiV.

d is omitted in B. C^. D. E.
F. J. K., some Fathers, and most
versions. It is retained in C^
and some Fathers, and may pos-
sibly have been omitted, either
from offence at the hypothetical
character of the statement, or
from confusion with d<i. The
sense is the same in both read'
ings.^

vTTcp iravTOiv has the same
'For all,' ambiguity as the Eng-
vTiep, a./Ti, lisli 'for,' 'm behalf
""''**■ o/,' but the idea of ser-

vice and protection always pre-
dominates. Wherever, in speak-
ing of Christ's death, the idea of
substitution is intended, it is
under the figure of a ransom, in

which case it is expressed by
olvtL Matt. XX. 28 ; Mark x. 45.
Wherever the idea of * covering '
or 'forgiving ' sins is intended, it
is under the figure of a sin offer-
ing, in which case the word used
is Trepl d/xa/>Tta5 or ajxiprLutv, as
in Rom. viii. 3 ; 1 Pet. iii. 18 ;
1 John ii. 2, iv. 10. The pre-
position TTCpt as thus used has
partly the sense of ' on account
of,' — but chiefly the sense of
' covering,' — as if it were * He
threw his death ^^over^* or
" around " our sins.'

dpa oi Tra,VT^<s airiOavov. apa.
has in the New Testa- 'ihen ail-
ment the same force ^®^*'
as in classical Greek (where,
however, it has always the se-
cond, place in the sentence, never
as here the first), 'therefore,'
ipso facto, ' by the terms of the
argument.'

oi irdi/TC5. The article refers
back to virkp iravruiv. * All those
for whom he died.'

airiOavov may either be ' died '
(as in E/Om. vi. 10, aTriOav^v
cc/>d7ra|), or ' are dead ' (as in
Col. iii. 3, aTre^dvere ydp, koX rj

^(Ory, K.T.A,.).

The sense thus produced will
suit either of the two main in-
terpretations of this passage.

(1) af Christ died for all,
then it follows from this, that all
those for whom He died, would
also have died themselves [else
there would have been no neces-
sity for his dying for them].*
Compare Bom. v. 15, ' if by the

426

SECOND EPISTLE: CHAP. V. 16.

aneOavev^ Iva ol tjcovre^; fJLrjKeTL iavTois tjcxxjLV, dXXa rw
virep avTcov ajroOavovTi koX iyepOivTL. ^^axTTe rjiJiels oltTo

rose again for them. ^® Wherefore we henceforth know no one after the

ofTence of one many died (aTre-
Savov), much more the grace of
God and the free gift, by grace of
one man, Jesus Christ, abounded
to them all ; ' and 1 Cor. xv. 22,
' as in Adam all die (aTroOvi^-
aKova-i), so in Christ shall all be
made alive.' This is the inter-
pretation adopted by all the
Fathers and Schoolmen. But
there are against it these diffi-
culties : (a) Although the words
will admit of such a conditional
sense of drriOavov (to which Gal.
ii. 21, apa ^iaT6<; Smpeav aTri6av€V,
is to a certain extent a parallel) ;
yet it is by a strain wlwch would
hardly have been used, unless
the context made it clear, (b)
Although there would thus be
an approximation to the mean-
ing of the Apostle's words else-
where, yet it would be by a pre-
cision of logical argument, which
is not in his manner. What he
elsewhere declares is, that the
universal death introduced into
the world by Adam's sin, is set
aside by the universal life intro-
duced into the world by Christ's
obedience. What he would here
declare, if this interpretation
were correct, would be, tliat the
universal effect of Christ's death
proved that all mankind were
before in a state of death ; a
position implying a degree of
speculation on the cause of
Christ's death which is foreign
to the New Testament, (c) It
would be an introduction of an
abstract proposition, without re-
gard to the context, which goes
on to speak, not of the deliver-
ance of man from the curse of

death, but of the change pro-
duced in the lives of those of
whom he speaks. A proposition
of the kind thus ascribed to the
Apostle, would labour under the
same unapostolical character as
the abstract statement of the
doctrine of the Trinity contained
in the spurious verse 1 John
V. 7.

(2) There remains, therefore,
the interpretation now almosfc
universally adopted : ' If Christ
died for all, then ifc follows that
all for whom He died died [to
sin, with Him].' It is borne out
by the words, and agrees both
with the Apostle's statements
elsewhere, and with the context.
It is the same in substance as in
Rom. vi. 1-14, which through-
out agrees with this passage in
representing the death of sin,
and of the old nature of man,
through and with Christ's death,
as the necessary prelude to the
newness of life, to which there,
as here, he is urging his hearers.
Compare also E/om. xiv. 7, ' no
man liveth to himself, and no
man dieth to himself. Whether
we live, we live unto the Lord, or
whether we die, we die unto the
Lord. . . . For, for this cause
Christ died, that He might be
Lord both of the dead and the
living.' Col. iii. 3, ' ye are dead
(aTreOdvcTe) , and your life is hid
with Christ in God.'

The omission of crvv avrio may
be accounted for by the close
connexion with the preceding,
implied in apa. The generalising
of the whole passage by ol ttolv-
T€s, may be compared to the si-

HIS MOTIVE FOR HIS SERVICE. 427

Tov vvv ovSeva olSafJiev Kara crdpKa* el ^ Kai iyvoJKafxeu

* €t Se Kai.

flesh : even though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now know

■milar expressions in 1 Cor. xv.
22. ^

KOL vTrep Trdvruiv aTre^avcv, tva
.... iyepOevTi. This goes on to
state more expressly the object
of Christ's death, — 'that all
might live a new life.' ' He died
and rose thus, in order that for
the future all who are alive might
live to Him.' vrrkp avrwv must
be taken with both ; as in Rom.
iii. 25. There is the same
identification of the natural and
the spiritual life as in iv. 11, 12.
iyepOevTL is inserted with a
view to ^wo-tv, ' we live to Him
who is alive.'

The Apostle's mind is full of
two things : first, his own sin-
cerity, as contrasted with the in-
sincerity with which he was
charged by his opponents, and
the insincerity with which he
believed that they were justly
chargeable ; and, secondly, his
elevation above the local, per-
sonal, national grounds on which
they endeavoured to commend
themselves. Accordingly there
is the same union of self- vindi-
cation, and of the assertion of
the superiority of Christianity
to Judaism here as in iii. 1-
18 ; the point of superiority was
there the absence of mystery
and concealment ; here its free-
dom from local and visible re-
strictions. He was confident
in his sincerity ; because he
knew that the love of Christ
pressed him forward, and that
in Christ's death he and all had
died to their former sins, and
now lived only for Him who

now lived for them. But this
leads him on to the thought of
the immense chasm in all re-
spects which the death of Christ
and his own conversion had
made between his former and
his present life. The whole of
his past life was vanished far
away into the distance. And
first out of this feeling arises
the thought that all local and
personal ties, even with Christ
Himself, all local or human
grounds of authority and recom-
mendation, such as his oppo-
nents insisted upon, and for the
absence of which they taunted
him, had no longer any hold
upon him.

T7/>t€t9, ' tve, whatever my oppo-
nents may say or do.'

ctTTo TOV vvv, * from the present
time.' Compare the use of vvv
in vi. 2.

1 6 olSa/xeVj * we recognise.'

Kara (TapKa, ' by lineal or out-
ward claims.' Compare for the
use of the same expression with
regard to the same opponents, x.
3, xi. 18 ; Gal. vi. 12.

€t Kttt eyvw/ca/Acv, ' even though
I have known ; ' ' granting that
I have known.'

yiViiXTKOfiev, i.e. Kara (rdpKa,
' henceforth we know Him no
longer [after the flesh].'

otSafxev and cyvwKa/ACV are
probably here, as in 1 ,^

^ .. ^ ... ' , 'Knowing

Cor. n. o, xni. 1, merely ctmstno

the variation of the S,Tflet^'

word without variation

of meaning, after the Apostle's

manner.

He must be here alluding to

428

SECOND EPISTLE: CHAP. V. 17. 18.

Kara (japKa ■vpicrrov^

dXXa

VVU OVK€TL yiVOJCKOIJieV.

ata

we Him no more. "Therefore if any one be in Christ, he is a new
creature : the ancient things are passed away ; behold they are become

those who laid stress on their
having seen Christ in Palestine
(comp. note on 1 Cor. ix. 1), and
on their connexion with Him or
with ' the brothers of the Lord '
by actual descent. (Comp. note
on 1 Cor. ix. 5.) And if so, they
were probably of the party ' of
Christ.^ (See notes on x. 7 ; 1
Cor. i. 12.) Bat the words imply
that something of this kind
might once have been his own
state of mind, not only in the
time before his conversion (which
he would have condemned more
strongly), but since. If so, it
is (like Phil. iii. 13-16) remark-
able as a confession of former
weakness or error, and of con-
scious progress in religious know-
ledge.

The feeling which he here
describes as that at which he
had permanently arrived, is of
importance in enabling us to
understand the almost total ab-
sence in the apostolic age of
local and personal recollections
in relation to our Lord's life
and death, (See Essay on the
Epistles and the Gospel History.)

17 Erom this thought of the
destruction of all local ties, he
passes into a wider sphere. Not
these feelings only, but all that
belongs to our former life passes
away, and a new creation rises
in its place ; and now he seems
to be thinking, not so much of
his relations to his converts, as of
their relations to God. In speak-
ing of the Corinthians before in
this Epistle, he had feared their
estrangement from him, and their

following his opponents ; but here,
for the first time, is any indica-
tion of their estrangement di-
rectly from God. Possibly he may
have been thinking of the defile-
ments of the Gentile Christians,
of which he afterwards speaks in
vi. 15-vii. 1. Possibly he may
have formed so strong an opinion
of the evil teaching of the false
teachers, as to consider the Co-
rinthians to be already in a state
of sin, from which they required
to be turned to God ; and hence
the point of transition from the
covert condemnation of those
teachers in verse 16, to the direct
mention of the sin here. For si-
milar expressions concerning the
effect of this teaching, compare
ii. 16, iv. 3, ' those that are lost '
(apparently in allusion to such) ;
xi. 3, ' I fear lest as the serpent
tempted Eve, so your minds be
corrupted from the simplicity
which is in Christ ; ' Gal. iii. 4,
' have ye suffered so much in
vain ? ' iv. 11, 'I fear lest I have
laboured in vain ; ' iv. 19, ' I am
in travail with you again ; ' and
V. 4, ' ye are fallen from grace.'

Whatever be the explanation,
the fact is clear that he here
speaks of the Corinthians as
having so fallen away (compare
especially verse 20, 'be ye re-
conciled to God ; ' and vi. 1, 'that
ye receive not the grace of God
in vain ') ; and his object is to
show that not only their former
life before conversion, but also
their recent sins have been for-
given, and that God in Christ is
still ready to receive them. Com-

HIS MOTIVE FOR HIS SERVICE.

429

TraprjkOev^ IZov yeyovev Kaivd.^ ^^ra 8e Trdvra e/c tov

* Add TO irdvTa.
new. ^^And all things are of God, who reconciled us to Himself through

pare, for similar expressions used
to Christians already converted,
1 John ii. 2, ' if any man sin, we
have " a comforter " with the Fa-
ther, Jesus Christ the Righteous :
and He is the propitiation for
our sins.'

Ci(TT€. The connexion may be
either immediately with the pre-
ceding, * if even with Christ we
have no previous bond, much
more are other previous bonds
removed ; ' or, with verse 15,
treating 16 as parenthetical, ' live
for Christ, and not for yourselves ;
and therefore remember that all
is new.'

* Whosoever is brought into
connexion with Christ, is a new
creation.'

€v ;)(pto-Ta), ' in Christ.' * Union
with Christ does not (as you urge)
maintain, it rather dissolves, for-
mer ties.' Compare x. 7.

Ktttv^ KTL(Ti<s, see Gal. vi. 15. It
was a common expression among
the Rabbis for a proselyte's con-
version. See Wetstein, ad loc.
. , . . TO. dovata. Either an-

' Ancient . .'^ , o ,■,

things are cicnt customs, as 01 the
law ; or ancient habits,
as of sins. The use of
the word apxaLo<Sj instead of Tra-
Xacos, points rather to the former ;
it is the same as the difference in
English between 'ancient' and
* old.'

iSov. This transfers the reader
as into the sudden sight of a pic-
ture. ' The moment that a man
is a Christian, a new creation
rises up ; the ancient world passes
away as in the final dissolution
of all things, and behold ! a new

away.

scene is discovered ; the whole
world has in that instant be-
come new.' (For this use of
TrapcXOcLv, see Matt. xxiv. 35,
' Heaven and earth shall pass
away;' and 2 Pet. iii. 10, 'the
heavens shall pass away.') For
the sense compare Isa. xliii. 18,
19 (LXX.), TO. apxa7a fxr/ (rvX-
\oytt,€crO€ ' iSov cyw ttoiw Katva,
and the imitation of it in Rev.
xxi. 4, 5, ' the former things are
passed away ' (to, Trpwra aTr^X-
Oov) ; ' and He that sat on the
throne said, " behold, I make aU
things new" ' (Kaivd) ; in which
passage of the Apocalypse the
idea of the change and regenera-
tion of the individual passes, as
here, into the idea of the end and
regeneration of the world, as in
the use of TraAtyyeveo-ta in Matt,
xix. 28. The Rec. Text with D^.
E. J. K. inserts, Lachmann with
B. C. BK F. (jt. omits, ra Travra
after Kouvd. If the insertion is
right, then the idea of the world's
regeneration is brought out more
strongly. If the omission, then,
though the idea is the same, the
introduction of it is more abrupt
— 'old things are passed away,
they are changed into new
things.'

18 TO, Travra is ' the new
world' spoken of in verse 17 : —
' the new world, no less than the
ancient world, proceeds from
God ; from the love not only of
Christ, but of God.'

Here there is the same refer-
ence to God as the ultimate
author of all, which occurs so
frequently; e.g. v. 5, i. 21, iv.

430

SECOND EPISTLE: CHAP. V. 19. 20.

Oeov Tov KaTaWd^avTOs T^ftag iavrS 8ia ^^lcttov koX

DITTOS riyiiv TTjV oiaKOviav 7179 /caraAAayT;?, ^^ws ort

^€09 rjv iv ■)(pLO'Ta) Koa^xov KaraWdo'crcov kavrco, ixrj Xo-

• Add 'Irjcou.

Christ and gave to us the ministry of reconciliation, ^^in that God was in
Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing to them their

6; 1 Cor. iii. 23, xv. 28, Hhat
God may he all in all J*

TOV KaTaXXa.^avTO<i t^/aSs eavrw

8ta xpto^Tov. This great change

in man's moral nature

Eeconciha- «. x j i, \.'

tion of man enectea by nis con-
to God. version to Christianity,
is expressed here, as in Rom. v.
19, 11; Eph. ii. 16; Col. i. 20,
21, by the words KaraAAao-o'w, Ka-
ToXkayrj^ aTroKaraXXdcrcro), trans-
lated 'reconcile,' 'reconciliation,'
■with the exception of Rom. v. 11,
where it is rendered ' atonement.'

As in verses 16, 1 7, the Apo-
stle himself was the primary
subject of the argument, so he is
still. As it was especially true
of him, that in his conversion all
worldly bonds had been snapped
asunder (ver. 16), and all ancient
associations passed away (17),
so also of him it was especially
true that he felt that he liad
been reconciled to God through
Christ, and still more, that God
had entrusted him with the task
of making this reconciliation
known.

The more personal meaning of
r}/jLa.<s ('us'), in the first clause,
is fixed by the recurrence of
^//.tv ('to us') in the second,
where it must signify the Apo-
stle. But already, in ' they
which are alive,' in verse 15,
and in the general form, 'if any
man be in Christ,' in 17, the
thought of others was included ;
he was beginning, here, as in
1 Cor. iv. 4, and Rom. vii. 7-

25, to 'transfer to himself in a
figure' what belonged to the
whole world, especially to the
Corinthian world which he was
addressing.

Accordingly he now advances
to unfold the general truth, with
the delivery of which he was en-
trusted as his especial ' task ' or
* mission,' and which, up to this
point, he had described as his
own peculiar possession.

For this sense of the word
SiaKovLa, compare iii. 9, y StaKovLa
T7]<s SLKaLO(rvvr]<s.

19 ws 0T6, ' seeing
pleonastic for ort, or a
mixture of the construc-
tion w? Oiov ovTos and
icTTL, as in xi. 21.

The absence of the
from ^€05 and Koa-jjios, and the
position of ^v, require the words
to be translated thus : ' There
was God in Christ [i.e. no less
than God] employed in reconcil-
ing [nothing less than] a whole
world to Himself.' As if he had
said, ' You might have thought
that in the death of Christ there
was nothing more than Christ,
nothing more than that single
event. Yes : there was more.
There was God, the Invisible,
Almighty, dwelling and working
in Christ. And the object of
that working was to reconcile a
world to Himself.' The ' world,'
like ' all ' in verse 15, means the
whole race of mankind, though
with a special reference to those

that ; '

' G-od in

Clirist.'

article

HIS MOTIVE FOR HIS SERVICE.

431

iv rjfJLLU Tov \6yov Trj^; KaTaXkayrjs. '^^virep ^lcttov ovv
trespasses, and committed unto us the word of reconciliation. '^^Tliere-

wlioni the Gospel has reached
and touched. Compare, for the
sense of the whole passage, Col.
i. 19, 20, ' it pleased God that in
Him should all fulness dwell . . .
and bj Him to reconcile all
things unto Himself.' Also 1
John ii. 2, ' not for our sins
only, but for the sins of the
vjhole world.^

fxrj Aoyt^o/^evog . . . KaroAAay^^.
'and the proof of this reconcilia-
tion is, first, that He now for-
bears to charge the reconciled
'Notim- world with their of-
puting fences; secondly, that

trespasses.' tt i j xi.

He placed upon me the
responsibility of teaching the re-
conciliation.' fji-q gives the con-
nexion.

Compare Rom. iii. 25, * the re-
mission (or passing over, irdpea-iv)
of sins that are past, through the
forbearance of God ; ' also Rom.
iv. 8, ' blessed is the man to
whom the Lord imputeth (Xoyt-
a-rjTai) no sin ; ' and Col. ii. 13,
* forgiving our trespasses ' (ra
TrapaTTTw/AaTa) .

The action of forgiveness is
perpetual, and is therefore in the
present tense ; that of entrusting
the Apostle with the charge of
preaching, was once for all at his
conversion, and is therefore in
the past tense.

6€ixGvo<; iv rifuv, ' He placed in
my hands, in my mouth.' The
word is selected, as being that
which, though with a different
construction (Oia-Oat ci? rl or
Tim), is used for the bestowal
of gifts or offices in the Church,
1 Cor. xii. 28 ; 1 Tim. i. 12.

€v Tjiuv, here as in verse 18,

means, not the Apostles gene-
rally, but St. Paul himself. The
* word,' or ' message ' of recon-
ciliation (compare 6 Aoyo? rov
crravpov, in 1 Cor. i. 18) was es-
pecially ' the gospel ' or ' good
tidings' of Paul ; and as such
he here speaks of it.

20 vTrep xpf-f^TOv ovv Trpea-jSev-
ojxev. He now turns to the di-
rectly practical object which
had been brooding in his mind
since the 17th verse, the conver-
sion — the second conversion —
of the Corinthians themselves,
from the sin, whatever it might
be, which interrupted their re-
union with God. The * task '
(verse 18) and * the word '
(verse 19) which he had received
from God, found their natural
fulfilment in this field. He had
spoken before of Christ's love
urging him forward in their be-
half ; he now comes before them
as the representative of Christ
(7rpe(r/3€vofjL€v, . . . Sco/xeOa).

virip expresses that he is both
representing Christ, and . -p^^
also serving Him. And Christ.'
so in the only other passage
where the same figure of an
ambassador is used, Eph. vi.
20, virkp ov Trpccr^evw, ' in
behalf of [not ' instead of ']
which Gospel I am an ambassa-
dor.'

But as in the previous verses
God had been spoken of as the
source of all that was done
through Christ, so here also He
is spoken of as the chief mover
and object of the Apostle's ad-
dress, 0)9 rov Oeov irapaKaXovvro's
hi rjixuiv, ' as though God Him-

432

SECOND EPISTLE : CHAP. V. 2i— VI. 2.

TTpeapevojJLep^ w? tov Oeov TrapaKaXovvTO^ Sl tjixcov
SeofieOa vnep -)(pLcrTov, KaraWdyr^re tco Oeo). ^^top^
fjLT) yvovra dfJiapTLav v-rrep rjfxojv apLapriav iiroirjcrev, Iva

* 't})v yap.

fore for Christ are we ambassadors, as though God were exhorting you
by us : we pray you for Christ, ' be ye reconciled to God.' ^'He made
Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we may become the righteous-
ness of God in Him.

self were heard entreating you
through my voice.' KaraXAayr/re
TO) ^€(3, ' my prayer in behalf of
Christ — what God says to you
through me — is this : Be recon-
ciled to God.' The use of the
imperative is most emphatic, as
though he uttered the very words
of the prayer which he addressed
to them from Christ, and which,
in all probability, they must have
heard from his lips when he was
with them.

2 1 TOV jjirj yvovra. This is the
reason for the prayer, whether
or not it be included in the ac-
tual words of it.

Observe the great abruptness
of this sentence ; yap (in D^ E.
J. K.) is a later correction, to
soften this. For the general
truth, see Rom. viii. 3, ' God
having sent His own Son in the
likeness of sinful flesh (capKos
a/^aprtas) , and for sin (rrepl ajxap-
Ttas), condemned sin in the flesh:
that the righteousness (ro SiKat-
w/Att) of the law might be ful-
filled in us, who live not after
the flesh, but after the spirit.'
Gal. iii. 13, ' Christ redeemed us
from the curse of the law, being
made (ycvojuevos) a curse for us.'

virip, ' in behalf of.' See note
on verse 15.

rjixCiv, r)fji€L<;, here, as in verses
18 and 20, is used primarily of
the Apostle himself, though with
a reference to the world at laro^e.

afxapria is here used in the
widest sense for * sin.' 'ciirist
' He was enveloped, lost, i^ade sin.'
overwhelmed in sin, and its con-
sequences, so far as he could be
without Himself being sinful.'
This qualification is necessarily
involved in the preceding words,
Tov fxr] yvovra ajxapriav which
may be compared with Heb. vii,
26, ' separate from sinners ; '
Heb. iv. 15, * without sin ; '
1 Pet. ii. 22, ' who did no sin ; '
and expresses the conviction of
the sinless excellence of Christ.
See Essay, pp. 444-446. For
the ixrj in rov firj yvovra see note
on iv. 18.

SiKaioa-vvT] Oeov. Here, as al-
ways, the object of Christ's suf-
ferings is the moral restoration
of man, — ' that man might,
in Christ, be united to God in
God's highest attribute of right-
eousness.' The phrase hKaioa-vvrj
Ocov, as in Rom. i. 17, iii. 21,
22, includes the sense of ' ac-
quittal.'

iv avrw, i.e. 'by union and
conformity with Christ.'

VI. I He urges (for some
reason unknown to us), with still
more vehemence, the appeal he
had made in verse 20 ; and now,
as in iv. 7, the mention of his great
mission recalls again to his mind
the sufferings and troubles which
he had undergone; and in the
climax of triumph which the

HIS MOTIVE FOR HIS SERVICE.

433

-^/xet? ^yevcofieOa SLKaioa-vur) deov ev olvtco. VL ^ crvvep-
yovvre^ §e /cat irapaKaXovixev firj et? Kevov ttjv yapiv tov
Oeov Se^acrOai v/^a? '^ (XiyeL yap Kaipco 8€kt(2 iTrrJKovcroi

• yivwfifda.

VI. ^ As His fellow- workers, then, we also exhort you that ye accept
not the grace of God in vain, ^(for He saith ' in a time accepted I heard

consciousness of his victory sug-
gests, he closes this long digres-
sion. The almost lyrical and
poetical character which belongs
to this burst of feeling, may be
fitly compared to Rom. viii. 31-
39 ; 1 Cor. xiii. 1-13, which
occupy, in a similar manner, the
central place in those Epistles.

trwepyowTCs, * as follow-work-
ers with God.* That ^ew (not
Xpto-Tw, or v/xiv) is to be supplied,
is certain : (1) By the parallel
of 1 Cor. iii. 9, crvvepyol tov Oeov^
(2) because the act in which he
claims to be a fellow- worker, is
that of exhortation (jrapaKaXov-
/xev), which, in v. 20, had been
ascribed to God.

TrapaKaXovjxev, here, as in v.
20, and i. 3-6, has the triple
meaning of entreaty, exhortation,
and consolation ; and is here put
forward as the chief part of the
Apostle's function.

fxr} eis Kevov t^v X^P*'^ '^^^ O^ov
Seiaa-Oai v/xas, ' that you should
not receive the goodness of God
in your conversion to no pur-
pose.' Here, again, as in v. 20,
the sense is obscure, from our
ignorance of the especial danger
to which the Apostle alludes.
Tor the phrase ' in vain,' ct?
Kevov, compare Gal. iv. 31 {elK-fj),
in speaking of his converts ; and
Gal. ii. 2 ; Phil. ii. 16 ; 1 Thess.
iii. 5 (cts Kevov) of himself. See
also note on v. 17.

rrjv x^ptv TOV 6eov. * The favour
of God ' is often used as here,

simply for the * goodness ' of God
shown in the conversion of men
to Christianity ; and is thus used
as almost identical with tho
Christian faith. Compare Acta
xiii. 43, 'they persuaded them
to abide in the grace of God ; '
Acts XX. 24, ' the Gospel of the
grace of God.'

2 The quotation is from Isaiah
xlix. 8 (LXX.). In the original
context God is speaking to the
Messiah, the servant of His
people ; and it is possible that
the Apostle preserves that sense,
and intends to express by the
citation the general fact that
God had received the work of
Christ, and that, therefore. He
would receive the Corinthians'
reconciliation. But the words
CTTT^KODo-a, i^orjOrjora, ' listened *
and ' helped,' describe so much
more exactly the relation of God
to the Church and to mankind,
than the relation of God to
Christ, that they had better be
so taken. The variation from
the original sense may in this
instance be justified by the iden-
tification of the Messiah and the
people, which runs through the
latter chapters of Isaiah. The
passage was apparently sug-
gested to the Apostle's memory
by the word Sckto?, as connected
with Se^acrOat : ' Let not your
receiving of the favour of God
be in vain, for the language of
God [6 Oe6<s is the nominative
case to Aeyet] in the Prophet is
F

434

SECOND EPISTLE: CHAP. VI. 3—5.

crov, /cat iv rjixepa crcoTrjpias e^orjOrjcrd croi. Ihov vvv
Kaipo^ evTTpoaSeKTOs, iSov vvv rjfJiepa a(OTrjpLa<;),^ pnqhepiiav
iv pLTjSevl SiSovTes TrpocrKOTTijv^ iva jjutj ixcofirjOrj tj hiaKovta,
^dXX' iv TTavTL ^ avvLO-ToivTes iavTovq wg deov SiaKOvoL, iv

(TVViaTWVTfS.

thee, and in a day of salvation I succoured thee. Behold now is a well-
accepted time, behold now is a day of salvation'), ^giving no offence in
anything, lest the ministry be blamed, ^ but in all things commending our-

true : " In a time which I receive
I heard thee," ' which is con-
firmed by the stress that he lays
on the w^ord, carrying it out and
amplifying it in his own com-
ment which follows : — ' God has
so spoken, and look ! the present
is the time which He so receives.'
' You ought to receive Him, for
He h as received y ou. ' evTrpoaSeK-
To§ is a favourite word of the
Apostle ; and as such, and also
as being more emphatic, is sub-
stituted for the less familiar and
less expressive term of the LXX.
(Compare viii. 12 ; Rom. xv. 16,
31.)

vvv, * now,' may be either
generally 'now, in the Gospel
dispensation' (which is con-
firmed by ' the acceptable year,'
SeKTos evtavTo?, Luke iv. 19), or
rather in reference to the peculiar
need of his converts. ' Now, at
this present moment, is the time
for you to turn to God; waste
no time in doing so.'

3 The quotation from Isaiah,
with the Apostle's comment, had
been parenthetical ; and he now
enlarges on his efforts to fulfil
worthily his mission of exhorta-
tion to them, partly from the
mere outpouring of feeling over
the greatness of his work, partly
from the wish to hold up his
conduct as a model to his con-
verts. Comp. 1 Cor. ix. 18-17.

The participles StSovrcs, &c..

join on directly to o-wepyowre?.
The use of /xrjSejxiav and fxrj^evL,
instead of ovhe^iav and ovSevt,
indicates the connexion. ' I ex-
hort you, itiasmuch as I give the
best proof of my earnestness, by
anxiety not through my means
to throw any obstacle in the
way of your receiving the mes-

Trpoa-KOTrrj, ' stumbling- block,'
used only in this place for what
is elsewhere expressed (1 Cor.
viii. 9 ; E/om. xiv. 13) by Trpoo--

KO/X/Att.

fjno/xrjOrj, * I have reproach cast
upon it.' Compare the use of
the word (where only else it
occurs in the New Testament) in
viii. 20, possibly with reference
to his refusing maintenance. See
note on xi. 7.

•17 StttKovta, ' the task or survice
of reconciliation' (v. 19), 'of
righteousness ' (iii. 8, 9).

4 arvvia-TOLVTe^ eavrov^, ' com-
mending myself, not by com-
mendatory letters (see on iii. 1),
but as true servants and instru-
ments, not of man, bat of God,
would naturally commend them-
selves.' This is the sense of the
nominative Slolkovol : had it been
the accusative StaKovovs. then the
sense would be ' commending '
or ' proving ourselves to be the
servants of God.' For the ex-
pression ScaKovoL, as applied to
himself, see 1 Cor. iii. 5.

HIS MOTIVE FOR HIS SERVICE.

435

pLaLS, ^iv 7r\riya2<;, iv c^vXafcat?, iv d/caraoTacriat?, kv k6-

selves as ministers of God, in much endurance, in troubles, in necessities,
in distresses, ^in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours, in

Observe that here a-vvia-Tavrc';
precedes cavrov?, whereas in iii.
1, V. 12, where the sense required
a stress to be laid on ' them-
selves,' cavTovs precedes o-vvt-
(rravo/xev.

4-10 The following enumera-
tion of the means whereby he
commended himself, may be di-
vided into four clauses, all am-
plifying Iv iravTL : (1) ev viroixovfj
.... v-qa-TuaL^. (2) Iv ayvorqTi
.... SvvdixiL Oeov. (3) Sta tcuv
ottXwv .... €v<f>y)/XLa<s. (4) ws
irXdvoL .... Travra Karc^oi/Te?.

(1) The first section is an ex-
pansion of iv vTTO/xovrj TToWrj, ' in '
or ' by much endurance,' in
three triplets of evils, each grow-
ing out of the last word of the
other, (a) The first describes
his hardships generally, ' In
crushing afflictions (OXii(/€(rLv),
in pressure of difficulties (dvdy-
Kttts), in narrow straits ((rrevo;(o)-
ptais).' The prevailing idea is
of pressure and confinement :
each stage narrower than the
one before, so that no room is
left for movement or escape.
(^OXiif/L^ and o-Tevo^oipta are often
joined, iv. 8 ; Rom. ii. 9, viii.
35 ; OXiKf/L^ and dvdyKtj, 1 Thess.
iii. 7.)

(b) The idea of * narrow
straits ' (o-T€vo;)((i)ptats) suggests
the thought of actual persecu-
tions, of which he gives the three
to which he was most frequently
exposed — the ' scourgings ' from
Romans and Jews (for which see
xi. 23-25); the 'imprisonments'
(for which see xi. 23), which
followed upon the scourgings, as

in Acts xvi. 22, 23 ; the ' tumults
and disorders' to which he was
exposed, as in Asia Minor (Acts
xiii. 50, xiv. 19), Greece (xvi.
19, xviii. 12), Jerusalem (xxi.
30). So the word is used in xii.
20 ; 1 Cor. xiv. 33 ; Luke xxi.
9 ; James iii. 16. It is possible,
however (as most of these pas-
sages relate rather to inward
than outward disorder), that the
sense may be ' unsettlement of
life,' as in da-TaTov/xev, 1 Cor. iv.
11 ; and this would sait some-
what better with its position
here, as it was the banishments
which succeeded^ the disorders
which preceded, the imprison-
ments.

Whatever be the meaning
of ciKaTaoTaa-tais, he naturally
passes from troubles sustained
at the hands of others to volun-
tary or internal troubles.

' The labour ' (kottoi?, as in
xi. 23, 27, X. 15) refers both to
his manual labour (1 Cor. iv. 12),
and also to the general toils and
anxieties (molestice) of his life;
the ' sleepless nights ' (dypv-rr-
vcafs) and ' hungerings ' (vrja-
retats), refer to the privations
imposed upon him, partly by his
wandering life, partly by his re-
fusal to receive support. See
note on xi. 27; 1 Cor, iv. 11.

(2) The second section enu-
merates the virtues which ac-
companied these outward hard-
ships.

They are arranged in two divi-
sions, not so much by the mean-
ing as by the form of the words ;
the first consisting of one, the
f2

436

SECOND EPISTLE: CHAP. VI. 6—10.

7rot9, €J^ aypVTTPiaL^, ev vrjorreiai^, ^ev ayvorrjTL, ev yi^wcrei,
kv fjLaKpoOvfJLLa^ kv y^prjcnoTiqri, kv TTvevfJiaTL aytw, kv ayairrj
avvTTOKpiTO)^ ^ kv Xoyo) oXrjOeLa^^ kv hvvdixei 9eov, 8ta tcjv

watchings, in fastings, ^in pureness, in knowledge, in long-suffering, in
kindness, in the Holy Ghost, in love unfeigned, ^in the word of truth,
in the power of God, by the armour of righteousness on the right hand

latter of two words : as, for ex-
ample, ' love ' would naturally
have followed on ' kindness ; '
but as he wished to accompany
it with 'the epithet ' unfeigned,'
he therefore puts it in the second
division ; and ' the Holy Spirit '
would also, but for the same
reason, have properly stood at
the head of 'the whole section.
For a similar regard to the sound
rather than the sense of the
words he was bringing together,
compare Jlom. i. 30, 31. Each
word stands singly without any
apparent connexion, as it came
uppermost in his thoughts.

(a) ^yvorrj?, ' purity from sin'
generally, as in vii. 11.

yvwo-ts, ' knowledge ' or ' in-
tuition of Divine truth,' as in
1 Cor. xii. 8.

fxaKpoOvjxta, 'patience,' is joinp
ed with xPW'^'^V'^i ' kindness,'
as in Gal. v. 22 ; so in Eph.
iv. 2, fiera /xaKpoOv /xtag, av€xo-
jjievoL dXA.TyX(ov, and in Col. iii.
12, TrpavTTjTa, fxaKpoOvfjLtav.

(6) iv TrvevfjiaTi ayio), ' by the
Spirit of God shown in various
manifestations.' See 1. Cor. xii.
3.

iv ayaTTQ avviroKpLTio. The epi-
thet (compare Rom. xii. 9) has
determined the position of ayaTrrj
in the sentence, as well as tl^e
consideration that it comes here
with the ' Holy Spirit,' as the
climax of the moral qualities
which he enumerates.

The * word of truth ' (Xoyo)

dXr]OcLa<;) is the ' word of simple
unadulterated truth,' as in ii. 17,
iv. 2. The 'power of God'
(8w. Ocov) is the power visible
in miracles (as in 1 Cor. ii. 4).

(3) In the third section the
words are held together merely
by the word Sid, and by their
antithetical form ; 8ia in the case
of Blol Tix)v ottXiov expressing the
means by which he made his
way, Sid without the article, in
8ta 8o^9, &c. expressing the state
through which he had to make
his way. It is the same con-
fusion of the two senses of Sid,
as in 1 Pet. iii. 20 : ia-toOyja-av
OL v8aTO<s.

oia Twv ottXwv . . T(ov dpwTTcpajv,
' by the arms of the Christian's
life of righteousness [the word
taken in its widest sense, as in
V. 21], both offensive and defen-
sive, with the sword or spear in
the right hand, and the shield in
the left.' This description of his
weapons arises out of the men-
tion of ' the power of God ' just
before. The idea had been al-
ready expressed in 1 Thess. v. 8,
and was afterwards more fully
developed in Eph. vi. 11, 12.

The words indicate (what we
learn also from 1 Cor. iv. 12,

XoiSopOVJULeVOL fiXa(Tcf>7JlilOVfJi€VOi) f

that these false imputations con-
stituted one of his severest trials.

(4) Hence the fourth section
expands the words ' through
evil report ' into a long list of
the contrasts between his alleged
and his real character, at once

HIS MOTIVE FOE HIS SERVICE.

437

ottXojv Trj<; SiKaiocrvvr)^ tcjv Se^LOJV kol apicTTepcoVf ^8td
Bo^rjs Kol drtjLtta?, Bua Sucr</)7;/xia9 kol ev(j)7]fJiLa<;^ o)?
irkdvoL /cat akrjdel^^ ^ a)<s ayvoovyievoL kol eTnyiv(ii(TKOp.evoL^

O)? OLTToOl^ljo-KOPTeS KOL ISoV ^W/Aei^, 0)S TTatSeVO/Xei^Ot KOL

fjLY) OavaTovfJbevoL, ^^cog XvirovfjievoL act 8e ^aipovre^^ w?
77X0)^01 TToXXous Sc TrXouTt^o^'res, ws jxTjSev i^ovTe<s kol
Trdvra KaT€)(OPTes.

and on the left, ^by glory and dishonour, by evil report and good report,
as deceivers and true, ^as unknown and well known, as dying and behold
we live, as chastened and not killed, ^°as sorrowful yet alway rejoicing,
as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing and possessing all
things.

showing his difficulties and his
triumph.

7rAai/ot, ' deceivers.' That such
was alleged to be the Apostle's
character is clear from ii. 17, iv.
2, and also from the expressions
in the Clementines, Horn. ii. 17,
18, xi. 35, where St. Paul is ex-
pressly described as a deceiver
(7rAai/os), and sowing error
(irXdvqv) : see p. 352.

Kttt in classical Greek would
have been KaCroL or dAA' oyu,ws.

9 ayvoovjxevoL, * unknown,' i.e.
* obscure,' his real power not
recognised (as in x. 10) ; yet
amongst true believers recog-
nised fully (as in iii. 2).

' Dying,' i.e. his enemies re-
presented him as on the point of
death, and so no more coming to
Corinth ; and yet, behold ! at
that very moment he is still full
of life and energy. Compare iv.
40.

TTtttSevo/Aevot, ' chastised,' per-
haps in allusion to the insinuation

that he was under God's wrath ;
but also under a sense that God
was thus training him for his
work : ws losing the sense of
^ quasi* and acquiring that of
' quippe.* The words seem to
refer to Ps. cxvii. (cxviii.) 18 :
TratSevoJV CTratScvo-c /a€ 6 Kvptos,
Kol ToJ Oavdrio ov irapeScoKc jxe.
Compare xii. 7-9 (the ' thorn in
the flesh ').

lo For the ' perpetual cheer-
fulness ' (act Sc >^atjpovT€s) see
Rom. V. 3, * we boast in out
afflictions ; ' and Philipp. iv. 4,
12.

The * poverty' alludes to the
taunts against him for not re-
ceiving a maintenance ; see note
on xi. 7; 1 Cor. xi. 1. The
'riches' may refer to the con-
tributions in viii. 9, but more
generally to spiritual things, as
in 1 Cor. iii. 22.

6X0VT69, simply 'having;' Ka-
T€xovT€^, ' having to the full : '
see 1 Cor. vii. 29, 30.

438 SECOND EPISTLE.

Paraphrase of Chap. Y. 11 — VI. 10.

/ liave spoken of the aivful time when every deed done in this
mortal frame will he disclosed before that great tribunal, of
u'hich the judgment seat of the highest earthly judge is a faint
figure. With this conviction, I try to win over and make
friends of men ; but it is from no human motives that I do so.
My motives are disclosed to God now, as they will be hereafter
at the judgment ; and they are disclosed to you aUo, if you
consult, each of you, his own innermost conscience. So I speak ;
for even you thought before that I was commending myself to
you, on my own authority. But this is not a self-commen-
dation. This complete disclosure of all my heart to you
enables you to vindicate me against those who rely on the testi-
mony, not of their own hearts, but of commendatory letters, of
lineal descent, of commanding presence. My disclosure before
God shows that, if I am carried beyond the verge of soberness,
it is in my zeal for Him ; my disclosure before you shows that,
if I restrain myself and act as if under the dictates of worldly
loisdom, it is in my regard for you. And the reason of this is,
that, if you read my heart, you will find that I am pressed
forward by one irresistible motive, the sense of the love which
Christ has shown to all the world. That love drives me to the
conclusion that if He, singly and alone, laid down His life in
behalf of all, then all for whom He so laid down His life have
forfeited all claim to their lives. The very object of His lay-
ing down His life in their behalf was, that all who live through
Him, all who are alive at all, should devote their lives to Him
ivho, whether in His death or in the life to which He was raised,
did all in their behalf.

A complete separation is thus made by the Christian faith
between the present and the past. Wliatever others may think,
or I myself may once have thought, I cannot now rely on any
outward or local association ; even with Christ Himself my
union now can never be, like that of my opponents, a lineal or
natural connexion, but only moral and spiritual. And this is
true, not only of myself, but of all. If any one has entered
into fellowship with Christ, a new ivorld has at once opened
upon him ; an old world has passed away, and he looks out as

HIS MOTIVE FOR HIS SERVICE. 439

in the first beginning of creation, as in the days after the flood,
as in the final dissolution of all tilings, on a. new creation ; and
that new creation descends, not merely from Christ, hut from
God Himself to whom the whole reconciliation is due, of which
I am at once the chief example and the chief servant. For in
that single life and death of Christ, was contained no less than
a revelation of the Eternal God working out the reconciliation
of a whole world to Himself Therefore to them He forbears
to impute their offences ; to me He entrusted the utterance of
the message of reconciliation, and in the fulfilment of this trust
1 address this message to you, I come as an ambassador from
Christ. I come as the instrument through which God exhorts
you to come to Him ; and the ivords which I utter as from.
Him are, * Be reconciled to God.' The object for which He
made the Sinless One pass through the world of sin was, that
I, and you with me, might, through and with that Sinless One,
be drawn into the world of righteousness. In pursuance of this
exhortation, I add my efforts to the efforts of God, and exhort
you not to allow the goodness which He has shown to you to
pass away without effect. Receive Him ; for He, as we read
in the Prophet Isaiah, has received and heard and blessed you ;
and the time of this reception and salvation is this very present
moment. This mission, of which I am the instrument, must be
above all reproach : it must rest, not on commendations from
others, but on the commendations of my own deeds. It must be
commended by the endurance of calamities which press me
closer and closer in on every side, by flagellations, imprison^
ments, wild uproars : by toils and sleepless nights and hunger :
by the moral force of pure character and deep knowledge, the
winning effects of patience and gentleness, the holiness of the
Spirit, and the reality of the Spirit's greatest gift Love : by
the preternatural power of miracles, and the simple utterance
of truth ; through the shield and sword of righteousness which
God has placed in my hands, through all the obstacles of mis-
understanding and suspicion, for in spite of my dishonesty I
am honest, in spite of my obscurity I am famous, in spite of
my death I live, in spite of chastisement I prosper, in spite of
sorrow I am cheerful, in spite of poverty I am rich, in spite of
destitution I am powerful.

440 SECOND EPISTLE.

The Reconciliation of the World by Christ's Death.

As the previous Section of the Epistle has in all ages ministered
to the wants and feelings of individuals, so this Section has
ministered to the wants and feelings of the Church at large.
It contains one of the clearest statements in the Apostle's
writings of the effect of Christ's death. That effect is here
described to be The Reconciliation of Man to God. In later
times this has been expressed in various modes, some of which
have fallen below, some gone beyond, the Apostle's statement.
The best mode of exhibiting a subject so complicated and so
profound is, to confine ourselves to the Scriptural view, and
to observe the precise force and intention of the words as
originally Avritten. Their sense may be thus summed up : —
The world had been in a long estrangement from God ; His
dealings had awakened in the heart of mankind a sense of hos-
tility and offence. Suddenly a great manifestation of Divine
love was announced, which wherever the tidings were brought
awakened feelings never known before. These feelings resolved
themselves into two kinds : — The present was felt to be parted
from the past, by a separation so complete as to be compared
by the Apostle to a new creation.^ The whole world, not
Jewish only but Gentile, was called, after long absence, to
return to God.^

The Jewish nation was by this one event delivered from
the yoke of the Levitical ritual. So, even in times of great
human sorrow or joy, the burdensome ceremonial of social life
is dissolved by a stronger and more universal sense of brother-
hood : ' If ye be dead ivith Christ from the rudiments of the
world, why . . . are ye subject to ordinances — " Touch not,
taste not, handle not?"' (Col. ii. 20,21.) The Jewish and
Gentile classes were reconciled to each other, by the sight of
His common love exhibited by Christ to both : ' He hath
broken down the middle wall of partition^ having abolished in
his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained
in ordinances ; for to make in himself of twain one new man,
so making peace, and that he might reconcile both unto God

1 V. 17. ^ V. 18, 10.

THE APOSTLE'S VIEW OF CHEIST'S DEATH. 441

in one body by the Cross, having slain the enmity thereby '
(Eph. ii. 14-16).

And finally, the great mass of the Gentile world were
delivered by this Divine act of love from the slavery of the
sins of their age, and country, and long contaminations of
false morals and worship : * You that were sometimes alienated
and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He
reconciled in the body of His flesh through death' (Col. i. 21) ;
' You hath He quickened who were dead in trespasses andsins^
(Eph. ii. 1).

So far as this deliverance was not effected, the reconcilia-
tion was not complete ; so far as the reconciliation was com-
pleted, the result was that both in Judaism and Heathenism, in
nations and in individuals, * old things passed away, all things
became new.' In Christ's death Christians die ; in Christ's
life. Christians live.

This is the substance of the Apostle's message. His state-
ment of it is important in many ways.

I. It explains how it was that the proclamation of the glad
tidings of Christ's death fell to the lot, beyond all Connexion
others, of the Apostle of the Gentiles. To us, the with the

., n A t , '^' ' •> n admission

idea 01 the ' atonement or ' reconciliation oi man to of the

God, and the idea of the admission of the Gentiles, Gentiles.

have ordinarily no connexion with each other. To St. Paul,

the two ideas were inseparable. He could not imagine the

death of Christ to involve less universal consequences than the

reconciliation of the whole world. A well-known Christian

poet of later times has beautifully said of the Redemption with

regard to the previous generations of mankind —

Now of thy love we deem

As of an ocean vast,
Rising in tides against the stream

Of ages gone and past.

The Apostle's statement of it is equally true of all the existing
and, if he looked so far, of all the future generations of the
world.

II. The Apostle's view of Christ's death — as throughout
the New Testament — represents it as the effect and -^^ -
manifestation, not of the wrath or vengeance of God, the Love
but of His love ; of the love not only of Christ, but, ^^ ^°^-
in the most emphatic sense, of God also. It was not God that
was reconciled, and man that was thereby induced to love ;

442 SECOND EPISTLE.

but God that showed His love, and thereby brought back
mankind from its long enmity with Him. It was not God
that was to be appeased, and Christ that was to appease, but
* God was in Christ.' Man is not described as seeking after
God, but God as seeking after man : ' " Be ye reconciled to
God." He says not (thus writes Chrysostom on this passage),
" reconcile God to yourself," for it is not God who is an enemy
to you, but you who are enemies with God/

There was no contradiction or separation in the Divine Act.
The Apostolical and the Evangelical representations exactly
coincide. As here, so in the parable of the Prodigal Son,
nothing intervenes between the loving father and the returning
penitent. In the act of Redemption, above all others, it is
true that ' Christ and the Father are One.' In the Apostle's
own Epistles the love and forgiveness which the Death of
Christ expresses are equally ascribed to God and to Christ —
' God . . . imputing not their trespasses to them ' (2 Cor. v.
19); * Christ . . . having forgiven you all trespasses' (Col.
li. 13) ; ' God in Christ {iv %/3fco-To5) forgave you ' (Eph. iv. 32).
In many passages of Scripture we hear of * the wrath ' and
' the indignation ' of God against sin. But the frequency
of these passages makes it the more remarkable that the ex-
pression never or hardly ever occurs in connexion with the
death of Christ.^ ^ God,' * the love of God,' * the righteous-
ness of God,' is always the source to which this event is
ascribed: Kom. v. 8, * God commendeth His own love towards
us; ' Rom. viii. 31, 32, ' God . . . spared not His own Son; '
John iii. 16, ' God . . . [not ' so hated,' but] so loved the
world ; ' Rom. ili. 24, ' Whom God hath set forth to be a
propitiation, through faith, in His blood, to declare [not ' His
wrath,' but] His righteousness for the remission of sins that
are past, through [not ' the vengeance,' but] the forbearance
of God.^ 'Love' and * righteousness ' are joined, not as in
opposition, but as in harmony with each other: 'that He
might be just and the justifier.' The ' Reconciliation ' and
' Propltation ' are not brought to Him, but are given by
Him. Humble as in the eyes of the contemporary world that
solitary Death might seem, it expressed and implied nothing
less than the Universal Love of the Almighty.

^ In the one apparent exception
(Rom. V. 9), 'We shall be saved
from wrath through Him,' the con-

text immediately corrects any such
erroneous impression : ' We shall
be saved by his life.'

THE APOSTLE'S VIEW OF CHRIST'S DEATH. 443

III. It is to be observed how great a stress the Apostle
lays on the solitary and unique nature of Christ's ^ew epoch
death, — ' One for ^alL' Partly, no doubt, this arises in human
from the desire to exhibit the unity of mankind in ^^ °^^"
the redemption, — ' Not two Christs, but one alike for Jew and
^Gentile.' But partly also it arises from the consciousness of
the pre-eminent greatness of that death above all others, and
from the wish to bring out strongly the fact that this one
sino^le event was to extend its influence to the whole ranoje of
humanity : ' If I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto Me,'
.John xii. 32. There is no raisgivinoj as to the vastness of the
effects.

This falls in with the Apostle's stedfast declarations that
the death of Christ was the turning point in the history of the
human race. Had he foreseen distinctly that a new era would
be dated from that time ; that a new society, philosophy,
literature, moral code, would grow up from it over continents
of which he knew not the existence ; he could not have more
strongly expressed his sense of the greatness of the event than
in what is here said of ' old things passing away, and all things
becoming ^new.' We regard Christianity as belonging to the
old age and ancient institutions ; he reo^arded it as the seed
and spring-time of a new world. His eye is fixed on the
future. He is the Prophet of what is to come no less than the
Apostle of what has been.

IV. We here see clearly the cause to which the Apostle
ascribes his great exertions : — ^ The love of Christ
constrained him.' Of the reality of that Love his of the
own life was and is the best proof and explanation. Apostle's
There had appeared on the earth (so we must en-
deavour to conceive his feelings) an exhibition of love such as
had never before been seen. Whatever influence the force of
example or the sentiment of gratitude brings to bear upon the
human mind, was now in the highest degree exercised upon the
mind of St. Paul. To follow where Christ had gone before,
to requite His love by carrying out His work, became the

^ V. 15. Compare Rom. v. 15, self a ransom for all ; ' Eph. ii. 14,
* The free gift of One man ; ' Rom. 16, ' Who hath made both (me . . .
vi. 10, ' He died unto sin once.^ \ of twain one new man . . . that He

might reconcile both to God in one

^ Compare 1 Tim. ii. 5, ' Oiie God
who will have all to be saved . . .
one Mediator . . . who gave Him-

body on the Cross.'
^ V. 16, 17.

444 SECOND EPISTLE.

Apostle's master passion. The great event of Christ's death
rose up as the background of his life. From that single point
every thought diverged. The love which Christ had shown to
him became the atmosphere in which he lived and moved and
had his being. What he felt has been continued afterwards.
We know that in the events of the Exodus we have found the
first origin of the idea of the severe Law of an Unseen God,
which became henceforward the inalienable possession of the
Jewish race. So, but in a higher sense, the Love of Christ
roused in the minds of His disciples a sense of the reality and
the power of love, which became the spring of a new life to
them, and through them to the world ; and, amidst manifold
weakness and error, Koman Catholic and Protestant alike, in
the zeal of Missionaries, in the benevolence of Sisters of Mercy,
in the service of the poor and ignorant and afflicted, there have
been thousands of acts and lives of self-devotion, which can be
traced up to nothing lower than this self-same motive.

V. One portion of the Apostle's statement brings out
Christ's more clearly than any other passage in Scripture the
relation to relation of Christ to sin in the work of redemption :
' Him who knew not sin He made sin for us, that
we might become the righteousness of God in ^ Him.' To a
certain extent the strength of the expressions is due to the
antithetical form in which the Apostle so often couches his
conviction of the entire sympathy and communion between
Christ and His people, as in the passage, ^ For your sakes
He became poor, that ye through His poverty might become
2 rich.' But as there was a true sense in which He was poor
for the sake of man, so also there is a true sense in which He
became sin for the sake of man. To interpret the phrase as
meaning merely, ' He underwent the punishment due to sin,'
would be no less inadequate than it would be to say in the pa-
rallel passage that it only meant, * He underwent the shame
which follows upon poverty.' The punishment and the suffering
incident to sin is doubtless included ; but the whole meaning
must be analogous to that in which St. Matthew takes the
corresponding phrase of the Prophet — * Himself took our in-
firmities and bare our sicknesses ' (Matth. viii. 17). As by
His contact with human suffering in His mission of healing,
He also suffered — so by His contact with human sin in His

^ V. 21. 2 viii^ 9^

THE APOSTLE'S VIEW OE CHRIST'S DEATH. 445

mission of redemption, He also, so far as His perfect sinless-
ness allowed, became conscious of sin. The sin of man, in its
literal sense, is as much below the sinlessness of Christ, as the
righteousness of God, in its literal sense, is above the un-
rio^hteousness of man. But still in each clause of the sentence

as near an approximation is implied as the nature of the case
permits. We, in Christ, are to share in God's righteousness,
to be perfect as He is perfect, to be pure as He is pure ; yet
still compassed about with human infirmities, and feeling that
we are unprofitable servants. Christ in our behalf is to de-
scend into the abyss of sin, enduring its evil, assailed by its
temptations, suffering from its consequences, but without par-
taking of it, and feeling it the more keenly from the very fact
of His entire elevation above it.

In such a subject, it would be presumptuous to seek
illustrations from any other source than the express facts of
the Gospel history. Two striking illustrations of this kind
may be given in the words of two modern writers. One is
Frederick Maurice, whose expressions, though they may
appear to some exaggerated, to others inadequate, will serve
to give the general image wrapped up in the Apostle's lan-
guage :—

' There was a time in onr Lord's life on earth, we are told, when
a man met Him, '* coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, whom
no man conld bind ; no, not with chains." That man was " possessed
by an unclean spirit." Of all men upon earth you would say that
he was the one between whom and the pure and holy Jesus there
must have existed the most intense repugnance. What Pharisee,
who shrank from the filthy and loathsome words of that maniac,
coald have experienced one thousandth part of the inward and in-
tense loathing which Christ must have experienced for the mind that
those words expressed ? For it was into that He looked — that
which He understood ; that which in His inmost being He must
have felt, which must have given Him a shock such as it could have
given to no other. . . . He must have felt the wickedness of that
man in His inmost being. He must have been conscious of it as no
one else was or could be. Now, if we have ever had the conscious-
ness, in a very slight degree, of evil in another man, has it not
been, up to that degree, as if the evil was in ourselves ? Suppose
the offender were a friend, or a brother, or child, has not this sense
of personal shame, of the evil being ours, been proportionably
stronger and more acute ? However much we might feel ourselves
called upon to act as judges, this perception still remained. It was

446 SECOND EPISTLE.

not evaded even by the anger, the selfish anger and impatience of
an injury done to ns, which most probably mingled with and cor-
rupted the purer indignation and sorrow. Most of us confess with
humiliation how little we have had of this living consciousness of
other men's impurity, or injustice, or falsehood, or baseness. But. . .
we know that we should be better if we had more of it. In our best
moments we admire with a faint admiration — in our worst we envy
with a wicked envy — those in whom we can trace most of it. And we
have had just enough of it to be certain that it belongs to the truest
and most radical parts of the character, not to its transient impulses.
Suppose, then, this carried to its highest pitch, cannot you, at a
great distance, apprehend that Christ may have entered into that
poor maniac's spirit, may have had the most inward realisation of
it, not because it was like what was in Himself, but because it was
utterly and entirely unlike ? And yet this could not have been,
unless He had the most perfect and thorough sympathy with the man
whose nature was transformed into the likeness of a brute, whose
spirit had acquired the image of a devil. Does the coexistence of
His sympathy and of His antipathy perplex you ? Oh ! Ask your-
selves which you could bear to be away, which you could bear to be
weaker than the other. Ask yourselves whether they must not
dwell together in their highest degree, in their fullest power, in any
one of whom you could say, " He is perfect ; he is the standard of
excellence; in him there is the full image of God." Diminish by
one atom the loathing and horror, or the fellowship and sympathy ;
and by that atom you lower the character ; you are sure that you
have brought it nearer to the level of your own low imaginations, that
you have made it less like the Being who would raise you towards
Himself. . . . No other words but the Apostle's words, " He was
made sin," could give us an impression of the sense, the taste, the
anguish of sin, which St. Paul would have us think of as realised
by the Son of God — a sense, a taste, an anguish of sin, which are
not only compatible with the not knowing sin, but would be im-
possible in any one who did know it. The awful isolation of the
words "Ye shall leave me alone," united with the craving for
human affection, " With desire I have desired to eat the passover
with you " — the agony of the spirit which is fettered, in the words,
" If it be possible, let this cup pass from me," with the submission
of the words, "Not as I will, but as Thou wilt ; " above all, the ex-
isting for a moment even of that one infinite comfort — " Yet I am
not alone, because the Father is with me," when the cry was heard,
" My God ! My God ! why hast Thou forsaken me ? " — these re-
velations tell us a little of what it was to be made Sin : if we get
the least glimpse into them, we shall not desire that the Apostle
could have spoken less boldly if he was to speak the truth.'

In language less philosophical, and wandering much
further beyond the recorded facts of Scripture, but so power-

THE APOSTLE'S VIEW OF CHKIST'S DEATH. 447

fully expressed as to give a more distinct and lively impression
of the idea intended to be conveyed, the same truth is given by
Cardinal Newman, in a description of the Agony of Gethse-
mane : —

' There, in that most awful hour, knelt the Saviour of the world,
. . . opening His arms, baring His breast, sinless as He was, to the
assault of His foe, — of a foe whose breath was a pestilence, and
whose embrace was an agony. There He knelt, motionless and
still, while the vile and horrible fiend clad His spirit in a robe
steeped in all that is heinous and loathful in human crime, which
clung close round His heart, and filled His conscience, and forced
its way into every sense and pore of His mind, and spread over
Him like a moral leprosy, till He almost felt Himself that which
He never could be, and which His foe would fain have made Him
be. . . . His ears they ring with sounds of revelry and of strife ;
and His breast is frozen with avarice, and cruelty, and unbelief ;
and His very memory is laden with every sin which has been
committed since the Fall, in all regions of the earth — with
the pride of the old giants, and the lust of the five cities, and
the obduracy of Egypt, and the ambition of Babel, and the un-
thankfulness and scorn of Israel. who does not know the
misery of a haunting thought, which comes again and again, in spite
of rejection, to annoy if it cannot seduce ? or of some odious and
sickening imagination, in no sense one's own, but forced upon the
mind from without ? or of evil knowledge, gained with or without
a man's fault, but which he would give a p^reat price to be rid of
for ever ? And these gather round Thee, Blessed Lord, in millions
now : they come in troops, more numerous than the locust or the
jmlraer-worm, or the plagues of hail, and flies, and frogs that were
sent against Pharaoh. Of the living and of the dead, and of the
unborn, of the lost and of the saved, of Thine own people and of
strangers, of sinners and of saints, all sins are there. ... It is the
long history of a world, and God alone can bear the load of it : —
hopes blighted, vows broken, lights quenched, warnings scorned,
opportunities lost ; the innocent betrayed, the young hardened, the
penitent relapsing, the just overcome, the aged failing ; the sophistry
of misbelief, the wilfulness of passion, the tyranny of habit, the
canker of remorse, the wasting of care, the anguish of shame, the
pining of disappointment, the sickness of despair ; — such cruel, such
pitiable spectacles, such heart-rending, revolting, detestable, madden-
ing scenes ; nay, the haggard faces, the convulsed lips, the flushed
cheeks, the dark brow of the willing victim of rebellion, they are
all before Him now — they are upon Him, and in Him. They are
with Him instead of that ineffable peace which has inhabited His
soul since the moment of His conception. They are upon Him,
they are all but His own.

448

SECOND EPISTLE: CHAP. VI. 11—14.

The Arrival of Titus, Chap. VI. 11—13, YII. 2—16.
Intercourse with Heathen, Chap. VI. 14 — VII. 1.

11 ^x

To crro/xa rjiicov avicoyev npos vfjia^, KopivOioi^ j]
^^ Our mouth is open unto you, Corinthians, our heart is enlarged :

11 In the previous verses, the
long train of digressions which
had broken in upon the Apostle's
argument in ii. 16, had been
gradually drawing to a conclu-
sion. The reconciliation with
God (v. 19-21) awakens the
thought of their reconciliation
with him ; and the description
of his own sufferings (vi. 4-10)
prepares the way for throwing
himself upon their sympathy.
Here, accordingly, the under-
current of deep affection which
had been from time to time ap-
pearing above the surface in iii.
2, 3, iv. 12-15, V. 13, now bursts
into sight, following almost in
the same words as the similar
passage in 1 Cor. iv. 14-16, on
the account of his victory
through sufferings. (Compare
especially, ' I speak to you as to
children,' in verse 13, with 1
Cor. iv. 14.) The veil, which had
hitherto hung between the Apo-
stle and his readers, is suddenly
rolled away ; we see them stand-
ing face to face ; his utterance,
so long choked by the counter-
currents of contending emotions,
is now, for the first time, clear
and distinct ('our mouth is
opened '), and for the only time
in the two Epistles he calls them
by their name (' Corinthians ').
With the loosing of his tongue
his heart opens also, that heart
which was ' the heart of the
world,' opens to receive in its

large capacities his thousand
friends ('our heart is enlarged') :
whatever narrowness of affection,
whatever check to the yearnings
of soul between them might
exist, was not on his part, but on
theirs (' ye are not straitened in
us ') ; the only reward which he
claimed for his paternal tender-
ness was a greater openness from
them, his spiritual children (' for
a recompense, I speak as unto
children, be ye also enlarged').

ctvcwye expresses the present
tense (as in 1 Cor. xvi. 9), and
is thus distinct from r/voL^afxev rb
(TTo/xa r]iJLU)v, ' we spoke to you ; '
whereas TrcTrXarwrat expresses
the perfect ; the opening of his
mouth follows upon the opening
of his heart, ' Whilst my words
find free utterance, my heart
has meanwhile been enlarged.'
(Comp. Matt. xii. 34 : , ^ ^^.
' out of the abundance of the
of the heart the onouth °^°"*^-'
speaketh ; ' and Romans x. 10,
' with the heart man believeth,
with the mouth confession is
made.')

The phrase ' to open the
mouth ' is in itself an ordinary
expression for ' to speak ' (as in
Matt. V. 2 ; Acts viii. 32, 35, x,
34, xviii. 14). But in the LXX.
it is used with a full poetical
meaning, and so here it derives
from the context a sense of free
and open speech, which would
not otherwise belons: to it. Com-

INTERCOURSE WITH HEATHEN.

449

«cap8ta Tjixojv TreTrXdrvvTaL' ^^ov aTevo-^copeicrOe Iv rjfjuv,
(TTevo^opeiaOe Se ev rot? cTTrXay^i'Ots vfjicov ^^ttju Se
avrrji/ ovTiixLaOiav (o)? T€kvol<; Xeyco) 7r\aTVpOr)T€ kol
vfieLg. ^^fJi^rj yLvecrOe erepo^vyovvTe^ aTri<TToi^* rt? yap

*^ye are not straitened in us, but ye are straitened in your own inward
affections : ^'now for a recompence in the same, (I say it as to children,)
be ye also enlarged.

^*Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers : for what

pare Eph. vi. 19 : Iva jxol Bo6rj
A.oyo9, iv avoL^CL rov (TTOfiaTois jxov,
€v Trapprjcrta yviopia-ai to fxvcrTrjpiov
Tov ivayyeXiov.

In like manner the use of the
'Enlarge- expression rj KapSca TTC-
ment of TrXdrvvrai was probably

the heart.' i j i •■ r»

suggested by its fre-
quent occurrence in the 0. T.
(LXX.) for 'joy,' — as in Ps.
cxix. 32 ; joy being in this case
the occasion out of which the
enlargement of heart proceeded.
So in the Arabian Nights, 'my
heart is dilated,' is the constant
expression for sensations of joy.
But its actual meaning here is
shown by the succeeding expres-
sions (o-Tevoxw/aeicr^c in 12, and
XwprjcraTe in vii. 2) to be not
simply joy, but wideness of sym-
pathy and intelligence, as opposed
to narrowmindedness both moral
and intellectual : in which sense
the corresponding Hebrew phrase
is used of Solomon, 1 Kings, iv.
29, who had ' largeness (im) of
heart like the sand that is on the
sea- shore.'

KopLvOioL. This address by
name is used besides only in Gal.
iii. 1, w avorjTOL TaXdrai, and in
Phil. iv. 15, ^tXtTTTn/o-tot.

12 a-TrXdyxva. This passage
is remarkable as speaking of the
affections under the double meta-
phor of the ' heart ' and ' the
bowels,' of which the latter has,
in modern languages, been en-

tirely superseded by the former.
Comp. a like use of a-rrXdyxya
and K€ap in ^sch. Agam. 996,
999. cnrXdyxva expresses physi-
cally the whole interior structnre
of man, including specially the
heart and liver as opposed to
what are now technically called
the bowels (evrepa). See -^sch.
Agam. 1221, where the two are
distinguished. In classical Greek
the word is used for the feelings
generally ; and in Hebrew, from
the root ^ vacham,' 'to foster
tenderly,* is used for * tender
pity.' Hence its use in St. Paul:
compare vii. 15 ; Phil. i. 8 ;
Philera. 7, 12, 20.

Tr]v avrrjv dvTt/>ttcr^iav=To avro,
o eoTTty dvTLfxicrdia, TrXaTvvOrjTe,
' open your hearts to the same
love that I show to you, which *
love is my reward.'

14 We now arrive at a re-
markable dislocation of Dislocation
the argument. On the of the ar-
one hand, the passionate ^"^®'^*-
appeal, begun in vi. 11, 12, 13, is
continued, without even the ap-
pearance of an interruption, in
vii. 2, where the words ^o>p>i<yaTc
rjfxa^ (^ make room for us') are
evidently the prolongation of the
metaphor expressed in vi. 12, 13,
by a'T€Vox(J)p^'iO'0e and wXarvvOrfTC.
On the other hand, the interven-
ing passage vi. 14-vii. 1, whilst it
coheres perfectly with itself, has
no connexion with the immediate

450

SECOND EPISTLE: CHAP. VI. 15, 16.

fxeTo-^T) BiKaLoavvrj /cat avofiLa, *^ ri? Koivcxivta (JxjjtI Trpo^

■is 56.

^ XpiaTTCf.

fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness ? or what communion
hath light with darkness ? ^^and what concord hath Christ with Belial i

context either before or after. It
relates, not to the Apostle's deal-
ings with the Corinthian Church
or his opponents, but entirely to
their connexion with the heathen
world, and, as would appear from
the phrases used in vi. 16-vii. 1,
especially to their contamination
by the sensual rites and practices
of heathenism.

This disconnexion with the
context is the more remarkable,
even in so abrupt an Epistle as
this, because the subject here
treated is altogether out of har-
mony with the Apostle's present
line of argument. It is a severe
warning suddenly introduced
into a strain of affectionate en-
treaty, a strong injunction to
separation in the midst of exhor-
tation to union, even with the
offender who had been guilty
of the very sins which he here
■ denounces. As the agreement
of the MSS. and the internal
evidence of the style both forbid
the supposition of interpola-
tion, two hypotheses suggest
themselves : (1) That heathen
sensuality is the sin alluded to in
vi. 1, a view slightly confirmed
by the use of the word SiKaLoa-vvrj
both in vi. 14, v. 21, and vi. 7, as
well as by the strong expression
in vi. 1, fir] eh Kevov irjv X^-P'-^ ^^'"
iaaOai. If this be so, the renewal
of the subject in vi. 14 might be
explained, either by the supposi-
tion of a resumption of an inter-
rupted argument (as, in a less
striking manner, in the digression

iv. 2-6), or by the conjecture of
an actual transposition of the
text, vi. 14-vii. 1, intervening
between vi. 2 and vi. 3, and the
participles of vi. 3-10, StSoi/rca,
(Tvi/to-TcivTc?, &c., being continua-
tions of £7riTcAoi}j/T€s in vii. 1.

(2) That the continuous flow
of the first part of the Epistle
comes to an end at vi. 13, the
impassioned appeal to the Co-
rinthians immediately following
on the account of his own suffer-
ings ; that then (for some reason
unknown to us) he was inter-
rupted in the course of his his-
tory, and resumed it in vii. 2
with x^/orytrare rjixa<s (' receive
us'), so as to carry on both the
thought with which he had last
been occupied, and also the ge-
neral subject left in ii. 16. The
indications of some such pause
between vii. 2-16 and the pre-
vious chapters are : (a) The repe-
titions, in some cases almost ver-
bal, of expressions and thoughts
in the earlier part, which would
be more natural if an interval or
interruption of some kind had
intervened, e.g. x^prjcraTe yixas,
vii. 2, compared with TrXaTvvOrjre,
vi. 13 ; ovSejxtav eax^JKev avecnv in
vii. 5, with ovk eorx>^Ka avecTLV in
ii. 13. (b) The change from the
plural to the singular first per-
son, which begins in vii. 3, and
continues (intermixed with the
other) through the remainder of
the Epistle, (c) The expression
TrpoeLprjKa in vii. 3, which is more
natural if referring to what

INTERCOUESE WITH HEATHEN.
16,

451

8e crvyKardOi

or what part hath he that believeth with an unbeliever? ^^ and what

jnepts TTLCTTco jLtera airicrrov ; "Tts oe crvyKaraoecn^ vao)

' Lachm. Ed. 1, ttkttov.

might be viewed as a distinct
portion of the Epistle. — N.B. In
this case, the insertion of the
paragraph vi. 14-vii. 1, might
be explained in two ways. It
might be a reflection in the in-
terval between the two parts of
the Epistle, venting itself on the
moment in this short warning ; or
the passage really belongs to
the First Epistle, with which its
whole tone is in far closer accord-
ance than with this. The allusion
in 1 Cor. v. 9, typaij/a v/xiv iv tq
iTTLcrToX.f}, would become more in-
telligible, if it could be supposed
to refer to some such direct
warning as is contained in this
passage, rather than to the very
general address in 1 Cor. v. 7, 8.
A similar conjecture is suggested
by Ewald.

14-16 €T€po^vy€tv is formed
'TJnequaUy apparently from irepo-
yoked.', ' t,vyo<s in Lev. xiv. 19
(LXX.)='an animal of different
breed.'

Hence the verb, which is not
elsewhere used, must mean (not
' to be unevenly yoked, one bear-
ing the yoke more heavily than
the other,' but) ' to be joined
with a wrong yokefellow,' as
bfjLo^vyeiv is * to be joined with a
right yokefellow.'

In the five contrasts which
follow, there is a con-
tinual transition from
the abstract to the
concrete. ' Righteousness ' and
'lawlessness' {StKaLoavvr) and
dvoixLo) are opposed, as the two
moral aspects of Christianity and
heathenism generally. Comp.
Rom. vi. 19 (with a special re-

' Righteous-
ness and

ference, as in this place, to sins .
of sensuality) . ' Light ' ' Light and
and 'darkness' (<f>m ^^arkness.'
and a-KOToq) point still more di-
rectly to the deeds of shame
which shun the light, as in Rom.
xiii. 12, 13, and more especially
in Eph. V. 7-13. In the anti-
theses between ' Christ and Be-
lial,' he passes from abstractions
to persons. The word is variously
written ' Belial ' (hT^^) . ^^^.^ ,
= worthless, which is in
no uncial MS., or * Beliar ' (which
is in B. C. J., according to the
Syriac corruption, as ' Sychar '
for ' Sychem,' in John iv. 5), or
Beliam and Belian (D. E. K.),
or Beliab (F. G.). It is here
employed (like Beelzebub in
Matt. xii. 24) merely as a syno-
nyme for Satan. It cori*esponds
in Hebrew to the same notion of
wickedness as is expressed in
Greek by irovrjpos, in Latin by
nequam, in Old English by
naughty, and is therefore the
most contemptuous name for
' evil,' or the * evil spirit,' the
' Little Master ' in Sintram (see
Arnold's Life, p. 684), as con-
trasted with Satan in the ' Para-
dise Lost.' Our associations with
the word are coloured by the at-
tributes ascribed to * Belial ' by
Milton (' Par. Lost,' Bk. 11.),
which he founds on the few and
exceptional passages in the Old
Testament ( Jud. xix. 22, xx. 13;
1 Sam. ii. 12), where the word is
used for sensual profligacy. The
fullest description of a man of
Belial in the 0. Test, is in Pro-
verbs vi. 12-15 : ' A naughty
person Q^ Adam-BeliaV), a

G a 2

452

SECOND EPISTLE: CHAP. VI. 17— VII. 1.

6eov ixera elBcoXcov; ^T^/iet? yap i^ao? 9eov ^icriJiku ^(t)VTO<;,
KaOco<s euTTeu 6 Oeos on evoLKujo'co iv avTois koI iimepL-

vjxiis.

agreement hath the temple of God with idols ? for we are the temple of
the living God, as God said that * I will dwell in them, and walk in them,

wicked man, walketh with a f re-
ward mouth,' &c. It never oc-
curs as a proper name in the
LXX., but is found once in
Theodotion's Version (Jud. xix.
22), and frequently in the Apo-
cryphal Testament of the Twelve
Patriarchs. (See Fabricius, Co-
dex Pseudepigr. N. T. i. 587,
619.)

The contrast of * heathen ' and
< BeHever * Christian,' in the words
and unbe- tticttos and aTrwrros (com-
'"'''''- pare 1 Cor. xiv. 22),
brings the opposition more
closely home ; and in the anti-
thesis of ' God's temple ' and ' an
idol,' he gives the ground for this
contrast, the society of believers
being regarded as ' the temple '
(according to 1 Cor. iii. 16, vi.
19), and the ' idol' being sug-
gested by the natural association
of the sins of sensuality with the
idolatrous rites.

Of the five words used to ex-
press the idea of union, fxeroxy,

KOLVOiVia, (TV/JL<fi(i)Vr](TL<Si /A€/OtS, (Tvy-

KardOeaLs, only the third and fifth
have any special appropriateness,
and those chiefly by their etymo-
logy ; (rviJL<fi(x}vr](TL<s, ' harmony of
voice,' is appropriate to persons,
o-vyKaTaOecri^, ' unity of composi-
tion,' to buildings. The multi-
plication of synonymes implies a
greater copiousness of Greek
than we should expect from the
Apostle's usual language. The
use of 8e after the first question
is also thoroughly classical.
1 6 vaos 6eov. He insists on

this the more, because the
thought of the Christian com-
munity as God's temple is es-
pecially opposed to its desecra-
tion by impurity, as in 1 Cor. vi.
19. The epithet 'living' (^Sv-
To<i) is added, to express the liv-
ing reality of God as opposed to
the dead images (comp. 2 Thess.
i. 9), and the living, as opposed
to the dead stones of the temple
(comp. 1 Pet. ii. 5 ; 1 Tim. iii.
15). For the transposition of
^ojvTos, see note on 1 Cor. viii.
11.

1 6 v/xct? ecrre, Rec. Text, with
C. D3. E. F. G. K. yjfjiu^ cV/xcV,
Lachmann, with B. D^ J. The
confusion is occasioned by the
likeness of pronunciation.

The first quotation which fol-
lows is from Lev. XXvi. Threefold
11, 12 : Kttt Orjcrai ttjv quotation.

(TKTJVqV fXOV iv VfJUV Kol OV /^ScXv-

^crat ri ifrv)(rj jxov v/xa? Kal i/ji-
TT^pLiraTrjcrai iv vfxZv. Kai
ecrofiat v fxuiv ^cos Kat v/>t6t5
ta-io-Oe /xoi Xaos. The verbal
likeness is very great, especially
in the word e/xTreptTrarrjcrd), not
elsewhere occurring in the 'New
Testament. Orja-w rrjv (TKrjvqv fiov
is changed to iioiKyjcrw, probably
with the view of avoiding the
collision of metaphors, which
would else result between the
Tabernacle and Temple ; and the
second person is changed to the
third, perhaps from a reminis-
cence of the parallel passage in
Ezekiel xxxvii. 26 : carat y /cara-
o-KTyvcocrts /xov Iv avTots, koX caofxai

INTERCOUESE WITH HEATHEN.

453

7raT7](Tco, Kol ecro^ai avTcov ^€05, koL avTol icrovTai ^ iiov
Xads. ^^Sto ^k^ekOare e/c jxecrov avTcoi/ kol d<f)opLO-6r)T€,
Xeyei KvpLO<;, kol aKaOdprov ixrj aTTTeade' Kayoi ela--
Se^o/xat v/xa9, ^^ kol ecrofJiaL vp!iv ct? Traripa, kol vfjielq
iaecrde jjlol eU vloifs kol OvyaTepaSy Xeyet Kvpios iravTO-
Kpdroip. / VII. ^ ravras ovv €)(0VTes rets iTrayyektas, dyaTTT)- ^

and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. "Wherefore come
out from the midst of them and be separate, saith the Lord, and touch
not the unclean thing: ^^ and J will receive you, and will be a Father
unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord
Almighty.' vii. * Having therefore these promises, beloved, let us

avTots 0€O9 KOL avToC /MOt €<rovTac
Xaos.

The next quotation^ is from
Isa. Hi. 11, 12, referring to the
return from Babylon : dTrofmyrCy
ctTrdo-TiyTC, iiiXOare iKstOev koI d^
KaOdprov /xrj anjrrja-Oe, i^eXOere Ik
/xi<TOv avTTJs, d<f>opL(rOr)T€ ol <f>€poV'

TCS TO, CrK€V7) KVpCoV, OTl OV jXiTOi

rapa^^s iieXcvcrea-Oe, ovSc ^vy^ tto-
pvocricrBi ' TrpoTropevfrerat yap Trpo-
npo'i vjxwv Kvpto? KoX 6 iTTLcrvvdyiav
v/jia<i ^eos 'lo-parjA. The first part
contains no further change than
is required by the change of the
special reference to Babylon into
a general reference to the heathen,
the words dKaOdprov /xrj difrqaOi
being exactly the same in both.
In the second part the detailed
description of the return, as un-
suitable to the present applica-
tion, is exchanged for the gene-
ral phrase Ka-ym cwrSc^o/xat v/xas,
again from a corresponding pas-
sage in Ezekiel (xx, 34), kol cto--

The last quotation is from
2 Sam. vii. 14 : eyoj €«ro/Aat avrw
€ts Traripa koI avrbi ea-erai fioi €is
vlov. Here again there is no
further change than is necessary
to transfer the application from
David to believers generally.

The introduction of Ovyarepa^
('daughters,' from Isaiah xliii.
6) shows how strongly present to
the Apostle was the extension of
the Divine blessings to every in-
dividual of the society. Compare
Acts ii. 17, 18 (' your sons and
your daughters J your servants and
hand-maidens '),.

In each case the distinct quo-
tation is marked by the mode of
reference. In the first, KaOw^
cTttcv 6 ^eos refers to eya> Kvptos
6 ^€05 vfjuhvj in Lev. xxvi. 1. In
the second, Aeyet Kvpioq refers to
the same words in Isa. Hi. 3, 4, 5.
In the third, Xcyet Kvpcos ttcu/to-
Kpdritip refers to the same words,
in 2 Sam. vii. 8, which is the
more evident, as Trai/TOKparoop, ex-
cept in the Apocalypse, never
occurs in the N. T.

VII. I From this stem
warning he descends into an
affectionate entreaty. The word
dyaTrrjTOL, ' beloved,' seems to
be introduced with this inten-
tion. It occurs nowhere else in
this epistle, except in a some-
what similar context, xii. 19.
Compare its like occurrence in
1 Cor. XV. 58, X. 14.

Ttts cVayyeAta?, the promises

454

SECOND EPISTLE : CHAP. VII. 2—5.

rot, KaOapLcrcofxev iavTOv<; oltto Trai^ro? jioXvcrfJiov crap/co?
/cat TTvevfiaTOS, eTTtreXowre? ayLa)cnji'r)v iv (j)6fia) 6eov.

^XcDpyjcraTe rjfjias' ovhiva rjSiKTJa-ajJLev, ovSeVa i(f)6eL-
pafJL€v, ovhiva iTrXeoyeKTujcrafxev. ^""irpos KaTOLKpicriv ov

' Ov rrphs KaraKpiffiv \4y<n.

cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, perfecting 'holiness
in the fear of God.

^ Make room for us : we wronged no one, we corrupted no one, we
defrauded no one. ^ I say not this to condemn you : for I have said

contained in the foregoing quo-
tations.

Ka6api(T<iifx€Vy as becomes those
who are the Temple of God.
Compare 1 Cor. vi. 19.

Travro? /xoXvcr/xov, ' not this or
that particular pollution, but
all ; ' not ceremonial and out-
ward only, but inward and spi-
ritual pollution also. Compare
1 Pet. iii. 21, on baptism.

eVtreA-ovvTc?, ' by completing.'

ayi(ti(Tvvy)v. The word is used
in connexion with the preceding
phrases of ' purification ' and
' pollution.' But as these phrases
in Christian language acquire a
moral and spiritual, instead of a
ceremonial meaning, so also does
' holiness.' Although the ad-
jective aytos has a more general
signification, yet the substantive,
whether expressed under the
form of dyia<T/xa9, as in Rom.
vi. 19, 22 ; 1 Thess. iv. 3, 4, 7 ;
1 Tim. ii. 15 ; Heb. xii. 14, and
1 Thess. iii. 18, or aytwo-uny as
here, especially implies purity as
opposed to sensual defilement.

eV ^o^o) Oiov. ' In the atmo-
sphere of awe and fear.' Com-
pare the same connexion of ideas
in 1 Pet. iii. 15, ' sanctify (dyta-
o-arc) the Lord God in your
hearts . . . with gentleness
and fear' ((fiojSov).

2 See note on vi. 14. The

argument there interrupted is
now resumed.

X^p^crare, * make room for us,'
=7rXaTvv6r}Te in vi. 13. Compare
Matt. xix. 11, for this use of

ovSiva -^SiKT^a-afxev ... . ov-
8eva €7rAeov€Kr>7cra/>tev. These
words relate probably to the
charges brought against him,
which, if true, would have de-
stroyed the confidence between
himself and his readers, and the
tense seems to refer them to
some precise time in the past.
The first is general ; the two
next, particular. VA-eovcKriicra-
fx€v alludes to the charge noticed
in xii. It), that he extorted
money from them. Compare also
ii. 17 (KaTnjk€vovT€<i). What can
be intended by icftOeipafxev, it is
difficult to say. But compared
with TO, KpvTTTa T7J<; alcr^vr]^, in
iv. 2, and aKa6apcria<s in 1 Thess.
iv. 7, there seems no reason why
it should not bear its natural
meaning (as in 1 Cor. xv. 33) of
the pollution of sensual sins,
against which, either as imputed
to himself, or as practised by his
opponents, the Apostle protests.
If not, it must be simply ' in-
jured,' or ' ruined,' as in 1 Cor.
iii. 17, and with cTrAcoreK'nycra^u.ev,
' defrauded,' is an explanation of

AREIVAL OF TITUS.

455

Xeyo)* TrpoeiprjKa yap otl iv rat? Kaphiai^ rjfJLcoi^ ecrrk et?
TO (TwaTToBaveiv kcll ^ crvvt^rjv, ^TroWrj yuoi TrapprjCTLa
npos v/;ta9, ttoXKt] [jlol Kav)(rjcrL<; vnep vficov TreirXijpcofJiat,
Tj] TrapaKkrjcreLi virepTrepicTcrevoyLaL rfj X^P^ ^^^ Trdcrrj rfj
6\l\I/€l rjiJLcop. ^Kol yap ekOovTov 7)IM(ov els MaKeBoviav

ffV^TJp

before that ye are in our hearts to die and live with you. * Great is my
plainness of speech toward you, great is my boasting of you : I am filled
with comfort, I am exceeding joyful in all our trouble. ^For when we

For a similar disclaimer of
sinister motives, see Acts xx. 33,

' It is not to condemn you that
I speak.' This, like the similar
phrase, 1 Cor. iv. 14, refers not
so much to what he has actually
expressed, as to the feeling in his
mind.

TTpoeiprjKa yap, * You cannot
doubt my love ; for I have before
said in this Epistle, that you are
deep in my heart,' referring to
iii. 2,v.l2, vi. 13.

€ts TO a-vvairoOaviiv kcu (rvvt,riv.
For this close sympathy of life
and death between himself and
the Corinthians, compare i. 6, 6,
vi. 12.

Possibly there may be an al-
lusion to some proverbial expres-
sion as in Horace : ' Tecum
vivere amem, tecum obeam
libens,' and to the passionate
feeling of the time which in-
duced friends (as Horace for
Maecenas), to offer to kill them-
selves on the death of their
friends. Compare Athenaeus (in
Wetstein) : tovtov^ 8' ol ^ao-iXct?
€xov(n a~vt,(i)VTa<i kol avvarroOvrj-

O-KOVTtt?.

4 Here, for the first time in
this Epistle, the plural first per-
son is exchanged for the singular
in speaking of himself, and from
this time to the end the two are
.intermixed. See note on vi. 14.

He now pours forth the joy,
occasioned by the arrival of Titus,
which had partially burst out in
ii. 14, vi. 11, X3 ; and sums up in
a few words the various feelings
which have sprung out of it.

TToXkrj irapp-qa-ia, ' freedom,' or

* openness ' of speech (see iii. 12),
the subject of the whole passage,
iii. 1-iv. 6, and again vi. 11, 12.

iroXK-ii Kav)(r](j-L^, ' boasting of
your good conduct,' as in i. 14,
iii. 2.

TTCTrXrypto/Aat . . . VTrepTrcpLcr-
arevofiaL. Both words are charac-
teristic of the Apostle's bursts of
feeling all through this Epistle :

* I am filled to the brim, I over-
flow.'

TrapaKkr)(TL^ in all its senses of

* consolation ' (which is espe-
cially meant here) and ' exhorta-
tion,' is also eminently charac-
teristic of this Epistle. See i.
4, 5, 6, vi. 1. x^Pi" -^^^ *^®
' joy,' see ii. 2-14,

The article before TrapaKXrjcrii
and x°-Pi shows that he refers to
the special event of the arrival
of Titus.

cTTt TTOLcrr) TTJ OXtif/eL, ' on the top
of my affliction, of whatever kind
it may be,' seeii. 12. This sums
up the whole feeling of iv. 7-12 .
vi. 2-10.

5 /cat yap, i.e. the reason both

456

SECOND EPISTLE: CHAP. VII. 6—10.

ovSefitav ^€a)(ev aveaiv 7) crap^ rjixcoVj dW iv iravji
dXi/BofJievoL' €^(t}6ev /i<a^at, icrcjdev (fyo^OL. ^dXX' 6 irapa-
KoKuiv Tov^ TaireLvovs TTapeKokecrev rjiJ^a^; 6 Oeos iv rfj
Trapovcr la Tltov ^ ov [xovov Se iv rrj TrapovcTia avTov^
aWa /cat iu rrj irapaKkqcru 7) TrapeKkTJdrj i(f) vpAV^ avay-
yiWoiv rjfJilt^ rrjv vfjLwv iirnroOy^crLv, tov vpLOiv oSvpfxov^ top
vjjLKop ^yjkov vnep ifMOv, ^crre jxe fiaWov ^aprjvai. ^otl

* txTxi\*t^v &vi<Tiv] Lachm. Ed» 1. Hv^aiu tffx^v.

were eome into Maeedonia our flesh had no rest, but we were
troubled on every side : without^ fightings ; within, fears. ^Never-
theless He, who comforteth those that are cast down, even God,
comforted us by the coming of Titus : 'and not by his coming only,
but also by the comfort wherewith he was comforted concerning you,
when he told us your longing, your mourning, your zeal towards me, so
that I rather rejoiced. ®For though I made you sorry with the letter, I

for the mention of ' his afflic-
tion ' and ' consolation*'

He carries on the narrative
of his journey a little further
than in ii. 13. There he had
spoken of his troubles at Troas,
here he describes them as still
continuing on his arrival at
Macedonia.

rj crdpi merely expresses * my
weak mortal nature.'

For avco-iv, see ii. 13.

€<rx^y, Lachmann with B. P.
G. K ; e<Txr)K€Vj Rec, Text with
CD. E.J.

e^wOev fjLOLxai. The precise
allusion cannot be determined.
Probably opponents of some kind.
Compare i6ripiofjidxr)(Tay 1 Cor. xv.
32.

tcrioOiv <fi6poL. Probably anxie-
ties for the Corinthian Church,
see ii. 12. Por the union of the
two, and the gloomy feeling pro-
duced, see i. 8, xi. 27, 28.

6 Now, for the first time, he
describes the joyful event, which
is the ground of the whole of the
first part of the Epistle — the
arrival of Titus. So joyful was
it, that he can refer it to nothing

short of the goodness of God
Himself.

6 TrapaKoXwv tovs Ta7r€Lvov<s.
* He that comforts the
downcast. TarreLvos, in
the N. T., has never the mean-
ing of 'humble,' except in me-
taphors.

cV rfj TrapGvcTLa Tltov, 'by the
coming and presence of Tifcus ; '
as in the frequent use of the
word to describe the Advent of
Christ.

7 rrj 7rapaKkrj(TU, ' the comfort
which he received from you was
a comfort to me.'

iTniroO-qa-Lv, ' longing for me.'
oSvp/xoi/, ' wailing that you had

offended me.'

^Xov, ' zeal, to do my will.'
fiaXXov ;(a/y^vai, ' more even

than by the arrival of Titus.'

See verse 13.

8 e'AvTnyo-a, see note on ii. 4.
€v ry iTnoToXj), i.e. 1 Cor. v.

1-8.

Lachmann, in his second edi-
tion, has adopted the reading of
the Rec. Text, ct KaC (not d 8k
Kat), and yap after /SXiiro). But,
whereas the Rec. Text joins «i

AERIVAL OF TITUS.

45t

el Koi iX-VTrrjcra vfxas iv rfj iTnaToXyj^ ^ov /xerajLte'Xo/iat.
ei ^Koi [JieTefJLekofiyjVy ySXeVo) [yap] otl y) iTno-ToXrj iKeivr)
€t • /cat 7rpo<s a>pav iXvirrjaev vfjLa<s, ^ vvv ^atpo), ov^ on
iXvmjOrjTe^ aXX' otl iXvTnjdrjTe eU fieTavoiav iXvTTrj6r)Te
yap Kara BeoVy Iva iv ix'qhevX ^rjixLOjOrjTe ef rjfxcjv. ^^r) yap
Kara deov Xvirrj iierdvoiav ets cTOiTiqpiav ajJLeTapLiXiqTov

■ ov fieraficKoixai, el Koi fJt,€r€fi€\6i*r]y • fi\firo> yhp . . . i\6irTi<Tiv vfxas.
" Lachm. Ed. 1. el Sh Koi /*6T6/i. i3AeV« Srt.

do not regret. Although I did regret, for I perceive that the same
Epistle made you sorry though but for a season, ^yet now I rejoice, not
that ye were made sorry, but that ye were made sorry to repentance : for
ye were made sorry towards God, that ye might receive damage by us in
nothing. ^^ For sorrow towards God worketh repentance to salvation not

Koi fiereiJieXofJLrjv with ov /A^ra/As-
XofjMLj with a full stop at ikvinja-ev
v/xas, Lachmann has a full stop
at fjL€TafjL€kofiaL and a comma at
v/xas, whilst Tischendorf takes
the punctuation of the Rec. Text
at /xcTa/xcA-oftat, and of Lachmann
at i»/xit9. This last is almost re-
quired by the expression, ci koL
Trpo? wpav fXvirrrjcrev : ' Even
though I did grieve you in my
Epistle, I do not regret it, even
thongh I did regret it ; for I see
that even though that Epistle did
grieve you for a time, 7iow there
is occasion for me to rejoice in
the result of your grief.* In this
manner, et kul preserves the same
sense throughout, which else it
would lose in the third place of its
occurrence ; and yap is then the
reason for his ceasing to mourn.
He had possibly meant to say
fiXeiru) yap otl rj iTnoToXrj iKeivr)
.... iXvTrrjcrev els p^erdvoiav : and
then changed this construction
into the present vvv x^^pw, equi-
valent in sense, though different
in words. And it is this confu-
sion which has led to the variety
of reading.

9 vvv x^^P^i * ^^^ ^^^^ Titus
is come, and that I know the

whole state of affairs, I not only-
do not regret, I rejoice ; but the
reason of my rejoicing is,' &c.

€t9 /xcTctvotav. This passage
shows how inadequate
IS our word ' repen-
tance.' * Ye were grieved so as
to change your mind.^ 'Your
repentance amounted to a revo-
lution of mind.'

Kara deov, ' in regard to God.'
See xi. 17; Rom. viii. 27. It
was a sorrow not merely towards
man, but towards God, as in the
model of true penitence in Ps. li.
4, 'against Thee only have I
sinned.' Bengel — ' Animi De-
um spectantis et sequentis.'

Lva iv fxrjBevt . . . ' the effect of
your sorrow has been that you
received no loss from my seve-
rity : ' — ' My severity was at-
tended under God's guidance
with happier consequences than
I could have anticipated.'

lo OLfjieTaiJLeXr)Tov, either : (1)
with a-ioTrjpLav, ' salvation which
cannot be regretted,' as in Rom.
xi. 29 ; or (2) with ixeTavoiav,
by a play on the word. ' In
the word dfxeTaixeXrjTov he refers
back to /JLerajxeXoixaL in 8.

^ Tov Koar/xov Xvirrj. The oppo-

458

SECOND EPISTLE: CHAP. VII. 11—16.

^ ipyd^erai^ rj 8e tov KocrfJiov XvTrrj Odvarov KaTepydt^er ai. j
^^tSou yap avTo tovto to /caret 9eov \v7rr)6rjvaL^ irocnqv
Kareipydoraro ^ \_iv\ vp^'i'V cnrovhrjV dXKd aTroXoyCav, aXka
dyavaKTrjcTLv, aXka (f)6^ov^ aXka iTnTroOrjcnv^ dXXa ^rjXov,
akXa iKStKYjcTLV. iv TravrX arvveo'Trja'aTe iavTOvs ayvov^
elvaL [ei'] tS TTpdyiiari. ^^dpa el /cat eypaxjja vixlv^ oxr^
^eveKev tov dSLKyjcravTos ^ ovSe iveKev tov dSiKrjOePTOf;^
aW eueKev tov (j)av€po)9rjvaL ttjv orTrovSrjv ^vficov Trjv virep

Karepyd^erai. ^ Kvirridrivai vfias.
* Lachm. Ed. 1. adds oAA'.

" Om, iv. ^ elvcKcv in the three places.
' ffirovZiju Tjfiwv . . . vfxwv.

to be regretted, but the sorrow of the world worketh death. "For
behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed towards God, how much
earnestness it wrought in you ! yea clearing of yourselves, yea indigna-
tion, yea fear, yea longing, yea zeal, yea revenge ! In everything ye
commended yourselves to be pure in the matter. ^"^ Wherefore, though
I wrote unto you, I did it not for his sake that had done wrong nor for
his that suffered wrong, but that your earnestness for us might be made

site of 17 Kara O^ov \vTnj. * The
grief which only regards the
world.'

Odvarov, Death, in the highest
sense, as opposed to croiTrjpiav, as
in K/om. v. 21.

1 1 He proceeds to point out
in all its details the good effects
of this sorrow, and, therefore, of
his Epistle.

/80V, ' for look at the picture
you presented to Titus.*

o-ttovSt^v, ' earnestness,' or
' seriousness,' is expanded into
the remaining part of the verse,
which exhibits their conflict of
feelings.

ttTToAoyia,
their sin.

* self-defence ' for

dyavctKTTyo-i?, ' self -accusation
against it.'

cfio^ov, ' fear of PauFs arrival.'
i7n7r60r}(TLv, ' longing for it.'
t,yjkov, ' zeal against the of-
fender.'

iKSUrjanv, ' punishment of his
sin,'

€v Tw Trpay/xart, 'in the affair
of the incestuous person.' For

this mode of referring to a pain-
ful subject, compare 1 Thess. iv.
6.

iv in B. omitted in CD. G.

T 2 ct KOL eypa\j/a, * even though
I did write to you severely.'

TOV d8tK7^<ravTos, ' the incestu-
ous person.'

TOV aSiKyjOevTos, ' the father of
the offender, whose wife he had
taken.' See 1 Cor. v. 1.

When he says that he wrote,
not on account of the offender or
the injured person, but for the
manifestation of the zeal of the
Corinthian Church, he speaks of
the chief object as the only ob-
ject ; and also of the object which
was effected by Providence, as
if it had been his object. Comp.
ii. 4, and note on 1 Cor. ix. 9.

Rec. Text, with B. (e sil.),

r]fJiU)V T. VTT. VfJiUiV. G. TJlMOiV T. VTT.
TjfJiijJV. D^ F. VjJiOyV T. VTT. VfXWV.

Lachmann, with C. D^. E. I. K.,
r/xcuv Ty]v VTrep rjfjiwv.

In such a confusion of read-
ings (occasioned by the like pro-
nunciation of V & rj, and extend-

AKRIVAL OF TITUS.

459

rjiJLCJV 7rpo<; v/xa<; €vo)7nop tov ueov. ^'^oia tovto irapa-
K€K\T]iJieda* CTTC *§€ Tj) TTa/ja/cXr/cret ^riyioiv irepLcrcroTi-
pcos° fJLaWov i)(ap7)ix€v IttI rrj x^P^ Tltov^ otl avaire-
iravrai to Trveiffxa avTov awo irdvTcov vficov, ^"^otl ei tl
avT(p virep vfjLcov /ce/cav^r^/xat, ov KaTrj(r)(yp0rjVy dXX* w?
TTOLVTa kv oKiqOeia cXaXi^cra/xei^ vplv^ ovto)^ kol rj Acau^T^crt?
^vfjLcov rj €771 Tltov aki/jdeia eyevijOr), ^^ kol tol cnrkdyxyo-
avTov TTepi(T(TOTipo}<; et? v/xas kcTTiv dvafJUfivrjcrKOfJiivov

Tr)V TTOLVTOiV V/IWI' VTTaKOT]!/, O)?, fieTOL (j)6/3oV KOL TpOjJLOV

ihe^aorOe avTov, ^^^at/)a>, ^ otl iv iravTi dappco iv vpHv.

' Om. 5e.

ifi&v.

« Add Se. * riM-ay rj 4ir'i T. Lachm. Ed. 1. vfxwv iirl T.
• Add o^y.

manifest unto you in the sight of God. ^^ Therefore we have been com-
forted : but in our comfort the more abundantly joyed we for the joy of
Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by you all, ^"^for if I have
boasted any thing to him of you, I was not ashamed, but as we spake all
things to you in truth, even so your boasting which I made before Titus
became truth, '^and his inward affection is more abundant toward you
whilst he remembereth the obedience of you all, how with fear and
trembling ye received him. ^^I rejoice that in everything I am bold in
you.

ing as far as verse 14), the sense
is the only guide. On the one
hand, the ' manifestation of your
zeal for us ' agrees better with
the general context and with the
previous use of (nrovSr] in speak-
ing of the Corinthians, in verse
11. On the other hand, 'the
manifestation of our zeal for you '
is simpler, is borne out by the
parallel of ii. 4, and suits Trpo?
v/xa5, which, though tautological
if we adopt this reading, is unin-
telligible with the other, evw-
TTiov TOV Oeov, ' in the sight of
God,' also agrees better with a
protestation of the Apostle*s zeal
for them, than with an allusion
to theirs for him. Compare v.
11.

13, 14 Additional force is given
to the argument by Lachmann's
reading (B. C. D. G.) of 84 and
7)fji.iov ; ' for this that I have men-

tioned, namely, the ejffects of my
Epistle, I have been comforted.
But ivith this comfort before me, I
was still more rejoiced by the joy
of Titus.' It is a stronger ex-
pression of what he had already
said in 6 and 7, and is the same
protestation of the truth of his
teaching, as in i. 8-21, ii. 17, iv.
2, in little things as in great.

Observe the liveliness of the
perfect tense, * we have been '
comforted ; he has been refreshed ;
I have boasted.'

ttTTo TrdvTwv, ' refreshed by your
presence.'

15 <ivaiJiLfjivr](TKOfxivov, * recall-
ing to himself.'

1 6 OappQ) €v vfuv. Not ' I
have confidence in you ' (which
would be irerroiOa), but ' I am
bold through your
ment.'

460 SECOND EPISTLE.

Paraphrase of Chap. VI. 11— Vll. 16.

And now the full current of my words finds unrestricted utterance,
my own Corinthian converts ; for the gates of my heart, of my
rejoicing heart, are open wide to receive you. If there be any
narrowness, it is in your affections, not in mine, [Here begins
the digression without connexion with what either precedes
or follows.] Do not make ill-suited unions with heathens,
which compromise the difference between righteousness and law-
lessness, light and darkness, Christ and the author of evil.
Christian and heathen, Gods temple and false idols. You are
the living temple, not of a dead statue, but of a living God, of
that God who in the Law, the History, and the Prophets of
the old dispensation, declared that He would dwell with His
people, and commanded their separation from impurities, and
announced His readiness to receive them all. Therefore every
pollution must be abandoned, not ceremonial only, but moral,
in order to attain a purity not ceremonial merely but moral,
[Here the main argument is resumed.] Make room for me
in your hearts ; I have made room for you in mine. When I
was with you, I did no wrong or injustice to any one ; and I
say this, not to taunt you, but from my love to you. I have
again and again said that you are in my heart for life and
death, I have no restraint loith you ; I am proud of your ex-
cellence ; I am filled to overflowing with the comfort and the
joy which after all my trouble awaited me from you in Mace*
donia. There, after all my anxieties, both from without and
from within, I, at last, met Titus ; and at once the comfort
which I received from him was so great that I thankfully
ascribe it to God the author of all comfort, not only the
comfort which he gave me himself, but the comfort which you
gave him, and ichich through him was transmitted to me. He
told me of your affection for me, and of your sorrow for your
faults ; and this at once made me cease my regrets for my
severity in my First Epistle. I see now that your sorrow loas
not mere worldly remorse, which has no good end ; but sorrow
as in the sight of God, which Issues in a change of heart and
life that tends to your highest welfare. Look only at the pic-
ture of your sorrow and its effects, its deep earnestness, showing

HIS DELIGHT IN HUMAN INTERCOUSE. 46.

itself in your self-defence and self-accusation, your fear ajid
yet your longing for my arrival, your zeal and your severity
towards the offender. This fear, more than any actual
punishment or reparation of the crime, was the result which I
sought to produce by my Epistle ; and, therefore, I am now
completely satisfied. And the joy of Titus shows me that I
had not overstated your excellences to him ; that in my com^
munications with him as well as with you, I had told him the
truth : and therefore he now loves you as truly as 1 do.

The Apostle's Delight in Human Intercourse.

This passage gives in the most lively form the human personal
sympathies of the Apostle. His great consolation, after that
which he derived from communion with Christ, was the re-
storation of confidence towards his converts and intercourse with
his friend. A parallel passage, though less strongly expressed,
may be seen in his description of the feelings with which he
waited for the return of his other confidential friend, Timo-
theus, with tidings from Thessalonica ( 1 Thess. iii. 1-8). Such
touches distinguish Christianity from Stoicism and from fanati-
cism ; and also give a counterpoise to other passages which
describe the calls of the Gospel as severing all human ties.
* To be left at Athens alone, ^ ^ and ' to have no man like-
minded with him,' ^ to have ^ only Luke with him,' ^ to part
with the Ephesian elders who ' would see his face no more,' *
are spoken of in that plaintive strain which, even more than
direct expressions, implies that solitude, want of sympathy,
estrangement or bereavement of friends, were to the Apostle
real sorrows. The unfeigned pleasure which he manifests at
the restoration of intercourse, the enumeration of the names of
his friends in the frequent salutations, the joy with which his
heart was lighted up at his meeting with the brethren at
Appii Forum, ' whom, when he saw, he thanked God and
t©ok courage,' ^ indicate the true consolation he derived from

1 Thess. iii. 1.

2 Phil. ii. 20.

3 2 Tim. iv. 11.

Acts XX. 25.

^ Ibid, xxviii. 15.

462 SECOND EPISTLE.

the pure spring of the better human affections. His life is
the first great example of the power of Christian friendship.
It is also (without passing a harsh judgment on the ascetic fer-
vour called out by peculiar times and circumstances) a per-
petual protest ^ against the seclusion from all human society,
which, in a later age, was regarded as the highest flight of
virtue. It is impossible to imagine the 6th and 7th Chapters
of this Epistle proceeding from the pen of Simeon Stylites.

^ The writers of the 4t?i and 5th
centuries have not unnaturally, from
their point of view, missed the true
cause of the Apostle's anxiety in the
absence of Titus. Jerome, charac-

teristically, supposes that it aro.se
from the fact that Titus was his
interpreter, and that without such
aid he could not preach.

COLLECTION FOE THE CHUKCHES IN JUD^A. 463

THE COLLECTION FOR THE CHURCHES IN JUDJEA.
Chap. VIII. 1— IX. 15.

In the close of the First Epistle ' the Apostle had given
directions that the collection for the poor Christians in Judaea,
which he had ordered before, should proceed as rapidly as pos-
sible, in order to be ready for his arrival. On his meeting with
Titus he learned that the collection was not yet completed ;
whilst, at the same time, his stay in Macedonia impressed him
with the greater zeal of the Churches in the north of Greece,
although under greater difficulties from their inferiority in
wealth and civilisation. Under these circumstances he had
charged Titus to resume the mission which he had confided to
him in the First Epistle (xvi. 11), and to hasten the comple-
tion of the work ; and he proceeds himself to urge upon them
the same duty.

That this part of the Epistle, though more clearly connected
with the first part (i.-vi.) than with the third part (x.-xiii.),
is independent of both, appears from various points: — 1. The
plural, for the singular, first person is uniformly used, in-
stead of the mixture of the two which pervades the chapters
(vii. and x.) immediately preceding and succeeding. 2. The
use of several words in a peculiar sense is peculiar to this
Section, ^apty, svXoyia, BiKaioavvrj, clttXottjs. 3. The allu-
sions to the prevailing topics of the two other portions are
very slight.

The exhortation is enforced, first, by holding up to them
the example of the Macedonian Churches (viii. 1-15) ; then by
describing the nature and purpose of the mission of Titus
(viii. 16-23); lastly, by suggestions as to the spirit in which
the collection should be made (ix. 6-15).

^ See notes on 1 Cor. xvi. 1-4.

464 SECOND EPISTLE.

(1) The Example of the Macedonian Churches.
Chap. VIII. 1—15.

Macedonia included at that time, under four divisions, all
the Roman province of Greece north of Thermopylae. The
part, however, to which the Apostle here chiefly refers, must
be that through which (Acts xvi., xvii.) he had himself
travelled, and which corresponded to the ancient Macedonian
kingdom. By * the Churches ' or * congregations ' (racs skkXtj-
a-lais) of Macedonia, he means those Christian congregations,
of which one was to be found in each of the cities where he
had preached ; namely, Philippi,^ Thessalonlca,^ Beroea.^

Two points are noticed in these congregations; (1) their
Porert of ^^^^^'^^ poverty (77 Kara ^dOovs irTco')(^£ia, viii. 2 ;
the Mace- virsp Svva/jLcv, viii. 3). This poverty was probably
donians, shared by them in common with all other parts of
Greece, except the two great Roman colonies of Patrae and
Corinth; the latter especially since its revival by Julius
Caesar.

' The condition of Greece in the time of Augustus was one of
great desolation and distress. ... It had suffered severely by being
the seat of the successive civil wars between Csesar and Pompey,
between the triumvirs and Brutus and Cassius, and, lastly, between
Augustus and Antonius. Besides, the country had never recovered
the long series of miseries which had succeeded and accompanied its
conquest by the Romans ; and between those times and the civil
contest between Pompey and Coesar, it had been again exposed
to all the evils of war when Sylla was disputing the possession of it
with the general of Mithridates. ... It was from a view of the
once famous cities of the Saronic Gulf that Servius Sulpicius de-
rived that lesson of patience with which he attempted to console
Cicero for the loss of his daughter Tullia. ^tolia and Acharnania
■were barren wastes, and the soil was devoted to pasture for the
rearing of horses. Thebes was hardy better than a village. . . .
Epirus was depopulated and occupied by Roman seldiers. Mace-
donia had lost the benefit of its mines, which the Roman govern-
ment had appropriated to itself, and was suffering from the weight
of its taxation. . . . The provinces of Macedonia and Achaia, when
they petitioned for a diminution of their burdens in the reign of

Acts xvi. 12-40. 2 j|5i^j_ xvii. 1-9. ^ j^i^^ ^vii. 10-15.

EXAMPLE OF THE MACEDONIAN CHURCHES.

465

Tiberius, were cousidered so deserving of compassion that they were
transferred for a time from the jurisdiction of the senate to that of
the Emperor [as involving less heavy taxation].' ^

(2) Their extreme generosity. So in the Church of Thessa-
lonica^ the Apostle's converts are warned against and their
indiscriminate bounty. So from the Church of Phi- gene-
lip pi, contributions were sent to support the Apostle '°^^ ^*
both on his travels through Macedonia,^ and afterwards in his
imprisonment at Rome.'^ And in this Epistle^ he speaks of
the support which was brought to him from Macedonia during
his residence at Corinth ; a circumstance which would impress
on his Corinthian converts, in a livelier form, his present
argument. Some, also, of the Macedonian Christians gave,
not merely their money, but ' themselves ' to his service as
constant companions ; ^ amongst whom were Sopater, Secun-
dus, and Aristarchus,^ Epaphroditus, who ^regarded not his
life ' in the Apostle's service,® and perhaps the author of the
Acts, who remained at Philippi^ when the Apostle went for-
ward, and was now about to rejoin him. And the number of
these Macedonian converts is the more striking, when compared
with the few who came from the Churches of Southern Greece,
none of whom, except Sosthenes,*^ appears as a permanent
companion.

* Arnold's Roman Common-
wealth, vol. ii. pp. 382, 383.

2 Thess. iii. 10, 11.

3 Phil. iv. 15.

* Ibid. ii. 25, iv. 16, 18.
« xi. 9.

See viii. 5.
■^ Acts XX. 4, xxvii. 2 ; Col. iv.

8 Phil. ii. 30.
» Acts xvi. 10-40, XX. 6,
10 1 Cor, i. 1.

466

SECOND EPISTLE: CHAP. VIII. 1—3.

VIII. ^ FvcopL^ofJieu §€ vfuv^ dSeXc^ot, ttjv ^dpiv tov
Oeov TrjV SeSofJLePTjv iv rai? iKK\r)crLaLS ttJs Ma/ceSon'ag,
^ort ip TToWfj SoKLfxfj 0Xl\Jj€O)<; rj irepicrcreLa ttJs xapa^

^ Now, brethren, we make known to you the grace of God bestowed
in the churches of Macedonia ; '^how that in a great 'trial of trouble the

» Or ' proof.'

VIII. I Tvoipilofxiv. See note
on 1 Cor. XV. 1.

8e is merely the opening of a
new subject, as in 1 Cor. vii. 1,
viii. 1, XV. 1.

Tr]v xaptv. This word is used

in these chapters (viii. 1, 4, 6,

7, 19, ix. 14) as in 1 Cor.

x*p'5' ^^-^ 3^ |j^ ^Yie peculiar

sense of a ' gift ' or ' contribution.'
In almost every other part of the
New Test, it is used for ' favour,'
'goodness,' generally speaking,
of God ; and here also the two
ideas are blended together.

Compare the use of cvAoyta in
ix. 6.

TTjv BeSofiivrjv, ' which has been
given.'

2 The sense of what follows
is clear : ' their poverty made
their liberality more striking.'
The construction and the words
are difficult. The construction
may be either: (1) to make rj
Trepfcrcrcia and rj TTTw^eta the no-
minative case to €7r€pio-o-€vcr€, ac-
cording to the regular order ; or
rather (2), to suppose an anaco-
luthon, in which he first ex-
presses that their affliction was
contrasted with their joy, and
then that their poverty was con-
trasted with their wealth ; so that
the sentence should have been
either on 17 ttoXXt] SoKifxrj OXlij/.
ImpLCTcriva-ev €15 ryjv -^apav avrcov,
Kai . . or €v TToX. Sok. OXlij/. rj tre-

pLCTcr. T. x^pas avT. eyevcro Kat €V
TQ Kara fia6. 7rT0);(€ta y 7rept(rcr€ta
TOV ttXovtov, k. t. X.

SoKLfirj, ' trial,' as in Rom. v. 4 :
rj VTTOjxovrf SoKLfxrjv /carcpya^crat.

0XLif/€<j)<5 may either refer to
some such persecutions as those
which had taken place in those
Churches five years before, Acts
xvi. 20, xvii. 5 ; 1 Thess. i. 6,
ii. 14, or merely to ' distress,'
such as arose from the discoun-
tenance of their heathen or Jew-
ish neighbours, as when joined
with <TT€vo-)((iipLa and dvdyKrjj
vi. 4.

t] TTipicrcrua rqq X^P^^ avTU)V.
' Their joy overflowed.' It ap-
peared greater by rea- .joy. i^
son of the distress in- liberality.
the midst of which it flourished,
and it exceeded that distress, so
that the distress became insigni-
ficant in comparison. It is men-
tioned from the connexion which
always exists in the Apostle's
mind between cheerfulness and
liberality. Compare ix. 7, ' God
loveth a cheerful (Ikapov) giver,'
and Rom. xii. 8, 'he that showeth
mercy, in cheerfulness ' (tAapo-

T7}Tl).

' The Rabbis said that he who
gave nothing, but received his
friend with a cheerful counte-
nance,' was better than he who
gave all with a downcast counte-
nance.' See Wetstein on ix. 7.

EXAMPLE OF THE MACEDONIAN CHUECHES.

467

avTcoj/ /cat rj Kara pd9ov<; TTTm^eta avTcov inepKra-evcrev
cts *ro ttXoGtos Ti^S airXoTrjTO^ avTo>v, ^ori Kara SwafiLP

' rhv irXovrov.

abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches
of their liberality, 'how that to their power (I bear record) and beyond

The word x^P*^ ^^ used in con-
nexion with xa/ot?'

This sentence would run more
naturally ck ttjs Kara /3d0. tttcu-
Xetas €7repto-o-€v<rc to ttXovtos. Its
present form is perhaps owing
to the * oxymoron,' by which
poverty, instead of restraining
liberality, is described as over-
flowing into it ; as though Chris-
tian poverty were of itself a
treasure which never failed.
Compare the story of the wi-
dow's mite, Luke xxi. 3, 4, ' she
hath thrown in more than they
all : they all of their abundance
(cK Tov 7r€picra€vovTO<s) J she of her
need (yarcpi^iJLaTos).*

Kara (3a0ovs, ' reaching deep
down.'

ttXovto?, ' wealth,' here com-
bines the literal sense with the
metaphorical sense, in which he
so often uses it to express any
kind of excess : ' their great
liberality.' Here, and in Eph.
ii. 7, iii. 8, 16 ; Phil. iv. 19, and
Col. ii. 2, the best MSS. read to
ttXovtos for 6 ttXovtos, as in Ro-
maic, of which the tendency is to
substitute neuter for masculine
and feminine nouns. So to iXeos
for 6 eXeosin LXX. (See Winer,
Gram. p. 64.)

a7r\6T7)<s in Eph. vi. 5 ; Col. iii.
22 ; and in 2 Cor. i. 12 (Rec.

. ,, Text), xi. 3, is ' sim-
plicity, Sincerity. x)ut
throughout these two chapters
it is used for ' liberality * or ' mu-
nificence,' by the same ambiguity
as is attached to the word ' libe-

rality' in English. See ix. 11,
13. aTrAov? may be so used in
Prov. xi. 25, where the verse
which is rendered, ' the liberal
soul shall be made fat,' is in the
LXX. 4^v)(Yj €vXoyov[X€vrj Traa-a
dirXtj, which must be ' every
liberal soul is blessed,' or, ' every
blessed (i.e. rich) soul is liberal.'
It seems to be so used by Jose-
phus. Ant. VII. xiii. 4, where
David admires the dTrXoryys and
fjLeyaXoij/vxLa of Araunah. The
context of Matthew vi. 22 sug-
gests that 6(f>0a\iJi6s ttTrXovs in
that passage may bear this
meaning.

3-5 Prom OTL Kara 8wa/xiv to
Oeov in verse 5, is a sentence
which has been entirely shattered
in passing through the Apostle's
mind. If restored to order it
would be : on Kara Svva/xtv, kol
irapa Svv., ov KaOdirip rjXTria-afxev,
Trjv X^P^^ [rtov xP>;/>taT(oi/] dAA'
cauTOvs avOatpiTOL eSwKav. The
verb to which av6atp€T0L is at-
tached, and by which Trjv x^P'^
is governed, is really eSuiKav.
But, when he comes to express
their spontaneous ardour (avOat-
peTOL), he enlarges upon it by de-
scribing that it was done not at
his request, but at theirs ; and
this induces him to insert jxcto.
TToX. irapaKX. Scofxevoiy which, in
turn, attaches ttjv x^ptv to itself,
so as to make it ' asking for the
favour ' (ttjv x^P'-^j by its double
sense suiting this construction) ;
and then he explains it further
by adding koI t^v Koivtav. t. 8ta-
H 2

468

SECOND EPISTLE: CHAP. VIII. 4--9.

(fiapTvpco) Koi ^irapa SvvafXLV, avOaipeTOi, ^fiera ttoWtJs
7rapaK\iij(Teo}<; Seofievou rjfJLCjv Trjp •)(dpLV /cat ttjv Koivcoviav
Trjq hiaKOvia^ ttj^ el? rov^ ayCovs,^ ^ kol ov KaOm "^rjXTTio-a-
fjuev^ dXX' eauTOu? eScoKav TTpcoTov rS KVpio) koI rjjxlj^ Sia
6ekrjixaT0<; Oeov, ^eU to TrapaKoXicraL T^/xa? Tirov^ Iva

* virep. »» Add Se^acrdai rjfxas.

" Lachm. Ed. 1. ^ATTi/co/tei/.

their power, of their own accord, Spraying us with much exhortation, for
the grace and the communion of the ministration to the saints, — ^and
not as we trusted, but themselves they gave first to the Lord and to us
by the will of God, ® insomuch that we exhorted Titus, that as he had

KovLa<s, namely, * the favour of
sharing in the ministration to
the saints.' The construction,
thus lost, is recovered in the
next verse by o^ /ca^w? ^X7ricra/x€v.
Si^aa-Oai 17/x-a?, which would clear
the construction, is a later inser-
tion.

avOaLpcTOL, which in the N. T.
occurs only here and in verse 17,
is a common word in later Greek
(see Wetstein) for e/covrc?.

For the connexion of Trapd-
KXryo-t? and Seofievoi:, see V. 20, 21,
vi. 1, X. 1, 2.

rrjv xoLpiv^ as observed on verse
1, has here the double sense of
' gift ' and * favour,' and so also
Kotvwviav of * communicating '
and ' participating.'

StttKovia, except in this Section,
where vapt? is so often
used instead, is the or-
dinary word in the N. T. for a
charitable contribution to the
wants of others ; and hence the
technical sense of Sta/covo? in
Phil. i. 1 ; 1 Tim. iii. 8, 12 ;
Rom. xvi. 1, and in ecclesiastical
Greek, for the administrators of
such bounty, whether male or
female. Compare ix. 1, 13 ; Rom.
XV. 31, with regard to this same
matter ; also Acts vi. 1, xi. 29 ,
xii. 25.

Toti? dytbv9. The Christian

poor in Judeea. See note on 1
Cor. xvi. 1.

5 yXTTLo-a/xev, * expected ; ' in
the N. T. always in a good sense.
riXTTLa-a/jLcv, Rec. Text with C. D.
E. F. G. J. K. ; yXTTiKa/xev, Lach-
mann, 1st edition, with B.

eavrov?, ' themselves as com-
panions.'

TrpQyrov tw Kvpiio /cat ypuv. In
classical Greek this would have
been expressed by re and Kai
Here, as in Rom. i. 16, ii. 9, 10,
it is not priority of time, but of
importance, that is meant.

Slol OeXrjfxaro^ Oeov is partly
that their complete surrender of
themselves was the work of God,
as in the phrase n^v x^P'-^ ''"^^
Oeov in verse 1 ; partly that they
consented to go with him, if God
so permitted. See 1 Cor. xvi. 7 ;
James iv. 15.

6 TrapaKaXecrai is the word he
always uses in speaking of the
two missions of Titus. See viii.
17, xii. 18 ; 1 Cor. xvi. 12.

Trpoevrjp^aTO refers to the in-
terest which Titus had taken in
this contribution on his first
mission to Corinth with the First
Epistle, xii. 18 ; 1 Cor. xvi. 1,
12.

Kttt rrjv X'^P^^ Tavrrjv. ' That
he may complete this contribu-
tion, as well as the general good

EXAMPLE OF THE MACEDONIAN CHUECHES.

469

Ka9co<; ^ irpoevyjp^aTO^ ovto)<s kol iTTLTekeory eh vfia<s kol
Tr}v ■)(dpLi/ TavTrjv. ^ aXk' atcnrep iv iravTi TrepLcrcreveTe,
TTiarei /cat \6y(^ Koi yvaxrei kol Trdcrr) cmovSfj kol rfj
^i^ vpLCxiv iv rifjup aydirr)^ iva /cat, iv ravTrj rfj ^apiri
TT€pL(T(T€vy]Te. ^ ov KaT iTTLTayrjv XeycOj aXXd 8ta rrjs
irepcov cnrovSrjs /cat to t-^s vfJLeTepa<; dyaTrrj^ yvtjcnov
SoKLixd^cjv ^ (yLV(ocrK€T€ yap ttjv ^dpiv tov Kvpiov tjijlcjv

* Lachm. Ed. 1. ivfip^aro . . . e| rjfiuy iv vfuv.

begun before, so he would also finish in you the same grace also. ^But
as ye abound in every thing, in faith and word and knowledge and all
earnestness and love from you to us, that ye may abound in this grace
also. ^I say this not by commandment, but through the earnestness of
others and to prove the genuineness of your love ^(for ye know the grace

work of zeal and repentance,'
described in vii. 13, 14.

7 The sentence groves out of
the preceding, tva depending on
7rapa/caA,(u, supplied from irapa-
KaXecrai. ' I have entreated Ti-
tus ; now I entreat you to show
the same exuberance of spiritual
attainments in this, as in other
points.'

For TTLcmiy Xoyo), yv(0(r€i, see
1 Cor. xii. 9.

For cnrovhfi see note on vii. 11.
Here, as in vii. 12, the readings
vary between rjfx^v and v/xwv.
v/xcuv Iv r}fXLV in C. D. E. F. Gr. J.
K. and Rec. Text, and Lachmann ;
rjfiwv iv vfuv B., and Lachm. 1st
edit. It willithus be either, ' the
love awakened by you in me,' or
' by me in you.' The latter suits
better in the general tone of the
Epistle (comp. i. 6, vi. 11, 12).

For this general description of
the gifts of the Corinthians, com-
pare 1 Cor. i. 5.

8 ov KaT iTnrayrjv Aeyo), ' I
fc^peak not to command you.'
Comp. the same expression in
1 Cor. vii. 6, where, however, the
meaning is not quite the same.
There it is, ' I have no com-
mandment of Christ to give.'

Here it is, ' I have no com-
mandment of my own to give.*
There the contrast between
Christ* s command, and his ad-
vice ; here, between bis own com-
mandj and his own advice.

Slcl rrj^ erepcov (tttovS^s, * ma-
king use of the zeal of the Mace-
donians to stimulate you.' See
viii. 1-5.

SoKLfid^uiv, 'in order to try.'
TO yv-qcTLov, ' the genuineness.'
TTJq viJL€T€pa<s dydinjs refers to
TTJ dyaTrfj in verse 7.

9 ' If your love is genuine,
you will make yourselves poor for
the sake of others, after Christ's
example; for you know the
favour that He gave to us (x'^P'-^
is used for the sake of allusion to
Xaptv in verses 6, 7) ; for He,
when He might have been rich,
became subject to poverty for
you ; that you, through His
poverty, might become rich in
goodness.'

It is difficult to determine in
what sense the Apostle
used the words TrXovato^
and iTTTwx^vae, as ap-
plied .to our Lord.
Probably, whilst iirrioxivcre is
taken entirely in the literal

' For your
sakes He
became
poor.'

470

SECOND EPISTLE: CHAP. VIII. 10—13.

v/xet9 TTj €K€Lvov TTTOi^eio. iTAovTrjcrrjTe), ^' Kai yvcjfjLrji' €V

TOTJTCa 8tScU/Xt. TOVTO yOip VIXIV CrVIJL(f)€p€L^ OLTLVe<; OV fJLO-
■ Lachm. Ed. 1. Omit xp'o"'"o»'.

of our Lord Jesus Christ, that for your sakes He became poor, though
He was rich, that ye tlirough His poverty might be rich), ^°and herein I
give my advice. For this is expedient for you, who began before not

sense, 7rXovcno<; wv, though taken
in the literal sense to a certain
extent, yet has also the more
general meaning implied in nXav-
T^cn/T€ in the next clause, as is so
often the case in St. Paul's meta-
phorical use of the word ' riches'
(ttXovto?). For a similar use of
the present participle in exactly
similar passages, compare John
iii. 13, ' the Son of man who is (6
wv) in heaven,' and Phil. ii. 6, 7 ;
' Who being (vTrapx^v) in the
form of Grod,' &c.

Whether cTrrcoxevo-c signifies
* He was poor,' or ' He became
poor,' is doubtful. ' When all
poTver, and wealth, and greatness,
earthly and Divine, were His,
He yet led a life of poverty, not
merely for the world in general,
but for you, that you might gain
in spiritual wealth (compare 1
Cor. i. 5, iTrXovTLcrOrjTe, iv. 8, ttXov-
Tetrc) by His human poverty.'

8l vfxa<g is emphatic by posi-
tion.

lo So completely parentheti-
cal had been this appeal to
Christ's example, that he con-
tinues the sentence from verse 8
as if nothing had intervened, ex-
cepting only that in consequence
of the interruption he uses Kat,
where we should else have ex-
pected dAAa or 8^ : 'I give you
no command, bat only advice.*

In what follows (10-15) are
two points, which he finds it
needful to urge on the Corinthi-

ans : — (1) He is anxious to im-
press upon them that they are
not to give by restraint, or be-
cause he orders it, but willingly.
(2) He is afraid, lest by his com-
mendation of the Macedonian
Churches, he should make them
suppose that his object was to
relieve the Macedonians at their
cost.

TOVTO yap vjtuv €rvjj,<f)ep€t, ' I
give my advice, and not my com-
mand; for this (advice instead of
command) is expedient for men
who, like you, have shown so
much zeal.' The second accords
better with otrtvc? (the Latin
quippe qui), and with the general
strain of the argument. Com-
pare especially ix. 1, 2.

He then commends them for
their zeal, in having anticipated
(fTpoevrjpiaa-Oe) the Macedonian
Churches, in the time when they
began their collection ; and in
the spontaneous eagerness with
which they had undertaken it.

It is clear from 1 Cor. xvi. 1,
that the collection is not there
announced to them for the first
time, but as something well
known. Whenever it was that
they had began it, he here inti-
mates that it was not on the mere
fact of their having begun that
he lays stress ; but on the readi-
ness with which they had done
so, apparently with oat order from
him. That they had anticipated
the Macedonian Churches ap-

EXAMPLE OF THE MACEDONIAN CHURCHES.

471

vov TO TTOirjcraL dXXa kol to 6i\eiv rrpoeurjp^acrOe cltto
irepvcri* ^^vvvl 8e koX to iToirjcrai iiTiTekicraTe, oircos /ca-
ddirep 7] TTpoOvyiia tov OiXeuv, ovto)<; kol to iinTekioraL iK
Tov e)(€LV. ^^el yap rj irpoOvfiia TrpoKeiTau, Kadb iav €)(rj^^
evTTpoaSeKTO';, ov KaOo ovk ej^ei. ^^ ov yap Iva aWots
ai^ecrt?, vplv ^ ^Xti/;t9, olK)C ef icroTTyros * ev tS vvv KaipS to

• Add Tis.

« Add S4.

only to do but also to be willing a year ago : ^^ now therefore perform the
doing of it, that as there was the readiness to will, so there may be a
performance also out of that ye have. ^^For if there be first the ready
mind, it is well accepted according to that a man hath, and not according
to that he hath not. ^^ For I mean not that the other men be eased, and

pears from ix. 2, 'Achaia was
prepared a year ago, and your
zeal provoked many,* agreeing
with 1 Cor. xvi. 1, where the
order to Galatia is mentioned,
but none to Macedonia.

OeXetv here, as elsewhere in the
N. T. means, not merely ^ will '
or ' wish,' but * eager purpose.*
Comp. John vi. 21, ^OeXov XajSelv
avTov. ' You anticipated the Ma-
cedonian Churches not only in
your act, but in the purpose
which preceded the act.*

aTTo TrepvcTL is in the N. T. used
only here and in ix. 2. It is de-
rived from TTcpa?, and may pos-
sibly be the dative plural from
an obsolete word Trepvs, meaning
' in past times,' and then by
usage restricted to ' the past
year.'

Tl vwl §€ Kttt TO TTOirja'aL iin-
reXea-are, ' you did, and you were
eager to do this, a year ago ; now
is the time for finishing, not
merely your eager wish, but also
your doing what you wished.'

OTTCDS KaOdirep ^X^'*''

' that, as you were so zealous in
your intention, such also may be
your completion of your inten-
tion, according to the means you
possess * (eK tov ^x^lv).

12 'I say, *^ according to the
means you possess ; " for if, as in
your case, there is a ready zeal,
it is accepted by God in its con-
tributions, by comparison, not
with gome imaginary standard of
wealth, but with what it really
has.' For this construction, by
which a whole sentence is made
to hang on a single word in the
previous clause, comp. Rom. v. 7,
where v-rrtp yap tov dyaOov, k.t.X.
depends on StKatov, and Thucyd. i.
17, where ol yap iv StKcXta, k.t.X.
is a reason for 'EAAryvt/cats.

irpoKUTat, 'is at hand.' It
occurs again in Heb. vi. 18, xii.
1, 2 ; Jud. 7, speaking of ' ex-
amples ' or ' rewards.' y) irpo~
OvfxCa is the nominative case to
€X0 ^^d ^o €V7rp6(r8eKTo<s, ' zeal '
being personified here, as ' love '
in 1 Cor. xiii. 4.

Ka6o iav (for av) extj, 'accord-
ing as it m£iy have.'

13 ' For the object of the
contribution is, not that others
should be relieved and you have
the burden, but that each party
should contribute its proper
share.' By 'others' (oAAois)
he might possibly intend the
Christians in Judaea, who were
to receive the contribution, as in

472

SECOND EPISTLE: CHAP. VIII. 14, 15.

14!'

v/xwi^ TTepiaorevfJia eU to eKeivoiv vcTTiprjiJia^ ^^Lva Kai to

ye troubled, ^^but by an equality : that now at this time your abundance

the parallel passage with regard
to this contribution in K-om. xv.
27: 'If the Gentiles had been
made partakers of their spiritual
things, their duty is also to mi-
nister to them in carnal things.'
But the context and the proba-
bilities of the case make it more
likely that he alludes to the
Churches of Macedonia. The
Corinthians might ascribe his
zeal to his affection for the Ma-
cedonian Christians and wish to
ease them of their burden, and it
is this illusion which he wishes
to dispel.

avecris is, in this case, not simply
' relief,' but (what suits its ety-
mological meaning better) ' relief
from overstrain,' as in ii. 13, vii.
5 ; Acts xxiv. 23, as opposed to
6Xii(/L?, which must in this pas-
sage, as probably in viii. 2, re-
fer, not to persecution, but to
poverty.

iv Tw vvv Katpw, * at the pre-
sent time,' requires, in the se-
cond clause, some word meaning
'at a future occasion.'

' Do you help the Macedonians
now, and then they will help you
in like case hereafter.' ' They
are poor now, and unable to bear
the whole burden ; perhaps, at
some future time, you will be
poor, and then they may be rich
enough to meet your wants.'

For the use of the word vo-re-
prjfjLa in the sense of poverty, see
ix. 12, xi. 9 ; Luke xxi. 4.

iXaTTOvelv is used in LXX. for
the earlier Greek iXarrovv.

The sentence contains three
peculiarities of the Apostle's
style:

(1) The structure of the sen-

tence, TO v/xa>v Trepta-arevfJLa €is to
iKiivijiv v(TTepr}ixa, Iva kol to iK^Cvuiv
TreptVo-eu/xa, yivrjTat ci? to vjx^v
vo-repry/xa, is an instance of the
Apostle's turn for balancing two
ends of a sentence against each
other, as in Gal. iv. 12 : yivccrOe
0)9 €y(o, OTL Kayu) ws vjjlcls.

(2) The argument from equal-
ity and reciprocation in this pas-
sage is singularly like that of
Aristotle, especially in Eth. V.
c^ IcTOTrjTOs TrepLcro-ev/xa, vcrTcprj/jia
(in Aristotle's language to irkiov
and TO cAttTTOi') ottw? yevrjTat
i(r6T7]<s. The resemblance is un-
conscious, but not the less shows
the natural affinity of thought.
A remarkable coincidence of a
similar kind has lately been
pointed out between Gal. v. 23,
and Rom. ii. 24, and Aristotle,
Pol. iii. 13. Such a phrase
would not have occurred in the
0. Test.

(3) In the quotation with
which this classical thought is
supported, the account of the
manna gathering (Exod. xvi. 17,
18) is applied to the peculiar
circumstances of the Corinthian
Church. The original words of
the LXX. are slightly different :
ovK eTrXeovao-cv 6 to ttoXv, kol 6 to
eA-ttTTOv OVK yjXaTTOvrjae. This is
the Vatican MS. The Alex-
andrian MS. has w to ttoXv <S to
oXtyov. The Apostle cites just
enough to remind his readers of
the passage from which the words
are taken. Before ttoXv, under-
stand (rvXXeia<s. These words Ka-
dioq yiypa-TTTat must in this case
be simply, 'to use the words of
the Scripture.'

EXAMPLE OF THE IVIACEDONIAN CHUECHES. 473

eKeivoiV TrepLcrcrevjxa ydvrjTai eU to vfiajv varip-q^a^ oiro)^
yiviqTaL IcroTTj^y ^° KaOoiS yiypaiTTaL 'O to ttoXv ovk cTrXed-
vacrev^ koX 6 to okiyov ovk rjXaTTovrjo-ev.

may be for their want, that their abundance also may be for your want,
that there may be equality, ^^as it is written, 'he that had much had
nothing over, and he that had little had no lack/

Paraphrase of Chap. VIII. 1 — 15.

JVow comes my task of announcing to you the goodness of God,
which I found manifested in the goodness of the congregations
of Macedonia. They were plunged in deep distress and poverty,
but this only served to make them more anxious to show their
cheerfulness and generosity. And not only so, but even beyond
their power they contributed ; and, yet more, it was voluntary;
and at their own eager request they gave, not only their
money, but themselves to Christ and to us, to help the Christians
elsewhere. The result of this was, that I entreated Titus to
return to Corinth and complete this sign of goodness in you, as
well as those other good works and feelings which he had begun
to promote in the visit from which he has just returned ; and
truly it becomes you who have such exuberance of other great
gifts and signs of God's goodness to be exuberant in this also.
I do not command, I only advise it ; because of the zeal
which others have shown, and to prove the genuineness of your
love to men for Christ's sake, acting to them as He acted to
you, in exchanging riches for poverty in your behalf, that you,
through His poverty, might enjoy His riches. I give nothing
but advice ; and this is in fact all that you need, for already
in the past year, not only the act of your collection, but the
eagerness with which you prepared for it, was apparent ; and
all that you have to do is to complete the act, in order that the
act may correspond to the eagerness of the intention. And even
in the act, remember that it is to be proportioned to your means;
for it is not the amount, but the intention which is regarded in
a gift. This is so always ; and in this case there is no loish
that you should be heavily pressed for the relief of others.
There must be a fair equality. If you contribute now, they
must contribute afterwards ; so that in your deeds of liberality,
the saying ivill be fulfilled which we read in the account of the
manna gatherers, ' Much was not too much, and little was not
too little,^

474 SECOND EPISTLE.

The Poverty of Christ.

Whatever general instruction may be gathered from this
portion of the Epistle has been sufficiently expressed in the
notes on 1 Cor. xvi. 1. But one passage, although entirely
parenthetical, needs to be considered on its own account. ' For
your sakes He became poor that ye through His poverty might
become rich ' (viii. 9).

The passage is remarkable on many accounts: (1) It is a
striking instance of the Apostle's frequent mode of allusion to
the most solemn truths of Christian Revelation, in the midst of
arguments referring to what may almost be called the every
day business of life.

(2) By directly alluding to the ordinary trials and humilia-
tions of our Lord's life, it bears witness to the accuracy of the
Gospel narrative. The word {sirrco^Evcrs) ought not indeed to
be pressed to its strictly classical sense of ' beggary,' because
in the New Testament it almost seems to have superseded the
common word for ' poverty ' (Travla, itsvtjs). And our Lord's
life, as described in the Gospels, included the home at Caper-
naum, the maintenance from the richer Galileans, and the
common purse by which He and the Apostles were supported.
Still there were times when the Apostle's expression was
realised ; as when He spoke of ' not having where to lay His
head '(Matt. viii. 20). And the implied assertion that this
poverty was a voluntary choice, agrees with the account of the
offer and rejection both of the kingdoms of the world in the
Temptation (Matt. iv. 9), and of the kingdom of Judaea (John
vi. 15). Of a like character are the general expressions, * No
man taketh my life from me, but I lay it down of myself
(John X. 18): ' Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my
Father, and He shall presently give me more than twelve
legions of angels ' (Matt. xxvi. 53) ; * The cup which my Father
hath given me, shall I not drink it' (John xviii. ]\\ The
peculiar form in which the contrast is here expressed, ' being
rich He was ipoov \£'7rTco')(^svcrsv 7r\ov(Tt>os wz/),as though He were
rich and poor at the same time, agrees with the whole tone of
the Gospels, by which, more than by any direct expressions, we
infer the indissoluble union of Divine power and excellence
with human weakness and suffering.

THE POVERTY OF CHEIST. 475

(3) This text, from bringing forward prominently the fact
of our Lord's poverty as an example, gave rise to the mendicant
Orders, as founded by St. Francis of Assisi, who in this respect
believed himself to be following the model of our Saviour's life.
Such a result is doubly curious. It shows how a parenthesis, in-
cidentally introduced, in an appeal, for a temporary purpose,
to the generosity of the Corinthian Church, has given birth to
an immense institution, at one time spread over the whole of
Europe. It shows how much of the extravagance of that in-
stitution might have been checked by acting less on the letter,
and more on the spirit, of the passage in which the text occurs ;
a passage of which the general tendency is the very opposite
to that which could reduce the feelings of generosity to a defi-
nite and uniform system.

At the commencement of the 14th century, the whole in-
terest of theological controversy was centred in the question
suggested by the Apostle's words — namely, whether Christ was
absolutely a mendicant, and whether it was the duty of Chris-
tians to imitate His absolute abnegation of property. On one
side were the spiritual Franciscans, the great Schoolman Wil-
liam of Ockham, and the Bull of Pope Nicholas IV. ; on the
other side, the moderate Franciscans, the Dominicans, and the
Bull of Pope John XXII. ^ The moderate party prevailed ;
and it is certain that their victory was borne out both by the
facts of the Gospel, which imply that our Lord and His dis-
ciples were never in absolute want, and by the language of the
Apostle, who implies that the distinctions and counterbalancing
duties, hopes and fears, of rich and poor were to continue
amongst his converts.

^ Milman's * Latiu Christianity,' vol. v, book xii. c, 6.

476 SECOND EPISTLE.

The Mission of Titus.
Chap. VIII. 16—24.

The Apostle had already sent Titus with one or more
Mission of Christians from Ephesus, charged with the duty of
Titus. communicating the First Epistle, and of stimulating
the Corinthians in the matter of this contribution (xii. 18 ; 1
Cor. xvi. 12). He now sends him again with the Second
Epistle ; and whereas, before, the contribution had in compa-
rison of the greater interests at stake, been a secondary consi-
deration, it was now to be the chief object of his mission.
With him he joins two other Christians, whose names are not
mentioned, but who, for that very reason, we must suppose to
be well known to the Corinthian Church, and therefore to
be, either one, or both, the same as he had sent before {rov
aSsXcjiov, xii. 18 ; tmv ahsX^wv, 1 Cor. xvi. 12). As in the
case of the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, we can only
say with certainty who they are not. They are subordinate to
Titus ; and, therefore, can hardly be any of the Apostle's more
equal companions, Barnabas, or Apollos, or Silas. They are
distinguished from the Macedonian Christians (ix. 4); and,
therefore, cannot be Aristarchus, Sopater, or Secundus (Acts
XX. 4), or Epaphroditus (Phil. ii. 30).

If it were worth while to hazard a conjecture, it would
Trophi- ^^ that one of the two may have been Trophimus.
mus. Trophimus was, like Titus, one of the few Gentiles

who accompanied the Apostle ; an Ephesian, and therefore
likely to have been sent by the Apostle from Ephesus with
the First Epistle, or to have accompanied him from Ephesus
now ; he was, as is implied of * this brother,' ' whose praise
was in all the Churches,' well known ; so well known that the
Jews of Asia Minor at Jerusalem immediately recognised him ;
he was also especially connected with the Apostle on this very
mission of the collection for the poor in Judasa. Thus far
would appear from the description of him in Acts xxi. 2P
From Acts xx. 4, it also appears that he was with St. Paul on
his return from this very visit to Corinth. And the mention

THE MISSION OF TITUS. 477

in this last passage of the companion, might further suggest
that the other nameless * brother ' in viii. 22, was rj, j^j^^g
Tychicus. He also was an Ephesian ('of Asia,'
Acts XX. 4; ' sent to Ephesus,' 2 Tim. iv. 12 ; Eph. vi. 21).
He is mentioned amongst the few names which occur in the
Epistle to Titus (iii. 12). He is spoken of in Eph. vi. 21 ;
Col. iv. 7, as *a beloved brother,' 'faithful minister and
fellow-servant in the Lord,' ' knowing the Apostle's affairs,'
which agrees well with the description of ' our brother, whom
we have oftentimes proved earnest in many things ' (viii. 22).
These three men he now proceeds to commend to their
attention — Titus, merely by expressing his own confidence in
him, the other two more formally, as if not equally well
known.

478

SECOND EPISTLE: CHAP. VIII. 16—19.

The Mission of Titus.

^^XdpLS Se Tw 6eS TO) BlSovtl Trjv avTrjv cnrovSrjv vnep
vficov kv TTJ KapSiq, Ttrov, ^^oti ttjv fxkv irapaKk-qcTLV cSe-
faro, cTTTOuSatoTcpo? Se virdp^oiv av6aip€.T0<; e^rjXOev wpo^
vfjiois. ^^ crvveTreixxpafxev Se fxer avTov roi^ dBeX4>6v^ ov 6

^^But grace* be to God who putteth the same earnest care for you in
the heart of Titus, ^''for indeed he accepted the exhortation, but being
more earnest, of his own accord he went out unto you. ^^And we sent

• Or * thanks.'

1 6 He begins by expressing
his gratitude to God, for the ear-
nestness of Titus, in the par-
ticular matter, as he had before
for his earnestness in behalf of
the Corinthian Church generally,
ii. 14, vii. 6, 7, 15, 16.

Tw StSdvTt, * who is giving,^ as
though the Apostle saw before
his eyes the working of Titus's
eagerness.

T7JV avTTJv o-TTOvSrjv vTrep v/xtov,
' the same earnestness in your
behalf that I feel myself, and
that I have just expressed' (in
verses 8-15).

cv T^ KapSia TtTov, * not merely
in the words or deeds, but in
the very heart of Titus ' The
word (not then familiarised by
use) is probably always to be
taken in an emphatic sense in
these Epistles.

17 oTt rqv . . . (TTTOvSatoTepos
8c, ' inasmuch as, whilst he did
indeed receive the charge from
me, yet he was more earnest of
himself to go.'

TrapdKXrja-Lv. Properly, * eager
exhortation,' see viii. 6.

cTTrovSaiorepo?, either : (1)
' more earnest than myself,' or
(2) 'more earnest than he was
before,' or (3) * very earnest,'

like Scto-iSat/xovccTTcpov?, in Acts
xvii. 22.

vTrdpxoiv, instead of wv, ex-
presses that this was the cause
of his departure ; — ' because he
was already so earnest, before
I entreated him.' See xii. 16,
V7rdp)(u)v Travovpyo^.

av^atperos. See note on viii. 3.

i^XOev, 'left the province of
Macedonia for that of Achaia.'
The word, when used absolutely,
seems always to have an em-
phatic meaning of this kind. See
ii. 13. The past tenses here and
throughout this passage, (rvv€-
TTi/xif/afjLev, ^Tre/jul/a, may imply
that the events described had
taken place before the Apostle
wrote. But the whole strain of
the passage so clearly indicates
a present mission, that the past
tense must be ascribed to the
forms of ancient epistolary com-
munication, according to which
the most recent events are repre-
sented in the light in which they
will appear to the persons who
receive the letter ; as though he
said, ' You will find that Titus
departed.'

18 crvveTrefuf/a/xa/ Se jxer av-
Tov. The phrase /tcr' avrov is,
properly speaking, superfluous.

THE MISSION OF TITUS.

479

€7raivo<; kv rco euayycX-to) 8ia Traacoi^ rcov IkkXtjo-loji' ^^ [ov
fjiovov Se", dWa koI ■)(eLpoTOV7j6eU viro rcov eKKXrjaLCjp

with him the brother, whose praise is in the gospel throughout all the
churches ^^(and not that only, but who was also chosen by the churches

It is like saying, * We sent him
with Titus as his companion.^
For the person here meant see
remarks on p. 4:76.

Tov aS€\<f)6vj 'the brother
whom you know,' so xii. 18,
where probably the same person
is meant.

ov 6 £7raii/os, * who has his
praise.' Comp. 1 Cor. iv. 5 ;
Rom. ii. 29.

€V T<S evayycXto), * in the
preaching,' or * the sphere of
the glad tidings of Christ,' like
iv xp'-^'^^' So X. 14; Phil. iv.
3 ; 1 Thess. iii. 2.

8ta Trao-tuv twv iKKXrja-twv,
* through the whole range of
congregations through which I
have passed.' Compare * the
care of all the Churches,' xi. 28.
These words are applied to St.
Luke, in the longer version of
the Ignatian Epistles, and by
Jerome, in his commentary on
the Epistle to Philemon, and his
catalogue of * Illustrious Men,'
alluding expressly to the written
Gospel. But this is a misunder-
standing of the words iv tw
cvayycXiw. The error was first
pointed out by Grotius.

ig ov jjLovov 8c, ' and not only
is he generally praised ' (for the
abrupt construction comp. viii.
5 ; Rom. ix. 10), ' but he was
specially selected for the very
purpose of the contribution.'

X'^f-poTovr}$€Ls. )(€LpoTov€Lv in
classical Greek is properly 'to
vote by show of hands,' then
•* to elect by show of hands,' as

■^eipoTOveLV tlvcl (TTparrjyov, Xen.
Hell. vi. 2, 11, and hence used,
in the passive voice
especially, m contradis-
tinction to \ay)(a-v€Lv, ' election
by lot.' ■)(€LpoTovr)0€l<s y Aa;((uv,
Plato, Pol. 300, a. From this
meaning of * deliberate ' as dis-
tinct from ' chance selection,' it
came to signify ' election ' or
' choice ' of any kind, whether by
show of hands or not. Thus in
Josephus, passim, as Ant. VI. iv.
2 ; xiii. 9, vVo tov Oeov /3a(TiX€v<s
K€)(€LpoTovr}fji€vo<; (see Wetstein,
ad loc.)y and in the N. Test, as
here and in Acts xiv. 23, of the
choice of presbyters by the Apo-
stles. Compare a similar trans-
ference of the ancient forms of
political speech to Christian life,
in the case of iKKkrja-La and cVi*
or/coTTo? in Greek, and ' ordo,'
' ordinatiOj^ ' diocesis,' in Latin.
But from this use of the word
in the Christian congregations, a
new meaning sprang up in later
Ecclesiastical Greek, ' of election '
by imposition of hands, thus re-
turning in some degree to its
etymological sense. In this sense,
probably, it is used in the sub-
scriptions to 2 Tim. iv. 24 ; Tit.
iii. 5, iTTLa-KOTTOv xeipoTovi]0€VTa.

VTTo Twv iKKXrjo-Lwv, ' by the
congregations in which he is
praised,' referring back to Trao-wv

TWV €KK\r](TL(i)V.

<ruv€KBr] pios rjfiwv, ' to be my
fellow-traveller,' so Acts xix.
29, speaking of Gains and Ari-
starchus.

iv ry \apLTi ravrrj, * in the

480

SECOND JEPISTLE: CHAP. YllL 20—23.

o-vv€KBr)iJLO<; r)iJLcov ^ €v rfj )(dpiTi Tavrrj rrj hiaKovovixevrj vff)
TfyiOiv TTpos TTjv ^ Tov KvpLOV So^av KoL TTpoOvjjiLav ""tjixcoi/)^
"'^^ (TTeXXoiiei'OL TovTO, ixTj Tts ')7/>ta9 fJLcoixrja-rjrai kv rfj aSpo-
Tr)TL TavTTj rrj SiaKovovfieprj vcf) rjfjLcov '^^^Trpovoovfjiev yap

' avy. ^ Add aiirov. <= vfiwv. ^ irpovoovfievoi Ka\d.

to travel with us with this grace, which is ministered by us to show the
glory of the Lord and our ready mind), 2° avoiding this, that no man
should blame us in this plenty which is administered by us : ^^for we

matter of their contribution.'
See viii. 6, 7.

rfj SLaKovovfiivrj, * which is now
in the process of ministration.'
See viii. 4.

There were two purposes to be
answered by the contribution :

(1) ' The glory of the Lord ; '
as we should say, the credit
which would accrue to Christi-
anity from the liberality of the
Gentile Churches. Comp. Rom.
XV. 16, ' ministering the Gospel
of God, that the offering up of
the Gentiles might be acceptable.'

(2) The proof of the Apostle's
zeal for the Jewish Christians.
Comp. Gal. ii. 10, ' that we
should remember the poor ; the
same which I also was forward
(^ecnrovSaa-a) to do.'

20 cTTeXXofxevoL properly be-

o-reAXdiie- Jongs to (TVV€TrefJ.xf/afX€V,

"O'- intimating that the rea-

son of the Apostle's sending the
brother with Titus was to avoid
cause for suspicion, two going
instead of one. From xii. 18, it
appears that he was charged
with collecting money for his
own purposes, through the means
of his companions ; and thus the
' brother ' here mentioned was
added, first by the Churches at
his own request, as a companion
to himself, to act as a check
upon his own conduct ; next by
himself, as a companion to Titus,
to act as a check on the conduct

0iSp6Tr]<;

aSpoTTj?.

of Titus. oreXXo/xej/ot tovto,
' drawing in, contracting this
free indulgence of our feelings,'
as in classical Greek, for ' draw-
ing in sails,' torrta /xlv oretXavTO,
Iliad, i. 433 ; and as in the only
other passage where it occurs in
the N. T., 2 Thess. iii. 6 : a-riX-
XccrOat v/xa?, ' to draw in your-
selves.'

/xt; Tts /JLio/JLrjcryjTaL See vi. 3,
where the word occurs in a simi-
lar context.

iv rrj aSpoTTjTi ravrrj.
is properly 'thickness,'
as of snow; then 'ful-
ness,' 'ripeness,' as of corn; then
'largeness' of any kind, chiefly
of body. Hence aSpos in LXX.
is used for the 'rich' or ' great,'
1 Kings i. 9 ; 2 Kings x. 6, 11,
like ' proceres ' in Latin.

In the N. Test, the word oc-
curs only here, and is used in
the sense of ' abundance,' as in
Zosimus, quoted by Wetstein;
in this passage, apparently to in-
dicate the need there was for
caution in dealing with a contri-
bution so large as this promised
to be.

2 1 Trpovoovfxev yap KaXd ....
dv6pw7roiv. These same words
occur in Rom, xii. 17, in refer-
ence to the heathen world, irpo-
voeia-Oai is ' to take precautions
for.' The words are taken from
Prov. iii. 4 (LXX.) : irpovoov
kclXcl Ivumiov Kvptov koI dv6p<jiTr(DV,

THE MISSION OF TITUS.

481

Ka\a ov fJLOVOV ipcjinov KVpCov^ aXXa kol ivcoinov avOpcoTTCov,
^^ (TVPeirefJL\jJafJL€v be avTois rov aoeK(pov tjimmv^ ov eooACt/xa-
aafxep iv ttoXXoIs TroXXa/cts cnrovSoLOv ovra, vvvX Se rrokv
cnrovSaioTepov TrenoLdijo-eL ttoXXtJ tyj eU v/xa?. '"^^etre vwep
Tltov, Koiv(j)vo^ e/109 /cai eis v/ias crvvepyos' etre dSeXc^ol

provide for things good not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the
sight of men. ^^And we sent with them our brother, whom we many-
times in many things proved earnest, but now much more earnest, upon
the great confidence felt in you. '^^ Whether [I speak] for Titus, he is
my partner and fellow-worker concerning you : or our brethren, they are

22 TTCTTOt^^O-et TTOXA.^ TT} €19

vfia<: is to be connected with
(TTTovSaLOTepov : ' more earnest be-
cause of the confidence in you
inspired by Titus's account.'

23 €tT€ vTTtp Tltov. He now
winds up his account of the mes-
sengers, with a general recom-
mendation of them to the Corin-
thian Church. After TtVov must
be supplied some such phrase as
Aeyo). For the use of ctrc with
independent nominatives, see 1
Cor. xiii. 8 : etrc yXuxra-ai . . .
€tT€ yvo)(TL<;.

KOLV(j)v6<5 is generally so used as
to express in what the person
participates, but here and in
Philem. 17, standing alone, it
must be ' my intimate com-
panion.'

KOL €ts vfxas (rvvepy6<s, ' and
especially my fellow-labourer to-
wards you.'

oLTToa-ToXoi iKKXrjcTLuiv, ' they are
, , messengers of con^re-

gations. rrom the
omission of the article, it is evi-
dent that the stress is laid on
iKKXrja-Lwv, to express the autho-
rity with which they came ; by
which, therefore, both the name-
less brothers were appointed.

This passage is one of the few
where the word aTroa-roXo'; is ap-
plied to any besides the Apostles
of Christ. In Phil. ii. 25, it is

used of Epaphroditus, in Rom.
xvi. 7, of Andronicus and Junia,
and Acts xiv. 4, 14, of Barnabas.
So^a )(pL(TTov. It is hard to say
why this expression * the ' or
* a ' ' glory of Christ,' should be
used so emphatically of these
brethren. It evidently expresses
the same thought as the phrase
Trpos r^v rov Kvptov do^av^ in verse
19, and 8o$ol^ovt€<s tov Oeov^ in ix.
13. This last passage seems to
imply that the glory of Christ
would in an especial manner be
shown to the Jewish Christians
by the zeal of the Gentile Chris-
tians in their behalf; and the
same is implied in the narrative
of the Acts XV. 3, * the conver-
sion of the Gentiles . . . caused
great joy to all the brethren ; '
and xxi. 19, ' when James and
the elders had heard what things
God had wrought among the
Gentiles by his ministry, they
glorified the Lord.'

24 Tr]v evSeL^Lv, ' the display.'
Kav)(T^(T€(DS, ' my boast of your
readiness.' What this 'boast'
was, appears more clearly from
ix. 1, 2, 3, and the mention of it
here marks the point of transition
to a new subject.

The construction of the parti-
ciple for the imperative is fre-
quent in St. Paul ; see Rom. xii.
9-19; Eph. iii. 18; Col. iii. 16.

I I

482 SECOND EPISTLE: CHAP. VIII. 24.

rjixcoVy anoaToXoi iKKXrjcTLwv^ So^a ^icttov. ^^ttjv ovv iv-
Sei^Lv Trjs aydwrjs vfjLcov kol rifjicop Kav^aeoyq virep vfjLOJV
els avToifs ^ ivBeLKPVfxevoL^ els Trpocrcjirov tcop iKKkrjo-Lcov.

• iviel^aa-Be, Koi els.

messengers of the Churches, the glory of Christ. ^^ Wherefore display ye
to them the proof of your love and of our boasting on your behalf, in the
face of the churches.

Paraphrase of Chap. VIII. 16—24.

Before I proceed I must thank God, whose goodness I see before
my eyes in the earnestness, equal to my own, which has taken
possession of the inmost being of Titus ; for, though he received
the entreaty which I made to him, yet it was from his own
intense earnestness that of his own accord he determined to
start on his journey to Corinth. As his companion, you zvill
find the Christian friend who has his praise repeated in all the
congregations where he has preached the glad tidings of Christ,
and not only so, but was chosen by those congregations to travel
with me whilst I was collecting this contribution, the contribu-
tion which will redound to the glory of no less than Christ
Himself, and will prove my zeal for the Christian poor in
Judosa, This precaution has been taken, to avoid any impu-
tation of misappropriation of so large a sum, and in the wish,
as it is said in the Proverbs, to look forward for the exhibition
of what is good, not only before the Lord, but before men.
And with these two I have sent another friend, my own com-
panion, whose earnestness I have proved often before, and now
see to be yet more increased by his confidence in you. He-
member, therefore, that Titus is my own intimate counsellor,
and, as far as you are concerned, my active fellow-labourer ;
and that the others are messengers of many Christian congre-
gations, and are the glory of the name of Christ. Display to
them, and in the presence of the congregations which have sent
them, the truth of your love and of my boast of you.

THE MISSION OF TITUS. 483

Two points are remarkable in this account of the mission : — ■

First. The Apostle's worldly prudence, in securing ^,
his own character from any unworthy attacks by the Apostle's
presence of constant companions. It exemplifies a Prudence.
combination rarely seen, of common sense and sagacity with
great enthusiasm, and as thus fulfilling our Lord's precept, ' be
ye wise as serpents and harmless as doves.'' He makes his
spiritual voyage not with his sails full spread and filled, to
catch every gust of his own impulse or of popular enthusiasm,
but (as he here describes) ' drawn in ' and ' furled.' Such was
his conduct, as described in the Acts, when he argued with the
Sanhedrin,2 and effected his escape from the conspiracy,^ and
appealed to the Emperor,"* and cheered the crew in the ship-
wreck.^

Secondly. The insight which is afforded into the outward
administration of the Early Church.

(1) We find, in the expressions * through all the 2. Admi-
Churches,' ' messengers of Churches,' a certain inter- nistration
communication between the different congregations, early
They are not independent of each other, on the one Church.
hand : and, on the other hand, they are not united to each
other by any external polity.

(2) The officers of the Church are elected by these congre-
gations. This agrees with the form of election of the chief
officers — 'the Bishops,' — which continued down to the fifth
century.

(3) They are elected for specific purposes; in this case for
the administration of the alms of the Churches for the Christian
poor in Jerusalem, and to travel with the Apostle. With this
agree the frequent indications in the Acts, that (to use the
words of Jeremy Taylor ®) ' there was scarce any public design
or grand employment, but the Apostolic men had a new ordi-
nation to it, a new imposition of hands.' ^

1 Matt. X. 16.

* Acts xxiii. 6.

3 Ibid. xxui. 17.

* Ibid. XXV. 11.

5 Ibid, xxvii. 10, 22, 34.

^ Works, vii. p. 43.

' Compare Acts xiii. 1, xiv. 26,
XV. 40.
2

484 SECOND EPISTLE.

(4) This is the earliest detailed instance of the special
missions on which the Apostle sent out his favourite and con-
fidential companions at the head of other disciples, to arrange
the affairs of a particular Church. What Titus does here at
Corinth, is the same in kind as what he is afterwards charged
to do at Crete,^ returning when his work is ended.^ And the
same may be said of the charge to Timotheus at Ephesus.^ It
is the first beginning of what in its permanent form became
Episcopacy.

1 Tit. 1-5, ii. 15. 1^1 Tim. iii. 1-vi. 21 ; 2 Tim. iv.

2 Ibid iii. 12. I 21.

SPIRIT OF THE COLLECTION.

485

The Spirit in which the Collection is to be made.
Chap. IX. 1—15.

IX. ^Trepl fxev yap r^s Sta/coi^ias Trj<; ets tov<; ayiovs
TrepKTCTOv [JLOL iaTiv TO ypdifteiv v[uv. ^6l8a yap T7]v irpoSv-
fiiav vfJLwv ^v vnep vfjiajv Kaxr^cofiai MaKeSocnv, on 'A-^ata

^ For about the ministering to the saints it is superfluous for me to
write to you : ^for I know your readiness of mind of which I boast of
you to the Macedonians, that Achaia has been prepared a year ago, and

The Apostle now once more
turns back to the collection itself,
but reluctantly, as if he was afraid
that he should annoy them by im-
portunity ; and he therefore hangs
what he has to say on the mis-
sion of the brethren, which he
has just mentioned ; and presses
upon them (1) speed ; ix. 1-5 ;
(2 ) readiness ; ix. 6, 7 ; (3)
bounty ; 8—15.

IX. I TTcpt //t€v yap ttJs Sia-
Kovias. This complication of
thoughts is apparent in the con-
struction of this first sentence.
The sense required is, ' I have
made a boast concerning you to
the Macedonian Churches, which
I trust will not be nullified by
your lukewarmness. For this
reason, though knowing your
zeal, I sent the brethren before-
hand.' Accordingly, the proper
construction would be that I-
Trefxij/a Be in verse 3 should have
followed immediately on the men-
tion of his ' boast ' in viii. 24.
But he wishes, after his manner,
to state his approval of what they
had done before he states his fear
of what they were going to ne-
glect; and therefore first ex-
presses the confidence which had
caused his boast. ' I speak of my

hoast and of my anxiety concern-
ing it, for to urge upon you the
contribution is needless.' For
similar constructions see viii. 12 ;
1 Cor. X. 1.

The parenthesis thus intro-
duced continues to verse 2, and
the original sentence is resumed
in emixij/a 8c, in 3, fiev may either
have a relation to this 8c, as
though the sentence were Trcpl Bk
Tioy dScA-^wv ov TTcpLaa-oVj or may
stand by itself to limit his words
to the contribution, as in 1 Cor.
V. 3. ^ ■

TO ypd<f>€Lv .... TTcpicrorov, ' my
writing to you is superfluous.'

2 yap gives the reason for
Trepwro-ov — * I say superfluous, for
I know your readiness.' For the
meaning of 'A;(aia, see i. 1. For
the fact of the preparation of
the Corinthian Church in the
*past year, see viii. 10. The tense
of TrapctTKcmo'Tai, and the en-
treaty in the next verse that
they would ' be prepared ' (iva
TrapadKcvaa-jjiivoL rjTe), as though
they were not now prepared, in-
timate that the Apostle in his
over confidence had overstated
the case to the Macedonians ;
and he now dwells on the fact
of his having done so with the

486

SECOND EPISTLE: CHAP. IX. 3--5.

TrapecTKevacTTaL oltto Trepvcri, kol *6 ^viiwv ^rjXo^ 'qpeOicrev
T0V9 irXeLovas' ^e7r€/xi//a Se tovs aBek(j)Ov<;, Iva /xt) to
Kav^fxa 7)fJLa)v to virkp vfxojv Kevo)0fj iv t&) fiepei tovtco^
Iva Ka6ct)<; ikeyov TTapecKevacrix^voi rJTe^ ^fjuij ttw?, iav ek-
ObiCTLV (Tvv ifjLol MaKeS6ve<; kol evpcjcnv vfias aTrapaaKev-
do'Tovs, KaTaL(r)(yv6cofji€u rjfxeLS (w'a [Jirj Xeycofxev v/xct?) iv
• Lachm. Ed. 1. rh. »» Add i^.

your zeal provoked the greater part : 'but I sent the brethren, lest our
boasting of you should be in vain in this respect, that as I said ye may
be prepared, *lest haply, if any Macedonians come with me and find you
unprepared, we (that we say not ye) should be ashamed in this same

view partly of not giving a cause
of complaint to the Macedonians,
partly of delicately giving another
motive to the Corinthians to com-
plete their work. That he should
have made an over-statement is
not to be wondered at, if we con-
sider his eagerness and his love
for the Church of Corinth, and
it is paralleled by the hasty ex-
clamation about the High Priest
in Acts xxiii. 3-5.

KOL 6 vfX(i)V t,rjXo<s ypiOicrei/ tov<s
TrXetWa?, 'and it was by your
zeal that the majority of the Ma-
cedonian Christians were stimu-
lated to their generosity,' tov<s
•jrA-etoT/a? being the principal word
in the sentence.

$r]\o<s, ' zealous affection,' see
xi. 2. Lachmann, in his first
edition, read to C^Ao?, with B. (as
in viii. 2, to ttAovtos).

The 'brethren' (viii. 16-24)
were sent beforehand, to prevent
the appearance of his having ex-
aggerated the generosity of Co-
rinth.

Kevo>6'§f 'nullified.' It is also
joined with Kavxrjfia, in 1 Cor. ix.
15.

iv Tw fx4p€L TOVT(o, ' in this
matter,' as distinguished from
those other matters in viii. 11-
15, in which he knew that his
boast would not be nullified.

Lva KaOib<i cXcyov TrapccTKCva-
a-fxevoL ^T€, * that you might be
prepared, as I said that you were
prepared.'

4 MttKcSovc?, ' any Macedo-
nians.' This shows that the
'brothers,' in viii. 17-24, were
not Macedonians. It also agrees
with the fact that Macedonians
did accompany him to Corinth.
See Acts xx. 4.

KaTaL(TxvvO(i)/jL€v, ' ashamed of
having exag^gerated.'

iva jULT] Xeymfiev ^/^et?. This,
though put in parenthetically, is
the real cause of this appeal,
throwing upon them the respon-
sibility of defending him.

cv T^ vTTOcTTacrii Ta'VTYj. The
omission of r^? /cavx^o-eco? (D^.E^
J.K. which probably copied them
from xi. 17) in B. C. D^. F. G.
renders it necessary that vTroo-ra-
trt? here should mean, not ' sub-
stance ' or ' solidity,' as in
Ps. Ixviii. 2 (LXX.) ; but as in
Heb. iii. 14, xi. 1 ; Ps. xxxviii.
7 ; Ezek. xix. 5, and the nume-
rous passages quoted by Wetstein
ad loc. from Polybius and Jo-
sephus, ' confidence,^ the fun-
damental meaning of the word
being ' firmness,' ' something on
which to take one's stand.'

5 Trapa/caAecrai. See note on
viii. 6.

SPIRIT OF THE COLLECTION.

487

^ avajKolov ovv yjyiqcrdix/Yjv irapaKa-

TTj viTocTTacreL ravTTj

Xecrat rovs dSeXc^ov?, Iva iTpoik6o)0'iv
TTpoKarapricroicnv ttju '^TrpoeTrqyyekiJLevrfv evkoyiav vfxcov
TavTiqv eToCfxrjv eXvaL oijTcos o)? evkoyiav koI fjurj *^&)s irXeo

* Add rrjs Kavxh<^^<^s.
« irpoKarrjyyeXfievqv.

Sxrv^p.

stedfastness. ^Therefore I thought it necessary to exhort the brethren,
that they should go before unto you and make up beforehand your bounty
which was announced before, that the same might be ready as a matter

TrpoeXOoxTLV . . . TrpoKaTapTto-wo-tv,
i.e. ' before the arrival of myself
at Corinth.' irpoeTrqyy^k^hrqv,
' before my arrival in Mace-
donia,' as in ix. 1, 2, 3. The
word TTpo is thus thrice repeated
emphatically, as though he had
said, ' my watchword is, Before-
Jiand, Beforehand^ Beforehand.''
Compare the same sense of it in
xiii. 2.

EvAoyta is used in this Section
(as nowhere else in the N.T.) in
EvAoyia, the pecuUar sense of
'blessing.' a 'gift,' like x^pt?: the
gift, or the spirit of giving, is
regarded by the Apostle both as
in itself a gift and blessing of God,
and as calling down the blessing
of Grod upon him that gives.
Compare ' It is more blessed (/ta-
Kapiov) to give than to receive '
(Acts XX. 35) ; and also,
' It blesseth him that gives and

him that tahes.'
The LXX. employ it indifferently
for ' gift ' and ' blessing,' as in
Gen. xxxiii. 11, of the gift of
Jacob to Esau; as a translation
of HDin, a ' blessing.' In Prov,
xi. 25, ' a generous mind ' is ex-
pressed by riD'n? K^D3, ' a soul of
blessing.' Originally the blende
ing of the two ideas arose from
the fact that every blessing or
praise of God or man was in the
East (as still to a great extent)
accompanied by a gift (the mo-

dern hahhsMah) ; and every gift
suggested the expectation of some
other gift or advantage in return.

The Apostle with this new word
opens a new subject, namely, the
freedom of spirit in which the con-
tribution should be made. In
doing this he takes advantage of
the especial sense which cvXoyia
had now acquired as equivalent
to €v)(a.piaTLa. (Compare the pa-
rallel passages €vxoipL(m^(Ta<s, Luke
xxii. 17 ; €vX,oyij(ra<Sj Mark xiv.
22 ; and see notes on 1 Cor. x. 16.)
* Your gift is called a '' blessing "
or " thanksgiving," let it then be
made as a free thank-offering
from the abundance of the bless-
ings which God has given, and
not as a payment, which you
covet, and which you grudge,'
As the Divine blessing (evXoyta)
is identified with the ready gift,
so human covetousness (TrXeove-
^ia) is identified with the un-
willing gift.

6 TovTo Si. Understand (fiy}fjit,
as 1 Cor. vii. 29, ' this is what
I mean.'

The metaphor of sowing and
reaping is, in the FJpistles, almost
always applied to contributions
and alms. See note on 1 Cor.
ix. 11.

€7r' €vA,oyiat?, ' on the condition
of blessings,' or ' large ^ifts ; '
comp. 1 Cor. ix. 10,e7r' cXTrcSt apo-
rpLwv. ' These are the terms on

488

SECOND EPISTLE: CHAP. IX. 6—11.

ve^iav. ^tovto Se (6 cnrupaiv c^etSojueVcug (jyeiBojjiei'o)^ Kot
SepLaei, kol 6 aireipcov iir euXoytats iir euXoytat? /cat
OepLO-ei) ^ eKa<jTo<s Ka6co<s ^TTpoyprjTai rrj KapBia, fxr) Ik
\vTTr)<i r) ef avdyKr)<;' 'iXapov yap S6t7)v ayana 6 Oeos.
^^Suj^aret Se 6 6eos Tracrav X^P^^ Trepicrcrevcrai els v/xac,
ti^a iv iravTi wavTore Tracrav avTapKeiav e^ovres Treptcr-
crevrjTe ets ttSli^ epyov ayaSov^ ^ KaOcos yiypaiTTai 'EcKop'

irpoaipeirai.

5vvar6s.

of bounty and not of covetousness. *But there is this (' he that soweth
sparingly, sparingly shall he also reap, and he that soweth bountifully,
bountifully shall he also reap '), "^ every one according as he purposeth in
his heart, not out of sorrow or of necessity : ^for ' God loveth a cheerful
giver.' And God is able to make every grace abound towards you, that
ye at every time having every sufficiency in every thing may abound to
every good work/ as it is written, * he dispersed abroad, he gave to the

which we give and on which he
shall receive ; ' as in Luke vi. 38,
' Give, and it shall be given
unto you ; good measure, pressed
down.'

7 CKaCTTOS, i.e. StSoTO).

TrpoyprjTatj ' has cJiosen freely,'
according to its classical sense in
Arist. Ethics, iii. 2.

rfj KapSta, ' in his own inner-
most being : ' see note on viii. 16.

XvTrqs . . . avdyKrjs. These two
words explain Trkeove^iav — ' from
a feeling of grief or of necessity,'
as opposed to the cheerfulness
which the Apostle always makes
an essential part of alms-giving
(see note on viii. 2 ; Rom. xii. 8),
which he here justifies by a refer-
ence to Prov. xxii. 8 : dvSpa IXa-
pbv KOL SoTTjv evXoyei 6e6s (LXX.).

8 He expands the reason for
giving liberally. 6 Oeos refers
back to 6 6e6s in verse 7.

irdaav X'^P^^i ' ©very gift.' It
is used generally, both for what
God gives to them, and for what
they give to others, as evAoyta in
verse 6.

TTcptcro-evo-at, 'make to over-

flow.' For this active sense see
on iv. 15.

The accumulation of Trao-tv, ev
TravTt, TravTore, Tracrav, Trdv is re-
markable. The stress is on -n-cpio--
(T€vr}T€ as connected with Trepto--
crcOcrat, — 'He can make your
wealth overflow, so that having
a sufficiency (avrapKeuxv, see 1
Tim. vi. 6; Phil. iv. 11) for your-
selves, you may overflow in good
deeds to others.'

9 Ka^cu? yeypaTTTat, ' so as to
exemplify the saying in Ps. cxii.
(LXX. cxi.) 9,' ' The man who
fears God gives bountifully, and
yet has more to give always,'
the stress being thus eUrov
laid on the last words, *''*"'*•
/xeVci €is Tov aidva, ' abides for
ever,' ' is never to be exhausted.'
Compare Heb. vii. 10, 17, where
the immortality of Melchizedek's
priesthood is argued in like man-
ner from the expression 'for ever '
(eis TOV atwva) in Ps. ex. 4.

ia-KopTTLCTiv, ' scattered,' is the
link with the context of the
Apostle, as suggested by the
image of sowing, begun in verse

SPIRIT OF THE COLLECTION.

489

TTLcreVy eS(OKev rot? Trevrjcnv, rj SiKaioavvYf avrov [xivei et?
Tov aicova. ^"o oe eTn^oprjyojv cnropov tco cnreipovTi /cat
aprov €ts l3p(oaiv ^ -^op-qyTjcreL kol TrXirjOvveL tov cnropov
vfioiv Koi ^av^7](reL ra ^yevijixara ri^s SiKaLOcrvvT)^ vfjLwv.
^^iv Travrl TrKovTitpyievoi €ts iraaav anXoTrjTa^ 17719 /ca-

(Tirepna.

^ ytwif/xaTa.

poor, his righteousness remaineth for ever.' ^^Now he that supplieth
seed to the sower will both supply bread for food, and multiply your
seed and increase the fruits of your righteousness. ^^ Being enriched in

6, and continued in 9 ; and shows
that in the Apostle's mind, as well
as in the Psalmist's, the nomina-
tive case is ' the liberal man.'

rj BiKaioa-vvrj, * righteousness,'
here, and in 10, is used
m the same sense as m
the LXX., Psalm cxi. 9, namely,
* beneficence.' See note on 1
Cor. xiii. p. 241. Comp. the
reading SiKaiocrvvrjv for iXerjfxo-
(Tvvrjv, in Matt. vi. 1.

10 6 8i liru)(oprjy{iiv. He here
resumes, after his quotation, the
thought of verse 8 : ' But, if you
so scatter. He that supplies the
wants of the sower and consumer
in the natural world, will supply
yours also.'

i7nxopr)yC)Vy from its primary

sense of ' supplying the chorus,'

. is hence applied to any

tnixopriyeiu. g^p^j^ q£ ^ (jgmand, and

in the N. Test, is always used of
the help rendered by God toman.
See Gal. iii. 5 ; Col. ii. 19 ; 2 Pet.
i. 11.^

CTTTopov T(3 cnreipovTi KOL aprov
€ts ppSxTLv are suggested by the
use of these very words in the
comparison of the word of God
to the rain in Isa. Iv. 10 (LXX.).

TO, yevqixaTa ttjs 8LKaL0(rvvr]s
ifxiov ('the fruits of your righte-
ousness ' or ' beneficence ') is

suggested by Hos. x. 12, where
the whole passage turns ra yevrj-
like this on the meta- '*"''*•
phor of sowing : o-Trcipare cavrois
CIS SiKaLoaijvrjv, TpvyqcTare cts Kap-

TTOV ^OO^S, ^(DTtO-ttTC €aVTOL<S <^ois

yvwcrcws, iKt,r}Trj(TaTe tov Kvpiov
€(us TOV iXOuv yevrjpxLTa StKatocrv-
vr]s v/xLv. As (TTTopov rcfcrs to the
harvest, yevTjfjLara refers to the
vintage, the word being used in
later Greek, and in the N. Test,
generally (see Matt. xxvi. 29 ;
Mark xiv. 25), in the sense of
' fruit.' /capTTos is applied to this
same collection of alms, Rom.
XV. 28.

Compare 1 Cor. iii. 6 : 'I
planted ; Apollos watered ; but
God gave the increase.'

II TrAovrt^o/xevot may be con-
nected with e^ovTes and TrepLcr-
a-€vr}T€ in verse 8, but is rather
an instance of the Apostle's free
use of participles for indicatives
or imperatives, as in viii. 24.

iv TravTL and el<s iracrLv are ac-
cumulated upon each other as in
verse 1.

aTrAoTT^ra, see note on viii. 2.

^Tts Korepyd^iTaL 8t' i^/xcov iv^a-
pca-TLav ^co), ' your liberality
by its contributions produces
through us who administer it,

490

SECOND EPISTLE: CHAP. IX. 12—15.

Tepyd^eraL St' tjijlojv ^v^apicTTiav *[Ta)] 6eco ^^^otltj Sta-
Kovia T7]s \eiTOvpyia<; ravTrjs ov fxovov io-rlu TrpoaavairXrj'
povcra TOL vcrTept] fxara to)v ayucov, aXka kol 7repL<Taevov(ra
Sua 7ro\\(x>v ev^apLCTTioiv T(o *^€w* ^"^Sta ttjs So/ct/x-^s ttJ?
hiaKOvia^ TavTTjq So^d^ovres tov Oeov irrl Trj viroTayfj Trjs
ofJLoXoyCas vfJicou els to evayyikiov tov )(pLO'Tov kol dnXo-

' Lachm. Ed. 1. €wx**P' ^^V C^'''* . . • t^ xp*<^'''9')» '^"^ 5t3t.

everything to all liberality, which worketh through us thanksgiving to
God ^'that the ministration of this service not only is filling up the wants
of the saints, but abounding also by many thanksgivings unto God :
^^they by the proof of this ministration glorifying God for the subjection
of your confession in regard to the gospel of Christ, the liberality of your

thankfulness from those who re-
ceive it.*

Tw ^€(0, 'tov^ards God,' gives
the religious turn which he im-
mediately follows up in the next
sentence.

12 17 SittKovta, see viii. 4. Xu-
Tovpyeiv, XuTovpyta, are
used m Rom. xv. 27, of
this very contribution, and in
Phil. ii. 30, of a similar one.
The sense is as in classical Greek
of a ' public service,' but here
restricted by later use to religi-
ous services. By its combina-
tion here with ^ thanksgiving to
God,' it may have a sense cor-
responding to the priestly ser-
vice, performed in the Temple by
the priests offering victims, in the
Christian Church by the people
offering good deeds and praise.
Compare the same connexion of
thought, Heb. xiii. 15, 'by this
we offer continually the sacrifice
of praise to God, that is, the
fruit (comp. yevq/xara in verse
10) of our lips, giving thanks to
His name. But to do good and
to communicate forget not ; for
with such sacrifices God is well
pleased.'

Trpoa-avaTrXrjpova-a. ' supplying

by addition,* only used here, and
in xi. 9.

Treptacrevovaa Sti ttoAAwv cv^a-
pLCTToiv Tw ^ew. ' Overflowing
beyond its immediate object of
relieving want through the many
thanksgivings which it causes to
be sent up to God.'

Lacbmann, in his 2nd Ed.,
reads rw ^cw (C. D. G.), in his
1st Ed. Tw ;(ptorTc5 (B.) ; and on
the same grounds, in his first re-
tains, and in the second omits,
Kai before 8ta in verse 18.

1 3 This sentence, like the one
immediately preceding in verse
11, is without grammatical con-
nexion : Sol^a^ovres relates to
TToAAwi/, as irXovTitpfxevoi to v/awv.

8ta tt}? SoKLixrjs r^s BiaKOVLas,
' through the experience of this
service.'

So^d^ovTC^ TOV Oeov, see viii. 23.

cTTt rf) VTTOTayfj rr}? o/i-oXoyta?
v/Acov 6is TO evayyeXtov tov ■)(pi(TTOv.
' TLey glorify God for the obe-
dience which belongs to the con-
fession of your faith, in regard to
the Gospel of Christ.' For the
use of o/xoXoyLa, in this sense, see
1 Tim. vi. 12 ; Heb. iii. 1, iv.
14, X. 23, in all cases used for
' the profession of Christianity.'

SPIRIT OF THE COLLECTION.

491

Tr)TL T7)s KOLVcovcas ct? avTovs /cat €ts Traz^ras, /cat avTOiv
Se-no-et virep vfxcov iTrnroOovvTOiV vfia^ Sta ttjv iirep^ak'
\ov(TCLV -yapiv tov Oeov e<p vfiLV, ^^^^P^^ '
dz^eKStT^yT^TO) avrou 8a)pea.

TO) ueCO CTTt

T77

• Add 86'.

communication in regard to them and in regard to all, ^'* and themselves
by their prayer for you longing after you because of the exceeding grace
of God [seen] upon you. ^^ Grace* be unto God for His unspeakable gift.

• Or ♦ thanks.'

€19 TO evayyiXiov tov ^l<ttov.
See ii. 12. It gives the religious
ground of thankfulness, as eis
avVov? in the next clause gives
the human ground.

aTrAo-nyrt tt}s Koij/oovia? (not
* the sincerity of their commu-
nion,' but) as in viii. 2, ' the li-
berality of their communication.*

€19 avTOii9 KoX €19 '7rai/Ta9, * to
the Jewish Christians, as if to
them, then to all.'

14 Kttt avToiVy . . . icfi vfuv.
This is another independent sen-
tence, following out in sense,
though not in grammar, the pre-
ceding : ' And they, with prayer
for you, long to see you, because

they hear of the exceeding gift
which God has worked in you.'

In these four last verses, the
Apostle throws himself forward
into the time when at Jerusalem
he should receive the thanks of
the Jewish Christians for this
contribution, and thereby witness
the completion of the harmony
between the Jewish and Gentile
Churches. Hence the impas-
sioned thanksgiving for what
else seems an inadequate occa-
sion. Compare the abrupt intro-
duction of similar thanksgivings
in Rom. ix. 5, xi. 33-36 ; 1 Cor.
XV. 57; Gal. i. 5; Eph. iii. 20 ;
1 Tim. i. 17.

Paraphrase of Chap. IX. 1^15.

/ have spoken of the boast which I made concerning you to the
Macedonian Churches. I have urged you to receive the mission
of Titus with Christian love. I might have urged upon you
more directly the duty of preparing the contribution ; but I
have not done so ; because the very ground of that boast was
my confidence in your zeal, which ledme to make theboast that
even a year ago the contribution was prepared, on the faith of
which the great mass of the Macedonian collection has been
made. Titus and his companions loere sent for this very reason
that you might be fully prepared ; lest I should appear to have
exaggerated what you had done, and lest any Macedonian
Christians, who may accompany me to Corinth, should think

492 SECOND EPISTLE.

that they have been deceived, and so I, or rather youy shouldt
have cause to blush for what I said. Therefore my injunction
to the brethren was to be beforehand in arriving at Corinth, to
be beforehand in preparing the contribution, as 1 have been
beforehand in announcing it ; remembering that, according to
the language of the Old Testament, such a contribution is a
blessing — a blessing both to the givers and receivers, and there-
fore to be given willingly and plentifully, as though it were
something which you were glad to part with, not something which
you were grasping to keep. What I mean is this : — That all
contributions are, according to the well-known j^gure, like seed
sown; if sown sparinoly, there is a scanty harvest; if plenti-
fully, as men shower down blessings, then there will be a harvest
of blessings. And in such contributions let every one give
according to the free choice of his own heart and conscience ;
as the Proverbs declare, it is only a cheerful giver whom God
loves and blesses. And the God who so loves a cheerful giver,
is able to make an overflowing not of one only but ofe\erj kind
of gift ; so that, not in one matter only, but in every matte? ,
not atone time only, but at every time, you may have for your-
selves, not one kind only, but every kind of sufficiency ; and
that you may in your turn overflow, not in one kind only, but
in every kind, of good work. As the Psalmist describes of the
good man how he ^ scatters, and gives to the poor, and yet his
beneficence remains inexhaustible for all time ; ' and as Isaiah
describes the word of God like the rain which always supplies
' seed to the sower and bread for food, so He will surely supply
and multiply the harvest of your good deeds, and the vintage of
your benevolence ; and thus you loill have riches ofeyerj kind
to spend on every kind of liberality. Thus the result will be a
great thanksgiving, not only in the sight of man, but of God ;
not only a necessary supply of the wants of the Christian poor,
but an overflowing, as in a sacred service, of many thanks-
givings to Christ : those who experience the benefits of this
contribution will offer glory to God for your obedience to the
confession which you made in the service of the glad tidings
of Christ, for the liberality of your communication in the
service of themselves and of all Christians ; and in their pray ers
they will long to see you for the favour which God manifests
so greatly to you and through you to them, and which calls forth
in me one last thanksgiving for the gift, great beyond words
to express, in the fulfilment of this mission.

SPIRIT OF THE COLLECTION. 493

In concluding this Section, two points are to be remarked :
I. The great stress laid by the Apostle on the
contribution of the Corinthian Church. He had anceofthe
warned them in the First Epistle ^ to have it ready ; contribu-
he had ' boasted ' of their preparations, making the Corin-
very most of it that he could to the Churches of thian
Macedonia ; by that boast the Macedonian Churches ^^ '
had chiefly been stimulated to make exertions,^ which, by the
time that he wrote this Epistle, had been very great, almost
beyond their means.* He now devotes a whole section of an
important Epistle solely to this subject ; he sends Titus, the
most energetic and fervent of his companions, with the view of
urging the completion of the collection ; ^ he joins with him two
Christians, distinguished for their zeal, known through all the
congregations through which he had passed, tried by himself in
many difficulties, messengers of many Churches, ' the glory of
Christ Himself.'^ He heaps entreaty upon entreaty that they
will be ready, that they will be bountiful. He promises the
fulness of God's blessings upon them if they persevere : ^ he
anticipates a general thanksgiving to God and Christ, and an
ardent affection for them, from those whom tHey relieve ; ^ he
compares the contribution to no less than the gifts of God
Himself, as though it were itself an especial gift of God and
could only be expressed by the same word (' grace,' ' bless-
ing ') ; ® he urges them to it by an appeal to the suffering life
of Christ ; ^ he utters solemn thanksgivings to God for the zeal
which Titus showed in the matter, and for the ' unspeakable
gift ' itself. ^° Finally, when on arriving at Corinth, he found
the gift completed,^ ^ it determined his course to Jerusalem ^^ in
spite of his ardent desire ^^ to visit Rome and Spain, and in spite
of the many dangers and difficulties of which he was warned
upon his road ; for the sake of taking this contribution he was

* 1 Cor. xvi. 1-4.
2 2 Cor. ix. 2.

' viii. 2, 3.

* viii. 6, 17.

5 viii. 18, 22, 23.
« ix. 4, 5, 6-10.
' ix. 11-14.

8 viii. 1, 7, 9, ix. 5, 6.

» 2 Cor. viii. 9.
10 viii. 16, ix. 15.
" Rom. XV. 26.
1^ 1 Cor. xvi. 4.
13 Rom. XV. 23, 24, i. 10, 11

494 SECOND EPISTLE.

' bound in spirit,' he was ' ready to die for the name of the
Lord Jesus ; ' ' and if he should succeed in finding that it was
' acceptable,' then, and not before, he could ' come with joy '
and ' refresh himself with the Christians of the West.'^

The reasons which invested this contribution with such im-
portance, are probably to be found in the fact that he had been
expressly charged, as a condition of his separate Apostleship
to the Grentiles, with making this collection ^ for the Jewish
Christians. Hence he would be doubly anxious to present it,
especially that part of it which came from the capital of Greece,
from his own chief and favourite Church, and the place of his
longest residence in Europe. It was a proof of his influence
over them, and was also a peace-offering ^ from the greatest of
the Gentile Churches to the greatest of the Jewish, a recogni-
tion of the spiritual blessings which had proceeded from Jeru-
salem.^ His ardour in the cause thus belongs to the same
impassioned love for his country and people, which shows itself
with hardly less vehemence, though in a more general form, in
the Epistle to the Romans : * I could wish myself accursed
from Christ for his brethren's sakes.' ^ * My heart's desire
and prayer to God is, that they might be saved.' ^ 'Hath
God cast away his people ? God forbid. For I also am an
Israelite.' ®

This unexpected burst of Jewish enthusiasm thus occurring
in the midst of an address to his own especial converts, is a
touching proof how, in a strange land, he still remembered
Zion ; how the glories of the Apostleship had not extinguished
the generous feelings of the Jewish patriot ; how tender the
recollection which, unlike the proverbial bitterness of converts
and renegades, he still cherished for the Church of his nativity,
and the land of his people.

II. This Section shows that the community of goods, de-
scribed in Acts ii. 44, iv. 32, had even already come to be
observed only in spirit ; and that the idea of Christian equality
required not an absolute uniformity, but a mutual co-operation
and assistance. It could no longer be said that ' none among
believers possessed aught of his own ; ' or that * none lacked.'
There were rich Christians and poor Christians. The only

1 Acts XX. 22, 23, xxi. 4, 10, 13.

2 Rom. XV. 32.
s Gal. ii. 10.

* 8u}po(f)opia^ Rom. XV. 31.

5 Rom. XV. 27.

6 Ibid. ix. 3.

7 Ibid. X. 1.

8 Ibid. xi. 1, 2.

SPIRIT OF THE COLLECTION. 495

question that arose was the regulation of their mutual relations
and duties. Such an undoubted instance of chano-e in regrard
to one of the most important institutions of the early Church,
is valuable as a warning against laying too much stress on ad-
herence to the letter of any of them. Of a like kind is the in-
ference to be drawn from the Apostle's declarations of the duty
of almsgiving.

Almsgiving was not a duty peculiar to the Christian re-
ligion. It is urged as a religious obligation equally
in the Jewish observances before, and the Mussul- cai view of
man precepts since, the coming of Christ. But this Almsgiv-
passage, whilst it agrees with the general spirit of Ori-
ental religion in exalting munificence to a high rank amongst
the gifts of God, differs from the merely mechanical view
which the Pharisaic Jews, the Koran, and in a later time
some of the mediaeval saints, have held concerning it. They
have dwelt on the amount bestowed as in itself drawing down
the Divine blessing. The Apostle, even in his undisguised
eagerness to obtain the largest possible contribution, insists
with no less eagerness on the spirit in which it is given.

496 SECOND EPISTLE.

THE ASSERTION OF HIS INTENTION TO EXERT HIS
APOSTOLICAL AUTHORITY.

Chap. X— XIII.

WITH A DIGRESSION (x. 6 — XII. 10)

VINDICATING HIS AUTHOEITY AND CHARACTER AGAINST THE CHARGES OP
THE FALSE TEACHERS.

The transition from the first to the second part of the Epistle
. is so marked that it might ahnost be thought to be
this°m)V° 3, distinct composition. The conciliatory and affec-
tion of the tionate strain of entreaty which pervaded the first
^^^ ^' part is here exchanged for a tone of stern command,
and almost menace : there is still the same expression of de-
votion to the Corinthian Church ; but it is mixed with a lan-
guage of sarcasm and irony which has parallels in the First
Epistle,^ but none up to this point in the Second. With this
change in the general tone agrees also the change in details.
Instead of the almost constant use of the first person plural to
express his relations to the Corinthians, which pervaded the
first part of the Epistle, he here almost invariably, and in some
instances ^ with unusual emphasis, employs the first person sin-
gular ; the digressions no longer go off to general topics, but
revolve more and more closely round himself: the Corinthians
are no longer commended^ for their penitent zeal, but re-
buked ^ for their want both of love and penitence. The con-
fident hopes ^ which he had expressed for the future are
exchanged for the most gloomy forebodings.^

What is the change that has come over the spirit of his
Possible Epistle ? A momentary doubt might be suggested
solutions, whether it was not an intermediate fragment be-
tween the First and Second Epistles, transposed by mistake to

' 1 Cor. iv. 8-10, vi. 3-8, ix.
1-16, XV. 4.

2 X. 1, xii. 13.

3 xii. 7-16.

^ xii. 15, 20,21,
5 vii. 9-16.
« xii. 20.

ASSEKTION OF HIS AUTHOKITY. 497

this part of the Apostolic writings. Bat this is forbidden, as
well by a comparison both of the general character and the
details of the two portions of the Epistle. In spite of their
many differences, yet the resemblance between them is greater
than between any other two portions of the Apostle's writings ;
the abruptness of the digression, xi. 7-15, xii. 1, is paralleled
only by such as ii. 14-16, iv. 2-6, vi. 14, vii. 2 ; and the
topics, although treated much more personally, are still the
same. Compare iii. 1, and x. 13-18; ii. 17, and xii. 14-19.

Another solution might be, that in this part of the Epistle
he is occupied with a different section of the Corinthian
Church ; namely, the false teachers and their adherents. But
although this holds a much more prominent place than in the
former part, it is evident from x. 8, xi. 1-9, xii. 11-15, xiii.
11, 12, that he is still, on the whole, addressing the same body
as in chapters i.-xi.

Rejecting, therefore, any attempt to separate this portion of
the Epistle from the rest, there still is nothing improbable in
supposing a pause, whether of time or of thought, before the
beginning of the tenth chapter. It may be that in the inter-
val news had come again from Corinth, indicating a relapse of
fervour on the part of the Church at large, and a more decided
opposition to him on the part of the Jewish section of the
Church. Or, after the full outpouring of his heart, he may
have returned to the original impression which the arrival of
Titus had removed ; as the time of his visit either actually
drew nearer, or was more forcibly impressed upon his imagina-
tion, he was again haunted by the fear already expressed (ii. 1 ),
that he should have to visit them, not in love, but in anger.
Such a feeling of fear, at any rate, is the basis of this, as that
of gratitude was the basis of the first, portion of the Epistle ;
it is from this that he starts (x. 1-7), from this the digressions
fly off (x. 12, xii. 10), and to this his conclusion returns (xii.
11, xiii. 13).

[The argument of this portion is so personal, and so closely en-
tangled together, that it has been found necessary to follow a some-
what different arrangement in the position assigned to the general
remarks.]

K K

498

SECOND EPISTLE : CHAP. X. 1—4.

X. ^AvTos 8e iyo) JTavXo? wapaKokco v/xas Blol ttJ?
^TTpavTrjTO's Kol iiTLeLKeiaf; tov ^io-toi, os Kara irpocraiiTOv

iToaorr)Tos.

^ Now I Paul myself exhort you by the meekness and gentleness of
Christ, who in face am downcast among you, but being absent am bold

I Paul.'

AvTO? 8c eyo) IIav\o<;.
This emphatic stress on
his own person is the fit
introduction to the portion of the
Epistle which, beyond any other
part of his writings, is to lay open
his individual life and character.
' Look at me : it is no longer in
conjunction with others that I ad-
dress you ; it is not as at the be-
ginning of the Epistle " Paul and
Timotheus ; " but Paul alone —
that Paul who is charged with
making empty boasts ; he now
places himself before you, with
all his human feelings of love and
tenderness, to warn and entreat
you not to drive him to extremi-
ties.'

The only other passages where
a similar phrase occurs", are in
Gal. V. 2, ' Behold, I Paul say to
you, that if ye be circumcised,
Christ shall profit you nothing ; '
Philemon 19, ' I Paul have writ-
ten it with mine own hand;'
Eph. iii. 1, 'I Paul the prisoner
of Christ.'

It might be inferred from this
that this portion of the Epistle,
like that to the Galatians and
Philemon, was, contrary to his
usual custom, written by his own
Jjand.

Slol T7]<s TrpavTrjTO'; koI CTrtaKCta?
TOV y^picTTov. Compare Rom. xii.
1 : Phil. ii. 1.

The force of the expression

here, however, is more personal.
One would expect that ,
he was going to entreat gentleness
them, by the example «« Christ.'
of Christ, to be forgiving and
forbearing towards him ; but the
context shows the sense to be,
' You know, and I know, how
meek and forbearing was Christ ;
do not provoke me into even an
apparent deviation from that
example, by a misconduct which
will compel me to use severity.'
C7rt€t/ceta, e7rtciK>y9, are always used
in the N. Test, in contradistinc-
tion to violence or irascibility.
TrpavTTfjs is generally used of
gentleness, in contradistinction to
severity or anger ; see 1 Cor. iv.
21. The appeal to the example
of Christ indicates that the
Apostle had before his mind, not
merely the general idea of per-
fection, but the definite historical
character of gentleness and pa-
tience as exhibited in the Gospel
narratives. Matt. xi. 29 ; Luke
xxiii. 34.

The construction here is con-
fused. The sentence, if com-
pleted, would have required after
irapaKoXui some clause expressing
that they were not to exasperate
him But (with a transition
somewhat similar to that in
Eph. iii. 1-iv. 1) he recommences
the sentence in verse 2 with
Beofxac Se, and thus the joint

ASSERTION OF HIS AUTHOEITY.

499

fxev raireivo^ ev v^jtlv^ airojv Se Oappco et? u/xas' ^Seo/xat
Se TO firj irapcov 6apprj<jai rfj TreTTOiOijcreL tj \oyitfipLaL
ToXfJirjcraL IttI riva^ tov<; Xoyitpyievov^ r)jxa<; ws Kara crdpKa
7TepL7raTovvTa<;. ^ iv aapKL yap TrepLTrarovvTes ov Kara
crdpKa crTparevoixeOa ^(rd yap oiika ttjs crrparetas r)jjia)u

toward you : ^but I pray that being present I may not be bold with that
confidence wherewith I think to be bold against some who reason of us
as if we walked according to the flesh. ^For though we walk in the
flesh, we do not war according to the flesh ^ (for the weapons of our war-

sense of the whole is : ' I entreat
you, or rather, I jpray that you
may not force me to transfer my
confidence in my power from the
times when I am absent to the
times when I am present with
you.' For a similar interchange
of TTapaKakw and Seofiai see v. 20,
"21, vi. 1, viii. 4.

TTttTrcivo?, * downcast,' as in vii.
6 ; compare 1 Cor. ii. 3, ' with
much fear and trembling, and in
weakness.'

6appu) €19 v/xa?, ' I am con-
fident in my power against you,'
in a difierent sense therefore
from Oappo) iv v/xtv, vii. 16.

Kara Trpoo-wTrov is ' face to face,'
in opposition to d-rriov, as in
1 Cor. xiii. 12, TrpoarioTrov tt/oos
TrpoawTTOv.

2 TO /JL7] -Trapwv OapprjcTat. The
article expresses, ' this is what I
ask ; ' the nominative is used,
because the Apostle is speaking
of himself.

XoyL^OjjLai, opposed to Aoyt-
^o/x€vov<Sy ' I calculate on being
bold in conscious uprightness and
dependence on God ; they calcu-
late on my failure as controlled
by human motives and dependent
on human means.'

Kara crdpKa alludes to the low
motives charged upon him, as in
ii. 17, iv. 2; 1 Thess. ii. 3.

3 yap is the reason for to\-
fxrjcraL.

€v crapKL is opposed to Kara
crapKa, and TrcptTraTowres to o-rpa-
TivoiiiOa. ' Although we are still
in the influences of the world, it
is not hy the influences of this
world that we are actuated ' (com-
pare John xvii. 15, ' not iv aapKi . .
... out of the world, but "^^^ '^»>*»-
. . . from the evil ') — ' although we
are treading the pathway of the
world, it is not from the armoury
of the world that we derive our
strength.' Iv aapKi refers to his
bodily infirmities and dangers, as
in vii. 5, xii. 7 ; and the sense is
the same as in iv. 7, ' we have
this treasure in earthen vessels.'

TreptTraTovvTa?, though not ne-
cessarily expressing more than
' living ' (versantes)f is used as
in V. 7 with reference nepma-
to its proper etymolo- ^ouvTas.
gical sense of ' walking to and
fro.'

(TTparevofjieOa is (not merely

' we fight,' but) ' we arparevo-

make our expeditions,' ^^^^'^•
alluding to the march, as it were,
which he was going to make
upon Corinth, as against a strong
fortress ; and this image is now
carried on into detail.

4, 5 KaOaipuv 6')(yp(jijxaTa is
employed in the LXX. for the re-
duction of strongholds ; Lara. ii.
2 ; Prov. xxi. 22 ; 1 Mace. v. 65,
viii. iO. Compare Hor. Ep. II. ii.
25-30, ' Luculli miles . . . Praesi-

K K 2

500

SECOND EPISTLE: CHAP. X. 5, 6.

ov (rapKLKoi, a\Xa Svi^ara rw Oeo) 7rpo<; KaOalpecnv o^vpco'
jLtctrw^), ^Xoytcr/xou9 KadaLpovvTe<; kol ttolv vxjjcjixa inaLpo-
p.evov Kara ttjs yvcocrecos tov Oeov^ kol al^p.akoiritpvTe'i

fare are not carnal, but strong through God to the casting down of fast-
nesses), ^ casting down reasonings and every high thing that exalteth it-
self against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every

dium regale loco dejecit, ut ainnt,
Summe munito et multarum di-
vite rerum.'

vif/iofxa althouqrh only used in
.^,« the LXX. in a more

'Pulling , . T

down of general sense, is by
hoiS^' Aquila used in Deat.
xxxii. 13 ; 1 Sam. ix.
12 ; Ps. xviii. 33, as a translation
of Bamah — * a high hill.'

alxfJ-aXiDTi^w is (not merely ' to
enslave,' like SovXcvoi, but) to
' lead away as prisoners of war.'
To this peculiar turn of w^arlike
imagery the recollections of the
Ciiician Mithridatic and Pirati-
wars. qq\ wars may have in

part contributed. Both of these
contests partook of the character
here indicated ; the second espe-
cially, which had been raging
amongst the hill forts of the Ciii-
cian pirates not more than sixty
years before the Apostle's birth,
in the very scene of his earlier
years, and which was ended by
the reduction of 120 strongholds,
and the capture of more than
10,000 prisoners. (See Appian,
Bell. Mith 234-238; Arnold's
Rom. Commonw. i. 272.) Un-
derneath these outward images
he expresses not merely a ge-
neral warfare against sin and
pride, but the special warfare
which he had to wage against
the offenders in the Corinthian
Church, and every one of his
words assists him in carrying out
the metaphor.

XoyLo-fiovSf referring back to Xo-

yi^ofjLevov^ in verse 2, expresses
that it is of a mental, not a bodily
warfare, that he is speaking, while
v\}/(i)fjia is selected as having the
double meaning, both of a na.tural
eminence (as given above), and
also of mental elevation, whether
in a good or bad sense, as in
Job xxiv. 24 ; Judith x. 8, xiii.
4, XV. 9 ; the meaning being
further defined in this place by
€7ratpoyu,evoi/ Kara ttJ? yvojcrecos rov
Oeov. KaOaLpelv has also this
double sense, being: frequently
used in writers of this period for
' taking down ' the pride or ar-
guments of opponents, as to <f>p6'
vrjfjia KaOeXiiv, Dio Chrys. Ivii. p.
571 b, Ixxiii. p. 634 a; Appian.
B. C. ii. p. 766. Trjv aXa^oveiav
KaOaLpovvT€<;, Aristid. t. ii. p. 259.

TOV iTnT€f)(L(T fWV TWV ivavTiiov

So^wv KaOaupeiv, Philo, de Abrah.
p. 32. Ka6aiprj(TUv iravTa Xoyov . . .
ov 7r6Xejji,o<s aXX' uprjvr], Philo, de
Confus. Ling. p. 424. (See Wet-
stein ad he.)

SvvaTOi Tw ^€(5, as aa-Tclo? t<S
Oeoi, Acts vii. 20, ' in the sight
of God.'

For a similar elaboration of a
military image, compare the de-
scription of the Christian panoply
in Eph. vi. 11-17.

ets Tr]V viraKoyjv tov xpta-Tov is
in sense the same as if it had
been Trj VTraKofj {al^QiaXwTL^ovToi
jxe Tw vofjL^, E/Om. vii. 23) ; but it
is here changed to et? ttjv vira-
KOTjv to carry on the metaphor, as
though the ' obedience ' which it

ASSEETION OF HIS AUTHOEITY.

501

TTOLV voTjfia €ts Trjv vTTaKorjv Tov ^KJToVt ^ KOLi €u erot/xo)
€^ovTe<; efcSt/c^crai iracrav TrapaKOiji'^^ orav TrXyjpojOrj vfjbcoT/

rj VTTaKOT],

» Lachm. Ed. 1. vapaKo-fiv. orav xK-qpood'^.

thought to the obedience of Christ, ^and having in readiness to revenge
all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled,

was his object to produce, was
also the fortress to which his
prisoners were to be carried.

6 There might still remain
some rebels against his authority,
even after all the conquest which
he has just described, and these,
he now proceeds to say, he was
prepared to punish (comp. Luke
xix. 27, ' those mine enemies,
which would not that I should
reign over them, bring hither and
slay them before me '). But as
he had been careful at the be-
ginning of this Epistle to ex-
press his anxiety not to come
to Corinth till the mass of the
Church were prepared to receive
him (i. 23), so here he hastens
to add, * when your obedience is
f alfilled.' He acted, as has been

observed, on a wise application
of the principle ' divide et im'pera^
as when he threw the apple of
discord amongst the Pharisees
and Sadducees, Acts xxiii. 6-10.

iv €Tot)LMj) 6;^ovT€s, ' bcing pre-
pared,' so Polyb. ii. 34, 2 ; Philo,
Leg. ad Caium, pp. 565, 584!.

7rapaK(rj is used in contradis-
tinction to vTraKOTj, before and
after.

vfuav is placed before vn-aKo-q,
and out of its natural position,
to show that it is the emphatic
word.

The context requires that orav
irXrjpfjdOfj should be joined to the
preceding clause, as in the Text ;
not to the following, as in Lach-
mann's 1st edition.

Paraphrase op Chap. X. 1 — 6.

/ now loish to speak to you of myself, of that very Paul against
lohom you hear so much. I conjure you not to compel me to
break the hounds of the gentle and forgiving character of
Christ. I pray that when I come to you there may be no
occasion for exerting that authority which some think I shall
never venture to exercise but at a distance. But be assured
that, if I do exercise it, it will be a real authority. I shall
come against you like a mighty conqueror, though with weapons,
not of earthly, but of heavenly warfare ; and every alien

502 SECOND EPISTLE.

thought and imagination shall fall before me, like fortresses
before a victorious army, and shall be reduced to submission,
like captive bands ; and those who resist shall be punished like
the last remnants of a defeated insurrection. To effect all this,
I wait only till I am assured of your submission, that I may
not confound the innocent with the guilty, the dupes with the
deceivers.

HIS BOAST OF HIS CLAIMS. 503

His Boast of his Claims.
Chap. X. 7— XII. 18.

At the concluding words of the preceding threat, the thought
of his adversary or adversaries in the Corinthian Church rises
before him in a more«tangible form than it had yet assumed.
He determines to throw aside the delicacy which had hitherto
prevented him from speaking openly of his claims, and to give
the Corinthians once for all a full picture of whom it was that
they were deserting for their present leaders. Accordingly he
leaves the immediate subject of this portion of the Epistle,
which was to consist of the assertion of his authority on his
expected arrival at Corinth ; and he embarks on a wide di^
gression, which, though often interrupted and broken into many
fragments, is still held together by one thought and one word,
his boasting {Kavxaa-Oai). It is in his mouth a word of His
peculiar significance, because it is so reluctantly used; * Boast'
and because it is intended to express that assertion (if one may
use a modern phrase of equivalent meaning) of his own merits,
against which a great part of his general teaching was especi-
ally aimed. But with that freedom, which is characteristic of
the Apostolic writings generally, he is not afraid of a word, if
it really serves to express his meaning ; and therefore, though
with many apologies, it occurs no less than sixteen times in the
course of this section. As he overcomes his scruple to use the
word, so also he overcomes his scruple to speak of himself.
It is always with reference to some position taken up by
his opponents. They occupy the background of the portrait ;
and their conduct, with the misconceptions or suspicions enter-
tained by the Corinthians regarding himself, justifies this de-
parture from his ordinary usage, and supplies the clue to the
successive stages of his vindication.

504

SECOND EPISTLE: CHAP. X. 7—10.

^TOL Kara TrpocrcoTTOv ^XeVere. ^et rt? ireTroiOev eavTO)
')(pi(TTov €tz^at, TovTO \oyit<i(T6(i) TToXiv ^ a<^ kavTOv^ otl

' jSAeVere :

»» Lachm. Ed. 1.

'ye look on things after the outward face. If any one trust to himself
that he is Christ's, let him of himself think this again, that as he is Christ's,

7 ' Such ia the authority
which I claim, the power which
I am prepared to wield. But
there are those among you who
doubt it; because you regard
(not the inward reality, but) the
outside appearance of things.'
By the outside appearance he
7 a Kara alludcs to the various
TrpoawTTov. points of outward su-
periority alleged in his oppo-
nents. That this (and not any
of the other meanings attached
to it, * conspicuous,' 'what lies
before you,' &c.) is the signifi-
cation of TO, Kara 7rp6(ro)7rov is
clear from the sense of Trpoa-ixiTrov
in this Epistle (see v. 12, ev trpocr-

tOTTU) KaV^OifJiivOVS Kol flTJ KttpSia,

and X. 1, Kara ttjooo-cottov — where
it is used, not merely as an equi-
valent to Trapiov, but 'in ex-
ternal appearance'), and in the
similar phrase ySXcTrets els to
TTpoaojirov, Matt. xxii. 16 ; Mark
xii. 14. Comp. also Jude 16 ;
Luke XX. 21 ; Gal. ii. 6, and the
universal sense of 7rpoa(ji7roXrj7rTr]<s
. . . Xrjil/ta, and . . . X-qTrrfir^. That
jSAeVere is to be understood not as
interrogative or imperative, but
as indicative, appears (though
more doubtfully), because if it
were interrogative or imperative,
it would probably be at the be-
ginning of the sentence ; and if
interrogative, would probably be
preceded by tl or some similar
word ; if imperative, it would re-

quire to be taken in an ironical
sense, hardly justified by the
context.

He now points out the various
outward shows which the Co-
rinthians regarded instead of the
inward realities. The first of
these was the profession made
by the false teachers of a closer
connexion with Christ than that
enjoyed by him. That there was
such a claim at Corinth, appears
from the party watchword, ' I
am of Christ,' 1 Cor. i. 12, and
(more doubtfully) from the pre-
tensions of the false teachers to
be ' Ministers of Christ' ' Apos-
tles of C/^n'sr (xi. 23, 13).

From the fact that these false
teachers were Judaiz-
ers (xi. 22), it may al-
so be inferred that this con-
nexion with Christ was through
some earthly relationship, either
as being Jews, or as having seen
Him, or being His companions
in His lifetime, or through His
kinsmen after the flesh, the
'brethren of the Lord.' Com-
pare the Apostle's answers to the
charges of this or a similar party
in 1 Cor. ix. 1, 'Am I not an
Apostle ? . . . have I not seen the
Lord Jesus ? ' followed by an al-
lusion (5) to ' Kephas ' and * the
brethren of the Lord.' It would
also illustrate the Apostle's ex-
pression (v. 16) in this Epistle,
'even though we have known

Party * of
Christ.'

EEALITY OF HIS BOAST.

505

Ka9co<; auros )(pLcrTov, ovtos /cat rjfJieL^;.^ ^iav ^ [re] yap^
irepicra-orepov tl Kav^cToyp^ai irepl Trjq i^ovcria^ rfpLoyv tj^
eSojKev 6 KvpLOs ^ els OLKoSofMrjv /cat ovk et? KaOaipecriv vpL(x)v^^
ovK alcr^vOrjCToyLaL, ^tVa fxi) 8dfw o)? av iKcjyojBelv 7;/xas Sta
Tcoy eTnaTokoiv. ^^ort Ai ^iTncTTokai fiep cfiaalp /Sapelai

» Add Xpia-Tov. " Lachm, Ed. 1. omit [re]. = Add Kai.

•* Add rjH-lu. " MS. C. is deficient from v/xmu^ to the end of the Epistle.

^ At fiev eTTtCTO Ao2, ^rjcri.

even so are we. ^For though I should boast somewhat more of our
power which the Lord gave for your edification and not for casting you
down, I shall not be ashamed, ^ that I may not seem as if I would terrify
you by my epistles. ^^For 'his epistles' say they 'are weighty and

Christ after the flesh, yet hence-
forth know we Him no more
[after the flesh-],' implying that
there were some who were proud
of having so known Him. Com-
pare also the language of the
same party of Judaizers, as ex-
pressed in the Clementines (Horn,
xvii. 17). See Introd. pp. 352-3.

Whether the phrase, ' If any
one ' (tl<s, in the singular), points
to an individual, or not, must be
left in uncertainty. Similar ex-
pressions are repeated in x. 10,
11, 18, xi. 4, 20.

TToAtv, ' once more,' as in 1
Cor. xii. 21.

a<f> iavTov (text with C.D.C),
* from himself,' i.e. ' without
being reminded of it by me.'
Lachm. 1st Ed. withB. 6<^' iavrov.

r)iM€L<s, i.e. the Apostle : here,
as in the earlier portion of his
Epistle, using the plural for the
singular.

8 ' I truly belong to Christ ;
for even if my boast extended
far beyond this (irepLo-a-oTepov), it
would still be true.' The tran-
sition from the singular to the
plural is occasioned by the mix-
ture of personal and general feel-
ings which the passage contains.
The parenthesis ' which the Lord

hath given us for building up
(oiKoSo/trJv), not for pulling down'
{KaOatpea'Lv) , is a recurrence to
the former image of the fortress,
in verse 5, which he here modi-
fies, apparently under the same
feeling as in i. 23, 24, ' to spare
you I came not to Corinth . . .
not that we are lords over your
faith.'

9 Lva fxri So^o) . . . cTrtcrToAoiv.
This clause depends on ovk al-
(TxvyOi^a-o/jiaL, but has probably
the force of an abrupt sentence,
standing by itself, as the reason
for some unexpected thought : —
' I will not be ashamed to boast,
only let me not seem to terrify
you.' Compare a similarly ab-
rupt use of KOL fjLi^ in Rom. iii. 8 ;
€t jXT^, 1 Cor. vii. 17.

(1)5 av is used adverbially like
u)s €1, ' as if.'

10 At i-Tna-ToXai. The plural,
' his Epistles,' need not imply
anything more than an allusion
to his Epistles generally ; not
that he had written more than
one to Corinth before this.

/3ap€LaL, 'efiective, impressive ; '
a word often used by the later
Rhetoricians for energetic, im-
pressive oratory. (See Wetstein.)
Icr^vpaij ' vigorous.'

506

SECOND EPISTLE: CHAP. X. 11, 12.

/cat l(T)(ypaiy r) 8e irapovcria rov (T(oiJiaTo<; acrOeurjf; kol
6 Xoyo^ "^ i^ovSevrjfJievo^. ^^tovto \oyit<i<j6(x) 6 tolovto<;^

OTL oToL icTfJieV T(S XoyCO St' iTTLCTToXcJV dirOVTCSf TOLOVTOL

* i^ovdeuTifievos.

mighty, but his bodily presence is weak and his word contemptible.'
^^Let such an one think this, that such as we are in word by epistles
when we are absent, such will we be also in deed when we are present.

Yj SI irapovcTLa rov aw/xaTO?, * bis
arrival in person,' do-^cv^?, ' in-
firm.' (See note onxi. 16.) e^ovSc-
vr]ixevo<s, ' contemned,' ' thought
nothiug of.' (See 1 Cor. vi. 4.)
Lacbmanu, with B., reads
cfiaa-Lv, but the Rec. Text, is sup-
ported by D. E. F. G. J. K. and
may well be the true reading.
If so, it points to a single per-
son, as confirmed by x. 7, xi.
20. This passage is the only
instance of the very words used
by St. Paul's opponents. It thus
gives a contemporary judgment
on his Epistles, and a contemn
porary description of himself.
Its expressions apply, doubtless,
chiefly to the First Epistle to
Corinth, and the effects of that
Epistle (see 2 Cor. vii. 11) illus-
trate the epithets here employed
to express the heavy blows which
it dealt on the hearts of its
readers. The description of the
personal appearance of
the Apostle is in ac~
cordance with all that
we gather from the
Testament and other
sources. The representations of
it in the pictures of Raphael are
doubtless in a high degree delu-
sive. His arriv^al at Corinth,
' in weakness and with fear and
much trembling' (1 Cor. ii. 8),
agrees with the general impres-
sion derived from this Epistle,
and that to the Gralatians, of the
nervoas susceptibility and agita-

Personal
appearance
of the
Apostle.

New

tion of his temperament and his
manner. The comparison of
Barnabas to Jupiter, and of him-
self to Mercury, by the people of
Lystra (Acts xiv. 12), implies
that he was the less command-
ing of the two. The traditional
description, as preserved in the
allusions or detailed accounts
of the Philopatris (of Lucian ?)
(c. 12), the Acts of Paul and
Thecla (Fabric. Cod. Pseudep.),
Malalas (Chronog. 10, p. 257),
Mcephorus (H. E. ii. 37), is of
a man of low stature, bent figure,
and awkward gait ; a white com-
plexion ; bright grey eyes, under
overhanging eyebrows ; a strong
aquiline nose ; nearly bald, but
with a thick bushy beard, inter-
spersed with grey hairs. His
low stature is the ground of an
old belief that he was the same
as the contemporary of Gamaliel,
known by the name of ' Samuel
the Little.' (Conybeare and
Howson, 2nd ed. vol. i. 70,)

1 1 6 TOLovTo<;, see ii. 7.

12 The thought which runs
through the previous . verses 7-
10 is that the power which he
threatened to exercise in verses
1-6 was not an empty boast.
From this he

Measurincr

on to contrast the re- ourselves by
ality of his claims with °^^^^
the emptiness of those of his
adversaries ; his claims being
grounded entirely on his own
labours, theirs on labours of

EEALITY OF HIS BOAST.

50T

/cat 7rap6vT€<; tco ipyco

^^ov yap ToXfJLcofiei^ eyKpivai 7)
eavrov? tlctlv tcdv iavTov^ avvicrTavovroiV.

(TvyKpiv ai

^^For we do not dare to place ourselves, or judge ourselves among some
of those that commend themselves. But they measuring themselves by

which they appropriated the
glory to themselves, but which
were really his (12-18). These
two thoughts, here blended to-
gether, are brought out separately
in 1 Cor. iv. 1-6, and Rom. xv.
17-21. Such is the general
sense ; the particulars must, to a
great extent, depend on the read-
ing of the MSS. (1) The Rec.
Reading of Text, with which Lach-
the ReceiT- mann and Tischendorf
substantially agree, and
which is founded on B. D^. E. J.
K., has ov (rvvLov(TLv (or (rvvtao"tv)
r]fX€'L<s oe . . . Kav)(7]<T6ix€6a. crvvL-
ovariv may be either (a) the da-
tive plural participle, in which

case fl€TpOVVT€<S Koi (TVyKpLVOVTeq

must take the place of the prin-
cipal verb ; or (h) the 3rd per-
son plur. ind. present, having the
same meaning as o-wtatrt (as in
B.). In either case, the general
sense is the same : — * we cannot
endure to rank ourselves amongst
those who commend themselves ;
on the contrary, they measuring
themselves by their own stand-
ard, and comparing or ranking
themselves with themselves,
thereby show their folly ; where-
as we refuse to boast beyond our
lawful nieasure, but on the con-
trary keep to the measure ap-
pointed for us by God.' The
indicative is preferable. The
Apostle first contrasts himself
with those that commend them-
selves, and then explaining, that
the folly of this self-commenda-
tion consists in judging of them-
selves by their own standard,
contrasts himself with them still

further, by showing that he mea-
sures himself by the standard of
God, and confines himself to the
sphere pointed out to him by
God. The great objection to this
mode of explanation is : (a) that
the context of the sentence would
naturally lead us to expect in av-
roi not the Apostle's adversaries,
but the Apostle himself; (6)
that in the 13th verse, the con-
trast is not, properly speaking,
between God's measure and
man's nieasure, but between
teaching out of a lawful sphere,
and teaching within a lawful
sphere.

Both these difficulties may in-
deed be explained by the extreme
abruptness and rapid transition
so frequent in this Epistle ; but
they would leave the passage
one of the most entangled in the
N. Test. Other modes of inter-
preting the present text are still
more violent. Such would be the
attempt to take airroi as of the
Apostle, and (tvvlov(ti (the dative
participle) of the adversaries :
' we, on the other hand, confine
ourselves to ourselves, and do not
rank ourselves with those who are
not wise.^ Or again, to take avroi
of the Apostle, and c-wiova-L (the
dative participle) also of the
Apostle : ' we do not rank our-
selves with ourselves, we whom
they call not vjise.'*

(2) If, on the other hand, in-
stead of the Rec. Text, heading
we adopt the other read- of the
ing supported by less '^"^^**®-
authority, the whole passage will
cohere almost without difficulty.

508 SECOND EPISTLE: CHAP. X. 13.

akXa avTol iv eavrots eavrou? jxeTpovi/Te<; koI crvyKpLvoPTes
themselves and judging themselves among themselves are not wise: "but

The Vulgate omits the words ov
a-vvLacTLv, while D. F. Gr. omit also
the words rifxit's 8e, D. omitting
also KavxqfToixcBa, for which F.
G. substitute Kav^w/Aei/ot. So, if
we combine these varieties, all
tending in the same direction,
the text will run thus : dAA'
avroi iv eavrot? eavrou? fXiTpovvT€<s,
Kol (TvyKptvovTe^ eavTOv^ eavrots
ovK eis ra a/xex/oa, dXXa Kara to
fjiirpov : and the sense will be :
' We cannot endure to rank our-
selves with those that commend
themselves ; on the contrary, we
are measuring ourselves by our-
selves, and ranking ourselves
with ourselves, not going into
spheres beyond our measure.'
The cont»'ast will then be based
simply on the distinction between
intrusion beyond a lawful sphere,
and self-restraint within it. In
this way the word /x-erpoOvTes in
the twelfth verse, has the same
sense as fxerpov or a/xerpa in the
thirteenth ; and whatever irregu-
larity there may be in the omis-
sion of Kav')(rfcr6p,i6a, or the sub-
stitution of Kav^oipi^voi for it, it
is no more than is frequently
found in the Apostle's writings,
and is in this case corrected, as
it were, by the resumption of the
sentence in ovk ets to, a/xerpa Kav-
■^(i)IJi€voL, in 15. If we could
suppose that ov o-vvtacrtv had
crept in from the margin, as an
explanation of ricrtv, then T^/xei? Si
would naturally follow as an
antithesis, to meet the new sen-
tence thus unexpectedly formed,
to which again subsequent cor-
rectors would add Kavxiopievot or
Kavx^cro/xc^a. This explanation
and reading is defended at length

by Fritzsche in ' Dissert, ad 2
Cor.' pp. 35-48 ; and attacked in
Reiche's ' Comment, in Epp. ad
Cor.' pp. 373-385.

ToX/xw/xev, = ' sustinemus,* ' we
cannot endure,' perhaps with a
tinge of irony : ' we can venture
on the full exercise of our power,
but not on classing ourselves,'
&c. Comp. for this use of the
word E/om. xv. 18 ; 1 Cor. vi. 1.

lyKplvai r] crvyKplvai, ' to rank
one's self in any manner what-
soever with those,' &c. The
two words are put side by side,
on account of their similarity of
sound, in order, after the Apo-
stle's manner, to express the
completeness of his assertion.
Compare ytvcocTKctv and dvayt-
vijixTKeLv, iii. 2 ; avayivwa-Kctv and
i7nyLv<x)(TKUV, i. 13 : KaraTop^rj and
7reptT0/x,ri, in Phil. iii. 2, 3.

iyKplvaL, ' to enroll as in a
catalogue.' It never occurs in the
N. Test, again, nor in the uXX.

(TvyKplvac, ' to combine ' (and
hence ' to interpret,' as in 1 Cor.
ii. 13), 'to liken,' or 'make
equal,' and so in LXX.

Twv iavTov<; crwtcrravovTwv. See
iii. 1. Those who ' commended
themselves ' are charged by the
Apostle with intruding, as if by
the authority of their commen-
datory letters, into his sphere ;
and this forms the subject of the
next verses, 14-18.

The meaning of the next
words varies, of course, accord-
ing to the two readings given
above. If the reading of the
Rec. Text is preferred, then
p.€TpovvT€^ is ' measuring,' not in
the sense in which it is used in
the following verses, of ' limit-

KEALITY OF HIS BOAST.

509

13 « '"

S\ 5 » 9 \

e ovK €19 ra

eavTovs iavTOL<; ov ^crvvLacnv'

dixerpa Kav^QO'oixeOa^ aXKa Kara to yLerpov rov Kavovos

» ov avviovaiv. See note. *• owx*.

w& will not boast of things beyond our measure, but according to the
measure of the rule which God imparted to us, a measure to reach even

ing,' but of ' comparing,' as by a
standard ; and oTry/cptVovrcs is
also used, not as avyKpivat in the
previous clause, for ' ranking ' or
'assimilating,' but in the sense
of ' comparing,' of which signifi-
cation there are instances in
Greek writers of this period (see
Lobeck ad Phryn. p. 278), but
not in the N. T. or the LXX.

On the other hand, in the
reading of the Vulgate, the words
fxerpeLv and crvyKpivtiv both retain
their original meaning ; and the
peculiarity of the expressions cv
cavTOt? kavTov<i and caurors cav-
Tots, as applied to the Apostle
himself, would be explained by
the desire to express as strongly
as possible the strict limits within
which he confined himself. He
would thus oppose himself both
to the exaggerated boasts and
the unwarranted intrusions of
his opponents ; ' limiting our-
selves within our own limits, and
associating ourselves only with
ourselves.'

13 Without adopting the tra-
dition which represents the Apo-
stles as portioning out the world
amongst them, with a
Division of peculiar province for
each, it is clear from
Gal. ii. 9, that at least
in the great divisions of Jew and
Gentile, the former belonged to
the original Apostles, James,
Peter, and John, the latter to
Paul and his companions. It
was also the Apostle's maxim,
never to establish himself for

Inbour in
the Apo-
stolic age

any permanent stay, in those
parts where the Gospel had al-
ready been prej^ched by a previ-
ous teacher ; so much so, that
his visit to Rome (which had al-
ready received the faith) was re-
garded by him merely as taken
on his way to Spain, which was
still open to any new teacher
(Rom. XV. 18-24).

This arrangement was doubly
infringed by the appearance of
Jewish teachers at Corinth ; the
sphere of the Apostle of the
Gentiles was invaded by Jews ;
the sphere which St. Paul had
won for himself by his own
labours, was appropriated by
those who had no original claim
to it. To Antioch, the original
seat of his teaching, they .' came
from James ' (Acts xv. 1 ; Gal.
ii. 12). In Galatia 'a little
leaven ' of their influence had so
completely 'leavened the whole
lump,' that the Apostle was
regarded as an ' enemy ' (Gal. v.
9, iv. 16). And even at Corinth,
their power had reached such a
height, that 'the majority,' at
least of the teachers, had joined
them (ii. 17), and already in the
First Epistle the Apostle com-
plained that 'he had laid the
foundation, and another built
upon it,' and ' that whilst they
had ten thousand teachers (Trat-
8ayo>yov?) they had but one
father, for that he only (cyco)
had begotten them through the
Gospel' (1 Cor. iii. 10, iv. 15).
Now they were claiming to be

510

SECOND EPISTLE: CHAP. X. 14—18.

ov ifxepLcrev rjfJLiv 6 ^eog jjierpov i(f)LKecr6aL oj)(pi koI vfjicjv
^*('^a)S yap [Mr) i(j)LKPOv[JievoL eU v/xag VTrepeKreivofiev iav-

' ov yap ws jj/t],

unto you ^^ (for do we stretch ourselves beyond as though -we reached not
unto you ? for we are come as far as to you also in the gospel of Christ),

* Apostles,' and ' more than Apo-
stles' (xi. 5, 13), and endeavour-
ing to shut out the Apostle of
the Gentiles from the greatest
field of his exertions (x. 16).

This conduct the Apostle re-
bukes by contrast with his own
forbearance. His 'boasting' was
confined to the sphere which had
been marked out for him, and
which, according to the joint re-
presentations of Rom. XV. 18-
24 and Acts xiii.-xxviii., seems
to have extended ' from Jeru -
salem to Illyricum,' i.e. through
the provinces of Asia Minor and
Greece, properly so called, and
ending where the barbarian lan-
guages of Illyria put a check to
his communications with the na-
tives. Of this sphere Corinth,
up to this time, had been the ex-
treme point. Hence the expres-
sions used emphatically here, ' to
you,' ' as far as you ' (axP^ '^^^
vjjiiov, icf)LKvov]j.evoL €L<s vjxas^, imply
that he had a right to speak con-
fidently of his labours so far, but
no further ; whilst at the same
time he had hopes, which he af-
terwards accomplished, of ad-
vancing westward first as far
as Illyria, and then, omitting, or
hastily passing by the Italian
cities, where the Gospel had al-
ready been preached, to the still
further regions of Spain.

TO. afxcTpa, properly 'unmea-
sured ; ' but here ' beyond the
measure fixed for us.'

Kara to fxirpov tov Kavovos ov
ifjiipL(T€v rjjXLV 6 Oebs fiirpov. Kavwv
is the ' rule * by which the limits

of the sphere are marked out.
It occurs in Gal. vi. 16; Phil. iii.
16, crTOL)(^e2v T(3 Kavovi, ' to walk
within the prescribed limit.'

The construction is, ' which
rule (ov referring to Kavovo^)
God appointed us as a measure '
(fxerpov).

ov — ov, iJi€Tpov=^jxeTpov.

icf)LK€(TOaL, ' to reach.' These
last words explain the introduc-
tion of the name of ' God as the
author of his limits.' ' God has
appointed and enabled me to ful-
fil my duty.' Compare the pa-
rallel passage, Rom. xv. 18, ' I
will not venture to speak of the
things which Christ has not
wrought in me.'

14 The sense is the same,
whatever be the right reading :
' We are not extending our
boast beyond our limit.' For
the metaphor 'stretching out
ourselves,' as if trying to reach
over, compare aTvoKapaSoKia in
Rom. viii. 19. If the Rec. Text
(D. G.) ov yap 0)5 /xtJ be correct,
then the meaning is, ' for we do
not extend ourselves beyond our
sphere, as would be the case if
our sphere did not reach as far
as you.' If, according to Lach-
mann (B.), ov is omitted, the
same sense is still preserved by
making it a question : ' Do we
extend ourselves ? ' &c.

icf)LKvovix€voL, ' comiug,' applies
not to the actual visit (which
would require the past tense),
but to the general sphere of the
Apostle (which naturally re-
quires the present tense).

REALITY OF HIS BOAST.

511

TOv<; ; o.yjpi yap koX vy^^oiv i^Odcraiiev iv t&> evayyeXico rov
vptcrroG), ^^ovK et? tol a/xerpa Kav^oj^evoi iv dXXorpiot?

v/xti^ ixeyaXvvOrjvai Kara rov Kavova y^iicov et§ TrepKrcreiav
^^ €19 ra virepeKeiva vfJLCJV evayyeKiaacrdaiy ovk iv aWorpio)
Kavovi et? m eroLfjia Kav^cracrdai. ^^6 8e Kav^cofievo^
iv Kvpicp KavxdcrOo)* ^^ov ydp 6 iavTov ^ crvvicrrdvojVy
iKeivo^ iartv SoKLfxoSf dWd ov 6 Kvpios crvvCcTTrjcrLV.

• crvvicTwv.

^^not boasting of things beyond our measure in other men's labours, but
having hope that as your faith is increased we shall be enlarged by you
^^to preach the Gospel according to our rule to abundance in the regions
beyond you, not to boast in another's rule of things made ready for us.
^■^But he that boasteth, in the Lord let him boast. ^^For not he that
commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth.

axpi yap KOi vfxoiv icfiOda-a/xev iv
T<3 ctiayyeXta). This expresses the
actual fact : ' Not only does our
sphere extend to you, but, as a
proof of it, we have come as far
as you.' The conversion of the
Corinthians is given as the proof
of his right to convert them, as
in iii. 2 ; 1 Cor. ix. 3. l^Oacrafxev,
as in Romaic, and as in Matt,
xii. 28 ; Luke xi. 20, is simply
' we came ; ' or, at least only
v^ith a very slight tinge of its
earlier classical meaning, ' to be
beforehand.' In a sentence so
loosely hung together as the
present, it is impossible to de-
termine whether the 14th verse
or any part of it is parenthetical.
At any rate, the words ovk ....
Kavx<tifJL€voL resume the thought
expressed by the same words in 13.

15 ' In other men's labours,'
may allude to the fact either that
the Apostle himself did not in-
terfere with the labours of other
preachers of the Gospel (e.g. in
Rome or Palestine), or that his
opponents interfered with his
labours.

aviavofX€vr]<; . . . Trepurcreiav^ ' not
only have we the satisfaction of
our labours at Corinth, but, in
proportion as your faith increases,
we hope to advance ' (probably
he means through their assist-
ance) ' to the utmost limits of
the rule laid down for us ' (Kara
Tov Kavova r)jxuiv)y but still beyond
you (et9 Trepto-orctav) ' to other
regions' (i.e. to the western
parts of Greece, and to Spain),
' but still not boasting of labours
which do not belong to us.'

16 ra hoLjxa, ' readv at hand,'
as in Thuc. i. 20, iv. 61.

The word Kavxrja-acrdaL, ' to
boast,' brings him back from the
thought of the unlawful intrusion
of his adversaries to their empty
boasting generally. ' Let him
that boasts, boast only of what
Christ has done through him;
for it is not by commendatory
letters from their own party, but
by the blessing of Christ upon
their labours, that men's worth
is really known.' Comp. iii. 1, 2 ;
Rom. XV. 18; 1 Cor. iv. 1-6. For
the same phrase see 1 Cor. i. 31.

512 SECOND EPISTLE.

Paraphrase of Chap. X. 7—18.

But whilst I am thus confident of my power, you regard only out-
ward appearances. Let us see what these outward appearances
are, how far my opponents have any exclusive claim to them, or
hoiv far they are based on reality. First, they claim a peculiar
connexion with Christ. But so do I ; yes, and far more, as
will he shown by the full exercise of my authority {that autho-
rity, he it remembered, lohich is meant, and which I trust will
he used only , for your improvement, not for your punishment^ ;
and I will now overcome my scruples and go on to boast, con-
trary to my usual practice, of the extent of this authority and
of my communion with Christ. Only remember, that when I
do so, not my letters only, as the false teacher asserts, are to
be dreaded ; when I come to you, you shall find that my deeds
fully correspond. For my boast is not, like theirs, founded on
commendatory letters from human authorities, hut on the com-
mendation of the Lord Himself; it is founded not like theirs,
on fame borrowed from the labours of others, and on the occu-
pation of spheres into which they had no right to intrude, but
on my own labours in my own sphere. As far as Corinth, but
no further {though I trust soon through your help to go fur-
ther), — no further, but thus far, my labours, and therefore my
boast, legitimately extend.

HIS BOASTING EXCUSED BY HIS AFFECTION.

513

XL ^ 0(l)ekov ^ avei^ecrOe fJLOV fXLKpop tl ^ acjypocrvvrjs.
aXka Kal ave^ecrOe /xov. ^ Cv^^ J^P ^/^ct? Seov ^17X0) *

» Tivklx^ffQ^. ^ Add T^s.

^ Would ye could bear with me a little in my folly. But indeed bear
with me. ^ For I am zealous over you with a zeal of God : for I espoused

' His folly.'

Having advanced so far in bis
boast, be is tempted to proceed ;
in continuation of the thought
expressed in x. 8, 'Though I
should boast somewhat more . . .
I shall not be ashamed.' But he
is still full of its uncongeniality ;
he fastens upon it a name expres-
sive of its senselessness,
folly, a<f>po<Tvvr}, occur-
ring eight times in this con-
nexion, and only three times be-
sides (the substantive never) in
the rest of his Epistles, viz. Rom.
ii. 20 ; Eph. V. 17 (where it is
applied to the irrational folly,
or 'nonsense,' as we should call
it, of paganism) ; and 1 Cor. xv.
36. One excuse he urges for
his indulging in it ; and that is,
his affection for the Corinthian
Christians. Those intimate re-
lations, which justify a departure
from a man's usual gravity of
demeanour, existed between him
and his converts, and encourage
him to proceed.

I "OcficXov dveix^crOe, ' would
that you could bear with me in
something of my folly.' Foro<^cAov
see 1 Cor. iv. 8. aveLx^a-Oe (D. E.
F. G. J.) is the less usual form for
7]V€LX€(rO€. fiov is governed by
dveix^aOe, and dcf>po(rvvrj<; by rt.

dX\a Kal dve;(e(r^€ may be the
indicative, ' Nay, you do bear
with me : ' but the next verse
makes it more natural to suppose
the imperative, ' Nay, but I en-

treat you to bear with me.' If
the indicative be taken, then the
connexion must be, ' I am sure
that you bear with me, for I love
you.' If the imperative, then
the connexion is, ' Bear with me,
and I desire that you should bear
with me, for I love you.'

2 ^rjXC) yap v/xd<; Oeov ^yjXw,
' I ardently love you with a love
that comes from God.' By com-
parison with Gal. iv. 17, and by
the passages where the word oc-
curs in the LXX., ^^A.09, ^ryXow,
would appear to be used ex-
clusively for ' zeal ' or ' affec-
tion,' the idea of jealousy not
entering into its composition.

-qp/xocrdfxrjv yap. The reason for
his affection is that he was the
means of their conversion. This
he expresses by the figure of a
marriage to Christ, in which he
gives away the bride ; possibly
suggested by the paternal rela-
tion in which he stood to them
(1 Cor. iv. 15) ; but this notion
is not further brought out here,
as it would jar with the thought
implied throughout, of their
union with Christ, For this re-
lation of the Apostle to the
Church as * the friend of the
bridegroom,' compare John iii.
29 ; and for this relation of Christ
to the Church, as of the ' Lord '
to the Jewish people, Eph. v. 25 ;
Rev. xxi. 2 ; Matt. xxv. 1 ; comp.
too, Chrysostom's epithet on the

L L

514

SECOND EPISTLE: CHAP. XI. 3, 4.

TjplJLOcrdiJirjv yap u/xa? evl avBpl irapOivov ayirqv TrapacTTrj-
crai Tw xpicrrw, ^^o^ov/iat 8e pLTf ttw?, w? 6 o(/)ts ^i^rjird-
Tiqcrev Evav iv rfj iravovpyia avTOv, ^(f)Oapfj tol vorjp.aTa
vjxwv drro tt^s ctTrXdrTyros ^ kol ttJs ayvoTrjTO^ Trj^ ti? roi'

» Et/av i^-nirdrrjffev. * outw <p6apf}. « Om. Kal t^s ayv6Tr]Tos.

you to one husband that I may present you as a pure virgin to Christ,
^but I fear lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his
subtlety, your thoughts should be corrupted from the simplicity and the

Apostle, vv/A^aytoyog rvys oIkov-
fi€vr}<s.

dp/xo^a> is the word properly

used of the father's

apfxoc,.y^ai. ^j^jjjg away; dp/id^o/Aat

(passive) of the bride (Prov.
xix. 14) ; (middle) of the bride-
groom (Herod, v. 32, 47) ; but
also of others, as here (Philo,
Leg. AH. 1. ii. p. 78, De Abr.
pp. 15, 36).

For the Jewish bridesman, see
Schottgen, Hor. Heb. on John
iii. 29. Moses was so called by
the Rabbis with regard to Israel
and the Lord.

ha avBpt, ' to one husband, to
whom you are to remain faithful.'
The phrase Trapaa-nja-aL to) xP*--
(TTw, in Eph. V. 27, is used of
Christ Himself, as the Bride-
groom. But the turn of that
passage (tva TrapaxjTrjarj a.vTo<i
eavTw) shows that such an ap-
plication of the word is unusual,
and that Christ is there repre-
sented as being at once the Bride-
groom and the Bridegroom's
friend (7rapai/vya</)tos) .

3 cfiojSovfjLaL 8e. To his affec-
tion for them is opposed his fear
lest they should be seduced from
their faith. The serpent is in-
troduced on account of the com-
parison of the bride, which sug-
gests the temptation (not of
Adam, but) of Eve. The word
iiyj-rrdTTjo-ev is taken from Gen.
iii. 13 (LXX.), 6 6<f>i<s TjiraTTjai fii.

iv TYJ Travorpyia is, according
to the darker view from which
the subject is here approached,
substituted for the word in Gen.
iii. 1, i^povi/xcoTaros. [Philo, Leg.
Alleg. i. 8G, paraphrases (fipovifjuor.
6 6<f>L<s 7rdvT(ov (Gen. iii. 1) by,
Tcovyap TrdvTcdv irav ovpy 6t aro i'
IcTTLv yjhovrj.'] Compare the con-
nexion of rravovpyia and <f>p6vr](TL^
in Aristotle, Eth. vi. 13, and
Philo, de Prsem. et Pcen. ii. 416.
This is the only passage in St.
Paul's Epistles in which there is
any reference in the New Testa-
ment to the story of the Serpent
in the Fall. The only mention
of the devil in connexion with
the Fall in the 0. T. is in Wisd.
ii. 24. The only mention in the
K T. is in Eev. xii. 9, xx. 2.
But the Serpent is perhaps in-
troduced here as the likeness of
those false teachers whom Satan
now employed for his instru-
ments, as then the Serpent : see
verse 14.

OLTTO Trj<; d'rr\oT7)TO<s . . . ei? tov
Xpi-crTov. * From your single-
minded loyalty towards Christ
(as your master and spouse).'
Such is the meaning required by
the phrase ei? tov xP- ^^^^ j^^"
tified by the use of the word in
1 Mace. ii. 37, 60, where it is
used of ' loyalty to God.'

Kol T^s dyvoTTjTos is more or
less supported by DK E. F. G.
B. reads dytoTT^ros.

HIS BOASTING EXCUSED.

515

^piCTTov. ^el iiev yap 6 ip^6yLevo<^ ak\ov Iiqcrovv Krj-
pvcrorei ov ovk iKrjpv^afJiev, rj irvevp.a erepov Xafi^dvere 6
ovK iXd^ere, rj evayyikiov erepov o ovk iSe^acrOe, KaXoJs

purity that is in Christ. ^ For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus
whom Ave did not preach, or if ye receive another spirit which ye have
not received, or another gospel which ye did not accept, ye bear well

4 el /xkv yap . . . KaXais dvi)(C(TOe.
This is the reason for bis fear,
viz. that they were willing to
endure the false preaching of bis
opponents, whilst they were not
willing to listen to bim. This is
implied by /xcV, and is more fully
set forth when the subject is dis-
tinctly resumed in ver. 19.

6 ipxofievos, ' be that cometh ; '
not necessarily alluding to a sin-
gle individual, though combined
with X. 7, 11, xi. 20, it would
seem to indicate one leading
mover. Compare for the same
ambiguity, Gal. v. 10, 6 rapaxra-wv
v/>tas .... oa-TLS eav '^.

' Although, on the one hand,
the false teachers teach a wholly
different Christianity from my
own (which, therefore, you ought
wholly to reject), yet instead of
rejecting it, you endure it.' Com-
pare Gal. i. 6-8, where there is
the same implied assertion of the
contradiction bet ween the system
of the Judaizers, and that which
he taught himself ; and yet of the
similarity of the phrases used by
the false teachers and himself.
Their preaching, as well as bis,
was a ' Gospel ' (cvayyeAtov) ;
which agrees with the fact that
the name cmyyeAtov, as applied
to the narratives of our Lord's
life, is equally used as the desig-
nation of the apocryphal and of
the canonical Gospels. (Comp.
1 Cor. XV. 1.) ' Jesus ' was the
subject of their teaching as well
as bis ; which also agrees with

the indications in v. 16, x. 7, of
their peculiar reliance on their
outward connexion with Christ.
They, as well as he, professed
that * the Spirit,' in some form,
visibly followed their teaching.

aXXov ^Irjcrovv implies that
they taught, not another Messiah
(which would have been ex-
pressed by aXXov xp^a-Tov), but
another representation of the
historical Jesus.

TTvcvfia €T€pov. For this varia-
tion from oXAov, compare erepov
evayyeXiov o ovk eariv oAAo, Gal.
i. 6.

KoXois is ironical, like ' prce-
clare ' in Latin (comp. koXco? d-
OereLTe, in Mark vii. 9), — 'You
endure them finely.' Comp. i^Scws
avix^o-Oe, verse 19. The imperf.
rjveLx^crOe or avetx^adc is intro-
duced in D. E. F. G. J. K. instead
of av^x^a-Oi in B. apparently to
lighten the reproof.

5 The connexion is, 'you en-
dure them gladly ; why do you
not endure me ? ' It is difficult to
decide between Sc (B.) and yap
(D. E. F. G. J. K.). Comp. a
similar confusion of readings be-
tween yap and 8c in xii. 1. The
words form (undesignedly no
doubt) an Iambic :

XoyL^ofxai 3c ixrjSkv vcTTepyjKevaL.

Toiv vTrepXtav aTrocTToXojv, ' the
very greatest Apostles,' ' those
who are ever so much

of Apostles.' In the chiefest^

first instance he is -^P^sties.'
speaking of the false teachers.

ll2

516

SECOND EPISTLE: CHAP. XI. 5—7.

^avi^eo-Oe. ^Xoyitpixai ^Se yur^^ev varep-qKivai tcjv ^virep-
\iav aTTOCTTokoiv. ^ el Se /cat tStwTT^s ro) Xdyw, d\X' ou r^

ijyelxeffdi

ydp.

virhp \iav.

with him. *But I think that I am in want of nothiwg possessed by the
very chief est apostles. ^But though I be rude in word, yet not in know-

He would hardly have used so
bitter an expression as v-n-epXtav
of the real Apostles, nor would
the expression tStcorr;? tw Aoyw
( ' rude in speech ') be used of
himself in verse 6, in contradis-
tinction to the Jewish Apostles,
who were at least as ' rude in
speech ' (see Acts iv. 13) as him-
self ; and he also distinctly calls
the false teachers {J/evhairoa-ToXoL,
' false Apostles,' in verse 13. Yet,
on the other hand, he would
hardly have used so strong an
expression, unless disparaging
comparisons had been instituted
between him and the other
Apostles. That such was the
case at Corinth is implied by the
allusions to ' Kephas ' and ' the
brethren of the Lord ' in 1 Cor.
i. 12, ix. 5. His own conscious-
ness of independence, if not
superiority to them, appears,
though more mildly expressed,
in 1 Cor. xv. 10, * I laboured
more abundantly than they all ; '
and Gal. ii. 6-9, ' of those who
seemed to be somewhat [James,
Kephas, and John, who appeared
to be pillars], whatsoever they
were, it maketh no matter to
me.' For the exaggerated esti-
mate which the Jewish section
of the early Church formed of
Peter and James in particular,
see the extracts from the Clemen-
tines in the Introduction to this
Epistle, p. 352.

The compound vvrepXtW occurs
in Eustathius, Od. A', pp. 27, 35 :
loTi ydp TTore kol t(o Xiav Kara t^v

TpaywStW '^(fiaa-Oai KaXwq Ka6* o
crrjixaivo/xcvov \4yo/x€v Tiva vtt e p-
X (, av (T0(f)6v. So VTrepdyav, 2
Mace. X. 34. Compounds of v-rrip
are common in St. Paul ; see 1
Cor. vii. 36 ; 2 Cor. vii. 4, x. 14,
&c.

6 He justifies his boast of
equality to these * ultra- Apostles.'
' Granting that I am inferior in
the arts of rhetoric, yet I have
revelations of a higher than
human wisdom, and my whole
conduct is perfectly open and
straightforward for you to see.'
tSccorr;? to) Xoyto is not ' deficient
in eloquence,' both because his
Epistles show that he possessed
it in a very high degree, and
in Acts xiv. 12 he is 'Rude in
compared to Mercury, speech.'
as being the chief speaker. But
he means that he was unskilled
in the arts of rhetorical display,
on which the Greeks laid so much
stress, and in which the extreme
rudeness of his written style
shows that he was deficient ; the
opposite in this respect to Apollos,
who was a ' ready man ' (dvrjp
A.oyto?), Acts xviii. 24. For the
fact with regard to Paul com-
pare 1 Cor. ii. 1-4, ' not with
excellency of speech,' ' not with
enticing words of man's wisdom.'
For the word see 1 Cor. xiv.
16.

On this subject a curious di-
versity is pointed out by Estius,
between Jerome and Augustine ;
the former taking the words in
their literal sense, as exj^ressing

HIS BOASTING EXCUSED.

517

yvcocrei, aXX' iv Travrl ^ (f>avep(ocravTe<; ev Tracriv €is vjuias.
'^ Tj aixapTiav iiroi-qcra^ ifxavTov TaneLVcov Iva v/zet? vi/fo)-

<pavep(i)d4vT€S.

ledge, but in everything we manifested ourselves among you in all things.
'Or did I sin, in abasing myself that ye might be exalted, because I

the deficiency of St. Paul ; the
latter maintaining that it is a
mere concession, for the moment,
to the argument of his adver-
saries.

The two points on which he
lays stress in proof of his Apostle-
ship are (1) his 'knowledge,' i.e.
of Divine revelations, and of spi-
ritual truths (as in 1 Cor. i. 5-, xii.
8. Comp. 1 Cor. ii. 5). Of this
he would probably have spoken
at length immediately,, but that
he was interrupted l3y a di-
gression which arises out of his
second proof ; namely, (2) his
conscientious dealings with the
Corinthians. Comp. ii. 17, iii. 3,
V. 11, where the same word, </>a-
v€pov(r6aL, is used.

iv TravTL, ' in every point ; ' ev
TToicnv, ' in all circumstances,' or
' before all,' see Phil. iv. 12.

The use of ^vepwo-avrc?, ex-
pressing his openness and frank-
^, ness, suffffests to him

Charge ^ p ° xu i

joundedon One ot the charges
S'pay"'*^ brought against him
by his opponents. This
as it bore directly on the subject
of his affection for the Corinthi-
ans, at the moment uppermost
in his thoughts, he answers at
once, without pursuing his
' boast.'

This charge was that he took
no money from the Corinthian
Church, but supported himself
by his own labours (see Acts
xviii. 3 ; and the notes on 1 Cor.
ix. 1-5). From this throe con-
clusions were drawn ; The first

was, that it was impossible to
conceive how a real Apostle
could thus abstain from claiming
his undoubted right ; the second,
that it indicated his want of con-
fidence in the Corinthian Church;
the third, that whilst he thus
made a pretension to disinterest-
edness, he was really making a
gain under cover of the contri-
bution professed to be collected
through Titus for the poor in
Judsea. It is the first two of
these conclusions that he chiefly
attacks in this passage (as in 1
Cor. ix. 1) ; but the third (which
he expressly notices further on,
xii. 15-18) must be borne in
mind also, as accounting for the
rapid transition in the passage,
and for the earnestness with
which he repels the charge gene-
rally. ' I was shown clearly to
be an Apostle amongst you ; or
do you doubt my authority and
my love for you, because I
preached the Gospel without re-
muneration ? Surely not : it was
out of my especial love and care
for you that I made an exception
in your favour ; and that whilst
I received support from others,
I never exacted any from you.'

7 ifiavTov TaTretvtov, ' abasing
myself' by working at the trade
of a tentmaker. Comp. Phil. iv.
10-12, where the same word
occurs in a similar connexion.

Lva vfJLU^ v\piii6rJT€, ' that you
may be exalted,' The word is
used for the sake of the antithesis
to TaTTuvoiv, as in the almost pro-

518

SECOND EPISTLE : CHAP. XI. 8, 9.

OrJTe, OTL hoipeav to tov deov evayyeXiov ev7]yyekLcrdiJi7)i»
viMU ; ^aXXas e/c/cXi^cria? icrvXrjora Xaficov oxJjcovlov irpo^
TTjp vp.oiv BiaKovLav, KOL rrapcov Trpo? vjLtas /cat vcrreprjdel^;

preached to you the gospel of God freely? ^I robbed other churches
taking wages for your ministry, ^and when I was present with you, and

verbial expressions in Matt, xxiii.
12 ; Luke xiv. 11, xviii. 14 ; and
still more appropriately in James
i\r. 10. See 1 Pet. v, 6. For the
contrast between/a^ earthly abase-
ment and their spiritual exalta-
tion, comp. 1 Cor, ix. 11 ; the
words sow and reap being there
used in different senses, as
' abased ' and ' exalted ' are here.
The exaltation which his abase-
ment would confer on the Co-
rinthians probably lay in the
keener sense of their Christian
privileges, of which they would
be made conscious by feeling
themselves the object of his es-
pecial attention. For the gene-
ral sentiment of their elevation
above himself, comp. 1 Cor. iv.
8, 'Now are ye full,' {fee.

TO €vayyiX.LOV ^vrjyyeXKTdixrjv.
Here as in 1 Cor. ix. 12-18,
and more exactly 1 Thess. ii. 9,
he uses these e?:pressions in spe-
cial connexion with the question
of his preaching Christianity
without remuneration.

8 aAAas €KKXr](Tta<s icrvXr](XQ.. In
answer to the charge that his
conduct in this respect indicated
want of affection, instead of di-
rectly vindicating himself, he
merely restates the fact ; — 'Judge
for yourselves ; is it possible that
this can be from coldness ? ' He
lays stress, not so much on the
fact that he supported himself,
as on the fact that he received
support from the surrounding
Churches, making the Church of
Corinth an exception. This vari-

ation from the language of 1 Cor.
ix. 1-7; Acts XX. 34, 35; 1
Thess. ii. 9, is probably to be
accounted for by his unwilling-
ness to press upon their notice
a topic so offensive as the men-
tion of his labouring with his
own hands.

It would appear, that at Phi-
lippi (Phil. iv. 15, 16), ^.^^^^^^
and probably in the rule of his
Churches generally in nancetn
that part of the pro- the rest of
vince, on the eastern
side of the Strymon, he received
support, according to the cha-
i^cter of munificence for which
he commends them so highly in
viii. 2. On crossing the Stry-
mon, he was unwilling (for
whatever reason) to burden the
Thessalonians ; and there, ac-
cordingly, was supported partly
by two contributions sent after
him from Philippi, partly by his
own labours (1 Thess. ii. 9 ;
Phil. iv. 16) ; and again, in like
manner, when he had advanced
on his journey as far as Corinth
(jrapcbv TT/JO? .I'/xas), he there pur-
sued the same course ; the con-
tributions from Macedonia being
brought by ' the brethren ' who
followed him from thence (verse
9), probably Silas and Timo-
theus, whom he had left at Be-
roea (Acts xvii. 14), and who re-
joined him at Corinth (Acts xviii.
5). In subsequent periods of his
life we find that at Ephesus (Acts
XX. 34, 35) he worked with his
own hands ; that at Rome he still

HIS BOASTINa EXCUSED.

519

ov KaT€vdpKr)cra ^ovOevo^ ^ (to yap vcrTep-qjJia (jlov irpocr-
aveirkrjpoiO'av ol aSe\(j)ol iXOovres oltto MaKeSovCas),
Koi iv iravrl a/Baprj ^ e^JLOLVTov vp2v eTTJprjcra /cat Trjprjcro}.

■ ovSev6s. * vfuv ifJiavT6v.

in want, I was chargeable to no man (for the brethren who came from
Macedonia supplied my wants), and in everything I kept and will keep

received support from Philippi
(Phil. iv. 12-16). Whatever
peculiarity, then, there might be
in the case of Corinth — and it is
implied in this passage, as well as
in the distinct notice of it in Acts
xviii. 3 — must have consisted in
the importance attached by the
Apostle to the Church of Corinth,
and his consequent anxiety to do
nothing which could in any de-
gree hurt his influence with them,
and to do all that he could to
show his real superiority to the
false teachers. They rested their
chief claims on the fact that they
did receive support; and thus
the self-maintenance, which cIsCt
where might be the result of ac-
cident, was here a matter of prin-
ciple with him.

oAAas, ' others,' as opposed to
the emphatic v/awv, ' for your
service.'

ia-vX.rjO'a, ' I took from them
more than their due ; not merely
enough for my support whilst I
was with them, but enough for
my support after I left them and
came to you,'

oij/iDVLov, ' pay,' as of a soldier.
Comp. 1 Cor. ix. 7.

SiaKovLaVf properly ^help in
poverty or distress,' as where it
is used in viii. 4, ix. 1, 13 ; Rom.
XV. 31, for the contribution to
help the Jewish Christians ; here,
probably, in a more general sense,
— ' to help you, by relieving you
from the necessity of support-

KOLTafapKao).

Trapwv TT/oos v/xa?, i.e. in Acts
xviii. 1.

v(TT€pr)$€Ls, ' finding myself in
want.' So Phil. iv. 12.

KarevapKYjo-a, ' press, like a dead
weight or torpedo,' from vdpKTj,
a torpedo. vapKao) is
used in Gen. xxxii. 32 ;
Job xxxiii. 19 ; but KaravapKono
in no other Greek passage but
this and xii. 13, 14. Jerome
(Algas. ii, 10) thinks that it is a
Cilicianism, like rjfiepa cmcianism
in 1 Cor. iv. 3 : ^ Multa ^^^«^^°^-
sunt verba quibus juxta morem
urbis et provinci89 suaa familia-
rius Apostolus utitur ; e quibus,
exempli gratia, pauca ponenda
sunt : ov KarevapKyjcra v/awi/, i.e.
non gravavi vos. Quibus et aliis
mtcUis verbis usqtie hodie utiuitur
Gilices.*

yap is the reason for ov kut-
€vdpKr](Ta.

7rpo(TaveTr\'t]poi(Tav, ' added to
my means, and so filled up.'

d/3aprj occurs nowhere else in
the JSr, Test.

IQ He now protests his reso-
lution of continuing this prac-
tice ; giving as his reason the
necessity of distinguishing him-
self from the false teachers.

ecTTtv aX'^OcLa )(pi,(TTOv iv ifxoL.
Not exactly an oath, bat ' the
truth, or truthfulness of Christ,
is in me ; and in virtue of that
truth I declare.' So Rom. ix. 1.
For the same thought that he
must act up to the standard of

520

SECOND EPISTLE: CHAP. XI. 10—14.

ecrriv aKrjueLa ^lcttov ev ejxoi^ otl rj Kav)(r]crL<; avrr) ov
Tt; OTL ovK ayaiTCt) u/xa?; 6 Seos olSei^.

12*

2* ^ ^

770 tcD, /cat

myself from being burdensome unto you. ^^As the truth of Clirist is in
me, this boasting shall not be closed against me in the regions of Achaia.
^' Wherefore ? because I love you not ? God knoweth. ^^But what I do,

trnth which he preached, com-
pare i. 18.

17 Kav'^cn<s . . 4 . <f>payyjcr€TaL.
<f}pd(T(Tisi is properly to ' fence ' or
* wall round,* as in the LXX.
generally ; but in the N. Test, it
is only used for ' closing the
mouthy' (TTo/jia always following
or preceding it (see Rom. iii.
19; Heb. xi. 33), except here,
where, however, the sense is the
same, rj Kavxycn^ being in part
personified (comp. 1 Cor. ix. 15,
XV. 31). The meaning will then
be, ' my boast shall not have her
mouth closed towards me, to
prevent her from speaking in
my favour ; ' the whole being
a condensed expression for to
o-To/xa jJLOv ov <f>pay^(TeTai, mcttc /jly)
Kav)(a<rOaL iv rovrio vTrep ijxov.

iv TOt? KXifxaa-tv t^s 'A;(atas.
' The regions,' used with regard
to the supposed divisions of the
heavens, verging towards the
poles (comp. Gal. i. 21; Rom.
XV. 23) ; see 1 Cor. i. 2 for
' Achaia.'

116 6€o<s oTScv. ' God knows
that it is not so,' or ' that I love
you.'

12 o Sk TTOtw, Kol TTonyo-co, ' it is
not from want of love that I do,
and shall continue to do this.'
The second tva is not in appo-
sition with the first tva, but in-
troduces a subordinate clause to
explain the second dcfiopfxrjv.
' My object in refusing to take a
maintenance from you is to cut
away from under the feet of my

opponents the ground on which
they take their stand (comp.
V. 12), namely, the ground of
representing themselves to be on
the same level of Apostolical au-
thority with me, in the matter
of receiving a maintenance.'
The whole sense is obscured by
the fact that the charge brought
against Paul by his opponents
was double, and, to a certain ex-
tent, contradictory. On the one
hand, it is clear from verges 13,
20, and 1 Cor. ix. 1-27, that the
false teachers not only received
support from the Corinthians,
but prided themselves ^^cJ,cau-
upon it as a mark of x^^'rai.
their Apostolical privileges. This,
therefore, was the matter ' in
which they boasted,' and it was
because he did not take this sup-
port that they insinuated doubts
of Paul's Apostleship. But, on
the other hand, it was obvious
that, whilst Paul's conduct gave
him a claim to be considered
self-denying and disinterested,
their conduct was liable to the
suspicion of mercenary motives ;
and for this reason it was their
object, by repeated attacks on
the want of Apostolical authority
shown in Paul's self-mainte-
nance, to drive him into receiv-
ing support, and so to remove
the dilference between him and
themselves, which, in spite of
their attacks, left him in a more
favourable light than themselves.
Hence a cross-purpose ruus

HIS BOASTING EXCUSED.

521

Lva ev o) Kav^cDVTai evpeucoaiv KaucDS Kai T^/xeis. oi yap
TOLOVTOL xpevBaTTOCTToKoi^ epyoLTai SdXtot, /xeraa-^T^/xart^d-
/x€^oi €19 airoa-Tokov^; ^piarov, ^^Acat ou ^Savixa* avTos

» Oavfiaffrdv.

that I will do, that I may cut off occasion from those who desire occasion,
that wherein they boast they may be found even as ive. ^^ For such are
false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of
Christ. ^^And no marvel : for Satan himself is transformed into an

through all their attack, and
hence the cross-lights (so to
speak) of his description of it.

Trjv acfyopfi-^v is ' their jjf round '
(not 'against me,' which would
require eh e/xe, or the like, but)
'for themselves,' as in v. 12.

iv (S Kavx<i>vTaL may be ' in the
whole matter of their boasting,'
or more especially with reference
to the maintenance. Compare
1 Pet. iii. 16, cva iv w KaToAaAw-

(TLV VjXlsiV .... KaTaL(TyyvOiii(TL.

evpeOwcTLv KaOws kol 17/xcts would,
according to the sense, have na-
turally been expressed, ivpiOwfxev
Ka^ojs Kttt avToL But as the in-
tention of the clause was to ex-
press, not his wish, but theirs,
the opponents became the subject
of the sentence ; and it is equi-
valent to saying, ' that we may
be on a perfect equality in regard
to our claims to Apostleship.'
For a similar confusion of ex-
pression compare Gal. iv. 12,
yLveffOe cos iyoif otl Kayw ws v/jlcls,
and, to a certain degree, 2 Cor.
viii. 13. The subjunctive evpe-
Ouiu-i for evpeOeiev is the natural
result of the present tense, em-
phatically ascribed to their pro-
ceedings both in OekovTwv and
Kav^tovrat.

This interpretation, though
harsh, seems, on the whole, the
most probable. All others fail,
because they ascribe to the op-

ponents a ground for boasting
which they did not claim.

13 'I do this, because such
men as I have been describing are
false apostles,^ xJ/evSairo-
o-ToXot, ' sham apostles,' apostles.'
' pretended apostles ; '
like xj/ivSoxpi-o-TOL, Matt. xxiv. 24;
\J/ivSo7rpo<f>rJTr}s, ^l&tt. vii. 15, xxiv.
11, 24 : so called here, because
they either gave themselves out
to be Apostles, or rested on the
authority of the older Apostles
(see note on verse 5).

' Crafty artisans ' (ipydrai 80-
Xtot) seems to be ' workmen la-
bouring for their own gain,' as
Acts xix. 25 ; so ipyaaia, Acts
xvi. 16, 19, is deepened by the
meaning of ' craft.' For the
whole expression comp. ii. 17,
xi. 20.

' Transforming themselves in-
to Apostles of Christ,' possi-
bly alludes to the party ' of
Christ' (see on x. 7). The al-
lusion to Satan may possibly re-
fer to the Rabbinical
notion of the evil spirit
transforming himself into a good
angel, of which, however, the
only instance adduced by Eisen-
menger, Entd. Judenthum, i. p.
845, is of the angel who wrestled
with Jacob, and who is repre-
sented by the Rabbis as an evil
spirit. But it is more likely
that here, as in xii. 7, he uses

Satan.'

.22

SECOND EPISTLE : CHAP. XI. 15.

yap 6 craram?, fJL€Tacr)(r)fJiaTL^€TaL eU ayyeXov (fyajTo^;*
^^ov /.teya ovu el kol ol SiaKOvoL avTOv fJieTacr)(7jiJLaTLC,ovTaL
W9 SuaKovoL SLKaLO(rvvr)<;, a>v to rikos ecrrai Acara ra epya
avTwv.

angel of light : ^^ therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be
transformed as ministers of righteousness, whose end shall be according
to their works.

the word in reference to the
earliest use of it in the Old Test,
in Job. i. ii. ; and particularly to
the transformation there implied,
though not expressed, of Satan
into the form of one of the angels
(LXX. ol ayyeXot) who appear in
the presence of God.

ayyeXov cfiiDTos is in allusion to
the light in which God and the
angels live ; comp. Acts xii. 7.

15 ov /xeya. See 1 Cor.ix. 11.

ws SiOLKovoL, i.e. ' change and
become like instruments of right-
eousness.' Comp. Rom. ix. 29,
0)9 Vofxoppa av w/JLOnoOrjfxev.

SiKaioavvrj^, ' Christian right-
eousness,' as in V. 21.

wv TO T€Xo<5, ' whose final fate ; '
see Rom. vi. 21; Phil. iii. 19;
and for the construction, Rom.
iii. 8.

Paraphrase of Chap. XI. 1 — 15.

Let me, then, continue my boast. It is a iceahness to sing one's
own praises ; yet let me conjure you to bear with it for a mo-
ment. It is a loeakness which arises from my affection for
you, thai affection lohich the bridegroom^ s friend feels for the
bride whom he has given to the bridegroom. But I am haunted
by the fear lest the story of the Fall should in your case be en-
acted over again ; lest your affections should be estranged from
your heavenly spouse by the tempter, ivho comes now in the
shape of an Apostolic teacher, as of old in the shape of the ser-
pent. For I see that, notwithstanding the new Jesus, and the
new Spirit, and the new Gospel of your new teachers, you bear
with them ; yes, ivell and easily icith them, and why not with
me ? However far they may push their Apostolic pretensions,
they are not superior to me ; they may be superior to me in
rhetoric, but assuredly not in divine intuitions, nor in the signs
of an Apostle which were so openly and without reserve shown
by me amongst you. Is it possible that you doubt this ? or do
you doubt my love for you, because I debased myself for your

HIS BOASTINa EXCUSED. 523

exaltation, and refused to receive support from you^ in declaring
the glad message of Divine favour ? True it is, I did so ; the
fact I cannot deny. Before I came to you, I took more than
their due from the Macedonian Churches, to relieve you ; and
after I came to you, I still continued, when I was in want, to
receive support from them, and to maintaiii myself, without ap-
plying to you. This is the fact, and I am proud to avow it ;
this boast, at any rate, shall speak out boldly, under the sky of
Achaia, and shall not be taken from me. And why ? not cer-
tainly from any want of affection, but from my determination
to cut away from under the feet of my opponevts the ground
which they so desire to establish, namely, that in the matter of
which they wish to boast, they and I are on the same level.
Well may I desire to make clear this difference between them
and myself ; for they are Apostles only in appearance, they are
interested self-seekers ; they appear to be Apostles of Christ,
only by a concealment of their own true nature. And that they
should be able to effect this concealment is no wonder ; their
master, the great adversary of whom we read in the old dis-
pensation under the name of Satan, does the same. He con-
ceals his dark deeds under the guise of an angel clothed in
light ; and as he is, so are his instruments ; and as their deeds
are, so will be their end.

524

SECOND EPISTLE: CHAP. XI. 16—19.

^^UoXlv Xeyct), finj tU fie Sof?; d(l)pova etvaf el Se
fjLij ye, KOLV a>s acfypova Be^aade /x€, tVa /cdyo) [xiKpov

^^I say again. Let no one suppose me a fool ; if otherwise, yet as a
fool receive me, that I may boast myself a little. ^''That which I speak,

Three times he has attempted
to begin his ' boast,' first, in x.
8, when he is interrupted by the
recollection of the hollowness of
the boast of his opponents, and
compelled to assert the reality of
his own ; again, in xi. 1, when
he is checked by the recollection
of the difficulty of pressing it on
readers so perverted as the Co-
rinthians by the influence of their
false teachers ; again in xi. 6,
when he is led aside to answer
the charge arising out of his re-
fusal of support. Now once more
he returns to the point, and
now for the first time carries it
through. He is still oppressed by
the consciousness of the seeming
senselessness of such self-praise ;
but he defends himself on two
grounds: that he is driven to it
by the pretensions of his oppo-
nents ; and that he is speaking,
not of his higher gifts, of which
he might reasonably be proud,
but of those very points in his
conduct and character which
have given occasion to his oppo-
nents to charge him with ' weak-
ness.' ' His bodily pre-
sence is weak' (do-^evT^s),
X. 10. The word in-
dicates that mixture of physical
and mental infirmity which is
connected with nervousness and
depression, resulting either from
a keen susceptibility of tempera-
ment, or from exhaustion of body
and mind. Thus he had arrived

His weak
ness.

at Corinth * in weakness (iv aa-Oi-
v€ta), and in fear and trem-
bling ' (1 Cor. ii. 3) ; and such is
the sense borne by it through the
whole of this Section, of which
it is the key-note, and in which
it occurs no less than six times.

1 6 IlaAiv Xeyw, ' I return to
what I said before ; ' either the
general subject of his boasting,
as in X. 8, xi. 1, 6 ; or his folly,
as in xi. 1. In what follows, the
stress is, not on the first words
of tne sentence (/xr] tls fie . . .
ctvai), but on the last {el 8c fx-j
ye . . . Kavx^croifxai); ' I had rather
that you should not think me
foolish ; but what I care most
for is, that whether you think
me foolish or not, you would bear
with what I have to say in my
own defence.'

€t Be {x-q ye, '■ but if any one
does think me foolish.' For this
force of €t 8e fxr), in which the
meaning of the particular words
is lost in the general meaning of
' otherwise,' corap. Matt. vi. 1,
xi. 17 ; Markii. 21 ; Luke v. 36.

Kttv, ' even if you receive me
as a fool ; ' elliptically for koI
lav Se^crOe, as kolv tov Kpaa-irebov,
Mark vi. 56 ; kolv rj a Kid, Acts v.
15.

Seiaa-Oe, ' bear with me ' (like
ave^eaOe in xi. 1).

cos dcjjpova is taken, as it were^
twice over in the sentence, ' even
if you do receive me as a fool,
yet as a fool receive me.'

HIS BOASTING EXCUSED BY HIS WEAKNESS.

525

TL KaV)(7j(T(jDlJLaL.

^^o XaA-O), ^ ov Kara Kvpiov XaXw,
dXX' a>? iv a(j)pocrvvr)^ iv TavTy rfj vTroo-rdcrei ttj^ Kav-
-)(y]crea)<;. ^^eVet ttoXXoI Kav^MVTai Kara ttjv crdpKa,
Kayo) Kav)(y]crofJLaL. ^^rjSecos yap dvi^eaOe rcov aa^povoiv,

» Kaydi) after n. " ov AaAcD Karh Kvpiov.

I speak it not after the Lord, but as it were in folly, in this stedfastness
of boasting. ^^ Seeing that many boast after the flesh, I will boast also.
^^For ye bear with fools gladly, being wise. ^'^For ye bear with them,

fjLLKpov TL, ' a little bit,' as we
should say : ironically as against
bis opponents, in contrast with
whom, he says, ' That I {Kayo})
as well as they may boast.' So
verse 18 and 1 Cor. vii. 40. For
Tt compare tl d<f>pocrvvr}y, in xi. 1.

17 He had said, 'Bear with
me as a fool.' He now proceeds
to enlarge upon this : * for what
I am now speaking, I speak not
as Christ would have me speak,
but in the person of a fool, and
in this matter of their boasting.'

o AaXw is ' my language,' ' my
general strain,' in distinction
from o (l>r]fXL or Aeyw, ' my words.'

ov Kara Kvpiov, 'not the hu-
mility which Christ would in-
culcate, and which His spirit
would breathe.' For this con-
demnation, as it were, of his own
language by the Apostle himself,
and the distinction thus drawn
between his higher and his lower
utterances, see 1 Cor. vii. 10, 25.

ws iv d(ppo(Tvvr) refers to ws
d(jipova in verse 16.

iv ravrrj rrj vTroa-rdcru r^? Kav-
X^o-co)9.' This refers to the boast-
ing, not of himself, but of his
opponents, or at least, of himself
and of his opponents conjointly,
and is intended to limit the justi-
fication of his boastinof to this
particular occasion. The words
must mean ' in this vehemence
of boasting,' as in ix. 4.

18 iroXkoi This mention of

jcara rrfV
aapKa.

the numbers of the false teachers
agrees with ol ttoXXol, in ii. 17.

Kara Tr)v aapKa combines an
allusion both to their earthly
privileges, as of their Hebrew
descent (xi. 22), or their pow-
ers of speech (xi. 6), and to
their worldly motives,
in opposition to Kara
KvpLoVf in verse 17;
in which case compare x. 3.
Kara rr]v crdpKa must be under-
stood again after Kav^-qcroixaL (as
in V. 16, after otSa/xev), although
the Apostle probably omitted to
repeat it, with the purpose of not
making his representation of his
own boast needlessly offensive.
For the general argument com-
pare Phil. iii. 4, 5, 'I might also
have confidence in the flesh. If
any other man thinketh that he
hath whereof he might trust in
the flesh, I more,' &c.

19 'Bear with my boasting,
now that I come before you as a
fool : for you are only too glad
to listen to these fools among
whom I now enroll myself.'

Tcov d(f}p6v(iiv, though it refers
especially (as appears from verse
20) to the false teachers, yet is
in itself general, — ' the class of
fools of which I just now spoke.'

KftpovifjiOL 6vT€? refers to the re-
putation for sagacity, on which
the Corinthians prided them-
selves. (Comp. 1 Cor. iv. 10,
(ppovLixoL iv xpto-To), and x. 15, ws

526

SECOND EPISTLE: CHAP. XI. 20, 21.

(f>p6vL[jioi 6vTe<;* ^'^ av€)(€(T9e yoip, €l ti<; vfias AcaraSovX-ot,
et TLS KaTecrOUi, el tls Xajx/SdveL. el res eVatperat, el

if anyone bring you into bondage, if anyone devour you, if anyone take
from you, if anyone exalt himself, if anyone smite you on the face. ^'I

^povt/xots Acyo).) In this passage
it maybe either (1) 'although
wise,' ' wise as you think your-
selves to be ; ' or, with a pro-
founder irony, (2) * you bear with
them, because it is the character
of wise men to bear with fools.'

The instance given is that
they endured the insolence and
despotic claims of the false
teachers. That this was
oUheJu^ the character of the
daizing Judaizing party gene-
rally may be inferred
by implication from i. 24, iv.
5, and Gal. ii. 4. See also the
servile adulation of James in
the Clementines (Introduction,
p. 352).

KaTaSovXol, ' enslave.' The
same word is applied to the
efforts of the party at Antioch
and Jerusalem, in GhI. ii. 4, to
bring the Christian Church under
the yoke of the Jewish ceremo-
nies. Compare the use of 8ov-
Xcta in this sense in Gal. v. 1,
' be not again entangled with
the yoke of slavery ; ' and Peter's
speech. Acts xv. 10, ' a yoke
which neither we nor our fathers
were able to bear.' In this pas-
sage the word has probably a
more personal meaning, like kv-
puvofjLev in i. 24, but with a re-
jerence to the moral slavery to
which the Church was to be re-
duced.

2o KaT€(r6uL, ' devour your
property,' as in Matt, xxiii. 14,
• devour widows' houses.' Tbe
particular point intended must
be the claims which they made
on the Corinthian Church for

their support (see 1 Cor. ix. 1).
But it may also include the co-
vetous disposition which at this
time, as in our own, was a beset-
ting sin of the Jewish character.

For the grossly selfish ends of
the Judaizing party, see Rom.
xvi. 18, 'they serve not the Lord
Jesus Christ, but their own
belly ' ; Phil. iii. 19, ' whose God
is their belly.'

Xafx^dvcL, 'catches you,'
' makes you his prey ; ' a rae
taphor taken from fishing or
hunting (see Luke v. 5) ; and in
this passage probably applied to
the fascination exercised over
the Corinthians by their deceit-
ful teachers. Comp. SoAw IXafBov,
xii. 16. For this general cha-
racter of the Judaizers, compare
verse 13, SoAiot cpyarat ; ii. 17,
KairqXivovTi^ tov Xoyov ; Rom.
xvi. 18, iiaTrarojcnv ras KapStag

TWV aKCtKWV.

eTraiperai, i.e. KaO' vp,cov, ' con-
ducts himself proudly.' For the
words see x. 5, rrav vif/w/xa lirat-
pofxevov Kara Trj<; yvcocrco)? rov Oeov.
Hence the frequent allusions to
their boastfulness and self-com-
mendations, iii. 1, X. 12-18, xi.
12, 18.

€ts 7rpo<TW7rov Sepci, ' strikes on
the face ' (not necessarily with
a scourge, since the word is ap-
plied in John xviii. 23 to a pa-
7rtorp.a, or ' buffet with the hand ').
This expression is the climax of
the description of insolence. In
Eastern countries a blow on the
face, especially on the mouth, is
a frequent mode of insult. Com-
pare 1 Kings xxii. 24, ' Zedekiah

HIS BOASTING EXCUSED.

527

Tt9 €19 TrpocrcoTTOV ^v/xas Sepei. ^^ Kara aTLfiiav Xeyco,

ii/xas before els.

r](r6evi](raiJ.€v.

speak as concerning reproach, as though we have been weak: but wherein-
soever anyone is daring, (I speak in folly) I am daring also. ^^Are they

. . . smote Micaiah on the cheek ; '
Matt. V. 39, ' whosoever shall
smite thee on thy right cheek ; '
Luke xxii. 64, ' they struck him
on the face ; ' Acts xxiii. 2, ' he
commanded to smite Paul on the
mouth ; ' and so Philost. Apoll.
vii. 23.

That such violence might be
expected from the rulers of the
early Christian society, is also
implied in the command inl Tim.
iii. 3, and Tit. i. 7, that the ' bi-
shop ' is ' not to be a striker.'
Even so late as a.d. 675, the
council of Braga (c. 7) orders
' that no bishop at his will and
pleasure shall strike his clergy,
lest he lose the respect which
they owe him.*

For the singular number rt?,
as implying a special leader of
the party, see note on x. 7.

21 Kara drt/xiav Aeyw. In a
sentence so charged with irony,
and of which one may
Apoatte!*^^ suppose that the Apo-
stle's meaning must
have been caught much rather
from the tone of his voice, the
turn of bis writing, the expres-
sion of his countenance, than
from his actual words, it is diffi-
cult to assign a precise meaning
to each expression. Its general
sense is that, in contrast to the
false teachers, he was what they
called ' weak : ' ' Such are your
-teachers ; and what am I in com-
parison with them ? Oh ! cer-
tainly very different. I say it
with a proper consciousness of

the deep disgrace which it brings
upon me in your eyes and theirs '
{Kara aTLfxtav Xeyu) being uttered
with an air of mock shame),
' that J, unlike them, was a poor
weak creature ; I had not the
strength or energy to trample on
you and plunder you, and assume
a lofty demeanour, and smite yon
on the face ; I could do nothing of
this kind : so far they are quite
right, and I wish them joy of it.
But then ' (here the irony is part-
ly dropped), ' whatever grounds
of confidence, of real confidence,
they have, those grounds ' (here
he again assumes the half ironical,
half apologetic tone), 'pardon
my folly for the word, those
grounds of confidence I have no
less than they.'

Kara aTLfjLtav is, ' to my re-
proach,' like oLTL/jidis.

Xiyu) is to be taken with w?
OTL, ' I say that ' (thus differing
from kaku) in verse 17).

ws OTL is pleonastic, like ' how
that ' in English (as 2 Thess. ii.
2, ws OTL ivia-Tr}K€v rj rjfxepa) ; but
the expression would not be used
in either case, were it not for the
wish to indicate that the writer
himself did not fully agree in the
fact stated; ' I say how it is sup-
posed that,' &c. See Winer, Gr.
67,J1.

r)fx€L<;, i.e. 'J emphatically,
as distinguished from the false
teachers.'

7j(T6€vy]KaiJ,€v (B.), 'have been
weak,' ricrOev^aa/jLiv (D.E.), 'were

528

SECOND EPISTLE: CHAP. XL 22. 23.

d(f)pocriji^rj Xeyco) ToXfJico Kayco. ^"^'E/3patOL elcnv ; Kayco.
^laparjXlTai elcnv ; Kaya>. cnrepixa ^A/BpadfjL ^Ictlv ; KCLyo),

Hebrews ? so am J. Are they Israelites ? so am I. Are they the seed
of Abraham 1 so am I. ^^ Are they ministers of Christ ? (I speak as a

weak,' i.e. ' when we arrived at
Corinth.' See note on xi. 16.

€1/ acf}po(rvv7] Acyw refers to the
word ToXfxa.

He has now cast aside all fur-
ther shame, and begins the long-
expected and often announced
glorification of himself; and, in
so doing, he gives a description of
his life, which forms one of the
most valuable historical portions
of the New Test.

The ennmeration of his claims
begins from those points in which
his opponents were strongest, and
from these gradually rises into a
sphere where he leaves them be-
hind, and ultimately loses sight
of them altogether. These points
were their purely Jewish extrac-
tion and their peculiar connexion
TheApo- with Christ. It would
stie'sJew- appear from Epipha-

ish origin. ^.^g ^^^^ ^^^ ^Q^

that the Judaizers went so far as
to assert that he was altogether
a Gentile by birth, and only
adopted circumcision in order
to marry the High Priest's
daughter. This suspicion might
possibly arise from his birthplace
at Tarsus, one of the great seats
of G-entile education ; or from his
connexion with Gamaliel, whose
teaching notoriously inculcated
toleration of Gentile usages (see
the quotations from the Rabbis
in Tholuck's Character of St.
Paul, Eng. trans, p. 17). How-
ever tliis may be, he here feels
called upon to assert the purity
of his Jewish descent in the
strongest manner ; and it is a re-
markable proof of the ascendancy

acquired by his opponents, that
he should be compelled to do so
in addressing a Church, in its
main elements, not Jewish, but
Gentile.

The three words employed are
arranged in a climax.
'E^/aaio?, 'Hebrew,' in
Acts vi. 1, and in the phrase
' Gospel according to the He-
brews ' (Eus. H. E. iii. 39), is
used io express Palestinian, as
opposed to Hellenistic Jews. But
the Apostle was ' hor7i (yeyevvry-
/xeVo?) in Tarsus,' Acts xxii. 3 ;
and 'E^pato? is often used by Jo-
sephus and Philo as an equiva-
lent to 'IovSato5. Compare ^E/Spa-
Lo<s i$ 'Ei/Spatoiv, in Phil. iii. 5.
It is used then here, simply to
denote his 7iatio7iality. ' Israel-
ite,' and ' the seed of

^^1 , • 'Israelite.'

Abraham, rise one
above another in expressing the
sacred character of the nation,
as inheriting the promises. For
^I(Tpar)XtTrj<;, as a term of praise
(in which sense alone it occurs
in the N. Test.), see John i. 48
(' Israelite indeed .... without
guile ') ; Acts ii. 22, iii. 12, v. 35,
xiii. 16, xxi. 28 (heading the
addresses to the Jews) ; Rom.
ix. 4, xi. 1. For o-7rep/xa
'A^padfx, in like manner, ISiam;
see Heb. ii. 16 ; Rom.
ix. 7, xi. 1 (in both of which last
passages it comes in, as here, as
a climax after ' Israel ' and ' Is-
raelite ').

In Rom. xi. 1 ; Phil. iii. 5, he
adds the fact omitted here, that
he was a Benjamite : hence per-
haps his name of 'Saul.'

HIS BOASTINO EXCUSED.

529

^^SuaKovoL -)(pLcrTov elcTLV ; (^7rapa(f)povo)v Xaka>) ^vTrepeycOy
eu KOTTOL^i TrepLcrcroTepcos, ii' ^^vXa/cai? TrepLCTcroTepajSj iv

• tnrkp iyd. *> iv vXt^yah virepfi., iv (pvKaKois vep.

fool) I am more, in labours more abundant, in prisons more abundant,
in stripes above measure, in deaths oft ^^(from the Jews five times re-

23 The second point of the
boast of the false teachers was

their pecu 1 iar connexion
ftlh^r with Christ (see note

on X. 7), which they
expressed by calling themselves
' His instruments ' or ' servants '
(StaKovoi).

To this the Apostle gives a
more indignant reply than to
the previous charge. They had
questioned his right to be called
so, on the ground that he had not
seen onr Lord on earth (see note
on 1 Cor. ix. l),and perhaps also
on the ground of his want of
connexion with the Jerusalem
Apostles (see note oniii. 1). He
answers by an appeal, not to any
outward fact, but to his own won-
derful life, as partly in 1 Cor. ix.
1, 2 (' ye are my seal in the
Lord '). This was the best proof
he could give of his intimate
union with his Master, and of his
zeal for His service ; in this he
knew that he was far superior
(vTrepeyw) to them, and yet at the
same time these very hardships
constituted or caused the ' weak-
ness' with which he was taunted.
This last thought is not directly
expressed, but is implied in the
transition from verse 28 to 29,
30. He ushers in his defence
with one more apology, of
stronger irony in proportion as
his defence is stronger : ' my
language is that of a madman.
Really I can hardly expect you
will believe me' (7rapa<^/)ovwv,
comp. 2 Pet. ii. 16); 'but the

fact is so, I am far more a ser-
vant of Christ than they are,' as
if it were eyoj VTre/jSta/covos (see
note on xi. 5).

Xa\u> here is ' my general lan-
guage,' as in verse 17.

The sentence is connected im-
mediately with vTrepeyw : ' I am
a servant of Christ in labours,
in stripes,' &c. From this mo-
ment he drops all irony. The
labours of the false teachers
could be nothing compared with
his ; and from this point we lose
sight of them till xii. 11.

TTcptcrcroTepo)? is (not *more
abundantly than they,' but) as
in i. 12, ii. 4, vii. 13,
15, merely a stronger X^''"
form of Treptorcrco?. It
has accordingly lost its distinct
comparative meaning so com-
pletely that in vii. 13 it is joined
with /jLaXXov. If he had meant
to compare himself with them,
he would have used, not the ad-
verb, but the adjective Trcptcrcro-
T€po<; or Trepicra-oTepov, as in the
somewhat similar passage, 1
Cor. XV. 10. It is the same as
v7rep/3aXk6vT(i)<5, ' beyond all or-
dinary measure,' the words being
varied only for variety's sake, as
elsewhere in St. Paul (see 1 Cor.
xiii. 8).

€v cf>vXaKai^. The Acts only
mention three imprisonments,
and of these the one
at Philippi (xvi. 24) is SS!'""
the only c^ne that can
be included here. In Clem. Ep..

M M

530

SECOND EPISTLE: CHAP. XI. 24—27.

^lovhaioiv 7revTaKL<; ^ recrcrepoiKOVTa irapa fxCav eXa/3o^',
^^Tpls ^ ipafiSia-drjv^ ana^ eKiOdaOrjv, Tpls ivavdyrjcra,

» Tfo-capdKOVTa. ^ ippafiSiffdrjv.

ceived I forty stripes save one, thrice was I beaten with rods, once
was I stoned, ^^ thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have

I. ad Cor. 5, seven are mentioned
altogether.

cV OavdroL^, ' in perils of death '
(comp. iv. 11). Of these various

kinds of death the next
death. ""^ two verses give in-

stances. Of the five
Jewish scourgings here men-
tioned, not one is mentioned in

the Acts. The words

Srglngs. ^^o 'lovSatW, 'by the

Jews,' imply that he
was going to use another con-
struction : first, because airo,
and not viro, is required by eXa-
j3ov: and secondly, because it
would have been superfluous to
say that ' the forty stripes save
one ' were inflicted by Jews ;
that being as fixed an expression
for Jewish scourging as the rods
(lpa(3hta-6r]v) was for Roman
scourging. Forty stripes were
fixed by the Law as the maxi-
mum (Deut. XXV. 3), but thirty-
nine only were inflicted by later
practice, lest by chance the letter
of the Law should be broken.
It was inflicted with a leathern
scourge, with which thirteen
strokes were given on the breast,
thirteen on the right shoulder,
thirteen on the left ; and this
arrangement of the scourging
was by some Rabbis made the
reason of the number thirty-nine.
The mode of flagellation was as
follows : The culprit was bound
by both hands to a pillar ; the
officer of the synagogue stripped
qS his clothes until his breast

was bared. The officer then as-
cended a stone behind. The
scourge consisted of four thongs
of calf skin, and two of asses'
skin. The culprit bent to re-
ceive the lashes. The officer
struck with one hand, with all
his force. A reader meanwhile
read, first, Deut. xxviii. 58, 59,
next, Deut. xxix. 8, lastly. Psalm
Ixxviii, 38. It was so severe a
punishment that death often en-
sued. (Wetstein,p. 208; Schott-
gen, Hor. Heb. 714:.)

25 rpts IpaphicrOrjv. This was
the Roman punishment
of ' virgis c^dere,' also JoS-gWs-
so cruel as frequently to
occasion death. See Cic. Yerr. v.
62. Of the three times, here men-
tioned by the Apostle, one only
is described in the Acts (xvi. 23).
St. Paul being a Roman citizen
was, properly speaking, exempt-
ed from this punishment, and,
on that plea, protested against
it atPhilippi (Acts xvi. 37), and
escaped it at Jerusalem (xxii.
25).

aira^ IkLOda-Qrjv, i.e. at Lystra.
Acts xiv. 19.

rpis €vavdyrj(ra. The allusion
is unknown. The ship- stoning
wreck in Acts xxvii. is andsMp-

1 , wrecks.

later.

wxOi^fiepov, a whole day of

twenty-four hours, be- « knight

pfinninef, according to and day in

9 . ,°' T . ?(. the deep.'

Jewish reckonmg (trom

Gen. i. 5), with the evening.

HIS BOASTING EXCUSED.

531

vv^dijiJiepov iu Tw ^vdo) TreTroirjKa), ^^ oSotTToptat? ttoX-
Xa/Ct9, KLvBvVOL'; TTOTafJLCJjP, KLvSvvoL<; Xrj<TTa)v, KLvSvuoLS eK
yevov^, KLvSvvoL<; e^ eOvcjv, klvStjvols tv noXet, icit'Swot?
ev ^prjfJLia, KLvS-uyoLS ev Oakdcrarj^ KLvhvvoi<^ kv xpevSa-
SeX^ot?, '^'^KOTTO} KoX /xd^^w, kv aypvTTviaL^ ttoWolkl^^

« Add iv.

been in the deep), ^^in journeyings often, in perils of rivers, in
perils of robbers, in perils by countrymen^ in, perils by heathens,
in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the
sea, in perils among false brethren, ^^in labour and painfulness, in

The word occurs only in very
late writers.

Iv T<5 jivdQ, ' in the depth of
the sea.' See Exod. xv. 5 ;
Psalm cvii. 24. LXX. cvii. 2.4
(A.V.) Probably after one of
the shipwrecks on a plank, as in
Acts xxvii. 44. The Syriac reads,
' without a boat in the sea.' Theo-
phylactsays that some maintained
this to mean that Paul was con-
cealed for a day after the stoning
at Lystra, in a place called By thos ;
and in later times it has been re-
ferred to a deep dungeon , so called,
at Cyzicus (see Estius, ad loc).

26 The parentliesis explaining
iv 6avdT0L<s being ended here^
the sentence is continued from
verse 23.

oSoiTTopiats ('travels') is ex-
panded into the remaining dis-
tresses described in verses 26, 27.

KLvSvvoL<; TTora/Aiov, ' danger of
swollen rivers/ such as
nW'°^ cut off the traveller in
all eastern and southern
countries. Thus Frederick Bar-
barossa was drowned in the Caly-
cadnus, a river flowing into the
sea not far from the Apostle's
own city of Tarsus. The tra-
veller Spon was lost in one of
the torrents of the Lebanon, be-
tween Jerusalem and Antioch
(see Conybeare and Hovvson, i.
pp. 176, 457;.

XycTTiov, ' robbers,' whether by
land or sea, whether
such as those in the 'Jobbers.'
mountains of Ephesus,. who are
said in the well-known tradition
(Eus. H. E. iii. 23) to have car-
ried off the Apostle John ; or
remnants of the old Cilician
pirates (see note on x. 4).

«K yeVovs, 'from Jews,' such
as the conspiracies at p^^jg
Damascus, Acts ix. 23 ; ' from
at Jerusalem, ix. 29; ^^'^^'^
at Antioch of Pisidia, xiii. 50 ;
at Iconium, xiv. 5 ; at Lystra,
xiv. 19 ; at Thessalonivja, xvii. 5 ;
at Bercea, xvii. 13 ; at Corinth,
xviii. 12.

i^ iOvwv. 'From Gentiles,'
at Philippi, Acts xvi.
20; and Ephesus, xix. Z'Zes:
23.

iv TToAei, €v ipr)piLa, iv OaXda-crr]^
• by city, by desert, and by sea.'
The 'desert' may allude to
Arabia, Gal. i. 17, but also to the
wilder districts of Asia Minor.
For those ' by sea,'^ comp. note
on verse 25.

il/€v8a8€X(f>oL<s^ See Gal. ii. 4,
and here, as there, probably
Judaizers.

27 K07ra> Kol fjL6)(6wy resuming
the argument from oSocn-opiaLs,
' by toil and trouble, as shown
in sleeplessness,' &c.
M 2

532

SECOND EPISTLE : CHAP. XI. 28—30.

iv Xljxo) kol 8t\//€t, ep vrjcrT€LaL<; TroXXctK-t?, ev rbvyet
/cat yvixvoTTjTL. °-^o)pLS T(x)v irapeKTos rj enLcrTacns fJi^OL
7) KaO* rjjjiipav, rj fJLeptfxva iracMV rcov iKKXr)(TLcop. '"^^rts
daOepel, kol ovk acrdevco ; tls crKavSakC^eTaL, kol ovk

' iiricrvffTaais fxov.

watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and
nakedness. ''^ Beside those things that are without, that which cometh
upon me daily, the care of all the churches. '^^Who is weak, and I am

dypv7n/tai9, * sleepless nights,'
either from fatigue or
nSr fi-oo^ business. Comp.
the midnight psalms at
Philippi, Acts xvi. 25 ; the dis-
course all through the night at
Troas, xx. 7, 11 ; the ministra-
tions 'mgr^^ and day' at Ephe-
sus. XX. 81 ; the working to sup-
port himself Swf//?/ and day' at
Thessalonica, 2 Thess. iii. 8.

€• Xt/xiS KoX SiKJ/eL. Compare 1
Cor. iv. ll ; Phil. iv. 12.

vrj(TT€LaL^. Not ' voluntary

fasts,' of which there

as ings. .^ ^^ instance in the

Apostle's life, unless it be Acts
xiii. 3, xiv. 23, and of which the
mention would be out of place
in an enumeration of 'hardships
resulting from external or natural
causes ; but ' days without food,'
as in vi. 5. It follows upon Xt/xaJ
/cat SliJ/€i, 'hunger and thirst,'
partly from the same kind of
repetition as has caused the in-
sertion of ' the sea ' in verse 26,
although the dangers by sea had
already been mentioned in the
previous verse ; but chiefly for
the sake of giving a more defi-
nite image, not merely of ' hun-
ger,' but absolute ' want of food ; '
and it follows upon ' hunger and
thirst,' as ' sleepless nights '
follow upon 'toil and trouble,'
marked in like manner by ^oA.-

ev «/^x* '^'' y^y-voTTjTL. See

Ronfhprn * Cold and
SOUtnern nakedness.

9Q\ 'The

1 Cor. iv. 11, ' in cold and na-
kedness,' in the cold
winters of
climates.

28 x^pt5 Tcov TrapcKTos
be (1) (as in Matt, v
32 ; Acts xxvi
' not to speak of the which are
many points which are "^^*^°"*'
left out in this enumeration,'
like * the time would fail me to
tell,' in Heb. xi. 32. Or (2) ' be-
sides external calamities, which I
have just described, there are the
internal trials, which I proceed
to describe.' (Comp. e^o)6ev
fxaxoLi, ea-ioOev (f>6/3oL, vii. 5.)

7} eVio-rao-is (B. D. E. F. G.), or
17 hnavijTacri<i (J. K.) jliod or /xot
(B. F. G.), may be (1) in op-
position with rj fjiipLfjLvaj ' my
pressure of care,' as in Soph.
Ant. 225, TToAAas yap ecr)(Ov <j>pov-
tlSiov iTna-Toia-eis ; or (2) more
possibly ' the concourse of people
to see me,' to ask advice, &c.,
like ' quotidiani hominum impe-
tus,' Cic. pro Arch. 6.
The word eTrtorracns concourse.'
(with the same varia-
tion of reading) occurs in Acts
xxiv. 12, for a ' tumult ; ' ISTum.
xvi. 40, for the ' congregation,'
or ' conspiracy ' of Korah ; 3
Esdr. 73, for ' conspiracies.' If
ixov be the right reading, it would
be 'my concourse,' as we should
say, ' my following.' If /xot, then
it is governed bycVt ineTrccn-ao-ts.

HIS BOASTING EXCUSED. 533

iyo) TTvpovixau ; ^^el Kav^crOai Set, tol ttJs aaOeveia^
not weak ? who is offended, and / burn not ? ^^If I must needs boast, I

Comp. the form iTna-uvaywyi^, 2
Thess. ii. 1 ; Hebr. x. 25.

For the fact, see the account of
St. Paul's teaching at Corinth,
Acts xviii. H : * He sat ' (i.e. as
a rabbi) in the house of Justus
near the synagogue, ' a year and
six months teaching the word of
God,' and still more to the pur-
pose, immediately before the date
of this Epistle, at Ephesus, Acts
xix. 9 : ' He separated the dis-
ciples, daily conversing (/ca^' 17-
fiipav SioAeyd/xevo?) in the school
of Tyrannus.' Wherever he es-
tablishedhis head- quarters, there
the crowd of hearers and ques-
tioners might be expected to
follow him. Compare the attend-
ance on the teaching of our Lord :
' There were many coming and
going, and they had not leisure
so much as to eat ' (Mark vi.
31).

If this be the right construc-
tion and meaning, then the whole
sentence will run thus : * Setting
aside the details which require
no mention, there is my daily
concourse of hearers, and the
anxiety (r) /xept/Ava) which I
have for all the congregations of
Christians.' The expression is
important, as showing the wide-
spread influence of St. Paul. It
is the description which we
should have expected to find in
the accounts of St. Pieter, if the
Apostolic history exhibited any
traces of the power afterwards
claimed by his successors.

In later times this passage was
used as a justification of Dun-
stan's retaining several sees to-
gether.

29 This is a strong expression

of the Apostle's wide sympathies
(see note ons 1 Cor. ix. 22). * If
there is any one weak .^j^^^^
and troubled in con- offended
science (aa-Oevel, as in J^?/.^''"'
Rom, xiv. 2, 21; 1
Cor. viii. 11), I, too, am weak
with him ' (comp. 1 Cor. ix. 22,
' to the weak I became as weak ').
' If there is any one caught in a
snare, I, too, am scorched in the
fire of his temptation ' (as Rev.
iii. 18, and 1 Cor. vii. 9) ; or
' I am on fire with indignation '
(as in 2 Mace. iv. 38, xiv. 45).
Compare the juxtaposition of
dcrdivii and (rkavSaAti^eTat, in 1
Cor. viii. 9, 13-.

30 The mention of * weak-
ness' in verse 29,- lead« him ta
break out into a strong acknow-
ledgment of its existence. ' I
have been compelled- to boast,
but my boasting is in fact not of
my strength, but of my weak-
ness. All these hardships, all
this sympathy for the weakness
of others, are the signs and
causes of that weakness of which
they complain in me.'^ But this
thought, whilst it sums up
the foregoing enumeration, also
opens a new aspect of the subject,
which continues to xii. 10. The
irony with which he had opened
this vindication in xi. 1-21, is
dropped : and he expresses his
intention to continue his bo st
(Kav^-qaofjuiL) , overcoming his
scruples, not, as heretofore, by
assuming the character of a fool
(compare xi. 16, 23, with xi. 6),
but by reflecting that, after all, it
was not on his strength, but ou
his weakness, that he was going
to dwell. This he seems to have

534

SECOND EPISTLE: CHAP. XI. 31-
31 A

-33.

fxov KavxTjcroiiai. ^^6 Oeo<^ kol Trarrjp tov ^ Kvpiov 'Irjaov
olSei', 6 cov evXoyr)To^ eh tovs alojpas, otl ov \//ev8o/xai,.
^^eV Aafxao-KM 6 idvdpxq^ 'Apera tov fiacnXeoJS i(l)povpeL

' Kvptov T}^S)v ^lr}(Tov xpto'TOv.

will boast of the things which concern my weakness. ^^The God and
Father of the Lord Jesus, who is blessed for evermore, knoweth that I
lie not. '2 In Damascus the governor under Aretas the king kept the

intended to follow up by a de-
tailed account of all his suffer-
ings. Beginning, therefore, with
a solemn appeal to God for the
truth of his narrative (xi. 31, and
again xii. 6), he commences with
an account of his earliest danger
and escape at Damascus (xi. 32,
33). What would have followed
next, it is impossible to say.
internip- The narrative is broken
tionofthe off almost as soon as

argumeut. -.i i • i

begun ; the ship has
foundered at sea; and only a
single plank has been washed
to shore. The shock may have
been from the reluctance, which
he still found insuperable, to
dwell in detail on his great
deeds. Or it may iiave been that
he was struck at this point, by
the thought *that the glory of
his weakness might be better
exhibited by pointing out its
direct connexion with the highest
privilege to which he had ever
been called. Or it may have
been that the description of his
great revelations, and of the
weakness connected with them,
was the chief topic on which he
meant to dwell ; but that he
had at first intended to give
the outward circumstances which
had led the way to them ; and
then, either finding this too
circuitous, or for some other
cause unknown, had changed his
plan, and gone at once into the
sabject of the revelations without

further introduction. However
this may be, as soon as he has
disentangled himself from the
confusion of the lost sentence,
he proceeds to the account of his
revelations, and thence of his
weakness (xii. 2-10) . This much
is necessary to be borne in mind,
in order to force a way over one
of the most disjointed sentences
ever written.

SI This asseveration (like
those which followed in xii. 2, 3,
6) applies to the whole narrative
which was intended to follow,
and which perhaps does in part
follow in xii. 1-10. For the dox-
ology, introduced by the solemn
feeling of the moment, compare
Rom. ix. "5, and i. 25.

6 wv is used so frequently in
LXX. and by Philo, as a trans-
lation for JEHOVAH, that the
phrase in this passage and Rom.
ix. 5, if not used precisely in that
sense, at any rate has reference
to it. Gomp. John i. 18, iii. 13,
vi. 46, viii. 47 ; Rev. i. 4, 8.

32 The fact here related was
(so far as we know) his Escape
earliest danger, at least ^^^^ ^^-

f, °. ' -r, mascus.

from conspiracy. It
takes place on his return from
Arabia to Damascus, shortly
after his conversion (Gal. i. 17),
and is described, nearly as here,
in Acts ix. 23, 24, 25, with the
difference only that what is there
ascribed to the Jews, is here
ascribed to the Ethnarch, who

HIS BOASTING EXCUSED.

535

crapyoivr) i)(oXdcrd'Y)v hid tov rei^ov^ kol €^e(f)vyoT^ rds

* r^y A. irSXiv. •* Add OeKuv.

city of the Damascenes with a garrison, to apprehend me, ^^and through

probably was acting at their in-
stigation. Aretas, chief of the
NalDathaean Arabs, had at this
time mnch influence,
Itlk^g: partly from his being
the father-in-law of
Herod Antipas, partly from the
commercial importance of his ca-
pital, Petra. Hence the extension
of his ' kingdom ' to Damascus.
(Couybeare and Howson, i. 88,
and Porter's Damascus, i. 102.)
It was an hereditary name, in
Arabic, Haret. (See Niebuhr's
Lectures, vol. iii. c. 91.) This
one was the third of the name.
Jos. Ant. XVI. ix. 4, XVII.
iii. 2. (Schottgen, ad loc) ' Eth-
narch ' was the title of an Orien-
tal provincial governor. (See 1
Mace. xiv. 47 ; Josephus passim ;
Heyne's treatise 'De Bthnarchia
Aretse,' 1755.)

€<f)povp€L, 'kept watch with a
garrison.' From Acts ix. 24, it
appears that all the gates were
watched.

TTtacrat, in later Greek, *to
arrest.'

$vpiBo<;, ' an aperture,' or 'little
door,' as in Acts xx. 9. In Josh,
ii. 15 ; 1 Sam. xix. 12, the same
expression (Siar^s OvpLOo^) is used
in the LXX. for the escape of the
spies from Jericho, and of David
from Saul. 8ta tov t€lxov<s, pro-
bably ' over the wall,'
i.e. from an overhang-
ing house, such as are still to
be seen on the walls of Damascus.
See the woodcut in Conybeare
and Howson, i. p. 110. There
is a spot still pointed out on

the eastern wall, itself modern,
as the scene of his escape. Close
by is a cavity in the ancient
burial-ground, where he is said,
in the local legends, to have
concealed himself; and the good
porter St. George, who was
martyred in farthering the es-
cape, is supposed to be buried
close by, and to his tomb are
brought all the coffins of Chris-
tians before their interment in
the neighbouring cemetery. It
is curious that in the present
traditions of Damascus the in-
cidents of this escape have almost
entirely eclipsed the story of his
conversion.

33 (rapydvrjj ' anything twist-
ed,* as a cord. ^sch. Supp.
781 ; so Suidas, ol fikv (T)(pivi6v
Tt, ol Se TrXiyfJLa tl e/c a-)(pivLO\i .
Comp. the Hebrew word Sarag,
' to weave.' Lycophron (748)
has the word Trpoo-rerapyavw/xen;!/.
On this the Scholiast says crv/xTre-
TrXiyfxeirqv' rj yap Trap* rjfjuv crap-
ydvrj,^ -^apk^ '^rrcKoh ^^^^^^^^^^
rapyavrf • Kai to crwet-
XrjarOai, TCTapyavCiiorOaL. (Wet-
stein.) Here probably the word
signifies a 'rope-basket.' In
Acts ix. 25, it is (nrvpL<s, ' a grain-
basket.'

Ta<; )(€Lpa^, 'his hands which
were stretched forth to catch me.*
Comp. Acts xii. 1, ' Herod
stretched /or^7i his hands to vex
the church.'

XII. I The variety of read
ings indicates the want of any
guide in the sense of various
the .'sentence, which is readings.

536

SECOND EPISTLE: CHAP. XII. 1—3.

^etpa? avTov. XII. ^^ Kav^crOai Sei, ov crvix(^ipov fxev,
c\eucro/xat Se /cat ets OTTTaaias koL a7roKakvxjjeL<; Kvpiov.
^olSa avOpoiTTov Iv ■)(pL(rTS irpo kroiv SeKareacrdpcov (etre

■ »caux«ff'0at Srj ov (rv/j.(pepei /jloi " iXivaofiai yap els,

a window in a basket was I let down by the wall and escaped his hands.
XII. ^I must boast ; it is not expedient for me, but I will come even to
visions and revelations of the Lord. '^I knew a man in Christ about

the transition from the broken
narrative of xi. 32, 33, to the
new narrative rising out of it
in xii. 2.

(1) Kavxaa-eat Set, B. D^. E. F.
G. J. Vulg. ; el Kavx- Set, ov (rvfi-
<f>€pov /xev, B. F. G. ; cXcvtro/xat 8e,
B. F. G. Ynlg. Copt. : 81 Kat, B.
Vulg. Copt. Latin Fathers.

(2) Kavxaa-OaL 8c, D». Slav.
Theoph. ; koI Sr] kuvx- Copt. Arm.
Greek Fathers ; ov crv/xtfiepei fioi,
J)\ E. J. K. Greek Fathers ; eXev-
o-o/xat yap, BK D^. E. J. K. Copt.
Arm. ^th. (A. and C. are defi-
cient).

In addition to the confusion of
the sense, there has also been the
confusion of sound between Set
and 8?), and between 8e and -Oai
(the last syllable of Kavxa-aOai),
according to the later Greek pro-
nunciation.

The first set of readings would
mean, 'I must boast; it is not
good for me ; but yet I am about
to do so.' The second would
mean, ' Now, to boast is not good
for me [but I must boast], for I
am about to do so ' (comp. xi. 5).
Both readings combined would
mean, ' I must boast ; it is not
expedient [but I must boast] for
I am going to do so.' In all
these three cases the words ex-
press the conflict in his own
mind between what he mtist do,
and what he thinks it becoming
to do. For something of the
same confusion, compare Phil.

iii. 1 : TO, avTo, ypd(f>eLv v/xtv, i/xol
fxkv ovK oKvrjpbvj v/juv 8k do-^aXcs,
where he means to say that, ' to
write the same things was in it-
self troublesome to him, but,
under the circumstances, was
not; becanse it was good for
them.'

The mention of his divine re-
velations is introduc- His divine
ed, first as a matter reveia-
on which he may justly
found a claim as an Apostle,
especially as against those who
claimed peculiar connexion with
Christ; secondly, in reference
to the ' weakness ' which fol-
lowed as a consequence on these
revelations.

OTTTacTLas KOL d7roKaAv;//€i?. ott-
Tttorta, — probably the more tangi-
ble 'visions,' — occurs .y-gj^^g,
no where else in St.
Paul, but is used in Luke i. 22,
xxiv. 23, for ' an apparition,' so
also in Dan. ix. 23, x. 1, 7, 8

(LXX.). d7r0KaAvi/^t9,in »Revela-

this especial sense of *^^°"^'
' spiritual penetration into Di-
vine secrets,' is used in 1 Cor.
xiv. 6, 26 ; Eph. i. 17, iii. 8 ;
Gal. i. 12, ii. 2; and in the name
and contents of the ' Apocalypse '
(Rev. i. 1).

Kvpiov, 'of the Lord' (He being
the author of thera).

2 otSa, 'I hioiv.' Possibly in
the sense of 'remembering,' as
in Acts xxiii. 5 ; 1 Cor. i. 16.

avOpu)Trov iv xpto'Tw. The most

HIS BOASTING EXCUSED.

537

€P crcjfJLaTL ovK oT8a, eire eKTo<; ^crwfxaTO^ ovk oTSa, 6 6eos
olSev) apnayevTa top tolovtov ecus Tpirov ovpavov.

' Add Tov.

/cat

fourteen years ago (whether in the body I know not, whether out of the
body I know not, God knoweth), such an one caught up to the third
heaven. ^And I knew such a man (whether in the body or out of the

general term to designate himself
in the third person, — ' a Chris-
tian,' * a man who lived and
moved in Christ as his being,'
possibly with an allusion to the
deeper consciousness of that
union produced by the ecstasy.

7rp6 cTwv S€KaT€(r(Tdp(i)v. As he
had begun his narrative in xi.32,

33, with one definite
years'ago!' ^^^^i SO also he begins

his new narrative in a
similar manner. This date could
not have been his conversion,
which was more than twenty
years before this ; it might pos-
sibly have been shortly after the
escape from Damascus, which, as
being about seventeen years be-
fore, may have been mentioned
in xi. 32, 33 as a prelude to this.
ctT€ iv o-wyaart. This comes in
as a parenthesis, and expresses

'In the *^® ^^SS ^^ self-con-

body or out sciousn ess to that de-
y- gree that he knew not
whether he were carried up into
heaven literally, or only in a
figure.

r}p7rda6r) is Attic, yp-n-oiyrj Ma-
cedonian Greek. For similar ex-
pressions, comp. Acts viii. 39,
7rv€VfJLa Kvpiov rjpiracr^v tov ^l-
XiTTTTov : and Rev. i. 10, lyevop^rjv
iv TTvevfJiaTL : xii. 5, rjpTrda-O-q to
TeKvov avrrjs tt/oos tov Oeov : 1
Thess. iv. 17, dp7ray7)cr6fx,eOa ....
€t? depa. Compare the Rabbini-
cal expression in Bava Mezia, 89 ;
' God stood in the academy of
heaven, with all His scholars in

great controversy ; and they said,
"Who shall be the judge?" And
they agreed that it should be
Rabbi Barnaham. In the same
hour his soul was caught up into
heaven, and his sentence con-
firmed the judgment of God.'
(Wetstein.) . '

TpiTov ovpavov. The sum of
Wetstein's quotations on the Rab-
binical conception of
the seven heavens is as Heave™^^
follows : 1. The veil
(compare Heb. vi. 19). 2. The
expanse. 3. The clouds. 4. The
dwelling-place {hahitaculum). 5.
The habitation (habitatio). 6.
The fixed seat. 7. Araboth. Or
(according to a slightly different
arrangement) : 1. The heaven.
2. The heaven of heavens. 3.
The expanse. 4. The clouds. 5.
The dwelling-place. 6. The fixed
seat. 7. Araboth. In 'the
clouds' are said to be the mill-
stones which ground the manna.
Before the Fall, God lived on
the earth ; at the sin of Adam,
He ascended into the first hea-
ven ; at the sin of Cain, into the
second; at the generation of
Enoch, into the third; at the
generation of the flood, into the
fourth; at the generation of
the confusion of tongues, into
the fifth; at the generation of
Sodom, into the sixth ; at the
generation of Egypt, into the
seventh. Then, at the rise of
Abraham, He descended to the
sixth; of Isaac, to the fifth; of

538

SECOND EPISTLE: CHAP. XII. 4—7.

oTSa Tov TOLOvTov av6po)7Tov (etre ev crcu/xart etre ^^wpl?
Tov crcofjuaTO^ 6 9eo<; olSev)^ ^ori rjpTrdyrj eU rov Trapd-
Setaop Kol rjKovcrev dpprjTa prjixara a ovk k^hv dvOpcoirco
Xakyjaai. ^vrrep tov toiovtov Kav^o-oixai^ virkp he

■ ^KThs TOV (rdfjLaros, oIk oTBa' 6.

body God knoweth), ^how that he was caught up into paradise and heard
unutterable utterances, which it is not lawful for a man to speak. ^For
such an one will I boast : yet for myself I will not boast, except in my

Jacob, to the fourth ; of Levi, to
the third ; of Kohath, to the se-
cond ; of Amram, to the first ;
of Moses, to the earth again.

It is possible that, in accord-
ance with this phraseology, the
Apostle may mean that he was
carried into the third heaven, i.e.
midway between earth and hea-
ven, into the region of the clouds
and air, as in 1 Thess. iv. 17
(€15 aepa) ; and then by a second,
and still loftier, flight into the
presence of God Himself, which
is spoken of, as in Rev. xxii. 1 ,
under the figure of a * paradise.*

But probably the Apostle's
words have no concern with this
elaborate system of the Rabbis.
There was a simpler view taken
by some of them, that there were
but two heavens, founded on the
passage in Deut. x. 14, which
speaks of ' the heaven ' and 'the
heaven of heavens ' (see Aboth
Nathan, 27, in Wetstein). By
these two heavens apparently
were meant the visible clouds and
the sky, possibly in connexion
with the dual form of the Hebrew
word ' shemaim.^ In that case,
the third heaven would be the in-
visible world beyond, in the pre-
sence of God, and not different
from, but identical with paradise,
as in Luke xxiii. 43. So St. John
is brought through a door in the
sky, into the presence of the
throne of God (Rev. iv. 1, 2) ;

and round that throne is the
' Eden ' — the Paradise or garden
of Heaven (Rev. xxii. 1).

The Apostle's rapture is al-
luded to in Philopatris, ascribed
to Lucian, c. 12 : ' When the
Galilaean met me, with his high
bald forehead (dvac^aXavrtas),
and high nose (cTrt/jptvo?), who
walked through the air (acpo-
jiaTr}(Ta<i) to the third heaven.

appijra prjixira' an oxymoron :
' words and no words.' < -^ords
The expression is taken that cannot

p ,1 n ,1 be spoken.'

from the secrecy oi the
Greek mysteries.

OVK k^ov avOpoiirio, ' Man cannot
speak them ; God may.* Com-
pare the expressions of those who
spoke with tongues, as if in a
language drawn from a higher
sphere, 1 Cor. xiv. 2.

5 el iLYj. ' Only in my weak-
nesses will I boast.' For ct firf
see 1 Cor. vii. 17. He will not
boast of himself, but only of his
visions when he could hardly be
said to be himself, and of his
weaknesses of which most would
be ashamed.

6 lav yap. Here a clause is
suppressed, as in xi. 5, and pos-
sibly xii. 1. * [And yet I could
boast reasonably ;] for if I were
desirous (OfX-qa-iii) to do so, I
should not really be foolish,
though I affected folly in doing
so before' (xi. 1, 16).

oXrjOuav. See note on xi. 31.

HIS BOASTING EXCUSED.

539

ejxavTOv ov Kav^rjcroyiai^ el firj kv raw aa-Oeveiai^;'' ^ (kav
yap Oektjcro) KavxwaaOaL, ovk eo-o/xat a^pwi^ • aXtjOeiau
yap epa>' ^eihoixai Se, fin] rts eU e/xe Xoyicnqrai virep o
/SXeneu fxe yj aKOvei^ e^ ifiov)'' '^fcat rfj v7rep/3o\rj Ta)v
OLTTOKaXvxIjecov, ^Slo Iva ixtj virepaLpcojJiai^ iSoOr) fioL

Add p.ov.

Here ends the hiatus from IV. 13-XII. 6. in MS. A.

*• Add Tt.
<! Om. ^i6.

weakness ^ (for if I should desire to boast, I shall not be a fool ; for I will
say the truth : but I spare you, lest any man should think of me above
that which he seeth me to be or heareth from me) and in the exceeding
greatness of my revelations. ' Wherefore also lest I should be exalted
above measure, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, an angel of

</>€t8o/Aat 8e firj rt?. ' I do not
dwell on wonders and ecstasies,
of which you cannot conceive.
I leave you to form your own
impression of me from what you
see and hear.' Comp. similar
deprecation of superstitious reve-
rence in 1 Cor. iv. 1-6.

8to is found in A. B. F. G. and,
if retained, necessitates Lach-
mann's punctuation ; verse 6 is
in a parenthesis, and kcu rfj virep-
^oXrj Tojv oLTroKaXvij/eoiv is joined
to iv rat? d(r^€V€tats. Such a
sudden dislocation can only be
explained by the confusion almost
always incident to his mention of
the word ' boast.' If with D. 8l6
is omitted, the sentence, though
still inverted, will run more
smoothly.

7 Kai, K.T.A.. ' And it was for
this very purpose, lest I should be
too much exalted (vTrcp aipw/xat
and V TT e p poXrj referring to vVep
o /SXe-rra in verse 6, ' Think not
of me with excessive reverence,
lest by the excess of my revela-
tions I should be excessively
exalted'), that there was given
me a thorn.'

For the sense of the whole,
compare Luke x. 20.

(TKoXoxj/ occurs nowhere else in
the N. Test. It is not ' a thorn,'

but ' something pointed,' gene-
rally ' a pointed stqke '
or 'palisade.' Hesy- S™i?
chius, ^\ov dy^vjxfxivov :
and again, 6p6a koI o^ea ^vA.a,
crravpoUf ;(apa/c€9 : and so Phavo-
rinus, in avacrKokom^o)' a- k 6X. o-
TT € s TO, o^ea ivXa. In
this sense it is used by fa'crots.'
the LXX. Numb, xxxiii.
55 ; Ezek. xxviii. 24, where it
is rather distinguished from
' thorns ' (d/caj/^at?) than identi-
fied with them (Hos. ii. 6). So
also Artemidorus, iii. 33, aKovOai
K at (7KoA.07rc9 dSwas orrjfxaLVOvaL
8 t a TO 6$v. And so in classi-
cal writers invariably.

It would seem, tl^.erefore, that
the metaphor is taken from im-
paling or cruci/yiyig ; and is thus
analogous to the expression, ' I
am crucified with Christ ' (Gal.
ii. 20). ava(rKoXo'irit,t)3 is explained
by Phavorinus and Hesychius as
equivalent to ava(XTavpit,o>, and
(TKoXo^ is thus equivalent to
a-Tavp6<: ('the cross,' ' the stake '),
which originally, as employed in
the classical writers, was used,
not for two transverse beams,
but simply for a 'palisade' or
' stake,' and thus Eustathius
describes it as identical with
(TKoXoij/. 'iSravpot, opOa kol clttoj-

540

SECOND EPISTLE: CHAP. XII. 8.

CFKoXoxjj TTj crapKLj ayyeXo9 ^orarava^ Iva fxe Ko\a(f)L^r)
Satan, that he may buffet me that I may not be exalted above measure.

^v/xfteva ivXa, — ol 8c avrot (tko-
AoTTcs XeyovraL.' For the details
of these words, see Lipsius, De
Crnce, i. 3, 4, 5, 6. In Lucian
(De Morte Peregrini 11), dva-
o-KoA-oTTt^w is used for the Cruci-
fixion of Christ ; and in Celsus,
(TKoXoij/ for arravpos (ii. p. 102 ;
Bee Suicer in voce %k6\o\(/).

Thus, as the words ' crucior,'
' cruciatus,' ' crux,' in Latin, are
taken from the agony of cruci-
fixion to express pain in general,
so (Travpos and ctkoXox^, the ' cross'
and the ' stake,' are used in the
Greek of the N. Test, (as in
Matth. xvi. 24, ' let him take up
his cross ') for suffering generally.
In classical Greek this could not
be, as crucifixion was not an or-
dinary Greek punislfment.

The difference between a-KoXoxj/
and (TTavpos, and the reason there-
fore for the more frequent occur-
rence of the former than the
latter, is that, whilst oravpos is
generally used for the punish-
ment of ' crucifixion,' a-KoXoif/ is
used for the less common, though
still frequent, punishment of
* impalement.' As, then, else-
where, in order to describe his
state of constant torture, the
Apostle draws his image from
crucifixion, so here he draws it
from impalement. Comp. (tko-
XoTres (stakes) iv to2<s 6<l>0aX/jLOL<s
Kol ^oXtSc5 (arrows) iv rats
TrXevpoL';, I^umb. xxxiii. 55.

T^ aapKL, ' for the flesh.' The
double dative is what is common
in classical Greek. One express-
ing the person, and the other
defining more accurately the
part of the person.

ayyeXos (rarava, ' an angel of
Satan,' not ' the angel
Satan,' because he is otsatan.'^
never so called in the
N. Test., nor yet simply the
* messenger ' of Satan, because
ayycXos, when used of the unseen
world, must always have the
sense of a spirit. For the gene-
ral use of the word ' angel,' to
denote a Divine work wrought
through natural agency, com-
pare ' the angel of the Lord,'
who smote Herod with sickness
(Acts xii. 23), or the first born
with the pestilence (Exod. xii.
23 ; Ps. Ixxviii. 49, 50). As 'an
angel of the Lord ' (ayyeXos kv-
ptov) is thus spoken of when the
object is to assist God's servants,
or punish His enemies (Acts v.
19, viii. 26, xii. 7, 23), so 'an
angel of Satan ' (ayyeAo? craTava)
is spoken of, where the object is
to torment God's servants. Thus
^ Satan ' tempts Judas (Luke
xxii. 3) and Ananias (Acts v. 8),
suggests bad thoughts (ICor. vii.
5), and produces disorders (Luke
xiii. 16). In this particular in-
stance, the word is probably in-
troduced, as in xi. 14, for the
sake of the allusion to Job i. 6,
where the LXX. has 6 Sid(3oXo<3,
but the Hebrew ' Satan ; ' and
where in like manner, though
Satan ' proposes,' God * disposes'
the event. Comp. Luke xxii. 81,
' Satan hath '-obtained his wish "
{i^rjTrjo-aTo) to sift you as wheat,
but 1 have prayed for thee that
thy faith fail not.' The word a-arav
in the LXX. is undeclined. In
the thirty-five places where it is
used in the N. Test., of which

HIS BOASTING EXCUSED.

541

[iva jJiTj vnepatpcofJiaL]. ^^[/cat] vnep tovtov rpls rov

» Omit Kal.
^And for this angel I thrice besought* the Lord, that he may depart from

• Or * exhorted.'

ten occur in St. Paul, it ia de-
clined.

Lva fi€ KoXa^t^T/- This is (not,
•To buffet 9-s might be expected,
™e.' from the word a-KoXoxf/,

to * prick ' or ' wound,' but) ' to
buffet,' or ' strike with the fist,'
as in the account of our Lord's
trial. Matt. xxvi. 67 ; Mark xiv.
65 ; 1 Pet. ii. 20. In this passage,
and 1 Cor. iv. 11, where it occurs
among the Apostle's hardships,
it is used in a general sense of
' maltreatment,' yet still pro-
bably with regard to its original
meaning, and hence applies not
to the 'stake' (o-acoAoi/^), but to
the ' angel ' (ayyeXos) ; comp.
Job ii. 5, 7, where Satan is
ordered to ' put forth his hand
and touch the bone and the
flesh,' and said to 'smite Job
with sore boils.' Compare, for a
similar metaphor, vTrwTrta^oi in
1 Cor. ix. 27, and for a similar
personification, that of Death
and Sin in Rom. v. 14, 21, and
1 Cor. XV. 55. The word is later
Greek, kovSvXlIo) being the ex-
pression in Attic Greek.

The subjunctive KoXa<f>Lt,y and
vTrepaipw/jiaL are used to express
the continuance of the trial.
' He came in order that [not
' he might,'' bat] he may buffet
me, and in order that [not ' I
might not be,' but] I may not
be exalted.' The figure may be
either : (1) the Angel of Satan,
like Death in 1 Cor. xv. 55,
armed with the impaling stake ;
or (2) the Apostle himself already
impaled or crucified, and thus
exposed to the taunts and buffets
of his adversary.

The order of the words would
naturally require o-koXoiJ/ and ay-
ycXo? to be taken in apposition
with each other : but the sense,
as given above, would be better
expressed, if it were iSoOrj a-KoXoif/
rrj (rapKi, ayyeXo<s aarava tva /x€
KoXacfiL^Y]. ' There was given to
me a stake in the flesh, in order
that an angel of Satan may buffet
me.* For similar inversions, see
note on 1 Cor. viii. 11, and in
this very verse, rrj virepfioX'^ twv
a7roKaXvi(/€(i)v .... tva fxrj VTrepat-
poifiai.

The words tva fxy) virepaipoifiai,
in their second occurrence, though
retained in B. are omitted in A.
D. E. F. G. Yulg., perhaps, how-
ever because they were thought
superfluous ; whereas the repeti-
tion may be intentional, to ex-
press as strongly as possible the
Apostle's belief in the end being
designed by Providence, as in
Job, chap. i.

8 The Apostle has described
this trial in the same strain as
his ineffable communion with
Christ ; his thoughts flow out
naturally from one into the other.
We now come to the ground of
his doing so. It was because he
had the Lord's assurance that in
his own weakness the power of
his master would be best shown
forth.

vVep rovTov, 'for him, that he
may depart from me ' (i.e. the
angel of Satan, as appears from
oLTroa-Tfj, which could apply pro-
perly only to a person or personi-
fication ; compare Acts v. 38,
xxii. 29).

Tov KvpLov, ' Christ,' as appears

542

SECOND EPISTLE: CHAP. XII. 9, 10.

KvpLov TrapeKoikeaa, tVa airocTTrj oltt i[Mov. ^ koL eiprjKeu
fioL 'ApKei (TOL T) x^tptg fJiov 7) yap *Svi^a/xts eV acrOeveia
rekeiraiy T^Stcrra ovv piaWov Kav^rjcropiai iu rats acrOe-
veCais jjiov, Iva i7TLcrKr)va)a"r} eir €/xe r) Swa/xt9 tov ^kttov.

» ^vvaiiis fiov. * TeAeiovj/Tat.

me. ®And He has said unto me, ' My grace is suflacient for thee : for
strength is made perfect in weakness.' Most gladly therefore will I rather

from Swa/xis tov -^lcttov, in
verse 9.

TrapiKaXccra, ' entreated.' This
is often applied to Christ in the
Gospels, and implies that per-
sonal communication which the
Apostle always presupposes in
his language concerning Him.
In Joseph. Ant. XIII. v. 8, it is
applied to God.

9 elprjKev /xoi. The perfect
tense indicates that this was the
constant reply, ' Thrice I be-
sought Him, and the consolation
of the reply still continued.'

'Ap/cet (TOL rj X'^P'-^ /^°^' ' t^^^
hast no need for more than my
favour.' 7j x^P'-'* ^^ i^'as used
equally for the favour or kind-
ness both of God and of Christ.
(See on 1 Cor. xv. 10.) For the
sense comp. John xxi. 22, ' If I
will that he tarry till I come,
what is that to thee ? ' In each
case, ' Be contented with the
assurance of my love and protec-
tion.'

7j yap SvvafXL? iv aaSevcta re-
XeiTai. ' For strength is per-
fected in weakness.' The omis-
sion of fJiov turns the answer
into a general truth, first, that
the strength of Christ Himself is
' made perfect in weakness,' not
in the weakness of the Apostle,
but, so to speak, in His own
weakness. (He was ' made per-
fect through sufferings,' Heb. ii.
10. ' Himself took our weak-
nesses ' (dor^€i/etag), Matt. viii.

17.) From this the Apostle
himself deduces the inference,
that strength would be made
perfect also in liis own weakness ;
that his ' cross ' or ' stake ' in
the flesh was merely an exempli-
fication of God's law in dealing
with His people. Comp. ' out of
weakness were made strong.'
(Heb. xi. 34.)

fxaXXov is to be taken (as its
position shows) with Kavx^cro/xaL,
' I will not complain, I will ra-
ther boast of my weaknesses.'

tva liTLCTKrjvuicrrj, ' that the
strength of Christ may rest upon
me,' ' take up its abode with
me.' Possibly in allusion to the
Shechinah, as ia-Kyvoio-ev in John
i. 14. For the image of the out-
pouring of Christ's strength on
His servants, comp. Luke viii.
46, ' I perceive that strength
(Swa/vtt?) is gone out from me.'

lo do-^cvetat?, ' weaknesses con-
sequent on troubles.'

virkp xpi-^Tov, * endured in the
service of Christ.' He refers to
all the preceding context.

orav yap acrOevcx). He refers
back to verses 8, 9, and thus
sums up the whole. Compare
Philo, Yit. Mos. vol. ii. p. 92, to
dcr^eves vjxiov 8wa/>it5 e'crrt (com-
paring the thorn of the Burning
Bush to the people of Israel).
Plin. Ep. vii. 26 : ' Nuper me
cujusdam amici languor admo-
nuit, optimos esse nos dum iti'
fir mi sumus.^

HIS BOASTING EXCUSED. 543

■ OLO evooKO} ep acrt/ei^etat?, €i/ vppecriv^ €v ai^ayAcat?, ev
Stwy/xols, iv (TTei^o^ajptatg, vrrep ^lq-tov. orav yap
dor6ev(o^ Tore Swaros €t/xt.

boast in my weaknesses, that the strength of Christ may rest upon me.
^® Therefore I take pleasure in weaknesses, in reproaches, in necessities,
in jiersecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak,
then am I strong.

Paraphrase of Chap. XI. 16— XII. 10.

I return once more to boast of myself . Think not that this folly
is natural to me, yet think even this rather than not hear my
self-defence ; and remember that I boast, 7iot in my own cha-
racter, and as Christ would have me speak, but as I am forced
in self-defence to speak on this particular occasion, and follow-
ing the example of the crowd of teachers who beset you ivith
boasts of this very kind.

And now that I have put off the character of an Apostle,
and taken the character of a fool, you surely ought, according
to your own practice^ to listen to me patiently. For wise as you
are, fools, nevertheless, seem to have greater influence with you
than tvise men. These fools, as fools indeed they are, enslave
you, plunder you^ make you their prey, tower over you, insult
you with blows on the face. These are the teachers to whom
you gladly submit yourselves ; and /, in comparison, am far
inferior, I can do none of these things, lam covered with
dishonour, and am broken down with weakness. Yet after all
{to speak seriously, though still speaking not as an Apostle, but
as afoot), whatever be their grounds of confidence, I have the
same ; precisely the same as regards their descent from God's
chosen people, far more as regards their service of Christ ; far
more, tlwugh in thus speaking of it you will think me, not merehj
a fool, but a madman. There is, indeed, no comparison ; I
need no longer speak of them ; I need only enumerate the hard-
ships, the weaknesses, if so you will call them, of my own life.
My labours have been beyond ordinary measure, my scourgings
beyond all bounds, my perils, even of death, numerous. Five
times I have been exposed to the severe punishment of the Jewish
flagellation, thrice to that of the Roman magistrates ; once I

544 SECOND EPISTLE.

was stoned, thrice I was shipwrecked, a whole night and day I
was in the sea, I have travelled far and wide ; have encoun-
tered all the perils of travel — the perils of swollen torrents,
of robbers and pirates, of Jewish enemies, of heathen mobs, in
the crowded city, in the lonely desert, on the stormy sea^from
false Christians. I passed through countless trials and txou-
hles, in sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, and days without
food again and again ; with cold and with scanty clothing.
And (not to go through all the points which I might name)
there is besides all this, the daily concourse of those who flock to
hear me, and the anxiety for all the congregations which I have
converted ; amongst whom, if there is any one weak, I too am
weak with him, and for his sake ; if any caught in a snare, I
am scorched in the flame of his temptation.

I have spoken of my weakness. Of my weakness then let
me boast, if I must still continue to boast. / drop all irony.
I speak the very truth itself, as Gody the Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, through all ages Blessed, well knoics. Let me
begin at the beginning. It was at Darriascus, under the govern-
ment of the Arabian chief Ar etas, that his vicerc/y guarded the
city to take me ; and in a rope basket I loas let down over the
side of the wall. — Here I find myself again on the verge of
continuing my boast; it is not becoming for me to do so, but I
must. — 1 shall speak of the visions and revelations of Divine
secrets which Christ has vouchsafed to me. I know a man who
lived in Christ fourteen years ago, — whether he was literally
carried up, or whether heaven was disclosed to him, I know not,
God only knows— but he was carried away beyond the region
of the clouds of earth, beyond the visible sky, into the invisible
heaven above ; and there, again, — whether literally or not, I
knoio not, God only knows — he was carried away into the
garden of the Lord, into the presence of God, and heard words
which were no human words, which man cannot speak, though
God may. Of this man, thus far removed from my own indi-
vidual consciousness, I will boast ; but of myself I will boast
only in my weakness. I might boast, if so I wished it, and
yet not be a fool ^ though before in irony I said that I should be ;
but I forbear lest you should regard me with superstitious reve-
rence beyond what you hear and see. Audit was for this very
purpose, lest I should be raised too high by the excess of the
revelations of which I have spoken, that there was planted in
my weak mortal frame a stake, as of impalement, on which I

THE APOSTLE'S SUFEEKINGS. 545

writhe like one crucified: an angel of the adversary teas sent to
smite me, like Job, ivhilstthus exposed before him ;for this verij
purpose, I say, lest I should be raised up too high. When this
pressed hard upon me, I have thrice entreated the Lord, that
my enemy may depart from me, and thrice He has answered to
me ' My loving favour suffices for thee ; for strength is per-
fected in iveaknessj* Most gladly, therefore, ivill I boast i?i
these my weaknesses, in order that the strength of Christ may
overshadow me. Therefore I take pleasure in weaknesses, in
insults, in necessities, in persecutions from my enemies, in dffi-
cutties of all kinds, for Chris fs sake ; for when I am most
weak, I know that I am most strong.

This section contains three points of great interest, both his-
torical and moral.

I. General sketches of his dangers and sufferings have been
given before in these Epistles; once in the First
(iv. 11-13), twice in this (iv. 7-10, vi. 4-10). '^tkroT'
But this is the only passage where he enumerates the Apo-
actual facts, and so enables us to compare it with the J^i^if„^"^'
narrative of the Acts, and to form a picture of his
life in detail from his own account. It must be remembered
that the point of time at which it was composed excludes all
the calamities recorded in Acts xx.-xxviii., and that therefore
we must add to these his escape from Corinth (Acts xx. 3), the
sorrow of his farev/ell visits (xx. 5-xxi. 14), his arrest at
Jerusalem (xxi. 32), his imprisonment at Caesarea (xxiv. 27),
his shipwreck (xxvii.), and his imprisonment at Rome (xxviii,
30). Two results follow from the study of it.

(1) It represents a life in the Western world hitherto with-
out precedent. Of Bouddah in the East we do not 10.^.
here speak. Self-devotion for some special national import-
cause had been often seen before ; the career of So- ^"^^'
crates was a lifelong service of humanity ; but a continual self-
devotion, involving hardships like those here described, and ex-
tending over so long a period, and in behalf of no local or family
interest, but for the interest of mankind at large, was, down
to this time, a thing unknown. The motive of the Apostle
may be explained in various ways, and the lives of missionaries

N N

546 SECOND EPISTLE.

and philanthropists may have equalled his in later times; but
the facts here recorded remain the same. Paul did all this,
and Paul was the first who did it.

(2) It is remarkable that, whilst there is nothing in this ac-
count which contradicts, yet the greater part of it
mat^on^f ^^^^ ^^^ bcyond, the narrative of the Acts. Of the
the truth particular facts alluded to, only two (the stoning
of the his- ^j^^ Qj^g Qf ^i^g Roman scourffing^s) are mentioned

torv, ~ o /

in that narrative ; and of the general facts, although
critical dangers are described as occurring from time to time,
w^e should hardly infer that the hardships were so protracted and
continuous as is indicated in this section of the Epistle. In
one point of view this is important as confirming the authority
of the Christian history, as has been well argued by Paley in
his Hora3 Paulinge. It shows that the biography of the Apostle,
unlike most biographies of heroes and saints (as that of Francis
Xavier), instead of overrating, underrates the difficulties and
sufferings which we learn from the Apostle himself; the ac-
curacy of the Apostle's own account being further guaranteed
by the extreme and apparently unfeigned reluctance with which
it is brought forward. On the other hand, it impresses us witli
a sense of the very imperfect and fragmentary character of the
history of the Acts, as a regular narrative, during that period
to which the Apostle's w^ords relate, namely, from Acts ix. 1,
to XX. 2. This consideration gives a double value to this de-
tailed aspect of the Apostle's life, which, but for the goading
provocations of his opponents, would (humanly speaking) have
been altogether lost to us.

II. What his description of his outward sufferings, xi. 23-

28, is to the general history of his outward life, the

i^ription description of his vision (xii. 2-10) is to his inward

of the life. It throws light on similar ecstasies recorded in

Apostle's ^^Yier parts of theN. Test. : as of Peter, in Acts x.

vision. * . ,, .

10 ; of Philip, in Acts viii. 39 ; and especially of John,
in the Apocalypse (i. 10, iv. 1, &c.); ' the dreams and visions,'
alluded to as signs of the spirit in Acts ii. 16 ; and the speakii:g
with tongues, in 1 Cor. xiv. 2. The details may be different,
but this description contains their common characteristics ; the
loss of self-consciousness, the sense of being hurried into a
higher sphere, — and the partial and mysterious glimpses of the
invisible world. And it illustrates especially the ecstatic state
in which he himself largely partook, as appears from the at-

THE APOSTLE'S SUFFERINGS. 547

tacks of his enemies, still preserved in the Clementines (Horn,
xvi. 19), where Peter is introduced as rebuking Paul (under
the name of Simon Magus) for pretending to revelations
througli visions and dreams. (See Introd. pp. 352—3.) Com-
pare also the facts stated Acts ix. 12, xxii. 17, and his ex-
pression in 1 Cor. xiv. 18, that * he spoke with tongues more
than they all.'

And further, the strong line of demarcation which he has
drawn between this ecstasy and his ordinary state, is

. . 1 11 . n 1 Illustra-

a warrant to us that he does not needlessly con- tive of the
found things human and Divine, things earthly and Apostle's
things spiritual. What he does say gives us a pic-
ture, at least conceivable, of the mode in which he may have
received his ' revelations from the Lord'(l Cor. xi. 23, xv. 3 ;
Gal. i. 12, 16). What he does not say — the silence respecting
the words that cannot be uttered — furnishes a remarkablecon-
trast to the elaborate description given by Mahomet, of his
nocturnal journey to Jerusalem and to paradise. (Sprenger's
Life of Mahomet, parti. 126, 136.)

III. The descri]3tion of his trial of the 'thorn in the flesh '
has two interests quite independent of each other.
The first is purely antiquarian and historical. What ^^ J®^
was the trial of which the Apostle speaks, in this of the
passage and in Gal. iv. 13, 14 ? theTsh"

This is one of the questions of which there are
several in the N.T. where the obscurity for us is occasioned by
the very fact that it was plain to contemporaries. Such are
1 Cor. xi. 10, XV. 29 ; 2 Thess. ii. 6 ; Rev. xiii. 18. The
various conjectures respecting it, some curious only as theo-
logical fancies, some as containing more or less approximation
to probability, may be divided into three classes.

(1) Spiritual Trials.

(«) Sensual temptations. Possibly Augustine (Concio ii. ad
Ps. 58), Jerome (Ep. ad Eustoch. de Cust. Yiror.;

1 -rx 1 -XT' o 1 -r» • 1 ^T^ ^'- Sensual

ad Demetr. de Virg. Serv. c. 6 ; ad Kustic. de Viv. impres-
Foniia, c. 3),andTheophylact(adloc.). But of these, *^^^n«-
the passages in the two former are ambiguous, and in Theo-
phylact the reading is doubtful. This interpretation, therefore,
first set in with the monks of the sixth and seventh centuries,
Salvian (De Circumcis.) andBede (inHom. Dom. 5) ; and has
since been the favourite view of Roman Cotholic theologians.
(See Estius ad loc.) The words ' for the flesh ' would admit of

K k2

548 SECOND EPISTLE.

it, but the rest of the description is in a strain of exultation
(xii. 9) different from what the mention of such a temptation
would lead us to expect ; and there is little, if anything, else
in the Apostle's life or writings which could countenance it.
1 Cor. ix. 27, ' I keep my body under,' has no reference to
sins of sensuality, and Rom. vii. 23, Hhe law of sin in my
members,' is a general expression, not applying to any pecu-
liarities of the Apostle himself. 2 Cor. vii. 2, and 1 Thess. ii. 3,
may imply that such an insinuation had then been made against
him, but contain nothing which can be brought to bear on this
passage. The Apostle's own description of his character is
almost decisive against such a supposition. 1 Cor. vii. 7-9,
'I would that all men were even as myself [i.e. without
temptations to incontinency]. ' It is good for the unmarried
to abide, even as I ; but if they cannot contain, let them
marry: it is better yafjurja-aL tj irvpovaOau.^ And, although
the examples of Jerome, Antony, Augustine, and Luther,
prove the compatibility of such trials with great piety and
energy of character, yet one is inclined to agree with Lu-
ther, ' Ah no ! dear Paul, it was no such trial which afflicted
thee.'

{h) Temptations to unbelief; or torments of conscience about
his past life. So thought, not unnaturally from their posi-
h. Tor- ^ion, the old Protestants, as Gersou, Luther, Cal-
ments of yin, Mosheim, Osiander. But ao-ainst this is the
of^con-^ °^ external character of the trial indicated by all the
science. expressions (' the thorn,' * the flesh,' ' to buffet '), and
the absence of any indications of such thoughts in the rest
of the Apostle's writings.

(2) External calamities.

(«) His Judaizing opponents (so Chrysostom and the Greek
fathers generally), alluding especially to the indi-
izingoppo- vidual leader so often pointed at (see note on x. 7),
nents. g^jj^ confirmed by the use of the phrase ^ ministers

of Satan,' in xi. 14. But here, again, the expression 'in the
flesh ' is too closely personal, and ' the thorn ' and ' buffeting '
too definite.

(J)) His afflictions and persecutions. This is confirmed by
h. Afflic- ^^ ^^® ^^ ' weakness ' in verse 9, and by the ex-
tions. press reference under that name to his distresses, in

10. But against it is the definite and isolated character of the
trial, and also the improbability of the Apostle's earnest desire

THE THORN IN THE FLESH. 549

to be delivered from what was an almost inseparable accom-
paniment of his mission.

(3) Some bodily ailment. Almost every disorder has been
suggested. Pleurisy, the stone (Aquinas), epilepsy c. Bodily
(Ziegler), weakness of eyesight (suggested by a ailment.
comparison of Acts ix. 9, xxiii. 5 ; Gal. iv. 15, vi. 11), de-
fect of utterance (suggested by x. 10), lice in the head (Co-
telier, Mon. Eccl. i. p. 352), hypochondria, headache, earache
(Jerome, Chrysostom, CEcumenius, Tertullian). The suppo-
sition that it was a pain in the head has the advantage of a
distinct support from tradition. Jerome says (ad Gal. iv. 13),
' Tradunt eum gravissimum capitis dolorem saspe perpessum ; '
Tertullian (De Pudic. cap. 12), ^ Per dolorem, ut amnt, au-
riculae vel capitis.' Dismissing, however, any of those special
conjectures, the probability is in favour of some general ail-
ment, which would answer the force of the words, and which,
if it were ^ in any way occasioned by his sufferings or by his
natural temperament, would agree with verses 9, 1 0, and, if it
affected his outward appearance, would agree with x. 10 ; 1 Cor.
ii/ 3. The expressions in Gal. iv. 14, ovk s^ovOsvrjcrars (comp.
e^ovdevTjjjbsvos, in x. 10), ovhs s^sirTvaaTS, could.hardly be used
except of something apparent to the eye. i Nor would it be
below the dignity of the Apostle's character to ascribe such a
trial to Satan. In 1 Cor. v. 5 (' delivering to Satan for the
destruction of the flesh '), he couples together the words ' flesh '
and ' Satan ' as here, evidently implying some bodily evil. Nor
would it be inconsistent with his great character to feel keenly
his struggle against such a difficulty. The frequent allusions
to his hardships, his partings, and his anxieties (see iv. 10-12,
xi. 27), indicate, as has been already observed,|an extreme sus-
ceptibility of temperament ; and it might be inferred, from
i. 8-10, iv. 12, that he had but just recovered from an attack
either of sickness or anxiety, which had brought him to the
verge of the grave. Instances in later history illustrate both
the severity of such a trial, and perseverance under it : Alfred,
with his cancer — William of Orange, with his fragile frame —
contending against the constant demands of active life.

But, secondly, whatever may have been the pe- ^^r ^

r A. r .1 .11 . ^ IV. Con-

culiar nature of the trial, the permanent interest soiation of '
resides in the consolation to which it gave occasion. ^^® ^'^P^"

( 1 ) There can be no doubt that the Apostle repre-
sents himself as constantly troubled with some humiliatino*

550 SECOND EPISTLE.

affliction, which marred his usefulness and broke his spirit.
1. His ^V'e learn from it to regard him, not as a man sus-
weakness. tained by a naturally indomitable strength of mind
and body, but as a man doing what he did by an habitual
struggle against his constitutional weakness. The other Apo-
stles were depressed by their humble station and illiterate
character ; he was dogged by the * thorn in the flesh ' and the
* weakness of his bodily presence.'

Under this weakness he received an adequate support. In
^^ „ what mode indeed, this intercourse (if one may say

Divine so) with our Lord took place, we cannot tell. But
revelation. ^}^jg (Jn-ect account of such a communication from
the Apostle himself illustrates all the less direct or less au-
thentic allusions to similar communications elsewhere. ' The
Lord ' is still with him, the personal Lord, Jesus Christ, whom
he had seen on the road to Damascus. He ^ entreats ' Him
(TrapsKaXscra) as one still present ; and the answer is returned,
as in the moment of his conversion (Acts ix. 5), through arti-
culate words. And those words exactly express that union of the
Divine and human, of the ' grace ' or ' favour ' as of God, with
the ' weakness ' as of man, which is the characteristic pecu-
liarity of the representation of Christ in the New Testament.
This revelation is received by the Apostle as an abundant con-
solation, not only for the particular trial to which it referred,
but for all ' the weaknesses, insults, necessities, persecutions,
and afflictions,' to which he was exposed. If Christ was satisfied
he was satisfied ; if Christ's strength became his strength
through his weakness, then in his weakness he was strong.

(2) The case of the Apostle is an undoubted instance of' the
effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man ' not ' avail-
stance of a i"o ' ^'^^ ^^^® object desired ; in other words it teaches
prayer not us that the precept of our Lord, ' Ask, and it shall be
grante . g^yen you,' must not be understood as promising a
direct answer to every prayer, but as expressing the certainty,
that He who knows our infirmities before we ask, and our
ignorance in asking, will, in the end, supply our needs with
all that we require, although not with all that we desire, or
think that we require. The Apostle prayed not for wealth, or
honour, or wisdom, but simply that a great impediment to his
usefulness might be removed ; and even this was not granted.
And, in like manner, a greater than the Apostle had ' offered
up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears.

THE THOEN IN THE FLESH. 551

earnestly, and in an agony, and the sweat, as it were great
drops of blood, falling down to the ground, saying, " Father, if
it be possible, let this cup pass from me" ' (Heb. v. 7 ; Luke
xxii. 44 ; Matt. xxvi. 39) ; and yet the cup was not removed,
nor the prayer granted. There are other passages in the
N. Test, which indicate the same truth, but these are suffi-
cient. If the prayer of Paul, and the prayer of Christ, were
refused, none need complain or be perplexed.

But also this passage shows us how, whilst in the literal
sense prayer may be unavailing, in a higher sense it « ^ ^g,
is heard and granted. Although the trial remained, ment of
yet the Apostle was convinced that he had been P^J^r-
heard. How, we know not ; but in the solitude and suffering
of that hour, the gracious words were borne in upon his soul,
which, even irrespective of their special import, were sufficient
to convince him that he was cared for, that he was loved by
Him whom he had entreated. And, in like manner, in that
more awful agony, of the * sorrow exceeding sorrowful even
unto death,' although no words of assurance are recorded, and
although the darkness and desolation still remained unremoved,
yet we are told in language which it would be useless to
criticise or analyse minutely, that ' there appeared an angel
unto him from heaven strengthening him '(Luke xxii. 43).
So also, with others, even if there be no direct assurance of
comfort, no visible answer to prayer, no certain consciousness
of Divine love and tenderness, yet the examples of our Lord
and His Apostle may serve to sustain us. We may believe^
though we see and feel nothing, that there is a heavenly mes-
senger at hand to strengthen us. We are heard like Him, ' in
that we feared'' (Heb. v. 7). The answer that was returned in
distinct words to the Apostle, * My grace is sufficient for
thee,' is still returned unto us, although we hear it not.

Lastly, in the actual words of the answer to the Apostle,
and in his acceptance of it, a distinct principle is
announced of universal significance. ' Strength is madrper-
made perfect in weakness,' ' When I am weak, then feet in
I am strong,' are expressions which have now passed ^^^^"®^^-
almost into the proverbial language of mankind. It was true
in the highest sense, of Him that uttered it, that ^ His strength
was made perfect in the weakness of His sufferings.' The
Cross of Christ is, indeed, the strength of Christianity. It was
true, also, though not in the highest sense, yet still in a sense

552 SECOND EPISTLE.

SO great as to be a lesson and example to all the world, that His
strength was perfected in the weakness of the Apostles, above
all, of St. Paul. ' I thank Thee, O Father, that Thou hast
concealed these things from the wise and prudent, and hast re-
vealed them unto babes.' Who can say how much of the
purity and simplicity, and therefore universal strength of the
first teaching of the Gospel, we owe (humanly speaking) to the
humble station and uneducated character of the first Apostles,
which thus received, at once, and without perversion or intrusion
of alien thoughts, the original impression of the Word made flesh?
Who can say how great would have been the loss to the world
had the Gospel originated, not in the weakness of Palestine and
Galilee, but in the learning of Alexandria or the strength of
Kome ? And, again, in St. Paul himself, it might have seemed
at the time to all, as it did on this occasion seem to him, that
the cause of the Gospel would have been better served, had he
been relieved from his infirmity and gone forth to preach and
teach with unbroken vigour of body and mind, his bodily pre-
sence strong, his speech mighty and powerful. But history
has answered the question otherwise, and has ratified the
Divine answer, in which the Apostle acquiesced. What the
Apostle lost for himself, and what Christianity lost for the
moment, has been more than compensated by the acknowledg-
ment that he was beyond doubt proved to be, not the inventor
of Christianity, but its devoted and humble propagator. In
his own weakness lies the strength of the cause. When he was
weakest as a teacher of the present, he was strongest as an
Apostle of the future. And what his trial was to him and
to the world on a large scale, that the trial of each individual
Christian may have been ever since, the means in ways incon-
ceivable to him now, of making himself and others strong in
the service of God and of man.

WAKNINGS AND SALUTATIONS.

553

Final Warnings and Salutations.

Fey ova acjypcov^' vfiels f^e rjvayKao-are.

co(f)€L\ov vcf) vfJLCov avvicTTaaOaL' ovSev yap

Tuiv vTrepXCav aTroaToXov, el Kal ovSev elp^i,

• Add Kavx(*>l^^vos.

eyco yap

vcTTeprjaa

^^ra p.ep

" I have become a fool ; ye compelled me. For I ought to have been
commended by you : for in nothing was I behind the very chiefest
apostles, though I am nothing. ^^ Truly the signs of the apostle were

The long burst of passionate
self- vindication has now at last
^ , expended itself, and he

fromdi- retums to the point
gression. ^^^^ whence he diverg-
ed at X. 7, where he was assert-
ing his intention to repress the
disobedience of those who still
resisted his authority at Corinth.
Before, however, he enters again
upon this, he looks back over the
long digression ; and resumes
here and there a thought which
needed explanation or expan-
sion. Hence, although this con-
cluding section stands apart from
the interruption of x. 10-xii.
10, and is truly the winding up
of the main argument begun in
X. 1-7, it is filled with traces
of the torrent which has passed
through his mind in the inter-
val. His ' folly ' (xi. 1-10), the
^ commendatory ' epistles (iii. 1,
V. 12), the ' Apostolical ' preten-
sions of his opponents (xi. 12,
13) are resumed inverse 11 ; his
miracles and sufferings (xi. 23-
28) in verse 12 ; the question of
self-support (xi. 12) in verses 13
-18; the strength and weakness
united in Christ (xii. 9) in xiii.
3, 4, 9. ^

1 1 yeyova a<f>pu)v. ' I have

heen a fool.' This is the ex-
pression of the Apostle's first
feeling on looking, back at what
he has said. That one word
' fool,' already used so often (see
note on xi. 1), sums it all up.

v//,€ts fi€. rjvayKao-aTe. ' It was
not my doing, but yours [for you
ought to have saved me the task
of commending myself]/

This clause implied, but not
expressed, furnishes the ground
for the next sentence, cyw yap :
' for I ought to have been com-
mended by you ; ' v/xcov being as
emphatic as iyw. ' It was your
business not mine.'' For the
feeling of looking for the attes-
tation of his Apostleship to the
Corinthians themselves, compare
iii. 1, 2 ; and 1 Cor. ix. 1, 2.

ov^ev yap v(TTtpr](Ta. ' I, and
not they, should have been com-
mended ; for I showed myself
equal to them ; ' see note on xi.
5. ov^iv dixi. Compare 1 Cor.
XV. 8-10.

12 This is the proof of his
Apostleship, brought forward for
a moment, but not carried out.
ixiv must refer to some antithesis
which is omitted. The first
<Tr)fX€ta is used for ' proofs ' or
' signs ' generally, the second

554

SECOND EPISTLE: CHAP. XII. 13—16.

<T7^/x€ta Tov dTrocrToXov KaTeipydcrOrj ip vfiiv iv irdo-jj
vTTOfJiovri, (TiqixeiOL^ Kai repaaiv /cat ovvaix^cnv. ^^ri
yap icTTLV o ^rjo-craiOrjTe virep ra? XotTras iKKkyjaLas, et
fJLT) OTL avTo<; iyo) ov KarevdpKrja-a vficov ; ^apicracrOe fiOL
Trjv dSiKiav TavTTjv. ^^iSou jpirov '^rovro kroiiio^ e^a>

» Add eV.

* ^TT^^TJTe.

Om.

wrought among you in all endurance, in signs and wonders and mighty
deeds. ^^For what is it wherein you were inferior to the other churches,
except it be that I myself was not chargeable to you % forgive me this
wrong. ^^ Behold, this is the third time I am ready to come to you, and

(ny/xctots more especially for ' mi-
raculous signs,' as in Rom. xv.
19, Heb. ii. 4, and in the Acts
and Gospels. repacnv^ ' won-
ders,' is used here, and often in
the Acts, of the Apostolic mi-
racles ; but never (except in
John iv. 48 ; Acts ii. 22) of the
miracles of Christ. Swdfiea-Lv,
' mighty miracles,' as in 1 Cor.
ii. 4, xii. 10, 28. The three
words occur together in Rom.
XV. 19 ; Heb. ii. 4. viroixovf} re-
fers to his hardships. The pas-
ciaimof ^^S^ ^^ remarkable as
miraculous containing (what is rare
powers. .^ ^^^ history of mi-
racles) a direct claim to mira-
culous powers by the person to
whom they Avere ascribed. Comp.
1 Cor. ii. 4, and Rom. xv. 19.

TOV SlttocttoXov. ' Of him who
is invested with the Apostolical
mission ; ' as, in English, 'of the
Apostle ; ' meaning, not any
special individual, but the ideal
of the office. KareLpyda-Or], ' were
wrought,' i.e. speaking of him-
self only as an instrument.

13 TL yap icTTLV o rjcrcr(x)6r]T€.
' The proofs of my Apostles hip
were sufficient for you; for there
was nothing wanted to complete
them.'

VTrep ras AotTTu,? eKKXyjacas, ' be-
yond the other Churches to which

I have preached.' At this point
he is reminded of the objection
noticed in xi. 7, viz. that his not
receiving maintenance from them
was a proof, either of his want of
power to exact it, or of his want
of affection for them. ' When I
speak of your having every proof
of my power and my affection
for you, I remember that there
is one point in which you may
consider yourselves aggrieved.'

avTos cyoj. ' The only point
of which you can complain, is
that I, in my own person, have
refused support ; your complaint
does not apply even to my com-
panions ; they have received sup-
port.' See note on xii. 18.

KarevdpKrjaa. See note on xi. 9.

-^apia-acrOi /xot t-^v dStKtav rav~
rrjy. Ironical, like xi. 7 : ' did I
commit an offence (d/xaprtW cTrot-
rjaa) in abasing myself, that ye
might be exalted ? '

14 iSov rpirov tovto, ' look at
the proof of my love. This is
the third time that I am ready
to travel to you. Once I have
been actually ' (i.e. on his first
visit in Acts xviii. 1) ; ' a second
time I intended to come ' (i.e.
according to the plan mentioned
in i. 15, 16), ' the third time, on
the present occasion, I am now
re

WAKNINGS AND SALUTATIONS.

555

i\6eiv Trpos vfJiOLs, /cat ov KaravapKrjcroi^ ' ov yap ^tjtco tol
vp.<x)Vy oXka u/xa?* ov yap o^eiXei tol reKva Tol<; yovevcnv
6'q(Tavpit,€.iv^ dXX.' ol yovei^ rols reKVOL^. ^^iyco Be rjScaTa
Sairavijcrct) /cat iKSaTravrjOyjo-ofJiaL vnep tcov ^v^cov vfxcov,
"^ TTepicTcrorepoi^ v/xa? ayaircov ^rjcrcrov ayairoiixaL.
^^^EcTTO) Se, iyoj ov Kare^dpy^cra u/ia?* aWa VTrdp^oiv

■ Add vfiSiv.

" Add Kal.

I will not be chargeable : for I seek not yours, but you : for the children
ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children.
^^And J. will very gladly spend and be spent for your souls, if the more
abundantly I love you the less I be loved.

*^But be it so, I did not burden you : nevertheless being crafty I

Kttt ov KaravapKi^a-o), ' I am
coming ; and, when I come, I
shall still follow the same prac-
tice of not being burdensome.'
The two tenses Karevap/cr/o-a and
KaravapKT^cTu) are opposed to each
other.

ov yap tpfjTOi Ta v/awv ctAAa v/xa?,
' if I love yon, it must be your-
selves, and not your money that
I seek.' Comp. Aristotle's de-
finition of Affection (</>tXta),
Ethics, viii. 3.

ov yap oc^etXct, ' and this is my
duty, for I am in the place of a
parent to you ; and parents are
bound to provide for the wants
of the children, not children for
their parents.' Comp. 1 Cor. iv.
14, 15 : 'As my beloved sons I
warn you ... ye have not many
fathers, for . . . J have begotten
you.' 2 Cor. xi. 2 : '1 have
espoused you to one husband.'

15 cyo) 8e ySicTTa, but I will
do even more than parents. I
will both spend and be myself
squandered in your be-
half.' €K^a7rav7)0rj(roixaL
is a climax, both as
being in the passive, and also as
expressing more strongly by ck
the entire consumption of his
powers for their sakes.

Brjarofiai..

1 6 "EoTw 8c, at enim, * but,
you may say, let it be
so. You errant me so Guardng

& , ., , against

much — you grant that suspicion.
Jin my own person was
no burden to you ; but, inasmuch
as I am of a crafty character, I
caught you by stratagem.' The
whole sentence is an objection
attributed by the Apostle to the
Corinthians. They might, he
supposes, suspect that whilst he
abstained from collecting money
from them himself he availed
himself of the collection made
for the Jewish Christians by
Titus. To guard against a sus-
picion of this kind he had ' sent
two, instead of one, for that con-
tribution' (viii. 20, 21). vTrdpxoiv
here, as in viii. 17 ; 1 Cor. xi. 7,
expresses the habitual state or
condition of the person, and is
therefore equivalent to the Latin
quippe qui essem, * inasmuch as
r was.'

7ravovpyo9, ' cunning,' as ira-
vovpyca, in xi. 3, iv. 2 ; 1 Cor.
iii. 19.

17, 18 ' Surely there was no
one whom I have sent, by whom
I made a gain of you ? ' The
Apostle indignantly repels the
suspicion, and so abruptly that

556

SECOND EPISTLE: CHAP. XII. 17—20.

Travovpyos SdXw vfJLOL<s iXafiov. ^^ ^tj riva ojv dirdaTokKa
TTpos v/xa5, St' avTOv iirXeoveKTyjcra Vfxaq ; ^^ irapeKoiXecra
Tltov, Kal crvvaTreo-Teika rov dSeX^oi^* ixtj tl iirXeoveKTr)-
aeu vfjiOLs Titos ; ov toj avTco TTvevfJiaTL TTepLeTraTTJa-afjLev ;

OV Tols aVTols i^CCFLV ;

^'-^^UakaL SoK€LT€ OTL VfJiLV ^ aTTokoyovpL^Oa* "^KarivavTL

* irdXiv. *> airoXoyoiififQa ;

Karevumoif rov.

caught you with guile. "Did I defraud you by any of them whom I have
sent unto you? ^^I exhorted Titus, and with him I sent the brother :
did Titus defraud you ? walked we not in the same spirit ? in the same
steps ?

^^Long ago ye think that we excuse ourselves unto you : before God

hardly a clause is complete. The
sentence is a mixture of two con-
structions : /xr] Sid Ttvos ov aTrc-
(TTaXKa, i7rX€0V€KTr)(Ta, and /i,^ rtva
S)V aTrecrraAKa, dTrearctXa els to
TrXeovcKreiv v/xas.

1 8 -TrapeKoAeo-a Ttrov, ' I ex-
horted ' or ' charged Titus to go
on the mission of making the
contribution.' The same word
is used in describing these trans-
actions in viii. 6, 17 ; 1 Cor. xvi.
12.

(Tvva7re<rT€LXa rov dSeXcfiOV. ' I
sent with him the brother whom
yon know, with the view of pre-
venting this suspicion : ' see viii.
18, 19. The Syriac has 'the
brethren,' which would refer to
both the brethren mentioned in
viii. 18-21.

fjiij TL i-TrXeoveKTrja-ev vfxds TtVo? ;
' surely Titus made no gain of
you?'^

ov T(3 avT(3 TTViVfiarL TrepuirarT]-
aafxev ; ov rot? avrois t^vea-LV ;
'Did not we (i.e. Paul, Titus,
and the brother) walk in the
same spirit, and in the same foot-
steps ? ' To identify Titus with
himself he changes the person,
and, where we should have ex-
pected TrepiiTrdrrjae, has TrepieTra-
rycrafxev.

Here, as in v. 7, he follows out
the precise meaning of
TTcptTrarctv ; and there- "^''ej**
fore, though in the first
clause it is taken in its general
sense, where the metaphor is al-
most lost, ' walk by the same
spirit ' (as in Acts ix. 31, xxi.
21), in the second clause the me-
taphor is preserved : ' walk,' or
'tread,' ' in the same footmarks.'
Lxyeo-L is so used with o-rotxctv
in Rom. iv. 12, and with iiraKo-
XovOetv, in 1 Pet. ii. 21 ; they
walked both m tJie spirit and i^i
the footsteps of Christ.

For the phrase, comp. Philo,
TTcpt ^iXavOp., p. 385 ; Tots avrots
I'^eaiv €7raKoXov6rj(Tai.

19 The main subject of this
part of his Epistle, his Apostolic
authority, which he had begun
in x. 1-9, resumed in xii. 11,
12, interrupted by the parenthe-
sis in xii. 13-18, he now finally
resumes.

Instead of ttoXlv (' a second
time') in D. E. J. K., is to be
read TroAat ('for a ndKivand
long time ') with A. 'ra'Aau
B. F. G. Both would make
sense. If ttolXlv be correct, it
would refer back to the former
places in this Epistle (iii. 1,

WARNINGS AND SALUTATIONS.

557

Oeov iv XP^^'^V ^oi^ovfjiev, to Be Trdvra, ayaTrr/rot, vnep
TTJs viJ^oyv oIkoSoijl7J<;. ^^ (j)ofioviJLaL yap [mt] ttcos iXOcov

in Christ we speak, but all things, beloved, for your edifying. "<^For I

ap^ofJiiOa TrdXtv iavTOvq crvvL(rTav :
V. 12, TrdXiv . . . (rvviarrdvoixev) .
But probably the reading of
ttolXlv here was suggested by
the occurrence of the word
there. TraXat refers to the mis-
apprehension which might exist
as to the apologetic tone (dTroXo-
yovfJLeOa) which does, in fact,
pervade the whole Epistle. In
this case, a full stop at olttoXo-
yovixcOa, as in the Text, is better
than a question.

The word, as a verb, is used
in his Epistles besides, only in
Rom. ii. 15 ; but the substantive
(dTToAoyia) occurs in the same
sense in 1 Cor. ix. 3, ' this is my
defence to them that question
me.' ' Not once or twice only,
but through the whole course of
the Epistle, you are thinking
that we are employed in defend-
ing ourselves.'

The next clause shows that
vixtv is emphatic, as might be
inferred from its position before
oLTroXoyovficOa. ' Do you think
that it is before you that I make
my defence ? No : it is in the
presence of God, in the spirit of
Christ that I speak.' This pas-
sage presents an exception to
the general object of the Epistle,
in which he represents himself
and the Corinthians as on equal
terms. Here we have an indica-
tion of the same independence of
character as appears in his con-
duct at Philippi (Acts xvi. 37),
and at Jerusalem (xxii. 25), with
regard to the Roman magistrates.
In the First Epistle, compare iv.
3, 'with me it is a very small

thing that I should be judged of
you.'

For the expression KarivavTL
Oeov iv ;!^torTa), see note on ii. 17.
He now gives the same reason
for his apologetic tone that he
had given by implication in iii.
1, and expressly in v. 12, ' we
commend not ourselves again to
you, but give yon occasion to
glory on our behalf, that ye may
have someiohat to ansiuer those
who glory in appearancje, and not
in heart.' So here the sense is,
I ' 1 am not defending myself, but
I all that I do is for your building
; up.* In the word dya7n;roi, ' be-
loved,' which he has only used
once before (vii. 1), we seem to
see the sudden return of affec-
I tionate warmth, which in the
sterner tone of the first part of
the sentence he had for a moment
relinquished. In the expression
olKoBofjirj^ (' building up '), there
is a return to the general train
! of thouorht in x. 1-7.

2o He goes on to give more
j precisely his reasons for this self-
: defence. ' I defend myself, lest
I you should fall a prey to my op-
' ponents.' What follows strongly
j confirms what was said on x. 1,
I that an interval must have elapsed
I between the writing of this last
! portion of the Epistle (x. 1-xiii.
I 13), and the earlier portion (i. 1
; -vii. 16). With the thoughts
i of vii. 9-16 fresh in his mind,
I the Apostle could hardly have
; anticipated the return of those
{ very evils which he there so con-
I fidently believed to have been
1 repressed. Comp. especially verse

558

SECO^^D EPISTLE: CHAP. XII. 21.

oif-^ OLOVS OeXo) evpo) v/xa? Kayco evpeOco iffxip otov ov
OeXeTe, fiij ttcds ^ipis ^{-^Xos Ovixol epiOeiai /caraXaXtal

fear lest when I come I shall not find you such as I would and that I
shall be found by you such as ye would not, lest there be debate, zeal,

21, ' who have not repented,'
with the detailed eulogy on their
* repentance,' for those very sins
in vii. 9-11.

/xi} 7ro)9. The two words are
„. ^ here, as in the next

His fears i ■ i 'i_ ^

for tiie clause, to be united, so
ChSch^^" as not to connect ttws
with IXOoiv. 'Lest if
so be.' In the third clause iirj
TTOJs is exchanged for /xrj, the
doubt implied in /xrj ttoos naturally
dwindling away as he advances
ill his statement. His fears are
first general, lest the friendly re-
lations which he had so earnestly
hoped to see re-established be-
tween himself and his converts
should be disturbed ; lest he
should be compelled to assume
towards them the severity which
in 1 Cor. iv. 21 ; 2 Cor. i. 23, x.
1-7, he had deprecated. The
transition from his fears for them
to his fears for himself is charac-
teristic of the identification of in-
terests which pervades the whole
Epistle. For the particular turn
of expression, comp. xi. 12 ; Gal.
iv. 12.

This double fear is explained
by his apprehension lest they
shall be turned away from him
by misrepresentations; and lest
he shall be driven to use severity
by their impenitence. Hence the
climax, in which his fears, after
first expressing themselves in
their more general form, break
out (here only in the Second
Epistle) into an impassioned
enumeration of all the evils of

faction, which he had attacked
in the First, and then again settle
especially on the particular evil
of sensuality which had been the
express subject of both Epistler>.

IXTf TTws tpts . . . ctKarao-Tacrtai.
The vehemence of his language
has caused him to omit the verb
— which may be either wo-t or eJ-
peOwcTL from the adjacent clause.
The accumulation of words serves
to show his indignation, and also
to present a lively picture of the
evils introduced into a Christian
Church by the revival of this old
disease of the Grecian common-
wealths. The catalogue becomes
more definite and more aggra-
vated as it goes on. The first
four words express the disorder
in its most general form, and
occur in the same order as in
Gal. V. 20.

€>s A. Ipct9 B\ D. E. F. G.
J. K., ' quarrel,' used of the
factions in 1 Cor. i. 11 eptSeg.

^>}Xosis ' anger,' * indignation,'
as in all the passages where it
is used in the N. Test, in a bad
sense (Acts v, 17, xiii. 45 ; Rom.
xiii. 13 ; 1 Cor. iii. 3 ; Gal. v.
20; James iii. 14, 16). In St.
Paul it is thus always with epts.

OvfioL is ' passion,' ' rage.'
The plural is unusual, and pro-
bably is occasioned only by the
attraction of the plurals in the
rest of the sentence. If it have
any force, it must be * bursts of
rage.'

kpiOita is derived from ept^o?,
'a hired labourer,' and thence

WAENINGS A^'D SALUTATIONS. 559

\ljL0vpL(rfJLOL (jivcrLaxreLs d/carafrracrtai. ^^ftTy ttoKiv ^eX-
66ptos fxov Taireivojcrei fxe 6 6e6^ (xov Trpos vfias, kol
irevOrjcroi ttoXXous tcov TrpoTjfiapTrjKOTcov kol jjlt) pLeravoj)-

* i\96vra fjLe rarreLvdlxTr) 6 Oeds.

wraths, strifes, backbitings, whisperings, swellings, tumults. ~^When I
come again will my God have to cast me down among you, and shall I
have to bewail many who have sinned before and did not repent of the

used for ' low envy ' such as
hired servants might be supposed
to entertain ; and thence for * ca-
bal ' or ' mob,' such as would be
formed from persons of that class;
such as were to be found in Grreek
cities, and are alluded to under
the name of ay opoXot or Trovrjpoc
at Thessalonica (Acts xvii. 5),
and at Corinth (xviii. 14). At
Rome, the corresponding phrase
was the turba forensis. In Ari-
stotle's Politics (v. 2, 3) it is used
in this sense, and is enumerated
amongst the seven causes of
Greek revolution.

* Cabal ' or ' ambition,' there-
fore, seems the most natural
translation of the word in the
New Test. See Rom. ii. 8 ; Gal.
V. 20 ; Phil. i. 16, ii. 3 ; James iii.
14,16. Riickert was the first com-
mentator who gave it this its
true sense.

KaraAaA-tat and if/iOvpuTfJiOL de-
Fcribe the acts in which this fac-
tious spirit was expressed. Kara-
XaXid (which only occurs once
elsewhere in the N. Test., 1 Pet.
ii. 1) is ' open detraction ; '
if/iOvpLo-ixos, ' whispering,' i.e.
' secret calumnies ' (so in Ecclas.
xxi. 28, ij/L$vpL^(i} ; and in Rom. i.
30, xj/LOvpLaTOLs, where it is used,
as here, with KaraXaXovs).

<fivcruocreL<; and aKaracTTacrLai ex-
press the actual mischief pro-
duced, ^vo-toxrt? occurs nowhere
else in the N. Test. But the
well-known meaning of ^vo-tow

shows that it is ' insolence.*
Here, as in Ov/jlol, what would
naturally have been a singular
noun becomes plural from the
other plurals in the sentence.

oiKaTaa-Taa-LaL, ' disorders,' ' tu-
mults.' See note on vi. 5.

21 He now returns to the
more especial stain on the Co-
rinthian Church, which he hoped
had been removed.

ttolXlv cA^oi/Tos, ' on my se-
cond visit,' i.e. the one which
was about to be made. It im-
plies that there had been but
one before.

TttTreivwo-ct, ' cast down.' Comp.
the same word similarly used
in vii. 6.

7rp6<s vjULaq cannot be taken
with iX66vTo<s, ' to you,' and
must therefore be ' in relation to
you.'

Trev^rjo-w, 'have to lament,'
i.e. the necessity of punishing:
else he would not speak oi many
instead of all who have sinned.
TTcvGio) is usually intransitive.

Ttov TrpoTjjjLapTrjKOTCJV. The Trpo
may refer to the time before
their conversion, but rather to
the time in which they should
have repented : those who have
sinned first, and did not repent
afterwards.

Trpoa/xapravoj is Only used in
the N. Test, here and in xiii.
2.

As the sins here spoken of
were past, fJ^eTavorja-avTayv ap-

560

SECOND EPISTLE : CHAP. XIII.

cravTOiv inl rrj aKaOapcria /cat TTOpveia kol dcreXyeta, y
eTTpa^av ; Xlll. ^Tpirov tovto €p)(ojjLaL npos vjjias. inl
(TTOixaros 8vo fxaprvpcov kol rpiSv o-TaOija-eTaL ttolv pyjfjia.

uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness which they committed?
XIII. ^This is the third time I am coining to you. 'In the mouth of

preaches more nearly than is
usually the case to the modern
sense of ' repentance/ i.e. not
* change of life,' but ' sorrow
for sin.' The state of mind which
he here laments is the same as
that which he attacks in 1 Cor.
V. 1, where, although there was
but one individual concerned,
the whole community partook of
the sin, by not having expressed
any horror against him.

CTTt TTJ aKaOapa-ca. This pro-
bably belongs both to ixeravorj-
cravTOiv and to 7rev^r/o-oj, ' after,'
or ' in consequence of.' See for
a similar position of words, 1 Cor.
XV. 19.

The three words express sen-
sual sins, and are similarly joined
in Gal, V. 19. It is needless to dis-
tinguish them more particularly.

XIII. I, 2 There is no break
in the argument. He has already
expressed his fear of what he
should find when be came ; he
here expresses his full intention
of coming. Once he had been
there, a second time he had in-
tended to come, now the third
time he was actually coming. It
is probable with the view of ex-
pressing more strongly that he
should come without fail, that the
expression, ' I am ready to come,'
in xii. 14, is here exchanged for
' I am coming.' For this future
sense of cpxo/xat, compare airoO-
VYjaK^i in John xxi. 23.

The words which folio w, though
without any indication of quota-
tion, are from Deut. xix. 15.

It is possible that the Apostle
means merely to say that, on his
arrival at Corinth there shall be
a formal trial, in which the guilt
of the offenders shall be proved
according to the Law of Moses ;
as in the rule laid down in the
Gospels for dealing with offend-
ing Christians : ' If he will not
hear thee, take with thee one or
two more, that in the mouth of
two or three witnesses every
word maybe established* (Matt,
xviii. 26). But it is unlikely
that the Apostle should express
himself either so formally or so
imperfectly ; and the context
suggests a better inter-
pretation. The jour- '^^^°^^
neys of the Apostle, witnesses.'
accomplished or in-
tended, occupy throughout the
Epistle a prominent place in his
mind ; and now they seem to him
to assume almost a distinct per-
sonal existence, as though each
constituted a separate attestation
to his assertion. He, as it were,
appears to himself a different
person, and, therefore, a diiferent
witness in each journey accom-
plished or proposed. The first
witness was that which he had
delivered during his first visit, or
in his First Epistle (iv. 19) ; to
which he refers in the words, ' I
have said before ' (TrpoetpyKa).
The second witness was that
which he now bore on his present
journey and through his present
Epistle, which was intended to
supply the place of the journey

WARNINGS AND SALUTATIONS.

561

^TTpoeiprjKa kol TrpoXeyco, ws irapcov to Sevrepov kol olttcov
vvvy^ ToXs TrpoiqixapTiqKocriv koI toi^ \onrois Tracriv^ on
iav ekOo) €t§ to ttoKlv ov ^etVo/xat. ^€7ret SoKLfirjv ^rj-

» Koi oLTTcliiu vvv ypofpo} ro7s.

two witnesses and three shall every Avord be established,' ^I have told
you before and foretell you, as if present the second time though
absent now, to those who have sinned before and to all the others, that if
I come again I will not spare. " Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking

once intended (i. 15 ; 1 Cor. xvi.
7) but now abandoned by him.
To this he refers in the wprd
TTpoXeyw, ' I speak beforehand,'
i.e. ' before my next visit ; ' and
he strengthens this witness by
representing himself as in a man-
ner present on that second visit,
which had really been postponed
(a)9 Trapwv to Sevrepov). It is by
thus reckoning his Second Epistle
as being virtually a second visit,
or, at least, a second witness,
that he was enabled in the first
verse, to call the visit which was
now about to be actually accom-
plished, ' his third ' visit. And
this third visit would be reckoned
as the third witness, if it were
necessary that the words quoted
from Deuteronomy were to be
literally complied with.

For the familiarity of the image
of witnesses in that age, comp.
1 John V. 5-7.

Kttt d-n-wv must be ^although
absent.'

vvv, though referring especially
to dTTO)!/, yet must also be taken
with rrapiiiv. Comp. 1 Cor. iv. 3.
A. has eTOLfX(D<s €)((D iXdeiv ; but
probably taken from xii. 14.

2 rot? 7rpo7]jjiapT7]K6(TLV. See
xii. 21.

TOts XoiTTOLs Trao-tv, ' to all who
had not sinned, but who still
might require a warning.'

For the threefold repetition of
Trpo in TTpoeLprjKaj TrpoXeyw, and
TrporjfxapTTjKoaLV, comp. ix. 5 ; 'as

you have been beforehand in sin-
ning, so I have been beforehand
in warning.'

€19 TO ttoXlv is the gradual ap-
proximation to the use of ct? (as in
modern Greek) for 'in' inall cases.
So €ts TO o-a^ySaroi/, Acts xiii. 42.

3 In what follows (3-10) the
main tenor of the argument, in
X. 1-7, xii. 11, 12, xiii. 1, 2, to
assert his authority over them, is
interrupted by the desire in x. 2,
xii. 19, xiii. 5-10, as in i. 23-ii.
11, to leave them to work out
their own reformation without the
necessity of his interference. The
keynote of both these feelings is
the word Soki/atJ, ' proof.' It is
like the marching and counter-
marching of armies. He is to
give a proof of his power, unless
(as he hopes) they will be before-
hand with him in giving a proof
of their reformation.

SoKLfxy]v . . Tov iv ifxol X.aXovvTO<s
XpL(TTov, 'a proof that Christ
speaks in me.' SoKiixrj is either
* trial ' or, as here, ' a proof after
trial.' The transition between
the two meanings is seen in the
connexion of SoKt/xa^ere and a.86-
KL/xoL in verse 5, as between proho,
prohus, and reprohus in Latin.

OS ct9 v/Att? ovK da6ev€i oAAa
Swarct Iv vfuv, 'For he is not
weak, but strong in avenging
upon you by preternatural pun-
ishments the sins you have com-
mitted.' The change from cis
vfjids to iv vfuv appears at first

o o

562

SECOND EPISTLE: CHAP. Xlll. 4—7.

reire tov iv ifjioi XaXowro? ■y^picTOv, 69 €19 v/xa? ovk
acrOeveiy dXXa Svi^aret et* v^uv ^ [koX yap [et] icTTavpcodr)
ef d(T^e^'€la9, dXXd ^17 e/c Svvdfieco<; Oeov' kol yap ^rjixeis
aaOevovfJLev Iv avrqi, dXXd ^ ^7J(rofJi€v crvv avT<2 Ik Bvvd-
jxecjs Oeov els vfJias), ^iavTovs Tretyod^ere el ecrTe ev ttj

* Add Kai »> (T]<r6fi€ea.

in me, Who towards you is not weak, but is strong in you ^ (for though
He was crucified through weakness, yet He liveth through the power
of God : for we also are weak in Him, but we shall live together with
Him tlirough the power of God toward you), ^ examine yourselves whether

sight to be emphatic, but is only
a variation such as frequently
occurs in the Apostle's style.
Compare x. 1, raTrcivo? eV vfuv,

In the words ovk dcr^cvet, ' He
is not w^eak,' he refers back to
xii. 9, ' strength is perfected in
weakness.' ' Though in one sense
He is weak, in another sense He
is strong ; ' and this he expands
in the next verse.

4 Kttt yap, '/or in fact, if He
was crucified in conformity with
His mortal weakness, it follows in
like manner that He lives in con-
formity with the Divine power
which raised Him from the dead.'
He died because He was man :
He rose again, and lives, because
He was the Son of God. Ambro-
siaster and Pelagius seem to have
read e'^ do-^ei/eta? i^/xcov, as they
quote the passage, ' ex infirmitate
nostra.' But no extant MS. gives
this reading. With regard to
His death, compare Phil. ii. 8,
* being found in fashion as a man,
He humbled Himself, and became
obedient unto death, even the
death of the cross ; ' with regard
to His resun-ection, Rom. i. 4,
' declared to be the Son of God
with power, according to the
spirit of holiness, by the resur-
rection from the dead ; ' and with
regard to both, 1 Pet.' iii. 18,

' put to death in the flesh, but
quickened by the Spirit.'

KoX yap r]fji€L<5. This gives a
further reason for the clause
' who is strong in you,' as well
as an expansion and proof of the
clause immediately preceding.
' The proof that Christ is strong
in you, that He still lives and
acts, is that Jam weak and share
His weakness, yet I also in my
dealings with you shall share His
life by the same Divine power.'
Comp. John xiv. 19, ' because I
live, you shall live also ; ' Rom.
V. 10, ' we shall be saved by his
life.' In this case the ' life ' thus
imparted is spoken of as specially
manifested in the supernatural
visitation of the sins of the Co-
rinthian Church. For the repe-
tition of KOL yap compare the re-
petition of /A^ in xii. 21, and of
yap in xiii. 8, 9.

5 iavTOv<; Trcipo^CTe ei eVrc iv
rrj 7ri(TT€L, cavrov? 8oKLiJi.d^€T€. He
breaks off abruptly with his ar-
gument, and appeals at once to
their own experience : ' I have
spoken of my power over you.
But after all, it is yotirselves
that you ought to examine ; it
is yourselves that you ought to
prove ; yotir own faith, and yotir
own consciousness of the presence
of Christ amongst you, is the best
proof of His being in me.' Comp.

WARNINGS AND SALUTATIONS.

563

Triarei^ kavrov^ So/ct/xa^ere • r^ ovk iTnyivo^cTKeTe iavrov^^
on 'Irjaovs xpLO'To<; iv vfjuv [eortz^] ; et fiij tl aSoAct/xot
ccrre. ^eA-TTifw Se on yvcocrecrde otl 7jix€i<; ovk icrixkv
aSoKLfJLOL. '^ev^oyieOa Se tt^o? tov deov firj iroLrjcrai v/x,as

ye be in the faith, prove your own selves ; or know ye not your own
selves, that Jesus Christ is in you? except ye be unapproved. ^But T
trust that ye shall know that we are not unapproved. ^Now we pray to

1 Cor. ix. 2, 'the seal of my
apostleship are ye in the Lord ; '

2 Cor. i. 24, ' by faith ye stand ; '
iii. 2, ' ye are our epistle.'

y OVK i7nyLVii)crK€T€ eavrov? otl
'Ir)o-ov<; ^icrro? iv vfjuv ecrrtV ; ' or
is it that you do not rightly know
your own selves, and perceive
that Jesus Christ is amongst you
through my preaching ? ' He
uses the same expression iv v/uv
for Christ's presence in them,
that he had used in xiii. 3, for
Christ's presence in himself. The
two were in his view identical.

Ct fXrj TL aSoKLflOL i(TT€^ aud Hc

is in you, ' unless you have no
proof of His Spirit to show.'
For this sense of a8d/ct/Aos, comp.
1 Cor. ix. 27, like the Latin ' re-
prnbv-S,^ which is the Vulg. trans-
lation of it. At the same time, it
has the tinge of an active sense,
from 8oKt/xa^€Tc, ' unless you are
wholly without discernment,' as
in dSoKLiMov vovv in Rom. i. 28.
Comp. a similar appeal to the
consciousness of spiritual gifts in
Gal. iii. 2, ' received ye the Spirit
by the works of the law, or by the
hearing of faith ? '

et fXT^ TL, ' unless I can suppose
that you are.' For this form of
ct fjLij see 1 Cor. vii. 5.

6 iXiTL^u) Se OTL yvwcrccrOe otl
r]iJLeL<s OVK €o-fX€v aSoKL/xoL. The
previous sentence is broken in
upon by the thought which the
last words, €t firj tl aBoKLfxoL iaTC,

suggest. ' But, if it should so
be that you have no proof of
Christ's presence, I trust that
you will know when I come, that
/ at least am not without this
proof.' In classical Greek the
sense would have been rendered
clearer by ye, or some such par-
ticle, affixed to r}fx,€L<:.

7 This slight interruption of
bitterness is immedi- j,.,. +^
ately modified by the estedness
gentleness of the next fJ^it^

i mi- A Apostle.

sentence. The Apo-
stle's feeling is the reverse of that
rebuked in the Prophet Jonah,
when (iv. 1) he was * angry '
' and displeased exceedingly '
because his' prophecy was frus-
trated by the repentance and re-
storation of Nineveh. 'I trust
that you will find that Christ is
in me ; but it is much rather my
prayer to God that I may find
Him in you, and so be spared the
pain of using severity.' ' I pray
that you may do nothing evil ;
and my object in this prayer is,
not that I may be proved to be
an Apostle, but that yoic may be
proved to be Christians, even al-
though we lose thereby the means
of proving our Apostleship.'

He thus uses dSoKi/^o?, in two
different senses. In one sense,
he would not be ' without proof; '
if the Corinthians were re-
formed ; because their reforma-
tion would be his best proof of
2

564

SECOND EPISTLE: CHAP. XIII. 8—13.

VfJieLs TO Kokov TTOLrJTe, rjjJLeis Se w? dSo/ct/xot M/juev. ^ov
yap SvvdiJieOd rt Kara rrj^ oXiqS^ias^ dXX' virkp rrj^ dXyj-
6eia<;. ^^aipoyiev ydp oTav rffxeis dcrOevcofjiev, vfxti^ Se
SvvaTol -^re* tovto ^/cat ev^^ofieOa ttjp vpLO)v KaTapTicriv.
"ota TOVTO TavTa aircov ypacpoj^ lvol irapcop [xr) aTToro/xw?

God that ye do no evil, not that we should appear approved, but that ye
should do that which is good, though ive be as unapproved. ^ For we
cannot do anything against the truth, but for the truth. ^For we rejoice
when ive are weak, and ye are strong : this also we pray, even your
perfect joining- together. ^^ Therefore being absent I write these things,

Apostleship. In another sense,
he would be ' without proof ; ' be-
cause he would then lose the op-
portunity of displaying his power.
Thus to the contrast in vi. 9,
between the different phases of
his character — ' as deceivers, and
yet true, as unknown and yet
well known, as dying and behold
w^e live,' he might have added,
' as without proof and yet as ap-
proved ' (' WS dSoKLfJiOi Koi SoKl-

/xot'). The figurative sense of
aSoKi/A05 is expressed -by ws.

His Apostleship, his happiness,
his very salvation were nothing
in his eyes, compared with the
welfare of his converts. Comp.
Rom. ix. 3, ' I could wish myself
accursed from Christ for my
brethren.' It is the Christian
expression of the well-known
sentiment, 'Perish my name, if
only my cause survives.'

8 He gives the reason why
every sign of Apostolical autho-
rity would disappearif they were
reformed. ' For we have no
strength at all against the truth,
the reality of the Gospel, as
proved and established in your
lives. With truth against me, I
can do nothing; with truth on
my side, I can do everything.'

hvvaixeOa refers back to Swa/^t?,
Svvaret in xiii. 3, 4.

9 He then gives a second rea-
son, partly for the general clause
in verse 7, partly for the depen-
dent clause in verse 8, as in the
repetition of koX yap in verse 4.
' And this powerlessness and
weakness is what most delights
me; for my delight is to be weak;
my bodily presence may well be
weak and contemptible, if only
you are strong in faith.' It is in
fact the fulfilment of his prayer
to Christ, as given in xii. 8, and
the explanation of Christ's an-
swer (xii. 9). He would still
remain weak and despised ; but
Christ's strength had appeared
in the faith of the converts.

TOVTO /cat €v)(6fx€0a, ' and this
subject of my joy is in fact what
I pray for ; ' in allusion to evxo-
fji€6a in verse 7.

TTjv vfjioiv KaTcipTia-Lv, ' namely,
your restoration.' For KarapTi^w,
see note on 1 Cor. i. 10. The
substantive occurs nowhere else
in the IS". Test.

lo In this verse he sums up
the substance of the main argu-
ment of his address (x. 1-17,
xii. 12-xiii. 10), recurring es-

WAENINGS AND SALUTATIONS.

565

-yprjcratixai Kara Tr)T/ i^ovcrCav ^v ^6 Kvpuos eScoKeu fiOL els
OLKoSofXriV Kol OVK €ts KadaLpecTLV.

^^AoLTTOP, aSek(j)OL, ^aiperey KarapTL^ecrOe, TrapaKokel-
aOe^ TO avTo (l)pov€LTe, elpr)V€V€T€, kol 6 Oeos ttJs dyctTTT^s
KOL elprjviqq Icrrat /xe^' viibiv. ^^ acnrdcraorde akXijXovs iv
ojytcx) (^iKrip.aTL. acnrd^ovTaL vjjlols ol ayuoi Traz/res.

^^ H X'^P''^ '^^^ KVpLOv iTjcrov ^icrrov /cat rj ayairiq

* eSwKe fioi 6 Kvpios.

lest being present I should use sharpness according to the power which
the Lord hath given me to edification and not to pulling down.

^^ Finally, brethren, fare ye well, be perfectly joined together, be
comforted, be of one mind, live in peace, and the God of love and peace
will be with you. ^^ Salute one another with a holy kiss. All the saints
salute you.

pecially to the words of x. 8, els
olKoSofXTjv /cat OVK els KaOaipea-LV.

aTTOTo/xcos only occurs aj:^ain, in
the TSr. Test., in Tit. i. 13 ; dlTro-
To/xta in Rom. xi. 22; 'harsh,'
* violent.'

After -^Tjo-iiiixaL must be un-
derstood vfiiv, 'use you harsh-
ly;' as in Esther i. 19, ix. 27
(LXX.).

II Here, then, the Epistle
properly ends, and the saluta-
tions and farewells begin ; still,
however, slightly coloured by
the preceding, as will appear
by the repetition of words and
thoughts already familiar to his
readers.

KoLTTov is here in a state of
transition, between the ancient
and usual sense '/or the future^''
and the modern Romaic sense
' therefore' For a similar use
of it see Acts xxvii. 20 ; 1 Cor.
i. 16.^

Xaipere. The word unites a
valediction, and a cheering hope ;
' farewell,' and ' fare ye well,' as
in Phil. iii. 1, iv. 4, and in the
Greek announcement of victory,
Xcupere, xP^ipoixev.

KarapTL^ecrOe, * amend your-

selves,' referring to KaTapTunv in
verse 9.

TrapaKoXeia-Oe, ' be comforted
and exhorted.' The keynote of
i. 1-11 is here repeated.

TO aVTO <f>pOV€LT€, €lpr)VeV€T€j

' have the same thoughts,' ' re-
press your factious spirit.' This
sums up 1 Cor. i.-iv. 15, and
refers back to 2 Cor. xii. 20.

/cat 6 Oebs .... Icrrat fieO' vfJL(jJV.
This depends on the two pre-
vious precepts. ' Have the same
thoughts, and then the God of
love will be with you ' (referring
back to 1 Cor. xiii.) : 'be at
peace, and then the God of peace
will be with you.' Comp. Luke
X. 6, 'if the Son of peace be
there, your peace shall rest upon
it ; if not, it shall return to you
again.'

12 For the forms of saluta-
tion, see note on 1 Cor. xvi. 20

13 This bendiction is the
most complete of all

which occur in St. Beuediction,

Paul's Epistles.

It differs from dogmatical
statements of the doctrine of the
Trinity, by beginning, not with
the mention of God, but of Jesus

566

SECOND EPISTLE: CHAP. XIII. 13.

Tov Oeov Kol Tf KOLVCovCa Tov aytov Tn^eu/xaros fxera iravTOiv

* Add ^AfM-fjv. Uphs KopivOiovs devr^pa iypd<f>ri airb ^iXitTtTuiv ttjs Ma/ceSoj'ias,
Sta TiTou KaX AovKci.

^^The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the
communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all.

Favour of
Christ.

Christ,
(xapts)
' favour

Christ. First comes, as in all
the benedictions of St. Paul, the
' favour ' or ' protec-
tion,' — the light of the
countenance — (x^^pis) of
Comp. xii. 9, ' my grace
is sufficient.' In this
is usually comprised
the whole benediction of the
Apostle. But here it is ex-
panded into the two blessings
which are included in
Love of God. it. ' The Love of God '
for man {y aydirrj rov
Oeov) is brought home to the
human race by the favour and
goodness (x^/ot*?) of Christ. ' The
joint participation in the pure
and holy Spirit,' which that
Love sheds abroad in our hearts,
is the great gift (x^^pis) which
Christ left to the whole
c<)mmunion \yQ^j of believcrs. The

of the Holy J , , , .

Spirit. favour, the benedic-

tion ' of Christ, with
which the Apostle always parts
from his readers, is, he now
finally assures them, the nearest
approach of God to man, the
nearest approach of man to God.
It is no less, on the one hand,
than the expression of the Crea-

tor's affection for His creatures ;
it is no less, on the other hand,
than the union of the hearts and
spirits of men with the Heart
and Spirit of God.

And this blessing he invokes,
not on a few individuals, or on
any one section of the
Corinthian Church, but With all.
expressly on every por-
tion and every individual of those
with whom, throughout these
two Epistles, he had so earnestly
and so variously argued and con-
tended. As in the First, so in
the Second Ej^istle, but still
more emphatically, as being here
his very last words, his prayer
was, that this happiness might
be ' with them alV (/^era ttolvtmv

The subscription rests on the
authority (with some

slight variations) of Subscription.

E. (?) J. K.Syr. Copt.
The place ' Philippi ' is not con-
tradicted by the Epistle. The
mention of Titus is founded on
viii. 16, the mention of Luke
(and in some few cursive MSS.
of Barnahas) on conjectural ex-
planations of viii. 18, 22.

WARNINGS AND SALUTATIONS. 06 7

Paraphrase of Chap. XII. 11— XIII. 13.

And note my folly is over. That I should have indulged in it, is
your fault, not mine ; for you knew better than others how little
I needed any such commendation for myself; for amongst you
were wrought by me the signs of an Apostle, equal to those of
the very greatest Apostles,

Yet I am wrong, you will say. There is one injustice
which I have done you. Whilst others, whilst my own com-
panions, were supported by you, I alone have remained
independent. But this is an injustice which I must continue
to commit. Look at my affection for you. This is the third
time I am ready to come ; and now, as before, I am deter-
mined still not to ask your support. It is not your money,
but yourselves that I seek. I am a father to you, and must
act as a father, in not merely spending money, but in being
myself spent and squandered for your sakes ; even although for
this love I receive from you hatred.

But no, you will say, this is no real proof of my love. Al-
though I personally received nothing from you, I was cunning
enough to get your money through the means of my emissaries.
Can you really believe this ? Did I gain anything from you
through those men ? When Titus and his companion were
charged by me to go to you, did Titus gain anything from you ?
Was not our path guided by the same Spirit, did we not stejj
in the same footmarks ? was not the same Divine Spirit around
our steps ? were not the footmarks those of our common Master'^
You think, perhaps, that all through the Epistle I have
been making my defence as if you ivere my judges. No: God
alone is my Judge, Christ alone is my Cause. Yet, eager as I
am to vindicate my independence, the real purpose of saying all
that I say is that I may build you up in your faith. There is
a fear constantly before me, lest you should be turned from vie,
lest I should be driven to severity, lest Corinth should be a scene
of faction, of calumny, of disorder ; lest ivhen I come I should
find all my labour misspent, and have to mourn over the im-
penitence of those who have fallen into sins of heinous sensuality.
Once, twice, thrice, as in the Mosaic Law of the three witnesses :

568 SECOND EPISTLE.

hy my first visit — by this Epistle, as though I had accom-
plished my second visit — by the third visit, which I now hope
to accomplish — / loarn you that I shall not spare my poioer
when I come. You are always seeking for a proof of m.y
Apostleship ; you shall have it. For Christ who speaks in
me, though in the iceakness of humanity He died the shameful
death of the cross, in the strength of God He lives and acts
still, and in Him, weak and poor as I seem to be, I shall still
live and act towards you. But why do I speak of myself 9 You
yourselves my converts are the best witnesses of my Apostolical
power, and loiig may you be so ! If, indeed, you should, have
lost the best proof of my Apostleship in the reformation of
your own lives, then indeed you shall have the proof in my
severity. But my earnest prayer is that there may be no oc-
casion for it. May my power and the proof of it perish if you
prove that you do not need it ! Against a true and blameless
life the highest Apostolical potoer is powerless; and if yoit
have this power of truth and goodness, I am welt content to
part with mine. It is to draw you to a sense of this that I
icrite this whole Epistle, in the hopes that my Apostolical
authority may be turned to its fitting purpose of building up,
not of pulling down.

And now, in conclusion. Farewell and fare ye well. Reform
yourselves. Be comforted and instructed by all I have said.
Restore harmony and peace ; and then the God of love and of
peace shall deceit loith you. Salute each other by the sacred
kiss of Christian brotherhood. Receive the salutations of all
Christians here. The goodness and favour of our Lord Jesus
Christ, tvhich is no less than the love of God Himself towards
you, and your joint union in the Spirit of Holiness, be with
you all.

569

THE EPISTLES TO THE. COEINTHIANS

IN RELATION TO ,

THE GOSPEL HISTORY.

' Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord ? '— 1 Cor. ix. 1.

The two Epistles to the Corinthians, as has been already ob-
served, are eminently historical ; and in the course
of the remarks made upon them, it has been my character
object to draw out as clearly as possible every illus- of the two
tration or testimony which they afford to the history ^^^^ ^^'
of the early Church. But there is another kindred question
which is so important in itself, that though partially touched
upon in the several passages which bear upon it, it may yet not
be out of place at the close of these Epistles to consider it as a
whole.

The question which the Apostle asked of his Judaizing
opponents, and which his Judaizing opponents asked of him,
* Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord ? ' — is one which
in our days has often been asked, in a wider sense than that in
which the words were used by the Apostle or his adversaries.
' Is the representation of Christ in the Epistles the ^, . ,
same as the representation of Christ in the Gospels ? tion to the
What is the evidence, direct or indirect, furnished Gospels.
by St. Paul to the facts of the Gospel history ? If the Gospels
had perished, could we from the Epistles form an image of
Christ, like to that which the Gospels present ? Can we dis-
cover between the Epistles and the Gospels any such coin-
cidences and resemblance as Paley discovered between the
Epistles and the Acts ? Is the " Gospel " of the Evangelical
Apostle different from the " Gospel " of the Evangelistic nar-
ratives ? '

Such an inquiry has been started sometimes in doubt, some-
times in perplexity. It is suggested partly by the nature of

570 THE EPISTLES TO THE CORINTHIANS

the case, by that attitude of separation and independent action
which St. Paul took apart from the other Apostles, and which,
even irrespectively of his writings, awakened in the minds of
his opponents the suspicion that, ' he had not seen the Lord
Jesus,' that he was not truly an * Apostle of Christ,' and that,
therefore, ' he taught things contrary to Christ's teaching.' ^
It is suggested also by the attempts which in latter times have
been made, both by those without and by those within the
outward pale of Christianity, to widen the breach between the
teaching of the Epistles and the Gospels ; both by those who
have been anxious to show that the Christian faith ought to be
sought in ' not Paul but Jesus ; ' and by those who believe and
profess that ^ the Gospel ' is contained, not in the Evangelical
History, but in the Pauline Epistles.

From many points of view, and to many minds, questions
like those will seem superfluous or unimportant. But, touch-
ing as they do on various instructive subjects, and awakening
in some quarters a peculiar interest, they may well demand
a consideration here. The two Epistles to Corinth are those
from which an answer may most readily be obtained ; both be-
cause they contain all or almost all of the most important allu-
sions to the subject of the Gospel history, and also because
they belong to the earliest, as well as the most undisputed,
portion of the Apostolical writings. At the same time it will
not interfere with the precision or unity of the inquiry, if it
includes such illustrations as may be furnished by the other
Epistles also.

I. The coincidences to which we most naturally turn, are
I AH ■ those which relate to isolated sayings of Christ,
to sayings This (partly for reasons which will be stated here-
of Christ, after) is the least satisfactory part of the inquiry.
It cannot be denied that they are few and scanty, and that,
in these few, there is in no case an exact correspondence with
the existing narratives.

There are in St. Paul's Epistles only two occasions on which

1 Cor. our Lord's authority is directly quoted. In 1 Cor. vii. 10,

^^^' ^^' when speaking of marriage, the Apostle refers to a command

of the Lord, as distinct from a command of his own, and as the

command he gives the words, " let not the wife depart from her

^ See the Notes on 1 Cor. ix. 1 ; | the Second Epistle to the Corin-
2 Cor. xii. 1-6. Introduction to I thians, pp. 352, 353.

xiv.37.

AND THE GOSPEL HISTORY. 571

husband,^ In 1 Cor. ix. 14, when speaking of the right of the i Cor.
Apostles to receive a maintenance from those whom they '^' ^^'
taught, he says, ' even so the Lord " appointed " that they
which ^'^ proclaim ^^ the Gospel should live of the GospeV In
neither case are the exact words of the existing records quoted ;
but we can hardly doubt that he refers in one case to the pro-
hibition, ' whosoever shall put away his wife . . . causeth her to
commit adultery'' (Matt. v. 32 ; Mark x. 11 ; Luke xvi. 18) ;
in the other, to the command to the Twelve and the Seventy,
* Carry neither purse nor scrip nor shoes, . . . for the labourer
is worthy of his hire ' (Luke x. 4, 7 ; Matt. x. 9, 10).

To these we may add the quotation in the Acts of the
Apostles (xx. 35), in his speech to the Ephesian elders : ' Re- Acts
member the words of the Lord Jesus, hoiv He said, " it is more ^^' *
• blessed to give than to received ' It is also to be observed, that
in closing the discussion on the conduct of Christian assemblies
(1 Cor. xiv. 37), he says: * if any one think himself to be a i Cor.
prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that
I write unto you are a commandment of the Lord ' (^Kvplov
svToXrj). The form of expression seems to imply that here, as
in vii. 10, he is referring to some distinct regulation of Christ,
which he was endeavouring to follow out. But if so, this, like
the saying quoted in Acts xx. 35, is lost.

Four other passages may be mentioned which, not from any
distinct reference on the part of the Apostle, but from their
likeness of expression, may seem to have been derived from the
circle of our Lord's teaching. (I) ' Beiny reviled we bless ^
(XotSopovfisvoc svXoyovfjLsv, 1 Cor. iv. 12), may have some rela- i Cor.
tion to Luke vi. 28, 'bless them that curse you^ (svXoysirs ^v- 12.
Tovs KaTapatjisvovs), (2) * Know ye not that the saints shall
judge the world '^ ' (1 Cor. vi. 2), may refer to Luke xxii. 30, i Cor.
Matt. xix. 28, 'ye shall sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes ^^' '^'
of Israel,^ (3) In the command that the woman is to ' attend
on the Lord without distraction ' {svirdpsSpov . . . airspLo--
7rdo-T(Ds, 1 Cor. vii. 35), the two emphatic words are substan- i Cor.
tially the same ^ as are employed in the narrative containing the ^'^* ^^'
commendation of Mary — ' Mary sitting . . . Martha cumbered '
{irapaKaOiaacTa . . . Trspiso-Trdro, Luke x. 39, 40). (4) In
1 Cor. xiii. 2, 'faith, so that I could remove mountains,^ maybe i Cor.
an illusion to Matt. xvii. 20, ' if ye have faith, ye shall say ^"^- 2.

* See note on 1 Cor. vii. 35.

572 THE EPISTLES TO THE COEINTHIANS

unto this mountain, remove hence.'' These instances, however,
are too doubtful to serve as the foundation of an argument.

But with respect to all three, remarks may be made more
or less important : First, their want of exact agreement with
the words of the Gospel narrative implies (what indeed can
hardly be doubted for other reasons) that at the time when the
Epistles to Corinth were written, the Gospels in their present
form were not yet in existence. Secondly, this same dis-
crepancy of form, combined with an unquestionable likeness in
spirit, agrees with the discrepancies of a similar kind which are
actually found between the Gospel narratives ; and, when con-
trasted with the total dissimilarity of such isolated sayings as
are ascribed to Christ by IrenaBus, show that the atmosphere, so
to speak, of the Gospel History extended beyond the limits of
its actual existing records, and that within that atmosphere the •
Apostle was included. The Apostle, to whom we owe the pre-
servation of the saying, ^ it is more blessed to give than to
receive,' has thereby become to us truly an ' Evangelist.'
Thirdly, the manner in which the Apostle refers to these say-
ings proves the undisputed claim which they have already
established, not only in his own mind, but in that of the whole
Church. He himself still argues and entreats ^ as the scribes ; '
but he quotes the sentence of Christ, as that from which there
was to be no appeal — ' as of one having authority.' ^ Not I,
but the Lord' (1 Cor. vii. 10), is the broad distinction drawn
between his own suggestions respecting marriage and the prin-
ciple which the Lord had laid down, and which accordingly is
incorporated in three out of the four Gospels, and once in the
discourse ^ especially designed to furnish the universal code of
Christian morality. So, too, the command that the teachers of
the Gospel were 'to live of the Gosj^el' (1 Cor. ix. 14), had
received such entire and absolute acceptance, that it was turned
by the Judaizing party into a universal and inflexible rule, ad-
mitting of no deviation, even for the sake of Christian love.
Already the Lord's words had become the law of the Christian
society ; already they had been subjected to that process by
which, as in later times so in this particular instance, the less
enlightened disciples have severed the sacred text from the pur-
pose to which it was originally applied, and sacrificed the spirit of
the passage to a devout but mistaken observance of the letter.

^ Matt. V. 32 ; Mark x. 11 ; Luke xvi. 18.

AND THE GOSPEL HISTORY. 573

II. From the particular sayings, we turn to the particuhir
acts of the life of Christ. These appear more fre- .

quently, though still not so generally as at first to the acts
sight we should naturally expect. of the life

To the earlier events it may be said that the
allusions are next to none. ' Born (ysvofMsvov) of the seed of
David after the flesh ' (Rom. i. 3), ' born of a womart '
(i/c yvvaiKos), 'born under ^Ae laio ' [v-rro lOfMov, Gal. iv. ^^J® ^''^'" ^^^
4), are the only distinct references to the Nativity G-ai.

and its accompaniments. So far as they go, they illustrate the i^- 4-
stress laid by the Evangelists on the lineage of David (Luke
ii. 23 ; Matt. i. 1 ), on the announcement of his birth (Luke
ii. 4, Matt. i. 23), and on the ritual observances which
immediately followed (Luke ii. 21-24). But this is all ; and
perhaps the coincidence of silence between the Apostle and
the two Evangelists, who equally with himself omit these
earlier events, is more remarkable than the slight confirmation
of the two who record them. The likeness to St. Mark and
St. John in this respect may, if we consider it, be as instruc-
tive as the unlikeness.'to St. Luke and St. Matthew.

Neither is there any detailed allusion to the ministry or
miracles of Christ. To the miracles, indeed, there is none,
unless it be granted that in the expression, * Ye can- ^^^^ minis.
not partake of the Lord's table, and the table of try and
devils^ (BacfiovLcov, 1 Cor. x. 21), the peculiar stress "^^^^^^^^- i Cor.
laid on that word is deepened by the recollection that He ^' ^^*
whose table they thus profaned had so long and often cast out
the very ' demons ' with which they now brought themselves
into contact. To the general manner, however, of our Lord's
mode of life, there is one strong testimony which agrees per-
fectly both with the fact and the spirit of the Gospel narra-
tive — 2 Cor. viii. 9, * for your sakes He became poor ' (stttco- 2 Cor.
Xsvos). To this we must add the corresponding though some- ^"^- ^•
what more general expression, in Phil. ii. 7 : ' He took upon phii.
Him the form of a slave ' (fiop^rjv BovXov). It is possible, per- "• 7-
haps probable from the context, that in both these passages
the Apostle may have meant generally the abnegation of more
than earthly wealth and power, the assumption of more than
earthly poverty and humiliation. But the context shows also,
tha^ poverty in the one case, and lowliness of life in the other,
each in its usual sense, were the special thoughts in the
Apostle's mind ; and in the case of ' poverty ' the word iirTco-

574 THE EPISTLES TO THE CORINTHIANS

')(^svas can signify nothing less than that He led a life not
only of need and want, but of houseless wandering and distress.
It points exactly to that state implied rather than expressly
described in the Gospels, in which ' He had not where to lay
His head ; ' and in which He persevered ' when He was rich ; '
that is, when He might have had the ' kingdom of Judea,'
' the kingdoms of the world,' and ' twelve legions of angels' to
defend Him.

But it is in the closing scenes of our Lord's life that the

Apostle's allusions centre. In this respect, his prac-

The Pas- ^-^g jg confirmed by the outward form of the four

sion. .....

Gospels, which unite in this portion of the history

and in this portion only. This concentration, however caused,

is the same both in the Evangelists and in the Apostle. His

' Gospel,' it would seem, in his narrative of tlie events of the

Evangelical history, began with the sufferings of Christ. ' I

delivered to you first of all, how that Christ died for our sins '

1 Cor. (1 Cor. XV. 3). And the main subject of his preaching in

^^* * Corinth and in Galatia was the Crucifixion of Christ, not

merely the fact of His death, but the horror and shame of the

1 Cor.i. manner of His death—' the Cross of Christ ' (1 Cor. i. 17, 18) ;

17 18' • . . • . ' / ^

i. 23. ' ' Christ crucified^ ( i. 23): even vividly, and if one may so
say, graphically portrayed before their eyes ; * Jesus Christ
evidently set forth ('as in a picture,' 7rposycrd<f>7]) crucified

Gal. amongst them' (Gal. iii. 1).

111. 1. The distinct allusions to His sufferings are few, but precise ;

for the most part entirely agreeing with the Gospel narratives,
and implying more than is actually expressed. There are two
not contained in these Epistles, but certainly within the limits
of the teaching of the Apostle. One is the allusion to the

Heb. agony in the garden, in Heb. v. 7, ' In the days of His flesh,

^' '' when He had offered up prayers and supplications and strong
crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him from
death, and was heard in that He feared.' That the account is
drawn from a source independent of the four Gospels is clear
from the mention of tears, which on that occasion nowhere
occurs in the Gospel narratives. But the general tendency is

1 Tim. precisely similar. The other is the allusion in 1 Tim. vi. 13 to

VI. 13. ( ^j-^g good confession ' which Christ Jesus ' witnessed before
Pontius Pilate.^ This is the more remarkable because, although
it may be sufficiently explained by the answer, ' thou sayest,' in
Matt, xxvii. 11, yet it points much more naturally to the long

AKD THE GOSPEL HISTORY. 57 D

and solemn interview, peculiar to the narrative of St. John
(xviii. 28-xix. 12).

But the most definite and exact agreement of the Apostle's
writings with the Gospel narratives is that which in 1 Cor. xi. i Cor.
23-26 contains the earliest written account of the insti- ^26
tution of the Lord's Supper. It is needless to point out
in detail what has already been shown in the notes T^e Lord's
on that passage. But is is important to observe how Supper.
much it implies as to the Apostle's knowledge of the whole
story. Not only are the particulars of this transaction told in
almost the same words — the evening meal, the night of the
betrayal, the Paschal loaf, the Paschal cup, the solemn insti-
tution — but the form of words is such as was evidently part of
a fixed and regular narrative ; the whole history of the Passion
must have been known to St. Paul, and by him told in detail to
the Corinthians ; and, if so, we may fairly conclude that many
other incidents of the sacred story must have been related to
them, no less than this which, but for the peculiar confu-
sions of the Corinthian Church, would have remained unre-
corded.

The Resurrection, like the Death, of Christ is the subject of
allusions too numerous to be recounted. But here,
as in the case of the Death, we have one passage TheResur-
which shows us that not merely the bare fact was
stated, but also its accompanying circumstances. In 1 Cor. i Cor.
XV. 4-7 we have the account of five appearances after the ^^•4-7-
Resurrection, besides the one to himself. The general cha-
racter of the appearances remarkably agrees with that in the
Gospel narratives. They are all spoken of as separate and
transient glimpses, rather than a continuous and abiding inter-
course. Some of the instances given are identical in both.
Such are the appearances to the two collective meetings of the
Apostles. The appearances to St. Peter, to the five hundred
and to James, are distinct from those in the Gospel narrative ;
and it may be remarked that this variation itself agrees with
the discrepancies and obscurities which characterise that por-
tion of the Gospel narrative. The appearance to James in
particular, agreeing as it does with the account of a rejected
Gospel (that according to the Hebrews), and not with those of
the canonical Gospels, indicates an independent source for the
Apostle's statement. The appearance to Peter is also to be
noticed especially, as an example of an incident to which there

576 THE EPISTLES TO THE CORINTHIANS

is an allusion in the Gospel narrative/ which here only receives
its explanation. The Apostle's mention of the appearance to
the ^ve hundred exemplifies, in relation to the Gospel narra-
tives, what is often to be observed in relation to the Acts ;
namely, that he, writing nearer the time, makes a fuller state-
ment of the miraculous or wonderful than is to be found in the
later accounts ; the reverse of what is usually supposed to take
place in iictitiou^ narratives.

The prominence given to the burial of Christ and its con-
nexion with the resurrection, exactly agrees with the Gospel
narratives, especially those of St. Luke and St. John.

The final result of the comparison thus shows that thirty
years after the event, there must have existed a belief in the
main outline of the Gospel story of the Resurrection, much as
we have it now ; and also that there was, besides the four ac-
counts preserved in the Gospels, a fifth, although in substance
the same narrative, yet different in form, and from an indepen-
dent source ; there are still the same lesser discrepancies be-
tween the Apostle and the Evangelists, as between the several
Evangelists themselves.

In the accounts of the Ascension there is a remarkable

parallel between the Epistles and the Gospels. In the early

Epistles of St. Paul, including those to Corinth, as

TheAscen- -j^' ^|^g Qospels of St. Matthew, St. Mark,^ and St.

John, the Ascension is omitted, as though it were a

mere accompaniment of the Resurrection, rather than a distinct

event in itself. But in the later Epistles, as in the Gospel of

St. Luke and the Acts, it is prominently brought forward.

' Set at God's right hand ... in heavenly places . . . as-

Eph. i. cended up on high ' (Eph. i. 20, ii. 6, iv. 8), ' received up into

T-'\ dorv' (1 Tim. iii. 16), 'entered within the veil' and 'into

O, IV. o. ^ " ^ '

1 Tim. Heaven ' (Heb. x. 20, iv. 14, ix. 24). The coincidence is
S' J^" more easily stated than explained. Yet it may be fairly ascribed
X. 20, to the fact that the Ascension (as in Acts i. 9-11) was regarded
!^- ^*' as part rather of the life of the Church (of which these later
Epistles treat) than of Christ Himself.

In concluding these detailed references to the

sions chiefly Gospel History, it may be observed that they almost

agree with all, SO far as they refer to one Gospel narrative

rather than another, agree with that of St. Luke.

^ Luke xxiv. 34. ~ The account in Mark xvi. 9-20 is of later insertion.

AND THE GOSPEL HISTORY. • 577

The exceptions are the doubtful allusions to the interview re-
corded by St. John, in 1 Tim. vi. 13 ; to the saying recorded
by St. Matthew, in 1 Cor. xiii. 2 ; and the agreement with
St. John and St. Mark, rather than with St. Luke, in omis-
sion of distinct references to our Lord's early history and (as
just observed) to the Ascension. All the rest, even to words
and phrases, have a relation to St. Luke's Gospel so intimate,
as to require some explanation ; and there is no reason why
we should not adopt the account anciently received, that the
author or compiler of that Gospel was the companion of the
Apostle.

These are the main facts which are recorded from the Gospel
History. Perhaps they will not seem many ; yet, so far as
they go, they are not to be despised. From them a story
might be constructed, which would not be at variance, — which
in all essential points would be in unison, — with the Gospel
narrative.

III. But the impression of this unison will be jjj ...

much confirmed if from particular sayings or facts sionstothe

we pass to the general character of Christ as de- ^^^E.^^^.®''
•f J • XT. -S • xi o^ Christ.

scribed m these Lpisties.

(1 ) It may be convenient, in the fii'st instance, to recall those
passages which speak of our Lord in the most general manner; i Cor.
as 1 Cor. i. 30, which tells us that ' He was made ^- ^^•

wisdom unto us, and righteousness, and holiness, ^^^ greats ^ ^^^
and redemption;' 1 Cor. viii. 6, which speaks of ' the ^"'- ^•

one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by i cor.
Him;' 1 Cor. xv. 45, in which He is called * the Second xv. 4o.
Adam ; ' 2 Cor. v. 10, 19, in which He is spoken of as the y iq^'
judge of all men, and that God was in Him, reconciling the i9.
world unto Himself by Him. Other passages to the same effect
might be multiplied, but these will suffice.

We are so familiar with the sound of these words, and so
much accustomed to apply them to other purposes, that we
rarely think of the vastness and complexity, and, at the same
time, freshness and newness of the ideas employed in their first
application to an actual individual Man. Let us imagine our-
selves hearing them for the first time, perceiving that they
were uttered by one who had a deep and sober conviction
of their truth, perceiving, also, that they were spoken, not
of some remote or ideal character, but of One who had lived
and died during the youth or early manhood of him who so

p p

578 THE EPISTLES TO THE CORINTHIANS

spoke. Should we not ask, like the Psalmists and prophets of
old, * Who is this King of Glory ? Who is this that cometh,
travelling in the greatness of His strength ? ' With what
eagerness should we look at any direct account of the life and
death, to which such passages referred, to see whether or not
the one corresponded with the other !

Let us (for the sake of illustration) conceive ourselves, in
the first instance, turning to the Apocrypkal Gospels — the
Gospels of the Infancy, of James, of Thomas, and of Nico-
demus, from which (it is no imaginary case) was derived the
only picture of our Lord's life known to the Arabian and Syrian
tribes of the 7th century, in the time of Mahomet; and we
should at once feel that, with the utterly trivial and childish
fables of those narratives, the Apostle's representation had no
connexion whatever. The Koran, wishing to speak with high
respect of ' Jesus the Son of Mary,' contains a chapter devoted
to the subject. The following is the speech which He is repre-
sented as uttering, to commend Himself to the Jews : —

' I come to you, accompanied by signs from the Lord. I shall
make of clay the figure of a bird ; I sball breathe npon it, and, by God's
permission, the bird shall fly. I shall heal him that was born blind,
and the leper ; I shall, by God's permission, raise the dead. I will
tell yon what you have eaten, and what you have hid in jour houses.
All these facts shall be as signs to you, if you will believe. I come to
confirm the Pentateuch, which you have received before Me. I will
permit to you the use of certain things which have been forbidden you.
I come with signs from yonr Lord. Fear Him and obey Me. He is
my Lord and yours. Adore Him ; this is the right path.' ^

It may be that the Arabs to v/hom this picture of Christ
was presented, could not have risen at the time to anything
higher. But we cannot wonder that such a picture should
have produced no deep impression on them, or have seemed
inferior to the prophet who had himself risen up amongst them.
And from seeing what might have been the image of Christ
presented to us, we may form a livelier notion of that which
has been presented to us.

From these Apocryphal Gospels let us suppose ourselves
turning for the first time to those of the New Testament. No
one, even though doubting the inferences which the Apostle
draws, could doubt that the Christ there exhibited must have

Koran, iii. 43, 44.

AND THE GOSPEL HISTOEY. 579

been He of whom he spoke. Even if the name were dlfFerent,
we should feel sure that the person must be the same. Here
alone in that age, or any age, we should find a life and cha-
racter which was truly the second beginning of humanity;
here, if anywhere, we should recognise God speaking to man.
In that life, if in any life, in those words and deeds, if in any
words and deeds whatever, we should see the impersonation of
wisdom, and righteousness, and holiness, and redemption. As
the readers of the Prophets instinctively acknowledged that
' to Him bare all the Prophets witness,' so if we had up to this
time been readers of the Epistles only, and now first become
acquainted with the Gospel narratives, we should even thus
far be constrained to say : * We have found Him of whom
" Paul in his Epistles wrote," Jesus of Nazareth, the son of
Joseph.' ^

The Apostle's words, then, thus considered, may be regarded,
on the one hand, as a striking testimony to the general truth of
the Gospel narrative ; on the other hand, as a striking predic-
tion of what has since taken place. On the one hand, they
presuppose that a character of extraordinary greatness had
appeared in the world ; and such a character, whatever else may
be thought of it, we actually find in the Gospels. We feel
that each justifies the other. The image of Christ in the
Gospels will be by all confessed to approach more nearly to
the description of the Second Adam, the new Founder of
humanity, than any other appearance in human history ; and if
we ask what effect that life and death produced at the time of
its appearance, we are met by these expressions of the Apostle,
uttered, not as if by any effort, but as the spontaneous burst
of his own heart, within one generation from the date of the
events themselves. And as these expressions correspond with
the past events to which they refer, so also do they correspond
with the future to which they point. If the expression of * the
Second Adam,' was meant to characterise a great change in
the history of the human race, we should expect to find such a
change dating and emanating from the time when the Second
Adam had appeared. Such a change we do in fact find, of
which the beginning is crowned with the life of Christ. It is
true that the great division of modern from ancient history
does not commence till four centuries later ; and it is undeni-

^ John i. 45.
p p 2

580 THE EPISTLES TO THE CORINTHIANS

able that the influx of the Teutonic tribes at that time, had a
most important influence in moulding the future destinies of
the civilised world. But still the new life which survived the
overthrow of the Empire had begun from the Christian era.
Christianity, with all that it has involved in the religion, the
arts, the literature, the morals of Europe, beyond all dispute
originated with Christ alone. The very dates which are now
in use throughout the world are significant, though trivial,
proofs of the justice of the Apostle's declaration, that Christ
was the Second Man ; that ^ as in Adam all died, even so in
Christ all were made alive.' ^

(2) Thus much would be true, even if nothing more precise
were recorded. But every shade of this general character
is, if one may so say, deepened by the Apostle's more special
allusions ; and, although perhaps without the help of the Gospel
narratives we might miss the point of his expressions, yet with
that help, the image of Christ comes out clearly, and we still
see it to be no invention of the Apostle's imagination, but the
same historical definite character which is set before us in the
Gospels.

(a) ' Christ Jesus was made unto us wisdom^ (I Cor. i. 30).
1 Cor. ' In Him were hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge '
^' ^^- „. . , (Col. ii. 3). * The Spirit of wisdom is given to us
Col.ii. in the hnowledge of Him ' (Eph. i. 17). These ex-

|,- . pressions may be merely general phrases of reverence, but how
I'y. ' * much clearness do they gain when they are compared with the
actual display of wisdom stored up in the living instructions
of Christ ! There is no special reference by the Apostles to
any of the parables or discourses of the Gospels. But how com-
pletely do those ^ things new and old ' brought out of * His
treasure''^ answer to this general description of His character!
' Wisdom ' is not the attribute which a zealous convert would
necessarily think of applying to the founder of his religion. It
is so applied by the Apostle, and we see from the Gospels that
his application of it cannot be questioned.

(b) He speaks of 'the truth of Christ' (Rom. ix. 1),
Eom. 'tlie truth as it is in Jesus ' (Eph, iv. 21), in both instances,
ix. 1. as the context shows, the truthfulness; and he dwells

iy^2i. especially on the certainty and fixedness which cha-

racterised all His life. ' In Him was not yea and naj/y but

1 See Notes on 1 Cor. xv. 22, 45 ; 2 Cor. v. 13-19. ^ Matt. xiii. 52.

AND THE GOSPEL HISTORY. 581

^ yea and Amen ' (2 Cor. i. 20).^ It is at least a striking illus-
tration of these passages to remember what Christ again and 2 Cor.
again says of Himself in St. John's Gospel, as having been born ^- ^^*
into the world for the purpose of bearing witness to the truth,
as being the Truth.^ The Apostle's words are a faithful echo
of the solemn asseveration and ratification of truth which runs
through all the Gospel discourses, ' Verily, verily. Amen, Amen,
I say unto you.'

(c) The Apostle urges on his converts the freedttm of the
doctrine which he preached, its contrast to the nar-
rowness and mystery and concealment of the Jewish His free-
law, and he tells them, that they must attain this
freedom through ' the Spirit of the Lord^ that is, of Christ,
and through contemplation of His likeness.^ We turn to the
Gospels, and we find in their representation of Christ this very
freedom of which the Apostle speaks exemplified in almost
every page ; the sacrifice of the letter to the spirit, the en-
couragement of openness and sincerity, there emphatically
urged by precept and example, at once give an edge and a
value to the Apostle's argument which else it would greatly
want.

{(£) The Apostle expressly appeals to the history of Christ
as an example of surrendering his own will for the sake of the
scruples af others. * We that are strong ought to
bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ?'^ t^lera-

A tion.

ourselves . . . iov even Christ pleased nat Himself,

but, as it is written, " the reproaches of them that reproached

thee fell on me"'(Rom. xv. 1,3). * Give none offence . . .

even as I please all men . . . Be followers of me, even as I Rom.

am of Christ' (1 Cor. x. 32, 33, xi. 1). This peculiar aspect of ^''^'^^*

the true Christ-like character in the Gospel narrative depends x. 32,

more on general indications than on special instances. But the ^^' ^^'

Apostle's appeal is fully justified, the more from the very in- *•

directness of the application. We cannot overlook in our

Lord's history His constant, though not universal, acquiescence

in the forms of the Mosaic Law ; the limits within which He

restrained His own teaching, and that of His disciples ; the

many things which He withheld, because His disciples were not

then able to bear them ; the condescension to human weakness

* See Notes on this passage. ^ John viii. 32, xiv. 6, xviii. 37.

^ See Notes on 2 Cor. iii. 1, iv. 10.

582

THE EPISTLES TO THE CORINTHIANS

and narrowness which runs through the whole texture of the
Gospel story.

(e) He beseeches his converts not to compel him to say or
do anything which shall be inconsistent with *the gentleness
and sweet reasonableness {irpavrri^ koX hirisUsia) of Christ ' (2
His gentle- ^^^* ^' ^)' These w^ords are not the mere expressions
ness. of ideal adoration ; they recall definite traits of a living

human person, traits which could not be said to be specially ex-
emplified in the Apostle himself, but which were exemplified to
the full in the life of Him to w^hom the Apostle ascribes them.

(/) In many passages the Apostle speaks of Love. In
1 Cor. xiii. 1-13 he describes it at length.^ It is anew virtue.
„. Its name first occurs in his Epistles. Yet he speaks

of it as fixed, established, recognised. To what was
this owing ? To w^hom does he ascribe it ? Emphatically, and
repeatedly, he attributes it to Christ. ' The love of Christ,'
' The love of God in Christ.' Now in all the Gospels, the
self-devoted, self-sacrificing energy for the good of others,
which the word * Love ' {djaTrr)) denotes, is the prevailing
characteristic of the actions of Christ ; and by St. John it is
used even more emphatically and repeatedly than by St. Paul ;
so that, besides its general testimony to the truth of all the
Gospel narratives, it specially serves to knit together in one
the thoughts and words of St. Paul and of St. John.

((jf) On one occasion only the Apostle gives us an instance
not of what he had ' received ' of Christ as on earth, but of
. , what had been revealed to him concerning Christ

perfected in by Himself. In answer to his entreaty thrice offered
weakness. ^p iq Christ as to his living Friend, there had been
borne in upon his soul, how we know not, a distinct message
expressed in articulate words, ' My grace is sufficient for thee,
my strength is perfected in weakness.' ^ Similarly at the time
of his conversion the spirit of the whole expression, ' Why
persecutest thou Me ? ' ' I am Jesus whom thou persecutest,'
is the same as that which in the Gospels represents Christ as
merged in the person of the least of His disciples. So these
words of Christ, reported by the Apostle in his Epistle, are

1 See Notes on 1 Cor. xiii. 13 ; 2
Cor. V. 14. In those notes it is said
that dyaTrr) occiiTS nowhere eai'lier
than in the writings of St. Paul.
It should be said that its first ap-

pearance is in the Wisdom of Solo-
mon, vi. 18, whatever the date of
that book may be.
2 See Notes on 2 Cor. xii. 1-6.

AND THE GOSPEL HISTORY. 583

an exact reflex of the union of Divine strength with human
weakness which pervades the narrative of all the Gospels.
There is the same combination of majesty and tenderness, the
same tones of min^cled rebuke and love that we know so well
in the last conversations ^ by the Sea of Galilee, the same
strength and virtue going forth to heal the troubled spirit, as of
old to restore the sick and comfort the afflicted. ^

We have now gone through the enumeration of all the most
important allusions to the facts of the Gospel history which St.
Paul's Epistles contain. But, before we proceed, it may be
well to pause for a moment, and reflect on the additional
strength or liveliness which this enumeration may have given
to our conceptions of the Gospel history. It is not much, but,
considering from whom these instances have been taken, — from
a source so near the time, most of them from writings whose
genuineness has never been questioned by the severest criticism,.
— it is something if it may suggest to any one a steadier stand-
ing place and a firmer footing, of however narrow limits, amidst
the doubts or speculations which surround him. Nor is it
wholly unprofitable to have approached, from another than
the usual point of view the several features of our Lord's
life and character just enumerated, — to dwell on the Apostolic
testimony rendered, one by one, to the several acts and words,
still more to the several traits, most of all to the collective
effect of the Character, which we usually gather only from
the Gospels. His severe purity of word and deed, — His tender
care for even the temporal wants of His disciples, — the
institution of a solemn parting pledge of communion with Him-
self and with each other, — the hope of a better life which He
has opened to us, amidst the sorrows and desolations of the
world, — His stedfastness and calmness amidst our levity and
littleness, — His free and wide sympathy amidst our prejudice
and narrowness, — His self-denying poverty, — His gentleness
and mildness amidst our readiness to offer and resent injuries,
— His love to mankind, — His incommunicable greatness and
(so to speak) elevation above the influence of time and fate, —
all this, at least in general outline, we should have, even if
nothing else were left to us of the New Testament but the pas-
sages which have just been quoted from the Epistles.

* John xxl ^ Luke vi. 19, viii. 46.

584 THE EPISTLES TO THE CORINTHIANS

It may still, however, be said that these indications of the
Causes of -^P^^tle's knowledge of the Gospel history are less
the Apo- than we might fairly expect ; and we may still be
Ktle's SI- inclined to ask why, when there are so many re-
semblances, there are not more ? why, if he knew
BO much as these resemblances imply, he yet says so little ?

It is impossible to answer this fully within the limits here
prescribed. But some suggestions may be made, which, even
if they do not entirely meet the case, may yet be sufficiently
important to deserve consideration.

I. It must be remarked that the representation of the life,
and work, and character of Christ, in all probability
Christ the belonged to the oral, and not the written, teaching
subject of the Apostle. The Gospels themselves have every
teaching^ appearance of having grown up out of oral com-
munications of this kind ; and the word ' Gospel,'
which must have been employed by the Apostle substantially
for the same kind of instruction as that to which it is applied
in the titles of the histories of our Lord's life, is by him
usually, if not always, used in reference, not to what he is
actually communicating in his Epistles, but to what he had
already communicated to his converts when present.^ This
supposition is confirmed by the fact that the most express quo-
tation of a distinct saying of Christ occurs, not in a letter of
the Apostle, but in the eminently characteristic speech to the
Ephesian elders (Acts xx. 18-35), and that in the two
passages in the Epistles to the Corinthians, where he most
clearly refers to what he had * delivered ' to them whilst he
was with them (1 Cor. xi. 23-26, xv. 3-7), it is clear that
his instructions turned, not merely on the general truths of the
Christian Faith, but on the detailed accounts of the Last
Supper, and of the Resurrection. Had other subjects equally
appropriate in the Gospel history been required for his special
purpose, there seems no reason why he should not equally have
referred to these also, as communicated by him during his stay
at Corinth. His oral teaching — that is to say, his first com-
munication with his converts — would naturally touch on those
subjects in which all believers took a common interest. The
instances of that teaching, in other words, the everlasting
principles of the Gospel are contained, not in tradition, nor yet

^ See Notes on 1 Cor. xv. 1-10.

AND THE GOSPEL HISTORY. 585

(except through these general allusions) in his own writings^
but in the Four Gospels. His subsequent teaching in the
Epistles would naturally relate more to his peculiar mission —
would turn more on si)ecial occasions — would embody more of
his own personal and individual mind. 'I, not the Lord.''
And in ancient times, even more than in our own, in sacred
authors no less than classical, we must take into account the
effect of the entire absorption of the writer in his immediate
subject, to the exclusion of persons and events of the utmost
importance immediately beyond. Who would infer from the
history of Thucydides the existence of his contemporary So-
crates ? How different, again, is the Socrates of Xenophon
from the Socrates of Plato I Except so far as the great truth
of the admission of the Gentiles was, in a certain sense, what
he occasionally calls it, ' his own ' peculiar * Gospel,' he had
already * preached the Gospel ' to his converts before he began
his Epistles to them. In the Epistles he was not employed in

* laying the foundation ' (that was laid once for all in * Jesus
Christ,' 1 Cor. iii. 10), but in 'building up,' 'strengthen-
ing,' ' exhorting,' ' settling.' In one instance the Gospel and
the Epistle of an Apostle are both preserved to us. No one
can doubt that the Gospel of St. John and the First Epistle
of St. John are intended as accompaniments to each other ; and
that the Gospel was intended by its author as the more
important of the two. Yet, had the Gospel been lost, how
little could we have inferred its contents (in detail) from the
Epistle !

II. But, further, the Apostle in his individual dealings with
his converts was swayed by a principle which, though The spiri-
implied throughout his Epistles, is nowhere so strongly tual cha-
expressed as in these two. When called to reply theApo-
to his Jewish opponents, who prided themselves stle's
on their outward connexion with Christ, as He- ^^^^ ^^^'
brews, as Israelites, as Ministers of Christ, as Apostles of
Christ, as specially belonging to Christ (2 Cor. v. 12, x. 7,
xi. 22, 13), when taunted by them with the very charge which,
in a somewhat altered form, we are now considering, that he

* had not seen Jesus Christ our Lord' (1 Cor. ix. 1), his reply
is to a certain extent a concession of the fact, or rather an
assertion of the principle, by which he desired to confront

1 1 Cor. vii. 12.

586 THE EPISTLES TO THE CORINTHIANS

any such accusations. With the strongest sense of freedom
from all personal and local ties, with the deepest consciousness
that from the moment of his conversion all his past life had
vanished far away into the distance, he answers, ' Though we
have known Christ after the flesh, yet henceforth know we
Him no more ' (2 Cor. v. 16). Startling as this declaration
is, and called forth by a special occasion, it yet involved a
general truth. It is the same profound instinct or feeling
which penetrated, more or less, the whole Apostolical, and
even the succeeding, age with regard to our Lord's earthly
course. It is the feeling which appears in the fact that no
authentic or even pretended likeness of Christ has be.en handed
down from the first century; that the site of His dwelling-
place at Capernaum has been obliterated from memory ; that
the notion of seeking for relics of His life and death did not
begin till the age of Constantine. It is the feeling akin to the
derivation of the name of ' Christian,' not from the man ' Jesus,'
but from the Lord ' Christ.' It is the same feeling which, in
the Gospel narratives themselves, is expressed in the almost en-
tire absence of precision as to time and place — in the emphatic
separation of our Lord from His kinsmen after the flesh, even
from His mother herself— in His own warning, ' What, and if
ye shall see the Son of Man ascend up where He was before :
the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are
life. It is the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing.'
Contrast this with the Apocryphal Gospels, which do to a great
extent condescend to the natural or Judaic tendency, which
the Gospels of the New Testament thus silently rebuke.
There we find a ' Gospel of the Infancy,' filled with the fleshly
marvels that delighted afterwards the childish minds of the
Bedouin Arabs ; there first are mentioned the local traditions
of the scene of the Annunciation, of the Nativity, of the abode
in Egypt. There is to be found the story, on which so great
a superstructure has been built in later ages, of the parents
and birth of her whom the Gospel history calls ' blessed,' but
studiously conceals from view.^ And it is not without impor-
tance to observe that even the peculiarities of the Birth of
Christ, as given in St. Matthew and St. Luke, are not once
mentioned by St. Paul.

See * Evangelia Apocrypha ' (ed. Tischendorf), pp. 1-11, 68, 79-81,

AND THE GOSPEL HISTORY. 587

The Apostle's reserve no doubt was strengthened by his
antagonism with his Je'v\dsh opponents ; but the principle on
which he acted is applicable to all times. It explains in what
sense our Lord's life is an example, and in what sense it is not.
That life is not, nor ever could be, an example to be literally
and exactly copied. It has been so understood, on the one
hand, even by such holy men as Francis of Assisi, who thought
that the true ' Imitation of Christ ' was to produce a facsimile
of all its outward circumstances in his own person. It has been
so understood, on the other hand, by some in our own day, who
have attacked it on the express ground that it could not, with-
out irtipropriety, be literally re-enacted by any ordinary person
in England in the nineteenth century. But it is not an example
in detail ; and those who try to make it so, whether in defence
or in attack, are but neglecting the warning which Bacon so
beautifully gives on the story of the rich young man in the
Gospels : * Beware how in making the portraiture thou breakest
the pattern.' ^ In this sense, the Christian Church, as well as
the Apostle, ought to ' know Christ henceforth no more accord-
ing to the flesh.' All such considerations ought to be swallowed
up in the overwhelming sense of the moral and spiritual state
in which we stand towards Him. In this sense (if we may
say so) He is more truly to us the Son of God than He is the
Son of Man. His life is our example, not in its outward acts,
but in the spirit, the atmosphere which it breathes — in the ideal
which it sets before us — in the principles, the motives, the
object with which it supplies us.

III. This brings us to yet one more reason why St. Paul's
Ei)istles contain no further details of our Lord's ministry. It
was because they were to him, and to his converts,
superseded by an evidence to himself, and to them, ^f Christ in
far more convincing than any particular proofs or the Apostle's
facts could have for them — the evidence of his own ^^^ ^"^^"
constant communion with Him in whom he lived, and moved,
and had his being. He had, no doubt, his own peculiarities of
character, his own especial call to the Gentiles. These gave to
the Epistles a character of their own, which will always dis-
tinguish them from the Gospels. But still the spirit which
pervaded both alike was (to use his own words, often and
often repeated) ' of Christ,' and * in Christ.' The life that he

Bacon's Essays ; ' Of Goodness, and Goodness of Nature.'

588

THE EPISTLES TO THE CORINTHIANS

lived in the flesh, he lived in the faith of the Son of God,' who
died and gave Himself for him ; ' and this * faith,' on which he
dwells with an almost exclusive reverence, is not, it must be
remembered, faith in any one part or point of Christ's work,
but in the whole. * Faith in His Incarnation,' 'faith in His
merits,' 'faith in His blood,' are expressions which, though
employed in later times, and, like other scholastic or theological
terms, sometimes justly employed, as summaries of the Apostle's
statements, yet are, in no instance, his own statements of
his own belief or feeling.^ Measured by the modern require-
ment which demands these precise forms of speech from the
lips of all believers, the Apostle no less than the Evangelists
will be found wanting. The one grand expression, in which
his whole mind finds vent, is simply * the faith of Christ.' It
is, as it were, his second conscience ; and, as men do not
minutely analyse the constituent elements of conscience, so
neither did he care minutely to describe or bring forward
the several elements which made up the character and work of
his Master. And^ though these elements are distinctly set
forth in the Gospels, yet the Gospels agree even here with the
Epistles, in that they, like the Epistles, put forward not any
one part, but the complex whole, as the object of adoration
and faith. The language of our Lord in the Gospels, like that
of St. Paul regarding Him in the Epistles, is (not ' Believe in
My miracles,' ' Believe in My death,' ' Believe in My resur-
rection,' but) 'Believe in Me.'

IV. Finally, if it be said that this is an impression too vague
and impalpable to be definitely traced, the answer is in the
The spirit Apostlc's character. Much there was doubtless pe-
of Christ in culiar to himself, much that was peculiar to his own
cha^ctTr^^^ especial mission. But, if in any human character
we can discern the effect produced by contact with

^ The apparent exception in Rom.
iii. 25 is, it need hardly be observed
to those acquainted with the ori-
ginal language, only apparent. The
nearest approach to the requirement
of faith in any special act of Christ
is in Rom. x. 9, 'If thou shalt con-
fess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus,'
(so far is general, and agrees with
what has been said above ; but what
follows is more precise,) ' and shalt
believe in thine heart that God hath

raised Him from the dead, thou shalt
be saved.' The Resurrection, in
this passage, as in others, is probably
selected as the especial fact which
constituted ' the glad tidings,' — the
Gospel. Had the Gospels closed
with the Crucifixion, however in-
structive they might have been, we
feel that the effect of the story would
have been simply mournful and
tragical, not, as now, inspiriting
and joyful.

AND THE GOSPEL HISTORY. 589

another higher and greater than itself, such an effect may be
discovered in that of St. Paul : ' The love of ^ Christ,' the love
which Christ had shown to man, was, as he himself tells us, his
* constraining ' motive. That Love, with the acts in which it
displayed itself, was the great event which rose up behind him
as the single point from which all his thoughts diverged in the
past, and to which they converged again in the future. Unless
a Love, surpassing all Love, had been manifested to him, we
know not how he could have been so constrained ; and, we
must also add, unless a freedom from his past prejudices and
passions had been effected for him, by the sight of some higher
Freedom than his own, we know not how he could have been
thus emancipated.

Such a Love, and such a Freedom, we find in St. Paul's
Epistles. Such a combination, — rarely, if ever, seen before,
rarely alas ! seen since, — is one of the best proofs of the reality
of the original acts in which that combination was first mani-
fested. The Gospel narratives, as we now possess them, were,
in all probability, composed long after these Epistles. But the
Life which they describe must have been anterior. That Life
is ' the glory,' of which, as the Apostle himself says, his
writings and actions are * the reflection.' Whatever other
diversities, peculiarities, infirmities impassably divide the cha-
racter of the Apostle from that of his Master, in this union of
fervour and freedom there was a common likeness which cannot
be mistaken. The general impulses of his new life — *the
grace of God, by which he was what he was ' — could have come
from no other source. Whatever may be the force of the par-
ticular allusions and passages which have been collected, the
general effect of his whole life and writings can hardly leave
any other impression than that, — whether by ' revelation,' or
by * receiving ' from others, whether * in the body, or out of
the body,' ^ we cannot tell — he had indeed seen, and known,
and loved, and followed Jesus Christ our Lord.

1 2 Cor. V. 14, and the Notes on I ^ Qal. i. 12 ; 1 Cor. xi. 23 xv,
that chapter. I 3 ; 2 Cor. xii. 3.

APPENDIX.

THE APOCRYPHAL EPISTLES OF THE CORINTHIANS

TO ST. PAUL,

AND OF ST. PAUL TO THE CORINTHIANS,

PRESEBVED IN THE ARMENIAN CHURCH.

The genuineness of the two canonical Epistles to the Corinthians
has never been doubted. But there are two other Epistles ex-
tant, one claiming to be from the Corinthians to St. Paul, the
other from St. Paul to the Corinthians. They were discovered
in an Armenian MS. in the possession of Gilbert North, first
mentioned by John Gregory, and Usher (see Fabricius, Codex
Apocryphus Novi Testamenti, vol. ii. pp. 920, 921), first pub-
lished by Wilkins from an imperfect MS.; then by La Croze,
with a dissertation and translation from a perfect MS. in the
possession of Whiston ; then by Whiston's two sons, William
and George Whiston, with a Greek and Latin translation of
their own, in an Appendix to their edition of Moses Chore-
nensis, 1736. The last and most complete translation is that
made jointly by Lord Byron and Father Pasquale Aucher, of
the Armenian monastery of St. Lazarus at Venice, from MSS.
in that convent ; and published in Moore's Life of Lord Byron
(vol. vi. 274, 275).

In the Armenian Church they, in at least one MS., are
inserted after the Second Epistle to the Corinthians, under
the title of ' The Epistle of the Corinthians to St. Paul,'
and the ' Third Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians.' ^

It has sometimes been imagined that the Epistle from the
Corinthians is that alluded to in 1 Cor. vii. 1, and that the
Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians is that alluded to in
1 Cor. V. 9. Not only, however, is their general style abso-
lutely fatal to their genuineness; but all their details are incom-
patible with such an hypothesis, or even with the belief that
any such reference could have fallen within the scope of the
intention of the framers of these Epistles.

(1) Even if it could be maintained that 1 Cor. v. 9 alluded

^ Curzon's Armenia, 225.

592 APPENDIX,

to a separate ' Epistle, that Epistle must have been written, not
in answer to the Corinthian Epistle of 1 Cor. vii. l,but before
it, the real answer to the Corinthian Epistle being the genuine
First Epistle itself; whereas in his spurious correspondence the
Corinthian letter precedes that of the Apostle.

(2) The ' Epistle from the Corinthians ' mentions no one
topic which their letter (as alluded to in 1 Cor. vii.-xiv.)must
have contained, neither marriage nor sacrificial feasts, nor the
questions as to public assemblies or spiritual gifts, whilst, on
the other hand, it complains of heresies, which, with the ex-
ception of the denial of the resurrection of the body, are not
noticed at all in the First Epistle.

(3) The * Epistle of St. Paul,' in like manner, contains no
allusion to the only topics which (on the hypothesis of its
being that alluded to in 1 Cor. v. 9) it must have contained,
viz. the warning to avoid immoral brethren, the only passage
of the kind being the warning in verse 31 to avoid heretics.

(4) The bearers of the genuine Corinthian letter (as de-
scribed in 1 Cor. xvi. 15) are quite different from those named
amongst the bearers of the spurious Epistle, with the excep-
tion of Stephanas (or, as he is there called, * Stephanus ').
There is, moreover, not a single name identical with those
mentioned either in the Acts or in the genuine Epistles ; the
heresies mentioned belonged to a later period than any writings
of the New Testament ; the answers of St. Paul are a feeble
imitation of 1 Cor. xv., and his other expressions are in part
copied from the Gospels and the Epistle to the Gralatians, in
part entirely unlike his own style.

The only points of coincidence between these spurious
Epistles and the hypothesis of an early date are

(1) That Paul is described in the section which intervenes
between the two Epistles as being in Phoenicia, which would
agree with his passage to Antioch (Acts xviii. 22) immediately
after his first visit to Corinth.

(2) That in the ^ Epistle of St. Paul,' verse 2, their conver-
sion is spoken of as recent.

(3) That Corinth is described in the first verse of ^ The
Epistle of the Corinthians ' as governed by Presbyters, as in
Clem. Epist. ad Cor. i. 21, 44, 47, 54, 57 ; Const. Apost. vii.
46 ; Eus. H. E. iv. 22, 23.

(4) That Paul is called simply ' the brother,' which agrees
indeed with a more primitive mode of address, but is hardly
reconcilable with the relation of the Corinthian Church towards
bim, 1 Cor. iv. 15, ix. 2.

See Note on 1 Cor. v. 9.

THE COEINTHTANS TO ST. PAUL. 593

(5) The conduct and language of St. Paul (in the interven-
ing Section) are natural and in agreement with the Acts and
Epistles. ' He grieved and said with tears, " It had been
better for me to have died before, and to be with the Lord." '

It would not have been worth while to notice these details,
but that it seemed important to call attention to the irrecon-
cilable differences both of fact and style between two indis-
putably genuine Epistles of St. Paul on the one hand, and two
indisputably spurious Epistles on the other hand :

First, as showing the impossibility of confounding the two
together.

Secondly, as showing the ignorance and clumsiness with
which forgers of later times compiled their imitations of the
genuine Apostolic works.

[The following text is given from Moore's Life of Lord B}Ton, vol. vi.
pp. 269-275, ed. Murray, 1834, collated with the Latin translation of the
Whistons. The variations not noticed by Lord Byron are here inserted in
brackets.]

THE EPISTLE OF THE CORINTHIANS TO ST. PAUL
THE APOSTLE.^

1 a TEPHEN,2 and the elders with him, Dabnus", Eubulus,
O Theophilus, and Xinon, to Paul, our father and evan-
gelist, and faithful master in Jesus Christ, health.^

2 Two men have come to Corinth, Simon by name, and
Cleobus,'* who vehemently disturb the faith of some with de-
ceitful and corrupt words ;

3 Of which words thou shouldst inform thyself: ^

4 For neither have we heard such words from thee, nor from
the other apostles :

5 But we know only that what we have heard from thee and
from them, that we have kept firmly.

6 But in this chiefly has our Lord had compassion, that,

^ Some MSS. have the title thus; ! menus], Euhulus, Theophilus, and

Epistle of Stephen the Elder to Paul i Nomeson, to Paul their brother,

the Apostle, from the Corinthians. \ health !

^ In the MSS. the marginal verses ' "* Others read, There came certain

published by the Whistons are j men, . . and Clobeus, who vehemently

wanting. j shake.

^ In some MSS. we find, Tlie '" [Whistons, whose words thou,

elders Numenus [Whistons, Ne- \ oughtest to resist]

Q Q

594

APPENDIX.

whilst thou art yet with us iu the flesh, we are again about to
hear from thee.

7 Therefore do thou write to us, or come thyself amongst us
quickly.

8 We believe in the Lord, that, as it was revealed to
Theonas, He hath delivered thee from the hands of the un-
righteous.^

9 But these are the sinful words of these impure men, for
thus do they say and teach : ^

10 That it behoves not to admit the prophets.^

11 Neither do they affirm the omnipotence of God :

12 Neither do they affirm the resurrection of the flesh:
18 Neither do they affirm that man was altogether created

by God :

14 Neither do they affirm that Jesus Christ was born in
the flesh from the Virgin Mary :

15 Neither do they affirm that the world was the work of
God, but of some one of the angels.

16 Therefore do thou make haste ^ to come amongst us,

17 That this city of the Corinthians may remain without
scandal,

1 8 And that the folly of these men may be made manifest
by an open refutation. Fare thee well.^

The deacons Thereptus and Tichus ^ received and conveyed
this Epistle to the city of the Philippians.^

When Paul received the Epistle, although he was then in
chains on account of Stratonice,® the wife of Apofolanus,^ yet,
as it were forgetting his bonds, he mourned over these words,
and said, weeping : ' It were better for me to be dead, and
with the Lord. For while I am in this body, and hear the
wretched words of such false doctrine, behold, grief arises upon
grief, and my trouble adds a weight to my chains ; when I

1 Some MSS. [and Wliistons]
liave. We believe in the Lord, that
His presence was made manifest; and
by this hath the Lord delivered us
from the hands of the unHghteous.

'^ [Whistons, But these are their
erroneous words; for thus do they
say.']

^ Others read, to read the Pro-
phets.

^ Some MSS. [and ^Tiistons]
have, Therefore, brother, do thou
make haste.

^ Others read, Fare thee ivell in
tlie Lord.

6 Some MSS. [and Whistons]
have, The deacons Therep^is and
Techus.

' The Whistons have, to tlie city
of Fhoenicia : but in all the MSS.
we find,io the city of the PhUippia.ns.

^ Others read [and Whistons], on
account of Onotice.

^ The Whistons have, of Apollo-
phanus : but in all the MSS. we
read, Apofolanus.

ST. PAUL TO THE COKINTHIAKS.

595

behold this calamity, and progress of the machinations of Satan,
who searcheth to do wrong.'

And thus, with deep affliction, Paul composed his reply to
the Epistle.^

EPISTLE OF PAUL TO THE CORINTHIANS. ^

I TJAUL, in bonds for Jesus Christ, disturbed by so many
X errors,^ to his Corinthian brethren, health.

2 I nothing marvel that the preachers of evil have made this
progress.

3 For because the Lord Jesus is about to fulfil His coming,
verily on this account do certain men pervert and despise His
words.

4 But I, verily, from the beginning, have taught you that
only which I myself received from the former apostles, who
always remained with the Lord Jesus Christ.

5 And I now say unto you, that the Lord Jesus Christ was
born of the Virgin Mary, who was of the seed of David,

6 According to the annunciation of the Holy Ghost, sent to
her by our Father from heaven ;

7 That Jesus might be introduced into the world,'* and de-
liver our ^ flesh by His flesh, and that He may raise us up from
the dead ;

8 As in this also He Himself became the example :

9 That it might be made manifest that man was created by
the Father,

10 He has not remained in perdition unsought ; ^

11 But He is sought for, that He might be revived by
adoption.

12 For God, who is the Lord of all, the Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, who made heaven and earth, sent, firstly, the
Prophets to the Jews :

13 That He would absolve them from their sins, and bring
them to His judgment.

14 Because He wished to save, firstly, the house of Israel,
He bestowed and poured forth His Spirit upon the Prophets ;

15 That they should, for a long time, preach the worship of
God, and the nativity of Christ.

^ In the text of this Epistle there
are some other variations in the
words, but the sense is the same.

^ Some MSS. have, PauVs Upistle
from prison, for the instruction of the
Corinthians.

^ Others [and Whistons] read,

disturbed by various compunctions.

* Some MSS. [and Whistons]
have, TJiat Jesus might comfort the
world.

^ [Whistons, all^sh.]

"^ Others read, He Ims not re-
mained indifferent.

o96

APPENDIX.

16 But he who was the prince of evil, when he wished to
make himself God, laid his hand upon them,

17 And bound all men in sin,^

18 Because the judgment of the world was approaching.

19 But Almighty God, when He willed to justify, was un-
willing to abandon His creature :

20 But when He saw his affliction, He had compassion upon
him:

21 And at the end of a time He sent the Holy Ghost into
the Virgin, foretold by the Prophets.

22 Who, believing readily,- was made worthy to conceive,
and bring forth our Lord Jesus Christ.

23 That from this perishable body, in which the evil spirit
was glorified, he should be cast out,^ and it should be made
manifest

24 That he was not God : for Jesus Christ, in His flesh,
had recalled and saved this perishable flesh, and drawn it into
eternal life by faith.

25 Because in His body He would prepare a pure temple of
justice for all ages ;

26 In whom we also, when we believe, are saved.

27 Therefore know ye that these men are not the children
of justice, but the children of wrath :

28 Who turn away from themselves the compassion of God ;

29 AVho say that neither the heavens nor the earth were al-
together works made by the hand of the Father of all things.'*

30 But these cursed men ■' have the doctrine of the serpent.

31 But do ye, by the power of God, withdraw yourselves
far from these, and expel from amongst you the doctrine of the
wicked.

32 Because you are not the children of rebellion,^ but the
sons of the beloved church.

33 And on this account the time of the resurrection is
preached to all men.

34 Therefore the}^ who affirm that there is no resurrection of
the flesh, they indeed shall not be raised up to eternal life ;

35 But to judgment and condemnation shall the unbeliever
arise in the flesh :

^ Some MSS. [and Wliistons]
have, Laid his hand, and them, and
all [^esh ] hound in sin.

~ Others [and Whistons] read,
helieving with a pure heart.

^ ["Whistons, Hn the same body
he shoidd he convicted and made
manifest. If lie was not God, how

did Jesus Clirist . . . recall and save?
dx.]

' Some MSS. [and Wliistons]
have, of God the FatJier of all things.

^ Others [and Whistons] read,
They curse thetnselves in this thing.

* Others [and Wliistons] read,
children of the disobedient.

ST. PAUL TO THE CORINTHIANS.

597

36 For to that body which denies the resurrection of the
body, shall be denied the resurrection : because such are found
to refuse the resurrection.

37 But you also, Corinthians ! have known, from the seeds
wheat, and from other seeds,

38 That one grain falls ^ dry into the earth, and within it
first dies.

39 And afterwards rises again, by the will of the Lord,
endued with the same body :

40 Neither indeed does it arise with the same simple body,
but manifold, and filled with blessing.

41 But we produce the example not only from seeds, but
from the honourable bodies of men.^

42 Ye have also known Jonas, the son of Amittai.^

43 Because he delayed to preach to the Ninevites, he was
swallowed up in the belly of a fishforthre? days and three nights:

44 And after three days God heard his supplication,'^ and
brought him out of the deep abyss ;

45 Neither was any part of his body corrupted ; neither was
his eyebrow bent down.^

46 And how much more for you, oh men of little faith ;

47 If you believe in our Lord eJesus Christ, will He raise
you up, even as He Himself hath arisen.

48 If the bones of Elisha the prophet, falling upon the
dead, revived the dead,

49 By how much more shall ye,^ who are supported by the
flesh and the blood and the Spirit of Christ, arise again on that
day with a perfect body ?

50 Elias the prophet, embracing the widow's son, raised
him from the dead :

51 By how much more shall Jesus Christ revive you, on that
day, with a perfect body, even as He Himself hath arisen ?

52 But if ye receive other things vainly,^

53 Henceforth no one shall cause me to travail ; for I bear
n my body these fetters,^

^ Some . MSS. have, That one
^rainfalls not dry into the earth.

^ Others [and Whistons] read,
But we have not only produced from
seed, hut from the honourable body
of man.

•^ Others [and Whistons] read,
the son of Ematthias.

^ [Whistons om., '■and brought
. . . abyss.^^

^ Others [and Whistons] add, nor
did a hair of his body fall therefrom.

^ [Whistons, ye who are in tJie
Jlesh and supported by the Word of
Christ.]

' Some MSS. [and Whistons]
have, Ye shall not receive other
thhufs i7i vain.

^ Others [and Whistons] finished
here thus, Henceforth no one can
trouble me further, for I bear in my
body the sufferings of Christ. The
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be
ivith your spirit, my brethren. Amen.

598 APPENDIX.

54 To obtain Christ ; and I suffer with patience these afflic-
tions to become worthy of the resurrection of the dead,

55 And do each of you, having received the law from the
hands of the blessed Prophets and the holy gospel,^ firmly
maintain it ;

56 To the end that you may be rewarded in the resurrection
of the dead, and the possession of the life eternal.

57 But if any of ye, not believing, shall tresspass, he shall be
judged with the misdoers, and punished with those who have
false belief.

58 Because such are the generation of vipers, and tlie
children of dragons and basilisks.

59 Drive far from amongst ye, and fly from such, with the
aid of our Lord Jesus Christ.

60 And the peace and grace of the beloved Son be upon
you.^ Amen.

^ Some MSS. have, of the holy 1 ^ Others add, Our Lord be with
evangelist. \ you all. Amen.

Done into English hy me, January-February, 1817, at the
Convent of San Lazaro, with the aid and exposition
of the Armenian text by the Father Paschal Aucher,
Armenia!! Friar.

Byron.

Venice, April 10, 1817.
/ had also the Latin text, but it is in many places

very corrupt, and with great omissions.

THE END.

LONDON : PBISTKD BY

8POTTI8WOODE AND CO., NEW-STHEKT SQUABS

AND PABLIAMENT STKEET

WORKS BY THE LATE DEAN STANLEY.

CHEISTIAN INSTITUTIONS : Essays on Ecclesiastical

Subjects. Third Edition. 8vo. 12s.

Contents : —

Baptism.

The Eucharist.

Eucharist in the Early Cliurch.

Eucliaristic Sacrifice.

Keal Presence.

Body and Blood of Christ.

Absolution. | Creed of the Early Christians.

Ecclesiastical Vestments. ' Roman Catacombs.

The Basilica. Lord's Prayer.

The Clergy. . Council and Creed of Constan-

The Pope. | tinople.

The Litany. i Ten Commandments.

LECTUEES ON THE HISTOEY OF THE JEWISH

CHUKCH. From Abraham to the Christian Era. Eighth Edition. With
Maps. 3 vols. 8vo. 38^.

LECTUEES ON THE HISTOEY OF THE EASTEEN

CHURCH. With an Introduction on the Study of Ecclesiastical History.
Sixth Edition. With Maps, 8vo. 12s.

HISTOEY OF THE CHUECH OF SCOTLAND. Second

Edition. 8vo. 7*. 6d.

SINAI AND PALESTINE, in connection with their

History. Fourteenth Edition. With Maps. 8vo. 14s.

THE BIBLE IN THE HOLY LAND. Being Extracts

from the above work, for the Use of Village Schools and Young Persons.
Second Edition. With Woodcuts. Fcp. 8vo. 3s. 6d.

HISTOEICAL MEMOEIALS OF CANTEEBUEY. The

Landing of Augustine —The Murder of Becket — Edward the Black Prince —
Becket's Shrine. Ninth Edition. With Illustrations. Post 8vo. 7s. 6d.

HISTOEICAL MEMOEIALS of WESTMINSTEE ABBEY,

from its Foundation down to the Year 1876. Fourth Edition. With Illus-
trations. 8vo. 15s.

LIFE AND COEEESPONDENCE OF DE. AENOLD.

Eleventh Edition. With Portrait. 2 vols. Crown 8vo. 12s.

MEMOIE OF EDWAED, CATHEEES^E, and MAEY

STANLEY. Third Edition. Crown 8vo. 9s.

SEEMONS DUEING A TOUE IN THE EAST, preached

before H.R.H. the Pkince of Wales, with Notices of some of the Localities
visited. Fifth Thousand. 8vo. 95.

SEEMONS PEEACHED IN WESTMINSTEE ABBEY on

Public Occasions. 8vo.

THE BEATITUDES: and other Sermons addressed to

Children in Westminster Abbey. Fcp. 8vo.

JOHN MURRAY, Albemarle Street.

ME. MUEEAY'S LIST

THE MANIFOLD WITNESS FOR CHRIST; being an

Attempt to Exhibit the Combined Force of the Various Evidences, Direct
and Indirect, of Christianity. Part I. — Christianity and Natural Theology.
Part II. — The Positive Evidence of Christianity. By Alfred Barry, D.D.^
Canon of Westminster. 8vo. 12.9.

THE PSALMS OF DAYID. With Notes, Explanatory

and Critical. .By the Dean of Wells, Canon Elliott, and Canon Cook.
Keprinted from 'The Speaker's Commentary.' Medium 8vo. 10c«f. 6^.

THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS ; The Deatli of Christ, Tlie

Worth of Life, and otht-r Essays. By William Thomson, D.D., Lord Arch-
bishop of York. Crown 8vo. 9s.

TEEATISE ON THE AUGUSTINIAN DOCTELS^E OF

PREDP:STINATIO^. By the late J. B. Mozlky, D.D., Canon of Christ
Church, Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford. New Edition. Crown
Svo. 9s.

COMPANIONS FOE THE DEYOUT^LIFE: The St.

James's Lectures, 1875-6. New Edition. Post 8vo. 6s. |

A BOOK OF FAMILY PEAYEES: Selected from the

Liturgy of the English Church. With Preface. By Charles E. Pollock.
16mo. 3s. 6d.

SHOULD THE EEYISED NEW TESTAMENT BE

AUTHORIZED? By Sir Edmund Beckett, Bart., Q.C., Chancellor and
Vicar-General of York. Post Svo.

THE OUTLOOK : a Charge delivered at his Primary

Visitation in November 1881. By A. W. Thorold, Lord Bishop of Rochester.
With a Map. Svo. 25.

THE GOSPEL AND ITS WITNESSES. The Principal

Facts in the Life of Our Lord, and the Authority of the Evangelical Narra-
tives. By Henky Wage, M.A., Preacher of Lincoln's Inn, &c. Crown Svo.

THE CLASSIC PEEACHEES OF THE ENGLISH

CHURCH. Lectures at St. James's, 1877- 2 vols, post 8vo. 7s. 6d. each.
First Series. — Donne, Barrow, South, Beveridge, Wilson, and Butler.
Second Series. — Bull, Horsley, Taylor, Tillotson, Sanderson, and Andrewes.

DEAN HOOK'S CHUECH DICTIONAEY. A Manual of

Reference for Clergymen and Students. Svo. 16s.

THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS TO CHEIST AND

CHRISTIANITY. The Bampton Lectures, 1876. By the Bishop of Derry,
Second Edition, revised and greatly enlarged. Svo. 14s.

JOHN MURRAY, Albemarle Street.

FOURTEEN DAY USE

RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED

1.0AN DEPT

This book is due on the last date stamped below, or

on the date to which renewed.

Rjeaesved books are subject to immediate recall.

'. -.1 i**

18 't)D/

sXpr^sscs:

'-f'^'Tty K^D

jAN,^'r ;y

REC'O \S>

fiPR 3ta5a

29lVlar'60WW

I /I AY 5 - 1966 3

:c r,i .. . I !

»f»iieo

APR 2 5 1960,1)^ 3^

FII VED

UbU25'RF-f3PM

JUN9 I960 N

LOAN DEPT.

RSICH^

illN? 1 960

Ld 21-100m-2,'55
(B139s22)476

General Library _,
University of California
Berkeley

:'A^ ■ -c -- ^'^'

/.| 7";

'.;rft;v

^\\:\ -^-

<^)^!

''■k-<

/^:

'^^TM