1 Corinthians 1:1

Παῦλος. We find this name first given to the Apostle in Acts 13:9. His real name was Saul. But it was usual for Jews to have a name of similar sound to their own for use in the Gentile world, as Jason for Joseph, Ἰοῦστος (perhaps) for Ἰησοῦς (Colossians 4:11), and the like. Some have suggested that St Paul took the name in honour of Sergius Paulus, who is mentioned in the same chapter in which the change of name is recorded. This is hardly probable; though it is probable that the name may have at that time suggested itself to the Apostle as suitable (1) from its similarity of sound to Saul, and (2) as falling in with his deep humility. He was wont to style himself the least of the Apostles, and paullus means little.

κλητός. Cf. Romans 1:1; Romans 1:6-7 and especially Romans 8:28 κατὰ πρόθεσιν κλητοῖς. The only other passages in which the word occurs are in this chapter, Matthew 20:16, and Jude 1:1. It is used of any office or character which is of Divine appointment. So the assembly of God’s people is called a κλητὴ� (Exodus 12:16 &c.) as having been called together by His appointment. Cf. κλῆσις, 1 Corinthians 1:26; 1 Corinthians 7:20. ὅρα πῶς εὐθέως ἑκ προοιμίων τὸν τῦφον κατέβαλε, καὶ χαμαὶ ἔῤῥιψε πᾶσαν αὐτῶν τὴν οἴησιν, κλητὸν ἑαυτὸν εἰπών. οὐ γὰρ αὐτὸς εὗρον, φησίν, ὅπερ ἔμαθον, οὐδὲ οἰκείᾳ κατέλαβον σοφίᾳ, ἀλλὰ διώκων καὶ πορθῶν τὴν ἐκκλησίαν, ἐκλήθην. Chrysostom.

ἀπόστολος. This word differs from ἄγγελος chiefly in the fact that the latter has special reference to the message, the former to the messenger. ἄγγελος denotes one who has a message to deliver; ἀπόστολος is used of one who is commissioned to deliver the message, with some reference to the person or persons from whom the message is sent. From the heathen sense of one commissioned by man, we pass on in the N. T. to one commissioned or delegated by God. See Bishop Lightfoot’s note, Ep. to Galatians, p. 92. Also John 17:18.

διὰ θελήματος θεοῦ. St Paul here as elsewhere asserts his Divine commission. This was necessary because a party had arisen which was inclined to dispute it. We read in the Epistle to the Galatians of the ‘false brethren unawares brought in’ whose doctrine he was compelled to withstand and to assert the Divine origin of his own; and in the second Epistle to the Corinthians we find many allusions to those who rejected his authority, as in ch. 1 Corinthians 3:1; 1 Corinthians 5:12; 1 Corinthians 10:2; 1 Corinthians 10:7; 1 Corinthians 10:10, and the whole of Chapter s 11 and 12. They no doubt laid much stress on the fact that St Paul had not received the call of Christ as the Twelve had (see notes on ch. 9), and also on the different complexion his doctrine, though in substance the same, necessarily bore, from the fact that it was mainly addressed to Gentiles and not to Jews. It is worthy of remark that in the two Epistles to the Thessalonians, written before the controversy arose, no such clause is found, while after the commencement of the dispute the words or some equivalent to them are only absent from one Epistle addressed to a church.

Σωσθένης ὁ�. Literally, the brother. He was probably not the Sosthenes mentioned in Acts 18:17, who was an opponent of the faith, but some one well known to the churches in the Apostolic age. Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. I. 12, mentions a report that he was one of the Seventy.