1 Corinthians 1:26

Βλέπετε γὰρ τὴν κλῆσιν ὑμῶν, ἀδελφοί, “For look at your calling, brothers”: God has called you into the fellowship of His Son (1 Corinthians 1:9); if His Gospel had been a grand philosophy, would He have addressed it to fools, weaklings, base-born, like most of you? P.'s experience in this respect resembled his Master's (Matthew 11:25; John 7:47-49; Acts 4:13). This argument cuts two ways: it lowers the conceit of the readers (cf. 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, and the scathing irony of 1 Corinthians 4:7-13), while it discloses the true mission of the Gospel. On κλῆσιν see the note to κλητοῖς (1 Corinthians 1:2), also on 1 Corinthians 7:20 : it signifies not one's temporal vocation in the order of Providence, but one's summons to enter the kingdom of Grace; ὑμῶν is objective gen [241] For τ. κλῆσιν ὅτι, see note on ὅτι, 1 Corinthians 1:5. οὐ πολλοί (thrice repeated) suggests at least a few of each class amongst the readers: see Introd., p. 730. οὐ πολλοὶ σοφοί : “hinc Athenis numero tam exiguo lucrifacti sunt homines” (Bg [242]). σοφοὶ is qualified by κατὰ σάρκα (see parls., and cf. σοφία σαρκική, 2 Corinthians 1:12), in view of the distinction worked out in § 4 between the world's and God's wisdom: the contrast implied resembles that between ἡ κατὰ Θεὸν λύπη and ἡ τοῦ κόσμου λύπη in 2 Corinthians 7:9 ff. The “wise after the flesh” include not only philosophers (1 Corinthians 1:20), “but educated men in general, the πεπαιδευμένοι as opposed to the ἰδιῶται. The δυνατοὶ were men of rank and political influence, opp [243] to δῆμος. The εὐγενεῖς meant, in the aristocratic ages of Greece, men of high descent;” but in later degenerate times “men whose ancestors were virtuous and wealthy, the honesti as opposed to the humiliores of the Empire. Few intellectual men, few politicians, few of the better class of free citizens embraced Christianity” (Ed [244]). In a Roman colony and capital, the εὐγενεῖς would chiefly be men of hereditary citizenship, like P. himself; the δυνατοί, persons associated with Government and in a position to influence affairs; the former word is applied in an ethical sense to the Berœan Jews in Acts 17:11. “That the majority of the first converts from heathenism were either slaves or freedmen, appears from their names” (Lt [245]); the inscriptions of the Catacombs confirm this. The low social status of the early Christians was the standing reproach of hostile critics, and the boast of Apologists: see the famous passage in Tacitus' Annals, xv., 44; Justin., Apol., ii. 9; Origen, contra Celsum, ii., 79; Minuc. Felix, vii., 12 (indocti, impoliti, rudes, agrestes). As time went on and Christianity penetrated the higher ranks of society, these words became less strictly true: see Pliny's Ep. ad Trajanum, x., 97, and the cases of Flavius Clemens and Domitilla, cousins of the emperor Domitian (Ed [246]), The ellipsis of predicate to οὐ πολλοί κ. τ. λ. is commonly filled up by understanding ἐκλήθησαν, as implied in κλῆσιν : “not many wise, etc. (were called)”. Mr [247], Bt [248], and others, supply εἰσίν, or preferably ἐστέ : “(there are) not many wise, etc. (among you),” or “not many (of you are) wise, etc.”; the omission of ὑμεῖς courteously veils the disparagement.

[241] genitive case.

[242] Bengel's Gnomon Novi Testamenti.

[243] opposite, opposition.

[244] T. C. Edwards' Commentary on the First Ep. to the Corinthians.

[245] J. B. Lightfoot's (posthumous) Notes on Epp. of St. Paul (1895).

[246] T. C. Edwards' Commentary on the First Ep. to the Corinthians.

[247] Meyer's Critical and Exegetical Commentary (Eng. Trans.).

[248] J. A. Beet's St. Paul's Epp. to the Corinthians (1882).