1 Corinthians 1:30

ἐξ αὐτοῦ δὲ ὑμεῖς ἐστε ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ : is ἐν Χ. Ἰησοῦ or ἐξ αὐτοῦ (sc. τοῦ Θεοῦ) the predicate to ἐστέ ? Does P. mean, “It comes of Him (God) that you are in Christ Jesus” i.e., “Your Christian status is due to God” (so Mr [256], Hn [257], Bt [258], Ed [259], Gd [260], El [261])? or, “It is in Christ Jesus that you are of Him” “Your new life derived from God is grounded in Christ” (Gr [262] Ff [263], Cv [264], Bz [265], Rückert, Hf [266], Lt [267])? The latter interpretation suits the order of words and the trend of thought (see Lt [268]): “ You, whom the world counts as nothing (1 Corinthians 1:26 ff.: note the contrastive δέ), are of Him before whom all human glory vanishes (1 Corinthians 1:29); in Christ this Divine standing is yours”. Thus Paul exalts those whom he had abased. The conception of the Christian estate as “of God,” if Johannine, is Pauline too (cf. 1 Corinthians 8:6; 1 Corinthians 10:12 1 Corinthians 12:6, 2 Corinthians 4:6; 2 Corinthians 5:18, etc.), and lies in Paul's fundamental appropriation, after Jesus, of God as πατὴρ ἡμῶν (1 Corinthians 1:4, and passim), and in the correlative doctrine of the υἱοθεσία; the whole passage (1 Corinthians 1:18-29) is dominated by the thought of the Divine initiative in salvation. This derivation from God is not further defined, as in Galatians 3:26; enough to state the grand fact, and to ground it “in Christ Jesus” (see note, 1 Corinthians 1:4).

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

[257] C. F. G. Heinrici's Erklärung der Korintherbriefe (1880), or 1 Korinther in Meyer's krit.-exegetisches Kommentar (1896).

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

[259] T. C. Edwards' Commentary on the First Ep. to the Corinthians. 2

[260] F. Godet's Commentaire sur la prem. Ép. aux Corinthiens (Eng. Trans.).

[261] C. J. Ellicott's St. Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians.

[262] Greek, or Grotius' Annotationes in N.T.

[263] Fathers.

[264] Calvin's In Nov. Testamentum Commentarii.

[265] Beza's Nov. Testamentum: Interpretatio et Annotationes (Cantab., 1642).

[266] J. C. K. von Hofmann's Die heilige Schrift N.T. untersucht, ii. 2 (2te Auflage, 1874).

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

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

The relative clause, “who was made wisdom,” etc., unfolds the content of the life communicated “to us from God” in Christ. Of the four defining complements to ἐγενήθη ἡμῖν, σοφία stands by itself, with the other three attached by way of definition “wisdom from God, viz., both righteousness, etc.”; Mr [269], Al [270], Gd [271], however, read the four as coordinate. On σοφία the whole debate, from 1 Corinthians 1:17 onwards, hinges: we have seen how God turned the world's wisdom to folly (1 Corinthians 1:20-25); now He did this not for the pleasure of it, but for our salvation to establish His own wisdom (1 Corinthians 1:24), and to bestow it upon us in Christ (“us” means Christians collectively cf. 1 Corinthians 1:17 while “you” meant the despised Cor [272] Christians, 1 Corinthians 1:26). This wisdom (how diff [273] from the other! See 1 Corinthians 1:19; 1 Corinthians 1:19; James 3:15 ff.) comes as sent “from God” (ἀπὸ of ultimate source: ἐξ of direct derivation). It is a vitalising moral force δύναμις καὶ σοφία (1 Corinthians 1:24) taking the shape of δικαιοσύνη τε καὶ ἁγιασμός, and signally contrasted in its spiritual reality and regenerating energy with the σοφία λόγου and σοφία τ. κόσμου, after which the Cor [274] hankered. Righteousness and Sanctification are allied “by their theological affinity” (El [275]): cf. note on 1 Corinthians 6:11, and Romans 6 passim hence the double copula τε … καί; καὶ ἀπολύτρωσις follows at a little distance (so Lt [276], Hn [277], Ed [278]; who adduce numerous cl [279] parls. to this use of the Gr [280] conjunctions): “who was made wisdom to us from God viz., both righteousness and sanctification, and redemption”. δικαιοσύνη carries with it, implicitly, the Pauline doctrine of Justification by faith in the dying, risen Christ (see 1 Corinthians 6:11, and other parls.; esp., for Paul's teaching at Cor [281], 2 Corinthians 5:21). With the righteousness of the believer justified in Christ sanctification (or consecration) is concomitant (see note on the kindred terms in 2); the connexion of chh. 5 and 6 in Rom. expounds this τε … καί; all δικαιοσύνη ἐν Χριστῷ is εἰς ἁγιασμόν. (Vbl. nouns in - μός denote primarily a process, then the resulting state.) Ἀπολύτρωσις (based on the λύτρον of Matthew 20:28; 1 Timothy 2:6, with ἀπὸ of separation, release), deliverance by ransom, is the widest term of the three “primum Christi donum quod inchoatur in nobis, et ultimum quod perficitur” (Cv [282]); it looks backward to the cross (1 Corinthians 1:18), by whose blood we “were bought” for God (1 Corinthians 6:19), so furnishing the ground both of justification (Romans 3:24) and sanctification (Hebrews 10:10), and forward to the resurrection and glorification of the saints, whereby Christ secures His full purchased rights in them (Romans 8:23; Ephesians 1:14; Ephesians 4:30); thus Redemption covers the entire work of salvation, indicating the essential and just means of its accomplishment (see Cr [283] on λύτρον and derivatives).

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

[270] Alford's Greek Testament.

[271] F. Godet's Commentaire sur la prem. Ép. aux Corinthiens (Eng. Trans.).

[272] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.

[273] difference, different, differently.

[274] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.

[275] C. J. Ellicott's St. Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians.

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

[277] C. F. G. Heinrici's Erklärung der Korintherbriefe (1880), or 1 Korinther in Meyer's krit.-exegetisches Kommentar (1896).

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

[279] classical.

[280] Greek, or Grotius' Annotationes in N.T.

[281] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.

[282] Calvin's In Nov. Testamentum Commentarii.

[283] Cremer's Biblico-Theological Lexicon of N.T. Greek (Eng. Trans.).