1 Corinthians 1:5

ὅτι κ. τ. λ. stands in explicative apposition to the foregoing τ. χάριτι τ. δοθείσῃ, bringing out the matter of thanksgiving eminent in the conversion of the Cor [75] “(I mean), that in everything you were enriched,” etc. For this defining ὅτι after a vbl [76] noun, cf. 1 Corinthians 1:26 and 2 Corinthians 1:8. The affluence of endowment conferred on the Cor [77] stirred the Apostle's deep gratitude (cf. 1 Corinthians 1:7; 2 Corinthians 8:9): this wealth appears in another light in 1 Corinthians 4:6-10; 1 Corinthians 5:2; 1 Corinthians 8:1-3; see also Introd., p. 730 f. The Church doubtless dwelt upon this distinction in its recent letter, to which P. is replying. ἐν παντὶ is defined, and virtually limited, by ἐν παντὶ λόγῳ καὶ πάσῃ γνώσει (kindred gifts, linked by the single prp [78]): the exuberance of grace in the Cor [79] shone “in all (manner of) utterance and all (manner of) knowledge”. λόγος in this connexion signifies not the thing said (as in 18), but the saying of it, loquendi facultas (Bz [80]). “Relatively to γνῶσις, λόγος is the ability and readiness to say what one understands; γν. the power and ability to understand ” (Hn [81]). “Knowledge” would naturally precede; but the Cor [82] excelled and delighted in “speech” above all: see 1 Corinthians 2:1-4; 1 Corinthians 2:13; 1 Corinthians 4:19 f., 1 Corinthians 13:1.

[75] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.

[76] verbal.

[77] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.

[78] preposition.

[79] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.

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

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

[82] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.