1 Corinthians 11:29

Participation in the bread and cup is itself a δοκιμασία : “For he that eats and drinks, a judgment for himself (sentence on himself) he eats and drinks”. The single art [1782] of ὁ ἐσθίων καὶ πίνων, combining the acts, negatives the R.C [1783] inference from the ἢ of 1 Corinthians 11:27 (see note). Contact with Christ in this ordinance probes each man to the depths (cf. John 3:18 f., John 9:39); it is true of the Lord's verbum visibile, as of His verbum audibile, that he who receives it ἔχει τὸν κρίνοντα αὐτόν (John 12:48). His attitude toward the Lord at His table revealed with shocking evidence the spiritual condition of many a Cor [1784] Christian his carnality and blindness as one “not distinguishing the body”. The two senses given by interpreters to διακρίνω are, as Hn [1785] says, somewhat blended here (“Beruht jedes Urtheilen auf Ent scheiden und Unter scheiden”), as in dijudicans (Vg [1786]): one “discerns (judges clearly and rightly of) the (Lord's) body” in the sacrament and therein “discriminates” the rite from all other eating and drinking precisely what the Cor [1787] failed to do (1 Corinthians 11:20 ff.). They did not descry the signified in the sign, the Incarnate and Crucified in His memorial loaf and cup, and their Supper became a mere vulgar matter of meat and drink. This ordinance exposed them for what they were σαρκικοί (1 Corinthians 3:3). τὸ σῶμα (cf. 1 Corinthians 11:24 ff.) a reverent aposiopesis, resembling ἡ ἡμέρα in 1 Corinthians 3:13 (see note); the explanation of some Lutherans, that τὸ σῶμα means “the substance” underlying the material element, is foreign to the context and to Apostolic times. On “the serious doctrinal question” as to what the unfaithful receive in the sacrament, see El [1788] ad loc [1789] Distinguish κρίμα (unhappily rendered “damnation” in A.V.), a judicial sentence of any kind, from κατάκριμα, the final condemnation of the sinner (32; Romans 5:16).

[1782] grammatical article.

[1783] Roman Catholic.

[1784] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.

[1785] C. F. G. Heinrici's Erklärung der Korintherbriefe (1880), or 1 Korinther in Meyer's krit.-exegetisches Kommentar (1896).

[1786] Latin Vulgate Translation.

[1787] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.

[1788] C. J. Ellicott's St. Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians.

[1789] ad locum, on this passage.