1 Corinthians 3:5

The Cor [491] Christians were quarrelling over the claims of their teachers, as though the Church were the creature of men: “What therefore (I am compelled to ask) is Apollos? what, on the other side (δέ), is Paul?” τί is more emphatic than τίς; it breathes disdain; “as though Apollos or Paul were anything!” (Lt [492]). Abollos precedes, in continuation of 1 Corinthians 3:4. For both, the question is answered in one word διάκονοι, “non autores fidei vestræ, sed ministri duntaxat” (Er [493]); cf. 2 Corinthians 1:24; 2 Corinthians 4:5.: ὁ Κύριος in the next clause is its antithesis. Paul calls himself διάκονος in view of specific service rendered (2 Corinthians 3:6; 2 Corinthians 6:4, etc.), but δοῦλος in his personal relation to Christ (Galatians 1:10, etc.). “Through whose ministration you believed:” per quos, non in quos (Bg [494] : cf. 1 Corinthians 1:15). To “believe” is the decisive act which makes a Christian (see 1 Corinthians 1:21); for the relation of saving faith to the Apostolic testimony, cf. 1 Corinthians 15:1-11; 2 Corinthians 1:18-22, etc. Some Cor [495] had been converted through Apollos.

[491] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.

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

[493] Erasmus' In N.T. Annotationes.

[494] Bengel's Gnomon Novi Testamenti.

[495] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.

The above-named are servants, each with his specific gift: καὶ ἑκάστῳ ὡς ὁ Κύρ. κ. τ. λ., “and in each case, (servants in such sort) as the Lord bestowed (on him)”. ἑκάστῳ is emphatically projected before the ὡς; cf. 1 Corinthians 7:17; Romans 12:3. The various disposition of Divine gifts in and for the Church is the topic of ch. 12. “The Lord” is surely Christ, as regularly in Paul's dialect, “through whom are all things” (1Co 8:6, 1 Corinthians 12:5; Ephesians 4:7-12, etc.) the sovereign Dispenser in the House of God; from “Jesus our Lord” (1 Corinthians 9:1) P. received his own commission; the Apostolic preachers are alike “ministers of Christ” (1 Corinthians 4:1): so Thp [496], Rückert, Bt [497], Gd [498] However, Cm [499], and most modern exegetes, see God in ὁ Κύριος on account of 1 Corinthians 3:6-9; but the relation of this ver. to the sequel is just that of the διʼ αὐτοῦ to the ἐξ αὐτοῦ τὰ πάντα of 1 Corinthians 8:6; cf. note on ἐξ αὐτοῦ, 1 Corinthians 1:30; and for the general principle, Matthew 25:14 ff.

[496] Theophylact, Greek Commentator.

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

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

[499] John Chrysostom's Homiliœ († 407).