1 Corinthians 3:6-7

The grammatical obj [500] of this sentence has been given by the foregoing context, viz., the Cor [501] Church of believers (cf. 1 Corinthians 4:15). φυτεύω Paul uses besides only in 1 Corinthians 9:7; his regular metaphor in this connexion is that of 1 Corinthians 3:10. “Planting” and “watering” happily picture the relative services of P. and Ap. Ποτίζω, to give drink, to irrigate, may have for obj [502] men (1 Corinthians 3:2; 1 Corinthians 12:13, etc.), animals (Luke 13:15), or plants. In 1 Corinthians 3:2, Paul was the ποτίζων γάλα. The vb [503] takes a double acc [504], of person and thing (Wr [505], p. 284). The ἀλλὰ of the last clause goes beyond a mere contrast (δέ) between God and men in their several parts, excluding the latter from the essential part: “but God He only, and no other made it to grow”. The planting and watering of Christ's servants were occasions for the exercise of God's vitalising energy. While the former vbs. are aor [506], gathering up the work of the two ministers into single successive acts, ηὔξανεν is impf [507] of continued activity: “God was (all the while) making it to grow.” Several of the Ff [508] Aug [509] e.g. saw in ποτίζειν the baptism, in φυτεύειν the instruction of catechumens, “illustrating a general fault of patristic exegesis, the endeavour to attach a technical sense to words in the N.T. which had not yet acquired this meaning” (Lt [510]). ὥστε, itaque (and so, so then), with ind [511] (cf. 1 Corinthians 7:38; 1 Corinthians 11:27; 1 Corinthians 14:22), points out a result immediately flowing from what has been said: “the planter” and “the waterer,” in comparison with “the Lord” who dispensed their powers and “God” who makes their plants to grow, are reduced to nothing; “God who gives the growth” (qui dat vim crescendi, Bz [512]) alone remains. To the subject, ὁ αὐξάνων Θεός, the predicate τὰ πάντα ἐστὶν is tacitly supplied from the negative clauses foregoing. For ἐστίν τι (anything of moment), cf. Galatians 2:6; Galatians 6:3; Acts 5:36, and note on τὶ εἰδέναι, 1 Corinthians 2:2. The pr [513] ptp [514] with ὁ becomes, virtually, a (timeless) substantive the planter, waterer, Increaser (Wr [515], p. 444).

[500] grammatical object.

[501] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.

[502] grammatical object.

[503] verb

[504] accusative case.

[505] Winer-Moulton's Grammar of N.T. Greek (8th ed., 1877).

[506] aorist tense.

[507]mpf. imperfect tense.

[508] Fathers.

[509] Augustine.

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

[511] indicative mood.

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

[513] present tense.

[514] participle

[515] Winer-Moulton's Grammar of N.T. Greek (8th ed., 1877).