1 Corinthians 5:1

Ὅλως ἀκούεται κ. τ. λ.: “There is actually fornication heard of amongst you!” No wonder that the father of the Church is compelled to show the “rod” (1 Corinthians 4:21). Not ἀκούω, as in 1 Corinthians 11:18, but the impersonal ἀκούεται (cf. ἠκούσθη, Mark 2:1), indicating common report in the Church (ἐν ὑμῖν), and (ὅλως : see parls.) undoubted fact. Πορνεία signifies any immoral sexual relation, whether including (as in Matthew 5:32) or distinguished from (Matthew 15:19) μοιχεία.

The sin is branded as of unparalleled blackness by the description, καὶ τοιαύτη πορνεία ἥτις κ. τ. λ.: “Yes, and a fornication of such sort” the καί climactic “as (there is) not even among the Gentiles!” While mere πορνεία was excused not to say approved in heathen society, even by strict moralists, such foulness was abominated. Of this crime the loose Catullus says (76. 4): “Nam nihil est quidquam sceleris quo prodeat ultra”; and Cicero, pro Cluent., 6, 15: “scelus incredibile, et prseter hanc unam in omni vita inauditum”; Euripides' Hippolytus speaks for Gr [802] sentiment. Greek and Roman law both stamped it with infamy; for Jewish law, see Leviticus 18:7 f., Deuteronomy 22:30 also Genesis 49:4. ἥτις, of quality (as in 1 Corinthians 3:17), in place of the regular correlative οἵα (1 Corinthians 15:48). Neither ὀνομάζεται (T.R.) nor ἀκούεται is understood in the ellipsis, simply ἐστίν “such as does not exist”; the exceptional heathen instances are such as to prove the rule. The actual sin is finally stated: ὥστε γυναῖκά τινα κ. τ. λ., “as that one (or a certain one) should have a wife of his father”. ἥτις defines the quality, ὥστε (with inf [803]) the content and extent of the πορνεία. γυν. τοῦ πατρός (instead of μητρυίαν) is the term of Leviticus 18:8. ἔχειν indicates a continued association, whether in the way of formal marriage or not; nor does ἔργον (1 Corinthians 5:2), nor κατεργασάμενον (1 Corinthians 5:3), make clear this latter point. That “the father” was living is not proved by the ἀδικηθεὶς of 2 Corinthians 7:12; P. can hardly have referred to this foul immorality in the language of 2 Corinthians 2:5-11; 2 Corinthians 7:8-12; the “grief” and “wrong” of those passages are probably quite diff [804] The woman was not a Christian, for Paul passes no sentence upon her; see 1 Corinthians 5:13.

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

[803] infinitive mood.

[804] difference, different, differently.