1 Corinthians 6:1

Τολμᾷ τις ὑμῶν κ. τ. λ.; “Does any one of you dare?”etc. “notatur læsa majestas Christianorum” (Bg [889]): τολμᾶν, sustinere, non erubescere. This also was matter of common knowledge, like the crime of 1 Corinthians 5:1. The abrupt interrog. marks the outburst of indignant feeling. You treat the Church, the seat of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:16 f.), as though it were without authority or wisdom; you take your case from the highest court to the lowest! So the appellant is first censured; in 1 Corinthians 6:4 the whole Church comes in for blame. Πρᾶγμα (res, negotium), κρίνεσθαι (mid [890]; see parls.), ἐπὶ with gen [891], ἐν (1 Corinthians 6:2), κριτήριον (1 Corinthians 6:2), καθίζω (1 Corinthians 6:4), and perhaps ἥττημα (1 Corinthians 6:7), are all in this passage technical legal expressions. Οἱ ἄδικοι the term applied by the Jews (cf. Galatians 2:15), and then by Christians, to the heathen marks the action censured as self-stultifying to seek for right from “the unrighteous”! P. himself appealed to Roman justice, but never in matters “between brother and brother,” nor in the way of accusing his injurers (Acts 28:19); only in defence of his work. Οἱ ἅγιοι indicates by contrast the moral dignity of Christians (see 1 Corinthians 1:2, and note), a judicial attribute; cf. sanctitas fori (Quintilian, xi., 3. 58). There exists a similar Rabbinical inhibition: “It is forbidden to bring a matter of right before idolatrous judges.… Whosoever goeth before them with a law-suit is impious, and does the same as though he blasphemed and cursed; and hath lifted his hand against the law of Moses our Teacher, blessed be he!” (Shulchan aruch, Choshen hammishpat, 29). The Roman Government allowed the Jews liberty of internal jurisdiction; the Bethdin (house of judgment) was as regular a part of the Israelite economy as the Beth-keneseth (synagogue). In Romans 13:1 ff. P. regards the power of the State from a diff [892] point of view.

[889] Bengel's Gnomon Novi Testamenti.

[890] middle voice.

[891] genitive case.

[892] difference, different, differently.