“Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by call, through the will of God, and Sosthenes the brother.” The addresses of Paul's letters are generally drawn on the type of the ancient address: N. to N., greeting! Comp. Acts 23:26. Paul does not confine himself to translating this received form into Christian... [ Continue Reading ]
“To the Church of God, the sanctified in Christ Jesus, which is at Corinth, saints by call, with all that in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is theirs and ours.” The term ἐκκλησία, _Church_, formed of the two words, ἐκ, _out of_, and καλεῖν, _to call_, denotes in ordinar... [ Continue Reading ]
“Grace and peace be unto you, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ!” This prayer is the Christian paraphrase of two salutations, the Greek (χαίρειν, Acts 23:26) and the Hebrew (“Peace be to thee”). _ Grace_ is the Divine good will, bending compassionately toward the sinner to pardon... [ Continue Reading ]
“I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you in Jesus Christ; 5. That in everything ye were enriched in Him, in every kind of utterance, and in every kind of knowledge; 6. Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you.” On account of the severity of the rebu... [ Continue Reading ]
THE THANKSGIVING. 1:4-9. The Epistle to the Galatians is the only one in which the apostle passes directly from the address to the handling of his subject, without interposing a thanksgiving. This is due to the tone of abrupt and severe rebuke which characterizes the beginning of the letter. In his... [ Continue Reading ]
With the meaning of the word _grace_, which we have rejected, ὅτι would require to be translated by _in that._ But if we take the word _grace_ in the most general sense, ὅτι should be translated by “ _seeing that_,” or “ _because._ ” Indeed, there is here a new fact proving the reality of the preced... [ Continue Reading ]
This verse may be understood in two ways: some (Meyer, Edwards, etc.) regard it as indicating the _cause_ of that abundance of gifts which has just been mentioned. They then apply the term ἐβεβαιώθη, _was confirmed_, or rather _affirmed_, to an internal fact: “in consequence of the depth and firmnes... [ Continue Reading ]
VV. 7. “So that ye come behind in no gift, waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.” In the explanation of the preceding verse, which we have rejected, the ὥστε, _so that_, is made to refer to the verb ἐβεβαιώθη of 1 Corinthians 1:6: “Your faith was confirmed in such a way, that in conse... [ Continue Reading ]
“Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9. God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.” The pron. ὅς, _who_, refers of course to the person of _Jesus Christ_ (1 Corinthians 1:7). But thi... [ Continue Reading ]
The asyndeton between the preceding verse and this arises from the fact that the latter is only the emphasized reaffirmation, in another form, of the same idea: the faithfulness of God, as the pledge of the confirmation of believers in their attachment to the gospel. The assurance here expressed by... [ Continue Reading ]
“Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.” The δέ is not adversative: it is the transition particle by which Paul... [ Continue Reading ]
BODY OF THE EPISTLE. 1:10-15:58. I. The Parties in the Church of corinth. 1:10-4:21. EWALD has well stated the reason why the apostle puts this subject first, of all those he has to treat in his Epistle. He must assert his apostolical position in view of the whole Church, before giving them the n... [ Continue Reading ]
“For it hath been signified unto me concerning you, my brethren, by them which are of the household of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. 12. Now this I mean, that each one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ.” At the moment of enumerating these... [ Continue Reading ]
Calvin has translated, “I say this _because_...;” but it is more natural to make the τοῦτο, _this_, refer to the following ὅτι : “When I speak of contentions, _I mean this that_...” The phrase, _Every one of you saith_, is of course inexact; for every member of the Church did not pronounce the four... [ Continue Reading ]
“Is the Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you, or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?” Several editors (Lachmann, Westcott, and Hort) and commentators (Meyer, Beet) make the first proposition an indignant affirmation: “Christ then among you is rent, lacerated!” But the transition to the follo... [ Continue Reading ]
“I thank God that I baptized none of you but Crispus and Gaius, 15. lest any should say that ye were baptized in my name. 16. I baptized also the household of Stephanas; besides, I know not whether I baptized any other.” Paul's thanksgiving proves that there had been no calculation on his part, when... [ Continue Reading ]
The ἵνα, _that_, refers to the intention of God, who has so ordered the course of things. It is possible to defend both readings, that of the Alexandrine and that of T. R. The first, _ye were baptized_, might be taken from 1 Corinthians 1:15, or be intended to avoid the monotonous repetition of the... [ Continue Reading ]
The apostle all of a sudden recollects a third exception. Stephanas was one of the three deputies from Corinth who were with Paul precisely at that time. By the words, _besides I know not_..., Paul guards against any omission arising from a new slip of memory. Those who make the inspiration of the... [ Continue Reading ]
“For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel; not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.” Between 1 Corinthians 1:16-17 the logical connection is this, “If I baptized, it was only exceptionally; for this function was not the object of my commiss... [ Continue Reading ]
2. THE NATURE OF THE GOSPEL. 1:18-3:4. The gospel in its essence is not a _wisdom_, a philosophical system; it is a salvation. It is this thesis, summarily formulated in the second part of 1 Corinthians 1:17, which the apostle proceeds to develop in the following passage. We have already pointed ou... [ Continue Reading ]
THE GOSPEL IS NOT A WISDOM 1:18-2:5. Such, strictly speaking, is the truth which Paul is called to expound to the Corinthians. He demonstrates it to them: 1. By the irrational character of the central fact of the gospel, the cross: 1 Corinthians 1:18-25. 2. By the mode of gaining members to, and... [ Continue Reading ]
“For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.” The _for_ announces the proof of the assertion (1 Corinthians 1:17): that to preach the gospel as a word of wisdom would be to destroy its very essence. The antithesis of the wor... [ Continue Reading ]
“For it is written: I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will set aside the understanding of the prudent.” Isaiah, Isaiah 29:14, had declared at the time when Sennacherib was threatening Judah, that the deliverance granted by Jehovah to His people would be His work, not that of the able polit... [ Continue Reading ]
“Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?” This exclamatory form has the same triumphant tone as in the words of Isaiah of which our passage seems to be an imitation (Isaiah 19:12; Isaiah 33:18); comp. in Paul himse... [ Continue Reading ]
“For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” The γάρ, _for_, does not signify, as Edwards thinks, that the apostle is proceeding to expound the manner in which God has punished wisdom; it introduces... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _For indeed_ the Jews require signs, and the Greeks seek after wisdom; 23. but we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto the Gentiles foolishness.” This second ἐπειδή, _for indeed_, should, according to Meyer and Kling, begin a new sentence, the main proposition of whic... [ Continue Reading ]
“But unto those [_of them_] which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.” The αὐτοῖς δέ forcibly separates the called, Jews and Gentiles, from the mass of their fellow-countrymen, while identifying them with it so far as their past life was concerned: “But... [ Continue Reading ]
“Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” The neuter adjectives, τὸ μωρόν, τὸ ἀσθενές, do not denote qualities belonging to the being of God Himself, but certain categories of Divine manifestations having the two characters mentioned. If one d... [ Continue Reading ]
“For see your calling, brethren, there are among you not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble.” This mode of recruiting the Church confirms the conclusion drawn above from the nature of the gospel. Hence the γάρ, _in fact_, which is certainly the true reading. It was not t... [ Continue Reading ]
“But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; 28. and base things of the world, and things which are despised, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are; 29. that... [ Continue Reading ]
῞Οπως, _that thus._ This conjunction denotes the _final_ end with a view to which all the preceding ἵνα, _that_, indicated only means. The negative μή, according to a well-known Hebraism, applies to the verb only, and not at the same time to the subject _all flesh;_ for Paul does not mean to say tha... [ Continue Reading ]
“But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who, on the part of God, has been made unto us wisdom, as also righteousness and sanctification and redemption; 31. that, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.” Rückert, with his usual precision, asks whether the thought expresse... [ Continue Reading ]
In 1 Corinthians 1:29 all human glorying has been declared to be excluded; in this, the apostle invites the new people, the wise and mighty whom God has raised up by preaching, to strike up a song of praise, but of praise relating to God alone. The term κύριος, _Lord_, in the passage of Jeremiah 9:... [ Continue Reading ]