1 Corinthians 10:1,2

“Indeed, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.”

The connecting particle δέ, then, in the T. R. would indicate a gradation which the preceding remarks easily explain: “And there is more here than a simple figure, such as that of the games.” This reading is therefore quite suitable; the other, found in the Alex. and Greco-Latins, γάρ, for, is also suitable; the for bears especially on the last idea of the foregoing verse, the being found worthy of rejection. “And indeed the danger exists; what happened to our fathers is the proof of it.” This second connection is simpler.

In saying: I would not that ye should be ignorant, the apostle would not insinuate that they do not know the account of the exodus from Egypt; he means that he is afraid they do not sufficiently understand the meaning and bearing of the events to which he here refers.

Meyer has concluded from the expression: our fathers, that Paul is here speaking as a Jew, and in the name of Jewish Christians. But by the address: brethren, he has just comprehended the whole Church in one and the same body. He therefore sees in the Christian Church the outgrowth of the ancient Israelitish community. Indeed, according to Romans, chaps. 4 and 11, the Church is grafted on the patriarchal trunk; and, in virtue of this spiritual relation, the fathers of the Jewish people are also those of the Christian household.

The prominent place which he gives to the word πάντες, all, as well as its repetition in 1 Corinthians 10:2-4 (five times), show that we have here the essential idea of the passage: “Those people who almost all perished, began with being all blessed of the Lord.” This is the counterpart of 1 Corinthians 9:24: “All run, but one obtains the prize.”

The verb in the imperfect, ἦσαν, were, denotes a state which is prolonged, while the crossing of the Red Sea having been an event of the day is denoted by the aorist (διῆλθον).

The preposition ὑπό, under, is construed with the accusative, because it has not merely a local sense here, but expresses the moral notion of protection: they were under the shelter of the Divine presence manifested by the cloud.

Vv. 2. After stating the fact, this verse indicates its religious signification and bearing; it was a true baptism which was conferred on them all. As the baptized person enters the water and receives the sprinkling on his head, and as this water by the sacramental words becomes to him the pledge of salvation, so the Israelites, placed under the cloud and crossing the sea, possessed the visible pledge of Divine blessing and salvation. This miraculous crossing separated them thenceforth from Egypt, the place of bondage and idolatry, exactly as the believer's baptism separates him from his former life of condemnation and sin. In this parallel there is no petty and Rabbinical typology; everything is well grounded from the moral point of view. The material water did not play any part in the passage of the Red Sea: it is not said either that it rained from the cloud on the Israelites, or that they had their feet plunged in the water. The crossing was to them as baptism is to the believer, the threshold of salvation. This spiritual analogy is expressed by Paul in the words: and were all baptized into Moses. By following their God-given leader with confidence at that critical moment, they were closely united to, and, as it were, incorporated with Moses to become his people, in the same way as Christians in being baptized on the ground of faith in Christ become part of the same plant with Him (Romans 6:3-5); they are thenceforth His body.

There is room for hesitation between the two readings ἐβαπτίσαντο (the middle), they had themselves baptized, and the passive ἐβαπτίσθησαν, they were baptized. In favour of the middle form, it can be said that the copyists could easily have substituted for it the passive form, which is more generally used in the New Testament in speaking of Christian baptism. Then the apostle required to bring out in this context the idea of faith in Moses as the active principle of the conduct of the Israelites.

Here, probably, with the words of the Old Testament, of which the apostle is thinking, we have the only passage of Scripture in which a man is presented as the object of faith; comp. Exodus 14:31: “And they believed the Lord, and His servant Moses.” No doubt faith, according to the scriptural view, can only have a Divine object, God Himself, His word, His promises, His work; but when a servant of God is absolutely identified with the Divine will and work, as Moses was, then the absolute confidence which attaches to that which is Divine may also be extended to him. Without faith in the Divine mission of Moses, Israel would not have followed him to the wilderness.

The preposition ἐν has rather the instrumental sense (by) than the local (in).

But the Jews not only received a baptism, they partook also of a Holy Supper: