1 Corinthians 1:1

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PAUL THE APOSTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS.

Chronological Notes relative to this Epistle.

-Year of the Constantinopolitan era of the world, as used by the emperors of the east in their diplomata, c., and thence also called the "civil era of the Greeks," 5564

-Year of the Alexandrian era of the world, or Greek ecclesiastical epocha, 5558.

-Year of the Antiochian era of the world, 5548.

-Year of the Eusebian epocha of the creation, or that used in the Chronicon of Eusebius, and the Roman Martyrology, 4284.

-Year of the Julian period, 4764.

-Year of the Usherian era of the world, or that used in the English Bibles, 4060.

-Year of the minor Jewish era of the world, 3816.

-Year of the greater Rabbinical era of the world, 4415.

-Year since the Deluge, according to Archbishop Usher and the English Bible, 2404.

-Year of the Cali Yuga, or Indian era of the Deluge, 3158.

-Year of the Iphitus, or since the first commencement of the Olympic games, 996.

-Year of the two hundred and eighth Olympiad, 4.

-Year from the building of Rome, according to Fabius Pictor, who flourished in the time of the first Punic war, and who is styled by Dionysius of Halicarnassus an accurate writer, 803. (This epoch is used by Diodorus Siculus.)

-Year from the building of Rome, according to Polybius, 807.

-Year from the building of Rome, according to Cato and the Fasti Consulares and adopted by Solinus, Eusebius, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, c., 808.

-Year from the building of Rome according to Varro, which was that adopted by the Roman emperors in their proclamations, by Plutarch, Tacitus, Dio Cassius, Gellius, Censorinus, Onuphrius, Baronius, and by most modern chronologers, 809. N. B. Livy, Cicero, Pliny, and Vellcius Paterculus, fluctuate between the Varronian and Catonian computations.

-Year of the epocha of Nabonassar, king of Babylon, or that used by Hipparchus, by Ptolemy in his astronomical observations, by Censorinus and others, 803. (The years of this era constantly contained 365 days, so that 1460 Julian were equal to 1461 Nabonassarean years. This epoch began on Feb. 26th, B. C. 747 and consequently, the commencement of the 803d year of the era of Nabonassar corresponded to the IVth of the Ides of August, A. D. 55.)

-Year of the era of the Seleucidae, or since Seleucus, one of the generals of Alexander's army, took Babylon, and ascended the Asiatic throne; sometimes called the Grecian era, and the era of Principalities, in reference to the division of Alexander's empire, 368.

-Year of the Caesarean era of Antioch, 104.

-Year of the Julian era, or since the calendar of Numa Pompilius was reformed by Julius Caesar, 101.

-Year of the Spanish era, or since the second division of the Roman provinces among the Triumviri, 94. (This epoch continued in use among the Spaniards till A. D. 1383, and among the Portuguese till about A. D. 1422.)

-Year since the defeat of Pompey, by Julius Caesar, at Pharsalia in Thessaly, called by Catrou and Rouille, the commencement of the Roman empire, 104.

-Year of the Actiac, or Actian era, or proper epocha of the Roman empire, commencing with the defeat of Antony by Augustus at Actium, 80.

-Year from the birth of Jesus Christ, 60.

-Year of the vulgar era of Christ's nativity, 56.

-Year of the Dionysian period, or Easter Cycle, 57.

-Common Golden Number, or year of the Grecian or Metonic Cycle of 19 years, 19, or the seventh Embolismic.

-Jewish Golden Number, or year of the Rabbinical Cycle of 19 years, 16, or the second after the fifth Embolismic.

-Year of the Solar Cycle, 9.

-Dominical Letters, it being Bissextile or Leap-year, DC; D standing till the 24th of February, or the sixth of the Calends of March, (the two following days after Feb. 23rd, or the seventh of the Calends of March, being named the sixth of the same month,) and the other letter for the remainder of the year.

-Jewish passover, (15th of Nisan,) Saturday, April 17th, or the XVth of the Calends of May.

-Number of Direction, or number of days on which Easter Sunday happens after the 21st of March, 28.

-Mean time of the Paschal Full Moon at Corinth, (its longitude being twenty-three degrees to the east of London,) according to Ferguson's Tables, April 19th, or the XIIIth of the Calends of May, at fifteen minutes and fifty-eight seconds past eleven at night. (The reason of the discrepance of the fifteenth of Nisan, with the day of the mean Paschal Full Moon arises from the inaccuracy of the Metonic Cycle, which reckoned 235 mean lunations to be precisely equal to nineteen solar years, these lunations being actually performed in one hour and a half less time. The correspondence of the Passover with the mean Full Moon, according to the Julian account, was in A. D. 325.)

-True time of the Paschal Full Moon at Corinth, according to Ferguson's Tables, the XIIth of the Calends of May, (April 20th,) at fifty-seven minutes and forty-one seconds past five in the morning.

-Easter Sunday, April 18th, or the XIVth of the Calends of May.

-Epact, or moon's age on the twenty-second of March, or the XIth of the Calends of April, 18.

-Year of the reign of Nero Caesar, the Roman emperor, and fifth Caesar, 3.

-Year of Claudius Felix, the Jewish Governor, 4.

-Year of the reign of Vologesus, king of the Parthians, of the family of the Arsacidae, 7.

-Year of Caius Numidius Quadratus, governor of Syria, 6.

-Year of Ishmael, high priest of the Jews, 2.

-Year of the reign of Corbred I., king of the Scots, brother to the celebrated Caractacus, who was carried prisoner to Rome, but afterwards released by the emperor, 2.

-According to Struyk's catalogue of eclipses, which he collected from the Chinese chronology, the sun was eclipsed at Canton in China, on the 25th of December of this year, or on the VIIIth of the Calends of January, A. D. 57. The middle of the eclipse was at twenty-eight minutes past twelve at noon; the quantity eclipsed at this time being nine digits and twenty minutes. The day of this eclipse was the 19th of Tybi, in the 804th year of the Nabonassarean era, and on the 24th of Cisleu, of the minor Rabbinical or Jewish era of the world, 3817, or 4416 of their greater era.

-Roman Consuls, Q. Volusius Saturninus, and P. Cornelius Scipio.

CHAPTER I.

The salutation of Paul and Sosthenes, 1, 2.

The apostolical benediction, 3.

Thanksgiving for the prosperity of the Church at Corinth, 4.

In what that prosperity consisted, 5-9.

The apostle reproves their dissensions, and vindicates himself

from being any cause of them, 10-17.

States the simple means which God uses to convert sinners and

confound the wisdom of the wise, c., 18-21.

Why the Jews and Greeks did not believe, 22.

The matter of the apostle's preaching, and the reasons why that

preaching was effectual to the salvation of men, 23-29.

All should glory in God, because all blessings are dispensed by

Him through Christ Jesus, 30, 31.

NOTES ON CHAP. I.

Verse 1 Corinthians 1:1. Paul, called to be an apostle] Bishop Pearce contends that a comma should be placed after κλητος, called, which should not be joined to αποστολος, apostle: the first signifies being called to, the other sent from. He reads it, therefore, Paul the called the apostle of Jesus Christ. The word κλητος, called, may be here used, as in some other places, for constituted. For this, and the meaning of the word apostle, Romans 1:1.

As the apostle had many irregularities to reprehend in the Corinthian Church, it was necessary that he should be explicit in stating his authority. He was called-invited to the Gospel feast; had partaken of it, and, by the grace he received, was qualified to proclaim salvation to others: Jesus Christ therefore made him an apostle, that is, gave him a Divine commission to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles.

Through the will of God] By a particular appointment from God alone; for, being an extraordinary messenger, he derived no part of his authority from man.

Sosthenes our brother] Probably the same person mentioned Acts 18:17, where see the note.