1 Corinthians 15:24

παραδιδοῖ BFG. παραδιδῶ אADE. παραδῶ rec. Tradiderit Vetus Lat. Vulg.

24. εἶτα τὸ τέλος. The end, i.e. the supersession of the present order of things by one more perfect; a time when sin and death cease to be, and ‘the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ,’ Revelation 11:15.

ὅταν παραδιδοῖ. ὅταν denotes the uncertainty when this period will arrive. The optative with ὅταν is not found in the best classical authors. But it is found again in N. T. in Mark 4:29 (Westcott and Hort’s text). If this or παραδιδῷ (see Critical Notes) be the true reading, we must see here an attempt to transport us in imagination to the moment when the surrender is made, while the aorist καταργήσῃ denotes the previous and complete destruction of all other rule than that of the Father. Meyer thinks that the difference of tenses refers to the fact that the second of these events is subordinated to the first, but is not closely related to it in order of time. Winer thinks the pres. with ὅταν is a mistake. But he admits that there is good authority for it in Mark 11:25. Tischendorf and other recent editors reject the rec. text in Romans 2:14.

τῷ θεῷ καὶ πατρί. The passage suggests to us the idea of a prince, the heir-apparent of the kingdom, going out to war, and bringing the spoils and trophies of his conquest to his father’s feet. Such an idea must have recurred with fresh vividness to the minds of the early Christians a few years afterwards, when they saw Titus bringing the spoils of the holy city of the old covenant, the ‘figure of the true,’ to his father Vespasian, and must have led them to look forward with eager expectation to the time when types and shadows should have their end, and the kingdom be the Lord’s, and He the governor among the people. At the Last Day, Christ as man shall receive the submission of all God’s enemies, and then lay them, all His triumphs, all those whom He has delivered captive from the hand of the enemy, at His Father’s feet. ‘Not,’ says Estius, ‘that Christ shall cease to reign, for “of His kingdom there shall be no end,” Luke 1:33 (cf. Daniel 7:14; Hebrews 1:8; Hebrews 2:8), but that He will, by laying all His conquests at His Father’s feet, proclaim Him as the source of all authority and power.’ There were certain heretics, the followers of Marcellus of Ancyra, who taught that Christ’s kingdom should come to an end, holding the error of the Sabellians that Christ was an emanation from the Father, and would be finally reabsorbed into the Father’s personality. It is supposed that the words, ‘Whose kingdom shall have no end,’ were inserted in the Nicene Creed with a view to this error. The words may be translated either (1) with A. and R.V. God, even the Father, or (2) with marg. of R.V. the God and Father, or (3) with Tyndale God the Father. See note on ch. 1 Corinthians 2:13.

πᾶσαν�. See ch. 1 Corinthians 13:10. All rule, that is, all exercise of authority save His own (princehead, Wiclif); all authority, that is, the right to exercise dominion, which is delegated, and will be resumed, by Him; all power (virtus, Vulg.; vertu, Wiclif, see note on ch. 1 Corinthians 1:18), that is, all the inherent faculty of exercising authority. For earthly relations, such as those of father, magistrate, governor, prince, are but partial types and manifestations of the Divine Headship. Even Christ’s Humanity is but the revelation and manifestation of the Being of God. But ‘when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.’ Such human relations shall cease, for they shall be no more needed.