Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

1 Corinthians 4:6

ἃ אABC. ὃ rec. with DEFG some copies of Vetus Lat. and Peshito. [φρονεῖν] added after γέγραπται to complete the sentence with Syriac, and correctors of the older MSS. Omit אABDEFG Vetus Lat. and Vulg. Also Origen.

6. μετεσχημάτισα. Literally, I changed the form of. The Vulgate renders transfiguravi, Wiclif transfigured, Tyndale described in mine own person, the Geneva version, I have figuratively described in mine own person. St Paul changes the names of the persons, substituting himself and Apollos for the teachers most in repute at Corinth, that he might thus avoid personality. But the principles laid down in the preceding Chapter s were to be applied universally.

τὸ μὴ ὑπὲρ ἃ γέγραπται. Translate, that ye may learn in our persons the precept, Not above what is written. Bp Wordsworth quotes in illustration of the construction:

‘Observe

The rule of not too much, by Temperance taught.’

Paradise Lost, Bk XI. l. 528.

See Critical Note.

γέγραπται refers to the Old Testament Scriptures. We have no certainty that any part of the New Testament was written at this time, save the two Epistles to the Thessalonians, and perhaps that to the Galatians; but see Bp Lightfoot’s Commentary on this last Epistle, p. 40. The only place in the New Testament where the term Scripture is applied to any of the books of the New Testament is 2 Peter 3:16. See ch. 1 Corinthians 9:10; 1 Corinthians 10:11; 1 Corinthians 15:3-4; 1 Corinthians 15:45; 1 Corinthians 15:54. St Paul either refers to Jeremiah 9:23-24, or to passages which speak of God as the source of all knowledge, such as Deuteronomy 17:19-20; Joshua 1:8; Psalms 1:2; Psalms 119:99-100; Proverbs 8:9, &c.

ἵνα μὴ … φυσιοῦσθε. Here we have ἵνα with the present indicative, an unusual construction. Winer, § 41, note, says that this construction is ‘quite common’ in modern Greek. But this appears to be an exaggeration. It is found again in Galatians 4:17. A better explanation has, however, been given by Professor Hort, in the Notes on Orthography appended to Westcott and Hort’s Gr. Test. p. 167. The N. T. form of the conjunctive in the case of verbs in -όω, it is suggested, coincides with that of the indicative.

εἷς ὑπὲρ τοῦ ἑνός. Literally ‘That ye may not be puffed up, one man for the one,’ against the other.

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