Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

1 Corinthians 5:2

ὑμεῖς πεφυσιωμένοι ἐστέ. Ye have been puffed up. The ὑμεῖς has an emphasis. ‘Ye, who have been so far from the enlightenment of the true Christian as to condone an offence like this, are actually filled with a sense of your own excellence.’

καὶ οὐχὶ μᾶλλον ἐπενθήσατε. And did not rather mourn. It sheds a terrible light upon the self-satisfaction of the Corinthian Church, that it was not disturbed by such a scandal as this.

ἵνα. The context here seems rather to suggest the result than the means. St Paul does not mean that the mourning would of itself bring about the expulsion of the offender, but that, if they had mourned, it would have been evidence of a spirit which would bring about that result.

ἀρθῇ ἐκ μέσου. An Hebraism. See for instance Joshua 4:18 (Heb. and LXX.). Also in N. T. Matthew 13:49; Acts 17:33, and in St Paul’s Epistles 2 Corinthians 6:17; Colossians 2:14; 2 Thessalonians 2:7. The power of excommunication, that is of separating from the Christian society those whose lives were a disgrace to the Christian profession, has always been a power claimed by the Church of Christ. Our own Church declares that it is ‘much to be wished’ that such discipline could be restored among ourselves. But the power has unquestionably been misused, and the consequence of its abuse has been to a great extent to take away its use.

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Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

1 Corinthians 5:2

Old Testament

New Testament