1 Corinthians 5:7

7. [οὖν] after ἐκκαθάρτε. Omit אABDEFG, Vetus Lat. Vulg. and Peshito. C inserts it. It is an obvious endeavour to soften abruptness. See below, 1 Corinthians 5:13.

[ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν] before ἐτύθη. Omit אABCDEFG. Rec. inserts with Peshito.

7. ἐκκαθάρατε. See Critical Note. Reference is here made to the Jewish custom of searching for leaven, which is mentioned in the Talmud, and which probably existed in the Apostles’ times. Because Scripture speaks of ‘searching Jerusalem with candles,’ Zephaniah 1:12, they used to carry out this custom of searching for leaven with great strictness, taking a candle and ‘prying into every mousehole and cranny,’ as Chrysostom says, so as to collect even the smallest crumb of leavened bread, which was to be placed in a box, or some place where a mouse could not get at it. This ceremony, as Lightfoot tells us (Temple Service, ch. 12 sec. 1), was prefaced by the prayer, ‘Blessed be Thou, O Lord our God, the King everlasting, Who hast sanctified us by Thy commandments, and hast enjoined the putting away of leaven.’ The custom exists among the Jews to this day. The scrupulous care in removing the smallest particle of the bitter substance adds force to St Paul’s injunction. Not the slightest trace of bitterness and vice and wickedness was to be left among Christians, since they kept continual feast upon the Flesh and Blood of the Paschal Lamb, even Jesus Christ. See the discourse in John 6, itself delivered before a Passover.

ἵνα ἦτε νέον φύραμα, καθώς ἐστε ἄζυμοι. As ye are (called to be) unleavened, i.e. purged free from ‘vice and wickedness’ (1 Corinthians 5:8), ‘so be also in fact.’ See note on ch. 1 Corinthians 1:2, and Romans 6:3-4. The Christian community was to be a ‘new lump,’ because it was placed among men as a new society—a society, the object and aim of which was to keep itself free from the defilements of the rest of the world. The Apostles of Christ constantly speak of Christians, not as they are in fact, but in view of the purpose of God in calling them.

καὶ γάρ. ‘And I give you an additional reason. Purge out the old leaven, not merely because of its intrinsic vileness, but because Christians have a perpetual Passover to keep.’

τὸ πάσχα ἡμῶν. Meyer here remarks that St Paul regards Christ as having been slain on the day of the Paschal Feast. We may add that he also explains how the Last Supper was called by Christ a Passover (Luke 22:15). For in truth it was a real Passover, though not the Passover of the old, but of the new Law, a standing witness to the fact that Christ has become our continual food (cf. Aquinas, Lauda Sion, cited by Dean Stanley, ‘Novum Pascha novæ legis’). Christ was the Passover, (1) because He was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8), of which the Paschal Lamb was a type (cf. John 19:36); (2) because His Blood, sprinkled on the soul, delivers us from the destroying angel; (3) because we feed on His Flesh and Blood (John 6:51-57), and are thereby nourished for our escape from the ‘land of Egypt, the house of bondage.’ This is why we are to purge out the old leaven, because Christ, the Paschal Lamb, has been slain, and we are bidden to keep perpetual feast on Him. It is not improbable (see ch. 1 Corinthians 16:8) that this Epistle was written about the time of the Passover. On this point consult Paley, Horae Paulinae in loc.

ἐτύθη. Literally, was sacrificed, i. e. once for all. Cf. Hebrews 7:27; Hebrews 9:25-26; Hebrews 10:10. The more literal translation of the passage is, for our Passover was sacrificed, even Christ.