1 Corinthians 1:18

What P. asserted in 1 Corinthians 1:17 as intrinsically true, he supports by experience (1 Corinthians 1:18) and by Scripture (1 Corinthians 1:19), combining their testimony in 1 Corinthians 1:20. ὁ λόγος γάρ, ὁ τοῦ σταύρου, “For the word, namely that of the cross”. ὁ λόγος (distinguish from the anarthrous λόγος above) takes its sense from εὐαγγελίζεσθαι (1 Corinthians 1:17); it is “the tale” rather than “the doctrine of the cross,” synonymous with μαρτύριον (1 Corinthians 1:6) and κήρυγμα (1 Corinthians 1:21). τοῖς μὲν ἀπολλυμένοις … τοῖς δὲ σωζομένοις, the two classes into which P. sees his hearers divide themselves (see parls.). The ptps. are strictly pr [197] not expressing certain expectation (Mr [198]), nor fixed predestination (Bz [199]); the rejectors and receivers of “the word” are in course of perishing and being saved respectively (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:2; contrast the aor [200] of σώζω in Romans 8:24, and the pf. in Ephesians 2:5). “In the language of the N.T. salvation is a thing of the past, a thing of the present, and a thing of the future.… The divorce of morality and religion is fostered by failing to note this, and so laying the whole stress either on the past or on the future on the first call or on the final change” (Lt [201]). Paul paints the situation before his eyes: one set of men deride the story of the cross these are manifestly perishing; to another set the same story is “God's power unto salvation”. The appended pers [202] pron [203] (τ. σωζομένοις) ἡμῖν, “to the saved, viz., ourselves,” speaks from and to experience: “You and I know that the cross is God's saving power”. Cf. with the whole expression Romans 1:16, also John 3:14-17. The antithesis to μωρία is not, in the first instance, σοφία, but δύναμις Θεοῦ a practical vindication against false theory; saved men are the Gospel's apology. Yet because it is δύναμις, the word of the cross is, after all, the truest σοφία (see 30, 1 Corinthians 2:6 ff.). The double ἐστὶν emphasises the actuality of the contrasted results.

[197] present tense.

[198] Meyer's Critical and Exegetical Commentary (Eng. Trans.).

[199] Beza's Nov. Testamentum: Interpretatio et Annotationes (Cantab., 1642).

[200] aorist tense.

[201] J. B. Lightfoot's (posthumous) Notes on Epp. of St. Paul (1895).

[202]ers. grammatical person, or personal.

[203]ron. pronoun.