Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

1 Corinthians 1:23

Instead of working miracles to satisfy the Jews, or propounding a philosophy to entertain the Greeks, “we, on the other hand, proclaim a crucified Christ” Χριστὸν ἐσταυρωμένον, i.e., Christ as crucified (predicative adjunct), not “Christ the crucified,” nor, strictly, “Christ crucified”; cf., for the construction, 2 Corinthians 4:5, κηρύσσομεν Χ. Ἰ. κύριον, “We preach (not ourselves but) Christ Jesus as Lord”. Not a warrior Messiah, flashing His signs from the sky, breaking the heathen yoke, but a Messiah dying in impotence and shame (see 2 Corinthians 4:10; 2 Corinthians 13:4 : hattalúy, Deuteronomy 21:23 the hangéd He is styled in the Talmud) is what the app. preach for their good news! “To Jews indeed a σκάνδαλον ”: this word (cl [237] σκανδάληθρον) signified first the trap-stick, then any obstacle over which one stumbles to one's injury, an “offence” (syn [238] with προσκοπή, πρόσκομμα : see 1 Corinthians 8:9; 1 Corinthians 8:13), a moral hindrance presented to the perverse or the weak (see parls.). τοῖς δὲ ἔθνεσιν μωρίαν : for the “folly” of offering the infelix lignum to cultured Gentiles, see Cicero, pro Rabirio, v.: “Nomen ipsum crucis absit non modo a corpore civium Romanorum, sed etiam a cogitatione, oculis, auribus”; and Lucian, De morte Peregrini, 13, who mocks at those who worship τὸν ἀνεσκολοπισμένον τὸν σοφιστήν, “that gibbeted sophist!” For reff. in the early Apologists see Justin., Tryph., lxix., and Apol., i., 13; Tertull., adv. Jud., § 10; Aristo of Pella, in Routh's Rel. Sacr., i., 95; and the graffito of the gibbeted ass discovered on the wall of the Pædagogium in the Palatine. To Jews the λόγος τοῦ σταύρου announced the shameful reversal of their most cherished hopes; to Greeks and Romans it offered for Saviour and Lord a man branded throughout the Empire as amongst the basest of criminals; it was “outrageous,” and “absurd”.

[237] classical.

[238] synonym, synonymous.

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Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

1 Corinthians 1:23

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