Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

1 Corinthians 11:30

In evidence of the “judgment” which profanation of the Lord's Table entails, the Ap. points to the sad fact that “amongst you many are sick and weakly, and not a few are sleeping”. ἀσθενεῖς applies to maladies of any kind, ἄρρωστοι to cases of debility and continued ill-health ægroti et valetudinarii (Bz [1790]). The added κοιμῶνται (the Christian syn [1791] for ἀποθνήσκουσιν) shows that P. is speaking not figuratively of low spiritual conditions, but literally of physical inflictions which he knows to be their consequence (διὰ τοῦτο). We must be careful not to generalise from this single instance (see John 9:3). The mere coincidence of such afflictions with the desecration of the Eucharist could not have justified P. in making this statement; he must have been conscious of some specific revelation to this effect. For ἱκανοί (a sufficient number something like our “ plenty of you”), see parls.; “something less than πολλοί, though sufficiently numerous to arouse serious attention” (El [1792]). The “sleepers” had died in the Lord, or this term would not have been used of them; it does not appear that this visitation had singled out the profaners of the Sacrament; the community is suffering, for widely-spread offence. Both in the removal and infliction of physical evil, the inauguration of the New Covenant, as of the Old, was marked by displays of supernatural power.

[1790] Beza's Nov. Testamentum: Interpretatio et Annotationes (Cantab., 1642).

[1791] synonym, synonymous.

[1792] C. J. Ellicott's St. Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians.

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Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

1 Corinthians 11:30

Old Testament

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