1 Corinthians 2:9

confirms by the language of Scripture (καθὼς γέγραπται) what has just been said. The verse is open to three different constructions: (1) It seems best to treat the relatives, ἅ, ὅσα, as in apposition to the foregoing ἣν clauses of 1 Corinthians 2:7-8 (the form of the pronoun being dictated by the LXX original), and thus supplying a further obj [356] to the emphatically repeated λαλοῦμεν of 1 Corinthians 2:6-7 : “but (we speak), as it is written, things which eye,” etc. (so Er [357], Mr [358], Hn [359], Al [360], Ed [361], El [362], Bt [363]). (2) Hf [364], Ev [365], after Lachmann, prefix the whole sentence to ἀπεκάλυψεν of 1 Corinthians 2:10; but this subordination requires the doubtful reading δέ (for γάρ) in 1 Corinthians 2:10, to which it improperly extends the ref [366] of the formula καθὼς γέγραπται, while it breaks the continuity between the quotation and the foregoing assertions (cf. 1 Corinthians 1:19; 1 Corinthians 1:31). (3) Bg [367], D.W [368], Gd [369], Lt [370], and others, see an anacoluthon here, and supply ἐστίν, factum est, or the like, as a peg for the ver. to hang upon, as in Romans 15:3 “But, as it is written, (there have come to pass) things which eye,” etc. This, however, seems needless after the prominent λαλοῦμεν, and weakens the concatenation of 1 Corinthians 2:6-9. The ἀλλὰ follows on the οὐδεὶς of 1 Corinthians 2:8, as ἀλλὰ in 1 Corinthians 2:7 (see note) on the οὐ of 1 Corinthians 2:6. The entire sentence may be thus arranged:

[356] grammatical object.

[357] Erasmus' In N.T. Annotationes.

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

[359] C. F. G. Heinrici's Erklärung der Korintherbriefe (1880), or 1 Korinther in Meyer's krit.-exegetisches Kommentar (1896).

[360] Alford's Greek Testament.

[361] T. C. Edwards' Commentary on the First Ep. to the Corinthians. 2

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

[363] J. A. Beet's St. Paul's Epp. to the Corinthians (1882).

[364] J. C. K. von Hofmann's Die heilige Schrift N.T. untersucht, ii. 2 (2te Auflage, 1874).

[365] T. S. Evans in Speaker's Commentary.

[366] reference.

[367] Bengel's Gnomon Novi Testamenti.

[368].W. De Wette's Handbuch z. N. T.

[369] F. Godet's Commentaire sur la prem. Ép. aux Corinthiens (Eng. Trans.).

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

λαλοῦμεν Θεοῦ σοφίαν … τ. ἀποκεκρυμμένην,

ἢν προώρισεν ὁ Θεὸς κ. τ. λ.,

ἢν οὐδεὶς τ. ἀρχόντων … ἔγνωκν κ. τ. λ.·

ἀλλὰ … ἃ ὀφθαλμὸς οὐκ εἶδεν …

ὅσα ἡτοίμασεν ὁ Θεὸς τ. ἀγαπῶσιν αὐτόν.

The words cited do not appear, connectedly, in the O.T. Of the four clauses, the 1James, 2 nd, and 4th recall Isaiah 64:4 f. (Hebrews, Isaiah 64:3 f.) after the Hebrew text; the 3rd occurs in a similar strain in Isaiah 65:17 (LXX, 16); see other parls. In thought, as Hf [371] and Bt [372] point out, this passage corresponds to Isaiah 64 : in P. God does, as in Isaiah He is besought to do, things unlooked for by the world, to the confusion of its unbelief; in each case these things are done for fit persons Isaiah's “him that waiteth for Him,” etc., being translated into Paul's “those that love Him”; ἐποίησεν is changed to ἡτοίμασεν, in conformity with προώρισεν (1 Corinthians 2:7). A further analogy appears between the “terrible things in righteousness” which the prophet foresees in the coming theophany, and the καταργεῖν that P. announces for “the rulers of this world”. Clement of Rome (ad Cor [373], xxxiv. 8) cites the text briefly as a Christian saying, but reverts from Paul's τ. ἀγαπῶσιν to the Isaianic τ. ὑπομένουσιν αὐτόν, manifestly identifying the O. and N.T. sayings.

[371] J. C. K. von Hofmann's Die heilige Schrift N.T. untersucht, ii. 2 (2te Auflage, 1874).

[372] J. A. Beet's St. Paul's Epp. to the Corinthians (1882).

[373] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.

Or [374] wrote (on Matthew 27:9), “In nullo regulari libro hoc positum invenitur, nisi in Secretis Eliæ prophetæ ” a lost Apocryphum; Jerome found the words both in the Ascension of Isaiah and the Apocalypse of Elias, but denies Paul's indebtedness to these sources; and Lt [375] makes out (see note, ad loc [376]) that these books were later than Paul. Origen's suggestion has been adopted by many expositors, but is really needless; this is only an extreme example of the Apostle's freedom in adopting and combining O.T. sayings whose substance he desires to use. The Gnostics quoted the passage in favour of their method of esoteric teaching.

[374] Origen.

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

[376] ad locum, on this passage.

ὅσα, of the last clause, is a climax to ἃ of the first “so many things as God prepared for those that love Him”: cf. a Cor. 1 Corinthians 1:20; Philippians 4:8, for the pronominal idiom. In ἡτοίμασεν κ. τ. λ. Paul is not thinking so much of the heavenly glory (see note on δόξα, 1 Corinthians 2:7), as of the magnificence of blessing, undreamed of in former ages, which comes already to believers in Christ (cf. 1 Corinthians 1:5-7). τ. ἀγαπ. αὐτὸν affirms the moral precondition for this full blessedness (cf. John 14:23) a further designation of the ἅγιοι, πιστεύοντες, κλητοί, ἐκλεκτοὶ of chap. 1.