1 Corinthians 3:9

Θεοῦ … συνεργοὶ sums up in two words, and grounds upon a broad principle (γάρ), what 1 Corinthians 3:6 ff. have set out in detail: “we are God's fellow-workmen” employed upon His field, His building; and “we are God's fellow -workmen” labouring jointly at the same task. The συν - of συνεργοὶ takes up the ἕν εἰσιν of 1 Corinthians 3:8; the context (cf. 1 Corinthians 12:6) forbids our referring it to the dependent gen [520] (cf. also 2 Corinthians 1:24; 2 Corinthians 6:1; Philippians 3:17; 3 John 1:8), as though P. meant “fellow-workers with God ”: “the work (Arbeit) of the διάκονος would be improperly conceived as a Mit-arbeit in relation to God; moreover the metaphors which follow exclude the thought of such a fellow-working” (Hn [521]); also Bg [522], “operarii Dei, et co-operarii invicem”.

[520] genitive case.

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

[522] Bengel's Gnomon Novi Testamenti.

As in regard to the labourers, so with the objects of their toil, God is all and in all: Θεοῦ γεώργιον, Θεοῦ οἰκοδομή ἐστε, “God's tilth (arvum, land for tillage, Ed [523]), God's building you are”. For God as γεωργῶν, cf. John 15:1; as οἰκοδομῶν, Hebrews 3:4; Hebrews 11:10. “Of the two images, γεώργ. implies the organic growth of the Church, οἰκοδ. the mutual adaptation of its parts” (Lt [524]); the one looks backward to 1 Corinthians 3:6 ff., the other forward to 1 Corinthians 3:10 ff. Οἰκοδομὴ displaces οἰκοδόμημα in later Gr [525] Θεοῦ, anarthrous by correlation (see note on ἀποδ. Πν., 1 Corinthians 2:4): the three gens. are alike gens. of possession “God's workmen, employed on God's field-tillage and God's house-building”. Realising God's all-comprehending rights in His Church, the too human Cor [526] (1 Corinthians 3:3 f.) will come to think justly of His ministers.

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

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

[525] Greek, or Grotius' Annotationes in N.T.

[526] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.