Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

1 Corinthians 4:8

depicts the unjustifiable “glorying” of the readers with an abruptness due to excited feeling (cf. the asyndeton of 1 Corinthians 3:16): “How much you have received, and how you boast of it! So soon you are satiated!” etc. The three first clauses ἤδη, ἤδη, f1χωρὶς κ. τ. λ. are exclamations rather than questions (W.H [703]). Distinguish ἤδη, jam, by this time; νῦν, nunc, at this time (1 Corinthians 3:2, etc.); ἄρτι, in præsenti, modo, just now or then, at the moment (1 Corinthians 13:12, etc.). κεκορεσμένοι ἐστέ (κορέννυμι, to glut, feed full; in cl [704] Gr [705] poetical, becoming prose in κοινή; for tense-form, cf. 1 Corinthians 1:10, ἦτε κατηρτ.: “So soon you have had your fill (are quite satisfied)!” The Cor [706] reported themselves, in the Church Letter (?), so well fed by Paul's successors, so furnished in talent and grace, that they desired nothing more. ἤδη ἐπλουτήσατε (aor [707], not pf. as before): “So soon you grew rich!” The Thanksgiving (1 Corinthians 1:5) and the list of charisms in 12. appear to justify this consciousness of wealth; but ostentation corrupted Cor [708] riches; spiritual satiety is a sign of arrested growth: contrast Philippians 3:10-14, and cf. Revelation 3:17, “Thou sayest, ὅτι Πλούσιός εἰμί καὶ πεπλούτηκα ”. The climax of this sad irony is χωρὶς ἡμῶν ἐβασιλεύσατε (aor [709] again), “Without us (without our help) you have come to your kingdom!” “Gradatio: saturi, divites, reges ” (Bg [710]). Paul was given to understand, by some Cor [711], that they had outgrown his teaching: “Then,” he says, “you have surely entered the promised kingdom and secured its treasures, if God's stewards have nothing more to impart to you! I only wish you had! ” so he continues in the words καὶ ὄφελόν γε κ. τ. λ., “Ay, I would indeed that you had entered the kingdom, that we too might share it with you!” It is Paul's sigh for the end. Βασιλεύω (see parls.) can only relate to the βασιλεία Θεοῦ, the Messianic reign (1 Corinthians 4:20; 1 Corinthians 6:9 f., 1 Corinthians 15:50; N.T. passim; cf. Luke 22:28 ff; Luke 6:2 f. below; the judicial assumptions of the Cor [712], in 3 ff., square with this); and the aor [713] in vbs. of “state” is inceptive (Br. § 41) not “you reigned,” but “became kings” (ἐβασιλεύσατε). This, of course, can only come about when Christ returns (see 1 Corinthians 1:7; 1 Corinthians 1:9, and notes); then His saints will share His glory (2 Timothy 2:10). ὄφελον (losing its augm.) is in N.T. and later Gr [714] practically an adv [715]; it marks, with following ind [716] past, an impracticable wish (Wr [717], p. 377); γε (to be sure) accentuates the personal feeling. Πλουτέω, βασιλεύω remind us again of Stoic pretensions; see note, 1 Corinthians 3:22.

[703] Westcott and Hort's The New Testament in Greek: Critical Text and Notes.

[704] classical.

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

[706] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.

[707] aorist tense.

[708] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.

[709] aorist tense.

[710] Bengel's Gnomon Novi Testamenti.

[711] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.

[712] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.

[713] aorist tense.

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

[715] adverb

[716] indicative mood.

[717] Winer-Moulton's Grammar of N.T. Greek (8th ed., 1877).

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Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

1 Corinthians 4:8

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