1 Corinthians 5:8

[837] aorist tense.

[838] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.

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

1 Corinthians 5:8 explains the symbolical ἄζυμοι. Participation in the sacrifice of Christ presumes unleavenedness in the participants; the unleavened bread and the passover are related (objectively) as repentance and faith (subjectively): “For indeed our passover has been slain, even Christ”. τὸ πάσχα … ἐτύθη (aor [840], of historical fact) the Passover Lamb killed, and leaven not yet cast out: what a contradiction! The Law prescribed no exact time, but usage required every scrap of leaven to be got rid of from the house at the beginning (eve) of the day, Nisan 14, on which the Lamb was slain. πάσχα stands for the Paschal Lamb, the sacrifice of which legally constituted the Passover (Mark 14:12, cf. John 1:29).

[840] aorist tense.

“Our (Christian) passover,” cf. Hebrews 13:10; and for Paul's appropriation to the Church of the things of the Old Covenant, Romans 11:17; Galatians 4:26; Galatians 6:16; Philippians 3:3. This identification of Christ crucified with the Paschal Lamb lends some support to the view that Jesus died, as the Fourth Gospel appears to represent, on the 14 th Nisan; but the precise coincidence is not essential to his interpretation. The Pascha (Aram. pascha = Heb. pesach) in O.T. “Jehovah's Passover” was the sacrificial covenant-feast of the kingdom of God in Israel. It contained three essential elements: (1) the blood of the victim, sprinkled at the exodus on each house-door, afterwards on the national altar, as an expiation to God (cf. Romans 3:25), who “passes over” when He “sees the blood”; (2) the flesh of the lamb, supplying the food of redeemed Israel as it sets out to the Holy Mount and the Promised Land (see 1 Corinthians 10:16 f., John 6:32; John 6:51); (3) the continued feast, an act of fellowship, grounded on redemption, between Jehovah and Israel and amongst the Israelites; cf. 1 Corinthians 10:16-22; 1 Corinthians 11:20, and notes.

With the leaven removed and the Passover Lamb slain, “let us keep the feast” (ἑορτάζωμεν, pr [841] sbj [842] of continued action) this term again allegorical not literal (see ἄζυμοι, 7), “a figurative characterisation of the whole Christian conduct of life” (Mr [843]). ἅπας ὁ βίος αὐτοῦ πανήγυρις ἄγια (Clem. Al [844], Strom., viii., quoted by Ed [845]); to the same effect Cm [846], δείκνυσιν ὅτι πᾶς ὁ χρόνος ἑορτῆς ἐστι καιρὸς τ. Χριστιανοῖς διὰ τ. ὑπερβολὴν τ. ἀγαθῶν αὐτοῖς δοθέντων. διὰ τοῦτο γὰρ ὁ υἱὸς τ. Θεοῦ ἄνθρωπος γέγονε καὶ ιτύθη, ἵνα σε ἑορτάζειν ποιήσῃ; cf., earlier than P., Philo's interpretation of the Feast, De migr. Abrah., 16; De congr. quærend. erudit. gratia, 28. For ὥστε with impv [847], see note on 1 Corinthians 4:5. The ἄζυμα (unleavened cakes), to be partaken of by the ἄζυμοι (1 Corinthians 5:7), are described by the attributes εἰλικρινίας καὶ ἀληθείας, “of sincerity and truth” a sound inward disposition, and a right position in accord with the reality of things. To the forbidden ἐν ζύμῃ παλαιᾷ (see note, 7) is added, by way of closer specification, μηδὲ ἐν ζύμῃ κακίας κ. πονηρίας (malitiæ et nequitiæ) “ κακία the vicious disposition, πονηρία the active exercise of it” (Lt [848]); see Trench, Syn [849], § 11. The associations of approaching Easter, probably, suggested this train of thought (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:23, ἀπαρχή); nowhere else does P. call Christ “the Pascha”.

[841] present tense.

[842] subjunctive mood.

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

[844] Alford's Greek Testament.

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

[846] John Chrysostom's Homiliœ († 407).

[847] imperative mood.

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

[849] synonym, synonymous.