1 Corinthians 6:3

The question of 1 Corinthians 6:2 urged to its climax: “Know you not that we shall judge angels? ” Paul already does this, hypothetically, in Galatians 1:8. Instructed through the Church (Ephesians 3:10), the heavenly powers will be subject to final correction from the same quarter. The angels were identified, in later Jewish thought, with the forces of nature and the destiny of nations (Psalms 104:4; Daniel 10:13; Daniel 12:1); they must be affected by any judgment embracing the κόσμος. “There is, it seems, a solidarity between the Princes of the nations (cf. Paul's ἀρχαὶ κ. ἐξουσίαι, 1 Corinthians 15:24, etc.) and the nations directed by them; according to Shir rabba, 27 b, God does not punish a people until He has first humbled its Angel-prince in the higher world, and according to Tanchuma, Beshallach, 13, He will hereafter judge the nations only when He has first judged their Angel-princes” (Weber, Altsynag. paläst. Théologie, p. 165); Satan is κατʼ ἐξοχὴν “the god of this world”(2 Corinthians 4:4; cf. John 14:30; Luke 4:6), and has his “angels” whom P. styles “world-rulers” (Ephesians 6:12; Matthew 25:41). On the throne of world-judgment Christ will sit (Acts 17:31; Matthew 25:31 f.), and “the saints” sc. after their own acquittal as His assessors. κρινοῦσιν in this context qualifies its objects as culpable; cf. ἵνα καταργήσῃ in 1 Corinthians 15:24; also 1 Corinthians 5:12 above, and other parls. The anarthrous ἀγγέλους signifies beings of this order, in contrast with men (cf. 1 Corinthians 4:9; also Jude 1:6); “P. does not wish to mark out this or that class of angels, but to awaken in the Church the sense of its competence and dignity by reminding it that beings of this lofty nature will one day be subject to its jurisdiction” (Gd [898]; also El [899]). μήτιγε βιωτικά (nedum quidem: not surely a continued interrog., as W.H [900] punctuate) in sharp contrast to “angels” “(to say) nothing verily of secular matters!”. μήτιγε (sc. λέγωμεν) is a N.T. h.l [901], a sound cl [902] idiom (see Lidd [903] on μήτις, also El [904] ad. loc.), negative syn [905] for πόσῳ μᾶλλον (Romans 11:12; Romans 11:24); for the γε, cf. 1 Corinthians 4:8. βιωτικός, of later Gr [906] (after Aristotle), denotes matters relating to βίος (one's “living”), which differs from ζωὴ as vita quam from vita qua vivimus “quae ad hujus vitæ usum pertinent” (Bz [907]), or “ad victum pertinentia” (Cv [908]); see Lt [909] ad loc [910], and Trench, Syn [911], § 27.

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

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

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

[901] .l. hapax legomenon, a solitary expression.

[902] classical.

[903]idd. Liddell and Scott's Greek-English Lexicon.

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

[905] synonym, synonymous.

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

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

[908] Calvin's In Nov. Testamentum Commentarii.

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

[910] ad locum, on this passage.

[911] synonym, synonymous.