1 Corinthians 7:16

follows up the appeal to Christian principle, by a challenge addressed in turn to the wifely and the manly heart: “(Keep the peace, if you can, with the unconverted spouse), for how do you know, O wife, that you will not save your husband? or how do you know, O husband, that you will not save your wife? “That εἰ in this connexion (see parls.), after τί οἶδας implying a fear, may mean “that … not” in English idiom (as though it were: “How do you know? it may be you will save, etc.!”) is admitted by Hn [1056] and Ed [1057], though they reject the above interpretation, which is that of the ancient commentt. from Cm [1058] down to Lyra, of Cv [1059] and Bz [1060], and of Ev [1061] and Lt [1062] amongst moderns: see the convincing notes of the two last-named; “Confirmatio est superioris sententiæ: non cur discedente infideli liberetur fidelis; sed contra, cur ita sit utendum hac libertate, ut infidelem, si fieri potest, retineat fidelis ac Christo lucrificet” (Bz [1063]). τί οἶδας; connotes “not the manner in which the knowledge is to be obtained, but the extent of it” (Ed [1064]) “what do you know as to the question whether, etc.?”

[1056] C. F. G. Heinrici's Erklärung der Korintherbriefe (1880), or 1 Korinther in Meyer's krit.-exegetisches Kommentar (1896).

[1057] T. C. Edwards' Commentary on the First Ep. to the Corinthians. 2

[1058] John Chrysostom's Homiliœ († 407).

[1059] Calvin's In Nov. Testamentum Commentarii.

[1060] Beza's Nov. Testamentum: Interpretatio et Annotationes (Cantab., 1642).

[1061] T. S. Evans in Speaker's Commentary.

[1062] J. B. Lightfoot's (posthumous) Notes on Epp. of St. Paul (1895).

[1063] Beza's Nov. Testamentum: Interpretatio et Annotationes (Cantab., 1642).

[1064] T. C. Edwards' Commentary on the First Ep. to the Corinthians. 2

The above sentences are curiously ambiguous; taken by themselves, they may be read as reasons either against or for separation. The latter interpretation is adopted, as to 1 Corinthians 7:15 b by most, and as to 1 Corinthians 7:16 by nearly all execent exegetes (including Bg [1065], Mr [1066], Hf [1067], Hn [1068], Al [1069], Bt [1070], Ed [1071], Gd [1072], El [1073]): “God has called us in peace (and peace is only possible through separation); for how do you know, wife or husband, that you will save the other?” As much as to say, “Why cling to him, or her, on so ill-founded a hope?” Grammatical considerations being fairly balanced, the tenor of the previous context determines the Apostle's meaning. In the favourite modern exposition, the essential thought has to be read between the lines. It should also be observed that the Cor [1074], with their lax moral notions, needed dissuasives from rather than encouragements to divorce; and on the other hand, that to discountenance the hope of a soul's salvation is strangely unlike the Ap. (cf. 1 Corinthians 10:33). On the construction here adopted, P. returns at the close of the Section to the thought with which it opened μὴ χωρισθῆναι.

[1065] Bengel's Gnomon Novi Testamenti.

[1066] Meyer's Critical and Exegetical Commentary (Eng. Trans.).

[1067] J. C. K. von Hofmann's Die heilige Schrift N.T. untersucht, ii. 2 (2te Auflage, 1874).

[1068] C. F. G. Heinrici's Erklärung der Korintherbriefe (1880), or 1 Korinther in Meyer's krit.-exegetisches Kommentar (1896).

[1069] Alford's Greek Testament.

[1070] J. A. Beet's St. Paul's Epp. to the Corinthians (1882).

[1071] T. C. Edwards' Commentary on the First Ep. to the Corinthians. 2

[1072] F. Godet's Commentaire sur la prem. Ép. aux Corinthiens (Eng. Trans.).

[1073] C. J. Ellicott's St. Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians.

[1074] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.