1 Corinthians 7:29-31

τοῦτο δέ φημι, ἀδελφοί, κ. τ. λ.: “This moreover I assert, brethren: The time is cut short ”. φημί, as distinguished from λέγω, “marks the gravity and importance of the statement” (El [1139]). Συνστέλλω (to contract, shorten sail) acquired the meaning to depress, defeat (Malachi 3:6; Malachi 3:6 2Ma 6:12); hence some render συνεσταλμένος by “calamitous,” but without lexical warrant. ὁ καιρός (see parls.) is “the season,” the epoch of suspense in which the Church was then placed, looking for Christ's coming (1 Corinthians 1:7) and uncertain of its date. The prospect is “contracted”; short views must be taken of life.

[1139] C. J. Ellicott's St. Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians.

The connexion of τὸ λοιπὸν and ἵνα … ὦσιν with the foregoing affords a signal example of the grammatical looseness which mars Paul's style. (a) As to τὸ λοιπόν : (1) Cm [1140], the Gr [1141] Ff [1142], Bz [1143], Al [1144], Ev [1145], Hn [1146], Gd [1147], Ed [1148], R.V. mg. attach it to συνεστ. ἐστίν, in a manner “contrary to its usual position in Paul's epp. and diluting the force of the solemn ὁ καιρὸς … ἐστίν ” (El [1149]). (2) The Vg [1150] and Lat. Ff [1151], Est., Cv [1152], A.V. read τὸ λοιπὸν as predicate to ἐστὶν understood, thus commencing a new sentence, “reliquum est ut,” etc.; this is well enough in Latin, but scarcely tolerable Greek. (3) Mr [1153], Hf [1154], Bt [1155], El [1156], Lt [1157], W.H [1158], R.V. txt. subordinate τὸ λοιπόν, thrown forward with emphasis, to the ἵνα clause (cf. Galatians 2:10; Romans 11:31) “so that henceforth indeed those that have wives may be as without them,” etc.; this gives compactness to the whole sentence, and proper relevance to the adv [1159] Those who realise the import of the pending crisis will from this time sit loose to mundane interests. (b) As to the connexion of ἵνα … ὦσιν : this clause may define either the Apostle's purpose, as attached to φημί (so Bz [1160], Hf [1161], Ed [1162]), or the Divine purpose implied in συνεστ. ἐστίν (so most interpreters). Both explanations give a fitting sense: the Ap. urges, or God has determined, the limitation of the temporal horizon, in order to call off Christians from secular absorption. In this solemn connexion the latter is, presumably, Paul's uppermost thought.

[1140] John Chrysostom's Homiliœ († 407).

[1141] Greek, or Grotius' Annotationes in N.T.

[1142] Fathers.

[1143] Beza's Nov. Testamentum: Interpretatio et Annotationes (Cantab., 1642).

[1144] Alford's Greek Testament.

[1145] T. S. Evans in Speaker's Commentary.

[1146] C. F. G. Heinrici's Erklärung der Korintherbriefe (1880), or 1 Korinther in Meyer's krit.-exegetisches Kommentar (1896).

[1147] F. Godet's Commentaire sur la prem. Ép. aux Corinthiens (Eng. Trans.).

[1148] T. C. Edwards' Commentary on the First Ep. to the Corinthians. 2

[1149] C. J. Ellicott's St. Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians.

[1150] Latin Vulgate Translation.

[1151] Fathers.

[1152] Calvin's In Nov. Testamentum Commentarii.

[1153] Meyer's Critical and Exegetical Commentary (Eng. Trans.).

[1154] J. C. K. von Hofmann's Die heilige Schrift N.T. untersucht, ii. 2 (2te Auflage, 1874).

[1155] J. A. Beet's St. Paul's Epp. to the Corinthians (1882).

[1156] C. J. Ellicott's St. Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians.

[1157] J. B. Lightfoot's (posthumous) Notes on Epp. of St. Paul (1895).

[1158] Westcott and Hort's The New Testament in Greek: Critical Text and Notes.

[1159] adverb

[1160] Beza's Nov. Testamentum: Interpretatio et Annotationes (Cantab., 1642).

[1161] J. C. K. von Hofmann's Die heilige Schrift N.T. untersucht, ii. 2 (2te Auflage, 1874).

[1162] T. C. Edwards' Commentary on the First Ep. to the Corinthians. 2

1 Corinthians 7:29 b, 1 Corinthians 7:30 are “the picture of spiritual detachment in the various situations in life” (Gd [1163]). Home with its joys and griefs, business, the use of the world, must be carried on as under notice to quit, by men prepared to cast loose from the shores of time (cf. Luke 12:29-36; by contrast, Luke 14:18 ff.). From wedlock the Ap. turns, as in 1 Corinthians 7:17-24, to other earthly conditions there considered as stations not to be wilfully changed, here as engagements not to be allowed to cumber the soul. Ed [1164] observes that the Stoic condemned the interaction, here recognised, between “the soul's emotions and external conditions; the latter he would have described as a thing indifferent, the former as a defect: πᾶν μὲν γὰρ πάθος ἁμαρτία ” (Plut., Virt. Mor., 10). “Summa est, Christiani hominis animum rebus terrenis non debere occupari, nec in illis conquiescere: sic enim vivere nos oportet, quasi singulis momentis migrandum sit e vita” (Cv [1165]). ὡς μὴ ἔχοντες κ. τ. λ., not like, in the manner of, but “ with the feeling of those who have not,” etc., ὡς with ptp [1166] implying subjective attitude a limitation “proceeding from the mind of the speaking or acting subject” (Bm [1167], p. 307); cf. 1 Corinthians 7:25 and note. ἀγοράζοντες (marketing) gives place in the negative to κατέχοντες, possessing, holding fast (cf. 2 Corinthians 6:10). Χράομαι governs acc [1168] occasionally in late Gr [1169]; the case of τὸν κόσμον may be influenced by καταχρώμενοι, with which cl [1170] authors admit the acc [1171] The second vb [1172] (with dat [1173] in 1 Corinthians 9:18) is the intensive of the first to use to the full (use up); not to misuse a meaning lexically valid, but inappropriate here. “Abuse” had both meanings in older Eng., like the Lat. abutor; it appears in Cranmer's Bible with the former sense in Colossians 2:22.

[1163] F. Godet's Commentaire sur la prem. Ép. aux Corinthiens (Eng. Trans.).

[1164] T. C. Edwards' Commentary on the First Ep. to the Corinthians. 2

[1165] Calvin's In Nov. Testamentum Commentarii.

[1166] participle

[1167] A. Buttmann's Grammar of the N.T. Greek (Eng. Trans., 1873).

[1168] accusative case.

[1169] Greek, or Grotius' Annotationes in N.T.

[1170] classical.

[1171] accusative case.

[1172] verb

[1173] dative case.

A reason for sparing use of the world lies in its transitory form, 1 Corinthians 7:31 b a sentence kindred to the declaration of 1 Corinthians 7:29 a. σχῆμα (cf. 1 Corinthians 4:6, and other parls.) denotes phenomenal guise habitus, fashion as distinguished from μορφή, proper and essential shape: see the two words in Philippians 2:6 ff., with the discussions of Lt [1174] and Gifford ad loc [1175] “The world” has a dress suited to its fleeting existence. παράγει affirms “not so much the present actual fact, as the inevitable issue; the σχῆμα of the world has no enduring character” (El [1176]); “its fascination is that of the theatre” (Ed [1177]); cf. 1 John 2:17. The Ap. is thinking not of the fabric of nature, but of mundane human life the world of marryings and marketings, of feasts and funerals.

[1174] J. B. Lightfoot's (posthumous) Notes on Epp. of St. Paul (1895).

[1175] ad locum, on this passage.

[1176] C. J. Ellicott's St. Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians.

[1177] T. C. Edwards' Commentary on the First Ep. to the Corinthians. 2

Then what this world to thee, my heart?

Its gifts nor feed thee nor can bless.

Thou hast no owner's part in all its fleetingness.

J. H. Newman.