1 Corinthians 9:11,12

1 Corinthians 9:11-12 a appeal to the sense of justice in the Cor [1311]; τὸ δίκαιον δείκνυσιν τοῦ πράγματος (Thp [1312]): cf. Galatians 6:6. μέγα εἰ …; “Is it a great thing if …?” = “Is it a great thing to ask (or look for) that …?” cf. 2 Corinthians 11:15; the construction is akin to that of θαυμάζω εἰ (see Gm [1313], s.v. Εἰ, i., 4) a kind of litotes, suggesting where one might have vigorously asserted. The repeated collocation ἡμεῖς ὑμῖν, ἡμεῖς ὑμῶν, brings out the personal nature of this claim: “ We sowed for you the things of the Spirit; should not we reap from you the (needed) carnal things?” τὰ πνευματικὰ (cf 1 Corinthians 2:12; 1 Corinthians 12:1-13; Romans 8:2; Romans 8:5 f., Galatians 5:22, etc.) include all the distinctive boons of the Christian faith; “the carnal things” embrace, besides food and drink (1 Corinthians 9:4), all suitable bodily “goods” (Galatians 6:6). The question of 1 Corinthians 9:12 a assumes that other Christian teachers received maintenance from the Cor [1314] Church; the claim of Paul and his fellow-missioners was paramount (cf. 1 Corinthians 4:15; also 2 Corinthians 10:12-18; 2Co 11:12 ff., 2 Corinthians 11:20, where this comparison comes up in a new form). ὑμῶν is surely gen [1315] of object, as in Matthew 10:1 (= ἐξουσίαν ἐπὶ, Luke 9:1), John 17:2, “the claim upon you”. Ev [1316] and Ed [1317] read the pron [1318] as subjective gen [1319] the latter basing the phrase on 1 Corinthians 3:22 f. sc. “if others share in your domain,” instead of “in dominion over you ”; this rendering is sound in grammar, and has a basis in 1 Corinthians 4:7-12, but lies outside the scope of ἐξουσία in this context. The expression “others participate” suggests a right belonging to these “others” in a lesser degree (cf. μετέχω in 10): the πατὴρ should be first honoured, then the παιδαγωγοί (1 Corinthians 4:15).

[1311] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.

[1312] Theophylact, Greek Commentator.

[1313] Grimm-Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon of the N.T.

[1314] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.

[1315] genitive case.

[1316] T. S. Evans in Speaker's Commentary.

[1317] T. C. Edwards' Commentary on the First Ep. to the Corinthians. 2

[1318] ron. pronoun.

[1319] genitive case.

1 Corinthians 9:12 b. “But we did not use this right” i.e., P. and his comrades in the Cor [1320] mission (2 Corinthians 1:19). ἀλλὰ πάντα στέγομεν : “Nay, we put up with everything (omnia sustinemus, Vg [1321]), lest we should cause any (kind of) hindrance to the good news about Christ”. στέγω (see parls.), syn [1322] in later Gr [1323] with ὑπομένω, βαστάζω, “marks the patient and enduring spirit with which the Ap. puts up with all the consequences naturally resulting from” his policy of abstinence (El.). What this involved we have partly seen in 1 Corinthians 4:2 ff.; cf. 2 Corinthians 11:27; Acts 20:34. The ἐνκοπὴ he sought to obviate (military term of later Gr [1324], from ἐνκόπτω, to cut into, break up, a road, so to hinder a march) lay (a) in the reproach of venality, as old as Socrates and the Sophists, attaching to the acceptance of remuneration by a wandering teacher, which his enemies desired to fasten on Paul (1 Thessalonians 2:3 ff., 2 Corinthians 11:7 ff; 2 Corinthians 12:13 ff.); and (b) in the fact that P. would have shackled his movements by taking wages from particular Churches (1 Corinthians 9:19), so giving them a lien upon his ministrations. For the Hebraistic phrase ἐνκοπὴν δίδωμι (= ἐνκόπτω), cf. 1 Corinthians 14:7; 2 Thessalonians 1:8. τοῦ Χριστοῦ is always obj. gen [1325] after εὐαγγέλιον; see Romans 1:2 f., also μαρτύριον τ. Χριστοῦ, 1 Corinthians 1:6 above.

[1320] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.

[1321] Latin Vulgate Translation.

[1322] synonym, synonymous.

[1323] Greek, or Grotius' Annotationes in N.T.

[1324] Greek, or Grotius' Annotationes in N.T.

[1325] genitive case.