Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

1 Corinthians 9:16

The fact of his preaching supplies in itself no καύχημα : “For if I be preaching the good news (εὐαγγελίζωμαι), it is no (matter of) boasting to me; for necessity is imposed on me”. For ἀνάγκη, see notes on 1 Corinthians 7:26; 1 Corinthians 7:37; also Philemon 1:14, where it contrasts with κατὰ ἑκούσιον as with ἑκὼν here. Ἐπίκειμαι is virtually pass [1354] to ἐπιτίθημι (see parls.), “to lay” a task, by authority, “upon” some one: P. was, in the Apostolic ranks, a pressed man, not a volunteer, “laid hold of” (Philippians 3:12) against his previous will; he entered Christ's service as a captive enemy (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:8; 2 Corinthians 2:14). While a gift of Divine mercy (1 Corinthians 7:25; 2 Corinthians 4:1, etc.), his commission was a determination of the Divine sovereignty (1 Corinthians 1:1., etc.). For service rendered upon this footing there can never be any boasting; cf. Luke 17:10. That all glorying in this direction was excluded, is sustained by the exclamation, “For woe is to me if I should not preach the Gospel!” ὅπου τὸ Οὐαὶ παρακειται ἐὰν μὴ ποιῇ, οὐκ ἔχει καύχημα (Or [1355]). ἐὰν μὴ εὐαγγελίσωμαι (contrast the pr [1356] εὐαγγελίζωμαι, of former clause), aor [1357] sbj., of comprehensive fut [1358] ref [1359], from the standpoint of the original “necessity imposed”; cf., for the construction, 1 Corinthians 8:8; 1 Corinthians 15:36. The interjection οὐαὶ is here a quasi-substantive, as in Revelation 9:12. Had P. disobeyed the call of God, his course from that time onwards must have been one of condemnation and misery. To fight against “Necessity” the Greeks conceived as ruin; their Ἀνάγκη was a blind, cruel Fate, Paul's ἀνάγκη is the compulsion of Sovereign Grace.

[1354] passive voice.

[1355] Origen.

[1356] present tense.

[1357] aorist tense.

[1358] future tense.

[1359] reference.

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Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

1 Corinthians 9:16

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