Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

1 Corinthians 9:26-27

“Therefore I so run, in no uncertain fashion; so I ply my fists, not like one that beats the air.” “ So as the context describes, and as you see me (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:32)”; the Ap. feels himself, while he writes, to be straining every nerve like the racer, striking home like the trained pugilist: for this graphic οὕτως, cf. 1 Corinthians 15:11, Galatians 1:6, 2 Thessalonians 3:17; the adv [1388] would be otiose as mere antecedent to ὡς. τοίνυν (similarly τοίγαρ in 1 Thessalonians 4:8) brings in the prompt, emphatic inference drawn from the last clause: “We are fighting for the immortal crown I as a leader and exemplar; surely then I make no false step in the course, I strike no random blows.” ἀδήλως is susceptible both of the objective sense prevailing in cl [1389] Gr [1390], obscure, inconspicuous (preferred by Mr [1391] and Gd [1392] here, as though P. meant, “not keeping out of sight, in the ruck ”; cf. 1 Corinthians 14:8); and (preferably) of the subjective sense, unsure, without certain aim (Thuc., I. 2. 1; Plato, Symp. 181 D; Polybius) “ut non in incertum” (Bz [1393]); “scio quod petam et quomodo” (Bg [1394]); πρὸς σκοπόν τινα βλέπων, οὐκ εἰκῇ καὶ μάτην (Cm [1395]): cf. Philippians 3:14. The image of the race suggests that of pugilism (πυκτεύω). another exercise of the Pentathlon of the arena: the former a familiar N.T. metaphor, the latter h.l. ὡς οὐκ ἀέρα δέρων, “ut non aerem cædens” (Bz [1396]), “smiting something more solid than air” (οὐκ negatives ἀέρα, not δέρων), esp. my own body (1 Corinthians 9:27); cf. Virgil's “verberat ictibus auras” (Æn. 9:377). P.'s are no blows of a clumsy fighter that fail to land struck in's Blaue hinein. Bg [1397], Hf [1398], Ed [1399] suppose him to be thinking of the σκιομαχία, sham-fight, practised in training or by way of prelude, without an antagonist. δέρω means to flay, then beat severely, smite; cf. our vulgar hiding.

[1388] adverb

[1389] classical.

[1390] Greek, or Grotius' Annotationes in N.T.

[1391] Meyer's Critical and Exegetical Commentary (Eng. Trans.).

[1392] F. Godet's Commentaire sur la prem. Ép. aux Corinthiens (Eng. Trans.).

[1393] Beza's Nov. Testamentum: Interpretatio et Annotationes (Cantab., 1642).

[1394] Bengel's Gnomon Novi Testamenti.

[1395] John Chrysostom's Homiliœ († 407).

[1396] Beza's Nov. Testamentum: Interpretatio et Annotationes (Cantab., 1642).

[1397] Bengel's Gnomon Novi Testamenti.

[1398] J. C. K. von Hofmann's Die heilige Schrift N.T. untersucht, ii. 2 (2te Auflage, 1874).

[1399] T. C. Edwards' Commentary on the First Ep. to the Corinthians. 2

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Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

1 Corinthians 9:26-27

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