1 Corinthians 6:5-6

“I speak to your shame: is it so that there is not a wise man among you, no not one, that shall be able to judge between his brethren! 6. But brother goeth to law with brother, and that before the unbelievers.”

The first words of 1 Corinthians 6:5 may bear on what precedes; in that case they signify: “I am certainly not opposed to your choosing capable men as arbiters; I have only spoken as I have done (1 Corinthians 6:4) to make you ashamed, by showing how little importance I attach to those wretched interests for which you do not scruple to compromise the honour of the Church.” But the following οὕτως takes a more serious and definite meaning, if the first proposition is connected with what follows, 1 Corinthians 6:5: “ Thus then I say this to your shame in your Church of wise men, not a wise man capable of pronouncing on such affairs!” The proper reading is οὐκ ἔνι (abbreviation of ἔνεστι), there is not there.

The Alex. read: not a wise man; the Greco-Lat.: not a single wise man; the T. R.: no wise man, not even one; the last reading is preferable, at least in point of sense.

The aorist διακρῖναι here signifies: to decide summarily, settling the question with a stroke of the pen. It is a case of arbitration, not a law process. The expression ἀνὰ μέσον τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ is evidently incomplete; the ἀνὰ μέσον, between, supposes a regimen formed of two terms: between a brother (the plaintiff) and his brother (the accused); comp. Genesis 16:5; Exodus 11:7; Exodus 26:33 (in the LXX.). Either the second term was understood, or it might be supposed that by an elliptical form of the word his brother was put for: “ the claim of his brother.” The word διακρῖναι, to distinguish, decide, would then signify: to separate between the true and the false in this claim. In any case the meaning is: “No law pleading! The word of an arbiter, let that be final!” In this mode of expression there is a sort of disdain for the object of contention.