1 Corinthians 1:1-31

RANSLATED AND EDITED

BY W. F. COBB, D.D.

EDINBURGH: JOHN GRANT

31 George IV. Bridge

1908

SAINT PAUL's

FIRST EPISTLE TO THE

CORINTHIANS

EDITORS PREFACE

In translating the Comments of Cornelius à Lapide on the First Epistle to the Corinthians, the Translator has endeavoured, next to accuracy, to secure a reproduction of the spirit of the Commentator.

The Translator, accordingly, has limited his efforts to a reproduction of the matter, and as far as possible of the form and spirit off the original, believing that most readers would prefer to see for themselves what Cornelius à Lapide believed to be the plain meaning of Holy Scripture, and to appreciate the piety which he brought to its elucidation. The only liberties taken with the original consist in an attempt to shorten a little its terrible prolixity, and in the correction of a few obvious mistakes on matters of fact.

W. F. C.

November 1895.

CHAPTER I.

CONTENTS Achaia, or the peninsula commonly called the Morea, had in olden times several famous cities. The metropolis of these was the celebrated emporium of Corinth, famed, says Chrysostom, for its two ports, of which Lechæum stood on the Ionian and Schonus on the Ægean Sea. Hence poets, as, e.g., Ovid (Fasti iv.), frequently called it bimaros.Corinth is said to have had its foundation from Sisyphus, the robber son of Æolus, and to have been called Corcyra (Strabo, lib. 8.), and afterwards Ephyre. Having been destroyed, it was rebuilt by Corinth, son of Marithon, or of Pelops, according to Suidas, or according to others of Orestes, and was called after his name. Cicero, in his speech pro lege Maniliâ, calls this city the light of the whole of Greece. Its natural position was so strong that the Romans found great difficulty in reducing it.. Corinth abounded in wealth, in merchandise of all kinds, and in metals, especially brass or copper. This Corinthian copper was well known and in great request; so much so that Pliny (lib. iv., c. 2) says that it was reckoned equal to gold or silver. From this wealth were derived the pride, gluttony, self-indulgence, lust and ostentatious living of the Corinthians, and it became a proverbial saying that it was not every man's luck to go to Corinth. Demosthenes replied to a harlot who asked for eight talents of gold as her hire that he did not give so high a price for repentance. For the same reason the Apostle is called upon to rebuke their vices, and especially in ch. vi.. At Corinth flourished a large number of orators and philosophers, amongst whom was Periander, one of the Seven Men of Greece. Paul, we can see, went to Corinth because it gave him so excellent an opportunity for spreading the Gospel. There he converted many to Christ, by the of the Lord who appeared to him in a vision at Corinth and said, "Be not afraid but speak, and hold not thy peace, for I am with thee and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee; for I have much people in thus city." Under Paul's preaching the Corinthian Christians made such progress that Paul himself speaks (i. 5; xiv. 26) of their wisdom, prudence, gift of prophecy, and other gifts bestowed on them by God.. From this there arose among the Corinthians pride, self-seeking, and strife, and especially after the arrival of Apollos. Some then came to prefer him to Paul, as a more polished and eloquent speaker. Thence came schisms; whole one party would boast, "I am of Paul," and another, "I am of Apollos." This caused Paul to write to them this Epistle, in which, through the first four Chapter s, he tries to lead them away from pride in human wisdom and eloquence, and from all contentious support of their teachers, Paul and Apollos, and to bring them to the humility of the Cross, to the doctrine of the faith in Christ.. The Corinthians had written to Paul, asking him to resolve certain difficulties they felt (vii. 1), which he does in this letter. After dealing in the first four Chapter s with their schisms and striving after empty wisdom, he proceeds in ch. v. to order the fornicator to be excommunicated, and in ch. vi., to rebuke them for this sin of fornication, and for going to law before heathen judges. In ch. vii. he answers their first question about matrimony and virginity, and lays down the laws of Christian marriage, putting over against it and before it the evangelical counsel of virginity and celibacy. Then in chs. viii. and x., he deals with the question of eating of things offered to idols, and lays down that such eating was lawful bot needed caution, lest the weaker brethren should be offended. In ch. xi., he replies to their third question, one concerning the veiling of women, as well as their fourth about the Eucharist and Agapæ. In ch. xii., he discourses of the gifts of the Spirit, pointing out that different gifts were distributed by the Holy Spirit to different people. Ch. xiii. dwells on the pre-eminent place among the gifts and graces of the Spirit occupied by charity. Ch. xiv. is an answer to the fifth question of the Corinthians, as to whether the gift of tongues was superior to the gift of prophecy. He answers in the negative. Ch.xv. resolves their sixth doubt, and gives manifold proofs of the resurrection, and describes its gifts, its mode, and order. In ch. xvi. he orders a collection to be made for the poor saints at Jerusalem, and he closes all with salutations.. Both this and the Second Epistle were written before that to the Romans; for, as Chrysostom points out, the collection which he orders here (1 Cor. xvi. 2), he speaks of in Rom. xv. 25, 26, as having already taken place. The Greek MSS. say that thus Epistle was written at Philippi and sent by Timotheus, and in this they are supported by the Syriac and the Regia Latina. But it seems more likely from xvi. 8, and other passages, that it was written at Ephesus (Acts xix. 1), in A.D. 57 (Baronius and Œcumenius).