_Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant how that all our fathers were under the cloud._ The particle _for_ gives the cause of what was said at the end of the preceding chapter. He means, I have said that Christians must strive after baptism in their contest, lest they become repr... [ Continue Reading ]
CHAPTER 10 SYNOPSIS OF THE CHAPTER From speaking of the contest, in which those who deny themselves and strive lawfully are rewarded, and in which the slothful and self-indulgent are condemned and put to confusion, of which the Apostle treated at the end of the preceding chapter, he goes on to the... [ Continue Reading ]
_And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea_. See Exodus 14. The passage of the Red Sea is a type of baptism, in which we are reddened with the blood of Christ, and drown the Egyptians, viz., our sins. Moses is a type of Christ; the cloud is the Holy Spirit, who cools the heat of l... [ Continue Reading ]
_And did all eat the same spiritual meat._ Not, as Calvin supposes, the same as we, as though Christians and Hebrews alike feed, not on the Real Body of Christ, but on the typical. You will say, perhaps, that S. Augustine (_tract._ 25 _in Johan_.) and S. Thomas explain it to be the same as we eat. I... [ Continue Reading ]
_For they were overthrown in the wilderness._ All the Hebrews who left Egypt with Moses died for their sins in the wilderness, except Joshua and Caleb, who, with a new generation, entered the Promised Land (Num 14:29).... [ Continue Reading ]
_Neither be ye idolaters... and rose up to play._ Viz., when the Hebrews fashioned and worshipped the golden calf they closed their idolatrous festivities with a banquet. Thus they ate of the victims offered to their idol, that they might, after the manner of the Egyptians, celebrate the worship of... [ Continue Reading ]
_As some of them committed._ When they worshipped Baal-peor. _i.e._, Priapus, and in his honour committed fornication with the daughters of Moab (Numbers 25.). _And fell in one day three and twenty thousand._ Chrysostom, Anselm, Cajetan, refer this to the plague which was sent because of the fornica... [ Continue Reading ]
_Neither let us tempt Christ_ by disbelieving His promises, as some of the Corinthians were doubting of the resurrection, as is seen in chap. xv. See 2 Peter 3:4. _As some of them also tempted._ The reference is to Num. xxi. 5. The words there, "against God," S. Paul here applies to Christ; therefo... [ Continue Reading ]
_Now all these things happened unto them for types._ Viz., all those here mentioned. We are not to imagine that everything that is related in the Old Testament is merely typical, as though it contained nothing which did not figuratively represent something in the New Testament. S. Augustine (_de Civ... [ Continue Reading ]
_There hath no temptation taken you._ The Vulgate reads the verb in the imperative "let no temptation take you." His meaning is: Be it, O Corinthians, that you are tempted to schisms, lawsuits, lust, idolatry, yet remain constant, for these temptations which take you are common to man, and therefore... [ Continue Reading ]
_Behold Israel after the flesh... partakers of the alter?_ That is, of the victim offered on the altar, by metonymy. All this is meant to prove that things sacrificed to idols ought not to be partaken of; and the sense is: See, O Corinthians, Israel after the flesh: when they eat of the victims offe... [ Continue Reading ]
_Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? I.e_., to anger. Do we set up a rival to the Lord? De we leave Him, our Bride-groom, and cling to a devil, and the things offered to him, or at all events wish to serve both, and yoke together God and the devil? So Chrysostom, Anselm, Theophylact. S. Paul is allu... [ Continue Reading ]
_All things are lawful for me._ Viz., all things that are not essentials, such as to eat of things offered to idols, not as sacred, or as things sacrificed, but as common food. So far Paul has treated of things offered to idols as such, and has forbidden the use of them. Hence, in ver. 14, he bids t... [ Continue Reading ]
_Let no man seek his own, but every man another's wealth._ Let no one seek or buy flesh which, _e.g_., has been offered too idols, and which is useful and pleasant to himself, just because it is of a low price; but in such matters let each one seek his neighbour's edification, and not to buy it or e... [ Continue Reading ]
_Whatsoever is sold in the shambles, that eat, asking no question._ Eat indifferently everything, whether offered to idols or not. _Asking no question, i.e._, making no difference, or according to S. Ambrose, making no inquiry; according to Theophylact, without hesitation. Herodotus tells us, as wel... [ Continue Reading ]
_For the earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof._ Every creature, because it is the Lord's, is good and clean; so, too, things offered to idols are not unclean, as you suppose, because they have been offered to a devil, but are clean, because created by the Lord. So Chrysostom, Theophylact,, An... [ Continue Reading ]