1 Corinthians 5:1

It is actually reported that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not even among the Gentiles, that one of you hath his father's wife.

'actually' -lit., wholly, altogether, generally or everywhere. (Robertson p. 111) 'Indicating. common report in the Church..undoubted fact.' (Gr. Ex. N.T. p. 807) This information has become "common" in other churches. 'The word is going around', says Paul, 'that fornication is going on among you!' (McGuiggan p. 61) 'Everybody is talking about..'(Tay)

'reported' -they hadn't revealed this information in their letter to him (1 Corinthians 7:1). Paul had just written four Chapter s of argumentation against another problem that he had "heard" was among them (1 Corinthians 1:11). 'In case any are wondering whether. might need to come with rod in hand (1 Corinthians 4:21), Paul is suggesting, "listen to what else has been reported to me about you."' [Note:. Fee p. 199]

'fornication' -'in the Greek world simply meant "prostitution", in the sense of going to the prostitutes and paying for sexual pleasure. The Greeks were ambivalent on that matter, depending on whether one went openly to the brothels or was more discreet and went with. paramour. But the word had been picked up in Hellenistic Judaism...to cover all extramarital sexual sins and aberrations, including homosexuality.' [Note:. Fee p. 200]

'Porneia is..a quite general word for unlawful and immoral sexual intercourse and relationships..Porneia is prostitution, and porne is. prostitute...Essentially porneia is the love which is bought and sold--which is not love at all. The great and basic error of this is that the person with whom such love is gratified is not really considered as. person at all, but as. thing. He or she is. mere instrument through which the demands of lust and passion are satisfied...Porneia describes the relationship in which one of the parties can be purchased as. thing is purchased and discarded as. thing is discarded..' [Note:. Barclay. Flesh and Spirit. p. 24]

'and such' -'immorality of. kind' (Phi)

'as is not even among the Gentiles' -'so wicked that even the heathen don't do it.' (Tay); 'that even pagans condemn.' (Phi); 'Yes, and. fornication of such sort...as (there is) not even among the Gentiles!' (Gr. Ex. N.T. p. 807)

'that one of you hath his father's wife' -i.e. his step-mother.

'Such incest was of course condemned by the Jewish law (Leviticus 18:8; Deuteronomy 27:20). But even Corinth, moral cesspool that is was, would be scandalized by such. crime, for it was condemned alike by Greeks and Romans.' [Note:. McGarvey pp. 71-72]

'Roman attitude to. similar relationship, cf. Cicero's Pro Cluentio 14, where. marriage between son-in-law and mother-in-law is denounced as "incredible and, apart from this one instance, unheard of."' [Note:. F.F. Bruce p. 53]

'hath' -'the verb "to have", when used in sexual or marital contexts, is. euphemism for an enduring sexual relationship, not just. passing fancy or. "one-night stand". By his "having" her, Paul means that the brother is "living with" her sexually. What cannot be known is what had happened to the father, whether there has been divorce or death. In either case what is forbidden by all ancients, both Jewish and pagan, is the cohabiting of father and son with the same woman.' [Note:. Fee p. 200]

-'as wife..signifying to possess in marriage' (Alford p. 1000)

-'the verb (to have) can mean "to be married"; Arndt and Gingrich comment that, in this verse, it means "that someone has taken his father's wife as his own wife." In the event that they were married, this case would prove that one can commit fornication with. marriage partner.' [Note:. Willis p. 160]

Lenski argues, 'While (to have) might include marriage, we assume no marriage in this case since Roman law prohibited such unions.' (p. 207) And yet such an argument falls in the face of Herod and Herodias (Mark 6:17 'because he had married her.')

The point that briefly needs to be made is: Seeing that. marriage can't legitimize an incestuous relationship (one form of fornication), then. marriage can't legitimize an adulterous relationship (another form of fornication). (Matthew 5:32)

'father's wife' -Since the woman is left out of the discipline that follows, she must have been. non-Christian.