TEXT. 20 When ye come together, therefore, into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's supper. 21 For, in eating, every one taketh before other, his own supper: and one is hungry, and another is drunken. 22 What! have ye not houses to eat and drink in? Or despise ye PARAPHRASE. amongst you, that those who stand firm upon trial, 20 may be made manifest among you. You come together, it is true, in one place, and there you eat; but yet this makes it not to be the eating of the 21 Lord's supper. For, in eating, you eat not together, but every one takes his own supper one before an22 other *. Have ye not houses to eat and drink in, at home, for satisfying your hunger and thirst? Or have ye a contempt for the church of God, and take a pleasure to put those out of countenance, who have not wherewithal to feast there, as you do? What is it I said to you, that I praise you † for re NOTES. 21 To understand this, we must observe, (1.) That they had sometimes meetings, on purpose only for eating the Lord's supper, ver. 33. (2.) That to those meetings they brought their own supper, ver. 21, (3.) That though every one's supper were brought into the common assembly, yet it was not to eat in common, but every one fell to his own supper apart, as soon as he and his supper were there ready for one another, without staying for the rest of the company, or communicating with them in eating, ver. 21, 33. In this St. Paul blames three things especially. 1st. That they eat their common food in the assembly, which was to be eaten at home, in their houses, ver 22, 34. 2dly, That though they eat in the common meeting-place, yet they eat separately, every one his own supper apart. So that the plenty and excess of some shamed the want and penury of others, ver. 22. Hereby also the divisions amongst them were kept up, ver. 18, they being as so many separated and divided societies, not as one united body of christians, commemorating their common head, as they should have been in celebrating the Lord's supper, chap. x. 16, 17. 3dly, That they mixed the Lord's supper with their own, eating it as a part of their ordinary meal, where they made not that discrimination between it and their common food, as they should have done, ver. 29. 22 He here plainly refers to what he had said to them, ver. 2, where he praised them for remembering him in all things, and for retaining ràs wapa86σeis nadw's wapiòwxa, what he had delivered to them. This commendation he here retracts; for, in the matter of eating the Lord's supper, they did not retain drapédwzα, ver. 23, what he had delivered to them, which, therefore, in the immediately following words, he repeats to them again. the church of God? shall I say to you? not. TEXT. And shame them that have not? What 23 For I have received of the Lord, that, which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night, in which he was betrayed, took bread: 24 And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, “ Take, "eat; this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in re"membrance of me." 25 After the same manner also, he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, "This cup is the new testament in my blood: "this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me." 26 For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come. 27 Wherefore, whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. PARAPHRASE. taining what I delivered to you? On this occasion, 23 indeed, I praise you not for it. For what I received, concerning this institution, from the Lord himself, that I delivered unto you, when I was with you; and it was this, viz. That the Lord Jesus, in the 24 night, wherein he was betrayed, took bread: And, having given thanks, brake it, and said, "Take, eat; "this is my body which is broken for you: this do 25" in remembrance of me." So, likewise, he took the cup also when he had supped, saying, “This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as often as ye do it, in remembrance of me." 26 So that the eating of this bread, and the drinking of this cup of the Lord's supper, is not to satisfy hunger and thirst, but to show forth the 27 Lord's death, till he comes. Insomuch that he, who eats this bread, and drinks this cup of the Lord, in an unworthy manner*, not suitable to that end, 66 66 NOTE. 27 * ̓Αναξίως, unworthily." Our Saviour, in the institution of the Lord's supper, tells the apostles, that the bread and the cup were sacramentally his body and blood, and that they were to be eaten and drank in remembrance of him; which, as St. Paul interprets it, ver. 26, was to show forth his death till he came. Whoever, therefore, eat and drank them, so as not solemnly to show forth his death, followed not Christ's institution, but used them unwor TEXT. 28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. PARAPHRASE. shall be guilty of a misuse of the body and blood 28 of the Lord *. By this institution, therefore, of Christ, let a man examine himself †; and, according NOTES. thily, i. e, not to the end to which they were instituted. This makes St. Paul tell them, ver. 20, that their coming together to eat it, as they did, viz. the sacramental bread and wine promiscuously with their other food, as a part of their meal, and that though in the same place, yet not all together, at one time, and in one company, was not eating of the Lord's supper. * "Evoyos sa, shall be liable to the punishment due to one, who makes a wrong use of the sacramental body and blood of Christ in the Lord's supper. What that punishment was, vid. ver. 30. 28 St. Paul, as we have observed, tells the Corinthians, ver. 20, That to eat it after the manner they did was not to eat the Lord's supper. He tells them also, ver. 29, That to eat it, without a due and direct imitating regard had to the Lord's body, (for so he calls the sacramental bread and wine, as our Saviour did, in the institution) by separating the bread and wine from the common use of eating and drinking, for hunger and thirst, was to eat unworthily. To remedy their disorders herein, be sets before them Christ's own institution of this sacrament; that in it they might see the manner and end of its institution; and, by that, every one might examine his own comportment herein, whether it were comformable to that institution, and suited to that end, In the account he gives, of Christ's institution, we may observe, that he particularly remarks to them, that this eating and drinking was no part of common eating and drinking for hunger and thirst, but was instituted in a very solemn manner, after they had supped, and for another end, viz. to represent Christ's body and blood, and to be eaten and drank in remembrance of him; or, as St. Paul expounds it, to show forth his death. Another thing, which they might observe in the institution, was, that this was done by all who were present, united together in one company, at the same time. All which put together, shows us what the examination here proposed is. For the design of the apostle here, being to reform what he found fault with, in their celebrating the Lord's supper, it is, by that alone, we must understand the directions he gives them about it, if we will suppose he talked pertinently to this captious and touchy people, whom he was very desirous to reduce from the irregularities they were run into, in this matter, as well as several others. And if the account of Christ's institution be not for their examining their carriage by it, and adjusting it to it, to what purpose is it, here? The examination, therefore, proposed, was no other but an examination of their manner of eating the Lord's supper, by Christ's institution, to see how their behaviour herein comported with the institution, and the end, for which it was instituted. Which farther appears to be so, by the punishment annexed to their miscarriages herein, which was infirmities, sickness, and temporal death, with which God chastened them, that they might not be condemned with the unbelieving world, ver. 30, 31. For if the unworthiness, here spoken of, were either unbelief, or any of those sins, which are usually made the matter of examination, it is to be presumed. the apostle would not wholly have passed them over in silence: this, at least, is TEXT. 29 For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. 30 For this cause, many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. 31 For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. PARAPHRASE. to that *, let him eat of this bread, and drink of 29 this cup. For he, who eats and drinks after an unworthy manner, without a due respect had to the Lord's body, in a discriminating † and purely sacramental use of the bread and wine, that represent it, draws punishment on himself by so doing. 30 And hence it is, that many among you are weak and sick, and a good number are gone to their 31 graves. But if we would discriminate ourselves, i. e. by our discriminating use of the Lord's supper, we NOTES. certain, that the punishment of these sins is infinitely greater than that, which God here inflicts on unworthy receivers, whether they, who are guilty of them, received the sacrament, or no. * Kai Irws. These words, as to the letter, are rightly translated, “and so.” But that translation, I imagine, leaves generally a wrong sense of the place, in the mind of an English reader. For in ordinary speaking, these words, "Let 66 a man examine, and so let him eat," are understood to import the same with these, "Let a man examine, and then let him eat; as if they signified no more, but that examination should precede, and eating follow; which I take to be quite different from the meaning of the apostle here, whose sense the whole design of the context shows to be this: "I here set before you the institution "of Christ: by that, let a man examine his carriage, xal rw, and according to "that, let him eat; let him conform the manner of his eating to that." 29 + Mǹ Saxpírov, "not discriminating," not, putting a difference between the sacramental bread and wine (which St. Paul, with our Saviour, calls Christ's body) and other bread and wine, in the solemn and separate use of them. The corinthians, as has been remarked, eat the Lord's supper in and with their own ordinary supper; whereby it came not to be sufficiently distinguished (as became a religious and christian observance, so solemnly instituted) from common eating for bodily refreshment, nor from the jewish paschal supper, and the bread broken, and the cup of blessing used in that: nor did it, in this way of eating it in separate companies, as it were in private families, show forth the Lord's deaths it was designed to do, by the concurrence and communion of the whole assembly of christians, jointly united in the partaking of bread and wine, in a way peculiar to them, with reference solely to Jesus Christ. This was that, as appears by this place, which St. Paul, as we have already explained, calls eating unworthily, 29 + "Damnation," by which our translation renders xpiμd, is vulgarly taken for eternal damnation, in the other world; whereas xpiux here signifies punishment of another nature, as appears by ver. 30, 32. TEXT. 32 But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world. 33 Wherefore, my brethren, when ye come together to eat, tarry one for another. 34 And if any man hunger, let him eat at home; that ye come not together unto condemnation. And the rest will I set in order, when I come. PARAPHRASE. * 32 should not be judged, i. e. punished by God. But, being punished by the Lord, we are corrected†, that we may not be condemned ‡ hereafter, with the un33 believing world. Wherefore, my brethren, when you have a meeting for celebrating the Lord's supper, stay for one another, that you may eat it all together, as partakers, all in common, of the Lord's 34 table, without division, or distinction. But if any one be hungry, let him eat at home to satisfy his hunger, that so the disorder in these meetings may not draw on you the punishment above mentioned. What else remains to be rectified in this matter, I will set in order when I come. ver. NOTES. 31 Araxpíve does no where, that I know, signify to judge, as it is here translated, but always signifies" to distinguish,' or" discriminate," and in this place has the same signification, and means the same thing, that it does, . 29. He is little versed in St. Paul's writings, who has not observed how apt he is to repeat the same word, he had used before, to the same purpose, though in a different, and sometimes a pretty hard construction; as here he applies Saxpive to the persons discriminating, as in the 29th verse to the thing to be discriminated, though in both places it be but to denote the same action. 32 + Пαdεvóμεa properly signifies to be corrected, as scholars are by their master, for their good. † Εκρινόμεθα here signifies the same that κρίμα does, ver. 29. |