ο 1 John 5. 5. Rom. 7. 25. & 8. 37.

a Acts 11. 29.

Rom. 12. 13.

2 Cor. 8. 4. & 9. 1.

b Acts 20. 7.

Rev. 1. 10.

a

d Acts 19. 21. 2 Cor. 1. 16.

e 2 Cor. 1. 15. Rom. 15. 24.

f Acts 18. 21.

ch. 4. 19. James 4. 15.

g Acts 14. 27.

h ch. 4. 17.

1 Thess. 3. 2.

il Tim. 4. 12. 3 John 6.

d'

C

98

of the Body, and he had already said that if dead bodies cannot rise again, neither is Christ risen (v. 16), Christ's Body still in the grave. And if that is so, then ye are still in your sins (υ. 17). And why? Because the Resurrection of Christ is the proof that His sacrifice for your sins has been accepted by God. His Resurrection is the evidence of your Justification. (See on v. 16, and below on Rom. iv. 25.)

If then there is no such thing as a Resurrection of the body, then your sins yet live and prevail; then the Law, which is the strength of sin, rises up against you with all its curses for disobedience.

But, God be praised, there is a Resurrection. Christ is risen. Ye have been justified. Thanks be to God Who giveth us the Victory through Jesus Christ our Lord!

This argument of the Apostle is a proof of the Resurrection. For, if Sin was the cause of Death, and if Christ loosed the bonds of Sin, and delivered us from it in our Baptism, and has taken away the curse of the Law, in the transgression of which is the essence of Sin, why should we doubt of the Resurrection? How can Death have any power over us? From the Law? No; Christ has destroyed its curse. From Sin? No; Christ has taken away. Chrys.

57. Τῷ δὲ Θεῷ χάρις τῷ διδόντι ἡμῖν τὸ νίκος διὰ τοῦ Κ. ἡ. 'I. X.] Christ has conquered Death, and enables us to conquer it. S. Athanasius argues for the triumph of Christ over death, from the joy with which Christian Martyrs, even young women and boys, have welcomed the most agonizing deaths for Christ, as contrasted with the fear with which men recoiled from Death before the Incarnation and Passion of Christ. See his Treatise de Incarnat. § 27-30, p. 56, and cp. Clem. Rom. § 6, where for γυναῖκες, δαναΐδες, καὶ δίρκαι we may read γυναῖκες, νεανίδες, παιδίσκαι, so Athanas. 1. c. οἱ ἐν Χριστῷ παῖδες καὶ νέαι κόραι παρορῶσι τὸν ἐνταῦθα βίον, καὶ θανεῖν μελετῶσι, and Aug. Serm. 143, p. 999.

58. ἐν τῷ ἔργῳ] The practical result of the Doctrine of the Resurrection, and of God's Grace in Christ, is the duty of abounding in the work of the Lord.

CH. XVI. 1. Περὶ δὲ τῆς λογίας τῆς εἰς τοὺς ἁγίους] Concerning the collection of alms for the poor Christians at Jerusalem, suffering then under special privations (cp. on Acts ii. 44) from the hatred of the Jews and the distresses of that age of afflictions which preceded the Fall of Jerusalem. See Gal. ii. 10. 2 Cor. ix. 1, 2. 12.

After St. Paul bad written his two Epistles to the Corinthians, he came through Macedonia to Corinth, whence he wrote to the Church of Rome on the same subject, when he was on the point of setting out to Jerusalem through Macedonia, and by Philippi and Troas, and so along the coast of Asia to Jerusalem (Acts xx. 4-xxi. 17) with the contribution. See Rom. xv. 25, where he says I am now going unto Jerusalem to minister

i

ταῖς ἐκκλησίαις τῆς Γαλατίας] to the Churches of Galatia -who had therefore now been retrieved from their disaffection to the Apostle. See above, Introduction to the Epistle to the Galatians.

2. σαββάτου] So A, B, C, D, E, F, G. Elz. has σαββάτων. For the use of the singular σάββατον, in the sense of week, see Mark xvi. 9. Luke xviii. 12.

As to the primitive observance of the First Day of the week, see on Acts xx. 7.

And on this text, as regarded in primitive times as an authority for the Weekly Offertory on the Lord's Day, see Joseph Mede's Works, p. 273. Cp. Justin Martyr, Apol. i. 88, where he says, "Each of those who are willing, gives according as he is minded, and offers what is contributed to the Minister; and he succours therewith the orphan and widow, and those who are sick and in prison, and strangers, and in a word, is the guardian of those who are in need."

3, 4. οὓς ἐὰν δοκιμάσητε] whom ye may have approved. St. Paul himself was desired by the Churches of Achaia and Macedonia to go with their alms to Jerusalem (see on v. 1). A practical proof of their confidence and affection; the more honourable to him and to the Corinthians, after the stern rebukes of his two Epistles to them.

δι' ἐπιστολῶν] by your letters to the Church at Jerusalem. The Corinthians were to certify their own sanction of the parties sent with the alms, in order that those parties might not seem to have taken the office upon themselves, and in order that their mission might have proper credentials and due authority.

5. Μακεδονίαν γὰρ διέρχομαι] I am now intending to pass through Macedonia. He had not yet left Ephesus, nor would do so before the ensuing Pentecost (v. 8).

As to the Chronology of this time, see the "Chronological Table,” and the Introduction to this Epistle.

7. οὐ θέλω] it is not my will. On St. Paul's desires and designs in regard to a visit to Corinth, see on 2 Cor. i. 16-23. – γὰρ ἐπιτρέψη] So the best MSS. Elz. has dè and ἐπιτρέπῃ.

8. Πεντηκοστῆς] Pentecost-mentioned as a Christian Fes tival by Tertullian, together with the Lord's Day (De Idol. c. 14).

11. μή τις οὖν αὐτὸν ἐξουθενήσῃ] on account of his youth, 1 Tim. iv. 12. (Theodoret, Paley.)

ὅταν εὐκαιρήσῃ.

k

Eph. 6. 10. Col. 1. 11. 1 ch. 13. 1. m ch. 1. 16. Rom. 16. 5.

n

η Phil.2.29

1 Thess. 5. 12.

o Rom. 16. 5.

Pet. 5. 14.

ἵνα ἔλθῃ πρός με· ἐκδέχομαι γὰρ αὐτόν] Timothy had rejoined St. Paul when he wrote his second Epistle (2 Cor. i. 1).

μετὰ τῶν ἀδελφῶν] with the brethren, probably, who had been sent from Corinth by the Corinthians with the letter of questions addressed to the Apostle (vii. 1), and who would be the bearers of this Epistle in reply.

12. Περὶ δὲ ̓Απολλώ] concerning Apollos. Do not imagine, therefore, from my language in this Epistle (i. 10), that there is any rivalry between us.

17. ἐπὶ τῇ παρουσίᾳ Στεφανᾶ κ. Φ. κ. Α.] who, it is probable, brought the letter of the Corinthians (vii. 1), and carried back this reply. (Theodoret.) The name of a Fortunatus occurs in the Epistle of S. Clement (c. 59) as one of the bearers of it to the Church of Corinth.

ii. 30.

ὑμέτερον] So the best authorities. Elz. ὑμῶν. Cp. Phil.

αὐτοί] So the best MSS., a reading preferable to that of Εἰς. οὗτοι.

St. Paul means that Stephanas and the others, autolisi,' i. e. in their own persons, of their own accord and free-will, supplied what was lacking on the part of the Corinthian community.

Though St. Paul did not exact maintenance from the Corinthians, yet he did not excuse them for not offering to supply it. See on Acts xviii. 5, and cp. 2 Cor. xi. 8, 9, which is the best commentary on this passage, παρὼν πρὸς ὑμᾶς (i. e. at Corinth) καὶ ὑστερηθεὶς οὐ κατενάρκησα οὐδενός· τὸ γὰρ ὑστέ ρημά μου προσανεπλήρωσαν οἱ ἀδελφοὶ ἐλθόντες ἀπὸ Μακεδονίας.

This interpretation is confirmed by the character here given to Stephanas and his companions, that they gave themselves to acts of Christian beneficence, εἰς διακονίαν τοῖς ἁγίοις.

Some expositors interpret ὑστέρημα as absence; but this is a sense in which it is not used in N. T. And cp. Luke xxi. 4. 2 Cor. viii. 13, 14. Phil. ii. 30. 1 Thess. iii. 10.

18. ἀνέπαυσαν γὰρ τὸ ἐμὸν πνεῦμα καὶ τὸ ὑμῶν] They refreshed my spirit, and yours. Observe the aorist here. St. Paul does not say that Stephanas and his friend have now done so by their visit to him; but he refers to their former conduct, i. e. to what they did when he was at Corinth.

They were benevolent and charitable persons; and they were something more, they were fellow-labourers in preaching the Gospel, συνεργοῦντες καὶ κοπιῶντες (see v. 16). Hence he might well say, they refreshed my spirit by acts of kindness, and they refreshed yours by spiritual comfort. Hence St. Paul ex. horts the Corinthians, ἐπιγιγνώσκειν, to acknowledge and love thema duty to be paid specially to Pastors. See 1 Thess. v. 12.

19. ̓Ακύλας καὶ Πρίσκιλλα] Aquila and Priscilla. See on Acts xviii. 18. Rom. xvi. 3. 2 Tim. iv. 19.

τῇ κατ ̓ οἶκον αὐτῶν ἐκκλησίᾳ] the Church that is in their house. See Rom. xvi. 5. Col. iv. 15.

r

q

Thess.

r Eph. 6.

20. ἀσπάσασθε ἀλλήλους] Salute one another with a holy kiss.

The words ἀσπάσασθε ἀλλήλους were uttered by the Deacon in the Ancient Liturgies. See the Liturgy of St. Mark, p. 15 (ed. Neale), and note above, 1 Thess. v. 26, and below, 2 Cor. xiii. 12. Rom. xvi. 16.

21. Ὁ ἀσπασμὸς τῇ ἐμῇ χειρὶ Παύλου] The salutation by the hand of me Paul. Having dictated the former part of the Epistle to an amanuensis, he now takes the pen into his own hand, and concludes it. See above on 1 Thess. v. 28.

22. οὐ φιλεῖ τὸν Κύριον] Observe the word φιλεῖ. Φιλῶ is rarely, if ever, applied to Almighty God in the New Testament; and yet the words οὐ φιλεῖ are not equivalent to μισεί. See 2 John 10, and Winer, $ 55, p. 425. And φιλῶ here represents the love which Christians are permitted, and encouraged, and even required, to pay to Christ, who is Man as well as God.

And yet, lest any one should presume on this love, and pervert it into an occasion of familiarity and irreverence, the Apostle adds the solemn words Maran-atha. See on John xxi. 15-17. Matt. x. 37.

There is something therefore remarkable in the word φιλεῖ, expressive as it is of tender affection, and to a Greek ear signifying to kiss (Luke xxii. 47, 48), and therefore so rarely and reverently used by the Evangelists in regard to the Divine Being, and yet introduced here in relation to Christ immediately after the exhortation to salute one another, as the primitive Christians did, especially at the Holy Eucharist (see v. 20, and 1 Thess. v. 26, and Rom. xvi. 6), with an ἅγιον φίλημα, a holy kiss. These words were full of meaning to the men and women of Corinth, and were fraught with warning against unholy sins. Shall I take the members of Christ, and make them the members of a harlot ? (1 Cor. vi. 15.) Shall I pollute the lips which have been sanctified by the eucharistic reception of His most Blessed Body and Blood?

ἤτω ἀνάθεμα· μαρὰν ἀθά] let him be Anathema: the Lord cometh. On the form ήτω for ἔστω, see James v. 12. Winer, p. 73. A pause is to be made after "Anathema." Let him be accursed (Acts xxiii. 14; Rom. ix. 3. Gal. i. 8, 9. 1 Cor. xii. 3) : not, however, by man. For, the Lord, j (maran), πης (atha), cometh to execute judgment on him. Cp. Jude 14, 15.

Perhaps the Apostle uses two Aramaic or Syro-Chaldaic words here, maran, atha, in this imprecation, and joins them to the Greek, Anathema, in order to remind the Greeks that there were treasures of divine Knowledge in other languages, which they regarded as barbarous (cp. Chrys. here), and that Greek and Jew are accountable to Christ the Lord and Judge of all. Compare the notes on the combination of the words ̓Αββᾶ, πατὴρ in Mark xiv. 36. Gal. iv. 6. Rom. viii. 15.

Perhaps also he does it with an allusion to the Hebrew form of Cherem, or Imprecation, uttered in the Name of God: and called Shem-atha, i. e. "the NAME," the ineffable Name (viz.)