CHAPTER V

1. Commonly (olwv). Better, absolutely or actually, as Rev. Should have. Opinions are divided as to whether the relation was that of marriage or concubinage. The former is urged on the ground that ecein to have is commonly used in the New Testament of marriage; and that the aorist participles poihsav (so Tex. Rec.) had done, and katergasamenon hath wrought, imply that an incestuous marriage had already taken place. It is urged, on the other hand, that ecein to have is used of concubinage, John iv. 18; but it takes its meaning there from the sense of marriage in the preceding clause, and is really a kind of play on the word. "He who now stands for thy husband is not thy husband." The indications seem to be in favor of marriage. Notwithstanding the facilities for divorce afforded by the Roman law, and the loose morals of the Corinthians, for a man to marry his stepmother was regarded as a scandal.

5. To deliver - unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh. On this very obscure and much controverted passage it may be observed:

1. That it implies excommunication from the Church.

2. That it implies something more, the nature of which is not clearly known.

3. That casting the offender out of the Church involved casting him back into the heathen world, which Paul habitually conceives as under the power of Satan.

4. That Paul has in view the reformation of the offender: "that the spirit may be saved," etc.

This reformation is to be through affliction, disease, pain, or loss, which also he is wont to conceive as Satan's work. See 1 Thess. ii. 18; 2 Corinthians xii. 7. Compare Luke xiii. 16. Hence in delivering him over to these he uses the phrase deliver unto Satan. Compare 1 Tim. i. 20. 88

6. Glorying (kauchma). Not the act, but the subject of boasting; namely, the condition of the Corinthian church.

Lump (furama). See on Rom. xii. 21. A significant term, suggesting the oneness of the Church, and the consequent danger from evil-doers.

7. Leaven. Not the sinful man, but evil of every kind, in accordance with the more general statement of the leavening, power of evil in ver. 6. The apostle's metaphor is shaped by the commands concerning the removal of leaven at the passover: Exod. xii. 19; xiii. 7. Compare Ignatius; "Dispense, therefore, with the evil leaven that has grown old (palaiwqeisan) and that has gone sour (enoxisasan), and be changed into new leaven which is Jesus Christ" (Epistle to Magnesians, 10.).

New (neon). See on Matt. xxvi. 29.

Passover (to pasca). The Paschal lamb, as Mark xiv. 12; Luke xxii. 7.

8. Let us keep the feast (eortazwmen). Only here in the New Testament. The epistle was probably written a short time before the Passover. See ch. xvi. 8.

Sincerity (eilikrineiav). See on pure minds, 2 Pet. iii. 1.

Truth. Bengel observes: "Sincerity takes care not to admit evil with the good; truth, not to admit evil instead of good."

9. I write - in my epistle. American Rev., as it is I wrote. The reference is probably to a former letter now lost. Some explain egraya I wrote as the epistolary aorist (see on 1 John ii. 13); but the words in my epistle seem to favor the other view.

To company (sunanamignusqai): Only here and 2 Thess. iii. 14. The translation company is inadequate, but cannot perhaps be bettered. The word is compounded of sun together, ajna up and down among, and, mignumi to mingle. It denotes, therefore, not only close, but habitual, intercourse.

10. Idolaters (eidwlolatraiv). Only twice outside of Paul's writings: Apoc. xxi. 8; xxii. 15. This is the earliest known instance of the use of the word. For the collocation of the covetous and idolaters, compare Col. iii. 15; Eph. v. 5. New-Testament usage does not confine the term to the worship of images, but extends it to the soul's devotion to any object which usurps the place of God.