power of Christ being present.' Or with what follows, 'I have determined to dehver such an one with the power of Christ to Satan.' The sense is substantially the same. The sentence was to be passed and carried into effect in the name of Christ and by his power.
To deliver such an o?ie mito Satan. There have from the earliest times been two prevalent interpretations of this ex- pression. According to one view, it means simply excom- munication ; according to the other, it includes a miraculous subjection of the person to the power of Satan. Those who regard it as merely excommunication, say that " to deliver to Satan " answers to " might be taken away from you," in v. 2, and therefore means the same thing. The Corinthians had neglected to excommunicate this offender, and Paul says he had determined to do it. Besides, it is argued that excom- munication is properly expressed by the phrase " to deliver to Satan," because, as the world is the kingdom of Satan, to cast a man out of the church, was to cast him from the king- dom of Christ into the kingdom of Satan. Comp. Col. 1,13. In favour 6f the idea of something more than excommunicar tion, it may be argued, 1. That it is clearly revealed in scrip- ture, that bodily evils are often inflicted on men by the agency of Satan. 2. That the apostles were invested with the power of miraculously inflicting such evils, Acts 5, 1-11. 13, 9-11. 2 Cor. 10, 8. 13, 10. 3. That m 1 Tun. 1, 20, the same for- mula occurs probably in the same sense. Paul there says, he had delivered Hymeneus and Alexander unto Satan, that they might learn not to blaspheme. 4. There is no evidence that the Jews of that age ever expressed excommunication by this phrase, and therefore it would not, m all probability, be un- derstood by Paul's readers in that sense. 5. Excommunica- tion would not have the effect of destroying the flesh, in the sense in which that expression is used in the following clause. Most commentators, therefore, agree in understanding the apostle to threaten the infliction of some bodily evil, when he speaks of deUvermg this offender to Satan. For the destruc- tion of the flesh. This is by many imderstood to mean, for the destruction of his corrupt nature, so that the end contem- plated is merely a moral one. But as flesh here stands op- posed to spirit., it most naturally means the body. ' The man was delivered to Satan that his body might be afflicted, in order that his soul might be saved.' In4he day of the Lord Jesus. That is, the day when the Lord Jesus shall come the