highly honoured of God, the richer Corinthians treated with contempt ; and that too at the Lord's table, where all exter- nal distinctions are done away, and the master is not a hair's breadth above his slave. And shame those icho have not. To shame, i. e. to mortify and humble, by rendering conscious of inferiority. Those loho have not may mean, either those who have not houses to eat or drink in, or simply the poor. Those who have, are the rich ; those who have not, are the poor. The latter interpretation is not only consistent with the Greek idiom, but gives a better sense. Even the poorer members of the church did not, and ought not, come to the Lord's table for the sake of food. Much as Paul was disposed to praise the Corinthians, in this matter he could not praise them.
23. Por I have received of the Lord that which also I dehvered unto you, That the Lord Jesus, the (same) night in which he was betrayed, took bread :
' I cannot praise you, for your manner of celebrating the Lord's supper is utterly inconsistent with its original institu- tion.' They w^ere the more inexcusable in departing from the original mode of celebrating this ordinance, first, because the account of its original institution had been received by Paul from the Lord himself; and secondly, because he had delivered it to them. Their sin was therefore one of irreverent disobe- dience, without the excuse of ignorance. For I have received of the Lord. Paul asserts that he received from the Lord the account here given. The whole context shows that he intends to claim for this narrative the direct authority of the Lord himself As with regard to his doctrines generally, so with regard to the institution and design of this ordinance, he dis- claims all indebtedness to tradition or to the instructions of men, and asserts the fact of a direct revelation to himself. Of the gospel he says, " I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ," Gal. 1, 12. To this interpretation, however, it is objected, 1. That he uses the preposition aTro, which properly expresses a mediate deriva- tion (i. e. through the instrumentality of others), and notTrapa, which would imply a direct communication. This objection supposes a refinement in the use of the Greek particles, which is not consistent with the character of the Greek of the New Testament. The Apostle John says : " This is the message