left to myself, I should have continued a blasphemer, a perse- cutor, and injurious. It is owing to his grace that I am now an apostle, preaching the faith which I once destroyed.' The grace of which he was made the subject, he says, was not in vain^ i. e. without effect. But, on the contrary, I laboured more abundantly than they all. This may mean either, more than any one of the apostles, or more than all of them to- gether. The latter is more in keeping with the tone of the passage. It serves more to exalt the grace of God, to which Paul attributes every thing good ; and it is historically true, if the New Testament record is to be our guide. Yet not i", i. e. the fact that I laboured so abundantly is not to be refer- red to me ; I was not the labourer — but the grace which was with me. By some editors the article is omitted in the last clause, rj avv ifjioC. The sense would then be with me, instead of, which was with me. In the one case grace is represented as co-operating with the apostle ; in the other, the apostle loses sight of himself entirely, and ascribes every thing to grace. ' It was not I, but the grace of God.' Theologically, there is no difference in these different modes of statement. The common text is preferred by most editors on critical grounds ; and the sense, according to the common reading, is more in accordance with the spirit of the passage, and with Paul's manner; comp. Rom. 7, 17. True, he did co-operate with the grace of God, but this co-operation was due to grace — so that with the strictest propriety he could say, ' Not I, but the grace of God.'
11. Therefore whether (it were) I or they, so we preach, and so ye beheved.
This verse resumes the subject from which vs. 9. 10 are a digression. ' Christ appeared to the apostles and to me ; whether therefore I or they preached, we all proclaimed that fact, and ye all beheved it.' The resurrection of Christ was included in the preaching of all ministers, and in the faith of all Christians.
12. 13. Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead ? But if there be no resur- rection of the dead, then is Christ not risen ;