Jews, and contrary to law, 2 Cor. 11, 25. 2. The silence of The Acts on the subject. But we learn from 2 Cor. 11, 23-29, that scarcely a tithe of what Paul did and suffered is recorded in The Acts. 3. The omission of any reference to his exposure to wild beasts in the long enumeration of his sufferings in 2 Cor. 11, 23-29. This is a more serious objection. Consider- ing, moreover, that Paul was at Ephesus exposed to the vio- lent tumult of the people, and that this expression is often used by the ancients figuratively for contests with enraged men, the probability is, that it is to be so understood here. What to me is the advantage f ' If I have no other views or hopes than ordinary men, whose expectations are confined to this world, what is the use of incurring so many dangers ? ' If the dead rise not. This clause does not belong to the one preced- ing, as it is pointed in our version, but to what follows. ' If the dead rise not, let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.' The natural consequence of denying the doctrine of the resur- rection, involving as it does the denial of the gospel, and the consequent rejection of all hope of salvation, is to make men reckless, and to lead them to abandon themselves to mere sensual enjoyments. If man has no glorious hereafter, he nat- urally sinks towards the level of the brutes, whose destiny he is to share.
33. Be not deceived : evil communications corrupt good manners.
This warning flows naturally from what had been said. If the tendency of the denial of the resurrection be to render men reckless and sensual, then the Corinthians should not be deceived by the plausible arguments or specious conduct of the errorists among them. They should avoid them, under the conviction that aU evil is contagious. Evil commtmica- tions. The word properly means a being together^ companion- ship. It is contact, association with evil, that is declared to be corrupting. This is a fact of common experience, and therefore the apostle expresses it in a verse borrowed from the Greek poet, Menander, which had probably become a proverb. It is only when men associate with the wicked with the desire and purpose to do them good, that they can rely on the protection of God to preserve them from con- tamination.