know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.” The form of expression is peculiar, ἴστε ἢ γινώσκοντες, ye know know- ing. Many refer this to the familiar Hebrew idiom, in which the infinitive and finite tense of a verb are thus joined, which in Greek and English is imitated by uniting the participle and verb; as “dying thou shalt die,” “multiplying I will multiply,” “blessing I will bless,’ ἄς. But in all these cases the infinitive and finite tense are different forms of the same verb. Here we have different words. The preferable interpretation is to refer ἔστε to what precedes in v. 3, and γινώσκοντες to what follows: ‘This ye know, viz., that such vices should not be named among you, knowing that no one who indulges in them, &c.’
Covetous man who is an rdolater. The words ὅς ἐστιν εἰδωλολάτρης are by many referred to all the pre- ceding nouns, so that the fornicator, the unclean person, and the covetous man, are all alike declared to be idol- aters. This is possible so far as the grammatical con- struction is concerned; but it is not natural, and not consistent with the parallel passage in Col. 8, 5, where the apostle singles out covetousness from a list of sins, and says, ‘Jt is idolatry.’ This too has its foundation both in nature and in Scripture. The analogy between this supreme love of riches, this service of Mammon
* The common text has ἐστε, but the evidence in favour of ἴστε is 80 strong that it is adopted by all recent editors.