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COMMUNE
COMMUNION
COMMUNE. — In its earliest use 'commune' (wliirli had the same origin as 'common') siguilied to make common property, to share. This maj- be eitlier by giving, as Wyclif s tr. of I'h 4''' ' Ye lian don wel, comunynge to my trihulaciouu ' ; or by rercivinq, as his tr. of 2 .In " ' He tliat saith to him, lleyl, comuneth with his yuele werkis.' Being by and by restricted to speech, it meant sometimes simply ' tallc to,' as Gn 42-'' ' [Joseph] returned to them again, and communed with them ' (dhSn "iji;!, RV ' and spake to them '). liut generally the sense of Iwlh giving and receiving is present, either with others, as Lk 6" 'tliey communed one with another what they might do to Jesus' {5ta.\a\(u) ; or with oneself, as \'s i* ' c. with your own heart upon your bed, and be .still ' — a meaning which Dr. Murray {Oxf. Eng. Diet, s.v.) describes as 'now only literary, devotional, and poetic' In 1 S 20" (AV ' And David sent and communed with Abigail') the Heb. ('3-.s^:!) is lit. 'spake eoncerning A.,' and has the special meaning of 'asked in marriage,' as in Ca 8» (same Heb. ) AV and RV ' the day w hen she shall be spoken for.'
J. Hashngs.
COMMUNICATE Like commune (wh. see), to c.
is to make common property, either more particu- larly by giving, as Gal 2- ' I c'*' unto them that gospel ' (avaTldf/uii., 'RV ' laid before them ') ; Ro 12" R V ' o'"' to the necessities of the saints ' ( AV ' dis- tributing'); He 13"> 'to do good and to c. forget not ' ; or by receiving, as Ph 4" ' ye did c. with my affliction ' (RV ' had fellowship with '). Cf. Fenton (1579) ' Ca'sar the Dictator, of whom you beare the surname, and communicate in his fortunes.' But generally by giving and receiving equally, as Ph 4'° ' no church C'' with me as concerning giving and receiving' (RV 'had fellowship with me'). Communication is generally conversation,* as 2 K 9" ' Ye know the man, and his c' (RV ' what his talk was'); Col 3' 'filthy c. out of your mouth' (al(7xpo\oyla, RV ' shameful speaking ').
In 1 Co 1533 • evil c« corrupt good mannera,* RV takes the Gr. («jU4X/«f iuixui) m the sense of 'evil company,' Amer. RV 'evil companionships.' This is a new tr., Vulg. having 'colloquia mala'; Wyclif. 'yuel s|>echis'; Tindale, ' malicious speakinges'; Cranmer, 'evil wordes'; the Geneva, 'evil speakinges'; the Rheims and AV 'evil communicationB.' And it is not certain that it is a correct tr°. The vb. oi^ktm occurs in NT only in the sense of ' speak with ' (as in LXX, Jos. and mod. Greek — see Kennedy, Sources of NT Grerk p. IS.")), and otux^at, which occurs only here, may well have the same meaning — a meaning towards which it tends more and more in later Greek. In eccles, usage it is the sermon {homily) of the Christian preacher.
J. Hastings.
COMMUNION. — The word koivwAo. is variously rendered in the English Bible by ' communion,' 'fellowship,' 'contribution,' 'distribution.' It is used in relation to the Christian Society to express the idea of the fellowship in which it is united, and the acts of fellowship in which the idea is realized. Its general NT use deserves to be considered as intro- ductory to its specific application to the Eucharist, or Holy Communion (see Lord's Supper).
The corresponding verb Komuviiii has two senses ; (1) 'to have a share in,' (2) 'to give a share to'; BO that we are prepared for a twofold meaning of KOivuvla. : (1) 'fellowship' as recognized and en- joyed, (2) ' fellowship ' as manifested in acts which give it expression. Four passages, or groups of passages, deserve special examination.
1. 2 Co 13" ' The fellowship of the Holy Spirit' ; Ph 2' ' If there be any fellow.ship of the Spirit.' The first of these passages is one of the few in which, as in the Baptismal formula (Mt 28'^), the three Persons of the Holy Trinity are brought into emphatic juxtaposition : ' The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the lo%'e of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.'
• In Mt 6>7 Lk 24", Eph 4» the Or. is simply xiyi, word, speech.
The order is remarkable. It is explained, how- ever, when we observe that we have here an expansion of the final salutation with which St. Paul regularly closes his epistles. Thus in 2 Th 317. 18 ^vg read : ' The greeting of me Paul with mine own hand, which is the token in every epistle : thus I write : The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.' It was his invari- able habit to take the pen from his amanuensis at the close and write a parting salutation as his sign-manual. This was always a prayer that ' grace ' might be with his readers ; the word tvas characteristic of his teaching, and it always occurs, even in the briefest form of the closing salutation. To understand the enlarged form of this saluta- tion in 2 Co, we nmst recall the circumstances of the Corinthian Church. Party divisions were distracting it : all its manifold troubles St. Paul traces to this root. Unity must be restored : this is the first injunction of the first epistle (1 Co 1'"), and the last injunction of the second (2 Co 13"). His remedy for disunion was his doctrine of the One Body, which he brought to bear on their sin of fornication, their difficulty about idol-meats, their jealousy as to spiritual gifts, their profana- tion of the Lord's Supper. The secona epistle opens with an outburst of relief at their return to obedience. Y'et at the close he shows that his fears are still alive. What will he find when he comes ! ' Strife, jealousy, wraths, factions, backbitings, whisperings, swellings, tumults ? ' If so, he warns them that he will not spare. He closes with exhortations to unity and peace, and promises the presence of ' the God of love and peace.' Then his final salutation runs at first in its accustomed form, ' the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ ' ; but it is expanded to meet the occasion and its needs : 'the God of love' suggests the addition 'the love of God ' ; and the true sense of membership which the One Spirit gives to the One Body is prayed for in the words ' the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.' It is clear, then, that the genitive here is subjective and not objective ; and this is confirmed by the parallel clauses. ' The grace ' which is ' of the Lord Jesus,' and ' the love ' which is 'of God,' are parallel with 'the fellowship' which is ' of the Holy Spirit.'