the floodgate. In the most indignant outburst the sense of suppression asserts itself. Indignation and irony never run into malediction. We cease to be surprised at the apostle’s capability of indignation when we catch glimpses, as we do throughout the epistle, into the depths of his tenderness.
It is not strange that such a tempest should set its mark upon the style and diction, especially if we assume that the epistle was dictated to an amanuensis. In some particulars the epistle is the most difficult in the New Testament. The style is broken, in- volved, at times obscure. The impetuosity of the thought car- ries it from point to point with a rapidity which makes it often hard to grasp the sequence and connection. It is preéminently picturesque, abounding in metaphors which sometimes lie un- developed in the heart of single words, and sometimes are strangely mixed or suddenly shifted. Building and clothing blend in describing the heavenly investiture of the believer ; now the Corinthians are a commendatory letter written in the apostles’ hearts, now the letter is written by Christ on the Co- rinthians’ hearts ; the rush of thought does not stop at the in- congruity of an epistle on stone and of ink on stone tables; now the knowledge of Christ, now the apostles themselves are a sweet odor. Paul does not huckster the word of God. He does not benwmb his converts like a torpedo. Here a word calls up Gideon’s lamps and pitchers, there the rocky strongholds of the Cilician pirates. A rapid series of participles carries us through the successive stages of a battle—the hemming in, the cutting the way out, the pursuit, the blow of the enemy’s sword. The high citadel is stormed, the lofty towers are over- thrown, the captives are led away. Paul bears about a daily death: affliction is a light weight, glory an overwhelming bur- den: the fleshly body is a tent, the glorified body an eternal building, or a garment dropped from above.
Certain words appear to have a peculiar fascination for the writer, as if they gathered up into themselves the significance of whole masses of thought. Without arresting its main current, the stream eddies round these. Sometimes he dwells on them caressingly, as “the God of all comfort, who comforteth us, that we may be able to comfort with the comfort wherewith we are
Xx INTRODUCTION.
comforted.” Sometimes he rings them out like a challenge, as convmend, commendation, boast. Sometimes he touches and re- touches them with a sarcastic emphasis, as bear with me, bear with them. ‘So full of turns is he everywhere,” says Erasmus, “so great is the skill, you would not believe that the same man was speaking. Now, as some limpid fountain, he gently bubbles ‘forth; anon, like a mighty torrent, he rolls crashing on, whirl- ing many things along in his course: again he flows calmly and smoothly, or spreads out into a lake.” The authenticity of the epistle is conceded. Unsuccessful attempts have been made against its integrity, as the effort to show that it consists of three separate epistles, or of two.