Beateth the air. A boxer might be said to beat the air when practising without an adversary. This was called oxa- payla shadow-fighting. Or he might purposely strike into the air in order to spare his adversary; or the adversary might evade his blow, and thus cause him to spend his strength on the air. The two latter may well be combined in Paul’s meta:
Cu. IX.] THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS. 237
phor. He strikes straight and does not spare. Compare Vir- gil, in the description of a boxing-match :
“« Entellus, rising to the work, his right hand now doth show Upreared ; but he, the nimble one, foresaw the falling blow Above him, and his body swift writhed skew-wise from the fall. Entellus spends his stroke on air.”
‘** Aeneid,” v., 443. Morris’ Translation.
27. | keep under (i7rwmidfw). A feeble translation, and missing the metaphor. The word means to strike under the eye ; to give one a black eye. It occurs elsewhere in the New Testament but once, Luke xviii. 5 (see note). Rev., Z buffet. The blow of the trained boxer was the more formidable from the use of the cestws, consisting of ox-hide bands covered with knots and nails, and loaded with lead and iron. So Entellus throws his boxing-gloves into the ring, formed of seven bulls’- hides with lead and iron sewed into them (Virgil, “ Aeneid,” v., 405). They were sometimes called yusoropo: limb-breakers. A most interesting account is given by Rodolfo Lanziani, “ Ancient Rome in the Light of Recent Discoveries,” of the exhuming at the foundation of the Temple of the Sun, erected by Aurelian, of a sitting bronze statue of a boxer. The accom- panying photograph shows the construction of the fur-lined boxing-gloves secured by thongs wound round the forearm half-way to the elbow. The gloves cover the thumb and the hand to the first finger-joints. The writer says; “The nose is swollen from the effects of the last blow received; the ears re- semble a flat and shapeless piece of leather; the neck, the shoulders, the breast, are seamed with scars. . . . The de- tails of the fur-lined boxing-gloves are also interesting, and one wonders how any human being, no matter how strong and powerful, could stand the blows from such weapons as these gloves, made of four or five thicknesses of leather, and forti- fied with brass knuckles.”
Bring it into subjection (SovAaywyd). Rev., bring wz into bondage. Metaphor of captives after battle. Not of leading the vanquished round the arena (so Godet), a custom of which
238 WORD STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. [Cu. X.
there is no trace, and which, in most cases, the condition of the vanquished would render impossible. It is rather one of those sudden changes and mixtures of metaphor so frequent in Paul’s writings. See, for instance, 2 Cor. v. 1, 2.
Having preached (xnpvéas). See on 2 Pet. ii. 5. Some find in the word an allusion to the herald («fpv&) who sum- moned the contestants and proclaimed the prizes.
Castaway (aS0xtuos). See on Rom. i. 28. Better, as Rev., rejected, as unworthy of the prize.