16. The cup of blessing (7d mortzjpiov THs evroyias). Lit., the blessing: the cup over which the familiar formula of bless- ing is pronounced. Hence the Holy Supper was often styled Eulogia (Blessing). For blessing, see on blessed, 1 Pet. i. 3. It is the same as eucharistia (thanksgiving), applied as the designation of the Lord’s Supper: Hucharist. See ch. xiv. 16; 1 Tim. iv. 4,5. The cup is first mentioned, perhaps, because Paul wishes to dwell more at length on the bread; or possibly, because drinking rather than eating characterized the idol-feasts.
Communion (xovwvia). Or participation. See on fellow- ship, 1 John i. 8; Acts ii. 42; partners, Luke v. 10. The Passover was celebrated by families, typifying an unbroken fellowship of those who formed one body, with the God who had passed by the blood-sprinkled doors.
17. For (67). Better, seewng that. It begins a new sentence which is dependent on the following proposition: Seeing that there is one bread, we who are many are one body. Paul is de- ducing the mutwal communion of believers from the fact of
Ci xX) THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS. 243
their communion with their common Lord. By each and all receiving a piece of the one loaf, which represents Christ’s body, they signify that they are all bound in one spiritual body, united to Christ and therefore to each other. So Rev., in mar- gin. Ignatius says: “Take care to keep one eucharistic feast only; for there is one flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ, and one cup unto unity of His blood; ” 2z.e., that all may be one by par- taking of His blood (Philadelphia, iv.).
Body. Passing from the literal sense, the Lord’s body (ver. 16), to the figurative sense, the body of believers, the Church.
Partake of (é« peréyouev). Or partake from. That which all eat is taken from (é«) the one loaf, and they eat of it mu- tually, in common, sharing it among them (wera). So Igna- tius: “That ye come together &va dprov krovtes breaking one loaf” (Ephesians, xx.).
18. Showing that partaking of the idol-feasts is idolatry, by the analogy of the Israelite who, by partaking of the sacrifices puts himself in communion with Jehovah’s altar.
Partakers of the altar (cowwvol tod Jvovactypiov). An awkward phrase. Rev., better, bringing out the force of xoe- vavol communers : have not they—communion with the altar ? The Israelite who partook of the sacrifices (Lev. viii. 31) united himself with the altar of God. Paul says wath the altar rather than with God, in order to emphasize the communion through the specific act of worship or sacrifice; since, in a larger sense, Israel after the flesh, Israel regarded as a nation, was, in virtue of that fact, in fellowship with God, apart from his partaking of the sacrifices. Possibly, also, to suggest the external char- acter of the Jewish worship in contrast with the spiritual wor- ship of Christians. Philo calls the Jewish priest xovvwvos rob Bopov partaker of the altar.
20. Devils (Sapovtous). See on Mark i.34. Used here, as
always in the New Testament, of diabolic spirits.* dacponov, the neuter of the adjective Saipdvvos divine, occurs in Paul’s
* Acts xvii. 18, is uttered by Greeks in their own sense of the word.
DAA WORD STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT [Cu. X.
writings only here and 1 Tim. iv. 1. It is used in the Septua- gint, Deut. xxxii. 17, to translate the Hebrew word which seems, originally, to have meant a supernatural being inferior to the gods proper, applied among the Assyrians to the bull- deities which guarded the entrances to temples and palaces. Among the Israelites it came to signify all gods but the God of Israel. Compare Isa. lxv. 11, where Gad (good fortune, prob- ably the star-god Jupiter) is rendered in the Septuagint To Satpovle the demon. See Rev.,O. T. Also Ps. xevi. 5 (Sept. xev.), where elilim things of nought, A. V. idols, is rendered by datpovia demons.*