Your rejoicing (rv duérepav Kavynow). Rev., better, that glorying in you which I have. Paul would say: ‘ You Corinth-
* Meyer, Alford, Ellicott, Edwards, Heinrici, De Wette, Neander, Stanley, Schaff.
Cu. XV.] THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS. 277
ian Christians are the fruit of my apostolie labor which has been at a daily risk to life; and as truly as I can point to you as such fruit, so truly can I say, ‘I die daily.’ ”
I die daily. I am in constant peril of my life. Compare 2 Cor. iv. 11; xi. 23; Rom. viii. 36. So Clytaemnestra: “I have no rest by night, nor can I snatch from the day a sweet moment of repose to enfold me; but Time, ever standing over me, was as a jailer who conducted me to death” (Sophocles, “Electra,” 780, 781). And Philos ‘“ And each day, nay, each hour, I die beforehand, enduring many deaths instead of one, the last.”
32. After the manner of men (xara dvdpwrov). As men ordinarily do, for temporal reward; and not under the infiu- ence of any higher principle or hope.
I have fought with beasts (é9npiodynoa). Only here in the New Testament. Figuratively. Paul, as a Roman citizen, would not have been set to fight with beasts in the arena; and such an incident would not have been likely to be passed over by Luke in the Acts. Compare similar metaphors in ch. iv. 9, 2 Pinteivet ge sie 12, bs xxii, 1), 13790,217 Somes how- ever, think it is to be taken literally.* They refer to the pres- ence at Ephesus of the Asiarchs (Acts xix. 31), who had charge of the public games, as indicating that the tumult took place at the season of the celebration of the games in honor of Diana ; to the fact that the young men at Ephesus were famous for their bull-fights; and to the words at Ephesus as indicating a particular incident. On the assumption that he speaks figura- tively, the natural reference is to his experience with the feroc- ious mob at Ephesus. There was a legend that Paul was thrown, first of all, to a lion; then to other beasts, but was left untouched by them all. In the Epistle of Ignatius to the Rom- ans occur these words: “ From Syria even unto Rome, I fight with beasts, both by land and sea, both night and day, being bound to ten leopards. I mean a band of soldiers, who, even when they receive benefits, show themselves all the worse” (v.).
*So Godet, whose defence, however, is very feeble.
278 WORD STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. (Cu. XV.
Compare Epistle to Tralles, x.: “ Why do I pray that I may fight with wild beasts?” So in the Epistle to Smyrna he says: “T would put you on your guard against these monsters in human shape” (Snpiov tav avSpwrropdppov) ; and in the An- tiochene “Acts of Martyrdom” it is said: ‘“ He (Ignatius) was seized by a beastly soldiery, to be led away to Rome as a prey for carnivorous beasts” (ii.).
Let us eat and drink, etc. Cited, after the Septuagint, from Isa. xxii. 18. It is the exclamation of the people of Jerusalem during the siege by the Assyrians. The traditional founder of Tarsus was Sardanapalus, who was worshipped, along with Semiramis, with licentious rites which resembled those of the Feast of Tabernacles. Paul had probably witnessed this fest- ival, and had seen, at the neighboring town of Anchiale, the statue of Sardanapalus, represented as snapping his fingers, and with the inscription upon the pedestal, “‘ Kat, drink, enjoy thy- self. The rest is nothing.” Tarrar cites the fable of the Epi- curean fly, dying in the honey-pot with the words, “I have eaten and drunk and bathed, and I care nothing if I die.” Among the inscriptions from the catacombs, preserved in the Vatican are these: “To the divine shade of Titus, who lived fifty-seven years. Here he enjoys everything. Baths and wine ruin our constitutions, but they make life what it is. Farewell, farewell.” ‘While I lived I lived well. My play is now ended—soon yours will be. Farewell and applaud me.” Compare Wisdom of Solomon, ii. 1-9.