Vv. 16,17. However poor his work,
oe aeN ΠΡΟΣ ΚΟΡΙΝΘΙΟΥΣ A 791 iptv); 17. et τις τὸν "ναὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ 3 φθείρει, * φθερεῖ τοῦτον 2 64 ου ' απ ος σεν ~ ie Peg ANG Og μα.) κ, 2 μες xi. 3; Eph. Θεός: ὁ γὰρ "ναὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ ἅγιός ἐστιν, ' οἵτινές ἐστε ὑμεῖς. ο.
Pet. ii. 12;
18. Μηδεὶς ἑαυτὸν * ἐξαπατάτω: εἴ τις " δοκεῖ σοφὸς εἶναι ἐν ὑμῖν,
10; Rom. vi. 2; Gal. v. 4; Jas. iv. 14; Acts vii. 53. g In this sense, viii. 2, xiv. 37; Gal. vi. 3; Ph. iii. 4- "as. i. 26.
3; 1 Tim. ii. 14.
Jude ro. ) e 2 Cor. viii. f 2 Cor. xi. 3; Rom. vii. 11, xvi. 18; 2 ΤΗ. ii.
1 ev υμιν οικει (2), BP, 17 (a good group); preferred by W.H. in ézt.
2 avtov, ADG (Western).
‘the workman of ver. 15 built upon Christ. ‘There are cases worse than his, and to the et τινος τὸ ἔργον alternatives of vv. 14 f. the Ap. has a third to add in the el τις . . . φθείρει of ver. 17. Beside the good and ill builders, who will gain or lose reward, there are destroyers of the house, whom Ged will destroy ; the climax of the βλεπέτω πῶς, ver. το. Gd. well explains the absence of connecting ‘particles between vv. 15 and 16,—a ‘brusque transition” due to the emotion ‘which seizes the Apostle’s heart at the ‘sight of ‘‘workmen who even destroy ‘what has been already built”; hence the lively apostrophe and the heightened tone of the passage.—The challenge οὐκ otdare; is characteristic of this Ep. (see parls.), addressed to a Church of superior knowledge (i. 5, viii. 1). For the form οἴδατε, of the κοινή, see Wr., pp. το2 f. —The expression ναὸς Θεοῦ (see parls.) accentuates the Θεοῦ οἰκοδομή, ex- pounded since ver. g: “Ῥο you not know that you are (a building no less sacred than) God’s temple?” Not “a temple of God,” as one of several; to P. the Church was the spiritual counterpart of the Jewish Temple, and every Church embodied this ideal. For the anarthrous (predicative) phrase, cf. Θεοῦ βασιλείαν, vi. 9, and see note on ii. 4.—Naéds (see parls.) denotes the shrine, where the Deity resides; tepdv (ix. 13, etc.), the sanctuary, the temple at large, with its precincts.—8rt is not repeated with the second half of the question, καὶ τὸ Πνεῦμα τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐν ὑμῖν οἰκεῖ, the two propositions being virtually one; God’s temple in Christian men is constituted by the indwelling of His Spirit: ‘and (that) the Spirit of God dwells in you?” cf. Eph. ii. 21, also: z Peter Ἡ. 5. The same relationship is expressed by other figures in xii. 5, Eph. iv. 4, etc. So the O.T. congregation of the Lord had for its centre the Shekinah in the Holy Place: Isa. vi., Ezek. xxxvii. 27; ¢f. 2 Cor. vi. 16 ff. This truth is applied to ‘che Christian person in vi. 19.
“‘ If any one destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him ” —talione justis- sima (Bg.). On the form of hypothesis, see ver. 14.—Oeipw signifies to corrupt . morally, deprave (injure in character), xv. 33, 2 Cor. xi. 3, as well as to waste, damage (injure in being: see parls.)— mutually implied in a spiritual building. This Church was menaced with destruc- tion from the immoralities exposed in chh. v., vi., and from its party schisms (i.-111.), both evils fostered by corrupt teach- ing. The figure is not that of Levitical defilement (Φθείρω nowhere means to pollute a holy place); this φθορὰ is a structural injury, to be requited in kind. ---ὁ Θεὸς closes the warning, with awful emphasis (cf. 1 Thess. iv. 6, Rom. xii. 19); God is bound to protect His temple (cf. Ps. xlvi., xlviii., Ixxiv., Isa. xxvii. 3, Ixiv. το ff.).—The injury is a desecration: “for the temple of God is holy,—which (is what) you ave”. The added clause οἵτινές ἐστε ἡὑμεῖς reminds the Cor. at once of the obligations their sanctity im- poses (see notes on ἡγιασμένοις, κλητοῖς, ἁγίοις, i. 2; cf. 1 Peter ii. 5), and of the protection it guarantees (2 Cor. vi. 14 ff., 2 Thess. ii. 13; John x. 29; Isa. xliii. 1-4, etc., Zech. ii. 8).—ottwes, the qualitative relative, refers to ἅγιος more than to ναός, and is predicate (see Wr., pp. 206 f.) with ὑμεῖς for subject.