18uvadnpovpevor, N*ACP 17. βλασφημ., ΜΒ, etc., latt. vg—Western and Syrian emendation. * womeper καθαρµατα, G and six minuscc.
they retort with blessings, to calumnies with benevolent exhortation ; ‘‘ they beg men not to be wicked, to return to a better mind, to be converted to Christ”’ (Gd.); cf. the instructions of Luke vi. 27 fi. ‘It is on this its positive side that’’ Christian meekness ‘‘ surpasses the abstention from retaliation urged by Plato” (Crit., p-49: Ed.).—@s περικαθάρ- µατα τοῦ κόσμον . . . πάντων περίψηµα (from περι-καθαίρω, -ψάω respectively, to cleanse, wipe all round, with -μα of result): the ne plus ultra of degradation ; they became “as vinsings of the world,— a scraping of all things” (purgamenta et vamentum, Bz.),—the filth that one gets rid of through the sink and the gutter. The above terms may have a further significance: “the Ap. is carrying on the metaphor of ἐπιθανατίους above. Both περικαθ. and περίψ. were used esp. of those condemned criminals of the lowest class who were sacrificed as expiatory offerings, as scapegoats in effect, because of their degraded life. It was the cus- tom at Athens to reserve certain worth- less persons who in case of plague, famine, or other visitations from heaven, might be thrown into the sea, in the belief that they would ‘cleanse away,’ or ‘ wipe off,’ the guilt of the nation” (Lt.). περι- κάθαρµα (for the earlier κάθαρµα) occurs in this sense in Arr.-Epict., III., xxii., 78; also in Prov. xxi. 11 (LXX). This view is supported by Hesychius, Luther, Bg., Hn., Ed.; rejected, as inappropriate, by Επ. Est., (Cvs, ΕΣ ΜΗ, ᾷα. ‘Ely! Cer- tainly P. does not look on his sufferings as a piaculum ; but he is expressing the estimate of ‘‘the world,” which deemed its vilest fittest to devote to the anger of the Gods. Possibly some cry of this sort, anticipating the ‘Christiani ad leones”” of the martyrdoms, had been
raised against P. by the Ephesian popu- lace (cf. xv. 32; also Acts xxii. 22).—€ws ἄρτι, repeated with emphasis from ver. 11, shows P. to be writing under the smart of recent outrage. With his tem- per, Paul keenly felt personal indignities.
§ 14. Pauv’s FATHERLY DIScIPLINE, iv. 14-21. All has now been said that can be concerning the Divisions at Cor. —the causes underlying them, and the spirit they manifest and foster in the Church. In their self-complacent, un- grateful thoughts, the Cor. have raised themselves quite above the despised and painful condition of the App. of Christ; “imitabantur filios qui illustrati parum curant humiles parentes—ex saturitate fastidium habebant, ex opulentia in- solentiam, ex regno superbiam” (Bg.). The delineation of Paul’s state and theirs in the last Section is, in truth, a bitter sarcasm upon the behaviour of the readers; yet P. wishes to admonish, not to rebuke them (14). He states, in a softened tone, the measures he is taking to rectify the evils complained of. His severity springs from the anxious heart of a father (14 f.). Yet in the father’s hand, before the paragraph ends, we see again the rod (21).
Ver. 14. Οὐκ ἐντρέπων κ.τ.λ.: “Νοε (by way of) shaming you do I write this, but admonishing (you) as my children beloved”’’. It is in chiding that the Ap. addresses both the Cor. and Gal. as his “children ” (2 Cor. vi. 13, xii. 14, Gal. iv. 1g) ; τέκνον ἀγαπητὸν he applies besides only to Timothy (ver. 17 and 2 Tim. i. 2). Not intentionally here, but in vi. 5 and xv. 34 he does speak πρὸς ἐντροπήν.- -τὸ νουθετεῖν (-- ἐν νῷ τιθέναι) is the part of a father (Eph. vi. 4), or brother (2 Thess. il. 15); “the vb. has a lighter meaning than ἐντρέπειν or ἐπιτιμῶν, and implies
804
t Rom. xv.
5 x. t A 1 14; Col.i. ἀγαπητὰ νουθετῶ.