Wi το
Νπιώτ. “Towa τις ὑμῶν > πρᾶγμα
/ \ ~ κρίνεσθαι "ἐπὶ τῶν ! ἀδίκων, καὶ οὐχὶ 5; Job xv. 12.
Mt. xxviii. τή.
i b Η.Ι.; Thuc. i. 128; Ken. Mem. ii. 9. 1. lil. 4 (Ps. 1. 6); Mt. v. 40; Gen. xxvi. 21; «]οῦ xiii. το, xxxix. 34.
813
b>» b κ Ont. seed a Rom. v.7; ἔχων Ὁ πρὸς "τὸν "ἕτερον εν κι
- / . ἐπὶ 5 τῶν 5 ἁγίων; 2. οὐκ] 12; Acts
ν. 13; Esth. vii. d In this sense, Rom. e Acts xxiii. 30, xxiv. 19, xxv. 9;
c See iv. 6.
f In this sense, ver. 9; cf. αµαρτωλοι, Gal. ii. 15, etc.; απιστοι, ver. 6 below.
6 In this comprehensive use, xiv. 33, xvi. 1, 15; 2 Cor. viii. 4; Rom. xii. 13, xvi. 15; about 12 times
besides in P.; Heb. vi. 10; Jude 3.
1y ovk«: all unce. but DSL. εγενηθηµεν ; hence Syrian text.
the Church. He holds jurisdiction over those within its pale; of their conduct the Church (ὑμεῖς) is bound to take note ; the world outside must be left to the judgment of God: “cives judicate, ne alienos” (Bg.). The Ap. places himself and the Cor. on the one side (cf. 4; also xii. 25 f.), in contrast with God who judges τοὺς ἔξω. ‘“ Within” and “ with- out”’ denoted in Synagogue usage mem- bers and non-members of the sacred community (see parls.) : ot ἔσω = οἱ ἅγιοι, οἱ οἰκεῖοι τῆς πίστεως, οἱ τοῦ Χριστοῦ, etc. Yet this mutual judgment of Chris- tians by each other has great limitations (Rom. xiv. 4-10; Matt. vii. 1 ff.); its sphere lies in vital matters of character essential to Church life ; and there it is subject to the final Court of Appeal (see iv. 3 ff.).—6 Θεὸς κρίνει (not κρινεῖ): P. is not anticipating the Last Judgment, but laying down the principle that God is the world’s Judge; see Rom. ii. 16, iii. 6, Heb. xii. 23, etc.—The interrog. οὐχὶ holds under its regimen the two clauses linked by the contrastive δέ; El. however reads τοὺς δὲ ἔξω κ.τ.λ. assertively, as a concluding “grave enunciation”’.
From his digression to the lost Ep. and the general social problem, the Ap. returns, with vehement emphasis, to the offender of vv. 1 f. and demands his expulsion in the solemn words of the Deuteronomic law. τὸν πονηρὸν is not Satan (scelerum omnium principem,” Cv.), nor “the wicked”? in general —each case as it arises (Hf.); but ‘“‘istum improbum” (Bz.), the case of notorious and extreme guilt which gave rise to the whole discussion.—étdpare (cf. ἐκκαθάρατε, 7) takes up again the ἵνα ἀρθῇ of ver. 2, with the added thought (ἐξ- . . . ἐξ ὑμῶν αὐτῶν) of the riddance effected by his removal. The terrible sentence of vv. 3 ff. had not, in so many words, prescribed ejection, though imply- ing it; and P. needed to be very ex- plicit: see note on ver. 9. The formal expulsion must proceed from the Cor.,— ὑμεῖς κρίνετε; the Church is a self- governing body.
h See ver. 6.
H perhaps lost by confusion with final N of
§17. LAw-suITS IN HEATHEN Courts, vi. 1-6. Beside the πόρνος, amongst those to be excommunicated at Cor., stood the πλεονέκτης (v. 11); fraud and robbery were only less rife than licentiousness; and this element of cor- ruption, along with the other, had reap- peared within the Church (8). Instead of being repressed by timely correction, the evil had grown rank; in several in- stances aggrieved Christian parties had carried their complaints before the civil Courts, to the scandal of the Church and to Paul’s high indignation. Two links of thought connect chh. v. and vi.: (5) the kindred nature of sins of impurity and of covetousness, both prevalent at Cor., both destructive of society; (2) the lamentable lack of Church discipline (v. 12), which enabled these mischiefs to gather head.
Ver. 1. Τολμᾶτις ὑμῶν κ.τ.λ.; ‘ Does any one of you dare?” etc.—‘‘notatur lesa majestas Christianorum” (Bg.): τολμᾶν, sustinere, non erubescere. This also was matter of common knowledge, like the crime of v. 1. The abrupt interrog. marks the outburst of indignant feeling. You treat the Church, the seat of the Holy Spirit (iii. 16 f.), as though it were without authority or wisdom; you take your case from the highest court to the lowest! So the appellant is first censured ; in ver. 4 the whole Church comes in for blame.—NpG@ypa (res, nego- tium), κρίνεσθαι (mid.; see parls.), ἐπὶ with gen., ἐν (2), κριτήριον (2), καθίζω (4), and perhaps ἥττημα (7), are all in this passage technical legal expressions.—Ot ἄδικοι--ἴπε term applied by the Jews (cf. Gal. ii. 15), and then by Christians, to the heathen—marks the action censured as self-stultifying—to seek for right from “the unrighteous”! P. himself appealed ΄ to Roman justice, but never in matters “between brother and brother,” nor in the way of accusing his injurers (Acts xxviii. το); only in defence of his work. —Oi ἅγιοι indicates by contrast the moral dignity of Christians (see i. 2, and note), a judicial attribute; cf. sanctitas