Vv. 2,3. Loveless knowledge is ruinous
840
kia Corix. αρ οὖἳ
το; Rom. αυτου. Xiv. 17; Col. it. 16; Heb, xii. 16.
Ι ὅτι οὐδὲν !
1 iii. 16, vi. 2 f., etc. ; diff., νετ. 1.
4: περὶ” τῆς " Bpdcews? οὖν τῶν "εἰδωλοθύτων : | οἴδαμεν " εἴδωλον ἐν κόσµῳ, καὶ ὅτι οὐδεὶς Θεὸς ἕτερος 8 " εἰ " μὴ
m X. 19, xii. 2; 2 Cor. vi. 16; Rom. ii. 22; 1 Th. i. 9;
1 Jo. v. 21; Rev. ix. 20; Acts vii. 41, xv. 20; see also ver. 1, v.10. In LXX passim, for Heb. 'elilim,
and gtllulim. Ἡ For this use, see i. 14.
1 Om. υπ᾿ αντου Ν 17, Clem. Alex.
περι δε της γνωσεως, D*ér. ;
περι της γνωσεως ουν, P 121.
3 Om. ετερος all pre-Syrian unce.
(xb); more than that, it is self-stultify- ing. The contrasted hypotheses—et τις δοκεῖ ἐγνωκέναι τι ( = δοκεῖ σοφὸς εἶναι, ili. 18) and et τις ἀγαπᾷ τὸν Θεόν---ἀεμπε the position of men who build upon their own mental acquirements, or who make love to God the basis of life. For emphatic δοκεῖ, cf. iii. 18, vii. 40; it implies an opinion, well- or ill-founded, and con- fidence in that opinion. The pf. ἐγνωκέναι signifies knowledge acquired (for which, therefore, one might claim credit), while the aors. ἔγνω and γνῶναι denote the ac- quisition of (right) knowledge, rendered impossible by self-conceit—‘ he has never yet learnt as he ought to do”. For τι —probably tt in this connexion, some- thing emphatically, something great—cf. note on rl εἰδέναι, 1.2. The Enchiridion of Epictetus supplies a parl. to ver. 2: ‘“‘ Prefer to seem to know nothing; and if to any thou shouldst seem to be some- body, distrust thyself”; similarly So- crates, in Plato’s Apology, 23.
Ver. 3 is one of Paul’s John-like sayings. In the apodosis he substitutes, by an adroit turn, “tis known (ἔγνωσται: pf. pass. of abiding effect upon the obj.) by God”’ for ‘‘ hath come to know God,” the expected consequence—see the like correction in Gal. iv. g; cf. Phil. ii. 12 f., 11, 12; John xv. 16; 1 John iv. το. Paul would ascribe nothing to human acqui- sition; religion is a bestowment, not an achievement; our love or knowledge is the reflex of the divine love and know- ledge directed toward us. Philo, quoted by Ed., has the same thought: γνωριζόµεθα μᾶλλον ἢ γνωρίζοµεν (De Cherub., § 32). ---οὗτος ἔγνωσται ur avTo (sc. τοῦ Θεοῦ), “ke {and not the other) is known by Ηίπι ”. Ey. reverses the ref. of the prons.: ‘‘ He (God) hath been known by him (the man loving Him) ’’—an unlikely use of οὗτος.
Ver. 4. After his thrust at Cor. γνῶσις, Ῥ. resumes, with οὖν (cf. xi. 17-20), from ver. 1 the question “ About the eating of idolothyta,” repeating the “we know” at which he had interrupted his corre- spondents. For οἴδαμεν in a confessio
fidet, cf. 1 John v. 18 ff. That the theo- logical statement given in vv. 4 ff. comes from the mouth of the Corinthians seems probable from the following considera- tions: (a) the repeated οἴδαμεν (./. in this Ep.; cf. the frequent interrog. οὐκ οἴδατε; of chh. iii., v., vi.; also xii. 2), by which P. assoctates himself with the readers, who are men of knowledge (i. 5, x. 15, etc.); (5) the solemn rhythm of vv. 46 and 6, resembling a confessional for- mula (cf. Eph. iv. 4 ff., 1 Tim. iii. 16)— ver. 5 may be an interjected comment of the Church Letter upon its creed; (c) the expression “ gods many and lords many ” applied to heathen divinities, which is foreign to Pauline as to Jewish phrase- ology, but natural on the lips of old polytheists ; (d) the aptness with which GAN οὐκ ἐν πᾶσιν ἡ γνῶσις (7) fits in with this explanation, being understood as Paul’s reply to his readers’ declaration of their enlightened faith. See, on this ques- tion, W. Lock in Expositor, V., vi., 65. The articles of belief cited from the Cor. in vv. 46 and 6 had probably been for- mulated first by P., like the Πάντα pot ἔξεστιν of vi. 12, and so would be fitly quoted to Ππῃ.--- οὐδὲν εἴδωλον ἐν kdopw (cf. κ. 19), being parl. to οὐδεὶς Θεός κ.τ.λ., Should be rendered not “' An idol is nothing,” etc., but ‘‘ There is no idol in the world’”’ (so R.V. virtually, Mr., Hf., Bt., Ed.,Sm.). Existence is denied to the idol not absolutely (see 5, x. 19 f.), but relatively ; it has no real place ἐν κόσµῳ, no power over the elements of nature; “the earth is the Lord’s,” εἰς, (x. 26); there is no Zeus in the sky, nor Poseidon ruling the sea, but ‘‘one God and Father” everywhere,—a faith emancipating en- lightened Christians from every heathen- ish superstition.—ovSév εἴδωλον κ.τ.λ. forms the polemic counterpart to οὐδεὶς Θεὸς el μὴ els (see parls.),—the corner- stone of Jehovism, which Christ has made the world’s creed.—et8wdoyv (sc. a thing possessing εἶδος, form only), sem- blance, phantasm, renders in the LXX several Hebrew words for false gods—