w 2 Cor. xiii. 5 ff.; Rom. i.
another exercise of the Pentathlon of the arena: the former a familiar N.T. meta- phor, the latter 4.1.—ds οὐκ ἀέρα δέρων, ‘fut non aerem cedens’’ (Bz.), ‘‘ smit- ing something more solid than air” (οὐκ negatives ἀέρα, not δέρωγ),---Ε5Ρ. my own body (27); cf. Virgil’s ‘‘verberat ictibus auras’’ (42n. v. 377). P.’s are no blows of a clumsy fighter that fail to land—struck in’s Blaue hinein. Bg., Hf., Ed. suppose him to be thinking of the σκιοµαχία, sham-fight, practised in training or by way of prelude, without an antagonist. δέρω means {ο flay, then beat severely, smite; cf. our vulgar hiding. Ver. 27. The fully-attested reading ὑπωπιάζω (from ὑπὸ and ὤψ, to hit under the eye) continues the pugilistic metaphor and suits Paul’s vehemence ; ““contundo corpus meum”’ (Β7.), “ livi- dum facio’’ (Cod. Claromontanus), ‘I beat my body black and blue’’: a vivid picture of the corporal discipline to which P. subjects himself in the prosecution of his work (cf. iv. 11—esp. κολαφιζόμεθα ; 2 ος. χι. 55 f.,:\Gal.) vi. (απ, οἳ Έσω. Ἡ, 4). ὑποπιάζω (ὑπὸ + πιέζω; cf. 2 Cor. xi. 32, etc.)—preferred by Hf. and Hn., after Clem. Alex.— giving the milder sense, to force under, subdue, subigo (Cv.), is almost syn. with δουλαγωγῶ. P.’s severe bodily suffering, entailed by the circumstances of his ministry, he accepts as needful for his own sanctifi- cation (cf. 2 Cor. xii. 7),—a physical castigation which tames the flesh for the uses of the spirit (cf. 1 Pet. iv. 1 f.; also, for the principle involved, Rom. viii. 13, Col. iii. 5). The practices of the Middle- Age Flagellants and similar self-torturers have been justified by this text; but Paul’s discipline was not arbitrary and self-inflicted, it was dictated by his call- ing (12b, 23)—a cross laid on him by the hand of God, and borne for the Gospel’s and the Church’s sake (¢f. Col. i. 24). In Col. ii. 23 he guards against the ascetic extravagances which this passage, perhaps even in his life-time, was used
Χ. τ---2.
X. 1. "Οὐ "θέλω δὲ] ὑμᾶς " ἀγνοεῖν, ἀδελφοί, ὅτι οἱ