857
a 2 Cor. i. & om. i.
¥ πατέρες
ὃς - , αι. ο τς ο” λ , d a sheds oer Ga Bh ἡμῶν πάντες "ὑπὸ τὴν νεφέλην "ἦσαν καὶ πάντες "διὰ τῆς θαλάσ- 1 ra
σης * διῆλθον, 2. καὶ πάντες Seis τὸν Μωσῆν 5 "ἐβαπτίσαντο 3 ἐν τῇ > Έτεα. in
c ix. 20; «αἱ. ἵν. 21, v. 18; Acts iv. 12; Jo. i. 49. 5; elsewhere with acc. here only; Mk. vii. 4 (?); Acts xxii. 16.
Acts; Jo. iv.20,Vi.31. d 2 Cor. i. 16; Acts ix. 32; Mt. xii. 43; Lev. xxvi.
e Rom. vi. 3; Gal. iii. 27; Acts viii. 16. C/.i.13 and xii.13. Mid. voice,
1 yap, all uncc. but SCKL, all anc. verss. but syr.
?M@vonyv: see note on ix. g.
Σεβαπτισθησαν (?), SACDG 17, 46 (Western and Alexandrian); so Tisch., Tr.
»marg., W.H. marg., Nestle.
εβαπτισαντο, BKLP, etc. (Neutral and Syrian); so
Tr. txt., W.H. txt., El.—the more difficult reading: see note below.
to support.—This ‘buffeting’ of his physical frame enabled P. to ‘lead (his body) about as a slave,’—as one might do a bullying antagonist after a sound beating. Paul’s physical temperament, it appears, had stood in the way of his success as a minister of Christ; and the hindrance was providentially overcome by the terrible hardships through which he passed in pursuit of his ministry. This experience he commends to the Cor. He had felt the fear, from which the above course of rigorous self-abnegation in the interest of others has saved him, ‘‘lest haply, after preaching to others, I myself should prove reprobate ’’ (ἀδόκιμος yévwpat): the opp. result to that of ver. 23.—For κηρύσσω, see i. 23; the κἢρνξ at the Games summoned the competitors .and announced the rules of the contest. With ἀδόκιμος, rejectaneus, cf. δοκιµάζω, iii. 13, and note; see 2 Cor. xiii. 5 ff., and other parls.—On the Gr. Games, see the Dict. of Gr. and Rom. Antiq. (Isthmia, Stadium) ; Hermann, Lehrbuch d. gottes- dienstl, Alterthiimer, § 50; also the sup- :plementary Note on Greek Athletic Festi- vals in Bt.
§ 31. THE BACKSLIDING OF ANCIENT ISRAEL, x. I-5. The Apostle has just confessed, in warning others, his own fear of. reprobation. That this is no idle fear the history of the O.T. Church plainly proves. All the Israelite fathers were rescued from Egypt, and sealed with the ancient sacraments, and virtually partook of Christ in the wilderness ; but, .alas, how few of those first redeemed entered the Promised Land!
Vv. 1, 2. The phrase οὐ θέλω ὑμᾶς -ayvoetvy (see parls.) calls attention to something not altogether within the range of the reader’s knowledge (con- trast οὐκ οἴδατε; ix. 24, etc.); γὰρ attaches the paragraph, by way of en- ‘forcement, to the foregoing ἀδόκιμος. “Our fathers’ is not written inadver-
tently to Gentile “brethren,” out of P.’s ‘national consciousness ”’ (Mr.); the phrase identifies the N.T. Church with *““Israel”\(cf, Rom.'i¥. 1, απ ff, a. Thy Gal. iii. 7, 29, Phil. iii. 3; also Clem. ad Cor. 4); the fate of the fathers admon- ishes the children (Ps. Ixxviii. 8, xcv. 9, etc. ; Matt. xxiii. 29 ff., Heb. iii., iv.). The point of the warning lies in the five-times repeated πάντες: ‘‘ 4] our fathers escaped by miracle from the house of bondage ; all received the tokens of the Mosaic covenant ; all participated under its forms in Christ ; and yet most of them perished ! (5); of. the πάντες µέν . . . els δὲ of ix. 24, and note.—For ὑπὸ τὴν νεφέλην, διὰ τῆς θαλάσσης, cf. Ps. cv. 39, cvi. 11; also Wisd. x. 17, xix. 7. ‘*The cloud” shading and guiding the Israelites from above, and “(πε sea’’ making a path for them through its midst and drowning their enemies behind them, were glorious signs to ‘‘our fathers’? of God’s salva- tion; together they formed a λοῦτρον παλινγενεσίας (Tit. ili. 5), inaugurating the national covenant life; as it trode the miraculous path between upper and nether waters, Israel was born into its Divine estate. Thus ‘they all received their baptism unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea,’ since in this act they committed themselves to the guidance of Moses, entering through him into ac- knowledged fellowship with God; even so the Cor. in the use of the same sym- bolic element had been ‘ baptized unto Christ” (cf. Rom. vi. 3 f., Gal. iii. 27). For the parl. between Moses and Christ, see Heb. iii. Paul sees a baptism in the waters of the Exodus, as Peter in the waters of the Deluge (1 Pet. iii. 20 f.). ---ἐβαπτίσαντο, mid. voice (see parls.), implies consent of the subjects—‘‘had themselves baptised”’ (ef. ἀπελούσασθε, vi. 11)—aggravating their apostasy.