x.
"Χριστοῦ ἐστιν; 17. ὅτι els ἄρτος, Pol γὰρ Ρ πάντες ἐκ τοῦ ἑνὸς ἄρτου
2 Cor. ii. 17; Rom. v. 15, 19, xii. 5; Heb. xii. 15;
carries our thoughts from the incarna- tion (Phil. ii. 7), through the crucifixion (Col. i. 22), on to the heavenly glory of the Redeemer (Phil. iii. 21). The cup and bread are here styled ‘‘a communion in Christ’s blood and body ”; in His own words (xi. 25), ‘the new covenant in My blood,’’-—a communion on the basis of the covenant established by the sacrifice of the Cross.
Ver. 17 unfolds the assertion virtually contained in the question just asked: “Seeing that (ὅτι) there is one bread, we, the many, are one body”; so Vg., **Quoniam unus panis, unum corpus multi sumus,’’ Cy., Bz., Bg. Hf, Bt, Hn, Gd., El., R.V. marg.; cf. the mutually supporting unities of Eph. iv. 4 ff. The saying is aphoristic: One bread makes one body (Hn.)—a maxim of hospitality (equally true of ‘*the cup”) that applies to all associations cemented by a com- mon feast. ‘‘The bread” suggests the further, kindred idea of a common nourish- ment sustaining an identical life, the loaf on the table symbolising the ἀληθινὸς ἄρτος of John vi., which feeds the Church in every limb (xii. 13).—‘‘For (yap of explanation) we all partake from (parti- tive ἐκ, cf. ix. 7) the one bread”; eating from the common loaf attests and seals the union of the participants in Christ.
Ver. 17is parenthetical, butnointerpola- tion as Sm. thinks; it is necessary to develop the idea of κοινωνία in νετ. 16, showing how vital to the Church is the fellowship of the Lord’s Table, that was. being violated by attendance at idol- feasts.—The elliptical ὅτι . . . ἐσμεν is often construed as a continued dependent clause under the regimen of ὅτι: either (a) ‘‘Since we, who are many, are one bread (loaf), one body” (A.V., R.V. txt., with several ancient Verss., Est., Al.,. Sm.); or (b) ‘‘ Since there (is) one bread, (and) we, the many, are one body” (D.W., Mr.)—these renderings making the two statements a double reason for the κοινωνία of ver. 16, instead of seeing in the els ἄρτοςαπ evidence of the ἓν gpa. But (a) confuses two distinct figures, and identifies unsuitably ‘‘the bread” with the Church itself. (b) escapes this error by reading into the first clause the ἐστὶν required to match ἐσμὲν in the second; but the copulative ‘‘and”’ is.
17—20.
4 neTeX omer.
ἐσθίοντθρ τὰς θυσίας *
, οὖν "φημι; ὅτι “ eidwddv? τί ἐστιν, ἢ ὅτι ᾿εἰδωλόθυτόν τί ἐστιν;
20. GAN ὅτι ἃ * θύει ὃ
Mt. xxiii. 30; Lk. ν. το. y See 1κ. 14.