iv. 11-13); but when he begins to speak of the bad living of his converts, and to comment on the shocking news which had reached him, his tone is one of severe and unsparing rebuke. He is astounded that such a scandal as has been mentioned to him (1 Cor. v. 1) should be endured for a moment, and he bids them excommunicate the offender at once (1 Cor. ν. 5). Inthe Lost Letter he had warned them against associating with persons who lived impure lives, but now it has actually become necessary to rebuke them for tolerating the company of a man who is living unchastely with his stepmother (1 Cor. ν. 1). They must ‘put away the wicked person” from among themselves (1 Cor. v. 18). It is their duty to “judge them that are within,” and it is a scandalous thing that such wrongs as a Christian father endures when his son has robbed him of his wife should be brought for adjudication before heathen tribunals.' The Christian community should exercise its own spiritual prerogative (1 Cor. v. 4), and decide such cases without the interference of heathen lawyers (1 Cor. vi. 1-7). The wickedness of sins of the flesh only appears in its true light when judged on Christian principles (1 Cor. vi. 15 ff.), and it is by these that the fitting punishment should be determined.
8. Such is the language and the drift of the body of 1 Corin- thians. The allusions to the Passover feast (1 Cor. v. 7, 8, cf. xv. 20, 23) make it probable that it was written about Easter, and the year was, according to the system we have adopted, 55 a.p. This is a consequence of 1 Cor. xvi. 8, from which it appears that when it was composed it was St. Paul’s intention to leave Ephesus after the ensuing Pentecost. Thus the letter was written during the last months of his stay at that city. Nothing is said as to the bearers of the letter; but 2 Cor. xii. 18 seems to indicate that Titus
1The Roman law under which a prosecution for adultery would be made was the lex Fulia de adulteriis, passed by Augustus, 17 B.c. It is probable, how- ever, that native Greek law would be enforced at Corinth. This also recognised adultery as an indictable offence; the damages allowed in any special case being assessed at the discretion of the judges.
2The subscription in the received text states that it was written at Philippi; but this is a manifest mistake, probably due to a misunderstanding of the words Μακεδονίαν yap διέρχομαι {η 1 Cor. xvi. 5. Ver. 8 of the same chapter is conclusive as to the place of writing. This subscription further adds that the letter was carried to Corinth by the envoys Stephanas, Fortunatus and Achaicus along with Timothy; but this again seems to be a misapprehension, although there is some justification in 1 Cor. xvi. 18 for the supposition that the envoys who had brought the Corinthian letter to Ephesus took back the answer (see above), For Timothy's movements see § 13 note,