Introduction 15

to convey (although the Corinthians had misunderstood his counsel) that the ban could not be taken off by the same authority which had imposed it, if evidence of penitence were forthcoming. Indeed the identification of ὃ ἀδικήσας in 2 Cor. vii. 12 with the offender of 1 Cor. v. 1 seems to be not doubtful when the language and purport of the earlier passage are considered. I have already pointed out (§ 10) that the aim of the Apostle in writing 1 Cor. v. and vi. was not merely that the offender should be excommunicated, but that the scandal of such a case being brought by Christians before a heathen court should be avoided. Consider, further, St. Paul’s language. Some persons, he says (1 Cor. iv. 18, 19), ‘“‘were puffed up” (ἐφυσιώθησαν) as though he were not coming; i.e., they made little of his authority in his absence. The same word (πεφυσιωμένοι) is used (1 Cor. v. 2) of the action, or rather the inaction, of the Christian community in reference to the case of incest; and in this matter he declares ‘‘ Your boasting is not good” (οὐ καλὸν τὸ καύχημα ὑμῶν, 1 Cor. v. 6). That is to say, their καύχημα consisted in their resistance to his apostolic authority ; they were “ puffed up,” and so they had not dealt with the offender as they would have done had they followed his teachings (1 Cor. v. 2). It is with reference to this that he says in the later letter, εἰς τοῦτο γὰρ καὶ ἔγραψα, ἵνα γνῶ τὴν δοκιμὴν ὑμῶν, εἰ εἰς πάντα ὑπήκοοί ἐστε (2 Cor. ii. 9). Again, the sentence which he directs to be pronounced upon the offender is παραδοῦναι τὸν τοιοῦτον τῷ Σατανᾷ eis ὄλεθρον τῆς σαρκός (1 Cor. v. 5) ; but when he bids them be merciful and forgive, his reason is ἵνα μὴ πλεονεκτηθῶμεν ὑπὸ τοῦ Σατανᾶ (2 Cor. ii. 11). The man was only “delivered over to Satan,” eis ὄλεθρον τῆς σαρκός (1 Cor. v. 5); but care must be taken lest Satan rob the Church of his soul (2 Cor. ii. 11). The reference to Satan in the later Epistle is pointless, unless we bear in mind the tenor of the sentence in the earlier one. And there is another phrase perhaps worthy of attention. The offender is called ὁ ἀδικήσας in 2 Cor, vii. 12, and the injured person is ὁ ἀδικηθείς. If we turn back to 1 Cor. vi. we find that the words ἀδικεῖν and ἄδικος (1 Cor. vi. 8, 9) are specially used of the carnal offences which St. Paul has there in view. The point of his rebuke in that chapter is that it would have been better for the offended father to have suffered wrong (ἀποστερεῖσθε; cf. for the force of this 1 Cor. vii. 5) than to have brought the matter before the heathen tribunals. And when St. Paul speaks of the Corinthians as having proved them- selves in the end to be ἀγνοὺς τῷ πράγματι (2 Cor. vii. 11), the last words recall the ἐν τῷ πράγματι of 1 Thess. iv. 6, where the refer- ence is to adultery, the language used being strikingly like that of