learning and suggestiveness. Schnedermann’s edition of the Epistles to the Corinthians (in Strack-Zéckler's Kommentar) has also been found useful at some points. Bengel’s Gnomon and Field’s detached Notes have, of course, been diligently consulted.!
In this edition the interpretation which has seemed on the whole the best has been set down, without (as a rule) discussing at length the rival theories. It would have been easy to crowd the notes with references to other editors; but it has seemed better to economise space in this direction, and so to find room for a larger number of references to St. Paul’s other writings.
September, 1900.
‘See also Prof. Findlay’s account of the Commentaries on 1 Corinthians vol. ii, Ρ. 752 above).
I. τ. ΠΑΥΛΟΣ ἀπόστολος ᾿Ιησοῦ Χριστοῦ, " διὰ "θελήματος 3 Θεοῦ, 2 Rom. xv.
καὶ Τιμόθεος ὁ ἀδελφὸς, τῇ " ἐκκλησίᾳ τοῦ " Θεοῦ τῇ οὔσῃ ἐν Κορίνθῳ, Eph. i. 1; Col. i. 1; 2 Tim. i. 1.
32; 1 Cor. i. 1; chap. Vili
Ὁ Acts xx. 28; 1 Cor. i. 2; 1 Thess. ii. 14, ete.
‘ ADEGKL and most vss. have "Ino. Χρ.; better Χριστου Ἴησου with SBMP 17.
CHAPTER I. ADDRESS, vv. I, 2.—The usual form of address at the beginning of a Greek letter was A. B. χαίρειν (see Acts xxili. 26); and this is adopted by St. James in his Epistle (Jas. i. 1), and is followed, among other Christian writers, by Ignatius in his letters (πλεῖστα χαίρειν is his ordinary formula). St. Paul, original in this asin all else, struck out a form for himself. He replaces χαίρειν by χάρις καὶ εἰρήνη (1 Thess.), which in subse- quent letters is expressed more fully, as here, χάρις kat εἰρήνη ἀπὸ Θεοῦ πατρὸς ἡμῶν καὶ Κυρίου Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ. (In 1 and 2 Tim. he adds ἔλεος.) The simple greeting of ordinary courtesy is thus filled with a deep religious meaning. Grace is the keynote of the Gospel; and peace, the traditional and beautiful saluta- tion of the East, on Christian lips signifies not earthly peace merely, but the peace of God (Phil. iv. 7). The first instance of the combination of χάρις with εἰρήνη is noteworthy, viz., they are coupled in the Priestly Benediction at Num. vi. 24.— ἀπόστολος Xp. Ἰη.: St. Paul’s letters are all semi-official, except perhaps that to Philemon; and thus they usually begin with the assertion of his apostolic office. This it would be especially necessary to emphasise in a letter to Corinth, where his authority had been questioned quite recently (x. ro ff.), and where the names
of Apollos and Peter had formerly been set in opposition to his (1 Cor. i. 12).— διὰ θελήματος Θεοῦ: he is ever anxious (see reff.) to explain that his apostleship was not assumed of himself; it is a mis- ston from God; he is a σκεῦος ἐκλογῆς.-- καὶ Τιμόθεος ὁ ἀδελφός: Timothy now occupies the place at St. Paul’s side which was filled by Sosthenes when 1 Cor. was written (1 Cor. i. 1). Timothy had been despatched to Macedonia (Acts xix. 22) to go on to Corinth (1 Cor. iv. 17), but St. Paul seems to have had a suspicion that he might be prevented from arriving there (1 Cor. xvi. 10). From the facts that we now find him in Macedonia, and that there is no mention of him in chap. xii. 16-18, it is likely that he was pre- vented from reaching Corinth by some causes of which we are unaware.—rq ἐκκλησίᾳ τοῦ Θεοῦ κ.τ.λ.: the letter is addressed primarily to the Christian con- gregation at Corinth, and secondarily to the Christians throughout Achaia. It is thus a circular letter, like that to the Galatians or Ephesians, and so at the end we do not find salutations to individuals, as in 1 Cor. and in the other letters addressed to particular Churches. The words τῇ οὔσῃ ἐν Κορίνθῳ suggest the idea of settled establishment ; the Church at Corinth had now been for some time in existence. —év ὅλῃ τῇ ᾿Αχαΐᾳ: the