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τοῖς ἢ ἀπολλυμένοις - τό. οἷς μὲν ὀσμὴ | θανάτου 3 εἰς θάνατον, οἷς δ 1 Cor. i.
δὲ ὀσμὴ 1 ζωῆς” εἰς ζωήν, καὶ πρὸς ταῦτα τίς ‘ikavds; 17. οὐ γάρ ἐσμεν, ὡς οἱ ® " πολλοὶ ' καπηλεύοντες τὸν λόγον τοῦ Θεοῦ, ἀλλ᾽ ὡς".
18; Chap. iv. 3; 2 Thess. ii. 10, etc. Reff. ver. 6.
ἐξ Ἡ εἰλικρινείας, ἀλλ᾽ ds ἐκ Θεοῦ, κατενώπιον ὃ τοῦῖ Θεοῦ, " ἐν kRom.v. 15,
" Χριστῷ λαλοῦμεν.
1 Here only.
l oopnv DE.
10, xii. 5; 1 Cor. x. 17, 33.
πι Reff.i.12. ἢ Rom. ix. 1; chap. xii. το.
2 @avarov . . . ζωης DEGKL, etc.; better εκ θανατου .. . εκ ζωης NABC 17
and the Bohairic.
ὅοι λοιποι DEGL, g and the Syriac vss.; better, as in text, οι πολλοι, with
NAECK, d, e, ἢ, vg. and the Bohairic.
4 G, the Latin and Bohairic vss. omit the second ws. 5 G, d, e, f, g and the Harclean omit the second αλλ’. δ ScDEGKL have κατενωπιον; better κατεναντι (cf. Rom. iv. 17 and chap. xii. το)
with Ν ΑΒΟΡ 17.
7 ScDbcEGKLP give τον Θεου; better om. του with NR*ABCD* (cf. xii. το).
we are a sweet savour of Christ unto God. Not only ‘through us” is the ὀσμή made manifest; we ourselves in so far as we realise and manifest our mem- bership of Christ are, in fact, that εὐωδία. The influence of the lives of the saints is sweet and penetrative, like that of in- cense. From this verse comes the phrase ‘the odour of sanctity ’’.—év τοῖς σωζο- μένοις καὶ κ.τ.λ.: among them that are being saved and among them that are perishing. It is difficult to understand why the American Committee of Revisers objected to this rendering, and translated “are saved ... perish”. The force of the present participles ought not to be overlooked (see reff.) ; men in this world are either in the way of life or the way of death, but their final destiny is not to be spoken of as fixed and irrevocable while they are in the flesh. Free will involves the possibility alike of falling away from a state of grace, or of repent- ance from a state of sin. But for men of either class is a Christian life lived in their midst, a εὐωδία Χριστοῦ.
Ver. 16. οἷς μὲν ὀσμὴ κ.τ.λ.: to the one a savour from death unto death ; to the other a savour from life unto life ; and yet it is the same ὀσμή in both cases ; cf. Luke ii. 34. ἐκ θανάτου εἰς θάνατον may be illustrated by Rom. i. 17, ἐκ πίστεως εἰς πίστιν (see also chap. iii. 18); emphasis is gained, according to the Hebrew idiom, by repeating the important word. The Rabbinical parallels given by Wetstein and others show that the meta- phor of this verse was common among Jewish writers; they called the Law an
aroma vitae to the good, but an aroma mortis to the evil.—kat πρὸς ταῦτα τίς ἱκανός: who then is sufficient for these things ? sc., to fill such a part as has been just described (for καὶ . . . τίς see on ver. 2 above). St. Paul’s answer is not fully expressed, but the sequence of thought is this: “it might be thought that no one is sufficient for such a task; and yet we are, for we are not as the many,” etc. ; an answer which he is care- ful to explain and qualify in ver. 5 of the next chapter, lest he should be accused of undue confidence.
Ver. 17. οὐ γάρ ἐσμεν ὡς κ.τ.λ.: for we are not as the many, viz., the ordinary teachers with whom you meet. The indirect reference is to his opponents at Corinth, though they are not named. At least he is more worthy to fill the high office of which he has been speaking than many who would be only too glad to usurp his authority ; cf. chap. iv. 2, 1 Thess. ii. 3, 5 for similar comparisons.— καπηλεύοντες τὸν λόγον τοῦ Θεοῦ: who adulterate the word of God, i.e., the Divine message as revealed in the Gospel (the wswal sense in the N.T. of 6 λόγος τοῦ Θεοῦ; cf. iv. 2 and 2 Tim, ii. 15). κάπηλος (Ecclus. xxvi. 29) is ‘a huck- ster,” and is used in Isa. i. 22 of one who adulterates wine; so the primary sense of καπηλεύειν is ‘to make merchandise of” (R.V. margin), which readily passed into “to corrupt’ or ‘‘adulterate” for the purposes of trade.— ἀλλ᾽ ὡς ἐξ εἰλι- κρινείας κ.τ.λ.: but as of sincerity (our subjective attitude of mind), but as of God (the objective source of our message