The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Corinthians — Section 165

indeed. and therefore in 1heir ideal rather repeated in Eph. v. 11, "Have no fellow- than their actual chamcter. Some harn ship with the unfruitful works of darkness, taken these words tometm, "You are actually but rather reprove them." keeping the Passover, and therefore ham Ver. 1O.-Yet not altogether. The words no leaven among you;" but (I) the words correct a false inference, and mean, " I did cannot bear this meaning; nor (2) was St. not intend absolutely to prohibit all com- Paul likely to appeal so prominently to a munication with Gentiles guilty of tLiis sin Jewish ordinance; and (3) he is thinking under all circumstances." Of this world. of the Christian Easter, and only borrowing Those outside the pale of the Christian a casual illustration from the Jewish Pass- Church (comp. eh. iii. 19; 2 Cor. iv. 4). Or o,·er. For even Christ our Passover is sacri- with the covetous. St. Paul often uses the ficed for us; rather, in the true reading, Greek word in immediate connection with for our Pa~sover also was sacrificed-even sins of impurity -~ ?h. vi. 10; 2 Cor. _ix. 5; ·Christ. As Christians, the Gentile Corin- Eph. v. 3; Col. u1. 3), and, though 1t does thians certainly did not keep the Jewish not exclude the connotation o( greed and Passover; but St. Paul reminds them that avarice (2 Cor. ix. 7; I Thess. ii, 5), it they too had a Passover-that for them, too, seems to havo been used euphemistically of a Paschal Victim had been offered, whose the deadliest form of heathen sensuality. The s~crificial blood had been shed for their principle of selfishness may work equally redemption (John i. 29; xix. 36; I Pet. i. in greed and in lust. Extortioners. The l 9). (Comp. Heh. xiii. 10, "We have an word may also mean "ravishers," but there altar.") is no reason to abandon the sense of Ver. 8.-Therefore let us keep the feast. Let "rapacious." Idolaters. This is the earliest ns keep the Christian feast of Christ's resur- instance of the use of this word, which rection in that spirit of holiness-of purging does not occur in the LXX. No Christian awav sin from the midst of us-which was could still be an open "idolater." So, un- symbolized by the Jewish removal of leaven. less we suppose that the expression has Not with old leaven. For now ye are "in slipped in involuntarily, we must here give Christ," and, therefore, are a" new creation." the word a metaphorical sense, as in Col. Leaven is the type of_hypocrisy (Luke xii. iii. 5. We must else be driven to suppose I) in its secret workings, but more generally that there were some half-and-half Christians, it is a type of every corrupting influence. like Constantine, who •• feared the Lord, Of sincerity and truth. "All that corre- and served their own gods " (comp. eh. vi. spon<ls to an unsullied, uncontaminated, and 9; viii. 10; x. 7, 14; Eph. v. 5). For then genuine Christian character." The beautiful m11Bt ye needs go out of the world ; for in Greek word for "sincerity" means freedom that case (as they had perhaps implied in from all admixture. It is, perhaps, derived their letter of questions to St. Paul) ye from " testing in the sunshine," and is used would have been morally bound to leave the by St. Paul in 2 Cor. i. 12; ii.17. "Truth" world altogether and seek a new one. The means "reality." Greek particle ara perhaps refers to the Vers. 9-13.-Correction of a miBiaken astonishment caused by their misapprehen- inference which Otey had deduced from a sion of St. Paul's rule. The clause throws former 'letter of St. Paur8. painful light on the condition of the heathen Ver. 9.-In an Epistle; rather, in the world. If all communication with "forni- Epistle; in some former letter to the Church, cators" was to be forbidden, the sin was which is no longer extant (comp. 2 Cor. x. eo universal, especially at Corinth, that all 10). The attempt to get rid of so plain a intercourse with Gentiles would have be- statement, in the supposed interests of some come impoesibfe. Even some who professed superstitious notion that every line which to be stern moralists among the heathen, an apostle wrote to a Church must neces- like Cato and Cicero, looked on the sin sarily have been inspired and infallible, as being, at the worst, quite venial, and is at onctl unscriptural and grossly super- even, under certain circumstanoes, com- stitious. The notion that "the Epistle" mendable. intended is this Epistle is an absurdity Ver. 11.-But now I have written unto you. invented in the interests of the same fiction. The tense used is, perhaps, the epistolary The only hypothesis which coul<l give the aorist, and is therefore equivalent to "but least plausibility to such a view is that now I write to you ; " otherwise the sense which makes this paragraph a postscript is, "but what I meant in my letter was," or marginal ad<lition after the letter was etc. '!'he position of the words rather finished; but there is little or nothing in favours this view. St. Paul expressly tells favour of such a view. Not to company them in eh. x. 27 that he never intended with. The Greek word is rather stronger: to forbid a.II intercourse with heathens. rwt to be ming'led up among (comp. 2 These. They were not to be " taken out of the iii. 14). The spirit of the injunction is world," hint to be free from evil (John. xvii.  en. v. 1-13.J THE FIHST EPISTLE TO THE CORI1\TI-IlANS. 169