The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Corinthians — Section 225

nlone-unfaithfulness-as adequate for the masoochim. St. Paul does not permit the disruption of the marriage 1ie; but he was Rdoption of this course. In the rebellion of not contemplating, as St, Paul is, the case Barcocheba many obliterated the sign of of mixed marriages. To peace; rather, in circumcision, and were afterwards, at great peace. Peace is to be the sphere in which danger to themselves, reoircumcised. the calling comes, and in which it issues. (' Yevo.moth,' fol. 72, I). Let him not be oir- Milton, in his ''l'etrachordon,' quotes oumoised. This rule was of much more Maimonides to the effect that "divorce was practical significance than the other. The permitted by Moses to preserve peace in early fortunes of Christianity hnd been almost mnrriage and quiet in the family." Similarly, shipwrecked by the attempt of Jewish a voluntary separation might be the only rigorists to enforce this odious bondage on possible means of preserving moral peace the Gentiles, and their deliverance from it where the union was between souls separated had been due almost solely to St. Paul. It from each other by so vast a gulf as those of was his inspired insight which bad swayed a pagan and a Christian. the decision of the synod at Jerusalem Yer. 16.-For what lmowest thou, 0 wife, (Acts xv.); and at a later period his Epistle etc.? The meaning is as follows :-You may, to the Galatians was the manifesto of Gen- perhaps, plead that, by refusing to sever the tile emancipation. He proved that after union, the believing partner may convert the Christ's death " circumcisiou" (peritome) unbelieving; but that possibility is too dis- became to Gentiles a mere physical mutila- tant and uncertain on which to act. St. tion (katatome) (Phil. iii. 2). Peter does indeed show that so blessed a Ver. 19.-Ciroumoision is nothing. The result is possible(" That, if any obey not the Jews regarded it as everything; and to Word, they also maybe won ... by the conver- make this assertion at so early o.n epoch of sation of the wives," 1 Pet. iii. 1); but he is Christian history, required all the courage only speaking of cases in which the unbe- of St. Paul, and proved his grand originality. lieving husband did not wish the union to be He was the first to prove to the Jews tltat dissolved. The ancient misinterpretation of circumcision had become o. thing intrinsic- the passage (due to neglect of the context and ally indifferent, which might, under some of the argument as a whole) viewed it as an circumstances, be desirable (as in the case argument for mixed marriages, founded on of Timothy), but could never be reckoned the chance of thereby winning souls. Most among essentials. And uncircumoision is misinterpretations of Scripture have done nothing. The same sentence occurs three deadly harm ; this one, however, has been times in St. Paul, summing up, as it were, overruled for good, and led, as Dean Stanley the liberty which it had cost him endless points out, to such happy marriages as peril o.ud anguish to achieve. Each time that of Clotilde with Clovis, and Bertha. he concludes it with a weighty clause to with Ethelbert of Kent. show what is everything: "Circumcision is Vers. 17-24.-0orroboratii,e instances of nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the duty of remaining in the state wherein the keeping of the commandments of God " each waB called, (ver. 19); " . . . but faith 1J.•hich worlceth by Ver. 17.-But; literally, if not. The love" (Go.I. v. 6); " . . . but aneto creation" phrase introduces a. caution. The rule is (Gal. vi. 15). But the keeping of the oom- that the circumstances of our lives are me.ndments. So St. John says, 11 Hereby regulated by the providence of God, and we do know that we know him, if we keep must not be arbitrarily altered at our own his commandments." caprice. Christ allotted his portion to each Ver. 20.-Let every man abide in the same Christian, God bath called each man; that oalling, etc. In accordance with this general lot and that call are to guide his life. 11 Qua principle, which illustrates the distinction positus fueris in statione mane" (Ovid). between Christianity o.nd violent socinl Rath distributed; rather, apportioned. Bo revolutions, St. John the Baptist had not ordain I in e.I1 Churchea. He proceeds to bidden publicans or soldiers to abandon give specific instances to which his rule their callings, but to do their duty in that applies. state of life to which God had called them Ver. 18.-Being ciroumcised. The first (Luke iii. 12-14). The "calling" alluded instance he gives is that of Judaism and to is not w!Jat is described as " o. vocation," paganism. The circumcised Jew is to remain a calling in life, but the condition in which circumcised ; the uncircumcised Gentile is we are when wo nre called by God (comp. not to undergo circumcioion. Become un- eh. i. 26; Eph. i. 18; iv. 1). circumcised. The Hellenising Jews in the Ver. 21.-Being a servant. This is the days of the priest Menelaus (I Mace. i. 15; second inste.nce of the rule. One wlio wo.s Josephus,' Ant.,' xii. 5, l) had discovered a converted whilst he was a slave is not to process for obliterating the appearance of strive over-anxiously for freedom, The circumcision; such persons were known as word "emancipation " sometimes seems (as en. vn. 1-10.J THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS. 227