The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Corinthians — Section 320

EXPOSITION. CHAPTER X. Ver. 3.-And did a.II eat the same spiritual meat. As the cloud ond the Red Seu sym- Yers. 1-14.-Warnings against over-con• bolized the waters of baptism, so the manna .fideuce in rehrtion to idolatry and other and the water of the rock symbolized the ele- temptations. ments of the other Chl'istian sacrament, the Yer. !.-Moreover ; rather, for. He has Lord's Supper. The manna might be called" e. just shown them, by his own example, the spiritual food," both because it was "angels' necessity for strenuous watchfulness and food" (Ps. lxxviii. 25; Wisd. xvi. 20) and effort. In continuance of the same lesson, " bread from heaven" (Ps. lxxviii. 24; he teaches them historically that the pos- John vi. 31), and also because it was a type session of great privileges is no sareguard, of "God's good Spirit," which he "gave to and that the seductions, even of idolutry, instruct them" (Neh. ix. 20). St. Puul only must not be carelessly despised. Although knows of two rncruments. the connection of the various paragraphs is Ver. 4.-The same spiritual drink. The not stated with logical precision, we see wa~_er from the smitten rock might (Exod. that they all bear on the one truth which xvu. 6; Numb. xx.11) be called a "spiritual" he wants to inculcate, namely, that it is drink, both as. being u miraculous gift (comp. both wise and kind to limit our personal Gal. iv. 29, where Isaac is said to be "born freedom out of sympathy with others. The after tl!e _spirit"), and as being a type of reading "but" (6,, morever) is probably a that "hvmg water" which "springs up into correction of the true reading ( ,,iip, for), due everlasting life" (John iv. 14; vii. 37), and to the failure to understand the whole train of the blood of Christ in the Eucharist of thought. I would not that ye should be (John vi. 55). 'I'hese '' waters in the wilder- ignorant. This is a favourite phrase of St. ness" ancl "rivers in the desert" were a Paul's (eh. xii. I; 2 Cor. i. 8; Rom. i. 13; natural symbol of the grace of God (Isa. xi. 25; I Thess. iv. 13). The ignorance to xliii. 23; lv. 1), especially as bestowed in which he refers is not ignorance of the facts, the sacrament through material signs. Lu t of the meaning of the facts. All our They drank; literully, they were drinking, fathers. He repeats the "all" five times, implying a continuous gift. Of that spiritue.l because he wishes to show that, though Rock the.t followed them; rather, literally, •·all" partook of spiritual blessings, most ofa spiritual following Roel,. This is ex- ( rnr. 5) fell in spite of them. He says, "our plained (1) us a mere figure of speech, in !'athers," not only because he was himself a which the natural rock which Moses smote Jew, but also because the patriarchs and the is left out of sight altogether; and (2) as I ,rnelites were spiritually the fathers of the meaning that not the rock, but the water Christian Church. Were under the cloud. from tb e rock, followed after them in their The compressed Greek phrase implies that wanderings (Deut. ix. 21). There co.n, how- they u:ent under it, and remained under its ever, be little or no doubt thut St. Punl sl,a<low. The "cloud" is the "pillar of refers to the common Jewish Ho.gaduh, tho.t doucl" (Exod. xiii. 21), of which David says, the actual material rock did follow the "He spread a cloud for a covering" (Ps. Israelites in their wanderings. 'I'he mbbis c,·. 39). The Book of Wisdom (x. 17) culls said that it was ronncl, and rollecl itself up it "a cover unto them by day," ancl (xix. 7) like a swarm of bees, and that, when tho "a cloud shadowing the camp." All passed tabernacle was pitched, this 1·ock co.me and through the see. (Exod. xiv. 22). scttlecl in its vestibule, and began to flow Yer. 2.-Were all baptized. This reading, when the princes came to it and sang, though well supportecl, may, perhaps, be a "Spring up, 0 well; sing ye unto it" correction for the middle, "they haptized (Numb. xxi. 17). It does not, of course, themselves," i.e. accepted baptism. The follow from this allusion that St. Puul, 01· passing under the cloud (Exod. xiv. 19) and even the rabbis, believed their Hagadah in through the sea, constituting as it did their other than a metaphol'ical sense. The Jewish deliverance from bondage into freedom, their Hagacloth- legends o.nd ill nstrations and death to Egypt, and their birth to a n~w infernuces of an imaginative O1·iental people covenant, was a general type or cl1m -are not to be taken au pied de la Lettre. shadow of Christian baptism (compare our St. Paul obviutes the luyiug of any stress on collect, " figuring thereby thy holy bap- the mere legend by the qualifying word, " e. tism"). But the typology is quite incidental; spiritual Rock." And the.t Rock we.s Christ. it is the moral lesson which is paramount. The writings of Philo, and the Alexnndriun Unto Moses; rather, into. Dy this" baptism" school of thought in gcneml, ho.cl fo.milinrizccl they accepted Moses as their Heaven-sent nil Jewish rcadcrs with languo.ge of this :.;uide aµd teacher. kincl. They were accustomed to see typed ,orr. x. 1-33.J THE FIIlS'r EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS.