The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Corinthians — Section 481

The phrase is a qunlincnlion of th•· Rlrong associations corrupt excellent morals." metaphor, "I fought with be11sts." It is According to the b8st rea,Jing (xpTJtr7il., not -equivalent to "humanly speaking." 'fhie xp11rr6'), St. Paul does not q u0te it as an is Chrysoslom'e view. It ie the most iambic, and in itself it does not offer the reasonable, anrl accords with the nee of the least shadow of proof that St. Paul was phrase iu Hom. iii. 5; Gal. iii. 15. Meyer, fu.miliar with classic literature. It is just however, explains it to mean '' with mere such a line as he might have seen carved human motives." I have fought with beasts. on the Hermm of o.ny Greek town, or pre- Not literally, for in that case he would served in any chrestomathy or gnomology have mentioned it in 2 Cor. xi. as one of his which may have chAnced to pass thrnugl1 <l.eadliest perils, nnd it must have been his hands. His other classic quotations recorded by St. Luke in his full account of (from Epimenides, Titu~ i. 12; and Aratus or St. Paul's life at Ephesus. A Roman Cleanlhes, Acts x,ii. 2S) are of the same citizen was legally exempt from this mode common and proverbial character. It is rnry of punishment. 'fhe word points to some unlikely that he would have delil.Jcrately speciRl peril incurred in resisting the hostility quoted from the immoral play of a corrupt of the worshippers of Artemis ( Acts xx. 19), comedian like Menander. (For the 110uti- but not to the tumult in the theatre, which ment, see 2 'fim. ii. 16-18.) did not happen till after this Jetter was Ver. 3!.-Awa.ke to righteousness. The despatched (eh. xvi. B, 9). 'fhe metaphor word rendered "awake" means "nwe.ke at is not uncommon. Thus in 2 'fim. iv. 17 once from a drunken sleep." This verb does St. Paul alludes to Nero (probably) as "the not occur elsewhere iu the New Testament. lion." David often compares his enemies 'fhe word rendered "awake" in Eph. v. H to wild beasts (Ps. xxii. 21, etc.). When an,! Rom. xiii. 11 is a different one. 'fhe bis jnilor informed Agrippa of the death of metaphor, however, occurs in the simple verb Tiberius, he did eo in the words," The lion in 1 These. v. 6, 8; 2 Tim. iv. 5; 1 Pet. v. 8, is dead." St. Ignatius writes of the ten etc. The word rendered "to righteousness" soldiers who were conducting him to Rome is literally an adverb, righteo11sly. It may as " ten leopards." Epimenidee, in the mean "as is fit." And sin not. Here the line quoted by St. Paul in Titus i. 12, spoke present tense, "bo not sinning," is con- of the Cretans as " evil wild beasts," and tra.steel with the instmitaneous aorist, the pseudo-Heraclitus gives this same un- " o.wo.ke." :e:a.ve not the knowledge. The complimentary title to these very Ephesians. original is strung-er, "have an ignornnce." Let us eat and drink; for to-morrow we die. They have not a vacuum of nescience, but o. Perhaps the "if the dead a.re not raised " plenuum of ignorance. I speak this to your belongs to this clause. He means thnt she.me; rather, I am Bpeakillg to shame you. such o.n Epicurean maxim, if never excusable, 'fhe object of all I um s11ying is to excite would o.t least be natural, if men could only your shame-not, as in some pre\·ious in- look to life in the present. The sentill!er.t stances, " to spnre you." is found on the lips of the despcliring and the Vers, 35-49.-Material objection, a11- Beneunl alike in Isa. xxii. 13, and in the swered. writings of the henthen (Horace,' Od.,' i. 4, 13 Ver. 35.-llut some man will say. Th., -17, etc.). St. P11ul would be all the more objection is that of eomA philosophical fomilinr with it bec1mse it formed the materiulist. The resurrection of the body info.moue epitaph of a ,to.tue of Sar<.lnnnpalus, was e. difficulty a.like to So.d<.lucees and which ho must have often seen in his boy- Gentiles. St. Paul meets this diflkulty by hood o.t Anchiale, near 'fnrsus. It repre- natural nno.logies, whirh nre iutended to sented the debased king ns snnpping his show thut the resurrection-body, though 'fingers, nnd using almost these very words. identical with the mortnl body so for ns the 'It is strange that similar pnssnges should prese1·vation of personal identity is concerned, be found even in the Talmud. Shemuel is yet ll glorified body, so that the objections said to RI\V Y<·hudnh, "Seize and eat, urged on the ground thnt it is impossible t!eize and drink; for tha world is like e. to preserve the so.me material particles which wedding feast (soon over)" (' Eiruvin,' fol. hnve passed into dust, are beside the 5-l, 1). murk. St. Paul gives no sanction to the Ver. 33.-lle not deceived. Do not be Jed coarse physical conceptions of the resurrec- .a.stray by such specious maxims. 'Ibey tion which described the human L,eing us can only arise from that too great familiarity rising (to use the words of the Christinn with the heathen against which I have poet Prudentius) "with every tooth and already put you on your gunrd. Evil oom- every nnil." How a.re the dead raised up, muuica.tions oorrupt good manners. An This question is ono which, of course, admit" iambic line from the •Thais' ofl\1ennnder, And of no auswer. And with what body do they perhaps taken by l\Icnu.nder from a piny of oome 1 literally, tvith what kind of body 1 St. Euri11idee. :More accurately it means" evil Paul, while he only answcrs the que:;tioll 490 THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS. [cu. xv. 1-58.