him true inward freedom. But while he considers the latter as the only true freedom, in the possession of which man may be free under all outward restraints, and apart from which no true freedom can exist, he is very far from overlooking the subordinate worth of civil freedom, for he says to the slave, to whom he had announced the true, the spiritual freedom, "but if thou mayst be free, use it rather," 1 Cor. vii. 21;1 which implies that the apostle viewed the state of freedom as more corresponding to the Christian calling, and that Christianity, when it so far gained the ascendency as to form anew the social relations of mankind, would bring about this change of state, which he declares to be an object of preference.2

The later ascetic spirit forms a striking contrast on this point to the spirit of primitive Christianity. Although, in a grammatical view, it is most natural to supply the ἐλεύθερος γένεσθαι which immediately precedes, or éλev0epía, yet the later Fathers have not thus understood it, because the worth of civil freedom appeared to them not so great, but they took the apostle's meaning to be exactly opposite, uâλλov Xpñσαι Ty douxeia. What De Wette has lately urged against this interpretation, does not appear to me convincing. The ei kal (he thinks) is against it; but it suits very well. The apostle says, If called, being a slave, to Christianity, thou shouldst be content. Christian freedom will not be injured by slavery-but yet, if thou canst be free (as a still additional good, which if thou dost not attain, be satisfied without it; but which, if offered to thee, is not to be despised) therefore make use of this opportunity of becoming free, rather than by neglecting it to remain a slave. The connexion with v. 22, is not against it, if we recollect, that the clause beginning with aλλà is only a secondary or qualifying assertion, which certainly does not belong to the leading thought, a mode of construction similar to what we find elsewhere in Paul's writings.

2 To this also the words in v. 23 may relate. "Ye are bought with a price (ye are made free from the dominion of Satan and sin), become not the slaves of men." Thus it would be understood by many. Christians ought not voluntarily, merely to escape from some earthly trouble, to put themselves in a condition which is not suited to their Christian calling. But since the apostle previously, when speaking of such relations as could only concern individuals in the church, used the singular, but now changed his style to the plural, it is hence probable, that he is speaking of a relation of a general kind, that is, giving an exhortation, which would apply to all the Corinthians, an exhortation, indeed, which is not so closely connected with what is said in v. 22, but which he might easily have been led to make from the idea of a δοῦλος Χριστοῦ, so familiar and interesting to his mind, an idea that would equally apply to both bond and free; "Refuse not this truc freedom which belongs to you as the bondsmen of Christ, do not become by a spiritual dependence the slaves of men, from being the bondsmen of Christ;"- -an exhortation which was adapted in many

The Corinthian church had probably requested that Apollos might visit them again, and Paul acknowledged him as a faithful teacher, who had built on the foundation of the faith which he had laid, who had watered the field that he had planted. He was far from opposing this request; he even requested Apollos to comply with it, but Apollos was resolved not to visit Corinth immediately. The importance attached to his person, and the efforts that had been made to place him at the head of a party, perhaps led him to this determination.

Paul wrote our first Epistle to the Corinthians about the time of the Jewish Passover, as appears from the allusion in v. 7. He had then the intention of staying at Ephesus till Pentecost; he informed them that many opportunities offered for publishing the gospel, but that he had also many enemies to contend with. He spoke of his being in daily peril of losing his life; 1 Cor. xv. 30.

respects to the condition of the Corinthian church; and this warning against a servitude totally incompatible with being a servant (or bondsman) of Christ, (which could not be asserted of a state of outward servitude, or slavery, simply as such,) this warning would be a very suitable conclusion to the whole train of thought on inward and outward freedom. It was needless for him to notice the case of a person selling himself for a slave, since it was one that could hardly occur among Christians. Verse 24 is rather for than against this interpretation; for since v. 23 does not refer to outward relations, he once more repeats the injunction respecting them.

1 Schrader infers from the words in 1 Cor. xvi. 8, that Paul could not have written this epistle at the close of his long residence at Ephesus, but at the beginning of another short stay there; for otherwise he must have said, επιμενῶ δὲ ἐν Ἐφέσῳ ἔτι, and could not have hoped to effect that in a few weeks for the spread of the gospel, and the counteraction of false teachers, which he could not accomplish even after several years. But we do not see why Paul, merely having the future in his eye, and not reflecting on the past, might not leave out the T, as similar omissions frequently occur in an epistolary writing; and even if Paul in the course of a long time had effected much for the spread of the gospel, still he could say, since the sphere of his labours in Lesser Asia was continually extending, that "a great and effectual door" was opened for publishing the gospel. But the avTiKeiμevoι in this passage, which relates to the publication of the gospel, are certainly not false teachers, but open adversaries of Christianity. As the opportunities for making known the gospel were manifold, so also its enemies were many. This, therefore, does not contradict the preceding longer evidence of the apostle, but rather confirms it; for the most violent attacks on the preachers of the gospel, if they did not proceed from the

At the time of his writing this Epistle to Corinth, he had formed an extensive plan for his future labours. As during his stay of several years in Achaia and at Ephesus, he had laid a sufficient foundation for the extension of the Christian church among the nations who used the Greek language, he now wished to transfer his ministry to the West; and as it was his fundamental principle to make those regions the scene of his activity where no one had laboured before him— he wished on that account to visit Rome, the metropolis of the world, where a church had long since been established, in his way to Spain,1 and then to commence the publication of the gospel at the extremity of Western Europe. But before putting this plan into execution, he wished to obtain a munificent collection in the churches of the Gentile Christians for their poor believing brethren at Jerusalem, and to bring the amount himself to Jerusalem accompanied by some members of the churches. Already some time before he despatched this Epistle to the Corinthians, he had sent Timothy and some others to Macedonia and Achaia to forward this collection, and to counterwork the disturbing influences in the Corinthian church. He hoped to receive through him Jews, would first arise, after by their long-continued labours they had produced effects which threatened to injure the interests of many whose gains were derived from idolatrous practices.

' Rom. xv. 24, 28. Dr. Bauer, in his Essay on the Object and Occasion of the Epistle to the Romans, in the Tubinger Zeitschrift für Theologie, 1836, part iii. p. 156, has attempted to show that Paul could not have written these words. He thinks that he discovers in them the marks of another hand, of which, in my opinion, no trace whatever can be found, all appears wholly Pauline. It might indeed seem strange, that the apostle of the Gentiles had not yet visited the metropolis of the Gentile world. Accordingly, he gives an account of the causes which had hitherto prevented him, and expresses his earnest desire to become personally acquainted with the church of the metropolis. Since it was most important, first of all, to lay a foundation everywhere for the publication of the gospel, on which the superstructure might afterwards be easily raised, so it was his maxim-the same which he expresses in 2 Cor. x. 16, and which we see him always acting upon to labour only in those regions where no one before had published the gospel. But among the Gentiles at Rome a church had been long founded, and hence he could not be justified on his own principles in leaving a field of labour in which there was still so much to be done, in order to visit a church that had been long established, and was in a state of progressive development. The difficulties which Bauer finds in this passage are only created by a false interpretation.

2 1 Cor. iv. 17. The manner in which Paul mentions Timothy both

an account of the impression which his epistle had made. But he found himself deceived in his expectations, for Timothy was probably prevented from travelling as far as Corinth, and came back to Ephesus without bringing the information which the apostle expected. The apostle, animated by a tender paternal anxiety for the church, became uneasy respecting the effect produced by his epistle; he, therefore, sent Titus to Corinth for the purpose of obtaining information, and that he might personally operate on the church in accordance with the impression made by the epistle. As Paul had resolved, on sending away Titus, to leave Ephesus soon, he agreed with him to meet at Troas, where he designed to make a longer stay in order to found a church, 2 Cor. ii. 12, and perhaps intended to shape his future course by the information which he would there receive from Titus.

But here the question arises, Could Paul have sent Titus to Corinth without an epistle? And if we find in his second Epistle to the Corinthians numerous allusions to an epistle which he simply designates as the epistle, shall we not most naturally conclude that it means an epistle sent by Titus? And so much the more, if these allusions contain many things that do not tally with the First Epistle to the Corinthians." here and in xvi. 10, plainly shows that he was not the bearer of this epistle, and the latter passage makes it not improbable that Paul expected he would arrive at Corinth after his epistle, which would naturally happen though Timothy departed first, because he was detained a considerable time in Macedonia. Perhaps the messengers from the Corinthian church were already come to Ephesus when Timothy was going away, and as Paul wished to give them a copious reply, on that account he sent no epistle by Timothy.

1 It favours the supposition that Timothy did not come as far as Corinth, that, in Acts xix. 22, only Macedonia is mentioned as the object of his mission And if he came to Corinth as Paul's delegate, he would have mentioned him, as Rückert justly remarks, in connexion with others who were sent by him; for though we are not justified that Paul here mentioned by name all who were sent by him to Corinth, yet the object for which he named them, in order to appeal to the fact that they had acted with the same disposition as himself, and were as little burdensome to the Corinthian church, required the mention of a man like Timothy so closely connected with him, if he had stayed at Corinth as his delegate. This therefore is opposed to Bleek's view, which we shall afterwards mention, according to which Timothy really came to Corinth, and must have been the bearer of bad news from thence.

2 Bleek has endeavoured to prove all this in his valuable essay already mentioned, in the Studien und Kritiken, 1830, part iii. But

We ask then, in this second epistle are such things really found which lead us to suppose another document composed in a different tone from the first epistle now extant? Let us examine this more closely. Paul says at the beginning of the second chapter that he had altered his former plan of travelling immediately from Ephesus to Corinth, and had resolved to go first to Macedonia, in order that he might not be obliged to produce a painful impression among them, if he came to them while the evils which he censured in his first epistle were still in existence. On this account, he wished, instead of coming immediately from Ephesus to Corinth, rather to communicate by letter what was painful to them, (which may very well refer to the reprehensions contained in the first epistle,) and to await its operation in producing repentance, before he came to them in person. He says

of the epistle in question, that he had written it in great anguish of heart and with many tears, for his object had been not to give them pain, but to evince his love for them. Does not that suit such passages as 1 Cor. iv. 8-19; vi. 7 ; x. ? Does not that which he here says of his disposition correctly describe that state of mind, in which the news respecting the dangerous condition of the Corinthian church must have placed him? It can well be referred to that individual who lived in unlawful intercourse with his step-mother, against whose continuance in church-fellowship he had so strongly expressed himself, when he says of such a one that he troubled not only himself as the founder of the church, but in a certain degree the whole church. That epistle was indeed suited to call forth in the Corinthians the consciousness of their corrupt state, that sorrow which leads to salvation, as Paul says of that epistle, 2 Cor. vii. 9, &c. But chiefly we might be induced, by verse 12 of the same chapter, to suppose a reference to what was said by Paul in an epistle now lost : "He had written such a letter to them, not on his account this is connected with the assumption that Timothy really came to Corinth, and the bad news which he brought influenced Paul to send Titus thither. If we only assume that Paul was informed that a part of the church had shown themselves more haughty after the receipt of that first epistle, it can be explained how he was induced to send a severer epistle by Titus. But we have noticed above, what opposes the supposition that Timothy at that time really extended his journey as far as Corinth