INTRODUCTION TO THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS.

Corinth before Apollos; secondly, that Apollos had been at Corinth after Paul, but before the writing of this Epistle. This implied account of the several events, and of the order in which they took place, corresponds exactly with the history. St. Paul, after his first visit into Greece, returned from Corinth into Syria, by the way of Ephesus; and, dropping his companions Aquila and Priscilla at Ephesus, he proceeded forwards to Jerusalem; from Jerusalem he descended to Antioch; and from thence made a progress through some of the upper or northern provinces of the Lesser Asia, Acts, xviii. 19. 23. during which progress, and consequently in the interval between St. Paul's first and second visit to Corinth, and consequently also before the writing of this Epistle, which was at Ephesus two years at least after the apostle's return from his progress, we hear of Apollos, and we hear of him at Corinth. Whilst St. Paul was engaged, as hath been said, in Phrygia and Galatia, Apollos came down to Ephesus; and being, in St. Paul's absence, instructed by Aquila and Priscilla, and having obtained letters of recommendation from the church at Ephesus, he passed over to Achaia; and when he was there, we read that he "helped them much which had believed through grace, for he mightily convinced the Jews, and that publicly." Acts, xviii. 27, 28. To have brought Apollos into Achaia, of which Corinth was the capital city, as well as the principal Christian church; and to have shewn that he preached the Gospel in that country, would have been sufficient for our purpose. But the history happens also to mention Corinth by name, as the place in which Apollos, after his arrival in Achaia, fixed his residence: for, proceeding with the account of St. Paul's travels, it tells us, that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul, having passed through the upper coasts, came down to Ephesus, xix. 1. What is said, therefore, of Apollos in the Epistle, coincides exactly and especially in the point of chronology, with what is delivered concerning him in the history. The only question now is, whether the allusions were made with a regard to this coincidence. Now, the occasions and purposes for which the name of Apollos is introduced in the Acts and in the Epistles, are so independent and so remote, that it is impossible to discover the smallest reference from one to the other. Apollos is mentioned in the Acts, in immediate connection with the history of Aquila and Priscilla, and for the very singular circumstance of his "knowing only the baptism of John." In the Epistle, where none of these circumstances are taken notice of, his name first occurs, for the purpose of reproving the contentious spirit of the Corinthians; and it occurs only in conjunction with that of some others: "Every one of you saith, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ." The second passage in which Apollos appears, "I have planted, Apollos watered," fixes, as we have observed, the order of time amongst three distinct events: but it fixes this, I will venture to pronounce, without the writer perceiving that he was doing any such thing. The sentence fixes this order in exact conformity with the history: but it is itself introduced solely for the sake of the reflection which follows:-" Neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase."

SECTION VI.

§ Chap. iv. 11, 12. "Even unto this present hour we both hunger and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling-place; and labour, working with our hands."

We are expressly told, in the history, that at Corinth St. Paul laboured with his own hands: "He found Aquila and Priscilla; and, because he was of the same craft, he abode with them, and wrought; for by their occupation they were tent-makers." But, in the text before us, he is made to say, that "he laboured even unto this present hour," that is, to the time of writing the Epistle at Ephesus. Now, in the narration of St. Paul's transactions at Ephesus, delivered in the nineteenth chapter of the Acts, nothing is said of his working with his own hands, but in the twentieth chapter we read, that upon his return from Greece, he sent for the elders of the church of Ephesus, to meet him at Miletus; and in the discourse which he there addressed to them, amidst some other reflections which he calls to their remembrance, we find the following: "I have coveted no man's silver, or gold, or apparel; yea, you yourselves also know, that these hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me." The Reader will not forget to remark, that though St. Paul be now at Miletus, it is to the elders of the church of Ephesus he is speaking, when he says, "Ye yourselves know that these hands have ministered to my necessities ;" and that the whole discourse relates to his conduct during

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his last preceding residence at Ephesus. That manual labour, therefore, which he had exercised at Corinth, he continued at Ephesus; and not only so, but continued it during that particular residence at Ephesus, near the conclusion of which this Epistle was written; so that he might with the strictest truth say, at the time of writing the Epistle, "Even unto this present hour we labour, working with our own hands." The correspondency is sufficient, then, as to the undesignedness of it. It is manifest to my judgment, that if the history, in this arti cle, had been taken from the Epistle, this circumstance, if it appeared at all, would have appeared in its place, that is, in the direct account of St. Paul's transactions at Ephesus. The correspondency would not have been effected, as it is, by a kind of reflected stroke, that is, by a reference in a subsequent speech, to what in the narrative was omitted. Nor is it likely, on the other hand, that a circumstance which is not extant in the history of St. Paul at Ephesus, should have been made the subject of a factitious allusion, in an Epistle purporting to be written by him from that place; not to mention that the allusion itself, especially as to time, is too oblique and general to answer any purpose of forgery whatever.

SECTION VII.

§ Chap. ix. 20. "And unto the Jews, I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law."

We have the disposition here described, exemplified in two instances which the history records; one, Acts xvi. 3. “Him, (Timothy,) would Paul have to go forth with him, and took and circumcised him, because of the Jews in those quarters; for they knew all that his father was a Greek." This was before the writing of the Epistle. The other, Acts xxi. 23. 26. and after the writing of the Epistle: "Do this that we say to thee; we have four men which have a vow on them: them take, and purify thyself with them, that they may shave their heads; and all may know that those things, whereof they were informed concerning thee, are nothing; but that thou thyself also walkest orderly, and keepest the law.—Then Paul took the men, and the next day, purifying himself with them, entered into the temple." Nor does this concurrence between the character and the instances look like the result of contrivance. St. Paul, in the Epistle, describes, or is made to describe, his own accommodating conduct towards Jews and towards Gentiles, towards the weak and over-scrupulous, towards men indeed of every variety of character; "to them that are without law as without law, being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ, that I might gain them that are without law; to the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak; I am made all things to all men, that I might gain some." This is the sequel of the text which stands at the head of the present section. Taking therefore the whole passage together, the apostle's condescension to the Jews is mentioned only as a part of his general disposition towards all. It is not probable that this character should have been made up from the instances in the Acts, which relate solely to his dealings with the Jews. It is not probable that a sophist should take his hint from those instances, and then extend it so much beyond them: and it is still more incredible that the two instances, in the Acts, circumstantially related and interwoven with the history, should have been fabricated, in order to suit the character which St. Paul gives of himself in the Epistle.

SECTION VIII.

§ Chap. i. 14-17. "I thank God that I baptized none of you but Crispus and Gaius, lest any should say that I baptized in my own name; and I baptized also the household of Stephanas: besides, I know not whether I baptized any other; for Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the Gospel."

It may be expected, that those whom the apostle baptized with his own hands, were converts distinguished from the rest by some circumstance, either of eminence, or of connection with him. Accordingly, of the three names here mentioned, Crispus, we find, from Acts xviii. 8. was a "chief ruler of the Jewish synagogue at Corinth, who believed in the Lord, with all his house." Gaius, it appears from Romans xvi. 23. was St. Paul's host at Corinth, and the host he tells us, "of the whole church." The household of Stephanas, we read in the sixteenth chapter of this Epistle, "were the first fruits of Achaia." Here therefore is the propriety we expected and it is a proof of reality not to be contemned; for their names appearing in the several places in

INTRODUCTION TO THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS.

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which they occur, with a mark of distinction belonging to each, could hardly be the effect of chance, without any truth to direct it: and on the other hand, to suppose that they were picked out from these passages, and brought together in the text before us, in order to display a conformity of names, is both improbable in itself, and is rendered more so by the purpose for which they are introduced. They come in to assist St. Paul's exculpation of himself, against the possible charge of having assumed the character of the founder of a separaté religion, and with no other visible, or, as I think, imaginable design*.

SECTION IX.

§ Chap. xvi. 10, 11. "Now, if Timotheus come, let no man despise him."-Why despise him? This charge is not given concerning any other messenger whom St. Paul sent; and, in the different Epistles, many such messengers are mentioned. Turn to 1st of Timothy, chap. iv. 12. and you will find that Timothy was a young man, younger probably than those who were usually employed in the Christian mission; and that St. Paul, apprehending lest he should, on that account, be exposed to contempt, urges upon him the caution which is there inserted, "Let no man despise thy youth."

SECTION X.

§ Chap. xvi. 1. "Now, concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye."

The churches of Galatia and Phrygia were the last churches which St. Paul had visited before the writing of this Epistle. He was now at Ephesus, and he came thither immediately from visiting these churches: "He went over all the country of Galatia and Phrygia, in order, strengthening all the disciples. And it came to pass that Paul, having passed through the upper coasts" (viz. the above-named countries, called the upper coasts, as being the northern part of Asia Minor), "came to Ephesus." Acts xviii. 23. xix. t. These, therefore, probably, were the last churches at which he left directions for their public conduct during his absence.

* Chap. i. 1. "Paul called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ, through the will of God, and Sosthenes, our brother, unto the church of God, which is at Corinth." The only account we have of any person who bore the name of Sosthenes, is found in the eighteenth chapter of the Acts. When the Jews at Corinth had brought Paul before Gallio, and Gallio had dismissed their complaint as unworthy of his interference, and had driven them from the judgment-seat; "then all the Greeks," says the historian, "took Sosthenes, the chief ruler of the synagogue, and beat him before the judgment-seat.” The Sosthenes here spoken of, was a Corinthian; and, if he was a Christian, and with St. Paul when he wrote this Epistle, was likely enough to be joined with him in the salutation of the Corinthian church. But here occurs a difficulty-If Sosthenes was a Christian at the time of this uproar, why should the Greeks beat him? The assault upon the Christians was made by the Jews. It was the Jews who had brought Paul before the magistrate. If it had been the Jews also who had beaten Sosthenes, I should not have doubted that he had been a favourer of St. Paul, and the same person who is joined with him in the Epistle. Let us see, therefore, whether there be not some error in our present text. The Alexandrian manuscript gives Taves alone, without . 'EXλes, and is followed in this reading by the Coptic version, by the Arabic version, published by Erpenius, by the Vulgate, and by Bede's Latin version. Three Greek manuscripts again, as well as Chrysostom, give & Toudano, in the place of 'EXλves. A great plurality of manuscripts authorise the reading which is retained in our copies. In this variety it appears to me extremely probable that the historian originally wrote avres alone, and that i 'Exλyves, and & Ioudatos have been respectively added as explanatory of what the word waves was supposed to mean. The sentence, without the addition of either name, would run very perspicuously thus, " και απήλασεν αυτούς από του βήματος επιλαβόμενοι δε παντες Σωσθένην τον αρχισυναγωγον, ετυπτον εμπροσθεν του βήματος" and he drove them away from the judgment-seat; and they all," viz. the crowd of Jews whom the judge had bid begone, "took Sosthenes, and beat him before the judgment-seat." It is certain that, as the whole body of the people were Greeks, the application of all to them was unusual and hard. If I were describing an insurrection at Paris, I might say all the Jews, all the Protestants, or all the English, acted so and so; but I should scarcely say all the French, when the whole mass of the community were of that description.”—See the Note on Acts xviii. 17. where the subject mentioned here by the learned Archdeacon, is particularly considered.

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Although two years intervened between his journey to Ephesus and his writing this Epistle, yet it does not appear that during that time he visited any other church. That he had not been silent when he was in Galatia, upon this subject of contribution for the poor, is farther made out from a hint which he lets fall in his Epistle to that church: "Only they (viz. the other apostles,) would that we should remember the poor, the same also which I was forward to do.”

SECTION XI.

§ Chap. iv. 18. "Now, some are puffed up, as though I would not come unto you."

Why should they suppose that he would not come? Turn to the first chapter of the Second Epistle to the Corinthians, and you will find that he had already disappointed them: "I was minded to come unto you before, that you might have a second benefit; and to pass by you into Macedonia, and to come again out of Macedonia unto you, and of you to be brought on my way toward Judea. When I, therefore, was thus minded, did I use lightness? Or the things that I purpose, do I purpose according to the flesh, that with me there should be yea, yea, and nay, nay? But, as God is true, our word toward you was not yea and nay." It appears from this quotation, that he had not only intended, but that he had promised them a visit before; for, otherwise, why should he apologise for the change of his purpose, or express so much anxiety lest this change should be imputed to any culpable fickleness in his temper; and lest he should thereby seem to them, as one whose word was not, in any sort, to be depended upon? Besides which, the terms made use of, plainly refer to a promise, “Our word toward you was not yea and nay." St. Paul therefore had signified an intention, which he had not been able to execute; and this seeming breach of his word, and the delay of his visit, had, with some who were evil affected towards him, given birth to a suggestion that he would come no more to Corinth.

SECTION XII.

§ Chap. v. 7, 8. "For even Christ, our pass-over, is sacrificed for us; therefore, let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth."

Dr. Benson tells us, that from this passage, compared with chapter xvi. 8. it has been conjectured that this Epistle was written about the time of the Jewish pass-over; and to me the conjecture appears to be very well founded. The passage to which Dr. Benson refers us is this: "I will tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost." With this passage he ought to have joined another in the same context: "And it may be that I will abide, yea, and winter with you;" for from the two passages laid together, it follows that the Epistle was written before Pentecost, yet after winter; which necessarily determines the date to the part of the year within which the passover falls. It was written before Pentecost, because he says, "I will tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost." It was written after winter, because he tells them, "It may be that I may abide, yea, and winter with you." The winter which the apostle purposed to pass at Corinth, was undoubtedly the winter next ensuing to the date of the Epistle; yet it was a winter subsequent to the ensuing Pentecost, because he did not intend to set forwards upon his journey till after that feast. The words, "let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth," look very like words suggested by the season; at least they have, upon that supposition, a force and significancy which do not belong to them upon any other; and it is not a little remarkable, that the hints casually dropped in the Epistle concerning particular parts of the year, should coincide with this supposition.

LONDON, Oct. 1, 1814.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EPISTLE

TO THE

CORINTHIANS.

CORINTH, to which this and the following Epistle were sent, was one of the most celebrated cities of Greece. It was situated on a gulf of the same name, and was the capital of the Peloponnesus, or Achaia; and was united to the continent by an isthmus, or neck of land, that had the port of Lecheum on the West, and that of Cenchrea on the East, by which it commanded the navigation and commerce both of the Ionian and Egean seas. It is supposed by some, to have been founded by Sisyphus, the son of Eolus, and grand-father of Ulysses, about the year of the world 2490, or 2500, and before the Christian æra 1504 years. Others report that it had both its origin and name from Corinthus, the son of Pelops. It was at first but a very inconsiderable town; but at last, through its extensive commerce, became the most opulent city of Greece, and the capital of a powerful state. It was destroyed by the Romans under Mummius, about 146 years before Christ, but was afterwards rebuilt by Julius Cæsar.

By its port of Lecheum, it received the merchandise of Italy and the western nations; and by Cenchrea, that of the islands of the Ægean sea, the coasts of Asia Minor, and the Phoenicians. Corinth exceeded all cities of the world, for the splendour and magnificence of its public buildings, such as temples, palaces, theatres, porticoes, cenotaphs, baths, and other edifices; all enriched with a beautiful kind of columns, capitals, and bases from which the Corinthian order in architecture took its rise. Corinth is also celebrated for its statues, those especially of Venus, the Sun, Neptune and Amphitrite, Diana, Apollo, Jupiter, Minerva, &c. The temple of Venus was not only very splendid, but also very rich, and maintained, according to Strabo, not less than 1000 courtezans, who were the means of bringing an immense concourse of strangers to the place. Thus riches produced luxury, and luxury a total corruption of manners; though arts, sciences, and literature, continued to flourish long in it; and a measure of the martial spirit of its ancient inhabitants, was kept alive in it by means of those public games, which, being celebrated on the Isthmus which connects the Peloponnesus to the main land, were called the Isthmian games; and were exhibited once every five years. The exercises in these games were leaping, running, throwing the quoit or dart, boxing and wrestling. It appears, that besides these, there were contentions for poetry and music; and the conquerors in any of these exercises, were ordinarily crowned either with pine leaves, or with parsley. It is well known that the apostle alludes to those games. in different parts of his Epistles, which shall all be particularly noticed as they occur.

Corinth, like all other opulent and well situated places, has often been a subject of contention between rival states; has frequently changed masters, and undergone all forms of government. The Venetians held it till 1715, when the Turks took it from them, under whose dominion it has