1 Corinthians 5

1 Corinthians 5:1

It is a great shame and reproach that lies upon you, that sins of unnatural uncleanness, and marriages within prohibited degrees, are so frequently to be found among you, and those of such a pitch in one

¹⁷ have been puffed up, ἰφυσιάθησαν. ¹⁹ speedily, ταχέως. you. ²⁰ speech, λόγω.

² Or, is not among; for ὀνομάζεται, named, is left out by the King’s MS.

¹⁸ because I come not, ὡς μὴ ἰρχομένου. ¹ Fornication is generally reported among

[a] fornication] Πορνεία, fornication, in this place is a general word to comprehend all unlawful desires of the flesh, acts of whatsoever prohibited carnality, under it. For it is observable that the precept given by God’s positive command to the sons of Adam and Noah, and so to all mankind, which is styled by the Jews על כלו ערוה, of disclosing nakednesses, under which style all the marriages within prohibited degrees, Lev. xviii, and all the unnatural sins are contained, is, Acts xv, expressed by abstaining ἀπὸ πορνείας, from fornication. And that by the infusions of the Gnostics, and remainders of their heathen customs, there was an epidemical guilt of this sin of many sorts among them, is the meaning of ὅλως ἀκούεται ἐν ὑμῖν πορνεία, fornication is universally heard, that is, found among you: for the word ὅλως seems to be all one with καθόλου, in universum, and so perhaps it is to be rendered, ch. vi. 7, ὅλως ἥττημα ἐν ὑμῖν ἐστι, there is a defect generally among you, and being here joined with ἀκούεται ἐν ὑμῖν, is heard among you, may signify that it is an universal guilt of theirs; or else being joined with πορνεία, it will sound thus, fornication altogether, or fornication in gross (containing the several branches of it) is heard, that is, found or met with among you, and of the many sorts thereof, one that had not been practised, or endured to be thought or spoke of among civil heathens, or the unconverted Corinthians at that time, that of having the father’s wife. This, saith Chrysostom, was done by a doctor, that is, I suppose, a bishop in some church of Achaia; οὐ μόνον θείων μυστηρίων ἠξίωτο, ἀλλὰ καὶ διδασκαλικοῦ ἐπετετύχει χαρίσματος, “He was,” saith he, “not only vouchsafed the divine mysteries, partaker of them, but had obtained the dignity of a doctor.” And so Theodoret also.

[b] not so much as named among the Gentiles] What is here said not to be named among the Gentiles, is not so to be understood, that no nation ever used it, but that civil (though not Christian) nations have counted it abominable and nefarious, no way lawful or tolerable, or that at this time the unconverted Corinthians were not guilty of it. Among the ancient Arabians it was used, and the custom so described by Al Mostratraf, Ebnol Arhir, &c., that when a woman was left a widow, or put away by the husband, the eldest son should take her by inheritance, and cast his garment over, as a sign of it; or if he would not, then the next heir: and so the son, they say, succeeded to the father’s bed, as well as wealth, by inheritance. This being formerly in use, was by the Alcoran forbidden, O vos qui creditis, non permissum est vobis ferminas hæreditatis jure accipere. “Believers (that is, they that receive Mahomet’s law) must not take the father’s wives by right of inheritance.” So Al Sharestanius, Turpissimum eorum quæ faciebant (Arabes tempore ignorantiæ) erat hoc, quod vir duas sorores duceret, et patris sui uxorem velut successor assumeret, quod qui faceret appellatur Al Daizan, quo nomine insectatus est Aus Ebn Haiar quosdam e tribu Banikais, quorum tres ex ordine patris sui uxorem duxerant. Mos autem erat apud Arabes, ut cum ab uxore, morte aut repudio, separaretur aliquis, filiorum ipsius

HAMMOND ANNOTT. VOL. II. H

1 Corinthians 5:2

And this so freely, that ye do not look on it as a crime fit to be censured in him; ye are not at all humbled with it, nor mourn for it, (see 2 Cor. xii. 21,) either out of an opinion of the person that hath done it, (who is one of the doctors of your church, say Chrysostome and Theodoret,) or out of an opinion infused now by some heretical teachers into you, (which your former condition of life makes you apt enough to believe,) that fornication is an indifferent thing, (see ch. vi. 13,) whereas in any reason you ought to have mourned over him as over a great sinner, and expressed your sorrow in complaining of him, and using means that he might be excommunicated; see chap. xii. 21.

[c] puffed up, and not rather mourned] The word πενθεῖν here, to mourn, lament, wail, refers to the customary solemnity of putting on mourning habits, and wailing over them that were to be excommunicate, as over them that were dead, ὡς νεκροὺς πενθοῖσι, saith Origen, Cont. Cels. l. 3, just as Pythagoras, when any forsook his school, had a κενστάφιον or “empty hearse” carried about, and mourned for him. Μετὰ λύπης καὶ πένθοις ἀνιάτως ἔχοντα τῆς ἐκκλησίας ἀποπέμπτε, “him that is incurable, or not otherwise like to be cured, turn out of the church with grief and mourning,” saith Clem. Constit. 2. And so Origen l. 3, Cont. Cels. See note [c] on Rom. xii. And accordingly here follows ἰξαιρεῖσθω ἐκ μέσου, let him be taken from amongst you, noting the censure of excommunication; and so 2 Cor. xii. 21, καὶ πενθῆσω πολλοὺς προημαρτηκότων, καὶ μὴ μετανοησάντων, where bewailing of impenitent sinners is censuring them. And thus the word λύπη seems to signify, (being all one with πένθος,) 2 Cor. ii. 1, ἐλθεῖν ἐν λύπῃ, to come with intention to censure and punish, the very same as (ch. xii. 21, before the bewailing them) is expressed by μὴ πάλιν ἐλθόντα με ταπεινώση ὁ Θεός μου πρὸς ὑμᾶς, where God’s humbling him towards them is giving him occasion to exercise his censures or church discipline on them, at his coming among them, (contrary to the φυσιοῦσθε, 1 Cor. v. 2,) as appears by ch. xiii. 2, when I come again I will not spare, and ver. 10, ἵνα μὴ ἀποτόμως χρήσωμαι, that when I come I may not use severity; so 2 Cor. ii. 3, λύπην ἔχω signifies to be constrained to use severity of censures, to which this mourning or sorrow belongs, and λυπεῖσθαι, ver. 4, to be under those censures, and ver. 5, λυπεῖν, to offend and commit that which St. Paul was constrained to punish with the censures of the church; so ch. vii. 8, εἰ καὶ ἐλύπησα ὑμᾶς is, if I inflicted the censures of the church upon you, and in the end of the verse, I see that that Epistle, though written for that season, ἐλύπησεν ὑμᾶς, brought the censures of the church upon you, ver. 9, and οὐχ ὅτι ἐλυπήθητε, not that you were put under the censures, ἀλλ’ ὅτι ἐλυπήθητε εἰς μετάνοιαν, but those censures produced that effectual change in you, ἐλυπήθητε γὰρ κατὰ Θεόν, for ye were dealt with according to the discipline ordained by God or Christ in the church: and so in all probability that is λύπη κατὰ Θεόν, ver. 10, which brings μετάνοιαν, a change or newness of life, as the censures and punishments of the world bring death. And so κατὰ Θεὸν λυπηθῆναι ὑμᾶς, to be mourned or sorrowed, ver. 11, that is, censured, according to God’s appointment.

1 Corinthians 5:3

For I, though I am not present among you, yet by that authority that belongs to me, (and being sufficiently assured of the truth of the fact,) have already passed sentence on him that hath thus offended, 4, 5. That in a public assembly gathered in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, in which you are to suppose me virtually present among you, by the authority of Christ committed to me and you, ye proceed to excommunicate and deliver him up into the power of Satan, who may inflict some disease upon him that may be a means to bring him to a sight of his sin and reformation, and so to salvation also.

[d] judged] Κέκρικα in this place is the pronouncing or giving sentence against the offender: so it is used ver. 12, What have I to do τοὺς ἴξω κρίνειν, to judge them, inflict censures on them that are without? heathens, that were not in the church, or Gnostics, that divided from

1 Corinthians 5:5

[e] deliver such an one unto Satan] Παραδοῦναι τῷ Σατανᾷ, to deliver to Satan here, and 1 Tim. i. 20, is answerable to חרב among the Jews, called in Greek ἀνάθεμα, execration, the second species of excommunication among them, and in which, for the greater solemnity of it, there were curses out of the law of Moses, and such like execrations added to it, (an essay of which we have Acts viii. 20, thy money be to thee to destruction, &c.) This was inflicted on him who had first been under the first species, that of the נָרוּ, ἀφορισμός, remotion or separation, first for thirty days, and then, being allowed thirty days more, (which they called the doubling of the נָרוּ,) still continued in that contumacy; for then, say the Jews, כַּחֲרִימִין אוֹתִי, they anathematize him without defining any limited time, as in niddui they did. This in the Christian church is called delivering to Satan, for two reasons; 1st, because it was the depriving the offender of those daily means which are in Christianity afforded, and ordinarily useful to eject Satan and the power of his kingdom out of the heart; such are, 1st, the prayers of the church; 2dly, the public use of the word or doctrine of Christianity, (for he that is under Cherem, nec docet, nec docetur, “neither teaches, nor is taught,” say the Jews; and in the ancient Christian church, they that were upon repentance received in again were first among the ἀκροώμενοι, hearers in the porch, θείων ἀκούειν γραφῶν, “to hear the holy scriptures,” saith Zonaras, which argues that they were before excluded from it;) 3dly, the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, in which respect scandalous sinners συνενωχούμενοι, feasting with them, are by St. Jude, ver. 12, called σπυλάδες, spots in their feasts or agapæ, (which, being annexed to the Lord’s Supper, denoted the whole action,) that is, unfit, as blemished sacrifices, to be received there. And the use of all these means being in the economy of the gospel designed to so much advantage to the soul, for the casting Satan out of it, the depriving men of the use of those means is properly styled the delivering to Satan, as the catechist, that instructed men, and made them fit for baptism, or entrance into the church, was wont to be called ἱξορκιστής, the exorcist, that cast Satan out. But then, 2dly, in the apostle’s times there was a sad consequent of this excommunication, proportionable to the execrations in the Jewish Cherem, (which, say they, seldom wanted their effect,) viz. corporal power and possession, and inflictions of Satan on those who were delivered up to him, in like manner as we read befell Saul, after his defection from

H 2

[f] destruction of the flesh] That Satan had (when he was permitted by God for sin) power to inflict diseases on men’s bodies, appeareth by what hath been said note [e], and by most of Christ’s cures of men possessed with devils, those possessions being generally accompanied with some ordinary disease, discernible by the symptoms there mentioned, the epilepsy, and the like. And to this purpose it is observable what we find in the Jerusalem Targum on Gen. ii. 14, supposed to be

1 Corinthians 5:6

Such a teacher as this is not fit for you to follow or favour; for as a little sour dough gives a taste to all the bread, so will such a sin as this, permitted in the church, have an influence on you all, both by discrediting that church where this is permitted, and by corrupting the company by the example.

1 Corinthians 5:7

As therefore it was the manner of the Jews on the day of the passover (that being the day of preparation, or the eve to the feast of unleavened bread,) most diligently and solicitously to inquire if there were any crum of leavened bread left in their houses, and to remove it all, (see note [c] Mark xiv.) so do ye at this time deal with that heathen or Gnostic persuasion (among you) of the lawfulness of fornication,

³ Or, being absent: for the King’s MS. leaves out us, as. ⁴ him that hath so, αὐτόν οὕτω.

⁵ forasmuch as you are, καθὼς ἐστι.

1 Corinthians 5:8

Do ye therefore consecrate yourselves to the service of Christ, by reforming all your former sinful courses, particularly that of uncleanness and villainy, (see ver. 13,) and by the practice of all Christian purity, and holding fast the truth which hath been delivered to you.

9, 10. What in this epistle, ver. 2, I have written of not communicating with fornicators, and not conversing familiarly with them, I mean not of the heathens among you, which have not given up their names unto Christ, nor in like manner of those heathens that are guilty of those other sins of unnatural lusts (see note [i] Rom. i.) and violence, or those filthinesses which are ordinary among idolaters, and are used as parts and rites of their religion; for these are so ordinary among them, that if ye abstain from the company of all those heathens that are so guilty, ye must depart out of their cities.

1 Corinthians 5:9

[g] company with fornicators] What is the meaning of μὴ συναναμίγνυσθαι, whether only interdicting ecclesiastical assemblies, or further excluding from civil commerce, is a matter of some question. In favour of the former of these, we may here observe one thing in the context, that it is somewhat which the apostle had before these words written to them about, ἔγραψα ὑμῖν ἐν τῇ ἐπιστολῇ, &c. I wrote to you in an epistle; where there is no enforcing reason to conclude that the apostle refers to some former epistle of his, (not now extant, nor anciently mentioned by any,) the words being very capable of this other rendering, that in this epistle he had so written to them, and so he did ver. 2 of this chapter, just as Gal. i. 9. As we have before said, even now again I say, the word προειρήκαμεν, before said, looking no further off than to the eighth verse immediately precedent, where that was said that ver. 9 is repeated by him. As for the Νυνὶ δὲ ἔγραψα, but now I have written, ver. 11, which may seem to oppose this to some former epistle, there is no force in that. For the νυνὶ, now, is not always a note of time, but, as it is ordinary amongst us, of transition, thus: When I wrote to you not to converse with fornicators, I meant not the heathen fornicators, but I wrote to you only in reference to the Christian professors, guilty of those sins. But whether this be so or no, yet it is apparent that ver. 11, which refers undoubtedly to this epistle, the same phrase is used, μὴ συναναμίγνυσθαι, not to converse with them, which will therefore make it reasonable to explain this phrase by that which is mentioned ver. 2, ἐξαιρεῖσθω ἐκ μίσου, removing the offender from among them, which is the ordinary phrase for excommunication, (see note [c]), and the brief of the sentence set down vv. 3, 4, 5. I have judged, &c., and then there will be no necessity of extending it any further than to not joining with such an one in sacred meetings, excommunicating, delivering up to Satan; and so 2 Thess. iii. 14, μὴ συναναμίγνυσθε, ἵνα ἱντραπῇ, have no fellowship with him, that he may be ashamed, may refer to these censures of the church inflicted on the οὐχ ὑπακούων, disobedient, or refractory there. But then a second circumstance in the context will be observable, that ver. 11, where the μὴ συναναμίγνυσθαι is repeated again, there is added to it, τοιούτῳ μηδὲ συν-εσθίειν, nor to eat with such an one. This is indeed more likely to belong to the interdicting all familiarity of civil commerce, and the rather, because the Jews thought it unlawful to eat with the Samaritans, publicans, and sinners, (μὴ συγχρῶνται, they will have nothing to do with such, and, Why eateth your Master with such? say they to Christ’s disciples,) and a special example we have of it, 3 Macc., where, speaking of the ἀποχωροῦντες ἐξ αὐτῶν, deserters, apostates from their law by any notorious breach, it is said, ἰβδελύσσοντο, καὶ ὡς πολεμίους τοῦ ἔθνους ἔκρινον, καὶ κοινῆς ἀναστροφῆς καὶ εὐχρηστίας ἰστίνου, they expressed a detestation of them, judged them as enemies of the nation, and denied them the civility of common commerce and good usage; and the same is called afterward in that place χωρισμός, a separating from them, ἀποστροφαί, (though it

1 Corinthians 5:10

[h] extortioners] What ἄρπαγες signifies here is somewhat uncertain. That which the other sins with which it is mentioned incline it to is, that it denote violence or rapes, forcing or ravishing to uncleanness, the ἄλωσις, 2 Pet. ii. 13, preying like vultures on all that come near them. The literal notation of the word from ἁρπάζω, rapio, by which, as by ἀλῶ, the Hebrew תִּתְּתוּ is rendered. This was the sin of Sodom, forcing of strangers, and even of the angels when they came into the city to destroy it. And this is it which seems to be meant by the earth’s being full of violence, Gen. vi. 11, joined with the corruptness of it before God; for which two there joined together, (as 2 Pet. ii. 12, ἄλωσις and φθορὰ, taking and corrupting,) the word corrupt is used alone, ver. 12, which, we know, in the New Testament signifies those pollutions (see note [b] on 2 Pet. i, and [b] on 2 Pet. ii.) which probably were the sin of the old world, a consequent of the sons of God seeing and marrying with the daughters of men, ver. 1, (the like as happened after on the like occasion, Num. xxv. 1,) and they are therefore joined with Sodom in this matter, 2 Pet. ii. 5, 6. For to that of uncleanness it is that this whole chapter belongs, on occasion of πορνεία, unlawful lusts and incest, at the beginning. And to that of violence or ravishing, or using to unnatural sins, ἁρπάζειν and ἄρπαγες ordinarily belongs. Thus in Harmenopulus, ἐξάβιβ. 5. τιτ. ζ. (where τὰ τοῦ ἄρπαγος εἰς δημόσιον εἰσκομίσηται, “the goods of the ravisher shall be carried and forfeit to the exchequer,”) the word is used in this sense. So in the second book of the Sibylline Oracles, (written, I suppose, by some ancient Christian,) with

“Αἰδεῖην προλιπόντες, ἀναιδεῖην ποθίοντες, those that had put off all shame, are joined ἁρπασιαῖοι, forcers, violaters of chastity, and p. 216, with λεκτροκλόπαι, εἰδωλολάτραι, and

Οἷς κακὸς ἐν στέρνοισιν ἕνι μεμανημένος οἶστρος (which is in effect all one with πλεονεκταὶ and εἰδωλολάτραι here, inordinate lusters and idolaters,) there is joined

…ἁρπάζοντες, ἀναῖδεα θυμὸν ἔχοντες, violent forcers, and persons of impudent lusts, and στέρξουσι κρυφίως, secret loves and adulteries, to which the brimstone, the portion of Sodom, should be allotted,

…θείου ἀποβήσεται ὀδμή. And thus, I conceive, it is that ἁρπαγὴ and ἀκρασία, violence and incontinence, are joined together, Matt. xxiii. 25, and opposed both to καθαρὸν and καθαρίζειν, pure and cleansing, ver. 26, where St. Luke, ch. xi. 36, instead of ἀκρασία, incontinence, hath πονηρία, villainy or wickedness, as that is used here, ver. 13, and in Genesis, ch. vi. 5, in this sense for abominable lusts. The full description of this will be best fetched from

Page 172.

[i] idolaters] That εἰδωλολάτραι here is not to be restrained to the particular sin of worshipping pictures or images, will be probable by the rest of the sins which are joined with it, for which a Christian professor is to be excommunicated, ver. 11. It seems rather to refer either to the joining in the idol-feasts, of which the Gnostic heretics were guilty, or else to those filthy practices so frequent and customary in their mysteries, as prime rites of the heathen false worships, and taken up in a most vile manner by the Gnostics also. That the word should thus be used, will appear most reasonable: 1st, because of the words used in the Old Testament to signify an idol; ἐδὶν is one which signifies pollution or filth, by which any man is contaminated, and which is sometimes rendered βδελύγμα, abomination, and the false god or idol meant sometimes when βδελύγμα, abomination, is used, as Wisd. xii. 23, referring to those abominable sins which those idol-worships were commonly guilty of; and to the same purpose is it that the Hebrew שָׁקַע, abomination or filthiness, commonly rendered βδελύγμα or μίωσμα, abomination or pollution, is sometimes εἴδωλον, idol also. And so saith Lyra on Gen. xxi. of the word קח, that it signifies idololatrantem, and coeuntem or lascivientem, “idolatry, and any act of uncleanness or lasciviousness;” 2dly, because their heathen worships were so full of these foul sins. Thus Wisd. xiv, after an enumeration of many other wickednesses in their τελεταὶ and κρύφια μυστήρια, sacrifices and secret mysteries, ver. 23, (that Cereris arcanum, “the secret of Ceres” in Horace, secreta Ceres in Seneca, Hercul. Fur., and Cadmæis orgia condita cistis, in Œteus,) he concludes with μιασμός, γενίσεως ἐναλλαγῇ, γάμων ἀταξία, μοιχεῖα καὶ ἀσέλγεια, pollution, inversion of nature, confusion of marriages, adultery and shameless uncleanness, ver. 26, and concludes that the worship of nameless idols, or idols not to be named, is the beginning and cause and end of all evil, ver. 27. So Jer. xliv. 19, when they that dwelt in Egypt justify themselves to Jeremy, that they did no harm in their sacrifices to the queen of heaven, because they did it not secretly,

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1 Corinthians 5:11

But the purpose of my writing is only to interdict you that free encouraging converse with Christian professors that are guilty of retaining any of these sensual heathen sins used by idolaters, and to command that with such an one you do not enter any friendly commerce, so much as to eat with him (see note [g]), much less to admit him to the sacrament, or the feast that attends that, until he do reform.

12, 13. (What have mine or the church’s censures to do with them that are not members of the church? ye know it is the practice among you to inflict censures on church members only, leaving all others to God’s tribunal.) And by doing thus ye shall remove the accursed thing from among you, free yourselves from those punishments that the neglect of your duty, permitting such offenders to go unpunished and unreformed, may bring upon you.

[k] railer] That λοίδορος signifies a railer, or opprobrious, contumelious speaker, there is no doubt; but that it signifies reproachful actions, as well as words, there is as little question; and therefore Hesychius, that renders it κακολογών, in reference to words, renders it ὑβριστής, “a contumelious person” it may be, in respect of actions also. And then it may be here another notation of the heathen Gnostics’ sins of uncleanness, which in all languages have been civilly expressed by words that note contumely or reproach. So in the Sibylline Oracles,

Ἄρσενος ὕβρις ἀπεχθής τε στυγερή τε,

“the contumelious using of mankind, abominable and base.” So when the apostle calls them ἄνμα πάθη, infamous, dishonourable. So to abuse or defame in English, is ordinarily taken for these sins of uncleanness committed on any, and in the Hebrew dialect, to mock, (and παίζειν and ἱμπαίζειν, see note [c] on 1 Cor. x,) as of Joseph, He hath brought in an Hebrew to mock us, Gen. xxxix. 14, and so saith Lyra of צידק, to mock, (mentioned note [h],) that it notes ludentem et coeuntem, “mocking and defiling.” And thus sure it may signify in this place; and so all that are mentioned here will be reducible to the same head, of sins of uncleanness or incontinence, save only that of drunkenness, which,

1 Corinthians 5:12

[I] For what have I to do—] Some doubt there is of the reading and rendering the words from this place to the end of the chapter. Theophylact tells us of some that set the point after οὐχί, and then began a new sense without an interrogation. And then the reading must be, *What have I to do to judge those that are without? No, judge ye those that are within, adding as in a parenthesis, (but those that are without God judgeth,) and ye shall take away the evil from among you, which best agrees to the καὶ (and, not therefore) in the Greek, and to the reading of Chrysostom and Theophylact, who read ἐξαιρεῖτε τὸ πονηρὸν, ye shall remove the evil thing (not ἐξαιρεῖτε τὸν πονηρὸν, remove the evil or wicked person) from among you, referring, γទូរស they, to the passage in the Old Testament, Deut. xiii. 5, and xxii. 21. And accordingly Theodoret and the Vulgar read τὸ πονηρὸν, the evil. For this latter part, that this reading and rendering is to be adhered to, there will be little doubt to any that considers how evidently these last words, καὶ ἐξαιρεῖτε—, and ye shall remove the evil from among you, refer to the phrase in the Old Testament, Deut. xxii. 21, (though there the Rome edition reads corruptly τὸν πονηρὸν,) all the question is of the former part, which depends on the pointing of the οὐχί, of which Theophylact adds, τινὲς δὲ συναπτῶς, καὶ ἐρωτηματικῶς, “some read it conjoined with what follows, and by way of interrogation,” as we do, and all the copies that now we meet with. And that I prefer this reading, beside the consent of copies, these are my reasons: 1st, because the context agrees very well to it, the thing that the apostle now hath in hand, being to disclaim meddling with heathens, in the beginning of the verse, upon which that which is here added, οὐχὶ τοὺς ἔσω ὑμεῖς κρίνετε, τοὺς δὲ ἔξω Θεὸς κρίνετε; if it be read all in one interrogation, Do not ye judge those that are within, but those that are without God judgeth? will follow, and cohere very commodiously; for thus it will lie, I have nothing to do to judge those that are without, but as ye, that is, the church, use to censure those that are within, who belong to your cognizance, so for all others they must be referred and left to God’s tribunal: (many speeches of this kind are taken notice of, note [d] on Matt. ix.) 2dly, because in the former reading οὐχὶ is made an answer to τί, which I believe to be without example, the question by τί being so strong and familiar a negative, that generally there is not any negation added to it, and if there were, οὐδὲν would be it most regularly: 3dly, because οὐχὶ is very frequently an interrogative form, and οὐκ and μὴ, οὐδαμῶς and μηδαμῶς, the forms of answering the question, and that argues the necessity of retaining the second reading. The only difficulty remaining is how καὶ ἐξαιρεῖτε, and ye shall take away the evil from among you, shall fitly connect with this sense. For that καὶ should be rendered therefore is not very reasonable, and that also which supposeth the right reading to be ἐξαιρεῖτε τὸν πονηρὸν, take away the evil person,

1 Corinthians 5:16

And therefore, I beseech you, let the form of doctrine which I left you be retained among you, without any new insertions by any other.

1 Corinthians 5:17

For this purpose I have sent unto you Timothy, whom I converted to the faith, and one that hath long associated with me, and done faithful service to me in the propagating of the gospel, who therefore, exactly knowing my whole course of Christian doctrine, may be your remembrancer, and tell you what my doctrine and practice is in every church where I come to confirm them.

1 Corinthians 5:18

And since by my not coming to you myself personally, some among you have taken occasion to despise me that am absent,

1 Corinthians 5:19

I am therefore resolved by God’s help myself to come among you speedily, and to examine what grounds they have for what they do, and not much heeding the speech or talk of them, to see whether this be any solid knowledge in them, upon strength of which they should despise others.

1 Corinthians 5:20

For Christianity consists not in speaking but in doing (according to a proverbial speech of the Jews, ‘Speech is not a foundation, but work?’ Pirke Avoth, p. 15); and so all other perfections of men must be judged of, not by their boasts of themselves, but by the reality of their performances.

1 Corinthians 5:21

And now I talk of coming to you, I pray consider, which will you choose? as you behave yourselves, so at my coming will I exercise either my power of inflicting punishments, or the milder way of kindness toward you; and therefore, according as ye like best, so prepare yourselves for my coming.

CHAP. V.

¹ IT is reported commonly that there is [a] fornication among you, and such fornication as ² is