Therefore whether it were I or they, so we preach, and so you believed.
Read Chapter 15
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
Therefore whether it were I or they, so we preach, and so ye believed. So not only I, but all the Apostles, as was said in ver3 , preach and affirm as eye-witnesses, viz, that Christ died, and rose from the dead, and appeared to us. The Apostle returns here, as if after a long digression, to the point of the whole chapter, which is to prove, from the unanimous testimony of the Apostles, the resurrection of Christ, and of the rest who have died.
Paul does not expect the Corinthians to choose between him and the other apostles. He justifies his own credentials as a teacher but at the same time affirms the others as well. There is no difference between them, since their authority is the same.
Whether then it be I or they, so we preach, and so ye believed.
Having exalted the Apostles and abased himself, then again having exalted himself above them that he might make out an equality: (for he did effect an equality, when he showed that he had advantages over them as well as they over him,) and having thereby proved himself worthy of credit; neither so does he dismiss them, but again ranks himself with them, pointing out their concord in Christ. Nevertheless he does it not so as that he should seem to have been tacked on to them, but as himself also to appear in the same rank. For so it was profitable for the Gospel. Wherefore also he was equally earnest, on the one hand, that he might not seem to overlook them; on the other, that he might not be on account of the honor paid to them held cheap by those that were under his authority. Therefore he also now makes himself equal again, saying,
Whether then it be I or they, so we preach. From whomsoever, says he, ye choose to l...
For the witness ought to be trustworthy, and a great man. But how he labored more abundantly than they, he indicated above, saying, Have we no right to eat and to drink, as also the other Apostles? And again, to them that are without law as without law. Thus, both where exactness was to be displayed, he overshot all: and where there was need to condescend, he displayed again the same great superiority.
But some cite his being sent to the Gentiles and his overrunning the larger part of the world. Whence it is evident that he enjoyed more grace. For if he labored more, the grace was also more: but he enjoyed more grace, because he displayed also more diligence. Do you see how by those particulars whereby he contends and strives to throw into shade the things concerning himself, he is shown to be first of all?
8. And these things when we hear, let us also make open show of our defects, but of our excellencies let us say nothing. Or if the opportunity force it upon us, let us speak o...
If Marcion be an apostle, still as Paul says, "Whether it be I or they, so we preach; ".
I am content with the fact that, between apostles, there is a common agreement in rules of faith and of discipline. For, "Whether (it be) I "says (Paul), "or they, thus we preach."
