Being defamed, we entreat: we are made as the filth of the world, and are the trash of all things unto this day.
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Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
Being defamed, we entreat. When we are reviled, called evil dealers in evil arts, and railed at. The word "blaspheme" has this meaning also in Titus 3:2. When thus treated we speak the meekness after the manner of suppliants, as the Greek Fathers take it, or else we entreat God for them. But the first is nearer the Greek. S. Basil (Reg226 , quoted above) renders it "comfort," in the sense of filling their minds with a perception of the truth. Comfort is used in this sense in Romans 1:12.
We are made as the filth of the world. We are made, as Theophylact and Theodoret say, as it were the excrement of the world—not once, but always, down to this present hour. We are made like filth that has been collected from all sides, is the literal force of the Greek. We are reckoned as most contemptible, as wretches unworthy of man"s society, fit only to be driven away and destroyed.
S. Paul is here alluding to Lamentations 3:45: "Thou hast made us as the offscouring and refuse in the midst of ...
For when there is no evil desire within you, which might defile and torment you, then do ye live in accordance with the will of God, and are .
Let my spirit be counted as nothing
Christ commanded us to bear insults meekly, both so that we might grow in virtue ourselves and that we might put our adversaries to shame. That effect is best produced not by reproach but by silence.
