1 Corinthians 1:1

Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother,
All Commentaries on 1 Corinthians 1:1 Go To 1 Corinthians 1

Cornelius a Lapide

AD 1637
CONTENTS Achaia, or the peninsula commonly called the Morea, had in olden times several famous cities. The metropolis of these was the celebrated emporium of Corinth, famed, says Chrysostom, for its two ports, of which Lechum stood on the Ionian and Schonus on the gean Sea. Hence poets, as, e.g, Ovid (Fasti iv.), frequently called it bimaros. Corinth is said to have had its foundation from Sisyphus, the robber son of olus, and to have been called Corcyra (Strabo, lib8.), and afterwards Ephyre. Having been destroyed, it was rebuilt by Corinth, son of Marithon, or of Pelops, according to Suidas, or according to others of Orestes, and was called after his name. Cicero, in his speech pro lege Manili, calls this city the light of the whole of Greece. Its natural position was so strong that the Romans found great difficulty in reducing it. 1Corinth abounded in wealth, in merchandise of all kinds, and in metals, especially brass or copper. This Corinthian copper was well known and in great request; so much so that Pliny (lib. iv, c2) says that it was reckoned equal to gold or silver. From this wealth were derived the pride, gluttony, self-indulgence, lust and ostentatious living of the Corinthians, and it became a proverbial saying that it was not every man"s luck to go to Corinth. Demosthenes replied to a harlot who asked for eight talents of gold as her hire that he did not give so high a price for repentance. For the same reason the Apostle is called upon to rebuke their vices, and especially in ch. vi. 2At Corinth flourished a large number of orators and philosophers, amongst whom was Periander, one of the Seven Men of Greece. Paul, we can see, went to Corinth because it gave him so excellent an opportunity for spreading the Gospel. There he converted many to Christ, by the of the Lord who appeared to him in a vision at Corinth and said, "Be not afraid but speak, and hold not thy peace, for I am with thee and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee; for I have much people in thus city." Under Paul"s preaching the Corinthian Christians made such progress that Paul himself speaks (i5; xiv26) of their Wisdom of Solomon , prudence, gift of prophecy, and other gifts bestowed on them by God. 3From this there arose among the Corinthians pride, self-seeking, and strife, and especially after the arrival of Apollos. Some then came to prefer him to Paul, as a more polished and eloquent speaker. Thence came schisms; whole one party would boast, "I am of Paul," and another, "I am of Apollos." This caused Paul to write to them this Epistle, in which, through the first four chapters, he tries to lead them away from pride in human wisdom and eloquence, and from all contentious support of their teachers, Paul and Apollos, and to bring them to the humility of the Cross, to the doctrine of the faith in Christ. 4The Corinthians had written to Paul, asking him to resolve certain difficulties they felt (vii1), which he does in this letter. After dealing in the first four chapters with their schisms and striving after empty Wisdom of Solomon , he proceeds in ch. v. to order the fornicator to be excommunicated, and in ch. vi, to rebuke them for this sin of fornication, and for going to law before heathen judges. In ch. vii. he answers their first question about matrimony and virginity, and lays down the laws of Christian marriage, putting over against it and before it the evangelical counsel of virginity and celibacy. Then in chs. viii. and x, he deals with the question of eating of things offered to idols, and lays down that such eating was lawful bot needed caution, lest the weaker brethren should be offended. In ch. xi, he replies to their third question, one concerning the veiling of women, as well as their fourth about the Eucharist and Agap. In ch. xii, he discourses of the gifts of the Spirit, pointing out that different gifts were distributed by the Holy Spirit to different people. Ch. xiii. dwells on the pre-eminent place among the gifts and graces of the Spirit occupied by charity. Ch. xiv. is an answer to the fifth question of the Corinthians, as to whether the gift of tongues was superior to the gift of prophecy. He answers in the negative. Ch.xv. resolves their sixth doubt, and gives manifold proofs of the resurrection, and describes its gifts, its mode, and order. In ch. xvi. he orders a collection to be made for the poor saints at Jerusalem, and he closes all with salutations. 5 Both this and the Second Epistle were written before that to the Romans; for, as Chrysostom points out, the collection which he orders here (1Cor. xvi2), he speaks of in Rom. xv25 , 26 , as having already taken place. The Greek MSS. say that thus Epistle was written at Philippi and sent by Timotheus, and in this they are supported by the Syriac and the Regia Latina. But it seems more likely from xvi8 , and other passages, that it was written at Ephesus (Acts xix1 ), in A.D57 (Baronius and Å’cumenius).
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Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation - 2 Peter 1:20

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