Now this I say, that every one of you says, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ.
All Commentaries on 1 Corinthians 1:12 Go To 1 Corinthians 1
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
That every one of you; i.e, Whoever of you contend with one another, and foment any part of schism. (For there were among the Corinthians many others well-disposed and peaceful, unconnected with schism, and consequently with the following words): says, in turn, alternately or respectively; for not each one was saying, I am of Paul, I of Apollos, I of Cephas, but in turn; since one would say, I am of Paul, another, I of Apollos, a third, I of Cephas. In the words "every one," therefore, there is a distributive and disjunctive force familiar to the Hebrews; for every one ambitiously and contentiously was saying, "I am of Paul," &c, I am of Paul, viz, a disciple, a catechumen; I of Cephas, that is to say, taught or baptized by the Blessed Pontiff Peter at Antiôch, at Rome, or elsewhere. For Peter had not yet been at Corinth, as is deduced from ch. iv15. Whence Baronius thinks that these are the words of those who were avoiding divisions, which had properly arisen because of Paul and Apollos, as appears in ch. iii4 , and that, to escape from them, while others were boasting of their teachers, they would declare they were the disciples neither of Paul, nor of Apollos but of Peter, the head of the Church; as though they should say, "This man says and boasts that he is the disciple of Paul, that man of Apollos; but I say that I am of Cephas, that Isaiah , that I am a disciple of Peter, who is the head of the Church, and the Vicar of Christ: for to him I cling, in him I glory; he converted and baptized me by Paul or Apollos or some other." Whence another rising higher would say: "I am of Christ, who is the supreme Head of Apostles and of the Church, whose Vicar Peter Isaiah , whose ministers are Paul and Apollos." For it is to be noted that he adds I am of Christ as the words of those who speak not amiss but rightly, if there is no contention and contempt of the Apostles and the Vicars of Christ, as the Anabaptists now despise Prelates; for it became all to say, "We are of Christ," viz, Christians; whereas some called themselves disciples of Paul, or of Apollos, or of Cephas. So Ambrose, Theophylact, S. Thomas. The occasion of the schism seems to have been that Apollos, who was eloquent, acute, and learned in the Scriptures, was then teaching at Corinth ( Acts 18:27), and compared to him S. Paul seemed to some cold and bald, because he avoided in his preaching all display of knowledge or of rhetorical ornament, as he says himself (ch. 1 Corinthians 2:4.)
Lastly, S. Jerome (on Tit. i.) gathers from this passage that Bishops were given jurisdiction over presbyters, so as to remove all scandals, and that the Church before this was governed by the Presbyters in common to the Epistles to Titus.
