And these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and to Apollos for your sakes; that you might learn in us not to think of men above that which is written, that no one of you be puffed up for one against another.
All Commentaries on 1 Corinthians 4:6 Go To 1 Corinthians 4
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
And these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself, &c. "Above that which is written" may refer (1.) to ch. i2 , 3; or (2.) with S. Chrysostom it may mean "contrary to that which is written" in Holy Scripture against pride. It is foolish, therefore, for the Protestants to abuse this passage into an argument against tradition. S. Paul evidently means that what he had said against their idle boasting of the gifts of their teachers, and about not caring for the applause and opinion of men, but only for God"s, had been said of them in the person of himself and Apollos. He had been speaking of others in his own name, so as to avoid offending any of the Corinthian teachers, or their disciples, by mentioning their names. That ye might learn in us, therefore, is the expression of his desire, that when he speaks of himself or Apollos, they may apply what he said to the other teachers, who had been the occasion of the schism, of which he and Apollos were guiltless. He urges the Corinthians by his own example of moderation and conciliatory disposition not to be puffed up, or boast of one against another, viz, for this or that catechist or teacher, by saying, "I was baptized by Paul; I was converted by Apollos." It Isaiah , too, an exhortation to the teachers not to be proud and puffed up because they might be wiser or more eloquent than other teachers, or boast of their disciples as being better instructed than those of other teachers, above that which he had just now written. For in what follows he is reproving the teachers rather than disciples; but he does it in a mild way and under another name, the teachers, I mean, who has been the chief cause of the empty contention and divisions among his Corinthian disciples. This will be seen by reference to ch. v15 , 18 , 19 , and also ch. iii10 , as well as to the whole of ch. xi. of the Second Epistle. For the false teachers whom he here speaks of mildly, because they had not yet disclosed their true nature, are the same apparently as those that in2Cor11he speaks more severely of as imposters, and guilty of Judaising, and teaching false doctrine. Hence, as Chrysostom, Theophylact, and Å’cumenius point put, S. Paul first censures the teachers in the words, "that ye might learn in us not to think of men above that which is written," i.e, that you, teachers, might learn from me and Apollos that you are, as I said before, merely stewards of God. Then he proceeds to rebuke the disciples in the words, "that no one of you be puffed up for one against another," i.e, that no disciple boast of his teacher as wiser or more eloquent than another. S. Paul, then, while he seems to continue his address to the Corinthians, is in them and through them reproving their teachers. Just so a tutor endowed with tact and judgment will, when he wishes to chide a king"s sons, chide their servants, as if they were guilty, that so the princes may take it to themselves.
The expression "puffed up," to describe one that is proud and swollen with arrogance, is a figure borrowed from wine skins. They are said to be puffed out when by being filled with air they resemble in form and size a solid body. Similarly, the proud man who is well satisfied with his knowledge, or eloquence, or some such gift, but within is devoid of all such powers, is just like a wine skin that is swollen out with wind.
