Now all these things happened unto them for examples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages are come.
All Commentaries on 1 Corinthians 10:11 Go To 1 Corinthians 10
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
Now all these things happened unto them for types. Viz, all those here mentioned. We are not to imagine that everything that is related in the Old Testament is merely typical, as though it contained nothing which did not figuratively represent something in the New Testament. S. Augustine (de Civ. Dei, lib. xvii. c5) says truly: "They seem to me to make a great mistake who think that the things recorded in the Old Testament have no meaning beyond the events themselves, just as much as those people are very venturesome who contend that everything without exception in it contains allegorical meanings."
Gabriel Vasquez (p1 , qu. i. art10 , disp14 , c6) rightly points out that the word "figure" or "type" used here, does not mean so much an allegorical sense, or a mystical one, as an example which may be well applied for the purpose of persuasion. Thence S. Paul adds, "they are written for our admonition." In other words, God punished the Hebrews that they might be an example to us, and teach us wisdom.
Upon whom the ends of the world are come. That Isaiah , the last age of the world. The Prophets call the time of the Messiah: the last time," (See2 S. John ii18.) Ambrose and Chrysostom add that the Apostle often speaks in this way, as though the end of the world was at hand, that he may keep every one in expectation and in fear of it, that so each one may be taught to prepare for it diligently.
