1 Corinthians: A Commentary on the First Epistle to the Corinthians

2 1 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 The Figure of the Preacher and the Form of His Preaching And when I came to you, brothers, 1 I did not come2 in such a way3 as to distinguish myself in eloquence or wisdom, in order4 to proclaim5 to you the testimony (or: mystery6 ) of God. 2 I For7 I was resolved not to know anythings among you save Jesus Christ, and the crucified Jesus Christ at that. 9 3 I And I came to you 10 in weakness and fear and great trembling, 4 I and my message and my preaching consisted not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 I in order that 1 1 your faith should rest not on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God. Just as the attitude of the community must accord with the word of the cross, so also must the form of the preaching and the bearing of the preacher. Thus vv 1 and 2 show the unity between the form and the content of the preaching, vv 3-5 the unity between the preaching and 2 3 4 5 6 Heinrici and Allo accentuate 1rpo~ V!LOS, "to you" (because of V!LtP, "[proclaim] to you," and because of f.p V!LtP, "among you," in v 2). Heinrici observes: "Paul's intentionally rudimentary (!)proclamation was p:uticularly appropriate to the circumstances of this community." This shows how the psychological interpretation reduceq itself ad absurdum . For €Mc;w . . . ~MoP, "when I came ... I did (not) come," cf. Rom 15:29. The phrase has nothing to 7 do with the customary LXX rendering of the Hebrew genitive absolute. ~>-.OoP, "I came," is here a statement on its own account; the word is to be taken with ou KaO' V7rEPOX~P, "not so as to distin- 8 guish" (Weiss), not with Kara")'")'EAAWP, "to proclaim " (as in Heinrici). Kara of the manner, see Bauer, s.v. Kara, II Sb {3. Despite the present participle. Cf. 4:14; Acts 15:27; Xenoph., Hell. 2.1.29 (a7ra")'")'EAAoDua); BlassDebrunner §339 (2). Kara")'")'EAAWP, "to proclaim": for the construction, 9 seen. 2. Weiss observes that grammatically speaking we have here a conjunctive participle, but sty- 10 listically speaking a loosely appended independent statement. !LV-.Owv 1rpo~ VILa~. "when I came to you." For iov cf. Rom 15:32 (€v xapQ. io>-.Owv , "coming with [in]joy") . tva final, of the purpose of God; thus the objective result is indicated at the same time. 53 the existence of the preacher. 12 This unity will then be the theme of2 Corinthians. 13 content and shows that the corresponding statements in 1:17, 23 were intended to be exhaustive. 14 ou -yO.p • 1 Paul achieves the transition by means of a simple Ka-yw, "and I" (cf. v 3; 3:1), which corresponds to {3XI:7rETE ••• , "look . . .," in 1:26. EX8wv, "when I came": Paul frequently looks back upon the beginnings of his work in a particular community, in proemia (1 Thess EKpLva KTA., "for I was resolved, etc.": KpLvELV here means "resolve," cf. 5:3; 2 Cor 2:1. This resolve is not arbitrary; 15 it is reached on the ground of his understanding of the message, on the ground of the cross. 16 This 1: 5; Phil1: 5), but also elsewhere (1 Thess 2: 5ff; Gal 4:13). The two terms from the proemium, Xo-yoLa, "wisdom," and Xo-yos, "eloquence"). The interchange of-yvwuLLa shows that the two expressions cannot be strictly distinguished from each other. When Paul programmatically excludes M-yoLa from his M-yob{Jos and TpOJJ-05, "fear and trembling," is common; LXX, Isa 19:16, etc.; 2 Cor 7:15; Phi12:12. 20 "My" word: cf. 2 Cor 1:18; similarly, 1 Thess 1:5: "our" gospel. [3.145.119.199] Project MUSE (2024-04-24 21:56 GMT) 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 cult from the standpoint of the textual critic. The most important readings are these: a whole; Paul, too, holds the ecstatic phenomena and 1. a) Ell 7rEL8o'is uo(jllas XlryoLs, B N* D. b) Ell 7rEL8o'is a118pw1rl11TJS uo(jllas AO')'OLS", A C ${'. c) Ell 7rEL8o'is uo(jllas (om. M-yoLs), p46 Gi'. The difficulty lies in the fact that there is no evidence for the word 7rEL86s, "persuasive," elsewhere. Yet it is etymologically unexceptionable (Lietzmann). 21 2. a) Ell 7rEL8o'i...