See on 1 Corinthians 7:31. Rev., correctly, use to the full.

Rev., brought myself under bondage; better, as bringing out the force of δοῦλος bond-servant, from which the word is derived, and thus according with stewardship, 1 Corinthians 9:17.

Gain (κεδήσω)

Carrying out the thought of servant in 1 Corinthians 9:18. "He refuses payment in money that he may make the greater gain in souls. But the gain is that which a faithful steward makes, not for himself, but for his master" (Edwards). The word is not, as Godet, to be limited to its purely natural meaning, but is used in the sense of Matthew 18:15; 1 Peter 3:1.

The distinction between this class and Jews is differently explained. Some, Jews, viewed nationally; under the law, viewed religiously. Others, Jews by origin, and Gentile proselytes. Others understand by those under the law, rigid Jews, Pharisees. The first explanation seems preferable.

As one of the Gentiles. By intercourse with them, relinquishment of Jewish observances, and adapting his teaching to their modes of thought. See Acts 17.

Under law (ἔννομος)

The expression differs from that in 1 Corinthians 9:20, ὑπὸ νόμον under law, though with only a shade of difference in meaning. Ἔννομος means subject to the law, but in the sense of keeping within (ἐν) the law.

In faith and christian discernment. Compare 1 Corinthians 8:7 sqq.; Romans 14:1; Romans 15:1; 1 Thessalonians 5:14.

Or, better, in a race-course. From ἵστημι to place or establish. Hence a stated distance; a standard of length. In all other New-Testament passages it is used of a measure of length, and is rendered furlong, representing 606.75 English feet. From the fact that the race-courses were usually of exactly this length, the word was applied to the race-course itself. The position chosen for the stadium was usually on the side of a hill, which would furnish a natural slope for seats; a corresponding elevation on the opposite side, being formed by a mound of earth, and the seats being supported upon arches. The stadium was oblong in shape, and semicircular at one end; though, after the Roman conquest of Greece, both ends were often made semicircular. A straight wall shut in the area at one end, and here were the entrances and the starting-place for the runners. At the other end was the goal, which, like the starting-point, was marked by a square pillar. Half-way between these was a third pillar. On the first pillar was inscribed excel; on the second, hasten; on the third, turn, since the racers turned round the column to go back to the starting-point.

The isthmus of Corinth was the scene of the Isthmian games, one of the four great national festivals of the Greeks. The celebration was a season of great rejoicing and feasting. The contests included horse, foot, and chariot-racing; wrestling, boxing, musical and poetical trials, and later, fights of animals. The victor's prize was a garland of pine leaves, and his victory was generally celebrated in triumphal odes called epinikia, of which specimens remain among the poems of Pindar. At the period of Paul's epistles the games were still celebrated, and the apostle himself may very probably have been present. At the same time, he would have been familiar with similar scenes in Tarsus, in all the great cities of Asia Minor, especially Ephesus, and even in Jerusalem. Metaphors and allusions founded upon such spectacles abound in Paul's writings. Racers, 1 Corinthians 9:24; boxers, 1 Corinthians 9:26, 1 Corinthians 9:27; gladiators fighting with beasts, 1 Corinthians 15:32; the judge awarding the prize, 2 Timothy 4:8; the goal and the prize, 1 Corinthians 9:24; Philippians 3:14; the chaplet, 1 Corinthians 9:25; 2 Timothy 2:5; 2 Timothy 4:8, the training for the contest, 1 Timothy 4:7, 1 Timothy 4:8; the rules governing it, 2 Timothy 2:5; the chariot-race, Philippians 3:14. These images never occur in the gospels. See on of life, Revelation 2:10.

Prize (βραβεῖον)

Only here and Philippians 3:14. The kindred verb βραβεύω to be umpire, occurs once, Colossians 3:15. See note.

Obtain (καταλάβητε)

Lit., lay hold of. Rev., attain. See on comprehended, John 1:5; see on come upon you, John 12:35; and see on perceived, Acts 4:13. Compare Philippians 3:12.

Better, Rev., striveth in the games, thus preserving the metaphor. The word was the regular term for contending in the arena or on the stage.

Is temperate (ἐγκρατεύεται)

Only here and 1 Corinthians 7:9. The candidate for the races was required to be ten months in training, and to practice in the gymnasium immediately before the games, under the direction of judges who had themselves been instructed for ten months in the details of the games. The training was largely dietary. Epictetus says: "Thou must be orderly, living on spare food; abstain from confections; make a point of exercising at the appointed time, in heat and in cold; nor drink cold water nor wine at hazard." Horace says: "The youth who would win in the race hath borne and done much; he hath sweat and been cold; he hath abstained from love and wine" ("Ars Poetica," 412). Tertullian, commending the example of the athletes to persecuted Christians, says: "Coguntur, cruciantur, fatigantur." "They are constrained, harassed, wearied" ("Ad Martyres," 3). Compare 2 Timothy 2:5.

Crown (στέφανον)

Chaplet of pine-leaves. See on Revelation 4:4.

Only here in the New Testament. The kindred adjective ἄδηλος not manifest, occurs Luke 11:44 (see note) and 1 Corinthians 14:8. Compare also ἀδηλότης uncertainty, 1 Timothy 6:17. He runs with a clear perception of his object, and of the true manner and result of his striving.

Fight I((πυκτεύω)

Only here in the New Testament. Distinctively of fighting with the fists, and evidently in allusion to the boxing-match. Rev., in margin, box. Etymologically akin to πυγμή the fist; see on oft, Mark 7:3.

Beateth the air

A boxer might be said to beat the air when practicing without an adversary. This was called σκιαμαχία shadow-fighting. Or he might purposely strike into the air in order to spare his adversary; or the adversary might evade his blow, and thus cause him to spend his strength on the air. The two latter may well be combined in Paul's metaphor. He strikes straight and does not spare. Compare Virgil, in the description of a boxing-match:

"Entellus, rising to the work, his right hand now doth show

Upreared, but he, the nimble one, foresaw the falling blow

Above him, and his body swift writhed skew-wise from the fall.

Entellus spends his stroke on air."

"Aeneid," v., 443. Morris' Translation.

A feeble translation, and missing the metaphor. The word means to strike under the eye; to give one a black eye. It occurs elsewhere in the New Testament but once, Luke 18:5 (see note). Rev., I buffet. The blow of the trained boxer was the more formidable from the use of the cestus, consisting of ox-hide bands covered with knots and nails, and loaded with lead and iron. So Entellus throws his boxing-gloves into the ring, formed of seven bulls' hides with lead and iron sewed into them (Virgil, "Aeneid," v., 405). They were sometimes called γυιοτόροι limb-breakers. A most interesting account is given by Rodolfo Lanziani, "Ancient Rome in the Light of Recent Discoveries," of the exhuming at the foundation of the Temple of the Sun, erected by Aurelian, of a sitting bronze statue of a boxer. The accompanying photograph shows the construction of the fur-lined boxing-gloves secured by thongs wound round the forearm half-way to the elbow. The gloves cover the thumb and the hand to the first finger-joints. The writer says; "The nose is swollen from the effects of the last blow received; the ears resemble a flat and shapeless piece of leather; the neck, the shoulders, the breast, are seamed with scars.... The details of the fur-lined boxing-gloves are also interesting, and one wonders how any human being, no matter how strong and powerful, could stand the blows from such weapons as these gloves, made of four or five thicknesses of leather, and fortified with brass knuckles."

Bring it into subjection (δουλαγωγῶ)

Rev., bring in into bondage. Metaphor of captives after battle. Not of leading the vanquished round the arena (so Godet), a custom of which there is no trace, and which, in most cases, the condition of the vanquished would render impossible. It is rather one of those sudden changes and mixtures of metaphor so frequent in Paul's writings. See, for instance, 2 Corinthians 5:1, 2 Corinthians 5:2.

Having preached (κηρύξας)

See on 2 Peter 2:5. Some find in the word an allusion to the herald (κῆρυξ) who summoned the contestants and proclaimed the prizes.

Castaway (ἀδόκιμος)

See on Romans 1:28. Better, as Rev., rejected, as unworthy of the prize.

But the correct reading is γάρ for, introducing an illustration of rejection by God, and thus connecting what follows with the close of the last chapter. It is possible that I may be rejected, for the Israelites were.

All

Strongly emphasized in contrast with most of them (A.V., many) in 1 Corinthians 10:5. All enjoyed the privileges, but few improved them. The word is repeated five times.

Under the cloud

The cloudy pillar which guided the Israelites. It is sometimes spoken of as covering the host. See Psalm 105:39; Wis. 10:17; 19:7; Numbers 14:14.

Rev., margin, into. See on Matthew 28:19; see on Romans 6:3. They were introduced into a spiritual union with Moses, and constituted his disciples.

Cloud - sea

The two together forming the type of the water of baptism. Bengel says: "The cloud and the sea are in their nature water." The cloud was diffused and suspended water.

The manna, called spiritual because coming from heaven. See Psalm 78:25; John 6:31; and on Revelation 11:8; Revelation 2:17.

Spiritual, like the meat, in being supernaturally given. The aorist tense denotes something past, yet without limiting it to a particular occasion. They drank at Rephidim (Exodus 17:6), but they continued to drink spiritual drink, for -

They drank (ἔπινον)

The imperfect tense denoting continued action - throughout their journey.

That spiritual rock

For that read a. Paul appears to recall a rabbinic tradition that there was a well formed out of the spring in Horeb, which gathered itself up into a rock like a swarm of bees, and followed the people for forty years; sometimes rolling itself, sometimes carried by Miriam, and always addressed by the elders, when they encamped, with the words, "Spring up, O well!" Numbers 21:17. Stanley says: "In accordance with this notion, the Rock of Moses, as pointed out by the local tradition of Mt. Sinai, is not a cleft in the mountain, but a detached fragment of rock about fifteen feet high, with twelve or more fissures in its surface, from which the water is said to have gushed out for the twelve tribes. This local tradition is as old as the Koran, which mentions this very stone."

Was Christ

Showing that he does not believe the legend, but only uses it allegorically. The important point is that Christ the Word was with His people under the old covenant. "In each case we recognize the mystery of a 'real presence"' (Ellicott). "God was in Christ" here, as from the beginning. The mosaic and the christian economies are only different sides of one dispensation, which is a gospel dispensation throughout. The Jewish sacraments are not mere types of ours. They are identical.

The A.V. misses the force of the article, the many. Hence Rev., correctly, most of them. All perished save Caleb and Joshua.

Overthrown (κατεστρώθησαν)

Only here in the New Testament. Lit., were strewn down along (the ground). The word belongs mostly to later Greek, though found in Herodotos in the general sense of slaying. So Euripides: "He laid low his wife and child with one dart" ("Hercules Furens," 1000). It is used of spreading a couch.

See on 1 Peter 5:3. The word may mean either an example, as 1 Timothy 4:12, or a type of a fact or of a spiritual truth. Hebrews 9:24; Romans 5:14.

We should not lust (μὴ εἶναι ἡμᾶς ἐπιθυμητὰς)

Lit., should not be desirers. Ἑπιθυμητής desirer, lover, only here in the New Testament. Frequent in the classics. The sins of the Israelites are connected with those of the Corinthians.

Referring to the danger of partaking of the idol feasts.

To play (παίζειν)

The merrymaking generally which followed the feast, not specially referring to the dancing at the worship of the golden calf. See Exodus 32:19.

Commit fornication

Lasciviousness was habitually associated with idol-worship. The two are combined, Acts 15:29. A thousand priests ministered at the licentious rites of the temple of Venus at Corinth.

Three and twenty thousand

A plain discrepancy between this statement and Numbers 25:9, where the number is twenty-four thousand. It may have been a lapse of memory.

The compound word is very significant, "to tempt out" (ἐκ); tempt thoroughly; try to the utmost. It occurs in three other places: Matthew 4:7; Luke 4:12; Luke 10:25; and, in every case, is used of tempting or testing Christ. Compare Psalm 77:18 (Sept.). For Christ read Κύριον the Lord.

See on John 6:41.

The destroyer (τοῦ ὀλοθρευτοῦ)

The destroying angel, who is called ὁ ὀλοθρεύων, Exodus 12:23.