TEXT. 32 And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. 33 For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints. 34 Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law. t 35 And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home for it is a shame for women to speak in the church. : 36 What! came the word of God out from you? Or came it unto you only? PARAPHRASE. 32 receive exhortation and instruction. For the gifts of the Holy Ghost are not like the possession of the heathen priests, who are not masters of the Spirit that possesses them. But christians, however filled with the Holy Ghost, are masters of their own actions, can speak, or hold their peace, as they see occasion, and are not hurried away by any compul33 sion. It is, therefore, no reason for you to speak, more than one at once, or to interrupt one another, because you find yourselves inspired and moved by the Spirit of God. For God is not the author of confusion and disorder, but of quietness and peace, And this is what is observed in all the churches of 34 God. As to your women, let them keep silence in your assemblies; for it is not permitted them to discourse there, or pretend to teach; that does no way suit their state of subjection, appointed them in the law. 35 But, if they have a mind to have any thing explained to them, that passes in the church, let them, for their information, ask their husbands at home, for it is a shame for women to discourse and debate with 36 men publicly, in the congregation *. What! do you pretend to give laws to the church of God, or to a right to do what you please amongst your NOTE. 34, 35 Why I apply this prohibition, of speaking, only to reasoning and purely voluntary discourse, but suppose a liberty left women to speak, where they had an immediate impulse and revelation from the spirit of God, vid. note on chap. xi. 3. In the synagogue, it was usual for any man, that had a mind, to demand, of the teacher, a farther explication of what he had said: but this was not permitted to the women. TEXT. 37 If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge, that the things, that I write unto you, are the commandments of the Lord. 38 But if any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant. 39 Wherefore, brethren, covet to prophesy, and forbid not to speak with tongues. 40 Let all things be done decently, and in order. PARAPHRASE. selves, as if the gospel began at Corinth, and issuing from you was communicated to the rest of the world; or, as if it were communicated to you alone, 37 of all the world? If any man amongst you think, that he hath the gift of prophecies, and would pass for a man knowing in the revealed will of God *, let him acknowledge, that these rules, which I have here given, are the commandments of the Lord. 38 But if any man † be ignorant that they are so, I have no more to say to him; I leave him to his ig39 norance. To conclude, brethren, let prophecy have the preference in the exercise of it; but yet forbid 40 not the speaking unknown tongues. But whether a man prophesies, or speaks with tongues, whatever spiritual gift he exercises in your assemblies, let it be done without any indecorum, or disorder. NOTES. 37 * (" Πνευματικὸς, a spiritual man," in the sense of St. Paul, is one, who founds his knowledge in what is revealed by the Spirit of God, and not in the bare discoveries of his natural reason and parts: vid. chap. ii. 15. 38 By the [any man] mentioned in this, and the foregoing verse, St. Paul seems to intimate the false apostle, who pretended to give laws amongst them, and, as we have observed, may well be supposed to be the author of these disorders: whom, therefore, St. Paul reflects on, and presses in these three verses. 39 Zλv, in this whole discourse of St. Paul, taken to refer to the exercise, and not to the obtaining the gifts, to which it is joined, will direct us right, in understanding St. Paul, and make his meaning very easy and intelligible. SECT. X. CHAP. XV. 1-58. CONTENTS. AFTER St. Paul (who had taught them another doctrine) had left Corinth, some among them denied the resurrection of the dead. This he confutes by Christ's resurrection, which the number of witnesses, yet remaining, that had seen him, put past question, besides the constant inculcating of it, by all the apostles, every-where. From the resurrection of Christ, thus established, he infers the resurrection of the dead; shows the order they shall rise in, and what sort of bodies they shall have. TEXT. 1 MOREOVER, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also you have received, and wherein ye stand; 2 By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unless ye have believed in vain. unto you, 3 For I delivered unto you, first of all, that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures: 4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day, according to the scriptures: PARAPHRASE. 1 IN what I am now going to say to you, brethren, I make known to you no other gospel, than what I formerly preached to you, and you received, and have hitherto professed, and by which alone you are to be 2 saved. This you will find to be so, if you retain in your memories what it was that I preached to you, which you certainly do, unless you have taken up the christian name and profession to no pur3 pose. For I delivered to you, and particularly insisted on this, which I had received, viz. that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures: 4 And that he was buried, and that he was raised again, the third day, according to the scriptures : TEXT. 5 And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: 6 After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remained unto this present, but some are fallen asleep : 7 After that, he was seen of James: then, of all the apostles. 8 And, last of all, he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time. 9 For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace, which was bestowed upon me, was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. 11 Therefore, whether it were I or they, so we preach, and so ye believed. PARAPHRASE. 5 And that he was seen by Peter; afterwards by the 6 twelve apostles: And after that, by above five hundred christians at once; of whom the greatest part remain alive to this day, but some of them are de7 ceased: Afterwards he was seen by James; and after 8 that, by all the apostles: Last of all, he was seen 9 by me also, as by one born before my time *. For I am the least of the apostles, not worthy the name of an apostle; because I persecuted the church of 10 God. But, by the free bounty of God, I am what it hath pleased him to make me: and this favour, which he hath bestowed on me, hath not been altogether fruitless; for I have laboured in preaching of the gospel, more than all the other apostles†: which yet I do not ascribe to any thing of myself, but to 11 the favour of God, which accompanied me. But whether I, or the other apostles, preached, this was that which we preached, and this was the faith ye were baptized into, viz. that Christ died, and rose NOTES. S An abortive birth, that comes before its time, which is the name St. Paul gives himself here, is usually sudden and at unawares, and is also weak and feeble, scarce deserving to be called, or counted a inan. The former part agrees to St. Paul's being made a christian and au apostle; though it be in regard of the latter, that, in the following verse, St. Paul calls himself abortive. 10+ St. Paul drops in this commendation of himself, to keep up his credit in the church of Corinth, where there was a faction labouring to discredit him. TEXT. 12 Now, if Christ be preached, that he rose from the dead, how say some among you, that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen. 14 And, if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. 15 Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God, that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. 16 For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised. 17 And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. 18 Then they also, which are fallen asleep in Christ, are perished. PARAPHRASE. 12 again the third day. If, therefore, this be so, if this be that, which has been preached to you, viz. that Christ has been raised from the dead; how comes it that some amongst you say, as they do, that there 13 is no resurrection of the dead? And if there be no resurrection of the dead, then even Christ himself is 14 not risen And if Christ be not risen, our preach ing is idle talk, and your believing it is to no purpose. 15 And we, who pretend to be witnesses for God, and his truth, shall be found lyars, bearing witness against God, and his truth, affirming, that he raised Christ, whom in truth he did not raise, if it be so, that the 16 dead are not raised. For if the dead shall not be 17 raised, neither is Christ raised. And if Christ be not risen, your faith is to no purpose; your sins are not forgiven, but you are still liable to the punishment 18 due to them. And they also, who died in the NOTE. 12 This may well be understood of the head of the contrary faction, and some of his scholars: 1st, Because St. Paul introduces this confutation, by asserting his mission, which these his opposers would bring in question. 2dly, Because he is so careful to let the corinthians see, he maintains not the doctrine of the resurrection, in opposition to these their new leaders, it being the doctrine he had preached to them, at their first conversion, before any such false apostle appeared among them, and misled them about the resurrection. Their false apostle was a jew, and in all appearance judaized: may he not also be suspected of sadducism? For it is plain, he, with all his might, opposed St. Paul, which must be from some main difference in opinion at the bottom. For there are no footsteps of any personal provocation, |