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MATE PLACE FOR THEM IN A RELIGION WHICH WAS NEITHER A PHILOSOPHY, NOR A SYSTEM OF DOCTRINES, NOR A LAW, BUT A SPIRIT OF LIFE, OF WHICH GOD ALONE WAS THE GIVER, AND CHRIST ALONE THE CHANNEL OF THE GIFT.

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CHAP. I. 1-31.

PAUL, called by the will of God to be an Apostle of 2 Jesus Christ, and Sosthenest our brother, - To the Church of God that is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all

*St. Paul first visited Corinth about 51 A. D., and wrote the First Epistle to the Corinthians from Ephesus, about 56 A. D. — Acts xviii. ; 1 Cor. xvi. 8.

† Acts xviii. 17.

in every place that call upon the name of Jesus Christ 3 our Lord, their Lord and ours, Grace be unto you,

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and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

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I thank my God always on your behalf for the grace 5 of God given to you in Jesus Christ, that in every thing you are enriched in him, in all utterance and 6 knowledge, so that the testimony [evidence] of Christ 7 has been confirmed among you, and you come behind in no gift, waiting to receive the revealing of our Lord 8 Jesus Christ; who will also confirm you until the end, 9 blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom ye were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

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I beseech you, brethren, by virtue of the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, that there be no divisions among you, and that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the 11 same sentiment. For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by those of the house of Chloe,* that 12 there are contentions among you. This I mean, that you

say severally, "I am of Paul," and, "I am of Apollos," 13 and, "I of Cephas," and, "I of Christ." Is Christ di

vided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or, were you 14 baptized into the name of Paul? I thank God that I bap15 tized none of you, but Crispust and Gaius,‡so that no 16 one can say I baptized into my own name. I baptized, too, the household of Stephanas: § besides, I know not whether I baptized any other.

* Conjectured to be the mother of Fortunatus and Achaicus, who, with Stephanas, are supposed to be the bearers of a letter from the church at Corinth to St. Paul, to which this Epistle (chap. vii. 1) is in part a reply. See ch. xvi. 17.

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† Acts xviii. 3.

Rom. xvi. 23.

1 Cor. xvi. 15.

17 For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach

the Gospel not in the wisdom of words [Argument], 18 lest the cross of Christ be made of none effect. For the doctrine of the cross is foolishness to those who are yielding themselves to ruin, but the power of God 19 to those of us who are willing to be saved. For it is written, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent." * 20 Where is the Wise? where is the Scribe? where is the Disputer of this world? Hath not God proved foolish 21 the wisdom of this world? For when, in the wisdom

of God, the world through wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save 22 those who have faith. The Jews indeed require Signs, 23 and the Greeks seek after Wisdom: but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews an offence, and to the 24 Gentiles foolishness; but to the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of 25 God. Because this foolishness of God is wiser than men and this weakness of God is stronger than men. 26 For you see your calling [class], brethren, that there

are not many wise after the flesh, not many mighty, 27 not many noble: but God hath chosen the foolish things

of the world to shame the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the mighty; 28 and the ignoble and despised things of the world hath God chosen, and things that are not, to bring to naught 29 things that are; that no flesh should glory in the pres30 ence of God. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who hath been made unto us wisdom from God, and right31 eousness, and sanctification, and redemption; so that, as it is written, “Let him that glorieth glory in the Lord." +

* Isaiah xxix. 14.

† Jeremiah ix. 24.

It is no easy matter for a modern European to conceive, with any truth, the state of things that presented itself to a Christian Apostle entering, for the first time, one of the great cities of Greece or Asia Minor. The materials for such a conception exist only in the indirect and evanescent reflections of ancient life and manners which a fragmentary literature presents; and much easier is it, from the remains that are left to us, to reconstruct one of the Cities of classic antiquity, to bring back the exact image of Athens or Pompeii, than to people its streets with veritable copies from the antique, to picture with any reality the living throngs of Corinth, that Venice of the ancient world,* or to penetrate to the varied heart and inner spirit of that motley society, where Greek and Asiatic, Roman and Jew, trader and philosopher, Egyptian magician, sophist, and travelling impostor of every description, passed and repassed between the commercial capital of the West, that point of conflux, and the scattered cities of the East. Corinth itself was but a new city, raised from its ruins and rebuilt by Julius Cæsar. From its central situation on the Isthmus, as the gates of Greece, through which passed all communication between the Eastern and the Western Worlds, it had sprung at once into magnificence. Every thing in it was young, fresh, restless, unsettled. It was a state of society in which there were no conservative influences, no venerable usages, where even the temples and the gods had no great

* Milman's History of Christianity, Vol II. p. 20.

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