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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - 1 Corinthians 3:17 - 3:17
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Defile (φθείρει)
Rev., more correctly, destroy. This is the primary and almost universal meaning in classical Greek. In a fragment of Euripides it occurs of dishonoring a female. Sophocles uses it of women pining away in barrenness, and Plutarch of mixing pure colors. The phrase seems to be used here according to the Jewish idea that the temple was destroyed or corrupted by the slightest defilement or damage, or by neglect on the part of its guardians. Ignatius says: “οἱ οἰκοφθόροι; violators of the house (of God) shall not inherit the kingdom of God” (To the Ephesians, 16).
Which temple (οἵτινες)
Temple is not in the Greek. The double relative which refers to the epithet holy; “of which holy character or class ye are.”