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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - 1 Corinthians 3:9 - 3:9
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
God's
In this and the two following clauses, God is emphatic. “It is of God that ye are the fellow-workers.”
Husbandry (γεώργιον)
Rev., in margin, tilled land. Only here in the New Testament. Bengel says: “Embracing field, garden, and vineyard.”
Building (οἰκοδομή)
Paul's metaphors are drawn from the works and customs of men rather than from the works of nature. “In his epistles,” says Archdeacon Farrar, “we only breathe the air of cities and synagogues.” The abundance of architectural metaphors is not strange in view of the magnificent temples and public buildings which he was continually seeing at Antioch, Athens, Corinth, and Ephesus. His frequent use of to build and building in a moral and spiritual sense is noteworthy. In this sense the two words οἰκοδομέω and οἰκοδομή occur twenty-six times in the New Testament, and in all but two cases in Paul's writings. Peter uses build in a similar sense; 1Pe 2:5. See edify, edification, build, Act 9:31; Rom 15:20; 1Co 8:1; 1Co 8:10, where emboldened is literally built up, and is used ironically. Also Rom 14:19; Rom 15:2; 1Co 14:3; Eph 2:21, etc. It is worth noting that in the Epistle to the Hebrews, while the same metaphor occurs, different words are used. Thus in Heb 3:3, Heb 3:4, built, builded, represent κατασκευάζω to prepare. In Heb 11:10, τεχνίτης artificer, and δημιουργὸς, lit., a workman for the public: A.V., builder and maker. This fact has a bearing on the authorship of the epistle. In earlier English, edify was used for build in the literal sense. Thus Piers Ploughman: “I shal overturne this temple and a-down throwe it, and in thre daies after edifie it newe.” See on Act 20:32. In the double metaphor of the field and the building, the former furnishes the mould of Paul's thought in 1Co 3:6-9, and the latter in 1Co 3:10-17. Edwards remarks that the field describes the raw material on which God works, the house the result of the work.