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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - 1 Corinthians 4:13 - 4:13
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Defamed (δυσφημούμενοι)
Publicly slandered; while reviled refers to personal abuse.
Intreat (παρακαλοῦμεν)
See on consolation, Luk 6:24, and see on comfort, Act 9:31. The sense is, we strive to appease by entreaty.
Filth - offscouring (περικαθάρματα - περίψημα)
The former word is from περικαθαίρω to cleanse all round. Hence that which is thrown off in cleansing; refuse. Κάθαρμα the refuse of a sacrifice. So Aeschylus. Electra says: “Should I, like one who has carried away refuse (καθάρμαθ) from a purification, after tossing away the urn, go back again with unturned eyes?” (“Choephoroe,” 90). In Pro 21:18, Sept., it occurs in the sense of ransom. Some find an allusion here to an ancient Athenian custom of throwing certain worthless persons into the sea in case of plague or famine, saying Be our offscouring! These persons were called περικαθάρματα offscourings, or περιψήματα scrapings, in the belief that they would wipe away the nation's guilt. Ignatius says to the Ephesians, περίψημα ὑμῶν I am your offscouring. The sense is twofold: I am as the meanest among you; and I devote my life for you. In the middle of the third century, περίψημά σου had become a common expression of formal compliment: your humble servant. See Lightfoot, “Apostolic Fathers,” on Ignatius to the Ephesians, 8. “Compare Lam 3:45, and Tobit 5:18. Περίψημα that which is scraped or scoured off. Both words only here in the New Testament.
This tremendous piece of irony justifies the numerous allusions which have been made to Paul's vehemence and severity. Thus Dante, in his vision of the Earthly Paradise, pictures Paul:
“Two old men I beheld, unlike in habit,
But like in gait, each dignified and grave.
One (Luke) showed himself as one of the disciples
Of that supreme Hippocrates whom Nature
Made for the animals she holds most dear,
Contrary care the other (Paul) manifested,
With sword so shining and so sharp, it caused
Terror to me on this side of the river.”
“Purgatorio,” xxix., 134-141.
“His words, indeed, seem to be those of a simple, and, as it were, an innocent and rustic man, who knows neither how to frame nor to avoid wiles; but whithersoever you look, there are thunderbolts” (Jerome). “Paul thunders, lightens, utters pure flames” (Erasmus). See a collection of quotations in Farrar's “Life and Work of St. Paul,” i., 619.