Vincent Word Studies - 1 Corinthians 6:7

Vincent Word Studies - 1 Corinthians 6:7 - 6:7

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Vincent Word Studies - 1 Corinthians 6:7 - 6:7

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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

Now therefore (ἤδη μὲν οὖν)

Μὲν οὖν nay, as in 1Co 6:4, at once looks back to the preceding thought, and continues it, bringing under special consideration the fact that brother goes to law with brother. Ἤδη already or at once is a temporal adverb, but with a logical force and enhancing the nay. The connection of thought is: Is there not one wise man among you who is competent to act as an arbitrator between brethren, so that christian brethren must needs take their differences into the civil courts and before heathen judges? Nay; such a proceeding at once implies the existence of a litigious spirit generally, which is unchristian, and detrimental to you.

Fault among you (ἥττημα ἐν ὑμῖν)

Only here and Rom 11:12. See note. Ἥττημα fault, is from ἥττων less. Lit., diminution, decrease. Hence used in the sense of defeat, Isa 31:8 : “Young men shall be discomfited lit., shall be for diminution.” Similarly the kindred verb ἡττάομαι, in 2Co 12:13, made inferior; and in 2Pe 2:19, 2Pe 2:20, overcome. See note there. Compare 2 Macc. 10:24. In classical Greek ἧττα means defeat, and is contrasted with νίκη victory by Plato and Thucydides. The meaning here is loss. Ἑν among is omitted by the best texts, so that we should read a loss to you, which Rev. gives in margin, reading in the text a defect in you. The spirit of litigation which runs into wrong and fraud (1Co 6:8) is a source of damage, resulting in forfeiture of the kingdom of God (1Co 6:9), and in loss of spiritual power.

Ye go to law (κρίματα ἔχετε)

Rev., more correctly, ye have lawsuits. Not the same phrase as in 1Co 6:6. Κρίμα in the New Testament almost universally means judgment or decree, as Rom 5:16. See on 2Pe 2:3. In classical Greek it has also the meaning of the matter of judgment, the question in litigation. So Aeschylus: “The matter (κρίμα) is not easy to judge. Choose me not as judge” (“Suppliants,” 391). Here the meaning is legal proceedings, lawsuits. So in Septuagint, Job 31:13; Exo 23:6.

Suffer yourselves to be defrauded (ἀποστερεῖσθε)

Rev., more literally, “why not rather be defrauded?” In classical Greek the word means, 1. to rob or despoil. 2. to detach or withdraw one's self from a person or thing. Ἁποστερεῖν ἑαυτόν was a regular phrase for separation from civic life. So Oedipus says: “I, noblest of the sons of Thebes, have cut myself off (ἀπεστέρης ἐμαυτόν. Sophocles, “Oedipus Tyrannus,” 1381). 3. To withhold or avert. So Io to Prometheus: “Do not, after proffering me a benefit, withhold it” (“Prometheus,” 796). The maidens say: “May King Zeus avert the hateful marriage” (Aeschylus, “Suppliants,” 1063). In the New Testament the word occurs five times. In Mar 10:19, defraud not is apparently Mark's rendering of the tenth commandment. According to the inner meaning of the commandment as conceived by Jesus, the coveting of another's goods is, in heart, a depriving him of them. In 1Co 7:5 it is used of connubial relations. In 1Ti 6:5, of those who are deprived or destitute of the truth. Dr. Morison, on Mar 10:19, justly observes that defraud is too narrow a rendering. The word means rather “to deprive of what is one's due, whether by 'hook,' 'crook,' or force, or in any other way.”