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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - 1 Corinthians 4:9 - 4:9
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Hath set forth us the apostles last (hēmas tous apostolous eschatous apedeixen). The first aorist active indicative of apodeiknumi, old verb to show, to expose to view or exhibit (Herodotus), in technical sense (cf. 2Th 2:4) for gladiatorial show as in ethēriomachēsa (1Co 15:32). In this grand pageant Paul and other apostles come last (eschatous, predicate accusative after apedeixen) as a grand finale.
As men doomed to die (hōs epithanatious). Late word, here alone in N.T. The lxx (Bel and the Dragon 31) has it for those thrown daily to the lions. Dionysius of Halicarnassus (A.R. vii. 35) uses it of those thrown from the Tarpeian Rock. The gladiators would say morituri salutamus. All this in violent contrast to the kingly Messianic pretensions of the Corinthians.
A spectacle (theatron). Cf. Heb 11:33-40. The word, like our theatre, means the place of the show (Act 19:29, Act 19:31). Then, it means the spectacle shown there (theama or thea), and, as here, the man exhibited as the show like the verb theatrizomenoi, made a spectacle (Heb 10:33). Sometimes it refers to the spectators (theatai) like our “house” for the audience. Here the spectators include “the world, both to angels and men” (tōi kosmōi kai aggelois kai anthrōpois), dative case of personal interest.