Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - 1 Corinthians 5:8 - 5:8
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Wherefore let us keep the feast (hōste heortazōmen). Present active subjunctive (volitive). Let us keep on keeping the feast, a perpetual feast (Lightfoot), and keep the leaven out. It is quite possible that Paul was writing about the time of the Jewish passover, since it was before pentecost (1Co 16:8). But, if so, that is merely incidental, and his language here is not a plea for the observance of Easter by Christians.
With the leaven of malice and wickedness (en zumēi kakias kai ponērias). Vicious disposition and evil deed.
With the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth (en azumois eilikrinias kai alētheias). No word for “bread.” The plural of azumois may suggest “elements” or “loaves.” Eilikrinia (sincerity) does not occur in the ancient Greek and is rare in the later Greek. In the papyri it means probity in one example. The etymology is uncertain. Boisacq inclines to the notion of heilē or helē, sunlight, and krinō, to judge by the light of the sun, holding up to the light. Alētheia (truth) is a common word from alēthēs (true) and this from a privative and lēthō (lathein, lanthanō, to conceal or hide) and so unconcealed, not hidden. The Greek idea of truth is out in the open. Note Rom 1:18 where Paul pictures those who are holding down the truth in unrighteousness.