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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - 1 Corinthians 9:15 - 9:15
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
For it were good for me to die, than that any man should make my glorying void (kalon gar moi mallon apothanein ē to kauchēma mou oudeis kenōsei). The tangled syntax of this sentence reflects the intensity of Paul’s feeling on the subject. He repeats his refusal to use his privileges and rights to a salary by use of the present perfect middle indicative (kechrēmai). By the epistolary aorist (egrapsa) he explains that he is not now hinting for a change on their part towards him in the matter, “in my case” (en emoi). Then he gives his reason in vigorous language without a copula (ēn, were): “For good for me to die rather than,” but here he changes the construction by a violent anacoluthon. Instead of another infinitive (kenōsai) after ē (than) he changes to the future indicative without hoti or hina, “No one shall make my glorying void,” viz., his independence of help from them. Kenoō is an old verb, from kenos, empty, only in Paul in N.T. See note on 1Co 1:17.