4 He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings,



Ver. 4. He is proud] Gr. ôåôõöùôáé , he is blown up, big swollen. Swelling is a dangerous symptom in the body; but much more in the soul. Pride and self-conceit is a bastard (saith one) begotten between a learned head and an unsanctified heart; which being once conceived in the soul, causeth it to swell till it burst asunder with unthankfnlness to God for the bestowing, with envy, scorn, and disdain of men in the imparting of such gifts as may be to them beneficial. Some think that the apostle alludeth here to the wind Typhon, which the ancients held hurtful to men’s wits and senses; so that those that were blasted with it ran mad.



Knowing nothing] sc. Aright, and as they ought to know, 1Co_8:2. {See Trapp on "1Co_8:2"} The Gnostics boasted that they knew all things knowable. Irenaeus saith, that they were so besotted with an opinion of themselves, that they accounted their own writings to be gospel. Such self-admirers also were the Illuminates (as they called themselves), the Manichees, the Novatians. And such are now the Jesuits, the sectarians, &c.; and other male feriati fanatici, who lest they should not be reputed to know something unknown to others, profess skill beyond the circumference of possible knowledge.



Doting about questions] Gr. Question sick. As the schoolmen, and our new questionists. But God loveth curristas non quaeristas, saith Luther.



And strifes of words] ëïãïìá÷éáò , frivolous questions and quarrels. The wit of heretics and schismatics will better serve them to devise a thousand shifts to elude the truth than their pride will suffer them once to yield and acknowledge it.