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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - 1 Corinthians 10:17 - 10:17
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17. ὅτι εἷς ἄρτος, ἓν σῶμα οἱ πολλοί ἐσμεν. Either, with R.V., seeing that we, who are many, are one bread, one body, or, because there is one loaf, we, the many, are one body, i.e. the loaf, in its oneness, is the type of the One Christ, and of His Body it is also the communion or joint participation. ‘As one loaf is made up of many grains, and one body is composed of many members, so the Church of Christ is joined together of many faithful ones, united in the bonds of charity.’ Augustine. So Chrysostom and Theodoret, and our English bishops Andrewes and Hall. Cf. ch. 1Co 12:12; Gal 3:28; Eph 4:4; Col 3:15. See next note.
οἱ γὰρ πάντες ἐκ τοῦ ἑνὸς ἄρτου μετέχομεν. For we all partake from the one loaf. As the one loaf was partaken of by the whole community, and its substance passed into each of them, and became part of themselves, so with that spiritual reality of which the outward ordinance was a type. All believers partook of the Body of Christ and were knit together into one body in It. Calvin reminds us that here St Paul is not dealing so much with our love towards and fellowship with one another, as with our spiritual union with Christ, in order to draw the inference that it is an unendurable sacrilege for Christians to be polluted by communion with idols.