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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - 1 Corinthians 9:27 - 9:27
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
27. ὑπωπιάζω. Literally, I strike under the eye, or I beat black and blue. So the ancient Latin version of Irenaeus renders it Corpus meum lividum facio. The Vulgate, less forcibly, castigo. Tyndale, tame. R.V. buffet. The same word is used in Luk 18:5 of the effect of the repeated complaints of the poor widow. Cf. Shakespeare, King John, Acts 2. sc. 1, ‘Bethumped with words.’ The boxers were armed with the cestus.
δουλαγωγῶ. Literally, lead it into slavery. The body was to be the absolute property of the spirit, to obey its directions implicitly, as a slave those of its master. Rom 6:19. By a series of violent blows on the face, as it were, it was to be taught to submit itself to the dictates of its superior.
ἀδόκιμος. One rejected after trial. Except in Heb 6:8, this word is everywhere else translated reprobate in the A.V., and so here in the Vulgate reprobus. Wiclif, repreuable. No strength of religious conviction, we are here warned, can supply the place of that continuous effort necessary to ‘make our calling and election sure.’ Some have regarded the word κηρύξας here as having a reference to the herald who proclaimed the victor in the games, or announced the conditions of the contest. Dean Stanley reminds us that the victor sometimes announced his own success, and that Nero did so (cf. Suetonius, Nero, c. 24) a short time after this Epistle was written. But this somewhat misses the point of the Apostle’s meaning, which, if it is to be regarded as keeping up the metaphor derived from the games (though this is by no means certain), is, that after having, as herald, proclaimed the victory of others, he himself contends and is worsted, or after having announced the conditions to others, is convicted of having failed to observe them himself.