Commentary on the Epistles to the Corinthians John Calvin (continued)
Commentary on the Corinthians
6. Haec autem typi nobis fuerunt, ne simus concupiscentes malorum, sicut illi concupiverunt.
7. Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.
7. Neque idololatrae sitis, quemadmodum quidam eorum: sicut scriptum est. (Exodus 32:6.) Sedit populus ad edendum et bibendum, et surrexerunt ad ludendum.
8. Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand.
8. Neque scortemur, quemadmodum et quidam eorum scortati sunt, et ceciderunt uno die viginti tria millia.
9. Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents.
9. Neque tentemus Christum, quemadmodum et quidam eorum tentarunt, et exstincti sunt a serpentibus.
10. Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer.
10. Neque murmuretis, quemadmodum et quidam eorum murmurarant, et perditi ruerunt a vastatore.
11. Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.
11. Haec autem omnia typi contigerunt illis: scripta autem sunt ad nostri admonitionem, in quos fines saeculorum inciderunt.
12. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. 12. Proinde qui se putat stare, videat ne cadat. 6. Now these things were types to us. He warns us in still more explicit terms, that we have to do with the punishment that was inflicted upon them, so that they are a lesson to us, that we may not provoke the anger of God as they did. "God," says he, "in punishing them has set before us, as in a picture, his severity, that, instructed by their example, we may learn to fear." Of the term type I shall speak presently. Only for the present I should wish my readers to know, that it is not without consideration that I have given a different rendering from that of the old translation, 540 and of Erasmus. For they obscure Paul's meaning, or at least they do not bring out with sufficient clearness this idea — that God has in that people presented a picture for our instruction.
That we might not lust after evil things. He now enumerates particular instances, or certain examples, that he may take occasion from this to reprove some vices, as to which it was proper that the Corinthians should be admonished. I am of opinion, that the history that is here referred to is what is recorded in Numbers 11:4, etc., though others refer it to what is recorded in Numbers 26:64. The people, after having been for some time
540The rendering of the Vulgate is — in figura — (in figure.) Wiclif (1380) reads the clause thus: "But these thingis ben don in figure of us." — Ed.