Commentary on the Epistles to the Corinthians John Calvin
Commentary on the Corinthians
Christ with unwashed hands, (Mark 7:2,) 707 nay more, as if it were a thing of nought, they consider not how great is the value of it. 708 They will therefore pay the penalty of so dreadful a profanation." Let my readers keep in mind what I stated a little ago, that the body 709 is presented to them, though their unworthiness deprives them of a participation in it.
1 Corinthians 11:30-34
1 Corinthians 11:30-34 30. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. 30. Propterea inter vos infirmi sunt multi, et aegroti, et dormiunt multi. 31. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. 31. Si enim ipsi nos iudicassemus, non iudicaremur. 32. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.
32. Porro quum iudicamur, a Domino corripimur, ne cum hoc mundo damnemur.
33. Wherefore, my brethren, when ye come together to eat, tarry one for another.
33. Itaque, fratres mei, dum convenitis ad edendum, alii alios ex spectate. 34. And if any man hunger, let him eat at home; that ye come not together unto condemnation. And the rest will I set in order when I come.
34. Si autem quispiam esurit, domi edat, ne in iudicium edatis; caetera autem, quum venero, disponam.
30. For this cause, etc. After having treated in a general way of unworthy eating, and of the kind of punishment that awaits those who pollute this sacrament, he now instructs the Corinthians as to the chastisement which they were at that time enduring. It is not known whether a pestilence was raging there at that time, or whether they were laboring under other kinds of disease. However it may have been as to this, we infer from Paul's words, that the Lord had sent some scourge upon them for their correction. Nor does Paul merely conjecture, that it is on that account that they are punished, but he affirms it as a thing that was perfectly well known by him. He says, then, that many lay sick — that many were kept long in a languishing condition, and that many had died, in consequence of that abuse of the Supper, because they had offended God. By this he intimates, that 707"Ils manient le corps precieux de Christ irreueremment, c'est a dire, sans nettoyer leur conscience;" — "They handle the precious body of Christ irreverently, that is to say, without washing their conscience."
708In the Vat and Alex MSS. and the Copt version, the reading is simply {μη} {διακρίνων} {τὸ} {σῶμα} --- not distinguishing the body; while later copies have {τὸ} {σῶμα} {τοῦ} {Κυρίον} --- the body of the Lord The verb {διακρίνω} is employed by Herodotus in the sense of distinguishing, in the following expression: {διακρίνων} {ουδενα} --- without any distinction of persons (Herod. 3. 39.) It is supposed by some that the word, as employed here, contains an allusion to the distinguishing of meats under the Mosaic law. --- Ed
709"Le corps de Christ;" — "The body of Christ."