Chapter Five

¹ Chapter Five. It is actually reported that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not even named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife. He makes the charge common to all, that they may not be careless as though the offense were another’s, but may be zealous to set this right as a common reproach. And he did not say, It is dared, but, “It is actually reported.” But if even the report of it is forbidden, how much more the daring of it? And further, “among you,” who have been counted worthy of the spiritual mysteries. And, heightening the charge, he says, Such as not even among the Gentiles. And he did not say, It is done, but, “It is not even named, that one should have his father’s wife.” He did not say, A stepmother, but, “His father’s wife,” so as to strike the more opportunely by the mention of the father. And he used the more decorous word, “have,” being ashamed of the name of fornication.

² And you are puffed up. Over the teaching that came from that man; for he was wise. And see his wisdom: nowhere does he deem that man worthy of a word, as dishonored, and not even worthy to be brought into the midst; but with the others he converses as concerning a common charge.

³ And have you not rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from your midst? You ought, he says, to have mourned, because the calumny went forth into the common reproach of the Church; you ought to have prayed and wept, as over a sickness and a plague. “That he might be taken away from among you”—that is, cut off as a common harm. And not even here does he make mention of his name, but said, “He who has done this deed.”

⁴ For I indeed, as absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged, as though present. See his indignation. He does not even allow them to await his coming, nor to wait for him, and then to bind the man, but he hastens to lay hold of him as a plague, before it be spread into the whole body of the Church. “But present in spirit,” he said, urging them to the sentence, and striking fear into them, as one who knew the things that would there be judged, and would not be ignorant—through the Spirit, that is, through the gift of discernment—of whatever they should do; and saying also that “I have already judged, as though present,” he does not allow them to think anything else. For I, he says, have brought forth the sentence, and nothing else must be done.

⁵ Him who has so wrought this thing, when you are gathered together in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and my spirit. Lest he should seem self-willed, he then takes them also as partakers. “For when you are gathered together,” he says, “in the name of Christ”—that is, That the gathering may take place not according to human partiality, but according to God; that Christ himself may gather you, for whose sake also you come together. And he set over them his own spirit also, that they might not deem the man worthy of pardon, but might judge rightly, as though he too were present.

⁶ With the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver such a one to Satan; that is, to give authority; to hand him over to the devil; or because, Together with you also, he casts the vote against him. And well did he not say, To give him up, but, “To deliver,” opening to him a little the doors of repentance. And again he does not make mention of the name, but says, “Such a one.”

⁷ To the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. That is, that he may waste him away in sickness. For since the desires come from bodily luxury, he wills that the body be chastised, that the spirit—that is, the soul—may be saved; not because this alone is saved, but because, as a thing agreed upon, when this is saved, the body too shall be saved. But some say that “spirit” means the gift of grace, that it may be kept safe for him and not depart, as from an impious man; and this belongs rather to one caring for him than punishing him. And well did he make mention of that day, that those men also, being afraid, might apply the cure, and that he too might likewise receive it. And he sets a limit for the devil, just as also in the case of Job, to lay hold of the body, but not also of the soul.

⁸ Your boasting is not good. He hints that they themselves did not allow him to repent, boasting over him. For this man too was one of the wise among them.

⁹ Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? I care, he says, for you also, not for him alone. For the evil, if neglected, can corrupt the rest of the body of the Church also. For just as the leaven, being little, leavens the whole lump and changes it to itself, so also the sin of this man will draw many to itself.

¹⁰ Purge out, therefore, the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, as you are unleavened. That is, Cast out this fornicator, or rather others also who are evil. For by “old leaven” he means all wickedness. And he did not say, Cleanse, but, “Purge out”—that is, Cleanse with exactness, that you may be a new lump and unmingled with wickedness. “As you are,” instead of, As it befits you to be, without leaven—that is, without the old wickedness, which is sour and biting by its admixture.

¹¹ For our Passover, Christ, was sacrificed for us. Since he had made mention of unleavened bread, and these were eaten at the Passover, having allegorized what the unleavened things are—namely, the disposition unmingled with wickedness—he now allegorizes the Passover also, and says that Christ is our Passover, sacrificed for us. We ought, then, to procure the unleavened things—that is, purity from all wickedness.

¹² So then let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness. He shows that all time is a season of feast for Christians, on account of the surpassing greatness of the good things given to them. For on this account the Son of God became man, and was sacrificed, that he might make you keep feast—not with the leaven of the old Adam, nor in a life full of malice, or rather, what is worse, of wickedness. For evil is everyone who does evil; but wicked is he who does it also with a most profound and deceitful mind.

¹³ But with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. That is, in a sincere—that is, pure—life, in contradistinction to malice; and a true—that is, unfeigned, guileless—life, in contradistinction to wickedness. Or you may understand “truth” in contradistinction to the old types, which were not truth. For he wishes the Christian to be superior even to the things in the Old Covenant that were in types. Or by “sincerity” understand the purity that comes through action, and by “truth,” contemplation.

¹⁴ I wrote to you in the Epistle not to mingle with fornicators. In what Epistle? In this very one. For since he had said above, “Purge out the old leaven,” hinting, as has been shown, at the fornicator—through which was signified the not mingling with fornicators—perhaps they might have supposed that one must separate from all fornicators, even those among the Greeks. He therefore explains concerning what sort he gave the charge.

¹⁵ And not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or the covetous, or the rapacious, or idolaters; since then you would need to go out of the world. The word “altogether” he has set down as concerning a thing agreed upon. And the construction of the saying is this: And I did not altogether forbid mingling with the fornicators of this world—that is, those of the Greeks; since you would have to seek another inhabited world. For how is it possible, in the same city, when the Greeks are more numerous, not to mingle with such men?

¹⁶ But now I have written to you not to mingle, if any man called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or rapacious; with such a one not even to eat. Do you see that there was not one fornicator only, but others also, and in various wickednesses? And how, being a brother, can he be an idolater? Just as happened once in the case of the Samaritans, who were half-religious; so also among these, some were attached to the idols in some measure. And at the same time he lays beforehand the foundation of the discourse concerning those who eat things offered to idols. And well did he say, “Called a brother.” For he has only the name of a brother, but is not so in truth, but is like one liable to the things enumerated. And the phrase “or a fornicator” can be understood both as a disjunctive conjunction, like the things that follow; and it can also be understood as a verb, instead of, If any man called a brother be—that is, exist as—a fornicator, and the rest, with such a one not even to eat, that, knowing himself to be an abomination on account of his wickedness, he may abstain from it.

¹⁷ For what have I to do with judging those outside? By “those outside” he names the Greeks; and by “those within,” the Christians. I have no concern, he says, with those outside; for this very thing—they are outside my laws. It is superfluous, therefore, to set the ordinances of God before those outside the fold of Christ; for whatever the law says, it says to those within the law.

¹⁸ Do you not judge those within? But those outside, God judges. Some place a stop at the “not”; then, from another beginning, they read without a question: “Those within you judge.” For having said above, “What have I to do with judging those outside?” he added “not,” instead of, It is not for me to judge them. But others read it conjointly and as a question: “Do you not judge those within?”—instead of, Ought you not to judge the Christians? But those outside, God, the more terrible judge, will take in hand. So that, if those within are judged among you, they will escape the more terrible judgment of God.

¹⁹ And you shall put away the wicked man from among yourselves. He made mention of a saying lying in the Old Testament, that he might show that even from of old it seemed good to the Lawgiver that the wicked should be cut off. And the phrase “from among yourselves” shows that the putting away of the wicked is rather for their own benefit.