COMMENTARIES ON THE EPISTLES OF PAUL THE APOSTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS BY JOHN CALVIN TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL LATIN, AND COLLATED WITH THE AUTHOR'S FRENCH VERSION BY THE REV. JOHN PRINGLE VOLUME FIRST CHRISTIAN CLASSICS ETHEREAL LIBRARY GRAND RAPIDS, MI
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Commentary on 1 Corinthians 1-14
TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE The Sixteenth century was distinguished by a large and valuable accession of Expositors of the Sacred Volume. Mosheim reckons up not fewer than fifty-five writers, who, in the course of that century, devoted their labors, to a greater or less extent, to the interpretation or illustration of the inspired writings — a circumstance which at once indicated the progress of the principles of the Reformation, and contributed most materially to their diffusion. Nor were expository treatises, in illustrations of the Sacred Scriptures, simply increased in number; they were marked by a decided improvement in point of intrinsic value. It is to the honor of a large proportion of the Interpreters of that age, that, rejecting the practice so well exposed by Bishop Horsley, of “drawing I know not what mystical meanings, by a certain cabalistic alchemy, from the simplest expressions of holy writ,” they made it their endeavor, in every case, to ascertain the true meaning of the Spirit of God, by a careful examination of the text and context. In unbending integrity of purpose in the investigation of the Inspired Oracles — which must be regarded as one of the primary excellences of an Expositor — John Calvin is sur- passed by none in his own, or indeed in any age. His readers, even where they may not be prepared to adopt his interpretation of a passage, cannot fail to perceive that it is his sincere desire and honest endeavor to ascertain its true meaning. His uprightness of design is more especially observable in connection with passages bearing on controverted points. In such cases the candid reader will discover no disposition to wrest a single expression for the purpose of enlisting it on the side of a particular system of opinion; but, on the contrary, the utmost fairness of interpretation is uniformly apparent. Every one that is acquainted with Calvin’s history, and considers the trying scenes through which he was called to pass, must feel astonished that he should have found leisure to prepare, in addition to all his other writings, Commentaries on nearly the whole of the Sacred Scriptures. That he wrote so much, and more especially as an Expositor, appears to have been chiefly owing to the frequent and urgent solicitations of his intimate and beloved Farel, who “not merely entreated Calvin, but frequently urged him with great vehemence to write one Commentary after another, from a conviction that he possessed the gifts requisite for exposition in a very extraordinary manner, and that, with the blessing of God, his works of this kind would be extensively useful. ‘Being an inconsiderable man myself,’ said he, ‘I am wont to require very much from those that possess the greatest excellence, and often press them hard to labor beyond their strength.’ It was his conviction that every one who had received superior talents was bound to devote them to the advancement of the kingdom of God.” 1
1 Kirch-hoffer’s Life of Farel, pp. 281, 282.
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The Epistles of Paul to the Corinthians form a most important part of the Sacred Writ- ings. Though not so systematic as the Epistle to the Romans, they contain many passages, bearing directly on the fundamentally important doctrines of the Christian system, while they are of the highest utility in connection with Practical Theology. The disorders that had unhappily crept into the Church at Corinth, gave occasion for the Apostle’s handling at greater length than in any of his other Epistles various important points as to doctrine and worship; while the relaxed state of discipline that had begun to prevail among them rendered it necessary to exhibit more fully the principles which ought to regulate the administration of the Christian Church. In this the overruling hand of Him who brings good out of evil is strikingly apparent. While in the selection of the particular places into which the Gospel was first introduced, and in which Christian Churches were first planted, there is a display of Divine sovereignty which it is beyond our power for fathom, this at least is abundantly manifest, that the places selected were not those in which the triumphs of the Gospel were likely to be most easily affected, but quite the reverse. As the skill of the workman appears so much the more strikingly, when the tools employed by him are few and simple, and the materials to be wrought upon are hard and unyielding; so the wonders achieved in the first ages of the Church, through the foolishness of preaching. ( 1 Corinthians 1:21 ) excite so much the more our astonishment, when we take into view the peculiarly formidable obstacles that opposed its progress in the places that were selected as the scenes of its triumphs. Of this the inspired narrative furnished in the Acts of the Apostles presents numerous and striking illustrations; and when we observe the particular Churches to which Paul’s Epistles are addressed — in the order in which they are presented to our view in the New Testament — it might almost seem as if the order of arrangement had been designed for the very purpose of calling our particular attention to the fact that the triumphs of the Gospel had been most signal in those places in which its success might have appeared most unlikely. It is a remarkable circum- stance, and, assuredly, it is not to be looked upon as merely accidental, that the Christian Church to which the first of Paul’s Epistles — in the order in which they stand — is addressed, is one that had been planted, not in some city of secondary importance, but in Rome itself, the metropolis of the then known world; while the second of the Churches to whom Paul’s Epistles are addressed is that of Corinth, a city that was proverbial among Heathens them- selves for its extraordinary profligacy, and consequently the most unlikely place of all to be the scene of the triumphs of a religion that will allow of no compromise with iniquity. When Paul first visited Corinth, appearances were most unpromising; but, having re- ceived special encouragement from his Divine Master, he continued to labor at Corinth for a year and six months, ( Acts 18:11 ;) and such was the success of his labors in that profligate city, that after enumerating some of the worst descriptions of character, he says to the Cor- inthian converts, — “ And such were some of you,” ( 1 Corinthians 6:11 ). While, however,
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the notorious wickedness that prevailed at Corinth was the occasion of illustrating so much the more clearly the power of Christianity in subduing human depravity, that extreme dis- soluteness of manners to which the Corinthian Christians had been addicted previously to their conversion, and which was daily witnessed by them in the unconverted around them, was fitted to exert a most injurious influence; and while the disorders that prevailed in the Corinthians Church after Paul left them, were in part attributable to the insidious efforts of false teachers, there seems every reason to believe that they were, in a very considerable de- gree, owing to the contagion of corrupt manners around them. It is to this that we must trace their preference of the ornaments of speech to the plain unadorned doctrine of the cross — their party jealousies — their vexatious lawsuits — their unseemly fellowship with heathens in their idol-feasts; and their philosophical speculations, leading them to question the possibility of a resurrection from the dead; while the flagrant case of incest, fallen into by one of their number, and connived at by the others, must still more manifestly be ascribed, in part, to the contagion of evil example. Yet even in this we have occasion still farther to mark the overruling hand of God in making evil subservient to good — the disordered state of the Corinthian Church having given occasion for exhortations and reproofs that are fraught with invaluable instruction to the Church of Christ in every successive age. Calvin’s Commentary on the First Epistle to the Corinthians was first published in the year 1546, and his Commentary on the Second Epistle was published in the course of the same year. It was a year that was greatly “unfavorable to Calvin’s repose. He was obliged to cheer the drooping spirits of the Genevese, whom the designs of Charles V. against The Reformed Religion had alarmed. But, besides the cares which the fear of all these evils occa- sioned him, he was deeply afflicted at the state of Geneva, and the general and daring prof- ligacy of its inhabitants.” 2
In the course of the same year (as is stated by Beza) one of the members of the senate, “instigated, it is supposed, by two ministers of the Consistory, both of them given to drunkenness, and not less afraid than others of the rigor of the law, accused Calvin of preaching false doctrine.” It may well appear surprising that in such circumstances he should have found leisure for preparing this valuable portion of his Expository Works. This, however, is not peculiar to this portion of his Commentaries; for the greater part of them were prepared amidst numerous engagements and harassing occurrences. Yet they do not bear the marks of haste, but might seem to have been prepared in quiet retirement. The reader will observe that The Dedication, which is prefixed to the Commentary on the First Epistle to the Corinthians in all the ordinary editions of Calvin’s works, bears date in 1556. It is however stated, at the same time, by Calvin in the close of the Dedication, that the Commentary to which it is prefixed had been originally published by him ten years
2 Mackenzie’s Life of Calvin, p. 63. 4
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previously. It will farther be observed that in the commencement of the Dedication, Calvin alludes to an individual to whom he had originally dedicated the Commentary, but whose name he had been under the painful necessity — contrary to his usual manner — of erasing from his writings. The individual alluded to is James of Burgundy. The original Dedication, which is exceedingly rare, is contained in “Lettres de Calvin a Jaque de Bourgogne,” kindly allowed to the Translator by Mr. Laing, Edinburgh, from the Library of Writers to the Signet. A translation of that Dedication, as well as of the one that was subsequently prefixed by Calvin to this part of his Commentaries, will be found below. The circumstances connected with the case of James of Burgundy, are briefly stated by Bayle in his Dictionary, (Art. Philip of Burgundy,) in the following terms: — “James of Bur- gundy, Lord of Fallaix, grandson, I suppose, of Baldwin, another natural son of Duke Philip, professed the Protestant religion, but being scandalized at the disputes which arose at Geneva between Bolsec and Calvin in the year 1551, he and his wife turned aside from the doctrine of the Reformed. He had carried it fair in the Church several years. Calvin dedicated to him his Commentary on the First Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians, but afterwards he sup- pressed that Dedication, and prefixed another to The Marquis of Vic.” Farther, Bayle, in the Art. Calvin, remarks, when speaking of Beza’s Life of Calvin — “We do not find in the edition of 1564, in 12mo, what I have transcribed from the folio edition of 1565, when I said that the grandson of a bastard of Philip, the good Duke of Burgundy, forsook the Church of Rome.” The editor of “Lettres de Calvin,” states that, after much fruitless search in many quarters for two documents referred to in Calvin’s Letters, viz. the Dedication of Calvin’s Commentary on the First Epistle to the Corinthians, and an Apology for the Masters of Falais, presented to the Emperor Charles the Fifth, and composed by Calvin, he had at length obtained them from one of the librarians of Geneva. The Dedication, he states, had been “transcribed from a copy that is at present at Strasburg.” “These pieces,” he adds, “arrived just in time for being printed in the last sheet of the Letters, to which I have not failed to append them, as being absolutely necessary to render them intelligible. I flatter myself that the public will receive them with delight, as an authentic document, 3 hitherto wanting in the ecclesiastical history of this country. Even those who have neither interest nor inclination for knowing this history to the bottom, will admire the beauty of Calvin’s genius, the insinuating turns of the Dedic- ation, and the liberty and modesty that reign equally in the Apology; and they will agree with me in thinking, that Calvin was no less expert, in the art of pleading, than he had been in the art of preaching.” James of Burgundy was the grandson of Baldwin, a natural son of Philip, Duke of Bur- gundy, whom the Emperor Maximilian, in 1501, put in possession of Falais, a “Manor of
3 “Un monument authentique;” — “An authentic moment.” 5
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Brabant, situated on the borders of the county of Namur, upon the river Mohaine, between the towns of Huy and Henneguy.” He was “elevated to the court of the Emperor Charles the Fifth. He embraced the views of the Protestants at the age of fifteen. He afterwards married Jolande of Brederode, a descendant of the ancient Counts of Holland, and aunt to Henry of Brederode.” “This marriage increased the suspicions that he had conceived as to the religions in which he was brought up, so that he adopted the resolution of leaving his native country, where he reckoned his life no longer safe. His withdrawment led to a law- suit, before the court of Malines, for the confiscation of his lands. During his exile, the Master of Falais changed his abode from time to time, having taken refuge first at Cologne, afterwards at Strasbourg, and at Basle, and, last of all, at Geneva. There is ground to believe that he was a person of merit, upon the testimony of Calvin himself, who, after pronouncing upon him the highest eulogiums in his Dedication to the First Epistle to the Corinthians, carried on a familiar correspondence with him for nearly ten years, and takes pleasure in subscribing himself very frequently his friend unreservedly forever. 4
“It is true that this friendship did not always continue, but, on the contrary, changed into irreconcilable aversion. It may at first view be thought, that the fault was altogether on the side of the Master of Falais, and that Calvin must have had sufficient reasons for carrying matters so far. We must, however, beware of forming a rash judgment. We often see the greatest animosities between the best friends arise out of nothing. Frequently the two parties are equally in the wrong; and in many cases the fault is found to have been on the side of the one that had been least suspected.”... The reader who peruses superficially the statement of Beza, quoted by Bayle, might imagine not merely that the Master of Falais had approved of all that Bolsec had done or said, but also that he entirely abandoned the side of the Prot- estants, and entered again the communion of the Romish Church. He might, therefore, fall into a mistake on all these points. “I do not believe that the Master of Falais ever thought of approving of the conduct of Bolsec, who ventured in a full church to contradict a minister, when preaching the doctrine of predestination. Neither Calvin nor Beza say so. Besides, the Master of Falais protests in his Apology, that he has no sympathy with those that support their religion in a turbulent and seditious manner. Assuredly he must have been a fanatic, to do what Bolsec did on that occasion; but to say that he had done well, he must have been a downright madman. “Nor is there any better proof that the Master of Falais was of Bolsec’s opinion on the subject of predestination. Calvin, Beza, and Castalio himself, (who would not have failed to mention it,) say no such thing. Besides this, the Confession of the Master of Falais, such as he had published in his Apology, is quite in unison with Calvin’s sentiments; and it may be presumed that he had not renounced these views in three years afterwards, while experience
4 “Entier amy a jamais;” — “Thorough friend for ever.” 6
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tells us, that they have once imbibed. What was then, properly, the ground of quarrel between Calvin and the Master of Falais? In my opinion it was this: After Bolsec had been put in prison, on the 16th October 1551, for having contradicted the doctrine of Calvin, and given occasion of offense in the Church, Calvin was disposed to punish him with all possible severity. To accomplish his purpose in accordance with forms, he asked the opinion of the Churches of Switzerland, hinting to them at the same time what he desired from them.” “‘We are desirous,’ says he, ‘to clear our Church from this pestilence in such a way that it will not, on being expelled from it, do injury to the neighboring Churches.’ meaning, plainly enough, that he must either be put to death, or suffered to remain in prison during his whole life.” The Master of Falais was of another mind; whether it was that he was influenced by a regard to his own interest, and that, being sickly, he imagined that his life depended on that of his physician; or whether it was that, from a principle of humanity and Christianity for- bearance, he reckoned that Bolsec’s imprudence did not merit so severe a punishment, he wrote to the clergy of the Cantons, or to his friends in that quarters, and thereby defeated the design of Calvin, who received replies less full and distinct, and much more moderate, than he had expected and desired. Calvin finding himself thwarted by the Master of Falais, got into a passion, broke entirely with him, and roused up against him so many enemies at Geneva, that he was obliged to retire into the district of Vaud. “Judge, now, which of the two was in the right — Calvin or the Master of Falais.” “I do not know what became of the Master of Falais after this time, nor when he died, nor where, nor in what communion. I cannot, however, subscribe to the views of Mr. Bayle, who says that the Master of Falais turned aside from the doctrine of the Reformed, and that he re- nounced the Reformed Church. I am of opinion that Beza, on whose authority Mr. Bayle proceeds, means nothing more than this, that the Master of Falais left the Church of Geneva, on quarreling with Calvin. This does not mean that he renounced the Reformed Church, or abandoned the Protestant party. For it was possible to quarrel with Calvin, to reject his views on predestination and on persecution, and spurn the discipline of the Church of Geneva, and yet, after all, be as good a Protestant, and member of the Reformed Church, as Calvin himself.” From the extracts furnished above form an introductory notice by the editor 5 of the work already referred to, (“Lettres de Calvin a Jaque de Bourgogne,”) it will abundantly appear that the writer is desirous to present as favorable a view of James of Burgundy as the circumstances of the case will at all admit of. His attempt to show that James of Burgundy may have, after all, remained in connection with the Reformed Church, appears to be more ingenious than solid, and seems directly at variance with a statement by Calvin in his second
5 “Avertissement de l’Editeur.” 7
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Dedication to this part of his Commentaries, to this effect, that the individual to whom the former Dedication was addressed “has intentionally made it his object, not merely to with- draw as much as possible from me personally, but also to have no connection with our Church.” 6 This expression naturally conveys the idea that he had not simply left the Church of Geneva, but had withdrawn entirely from the Reformed Church. But however matters may have been as to this, the case, as a whole, was of such a nature as could not fail to be painful in the extreme to the mind of Calvin. In proportion, however, to the pain excited in his mind by this distressing case, must have been the happiness afforded him by an occur- rence of an opposite nature, which took place about the same time. The Church of Geneva, which had suffered from the defection of James of Burgundy, was strengthened by the accession of an Italian nobleman, Galeazus Caracciolus, who, having been led to espouse the Protestant faith, took up his residence at Geneva in the year 1551, with a view to enjoy the society of Calvin, and have opportunity of attending upon his ministry. The particulars of his history, and more especially of his conversion from Popery, are interestingly narrated in a work entitled — “The Italian Convert — Newes From Italy of A Second Moses — The Life of Galeacius Caracciolus, The noble Marquesse of Vico,” etc. London, 1635. This work was written originally in Italian, “by Nicola Balbani, minister of the Italian Church in Geneva. It was translated into Latin by Beza; into French by Minutoli and by Sieur de Lestan; and into English by William Crashaw.” 7
The writer of this work referred to presents, in the dedicatory epistle, the following brief summary of the leading facts of this interesting case: — “I present you with as strange a story as, out of the holy stories, afore it be laid down at large? Thus it is: — Galeacius Caracciolus, son and heir-apparent to Calantonius, Marquesse of Vicum in Naples, bred, borne and brought up in Popery — a courtier to the Emperor Charles the Fifth, nephew to the Pope, Paul the Fourth, being married to the Duke of Nu- cerne’s daughter, and having by her six goodly children, at a sermon of Peter Martyr’s was first untouched, — after reading Scripture, and other good means, was fully converted — labored with his lady, but could not persuade her; therefore, that he might enjoy Christ and serve Him with a good conscience, he left his lands, livings and honors of a Marquesdome, the comforts of his lady and children, the pleasures of Italy, his credit with the Emperor, his kindred with the Pope, and forsaking all for the love of Jesus Christ, came to Geneva, and there lived a poor and mean, yet an honorable and a holy life for forty years; and though his father, his lady, his kinsmen, yea, the Emperor and Pope did all they could to reclaim
6 “Nihil haberet cum Ecclesia nostria commune;” — “De n’avoir rien de commun avec nostre Eglise;” —
Might have nothing in common with our Church.
7 M’Crie’s History of the Reformation in Spain. — Note . 8
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him, yet continued he constant to the end, and lived and died the blessed servant of God, leaving behind him a rare example to all ages.” 8
Caracciolus was born at Naples in January 1517. His father’s name was Calantonius, who was descended from the ancient and noble family of the Caracciolies in the district of Capua, and was elevated by Charles the Fifth to the rank of Vico. His mother was descended from the noble family of the Caraffi, and was sister to Pope Paul the Fourth. His wife, Vic- toria, was daughter to the Duke of Nuceria, one of the principal noblemen of Italy. She brought him a large fortune. He had by her six children — four sons and two daughters. His mind was first influenced in favor of the Protestant religion by repeated conversations held by him with a nobleman nearly related to him, who had, along with various persons of distinction in Italy, been induced to renounce Popery, chiefly through the instrumentality of a Spanish nobleman, who at that time resided at Naples — Joannes Waldesius. The more immediate instrument, however, of his conversion, was the celebrated Peter Martyr Vermil- ius. Caracciolus having from curiousity gone to hear him, was savingly impressed by what he heard; and it is to be noticed as an interesting coincidence, that the means of his conversion was a discourse on a passage in the First Epistle to the Corinthians. “At that time Peter Martyr was in hand with Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians, and as he was showing the weakness and deceitfulness of the judgment of man’s reason in spir- itual things, as likewise the power and efficacy of the Word of God in those men in whom the Lord worketh by His Spirit — amongst other things he used this simile or comparison: If a man, walking in a large place, see afar off men and women dancing together, and hear no sound of instrument, he will judge them mad, or at least foolish; but if he come nearer them, and perceive their order and hear their music, and mark their measures and their courses, he will then be of another mind, and not only take delight in seeing them, but feel a desire in himself to bear them company and dance with them. Even the same (said Martyr) betides many men, who, when they behold in others a sudden and great change of their looks, apparel, behavior, and whole course of life, at the first sight they impute to melancholy, or some other foolish humor; but if they look more narrowly into the matter, and begin to hear and perceive the harmony and sweet consent of God’s Spirit, and His word in them, by the joint power of which two this change was made and wrought, (which afore they counted folly,) then they change their opinion of them, and first of all begin to like them,