Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Corinthians 15:30
And why stand we in jeopardy every hour?
30. And why stand we in jeopardy every hour? ] Not only those who were daily being baptized for the dead witnessed to the universal belief among Christians in a resurrection, but the lives of daily peril in which St Paul and the other missionaries of the Gospel lived were sufficient evidence that they did not conceive all their hopes to be summed up in this life.
jeopardy ] Pereil, Wiclif. Jeoperty, Tyndal. This word is derived from the French jeu parti, drawn game. It is spelt jupartie by Chaucer, and is mentioned by Ben Jonson as one of three English words only in which the diphthong eo appears. The others are yeoman and people. Leopard was probably a trisyllable in his day. The other derivations, jeu perdu, given by Minsheu in his Ductor in Linguas, published in 1617, and j’ai perdu, seem less agreeable to the meaning of the word, which clearly indicates a position of the utmost danger, in which the chances for death and life are equal. Cf. Shakspeare’s “at the hazard of a die.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And why stand we in jeopardy – Why do we constantly risk our lives, and encounter danger of every kind? This refers particularly to Paul himself and the other apostles, who were constantly exposed to peril by land or by sea in the arduous work of making known the gospel. The argument here is plain. It is, that such efforts would be vain, useless, foolish, unless there was to be a glorious resurrection. They had no other object in encountering these dangers than to make known the truths connected with that glorious future state; and if there were no such future state, it would be wise for them to avoid these dangers. It would not be supposed that we would encounter these perils constantly, unless we were sustained with the hope of the resurrection, and unless we had evidence which convinced our own minds that there would be such a resurrection.
Every hour – Constantly; compare 2Co 11:26. So numerous were their dangers, that they might be said to occur every hour. This was particularly the case in the instance to which he refers in Ephesus, 1Co 15:32.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
1Co 15:30-34
And why stand we in Jeopardy every hour?
The hourly jeopardy: the daily death
We have now reached the second of St. Pauls argumenta ad hominem. The first is the argument for the resurrection from the baptism of the dead. The second is the argument which he derives from his perils and sufferings. Admit that his hope would not make him ashamed, and his career was noble and heroic: deny it, and his career was a senseless bravado. Good trees do not spring from evil roots. Devotion to truth, a charity capable of all sacrifices–these are qualities which do not grow out of a lie, or faith in a lie. That cannot be a lie which made St. Paul so true and great a man. St. Paul begins by asking, If the dead rise not, why stand we in jeopardy every hour? and he affirms, I die daily (1Co 15:30-31). We know what his life was like.
I. The apostles life was a daily death, an hourly jeopardy.
1. Elsewhere, he furnishes us with a more detailed description, and thus supplies us with the best commentary on these words (2Co 11:23-28.) But mark how he says it (1Co 15:31). Instead of I protest, read, I swear; for St. Paul here uses a common Greek form of oath. He frequently employs the most solemn adjurations. Christs Verily, verily, is an oath. Nay, the Almighty Himself is represented as swearing by Himself (Heb 6:16-18; Gen 22:16-18). But let us also note by what Paul swears–by my boast of you which I have in Christ Jesus. The Corinthians were the seal of his apostleship. His very oath, therefore, must have touched their hearts, and have predisposed them to a cordial acceptance of that which he was about to advance. It is, indeed, by these delicate touches of a most tender and loving nature, that St. Paul declares himself to us and constrains us to love and admire him.
2. The apostle cites one special instance of the jeopardy in which he always stood (1Co 15:22). If we assume that St. Paul did on one occasion fight with beasts in the Ephesian stadium, his argument is plain. It means that here again he was a mere idiot to incur deadly peril, if he were teaching a lie. But this is improbable. Paul was a Roman citizen, and could not therefore be legally condemned to the arena, he could very hardly have escaped from it with his life. In the Acts, moreover, there is no hint of any such conflict; nor does the apostle ever refer to one in any catalogue of his dangers. On all these grounds we conclude that he is here speaking metaphorically, viz., that he had to encounter men as brutish and fierce as wild beasts. Such figures of speech are common in all ages and lands. Heraclitus expressly calls the Ephesians beasts, using the very word which St. Paul employs. And no one who reads Act 19:1-41 will deny the propriety of the epithet. The multitude rushed into the theatre like a herd of bulls in wild stampede, and, like bulls, bellowed some one thing, and some another: and then, like beasts irritated by a red rag, as soon as they heard that Alexander was a Jew, went mad with rage, more like beasts that want discourse of reason than rational men. As St. Paul listened to their din, the epithet of Heraclitus may have occurred to him and have fixed itself on his memory. And if his letters to the Corinthians were written after the tumult at Ephesus, he may here allude to that confused and terrible scene. In Ephesus, as elsewhere, he risked all, because he believed in Christ as the resurrection and the life (cf. 2Co 1:8-10)
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II. To run such a risk daily and hourly, St. Paul affirms to be impossible to men who did not believe a future life (verse 32).
1. Those who believe that dead men are not raised have as their motto, Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die, which the apostle cites from (Isa 22:13). Yet it is curious to note that at Anchiale in Cilicia (the apostle being of Tarsus in Cilicia) there was a statue with this inscription: Sardanapalus, the son of Anacyndraxes (Sennacherib), built Anchiale and Tarsus in one day. Stranger, eat, drink, and play, for all the rest is not worth this–this being a fillip which the fingers of the statue were in the act of giving. In the prophet it has a special historical reference. Jerusalem was besieged by the Babylonians. The slain lay unburied in its streets. Dearth preyed on the living. By all these calamites God was calling His people to repentance. Instead of responding and waxing desperate with despair, they gave themselves to reckless mirth and revelry, crying, Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. It is this outcry of desperate ghastly mirth–which has been heard in Athens, in Florence, in London, in Paris, as well as in Jerusalem–which St. Paul quotes, which he puts into the mouth of those who deny a resurrection. To them, human life is a mere siege. The hosts of death are encamped against it. The fatal assault may be delivered at any moment. Why should they restrain their appetites? Why deny themselves to-day for a to-morrow that may never dawn? Why desire a morrow which brings no hope with it? Better eat and drink, and snatch what little pleasure may be had! (cf. Wis 2:1-9)
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2. This was the tone taken in the apostles time by the degenerate Epicurean school. It was the prevalent tone of the empire. In Corinth the ghastly revel was at its height.
3. Hence it is that St. Paul, when writing to the Corinthians, lays such emphasis on the resurrection. If he can help it, he will not so much as have them listen to those who jest about the future life, or deny it, or urge them to riot and excess because they must soon perish. They may think there can be no great harm in hearing what these scufflers have to say. There is harm in it, replies St. Paul. One of your own poets long since said, Vile speeches honest customs do corrupt. And if you listen to the Epicurean speeches which are rife about you, your habits of thought and life will degenerate. And we have not outgrown the need of this proverb. I have known men listen complacently to jests against good morals or religious truths, although they themselves condemn irreligion and immorality Their excuse is that it is only a jest, that words break no bones, that a little freedom of speech does no harm. The wise Greek poet was not of their mind; nor was the holy apostle.
4. From the words with which St. Paul closes this paragraph (verse 34) there is reason to fear that the good Christian customs of some of the Corinthians had suffered from the vile speeches of the heathen. Wake up from your orgies, he exclaims. Their only hope lay in rousing themselves to righteousness. They would come to the knowledge of God as they set themselves to do His will. They would learn that there was a resurrection unto life as they ordered their present life wisely, holily, and in the fear of God. Conclusion: Of the many points of interest incidentally suggested by these verses, none, perhaps, is more pertinent to the present time than St. Pauls use of the Greek poets; for there are still good people who object to the introduction of what they call secular topics into religious discussions or exhortations, and object to a classical curriculum for students destined for the Christian ministry, and, therefore, it may be well to ask them to consider the example of St. Paul. Here, if he quotes from a Hebrew prophet, he also quotes from a Greek poet; and it would be hard to deny that the same spirit which moved him to cite Isaiah also moved him to cite Menander (see also his quotation from Aratus and Kleanthes in Act 17:28, and from Epimenides in Tit 2:12). The probability is, that he had studied the Greek poets only less earnestly than the Hebrew prophets. His use of them sanctions our use of them. There is also abundant proof that the apostle was as familiar with the Greek philosophy as with Greek poetry: we cannot so much as gather his meaning in many parts of his Epistles to the Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians, etc., except as we acquaint ourselves with the themes and terms of Hellenic speculation. This is a sufficient proof that secular learning is lawful and desirable in those who handle the things of the Spirit; that this, like all other gifts or accomplishments, may be and ought to be devoted to the service of God and of His Christ. (S. Cox, D.D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 30. And why stand we in jeopardy every hour?] Is there any reason why we should voluntarily submit to so many sufferings, and every hour be in danger of losing our lives, if the dead rise not? On the conviction of the possibility and certainty of the resurrection, we are thus baptized for the dead. We have counted the cost, despise sufferings, and exult at the prospect of death, because we know we shall have a resurrection unto eternal life.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
We are the veriest fools in nature, if there be no resurrection of believers unto life; for it is in the firm belief and hopes of that, that we are in danger of our lives, and all that we have, every hour of our lives.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
30. weapostles (1Co 15:9;1Co 4:9). A gradation from thosewho could only for a little time enjoy this life (that is, thosebaptized at the point of death), to us, who could enjoy itlonger, if we had not renounced the world for Christ [BENGEL].
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And why stand we in jeopardy every hour?] Not only they that have suffered martyrdom for the faith of Christ, and for this article of it, have acted very injudiciously and indiscreetly; but we, also, who are on the spot, whether ministers or private Christians, must be highly blameworthy, who continually expose ourselves to dangers, and are for Christ’s sake killed all the day long, are every moment liable to innumerable injuries, tortures and death; who in his senses would act such a part, if there is no resurrection of the dead? such, as they must be of all men the most miserable, so of all men the most stupid.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Why do we also stand in jeopardy every hour? ( ?). We also as well as those who receive baptism which symbolizes death. Old verb from (peril, danger), in N.T. only here and Lu 8:23. Paul’s Epistles and Acts (especially chapter Ac 19) throw light on Paul’s argument. He was never out of danger from Damascus to the last visit to Rome. There are perils in Ephesus of which we do not know (2Co 1:8f.) whatever may be true as to an Ephesian imprisonment. G. S. Duncan (St. Paul’s Ephesian Ministry, 1930) even argues for several imprisonments in Ephesus. The accusative of time ( ) naturally means all through every hour (extension).
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
1) “And why stand we in jeopardy,” (ti kai hemeis kinduneuomen) “Why-also do we even stand in danger?” If there is no resurrection? Why jeopardize our jobs, our lives, and our reputations as a minority among the heathen, if there is no resurrection? “Furnish me the answers,” Paul chided, 2Co 4:10.
2) “Every hour?” (pasan horan) “Each and every hour?” In no contextual or subject matter sense may this passage be rightly interpreted to refer to a living person’s being baptized for the vicarious physical benefit of any person who has already died. Baptism was never procurative of pardon from sins for any person, but symbolical, Rom 14:11-12; Eph 2:8-9.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
30. Why are we also? “If our resurrection and ultimate felicity are in this world, why do we of our own accord abandon it, and voluntarily encounter death?” The argument might also be unfolded in this manner: “To no purpose would we stand in peril every hour, if we did not look for a better life, after death has been passed through.” He speaks, however, of voluntary dangers, to which believers expose their lives for the purpose of confessing Christ. “This magnanimity of soul, I say, in despising death, would be ascribed to rashness rather than firmness, if the saints perished at death, for it is a diabolical madness to purchase by death an immortal fame. ” (74)
(74) “ Quand quelques fois les mondaines s’exposent a la mort seulement pour acquerir vn bruit immortel;” — “When worldly persons in some cases expose themselves to death, merely to acquire an immortal fame.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(30) And why stand we in jeopardy every hour?This is the same kind of argument now applied to the Apostles themselves. Their conduct also would be illogical if they did not believe in a resurrection. Notice the strong contrast between them, in the previous verse, and we in this verse.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
4 . This accords with the phrase the dead; the baptism being, not for a dead person, or some dead persons, but for the universal dead.
30. We The apostles, as the I of the next verse specifies the apostle himself. From their sponsorship for the dead in baptism he passes to the baptism of suffering and blood which the apostles underwent in behalf of the same cause.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘Why do we (emphatic) also stand in jeopardy every hour? I swear by that glorifying in you, brothers, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. If after the manner of men I fought with beasts at Ephesus, what does it profit me? If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.’
His second argument (or continuation of the first) is based on the fact that being ready to suffer and die for the Gospel is folly if the view of these particular Corinthians is right. If the spirit already has its place in the spirit world, and the body is not to be raised, but to be cast off, why bother about physical life at all. Why not just enjoy it while waiting for the body to fall away?
But his own behaviour and that of his fellow-teachers is in contrast with this. Why do they gladly suffer as they do? It is because of their concern for people as people, and because of their belief in the importance of the body and its purity, because of their belief in the resurrection of the dead, and of their own resurrection, that he and his companions are prepared to face death daily, yes even hourly, as they are doing.
‘I swear by that glorifying in you, brothers, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.’ Paul rejoiced and gloried in the fact that he had founded the church at Corinth, as they well knew, and he now uses this recognised fact as a form of oath to stress the dangers he faced at Ephesus. He swore by that most precious thing that things were such that he faced death daily.
His was not a life of ease. ‘Fighting with beasts at Ephesus’ almost certainly indicates the savagery he has had to face in Ephesus from men who opposed the Gospel. So it is clear that during his time in Ephesus his life was constantly in danger. And yet he continued boldly preaching the Gospel, because he was confident that should he die he would finally experience the resurrection of the body. Thus he cared not what they did to his body. And he was concerned that others too might enjoy a similar resurrection.
‘If after the manner of men — .’ If he simply faced mortal danger for the same things and for the same reasons for which men would do it, it would be no gain to him at all. In fact it would be folly in his view to face daily the possibility of death for such reasons. To him it was only belief in the resurrection of the dead that justified it. But if these Corinthians were right what he was doing was folly.
‘If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.’ Indeed, he says, if there is no resurrection of the body why not just enjoy life to excess, for then the Gospel has nothing about it that is worth sacrificing for. If the body is simply bound for the grave why not then reflect the same hopeless and frivolous attitude as was reflected in the besieged men of Judah in Jerusalem at the time of Sennacherib (Isa 22:13)?
No, the whole behaviour of he and his fellow-teachers was proof of the resurrection of the body. They considered that the behaviour of the body was important because that had been set apart for Christ. (This argument might not have carried much weight with the die-hards, but Paul has in mind those who are still open to considering all the facts, and who still favoured him and his ministry).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
1Co 15:30 . How preposterously we also are acting in that supposed case!
] does not, as some fancy, determine the meaning of the preceding . to be that of a baptism of suffering, but it adds a new subject , whose conduct would likewise be aimles.
] I and my compeers , we apostolic preachers of the gospel, we apostles and our companions. Paul then, in 1Co 15:31 f., adduces himself, his own fortunes , in an individualizing way as a proof. The argument is, indeed, only for the continuance of the spirit (comp. Cicero, Tusc. i. 15); but this, when hoped for as blessedness , has with Paul the resurrection as its necessary condition.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
30 And why stand we in jeopardy every hour?
Ver. 30. In jeopardy every hour ] Carrying our lives in our hands, as both the Hebrews and Greeks phrase it, . (Athenseus.)
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
30 .] Not only the practice of those just spoken of, but his own, and that of those like him, who lived a life of perpetual exposure to death, were absurd, if there be no resurrection . Observe that the argument here applies equally to the future existence of the soul ; and so Cicero uses it, Tusc. Qust i. 15: “Nescio quomodo in-hret in mentibus quasi seculorum quoddam augurium futurorum quo quidem demto, quis tam esset amens, qui semper in laboribus et periculis viveret?”
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
stand . . . in jeopardy. See Act 19:27.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
30.] Not only the practice of those just spoken of, but his own, and that of those like him, who lived a life of perpetual exposure to death, were absurd, if there be no resurrection. Observe that the argument here applies equally to the future existence of the soul; and so Cicero uses it, Tusc. Qust i. 15: Nescio quomodo in-hret in mentibus quasi seculorum quoddam augurium futurorum quo quidem demto, quis tam esset amens, qui semper in laboribus et periculis viveret?
Fuente: The Greek Testament
1Co 15:30. , we) apostles, 1Co 4:9.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
1Co 15:30
1Co 15:30
why do we also stand in jeopardy every hour?-It was in view of this condition after death that made Paul stand in jeopardy of life every hour. [He had no other object in encountering so many dangers than to make known the gospel which looked forward to the glorious future state; but if there is no resurrection, and therefore no life beyond death, his exposure of himself to so great danger in proclaiming it was infinite folly. For he thus risked at the same moment both the present life and the life to come. The best comment on this passage is found in 2Co 11:23-28.]
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
1Co 15:31, Rom 8:36-39, 2Co 4:7-12, 2Co 6:9, 2Co 11:23-27, Gal 5:11
Reciprocal: 1Sa 20:3 – but a step 2Sa 23:17 – jeopardy 1Ch 11:19 – in jeopardy Psa 44:22 – killed Luk 9:23 – daily Act 15:26 – hazarded 1Co 4:9 – I Phi 1:30 – the same
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1Co 15:30. Stand in jeopardy means to be in danger of death from the enemies of Christ. All Christians and especially the apostles were constantly being persecuted (verse 19), some of them even unto death. How foolish, then, to cling to a profession that threatens one with death if there is to be no resurrection.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
1Co 15:30. Why do we also (we preachers) stand in jeopardy every hour? If their conduct, supposing there is no resurrection, is folly, are we preachers, in hourly peril of our lives, any wiser?
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Our apostle is still arguing for the belief of the resurrection of the dead, and seems to speak here after this manner: what folly would it be in us Christians, to choose a religion that exposes us continually to death and danger? Why should we run the hazard of the loss of estate, liberty, and life itself, if there be no resurrection in order to a retribution, when our courage and constancy for Christ and his holy religion shall be acknowledged and rewarded?
Why stand we in jeopardy every hour? Intimating, that it would be the greatest folly and madness to suffer the worst of evils for the sake of Christianity, if all our hopes perish in the grave.
He adds farther, That as to himself he died daily; that is, was continually exposed to death, in danger of it, in expectation of it, and in a preparation for it; which he would never have been, if he had not an expectation of a glorious resurrection, when all his sufferings and services should be rewarded.
And to confirm the truth of what he said, he binds with a solemn protestation, I protest by your rejoicing, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily; that is, either I protest by all the joy which I have in your conversion to Christianity, and by all that rejoicing which is found with me for the success of my ministry among you: or else, I protest by all that rejoicing which I have in common with you and all Christians under the heaviest sufferings for the sake of Christ Jesus our Lord, that I live continually a dying life, perpetually in expectation of death, and preparation for it.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Vv. 30, 31. And why stand we also in jeopardy every hour? 31. I protest, brethren, by that glorying in you, which I have in Christ our Lord, I die daily.
The transition from the bloody death of the martyrs (1Co 15:29) to the daily life of the apostles, which is a constant menace of martyrdom (1Co 15:30), is easily understood. The force of the , also, which, in the other explanations, always presents some difficulty, is perfectly simple. The we includes Paul, Silas, Timothy, who laboured together at Corinth; then the other apostles, who live like Paul in perpetual danger of death. This 1Co 15:30 reminds us of the passages 1Co 4:9; 2Co 4:10-11; 2Co 11:23-27; Rom 8:35-36.
Vv. 31. Comp. Rom 8:36 : For thy sake are we killed all the day. There is no day nor hour of the day when they may not expect to be seized and brought to execution.
The classical phrase with an accusative of person or thing, as an affirmation on oath, occurs nowhere else in the New Testament, yet Paul might have had the opportunity of using it 2Co 1:23. The reading (our), which signifies: the cause of glorying which we may have in you, is condemned not only by the authority of the documents, but by the two verbs in the singular, between which this adjective would stand. According to the reading , your, the subject is still the ground of glorying which Paul finds in them: the cause of glorying you are to me by your faith. What labours had not this work cost him! What dangers had he not had to run to accomplish it! The last words: in Christ our Lord, soften what might be too self-exalting in these expressions. If all these successes have been gained by him, it is only because of his communion with Christ.
The apostle finally takes from his present stay at Ephesus an example of that daily death in the midst of which he passes his life.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
why do we also stand in jeopardy every hour?
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
DAILY DYING
30. Why are we in jeopardy every hour?
31. I die daily, by your rejoicing which we have in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
Verse 30
Jeopardy every hour; in such constant exposure to suffering.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
15:30 {16} And why stand we in jeopardy every hour?
(16) The sixth argument: unless there is a resurrection of the dead, why should the apostles so daily cast themselves into danger of so many deaths?
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
If there is no resurrection, why did Paul endure so many hardships and dangers in his ministry? The apostle’s sacrifices do not prove there will be a resurrection, but they do show that he believed there would be one. He willingly faced death daily because he believed God would raise him and that his resurrected body would continue beyond the grave.