--- title: "Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 2: Lamentations to Revelation" author: "Adam Clarke" languages: [en] shelf: "Commentaries" section: 526 of 769 url: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/526/ cite: "Adam Clarke, Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 2: Lamentations to Revelation, section 526. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/526/" --- # Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 2: Lamentations to Revelation *Adam Clarke* Clarke's learned notes on the Hebrew and Greek, verse by verse, from Genesis to Revelation: volume 2 of 2. ## 526. 1 Corinthians · 35 of 42 Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/526/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/526/#p-N [¶0] 3. The apostles must be false witnesses who attest this resurrection, [1Cor 15:15]. [¶1] 4. The faith of the Corinthians must be vain who believe it, [1Cor 15:16], [1Cor 15:17]. [¶2] 5. All the believers who have died in the faith of Christ have perished, if Christ be not risen, [1Cor 15:18]. [¶3] 6. Believers in Christ are in a more miserable state than any others, if there be no resurrection, [1Cor 15:19]. [¶4] 7. Those who were baptized in the faith that Christ died for them and rose again, are deceived, [1Cor 15:29]. [¶5] 8. The apostles, and Christians in general, who suffer persecution on the ground that, after suffering awhile here they shall have a glorious resurrection, are acting a foolish and unprofitable part, [1Cor 15:30-32]. ### Verse 1 [¶7] The Gospel which I preached unto you - This Gospel is contained in Christ dying for our sins, being buried, and rising again the third day. See the following verses. ### Verse 2 [¶9] By which also ye are saved - That is, ye are now in a salvable state; and are saved from your Gentilism, and from your former sins. [¶10] If ye keep in memory - Your future salvation, or being brought finally to glory, will now depend on your faithfulness to the grace that ye have received. ### Verse 3 [¶12] For I delivered unto you first of all - Εν προτοις· As the chief things, or matters of the greatest importance; fundamental truths. [¶13] That which I - received - By revelations from God himself, and not from man. [¶14] That Christ died for our sins - The death of Jesus Christ, as a vicarious sacrifice for sin, is εν πρωτοις; among the things that are of chief importance, and is essential to the Gospel scheme of salvation. [¶15] According to the Scriptures - It is not said any where in the Scriptures, in express terms, that Christ should rise on the third day; but it is fully implied in his types, as in the case of Jonah, who came out of the belly of the fish on the third day; but particularly in the case of Isaac, who was a very expressive type of Christ; for, as his being brought to the Mount Moriah, bound and laid on the wood, in order to be sacrificed, pointed out the death of Christ; so his being brought alive on the third day from the mount was a figure of Christ's resurrection. Bishop Pearce and others refer to [Mat 12:40]; [Mat 16:21]; and [Luk 9:22]; "which two Gospels, having been written at the time when Paul wrote this epistle, were properly called by the name of the Sacred Scriptures." It might be so; but I do not know of one proof in the New Testament where its writings, or any part of them, are called the Scriptures. ### Verse 5 [¶17] That he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve - This refers to the journey to Emmaus, [Luk 24:13], [Luk 24:34]; and to what is related [Mar 16:14]. [¶18] Then of the twelve - Instead of δωδεκα, twelve, ενδεκα, eleven, is the reading of D*EFG, Syriac in the margin, some of the Slavonic, Armenian, Vulgate, Itala, and several of the fathers; and this reading is supported by [Mar 16:14]. Perhaps the term twelve is used here merely to point out the society of the apostles, who, though at this time they were only eleven, were still called the twelve, because this was their original number, and a number which was afterward filled up. See [Joh 20:24]. ### Verse 6 [¶20] Above five hundred brethren at once - This was probably in Galilee, where our Lord had many disciples. See [Mat 28:16]. What a remarkable testimony is this to the truth of our Lord's resurrection! Five hundred persons saw him at one time; the greater part of whom were alive when the apostle wrote, and he might have been confronted by many if he had dared to assert a falsity. ### Verse 7 [¶22] After that, he was seen of James - But where, and on what occasion, we are not told; nor indeed do we know which James is intended; James the son of Zebedee, or James the son of Alpheus. But one thing is sufficiently evident, from what is here said, that this James, of whom the apostle speaks, was still alive; for the apostle's manner of speaking justifies this conclusion. [¶23] Then of all the apostles - Including, not only the eleven, but, as some suppose, the seventy-two disciples. ### Verse 8 [¶25] And last of all - of me also - It seems that it was essential to the character of a primitive apostle that he had seen and conversed with Christ; and it is evident, from the history of Saul's conversion, [Act 9:4-7] (note), that Jesus Christ did appear to him; and he pleaded this ever after as a proof of his call to the apostleship. And it does not appear that, after this time, Jesus ever did make any personal discovery of himself to any one. [¶26] As of one born out of due time - The apostle considers himself as coming after the time in which Jesus Christ personally conversed with his disciples; and that, therefore, to see him at all, he must see him in this extraordinary way. Some have entered into a very disgusting detail on the figure used here by the apostle. The words, ὡσπερει τῳ εκτρωματι, signify not merely one born out of due time, but one born before his time; and consequently, not bidding fair for vigor, usefulness, or long life. But it is likely that the apostle had a different meaning; and that he refers to the original institution of the twelve apostles, in the rank of whom he never stood, being appointed not to fill up a place among the twelve, but as an extra and additional apostle. Rosenmuller says that those who were beyond the number of twelve senators were termed abortivi, abortives; and refers to Suetonius in Octavio, cap. 35. I have examined the place, but find no such epithet. According to Suetonius, in that place, they were called orcini - persons who had assumed the senatorial dignity after the death of Julius Caesar, pretending that they had derived that honor from him. ### Verse 9 [¶28] I am the least of the apostles - This was literally true in reference to his being chosen last, and chosen not in the number of the twelve, but as an extra apostle. How much pains do some men take to make the apostle contradict himself, by attempting to show that he was the very greatest of the apostles, though he calls himself the least! Taken as a man and a minister of Christ, he was greater than any of the twelve; taken as an apostle he was less than any of the twelve, because not originally in that body. [¶29] Am not meet to be called an apostle - None of the twelve had ever persecuted Christ, nor withstood his doctrine: Saul of Tarsus had been, before his conversion, a grievous persecutor; and therefore he says, ουκ ειμι ἱκανος, I am not proper to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God, i.e. of Christ, which none of the apostles ever did. ### Verse 10 [¶31] But, by the grace of God I am what I am - God, by his mere grace and good will, has called me to be an apostle, and has denominated me such. [¶32] And his grace, etc. - Nor have I been unfaithful to the Divine call; I used the grace which he gave me; and when my labors, travels, and sufferings are considered, it will be evident that I have labored more abundantly than the whole twelve. This was most literally true. [¶33] Yet not I, but the grace of God - It was not through my own power or wisdom that I performed these things, but through the Divine influence which accompanied me. ### Verse 11 [¶35] Whether it were I or they - All the apostles of Christ agree in the same doctrines; we all preach one and the same thing; and, as we preached, so ye believed; having received from us the true apostolical faith, that Jesus died for our sins, and rose again for our justification; and that his resurrection is the pledge and proof of ours. Whoever teaches contrary to this does not preach the true apostolic doctrine. [¶36] Paul was the last of the primitive apostles. The primitive apostles were those who had seen Christ, and got their call to the apostolate immediately from himself. There were many apostles after this time, but they were all secondary; they had a Divine call, but it was internal, and never accompanied by any vision or external demonstration of that Christ who had been manifested in the flesh. ### Verse 12 [¶38] Now if Christ be preached, etc. - Seeing it is true that we have thus preached Christ, and ye have credited this preaching, how say some among you, who have professed to receive this doctrine from us; that there is no resurrection of the dead, though we have shown that his resurrection is the proof and pledge of ours? That there was some false teacher, or teachers, among them, who was endeavoring to incorporate Mosaic rites and ceremonies with the Christian doctrines, and even to blend Sadduceeism with the whole, appears pretty evident. To confute this mongrel Christian, and overturn his bad doctrine, the apostle writes this chapter. ### Verse 13 [¶40] If there be no resurrection of the dead - As Christ was partaker of the same flesh and blood with us, and he promised to raise mankind from the dead through his resurrection, if the dead rise not then Christ has had no resurrection. There seem to have been some at Corinth who, though they denied the resurrection of the dead, admitted that Christ had risen again: the apostle's argument goes therefore to state that, if Christ was raised from the dead, mankind may be raised; if mankind cannot be raised from the dead, then the body of Christ was never raised. ### Verse 14 [¶42] Then is our preaching vain - Our whole doctrine is useless, nugatory and false. [¶43] And your faith is also vain - Your belief of a false doctrine must necessarily be to you unprofitable.