The Bible, Douay Rheims, Book 53: 1 Corinthians
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Unknown >> The Bible, Douay Rheims, Book 53: 1 Corinthians
This eBook was produced by David Widger [widger@cecomet.net]
from etext #1581 prepared by Dennis McCarthy, Atlanta, Georgia
and Tad Book, student, Pontifical North American College, Rome.
THE HOLY BIBLE
Translated from the Latin Vulgate
Diligently Compared with the Hebrew, Greek,
and Other Editions in Divers Languages
THE OLD TESTAMENT
First Published by the English College at Douay
A.D. 1609 & 1610
and
THE NEW TESTAMENT
First Published by the English College at Rheims
A.D. 1582
With Annotations
The Whole Revised and Diligently Compared with
the Latin Vulgate by Bishop Richard Challoner
A.D. 1749-1752
THE FIRST EPISTLE OF ST. PAUL TO THE CORINTHIANS
St. Paul, having planted the faithful in Corinth, where he had preached
a year and a half and converted a great many, went to Ephesus. After
being there three years, he wrote this first Epistle to the Corinthians
and sent it by the same persons, Stephanus, Fortunatus and Achaicus, who
had brought their letter to him. It was written about twenty-four years
after our Lord's Ascension and contains several matters appertaining to
faith and morals and also to ecclesiastical discipline.
1 Corinthians Chapter 1
He reproveth their dissensions about their teachers. The world was to be
saved by preaching of the cross, and not by human wisdom or eloquence.
1:1. Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God,
and Sosthenes a brother,
1:2. To the church of God that is at Corinth, to them that are
sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that invoke
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place of theirs and ours.
1:3. Grace to you and peace, from God our father and from the Lord Jesus
Christ.
1:4. I give thanks to my God always for you, for the grace of God that
is given you in Christ Jesus:
1:5. That in all things you are made rich in him, in all utterance and
in all knowledge;
1:6. As the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you,
1:7. So that nothing is wanting to you in any grace, waiting for the
manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
1:8. Who also will confirm you unto the end without crime, in the days
of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
1:9. God is faithful: by whom you are called unto the fellowship of his
Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
1:10. Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that you all speak the same thing and that there be no schisms among
you: but that you be perfect in the same mind and in the same judgment.
1:11. For it hath been signified unto me, my brethren, of you, by them
that are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you.
1:12. Now this I say, that every one of you saith: I indeed am of Paul;
and I am of Apollo; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ.
1:13. Is Christ divided? Was Paul then crucified for you? Or were you
baptized in the name of Paul?
1:14. I give God thanks, that I baptized none of you but Crispus and
Caius:
1:15. Lest any should say that you were baptized in my name.
1:16. And I baptized also the household of Stephanus. Besides, I know
not whether I baptized any other.
1:17. For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not
in wisdom of speech, lest the cross of Christ should be made void.
1:18. For the word of the cross, to them indeed that perish, is
foolishness: but to them that are saved, that is, to us, it is the power
of God.
1:19. For it is written: I will destroy the wisdom of the wise: and the
prudence of the prudent I will reject.
1:20. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of
this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
1:21. For, seeing that in the wisdom of God, the world, by wisdom, knew
not God, it pleased God, by the foolishness of our preaching, to save
them that believe.
1:22. For both the Jews require signs: and the Greeks seek after wisdom.
1:23. But we preach Christ crucified: unto the Jews indeed a
stumblingblock, and unto the Gentiles foolishness:
1:24. But unto them that are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the
power of God and the wisdom of God.
1:25. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men: and the weakness of
God is stronger than men.
The foolishness, etc... That is to say, what appears foolish to the
world in the ways of God, is indeed most wise; and what appears weak is
indeed above all the strength and comprehension of man.
1:26. For see your vocation, brethren, that there are not many wise
according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble.
1:27. But the foolish things of the world hath God chosen, that he may
confound the wise: and the weak things of the world hath God chosen,
that he may confound the strong.
1:28. And the base things of the world and the things that are
contemptible, hath God chosen: and things that are not, that he might
bring to nought things that are:
1:29. That no flesh should glory in his sight.
1:30. But of him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us
wisdom and justice and sanctification and redemption:
1:31. That, as it is written: He that glorieth may glory in the Lord.
1 Corinthians Chapter 2
His preaching was not in loftiness of words, but in spirit and power.
And the wisdom he taught was not to be understood by the worldly wise or
sensual man, but only by the spiritual man.
2:1. And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not in loftiness of
speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of Christ.
2:2. For I judged not myself to know anything among you, but Jesus
Christ: and him crucified.
2:3. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling.
2:4. And my speech and my preaching was not in the persuasive words of
human wisdom, but in shewing of the Spirit and power:
2:5. That your faith might not stand on the wisdom of men, but on the
power of God.
2:6. Howbeit we speak wisdom among the perfect: yet not the wisdom of
this world, neither of the princes of this world that come to nought.
2:7. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, a wisdom which is
hidden, which God ordained before the world, unto our glory:
2:8. Which none of the princes of this world knew. For if they had known
it, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory.
2:9. But, as it is written: That eye hath not seen, nor ear heard:
neither hath it entered into the heart of man, what things God hath
prepared for them that love him.
2:10. But to us God hath revealed them by his Spirit. For the Spirit
searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
2:11. For what man knoweth the things of a man, but the spirit of a man
that is in him? So the things also that are of God, no man knoweth, but
the Spirit of God.
2:12. Now, we have received not the spirit of this world, but the Spirit
that is of God: that we may know the things that are given us from God.
2:13. Which things also we speak: not in the learned words of human
wisdom, but in the doctrine of the Spirit, comparing spiritual things
with spiritual.
2:14. But the sensual man perceiveth not these things that are of the
Spirit of God. For it is foolishness to him: and he cannot understand,
because it is spiritually examined.
The sensual man--the spiritual man... The sensual man is either he who
is taken up with sensual pleasures, with carnal and worldly affections;
or he who measureth divine mysteries by natural reason, sense, and human
wisdom only. Now such a man has little or no notion of the things of
God. Whereas the spiritual man is he who, in the mysteries of religion,
takes not human sense for his guide: but submits his judgment to the
decisions of the church, which he is commanded to hear and obey. For
Christ hath promised to remain to the end of the world with his church,
and to direct her in all things by the Spirit of truth.
2:15. But the spiritual man judgeth all things: and he himself is judged
of no man.
2:16. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him?
But we have the mind of Christ.
1 Corinthians Chapter 3
They must not contend about their teachers, who are but God's ministers
and accountable to him. Their works shall be tried by fire.
3:1. And I, brethren, could not speak to you as unto spiritual, but as
unto carnal. As unto little ones in Christ.
3:2. I gave you milk to drink, not meat: for you were not able as yet.
But neither indeed are you now able: for you are yet carnal.
3:3. For, whereas there is among you envying and contention, are you not
carnal and walk you not according to man?
3:4. For while one saith: I indeed am of Paul: and another: I am of
Apollo: are you not men? What then is Apollo and what is Paul?
3:5. The ministers of him whom you have believed: and to every one as
the Lord hath given.
3:6. I have planted, Apollo watered: but God gave the increase.
3:7. Therefore, neither he that planteth is any thing, nor he that
watereth: but God that giveth the increase.
3:8. Now he that planteth and he that watereth, are one. And every man
shall receive his own reward, according to his own labour.
3:9. For we are God's coadjutors. You are God's husbandry: you are God's
building.
3:10. According to the grace of God that is given to me, as a wise
architect, I have laid the foundation: and another buildeth thereon. But
let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.
3:11. For other foundation no man can lay, but that which is laid: which
is Christ Jesus.
3:12. Now, if any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious
stones, wood, hay, stubble:
Upon this foundation... The foundation is Christ and his doctrine: or
the true faith in him, working through charity. The building upon this
foundation gold, silver, and precious stones, signifies the more perfect
preaching and practice of the gospel; the wood, hay, and stubble, such
preaching as that of the Corinthian teachers (who affected the pomp of
words and human eloquence) and such practice as is mixed with much
imperfection, and many lesser sins. Now the day of the Lord, and his
fiery trial, (in the particular judgment immediately after death,) shall
make manifest of what sort every man's work has been: of which, during
this life, it is hard to make a judgment. For then the fire of God's
judgment shall try every man's work. And they, whose works, like wood,
hay, and stubble, cannot abide the fire, shall suffer loss; these works
being found to be of no value; yet they themselves, having built upon
the right foundation, (by living and dying in the true faith and in the
state of grace, though with some imperfection,) shall be saved yet so as
by fire; being liable to this punishment, by reason of the wood, hay,
and stubble, which was mixed with their building.
3:13. Every man's work shall be manifest. For the day of the Lord shall
declare it, because it shall be revealed in fire. And the fire shall try
every man's work, of what sort it is.
3:14. If any man's work abide, which he hath built thereupon, he shall
receive a reward.
3:15. If any mans work burn, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall
be saved, yet so as by fire.
3:16. Know you not that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of
God dwelleth in you?
3:17. But if any man violate the temple of God, him shall God destroy.
For the temple of God is holy, which you are.
3:18. Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seem to be wise
in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise.
3:19. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is
written: I will catch the wise in their own craftiness.
3:20. And again: The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they
are vain.
3:21. Let no man therefore glory in men.
3:22. For all things are yours, whether it be Paul or Apollo or Cephas,
or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come.
For all are yours.
3:23. And you are Christ's. And Christ is God's.
1 Corinthians Chapter 4
God's ministers are not to be judged. He reprehends their boasting of
their preachers and describes the treatment the apostles every where met
with.
4:1. Let a man so account of us as of the ministers of Christ and the
dispensers of the mysteries of God.
4:2. Here now it is required among the dispensers that a man be found
faithful.
4:3. But to me it is a very small thing to be judged by you or by man's
day. But neither do I judge my own self.
4:4. For I am not conscious to myself of anything. Yet am I not hereby
justified: but he that judgeth me is the Lord.
4:5. Therefore, judge not before the time: until the Lord come, who both
will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest
the counsels of the hearts. And then shall every man have praise from
God.
4:6. But these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to
myself and to Apollo, for your sakes: that in us you may learn that one
be not puffed up against the other for another, above that which is
written.
4:7. For who distinguisheth thee? Or what hast thou that thou hast not
received, and if thou hast received, why dost thou glory, as if thou
hadst not received it?
4:8. You are now full: you are now become rich: you reign without us;
and I would to God you did reign, that we also might reign with you.
4:9. For I think that God hath set forth us apostles, the last, as it
were men appointed to death. We are made a spectacle to the world and to
angels and to men.
4:10. We are fools for Christs sake, but you are wise in Christ: we are
weak, but you are strong: you are honourable, but we without honour.
4:11. Even unto this hour we both hunger and thirst and are naked and
are buffeted and have no fixed abode.
4:12. And we labour, working with our own hands. We are reviled: and we
bless. We are persecuted: and we suffer it.
4:13. We are blasphemed: and we entreat. We are made as the refuse of
this world, the offscouring of all, even until now.
4:14. I write not these things to confound you: but I admonish you as my
dearest children.
4:15. For if you have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet not many
fathers. For in Christ Jesus, by the gospel, I have begotten you.
4:16. Wherefore, I beseech you, be ye followers of me as I also am of
Christ.
4:17. For this cause have I sent to you Timothy, who is my dearest son
and faithful in the Lord. Who will put you in mind of my ways, which are
in Christ Jesus: as I teach every where in every church.
4:18. As if I would not come to you, so some are puffed up.
4:19. But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord will: and will know,
not the speech of them that are puffed up, but the power.
4:20. For the kingdom of God is not in speech, but in power.
4:21. What will you? Shall I come to you with a rod? Or in charity and
in the spirit of meekness?
1 Corinthians Chapter 5
He excommunicates the incestuous adulterer and admonishes them to purge
out the old leaven.
5:1. It is absolutely heard that there is fornication among you and such
fornication as the like is not among the heathens: that one should have
his father's wife.
5:2. And you are puffed up and have not rather mourned: that he might be
taken away from among you that hath done this thing.
5:3. I indeed, absent in body but present in spirit, have already
judged, as though I were present, him that hath so done,
5:4. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, you being gathered together
and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus:
5:5. To deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh,
that the spirit may be saved in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
5:6. Your glorying is not good. Know you not that a little leaven
corrupteth the whole lump?
5:7. Purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new paste, as you are
unleavened. For Christ our pasch is sacrificed.
5:8. Therefore, let us feast, not with the old leaven, nor with the
leaven of malice and wickedness: but with the unleavened bread of
sincerity and truth.
9. I wrote to you in an epistle not to keep company with fornicators.
5:10. I mean not with the fornicators of this world or with the covetous
or the extortioners or the servers of idols: otherwise you must needs go
out of this world.
5:11. But now I have written to you, not to keep company, if any man
that is named a brother be a fornicator or covetous or a server of idols
or a railer or a drunkard or an extortioner: with such a one, not so
much as to eat.
5:12. For what have I to do to judge them that are without? Do not you
judge them that are within?
5:13. For them that are without, God will judge. Put away the evil one
from among yourselves.
1 Corinthians Chapter 6
He blames them for going to law before unbelievers. Of sins that exclude
from the kingdom of heaven. The evil of fornication.
6:1. Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to be judged
before the unjust: and not before the saints?
6:2. Know you not that the saints shall judge this world? And if the
world shall be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest
matters?
6:3. Know you not that we shall judge angels? How much more things of
this world?
6:4. If therefore you have judgments of things pertaining to this world,
set them to judge who are the most despised in the church.
6:5. I speak to your shame. Is it so that there is not among you any one
wise man that is able to judge between his brethren?
6:6. But brother goeth to law with brother: and that before unbelievers.
6:7. Already indeed there is plainly a fault among you, that you have
law suits one with another. Why do you not rather take wrong? Why do you
not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded?
A fault... Lawsuits can hardly ever be without a fault, on the one side
or the other; and oftentimes on both sides.
6:8. But you do wrong and defraud: and that to your brethren.
6:9. Know you not that the unjust shall not possess the kingdom of God?
Do not err: Neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers:
6:10. Nor the effeminate nor liers with mankind nor thieves nor covetous
nor drunkards nor railers nor extortioners shall possess the kingdom of
God.
6:11. And such some of you were. But you are washed: but you are
sanctified: but you are justified: in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ
and the Spirit of our God.
6:12. All things are lawful to me: but all things are not expedient. All
things are lawful to me: but I will not be brought under the power of
any.
All things are lawful, etc... That is, all indifferent things are indeed
lawful, inasmuch as they are not prohibited; but oftentimes they are not
expedient; as in the case of lawsuits, etc. And much less would it be
expedient to be enslaved by an irregular affection to any thing, how
indifferent soever.
6:13. Meat for the belly and the belly for the meats: but God shall
destroy both it and them. But the body is not for fornication, but for
the Lord: and the Lord for the body.
6:14. Now God hath raised up the Lord and will raise us up also by his
power.
6:15. Know you not that your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I
then take the members of Christ and make them the members of an harlot?
God forbid!
6:16. Or know you not that he who is joined to a harlot is made one
body? For they shall be, saith he, two in one flesh.
6:17. But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.
6:18. Fly fornication. Every sin that a man doth is without the body:
but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.
6:19. Or know you not that your members are the temple of the Holy
Ghost, who is in you, whom you have from God: and you are not your own?
6:20. For you are bought with a great price. Glorify and bear God in
your body.
1 Corinthians Chapter 7
Lessons relating to marriage and celibacy. Virginity is preferable to a
married state.
7:1. Now concerning the things whereof you wrote to me: It is good for a
man not to touch a woman.
7:2. But for fear of fornication, let every man have his own wife: and
let every woman have her own husband.
Have his own wife... That is, keep to his wife, which he hath. His
meaning is not to exhort the unmarried to marry: on the contrary, he
would have them rather continue as they are, (Ver. 7:8.) But he speaks
here to them that are already married; who must not depart from one
another, but live together as they ought to do in the marriage state.
7:3. Let the husband render the debt to his wife: and the wife also in
like manner to the husband.
7:4. The wife hath not power of her own body: but the husband. And in
like manner the husband also hath not power of his own body: but the
wife.
7:5. Defraud not one another, except, perhaps, by consent, for a time,
that you may give yourselves to prayer: and return together again, lest
Satan tempt you for your incontinency.
7:6. But I speak this by indulgence, not by commandment.
By indulgence... That is, by a condescension to your weakness.
7:7. For I would that all men were even as myself. But every one hath
his proper gift from God: one after this manner, and another after that.
7:8. But I say to the unmarried and to the widows: It is good for them
if they so continue, even as I.
7:9. But if they do not contain themselves, let them marry. For it is
better to marry than to be burnt.
If they do not contain, etc... This is spoken of such as are free, and
not of such as, by vow, have given their first faith to God; to whom if
they will use proper means to obtain it, God will never refuse the gift
of continency. Some translators have corrupted this text, by rendering
it, if they cannot contain.
7:10. But to them that are married, not I, but the Lord, commandeth that
the wife depart not from her husband.
7:11. And if she depart, that she remain unmarried or be reconciled to
her husband. And let not the husband put away his wife.
7:12. For to the rest I speak, not the Lord. If any brother hath a wife
that believeth not and she consent to dwell with him: let him not put
her away.
I speak, not the Lord... Viz., by any express commandment, or ordinance.
7:13. And if any woman hath a husband that believeth not and he consent
to dwell with her: let her not put away her husband.
7:14. For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the believing wife:
and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the believing husband.
Otherwise your children should be unclean: but now they are holy.
Is sanctified... The meaning is not, that the faith of the husband or
the wife is of itself sufficient to put the unbelieving party, or their
children, in the state of grace and salvation; but that it is very often
an occasion of their sanctification, by bringing them to the true faith.
7:15. But if the unbeliever depart, let him depart. For a brother or
sister is not under servitude in such cases. But God hath called us in
peace.
7:16. For how knowest thou, O wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband?
Or how knowest thou, O man, whether thou shalt save thy wife?
7:17. But as the Lord hath distributed to every one, as God hath called
every one: so let him walk. And so in all churches I teach.
7:18. Is any man called, being circumcised? Let him not procure
uncircumcision. Is any man called in uncircumcision? Let him not be
circumcised.
7:19. Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing: but the
observance of the commandments of God.
7:20. Let every man abide in the same calling in which he was called.
7:21. Wast thou called, being a bondman? Care not for it: but if thou
mayest be made free, use it rather.
7:22. For he that is called in the Lord, being a bondman, is the freeman
of the Lord. Likewise he that is called, being free, is the bondman of
Christ.
7:23. You are bought with a price: be not made the bondslaves of men.
7:24. Brethren, let every man, wherein he was called, therein abide with
God.
7:25. Now, concerning virgins, I have no commandment of the Lord: but I
give counsel, as having obtained mercy of the Lord, to be faithful.
7:26. I think therefore that this is good for the present necessity:
that it is good for a man so to be.
7:27. Art thou bound to a wife? Seek not to be loosed. Art thou loosed
from a wife? Seek not a wife.
7:28. But if thou take a wife, thou hast not sinned. And if a virgin
marry, she hath not sinned: nevertheless, such shall have tribulation of
the flesh. But I spare you.
7:29. This therefore I say, brethren: The time is short. It remaineth,
that they also who have wives be as if they had none:
7:30. And they that weep, as though they wept not: and they that
rejoice, as if they rejoiced not: and they that buy as if they possessed
not:
7:31. And they that use this world, as if they used it not. For the
fashion of this world passeth away.
7:32. But I would have you to be without solicitude. He that is without
a wife is solicitous for the things that belong to the Lord: how he may
please God.
7:33. But he that is with a wife is solicitous for the things of the
world: how he may please his wife. And he is divided.
7:34. And the unmarried woman and the virgin thinketh on the things of
the Lord: that she may be holy both in body and in spirit. But she that
is married thinketh on the things of the world: how she may please her
husband.