The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: the First Epistle to the Corinthians
Ver. 7. — Neither be ye idolaters . . . and rose up to play. Viz., when the Hebrews fashioned and worshipped the golden calf they closed their idolatrous festivities with a banquet. Thus they ate of the victims offered to their idol, that they might, after the manner of the Egyptians, celebrate the worship of this new god of theirs with a banquet and games. Hence it is said, “They rose up to play,” i.e., to dance and sing. For Moses (Exod. xxxii. 19), when he descended, a little time afterwards, from the mount, saw them dancing. This was the custom of the Gentiles after their sacrifices, and these games were frequently of a most obscene character. Hence the Rabbins and Tertullian (de Jej. contra Psychicos) interpret this play of the Jews of fornication and uncleanness. They, too, attended public games, which, Tertullian says, were forbidden to Christians, as being held in honour of idols, and on the same level, therefore, as things offered to idols (See Tert. de Spectac.). But presently the wrath of God came on the people, as they were worshipping the calf and sporting, and 23,000 of them were slain by the Levites at the command of Moses. S. Paul impresses these things on the Corinthians, because it was likely that they, before their Christianity, had engaged in such games and feasts, and had eaten of things offered to idols, in honour of their gods, and especially of Venus, to whom they daily offered a thousand maidens for prostitution. They were, too, much given to lust and impurity. Hence here, and in chap. vi. 9, he warns them against fornication. His meaning, then, is: See, O Corinthians, that you do not return to idols, nor eat of things offered to them, and so become partakers of idolatrous sacrifices; and do not give yourselves up to games, to lust, and self-indulgence; otherwise, like the Hebrews, you will be punished by God, as apostates and idolaters, as gluttons and drunkards.
Ver. 8. — As some of them committed. When they worshipped Baal-peor, i.e., Priapus, and in his honour committed fornication with the daughters of Moab (Num. xxv.).
And fell in one day three and twenty thousand. Chrysostom, Anselm, Cajetan, refer this to the plague which was sent because of the fornication with the daughters of Moab, and which is related in Num. xxv. But in ver. 9 of that chapter the number slain is given as 24,000, not 23,000. (1.) Some account for this by saying that on one day only 23,000 were slain, and 1000 on the day before. But this is pure conjecture, for Scripture says nothing of this. (2.) Cajetan explains it by an error of some scribe, who wrote 23,000 for 24,000. (3.) Œcumenius says that some read 23,000 in Num. xxv. 9 as well as here. (4.) Others say that the Apostle is not wrong, because the greater number includes the less. But it is simpler and more natural to say that the Apostle is referring to Exod. xxxii. 28, where, according to the Roman Bible, 23,000 fell for worshipping the golden calf. S. Paul, if this be so, is not referring to the punishment inflicted on the fornicators of Num. xxv., but by a Hebrew custom he looks back to the idolaters of ver. 7. We must suppose that, having forgotten to mention the punishment inflicted on them, he now gives it as an afterthought: certainly in the sins he goes on to name he in each case adds the punishment. He does this to warn the Corinthians against such sins, and especially because the worship of the calf and the lust accompanying it were exactly parallel, both in punishment and guilt, to the worship and fornication in the matter of Baal-peor. S. Paul’s number agrees with the older rendering of the Greek in Exod. xxxii. 28. The
Ver. 9. — Neither let us tempt Christ by disbelieving His promises, as some of the Corinthians were doubting of the resurrection, as is seen in chap. xv. See 2 Pet. iii. 4.
As some of them also tempted. The reference is to Num. xxi. 5. The words there, “against God,* S. Paul here applies to Christ; therefore Christ is God. Hence the Greek Fathers say that the angel who appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and led the Hebrews out of Egypt, was a type of Christ to come in the flesh, i.e., of the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity.
And were destroyed of serpents. See Num. xxi. 6. These fiery serpents are not so called because they were of a fiery nature, for this is repugnant to their true nature, but from the effect of their bite and the heat of their breath: these caused such a heat in those who were bitten that they seemed to be burning. These snakes are called by the Greeks by names (Praester and Canso), which denote burning, and are found in Libya and in Arabia, through which the Hebrews were then passing.
Ver. 10. — As some of them also murmured , and were destroyed of the destroyer , i.e., the angel by whom God inflicted punishment on the Hebrews for murmuring, because Korah and his followers were swallowed up alive by the earth. Fourteen thousand seven hundred perished by fire (see Num. xvi. 30, 35, 40, 45; Wisd. xviii. 20; Anselm in loco). This angel seems to have been Michael, the leader of the people, the giver of the law on Sinai and its vindicator, and a type of Christ, as was said just now (see Exod. xxiii. 21). Others suppose that this “ destroyer ” was an evil angel or a devil, and refer to Ps. lxxviii. 49. But the Psalmist is speaking of the plague sent on the Egyptians, but Paul of those that God inflicted on the Hebrews. Besides, it is truer to say that the plagues were inflicted on the Egyptians by good angels, not by evil ones ; for, as S. Augustine says, when commenting on Ps. lxxviii. 49, it is well known that it was angels that Moses turned the water into blood, and produced frogs and lice ; for it was by these miraculous punishments that Moses and the good angels strove against the magicians of Pharaoh and the devils : hence at the third miracle of the lice they exclaimed, “This is the finger of God.” The good angels are called, in Ps. lxxviii. 49, “evil,” as inflicters of evil.
The Hebrews murmured very often in the wilderness, and nearly always were punished by God. He thus wished to show that murmuring and rebellion are worse than other sins in His sight. So, in Num. xi., He slew those who murmured through fleshly lust, and the place was therefore called “ the graves of lusts.” In the same way all who murmured because of the report of the spies, who said that Canaan was a land strongly fortressed, were excluded from it, and perished in the wilderness; and of 600,000, Joshua and Caleb alone entered it (Num. xiv. 29). So were Korah and his followers punished clearly and severely.
Ver. 11. — Now all these things happened unto them for types . Viz., all those here mentioned. We are not to imagine that everything that is related in the Old Testament is merely typical, as though it contained nothing which did not figuratively represent something in the New Testament. S. Augustine (de Civ. Dei, lib. xvii. c. 5) says truly : “ They seem to me to make a great mistake who think that the things recorded in the Old Testament have no meaning beyond the events themselves , just as much as those people are very venturesome who contend that everything without exception in it contains allegorical meanings .”
Gabriel Vasquez (p. 1, qu. i. art. 10, disp. 14, c. 6) rightly points out that the word “figure” or “type” used here, does not mean so much an allegorical sense, or a mystical one, as an example which may be well applied for the purpose of persuasion. Thence S. Paul adds, “they are written for our admonition.” In other words, God punished the Hebrews that they might be an example to us, and teach us wisdom.
Upon whom the ends of the world are come . That is, the last age of the world. The Prophets call the time of the Messiah “the last time.” (See 1 S. John ii. 18.) Ambrose and Chrysostom add that the Apostle often speaks in this way, as though the end of the world was at hand, that he may keep every one in expectation and in fear of it, that so each one may be taught to prepare for it diligently.
Ver. 12. — Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. S. Augustine (de Bono Persev. cviii.) says: “It is good for all, or nearly all, not to know what they will be, that each one , from not knowing that he will persevere in good, may humbly and anxiously pray for the grace of God, and with it do all he can to watch against falling and to persevere in grace.”
Ver. 13. — There hath no temptation taken you, &c. The Vulgate reads the verb in the imperative — “let no temptation take you.” His meaning is : Be it, O Corinthians, that you are tempted to schisms, lawsuits, lust, idolatry, yet remain constant, for these temptations which take you are common to man, and therefore you can easily overcome them if you like.