Teks -- 1 Corinthians 4:8 (NET)

4:8 Already you are satisfied! Already you are rich! You have become kings without us! I wish you had become kings so that we could reign with you!

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Robertson: 1Co 4:8 - Already are ye filled?

Already are ye filled? ( ēdē kekoresmenoi estė ).

Perfect passive indicative, state of completion, of korennumi , old Greek verb to satiate, to satisfy. The only other example in N.T. is Act 27:38 which see. Paul may refer to Deu 31:20; Deu 32:15. But it is keen irony, even sarcasm. Westcott and Hort make it a question and the rest of the sentence also.

Robertson: 1Co 4:8 - Already ye are become rich

Already ye are become rich ( ēdē eploutēsate ).

Note change to ingressive aorist indicative of plouteō , old verb to be rich (cf. 2Co 8:9). "The aorists, used instead of perfects, imply indecent haste"(Lightfoot). "They have got a private millennium of their own"(Robertson & Plummer) with all the blessings of the Messianic Kingdom (Luk 22:29.; 1Th 2:12; 2Ti 2:12).

Robertson: 1Co 4:8 - Ye have reigned without us

Ye have reigned without us ( chōris hēmōn ebasileusate ).

Withering sarcasm. Ye became kings without our company. Some think that Paul as in 1Co 3:21 is purposely employing Stoic phraseology though with his own meanings. If so, it is hardly consciously done. Paul was certainly familiar with much of the literature of his time, but it did not shape his ideas.

Robertson: 1Co 4:8 - I would that ye did reign

I would that ye did reign ( kai ophelon ge ebasileusate ).

More exactly, "And would at least that ye had come to reign (or become kings)."It is an unfulfilled wish about the past expressed by ophelon and the aorist indicative instead of ei gar and the aorist indicative (the ancient idiom). See Robertson, Grammar , p. 1003, for the construction with particle ophelon (an unaugmented second aorist form).

Robertson: 1Co 4:8 - That we also might reign with you

That we also might reign with you ( hina kai hēmeis humin sunbasileusōmen ).

Ironical contrast to chōris hēmōn ebasileusate , just before. Associative instrumental case of humin after suṅ .

Vincent: 1Co 4:8 - Now ye are full

Now ye are full ( ἤδη κεκορεσμένοι ἐστέ )

Rev., better, filled . Ironical contrast between their attitude and that of the apostle in 1Co 4:3, 1Co 4:4. We are hungering for further revelations; ye are already filled without waiting for the Lord's coming.

Vincent: 1Co 4:8 - Ye have reigned

Ye have reigned ( ἐβασιλεύσατε )

American Rev., better, ye have come to reign ; attained to dominion, that kingship which will be bestowed on Christians only at Christ's coming.

Vincent: 1Co 4:8 - Without us

Without us

Though it is through us that you are Christians at all.

Wesley: 1Co 4:8 - Now ye are full

The Corinthians abounded with spiritual gifts; and so did the apostles: but the apostles, by continual want and sufferings, were kept from self - complacency. The Corinthians suffering nothing, and having plenty of all things, were pleased with and applauded themselves; and they were like children who, being raised in the world, disregard their poor parents. Now ye are full, says the apostle, in a beautiful gradation, ye are rich, ye have reigned as kings - A proverbial expression, denoting the most splendid and plentiful circumstances. Without any thought of us.

Wesley: 1Co 4:8 - And I would ye did reign

In the best sense: I would ye had attained the height of holiness.

Wesley: 1Co 4:8 - That we might reign with you

Having no more sorrow on your account, but sharing in your happiness.

JFB: 1Co 4:8

Irony. Translate, "Already ye are filled full (with spiritual food), already ye are rich, ye have seated yourselves upon your throne as kings, without us." The emphasis is on "already" and "without us"; ye act as if ye needed no more to "hunger and thirst after righteousness," and as if already ye had reached the "kingdom" for which Christians have to strive and suffer. Ye are so puffed up with your favorite teachers, and your own fancied spiritual attainments in knowledge through them, that ye feel like those "filled full" at a feast, or as a "rich" man priding himself in his riches: so ye feel ye can now do "without us," your first spiritual fathers (1Co 4:15). They forgot that before the "kingdom" and the "fulness of joy," at the marriage feast of the Lamb, must come the cross, and suffering, to every true believer (2Ti 2:5, 2Ti 2:11-12). They were like the self-complacent Laodiceans (Rev 3:17; compare Hos 12:8). Temporal fulness and riches doubtless tended in some cases at Corinth, to generate this spiritual self-sufficiency; the contrast to the apostle's literal "hunger and thirst" (1Co 4:11) proves this.

JFB: 1Co 4:8 - I would . . . ye did reign

Translate, "I would indeed," &c. I would truly it were so, and that your kingdom had really begun.

JFB: 1Co 4:8 - that we also might reign with you

(2Co 12:14). "I seek not yours, but you." Your spiritual prosperity would redound to that of us, your fathers in Christ (1Co 9:23). When you reach the kingdom, you shall be our "crown of rejoicing, in the presence of our Lord Jesus" (1Th 2:19).

Clarke: 1Co 4:8 - Now ye

Now ye - Corinthians are full of secular wisdom; now ye are rich, both in wealth and spiritual gifts; (1Co 14:26): ye have reigned as kings, flourishing in the enjoyment of these things, in all tranquillity and honor; without any want of us: and I would to God ye did reign, in deed, and not in conceit only, that we also, poor, persecuted, and despised apostles, might reign with you. - Whitby

Though this paraphrase appears natural, yet I am of opinion that the apostle here intends a strong irony; and one which, when taken in conjunction with what he had said before, must have stung them to the heart. It is not an unusual thing for many people to forget, if not despise, the men by whom they were brought to the knowledge of the truth; and take up with others to whom, in the things of God, they owe nothing. Reader, is this thy case?

Calvin: 1Co 4:8 - Now ye are full // Without us, // And I would to God that ye did reign

8.Now ye are full Having in good earnest, and without the use of any figure, beat down their vain confidence, he now also ridicules it by way of irony, ²³⁰ because they are so self-complacent, as if they were the happiest persons in the world. He proceeds, too, step by step, in exposing their insolence. In the first place, he says, that they were full: this refers to the past. He then adds, Ye are rich: this applies to the future. Lastly, he says, that they had reigned as kings this is much more than either of those two. It is as though he had said, “ What will you attain to, when you appear to be not merely full for the present, but are also rich for the future — nay more, are kings ? ” At the same time, he tacitly upbraids them with ingratitude, because they had the audacity to despise him, or rather those, through means of whom they had obtained everything.

Without us, says he. “For Apollos and I are now esteemed nothing by you, though it is by our instrumentality that the Lord has conferred everything upon you. What inhumanity there is in resting with self-complacency in the gifts of God, while in the meantime you despise those through whose instrumentality you obtained them!”

And I would to God that ye did reign ²³¹ Here he declares that he does not envy their felicity, (if indeed they have any,) and that from the beginning he has not sought to reign among them, but only to bring them to the kingdom of God. He intimates, however, on the other hand, that the kingdom in which they gloried was merely imaginary, and that their glorying was groundless and pernicious, ²³² there being no true glorying but that which is enjoyed by all the sons of God in common, under Christ their Head, and every one of them according to the measure of the grace that has been given him.

For by these words that ye also may reign with us, he means this — “You are so renowned in your own opinion that you do not hesitate to despise me, and those like me, but mark, how vain is your glorying. For you can have no glorying before God, in which we have not a share — for if honor redounds to you from having the gospel of God, how much more to us, by whose ministry it was conveyed to you! And assuredly, this is a madness ²³³ that is common to all the proud, that by drawing everything to themselves, they strip themselves of every blessing — nay more, they renounce the hope of everlasting salvation.”

TSK: 1Co 4:8 - ye are full // without // and I // ye did

ye are full : 1Co 1:5, 1Co 3:1, 1Co 3:2, 1Co 5:6; Pro 13:7, Pro 25:14; Isa 5:21; Luk 1:51-53, Luk 6:25; Rom 12:3; Rom 12:16; Gal 6:3; Rev 3:17

without : 1Co 4:18; Act 20:29, Act 20:30; Phi 1:27, Phi 2:12

and I : Num 11:29; Act 26:29; 2Co 11:1

ye did : Psa 122:5-9; Jer 28:6; Rom 12:15; 2Co 13:9; 1Th 2:19, 1Th 2:20, 1Th 3:6-9; 2Ti 2:11, 2Ti 2:12; Rev 5:10

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per Ayat)

Poole: 1Co 4:8 - Now ye are full, now ye are rich // Ye have reigned as kings without us // And I would to God ye did reign, that we also might reign with you

Now ye are full, now ye are rich you that are the teachers at Corinth, or you that are the members of the church there, think yourselves full of knowledge and wisdom, so as you stand in need of no further learning or instruction.

Ye have reigned as kings without us ye think now you have got a kingdom, and are arrived at the top of felicity.

And I would to God ye did reign, that we also might reign with you I am so far from envying you, that I wish it were so, and we might have a share with you. The apostle speaketh this ironically, not that he indeed thought they were so, but reflecting on their vain and too good an opinion of themselves.

Haydock: 1Co 4:8 - Now you are satiated

Now you are satiated, &c. You great, vain preachers, you are rich in every kind, blessed with all gifts, &c. You reign over the minds of the people, without us, you stand not in need of our assistance. And I would to God you did reign, that we also might reign with you. I wish your reigning and governing the people were well grounded on virtue and truth, that we might be sharers of the like happiness. St. John Chrysostom take notice, that St. Paul speaks thus, meaning the contrary, by the figure called irony: and so also St. John Chrysostom understands the two following verses, as if St. Paul only represented what those vain preachers said with contempt of him, as if he were only an apostle of an inferior rank, not one of the chief, nor of the twelve. And when he says, we are fools for Christ's sake, whom he blames, wise, especially in Christ. But though the apostle partly use this figure of irony, intermixing it in his discourse, yet he also represents the condition of all true apostles, and preachers of Christ crucified, whose persons and doctrine were slighted, ridiculed, and laughed at by men that were wise only with worldly wisdom, especially by profane libertines, and atheistical men, that make a jest of all revealed religion. To go about preaching in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, in want, under afflictions and persecutions, is what they think is to be miserable: they despise such men as the out-cast, the dross, [1] and the dregs of mankind. (See the Greek text.) (Witham) ---

He speaks to the Corinthians, who forgetting their first fervour, and the Christian modesty which St. Paul had taught them, both by word and example, were endeavouring to distinguish themselves by the reputation and honour of the apostle, who had converted them, by their antiquity of faith, and by other things more frivolous. (Calmet)

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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]

Tanquam purgamenta, omnium peripsema, Greek: os perikatharmata, Sordes, quisquiliæ, Greek: panton peripsema, Scobes, ramentum. See Mr. Legh, Crit. Sacra.

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Gill: 1Co 4:8 - Now ye are full // Now ye are rich // Ye have reigned as kings without us // and I would to God ye did reign // that we also might reign with you

Now ye are full,.... That is, in their own opinion: these words, and some following expressions, are an ironical concession. They were not full of God, and divine things; nor of Christ, and of grace out of his fulness; nor of the Holy Ghost, and of faith, as Stephen and Barnabas are said to be; nor of joy and peace in believing; nor of goodness and spiritual knowledge; but they were full of themselves, and were pulled up in their fleshly minds with an opinion of their abilities, learning, oratory, and eloquence, of their ministers, and of their own great improvements in knowledge under their ministrations. They fancied they had got to a perfection in knowledge and were brimful of it; and as the full stomach, from which the metaphor is taken, loathes the honeycomb, so these persons loathed the apostle's ministry, and the pure preaching of the Gospel; imagining that they had attained to something above it, and stood in no need of it; when, alas! they were but babes, children in understanding, and needed milk instead of strong meat; so far were they from being what they thought themselves to be.

Now ye are rich; not in faith; nor in good works; nor in spiritual gifts and knowledge, though some among them were; but that is not here intended: the meaning is, they were rich, and abounded in knowledge in their own account. Like the Laodiceans, they conceited themselves to be rich, and increased with goods, when they were poor, and wretched, and miserable.

Ye have reigned as kings without us. The saints, in the best sense, are kings, made so by Christ; and have not only the name, and the ensigns of royalty, as crowns and thrones prepared for them, but kingdoms also: they have a kingdom of grace, which they enjoy now, and shall never be removed; in which they reign as kings under the influence of the Spirit of God, over the corruptions of their own hearts, which are laid under the restraints of mighty grace; and over the world, which they have under the feet; and over Satan, who is dethroned and cast out of them; and they shall inherit the kingdom of glory hereafter; but nothing of this kind is here intended. The sense of the words is, that these persons imagined that they had arrived to such a pitch of knowledge, as to be independent of the apostles; needed no instructions and directions from them, and were in great tranquillity and ease of mind, and attended with outward prosperity, so that they lived, as kings, the most happy life that could be desired; upon which the apostle expresses his hearty wish for them:

and I would to God ye did reign; not in carnal security, and in affluence of worldly enjoyments, which the apostle was not desirous of for himself, and other his fellow ministers; nor in a spiritual sense, merely as believers in common, and as he then did; but with Christ in his kingdom state here on earth:

that we also might reign with you; for all the saints will be together when Christ takes to himself his great power, and reigns; they will all reign with him on earth a thousand years; this is a faithful saying, nothing more true, or to be depended on, that those that suffer with him shall also reign with him; and not a part of his people only, but the whole body: hence the apostle wishes, that this reigning time for the church of Christ was come, then he and the rest of the apostles would reign also: but, alas! it was a plain case, from the condition they were in, of which the following words give a narrative, that this time was not yet.