Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
The Apostle passes from the schism of the Corinthians to the scandal of incest; and so he rebukes the Corinthians for tolerating one living publicly in incest; wherefore He himself orders the same man to be excommunicated and delivered to Satan.
Secondly, in verse 6, he commands that they purge out this and every other leaven of sin, that, being pure, they may celebrate a perennial Pascha, and continually feast on the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Thirdly, he commands them in verse 9, that they should not associate with Christians who are openly criminal; for as concerns unbelievers and pagans, he asserts that these are not subject to his judgment or the Church's.
Vulgate Text: 1 Corinthians 5:1-13
1. It is absolutely heard that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not even among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife. 2. And you are puffed up; and have not rather mourned, that he who hath done this deed might be taken away from among you. 3. I indeed, absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged, as though I were present, him that hath so done, 4. in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, you being gathered together and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus, 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. 6. Your glorying is not good. Know you not that a little leaven corrupteth the whole lump? 7. Purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new paste, as you are unleavened. For Christ our Pascha is sacrificed. 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. 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. 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. 12. For what have I to do to judge them that are without? Do not you judge them that are within? 13. For them that are without, God will judge. Put away the evil one from among yourselves.
Verse 1: It Is Absolutely Heard That There Is Fornication Among You
1. Absolutely (not by vague rumour, but by sure report and judgment) IT IS HEARD THAT THERE IS SUCH FORNICATION AMONG YOU AS IS NOT EVEN AMONG THE GENTILES, THAT ONE SHOULD HAVE HIS FATHER'S WIFE (that is, his stepmother), — namely as his concubine. Note that the Gentiles — not barbarian ones but civilised and honourable — by the dictate and modesty of nature, abhorred the union of a stepson with a stepmother. Whence the poets praise Hippolytus, who chose rather to incur his father Theseus's wrath than to yield to the stepmotherly lust of Phaedra: for being solicited by Phaedra, when he refused the deed, he was falsely accused by her of having solicited her, and was torn to pieces by horses at his father's command. There is, however, in Valerius V, ch. "On Parents' Love toward their Children," an example of such a union in King Seleucus, who handed over his wife Stratonice to his son Antiochus, when Antiochus was sick unto death from love of her, and Seleucus had learned this from the physician.
Note secondly: Theodoret in his preface to the epistle, and Chrysostom here, hold that this fornicator was a notable, powerful man, and the leader of the faction and schism among the Corinthians. Whence also from the schism of the preceding chapter he straightway passes to him in this chapter v.
It is asked whether this fornicator — or rather incestuous person — took the wife of his father while he was living, or after he had died. Some answer: of one already dead; but it seems rather to have been the wife of a living father, for this is properly called "the wife of his father." And because in the second epistle, chapter vii, in verse 12 he says: "I wrote these things, not for him who did the injury, nor for him who suffered it," namely the father: therefore the father was still living. So Anselm and others. This was therefore at once incest and adultery, in which this man stubbornly persisted; for without contumacy he could not have been excommunicated.
Verse 2: And You Are Puffed Up
2. And you are puffed up. — As if to say: And you in the meantime are taken up with your proud contentions, and neglect the correction of this incest, and care not that the guilty man be removed — that is, driven out — from your assembly and excommunicated. So Chrysostom, Theophylact, Anselm. Learn here with how great care, not only Prelates, but every member of the faithful, ought to take pains, that scandals and scandalous persons be removed from the Church.
Verse 3: I Indeed, Absent in Body, but Present in Spirit, Have Already Judged
3. I INDEED ABSENT IN BODY, BUT PRESENT IN SPIRIT (as it behooves a Pastor and Bishop always to be present to his Church by his care and vigilance, even though he be absent from it in body), HAVE ALREADY JUDGED (that is, I have decreed, and in fact by these words I decree, judge, and command him to be excommunicated and delivered to Satan, and that) IN THE NAME OF CHRIST, — that is, by the authority and in the place of Christ, which I exercise while I command and judge.
But Chrysostom refers the "in the name of Christ" to what follows, "you being gathered together," as if to say: With Christ's name gathering you, for whom you are assembled. For Paul wills that, with all gathered together, that is, in the public assembly of the Corinthians, this fornicator be excommunicated from the Church. Thirdly, "in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ" can be referred to "to deliver to Satan," because this delivery and execution of the sentence is done by the power, name, and stead of Christ.
Verse 4: You Being Gathered Together and My Spirit, with the Power of Our Lord Jesus, to Deliver Such a One to Satan
4. YOU BEING GATHERED TOGETHER AND MY SPIRIT, WITH THE POWER OF OUR LORD JESUS, TO DELIVER SUCH A ONE TO SATAN. — As if to say: I judge and command, that while you, O Corinthians, are gathered in the Church — to whom "with my spirit," that is, in mind, affection and authority, I am present with the power and might of Christ given to me — the incestuous man be excommunicated and handed over to Satan, who reigns outside the Church, and there is wont to afflict the excommunicate in soul, and at this time also in body. From this it is clear that Paul does not say this as though in the Church — that is, in the whole congregation, the people and laity — there is the power of excommunicating, and not in the Prelates, as the heretics will have it; for he says the contrary: "I," he says, "have judged." But he only means that the Apostle wills the excommunication to be performed publicly by the head of the Church, for the terror of others. Hence he does not say: That you being gathered may deliver him; but, "You being gathered," that is, in your congregation and Church, I have judged to deliver him to Satan — namely through him whose office it is to deliver, that is, through him who in the name of Christ presides in my place over your Church. For so in every republic the republic itself gives judgment, not by popular vote, but through its judges and magistrates. Add that the Apostle uses this phrase to signify that this power and spirit has been given to the Church, and that he and the Prelates exercise that power in the name of the Church: in this sense, not that the whole Church received it immediately from Christ, but that Christ has given this power to Paul and to the Prelates not for their own sake but for the good of the Church — that, since the whole Church cannot exercise it (for so there would be great confusion in it, if every individual had to be consulted and pronounce sentence), it should at least exercise it through its heads and rulers. Lastly, because excommunication is an odious thing, Paul wills that it be done by the common consent and spirit of the Church, that thus he may conciliate all to Himself, lest any defend the powerful fornicator and accuse Paul of excessive severity. Whence of his own accord he tacitly defers to them, as it were a judgment, and from modesty he calls upon the Corinthians as it were as judges — that is, as approvers and executors of the sentence handed down by him — to publicly excommunicate this fornicator through the prelate of the Church. For so modest princes, and leaders of an army in some difficult and dangerous case, when some leading soldier must be punished, are wont, lest they exasperate the army, to seek the opinion of the leading soldiers, and even, as it were, to defer judgment to them. So Chrysostom, Ambrose, Theophylact, Anselm.
With the power of our Lord Jesus. — Refer this to "to deliver," or rather, with Ambrose, to "you being gathered together and my spirit," as if to say: In this action — namely the excommunication — Christ's Spirit is present with you, and most of all is present to my spirit. For Christ has communicated His power and authority to His Church, so that the Church through her rulers and Prelates may excommunicate the contumacious and deliver them over to Satan.
Verse 5: To Deliver to Satan, for the Destruction of the Flesh, That the Spirit May Be Saved in the Day of the Lord
5. TO DELIVER TO SATAN. — Theophylact thinks that by these words Paul actually excommunicates the fornicator; but it is truer that he only commands by them that the man be excommunicated by the Prelates in the very Church of the Corinthians. So the Syriac. For this is what "I have judged to deliver" means — that is, that he be delivered: otherwise he would have said: I deliver. This also is what "you being gathered together" signifies, as if to say: In your congregation and Church let him be delivered to Satan. Note here that the ancients understood this passage of excommunication and the power of excommunicating, which lies in the Prelates of the Church. So Chrysostom, Anselm, Augustine, etc., whom see in Baronius, in the year of Christ 57, p. 448.
Note secondly: The excommunicated are said to be "delivered to Satan" because, cast out from the fellowship of Christ and the Church and deprived of her goods — namely prayers, suffrages, sacrifices, Sacraments, God's protection, pastoral care — they are exposed to the tyranny and assaults of the devil, whose kingdom is outside the Church, so that he may rage upon them more than before, and drive them on into every evil. So Ambrose, Augustine, book III Against the epistle of Parmenian, chapter II; Jerome, epistle I to Heliodorus, ch. 1; Innocent in St. Augustine, epistle 51.
FOR THE DESTRUCTION OF THE FLESH, — that the devil may waste him with bodily sickness, wounds, or blows, that his flesh may be worn down and the vigour of the flesh perish, so that being thus humbled he may come to his senses. So Theodoret, Chrysostom, Theophylact, Oecumenius, Anselm.
Secondly, Ambrose and Anselm here, and St. Augustine in the place lately cited, explain it thus, as if to say: "For the destruction of the flesh," that is, that carnal pleasure may perish in him through this confusion and shame; for this reason I deliver him to Satan. But because this shame, even though it restrains a man from the outward act when there is danger of public exposure, does not extinguish the inner concupiscence of the flesh: hence the prior sense of most of the Fathers is the truer and more fitting.
From these Fathers it is gathered that the excommunicated, in former times, when handed over to the demon (that they might learn to dread excommunication), were even bodily tormented by him (which some here deny), and as it were possessed. For Theodoret expressly teaches this, both here and on 1 Timothy I, 20, and there Ambrose says this is the tradition of our forefathers, and that this is properly what "the destruction of the flesh" here means. The same is also implied by that phrase by which the excommunicated are said to be possessed by the devil, as is found in chapter Audi, and chapter Omnis, II, Quaest. III. For this phrase seems to have flowed from that bodily vexation which the demon in the primitive Church exercised on the excommunicate.
Examples are frequent in the Lives of the Fathers, and namely in the Life of St. Ambrose written by Paulinus. For when Ambrose had handed over a certain man to Satan, the demon at that very moment, snatching him up, began to tear him to pieces. And for this cause, in Matt. x, Christ gave the Apostles power over unclean spirits — namely both for casting them out and for sending them in, for the vexation of the body, says St. Thomas. Finally, that the excommunicated handed over to Satan by the Church were possessed and tormented by the demon, is taught with many examples by Delrio, De Magia, book III, part I, Quaest. VII; Petrus Thyraeus, De Daemon., part II, ch. xxx; Serarius on Tobit ch. vi, Quaest. XX.
THAT THE SPIRIT MAY BE SAVED IN THE DAY OF THE LORD. — As if to say: That the soul and mind, brought by this punishment to its senses and renewed, may be safe in the day of judgment. Hence it is clear that the end of excommunication ought to be directed to this — to inflict shame and affliction upon the excommunicated person, that he may be humbled, may pray to be received back, and ask pardon of the Church and of God; and that the faithful may pray secretly for him, and take care that he be again united to themselves.
Verse 6: Your Glorying Is Not Good — A Little Leaven Corrupteth the Whole Lump
6. Your glorying is not good, — your vaunting, by which you boast of worldly wisdom and by which you say, "I am of Paul, I of Apollo," is evil and untimely; when rather you ought to cast down your eyes and minds, because you tolerate so great a crime among you. So Anselm. Theophylact, following Chrysostom, adds: "Obscurely and secretly, he insinuates that the Corinthians themselves did not allow this fornicator to come to his senses, glorying in his name; for he was one of their own wise men."
DOES NOT A LITTLE LEAVEN CORRUPT THE WHOLE LUMP? — In Greek ζυμοῖ, that is, leavens, namely infects the whole lump of moistened flour with its taste and sourness. Whence Tertullian translates desipit, that is, makes it tasteless. The sense of Paul therefore is, as if he said: This stain of one fornicator pervades and sprinkles you all like leaven; first, that on account of one God's wrath may rage upon you all and upon the whole Church, which tolerates that stain. So Ambrose and Anselm. Secondly, that this example of one, if it remain unpunished, others may follow, and this scandal infect others. So Chrysostom, as if to say: Therefore act, take away this scandal, and separate it from the Church by excommunication.
Verse 7: Purge Out the Old Leaven — For Christ Our Pascha Is Sacrificed
7. Purge out the old leaven, — that is, this rotten fornicator from your assembly, lest like leaven he infect the whole; cast him out. Therefore not only the predestined, or hidden sinners, but also public ones (such as this fornicator was) are in the Church, until they are excommunicated. So Chrysostom and Anselm, who secondly and aptly take leaven also more generally for fornication, the dissimulation thereof, and any malice or vice; which, by the same reason, the Apostle commands to be removed from the soul of each and from the whole Church, in this verse and the following, and in v. 11, as if to say: Purge and cast out from yourselves this leaven of fornication and any leaven of any other sin. Properly and directly, however, the Apostle (as I have just said) refers to the fornicator and his incest.
THAT YOU MAY BE A NEW PASTE, — that is, a new lump; that is, that your Church may be new and pure. For "conspersio" is called in Greek φύραμα (from φυρᾶν, that is, to mix), and in Hebrew בצק batsac, that is, flour mixed with water and kneaded — a moistened lump, which is commonly called "paste."
AS YOU ARE UNLEAVENED, — that is, as Chrysostom and Anselm say, just as through baptism you have been made "unleavened," that is, pure from the leaven of sin, and consequently from then onwards by your calling and profession you are — that is, you ought to be — "unleavened," that is, pure and holy. For with the Hebrews it is said "to be done" which ought to be done; and "what shall not be done" signifies what ought not to be done. So Christians are called Saints, because they ought to be holy. Others take "you are" properly, as if to say: Just as, except for the one incestuous man, almost all the rest are in fact unleavened, that is, pure.
These azymes of life and morals the Church sets before each in baptism both in words and in ceremonies, when, after marking the head with chrism, she clothes the baptised with a white garment, and, handing him a burning candle, says to him: "Receive the garment" — as those unskilled in languages have supposed; for it is derived from the Hebrew חסם pasach, which means to pass over, or rather to leap over: hence indeed our pisseach, which in Hebrew means lame, because he walks as though hopping. Whence Symmachus and Josephus translate pascha as ὑπέρβασιν, that is, a passing-over; St. Jerome, in his Hebrew Names, renders it transgressum or transcensionem. It is therefore called Pascha, that is, a passing-over, because the angel, seeing the doorposts of the Hebrews smeared with the blood of the lamb sacrificed for this passing or crossing over, leapt over the houses of the Hebrews so as to strike none of their firstborn in them, and instead leapt into the neighboring houses of the Egyptians not marked with the lamb's blood, and slew all the firstborn in them. Hence from this happy passing or crossing over, the lamb sacrificed for it is called phase, or pascha, that is, the paschal victim, that is, the victim sacrificed for this passing and crossing, Exodus XII, 11 ff. Hence also the day itself, and the feast on which this occurred, and on which its annual memorial recurs and is celebrated, is properly called Pascha.
Allegorically this lamb signified Christ. "Therefore our pascha," that is, our paschal lamb sacrificed for us is Christ, so that whosoever are dipped in His blood and passion through baptism and the Sacraments may be safe and immune from the devastating angel, who leaps over them and leaps upon the unfaithful and impious, who are not dipped in Christ's blood, that he may slay them with eternal death: for those dipped Christ has snatched from the yoke of Pharaoh, that is, the devil and sin, and has heaped them with every liberty, gifts, and graces, and daily heaps them more. The Greeks add ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν, "for us," so that this is the meaning: "For indeed our pascha is sacrificed for us, namely Christ." See what was said about the origin and rite of the pascha at Exodus XII.
Morally, St. Bernard, sermon 1 on the day of Pascha: "Our Pascha, he says, is Christ, sacrificed. Let us embrace the virtues commended to us on the cross: humility, patience, obedience, and charity. In this also so distinguished a solemnity, let us with diligent thought ponder what is being commended to us: namely, resurrection, passing-over, and transmigration. For Christ, brethren, did not fall back today, but rose again; did not return, but passed over; transmigrated, did not come back. Finally, even the very Pascha which we celebrate is interpreted as a passing-over, not a return; and Galilee, where He who rose is promised to be seen by us, does not signify return, but transmigration." Then explaining these things he adds: "We have mourned in these days, given to compunction and prayer, gravity and abstinence. If we have lamented our negligences, what reason is there that we should now fall back into the same? Shall we now be found again curious as before, wordy as before, lazy and negligent as before, vain, suspicious, detractors, irascible, and entangled with the other vices which we so anxiously deplored in these days? I have washed my feet: how shall I defile them again? Alas! the resurrection of the Savior; for from this indeed banquetings and drunkennesses return, beds and unchastities are resumed: as if Christ rose again for this, and not rather for our justification. This is not a passing-over, but a returning. On account of this (as the Apostle says) many are weak and infirm, and many sleep. On account of this there is frequent mortality of men in various regions, especially in these days." The same is noted by St. Anselm on 1 Cor. XI, 30, namely that at Pascha diseases rage and many die, because of the unworthy Communion of many, and because of sins either not duly atoned for, or repeated.
Hence the first Sabbath after the feast of Pascha is called sabbatum in albis, and the following day Dominica in albis, because then the neophytes laid aside the white garment: yet in such a way that (as Baronius rightly noted in the year of Christ 58, p. 606) they received a white "Lamb of God" (as they call it) made from the paschal candle and blessed by the Pontiff, and wore it suspended from the neck, so that they might be perpetually admonished of purity and innocence, and from Christ the paschal Lamb might learn henceforth to be in every work unleavened, pure, meek, and humble of heart.
FOR INDEED OUR PASCHA, CHRIST, HAS BEEN SACRIFICED. — Note the word "for indeed," as if to say: I rightly demand that you be unleavened and pure, because you keep the pascha, in which all things were unleavened to the Jews; for just as the pascha was a type of Christ, so the unleavened breads were a type of Christians and of baptismal innocence, and of a pure and Christian life. The Apostle argues from the allegorical sense of the pascha and the unleavened breads.
PASCHA. — Note: From the Hebrew pesach we have it; the Syrians and Chaldeans, by their custom, adding א, form pischa, or pascha. Our [Vulgate translator], at Exodus XII, 11 and elsewhere, renders it phase, so as to make the word easier and closer to the Greeks and Latins: for these have no words ending in ch, whence the Septuagint usually renders the final Hebrew chet in disyllables as E. Thus for Neach in Hebrew they render Noe, for Corach Core, for Therach Thare; so here for pesach, phase. Therefore pascha is a Hebrew, or rather Chaldee, word, not Greek ἀπὸ τοῦ πάσχειν, "from suffering," as though pascha were the same as the Lord's passion, as some have thought.
Verse 8: Therefore Let Us Feast — Not in the Leaven of Malice and Wickedness, but in the Unleavened Bread of Sincerity and Truth
8. THEREFORE LET US FEAST. — The Greek, the Syriac, and Ambrose read, "therefore let us keep the feast"; for this is the Greek ἑορτάζωμεν. Our [Vulgate] however renders it "let us feast," because feasts were customarily celebrated with solemn banquets, as a sign of joy.
Note: This banquet and feast is either of the paschal lamb, or of the unleavened breads. For which observe from Exodus XII that the evening of the 14th day of the moon, or of the pascha, was not properly the feast, but the following morning, which was called the solemnity of the first day of unleavened breads, which lasted seven days, on which it was lawful to eat nothing but unleavened bread; and on those days, in place of the paschal lamb sacrificed earlier, namely on the preceding fourteenth moon or day (for the Hebrews, just as their months, so also their days, were lunar: for the new moon was the first day of the month, and from it they accordingly numbered the rest of the days) of the first month Nisan, they offered other paschal victims, namely holocausts and peace-offerings, of which Num. XXVIII, 19.
The sense, therefore, is: Christ, sacrificed for us as a kind of phase, has redeemed us and inaugurated for us the solemnity of the unleavened breads. Therefore after this pascha, after Christ's immolation and redemption, let us keep this spiritual feast of unleavened breads, that we may be unleavened and pure, and consequently feed on unleavened bread, that is, enjoy purity of life through the week of our life, that is, through its whole course (for in seven days revolved our whole time runs out: hence the number seven is the symbol of universality), and by it celebrate the memory of Christ's redemption, of our paschal lamb, by pure and worthy morals, sacrifices, and praises. But, since the evening of the pascha could also be referred to the following morning of the first day of unleavened breads, for the Jews celebrated their feasts from evening to evening: hence also this evening can be called a feast, or at least be called festa, that is, a festive immolation and banquet of the lamb. Whence Our [Vulgate] here renders, "let us feast."
Hence a second sense can be gathered, namely, as if to say: Let us hold a perpetual pascha, let one continuous paschal feast-day be ours; that we may daily feed on Christ the paschal lamb and on His benefits and gifts, and feast festively in a spiritual way by faith, hope, and charity, or even really in the venerable Sacrament, and that in the unleavened bread, that is, with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. See Chrysostom and Anselm. For although the paschal lamb, with respect to its immolation, was a figure of Christ's sacrifice on the cross, nevertheless with respect to the unleavened bread and the eating, it was more a figure of the unbloody sacrifice in the Eucharist. So by "pascha" here, St. Cyprian (sermon On the Lord's Supper), Nazianzen (oration On the Pascha), Chrysostom (sermon On the Betrayal of Judas), Ambrose (on Luke 1), Jerome and Origen (on Matt. XXVI) understand Christ immolated and eaten in the sacrifice of the Eucharist. Hence St. Andrew the Apostle to the tyrant Aegeas: "I, he says, daily sacrifice the spotless Lamb, whose flesh, when all the people have eaten of it, yet the Lamb who was sacrificed remains entire and alive." Hence also the Church reads this passage of the Apostle as the epistle on the solemnity of Pascha, when she enjoins all to communicate and to eat of this paschal Lamb; since in the primitive Church the faithful ate of the same daily, as the Apostle here exhorts.
Morally, Chrysostom says we ought to feast, not because it is Pascha or Pentecost, but because all time is a time of feasting for Christians, on account of the excellence of the benefits conferred: "What good thing, he says, has the Son of God, born and died for you, not granted you? He has freed you and called you into His kingdom; how then do you not always feast?" Hence St. Sylvester called all days feriae, so that we say feria prima, secunda, tertia, because every day Christians ought to keep holiday from sin and have leisure for God, and keep a spiritual feast. Hence also Clement of Alexandria, Stromata Bk. VII: "The whole life of the just man, he says, is a certain celebrated and holy feast-day."
NOT IN THE LEAVEN OF MALICE AND WICKEDNESS. — "Of wickedness," in Greek πονηρίας, which Vatablus rightly renders "of craftiness"; others render it "of depravity": for he is wicked (nequam) who deliberately, and with deceit and fraud, does evil. The ancient Latins by "malice" and "wickedness" signified all the vices and crimes of men. Hence the saying of Publius Africanus in Gellius, Bk. VII, ch. XI: "All the evils, disgraces, and outrages which men commit are in two things: malice and wickedness."
BUT IN THE UNLEAVENED BREAD OF SINCERITY AND TRUTH. — It is a Hebraism, as if to say: Let us feast, not on unleavened wheaten breads, but on spiritual ones, which are "sincerity" (that is, purity) "and truth," not of the intellect or of the mouth only, but truth of life, that is, Christian justice, that is, every duty of Christian virtue, or that to which Christians are bound, which is the integrity of every virtue, especially simplicity, fidelity, truthfulness. For here "sincerity," that is, a sincere and pure life, is opposed to "malice"; while "truth," or true life, is opposed to "wickedness," or, as Vatablus renders it, "craftiness," that is, to hypocrisy, deceit, fraud. So Theophylact. He alludes to the pure suppers of pascha, in which they fed not on leaven but on unleavened bread, that is, pure bread, which were the symbol of most absolute purity.
Verse 9: I Have Written to You
9. I HAVE WRITTEN TO YOU, — namely in verse 2 of this chapter: so Theodoret and Chrysostom, though St. Thomas, the Gloss, Lyranus, and Cajetan think that Paul wrote this in another, earlier epistle which has been lost: I have written, I say, that which follows:
Verses 9 and 10: Keep Not Company with Fornicators — Not with the Fornicators of This World
9 and 10. KEEP NOT COMPANY (do not have fellowship with) FORNICATORS — NOT TO BE SURE WITH THE FORNICATORS OF THIS WORLD (as if to say: when I said and wrote, Keep not company with fornicators, I did not mean that the pagan fornicators were to be avoided): OTHERWISE YOU MUST NEEDS HAVE GONE OUT OF THIS WORLD; — for the whole world is full of pagans, and these are either fornicators or covetous or idolaters; but "if he who is a brother," that is, if he be a Christian, says Ambrose, and is publicly ill spoken of as a fornicator, avoid this man.
Verse 11: If He Who Is Named a Brother Be a Fornicator, or Covetous, or Extortioner
11. IF HE WHO IS NAMED A BROTHER BE A FORNICATOR. — The word "is named" refers to "brother," although from the Greek, with Oecumenius, it can be referred to "fornicator"; as if to say: He who is publicly called a fornicator. Whence Augustine, Bk. III against Parmenian, ch. II: "Is named, he says, that is, is judged, is condemned in judgment for fornication, as a fornicator."
OR COVETOUS, OR EXTORTIONER. — "Covetous" (avarus) is he who secretly takes the goods of others by frauds; "extortioner" (rapax) is he who does so by open force. For the covetous man who only holds his own more tenaciously is not excluded from heaven, unless he refuse alms to a poor man in extreme and grave necessity; much less is he to be excluded from the company of the faithful: which nevertheless the Apostle here commands. By "covetous," therefore, he means a thief or robber, as I have said. Whence in place of "covetous," the Greek has πλεονέκτης, which is the same as πλεονεκτικός. Πλεονεκτικός in Aristotle, says Budaeus, is a defrauder and a deceiver. For πλεονεκτεῖν signifies to defraud, as is plain from 2 Cor. VII, 2, and XII, 18.
Verse 12: What Have I to Do to Judge Them That Are Without?
12. WHAT HAVE I TO DO TO JUDGE THEM THAT ARE WITHOUT? DO NOT YOU JUDGE THEM THAT ARE WITHIN? — Note: "To judge" here, as elsewhere, is the same as to condemn and punish fornicators, e.g. with the penalty of separation and avoidance, as a kind of excommunication, which is pronounced by the very fact that the others, the pure and innocent, are commanded not to consort with these fornicators; as if to say: by the very fact that I decree, Keep not company with fornicators, indirectly and consequently I judge and condemn the fornicators themselves, as guilty and harmful, to be shunned and fled; and this for this reason, namely that they themselves, when they see themselves shunned by others by this law, may be confounded and come to their senses. I condemn, I say, fornicators — not those who are "without," that is, outside the Church, namely Pagans (for these, since they are outside the Church, are likewise outside my jurisdiction); but those who are in the Church, namely the faithful, who are subject to my care and jurisdiction.
You will say: If we cannot judge those who are without: therefore the Church cannot judge and punish heretics and schismatics; for these are without, that is, outside the Church.
I answer, that they are outside the Church because they are deprived of the goods of the Church; nevertheless they are within, because they are subject to her jurisdiction; for by the very fact that they retain the character of baptism, they remain bound, obligated, and subjected to the Church by their first profession. Hence they are held to fasts, feasts, and the other laws of the Church: and they are in the Church as slaves are in the household, and as accused criminals imprisoned in the city.
Verse 13: Put Away the Evil One from Among Yourselves
13. PUT AWAY THE EVIL ONE FROM AMONG YOURSELVES, — cast the fornicator out of your assembly: for in Greek it is τὸν πονηρόν.