Verse 9
9. For I could desire to reign with you, for we are sad sufferers in our present state. With a deep pathos the apostle describes his own personal sufferings, yet in words includes the other apostles in the picture. The passage seems to justify the belief that the other apostles had a history of suffering, but lacked an historian.
God He recognises the appointment of God in this divine mission of suffering. The suffering had to be endured by somebody, and God wisely selects his instruments.
Set forth St. Paul here delicately pictures an ideal amphitheatre, familiar to the Corinthian memory. The world, with angels and men for spectators, and the apostles as victims to the beast. Such ideal martyrdom was realized in later history, of which this passage is a shadowy prophecy. The theatre was a semicircle, the amphitheatre a double theatre in full circle.
Apostles last Equivalent to lowest.
A spectacle The original is a theatre; for exhibition in the amphitheatre.
Unto men Literally, to the world both to angels and to men.
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