1 Corinthians 5:1

Contextual Overview

¹ It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father's wife. ¹ It is heard certainely that there is fornication among you: and such fornication as is not once named among the Gentiles, that one should haue his fathers wife. ¹It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and the kind of sexual immorality that is not even tolerated among the Gentiles—a man is sleeping with his father’s wife. ¹ It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Goyim, that one has his father's wife. ¹ It is universally reported [that there is] fornication among you, and such fornication as [is] not even among the nations, so that one should have his father's wife. ¹ I don't want to believe what I am hearing—that there is sexual sin among you. And it is such a bad kind of sexual sin that even those who have never known God don't allow it. People say that a man there has his father's wife. ¹It is actually reported [everywhere] that there is sexual immorality among you, a kind of immorality that is condemned even among the [unbelieving] Gentiles: that someone has [an intimate relationship with] his father's wife. ¹ It is actually reported that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not even among the Gentiles, that one of you hath his father's wife. ¹It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is intolerable even among pagans: A man has his father's wife.¹ I have heard terrible things about some of you. In fact, you are behaving worse than the Gentiles. A man is even sleeping with his own stepmother.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

reported: 1 Corinthians 1:11, Genesis 37:2, 1 Samuel 2:24

fornication: 1 Corinthians 5:11, 1 Corinthians 6:9, 1 Corinthians 6:13, 1 Corinthians 6:18, Acts 15:20, Acts 15:29, 2 Corinthians 12:21, Galatians 5:19, Ephesians 5:3, Colossians 3:5, 1 Thessalonians 4:7, Revelation 2:21, Revelation 21:8

and: Jeremiah 2:33, Ezekiel 16:47, Ezekiel 16:51, Ezekiel 16:52

that one: Genesis 35:22, Genesis 49:4, Leviticus 18:8, Leviticus 20:11, Deuteronomy 22:30, Deuteronomy 27:20, 2 Samuel 16:22, 2 Samuel 20:3, 1 Chronicles 5:1, Ezekiel 22:10, Amos 2:7, 2 Corinthians 7:12

Reciprocal: Joshua 7:1 - the anger Joshua 7:13 - take away Judges 20:7 - ye are all 2 Samuel 16:21 - unto thy Jeremiah 2:10 - and see Jeremiah 5:28 - overpass Jeremiah 18:13 - who Ezekiel 5:6 - she hath Matthew 13:47 - and gathered Matthew 19:9 - except 1 Corinthians 5:8 - not 1 Corinthians 5:13 - Therefore 1 Corinthians 11:18 - I hear 2 Corinthians 2:3 - I wrote 2 Corinthians 2:5 - any 2 Corinthians 11:29 - and I burn Hebrews 12:16 - any fornicator 3 John 1:10 - I will

Cross-References

Genesis 2:4
These are the generations of the heauens and of the earth, when they were created, in the day that the Lorde God made the earth and the heauens,

Genesis 2:4
These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the heavens and the earth.

Genesis 2:4
This is the history of the generations of the heavens and of the eretz when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made eretz and the heavens.

Genesis 2:4
This is the story about the creation of the sky and the earth. This is what happened when the Lord God made the earth and the sky.

Genesis 2:4
These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.

Genesis 2:4
These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that Jehovah God made earth and heaven.

Genesis 2:4
These are the generations of the heaven and the earth when they were made.

Genesis 2:4
That's how God created the heavens and the earth. When the Lord God made the heavens and the earth,

Genesis 2:4
(A: iv, S: ii) Here is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created. On the day when Adonai , God, made earth and heaven,

Genesis 2:4
These are the histories of the heavens and the earth, when they were created, in the day that Jehovah Elohim made earth and heavens,

Gill's Notes on the Bible

It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you,.... The apostle having reproved the Corinthians for their schisms and divisions about their ministers, proceeds to charge them with immoralities committed among them, and which were connived at, and took no notice of by them; and particularly a very notorious one, which he here mentions with its aggravated circumstances. It was done among them; not only by one of their citizens, nor merely by one of their hearers, but by one of their members, and so was cognizable by them as a church; for though they had nothing to do with them that were without, yet they were concerned with them that were within: this was a public offence; it was known by everyone, and it was in everybody's mouth; it was heard in all companies; it was "commonly",

ολως, "universally" talked of, and reported; it was generally known at Corinth, and in all Achaia, so that the church could not plead ignorance, nor could they be excused from blame in not as publicly declaring their abhorrence of the fact, as it was committed, which was fornication: fornication, ολως, "generally" taken, might be committed among them in all the branches of it, as that may include simple fornication, adultery, incest, and all acts of uncleanness; wherefore the apostle proceeds to describe that particular instance of fornication, that one of their members was guilty of:

and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife; not but that such unnatural copulations were practised, as among the Indians, Moors, Bactrians, Ethiopians, Medes, and Persians, as reported by sundry writers y; and among the Arabians, before prohibited by Mahomet z; but then such marriages and mixtures were not allowed of among the more civil and cultivated nations, as the Grecians and Romans, and never mentioned but with detestation and abhorrence: and if this man was a Jew, it was an aggravation of his sin, that he should be guilty of a crime decried by the Gentiles, as well as it was a violation of a known law of God given to the Jews, Leviticus 18:7 and, according to the Jewish writers a, such a man was doubly guilty: their canon is,

"ba tva le abh he that lies with his father's wife is guilty, on account of her being his father's wife, and on account of her being another man's wife, whether in his father's life time, or after his death, and whether espoused or married;''

and such an one was to be stoned. Of this kind was this man's crime; he had his father's wife, not his own mother, but his stepmother; for there is a distinction between a mother and a father's wife, as in the above canon.

"These are to be stoned, he that lies with his mother, or with his father's wife.''

Whether this man had married his father's wife, or kept her as his concubine, continuing in an incestuous cohabitation with her, is not certain, and whether his father was dead or living; which latter seems to be the case from 2 Corinthians 7:12 his iniquity was abominable and intolerable, and by no means to be winked at in church of Christ.

y Alex. ab Alex. Genial. Dier. l. 1. c. 24. Curtius, l. 8. c. 2. Philo, de special. leg. p. 77. 8. Tertul. Apolog. c. 9. Min. Foelix, p. 34. Clement. Alex. Paedagog. p. 109. Origen. contr. Cels. l. 6. p. 331. Hieron. adv. Jovin. l. 2. fol. 26. z Koran, c. 4. Vid. Pocock. spec, Arab. Hist p. 337, 338. a Misn. Sanhedrin, c. 7. sect. 4.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

It is reported - Greek It is heard. There is a rumor. That rumor had been brought to Paul, probably by the members of the family of Chloe, 1 Corinthians 1:11.

Commonly - Ὅλως Holōs. Everywhere. It is a matter of common fame. It is so public that it cannot be concealed; and so certain that it cannot be denied. This was all offence, he informs us, which even the pagan would not justify or tolerate; and, therefore, the report had spread not only in the churches, but even among the pagan, to the great scandal of religion - When a report obtains such a circulation, it is certainly time to investigate it, and to correct the evil.

That there is fornication - See the note at Acts 15:20. The word is here used to denote incest, because the apostle immediately explains the nature of the offence.

And such fornication ... - An offence that is not tolerated or known among the pagan. This greatly aggravated the offence, that in a Christian church a crime should be tolerated among its members which even gross pagans would regard with abhorrence. That this offence was regarded with abhorrence by even the pagans has been abundantly proved by quotations from classic writers. See Wetstein, Bloomfield, and Whitby. Cicero says of the offence, expressly, that “it was an incredible and unheard of crime.” Pro Cluen. 5. 6 - When Paul says that it was not “so much as named among the Gentiles,” he doubtless uses the word (ὀνομάζεται onomazetai) in the sense of “named with approbation, tolerated,” or “allowed.” The crime was known in a few instances, but chiefly of those who were princes and rulers; but it was no where regarded with approbation, but was always treated as abominable wickedness. All that the connection requires us to understand by the word “named” here is, that it was not tolerated or allowed; it was treated with abhorrence, and it was therefore, more scandalous that it was allowed in a Christian church - Whitby supposes that this offence that was tolerated in the church at Corinth gave rise to the scandals that were circulated among the pagan respecting the early Christians, that they allowed of licentious contact among the members of their churches. This reproach was circulated extensively among the pagan, and the primitive Christians were at much pains to refute it.

That one should have - Probably as his wife; or it may mean simply that he had criminal contact with her. Perhaps some man had parted with his wife, on some account, and his son had married her, or maintained her for criminal contact. It is evident from 2 Corinthians 7:12, that the person who had suffered the wrong, as well as he who had done it, was still alive - Whether this was marriage or concubinage, has been disputed by commentators, and it is not possible, perhaps, to determine. See the subject discussed in Bloomfield.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

CHAPTER V.

Account of the incestuous person, or of him who had married his

father's wife, 1.

The apostle reproves the Corinthians for their carelessness in

this matter, and orders them to excommunicate the transgressor,

2-5.

They are reprehended for their glorying, while such scandals

were among them, 6.

They must purge out the old leaven, that they may properly

celebrate the Christian passover, 7-9.

They must not associate with any who, professing the Christian

religion, were guilty of any scandalous vice, and must put away

from them every evil person, 10-13.

NOTES ON CHAP. V.

Verse 1 Corinthians 5:1. There is fornication among you — The word πορνεια, which we translate fornication in this place, must be understood in its utmost latitude of meaning, as implying all kinds of impurity; for, that the Corinthians were notoriously guilty of every species of irregularity and debauch, we have already seen; and it is not likely that in speaking on this subject, in reference to a people so very notorious, he would refer to only one species of impurity, and that not the most flagitious.

That one should have his father's wife. — Commentators and critics have found great difficulties in this statement. One part of the case is sufficiently clear, that a man who professed Christianity had illegal connections with his father's wife; but the principal question is, was his father alive or dead? Most think that the father was alive, and imagine that to this the apostle refers, 2 Corinthians 7:12, where, speaking of the person who did the wrong, he introduces also him who had suffered the wrong; which must mean the father and the father then alive. After all that has been said on this subject, I think it most natural to conclude that the person in question had married the wife of his deceased father, not his own mother, but stepmother, then a widow.

This was a crime which the text says was not so much as named among the Gentiles; the apostle must only mean that it was not accredited by them, for it certainly did often occur: but by their best writers who notice it, it was branded as superlatively infamous. Cicero styles it, scelus incredibile et inauditum, an incredible and unheard of wickedness; but it was heard of and practised; and there are several stories of this kind in heathen authors, but they reprobate not commend it. The word ονομαζεται, named, is wanting in almost every MS. and version of importance, and certainly makes no part of the text. The words should be read, and such fornication as is not amongst the Gentiles, i.e., not allowed. Some think that this woman might have been a proselyte to the Jewish religion from heathenism; and the rabbins taught that proselytism annulled all former relationship, and that a woman was at liberty in such a case to depart from an unbelieving husband, and to marry even with a believing son, i.e., of her husband by some former wife.