1 Corinthians 16:19

The churches of Asia salute you. Aquila and Priscilla salute you much in the Lord, with the church that is in their house.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(19) The churches of Asia salute you.—This and the following verse are occupied with the salutations from the churches throughout Asia; from the church in the house of Aquila and Priscilla; and finally, from “all the brethren.” Aquila and Priscilla had been the Apostle’s friends at Corinth (Acts 18:1-3), and he now was with them at Ephesus. (See Romans 16:3-5; 2Timothy 4:19.) Probably by “the church in their house” is meant a group of foreigners then resident in Ephesus, and accustomed to meet there for worship, as distinct from those who had been converted in Ephesus.

Benson Commentary

1 Corinthians 16:19-21. The churches of Asia — Especially those of Ephesus and its neighbourhood; salute you — With all Christian affection, heartily wishing you peace and prosperity. Aquila and Priscilla — Formerly members of your church, (Acts 18:2; Acts 18:18,) but who at present are with me; salute you much — With singular Christian love; in the Lord — In his grace and Spirit. These worthy persons lived in Corinth all the time the apostle was there. And when he departed, they accompanied him to Ephesus, (Acts 18:18,) where they remained till after he left Ephesus to go to Jerusalem. For when he returned to Ephesus, he found them there, as is plain from their salutation sent to the Corinthians in this letter, which was written from Ephesus. But they seem to have left Ephesus about the time the apostle departed to go into Macedonia. For in the letter which he wrote to the Romans from Corinth, they are saluted as then residing in Rome. With the church which is in their house — The Christian congregation which assembles there. All the brethren — Who labour with me in the gospel, or are members of the church here; greet you — Wish you all felicity. Greet ye one another with a holy kiss — See on Romans 16:16. The salutation of me Paul with mine own hand — What precedes having been written by an amanuensis. See 2 Thessalonians 3:17; Colossians 4:18.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

16:19-24 Christianity by no means destroys civility. Religion should promote a courteous and obliging temper towards all. Those give a false idea of religion, and reproach it, who would take encouragement from it to be sour and morose. And Christian salutations are not mere empty compliments; but are real expressions of good-will to others, and commend them to the Divine grace and blessing. Every Christian family should be as a Christian church. Wherever two or three are gathered together in the name of Christ, and he is among them, there is a church. Here is a solemn warning. Many who have Christ's name much in their mouths, have no true love to him in their hearts. None love him in truth, who do not love his laws, and keep his commandments. Many are Christians in name, who do not love Christ Jesus the Lord in sincerity. Such are separated from the people of God, and the favour of God. Those who love not the Lord Jesus Christ, must perish without remedy. Let us not rest in any religious profession where there is not the love of Christ, earnest desires for his salvation, gratitude for his mercies, and obedience to his commandments. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ has in it all that is good, for time and for eternity. To wish that our friends may have this grace with them, is wishing them the utmost good. And this we should wish all our friends and brethren in Christ. We can wish them nothing greater, and we should wish them nothing less. True Christianity makes us wish those whom we love, the blessings of both worlds; this is meant in wishing the grace of Christ to be with them. The apostle had dealt plainly with the Corinthians, and told them of their faults with just severity; but he parts in love, and with a solemn profession of his love to them for Christ's sake. May our love be with all who are in Christ Jesus. Let us try whether all things appear worthless to us, when compared with Christ and his righteousness. Do we allow ourselves in any known sin, or in the neglect of any known duty? By such inquiries, faithfully made, we may judge of the state of our souls.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The churches of Asia - The word "Asia" in the New Testament usually denotes Asia Minor in general; see the note on Acts 2:9. It was sometimes used in a more limited sense, to denote the region around Ephesus, and of which Ephesus was the center and capital; see note, Acts 16:6. This is the region undoubtedly which is intended here.

Salute you - Greet you; send respectful and affectionate Christian regards; see the note at Romans 16:3.

Aquila and Priscilla - See the note on Acts 18:26.

Much in the Lord - With affectionate Christian salutations; or as Christians. Wishing the blessing and favor of the Lord.

With the church that is in their house - See the note at Romans 16:5.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

19. Asia—not all Asia Minor, but Lydian Asia only, of which Ephesus was the capital.

much—with especial affection.

Aquila … Priscilla—(Compare Ac 18:2; Ro 16:3, 4). Originally driven out of Italy by Claudius, they had come to Corinth (whence their salutation of the Corinthians is appropriate here), and then had removed with Paul from Corinth to Ephesus (Ac 18:2, 18, 19, 26); here, as at Rome subsequently, they set up a Church (or assembly of believers) at their house (Ro 16:3, 5). A pattern to Christian husbands and wives. Their Christian self-devoting love appears wherever they were (Ro 16:3, 4). Even the gifted Apollos, so highly admired at Corinth, owed much of his knowledge to them (Ac 18:24-26). In 1Co 16:20, "All the brethren" (that is, the whole Church) seem to be distinguished from "the church that is in their house," which was but a partial and private assembly out of the general Church at Corinth. Neander thinks Ro 16:23 refers to "the whole Church" meeting at the house of Gaius (compare Col 4:15). "Synagogue" implies an assembly in general, without reference to the character or motives of its members. "Church," like the Hebrew Kahal, implies an assembly legally convened; as, for instance, the Jews met as a body politic to receive the law (hence Stephen calls it "the Church in the wilderness," Ac 7:38), and having a legal bond of union. Christ's followers when dispersed from one another cease to be a congregation (synagogue), but still are a Church, having the common bond of union to the same Head by the same faith and hope [Vitringa, Synagogue and Temple]. From this we may explain Paul's entering "into every house and haling men and women": he would in searching for Christians go to their several "houses"' of prayer.

in the Lord—They pray for all blessings on you from the Lord, the source of every good [Grotius]. Alford explains, "in a Christian manner," as mindful of your common Lord. "In the Lord" seems to me to refer to their union together in Christ, their prayers for one another's good being in virtue of that union.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

He meaneth the Lesser Asia, in which was Ephesus; from whence it is more probable (according to the Arabic and Syriac opinion) that this Epistle was written, than from Philippi (according to the copy followed by our translaters). And that which further adds to that probability is, that the apostle mentioneth the salutations of

Aquila and Priscilla, as persons that were at that time with him; now, that they lived at Ephesus, or at least went thither with Paul, and tarried there, appeareth from Acts 18:19: their saluting the church of Corinth

in the Lord, signifies their wishing them all spiritual blessings in and from Christ. But what is meant by

the church in their house, which joined with Paul in this salutation, is not so plain: we read the like, Colossians 4:15, of the church in Nymphas’s house; and in Philemon’s house, Philemon 1:2; and the same again of this Aquila and Priscilla, Romans 16:5. Some think that it signifieth no more, than that their whole families had received the Christian faith; others think, that divers other Christians sojourned with them; others, that the church was wont to meet in some room in their house: but the last is not probable, either that in those times the church kept their meetings in any one stated place, or that Christians then had such spacious houses as could afford a room large enough for the whole church to meet in.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

The churches of Asia salute you,.... The Syriac version renders it, "all" the churches. This shows, that this epistle was not written from Philippi, as the subscription to it attests, for then he would rather have said; the churches of Macedonia salute you, but at Ephesus, where he now was; see 1 Corinthians 16:8; and this is the more confirmed, by the following salutation of Aquila and Priscilla, who it is plain from Acts 18:18, were with the apostle at Ephesus:

Aquila and Priscilla salute you much in the Lord; Aquila was a Jew of Pontus, and Priscilla was his wife, who came from Italy, all Jews being obliged to depart from Rome, by the order of Claudius Caesar. These came to Corinth, where they met with the apostle; and being of the same occupation, stayed and wrought with him; and when he went from thence to Ephesus, accompanied him thither; see Acts 18:3; wherefore having personal knowledge of the members of this church, through their stay with the apostle there, for the space of a year and a half, send their Christian salutations to them, with great affection and respect:

with the church that is in their house: their family consisting of believers, and being kept in such good decorum, and employed daily in singing, praying, expounding, and conferring together about divine things, looked like a little church; and it may be that at certain times the principal members of the church at Ephesus met in their house for religious worship, and to consider and debate about the affairs of the church; and very likely as they were of the same occupation with the apostle, he himself dwelt here; and which might be the more an occasion of the church assembling here at times; and the Vulgate Latin version adds, "with whom also I lodge".

Geneva Study Bible

The churches of Asia salute you. Aquila and Priscilla salute you much in the Lord, with the church that is in their house.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

1 Corinthians 16:19 f. Τῆς Ἀσίας] in the narrower sense, comprehending the western coastlands of Asia Minor (see on Acts 2:9), where Ephesus also lay. From the latter, at least, Paul was charged with a greeting, but in the assurance of a like loving fellowship on the part also of the other Asiatic churches, with which he was in intercourse from Ephesus, he widens i.

ἐν κυρίῳ] marks the Christian character of the greeting, inasmuch as it was given with the feeling of living and moving in Christ. Comp. on Romans 16:22. The ἐν κυρ., which is here added, is taken for granted by the reader in the case of the other greetings also. But here precisely it is expressed, because this greeting is a specially fervent one; hence also πολλά (much, comp. 1 Corinthians 16:12).

σὺν τῇ κατʼ οἶκον αὐτ. ἐκκλ.] Aquila and Prisca (Priscilla), who had gone from Corinth (see on Acts 18:2) to Ephesus (Acts 18:18; Acts 18:26), had therefore given their dwelling here too, as afterwards at Rome (Romans 16:3 f.), for the assembly of a portion of the Christians in the place. Comp. on Rom. l.c. Probably Paul also lodged with them, so that the old addition: παρʼ οἷς καὶ ξενίζομαι (D E F G, Vulg., etc.), contains a true statemen.

οἱ ἀδελφοὶ πάντες] the whole of the members of the Ephesian church—these, still, separately and personally, although already included collectively in the first greetin.

ἐν φιλ. ἁγ.] by means of a holy kiss. See on Romans 16:16; 2 Corinthians 13:12; 1 Thessalonians 5:26. It is the kiss which was the token of Christian, brotherly love (1 Peter 5:14), and thus had the specific character of Christian consecration. Comp. Constit. apost. ii. 57. 12, viii. 5. 5 : τὸ ἐν κυρίῳ φίλημα. More special considerations, such as that of the absence of hypocrisy (Chrysostom, Theodoret, Theophylact), are imported. They are to greet each other, mutually (not from Paul), with the holy kiss after the reading of the Epistle in the assembly, and thereby manifest their brotherly love to each other respectively.[111] Comp. on Romans 16:16.

[111] We are to conceive of this ἀσπάζεσθαι ἀλληλούς as a silent one, in which the kiss is the medium instead of words. Comp. Const. ap. viii. 11. 4.

1 Corinthians 16:21-24. Conclusion added with his own hand in token, according to 2 Thessalonians 3:17, comp. 1 Corinthians 2:2, that the Epistle, though not written with his own hand, was his Epistle. Comp. Colossians 4:18.

ὁ ἀσπασμός] is the greeting κατʼ ἐξοχήν, the final salutation to the church. Nothing is to be supplied; on the contrary, Paul writes these words, and there is the greetin.

Παύλου] in apposition to ἐμῇ. See Kühner, II. p. 145.

In 1 Corinthians 16:22, looking back once more, as it were involuntarily, upon the many degenerate forms of Christian life, and the discords at Corinth, he adds an apostolic utterance of judgment, full of terrible solemnity, against all those who could not but feel that it struck at the.

οὐ φιλεῖ τ. κύρ.] is without love to Christ. So he designates those Christians, who, like so many at Corinth, by factiousness, self-seeking, strife, a carnal life, etc., practically denied their love to Christ (John 14:23). That the curse applied to them, as long as they were impenitent, is self-evident. Comp. 2 Corinthians 7:10.

Observe that the more sensuous word φιλεῖν is nowhere used by Paul in those Epistles which are undoubtedly his (comp., however, Titus 3:15), except in this passage so full of emotion; elsewhere he uses ἀγαπᾶν (Ephesians 6:24).

ἤτω ἀνάθ.] i.e. then let him be one devoted to destruction (to the eternal ἀπώλεια). See on Romans 9:3; Galatians 1:8.

μαραναθά] energetic reference to the Parousia, at which that ἤτω ἀνάθ. shall be realized. The word is the Aramaic מָרָנָא אֲתָא , i.e. our Lord is come, by which, however, not the coming in the flesh is meant, as Chrysostom, Theodoret, Theophylact, Jerome, Erasmus, Castalio, al., assume,[112] but, in accordance with the context (see previously ἤτω ἀνάθ.), the eschatological coming to judgment. Paul sees the near and certain Parousia as if already begun (see on this use of the Hebrew praeterite, Ewald, Lehrb. 135. 3), and exclaims, like a prophet beholding it in vision: Our Lord is here! But it is not a form of putting under ban (see Lightfoot, Hor. p. 260), as indeed it does not occur in the Rabbinical writings; Luther (comp. Calvin) has without any warrant made it into Maharam Motha (which would be מחרם מותא , maledictus ad mortem). According to Hofmann, μαραναθά is meant to be equivalent to מַר אַנְתָה , Thou art the Lord, whereby the thought is expressed: “He will prove Himself in them to be Lord.” But how needless is this wholly novel and far less characteristic interpretation! The traditional interpretation,[113] on the other hand, places the punishment of the judgment directly before our eyes. Why, we may ask further, did Paul use the Aramaean expression? We do not know. Perhaps there was implied in it some reminiscence from the time of the apostle’s presence among them, unknown to us, but carrying weight for his readers; perhaps it was only the prompting of momentary indignation, that, after the sentence of judgment already pronounced (ἤτω ἀνάθεμα), “rei gravitate commotus, quasi sibi non satisfecisset” (Calvin), he desired to clothe in truly solemn language the threatening reference to the Parousia yet to be added by μαραναθά, instead of saying ὁ κύριος ἡμῶν ἥκει. That there was a reference, however, in the Aramaean expression to the Petrine party who understood Hebrew, is not to be assumed (in opposition to Hofmann), as the general εἴ τις οὐ φιλεῖ τ. κύριον shows of itself. The two Aramaean words were doubtless enough intelligible generally in the mixed church, which contained so much of the Jewish element. Had the Maranatha, however, been as it were the mysterious watchword in the world of that time (Ewald), there would be in all probability more traces of it to be found in the New Testament. This also in opposition to Bengel. The view of Chrysostom and Theophylact is singularly absurd: Paul wished by the Aramaean to cross the conceit of the Corinthians in the Hellenic language and wisdom. Billroth, followed by Rückert, holds that he had added something in Aramaic also, in order to accredit yet more strongly the authenticity of the Epistle, but that this had afterwards been written by the transcribers in Greek letters. But the assumption that he had not written μαραναθά in Greek letters, although it has passed over so into all Greek MSS. of the text, is equally arbitrary with the presupposition that he had thought such an extraordinary and peculiar mode of attestation to be needful precisely in the case of this Epistle, which was already sufficiently accredited without it by the bearers.—1 Corinthians 16:23. The grace of the Lord, etc., sc. εἴη, the apostle’s most common closing wish in an epistle, Romans 16:20; Romans 16:24; Galatians 6:18; Php 4:23; 1 Thessalonians 5:28; 2 Thessalonians 3:18; Philemon 1:25.—1 Corinthians 16:24. My love, etc., sc. ἐστι: his heart impels him still to add this assurance at the very end, all the more because the divisions, immoralities, and disorders in the church had forced from him such severe rebukes and, even now, such corrective appeals. He loves them, and loves them all. If taken as optative (Luther, Estius, Ewald), it would be less suitably an indirect admonition, namely, that they might so conduct themselves that, et.

ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ] Christ is his whole life-sphere; in it he loves also. His love has thus the distinctively Christian character, in contrast to all κοσμικὴ ἀγάπη (Theophy)

[112] Paul, they hold, means thereby to say: “Quod superfluum sit adversus eum (Christum) odiis pertinacibus contendere, quem venisse jam constet,” Jerome, Ep. 137 ad Marcell.; or: he means thereby to put them to shame, because they still continued in their sins after the Lord had shown such condescension, Chrysostom; or, “quandoquidem aversatur eum, a quo solo poterat consequi salutem, et venisse negat quem constat venisse magno bono credentium, sed magno malo incredulorum,” Erasmus, Paraphr.; or, “quod si quis eum non amat, frustra alium expectat,” Castalio.

[113] Even those codd. which have written the word in a divided way, have the division not μαρ αναθα, but μαραν αθα. So already B**. And the versions, too (those which do not with the Vulgate retain it untranslated), translate according to this division; so already the Peshito: Dominus noster venit. Cod. It. g.: in adventu Domini.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

19. The churches of Asia salute you] See Introduction, Ch. iii. p. 15.

Aquila and Priscilla] See Acts 18:2; Acts 18:18; Acts 18:26. From Romans 16:3 (where Priscilla is called Prisca), we find that they returned to Rome as soon as it was safe to return thither. The message of Aquila and Priscilla to the members of the Church which had received them in their necessity, is one of the minute points of agreement which do so much to establish the authenticity of the various books of Scripture.

with the church that is in their house] Cf. Romans 16:5. The expression may mean (1) their family, or (2) less probably, the congregation which was accustomed to meet there for worship. Cf. Colossians 4:15; Philemon 1:2.

Bengel's Gnomen

1 Corinthians 16:19. Πολλὰ, much) for especial affection, Acts 18:2; Acts 18:1.—Ακύλας καὶ Πρίσκιλλα, Aquila and Priscilla) Elsewhere this woman is mentioned first. In the epistle to the Corinthians, she is put last; comp. 1 Corinthians 14:34.—κατʼ οἶκον, in their house) This couple afterwards set up a church also in their house at Rome; Romans 16:5.

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 19-24. - Salutations and autograph conclusion. Verse 19. - The Churches of Asia. Proconsular Asia. There was a constant interchange of voyages between the western coast of Asia and Corinth. Aquila and Priscilla. This admirable Christian husband and wife had no small share in founding the Churches both of Corinth and Ephesus. Being St. Paul's partners in trade, he spent much time with them. (For all that is known of them. see Acts 18:1, 2, 26; Romans 16:3, 5.) Priscilla. Most of the uncials have the shorter form, Prisca. In some manuscripts (D, E, F, G) and versions (e.g. the Vulgate) we find the addition, "with whom also I am lodging." The Church that is in their house. The time for large common churches for public worship had not yet arrived, Hence, when the Christian community numbered more than could meet in one place, the congregations were held in separate houses (Romans 16:4, 15; Acts 2:46; Colossians 4:15; Philemon 1:2). 1 Corinthians 16:19

Vincent's Word Studies

Asia

See on Acts 2:9.

Aquila and Prisca

See on Romans 16:3.