Warmington, Sept. 8. 1851.
Minor Notes.
[Greek: _Hypôpiazô_]--I "keep under my body," &c. 1 Cor. ix. 27. One can
scarcely allude to this passage without remembering the sarcastic
observations of Dr. South upon a too literal interpretation of it.
(_Sermons_, vol. i. p. 12. Dublin, 1720.) And yet deeper and more
spiritual writers by no means pass the literal interpretation by with
indifference. Bishop Andrewes distinctly mentions [Greek: hypôpiasmos],
or _suggillatio_, amongst the "circumstantiæ orationis;" as also [Greek:
ekdikêsis], _vindicta_, or _revenge_, 2 Cor. vii. II. (_Preces Privatæ_,
pag. 14. Londini, 1828.) Bishop J. Taylor is equally explicit in a
well-known and remarkable passage:
"If the lust be upon us, and sharply tempting, by inflicting any
smart to overthrow the strongest passion by the most violent pain,
we shall find great ease for the present, and the resolution and
apt sufferance against the future danger; and this was St. Paul's
remedy: 'I bring my body under;' he used some rudeness towards
it."--_Holy Living_, sect. iii. _Of Chastity. Remedies against
Uncleanness_, 4.
The word [Greek: hypôpia] occurs only once in the LXX, but that seems in
a peculiarly apposite way: "[Greek: _hypôpia kai syntrimmata synanta
kakois_, plêgai de eis tamieia koilias.]" As our English version
translates it: "The blueness of a wound cleanseth away evil (or, is a
purging medicine against evil, margin), so do stripes the inward parts
of the belly." (Proverbs xx. 30.) If it were not absolute presumption to
differ from the great Dr. Jackson, one would feel inclined to question,
or at least to require further proof of some observations of his. He
says, in treating of our present passage:
"The very literal importance of those three words in the
original--[Greek: hypopiazô], [Greek: kêryxas], and
[Greek: adokimos]--cannot be so well learned from any Dictionary
or Lexicon, as from such as write of the Olympic Games, or of that
kind of tryal of masteries, which in his time or before was in
use. The word [Greek: hypopiazô] is proper (I take it) unto
wrestlers, whose practice it was to keep under other men's bodies,
not their own, or to keep their antagonists from all advantage of
hold, either gotten or aimed at. But our apostle did imitate their
practice upon his own body, not on any others; for his own body
was his chief antagonist."--_Works_, vol. ii. p. 644. Lond. 1673.
Suidas makes some remarks upon the word, but they are not very much to
our purpose.