Not to Company

1 Corinthians 5:9‑10  •  1 min. read  •  grade level: 18
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V. 1 Cor. 5:9, 109I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators: 10Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world. (1 Corinthians 5:9‑10). J. D. raises a question as to the accuracy of the English Bible in rendering ού τάντωs “not altogether.” He inquires whether the words are not rather to be viewed as emphatically negativing any companionship or intercourse with the worldly characters which are afterward enumerated, and whether verse 11 is not a supplement, regarding professed Christian brethren, who are to be yet more stringently dealt with. The best versions, ancient, and modern, which are accessible to me, (including the Syriac, Vulgate, Beza, Luther, De Wette, the Elberfeld, the Dutch, Diodati, Ostervald, the Lausanne, &c.,) appear to give the same sense as the authorized V., which, in my opinion, necessarily flows from the last clause of the verse. For what is ἐπεὶ ὀφείλετε ἄρα ἐκ τοῦ ἐξελθεὶν, but a proof of the futility of an absolute avoidance of worldly bad men?— “for then ye must needs go out of the world.” The apostle proceeds to show that the command not to keep company refers to communion in any way with guilty brethren so-called.