Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
Punctuate thus: "If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantageth it me? If the dead rise not, let us eat and drink," etc. [BENGEL]. If "merely as a man" (with the mere human hope of the present life; not with the Christian's hope of the resurrection; answering to "If the dead rise not," the parallel clause in the next sentence), I have fought with men resembling savage beasts. Heraclitus, of Ephesus, had termed his countrymen "wild beasts" four hundred years before. So Epimenides called the Cretians (Titus 1:12). Paul was still at Ephesus (1 Corinthians 16:8), and there his life was daily in danger (1 Corinthians 4:9; compare 2 Corinthians 1:8). Though the tumult (Acts 19:29-30) had not yet taken place (for after it he set out immediately for Macedonia), this Epistle was written evidently just before it, when the storm was gathering; "many adversaries" (1 Corinthians 16:9) were already menacing him.
what advantageth it me?--seeing I have renounced all that, "as a mere man," might compensate me for such sufferings, gain, fame, etc.
let us eat, etc.--Quoted from the Septuagint, (Isaiah 22:13), where the prophet describes the reckless self-indulgence of the despisers of God's call to mourning, Let us enjoy the good things of life now, for it soon will end. Paul imitates the language of such skeptics, to reprove both their theory and practice. "If men but persuade themselves that they shall die like the beasts, they soon will live like beasts too" [SOUTH].
Other commentary entries containing this verse:
Ecclesiastes 7:16
Ecclesiastes 8:15
Isaiah 22:13
Romans 16:4
1 Corinthians 15:34
2 Corinthians 1:8-9
2 Corinthians 1:9
Galatians 3:4
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