Comte de Gabalis: Commentary Continued: F. Saint Paul an Initiate
Σοφίαν δὲ λαλοῦμεν ἐν τοῑς τελείοις. We speak wisdom among the initiated,
Bishop Lightfoot states that "τέλεοις is properly that of which the parts are fully developed. Hence it signifies full-grown,' and accordingly τέλεοις is used by St. Paul as opposed to νήπιος. * Pythagoras also is said to have distinguished his disciples as τέλειοι and νήπιοι. But besides this meaning of full development,' the term here most probably bears the collateral sense of 'initiated' according to its classical usage, illustrating ἐν μυστηρίῳ below.
σοφίαν δὲ οὐ τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου. Not the wisdom of this age, But the wisdom of the life-giving Breath or Force is here implied. "αἰών is so connected with ἂημι, to breathe, blow, as to denote properly that which causes life, vital force;" (or life-giving Force). * GREEK-ENGLISH LEXICON OF THE NEW TESTAMENT, EDITED BY JOSEPH HENRY THAYER, D.D. PAGE 18. This passage is a subtle play upon words conveying one meaning to the Initiate who has knowledge of the life-giving Force and its manifestation for the uphuilding of man's spiritual body, and quite another to the ordinary hearer for whom the primary significance
ἀλλὰ λαλοῦμεν θεοῦ σοφίαν ἐν μνστηρίῳ. But we speak the Wisdom of God in a secret made known to the initiated, "μυστήριον has its ordinary sense of 'a secret made known to the initiated.'" ARTHUR PENRHYN STANLEY, D.D., DEAN OF WESTMINSTER. "THE EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL TO THE 'CORINTHIANS," PAGE 48, NOTE 7. τὴν ἀποκεκρυμμένην. The wisdom kept secret, this is the passive of the verb to conceal, to hide or keep secret. εἰς δόξαν ἡμῶν. For (the upbuilding of) our spiritual body. In considering the utterances of St. Paul it is necessary to bear in mind that he was a Jew and a Cabalist, and that he used Greek words rather as translations of the Hebrew words with which he was familiar than in the sense in which they are usually employed by Greek writers. Thus Eis εἰς δόξαν. "δόξα. As a translation of the Hebrew, in a use foreign to Greek writing, splendor, brightness; used of the heavenly brightness, by which God was conceived of as surrounded," and here applied to the heavenly brightness by which the God in man is clothed, or the spiritual body. "By which heavenly beings were surrounded when they appeared on earth, with which the face of Moses was once made luminous, and also Christ in his transfiguration, in the Targum and Talmud, Shekinah or Shechinah, the glory of the Lord." EXTRACTS FROM GREEK-ENGLISH LEXICON OF THE NEW TESTAMENT, PAGE 156. 212:* Infant, little child. 213:* Solar Force.
Footnotes
