Why do we also stand in jeopardy every hour?
Parallel Translations
-
Why do we also stand in jeopardy every hour?
-
Ye and why stonde we in ieoperdy every houre?
-
Why are wee also in ieopardie euery houre?
Cross-references (6)
Passages linked to 1 Corinthians 15:30 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- 2 Corinthians 6:9 as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and not killed;
- 2 Corinthians 11:23-27 Are they servants of Christ? (I speak as one beside himself.) I am more so: in labors more abundantly, in prisons more abundantly, in stripes above measure, and in deaths often. Five times I received forty stripes minus one from the Jews. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I suffered shipwreck. I have been a night and a day in the deep. I have been in travels often, perils of rivers, perils of robbers, perils from my countrymen, perils from the Gentiles, perils in the city, perils in the wilderness, perils in the sea, perils among false brothers; in labor and travail, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, and in cold and nakedness.
- Romans 8:36-39 Even as it is written, “For your sake we are killed all day long. We were accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from God’s love which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
- 1 Corinthians 15:31 I affirm, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.
- 2 Corinthians 4:7-12 But we have this treasure in clay vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves. We are pressed on every side, yet not crushed; perplexed, yet not to despair; pursued, yet not forsaken; struck down, yet not destroyed; always carrying in the body the putting to death of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus may be revealed in our mortal flesh. So then death works in us, but life in you.
- Galatians 5:11 But I, brothers, if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? Then the stumbling block of the cross has been removed.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (18 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Private notes
Saved on this device only — never synced or sent anywhere.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain The sixth argument: Unless there be a resurrection of…
The sixth argument: Unless there be a resurrection of the dead, why should the Apostles so daily cast themselves into danger of so many deaths?
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 30 And why stand we in jeopardy every hour?
30 And why stand we in jeopardy every hour?
Ver. 30. In jeopardy every hour] Carrying our lives in our hands, as both the Hebrews and Greeks phrase it, εν τη χειρι την ψυχην εχειν. (Athenseus.)
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain We are the veriest fools in nature, if there…
We are the veriest fools in nature, if there be no resurrection of believers unto life; for it is in the firm belief and hopes of that, that we are in danger of our lives, and all that we have, every hour of our lives.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain Our apostle is still arguing for the belief of…
Our apostle is still arguing for the belief of the resurrection of the dead, and seems to speak here after this manner: what folly would it be in us Christians, to choose a religion that exposes us continually to death and danger? Why should we run the hazard of the loss of estate, liberty, and life itself, if there be no resurrection in order to a retribution, when our courage and constancy for Christ and his holy religion shall be acknowledged and rewarded?
Why stand we in jeopardy every hour? Intimating, that it would be the greatest folly and madness to suffer the worst of evils for the sake of Christianity, if all our hopes perish in the grave.
Read full note →
He adds farther, That as to himself he died daily; that is, was continually exposed to death, in danger of it, in expectation of it, and in a preparation for it; which he would never have been, if he had not an expectation of a glorious resurrection, when all his sufferings and services should be rewarded.
And to confirm the truth of what he said, he binds with a solemn protestation, I protest by your rejoicing, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily; that is, either I protest by all the joy which I have in your conversion to Christianity, and by all that rejoicing which is found with me for the success of my ministry among you: or else, I protest by all that rejoicing which I have in common with you and all Christians under the heaviest sufferings for the sake of Christ Jesus our Lord, that I live continually a dying life, perpetually in expectation of death, and preparation for it.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Be not deceived,.... By such as deny the doctrine…
Be not deceived,.... By such as deny the doctrine of the resurrection, and by their reasonings about it; or by such libertines who go into the denial of it, and argue from thence in favour of their licentious course of life:
evil communications corrupt good manners. This is a sentence taken out of Menander, an Heathen poet, showing how dangerous is the conversation of evil men, and what an influence bad principles communicated and imbibed, have on the lives and practices of men. This the apostle cites not out of ostentation, or to show his reading, learning, and acquaintance with such sort of writers; but partly to observe, that this was a truth obvious by the light of nature, and partly because such a testimony might be more regarded by the Corinthians, who might be fond of such authors, and what was said by them; just as when he was at Athens among the philosophers there, he cites a passage out of Aratus, Act 17:28 as he does another out of Epimenides concerning the Cretians, Tit 1:12.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Why are we - The apostles. Also in danger…
Why are we - The apostles. Also in danger every hour - It is plain we can expect no amends in this life.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 30. And why stand we in jeopardy every…
Verse 30. And why stand we in jeopardy every hour?] Is there any reason why we should voluntarily submit to so many sufferings, and every hour be in danger of losing our lives, if the dead rise not? On the conviction of the possibility and certainty of the resurrection, we are thus baptized for the dead. We have counted the cost, despise sufferings, and exult at the prospect of death, because we know we shall have a resurrection unto eternal life.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain And why stand we in jeopardy - Why do…
And why stand we in jeopardy - Why do we constantly risk our lives, and encounter danger of every kind? This refers particularly to Paul himself and the other apostles, who were constantly exposed to peril by land or by sea in the arduous work of making known the gospel. The argument here is plain. It is, that such efforts would be vain, useless, foolish, unless there was to be a glorious resurrection. They had no other object in encountering these dangers than to make known the truths connected with that glorious future state; and if there were no such future state, it would be wise for them to avoid these dangers. “It would not be supposed that we would encounter these perils constantly, unless we were sustained with the hope of the resurrection, and unless we had evidence which convinced our own minds that there would be such a resurrection.”
Every hour - Constantly; compare 2Co 11:26. So numerous were their dangers, that they might be said to occur every hour. This was particularly the case in the instance to which he refers in Ephesus, 1Co 15:32.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain we--apostles (Co1 15:9; Co1 4:9). A gradation from those…
we--apostles (Co1 15:9; Co1 4:9). A gradation from those who could only for a little time enjoy this life (that is, those baptized at the point of death), to us, who could enjoy it longer, if we had not renounced the world for Christ [BENGEL].
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 4. This accords with the phrase the dead; the…
4. This accords with the phrase the dead; the baptism being, not for a dead person, or some dead persons, but for the universal dead.
30. We—The apostles, as the I of the next verse specifies the apostle himself. From their sponsorship for the dead in baptism he passes to the baptism of suffering and blood which the apostles underwent in behalf of the same cause.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 30. And why stand we in jeopardy every hour?]…
30. And why stand we in jeopardy every hour?] Not only those who were daily being baptized for the dead witnessed to the universal belief among Christians in a resurrection, but the lives of daily peril in which St Paul and the other missionaries of the Gospel lived were sufficient evidence that they did not conceive all their hopes to be summed up in this life.
jeopardy] Pereil, Wiclif. Jeoperty, Tyndal. This word is derived from the French jeu parti, drawn game. It is spelt jupartie by Chaucer, and is mentioned by Ben Jonson as one of three English words only in which the diphthong eo appears. The others are yeoman and people. Leopard was probably a trisyllable in his day. The other derivations, jeu perdu, given by Minsheu in his Ductor in Linguas, published in 1617, and j’ai perdu, seem less agreeable to the meaning of the word, which clearly indicates a position of the utmost danger, in which the chances for death and life are equal. Cf. Shakspeare’s “at the hazard of a die.”
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (30) And why stand we in jeopardy every hour?—This…
(30) And why stand we in jeopardy every hour?—This is the same kind of argument now applied to the Apostles themselves. Their conduct also would be illogical if they did not believe in a resurrection. Notice the strong contrast between “them,” in the previous verse, and “we” in this verse.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Why stand we in jeopardy every hour? The verb…
Why stand we in jeopardy every hour? The verb means "Why do we incur peril?" The best comment on it will be found in 2Co_11:26. Cicero says ("Tusc. Disp.," 1:15) that "no one would be so mad as to live in labour and perils if our instinctive anticipation of future life were taken away.
Vers. 30, 31.
Read full note →
Daily dying.
stand we," etc.? The apostles, in their efforts to extend the gospel, endured great afflictions and involved themselves in terrific perils, and if there be no future life, Paul asks, why should they have done so? "Why stand we in jeopardy every hour?" Why should we thus "die daily"? But there is a daily dying in the case of every man.
I There is a daily dying that is INEVITABLE to humanity.
1. There is a daily dying of our corporeal frame. In each human body the seed of death is implanted, the law of mortality is at work. The water does not more naturally roll to the ocean than the human frame runs every moment to dissolution. Life streams from us at every pore. This fact should teach us:
(1) That worldly mindedness is an infraction of reason. What a monstrous absurdity it is to set our supreme affections upon objects from which we are departing every moment. As the ship of the emigrant in full sail is bearing him every moment further and further from his native shore, so destiny is bearing every man further and further from his connection with this earth, No anchor can stop this ship of destiny.
(2) That sorrow for the departed should be moderated. Why indulge in grief for those who are gone? Their departure was in obedience to the resistless law of their nature, and that same law is daily bearing us whither they are gone.
(3) That Christianity is an invaluable boon to mortals. It does two things; it teaches us that there is a future worm of blessedness, and points us the way by which that blessed world is reached.
1. There is a daily dying of our social world. We live not only with others, but by them. Without society we might exist, but live we could not. Our contemporaries are the objects of our sympathies, the subjects of our conscious life; they engage our thoughts, they affect our hearts, they originate our motives, they stimulate our conduct, and all this is much of our life. But this social world in which we live., and by which we live, is dying daily. The social circumstances which feed our life are changing every day. The thoughts, the love, the grief, the anger, the fear, the hopes, which were once elements of life to us, have passed away because the objects of them have gone.
2. There is a daily dying of our mental activity. The motives that influence us to action are elements of life, and they are constantly dying. For example, the leading purpose that a man has is, for the time, one of his strongest motives of action, but the leading purpose of every man is a dying thing. It is dead as a motive both when it is frustrated, as is constantly the case, and also when it is fully realized. A realized purpose has lost its motivity. Thus we die daily in mind.
II There is a daily dying that is OPTIONAL to humanity. This optional death is of two kinds, the criminal and the virtuous.
1. There is the criminal. There are noble things in man that are dying daily, for which be is responsible. In the depraved soul, sensibility of conscience, generosity of impulse, elasticity of intellect freedom of thought, spirituality of feeling these, that constitute the highest life of man, die daily in the
2. corrupt soul. The sinner is constantly murdering these, and their blood cries to Heaven for vengeance. "To be carnally minded is death.
3. There is the virtuous. There are certain things that men should and ought to crucify selfishness, sensuality, love of the world, etc. The highest life of man is a daily dying to all that is mean, false, mercenary, unspiritual, and uncharitable. The apostle felt this when he said, "I," that is, my carnal self, "am crucified with Christ;" nevertheless, "I," that is, my spiritual self, "live," etc.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain And why stand we in Jeopardy every hour?
1Co_15:30-34
And why stand we in Jeopardy every hour?
Read full note →
The hourly jeopardy: the daily death
We have now reached the second of St. Pauls argumenta ad hominem. The first is the argument for the resurrection from the baptism of the dead. The second is the argument which he derives from his perils and sufferings. Admit that his hope would not make him ashamed, and his career was noble and heroic: deny it, and his career was a senseless bravado. Good trees do not spring from evil roots. Devotion to truth, a charity capable of all sacrifices--these are qualities which do not grow out of a lie, or faith in a lie. That cannot be a lie which made St. Paul so true and great a man. St. Paul begins by asking, If the dead rise not, why stand we in jeopardy every hour? and he affirms, I die daily (1Co_15:30-31). We know what his life was like.
I. The apostles life was a daily death, an hourly jeopardy.
1. Elsewhere, he furnishes us with a more detailed description, and thus supplies us with the best commentary on these words (2Co_11:23-28.) But mark how he says it (1Co_15:31). Instead of I protest, read, I swear; for St. Paul here uses a common Greek form of oath. He frequently employs the most solemn adjurations. Christs Verily, verily, is an oath. Nay, the Almighty Himself is represented as swearing by Himself (Heb_6:16-18; Gen_22:16-18). But let us also note by what Paul swears--by my boast of you which I have in Christ Jesus. The Corinthians were the seal of his apostleship. His very oath, therefore, must have touched their hearts, and have predisposed them to a cordial acceptance of that which he was about to advance. It is, indeed, by these delicate touches of a most tender and loving nature, that St. Paul declares himself to us and constrains us to love and admire him.
2. The apostle cites one special instance of the jeopardy in which he always stood (1Co_15:22). If we assume that St. Paul did on one occasion fight with beasts in the Ephesian stadium, his argument is plain. It means that here again he was a mere idiot to incur deadly peril, if he were teaching a lie. But this is improbable. Paul was a Roman citizen, and could not therefore be legally condemned to the arena, he could very hardly have escaped from it with his life. In the Acts, moreover, there is no hint of any such conflict; nor does the apostle ever refer to one in any catalogue of his dangers. On all these grounds we conclude that he is here speaking metaphorically, viz., that he had to encounter men as brutish and fierce as wild beasts. Such figures of speech are common in all ages and lands. Heraclitus expressly calls the Ephesians beasts, using the very word which St. Paul employs. And no one who reads Act_19:1-41 will deny the propriety of the epithet. The multitude rushed into the theatre like a herd of bulls in wild stampede, and, like bulls, bellowed some one thing, and some another: and then, like beasts irritated by a red rag, as soon as they heard that Alexander was a Jew, went mad with rage, more like beasts that want discourse of reason than rational men. As St. Paul listened to their din, the epithet of Heraclitus may have occurred to him and have fixed itself on his memory. And if his letters to the Corinthians were written after the tumult at Ephesus, he may here allude to that confused and terrible scene. In Ephesus, as elsewhere, he risked all, because he believed in Christ as the resurrection and the life (cf. 2Co_1:8-10)
.
II. To run such a risk daily and hourly, St. Paul affirms to be impossible to men who did not believe a future life (verse 32).
1. Those who believe that dead men are not raised have as their motto, Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die, which the apostle cites from (Isa_22:13). Yet it is curious to note that at Anchiale in Cilicia (the apostle being of Tarsus in Cilicia) there was a statue with this inscription: Sardanapalus, the son of Anacyndraxes (Sennacherib), built Anchiale and Tarsus in one day. Stranger, eat, drink, and play, for all the rest is not worth this--this being a fillip which the fingers of the statue were in the act of giving. In the prophet it has a special historical reference. Jerusalem was besieged by the Babylonians. The slain lay unburied in its streets. Dearth preyed on the living. By all these calamites God was calling His people to repentance. Instead of responding and waxing desperate with despair, they gave themselves to reckless mirth and revelry, crying, Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. It is this outcry of desperate ghastly mirth--which has been heard in Athens, in Florence, in London, in Paris, as well as in Jerusalem--which St. Paul quotes, which he puts into the mouth of those who deny a resurrection. To them, human life is a mere siege. The hosts of death are encamped against it. The fatal assault may be delivered at any moment. Why should they restrain their appetites? Why deny themselves to-day for a to-morrow that may never dawn? Why desire a morrow which brings no hope with it? Better eat and drink, and snatch what little pleasure may be had! (cf. Wis_2:1-9)
.
2. This was the tone taken in the apostles time by the degenerate Epicurean school. It was the prevalent tone of the empire. In Corinth the ghastly revel was at its height.
3. Hence it is that St. Paul, when writing to the Corinthians, lays such emphasis on the resurrection. If he can help it, he will not so much as have them listen to those who jest about the future life, or deny it, or urge them to riot and excess because they must soon perish. They may think there can be no great harm in hearing what these scufflers have to say. There is harm in it, replies St. Paul. One of your own poets long since said, Vile speeches honest customs do corrupt. And if you listen to the Epicurean speeches which are rife about you, your habits of thought and life will degenerate. And we have not outgrown the need of this proverb. I have known men listen complacently to jests against good morals or religious truths, although they themselves condemn irreligion and immorality Their excuse is that it is only a jest, that words break no bones, that a little freedom of speech does no harm. The wise Greek poet was not of their mind; nor was the holy apostle.
4. From the words with which St. Paul closes this paragraph (verse 34) there is reason to fear that the good Christian customs of some of the Corinthians had suffered from the vile speeches of the heathen. Wake up from your orgies, he exclaims. Their only hope lay in rousing themselves to righteousness. They would come to the knowledge of God as they set themselves to do His will. They would learn that there was a resurrection unto life as they ordered their present life wisely, holily, and in the fear of God. Conclusion: Of the many points of interest incidentally suggested by these verses, none, perhaps, is more pertinent to the present time than St. Pauls use of the Greek poets; for there are still good people who object to the introduction of what they call secular topics into religious discussions or exhortations, and object to a classical curriculum for students destined for the Christian ministry, and, therefore, it may be well to ask them to consider the example of St. Paul. Here, if he quotes from a Hebrew prophet, he also quotes from a Greek poet; and it would be hard to deny that the same spirit which moved him to cite Isaiah also moved him to cite Menander (see also his quotation from Aratus and Kleanthes in Act_17:28, and from Epimenides in Tit_2:12). The probability is, that he had studied the Greek poets only less earnestly than the Hebrew prophets. His use of them sanctions our use of them. There is also abundant proof that the apostle was as familiar with the Greek philosophy as with Greek poetry: we cannot so much as gather his meaning in many parts of his Epistles to the Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians, etc., except as we acquaint ourselves with the themes and terms of Hellenic speculation. This is a sufficient proof that secular learning is lawful and desirable in those who handle the things of the Spirit; that this, like all other gifts or accomplishments, may be and ought to be devoted to the service of God and of His Christ. (S. Cox, D.D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain 30. Why do we also stand in jeopardy every…
30. Why do we also stand in jeopardy every hour? What motive, if there is no hope beyond, can we apostles have for placing ourselves in constant peril by preaching the resurrection?
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain 30. “Why are we in jeopardy every hour?
DAILY DYING
30. “Why are we in jeopardy every hour?
Read full note →
31. “I die daily, by your rejoicing which we have in Christ Jesus our Lord.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain why do we also stand in jeopardy every hour?
why do we also stand in jeopardy every hour?
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 15:30-32 The apostles’ willingness to risk their lives was…
15:30-32 The apostles’ willingness to risk their lives was based on their conviction that there is life beyond death. If there is no resurrection, such suffering is pointless.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.