English text used: Pelagius, Commentaries on the Thirteen Epistles of Paul with the Libellus Fidei (trans. Thomas P. Scheck; Ancient Christian Writers 76; New York: The Newman Press, 2022), hereafter “Scheck”
Latin text consulted: Alexander
Souter, Pelagius's Exposition of Thirteen Epistles of St. Paul, II: Text and
Apparatus Criticus (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1926), hereafter
“Souter”
1 Cor 4:6
“But
these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and to
Apollos, for your sakes; that in us you may learn that one be not puffed up
against the other for another, beyond that which is written.” So that you take
up the example of humility from us, lest somebody, subverted by the evil of
contention, beyond the instruction of Scripture (ne supra disciplinam
scripturae), dare to be puffed up against the other for another.
(Scheck, 135; Souter, 147)
1 Cor 8:4-5
8:4
“But as for the meats that are
scarified to idols, we know that an idol is nothing and that there is no God
but one.” He repeats that which he had said he knew above, and he shows what it
is more clearly. 8:5 “For even if there are those who are called gods,
either in heaven or on earth [if indeed there are many gods and many lords].”
Angels in heaven and saints on earth, about which it is said (In
caelo angeli et sancti in terra, de quibus dicitur), “I said, you are gods”
[Ps 82:6; cf. John 10:34], and the saints are the lords of those whom
they will judge, about whom it is said, “They will judge the nations and they
will lord over the peoples” [Wis 3:8]. (Scheck, 150; Souter, 172)
1 Cor 8:6
“Yet
to us there is one God, the Father.” By whose power all things were created
from nothing (Cuius uirtute ex nihilo ombia sunt creata) [cf. Wis 2:2; 2 Macc
7:28]. “Of whom are all things, and we unto him.” The Arians stir up calumny
based on this passage. They say that since it is said that there is only one
God, the father, the Son is severed from the divinity. One must respond to
them. If the Son will not be God, because there is one God, the Father, then
the Father will not be Lord, because there is [also] one Lord, Christ. But if
the father is not excluded from lordship, neither is the Son from divinity, but
each is common to both (si autem pater non excluditur a dominatione, nec filius
a deitate, sed utrumque utrique commune est). (Scheck, 150-51; Souter, 172)
1 Cor 9:24-27
9:24 “Do you not know that [they] that run in the
stadium, all run indeed, but one receives the prize? [And I say to you], So run
that you [all] may obtain.” Here he has compared justice and faith to a race in
the stadium. For just as in the one case, though all run inside
the stadium, no one is judged worthy o the prize except the one who runs
well; so in the other case, although all who believe are contained within the
goal-posts of faith, yet only those who have lived justly will receive the
heavenly prize (soli tamen qui iuste uixerint praemium caeleste percipient). 9:25
“And every one who competes in the competition, refrains from all things.” From
all foods that usually impeded their race. [“And they indeed that they may
receive a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible one.] 9:26 I
therefore so run, as though toward an uncertain goal; I so fight, not as one
beating the air.” I do not run in vain or fake the struggle. 9:27 “But I
chastise my body, and bring it into subjection.” By means of abstinence, affliction,
and toils, as he says elsewhere: “In fastings often and watchings, in hunger
and thirst, in cold and nakedness, [and] in toils, in prisons, in stripes, in
uprisings” [2 Cor 11:27, 23], and so on, just as he [also] recalled [in the
Letter] to the Hebrews, that the prophets and other saints suffered many such
things [cf. Heb 11:36-38]. “Lest perhaps, when I have preached to others, I
myself should become a castaway.” By not doing what I say (Non faciendo quod
dico). (Schrek, 155; Souter, 179-80)
1 Cor 15:22
For
as in Adam all die.” Just as death entered by Adam, since he was the first to
die, so also () by Christ is the resurrection, since he was the first to rise
again, and just as () the former is the form of those who die, so [also] the
letter [is] of those who rise again. “So also in Christ all shall be made
alive.” All indeed shall rise again, but only those shall be made alive [in
Christ] who shall merit being united with the body of Christ (qui Christi
merebuntur corpori coopulari) [cf. Luke 20:35]. (Scheck, 178’ Souter, 217)
Wiles,
Divine Apostle, 45n2, notes this passage, after discussing Chrysostom’s
exegesis of Paul in Hom in 1 Cor, 39.3. He writes, “Pelagius gives a
different exegesis which preserves Chrysostom’s suggestion that zoopoiein has
a deeper meaning; it is true, he says, that all rise, but the point here made
is that it is only ‘all who are in Christ’ who will be made alive.” (Scheck,
391-92 n. 38)
1 Cor 15:28
“And
when all things shall be subjected unto him, then the Son also himself shall be
subjected unto him that subjected all things to himself.” Here too the Arians
make false charges, so that they say after the resurrection and end of all
things, the Son will be subjected to the Father, namely, as the lesser to the
greater. One must respond to them that they are impious, since they now deny that
he has been subjected to the Father. But subjection does not always imply a
lesser degree of honor, but it is also a duty of love (non semper ad
diminutionem honoris pertinet, sed etiam ad caritatis officium), especially since
also the spirit of the prophets is said to be subjected to the prophets [cf. 1
Cor 14:32-33], so that he is not a God of dissension but of peace [cf. 1 Cor
14:33], since the Lord himself is recorded to have been subjected to Joseph and
Mary (cum ipse dominus Ioseph ac Mariae scribatur fuisse subjectus) [cf. Luke
2:51]. Many, of course, have thought different things about this section. For
some say, Just as he hungers and is fed in those who are hungry [cf. Matt
25;35, 40], so too in his church which is his body [cf. Col 1:24; Eph 5:24], he
himself is subjected. Others say that the human nature itself, which he put on (quod
ipsa humana natura quam induit), could always be subjected to the divinity in
the act of thanksgiving, since by making it one with himself he subjected all
things to it. Many likewise say other diverse things, which it would be too
lengthy to introduce and recount. “That God may be all in all.” God will
be all in all that the time when he alone will reign in all, after death
has been brought to naught and all evil and error are destroyed. (Scheck, 179;
Souter, 219)
1 Cor 15:29
“Otherwise
what shall they do that are baptized for the dead? If the dead rise not again
at all, why are they then baptized for them?” “As many of us who were baptized
in Christ, were baptized into his death” ('Qui cumque baptizati sumus in
Christo, in morte ipsius baptizati sumus') [Rom 6:3]. That is, that we might
now be as it were dead together with him (id est, ut iam quasi commortui cum
illo simus). How then does it help us to die to this world, if eternal life
will not follow this contempt for pleasure? (Scheck, 179-80; Souter, 220)
1 Cor 15:41-42
“For
star differs from star in brightness. 15:42 So also is the resurrection
of the dead.” He has compared the difference between the just to the diversity
of the stars (Stellarum diuersitati iustorum differentiam conparauit, quos
gradus uirtutum in gloria). It is not their sins, but the degrees of their
virtues that will make them diverse in glory; for there will not be a diversity
of sins in heaven, but in punishment. (Scheck, 181; Souter, 223)
I
believe this is an anti-Origenist, antimercyist statement. (Scheck, 392 n. 45)
1 Cor 15:45
“[As
it is written], The first man Adam was made into a living soul; the last Adam
into a quickening spirit.” One should note that when he speaks of two Adams, he
shows that both are of the same nature (Notandum quod, cum duos Adam dicit,
eiusdem naturae utrumque demonstrat). This goes against the Manicheans and the
followers of Apollinaris, who deny that perfect manhood was received by the
Word of God (qui negant a dei uerbo perfectum hominem esse susceptum) [cf. John
1:1, 14; Rev 19:13]. (Scheck, 182; Souter, 223-24)
2 Cor 5:21
“Him,
who [though he] knew no sin, he made sin for us.” For us the Father made
Christ, who knew no sin, sin itself, that is, just as in the law a
sacrifice offered for sin was called sin (hoc est, sicut hostia pro peccato
oblata peccatum uocabatur) [cf. Lev 4:28], as it is written in Leviticus: “And
he will place his hand upon the head of his sins” [Lev 4:29 (LXX, not Vlg)]; so
also Christ, when he was offered for our sins, took up the name of sin (ita et
Christus pro peccatis nostris oblatus peccati nomen accepit). “That we might be
made the justice of God in him.” Not our [justice] not in yourselves [cf. Isa 64:6;
Rom 10:3]. (Scheck, 202; Souter, 262)
