Minor Notes.
Ὑπωπιάζω.
—I "keep under my body," &c. 1 Cor. ix. 27. One can scarcely allude to this passage without remembering the sarcastic observations of Dr. South upon a too literal interpretation of it. (Sermons, vol. i. p. 12. Dublin, 1720.) And yet deeper and more spiritual writers by no means pass the literal interpretation by with indifference. Bishop Andrewes distinctly mentions ὑπωπιασμός, or suggillatio, amongst the "circumstantiæ orationis;" as also ἐκδίκησις, vindicta, or revenge, 2 Cor. vii. II. (Preces Privatæ, pag. 14. Londini, 1828.) Bishop J. Taylor is equally explicit in a well-known and remarkable passage:
"If the lust be upon us, and sharply tempting, by inflicting any smart to overthrow the strongest passion by the most violent pain, we shall find great ease for the present, and the resolution and apt sufferance against the future danger; and this was St. Paul's remedy: 'I bring my body under;' he used some rudeness towards it."—Holy Living, sect. iii. Of Chastity. Remedies against Uncleanness, 4.
The word ὑπώπια occurs only once in the LXX, but that seems in a peculiarly apposite way: "ὑπώπια καὶ συντρίμματα συναντᾷ κακοῖς, πληγαὶ δὲ εἰς ταμιεῖα κοιλίας." As our English version translates it: "The blueness of a wound cleanseth away evil (or, is a purging medicine against evil, margin), so do stripes the inward parts of the belly." (Proverbs xx. 30.) If it were not absolute presumption to differ from the great Dr. Jackson, one would feel inclined to question, or at least to require further proof of some observations of his. He says, in treating of our present passage:
"The very literal importance of those three words in the original—ὑποπιάζω, κηρῦξας, and ἀδόκιμος—cannot be so well learned from any Dictionary or Lexicon, as from such as write of the Olympic Games, or of that kind of tryal of masteries, which in his time or before was in use. The word ὑποπιάζω is proper (I take it) unto wrestlers, whose practice it was to keep under other men's bodies, not their own, or to keep their antagonists from all advantage of hold, either gotten or aimed at. But our apostle did imitate their practice upon his own body, not on any others; for his own body was his chief antagonist."—Works, vol. ii. p. 644. Lond. 1673.
Suidas makes some remarks upon the word, but they are not very much to our purpose.
RT.
Warmington.