1 Corinthians 10:9
Neither let us tempt Christ: as some of them tempted, and perished by the serpents.
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- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Neque tentemus Christum, sicut quidam eorum tentaverunt, et a serpentibus perierunt.
- Greek New Testament (SBLGNT)
- μηδὲ ἐκπειράζωμεν τὸν Χριστόν, καθώς τινες αὐτῶν ἐπείρασαν, καὶ ὑπὸ τῶν ὄφεων ἀπώλλυντο.
Haydock's commentary
As some of them tempted Christ. This cannot but be understood of Christ, as God. (Witham)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
Tertullian The Five Books Against Marcion, St. Paul's Phraseology Often Suggested by the Jewish Scriptures. Christ Our Passover--A Phrase Which Introduces Us to the Very Heart of the Ancient Dispensation. Christ's True Corporeity. Married and Unmarried States. Meaning of the Time is Short. In His Exhortations and Doctrine, the Apostle Wholly Teaches According to the Mind and Purposes of the God of the Old Testament. Prohibition of Meats and Drinks Withdrawn by the Creator
Now, when Marcion wholly prohibits all carnal intercourse to the faithful (for we will say nothing about his catechumens), and when he prescribes repudiation of all engagements before marriage, whose teaching does he follow, that of Moses or of Christ? Even Christ, however, when He here commands “the wife not to depart from her husband, or if she depart, to remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband,” both permitted divorce, which indeed He never absolutely prohibited, and confirmed (the sanctity) of marriage, by first forbidding its dissolution; and, if separation had taken place, by wishing the nuptial bond to be resumed by reconciliation. …
St Augustine On Lying, Section 26
26. Touching which matter, there will be some place open for consideration, if first the divine authorities which forbid a lie be diligently discussed: for if these give no place, we vainly seek a loophole; for we are bound to keep in every way the command of God, and the will of God in all that through keeping His command we may suffer, it is our duty with an even mind to follow: but if by some relaxation any outlet be allowed, in such a case we are not to decline a lie. The reason why the Divine Scriptures contain not only God’s commands, but the life and character of the just, is this: that, if haply it be hidden in what way we are to take that which is enjoined, by the actions of the just it may be understood. …
St John Chrysostom Homilies on First Corinthians, Homily XXIII
Ver. 9 . “Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and perished by serpents.” By this he again hints at another charge which he likewise states at the end, blaming them because they contended about signs. And indeed they were destroyed on account of trials, saying, “when will the good things come? when the rewards?” Wherefore also he adds, on this account correcting and alarming them,
St John Chrysostom The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians, 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17
Do you wish that I should also bring forward another? You have certainly heard of Pharaoh, king of the Egyptians; you know therefore the punishment also which he suffered, how even with his whole host, chariots and horses and all, he was engulfed in the Erythræan sea. Would you hear also other examples? he perhaps was an impious man, or rather not perhaps, but certainly he was an impious man. Would you see those also punished, who were of the number of believers, and who held fast to God, but were not of upright life? Hear Paul saying, “Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. Neither let us murmur, as some of them murmured, and perished by the destroyer. Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them tempted, and perished by the serpents.” ( 1 Cor. x. …
St Ambrose On the Holy Spirit, Chapter VIII. The aforesaid unity is proved hereby, that as the Father is said to be grieved and tempted, so too the Son. The Son was also tempted in the wilderness, where a figure of the cross was set up in the brazen serpent: but the Apostle says that the Spirit also was there tempted. St. Ambrose infers from this that the Israelites were guided into the promised land by the same Spirit, and that His will and power are one with those of the Father and the Son
49. Understand also that whereas Scripture in other places says that the Spirit was tempted, and that God was tempted, it says also that Christ was tempted; for you have the Apostle saying to the Corinthians: “Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them tempted, and perished by serpents.” Just was the punishment that the adversaries should feel the venom, who had not venerated the Maker.
St John Cassian The Conferences of John Cassian. Part I. Containing Conferences I-X, Chapter XVI. Of the meaning of the seven nations of whose lands Israel took possession, and the reason why they are sometimes spoken of as “seven,” and sometimes as “many.”
These are the seven nations whose lands the Lord promised to give to the children of Israel when they came out of Egypt. And everything which, as the Apostle says, happened to them “in a figure” we ought to take as written for our correction. For so we read: “When the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the land, which thou art going in to possess, and shall have destroyed many nations before thee, the Hittite, and the Girgashites, and the Amorite, the Canaanite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite, seven nations much more numerous than thou art and much stronger than thou: and the Lord thy God shall have delivered them to thee, thou shalt utterly destroy them.” And the reason that they are said to be much more numerous, is that faults are many more in number than virtues and so in the list of them the nations are reckoned as seven in number, but when the attack upo …
St John Cassian The Seven Books of John Cassian on the Incarnation of the Lord, Against Nestorius, Chapter IX. Since those marvellous works which from the days of Moses were shown to the children of Israel are attributed to Christ, it follows that He must have existed long before His birth in time
And when the Apostle wanted to make this clear and patent to everybody he spoke as follows, saying that, “Jesus having saved the people out of the land of Egypt afterward destroyed them that believed not.” But elsewhere too we read: “Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them tempted, and were destroyed by serpents.” Peter also the chief of the apostles says: “And now why tempt ye God to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear. …