John Calvin Commentary 1 Corinthians 5:1

"It is actually reported that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not even among the Gentiles, that one [of you] hath his father`s wife." — 1 Corinthians 5:1 (ASV)

It is generally reported that there is among you. Since those contentions originated, as has been observed, in presumption and excessive confidence, he most appropriately proceeds to mention their diseases, the knowledge of which should humble them. First of all, he shows them what enormous wickedness it is to allow one of their number to have an illicit connection with his mother-in-law.

It is not certain whether he had seduced her from his father as a prostitute, or whether he kept her under pretense of marriage. This, however, does not much affect the matter at hand; for, as in the former case, there would have been an abominable and execrable whoredom, so the latter would have involved an incestuous connection, abhorrent to all propriety and natural decency.

Now, so that he may not seem to charge them based on doubtful suspicions, he says that the case he brings forward is well known and in general circulation. For it is in this sense that I understand the particle ὅλως (generally) as indicating that it was no vague rumor, but a matter well known and published everywhere, causing great scandal.

From his saying that such a kind of whoredom was not named even among the Gentiles, some are of the opinion that he refers to the incest of Reuben (Genesis 35:22), who, similarly, had an incestuous connection with his mother-in-law. They are accordingly of the opinion that Paul did not mention Israel because a disgraceful instance of this kind had occurred among them, as if the annals of the Gentiles did not record many incestuous connections of that kind!

This, then, is an idea that is quite foreign to Paul’s intention. For in mentioning the Gentiles rather than the Jews, he intended rather to heighten the aggravation of the crime.

He says, in effect: “You permit, as though it were a lawful thing, an enormity which would not be tolerated even among the Gentiles—indeed, it has always been regarded by them with horror and looked upon as a monstrous crime.”

Therefore, when he affirms that it was not named among the Gentiles, he does not mean by this that no such thing had ever existed among them or was not recorded in their annals (for even tragedies have been founded upon it). Instead, he means that it was held in detestation by the Gentiles as a shameful and abominable monstrosity, for it is a beastly lust which destroys even natural modesty.

Should anyone ask, “Is it just to reproach all with the sin of one individual?” I answer that the Corinthians are accused, not because one of their number has sinned, but because, as is stated afterwards, they encouraged by connivance a crime that deserved the severest punishment.