Corrdpt

In older English 'corrupt' (audits derivatives) had the meaning of destroy, consume, and in that sense, not in the sense of taint, it is most freq. in AV. Thus Mt 6" ' where moth and rust doth corrupt' (d<^a>'if«, 'causes to disappear,' RV 'doth consume'); Lk 12'' 'neither moth corrupteth' {Sia<p$flpei, RV ' destroyeth ') ; Ja 5' ' Your riches are corrupted ' (<r4arirr(). Corrupter : Is 1* ' children that are corrupters ' (RV ' that deal corruptly '), but the Heb.

(D'n'n»'5 d')3) means 'sons that deal or act corruptly.' Corrupt as participial adj., Job 17' 'My breath is c' (n^?n, RV 'my spirit is consumed') ; Eph 4'-"' 'c. ace' to the deceitful lusts' (0S«p4;iei'o>'= 'morally decaying, on the way to final ruin ' — Moule). Corruptible : Wis 19'^' 'the flesh of c. living things' (cv(pei.prwv fi/uc) ; Ro 1^ ' c. man,' i.e. liable to decay, mortal (0So/)t4?) ; 1 Co 9^ ' a c.

crown,' referring to the garland of bay leaves with which the victors in the games were crowned, and which soon went to decay. Corruption: Ps 16"> 'Neither wilt thou sull'er thine Holy One to see c' (RVm norrsetly 'the pit,' nnv, LXX 5ia4>eopi, whence Ac 2" 13") : Ro 8^' 'the bondage of c' {SovXela rij! <p0opai, ' the state of subjection or thraldom to dissolution and decay' — Sanday-Headlam, in loc. There Is an obsol. meaning of ' comint' =adultfratf, of which Oxf. Enrf.

Diet, has found two exnmples : Act 2;i Elizah. c. 8, I 4 (1681), ' Everj'e Person and Persons that shall cornipt the Ilonny . . with any d. rtvptfull mvxture, shall forfevte the Barrell"; and View Penal J.aivK, 244 (1697), 'If any . . Vintners shall Corrupt or Adulterntp any Wine.' Of this rare usa^e there !• an InsUnce In AV, 2 Co 2" ' For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God.'

This tr" is a change troin that of the Rheniish Bible 'adulterating,' which again re- semhlea Wyclif's ' for we hon not as many that don avoutorie ( = a<lnltery) bi the word of god.' The Gr." yerb (latnXii^ from itc^trrkK, a yintner, huckster, Is 122, Sir 262") signifies to make money by trading, esp. by trading basely in anything; and some prefer that more oonunon meaning here ; hence Tinitale's tr" 'many . . which choppe and chaunge with the word of God,' foil** by Crunmer.

Bat as such hucksters sought to in- crease their gain by adulterating their goods (the reference is eap. to wine) the word came to mean ' adulterate,' and is taken in that sense by moiit here. In 2 K 23" the Mount of Olives is called, on account of the ' high places ' which Solomon built * T. Adams (quoted by Ravies, Bible Enrilith, p. 161) speaks sf those to whom 'orchards, fishponds, parks, warrens, and whataoever may yield pleai^urable stuffing to the ccrpse, is a rery beayen upon earth.'

— Hermont (Pur. Divines), 1. i76. there, or, rather, turned to idolatrous tises, ' the mount of corruption' (RVm 'destruction' ; Heb. n'n.;rrr-n, LXX tA opos toC Jloffodtf, Vulg. iiwm offenniunis, whence the name of a part of Olivet in later Christian writings 'Mount of Oti'ence.' See Olives, Mount of. J. Hastings. CORRUPTION (usual rendering of nnj>, Sia(t>eopi, 09o/)d) has in OT only a literal and physical mean- ing, though tlie verb is also emblematical and moral (Gn 6", Jg 2", Dn 2').

In profane Gr. both (pBopi. and 5ia<j>dopd bear the physico-moral sense of sensual corruption (Xen. Apol. 19; Plut. 2. 712c) ; and Sia4>0opi, the more strictly moral corruption of bribery (Arist. Hhet. i. 12. 8). Both the verbs are used of bribery and also of the degradation of the judgment (iEsch. Ag. 932), the prefer- ence bein^, both in class. Greek and in LXX, for SiatpBelpu m the moral region.

In NT StacpBopi, (six times) denotes only physical decompositioc and decay (Ac 2' 13'), while <t>0opi. stands ip 2 p i« 2'2- '», Jude », Gal 6», Ro 8'', for the natural decay of the world, the unreasoning animals, or the nesh, as emblematic of the immoral, sin being behind the decomposition of the natural body and nature generally (2 P 1, Ro 8"; cf. Gn 3'^- "), fettering free development and keeping the creation in slavery (Ro 8^').

Both verbs (with a balance in favour of (pBelpa) are used morally without any medium of metaphor (1 Ti 6», 1 Co IS*, Rev 19, Jude>", 2 Co IP). In Gal 6* (of the flesh reap <pSopdi> ... of the spirit reap l^aiiv aluyiov) <p8opa is antithetical to eternal life and all that is therein contained.

But while ipBopi in this connexion in- cludes the moral death, which is the lowest depth of moral deterioration and decay, and the kindred verba mean not only to make worse, but also to destroy [Sia<p8eipu in NT only in two passages, Rev S' ll'»; ipedpu perhaps in three, 1 Co "3", 2 P 2'^, Jude '"), there is nothing in NT usage which involves the substitution of annihilation, literal destruction of spirit, for the continuation of the miserable and penal existence which, according to later OT ideas and the more definite Jewish views in NT times, was the destiny of the wicked after the death of the body.

(Cf. for the general misery of after existence. Job 14*" ; penal for the wicked, Ps9"; the righteous rescued from it, Ps 16'"; climax for both in resurrection, Dn 12^ ; Jewish idea of Hades in NT times, Lk 16=^, Ps-Sol 14« 15" 16^ Enoch 63>». ' In the Talm., Sheol has become synonymous with Gehenna. Weber, L. d. T. 326'.' Charles, £« ocA, p. 69.) The corrupted state of the moral functions. Drought to a kind of com- pletion (cf.

perfect participle Si^pSap/i^not), may be already reached in this life (1 Ti 6"; cf. 2 Co 11', 2 P 2", Eph 4"). J. Massie.