1 Corinthians 4:13 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

As the filth of the world— The word περικαθαρματα, rendered filth, has a force and meaning, which no one word in our language can express. It was applied to those poor wretches, who were offered up as expiatory sacrifices, in times of any plague or public calamity, to the infernal deities. They were brought to the place of execution with cheese, dried figs, and a cake in their hands; and after being beaten with rods, they were burned, and their ashes were cast into the sea with the following sentence: "Be thou an expiation; be thou a refuse or off-scouring." It should be observed, that the word rendered expiation in that sentence, is the same which is here rendered filth by our translators. See on Leviticus 16:24. Henry More's Theolog. Works, p. 63. Ridley's Christian Passover, p. 22. Servius in AEneid, 3: lin. 75. Hammond, Whitby, and Bos.