29. He who shall eat unworthily, eateth judgment to himself. He had previously pointed out in express terms the heinousness of the crime, when he said that those who should eat unworthily would be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord Now he alarms them, by denouncing punishment; (706) for there are many that are not affected with the sin itself; unless they are struck down by the judgment of God. This, then, he does, when he declares that this food, otherwise health-giving, will turn out to their destruction, and will be converted into poison to those that eat unworthily
He adds the reasons because they distinguish not the Lord’s body, that is, as a sacred thing from a profane. “They handle the sacred body of Christ with unwashed hands, (Mark 7:2,) (707) nay more, as if it were a thing of nought, they consider not how great is the value of it. (708) They will therefore pay the penalty of so dreadful a profanation.” Let my readers keep in mind what I stated a little ago, that the body (709) is presented to them, though their unworthiness deprives them of a participation in it.
(706) “ La punition que Dieu en fera;” — “The punishment that God will inflict upon it.”
(707) “ Ils manient le corps precieux de Christ irreueremment, c’est a dire, sans nettoyer leur conscience;” — “They handle the precious body of Christ irreverently, that is to say, without washing their conscience.”
(708) In the Vat and Alex MSS. and the Copt version, the reading is simply μη διακρίνων τὸ σῶμα — not distinguishing the body; while later copies have τὸ σῶμα τοῦ Κυρίον — the body of the Lord The verb διακρίνω is employed by Herodotus in the sense of distinguishing, in the following expression: διακρίνων ουδενα — without any distinction of persons (Herod. 3. 39.) It is supposed by some that the word, as employed here, contains an allusion to the distinguishing of meats under the Mosaic law. — Ed
(709) “ Le corps de Christ;” — “The body of Christ.”