2 Corinthians 2:13

οὐκ ἔσχηκα ἄνεσιν τῷ πνεύματί μου. Literally, I have not got relief for my spirit. As in 2 Corinthians 1:9, the perfect shows how vividly he recalls the feelings of that trying time. No one English word will represent ἄνεσις in all the places where it occurs; 2 Corinthians 7:5; 2 Corinthians 8:13; 2 Thessalonians 1:7; Acts 24:23. Relaxation after tension, or after close confinement, is the main idea; and τῶ̣ πν. μου is dat. comm.

τῷ μὴ εὑρεῖν με. Because I found not: dative of cause. Winer, 413. D reads ἑν τῶ̣ μή. Apparently they had agreed to meet in Troas; and there the “sense of loneliness” (Lightfoot on 1 Corinthians 2:3) and anxiety about Corinth overwhelmed S. Paul. By τὸυ� he probably means ‘my beloved fellow-worker,’ not merely ‘my fellow-Christian.’ Theodoret suggests that his having no fellow-worker was one main reason for going. He felt that he could do nothing single-handed, συνεργὸν τῆς ἐπιμελείας οὐκ ἔχων.

ἀποταξάμενος αὐτοῖς. The disciples in Troas no doubt begged him to remain and use the ‘opened door.’ But the distracting anxiety about the effect of his severe letter prevented all satisfactory work, and therefore he ‘set himself apart from them,’ bade them farewell, and went forth to M. In N.T. ἀποτάσσω occurs only in the middle; Acts 18:18; Acts 18:21; Luke 9:61; Luke 14:33; Mark 6:46. The more classical phrase would be ἀσπάζεσθαί τινα. In ecclesiastical Greek ἀπόταξις, ἀποταξία, ἀποταγή, are used of renunciation of the world; see Suicer, ἀποτάσσομαι. As in Acts 16:10; Acts 20:1, ἐξῆλθον is used of leaving Asia for Europe; but it need mean no more than exit from the place. The crisis at Corinth was more urgent than the opportunity in Troas. Delay might be disastrous: so he goes.