Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

2 Corinthians 5:12

οὐ πάλιν (אBCDFG, Latt. Syrr. Copt. Arm.) rather than οὐ γὰρ πάλιν (D3KL); and καὶ μή (אB and some cursives, Theodoret) rather than καὶ οὐ (CD3KLP) or καὶ οὐκ (DFG); and ἐν καρδίᾳ (אBDFG) rather than καρδία̣ (CD3KLP).

12. οὐ πάλιν ἑαντοὺς συνιστάνομεν ὑμῖν. See critical note. We are not again commending ourselves to you: see on 2 Corinthians 3:1. What he has just been saying would easily lend itself to a repetition of that charge.

ἀλλὰ�. But (on the contrary we say this) as giving you an occasion of glorying on our behalf, that ye may have (it to use) against them who glory in appearance and not in heart. Once more (2 Corinthians 2:12) it is all for the Corinthians’ sake. What looks like self-praise is really done to supply them with material, when they have to stand up against those who boast about superficial advantages rather than solidity of character. His Jewish opponents boasted of their descent from Abraham, of being circumcised, of having exclusive privileges, perhaps also of intimacy with James, the Lord’s brother, and of having seen Christ Himself. S. Paul tells the Corinthians that he is giving them the means of answering these boasts with boasting of a different kind. If what he has been saying about himself is believed by them to be true, they can use it as an answer. ‘What are the external advantages of which you vaunt compared with a good conscience and work done in the fear of God? Our experience of Paul is that he devotes himself to God and to us. You do neither.’ With the exception of Luke 11:54, ἀφορμή in the N.T. is peculiar to S. Paul (2 Corinthians 11:12; Romans 7:8; Romans 7:11; Galatians 5:13; 1 Timothy 5:14). For the opposition between πρόσωπον and καρδία see 1 Thessalonians 2:17; 1 Samuel 16:7; and here, as there, neither word has the article, classes, not individual cases, being under consideration. The subjective μή (see critical note) gives the class as thought of, not as existing in fact; but this distinction is dying out in late Greek and need not be insisted upon here. For καυχῶμαι see on 2 Corinthians 9:2 : in the N.T. it is followed by ἐν, in the LXX. by ἐν and sometimes ἐπί or acc., in classical Greek by εἰς, ἐπί or acc.

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Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

2 Corinthians 5:12

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