Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

2 Corinthians 5:3

3. It is not easy to decide between εἴ γε (אCKLP) and εἴπερ (BDFG).

ἐνδυσάμενοι (אBCD3KLP, Vulg. Syrr. Copt. Arm. Aeth.) rather than ἐκδυσάμενοι (DFG, Lat. Vet., Tert.). Chrysostom in different places adopts both readings.

3. εἴ γε καὶ ἐνδυσάμενοι οὐ γυμνοὶ εὑρεθησόμεθα. See critical note. Here the metaphor of the garment is uppermost. Comp. the argument in Plato, Phaedo 87. In the Gorgias 523, the dead, having been deprived of their bodies, are called γυμνοί: and here γυμνός seems to mean ‘without a body.’ Comp. Crat. 403 and Orig. c. Cels. ii. 43. A man without his ἐπενδύτης was called γυμνός (John 21:7): still more would he be called γυμνός if he had also thrown off his χιτών. But if the ἐπενδύτης was on him the absence of the χιτών would not be felt. The clause explains the latter half of 2 Corinthians 5:2. ‘I say clothed upon, of course on the supposition that, when we are clothed upon, we shall not be found without any covering at all.’ Only those who are still in the body at the Second Advent (to which crisis the aorists refer) can be said to be clothed upon. The dead, who have left their bodies, may be said to be clothed, when they receive a heavenly body, but not clothed upon. Cremer (Lex. p. 163) contends that here γυμνός means ‘stripped of righteousness, guilty.’ But the passage is one of which the meaning is uncertain. See notes in the Speaker’s Commentary, pp. 418, 424. The καί adds emphasis to the assumption; ‘if indeed it so be,’ ‘if it really is the case.’ But this is perhaps too pronounced, and the force of the καί may be better given in intonation. Lightfoot on Galatians 3:4 remarks that εἴ γε “leaves a loophole for doubt, and καὶ widens this, implying an unwillingness to believe on the part of the speaker.” Elsewhere S. Paul speaks of the body, when the life is gone, as γυμνός (1 Corinthians 15:37). Comp. Enoch lxii. 15, 16; Secrets of Enoch xxii. 8.

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Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

2 Corinthians 5:3

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