4. After εἰς τοὺς ἁγίους the Rec. and A.V. follow some cursives and inferior authorities in adding δέξασθαι ἡμᾶς to fill up the sense.

4. The A.V. is here misleading. What is meant is not what the Macedonians gave to S. Paul, but what they besought him to give to them, viz. the grace of sharing in the good work.

δεόμενοι ἡμῶν τὴν χάριν καὶ τὴν κοινωνίαν. The construction τοῦτο ὑμῶν δέομαι occurs in classical Greek, but not elsewhere in Biblical Greek, excepting 1Es 8:53, ἐδεήθημεν τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν πάντα ταῦτα, where A has κατὰ ταῦτα. In τ. χάριν καὶ τ. κοινωνίαν the καί is probably epexegetic; ‘the grace, viz. the fellowship.’ There are many graces; one of them is the taking part in helping others.

εἰς τοὺς ἁγίους. Comp. 1 Corinthians 16:1. This prepositional construction seems to be an Alexandrian idiom. Deissmann, Bible Studies, p. 117.

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Old Testament