2 Corinthians 1:1-2. Salutation 1. _by the will of God_ See note on 1 Corinthians 1. _and Timothy_our _brother_ Literally, TIMOTHY _the_ BROTHER. Wiclif, Tyndale, and Cranmer render -brother Timotheus." He is called sometimes Timothy and sometimes more fully Timotheus in the A. V. So we have Luke a... [ Continue Reading ]
_Grace_ See note on 1 Corinthians 1:3, and below, 2 Corinthians 1:12. _be to you and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ_ Here, as in 1 Corinthians 1:3 (see note there), Jesus Christ is associated with the Father as the source of grace and peace.... [ Continue Reading ]
The mutual interdependence of St Paul and the Corinthian Church 3. _Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ_ Two feelings rise at once in the Apostle's mind. The first is an overwhelming gratitude for his deliverance from his distress, the second the keen sense of his entire unity... [ Continue Reading ]
_tribulation] Tribulatio_, Vulgate. The word thus translated is rendered _trouble_in the next clause, and in the Vulgate by _pressura_, and is derived from a verb signifying to _squeeze, press_. The English word tribulation is derived from the Latin _tribulo_, to _thresh_. See Trench, _Study of Word... [ Continue Reading ]
_For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us_ Rather SUPER-ABOUND UNTO US. All the principal English versions render _in us_, and thus many commentators have been misled. The word translated _abound_means to _exceed, be over and above_(Matthew 5:20; Matthew 14:20). Thus the meaning of the passage i... [ Continue Reading ]
_And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation_ The same may be said of every kind of suffering endured for the cause of God and of truth. It is not merely, as in Hebrews 12:6 (Cf. Deuteronomy 8:5), that -whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth" for his own sake, but that the suf... [ Continue Reading ]
_And our hope of you is stedfast_ Most editors agree in placing these words _before_-or whether we be comforted," &c. It would seem to be their most natural place, for not only do they come awkwardly before the word -knowing," but the expression of the hope is more appropriate in reference to the en... [ Continue Reading ]
_For we would not … have you ignorant_ A favourite expression with St Paul. Cf. Romans 1:13; 1Co 10:1; 1 Corinthians 12:1; 1 Thessalonians 4:13. _of our trouble which came to us in Asia_ Some have referred these expressions (1) to the tumult at Ephesus, Acts 19. Others have supposed, in consequence... [ Continue Reading ]
_sentence_ The word thus translated occurs only here in the N. T. It is translated _answer_by Wiclif, Tyndale, and Cranmer: the word _sentence_having been adopted by our translators from the Geneva version. At that time, however, the word _sentence_had not quite the same meaning which it bears now,... [ Continue Reading ]
_from so great a death_ i.e. from so great peril of death. St Paul speaks of the liability to _death_as death. Cf. ch. 2 Corinthians 4:11-12. Some regard it as equivalent to -so terrible a death." Yet surely the _mode_of death was a matter of trifling consequence to one like St Paul. See Philippians... [ Continue Reading ]
_You also helping … by prayer for us_ Cf. 1 Thessalonians 5:25; 2 Thessalonians 3:1; Hebrews 13:18; James 5:15-16. "For the right understanding of this Epistle, the identity of feeling between the Apostle and his converts must be borne in mind throughout … It is the liveliest instance of the real co... [ Continue Reading ]
_For our rejoicing is this_ "It is this," says the Apostle, "which causes such a perennial flow of joy and consolation into my heart amid all my anxieties and distresses. I can feel in my conscience that what knits us together in sympathy is a Divine and not a human bond. On my part there is the ins... [ Continue Reading ]
_For we write none other things unto yon_ i.e. for we are not writing to you about anything with which you have not had the opportunity of being fully acquainted. _than what you read or acknowledge_ It is impossible to give the full sense of this passage in English. In the first place there is the... [ Continue Reading ]
_As also_ St Paul connects "the future for which he _hopes_, with the past of which he _knows_." Meyer. _in part_ It is here delicately hinted that the _whole_Corinthian Church did not acknowledge St Paul. _we are your rejoicing_ Rather, GROUND OF REJOICING. The word here rendered -rejoicing" is r... [ Continue Reading ]
St Paul's reason for putting off his coming 15. _And in this confidence_ It was the conviction of this community of interest which made St Paul desire to visit Corinth. It was (see 2 Corinthians 1:23) the consciousness that all his converts did not realize it which made him anxious to try the effec... [ Continue Reading ]
_to pass by you into Macedonia_ It was probably when this resolution (which may have been announced in the lost Epistle, see 1 Corinthians 5:9) was given up, that the mission of Timothy referred to in 1 Corinthians 4:17, and in Acts 19:22 was substituted, and as still more urgent necessity arose, th... [ Continue Reading ]
_did I use lightness_?] Literally, THE _lightness_, i.e. either the lightness with which St Paul had been reproached, or perhaps merely the abstract quality. The reproach of fickleness was cast upon the Apostle for his change of purpose. It is to be remarked that _this_is the only charge he is attem... [ Continue Reading ]
_But as God is true, our word toward you was not yea and nay_ There was no more infirmity of purpose in the Apostle's preaching than there is untruth, or rather, _unfaithfulness_in God. -Word" here means _speech, discourse_, as in 1 Corinthians 1:5. _was not_ Rather, IS _not_, since the doctrine on... [ Continue Reading ]
_For the Son of God, Jesus Christ_ St Paul now labours to impress the Corinthians with the weight of the commission with which he had been entrusted to them. It was nothing less than Jesus, the Promised and Anointed One, the Son of God, Whom he had preached. _was preached_ Literally, PROCLAIMED, as... [ Continue Reading ]
_For all the promises of God in him are yea_ Literally, for how many soever the promises of God be, in Him is the yea. The Apostle here, as elsewhere, reminds us that God's gifts depend upon His promise. Galatians 3:14-29. And this promise is an affirmative utterance, never to be withdrawn or explai... [ Continue Reading ]
_Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ_ Rather, AND _He_, &c., as explaining the words -by us." -Not as though we had any power in ourselves, to do anything of ourselves (cf. ch. 2 Corinthians 3:5), but it is God who stablisheth us and Who anointed us for our great work." The meaning of the... [ Continue Reading ]
_Who hath also sealed us_ Here again the Greek has the aorist. We must refer it here to the attestation God gave to his calling and anointing by the manifest signs of His presence with His ministers. See ch 2 Corinthians 3:1-3; 2 Corinthians 12:12. Also Romans 15:15-19; 1 Corinthians 9:2. A _seal_(s... [ Continue Reading ]
_I call God for a record upon my soul_ Literally, TO WITNESS, as the Rhemish version. Tyndale, whom the other translators follow, has _recorde_. Either (1) I call God to witness _against_my soul, i.e. to avenge my perjury (so Calvin and Grotius; Wiclif, _agens_), or (2) _on behalf of_my soul, as app... [ Continue Reading ]
_Not for that we have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy Ben lordis of_Wiclif, and so the other versions until the Rhemish, which characteristically renders _overrule_. St Paul here defines accurately his relation to his converts. What power he had and it was considerable (see 1Co... [ Continue Reading ]