Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

2 Corinthians 4:17

τὸ γὰρ παραυτίκα κ. τ. λ.: for our present light burden of affliction worketh out for us more and more exceedingly an eternal heavy burden of glory; cf., for the thought (ever full of consolation to the troubled heart), Psalms 30:5; Isaiah 54:7; Matthew 5:11, Hebrews 12:11, 1 Peter 1:6; 1 Peter 5:10, and especially Romans 8:18. παραυτίκα does not refer (as the A.V. and R.V. would suggest) to the brief duration of temporal affliction, but only to its being present with us now, as set over against the future glory (see reff.). τὸ ἐλαφρόν τῆς θλίψεως offers a good instance of “the most classical idiom in the language of the N.T.” (Blass) especially frequent in St. Paul according to which a neuter singular adjective is used as if it were an abstract noun; cf. chap. 2 Corinthians 8:8; Romans 8:3; 1 Corinthians 1:25; Philippians 3:8, etc., for a like construction. καθʼ ὑπερβολὴν εἰς ὑπερβολήν is another Hebraism (see last verse), מאר מאר = “exceedingly”; it cannot qualify βάρος (as the A.V. takes it) or αἰώνιον, but must go with κατεργάζεται, as above (cf. Galatians 1:13). Stanley points out that the collocation βάρος δόξης may be suggested by the fact that the Hebrew כָּבַד means both “to be heavy” (Genesis 18:20; Job 6:3) and “to be glorious” (Job 14:21); cf. the ambiguity in the Latin gravitas.

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Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

2 Corinthians 4:17

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