Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

2 Corinthians 5:12

οὐ γὰρ πάλιν κ. τ. λ.: we are not again (see 2 Corinthians 3:1, and the note there; he takes up this theme again after a long digression) commending ourselves to you, but [write these things] as giving you occasion of glorying on our behalf. We must understand in the latter clause some such words as γράφομεν ταῦτα : there are similar anacolutha at 2 Corinthians 7:5; 2 Corinthians 8:18. ἵνα ἔχητε πρὸς τοὺς κ. τ. λ.: that ye may have it, sc., some καύχημα or matter of glorying, against those who glory in outward appearance and not in heart, sc., against his opponents at Corinth. The phrase προσώπῳ οὐ καρδία occurs in 1 Thessalonians 2:17 in the sense of πνεύματι οὐ σώματι (cf. 1 Corinthians 5:3; Colossians 2:5); but a better parallel for the present passage is 1 Samuel 16:7, where Samuel is told that while man looks εἰς πρόσωπον, God looks εἰς καρδίαν. So St. Paul here refers to teachers who lay stress on the outward appearance and the “face” (see note 2 Corinthians 1:11) of things, such as a man's enthusiasms and visions (2 Corinthians 12:1 and 2 Corinthians 5:13), or his eloquence (chap. 2 Corinthians 10:10), or his letters of commendation (2 Corinthians 3:1), or his Jewish birth (2 Corinthians 11:22), or his personal intimacy in the flesh with Christ (2 Corinthians 5:16) rather than on the inward motive and “heart” of his message.

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Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

2 Corinthians 5:12

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