Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

2 Corinthians 8:6,7

εἰς τὸ παρακαλέσαι κ. τ. λ.: so that we exhorted Titus (the epistolary aor. infin.; this is the exhortation to Titus on his meeting with St. Paul in Macedonia after accomplishing his first Mission to Corinth; παρακαλ. is the word used throughout of the Apostle's directions to Titus; see 2 Corinthians 8:17; 2 Corinthians 9:5; 2 Corinthians 12:17, and on chap. 2 Corinthians 1:4), that as he made a beginning before, sc., in the matter of the collection, during the Mission from which he has now returned, so he would also complete in you this grace also, i.e., the grace of liberal giving in addition to the graces of repentance and goodwill which rejoiced him so much to observe (2 Corinthians 7:13-14). ἐπιτελεῖν is to bring to a successful issue a work already begun; see 2 Corinthians 5:11 below. ἀλλʼ ὥσπερ κ. τ. λ.: yea rather (ὥσπερ having an ascensive force as at 2 Corinthians 1:9; 2 Corinthians 5:7 being strictly parallel to and explanatory of 2 Corinthians 5:6) that as ye abound (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:58) in everything (so he had said of the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 1:5, ἐν παντὶ ἐπλουτίσθητε), in faith (see chap. 2 Corinthians 1:24 and 1 Corinthians 12:8, where πίστις is named as one of the gifts of the Spirit exhibited among them), and utterance, i.e., the grace of ready exposition of the Gospel message, and knowledge, i.e., of Divine things (λόγος and γνῶσις are conjoined, as here, at 1 Corinthians 1:5, and γνῶσις is also mentioned with πίστις at 1 Corinthians 12:8; at 1 Corinthians 8:1 he points out with marked emphasis that γνῶσις is not comparable in importance to ἀγάπη as shown in condescension to a brother's intellectual weakness), and all earnestness (see reff. and cf. 2 Corinthians 7:11, where he mentions the σπουδή that the Corinthians had exhibited when they received his message of reproof), and in your love to us (cf. 2 Corinthians 1:11 and 2 Corinthians 8:24; the variant reading ἐξ ἡμῶν ἐν ὑμῖν would disturb the sense all through he is speaking of the graces of the Corinthians, not of his own), so ye may abound in this grace also (cf. 2 Corinthians 9:8). The English versions and comm. take ἵνα with the subj. here as a periphrasis for the imperative, and understand some verb like βλέπετε, “ See that ye abound, etc.,” but this usage of ἵνα is unexampled. We follow Kennedy in taking 2 Corinthians 8:7 in close connexion with 2 Corinthians 8:6, although we do not agree with the inferences which he draws (2 and 3 Cor., p. 122). 2 Corinthians 8:7 seems “to have been added by St. Paul,” he rightly observes “to avoid any appearance of depreciating the work which Titus had already accomplished among the Corinthian Christians, by the description of it in 2 Corinthians 8:6 as a beginning”. Cf. the shrewd remark of Grotius, “non ignoravit Paulus artem rhetorum, movere laudando”.

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Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

2 Corinthians 8:6,7

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