VINDICATION OF HIS APOSTOLIC AUTHORITY AGAINST TRADUCERS.
The tone of these concluding Chapter s is so very different from that
of all that precedes them, that though it is impossible to doubt that
both came from the same pen (only two or three of the wildest critics
have ever alleged the contrary),... [ Continue Reading ]
_Visions and_ _Revelations,_ 1 - 10.
2 Corinthians 12:1. I MUST NEEDS GLORY, THOUGH IT IS NOT EXPEDIENT;
[1] BUT I WILL COME TO VISIONS AND REVELATIONS: ‘Distasteful it is
to continue in a strain so unsuitable; but since I am forced to it, I
proceed to relate what I experienced many years ago at th... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 12:2. I KNOW A MAN IN CHRIST not “knew” (as in the
Authorised Version), which the word never signifies. In fact, the
whole point of the statement lies in its being _present:_ ‘I know
such a man, and I could name him too;' meaning himself, as will
presently appear, FOURTEEN YEAN AGO (_G... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 12:3-4. AND I KNOW SUCH A MAN (WHETHER IN THE BODY OR
OUT OF THE BODY, [1] I KNOW NOT; GOD KNOWETH), HOW THAT HE WAS CAUGHT
UP INTO PARADISE. Are we to take this as expressive of a further
transition, raising him to a still loftier region than “the third
heaven” called “Paradise”? So t... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 12:5. ON BEHALF OF SUCH A ONE WILL I GLORY; BUT ON MINE
OWN BEHALF I WILL NOT GLORY, SAVE IN MY WEAKNESSES. So entirely does
he wish himself to be regarded as _passive_ in this whole exalted
scene, and his Master's hand as exclusively in it, that he separates
his personal self from the... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 12:6. FOR IF I SHOULD DESIRE TO GLORY, I SHOULD NOT BE
FOOLISH; FOR I SHALL SPEAK THE TRUTH: BUT I FORBEAR, LEST ANY MAN
SHOULD ACCOUNT OF ME ABOVE THAT WHICH HE SEETH ME _TO BE, _ OR HEARETH
FROM ME: ‘I might, indeed, glory, and in doing so, I should not have
to go beyond what is stri... [ Continue Reading ]
_The thorn in the flesh and its lessons,_ 7-10.
2 Corinthians 12:7. AND BY REASON OF THE EXCEEDING GREATNESS OF THE
REVELATION WHEREFORE (the sentence starts here in a new form), THAT I
SHOULD NOT BE EXALTED OVERMUCH, THERE WAS GIVEN UNTO ME A THORN IN THE
FLESH, A MESSENGER OF SATAN TO BUFFET ME,... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 12:8. FOR (‘about') THIS THING I BESOUGHT THE LORD the
Lord _Christ,_ as is plain from the next verse, THRICE, THAT IT MIGHT
DEPART FROM ME therein following his Master when He prayed thrice that
the cup might pass from Him; not three petitions merely, but at three
successive times mak... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 12:9. AND HE HATH SAID. It is not a single reply to the
prayer as then offered, “but as continuing in force: He hath told
me, and with this I must rest satisfied.” [1] MY GRACE IS SUFFICIENT
FOR THEE; FOR MY STRENGTH IS MADE PERFECT IN WEAKNESS. “Grace,”
see on 1 Corinthians 1:3, is he... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 12:10. WHEREFORE I TAKE PLEASURE (‘I am well
contented') IN WEAKNESSES, IN INJURIES... FOR CHRIST'S SAKE. The sense
is, not ‘injuries endured for Christ's sake,' but ‘I take pleasure
in them for Christ's sake;'
FOR WHEN I AM WEAK, THEN AM I STRONG. Of course, this was true only
when... [ Continue Reading ]
_Self-Vindication resumed,_ 11-21.
2 Corinthians 12:11. I AM BECOME FOOLISH: YE COMPELLED ME; FOR I OUGHT
TO HAVE BEEN COMMENDED OF YOU: FOR IN NOTHING WAS I BEHIND THE VERY
CHIEFEST APOSTLES, THOUGH I AM NOTHING. See on chap. 2 Corinthians
11:5, ‘In myself I am nothing, but as an apostle of Christ... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 12:12. TRULY THE SIGNS OF AN APOSTLE WERE WROUGHT AMONG
YOU IN ALL PATIENCE, BY SIGNS, AND WONDERS, AND MIGHTY WORKS _(Gr._
‘powers'). In Hebrews 2:4, these are given as evidences of
apostleship, as in Acts 2:22, of the Divine mission of Christ Himself.
“How at variance with this,” exc... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 12:13. FOR WHAT IS THERE WHEREIN YE WERE MADE INFERIOR
TO (placed at a disadvantage as compared with) THE REST OF THE
CHURCHES, EXCEPT _IT BE_ THAT I MYSELF WAS NOT A BURDEN TO YOU?
FORGIVE ME THIS WRONG. Cutting irony this!... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 12:14. BEHOLD, THIS IS THE THIRD TIME I AM READY TO COME
TO YOU not ‘I am a third time ready to do this' (as a number of
critics understand it), but ‘I am ready to come the third time.' The
former sense is forced on those who think the apostle paid but two
visits to Corinth; but beside... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 12:15. AND I WILL MOST GLADLY SPEND AND BE SPENT (_Gr._
‘spent out') FOR YOUR SOULS. IF I LOVE YOU MORE ABUNDANTLY, AM I
LOVED THE LESS? [1]
[1] This is certainly the true reading, and (without the και of the
received text) the above is the only legitimate translation.... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 12:16. BUT ME BEING CRAFTY, I CAUGHT YOU WITH GUILE.
‘True (ye say), you took no money from us yourself, but you were
crafty enough to get it through others.' The answer to this base
insinuation, which the apostle deems his detractors capable of, now
follows.... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 12:17. DID I TAKE ADVANTAGE OF YOU BY ANY ONE OF THEM
WHOM I HAVE SENT UNTO YOU?
2 Corinthians 12:18. I EXHORTED (or charged) TITUS, AND I SENT THE
BROTHER WITH HIM (probably one of the two referred to in chap. 2
Corinthians 8:18; 2 Corinthians 8:22).
DID TITUS TAKE ANY ADVANTAGE OF... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 12:19. YE THINK ALL THIS TIME [1] THAT WE ARE EXCUSING
OURSELVES UNTO YOU. In this ye much mistake me.
[1] πάλαι, not πάλιν, as in the received text.
IN THE SIGHT OF GOD SPEAK WE IN CHRIST: ‘We look higher; having
respect before the great Searcher of hearts, in every word we write,... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 12:20. FOR I FEAR, LEST BY ANY MEANS, WHEN I COME, I
SHOULD FIND YOU NOT SUCH AS I WOULD, AND SHOULD MYSELF BE FOUND OF YOU
SUCH AS YE WOULD NOT lest my visit should be pleasant to neither
party, lest _there should be_ [1] STRIFE, JEALOUSY, WRATHS, FACTIONS,
BACKBITINGS, WHISPERINGS, T... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 12:21. LEST, WHEN I COME AGAIN, MY GOD SHOULD HUMBLE ME
BEFORE YOU. So bound up was his comfort in this and all his churches
with their spiritual prosperity, that the prospect of finding the
church which of all others lay most at his heart in the deplorable
condition here described, si... [ Continue Reading ]