Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

2 Corinthians 12:8

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 making this the subject of solemn entreaty.

Note. Those who doubt whether the New Testament warrants prayer to Christ should have their doubts set at rest by this passage. A poor attempt has been made to set aside the argument here, by urging that the word beseech here used [1] is never employed to express prayer to God, and that it means not to invocate but rather to advocate. [2] But surely it is forgotten that our Lord, when He allowed Himself to be apprehended and Peter would have fought for Him, said, “Thinkest thou that I cannot beseech my Father (using the same word as here) and He shall even now send me twelve legions of angels?” (Matthew 26:53). Besides, the question is not to whom any petition is addressed, but whether the word “beseeching” means petitioning for something by one person to another; and surely to ask such a question is absurd. Any one with his Greek Testament in his hand will find it so used dozens of times. If this, then, was what Paul did to Christ, and Christ so answered him as implied His right to be so addressed, and to give the fitting answer, then the New Testament warrant to pray to Christ is conclusively settled, and with it His supreme Personal Divinity. In the next verse this comes out with singular clearness.

[1] παρακαλίω.

[2] I take this from the Speaker's Commentary on the passage, but have not been able to find the objection in any of the principal Unitarian writings, old or new. The “Polish Socinians” were voluminous and able commentators. But in the nine quarto volumes of their works (Bibliotheca Fratrum Polonorum, 1656), I have not found a trace of it; nor in the Improved (Unitarian) Version of the New Testament (London, 1817); nor in Magee On the Atonement written expressly in reply to modern Unitarians-have I found any reference to such an objection. But as, no doubt, it has been made, I have replied to it above.

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Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

2 Corinthians 12:8

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