XI. (1) WOULD TO GOD. — As the words “to God” are not in the Greek, it would be better to treat them as the general expression of a wish: _Would that ye could bear._ YE COULD BEAR WITH ME A LITTLE IN MY FOLLY. — There are two catch-words, as it were, which characterise the section of the Epistle on... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR I AM JEALOUS OVER YOU... — The word is used with the same sense as in the nearly contemporary passage of Galatians 4:17, and the whole passage may be paraphrased thus: “I court your favour with a jealous care, which is not a mere human affection, but after the pattern of that of God.” There is p... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT I FEAR, LEST BY ANY MEANS, AS THE SERPENT... — An allusive reference to the history of Genesis 3, which meets us again in 1 Timothy 3:13. St. Paul either takes for granted that the disciples at Corinth will recognise the “serpent” as the symbol of the great Tempter, as in Revelation 12:9; or, wi... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR IF HE THAT COMETH PREACHETH ANOTHER JESUS. — The singular points, like the “any man,” “such an one,” of 2 Corinthians 10:7; 2 Corinthians 10:11, to an individual teacher who had made himself conspicuously prominent. The words throw light on Galatians 1:7. The false teachers in Galatia and those... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR I SUPPOSE I WAS NOT A WHIT BEHIND THE VERY CHIEFEST APOSTLES. — The verb with which the sentence opens is the same as the “I think,” “I reckon,” which characterises these Chapter s, and which, being characteristic, ought to be retained. _I reckon I have not fallen short of those apostles-extraor... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT THOUGH I BE RUDE IN SPEECH. — The word for “rude” is the same as that translated as “unlearned” in 1 Corinthians 14:23. This, then, had also been said of him by some at Corinth. It might seem at first as if the contemptuous criticism was likely to have come from the Hellenic or paganising party... [ Continue Reading ]
HAVE I COMMITTED AN OFFENCE (literally, _a sin_) IN ABASING MYSELF...? — The rival teachers apparently boasted of their disinterestedness. “They didn’t come for what they could get.” St. Paul, we know, more than most men, had acted on the law of which they boasted as their special distinction, and i... [ Continue Reading ]
I ROBBED OTHER CHURCHES, TAKING WAGES OF THEM. — The word for wages — strictly _rations,_ or wages in kind, rather than in money — is found in Luke 3:14; Romans 6:23; 1 Corinthians 9:7. Its use in the last-named passage had, perhaps, given occasion for a sneer. “He too can take wages when it suits h... [ Continue Reading ]
I WAS CHARGEABLE TO NO MAN. — There is no doubt that this gives substantially the meaning of the Greek word, but the word is a very peculiar one, and has a history which, as throwing light on the sources of St. Paul’s phraseology, and his character as shown in his use of it, is not without interest.... [ Continue Reading ]
AS THE TRUTH OF CHRIST IS IN ME.. — The formula is almost, though not quite, of the nature of an oath. He speaks here, as in Romans 9:1, in the consciousness that the truth of Christ (the objective sense of the truth revealed in Christ seems almost merged in the subjective sense of the truthfulness... [ Continue Reading ]
BECAUSE I LOVE YOU NOT.. — This then had been said. Some of the Corinthians were jealous, or affected to be jealous, of the preference shown to the Macedonians in receiving gifts from them. With an emphatic appeal to Him who reads the secrets of men’s hearts, he disclaims that imputation.... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT I MAY CUT OFF OCCASION FROM THEM WHICH DESIRE OCCASION. — It lies on the surface that the “occasion,” or _opening for attack,_ which his opponents had thus desired, was one against which he guarded himself by not taking money. They boasted of their own disinterestedness. They taunted him with h... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR SUCH ARE FALSE APOSTLES... — St. Paul’s estimate of the character of his rivals is now given in unsparing language as the reason why he desires to deprive them of any claim which may give them an adventitious superiority to him. In the term “false apostles” we have the explanation of the “apostl... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR SATAN HIMSELF IS TRANSFORMED INTO AN ANGEL OF LIGHT. — The present tense of the original excludes the thought that reference is made to any special incident (such as the appearance of Satan among “the sons of God,” of Job 1:6) recorded in the Old Testament, or in tradition. The thought is rather... [ Continue Reading ]
IF HIS MINISTERS ALSO BE TRANSFORMED AS THE MINISTERS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. — The words seem to point to one of the special characteristics of the Apostle’s rivals. They represented themselves as the preachers of a righteousness which was, they asserted, neglected in St. Paul’s teaching. They claimed th... [ Continue Reading ]
I SAY AGAIN, LET NO MAN THINK ME A FOOL... — The stinging word is repeated from 2 Corinthians 11:1. He protests against the justice of the taunt. He pleads that, even if they think him “insane” (this, rather than mere foolishness, is probably the meaning of the word), they will give him the attentio... [ Continue Reading ]
I SPEAK IT NOT AFTER THE LORD, BUT AS IT WERE FOOLISHLY. — Better, _in foolishness;_ as keeping up the emphatic repetition of the same word in the English as in the Greek. From one point of view the distinction drawn is the same as that which we find in 1 Corinthians 7:6; 1 Corinthians 7:10; 1 Corin... [ Continue Reading ]
SEEING THAT MANY GLORY AFTER THE FLESH. — To glory, or _boast,_ after the flesh, as interpreted by 2 Corinthians 5:16 (where see Note), is to lay stress on things which are the accidents of the spiritual life, not of its true essence — on descent, prerogatives, rank, reputation, and the like. There... [ Continue Reading ]
YE SUFFER FOOLS GLADLY, SEEING YE YOURSELVES ARE WISE. — He falls back into the strain of irony of 1 Corinthians 4:8, to which, indeed, the whole passage presents a striking parallelism. He assumes that in their serene, self-complacent wisdom they will be willing to tolerate even those whom they loo... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR YE SUFFER, IF A MAN BRING YOU INTO BONDAGE. — Every word in the sentence clearly points to something that Titus had told him of the action of these rival teachers. They reproduced, in their worst form, the vices of the Pharisaism of Palestine (Matthew 23:4; Matthew 23:14; Matthew 23:25). They en... [ Continue Reading ]
I SPEAK AS CONCERNING REPROACH, AS THOUGH WE HAD BEEN WEAK. — Better, _I speak it as a matter of reproach to myself, as though we were weak._ The irony becomes more intense than ever. He has named these acts of outrage, he says, as though by way of self-disparagement. “_We_” (the pronoun is strongly... [ Continue Reading ]
ARE THEY HEBREWS? — This, then, was one of their boasts. They were Jews of Palestine, speaking Aramaic, reading the Law and Prophets in the original. He, they asserted, or implied, was a Hellenistic Jew (his birth at Tarsus naturally suggesting that thought), content to use the Greek version of the... [ Continue Reading ]
ARE THEY MINISTERS OF CHRIST? — It is obvious that this title was claimed by the rival teachers in some special sense. They were “ministers of Christ” in a nearer and a higher sense than others. This again falls in with all that has been said as to the nature and pretensions of those who said, “I am... [ Continue Reading ]
OF THE JEWS FIVE TIMES RECEIVED I FORTY STRIPES SAVE ONE. — None of these are recorded in the Acts. It is probable that the words refer to the early period of his work in Cilicia, which is implied though not recorded in that book. (See Note on Acts 15:41). The number of the stripes in Jewish punishm... [ Continue Reading ]
ONCE WAS I STONED. — Here the Acts (Acts 14:19) give us the solitary instance at Lystra. The accuracy of the Apostle in referring to this form of suffering, where we can compare it with the history, may fairly be urged as evidence of a like accuracy in his other statements. THRICE I SUFFERED SHIPWR... [ Continue Reading ]
IN JOURNEYINGS OFTEN. — Again we enter on a list of activities and sufferings of which this is the only, or nearly the only, record. Some of them may be referred to journeys (as above) before his arrival at Antioch; some, probably, to that from Antioch to Ephesus through the interior of Asia Minor ... [ Continue Reading ]
IN WEARINESS AND PAINFULLNESS... — The same combination meets us in 2 Thessalonians 3:8, where the English version has “labour and travail,” as Tyndale and Cranmer have in this passage. “Weariness and painfulness” appear first in the Geneva version; _toil and trouble_ is, perhaps, the best English e... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT WHICH COMETH UPON ME DAILY... — The word so translated primarily signifies a “rush” or “tumult,” and is so used in Acts 24:12. Here that meaning is excluded by the fact that perils of that nature had been already specified, and that he now manifestly speaks of something differing in kind as wel... [ Continue Reading ]
WHO IS WEAK AND I AM NOT WEAK...? — The words obviously spring from a recollection of all that was involved in that “rush” of which he had just spoken. Did any come to him with his tale of body-sickness or soul-sickness, he, in his infinite sympathy, felt as if he shared in it. He claimed no exempti... [ Continue Reading ]
IF I MUST NEEDS GLORY... — The words form a transition to the narratives that follow. The question, “Who is weak and I am not weak?” has suggested _the_ thought of the weakness and infirmity of various kinds with which his enemies reproached him. He will glory — here also with a touch of grave irony... [ Continue Reading ]
THE GOD AND FATHER OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. — The solemn attestation was, we may believe, a natural introduction to what was possibly intended, as the words passed from his lips, to be the beginning of a much fuller narrative than that which was its actual outcome. WHICH IS BLESSED FOR EVERMORE. —... [ Continue Reading ]
IN DAMASCUS THE GOVERNOR UNDER ARETAS THE KING... — The question meets us at the outset whether the fact that follows is brought in as being the first instance of suffering endured for the sake of Christ, and therefore the natural opening to what was intended to have been a long, connected narrative... [ Continue Reading ]
THROUGH A WINDOW IN A BASKET... — On the mode of escape, see Notes on Acts 9:24. So the spies escaped from the house of Rahab (Joshua 2:15), and David from the pursuit of Saul (1 Samuel 19:12). The word which St. Paul uses for “basket” (_sarganè_) implies, perhaps, a more vivid personal recollection... [ Continue Reading ]