2 Corinthians 13:1

Τρίτον (אBDFG &c., Syrr. Copt. Arm.) rather than ἰδοὺ τρίτον (א3A, Latt. Aeth., Aug.). The ἰδού comes from 2 Corinthians 12:14. From the same source A substitutes ἑτοίμως ἔχω ἐλθεῖν for ἔρχομαι. καί (ABDFG &c.) rather than ἤ (א, Vulg., Aug.).

1. Τρίτον τοῦτο ἔρχομαι πρὸς ὑμᾶς. See critical note. This is the third time I am coming to you (comp. 2 Corinthians 12:14), or For the third time I am now coming to you. All suggestions about intentions to come, or being willing to come, or letters being counted as visits, may be safely set aside. The plain meaning is, that he has paid two visits, the long one, when he converted them, and the short one, when he rebuked them with so little effect (2 Corinthians 1:23), and that he is preparing to come again: jam sum in procinctu (Bengel). These passages (2 Corinthians 12:14; 2 Corinthians 13:1-2) “seem inexplicable under any other hypothesis, except that of a second visit” (Lightfoot). Hitherto they have found him so forbearing that he has been accused of weakness. This time he will be severe.

ἐπὶ στόματος δύο μ. He will proceed in strictly legal form (Deuteronomy 19:15) against offenders; at the mouth of two witnesses and of three shall every word be established. Those charged with offences will have to meet the charges; those who make charges will have to prove them; and the evidence required will be that which would suffice in a court of law. There had been ἔρις, ζῆλος, θυμοί, ἐριθίαι: but no mere slanders and insinuations (καταλαλιαί, ψιθυρισμοί) will be listened to, unless supported by legal evidence. He perhaps has specially in mind the tactics of the Judaizers. Comp. Matthew 18:16.

καὶ τριῶν. The καὶ in the LXX. is very marked; ἐπὶ στόματος δύο μ. καὶ ἐπὶ στ. τριῶν μ. στήσεται πᾶν ῥῆμα. See critical note: in 1 Timothy 5:19 ἤ is unquestioned. Here the Vulgate has vel and in Deuteronomy 19:15 aut. The καί and ἤ are almost equivalent in such cases; ‘two witnesses and (if they are to be had) three.’ Calvin, following Chrysostom and Theodoret (ἀντὶ μαρτύρων γὰρ τὰς παρουσίας αὐτοῦ τίθησι), makes the ‘two and three witnesses’ to refer to the two visits already paid and the third which he is about to pay; triplex enim labor tres homines non immerito valebat. But this is strained and unnatural. It is more to the point when Bengel remarks that the Apostle means to rely upon human testimony, and not appeal to a special revelation. If he appealed to his three visits as three witnesses, that would be circumventing the law by a quibble, making the testimony of the same man given three times equal to the testimony of three different persons. The use of the O.T. in 2 Corinthians 3:16 and 2 Corinthians 8:15 is not parallel to such a quibble.

πᾶν ῥῆμα. To be understood literally; every word; not (according to the Hebraistic use) ‘every thing’: comp. Luke 1:37; also Luke 2:19; Luke 2:51, where the R.V. has ‘sayings’ in the text and ‘things’ in the margin; and Acts 5:32, where it has ‘things’ in the text and ‘sayings’ in the margin. Matthew 18:16 is sufficiently decisive for the meaning in this phrase.