2 Corinthians 4:14

τὸν κύριον Ἰησοῦν (אCDFGKLP, Lat. Vet.) rather than τὸν Ἰησοῦν (B, Vulg. Arm.); and σὺν Ἰησοῦ (אBCDFGP, Latt. Copt. Arm. Aeth.) rather than διὰ Ἰησοῦ (א3D3KL, Syrr. Goth.).

14. εἰδότες. Because we know. Comp. 2 Corinthians 1:7. This may be the πίστις of 2 Corinthians 4:13 in another form. To the man who has it, complete belief is equivalent to knowledge. Many of the first Christians knew that God had raised Jesus from the dead, because they had seen Him alive after the Crucifixion. Others had a belief in the fact which was equal to knowledge. All had a belief equal to knowledge that God would raise them also from the dead, supposing that they died before Christ’s Return. It is a mistake to say that “it is impossible that the reference can be to the resurrection of the body at the Parousia, for St Paul was persuaded, when he wrote the First Epistle, that he should live until the Lord’s coming, and there is no indication in the Second that his view had undergone any change.” In 1 Corinthians 15:51-52 he contemplates the probability of his being alive at the Second Advent. In 2 Corinthians 5:1-8 he contemplates the possibility of his not being among those who will live to see Christ’s Return. During the period in which he wrote both letters he seems to have still thought that the majority of Christians then living would live on until the Second Coming (1 Thessalonians 4:15; 1 Thessalonians 4:17), and to have supposed that he would be in this majority. But on this last point he nowhere lays stress; and when he was in one of his desponding moods he may easily have expected the contrary. What he says here is that, if he dies, he knows that God will raise him as He raised Jesus, and will present him along with his Corinthian converts to the risen Christ. Polycarp (2) quotes this; comp. 2 Corinthians 3:2; 2 Corinthians 8:21.

σὺν Ἰησοῦ. See critical note. The σύν does not mean ‘at the same time with,’ but indicates the unity of all Christians with and in Christ. In rising again He is the ἀπαρχή (1 Corinthians 15:23), and His members, when they are raised from the dead, rise in union with Him, and by virtue of that union. Hence the correction of the original σύν to the usual διά. Comp. Romans 8:11.

παραστήσει σὺν ὑμῖν. Nothing is said about presenting them before the judgment-seat (Romans 14:10), which would probably have been expressed (2 Corinthians 5:10), had it been meant. From the use of παραστῆσαι in 2 Corinthians 11:2; Colossians 1:22; Ephesians 5:6 we may infer that it is the presentation of the Church as Bride to the Christ as Spouse that is implied. Comp. Jude 1:24.