2 Corinthians 5:14

ὅτι εἶς (אBC2DFGKLP, Syrr. Aeth.) rather than ὅτι εἰ εἶς (א3C, Vulg. Copt. Arm.).

14. ἡ γὰρ�. This is not parallel to τὸν φόβον τοῦ κυρίου (2 Corinthians 5:11): it means the love which Christ has towards us (Ephesians 3:19; Romans 5:5; Romans 5:8). See Cremer, Lex. p. 594. Because He loves us so much, we have to restrict our energies to the service of God and of our fellow-men, to the exclusion of self. By συνέχει is meant ‘keeps within bounds,’ prevents from wandering to other objects than the service of God and of man. The word implies pressure (Luke 8:45; Luke 19:43), but the pressure which restrains (Luke 12:50), rather than that which pushes forward. See Lightfoot on συνέχομαι ἐκ τῶν δύο (Philippians 1:23), the only other Pauline use of the verb; ‘I am hemmed in on both sides, I am prevented from inclining one way or the other.’ ‘Urges us on’ is not quite the meaning, although Chrysostom so paraphrases it; οὐκ�, ἀλλὰ διανίστησι πρὸς τοὺς ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν πόνους, καὶ ὠθεῖ. He twice quotes, ἡ�, a reading for which there seems to be no authority. But restrains us from commending ourselves may be right. The idea of motive, though not in the word, can perhaps be deduced from it; ‘possesses us, absorbs us’; comp. Acts 18:5, ‘he was wholly absorbed in preaching.’

κρίναντας τοῦτο. Because we formed this judgment (1 Corinthians 10:15; 1 Corinthians 11:13), came to this opinion. Some refer this to his conversion. But at the moment when Christ captured him and changed him from a persecutor into a convert he could hardly be said to have formed any such conviction. The time of reflexion after his conversion may be meant. In that case translate, because we have formed this judgment, or because we thus judge (A.V., R.V.). The τοῦτο anticipates ὅτι and ἄρα, especially the latter: it is οἱ πάντες� that is the main element in the judgment. For this use of τοῦτο comp. 2 Corinthians 8:20; 2 Corinthians 10:7; 2 Corinthians 10:11.

ὅτι εἶς ὑπὲρ πάντων�· ἅρα οἱ πάντες�. See critical note. That one died for all, therefore they all died; the ὅτι is practically the sign of quotation, giving the words of his judgment. In one sense, all died in Adam (1 Corinthians 15:22); in quite another, all died in Christ (Galatians 2:19; Colossians 3:3). This is the interpretation of οἱ πάντες� adopted by Athanasius, Cyril of Alexandria, and many moderns; and it is preferable to the explanation that the death of one for all showed that all men were previously dead in sin, which Chrysostom seems to mean.