2 Corinthians 9:15

15. After χάρις א2C2D2KLP, Syrr. Copt. Arm. add δέ. אBCDG, Latt. omit The δέ spoils the abrupt transition, which is effective.

2 Corinthians 9:1-5. DIRECTIONS CONTINUED

15. Χάρις τῷ θεῷ. The thought of this mutual goodwill between Jewish and Gentile converts, as an earnest of the love which unites all Christians (κοινωνία εἰς πάντας), fills the Apostle’s heart with thankfulness, to which he gives immediate and abrupt (see critical note) expression. One who had had so much experience of the bitter antagonism between Jews and Gentiles in the Church, might well overflow with gratitude, and speak of this blessed result as an ‘indescribable boon.’ The Jews in Palestine will be thankful for the Corinthians’ bounty, and he is thankful for God’s bounty in bringing all this to pass: Paulus in gratiarum actione se illis in Judaea fratribus adjungit, et quasi Amen illis accinit (Grotius).

ἀνεκδιηγήτῳ. The word occurs nowhere else in Biblical Greek. Clement of Rome uses it of the ineffable mysteries of nature (1 Cor. xx. 5). It is found also in Arrian; τὴν� (Exp. Al. p. 310). To say that so strong an epithet would not be used by the Apostle of any less boon than man’s redemption is unsound reasoning. A thanksgiving for redemption would here have very little point. Calvin gives the right connexion; tandem, quasi voti compos, ad laudem Deo canendam evehitur: quo suam fiduciam quasi re jam confecta testari voluit.

This thanksgiving concludes the second main portion of the letter. Comp. the conclusion of the first portion (2 Corinthians 7:16) and the thanksgivings at the end of important divisions of other Epistles (1 Corinthians 15:57; Romans 11:33-36; 1 Timothy 1:17).

It is hardly necessary to do more than mention the suspicion of some critics that this ninth chapter is an interpolation from some letter, of which the rest has been lost. The transition from 2 Corinthians 8:24 to 2 Corinthians 9:1 is said to be not obvious, and the two Chapter s, if read together, are said to involve needless repetition. Others, to avoid these supposed difficulties, regard 8 as an interpolation. But the connexion of 8 with 1–7 is manifest; and the trifling difficulties about the addition of 9 vanish when we remember the delicate position in which the Apostle was placed. He had to recognize what the Corinthians had already done, and yet to intimate that very little had been done and that a very great deal was wanted from them. Hence the variations and half-repetitions in 9 when compared with 8. But the two Chapter s are quite harmonious; comp. 2 Corinthians 8:6; 2 Corinthians 8:11 with 2 Corinthians 9:3-5. And they mutually explain one another; comp. 2 Corinthians 8:16-22 with 2 Corinthians 9:3-5. The hypothesis of a piece of one letter being inserted in the middle of another is intrinsically so improbable that it ought not to be accepted without very strong evidence. That a letter mutilated at the end should get united to one mutilated at the beginning is less improbable. See above on 2 Corinthians 6:14.