2 Corinthians 4:4

in whom the god of this world i.e. the devil, who is called the princeor rulerof this world in John 12:31; John 14:30; John 16:11. So also Matthew 4:9; Luke 4:6; Ephesians 2:2; Ephesians 6:12. He is so called because for the present he has power in it, Revelation 12:12. The early fathers, in their zeal against the two gods (one good and one evil) of the Manichaeans and some sects of the Gnostics, repudiate this interpretation, and render, in defiance of the plain meaning, - God hath blinded the understandings of the unbelievers of this world." On this Calvin makes some wise remarks: "We see what the heat of controversy does in such disputes. If all these men had read the words of Paul with a tranquil mind, it would never have come into their mind so to wrest his words into a forced sense. But because their adversaries bore hardly on them, they thought more of vanquishing them than of endeavouring to ascertain the mind of Paul."

hath blinded the minds of them which believe not The meaning is either (1) that all were perishing alike (John 3:18), but that some believed and Satan blinded the minds of the rest, or (2) that all were formerly unbelieving, but that some, by rejecting the good tidings of salvation through Christ, passed over into the category of the perishing. In support of (1) we may render -in whom" by -among whom." The word here translated - them which believe not" is used in 1 Corinthians 6:6; 1Co 7:12-15; 1 Corinthians 10:27; 1 Corinthians 14:22-24, of those who do not believe in Christ. For the word translated -minds," see note on ch. 2 Corinthians 2:11. The word translated - blinded" is not the same as that used in ch. 2 Corinthians 3:14.

lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ Rather, lest the enlightenment (Rhemish, illumination) of the Gospel of the glory of Christ. The word translated -light" in the A. V. signifies rather the resultof light than light itself. The words translated -glorious gospel" are so translated in virtue of the constant occurrence of Hebraisms of this kind in the N. T. But it seems impossible to doubt that there is here a reference to the -glory" so frequently mentioned in the last chapter, as in the word -blinded" there is an obvious reference to the vail.

who is the image of God Cf. ch. 2 Corinthians 3:18; Colossians 1:15. The word in the original is exactly equivalent to our word likeness. An image or likeness is a visible representationof an object. So Christ in His humanity (cf. Genesis 1:27; 1 Corinthians 11:7) is a visible representation of the unseen God. Cf. John 1:1-14 (especially the last verse), and Hebrews 1:3. Also John 14:8-9. No revelation of the wisdom and power of God that man has received can compare with that made in the Life, Death and Resurrection of the Incarnate Son. Also as the -Mediator of the New Covenant" (Hebrews 12:24), glory, the glory of the Invisible God, streams from His Face, a glory far brighter than that with which Moses" face shone after communing with God.