2 Corinthians 8:14

but by an equality Cf. 1 Corinthians 12 and Acts 2:41-47; Acts 4:32-37. Dean Stanley remarks on the similarity between this passage and several in the 5th book of Aristotle's Ethics, and no doubt St Paul here uses the word in Aristotle's sense of fairness, reciprocal advantage. Many of the English translators connect these words with those that succeed, but by an equality at the present time.

your abundance i.e. as we should now say, superabundance. See note on ch. 2 Corinthians 7:4, where the word in the Greek is derived from the same root. The English word abundanceis derived from the Latin unda, a wave, and signifies originally an overflowing quantity.

that their abundance also may be a supply for your want Literally, might be. There are two interpretations of this passage. The first, which is supported by the ancient interpreters, refers it to the spiritual return made by the Jews in the fact that it was men of their nation who preached the Gospel to the heathen. Cf. ch. 2 Corinthians 9:14. The second, which has found favour with the moderns, is that the allusion is to earthly gifts. The chief difficulty which besets the latter interpretation is the impossibility of conceiving of what those earthly gifts could consist, unless, with De Wette, we regard it as referring to a communication of earthly goods "at another time, and under other possible circumstances." But Estius refers to Luke 14:12-14, as decisive against any reference to temporal recompense.