2 Corinthians 1:11

συνυπουργούντων καὶ ὑμῶν κ. τ. λ.: ye also helping together on our behalf by your supplication; i.e., apparently, “helping me ”. St. Paul claims that the sympathy of his converts with him shall be exhibited by their prayers for him. δέησις is prayer for a particular object, as contrasted with the more general προσευχή (Ephesians 6:18). ἵνα ἐκ πολλῶν προσώπων κ. τ. λ : that from many faces (sc., as if upturned in thanksgiving) thanks be given on our behalf through many for the gift bestowed on us. πρόσωπον came to mean “person” in later Greek, but it never can be thus translated in the N.T., save in the phrase λαμβάνειν πρόσωπον (Luke 20:21; Galatians 2:6) or θαυμάζειν πρόσωπα (Jude 1:16), “to respect the person” of anyone. Even in these passages λαμβάνεις πρόσωπον is a Hebraism which originally meant “raise the face” (see Plummer on Luke 20:21). πρόσωπον is used ten times elsewhere in this Epistle in its ordinary sense of “face” (chap. 2 Corinthians 2:10 2 Corinthians 3:7; 2 Corinthians 3:13; 2 Corinthians 3:18 2 Corinthians 4:6, 2 Corinthians 5:12; 2 Corinthians 8:24 2 Corinthians 10:1; 2 Corinthians 10:7; 2 Corinthians 11:20; cf. also 1 Corinthians 13:12; 1 Corinthians 14:25; Galatians 1:22). Hence we cannot follow the English versions in translating ἐκ πολλῶν προσώπων “by many persons” in this verse, an additional difficulty in the way of such a rendering being that it would require ὑπό, not ἐκ. πρόσωπον is a face, and the image in the writer's mind is that of faces upturned in prayer, the early Christian (and the Jewish) attitude of prayer being one of standing with uplifted eyes and outstretched arms (cf. Psalms 27:2; Matthew 6:5; 1 Timothy 2:8, and Clem. Rom., § 29). The general thought, of the united thanksgivings of many persons, is found twice again in the Epistle in somewhat similar contexts (see reff.). χάρισμα and εὐχαριστεῖν (the passive is found here only in N.T.) are favourite words with St. Paul, the former occurring sixteen times in his Epistles and only once elsewhere in the N.T. (1 Peter 4:10).