VINDICATION OF HIS APOSTOLIC AUTHORITY AGAINST TRADUCERS. The tone of these concluding Chapter s is so very different from that of all that precedes them, that though it is impossible to doubt that both came from the same pen (only two or three of the wildest critics have ever alleged the contrary),... [ Continue Reading ]
_Visions and_ _Revelations,_ 1 - 10. 2 Corinthians 12:1. I MUST NEEDS GLORY, THOUGH IT IS NOT EXPEDIENT; [1] BUT I WILL COME TO VISIONS AND REVELATIONS: ‘Distasteful it is to continue in a strain so unsuitable; but since I am forced to it, I proceed to relate what I experienced many years ago at th... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 12:2. I KNOW A MAN IN CHRIST not “knew” (as in the Authorised Version), which the word never signifies. In fact, the whole point of the statement lies in its being _present:_ ‘I know such a man, and I could name him too;' meaning himself, as will presently appear, FOURTEEN YEAN AGO (_G... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 12:3-4. AND I KNOW SUCH A MAN (WHETHER IN THE BODY OR OUT OF THE BODY, [1] I KNOW NOT; GOD KNOWETH), HOW THAT HE WAS CAUGHT UP INTO PARADISE. Are we to take this as expressive of a further transition, raising him to a still loftier region than “the third heaven” called “Paradise”? So t... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 12:5. ON BEHALF OF SUCH A ONE WILL I GLORY; BUT ON MINE OWN BEHALF I WILL NOT GLORY, SAVE IN MY WEAKNESSES. So entirely does he wish himself to be regarded as _passive_ in this whole exalted scene, and his Master's hand as exclusively in it, that he separates his personal self from the... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 12:6. FOR IF I SHOULD DESIRE TO GLORY, I SHOULD NOT BE FOOLISH; FOR I SHALL SPEAK THE TRUTH: BUT I FORBEAR, LEST ANY MAN SHOULD ACCOUNT OF ME ABOVE THAT WHICH HE SEETH ME _TO BE, _ OR HEARETH FROM ME: ‘I might, indeed, glory, and in doing so, I should not have to go beyond what is stri... [ Continue Reading ]
_The thorn in the flesh and its lessons,_ 7-10. 2 Corinthians 12:7. AND BY REASON OF THE EXCEEDING GREATNESS OF THE REVELATION WHEREFORE (the sentence starts here in a new form), THAT I SHOULD NOT BE EXALTED OVERMUCH, THERE WAS GIVEN UNTO ME A THORN IN THE FLESH, A MESSENGER OF SATAN TO BUFFET ME,... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 12:8. FOR (‘about') THIS THING I BESOUGHT THE LORD the Lord _Christ,_ as is plain from the next verse, THRICE, THAT IT MIGHT DEPART FROM ME therein following his Master when He prayed thrice that the cup might pass from Him; not three petitions merely, but at three successive times mak... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 12:9. AND HE HATH SAID. It is not a single reply to the prayer as then offered, “but as continuing in force: He hath told me, and with this I must rest satisfied.” [1] MY GRACE IS SUFFICIENT FOR THEE; FOR MY STRENGTH IS MADE PERFECT IN WEAKNESS. “Grace,” see on 1 Corinthians 1:3, is he... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 12:10. WHEREFORE I TAKE PLEASURE (‘I am well contented') IN WEAKNESSES, IN INJURIES... FOR CHRIST'S SAKE. The sense is, not ‘injuries endured for Christ's sake,' but ‘I take pleasure in them for Christ's sake;' FOR WHEN I AM WEAK, THEN AM I STRONG. Of course, this was true only when... [ Continue Reading ]
_Self-Vindication resumed,_ 11-21. 2 Corinthians 12:11. I AM BECOME FOOLISH: YE COMPELLED ME; FOR I OUGHT TO HAVE BEEN COMMENDED OF YOU: FOR IN NOTHING WAS I BEHIND THE VERY CHIEFEST APOSTLES, THOUGH I AM NOTHING. See on chap. 2 Corinthians 11:5, ‘In myself I am nothing, but as an apostle of Christ... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 12:12. TRULY THE SIGNS OF AN APOSTLE WERE WROUGHT AMONG YOU IN ALL PATIENCE, BY SIGNS, AND WONDERS, AND MIGHTY WORKS _(Gr._ ‘powers'). In Hebrews 2:4, these are given as evidences of apostleship, as in Acts 2:22, of the Divine mission of Christ Himself. “How at variance with this,” exc... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 12:13. FOR WHAT IS THERE WHEREIN YE WERE MADE INFERIOR TO (placed at a disadvantage as compared with) THE REST OF THE CHURCHES, EXCEPT _IT BE_ THAT I MYSELF WAS NOT A BURDEN TO YOU? FORGIVE ME THIS WRONG. Cutting irony this!... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 12:14. BEHOLD, THIS IS THE THIRD TIME I AM READY TO COME TO YOU not ‘I am a third time ready to do this' (as a number of critics understand it), but ‘I am ready to come the third time.' The former sense is forced on those who think the apostle paid but two visits to Corinth; but beside... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 12:15. AND I WILL MOST GLADLY SPEND AND BE SPENT (_Gr._ ‘spent out') FOR YOUR SOULS. IF I LOVE YOU MORE ABUNDANTLY, AM I LOVED THE LESS? [1] [1] This is certainly the true reading, and (without the και of the received text) the above is the only legitimate translation.... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 12:16. BUT ME BEING CRAFTY, I CAUGHT YOU WITH GUILE. ‘True (ye say), you took no money from us yourself, but you were crafty enough to get it through others.' The answer to this base insinuation, which the apostle deems his detractors capable of, now follows.... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 12:17. DID I TAKE ADVANTAGE OF YOU BY ANY ONE OF THEM WHOM I HAVE SENT UNTO YOU? 2 Corinthians 12:18. I EXHORTED (or charged) TITUS, AND I SENT THE BROTHER WITH HIM (probably one of the two referred to in chap. 2 Corinthians 8:18; 2 Corinthians 8:22). DID TITUS TAKE ANY ADVANTAGE OF... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 12:19. YE THINK ALL THIS TIME [1] THAT WE ARE EXCUSING OURSELVES UNTO YOU. In this ye much mistake me. [1] πάλαι, not πάλιν, as in the received text. IN THE SIGHT OF GOD SPEAK WE IN CHRIST: ‘We look higher; having respect before the great Searcher of hearts, in every word we write,... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 12:20. FOR I FEAR, LEST BY ANY MEANS, WHEN I COME, I SHOULD FIND YOU NOT SUCH AS I WOULD, AND SHOULD MYSELF BE FOUND OF YOU SUCH AS YE WOULD NOT lest my visit should be pleasant to neither party, lest _there should be_ [1] STRIFE, JEALOUSY, WRATHS, FACTIONS, BACKBITINGS, WHISPERINGS, T... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 12:21. LEST, WHEN I COME AGAIN, MY GOD SHOULD HUMBLE ME BEFORE YOU. So bound up was his comfort in this and all his churches with their spiritual prosperity, that the prospect of finding the church which of all others lay most at his heart in the deplorable condition here described, si... [ Continue Reading ]