2 Corinthians 7:12

2 Corinthians 7:12. So then, although I wrote unto you,. wrote not for his cause that did the wrong, nor for his cause that suffered the wrong. Who this was has been much disputed. The only natural interpretation is, the father of the incestuous person supposed by most in that case to be still alive. But how in that case there could be a marriage at all, it is hard to see. On 1 Corinthians 5:1 we expressed the presumption that the father must have been dead; in which case the dishonour done to his memory may be what is here referred to. But if that be thought not natural, since no other than the father can well be meant, we shall have to suppose that the incestuous act was done in the father's lifetime, which, of course, would place it in a more monstrous light,

but that your earnest care for us [1] might be made manifest unto you in the sight of God. All the principal authorities read thus. But since at first sight the sense seems rather to be “that our care for you” might appear, the reverse way of reading it has been substituted in our Authorised Version (doubtless from Beza, certainly on slight external authority). But the true reading, when narrowly looked at, will be found to suit the context best that he wrote in order that by executing the order which he gave them, trying and peremptory as it was, ‘their regard for his apostolic authority and himself too might be manifest to themselves before God.' What follows seems to confirm this.

[1] So beyond doubt reads the true text.