PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Expositor's Bible: The Second Epistle to the Corinthians
Denney, James · 122,179 words · 161 reading sections
_War_
This meaning is brought out more precisely in the words with which he continues--"bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ." If we suppose a special reference here to the Corinthians, it will be natural to take νόημα ("thought") in a practical sense--as, _e.g._, in chap. ii. 11, where it is rend…
632 wordsSECTION 122_Comparisons_
[80] On Hausrath's view that this was a letter between our Ep. I. and Ep. II. see the Introduction. [81] This is the only place in the New Testament where ταπεινὸς ("lowly") is used in a bad (contemptuous) sense: in Christian lips it is a term of praise (Matt. xi. 29); the speakers here had not learned its Christian m…
725 wordsSECTION 123_Comparisons_
The first words in ver. 7--τὰ κατὰ πρόσωπον βλέπετε--are no doubt directed to this situation, but they have been very variously rendered. Our Authorised Version has, "Do ye look on things after the outward appearance?" That is, "Are you really imposed upon by the pretensions of these men, by their national and carnal d…
657 wordsSECTION 124_Comparisons_
But the Apostle does not stop short with claiming a bare equality with his rivals. "For though[84] I should boast somewhat more abundantly concerning our authority ... I shall not be put to shame"--_i.e._, "The facts I have invited you to look at will bear me out." The key to this passage is to be found in 1 Cor. xv. 1…
874 wordsSECTION 125_Comparisons_
But to return to the text. The Apostle is disinclined to pursue this line further: in defending himself against these obscure detractors, he can hardly avoid the appearance of self-commendation, which of all things he abhors. An acute observer has remarked that when war lasts long the opposing combatants borrow each ot…
739 wordsSECTION 126_Comparisons_
Two feelings are compounded all through this passage: an intense sympathy with the purpose of God that the Gospel should be preached to every creature--Paul's very soul melts into that; and an intense scorn for the spirit that sneaks and poaches on another's ground, and is more anxious that some men should be good sect…
733 wordsSECTION 127_Godly Jealousy_
[83] This is the reading adopted by Westcott and Hort with most MSS. except B. [84] The difficult τε in ἐάν τε γὰρ is most easily explained by the ellipse of a corresponding καί: of several reasons he might adduce, Paul adduces only one (Schmiedel). [85] The ninth verse, Ἳνα μὴ δόξω κ.τ.λ. is most naturally taken wit…
753 wordsSECTION 128_Godly Jealousy_
This is the ground on which Paul claims their forbearance, even when he indulges in a little "folly." If he is guilty of what seems to them extravagance, it is the extravagance of jealousy--_i.e._, of love tormented by fear. Nor is it any selfish jealousy, of which he ought to be ashamed. He is not anxious about his pr…
950 wordsSECTION 129_Godly Jealousy_
This is what we are led to by ver. 4, one of the most vexed passages in the New Testament. The text of the last word is uncertain: some read the imperfect ἀνείχεσθε; others, including our Revisers, the present ἀνέχεσθε. The last is the better attested, and suits best the connexion of thought. The interpretations may be…
920 wordsSECTION 130_Godly Jealousy_
There is only one difficulty in this interpretation, and that is not a serious one: it is the connexion of ver. 5 with what precedes. Those who connect it immediately with ver. 4 are obliged to supply something: for example, "But you _ought_ not to bear with them, for I consider that I am in nothing behind the very chi…
677 wordsSECTION 131_Godly Jealousy_
(2) "The simplicity that is toward Christ"--the simple acceptance of the truth about Him, and undivided loyalty of heart to Him--may be corrupted by influences originating within, as well as without, the Church. The infidelity which is subtlest, and most to be dreaded, is not the gross materialism or atheism which will…
441 wordsSECTION 132Footnotes:
[88] "Woods, trees, meadows, and hills are my witnesses that I drew on a fair match betwixt Christ and Anwoth."--S. RUTHERFORD. [89] The words καὶ τῆς ἁγνότητος are bracketed by Westcott and Hort. They are very strongly attested (by א, B, F, gr., G, etc.); but as they are found in some authorities _before_, instead of…
295 wordsSECTION 133_Foolish Boasting_
"Or did I commit a sin in abasing myself that ye might be exalted, because I preached to you the Gospel of God for nought? I robbed other Churches, taking wages _of them_ that I might minister unto you; and when I was present with you and was in want, I was not a burden on any man; for the brethren, when they came …
733 wordsSECTION 134_Foolish Boasting_
It would be hard to imagine anything more malignant in its wickedness than this. Paul's refusal to claim support from those to whom he preached is one of the most purely and characteristically Christian of all his actions. He felt himself, by the grace of Christ, a debtor to all men; he owed them the Gospel; it was as …
710 wordsSECTION 135_Foolish Boasting_
His fixed purpose to be indebted to no one in Achaia has another object in view. What that is he explains in the twelfth verse. Strange to say, this verse, like ver. 4, has received two precisely opposite interpretations. (1) Some start with the idea that Paul's adversaries at Corinth were persons who took no support f…
932 wordsSECTION 136_Foolish Boasting_
We can only tell in a general way what Paul meant when he spoke of Satan, the prince of darkness, transfiguring himself so as to appear a heavenly angel. He may have had some Jewish legend in his mind, some story of a famous temptation, unknown to us, or he may only have intended to represent to the imagination, with t…
794 wordsSECTION 137_Foolish Boasting_
At this point Paul returns to the idea which has been in his mind since chap. x. 7--the idea of boasting, or rather glorying. He does not like the thing itself, and just as little does he like the mask of a fool, under which he is to play the part: he is conscious that neither suits him. Hence he clears the ground once…
703 wordsSECTION 138_Foolish Boasting_
Here, finally, the boasting does begin. "Are they Hebrews? so am I. Are they Israelites? so am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? so am I." This is the sum and substance of what is meant by their glorying after the flesh: they prided themselves on their birth, and claimed authority on the strength of it. They may have ap…
856 wordsSECTION 139_Foolish Boasting_
But, after all, these perils are but outward, and the very enumeration of them shows that they are things of the past. In all their kinds and degrees--violence, privation, exposure, fear--they are a historical testimony to the devotion with which Paul has served Christ. He bore in his body the marks which they had left…
542 wordsSECTION 140_Strength And Weakness_
[93] This (observe the aorist λαβών) implies that he brought some money with him from Macedonia to Corinth. [94] That is, the two ἵνα are co-ordinate. [95] That is, the ἵνα are not co-ordinate, but the second is subordinate to τῶν θελόντων ἀφορμήν. [96] There has been some discussion as to the precise force of δικαι…
790 wordsSECTION 141_Strength And Weakness_
At this point we are startled by a sudden appeal to God, the solemnity and fulness of which strike us, on a first reading, as almost painfully gratuitous. "The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, He who is blessed for ever, knoweth that I lie not." What is the explanation of this extraordinary earnestness? There is a sim…
705 wordsSECTION 142_Strength And Weakness_
When we go on to chap. xii., and the second of the two subjects with which boasting is to be associated, we meet in the first verse with serious textual difficulties. Our Authorised Version gives the rendering: "_It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord._" This f…
765 wordsSECTION 143_Strength And Weakness_
"Caught up even to the third heaven." The Jews usually counted seven heavens; sometimes, perhaps because of the dual form of the Hebrew word for heaven, two; but the distinctions between the various heavens were as fanciful as the numbers were arbitrary. It adds nothing, even to the imagination, to speak of an aerial, …
1,038 wordsSECTION 144_Strength And Weakness_
But to return to the text. Paul wishes to be humble; he is content that men should take him as they find him, infirmities and all. He has that about him, too, and not unconnected with these high experiences, the very purpose of which is to keep him humble. If the text is correct,[102] he expresses himself with some emb…
876 wordsSECTION 145_Strength And Weakness_
Paul besought the Lord, that is Christ, thrice, that this thing might depart from him. The Lord, we may be sure, had full sympathy with that prayer. He Himself had had His agony, and prayed the Father thrice that if it were possible the cup of pain might pass from Him. He prayed, indeed, in express submission to the Fa…
757 wordsSECTION 146_Strength And Weakness_
With this noble word Paul concludes his enforced "glorying." He was not happy in it; it was not like him; and it is a triumph of the Spirit of Christ in him that he gives it such a noble turn, and comes out of it so well. There is a tinge of irony in the first passage (chap. xi. 21) in which he speaks of weakness, and …
301 wordsSECTION 147_Not Yours, But You_
[99] This is done by a number of critics, including Holsten and Schmiedel. [100] Godet gives the incident a peculiar turn, more ingenious than convincing. "No doubt the list I have given is one of mere infirmities. I might well boast of things apparently more glorious--as when the whole of that great city, Damascus, w…
831 wordsSECTION 148_Not Yours, But You_
Paul, in his deep consciousness of being wronged, presses home the charge against the Corinthians. They had every reason, he tells them, to act as his advocates. When he was among them, he was in nothing inferior to the "superlative" Apostles--this is his last flout at the Judaist interlopers--nothing though he was. Th…
1,233 wordsSECTION 149_Not Yours, But You_
This is not the first passage in the Epistle, nor, near as we are to the end, is it the last, in which Paul shows us the true spirit of the Christian pastor. "Not yours, but you," is the motto of every minister who has learned of Christ; and the noble words of ver. 15, "I will very gladly spend and be spent to the last…
935 wordsSECTION 150_Not Yours, But You_
Their edification is the governing thought on which the last verses of the chapter turn, and on which eventually the whole Epistle rests (see chap. xiii. 10). It is because he is interested in their edification that he thinks with misgiving of the journey in prospect. "I fear lest by any means when I come I find you no…
891 wordsSECTION 151Footnotes:
The two catalogues of sins with which this chapter closes remind us, by way of contrast, of the two characteristic graces of Christianity: self-will or party spirit, in all its forms, is opposed to brotherly love, and self-indulgence, in all its forms, to personal purity. There is much in this Epistle which would be ca…
514 wordsSECTION 152_Conclusion_
"This is the third time I am coming to you. At the mouth of two witnesses or three shall every word be established. I have said beforehand, and I do say beforehand, as when I was present the second time, so now, being absent, to them that have sinned heretofore, and to all the rest, that, if I come again, I will no…
1,159 wordsSECTION 153_Conclusion_
The third verse is to be taken closely with the second: "I will not spare, since ye seek a proof of Christ that speaketh in me, who to you-ward is not weak, but is powerful in you." The friction between the Corinthians and the Apostle involved a higher interest than his. In putting Paul to the proof, they were really p…
896 wordsSECTION 154_Conclusion_
The Corinthians, by their rebellious spirit, were putting Paul to the proof; in ver. 5 he reminds them sharply that it is their own standing as Christians which is in question, and not his. "Try _yourselves_," he says, with abrupt emphasis, "_not me_; try _yourselves_, if ye are in the faith; put _yourselves_ to the pr…
811 wordsSECTION 155_Conclusion_
The real difficulty here lies in the eighth verse, where the Apostle explains, apparently, why he acts on the principle just stated. "I pray this prayer for you," he seems to say, "and I am content to pass as a reprobate, while you do that which is honourable; for I can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth."…
961 wordsSECTION 156_Conclusion_
And then the letter, like almost every letter, hastens in disconnected sentences to its close. "Finally, brethren, farewell." He cannot but address them affectionately at parting; when the heart recovers from the heat of indignation, its unchanging love speaks again as before. Some would render χαίρετε "rejoice," inste…
961 wordsSECTION 157=Christ In Modern Theology.=
_Printed by Hazell, Watson, & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury._ [111] Although it is supported by commentators like Chrysostom and Calvin, it is difficult to treat otherwise than as a whim the idea that Paul's two or three visits to Corinth make _him_ equal to the two or three witnesses required by the law. So also G…
378 wordsSECTION 158_Professor W. M. Ramsay'S New Work._
A Series of Discussions in Religion. "We find in the discourses which form this volume much able statement and much vigorous thought, and an admirable comprehension of the great questions which are being discussed in our day with eagerness and bated breath."--_Scotsman._ _Seventh Edition. Demy 8vo, 9s._ "There is…
261 wordsSECTION 159_Three New Volumes._
_Twenty-Third Thousand. Crown 8vo, cloth, 5s._ The Example of Jesus Christ. "An immortal book."--_Mr. Spurgeon._ "The execution is full of ingenuity, and the book can be recommended as a devout and thoughtful commentary on practical Christian life in many phases. Mr. Stalker has broad sympathies and a watchful ey…
456 wordsSECTION 160The Parabolic Teaching Of Christ:
_Second Edition. Handsomely printed and bound, gilt top, 3s. 6d._ A Book for the Bereaved. By W. ROBERTSON NICOLL, M.A., LL.D. "Dr. Robertson Nicoll has produced an unique, exquisite, and most edifying book. We are much impressed by the delicate and profound spiritual insight manifested on every page of this beaut…
301 wordsSECTION 161*** End Of The Project Gutenberg Ebook The Expositor'S Bible: The Second Epistle To The Corinthians ***
"The product of a rich, imaginative mind, marked by scholarly analysis, subtle insight, and the suggestiveness of an original and unconventional thinker."--_Glasgow Herald._ "We heartily commend this little volume."--_Spectator._ Transcriber's Notes: Obvious punctuation and spelling errors have been fixed througho…
238 wordsSource & rights
Public domain in the USA; original historical text digitized by Project Gutenberg.
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Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.