I came to you^ €yev6fir)v irpos ^/x.as, I came to ^'^u and was with you, see John 1, 2. The weakness of which he here speaks was not bodily weakness ; for although he elsewhere speaks of himself as weak in body, 2 Cor. 10, 10, and as suffering un- der bodily infirmity. Gal. 4, 14, yet here the whole context shows he refers to his state of mind. It was not in the con- sciousness of strength, self-confident and self-relying, that he appeared among them, but as oppressed with a sense of his weakness and insufficiency. He had a work to do which he felt to be entirely above his powers.
In fear and trembling, i. e. in anxiety, or soHcitude of . •mind arising out of a sense of his insufficiency, and of the infinite importance of his work, 2 Cor. 7, 15. PhU. 2, 12. Eph. 6, 5.
4. And my speech and my preaching (was) not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.
Jt/y speech and preaching {Xoyos and K^pvy/xa). If these terms are to be distinguished, the former may refer to his pri- vate, and the latter to his public instructions ; or, the former is general, including all modes of address, and the latter specific, limited to public discourse. ' My instructions in general, and my public preaching in particular.' Both terms, however, may designate the same thing under different aspects.
His mode of preaching is described, first, negatively, and then positively. It was not with the enticing words of man's wisdom, i. e. the persuasive words which human wisdom would suggest. In his endeavours to bring men to the obedi- ence of the faith, he did not rely upon his own skill in argu- ment or persuasion. This is the negative statement. Posi- tively, his preaching was in (or with, iv ; the preposition is the same in both clauses, though rendered by our translators in the former, with, and in the latter, in) the demonstration of the Spirit and of power. This may mean, ' The demonstration of the powerful Spirit ; ' or, ' The demonstration of the Spirit and of (miraculous) power ; ' referring to the twofold evidence or proof of the gospel, viz., the internal influence of the Spirit, and the external evidence of miracles. The word (8wa/x.ts), rendered power, often means miraculous power, but as such cannot be its meaning in the following verse, it is not probable it was intended to have that sense here. The phrase probably