plea that they needed not the disposition, but the ability to defend him. This view, however, is inconsistent with the connection and with the whole drift of the epistle. In the immediately preceding verse he had expressed his assurance of their confidence in his integrity, and throughout the epistle his overflowing love for the faithful in Cormth is mingled with his severe denunciations of the false teachers and their follow- ers. That ye may have. There is no object expressed to the verb («x^T6), ye may have. We may supply (tc) something^ and insert the words to answer^ as is done by our translators; or we may borrow from the context the word Kavxrjfxa ; " That ye may have some groioid of boasting.'^'* Against those loho glory in appearance and not in heart. This is evidently de- scriptive of the false teachers. The words Iv Trpoo-coTro), inface^ may, from the antithesis to cv KapUa^ in heart., be taken, as in our version, for what is external as opposed to what is inward. Then the expression refers to the tact that those teachers gloried in their Hebrew descent, in their circumcision, their external religious privileges, their churchmanship, &c. It was in these things they placed their confidence, and of them they made their boast. Or the words may be taken literally, and according to their uniform use in other passages. Then the expression describes the sanctimoniousness and hypocrisy of the false teachers. They gloried, says Meyer, in the holi- ness, the zeal, and devotion which expressed themselves in the face. They wished to appear unto men to fast, to wear the look of sanctity, while their hearts, as our Lord describes the same class of men, were full of all uncleanness. The former explanation is commonly adopted, and is probably the true one, because regard for externals is elsewhere in this epistle represented as the prominent characteristic of Paul's oppo- nents in Corinth. Their great boast was that they belonged to the true church or theocracy, and that Paul and his follow- ers were dissenters and schismatics.
13. For whether we be beside ourselves, (it is) to God : or whether we be sober, (it is) for your cause.
This verse again is a confirmation of the preceding. 'You have good reason to glory on my behalf, /or, &c.' Whether we he beside ourselves. The word iico-rrjfxi, to be out of o?ie''s mind, and other words of like signification, are used either in their strict sense to express insanity or madness, or in a wider