ceive tbeir contributions and to take upon him the distribution of them. If they are omitted, the sense is, they begged to be permitted to contribute. Granting, however, that these "words should be omitted, the construction of the passage is doubtfuh Stanley says it is " a sentence which has been en- tirely shattered in passing through the apostle's mind." He l^roposes to reduce it to order in the same way that Bengel does, who, however, thinks that, so fir from the sentence be- ing shattered, every thing is smooth and easy. He says the word tScoKav sustains the structure of the whole passage ; av^aipeTOL and Seo/xevoL are its nominatives ; x'^P'-^> Kotvoivtav and cauTou? are its objects. The sense then is, ' Of their own ac- cord, beyond their abiUty and with many prayers they gave not their gifts only as a contribution to the saints, but them- selves to the Lord and to us.' Any one, however, who looks at the Greek sees that it is very unnatural to make x^P'-^ ^6- pend on eSwKav; it belongs to Seo/xo/oi. The construction, therefore, adopted by Fritzsche, Billroth, Meyer and others is, at least as to that point, to be preferred. Meyer says that to eSwKav there are four limiting or qualifying clauses attached. T/ie7/ (/ave, 1. Beyond their power; 2. Of their own motion; 3. Praying to be allowed to give ; and 4. Not as wc expected, but themselves. De Wette and many others relieve the harshness of tliis construction so far as the last clause is con- cerned by making the sentence end with the fourth Averse, and supplying eSw/cav in v. 3. " They gave beyond their power, of their own accord, begging to be allowed to take part in the contribution to the saints. And beyond our expectation they gave themselves to the Lord."
As to the connection, otl is evidently equivalent to yap, as these verses are the proof of what is said in v. 2. The libe- rality of the Macedonian churches was great, for to their poice7\ (Kara Swa/xtv,) according to their ability, I bear testi- mony, and heyond their poioer (vTrlp in the common text, in the critical editions Trapa SuVa/xtv). Here the word eSw/cav is implied. 'They gave beyond their ability,' ay^atperot, self- moved, i. e. spontaneously, without any suggestion or excite- ment from me.' From 9, 2, it appears that Paul had boasted to the Macedonians that Achaia (the Corinthians) was ready a year ago, and that this had excited their zeal. These two representations are perfectly consistent. In detailing the suc- cess of the gospel in Corinth the apostle would naturally refer to the liberality of the disciples. It was the simple mention