their collection, and now to save Ms credit, he begged the latter to finish the work before he and his Macedonian friends arrived. The whole body of Paul's epistles is a refutation of this interpretation. No man who is capable of receiving the true impress of his exalted character can suppose him guilty of false statement or duplicity. What he told the Macedoni- ans was simply that the Corinthians were prepared. What preparation is meant is plain from the context. It consisted in their Trpo^i^/xia, their alacrity of mind to take part in the work. A year ago^ 8, 10. And your zeal^ i. e. your 7rpo^/Aia, alacrity^ in this business. The words are 6 ki vjjlCjv ^rjXos, where the iK may be considered redundant, as our translators have assvmied it to be ; or, it may be omitted from the text, as by Lachmann ; or, the meaning is, the zeal which emanated from you. This last is to be preferred. Hath provohed. The word ip€^L^€Lv means to excite, whether the feeling called into exercise be good or bad. In Col. 3, 21, fathers are cautioned not to provoke their children. Here the meanmg is that the zeal of the Corinthians had excited the zeal of others. Very many., toGs TvXdovaq^ the majority, the greater number. Acts 19, 32. It was not every individual of the Macedonian Chris- tians, but the majority of them, whom the zeal of the Corin- thians had excited.
3. Yet have I sent the brethren, lest our boastmg of you should be in vain in this behalf; that, as I said, ye may be ready.
If the connection is vaih. v. 1, the Se here answers to the /xeV there. ' There is no need to write, hut I send, &c.' The reference, however, may be to v. 2. 'I boasted of your prep- aration, hut lest my boasting be falsified, I send, cfec' The brethren^ viz., Titus and his two companions, who were about to proceed to Corinth to attend to this matter. Lest our boasting of you he in vain., kcvw^t;, be proved unfounded, 1 Cor. 9, 15, i. e. shown to be an empty boast. In this hehalf. Paul did not fear that the good account which he had given of the Corinthians in other matters should be contradicted by the facts, but only in this one aifair of the collection for the poor. That^ as I said ^ ye may he ready. This clause is par- allel ^Wth the preceding. ' I sent the brethren that my boast- ing be not found vain, i. e. I sent them that ye may be ready.' 10