aid fi'om the Corinthians ; and that his special Kav^^y/w-a, oi ground of boasting, was that he preached the gospel gratui tously. He said he would rather die than that any man should take from him that ground of confidence. This of course im plies that the purity of his motives had been assailed, and that his object in making " the gospel of Christ without charge " was to stop the mouths of his accusers. That wherein they glory. This clause (with Iva) depends on the immediately preceding one. He desired to cut off occasion from those seeking it, in order that, if they chose to boast, they may he found even as ice. That is, he wished to force them to be as disinterested as he was. According to this interpretation, iv w, in the phrase iv w Kavx^ivrai, does not refer to any special ground of boasting, but to the general disposition. 'Inas- much as they are so fond of boasting and of setting themselves up as apostles, they may be forced to give over making gain of the gospel.'
Calvin, Grotius, Riickert, and others, assume that the false teachers in Corinth preached gratuitously, and that the reason why the apostle did the same, was that he might not give them occasion to glory over him. In this view the second clause with tVa is co-ordinate with the first, and iv w in the last clause refers to their special ground of boasting, and the sense of the whole is, ' I will do as I have done in order that these false teachers shall have no occasion to exalt themselves over me ; that is, in order that they be found, when they boast of their disinterestedness, to be no better than I am.' But to this it may be objected, 1. That it is evident from v. 20 of this chapter, and from the whole character of these false teachers as depicted by the apostle, that so far from preach- ing gratuitously, they robbed the churches. 2. It is clear from what is said in the former epistle that Paul's object was not to prevent his opponents setting themselves forth as his superiors, but to make undeniably manifest the purity of his own motives in preaching the gospel. Others again, admit- ting that the false teachers received money from the Corinthi- ans, understand the aj^ostle to say, that he refused aid in order that he might take away from the false teachers all occasion for boasting that they were as he was. This, how- ever, was not their boast. They did not claim to be what the apostle was, for they denounced him as an impostor. The first interpretation suits both the words and the context.