scribes the Pharisees as devouring widows' houses, Matt. 23, 14. If any take (of you) ; et rt? Xaix/Sdvet- vfxa<; is to be supplied as after KaTea^Ut in the preceding clause. " If any take you^'' i. e. capture you or ensnare you, as a huntsman his prey. Our version by sup^jlying of you alters the sense, and makes this clause express less than the preceding ; devouring is a stronger expression for rapacity than 'taking of you.' If any man exalt himself {iTTaipeTai^ sc. Ka^ vjxwv)^ i. e. if any one proudly and insolently lifts himself up against you. And as the climax, If any one smite yoit on the face. To smite the face or mouth was the highest indignity ; as such it was offered to our Lord, Luke 22, 64, and to Paul, Acts 23, 2 ; see also 1 Kings 22, 24. Matt. 5, 39. Such was the treatment to which the Corinthians submitted from the hands of the false teachers ; and such is ever the tendency of unscrij^tural church-authority. It assumes an absolute dependence of the people on the clergy — an inherent, as well as official superiori- ty of the latter over the former, and therefore false teachers have, as a genernl rule, been tyrants. The gospel, and of course the evangelical, as opposed to the high-church system of doctrine, is incompatible with all undue authority, because it teaches the essential equality of believers and opens the way to grace and salvation to the people without the inter- vention of a j)riest.
21. I speak as concerning reproacli, as though we had been weak. Howbeit, whereinsoever any is bold, (I speak fooKshly) I am bold also.
I speak as concerning reproach. Kara dn/xtai/ A.eya> means simply I reproach. After artfjiLav may be supplied ifxrjv. The sense would then be, ' I say to my own shame, that, &c. ; ' Ae-yw being understood as referring to what follows. ' I say to my shame that I was weak.' The Greek is, Kara anixiav {ifir]v) (OS ort r]fji€L<s rjaS^cvrjaajxev ; where ws on may, as Winer, § 67, 1, says, be a redundancy for simply ort (5, 19. 2 Thess. 2,2.) 'I say that.^ This would be a direct assertion on the part of Paul that he was w^eak in the sense intended. It is better, with Meyer and others, to give ws its proper force, «s, as if. His being weak was not a fact, but an opinion entertained con- cerning him. ' I say that (as people think) I was weak.' One class of the Corinthians regarded Paul as weak in bodily pres-