Eutr. The apostles, as ministers , dir\%ovo\)v, presented the epistle. Christ, by their instrumentality, brought spiritual light to bear on the tablets of the hearts of the Corinthians, as a scribe applies ink to paper. Not merely ink, but parchment or paper and a pen are necessary for writing a letter ; but Paul men- tions ink without paper and a pen, and it is therefore a synec- doche [ one material of writing put for all . See Append.] Td [At'kctv does not exactly mean ink, but any black substance, for example, even charcoal, by which an inscription may be made upon stone. The mode of writing of every kind, which is done by ink and a pen, is the same as that of the Decalogue, which was engraved on tables of stone. Letters were engraved on stone, as a dark letter is written on paper. The hearts of the Corinthians are here intended ; for Paul was as it were the style or pen. — ov f^sXavi, not with ink) A synecdoche [ink for any means of writing] ; for the tables in the hands of Moses, divinely inscribed without ink, wTere at least material substances. — £ uvroc , of the living) comp. ver. 6, 7. — XiQ/va/g, of stone) ver. 7. — xapdiag ffufw/vais, in fleshly tables of the heart) Tables of the heart are a genus ; fleshly tables, a species; for every heart is not of flesh.
4. ns Ko/dyiffiv, trust) by which we both determine and profess to be such as are here described. The antithesis is, to faint, iv. 1. — did rov Xpnrrov, through Christ) not through ourselves. This matter is discussed, ver. 14, at the end, and in the following verses. — rcpog rov ©sov, toward God) This is discussed, ver. 6, and in the following verses.
5. 1 AoyltiacsQui, to devise \to think]) to obtain by thinking, much less to speak or perform. There seems to be here something of a mimesis [allusion to the words of the per- sons whom he refutes. Append.] For they do not think, whom God moves : Le., they frame or work out nothing by their own thinking, 2 Pet. i. 21. — ri) anything ; even the least thing.
6. K a), also) An emphatic addition [to the previous assertion. Epitasis. Append.] He has given sufficiency to us, even the sufficiency of ministers of the New Testament, which demands
1 ’Eer^ in, we are) even yet at this very hour. — V. g.