Vv. 31, 32a. Inno slight jeopardy do P. and his comrades stand; for his part he declares, ‘‘ Daily I am dying ; my life at Ephesus has been that of a combatant with wild beasts in the arena—for what end, if there is no resurrection?” With nad’ ἡμέραν ἀποθνήσκω cf. 2 Cor. iv. το, xi. 23, Rom. viii. 36; referring to his present “affliction in Asia,” P. writes in 2 Cor. i. 8 f., ‘‘ We have had the sen- tence of death in ourselves’’. Ed. softens, the expression into ‘self-denial, dying to self and the world’’: better Cv., ‘‘obsideor assiduis mortibus quotidie’’; and Gd., ‘‘ Not a day, nor an hour of the day, when they might not expect to be seized and led out to execution”’.—P. had not been in this extreme peril at
933
ς Η..; see * ἐθηριομάχησα ἐν ᾿Εφέσῳ, 4
note below.
d Jas. ii. 24, 6; Jo . ral e cf. xiv. 6, xiii. 3. e Isa. xxii. 13. xiii. 32 f.; Mt. vi. 30; Exod. viii. 29.
Cor. (see Acts xviii. 9 f.), and his readers might think the description overdrawn ; so he exclaims, vq τ. ὑμετέραν καύχησιν κ.τελ.: ‘Yea, by the glorying over you, brothers, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord!” cf. the protests of 2 Cor. i. 18, 23, xi. 1Ο f., 31, Rom. ix.1. He pro- tests by this καύχησις as by that which is dearest to him: cf. i. 4 ff., iv. 14, 2 Cor. vii. 3, 14 ff.; similarly in x Thess. ας πο £2 Τπεςς Ἡ, ας (Philiv. 2, ‘ete: For this rare use of the pron., cf. xi. 24, τ. ἐμὴν ἀνάμνησιν (and note), 2 Cor. ix. 3. wy (= vat) with acc. of adjura- tion, a cl. idiom.—Paul’s ‘“‘ glorying”’ he ‘holds in Christ Jesus our Lord’’ (ef. i. 7); it is laid up with Christ as a καύχηµα els ἡμέραν X. (Phil. ii. 16; ef. iii. 8, iv. 3 ff. above, 1 Thess. ii. 19, Col. i. 4, etc.).—‘‘ If in the manner of men I have fought with wild beasts in Ephesus, what is the profit?” κατὰ ἄνθρωπον bears the stress, ‘‘humanitus—spe vite presentis duntaxat’’ (Bg.: cf. iti. 3 f.); seeking the rewards—applause, money, etc.—for which men risk their lives. Instead of these, P. earns poverty and infamy (iv. 9 ff., Phil. iii. 7 f.); if there is no ‘‘day of Christ” when his “ glory- ing” will be realised, he has been be- fooled (cf. το and note, Phil. iii. 14, 2 Tim iv. 8; Matt. xix. 27 ff., Luke xiv. 14, xxii. 28 ff.).—égedos (from ὀφέλλω, to increase; nearly syn. with prods, iii. 8, etc.; or κέρδος, Phil. i. 21) signifies the consequent advantage accruing to P. from his fight; that it brings present moral benefit is obvious, but this is not the point (cf. ix. 24-27; see Ed. ad loc., touching the diff. of pagan and Christian morality). —€@nptopayynoa is probably figurative, though Gd., Weizsacker(A post. Zeitalter”, pp. 325 f.), McGiffert (CArésti- anity in the Apost. Age, pp. 280 f.), with some older expositors, take it that P. had been actually a θηριοµάχος in the Ephe- sian amphitheatre, despite his Roman citizenship. But no such experience is recorded in the list of his woes in 2 Cor. xi.; moreover it appears from Acts xix. 31-40 that P. had friends in high quarters at Eph., who would have prevented this outrage if attempted. Ignatius (ad Rom., v.; cf. ad Smyrn., iv.) applies the figure to his guards, borrowing it prob- ably from this place. The metaphor is