23. ἐγὼ δὲ μάρτυρα τὸν Θεὸν ἐπικαλοῦμαι ἐπὶ τὴν ἐμὴν ψυχὴν,
: ἣν αἰ 6, - ὅτι " φειδόμενος ὑμῶν οὐκέτι 1 ἦλθον εἰς Κόρινθον: 24. " οὐχ ὅτι y Sohal Σκυριεύομεν ὑμῶν” τῆς πίστεως, ἀλλὰ συνεργοί ἐσμεν τῆς χαρᾶς ὑμῶν, —
Hi σον, ὁ . 17; 2 Thess. ili. 9.
z Rom. vi. 9, 14, vii. 1, xiv. 9; 1 Tim. wi. 15.
1 G has οὐκ, which also seems to have been read by the Peshitto, Bohairic and
d, e, g of the Latins.
2 DEG and the Latins give the order της πιστεως υΌµων.
τηρήσατε . . « τὴν σφραγῖδα ἄσπιλον). The “seal” of the Church is given by St. Paul (2 Tim. ii. το) as “The Lord knoweth them that are His” (Num. xvi. 5), and “ Let every one that nameth the Name of the Lord depart from unright- eousness”’ (Isa. lii. 11; cf. Num. xvi. 26, Isa. xxvi. 13). The ἀρραβών (see an ex- haustive note in Pearson, On the Creed,
viii.), i.¢., Pay, is a first instalment,
given in pledge of full payment in due course; see reff. and cf. Rom. viii. 16, τὸ πνεῦμα συνμαρτυρεῖ τῷ πνεύματι ἡμῶν ὅτι ἐσμὲν τέκνα Θεοῦ: here is the ἀπαρχή τοῦ πνεύματος (Rom. viii. 23). For the constr. διδόναι ἐν cf. Ezek. xxxvi. 26, John iii. 35, Acts iv. 12, chap. viii, 1, 16,
Ver, 23—ii. 4. ΤΗΕ Reat REASON OF THE PosTPONEMENT OF HIS VISIT TO CoRINTH WAS THAT HE DID NOT WISH HIS NEXT VISIT TO BE PAINFUL, AS THE LAST HAD BEEN.—Ver. 23. ἐγὼ δὲ μάρ- τυρα τὸν Θεὸν ἐπικ. κ.τ.λ.; but (5ζ,, whatever my opponents may say) I invoke God as a witness against my soul, sc., if I speak falsely; cf. Rom. i. 9, Gal. i. 20,
Phil. i. 8, 1 Thess. ii. 5, το. For ἐπί used in this way cf. εἰς μαρτύριον ἐπ᾽ αὐτούς (Luke ix. 5). The A.V. and R.V.
“upon my soul" do not bring out the sense clearly, —Ste φειδόμενος ὑμῶν κ.τ.λ.: that to spare you I came not again to Corinth, i.e., “I paid no fresh visit,” “I gave up the thought of coming”’. The A.V., “I came not as yet,” is here quite misleading (cf. xiii. 2 and 1 Cor. iv. 21).
Ver. 24. This verse is parenthetical, and introduced to guard against mis- understanding. οὐχ ὅτι κυριεύομεν ὑμῶν τῆς πίστεως: not that we have lordship over your faith, This is not the depart- ment of his Apostolic authority (cf. Luke xxii. 25, x Pet. ν. 3). ἃ συνεργοί κ.τ.λ.: but we are (only) fellow-workers in (producing) your joy; a parenthesis within a parenthesis, not necessary to the sense, but added to emphasise once more his sense of the common ties between
him and the Corinthians (cf. Rom. xvi. 3, chap. viii. 23, Col. iv. 11).---τῇ γὰρ πίστει ἑστήκατε: for by your faith ye stand. If it were dominated by the authority of another, it would not be thus the instrument of their steadfastness. Another (inferior) interpretation is, “ As regards your faith ye stand,” ie, “1 have no fault to find with you so far as your faith is concerned " ; but the parallel, Rom. xi. 20, seems to fix the dative as instrumental.
Cuaprer Il.—Ver. 1. ἔκρινα δὲ ἐμαν- τῷ τοῦτο κ.τ.λ.; but I decided this for my own sake, that I would not come again to you with sorrow ; i.e., I deter- mined that my next visit should not be painful, as my last was. The juxtaposi- tion of πάλιν with ἐν λύπῃ (see crit. note) requires that γτπ ree Hence the former visit in St. Paul’s mind could not have been his first visit to Corinth (Acts xviii. 1 ff.), for that was not ἐν λύπῃ. And thus we are forced to con- clude that another visit was paid from Ephesus, of which no details have been preserved (cf. xii. 14, xiii. 1). The con- ditions of the scanty evidence available seem best satisfied by supposing that St. Paul's second visit to Corinth was paid from Ephesus during the period Acts xix. ro. Alarming news had probably reached him, and he determined to make ο for himself. On his return to Ephesus he wrote the letter (now lost) alluded to in 1 Cor. v. 9, in which he charged the Corinthians “ to keep no com- pany with fornicators"’, Subsequently to this he again received distressing intelli- gence (1 Cor. i. 11, v. 1, etc.), whereu he wrote the first canonical Epistle leas Introd., p. 7).