καθάπερ: ἀπὸ Κυρίου Πνεύματος.
πάμεθα τὰ " κρυπτὰ τῆς “ αἰσχύνης, μὴ " περιπατοῦντες "ἐν
1 ἐνώπιον τοῦ | Θεοῦ.
59
IV. 1. Διὰ τοῦτο ἔχοντες τὴν 3 Lk: xviii.
1; Gal. , “ Η . διακονίαν ταύτην, καθὼς ἠλεήθημεν, οὐκ " ἐκκακοῦμεν,” 2. ἀλλ᾽ " ἀπει- τί. ο. f ί Thess. iti πανουργίᾳ - A ; A ἦ ΡῪ κ > 13; and μηδὲ Ε δολοῦντες τὸν λόγον τοῦ Θεοῦ, ἀλλὰ TH ἢ φανερώσει τῆς ο μα. ἀληθείας | συνιστῶντες ὃ | ἑαυτοὺς πρὸς πᾶσαν * συνείδησιν ἀνθρώπων ie χ, 3. ς om. 11. 4. ἢ εἰ δὲ '' καὶ ἔστι κεκαλυμμένον τὸ " εὐαγ- 16; 1 Cor. iv. 5, xiv.
25; 1 Pet. ili. 4.
Rom. vi. 4; Eph. v. 2; Col. iii. 7, etc. g Here only, Ps. xiv. 3, xxxv. 3.
Χ. 12, 18. k Reff. i. 12.
1; cf. chap. viii. 21.
ἃ Phil. iii. το; Jude 13; cf. Rom. vi. 21; Eph. v. 12. f Chap. xi. 3; 1 Cor. iii. 19; Eph. iv. 14; cf. chap. xii. 16.
h 1 Cor, xii. 7 only. 1 Rom. xiv. 22; chap. vii. 12; Gal. i.20; 1 Tim v. 4, 21; 2 Tim. iv. m 1 Cor. iv. 7; cf. chap. iv. 16, v. 16, vii. 8.
e Acts xxi. 21; i Chap. vi. 4, vii. 11; cf. chap. iii. 1, v. 12,
ni Thess. i. 5; 2 Thess. ii
14; cf. Rom. ii. 16, xvi. 25; 1 Cor. xv. 1; 2 Tim. ii. 8.
1B has καθωσπερ.
3 The better orthography is εγκακουµεν NABD*G 17.
3 DcEKL give συνιστωντες; better συνισταντες ΟΠ 17, followed by Tisch., or συνιστανοντες A(?)BP, adopted by W.H.
instead of deprecating it, with nothing to hold back or to conceal from the eager gaze of the most suspicious or the most curious” (Stanley). The words Κυρίου πνεύματος will bear various renderings: (a) the Lord of the Spirit, which is not apposite here, (b) the Spirit of the Lord, as the A.V. takes them and the Latin commentators generally, (c) the Spirit, which is the Lord, the rendering of Chry- sostom, which is given a place in the R.V. margin, and (d) the Lord, the Spirit, πνεύματος being placed in apposition to Κυρίου, neither word taking the article, as the first does not after the prep. ἀπό. We unhesitatingly adopt (d), the render- ing of the R.V., inasmuch as it best brings out theidentification of Κύριος and πνεῦμα in ver. 17. It is worth noticing that the phrase in the ‘‘ Nicene” Creed τὸ πνεῦμα + «+ τὸ Κύριον τὸ ζωοποιόν is based on the language of this verse and of ver. 6 above.
CHAPTER 1V.—Vv. 1-6. HE DELIVERS WITH FRANKNESS HIS MESSAGE OF CHRIST THE TRUE LicHT.—Ver. 1. διὰ τοῦτο ἔχοντες κ.τ.λ.: wherefore, having this Ministration, sc., of the New Covenant, even as we received mercy (i.e., ‘even as we were mercifully granted it,” a favourite thought with St. Paul; cf. 1 Cor. vii. 25, 1 Tim. i. 13, 16), we faint not; cf.2 Tim. i. 7, οὐ γὰρ ἔδωκεν ἡμῖν 6 Θεὸς πνεῦμα δειλίας. He is still an- swering the question, ‘‘ Who is sufficient for these things ?” (ii. 16); but he, again, in the verses which follow, diverges from this main thought to answer the charge of insincerity which his opponents had brought against him. The tone of vv. 1-6 is very like that of 1 Thess. ii. 1-12, which offers several verbal parallels.
Ver. 2. ἀλλ᾽ ἀπειπάμεθα τὰ κρυπτὸ κιτολ.: but we have renounced (the “ in- gressive aorist”; cf. ἐσίγησεν, Acts xv. 12) the hidden things of shame ; cf. Rom. xiii, 12, Eph. iv. 22. The stress is on τὰ κρυπτά; it is the openness and can- dour of his ministry on which he insists (cf. John iii. 20).—ph περιπατ. «.T.A.: not walking in craftiness (see x. 3 and reff. above; περιπατεῖν = versari), nor handling deceitfully (οὐδὲ ἐν δόλῳ, 1 Thess. ii. 3, cf. chap. ii. 17) the Word of God, sc., the Divine message with which we have been entrusted (cf. the charge brought against him and referred to in xil. 16, viz., that being πανοῦργος he had taught the Corinthians δόλῳ) ; but by the manifestation of the truth (cf. vi. 7, vil. 14), sc., by plain statement of the truths of the Gospel in public preach- ing, commending ourselves (here is our Letter of Commendation, iii. 1, and ef. note there) to every man’s conscience (lit. “(0 every conscience of men,” 1.6., to every possible variety of the human con- science ; cf. 1 Cor. ix. 22) in the sight of God. ‘The appeal to conscience can never be omitted with safety, and any presenta- tion of Christianity which is neglectful of the verdict of conscience on the doc- trines taught is at once un-Apostolic and un-Christlike. These verses (1-6) have been chosen as the Epistle for St. Matthew’s Day, probably on account of the apparent applicability of ver. 2 to the circumstances of St. Matthew’s call and his abandonment of a profession which was counted shameful. But of course ἀπειπάμεθα does not imply that St. Paul had ever been guilty of using crafty artifices such as he here repudiates once and for all.