16 in question, one cannot be too careful ; and the prudence of the method pursued in this collection, whereby the contribut- ing Churches appointed colleagues to accompany St. Paul and to check his accounts, is worthy of close imitation in the ecclesiastical finance of a later age
(cf. vi. 3). ; ΩΝ Ver. 22. συνεπέμψαμεν δὲ αὐτοῖς Κ.Τ.λ.;: and we have sent with them our
brother, whom we have many times proved earnest in many things, but now much more earnest because of the great confidence which he has in you (cf. Gal. v. το, πέποιθα εἰς ὑμᾶς), {.ο., which was in- spired by the account that Titus brought
90
{Reff. i. τ5, πολὺ σπουδαιότερον ' πεποιθήσει πολλῇ τῇ εἰς ὑμᾶς. ὑπὲρ Τίτου, " κοινωνὸς ἐμὸς καὶ εἰς] ὑμᾶς συνεργός : “etre ἀδελφοὶ
xv. Ir
23. ὅ εἴτε
h Lk. v. το; ἡμῶν, ἀπόστολοι ἐκκλησιῶν, δόξα Χριστοῦ." 24. Τὴν οὖν ' ἔνδειξιν
Phi
17; Isai τῆς ἀγάπης ὑμῶν, καὶ ἡμῶν "καυχήσεως ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν, εἰς αὐτοὺς
3; . reff.i.7. i Rom. iii. 25, 26; Phil. i. 28 only.
κ Reff. i. 12.
1 DE, d, e, the Peshitto and Bohairic give σννεργος εἰς vpas.
2 CF have Κνριον for Χριστον.
of their good conduct. It is as impossible to identify this ‘‘ brother”’ as him of ver. 18; like the first named he was an envoy of the contributing Churches (ver. 23), and further (what is not said of the first named) he was on terms of personal inti- macy with St. Paul, as appears from this verse. The guess that he was Tychicus is a plausible one (see Acts xx. 4, Eph. vi. 21, Col. iv. 7, 2 Tim. iv. 12, Tit. iii. 12), but it is only a guess and is incapable of verification. A few cursives (see on xiii. 13) give the name of Barnabas with those of Titus and Luke in the subscrip- tion at the end of the Epistle, and this may represent an early tradition.
Ver. 23. εἴτε ὑπὲρ Τίτον κ.τ.λ. : whether you ask about Titus (cf. on i. 8 for this use of ὑπέρ), he is my colleague and my fellow worker to you ward (for him St. Paul will be personally respon- sible), or our brethren, they are the envoys of Churches, i.c., they were duly χειροτονηθέντες (ver. 19). The term ἀπόστολος is generally used by St. Paul as a technical term; but occasionally, as here, and at Phil. ii. 25 (of Epaphroditus) and (possibly) at Rom. xvi. 7, he uses it in its primitive etymological meaning of “envoy” or ‘‘emissary ” (cf. 1 Kings xiv. 6). These men are further described as δόξα Χριστοῦ, the glory of Christ, per- haps because their work is so specially ad majorem Dei gloriam (see ver. 19 and ΙΧ. 13).
ver 24. τὴν οὖν ἔνδειξιν κ.τ.λ.: shew ye therefore (if we read ἐνδεικνύμενοι the exhortation is indirect, as at Rom. xii. 9- 21) unto them in the face of the Churches the demonstration of your love, sc., to us (cf. ver. 7), and of our glorying on your behalf, sc., my boasting of your readiness to give (cf. vil. 4, 14, and ix. 2, 3).
CHAPTER IX.—Vv. 1-5. HE 15 CON- FIDENT OF THEIR READINESS TO GIVE; BuT TiITUS AND HIS COMPANIONS HAVE BEEN SENT ON, THAT THE COLLECTION MAY BE READY WHEN HE ARRIVES AT Corintu.—Ver. τ. περὶ μὲν yap κ.τ.λ. ; for concerning the ministration to the
5. D*G, g give νπερ ημων.
saints, i.e., the collection (see on viii. 4), it is superfluous (cf. 2 Macc. xii. 44) for me to write, sc., this letter (note the force of the art. before γράφειν), {ο you, who “were the first to make a beginning” (viii. το). Cf. 1 Thess. iv. 9.
Ver. 2. οἶδα γὰρ τὴν προθ. «.7.A.: for I know your readiness, of which I glory (for constr. cf. xi. 30, Prov. xxvii. 1) on your behalf (of. vii. 14) to the Mace- donians, that Achaia (not ὑμεῖς, he re- τας the actual words in which he made