The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Corinthians — Section 59

converts, which was written on the apostle's but it does not come from his own resources hco.rt, nnd which therefore rendered the (l&cf>' fou.-ciiv) or his own indepondent origi- notion of any other letter of commendation nation (l! fov.-aiv): oomp. 1 Cor. xv. 10. to or from them superfluous nnd even ab- But our suflioienoy. Namely, to form any surd. The play on words (epi{JignosTro and true or right judgment, o.nd therefore to anagignosko) is similar to that in eh. i. 13. • express the confidence which I have ex- Ver. 3.-Mahifestly deolared. The fame pressed. Is of God. We a1·e but je!lou,- 11 nd centrality of Corinth gave peculiar workcrs with him (1 Car. iii. 19), prominenoo to the fact of their conversion. Ver. 6.-Who e.lso, Either, " And he it The epistle of Christ ministered by us. The is who;" or, "Who besides this ·power, has Corinthians are the epistle; it is written me.de us adequate· ministers." Re.th made on the hea1ts of St. Paul and his com- us able minister3; rather, made us sufficient panions; Christ was its Composer; they ministers. Of the new teete.ment ; rather, ,,ere its amanuenses and it~ conveyors. The of a fresh covenant (Jer. xxxi. 31). The de,elopment of the metaphor as a mef,a,- " new testament " has not the :remotest JJhor would be somewhat clumsy and intri- connection with what we call "The Now cat.e, but St. Paul only cares to shadow Testament," meaning· thereby the book- forth the essential fact which he wishes which, indeed, had at this time no existence. them to recognize. Not with ink, but with The word ''testament" means a will, o.nd the Spirit of the living God; i.e. not with in this sense implies neither the Hebrew visible or perishable materials, but spirituul berith nor the Greek diatheT,e, both _of which in its origin and character. The notion of mean '' covenant." In one passage only of "the finger of God" naturally recalled the the ·New Testament (Heh. ix. 16, 17), does notion of" the Spirit of God" (comp. Matt. diatheke mean a .. " testament" or " will." xii. 28 with Luke xi. 20). Not in tables of For the thonght, see Eph. iii. 7; Col. i. 25; stone. God's writing by means of the 1 Tim. i. 11, 12. Not of. the letter, but of Spirit on the heart reminds him of anothei the spirit. In other words," not of the Law, writing of God on the stone tablets -0f the but of the gospel ; " not of that whicli is Law, which he therefore introduces with no dead; but of .that which is living; not of special regard to the congruity of the me- the.t which is deathful, but of that. which is taphor about "an epistle." :But in :B.eshy life-giving; not of bondage, but of freedom; tables of the bee.rt. The overwhelming not of mutilation, but of self-control ; not preponderance of manuscript authority sup- of the outwe.rd, but of the in ward; not of ports th,~ reading "bot in flesben te.blets- works, but of gre.ce ; not of menace, but hee,rts." St. Pe,ul is thinking of Jer. xxxi. of promise; not of curse, but of blessing ; 33, "I will put my Law in their inwe,rd not of wro.tb, but of love; not of Moses, bµt parts, and write it in their heart8;" e,nd of Christ. This ia the theme which St. Ezek. xi. 22, "I will take the stony heart Paul develops especially in the Epistles to out of their flesh, e.nd will give them e. the Romans o.nd the· Galatians (seo Ilom. H. bellJ't of ffeeh." The tablets 'were not ho.rq 29; iii. 20; vii. 6, 10, 11;· viii. 2; Go.I. iii. I(); and fragile, but eI1Bceptible o.nd receptive. v. 4, eto.). Not of the letter. Not, that is, Our letters of introduction a.re in ward not of the Mosaic Law regarded as o. yoke of outwnrd, spiritual not material, perme,nent externo.lism ;' 11 hard aud unhelpful " thou not perishable, legible to all not only by ll shalt" and "thou ehalt not;" o. system tho.t few, written by Christ not by man. possessed no lifo of its own o.nd inspired uo Ver. 4.-Snch trust. 'fho confidence, life into other~; o. "categoric imperative," namely, that we need no other recommenda- majestic, indeed, but unsympu.thotio o.nd tion to or from you. Through Christ. Wbq pitiless. Both the Lo.w und tho gospol wore alone can inspire such confidence. in myself committed to writing ; oach covenant had and my mission (1 Oar. xv. 10). To God- its own book; but in the case of the Moso.io ward ; i.e. in relation to God : towards Le.w there wus the book u.nd nothing 1noro; whnm the whole Being of Christ is directed in the case of the gospel the book wu.s ( J ohu i. I), e.nd therefore o.ll the work of nothing compu.red to the spirit, o.ncl nothing bis servants (Rom. v. I). without tho spirit. Out of the spirit. Ver. 5.-Not the.t we are euffloient of That is, of the gospel which found its ouraelvea. lie here reverts to the question plerlge o.ml consumrnadori in the gift of the asked in eh. ii. 16. He cannot bear the Spirit. The Lo.w, too, woe in one sense implicntion that any "confidence" on his "spiritual" (Rom. vii. 14), for it we.s given part rests on anythiu g short of the over- by God, who is n Spirit, o.nd it we.s .11 holy wheliuing sense that J1e is but an a.gent, Law ; but thou~h such in itself (iii 88) it or rntber uothing but an inBtrument, in tho wo.s relo.ti vely (per acci~ene) a cause of sh1 hnndH of Gr,d. To think e.nything llS of nnd dcnth, bcco.ui;o it wa.s adclressed to ll ourselves. He has, indeed, the capacity to fullcn nC1turo, aud inspired .110 spirit by forrn adeq,mto judgmcnts about his work, which that uu.tnre could bo delivered (liOQ r:n. m. 1-18.] THE SECOND EPISTLE 7.'0 THE CORINTHIANS. 59