The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Corinthians — Section 265

have pren<'hed for nothing, when be bed a mood he wonld have chosen a leH piotnresqne perfect right to be support.ed by his oon• or technical and medical term. That whioh verts" (1 Cor. ix. 1-15). .A.baaing my!lelf. wu laoldng to me the brethren whioh oame l'he trade oftentmaker was despised, todions, from lle.oeclonia 1upplied ; rather, /or the and mechanical, and it did not suffice to brethren, on their arriool from Macedonia, provide even for Panl's small needs (Acts filled up my tkfioiency. This must lune xviii. 3; xx. 84). That ye might be e:u.lted; been the third present which St. Paul re- nBII1ely, by spiritual gifts (Eph. ii. 4-6). oeived from Philippi (Phil. iv. 15, 16). These The goapel .. , freely. Some of them would brethren from Macedonia accompamed Silas feel the Vl\8t oontrast between tho words. and Timotheus (Acts xviii. 5). And so will The gospel was the most preoious gift of I keep myself (eh. xii. 14). God, and they had got it for nothing. Com- Ver. 10.-Aa the truth of Christ is in me. pare the fine lines of Lowell- The strength of St. Paul's feelings on the .. For a cap e.nd bells our lives we pay, subject has already been expressed in 1 Cor. Bubble~ we earn with our whole soul's ix. 15. We have a similar appeo.1 in Rom. tasking; ix. 1. Tho "1111 " is not in the original, but 'Tis only God who is given away, evidently the words are meant for a solemn 'Tie only heaven may be had for the asseveration-" The truth of Christ is in as1.ing." me, that," eto. No man shall stop me of this bouting; literally, this shall not be To be a free and unpaid missionary was ,topped a, eon~ma me. The verb means St. Paul's pride (eh. xii, 14; 1 Thess. ii. 9; litemlly, "shall be fenced," and with that 2 These. iii. 8, 9 ; Acts x:x. 33). tendency to over-elaboration which is fre- Ver. 8.-I robbed; literally, I ra,r,a,ged, or quent in commentators, some suppose that l'lundered. The intensity of St. Paul's St. Paul referred to the projected wall across feelings, smarting under base calumny and the isthmus of Corinth, etc But the same ingratitude, reveals itllelf by tbe passionate word is used for simply stopping the mouth expr<!SSion which he here tlS8B. Other in Rom. iii. 19; Heb. xi. 33. In the regiona Churohes. The only Church of which we of Aohaia. He would not apply the rule to 1."llow e.s contributing to St. Paul's needa Corinth only, but eeems to have feU the is the.tat Philippi (Phil iv.15, 16). Taking need for the utmost circumspection, and foT wages. The expression is again impas- cutting off every handle for suspicion or sioned. It is meant rather ironically than slander among these subtle, loquacious, in• literally. Literally ii means ration. (1 tellectual Greeks. He could act more freely Cor. ix. 7). among the more frank and generoua Mace- Ver. 9.-And wanted. The aorist shows donians. that this sad condition of extreme poverty Ver. 11.-Wherefore t He cannot tell WIMl a crisis rather than chronic. Yet even them the real ultimate reason, which is at that supreme moment of trial, when from their whole character and nature. Beoame illness or accident the scanty income of I love you not 1 He bas already assured his trade failed him, he would not tell them of his deep affection (ob. vii. 2; comp. them that be was starving, but rather ao- xii. 15). eepled help from the Philippia.ns, who, as Ver. 12.-0coasion; rather, the occasion. be knew, felt for him an unfeigned affection. Wherein they glory, they may be found even It is needless to point out once more bow u we. " These new teachers boast to you strong is the argument in favour of the how disinterested they are. Well, then, genuineness of the Act.a and the Epistles I have proved myself to be equally dis- from the nnmberless undesigned coin- interested." Ilut the words apparently cidences between them in Bllch passages involve a most stinging sarcasm. Jfor thesa a.a those to which I have referred in the teachers were not in reality disinterested, foregoing notes. I wu oha.rgeabls to no though they boasted of beiag so ; ou the man; literally, I did not benumb 11°"'· The contrary, they were exacting, insolent, and word 1.aunarkisa,, which occurs only here tyrannical (ver. 20), and did not preach and in eh. xii 13, 14, is ranked by St. gratuitously (1 Cor. ix. 12), though they Jerome e.rnong St. Paul's m1icisms, ie. the sneered at the apostle for doing so. Being pro,•iucial expressions which he picked up radically false (vers. 12, 13), "while they during his loug residence llt Tarsus. Narke were," 11B Theodoret says, "openly boasting, .(wheooe our narciBBU11 and narcotic) means they were secretly taking money," and "J)lil1Llysis," and is also the name given to therefore were not " even as we." the gymnotiu, or electric eel- in Latin, Ver. 13.-For such are false apoetlea. torpt:d.u, the cramp-fish-which benumbs with ThiB, with 1 These. ii. 14-16 and Phil. iii. 2, th" shook of it.a touch. "I did not," he is one of St. Paul's most passionate out- ill<.lig1111.utly says, "cramp you with my bursts of plain speaking. "Now at length," i.orpedo-kiuch." Perhaps in a less vehement suys Bengel, "he call~ a s1ill<le a 11p1ult.." ou. XI. 1--83.] THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS. 265