2 Corinthians 12:1-18

Xv.—his Revelations As A Ground For Boasting (2 Corinthians 12:1 ff.). How He Had Been Kept From Self-exaltation, And Been Led To Glory In His Infirmities (2 Corinthians 12:7 ff.). How He Ought To Have Been Saved The Necessity Of Such Self-commendation By The Corinthians Themselves (2 Corinthians 12:11 ff.)

2 Corinthians 12:1-18

1It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory, [I must needs1 boast: it is not expedient 2for me, for2] I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. I knew [know, οἶδα] a man in Christ above [om. above] fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell [know not, οἷδα], or whether out of the body, I cannot tell [know not]; God knoweth): such an one caught up to [even unto, ἔως] the third heaven. 3And I knew [know] such a man, (whether in the body, or out of [apart from, χωρὶς]3 4the body, I cannot tell [know not4]; God knoweth: How [om. how] that he was caught up into Paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a5[om. a, ἀνθρώπῳ)] man to utter. Of such a one will I glory: yet of myself I will notglory, but in mine5 infirmities. 6For though I would [should] desire to glory, I shall not be a fool; for I will say the truth: but now [om. now] I forbear, lest any man should think of me above that which he seeth me to be, or6 that he heareth of [from,7ἐξ] me. And lest7 I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger [an angel,8ἄγγελος] of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.8 For [concerning, ὑπὲρ] this thing [angel] I besought the Lord thrice, that it [he] might depart9 from me. And He [hath, εἴρηκἐν] said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my [om. my9] strength is made perfect10 in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest [abide] upon me.10Therefore I take pleasure [am well contented, εὐδοκῶ] in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in11 distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong. 11I am become a fool in glorying [om. in glorying12]; ye have compelled me: for I ought to have been commended of you: for in nothing am [was, ὑστέρησα I behind the very chiefest [these overmuch, ὑπερλίαν] apostles, though I be nothing.12Truly the signs of an Apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in [by13] signs and wonders and mighty deeds. 13For what is it wherein ye were inferior14 to other churches, except it be that I myself was not burdensome to you? forgive me this14 wrong. Behold, the15 third time I am ready to come to you; and I will not be burdensome to you [om. to you16]: for I seek not yours, but you: for the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children. 15And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you [your souls, τῶν ψυχῶν]; though [if, ἐι17] the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved. 16But be it so, I did not burden you: nevertheless, being crafty, I caught you with guile. 17Did I make a gain of you by any18 of them whom I sent unto you? I desired [besought, παρεκάλεσα]Titus [to go to you] and with him I sent a [the] brother. Did Titus make a gain of you? walked we not in the same spirit? walked we not in the same steps?

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

2 Corinthians 12:1-6.—It is necessary to boast; it is not for my advantage, for I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.—Although we should not regard the Apostle as precisely breaking off from a special history commenced in the last two verses (Meyer), he certainly passes now to a new subject of boasting (καύχησις). In a preface composed of short sentences grammatically unconnected (asyndeton) but logically arranged, he declares that under the circumstances he could not avoid self-commendation, but that in a moral respect it was not expedient, inasmuch, as it exposed him to the temptation to exalt himself (comp. 2 Corinthians 12:7 ff.). Αεῖ must be taken in an absolute sense, equivalent to, it must be so. It is not necessary to connect μοι with it. The γάρ introduces the reason why he once more speaks in self-commendation. It is that he was about to relate something which might incline him to an unprofitable self-exaltation (comp. 2 Corinthians 12:7). With less simplicity, Meyer thinks that because boasting was unprofitable, Paul was anxious to pass on to something in which there was no self-commendation (2 Corinthians 12:5), and he thinks that οὐ συμφέρει μοι is thus accounted for and justified, although he himself notices what the Apostle says in 2 Corinthians 12:7 of self-exaltation on account of the abundance of the revelations. If we adopt the reading of the Receptus, the idea of the Apostle would be: Truly it is not expedient for me to glory (comp. 2 Corinthians 11:1; 2 Corinthians 11:17; 2 Corinthians 11:30). The reason for this he would assign by pointing to the elevating character of his subsequent glorying, for it is implied that the danger would be more imminent, the more exalted the boast and its object was. Thus Osiander, who adheres to the Receptus, explains it, but essentially concedes that the original clause with δεῖ would have seemed so very abrupt, and the asyndeton so unusually harsh, that a plausible reason was presented for a change. It will not do to lay the emphasis upon μοὶ, as if Paul had meant that it was not for his own, but for their good that he boasted himself (i.e., to correct their judgment respecting himself, Reiche), for this would have required οὐκ ἐμοὶ, or ἐμαυτῷ at least ἐμοί, instead of μοι.18 The things of which he now begins to speak are visions and revelations of the Lord (ὀπτασίαι καὶ ). Κυρίου is the genitive, not of the object, but of the subject [i.e., not respecting, but from, the Lord]. Nothing is said in the context which implies that the transaction here spoken of was a vision of Christ, in which the Lord was revealed to him (the way of speaking is different in 1 Corinthians 11:1; Galatians 1:16). Christ had given him disclosures and revelations of himself (1 Corinthians 14:6). The visions (ὀπτασίαι), however, describe the form in which he had received them. No further nor profounder disclosures are intended by the revelations (ἀποκάλυψεις) than by the visions (ὀπτασίαι). Osiander thinks that the words describe two ways in which supersensual objects are presented: one by a figurative apparition for the eye, and the other by means of sound for the ear. The Berlenb. Bible makes visions refer to those representations of heavenly forms which the Holy Ghost makes to the inward spirit of man, in a Divine light and in a spiritual manner; and revelations (the higher manifestation) to that thorough enlightenment of the mind and heart by the Holy Ghost in which we learn the true mind of the Spirit. W. F. Besser: From the very commencement of his Christian experience, the Lord had allowed Paul to see in visions and to hear in revelations those mysteries which belonged to a world invisible and imperceptible to the external sense. By Christ’s own appearance to him at first (Acts 22:15; Acts 26:16), his want of outward evidence through the eye and ear had been made up to him in an extraordinary manner, and his authority had been made equal to that of the twelve Apostles. The visions (ὀπτασίαι) may designate the general form in which the revelation was made, but in addition to them an explanation of the visible objects was given by words addressed to the ear (as in the prophetical visions). We feel obliged, with Meyer, to maintain that we have no evidence that Paul had in view here some pretensions of his opponents with respect to which he wishes to show that he had the advantage of them, for nothing in the context seems to imply that his object was to show that an external acquaintance with Christ was unnecessary to the Apostolical character (Baur), nor to show that he was quite equal to the Christ-party who boasted largely of visions. I know a man in Christ, fourteen years ago (whether in the body I know not, or whether out of the body I know not, God knows), such a one was rapt as far as the third heaven (2 Corinthians 12:2). The Apostle here affords a specimen of what he had just given only an intimation. It is certainly inconsistent with the context and with the general aim of the writer to maintain that he was here giving an account of some other person than himself.19 It was perfectly accordant with the nature of the occurrence for him to speak of such an occurrence in the third person, inasmuch as the individual spoken of was in a passive state, and might seem in his normal state of activity as another person (Meyer). Osiander suggests that his own proper person had become estranged to him in his ecstatic state, and was here conceived of as still remaining with the Lord. [Οἶδα should be translated, not: I knew, but: I know]. It may be doubted whether the word has any special emphasis, as if the Apostle intended to give prominence to his complete, certainty about a fact which might be questioned by many on account of its extraordinary character (Osiander). A man in Christ signifies a Christian, and not a minister of Christ. He is not, indeed, expressly speaking of himself. Neander: “It is an expression in which Paul distinguishes between that which he had become by the grace of God and that which was merely human in himself.” There is, however, no very obvious contrast between the humble ‘man’ and the exalted character of the revelation. In Christ indicates that the man was in the great general fellowship of the common faith. The words imply nothing connected with the ecstasy, and still less do they have a special bearing against the suspicion of a demoniac ecstasy. The precise statement of the time belongs to ἁρπαγέντα (from which it is separated only by a parenthesis: ἔιτε—οἶδεν), and not to ἄνθρ. ἐν χριστῷ as if he had intended to say, a man who has been serving Christ fourteen years. The reason he so accurately specifies it was, that the occurrence was particularly important to him, and peculiarly appropriate to his representation of what pertained to a third person. There can be no reference here to events attending his conversion, which must have taken place from seventeen to eighteen or oven twenty years before the composition of this Epistle. Even if chronology were not against supposing that he here referred to the appearance in the Temple mentioned in Acts 22:17-21, the facts related in the two visions are essentially so different that we cannot suppose them the same. The only way to meet this is (with Osiander) to suppose that there were different elements in this ecstasy, and that what is here mentioned was only the culminating point. With this view it would be chronologically connected with 2 Corinthians 11:32-33. [Alford: “The date probably refers back to the time when he was at Tarsus waiting for God to point out his work, between Acts 9:30; Acts 11:25.” Wordsworth says: “Fourteen years, reckoned inclusively, carry us back to the time of St. Paul’s ordination to the Apostleship of the Gentiles, which must not be confounded with the time of his conversion to Christianity.” “Probably this vision and revelation were vouchsafed to him then, because he was going forth for the first time to incur shame and suffering,” and they were not communicated to the world until fourteen years afterwards, and even then only as facts and not in detail, because they were designed only for him, and for such a purpose. On this use of πρὸ, Webster says: “The primary idea of πρό is, in sight, and it is applied to what is before one, in some place opposite, in view. From this meaning it passes on to denote priority in time, and so with a trajection in its use it signifies here, before, in time.” Syntax and Synn. p. 150]. We have no other account of what is here related. With respect to the manner in which it took place, the Apostle was entirely uncertain, he was not sure that the soul retained any connection with the body. The latter may have been raised by the Spirit’s power along with Paul’s spirit into heavenly regions, or this connection may have been for the time dissolved, and his spirit rapt away from its earthly tenement. In a word, the whole person, composed of his soul and his body together, or his soul alone, separate from his body (or at least without any of its external functions) was lifted up into a celestial world, Ἁρπαγέντα signifies much more than the different varieties of subjective mental vision, whether accompanied by bodily mental perceptions or not. The uncertainty here expressed does not refer to the question, whether this was a mere vision (ἐν), or an actual trance of the spirit (ἐκτός). Any doubt on such a point would have seriously impaired the importance of the occurrence itself (comp. Meyer, Osiander). We have no means of determining to which of these suppositions, the ἐν or the ἐκτός) the Apostle was most inclined. But the whole representation which he gives makes it probable that the ascent was real and in actual space, and not merely ideal.20 Εἴτε, εἴτε have here the sense of: whether, or whether. ̔Αρπαγῆναι, is spoken of sudden, involuntary removals from one place to another (comp. Acts 8:39; Revelation 12:5; 1 Thessalonians 4:17), [and it hero implies great celerity and the power of some external force].—And I know such a man (whether in the body or out of the body I know not, God knows); that he was caught up into Paradise (2 Corinthians 12:3-4 a.).—In the words, such a man (τὸν τοιοῦτον) the Apostle recurs to the subject of the ecstasy, the one he had before described as the man in Christ. Osiander, thinks that the phrase, such a man, contains an allusion to the fact, that he is now endowed with qualities which fitted him for such an exaltation. The point reached in the course of his ecstasy under the influence of the higher power (the Spirit of God) which had taken possession of him, he calls the third heaven (τρίτος οὐρανός). This is not to be interpreted spiritually of the utmost degree of Divine knowledge, etc. (the number three being taken simply as a symbol of perfection), for the Apostle had unquestionably in his mind a higher sphere of the heavenly world. A plurality of heavens is not inconsistent with Scriptural doctrine, for something

f the kind is implied even in the plural (heavens, οὐρανοί) here used, and in the description (Hebrews 4:14) of Christ’s ascension, in which He is said to have passed into the heavens διεληλυθέναι τοὺς ούρανούς), the termination of which is described (Hebrews 9:24) as an entrance into heaven itself (εἰσελθεῖν εἰς αὐτὸν τὸν οὐρἀνόν), i.e., into the dwelling place of the Divine Majesty, to which the heavens he had passed through were related, just as the sanctuary in the tabernacle was related to the holy of holies. Jewish tradition generally speaks of seven heavens (Rabbi Judah alone speaks of two). To such common views and forms of speech the Apostle doubtless had some reference, but the original idea must be distinguished from the arbitrary and monstrous details of the Rabbinical writers. As neither here nor elsewhere (except in some later ecclesiastical writers, who probably derived their views from the passage before us) is it necessarily implied that there were no more than three heavens, this third need not, of course, be regarded as the highest heaven. Neither here nor in Hebrews 4:14 must we suppose the allusion to be to some region of the visible heavens (the clouds, etc.), but to some supersensous space between the stellar and the highest heaven, the true holy of holies (comp. Riem, d. Lehrbegr. des Hebr. Br. p. 512). And yet we must unquestionably make a distinction between this higher region called the third heaven, and the place called Paradise although it does not follow that the former must of course be a lower region than the latter). It does not seem probable that what is said in 2 Corinthians 12:3-4, should be a mere repetition of what had been said in 2Co 12:2.21 On the other hand the Apostle probably speaks in 2 Corinthians 12:3-4 of a higher degree of ecstasy than that which he had mentioned in the other. And yet the Paradise was not exactly some interior department of the third heaven, but some higher region, that which is called in Revelation 2:7 the Paradise of God (the lower department in Sheol, Luke 23:43, comp. Luke 16:23). Osiander: “The abode in which the highest peace and joy are enjoyed, where fellowship with God and the God-man is most intimate, and where the world of spirits has its most delightful and most perfect development.” Neander: “Paul here describes a higher degree of life in God, a foretaste of that which the soul will reach at a later period, no illusion of the imagination or product of Jewish superstition, but a certain and actual exaltation of the soul. And yet we may here distinguish between the supernatural and the divine on the one hand and the human on the other, and we may concede that the representation here given to the Apostle was in that form which was most familiar to him in his actual state of mind at the time.”—And heard unspeakable words which it is not lawful for man to utter (2 Corinthians 12:4 b).—It is evident from the use of the word ἤκουσεν that ῥῆμα cannot here be equivalent to things, but that it must mean a word. But ἄῤῥητον signifies, not what cannot be expressed, for then the words could not have been perceived, but as the relative sentence immediately following shows, words of such mysterious import as ought not to be uttered or to be generally known. In this sense the word is used in Herod, and other writers. Ἐξόν is equivalent not to δυνατόν but to fas est.—The substance of the communication was so exalted that it would have been a profanation to give it in human language. W. F. Besser: “It is likely that the substance of the heavenly words was taken up by the Apostle as he heard them, but he felt that no man after receiving such a communication in successive details, could find language adequately and worthily to express what he had heard in that sacred presence. And even if God had given him power to express on earth what he had heard in heaven, there were no earthly ears which could intelligently receive the communication.” We cannot accept of Ewald’s explanation, that the reason Paul determined to keep these revelations to himself (revelations, as he thinks likely, of the final victory of Christ over Rome and heathenism, and also over Jerusalem and the Jews), was because he saw that other men might easily be led to pervert them in many ways and then to obtain credit on his authority. [These words were “unspeakable,” (not only to him but to man) perhaps on account of their nature, but as Paul tells us that it was not “lawful to utter” them, we must suppose that he was restrained from uttering them principally by a moral reason. The whole vision appears to have been intended for the Apostle alone, to prepare him personally for his work, and for this reason alone he had no occasion to speak of it for fourteen years, and never to speak of its contents. The apocryphal literature of subsequent times, shows what follies the minds of men are inclined to, on such mysteries. (See the ἀναβάτικον Παύλου used by the sect of Caïani, mentioned by Epiphanius, Haeres: 18, 38). But nothing in this passage implies that the Apostle possessed any arcana or mysteries on the general subject of salvation, which are to be withheld as dangerous matters, from common inspection, and yet capable of investigation to more philosophical and learned persons.] Ἀνθρώπῳ is not the object of λαλεῖν but is governed by ἐξόν. There are no means of determining whether Paul was brought to this conclusion by an express command with regard to it, or whether he saw its propriety without such a command. The speaker, however, must have been the Lord, comp. 2 Corinthians 12:1, ἀποκ. κυρίου. What was said must have been very significant and eminently strengthening to the Apostle’s mind (comp. Osiander).—Instead of proceeding to say now: ἐντούτω (of such a thing) καυχήσομαι, as must have been in his mind, he says, in accordance with the mode of representation commenced in 2 Corinthians 12:2. Of such a one will I glory (2 Corinthians 12:5).—Τοῦ τοιούτου is not neuter but masculine. This is proved not only by ὑπέρ which has relation to a person in whose behalf the boasting must take place (2 Corinthians 7:14; 2 Corinthians 5:12; 2 Corinthians 8:24), but by the contrasted ἐμαυτοῦ, and the unmistakable reference to τὸν τοιοῦτον in 2 Corinthians 12:2-3.—The principle which lies at the basis of the whole passage is, that he was not to boast of such revelations, as though they argued anything in his own favor, but only as an incident connected with a man in Christ, who had been at this period completely lifted out of his own individuality and had been thought worthy of such grace merely on account of his being in Christ. His only object in condescending to this boasting of such a one, was that he might bear witness that such glorious things had been granted to such a one.—But of myself I will not boast, save in my infirmities (2 Corinthians 12:5 b).—In behalf of himself, (regarded simply as himself), ho would boast only with reference to his infirmities (comp. 2 Corinthians 11:30). He alluded here to those many manifestations of human weakness, which had occasioned so much humiliation to him, which had completely extirpated all vanity from his bosom, and which had finally compelled him to boast only of that divine power which evinced its greatness through his infirmities, (comp. vv.9, 10.).—For if I shall desire to boast, I shall not be foolish, for I will speak the truth (2 Corinthians 12:6 a).—There is some difficulty here in determining the connection which the γαρ implies with 2 Corinthians 12:5. To make it refer back to the first half of that verse, and thus to make the Apostle begin to reveal his identity with the man in Christ (Osiander) does not seem after all very probable. And yet to supply something to οὐκαυχησομαι (2 Corinthians 12:5) by which it shall mean: I will not boast of these great revelations, and to make εἱ μή signify but only, and then in this 2 Corinthians 12:6 to make if I should desire to boast refer to the same things with the additional thought: although I could thus boast (De Wette), seems very harsh. We would prefer, without any such completion of the sense, to understand before the words οὐ καυχ. εἰ μή, etc., in 2 Corinthians 12:5, simply: I could thus boast concerning myself if I wished to do so (i.e., of my worth and merits), and to suppose that when he continues, if I should desire, etc., he is giving the reason for this thought which had sprung from what is obviously implied in the sentence itself (Meyer). But, perhaps after all it would be simpler to make the γάρ refer to the whole of 2 Corinthians 12:6, so that the writer would have already in view the subsequent φείδομαι and the sentence connected with it: I will not boast of myself except of my infirmities; for although I should not be a fool even if I were to boast myself, inasmuch as I should tell the truth, yet I forbear, lest, etc. Or: not because I should be a fool, if I were inclined to boast myself, etc., but because I would guard against, etc. In this case there would be no need of adding anything to the thought expressed.—The boasting (καυχήσασθαι) has reference to something the reverse of weakness, and hence to deeds (comp. 1 Corinthians 15:10) in which power was exhibited. In ἄφρων (senseless, without reason) he alludes probably to the empty boasting of his opponents, in which there was no basis of truth like that in his self-commendations—but I forbear, lest any one should reckon of me above what he sees me to be or hears from me (2 Corinthians 12:6 b).—There is no need here of supplying ὐμῶν to φείδομαι; along with μή (or in the infinitive) this verb has the sense of: to shrink back or to act with reserve, i.e. to deal sparingly with his self-commendation. In μή we have certainly the idea of mental care (Meyer: of guarding against something). This anxiety, however, was well founded, so far as it referred to the inclination to boast in men then so strong among the Corinthians, and the Apostle did not wish to encourage in any way a disposition against which he had so earnestly contended. Τις has reference to no particular individual, for we have no reason to suppose that he is hero aiming at some Pauline party at Corinth. The over-valuation of his person which ho here deprecates, he expresses in the words beyond what he sees me, or hears something from me (ὑπὲρ ο͂ βλέπει με ἤ ) i.e., beyond the immediate impression which my personal presence would make. There is no necessity of supplying either εἶναι or ποιεῖν, after δ βλέπει με, which has reference to his whole appearance, his bearing and behavior. ̓Ακούει refers to his performances in oral discourse. Ἐξ ἐμοῦ (ex me) from myself, in contrast with that which might be heard of him through others. Τι is a brachyological or concise form of expression equivalent to ἐί τι . Notwithstanding the unfriendly opinions which had been expressed of him (2 Corinthians 10:1; 2 Corinthians 10:10), he desired to have no other standard laid down for judging of him than a strict conformity to what all might perceive in him.

2 Corinthians 12:7-10. And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations (2 Corinthians 12:7 a).—[Stanley, adopting Lachmann’s reading of διὸ before ἴνα, is obliged also with him, to connect καὶ τῇ ὐπερβ. τῶν άποκ. with ἀσθενείαις in 2 Corinthians 12:5, and to make the whole of 2 Corinthians 12:6 a parenthesis. Even Alford concedes that, if διὸ forms a part of the text, it must be the commencement of a sentence, and that we must adopt Lachmann’s punctuation. But he thinks that “a very strange sense would thus be given,” for then the Apostle would refuse to glory in himself, except in his infirmities and in the exceeding abundance of his revelations; thus making his glorying in his revelations a part of his glorying in himself. But rejecting διὸ, for which we have hardly sufficient authority, the sentence reads smoothly. Osiander remarks that everything in K. τῇ ὑπερβ. τῶν is remarkable: the expression itself, the way in which the words are joined together, and the position of the words in the sentence. For emphasis the words are placed first (comp. 2 Corinthians 2:4), the revelations are represented as multifarious, and for additional force a substantive is used with an adjectival signification.] Having said (2 Corinthians 12:5-6) that he now abstained from further boasting, not because he lacked in good grounds for it, but from a regard to them, that they might not overvalue his person, he now returns to the revelations he had spoken of in 2 Corinthians 12:1, etc., and shows how he had been kept from a possible self-exaltation on account of these revelations, by means of a peculiarly severe affliction. Kαί here signifies not: even, but: and, merely connecting with the former sentence.—Υπερβολή occurs also in 2 Corinthians 4:7. It is difficult to decide whether the dative is that of the instrument (: by means of), or of the cause (on account of) like ἑπαίρεσθαι τινι. The meaning is much the same in either case. We have ὑπεραίρεσθαι in 2 Thessalonians 2:4, in the sense of to exalt himself.—There was given to me a thorn in the flesh, an angel of Satan to buffet me—There can be no doubt that a Divine intention or design is implied [by ί́να], whether God or Satan is looked upon as the giver in ἐδόθη. It is possible to interpret it of either, but it seems rather more appropriate to refer it to God, inasmuch as the object to be accomplished by it was under the Divine direction. We must not, however, conclude from thence that ἐδόθη implies merely a Divine permission, for it includes the idea of disposing, and ordaining. God gives even what is afflictive for the attainment of some higher and benevolent end; i.e, as the means of trial and humiliation. Σκόλοψ is a sharpened piece of wood, a stake, or a thorn (as in Numbers 33:55). The first of these meanings is not altogether inappropriate. [Stanley adheres to this, and contends that σκόλοψ is not a thorn (from which he finds it sometimes distinguished, esp. Hosea 2:6; Sept. Artemid. 3:33) but generally a pointed stake or palisade (Numb. 30:55; Ezekiel 28:24). It must be conceded that this is the usual meaning. Hence Luther and many understand by it a stake, for the execution of criminals. Stanley finds ἀνασκολοπίζω in the Sept. of Esther 7:10 explained by Phavorinus and Hesychius as equivalent to ἀνασταυρίζω, and he thence infers that σκόλοψ was equivalent to σταυρός, the cross, or the stake. In Lucian, too (De morte Per. 11), ἀνασκολοπίζω is used for the crucifixion of Christ. As in describing his state of constant torture the Apostle draws his image from crucifixion. so here he draws it from impalement. The angel of Satan like Death in 1 Corinthians 15:55, is armed with the impaling stake; or the Apostle was himself already impaled or crucified. The phrase τῇ σαρκὶ is certainly unsuitable to this interpretation]. In the flesh (τῇ σαρκὶ) is not in apposition with to me (μοι) and dependent upon was given (ἐδόθη), but it is to be connected with σκόλοψ (a thorn) as a dative of appropriation. But σάρξ is not human nature in general, unregenerate and sinful, but man’s corporeal nature with the sinful disposition connected with it. In this place it has reference especially to the sensitive horror which that nature feels at pain, or its recoil from the suffering which God had decreed for it. Σκόλοψ is undoubtedly the subject of έδόθη, and ἄγγελος σατᾶν is in apposition to σκόλοψ, though the converse of this may not be true (as if σκόλοψ were an ἄγγελος). These words in apposition, however, are the subject of ἵνα—κολαφίζη, which involves a metaphor no longer quite suitable to σκόλοψ. But such an apparent irregularity of construction may be found in other places. And yet there is no inversion of the words, as if he would say: that the angel of Satan might buffet me. Κολαφίζῃ expresses continued action and it is therefore in the subj. præs, not in the aorist. Ἄγγελος σατᾶν does not signify merely a hostile angel, for σατᾶν never is to be found precisely as an adjective, and in the New Testament it never has the sense of adversarius (an angel, an adversary). Nor can it mean Satan himself [the angel Satan] who is never designated an ἄγγελος; but an angel of Satan like ἄγγελοι τοῦν διαβόλου in Matthew 25:41, Σατᾶν therefore is in the genitive (the var. σατανᾶ. has less authority for it, is a correction of the indeclinable noun, which is a ἄπαξ λεγόμενον). An exceedingly painful suffering is indicated by σκόλοψ, and is described by the phrase an angel of Satan. It is not merely a Suffering sent upon the Apostle by Satan, (for Satan’s angel in the estimation of the Apostle was a real malignant power) by means of which God had ordained for him a humiliating torment (comp. 1 Corinthians 5:5, Job 2:6), with the exalted purpose which he afterwards brings forward in an emphatic manner when he says:—lest I should be exalted above measure (2 Corinthians 12:7).—The idea conveyed therefore is, that in accordance with the divine decree the Apostle was abased in a humiliating manner by an angel of Satan, and that in consequence of this tormenting influence sent on him from the kingdom of darkness, he was kept from unduly exalting himself on account of the glorious revelations vouchsafed him from the kingdom of light. But of what nature were these sufferings? Of course we are not to think of literal and real blows or buffetings. The idea of an internal assault of Satan by means of blasphemous thoughts, or by remorse of conscience on account of his earlier persecution of the followers of Christ, or by means of temptation’s to lust, must be regarded (irrespective of the last mentioned suggestion, which was an improbable product of the ascetic exegesis of the monks, comp. Osiander p. 473 and 2 Corinthians 4:7), as directly in opposition to τῇ σαρκί (according to Meyer also in opposition to σκόλοψ and κολαφίζη in which are described an acute and continuous pain). Still more improbable is the idea of external assaults on the part of hostile opponents, called here ministers of Satan (2 Corinthians 11:15), and designated collectively an angel of Satan, inasmuch as one of them (sing.) may have distinguished himself above the rest; or the idea of a great pressure of apostolic duties in general. The context leads us to think of a definite and special form of suffering (Meyer) in contrast with the abundance of the revelations, and of something for whose cessation he could properly and earnestly pray (2 Corinthians 12:8), as he could hardly do with respect to his official duties.—The most probable supposition is that he had in view some very severe and painful bodily suffering, which however did not prevent his undergoing exhausting labors and his persisting in numerous hardships. But it is utterly out of our power to determine precisely what this suffering consisted in (hemorrhoids, hypocondria and melancholy, epilepsy, stone, violent head-ache, etc.). Ewald: “When this disease came upon him, it was like a terrific blow upon the head (κολαφίζῇ) without a previous warning.” It was something personal, not affecting him simply as a minister of Christ, and an ἀσθένεια (2 Corinthians 12:9), although of a peculiar kind, reminding him of his human frailty and hence having a tendency to keep him from undue self-exaltation on account of his remarkable experiences of divine favor. We are very naturally reminded of Luther’s disease of the stone which in like manner was ascribed to the devil.—Osiander unites together the ideas of bodily and spiritual assaults, and his explanation is favored by the fact that there is usually a reciprocal action between the two, but the general impression of our passage is rather in favor of a long-continued evil rather than of a temporary darkening and .disturbance of mind.—In 2 Corinthians 12:8-9, he tells us how he prayed that this evil and its consequences might be removed from him.—Concerning this, I besought the Lord thrice, that he might depart from me (2 Corinthians 12:8).—Ὑπέρ, since Demosthenes, has frequently had the sense of περί: in consideration of, in respect to. Τούτου is not neuter but masculine, as is shown by ἀποστῇ (might depart). Ho had in his mind the angel of Satan. Τρίς is not equivalent to πολλάκις, nor is it a number for perfection. There may have been long intervals of time between each prayer, and perhaps he only prayed when under extreme paroxysms of suffering. That he was under this affliction when he wrote however, is not necessarily implied. He received no answer from the Lord until the third petition, when, of course, he ceased. The Lord (κύριος) is Christ who has obtained the victory over every kind of Satanic power. Παρακαλεῖν is a word which in the New Testament is never used with reference to God and only with reference to Christ. It has the sense of, to call for help, and in the classic writers is used to designate a call on the gods. ̓Αποστῆναι ( to depart) as in Luke 4:13 is used with regard to Satan, but in Acts 5:38; Acts 22:29, it is applied to human assailants.—And he has said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee, for power is made perfect in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9).—In this place εἵρηκε express a continued action [the perfect of a continued past action], but we have no means of determining how it was said, whether in a vision, or merely by some internal encouragement. (Osiander: “probably a testimony of the Holy Spirit in the exercise of the highest spiritual functions, by means of which the Apostle’s heart was thoroughly tranquilized, assured of his gracious state and enlightened with respect to this special case. It was thus a distinct revelation of the mind of Christ, by special inspiration, and confirmed, perhaps, by the application of some passage of Scripture.” The answer was an apparent refusal, with such a promise as was a virtual granting of his request. The ἀρκεῖ, which stands for emphasis at the head of the sentence, is not equivalent to: will protect (a poetical usage), or will assist (Xenophon and others), but it means simply, will be sufficient for, will satisfy; it will be enough that I am gracious to thee, and that I love thee, and will take pleasure in thee. There is no reference to miraculous gifts. To show that he would need nothing else, the Lord adds: for my strength, etc. The μου has only a few authorities in its favor, but they are of the highest importance; and even if it is not supplied in the text, it must be understood. The fact that ἐν has no σου after it may have had some influence in inducing transcribers to leave it out. The meaning is: with one who is in this weak state, my power comes into more perfect activity (comp. 2 Corinthians 4:7; 1 Corinthians 2:3-4). But this power of the Lord dwells only in those who share also in His grace; .i.e., it is put forth in its full strength and activity only where there is nothing but helplessness and painful weakness; for where a consciousness of power is, it is rather impeded in its action. (Τελεῖται has not the sense of: proves itself to be perfect).—Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities, that Christ’s power may abide upon me—(2 Corinthians 12:9).—The Apostle here describes the effect of this promise. He gave up all expectation of being freed from his trouble, and he was satisfied with the prospect (of enjoying the grace whose work was to be completed in his weakness. Grammatical usage will not permit us to refer μᾶλλον to ἤδιστα. Nor should we supply after it: than before, when I prayed thus (2 Corinthians 12:8), or: than any thing, or: than in my own power, or: than in the revelations which I had. It belongs rather, as its position necessarily shows, to καυχήσομαι. Instead of complaining and praying that the suffering might cease, I will rather glory in my infirmities. This, however, would lead to the accomplishment and experience of the promise given him when the Lord visited him, i.e., that Christ’s power might dwell (permanently abide) upon him. The word ἐπισκηνοῦν signifies to enter, to turn into, a tent or dwelling. Ἐπ ̓ ἐμέ, in other places, has reference to the direction generally; and here, where the Apostle is speaking of the power of Christ, who was then in heaven, it means, to come down upon me and to abide with me (the figure is that of a permanent connection). Whether any thing of unusual solemnity attaches to the expression, as if it had reference to the Shekinah, as if the power of Christ were as a pavilion extended over him for his protection, or as if he himself were the space in which it was to be manifested, is uncertain.—Wherefore I am well contented in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake (2 Corinthians 12:10). From what he had just described as the object of all this proceeding, and of course from the promise of Christ which had been accomplished by his glorying in his infirmities (2 Corinthians 12:9), the Apostle now makes a practical inference, viz.: inasmuch as this glorying in my infirmities has brought Christ’s power to take possession of me, I take pleasure in infirmities, etc. Ἐυδοκεῖν ἐν signifies here a voluntary endurance, a patient satisfaction with these sufferings [Our English A. V.: take pleasure in, is too strong; the Greek is: I am well contented in (Fausset)]. The ἀσθένειαι, the suffering condition in which these infirmities become perceptible, are particularized in ὔβρεσιν, insulting abuses, ἀνάγκαις, etc., comp. 2 Corinthians 6:4 (external afflictions proceeding from those around him). ̓Υπὲρ χριστοῦ, which belongs to and qualifies all these preceding nouns, signifies here: for the sake (or, in behalf) of Christ.—For when I am weak, then am I strong (2 Corinthians 12:10 b.). The reason for his good courage while enduring these sufferings for Christ’s sake, was that he had felt strengthened under all his infirmities by the power of Christ dwelling continually in him (comp. Philippians 4:13). In these words we have the fulfilment of the promise in 2 Corinthians 12:9. Τότε is emphatic, and shows how triumphant were the Apostle’s feelings, comp. 1 Corinthians 15:54; Colossians 3:4.

[Stanley: “The long burst of passionate self-vindication, has now, at last expended itself, and the Apostle returns to the point from whence he diverged at 2 Corinthians 10:7, where he was asserting his intention to repress the disobedience of those who still resisted his authority at Corinth. Before, however, he enters again upon this, he looks back over the long digression, and resumes here and there a thought which needed explanation or expansion. Hence, although this concluding section stands apart from the interruption of 2 Corinthians 10:10 to 2 Corinthians 12:10, and is truly the winding up of the main argument begun in 2 Corinthians 10:1-7, it is filled with traces of the torrent which has passed through his mind in the interval. His ‘folly,’ 2 Corinthians 11:1-10; the ‘commendatory epistles’ (2 Corinthians 3:1; 2 Corinthians 5:12); the ‘apostolical’ pretensions of his opponents (2 Corinthians 11:12-13) are resumed in 2 Corinthians 12:11; his miracles and sufferings (2 Corinthians 11:23-28), in 2 Corinthians 12:12; the question of self-support (2 Corinthians 11:12) in vv.13–18; the strength and weakness united in Christ (2 Corinthians 12:19), in 2 Corinthians 13:3-4; 2 Corinthians 13:9”].

2 Corinthians 12:11-15.—I am become a fool; ye have compelled me: for I ought to have been commended by you; for in nothing was I behind these overmuch apostles, although I am nothing (2 Corinthians 12:11).—He here makes an ironical concession (for the words should not be regarded as a question) with reference to the many things he had said in commendation of himself in the course of the last two chapters: I am become a fool. [The verb γέγονα indicates that he had become what he was not originally]. And yet he follows this immediately with a justification of himself; for he throws upon them the responsibility of all: ye have forced me thus foolishly to boast myself, for I ought to have been commended by you, instead of being obliged to commend myself. [The ironical nature of the passage explains the concession without taking this verse interrogatively, as Wordsworth, after some Greek scholiasts, suggests]. In emphatic correspondence with one another are arranged the words: ὑμεῖς, ἐγώ, ὑφ ̓ ὑμῶν. By ἑγω he does not put himself in special contrast with those opponents who were so highly commended by the Corinthians. He merely censures here the want of attention which these Corinthians had shown to his claims. Their positive injustice toward him he exposes when he comes to say, that he had been in no respect behind those much-lauded apostles (comp. 2 Corinthians 11:5). Ὑατέρησα limits the time of the comparison to the period of his residence at Corinth. With humility, however, he adds (comp. 1 Corinthians 15:8, etc.), that he was after all nothing, i.e., I am absolutely powerless in myself (1 Corinthians 1:28). This is a sincere assertion, though it contains a severe allusion to the pride of his opponents (Osiander). He shows that he was in no respect behind these supereminent apostles, by referring to those proofs of his Apostleship which he had given among them.—Truly the signs of an Apostle were wrought among you in all patience by signs and wonders and miracles (2 Corinthians 12:12). The signs of an Apostle here signify those things by means of which the Apostles showed that they were Apostles, and were recognized as such among their fellow men. The article makes the idea of an Apostle especially prominent (Bengel: ejus, qui sit apostolus); the reality and not merely the ideal of one. The first σημεία is here to be taken in the more comprehensive sense [of general evidences], whereas the second should be explained in the narrower signification [of special tokens of a Divine power]. Neander: “Our faith in the reality of the Apostle’s performance of miracles need not therefore be founded solely upon tradition, for Paul here asserts that he wrought them, and he thus comes in direct opposition to all mythical views of the narratives of New Testament miracles.” The passive κατηργάσθη (were wrought) or κατειργάσθη is a modest form of expression for: I wrought. Even if we are not influenced by the inappropriateness of such an idea ἐν πάσῃ ὑπομονῇ cannot be taken as the first in the series of σημείοις, etc., for the ἐν is not really a part of the original text. The phrase designates the ethical element in which these signs were wrought in Corinth (ἐν ὑμῖν), and which had a tendency to confirm believers there. It shows his perseverance, with all steadfastness in the midst of the opposition and sufferings he had to meet as an Apostle (comp. 2 Corinthians 6:4). Ὑπομονή has reference here not to an outward objective tolerance of all kinds of evils (for it has no genitive of the object in connection with it, as in 2 Corinthians 1:6), but it refers to the feelings with which he persevered under his trials. Πάσῃ implies the degree, the completeness of his patience, for if we refer it to the extent to which it was carried in respect to the variety of its exercises, it would more properly apply to the objective interpretation. These proofs of his Apostleship (κατεργ. is said of that which is a res ardua) he calls σηὴεία, τεράτα, δυναμε͂ις. The words designate the same thing under various aspects; we have: 1, their significance, with reference to the Divine legation; 2, their impression, on account of their extraordinary and wonderful appearance; 3, their causality, as expressions of Divine power. [Σημεῖα are “signs,” and have an ethical purpose beyond themselves as credentials of a Divine mission; τέρατα are “wonders,” regarded simply as supernatural prodigies to excite surprise, and are never spoken of except in connection with some of the other names; and δυναμεῖς are “mighty works,” looked upon simply as putting forth of Divine power. See Trench, part 2, p. 198 ff.; Webster, 233f. It is much to be regretted that each of these words in the original is not rendered in our English version uniformly by the same word]. The same words are used in 2 Thessalonians 2:9 (of Satanic miracles), but in Hebrews 2:4 and in Romans 15:19, they are referred to for the same purpose as in our passage, i.e., to legitimate Apostolical authority. The accumulation of such words brings into more distinct prominence the magnitude and variety of the miracles. Some have attempted, rather arbitrarily, to refer the first to the cure of diseases which were curable by ordinary means; the second, to the cure of diseases beyond the reach of human art; and the third, to exercises of Apostolical power in punishing crimes, or to spiritual powers. The force of the passage is entirely lost by those who explain it of the extraordinary effects produced by his preaching and character. The μέν gives a hint of a contrast, on which the Apostle is other-wise silent, i.e., the want of acknowledgment which these signs had suffered. Meyer: the proofs were indeed (truly) wrought, but they have failed to produce the corresponding conviction among you. There is no γάρ in the sentence, and the omission is in accordance with the abrupt and lively style of the general passage. It is, however, supplied in 2 Corinthians 12:13, where he corroborates by a touching question what he had said in 2 Corinthians 12:12.—For what is there in which ye were inferior to the rest of the churches? (2 Corinthians 12:13 a).—The proofs of an Apostleship had been wrought among them, for in nothing were they inferior to the other churches where he had labored. Ὑπέρ signifies generally over, beyond; but here on account of ἡττᾶσθαι, downwards, below. In other places we have ἠττᾶσθαι τινόςτινι (but with the accus. of the “wherein”). Rückert, very incorrectly and contrary to the connection with 2 Corinthians 12:12, gives the meaning: ye have suffered no more injury than, etc. It seems also an arbitrary limitation of the thought, to make it refer exclusively to the gifts of the Spirit.—The Apostle, however, allows that there was one respect in which they might be considered inferior:—except that I myself was not burdensome to you (2 Corinthians 12:13 b); i.e. had labored among them without compensation. This was a delicate though painful irony, which amounted to bitterness when he added the prayer which follows. Εὶ μὴ ὅτι: i.e. except perhaps; or: except this, that, etc. The great distance of 2 Corinthians 12:16, etc., renders it improper to explain αὐτὸς ἐγώ by a reference to it. [Αὐτὸς is very emphatic especially before ἐγὼ]. He places his own person in contrast with those Apostolic works to which his question had just alluded. οὐ κατενάρκησα is explained on 2 Corinthians 11:7-8.—This fact that he had received no personal maintenance from them as he had done from other churches, made them inferior to those churches and was an injustice to them, for which he craved their pardon:—forgive me this wrong (2 Corinthians 12:13 c).—Such a request was a severe censure, as if they had been so ungrateful and had so completely failed to appreciate his conduct, that they had become grossly prejudiced against him through the influence of his contemptuous and suspicious opponents.—Chrysostom and some others contend that the Apostle was not here speaking ironically, but that he was endeavoring to mitigate the wounded feeling he had produced by his allusion to his self-denying course among them (as if it were a sign of a defect in his regard for them). But the irony of the preceding question compels us to regard the prayer as a continuation of the same strain.—Not until he comes to 2 Corinthians 12:14, does he come back, to his ordinary tone:—Behold, I am ready to come unto you the third time, and I will not be burdensome to you.—In this verse τρίτον does not belong to ἑτοίμως ἔχω but to ἐλθε͂ιν πρὸς ὑμᾶς, for it is not with reference to his readiness, but to his actual coming among them that he could say he was resolved not to be burdensome to them. He intended to say that on two occasions when he had been among them [see on 2 Corinthians 13:1], he had not been a burden to them and he was equally resolved not to be a burden to them on this third visit for which he was now prepared. On ἰδού comp. 2 Corinthians 6:2; 2Co 6:9; 2 Corinthians 7:11.—His reason for this purpose he says was to be found in his dis-interested love for them (comp. Philippians 4:17); they were of importance to him, not because of what they possessed, and hence not for any advantage they would be to him, but for their own sakes; since if they were won to Christ and advanced in the work of salvation, he would gain by them as much as he desired (Rückert reverses this: the Apostle would gain them for himself, and in this way for Christ; but such a view is not as much according to the spirit of the passage, comp. Osiander).—This idea he traces back to the natural relation between parents and children; by virtue of which children were not bound to make provision for the parents, but the parents for the children:—For the children are not bound to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children (2 Corinthians 12:14 b).—This applied to him as their spiritual father (1 Corinthians 4:15), and it was therefore his part not to seek for their possessions, but to care for them and to collect spiritual treasures for them (as the duty of providing for children by the investment of property is not abolished but brought within the proper limits of a confidence in God and a heavenly mind by what is said in Matthew 6:19, so here the duty of children to support their parents is not excluded, Osiander). After οἱ γονεῖς understand ὀφείλουσι θησαυρίζειν.—He applies this rule to himself in 2 Corinthians 12:15, but he implies that his love was strong enough to go far beyond the limits usually reached by parental duty:—And I will most gladly spend and be spent for you.—The gradual rise in the discourse or the climax indicated by δέ is clearly brought out even in ἤδιστα, which goes far beyond ὀψείλει, but it is carried far beyond both in in ἔκδαπανηθήσομαι. Instead of collecting something for himself at their expense, he was determined not merely to expend with hearty good will, all that he had acquired or possessed, for their benefit, but so to use all his powers as to wear them out in the interest of their souls, i.e., to sacrifice his life and his whole self, if he could thereby promote their supreme good. The compound verb ἐκδαπανᾶςθαι is much stronger than the original simple verb, and signifies to be utterly consumed (comp. Osiander’s admirable remarks). The Apostle adds:—although the more abundantly I love you, the less I am loved, (2 Corinthians 12:15 b)—If we accept εἰ καί according to the Receptus, the sense would be: although I shall be loved the less, the more I love you. Rückert and Osiander preserve this idea, even if καί is rejected (making εἰ concessive), but such an interpretation is very doubtful. Meyer takes εἰ in the sense of: if, equivalent to ἐπεί, as if the Apostle hesitated to make the direct and confident assertion, but declared that he was willing to go to the utmost in overcoming their hostile spirit toward him. This willingness he would still express if the condition were set forth as an actual and known fact: though I, as is now evident, shall be loved the less, etc. If this is presented by the Apostle as the motive of his conduct the language certainly is very severe, but on any other view the idea comes out in a very awkward and feeble manner. It is better probably to take it in a concessive sense, but then it becomes necessary with Tischendorf to retain the καί, which has many and good authorities in its favor.—Περισσοτερως—ἦττον is an abbreviated expression for ὅσῳ—τοιούτῳ.—Nothing needs to be understood in addition to the comparative (as: more them other churches, or: less than my opponents).

2 Corinthians 12:16-18. He here meets the attempt to throw on him the suspicion that under the pretence of personal disinterestedness he had sent deputies, and through them had imposed burdens upon the Corinthians. He comes upon his readers boldly and confidently with the question whether these deputies had not exhibited a disinterestedness similar to his own.—But be it so, I was not burdensome to you; nevertheless, being crafty, I caught you with guile (2 Corinthians 12:16). In ἔστω, etc., he puts himself in the position of an objector. Such a one must concede that the Corinthians had not been burdened with any selfish claims on his part, but it might be insinuated that this had been only to play a deeper game of craft to get them into his power, and to overreach them by means of his emissaries. Ἔστω is found with a similar use in Plato, as in the Latin: esto! sit ita sane ! ̓Εγώ is here emphatic in contrast with those intermediate agents mentioned in 2 Corinthians 12:17-18. With ἀλλά he introduces the precise objection (in contrast with ἔστω—ὑμᾶς): he had caught them by a crafty method gaining them over by an appearance of disinterestedness (ἔλαβον is found in 2 Corinthians 11:20). Πανοῦργος signifies adroit, sly, subtle (2 Corinthians 4:2; 2 Corinthians 11:3). Paul’s real prudence and skill was here represented in an unfavorable light (comp. Osiander). Ὑπάρχων is used in a similar manner in 1 Corinthians 11:7.—Did I make a gain of you by any of them whom I sent unto you (2 Corinthians 12:17). This verse is an anacoluthon; where τινὰ is in an emphatic position at the commencement of the sentence, and as an accusative absolute. He was probably about to write: ἀπέσταλκα εἰς τὸ πλεονεκτῆσαι ὑμᾶς, but with an impressive abbreviation, he leaves this second ἀπέσταλκα out, and, losing sight of the accus.: τινὰ, writes: δἰ . The ὦν is here an instance of attraction for τούτων οὕς.—I besought Titus to go on this mission, and with Him I sent the brother (2 Corinthians 12:18 a). He here names these deputies, and especially Titus, whom he had sent last, and the brother [not a brother, as in our English A. V.] accompanying Titus, unnamed, but well known to his readers. It is impossible for us to determine who this brother was. We conclude from the word συναπέστειλα, and from the fact that only Titus is afterwards named, that he was subordinate to Titus. The sending is the one mentioned in chap. 7. [soon after the writing of the first Epistle of our canon] and not that spoken of in chap. 8. On παρεκάλεσα comp. 2Co 8:6; 2 Corinthians 8:17. [Osiander draws attention to the fact that in each of the three passages (2 Corinthians 7:13; 2 Corinthians 8:6) in which Paul’s agency in inducing Titus to enter upon this mission, the same word (παρακαλέω) is used. The word appears to convey an idea intermediate between that of a command and that of a prayer, i.e., a friendly requirement, a reminding of what ought to be done].—Did Titus make a gain of you? Walked we not in the same spirit and in the same steps? (2 Corinthians 12:18). Τῳ αὐτῷ πνεύματι is the dative of the mode and manner (Romans 13:13), or of the rule or law. The meaning is: did not the same Holy Spirit control us all in our conduct, and keep us from all selfish conduct, from every thing like making a gain of any one? The dative οὐ τοῖς αὐτοῖς ἴχνεσιν is probably the local dative, as in Acts 14:16, and the words here signify an agreement in external conduct, as the preceding clause refers to an agreement in internal purpose and feeling. The Apostle is not here speaking directly of Christ’s footsteps (1 Peter 2:21), but we must conclude that they walked in the same steps, because Titus followed those of Paul (Meyer).

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. When a Christian is distinguished for remarkable degrees of Divine grace, he is very apt to become elevated in his own estimation. A faithful God not unfrequently prevents this by bringing him into circumstances of deep humiliation, that by such painful methods he may become conscious of his own inability, and that he may not claim those glorious distinctions which are given him for Christ’s sake, as if they were his own and were intended for his personal honor. In all such afflictions, whether bodily or spiritual, or both combined, there is an influence of Satan designed to torment and worry him, but God will use them to drive him to the throne of grace. And though his ardent request to be freed from the distress may not be granted, he will surely receive that Divine grace which will enable him to bear the heaviest burden. Divine power will find its best sphere of activity in his weakness, and the result will be that he will be strong in his weakness. Instead, therefore, of complaining and fretting about his various infirmities and those sufferings which make him conscious of them, he will experience and exhibit to the world no small degree of satisfaction in them.2. A faithful member of Christ will be inclined to keep his own person in the background, wherever he is. He seeks, no honor for himself, and least of all will he boast himself when he gains esteem and influence in consequence of some special impartations of grace from on high. Every attempt to give him an undue importance on account of such things will be offensive to him, because it will seem like giving him an honor which belongs only to God. He desires to be esteemed only for what he has actually done and spoken. The important thing with him is not the fleece, but the sheep, that those souls which Christ has purchased may be brought to Him and be saved. For such an object he is willing to make any sacrifice, to bring to the altar all that he is and has, even his life. What if men do not appreciate his love and fidelity, make him no suitable return, and even show themselves ungrateful? His love will only become more ardent, and his devotion to their welfare more intense.3. W. F. Besser:—Ever since God stationed before Eden the cherub with his naked, flaming sword, man must look for no Paradise on earth. There is, however, one beyond this sinful world in the third heaven. Its treasures and its jewels were enjoyed by the Apostle when in holy ecstasy he was allowed to have direct communion with God in Christ, that true tree of life which was lost in Adam but regained in Christ. Our Lord promised it to the thief on the cross (Luke 23:43), and now offers it to all sinners. When the tabernacle of God shall be pitched upon the new earth, then shall the New Jerusalem be revealed in Paradisaic glory (Revelation 21:2-3).

[3. “Paul evidently supposed that his soul might be taken to heaven without the body, and that it might have a separate consciousness and a separate existence. He was not therefore a materialist, and he did not believe that the existence and consciousness of the soul was dependent on the body” (Barnes). Doddridge says that he has “yet to learn what the presence of an immaterial soul in a body can be (for this also seems supposed by the Apostle to be a possibility), distinct from the capacity of perceiving by it, and acting upon it.” And yet the Apostle makes both suppositions and evidently regarded them as credible.

4. All prayer is answered in heaven—though sometimes not until it becomes importunate, and the petitioner has come by continued prayerful fellowship with God to a consciousness of his real want. Paul (like his Master) prayed and held communion with his Lord, until he came to know what was possible and best for him. The subject matter of his prayer, as it existed in the heart, was for relief, rather than for that specific mode of relief which the outward words asked for. That prayer in the heart was answered when his thorn ceased to be a thorn to him.

5. It is lawful to address Christ in prayer. Though the verb παρακαλέω is never used in classic Greek, nor in any other passage of the N. T., as equivalent to δέομαι, and in an address to God, the reason for its preference here was probably simply because of the familiar and personal relation in which Paul supposes himself to his Lord. The distinction between invocatio and advocatio seems here inappropriate, since Christ is evidently not addressed as an advocate with the Father, as if He were subordinate, but as a supreme and ultimate Disposer of affairs.

6. We have here (2 Corinthians 12:12) one of the few allusions which the Apostles make in their Epistles to the evidence of miracles. Only in seven out of all their Epistles is any thing said of this kind of evidence, and the reason is that most of those Epistles are hortatory and not apologetical. Here, however, the importance, if not the indispensable necessity of miracles, as σημεῖα τ. ἀποστόλου is clearly asserted. And yet here, as every where else, they are spoken of in an unobtrusive manner as of universally acknowledged facts. They had been performed, as Christ wrought them, not merely as credentials of a Divine mission, but from benevolence also, and from a fulness of power to relieve human woe. And yet in another aspect they were, and might properly be, appealed to as the seals of the Apostleship. Comp. Fausset, Port. Com.].

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

Chrysostom:

2 Corinthians 12:10. Where there is suffering there is consolation, and where there is consolation there is grace. And yet before the reward which God bestows, we derive much benefit from the very exercises of affliction itself; for our arrogance is repressed, our littleness is taken away, the use we can make of many human instruments is discovered, and we are, as it were, anointed for the conflicts before us.—Basil:

2 Corinthians 12:18. The left hand is not more indispensable to the right, than unanimity and concord to the ministers of the church.

Starke:

2 Corinthians 12:1. Never boast of yourself; it is always useless and vain. But if you so conduct yourself that others praise you, it is honorable and useful to you (Proverbs 27:2)

2 Corinthians 12:2 ff. Spener:—While under such Divine influences, ecstasies and revelations, the external man cannot pay attention to itself, and frequently it has no conception of what is passing within itself; all power and intelligence is taken up with what is taking place within the soul itself. While the eternal God is at work within him, the man knows nothing of time, and while God’s power occupies his thoughts, he has no remembrance of such a thing as himself or the world. Hedinger:—During the present life, heavenly things are much too high and difficult, and it is enough if we can be gradually prepared for them by a few fortastes of them.

2 Corinthians 12:5. Our highest boast now is, to know what weak, poor and miserable creatures we are. Whatever good we are and have, is entirely the result of God’s grace and mercy.

2 Corinthians 12:6. Hedinger:—A faithful pastor will be careful that his people think of him no more highly than they ought to think. 2 Corinthians 12:7. Where much is given, much also shall we be tempted; but great also shall be our consolation and sure our final victory.—Let no one pride himself on anything he has received from God, for as sure as he does so, all enjoyment of it will be taken away from his flesh by some keen thorn, which Satan knows how to sharpen so ingeniously that he will be compelled to feel it whether he is willing or unwilling.

2 Corinthians 12:8. Affliction drives us to God, and teaches us to call on him day and night, Isaiah 26:16. But very probably God will make us wait, Psalms 130:6. Christians gain their victories by patience and prayer. Prayer makes the heart light and merry. If you cannot pray, then groan, and if you cannot groan and even this distresses you, that very distress is a prayer, Romans 8:26.

2 Corinthians 12:9. Luther:—Christ cannot make known His full strength in us, until we are weak and suffering. God knows best what is for our good; and no one is more ignorant on this point than those who are enduring the anguish of the cross. Our prayers, therefore, should always be conditional. Think not that it is a sign of God’s displeasure, when you are not heard according to your desire, even though you have prayed aright, for it is rather a token of grace. Happy the man who is so satisfied with Divine grace, that it is easy for him to depend wholly upon God; for he who is thus satisfied with grace actually enjoys it. Our weakness need never trouble us. The weaker we are in ourselves, the stronger in Christ, Psalms 18:36. It is the weak tendril which unites the branch with the vine. Christ is our vine. We who are truly in Christ shall never fall, whatever storms may beat upon us. If we have much grace, we must have much suffering; if great suffering, great power; and if great power, great victory. All these hang together in one undivided chain.

2 Corinthians 12:10. Hedinger:—The more humbled by afflictions, the more exalted by grace. Faith increases under conflicts.

2 Corinthians 12:11. Pious Christians should never remain silent when men venture by falsehoods to cast suspicion upon their spiritual teachers. Such is the duty of every Christian in behalf of his fellow men, how much more of spiritual children in behalf of their parents. Humility forbids us not to allow others to commend us, but only to love the praise of men. The more thou humblest thyself, the more exalted thou art, and the more God will be gracious to thee, Ecclesiastes 3:20.

2 Corinthians 12:12. The signs of a true servant of Christ are seen not merely in his passive suffering, but in his active doings.

2 Corinthians 12:13. Spener:—Without keeping back what they owe to God and their fellow men, parents should economize what God has kindly bestowed upon them, that their children may have something after their death; but let them be careful to lay up no treasures from mere covetousness, from a distrust of Providence, to the prejudice of the claims of justice, and to the withholding of what is due to the honor of God, their neighbor’s necessity, or the proper education of their children. By not attending to these latter considerations, many live to experience much anguish of heart, and drown themselves and their children in everlasting destruction (comp. Matthew 6:19; 1 Timothy 6:9). Happy the church in which many are serving the Lord, and all are faithful!

2 Corinthians 12:18. It is a great blessing, where God’s servants are ruled and animated by the Spirit of Christ alone, and where they all walk in the same steps.

Berlenb Bible:

2 Corinthians 12:1. What is there higher for a poor creature, than for him to come into direct communion with God and heavenly beings? And yet even this would be an injury if it became a ground of self-glorification.

2 Corinthians 12:2. Who could keep to himself a matter like this for fourteen years? Those who have great gifts must be most watchful over themselves.

2 Corinthians 12:3. In circumstances like these it is God’s way to have men say: “I cannot tell;” for they are thus kept from being puffed with pride. Many lessons God reserves to the higher school of heaven.

2 Corinthians 12:4. Not unfrequently God gives His people some foretaste of their future blessedness; but such things are not indispensable to our happiness. Our highest excellencies are best shown in the modesty with which they are enjoyed. Those who have seen most of God’s majesty, know not how to humble themselves enough, Isaiah 6:5.

2 Corinthians 12:5. Ineffable grace it is when the Lord graciously vouchsafes to turn the heart of his servant to his native home, and to let him know what no mortal eye, ear or sense could perceive. Even if we have done all things, what have we to boast of? Luke 17:10. Only of our infirmities, and yet these should afford us no excuse for indolence and wickedness.

2 Corinthians 12:6. Anti-Christianity has sometimes had its origin in an excessive veneration for the eminent gifts which God has sometimes bestowed upon His people.

2 Corinthians 12:7. Those who have carefully observed the mysterious ways of Divine wisdom, have remarked that without giving any explanation of his dealings God has deeply humbled His own people as well as other men. To say nothing of external afflictions, this is particularly the case with inward trials. God will gradually consume and exhaust even the most secret influences which might injure or destroy the highest gifts of His grace. It is His secret counsel that many a Christian who seems a favorite of heaven, should be encumbered with some sore trouble, and taste, perhaps, even the powers of hell, until the ends of grace are accomplished, and he is in no danger of self-exaltation.

2 Corinthians 12:8. Why thrice? was not once enough? How long has the Lord been obliged to wait upon thee! Besides, if He lets thee struggle awhile in thy distress, it may wake thee up to more faith, hope and patience at last. A Christian may have wonderful revelations of God, and yet not know much of the secret ways of God with Himself. God often seems severe, when He is really aiming at our highest good. His help consists not so much in ridding us of the evil, as in preserving us under it. Here is the error which makes many prayers seem unanswered. But is it not help when God keeps us from being consumed in the flames?

2 Corinthians 12:9. Let us not be afraid of temptations, but see to it that we lose not our hold upon grace by turning aside to evil. We need never fear to meet trials if we only maintain a vigorous resolution in harmony with the inward action of grace, and thus proceed from one degree of attainment to another. To keep us humble we must never lose sight of our miserable condition; and yet we may go so far in this direction, that we may make shipwreck of hope and despair of God’s love and mercy. The best state we can attain in this world is, a happy assurance by God’s Spirit, that we always have in heaven a gracious God and Father. Our whole safety depends upon this, for then our hearts rest upon God Himself. “Lord, give me Thy self, and it is enough!” Psalms 73:25-26. God’s power seems mightiest when we are conscious of our own wretchedness, and in the midst of such travail of soul it comes to its perfection. The Saviour is obliged frequently to let His people know that they can do nothing of themselves, that thus they may be driven to a reliance upon grace alone. If they truly boast of their infirmities, they will take pleasure not in their sins, but in being humble. Not so with those who make an excuse of their infirmities. They have no desire, and hence they have no ability to do anything. Let them resolve in a proper manner, and they will soon accomplish something by Divine grace; for they will soon cast away all confidence in their own powers, and make such a use of God’s, that they will triumph over all evil, and begin and complete every good work.

2 Corinthians 12:10. The Spirit’s power increases as that of the flesh decreases. As I lose my own power I am clothed with Christ’s. God makes the creature see its own nothingness, that it may become something in Christ to the praise of His glory. God was robbed of His glory when man fell, and it can be restored to Him only when man is shown in his weakness and nothingness, that God may become all in all. Whoever strives in his self-sufficiency to live according to his own pleasure, acknowledges no subjection to God, and will derive no power from him.

2 Corinthians 12:11. It is quite possible to be at the same time something and nothing. All are striving hard to be something, but none like to learn that they are nothing. If thou art something, esteem thyself as nothing, and then thou wilt remain something, and become something more.

Rieger:

2 Corinthians 12:1, etc. Men think at the present day they can gain much attention by some wonderful accounts of the invisible world. But whoever has not given himself up thoroughly to obey the word of the Cross, will find that the word from the third heaven and from Paradise will be only a manacle of unbelief, and a temptation to forsake the faith.

2 Corinthians 12:4. In Divine things it is better to have more in store than is given out.

2 Corinthians 12:6. How much honor a man may gain before God, by not seeking and not accepting of the honor which comes from his fellow men. Indeed, God’s love goes beyond this, and provides against the self-exaltation of His children when they have received what is of real value and pleasure to them.

2 Corinthians 12:7. Mighty grace! which can provide that neither height nor depth can do us an injury!

2 Corinthians 12:9-10. Let nothing overwhelm thee; even in utter weakness be strong, and assured that Christ’s power will accomplish some gracious purpose thereby. In sorrow’s night, when troubles distress thee, His power will defend thee until the sure morning comes.

2 Corinthians 12:14, etc. In preaching the Gospel of the kingdom, we cannot be too careful to avoid not only the reality, but even the slightest appearance of a worldly spirit To aid a soul in escaping from death and in the work of salvation, will be a greater joy to your own soul in the day of the Lord Jesus than to have won a world. Love generally goes downward (i.e., from parents to children), in greater strength than it returns; and what must be said of the great love of that God who is nothing but love and from whom all good comes, as compared with our feeble love!

Heubner:

2 Corinthians 12:1. Boasting, to please ourselves, always lowers us in the esteem of others, and is usually punished by some great humiliation.

2 Corinthians 12:2, etc. Extraordinary revelations have been sometimes given to those who are distinguished for piety to strengthen them for their duties, by a foretaste of future blessedness. No one, however, should long for such revelations, and much less make a parade of them when they are vouchsafed; for they are not needful to a believing and godly life, and in seeking them we run great peril of self-deception, of gross errors, and above all, of spiritual pride. For every spark of pride which accompanies them, our fall will have to be so much the deeper.

2 Corinthians 12:5. When we glory in our infirmities and confess that we can do nothing of ourselves, we give glory to God.

2 Corinthians 12:6. The pious man makes it his aim not to appear better than he is, but to be better than he appears

2 Corinthians 12:7. The example of Paul is most instructive to all who are called to endure severe but unavoidable evils. God does not always appear for their help; for though He is able, He knows it unwise to do so. He knows what is best for us, and He intends to try our faith, to purify our hearts, and to suppress that pride which is the greatest foe to eminence.

2 Corinthians 12:9. The only consolation which can satisfy us in affliction is that which springs from an assurance of the Divine favor, and an unreproving conscience. If we long for nothing else, we can triumph over all things.

2 Corinthians 12:10. The more we let go all confidence in ourselves and leave ourselves entirely and unreservedly in the Lord’s hands, the more strength we shall receive from Him. Such is the true weakness of a Christian. That which is only spurious makes excuses for sin, shrinks from conflicts, and has no desires for growth in grace.

2 Corinthians 12:14. Genuine love says: “I seek not yours, but you;” that which is false seeks for external and adventitious advantages, such as power, honor, rank, etc. A rare thing it is to find those who love us solely for what we are !

2 Corinthians 12:15. The highest degrees of love are seldom fully reciprocated. The Christian must not expect it.

W. F. Besser:

2 Corinthians 12:9. In the weakness of the instrument, the power of him who uses it has an opportunity to show how completely it can triumph over difficulties (2 Corinthians 4:7). “It is God’s way,” says Luther, “to manifest His power and majesty by means of nothingness and feebleness.” Give up praying away thy thorn, O Christian, and take to heart the promise of all-sufficient grace; then shalt thou begin with Paul to boast of thy weakness and shelter thyself in Christ’s own power! Thou mighty God and merciful Saviour, in covenant with the falling leaves and withered grass of human weakness, dost permit us to witness miracles of Almighty power precisely where our power completely fails us! Teach us to understand an arrangement in which Thy glory is in harmony with our joy, and we become satisfied for Thy sake with every cross and with manifold infirmities; since like a magnet they bring down Thy power to us.

2 Corinthians 12:14. If it is indeed reasonable and just that children should support those parents who need their care; surely it is the duty of churches to sustain their spiritual father by a return not only of intercessions in their behalf, at the throne of grace, but of such honor as is required in 1 Corinthians 9:11.

Gerlach:

2 Corinthians 12:9. The greatest peril to a sinful man is pride and self-exaltation. When his powers and his gifts seem greatest, and all that he attempts succeeds and thrives, great will be his temptation to be proud and self-sufficient; and it will be hard to feel continually that all he has is of grace. Though our own hearts and outward appearances may suggest the contrary, never are we better prepared to have God’s power work within us and around us, than when we are enduring outward and inward afflictions.

2 Corinthians 11:19 to 2 Corinthians 12:9. Gospel for Sexag. Sunday. Heubner:—The Apostles as the most eminent of the followers of Jesus. How they—1, preached and were faithful in all their duties, from mere love to the Church, and notwithstanding the envy and opposition of false teachers; 2, suffered the greatest hardships in their work without wavering from their steadfastness; 3, were vouchsafed more exalted revelations; 4, were nevertheless more deeply humbled.—How Christian love suffers—1, First, it can bring us into deep afflictions; 2, God will thus purify us, and assimilate us to Jesus; 3, His grace is an abundant consolation. The Christian’s commendation of himself: 1) Its proper occasion: urgent reasons (2 Corinthians 12:19-21); 2) Its object: excellences which have a spiritual value, labors, sufferings, etc. (2 Co 12:23–33), gracious tokens which God vouchsafes to us; 3) Its limitations (to boast of these things only as gifts of God, and to induce others to trust in him).—Comp. Oetinger, Epistelpredigten, S. 151ff., Kap. xii. 1–9; Albertini, Predigten, S. 49ff.,Kap xii. 1–10; L. Hofacker, S. 199ff., 757ff.; Zeugnisse Evang. Wahrheit, I. S. 399ff., Kap. xii. 9; Hossbach, 2 Samml. S. 45ff.; Schmidt, Vorhalle des Predigtsegens, 1864, S. 384.

[2 Corinthians 12:1-5. The wonderful incident here related, and Paul’s appreciation of it. I. The fact itself. 1. The manner in which he speaks of himself as the subject of this experience (with reluctance and embarrassment 2 Corinthians 12:2-3). 2. The time in which it took place (at the commencement of his religious life, 2 Corinthians 12:2). 3. The place in which it occurred (in a local heaven, 2 Corinthians 12:2; 2 Corinthians 12:4). 4. The state in which the Apostle was (so taken up with heavenly things as to be unconscious of his sentient life, 2 Corinthians 12:2-3). 5. The things he saw and heard (were not thought useful to our knowledge, and so were withheld 2 Corinthians 12:4. II. The Apostle’s estimate of it. 1. He clearly distinguished between an exalted privilege and a gracious attainment. 2. Regarded it as very liable to become a snare. 3. Esteemed his infirmities and afflictions as more useful to him. 4. And yet he evidently highly appreciated what he had here seen and heard.

2 Corinthians 12:7-10. I. Prayer.—1. Its appropriate objects; 2. Its encouragements; 3. The importunity allowed; 4. The limitation finally given. II. Its Answer—1. At the best time, however delayed; 2. With transcendent Wisdom , , 3. With a view to spiritual results alone.]

Footnotes:

2 Corinthians 12:1; 2 Corinthians 12:1.—Rec. and Tisch. have δὴ, others δὲ. The best authorities are in favor of δεῖ. The apparent want of connection gave occasion for changing it into δὴ, δὲ, εἰ—δεῖ (δεῖ was not transferred from 2 Corinthians 11:30). [Authorities now seem evenly balanced between the three. Δὴ has in its favor K. M., most of the cursives, the Arm. vers., and (on such a point) the powerful testimony of all the Greek Fathers; δὲ has D. (1st hand) Sin. 114, Copt. Slav. and Latin versions, and Theophyl.; and δεῖ has B. D. (3d hand) E. F. G. L. Sin. (3d hand), many cursives, the Syr. Arm. Vulg. Ital. verss., and Ambrosiast. But as Tisch. suggests, B. is evidently corrupted here by (εἰ—καὶ), and δὲ and δεῖ were most likely to be derived from δὴ, and as the most difficult reading, and the one most consistent with the ironical style of this section, the latter has much the best internal evidence. It is adopted by Bloomf., de Wette, Reiche, Alford, Wordsworth, Conybeare, and Hodge, while Lachmann, Meyer, Osiander, and Stanley adopt δεῖ].

2 Corinthians 12:1; 2 Corinthians 12:1.—Lachmann has οὐ συμφέρον μὲν, ἐλεύσομαι δὲ (B. δὲ καὶ), on authorities by no means the highest. [B. F. G. Sin. some curss. and verss. (the Copt. Latin Fathers, Damasc. and Vulg., add καὶ with B.)]. The Rec. οὐ συμφέρει μοι· ἐλεύσ. γαρ is the more difficult reading on account of γὰρ, and μὲν—δὲ are evidently corrections to make the sense clearer. [The reading συμφέρον can only be retained with μὲν—δὲ. The variations are very considerable here, but the Rec. is sustained by most of the uncials and cursives, and especially by the verss, (except the Lat. and Vulg.) and the Greek Fathers; and if original it most easily accounts for the variations].

2 Corinthians 12:3; 2 Corinthians 12:3.—Rec. has ἐκτός, but it was probably taken from 2 Corinthians 12:2; for χωρίς is well sustained. [Sin. D. (2d and 3d hand) E. (2d hand) F. G. K. L. M. have ἐκρός; but B. D. (1st hand), E. (1st hand) and Method. have χωρίς].

2 Corinthians 12:3; 2 Corinthians 12:3.—Lachmann leaves out οὐκ οἶδα, but without sufficient authority [only that of the Vatican and Methodius].

2 Corinthians 12:5; 2 Corinthians 12:5.—Lachm. throws out μου, but on insufficient evidence. [The only important MSS. for the omission are B. D. (1st hand), with the Copt. Syr. (both) and Arm. versions; while D. (3d hand) E. F. G. K. L. M. Sin. Vulg. and the Fathers insert it].

2 Corinthians 12:6; 2 Corinthians 12:6.—Τι is wanting in many, and even in some of the better MSS. [B. D. (3d hand) E. (2d hand) F. G. Sin. Vulg.]; but it probably was omitted because it disturbed the sense of the passage, or at least seemed superfluous.

2 Corinthians 12:7; 2 Corinthians 12:7.—Before the first ἵνα Lachmann inserts διὸ after A. B. F. G. [and Sin.], et al. But “it was probably an interpolation, to disconnect this sentence with the preceding.” [The words καὶ τῇ ὑπερβ. τῶν . were united in sense with εἰ μὴ ἐν ταῖς . (2 Corinthians 12:5). making ἐαν—γᾶρ ἐξ ἐμου a parenthesis, and then Διὸ ἵνα μὴ ὑπεραίρωμαι. (2 Corinthians 12:7) began a new sentence. It must be conceded that the documentary evidence for this word is now very strong, and Stanley has adopted it. If it is accepted, the punctuation which is mentioned above must also be adopted, viz.: “I will not glory except in my infirmities, and in the abundance of my revelations. Wherefore, also, lest I should be exalted above measure, there was given,” etc.].

2 Corinthians 12:7; 2 Corinthians 12:7. Some important MSS. [A. D. E. F. G. Sin. 17, and many versions and fathers] leave out ἵνα μὴ ὑπεραίρωμσι, from not recognizing the emphasis which the Apostle meant to give by the repetition of these words (Meyer).

2 Corinthians 12:9; 2 Corinthians 12:9.—Rec. after δύναμις inserts μου, which deserves to be retained, though loft out by important MSS., on account of its necessity to the sense. It might easily have been overlooked after—ρις—μις. [And yet B. D. F. G. Sin. and many verss. and fathers (Tisch., Bengel, Lachm., Stanley) omit it].

2 Corinthians 12:9; 2 Corinthians 12:9.—Τελεῖται is well authenticated [with A. B. D. F. Sin.]. Rec. τελειοῦται was doubtless a gloss [with D. (3d hand) K. L. Sin. (3d hand) Orig. and Athan.].

2 Corinthians 12:10; 2 Corinthians 12:10.—Both B. and Sin. leave out ἐν before στενοχωρίαις].

2 Corinthians 12:11; 2 Corinthians 12:11.—Rec. has καυχώμενος after ἄφρων; an exegetical addition, and feebly sustained [with only L., many cursives, the Goth, and Syr. (both) versions, and some Greek Fathers].

2 Corinthians 12:12; 2 Corinthians 12:12.—Rec. has ἐν before σημείοις, but according to the preponderance of evidence [A. B. D. F. Sin., et al.] it should be erased; it was a repetition from the preceding clause.

2 Corinthians 12:13; 2 Corinthians 12:13.—Instead of ἡττήθητε Lachm. has ἡσσώθῃτε; but the latter was evidently an error of the transcribers. [B. D. Sin. 17 (Alford) have ἡσσωθ. Tisch. with A. D. (2d and 3d hand) K. L. and the Greek Fathers have ἡττήθ.].

2 Corinthians 12:14; 2 Corinthians 12:14.—We are not certain about τοῦτο. [Rec. omits it, but it is given in A. B. F. G. Sin. Ital. Vulg. Goth. Syr. Arm. Æth. and most of the fathers]. It has different positions, being sometimes before, and sometimes after τρίτον. Perhaps taken from 2 Corinthians 13:1.

2 Corinthians 12:14; 2 Corinthians 12:14.—Rec. after καταναρκ, has ὑμῶν. Some MSS. have ὑμᾶς. Neither were original [A. B. Sin., et al. omit both].

2 Corinthians 12:15; 2 Corinthians 12:15.—εἰ καὶ. A. B. F. G. [Sin.] have only εἰ, and a number of MSS. leave both wordb entirely out. Exeget. explanations.

[18][Wordsworth still thinks that μοι is emphatic in contrast with ὀπτασίας κ. ἀποκαλύψεις, and with κυρίου (hence each of these words are contrasted in position at the end of their respective sentences): to glory is not proper or expddient for one like me; I will new, therefore; proceed to such things as have been vouchsafed to me by the Lord, Alford thinks that Paul did actually desist from all boasting here, and that he now proceeds to give a vision and revelation which was intended to show the folly of it (γὰρ); Stanley, that Paul intended here to cease all boasting of himself, but that the necessities of his position repeatedly overcame his reluctance, and betrayed him into boasting again, though more and more of things which really humbled him. Dr. Hodge also thinks that Paul did actually desist at this point, and came to such things as involved no real boasting, but rather a personal humiliation and a recital of God’s goodness. Indeed, most of the interpretations, though resting upon different readings and explanations of the words and connection, come finally to the same thought in only different shades. There are contrasted, what was necessary to his position with what was proper and useful to his person; what related to him as a carnal man with what related to his infirmities as a spiritual man; and what was done by him with what was done by the Lord. He therefore says: I know that boasting of myself is not calculated to benefit me in the higher sense as an individual, but I am compelled by the circumstances in which you Corinthians are, to do something which would ordinarily be so called,—and yet what I have to say will only be humiliating to me as a man, while it tells what wonderful things God has done for me, and proves conclusively my claims as one of the highest Apostles. W. F. Besser: “The ‘high Apostles’ at Corinth could lay no claim to such things as had been mentioned in the preceding chapter, but they spoke much of their numerous visions and revelations. What had the Apostle to set off against those? He would have told the truth if he had spoken of many of his glorious revelations, but he would allude only to one, of which he had hitherto been silent, at least among the Corinthians: and of this he would speak only in a way to show the evident difference between a modest discourse and a carnal prating of personal distinctions. He had experienced a holy joy when his faith in the invisible realities of the Christian hope had been strengthened by a holy trance, but he was not inclined to describe in a wordy style what he had then seen and heard. He was rather disposed to bring forward an humbling incident connected with it, in which he became painfully conscious of his sinful infirmity,—a thorn in the flesh, an angel of Satan, and an earnest prayer,—when he had been favored with a promise of inexpressible consolation, and was led to boast that when he was weak in himself, he was strong in the Lord.” He thus shows that a spiritual grace obtained even by a painful experience was of far greater vaiue than the most exalted outward privilege].

[19][And yet J. E. C. Schmidt, of Giessen, in his Clavis on the N. T., has maintained this opinion with no little degree of plausibility. His main points are, the repeated declaration of the Apostle that he was not boasting of himself, his use of the third person, the strong contrast between τοῦ τοιούτον and ἐμαυτοῦ in 2 Corinthians 12:5, and his assertion that he would spare his readers (φείδομαι) this very thing. According to him, the course of thought is: ‘It is not expedient for me to boast: I will come to those visions and revelations of which my opponents make so much. I am reminded of a man whom I knew long since (and who perhaps was claimed by Paul’s opponents to be of their party). Of such a thing (neuter), or of such a man (masculine), I am prepared to boast, as of an incident or person in which is shown the extent of the grace I preach. I also might personally boast of such things without vanity, for I should say the truth,—but of myself I will not, except of my infirmities, lest any one should think of me above what he sees me to be. And lest I should be exalted above measure for these revelations (from the detail of which I forbear), there was given to me a thorn,’ etc. This view would avoid the appearance of inconsistency in the Apostle i.e., of refusing to boast, and yet appearing continually to do so, but it seems altogether too constrained, especially in its explanation of ὑπὲρ τ. τοιούτον καυχ. in 2 Corinthians 12:5].

[20][“We may conceive the soul to receive a supernatural vision, either while it remaineth still in the body, or by its departing from the body for a season. The latter may not be called a death, because either the sensitive, or at least the vegetative, soul or faculty continues meanwhile in the body, either naturally or miraculously vivificating it. Again, we may conceive a man’s spirit remaining in the body, to receive such visions, two several ways: either by a real rapture of both body and spirit into that place, whereof the soul or spirit hath such a vision; or else by a representation of such things really absent to the spirit, neither the body nor it changing at all their place; yet, as in dreams, the spirit apprehending a change of place, and a presence of the whole person to those persons and things, which it spiritually and supernaturally, and by the power of God, not by any operation of nature or fancy, beholds. This last, if not only, most commonly happeneth; and thus St. Paul’s rapture will be most agreeable with other Scripture-rapts. Revelation 1:10; Revelation 17:3; Revelation 21:10; Acts 12:11; Ezekiel 8:3.”—Old Paraphrase and Annott. on Paul’s Epistles, published by the Oxford Angl. Society. “The infusion of spiritual influences suspends at the same time the usual succession of ideas and the ordinary current of thought; the power of imagination alone remaining active, and the sense of spiritual vision being excited to the highest degree of intensity.”—Lee on Inspiration.]

[21][The reasons for this opinion are not given by our author, and seem to us not quite sufficient. The apparent repetition in the text is partially accounted for by the intervention of the parenthesis, and partially by the peculiarly abrupt and animated style which the recollection of the event occasioned. If the transaction mentioned in 2 Corinthians 12:3-4 was different from that mentioned in 2 Corinthians 12:2, then Paradise must be a different place from the third heaven, as is contended for by Grotius and many Lutheran and English divines. The question then must arise, why was the visit to Paradise mentioned last, as if this were a higher sphere than that of the third heaven? If Paradise is (as all agree, and as Luke 23:43 and Revelation 2:7, compel us to believe), the abode of departed saints immediately after death, and if the third heaven is a different locality (as usually held by those who make this distinction, the abode of saints after the resurrection), we naturally inquire why was the visit to the lower sphere made after that to the higher? If we answer with Bp. Taylor (Fun. Serm. on Sir. G. Dalston Vol. II. p. 135), Bp. Bull (Works, Vol. I. Ser. III. p. 89), and Wordsworth, that “the vision of the heavenly glory would not have satisfied Paul since it was to be attained only at the distant period of the resurrection, and hence that he was shown something to be entered upon immediately after death;” not to insist on the fact that the prospect of the Parousia was not so very distant to the mind of Paul, we may suggest that this only shows that he needed to see Paradise at some time, but not necessarily to see it last. The view of Augustine, Thomas, Estius and Calvin seems to us more strictly conformed to our passage, viz., that the third heaven included the whole world of the blessed, (the Father’s house with its many mansions) in some part (not necessarily some more interior part) of which was Paradise where the ascended Jesus abides with His saints. (Bengel: some inner recess in the third heaven, rather than the third heaven itself; an opinion very generally held by the ancients. See Greg. Obs. c. 18.) Whether the latter is different from the home which the saints are to possess after the resurrection is not determined by 2 Corinthians 12:4, in which we recognize simply a more specific designation of the place than in 2 Corinthians 12:2.]