{"collection":"Bible & Christianity","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/bib/cmt/vws/co2011.htm","path":"bib/cmt/vws/co2011.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/bib/cmt/vws/co2011.htm","text":"Vincent's Word Studies, by Marvin R. Vincent, [1886]\nFolly\nAs my boasting may seem to you. Ironically spoken of that legitimate self-vindication demanded by the circumstances. Rev., foolishness.\nBear with me (\u1f00\u03bd\u03ad\u03c7\u03b5\u03c3\u03b8\u03b5)\nSome render as indicative: ye do bear with me.\nI am jealous (\u03b6\u03b7\u03bb\u1ff6)\nThe translation is correct. The word is appropriate to the image which follows, in which Paul represents himself as the marriage-friend who has betrothed the bride to the bridegroom, and consequently shares the bridegroom's jealousy of his bride (see on Joh 3:29). Compare the Old-Testament passages in which God is represented as the spouse of His people: Isa 54:5; Isa 62:5; Jer 3:1; Eze 16:8; Hos 2:18, Hos 2:19. For the different senses of the word, see on envying, Jam 3:14. Theodoret's comment on the passage is: \"I was your wooer for your husband, and the mediator of your marriage; through me you received the bridegroom's gifts; wherefore I am now affected with jealousy.\"\nI have espoused (\u1f21\u03c1\u03bc\u03bf\u03c3\u03ac\u03bc\u03b7\u03bd)\nOnly here in the New Testament. Lit., have fitted together. Used in the classics of carpenter's or joiner's work; of arranging music, tuning instruments, and fitting clothes or armor. As here, of betrothing or taking to wife. The Septuagint usage is substantially the same.\nPresent\nCompare Eph 5:27.\nThe serpent\nPaul's only allusion to the story of the serpent in Eden.\nEve\nIn accordance with the representation of the Church as the bride.\nSimplicity that is in Christ\nRev. adds, and the purity, following Westcott and Hort's text. Simplicity, single-hearted loyalty. In Christ; better, as Rev., towards (\u03b5\u1f30\u03c2).\nAnother Jesus - another Spirit (\u1f04\u03bb\u03bb\u03bf\u03bd - \u1f15\u03c4\u03b5\u03c1\u03bf\u03bd)\nRev., another Jesus, a different Spirit. See on Mat 6:24. Another denies the identity; a different denies the similarity of nature. It is the difference of \"individuality and kind\" (Alford). See on Gal 1:6, Gal 1:7.\nYe might well bear (\u03ba\u03b1\u03bb\u1ff6\u03c2 \u1f20\u03bd\u03b5\u03af\u03c7\u03b5\u03c3\u03b8\u03b5)\nFollowing the reading which makes the verb in the imperfect tense, putting the matter as a supposed case. The Rev. follows the reading \u1f00\u03bd\u03b5\u03c7\u03ad\u03c3\u03b8\u03b5, present tense, and puts it as a fact: ye do well to bear. Lit., ye endure them finely. The expression is ironical. You gladly endure these false teachers, why do you not endure me?\nThe very chiefest apostles (\u03c4\u1ff6\u03bd \u1f51\u03c0\u03b5\u03c1\u03bb\u03af\u03b1\u03bd \u1f00\u03c0\u03bf\u03c3\u03c4\u03cc\u03bb\u03c9\u03bd) Lit., those who are preeminently apostles. Not referring to the genuine apostles, but ironically to the false teachers, the false apostles of Co2 11:13. Compare Co2 12:11. Farrar renders the extra-super apostles.\nRude (\u1f30\u03b4\u03af\u03c9\u03c4\u03b7\u03c2)\nSee on Co1 14:16.\nHave been made manifest (\u03c6\u03b1\u03bd\u03b5\u03c1\u03c9\u03b8\u03ad\u03bd\u03c4\u03b5\u03c2)\nThe correct reading is \u03c6\u03b1\u03bd\u03b5\u03c1\u03ce\u03c3\u03b1\u03bd\u03c4\u03b5\u03c2, active voice, we have made it manifest.\nAbasing myself\nBy working at his trade.\nPreached the Gospel - freely (\u03b4\u03c9\u03c1\u03b5\u1f70\u03bd)\nGratuitously. Rev., for nought, is not an improvement, but is quite as ambiguous as freely. Without charge would be better. Paul's very self-denial in this matter had been construed to his injury by his opponents, as indicating his want of confidence in the Corinthian Church, and his making gain for himself under the guise of disinterestedness. It was also urged that a real apostle would not thus relinquish his right to claim subsistence from the Church. Hence his question, Did I commit a sin, etc.?\nI robbed (\u1f10\u03c3\u03cd\u03bb\u03b7\u03c3\u03b1)\nOnly here in the New Testament, though it appears in the verb \u1f31\u03b5\u03c1\u03bf\u03c3\u03c5\u03bb\u03ad\u03c9 to commit sacrilege, Rom 2:22, and in \u1f31\u03b5\u03c1\u03bf\u03c3\u03cd\u03bb\u03bf\u03b9 robbers of churches, Act 19:37. Originally to strip off, as arms from a slain foe, and thence, generally, to rob, plunder, with the accompanying notion of violence. Paul thus strongly expresses the fact that he had accepted from other churches more than their share, that he might not draw on the Corinthians.\nWages (\u1f40\u03c8\u03ce\u03bd\u03b9\u03bf\u03bd)\nSee on Rom 6:23.\nI was chargeable (\u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u03b5\u03bd\u03ac\u03c1\u03ba\u03b7\u03c3\u03b1)\nOnly in this epistle. From \u03bd\u03ac\u03c1\u03ba\u03b7 numbness, deadness; also a torpedo or gymnotus, which benumbs whatever touches it. Compare Homer: \"His hand grew stiff at the wrist\" (\"Iliad,\" viii., 328). Meno says to Socrates: \"You seem to me both in your appearance and in your power over others, to be very like the flat torpedo-fish (\u03bd\u03ac\u03c1\u03ba\u1fc3), who torpifies (\u03bd\u03b1\u03c1\u03ba\u1fb6\u03bd \u03c0\u03bf\u03b9\u03b5\u1fd6) those who come near him with the touch, as you have now torpified (\u03bd\u03b1\u03c1\u03ba\u1fb6\u03bd) me, I think\" (Plato, \"Meno,\" 80). The compound verb used here occurs in Hippocrates in the sense of growing quite stiff. The simple verb occurs in the Sept., Gen 32:25, Gen 32:32, of Jacob's thigh, which was put out of joint and shrank. Compare Job 33:19. According to the etymology of the word, Paul would say that he did not benumb the Corinthians by his demand for pecuniary aid. Rev., rather mildly, I was not a burden.\nNo man shall stop me of this boasting (\u1f21 \u03ba\u03b1\u03cd\u03c7\u03b7\u03c3\u03b9\u03c2 \u03b1\u1f55\u03c4\u03b7 \u03bf\u1f50 \u03c6\u03c1\u03b1\u03b3\u03ae\u03c3\u03b5\u03c4\u03b1\u03b9 \u03b5\u1f30\u03c2 \u1f10\u03bc\u1f72)\nLit., this boasting shall not be blocked up as regards me. The boasting is that of preaching gratuitously. For the verb, compare Rom 3:19; Heb 11:33.\nI will do\nWill continue to do; refuse to receive pay.\nCut off (\u1f10\u03ba\u03ba\u03cc\u03c8\u03c9)\nLit., cut out. See on Luk 13:7, and compare Rom 11:24.\nOccasion (\u03c4\u1f74\u03bd \u1f00\u03c6\u03bf\u03c1\u03bc\u1f74\u03bd)\nThe force of the article must be carefully noted; the particular occasion of fault-finding which concerned his pecuniary relations with the Corinthians. His refusal to receive pay cut out from among other causes of complaint this one.\nThey may be found even as we\nI can find no satisfactory explanation of this clause, and will not attempt to add to the hopeless muddle of the commentators. It is evident that the false teachers had sought occasion for glorifying themselves in comparison with Paul; that they consequently caught eagerly at every pretext for disparaging him; and that this disparagement was in some way connected with Paul's refusal to receive compensation from the Corinthians. Further, that Paul's way of counteracting their attempts was by persisting in this refusal. The intimation in the last clause is apparently to the effect that by this course he will not only remove the occasion for attack, but that the result will show both his opponents and himself in their true light. Compare find and be found, Co2 12:20.\nTransforming themselves (\u03bc\u03b5\u03c4\u03b1\u03c3\u03c7\u03b7\u03bc\u03b1\u03c4\u03b9\u03b6\u03cc\u03bc\u03b5\u03bd\u03bf\u03b9)\nRev., better, fashioning, thus preserving the distinctive force of \u03c3\u03c7\u1fc6\u03bc\u03b1 outward fashion, which forms part of the compound verb. See on Mat 17:2; see on Co1 4:6.\nSatan\nSee on Luk 10:18. The rabbinical writings represent the devil rather as the enemy of man than of God or of good. They use none of the New-Testament names for the Evil One except Satan, and contain no mention of a kingdom of Satan. Edersheim says: \"Instead of the personified principle of evil to which there is response in us - we have only a clumsy and often a stupid hater.\" It is also to be observed that in the Septuagint the usage is limited to the enemy of man, as is that of \u03b4\u03b9\u03ac\u03b2\u03bf\u03bb\u03bf\u03c2 devil by which Satan is translated. See Ch1 21:1; Est 7:4; Est 8:1; Psa 108:1-13 :(109) Psa 108:5; Job 1:6; Zac 3:1, Zac 3:2.\nConfidence (\u1f51\u03c0\u03bf\u03c3\u03c4\u03ac\u03c3\u03b5\u03b9)\nSee on Co2 9:4.\nBringeth you into bondage (\u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1\u03b4\u03bf\u03c5\u03bb\u03bf\u1fd6)\nOnly here and Gal 2:4, where it is used of the efforts of the Jewish party to bring the christian Church under the ceremonial law. Compare Gal 5:1.\nDevour (\u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u03b5\u03c3\u03b8\u03af\u03b5\u03b9)\nYour property. Compare Mat 23:14.\nTake (\u03bb\u03b1\u03bc\u03b2\u03ac\u03bd\u03b5\u03b9)\nA.V. supplies of you, evidently with reference to property, which has already been touched upon in devour. The meaning is to take as a prey, as Luk 5:5.\nExalteth himself (\u1f10\u03c0\u03b1\u03af\u03c1\u03b5\u03c4\u03b1\u03b9)\nAs Co2 10:5. It is noticeable that these are the only two instances out of nineteen in the New Testament where the word is used figuratively.\nSmite you on the face\nThe climax of insult. Compare Mat 5:39; Luk 22:64; Act 23:2. Also the injunction to a bishop not to be a striker, Ti1 3:3; Tit 1:7. Stanley notes the decree of the Council of Braga, a.d. 675, that no bishop, at his will and pleasure, shall strike his clergy.\nAs concerning reproach (\u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u1f70 \u1f00\u03c4\u03b9\u03bc\u03af\u03b1\u03bd)\nBetter, Rev., by way of disparagement. Intensely ironical. Yes, you have borne with these enslavers and devourers and smiters. I could never ask you to extend such toleration to me. I speak as one without position or authority, having shown myself weak as you know.\nI speak foolishly (\u1f10\u03bd \u1f00\u03c6\u03c1\u03bf\u03c3\u03cd\u03bd\u1fc3)\nRev., in foolishness. My pretensions are equal to theirs, but, of course, it is folly to advance them, and they amount to nothing. Yet, even speaking in this foolish way, I possess every qualification on which they plume themselves.\nHebrews\nSee on Act 6:1.\nIsraelites\nSee on Act 3:12, and compare Phi 3:5, and the phrase Israel of God, Gal 6:16, and an Israelite indeed, Joh 1:48.\nSeed of Abraham\nCompare Mat 3:9; Joh 8:33; Rom 9:7; Rom 11:1; Gal 3:16; Heb 2:16. The three names are arranged climactically, Hebrews pointing to the nationality; Israelites to the special relation to God's covenant; seed of Abraham to the messianic privilege. Compare with the whole, Phi 3:4, Phi 3:5.\nMinisters of Christ\nReferring to his opponents' claim to have a closer connection with Christ than he had. See the note on Co1 1:12.\nAs a fool (\u03c0\u03b1\u03c1\u03b1\u03c6\u03c1\u03bf\u03bd\u1ff6\u03bd)\nOnly here in the New Testament. See the kindred \u03c0\u03b1\u03c1\u03b1\u03c6\u03c1\u03bf\u03bd\u03af\u03b1 madness, Pe2 2:16. Lit., being beside myself Rev., as one beside myself. This expression is stronger than that in Co2 11:21, because the statement which it characterizes is stronger. Up to this point Paul has been asserting equality with the other teachers. Now he asserts superiority \"I more;\" and ironically characterizes this statement from their stand-point as madness.\nMore abundant (\u03c0\u03b5\u03c1\u03b9\u03c3\u03c3\u03bf\u03c4\u03ad\u03c1\u03c9\u03c2)\nLit., more abundantly, as Rev.\nStripes above measure (\u1f51\u03c0\u03b5\u03c1\u03b2\u03b1\u03bb\u03bb\u03cc\u03bd\u03c4\u03c9\u03c2)\nThis peculiar form of suffering is emphasized by details. He specifies three Roman scourgings, and five at the hands of the Jews. Of the former, only one is recorded, that at Philippi (Act 16:22, Act 16:23. See on Act 22:25), and none of the latter. The Jewish scourge consisted of two thongs made of calf's or ass's skin, passing through a hole in a handle. Thirteen blows were inflicted on the breast, thirteen on the right, and thirteen on the left shoulder. The law in Deu 25:3 permitted forty blows, but only thirty-nine were given, in order to avoid a possible miscount. During the punishment the chief judge read aloud Deu 28:58, Deu 28:59; Deu 29:9; Psalm 68:38, 39. The possibility of death under the infliction was contemplated in the provision which exonerated the executioner unless he should exceed the legal number of blows. Paul escaped Roman scourging at Jerusalem on the ground of his Roman citizenship. It is not related that he and Silas urged this privilege at Philippi until after the scourging. It is evident from the narrative that they were not allowed a formal hearing before the magistrates; and, if they asserted their citizenship, it may have been that their voices were drowned by the mob. That this plea did not always avail appears from the case cited by Cicero against Verres, that he scourged a Roman citizen in spite of his continued protest under the scourge, \"I am a Roman citizen\" (see on Act 16:37), and from well-known instances of the scourging of even senators under the Empire.\nPrisons\nAt Philippi, and other places not recorded.\nDeaths\nPerils of death, as at Damascus, Antioch in Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra, Thessalonica, Beroea.\nBeaten with rods\nRoman scourgings.\nStoned\nAt Lystra, Act 14:19.\nThrice I suffered shipwreck\nThe shipwreck at Malta, being later, is, of course, not referred to; so that no one of these three is on record.\nA night and a day (\u03bd\u03c5\u03c7\u03b8\u03ae\u03bc\u03b5\u03c1\u03bf\u03bd)\nA compound term occurring only here in the New Testament, and rarely in later Greek.\nHave I been in the deep (\u1f10\u03bd \u03c4\u1ff7 \u03b2\u03c5\u03b8\u1ff7 \u03c0\u03b5\u03c0\u03bf\u03af\u03b7\u03ba\u03b1)\nLit., I have made (spent) a night and a day in the deep. For a similar use of \u03c0\u03bf\u03b9\u03ad\u03c9 to make, see Act 15:33; Act 18:23; Act 20:3; Jam 4:13. \u03b2\u03c5\u03b8\u03cc\u03c2 bottom or depth occurs only here. Of the event itself there is no record.\nPerils of rivers\nFrom the sudden swelling of mountain streams or flooding of dry water-courses. \"The rivers of Asia Minor, like all the rivers in the Levant, are liable to violent and sudden changes, and no district in Asia Minor is more singularly characterized by its water-floods than the mountainous tract of Pisidia, where rivers burst out at the bases of huge cliffs, or dash down wildly through narrow ravines\" (Conybeare and Howson, i., ch. 6).\nRobbers\nThe tribes inhabiting the mountains between the table-land of Asia Minor and the coast were notorious for robbery. Paul may have encountered such on his journey to the Pisidian Antioch, Act 13:14.\nMine own countrymen\nConspiracies of the Jews at Damascus, Lystra, Thessalonica, Beroea, etc.\nThe Gentiles\nAs at Philippi and Ephesus.\nFalse brethren\nJudaizing Christians, as Gal 2:4.\nWatchings\nSee on Co2 6:5.\nThose things that are without (\u03c4\u1ff6\u03bd \u03c0\u03b1\u03c1\u03b5\u03ba\u03c4\u1f78\u03c2)\nSome explain, external calamities; others, the things which are left out in the enumeration, as Mat 5:32; Act 26:29. Better, the latter, so that the literal meaning is, apart from the things which are beside and outside my enumeration: or, as Alford, not to mention those which are beside these. The word does not occur in classical Greek, and no instance of its usage in the former sense occurs in the New Testament or in the Septuagint. See Rev., margin.\nThat which cometh upon me (\u1f10\u03c0\u03b9\u03c3\u03cd\u03c3\u03c4\u03b1\u03c3\u03b9\u03c2)\nLit., a gathering together against. Both here and Act 24:12, the best texts read \u1f10\u03c0\u03af\u03c3\u03c4\u03b1\u03c3\u03b9\u03c2 onset. Rev., that which presseth upon me. \"The crowd of cares.\"\nFarrar remarks upon Co2 11:23-28, that it is \"the most marvelous record ever written of any biography; a fragment beside which the most imperiled lives of the most suffering saints shrink into insignificance, and which shows us how fractional at the best is our knowledge of the details of St. Paul's life.\" Eleven of the occurrences mentioned here are not alluded to in Acts.\nBurn\nWith sorrow over the stumbling or with indignation over the cause. This and Co1 7:9 are the only instances in which the word is used figuratively.\nThe things which concern mine infirmities (\u03c4\u1f70 \u03c4\u1fc6\u03c2 \u1f00\u03c3\u03b8\u03b5\u03bd\u03b5\u03af\u03b1\u03c2 \u03bc\u03bf\u1fe6)\nHe will be attested as a true apostle by the sufferings which show his weakness, which make him contemptible in his adversaries' eyes, and not by the strength of which his opponents boast.\nBlessed, etc.\nSee on Rom 9:5, and compare Rom 1:25.\nThe governor (\u1f10\u03b8\u03bd\u03ac\u03c1\u03c7\u03b7\u03c2)\nOnly here in the New Testament. A governor ruling in the name of a king: a prefect.\nAretas\nOr Hareth, the father-in-law of Herod Antipas. Hs capital was the rock-city of Petra, the metropolis of Arabia Petraea. Herod's unfaithfulness to his daughter brought on a quarrel, in which Herod's army was defeated, to the great delight of the Jews. The further prosecution of the war by Roman troops was arrested by the death of Tiberius, and it is supposed that Caligula assigned Damascus as a free gift to Aretas.\nKept with a garrison (\u1f10\u03c6\u03c1\u03bf\u03cd\u03c1\u03b5\u03b9)\nImperfect tense, was maintaining a constant watch. Compare Act 9:24 : They watched the gates day and night.\nTo apprehend (\u03c0\u03b9\u03ac\u03c3\u03b1\u03b9)\nSee on Act 3:7.\nThrough a window (\u03b4\u03b9\u1f70 \u03b8\u03c5\u03c1\u03af\u03b4\u03bf\u03c2)\nOnly here and Act 20:9. Diminutive of \u03b8\u03cd\u03c1\u03b1 a door. The same expression is used in Sept., Jos 2:15, of the escape of the spies from Jericho, and Sa1 19:12, of David's escape from Saul by the aid of Michal.\nBasket (\u03c3\u03b1\u03c1\u03b3\u03ac\u03bd\u1fc3)\nLit., braided work; a rope-basket or hamper. Luke, in his narrative of the incident, uses \u03c3\u03c0\u03c5\u03c1\u03af\u03c2, for which see on Mat 14:20.","title":"Vincent's Word Studies: 2 Corinthians: 2 Corinthians Chapter 11","type":"page"}