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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - 2 Corinthians 10:13 - 10:13
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Of things without measure (εἰς τὰ ἄμετρα)
Of things is wrong; the translators failing to see that the article forms, with the following word, an adverbial phrase. Rev., correctly, glory beyond our measure.
Rule (κανόνος)
Used by Paul only. Originally, a straight rod or ruler. Hence a carpenter's rule. Metaphorically, that which measures or determines anything, in morals, art, or language. The Alexandrian grammarians spoke of the classic Greek authors collectively as the canon or standard of the pure language. In later Greek it was used to denote a fixed tax. In christian literature it came to signify the standard of faith or of christian teaching; the creed; the rule of Church discipline, and the authorized collection of sacred writings. Hence canon of Scripture.
To understand this expression, it is to be remembered that Paul regarded his ministry as specially to the Gentiles, and that he habitually refused to establish himself permanently where any former Christian teacher had preached. The Jewish teachers at Corinth had invaded his sphere as the apostle to the Gentiles, and had also occupied the ground which he had won for himself by his successful labors among the Corinthians, as they did also at Antioch and in Galatia. He says here, therefore, that his boasting of his apostolic labors is not without measure, like that of those Jewish teachers who establish themselves everywhere, but is confined to the sphere appointed for him, of which Corinth, thus far, was the extreme limit. Hence the measure of the rule is the measure defined by the line which God has drawn. The image is that of surveying a district, so as to assign to different persons their different parcels of ground. I see no good reason for Rev. province. The measure is given by God's measuring-line: “Which God hath apportioned to us as a measure;” and his boasting extends only to this limit.
To reach even unto you
Corinth being thus far the extreme limit of the field measured out for him.