Vincent Word Studies - 2 Corinthians 11:9 - 11:9

Online Resource Library

Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com

Vincent Word Studies - 2 Corinthians 11:9 - 11:9


(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)

This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

I was chargeable (κατενάρκησα)

Only in this epistle. From νάρκη 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 (νάρκῃ), who torpifies (ναρκᾶν ποιεῖ) those who come near him with the touch, as you have now torpified (ναρκᾶν) 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.