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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadJohn Bengel Commentary - 2 Corinthians 3:3 - 3:3
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2Co 3:3. Φανερούμενοι, manifested) construed with ὑμεῖς, ye, 2Co 3:2. The reason assigned [aetiologia, end.] why this epistle may be read.-Χριστοῦ-ὑφʼ ἡμῶν, of Christ-by us) This explains the word our, 2Co 3:2. Christ is the author of the epistle.-διακονηθεῖσα) The verb διακονέω, has often the accusative of the thing, 2Co 8:19-20; 2Ti 1:18; 1Pe 1:12; 1Pe 4:10. So Paeanius, τὴν μάχην διακονούμενος, directing the battle, b. 7, Metaphr. Eutr. The apostles, as ministers, διηκόνουν, presented the epistle. Christ, by their instrumentality, brought spiritual light to bear on the tablets of the hearts of the Corinthians, as a scribe applies ink to paper. Not merely ink, but parchment or paper and a pen are necessary for writing a letter; but Paul mentions ink without paper and a pen, and it is therefore a synecdoche [one material of writing put for all. end.] Τὸ μέλαν does not exactly mean ink, but any black substance, for example, even charcoal, by which an inscription may be made upon stone. The mode of writing of every kind, which is done by ink and a pen, is the same as that of the Decalogue, which was engraved on tables of stone. Letters were engraved on stone, as a dark letter is written on paper. The hearts of the Corinthians are here intended; for Paul was as it were the style or pen.-οὐ μέλανι, not with ink) A synecdoche [ink for any means of writing]; for the tables in the hands of Moses, divinely inscribed without ink, were at least material substances.-ζῶντος, of the living) comp. 2Co 3:6-7.-λιθίναις, of stone) 2Co 3:7.-πλαξὶ καρδίας σαρκίναις, in fleshly tables of the heart) Tables of the heart are a genus; fleshly tables, a species; for every heart is not of flesh.