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1Th_2:6. Nor have the apostle and his associates had to do in the publication of the gospel with external honour and distinction. Comp. Joh_5:41; Joh_5:44.
ζητοῦντες ] sc. ἐγενήθημεν .
ἐξ ἀνθρώπων ] emphatic. Oecumenius: καλῶς δὲ ἐξ ἀνθρώπων · τὴν γὰρ ἐκ Θεοῦ (sc. δόξαν ) καὶ ἐζήτουν καὶ ἐλάμβανον .
According to Schott and Bloomfield, the preposition ἐκ refers to the direct and ἀπό to the indirect origin,—a distinction in our passage impossible, as ἐξ ἀνθρώπων is the general expression which is by οὔτε … οὔτε divided into subordinate members, or specialized. See Winer, p. 365 [E. T. 512].[34]
A new sentence is not to be begun with δυνάμενοι , so that either, with Flatt, ἮΜΕΝ would have to be supplied; or, with Calvin, Koppe, and others, ΔΥΝΆΜΕΝΟΙ Κ . Τ . Λ . would have to be considered as the protasis, and ἈΛΛʼ ἘΓΕΝΉΘΗΜΕΝ (1Th_2:7) as the apodosis belonging to it; or, with Hofmann, ἈΛΛʼ ἘΓΕΝΉΘΗΜΕΝ ἬΠΙΟΙ ἘΝ ΜΈΣῼ ὙΜῶΝ as an exclamatory interruption of the discourse in its progress, distinctions chiefly occasioned by the misunderstanding of ἘΝ ΒΆΡΕΙ . But ΔΥΝΆΜΕΝΟΙ is subordinate to ζητοῦντες (sc. ἐγενήθημεν ) and limits it, on account of which it is inappropriate to enclose δυνάμενοι … ἀπόστολοι , with Schöttgen and Griesbach, in a parenthesis. The meaning is: Also in our entrance to you our motive was not in anywise to be honoured or distinguished by men, although we certainly might have demanded external honour. Theodoret, Musculus, Camerarius, Estius, Beza, Grotius, Calixtus, Calovius, Clericus, Turretin, Whitby, Baumgarten, Koppe, Flatt, Ewald, Hofmann, and others take ἐν βάρει εἶναι in the sense of being burdensome (sc. by a demand of maintenance from the church), and thus equivalent to ἐπιβαρεῖν (1Th_2:9; 2Th_3:8; and ΚΑΤΑΒΑΡΕῖΝ , 2Co_12:16; comp. ἈΒΑΡῆ ἘΜΑΥΤῸΝ ἘΤΉΡΗΣΑ , 2Co_11:9); but this is an arbitrary assumption from 1Th_2:9—arbitrary, because ΖΗΤΟῦΝΤΕς ΔΌΞΑΝ and ἘΝ ΒΆΡΕΙ ΕἾΝΑΙ must correspond; but in the first half of 1Th_2:6 Paul’s custom of not suffering himself to be supported by the church, but gaining his maintenance by working with his own hands, is not indicated by a single syllable. On account of this correspondence of ἘΝ ΒΆΡΕΙ with ΔΌΞΑΝ , the explanation of Lipsius (Stud. u. Krit. 1854, 4, p. 912) is wholly untenable: “As the apostles of Christ we did not at all need glory among men, but were rather in a position to endure trouble and burden,—that is, to endure with equanimity persecutions and trials of all kinds which men inflict upon us,” not to mention that the idea of “not at all needing,” and the emphatic “rather,” are first arbitrarily interpolated. Heinsius, after the example of Piscator (who, however, wavers), understands ἐν βάρει εἶναι of severitas apostolica: Se igitur, ἐν βάρει εἶναι δυνάμενον , quum severitatem exercere apostolicam posset, lenem fuisse, eo fere modo, quo ἘΝ ῬΆΒΔῼ ἘΛΘΕῖΝ ΚΑῚ ἘΝ ἈΓΆΠῌ ΠΝΕΎΜΑΤΊ ΤΕ ΠΡΑΰΤΗΤΟς , 1Co_4:21, opponit. But thus ἘΝ ΒΆΡΕΙ and ἬΠΙΟΙ will be erroneously opposed to each other. (See on 1Th_2:7.) ΒΆΡΟς , heaviness, weight, occurs even among classical writers, as the Latin gravitas, in the sense of distinction, dignity (see Wesseling, ad Diodor. Sicul. IV. 61). ἐν βάρει εἶναι accordingly means to be of weight, to be of importance, i.e. to be deserving of outward honour and distinction. Thus Chrysostom, Oecumenius and Theophylact (both, however, undecidedly), Ambrosiaster, Erasmus, Calvin, Hunnius, Wolf, Moldenhauer, Pelt, Schott, Olshausen, de Wette, Koch, Bisping, Alford, Auberlen, and others.
Paul annexes the justification of such an ἐν βάρει εἶναι by the words Ὡς ΧΡΙΣΤΟῦ ἈΠΌΣΤΟΛΟΙ ] i.e. not sicut apostoli alii faciunt (1Co_9:6; Grotius), but in virtue of our character as the apostles of Christ. ἀπόστολοι is, however, to be used in its wider sense, as Paul not only speaks of himself, but also of Silvanus and Timotheus, as in Act_14:14.
[34] If a distinction between the two prepositions is to be assumed, we can only say, with Bouman (Charact. theolog. I. p. 78): “ δόξα ἐξ ἀνθρώπων universe est ἀνθρωπίνη , quae humanam originem habet, ex hominibus exsistit: δόξα ἀφʼ ὑμῶν , quae singulatim a vobis, vestro ab ore manat ac proficiscitur;” or, with Alford, “ ἐκ belongs to the abstract ground of the δόξα , ἀπό to the concrete object, from which it was in each case to accrue.”