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2Co_1:15-16. Καὶ ταύτῃ τῇ πεποιθ .] and by means of this confidence, viz. ὅτι ἕως τέλους ἐπιγν . κ . τ . λ . in 2Co_1:13-14. πεποίθησις (2Co_3:4, 2Co_8:22, 2Co_10:2; Eph_3:12; Php_3:4; Joseph. Bell. i. 3. 1) is later Greek. See Eustathius, ad Od. iii. p. 114, 41; Thom. Mag. p. 717; Lobeck, ad Phryn. p. 294 f.
ἐβουλόμην ] Paul entertained the plan for his journey, set down in 2Co_1:16, before the composition of our first Epistle, and he had communicated it to the Corinthians (whether in the first now lost letter, or otherwise, we know not). But before or during the composition of our first Epistle he altered this plan (as we know from 1Co_16:5) to this extent, that he was not now to go first to Corinth, then to Macedonia, and from thence back to Corinth again (2Co_1:16), but through Macedonia to Corinth. The plan of travel, 1Co_16:5, was accordingly not the first (Baur; comp. Lange, apost. Zeitalt. I. p. 200 f.), but the one already altered, which alteration was ascribed to the apostle as indecision. This is intelligible enough from the antagonistic irritation of their minds, and does not require us to presuppose an expression in the alleged intermediate Epistle (Klöpper, p. 21 f.). Chrysostom, Theodoret, and Oecumenius make the apostle say: I had, when I wrote to you 1Co_16:5, the unexpressed intention to arrive still earlier than I promised, and to reach you even sooner (immediately on the journey towards Macedonia). Quite a mistaken view, since such a mere thought would not have been known to his opponents, and no excuse for his fickleness could therefore have been engrafted on i.
πρότερον ] belongs to πρὸς ὑμᾶς ἐλθεῖν :[130] I intended to come to you first of all,—not, as I afterwards altered my plan, to the Macedonians first, and then from them to you. Beza, Grotius, Bengel, and others, including Rosenmüller and Rückert, connect πρότ . and ἐβουλ ., which, however, on the one hand is opposed to the sense (for Paul cannot say, “I intended formerly to come to you,” since his intention is still the same), and on the other would not accord with ἵνα δευτ . χάρ . ἔχ .; for not the προτερον ἐβουλόμην , but the πρότερον πρὸς ὑμᾶς ἐλθεῖν , was to bring in its train a δευτέρα χάρις .
ἵνα δευτέραν χάριν ἔχητε ] δευτέραυ corresponds ingeniously to the πρότερον : in order that you might have a second benefit of grace. By χάριν is meant a divine bestowal of grace, with which Paul knew his coming to be connected for the church; for to whatever place he came in his official capacity, he came as the imparter of divine χάρις , Rom_1:11; comp. Rom_15:29. Chrysostom, Oecumenius, and others, including Kypke, Emmerling, Flatt, and Bleek (in the Stud. u. Krit. 1830, p. 622), hold that χάρις is equivalent to χάρα (and hence this is actually the reading of B L, some min., and Theodoret). Certainly χάρις also means pleasure, joy, and is, as in Tob_7:16, the opposite of λύπη (Eur. Hel. 661, and more frequently in Pindar; see Duncan, Lex., ed. Rost, p. 1191; also in Plato, Ast, Lex. III. p. 538), but never in the N. T. This sense, besides, would be unsuitable to the apostle’s delicate and modest style of expression elsewhere. Nor, again, is a benefit on the part of the apostle meant (Grotius, Rosenmüller, Schrader, Billroth, comp. also Hofmann), because the expression is only in keeping with his affection and humility (comp. 1Co_15:10) if a divine display of grace is meant. The comparison with 1Co_16:3 is therefore not to the point, because there a χάρις is named, of which the readers were givers. But what does he mean by δευτέραν χάριν ? Many answer with Estius: “ut ex secundo meo adventu secundam acciperetis gratiam, qui dudum accepistis primam, quando primum istuc veniens ad fidem vos converti.” Comp. Pelagius, Calvin, Wolf, Mosheim, Bengel, Emmerling. But against this it may be urged: (1) historically, that Paul certainly had been already twice in Corinth before our two Epistles (see Introd. § 2); and (2) from the connection, that the δευτέρα χάρις in this sense can by no means appear as an aim conditioned by the πρότερον ; for even a later coming would have had a δευτέρα χάρις in this sense as its result. This second reason is decisive, even if, with Schott, Erörterung, etc., p. 58 ff., and Anger, rat. temp. p. 72 f., we were to set aside the former by the supposition: “apostolum intra annum illum cum dimidio, quem, quum primum Corinthi esset, ibi transegit, per breve aliquod temporis spatium in regiones vicinas discessisse; sic enim si res se habuit, Paulus, etsi bis ad Corinthios venerat, ita ut in secunda, quam iis misit, epistola adventum tertium polliceri posset: tamen, quoniam per totum illud intervallum Corinthi potissimum docuerat, simile beneficium, quod in itinere seriore in eos collocaturus erat, jure secundum appellavit,” Anger, l.c. p. 73. The right solution results from 2Co_1:16, which is appended by the epexegetical καί , viz., that the δευτέρα χάρις appears as setting in through the πάλιν ἀπὸ Μακεδ . ἐλθεῖν πρὸς ὑμᾶς . Paul had intended on his projected journey to visit Corinth twice, and had therefore proposed to himself to come to the Corinthians first of all (not first to the Macedonians), in order that they in this event might have a second χάρις on his return from Macedonia (the first χάρις they were to have on his journey thither). From this it is at once obvious: (1) how superfluous is the linguistically incorrect supposition that δευτέραν is here equivalent to διπλῆν , as Bleek and Neander, following Chrysostom and Theodoret,[131] take it; (2) how erroneous is the opinion of Rückert, that ἵνα δευτ . χάριν ἔχητε is put in a wrong place, and should properly only come behind ἐλθεῖν πρὸς ὑμᾶς , 2Co_1:16. No; according to the epexegetical ͅ καί , 2Co_1:16, διʼ ὑμῶν ἀπελθεῖν εἰς Μακεδ . serves to give exact and clear information as parallel to the πρότερον πρὸς ὑμᾶς ἐλθεῖν , and then καὶ πάλιν ἀπὸ Μακ . ἐλθεῖν πρὸς ὑμᾶς as parallel to the ἵνα δευτέρ . χάριν ἔχητε . Comp. Baur, I. p. 338, ed. 2.
[130] The position of πρότερον , immediately after ἐβουλ . (Lachmann, Tischendorf, Rückert), which has preponderating evidence, and is therefore to be preferred, makes no difference in this respect.
[131] In other respects Theodoret, Bleek, and Neander, as also Billroth, Olshausen, and Rückert, agree in thinking that δευτέραν refers to the repeated visit to Corinth which had been intended after returning from Macedonia. But Chrys., quite against the context, explains the double joy as καὶ τὴν διὰ τῶν γραμμάτων καὶ τὴν διὰ τῆς παρουσίας . So also Erasmus, Vatablus, and others.