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2Co_1:19. Ὁ γὰρ τοῦ Θεοῦ υἱός ] or, as Lachmann, Rückert, and Tischendorf, following preponderating testimony, have it rightly: ὁ τοῦ Θεοῦ γὰρ υἱός ( γάρ in the fourth place; see Fritzsche, Quaest. Luc. p. 100; Ellendt, Lex. Soph, I. p. 339; Hermann, ad Philoct. 1437), marks the τοῦ Θεοῦ as emphatic, in order to make what is to be said of Christ, οὐκ ἐγένετο ναὶ κ . οὔ , felt at once in its divine certainty. To be God’s Son and yet ναὶ κ . οὔ would be a contradiction. In the whole ὁ … Ἰ . Χ . there lies a solemn, sacred emphasi.
ὁ ἐν ὑμῖν διʼ ἡμῶν κηρυχθείς ] reminds the readers of the first preaching of Christ among them, of which Paul could not but remind them, if they were to become perfectly conscious, from their experience from the beginning, that Christ had not become ναὶ κ . οὔ . But in order to make this first preaching come home to them with the whole personal weight of the preachers, he adds, in just consciousness of the services rendered by himself and his companions as compared with the later workers, a more precise definition of the διʼ ἡμῶν , with more weighty circumstantiality: διʼ ἐμοῦ κ . Σιλουανοῦ κ . Τιμοθέου . For the two latter had been his helpers in his first labours in Corinth. See Act_18:5. From this it is obvious why he has not named others, as Apollos, but simply these (Calvin thinks, that these had been most calumniated); hence also there is no need to suppose any intention of making his assurance more credible (Chrysostom, Theophylact, and many others). A side glance at the Christ preached by Judaistic opponents (2Co_11:4) is here quite foreign to the connection (in opposition to Klöpper, p. 86 f.).
Σιλουανοῦ ] Universally so with Paul (1Th_1:1; 2Th_1:1); also in 1Pe_5:12. In the Acts of the Apostles only the shortened name Σιλας appears. Silvanus is here placed before Timothy, because he was an older apostolic helper than the latter. See Act_15:22 ff.
οὐκ ἐγένετο ναὶ κ . οὔ ] He has not become affirmation and negation, has not showed Himself as untrustworthy, as one who affirms and also denies (the fulfilment of the divine promises, 2Co_1:20), as one who had exhibited such contradiction in himself. This Paul says of Christ Himself, in so far as in the personal objective Christ, by means of His appearance and His whole work, the ναί in reference to the divine promises, the affirmation of their fulfilment, is given as a matter of fact. Wrongly most expositors (comp. Chrysostom, Theodoret, Theophylact) understand Χριστός as doctrina de Christo (“our gospel of Christ is not changeable, sometimes one thing, sometimes another, but it remains ever the same”), an interpretation here specially precluded by verses 20 and 21. This may be urged also against the similar interpretation of Hofmann, that, with the very fact that Christ has come to the readers through preaching, there has gone forth a Yea (the affirmation of all divine promises), without any intervention of Nay. Olshausen and Rückert take it rightly of Christ Himself; but the former puts in place of the simple meaning of the word the thought not quite in keeping: “Christ is the absolute truth, affirmation pure and simple; in Him is the real fulfilment of the divine promises; in Him negation is entirely wanting;” and the latter arbitrarily limits ἐγένετο merely to the experience of the Corinthians (“among you He has not shown Himself untrustworthy”). Paul, however, uses the words οὐκ ἐγένετο ναὶ κ . οὔ of Christ in general, and by ὁ ἐν ὑμῖν … Τιμοθ . directs the attention of the Corinthians to the recognition of the truth on their part and out of their own experienc.
ἀλλὰ ναὶ ἐν αὐτῷ γέγονεν ] of the two only the former, i.e. affirmation (that the divine promises are fulfilled and shall be fulfilled) is established in Him: in Christ is actually given the yea, that, etc. In the perfect γέγονεν (different from the previous aorist ἐγένετο ) is implied the continuance of what has happened. Comp. on Col_1:16; Joh_1:3. Grotius, in opposition to the context (see 2Co_1:20), referred ναὶ ἐν αὐτῷ γέγ . to the miracles, by which Christ confirmed the apostolic preaching. And Beza awkwardly, and, on account of 2Co_1:20, erroneously, took ἐν αὐτῷ of God, whose Son is “constantissima Patris veritas.”