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2Co_11:28. Apart from that which occurs beside (beside what had been mentioned hitherto), for me the daily attention is the care for all the churches.[340] He will not adduce more particulars than he has brought forward down to ΓΥΜΝΌΤΗΤΙ , but will simply mention further a general fact, that he has daily to bear anxiety for all the churches. On ΧΩΡΊς with the genitive: apart from, see Stallbaum, ad Plat. Apol. S. p. 35 C. The emphasis is on πασῶν . Theodoret: ΠΆΣΗς ΓᾺΡ Τῆς ΟἸΚΟΥΜΈΝΗς ἘΝ ἘΜΑΥΤῷ ΠΕΡΙΦΈΡΩ ΤῊΝ ΜΈΡΙΜΝΑΝ . Nevertheless, this ΠΑΣῶΝ is not, with Bellarmine and other Roman Catholic writers, as well as Ewald et al., to be limited merely to Pauline churches, nor is it to be pressed in its full generality, but rather to be taken as a popular expression for his unmeasured task. He has to care for all. Chrysostom, Theophylact, and others attach χωρ . τ . παρ to what precedes, and separate it from what follows by a full stop; but this only makes the latter unnecessarily abrupt. Luther, Castalio, Bengel, and many others, including Flatt, Billroth (but uncertainly), and Olshausen, consider Ἡ ἘΠΊΣΤΑΣΙς Κ . Τ . Λ . (or, according to their reading: Ἡ ἘΠΙΣΎΣΤΑΣΙς Κ . Τ . Λ .) as an abnormal apposition to ΤῶΝ ΠΑΡΕΚΤΌς : not to mention what still occurs besides, namely, etc. This is unnecessarily harsh, and ΧΩΡῚς ΤῶΝ ΠΑΡΕΚΤΌς would withal only be an empty formul.
ΤᾺ ΠΑΡΕΚΤΌς is: quae praeterea eveniunt,[341] not, as Beza and Bengel, following the Vulgate, hold: “quae extrinsecus eum adoriebantur” (Beza), so that either what follows is held to be in apposition (Bengel: previously he has described the proprios labores, now he names the alienos secum communicatos), or τῶν παρεκτός is referred to what precedes, and what follows now expresses the inward cares and toils (Beza, comp. Erasmus). Linguistic usage is against this, for παρεκτός never means extrinsecus, but always beside, in the sense of exception. See Mat_5:32; Act_26:29; Aq. Deu_1:36; Test. XII. Patr. p. 631; Geopon. xiii. 15. 7; Etym. M. p. 652, 18. This also in opposition to Ewald: “without the unusual things,” with which what is daily is then put in contrast (comp. Calvin). Hofmann, following the reading ἡ ἐπισύστασίς μου , would, instead of ΤῶΝ ΠΑΡΕΚΤΌς , write ΤῶΝ ΠΑΡʼ ἘΚΤΌς , which is, in his view, masculine, and denotes those coming on to the apostle from without (the Christian body), whose attacks on his doctrine he must continually withstand. With this burden he associates the care of all the many churches, which lie continually on his soul. These two points are introduced by χωρίς , which is the adverbial besides. This new interpretation (even apart from the reading ἐπισύστασις , which is to be rejected on critical grounds) cannot be accepted, (1) because ΟἹ ΠΑΡʼ ἘΚΤΌς , for which Paul would have written ΟἹ ἜΞΩ (1Co_5:12; Col_4:5; 1Th_4:12) or ΟἹ ἜΞΩΘΕΝ (1Ti_3:7), is an expression without demonstrable precedent, since even Greek writers, while doubtless using ΟἹ ἘΚΤΌς , extranei (Polyb. ii. 47. 10, v. 37. 6; comp. Ecclus. Praef. I.), do not use οἱ παρʼ ἐκτός ; (2) because the two parts of the verse, notwithstanding their quite different contents, stand abruptly (without ΚΑΊ , or ΜῈΝ … ΔΈ , or other link of connection) side by side, so that we have not even Ἡ ΔῈ ΜΈΡΙΜΝΆ ΜΟΥ (overagainst the ἘΠΙΣΎΣΤΑΣΊς ΜΟΥ ) instead of the bare Ἡ ΜΈΡΙΜΝΑ ; and (3) because the adverbial ΧΩΡΊς m the sense assumed is foreign to the N. T., and even in the classical passages in question (see from Thucydides, Krüger on i. 61. 3) it does not mean praeterea generally, but more strictly scorsim, separatim, specially and taken by itself.[342] See Ellendt, Lex. Soph. II. p. 974. But the two very general categories, which it is to introduce, would not suit this sens.
ἡ ἐπίστασις ] may mean either: the daily halting (comp. Xen. Anab. ii. 4. 26; Polyb. xiv. 8. 10; Soph. Ant 225: πολλὰς γὰρ ἔσχον φροντίδων ἐπιστάσεις , multas moras deliberationibus effectas), or: the daily attention.[343] See Lobeck, ad Phryn. p. 527; Schweigh. Lex. Polyb. p. 265. This signification is most accordant with the context on account of the following ἡ μέριμνα κ . τ . λ . Rückert, without any sanction of linguistic usage, makes it: the throng towards me, the concourse resorting to me on official business.[344] So also Osiander and most older and more recent expositors explain the Recepta ἐπισύστασίς μου or ἐπισύστ . μοι . But likewise at variance with usage, since ἐπισύστασις is always (even in Num_26:9) used in the hostile sense: hostilis concursio, tumultus, as it has also been taken here by Chrysostom, Theodoret, Theophylact, Beza,[345] Bengel, and others. See Act_24:12, and the passages in Wetstein and Loesner, p. 230.
The μοί , which, in the interpretation of ἘΠΙΣΤ . as concourse, would have to be taken as appropriating dative (Bernhardy, p. 89), is, according to our view of ἐπίστ ., to be conceived as dependent on the ἘΣΤΙ to be supplied.
[340] Accordingly the comma after ἡμέραν is to be deleted. If μέριμνα κ . τ . λ . be (as is the usual view) taken as a clause by itself, the ἐστί to be supplied is not a copula, but: exists. But according to the right reading and interpretation, ἡ ἐπιστ . μοι , as an independent point, would thus be too general.
[341] The Armenian version gives instead of παρεκτός ; ἄλλων θλίψεων . A correct interpretation. Chrysostom exaggerates: πλείονα τὰ παραλειφθέντα τῶν ἀπαριθμηθέντων .
[342] So, too, in the passage, Thuc. ii. 31. 2, adduced in Passow’s Lexicon by Rost and by Hofmann, where χωρίς further introduces a separate army contingent, which is counted by itself.
[343] Gregory of Nazianzus has ἐπιστασία , which is to be regarded as a good gloss. See Lobeck, l.c.; Kühner, ad Xen. Mem. i. 5. 2, var.
[344] ἐπίστασις does not once mean the pressing on (active), the crowding. In 2Ma_6:3 (in opposition to Grimm in loc.), ἡ ἐπίστασις τῆς κακίας is the setting in, the coming on, i.e. the beginning of misfortune (Polyb. i. 12. 6, ii. 40. 5, al.). In Dion. Halicarn. vi. 31, the reading is to be changed into ἐπίθεσιν . In Polyb. i. 26. 12, it means the position. Nevertheless, Buttm. neut. Gr. p. 156 [E. T. 180], agrees with Rückert.
[345] Chrys.: οἱ θόρυβοι , αἱ ταραχαί , αἱ πολιορκίαι τῶν δήμων καὶ τῶν πόλεων ἔφοδοι . Beza renders the whole verse: “Absque iis, quae extrinsecus eveniunt, urget agmen illud in me quotidie consurgens, i.e. solicitudo de omnibus ecclesiis.” Comp. Ewald: “the daily onset of a thousand troubles and difficulties on him.” Bengel: “obturbatio illorum, qui doctrinae vitaeve perversitate Paulo molestiam exhibebant, v. gr. Gal_6:17.”