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2Co_11:29. Two characteristic traits for illustrating the μέριμνα πασῶν τῶν ἐκκλησιῶν . Chrysostom aptly says: ἐπήγαγε καὶ τὴν ἐπίτασιν τῆς φροντίδος , and that for the individual members (Act_20:31).
As ἀσθενεῖ with σκανδαλίζεται , so also ἀσθενῶ with πυροῦμαι forms a climax—and in a way highly appropriate to the subject! For in point of fact he could not in the second clause say: καὶ οὐ σκανδαλίζομαι .
The meaning of the verse is to express the most cordial and most lively sympathy (comp. 1Co_12:26) of his care amidst the dangers, to which the Christian character and life of the brethren are exposed: “Who is weak as regards his faith, conscience, or his Christian morality, and I am not weak, do not feel myself, by means of the sympathy of my care, transplanted into the same position? Who is offended, led astray to unbelief and sin, and I do not burn, do not feel myself seized by burning pain of soul?” Semler and Billroth, also de Wette (comp. Luther’s gloss), mix up what is foreign to the passage, when they make ἀσθενῶ apply to the condescension of the apostle, who would give no offence to the weak, 1Co_9:22. And Emmerling (followed by Olshausen) quite erroneously takes it: “quem afflictum dicas, si me non dicas? quem calamitatem oppetere, si me non iis premi, quin uri memores?” In that case it must have run καὶ οὐκ ἐγὼ ἀσθενῶ ; besides, σκανδαλίζεσθαι never means calamitatibus affici, but constantly denotes religious or moral offence; and lastly, σκανδαλίζεται and πυροῦμαι would yield a quite inappropriate climax (Paul must have repeated σκανδαλίζομαι ).
ἀσθενεῖ ] comp. Rom_4:19; Rom_14:1-2; Rom_14:21; 1Co_8:9; 1Co_8:11; 1Th_5:14; Act_20:35. The correspondence of σκανδαλίζεται in the climax forbids us to understand it of suffering (Chrysostom, Beza, Flatt).
πυροῦμαι ] What emotion is denoted by verbs of burning, is decided on each occasion by the context (comp. 1Co_7:9; see in general on Luk_24:32), which here presents a climax to ἀσθενῶ , therefore suggests far more naturally the idea of violent pain (comp. Chrys.: καθʼ ἕκαστον ὠδυνᾶτο μέλος ) than that of anger (Luther: “it galled him hard;” comp. Bengel, Rückert). Augustine says aptly: “quanto major caritas, tanto majores plagae de peccatis alienis.” Comp. on the expression, the Latin ardere doloribus, faces doloris, and the like (Kühner, ad Cic. Tusc. ii. 25. 61); also 3Ma_4:2, and Abresch, ad Aesch. Sept. 519.
Lastly, we have to note the change in the form of the antitheses, which emerges with the increasing vividness of feeling in the two halves of the verse: οὐκ ἀσθενῶ and οὐκ ἐγὼ πυροῦμαι . In the former case the negation attaches itself to the verb, in the latter to the person. Who is weak without weakness likewise occurring in me? who is offended without its being I, who is burning? Of the offence which another takes, I on my part have the pain.