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2Co_11:5. You might well tolerate it, Paul had just said; but every reader who knew the apostle could not but at once of himself feel that he did not mean it so, that the meaning at his heart was rather: then you would be very far wrong in tolerating such novelties; that he thus in the way of ironical censure makes it palpable to his readers that their complaisance towards the false apostles was the ground of his anxiety expressed in 2Co_11:3. Hence he now by γάρ [321] at once gives a reason for the censure of that complaisance so disparaging to his own position as an apostle, which is conveyed in the ironical καλῶς ἀνείχεσθε . This γάρ does not refer therefore to 2Co_11:1, but to what immediately precedes, in so far, namely, as it was not meant approvingly (Hofmann), but in exactly the opposite sense. Hofmann groundlessly and dogmatically replies that the reason assigned for an ironical praise must necessarily be itself ironical.[322]
λογίζομαι ] censeo, I am of opinion. Rom_2:3; Rom_3:28; Rom_8:18, al.
μηδὲν ὑστερηκέναι ] in no respect have I remained behind. Comp. on Mat_19:20. Rückert without reason adds: “i.e. in my action.” The μηδέν , in no respect a stronger negation than the simple μή (Kühner, ad Xen. Mem. iv. 4. 10), excludes any restriction to some mere partial aspect of his official character. The perfect exhibits the state of the case as at present continuing to subsist (Bernhardy, p. 378): to stand behind. In 2Co_12:11 the conception is differen.
τῶν ὑπερλίαν ἀποστόλων ] The genitive with a verb of comparison. Comp. Plat. Pol. 7, p. 539 E. See Matthiae, p. 836. Comp. Kypke, II. p. 265. ὑπερλίαν , overmuch, supra quam valde, is not preserved elsewhere in old Greek, but is found again, nevertheless, in Eustath. Od. i. p. 27,35: ἐστι γάρ ποτε καὶ τῷ λίαν κατὰ τὴν τραγῳδίαν χρᾶσθαι καλῶς , καθʼ ὃ σημαινόμενον λέγομέν τινα ὑπερλίαν σόφον . Similarly we have ὑπεράγαν (2Ma_8:35; 2Ma_10:34; Strabo, iii. p. 147), ὑπέρευ (Kypke, Obss. II. p. 267), ὑπεράνω , etc., as well as generally Paul’s frequent application of compounds with ὑπέρ (Fritzsche, ad Rom. I. p. 351). But whom does he mean by τῶν ὑπερλίαν ἀποστόλων ? According to Chrysostom, Theodoret, Grotius, Bengel, and most of the older commentators, also Emmerling, Flatt, Schrader, Baur, Hilgenfeld, Holsten, Holtzmann (Judenth. und Christenth. p. 764), the actual summos apostolos, namely, Peter, James, and John (comp. Gal_2:9). But Paul is not contending against these, but against the false apostles (2Co_11:13); hence the expression: “the over-great apostles,” which is manifestly selected not μετʼ ἐγκωμίων (Chrysostom), but with a certain bitterness, would be very unsuitable here (comp. on the other hand, 1Co_15:9; 1Co_9:5) if the old apostles should be simply incidentally mentioned, because they were possibly placed high above Paul by his opponents.[323] Rightly, therefore, Richard Simon, Alethius, Heumann, Semler, Michaelis, Schulz, Stolz, Rosenmüller, Fritzsche, Billroth, Rückert, Olshausen, de Wette, Ewald, Osiander, Neander, Hofmann, Weiss, Beyschlag, and others have followed Beza’s suggestion (comp. Erasmus in the Annot.), and understood the Judaistic anti-Pauline teachers to be the pseudo-apostles (2Co_11:13; 2Co_11:22), whose inflated arrogance in exalting themselves over Paul is caricatured. Nevertheless they are not to be considered as the heads of the Christ-party (comp. on 2Co_10:7).
[321] δέ , adopted by Lachm. on the testimony of B only, and approved by Rückert, appears after εἰ μέν in ver. 4 as an alteration, because no reference was seen for the γάρ . With δέ there would result the quite simple course of thought: “If indeed … I mean, however,” etc., not as Rückert would have it, that Paul passes from the justification of the intended self-praise given in vv. 2–4 to the self-praise itself.
[322] Without conceding this arbitrary assertion, observe, moreover, that ver. 5 also has a sufficiently ironic tinge. Comp. 2Co_4:8-9. See also Klöpper.
[323] The immediately following εἰ δὲ καὶ ἰδιώτης τῷ λόγῳ would also be quite unsuitable, since every other apostle, at least as much as Paul, was ἰδιώτης τῷ λόγῳ .
REMARK.
The reference of our passage to Peter, James, and John was supported among the earlier Protestants from polemical considerations, for the comparison in itself and the plural expression were urged against the primacy of Peter. See Calovius, Bibl. ill. p. 505. In defence of this primacy, it was maintained by the older Catholic writers that the equality referred to preaching and gifts, not to power and jurisdiction. See Cornelius a Lapide.