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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadHeinrich Meyer Commentary - 2 Corinthians 12:15 - 12:15
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2Co_12:15. Paul applies what was said generally in 2Co_12:14 : οὐ γὰρ ὀφείλει κ . τ . λ ., to himself ( ἐγώ , I on my part): I, however, will very willingly spend and be spent for the good of your souls, in order, namely, to prepare them for the salvation of eternal life (Heb_10:39; Heb_13:17; 1Pe_1:9; Jam_1:21). Theodoret rightly says: ἐγὼ δὲ τῶν φύσει πατέρων καὶ πλέον τι ποιεῖν ἐπαγγέλλομαι .
For examples of δαπανᾶκ ( ἐκ strengthens, Polyb. xxv. 8. 4, xxi. 8. 9, xvii. 11. 10) used of the life, see Kypke, II. p. 272. On the subject-matter, comp. Horace, Od. i. 12. 38 f.: “animaeque magnae prodigum Paullum.”
εἰ περισσοτ . ὑμᾶς ἀγαπῶν ἧττον ἀγαπῶμαι ] εἰ does not stand for εἰ καί (which is read by Elzevir and Tischendorf), for which Rückert takes it, but is the simple if, and that not even in the sense of ἐπεί or ὅτι , as it is used “ne quid confidentius, directius affirmetur” (Dissen, ad Dem, de Cor. p. 195), but, as is here most in keeping with tender delicacy in the expression of a harsh thought, in the purely hypothetical sense: if, which I leave undecided, etc. In view of the possible case, that he finds the less love among his readers, the more he loves them (this is implied in the mutual reference of the two comparatives, see Matthiae, § 455, Rem. 7),[381] the apostle will most gladly sacrifice his own (what he has from others, or even by his own work) and himself (comp. Rom_9:3; Php_2:17) for their souls, in order that thus he may do his utmost to overcome this supposed—and possibly existing—disproportion between his loving and being loved by stimulating and increasing the latter (Rom_12:21; 1Co_13:4-7). Hofmann, not observing the clever turn of the hypothetical expression of the thought, without reason finds this view absurd, and with sufficient crudeness and clumsiness takes εἰ to ἀγαπῶμαι as an independent question, to which Paul himself makes answer with ἔστω δέ (in the sense: be it so withal, I will let it rest there). To this interrogative view Hofmann ought all the less to have resorted, seeing that interrogation in such an indirect form (Winer, p. 474 [E. T. 639], and see on Mat_12:10; Luk_13:23) is wholly without example in Paul, often as he has had an opportunity for using it. It is found often in Luke, more rarely in Matthew and Mark. Except in the writings of these three, the N. T. does not present that independent use of the indirectly interrogative εἰ .
[381] In opposition to Hofmann, who, not attending to the correspondence of the two comparatives, supplies with περισσ .: than others, and with ἧττον : than by others.