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2Co_12:19. His vindication itself is now concluded. But in order that he may not appear, by thus answering for himself, to install the readers as judges over him, he further guards his apostolic dignity against this risk. Carrying them in mediam rem, he says: For long you have been thinking that we are answering for ourselves to you! Comp. 1Co_4:3. Correction of this opinion: Before God we speak in Christ; it is God in presence of whom (as Judge) we speak in Christ’s fellowship (as the element in which we subsist and live). ἐν Χ . gives to λαλοῦμεν its definite Christian character (which, with Paul, was at the same time the apostolic one). Comp. 2Co_2:17. But, that he may not suppress the proper relation of his apology to the readers, he adds lovingly: but the whole, beloved, (we speak) for your edification, for the perfecting of your Christian lif.
πάλαι δοκεῖτε ὅτι ὑμῖν ἀπολογ .] After adopting the reading πάλαι (see the critical remarks) this sentence is no longer to be taken interrogatively, because otherwise an unsuitable emphasis would be laid on πάλαι . Lachmann, Tischendorf, and Rückert have also deleted the mark of interrogation. πάλαι means nothing else than for a long time, in which, however, the past to be thought of may be very short according to the relative nature of the notion of time, as e.g. Hom. Od. xx. 293 f. μοῖραν μὲν δὴ ξεῖνος ἔχει πάλαι , ὡς ἐπέοικεν , ἴσην Plat. Gorg. p. 456 A; Phaed. p. 63 D, al.; see Stallbaum, ad Plat. Apol. p. 18 B; Xen. Anab. iv. 8. 14, iv. 5. 5; Ellendt, Lex. Soph. II. p. 481. So also the Latin dudum, jamdudum. Here the meaning is, that the readers are already for long, during the continuation of this apology, remaining of opinion, etc. As respects the connection with the present, see further, Plato, Phaedr. p. 273 C; Xen. Anab. vii. 6. 37. There exists no reason for attaching πάλαι to 2Co_12:18 (Hofmann, then taking δοκεῖτε interrogatively), and it would, standing after ἴχνεσι , come in after a tame and dragging fashion, while it would have had its fitting position between οὐ and τῷ αὐτῷ .
ὑμῖν ] Dative of destination. Comp. Act_19:33; Plato, Protag. p. 359 D; Pol. x. p. 607 B. Vobis, i.e. vobis judicibus, has here the chief emphasis, which Rückert has aptly vindicated. The earlier expositors, not recognising this, have accordingly not hit on the purpose and meaning of the passage; as still Billroth: “It might seem that he wished to recommend himself” (comp. 2Co_3:1, 2Co_5:12). To this his answer is: “I speak before God in Christ, i.e. my sentiments in what I say are not selfish, but upright and pure.” Comp. Chrysostom, Erasmus, Beza, Calvin, Grotiu.
κατέναντι τοῦ θεοῦ ἐν Χρ . λαλοῦμεν ] to be taken together,[384] as in 2Co_2:17.
ΤᾺ ΔῈ ΠΆΝΤΑ ] sc. λαλοῦμεν . Grotius and others, including Griesbach, Scholz, Olshausen, and Ewald, read ΤΆΔΕ as one word, and connect it with the previous ΛΑΛΟῦΜΕΝ . But for what end? The mode of expression in the usual way of writing it is quite Pauline, and makes the important thought more emphatically prominent; ὍΔΕ never occurs with Paul, and the reference of τάδε to what goes before would at least not be in accordance with the common usage (comp. on Luk_10:39).
[384] So that the chief emphasis is laid on κατέναντι τοῦ θεοῦ , opposed to the previous ὑμῖν .