Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadHeinrich Meyer Commentary - 2 Corinthians 13:7 - 13:7
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
2Co_13:7. Yet we pray to God that this, my apostolic attestation, which I hope to give you means of discerning, may not be made necessary on your part. On εὐχόμεθα (see the critical remarks), compared with the ἐλπίζω used just before, observe that, as often in Paul and especially in this Epistle of vivid emotion, the interchange of the singular and the plural forms of expressing himself has by no means always special grounds by which it is determine.
μὴ ποιῆσαι ὑμᾶς κακὸν μηδέν ] that ye may do nothing evil, which, in fact, would only keep up and increase your guilt. Others incorrectly take it,[400] “that I be not compelled to do something evil to you,” How could Paul have so designated his chastisement? For that ποιεῖν κακόν stands here, not in the sense: to do something to one’s harm, but in the ethical sense, is shown by the contrast τὸ καλὸν ποιῆτε in what follows. But even apart from this, in fact, because ΕὐΧΌΜΕΘΑ receives through ΠΡῸς ΤῸΝ ΘΕΌΝ (comp. Xen. Mem. i. 3. 2; 2Ma_9:13; 2Ma_15:27; Num_21:8, al.) the meaning we pray, the words, in the event of ποιῆσαι ὑμᾶς not being held to be accusative with infinitive, would have to be explained: we pray to God that He may do nothing evil to you—which would be absurd. But the accusative with the infinitive occurs as in Act_26:19.
οὐχ ἵνα ἡμεῖς κ . τ . λ .] Statement of the object, for which he makes this entreaty to God, first negatively and then positively; not in a selfish design, not in order that we may appear through your moral conduct as attested (in so far, namely, as the excellence of the disciple is the attestation of the teacher, comp. 2Co_3:2 f., Php_4:1, 1Th_2:20, al.), but on your account, in order that ye may do what is good, and thus the attestation may be on your side and we may be as unattested, in so far, namely, as we cannot in that case show ourselves in our apostolic authority (by sternness and execution of punishment). That he should with δόκιμοι and ἈΔΌΚΙΜΟΙ refer to two different modes of his ΔΟΚΙΜΉ , is quite a Pauline trait. Through the moral walk of the readers he was manifested on the one hand as ΔΌΚΙΜΟς , on the other as ἈΔΌΚΙΜΟς ; what he intended in his ΕὐΧΌΜΕΘΑ ΠΡῸς ΤῸΝ ΘΕΌΝ Κ . Τ . Λ . was not the former, for it was not about himself that he was concerned, but the latter, because it was simply the attestation of the readers by the ΠΟΙΕῖΝ ΤῸ ΚΑΛΌΝ that he had at heart. According to Olshausen, there is meant to be conveyed in ΟὐΧ ἽΝΑ ἩΜΕῖς ΔΌΚ . ΦΑΝῶΜ .: not in order that the fulfilment of this prayer may appear as an effect of my powerful intercession. But Paul must have said this, if he had meant it. Others[401] hold that after οὐχ there is to be supplied ΕὔΧΟΜΑΙ , or the idea of wish implied in it, and ἽΝΑ expresses its contents; “I do not wish that I should show myself as standing the test (that is, stern), but rather that ye may do what is good and I be as not standing the test (that is, may appear not standing the test, and so not stern),” Billroth. Certainly the contents of εὔχεσθαι might be conceived as its aim, and hence be expressed by ἽΝΑ (Jam_5:16; Col_1:9; 2Th_1:11); but in this particular case the previous infinitive construction, expressing the contents of the prayer, teaches us that Paul has not so conceived it. Had he conceived it so, he would have simply led the readers astray by ἵνα . The explanation is forced, and simply for the reason that the fine point of a double aspect of the δοκιμή was not appreciated. From this point of view Paul might have said in a connection like 2Co_6:8 f.: Ὡς ἈΔΌΚΙΜΟΙ ΚΑῚ ΔΌΚΙΜΟΙ .
Ἑς ἈΔΌΚΙΜΟΙ ] Beza aptly says: hominum videlicet judicio. By way of appearance. Comp. already Chrysostom.
[400] So Billroth, Ewald, Hofmann, and previously Flatt and Emmerling, as in the first instance Grotius, who says: “Ne cogar cuiquam poenam infligere, quae malum, dicitur, quia dura est toleratu.” On ποιεῖν τινά τι , comp. Mat_27:22; Mar_15:12. Elsewhere always in the N. T. ποιεῖν τινί τι .
[401] So Billroth and Osiander and others, as well as previously Flatt, Zachariae, Estius, Menochius, al.