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2Co_2:12-13. Since Paul, by mentioning the mood in which he had written his former Epistle (2Co_2:4), was led on to discuss the case of the conscious sinner and the pardon to be bestowed on him (2Co_2:5-11), he has only now to carry on the historical thread which he had begun in 2Co_2:4-5.[147] There he had said with what great grief he wrote our first Epistle. Now, he tells how, even after his departure from Ephesus, this disquieting anxiety about his readers did not leave him, but urged him on from Troas to Macedonia without halting. This he introduces by ΔΈ , which after the end of the section, 2Co_2:5-11, joins on again to 2Co_2:4 (Hartung, Partik. I. p. 173; Fritzsche, Diss. II. p. 21). Billroth attempts to connect it with what immediately precedes: “His designs are not unknown to us; all the more I had no rest.” Against this may be urged, not that ἀλλά must have stood instead of ΔΈ , as Rückert thinks (see Hartung, l.c. I. p. 171 f.; Baeumlein, Partik. p. 95); but rather that between the emphatically prefixed οὐ γὰρ αὐτοῦ , 2Co_2:11, and ἘΛΘῺΝ ΔΈ , no logical relation of contrast exist.
ΕἸς ΤῊΝ ΤΡΩΆΔΑ ] from Ephesus on the journey which was to take him through Macedonia to Corinth. 1Co_16:5-9.
ΕἸς ΤῸ ΕὐΑΓΓ . ΤΟῦ Χ .] Aim of the ἘΛΘ . ΕἸς Τ . ΤΡΩΆΔΑ : for the sake of the gospel of Christ—i.e. in order to proclaim this message of salvation (hence τοῦ Χ . is genitivus objecti, see generally on Mar_1:1). He might, indeed, have come to Troas without wishing to preach, perhaps only as a traveller passing through it. All the more groundless is the involved connection of the εἰς τ . εὐαγγ . with the far remote ἌΝΕΣΙΝ (Hofmann).
ΚΑῚ ΘΎΡΑς Κ . Τ . Λ .] when also (i.e. although, see Bornem. ad Xen. Symp. iv. 13; Kühner, ad Mem. ii. 3. 19) a favourable opportunity for apostolic work was given to me. Comp. on 1Co_16:9.
ἐν κυρίῳ ] That is the sphere in which a door was opened to him: in Christ, in so far as the work opened up to him was not out of Christ (one outside of Christianity), but Christ was the element of it: ἐν κυρ . gives the specific quality of Christian to what is said by θύρ . μ . ἀν .
ἔσχηκα ] The perfect vividly realizes the past event, as often in the Greek orators. Comp. 2Co_1:9, 2Co_7:5; Rom_5:2. See Bernhardy, p. 379.
τῷ πνεύματί μου ] Dativus commodi. Paul has not put τῇ ψυχῇ μου , because here (it is different at 2Co_7:5) he wishes to express that his very higher life-activity, which has its psychological ground and centre in the ΠΝΕῦΜΑ as the organ of the moral self-consciousness (comp. on Luk_1:46 f.), was occupied by anxious care as to the state of the Corinthians, so that he felt himself thereby, for the present, incapable of pursuing other official interests, or of turning his thoughts away from Corinthian concerns. Comp. 2Co_7:13; 1Co_16:18.
Τῷ ΜῊ ΕὙΡΕῖΝ ] on account of not finding, because I did not find. Comp. Xenophon, Cyr. iv. 5. 9; often in Greek. See Winer, p. 308 [E. T. 344].
Τίτον ] whom he had sent to Corinth, and whose return he impatiently expected, in order to receive from him news of the effect of the former Epistl.
ΤῸΝ ἈΔΕΛΦ . ΜΟΥ ] By ΜΟΥ the closer relation of fellowship in office is suggested for ἀδελφ .
αὐτοῖς ] the Christians in Troas. As to ἈΠΟΤΑΞ . see on Mar_6:46.
ἘΞῆΛΘΟΝ ] from Troa.
ΕἸς ΜΑΚΕΔ .] Titus was therefore instructed by Paul to travel from Corinth back to Troas through Macedonia, and to meet with him again either there or here.
[147] Laurent regards vv. 12 and 13 as a marginal remark made by the apostle at 2Co_1:16, and wrongly inserted here.