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2Co_2:17. The answer to the foregoing question is not to be supplied, so that it should be conceived as negative ( εἰ δὲ μὴ ἱκανοὶ , χάριτος τὸ γινόμενον , Chrysostom, Neander, Hofmann, and others), but it is given, though indirectly, in 2Co_2:17 itself, inasmuch as the expression introduced by γάρ readily suggests to the reader the conclusion, that the subjects of ἐσμεν , i.e. Paul and his like, are the ἱκανοί , and that the πολλοί are not so. See Klotz, ad Devar. p. 240; Baeumlein, Partik. p. 83. If Paul had wished to convey in his question the negative statement, “No one is capable of this,” he could not but have added a limiting ἀφʼ ἑαντοῦ or the like (comp. 2Co_3:5), in order to place the reader in the right point of vie.
οἱ πολλοί ] the known many, the anti-Pauline teachers.[153] Comp. 2Co_11:13; Php_3:18. See on οἱ πολλοί “de certis quibusdam et definitis multis,” Ellendt, Lex. Soph. II. p. 603; comp. also Rom_12:5. To understand by it the majority of the Christian teachers in general, is to throw a shadow on the apostolic church, which its history as known to us at least does not justif.
καπηλεὺοντες ] belongs to ἐσμέν . The verb means (1) to carry on the business of a κάπηλος , a retailer, particularly a vintner; (2) to negotiate; (3) to practise usury with anything ( τὶ ), in particular, by adulteration, since the κάπηλοι adulterated the wine (LXX. Isa_1:22), and in general, had an evil reputation for cheating ( κάπηλα τεχνήματα , Aesch. Fragm. 328 D). In this sense the word is also used by the Greeks of intellectual objects, as Plato, Protag. p. 313 D: οἱ τὰ μαθήματα … καπηλεύοντες . Comp. Lucian, Hermot 59: φιλόσοφοι ἀποδίδονται τὰ μαθήματα ὥσπερ οἱ κάπηλοι , κερασάμενοί γε οἱ πολλοὶ καὶ δολώσαντες καὶ κακομετροῦντες . Philostr 16: τὴν σοφίαν καπηλεύειν . So also here: comp. the opposite ἐξ εἰλικρ . and 2Co_4:2. Hence: we practise no deceitful usury with the word of God, as those do, who, with selfish intention, dress up what they preach as the word of God palatably and as people wish to hear it, and for that end τὰ αὐτῶν ἀναμιγνύουσι τοῖς θείοις , Chrysostom. Comp. 2Pe_2:3. Such are named in Ignat. Trall. (Interpol.) 6, comp. 10, χριστέμποροι , and are described as τὸν ἰὸν προσπλέκοντες τῆς πλάνης τῇ γλυκείᾳ προσηγορίᾳ .
ἀλλʼ ὡς ἐξ εἰλικρ .] but we speak ( λαλοῦμεν ) as one speaks from sincerity of mind (which has no dealings with adulteration), so that what we speak proceeds from an honest heart and thought. Comp. 2Co_1:12. ὡς is as in Joh_1:14. On ἐκ , compare Joh_3:31; Joh_8:44; 1Jn_4:5.
ἀλλʼ ὡς ἐκ θεοῦ ] but as one speaks from God (who is in the speaker), as θεόπνευστος . Comp. Mat_10:20; 1Co_14:25; 2Co_5:20. The ἀλλά is repeated in the lively climax of the thought. Comp. 2Co_7:11, and see on 1Co_6:11. Rückert strangely wishes to connect it with τὸν λόγον , and to supply ὄντα . So also Estius (“tanquam profectum et acceptum a Deo”), Emmerling, and others. That is, in fact, impossible after ἀλλʼ ὡς ἐξ εἰλικρ .
κατέναντι θεοῦ ἐν Χριστῷ ] Since neither ἀλλά nor ὡς is repeated before κατέναντι , Paul himself indicates the connection and division: “but as from sincerity, but as from God, we speak before God in Christ,” so that the commas after the twice-occurring θεοῦ are, with Lachmann and Tischendorf, to be deleted. This in opposition to the opinion cherished also by Hofmann, that κατέναντι θεοῦ and ἐν Χριστῷ are two modal definitions of λαλοῦμεν , running parallel with the foregoing point.
κατέναντι θεοῦ ] before God, with the consciousness of having Him present as witness. Comp. Rom_4:17.
ἐν Χριοτῷ ] can neither mean Christi nomine (Grotius, comp. Luther, Estius, Calovius, Zachariae, Heumann, Schulz, Rosenmüller), nor de Christo (Beza, Cornelius a Lapide, Morus, Flatt), nor secundum Christum (Calvin), but it is the habitually employed expression in Christo. We speak in Christo, in so far as Christ is the sphere in which our speaking moves. Comp. 2Co_12:19; Rom_9:1. In Him we live and move with our speaking, οὐδὲν τῇ ἡμετέρᾳ σοφίᾳ ἀλλὰ τῇ παρʼ ἐκείνου δυνάμει ἐνηχούμενοι , Chrysostom.
[153] Not merely the anti-Pauline Gentile-teachers, as Hofmann with the reading εἱ λοιποί arbitrarily limits it. It was among the Jewish-Christians that the most of those were found whom Paul had to regard as falsifiers of the word, and who every-where pushed themselves into the sphere of his labours.