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2Co_4:15. Σὺν ὑμῖν , which he has just used, is now made good in such a way as to win their hearts. “With you, I say, for all of it is for your sake;” there is nothing of all that we have to suffer and that we do, which is not related to your advantage. Comp. 2Ti_2:10. ἐστί simply is to be supplied; but πάντα sums up what is contained in 2Co_4:7-13 (not merely 2Co_4:12 f.). Christ’s death and resurrection, to which Chrysostom, Theodoret, and Grotius make reference, did not form the subject-matter of the preceding contex.
ἵνα ἡ χάρις πλεονάσασα κ . τ . λ .] in order that the grace, i.e. not only the divine grace consisting in the reception of the spirit of faith (Hofmann), but that which is at work in all our victorious suffering and labouring, increased by the increasing number, i.e. after it has grown in extent and influence through the increasing number of those who beyond ourselves have become partakers in it, may make the thanksgiving, which pertains to it, abundant (may produce it in an exceedingly high degree) to the honour of God. There is a similar thought in 2Co_1:11; but in the present passage the thanksgiving is, in accordance with 2Co_4:14, conceived as on the day of judgment. Note the correlation of χάρις and εὐχαριστίαν , as well as the climax: πλεονάσασα διά τῶν πλειόνων and περισσεύσῃ (1Th_3:12). On περισσεύειντι , comp. 2Co_9:8; Eph_1:8; 1Th_3:12.
This is the construction adopted by Chrysostom (?), the Vulgate, Ewald, and others, including Rückert and Olshausen, who, however, refer διὰ τῶν πλειόνων to the intercession of the Corinthians, which is not at all suggested by the context. Divergent constructions are: (1) “in order that the grace, since it has become so exceeding rich, may contribute richly to the glory of God on account of the thanksgiving of the increasing number,” Billroth, following Erasmus, Luther, Castalio, Beza, Calvin, Estius, Grotius, Bengel, Rosenmüller, Krause, Flatt, Osiander, and others. So, in the main, Hofmann also: (2) in order that the grace, since it has shown itself so richly, may, through the increasing number, make the thanksgiving abundant to the honour of God. So Emmerling, de Wette, Neander. Both are possible; but since διά with the accusative would express the conception, for the sake of, here unsuitable, the former construction would lead us to expect διά with the genitive instead of διά τ . πλ . τὴν εὐχαρ .[200] (comp. 2Co_1:11, 2Co_9:12); and with both we fail to find in ΠΛΕΟΝΆΣΑΣΑ a more precise definition of that by which the grace has become more abundant, a thing not directly involved in the connection (as in Rom_6:1). Besides, both are less in keeping with the symmetry of the discourse, which, in structure and expression, is carefully chosen and terse—features seen also in the collocation: “increased through the increasing number.” These πλείονες are those who have been converted by the apostolic ministry, and in particular those advanced in the Christian life, who were just individualized by διʼ ὑμᾶς .
[200] The position of the genitive, inverted for the sake of emphasis, would have occasioned no difficulty according to classical usage. Thus, e.g. Plato, Rep. p. 523 D, and Stallbaum in loc., also, generally, Kühner, II. p. 624. But Paul would hardly have forsaken the usual order, διὰ τὴν τῶν πλειόνων εὐχαρ ., which would at any rate have likewise made the τῶν πλ . emphatic. He would have had no reason for resorting to that assumed hyperbaton.