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2Co_5:13. And you have reason for making your boast on our behalf over against the adversaries!
That Paul is here dealing, and that not without irony, with an odious accusation of his opponents (perhaps of an overseer of the church, according to Ewald), is evident, since otherwise the peculiar mode of expression used by him would appear quite uncalled for. It must have been asserted that he had gone out of his senses, that he had become mad (observe the aorist),—an assertion for which narrow-mindedness as well as malice might find cause enough, or seize pretext, in the extraordinary heroism and divine zeal of his working in general, and especially in his sudden and wonderful conversion, in the ecstasies and visions[225] which he had had, in his anti-Judaism at times unsparing, in his ideal demands on the Christian life, in the prominence given to his consciousness of apostleship, to his sufferings, and the like. In reference to this accusation he now says: “For be it, that we have become mad (as our enemies venture to assert), it is a madness standing at the service of God (a holy mania, which deserves respect, not blame!); or be it, that we are of sound understanding, we are so for your service (which can only be found by you praiseworthy).” Comp. Aretius, Rückert, de Wette, Osiander, Hilgenfeld (in his Zeitschr. 1864, p. 170), who, however, abides only by the apostle’s assertion, that he had seen Christ and was a full apostle, as the ground for this opinion of his opponents. As early as the time of Chrysostom (he quotes an explanation: εἰ μὲν μαίνεσθαί τις ἡμᾶς νομίζει κ . τ . λ .) it was recognised that a glance at a hostile accusation was contained in ἐξέστημεν , and this is remarked by most of the older and the modern commentators; but there should have been the less hesitation at taking the word in its full sense (see on Mar_3:21; comp. Act_26:24), whereas it was often weakened into: ultra modum agere,[226] or into: to be foolish (Chrysostom, Morus, Billroth), to seem to act foolishly (Flatt), and the like, in spite of the following σωφρονοῦμεν , which is the exact opposite of having become mad (Plato, Phaedr. p. 244 A). Comp. Act_26:25. As regards the subject-matter, ἐξέστ . was mostly (as by Chrysostom and Theodoret) referred to the self-praise,[227] in which case θεῷ was taken as: to the honour of God, and then ὑμῖν was referred either to the salutary example ( ἵνθ μάθητε ταπεινοφρονεῖν , Chrysostom, Flatt) or to the salutary condescension. So Erasmus,[228] Vatablus, Menochius, Estius, Bengel, Emmerling, Olshausen. Billroth takes it differently: “If, however, you put a rational construction on it (this boasting), in my case, I wish to have myself boasted of only for your advantage; I do it only in order that you may not be deceived by my opponents regarding me.” But the whole reference to the self-praise is after 2Co_5:12, where Paul has absolutely negatived the ἑαυτοὺς συνιστάνομεν ὑμῖν , contrary to the context; and those references of ὙΜῖΝ to the example shown, or to the apostolic condescension, or to a deception of the readers to be prevented, are not in keeping with the parallel ΘΕῷ ; and there is no reason in the context for sacrificing the uniformity in compass of meaning of the two datives, so that ὙΜῖΝ is not to be taken otherwise than with Grotius in the comprehensive sense of in vestros usus. According to Hofmann, ἐξέστ . is to be referred to the self-testimony expressed loftily and in the most exalted tone at 2Co_2:14 ff.: “If it might there be said that he had gone out of himself, on the other hand, the succeeding explanation (begun in 2Co_3:1) could only produce the impression of sober rationality.” But in this way there is in fact assumed a retrospective reference for ἐξέστ ., which no reader and, excepting Hofmann, no expositor could have conjectured, and this all the less that from 2Co_3:1 to the present passage Paul has been speaking of himself in a tone to a great extent lofty and exalted (e.g. 2Co_3:2 f., 12 ff., the whole of chap. 4, particularly after 2Co_5:7; also 2Co_5:1 ff.); so that we do not see on what so great a difference of judgment is to be based, as would be yielded by ἐξέστ . and ΣΩΦΡΟΝ . It remains far from clear, we may add, what more precise conception Hofmann has of “gone out of himself” (whether as insanity or merely as extravagance of emotion).
εἴτε … εἴτε ] does not here mark off two different conditions (Baur in the theol. Jahrb. 1850, p. 182 ff.) and times, nor the actual change of moods and modes of behaviour (Osiander) which Paul would scarcely have designated according to different references of aim (comp. rather τὰ πάντα διʼ ὑμᾶς , 2Co_4:15), but two different modes of appearance of the same state, which are both assumed as possibly right, but the latter of which is in 2Co_5:14 proved to be right and the former excluded.
[225] Grotius limits the reference of ἐξέστ . to the trances alone; but the word in itself does not justify this.
[226] So Bengel; and earlier Luther, who gives as gloss: “If we do too much, i.e. if we deal at once sharply with the people, we still serve God by it; but if we act gently and moderately with them, we do so for the people’s good, so that in every way we do rightly and well.”
[227] Comp. Pindar, Ol. ix 58: τὸ καυχᾶσθαι παρὰ καιρὸν μανίαισιν ὑποκρέκει , Plato, Protag. p. 323 B: ὅ ἐκεῖ σωφροσύνην ἡγοῦντο εἶναι , τἀληθῆ λέγειν , ἐνταῦθα μανίαν .
[228] “Si quid gloriatur P., id non ad ipsius, sed ad Dei gloriam pertinet; si mediocria loquitur, id tribuit infirmioribus, quorum affectibus et capacitati se accommodat.” Rückert also, who in other respects takes ἐξέστ . and σωφρ . rightly in their pure and full sense, refers ὑμῖν to accommodation.