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2Co_5:4. An explanation defining more precisely, and therewith giving a reason for ( γάρ ), 2Co_5:3, after a frequent practice of the apostle. Comp. 2Co_4:10-11. In this καί , even, serves to emphasize the οἱ ὄντες ἐν τ . σκ ., just as with ἐν τούτῳ in 2Co_5:2.
The ἐν τούτῳ of 2Co_5:2 is here more precisely defined by οἱ ὄντες ἐν τῷ σκήνει , in which οἱ ὄντες is prefixed with emphasis: for even as those who are still in the tent, i.e. for even as those whose sojourn in the tent is not yet at an end; already while we are still in possession of the bodily life, which duration of time is opposed to the moment of the possible κατάλυσις τοῦ σκήνους , when the tent is left, and when the longing and sighing after the new body would be still stronger; comp. on 2Co_5:2. From the very position of the καί Hofmann is wrong in making its emphasis fall on βαρούμενοι , which extorts sighs from us, and then taking οἱ ὄντες ἐν τ . σκ . in antithetic reference to what is afterwards affirmed of these subjects, since they prefer to remain in the earthly life (comp. οἱ ζῶντες , 2Co_4:11). The οἱ ὄντες ἐν τ . σκ . can only, in fact, be the same as the ἐν τούτῳ of 2Co_5:2, which, however, Hofmann has already wrongly understood in another way; the two expressions explain one anothe.
τῷ σκήνει ] The article expresses the tent which is defined by the connection (the body).
βαρούμενοι ] definition assigning a reason for στενάζ .: inasmuch as we are depressed; not, however, propter calamitates (2Co_1:8), as Piscator, Emmerling, Schneckenburger, Fritzsche suppose without any ground in the context, but the cause of the pressure which extorts the sighs is expressed by the following ἐφʼ ᾧ οὐ θέλομεν κ . τ . λ ., so that βαρούμενοι , ἐφʼ ᾧ οὐ θέλομεν κ . τ . λ . is a more precise explanation of the τὸ οἰκητήριον … ἐπιποθοῦντες of 2Co_5:2.
ἐφʼ ᾧ ] i.e. ἐπὶ τούτῳ ὅτι , propterea quod, as Rom_5:12; see on that passage. Comp. here particularly θυμὸν βαρύνειν ἐπί τινι , Pind. Pyth. i. 162 f.; στενάζειν ἐπί τινι , Soph. El. 1291; Xen. Cyr. iv. 3. 3 : δακνόμενος ἐπὶ τούτοις . We feel ourselves as oppressed by a burden, because we are not willing, i.e. have an antipathy, to unclothe, etc. The oppressive part of this οὐ θέλομεν ἐκδύσασθαι , ἀλλʼ ἐπενδύσασθαι lies in the ever present possibility of the ἐκδύσασθαι . Emmerling and Fritzsche take ἐφʼ ᾧ as quare (see Elsner, ad Rom. v. 12; Matthiae, p. 1373): “Nam in hoc corpore ad calamitates valde ingemisco ( καὶ .… γὰρ βαρυν .) et propter hanc ipsam malorum molem ( ἐφʼ ᾧ ) nolo quidem, ut haec propulsetur, mortem oppetere ( ἐκδυσ .),” etc. But there is nothing of the malorum moles in the context; and if we should wish, as the context allowed, with Osiander and older commentators, to refer βαρούμ . to the pressure which the body as such (the σκῆνος ) causes to us by its onus peccati et crucis (comp. Wis_9:15), and then to explain ἐφʼ ᾇ : and in order to get rid of this pressure; this would be at variance with the parallel in 2Co_5:2, according to which the sighing must appear to be caused by the special longing (which in 2Co_5:4 is, by way of more precise definition, designated as an oppressing one), not by another pressure.[216] This, at the same time, in opposition to Usteri and Schneckenburger, who take it as whereupon (comp. Kühner, II. p. 298). According to Beza, it means in quo, sc. tabernaculo, and, according to Flatt, even although. At variance with linguistic usage. Ewald, taking βαρούμ . of the burden of the whole earthly existence, explains it: “in so far as we wish not to be unclothed, and so set forth as naked and guilty and cast into hell, but to be clothed over.” Against this it may be urged that ἐφʼ ᾧ does not mean quatenus ( ἐφʼ ὅσον ), and that the interpretation of “being unclothed” in the sense of reum fieri is not grounded in the text; see on 2Co_5:3.
θέλομεν ] Out of this we are not, with Grotius, Emmerling, and others, to make malumus; otherwise ἤ must have stood instead of ἀλλά , 1Co_14:19. The οὐ θέλειν is the nolle, the not being willing (Baeumlein, Partik. p. 278; Ameis on Hom. Od. ii. 274), of the disinclination of natural feeling.
ἀλλʼ ] sc. θέλομεν .
ἵνα καταποθῇ κ . τ . λ .] We wish to be clothed over, in order that, in this desired case, what is mortal in us may be swallowed up (may be annihilated, comp. 1Co_15:54) by life, i.e. by the new, immortal power of life which is imparted to us in the moment of the change (of the ἐπενδύσασθαι ). Ὥσπερ ἀνίσχον τὸ φῶς φροῦδον τὸ σκότος ποιεῖ , οὕτως ἡ ἀνώλεθρος ζωὴ τὴν φθορὰν ἀφανίζει , Theodoret.
[216] Osiander: “wherefore we long to have ourselves not unclothed, but clothed over, because in the very act of dying the pressure of the tabernacle becomes heaviest, when it, as it were, collapses over its inhabitant.” It is self-evident that of this explication of ἐφʼ ᾧ there is nothing in the text: even apart from the fact, that Osiander explains as if the words were ἐφʼ ᾧ θέλομεν οὐκ ἐκδύσασθαι κ . τ . λ .
REMARK.
There is not fear of death in this utterance of the apostle, but rather the shrinking from death, that pertains to human nature—the shrinking from the process of death as a painful one. His wish was not to die first before the Parousia and then to be raised up, but to be transformed alive; and what man, to whom the nearness of the Parousia was so certain, could have wished otherwise? His courage in confronting death, which was no Stoical contempt of death, remained untouched by it.