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2Co_5:7. Reason assigned for the ἐνδημοῦντες … κυρίου . For through faith we walk, etc.; faith is the sphere through which we walk, i.e. faith is the element through which our earthly life moves. If we walked διὰ εἴδους , seeing that this presupposes the being together with Christ, we should not be ἐκδημοῦντες ἀπὸ τοῦ κυρίου . The object of faith we must from the whole connection conceive to be the Lord in His glory, whose real form ( τὸ εἶδος ) we shall only have before us when we are with Him. Comp. Rom_8:17; 1Th_4:17; Joh_17:24; 1Pe_1:8, al.
διὰ πίστεως ] quite in accordance with the Greek phrase διὰ δικαιοσύνης ἰέναι . Comp. περιπατεῖν διὰ τοῦ φῶτος , Rev_21:24, and the classical expressions πορεύεσθαι διὰ τῶν ἡδονῶν and the like; see, in general, Valckenaer, ad Phoeniss. 402; Heindorf, ad Protag. p. 323 A; Hermann, ad Oed. Col. 905; Bernhardy, p. 235.
οὐ διὰ εἴδους ] i.e. not so, that we are surrounded by the appearance, not so, that we have before us Christ, the Exalted One, in His real appearance and form, i.e. in His visible δόξα , and that this glorious εἶδος shines round us in our walk. Comp. Joh_17:24, and the πρόσωπον πρὸς πρόσωπον , 1Co_13:12. εἶδος never means, as it is mostly explained, vision (not even in Num_12:8), but always species. The Vulgate renders rightly: per speciem. See Luk_3:22; Luk_9:29; Joh_5:37; 1Th_5:22; Duncan, Lex., ed. Rost, p. 333; Ast, Lex. Plat. I. p. 607 f.; Tittmann, Synon. p. 119, who, however, with the assent of Lipsius (Rechtfertigungsl. p. 100), wrongly takes it: externa rerum specie captum vivere, so that the meaning would be: “Vita nostra immortali ilia spe, non harum rerum vana specie regitur.” According to this view, different objects would quite arbitrarily be assumed for πίστις and εἶδος ; and further, where Paul specifies with περιπατεῖν that by which it is defined, he uses as a prepositional expression not διά , but κατά (Rom_8:4; Rom_14:15, al.), or renders palpable the manner of the walking by ἐν (2Co_4:2; Rom_6:4, al.), or characterizes it by the dative, as 2Co_12:18; Gal_5:16. These reasons tell also in opposition to Hofmann, who explains διά of the walk, which has its quality from faith, etc., and εἶδος of an outward form of the walker himself, in which the latter presents himself as visible.
Regarding the relation of the διὰ πίστεως to the διὰ εἴδους , observe that in the temporal life we have the πίστις , and not the εἶδος , while in the future world through the Parousia there is added to the πίστις also the εἶδος , but the former does not thereby cease, it rather remains eternal (1Co_13:13).