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2Co_5:8. But we have good courage and are well pleased, etc. With this Paul resumes the thought of 2Co_5:6, and carries it on, yet without keeping to the construction there begun. The idea of the θαῤῥοῦμεν must in this resumption be the same as that of the θαῤῥοῦντες in 2Co_5:6, namely, the idea of confident courage in suffering. This in opposition to Hofmann, who takes θαῤῥοῦντες rightly of courage in suffering, but θαῤῥοῦμεν of courage in death, making the infinitive ἐκδημῆσαι depend also on θαῤῥοῦμεν (see below).
δέ , no doubt, links on again the discourse interrupted by the parenthesis (Hermann, ad Viger. p. 847; Pflugk, ad Eurip. Hec. 1211; Fritzsche, Diss. II. p. 21), which may also happen, where no δέ has preceded (Klotz, ad Devar. p. 377); since, however, θαῤῥοῦντες is not repeated here, we must suppose that Paul has quite dropped the plan of the discourse begun in 2Co_5:6 and broken off by 2Co_5:7, and returns by the way of contrast to what was said in 2Co_5:6. Accordingly there occurs an adversative reference to the previous διὰ πιστ . περιπατοῦμεν , οὐ διὰ εἴδους , in so far as this state of things as to the course of his temporal life does not make the apostle at all discontented and discouraged, but, on the contrary, leaves his θαῤῥεῖν , already expressed in 2Co_5:6, quite untouched, and makes his desire tend rather towards being from home, etc. Comp. Hartung, I. p. 173. 2; Klotz, l.c. Thus there is a logical reason why Paul has not written οὖν . Comp. on Eph_2:4.
εὐδοκεῖν in the sense of being pleased, of placet mihi, comp. 1Co_1:21; Gal_1:15; Col_1:19; 1Th_2:8; Fritzsche, ad Rom. II. p. 370.
ἐκδημῆσαι ἐκ τοῦ σώματος ] to be-from-home out of the body, is not to be understood of the change at the Parousia (Kaeuffer, ζωὴ αἰών ., p. 80 f.), but, in accordance with the context, must be the opposite of ἐνδημοῦντες ἐν τῷ σώματι , 2Co_5:6; consequently in substance not different from ἐκδύσασθαι , 2Co_5:4. Hence the only right interpretation is the usual one of dying, in consequence of which we are-from-home out of the body. Comp. Php_1:23; Plato, Phaed. p. 67, B, C. The infinitive is dependent only on εὐδοκοῦμεν , not also on θαῤῥοῦμεν (Hofmann), since θαῤῥεῖν with the infinitive means to venture something, to undertake to do something, which would not suit here (comp. Xen. Cyr. viii. 8. 6; Herodian. ii. 10. 13),—even apart from the fact that this use of θαῤῥεῖν (equivalent to τολμᾶν ) is foreign to the N. T. and rare even among Greek writers. The εὐδοκοῦμεν κ . τ . λ . is something greater than the θαῤῥοῦμεν . This passage stands to 2Co_5:4, where Paul has expressed the desire not to die but to be transformed alive, in the relation not of contradiction, but of climax; the shrinking from the process of dying is, through the consideration contained in 2Co_5:5 and in the feeling of the courage which it gives (2Co_5:6), now overcome, and in place of it there has now come the inclination rather ( μᾶλλον ) to see the present relation of ἐνδημεῖν ἐν τῷ σώματι and ἐκδημεῖν ἀπὸ τοῦ κυρίου (2Co_5:6) reversed, rather,[218] therefore, ἐκδημῆσαι ἐκ τοῦ σώματος καὶ ἐνδημῆσαι πρὸς τὸν κύριον , which will take place through death, if this should be appointed to him in his apostolic conflicts and sufferings (2Co_4:7 ff.), for in that case his spirit, having migrated from his body, will not, separated from Christ, come into Hades, but will be at home with the Lord in heaven—a state the blessedness of which will later, at the day of the Parousia, receive the consummation of glory. The certainty of coming by martyrdom into heaven to Christ is consequently not to be regarded as a certainty only apprehended subsequently by Paul. See Php_1:26, Remark.
[218] μᾶλλον therefore belongs neither to εὐδοκοῦμεν nor to θαῤῥ . κ . εὐδοκ ., as if Paul would say that he has this courage still more than that meant in ver. 6 (Hofmann), but to ἐκδημῆσαι … κύριον . We wish that, instead of the present home in the body, etc., there may rather (potius) set in the being-from-home out of the body and the being-at-home with the Lord. This “rather” no more yields an awkward idea here (as Hofmann objects) than it does in all other passages where it is said that one wills, ought to do, or does, instead of one thing rather the other. Comp. e.g. 1Co_5:2; 1Co_6:7; Rom_14:13; Joh_3:19.