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2Co_7:5. In all our tribulation, I say, for even after we had come to Macedonia we had no rest.
In this καί , even, Paul refers back to what was stated in 2Co_2:12-13; but it does not follow that with Flatt we should regard what lies between as a digressio.
ἔσχηκεν ] as in 2Co_2:13. Still B F G K (not à ), Lachmann, have the reading ἔσχεν , which appears to be original and altered into accordance with 2Co_2:13.
ἡ σὰρξ ἡμῶν ] our flesh, denotes here, according to the connection, the purely human essence as determined by its corporeo-psychical nature, in its moral impotence and sensuous excitability, apart from the divine πνεῦμα , without whose influence even the moral nature of man (the human πνεῦμα with the νοῦς ) lacks the capacity for determining and governing the ethical life. Comp. on Rom_4:1; Joh_3:6. The σάρξ with its life-principle the ψυχή is by itself morally incapable even in the regenerate man, and stands too much in antagonism to the divine πνεῦμα (see on Gal_5:17), not to have unrest, despondency, etc., occurring even in him when he confronts the impressions of struggle and suffering. Comp. Mat_24:41. No doubt the expression in this passage seems not to agree with the τῷ πνεύματί μου in 2Co_2:12; but there, where, besides, Paul is speaking simply of himself, he speaks only of inward unrest, of anxious thoughts in the moral consciousness; whereas here (where he includes also Timothy) he speaks of outward ( ἔξωθεν μάχαι ) and inward ( ἔσωθεν φόβοι ) assaults, so that that which lies, as it were, in the middle and is affected on both sides is the σάρξ .[257] Rückert brings in here also his groundless hypothesis regarding an illness of the apostl.
ἀλλʼ ἐν παντὶ θλιβόμενοι ] Paul continues as if he had written previously: οὐκ ἤμεθα ἄνεσιν ἔχοντες , or οὐκ ἐν ἀνέσει ἤμεθα , or οὐχ ἥσυχοι ἤμεθα , or the like. Quite similar departures from the construction are found also in the classics. See Matthiae, p. 1293; Fritzsche, Dissert. II. p. 49. Comp. 2Co_1:7, εἰδότες , and the remark on it. It arises from vividness of excitement as the thought proceeds. Comp. Kühner, II. p. 617. Buttmann, neut. Gram. p. 256 [E. T. 298].
ἔξωθεν μάχαι , ἔσωθεν φόβοι ] The omission of ἦσαν gives greater prominence to the short, concise representation. Chrysostom, Theophylact, Pelagius, Calvin, Grotius, Bengel, Wetstein, and others, also Schrader, explain ἔξωθεν and ἔσωθεν as extra and intra ecclesiam; and of this various interpretations are given; Chrysostom holding that the former applies to unbelievers, the latter to the weak brethren; Theodoret: that the former applies to the false teachers, the latter to the weak brethren; and Grotius: that the former applies to the Jews and heathen, the latter to the false teachers. But after ἡ σὰρξ ἡμῶν (see above), and on account of φόβοι , it is more in keeping with the context to refer it to the subject: from without struggles (with opponents, who may have been Christian or non-Christian), from within (from our own minds) fears. The latter are not defined more precisely; but it is in keeping with the contrast of χαρῆναι afterwards in 2Co_7:7 to think of fears regarding the circumstances of the Corinthians, and in particular regarding the effect of his former Epistle on them (comp. also 2Co_2:12). Hofmann holds, without any basis in the text, that Paul was apprehensive lest the conflicts to be undergone by him (probably with the Jews) might degenerate into persecutions.
[257] Ernesti, Urspr. d. Sünde, I. p. 56, has wrongly objected to this interpretation that Paul would have said ἡ ψυχὴ ἡμῶν . He might have done so, hut there was no need for it; the σάρξ rather corresponds with the ἔξωθεν most naturally as that which is first affected from without.