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2Co_8:6. In order that we should exhort Titus, etc. Comp. 2Co_8:17. εἰς τό with the infinitive is here, as in all passages (see on Rom_1:20), to be taken, not as so that (so usually, and by Winer), but as telic: in order that. Comp. Kühner, ad Xen. Anab. vii. 8. 20. Certainly the παρακαλέσαι ἡμᾶς τίτον κ . τ . λ . was a consequence of the beyond expectation successful course of the matter in Macedonia, in accordance with which Paul might promise himself no less a success among the Corinthians; but delicately and piously he presents the state of the case, as if this further prosecution of the work of collection, amidst the self-sacrificing liberality of the Macedonians effected by the divine will, had lain in God’s purpose, and was therefore a consequence that had been aimed at by God. This flows from the διὰ θελήμ . θεοῦ immediately preceding. Comp. Hofmann also. Paul sees in the fact, that the divinely-willed success of the collecting work in Macedonia has encouraged him to the continuance of it expressed in 2Co_8:6, the fulfilment of the divine counsel and will, which he is thereby servin.
ἵνα ] Design in the παρακαλέσαι , and consequently its content.
καθὼς προενήρξατο ] as he formerly has begun, without doubt during his sojourn in Corinth after our first Epistle, see Introd. § 1. The word is indeed without example elsewhere, but it is formed from ἐνάρχομαι , after the analogy of προάρχω and other.
οὕτω καὶ ἐπιτελέσῃ εἰς ὑμᾶς ] so also might complete it among you. The emphasis lies, as before on προενήρξατο , so here on ἐπιτελέσῃ . With the verb of rest εἰς associates the thought of the previous arrival, so that ἐλθέν may for clearness be supplied. See Kühner, § 622 b; Jacobs, ad Anthol. XIII. p. 71; Ellendt, Lex. Soph. I. p. 537. The correlation of ἐνάρχεσθαι and ἐπιτελεῖν is simply as in Php_1:6, Gal_3:3; we should anticipate (2Co_9:12) by importing the idea of sacrifice (Osiander).
καὶ τὴν χάριν ταύτην ] not hanc quoque gratiam (Beza, Calvin, comp. Castalio), but: etiam gratiam istam (Vulgate). For also belongs to τὴν χάριν , not to ταύτην . He shall complete among you—in addition to whatever else he has already begun and has still to complete—also this benefit. This better suits the context, namely, the connection of the οὕτω καὶ ἐπιτελ . with καθὼς προενήρξατο , than the interpretation of Estius: “dicit etiam, ut innuat Titum alia quaedam apud ipsos jam perfecisse.” So also Flatt. It is quite superfluous to invoke, with Hofmann, an involution of two sentences in order to explain the double καί . And since καί refers to the activity of Titus, Billroth is wrong in explaining it: “they are to distinguish themselves in this good deed, as in all things.”
The work of collection is designated as χάρις , for on the side of the givers it was a showing of kindness, a work of love, an opus charitativum. Observe that here and in 2Co_8:4; 2Co_8:19, θεοῦ is not added, as in 2Co_8:1; 2Co_9:14, according to which Hofmann and older commentators explain it here also of the divine grace, of which they are made worthy through the service rendered.