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2Co_8:9. Parenthesis which states what holy reason he has for speaking to them, not κατʼ ἐπιταγήν , but in the way just mentioned, that of testing their love. For you know, indeed ( γινώσκετε not imperative, as Chrysostom and others think), what a high pattern of gracious kindness you have experienced in yourselves from Jesus Christ. So the testing, which I have in view among you, will only be imitation of Christ. Olshausen rejects here the conception of pattern, and finds the proof of possibility: “Since Christ by His becoming poor has made you rich, you also may communicate of your riches; He has placed you in a position to do so.” The outward giving, namely, presupposes the disposition to give as an internal motive, without which it would not take place. But in this view πλουτήσητε would of necessity apply to riches in loving dispositions, which, however, is not suggested at all in the context, since in point of fact the consciousness of every believing reader led him to think of the whole fulness of the Messianic blessings as the aim of Christ’s humiliation, and to place in that the riches meant by πλουτήσητε .
ὅτι διʼ ὑμᾶς κ . τ . λ .] that He for your sakes, etc., epexegetical of τὴν χάριν τ . κυρ . ἡμ . Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ . The emphatic διʼ ὑμᾶς brings home to the believing consciousness of the readers individually the aim, which in itself was universa.
ἐπτώχευσε ] inasmuch as He by His humiliation to become incarnate emptied Himself of the participation, which He had in His pre-existent state, of God’s glory, dominion, and blessedness ( πλούσιος ὤν ), Php_2:6. On the meaning of the word, comp. LXX. Jdg_6:6; Jdg_14:15; Psa_34:10; Psa_79:8; Pro_23:21; Tob_4:21; Antiphanes in Becker’s Anecd. 112. 24. The aorist denotes the once-occurring entrance into the condition of being poor, and therefore certainly the having become poor (although πτωχεύειν , as also the classical πενέσθαι , does not mean to become poor, but to be[271] poor), and not the whole life led by Christ in poverty and lowliness, during which He was nevertheless rich in grace, rich in inward blessings; so Baur[272] and Köstlin, Lehrbegr. d. Joh. p. 310, also Beyschlag, Christol. p. 237. On the other hand, see Raebiger, Christol. Paul. p. 38 f.; Neander, ed. 4, p. 801 f.; Lechler, Apost. Zeit. p. 50 f.; Weiss, Bibl. Theol. pp. 312, 318.
ὤν ] is the imperfect participle: when He was rich, and does not denote the abiding possession (Estius, Rückert); for, according to the context, the apostle is not speaking of what Christ is, but of what He was,[273] before He became man, and ceased to be on His self-exinanition in becoming man (Gal_4:4; this also in opposition to Philippi, Glaubensl. IV. p. 447). So also ὑπάρχων , Php_2:6.
ἽΝΑ ὙΜΕῖς … ΠΛΟΥΤΉΣΗΤΕ ] in order that you through His poverty might become rich. These riches are the reconciliation, justification, illumination, sanctification, peace, joy, certainty of eternal life, and thereafter this life itself, in short, the whole sum of spiritual and heavenly blessings (comp. Chrysostom) which Christ has obtained for believers by His humiliation even to the death of the cross. Πλουτεῖν means with the Greek writers, and in the N. T. (Rom_10:12; Luk_12:21), to be rich; but the aorist (1Co_4:8) is to be taken as with ἐπτώχευσε . Ἐκείνου , instead of the simple ΑὐΤΟῦ (Krüger, ad Xen. Anab. iv. 3. 30; Dissen, ad Dem. de cor. p. 276, 148), has great emphasis: “magnitudinem Domini innuit,” Bengel.
In opposition to the interpretation of our passage, by which ἐπτώχ . falls into the historical life, so that πλούσιος ὤν is taken potentialiter as denoting the power to take to Himself riches and dominion, which, however, Jesus has renounced and has subjected Himself to poverty and self-denial (so Grotius and de Wette), see on Php_2:6.
[271] As e.g. βασιλεύειν , to be king, but ἐβασίλευσα : I have become king. Comp. 1Co_4:8; and see in general, Kühner, ad Xen. Mem. i. 1. 18; also Ernesti, Urspr. d. Sünde, I. p. 245.
[272] Comp. his neut. Theol. p. 193: “though in Himself as respects His right rich, He lived poor.”
[273] Comp. Rich. Schmidt, Paul. Christol. p. 144.