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2Co_9:13 is not to be placed in a parenthesis; see on 2Co_9:14. The participle is again anacoluthic (comp. on 2Co_9:11). As if he had said before: by the fact that many give thanks to God, Paul now continues: inasmuch as they, induced by the tried character of this service, praise God on account of the submission, etc.[292] Hofmann considers 2Co_9:13 as co-ordinated with 2Co_9:11, so that the ΔΟΞΆΖΟΝΤΕς Τ . Θ … would be the subjects themselves performing the service, who by this service prove themselves to be Christians. If so, (1) we should have to leap over 2Co_9:12 as a merely relative appendage of 2Co_9:11, and to eliminate it from the continuity of the chain of thought; but it does not lend itself to be so dealt with either in virtue of the position assigned to it by ὍΤΙ , or in virtue of the important contents of its two clauses; (2) we should have to shut our eyes to the fact, that ΔΟΞΆΖΟΝΤΕς Τ . Θ … is obviously correlative to the previous ΔΙᾺ ΠΟΛΛ . ΕὐΧΑΡΙΣΤΙῶΝ Τῷ ΘΕῷ ; finally, we should have to make the participial clause afterwards begin, in a very involved fashion, with ἘΠῚ Τῇ ὙΠΟΤΑΓῇ Κ . Τ . Λ ., in spite of the fact that this ἘΠΊ could not but at once present itself to, and obtrude itself upon, every reader, as the specification of the ground of the ΔΟΞΆΖΟΝΤΕς Τ . ΘΕΌΝ (comp. 2Co_9:15; Luk_2:20; Act_4:21; Sir_3:2).
The ΔΟΚΙΜῊ Τῆς ΔΙΑΚΟΝ . Τ . is the indoles spectata (see on 2Co_8:2) of this work of giving, according to which it has shown itself such as might have been expected in keeping with the Christian standard (especially of love). So Theophylact: διὰ τῆς δοκίμου ταύτης καὶ μεμαρτυρημένης ἐπὶ φιλανθρωπίᾳ διακονίας . Others take the relation of the genitive as: the attestedness, in which this bounty has exhibited you. So Calvin (“erat enim specimen idoneum probandae Corinthiorum caritatis, quod erga fratres procul remotos tam liberales erant”), Estius, Rosenmüller, Flatt, Rückert, Olshausen, de Wette, Ewald, Osiander; comp. also Hofman, who takes τῆς διακονίας as epexegetical genitive. But it is only in what follows that the ground of the praise is introduced as subsisting in the Corinthians, and that by a different preposition ( ἐπί ), and, besides, it is most natural to understand Τῆς ΔΙΑΚΟΝΊΑς Τ . of that which is attested, so that the attested character of the collecting work appears as the occasion ( διά , see Winer, p. 357 [E. T. 476]; Bernhardy, p. 235) of God’s being praised on account of the obedience of the Corinthians, etc. Observe, withal, how the actual occasion which primarily brings about the δοξάζειν τ . θ … ( ΔΙΆ ), and the deeper ground of this δοξάζειν ( ἘΠΊ ), are distinguished. We may add that Rückert arbitrarily finds here an evidence that Paul in the collection had it as his aim to break down the repugnance of the Jewish-Christians towards the Gentile-Christians by this proof of the latter’s love. Comp. on 1Co_16:1. The work of collection may have furthered this reconciliation, but this was not its aim.
ἐπὶ τῇ ὑποταγῇ … πάντας ] contains two reasons for their praising God. The first refers to the gospel of Christ (concerning Christ, 2Co_2:12): on account of the compliance with your confession (because you are so obedient in fact to your Christian confession of faith), they praise God in reference to the gospel of Christ, which, in fact, produces such compliance of its confessors. The second reason refers to the persons, namely, to them, the receivers themselves, and all Christians in general: and on account of the simplicity of the fellowship (because you held the Christian fellowship in such a sincere and pure manner) they praise God in reference to themselves and to all, as those whom this ἁπλότης τ . κοινωνίας goes to benefit. Paul rightly adds Κ . ΕἸς ΠΆΝΤΑς ; for by the beneficence towards the Jews the Corinthians showed, in point of fact, that they excluded no Christians from the sincere fellowship of love. The expositors connect εἰς το εὐαγγ . τ . Χ . either with Τῆς ὉΜΟΛΟΓ . ὙΜῶΝ , so that ὉΜΟΛΟΓ . ΕἸς is said, like ΠΊΣΤΙς ΕἸς (Erasmus Schmid, Wolf, Flatt, Rückert, Ewald, Osiander, and others, including Billroth), or with Τῇ ὙΠΟΤΑΓῇ (Chrysostom, Erasmus, Calvin, Beza, Grotius, and many others), and then ΕἸς ΑὐΤΟῪς Κ . ΕἸς ΠΆΝΤΑς with Τῆς ΚΟΙΝΩΝΊΑς .[293] But this view would require the connecting link of the article both before εἰς τὸ εὐαγγ . and also before ΕἸς ΑὐΤΟΎς , since neither ὙΠΟΤΆΣΣΕΣΘΑΙ nor ὉΜΟΛΟΓΕῖΝ nor ΚΟΙΝΩΝΕῖΝ is construed with ΕἸς , the last not even in Php_1:5 (in opposition to de Wette). The suggestion to which Hofmann has recourse, that the twice used ΕἸς expresses the direction in which both—the ὑποταγὴ τῆς ὁμολογίας and the ἉΠΛΌΤΗς Τῆς ΚΟΙΝΩΝΊΑς —take place, has against it the non-insertion of the connecting article, which only may be rightly omitted when ΕἸς in both cases belongs to the verb ( ΔΟΞΆΖΟΝΤΕς Τ . Θ .).[294] Rückert’s appeal to the inexactness of the language in this chapter is unfounded and the more to be rejected, that no fault can be found with the meaning—by no means tame (Osiander), but rich in significant reference—which arises from the strictly grammatical construction. Observe especially the quite Pauline way of exhausting, by different prepositions, the different characteristic aspects of the subject-matter (here the ΔΟΞΆΖΕΙΝ ΤῸΝ ΘΕΌΝ ), which he does according to the categories of the occasion ( ΔΙΆ ), the ground ( ἘΠΊ ), and the point of reference ( ΕἸς : with a view to). Comp. 2Co_1:11, Rom_3:25, and many other passages.
On ὉΜΟΛΟΓΊΑ ,[295] confession, comp. 1Ti_6:12-13; Heb_3:1; Heb_4:14; Heb_10:23; Hebrews 3 Esr. 2Co_9:8; not so in the Greek writers. The explanation consensus (Erasmus: “quod intelligant vos tanto consensu obedire monitis evangelicis,” comp. Castalio, Vatablus, and Calvin) accords, no doubt, with the classical usage, but is at once set aside by the fact that the passage must have run: ἐπὶ τῇ ὁμολογίᾳ τῆς ὑποταγῆς .
[292] Luther and Beza connect διὰ τῆς δοκιμῆς τῆς διακονίας ταύτης with ver. 12, for which Beza adduces the reason that otherwise δοξάζοντες is connected with διά and ἐπί without copula,—a reason quite untenable, considering the diversity of the relations expressed by the two prepositions! And how very much the symmetry of the passage would be disturbed! As ver. 11 closed with εὐχαρ . τῷ θεῷ , so also the confirmatory clause closes with εὐχαρ . τῷ θεῷ , and the more precise explanation begins with the following διὰ τῆς δοκ . κ . τ . λ .
[293] Rückert and most others interpret: “on account of the sincerity of your fellowship with them and with all;” but Billroth and Neander: “on account of the liberality of communication to them and to all,”—which, however, is quite wrong, for ἁπλότης does not mean liberality, and of the communication (which, besides, is never the meaning of κοινωνία at least in the N. T.; see on Rom_15:26; Rom_12:13, Gal_6:6) it could not be said that it had taken place to all.
[294] This, indeed, is quite impossible according to Hofmann’s mistaken construing of ἐπὶ τῇ ὑποταγή κ . τ . λ . as dependent on the participial clause καὶ αὐτῶν … ἐπιποθούντων .
[295] Many elder commentators quite arbitrarily took τῆς ὁμολογίας for τῇ ὁμολογουμένῃ . So Beza: “de vestra testata subjectione in evang.” But Erasmus Schmid d Wolf: “ob subjectionem vestram, contestatam in evang.” (so that εἰς τὸ εὐαγγ . is held to belong to τῆς ὁμολογ .).