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2Co_9:14. Καὶ αὐτῶν δεήσει ὑπὲρ ὑμ .] does not go with περισσεύουσα 2Co_9:12, so that 2Co_9:13 would be a parenthesis (Beza, Estius, Rosenmüller, Flatt, Olshausen, de Wette), because in that case Paul would have written very enigmatically, and must at least have continued with διά instead of with the dative. Nor yet does it go with δοξάζοντες , in which case the dative is either made to depend on ἐπί (Luther, Castalio, Bengel), or is taken instrumentally (Emmerling, Billroth, Osiander, Neander; Rückert does not decide), for in the former case there would result an idea strange and destitute of all analogy from the N. T. (Bengel wrongly appeals to 2Ti_1:3); in the latter, καί would be superfluous, and the prefixing of the αὐτῶν would remain entirely unregarded. We must rather take καὶ αὐτῶν … ἐπιποθούντων together as genitive absolute (comp. the punctuation in Lachmann and Teschendorf, also Ewald and Hofmann), and καὶ αὐτοί means they too, by which is meant to be indicated the fact that, and the mode in which, on their side also the ἁπλότης τῆς κοινωνίας , which the Corinthians have shown, is returned. Thus: while they too with prayer for you long after you. The emergence of the genitive absolute without difference of the subject is a phenomenon also frequent in classical authors. See Poppo, ad Thucyd. I. p. 119 f.; Richter, de anacol. § 16; Matthiae, p. 1306; Bornemann, ad Act_13:6.
δεήσει is not instrumental, but an accompanying accessory definition of the mode: with prayer, amid prayer for you.[296] Comp. Bernhardy, p. 100 f.
Regarding ἐπιποθεῖν , see on 2Co_5:2. It is the longing of pious, grateful love for personal fellowship with the brethren far distant. It is a sheer fancy that it means maximo amore complecti (Beza and many others, even Billroth).
διὰ τὴν ὑπερβάλλουσαν κ . τ . λ .] reason of this pious longing: because the grace of God is abundant towards you. How far this was shown in the present instance, see 2Co_9:13. Chrysostom well says: ἐπιποθοῦσι γὰρ τοῦτο οὐ διὰ τὰ χρήματα , ἀλλʼ ὥστε θεαταὶ γενέσθαι τῆς δεδομένης ὑμῖν χάριτος . Even in this Δ . Τ . ὙΠΕΡΒΆΛΛ . ΧΆΡΙΝ , Hofmann finds the contrast between the Israelitic Christians and the Gentile Christians, who before had lived beyond the pale of the church of God, and without God in the world. If Paul had meant this relation, he would have expressed it (comp. Eph_2:12).
ἐφʼ ὑμῖν belongs to ὙΠΕΡΒΆΛΛ . Comp. Kühner, ad Xen. Anab. iv. 2. 18. ἐπί denotes the object, to which the activity has passed o2Co 9:Buttmann, neut. Gr. p. 290 [E. T. 337].
[296] It is the Christian intercession of thankfulness for the benefactors, for whom the praying heart yearns. Hofmann goes beyond the text when he imports into this prayer the definite contents: that God would keep the Achaean Christians till the time, when Jesus shall bring together the scattered children of God with those of the Holy Land and people. Mat_24:31 treats of the Parousia, and is not at all relevant here.