Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadHeinrich Meyer Commentary - 2 Corinthians 9:2 - 9:2
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
2Co_9:2. Τὴν προθυμ . ὑμῶν ] Rückert infers from the whole contents of the two chapters that the inclination is only assumed as still existing, and no longer existed in reality; but his inference is unjust, and at variance with the apostle’s character. Already, ἀπὸ πέρυσι (2Co_8:10) have the readers begun to collect, and the work of love, in fact, needed only the carrying out, which Paul intends by chap. 8 and 9 to procur.
ἣν ὑπὲρ ὑμ . καυχ . Μακεδ .] of which I make my boast in your favour (in your recommendation) to the Macedonians; for the Corinthians were made by Paul to favour the collection. On καυχάομαι , with the accusative of the object, comp. 2Co_7:14, 2Co_10:8, 2Co_11:30; LXX. Pro_27:1; Lucian, Ocyp. 120; Athen. xiv. p. 627 C. On the present Bengel rightly remarks: “Adhuc erat P. in Macedonia.”
ὅτι Ἀχαΐα παρεσκ . ἀπὸ πέρυσι ] so ran the καυχῶμαι : that Achaia has been in readiness (to give pecuniary aid to promote it) since the previous year. Paul says Ἀχαΐα , not ὑμεῖς (comp. 2Co_9:3), because he repeats words actually used by him. These concerned not only Corinth, but the whole Province, in which, however, the Corinthian was the central church. Comp. on 2Co_1:1.
καὶ ὁ ἐξ ὑμῶν ζῆλος [286] Κ . Τ . Λ .] is, by way of attraction, an expression of the thought: your zeal wrought forth from you as stimulating to them. Comp. from the N. T. Mat_24:17; Luk_11:13. See on Matt. l.c., and Hermann, ad Viger. p. 893; Kühner, ad Xen. Anab. i. 1. 5.
ΤΟῪς ΠΛΕΊΝΑς ] the majority of the Macedonians, so that only the minority remained uninfluenced.
[286] The form τὸ ζῆλος is found here in B à (Lachm. ed. min.); it has much stronger attestation in Php_3:6. Running counter to the usage of the whole N. T., it must be considered as an error of the copyists, though it really occurs in Clem. Cor. i. 4 (thrice) and 6, and Ignatius, Trall. 4 (Dressel), and hence was doubtless known to the copyists.
REMARK.
Paul might with perfect truth stimulate (1) the Macedonians by the zeal of the Corinthians, because the latter had begun the work earlier than the former, and were already ἀπὸ πέρυσι in readiness; and then (2) the Corinthians, again, by the example of the Macedonians (2Co_8:1 ff.), since the latter, after having followed the Corinthians in the prosecution of the work, had shown such extraordinary activity as in turn to serve the Corinthians a model and a stimulus to further beneficence. Is it not possible that in the very same affair first A should be held up as a model to B, and then, according to the measure of the success, conversely B to A? Hence Theodoret and many (comp. also Chrysostom) have rightly remarked on the wisdom in the apostle’s conduct; whereas Rückert declares this conduct of his to be unwise (of its morality he prefers to be silent), unjustly taking it for granted that his καυχᾶσθαι regarding the Corinthians was untrue. See 2Co_7:14. De Wette also thinks that the apostle is not free from human error here.
That in αὐθαίρετοι , at 2Co_8:3, there is no contradiction with 2Co_9:2, see on 2Co_8:3.