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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - 2 Corinthians 1:13 - 1:13
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13. οὐ γὰρ ἄλλα γράφομεν. ‘Do not say, Ah, but your letters are not sincere, for I write nothing that is inconsistent with what you read in my other letters, or with your experience of my life and conduct.’ The present, γράφομεν, does not refer to this letter exclusively, and perhaps does not include it. He is appealing to what they already know of him. ‘My letters are consistent with one another and with my behaviour, as you have known it in the past, and (I hope) as you will know it to the end.’ The Corinthians had previously received three letters from him, the lost letter of 1Co 5:9, 1 Corinthians, and a third letter, very severe in tone, which is either lost or preserved in part in 10–13. So they had enough of his written words to judge him by. See on 2Co 1:23, 2Co 2:3; 2Co 2:9.
ἀλλʼ ἣ ἃ ἀναγινώσκετε ἣ καὶ ἐπιγινώσκετε. Than what you read or even acknowledge. Note the present tense: ‘my meaning lies on the surface. You read it at once; you read it and you recognize it.’ For the characteristic play upon words comp. 2Co 3:2, 2Co 4:8, 2Co 6:10, 2Co 7:10, 2Co 10:6; 2Co 10:12. In classical Greek ἀναγινώσκετε might mean ‘recognize, admit’; and it has been proposed to go back to that meaning here: ‘we write none other things than what ye recognize or even acknowledge,’ or (imitating the play on words) ‘than those things to which ye assent and even consent.’ And it is proposed to adopt a similar rendering in 2Co 3:2. But ἀναγινώσκειν occurs more than thirty times in the N.T., and seems always to mean ‘read’ (Eph 3:4; Col 4:16; 1Th 5:27, &c.). In this Epistle it must mean ‘read’ in 2Co 3:15, and almost certainly in 2Co 3:2. It is safer to retain the usual N.T. meaning here, as Chrysostom does. Indeed the use of the word in connexion with the recipients of a letter, in contrast to the writer, seems to be decisive.
There is perhaps a mixture of constructions in ἀλλʼ ἤ, between οὐκ ἄλλα ἤ and οὐκ ἄλλα, ἀλλά: comp. Luk 12:51; Job 6:5; Sir 37:12; Sir 44:10. It is common in classical Greek, and Hdt. I. 49. 1 and IX. 8, 3 seem to show the origin of it. See Winer, p. 552, Stallbaum on Phaedo 81 B.
ἐλπίξω. He is not quite confident: I hope you will acknowledge to the end. ‘Even to the end’ (A.V.) is from the false reading καὶ ἕως τέλους (D3KLMP). As in 1Co 1:8, ‘to the end’ means to the end of the world. The expectation of Christ’s speedy return was then so vivid that the difference between ‘till I die’ and ‘until the day of the Lord Jesus’ was not great.