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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - 2 Corinthians 1:4 - 1:4
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4. ἐπὶ πάσῃ τῇ θλίψει ἡμῶν. In all our affliction. S. Paul repeats θλίψις (4, 8, 2Co 2:4) and θλίβω (2Co 1:6) as he repeats παράκλησις and παρακαλεῖν and the repetition should be preserved in translation.
The ἡμᾶς and ἡμῶν are probably not a gentle substitute for με and μου. Where he means himself exclusively he commonly uses the singular (2Co 1:15; 2Co 1:17; 2Co 1:23, 2Co 2:1-13, 2Co 7:4; 2Co 7:8-12; 2Co 7:14-16, 2Co 9:1-2, &c.), sometimes with pronouns added which make the singular more emphatic (2Co 1:23, 2Co 2:2; 2Co 2:10, 2Co 10:1, 2Co 12:13). Where he uses the plural he perhaps generally includes Timothy or others, according to the context: see Lightfoot on 1Th 2:4. But changes of number are frequent and rapid (2Co 7:3-16), sometimes in the same verse (2Co 1:13). On the other hand, while the plural prevails 2Co 1:3-12 and 2Co 2:14 to 2Co 7:1, in 2Co 1:15-17 and 2Co 2:1-10 the singular is constant. It is more certain that the singular is always personal than that the plural commonly includes someone else. In 2Co 7:5 ἡ σὰρξ ἡμῶν must mean S. Paul only; comp. 1Th 3:1-5. Here ἡμᾶξ may mean all believers.
Θλίψις implies being pressed down or in great straits. The Vulgate has tribulatio here, 2Co 1:8, 2Co 4:8; 2Co 4:17, 2Co 6:4, 2Co 7:4, 2Co 8:2; pressura next line, Joh 16:21; Joh 16:33; Php 1:16; passio Col 1:24, where it is used of the sufferings of Christ. It is under the influence of the Vulgate that the A. V. here has first ‘tribulation’ and then ‘trouble.’ In the first case it is affliction as a whole that is meant, in the second, every kind of affliction (Mat 3:10; Mat 3:17; Mat 12:31; Luk 4:13): Blass, Gram. N.T. § 47. 9. The ἐπί expresses the occasion on which the comfort is bestowed.
εἰς τὸ δύνασθαι ἡμᾶς παρακαλεῖν. It is part of the Divine purpose in giving comfort, that it should be communicated to others. Dat ut demus. Community of feeling with others is the note of the Church (Joh 13:35). It was his intense sympathy which gave S. Paul such power in winning, regaining, and retaining converts. Note the attraction of ἦς for ᾖ, as in Eph 1:6; Eph 4:1, a form of attraction which is rare: attraction is common in the N.T., but is not so varied as in classical Greek.