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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - 2 Corinthians 1:9 - 1:9
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9. ἀλλὰ αὐτοὶ ἐν ἑαυτοῖς τὸ ἀπόκριμα τοὺ θανάτου ἐσχήκαμεν. Nay, we ourselves within ourselves have got the answer of death. ‘When we asked whether it was to be life or death for us, our own presentiment said, death.’ The ἀλλά does not mark opposition, but confirms what precedes: ‘you may disbelieve this, but more than this is true’: comp. 2Co 8:7, 2Co 10:2; Joh 16:2. The A.V. has ‘sentence’ in the text and ‘answer’ in the margin; the R.V. transposes. Josephus and Polybius use ἀπόκριμα for a decision of the Roman Senate; and in an inscription dated A.D. 51, and therefore about the time of this letter, it is used of the decisions of the Emperor Claudius (Deissmann, Bible Studies, p. 257). Therefore ‘sentence’ or ‘verdict’ is admissible, although ‘answer’ is perhaps correct. Chrysostom gives as equivalents, τὴν ψῆφον, κρίσιν, τὴν προσδοκίαν … τὴν ἀπόφασιν. The Vulgate has responsum. The word occurs nowhere else in Biblical Greek. With the perfect, ἐσχήκαμεν, which vividly recalls the situation and prolongs it into the present, comp. 2Co 2:13 and 2Co 7:5.
ἵνα μὴ πεποιθότες ὦμεν ἐφʼ ἑαυτοῖς. This was God’s purpose in sending the presentiment of death: comp. 2Co 4:7; 1Co 1:15. For the periphrastic perfect comp. Joh 16:24; Joh 17:19.
τῷ ἐγείροντι τοὺς νεκρούς. Present participle: He continually raises the dead, and a fortiori can rescue from death (Rom 4:17). Thus the ἐξαπορηθῆναι of 2Co 1:8 becomes the οὐκ ἐξαπορούμενοι. of 2Co 4:8. This passing mention of the doctrine of the resurrection (2Co 4:14, 2Co 5:10), which had been impugned at Corinth (1Co 15:12), is perhaps intentional.