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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - 2 Corinthians 11:8 - 11:8
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8. ἅλλας ἐκκλησίας ἐσύλησα. Other churches I robbed; a hyperbolical expression, indicative of strong feeling, but at once preserved from being misleading by the explanation which follows. Here also he may be adopting a phrase used by his enemies. The verb is very rare in Biblical Greek: elsewhere only Ep. Jeremiah 18; comp. Rom 2:22; Col 2:8. He means the Macedonian Churches, from whom he accepted subsidies, which helped to support him while he preached at Corinth. Possibly the plural is rhetorical, and Philippi alone is meant (Php 4:15). In any case the expression ἅλλας ἑκκλ. is more pointed if the whole Church of Corinth is addressed in these chapters, and not the hostile minority: comp. 2Co 12:13 and see on 2Co 11:2.
λαβὼν ὀψώνιον πρὸς τὴν ὑμῶν διακονίαν. In taking wages (Luk 3:14; Rom 6:23) of them for my ministry unto you. He had compared his work to a campaign (2Co 10:3-5), and τίς στρατεύεται ἰδίοις ὀψωνίοις ποτέ; (1Co 9:7). The supplies must come from somewhere: in this case, in order to spare the country in which he was campaigning, he got them, partly by his own labour (ἱδίοις ὀψωνίοις), partly from the Macedonian Churches. The word ὀψώνιον is late (1Es 4:56; 1Ma 3:28; 1Ma 14:32; Polyb.): it means (1) a soldier’s rations; (2) his pay; (3) the means by which a campaign is carried on. See Lightfoot on Rom 6:23. In the agreement between King Eumenes I. and his mercenaries (c. B.C. 265) ὀψώνιον occurs several times in the sense of ‘pay,’ and ὀψώνιον λαμβάνειν occurs once (Deissmann, Bible Studies, p. 226). In this sense the singular is usual in inscriptions. The ὑμῶν, like τοῦ θεοῦ in 2Co 11:7, is emphatic by position: see last note on 2Co 12:19.