Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - 2 Corinthians 13:3 - 13:3
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
3. ἐπεὶ δοκιμὴν ζητεῖτε. This is the reason why he cannot spare; they themselves have rendered that impossible, seeing that ye seek a proof (2Co 2:9, 2Co 8:2, 2Co 9:13) of the Christ that speaketh in me. They had virtually challenged the Christ that St Paul preached, to give a proof of His power. It is a very clumsy arrangement to take ἐπεὶ δοκιμὴν κ.τ.λ. as the protasis to ἑαυτοὺς πειράζετε, and make the whole of 2Co 13:4 a parenthesis. For ἐπεί both Origen and Theodoret read sometimes εἰ and sometimes ἤ: hence the an quaeritis? of the Vulgate and some other Latin texts.
δς εἰς ὑμᾶς … ἐν ὑμῖν. Note the chiasmus; Who to youward is not weak, but is powerful in you. Comp. 2Co 2:16, 2Co 4:3, 2Co 6:8, 2Co 9:6, 2Co 10:11. Although ἀδυνατεῖν is common, δυνατεῖν is used by no one but S. Paul: in 2Co 9:8 and Rom 13:4 the rarity of the word has produced variants; but here the reading is unquestioned. It makes a specially good contrast to ἀσθενεῖν. By ἐν ὑμῖν is meant ‘among you, in the Church’ (comp. 2Co 10:1, 2Co 11:12), not ‘in your hearts.’ Whether in δυνατεῖ S. Paul is thinking of σημεῖα, τέρατα, and δυνάμεις (2Co 12:10), it is impossible to say: perhaps he is rather thinking of judgments (comp. 1Co 11:30). With ἀσθενεῖ comp. Rom 8:3 of the powerlessness of the Law. Place at most a semicolon at the end of 2Co 13:3; what follows is an answer to the supposed objection that a Christ who could not save himself from crucifixion must be a powerless Christ.