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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - 2 Corinthians 5:8 - 5:8
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
8. The δέ marks the resumption of θαρροῦντες in θαρροῦμεν, and this is well rendered by ‘I say’ (A.V.).
εὐδοκοῦμεν. Are well pleased (2Co 12:10; Mat 3:17; Mat 12:18; Mat 17:5; Luk 12:32; 1Co 1:21; &c.): stronger than θέλομεν. The Apostle is more than willing to migrate out of the body; which shows that though there may be natural awe, there is no fear of death in 2Co 5:4. As at a later period (Php 1:20-25), he is ‘in a strait betwixt the two.’ For some reasons he would like to remain alive; for others he would prefer to depart. But the reasons for wishing to remain have changed. Here it is for his own sake that he desires not to die: he believes that the Lord will come soon, and he longs to see Him without dying. There it is for the sake of the Philippians that he desires to remain alive: they can ill do without him. Probably, when he wrote to them, he was less confident that Christ would come soon, and therefore had ceased for this reason to wish to live longer. In both cases the reason for his desire to migrate from the body is that he may come home to the Lord. Comp. Cic. Tusc. I. 41. 98.