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10. καὶ γνώμην ἐν τούτῳ δίδωμι. And it is an opinion that I am giving in this; γνώμη in contrast to ἐπιταγή (2Co 8:8). See the same contrast 1Co 7:25; and for the value of his γνώμη 1Co 7:40.
τοῦτο γὰρ ὑμῖν συμφέρει. ‘To offer one’s judgment, and not give commands, is the right course in dealing with people like you, who (οἵτινες) made a beginning a year before the Macedonians, not only in doing, but also in willing.’ The Corinthians were willing to collect, and began to collect, a year before the Macedonians did either (see on 2Co 9:2). It remains for them to complete the work, and about that the Apostle’s judgment will suffice. It is people who as yet have done nothing, and are not even willing to do anything, who need commands. Note the change from aor. infin. to pres. infin.
ἀπὸ πέρυσι. Lit. ‘from last year,’ i.e. a year ago. These combinations of prepositions with adverbs of time and place are late Greek. This one, for which προπέρυσι and ἐκπέρυσι were used, occurs in papyri of c. 200 A.D. Deissmann, Bible Studies, p. 221. This seems to imply that 1Co 16:2 was written more than a year before this. In that case, can 1 Corinthians have been written in the spring, and 2 Corinthians in the autumn, of the same year, as is often supposed? Granted that S. Paul, following the reckoning by Olympiads, began his years at midsummer, would he in the autumn speak of the previous spring as ἀπὸ πέρυσι? A decisive example is a desideratum. The Macedonian year, like the Jewish civil year (Tisri), seems to have begun in the autumn; and S. Paul might reckon by either of these.