28. τοῦτο = this business—of his mission in this cause.
á¼Ï€Î¹Ï„ελÎσας. ‘When I have put a finish to’; cf. Php 1:6 : the word is used in the same connexion in 2Co 8:6; 2Co 8:11.
σφÏαγισάμενος αá½. τὸν καÏπὸν τοῦτον. Deissmann, B. S. II. 65, 66, quotes from Papyri instances of sealing bags of corn etc. to prevent their being tampered with and so to secure them for the assignee: and following Theod. Mops, and Lipsius tr. ‘bring it safely into their possession.’ This will be an instance, then, of the commercial metaphors not infrequent in S. Paul (cf. βεβαιοῦν, χειÏόγÏαφον, á¼€ÏÏαβών). The present of money, symbolising brotherly fellowship, is the fruit received by the Jerusalem Church as the result of the spiritual labours of S. Paul, working on their behalf among the Gentiles. The seal was primarily a mark of ownership and authenticity and then secondarily of security and correctness (cf. Mat 27:66) as here. So Rutherford “when I have securely conveyed to them this return.†So Chrys., Theodt (Cramer’s Catena IV. p. 512).
αá½Ï„οῖς = οἱ ἅγιοι (Rom 15:25) in Jerusalem.
ἀπελεÏσομαι for Attic ἄπειμι; εἶμι had fallen out of use in popular language, Blass, p. 52; cf. Thackeray, p. 257, 267.
εἰς Σπανίαν. Cf. S. H. Whether S. Paul visited Spain or not is doubtful. That he should have intended to is completely in accordance with his general plan of mission work; cf. Introd. p. xii; cf. Ramsay, Paul the Tr., p. 255.