{"commentary":{"id":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","website":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamieson-Fausset-Brown_Bible_Commentary","licenseUrl":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/","licenseNotes":null,"licenseNotice":null,"englishName":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","language":"eng","textDirection":"rtl","sha256":"db3d4c8b3c1f32ef9d1430a57392e02bda3a17aac1f9bbe398461de021a3cb13","availableFormats":["json"],"listOfBooksApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/books.json","listOfProfilesApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/profiles.json","numberOfBooks":66,"totalNumberOfChapters":1187,"totalNumberOfVerses":17056,"totalNumberOfProfiles":0,"languageName":"English","languageEnglishName":"English"},"book":{"id":"2CO","commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"2 Corinthians","commonName":"2 Corinthians","introduction":"THE following reasons seem to have induced Paul to write this Second Epistle to the Corinthians: (1) That he might explain the reasons for his having deferred to pay them his promised visit, by taking Corinth as his way to Macedonia (Co1 4:19; Co2 1:15-16; compare Co1 16:5); and so that he might set forth to them his apostolic walk in general (Co2 1:12, Co2 1:24; Co2 6:3-13; Co2 7:2). (2) That he might commend their obedience in reference to the directions in his First Epistle, and at the same time direct them now to forgive the offender, as having been punished sufficiently (Co2 2:1-11; Co2 7:6-16). (3) That he might urge them to collect for the poor saints at Jerusalem (Co2 8:1-9, Co2 8:15). (4) That he might maintain his apostolic authority and reprove gainsayers.\n\nThe external testimonies for its genuineness are IRENÆUS [Against Heresies, 3,7,1]; ATHENAGORAS [Of the Resurrection of the Dead]; CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA [Miscellanies, 3, p. 94; 4, p. 101]; TERTULLIAN [On Modesty, 13].\n\nThe TIME OF WRITING was after Pentecost, A.D. 57, when Paul left Ephesus for Troas. Having stayed in the latter place for some time preaching the Gospel with effect (Co2 2:12), he went on to Macedonia, being eager to meet Titus there, having been disappointed in his not coming to Troas, as had been agreed on between them. Having heard from him the tidings he so much desired of the good effect produced on the Corinthians by his First Epistle, and after having tested the liberality of the Macedonian churches (Co2 8:1), he wrote this Second Epistle, and then went on to Greece, where he abode for three months; and then, after travelling by land, reached Philippi on his return at Passover or Easter, A.D. 58 (Act 20:1-6). So that this Epistle must have been written about autumn, A.D. 57.\n\nMacedonia was THE PLACE from which it was written (Co2 9:2, where the present tense, \"I boast,\" or \"am boasting,\" implies his presence then in Macedonia). In Asia (Lydian Asia) he had undergone some great peril of his life (Co2 1:8-9), whether the reference be [PALEY] to the tumult at Ephesus (Acts 19:23-41), or, as ALFORD thinks, to a dangerous illness in which he despaired of life. Thence he passed by Troas to Philippi, the first city which would meet him in entering Macedonia. The importance of the Philippian Church would induce him to stay there some time; as also his desire to collect contributions from the Macedonian churches for the poor saints at Jerusalem. His anxiety of mind is recorded (Co2 7:5) as occurring when he came into Macedonia, and therefore must have been at Philippi, which was the first city of Macedonia in coming from Troas; and here, too, from Co2 7:6, compared with Co2 7:5, must have been the scene of his receiving the comforting tidings from Titus. \"Macedonia\" is used for Philippi in Co2 11:9, as is proved by comparison with Phi 4:15-16. So it is probably used here (Co2 7:5). ALFORD argues from Co2 8:1, where he speaks of the \"grace bestowed on the churches (plural) of Macedonia,\" that Paul must have visited other churches in Macedonia, besides Philippi, when he wrote, for example, Thessalonica, Berea, &c., and that Philippi, the first on his route, is less likely to have been the scene of his writing than the last on his route, whichever it was, perhaps Thessalonica. But Philippi, as being the chief town of the province, was probably the place to which all the collections of the churches were sent. Ancient tradition, too (as appears from the subscription to this Epistle), favors the view that Philippi was the place from which this Epistle was sent by the hands of Titus who received, besides, a charge to prosecute at Corinth the collection which he had begun at his first visit (Co2 8:6).\n\nThe STYLE is most varied, and passes rapidly from one phase of feeling to another; now joyous and consolatory, again severe and full of reproof; at one time gentle and affectionate, at another, sternly rebuking opponents and upholding his dignity as an apostle. This variety of style accords with the warm and earnest character of the apostle, which nowhere is manifested more beautifully than in this Epistle. His bodily frailty, and the chronic malady under which he suffered, and which is often alluded to (Co2 4:7; Co2 5:1-4; Co2 12:7-9; compare Note, see on Co2 1:8), must have been especially trying to one of his ardent temperament. But besides this, was the more pressing anxiety of the \"care of all the churches.\" At Corinth, as elsewhere, Judaizing emissaries wished to bind legal fetters of letter and form (compare 2Co. 3:3-18) on the freedom and catholicity of the Church. On the other hand, there were free thinkers who defended their immorality of practice by infidel theories (Co1 15:12, Co1 15:32-36). These were the \"fightings without,\" and \"fears within\" (Co2 7:5-6) which agitated the apostle's mind until Titus brought him comforting tidings from Corinth. Even then, while the majority at Corinth had testified their repentance, and, as Paul had desired, excommunicated the incestuous person, and contributed for the poor Christians of Judea, there was still a minority who, more contemptuously than ever, resisted the apostle. These accused him of crafty and mercenary motives, as if he had personal gain in view in the collection being made; and this, notwithstanding his scrupulous care to be above the possibility of reasonable suspicion, by having others besides himself to take charge of the money. This insinuation was palpably inconsistent with their other charge, that he could be no true apostle, as he did not claim maintenance from the churches which he founded. Another accusation they brought of cowardly weakness; that he was always threatening severe measures without daring to execute them (Co2 10:8-16; Co2 13:2); and that he was vacillating in his teaching and practice, circumcising Timothy, and yet withholding circumcision from Titus; a Jew among the Jews, and a Greek among the Greeks. That most of these opponents were of the Judaizing party in the Church, appears from Co2 11:22. They seem to have been headed by an emissary from Judea (\"he that cometh,\" Co2 11:4), who had brought \"letters of commendation\" (Co2 3:1) from members of the Church at Jerusalem, and who boasted of his purity of Hebrew descent, and his close connection with Christ Himself (Co2 11:13, Co2 11:23). His partisans contrasted his high pretensions with the timid humility of Paul (Co1 2:3); and his rhetoric with the apostle's plain and unadorned style (Co2 11:6; Co2 10:10, Co2 10:13). It was this state of things at Corinth, reported by Titus, that caused Paul to send him back forthwith thither with this Second Epistle, which is addressed, not to Corinth only (Co1 1:2), but to all the churches also in Achaia (Co2 1:1), which had in some degree been affected by the same causes as affected the Corinthian Church. The widely different tone in different parts of the Epistle is due to the diversity which existed at Corinth between the penitent majority and the refractory minority. The former he addresses with the warmest affection; the latter with menace and warning. Two deputies, chosen by the churches to take charge of the contribution to be collected at Corinth, accompanied Titus (Co2 8:18-19, Co2 8:22). \n\n\n\nNext: 2 Corinthians Chapter 1\n\n","order":47,"numberOfChapters":13,"sha256":"90286450b61b72bcc6f42b0d0d5b45cafdeabce5f4f3d78e1fddf60a95cf8970","firstChapterNumber":1,"firstChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/2CO/1.json","firstChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"2CO","chapter":1},"lastChapterNumber":13,"lastChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/2CO/13.json","lastChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"2CO","chapter":13},"totalNumberOfVerses":240},"chapter":{"number":10,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":2,"content":["I beseech you--Intimating that, as he can beseech in letters, so he can be severe in their presence. \n\nthat I may not be--that I may not have to be bold, &c. \n\nwith that confidence--that authoritative sternness. \n\nI think--I am minded to be. \n\nas if we walked according to the flesh--His Corinthian detractors judged of him by themselves, as if he were influenced by fleshly motives, the desire of favor or fear of giving offense, so as not to exercise his authority when present.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["For--Reason why they should regard him \"beseeching\" them (Co2 10:2) not to oblige him to have recourse to \"bold\" and stern exercise of authority. \"We walk IN the flesh,\" and so in weakness: but not \"ACCORDING TO the flesh\" (Co2 10:2). Moreover, though we WALK in it, we do not WAR according to it. A double contrast or antithesis. \"They who accuse us of walking after the flesh, shall find [to their cost] that we do not war after the flesh; therefore compel us not to use our weapons\" [ALFORD].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["A confutation of those who try to propagate their creed by force and persecution (compare Luk 9:54-56). \n\nweapons--for punishing offending members (Co2 10:6; Co1 4:21; Co1 5:5, Co1 5:13); boldness of speech, ecclesiastical discipline (Co2 10:8; Co2 13:10), the power of the word, and of the sacraments, the various extraordinary gifts of the Spirit. \n\ncarnal--Translate, \"fleshly,\" to preserve the allusion to Co2 10:2-3. \n\nmighty through God--Greek, \"mighty to God,\" that is, mighty before God: not humanly, but divinely powerful. The power is not ours, but God's. Compare \"fair to God,\" that is, divinely fair (Act 7:20, Margin). Also above (Co2 2:15), \"unto God a sweet savor.\" \"The efficacy of the Christian religion proves its truth\" [BENGEL]. \n\npulling down--As the Greek is the same as in Co2 10:5, translate, \"casting down.\" Compare Jer 1:10 : the inspired servants of God inherit the commission of the Old Testament prophets. \n\nstrongholds-- (Pro 21:22); namely, in which sinners entrench themselves against reproof; all that opposes itself to Christ; the learning, and eloquence, and philosophical subtleties on which the Corinthians prided themselves. So Joshua's trumpet blast was \"mighty\" under God to overthrow the walls of Jericho.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["imaginations--rather, \"reasonings.\" Whereas \"thought\" expresses men's own purpose and determination of living after their own pleasure [TITTMANN]. \n\nhigh thing--So it ought to be translated (Rom 8:39). A distinct Greek word from that in Eph 3:18, \"height,\" and Rev 21:16, which belongs to God and heaven from whence we receive nothing hurtful. But \"high thing\" is not so much \"height\" as something made high, and belongs to those regions of air where the powers of darkness ::exalt themselves\" against Christ and us (Eph 2:2; Eph 6:12; Th2 2:4). \n\nexalteth itself-- Th2 2:4 supports English Version rather than the translation of ELLICOTT, &c., \"is lifted up.\" Such were the high towers of Judaic self-righteousness, philosophic speculations, and rhetorical sophistries, the \"knowledge\" so much prized by many (opposed to \"the knowledge of God\"), which endangered a section of the Corinthian Church. \n\nagainst the knowledge of God--True knowledge makes men humble. Where there is exaltation of self, there knowledge of God is wanting [BENGEL]. Arrange the words following thus: \"Bringing every thought (that is, intent of the mind or will) into captivity to the obedience of Christ,\" that is, to obey Christ. The three steps of the apostle's spiritual warfare are: (1) It demolishes what is opposed to Christ; (2) It leads captive; (3) It brings into obedience to Christ (Rom 1:5; Rom 16:26). The \"reasonings\" (English Version, \"imaginations\") are utterly \"cast down.\" The \"mental intents\" (English Version, \"thoughts\") are taken willing captives, and tender the voluntary obedience of faith to Christ the Conqueror.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["Translate, \"Having ourselves (that is, being) in readiness to exact punishment for all disobedience,\" &c. We have this in store for the disobedient: it will be brought into action in due time. \n\nwhen your obedience, &c.--He charitably assumes that most of the Corinthian Church will act obediently; therefore he says \"YOUR obedience.\" But perhaps some will act otherwise; in order, therefore, to give all an opportunity of joining the obedient, he will not prematurely exact punishment, but wait until the full number of those gathered out to Christ has been \"completed,\" and the remainder have been proved incorrigible. He had acted already so at Corinth (Act 18:6-11; compare Exo 32:34; Mat 13:28-30).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["Do ye regard mere outward appearance (mere external recommendations, personal appearance, voice, manner, oratory of teachers present face to face, such as they admired in the false teachers to the disparagement of Paul, Co2 10:10; see on Co2 5:12)? Even in outward bearing when I shall be present with you (in contrast to \"by letters,\" Co2 10:9) I will show that I am more really armed with the authority of Christ, than those who arrogate to themselves the title of being peculiarly \"Christ's\" (Co1 1:12). A Jewish emissary seems to have led this party. \n\nlet him of himself think this again--He may \"of himself,\" without needing to be taught it in a more severe manner, by \"thinking again,\" arrive at \"this\" conclusion, \"that even as,\" &c. Paul modestly demands for himself only an equal place with those whom he had begotten in the Gospel [BENGEL].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["\"For even if I were to boast somewhat more exceedingly (than I do, Co2 10:3-6) of our (apostolic) authority (Co2 10:6; Co2 13:10) . . . I should not be put to shame (by the fact; as I should be if my authority proved to be without foundation: my threats of punishment not being carried into effect).\" \n\nfor edification . . . not for . . . destruction--Greek, \"for building up . . . not for . . . CASTING DOWN\" (the same Greek as in Co2 10:5): the image of a building as in Co2 10:4-5. Though we \"cast down reasonings,\" this is not in order to destroy, but really to build up (\"edify\"), by removing those things which are hindrances to edification, and testing what is unsound, and putting together all that is true in the building [CHRYSOSTOM].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["I say this lest I should seem to be terrifying you, as children, with empty threats [BENGEL]. ESTIUS explains, \"I might boast more of my authority, but I forbear to do so, that I may not seem as if,\" &c. But this ellipsis is harsh: and Co2 10:10-11 confirm BENGEL'S view.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["letters--implying that there had been already more letters of Paul received by the Corinthians than the one we have, namely, First Corinthians; and that they contained strong reproofs. \n\nsay they--Greek, \"says one,\" \"such a one\" (Co2 10:11) seems to point to some definite individual. Compare Gal 5:10; a similar slanderer was in the Galatian Church. \n\nweak-- (Co2 12:7; Co1 2:3). There was nothing of majesty or authority in his manner; he bore himself tremblingly among them, whereas the false teachers spoke with authoritative bearing and language.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":11,"content":["think this--\"consider this.\" \n\nsuch will we be--or \"are,\" in general, not merely shall we be at our next visit.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["\"We do not presume (irony) to judge ourselves among, or in comparison with, some of them that commend themselves.\" The charge falsely brought against him of commending himself (Co2 3:1; Co2 5:12), really holds good of the false teachers. The phrase, \"judge ourselves of the number,\" is drawn from the testing of athletes and senators, the \"approved\" being set down on the roll [WAHL]. \n\nmeasuring themselves by themselves--\"among themselves\": to correspond to the previous verb, \"judge ourselves among them.\" Instead of measuring themselves by the public standard, they measure themselves by one made by themselves: they do not compare themselves with others who excel them, but with those like themselves: hence their high self-esteem. The one-eyed is easily king among the blind. \n\nare not wise--with all their boasted \"wisdom\" (Co1 1:19-26), they are anything but \"wise.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["not boast . . . without . . . measure--Greek, \"to unmeasured bounds.\" There is no limit to a man's high opinion of himself, so long as he measures himself by himself (Co2 10:13) and his fellows, and does not compare himself with his superiors. It marks the personal character of this Epistle that the word \"boast\" occurs twenty-nine times in it, and only twenty-six times in all the other Epistles put together. Undeterred by the charge of vanity, he felt he must vindicate his apostolic authority by facts [CONYBEARE and HOWSON]. It would be to \"boast of things without our measure,\" were we to boast of conversions made by \"other men's labors\" (Co2 10:15). \n\ndistributed--apportioned [ALFORD]. \n\na measure--as a measure [ALFORD]. \n\nto reach--\"that we should reach as far as even to you\": not that he meant to go no further (Co2 10:16; Rom 15:20-24). Paul's \"measure\" is the apportionment of his sphere of Gospel labors ruled for him by God. A \"rule\" among the so-called \"apostolic canons\" subsequently was, that no bishop should appoint ministers beyond his own limits. At Corinth no minister ought to have been received without Paul's sanction, as Corinth was apportioned to him by God as his apostolic sphere. The Epistle here incidentally, and therefore undesignedly, confirms the independent history, the Acts, which represents Corinth as the extreme limit as yet of his preaching, at which he had stopped, after he had from Philippi passed southward successively through Amphipolis, Apollonia, Thessalonica, Berea, and Athens [PALEY, HorÃ&brvbr PaulinÃ&brvbr].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":14,"content":["\"We are not stretching ourselves beyond our measure, as (we should be) if we did not reach unto you: (but we do), for as far as even to you have we come in preaching the Gospel.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":15,"content":["\"Not boasting to unmeasured bounds (that is, not exceeding our own bounds by boasting) of (literally, 'in') other men's labors.\" \n\nwhen--\"As your faith goes on increasing.\" The cause of his not yet reaching with the Gospel the regions beyond Corinth, was the weakness as yet of their faith. He desired not to leave the Corinthians before the proper time, and yet not to put off preaching to others too long. \n\nenlarged by you--Greek, \"in your case.\" Our success in your case will give us an important step towards further progress beyond you (Co2 10:16). \n\naccording to our rule--according to our divinely assigned apportionment of the area or sphere of our work; for \"we stretch not ourselves beyond our measure\" (Co2 10:14). \n\nabundantly--Greek, \"unto exceeding abundance\": so as to exceed the limits we have yet reached (Co2 10:16).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":16,"content":["To--that is, so as to preach . . . beyond you (and) not to boast, &c. \n\nin another man's line of things made ready to our hand--Do not connect \"line of things,\" &c.; but \"boast of things,\" &c. To make this clearer, arrange the words thus, \"Not to boast as to things (already made by the preaching of others) ready to our hand in another man's line (that is, within the line, or sphere of labor, apportioned by God to another).\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":17,"content":["glorieth--Translate, to accord with Co2 10:16, \"boasteth.\" In contrast to his opponents' practice of boasting in another's line or sphere, Paul declares the only true boasting is in the Lord (Co1 1:31; Co1 15:10).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":18,"content":["(Pro 27:2). \n\nwhom the Lord commendeth--to whom the Lord has given as His \"Epistle of commendation,\" the believers whom he has been the instrument of converting: as was Paul's case (Co2 3:1-3). \n\nis approved--can stand the test of the final trial. A metaphor from testing metals (Rom 16:10; Co1 11:19). So on the other hand those finally rejected by the Lord are termed \"reprobate silver\" (Jer 6:30).\n\n\n\n\nNext: 2 Corinthians Chapter 11\n\n"]}],"introduction":"HE VINDICATES HIS APOSTOLIC AUTHORITY AGAINST THOSE WHO DEPRECIATED HIM FOR HIS PERSONAL APPEARANCE. HE WILL MAKE HIS POWER FELT WHEN HE COMES. HE BOASTS NOT, AS THEY, BEYOND HIS MEASURE. (2Co. 10:1-18)\n\nI Paul myself--no longer \"we,\" \"us,\" \"our\" (Co2 9:11): I who am represented by depreciators as \"base,\" I, the same Paul, of my own accord \"beseech you\"; or rather \"entreat,\" \"exhort\" you for your sake. As \"I beseech you\" (a distinct Greek verb, Co2 10:2) for my sake. \n\nby the meekness and gentleness of Christ--He mentions these graces of Christ especially (Psa 18:35; Mat 11:29), as on account of his imitation of them in particular he was despised [GROTIUS]. He entreats them by these, in order to show that though he must have recourse to more severe measures, he is naturally inclined to gentle ones after Christ's example [MENOCHIUS]. \"Meekness\" is more in the mind internally; \"gentleness\" in the external behavior, and in relation to others; for instance, the condescending yieldingness of a superior to an inferior, the former not insisting on his strict rights [TRENCH]. BENGEL explains it, \"By the meekness and gentleness derived by me from Christ,\" not from my own nature: he objects to understanding it of Christ's meekness and gentleness, since nowhere else is \"gentleness\" attributed to Him. But though the exact Greek word is not applied to Him, the idea expressed by it is (compare Isa 40:11; Mat 12:19-20). \n\nin presence--in personal appearance when present with you. \n\nbase--Greek, \"lowly\"; timid, humbly diffident: opposed to \"bold.\" \"Am\" stands here by ironical concession for \"am reputed to be\" (compare Co2 10:10).\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/2CO/10.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"2CO","chapter":10},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/2CO/11.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"2CO","chapter":11},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/2CO/9.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"2CO","chapter":9},"numberOfVerses":17}