{"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":11,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":2,"content":["For I am jealous--The justification of his self-commendations lies in his zealous care lest they should fall from Christ, to whom he, as \"the friend of the Bridegroom\" (Joh 3:29), has espoused them; in order to lead them back from the false apostles to Christ, he is obliged to boast as an apostle of Christ, in a way which, but for the motive, would be \"folly.\" \n\ngodly jealousy--literally, \"jealousy of God\" (compare Co2 1:12, \"godly sincerity,\" literally, \"sincerity of God\"). \"If I am immoderate, I am immoderate to God\" [BENGEL]. A jealousy which has God's honor at heart (Kg1 19:10). \n\nI . . . espoused you--Paul uses a Greek term applied properly to the bridegroom, just as he ascribes to himself \"jealousy,\" a feeling properly belonging to the husband; so entirely does he identify himself with Christ. \n\npresent you as a chaste virgin to Christ--at His coming, when the heavenly marriage shall take place (Mat 25:6; Rev 19:7, Rev 19:9). What Paul here says he desires to do, namely, \"present\" the Church as \"a chaste virgin\" to Christ, Christ Himself is said to do in the fuller sense. Whatever ministers do effectively, is really done by Christ (Eph 5:27-32). The espousals are going on now. He does not say \"chaste virgins\"; for not individual members, but the whole body of believers conjointly constitute the Bride.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["I fear-- (Co2 12:20); not inconsistent with love. His source of fear was their yielding character. \n\nsubtilty--the utter foe of the \"simplicity\" which is intent on ONE object, Jesus, and seeks none \"other,\" and no \"other\" and different Spirit (Co2 11:4); but loves him with tender SINGLENESS OF AFFECTION. Where Eve first gave way, was in mentally harboring for a moment the possibility insinuated by the serpent, of GOD not having her truest interests at heart, and of this \"other\" professing friend being more concerned for her than God. \n\ncorrupted--so as to lose their virgin purity through seducers (Co2 11:4). The same Greek stands for \"minds\" as for \"thoughts\" (Co2 10:5, also see on Co2 10:5); intents of the will, or mind. The oldest manuscripts after \"simplicity,\" add, \"and the purity\" or \"chastity.\" \n\nin Christ--rather, \"that is towards Christ.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["if, &c.--which in fact is impossible. However, if it were possible, ye might then bear with them (see on Co2 11:1). But there can be no new Gospel; there is but the one which I first preached; therefore it ought not to be \"borne\" by you, that the false teachers should attempt to supersede me. \n\nhe that cometh--the high-sounding title assumed by the false teachers, who arrogated Christ's own peculiar title (Greek, Mat 11:3, and Heb 10:37), \"He that is coming.\" Perhaps he was leader of the party which assumed peculiarly to be \"Christ's\" (Co2 10:7; Co1 1:12); hence his assumption of the title. \n\npreacheth . . . receive--is preaching . . . ye are receiving. \n\nJesus--the \"Jesus\" of Gospel history. He therefore does not say \"Christ,\" which refers to the office. \n\nanother . . . another--Greek, \"another Jesus . . . a different Spirit . . . a different Gospel.\" Another implies a distinct individual of the same kind; different implies one quite distinct in kind. \n\nwhich ye have not received--from us. \n\nspirit . . . received . . . gospel . . . accepted--The will of man is passive in RECEIVING the \"Spirit\"; but it is actively concurrent with the will of God (which goes before to give the good will) in ACCEPTING the \"Gospel.\" \n\nye might well bear with him--There would be an excuse for your conduct, though a bad one (for ye ought to give heed to no Gospel other than what ye have already heard from me, Gal 1:6-7); but the false teachers do not even pretend they have \"another Jesus\" and a \"different Gospel\" to bring before you; they merely try to supplant me, your accredited Teacher. Yet ye not only \"bear with\" them, but prefer them.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["For--My claim is superior to that of the false teachers, \"For,\" &c. \n\nI suppose--I reckon [ALFORD]. \n\nI was not--Greek, \"That I have not been, and am not.\" \n\nthe very chiefest apostles--James, Peter, and John, the witnesses of Christ's transfiguration and agony in Gethsemane. Rather, \"those overmuch apostles,\" those surpassers of the apostles in their own esteem. This sense is proved by the fact that the context contains no comparison between him and the apostles, but only between him and the false teachers; Co2 11:6 also alludes to these, and not to the apostles; compare also the parallel phrase, \"false apostles\" (see on Co2 11:13 and Co2 12:11) [ALFORD].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["rude--Greek, \"a common man\"; a \"laic\"; not rhetorically trained; unskilled in finish of diction. Co1 2:1-4, Co1 2:13; Co2 10:10-11, shows his words were not without weight, though his \"speech\" was deficient in oratorical artifice. \"Yet I am not so in my knowledge\" (Co2 12:1-5; Eph 3:1-5). \n\nhave been . . . made manifest--Read with the oldest manuscripts, \"We have made things (Gospel truths) manifest,\" thus showing our \"knowledge.\" English Version would mean, I leave it to yourselves to decide whether I be rude in speech . . . : for we have been thoroughly (literally, \"in everything\") made manifest among you (literally, \"in respect to you\"; \"in relation to you\"). He had not by reserve kept back his \"knowledge\" in divine mysteries from them (Co2 2:17; Co2 4:2; Act 20:20, Act 20:27). \n\nin all things--The Greek rather favors the translation, \"among all men\"; the sense then is, we have manifested the whole truth among all men with a view to your benefit [ALFORD]. But the Greek in Phi 4:12, \"In each thing and in all things,\" sanctions English Version, which gives a clearer sense.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["Have I--literally, \"OR have I?\" Connected with Co2 11:6, \"Or will any of you make it an objection that I have preached to you gratuitously?\" He leaves their good feeling to give the answer, that this, so far from being an objection, was a decided superiority in him above the false apostles (Co1 9:6-15). \n\nabasing myself--in my mode of living, waiving my right of maintenance, and earning it by manual labor; perhaps with slaves as his fellow laborers (Act 18:3; Phi 4:12). \n\nye . . . exalted--spiritually, by your admission to Gospel privileges. \n\nbecause--\"in that.\" \n\ngospel of God--\"of God\" implies its divine glory to which they were admitted. \n\nfreely--\"without charge.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["I robbed--that is, took from them in order to spare you more than what was their fair share of contribution to my maintenance, for example, the Philippian Church (Phi 4:15-16). \n\nwages--\"subsidy.\" \n\nto do you service--Greek, \"with a view to ministration to you\"; compare \"supplied\" (Greek, \"in addition\"), Co2 11:9, implying, he brought with him from the Macedonians, supplies towards his maintenance at Corinth; and (Co2 11:9) when those resources failed (\"when I wanted\") he received a new supply, while there, from the same source.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["wanted--\"was in want.\" \n\nchargeable--Greek, \"burdensome,\" literally, \"to torpify,\" and so to oppress. JEROME says it is a Cilician word (Co2 12:14, Co2 12:16). \n\nthe brethren which came--rather, as Greek, \"the brethren when they came.\" Perhaps Timotheus and Silas (Act 8:1, Act 8:5). Compare Phi 4:15-16, which refers to donations received from the Philippians (who were in Macedonia) at two distinct periods (\"once and again\"), one at Thessalonica, the other after his departure from Macedonia, that is, when he came into Achaia to Corinth (from the church in which city he would receive no help); and this \"in the beginning of the Gospel,\" that is, at its first preaching in these parts. Thus all three, the two Epistles and history, mutually, and no doubt undesignedly, coincide; a sure test of genuineness. \n\nsupplied--Greek, \"supplied in addition,\" namely, in addition to their former contributions; or as BENGEL, in addition to the supply obtained by my own manual labor.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["Greek, \"There is (the) truth of Christ in me that,\" &c. (Rom 9:1). \n\nno man shall stop me of--The oldest manuscripts read, \"This boasting shall not be shut (that is, stopped) as regards me.\" \"Boasting is as it were personified . . . shall not have its mouth stopped as regards me\" [ALFORD].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":11,"content":["Love is often offended at its favors being not accepted, as though the party to whom they are offered wished to be under no obligation to the offerer.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["I will do--I will continue to decline help. \n\noccasion--Greek, \"the occasion,\" namely, of misrepresenting my motives, which would be afforded to my detractors, if I accepted help. \n\nthat wherein they glory, they may be found even as we--BENGEL joins this clause with \"the occasion,\" namely, of glorying or boasting; the occasion \"that they may be found (a point wherein they glory) even as we,\" that is, quite as disinterested, or virtually, quite as gain-seeking and self-seeking. It cannot mean that the false teachers taught gratuitously even as Paul (compare Co2 11:20; Co1 9:12). ALFORD less clearly explains by reference to Co2 11:18, &c., where the \"glorying\" here is taken up and described as \"glorying after the flesh\"; thus it means, that in the matters of which they beast they may be found even as we, that is, we may been a fair and equal footing; that there may be no adventitious comparisons made between us, arising out of misrepresentations of my course of procedure, but that in every matter of boasting we may be fairly compared and judged by facts; FOR (Co2 11:13) realities they have none, no weapons but misrepresentation, being false apostles.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["For--reason why he is unwilling they should be thought like him [BENGEL]. \n\nsuch--they and those like them. \n\nfalse apostles--those \"overmuch apostles\" (see on Co2 11:5) are no apostles at all. \n\ndeceitful workers--pretending to be \"workmen\" for the Lord, and really seeking their own gain.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":14,"content":["is transformed--rather, \"transforms himself\" (compare Job 1:6); habitually; the first occasion of his doing so was in tempting Eve. \"Himself\" is emphatical: If their master himself, who is the \"prince of darkness,\" the most alien to light, does so, it is less marvellous in the case of them who are his servants (Luk 22:54; Eph 6:12).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":15,"content":["no great thing--no difficult matter. \n\nif his ministers also--as well as himself. \n\nrighteousness--answering to \"light\" (Co2 11:14); the manifestation wherewith God reveals Himself in Christ (Mat 6:33; Rom 1:17). \n\nend--The test of things is the end which strips off every specious form into which Satan's agents may now \"transform\" themselves (compare Phi 3:19, Phi 3:21). \n\naccording to their works--not according to their pretensions.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":16,"content":["I say again--again taking up from Co2 11:1 the anticipatory apology for his boasting. \n\nif otherwise--but if ye will not grant this; if ye will think me a fool. \n\nyet as a fool--\"yet even as a fool receive me\"; grant me the indulgent hearing conceded even to one suspected of folly. The Greek denotes one who does not rightly use his mental powers; not having the idea of blame necessarily attached to it; one deceived by foolish vanities, yet boasting himself [TITTMANN], (Co2 11:17, Co2 11:19). \n\nthat I--The oldest manuscripts read, \"that I, too,\" namely, as well as they, may boast myself.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":17,"content":["not after the Lord--By inspired guidance he excepts this \"glorying\" or \"boasting\" from the inspired authoritativeness which belongs to all else that he wrote; even this boasting, though undesirable in itself, was permitted by the Spirit, taking into account its aim, namely, to draw off the Corinthians from their false teachers to the apostle. Therefore this passage gives no proof that any portion of Scripture is uninspired. It merely guards against his boasting being made a justification of boasting in general, which is not ordinarily \"after the Lord,\" that is, consistent with Christian humility. \n\nfoolishly--Greek, \"in foolishness.\" \n\nconfidence of boasting-- (Co2 9:4).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":18,"content":["many--including the \"false teachers.\" \n\nafter the flesh--as fleshly men are wont to boast, namely, of external advantages, as their birth, doings, &c. (compare Co2 11:22). \n\nI will glory also--that is, I also will boast of such fleshly advantages, to show you that even in these I am not their inferiors, and therefore ought not to be supplanted by them in your esteem; though these are not what I desire to glory in (Co2 10:17).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":19,"content":["gladly--willingly. Irony. A plea why they should \"bear with\" (Co2 11:1) him in his folly, that is, boasting; ye are, in sooth, so \"wise\" (Co1 4:8, Co1 4:10; Paul's real view of their wisdom was very different, Co1 3:1-4) yourselves that ye can \"bear with\" the folly of others more complacently. Not only can ye do so, but ye are actually doing this and more.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":20,"content":["For--Ye may well \"bear with\" fools; for ye even \"bear with\" oppressors. Translate, \"Ye bear with them.\" \n\na man--as the false apostles do. \n\nbring you into bondage--to himself. Translate \"brings,\" not \"bring\"; for the case is not merely a supposed case, but a case actually then occurring. Also \"devours\" (namely, by exactions, Mat 23:24; Psa 53:4), \"takes,\" \"exalts,\" \"smites.\" \n\ntake of you--So the Greek for \"take\" is used for \"take away from\" (Rev 6:4). ALFORD translates, as in Co2 12:16, \"catches you.\" \n\nexalt himself--under the pretext of apostolic dignity. \n\nsmite you on the face--under the pretext of divine zeal. The height of insolence on their part, and of servile endurance on yours (Kg1 22:24; Neh 13:25; Luk 22:64; Act 23:2; Ti1 3:3).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":21,"content":["as concerning reproach--rather, \"by way of dishonor (that is, self-disparagement) I say it.\" \n\nas though we . . . weak--in not similarly (Co2 11:20) showing our power over you. \"An ironical reminiscence of his own abstinence when among them from all these acts of self-exaltation at their expense\" (as if such abstinence was weakness) [ALFORD]. The \"we\" is emphatically contrasted with the false teachers who so oppressively displayed their power. I speak so as though WE had been weak when with you, because we did not show our power this way. Howbeit (we are not really weak; for), whereinsoever any is bold . . . I am bold also.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":22,"content":["Hebrews . . . Israelites . . . the seed of Abraham--A climax. \"Hebrews,\" referring to the language and nationality; \"Israelites,\" to the theocracy and descent from Israel, the \"prince who prevailed with God\" (Rom 9:4); \"the seed of Abraham,\" to the claim to a share in the Messiah (Rom 11:1; Rom 9:7). Compare Phi 3:5, \"An Hebrew of the Hebrews,\" not an Hellenist or Greek-speaking Jew, but a Hebrew in tongue, and sprung from Hebrews.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":23,"content":["I speak as a fool--rather, as Greek, \"I speak as if beside myself\"; stronger than \"as a fool.\" \n\nI am more--namely, in respect to the credentials and manifestations of my ministry, more faithful and self-denying; and richer in tokens of God's recognition of my ministry. Old authorities read the order thus, \"In prisons above measures, in stripes more abundantly\" (English Version, less accurately, \"more frequent\"). Acts 16:23-40 records one case of his imprisonment with stripes. CLEMENT OF ROME [First Epistle to the Corinthians] describes him as having suffered bonds seven times. \n\nin death oft-- (Co2 4:10; Act 9:23; Act 13:50; Act 14:5-6, Act 14:19; Act 17:5, Act 17:13).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":24,"content":["co2 11:24Deu 25:3 ordained that not more than forty stripes should be inflicted To avoid exceeding this number, they gave one short of it: thirteen strokes with a treble lash [BENGEL]. This is one of those minute agreements with Jewish usage, which a forger would have not been likely to observe.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":25,"content":["The beating by Roman magistrates at Philippi (Act 16:23) is the only one recorded in Acts, which does not profess to give a complete journal of his life, but only a sketch of it in connection with the design of the book, namely, to give an outline of the history of the Gospel Church from its foundation at Jerusalem, to the period of its reaching Rome, the capital of the Gentile world. \n\nonce was I stoned-- (Act 14:19). \n\nthrice . . . shipwreck--before the shipwreck at Melita (Act 27:44). Probably in some of his voyages from Tarsus, where he stayed for some time after his conversion, and from which, as being a seafaring place, he was likely to make missionary voyages to adjoining places (Act 9:30; Act 11:25; Gal 1:21). \n\na night and a day . . . in the deep--probably in part swimming or in an open boat.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":26,"content":["In--rather, \"By\": connected with Co2 11:23, but now not with \"in,\" as there, and as in Co2 11:27, where again he passes to the idea of surrounding circumstances or environments [ALFORD, ELLICOTT and others]. \n\nwaters--rather, as Greek, \"rivers,\" namely, perils by the flooding of rivers, as on the road often traversed by Paul between Jerusalem and Antioch, crossed as it is by the torrents rushing down from Lebanon. So the traveller Sport lost his life. \n\nrobbers--perhaps in his journey from Perga to Antioch in Pisidia. Pisidia was notorious for robbers; as indeed were all the mountains that divided the high land of Asia from the sea. \n\nthe heathen--Gentiles. \n\nin the city--Damascus, Act 9:24-25; Jerusalem, Act 9:29; Ephesus, Act 19:23. \n\nfalse brethren-- (Gal 2:4).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":27,"content":["fastings--voluntary, in order to kindle devotions (Act 13:2-3; Act 14:23; Co1 9:27); for they are distinguished from \"hunger and thirst,\" which were involuntary [GROTIUS]. However, see on Co2 6:5. The context refers solely to hardships, not to self-imposed devotional mortification. \"Hunger and thirst\" are not synonymous with \"foodlessness\" (as the Greek of \"fasting\" means), but are its consequences. \n\ncold . . . nakedness--\"cold\" resulting from \"nakedness,\" or insufficient clothing, as the Greek often means: as \"hunger and thirst\" result from \"foodlessness.\" (Compare Act 28:2; Rom 8:35). \"When we remember that he who endured all this was a man constantly suffering from infirm health (Co2 4:7-12; Co2 12:7-10; Gal 4:13-14), such heroic self-devotion seems almost superhuman\" [CONYBEARE and HOWSON].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":28,"content":["without--\"Beside\" trials falling on me externally, just recounted, there is \"that which cometh upon me (literally, the impetuous concourse to me of business; properly, a crowd rising up against one again and again, and ready to bear him down), the care of all the churches\" (including those not yet seen in the flesh, Col 2:1): an internal and more weighty anxiety. But the oldest manuscripts for \"that which cometh,\" read, \"the pressure\": \"the pressing care-taking\" or \"inspection that is upon me daily.\" ALFORD translates, \"Omitting what is BESIDES\"; namely, those other trials besides those recounted. But the Vulgate, ESTIUS, and BENGEL, support English Version. \n\nthe care--The Greek implies, \"my anxious solicitude for all the churches.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":29,"content":["I . . . weak--in condescending sympathy with the weak (Co1 9:22). \"Care generates sympathy, which causes the minister of Christ personally to enter into the feelings of all his people, as if he stood in their position, so as to accommodate himself to all\" [CALVIN]. \n\noffended--by some stumbling-block put in his way by others: the \"weak\" is most liable to be \"offended.\" \n\nI burn not--The \"I\" in the Greek is emphatic, which it is not in the former clause, \"I am not weak.\" I not only enter into the feeling of the party offended, but I burn with indignation at the offender, I myself taking up his cause as my own. \"Who meets with a stumbling-block and I am not disturbed even more than himself\" [NEANDER].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":30,"content":["glory of . . . infirmities--A striking contrast! Glorying or boasting of what others make matter of shame, namely, infirmities; for instance, his humbling mode of escape in a basket (Co2 11:33). A character utterly incompatible with that of an enthusiast (compare Co2 12:5, Co2 12:9-10).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":31,"content":["This solemn asseveration refers to what follows. The persecution at Damascus was one of the first and greatest, and having no human witness of it to adduce to the Corinthians, as being a fact that happened long before and was known to few, he appeals to God for its truth. Luke (Act 9:25) afterwards recorded it (compare Gal 1:20), [BENGEL]. It may ALSO refer to the revelation in Co2 12:1, standing in beautiful contrast to his humiliating escape from Damascus.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":32,"content":["governor--Greek, \"Ethnarch\": a Jewish officer to whom heathen rulers gave authority over Jews in large cities where they were numerous. He was in this case under Aretas, king of Arabia. Damascus was in a Roman province. But at this time, A.D. 38 or 39, three years after Paul's conversion, A.D. 36, Aretas, against whom the Emperor Tiberius as the ally of Herod Agrippa had sent an army under Vitellius, had got possession of Damascus on the death of the emperor, and the consequent interruption of Vitellius' operations. His possession of it was put an end to immediately after by the Romans [NEANDER]. Rather, it was granted by Caligula (A.D. 38) to Aretas, whose predecessors had possessed it. This is proved by our having no Damascus coins of Caligula or Claudius, though we do have of their immediate imperial predecessors and successors [ALFORD].\n\n\n\n\nNext: 2 Corinthians Chapter 12\n\n"]}],"introduction":"THROUGH JEALOUSY OVER THE CORINTHIANS, WHO MADE MORE ACCOUNT OF THE FALSE APOSTLES THAN OF HIM, HE IS OBLIGED TO COMMEND HIMSELF AS IN MANY RESPECTS SUPERIOR. (2Co. 11:1-33)\n\nWould to God--Translate as Greek, \"I would that.\" \n\nbear with me--I may ask not unreasonably to be borne with; not so the false apostles (Co2 11:4, Co2 11:20). \n\nmy--not in the oldest manuscripts. \n\nfolly--The Greek is a milder term than that for \"foolishness\" in Co1 3:19; Mat 5:22; Mat 25:2. The Greek for \"folly\" here implies imprudence; the Greek for \"foolishness\" includes the idea of perversity and wickedness. \n\nand indeed bear--A request (so Co2 11:16). But the Greek and the sense favor the translation, \"But indeed (I need not wish it, for) ye do bear with me\"; still I wish you to bear with me further, while I enter at large into self-commendations.\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/2CO/11.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"2CO","chapter":11},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/2CO/12.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"2CO","chapter":12},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/2CO/10.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"2CO","chapter":10},"numberOfVerses":31}