Hausrath wrote "The Four-chapter a happy issue, for he had said (1 Cor. Letter of Paul to the Corinthians," in which he contended that the last four chapters were a separate composition, and constituted, in fact, the intermediate letter between the First and Second Epistles. He has been effectually answered by Klöpper. Whether a letter is an organic whole or not does not depend upon its contents merely, but upon its contents viewed in their relation to the situation of the writer and his readers. If the subject-matter and the circumstances agree, it is sufficient to establish the unity of the writing; and there is, undoubtedly, such an agreement in this case, notwithstanding the disparity of length between the sections of the Epistle, a seeming disharmony in their tone, some abrupt transitions, and some obscurity in the connection of ideas. No one can expect a letter penned under strong conflicting emotions, and the immediate pressure of complex circumstances, to have the symmetry and clearness of a classical composition. IV. THE EFFECT PRODUCED BY THE EPISTLE. The effect produced upon its readers by this most remarkable Apostolic writing is not recorded. The passage in the Acts (xx. 2, 3), which tells us that St. Paul's long-promised visit was at length paid, only says that "he came into Greece and there abode three months." When we consider the strong reaction in his favour as described by Titus in ch. vii., we cannot but think that the extraordinary "weight and power" of this Epistle, written expressly to take the favourable tide at its height, produced a deep impression, and this is confirmed by the mere duration of his sojourn at Corinth. It is more strongly corroborated by the fact that during his visit he wrote the Epistle to the Romans, in which many momentous topics receive a calm, profound, sustained treatment, shewing that he had recovered that rest of spirit and flesh of which he had recently been so sorely destitute. The collection also came to xvi. 4) that if the amount subscribed It do its divine work, accomplishing that which God pleases, and prospering in that whereto he sent it (Isaiah lv. 11) through the long march of all the ages. V. COMMENTARIES. Of the manifold works upon this Epistle it is only necessary to mention here two or three of the less familiar and more recent to which the writer of the present commentary is more or less indebted. Osiander's work (1847. 1857) has scarcely met with due recognition. Its usefulness is perhaps impaired by its fulness, by its criticism of too many views, and by a tendency to amalgamate two or more interpretations into one; but it contains the results of wide and conscientious research. The portion of Hofmann's Heilige Schrift Neuen Testamentes, which treats of this Epistle, was reissued in 1877 in an improved form, and is a very searching commentary. But the most valuable of recent contributions to the literature of the Corinthian Epistles has been made in the very able writings of Klöpper (1869. 1874). Some of his conclusions must await the test of time, but he has undoubtedly thrown great light both upon the Second Epistle as a whole and upon particular points. With regard to textual criticism, both Hofmann and Klöpper are rather unduly swayed by internal evidence. THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PAUL THE APOSTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS. CHAPTER I. 3 The apostle encourageth them against troubles, by the comforts and deliverances which God had given him, as in all his afflictions, 8 so particularly in his late danger in Asia. 12 And calling both his own conscience and their's to witness of his sincere manner of preaching the immutable truth of the gospel, 15 he excuseth his not coming to them, as proceeding not of lightness, but of his lenity towards them. CHAP. I. 1. See 1 Cor. i. 1. Timothy is very suitably made accessory to the Epistle, not only because he had helped to found the Corinthian Church, but also because he had just encountered a repulse at its hands. St. Paul wished to intimate that he held him free from blame with regard to his ill-success, as well as that Timothy himself was so far from being alienated that he became a party to this conciliatory letter. our brother.] The brotherhood refers both to the Corinthians and St. Paul. Towards the former it was the general brotherhood of the faith; towards the latter it was also a brotherhood in missionary labour and in the foundation of the Corinthian Church, but not in the Apostolic office. Timothy is nowhere called an Apostle, probably because he had never seen the risen Saviour, and therefore lacked one of the qualifications of Apostleship (Acts i. 22; 2 Cor. ix. 1). It does not at all follow that he was the scribe of this letter because he is mentioned in the address. Tertius the scribe is not mentioned in the address to the Epistle to the Romans (xvi. 22), and there is no reason to suppose that the two accessory authors of the Epistles to the Thessalonians were both scribes. Achaia in classical times was the northern strip of the Peloponnese. It afterwards denoted the Roman Province, comprising Hellas proper, with the adjacent islands. St. Paul however does not use it in this wider sense, for in 1 Cor. xvi. 15 he calls the household of Stephanas "the firstfruits of Achaia," which would be an incorrect expression, if the Roman Province were meant, because Dionysius the Areopagite of Athens and many other Athenians had been converted before Stephanas and his family at Corinth, and would have a better claim to the title "firstfruits of Achaia." The name Achaia therefore is either used in its early restricted sense or means the Peloponnese. all the saints.] This seems to imply a considerable body of believers. They are however addressed as individuals, not as Churches. There was, no doubt, a Judaizing propaganda carried on from Corinth in the neighbouring districts, and the dissoluteness the vicinity. It is not surprising therefore of the metropolis naturally extended itself to that the address of a letter bearing expressly include also the believers of other places, upon the circumstances of Corinth should closely connected with it who were more or less in similar danger. St. Paul himself must have visited other towns in Achaia besides Cenchreæ. 2. To his salutations St. Paul usually appends some praise (Rom. i. 8; Eph. i. 15; Phil. i. 3-8, &c., &c.), and that his withholding it here is significant, appears from the like silence in the Epistle to the Galatian Churches, which, like that of Corinth, had fallen into grievous errors. In v. 6 he is addressing the better-minded part of the community. When we compare the warm eulogy in 1 Cor. i. 4-8, it is clear how much matters had changed for the worse, in the interval between the First and Second Epistles, for although Titus had reported decided symptoms of improvement, the Apostle could 172 of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; 4 Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any not yet look forward with perfect confidence. 3. Thanksgiving for deliverance from the affliction in Asia. For proof that this affliction was his overpowering distress at the lamentable state of the Church of Corinth as reported to him by Timothy, see note at end of chapter. The tidings fell upon him like a prostrating calamity, and the deliverance was the partial reformation which had since been wrought. The extremity of his trouble and the intensity of his gratitude appear in the reiteration of the word 'comfort' ten times in five verses, and of 'affliction' four times in four verses. The force of this repetition is unhappily lost in the A. V. by a needless alternation of the terms 'comfort' and 'consolation,' and, on the other hand, of 'tribulation,' 'trouble,' and 'affliction' for the uniform expressions of the original. Blessed be God even the Father.] It is not quite certain whether the rendering should be: Blessed be God and the Father of our Lord,' or 'Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord.' In other introductory passages (Rom. i. 7, Cor. i. 3, Gal. i. 3, Eph. i. 2, Phil. i. 2, 1 Thess. i. 1, 2 Thess. i. 2, 1 Tim. i. 2, Philem. i. 3) God is spoken of in His relation to men rather than to Christ. On the other hand, we find in Eph. i. 17, "the God of our Lord Jesus Christ" (cf. John xx. 17, Matt. xxvii. 46), and St. Paul had just used the very expression of the verse before us in Eph. i. 3, where the A. V. renders "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord," as it does also in 1 Pet. i. 3, which translation the original here favours. "The Father of commiserations” or “pityings " would be slightly, more correct than the Father of mercies.' God is so designated because of His manifold dealings of pity, and He is the God of all comfort because there is no kind of true comfort which he cannot and does not administer. 4. That God is rightly blessed under these designations is illustrated by what the Apostle has recently gone through and by the use to which God intends him to apply his experiences. Whatever may be the form or weight of his affliction, God furnishes the appropriate comfort, to the end that he may be able to administer the comfort which he has himself so received to other sufferers, whatever may be the form or weight of their trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. 5 For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ. affliction. The terms are general, and capable of wide application, but a special drift underlies them. The comfort is that which he derived from the tidings of Titus, as is proved by the similar language of vii. 4. "I am filled with the comfort. in all our affliction." In accordance with God's purpose this comfort should now re-act upon the Corinthians and solace them in their "fear and trembling' (vii. 15), their "grief" (vii. 11), their "lamentation" (vii. 7) for the evils which they had partly caused and partly tolerated. is only this specific sense that gives their proper force to the last words of the verse, which imply that the comfort of the Apostle and his readers is one and the same. See how he re-imparts to them in chapter vii. the self It same comfort which had been imparted to him. 5. States the principle upon which comfort The endurance is obtained in his own case. of the sufferings of Christ in overflowing abundance involves as its correlative the reception of a commensurate comfort through Christ. The connecting link between the sufferings and the comfort is Christ, but with a modification. The Apostle's sufferings are those of Christ; his comfort is received through Christ. The "sufferings of Christ are those which are identical with Christ's. This identity consists in their springing from the same cause and serving the same end. Whatever set itself in antagonism to Christ or hindered Him in accomplishing God's work of redeeming the world from sin and evil, caused Him suffering. The forms of opposition were manifold, but they were all referable to this opposition, which could only be won one source,-Satan. Christ's victory over by sufferings culminating in death, was the accomplishment of his meritorious work of Redemption. But this was not the complete end, which God and Christ had in view, for there remained the application of redemption to mankind. This work, which is also, in a most true sense, Christ's work, He committed to his ministers and followers, and, whatever sufferings they endure in encountering opposition, are Christ's sufferings. difference between Redemption and its application involves the essential difference between Christ's sufferings in His own person and His sufferings in the person of His ministers. The sufferings which procured Redemption were sacrificial; those which The apply redemption are not, for the cross exhausted sacrifice. But as the work of Christ's ministers is the continuance and the supplement of Christ's work, so their sufferings have the unspeakable dignity of being the continuance and the supplement of His sufferings, Col. i. 24. Some explain this communion by the present relation of the members to the Head in Christ's mystical body. But the idea of Christ in His glorified state suffering with His suffering members is questionable. This mystical relation to Christ glorified is rather the foundation of the comfort, which is the correlative of the sufferings. As Christ's sufferings and death led to resurrection, glory, and power, so there flows from God "through Christ "thus glorified, in virtue of the vital bond uniting the Head and the members, a superabundant stream of living help and power which brings with it comfort and victory over afflictions. There was certainly one striking point of identity between Christ's sufferings in His own person and His sufferings in the person of St. Paul. Christ suffered and died at the hands of the Jews because he offered to the whole world a spiritual salvation by faith, not merely a legal and national one to Jews only. It was the same Pharisaic and intensely Jewish spirit which brought upon St. Paul deadly hatred, persecution, and continual peril of life, because he also preached a spiritual and universal salvation. But the sufferings which sprung from this source did not exhaust his "sufferings of Christ," for these arose, in Corinth at any rate, quite as much from the opposition of heathenism as of Judaism. A secondary part of the sense may be that, whereas his enemies pointed to his afflictions as proofs of God's displeasure against him, they were, in truth, together with the comfort which never failed to accompany them, only proofs of his complete solidarity with Christ. 6. There is reason to think that the right reading and rendering of this difficult verse is:-"But whether we are afflicted, it is on behalf of your comfort and salvation; or are comforted, it is on behalf of your comfort, which takes effect in the (patient) endurance of the same sufferings, which we also suffer." In ver. 4 he pointed out God's purpose in comforting him in affliction, and in ver. 5 the link which always connected with his affliction a commensurate comfort. He now takes the affliction and the comfort apart and shews, ac we also suffer : or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation. 7 And our hope of you is stedfast, cording to the divine purpose of each severally, by how close a bond he is united with his readers. The statement presents a picture of the real Apostle very different from the false portrait which his enemies had sketched of him at Corinth. He is not a harsh and heartless pretender to lordship over the members of the Church, but one who suffered and was solaced equally for their sake. The language is general, but was plainly prompted by recent facts. The sinful conduct of the Corinthians, in disregarding his Apostolic order to condemn a gross immorality, and in allowing his calumniators to alienate them from him, had caused his affliction. "Out of" this "much affliction and anguish of heart" he had taken measures which God had blessed, and although their firstfruit for the Corinthians was grief, the fruit of the grief was a repentance, which was not to be repented of (ch. vii. 8, 9), because it was the only gateway to comfort for their grief. They had also imperilled their salvation because no one who was unchaste, or defended or tolerated unchastity in the Church, or who set at nought Christ's Apostle, could keep his place in the Kingdom of Heaven. How apprehensive he still was with regard to some of his converts appears from 2 Cor. xi. 3. However he had succeeded in bringing the better-disposed to a sense of their danger, and hence he speaks in ch. vii. to of a "repentance unto salvation." So his affliction worked for their comfort and salvation. But the reformation having been so far effected and the Apostle thereby comforted, he no longer alludes to any doubt about their salvation. Upon this point he is reassured. In faith they were standing (ch. i. 24) and, with regard to their conduct, he rejoiced that he had confidence in them in everything (ch. vii. 16). So he can state that the object of his comfort is to minister to their comfort, without further mention of their salvation. The condition under which the comfort ministered by him would be effectually realised, was that the recipients should patiently bear the same sufferings with himself, i.e. the sufferings of Christ. They must hold out, for salvation, against opposition and persecution, the true Gospel's sake and for their own whether from Jews, Judaizers, or heathen libertines. 7. Whether they will do this he is not sure, but he has a stedfast hope that they will, based upon his knowledge that just as they are in communion with him in his |