defended it on the ground that it was not really a change of purpose, so now he defends it on the ground that it was occasioned by tenderness for

them.

ἐγὼ δέ. "I, whatever my opponents may say."

ἐπὶ τὴν ἐμὴν ψυχην: (1.) "against my soul," i. e. if I speak falsely; or, (2.) "into the presence of my soul to testify that I speak the truth."

φειδόμενος ὑμῶν, « that I might not have occasion to exert my power to the full, and take vengeance on your sins." οὐκέτι, 66 no more. "I gave up the thought of coming."

24. οὐχ ὅτι, κ.τ.λ. When I speak of sparing you, I do not mean that I had or have at any time despotic control over your faith, over your Christian life." "We are but cooperators with you in producing, not your grief, but your joy; and, so far from our being the masters of your faith, it is by your faith that you stand independently of us." OтI KUρIEVOμEV is suggested by the idea of authority implied in padóμevos. xapas, "joy," is introduced in contrast to the grief which he wished to spare them. τῇ γὰρ πίστει is the reason for οὐχ ὅτι

Kupievoμev, the intervening κυριεύομεν, clause being passed over as parenthetical, as in Mark v. 41. 42., xvi. 3. 4.

II. 1. ἔκρινα δὲ ἐμαυτῷ. "For myself," i. e. "for my own happiness, as well as yours."

πάλιν ἐν λύπῃ πρὸς ὑμᾶς Oɛîv. In all the best MSS. èv Xúry is put thus early in the ἐν λύπῃ sentence, as the most emphatic word.

πάλιν to be taken with ἐλOsiv, i. e. "I determined that θεῖν, my second visit should not be painful." (ún being used in opposition to xapas in i. 24.)

2. The sense is: 66 My second visit shall not be painful; for the only object of my giving you pain before was, that I might have joy now." The abruptness is occasioned by the vividness with which the offending party at Corinth starts, as it were, into sight. "If I ever give you pain, who is it that can enliven me, except he to whom I have given pain [and who is thereby induced to repent]?" to repent]?" Then applying this general statement respecting his conduct to the particular circumstances of the First Epistle, he proceeds: "And accordingly I wrote that very passage in the First Epistle

• τίς ἐστιν

[viz. 1 Cor. iv. 8., iv. 18., vi. 11.], in order that I should have no more pain occasioned to me by your misconduct; trusting that, as my chief joy comes from your good conduct, you, with that community of feeling which subsists between us, would give me the joy which, as being mine, will also be yours." For the abruptness of kal, see ii. 16., καὶ πρὸς ταῦτα τίς ἱκανός ; Luke, xviii. 26., Kai rís dúvaται σωθῆναι ;

4. "For I wrote with great grief and reluctance to blame you, my only object being to show my love for you." The passage is important, as giving a lively picture of the feelings with which he wrote the First Epistle, to which, and not to any lost Epistle, still less to this Epistle, his words refer. For the " many tears," compare Acts, xx. 19., Serving the Lord with many tears." Ek and Sia, "out of a broken and oppressed heart my words flowed through (dià) tears," Sià expresses, "amidst floods of tears;" or, "with eyes dimmed by tears."

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5. There are three ways of taking this verse: (1.) He hath grieved me, but only in part; I say only in part, lest I should press too heavily on all of you.' But against this it must be urged, first, that it is against the general context to represent himself as grieved even at all; and secondly, that it does not account for the stress laid on "all of you" (TáνTAS Vμâs).

(2.) "He hath grieved not me, but in part you; I say in in part, lest I should press too heavily on all," taking va un iẞaр Távтas together in a ἐπιβαρῶ πάντας parenthesis.

(3.)" He hath grieved not me, but in part all of you; I say in part, lest I should press too heavily;" taking va un

Bap alone as the parenthesis, which is perhaps the best.

The sense of these two last modes is the same, viz., that the sin of the offender, whom from delicacy he avoids more especially mentioning, was felt

by St. Paul, chiefly because it gave pain to them. And he proceeds accordingly to impress upon them that he is satisfied with the measures which they had adopted towards the offender, and entirely acquiesced in any act of indulgence which they might have shown towards him. It can hardly be doubted, from a comparison of this passage with c. vii., that, on the whole, the horror excited by the First Epistle against the offender had been very great, and that one main object of the Apostle is to moderate it. At the same time, there are some expressions which indicate that there was also a disposition to leniency in the Corinthian Church, which the Apostle, whether from a prudent fear of a reaction in favour of the offending person, if the severe measures were persisted in, or from a real tenderness towards him, eagerly meets, as it were, half way. Thus the word ETITIμía ("punishment"), although it may possibly be extended to mean the extreme sentence of separation recommended in 1 Cor. v. 4., is more naturally referred to some milder punishment, whether of rebuke or fine; and the tenses of χαρίσασθαι and χαρίζεσθε, in verses 7. and 10., although they may be supposed to refer to what he expected in the

future, are naturally expressive of what had been done, or was being done at that time.

The

6. ἱκανόν. ἔστι οι ἔστω may be understood equally well. ikavòv possibly in the legal sense of "satisfaction," as in Acts, xvii. 9., λαβόντες τὸ ἱκανόν. word ἐπιτιμία occurs nowhere else in the New Testament; but its meaning in classical Greek is in favour of the sense of "fine" or "rebuke." vπÒ τῶν πλειόνων is the sentence inflicted by the majority of the meeting of the whole Church in 1 Cor. v. 4. Any way, what the Apostle urges is, that enough had been done by them, and that he was no longer anxious to inflict his part of the sentence.

7. ὥστε τοὐναντίον μᾶλλον ὑμᾶς χαρίσασθαι καὶ παρακαλέσαι. The context would seem to have required dɛiv, "so that δεῖν, you ought rather to forgive," &c.; and perhaps this sense may be contained in the words. But it is more probable, that the aorist tense may have been used, from the Apostle's knowledge that, to a certain extent, they had already forgiven the man, and thus the sense will be: "So that you have rather done rightly in forgiving." waρακαλέσαι must here have the sense, not of " exhorting," but of" comforting," as in i. 3, 4., and yet apakaλ in the next

verse has the sense, not of "comforting," but of "exhorting." For a similar juxtaposition of the same word in two different senses, see 1 Cor. xi. 23. παρέδωκα, παρεδίδοτο. τῇ περισσοτέρᾳ λύπῃ, “ by the excess of his grief," the article implying that he is speaking of the well known grief of the individual.

Ó TOLOÛTOS, the usual expression of the Apostle, almost like Seiva, when he alludes to a well known person, without wishing to specify him more particularly. Comp. xii. 1.2.

8. He now proceeds to express his entire agreement in any act of conciliation which they had adopted or might adopt, throwing the whole weight of his apostolical authority into this act of "loosing," by the Christian society, as he had before thrown it (in 1 Cor. v. 4.) into the act of " binding." Kuрwσαι, "confirm." This κυρῶσαι, favours the supposition that they had already commenced some milder course, which he here urges them to continue.

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εἰς τοῦτο, i. e. “ for this object which I proceed to state." In classical Greek it would have been εἰς τόδε Kal, in fact. Thy dokiμǹv vμŵv, "your proved sincerity." The words seem to be a confusion of two constructions -íva yvá τὴν ὑπακοην ὑμῶν, and ἵνα σχῶ Sоxiμην vμν. Compare, however, Phil. ii. 22., Tηv dè Sokiμὴν αὐτοῦ γινώσκετε.

10. ᾧ δέ τι χαρίζεσθε. Here again he implies, not only that they are going to forgive, but that they are, or have been forgiving: unless, which is hardly