power and excellence with human weakness and suffering. 3rdly. It is remarkable as being in all probability the text which, from bringing forward prominently the fact of our Lord's poverty as an example, gave rise to the mendicant Orders, as founded by St. Francis of Assisi, who in this respect believed himself to be following the model of our Saviour's life. Such a result is doubly curious, if compared with the context (1), as showing how a parenthesis, incidentally introduced, in an appeal, for a temporary purpose, to the generosity of the Corinthian Church, has given birth to an immense institution, at one time spread through the whole of Europe; (2) as showing how much of the extravagance of that institution might have been checked by acting less on the letter, and more on the spirit, of the passage in which the text occurs; a passage of which the general tendency is the very opposite to that which could reduce the feelings of generosity into a definite and uniform system.

4thly. It contains the same general connexion between between outward poverty and spiritual blessings which is implied in the Gospels, as in Luke, vi. 20.," Blessed are the poor."

10. So completely parenthe tical had been this appeal to Christ's example, that he continues the sentence from verse

8., as if nothing had intervened, excepting only that in consequence of the interruption he uses kal, where we should else have expected aλà Οι δέ.

"I give you no command, but only advice." For this contrast between έπirán and yváμn see on 1 Cor. vii. 25., where, however, as observed on verse 8., the sense is not quite the same, as the contrast is there between Christ's command, and his own advice; here, between his own command, and his own advice.

In what follows are two points, which he finds it needful to urge on the Corinthians: First, he is anxious to impress upon them that they are not to give by restraint, or because he orders it, but willingly. Secondly, he is afraid, lest by his commendation of the Macedonian Churches, he should make them suppose that his object was to relieve the Macedonians at the cost of the Corinthians. These two points occupy the substance, though not the actual form, of the argument, for the next five verses (10-15).

τοῦτο γὰρ ὑμῖν συμφέρει. This may be taken in two ways: (1.) "I give my advice in this matter; for this matter is expedient for you to pursue not merely for the benefit of the poor, but for your own moral good;" TOUTO thus referring to ἐν τούτῳ, and συμφέρει to the advantages to which he

you were eager to do this, a year ago; now is the time for finishing, not merely your eager wish, but also your doing what you wished."

ὅπως καθάπερ ἡ προθυμία τοῦ θέλειν, οὕτως καὶ τὸ ἐπιτελέσαι ἐκ τοῦ ἔχειν. "That, as you were so zealous in your intention, such also may be your completion of your intention, according to the means you possess” (ἐκ τοῦ ἔχειν).

12. On these last words depends the whole of the next sentence. "I say, 'According to the means you possess ;" for if, as in your case, there is a ready zeal, it is accepted by God in its contributions, by comparison, not with some imaginary standard of wealth, but with what it really has." For this construction, by which a whole sentence is made to hang on a single word in the previous clause, compare Rom. v. 7., where ὑπὲρ γὰρ τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ, K. T. X., depends on Sikalov, κ. λ., δικαίου, and Thucyd. i. 17., where of γὰρ ἐν Σικελία κ. τ. λ. is a reason for Ελληνικαῖς.

οι

TроKEITαι, "is at hand." It only occurs again (in the New Testament) in Heb. vi. 18., xii. 1. 2.; Jud. 6., speaking of "examples" or "rewards." TIS is omitted in B. C. D. E. F. G. K., so that Tрolvμía is the nominative case to exp and to

• add dé.

EUTTρóσSEKTOS, "zeal" being εὐπρόσδεκτος, personified here, as "love" in 1 Cor. xiii. 4.

καθό ἐὰν (for ἂν ἔχῃ, "according as it may have."

εὐπρόσδεκτος is always used in the New Testament, not of persons, but of offerings or contributions ; see Rom. xv. 26. 31.; 1 Pet. ii. 5. In vi. 2., where it is used in another sense, it is taken from the LXX.

13. He proceeds to give a further reason why they are not to give beyond their means. "For the object of the contribution is, not that others should be relieved and you have the burden, but that each party should contribute its proper share." It is not clear whether by "others" (aλλois) he intends the Christians in Judæa, who were to receive the contribution, or the Christians in Macedonia, who were not to have the whole burden of the contribution left upon them. In favour of the 1st, is the parallel passage with regard to this contribution in Rom. xv. 27.: "If the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister to them in carnal things." The two passages, however, are not exactly similar, inasmuch as the equalisation here spoken of, is not of

temporal by spiritual benefits, but of temporal by temporal; nor does it appear probable from what we read of the Jewish Christians, that they would ever be able, or that the Apo. stle would consider it probable, that they would be able to return by temporal means the benefit which the Greek Christians were now conferring upon them. If this be so, it agrees better with the context to refer it to the Churches of Macedonia. The Corinthians might think that it was from his affection for the Macedonian Christians and wish to ease them of their burden that he urged the contribution on the Corinthians, and it is this illusion which he wishes to dispel.

aveats is in this case, not simply "relief," but (what suits its etymological meaning better) "relief from

over

strain,” as in ii. 12., vii. 5. ; Acts, xxiv. 23. In 2 Thess. i. 7. it is used in a general sense, and is, as here, opposed to us, which must in this passage, as probably in viii. 2., refer, not to persecution, but to poverty.

The next sentence is a curious instance of the combination 1st, Of the peculiarity of St. Paul's individual style; 2ndly, Of the unconscious influence of Greek culture on his

mind; 3rdly, Of his use of the Old Testament history.

1st. The structure of the sentence, Tò vuoν тερíσσενμа εἰς τὸ ἐκείνων ὑστέρημα, ἵνα καὶ τὸ ἐκείνων περίσσευμα γένηται εἰς τὸ ὑμῶν ὑστέρημα, 13 an instance of the Apostle's turn for (as it were) balancing two ends of a sentence against each other, as in Gal. iv. 12.: γίνεσθε ὡς ἐγώ, ὅτι κάγω ὡς μeîs. The sense no doubt required an equipoise of this kind, but the Apostle's forms of language also invited it.

2ndly. No reader of Aristotle's works, especially of the 5th book of the Nicomachean Ethics, can fail to observe the likeness of phrase and idea, which runs through the argument from equality and reciprocation in this passage.

loórnтоS TEρíσσενμа VOTÉpnua (in Aristotle's language το πλεόν and τὸ ἔλαττον ὅπως γένηται ἰσότης. The resemblance is of course unconscious, but not the less remarkable, as showing the natural affinity of thought. Such a phrase would not have occurred in the Old Testament.

3rdly. In the quotation with which this classical thought is supported, the account of the manna gathering (Exod. xvi. 17. 18.) is applied to the peculiar circumstances of the Corinthian Church. The ori

.....

ginal words of the LXX. are slightly different: καὶ συνέλεξαν ὁ τὸ πολὺ καὶ ὁ τὸ ἔλλαττον . . . . . καὶ μετρήσαντες γομόρ, οὐκ ἐπλεόνασεν ὁ τὸ πολύ, καὶ ὁ τὸ ἔλαττον οὐκ ἠλε λαττόνησε. This is the Vatican MS.; the Alexandrian MS. has ᾧ τὸ πολὺ ᾧ το ὀλίγον. The Apostle seems to have cited just enough to remind his readers of the passage from which the words are taken. Before Toλ we must understand σύλλεξας. The words καθώς γέγραπται, “ as it is written," must in this case be simply, "to use the words of the Scripture." The Apostle can hardly mean that the words were fulfilled in the case which he is describing.

ἐν τῷ νῦν καιρῷ, “ at the present time,” requires, in the second clause, some word mean

ing "at a future occasion (which however is not supplied).

If ἐκείνων means the Jewish Christians, then ὑστέρημα means "the poverty which was now to be relieved;” but if, as is more likely, the Macedonian Churches, then their poverty generally." "Do you help the Macedonians now, and then they will help you in like case hereafter." "They are poor now, and unable to bear the whole burden; perhaps, at some future time, you will be poor, and then they may be rich enough to meet your wants."

For the use of the word vorέpnua in the sense of poverty, see ix. 12., xi. 9.; Luke xxi. 4. ἐλαττονεῖν is used in LXX. for the earlier Greek ἐλαττοῦν.