Secondly, it is historically instructive, as containing the virtual retractation of the censure in 1 Cor. v. 1.-6. It is an instance of the Apostle's loosing, as the former passage is of the Apostle's binding. It is an instance of the ready forgiveness of the Apostle, as soon as the need for anger was gone; thus exemplifying, in a practical case, as he himself observes in ii. 10., the great peculiarity of the Gospel. It is an instance, also, of the wish to allow the Christian society as much independent action as possible; the very opposite of a despotic or hierarchical ambition. "Not lording it over their faith." "By faith," their own faith, "they stood." The penalty is inflicted "by the majority." "To whomsoever they forgave, he forgave." (i. 24., ii. 6. 10.) The Apostle treats his converts as his equals. It is indeed probable, that his influence was so great as virtually to give him authority over them, which they would be unwilling to dispute. Still, the 9th Chapter of the First Epistle, and the 10th Chapter of this Epistle, sufficiently prove the fact, that by a large party it was disputed; and this fact, agreeing as it does with the Apostle's renunciation of any infallible claims, shows what large concessions were made in the apostolical age to the principle of freedom, in spite of the manifold disorders which it introduced. (3.) The Arrival of Titus. II. 12-16. 12 Ελθὼν δὲ εἰς τὴν Τρωάδα εἰς τὸ εὐαγγέλιον τοῦ χριστοῦ, καὶ θύρας μοι ἀνεῳγμένης ἐν κυρίῳ, 13 οὐκ ἔσχηκα ἄνεσιν 12. After the digression thus occasioned by the protest against the false insinuations grounded on his delay, he resumes the main subject of this portion of the Epistle (viz. the arrival of Titus with the good news from Corinth) which had filled his mind at its opening. It is as though he said, "Let me then put aside all these questions about my delay, and let me place before you the scene at Troas. There, although with every facility for pursuing the mission which I had long hoped to accomplish in those parts, I was so distracted by not receiving the expected tidings from Corinth, that I tore myself away from the disciples of Troas, and embarked for Macedonia." Thu Tρwáda. The article perτὴν Τρωάδα. haps indicates the region of "the Troad," rather than the the city. Still it must have been in the city that the Apostle stayed. It had been built by Antigonus, under the name of Antigonia Troas; was afterwards called by Lysima chus, Alexandria Troas *; and was at this time a Roman "colonia Juris Italici," and regarded with great favour by the Roman Emperors, as the representative, though at a considerable distance, of the ancient Troy, of which, throughout the middle ages, and still by the inhabitants, it has been supposed to occupy the site. According to Acts xvi. 8. St. Paul had been prevented from staying there on his first visit by the vision which called him immediately into Macedonia, and on the return from his present journey, in Acts xx. 3.-6. was received there, evidently with much enthusiasm, and remained for more than a week. These indications of the field of labour thus opened for him, agree with the expressions here used, sis Tò Evayyénov, "with the view of preaching the Gospel," and Júpas ave@yuévns, "a great opportunity offered for preaching." See on 1 Cor. xvi. 9. Ev Kupiw, "in the sphere of the Lord." *Conybeare and Howson, vol. i. pp. 301. 302. τῷ πνεύματί μου, τῷ μὴ εὑρεῖν με Τίτον τὸν ἀδελφόν μου, ἀλλὰ ἀποταξάμενος αὐτοῖς ἐξῆλθον εἰς Μακεδονίαν. 14 τῷ δὲ 13. οὐκ ἔσχηκα ἄνεσιν τῷ πνεύματί μου, πVεúμаτí μov, i. e. "My spirit drove me forwards," as, to a certain extent, in the first visit to Troas, described in Acts xvi. 8. when "the Spirit suffered them not " to stay in Asia. τῷ μὴ εὑρεῖν, by reason of the non-arrival of Titus; Troas having been appointed on this occasion, as in Acts xx. 3., for the place of rendezvous. It is remarkable that the Fathers have entirely missed the reason of Paul's trouble about the absence of Titus. Jerome asserts that it was because Titus was his interpreter, and therefore without him the Apostle was unable to preach. άπотáğаμεvos, "taking leave," Acts. xviii. 18. 20.; Luke ix. 61.; Mark xvi. 46. i. e. avтoîs, αὐτοῖς, "the disciples at Troas." Compare his farewell parting with them in Acts xx. 7. ἐξῆλθον, "I went forth." The same phrase is used for the departure to Macedonia in Acts xvi. 10., xx. 1., apparently to mark the transit from Asia into Europe. 14. This would have been the natural point at which to enlarge on the details of Titus's message, which he received in Macedonia. But it would seem as if the recollection of the relief which it afforded TW him, was so overpowering that, without even mentioning it, he breaks out in a strain of thanksgiving similar to that in i. 3.-10., but more impassioned; and in the course of this, the whole importance of his office seems to burst upon him, in such vivid colours, that he is unable to withdraw, as it were, his gaze from the vision which thus opens before him, with one distant vista after another, so that the main thread of his subject is not resumed till vi. 11-13., vii. 2-16., in language so exactly harmonizing with that in these verses (12. 13.) as to leave no doubt that we have there the thoughts which have been here so abruptly intercepted. TáνTOTE, "always," i. e. "even from the deepest distress." v wаνTI TÓT, "in every place," i. e. "at Corinth, as well as Macedonia and Troas;" his thoughts travelling from one part of his Apostolical sphere to another, the electric spark of his influence being communicated no less by his letter to Corinth than by his preaching to Macedonia and Troas. θριαμβεύειν is properly, “ to lead captive in triumph," as in Col. ii. 5., as in all classical authors*, and probably retains this signification here, expres * See Wetstein ad h. 1. θεῷ χάρις τῷ πάντοτε θριαμβεύοντι ἡμᾶς ἐν τῷ χριστῷ καὶ τὴν ὀσμὴν τῆς γνώσεως αὐτοῦ φανεροῦντι δι ̓ ἡμῶν ἐν παντὶ τόπῳ, 15 ὅτι χριστοῦ εὐωδία ἐσμὲν τῷ θεῷ ἐν τοῖς σωζομένοις sive of the complete dependence of the Apostle on God, and of the over-ruling of all the Apostle's anxiety to good; he being himself the sacrifice. (Comp. Phil. ii. 17., 'AXX' ɛi καὶ σπένδομαι.) But the sense of conquest and degradation is lost in the more general sense of " Making us to share His triumph." And this more general sense is to a certain extent borne out by the force of verbs in eú (like the Hebrew Hiphil), which has been observed in palηтεúεw, properly, as in Matt. xxvii. 57., "to be a disciple;" but in Matt. xxviii. 19., xiii. 52.; Acts xiv. 21., "to make disciples:" and Baoiλevew, properly "to be a king;" but in 1 Sam. viii. 22., xv. 11.; 1 Chron. xxiii. 1.; 2 Chron. i. 8.; Judg. ix. 15. 61. 18.; 2 Sam. ii. 4., iii. 17.; Isa. vii. 6. (LXX.), " to make a king." Xopɛve, properly, " to dance;" but in Eur. Herc. F. 688. 873. "to make to dance." The idea of the Roman triumphal procession, in the eyes of the then existing world the most glorious spectacle which the imagination could conceive, and in its general features familiar even to those who had * Plutarch, Em. Paul. c. 32. never witnessed it, seems to suggest the thought of the fragrant odours, whether from the altars smoking with incense in the open temples *, or from the sacrifices offered up on the arrival of the procession at the temple of the Capitoline Jupiter.† 15. As applied to the knowledge of God revealed through his preaching, this thought expresses the invigorating and quickening effect of the new element of life, Christianity permeating the world as a cloud of frankincense. This figure he then proceeds to detail more at length in the following verses. His own life, as representing and diffusing the knowledge of God, is now the fragrant odour rising up before God, as in the primitive sacrifices. (Compare Gen. viii. 21., "The Lord smelled a sweet savour; " Lev. i. 9., "A sweet savour unto the Lord" (ooun Evwdías, LXX.)), and this odour is given forth, because of his union with Christ: it is not his act, but Christ's; hence the emphatical position_of XpioToû in the sentence. The χριστοῦ two ideas of his own self-sacrifice (as in Eph. v. 2.), and of his offering up his work to † Jos. B. J. vii. 5, 6. καὶ ἐν τοῖς ἀπολλυμένοις, 16 οἷς μὲν ὀσμὴ ἐκ θανάτου εἰς θάνατον, οἷς δὲ ὀσμὴ ἐκ ζωῆς εἰς ζωήν. • ὀσμὴ θανάτου . . . ὀσμὴ ζωῆς. God (as in Phil. iv. 18.; Rom. xv. 16.), are blended together. Compare Col. ii. 15. 16. The metaphor of the odour suggests the double effect which his preaching might have, according to the Rabbinical image, so frequent as to be almost proverbial, by which human life and action, and especially the Law, is spoken of under the figure of a scent, either deadly or salubrious. (See Wetstein and Schöttgen, ad h. 1.) It may be observed that this passage is the origin of the metaphor, once so frequent in the religious language of Christendom, as in popular belief to have been even re-con ... verted into a fact, of " the odour of sanctity," applied in large portions both of the Eastern and the Western Church, to the beneficent influence of a holy life, followed by a holy death. For the present tense of ἀπολλυμένοις and σωζομένοις, see 1 Cor. i. 18. The repetition of the phrases, ἐκ θανάτου εἰς θάνατον—ἐκ ζωῆς εἰς ζωήν, is in the Apostle's manner. Comp. Rom. i. 17., ÈK πíOTEWS εἰς πίστιν : 2 Cor. iv. 17., καθ' ὑπερβολὴν εἰς ὑπερβολήν. They are, in fact, Hebrew superlatives, which are expressed by repeating the emphatic word twice. |