Bible Commentaries
2 Corinthians 8

Verses 1-24

VIII-IX The Collection for Jerusalem —The space given to this proves what importance Paul attached to it. There may well have been desperate poverty among the Christians at Jerusalem, but this gift meant much more than material relief: it was a visible proof that Paul’s converts were loyal to the apostolic body and regarded themselves as one with the Jewish Christians, not as a separate Pauline church, as Judaizers no doubt said they did. Hence the collection was made in all the four provinces where Paul had last worked, and the chief cities were asked to send delegates to carry it. Seven or eight delegates did assemble in the following spring and accompanied Paul to Jerusalem, Acts 20:4.

VIII 1-15 He urges them to keep up their Contributions —See § 866g. Paul had given instructions in 1 Corinthians 16:2 about the mode of collection, and it appears from the present passage that this plan had now been set in operation under Titus’s direction. Paul himself was at present encouraging the collection in Macedonia and several times half-playfully fans the spirit of emulation between the two provinces.

1. ’The grace’: the power of giving gladly.

2. This verse explains what the grace was: ’That under the heavy ordeal of distress their overflowing joy and their deep poverty have made more abundant the riches of their generosity’, i.e. their hardships had made them more liberal, not less so.

3. ’Were willing’ is not in the Gk, but some such verb has to be understood. Perhaps ’they, are giving’ would be better.

4. ’The grace . . . the favour of a share in the service . . .’ ’The Saints:’ the Christians of Jerusalem.

5. ’Going beyond all our hopes, they gave’: Paul had hoped for gifts from them, but they placed themselves and all they had at his service, subject only to God’s will (as the last words mean).

6. ’grace’—work of charity. Titus had started, or accelerated, the work of collection and would now return to speed it to its conclusion.

7. It is best to supply mentally some word like ’I appeal to you’ at the beginning and to change the colon to a comma. ’Word’: ’eloquence’. Their knowledge and eloquence are mentioned at the very beginning of the first letter (1 Corinthians 1:5) and it is sometimes implied that they thought too highly of both. ’Carefulness’: ’Zeal, fervour’. ’Charity’, i.e. love. ’This grace’, the power to give unstintingly. 8b. ’testing the genuineness of your charity by means of the zeal of others’: a half-confession of his little manoeuvre.

9. This appeal to Christ’s example and to the very act of incarnation, is very like Paul. ’grace’: ’kindness, mercy’.10. ’advice’, as distinct from a command—cf. v 8. ’Is profitable’, or perhaps ’is becoming, proper’. ’To do . . .’: As the text stands it seems to imply that the wish is greater than the deed. Have the two words been transposed by a slip of the tongue or pen? But some solve the problem by taking ’have begun’ as ’were the first to . . .’ ’A year ago’: ’last year, as far back as last year’. We do not known whether he refers to the civil year which began some time in October, or to the Jewish religious year which began usually in March. The former would be more natural in writing to so many non-Jews and would indicate the previous autumn, but the latter would fit the circumstances better, giving a date about February, § 866g.11. ’to perform according to your means’.

12. ’For if the goodwill is there. . . .’13. ’By an equality’: probably a current phrase which could stand by itself without verb, like ’share and share alike’. The sharing of course is voluntary.

14. ’Their abundance’ may either mean that a time may come when Corinth may be glad. of money from Jerusalem, or may refer to the next world where the Corinthians will reap the benefits of the spiritual gifts (the Gospel) which came to them from Jerusalem.

15. Quotation from Exodus 16:17, about the gathering of manna. Better: ’He that had gathered much . . . that had gathered little. . . .’

16-24 The Return of Titus with two Companions — Titus’s arrival at Corinth would precede Paul’s coming by perhaps a few weeks. There can be little doubt that he was to carry this letter with him. His visit therefore had the double purpose of hastening the collection and of bringing Paul’s last warning (chh 10-13) to the still defiant party at Corinth.

16. ’the same carefulness’ (i.e. eagerness) probably means an enthusiasm equal to Paul’s own, which fits in well with 7:13-16.

17. ’Accepted’: Has accepted. ’Exhortation’: the request to re-visit Corinth. ’More careful’: more eager than one who went merely to please Paul. ’Went’: ’Is going’. This verb, together with ’have sent’ in 18 and 22, are probably epistolary past tenses (common in Greek and Latin letters) and mean the same as an English present.

18. ’Have sent’: ’Are sending’. ’The brother, who has won praise through all the churches by his preaching of the gospel’. Neither of Titus’s two companions is named, though both (especially the first) were men of some note. It is almost incredible that Paul omitted these names. The name is vital in a recommendation of this sort. It seems therefore likely that these two afterwards apostatized or otherwise disgraced themselves, and that the names were omitted from the letter in later public reading, to avoid painful memories or misunderstanding, and thus had been lost before its publication, which was about forty years after this. The first man was one of the delegates to Jerusalem and his name may be in the list in Acts 20:4. It has been widely believed however that the first-mentioned is Luke, but it is hard to see why Luke’s name should ever have been expunged.

19. ’Ordained’: ’Appointed’. ’Travels’, i.e. the journey to Jerusalem. ’Grace’: ’Charity or kindness’—the collection. ’Our . . . will’: ’To prove our own zeal’.

20-21. A parenthesis. Paul had asked them (1 Corinthians 16:3) to send the money by their own delegates (and was sending this delegate with Titus) in order to put himself above any suspicion of having profited by the collection.

20. ’Avoiding’, etc. ’For we wish to safeguard ourselves against any blame in connexion with this large sum . . .’21. ’Forecast’: ’Plan, arrange’—disarming even unreasonable suspicion, as far as possible. An echo of Proverbs 3:4.

22. ’Have sent’: ’Are sending’. This second brother is not apparently a delegate. ’Proved’: ’Found by experience’. ’Confidence’ seems to indicate that this brother had been at Corinth before.

23. ’As for Titus, he is . . . and as for our brethren, they are the apostles’, etc. Both had at some time acted as delegates or envoys for churches—not ’delegates of Christ’, which is the usual meaning of apostle in the New Testament. ’Glory of Christ’: either ’men whose lives commend the name of Christ to mankind’ or ’men in whom Christ delights’.

24. ’Show . . .’ by hastening on the collection, which would be heard of in other provinces.