CHAP. X.] LET HIM GLORY IN THE LORD. 403 you, and not to boast in another man's || line of things made ready to our hand. || Or, rule. 17 But he that glorieth, let him glory in the Jer. ix. 24. Lord. 1 Cor. i. 31. 18 For not he that commendeth himself is Pro. xxvii. 2. approved, but a whom the Lord commendeth. а a Ro. ii. 29. 1 Cor. iv. 5. of work, and, as far as lay in their power, were spoiling it. "Well," he says, "he will not imitate them, but when their (the Corinthians') faith in God, and in himself as God's Apostle, is increased, he hopes to be enlarged in his further operations against heathenism by their liberality, and adhering to the same rule or limit of break. ing up new ground, and not trespassing on that which others have enclosed and cultivated, he will preach the Gospel in the regions beyond them, and not glory in another's province of things made ready to his hands." 17. "But he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord." Let him glory in what the power of Christ had wrought through his instrumentality, and not boast of the fruit of other men's labours, as if they had been his own. The Corinthian Christians had been won to the Gospel by Christ's blessing on St. Paul's labours, and now these interlopers, because they had succeeded in converting some of them to Judaical rites, claimed them, and boasted of them as theirs. 18. "For not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth." The Lord commended the Apostle and those who worked with him by following up their preaching by the repentance, and faith, and love of those converted by themthese signs being the only ones by which the approval of Christ could be certainly known. 404 I AM JEALOUS OVER YOU. [II. COR, CHAP. XI. OU to God yé could bear with me a little in Wmy folly: and indeed || bear with me. a a ver. 16. ch. v. 13. b 2 For I am jealous over you with godly || Or, ye do bear jealousy: for I have espoused you to one hus with me. b Gal. iv. 17, 18. c Hos. ii. 19, 20. 1 Cor. iv. 15. d Col. i. 28. e Lev. xxi. 13. e band, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. 1. "Bear with me a little in my folly." So K., L., most Cursives; but N, B., D., F., G., 17, 118, 121, 137, &c., read, "bear a little folly." 1. "Would to God ye could bear with me a little in my folly," &c. What is this "folly" in which he would have them "bear with him a little "? Evidently his self-assertion, in which he indulges as it were in the greater part of this chapter, and in the next; asserting how he was not a whit behind the chiefest Apostles -how he refrained from being chargeable-how in the real glories of Judaism he was equal with the chiefest Apostles, how he was in labour more abundant, and foremost in every privation and form of distress and persecution. And how in visions and revelations of God he was favoured above all. All this assertion of himself, and of what he had done and suf fered, would be folly, because vain-glory, unless he had been com pelled to it for Christ's sake, his Master, Who had conferred on him the grace thus to do and suffer; and for their sakes, that they might see how little the false teachers had to boast of compared with himself. "Bear with me a little in my folly." Some MSS. read "bear from me a little folly." "And indeed bear with me." 66 me." But, indeed, ye do bear with 2. "For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you," &c. Because they had been converted by his preaching, and joined to the Church of Christ through his ministry, he con f 3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds * should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. 3. "From the simplicity." So K., L., M., P., most Cursives, f, Vulg., Syriac; but X, B., F., G., 17, 74, Goth., Æth., add "and purity" ("the simplicity and purity"). siders them to be his daughter, and he their father who, in converting them, had espoused them to Christ; and so he is beyond measure anxious that they should be presented to Christ uncorrupted, faithful in their spiritual allegiance to the One Husband of the Church, which they would not be, if they yielded to the seductions of the false apostles.1 3. "But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through," &c. No one could be conceived more pure from sin and evil desire than Eve, and yet she, in her state of innocence, succumbed to the temptation; and so might the Corinthian Church, though, as a body, they were converted and dedicated to God through Christ. "The simplicity that is in Christ." Rather, "towards Christ." It means single-hearted devotion to Christ. Some MSS. and authorities add "purity;" see critical note. Dean Stanley remarks that this is the only passage in St. Paul's Epistles in which there is any reference in the New Testament to the story of the serpent in the Fall. This is hardly correct, at least the inference which the Dean would have us draw is not: Rom. v. 12-19, is far more explicit than this place in connecting the Fall with one man, Adam; and that his fall was not from himself, but from an external tempter. Our present passage says nothing respecting the meaning of the narrative of the Fall, except what lies on the surface-that Eve was beguiled, and that the Corinthian Church must see that it be not similarly beguiled. 4. "For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached," &c. "If he that cometh." By the use of the 1 Mr. Blunt has a valuable remark on this. "This allegory runs, indeed, through the whole of Scripture, but it is always the body of the Church which is represented as the bride of our Lord. The application sometimes made of the allegory to individual; persons, as in the case of women devoting themselves to the religious life, is little short of profanity, and is entirely unjustified by Scriptural Theology." ANOTHER JESUS. [II. COR. 406 4 For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another Gospel, which ye | Or, with me. have not accepted, ye might well bear || with him. 5 For I suppose 1I was not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles. ǹ Gal. i. 7, 8. i 1 Cor. xv. 10. ch. xii. 11. Gal. ii. 6. k 1 Cor. i. 17. & ii. 1, 13. ch. x. 10. 1 Eph. iii. 4. m ch. iv. 2. & v. 11. & xii. 12. 6 But though I be rude in speech, yet not 'in m knowledge; but we have been thoroughly made manifest among you in all things. 6. "We have been thoroughly made manifest." So E., K., L., P., most Cursives, Syr., Copt.; but, B., F., G., 17, read, "have thoroughly made it (i. e. by knowledge) maui. fest." singular number he seems to point to one leading heresiarch, or false teacher. “Another Jesus." A better Jesus, one more full of grace and truth. 66 'Or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received." A spirit with higher and more abundant gifts than the Spirit which ye received through my ministrations. "Or another Gospel." The embodiment of still more glad tidings than those which ye have received. “Ye might well bear with him." But none of these things are so. 5. "For I suppose I was not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles." In preaching to you Jesus the Son of God; in ministering to you the One Spirit, accompanied with all His supernatural gifts; in preaching to you the pure Gospel of the grace of God. 6. "But though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge," &c. The word "rude" is used to describe him who is unskilled in any branch of learning, as compared with him who is learned in it. It thus answers pretty nearly to our use of the word "layman," which is applied not only to the laity in comparison with the clergy, but to the person ignorant of law as compared with the lawyers. He certainly was not rude in speech in the sense of not being eloquent, though he was rude in speech as compared with those who used the rhetorical arts of the Greek sophists and orators. CHAP. XI.] I ROBBED OTHER CHURCHES. 407 Acts xviii. 3. 7 Have I committed an offence "in abasing myself that ye might be exalted, because I have preached to you the Gospel of God freely? 8 I robbed other churches, taking wages of them, to do you service. 9 And when I was present with you, and wanted, I was chargeable to no man: for that which was lacking to me the brethren which came from Macedonia supplied: and in all things I have kept myself from being burdensome unto you, and so will I keep myself. 7. "Freely," i. e. "" gratis." 1 Cor. ix. 6, 12. ch. x. 1. "Yet not in knowledge; but we have been thoroughly made manifest." However they may despise his oratory, yet they cannot impugn his knowledge, for all their knowledge of Christianity is derived from him. 66 "We have been thoroughly made manifest," or perhaps (adopting another reading) we have thoroughly made it manifest to you." 7. "Have I committed an offence in abasing myself that ye might be exalted?" &c. The thought of his having thoroughly manifested his knowledge makes him think of how this was accomplished. He abased himself among them by not requiring from them that sustenance which, as their Apostle, was due to him. He asks them ironically, "Have I committed an offence in having acted thus? "" 8, 9. "I robbed other churches, taking wages of them, to do you service. And when I was present with you. so will I keep myself." "I robbed other churches." I acted as if I robbed them for I allowed them to send contributions for my support, which, on any principle of justice, they were not called upon to do; and so it came to pass that when I preached the Gospel to you I was able to preach it gratuitously, because these brethren living at a distance supplied all my wants.1 1 "I was chargeable to no man." This, "I was chargeable," is a word having a very singular derivation. It is derived from the word vápxn, a torpedo; which, pressing itself |