2 Corinthians 4

2 Corinthians 4:1

Being therefore intrusted by God with so honourable a charge, the preaching of this divine and glorious gospel of Christ, ch. iii. 4. and 18, we have been diligent in attendance on our work;

2 Corinthians 4:2

And have been far from using any of those vile arts which shame might make us disguise and conceal, but dealt simply and plainly, mixing nothing of our own with the word of Christ, but contenting ourselves with so much of the approbation of men as the making known the truth of God unto men sincerely and uprightly will help us to.

2 Corinthians 4:3

Which we have done so plainly, that if the gospel of Christ preached by us be yet obscure, it is so only among obdurate obstinate unbelievers, ver. 4: see ch. ii. 15:

2 Corinthians 4:4

Such as have their eyes so blinded by Satan or their own worldly advantages, that the gospel of Christ most powerfully and plainly revealed by him, and shining forth in our preaching since his departure from the earth, (and this most certainly the revelation of the immutable will of God, whom Christ represents to us, not as an ordinary picture doth the body, but as a real substantial image of him,) is not permitted to have any impression or influence on their hearts, they will not see, be it never so illustriously visible.

2 Corinthians 4:5

Certainly nothing but this can obstruct men’s minds against the gospel as it is delivered by us, being preached so as not to design any thing of honour to ourselves, but only unto Christ, and for ourselves, only to offer men our service, to do them all the humblest offices of Christian charity imaginable. ¹ grow not sluggish, or, cowardly, οὐκ ἑκακοῦμεν. ² shame, αἰσχύνης. ³ in, &c.

⁴ among, &c. ⁵ so that the illumination of the gospel of the glory of Christ hath not shined

to them, εἰς τὸ μὴ αὐγάσαι αὐτοῖς τὸν φωτισμὸν τοῦ ἐναγγελίου τῆς δόξης τοῦ Χριστοῦ.

2 Corinthians 4:6

For it is not any worldly consideration that hath put us upon this employment, but that God that by his word created the light when there was nothing but darkness in the world, hath in a like wonderful manner imparted this light to us, in sending down his own Son to shine in our hearts, to reveal his will unto us; and this on purpose that we might reveal it to others, instruct them in the knowledge of those glorious mysteries, (see note [c] 2 Peter i,) so illustrious in themselves and advantageous to us, which God hath revealed to us by Christ.

[a] face of Jesus] This phrase πρόσωπον Ἰησοῦ, the face of Jesus, and this whole verse, refers to the story of Moses, desiring to see the glory of God, Exod. xxxiii. For there God in his own glorious nature could not be seen, ver. 20, the lustre was so great; but with that sight that was afforded him, though but of an angel sustaining the person of God, Moses’s face was enlightened, and shone, and became glorious, (to which the apostle had before referred, ch. iii. 7.) And so here the glory of God, that is, the revelation of his most divine counsels for the saving of men under the gospel, is by God communicated to Christ, and by that means he, as he is the Son of man, and executes this prophetic office upon earth, is much more shining and glorious than Moses’s face was; and then we, to whom the gospel is now preached, look upon this face of his, though the Israelites could not on Moses’s, and are illuminated thereby, receive the knowledge of these counsels of God, whensoever we look on him.

2 Corinthians 4:7

But we that are intrusted with this great treasure of the gospel are not so fine and precious ourselves; we carry bodies about us subject to all manner of opposition, and pressures, and afflictions; and this on purpose designed by God also, that all the good success we have in our apostleship may be imputed to Christ, and not to us; as it would be, if we came with any secular power or grandeur to plant the gospel.

8, 9. The way which God rather saw fit to choose, was to permit us to wrestle with all difficulties, and then to sustain us by his own invisible assistance, not by any secular human means, and carry us through all, and give good success to our preaching by these very means;

[b] earthen vessels] Σκιῦος signifies any of the utensils about an house, Matt. xii. 29, Mark xi. 6, (see note [b] on Matt. xxi,) a dish, a cup, &c. Of these some are testacea, “made of shells of fishes,” and they are here ὀστράκινα, as 2 Tim. ii. 20, (the only other place where the word is used in the New Testament,) and this agrees very well with the matter in hand, it being ordinary to lay up those things we value in shells or boxes, or cabinets made of such; and those, in respect of the brittleness, and of the nature of them, (as the shells are the outsides of fishes,) very fit to resemble our bodies, wherein our souls do inhabit. And accordingly the Platouists, making two bodies of a man, one, that which carries the soul in it, ὄχημα ψυχῆς, the chariot of the soul, the other, that which we touch, and see the grosser carnal part, call that second ὀστράκινον, that which is the same to us which the shell is to the fish, which hath another finer body within it. The word ὄστρακον, testa, signifies not only “a shell,” (from whence those kinds of fishes are

2 Corinthians 4:8

[c] troubled on every side—] These two verses in every word refer to the ancient heathen customs in the agones, of which somewhat hath been said, note on 1 Cor. ix. 24. St. Chrysostom explains them so in common, (ἀλγοῦμεν καὶ ἀποτυγχάνομεν, ἀλλ’ οὐχ οὕτως, ὥστε ἐκπεσεῖν τῶν προκειμένων, εἰς γυμνασίαν, οὐκ εἰς ἥτταν, “We are cold,” &c., as Horace of the racer, sudavit et alstit, “he sweats and freezes,”) but he applies them not severally to the particular exercises. This, I suppose, may fitly be done, by accommodating three of the pairs to the customs of wrestling; one to that of running in the race, θλίβεσθαι belongs clearly to πάλη, wrestling, so saith Aristotle Rhet. l. 1. c. 5, (see the anonymous Scholiast on that place,) ὁ μὲν δυνάμενος θλίβειν καὶ κατέχειν, παλαιστικός, “He that can gripe his adversary, and take him up, is good at wrestling,” there being two dexterities in that exercise, comprimere antagonistam, et substernere, “to gripe, and throw down,” which Hesychius also calls ὠθεῖν and κρατεῖν: the first of these is here mentioned, and expressed by θλίβεσθαι, pressure, to which is here opposed, as in a higher degree, στενοχωρεῖσθαι, ad angustias redigi, “to be brought to distress,” as when we can neither get out of his hands, nor make any resistance against him; so Isa. xxviii. 20, στενοχωρούμενοι οὐ δυνάμεθα μάχεσθαι, being brought to such extremities, we can fight no longer. So again, ἀπορεῖσθαι, perplexity, is fit for the wrestler, who, being shrewdly put to it, knows not what to do; so saith Theophylact, though we fall, εἰς ἀμηχανίας, to such a condition that “we know not what to do;” so in Hesychius, Ἀποροῦντες, ἀμηχανοῦντες, they that are not able to do or attempt any thing, yet are not ἑξαπορούμενοι, miscarry not finally, ὀρθοὶ ἱστάμενοι, stand after all upright, οὐκ ἀπογινώσκοντες, καὶ ἡττώμενοι, despair

¹ Περ. φυσ. ἄρθρ. ²⁰ Tom. 6. p. 855. l. 10.

2 Corinthians 4:10

Carrying about us the cross and sufferings of Christ, daily suffering after him, that so the saving effects of his resurrection, in turning men from their evil ways, (converting infidels by our preaching,) might through our suffering in this employment be more conspicuous.

2 Corinthians 4:11

For we apostles, that are looked on by some with envy, are continually ready to be put to death for the gospel, that the vital power of Christ in raising up sinners to a new life may, through the dangers by us undergone in preaching the gospel, be shewed forth among our auditors that receive the faith from us.

2 Corinthians 4:12

And so truly we are not any extraordinary gainers by our employment, as to the eye of the world; the death of Christ, ver. 10, is wrought, perfected in us; we fill up his sufferings, Col. i. 24, by suffering after him; but the resurrection and vital

2 Corinthians 4:13

[b] end of that which is abolished] If the reading be τέλος, then must Christ, (which is the end of the law,) that is, the Christian precepts and promises typified by the Mosaical rites and shadows, be meant by it; but if the reading be πρόσωπον, then will the ἀνταπόδοσις, or second part of the resemblance, be more perfectly answerable to the former; thus, Moses put a veil over his own face, to signify that the Israelites would not see the face (that is, discern clearly the most eminent and principal part) of the law, which is now abolished, that is, of the ceremonial law. For certainly the principal part of that was the inward purity and piety signified and adumbrated by those ceremonies, and now taught by Christ more distinctly and plainly, and so that covering taken away, ver. 14, only the Jews will not see it, but as yet their understandings are blinded, in the beginning of the verse.

2 Corinthians 4:17

[d] weight of glory] The Hebrew כבד signifies primarily two things, weight and plenty, and from thence two things more, either glory or riches. From hence it comes, that βαρύ is in the Greek of the Old Testament taken for multitude or greatness, that is applied to a train or host, 1 Kings x. 2, and 2 Kings vi. 14, and xviii. 17, and 2 Chron. ix. 1. δύναμις βαρεία, a great numerous troop of attendants or army, and 1 Macc. i. 17. ὄχλος βαρύς, a very great multitude, and 3 Macc. συμπόσιον βαρύ, a great magnificent feast. Accordingly βάρος δόξης here will be riches, plenty, and abundance of glory, the word βάρος being the rather here used in opposition to the lightness of the afflictions precedent, but not to denote the heaviness, but abundance, or riches of this, as Gen. xiii. 2, Abraham is said to be כבד, heavy, that is, plentiful, in cattle, &c., the LXXII read πλούσιος, rich, and so ch. i. כבד signifies riches.

ᵃ De Art. Post. HAMMOND ANNOTT. VOL. II. M

2 Corinthians 4:18

And so all we that believe in Christ have that veil done away, and do clearly, though not yet so perfectly, behold Christ, and by beholding him are changed to be like him; the doctrine of the gospel received into our hearts changeth us into other men, to such a vision of Christ here, in imitating his purity, &c. as shall be attended with eternal glory hereafter; the same Spirit of Christ which worketh the one in us being certain to produce the other also. # CHAP. IV. THEREFORE seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we ¹ faint not;