See on Luke 24:22; see on Acts 2:7; and see on the kindred ἔκστασις astonishment, Mark 5:42. Some such charge appears to have been made, as at Acts 26:24.

Christ's love to men. See on 1 John 2:5.

Constraineth (συνέχει)

See on taken, Luke 4:38; see on Acts 18:5. It is the word rendered I am in a strait, Philippians 1:23. Compare Luke 12:50. The idea is not urging or driving, but shutting up to one line and purpose, as in a narrow, walled road.

"He who knows no man after the flesh, has, for example, in the case of the Jew, entirely lost sight of his Jewish origin; in that of the rich man, of his riches; in that of the learned of his learning; in that of the slave, of his servitude" (Alford). Compare Galatians 3:28.

Yea though (εἰ καὶ)

Not with a climactic force, as A.V., and not with the emphasis on Christ, but on have known. The proper sense will be brought out in reading by emphasizing have. We know no man henceforth after the flesh: even if we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now, etc. Paul refers to his knowledge of Christ before his conversion, a hearsay knowledge, confined to reports of His personal appearance, His deeds, His relations to the Jews, His alleged crime and punishment. When the glorified Christ first spoke to him out of heaven, he asked, "Who art thou?" Compare to reveal His Son in me, Galatians 1:16.

Or creation. Compare Galatians 6:15. The word κτίσις is used in three senses in the New Testament. The act of creating, as Romans 1:20. The sum of created things, as Revelation 3:14; Mark 13:19. A created thing or creature, as Romans 8:39. The Rabbins used the word of a man converted from idolatry. "He who brings a foreigner and makes him a proselyte is as if he created him."

Old things (τὰ ἀρχαῖα)

Rev., correctly, the old things. See on 1 John 2:7, and see on Revelation 12:9.

Passed away (παρῆλθεν)

Lit., passed by. So Luke 18:37; Mark 6:48. As here, James 1:10; Matthew 5:8; Matthew 24:34, etc.

Behold

As if contemplating a rapidly shifting scene. As in a flash, old things vanish, and all things become new.

Better, Rev., but; as if anticipating a possible failure to discern the primary agency of God in this moral transformation. All things - all that are involved in this mighty change - are from God.

Reconciled

God is the prime-mover in the work of reconciliation. See on Romans 5:10, through Christ, as the medium.

Emphatic. It was God, as in 2 Corinthians 5:18.

Was - reconciling (ἦν καταλλάσσων)

These words are to be construed together; the participle with the finite verb marking the process of reconciliation. The emphasis is on the fact that God was reconciling, not on the fact that God was in Christ. God was all through and behind the process of reconciliation. The primary reference of the statement is, no doubt, to God's reconciling manifestation in the incarnation and death of Christ; yet, as a fact, it includes much more. God was engaged in reconciling the world from the very beginning, and that in Christ. See on John 1:4, John 1:5, John 1:9, John 1:10.

Hath given to us (θέμενος ἐν ἡμῖν)

Lit., lodged in us.

Only here and Ephesians 6:10.

Omit. It is a later addition, in order to soften the abruptness of the following clauses.

Made to be sin (ἁμαρτίαν ἐποίησεν)

Compare a curse, Galatians 3:13. Not a sin-offering, nor a sinner, but the representative of sin. On Him, representatively, fell the collective consequence of sin, in His enduring "the contradiction of sinners against Himself" (Hebrews 12:3), in His agony in the garden, and in His death on the cross.

Who knew no sin (τὸν μὴ γνόντα ἁμαρτίαν)

Alluding to Christ's own consciousness of sinlessness, not to God's estimate of Him. The manner in which this reference is conveyed, it is almost impossible to explain to one unfamiliar with the distinction between the Greek negative particles. The one used here implies the fact of sinlessness as present to the consciousness of the person concerning whom the fact is stated. Compare John 8:46.

Lit., working together. With Him is implied in the compounded ούν with. That it refers to God, not to the fellow-Christians, is evident from the parallel 1 Corinthians 3:9, laborers together with God, and because the act of exhortation or entreaty in which the fellowship is exhibited is ascribed to God in 2 Corinthians 5:20. The phrase Θεοῦ πάρεδροι assessors of God, occurs in Ignatius' letter to Polycarp. Compare Mark 16:20.

In vain (εἰς κενὸν)

Lit., to what is vain. Equivalent to the phrase to no purpose.

From Isaiah 49:8, after Septuagint. The Hebrew is: "In the time of favor I answer thee, and in the day of salvation I succor thee." The words are addressed to the servant of Jehovah, promising to invest him with spiritual power, that he may be a light to Israel and to others. Paul, taking the words in their messianic sense, urges that now is the time when God thus dispenses His favor to Christ, and through Him to men. The application turns on the words acceptable time; a time in which God receives. As He receives, receive ye Him.

The accepted time (καιρὸς εὐπρόσδεκτος)

Rev., acceptable. Paul uses for the simple adjective of the Septuagint a compound "well-received," which is stronger, and which occurs mostly in his own writings. See Romans 15:16, Romans 15:31; 1 Peter 2:5; and compare acceptable year, Luke 4:19.

Rev., ministration. See on Romans 12:7.

Blamed (μωμηθῇ)

Only here and 2 Corinthians 8:20. The kindred μῶμος blemish, is found 2 Peter 2:13, and in the Septuagint of bodily defects. Similarly the Septuagint ἄμωμος spotless, without bodily defect; and, in the moral sense, 1 Peter 1:19, applied to Christ. Compare Hebrews 9:14; Ephesians 5:27; Jde 1:24.

See on 1 Corinthians 7:26.

Distresses (στενοχωρίαις)

See on Romans 2:9.

See on Acts 5:21.

Tumults (ἀκαταστασίαις)

See on Luke 21:9, and compare ἀκατάστατος unstable, James 1:8. This is one of the words which show the influence of political changes. From the original meaning of unsettledness, it developed, through the complications in Greece and in the East after the death of Alexander, into the sense which it has in Luke - political instability. One of the Greek translators of the Old Testament uses it in the sense of dread or anxious care.

Watchings (ἀγρυπνίαις)

Only here and 2 Corinthians 11:27. See on the kindred verb, Mark 13:33. For the historical facts, see Acts 16:25; Acts 20:7-11, Acts 20:31; 2 Thessalonians 3:8.

Fastings (νηστείαις)

Mostly of voluntary fasting, as Matthew 17:21; Acts 14:23; but voluntary fasting would be out of place in an enumeration of hardships.

Right-hand and left-hand weapons. Offensive, as the sword, in the right hand, defensive, as the shield, in the left.

See 2 Corinthians 2:17; 2 Corinthians 4:2. The opinions concerning Paul as a deceiver are mirrored in the Clementine Homilies and Recognitions, spurious writings, ascribed to Clement of Rome, but emanating from the Ebionites, a Judaizing sect, in the latter half of the second century. In these Paul is covertly attacked, though his name is passed over in silence. His glory as the apostle to the Gentiles is passed over to Peter. The readers are warned, in the person of Peter, to beware of any teacher who does not conform to the standard of James, and come with witnesses (compare 2 Corinthians 3:1; 2 Corinthians 5:12; 2 Corinthians 10:12-18). Paul is assailed under the guise of Simon Magus, and with the same words as those in this passage, deceiver and unknown.

See 2 Corinthians 12:7-9, and compare Psalm 118:18.

The contrast is twofold: between having and not having, and between temporary and permanent having, or having and keeping. Compare Luke 8:15; 1 Corinthians 15:2; 1 Thessalonians 5:21; Hebrews 3:6.

The readers are addressed by name in only two other epistles, Galatians 3:1; Philippians 4:15.

Is enlarged (πεπλάτυνται)

Only here, 2 Corinthians 6:13, and Matthew 23:5, where it is used of widening the phylacteries. From πλατύς broad. Quite common in the Septuagint, and with various shades of meaning, but usually rendered enlarge. Of worldly prosperity, "waxed fat," Deuteronomy 32:15; compare Genesis 9:27. Of pride, Deuteronomy 11:16. Of deliverance in distress, Psalm 4:1. Expand with joy, Psalm 119:32. The idea of enlargement of heart in the sense of increased breadth of sympathy and understanding, as here, is also expressed in the Old Testament by other words, as concerning Solomon, to whom God gave largeness of heart, Sept., χύμα outpouring. Compare Isaiah 60:5.

It is not that our hearts are too narrow to take you in. Straitened in antithesis with enlarged.

In your own bowels (τοῖς οπλάγχνοις ὑμῶν)

See on 1 Peter 3:8; see on James 5:11. Rev., affections. It is your love that is contracted.