1 Thessalonians 2:8

1Th 2:8. Οὕτως, ἱμειρόμενοι ὑμῶν, εὐδοκοῦμεν) and seeing that it was so, i.e. inasmuch as we felt the strongest affection for you, we were ready, etc. The text has been at once suited for (pronunciationem) correct delivery, whilst in the marks of punctuation a more careful stopping of the sentence is equivalent to a note. The same word, ἱμείρονται, is found in Job 3:21. Εὐδοκοῦμεν, even without the augment, may still be the imperfect tense: in the whole[6] of Paul’s statement all the facts proceed in the preterite, which the versions here also retain.—ΨΥΧᾺς, souls) Our soul desired as it were to enter into your soul.

[6] In the last Ed. of the Gnomon, published at Berlin, and in the Tubingen Ed., 1773, I find nota instead of tota: the translation in that case would be, in a well-known narrative. Tota seems to suit the sense here.—TR.

Tota is the reading of Ed. 2, quarto, A.D. 1752, and is doubtless the true reading.—ED.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Th_2:8. Ὁμείρεσθαι] occurs, besides LXX. Job_3:21, and Symmachus, Psa_62:2 (yet even in these two places MSS. differ), only in the glossaries. Hesychius, Phavorinus, and Photius explain it by ἐπιθυμεῖν. Theophylact derives it from ὁμοῦ and εἴρειν; and corresponding to this, Photius explains it by ὁμοῦ ἡρμόσθαι. Accordingly, ὁμειρόμενοι ὑμῶν would denote bound with you, attached to you. Fritzsche, ad Marc. p. 792 f., Schott, and others agree. But this is questionable(1) Because the verb is here construed with the genitive, and not with the dative; (2) because there is no instance of a similar verb compounded with ὁμοῦ or ὁμός; see Winer, p. 92 [E. T. 125]. Now, as in Nicander (Theriaca, ver. 2:402) the simple form μείρεσθαι occurs in the sense of ἱμείρεσθαι, it can hardly be doubted that μείρεσθαι is the original root to which ἱμείρεσθαι and ὁμείρεσθαι (having the same meaning) are related, having a syllable prefixed for euphony. Compare the analogous forms of κέλλω and ὀκέλλω, δύρομαι and ὀδύρομαι, φλέω and ὀφλέω, αὔω and ἰαύω, and see Kühner, I. p. 27. Accordingly, as ἱμείρεσθαι τινός denotes primarily the yearning love, the yearning desire for union with an absent friend, and secondarily is, according to the testimony of Hesychius, synonymous with ἐρᾶν, ὁμειρόμενοι ὑμῶν receives here the suitable meaning of filled with love to you. Beza unnecessarily, and against the context (because the word is a verbum ἐρωτικόν), supplies: videlicet vos ad Christum tanquam sponsam ad sponsum adducendi.

οὕτως] belongs not to ὁμειρόμενοι (Schrader), but to εὐδοκοῦμεν; thus it is not intensifying so much, but a simple particle of comparison: thus, in this manner.

εὐδοκοῦμεν] not present, but imperfect with the augment omitted. See Winer, p. 66 [E. T. 83]. εὐδοκεῖν, to esteem good, here, to be willing, denotes that what took place was from a free determination of will. Thus it is used both of the eternal, gracious, and free counsels of God (Col_1:19; Gal_1:15; 1Co_1:21), and of the free determination of men (Rom_15:26; 2Co_5:8).

τὰς ἑαυτῶν ψυχάς] not a Hebraism in the sense of nosmet ipsos (Koppe, Flatt), but our lives (Hom. Od. iii. 74; Aristoph. Plut. 524); the plural ψυχάς proves that Paul thinks not of himself only, but also of Silvanus and Timotheus.

On ἑαυτῶν, comp. Bernhardy, Syntax, p. 272; Winer, p. 136 [E. T. 187], However, the verb μεταδοῦναι does not strictly apply to τὰς ἑαυτῶν ψυχάς, as the idea of imparting is here transformed into that of offering up, devoting. (Erroneously Bengel: anima nostra cupiebat quasi immeare in animam vestram. Hofmann: In the word preached, which Paul and his companions imparted to the Thessalonians even to the exhaustion of their vital power, this as it were passed over to them, just as the vital power of the mother passes over to the child, whom she is not content with nourishing generally, but, from the longings of love to it, desires to nourish it by suckling.) From the compound verb μεταδοῦναι the idea of the simple verb δοῦναι is accordingly to be extracted (a zeugma; see Kühner, II. 606).

The thought contained in ὡς … οὕτως is accordingly: As a mother not only nourishes her new-born child with her milk, but also cherishes and shelters it, yea, is ready to sacrifice her life for its preservation, so has the apostle not merely nourished his spiritual child, the Thessalonian church, with the milk of the gospel, but has been also ready, in order to preserve it in the newly begun life, to sacrifice his own life.

The inducement to such a conduct was love, which the apostle, although he had already mentioned it, again definitely states in the words διότι ἀγαπητοὶ ἡμῖν ἐγενήθητε, because ye were dear and valuable to us.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Th 2:8 . ὁμειρόμενοι ( cf. Job 3:21 , LXX; Psa 62:2 , Symm.) = “yearning for, or, over”. εὐδοκ ., for absence of augment cf. W. H., ii. 161, 162. διότι causal (“for as much as”), almost = γάρ (as in Modern Greek).

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

To have the flock that is committed unto him in more estimation than his own life.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

So--to be joined to "we were willing"; "As a nurse cherisheth . . . so we were willing," &c. [ALFORD]. But BENGEL, "So," that is, seeing that we have such affection for you.

being affectionately desirous--The oldest reading in the Greek implies, literally, to connect one's self with another; to be closely attached to another.

willing--The Greek is stronger, "we were well content"; "we would gladly have imparted," &c. "even our own lives" (so the Greek for "souls" ought to be translated); as we showed in the sufferings we endured in giving you the Gospel (Acts 17:1-34). As a nursing mother is ready to impart not only her milk to them, but her life for them, so we not only imparted gladly the spiritual milk of the word to you, but risked our own lives for your spiritual nourishment, imitating Him who laid down His life for His friends, the greatest proof of love (Joh 15:13).

ye were--Greek, "ye were become," as having become our spiritual children.

dear--Greek, "dearly beloved."

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 8. Being affectionately desirous of you] We had such intense love for you that we were not only willing and forward to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ to you, but also to give our own lives for your sake, because ye were dear, διοτι αγαπητοι ἡμιν, because ye were beloved by us. The words used here by the apostle are expressive of the strongest affection and attachment.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(8) So means hero even so, confirming the simile, and is not to be taken in the sense of “therefore.”

Not the gospel of God only.—The gospel was, as it were, the milk given to the young converts; but the nursing mothers were ready to let them draw their very life away, so dearly did they love them.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

8. so being affectionately desirous of you] R. V., even so.

The rare and peculiar Greek verb (one word) rendered “being affectionately desirous” implies the fondness of a mother’s love—yearning over you.

With this mother-like affection, he continues, we were well pleased to impart unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls (R. V.). The apostles were not merely willing (A.V.) to bestow themselves on the Thessalonians, they actually did so, and with the glad consent of a mother nourishing the babe from her own life. The same verb is rendered “thought-good” in ch. 1Th_3:1; and the corresponding noun is “good-pleasure” in 2Th_1:2 (see note).

For “souls” we might read “lives” (psyché is never the soul in general, but the individual soul, the personality)—our lives, our very selves. The Apostle sacrificed all personal aims and private interests—“what things were gains to me” (Php_3:7)—to the cause of the Gospel; his life was put in continual hazard in behalf of the Church; and for such people as the Macedonian Christians he did this with cordial satisfaction. “If I am made a libation over the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all” (Php_2:17). Even to the thankless Corinthians he says, “I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls” (2Co_12:15). This is the true way to “impart the gospel of God,” to give our own heart and soul with it. For it is to impart the Gospel in the spirit in which it came from God, “Who spared not His own Son, but gave Him up for us all” (Rom_8:32); and in the spirit of Christ, “Who gave Himself up for us” (Gal_1:4; Gal_2:20), Who “poured out His soul unto death” (Isa_53:12).

because ye were dear unto us] More adequately, ye became very dear (R. V.); lit., beloved, the word so often applied to Christ (in the Gospels) by the Father: “My Beloved,” “My Son, the Beloved” (comp. Eph_1:6, “accepted in the Beloved”). This Church had won upon St Paul’s affections in an especial degree. They were lovable people, dear to God and to the servants of God. Comp. ch. 1Th_1:3-4; 2Th_2:13; 2Th_2:16; see also Introd. pp. 34, 35, and notes on 1Th_2:19-20.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

So being affectionately desirous of you,.... Not of theirs but them; not of glory from them, nor a maintenance by them, but of their spiritual and eternal welfare; were as fond of them as a nursing mother is of her children, who, when absent from them but ever so little a while, longs to see them; see Th1 2:17 and Th1 3:1,

we were willing: took the utmost pleasure, delight, and complacency:

to have imparted unto you, not the Gospel of God only; the sincere milk of the word, which they did freely, fully, and for their spiritual good and profit, without any regard to any advantage of their own:

but also our own souls, or "lives"; which is the highest expression and strongest proof of love that can be given; and respect is still had to the similitude of the nursing mother, who may be said to impart her blood, for such it her milk diversified, for the nourishment of her children: and such was the great concern of the apostles for the interest of Christ, the spread of the Gospel, and the good of souls, that their lives were not dear unto them, so that these ends might he answered: because ye were dear unto us; both because they were loved by God, redeemed by Christ, regenerated by the Spirit of Christ, and had the image of Christ stamped upon them; and also because that they were their spiritual children; and as children are dear to their parents, so were these to them, even to such a degree, as that, were there a necessity for it, they could freely have laid down their lives for them.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

8 So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us.

Ver. 8. So being affectionately desirous] Honing and hankering after you. The Greek word signifieth the most swaying heart passion, the most effectual affection. (ιμειρομενοι. Cupidine rapti.)

But also our own souls] Greater love than this hath no man; and such a love ought there to be in every pastor toward his people. Love is liberal, charity is no churl.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

So, being affectionately desirous of you - The word here rendered “being affectionately desirous” - ὁμειρομενοι homeiromenoi - occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. It means to “long after, to have a strong affection for.” The sense here is, that Paul was so strongly attached to them that he would have been willing to lay down his life for them.

We were willing to have imparted unto you - To have given or communicated; Rom 1:11.

Not the gospel of God only - To be willing to communicate the knowledge of the gospel was in itself a strong proof of love, even if it were attended with no self-denial or hazard in doing it. We evince a decided love for a man when we tell him of the way of salvation, and urge him to accept of it. We show strong interest for one who is in danger, when we tell him of a way of escape, or for one who is sick, when we tell him of a medicine that will restore him; but we manifest a much higher love when we tell a lost and ruined sinner of the way in which he may be saved. There is no method in which we can show so strong an interest in our fellow-men, and so much true benevolence for them, as to go to them and tell them of the way by which they may be rescued from everlasting ruin.

But also our own souls - Or rather “lives” - ψυχὰς psuchas; Mat 6:25; Mat 20:28; Luk 12:22, Luk 12:13; Mar 3:4. This does not mean that the apostle was willing to be damned, or to lose his soul in order to save them, but that if it had been necessary he would have been ready to lay down his life; see 1Jo 3:16. “We ought to lay down our lives for the brethren;” compare notes, Joh 15:13. His object seems to be to assure them that he did not leave them from any want of love to them, or from the fear of being put to death. It was done from the strong conviction of duty. He appears to have left them because he could not longer remain without exposing others to danger, and without the certainty that there would be continued disturbances; see Act 17:9-10.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Because you were become most dear to us. Literally, desiring you.[3] St. John Chrysostom admires the tender expressions of love in St. Paul. (Witham)

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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]

Desiderantes vos, Greek: imeiromenoi umon. See Legh’s Crit. Sacra.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

A further account of their behaviour among them. The former verse showed their great gentleness, this their great love; expressed, first: In their affectionate desire of them; as the Latin phrase, cupidissimus fui, imports love to the person. And it was the desire of their salvation, first in their believing, and then perseverance and progress in faith. It was themselves, not their goods, they desired; as Paul elsewhere saith: We seek not yours, but you. Secondly, In the effect of it, which was imparting the gospel to them, whereby they might be saved; which is amplified by two things:

1. That they did this willingly, not out of mere necessity, with a backward mind; the word is ευδοκουμεν, we were well pleased to preach, and with complacence of mind.

2. That they were willing to impart their souls to them; that is, to hazard their lives for them in preaching to them, as Act 16:1-40; the same word signifying both the soul and life, and he that dies for another gives his life to them. Or, it may refer to their labours and hardships, whereby they endangered their lives for them, labouring night and day, 1Th 2:9. Others understand the words only as an expression of their great affection to them; a man imparts his soul to the person whom he entirely loves, as Isa 58:10; when a man gives relief to a person in want out of love and compassion, he imparts his soul in what he gives. So did they in the gospel thus preached. And the word imparting is used to express relief to the wants of the body, Rom 12:8; and the gospel is the bread of life to give relief to the soul, and used in this sense also, Rom 1:11. The apostle may here futher allude to mothers that are nurses, who impart not only other food, but their milk, which is their blood, to cherish their children.

Ye were dear unto us; or, ye have been beloved of us; wherein the apostle more plainly declares their love to them as the ground of all their labours and perils in preaching to them; yea, it may reach to all that he had said before concerning their carriage among them, all was from love.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

8. Desirous of you—Eager to get, not yours, but you.

Not the gospel only—As the mother imparts her milk.

Our own souls—As in the milk the mother imparts her own life to her infant, sometimes at the expense of life.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

So being affectionately desirous of you; a strong expression in the original: "being filled with earnest love for you." We were willing. The word denotes a predetermination of the will: "we esteemed it good." To have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls. An evident climax: not only were we willing to preach the gospel of God to you, but more than this, to sacrifice our own lives for your advantage. The word here rendered "souls" denotes lives; and the meaning is that the apostle was willing to submit to death for the sake of the Thessalonians. The plural "we" still implies Paul and Silas and Timothy. The thought is As a nursing mother not only nourishes tier children, but is also ready to sacrifice her life for them; so the apostle not only nourished his spiritual children with the pure milk of the gospel, but was ready to sacrifice his own life for their spiritual maintenance; thus expressing in the strongest manner the womanly tenderness of the apostle toward his converts. Because ye were dear unto us.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

To impart our own souls - To lay down our lives for your sake.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

even so, being affectionately desirous of you [not yours, but you], we were well pleased to impart unto you, not the gospel of God only [as the sincere milk of the Word], but also [as mothers often do for their new-born babes] our own souls [lives-- 1Jo_3:16 ], because ye were become very dear to us .

J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

8. But also our own souls. You were so dear to us that we not only were willing to impart the gospel, but would have given our lives to you and for you.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

8. ομειρομενοι, in all uncials and many minuscc. Theophylact writes, τινες δε ιμειρομενοι ανεγνωσαν, αντι του επιθυμουντες· ουκ εστι δε. WH (see Appendix, p. 144) give ομειρομενοι the smooth breathing; other editors have written it with the rough breathing, following the erroneous derivation from ομου and ειρομαι. In all likelihood, as WH suggest, this form was a local or vernacular variation of ιμειρομενοι, which later copyists substituted for the almost unexampled form in ο-. See Expository Note.

γεγενησθε (for εγενηθητε): K, and most minuscc.—a Syrian emendation, due seemingly to reading ευδοκουμεν as present instead of imperfect (see Expository Note); so the latter verb is rendered in deg, Ambrst (cupimus), Aug (placet). ηυδοκουμεν is actually read here in B; f vg give volebamus; cf. 1Th 3:1, and note on ηυδοκησαμεν.

μαρτυρουμενοι (for -ομενοι): so T.R., after D*G 37 and other inferior minn. (but not in HKL Chr—Syrian); a bad Western corruption.

8. The figure of 1Th 2:7 c, while it looks back to νήπιοι (ἤπιοι), in its turn suggests another side of the relation of the Apostles to their converts: they had been as nursing mothers to their spiritual children not only in homely simplicity (or gentleness), but in self-devotion:—

ὡς … τροφὸς … οὕτως ὀμειρόμενοι ὑμῶν, (like a nurse) … so tenderly yearning over you. Ὀμείρομαι, a hap. leg. in Greek—except that it occurs as a varia lectio in Job 3:21 (LXX) and in Psa 62:2 (Symmachus)—is taken to be an obscure dialectic variation of ἱμείρομαι, a verb common in poetry from Homer downwards (not extant in Attic prose), which is spelt also by Nicander (c. 160 b.c.) μείρομαι. As a verb of feeling, it is construed with genitive of the object. Ἱμείρομαι describes in Odyss. i. 41 Odysseus’ yearning for his native land; in classical Greek it implies absence of the beloved object, like ἐπιποθέω in 1Th 3:6 below; otherwise here,—ἐνταῦθα τὴν φιλοστοργίαν δείκνυσι (Chrys.). On the spiritus (asper or lenis?), see Textual Note.

ηὐδοκοῦμεν μεταδοῦναι ὑμῖν κ.τ.λ. We were well-pleased (or thought good) to impart to you not only the Good News of God, but also our own souls. Ηὐδοκοῦμεν implies not something that the Apostles were willing to do (A.V.), or would have done if occasion had arisen—as though they had written ηὐδοκοῦμεν (or ηὐδοκήσαμεν) ἄν—but what they actually did with hearty good-will: so εὐδοκέω with the infinitive in 1Th 3:1; cf. Rom 15:26; 1Co 1:21; Gal 1:15; Col 1:19; Luk 12:32. The idea is not that the missionaries were ready to lay down their lives for their converts—as though the words were δοῦναι, or θεῖναι, ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν τὰς ψυχάς (cf. Mar 10:45; Gal 1:4; 1Jn 3:16)—but that they gladly communicated (μετα-δοῦναι; cf. Rom 1:11) their very selves to them,—in other words, they gave with their message the best and utmost that was in them, for the reason that (διότι) the Thessalonians had grown (ἐγενήθητε) dear to them.

On ψυχή, see note to 1Th 5:23. It denotes the personality, the living self (hence plural, as including the three), and is synonymous with καρδία (1Th 2:4, see note); καρδία is the inner man by contrast with the outer, while ψυχή is the man himself as feeling and acting through the outer organs, the soul within the body: cf. Col 3:23; Luk 12:19; Luk 12:22 f.; 1Pe 1:22; 1Pe 2:11. St Paul and his fellows imparted themselves to this Church as the nursing-mother to her offspring (1Th 2:7), with a tenderness in which one’s very soul goes out to the beloved. Of this unstinting, uncalculating devotion (how opposite to all πρόφασις πλεονεξίας, 1Th 2:5) the κόπος κ. μόχθος of 1Th 2:9 gave evidence; the saying of 2Co 12:15, ἥδιστα ἐκδαπανηθήσομαι ὑπὲρ τῶν ψυχῶν ὑμῶν, is a striking parallel to ηὐδοκοῦμεν μεταδοῦναι τὰς ψυχὰς ἡμῶν. Bengel aptly paraphrases, “Anima nostra cupiebat quasi immeare in animam vestram”; and Calvin, more at length, “Mater in liberis suis educandis … nullis parcit laboribus ac molestiis, nullam solicitudinem refugit, nulla assiduitate fatigatur, suumque adeo sanguinem hilari animo sugendum praebet.” The 3rd personal reflexive, ἑαυτῶν, is freely used in later Greek for all three persons in plural; see Winer-Moulton, pp. 187 f.

διότι (cf. 1Th 2:18, 1Th 4:6) = διὰ τοῦτο ὃτι, a more distinct causal than ὅτι. ἀγαπητοὶ ἡμῖν ἐγενήθητε, beloved to us,—in our eyes. This adjective has in effect the force of a substantive (cf. 1Th 2:19 f.); elsewhere St Paul uses it of his people by way of endearing address, along with or in place of ἀδελφοί, or in describing their relation to God (Rom 1:7; Eph 5:1; cf. Eph 1:4 above). Christ Himself is ὁ ἀγαπητός (Mat 3:17) or ὁ ἠγαπημένος (Eph 1:6). Ἐγενήθητε, you became after your conversion and our acquaintance with you; cf. ὥστε γενέσθαι ὑμᾶς, 1Th 1:8.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

8.] οὕτως belongs to εὐδοκοῦμεν, and is the apodosis to ὡς above.

ὁμειρόμενοι] ὁμείρεσθαι is found in reff. only (and in both, the mss. differ), except in the glossaries. Hesych., Phavor., and Phot. explain it by ἐπιθυμεῖν. Thl. says, τουτέστι, προσδεδεμένοι ὑμῖν, κ. ἐχόμενοι ὑμῶν, παρὰ τὸ ὁμοῦ κ. τὸ εἴρω, τὸ συμπλέκω: and Phot. gives ὁμοῦ ἡρμόσθαι as its meaning. But as Lünem. observes after Winer, edn. 6, § 16, b.b), “This is suspicious, 1) because the verb here governs a genitive and not a dative, 2) because there is no instance of a similar verb compounded with ὁμοῦ or ὁμός. Now as in Nicander (Theriaca, ver. 402) the simple form μείρεσθαι occurs in the sense of ἱμείρεσθαι, it can hardly be doubted that μείρεσθαι is the original root, to which ἱμείρεσθαι and ὁμείρεσθαι (having the same meaning) are related, having a syllable prefixed for euphony. Cf. the analogous forms κέλλω and ὀκέλλω,—δύρομαι and ὀδύρομαι,—φλέω and ὀφλέω,—αὔω, and ἰαύω, &c., and see Kühner, i. p. 27.”

It will thus perhaps be best rendered by loving you, earnestly desiring you.

εὐδοκ.] not present, but imperfect, without an augment, as is also generally the aorist εὐδόκησα in N. T.: see Winer, § 12. 3. a: we delighted; ‘it was my joy to …’ Conyb.

τὰς ἑαυτ. ψυχάς, as remarked above, shews beyond doubt that he is including here Silas and Timotheus with himself.

μεταδοῦναι will not strictly apply to τὰς ἑαυ. ψυχ., but we must borrow from the compound verb the idea of giving, or offering.

The comparison is exceedingly tender and beautiful: as the nursing-mother, cherishing her children, joys to give not only her milk, but her life, for them,—so we, bringing up you as spiritual children, delighted in giving, not only the milk of the word, but even (and here it was matter of fact) our own lives, for your nourishment in Christ. And that, because ye became (the passive form ἐγενήθητε must not be pressed to a passive meaning, as in my earlier editions: see on ch. 1:5) very dear to us.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

8. ὀμειρόμενοι ὑμῶν κτλ “yearning after you” (Lillie; cf. ἐπιποθοῦντε 3:6). With the affection of a mother-nurse, they were eager to share not only what they had but what they were (Schmidt), because, as is frankly said, the converts had become dear to them, τέκνα ἀγαπητα (1Co 4:14, Eph 5:1).

ὀμείρεσθα (the breathing is uncertain) is found also in Job 3:21 (Lxx) and Psa 62:2 (Sym.). In meaning, it is similar to ἐπιποθεῖ and ἱμείρεσθα (see Wetstein, ad loc.); but the derivation is unknown (cf. WH. App. 151, 159; WS 16:6; Bl 6:4). Thackeray (Gram. O. T. Greek, I, 97, note 5), following Moult, thinks the ο “comes from a derelict preposition ω There is therefore no connection between ὁ and ἱμείρεσθα”—The usual reading εὐδοκοῦμε (B has ηὐδοκοῦμε; so WH., Weiss) is not here a present (2Co 5:8) but an imperfect, as ἐγενήθημε (v. 7) and ἐγενήθητ (v. 8) demand (cf. Zim). εὐδοχεῖ is common in later Gk. (cf. Kennedy, Sources, 131). In Lxx θέλει is sometimes a variant of εὐδοκεῖ (Jdg 11:17, Jdg 11:19:10, Jdg 11:25), sometimes a parallel (Psa 50:18) to it. In papyri, εὐδοκεῖ is often used of consent to an agreement (P Oxy. 261:17 97:24; cf. Mill. ad loc.). In Paul, εὐδοκεῖ is frequent with infin. (3:1, Gal 1:15, etc.), but rare with ἐ (1Co 10:5, 2Co 12:10; Lxx frequently) or with dative alone (II 2:12; cf. Sir. 18:31 A); the construction with accus., with ἐπι and dat. or accus., or with εἰ does not appear in Paul.—The construction μεταδιδόναι τί τιν is found also in Rom 1:11, Tob. 7:18 (B); the accusative is of the part shared; hence μεταδοῦναι ψυχά is not a zeugma for δοῦναι ψυχὰς ὐπὲρ ὐμῶν. ψυχαι (2Co 12:15) is plural, for Paul and his associates are in mind. ψυχη like καρδί (v. 4) is the inner self. On ἑαυτῶ for ἡμῶν αὐτῶ, cf. WS 22:10; on οὐ μόνο … ἀλλὰ και, see 1:5.

διότ (2:18, 4:6) is regularly “because” in Gk. Bib.; in 2 Mac. 7:37, it may mean “that” (Mill.); cf. WS 5:7 d. After ἀγαπητό in Paul we expect a genitive (Rom 1:7) not a dative; but cf. Sir. 15:13 καί οὐχ ἔστιν ἀγαπητὸν τοῖς φοβουμένοις άὐτό

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Being affectionately desirous [ομειρομενοι] . N. T. o. Once in LXX, Job 3:21. The figure of the nursing mother is continued. She is not satisfied with nursing the child, but interests herself affectionately in all that concerns it.

We were willing [ηυδοκουμεν] . Better, we were pleased. Imperfect tense : we continued to entertain and manifest our affectionate solicitude. The verb occasionally in later Greek, and often in LXX In N. T. it is used of God 's decrees, as Luk 12:32; 1Co 1:21; Gal 1:15; Col 1:19; and of the free determination and plans of men, as Rom 14:26; 2Co 5:8; 1Th 3:1.

Souls [ψυχας] . Better lives. See on Rom 11:3; 1Co 14:45; Mr 12:30.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.