2 Corinthians 2:8

2Co 2:8. Κυρῶσαι, to confirm) the κῦρος is connected with love, not with sorrow. The majesty of the ecclesiastical government and discipline consists in love. It is this, which reigns. קם, LXX., κυροῦσθαι, Gen 23:20; Lev 25:30.

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

2Co_2:8. Κυρῶσαι εἰς αὐτ. ἀγάπ.] to resolve in reference to him lovei.e. through a resolution of the church to determine regarding him, that he be regarded and treated as an object of Christian brotherly love. On κυροῦν, of a resolution valid in law, comp. Herodotus, vi. 86, 126; Thuc. viii. 69; Polyb. i. 11. 3, i. 17. 1; Diod. Sic. ii. 9; Gal_3:15; Gen_23:20; 4Ma_7:9. See Blomfield, ad Aesch. Prom. Gloss. 70, and Pers. 232. Here also (comp. on 2Co_2:6) Rückert again finds a prudent measure of the apostle, whereby the form, if not also the thing (the apostolic approval), is saved. A diplomacy, which would be the opposite of 2Co_1:13.

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.

2Co 2:8 . διὸ παρακαλῶ ὑμᾶς κ . τ . λ .: wherefore I beseech you (or “exhort you,” see on 2Co 1:4 ) to confirm your love toward him . Authority “to bind” and “to loose” had been committed to the Apostles (Mat 18:18 ); St. Paul had exercised the former function (1Co 5:5 ), and he now discharges the latter. The various meanings of παρακαλεῖν have been noted above (on 2Co 1:4 ); it is interesting to observe here how the word is used in one sense in 2Co 2:7 , and in another in close sequence in 2Co 2:8 ( cf. the two senses of παραδίδωμι in 1Co 11:23 ). For ἀγάπη see on 2Co 2:4 above.

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

That at my entreaty, you would declare by the consent of the whole Church, that you take him again for a brother.

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

confirm your love toward him--by giving effect in act, and showing in deeds your love; namely, by restoring him to your fellowship and praying for his recovering from the sickness penally inflicted on him.

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. That ye would confirm your love toward him.] You do love him, notwithstanding the reproach he has brought on the Gospel; and notwithstanding your love to him, ye were obliged to cut him off for the credit of the Gospel. Now that he has repented, I beseech you to confirm, κυρωσαι, to ratify, by a public act of the Church, your love to him; give him the fullest proof that you do love him; by forgiving him and restoring him to his place in the Church.

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

(8) That ye would confirm your love.—The word for “confirm” (better, perhaps, ratify—comp. Gal_3:15) suggests the thought of an act as formal and public as the rebuke had been. The excommunicated man was to be re-admitted to fellowship by a collective act of the Church.

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

8. Wherefore I beseech you, that you would confirm your love towards him] The word ‘your’ is not in the original. It is not their love, but love itself, the fundamental principle (see 1Co_13:1; 1Jn_4:8; 1Jn_4:16) of the Christian covenant. The word here rendered confirm is used of the ratification, i.e. by some public act or token, of a covenant. See Gal_3:15; Gal_3:17, where the same word is used in the original. The Vulgate, Calvin, Wiclif, the Geneva and Rhemish versions render confirm, Tyndale and Cranmer that love may have strength.

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.

Wherefore I beseech you,.... Or exhort you:

that ye would confirm your love towards him: express your love to him in the most kind and tender manner, show the same, and as strong love to him as you did before, and as if he had never offended; receive him as a brother in the most affectionate manner, and embrace him with the most endearing expressions of respect and friendship; and let your reception of him in this kind and friendly way be with the full consent, and by the joint vote and suffrage of the whole church, for so the word translated "confirm" signifies; for as the ejection of a person out of a church must be done by the decree and vote of the church, or it is not authentic, so the reception of a person into it must be in like manner; and since this was to be done by the suffrage of the church, the apostle beseeches and exhorts them to do it.

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

8 Wherefore I beseech you that ye would confirm your love toward him.

Ver. 8. Confirm your love, &c.] Gr. κυρωσαι, ratify it, and declare it authentic, as it were in open court, and by public sentence, {as Gal 3:15} and that at mine instance, as an advocate, παρακαλω.

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.

Wherefore I beseech you that ye would confirm your love toward him - The word rendered here as “confirm” (κυρῶσαι kurōsai) occurs in the New Testament only here and in Gal 3:15. It means to give authority, to establish as valid, to confirm; and here means that they should give strong expressions and assurances of their love to him; that they should pursue such a course as would leave no room for doubt in regard to it. Tyndale has well rendered it: “Wherefore I exhort you that love may halve strength over him.” Paul referred, doubtless, here to some public act of the church by which the sentence of excommunication might be removed, and by which the offender might have a public assurance of their favor.

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

That you would restore him to a communion with you in your church assemblies, and take him into the bosom of your church again, and be (as before) friendly towards him. The word which we translate

confirm; is κυρωσαι, which signifieth authoritatively to establish or confirm. Some observe, that the apostle speaks to them as judges, to gain their good opinion, and make them more pliable, whereas he might authoritatively have absolved him. It is hard: to say what authority the apostles had, or had not, to excommunicate; but we want a precedent in holy writ of the apostles, or any of them, exercising such a power, as being absent, and so in no capacity to hear the proof of any fact against scandalous persons. Paul (1Co 5:1-13) writes to the church of Corinth to do it, and doth only himself command them to do their duty; and here again he writeth to them to forgive him, and restore him. There being no mention, either in the former Epistle, or here, of any command that the incestuous person should put away his wife taken unlawfully, or that he did any such thing in testification of his repentance, makes it very probable, that his crime was not using his father’s wife as his wife, but as his harlot; had it been otherwise, we should, very probably, have read of something in the one or the other place, signifying such a command of the apostle, or the thing done by him.

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

8. Beseech you—As yet the Church, though predisposed to lenity and love, had not acted for his restoration.

Confirm—Put into authoritative form by official restoration.

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

To confirm your love toward him; literally, to ratify towards him, love.

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

Wherefore I beseech you to confirm your love toward him .

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. I beseech you that to confirm your love toward him. The object of the discipline was to save (1 Cor. 5:5). Since it had had the desired effect, the offender should be restored.

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.

Connecting Statement:

Paul encourages the church in Corinth to show love and to forgive the person they have punished. He writes that he, also, has forgiven him.

publicly affirm your love for him

This means that they are to confirm their love for this man in the presence of all of the believers.

you are obedient in everything

Possible meanings are 1) "you are obedient to God in everything" or 2) "you are obedient in everything that I have taught you" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

translationWords

courage

obey

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

8. κυρῶσαι εἰς αὐτὸν ἀγάπην. To ratify towards him love, i.e. to make it valid and effective (Gal 3:15). The metaphor is so natural, especially in one so fond of legal phraseology as S. Paul, that we cannot infer from κυρῶσαι that a formal decree, restoring the offender to communion, is suggested. He leaves it to them to decide how affection is to be ratified. But it is affection and not punishment that is to be ratified: ἀγάπη comes as a kind of surprise at the end of the sentence. Comp. Gal 6:1.

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.] κυρῶσαι, hardly (as usually understood) to ratify by a public decree of the church: if (see above) his exclusion was not by such a decree, but only by the abstinence of individuals from his society, the ratifying their love to him would consist in the majority making it evident to him that he was again recognized as a brother.

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

8. διὸ παρακαλῶ ὑμᾶς. He does not invoke his Apostolic authority and command the forgiveness; as an equal he entreats them to grant it. The community had selected and enforced the penalty, whatever it may have been, and he leaves to them the removal of it. He respects the democratic feeling of the Corinthian Church, and he respects the spirit of the Lord’s commission to the whole Church. “It is a fact of the highest importance and clearly established by the documents, that the commission given on the evening of the first Easter Day—the ‘Great Commission’—was given to the Church and not to any class in the Church—to the whole Church and not to any part of it, primarily. ‘Receive ye the Holy Ghost; whosoever sins ye forgive, they are forgiven unto them; whosoever sins ye retain, they are retained’ (Joh 20:22 f.). The words are the Charter of the Christian Church, and not simply the Charter of the Christian Ministry” (Westcott, Ephesians, pp. 169 f.). On that first Easter evening, not all the Apostles were present, and others were present who were not Apostles. The commission, in the first instance, was to the community as a whole. The Apostle here makes his appeal to the whole community, and not to any class of officials, and he leaves the community free to act. The change of meaning from παρακάλεσαι, ‘to comfort’ (v. 7), to παρακαλῶ, ‘I beseech’ (v. 8), should be noted: see on 1:4.

παρακαλῶ ὑμᾶς κυρῶσαι εἰς αὐτὸν ἀγάπην. Oro vos, constituatis in eum dilectionem (Tert.). Obsecro vos, ut confirmetis in illum caritatem (Vulg.). The differences are characteristic, and constituo is perhaps better than confirmo, in the sense of ‘make effective’; we have constituere libertatem, victoriam, pacem, concordiam fidem, etc. We need not suppose that κυρῶσαι implies that a formal resolution, rescinding the previous sentence, is to be passed, any more than ‘ratify’ would imply that in English. What the Apostle cares about is the change from censure to affection; the way in which the affection is to be made effective he leaves to them. What it is that they are to ratify is kept with effect to the last. Comp. Luk 14:18, where παραιτεῖσθαι comes as a surprise at the end; one would have expected just the opposite. At Corinth there were some who wished for a more severe punishment on the offender than censure and separation. The Apostle says, Ἑνώσατε τὸ μέλος τῷ σώματι, συνάψατε τῇ ποίμνῃ τὸ πρόβατον, θερμὴν αὐτῷ διάθεσιν δείξατε· προσήκει γὰρ ὑμᾶς μὴ μόνον τέμνοντι συνεργεῖν ἀλλὰ καὶ συνάπτοντι (Thdrt.). With κυρῶσαι εἰς αὐτὸν ἀγάπην comp. ἐκυρώθη ὁ ἀγρὸς τῷ Ἀβραάμ (Gen 23:20). In papyri (Oxyrh. 513, 4) ἐκυρώθην οἰκίαν. Thuc. VIII. lxix. 1, ἡ ἐκκλησία κυρώσασα ταῦτα διελύθη.

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

Confirm your love [κυρωσαι αγαπην] . The verb is found only here and Gal 3:15. From kurov supreme power, authority. Hence to take judicial resolution to treat the offender with brotherly love.

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