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5.As a blessing, not in the way of niggardliness In place of blessing, some render it collection. I have preferred, however, to render it literally, as the Greeks employed the term εὐλογίας to express the Hebrew word ברכה, (beracah,) which is used in the sense of a blessing, that is, an invoking of prosperity, as well as in the sense of beneficence. (711) The reason I reckon to be this, that it is in the first instance ascribed to God. (712) Now we know how God blesses us efficiently by his simple nod. (713) When it is from this transferred to men, it retains the same meaning, — improperly, indeed, inasmuch as men have not the same efficacy in blessing, (714) but yet not unsuitably by transference. (715)
To blessing Paul opposes πλεονεξίαν , (grudging,) which term the Greeks employ to denote excessive greediness, as well as fraud and niggardliness. (716) I have rather preferred the term niggardliness in this contrast; for Paul would have them give, not grudgingly, but. with a liberal spirit, as will appear still more clearly from what follows.
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