2 Corinthians 2:12 - Exposition

Furthermore, when I came to Troas. "Furthermore" is too strong for the "but" of the original. There is an apparently abrupt transition, but the apostle is only resuming the narrative which he broke off at 2 Corinthians 2:4 in order that he might finish the topic of the painful circumstance in which his First Epistle had originated. To Troas . Not "the Troas." St. Paul had to do with the city, not with the district. The city (now Eski Stamboul ) , of which the name had been changed from Antigonia Troas to Alexandria Troas, was at this time a flourishing colony ( Colonia Juris Italici ) , highly favoured by the Romans as representing ancient Troy, and therefore as being the mythological cradle of their race. He visited it on his being driven from Ephesus after the tumult, a little earlier than he would naturally have left it. He had visited Troas in his second missionary journey ( Acts 16:8-11 ), but had left it in consequence of the vision which called him to Macedonia. He now stopped there on his journey through Macedonia to Corinth, which he had announced in 1 Corinthians 16:5 . And a door was opened unto me of the Lord; literally, and a door had been opened to me in the Lord; i.e. and I found there a marked opportunity ( 1 Corinthians 16:9 ) for work in Christ. Some commentators, in that spirit of superfluous disquisition and idle letter-worship which is the bane of exegesis, here venture to discuss whether St. Paul was justified in neglecting this opportunity or not. Such discussions are only originated by not observing characteristic modes of expression. St. Paul merely means" circumstances would otherwise have been very favourable for my preaching of Christ; but I was in such a state of miserable anxiety that I lacked the strength to avail myself of them." He was no more responsible for this state of mind, which belonged to his natural temperament, than he would have been responsible for a serious illness. To say that he ought to have had strength of mind enough to get the mastery over his feelings is only to say that Paul ought not to have been Paul. The neglect to use the opportunity was a "hindrance" which might in one sense be assigned to God, and in another to Satan. Moreover, that the opportunity was not wholly lost appears from the fact that St. Paul found a flourishing Christian community at Troas when he visit, d it on his return from this very journey ( Acts 20:6 , Acts 20:7 ), and that he stayed there at least once again, shortly before his martyrdom ( 2 Timothy 4:13 ). Indeed, it was probably at Troas that his final arrest took place. Of the Lord; rather, in the Lord; i.e. in the sphere of Christian work.