What Does 2 Corinthians 9:4 Mean?

(4) **Lest haply if they of Macedonia . . .**—The Greek for “Macedonians” has no article, and the word is meant to stir up something like an *esprit de corps.* “Surely you Achaians won’t allow Macedonians to come and see that you fall short of what I told them about?” It is a probable, but not, as some have thought, a necessary inference, that neither of the two unnamed brethren of 2Corinthians 8:18; 2Corinthians 8:22, were of that province. What he now indicates is, that it is, at all events, probable that when he comes to pay his deferred visit he will be accompanied by Macedonians. If, then, they were still not ready, there would be shame for him; how much more for them! **In this same confident boasting.**—Literally, *in this confidence of boasting;* but the better MSS. give “in this confidence” only. The word so translated (*hypostasis*)*,* literally, “that which stands under, the base or ground of anything,” has the interest of a long subsequent history in metaphysical and theological controversies, of which we find, perhaps, the first trace in Hebrews 1:3, where it appears as “person,” and Hebrews 11:1, where it is rendered “substance.” (See Notes on those passages.) In Hebrews 3:14, it has the same meaning as in this passage.