Meyer's NT Commentary
2 Corinthians 5:19. Confirmatory elucidation of the previous ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ, τοῦ καταλλάξαντος … καταλλαγῆς. “I have reason for saying, from God, who has reconciled us, etc., because, indeed, God in Christ reconciled the world with Himself,” etc. The recurrence of the same leading expressions, which were used in
2 Corinthians 5:18, gives to this elucidation a solemn emphasis. The θεός emphatically prefixed, however, looking back to ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ in
2 Corinthians 5:18, shows that the point is not a description of the καταλλαγή (Camerarius, Wolf, Estius, Billroth, and others), or of the διακονία τῆς καταλλαγῆς (Grotius, Rückert), but the divine self-activity in Christ’s reconciling work and in the bestowal of the office of reconciliation. The two participial clauses, μὴ λογιζόμενος κ.τ.λ. and καὶ θέμενος κ.τ.λ., stand related to θεὸς ἦν ἐν Χ. κόσμ. καταλλ. ἑαυτ. argumentatively, so that the words καὶ θέμενος ἐν ἡμῖν κ.τ.λ., which serve to elucidate καὶ δόντος ἡμῖν κ.τ.λ.,
2 Corinthians 5:18, are not co-ordinated to the καταλλάσσων (as one might expect from
2 Corinthians 5:18), but are subordinated to it,—a change in the form of connecting the conceptions, which cannot surprise us in the case of Paul when we consider his free and lively variety in the mode of linking together his thought.
ὡς ὅτι θεὸς ἦν ἐν Χ. κόσμ. καταλλ. ἑαυτῷ] because, indeed, God in Christ was reconciling the world with Himself. On ὡς ὅτι,[238] utpote quod (to be analyzed: as it is the case, because), see Winer, p. 574 [E. T. 771]. The ἦν καταλλάσσων should go together (see already Chrysostom), and is more emphatic than the simple imperfect. Paul wishes, namely, to affirm of God, not simply what He did (κατήλλασσε), but in what activity He was; in the person and work of Christ (ἐν Χριστῷ) God was in world-reconciling activity. The imperfect receives from the context the definite temporal reference: when Christ died the death of reconciliation, with which took place that very καταλλάξαντος,
2 Corinthians 5:18. See, especially,
Romans 3:24 f.,
2 Corinthians 5:10. Ambrosiaster, Pelagius, Erasmus, Luther, Calvin, Beza, Calovius, Bengel, and many others, including Rückert, Osiander, Neander, connect ἮΝ ἘΝ ΧΡΙΣΤῷ together: God was in Christ, while reconciling the world with Himself. This would only be possible in the event of the two following participial clauses expressing the mode of reconciliation, which, however, on account of the second clause (καὶ θέμενος ἐν ἡμῖν κ.τ.λ.), cannot be the case; they must, on the contrary, contain the confirmation of θεὸς ἦν ἐν Χ. κόσμ. καταλλ. ἑαυτῷ. According to their contents, however, they do not at all confirm the fact that God was in Christ, but the fact that God was in Christ reconciling the world; hence it is at variance with the context to make the connection ἦν ἐν Χριστῷ. Theodoret was right in denying expressly this connection.