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God Gives Most

Now it is unnecessary for me to write to you about the offering [that is to be made] for the saints [in Jerusalem]; for I know your eagerness [to promote this cause], and I have [proudly] boasted to the people of Macedonia about it, telling them that [a]Achaia has been prepared since last year [for this contribution], and your enthusiasm has inspired the majority of them [to respond]. Still, I am sending the brothers [on to you], so that our pride in you may not be an empty boast in this case, and so that you may be prepared, just as I told them you would be; otherwise, if any Macedonians come with me and find you unprepared, we—to say nothing of yourselves—will be humiliated for being so confident. That is why I thought it necessary to urge these brothers to go to you [before I come] and make arrangements in advance for this generous, previously promised gift of yours, so that it would be ready, not as something extorted [or wrung out of you], but as a [voluntary and] generous gift.

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Footnotes

  1. 2 Corinthians 9:2 Corinth, the capital city of the Roman province of Achaia, was located in the NW part of the Peloponnesus (southern Greece), about 50 miles from Athens. Paul mentions their positive response to this request in Rom 15:26.

Now gar concerning peri the ho service diakonia · ho to eis the ho saints hagios, there is eimi no necessity perissos for me egō to write graphō to you hymeis, for gar I know oida · ho your hymeis readiness prothumia to help, about which hos I keep boasting kauchaomai to the Macedonians Makedōn, saying that hoti Achaia Achaia has been ready paraskeuazō since apo last year perysi, and kai · ho your hymeis zeal zēlos has stirred up erethizō · ho most of them polys. But de I am sending pempō these ho brothers adelphos so that hina what ho we hēmeis say in praise kauchēma of hyper you hymeis may not · ho be an empty boast kenoō in en · ho this houtos instance meros, that hina you may be eimi ready paraskeuazō just as kathōs I said legō you would be. Lest perhaps pōs if ean some Macedonians Makedōn should come erchomai with syn me egō and kai not find heuriskō you hymeis ready aparaskeuastos, we hēmeis to hina say legō nothing of you hymeis would be humiliated kataischunō by en · ho this houtos confidence hypostasis. Therefore oun I considered hēgeomai it necessary anankaios to urge parakaleō the ho brothers adelphos to hina go proerchomai to eis you hymeis in advance and kai to arrange beforehand prokatartizō the ho generous contribution eulogia you hymeis had previously promised, so that eimi it houtos would be eimi ready hetoimos as hōs a generous gift eulogia and kai not as hōs something you had to do pleonexia.

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