[100] Godet gives the incident a peculiar turn, more ingenious than convincing. "No doubt the list I have given is one of mere infirmities. I might well boast of things apparently more glorious--as when the whole of that great city, Damascus, was raised against me, and I could only escape secretly."--_Introduction au Nouv. Test._, p. 393. [101] In their margin Westcott and Hort read δὲ οὐ. [102] The editors vary greatly in punctuation, especially as they do or do not insert διὸ before the first ἵνα μὴ ὑπεραίρωμαι. Westcott and Hort suspect some primitive error. [103] For the meaning "thorn," not "stake" or "cross," see Ezek. xxviii. 24; Hosea ii. 8 (6); Num. xxxiii. 55. [104] I should lay no stress here on what some so much insist upon--the use of ἐξεπτύσατε in Gal. iv. 14, and the fact that _morbus despui suctus_ is a name for epilepsy: ἐκπτύειν does not mean _despuere_, and after ἐξουθενεῖν it is necessarily metaphorical. [105] Construe ὑπὲρ Χριστοῦ with εὐδοκῶ. XXVII _NOT YOURS, BUT YOU_ "I am become foolish: ye compelled me; for I ought to have been commended of you: for in nothing was I behind the very chiefest apostles, though I am nothing. Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, by signs and wonders and mighty works. For what is there wherein ye were made inferior to the rest of the Churches, except _it be_ that I myself was not a burden to you? forgive me this wrong. "Behold, this is the third time I am ready to come to you; and I will not be a burden to you: for I seek not yours, but you: for the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children. And I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. If I love you more abundantly, am I loved the less? But be it so, I did not myself burden you; but, being crafty, I caught you with guile. Did I take advantage of you by any one of them whom I have sent unto you? I exhorted Titus, and I sent the brother with him. Did Titus take any advantage of you? walked we not by the same Spirit? _walked we_ not in the same steps? "Ye think all this time that we are excusing ourselves unto you. In the sight of God speak we in Christ. But all things, beloved, _are_ for your edifying. For I fear, lest by any means, when I come, I should find you not such as I would, and should myself be found of you such as ye would not; lest by any means _there should be_ strife, jealousy, wraths, factions, backbitings, whisperings, swellings, tumults; lest when I come again, my God should humble me before you, and I should mourn for many of them that have sinned heretofore, and repented not of the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness which they committed."--2 COR. xii. 11-21 (R.V.).