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Chapter 9

God’s Indescribable Gift.[a] Now about the service to the holy ones, it is superfluous for me to write to you, for I know your eagerness, about which I boast of you to the Macedonians, that Achaia[b] has been ready since last year; and your zeal has stirred up most of them.(A) Nonetheless, I sent the brothers[c] so that our boast about you might not prove empty in this case, so that you might be ready, as I said,

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Footnotes

  1. 9:1–15 Quite possibly this was originally an independent letter, though it deals with the same subject and continues many of the same themes. In that case, it may have been written a few weeks later than 2 Cor 8, while the delegation there mentioned was still on its way.
  2. 9:2 Achaia: see note on Rom 15:26.
  3. 9:3 I sent the brothers: the Greek aorist tense here could be epistolary, referring to the present; in that case Paul would be sending them now, and 2 Cor 9 would merely conclude the letter of recommendation begun in 2 Cor 8. But the aorist may also refer to a sending that is past as Paul writes; then 2 Cor 9, with its apparently fresh beginning, is a follow-up message entrusted to another carrier.

There is no need(A) for me to write to you about this service(B) to the Lord’s people.(C) For I know your eagerness to help,(D) and I have been boasting(E) about it to the Macedonians, telling them that since last year(F) you in Achaia(G) were ready to give; and your enthusiasm has stirred most of them to action. But I am sending the brothers(H) in order that our boasting about you in this matter should not prove hollow, but that you may be ready, as I said you would be.(I)

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