2 Corinthians 10:8-10 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

For though I should boast somewhat more Than I do, or they can do; of our apostolical authority, which the Lord hath given us for edification To bring sinners to repentance and faith in Christ, and so to promote holiness; and not for your destruction To drive any one to despair by excessive severity, or to the injury of any particular person; I should not be ashamed By my power failing me when I should try it on the disobedient among you. In saying that his power had been given him not for their destruction, the apostle intimated to them, that when he had ordered them to cut off the incestuous person from their communion, he had not done it for the purpose of destroying him, but to preserve them from the contagion of his evil example. That I may not, &c. That is, I say this that I may not seem as if I would, by any means, terrify you by letters Threatening more than I can perform. For his letters, say they, are weighty and powerful In respect of boasting and threatening: or are convincing and affecting, manifesting great strength of reason, and power of persuasion. It cannot be hence concluded that St. Paul had written more than one epistle to them before this; for nothing is more common than this enallage or change of numbers. Indeed, the Greeks and Romans gave the name of letters to one letter: and that here referred to, and said to be weighty, was his first to the Corinthians, a letter in which he had sharply reproved the offenders, and threatened them in a very firm tone, particularly 2 Corinthians 4:18, and through the whole of chap. 5. But his bodily presence is weak From this it would appear that St. Paul was either a man of small stature, or that there was something in his countenance or address which was ungraceful. Indeed, Chrysostom, Nicephorus, and Lucian, (or rather the author of the Philopatris,) relate of him, not only that his stature was low, but that his body was crooked, and his head bald, which probably are the infirmities here referred to. Some have thought that he had also an impediment in his speech, but of that there does not appear to be any proof from the testimony of any ancient author. And his speech contemptible Εξουθενημενος, literally, contemned. Here, however, the word seems intended to signify worthy of being contemned, which may refer to his manner of speaking.