2 Corinthians 2:14 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Now thanks be to God, who In Macedonia, as elsewhere; causeth us to triumph Makes our ministry successful against all opposition; in Christ Namely, by the influence of his truth and grace. To triumph implies not only victory, but an open manifestation of it. And maketh manifest the savour Rather odour; of his knowledge Namely, the knowledge of God and Christ, and his gospel; in every place Where he calls us to labour, or in the course of his providence casts our lot. “As in triumphal processions, especially in the East, fragrant odours and incense were burned near the conquerors, so he seems beautifully to allude to that circumstance in what he says of οσμη, the odour of the gospel, in the following verses. And he seems further to allude to the different effects of strong perfumes to cheer some, and to throw others into violent disorders, according to the different dispositions they are in to receive them.” So Doddridge. Macknight gives rather a different interpretation of the passage, thus: “In triumphs, the streets through which the victorious generals passed were strewed with flowers, Ovid, Trist. 4. eleg. 2, line 29. The people, also, were in use to throw flowers into the triumphal car as it passed along. This, as all the other customs observed in triumphal processions, was derived from the Greeks, who in that manner honoured the conquerors in the games when they entered into their respective cities. Plutarch, ( Emil., p. 272,) tells us, that in triumphal processions, the streets were θυμιαματων πληρεις, full of incense.”