For his letters, say they, are weighty and powerful. — Allusive references to what had been said of him at Corinth have already appeared frequently. Here, for the first time, we have the very words quoted. The scorn conveyed in them had wounded the Apostle’s sensitive nature like a poisoned arrow; and we have here the nearest approach which the New Testament presents to the passionate complaints poured forth by some of the Psalmists of the Old (Psalms 69, 109). We note the common element of a burning indignation under the sense of wrong. We note also the absence from the Apostle’s feelings of the maledictory element which is so prominent in theirs. The “meekness and gentleness of Christ” had not been without their effect in tempering even the most vehement emotions.
The great majority of MSS. give the verb in the singular: “For his letters, saith he...” This may be taken, like the French on dit, as used impersonally, and possibly this is the meaning which the English version was intended to convey. The context, however, the definite “such a man as that” of the next verse, is obviously decisive. St. Paul has in his thoughts here, and through the rest of the chapter, one conspicuous antagonist, — the head of a clique and cabal of opponents.
His bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible. — As with other antithetical epigrams, the sting was found in the tail. It would seem all but incredible that any doubt could ever have been expressed as to the fact that the words point to physical infirmities. They can, indeed, refer to nothing else. For the tradition as to the Apostle’s personal appearance, see Excursus at the end of the Acts of the Apostles. The “contemptible speech” (literally, speech of no value; counted as nought) may refer either to a weak or unmusical voice, or to the absence of the rhetorical artifices, the exordium, divisions, perorations, in which Greek audiences delighted. It may be noted that these words give a fresh significance to a remarkable passage in an Epistle written, in the judgment of many critics, within a few weeks of this. “You,” he says to the Galatians (Galatians 4:13-14), “though I came to you with that infirmity of the flesh which others sneer at, the chronic trial of my life, you did not contemn” (the self-same verb as that used here) “nor loathe me.” There is manifestly a contrast present to his thoughts between the mean insults of his rivals at Corinth and the affection which the Galatians had once manifested, and which made their subsequent alienation all the more painful to him.