Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Corinthians 5:3
If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.
3. if so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked ] Rather, with Tyndale, whom Cranmer follows, yet if (some recent editors, following another reading, would render seeing) that we shall be found clothed, not naked. This passage has been variously explained. Some regard it (1) as asserting that at the last day we are certain to receive a Resurrection-body, and not to be left as disembodied spirits. Others, as Bp Wordsworth, remembering that does not mean literally naked, but (Joh 21:7; cf. Xen. Anab. iv. iv. 12) destitute of the upper garment, interpret it (2) ‘if we shall be found in the Resurrection-body at the last day,’ not in the frail mortal tenement which we must otherwise resume. The chief objection to these interpretations is that the word ‘found’ applies rather to the condition in which we are, than to that in which we are to be when Christ comes. It will therefore be best to follow the interpretation which regards the passage as referring to the possibility of St Paul and those to whom he is speaking being alive at the coming of Christ (see 1Th 4:17 and note on 1Co 15:51), and to translate if (in that day) we shall be found clothed (with the body), not naked (i.e. disembodied). The various readings which are found in this passage increase the difficulty of explaining it. For (1) the word translated if so be is found in two different forms in the early Greek copies of this Epistle, the one expressing a greater, the other a less degree of uncertainty. Then (2) some copies read ‘unclothed’ for ‘clothed,’ so that the passage then runs if when unclothed (of the body) we shall not be found naked. But this reading was probably introduced by some copyist who could not comprehend the passage as it stood.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
If so be that being clothed – This passage has been interpreted in a great many different ways. The view of Locke is given above. Rosenmuller renders it, For in the other life we shall not be wholly destitute of a body, but we shall have a body. Tyndale renders it, If it happen that we be found clothed, and not naked. Doddridge supposes it to mean, since being so clothed upon, we shall not be found naked, and exposed to any evil and inconvenience, how entirely soever we may be stripped of everything we can call our own here below. Hammond explains it to mean, If, indeed, we shall, happily, be among the number of those faithful Christians, who will be found clothed upon, not naked. Various other expositions may be seen in the larger commentaries. The meaning is probably this:
(1) The word clothed refers to the future spiritual body of believers; the eternal habitation in which they shall reside.
(2) The expression implies an earnest desire of Paul to be thus invested with that body.
(3) It is the language of humility and of deep solicitude, as if it were possible that they might fail, and as if it demanded their utmost care and anxiety that they might thus be clothed with the spiritual body in heaven.
(4) It means that in that future state, the soul will not be naked; that is, destitute of any body, or covering. The present body will be laid aside. It will return to corruption, and the disembodied Spirit will ascend to God and to heaven. It will be disencumbered of the body with which it has been so long clothed. But we are not thence to infer that it will be destitute of a body; that it will remain a naked soul. It will be clothed there in its appropriate glorified body; and will have an appropriate habitation there. This does not imply, as Bloomfield supposes, that the souls of the wicked will be destitute of any such habitation as the glorified body of the saints; which may be true – but it means simply that the soul shall not be destitute of an appropriate body in heaven, but that the union of body and soul there shall be known as well as on earth.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 3. If so be that being clothed] That is, fully prepared in this life for the glory of God;
We shall not be found naked.] Destitute in that future state of that Divine image which shall render us capable of enjoying an endless glory.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Some make the clothing here spoken of different from the clothing before mentioned; and make this verse restrictive of what the apostle had before said, of the certainty which some have of being clothed upon with a glorious body.
If so be (saith the apostle) we shall not be found naked, but clothed, i.e. with the wedding garment of Christs righteousness; for concerning those that do not die in the Lord, that do not watch, and keep their garments, it is said, Rev 16:15, they shall walk naked, and men shall see their shame. But considering the clothing before mentioned was not this clothing, but the superinducing of an immortal, incorruptible, glorious state of body, upon our mortal, corruptible state, some judicious interpreters think, that the clothing here mentioned is the clothing of the soul with the body. It is manifest that the apostles apprehended Christs second coming much nearer than it hath proved. Therefore he saith, 1Th 4:15; We that are alive (supposing that generation might live) to Christs second coming; and 1Co 15:51; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. This some think (and that not improbably) is the cause of this passage; the sense of which they judge to be this: If so be that we be, at the resurrection, found in the flesh, clothed still with our bodies, and shall not be found naked, that is, stripped of our flesh, and dead before that time.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
3. If so be, &c.Our”desire” holds good, should the Lord’s coming find usalive. Translate, “If so be that having ourselves clothed (withour natural body, compare 2Co 5:4)we shall not be found naked (stripped of our present body).”
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
If so be that being clothed,…. This supposition is made with respect to the saints who shall be alive at Christ’s second coming, who will not be stripped of their bodies, and so will “not be found naked”, or disembodied, and shall have a glory at once put upon them, both soul and body; or these words are an inference from the saints’ present clothing, to their future clothing, thus; “seeing we are clothed”, have not only put on the new man, and are clothed and adorned with the graces of the Spirit, but are arrayed with the best robe, the wedding garment, the robe of Christ’s righteousness,
we shall not be found naked; but shall be clothed upon with the heavenly glory, as soon as we are dismissed from hence. Some read these words as a wish, “O that we were clothed, that we might not be found naked!” and so is expressive of one of the sighs, and groans, and earnest desires of the saints in their present situation after the glories of another world.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Being clothed (). First aorist middle participle, having put on the garment.
Naked (). That is, disembodied spirits, “like the souls in Sheol, without form, and void of all power of activity” (Plummer).
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
If so be [ ] . Assuming that.
Being clothed. Compare Job 10:11.
Naked [] . Without a body. The word was used by Greek writers of disembodied spirits. See the quotation from Plato’s “Gorgias” in note on Luk 12:20; also “Cratylus,” 403, where, speaking of Pluto, Socrates says : “The foolish fears which people have of him, such as the fear of being always with him after death, and of the soul denuded [] of the body going to him.” Stanley cites Herodotus’ story of Melissa, the Corinthian queen, who appeared to her husband after death, entreating him to burn dresses for her as a covering for her disembodied spirit (v., 92). The whole expression, being clothed – naked is equivalent to we shall not be found naked because we shall be clothed.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “If so be that being clothed,” (ei ge kai endusamenoi) “If indeed being clothed;” This mortal must put on immortality. Empty handed souls may stand before Jesus, but none shall stand naked, 1Co 15:53; Rev 3:18; 1Co 3:13-15.
2) “We shall not be found naked,” (ou gumnoi eurethesometha) “We shall not be found to be naked;” or disembodied spirits, at the Advent of Christ, a condition from which one should shrink. For Christ shall give to every soul a body (celestial) and to each redeemed soul his own body, as it pleases him. All bodies are, like our Lord’s to be celestial, though differing in degrees of glory, 1Jn 3:2; 1Co 15:20; 1Co 15:23; 1Co 15:37-38; 1Co 15:41-42.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
3. Since clothed He restricts to believers, what he had stated respecting the certainty of a future life, as it is a thing peculiar to them. For the wicked, too, are stripped of the body, but as they bring nothing within the view of God, but a disgraceful nakedness, they are, consequently, not clothed with a glorious body. Believers, on the other hand, who appear in the view of God, clothed with Christ, and adorned with His image, receive the glorious robe of immortality. For I am inclined to take this view, rather than that of Chrysostom and others, who think that nothing new is here stated, but that Paul simply repeats here, what he had previously said as to putting on an eternal habitation. The Apostle, therefore, makes mention here of a twofold clothing, with which God invests us — the righteousness of Christ, and sanctification of the Spirit in this life; and, after death, immortality and glory. The first is the cause of the second, because
those whom God has determined to glorify, he first justifies. (Rom 8:30.)
This meaning, too, is elicited from the particle also, which is without doubt introduced for the purpose of amplifying — as if Paul had said, that a new robe will be prepared for believers after death, since they have been clothed in this life also.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(3) If so be that being clothed . . .The Greek particles express rather more than the English phrase does, the truth of what follows. If, as I believe . . ., though not a translation, would be a fair paraphrase. The confident expectation thus expressed is that in the resurrection state the spirit will not be naked, will have, i.e., its appropriate garment, a bodyclothing it with the attributes of distinct individuality. To the Greek, Hades was a world of shadows. Of Hades, as an intermediate state, St. Paul does not here speak, but he is sure that, in the state of glory which seemed to him so near, there will be nothing shadowy and unreal. The conviction is identical with that expressed in 1Co. 15:35-49, against those who, admitting the immortality of the spirit, denied the resurrection of the body.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
3. If so be By the best reading, since it will be, the apostle expresses no doubt.
Clothed not naked Commentators who, like Meyer, Alford, and Stanley, are haunted with the phantasm of Paul’s expectation of an immediate advent, make sad work here. St. Paul, say they, here expresses the hope that he may not die, and so be found naked, disembodied spirit; but may live until the resurrection change of 1 Corinthians 15. He did, no doubt, prefer the resurrection state to the disembodied, for he held it to be that consummation of glory which the intermediate state delays. That delay, though a higher glory than belongs to earth, is inferior to the final glory. It is imparadised, but not heavenly, bliss. It is a state of disorganization, produced by sin, and under the shadow of death waiting for that day to which St. Paul’s wish darts at once, when mortality shall be swallowed up of life, 2Co 5:4. The disembodied spirit is as unprepared to enter the heavenly mansions beyond the resurrection as an undressed person to enter a parlour.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
2Co 5:3 . After 2Co 5:2 a comma only is to be placed, for 2Co 5:3 contains a supplementary definition to what precedes (comp. Hartung, Partikell. I. pp. 391, 395 f.), inasmuch as the presupposition is stated under which the takes place: in the presupposition , namely, that we shall be found also clothed, not naked , i.e. that we shall be met with at the Parousia really clothed with a body, and not bodiless . The apostle’s view is that, while Christ at the Parousia descends from heaven, the Christians already dead first rise, then those still alive are transformed, whereupon both are then caught away into the higher region of the air ( ) to meet the Lord, so that they thus at their meeting with the Lord shall be found not bodiless ( ), but clothed with a corporeal covering [211] ( ). See 1Th 4:16-17 , and Lnemann’s note thereon. This belief is here laid down as certainty by . . ., and as such it conditions and justifies the longing desire expressed in 2Co 5:2 , which, on the contrary, would be vain and empty dreaming, if that belief were erroneous, i.e. if we at the Parousia should be found as mere spirits without corporeality; so that thus those still living, instead of being transformed, would have to die, in order to appear as spirits before the descending Christ. We cannot fail to see in the words an incidental reference to those of the Corinthians who denied the resurrection, and without the thought of them Paul would have had no occasion for adding 2Co 5:3 ; but the reference is such, as takes for granted that the deniers are set aside and the denied fact is certain. As the whole of this explanation is quite in keeping with the context and the conceptions of the apostle, so is it with the words, regarding which, however, it is to be observed that the certainty of what is posited by , if namely , is not implied in this particle by itself (in opposition to Hermann’s canon, ad Viger. p. 834), but in the connection of the conception and discourse. Comp. on Eph 3:2 , Gal 3:4 , and Baeumlein, Partik. p. 64 f. On , also , in the sense of really , see Hartung, Partikell. I. p. 132; and on , comp. Xen. Mem. iii. 6. 13. The participle refers, however, to the act of clothing previous to the , so that the aorist is quite in its right place (in opposition to Hofmann’s objection, that the perfect is required); and finally, the asyndeton ., makes the contrasts come into more vivid prominence, like , , 1Co 3:2 ; Rom 2:29 ; 1Th 2:17 , and often; comp. 2Co 5:7 . See Khner, II. p. 461; Fritzsche, ad Marc. p. 31; Hermann, ad Viger. p. 887.
The most current exposition on the part of others is: “Si nos iste dies deprehendet cum corpore, non exutos a corpore, si erimus inter mutandos, non inter mortuos ,” Grotius. So, following Tertullian ( de Resurr . 41, though he reads .), Cajetanus, Castalio, Estius, Wolf, Bengel, Mosheim, Emmerling, Schrader, Rinck, and others, and, in the main, Billroth also, who, however, decides in favour of the reading , and deletes the comma after .: “which ( i.e. the being clothed upon) takes place, if we shall be found (on the day of the Lord) otherwise than already once clothed (with the earthly body), not naked (like the souls of the dead),” so that . . together would be: utpote jam semel induti non nudi inveniemur . Against that common explanation, which J. Mller, von der Snde , II. p. 422 f., Exo 5 , also follows with the reading , the aorist participle is decisive (it must have been ). [212] Billroth, however, quite arbitrarily imports the already once , and, what could be more unnecessary, nay, vapid, than to give a reason for by means of . in the assumed sense: since we indeed have already once received a body! which would mean nothing else than: since we indeed are not born bodiless . Against Billroth, besides, see Reiche, p. 357 f. According to Fritzsche, Diss. I. p. 55 ff., . is held to be in essential meaning equivalent to .: “ Superinduere (immortale corpus vivi ad nos recipere) volumus, quandoquidem (quod certo scimus et satis constat, ) etiam superinduti (immortali corpore) non nudi sc. hoc immortali corpore, sumus futuri h. e. quandoquidem vel sic ad regni Mess . perveniemus .” But while the may be included as a species among the , as opposed to the , they cannot be meant exclusively. Besides, the thought: “ since we too clothed upon will not be without the immortal body ,” would be without logical import, because the superinduere is just the assumption of the future body, with which we attain to the of the Messianic kingdom. According to de Wette, Paul says: “ if, namely, also (in reality) clothed, we shall be found not naked (bodiless), i.e. as we then certainly presuppose that that heavenly habitation will be also a body .” So, in the main, Lechler, Apost. u. nachapost. Zeitalt. p. 138 f., Ernesti, Urspr. d. Snde , I. p. 118, the latter taking as although indeed . But the whole explanation is absurd, since the could not at all be conceived as at the same time its opposite, as ; and had Paul wished to lay emphasis on the fact that the clothing would be none other than with a body (which, however, was quite obvious of itself), he must have used not the simple (not the simple opposite of .), but along with it the more precise definition with which he was concerned, something, therefore, like (Plato, Crat . p. 403 B, and the passages in Wetstein and Loesner). According to Delitzsch, l.c. p. 436, is taken as although , and . as contrast of ., so that there results as the meaning: though, indeed, we too, having acquired the heavenly body by means of clothing (not clothing over ), shall be found not naked. As if this were not quite obvious of itself! When clothed, one certainly is not naked! no matter whether we have drawn the robe on or o2Co 5:Chrysostom, Theodoret, Theophylact, and Oecumenius take . as equivalent to , but as equivalent to , for the resurrection is common to all, but not the . So also Usteri, Lehrbegr. p. 392 f.: “We long after being clothed upon, which event, however, is desirable for us only under the condition or presupposition that we, though clothed, shall not be found naked in another sense,” namely, denuded of the garland which we should have gained. Here also we may place Olshausen (comp. Pelagius, Anselm, Calvin, Calovius, and others), who takes as epexegetical of ., and interprets the two thus: if we, namely, are found also clothed with the robe of righteousness, not denuded of it . Comp. also Osiander, who thinks of the spiritual ornament of justification and sanctification; further, Hofmann on the passage and in his Schriftbew. II. 2, p. 473, who, putting a comma after (“ if we, namely, in consequence of the fact that we also have put on , shall be found not naked ”), understands as a designation of the Christian status (the having put on Christ), which one must have in order not to stand forth naked and, therefore, unfitted for being clothed o2Co 5:But where in the text is there any suggestion of a garland, a robe, an ornament of righteousness, a putting on of Christ (Gal 3:27 ; Rom 13:14 ), or of the Christian status (1Th 5:8 ; Eph 6:14 ; Eph 4:24 ; Col 3:10 ), or anything else, which does not mean simply the clothing with the future body? Olshausen, indeed, is of opinion that there lies in a hint of a transition to another figure; but without reason, as is at once shown by what follows; and with equal justice any change in the figure at our pleasure might be admitted! This also in opposition to Ewald’s interpretation: “ if we at least being also clothed (after we have had ourselves clothed, i.e. raised again) be found not naked , namely, guilty , like Adam and Eve, Gen 3:11 .” This would point to the resurrection of the wicked, Rev 20:12-15 ; if we belonged to these, we should certainly not have the putting on of glorification to hope for. But such a reference was just as remote from the mind of the apostle, who is speaking of himself and those like him, as the idea of Adam and Eve, of whom Beza also thinks in , must, in the absence of more precise indication, have remained utterly remote from the mind of the reader.
[211] That is, with the new body, no longer with the old. See, in opposition to Klpper, Hofmann, p. 130.
[212] Even Mller acknowledges that the aorist is anomalous, but makes an irrelevant appeal to Eph 6:14 ; 1Th 5:8 . In both passages, in fact, the having put on is longed for, and the aorist is therefore quite in order.
REMARK.
Whether the reading . or . be adopted, it is not to be explained of an interim body between death and resurrection (Flatt, p. 69; Schneckenburger, l.c. p. 130; Schott; Auberlen in the Stud. u. Krit. 1852, p. 709; Martensen, 276; Nitzsch, Gschel, Rinck, and others, including Reiche, [213] l.c. ), of which conception there is no trace in the New Testament; [214] but rather, since can only refer to the lack of a body: if we, namely, even in the case that we shall be unclothed (shall have died before the Parousia), shall be found not naked (bodiless), in which the idea would be implied: assuming, namely, that we in every case , even in the event of our having died before the Parousia, will not appear before Christ without a body; hence the wish of attaining the new body without previous death is all the better founded ( ). Similarly Rckert. Kling (in the Stud. u. Krit. 1839, p. 511) takes it inaccurately: “ although we, even if an unclothing has ensued, will not be found bare ,” by which Paul is held to say: “even if the severing process of death has ensued, yet the believers will not appear bodiless on the day of the Lord, since God gives them the resurrection-body.” [215] The error of this view lies in although . No doubt Kling, with Lachmann, reads . But even this never means quamvis (not even in 1Co 8:5 ), and the Homeric use of in the sense: if also nevertheless, if even ever so much ( Odyss. i. 167; Il. i. 81, and Ngelsbach’s note thereon, p. 43, Exo 3 ), especially with a negative apodosis (see Hartung, I. p. 339; Khner, II. p. 562), passed neither into the Attic writers nor into the N. T.
[213] Reiche, p 364: “ Quo certior nobis est gloriosae immortalitatis spes ( , c. 2), eo impensiore quidem desiderio, ut morte non intercedente propediem ad summum beatitudinis fastigium evehamur, flagramus; attamen vero etiam corpore hoc per mortem exuti sentiendi agendique instrumento non carebimus .” is, in his view, concessive, moderating the desire to assume the heavenly body without previously dying ( , ver. 2): “Si igitur Deus votis (ver. 2) non annuerit, animum haud despondemus anxiive futura anhelamus, persuasi scilicet, et post mortem illico mentem nostram immortalem in statum beatissimum evectum iri,” etc. It is true that Reiche himself declares against the view that Paul here speaks of a body intermediate between death and resurrection; but his own view amounts to much the same thing, since Paul, according to it, is supposed to grant that we, unclothed of the earthly body by death, will yet “post mortem illico” be found not naked,
[214] The manner also in which the origin of this corporeality has been conceived, namely, as the soul’s self-embodiment by putting on the elements of the higher world (see, especially, Gder, Ersch. Chr. unt. d. Todten , p. 336, also West. in the Stud. u. Krit . 1858, p. 280), has nowhere in Scripture any basis whatever. See, in opposition to it, Delitzsch, p. 438; Thomasius, Chr. Pers. u. Werk , III. 2, p. 436, who, however (p. 74 f.), for his part, answers in the affirmative the question, whether we are to think of “a change of clothing and clothing over of the new man out of the transfigured corporeality of the Lord , whose communion is the blessed bread and the blessed cup .” In any case, the negation of corporeality. But the question remains untouched (comp. the cautious remarks of J. Mller, p. 425), what organ of its activity the soul retains in death, when it is divested of the body. On this point we have no instruction in Scripture, and conjectures (like Weisse’s conception of the nerve-spirit) lead to nothing. The opinion that the Lord’s Supper has a transfiguring power over the body goes partly against Scripture (because it presupposes the participation of the transfigured body of Christ) and partly beyond Scripture (because the latter contains nothing regarding any power of the Lord’s Supper over the body). Ultra quod scriptum est is also the conception in Delitzsch of the body-like appearance of the bodiless soul itself, or of an outline of the same resembling in form its true inward state. Such theories bring us into the realm of phantasmagoric hypotheses.
[215] So in the main did Chrysostom interpret the reading (for so we are to read in the explanation first quoted by him, comp. Matthaei in loc .): , , .
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
3 If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.
Ver. 3. If so be that, &c. ] q.d. Howbeit, I know not whether we shall be so clothed upon, that is, whether we that are now alive shall be found alive at Christ’s coming to judgment, whether we shall then be found clothed with our bodies, or naked, that is, stripped of our bodies.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
3. ] seeing that ( (see var. readd.) is used ‘de re, qu jure sumta creditur:’ , when ‘in incerto relinquitur, utrum jure an injuria sumatur.’ Herm. ad Viger., p. 834. So Xen. Mem. ii. 17, , ., , , , . , . . ., ‘ if they are to hunger and thirst , &c.’ and for , sch. Ag. 29 f. , , ‘ if, that is, the city , &c.’) we shall really ( , ‘ in very truth :’ so Soph. Antig. 766, ; ‘ dost thou intend verily to kill them both ?’ and sch. Sept. Theb. 810, ; ‘ have they really come to that ?’ See more examples in Hartung, Partikellehre, i. 132) be found (shall prove to be) clothed (‘ having put on clothing,’ viz. a body ), not naked ( without a body “ ., ., as , , 1Co 3:2 and often, cf. 2Co 5:7 .” Meyer. See Stanley’s note). The verse asserts strongly , with a view to substantiate and explain 2Co 5:2 , the truth of the resurrection or glorified body ; and, with Meyer, I see in it a reference to the deniers of the resurrection, whom the Apostle combated in 1Co 15 .: its sense being this: “ For I do assert again, that we shall in that day prove to be clothed with a body, and not disembodied spirits .”
Several other renderings have been given: (1) ‘ Si nos iste dies deprehendet cum corpore, non exutos a corpore , si erimus inter mutandos, non inter mortuos,’ Grot.: Estius, Bengel, Conyb., al. To this there are three objections, that should be (the force of this objection is however much weakened by the amount of authority which can be adduced for ), that is not rendered at all , and that , the aor. mid ., should be , the perf. pass . (2) The same objections apply to Billroth’s rendering, ‘ If we, having been once clothed (with the earthly body), shall not be found naked ’ (without the body). (3) De Wette renders: ‘ seeing that when we are also (really) clothed, we shall not be found naked :’ i.e. ‘setting down for certain as we do, that that heavenly dwelling will also be a body .’ To this Meyer rightly objects, that it is open to the difficulty of making and , and that in the very sense in which they are opposites , to co-exist; no clothing but that of a body is thought of here, or else must have been expressed. (4) This latter objection applies to the rendering of Chrys., Theodoret, Theophyl., cum., al., who take = , and to mean . Similarly Anselm explains , ‘nudi Christo ;’ Pelagius, Hunnius, and Baldwin, ‘vacui fide :’ Erasm. Paraphr. ‘si tamen hoc exuti corpore non omnino nudi reperiamur, sed ex bon vit fiducia spe immortalitatis amicti:’ in part too Calvin, restricting it however to the faithful only, ‘if at least we, having put on Christ in this life, shall not be found naked then.’ Olshausen too takes as an expansion of , ‘provided that we shall be found clothed with the robe of righteousness, not denuded of it.’ Of all these we may say, that if the Apostle had meant by to hint at any other kind of than that which the similitude obviously implies, he would have certainly indicated it. (5) The rendering of ‘ utinam ,’ ‘utinam etiam induti, non nudi reperiamur!’ as Knatchbull and Homberg, need hardly be refuted. (6) Another class of renderings arise from the reading in a few cursives, which in connexion with was evidently adopted in consequence of the views of expositors. It stood as a conditional sentence, ‘ provided, that is, that ’ and in the idea that it referred to the time after putting off the mortal body, was altered to .
For much of the reference to opinions in this note I am indebted to Meyer and De Wette.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
2Co 5:3 . . . .: if so be that ( = siquidem; cf. Eph 3:2 ; Eph 4:21 , Col 1:23 ) we shall be found also clothed, sc. , with the heavenly body (note ., not ., which would only be appropriate of the body to be “superindued” in the case of one surviving to the Second Advent), not naked, sc. , disembodied spirits at the Day of His Appearing, a condition from the thought of which he shrinks. was commonly used in this sense in Greek philosophy; Alford quotes Plato, Cratyl. , p. 277 c. , (see 1Co 15:37 ); cf. also Philo de Hum. , 4, .
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
If. App-118:2, a.
being clothed. Greek. enduo, Compare 1Co 15:53, 1Co 15:54. Compare Job 10:11 (Septuagint)
not. App-105.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
3.] seeing that ( (see var. readd.) is used de re, qu jure sumta creditur: , when in incerto relinquitur, utrum jure an injuria sumatur. Herm. ad Viger., p. 834. So Xen. Mem. ii. 17, , ., , , , . , …,-if they are to hunger and thirst, &c. and for , sch. Ag. 29 f. , , if, that is, the city, &c.) we shall really (, in very truth: so Soph. Antig. 766, ; dost thou intend verily to kill them both? and sch. Sept. Theb. 810, ; have they really come to that? See more examples in Hartung, Partikellehre, i. 132) be found (shall prove to be) clothed (having put on clothing, viz. a body), not naked (without a body-., ., as , , 1Co 3:2 and often, cf. 2Co 5:7. Meyer. See Stanleys note). The verse asserts strongly, with a view to substantiate and explain 2Co 5:2, the truth of the resurrection or glorified body; and, with Meyer, I see in it a reference to the deniers of the resurrection, whom the Apostle combated in 1 Corinthians 15.: its sense being this: For I do assert again, that we shall in that day prove to be clothed with a body, and not disembodied spirits.
Several other renderings have been given:-(1) Si nos iste dies deprehendet cum corpore, non exutos a corpore,-si erimus inter mutandos, non inter mortuos, Grot.: Estius, Bengel, Conyb., al. To this there are three objections,-that should be (the force of this objection is however much weakened by the amount of authority which can be adduced for ),-that is not rendered at all,-and that , the aor. mid., should be , the perf. pass. (2) The same objections apply to Billroths rendering, If we, having been once clothed (with the earthly body), shall not be found naked (without the body). (3) De Wette renders: seeing that when we are also (really) clothed, we shall not be found naked: i.e. setting down for certain as we do, that that heavenly dwelling will also be a body. To this Meyer rightly objects, that it is open to the difficulty of making and , and that in the very sense in which they are opposites, to co-exist;-no clothing but that of a body is thought of here, or else must have been expressed. (4) This latter objection applies to the rendering of Chrys., Theodoret, Theophyl., cum., al., who take = , and to mean . Similarly Anselm explains , nudi Christo; Pelagius, Hunnius, and Baldwin, vacui fide: Erasm. Paraphr. si tamen hoc exuti corpore non omnino nudi reperiamur, sed ex bon vit fiducia spe immortalitatis amicti: in part too Calvin,-restricting it however to the faithful only,-if at least we, having put on Christ in this life, shall not be found naked then. Olshausen too takes as an expansion of , provided that we shall be found clothed with the robe of righteousness, not denuded of it. Of all these we may say, that if the Apostle had meant by to hint at any other kind of than that which the similitude obviously implies, he would have certainly indicated it. (5) The rendering of utinam, utinam etiam induti, non nudi reperiamur! as Knatchbull and Homberg, need hardly be refuted. (6) Another class of renderings arise from the reading in a few cursives, which in connexion with was evidently adopted in consequence of the views of expositors. It stood as a conditional sentence,-provided, that is, that and in the idea that it referred to the time after putting off the mortal body, was altered to .
For much of the reference to opinions in this note I am indebted to Meyer and De Wette.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
2Co 5:3. , if indeed even [if so be]) That, which is wished for, 2Co 5:2, has place [holds good] should the last day find us alive.-, being clothed) We are clothed with the body, 2Co 5:4, in the beginning.- ) not naked, in respect to [not stripped of] this body, i.e. dead.-, we shall be found) by the day of the Lord.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
2Co 5:3
2Co 5:3
if so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.-The earthworm, the larvae, in its chrysalis or cocoon, scarcely shows life or moves. In this state it remains, seems to be burdened by it, but it is protected and shielded by the earthly shell, while its pinions are pluming for a higher life. When this old shell is laid aside and in its new body, it rises and floats upwards toward the skies. The earthly shell has served as a protection, while the more glorious plumage has been growing into fitness for a higher life. While it is necessary to its higher life to lay aside the old shell when the new covering is ready, it would be destruction to it to strip off the old shell before the new body is ready. So as earthworms, we are clothed here for a time with earthly, fleshly bodies, while our spiritual bodies are being made ready for a higher life. When these are ready, and we are ready for them, then the earthly, fleshly bodies are laid aside that in our spiritual bodies we may be borne to the home made ready by the Savior. (Joh 14:1-3). God prepares the immortal covering while we are in the fleshly body serving him, and becoming ready for the spiritual body from heaven. But if we be stripped of the mortal body before the spiritual body is ready, we shall be naked and in a ruined condition.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
being: Gen 3:7-11, Exo 32:25, Rev 3:18, Rev 16:15
Reciprocal: Gen 3:21 – make Job 10:11 – clothed Mat 22:11 – which 2Co 5:2 – clothed 2Co 5:4 – but
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
2Co 5:3. Our spiritual being is not satisfied without a form or immaterial body to be associated with it.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
2Co 5:3. seeing that we shall indeed be found clothed, not naked. This rendering, though not so literal as the Authorised Version, seems necessary to convey in our language what is certainly meant; Rendered as in our Authorised Version, a shade of doubt is undoubtedly conveyed to every English ear; while full certainty as to his eternal future is, in every varied form, conveyed here in almost every verse down to the ninth. And though competent scholars question whether in Biblical Greek the same certainty is conveyed by the particle here used as in classical Greek, vet, since this is only doubted, while it is admitted that the context must be our chief guide, we seem shut up by the present contextin order to exclude that shade of doubt which the Authorised Version suggeststo render the words as we have done. As to the word naked here, it would be a mistake to refer it, as some do, to the spiritual defencelessness in which the wicked will be found at the great dayan idea foreign to the passage, and particularly incongruous just after an assurance of the very opposite had just been expressed. Bengels idea, too, is equally alien from the manifest senseif so be we shall be found not in the disembodied state of the deceased when Christ comes. The next verse points to the real allusionto that notion (so natural to all thoughtful Pagans, who were strangers to the doctrine of a resurrection) that the body, in its very nature, is nothing better than a clog to the only real part of man, his soul, which will never be capable of full development till disengaged by death from that encumbrance. (In this the best interpreters agree.)
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
That is, if so be, at our passage hence, we shall have the happiness to be of the number of those who are found clothed with glory, or clothed with holiness and good works, to fit us for our clothing in glory; that we may not be found naked, in our natural turpitude of sin and spiritual nakedness, which will render us abominable in the sight of God.
Learn hence, That none can groan or long for heaven but such as are clothed with a gospel-righteousness, that of justification, sanctification, and new obedience: none shall be clothed upon with glory hereafter, but such as are clothed with grace and holiness here.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Verse 3 Paul longed for the day of the Lord’s coming when he might lay aside this physical body and put on the spiritual.
Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books
if so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
Verse 3
The meaning seems to be, if we shall be so happy as to be thus clothed and not left destitute and naked.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
5:3 {2} If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.
(2) An exposition of the former saying: we do not without reason desire to be clad with the heavenly house, that is, with that everlasting and immortal glory, as with a garment. For when we depart from here we will not remain naked, having cast off the covering of this body, but we will take our bodies again, which will put on as it were another garment besides. And therefore we do not sigh because of the weariness of this life, but because of the desire of a better life. Neither is this desire in vain, for we are made to that life, the pledge of which we have, even the Spirit of adoption.