KJV: For though I made you sorry with a letter, I do not repent, though I did repent: for I perceive that the same epistle hath made you sorry, though it were but for a season.
YLT: because even if I made you sorry in the letter, I do not repent -- if even I did repent -- for I perceive that the letter, even if for an hour, did make you sorry.
Darby: For if also I grieved you in the letter, I do not regret it, if even I have regretted it; for I see that that letter, if even it were only for a time, grieved you.
ASV: For though I made you sorry with my epistle, I do not regret it: though I did regret it (for I see that that epistle made you sorry, though but for a season),
| καὶ | also |
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Parse: Conjunction Root: καί Sense: and, also, even, indeed, but. |
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| ἐλύπησα | I have grieved |
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Parse: Verb, Aorist Indicative Active, 1st Person Singular Root: λυπέω Sense: to make sorrowful. |
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| ἐπιστολῇ | letter |
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Parse: Noun, Dative Feminine Singular Root: ἐπιστολή Sense: a letter, epistle. |
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| μεταμέλομαι | I do regret [it] |
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Parse: Verb, Present Indicative Middle or Passive, 1st Person Singular Root: μεταμέλομαι Sense: it is a care to one afterwards. |
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| εἰ | Though |
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Parse: Conjunction Root: εἰ Sense: if, whether. |
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| καὶ | even |
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Parse: Conjunction Root: καί Sense: and, also, even, indeed, but. |
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| μετεμελόμην | I did regret [it] |
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Parse: Verb, Imperfect Indicative Middle or Passive, 1st Person Singular Root: μεταμέλομαι Sense: it is a care to one afterwards. |
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| βλέπω | I see |
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Parse: Verb, Present Indicative Active, 1st Person Singular Root: βλέπω Sense: to see, discern, of the bodily eye. |
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| [γὰρ] | indeed |
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Parse: Conjunction Root: γάρ Sense: for. |
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| ὅτι | that |
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Parse: Conjunction Root: ὅτι Sense: that, because, since. |
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| ἐπιστολὴ | letter |
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Parse: Noun, Nominative Feminine Singular Root: ἐπιστολή Sense: a letter, epistle. |
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| ἐκείνη | that |
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Parse: Demonstrative Pronoun, Nominative Feminine Singular Root: ἐκεῖνος Sense: he, she it, etc. |
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| ὥραν | an hour |
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Parse: Noun, Accusative Feminine Singular Root: ὥρα Sense: a certain definite time or season fixed by natural law and returning with the revolving year. |
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| ἐλύπησεν | grieved |
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Parse: Verb, Aorist Indicative Active, 3rd Person Singular Root: λυπέω Sense: to make sorrowful. |
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Greek Commentary for 2 Corinthians 7:8
If also. Paul treats it as a fact. [source]
The one referred to in 2 Corinthians 2:3. I do not regret it (ου μεταμελομαι ou metamelomai). This verb really means “repent” (be sorry again) which meaning we have transferred to μετανοεω metanoeō to change one‘s mind (not to be sorry at all). See note on Matthew 21:29; note on Matthew 27:3 for the verb μεταμελομαι metamelomai to be sorry, to regret as here. Paul is now glad that he made them sorry. Though I did regret Imperfect indicative in the concessive clause. I was in a regretful mood at first. For I see (βλεπω γαρ blepō gar). A parenthetical explanation of his present joy in their sorrow. B D do not have γαρ gar The Latin Vulgate has videns (seeing) for βλεπων blepōn For a season Cf. 1 Thessalonians 2:17. It was only “for an hour.” [source]
This verb really means “repent” (be sorry again) which meaning we have transferred to μετανοεω metanoeō to change one‘s mind (not to be sorry at all). See note on Matthew 21:29; note on Matthew 27:3 for the verb μεταμελομαι metamelomai to be sorry, to regret as here. Paul is now glad that he made them sorry. [source]
Imperfect indicative in the concessive clause. I was in a regretful mood at first. For I see (βλεπω γαρ blepō gar). A parenthetical explanation of his present joy in their sorrow. B D do not have γαρ gar The Latin Vulgate has videns (seeing) for βλεπων blepōn For a season Cf. 1 Thessalonians 2:17. It was only “for an hour.” [source]
A parenthetical explanation of his present joy in their sorrow. B D do not have γαρ gar The Latin Vulgate has videns (seeing) for βλεπων blepōn [source]
Cf. 1 Thessalonians 2:17. It was only “for an hour.” [source]
See on Matthew 21:29. Rev., regret it. [source]
Punctuate as Am. Rev., I do not regret it: though (even if) I did regret it (for I see that that epistle made you sorry, though but for a season ) I now rejoice. [source]
Reverse Greek Commentary Search for 2 Corinthians 7:8
This is a different word from that in Matthew 3:2; Matthew 4:17; μετανοεῖτε , Repent ye. Though it is fairly claimed that the word here implies all that is implied in the other word, the New Testament writers evidently recognize a distinction, since the noun which corresponds to the verb in this passage ( μεταμέλεια ) is not used at all in the New Testament, and the verb itself only five times; and, in every case except the two in this passage (see Matthew 21:32), with a meaning quite foreign to repentance in the ordinary gospel sense. Thus it is used of Judas, when he brought back the thirty pieces (Matthew 27:3); of Paul's not regretting his letter to the Corinthians (2 Corinthians 7:8); and of God (Hebrews 7:21). On the other hand, μετανοέω , repent, used by John and Jesus in their summons to repentance (Matthew 3:2; Matthew 4:17), occurs thirty-four times, and the noun μετάνοια , repentance (Matthew 3:8, Matthew 3:11), twenty-four times, and in every case with reference to that change of heart and life wrought by the Spirit of God, to which remission of sins and salvation are promised. It is not impossible, therefore, that the word in this passage may have been intended to carry a different shade of meaning, now lost to us. Μεταμέλομαι , as its etymology indicates ( μετά , after, and μέλω , to be an object of care), implies an after-care, as contrasted with the change of mind denoted by μετάνοια . Not sorrow for moral obliquity and sin against God, but annoyance at the consequences of an act or course of acts, and chagrin at not having known better. “It may be simply what our fathers were wont to call hadiwist (had-I-wist, or known better, I should have acted otherwise)” (Trench). Μεταμέλεια refers chiefly to single acts; μετάνοια denotes the repentance which affects the whole life. Hence the latter is often found in the imperative: Repent ye (Matthew 3:2; Matthew 4:17; Acts 2:38; Acts 3:19); the former never. Paul's recognition of the distinction (2 Corinthians 7:10) is noteworthy. “Godly sorrow worketh repentance ( μετάνοιαν ) unto salvation,” a salvation or repentance “which bringeth no regret on thinking of it afterwards” ( ἀμεταμέλητον )There is no occasion for one ever to think better of either his repentance or the salvation in which it issued. [source]
So many old manuscripts, though the Vatican manuscript (B) has the order of the two sons reversed. Logically the “I, sir” But the one who actually did the will of the father is the one who repented and went This word really means “repent,” to be sorry afterwards, and must be sharply distinguished from the word μετανοια metanoeō used 34 times in the N.T. as in Matthew 3:2 and μεταμελομαι metanoia used 24 times as in Matthew 3:8. The verb μετανοιαν metamelomai occurs in the N.T. only five times (Matthew 21:29, Matthew 21:32; Matthew 27:3; 2 Corinthians 7:8; Hebrews 7:21 from Psalm 109:4). Paul distinguishes sharply between mere sorrow and the act “repentance” which he calls μετανοιαν metanoian (2 Corinthians 7:9). In the case of Judas (Matthew 27:3) it was mere remorse. Here the boy got sorry for his stubborn refusal to obey his father and went and obeyed. Godly sorrow leads to repentance (metanoian), but mere sorrow is not repentance. [source]
Probably Judas saw Jesus led away to Pilate and thus knew that the condemnation had taken place. This verb (first aorist passive participle of μεταμελομαι metamelomai) really means to be sorry afterwards like the English word repent from the Latin repoenitet, to have pain again or afterwards. See the same verb μεταμελητεις metamelētheis in Matthew 21:30 of the boy who became sorry and changed to obedience. The word does not have an evil sense in itself. Paul uses it of his sorrow for his sharp letter to the Corinthians, a sorrow that ceased when good came of the letter (2 Corinthians 7:8). But mere sorrow avails nothing unless it leads to change of mind and life This sorrow Peter had when he wept bitterly. It led Peter back to Christ. But Judas had only remorse that led to suicide. [source]
See on the kindred verb repent, Matthew 3:2, and compare note on Matthew 21:29. Repentance is different from regret of 2 Corinthians 7:8, indicating a moral change, as is shown by the next clause. [source]
Is this (and εγραπσα egrapsa in 2 Corinthians 2:4, 2 Corinthians 2:9, 2 Corinthians 2:12) the epistolary aorist referring to the present letter? In itself that is possible as the epistolary aorist does occur in the N.T. as in 2 Corinthians 8:18; 2 Corinthians 9:3 (Robertson, Grammar, p. 854f.). If not epistolary aorist as seems improbable from the context and from 2 Corinthians 7:8-12, to what Epistle does he refer? To 1 Corinthians 5:1-13 or to a lost letter? It is possible, of course, that, when Paul decided not to come to Corinth, he sent a letter. The language that follows in 2 Corinthians 2:3, 2 Corinthians 2:4; 2 Corinthians 7:8-12 can hardly apply to I Corinthians. [source]
N.T.oLit. for the season of an hour. Comp. Lat. horae momentum. Stronger than the usual phrase πρὸς ὥραν foran hour: see 2 Corinthians 7:8; Galatians 2:5; Philemon 1:15. Comp. πρὸς καιρὸν fora season, Luke 8:13; 1 Corinthians 7:5. [source]
First aorist passive participle of the rare compound verb Literally, being orphaned from you Paul changes the figure again He refers to the period of separation from them, for a short season (προς καιρον ωρας pros kairon hōras) for a season of an hour. This idiom only here in N.T., but προς καιρον pros kairon in Luke 8:13 and προς ωραν pros hōran in 2 Corinthians 7:8. But it has seemed long to Paul. Precisely how long he had been gone we do not know, some months at any rate. [source]
This clause is directly related to be in subjection to the father of spirits and live, and points a contrast. On the one hand, subjection to the Father of spirits, the source of all life, has an eternal significance. Subjection to his fatherly discipline means, not only the everlasting life of the future, but present life, eternal in quality, developed even while the discipline is in progress. Subjection to the Father of spirits and life go together. On the other hand, the discipline of the human father is brief in duration, and its significance is confined to the present life. In other words, the offset to for a few days is in Hebrews 12:9. To read for a few days into the two latter clauses of the verse which describes the heavenly discipline, and to say that both the chastening of the earthly and of the heavenly father are of brief duration, is to introduce abruptly into a sharp contrast between the two disciplines a point of resemblance. The dominant idea in πρὸς is not mere duration, but duration as related to significance: that is to say, “for a few days” means, during just that space of time in which the chastisement had force and meaning. See, for instances, Luke 8:13; John 5:35; 1 Thessalonians 2:17; 2 Corinthians 7:8. The few days can scarcely refer to the whole lifetime, since, even from the ancient point of view of the continuance of parental authority, parental discipline is not applied throughout the lifetime. It signifies rather the brief period of childhood and youth. [source]