2Cor 5:11, 11:6 | JFB | STEP | 11. terror of the Lord —the coming judgment, so full of terrors to unbelievers [ESTIUS ]. ELLICOTT and ALFORD , after GROTIUS and BENGEL , translate, "The fear of the Lord" ( ). persuade —Ministers should use the terrors of the Lord to persuade men, not to rouse their enmity ( ). BENGEL , ESTIUS , and ALFORD explain: "Persuade men" (by our whole lives, ), namely, of our integrity as ministers. But this would have been expressed after "persuade," had it been the sense. The connection seems as follows: He had been accused of seeking to please and win men, he therefore says (compare ), "It is as knowing the terror (or fear ) of the Lord that we persuade men; but (whether men who hear our preaching recognize our sincerity or not) we are made manifest unto God as acting on such motives ( ); and I trust also in your consciences." Those so "manifested" need have no "terror" as to their being "manifested ( English Version, 'appear') before the judgment-seat" ( ).

2 Corinthians 5:11

11. terror of the Lord—the coming judgment, so full of terrors to unbelievers [ESTIUS]. ELLICOTT and ALFORD, after GROTIUS and BENGEL, translate, "The fear of the Lord" (2Co 7:1; Ec 12:13; Ac 9:31; Ro 3:18; Eph 5:21).

persuade—Ministers should use the terrors of the Lord to persuade men, not to rouse their enmity (Jude 23). BENGEL, ESTIUS, and ALFORD explain: "Persuade men" (by our whole lives, 2Co 5:13), namely, of our integrity as ministers. But this would have been expressed after "persuade," had it been the sense. The connection seems as follows: He had been accused of seeking to please and win men, he therefore says (compare Ga 1:10), "It is as knowing the terror (or fear) of the Lord that we persuade men; but (whether men who hear our preaching recognize our sincerity or not) we are made manifest unto God as acting on such motives (2Co 4:2); and I trust also in your consciences." Those so "manifested" need have no "terror" as to their being "manifested (English Version, 'appear') before the judgment-seat" (2Co 5:10).

2 Corinthians 11:6

6. rude—Greek, "a common man"; a "laic"; not rhetorically trained; unskilled in finish of diction. 1Co 2:1-4, 13; 2Co 10:10, 11, shows his words were not without weight, though his "speech" was deficient in oratorical artifice. "Yet I am not so in my knowledge" (2Co 12:1-5; Eph 3:1-5).

have been . . . made manifest—Read with the oldest manuscripts, "We have made things (Gospel truths) manifest," thus showing our "knowledge." English Version would mean, I leave it to yourselves to decide whether I be rude in speech . . . : for we have been thoroughly (literally, "in everything") made manifest among you (literally, "in respect to you"; "in relation to you"). He had not by reserve kept back his "knowledge" in divine mysteries from them (2Co 2:17; 4:2; Ac 20:20, 27).

in all things—The Greek rather favors the translation, "among all men"; the sense then is, we have manifested the whole truth among all men with a view to your benefit [ALFORD]. But the Greek in Php 4:12, "In each thing and in all things," sanctions English Version, which gives a clearer sense.