The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: the Second Epistle to the Corinthians
S. Augustine ( Ep . 107) answers that this sentence of the Apostle’s reaches even to infants; for, he says, original sin as a habit is theirs individually and inheres in them, but the actual sin of Adam, viz., the eating of the forbidden fruit, which was his own and physically inherent in him, from which original sin as a habit was derived to every one born from him, may be said to morally belong to each infant, and be regarded as its own proper act; and in this sense they committed this sin, not directly but in Adam ; for the will of Adam was regarded as the will of all his descendants, including even children.
But a better answer can be given, and one more in harmony with the Apostle’s meaning, viz., that the Apostle is not speaking of infants but of adults. For he is exhorting them to do all that they can to please God in all things, that each may receive a reward from God proportioned to their deeds. Infants, though they will have to appear before the judgment-seat of Christ, yet will not need to have their works examined nor their demerits, but will receive the punishment due to original sin, as S. Augustine says (Serm. de Omnibus Sanct.) and also Nazianzen ( Orat. 60).
Ver. 11. — Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord. Knowing what I have just said of Christ’s judgment-seat, when each will receive the reward of his deeds ; or, knowing that the Lord is to be feared as a Judge and Avenger, we therefore persuade men to fear Him also.
Fear has a twofold meaning— (1.) actively of the fear we feel because of the Lord ; (2.) passively of that which the Lord is, viz., a terrible Judge. Jacob, e.g., calls God “the fear of his father Isaac,” or the Object that Isaac feared (Gen. xxxi. 42). So here fear is put for the object of fear — a fearful thing, a terror. The meaning, therefore, is : Knowing that God is to be feared, we persuade men to fear Him.
But we are made manifest unto God. God knows that I sincerely fear Him, and try to make others fear Him also. Paul, by speaking of this fear and desire of pleasing God, might seem to some, and especially to his rivals the false apostles, who were only too glad to find an occasion of reproach against him, to be praising himself as holy ; hence by these words and what follows he clears himself from any charge of vain-glory and love of praise.
Ver. 12. — That ye may have somewhat. Some occasion of glorying about me, some answer to give to my opponents.
Which glory in appearance and not in heart. Who boast of their piety, but know in their conscience that they are hypocrites and false apostles.
Ver. 13. — For whether we be beside ourselves , it is to God: or whether we be sober , it is for your cause. The Greek verb translated beside ourselves denotes a rapt state, when the mind is carried out of itself, whether by some strong influence of nature, of disease, of melancholy , or of apprehension of new and unwonted objects ; or when God throws it into deep contemplation and ecstasy, or when frenzy and insanity drive it into delirious folly. All these senses are applicable here; nay, the Syriac, Chrysostom, Theophylact, Vatablus , and Erasmus render it “ whether we be mad.” S. Paul opposes “ whether we be beside ourselves ” to “ whether we be sober,” as if he meant whether we be foolish or wise. The same contrast is found in Acts xxvi. 25. The same word is applied by His relations to Christ in S. Mark iii. 21.
Again, this rapture and folly may be understood either of self-praise or of the love and contemplation of God. The Apostle seems to be speaking primarily of self-praise, according to Ambrose and Chrysostom, and this is supported by what has just gone before. But since this praise has for its object the excellence of the ministry of the New Testament, and the height of love and clear knowledge of God attained under it, the word may be equally well referred to this latter. He seems indeed to be alluding to the vision of Moses, when he saw the glory of God on Mount Sinai at the reception of the law. Cf. 2 Cor. iii. 7, 18, where a comparison is drawn between Moses and S. Paul. Hence, in chaps, iv. and v., S. Paul praises himself for the tribulations and labours he had undergone for the sake of the Gospel, by which he was striving after the glorious presence of God.
The meaning, therefore, is — (1.) If, forgetful of ourselves, we are carried away by the vehemence of our zeal, which the world regards as folly, so that, like fools, we give way to praising our ministry, and speak of ourselves too highly and too boastfully (for to praise one’s self, as S. Ambrose says, is pride, and boasting, and folly), it is to God's glory that we do it. If we are sober in our words and praises of ourselves, it is to teach you modesty. Hence (2.) follows the explanation of S. Augustine, Anselm, Theophylact, and others. If we are hurried into excess or ecstasy of love, knowledge, and speech of God, as, e.g., in iii. 18, v. 8, 9, so that we seem to boast and sing our own praises, or, as Chrysostom renders it, if we seem drunken and foolish with love and contemplation (as in Acts ii. 13 ; xxvi. 24), it is to God’s glory that we do it.
Plato in Phaedrus says that frenzy or folly is fourfold — that of poets, of mystics, of seers, of lovers — and that the fourth is the best and most blessed. “ Of Divine frenzy or madness there are,” he says, “ four kinds laid down , over which as many gods preside . The inspiration of the seer is attributed to Apollo , of the mystic to Liber , of the poet to the Muses , while the frenzy of lovers comes from Venus and Cupid. We hold that the last of these is the best and most excellent. Theophylact says that this last kind of frenzy was S. Paul’s, inasmuch as he was one who lived not in himself, but was carried out of himself and lost in Christ, his Beloved, and wished to be anathema from Christ for his brethren’s sake. The soul of one who loves is not where it lives but where it loves. Theophylact says : “ If we are beside ourselves because of God, it is that we may bring you to Him. So S. Paul loved God with a lover’s frenzy , and lived for Him alone, and by Him whom he loved was carried out of himself and wholly given to God. The life that he lived was not his own but the life of Him that he loved, beloved and precious for His sake only.”
But S. Augustine, Bede, and Anselm understand this verse, not of frenzy, but of S. Paul’s being carried up to the third heaven, and their explanation is this : “ What is ‘ that whether we be beside ourselves , it is to God,’ but seeing things which it is not lawful for a man to utter ? What is that ‘ whether we be sober, it is for your cause,’ but what he says elsewhere, ‘ I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.’” S. Augustine again ( Enarr . in Ps. civ.) says : “ What is meant by ‘ whether we be beside ourselves , it is to God,’ but leaving all carnal things , and being unable to speak of what we have seen ? What is meant by ‘ whether we be sober , it is for your cause,’ but we speak so as you can understand ? For Christ by His birth and Passion made Himself such that men might be able to speak of Him.”
The being out of one’s mind is, says S. Anselm, the having it fixed on things above, so that things below slip from the memory. In this state were all the Saints to whom the secrets of God that pass this world’s understanding were revealed. So here the Apostle, being mentally set free from all human frailty and from all the perishing and changeable things of this world, lived in heart in an ineffable contemplation of those things, of which he says that he had heard unspeakable things which it was not lawful for a man to utter. But for the sake of others he descends, and says : “ Whether we be sober, it is for your cause” — although we may contemplate high things, yet we speak soberly of them, that you may be able to take them in. This is Anselm’s explanation.