2 Corinthians 9:5
Therefore I thought it necessary to desire the brethren that they would go to you before, and prepare this blessing before promised, to be ready, so as a blessing, not as covetousness.
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- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Necessarium ergo existimavi rogare fratres, ut præveniant ad vos, et præparent repromissam benedictionem hanc paratam esse sic, quasi benedictionem, non tamquam avaritiam.
- Greek New Testament (SBLGNT)
- ἀναγκαῖον οὖν ἡγησάμην παρακαλέσαι τοὺς ἀδελφοὺς ἵνα προέλθωσιν εἰς ὑμᾶς καὶ προκαταρτίσωσι τὴν προεπηγγελμένην εὐλογίαν ὑμῶν, ταύτην ἑτοίμην εἶναι οὕτως ὡς εὐλογίαν καὶ μὴ ὡς πλεονεξίαν.
Haydock's commentary
Not forced from covetousness. Literally, not as avarice, as it were extorted from covetous people, who give unwillingly. (Witham)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St John Chrysostom The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the Romans, Homily XXX on Rom. xv. 25-27
What is the force of, “In the fulness of the blessing?” Either he speaks of alms (Gr. money), or generally of good deeds. For blessing is a name he very commonly gives to alms. As when he says, “As a blessing and not as covetousness.” ( 2 Cor. ix. 5 .) And it was customary of old for the thing to be so called. But as he has here added “of the Gospel,” on this ground we assert that he speaks not of money only, but of all other things. As if he had said, I know that when I come I shall find you with the honor and freshness of all good deeds about you, and worthy of countless praises in the Gospel. And this is a very striking mode of advice, I mean this way of forestalling their attention by encomiums. For when he entreats them in the way of advice, this is the mode of setting them right that he adopts.
St John Chrysostom Homilies on First Corinthians, Homily XLIII
He said not, “this person,” and “that,” but, “whomsoever ye shall approve,” whomsoever you shall choose, thus freeing his ministration from suspicion. Wherefore to them he leaves the right of voting in the choice of those who are to convey it. He is far enough from saying, “The payment is yours, but the privilege of selecting those who are to carry it is not yours.” Next, that they might not think him quite absent, he adds his letters, saying, “Whomsoever you approve, I will send with letters.” As if he had said, I also will be with them and share in the ministration, by my letters. And he said not, “These will I send to bear your alms,” but, “your bounty;” to signify that they were doing great deeds; to mark that they were gainers themselves. And elsewhere he calls it both “a blessing” and “a distribution.” ( 2 Cor. ix. …
St John Chrysostom Homilies on Second Corinthians, Homily XIX
[2.] Ver. 5 . “I thought it necessary therefore to entreat the brethren, that they would make up beforehand this your bounty, that the same might be ready, as a matter of bounty and not of extortion.”