SEV Biblia, Chapter 2:16
a stos ciertamente olor de muerte para muerte; y a aquellos olor de vida para vida. Y para estas cosas ¿quin es suficiente?
Clarke's Bible Commentary - 2 Corinthians 2:16
Verse 16. To the one we are the savour of death unto death] There are several sayings among the ancient Jewish writers similar to this. In Debarim Rabba, sec. i. fol. 248, it is said: "As the bee brings home honey to its owner, but stings others; so it is with the words of the law;" laryl yyj s : sam chaiyim leyisrael, "They are a savour of lives to the Israelites:" lw[h twmwal twmh sw vesam hammaveth leomoth haolam, "And a savour of death to the people of this world." The learned reader may see much more to this effect in Schoettgen. The apostle's meaning is plain: those who believe and receive the Gospel are saved; those who reject it, perish. The meaning of the rabbins is not less plain: the Israelites received the law and the prophets as from God, and thus possessed the means of salvation; the Gentiles ridiculed and despised them, and thus continued in the path of death. The same happens to the present day to those who receive and to those who reject the Gospel: it is the means of salvation to the former, it is the means of destruction to the latter; for they are not only not saved because they do not believe the Gospel, but they are condemned because they reject it. For how can they escape who neglect so great a salvation? The sun which nourishes the tree that is planted in a good soil, decomposes and destroys it if plucked up and laid on the surface. That the saved, swzomenoi, and they that perish, apollumenoi, mean those who receive and obey the Gospel, and those who reject it and live and die in sin, needs no proof. No other kinds of reprobate and elect, in reference to the eternal world, are known in the BOOK of GOD, though they abound in the books of men. The Jews were possessed with such an exalted opinion of their own excellence that they imagined that all the love and mercy of God were concentrated among themselves, and that God never would extend his grace to the Gentiles.
Such sentiments may become JEWS but when we find some Gentiles arrogating to themselves all the salvation of God, and endeavouring to prove that he has excluded the major part even of their own world-the Gentiles, from the possibility of obtaining mercy; and that God has made an eternal purpose, that the death of Christ shall never avail them, and that no saving grace shall ever be granted to them, and that they shall infallibly and eternally perish; what shall we say to such things? It is Judaism in its worst shape: Judaism with innumerable deteriorations. The propagators of such systems must answer for them to God.
Who is sufficient for these things?] Is it the false apostle that has been labouring to pervert you? Or, is it the men to whom God has given an extraordinary commission, and sealed it by the miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost? That this is the apostle's meaning is evident from the following verse.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 16. To the one we are the savour of death unto death , etc..] Who are for death, or appointed to it; (see Jeremiah 43:11). What the apostle says of the Gospel, and Gospel ministers, the Jews his countrymen used frequently to say of the law, and to which he seems to refer; saith Rabba f6 , to them that go on the right hand of it, (the law,) it is yyjd ams , the savour of life; but to them that go on the left hand of it, it is atwmd ams , the savour of death.
Again f7 , everyone that studies in the law for the sake of it, to him it becomes yyj s , the savour of life, according to ( Proverbs 3:18 8:35), but everyone that studies in the law, not for the sake of it, to him it becomes twmh s , the savour of death; once more f8 , if a man is worthy or righteous, to him the law becomes yyj s , the savour of life; but if he is not righteous, it becomes to him htym s , the savour of death: and this they not only say of the written law, but also of their oral law f9 , and are not contented with those general descriptions of persons to whom the law is so, but particularly mention the Gentiles; the words of the law (say they f10 ) are yyj s , the savour of life, to the Israelites; and twmh s , the savour of death, to the nations of the world: that the law should be the savour of death, since it is the ministration of it, and cannot give life, (see Galatians 3:21), is no wonder; but that the Gospel and the ministers of that, should be the savour of death unto death, may seem strange, but so it is. These preach up salvation by the death of Christ, and so are the sweet savour of the death of Christ; but this being despised and rejected by the sons of men, is unto the death, and issues in the eternal death of the despisers and rejecters of it; likewise this doctrine preached by them, strikes with death all a man's wisdom, righteousness, and holiness, and declares that life and salvation are only by Christ and his righteousness; and besides, is attended with persecution and death, and therefore is foolishness to them that perish; and so becomes the savour of death unto death; a savour, but not a sweet savour, nor the sweet savour of Christ; a sweet savour indeed to God, whose justice, holiness, power, and wisdom, are displayed in the death and righteous destruction of sinners, but not to them: to the other, the savour of life unto life ; those who are ordained to eternal life. The Gospel preached by Christ's faithful ministers is the means of quickening souls, and giving them spiritual life; and of supporting and maintaining that life, and of nourishing them up unto eternal life; and so becomes the savour of life spiritual, unto life eternal. The Alexandrian copy, and some others, and so the Ethiopic version, read both clauses, from death to death, and from life to life; with which compare ( Romans 1:17 2 Corinthians 3:18), and then the meaning may be, either as Grotius observes, that the ill report of the Gospel from men dead in sin, brings death to those who give credit to it; and the good report of it from God, the author of life, to which may be added from ministers, who are alive in a spiritual sense, is the means of life to others: or they are the means of adding death to death, death eternal, to death spiritual, or moral; death for sin, to death in sin, the Gospel being despised; and of increasing spiritual life, the comforts of it; and of adding eternal life to spiritual life: upon the whole of which, the apostle makes this exclamation, and who is sufficient for these things ; the meaning of which is either, who is able to search and find out the reason of this different influence of the Gospel ministry upon the souls of men? no man can do it; it must be ascribed to the sovereign will and pleasure of God, who hides the Gospel from some, and reveals it to others; or who is sufficient for the preaching of the Gospel? no man is sufficient of himself, very insufficient in the best sense, and none so but by the grace of God, and gifts of his Spirit; or who is sufficient to give success to the Gospel when preached? none can do this; Paul may plant, and Apollos water, but it is God alone that gives the increase.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 12-17 - A believer's triumphs are all in Christ. To him be the praise and glor of all, while the success of the gospel is a good reason for Christian's joy and rejoicing. In ancient triumphs, abundance of perfumes and sweet odours were used; so the name and salvation of Jesus, as ointment poured out, was a sweet savour diffused in ever place. Unto some, the gospel is a savour of death unto death. The reject it to their ruin. Unto others, the gospel is a savour of lif unto life: as it quickened them at first when they were dead in trespasses and sins, so it makes them more lively, and will end in eternal life. Observe the awful impressions this matter made upon the apostle, and should also make upon us. The work is great, and of ourselves we have no strength at all; all our sufficiency is of God But what we do in religion, unless it is done in sincerity, as in the sight of God, is not of God, does not come from him, and will not reac to him. May we carefully watch ourselves in this matter; and seek the testimony of our consciences, under the teaching of the Holy Spirit that as of sincerity, so speak we in Christ and of Christ __________________________________________________________________
Greek Textus Receptus
οις 3739 R-DPM μεν 3303 PRT οσμη 3744 N-NSF θανατου 2288 N-GSM εις 1519 PREP θανατον 2288 N-ASM οις 3739 R-DPM δε 1161 CONJ οσμη 3744 N-NSF ζωης 2222 N-GSF εις 1519 PREP ζωην 2222 N-ASF και 2532 CONJ προς 4314 PREP ταυτα 5023 D-APN τις 5101 I-NSM ικανος 2425 A-NSM
Vincent's NT Word Studies
16. To the one a savor, etc. (osmh). Returning to the word used in ver. 14, which is more general than eujwdia sweet savor, denoting an odor of any kind, salutary or deadly, and therefore more appropriate here, where it is used in both senses. The two words are combined, Eph. v. 2; Philip. iv. 18.Of death (ek qanatou). Rev., better, giving the force of the preposition, proceeding from, wafted from death. The figure is carried out with reference to the different effects of the Gospel, as preached by the apostles, upon different persons. The divine fragrance itself may have, to Christ's enemies, the effect of a deadly odor. The figure was common in rabbinical writings. Thus: "Whoever bestows labor on the law for the sake of the law itself, it becomes to him a savor of life; and whoever does not bestow labor on the law for the law's sake, it becomes a savor of death." "Even as the bee brings sweetness to its own master, but stings others, so also are the words of the law; a saving odor to the Israelites, but a deadly odor to the Gentiles." These are specimens of a great many.
Some find here an allusion to a revolting feature of the Roman triumph. Just as the procession was ascending the Capitoline Hill, some of the captive chiefs were taken into the adjoining prison and put to death. "Thus the sweet odors which to the victor - a Marius or a Julius Caesar - and to the spectators were a symbol of glory and success and happiness, were to the wretched victims - a Jugurtha or a Vercingetorix - an odor of death" (Farrar). 141 Sufficient (ikanov). See on Rom. xv. 23.
Robertson's NT Word Studies
2:16 {From death unto death} (ek qanatou eis qanaton). From one evil condition to another. Some people are actually hardened by preaching. {And who is sufficient for these things?} (kai pros tauta tis hikanos?). Rhetorical question. In himself no one is. But some one has to preach Christ and Paul proceeds to show that he is sufficient. {For we are not as the many} (ou gar esmen hws hoi polloi). A bold thing to say, but necessary and only from God (#3:6).
