Translation & Sermon by
Nate Wilson for Christ The Redeemer Church, Manhattan, KS, 07 Sept.
2025
Underlined words in Scripture quotes indicate words that
are in common with the Greek text of the sermon passage. Otherwise,
underlining indicates words to emphasize when reading this transcript
out loud.
Omitting greyed-out text should
reduce read-aloud time to around 45
minutes.
Paul introduced himself to us in 2 Corinthians 1:1 as “an apostle of Jesus Christ,” and it is tempting for us to leave it to the apostles and evangelists to work through the matters of how to preach the gospel and how to live a life consistent with that exalted calling, but in this passage, Paul is going to enter into details about what to say, what attitudes should be behind it, and what life context goes with it. Why? He does this because you need this information in order to faithfully carry the aroma of Christ into the world yourself. The spread of the gospel is not just the business of apostles and preachers, but of every Christian. Please listen and learn from Paul how to do it!
Read my translation of this passage, starting at verse 12:
Now,
after having gone into Troas for the sake of the good news of the
Anointed One, (where a door had been opened to me by the Lord), I
was not experiencing release in my spirit, because I had not found
my brother Titus, so instead, after disengaging with them, I went
out into Macedonia. But, there is grace with God, Who always parades
us with the Anointed One, and Who reveals the aroma of the knowledge
of Him through us in every place! Indeed, we are a pleasant aroma of
Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who
are perishing: to those, an aroma of death until death, but to
these, an aroma of life until life. Now, who is sufficient for these
things? But, we are not commercializing the word of God (as
many are), but rather we are communicating as from sincerity –
rather as from God, in the sight of God, in accordance with the
Anointed One.
Verses 12-13 are all one sentence that goes together, and there is a whole story packed into them.
All the English versions interpret the first participle in verse 12 (“I came”) as though it were dependent on the first verb in verse 13 (“I had no rest”) and as happening at the same time,
but that actually violates the rules of Greek grammar.
I believe that the first participle in verse 12 should properly be translated “after coming to Troas” and that it is actually dependent on the last verb in verse 13, not the first verb in verse 13; in other words it’s not, “When I went to Troas… I had no rest,” but rather “After going to Troas… I went out to Macedonia.” All the rest of the verbs in verses 12 and 13 fill in the rest of the story.
Here is how I think the verbs in verses 12-13 should be sequenced:
The door was “opened” (Perfect participle, indicating something that happened previous to the present time),
Paul “came” to the city of Troas1 (Aorist participle indicating something that happened before the main verb),
But in Troas, Paul did not “find” Titus (Aorist Infinitive, emphasizing what the main problem was),
Paul did not “have” release (Perfect Indicative, based on the fact that He had not rendezvoused with Titus yet), so
he “said goodbye/took leave of” the folks in Troas (Aorist Participle indicating what happened before he left), and then
Paul “departed” to Macedonia (the main verb, which is Aorist Indicative2).
But there’s even more packed into the terse language of verse 12, most importantly, the two reasons why Paul went to Troas in the first place:
First, Paul went “for the sake of the gospel of Christ/good news of the Messiah.”
The genitive “of Christ” denotes the content of the “good news” as being “about the Messiah” - Jesus, the Son of God, who came to save His people from their sins and reign over them forever, which is consistent with the record of what Paul preached.
The second reason in verse 12 that Paul stopped in Troas was that “a door had been opened” there for him.
Now, all four times3 that Paul wrote in his epistles about an “open door,” he was describing opportunities to preach the Gospel to gentiles, so that’s surely what he means here.
As a side-note, if you are reading from an NASB or an ESV translation, they take a curious departure from all the other English versions4 by saying that the door was opened “in” the Lord rather than “by/of” the Lord. The Greek preposition can be used to mean either “in” or “by,” but here the context clearly indicates, not that the Lord has doors “inside” Himself, but that the door of opportunity was in Troas and had been opened “by” the Lord (Rev. 3:8).
Exactly what that ministry opportunity was, we are not told. This part of Paul’s itinerary is skipped-over in the book of Acts, but Paul’s next visit to Troas is mentioned in Acts chapter 20, where folks stayed up all night to hear Paul preach – well, all but the one guy who fell asleep next to the upstairs window and tumbled out, but that’s another story!
Remember how all this fits with Paul’s relationship to the church in Corinth.
After planting the Corinthian church, Paul had moved to Ephesus,
Then Paul had sent Titus, a trusted ministry partner (2 Cor. 8:23, Titus 1:1-4), to help the church in Corinth deal with the problems that they had been facing (2 Cor. 8:6&16, 12:18), and then Titus was to come back and report to Paul as to how they were doing.
Paul, however, had to leave Ephesus prematurely, due to the uproar caused by the idol-makers in Ephesus, and, not having heard back from Titus yet as to how the church in Corinth was doing, he didn’t think it was a good idea to go straight over to Corinth, so, instead, he took the long land route around the coastline of the Agean Sea from Ephesus to Corinth.
Apparently, Titus was supposed to be traveling back the opposite way around the Agean coast from Corinth to meet up with Paul, so Paul had hoped to cross paths with Titus as he was traveling the other direction. Meanwhile, Paul was mentally tied up in knots with anxiety (2 Cor. 7:5) over how his church in Corinth was doing and over what Titus would have to say about them.
Troas was one of the coastal cities on Paul’s route, so he hoped to rendezvous with Titus there. Besides, Paul had heard that God had “opened a door” of opportunity to preach the good news about Jesus to people in the city of Troas. But since Paul didn’t find Titus there in Troas, he resumed his travels toward Corinth.
Finally, somewhere in Macedonia (perhaps in the coastal town of Philippi, where the Philippian church was), Paul ran into Titus, and Titus provided a glowing report of how the church back in Corinth was doing (2 Cor. 7:13-14).
So now, Paul is writing this book of 2 Corinthians to set what remained in order for his imminent visit to Corinth.
It is curious that Paul would have skipped out on a ministry opportunity in Troas simply because he was feeling anxious. He says in verse 13, “I was not experiencing release/rest/freedom/liberty in my spirit, because I had not found my brother Titus.”
He doesn’t say whether this was a sin or not on his part, so I don’t think we should read too much into it in the way of application,
but suffice it to say that when a relationship is unresolved, such as it was for Paul and the Corinthians, it can affect your other relationships and ministry ventures, as it did with Paul’s fizzled attempt to plant a church in Troas.
It’s o.k. if you have to back off from an exciting ministry initiative in order to pay attention to other damaged relationships.
Jesus said you can even press ‘pause’ in the middle of a worship service for this: “If therefore, you are lifting your gift upon the altar, and there you happen to remember that your brother has something against you, let go of your gift right there in front of the altar and start climbing down; first be reconciled to your brother, and then, when you come [back], start offering your gift.” (Matt. 5:23-24, NAW)
In verse 14, Paul tells us that God does two things:
He puts on a victory parade for Jesus, with us in His train,
and He uses us to reveal the knowledge of Christ everywhere.
Paul thanks God for His grace in doing these two things at the beginning of verse 14.
Concerning the first thing,
this verb for “lead[ing] us in triumphal procession in/with Christ” only shows up one other time in the Greek Bible, and that is in Colossians 2:15 “Having disarmed principalities and powers, He [Christ] made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them...” (NKJV) It is the conquered princes which were disarmed by Christ and led in triumphal procession behind Him.
So, if we are consistent with how Colossians 2:15 uses this verb, then we would have to go with the way the 2011 edition of the NIV reads for 2 Corinthians 2:14 “who leads us as captives in Christ's triumphal procession” (which is the opposite of how the KJV interpreted it with us as the triumphant victors).
The Greek preposition εν, in the prepositional phrase “in Christ” (which the 2011 NIV inaccurately translates “Christ’s”) seems most likely to mean that we are led “by” Christ in His victory parade, or “with” Him in the sense of “following” Him as our new king.
The allusion is to the Roman tradition which was in vogue in the first century where army generals, who had been successful in a military campaign on some far-flung frontier of the the Roman empire, would come back home and parade themselves up and down the streets of Rome with the people they had conquered marching behind them.5
So why would Paul thank God that He always does this? Paul is using this Roman military tradition as a metaphor for his own evangelistic ministry. Whether he is in Corinth planting a cosmopolitan church, or in Ephesus turning people from demon-possession and witchcraft, or in Troas pining for news from his friend, or wherever he is, God always has a way of displaying the good news that Jesus conquered sin and death through His death and resurrection and captured Paul’s heart so that he was no longer a follower of Judaism but a devoted follower of Jesus.
The second thing that Paul thanks God for in verse 14 is that He “reveals/manifests/diffuses the savour/fragrance/aroma of the knowledge of Him through us in every place.”
Apparently, incense was a part of Roman military parades, so this next metaphor naturally flows from the previous one, and is parallel to it. In this second metaphor, Paul’s sharing of the Gospel is compared to a good smell.
Most of us have had the experience of walking (or driving) through a mall at mealtime. In the mall there are food vendors cooking up tasty meals to sell to customers, and as you walk (or drive) by, the aroma of burgers sizzling on the grill or of deep-fried chicken and french fries is blown towards you from their kitchens by big exhaust fans.
You breathe in the aroma, and it makes you hungry – it makes you want to come buy their food.
Other folks, however, breathe in that greasy smell, and it makes them nauseated. Instead of attracting them as customers, it repels them because they don’t like that kind of food or because they are sick.
That’s a picture of what happens when we talk about Jesus with other people: Sometimes they are like, “What you’re saying sounds so good; I want to hear more!” and sometimes they are like, “Shut up about that Jesus stuff; you’re making me sick!”
Some more things to keep in mind about what Paul says in verse 14 are:
First, that it is God who does the “revealing/manifesting/bringing to light” of the gospel. The spread of Christianity throughout all the world is God’s plan, and He is ‘gung-ho’ about it. So, when someone receives Christ as savior and Lord, it’s because God revealed it to them. We merely join in with God’s agenda when we share the gospel.
And yet, even though evangelism is God’s pet project, He still does it “through us.” You may have heard of people converting through dreams and visions, but even in those cases, there is always a connection with a believer who confirms and explains the dream. Converts to Christianity are made by means of Christians sharing the Bible’s message. Jesus said, “Preach the gospel” and “make disciples,” and so that’s what we should do as Christians.
Another point to keep in mind is that Paul calls the Gospel here “the knowledge of Him,” that is, the knowledge of “Christ/the Anointed One.” Sharing the Gospel is a process of sharing what you know about Jesus – what you know concerning who He is and what you know concerning what He has done to procure salvation, and how you can know him relationally as Savior and Lord.
A final point Paul makes about the sharing of the Gospel is that it is to be “in every place.” Everywhere. That has been God’s plan from the beginning:
Genesis 12:13 “all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
Genesis 18:18 “all the nations will be blessed.”
Matthew 28:19 “Go therefore, and make disciples of all the nations”
Luke 24:47 “repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name unto all the nations”
Isaiah 56:7 “...My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples”
This is why Paul wrote in Romans 5:20-21 “It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else's foundation. Rather, as it is written: ‘Those who were not told about him will see, and those who have not heard will understand.’”
and that’s why he wrote in 2 Corinthians 10:16 that he wanted “to preach the gospel in the regions beyond you...”
What a privilege that God would involve us in His global plan!
2 Corinthians 9:15 “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!" (NKJV)
1 Corinthians 15:57 “but thanks be to God, the Giver of the victory to us through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (NAW)
Romans 6:17 “But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered." (NKJV)
The word for “aroma/savor/fragrance” in verse 14 shows up again in verse 15, only in verse 15, it has the prefix for “good” attached to it, so we move from a “smell” to a “good smell.”
The KJV and NIV place the phrase “to God” so as to mean that we are a pleasing aroma to God wherever we are because we smell of Christ.
Almost all the Bible commentaries I read supported this interpretation that God is the one for whom the aroma is intended, although commentators varied widely in some of the more-specific details.6
This interpretation fits with what God told Israel in Ezekiel 20:41 “I will accept you as a sweet aroma when I bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you have been scattered; and I will be hallowed in you before the Gentiles.” (NKJV)
God truly delights in you when you are united to Him by faith.
He even delights in your imperfect service to Him.
Over and over again in the Bible, God reassured the Old Testament believers that their animal sacrifices were a “sweet aroma” to Him, even though they were not perfect7.
Verse 15, however, ends with a focus, not in the effect which our fragrance-of-Christ has upon God, but with the effect it has upon humans in this world, “among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.”
The NASB and ESV reflect the ambiguity of the original Greek text of verse 15 by placing the phrase “to God” after “of Christ” – “we are the savor of Christ to God among both those being saved and those perishing.” Translating it that way allows for the possibility that the phrase “to God” could mean that our fragrance of Christ is intended for people to smell, and that it points them “to God.”
This is a Biblical interpretation because it fits with the meaning of the same phrase in 2 Corinthians 5:20, “...we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God.” (NKJV)8
We who trust Jesus to make us right with God (and who live a lifestyle consistent with that faith) have an influence on other people – both on Christians and non-Christians, as our words (and our lives) remind them to think about their own relationship with God.
Does the smell of your life direct people “towards God”?
Notice also that salvation and perdition are presented at the end of verse 15 in the present tense – as a thing still in process – they are still “being saved,” or they are currently “perishing.”
Proverbs 11:19 “As righteousness leads to life, So he who pursues evil pursues it to his own death.” (NKJV)
It’s a process, but the process has a terminus: Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (NKJV)
The fact that salvation and perdition are a process gives us hope in the here-and-now, because,
for Christians tempted to despair about how messy we still are, this teaches us that those who are saved by God’s grace, are not yet all that they will be. The Spirit is still “giving [them] life” (as 2 Cor. 1:18 says), and the perfection of glory is still coming in the future. 1 Cor. 1:18 “For the message of the cross… is the power of God to those of us who are being saved” (NAW) The best is yet to come! (1 Cor. 15:52ff, Rom. 8:30, 1 John 3:2, Rev. 21)
Conversely, it gives Christians a measure of hope for unbelievers too, for if unbelievers are perishing (cf. 4:3), then they haven’t fully perished yet, and there is still a possibility that the “veil” could be lifted and they could be saved, so we shouldn’t give up on sharing the good news!9
So Paul continues to share the Gospel everywhere he can, even while he works to develop the maturity of those who are already believers in Corinth.
Verse 16 continues the sentence from verse 15, noting the effect we have as an aroma of Christ upon the two categories of mankind – the first category being “those who are being saved” from their sin by Jesus, and the second category being “those who are perishing” in their sin.
To come into a relationship with God through Christ smells like death to unbelievers, and in a sense, they are correct:
Colossians 2:20 “...you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world... 3:3-5 “For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God... Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.” (NKJV)
Romans 6:6 “...our old man was crucified with [Christ], that the body of sin might be done away with...” (NKJV)
2 Corinthians 4:11 “For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.” (NKJV)
And yet, whoever will not die to sin, to self, and to the world, will end up with nothing but death.
Jeremiah 15:2 “...Thus saith the Lord; ‘As many as are for [εις] death [shall be] [un]to death…’” (Brenton, cf. 50:11)
Romans 6:16 “Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves... whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?” (NKJV, cf. Rom. 7:10)
“On the other hand,” to those who love Jesus and trust Him to “save” them, they smell “life” when they come around another believer.
Have you ever had that experience when you were meeting somebody for the first time and you just had this sense that were fellow-Christians?
Psalm 33:18-19 “Behold, the eyes of the Lord are on them that fear him, those that hope in his mercy; to deliver their souls from death...” (Brenton)
Hosea 13:14 “I will deliver them out of the power of [Hell], and will redeem them from death…” (Brenton)
John 5:24 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.” (NKJV)
Psalm 56:13 “For thou hast delivered my soul from death... that I should be well-pleasing before God in the land of the living.” (Brenton, cf. 116:8)
Acts 11:18 “...they glorified God, saying, ‘Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life.’” (NKJV)
James 5:20 “...the one who returns a sinner out of his wandering way will save a soul out of death…” (NAW)
The phrase “unto/leading to death” and “unto/leading to life” in verse 16 was erased by the NIV and the NLT, but it is there in all the Greek manuscripts, and throughout the Bible the phrase means “until the day you die” or “until the day you enter into eternal life.” These are the two eternal outcomes –
either God saves you until the day you enter into eternal life,
or you perish until the day you enter into hell.
If you are living a Christian life, your words and actions will remind the world around you of these realities, either comforting them with the love and life of God which they know or making them uncomfortable with thoughts of death and loss.
Does that sound like a big responsibility? It is, and that’s why Paul ends verse 16 by saying, “who is sufficient/adequate/equal to these things?”
Paul answers this question later on in chapter 3 verses 5-6: “We are not sufficient in-and-of ourselves… No, our sufficiency is from God, who indeed made us sufficient to be ministers of the New Covenant…” (NAW)
The weighty matters of eternal damnation and salvation are in the capable hands of God, and yet He calls us to join Him in the work that He is doing of saving persons from every nation on earth and making them His people, and He will make us “adequate” to do whatever He wants us to do in that mission.
The Greek grammar of verse 17 allows for two possible translations of the first phrase:
The Geneva, KJV, NET, and NLT versions connected the participle with the word just before it: “We are not like the many who make merchandise of/peddle/corrupt/ preach for profit...”
The New King James, NASB, NIV, and ESV instead connected the participle with the main verb: “for we are not peddling for profit the word of God (like many are)”
Either way works and amounts to the same basic idea.
Here, it seems that Paul is pointing a finger at the religious hucksters who came in to Corinth after him. Paul had worked at a tent-making shop to provide his own living while he was planting the church in Corinth, making it clear that his faith was not something to be commercialized10.
And yet, religion has always been big business.
In fact, this was probably fresh on Paul’s mind because of what had just happened to him in Ephesus before he wrote 2 Corinthians. Acts 19:24-27 tells us that “...a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Diana, brought no small profit to the craftsmen. He called them together with the workers of similar occupation, and said: ‘Men, you know that we have our prosperity by this trade. Moreover you see and hear that not only at Ephesus, but throughout almost all Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away many people, saying that they are not gods which are made with hands. So not only is this trade of ours in danger of falling into disrepute, but also the temple of the great goddess Diana…’” (NKJV) Notice that they weren’t concerned for Diana herself, but rather for their “profit,” their “prosperity,” their “trade,” and the “temple” – where their gift-shop was, where they sold their silver idols!
Soon afterward, in Romans 16:17-18 Paul would write, “...note those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them. For those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple.” (NKJV)
Unfortunately, cut-throat competition, propagandistic deception, and financial corruption are not limited to non-Christians. Over the course of 35 years in full-time in Christian ministry, I’ve been dismayed to find these things in Christian organizations too.
But it would be a grave mistake to draw the hasty conclusion that everyone in Christian ministry is a fraudster or that all churches and ministries should be avoided. Paul argues strongly to the contrary with four asseverations of the integrity of his ministry, giving us four principles for integrity to abide-by in gospel ministry:
First is communicating/speaking “as from sincerity.”
We saw this word “sincerity/integrity” earlier in 2 Corinthians 1:12 “For this is our cause for celebration... that in single-mindedness and integrity from God we conducted ourselves... in the grace of God in the world...” (NAW, cf. 1 Cor. 5:8)
And later on in 2 Corinthians 4:2 he says, “...we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.” (NKJV, cf. 1 Thess. 2:3-5) That’s the kind of integrity every Christian should maintain!
The second principle for integrity in ministry which Paul lists in verse 17 is communicating only “from God” – recognizing that you are representing God, so you must pass on only what you have gotten from God and His word, nothing added.
The Apostle John noted that this was a problem in 1 John 4:1 “Loved ones, do not believe in every spirit, but rather, judge the spirits whether they are out of God, because many false prophets have come out into the world.” (NAW)
So the Apostle Peter wrote in 1 Peter 4:11 “When someone speaks, let it be like God's words; when someone serves, let it be like it's out of the strength which God stages, in order that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ...” (NAW)
The Apostle Paul, even though he was a brilliant intellectual who could have written about all kinds of things, wrote in 1 Corinthians 2:1 “...when I came to you, brothers, I came not with preeminence of words or wisdom... I decided not to know anything among y'all except Jesus Christ - and Him having been crucified.” (NAW, cf 1 Cor. 15:3)
The third principle for integrity in ministry is communicating “in the sight of God” – with a realization that we are accountable to God, and nothing is hidden from Him.
Many scandals could have been avoided if only those ministry leaders had remembered that God was watching them even when nobody else was.
Forgetting accountability to God is a form of “denying His lordship,” and that can bring “swift destruction” (2 Peter 2:1).
And so Paul writes, not only here, but again in 2 Corinthians 12:19 “...We speak before God in Christ..." (NKJV)
Finally, Paul says that he speaks “in Christ.” I believe this means “in accordance with” Christ.
This is in contrast with the “deceivers” that the Apostles John and Jude warned the church about in their epistles, “who are not confessing Jesus Christ”11 - “ ungodly men who are displacing the grace of our God with licentiousness.”12
When we share the Gospel, we need to stick carefully to what Jesus actually said and seek to maintain the attitude in which He said what He said, and that means being good students of the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and relying upon the Holy Spirit to help you say what you should say.
Let us put into practice the things we learn from the mindset of the Apostle Paul so that we may also be effective ministers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
ByzantineB |
NAW |
KJVC |
RheimsD |
MurdockE |
2:12 ᾿ΕλθὼνF δὲ εἰς τὴν Τρῳάδα εἰςG τὸ εὐαγγέλιον τοῦH Χριστοῦ, καὶ θύρας μοι ἀνεῳγμένηςI ἐνJ Κυρίῳ, |
12 Now, after having gone into Troas for the sake of the good news of the Anointed One, (where a door had been opened to me by the Lord), |
12 Furthermore, when I came to Troas to preach Christ's gospel, and a door was opened unto me of the Lord, |
12 And when I was come to Troas for the gospel of Christ and a door was opened unto me in the Lord, |
12
Moreover,
when I came to Troas in announc |
13 οὐκ ἔσχηκα K ἄνεσιν τῷL πνεύματί μου τῷ μὴ εὑρεῖν με Τίτον τὸν ἀδελφόν μου, ἀλλὰM ἀποταξάμενοςN αὐτοῖς ἐξῆλθον εἰς Μακεδονίαν. |
13 I was not experiencing release in my spirit, because I had not found my brother Titus, so instead, after disengaging with them, I went out into Macedonia. |
13 I had no rest in my spirit, because I found not Titus my brother: but taking my leave of them I went from [thence] into Macedonia. |
13 I had no rest in my spirit, because I found not Titus my brother: but bidding them farewell, I went into Macedonia. |
13
|
14 Τῷ δὲ Θεῷ χάριςO τῷ πάντοτε θριαμβεύοντιP ἡμᾶς ἐν τῷ Χριστῷ καὶ τῆν ὀσμὴνQ τῆς γνώσεως αὐτοῦ φανεροῦντι δι᾿ ἡμῶν ἐν παντὶ τόπῳ· |
14 But, there is grace with God, Who always parades us with the Anointed one, and Who reveals the aroma of the knowledge of Him through us in every place! |
14 Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place. |
14 Now thanks be to God, who always maketh us to triumph inR Christ Jesus and manifesteth the odour of his knowledge by us in every place. |
14 But thanks be to God, who always procureth us a triumph in the Messiah, and manifesteth by us the odor of the knowledge of him in every place. |
15 ὅτιS Χριστοῦ εὐωδία ἐσμὲν τῷ ΘεῷT ἐν τοῖς σῳζομένοις καὶ ἐν τοῖς ἀπολλυμένοις· |
15 Indeed, we are a pleasant aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing: |
15 For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish: |
15 For we are the good odour of Christ unto God, in them that are saved and in them that perish. |
15
For, |
16 οἷςU μὲν ὀσμὴV θανάτου εἰς θάνατονW, οἷς δὲ ὀσμὴ ζωῆς εἰς ζωήν. καὶ πρὸς ταῦτα τίς ἱκανόςX; |
16 to those, an aroma of death until death, but to these, an aroma of life until life. Now, who is sufficient for these things? |
16 To the oneX we are [the] savour of death unto death; and to the otherX [the] savour of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things? |
16
To the oneX
|
16 to these, an odor of death unto death; and to those, an odor of life unto life. And who is adequate to these things! |
17 οὐ γάρY ἐσμεν ὡς οἱ πολλοὶZ καπηλεύοντεςAA τὸν λόγον τοῦ Θεοῦ, ἀλλ᾿ ὡς ἐξ εἰλικρινείας, ἀλλ᾿ ὡς ἐκ Θεοῦ κατενώπιονAB τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐνAC Χριστῷ λαλοῦμεν. |
17 But we are not commercializing the word of God (as many are), but rather we are communicating as from sincerity – rather as from God, in the sight of God, in accordance with the Anointed One. |
17 For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ. |
17
For we are not as many, adulterating
the word of God: but |
17
For we are not like |
1“The full name of the city was Alexandria Troas... It stood upon the seashore, about four miles from ancient Troy, and six miles south of the entrance to the Hellespont. It was, for many centuries, the key of the traffic between Europe and Asia, having an artificial port consisting of two basins. Its ruins, with their immense arches and great columns of granite, indicate a city of much splendor.” ~Marvin Vincent, Word Studies Of The New Testament
2This parallels Paul’s going to Macedonia recorded in Acts 20:1.
3The
other three times being:
Acts
14:27 “...they
reported all that God had done with them, and that He had opened
the door
of faith to the Gentiles.” (NKJV)
1 Cor. 16:9
“for a door has opened up to me that is huge and
momentous, yet there are many opponents.” (NAW)
Colossians
4:3 “meanwhile praying also for us, that God would open
to us a door for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ,
for which I am also in chains," (NKJV)
4That is, all but the ASV and RV/RSV from which they were respectively derived.
5“...the
Roman ‘triumph’ celebrated by victorious generals on their
return from their campaigns. The general entered the city in a
chariot, preceded by the captives and spoils taken in war, and
followed by his troops, and proceeded in state along the sacred way
to the Capitol, where he offered sacrifices in the temple of
Jupiter.” ~Marvin Vincent, Word Studies Of The New
Testament
“We who were
God's former enemies (Rom.
5:10) have been overcome and taken captive by Him and are led and
displayed by Him to the world, not just on one passing occasion, but
every day and everywhere. From justification until glorification the
redeemed sinner is on exhibition as a trophy of divine grace.”
~Phillip Hughes, New
International Commentary on the New Testament
6See End note on this verse.
7eg. Exodus 29:18 “And you shall burn the whole ram on the altar. It is a burnt offering to the LORD; it is a sweet aroma, an offering made by fire to the LORD.” (NKJV)
8Acts 20:32, Rom. 5:10, Eph. 2:16, Heb. 7:19, and 1 Pet. 3:18 also use this same dative phrase “to God” to describe one person leading another “toward” a right relationship with God.
9On the other hand, as Matthew Henry pointed out, the process could go in the other direction: “Those who are willingly ignorant, and wilfully obstinate, disrelish the gospel, as men dislike an ill savour, and therefore they are blinded and hardened by it: it stirs up their corruptions, and exasperates their spirits. They reject the gospel, to their ruin, even to spiritual and eternal death.”
10“‘Is
not retailer (καπήλους) the term which is
applied to those who sit in the market-place buying and selling,
while those who wander from one city to another are called
merchants?’ ([Plato] “Republic,” 371...) The term... was
especially applied to retailers of wine, with whom adulteration and
short measure were matters of course.”
~Marvin
Vincent, Word Studies Of The New Testament
112 John 1:7 “because many erroneous men have gone out into the world, those who are not confessing Jesus Christ coming with a physical body: this is the erroneous one and the antichrist.” (NAW)
12Jude 1:4 “because certain men have settled in alongside you who have already been prescribed to this judgment, ungodly men who are displacing the grace of our God with licentiousness and who deny our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ.” (NAW)
AWhen
a translation adds words not in the Greek text, but does not
indicate it has done so by the use of italics or greyed-out text, I
put the added words in [square brackets]. When one version chooses a
wording which is different from all the other translations, I
underline it. When a version chooses a translation which, in my
opinion, either departs too far from the root meaning of the Greek
word or departs too far from the grammar form of the original text,
I use strikeout. And when a version omits a word
which is in the original text, I insert an X. I also place an X at
the end of a word if the original word is plural but the English
translation is singular. I occasionally use colors to help the
reader see correlations between the various editions and versions
when there are more than two different translations of a given word.
NAW is my translation. My original chart includes annotated copies
of the NKJV, NASB, NIV, and ESV, but I erase them from the online
edition so as not to infringe on their copyrights.
BThis Greek New Testament is the 1904 "Patriarchal" edition of the Greek Orthodox Church. As published by E-Sword in 2016. The Robinson-Pierpont Byzantine majority text of the GNT and the Textus Receptus are very similar. The Westcott-Hort, Nestle-Aland, and UBS editions, however, are a slightly-different family of GNTs developed in the modern era, focusing on the few manuscripts which are older than the Byzantine manuscripts. Even so, the practical differences in the text between these two editing philosophies are minimal.
C1769 King James Version of the Holy Bible; public domain. As published by E-Sword in 2019.
DRheims New Testament first published by the English College at Rheims, A.D. 1582, Revised and Diligently Compared with the Latin Vulgate by Bishop Richard Challoner, Published in 1582, 1609, 1752. As published on E-Sword in 2016.
EJames Murdock, A Literal Translation from the Syriac Peshito Version, 1851, Robert Carter & Brothers, New York. Scanned and transcribed by Gary Cernava and published electronically by Janet Magierra at http://www.lightofword.org and published on E-Sword in 2023.
FAll the English versions interpret this Aorist participle as a verb of action contemporary to the first verb (“I had”) in the next verse, but an Aorist participle speaks of what came after, not what happened at the same time, so I think this participle which opens verse 12 should be interpreted “After coming” and related temporally to the second indicative of v.11 “I went out.”
GThe first εις in this verse is a locative preposition (Louw & Nida semantic domain #84.22 – AGNT’s listing of 89.57 is in error here), describing entering “into” the city of Troas, but this second occurrence is purposive (L&N#89.57), describing the reason why Paul entered Troas in the first place, namely to tell the residents the gospel. (The NIV and ESV are gratuitously periphrastic here, transforming this preposition into the infinitive verb “to preach.”
HThe genitive case of “of Christ” could denote the source of the good news as coming “from Christ,” which is consistent with Paul’s Damascus road experience, and it could denote the content of the good news as being “about the Messiah,” which is consistent with what Paul preached. Hughes sided with the latter: “that is, the Good News whose content is Christ...”
IThe
perfect participle speaks of something which happened before Paul
arrived in Troas and which was still the case while he was in Troas.
The sequence of action, then is: 1) The door was opened (Perfect
participle), 2) He came (Aorist participle) to Troas, 3) He did not
find (Aorist Infinitive) Titus, 4) He did not have (Perfect
Indicative) rest, so 5) he took leave (Aorist Participle) of the
folks in Troas, and 6) he left (Aorist Indicative) for
Macedonia.
This figure of speech of “door-opening” is a
trademark of Paul’s, occurring only here, Acts 14:27, 1 Cor. 16:9,
and Col. 4:3, in every case describing opportunities to preach the
gospel effectively to Gentiles. (The only other figurative use in
the Greek Bible is Rev. 3:8.)
JIt is curious that the Vulgate, NAS and ESV translate this preposition “in,” indicating that the opportunity was inside of the Lord rather than in Troas. AGNT labels this with L&N#90.6, “opened by [the agency of] the Lord,” which is in agreement with the NKJV (and also presumably in agreement with the archaic denotation of agency in the Geneva and KJV “of the Lord,” and also presumably in agreement with the Peshitta, NIV, NET, and NLT, which eliminated this Greek preposition in their periphrastic re-write of the clause, “the Lord opened”).
KThis verb is Perfect tense, but Hanna cited Burton’s Moods and Tenses of New Testament Greek, with the opinion that it “is used to refer to a simple past-fact.”
LAll the English translations except for ASV/NASB and RV render “in my spirit.” The RV, ASV, and NASB followed A. T. Robertson’s Grammar, interpreting this as a “dative of advantage” (“for my spirit”).
MThis word normally means “but,” which is the translation of the Geneva, KJV, NKJV, NAS, Vulgate, and Peshitta, but this could be an instance (in addition to 2 Cor. 7:11) of αλλα meaning “and” (L&N#89.96). NIV, ESV, NET, and NLT, however, translated with “So,” a meaning not found for this word in the Greek lexicons of Louw & Nida (or in Smith’s Supplement to L&N), Arndt & Gingrich, Pershbacher, or Thayer.
NLit. “arrange from,” also found in Eccl. 2:20, Mk. 6:46, Lk. 9:61, 14:33, Acts 18:18, 21, 2 Cor. 2:13.
OAbout 80% of the time that the English word “thanks/thanksgiving” occurs in the New Testament, it is translating a more-complex form of this word with the prefix ευ-. This simpler form is usually translated “grace” (about 80% of the time), but occasionally it is translated “thanks.”
PRare word used only here and in Colossians 2:15 (“Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.” (NKJV) The 2011 edition of the NIV (“leads us as captives in Christ's triumphal procession”) pictures the opposite of what the KJV and Geneva pictured (“makes/causes us to triumph”). In the former case, the words “as captives” is gratuitously added (and the prepositional phrase “in Christ” is erroneously changed to “Christ’s”), and in the latter, the idea of causality is gratuitously added. Other English versions leave some ambiguity as to whether we are captives or lieutenants in the victory parade. The only other consideration as to our place in the parade is how to translate the Greek preposition εν:
Are we mystically “inside” of Christ (L&N#83.13) as He marches in the parade – as most English versions indicate and as Phillip Hughes’ commentary suggests,
or are we displayed “with” him as associates (L&N#89.119) – as F. F. Bruce’s commentary suggests,
or are we led triumphantly “by” (L&N#90.6) Him? – as per the 2011 NIV.
All three are legitimate meanings of the Greek preposition, but I am convinced by Colossians 2:15 that it should be the third, and Marvin Vincent explained that “the accusative case [‘us’ is] of the person or thing triumphed over, and never of the triumphing subject.” At any rate, it seems to be God the Father throwing the parade, with the implication that Christ is the victorious conqueror at the head of the parade, for whom the parade is thrown.
QIt might be noted that this Greek word does not necessarily denote a pleasant smell, since it is used in the LXX to denote not only the smell of perfume and flowers, but also of body odor, corpses, and rotting food.
RThis is the Latin locative in, rather than the associative per.
SAll English versions opted for a causal interpretation, which is one of the most-common meanings of this Greek word. Commentaries by Barret, Thrall, Hughes, Kistemaker, and Hodges explained that it is because we are a pleasing aroma to God that He diffuses the knowledge of Christ through us, but I believe God does it in spite of us rather than because of great performances by us. Bernard’s commentary hit closer to a statement I could agree with: Inasmuch as we are a pleasing aroma of Christ, to that extent God can manifest the knowledge of Himself through us in every place (but that is hardly the syntax before us in these verses). I suggest that the causal meaning should be minimized and that this word should be interpreted in terms of L&N#91:15 “markers of identificational and explanatory clauses - ‘that, namely, that is, namely that.’”
TDavid Abernathy’s Exegetical Summaries outlined a wide variety of opinions on what “to God” means:
“As Paul carries out his ministry the smoke of Christ’s sacrifice goes up, pleasing God and dispersing the truth to men [HNTC (Barrett), ICC2(Thrall)].” {The text, however, says that it is we who are the pleasant smell, not Christ’s sacrifice.}
“God is pleased with that particular grace of which he himself is the author, and it is also communicated to other people [NIC1(Hughes)].
In spreading the fragrance of the knowledge of God they are themselves a fragrance to God [ICC1(Plummer)].
The gospel that Christ’s preachers proclaim among men is offered to God by Christ [Len(ski)].” {This would require an ellipsis along the lines of “we are the aroma [of the sacrifice] of Christ to God,” making other instances of the aroma in this passage absurd if the ellipsis were added to them as well.}
“The proclamation of Christ’s gospel is pleasing to God, because it concerns his beloved son [EBC(Harris)].” {But what it actually says is that “we are the pleasing aroma of Christ” not “the proclamation of the gospel is the pleasing aroma.”}
“It refers to the fact that Christ’s sacrifice was pleasing to God [NTC(Kistemaker)].” {Theologically yes, but not exegetically here; WE are the pleasing aroma.}
“Paul’s sacrifice of himself in ministry is pleasing to God just as Christ’s sacrifice of himself was [NIC2(Barnett)].” {But there is no such comparative or parallelism in this verse!}
“‘To God’ means to the glory of God [He(ring)], or to the honor of God and for the benefit of God’s people all over the world [AB(Furnish)].” {If that’s what Paul had meant, he would have written the words “glory/honor of,” as he did in 1:20, 4:6, and 4:15, but he didn’t here.}
Turner’s Grammar seems to have seen it in a different light, as quoted by Hanna: “Where a stative verb with the dative forms part of the predicate, it usually carries the idea of credit (or discredit) in the persons eyes, ‘for God.’” I would also note that 2 Cor. 5:20, Acts 20:32, Rom. 5:10, Eph. 2:16, Heb. 7:19, and 1 Pet. 3:18 all use this same dative phrase “to God” to describe one person leading another “toward” a right relationship with God.
UThis dative plural relative pronoun (“to whom”) correlates with the dative plural participle from v.15, “to those being saved,” and the next dative plural relative pronoun correlates with the other dative plural participle in v.15 (“to those who are perishing”). Most English versions (KJV, NKJV, NASB, NIV, ESV) inaccurately translated it as though it were the number “one.” I like the way that Murdock rendered it “to these… to those.” The NET Bible did second-best with “to the latter… to the for-mer,” and honorable mention goes to NLT which replaced the pronouns with a repeat of their antecedents.
VThis is the reading of the majority of Greek manuscripts (the oldest being the 7th century Bezae) and therefore of the Textus Receptus and Patriarchal editions of the GNT. Contemporary critical editions follow 13 Greek manuscripts (including the 5 oldest-known, the oldest of which dates to the year 200) which add the preposition εκ (“from”) here and also six words later, which adds emphasis to the two ablative genitives (“from death” and “from life”), but doesn’t change the meaning. This imagery is unique within Scripture; searches for ὀσμή + θάνατος, ὀσμή + ζωη, θανάτου + θάνατον, and ζωῆς + ζωήν in the Greek Old + New Testament yielded no cross-references to this verse. However, the allusion to fragrances is frequent in Rabbinical writings, lists of which can be seen in the footnotes to Calvin’s commentary as well as in later commentaries.
W“into death” in the LXX generally means “until/unto death” in reference to actual time of death (from being murdered or terminated by capital punishment or of old age). Similarly, the phrase “into life” generally indicates continuing to remain alive a long time (and in the New Testament, the adjective “eternal” is added to this phrase in all but a couple of instances). Jesus often used the phrase “into life” (with an added definite article before “life” in Greek) to describe conversion to eternal life (Matt. 7:14; 18:8-9; 19:17; Mk. 9:43).
XThis word also is in 2:6 (speaking of the penalty imposed on an offender, where the KJV, NASB, and NIV translated it “sufficient,” and the NET, ESV, and NLT translated it “enough”) and in 3:5.
YNIV interpreted this conjunction as L&N#91.1 (“markers of a new sentence, often best left untranslated”), while the KJV, NASB, and ESV opted for the causal “for” (#89.23) – although there is nothing really to relate causally. I suggest #89.124a in Smith’s supplement to L&N (“but”), considering the strong adversatives in the verse.
ZThis is the reading of 21 Greek manuscripts (including 4 of the 6 pre-8th century ones) and of the Textus Receptus and all the contemporary critical editions, and of the Vulgate. However, the majority of Greek manuscripts (followed by the Peshitta and by the St. Spyridon edition of the GNT) read instead λοιποι (“the rest”) – a word containing the same letters and the same number of letters, just in different places and in different quantities.
AAHapex Legomenon. Peshitta, Geneva, KJV, NET, and NLT interpreted this as an articular participle connected to the word before it (“the many who dilute/make merchandise of/peddle/corrupt/preach for profit”), but all the other versions understood it as a periphrastic participle connected to “we are.” Hanna cites Moule’s Idiom Book of New Testament Greek, writing, “...present periphrastic construction... meaning ‘for we are not, like the majority, merely making merchandise of God's message’ (generally this construction stresses the linear action, although it is difficult to see exactly how the sense would have been altered by the use of the simple present here).”
ABThis is the reading of the majority of Greek manuscripts (the oldest-known dating to the 6th Century), and thus is the reading of the Textus Receptus and the Greek Orthodox New Testaments, but the contemporary critical editions follow 13 Greek manuscripts (including the 5 oldest-known, the oldest of which dates back to the year 200) which read with the synonymous phrase κατεναντι θεου (“before God”). The KJV (which followed the Textus Receptus) reads the same as the NASB and ESV (which followed the contemporary critical editions) with “in the sight of God,” proving that it makes no difference in meaning.
ACI suggest that this is semantic domain #89.84a (“in accordance with”) in Smith’s Supplement to Louw & Nida’s Lexicon. (cf. Beet’s commentary, which attributed L&N#898.119 to the preposition, “[I]n union with Christ as their encompassing element.”)
ADLamsa and Etheridge, in their translations of the Peshitta into English, carelessly translated this word as singular, but the word in the Peshitta is plural, in contradistinction to the singular form in all the Greek manuscripts.