{A temptation to you in my flesh} ( on peirasmon hum(936e) en
t(8869) sarki mou). "Your temptation (or trial) in my flesh."
Peirasmon can be either as we see in Jas 1:2,12ff . If trial
here, it was a severe one. {Nor rejected} (oude exeptusate).
First aorist active indicative of ekptu(935c), old word to spit out
(Homer), to spurn, to loathe. Here only in N.T. Clemen
(_Primitive Christianity_, p. 342) thinks it should be taken
literally here since people spat out as a prophylactic custom at
the sight of invalids especially epileptics. But Plutarch uses it
of mere rejection. {As an angel of God} (h(9373) aggelon theou),
{as Christ Jesus} (h(9373) Christon I(8873)oun). In spite of his
illness and repulsive appearance, whatever it was. Not a mere
"messenger" of God, but a very angel, even as Christ Jesus. We
know that at Lystra Paul was at first welcomed as Hermes the god
of oratory ( Ac 14:12f. ). But that narrative hardly applies to
these words, for they turned against Paul and Barnabas then and
there at the instigation of Jews from Antioch in Pisidia and
Iconium.
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