Albert Barnes Commentary 2 Corinthians 1:8

"For we would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning our affliction which befell [us] in Asia, that we were weighed down exceedingly, beyond our power, insomuch that we despaired even of life:" — 2 Corinthians 1:8 (ASV)

For we would not have you ignorant. We wish you to be fully informed. See the notes on 1 Corinthians 10:1; see also the notes on 1 Corinthians 12:1.

Paul’s object here is to give a full explanation of the nature of his trials, to which he had referred in 2 Corinthians 1:4. He presumed that the Corinthians would feel a deep interest in him and in his trials; that they would sympathize with him, and would pray that those sufferings and this deliverance might be attended with a blessing (2 Corinthians 1:11). Perhaps he also wished to conciliate their kindness towards himself by mentioning more at length the nature of the trials he had been called to endure on account of the Christian religion, from which they were reaping such material benefits.

Of our trouble which came to us in Asia. The term Asia is often used to denote that part of Asia Minor of which Ephesus was the capital (see the notes on Acts 2:9).

There has been considerable diversity of opinion as to the “troubles” to which Paul refers here. Some have supposed that he refers to the persecutions at Lystra (Acts 14:6, 19, 20), from which he had been recovered, as it were, by a miracle; but as that happened so long before this, it seems improbable that he would refer to it here.

There is every mark of freshness and recentness about this event; and Paul evidently referred to some danger from which he had been lately delivered, and which made a deep impression on his mind when he wrote this epistle. Semler supposes that he refers to the Jews lying in wait for him when he was about to go to Macedonia, as mentioned in Acts 20:3.

Most commentators have supposed that he refers to the disturbances caused at Ephesus by Demetrius and his friends, mentioned in Acts 19, for which reason he was compelled to leave the city. The only objection to this is the one mentioned by Whitby and Macknight: that as Paul did not go into the theater there (Acts 19:31), he incurred no such risk to his life as to justify the strong expressions mentioned in 2 Corinthians 1:9–10.

They suppose, therefore, that he refers to the danger to which he was exposed in Ephesus on another occasion, when he was compelled to fight there with wild beasts (see 1 Corinthians 15:32). But nearly all these opinions may perhaps be reconciled by supposing that he refers to the group of calamities to which he had been exposed in Asia, and from which he had just escaped by going to Macedonia—referring, perhaps, more particularly to the conflict he had been compelled to have with wild beasts there.

There was the riot excited by Demetrius (Acts 19), in which his life had been endangered, and from which he had just escaped. There had been the conflict with wild beasts at Ephesus (see the notes on 1 Corinthians 15:32), which perhaps had occurred just before. And there were the plots of the Jews against him (Acts 20:3), from which he also had just been delivered. By these trials his life had been endangered, perhaps more than once, and he had been called to look death calmly in the face and to anticipate the probability that he might soon die. Of these trials—of all these trials—he would not have the Corinthians ignorant, but desired that they should be fully apprised of them, so that they might sympathize with him and that, through their prayers, these trials might be turned to his benefit.

That we were pressed out of measure. (See Acts 19). We were borne down, or weighed down by calamity (ebarhyhmen), exceedingly (kay uperbolhn), super-eminently. The expression denotes excess, eminence, or intensity. It is one of Paul’s common and very strong expressions to denote anything that is intensive or great (Romans 7:13; Galatians 1:13; 2 Corinthians 4:17).

Above strength. Beyond our strength. More than we ourselves were able to bear.

Insomuch that we despaired even of life. This meant either expecting to be destroyed by the wild beasts with which he had to contend, or to be destroyed by the people. This was undoubtedly one of the instances to which he refers in 2 Corinthians 11:23, where he says he had been in deaths oft. And this was one of the many cases in which Paul was called on to contemplate death as near. It was doubtless one cause of his fidelity, and of his great success in his work, that he was thus called to regard death as near at hand; and that, to use the somewhat unpoetical but deeply affecting lines of Baxter, expressing a sentiment which guided all his ministry, and which was one source of his eminent success:

He preached as though he ne’er would preach again,
And as a dying man to dying men.