Charles Ellicott Commentary 2 Corinthians 11:9

"and when I was present with you and was in want, I was not a burden on any man; for the brethren, when they came from Macedonia, supplied the measure of my want; and in everything I kept myself from being burdensome unto you, and [so] will I keep [myself]." — 2 Corinthians 11:9 (ASV)

I was chargeable to no man.—There is no doubt that this substantially gives the meaning of the Greek word, but the word is a very peculiar one. It has a history that, by shedding light on the sources of St. Paul’s phraseology and his character as shown in his use of it, is not without interest.

The verb (katanarkaô) is not found elsewhere in the New Testament, nor in the Septuagint versions of the Old Testament, nor, indeed, in any known Greek author, except Hippocrates.

Jerome describes it as belonging to the patois of Cilicia, which, if true, would be interesting; but he gives no proof of it (Ep. ad Aglaia), and the statement must be treated as unproven.

The history that we are about to trace, however, tends to confirm it as a probable conjecture.

The root of the verb is found in the noun narkè, which is used (1) for “numbness,” or “torpor” (a sense found in our “narcotic”), and (2) as the name of a fish of the torpedo genus, causing numbness by its contact with the human body (Aristotle, Anim. Hist. vi. 10).

The verb derived from the noun is accordingly used by Hippocrates and Galen in the sense of “being benumbed,” or causing numbness. (See Foesius, Lexic. Hippocrat. s.v. ναρκὴ.)

As used here, it takes its place as a bold figurative expression. To benumb anyone was to exhaust them, to drain them of their vitality by pressing on them and, as it were, living upon them.

St. Paul accordingly means, in using the word, to say, “I did not drain you of your resources—did not live upon you.”

An analogous similitude is found in Shakespeare’s lines:—

“That now he was
The ivy which had hidden my princely trunk,
And sucked my verdure out of it.”
—Tempest, i. 2.

Our modern phrase that speaks of one person “sponging” on another implies a similar metaphor. In the word “parasitic,” as applied to plants and animals, we have an inverted transfer of the same idea from the events of human social life to that of lower organisms.

As a word belonging, through Hippocrates, to the recognized terminology of physicians, it takes its place in the vocabulary that St. Paul may be supposed to have derived from St. Luke (see Introduction to St. Luke’s Gospel, Vol. I., p. 239). The fame of Tarsus as a medical school may also have made it somewhat familiar, as Jerome states, in the conversational idioms of Cilicia.

The brethren which came from Macedonia supplied.—Not “which came,” but when they came. The Acts of the Apostles presents no record of any such supply, but Philippians 4:15 presents an interesting and confirmatory coincidence.

The Philippians had sent supplies to him twice at Thessalonica, and it was a natural sequel that they should also send to him at Corinth. The Apostle may well have accepted what they thus sent, yet still have considered his acceptance perfectly compatible with his boast that he was not preaching at Corinth for the sake of gain (1 Corinthians 9:16–18).

He was not to be robbed of whatever credit was attached to his working for his own livelihood at Corinth and elsewhere by any sneers that had that acceptance as their starting point.

And so will I keep myself.—It adds to the interest of this declaration to remember that St. Paul had acted on this principle both at Ephesus, which he had just left (Acts 20:34), and in the Macedonian churches, which he was now visiting (2 Thessalonians 3:8). The future tense obviously points to his resolution to continue to act on the same principle during his promised visit to Corinth.