Charles Ellicott Commentary 2 Corinthians 12:17

"Did I take advantage of you by any one of them whom I have sent unto you?" — 2 Corinthians 12:17 (ASV)

By any of them whom I sent unto you?—The English translation conveys the meaning of the Greek, but it does not reveal, as the original Greek does, the vehement agitation that led the writer, while dictating the letter, to start the sentence with one grammatical construction and end it with another. The underlying sense is something like: Did any of those I sent… did I by this means get more out of you than I ought?

The Apostle Paul has in mind, as far as we know, Timothy, who had been sent before the First Epistle (1 Corinthians 4:17); Stephanus, Fortunatus and Achaicus, who were the bearers of that Epistle (1 Corinthians 16:15); and Titus, who was sent, as we have seen, to learn what its effect had been. He asks if any of these individuals had been requesting money on his behalf.