Charles Ellicott Commentary 2 Corinthians 2:14

"But thanks be unto God, who always leadeth us in triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest through us the savor of his knowledge in every place." — 2 Corinthians 2:14 (ASV)

Now thanks be to God.—The apparent abruptness of this burst of thanksgiving is at first somewhat startling. We have to find its source, not in what the Apostle had written or spoken, but in what was passing through his memory. He had met Titus, and that disciple had been like a courier bringing news of a victory. The love of God had won another triumph.

Causeth us to triumph.—A better translation is, who always leads us in His triumph. There is absolutely no authority for the factitive meaning given to the verb in the English version.

In Colossians 2:15, it is translated rightly, triumphing over them in it. It is obvious, too, that the true rendering presents a much more characteristic thought.

It would be unlike St. Paul to speak of himself as the triumphant commander of God’s great army. It is altogether like him that he should give God the glory, and acknowledge that He, as manifested in Christ, had triumphed, and that Apostle and penitent, the faithful and the rebellious, alike took their place in the procession of that triumph.

The imagery that follows is clearly that of the solemn triumphal procession of a Roman emperor or general. St. Paul, who had not yet been to Rome, where only such triumphs were celebrated, had, therefore, never seen them, and was writing accordingly from what he had heard from others.

He might have heard about these processions from various sources: from the Roman Jews he had met at Corinth, many of whom were slaves or freedmen in the imperial household; from the Roman soldiers and others with whom he came into contact at Philippi; or possibly from St. Luke or Clement.

From them, he had heard how the conqueror rode along the Via Sacra in his chariot, followed by his troops and prisoners, captive kings and princes, and trophies of victory. He also heard how fragrant clouds of incense accompanied the march, rising from fixed altars or wafted from censers.

Furthermore, he knew how, at the foot of the Capitoline hill, some of the prisoners, condemned as treacherous or rebellious, were led off to execution or thrown into the dungeons of the Mamertine prison, while others were pardoned and set free.

It is not without interest to remember that when St. Paul wrote, the latest triumph at Rome had been that solemnized by Claudius in A.D. 51. This triumph was in honor of Ostorius's victory over the Britons and was commemorated by a triumphal arch, the inscription on which is now to be seen in the courtyard of the Barberini Palace in Rome.

In that triumph, Caractacus had figured as a prisoner. He and his children, spared by the emperor's mercy, passed from the ranks of the “lost” to those of the “saved” (Tacitus, Annals 13:36).

According to a view taken by some writers, Claudia and Linus (2 Timothy 4:21) were among those children. (See the Excursus on the Later Years of St. Paul’s Life, at the close of the Acts of the Apostles.)

The savour of his knowledge.—There is obviously a reference to the incense which, as in the above description, was an essential part of the triumph of a Roman general. It is there that St. Paul finds an analogue of his own work. He claims to be, as it were, a thurifer, an incense-bearer, in the procession of the conqueror. Words, whether of prayer or praise, thanksgiving or preaching—what were they but as incense-clouds, bearing to all around, as they were wafted in the air, the news that the Conqueror had come? The “savour of his knowledge” is probably “the knowledge of Him:” that which rests in Him as its object.