so as to preach the Good News even to the parts beyond you, not to boast in what someone else has already done.
Parallel Translations
-
so as to preach the Good News even to the parts beyond you, not to boast in what someone else has already done.
-
and to preache the gospell in those regions which are beyode you: and not to reioyce of that which is by another mans measure prepared all redy.
-
And to preache the Gospel in those regions which are beyonde you: not to reioyce in another mans line, that is, in the thinges that are prepared alreadie.
Cross-references (2)
Passages linked to 2 Corinthians 10:16 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Romans 15:24-28 whenever I travel to Spain, I will come to you. For I hope to see you on my journey, and to be helped on my way there by you, if first I may enjoy your company for a while. But now, I say, I am going to Jerusalem, serving the saints. For it has been the good pleasure of Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor among the saints who are at Jerusalem. Yes, it has been their good pleasure, and they are their debtors. For if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things, they owe it to them also to serve them in fleshly things. When therefore I have accomplished this, and have sealed to them this fruit, I will go on by way of you to Spain.
- Acts 19:21 Now after these things had ended, Paul determined in the Spirit, when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem, saying, “After I have been there, I must also see Rome.”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (14 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Private notes
Saved on this device only — never synced or sent anywhere.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain In countries which other men have prepared and husbanded…
In countries which other men have prepared and husbanded with the preaching of the Gospel.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 16 To preach the gospel in the regions beyond…
16 To preach the gospel in the regions beyond you, and not to boast in another man’s line of things made ready to our hand.
Ver. 16. In the regions beyond you] This was a piece of the braggadocio false apostles’ vain boasting, as it is now of the Jesuits, those Circulatores and Agyrtae, that compass sea and land, crack of what conversions they have wrought in India and Africa, and, Lampadius-like, take it ill at any man’s hand that commend them not every time they spit upon the ground. (Amm. Marcell.) Gaius Caligula the emperor was ready to destroy the whole senate, because they did not deify him for marching with his whole army to the ocean, and fetching thence a few oyster shells, Quibus spoliis acceptis magnifice gloriabatur, quasi oceano subacto. (Dio, in Vita Caligulae.)
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain To preach the gospel in the regions beyond you;…
To preach the gospel in the regions beyond you; the apostle here expoundeth what he meaneth by the term magnified, or enlarged, in the preceding verse, viz. to have a door opened to preach the gospel in places whither it was not yet come. God honoureth persons when he maketh them instruments to bring any to an acquaintance with, and to the embracing of, his gospel, who formerly had been ignorant of it, and not acquainted with it.
And not to boast in another man’s line of things made ready to our hand: he here seemeth to reflect on the false teachers crept into this church, who had nothing to boast in but a pretended building, upon other men’s foundations, and carrying on a work by others made ready to their hands; and seemeth to prefer the work of conversion, and an instrumentality in that, before an instrumentality merely in edification, and carrying on the work of God already begun in people’s souls.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain In the regions beyond you - To the west…
In the regions beyond you - To the west and south, where the gospel had not yet been preached.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 16. To preach the Gospel in the regions…
Verse 16. To preach the Gospel in the regions beyond you] He probably refers to those parts of the Morea, such as Sparta, c., that lay southward of them and to Italy, which lay on the west; for it does not appear that he considered his measure or province to extend to Libya, or any part of Africa. See the Introduction, sec. xii.
Not to boast in another man's line] So very scrupulous was the apostle not to build on another man's foundation, that he would not even go to those places where other apostles were labouring. He appears to think that every apostle had a particular district or province of the heathen world allotted to him, and which God commissioned him to convert to the Christian faith. No doubt every apostle was influenced in the same way; and this was a wise order of God; for by these means the Gospel was more quickly spread through the heathen provinces than it otherwise would have been. The apostles had deacons or ministers with them whose business it was to water the seed sown; but the apostles alone, under Christ, sowed and planted.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain To preach the gospel in the regions beyond you…
To preach the gospel in the regions beyond you - What regions are referred to here can be only a matter of conjecture. It may be that he wished to preach in other parts of Greece, and that he designed to go to Arcadia or Lacedaemon. Rosenmuller supposes that as the Corinthians were engaged in commerce, the apostle hoped that by them some tidings of the gospel would reach the countries with which they were engaged in traffic. But I think it most probable that he alludes to Italy and Spain. It is certain that he had formed the design of visiting Spain Rom 15:24, Rom 15:28; and he doubtless wished the Corinthians to aid him in that purpose, and was anxious to do this as soon as the condition of the eastern churches would allow it.
And not to boast in another man’s line of things ... - Margin, “Rule,” the same word (κανὼν kanōn) which occurs in 2Co 10:13. The meaning is, that Paul did not mean to boast of what properly belonged to others. He did not claim what they had done as his own. He did not intend to labor within what was properly their bounds, and then to claim the field and the result of the labor as his. He probably means here to intimate that this had been done by the false teachers of Corinth; but so far was he from designing to do this, that he meant soon to leave Corinth, which was properly within his limits, and the church which he had founded there, to go and preach the gospel to other regions. Whether Paul ever went to Spain has been a question (see the note on Rom 15:24); but it is certain that he went to Rome, and that he preached the gospel in many other places after this besides Corinth.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain The words, measure, rule, &c. signify through the whole…
The words, measure, rule, &c. signify through the whole of this chapter a share, or an allotment of any place to cultivate. St. Paul never gloried like the persons whom he is here blaming, that he entered into other men’s labours. But still neither those persons who have come to you, nor we who first preached the gospel to you, have any right to glory, except in God alone. (Calmet) --- We still hope, that your faith every day increasing, we shall be able to extend our measure much further, and carry the gospel to nations far beyond you, without interfering with any other, by glorying of having built on what they had already prepared. (Bible de Vence)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain To--that is, so as to preach . . .…
To--that is, so as to preach . . . beyond you (and) not to boast, &c.
in another man's line of things made ready to our hand--Do not connect "line of things," &c.; but "boast of things," &c. To make this clearer, arrange the words thus, "Not to boast as to things (already made by the preaching of others) ready to our hand in another man's line (that is, within the line, or sphere of labor, apportioned by God to another)."
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 16. To preach the gospel—It is for this that…
16. To preach the gospel—It is for this that he would like to be magnified to a giant’s stature.
Regions beyond you—A decidedly extended field!
Read full note →
Another man’s line—As the Christines were doing.
Made ready to our hand—A comfortable nest built by a preceding bird.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 16. to preach the gospel in the regions beyond…
16. to preach the gospel in the regions beyond you] i.e. the rest of Greece, Italy and Spain. Cf. Rom_15:19; Rom_15:24; Rom_15:28. St Paul here attributes his further progress in the Gospel not to his own energy, but to their faith, another instance of his identification of himself with those in whom the same life dwelt. Cf. ch. 2Co_1:11.
and not to boast in another man’s line] Literally, and not to have boasted. Both this word and the words translated enlarged and preach the gospel are in the past tense. St Paul here again reflects indirectly, but most severely upon his opponents. Our hope is first that your faith may increase, and then that we may congratulate ourselves on having carried the good tidings of the Gospel to those who as yet have not heard them, not, as others do, on the successes which by intruding into another man’s work, we have found ready made for us.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (16) To preach the gospel in the regions beyond…
(16) To preach the gospel in the regions beyond you.—It is clear, from Rom_15:19-24, that he is thinking (1) of Western Greece, (2) of Rome, (3, and chiefly) of Spain. There, apparently, he could hope to preach the gospel without even the risk of its being said that he was building on another man’s foundation.
And not to boast in another man’s line . . .—The words, like those of 2Co_10:15, are at once an answer to a charge and a tu quoque retort. “Spain! Illyricum!” he seems to say within himself. “Will you say that I am transgressing boundaries and working on another man’s lines there? Can you say that you are free from that charge in your work at Corinth?”
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain In the regions beyond you. Even to Rome and…
In the regions beyond you. Even to Rome and Spain. (Rom_15:19, Rom_15:24, Rom_15:28)
The gospel for the regions beyond.
Read full note →
preach the gospel in the regions beyond you". (comp. Rom_15:19-24) The apostle, filled with the true missionary spirit, was longing to be free from the care of Churches already founded, so that he might be free to go again upon his journeyings, and preach the gospel in Western Greece, in Rome, and even away in distant Spain. St. Paul was first and chiefly a missionary. The genius of the missionary is a Divine restlessness, a constant impulse forward into new spheres, a passion for finding some one else to whom the gospel message might be told. The men who settle down in Churches situated in heathen districts are ministers and pastors and clergymen; they cannot properly be called missionaries, since these are men who are always hearing a call from "regions beyond," saying, "Come over and help us.
I MISSIONARY WORK AS HERALDING A MESSAGE, The word for "preaching" properly means "heralding going forth to make a royal proclamation. Explain the work of the Eastern herald. He would go through the land, and, wherever he could find people, deliver the king"s message. We need a fuller and worthier impression of the gospel, as the royal proclamation of the King of kings, entrusted to us for delivery to "all the world," to "every creature.
II HERALDING WORK AS TEMPORARY. It is done when the message is declared and delivered. The herald as a herald has no more to do there; he must pass on his way. There is abundant work left behind for others to do; but his is over. And we are told that the gospel heralds will not have gone all over the world when the kingdom shall come. So we need fear no lack of work for missionaries and heralds.
III HERALD"S DUTY TO FIND REGIONS BEYOND. A glance at the map of our world will show what vast masses of mankind have never heard of the true God, the redeeming Son, and the eternal life. We rejoice that, especially in Africa and China, the Christian Church is showing that it keeps the true missionary idea, and is ever reaching out to "regions beyond. R.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain 16. To preach the gospel … beyond you. Where…
16. To preach the gospel … beyond you. Where no man has yet preached.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain so as to preach the gospel even unto the…
so as to preach the gospel even unto the parts beyond you, and not to glory in another's province in regard of things ready to our hand . [Though God gave us so vast a bishopric, we indeed filled so much of it as to reach you. We were not so much smaller than this bishopric which God gave to us, that we had to stretch ourselves to cover it. To make a show of covering our territory we did not need to take possession of other men's labors and claim the fruits of their ministry, as though they wrought as our agents. If we had done this, we would indeed be glorying beyond our measure. But thus far (i. e., as far as unto you) we have covered the province assigned to us and we have hope that as your faith groweth, and ye become subject to Christ through being subject to his true ministers, we ourselves shall grow and be magnified so that we shall more nearly attain to the magnitude of our great province. At present your vacillation and infidelity confine our labors to you. Having taken you as a fortress for Christ, we can not leave you assailed by Satan and half surrendered to him. When you are again established in the faith I expect to go on into Italy and into Spain, and do work in those parts of my province which lie far beyond you. It is no part of my plan or intention to take possession of some other man's labor and glory in it, as you false leaders have done by coming to Corinth and taking possession of the church which I left there ready to your hand.]
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.