To preach the gospel in the regions beyond you, and not to boast in another man's field of things made ready to our hand.
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Ambrosiaster
AD 400
What Paul wants is to preach the gospel to those to whom the message has not yet been given, so that God will be glorified by his labor. Commentary on Paul’s Epistles.
Not to boast in another man"s line. I do not meddle with the bounds, the provinces, and districts measured out and assigned, or occupied by other Apostles, so as to enter into things got ready by others, and to boast of other men"s labours as if they were mine. He calls "made ready to his hand" those regions which had already received the Gospel from others; he refuses to seize upon the tilled fields of others, but rather chooses to be the first to plant the faith in any place he goes to. Cf. Romans 15:20.
The Greek κανών denotes the measuring-line of surveyors. Here the Apostle calls all those regions measured out to him, as it were, by God his rule. This "rule" he was daily extending, from his desire to preach everywhere; "as though," says Chrysostom, "he had come into possession of the earth and a fat inheritance." "Paul was," says Theophylact, "like a builder of the world, measuring it by his rule and building accordingly." The Greek κανών stands also for the builder"s ...
The words, measure, rule 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) _
