In whom the god of this age has blinded the minds of them who believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
All Commentaries on 2 Corinthians 4:4 Go To 2 Corinthians 4
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not. Who is meant by the "god of this world?" (1.) Marcion, according to Chrysostom, inferred that there is a certain god, just but not good, who was the creator of the world. (2.) The Manicheans reply that it is the devil, and that he was the creator of the world and of matter in general. (3) Chrysostom, Anselm, Theodoret, and Theophylact make the sentence run: God, i.e, true God, hath blinded the minds of the unbelievers of this world; or God, the true God, the author and maker of the world, hath blinded the minds of them that believe not. (4.) Å’cumenius and S. Thomas say: The God of this world is the devil, who is the god of worldly men, not by having created them, but in the way of wickedness, example, power, and suggestion. This seems the simplest explanation; for S. Paul does not call him God simply, but the God of this world, i.e, of worldly men, who prefer the perishing things of time to the realities of eternity. Cf. Ephesians 6:12. (5.) S. Thomas also says: "The God of this world is mammon, or the power and pomp that men of the world make their chief good and set up as their god." Cf. Philippians 3:19.
Them which believe not. The construction is a Hebraism. The Gospel is hidden in the case of unbelievers who perish, in whom i.e, of whom, the God of this world hath blinded the minds.
Lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ . . . should shine unto them. The Greek word αυ̉γὴ, from which the verb here is derived, denotes, say Chrysostom and Theophylact, a faint light and foreshine of clear light, i.e, of the brightness of the Divine glory which will be revealed in heaven. As the dawn and the morning star precede the sun, so does faith in this life, like a morning star, go before the brightness of the si ht of the Beatific Vision. Cf. 2 Peter 1:19. The Gospel is called the "Gospel of the glory of Christ," or the "glorious Gospel of Christ," because by it Christ is glorified.
Who is the image of God. (1.) This is strictly true of the Song of Solomon , who proceeds from the Father as His image. (2.) The Son is called the image of the Father, because He is begotten by Him in such a way that He is most like to the Father, and most perfectly represents Him. He is the Word of God or the Wisdom of God, in whom the Father beholds His own Wisdom mirrored. "Word," however, stands for a concept of the mind, and is an image of the thought of the mind, and so He is distinguished from the Holy Spirit, who, though He perfectly resembles the Father, yet is not this by the mere fact of His procession; for by that He is merely the bond of union in will and love between the Father and the Son. (3.) The Son is the image of the Father by reason of His Divine Essence, inasmuch as He has received It from the Father. For, since He has received It from the Father, He is in reality diverse in Person, just as an image is diverse from its original. Moreover, since He has received His Essence from the father, He is most like to Him, and in all things represents Him.
Observe the depth of the Apostle"s statements. The world receives the light of faith from the Apostles, they from Christ, in the same way that Moses received it from an angel representing Christ; Christ from the Father, in the same way that light proceeds from light, and a ray from the sun.
