For I fear, lest, when I come, I shall not find you such as I wish, and that I shall be found unto you such as you desire not: lest there be debates, envyings, wraths, strifes, backbitings, whisperings, conceit, tumults:
All Commentaries on 2 Corinthians 12:20 Go To 2 Corinthians 12
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
I fear . . . lest there be wraths. θυμός with the Greeks that part of the mind which is called the irascible faculty, placed by Plato in the heart, and opposed to reason, which has for its seat the brain. Thence the word is applied to angry quarrellings, audacious arrogance, irascible conduct, when a man will not give up his opinion, but clings to it obstinately, and hotly opposes others, to show his spirit. Such actions spring from the irascible faculty when it is unchecked.
Whisperings. Secret and hidden attacks made by the malevolent on those they wish to bring into odium, or when they wish to sever friendships. Such a "whisperer" was Antipater, the son of Herod, who, that he might succeed his father, tried to make his elder brothers suspected by their father, that he might put them to death; but a just Nemesis overtook him, for he was himself put to death by Herod, as Josephus relates at length.
Swellings.—Pride and arrogance, which, as it were, puff up those they take possession of.
