1 Corinthians 16:5

5 I am coming to visit you after I have been to Macedonia, for I am planning to travel through Macedonia.

1 Corinthians 16:5 Meaning and Commentary

1 Corinthians 16:5

Now I will come unto you
Which he again assures them of, as being his real intention and design; though some had given out that he would not come to them any more, and hoped they should never see him any more; see ( 1 Corinthians 4:18 1 Corinthians 4:19 ) .

When I shall pass through Macedonia;
hereby fixing the time when he intended to visit them after he had gone through that country, and had received their collections for the saints at Jerusalem, which the churches there so generously made, and pressed him to the ministering of, of which he speaks in his next epistle.

For I do pass through Macedonia;
not that he was then passing through Macedonia, or was in it, and so at Philippi, from whence this epistle is said to be written, as the subscription at the end of it expresses, for he was now at Ephesus; see ( 1 Corinthians 16:8 ) and from thence was this epistle written; he was not in Macedonia till some time after, see ( 2 Corinthians 2:12 2 Corinthians 2:13 ) but the sense is, that he should take his tour through Macedonia; and so the Vulgate Latin version renders it, "for I shall pass through Macedonia"; and so coming into Greece, he intended to come to Corinth, and stay some time with them.

1 Corinthians 16:5 In-Context

3 When I come, I will write letters of recommendation for the messengers you choose to deliver your gift to Jerusalem.
4 And if it seems appropriate for me to go along, they can travel with me.
5 I am coming to visit you after I have been to Macedonia, for I am planning to travel through Macedonia.
6 Perhaps I will stay awhile with you, possibly all winter, and then you can send me on my way to my next destination.
7 This time I don’t want to make just a short visit and then go right on. I want to come and stay awhile, if the Lord will let me.

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. Macedonia was in the northern region of Greece.
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