What Does 2 Corinthians 12:17 Mean in the King James?
Did I make a gain of you by any of them whom I sent unto you?
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The phrase “make a gain” asks whether anyone used the trust carried by a messenger to get more for themselves.
THE MEANING
The question reaches any moment when trust is mediated through another person: did that access become a way to take more from you? A sender’s good name does not settle the question; the verse examines how that access is used.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A trusted sender or messenger does not, by that role alone, prove that no one is taking advantage of you.
THE ROOT
ἐπλεονέκτησα
epleonektēsa
GROWS FROM
πλέον + ἔχω (pleon + echō)
to have more; to seek or take more than one’s share
The verb translated “make a gain” comes from the idea of having more. It gives the question an edge: did sending someone become a way to take more from the people who received them?
ALSO GROWS
pleonektēs: a person who wants more; a greedy or exploitative person
πλεονέκτης
This names the person shaped by the same more-taking impulse the question is testing.
pleonexia: greed; desire to have more
πλεονεξία
This names the appetite behind taking advantage, exposing the desire that can hide beneath a trusted role.
THE PATTERN
Trust and service are tested by whether they become a way to take from another or to give for another’s good.
Rob not the poor, because he is poor: neither oppress the afflicted in the gate:That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter: because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified.For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.THE THREAD
Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.This verse uses the same Greek verb translated “get an advantage,” carrying the same sense of gaining more at another’s expense. The question here tests whether access through a messenger became a means of taking; the connected verse shows that same taking-more pattern from the other side.
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