§ 1.
But whereas they urge that Paul in the 2nd to the Corinthians expressly said, In whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of the unbelieving:1 and affirm that the God of this world is one, and He another, Who is over all principality, and beginning, and power:2 it is not our fault, if those, who say they know the mysteries that are higher than God, have not the skill so much as to read Paul. For should any one (according to Paul’s custom of using transpositions3, as we have proved also elsewhere from many instances) read as follows: In which God: then making a slight distinction and a moderate pause, should read what remains together, and as being all one, He hath blinded the minds of the unbelieving of this world, he will find it true, the saying coming to this: God hath blinded the minds of the unbelieving of this world. And this is shewn by the punctuation. For Paul saith not, “The God of this world,” as though he knew of some other above Him; but God indeed he hath confessed to be God, but of the unbelieving of this world he saith, that they shall not inherit the future age of incorruption. But how God blinded the minds of them which believe not, we will shew from Paul himself in the progress of our discourse, that we may not at present call away our attention to a distance from the subject in hand.
§ 2.
Now that the Apostle does often use Transpositions,4 through the rapidity of his discourses, and the vehemency of the Spirit that is in him, we may ascertain, as from many other passages,5 so particularly in that to the Galatians, where he says, What then doth the Law of actions? It was settled, until the seed come, to which the promise was made, ordained by Angels in the hand of a Mediator. For the connexion is thus made out: What then doth the Law of actions? Ordained by Angels, it was settled in the hand of a Mediator, until the seed come, to which the promise was made.
And again in the second to the Thessalonians he saith,6 speaking of Antichrist, And then shall the Wicked One be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus Christ shall slay with the spirit of His Mouth, and He shall destroy with the presence of His coming, him whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders. For here too the connexion of the words is this: And then shall the Wicked One be revealed, whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power, and signs, and lying wonders: whom the Lord Jesus Christ shall slay with the Spirit of His Mouth, and destroy with the Presence of His Coming. For it is not the Coming of our Lord, which he affirms to take place after the working of Satan, but the coming of the Wicked One, whom we also call AntiChrist. Except then you pay attention to the manner of reading, and mark clearly the intervals for breathing, in the statement, the expression will not only be absurd, but blasphemous, you reading as though the coming of the Lord were according to the working of Satan.
As therefore in such places the transposition should be indicated by the way of reading, and the sense of the Apostle kept consistent with itself, so in the other place too we read not the God of this world, but God, Whom we truly call God; but concerning the unbelieving and blinded ones of this world we shall understand him to say, that they shall not inherit the coming age of life.