My defense. Apart from the principal matter that he has at present in hand, it appears also to have been his intention to beat down, in passing, the calumnies of those who clamored against his call, as if he had been one of the ordinary class of ministers. "I am accustomed," says he, "to put you forward as my shield, in the event of any one detracting from the honor of my Apostleship." Hence it follows, that the Corinthians are injurious and inimical to themselves, if they do not acknowledge him as such, for if their faith was a solemn attestation of Paul's Apostleship, and his defense, against slanderers, the one could not be invalidated without the other falling along with it. Where others read -- those who interrogate me, I have rendered it -- those that examine me -- for he refers to those who raised a dispute as to his Apostleship. [1] Latin writers, I confess, speak of a criminal being interrogated [2] according to the laws, but the meaning of the word anakrinein which Paul makes use of, seemed to me to be brought out better in this way.

Footnotes

1 - "Ceux qui vouloyent mettre en debat son Apostolat, et le contreroller, comme on dit;" -- "Those who were desirous to bring his Apostleship into dispute, and overhale it, as they say."

2 - The expression is made use of by Suetonius. (Aug. 33.) Reum ita fertur interrogasse. He is said to have interrogated the criminal in such a manner.) -- Ed.

Mine answer - Greek Ἡ ἐμὴ ἀπολογία Hē emē apologia. My "apology;" my defense. The same word occurs in Acts 22:1; Acts 25:16; 2-Corinthians 7:11; Philippians 1:7, Philippians 1:17; 2-Timothy 4:16; 1-Peter 3:15; see the note at Acts 22:1. Here it means his answer, or defense against those who sat in judgment on his claims to be an apostle.
To them that do examine me. - To those who "inquire" of me; or who "censure" and condemn me as not having any claims to the apostolic office. The word used here ἀνακρίνω anakrinō is properly a forensic term, and is usually applied to judges in courts; to those who sit in judgment, and investigate and decide in litigated cases brought before them; Luke 23:14; Acts 4:9; Acts 12:19; Acts 24:8. The apostle here may possibly allude to the arrogance and pride of those who presumed to sit as judges on his qualification for the apostolic office. It is not meant that this answer had been given by Paul before this, but that this was the defense which he had to offer.
Is this - This which follows; the statements which are made in the following verses. In these statements (1-Corinthians 9:4-6, etc.) he seems to have designed to take up their objections to his apostolic claims one by one, and to show that they were of no force.

Mine answer to them - Ἡ εμη απολογια τοις εμε ανακρινουσιν· This is my defense against those who examine me. The words are forensic; and the apostle considers himself as brought before a legal tribunal, and questioned so as to be obliged to answer as upon oath. His defense therefore was this, that they were converted to God by his means. This verse belongs to the two preceding verses.

(3) Mine answer to them that do (c) examine me is this,
(3) He adds this by the way, as if he should say, "So far it is off, that you may doubt of my apostleship, that I use it to refute those who call it into controversy, by opposing those things which the Lord has done by me among you."
(c) Which like judges examine me and my doings.

Mine answer to them that do examine me is this. These words are referred by some to the following, as if the apostle's answer lay in putting the questions he does in the next verses; but they rather seem to belong to the preceding, and the meaning to be this, that when any persons called in question his apostleship, and examined him upon that head, what he thought fit to say in answer to them, and in defence of himself, was by referring them to the famous church at Corinth, who were as particular persons, and as a church, his work in the Lord, and everyone of them as so many seals of his apostleship; he being the first preacher of the Gospel to them, the founder of them as a church, and the instrument of their conversion.

to them that . . . examine me--that is, who call in question mine apostleship.
is this--namely, that you are the seal of mine apostleship.

Have we not power to eat and to drink? To live at the charges of the churches we have founded?
Have we not power to lead about a sister, etc.? Peter (Cephas) was a married man. Other apostles had wives. Had Paul no right to have a wife? The answer is that he had this liberty as well as others if he had chosen to use it.
Brethren of the Lord. Luke 6:15; Galatians 1:19.
Or have Barnabas and I only, etc. He and Barnabas worked with their own hands to sustain themselves while preaching. Others were sustained. Had not they the same right? He next shows that they had the right by various illustrations.

My answer to them who examine me - Concerning my apostleship. Is this - Which I have now given.