8 I am sending him to you for this very purpose, that he may know your circumstances and comfort your hearts,
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
That he might know your estate - Instead of ἱνα γνῳ τα περι ὑμων, that He may know Your affairs, ABD*FG, many others, with the Ethiopic, Itala, Theodoret, and Damascenus, read ἱνα γνωτε τα περι ἡμων, that Ye may know Our affairs; which is probably the true reading. Tychicus was sent to them, not to know their affairs, but with Onesimus, to carry this epistle and make the apostle's state known to them, and comfort their hearts by the good news which he brought. The next verse confirms this meaning.
Whom I have sent unto you for the same purpose,.... That is, to relate to them his affairs both temporal and spiritual; and also,
that he might know your estate. The Arabic version renders it, "that I may know your estate" by him when he returned again; as whether they continued steadfast in the Gospel, and observed the order, ordinances, and discipline of it; how it prospered, and was succeeded among them, to their comfort and edification, and to the conversion of others; and what reception the false teachers had among them; and what love, concord, and harmony were among themselves; or what were their afflictions and distresses from their enemies. The Ethiopic version renders it, "that ye may know the history of me"; which agrees with a manuscript mentioned by Grotius, which reads, "that ye may know the things concerning us", as does the Alexandrian copy; and with Ephesians 6:22 where it is added, as here, and "comfort your hearts"; who might be greatly cast down upon hearing of the sufferings of the apostle, and also with those they themselves endured both from within and from without, from sin, Satan, and the world;
see on Gill Ephesians 6:22.
for the same purpose--Greek, "for this very purpose."
that he might know your estate--Translate, "that he may know your state": answering to Colossians 4:7. So one very old manuscript and Vulgate read. But the oldest manuscripts and the old Latin versions, "that YE may know OUR state." However, the latter reading seems likely to have crept in from Ephesians 6:22. Paul was the more anxious to know the state of the Colossians, on account of the seductions to which they were exposed from false teachers; owing to which he had "great conflict for" them (Colossians 2:1).
comfort your hearts--distressed as ye are by my imprisonment, as well as by your own trials.
*More commentary available at chapter level.