BIBLE STUDY --- NEW TESTAMENT LETTERS

2 CORINTHIANS --- PART 1

AUTHOR

The apostle Paul is the acknowledged author of 2 Corinthians. While some scholars argue that 2 Corinthians 2:14–7:4 and 10–13 are separate letters, only in the case of 6:14–7:1 is Paul’s authorship disputed. This section is admittedly a strange digression, but stranger still would be the thought that an editor could have inserted it in such an unusual place. Also, the repetition of thought in 7:2 from 6:13 indicates that Paul is aware that he has digressed from his topic and is repeating a phrase to bring his readers back to the subject.

DATE AND ORIGIN

After writing both the “previous letter” {1 Corinthians 5:9} and 1 Corinthians from Ephesus in AD 55, Paul continued to work there. Sometime during the next year, a crisis arose in Corinth. Paul made a quick trip across the Aegean Sea, but he could not resolve the crisis, and due to the personal opposition of a leader in the church {likely an interloper bearing letters of recommendation from Jerusalem}, he had to withdraw {2 Corinthians 2:1, 5}. Returning to Ephesus from this “painful visit,” Paul dispatched Titus with a blistering “letter of tears,” his third letter to that church {2 Corinthians 2:4; 7:8, 12}, which led to the excommunication of the leader and the repentance of the church. This letter has been lost. Meanwhile a situation erupted in Ephesus during which death {probably execution} seemed so certain that Paul despaired of life {see Acts 19:23-41; cf. Romans 16:4; 2 Corinthians 1:8-9}. Paul was not killed, but his escape seemed miraculous. Leaving Ephesus in early AD 56, Paul travelled north to Troas seeking Titus and news of Corinth. Unable to endure without news, he abandoned a promising mission in Troas and sailed to Philippi. There he met Titus, who explained the change of heart in Corinth. Second Corinthians 1–9 responds to this situation, with chapters 8–9 preparing the Corinthians for an upcoming visit. Later Paul received further news from Corinth that renewed opposition to him was present. In response he penned the self-defence found in 2 Corinthians 10–13. Paul followed up the letter with a visit later in the year {Acts 20:2-3}. We do not know the response to 2 Corinthians or the outcome of his final visit, but later the troubled history of the Corinthian church continued, with another Christian leader needing to write a letter at the end of the century {Epistle of Clement}.

BACKGROUND

The Corinthian house churches always had great diversity. While those who liked Apollos undoubtedly despised Paul’s crude style, others who preferred Peter likely appealed beyond Paul to the more genuine “original” apostles in Jerusalem with their Jewish customs {1 Corinthians 1}. Traveling teachers with letters of commendation from these apostles easily drew a following when they came to Corinth and undermined Paul’s authority and even his character. Furthermore, because of this outside influence, the collection for the poor in Jerusalem that Paul had initiated {16:1-4} was left in abeyance, both because it was connected to Paul and because the teachers themselves were taking money from the church. Paul writes to reaffirm his love and to repair the damage caused by the interloper.

PURPOSE AND TEACHING

In the first section of the letter, Paul has two main purposes. The first is to cement his restored relationship with Corinth, explaining situations, forgiving those who opposed him, and reflecting on the nature of ministry. For Paul, ministry meant both intense suffering and comfort. Physical and emotional suffering came from the situations and people he worked with, but his knowledge of future reward and his experience of the power of YHVH working in him brought profound joy and comfort. Due to his own recent brush with death, Paul also reflects on what happens at death. His expectation is to receive a resurrection body and be in the presence of Yeshua at death. The second purpose of this section is to get the collection for Jerusalem on track again. In this context he gives major teaching on giving and the Christian economics: The believers are to follow the Moshiach in giving freely; economic equality is the principle governing who gives to whom. The second section of the letter is an impassioned self-defence, refuting the interloper’s claims to superiority. Neither oratory nor pedigree counts in the Christian ministry, but only the call of YHVH. In both sections one observes Paul’s deep desire for the unity of the church, both unity within the local community and unity with leaders appointed by YHVH, such as Paul.

CONTENT

GREETING, 1:1-7

A standard greeting {2 Corinthians 1:1-2} comes before Paul’s usual thanksgiving {verses 3-7}. The topic of the thanksgiving -- comfort in the midst of suffering -- is the topic of chapters 1–7. Paul knows what it is to suffer, but it is in suffering that he has experienced YHVH’s comfort, which he passes on to the Corinthians.

PAUL’S EXPLANATION, 1:8–2:13

Paul informs them of the danger he had suffered in Ephesus, one so great that he did not believe he would survive. His eventual survival seemed like a virtual resurrection, reinforcing his conviction that YHVH, not human strength, is the only Christian refuge {1:8-11}. In that and in all situations, Paul’s one boast is that of a clear conscience before YHVH {verses 12-14}. Paul had told them of plans for a double visit {cf. 1 Corinthians 16:5-6}, but except for his brief “painful visit,” he had not fulfilled his plan {2 Corinthians 1:15–2:4}. He defends himself from charges of either not planning in the Spirit or hypocritical vacillation. He was indeed as good as his word {cf. James 5:12}, for his life reflected YHVH’s fulfilled promise in Yeshua, but he had changed plans so as not to repeat the “painful visit” of the previous year. It was love, not fickleness, that motivated the delayed visit. The Corinthians had responded to Paul’s “letter of tears” by excommunicating the person who had opposed Paul {not the same person as in 1 Corinthians 5}. Since the person became repentant, Paul called for his restoration to the community, freely and graciously forgiving the man who had hurt him. Excommunication is for the unrepentant; its purpose is complete once the person repents {2 Corinthians 2:5-11}. Paul then recounted his journey from Ephesus to Philippi, when he sought news of the response to the “letter of tears” {2:12-13}. After telling how he left an opportunity to minister in Troas to go to find Titus in Philippi, he breaks the narrative with a long digression.

NATURE OF APOSTOLIC MINISTRY, 2:14–7:4

The apostolic ministry in which Paul took part is like the ministry of Yeshua, one of suffering and glory. Even in suffering there is triumph in the Moshiach, for believers share the Moshiach’s triumph. Yet just like the perfumes of a Roman triumph were joy to the victors but meant death for prisoners on their way to execution, so Yeshua’ triumph is life to the believer and death to the unbeliever {2:14-17}. This triumph may have sounded like a boast, but Paul is not engaging in self-exaltation. Indeed, he has no need of the letters of commendation that the interloper in Corinth carried from Jerusalem, for the Corinthians are themselves the proof of his ministry {3:1-3}. His boast is not in himself but in the new Covenant in the Spirit, which unlike the old Covenant is not fading {here Paul follows one Jewish interpretation of Exodus 34:29-35, that Moses put the veil over his face so the people would not see the glory fade}, nor does it veil the presence of YHVH. The new Covenant is permanent; it reveals YHVH directly in the Spirit. There is no deceit or hiddenness, for the message is not about Paul but about Yeshua, who is light itself {2 Corinthians 3:4–4:6}. Paul the messenger, however, is simply the cheap, breakable pot that contains the priceless treasure, revealing by way of contrast that the only power in the gospel is YHVH’s power. This contrast of weakness and power is seen in the sufferings of the apostle, a type of living death modelled after the sufferings of Yeshua, out of which the life of Yeshua flows to others {4:7-15}. Therefore, despite intense suffering, Paul has courage, for he looks beyond this life to the rewards of the coming life. His whole motivation is one of faith, not sight, for he lives already for unseen realities {4:16-18}. When he dies, Paul expects to receive an eternal resurrection body. His hope is not of becoming a disembodied soul {“naked”} but of passing immediately into a glorified bodily life, already guaranteed by the presence of the Spirit. This hope was likely the fruit of his near brush with death in Ephesus, when he must have meditated and prayed about what would come at death {5:1-5}. Because this future includes the Moshiach’s judgment, Paul wanted to make every effort to live in the light of that judgment, which he already saw by faith {verses 6-10}. Far from trying to commend or exalt himself, Paul was simply presenting what he was -- a person filled with the love of the Moshiach and convinced that all should live not for themselves but for the Moshiach {5:11-15}. No one should be valued from a merely human point of view, not Paul, nor even the Moshiach {for Paul before his conversion had a human opinion of the Moshiach that his conversion had radically changed}; everyone should be valued from the point of view of the new creation. Paul’s job was simply to announce the reconciliation of the new creation, which YHVH has already affected on his side and which only awaits a person’s ratification on the human side {5:16-20}. Paul, then, was a co-worker with YHVH, announcing salvation, using every means consistent with YHVH’s character to proclaim the message, and suffering everything imaginable to demonstrate the extent of YHVH’s love {6:1-10}. Therefore, Paul had nothing against the Corinthians. If there was any blockage in their relationship with him, it must be on their side {6:11-13}.

DIGRESSION ON PURITY, 6:14–7:1

Perhaps suspecting that the real block in the relationship was their love of the world, or that the Corinthians might not be totally over the problems mentioned in 1 Corinthians, Paul digressed into a discussion about the purity and sanctification of believers. There are two groups, light and darkness, the Moshiach and the devil, believers and unbelievers. Therefore, as Exodus 25:8, Leviticus 26:11-12, Isaiah 52:11, Ezekiel 37:27, and Hosea 1:10 show {phrases from these passages flow into each other in a style of chain quotation familiar to Jews}, The believers should not be closely bound to unbelievers in marriage or in business, for it will affect their moral purity.

RETURN TO THE NATURE OF THE APOSTOLIC MINISTRY, 7:2-4

Picking up from 6:13, Paul points out that the Corinthians have nothing substantial against him. He is not criticizing but simply appealing to them in love; even now he is prepared to die for them.

EXPLANATION CONCLUDED, 7:5-16

Having concluded his digression, Paul now returns to his journey, which he left in 2:13. When he met Titus, he received good news about Corinth. He was relieved that his “letter of tears” had been effective, not in simply making them sorry but in bringing them to true repentance that yielded zeal, moral purity, and joy. Furthermore, their behaviour toward Titus had been so impressive that Titus’s enthusiastic report of his own impressions had further cheered Paul.