Text -- 2 Corinthians 3:18 (NET)

3:18 And we all, with unveiled faces reflecting the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another, which is from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per phrase)

Robertson: 2Co 3:18

We all ( hēmeis pantes ).

All of us Christians, not merely ministers.

Robertson: 2Co 3:18

With unveiled face ( anakekalummenōi prosōpōi ).

Instrumental case of manner. Unlike and like Moses.

Robertson: 2Co 3:18

Reflecting as in a mirror ( katoptrizomenoi ).

Present middle participle of katoptrizō , late verb from katoptron , mirror (kata , optron , a thing to see with). In Philo ( Legis Alleg. iii. 33) the word means beholding as in a mirror and that idea suits also the figure in 1Co 13:12. There is an inscription of third century b.c. with egkatoptrisasthai eis to hudōr , to look at one’ s reflection in the water. Plutarch uses the active for mirroring or reflecting and Chrysostom takes it so here. Either makes good sense. The point that Paul is making is that we shall not lose the glory as Moses did. But that is true if we keep on beholding or keep on reflecting (present tense). Only here in N.T.

Robertson: 2Co 3:18

Are transformed ( metamorphoumetha ).

Present passive (are being transformed) of metamorphoō , late verb and in papyri. See note on Mat 17:2; Mar 9:2 where it is translated "transfigured."It is the word used for heathen mythological metamorphoses.

Robertson: 2Co 3:18

Into the same image ( tēn autēn eikona ).

Accusative retained with passive verb metamorphoumetha . Into the likeness of God in Christ (1Co 15:48-53; Rom 8:17, Rom 8:29; Col 3:4; 1Jo 3:2).

Robertson: 2Co 3:18

As from the Lord the Spirit ( kathaper apo Kuriou pneumatos ).

More likely, "as from the Spirit of the Lord."

Vincent: 2Co 3:18

All

Contrasted with Moses as the sole representative of the people.

Vincent: 2Co 3:18

Open ( ἀνακεκαλυμμένῳ )

Rev., correctly, unveiled , as Moses when the veil was removed.

" Vainly they tried the deeps to sound

E'en of their own prophetic thought,

When of Christ crucified and crown'd

His Spirit in them taught:

But He their aching gaze repress'd

Which sought behind the veil to see,

For not without us fully bless'd

Or perfect might they be.

The rays of the Almighty's face

No sinner's eye might then receive

Only the meekest man found grace

To see His skirts and live.

But we as in a glass espy

The glory of His countenance,

Not in a whirlwind hurrying by

The too presumptuous glance,

But with mild radiance every hour

From our dear Savior's face benign

Bent on us with transforming power,

Till we, too, faintly shine.

Sprinkled with His atoning blood

Safely before our God we stand,

As on the rock the prophet stood,

Beneath His shadowing hand."

Keble , " Christian Year ," Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity .

Vincent: 2Co 3:18

Beholding as in a glass ( κατοπτριζόμενοι )

So American Rev. Rev., reflecting . Only here in the New Testament. The verb in the active voice means to show in a mirror ; to cause to be reflected . In the middle voice, to took at or behold one's self in a mirror . Rev., reflecting seems to be preferred on internal grounds, as better suiting the comparison with the divine glory as mirrored in the unveiled face of Moses. But this is unwarranted by usage. Stanley, who adopts this rendering, admits that there is no actual instance of the sense of reflecting . This sense, however, is not sacrificed by the translation beholding , but is conveyed by the succeeding clause, changed into the same image , etc. As Heinrici observes, beholding expresses the fact from which the process of change into God's image proceeds. When Moses beheld Jehovah's glory, his own face reflected that glory. The mirror is the Gospel, which is called the Gospel of the glory of Christ , 2Co 4:4.

Vincent: 2Co 3:18

Are changed ( μεταμορφούμεθα )

Rev., transformed . See on Mat 17:2. The present tense expresses the change as in progress ; are being changed , which is further defined by from glory to glory .

Vincent: 2Co 3:18

The same image ( τὴν αὐτὴν εἰκόνα )

See on Rev 13:14. Compare especially 1Jo 3:2; also Rom 8:29; Joh 17:24; Col 3:4; Rom 8:17; 1Co 15:48-53.

Vincent: 2Co 3:18

By the Spirit of the Lord ( ἀπὸ Κυρίου πνεύματος )

Better, as Rev., from the Lord the Spirit . Compare 2Co 3:17. The preposition ἀπό from depicts the transformation as proceeding from rather than as caused by .

Wesley: 2Co 3:18

In the mirror of the gospel.

Wesley: 2Co 3:18

His glorious love.

Wesley: 2Co 3:18

Into the same love. From one degree of this glory to another, in a manner worthy of his almighty Spirit. What a beautiful contrast is here! Moses saw the glory of the Lord, and it rendered his face so bright, that he covered it with a veil; Israel not being able to bear the reflected light. We behold his glory in the glass of his word, and our faces shine too; yet we veil them not, but diffuse the lustre which is continually increasing, as we fix the eye of our mind more and more steadfastly on his glory displayed in the gospel.

JFB: 2Co 3:14-18

Parenthetical: Of Christians in general. He resumes the subject of the ministry, 2Co 4:1.

JFB: 2Co 3:14-18

Greek, "mental perceptions"; "understandings."

JFB: 2Co 3:14-18

Rather, "hardened." The opposite to "looking steadfastly at the end" of the law (2Co 3:13). The veil on Moses' face is further typical of the veil that is on their hearts.

JFB: 2Co 3:14-18

Rather, "the same veil . . . remaineth untaken away [literally, not unveiled], so that they do not see THAT it (not the veil as English Version, but 'THE OLD TESTAMENT,' or covenant of legal ordinances) is done away (2Co 3:7, 2Co 3:11, 2Co 3:13) in Christ" or, as BENGEL, "Because it is done away in Christ," that is, it is not done away save in Christ: the veil therefore remains untaken away from them, because they will not come to Christ, who does away, with the law as a mere letter. If they once saw that the law is done away in Him, the veil would be no longer on their hearts in reading it publicly in their synagogues (so "reading" means, Act 15:21). I prefer the former.

JFB: 2Co 3:18

Christians, as contrasted with the Jews who have a veil on their hearts, answering to Moses' veil on his face. He does not resume reference to ministers till 2Co 4:1.

JFB: 2Co 3:18

Translate, "with unveiled face" (the veil being removed at conversion): contrasted with "hid" (2Co 4:3).

JFB: 2Co 3:18

In a mirror, namely, the Gospel which reflects the glory of God and Christ (2Co 4:4; 1Co 13:12; Jam 1:23, Jam 1:25).

JFB: 2Co 3:18

Namely, the image of Christ's glory, spiritually now (Rom 8:29; 1Jo 3:3); an earnest of the bodily change hereafter (Phi 3:21). However many they be, believers all reflect the same image of Christ more or less: a proof of the truth of Christianity.

JFB: 2Co 3:18

From one degree of glory to another. As Moses' face caught a reflection of God's glory from being in His presence, so believers are changed into His image by beholding Him.

JFB: 2Co 3:18

Just such a transformation "as" was to be expected from "the Lord the Spirit" (not as English Version, "the Spirit of the Lord") [ALFORD] (2Co 3:17): "who receives of the things of Christ, and shows them to us" (Joh 16:14; Rom 8:10-11). (Compare as to hereafter, Psa 17:15; Rev 22:4).

Clarke: 2Co 3:18

But we all, with open face - The Jews were not able to look on the face of Moses, the mediator of the old covenant, and therefore he was obliged to veil it; but all we Christians, with face uncovered, behold, as clearly as we can see our own natural face in a mirror, the glorious promises and privileges of the Gospel of Christ; and while we contemplate, we anticipate them by desire and hope, and apprehend them by faith, and are changed from the glory there represented to the enjoyment of the thing which is represented, even the glorious image - righteousness and true holiness - of the God of glory

Clarke: 2Co 3:18

As by the Spirit of the Lord - By the energy of that Spirit of Christ which gives life and being to all the promises of the Gospel; and thus we are made partakers of the Divine nature and escape all the corruptions that are in the world. This appears to me to be the general sense of this verse: its peculiar terms may be more particularly explained

The word κατοπτριζομενοι, catoptrizomenoi , acting on the doctrine of catoptries, which we translate beholding in a glass, comes from κατα, against, and οπτομαι, I look; and properly conveys the sense of looking into a mirror, or discerning by reflected light. Now as mirrors, among the Jews, Greeks, and Romans, were made of highly polished metal, (see the note on 1Co 13:12), it would often happen, especially in strong light, that the face would be greatly illuminated by this strongly reflected light; and to this circumstance the apostle seems here to allude. So, by earnestly contemplating the Gospel of Jesus, and believing on him who is its Author, the soul becomes illuminated with his Divine splendor, for this sacred mirror reflects back on the believing soul the image of Him whose perfections it exhibits; and thus we see the glorious form after which our minds are to be fashioned; and by believing and receiving the influence of his Spirit, μεταμορφουμεθα, our form is changed, την αυτην εικονα, into the same image, which we behold there; and this is the image of God, lost by our fall, and now recovered and restored by Jesus Christ: for the shining of the face of God upon us, i.e. approbation, through Christ, is the cause of our transformation into the Divine image

Dr. Whitby, in his notes on this chapters produces six instances in which the apostle shows the Gospel to be superior to the law; I shall transcribe them without farther illustration: -

1.    The glory appearing on mount Sinai made the people afraid of death, saying: Let not God speak to us any more, lest we die; Exo 20:19; Deu 18:16; and thus they received the spirit of bondage to fear, Rom 8:15. Whilst we have given to us the spirit of power, and love, and of a sound mind, 2Ti 1:7; and the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father! and to this difference the Epistle to the Hebrews alludes, Heb 12:18-24

2.    Moses, with all his glory, was only the minister of the law, written on tables of stone; the apostles are ministers of the Gospel, written on the hearts of believers. Moses gave the Jews only the letter that killeth; the apostles gave the Gospel, which is accompanied with the spirit that gives life

3.    The glory which Moses received at the giving of the law did more and more diminish, because his law was to vanish away; but the glory which is received from Christ is an increasing glory; the doctrine and the Divine influence remaining for ever

4.    The law was veiled under types and shadows; but the Gospel has scarcely any ceremonies; baptism and the Lord’ s Supper being all that can be properly called such: and Believe, Love, Obey, the great precepts of the Gospel, are delivered with the utmost perspicuity. And indeed the whole doctrine of Christ crucified is made as plain as human language can make it

5.    The Jews only saw the shining of the face of Moses through a veil; but we behold the glory of the Gospel of Christ, in the person of Christ our Lawgiver, with open face

6.    They saw it through a veil, which prevented the reflection or shining of it upon them; and so this glory shone only on the face of Moses, but not at all upon the people. Whereas the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ, shines as in a mirror which reflects the image upon Christian believers, so that they are transformed into the same image, deriving the glorious gifts and graces of the Spirit, with the Gospel, from Christ the Lord and Distributor of them, 1Co 12:5; and so, the glory which he had from the Father he has given to his genuine followers, Joh 17:22. It is, therefore, rather with true Christians as it was with Moses himself, concerning whom God speaks thus: With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the Lord ( την δοξαν Κυριου, the glory of the Lord) shall he behold; Num 12:8. For as he saw the glory of God apparently, so we with open face behold the glory of the Lord: as he, by seeing of this glory, was changed into the same likeness, and his face shone, or was δεδοξασμενη, made glorious; so we, beholding the glory of the Lord in the face of Jesus Christ, 2Co 4:6, are changed into the same glory

Thus we find that in every thing the Gospel has a decided superiority over the law and its institutions.

Calvin: 2Co 3:18

18.But we all, with unveiled face. I know not how it had come into the mind of Erasmus, to apply to ministers exclusively, what is evidently common to all believers. The word κατοπτριζεσθαι, it is true, has a double signification among the Greeks, for it sometimes means to hold out a mirror to be looked into, and at other times to look into a mirror when presented. ⁴¹⁷ The old interpreter, however, has correctly judged, that the second of these is the more suitable to the passage before us. I have accordingly followed his rendering. ⁴¹⁸ Nor is it without good reason, that Paul has added a term of universality — “ We all, ” says he; for he takes in the whole body of the Church. It is a conclusion that suits well with the doctrine stated previously — that we have in the gospel a clear revelation from God. As to this, we shall see something farther in the fourth chapter.

He points out, however, at the same time, both the strength of the revelation, and our daily progress. ⁴¹⁹ For he has employed such a similitude to denote three things: first, That we have no occasion to fear obscurity, when we approach the gospel, for God there clearly discovers to us His face; ⁴²⁰ secondly, That it is not befitting, that it should be a dead contemplation, but that we should be transformed by means of it into the image of God; and, thirdly, that the one and the other are not accomplished in us in one moment, but we must be constantly making progress both in the knowledge of God, and in conformity to His image, for this is the meaning of the expression — from glory to glory

When he adds, — as by the Spirit of the Lord, he again reminds of what he had said — that the whole excellence of the gospel depends on this, that it is made life-giving to us by the grace of the Holy Spirit. For the particle of comparison — as, is not employed to convey the idea of something not strictly applicable, but to point out the manner. Observe, that the design of the gospel is this — that the image of God, which had been effaced by sin, may be stamped anew upon us, and that the advancement of this restoration may be continually going forward in us during our whole life, because God makes his glory shine forth in us by little and little.

There is one question that may be proposed here. “Paul says, that we behold God’s face with an unveiled face, ⁴²¹ while in the former Epistle we find it stated, that we do not, for the present, know God otherwise than through a mirror, and in an obscure manner.” In these statements there is an appearance of contrariety. They are, however, by no means at variance. The knowledge that we have of God for the present is obscure and slender, in comparison with the glorious view that we shall have on occasion of Christ’s last coming. At the same time, He presents Himself to us at present, so as to be seen by us, and openly beheld, in so far as is for our advantage, and in so far as our capacity admits of. ⁴²² Hence Paul makes mention of progress being made, inasmuch as there will then only be perfection.

Defender: 2Co 3:18

We, like Moses when he entered the tabernacle to speak with God (Exo 34:34), also come into His presence with open (that is, unveiled) faces when we read His Word, which both reveals us for what we are, like a mirror (compare Jam 1:23-25), and also reveals to us the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. In so doing, we (like Moses) can begin to reflect His own image in our lives and even our countenances, from one degree of glory to another. And just as we are changed "from glory to glory," we also receive "grace for grace" (Joh 1:16). Thus, we are gradually being restored to the full image of God in which we were created (Gen 1:26, Gen 1:27), being "renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him" (Col 3:10), for we indeed are predestined "to be conformed to the image of his Son" (Rom 8:29)."

TSK: 2Co 3:18

with : 2Co 3:13

as in : 1Co 13:12; Jam 1:23

the glory : 2Co 4:4, 2Co 4:6; Joh 1:14, Joh 12:41; 1Ti 1:11 *Gr.

are : 2Co 5:17; Rom 8:29, Rom 12:2, Rom 13:14; 1Co 15:49; Gal 6:15; Eph 4:22-24; Col 3:10; Tit 3:5; 2Pe 1:5-9

from : Rom 8:4, Rom 8:7

by the Spirit of the Lord : or, of the Lord the Spirit, 2Co 3:17

Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per Verse)

Barnes: 2Co 3:18

But we all - All Christians. The discussion in the chapter has related mainly to the apostles; but this declaration seems evidently to refer to all Christians, as distinguished from the Jews.

With open face - compare note on 1Co 13:12. Tyndale renders this: "and now the Lord’ s glory appeareth in us all as in a glass."The sense is, "with unveiled face,"alluding to the fact 2Co 3:13 that the face of Moses was veiled, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look on it. In contradistinction from that, Paul says that Christians are enabled to look upon the glory of the Lord in the gospel without a veil - without any obscure intervening medium.

Beholding as in a glass - On the word "glass, and the sense in which it is used in the New Testament, see the note on 1Co 13:12. The word used here κατοπτριζόμενοι katoptrizomenoi has been very variously rendered. Macknight renders it, "we all reflecting as mirrors the glory of the Lord."Doddridge, "beholding as by a glass."Locke, "with open countenances as mirrors, reflecting the glory of the Lord."The word κατοπτρίζω katoptrizō occurs no where else in the New Testament. It properly means to look in a mirror; to behold as in a mirror. The mirrors of the ancients were made of burnished metal, and they reflected images with great brilliancy and distinctness. And the meaning is, that the gospel reflected the glory of the Lord; it was, so to speak, the mirror - the polished, burnished substance in which the glory of the Lord shone, and where that glory was irradiated and reflected so that it might be seen by Christians. There was no veil over it; no obscurity; nothing to break its dazzling splendor, or to prevent its meeting the eye. Christians, by looking on the gospel, could see the glorious perfections and plans of God as bright, and clear, and brilliant as they could see a light reflected from the burnished surface of the mirror. So to speak, the glorious perfections of God shone from heaven; beamed upon the gospel, and were thence reflected to the eye and the heart of the Christian, and had the effect of transforming them into the same image. This passage is one of great beauty, and is designed to set forth the gospel as being "the reflection"of the infinite glories of God to the minds and hearts of people.

The glory of the Lord - The splendor, majesty, and holiness of God as manifested in the gospel, or of the Lord as incarnate. The idea is, that God was clearly and distinctly seen in the gospel. There was no obscurity, no veil, as in the case of Moses. In the gospel they were permitted to look on the full splendor of the divine perfections - the justice, goodness, mercy, and benevolence of God - to see him as he is with undimmed and unveiled glory. The idea is, that the perfections of God shine forth with splendor and beauty in the gospel, and that we are permitted to look on them clearly and openly.

Are changed into the same image - It is possible that there may be an allusion here to the effect which was produced by looking into an ancient mirror. Such mirrors were made of burnished metal, and the reflection from them would be intense. If a strong light were thrown on them, the rays would be cast by reflection on the face of him who looked on the mirror, and it would be strongly illuminated. And the idea may be, that the glory of God, the splendor of the divine perfections, was thrown on the gospel, so to speak like a bright light on a polished mirror; and that that glory was reflected from the gospel on him who contemplated it, so that he appeared to be transformed into the same image. Locke renders it: "We are changed into his very image by a continued succession of glory, as it were, streaming upon us from the Lord."The figure is one of great beauty; and the idea is, that by placing ourselves within the light of the gospel; by contemplating the glory that shines there, we become changed into the likeness of the same glory, and conformed to that which shines there with so much splendor.

By contemplating the resplendent face of the blessed Redeemer, we are changed into something of the same image. It is a law of our nature that we are moulded, in our moral feelings, by the persons with whom we associate, and by the objects which we contemplate. We become insensibly assimilated to those with whom we have social contact, and to the objects with which we are familiar. We imbibe the opinions, we copy the habits, we imitate the manners, we fall into rite customs of those with whom we have daily conversation, and whom we make our companions and friends. Their sentiments insensibly become our sentiments, and their ways our ways. It is thus with the books with which we are familiar. We are insensibly, but certainly moulded into conformity to the opinions, maxims, and feelings which are there expressed. Our own sentiments undergo a gradual change, and we are likened to those with which in this manner we are conversant.

So it is in regard to the opinions and feelings which from any cause we are in the habit of bringing before our minds. It is the way by which people become corrupted in their sentiments and feelings, in their contact with the world; it is the way in which amusements, and the company of the frivolous and the dissipated possess so much power; it is the way in which the young and inexperienced are beguiled and ruined; and it is the way in which Christians dim the luster of their piety, and obscure the brightness of their religion by their contact with the "happy and fashionable world. And it is on the same great principle that Paul says that by contemplating the glory of God in the gospel, we become insensibly, but certainly conformed to the same image, and made like the Redeemer. His image will be reflected on us. We shall imbibe his sentiments, catch his feelings, and be moulded into the image of his own purity. Such is the great and wise law of our nature; and it is on this principle, and by this means, that God designs we should be "made"pure on earth, and "kept"pure in heaven forever.

From glory to glory - From one degree of glory to another. "The more we behold this brilliant and glorious light, the more do we reflect back its rays; that is, the more we contemplate the great truths of the Christian religion, the more do our minds become imbued with its spirit"- Bloomfield. This is said in contradistinction probably to Moses. The splendor on his face gradually died away. But not so with the light reflected from the gospel. It becomes deeper and brighter constantly. This sentinient is parallel to that expressed by the psalmist; "They go from strength to strength"Psa 84:7; that is, they go from one degree of strength to another, or one degree of holiness to another, until they come to the full vision of God himself in heaven. The idea in the phrase before us is; that there is a continual increase of moral purity and holiness under the gospel until it results in the perfect glory of heaven. The "doctrine"is, that Christians advance in piety; and that this is done by the contemplation of the glory of God as it is revealed in the gospel.

As by the Spirit of the Lord - Margin, "Of the Lord of the Spirit."Greek "As from the Lord the Spirit."So Beza, Locke, Wolf, Rosenmuller, and Doddridge render it. The idea is, that it is by the Lord Jesus Christ, the spirit of the law, the spirit referred to by Paul above, 2Co 3:6, 2Co 3:17. It is done by the Holy Spirit procured or imparted by the Lord Jesus. This sentiment is in accordance with that which prevails everywhere in the Bible, that it is by the Holy Spirit alone that the heart is changed and purified. And the "object"of the statement here is, doubtless, to prevent the supposition that the change from "glory to glory"was produced in any sense by the "mere"contemplation of truth, or by any physical operation of such contemplation on the mind. It was by the Spirit of God alone that the heart was changed even under the gospel, and amidst the full blaze of its truth, Were it not for his agency, even the contemplation of the glorious truths of the gospel would be in vain, and would produce no saving effect on the human heart.

Remarks

1. The best of all evidences of a call to the office of the ministry is the divine blessing resting on our labors 2Co 3:1-2. If sinners are converted; if souls are sanctified; if the interests of pure religion are advanced; if by humble, zealous, and self-denying efforts, a man is enabled so to preach as that the divine blessing shall rest constantly on his labors, it is among the best of all evidences that he is called of God, and is approved by him. And though it may be true, and is true, that people who are self-deceived, or are hypocrites, are sometimes the means of doing good, yet it is still true, as a general rule, that eminent, and long-continued success in the ministry is an evidence of God’ s acceptance, and that he has called a minister to this office. Paul felt this, and often appealed to it; and why may not others also?

2. A minister may appeal to the effect of the gospel among his own people as a proof that it is from God, 2Co 3:2-3. Nothing else would produce such effects as were produced at Corinth, but the power of God. If the wicked are reclaimed; if the in temperate and licentious are made temperate and pure; if the dishonest are made honest; and the scoffer learns to pray, under the gospel, it proves that it is from God. To such effects a minister may appeal as proof that the gospel which he preaches is from heaven. A system which will produce these effects must be true.

3. A minister should so live among a people as to be able to appeal to them with the utmost confidence in regard to the purity and integrity of his own character, 2Co 3:1-2. He should so live, and preach, and act, that he will be under no necessity of adducing testimonials from abroad in regard to his character. The effect of his gospel, and the tenor of his life, should be his best testimonial; and to that he should be able to appeal. A man who is under a necesity, constantly, or often, of defending his own character; of bolstering it up by testimonials from abroad; who is obliged to spend much of his time in defending his reputation, or who chooses to spend much of his time in defending it, has usually a character and reputation "not worth defending."Let a man live as he ought to do, and he will, in the end, have a good reputation. Let him strive to do the will of God, and save souls, and he will have all the reputation which he ought to have. God will take care of his character; and will give him just as much reputation as it is desirable that he should have; see Psa 37:5-6.

4. The church is, as it were, an epistle sent by the Lord Jesus, to show his character and will, 2Co 3:3. It is his representative on earth. It holds his truth. It is to imitate his example. It is to show how he lived. And it is to accomplish that which he would accomplish were he personally on earth, and present among people - as a letter is designed to accomplish some important purpose of the writer when absent. The church, therefore, should be such as shall appropriately express the will and desire of the Lord Jesus. It should resemble him. It should hold his truth; and it should devote itself with untiring diligence to the great purpose of advancing his designs, and spreading his gospel around the world.

5. Religion has its seat in the heart, 2Co 3:3. It is engraved there. It is written not with ink, or engraved on stone, but it is written by the Spirit of God on the heart. That professed religion, therefore, which does not reach the heart, and which is not felt there, is false and delusive. There is no true religion which does not reach and affect the heart.

6. We should feel our dependence on God in all things, 2Co 3:5. We are dependent on him:

(1) For revelation itself. Man had no power of originating the truths which constitute revelation. They are the free and pure gift of God.

\caps1 (2) f\caps0 or success in saving souls. God only can change the heart. It is not done by human reasoning; by any power of man; by any eloquence of persuasion. It is by the power of God; and if a minister of religion meets with any success, it will be by the presence and by the power of God alone.

\caps1 (3) w\caps0 e are dependent on him for the power of thought at all; for clearness of intellect; for such a state of bodily health as to permit us to think; for bright conceptions; for ability to arrange our thoughts; for the power of expressing them clearly; for such a state of mind as shall be free from vain fancies, and vagaries, and eccentricities; and for such a state as shall mark our plans as those of common sense and prudence. On such plans much of the comfort of life depends; and on such plans depends also nearly all the success which people ever meet with in any virtuous and honorable calling. And if people "felt,"as they should do, how much they are dependent on God for the power of "clear thinking,"and for the characteristics of sound sense in their schemes, they would pray for it more than they do; and would be more grateful that such a rich blessing is so extensively conferred upon people.

7. Religion has a living power, 2Co 3:6. It is not the letter, but the spirit. It is not made up of forms and ceremonies. It does not consist in cold, external rites, however regular they may be; nor in formal prayer, or in stated seasons of devotion. All these will be dead and vain unless the heart is given to God, and to his service. If these are all, there is no religion. And if we have no better religion than that, we should at once abandon our hopes, and seek for that which does not kill, but which makes alive.

8. The office of the ministers of the gospel is glorious, and most honorable, 2Co 3:7-9. It is "far more"honorable than was the office of Moses; and their work is far more glorious than was his. his consisted in giving the Law on tables of stone; in the external splendor which attended its promulgation; and in introducing a system which must be soon done away. His was a ministry "of death"and of "condemnation."theirs is a ministration by which the Holy Spirit is communicated to people - through them as channels, or organs by which the saving grace of that Spirit is imparted; it is a work by which people are made righteous, justified, and accepted; it is a work whose effects are never to fade away, but which are to live amidst the splendors of heaven.

9. The responsibility and solemnity of the work of the ministry. It was a solemn and responsible work for Moses to give the Law amidst the thunders of Sinai to the children of Israel. It is much more solemn to be the medium by which the eternal truths of the gospel are made known to people. The one, imposing as it was, was designed to be temporary, and was soon to pass away. The other is to be eternal in its effects, and is to enter vitally and deeply into the eternal destiny of man. The one pertained to laws written on stone; the other to influences that are deeply and forever to affect the heart. No work can be more solemn and responsible than that through which the Holy Spirit, with renewing and sanctifying power, is conveyed to man; that which is connected with the justification of sinners; and that which in its effects is to be permanent as the soul itself, and to endure as long as God shall exist.

10. We see the folly of attempting to be justified by the Law, 2Co 3:7, 2Co 3:9. It is the ministration of death and of condemnation. It speaks only to condemn. Law knows nothing of pardon. It is not given for that purpose; and no perfect law can contain within itself provisions for pardon. Besides, no one has ever complied with all the demands of the Law; no one ever will. All have sinned. But if all the demands of the Law be not complied with, it speaks only to condemn, Jam 2:10. If a man in other respects has been ever so good a citizen, and yet has committed murder, he must die. So says the Law. If a man has been ever so valiant, and fought ever so bravely, and yet is guilty of an act of treason, he must die. The question is not what he has been in in other respects, or what else he may, or may not have done, but has he committed This offence? If he has, the Law knows no forgiveness; and pronounces his condemnation. If pardoned, it must be by some other system than by the regular operation of Law. So with the sinner against God. If the Law is violated, it speaks only to condemn. If he is pardoned, it can be only by the gospel of Jesus Christ.

11. The danger of grieving the Holy Spirit, 2Co 3:8. The gospel is the field of the operations of the Holy Spirit in our world. It is the ministration of the Spirit. It is the channel by which his influences descend on man. To reject that gospel is to reject Him, and to cut off the soul from all possibility of being brought under his saving influence and power forever."He strives with people only in connection with the gospel; and all hope, therefore, of being brought under his saving power, is in attending to that gospel, and embracing its provisions. The multitudes, therefore, who are rejecting or neglecting that gospel, are throwing themselves beyond his saving influences; and placing themselves beyond the possibility of salvation.

12. We see the "guilt"of neglecting or rejecting the gospel. It is the scheme, and the only scheme for pardon, 2Co 3:8-10. It is a far more glorious manifestation of the goodness of God than the Law of Moses. It is the glorious and benevolent manifestation of God through the incarnation, the sufferings, and the death of his Son. It is the only plan of pardoning mercy that has been, or that will be revealed. If people are not pardoned through that, they are not pardoned at all. If they are not saved by that, they must die forever. What guilt is there, therefore, in neglecting and despising it! What folly is there in turning away from its provisions of mercy, and neglecting to secure an interest in what it provides!

13. The gospel is to spread around the world, and endure to the end of time, 2Co 3:11. It is not like the institutions of Moses, to endure for a limited period, and then to be done away. The cloud and tempest; the thunder and lightning on Mount Sinai which attended the giving of the Law, soon disappeared. The unusual and unnatural splendor on the countenance of Moses soon vanished away. All the magnificence of the Mosaic ritual also soon faded away. But not so the gospel. That abides. That is the "last"dispensation; the "permanent"economy: that under which the affairs of the world are to be brought to an end. That is to pervade all lands; to bless all people; to survive all revolutions; to outlive all the magnificence of courts, and all the splendor of mighty dynasties, and is to endure until this world shall come to an end, and live in its glorious effects forever and ever. It is, therefore, to be the fixed principle on which all Christians are to act, that the gospel is to be permanent, and is to spread over all lands, and yet fill all nations with joy. And if so, how fervent and unceasing should be their prayers and efforts to accomplish this great and glorious result!

14. We learn from this chapter the duty of preaching in a plain, simple, intelligible manner, 2Co 3:12. Preaching should always be characterised indeed by good sense, and ministers should show that they are not fools, and their preaching should be such as to interest thinking people - for there is no folly or nonsense in the Bible. But their preaching should not be obscure, metaphysical, enigmatical, and abstruse. It should be so simple that the unlettered may learn the plan of salvation; so plain that no one shall mistake it except by his own fault. The "hopes"of the gospel are so clear that there is no need of ambiguity or enigma; no need of abstruse metaphysical reasoning in the "pulpit."Nor should there be an attempt to "appear"wise or profound, by studying a dry, abstruse, and cold style and manner. The preacher should be open, plain, simple, sincere; he should "testify"what he feels; should be able to speak as himself animated by "hope,"and to tell of a world of glory to which he is himself looking forward with unspeakable joy.

15. It is the privilege of the Christian to look on the unveiled and unclouded glory of the gospel, 2Co 3:12-13. He does not look at it through types and shadows. He does not contemplate it when a veil of obscurity is drawn designedly over it. He sees it in its true beauty and splendor. The Messiah has come, and he may contemplate openly and plainly his glory, and the grandeur of his work. The Jews looked upon it in the light of "prophecy;"to us it is history. They saw it only through obscure shadows, types, and figures; we see it in open day, may survey at leisure its full beauty, and contemplate in the fullness of its splendor the gospel of the blessed God. For this we cannot be too thankful; nor can we be too anxious lest we undervalue our privileges, and abuse the mercies that we enjoy.

16. In reading the Old Testament, we see the importance of suffering the reflected light of the New Testament to be thrown upon it, in order correctly to understand it, 2Co 3:13-14. It is our privilege to "know"what the institutions of Moses meant; to see the "end"which he contemplated. And it is our privilege to see what they referred to, and how they prefigured the Messiah, and his gospel. In reading the Old Testament, therefore, there is no reason why we should not take with us the knowledge which we have derived from the New Testament, respecting the character, work, and doctrines of the Messiah; and to suffer them to influence our understanding of the laws and institutions of Moses. Thus shall we treat the Bible "as a whole,"and allow one part to throw light on another - a privilege which we always concede to any book. There is no reason why Christians in reading the Old Testament should remain in the same darkness as the ancient, or the modern Jews.

17. Thus read, the Old Testament will be to us of inestimable value, 2Co 3:14. It is of value not only as introducing the gospel; as furnishing predictions whose fulfillment are full demonstration of the truth of religion; as containing specimens of the sublimest and purest poetry in the world; but it is of value as embodying, though amidst many types and shadows and much obscurity, all the great doctrines of the true religion. Though to the Jews, and to the world, there is a veil cast over it; yet to the Christian there is a beauty and splendor on all its pages - for the coming of Christ has removed that veil, and the sense of those ancient writings is now fully seen. True piety will value the Old Testament, and will find there, in the sweetest poetry in the world, the expression of feelings which the religion of the Messiah only can produce; and pure and elevated thoughts which could have been originated by nothing but his anticipated coming: It is no mark of piety or of wisdom to disparage the Jewish Scriptures. But the higher the attainments in Christian feeling, the more will the writings of Moses and the prophets be loved.

18. People may have the Bible, and may read it for a long time, and often, and yet not understand it, 2Co 3:15. So it was, and is with the Jews. The Scriptures were attentively read by them, and yet they did not understand them. So it is still. There is a veil upon their heart, and they are blinded. So it is often now with others. People often read the Bible and see little beauty in it. They read, and they do not understand it. The reason is, the heart is not right. There should be a correspondence of feeling between the heart and the Bible, or a congeniality of view in order to appreciate its value and its truth. No man can understand or appreciate Milton or Cowper who has not a taste like theirs. No man can understand and appreciate a poem or an essay on patriotism, who is not a lover of his country; or on chastity, who is impure; or on temperance, who is intemperate; or on virtue in general, who is a stranger to virtue in every form. And so in reading the Bible. To appreciate and understand fully the writings of David, Isaiah, Paul, or John, we must have their feelings: our hearts must glow with their love to God and the Redeemer; we must feel as they did the guilt and burden of sin; and we must rejoice as they did in the hope of deliverance, and in the prospect of heaven. Until people have these feelings, they are not to wonder that the Bible is to them a dead letter, or a sealed book, and that they do not understand it, or see any beauty in its pages.

19. This chapter furnishes an argument for the fidelity and truth of the statement of Paul, 2Co 3:15. The argument is, that his description is as applicable to the Jews now as it was in his own time - and that, therefore, it must have been drawn from nature. The same veil is on their hearts now as in his time; there is the same blindness and darkness in regard to the true meaning of their Scriptures. The language of Paul will accurately express that blindness now; and his description, therefore, is not drawn from fancy, but from fact. It is true now in regard to that singular people, and it was true in his own time; and the lapse of 1,800 years (circa 1880’ s) has only served to confirm the truth of his description in regard to the people of his own nation and time.

20. That veil is to be removed only by their turning to God, 2Co 3:16. It is only by true conversion that the mind can be brought to a full and clear understanding of the Scriptures; and that event will yet take place in regard to the Jews. They will still be converted to the Messiah whom their fathers killed, and whom they have so long rejected; and when that event shall occur, they will see the beauty of their own Scriptures, and rejoice in the promises and glorious hopes which they hold out to the view.

21. The duty of "meditating"much on the glory of the gospel, 2Co 3:18. It is by that we are purified. It is by keeping it constantly before the mind; dwelling on it splendor; thinking of its glorious truths, that we become transformed into the same image, and made like God. If the character is formed by the objects which we contemplate, and with which we are familiar; if we are insensibly moulded in our feelings and principles by that with which we constantly associate, then we should "think"much of the truths of the gospel. We should pray much - for thus we come in contact with God and his truth. We should read the Scripture much. We should commune with the good and the pure. We should make our companions of those who most love the Lord Jesus, and most decidedly bear his image. We should think much of a pure heaven. Thus shall we be moulded, insensibly it may be, but certainly, into the image of a holy God and Saviour, and be prepared for a pure and truly heaven.

Poole: 2Co 3:18

Some by we here understand all believers; others think it is better understood of ministers: but the universal particle all rather guideth us to interpret it of the whole body of believers, of whom the apostle saith, that they all behold the glory of God with open face; that is, not under those dark types, shadows, and prophecies, that he was of old revealed under, but as in a looking glass, which represents the face as at hand; not as in a perspective, which showeth things afar off. We behold him in the glass of the gospel, fully opened and preached; and this sight of Christ in the gospel is not a mere useless sight, but such a sight as changeth the soul into the image and likeness of Christ,

from glory to glory carrying on the souls of believers from one degree of grace to another; or making such a glorious change in the heart, as shall not be blotted out until a soul cometh into those possessions of glory which God hath prepared for his people. And all this is done

by the Spirit of the Lord working with the word of God in the mouths of his ministers, but so as the Spirit hath the principal agency and efficiency in the work.

Haydock: 2Co 3:18

We all, beholding, [3] &c. i.e. we who have been called to the faith of Christ, have received a greater knowledge; and we hope and believe to be hereafter transformed into the same image, and to be in some measure like unto God, whom we shall see and enjoy, when we pass from the less glory of grace and sanctification in this life, which is the seed of glory, to the state of a more perfect glory and happiness in heaven, says St. Augustine. (Witham)

===============================

[BIBLIOGRAPHY]

St. Augustine, de gloria fidei in gloriam speciei, de gloria, qua Filii Dei sumus, in gloriam, qua similes ei erimus, quoniam videbimus eum sicuti est.

====================

Gill: 2Co 3:18

But we all with open face,.... We are not like Moses, who had a veil on his face; nor like the Jews, who have one on their hearts: "but we all"; not ministers and preachers of the Gospel only, but all believers, whether Jews or Gentiles, greater or lesser believers, who are enlightened by the Spirit of God, and are converted to Christ: "with open face"; which may regard the object beheld, the glory of Christ unveiled, that has no veil on it, as Moses had on his face, when he delivered the law; or the persons beholding, who are rid of Jewish darkness; the veil of the ceremonial law, and of natural darkness and blindness of mind; and so clearly and fully, comparatively speaking,

beholding as in a glass; not of the law, but of the Gospel, and the ordinances of it; not with the eyes of their bodies, but with the eyes of their understandings, with the eye of faith; which sight is spiritual, delightful, and very endearing; throws a veil over all other objects, and makes souls long to be with Christ: the object beheld is

the glory of the Lord; Jesus Christ: not the glory of his human nature, which lies in its union to the Son of God, and in its names which it has by virtue of it; and in its being the curious workmanship of the Spirit of God, and so is pure and holy, and free from all sin; and was outwardly beautiful and glorious, and is so at the right hand of God, where we see him by faith, crowned with glory and honour; and shall behold him with the eyes of our bodies, and which will be fashioned like to his glorious body; but this sight and change are not yet: rather the glory of his divine nature is meant, which is essential and underived, the same with his Father's; is ineffable, and incomprehensible; it appears in the perfections he is possessed of, and in the worship given to him; it was manifested in the doctrines taught, and in the miracles wrought by him; there were some breakings forth of this glory in his state of humiliation, and were beheld by the apostles, and other believers, who saw his glory, as the glory of the only begotten of the Father. Though the glory of Christ as Mediator, being full of grace and truth, seems to be chiefly designed; this he has from God, and had it from everlasting; this he gives to his people, and is what makes him so glorious, lovely, and desirable in their eye: and whilst this delightful object is beheld by them, they are

changed into the same image; there was a divine image in man, in his first creation; this image was defaced by sin, and a different one took place; now in regeneration another distinct from them both is stamped, and this is the image of Christ; he himself is formed in the soul, his grace is wrought there; so that it is no wonder there is a likeness between them; which lies in righteousness and holiness, and shows itself in acts of grace, and a discharge of duty. The gradual motion of the change into this image is expressed by this phrase,

from glory to glory: not from the glory of the law to the glory of the Gospel; or from the glory of Moses to the glory of Christ; rather from the glory that is in Christ, to a glory derived in believers from him; or which seems most agreeable, from one degree of grace to another, grace here being signified by glory; or from glory begun here to glory perfect hereafter; when this image will be completed, both in soul and body; and the saints will be as perfectly like to Christ, as they are capable of, and see him as he is: now the efficient cause of all this, "is the Spirit of the Lord". It is he that takes off the veil from the heart, that we may, with open face unveiled, behold all this glory; it is he that regenerates, stamps the image of Christ, and conforms the soul to his likeness; it is he that gradually carries on the work of grace upon the soul, increases faith, enlarges the views of the glory of Christ, and the spiritual light, knowledge, and experience of the saints, and will perfect all that which concerns them; will quicken their mortal bodies, and make them like to Christ; and will for ever rest as a spirit of glory on them, both in soul and body: some read these words,

by the Lord of the Spirit, and understand them of Christ, others read them, "by the Lord the Spirit", as they very well may be rendered; and so are a proof of the true and proper deity of the Holy Spirit, who is the one Jehovah with the Father and the Son. The ancient Jews owned this;

"the Spirit of the living God, (say ^k they,) היינו הבורא, this is the Creator himself, from him all spirits are produced; blessed be he, and blessed be his name, because his name is he himself, for his name is Jehovah.''

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: 2Co 3:18

¹ tn Or “we all with unveiled faces beholding the glory of the Lord as in a mirror.”

² tn Grk “from glory to glory.”

³ tn Grk “just as from.”

⁴ tn Grk “from the Lord, the Spirit”; the genitive πνεύματος (pneumato") has been translated as a genitive of apposition.

Geneva Bible: 2Co 3:18

^{( 5 )} But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, [even] as by the Spirit of the Lord.

^{( 5 )} Continuing in the allegory of the covering, he compares the Gospel to a glass, which although it is most bright and sparkling, yet it does not dazzle their eyes who look in it, as the Law does, but instead transforms them with its beams, so that they also are partakers of the glory and shining of it, to enlighten others: as Christ said unto his own, "You are the light of the world", whereas he himself alone is the light. We are also commanded in another place to shine as candles before the world, because we are partakers of God's Spirit. But Paul speaks here properly of the ministers of the Gospel, as it appears both by that which goes before, and that which comes after, and in that he sets before them his own example and that of his fellows.

Commentary -- Verse Range Notes

TSK Synopsis: 2Co 3:1-18

1 Lest their false teachers should charge him with vain glory, he shows the faith and graces of the Corinthians to be a sufficient commendation of his ministry.

6 Whereupon entering a comparison between the ministers of the law and of the gospel,

12 he proves that his ministry is so far the more excellent, as the gospel of life and liberty is more glorious than the law of condemnation.

Maclaren: 2Co 3:18

Transformation By Beholding

We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image.'--2 Cor. 3:18.

THIS whole section of the Epistle in which our text occurs is a remarkable instance of the fervid richness of the Apostle's mind, which acquires force by motion, and, like a chariot-wheel, catches fire as it revolves. One of the most obvious peculiarities of his style is his habit of going off at a word.' Each thought is, as it were, barbed all round, and catches and draws into sight a multitude of others, but slightly related to the main purpose in hand. And this characteristic gives at first sight an appearance of confusion to his writings. But it is not confusion, it is richness. The luxuriant under wood which this fertile soil bears, as some tropical forest, does not choke the great trees, though it drapes them.

Paul's immediate purpose seems to be to illustrate the frank openness which ought to mark the ministry of Christianity. He does this by reference to the veil which Moses wore when he came forth from talking with God. There, he says in effect, we have a picture of the Old Dispensation--a partial revelation, gleaming through a veil, flashing through symbols, expressed here in a rite, there in a type, there again in an obscure prophecy, but never or scarcely ever fronting the world with an unveiled face and the light of God shining clear from it. Christianity is, and Christian teachers ought to be, the opposite of all this. It has, and they are to have, no esoteric doctrines, no hints where plain speech is possible, no reserve, no use of symbols and ceremonies to overlay truth, but an intelligible revelation in words and deeds, to men's understandings. It and they are plentifully to declare the thing as it is.

But he gets far beyond this point in his uses of his illustration. It opens out into a series of contrasts between the two revelations. The veiled Moses represents the clouded revelation of old. The vanishing gleam on his face recalls the fading glories of that which was abolished; and then, by a quick turn of association, Paul thinks of the veiled readers in the synagogues, copies, as it were, of the lawgiver with the shrouded countenance; only too significant images of the souls obscured by prejudice and. obstinate unbelief, with which Israel trifles over the uncomprehended letter of the old law.

The contrast to all this lies in our text. Judaism had the one lawgiver who beheld God, while the people tarried below. Christianity leads us all, to the mount of vision, and lets the lowliest pass through the fences, and go up where the blazing glory is seen. Moses veiled the face that shone with the irradiation of Deity. We with unveiled face are to shine among men. He had a momentary gleam, a transient brightness; we have a perpetual light. Moses face shone, but the lustre was but skin deep. But the light that we have is inward, and works transformation into its own likeness.

So there is here set forth the very loftiest conception of the Christian life as direct vision, universal, manifest to men, permanent, transforming.

I. Note Then, First, That The Christian Life Is A Life Of Contemplating And Reflecting Christ.

It is a question whether the single word rendered in our version beholding as in a glass,' means that, or reflecting as a glass does." The latter seems more in accordance with the requirements of the context, and with the truth of the matter in hand. Unless we bring in the notion of reflected lustre, we do not get any parallel with the case of Moses. Looking into a glass does not in the least correspond with the allusion, which gave occasion to the whole section, to the glory of God smiting him on the face, till the" reflected lustre with which it glowed became dazzling, and needed to be hid. And again, if Paul is here describing Christian vision of God as only indirect, as in a mirror, then that would be a point of inferiority in us as compared with Moses, who saw Him face to face. But the whole tone of the context prepares us to expect a setting forth of the particulars in which the Christian attitude towards the manifested God is above the Jewish. So, on the whole, it seems better to suppose that Paul meant mirroring,' than seeing in a mirror.'

But, whatever be the exact force of the word, the thing intended includes both acts. There is no reflection of the light without a previous reception of the light. In bodily sight, the eye is a mirror, and there is no sight without an image of the thing perceived being formed in the perceiving eye. In spiritual sight, the soul which beholds is a mirror, and at once beholds and reflects. Thus, then, we may say that we have in our text the Christian life described as one of contemplation and manifestation of the light of God.

The great truth of a direct, unimpeded vision, as belonging to Christian men on earth, sounds strange to many of us. That cannot be,' you say; does not Paul himself teach that we see through a glass darkly? Do we not walk by faith and not by sight? "No man hath seen God at any time, nor can see Him"; and besides that absolute impossibility, have we not veils of flesh and sense, to say nothing of the covering of sin "spread over the face of all nations," which hide from us even so much of the eternal light as His servants above behold, who see His face and bear His name on their foreheads?'

But these apparent difficulties drop away when we take into account two things--first, the object of vision, and second, the real nature of the vision itself.

As to the former, who is the Lord whose glory we receive on our unveiled faces? He is Jesus Christ. Hero. as in the overwhelming majority of instances where Lord occurs in the New Testament, it is the name of the manifested God our brother. The glory which we behold and give back is not the incomprehensible, incommunicable lustre of the absolute divine perfectness, but that glory which, as John says, we beheld in Him who tabernacled with us, full of grace and truth; the glory which was manifested in loving, pitying words and loveliness of perfect deeds; the glory of the will resigned to God, and of God dwelling in and working through the will; the glory of faultless and complete manhood, and therein of the express image of God.

And as for the vision itself, that seeing which is denied to be possible is the bodily perception and the full comprehension of the Infinite God; that seeing which is affirmed to be possible, and actually bestowed in Christ, is the beholding of Him with the soul by faith; the immediate direct consciousness of His presence the perception of Him in His truth by the mind, the feeling of Him in His love by the heart, the contact with His gracious energy in our recipient and opening spirits. Faith is made the antithesis of sight. It is so, in certain respects. But faith is also paralleled with and exalted above the mere bodily perception. He who believing grasps the living Lord has a contact with Him as immediate and as real as that of the eyeball with light, and knows Him with a certitude as reliable as that which sight gives. Seeing is believing,' says sense; Believing is seeing,' says the spirit which clings to the Lord, whom having not seen' it loves. A bridge of perishable flesh, which is not myself but my tool, connects me with the outward world. It never touches myself at all, and I know it only by trust in my senses. But nothing intervenes between my Lord and me, when I love and trust. Then Spirit is joined to spirit, and of His presence I have the witness in myself. He is the light, which proves its own existence by revealing itself, which strikes with quickening impulse on the eye of the spirit that beholds by faith. Believing we see, and, seeing, we have that light in our souls to be the master light of all our seeing.' We need not think that to know by the consciousness of our trusting souls is less than to know by the vision" of our fallible eyes; and though flesh hides from us the spiritual world in which we float, yet the only veil which really dims God to us--the veil of sin, the one separating principle--is done away in Christ, for all who love Him; so as that he who has not seen and yet has believed, has but the perfecting of his present vision to expect, when flesh drops away and the apocalypse of the heaven comes. True, in one view, We see through a glass darkly'; but also true, We all, with unveiled face, behold and reflect the glory of the Lord.'

Then note still further Paul's emphasis on the universality of this prerogative--We all.' This vision does not belong to any select handful; does not depend upon special powers or gifts, which in the nature of things can only belong to a few. The spiritual aristocracy of God's Church is not the distinction of the law-giver, the priest or the prophet. There is none of us so weak, so low, so ignorant, so compassed about with sin, but that upon our happy faces that light may rest, and into our darkened hearts that sunshine may steal.

In that Old Dispensation, the light that broke through clouds was but that of the rising morning. It touched the mountain tops of the loftiest spirits: a Moses, a David, an Elijah caught the early gleams; while all the valleys slept in the pale shadow, and the mist clung in white folds to the plains. But the noon has come, and, from its steadfast throne in the very zenith, the sun, which never sets, pours down its rays into the deep recesses of the narrowest gorge, and every little daisy and hidden flower catches its brightness, and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof. We have no privileged class or caste now; no fences to keep out the mob from the place of vision, while lawgiver and priest gaze upon God. Christ reveals Himself to all His servants in the measure of their desire after Him. Whatsoever special gifts may belong to a few in His Church, the greatest gift belongs to all. The servants and the handmaidens have the Spirit, the children prophesy, the youths see visions, the old men dream dreams. The mobs,' the masses,' the plebs,' or whatever other contemptuous name the heathen aristocratic spirit has for the bulk of men, makes good its standing within the Church, as possessor of Christ's chiefest gifts. Redeemed by Him, it can behold His face and be glorified into His likeness. Not as Judaism with its ignorant mass, and its enlightened and inspired few--we all behold the glory of the Lord.

Again, this contemplation involves reflection, or giving forth the light which we behold.

They who behold Christ have Christ formed in them, as will appear in my subsequent remarks. But apart from such considerations, which belong rather to the next part of this sermon, I touch on this thought here for one purpose--to bring out this idea--that what we see we shall certainly show. That will be the inevitable result of all true possession of the glory of Christ. The necessary accompaniment of vision is reflecting the thing beheld. Why, if you look closely enough into a man's eye, you will see in it little pictures of what he beholds at the moment; and if our hearts are beholding Christ, Christ will be mirrored and manifested on our hearts. Our characters will show what we are looking at, and ought, in the case of Christian people, to bear His image so plainly, that men cannot but take knowledge of us that we have been with Jesus.

This ought to lead all of us who say that we have seen the Lord, to serious self-questioning. Do beholding and reflecting go together in our cases? Are our characters like those transparent clocks, where you can see not only the figures and hands, but the wheels and works? Remember that, consciously and unconsciously, by direct efforts and by insensible influences on our lives, the true secret of our being ought to come, and will come, forth to light. The convictions which we hold, the emotions that are dominant in our hearts, will mould and shape our lives. If we have any deep, living perception of Christ, bystanders looking into our faces will be able to tell what it is up yonder that is making them like the faces of the angels--even the vision of the opened heavens and of the exalted Lord. These two things are inseparable--the one describes the attitude and action of the Christian man towards Christ; the other the very same attitude and action in relation to men. And you may be quite sure that, if little light comes from a Christian character, little light comes into it; and if it be swathed in thick veils from men, there must be no less thick veils between it and God.

Nor is it only that our fellowship with Christ will, as a matter of course, show itself in our characters, and beauty born of that communion shall pass into our face,' but we are also called on, as Paul puts it here, to make direct conscious efforts for the communication of the light which we behold. As the context has it, God hath shined in our hearts, that we might give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus. Away with all veils! No reserve, no fear of the consequences of plain speaking, no diplomatic prudence regulating our frank utterance, no secret doctrines for the initiated! We are to renounce the hidden things of dishonesty.' Our power and our duty lie in the full exhibition of the truth. We are only clear from the blood of men when we, for our parts, make sure that if any light be hid, it is hid not by reason of obscurity or silence on our parts, but only by reason of the blind eyes, before which the full-orbed radiance gleams in vain. All this is as true for every one possessing that universal prerogative of seeing the glory of Christ, as it is for an Apostle. The business of all such is to make known the name of Jesus, and if from idleness, or carelessness, or selfishness, they shirk that plain duty, they are counteracting God's very purpose in shining on their hearts, and going far to quench the light which they darken.

Take this, then, Christian men and women, as a plain practical lesson from this text. You are bound to manifest what you believe, and to make the secret of your lives, in so far as possible, an open secret. Not that you are to drag into light before men the sacred depths of your own soul's experience. Let these lie hid. The world will be none the better for your confessions, but it needs your Lord. Show Him forth, not your own emotions about Him. What does the Apostle say close by my text? We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord.' Self-respect and reverence for the sanctities of our deepest emotions forbid our proclaiming these from the house-tops. Let these be curtained, if you will, from all eyes but God's, but let no folds hang before the picture of your Saviour that is drawn on your heart. See to it that you have the unveiled face turned towards Christ to be irradiated by His brightness, and the unveiled face turned towards men, from which shall shine every beam of the light which you have caught from your Lord. Arise! shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee!'

II. Notice, Secondly, That This Life Of Contemplation Is Therefore A Life Of Gradual Transformation.

The brightness on the face of Moses was only skin-deep. It faded away, and left no trace. It effaced none of the marks of sorrow and care, and changed none of the lines of that strong, stern face. But, says Paul, the glory which we behold sinks inward, and changes us as we look, into its own image. Thus the superficial lustre, that had neither permanence nor transforming power, becomes an illustration of the powerlessness of law to change the moral character into the likeness of the fair ideal which it sets forth. And, in opposition to its weakness, the Apostle proclaims the great principle of Christian progress, that the beholding of Christ leads to the assimilation to Him.

The metaphor of a mirror does not wholly serve us here. When the sunbeams fall upon it, it flashes in the light, just because they do not enter its cold surface. It is a mirror, because it does not drink them up, but flings them back. The contrary is the case with these sentient mirrors of our spirits. In them the light must first sink in before it can ray out. They must first be filled with the glory, before the glory can stream forth. They are not so much like a reflecting surface as like a bar of iron, which needs to be heated right down to its obstinate black core, before its outer skin glows with the whiteness of a heat that is too hot to sparkle. The sunshine must fall on us, not as it does on some lonely hill-side, lighting up the grey stones with a passing gleam that changes nothing, and fades away, leaving the solitude to its sadness; but as it does on some cloud cradled near its setting, which it drenches and saturates with fire till its cold heart burns, and all its wreaths of vapour are brightness palpable, glorified by the light which lives amidst its mists. So must we have the glory sink into us before it can be reflected from us. In deep inward beholding we must have Christ in our hearts, that He may shine forth from our lives.

And this contemplation will be gradual transformation. There is the great principle of Christian morals. We all beholding are changed.' The power to which is committed the perfecting of our characters lies in looking upon Jesus. It is not the mere beholding, but the gaze of love and trust that moulds us by silent sympathy into the likeness of His wondrous beauty, who is fairer than the children of men. It was a deep, true thought which the old painters had, when they drew John as likest to his Lord. Love makes us like. We learn that even in our earthly relationships, where habitual familiarity with parents and dear ones stamps some tone of voice or look, or little peculiarity of gesture, on a whole house. And when the infinite reverence and aspiration which the Christian soul cherishes to its Lord are superadded, the transforming power of loving contemplation of Him becomes mighty beyond all analogies in human friendship, though one in principle with these. What a marvellous thing that a block of rude sandstone, laid down before a perfect marble, should become a copy of its serene loveliness just by lying there! Lay your hearts down before Christ. Contemplate Him. Love Him. Think about Him. Let that pure face shine upon heart and spirit, and as the sun photographs itself on the sensitive plate exposed to its light, and you get a likeness of the sun by simply laying the thing in the sun, so He will be formed in you.' Iron near a magnet becomes magnetic. Spirits that dwell with Christ become Christ-like. The Roman Catholic legends put this truth in a coarse way, when they tell of saints who have gazed on some ghastly crucifix till they have received, in their tortured flesh, the copy of the wounds of Jesus, and have thus borne in their body the marks of the Lord. The story is hideous and gross, the idea beneath is ever true. Set your faces towards the Cross with loving, reverent gaze, and you will' be conformed unto His death,' that in due time you may be also in the likeness of His Resurrection.'

Dear friends, surely this message--Behold and be like'--ought to be very joyful and enlightening to many of us, who are wearied with painful struggles after isolated pieces of goodness, that elude our grasp. You have been trying, and trying, and trying half your lifetime to cure faults and make yourselves better and stronger. Try this other plan. Let love draw you, instead of duty driving you. Let fellowship with Christ elevate you, instead of seeking to struggle up the steeps on hands and knees. Live in sight of your Lord, and catch His Spirit. The man who travels with his face northwards has it grey and cold. Let him turn to the warm south, where the midday sun dwells, and his face will glow with the brightness that he sees. Looking unto Jesus' is the sovereign cure for all our ills and sins. It is the one condition of running with patience the race that is set before us.' Efforts after self-improvement which do not rest on it will not go deep enough, nor end in victory. But from that gaze will flow into our lives a power which will at once reveal the true goal, and brace every sinew for the struggle to reach it. Therefore, let us cease from self, and fix our eyes on our Saviour till His image imprints itself on our whole nature.

Such transformation, it must be remembered, comes gradually. The language of the text regards it as a lifelong process. We are changed'; that is a continuous operation. From glory to glory'; that is a course which has well-marked transitions and degrees. Be not impatient if it be slow. It will take a lifetime. Do not fancy that it is finished with you. Life is not long enough for it. Do not be complacent over the partial transformation which you have felt. There is but a fragment of the great image yet reproduced in your soul, a faint outline dimly traced, with many a feature wrongly drawn, with many a line still needed, before it can be called even approximately complete. See to it that you neither turn away your gaze, nor relax your efforts till all that you have beheld in Him is repeated in you.

Likeness to Christ is the aim of all religion. To it conversion is introductory; doctrines, devout emotion, worship and ceremonies, churches and organisations are valuable as auxiliary. Let that wondrous issue of God's mercy be the purpose of our lives, and the end as well as the test of all the things which we call our Christianity. Prize and use them as helps towards it, and remember that they are helps only in proportion as they show us that Saviour, the image of whom is our perfection, the beholding of whom is our transformation.

III. Notice, Lastly, That The Life Of Contemplation Finally Becomes A Life Of Complete Assimilation.

Changed into the same image, from glory to glory.' The lustrous light which falls upon Christian hearts from the face of their Lord is permanent, and it is progressive. The likeness extends, becomes deeper, truer, every way perfecter, comprehends more and more of the faculties of the man; soaks into him, if I may say so, until he is saturated with the glory; and in all the extent of his being, and in all the depth possible to each part of that whole extent, is like his Lord. That is the hope for heaven, towards which we may indefinitely approximate here, and at which we shall absolutely arrive there. There we expect changes which are impossible here, while compassed with this body of sinful flesh. We look for the merciful exercise of His mighty working to change the body of our lowliness, that it may be fashioned like unto the body of His glory'; and that physical change in the resurrection of the just rightly bulks very large in good men's expectations. But we are somewhat apt to think of the perfect likeness of Christ too much in connection with that transformation that begins only after death, and to forget that the main transformation must begin here. The glorious, corporeal life like our Lord's, which is promised for heaven, is great and wonderful, but it is only the issue and last result of the far greater change in the spiritual nature, which by faith and love begins here. It is good to be clothed with the immortal vesture of the resurrection, and in that to be like Christ. It is better to be like Him in our hearts. His true image is that we should feel as He does, should think as He does, should will as He does; that we should have the same sympathies, the same loves, the same attitude towards God, and the same attitude towards men. It is that His heart and ours should beat in full accord, as with one pulse, and possessing one life. Wherever there is the beginning of that oneness and likeness of spirit, all the rest will come in duo time. As the spirit, so the body. The whole nature must be transformed and made like Christ's, and the process will not stop till that end be accomplished in all who love Him. But the beginning here is the main thing which draws all the rest after it as of course. If the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies, by His Spirit that dwelleth in you.'

And, while this complete assimilation in body and spirit to our Lord is the end of the process which begins here by love and faith, my text, carefully considered, adds a further very remarkable idea. We are all changed,' says Paul, into the same image.' Same as what? Possibly the same as we behold; but more probably the phrase, especially image' in the singular, is employed to convey the thought of the blessed likeness of all who become perfectly like Him. As if he had said, Various as we are in disposition and character, unlike in the histories of our lives, and all the influences that these have had upon us, differing in everything but the common relation to Jesus Christ, we are all growing like the same image, and we shall come to be perfectly like it, and yet each retain his own distinct individuality.' We being many are one, for we are all partakers of one.'

Perhaps, too, we may connect with this another idea which occurs more than once in Paul's Epistles. In that to the Ephesians, for instance, he says that the Christian ministry is to continue, till a certain point of progress has been reached, which he describes as our all coming to a perfect man: The whole of us together make a perfect man--the whole make one image. That is to say, perhaps the Apostle's idea is, that it takes the aggregated perfectness of the whole Catholic Church, one throughout all ages, and containing a multitude that no man can number, to set worthily forth anything like a complete image of the fulness of Christ. No one man, even raised to the highest pitch of perfection, and though his nature be widened out to perfect development, can be the full image of that infinite sum of all beauty; but the whole of us taken together, with all the diversities of natural character retained and consecrated, being collectively His body which He vitalises, may, on the whole, be a not wholly inadequate representation of our perfect Lord. Just as we set round a central light sparkling prisms, each of which catches the glow at its own angle, and flashes it back of its own colour, while the sovereign completeness of the perfect white radiance comes from the blending of all their separate rays, so they who stand round about the starry throne receive each the light in his own measure and manner, and give forth each a true and perfect, and altogether a complete, image of Him who enlightens them all, and is above them all.

And whilst thus all bear the same image, there is no monotony; and while there is endless diversity, there is no discord. Like the serene choirs of angels in the old monk's pictures, each one with the same tongue of fire on the brow, with the same robe flowing in the same folds to the feet, with the same golden hair, yet each a separate self, with his own gladness, and a different instrument for praise in his hand, and his own part in that undisturbed song of pure content,' we shall all be changed into the same image, and yet each heart shall grow great with its own blessedness, and each spirit bright with its own proper lustre of individual and characteristic perfection.

The law of the transformation is the same for earth and for heaven. Here we see Him in part, and beholding grow like. There we shall see Him as He is, and the likeness will be complete. That Transfiguration of our Lord (which is described by the same word as occurs in this text) may become for us the symbol and the prophecy of what we look for. As with Him, so with us; the indwelling glory shall come to the surface, and the countenance shall shine as the light, and the garments shall be white as no fuller on earth can white them.' Nor shall that be a fading splendour, nor shall we fear as we enter into the cloud, nor, looking on Him, shall flesh bend beneath the burden, and the eyes become drowsy, but we shall be as the Lawgiver and the Prophet who stood by Him in the lambent lustre, and shone with a brightness above that which had once been veiled on Sinai. We shall never vanish from His side, but dwell with Him in the abiding temple which He has built, and there, looking upon Him for ever, our happy souls shall change as they gaze, and behold Him more perfectly as they change, for we know that when He shall appear we shall be like Him, for we shah see Him as He is.'

MHCC: 2Co 3:12-18

It is the duty of the ministers of the gospel to use great plainness, or clearness, of speech. The Old Testament believers had only cloudy and passing glimpses of that glorious Saviour, and unbelievers looked no further than to the outward institution. But the great precepts of the gospel, believe, love, obey, are truths stated as clearly as possible. And the whole doctrine of Christ crucified, is made as plain as human language can make it. Those who lived under the law, had a veil upon their hearts. This veil is taken away by the doctrines of the Bible about Christ. When any person is converted to God, then the veil of ignorance is taken away. The condition of those who enjoy and believe the gospel is happy, for the heart is set at liberty to run the ways of God's commandments. They have light, and with open face they behold the glory of the Lord. Christians should prize and improve these privileges. We should not rest contented without knowing the transforming power of the gospel, by the working of the Spirit, bringing us to seek to be like the temper and tendency of the glorious gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and into union with Him. We behold Christ, as in the glass of his word; and as the reflection from a mirror causes the face to shine, the faces of Christians shine also.

Matthew Henry: 2Co 3:12-18

In these verses the apostle draws two inferences from what he had said about the Old and New Testament: -

I. Concerning the duty of the ministers of the gospel to use great plainness or clearness of speech. They ought not, like Moses, to put a veil upon their faces, or obscure and darken those things which they should make plain. The gospel is a more clear dispensation than the law; the things of God are revealed in the New Testament, not in types and shadows, and ministers are much to blame if they do not set spiritual things, and gospel-truth and grace, in the clearest light that is possible. Though the Israelites could not look stedfastly to the end of what was commanded, but is now abolished, yet we may. We may see the meaning of those types and shadows by the accomplishment, seeing the veil is done away in, Christ and he is come, who was the end of the law for righteousness to all those who believe, and whom Moses and all the prophets pointed to, and wrote of.

II. Concerning the privilege and advantage of those who enjoy the gospel, above those who lived under the law. For, 1. Those who lived under the legal dispensation had their minds blinded (2Co 3:14), and there was a veil upon their hearts, 2Co 3:15. Thus it was formerly, and so it was especially as to those who remained in Judaism after the coming of the Messiah and the publication of his gospel. Nevertheless, the apostle tells us, there is a time coming when this veil also shall be taken away, and when it (the body of that people) shall turn to the Lord, 2Co 3:16. Or, when any particular person is converted to God, then the veil of ignorance is taken away; the blindness of the mind, and the hardness of the heart, are cured. 2. The condition of those who enjoy and believe the gospel is much more happy. For, (1.) They have liberty: Where the Spirit of the Lord is, and where he worketh, as he does under the gospel-dispensation, there is liberty (2Co 3:17), freedom from the yoke of the ceremonial law, and from the servitude of corruption; liberty of access to God, and freedom of speech in prayer. The heart is set at liberty, and enlarged, to run the ways of God's commandments. (2.) They have light; for with open face we behold the glory of the Lord, 2Co 3:18. The Israelites saw the glory of God in a cloud, which was dark and dreadful; but Christians see the glory of the Lord as in a glass, more clearly and comfortably. It was the peculiar privilege of Moses for God to converse with him face to face, in a friendly manner; but now all true Christians see him more clearly with open face. He showeth them his glory. (3.) This light and liberty are transforming; we are changed into the same image, from glory to glory (2Co 3:18), from one degree of glorious grace unto another, till grace here be consummated in glory for ever. How much therefore should Christians prize and improve these privileges! We should not rest contented without an experimental knowledge of the transforming power of the gospel, by the operation of the Spirit, bringing us into a conformity to the temper and tendency of the glorious gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Barclay: 2Co 3:12-18

All the pictures in this passage emerge directly from the passage which goes before. Paul begins from the thought that when Moses came down from the mount the glory upon his face was so bright that no one could gaze steadily upon it.

(i) He thinks back to Exo 34:33. The King James Version has it that Moses put a veil upon his face until he had finished speaking; but the correct translation of the Hebrew, is that Moses, as in the R.S.V., did this when he had finished speaking. Paul takes this to mean that Moses veiled his face so that the people should not have to see the slow fading of the glory that once was there. His first thought is that the glory of the old covenant, the old relationship between God and men, was essentially a fading one. It was destined to be overpassed, not as the wrong is overpassed by the right, but as the incomplete is overpassed by the complete. The revelation that came by Moses was true and great, but it was only partial; the revelation that came in Jesus Christ is full and final. As Augustine so wisely put it long ago, "We do wrong to the Old Testament if we deny that it comes from the same just and good God as the New. On the other hand we do wrong to the New Testament, if we put the Old on a level with it." The one is a step to glory; the other is the summit of glory.

(ii) The idea of the veil now takes hold of Paul's mind and he uses it in different ways. He says that, when the Jews listen to the reading of the Old Testament, as they do every Sabbath day in the synagogue, a veil upon their eyes keeps them from seeing the real meaning of it. It ought to point them to Jesus Christ, but the veil keeps them from seeing that. We, too, may fail to see the real meaning of scripture because our eyes are veiled.

(a) They may be veiled by prejudice. We, too, often go to scripture to find support for our own views rather than to find the truth of God.

(b) They may be veiled by wishful-thinking. Too often we find what we want to find, and neglect what we do not want to see. To take an example, we may delight in all the references to the love and the mercy of God, but pass over all the references to his wrath and judgment.

© They may be veiled by fragmentary thinking. We should always regard the Bible as a whole. It is easy to take individual texts and criticize them. It is easy to prove that parts of the Old Testament are sub-Christian. It is easy to find support for private theories by choosing certain texts and passages and putting others aside. But it is the whole message that we must seek; and that is just another way of saying that we must read all scripture in the light of Jesus Christ.

(iii) Not only is there a veil which keeps the Jews from seeing the real meaning of scripture; there is also a veil which comes between them and God.

(a) Sometimes it is the veil of disobedience. Very often it is moral and not intellectual blindness which keeps us from seeing God. If we persist in disobeying him we become less and less capable of seeing him. The vision of God is to the pure in heart.

(b) Sometimes it is the veil of the unteachable spirit. As the Scots saying has it, "There's none so blind as those who winna see." The best teacher on earth cannot teach the man who knows it all already and does not wish to learn. God gave us free will, and, if we insist upon our own way, we cannot learn his.

(iv) Paul goes on to say that we see the glory of the Lord with no veil upon our faces, and because of that we, too, are changed from glory into glory. Possibly what Paul means is that, if we gaze at Christ, we in the end reflect him. His image appears in our lives. It is a law of life that we become like the people we gaze at. People hero-worship someone and begin to reflect his ways. If we contemplate Jesus Christ, in the end we come to reflect him.

Paul sets for many a theological problem when he says, "The Lord is the Spirit." He seems to identify the Risen Lord and the Holy Spirit. We must remember that he was not writing theology; he was setting down experience. And it is the experience of the Christian life that the work of the Spirit and the work of the Risen Lord are one and the same. The strength and guidance we receive come alike from the Spirit and from the Risen Lord.

Where the Spirit is, says Paul, there is liberty. He means that so long as man's obedience to God is conditioned by obedience to a code of laws he is in the position of an unwilling slave. But when it comes from the operation of the Spirit in his heart, the very centre of his being has no other desire than to serve God, for then it is not law but love which binds him. Many things which we would resent doing under compulsion for some stranger are a privilege to do for someone we love. Love clothes the humblest and the most menial tasks with glory. "In God's service we find our perfect freedom."

Constable: 2Co 1:12--8:1

II. ANSWERS TO INSINUATIONS ABOUT THE SINCERITY OF PAUL'S COMMITMENT TO THE CORINTHIANS AND TO THE MINISTRY 1:12--7:16

Second Corinthians is a rather difficult book to outline because it is a very personal letter.

"Traditionally, Paul's two letters to Timothy and one to Titus are called the Pastorals.' But 2 Corinthians has a strong claim to be recognized as the Pastoral Epistle par excellence, because it contains not pure' but applied' pastoralia."⁶³

Paul's purpose in writing was not to teach doctrine primarily, though he did so to a considerable extent. It was primarily to answer the criticisms of opponents who were seeking to undermine his ministry, especially in Corinth.

"Here it is his strong feeling rather than any deliberate arrangement that suggests the order of his utterances. Nevertheless, although exact analysis is seldom possible owing to digressions and repetitions, yet some divisions are fairly clear, and the letter becomes more intelligible when they are noted."⁶⁴

Constable: 2Co 3:1--6:11

B. Exposition of Paul's view of the ministry 3:1-6:10

The apostle proceeded to explain his view of Christian ministry further so his readers would appreciate and adopt his viewpoint and not lose heart.

Constable: 2Co 3:12--4:7

2. The great boldness of the new ministers 3:12-4:6

The superiority of Christian ministry should produce great openness and encouragement within Christ's ministers. Paul developed these qualities in this section to enable his readers to understand his behavior and to respond in like manner in their own ministries.

Constable: 2Co 3:12-18

The openness of Christian ministry 3:12-18

"If the keyword in vv. 7-11 is glory,' the keyword for vv. 12-18, of which vv. 12-15 form the first part, is veil'; veil'-related words occur six times in these verses."¹²⁸

3:12 The hope to which Paul referred was the confidence that he and the other apostles and Christians served God under a covenant that God would not supersede.¹²⁹ The "boldness" (Gr. parrhesia) to which Paul referred is plainness of speech that has within it our concept of fearlessness (7:4; cf. Rom. 1:16). This word originally meant fearless candor in speech but came to mean confidence or openness in action as well as in word.¹³⁰ We can be confident and certain in our mission as well as in our message, though here Paul was speaking specifically of his speech.

3:13 One meaning of parrhesia ("boldness") is barefacedness. Paul could be barefaced in his confidence because of the permanent character of the covenant under which he ministered. Moses, in contrast, could not. He ministered with a literal veil over his face much of the time (Exod. 34:29-35). He removed the veil when he spoke with the people (Exod. 34:33) and when he spoke with God in the tabernacle. He wore it at other times evidently to teach the Israelites' their unworthiness to behold God's glory. Paul used this difference in ministry to illustrate the superior nature of the New Covenant.

Moses also put a veil over his face so the departure of the fading glory that he had received would not discourage the Israelites. The Old Testament does not say that was his reason. It implies that Moses covered his face so the Israelites would not see the glory that was there. Perhaps Paul meant that the consequence of Moses' putting the veil over his face was that the Israelites could not see the fading of his facial glory.¹³¹ Paul's implication then was that Christians can behold God's glory more fully in the New Covenant, and it will not fade away.

3:14-15 Paul said inability to perceive God's revealed glory persists to the present day among the Israelites (cf. Rom. 11:7).

"The Israelites' inability to see the glory shining from Moses' face, fading though that glory was, is treated as a parable of their descendants' present inability to realize the transitory character of the Mosaic order and to recognize the unfading glory of the gospel dispensation."¹³²

"This is always the result of refusing and suppressing the revelation of divine truth. A veil of intellectual darkness hides the glory which has been deliberately rejected."¹³³

The "Old Covenant" (v. 14) probably refers to the Mosaic Law, and "Moses" (v. 15) probably refers to the whole Old Testament.¹³⁴

3:16 Only when the light of the glory of God shines on a person from Jesus Christ (i.e., he or she perceives the gospel) can that individual fully understand that revelation. Before God removes that veil that person cannot perceive it clearly. This applies to all people, but in the context Paul was speaking of Jews particularly. Whenever a person comprehends that Jesus Christ fulfilled the Mosaic Law (Rom. 10:4), that one then understands that the dispensation of grace has superseded the dispensation of the law (John 1:17).¹³⁵ "Turns to the Lord" means conversion to Jesus Christ.

3:17 This verse explains the former one. The Holy Spirit (vv. 3, 6, 8) is the member of the Trinity who causes a person to understand and believe that Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the law. Paul here described the Spirit's function and equated Him with Christ (cf. v. 14). Believing in Jesus liberates one from sin, death, and the Mosaic Law but not from obligation to respond obediently to God's new revelation in Christ, of course. Even though the Spirit is Lord, His presence liberates the believer rather than enslaving him or her (cf. Rom. 8:15).

3:18 In conclusion, Paul referred to Christian experience generally. All Christians, not just the Israelites' leader Moses, experience transformation daily as we contemplate the glory of God revealed in His Word and especially in the living Word, Jesus Christ. The perception of that revelation is still indirect. Paul's point was that the image of God that we see in the Word accurately reflects God though we do not yet see God Himself. What we see in the mirror of God's Word is the Lord, not ourselves. We experience gradual transformation. As we observe Christ's glory we advance in Christlikeness and reflect His glory, not in our faces but in our characters (cf. 2 Pet. 3:18). This glory will not fade but will increase over time providing we continue to contemplate the Lord. The Spirit who is the Lord is responsible for this gradual transformation.¹³⁶

". . . Paul may also have in mind the Semitic idiom in which to uncover the face (head)' means to behave boldly (frankly).' If so, then with unveiled face' has practically the same meaning as with boldness' (Gk parrhesia) and may help to explain Paul's use of the latter expression in verse 12."¹³⁷

College: 2Co 3:1-18

2 CORINTHIANS 3

2. A Living Letter of Recommendation Sent (3:1-3)

3:1 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again?

Paul asks this question tongue-in-cheek with a twinkle in his eye because it seems to have been a criticism leveled against him by the Corinthians or their newly come advisors. He pokes fun at his accusers on this point since he has just associated himself in 2:14-17 with those who are the aroma of Christ, sent by God, through whom Christ speaks. This is hardly boastful self-commendation. It is divine commendation to a hard life of service and suffering.

It is not apparent that "again" refers back to some point in 2 Corinthians or 1 Corinthians, nor is it possible to know if it has to do with something he said in the Severe Letter or during the Painful Visit. All that is certain is that Paul does not desire anything he has just said or will say to be construed by anyone as patting himself on the back. This is no moot issue since the verb "commend" (sunivsthmi, synistçmi) returns a hefty eight more times in 2 Corinthians (4:2; 5:12; 6:4; 7:11; 10:12; 10:18 - twice; 12:11) with Paul seeming to struggle internally to speak positively about himself and his ministry without disconnecting his accomplishments and personal pride from God's working through him. He severely criticizes others, probably the outside agitators, particularly in 2 Cor 10:12-18, for working too hard to make themselves look good and ignoring that only God's approval is worth anything in the long run.

The answer to the question, then, is both "yes" and "no." Paul does commend himself in what God has done and is doing through him but not in anything of himself alone. Again, Paul models a healthy spiritual condition for those called to minister in his day and in ours.

Or do we need, like some people, letters of recommendation to you or from you?

The question of his own self-commendation leads Paul to the question he really wants to get to: the matter of formal letters of recommendation. Such letters were commonplace in the Greco-Roman world of Paul's day, used between synagogues as well (Acts 9:2; 22:50), and were a necessity within the church as missionaries and other Christian travelers moved among the congregations stretched out from one end of the Mediterranean to the other.

Congregations supplied these letters to travelers who had proved their value and their genuineness as Christian representatives as they set off for their next destinations, which suggests that the troublesome visitors to Corinth may be gone or about to go. Evidence of this practice can be seen in Acts 18:27 concerning Apollos. Certainly Paul is not opposed to such recommendations since he himself often provides them, usually at the end of his letters for his couriers (Rom 16:1 - Phoebe; 1 Cor 16:10 - Timothy; Phil 2:19 - Timothy and Epaphroditus; 2 Cor 8:22 - Titus; Col 4:7 - Tychicus and Onesimus). The practice is not so different from recommendations for revival speakers or even ministerial candidates churches rely on today.

Paul's question, accompanied by the untranslated negative particle (mhv, mç), presumes a vigorous objection. Paul does not believe that he, as founding apostle of the Corinthian congregation, should be expected to show such a letter to them now or could have been in the past. To whom would he have shown such a letter on his founding visit? No congregation existed. Surely, the mushrooming of the Corinthian congregation and its vitality now are more than enough commendation of his authentic credentials, as Paul will seek to establish in the following verses. Paul, indeed, would neither need letters "to you" nor "from you" since he either travels to pioneer churches or back to churches he has already planted. He lets others "water," as he says in 1 Cor 4:6.

The word "some" links to the word "many" in 2 Cor 1:17, indicating a meddlesome bunch who have come to Corinth and have not only violated the true gospel by their conduct and their message but made a mess for Paul to deal with. These have come to Corinth apparently flaunting their letters from other congregations as well as attempting to diminish Paul's stature among the Corinthians because he came with no letters (and perhaps questioning his apostolic status because he was not one of the original twelve apostles). From where did these travelers receive their letters? Attempts to show that their letters came from principals in the Jerusalem church like James and Peter forces too much of a connection with Galatians. They would hardly seem to need letters from the Corinthian church they seem to be requesting if they already had such a weighty recommendation.

3:2 You yourselves are our letter,

By adding "yourselves" the NIV achieves the emphasis suggested by the very appearance of the pronoun "you" (uJmei'", hymeis ) which is unnecessary in Greek. Dramatically, Paul lowers the boom which should make the Corinthians kick themselves for allowing the outsiders to influence them into thinking badly of Paul. They themselves are the best recommendation letter possible.

written on our hearts,

The fact that Paul speaks of "our hearts" (kardivai" eJmw'n, kardiais hemôn) suggests that he primarily has in mind a letter "from" the Corinthians to other congregations, the easily overlooked last phrase of the second question in 2 Cor 3:1. The story of their conversion, the power of the Spirit in reorienting their lives, the maturing of their congregation, has been permanently recorded on his heart (signified by the verb eggravfw, engraphô only used here and in 3:2 in the NT) and will always be carried there, as one might keep a precious letter from a loved one close in safe-keeping.

Some translations (namely RSV) and interpreters favor replacement of "our" with "your" since the latter does appear in a few Greek manuscripts and would seem at first to be in harmony with what Paul is saying, especially as he appears to refer to hearts of the Corinthians in 2 Cor 3:3. However, they do so in the face of overpowering textual evidence for "our," abandoning also the normal criterion that the more difficult reading is usually correct and downplaying the significance of 2 Cor 7:3, where Paul tells the Corinthians specifically that they "have a place in our hearts."

Once one thinks about it, a letter of recommendation the Corinthians would write would be carried by Paul, not themselves. If they wrote this letter Paul carries on his heart, doesn't this mean they know its content themselves and have it on their hearts as well rather than on paper, evidencing Paul's authenticity? This would account for Paul's wording of "our hearts" as well as provide reasonable transition to verse 3.

known and read by everybody.

The present passive form of the participles, translated by the NIV as "known" (ginwskomevnh, ginôskomenç) and "read" (ajnaginwskomevnh, anaginôskomenç), underscores that, despite its personal nature to himself, Paul has in mind an open letter even now being scrutinized by the general public. The word "everybody," though something of an exaggeration, certainly assists with this idea. Corinth was, it must be remembered, a very well-known, even notorious city of its time, and knowledge of Christianity settling among its people would be notable to those learning of it, whether from Paul and his associates, or from the witness of the Corinthians themselves to their neighborhoods or to the surrounding regions.

The order of the participles "known" and "read" is reversed from the normal experience of studying a document before understanding its content. However, the purpose of this may be a matter of emphasis or intensity, since the two words are to a certain extent synonymous and philologically related, with anaginôskomenç being built from ginôskomenç. Paul also may be trying to balance the actual experience of becoming acquainted with people like the Corinthian believers with the metaphor he has working of calling them a letter.

It may well be that Paul intends a contrast between the public availability of his letter of recommendation and the letters held close-to-the-vest by the visiting troublemakers. Nevertheless, all of what Paul is saying coincides with what he already told the Corinthians in 1 Cor 9:2-3: "You are the seal of my apostleship."

3:3 You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry,

While the Corinthian letter of recommendation may be inscribed on Paul's heart, Paul now clarifies that the origin, or author, of the letter is not himself nor the Corinthians but Christ alone. This they "show" or "exhibit" (fanerovw, phaneroô) to others by their changed lives made possible only by his power at work in them.

The NIV's "the result of our ministry" is a generic translation of a participle (diakonhqei'sa, diakonçtheisa) which probably is intended to have more color here. True enough, the word as a verb (diakonevw, diakoneô) or a noun (diakoniva, diakonia ) usually refers to ministering or caring for someone in the more than 60 times these two words are found in the NT. However, the word can refer to someone simply administrating a task, such as the collection, as it is used in 2 Cor 8:19 and 8:20. In fact, the word can also, quite appropriate to the present context, refer to someone who either "delivers" (found in the RSV, NEB, TEV, and NAB for this verse) a letter or acts as secretary to "pen" a letter (technically, an amanuensis). The preposition uJpov ( hypo ), not translated by the NIV, usually translated "by" or "by means of," can even be translated "at the hands of," which would result in the translation "having been delivered by our hands."

Paul means to convey two ideas at the same time, then. First, he has had a vital role in bringing the Corinthian church into being, having done so through his nurturing ministry with them. Second, desiring to complement his letter metaphor, the "result," as the NIV puts it, is that he delivered Christ's letter, the Corinthians, for all to read.

written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God,

Ink in Paul's day combined carbon soot with a gummy solution. This resulted in all ink being black, explaining why the noun "ink" (mevlan, melan ) derives from the adjective "black" (mevla", melas ). The writing surface was normally an 8¥10 sheet of papyrus, formed from crosswise strips of the tubular hollow reed of the same name manufactured in Egypt. Twenty sheets of papyrus glued together formed a scroll, called a "biblos." Broken pieces of pottery might be used particularly as receipts for sales of goods. The writing instrument was a reed pen, called a "kalamos," mentioned in 3 John 13.

Paul further removes the letter he is describing from being anything like a normal letter. This letter of recommendation, the Corinthians themselves, is so unusual, and by implication, superior, to a normal letter of this type that the writing material is not even plain old ink, signifying that a pen is not used either. Rather, the lettering flows through the Holy Spirit who transmits the very desire of God himself, convicting people of their need for salvation. This viewpoint is consistent with what Paul says elsewhere about the Spirit's power in 2 Cor 1:22; 1 Cor 2:4; Gal 3:2-5; and 1 Thess 1:5-6. Thus, Paul establishes that not only is his ministry divinely appointed (2 Cor 2:14-17) but so also is his letter of recommendation. What he has, then, is eminently more prestigious than anything his accusing rivals might display.

Paul's use of the phrase "the living God" clamors back to rudimentary Jewish orientation which conceives of God in contrast to dead, stone idols. Paul elegantly speaks to this issue at the Areopagus of Athens in Acts 17:24-31, suitable arguing for the present context that God should be seen rather in the life he has given to humanity and in the resurrected life of Christ now present in believers. The phrase appears often in the OT (Deut 5:26; Josh 3:10; 1 Sam 17:26,36; 2 Kgs 19:4; Ps 84:3; and Isa 37:4,17, as representative), and Paul employs it when this distinctively Jewish perspective on God seems particularly poignant, as he does in 2 Cor 6:16 and 1 Thess 1:9.

not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

Paul offers yet a final contrast between a normal letter and the superior, divine letter he has in mind. The power of this image goes far beyond anything one would have expected. Readers might have anticipated a final contrast between this letter written on the heart and inferior ones written on papyrus, or scrolls. But Paul leaves readers breathless by trading in this mundane antithesis for one which rocks them to the core. "Tablets of stone" can refer to nothing else but the Ten Commandments, identified as being written on two "tablets of stone" on Mt. Sinai by the very finger of God (Exod 24:12; 31:18; Deut 9:10-11).

What suggests this striking switch to Paul must have been Ezek 11:19 and 36:26. There, the prophet tells the Jews in exile that God will revolutionize the way the law is known, no longer on tablets of clay but on human hearts. He will do surgery on their hearts, too, no longer to be dead hearts of stone but vibrant hearts of flesh. This he will accomplish by putting his Spirit in them so they will know his laws and live by his decrees. Coinciding with this prophecy, though not as suggestive in its exact wording, is the more familiar Jer 31:33 in which God promises to "put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts."

Paul's shift in imagery suggests the unthinkable, that Jewish legalism is nothing more than idol worship, replacing God with stone plaques, no better than what pagans do (compare Romans 1-2). God may have inscribed the plaques and provided the laws but he never intended to be confined by them - or the greater horror - squeezed out by them. Jesus in fact confronts Jews with this very point relentlessly in the gospels (Matt 5-6; 12:1-8; Mark 7; Luke 6:6-11; 13:10-21), and Paul just as vehemently continues Jesus' campaign against this same Jewish monster (Galatians 3; Romans 2-3) which has raised its ugly head within Christianity, threatening to destroy it as Paul views the situation (2 Cor 3:6).

Mention of this phrase "tablets of stone" sets the table for Paul's full-blown exposι on the subject in 2 Cor 3:7-18. For now, Paul wants readers to understand that Christianity marks a fundamentally new way in which God does business with people and that this can be seen, not only in Paul's heart and in the hearts of the Corinthians but also in the heart and life of every believer impacted by God's Spirit. This is profoundly more important than any human-originated letter of recommendation to or from any congregation. It is certainly more significant toward identifying a true minister of the gospel, despite the urgings of this group of transient "Christian" leaders currently in Corinth, who, more than likely, are relentless, ignorant purveyors of such a legalistic, Jewish-oriented message throughout the church of Paul's day.

3. A Personal Reference Provided (3:4-6)

3:4 Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God.

Paul's confidence in the adequacy of his calling as a minister and an apostle to the Corinthians does not come from himself. Rather, the confidence he has in mind refers back to the Corinthians themselves as the letter on his heart, which itself depends really on their own confidence in displaying themselves as an open letter for all to see. Both his personal confidence and his confidence in them, then, flow out of his relationship with God which is made possible only because of Christ.

3:5 Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God.

Paul essentially repeats himself and thereby emphasizes his point about the origin of his confidence, substituting the word "confidence" with "competence." The word "competence" (iJkanoiv, hikanoi ) is the plural form of the exact same word he used in his searching question, "Who is equal to such a task?" in 2 Cor 2:16 (translated by NIV there as "equal"). He employs the rare noun form of the word, found only here in the NT, translated as "competence" (iJkanovth", hikanotçs) by the NIV in the second clause of this verse. Again in 3:6, he will use a rare verb form of the word, the verb "has made competent" (iJkanovw, hikanoô), used only here and in Col 1:12 in the NT. Paul leaves little doubt that he means to answer the question posed in 2 Cor 2:16 in these verses.

Paul also emphasizes, at the expense of considerable awkwardness, the fact that whatever he has - or whatever anyone has for that matter - that is useful for ministry neither is "from ourselves" (ajf= eJautw'n, aph' heautôn) nor comes "out of ourselves" (ejx eJautw'n, ex heautôn), which the NIV translates as "in ourselves" and "for ourselves." It is not self-generated from any natural abilities. Thereby, no one can calculate (NIV's "claim," for logivzomai, logizomai ), either for the purpose of compensation or for the sake of honor or tribute, their personal value to the cause of Christ. All originates "from God."

3:6 He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant-

Paul declares the answer to his question of 2 Cor 2:16, as already noted there, to be both a resounding "yes" and a vibrant "no." He is adequate for ministry. Because God, who is all-sufficient, made him so, how could he be anything less? But, has he raised himself up by his own bootstraps in order to plant churches clear across Asia Minor and Greece? Absolutely not! God deserves all the credit. As he will say in 2 Cor 10:13-18, he has nothing to boast about other than what God has accomplished through him. As he already said in 1 Cor 15:9-11, only "by the grace of God I am what I am."

What Paul says here amounts to providing a personal reference at the end of his resumι for his qualifications as a minister, which already details his competence in the form of the Corinthian believers: "For further questions, interviewers may follow-up by contacting God." Whether Greeks or Romans actually applied for jobs in this contemporary way is unknown, but it does help readers today get the point.

The term "ministers of a new covenant" is only found here in the NT, though it is as apt a term as any for describing both what Paul and contemporary leaders of the church are. The term "minister" (diavkono", diakonos ) and its cognates "ministry" ( diakonia ) and "to minister" (diakoneô) appear frequently in Paul's letters and in the NT to describe the nature and task of leadership in the church, building upon the mundane use of the word for those who wait tables (Matt 8:15) and leading to the formal title for church leaders as "deacons" (1 Tim 3:8-13).

The concept of "a new covenant" (kainhÉ diaqhvkh, kainç diathçkç) originates in Jer 31:31, the only OT reference which mentions it, in which the Lord declares through his prophet: "I will make a new covenant with my house of Israel." Recognizing that the old covenant had been broken by Israel, a new one empowering them to keep his laws through internal motivation (written on heart and mind) was needed and would one day come. Jesus identifies his death with the arrival of this new covenant, achieved through his blood, when he institutes the drinking of the cup in the Lord's Supper (Luke 22:20).

Hebrews develops the concept most extensively, employing the word "covenant" 17 times in its pages. Paul distinguishes the "two covenants" most decisively in Gal 4:21-31, identifying the old one (though he does not use the term "new" or "old" in the passage) with Hagar, the slave, and the new one with Sarah, the free woman. Paul presumes and builds on all of this when he so poignantly draws on the term here in 2 Cor 3:6, the only time he actually uses the expression "new covenant" other than in his account of the Lord's Supper institution in 1 Cor 11:25.

Paul, then, views what he does for God as being one who serves the purposes of this new covenant, launched with Christ's relatively recent death but backed by God's centuries-old promise. This new covenant, now for all and not just Jews, is rooted in the church and has been implemented in the Corinthian congregation.

Suggestions that Paul uses the term "ministers of the new covenant" because of its prior use by the current visitors to the Corinthian church seem unnecessary in light of the rich, biblical tradition of this phrase.

not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

Paul articulates the nature, character, and power of the new covenant in contrast to the old covenant, the latter not mentioned specifically but presumed by the antithetical construction ("but") of what he says. It is really a microcosm of ideas which he will unpack in 2 Cor 3:7-12.

The key point of discussion among interpreters is what he intends to convey by his use of "letter" (gravmma, gramma ), used twice in this passage. Does he mean the words of the OT which require the insight of Christ's Spirit for people to truly understand? Though the plural word "letters" can in fact refer to the OT, as evidenced by 2 Tim 3:15, where it is translated by the NIV as "holy Scriptures ," the singular isn't used in this way. The literal sense normally refers to characters of a written language (Luke 23:28; Gal 6:11), to a posted "letter" (Acts 28:21), or to a book. One must keep in mind that Paul is speaking of covenant here, which comprised God's working relationship with Israel, different from "the Old Testament," which is a post-first century term for the Hebrew Scriptures.

Serious division occurs among interpreters over whether it simply refers figuratively to the old covenant law as such or to legalistic use of these laws, a distortion of their proper use. Under the first view, "letter" is synonymous with "law" and the very concept of law is seen as opposed to the new spiritual realities of the new dispensation. Important in this regard are Romans 2, particularly 2:27-29, where gramma is used twice (translated "the written code" by the NIV), and Rom 7:6, where gramma again appears. Both passages seem to offer no middle ground between law and Spirit. Indeed, it must be said in favor of this view that Paul's development of the issue in 2 Cor 3:7-18 does seem to distinguish any legalistic concept of law.

Yet, it must be said that however much he may distance law from spirit, even saying that it is used by "sin" to "put me to death" (Rom 7:11), he never jettisons the law completely, nor does he label it evil. In fact, Paul says the law itself "is good" (Rom 7:16); it is the evil within people that must be blamed for their sin and thereby their death (Rom 7:19). So, it must be an improper use of the law or, at least, some way of distorting the law which Paul has in mind.

"Letter" ( gramma ) refers to a superficial regard for the law, thinking that simply obeying it is all God wants. It consists of effectively worshiping the letters on the pages as if they are a golden statue instead of finding a relationship with the God who gave the laws as an act of his covenant born out of his love for humanity. It allows the words to be a barrier to God, keeping him forever at arms length. This way of dealing with covenant law indeed "kills" (ajpokteivnw, apokteinô). It kills meaningful life in this present world, and, if maintained apart from knowing Christ and receiving his Spirit, its result will be eternally lethal.

The "Spirit," in contrast "gives life" because he reaches into the heart and transforms the will to have the desire and the capability to overcome the lure of evil (Romans 8) and indeed to know what God wishes to be done or not done in life circumstances. The Spirit is not subject to the whims of interpretation as is law but convicts as the reader is open to be led. The Spirit puts believers in whom he indwells in direct relationship with God, with Christ developing the relationship, not mere letters or a distortion of them hindering it.

Notably, the word "give life" (zw/opoievw, zôopoieô) in the NT consistently is distinguished as a capacity of God (John 5:21; Rom 4:17; 1 Tim 6:13), of the Son (John 5:21) and Christ (1 Cor 15:22), of the Spirit, as here (1 Pet 3:18), and all three in their distinctive roles in Rom 8:11. Pointedly, however, giving life is not within the capacity of law (Gal 3:21), whether Jewish or of another cultural stripe. Law simply is insufficient for this noble task, so crucial for human existence in this life and in the next.

B. SUPERIOR TO THE OLD COVENANT (3:7-18)

1. Glory Unsurpassed (3:7-11)

3:7 Now if the ministry that brought death,

Paul picks up on "the letter kills" in 3:6 and probably also "the smell of death" back in 2:16 as he prepares to expound at greater length and from the scriptural base of Exod 34:29-35 on the unparalleled superiority of the new covenant in which he ministers to that of the old covenant administered by Moses (and those who follow in his footsteps) and the Jewish law. "Death" (qavnato", thanatos ) refers to physical death as a consequence of the law's judgment upon our sin as well as to the eternal, spiritual consequences of our inability to rectify our severed relationship with God under the old covenant or in any other way on our own.

"Ministry" (diakoniva, diakonia ) brings forward Paul's discussion on the subject initiated in 3:4-6, the related word "ministers" first occurring in 3:6. The word "ministry" will repeat three more times in this immediate context (3:8; 3:9 - twice), three more times in the extended context (4:1; 5:18; 6:3), and four more times specifying the Jerusalem collection (8:4; 9:1,12,13). In most cases Paul modifies "ministry" with another noun describing what servants in that ministry are helping to effect, here "death"; in 3:9, "the Spirit" and "righteousness"; and in 5:18, "reconciliation."

Paul's exposition on the superiority of the new covenant to the old hooks into the overall defense of his ministry against that of the opponents in the Corinthian church who have attacked his. Exposing the inferiority of the old covenant from the OT Scripture, specifically, a key incident in the life of Moses himself upon delivering the Law is a juggernaut he does not believe his opponents can squirm out of.

which was engraved in letters on stone,

The word "letters" (plural of gramma ) connects the two tablets of the Ten Commandments received by Moses to the kind of letters which "kill," referred to in 3:6. To say that the Ten Commandments (as the keystone for the entire system of Jewish law) kills is an astounding assertion which stabs the heart of Judaism. Paul had introduced "tablets of stone" in 3:3 as inferior to the writing of the Spirit, but his thoughts here are more inflammatory than imaginable.

He accents the irreversibility of the death outcome of this type of ministry by describing it as being "engraved," or "chiseled" into stone, like a headstone ordered by the undertaker (an appropriate contemporary association not likely shared by Paul's original readers). This dismal future for the law is cast from its beginning. It is not reversible as was the tombstone for Ebenezer Scrooge pointed to by the death angel's bony finger in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol .

came with glory,

The word "glory" (dovxa, doxa ) dominates Paul's thoughts here, being used eight times within the paragraph of 3:7-11, returning two more times in 3:18, and appearing another seven times in the rest of the book. In the OT and the NT, "glory" is always the quality of God which sets him apart from all else. This quality of his may be manifest in creation, in Israel, and especially in the sanctuary of the temple but also in Christ and in salvation, as Paul will draw out here. In some sense it is the magnitude of his presence but also the radiant effect of those who come into his presence, comparable to the moon's reflection of the sun's light. It is what God has and is which the rest of creation has only in reference to him.

As spoken of the people of Israel and their receiving of the law, it can rightly be said that Jewish law, epitomized by the Ten Commandments, reflects the character, purpose, and authority of God. As spoken of Moses, it is a staple of Jewish understanding, that Moses permanently retained the glorious effect of his personal contact with God upon receiving the Ten Commandments and as he continued to consult with God in the tabernacle.

It is paradoxical that Paul can associate what he calls the ministry of death with the glory of God. It is even more surprising that his fundamental point will be that both the ministry of death and the ministry of the Holy Spirit and righteousness are fueled by this same glory. The insurmountable difference is that under the old covenant people must be shielded from prolonged contact with this glory or be annihilated. Under the new covenant and ministry which Paul represents, people may now feast directly on the glory to their eternal exaltation. This is all the difference in the world, and for Paul, is made manifestly clear in the fact that Moses forever had to veil his face, protecting Israel from the full glory of the Lord.

so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory,

At this point, Paul attaches his argument directly to the narrative account lodged in Exod 34:30. The evidence that the glory of the Lord accompanied the Ten Commandments is Moses' face and the reaction of the Israelites to it. Paul's statement that they "could not look steadily" is conveyed by the word ajtenivzw (atenizô), used by Paul only here and in 3:13. It is more prominent in Acts (10 times) and consistently conveys the idea of "looking intently at," "gazing," or "staring," as when the disciples "look intently up" into heaven when Jesus ascends (Acts 1:10) or just before someone is miraculously healed as with the lame man at Lystra in Acts 14:9.

Exodus 34:30 never actually says the Israelites couldn't or wouldn't look at Moses, only that they "were afraid to come near him" because of the radiance of his face, concerning which Moses himself was at first unaware. However, the inference that they couldn't look had been drawn from the text by others in Jewish teaching previous to Paul as evidenced by Philo's rendition of the occasion, saying that when Moses descended from the mountain his face was so much more beautiful than before he had ascended that the eyes of those who stood in awe and amazement could not "continue to stand the dazzling brightness that flashed from him like the rays of the sun."

Paul seems to imply that the Israelites at first attempted to look at Moses but could not and had to turn away or shield their eyes. After Aaron informed Moses of the problem, he placed the veil over his face for their ease and protection. Their fear would certainly have arisen over the mysterious nature of what they saw, but the brilliance of Moses' face also probably inflicted their eyes with severe pain because, as we would understand today, continuing to look at something so bright would damage the retina. One can't help but be reminded of Paul's own similar experience on the Damascus road, narrated in Acts 9:3-9, when he is blinded by the light of Christ's presence at his own conversion.

In 2 Corinthians Paul refers to Moses only here and a bit later in this context, in 3:13 and 3:15. Elsewhere, Moses is mentioned by Paul only in Romans (5:14; 9:15; 10:5,19) and 1 Corinthians (9:9; 10:2). The mention of Moses in those places is incidental compared to here. Since Paul chooses other approaches to show the superiority of the new covenant to the old, for example in Romans and Galatians, it seems probable that his focus on this seminal aspect of Moses' "ministry" is prompted by the opposing forces in Corinth who tout Moses as their spiritual model.

Whether the opposition themselves drew upon Exodus 34 in a way which supported their teaching (which Paul specifically counters) is difficult to know for sure. They may have simply latched on to Moses as symbolic mentor for the importance of Christians following Jewish law. Paul, then, introduces this passage into the debate as a means of supporting the legitimate, spiritual leadership of Moses while at the same time demonstrating that the inferiority of the old covenant Moses represents to the new covenant Paul represents can be observed at its very initiation.

fading though it was,

Although the NIV translation "fading" parallels the RSV and NASB, such a rendering for the verb katargevw (katargeô), even as a passive as it is here, is unsupportable. If it does mean "fade," indicating gradual disappearance, this would be the only context in which Paul (who uses the word 21 other times) or anyone else in Greek literature uses the word this way. Understanding it correctly is crucial since Paul will use it three more times in this context (3:11,13,14) but never again in 2 Corinthians. Despite being present passive in all four uses in this context, the NIV only translates the participles found here and in 3:11 and 3:13 as "fade." The finite verb (katargei'tai, katargeitai ) in 3:14, referring to the removal of Moses' veil in Christ, is rendered "is taken away," indicating an abrupt, definitive action.

"Nullify," "destroy," "abolish" are the consistent renderings elsewhere in the NT, even by the NIV, and translations related to these are advocated as more appropriate in the name of consistency for this context by commentaries which consider the issue. These commentaries do so thinking that Paul primarily has in mind, not the glory of Moses' face but the glory of the old covenant which Moses represents. Despite the initial attraction of this line of thinking, if Paul intended only this, he would have juxtaposed katargeitai with "ministry" not with "glory," which is described as that of Moses' "face" (provswpon, prosôpon). Additionally, Paul is being made to use the verb katargeitai in the opposite sense that he uses it in Rom 3:31 in which he denies vehemently that "we nullify the law by this faith."

How does Moses' face relate to what Paul is talking about? The answer lies in Paul's anticipation of 3:13 and 3:14 in which he focuses on the veil which the Exodus text says Moses placed over his face. It is the veil by which the glory of Moses' face effectively "is nullified." Such a view is consistent with the generalized definition of katargeô found in the NIDNTT which states that "though katargeô is elusive in translation . . . its basic meaning of rendering something inoperative is clear and consistent."

The veil, then, obstructs or blocks the effect of Moses' glorious face, symbolizing the severe limitation of the Jewish legal system in providing people access to God's glory. That this limitation is indicated from the very beginning of receiving the law through Moses by the veil amounts to Paul's checkmate over his opponents.

Further support for this understanding comes from Jewish tradition. No rabbi ever that we know of even suggested that the glory on Moses' face ever faded or diminished. In fact, they glory in the opposite. It was believed that the brilliance of Moses' face remained steady throughout the rest of his life, even though it never comes up again outside of Exodus 34. He continued to cover himself with the veil forever after speaking to the people in this incident.

When katargeô is understood correctly, then, there is no need to suggest that Paul is going against Jewish tradition to make his point. It is more likely that he would want to make his point within the prevailing Jewish assumptions. Despite notice in many commentaries, Paul is not making a point here about the old covenant being transitory or temporary. If he wanted to say that, he could have drawn from other OT passages as he does in Romans and Galatians. Neither must one suggest that Paul believed Moses continued to wear the veil to deceive the people that his face still glowed with the glory of God, when in fact it was gradually losing its luster.

No, Paul maintains that his ministry and Moses' share in being empowered by the legitimate glory of God himself. Only for Moses, this had to be veiled or continual exposure to it would destroy the people because of their sin. In the ministry of the new covenant, when people are made righteous through the blood of Christ, the veil is removed, and people may indeed bask continually in the glow of God's powerful love and develop a direct, personal relationship with him like Moses.

Paul's point, then, would be better served by translating thÉn katargoumevnhn (tçn katargoumençn) "which is rendered ineffective" or "which is obstructed" rather than the NIV's "fading though it was." This is consistent with its function as an adjectival participle modifying "glory."

3:8 will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious?

Paul's rhetorical question expects a positive reply based on how he has described the inaccessibility of the glory working through Moses, having also associated it with the ministry of death. Paul's argument style of lesser to greater most likely imitates the same powerful approach employed by rabbis of his day, which one can observe him using also in Rom 5:9-17; 11:12,24; Phil 2:12; and Phlm 16.

Paul's argument presumes continuity between the two ministries, the one of death and the one of the Spirit and in fact states that this continuity is the presence of the glory of God in both. Paul will unpack his full thoughts on why the ministry of the Spirit is greater in what follows. For now, he draws upon what he said in 3:3, the obvious superiority of the actual, living, Spirit of God to mere letters on a page, or all the more, to letters carved in stone.

Although Paul expresses himself in the future tense, his sense should not be restricted to the eschatological future. His whole point is that this superior ministry of the Spirit coincides with his own ministry. Indeed, it has been operational since Pentecost when the Spirit came in full force upon the disciples. Prior to that, the Spirit enveloped the ministry of Christ himself. Though the Spirit does function in the OT, Paul presumes his audience will recognize the immense difference between that and what is going on in the NT period.

Paul does not normally come across as one who revels in the glorious cause so intricate to his life. He views true apostles as ignominious and himself as the runt of the litter, so described in 1 Cor 4:9-13 and later in this context, in 2 Cor 4:7-12. If he revels in anything, it is his own suffering for the cause of Christ. It is this very self-effacing feature of Paul that his opponents in Corinth may have latched on to and magnified in comparison with Moses in order to lure the Corinthians to their side. Moses, indeed, cuts a more charismatic figure as a leader than Paul. Following rules on a page is simpler to explain than following the Spirit. Perhaps for this very reason Paul attaches himself to glory superior to that of Moses.

The word "glorious" is actually a prepositional phrase "in glory" (ejn dovxh/, en doxç), the same as in 3:7, translated by the NIV as "with glory." Most likely Paul means to convey the same idea in both phrases, that both the ministry of death and the ministry of the Spirit develop out of the very glory of God, only the ministry of the Spirit more so.

3:9 If the ministry that condemns men is glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness!

Essentially, Paul restates his point in a formally constructed conditional clause which presumes that if the first clause is true or proven, the second clause is true also. In this case, with the idiom "how much more" (pollw'/ ma'llon, pollô mallon) he adds the lesser to greater wrinkle initiated in 3:8. He further emphasizes the superiority of the ministry of righteousness by inserting the verb perisseuvw (perisseuô), weakly translated as merely "is" in the NIV but which is normally translated "abound" or "overflow" (so translated by the NIV in every other instance in 2 Corinthians, 2 Cor 1:5; 3:9; 4:15; 8:2,7; 9:8,12) indicating more than enough or a surplus.

What Paul contrasted as the ministry of death and the ministry of the Spirit in 3:7-8, he now calls the ministry of condemnation and the ministry of righteousness here in 3:9. Both words, "condemnation" (katavkrisi", katakrisis ) and "righteousness" (dikaiosunhv, dikaiosynç), are employed as courtroom language outside the NT and are frequent in Paul's theological vocabulary of salvation. "Condemnation" means that the defendant is judged guilty of the crime and is sentenced to be executed. "Righteousness" is used to declare the defendant innocent and, thus, set free. In Romans 5:18-21, Paul also employs both words in the same context, describing man's deserved condemnation because of sin which is turned into a pronouncement of acquittal because of the actions of Jesus Christ in taking the deserved death sentence upon himself. The same sense seems to be presumed here.

How can one ministry which produces condemnation and another ministry which produces a declaration of righteousness both be "glorious," or associated with the glory of God? Despite the fact that the law comes from God, it is used by sin to pronounce all people irrefutably guilty, as Paul carefully explains in Romans 7. We deserve our just condemnation as our breaking of God's law makes perfectly plain. The law serves God's purpose of helping us know our defenselessness before him and enabling us to recognize our need for salvation which can only come as a free gift of God made possible by Christ's sacrifice. Sticking only to the law, as if it is some kind of alternative to Paul's ministry of righteousness, is a certain march into the gas chamber. The law can only condemn to death. The ministry which leads people to depend on Christ is infinitely superior because only in this way can people be pronounced righteous.

3:10 For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory.

Paul now provides an explanation, indicated by "for" (gavr, gar ), intended to support his pronouncement that the ministry of righteousness is superior to the ministry of condemnation. The NIV does a good job getting across the sense of this verse which is awkward in the Greek. Literally, Paul sets up an abrupt paradox, "what has been glorified has not been glorified." He could mean this in the sense that it has become un-glorified or, more consistent with his point, that its glory is now imperceptible given the arrival of a super-glory.

A common comparison to what Paul is saying is the relationship of the moon to the sun at night versus the day, or the difference between shining a flashlight at night to "shining" it in full sunlight. In the new situation, it still gives off light, but this is completely dwarfed by the full glory of the sun. The key word he uses to convey this is "surpassing" (a participle from uJperbavllw, hyperballô). It means to "go beyond," or "outdo," and Paul uses it elsewhere to describe God's grace (2 Cor 9:2; Eph 2:7), God's power (Eph 1:19), and the love of Christ (Eph 3:19). All of these are really immeasurable as is the glory Paul has in mind here. If it is immeasurable or infinite, then whatever glory, however real, given off by something else, may as well be zero, for all practical purposes.

Paul's statement supposes that the greater ministry arrived on the scene after the other had been up and functioning reasonably successfully for a period of time. He cannot simply be referring to Moses' glowing face but must have in mind also the legal institution of Israel initiated by God through Moses. The ministry of the "surpassing glory" is that of the new covenant in which Paul serves. With this language, Paul is not likely saying that the ministry of the new covenant builds upon the old. Rather, he is saying that the old has served its time and is now replaced. Because it comes from God also, it still has some legitimate function, but the new totally encompasses this and does what it was never designed to do. In technology, we could compare the computer to a typewriter, CD's to records, or soon, digital TV to current analog TV.

It should be noted that Paul's language is stronger than the NIV's "in comparison." The word being translated is eiJvneken, ( heineken ) which is routinely translated "because" elsewhere. It is important to see that Paul views the coming of the new covenant as the cause which shoves aside the ministry of the old covenant.

3:11 And if what was fading away came with glory, how much greater glory is the glory of that which lasts!

For the third time (previously 3:7-8 and 3:9), Paul sets up a conditional sentence as the vehicle for applying lesser to greater logic in contrasting the two ministries, that of the old covenant, Moses', and that of the new covenant, his. His language for doing this is exactly what he used in 3:9, "for if" (eij gavr, ei gar ) . . . "how much more" (pollw'/ ma'llon, pollô mallon), though the NIV has switched to "how much greater" here in 3:11 and drops out the "for" in both instances.

He contrasts the two ministries by describing the one as "what was fading away" (participle of katargevw, katargeô) and the other as "that which lasts" (participle of mevnw, menô). The latter is new to this context but is a common word in the NT translated variously as "remain," "endure," or "live." It describes permanence, something which will not be replaced. The other word was introduced first in 3:7 and received extensive attention when that verse was discussed. It will be reused in 3:13 and 3:14 and its meaning is central to Paul's thoughts here. As noted in 3:7, consistency demands that the translation "fade" be rejected and replaced by "nullify," or better "obstruct" in reference to Moses' veil.

Paul's point is not that the old covenant gradually dissipates but rather that its obsolescence is built into it from its inception, signalled by the need for a veil to cover the glory of Moses' face. It has now been abruptly replaced by the coming of a superior glory open for all to see in Christ through the gospel. This glory comes uncovered from the beginning indicating that it is everlasting, never to be replaced.

As before, Paul emphasizes that both covenants persist because of their relationship to God's glory. It is possible to argue that Paul's use of prepositions "through" (diav, dia ) in connecting God's glory to the covenant which is abolished and "in" (ejn, en ) in connecting God's glory to the covenant which endures reinforces the superiority of the latter. Most commentators are reluctant to rest too much on this since Paul refers to both covenants as being "in glory" in 3:7-8, and Paul is prone to vary his prepositions for stylistic purposes.

2. Glory Unobstructed (3:12-18)

3:12 Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold.

Paul intends to continue his exposition of Exod 34:29-34, which he will do in the verses which follow. First, though, he reconnects his analysis of two very different kinds of ministries to his initial concern in 3:1, the charge of rude, overconfident, self-commendation being leveled at him from his Corinthians opponents. His confidence - not arrogance though - comes directly out of knowing that he serves in a superior ministry, indeed, one that is infinitely superior to that of even Moses, exclaimed in 3:11.

The opening "therefore" (ou , ouv ) explicitly connects, then, the thoughts of 3:12-18 to those of 3:1. The word "hope" (ejlpiv", elpis ) gathers up Paul's exposition regarding the superior ministry of the Spirit conveyed in 3:7-11 into one word. It is not at all unique for "hope" to function in such a capacity. Paul and other NT authors subsume the totality of the Christian truth system within it elsewhere (Rom 8:24; Eph 8:1; 1 Pet 1:21). The word has the unique capacity to represent the truth of Christianity over against the falseness of other world-views, as well as convey all of this as the concrete basis for Christian behavior and expectation of complete, personal and corporate future fulfilment. "Hope" says that Christianity is everything everyone longs for deep within.

Paul asserts not only that he and others who serve in this superior ministry have such hope in their possession - the find of a lifetime - but that this gives them a distinct boldness in their conduct, which, indeed, may seem brash to those who do not understand the supreme nature of what they are part of. The translation "is" by the NIV unfortunately washes out the nuance of the Greek verb Paul uses here. The word kravomai ( kraomai ) usually is translated "make use of" or "employ" as in 2 Cor 3:10, or "act, proceed" as Paul just used it in 2 Cor 1:17. Paul is talking then about how Christian hope energizes his actions and his speech in the way he relates to people. Of course, this will characterize all those who serve in the powerful ministry of Jesus Christ back then, and still today.

The word translated "bold" (parrhsiva, parrçsia) is variously translated as "publicly," "plainly," "boldly," and "confidence." It has a significant history outside the NT. In classical Greek politics, it is the placard guaranteeing citizens free speech and, thus, the mention of "freedom" later in 3:17 is not likely coincidental. In Greek moral philosophy, "frankness" characterizes a person of honesty and good character. In Philo (a Greek-Jewish philosopher), the moral quality of the word moves into the spiritual realm as a gift of God and the fruit of wisdom (which comes from having a relationship with God). This particular word may have suggested itself to Paul because its literal meaning is "to uncover the head," the opposite of a veil, which covers the head, to be mentioned in the very next verse. A covered head may suggest shame in Greek culture, while an uncovered head suggests honest pride and self-confidence.

Paul's boldness should be taken as a sign of his confidence in who he is as God's servant and in the unequivocal truth of the gospel message. One should not be insulted by boldness in Paul or other Christians, even today, whether on abortion or creationism or any other controversial issue, but view this as evidence of moral and spiritual honesty and an exercise of free speech. Paul, then, is not afraid to say what he thinks regardless of the consequences, as shown by the Severe Letter he recently had written to the Corinthians, and really also by what is exhibited in 2 Corinthians itself, even right here. This will be even more evidenced in chapters 10-13, where Paul pulls no punches in reprimanding the Corinthians.

3:13 We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face

Paul specifically refers to Moses' regular practice, described in Exod 35:33-35, of donning a veil, likely a mask or hood of some kind, between his pronouncement of God's commandments to Israel and his visits with God in the tabernacle. He contrasts his own bold practices and that of others who serve the gospel ministry with Moses' concealing actions. He does not intend to imply that Moses himself is somehow shameful, timid, or deceitful but only that his ministry to the old covenant in itself is shown from its very initiation to be inferior to the ministry of the gospel. The veil itself, not Moses' intentions, is the symbol of this difference between the two ministries.

to keep the Israelites from gazing at it while the radiance was fading away.

Paul describes the purpose of the veil as preventive. It did not allow the Israelites to continue viewing Moses' face after he gave his pronouncements. Exod 34:29-32 indicates that after initially fleeing from Moses because of the pain to their retinas and fear of what this glow meant, the leaders and the people reassembled to hear the commandments. After this had been accomplished, Exod 34:33-35 mentions that Moses began to wear the veil and continued to wear it, except for the times he consulted with God and the times he proclaimed the laws God had revealed to him. So, the Israelites were not actually prevented from looking upon Moses' glowing face, only prevented from continually looking at it. Why?

Many seem to assume that the glow on Moses' face somehow faded in between his regenerating visits with God and go on to project that Paul believed Moses was deceptively concealing this truth about the temporariness of God's presence in the old covenant. However, this goes considerably beyond the description in Exodus, which says nothing about "fading" as noted in comments on 3:7. It also goes beyond Paul, since the word katargevw (katargeô) means "to render ineffective," abolish," "annul," even "obstruct" but not "fade" anyway (also noted in comments on 3:7). Perhaps, Moses dons the veil so that the people are not permitted to look at his glowing face during the mundane and routine, as a way of elevating the significance of the times he speaks directly for God. It may also ensure their submissive reverence when he reads the law by forcing them to look down.

Paul need not be forcing a sinister motive on Moses either, despite preponderance of this assumption in commentaries. Does Moses know the veil symbolizes the eventual displacement of the old covenant by the superior new covenant? This seems to be expecting too much of one who had only just received God's laws. Rather, it is Paul who interprets the veil this way and is capable of doing so from his perspective as an apostle of the new covenant. Such interpretive methodology is based upon Paul's view of biblical inspiration which as a matter of course identifies such OT words as this one (veil) to provide insight for those who are prepared to accept it in light of the new covenant. He approaches words like "seed" (Rom 4:13-17; Gen 17:17-19) and "credited" (Rom 4:1-3; Gen 15:6,22) in the same manner, planted by God's inspiration of biblical authors for people of the new covenant to discover.

The NIV "gazing" translates the same Greek word (atenizô) rendered in 3:7 as "look steadily." It would seem that looking briefly at Moses' face is quite possible, and is in fact done by the Israelites as they hear the laws spoken, but staring or looking continuously, it is implied, would be harmful, and, thus, is obstructed by the veil.

The NIV takes considerable liberty with the Greek in introducing the word "brilliance" into this sentence. It is certainly implied that it is the "glory" (dovxa, doxa ) of Moses' face which is being obstructed or nullified by the veil since the word does appear in the similar description in 3:7 and recurs numerous times in Paul's discussion in 3:7-11. However, the word does not occur in 3:13. In fact, it is notably replaced by a different word altogether. This word (tevlo", telos ), usually translated as either "end," in terms of termination, or "goal," in terms of purpose or objective, is translated by the NASB as "end." Paul's use of the word in Rom 10:4 to say that "Christ is the end of the law" is normally interpreted as goal rather than termination, but later in 2 Cor 11:15, he clearly uses the word in the sense of termination when he says regarding his Corinthian opponents: "their end will be what their actions deserve."

When applied here to 3:13, the most immediate conclusion is that Paul means telos to be understood as "termination" since it is modified by katargeô, the word for "annul" or "obstruct." Thus, the veil prevents the Israelites from witnessing the complete termination of the old covenant's abolishment. Most who hold this view presume that the Israelites would have been able to deduce the gradual annulment or the transitoriness of the law because if they could have peeked behind Moses' mask, they could have observed the glory "fading" from his face. The gradual fading aspect of this, suspect as it is, need not be tied to taking telos literally.

Paul could simply be saying that observing the termination of the old covenant was not possible for them, in any case, because God did not want them, or Moses for that matter, to know that then. But God does want Israel to know now, and he does want them to allow the Spirit to remove the veil - which could not be done back then - as Paul will conclude in 3:17-18. The fact that Paul switches from "glory" to "end" here would suggest, at least, that he intends readers to be moving away from thinking in terms of Moses' face literally to the real issue, which is the replacement of the old covenant by the new.

An alternative conclusion regarding the interpretation of "end" ( telos ) is that it should be taken figuratively as it is in Rom 10:4. In this view, the issue of what was occurring to Moses' face, quite rightly, is set aside, to focus on the issue of the old and new covenants. What the Israelites are prevented from seeing is the goal of the annulment of the law, which is Christ. Although an attractive view in some ways, it boils down to the absurdity that Moses conspired with God to keep people away from following Christ. Not only does this introduce a needless divine contradiction into the situation, it is also crudely anachronistic in introducing Christ into this early phase of Moses' relationship between Israel and God. It puts the cart before the horse.

It is the future, abrupt termination (not the gradual fading) of the covenant, even as they are just beginning to see it through Moses' pronouncements, which Israel can't see. Who could expect them to see it? This is no fault of theirs. All that can be expected of them, they do. They stand in awe and amazement that God is imparting the specifics of their covenant relationship with God through Moses in their own hearing. The veil which turns off their ability to see God in Moses' face during their everyday routines functions dually: 1) it protects them from ever approaching God casually, 2) for Paul and all who will observe the inspired use of the word in Exodus 34, it symbolizes that an immeasurably better covenant was yet to come, which God in his wisdom and providence did not allow them to know about then (note 3:14). Paul is saying in this text, let Israel celebrate in the first story of the house God is building, as described in Exodus. But now that the second, immaculate floor has been built, as constructed through Christ and the gospel and always in God's blueprints, let them now move into it and not remain in the comparatively drab first floor. Worse yet, let no one (even if well meaning) drag Gentile Christians like the Corinthians, who went directly to the second floor by following the gospel, back to the obsolete first floor. Let no one describe the ministry of bringing people to the second floor of God's house as inferior to bringing them into the first floor, when the opposite can be observed from Scripture.

3:14 But their minds were made dull,

Of the six times the word "mind" (novhma, noçma) appears in the NT, five are in 2 Corinthians (later, 3:14; 4:4; 10:5; 11:3). Paul recognizes that Christianity is a battle over the world of people's thoughts. Such a battle to see rightly God's plan will begin even with Moses and the Israelites.

The phrase "were made dull" comes from one word, the verb pwrovw (pôroô), which describes something turning into stone, like petrified wood, or even a kidney stone. Today, we might think of the hardening of concrete or the Snow Queen of Narnia turning people into statues. The word is not frequent in the NT. Three times it is used in the gospels in terms of one's heart (as opposed to the mind) hardening (Mark 6:52; 8:17; John 12:4) in the sense of being prevented from understanding. Paul's use may stem conceptually from Isa 29:10 and Deut 29:4 which he will also take up in Rom 11:7. It may just as well have come from early church tradition which knows of Jesus' citation of Isa 6:10, "Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull," which appears in John 12:40.

The fact that pôroô is passive reinforces the idea already suggested in the word's other biblical uses that the petrifying is not self-imposed but rather stems from God's own providential will, or at least that these are symbiotic. Such a divine passive suggests that during the time of Moses Israel was not prepared to be able to perceive what Paul and we today can deduce from this incident as recorded in Exodus 34. They cannot see that the veil suggests that the covenant they are receiving does not encompass all of God's plan. Their blinding is not just because of the veil. Remember, Moses only dons the veil after reading out the Lord's commandments. Their blinding is due to their own spiritual condition at that time. They are not ready to hear or to know that this covenant being read out by Moses will one day be scrapped and replaced. Why should they be? Now, in light of the cross and the resurrection, it is another condition altogether. The Israel of Paul's day - and ours - should be able to see.

Opening this clause with "but" (ajllav, alla ) seems puzzling at first because it is not obvious to what the desensitized minds of the Israelites is intended to contrast: the sharpened minds of whom? Most likely the contrast is not with Moses or someone else. Rather, it is with the possibly-conveyed wrong idea that the true barrier for the Israelites was the hood covering Moses' face. That, in fact, was merely symbolic of the actual spiritual barrier to their understanding that he means to address.

for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read.

Paul dramatically replaces the picture of the Israelites' listening to Moses read out the law as God had given it to him to the Jews of his own day hearing the Scripture read to them in their synagogues by the rabbis. The scenes are comparable because he says the barrier hood persists. Clearly, the hood is no longer the one over Moses' head but the one clouding people's minds in both scenes.

Paul emphasizes the abrupt transition of his ideas from ancient to contemporary by the way he expresses "this day," literally, "today's day." The word "read" (ajnavgnwsi", anagnôsis), assumes a public reading, not private or personal. Only the rich and the learned in ancient days possessed copies of Scripture. People heard it read to them in lectionary 3-year cycles, a practice maintained today in many churches as they present the OT, Gospel, and Epistle reading for each Sunday worship.

Many note that this is the first appearance of the term "old" attached to "covenant" in Scripture. This is an important division in Paul's mind both to separate and keep unified what he is talking about. The uninterrupted connection of God's glory and grace is continuous in God's covenant. The incalculable difference between the emphasis on law in the covenant previously and the emphasis on grace in the covenant now in Christ is subsumed under the terms "old" and "new." Paul does not use "new" in this immediate context but did just use it in 3:6. The idea of a "new" covenant in the NT is no doubt founded upon Jesus' institution of the Lord's Supper (Luke 22:20) but is developed primarily in Hebrews (9:15; 12:24).

Paul's reference to "old covenant" is not likely intended to describe the OT Scripture itself since the idea of the NT canon of Scripture does not emerge until the late second century. The old aspect of the covenant has primarily to do with its laws, particularly Jewish reverence for them which blocks understanding grace and the purpose of the cross.

It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away.

In Greek, "it has been removed" is one word, a participle (ajnakaluptovmenon, anakalyptomenon ) built upon the key word "veil" (kavlumma, kalymma ). Thus, it literally refers to "lifting the veil." Paul means to emphasize the stubborn permanence of the veil shutting out those Jews who do not accept Christ. It remains indefinitely, really forever, apart from Christ, as Paul will elaborate.

At face value, Paul's full statement appears self-contradictory: the veil cannot be lifted, but Christ can lift it. It also sounds like Jews yet await the lifting. Paul will explain his full meaning in the verses that follow. The veil remains firmly intact but only over the hearts of those Jews who fail to believe in Christ. The potential of having the veil removed is very much available and is what Paul desires to happen as he presents the gospel to his fellow Jews. He is also keenly aware of how the veil impedes his success.

The word "is taken away" (katargei'tai, katargeitai ) is the verb form of the word which the NIV has persistently translated "fade" when the participial form was used in 3:7, 3:11, and 3:13. Here, it becomes obvious that "fade" is not appropriate. Christ's action of "destroying," "annihilating," or "rendering it ineffective," is not gradual and slow. Christ's action of destroying the "old" approach to the covenant is as immediate as his death and resurrection. Just so, is the unveiling of Jewish hearts immediate upon their acceptance of Christ's work to reconcile them to God as opposed to their faith in the law.

3:15 Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts.

The sentence restates and clarifies what Paul has already said. What was referred to as the "old covenant" in 3:14 is now more tightly defined as "Moses," referring to the Pentateuch where the laws delivered to Moses are encased. Such a personalized way of titling the Pentateuch can also be found in 2 Chr 25:4, Neh 13:1, and Mark 12:26.

The veil is now described as covering "their hearts" rather than "their minds" with no apparent shift in meaning. Most notable is that the word translated "hearts" (kardivan, kardian ) is actually singular rather than plural. This signals that Paul views the blinded Israel as a collective whole and not so much as individual Jews. This coincides with his approach in Rom 9-11 when he contemplates their wholesale rejection of their Messiah in his own day.

Once again, Paul has in view the routine oral reading of the law within the synagogue.

3:16 But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.

Paul shifts from the specific context of unconverted Jews to a generic principle involved in the conversion of everyone, Jew or Gentile. So far, he has only specified a veil blocking Israel's full spiritual vision of God in Moses' day and surrounding most Jews of his own day. In spite of that, with his unspecified subject here, he begins to bring the reader back to his original concern, Gentiles who are being told they must obey Moses to be true Christians. In reality, a kind of veil restricted most Gentiles, including those in Corinth, from beholding the true glory and reality of God until the message of Christ became available to them. Ultimately, Paul means to point to the folly of Gentiles donning yet another veil, a decidedly Jewish one, when they had only so recently had their Gentile kind of veil removed.

The word "is taken away" (periairei'tai, periaireitai ), though the NIV translates it the same as the verb katargeitai in 1:14 , is different in Greek. Rather than meaning "render ineffective," the word here means "remove all around," in a military sense of destroying a city's walls or simply in taking a soldier's helmet from his head. The passive sense of the verb presumes that the person does not remove the veil himself, rather that God removes it.

The word "turn" (ejpistrevfw, epistrephô) is employed eight times in Acts to describe conversion (Acts 3:19; 9:35; 11:21; 14:15; 15:19; 26:18; 26:20; 28:27). The word is also used this way in 1 Thess 1:9 and 1 Pet 2:25. When the identity of the one being turned to is named as something other than "the Lord," as here, the one named is always "God" (Acts 3:19; 15:19; 26:20; 1 Thess 1:9) or assumed to be God, the only exception being 1 Pet 2:25.

Although the reference of "Lord," as being to God or Christ, or even the Spirit is much discussed, the above evidence makes it most likely that Paul has in mind "God." It is certainly true that Paul has already said that the veil is removed by Christ and Paul has been talking about Jews who have not been converted to Christ. However, the dominating visual idea of this context since 3:7 has been the issue of being prevented from seeing the glory of God , not Christ. Christian conversion is really turning to God through belief in the reconciliation made possible by Christ's sanctifying work anyway. It is not merely conversion to Christ. Even Jews of Moses' day and also of Paul's day are unable to "convert" fully to God because of the veil over their hearts Paul has been talking about. So, to say that Jews don't need to be converted to God as some do flies in the face of all that Paul has been saying here. Besides, his generic subject widens out his statement to include Gentiles, anyway.

Paul can certainly be speaking from personal experience about having the veil removed when one recalls his own dramatic conversion on the Damascus road.

3:17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

At first blush, it would seem that Paul is simply trying to define what he intended by "Lord" in 3:16. However, it is more likely that he desires to associate God with the transforming power of his Spirit which is so bountiful in the age of the new covenant as opposed to the old. Remember, in 3:3 and 3:6 Paul has already placed upon the Spirit the vitality which makes the new covenant fundamentally superior to the old, which must rely on the letter which kills. To connect the Lord, meaning God, to this Spirit, after all the other ideas he has presented since then is important as he moves to a conclusion of his whole argument.

With his mention of "the Spirit of the Lord," Paul gets as close as he will ever get in this passage to a christological reference. It is by the Spirit that Christ removes the veil. But we must be careful about splitting "the Spirit of the Lord" too neatly between God and Christ. Clearly, in NT theology, the Spirit is one entity of God, not two, but is interchangeably termed the Spirit of Christ and the Spirit of God (Rom 8:9). It is to the one Spirit, who transforms Christians, that Paul refers, even though the origin of the Spirit as from God or from Christ is multilayered here.

As noted in comments on 3:12, the mention of "freedom" (ejleuqeriva, eleutheria ), despite being the only use of the word in 2 Corinthians, does not really come out of the blue as it may first seem to the casual reader. Its connection to the word "bold" (parrhsiva, parresia ) had long been a staple of political rights in Greek democratic philosophy. Although Paul seems to take for granted that freedom and the Spirit are intertwined, he develops his thoughts in this regard in Romans 8 and Galatians 4-5. Galatians 4 (particularly 4:6-7) maintains that Christians are no longer slaves of sin but sons of the Father, and Galatians 5 (particularly 5:18) asserts that a person led by the Spirit is no longer under law. Romans 8 (particularly 8:2) declares that a Christian has been set free from the law of sin and death by the "Spirit of life."

The freedom Paul has in mind in this context is freedom not only from the law and sin but also the freedom to boldly radiate the glory of God in spreading the true gospel of Christ. The Spirit in the life of the Christian is this full glory of God, impossible to perceive until Christ came along and still unavailable to Jew or Greek apart from conversion to belief in Christ. Freedom is also Paul's boldness against his opposition in Corinth, as well as the signature of the superiority of the new covenant to the old.

3:18 And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect ^a the Lord's glory,

^a 18 Or contemplate

Paul now describes the results of the freedom all believers have. This freedom makes it possible not only to see the full glory of God unhindered but also to have this glory actively reconfiguring their own lives so that they show forth more and more the character of God for others thereby to see God's glory.

Few commentaries support a translation like the NIV's "reflect" for the Greek word katoptrivzomai ( katoptrizomai ) . Not used outside the NT, the word can mean simply "look at," "look at oneself as in a mirror," or "reflect." The translation "reflect" leaps too quickly over the primary meaning in order to connect to the idea of Christians reflecting Christ in their lives. It forgets that the "we" in this passage contrasts not with Moses, who reflected the glory of God, but to Israel, who cannot look steadily on Moses' face, and to unbelieving Jews and Gentiles, whose minds and hearts are veiled.

First and foremost, Paul must be saying that true believers, because of Christ, can and do look directly at the glory of God without fear or damage. This is the impenetrable difference between the new and old covenant he has been getting at throughout this context.

Second, though, he is implying that what believers are looking at is in fact Christ, the perfect image of God's glory. Thirdly, he will go on to elaborate that believers, through the Spirit of God/Christ, are undergoing reconstruction to reflect the glory of God seen in the face of Christ. So, they are looking in a mirror, but what they see are themselves looking more and more like Christ, who is himself a perfect reflection of the glory of God.

The difficulty in translation is that Paul is trying to get across multiple ideas with the one word. However, the consensus of current commentators, "looks at as in a mirror" best allows these layers to be fleshed out as the rest of the verse unfolds.

Some bring up the point that ancient mirrors were polished metal and not glass, and so did not reflect perfect images as they do now. Thus, Paul would be referring either to Christ in human flesh as an imperfect reflection of God's glory or Christians as imperfect reflections of Christ. However, it is not likely that Paul would make such significant distinctions based on such a subtle point. Neither is it at all clear that ancients viewed their mirrors as flawed (since they can't compare theirs to ours). In fact, Corinth as a city prided itself on the high quality of their polished bronze mirrors. It is best, therefore, to understand that Paul perceives the metaphorical mirror to reflect true images.

are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

Paul only uses the word "transformed" (metamorfovw, metamorphoô) elsewhere in Rom 12:2 where he calls Christians apart from the world to demonstrate to others the true nature of God. This Greek word comes across into English as "metamorphosis," commonly used to describe the spectacular changeover of caterpillars to butterflies. Today, we might also compare the idea to "transformer" toys which can change from trucks into helicopters. Paul affirms that believers are in the process of such a dynamic change in a spiritual and moral sense. The character of God is emerging in human lives as the Spirit does its work.

In the classical Greek period, it was believed that when a human looked upon a god or goddess, this would result in both physical and spiritual changes, and the word "transformed" was used to describe this. Nonbiblical Jewish writers in the intertestamental period also wrote of the transformation of God's elect who behold the glory of God in the coming eschatological day. Paul seems informed by both of these ideas, with the Christian distinction that the eschaton begins for believers at their conversion. The rest of their lives move toward that final conclusion of total transformation into the image of God from which men and women were stamped in the first place, as Gen 1:27 describes.

"Likeness" (eijkwvn, eikôn), also translated "image" sometimes, is a key word in Paul's concept of humanity and christology. In just a few more verses, he will speak of Christ as the "image of God," as he does elsewhere (Col 1:15). He can also speak of people bearing the image of Adam, "the earthly man" with the potential of bearing the image of Christ, "the man from heaven" (1 Cor 15:49). Indeed, "being conformed to the likeness of his Son" appears to be the ultimate destiny of all believers (Rom 2:9). In this passage, Paul seems to envisage believers becoming like Christ in that Christ is the image of God. He appears to be playing off the mirror presumed in the earlier word, "reflect." As Paul uses them here, "image" and "glory of God" are virtually synonymous, which the next phrase suggests.

"Ever-increasing glory" literally is "from glory to glory." Basking in the glory of God is permanent for believers as opposed to the situation of the Israelites back with Moses. Its effect on believers is ever-transforming. It is not that more of God's glory is revealed. Rather, it is that more is made evident in believers as they increasingly are empowered to overcome their sinful urges and live within God's will living through the power of the Spirit. One cannot help but contrast this totally new way of living to the way the Jews lived under the law, confined and powerless.

With "Lord," Paul reasserts one more time that it is indeed the glory of God that believers are beholding in Christ and which is causing the effects of God's glory to continue to grow in them. He also, one more time, connects the Spirit of God indwelling believers with the full glory of God which could not be viewed permanently by Israel. He also presumes that believers know this is one and the same with the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit, they received upon their conversion.

With 3:7-18, Paul has now shown the superiority of the new covenant over the old, the second step in defending the legitimacy of his apostolic ministry.

-College Press New Testament Commentary: with the NIV

McGarvey: 2Co 3:18

But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit . [Now, Jesus is that Spirit or new covenant of which I have been speaking (2Co 3:3 ; 2Co 3:6 ; 2Co 3:8); and where that new covenant is, there is liberty, especially the liberty of seeing. Those living under Moses, as I have said, are veiled so that they can not see Christ in their dispensation, but all we who live under the new covenant see the glory of Christ with unveiled faces as he is mirrored in that new covenant -- our dispensation; and our faces, like that of Moses, are transformed at the sight, reflecting the glory of what we see even as the glory shines upon us from the Lord, who is indeed the very covenant itself. However, none of the ministers of Christ, not even the apostles (2Co 5:16), continually beheld Christ glorified as an objective reality, for it is only in our future state that we shall thus look upon him, and that look will fully effect the transformation into his likeness which our knowledge of him in the gospel has been slowly working out within us during our earthly life -- Joh 17:24 ; 1Jo 3:2 ; Col 3:3-4 ; Rom 8:17 ; Phi 3:12-14 ; Col 1:27]

Lapide: 2Co 3:1-18

CHAPTER III.

SYNOPSIS OF THE CHAPTER

i. Paul asserts that he does not seek or need the praise of men, as the Judaising false apostles sought it: the fruit of his preaching is, he says, sufficient commendation.

ii. He states (ver. 6) the cause of this to be that the Apostles and other ministers of the New Testament and of the Spirit were adorned by more honour and glory than were Moses and the other ministers of the Old Testament and of the letter.

iii. He points out (ver. 13) that the Jews have still a veil over their heart in reading the Old Testament, and so do not see Christ in it; but that they will see Him when this veil shall be taken away by Christ at end of the world.

Ver. 1.— Do we begin again to commend ourselves? At the end of the Apostle had seemed to praise himself and seek the favour of the Corinthians, hence he meets here any suspicion of vain glory.

Or need we. . . epistles of commendation to you . . . or from you? ie., written by you to commend me to others.

Ver. 2.— Ye are our epistle. You, 0 Corinthians, converted by my efforts, are to me like an epistle of commendation read and understood by all, which I can show as my credentials to whom I like. As the work recommends the workman, and the seal faithfully is represented by its image, so do you commend me as though you were a commendatory letter, sealed by yourselves. For all know what you were before your conversion—drunken, gluttonous, given up to impurity and other evil lusts. Corinth was then an emporium, as famous for its vices as its wares. But now all men see that you have been completely changed, through my preaching, into different men—temperate, chaste, meek, humble, devout, liberal. This your conversion, therefore, is my commendatory letter, i.e., the public testimony of my preaching before all people.

Written in our hearts. You have been converted by me, and indelibly written and engraven on my heart. This "epistle" was twice written by S. Paul. (1.) He wrote it actually when he instilled into the mind of the Corinthians the faith and Spirit of Christ. (2.) He wrote it and imprinted it on his own heart by his care and love of them. (3.) Christ again was inscribed on their hearts by Paul's ministry, as if by a pen; and Christ, Himself, by Paul's preaching, imprinted on them his faith, hope, charity, and other graces, not with ink, but by the inspiration of the Spirit of the living God, who filled their hearts with charity and all virtues.

Ver. 3.— In fleshy tables of the heart. Not in hard stone, as was the law of Moses, but in a heart tender, soft, and teachable. There is an allusion to Jer 32:33. The Apostle, we should notice, makes a distinction between σάρκινος, used here, and οαρκικός : the first denotes the natural condition of flesh—its softness, &c.; the other that which has the vices and corruptions of flesh. Cf. Rom 7:14 and 1Co 3:3. Other writers, however, do not observe this distinction. Nazianzen, e.g., applies the latter of these terms to the incarnation and manhood of Christ.

Ver. 4.— And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward. The Greek word used here, denotes that confident conviction which makes the mind strive to attain some difficult end that it longs for, as though it were certain of success. Such is the confidence which is inspired into the Saints by the Holy Spirit enabling them to work miracles or other heroic works of virtue. This confidence God is wont to demand as a fitting disposition, and to give beforehand, both in him who performs and in him who receives the benefit of the miracle or other Divine gift, in order that the soul may, by this gift, expand and exalt itself, and become capable of receiving Divine power.  S. Paul says in effect. "This confident persuasion that you are our epistle, written by the Spirit of the living God, we have before God through the grace of Christ; we have hope and sure confidence in God that, as He has begun, so will He finish this epistle by His Spirit." In the second place this trust is the confidence S. Paul had before God, which enabled him to glory confidently in God of this epistle of his and of God, and of the dignity of his ministry, and of its fruit, when compared with the ministry of Moses and of other Old Testament ministers.

Ver. 5.— Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves. To think anything that is good and is ordained to faith, grace, merit, and eternal salvation, so as to make a man an able minister of the New Testament. But if no one is able to think any such thing, he is still less able to do it. Cf. Council of Arausica (can. 7) and S. Augustine ( de Prædest. Sanct. c. ii.).

1. From this passage S. Augustine lays down, in opposition to the semi-Pelagians, in which he is followed by the Schoolmen, that the will to believe and the beginning of faith and salvation, and every desire for it, come, not from free-will but from prevenient grace. Hence Beza wrongly charges the Schoolmen with teaching that the beginning of good is from ourselves, though weakly and insufficiently; for they all alike teach that the beginning of a good and holy life, of good thoughts and actions, and salvation in general is supernatural, and has its origin in the grace of God, not in nature or the goodness of our will.

2. Calvin is mistaken in inferring from this passage that there is no power in free-will which may be exerted in the works of grace, but that the whole strength and every attempt and act spring from grace. The Apostle says only that free-will is in itself insufficient, not that it has no power whatever. Just as an infirm man has a certain amount of strength, but not enough for walking, and has enough for walking if any one else help him, and give him a start and support, so too free-will is of itself insufficient for good works, but is sufficient if it be urged on, strengthened, and helped by prevenient grace.

It may be said that the sufficiency Paul speaks of here may be, as Theophylact and the Syriac render it, power, strength, or might. I answer that this is true; for the power and strength of free-will for a supernatural work, and of grace, which makes it supernatural, pleasing, to God, and worthy and meritorious of eternal life, are not from free-will, but from exciting and co-operating grace. When free-will has this, it is sufficiently able to believe freely, to love, and to work any supernatural work whatever. For free-will has for every work natural strength able to produce a free work; therefore these two causes concur here in the same work, one natural, viz., free-will, the other supernatural, viz., grace. Each, too, has its corresponding effect: the effect of grace is that it is a supernatural work, of free-will that it is free and the work of man. In the same way an infirm man is not only not strong enough, but wholly unable to walk, because it is a task beyond his strength; but he becomes able if he is given strength by a friend, or from some other source, and then he unites his own strength, however little it be, with that lent to him, and is able to walk. Still the strength that comes from without has to start him and begin his walking, and the whole force and energy with which he walks is to be found in the strength that is given him. That he tries to walk beyond his strength is not from himself but from without; but when it is once given, he puts forth his own strength and co-operates with it, and produces an effect commensurate to his efforts. In the same way free-will co-operates with exciting grace, and acts as a companion to it in every super- natural work in such way as its strength enables it.

We learn from this passage to recognise in every good work our own weakness, and to ascribe to Christ's grace all the goodness and worth of what we do. S. Gregory ( Morals, lib. xxii. c. 19), says: " Let no one think himself to have any virtue, even when he can do anything successfully; for if he be abandoned by the strength that cometh from above he will be suddenly overthrown helplessly on the very ground where he was boasting of his firm standing."  S. Augustine ( contra Julian, lib. ii. c. 8) commends the refutation of the Pelagians by S. Cyprian in the words: " They trust in their strength and exclaim that the perfection of their virtue is from themselves; but you, 0 Cyprian, reply that no one in his own strength is strong, but is safe only under the merciful indulgence of God." The Psalmist, too, says the same thing (Psa 59:9): "My strength will I guard unto Thee," meaning that he would lay it up in safety under his ward, hoping to over-come his enemies in God's strength and not in his own, because God is the Fount of all virtue and strength. Cf. Ezek 29:3:5, where Pharaoh is forewarned of his fate for ascribing his power and success to himself.

Again, this passage teaches us to pray to God constantly that He would direct our thoughts, and inspire us with heavenly thoughts and desires, for such are the fount and beginning of all good works. This is beautifully expressed in the Collect for the Ninth Sunday after Trinity. S.Bernard ( Serm. 32 in Cantic.) says learnedly and piously: " Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything good as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God. When, therefore, we find evil thoughts in our heart, they are our own; if we find a good thought, it is the word of God: Our heart utters the former and hears the latter. ' I will hear,' it says, ' what the Lord God will say in me, for He shall speak peace to His people.' So, then, he speaks in us peace, righteousness, godliness; we do not think such things of ourselves, but we hear them within ourselves; but murders, adulteties, thefts, blasphemies, and such things proceed from the heart: we do not hear them, we say them," or at all events they are suggested to us by the devil.

Ver. 6.— Not of the letter but of the spirit. Not of the law, but of grace. I am a minister of the New Testament, but not in such a way that I bring tables of the law and of the covenant and its words, as did Moses in the Old Testament, but so that God may by my words inspire into you heavenly thoughts and desires. Cf. Augustine. ( de Spirit. et Lit. c. iii.).

For the letter killeth. (1.) Chrysostom, Ambrose, Augustine ( de Doctr. Christ. lib. iii. c. 4) explain this to be that the letter of the law convicts and condemns them to death who do not obey this letter, i.e., the precepts of the law relating to righteousness and charity. For this letter of the law enacts that whosoever breaketh the law is to die the death. (2.) S. Augustine gives another explanation. If you abuse the literal meaning, and neglect the sense of Scripture, and fall into error, as Jews and heretics do, then the letter killeth. (3.) When metaphorical sayings are taken literally (S. Augustine, ibid. c. v., vi.). (4.) When types of the new law contained in the old are understood to be still binding in their literal meaning ( ibid. Cf. also Origen, contra Celsum, lib. iii.; Didymus, de Spirit. Sanct. lib. iii.). The Fathers in general frequently say that the letter, i.e., the literal meaning of the law killeth, but the spirit, i.e., the spiritual and allegorical meaning, giveth life. This is because it is not now lawful to Christians to observe the ceremonies and ritual precepts of the old law literally under penalty of death; but they are bound to do what those ceremonies allegorically signified if they wish to attain the life of grace and glory. (5.) S. Augustine again in the same place says that the letter, both of the old and new law, killeth if separated from the spirit; but that this passage refers to the old law alone, because Moses, when he gave the law, gave only the letter, but Christ gave the spirit and the letter, and from this he lays down that the law cannot be fulfilled by the strength of nature alone, but requires the grace of Christ. (6.) S. Augustine once more and Anselm say that the letter killeth by giving occasion to sin; for the law is the occasion by which concupiscence is kindled and sin produced which kills the soul. This sense and the first are the most literal.

But the Spirit giveth life. (1.) The Spirit gives to the soul the supernatural life of grace and charity. (2.) He gives motives and strength for good works and for fulfilling the law. (3.) He guides us towards that eternal life promised by the law to them that keep it. Of this life and Spirit the Apostles were sent by Christ as ministers.

Ver. 7.— If the ministration of death . . . was glorious. If the ministration and promulgation of the old law, which threatened and brought death and condemnation, were glorious, i.e., accompanied by thundering and the sound of the heavenly trumpet, by an earth-quake and the splendour of Moses' countenance: if the old law, engraven on tables of stone, was so gloriously promulgated, how much more glorious is the Gospel?

Paul here calls the old law the attendant and lictor of death, because it could indeed slay them that broke it but not give life to them that kept it. From this we may gather that S. Paul is writing against the false apostles, and that they were Jews who were endeavouring to blend the old and the new law. He therefore silences the Jews by depreciating the old law as the law of condemnation, and by extolling himself and his fellow-apostles as the ministers of the evangelical law of righteousness and the life of the Spirit. Cf. in this connection chaps. x. and xi.

Ver. 8.— How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious? This glory of the evangelical law of righteousness was seen in the mighty wind and the different tongues of fire which, when the new law was promulgated, glorified the Apostles before all nations. It was seen too in the gifts of tongues, of prophecy, &c., which used to descend visibly on Christians, as appears from 1Co 14:26; even as now the graces, gifts and virtues of the Holy Spirit are received invisibly.

So that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance. God as a sun so brilliantly shone on the face of Moses on the mount that his face shone as a second sun. The Vulgate rendering of Exo 34:29 is that "he wist not that his face was horned while He talked with him," where the "horns" of course refer to the appearance of rays of light.

Which glory was to be done away. This bright glory left Moses when he was dying, to signify that the old law would fade away with its glory when the new came.

Ver. 10 . — For even that which was made glorious, &c. For, by a common Hebraism, is here assertive, not causal. The glory of Moses cannot be called glory when compared with that of the Apostolic office, which far excels it. " As," says Theodoret, " the light of a lantern shines at night, but is at noonday overpowered by the sun, so was the glory of Moses overshadowed by Christ." This is the bearing of the phrase "by reason of the glory that excelleth."

Ver. 12.— Seeing then that we have such hope. Since the Lord diffuses the spirit of grace by us His Apostles, we have hope that He will hereafter give us glory far beyond that of Moses.

We use great plainness of speech. We preach the Gospel boldly, freely, frankly, openly.

Ver. 13. — And not as Moses, which put a vail over his face. Moses veiled his face, but we do not veil the face of Christ, but with great freedom bid all gaze upon it. From Exo 24:33 we gather that Moses in his first interview with the people spoke to them with unveiled face because of the reverence due to the majesty of the law, but that he afterwards veiled his face that he might with the greater freedom speak to them. But when he entered the tabernacle (Exo 33:8), to converse with God, he took away the veil. In this and the next three verses, S. Paul gives the allegorical meaning of this veiling; for to the Jews the Old Testament is covered with a veil, so that they do not see the light of the New Testament, and Christ contained in it. From us, however, Christ has taken away the veil, and will take it away from the Jews when they are converted at the end of the world.

S. Gregory ( Pastor. pt. iii. c. 5) says tropologically: " The preacher should, like Moses, suit himself to his hearers: what is deep ought to be concealed from many that hear, and be opened out to very few. "

That the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end. This is the reading of the Greek MSS., the Syriac, and the older Latin authors, as Ambrose, but the Latin reads to the face. The end is Christ, mystically signified by the unveiled brightness of the face of Moses, as Ambrose and Theodoret say. Others take it more literally: they could not look on the perfect splendour of the face of Moses, or again, they could not look on the extremity of the surface of his face. Theophylact again explains it: "The ignorant Israelites could not see that the law was to have an end and be abolished." But this is a mystical meaning; the second is the literal meaning.

Which is abolished. The splendour of Moses was to be abolished, or the brightness of his face. These words may refer either to the face or to the veil, but it is better to understand them of the veil, especially as the following verses refer to the removal of the veil of Moses by the light of the law of the New Testament.

Theodoret observes that the sun-like splendour of the face of Moses typified the glorious brightness of the law of Christ, while the veil typified the shadow under which the dumb ceremonies of Moses lay. The Jews have not even yet been able to see the face of Moses without the veil, because they unbelievingly insist on the reality of their shadowy ceremonies, and have no eyes for the light of the Gospel.

Ver. 14 . — But their minds were blinded. They were blinded by the brightness of the face of Moses, and, allegorically, blinded by the Gospel light. As this clause is the antithesis to the preceding both meanings are included.

Until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament. The Apostle is still continuing the allegorical sense. Moses and the Old Testament till to-day are veiled to the Jews, so that they cannot see that Christ is signified by so many figures, prophecies, ceremonies, and sacrifices. Again, the Old Testament is veiled to them, because they read it but do not understand its meaning nor see its end and intent, its light and splendour, which is Christ: the eyes of their mind are dull and heavy, as formerly were the eyes of their body when they could not gaze on the shining face of Moses.

Which vail is done away in Christ. This veil, by the grace and faith of Christ is removed, so that we can clearly see Christ foreshadowed in the Old Testament.

Ver. 15.— The vail is upon their heart. This veil is the foolish pertinacity with which the Jews still stubbornly cling to the carnal sacrifices and rites of the Old Law, and so are blinded that they cannot see Christ typified by them

Ver. 17 . — Now the Lord is that Spirit. (1.) The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not body but spirit. Spirit in this explanation is taken essentially for what is common to the Three Persons. So S. Ambrose. (2.) Spirit here way stand for the Holy Spirit: the Greek MSS. have the definite article, and Roman Bibles and others spell it with a capital; for the Jews acknowledge one Lord and God, but deny that there is a plurality of Persons, and that the Holy Spirit is God. When the Jews shall have the veil taken away and shall be converted to the Lord and to belief in the Blessed Trinity then will they serve the Lord their God, not in the letter, with dumb corporeal ceremonies, but in the spirit. The God to whom they shall be converted is Spirit, and the Holy Spirit will give them the law of the Spirit of liberty, that with the eyes of their spirit they may see Christ veiled, under the law, and may worship Him in spirit and in truth. Cf. S. John iv. 23. S. Augustine ( ad Serapion ) thus explains this last passage: " We must worship the Father in truth, i.e., in the Son and Holy Spirit. We must worship the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit." But this is the mystical meaning.

Literally, Christ said this against the Samaritans and Jews, for the Samaritans worshipped God with worship that was false and devised by themselves, and so worshipped God together with idols; consequently the God of their worship was not the true God, but a created god of their imaginations, and the companion of idols. The Jews worshipped the true God indeed, but under fixed corporeal signs, which were shadows of things to come. To both of these Christ opposes Christians, who worship God in spirit and not in corporeal signs, and in truth instead of in shadows, falsehood, and ignorance. God is an incorporeal and pure Spirit. Spirit, therefore, in this passage denotes the spiritual worship of faith, hope, charity, and other virtues, by which God is worshipped in truth, i.e., most truly, rightly, and properly, and not by shadows. Wherefore the sacraments and ceremonies of the New Law, since they are not shadows of the Old Law, but ornaments and helps of the Spirit, belong to the Spirit. Theophylact, Theodoret, Chrysostom thus explain the passage, and prove from it against Macedonius that the Holy Spirit is God.

It may be said that the same Spirit is afterwards called "the Spirit of the Lord." How, then, is He the Lord? The answer is: He is "the Lord" because He is God; He is "of the Lord" because He proceeds from the Father and the Son.

And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. Liberty denotes a spontaneous, frank, free, and clearly illuminated will. Now that the veil of Moses has been taken away, we can, with clear and spontaneous will, walk according to the law of God. So Theophylact.

Notice that liberty is not here opposed to the obligation of law, Divine or human, as heretics think, but both to the veil of Moses, or the obscurity of the Old Law, and to the letter, or to the servile compulsion, fear, and deadness of the law. This liberty, therefore, is twofold. See notes to ver. 6.

1. Liberty is, says Chrysostom, an understanding, and clear knowledge of the mystery of the Trinity, of the incarnation, and other things that are obscure to the Jews. It is also a knowledge of true religion and of Divine worship, which the Jews supposed to consist in the sacrifice of bulls and goats, though God wills to be worshipped in spirit and in truth. Just as heaviness, dulness, perplexity, and ignorance of the understanding, which hold the mind as it were fast bound in chains, are rightly called slavery, so on the other hand illumination of the intellect and clear knowledge are rightly called liberty, because the mind, set free from ignorance, error, and crass conceptions, is able to freely devote itself to truth, to God, to things spiritual and Divine. Hence Aristotle, Plutarch, Seneca, and others used to say that the wise man alone was free.

2. Liberty, as S. Augustine says, is to be found in the affections and in the love of righteousness, in freedom from fear of punishment, in the spontaneous fulfilling of the law from love of virtue, and not from fear of punishment. This free spirit of Christian love is contrasted with the slavery of Jewish fear. This is evident from the context. The Begardi, three hundred years ago, and the Suencfeldiani and Libertines of the present day, are therefore as impious, as ignorant, and foolish ( a ) in rejecting, on the supposed authority of ver. 6, the written word of God, as though it were a sun that had set, and in holding that the light within is sufficient for our guidance; ( b ) in teaching that a holy and perfect man is set free from the law and does not sin, even if he commit fornication. ( c ) They are followed by many others, who deduce the invalidity of all human laws. Cf. Bellarmine ( de Justific. lib. iv. c. 3 and 4), and Belliolanus, in the fifteen books he wrote on Christian Liberty. S. Augustine ( de Continentia, c. iii.) says excellently: " We are not under a law which orders good and does not give it, but we are under grace, which makes us love what the law orders, and which can, therefore, give orders to free men." Cf. the same Father ( de Spirit. et Lit. c. x., and de Natura et Grat. c. 57).

Ver. 18 . — But we all with open face. The open face is that of Christ incarnate or of the mysteries of the faith. We, looking on them, see the glorious Godhead of the Lord and His grace, and the work of our redemption foreshadowed in Moses and the Old Testament.

Beholding as in a glass. "Seeing as in a mirror, not beholding as from a watch-tower," says S. Augustine ( de Trin. lib. xv. c. 8); but Erasmus renders the passage, "representing in a mirror," because he says this is the image of the glory of God. But the Greek verb is clearly to see, not represent in a mirror, and besides the representation is spoken of in the next phrase, "are changed into the same image." Since we see the glory of God in Christ and His Gospel, as though in a mirror, we are by this transformed into the same image of God, and we represent in ourselves this glory. This mirror, therefore, is the cause of the image, not the image itself.

The Apostle here means by mirror the Word clothed in flesh, and made visible, and whatever is put before our eyes in the Gospel and in the Church, and he contrasts all this with Moses veiled. Hence, in the next chapter, he speaks of the image of God ; for Christ as God is the Word and image of the Father, as Man He is the mirror of the Deity and His grace and glory; consequently the Gospel of Christ is nothing but a most clearly polished mirror of the glory of God. Hence S. Augustine calls his "Sentences" a mirror.

"Mirror" may also be taken here to mean the faith through which, as through a mirror darkly, we behold God and the things of God. Cf. notes to 1Co 13:12.

Are changed into the same image. Not essentially, as though our essence were changed into the Divine Essence, or into its archetypal being, which it had in God from eternity before it was created, of which S. John speaks when he says, "That which was made was in Him life." This is the error of Almaric and other fanatics, which is refuted by Gerson in his two epistles written against Ruisbroch, and of Ruisbroch himself ( de Vera Contembl.). But we are changed per accidens, i.e., by the rays of the light of Christ being reflected on us as from a mirror, we become bright with the light of the faith and grace of Christ, and so we become like mirrors flashing out the light of heaven, and like suns illuminating others, as Chrysostom and Theophylact say. Nay, we become as gods, sharing in the Divine Nature, as S. Peter says. "God foreknew and predestinated us to be conformed to the image of His Son," says S. Paul. He alludes to Moses, who, beholding God and conversing with Him, received the rays of light reflected from God, as was said in the note to ver. 7. Moses did not see God Himself, but in a glorious, assumed body which acted as a mirror. Tertullian ( contra Marcion, lib. v.) reads here, we are transfigured, as though Paul was alluding to the transfiguration of Christ on Mount Tabor, when Christ, brilliant with the light of His glory, shed it over Moses and Elias and the Apostles, and as it were transfigured them. In the same way, by the Gospel and the grace and faith of Christ, we are transformed and transfigured, inasmuch as we are made partaker of the truth, brightness, and glory of God, so that we are able to communicate them to others, and at last we reflect them on God Himself, from whom they first came.

"The whole life of Christ," says S. Augustine, "which was spent as man on earth, was a mirror giving us a pattern of good living." How wise are they who gaze constantly into this mirror, and do all they can to conform their lives to it, and so are transformed into different men, into heavenly, angelic, and Divine beings!

From glory to glory. (1.) From the glory of Christ into our own glory, so that we become clear and bright with grace and wisdom, even as Christ. (2.) From the brightness of faith into the brightness of sight. (3.) From the brightness of creation into the brightness of justification, according to Anselm. (4.) Daily growing more and more glorious, till we come to the glory of the Beatific Vision. Cf. notes to Rom 1:17. Maldonatus ( Nota mss.) gives a further explanation. "Progressing from the glory of the 0ldTestament to the glory of the New." So it is said in Rom 1:17, "from faith to faith."

Even as by the Spirit of the Lord. This change is through the Spirit of the Lord. Even as denotes the cause that is suitable to, and worthy of, so great a change, such, i.e., as it becomes the Holy Spirit to work. S. Basil and Chrysostom argue from these words against Macedonius that the Holy Spirit is God, and that it is He that taketh away the veil and gives understanding of the Scriptures. Tertullian finally ( contra Marcion, lib. v. c. 11) reads here: "Even as by the Lord of Spirits."

Commentary -- Other

Evidence: 2Co 3:18

We often delight in sifting gnats, making issues out of things that aren’t important. If someone becomes a Christian, some in the Church seem intent on shaping him to be conformed to their own image, rather than the image of Christ. They feel that he should dress, look, believe, speak, eat, and breathe just as they do.

When someone comes to the Lord, he may not look as we think he should. His hair may be long, his clothes may be radical, he may have an earring in his ear, but if these things are wrong God will speak in his ear. In the meantime, He may be ministering to him about the need to return stolen goods, or about seeking forgiveness from those he has wronged in the past. Those are the things that matter to God.

Introduction / Outline

Robertson: 2 Corinthians (Book Introduction)

Second Corinthians

From Macedonia a.d. 54 Or 55

By Way of Introduction

The Pauline authorship is admitted by all real scholars, though there is doubt by some as to the unity of the Epistle. J.H. Kennedy ( The Second and Third Letters of St. Paul to the Corinthians , 1900) has presented the arguments in a plausible, but not wholly convincing, manner for the plea that chapters 2 Corinthians 10-13 really represent a separate and earlier letter, the one referred to in 2Co_2:3, which was later tacked on to chapters 1-9 as part of the same Epistle. This theory does explain the difference in tone between chapters 1 to 7 and 10 to 13, but that fact is sufficiently clear from the stubborn minority against Paul in Corinth reported by Titus after the majority had been won to Paul by First Corinthians and by Titus (2Co_2:1-11). There are in fact three obvious divisions in the Epistle. Chapters 1 to 7 deal with the report of Titus about the victory in Corinth and Paul’s wonderful digression on the glory of the ministry in 2 Corinthians 2:12-6:10; chapters 8 and 2Co_9:1-15 discuss the collection for the poor saints in Jerusalem already mentioned in 1Co_16:1. and which Titus is to press to completion on his return to Corinth; chapters 10 to 13 deal sharply with the Judaizing minority who still oppose Paul’s leadership. These three subjects are in no sense inconsistent with each other. The letter is a unity. Nowhere do we gain so clear an insight into Paul’s own struggles and hopes as a preacher. It is a handbook for the modern minister of inestimable value. One can hear Paul’s heart throb through these chapters. The syntax is often broken by anacolutha. The sentences are sometimes disconnected. Grammatical agreements are overlooked. But there is power here, the grip of a great soul holding on to the highest ideals in the midst of manifold opposition and discouragements. Christ is Master of Paul at every turn.

The date of the Epistle is clearly after I Corinthians, for Paul has left Ephesus and is now in Macedonia (2Co_2:13), probably at Philippi, where he met Titus, though he had hoped to meet him at Troas on his return from Corinth. At a guess one may say that Paul wrote in the autumn of a.d. 54 or 55 of the same year in the spring of which he had written I Corinthians, and before he went on to Corinth himself where he wrote Romans (Act_20:1-3; Rom_16:1).

The occasion for writing is the return of Titus from Corinth with mixed news of the Pauline majority and the minority in opposition. So Titus is sent back with this Epistle to finish the task while Paul waits awhile for matters to clear up (2Co_13:1-10).

It is not certain whether the letter mentioned in 2Co_2:3 is our I Corinthians or a lost letter like the one alluded to in 1Co_5:9. If it is a lost one, we know of four Corinthian Epistles (the one in 1Co_5:9, our I Corinthians, the one in 2Co_2:3, our II Corinthians), assuming the unity of II Corinthians. Few things in Paul’s ministry gave him more concern than the troubles in Corinth. The modern city pastor finds little in his work that Paul has not faced and mastered. There is consolation and courage for the preacher in the conduct and counsels of this greatest of all preachers.

JFB: 2 Corinthians (Book Introduction)

THE following reasons seem to have induced Paul to write this Second Epistle to the Corinthians: (1) That he might explain the reasons for his having deferred to pay them his promised visit, by taking Corinth as his way to Macedonia (1Co 4:19; 2Co 1:15-16; compare 1Co 16:5); and so that he might set forth to them his apostolic walk in general (2Co 1:12, 2Co 1:24; 2Co 6:3-13; 2Co 7:2). (2) That he might commend their obedience in reference to the directions in his First Epistle, and at the same time direct them now to forgive the offender, as having been punished sufficiently (2Co 2:1-11; 2Co 7:6-16). (3) That he might urge them to collect for the poor saints at Jerusalem (2Co 8:1-9, 2Co 8:15). (4) That he might maintain his apostolic authority and reprove gainsayers.

The external testimonies for its genuineness are IRENÆUS [Against Heresies, 3,7,1]; ATHENAGORAS [Of the Resurrection of the Dead]; CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA [Miscellanies, 3, p. 94; 4, p. 101]; TERTULLIAN [On Modesty, 13].

The TIME OF WRITING was after Pentecost, A.D. 57, when Paul left Ephesus for Troas. Having stayed in the latter place for some time preaching the Gospel with effect (2Co 2:12), he went on to Macedonia, being eager to meet Titus there, having been disappointed in his not coming to Troas, as had been agreed on between them. Having heard from him the tidings he so much desired of the good effect produced on the Corinthians by his First Epistle, and after having tested the liberality of the Macedonian churches (2Co 8:1), he wrote this Second Epistle, and then went on to Greece, where he abode for three months; and then, after travelling by land, reached Philippi on his return at Passover or Easter, A.D. 58 (Act 20:1-6). So that this Epistle must have been written about autumn, A.D. 57.

Macedonia was THE PLACE from which it was written (2Co 9:2, where the present tense, "I boast," or "am boasting," implies his presence then in Macedonia). In Asia (Lydian Asia) he had undergone some great peril of his life (2Co 1:8-9), whether the reference be [PALEY] to the tumult at Ephesus (Acts 19:23-41), or, as ALFORD thinks, to a dangerous illness in which he despaired of life. Thence he passed by Troas to Philippi, the first city which would meet him in entering Macedonia. The importance of the Philippian Church would induce him to stay there some time; as also his desire to collect contributions from the Macedonian churches for the poor saints at Jerusalem. His anxiety of mind is recorded (2Co 7:5) as occurring when he came into Macedonia, and therefore must have been at Philippi, which was the first city of Macedonia in coming from Troas; and here, too, from 2Co 7:6, compared with 2Co 7:5, must have been the scene of his receiving the comforting tidings from Titus. "Macedonia" is used for Philippi in 2Co 11:9, as is proved by comparison with Phi 4:15-16. So it is probably used here (2Co 7:5). ALFORD argues from 2Co 8:1, where he speaks of the "grace bestowed on the churches (plural) of Macedonia," that Paul must have visited other churches in Macedonia, besides Philippi, when he wrote, for example, Thessalonica, Berea, &c., and that Philippi, the first on his route, is less likely to have been the scene of his writing than the last on his route, whichever it was, perhaps Thessalonica. But Philippi, as being the chief town of the province, was probably the place to which all the collections of the churches were sent. Ancient tradition, too (as appears from the subscription to this Epistle), favors the view that Philippi was the place from which this Epistle was sent by the hands of Titus who received, besides, a charge to prosecute at Corinth the collection which he had begun at his first visit (2Co 8:6).

The STYLE is most varied, and passes rapidly from one phase of feeling to another; now joyous and consolatory, again severe and full of reproof; at one time gentle and affectionate, at another, sternly rebuking opponents and upholding his dignity as an apostle. This variety of style accords with the warm and earnest character of the apostle, which nowhere is manifested more beautifully than in this Epistle. His bodily frailty, and the chronic malady under which he suffered, and which is often alluded to (2Co 4:7; 2Co 5:1-4; 2Co 12:7-9; compare Note, see on 2Co 1:8), must have been especially trying to one of his ardent temperament. But besides this, was the more pressing anxiety of the "care of all the churches." At Corinth, as elsewhere, Judaizing emissaries wished to bind legal fetters of letter and form (compare 2Co. 3:3-18) on the freedom and catholicity of the Church. On the other hand, there were free thinkers who defended their immorality of practice by infidel theories (1Co 15:12, 1Co 15:32-36). These were the "fightings without," and "fears within" (2Co 7:5-6) which agitated the apostle's mind until Titus brought him comforting tidings from Corinth. Even then, while the majority at Corinth had testified their repentance, and, as Paul had desired, excommunicated the incestuous person, and contributed for the poor Christians of Judea, there was still a minority who, more contemptuously than ever, resisted the apostle. These accused him of crafty and mercenary motives, as if he had personal gain in view in the collection being made; and this, notwithstanding his scrupulous care to be above the possibility of reasonable suspicion, by having others besides himself to take charge of the money. This insinuation was palpably inconsistent with their other charge, that he could be no true apostle, as he did not claim maintenance from the churches which he founded. Another accusation they brought of cowardly weakness; that he was always threatening severe measures without daring to execute them (2Co 10:8-16; 2Co 13:2); and that he was vacillating in his teaching and practice, circumcising Timothy, and yet withholding circumcision from Titus; a Jew among the Jews, and a Greek among the Greeks. That most of these opponents were of the Judaizing party in the Church, appears from 2Co 11:22. They seem to have been headed by an emissary from Judea ("he that cometh," 2Co 11:4), who had brought "letters of commendation" (2Co 3:1) from members of the Church at Jerusalem, and who boasted of his purity of Hebrew descent, and his close connection with Christ Himself (2Co 11:13, 2Co 11:23). His partisans contrasted his high pretensions with the timid humility of Paul (1Co 2:3); and his rhetoric with the apostle's plain and unadorned style (2Co 11:6; 2Co 10:10, 2Co 10:13). It was this state of things at Corinth, reported by Titus, that caused Paul to send him back forthwith thither with this Second Epistle, which is addressed, not to Corinth only (1Co 1:2), but to all the churches also in Achaia (2Co 1:1), which had in some degree been affected by the same causes as affected the Corinthian Church. The widely different tone in different parts of the Epistle is due to the diversity which existed at Corinth between the penitent majority and the refractory minority. The former he addresses with the warmest affection; the latter with menace and warning. Two deputies, chosen by the churches to take charge of the contribution to be collected at Corinth, accompanied Titus (2Co 8:18-19, 2Co 8:22).

JFB: 2 Corinthians (Outline)

• THE HEADING; PAUL'S CONSOLATIONS IN RECENT TRIALS IN ASIA; HIS SINCERITY TOWARDS THE CORINTHIANS; EXPLANATION OF HIS NOT HAVING VISITED THEM AS HE HAD PURPOSED. (2Co. 1:1-24)
• REASON WHY HE HAD NOT VISITED THEM ON HIS WAY TO MACEDONIA; THE INCESTUOUS PERSON OUGHT NOW TO BE FORGIVEN; HIS ANXIETY TO HEAR TIDINGS OF THEIR STATE FROM TITUS, AND HIS JOY WHEN AT LAST THE GOOD NEWS REACHES HIM. (2Co. 2:1-17)
• THE SOLE COMMENDATION HE NEEDS TO PROVE GOD'S SANCTION OF HIS MINISTRY HE HAS IN HIS CORINTHIAN CONVERTS: HIS MINISTRY EXCELS THE MOSAIC, AS THE GOSPEL OF LIFE AND LIBERTY EXCELS THE LAW OF CONDEMNATION. (2Co. 3:1-18) Are we beginning again to recommend ourselves (2Co 5:12) (as some of them might say he had done in his first Epistle; or, a reproof to "some" who had begun doing so)!
• HIS PREACHING IS OPEN AND SINCERE, THOUGH TO MANY THE GOSPEL IS HIDDEN. (2Co. 4:1-18)
• THE HOPE (2Co 4:17-18) OF ETERNAL GLORY IN THE RESURRECTION BODY. (2Co. 5:1-21)
• HIS APOSTOLIC MINISTRY IS APPROVED BY FAITHFULNESS IN EXHORTATION, IN SUFFERINGS, IN EXHIBITION OF THE FRUITS OF THE HOLY GHOST: HIS LARGENESS OF HEART TO THEM CALLS FOR ENLARGEMENT OF THEIR HEART TO HIM. EXHORTATIONS TO SEPARATION FROM POLLUTION. (2Co. 6:1-18)
• SELF-PURIFICATION THEIR DUTY RESULTING FROM THE FOREGOING. HIS LOVE TO THEM, AND JOY AT THE GOOD EFFECTS ON THEM OF HIS FORMER EPISTLE, AS REPORTED BY TITUS. (2Co. 7:1-16)
• THE COLLECTION FOR THE SAINTS; THE READINESS OF THE MACEDONIANS A PATTERN TO THE CORINTHIANS; CHRIST THE HIGHEST PATTERN; EACH IS TO GIVE WILLINGLY AFTER HIS ABILITY; TITUS AND TWO OTHERS ARE THE AGENTS ACCREDITED TO COMPLETE THE COLLECTION. (2Co. 8:1-24)
• REASONS FOR HIS SENDING TITUS. THE GREATER THEIR BOUNTIFULNESS, THE MORE SHALL BE THE RETURN OF BLESSING TO THEM, AND THANKSGIVING TO GOD. (2Co 9:1-15)
• HE VINDICATES HIS APOSTOLIC AUTHORITY AGAINST THOSE WHO DEPRECIATED HIM FOR HIS PERSONAL APPEARANCE. HE WILL MAKE HIS POWER FELT WHEN HE COMES. HE BOASTS NOT, AS THEY, BEYOND HIS MEASURE. (2Co. 10:1-18)
• THROUGH JEALOUSY OVER THE CORINTHIANS, WHO MADE MORE ACCOUNT OF THE FALSE APOSTLES THAN OF HIM, HE IS OBLIGED TO COMMEND HIMSELF AS IN MANY RESPECTS SUPERIOR. (2Co. 11:1-33)
• REVELATIONS IN WHICH HE MIGHT GLORY: BUT HE RATHER GLORIES IN INFIRMITIES, AS CALLING FORTH CHRIST'S POWER: SIGNS OF HIS APOSTLESHIP: HIS DISINTERESTEDNESS: NOT THAT HE IS EXCUSING HIMSELF TO THEM; BUT HE DOES ALL FOR THEIR GOOD, LEST HE SHOULD FIND THEM NOT SUCH AS HE DESIRED, AND SO SHOULD HAVE TO BE SEVERE AT HIS COMING. (2Co. 12:1-21) He proceeds to illustrate the "glorying in infirmities" (2Co 11:30). He gave one instance which might expose him to ridicule (2Co 11:33); he now gives another, but this one connected with a glorious revelation of which it was the sequel: but he dwells not on the glory done to himself, but on the infirmity which followed it, as displaying Christ's power. The oldest manuscripts read, "I MUST NEEDS boast (or glory) though it be not expedient; for I will come." The "for" gives a proof that it is "not expedient to boast": I will take the case of revelations, in which if anywhere boasting might be thought harmless. "Visions" refers to things seen: "revelations," to things heard (compare 1Sa 9:15) or revealed in any way. In "visions" their signification was not always vouchsafed; in "revelations" there was always an unveiling of truths before hidden (Dan 2:19, Dan 2:31). All parts of Scripture alike are matter of inspiration; but not all of revelation. There are degrees of revelation; but not of inspiration.
• HE THREATENS A SEVERE PROOF OF HIS APOSTOLIC AUTHORITY, BUT PREFERS THEY WOULD SPARE HIM THE NECESSITY FOR IT. (2Co 13:1-14)

TSK: 2 Corinthians (Book Introduction)

The most remarkable circumstance in this Epistle, observes Mr. Scott, is the confidence of the Apostle in the goodness of his cause, and in the power of God to bear him out in it. Opposed as he then was by a powerful and sagacious party, whose authority, reputation, and interest were deeply concerned, and who were ready to seize on every thing that could discredit him, it is wonderful to hear him so firmly insist upon his apostolical authority, and so unreservedly appeal to the miraculous power which he has exercised and conferred at Corinth. So far from shrinking from the contest, as afraid of some discovery being made, unfavourable to him and the common cause, he, with great modesty and meekness indeed, but with equal boldness and decision, expressly declares that his opposers and despisers were the ministers of Satan, and menaces them with miraculous judgments, when as many of their deluded hearers had been brought to repentance and re-established in the faith, as proper means could in a reasonable time effect. It is inconceivable that a stronger internal testimony, not only of integrity, but of divine inspiration, can exist. Had there been anything of imposture among the Christians, it was next to impossible but such a conduct must have occasioned a disclosure of it. Of the effects produced by this latter epistle we have no circumstantial account; for the journey which St. Paul took to Corinth, after he had written it, is mentioned by St. Luke only in a few words (Act 20:2, Act 20:3). We know, however, that St. Paul was there after he had written this Epistle; that the contributions for the poor brethren at Jerusalem were brought to him from different parts to that city (Rom 15:26); and that, after remaining there several months, he sent salutations from some of the principal members of that church, by whom he must have been greatly respected, to the church of Rome (Rom 16:22, Rom 16:23). From this time we hear no more of the false teacher and his party; and when Clement of Rome wrote his epistle to the Corinthians, St. Paul was considered by them as a divine apostle, to whose authority he might appeal without fear of contradiction. The false teacher, therefore, must either have been silenced by St. Paul, by virtue of his apostolical powers, and by an act of severity which he had threatened (2Co 13:2, 2Co 13:3); or this adversary of the apostle had, at that time, voluntarily quitted the place. Whichever was the cause, the effect produced must operate as a confirmation of our faith, and as a proof of St. Paul’s divine mission.

TSK: 2 Corinthians 3 (Chapter Introduction)

Overview

2Co 3:1, Lest their false teachers should charge him with vain glory, he shows the faith and graces of the Corinthians to be a sufficient commendation of his ministry; 2Co 3:6, Whereupon entering a comparison between the ministers of the law and of the gospel, 2Co 3:12. he proves that his ministry is so far the more excellent, as the gospel of life and liberty is more glorious than the law of condemnation.

Poole: 2 Corinthians 3 (Chapter Introduction)

CORINTHIANS CHAPTER 3

MHCC: 2 Corinthians (Book Introduction)

The second epistle to the Corinthians probably was written about a year after the first. Its contents are closely connected with those of the former epistle. The manner in which the letter St. Paul formerly wrote had been received, is particularly noticed; this was such as to fill his heart with gratitude to God, who enabled him fully to discharge his duty towards them. Many had shown marks of repentance, and amended their conduct, but others still followed their false teachers; and as the apostle delayed his visit, from his unwillingness to treat them with severity, they charged him with levity and change of conduct. Also, with pride, vain-glory, and severity, and they spake of him with contempt. In this epistle we find the same ardent affection towards the disciples at Corinth, as in the former, the same zeal for the honour of the gospel, and the same boldness in giving Christian reproof. The first six chapters are chiefly practical: the rest have more reference to the state of the Corinthian church, but they contain many rules of general application.

MHCC: 2 Corinthians 3 (Chapter Introduction)

(2Co 3:1-11) The preference of the gospel to the law given by Moses.

(2Co 3:12-18) The preaching of the apostle was suitable to the excellency and evidence of the gospel, through the power of the Holy Ghost.

Matthew Henry: 2 Corinthians (Book Introduction)

An Exposition, with Practical Observations, of The Second Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians

In his former epistle the apostle had signified his intentions of coming to Corinth, as he passed through Macedonia (1Co 16:5), but, being providentially hindered for some time, he writes this second epistle to them about a year after the former; and there seem to be these two urgent occasions: - 1. The case of the incestuous person, who lay under censure, required that with all speed he should be restored and received again into communion. This therefore he gives directions about (ch. 2), and afterwards (ch. 7) he declares the satisfaction he had upon the intelligence he received of their good behaviour in that affair. 2. There was a contribution now making for the poor saints at Jerusalem, in which he exhorts the Corinthians to join (ch. 8, 2Co 9:1-15).

There are divers other things very observable in this epistle; for example, I. The account the apostle gives of his labours and success in preaching the gospel in several places, ch. 2. II. The comparison he makes between the Old and New Testament dispensation, ch. 3. III. The manifold sufferings that he and his fellow-labourers met with, and the motives and encouragements for their diligence and patience, ch. 4, 5. IV. The caution he gives the Corinthians against mingling with unbelievers, ch. 6. V. The way and manner in which he justifies himself and his apostleship from the opprobrious insinuations and accusations of false teachers, who endeavoured to ruin his reputation at Corinth, ch. 10-12, and throughout the whole epistle.

Matthew Henry: 2 Corinthians 3 (Chapter Introduction)

The apostle makes an apology for his seeming to commend himself, and is careful not to assume too much to himself, but to ascribe all praise unto God (2Co 3:1-5). He then draws a comparison between the Old Testament and the New, and shows the excellency of the later above the former (2Co 3:6-11), whence he infers what is the duty of gospel ministers, and the advantage of those who live under the gospel above those who lived under the law (2Co 3:12 to the end).

Barclay: 2 Corinthians (Book Introduction)

INTRODUCTION TO THE LETTERS TO THE CORINTHIANS

The Greatness Of Corinth

A glance at the map will show that Corinth was made for greatness. The southern part of Greece is very nearly an island. On the west the Corinthian Gulf deeply indents the land and on the east the Saronic Gulf. All that is left to join the two parts of Greece together is a little isthmus only four miles across. On that narrow neck of land Corinth stands. Such a position made it inevitable that it should be one of the greatest trading and commercial centres of the ancient world. All traffic from Athens and the north of Greece to Sparta and the Peloponnese had to be routed through Corinth, because it stood on the little neck of land that connected the two.

Not only did the north to south traffic of Greece pass through Corinth of necessity, by far the greater part of the east to west traffic of the Mediterranean passed through her from choice. The extreme southern tip of Greece was known as Cape Malea (now called Cape Matapan). It was dangerous, and to round Cape Malea had much the same sound as to round Cape Horn had in later times. The Greeks had two sayings which showed what they thought of it--"Let him who sails round Malea forget his home," and, "Let him who sails round Malea first make his will."

The consequence was that mariners followed one of two courses. They sailed up the Saronic Gulf, and, if their ships were small enough, dragged them out of the water, set them on rollers, hauled them across the isthmus, and re-launched them on the other side. The isthmus was actually called the Diolkos, the place of dragging across. The idea is the same as that which is contained in the Scottish place name Tarbert, which means a place where the land is so narrow that a boat can be dragged from loch to loch. If that course was not possible because the ship was too large, the cargo was disembarked, carried by porters across the isthmus, and re-embarked on another ship at the other side. This four mile journey across the isthmus, where the Corinth Canal now runs, saved a journey of two hundred and two miles round Cape Malea, the most dangerous cape in the Mediterranean.

It is easy to see how great a commercial city Corinth must have been. The north to south traffic of Greece had no alternative but to pass through her; by far the greater part of the east to west trade of the Mediterranean world chose to pass through her. Round Corinth there clustered three other towns, Lechaeum at the west end of the isthmus, Cenchrea at the east end and Schoenus just a short distance away. Farrar writes, "Objects of luxury soon found their way to the markets which were visited by every nation in the civilized world--Arabian balsam, Phoenician dates, Libyan ivory, Babylonian carpets, Cilician goatsair, Lycaonian wool, Phrygian slaves."

Corinth, as Farrar calls her, was the Vanity Fair of the ancient world. Men called her The Bridge of Greece; one called her The Lounge of Greece. It has been said that if a man stands long enough in Piccadilly Circus he will in the end meet everyone in the country. Corinth was the Piccadilly Circus of the Mediterranean. To add to the concourse which came to it, Corinth was the place where the Isthmian Games were held, which were second only to the Olympics. Corinth was a rich and populous city with one of the greatest commercial trades in the ancient world.

The Wickedness Of Corinth

There was another side to Corinth. She had a reputation for commercial prosperity, but she was also a byword for evil living. The very word korinthiazesthai, to live like a Corinthian, had become a part of the Greek language, and meant to live with drunken and immoral debauchery. The word actually penetrated to the English language, and, in Regency times, a Corinthian was one of the wealthy young bucks who lived in reckless and riotous living. Aelian, the late Greek writer, tells us that if ever a Corinthian was shown upon the stage in a Greek play he was shown drunk. The very name Corinth was synonymous with debauchery and there was one source of evil in the city which was known all over the civilized world. Above the isthmus towered the hill of the Acropolis, and on it stood the great temple of Aphrodite, the goddess of love. To that temple there were attached one thousand priestesses who were sacred prostitutes, and in the evenings they descended from the Acropolis and plied their trade upon the streets of Corinth, until it became a Greek proverb, "It is not every man who can afford a journey to Corinth." In addition to these cruder sins, there flourished far more recondite vices, which had come in with the traders and the sailors from the ends of the earth, until Corinth became not only a synonym for wealth and luxury, drunkenness and debauchery, but also for filth.

The History Of Corinth

The history of Corinth falls into two parts. She was a very ancient city. Thucydides, the Greek historian, claims that it was in Corinth that the first triremes, the Greek battleships, were built. Legend has it that it was in Corinth that the Argo was built, the ship in which Jason sailed the seas, searching for the golden fleece. But in 146 B.C. disaster befell her. The Romans were engaged in conquering the world. When they sought to reduce Greece, Corinth was the leader of the opposition. But the Greeks could not stand against the disciplined Romans, and in 146 B.C. Lucius Mummius, the Roman general, captured Corinth and left her a desolate heap of ruins.

But any place with the geographical situation of Corinth could not remain a devastation. Almost exactly one hundred years later, in 46 B.C. Julius Caesar rebuilt her and she arose from her ruins. Now she became a Roman colony. More, she became a capital city, the metropolis of the Roman province of Achaea, which included practically all Greece.

In those days, which were the days of Paul, her population was very mixed. (i) There were the Roman veterans whom Julius Caesar had settled there. When a Roman soldier had served his time, he was granted the citizenship and was then sent out to some newly-founded city and given a grant of land so that he might become a settler there. These Roman colonies were planted all over the world, and always the backbone of them was the contingent of veteran regular soldiers whose faithful service had won them the citizenship. (ii) When Corinth was rebuilt the merchants came back, for her situation still gave her commercial supremacy. (iii) There were many Jews among the population. The rebuilt city offered them commercial opportunities which they were not slow to take. (iv) There was a sprinkling of Phoenicians and Phrygians and people from the east, with their exotic customs and their hysterical ways. Farrar speaks of "this mongrel and heterogeneous population of Greek adventurers and Roman bourgeois, with a tainting infusion of Phoenicians; this mass of Jews, ex-soldiers, philosophers, merchants, sailors, freedmen, slaves, trades-people, hucksters and agents of every form of vice." He characterizes her as a colony "without aristocracy, without traditions and without well-established citizens."

Remember the background of Corinth, remember its name for wealth and luxury, for drunkenness and immorality and vice, and then read 1Co_6:9-10 .

Are you not aware that the unrighteous will not inherit the

Kingdom of God? Make no mistake--neither fornicators, nor

idolaters, nor adulterers, nor sensualists, nor homosexuals, nor

thieves, nor rapacious men, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor

robbers shall inherit the Kingdom of God--and such were some of

you.

In this hotbed of vice, in the most unlikely place in all the Greek world, some of Paulgreatest work was done, and some of the mightiest triumphs of Christianity were won.

Paul In Corinth

Paul stayed longer in Corinth than in any other city, with the single exception of Ephesus. He had left Macedonia with his life in peril and had crossed over to Athens. There he had had little success and had gone on to Corinth, and he remained there for eighteen months. We realize how little we really know of his work when we see that the whole story of that eighteen months is compressed by Luke into 17 verses (Act_18:1-17 ).

When Paul arrived in Corinth he took up residence with Aquila and Prisca. He preached in the synagogue with great success. With the arrival of Timothy and Silas from Macedonia, he redoubled his efforts, but the Jews were so stubbornly hostile that he had to leave the synagogue. He took up his residence with one Justus who lived next door to the synagogue. His most notable convert was Crispus, who was actually the ruler of the synagogue, and amongst the general public he had good success.

In the year A.D. 52 there came to Corinth as its new governor a Roman called Gallio. He was famous for his charm and gentleness. The Jews tried to take advantage of his newness and good nature and brought Paul to trial before him on a charge of teaching contrary to their law. But Gallio, with impartial Roman justice, refused to have anything to do with the case or to take any action. So Paul completed his work in Corinth and moved on to Syria.

The Correspondence With Corinth

It was when he was in Ephesus in the year A.D. 55 that Paul, learning that things were not all well in Corinth, wrote to the church there. There is every possibility that the Corinthian correspondence as we have it is out of order. We must remember that it was not until A.D. 90 or thereby that Paulcorrespondence was collected. In many churches it must have existed only on scraps of papyrus and the putting it together would be a problem: and it seems that, when the Corinthian letters were collected, they were not all discovered and were not arranged in the right order. Let us see if we can reconstruct what happened.

(i) There was a letter which preceded 1 Corinthians. In 1Co_5:9 Paul writes, "I wrote you a letter not to associate with immoral men." This obviously refers to some previous letter. Some scholars believe that letter is lost without trace. Others think it is contained in 2Co_6:14-18 and 2Co_7:1 . Certainly that passage suits what Paul said he wrote about. It occurs rather awkwardly in its context, and, if we take it out and read straight on from 2Co_6:13 to 2Co_7:2 , we get excellent sense and connection. Scholars call this letter The Previous Letter. (In the original letters there were no chapter or verse divisions. The chapters were not divided up until the thirteenth century and the verses not till the sixteenth, and because of that the arranging of the collection of letters would be much more difficult).

(ii) News came to Paul from various sources of trouble at Corinth. (a) News came from those who were of the household of Chloe (1Co_1:11 ). They brought news of the contentions with which the church was torn. (b) News came with the visit of Stephanas, Fortunatus and Achaicus to Ephesus. (1Co_16:17 ). By personal contact they were able to fill up the gaps in Paulinformation. (c) News came in a letter in which the Corinthian Church had asked Paul guidance on various problems. In 1Co_7:1 Paul begins, "Concerning the matters about which you wrote..." In answer to all this information Paul wrote 1 Corinthians and despatched it to Corinth apparently by the hand of Timothy (1Co_4:17 ).

(iii) The result of the letter was that things became worse than ever, and, although we have no direct record of it, we can deduce that Paul paid a personal visit to Corinth. In 2Co_12:14 he writes, "The third time I am ready to come to you." In 2Co_13:1-2 , he says again that he is coming to them for the third time. Now, if there was a third time, there must have been a second time. We have the record of only one visit, whose story is told in Act_18:1-17 . We have no record at all of the second, but Corinth was only two or three daysailing from Ephesus.

(iv) The visit did no good at all. Matters were only exacerbated and the result was an exceedingly severe letter. We learn about that letter from certain passages in 2 Corinthians. In 2Co_2:4 Paul writes, "I wrote to you out of much affliction and anguish of heart and with many tears." In 2Co_7:8 he writes, "For even if I made you sorry with my letter, I do not regret it though I did regret it; for I see that that letter has grieved you, though only for a while." It was a letter which was the product of anguish of mind, a letter so severe that Paul was almost sorry that he ever sent it.

Scholars call this The Severe Letter. Have we got it? It obviously cannot be I Corinthians, because it is not a tear-stained and anguished letter. When Paul wrote it, it is clear enough that things were under control. Now if we read through 2 Corinthians we find an odd circumstance. In 2Cor 1-9 everything is made up, there is complete reconciliation and all are friends again; but at 2Cor 10 comes the strangest break. 2Cor 10-13 are the most heartbroken cry Paul ever wrote. They show that he has been hurt and insulted as he never was before or afterwards by any church. His appearance, his speech, his apostleship, his honesty have all been under attack.

Most scholars believe that 2Cor 10-13 are the severe letter, and that they have become misplaced when Paulletters were put together. If we want the real chronological course of Paulcorrespondence with Corinth, we really ought to read 2Cor 10-13 before 2Cor 1-9. We do know that this letter was sent off with Titus. (2Co_2:13 ; 2Co_7:13 ).

(v) Paul was worried about this letter. He could not wait until Titus came back with an answer, so he set out to meet him (2Co_2:13 ; 2Co_7:5 , 2Co_7:13 ). Somewhere in Macedonia he met him and learned that all was well, and, probably at Philippi, he sat down and wrote 2Cor 1-9, the letter of reconciliation.

Stalker has said that the letters of Paul take the roof off the early churches and let us see what went on inside. Of none of them is that truer than the letters to Corinth. Here we see what "the care of all the churches" must have meant to Paul. Here we see the heart-breaks and the joys. Here we see Paul, the shepherd of his flock, bearing the sorrows and the problems of his people on his heart.

The Corinthian Correspondence

Before we read the letters in detail let us set down the progress of the Corinthian correspondence in tabular form.

(i) The Previous Letter, which may be contained in 2Co_6:14-18 and 2Co_7:1 .

(ii) The arrival of Chloepeople, of Stephanas, Fortunatus and Achaicus, and of the letter to Paul from the Corinthian Church.

(iii) 1 Corinthians is written in reply and is despatched with Timothy.

(iv) The situation grows worse and Paul pays a personal visit to Corinth, which is so complete a failure that it almost breaks his heart.

(v) The consequence is The Severe Letter, which is almost certainly contained in 2Cor 10-13, and which was despatched with Titus.

(vi) Unable to wait for an answer, Paul sets out to meet Titus. He meets him in Macedonia, learns that all is well and, probably from Philippi, writes 2Cor 1-9, The Letter of Reconciliation.

The first four chapters of 1 Corinthians deal with the divided state of the Church of God at Corinth. Instead of being a unity in Christ it was split into sects and parties, who had attached themselves to the names of various leaders and teachers. It is Paulteaching that these divisions had emerged because the Corinthians thought too much about human wisdom and knowledge and too little about the sheer grace of God. In fact, for all their so-called wisdom, they are really in a state of immaturity. They think that they are wise men, but really they are no better than babies.

FURTHER READING

2 Corinthians

F. F. Bruce, 1 and 2 Corinthians (NCB; E)

J. Hering, The Second Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians (translated by A. W. Heathcote and P. J. Allcock)

A. Plummer, 2 Corinthians (ICC; G)

R. V. G. Tasker, The Second Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians (TC; E)

Abbreviations

ICC: International Critical Commentary

MC: Moffatt Commentary

NCB: New Century Bible

TC: Tyndale Commentary

E: English Text

G: Greek Text

Barclay: 2 Corinthians 3 (Chapter Introduction)

Each Man A Letter Of Christ (2Co_3:1-3)

The Surpassing Glory (2Co_3:4-11)

The Veil Which Hides The Truth (2Co_3:12-18)

Constable: 2 Corinthians (Book Introduction)

Introduction

Historical background

First Corinthians did not dispel the problems in the church at Corinth completely. While it resolved some of these, opposition to the Apostle Paul persisted and Paul's critics continued to speak out against him in the church. One man in particular seems to have been the ringleader of the opposition (10:7). He had rallied the support of a significant minority. The issue was Paul's apostolic authority. His critics were claiming authority equal with Paul's. This was in effect a claim to apostolic authority on their part or a denial of the full apostolic authority of Paul.

News of continuing problems in Corinth reached Paul in Ephesus during his prolonged stay there during his third missionary journey. He then made a brief visit to Corinth. However his efforts to resolve the conflicts fell through (2:1; 12:14; 13:1-2). Paul apparently suffered insult and lost face during that visit (2:5-8; 7:12). Consequently this was a painful visit for Paul. He then returned to Ephesus.

Paul's next step in dealing with the situation in Corinth was to send a severe letter from Ephesus by the hand of Titus and another unnamed brother (2:3-4; 7:8-12; 12:18). He apparently directed this letter, now lost, at the party opposed to him and particularly its leader. Some commentators believe that 2 Corinthians 10-13 contains part of this letter, but the evidence for this is not convincing.¹

Paul evidently intended to receive Titus' report concerning the effects of this severe letter in Ephesus. However, persecution there made it expedient for Paul to leave that city earlier than he had anticipated (Acts 20:1). He found an open door for the gospel to the north in Troas. Eager to meet Titus who was taking the land route from Corinth back to Ephesus Paul moved west into Macedonia (2:12-13). There Titus met him and gave him an encouraging report (7:6-16). Most of the church had responded to Paul's directives and the church had disciplined the troublemakers (2:5-11). Unfortunately some in the congregation still refused to acknowledge Paul's authority over them (10:1-13:10).

Paul rejoiced at the repentance of the majority. However his concern for the unrepentant minority and his desire to pick up the money the Corinthians had begun to collect for their poorer brethren in Jerusalem led him to write 2 Corinthians. Along with these primary motives Paul also felt compelled to refute the charge of fickleness leveled at him by his critics. He had changed his travel plans and had not come to see them as he had said he would.

The whole situation provided him an opportunity to clarify the nature of Christian ministry.

Paul wrote the Second Epistle to the Corinthians from Macedonia, perhaps Philippi, Thessalonica, or Berea, probably in the fall or winter of 56 A.D. A date a year earlier or later is possible.

Some commentators believe Paul wrote 1 Corinthians after his painful visit and after he wrote the severe letter.² I believe it is more probable that he wrote 1 Corinthians before these two events.³ It is very difficult to reconstruct the details of Paul's activities since the data available to us is incomplete.

Paul's Corinthian Contacts
Paul's founding visit	His "former letter"	The Corin-thians' letter to him	First Corin-thians	Paul's "painful visit"	His "severe letter"	Second Corin-thians	Paul's antici-pated visit

"2 Corinthians is very different from the letters between which it was written, 1 Corinthians and Romans. Whereas each of those letters is, in its own way, systematic and orderly, 2 Corinthians is, on the face of it, uneven and digressive. It is no surprise, therefore, that many scholars have suggested that 2 Corinthians is really a collection of letters put together later as a single letter."⁴

"Second Corinthians presents many inspiring texts and passages to the reader and teacher of God's Word. A quick survey reveals approximately eighty individual verses lending themselves to extended meditation and exposition, apart from the sixty or so constituent paragraphs of the letter. This letter is a rich lode for the edification of God's people."⁵

Message⁶

The subject of 2 Corinthians is ministry, the church's work of service in the world. This is the central concept Paul dealt with in this epistle. What did he say about ministry?

He spoke of ministry in two ways. There is ministry per se (philosophy of ministry), and there is ministry to the world (practice of ministry).

Let's consider first what Paul revealed about the ministry of the church per se. This is the way Paul spoke of ministry most often in 2 Corinthians. In 1 Corinthians there is more emphasis on the practice of ministry than on the philosophy of ministry.

Paul had a lot to say about the authority of the church's ministry. Jesus Christ is the church's authority. He is the One who assigns each believer particular ministry within the body of Christ (cf. 1 Cor. 12:11, 18, 28; Eph. 4:11-13). The Corinthian church was having a major problem because some in its company were failing to accept Paul's appointment by Christ as an apostle and their own appointment as non-apostles. This was a practical repudiation of Jesus Christ's authority in the church. We must bow to the authority of Christ in the church by recognizing and responding appropriately to those He has appointed to various roles in the body. We identify these people by their gifts (divinely given abilities) and by their offices (divinely given positions).

Paul also had a lot to say in this epistle about the resources of the church's ministry. He emphasized three primarily.

One important resource is the encouragement of God. Paul spoke of this in the first part of the epistle especially. We read "comfort" in our texts, but the Greek word paraklesis means comfort through encouragement. The same Greek root describes the Holy Spirit as our Paraclete in John 14-16. Paul both taught and demonstrated in this letter that God's encouraging comfort always exceeds our discouragement and distress in ministry. The secret to finding it sufficient is taking God's view of how our ministry is really proceeding. This viewpoint Paul revealed, too.

A second resource is divine revelation. Paul did not preach himself or a message that he had concocted. He preached what God had revealed. Thus, revelation constituted both Paul's public message and his personal encouragement. We, too, have received the same message to communicate as ambassadors of Christ. It is a message of reconciliation, and it is the source of our encouragement.

A third resource is the prayers of the saints. Paul called for and counted on the prayers of God's people to bring God's power into play through him as he ministered (1:11). He realized that his own prayers would not move God to work as well as the concerted prayers of many of God's children (cf. James 4:2). Lack of prayer is often a sign of confidence in self rather than confidence in God.

In addition to the authority and resources of our ministry, Paul also had a lot to say in this epistle about experience in ministry. Three features mark experience in ministry.

First, one thing that marks ministry is tribulation. Paul spoke extensively in 2 Corinthians about the afflictions he experienced during his ministry. Furthermore he revealed that these are part of ministry, anyone's ministry who is carrying it out as God has directed. Some people do not welcome the gospel. To them it is a death scent. We should expect to experience tribulation in ministry. We have all experienced this in witnessing to some extent.

Second, another thing that should mark our ministry is hope. God has revealed the end of our ministry. We will all stand before Jesus Christ and receive a reward one day (5:10). This hope is a certainty. The Christian who loses sight of his or her hope is going to drift and suffer discouragement rather than press toward the mark. The end of our ministry is constantly in view in this epistle.

Third, a mark of Christian ministry is triumph. Paul revealed and illustrated by his own attitude that no matter how response to our ministry may appear to us our ministry is always triumphant. The reason for this is that God is at work through His ministers. One of the problems Paul's critics in Corinth had and that we have is that they were evaluating ministry superficially rather than realistically. We need to evaluate ministry on the basis of what God has revealed is happening, not what appears to be happening.

Paul not only revealed much about ministry per se in 2 Corinthians, he also revealed a lot about the ministry of the church to the world. Three emphases predominate.

First, Paul revealed what the message of the church is: the Word of God. Ours is a ministry of the Word. By "the Word" Paul meant the revelation God has given us. In his day it consisted of the Old Testament Scriptures plus the revelations that he and the other New Testament prophets had received that were for all Christians. Paul contrasted his message and ours with the message of Moses and exulted in its superiority. God has removed the veil and we can now see His glory clearly revealed in the face of Jesus Christ.

Second, Paul revealed the church's equipment to carry on its ministry to the world. We are ready to minister only when we separate from the world's sins and conform to God's will. Paul contrasts with his critics in this letter in all these respects. As these characteristics mark us we, too, will be ready to minister.

Third, Paul revealed the exercise of the church's ministry to the world. In exercising its ministry the church does three things according to this epistle.

1. It exercises discipline to restore the erring to effective ministry. Paul's great concern in this epistle was the restoration of the rebellious critics in the Corinthian church to unity and usefulness.

2. The church also is to give no occasion of stumbling to others. Paul's concern was that the behavior of the Corinthian Christians would be an encouragement to other believers and a base from which the gospel could proceed even farther into unevangelized regions beyond.

3. Third, the church exercises the grace of giving. It seeks to facilitate the principle of equality that God has demonstrated throughout history, namely that those who have should share with those who have not. This applies not only to the gospel message but to the physical necessities of life (chs. 8-9).

From these emphases the message of the book emerges. The church needs to submit to revealed authority, to draw upon supernatural resources and equipment, and to experience triumph through tribulation as it executes its mission. As it does so it will effectively carry out its ministry of proclaiming the message of reconciliation to the world.

Constable: 2 Corinthians (Outline)

Outline

I. Introduction 1:1-11

A. Salutation 1:1-2

B. Thanksgiving for comfort in affliction 1:3-11

1. Thanksgiving for comfort 1:3-7

2. Thanksgiving for deliverance 1:8-11

II. Answers to insinuations about the sincerity of Paul's commitment to the Corinthians and to the ministry 1:12-7:16

A. Defense of his conduct with regard to his promised visit and the offender 1:12-2:17

1. The postponement of the intended visit 1:12-2:4

2. The treatment of the offender and the result of the severe letter 2:5-17

B. Exposition of Paul's view of the ministry 3:1-6:10

1. The superiority of Christian ministry to Mosaic ministry 3:1-11

2. The great boldness of the new ministers 3:12-4:6

3. The sufferings and supports of a minister of the gospel 4:7-5:10

4. The life of a minister of Christ 5:11-6:10

C. Appeal for restoration of the Corinthians' confidence in him 6:11-7:16

1. An appeal for large-heartedness and consistency 6:11-7:4

2. The encouraging response of the Corinthians so far 7:5-16

III. Instructions concerning the collection for the poor saints in Judea 8:1-9:15

A. The example of the Macedonians 8:1-7

B. The supreme motive for giving 8:8-15

C. The delegates of the churches 8:16-24

D. The anticipated visit of Paul 9:1-5

E. The benefits of generous giving 9:6-15

IV. Appeals concerning Paul's apostolic authority 10:1-13:10

A. Replies to charges made against Paul 10:1-18

1. Reply to the charge of cowardice 10:1-6

2. Reply to the charge of weakness 10:7-11

3. Reply to the charge of intrusion 10:12-18

B. Claims made by Paul 11:1-12:18

1. Paul's reasons for making these claims 11:1-6

2. Freedom to minister without charge 11:7-15

3. Paul's service and sufferings 11:16-33

4. Special revelations Paul received 12:1-10

5. Paul's supernatural miracles and paternal love 12:11-18

C. Exhortations in view of Paul's approaching visit 12:19-13:10

1. Paul's concerns 12:19-21

2. Paul's warnings 13:1-10

V. Conclusion 13:11-14

A. The exhortation 13:11-12

B. The salutation 13:13

C. The benediction 13:14

Constable: 2 Corinthians

2 Corinthians

Bibliography

Alford, Henry. The Greek Testament. 4 vols. Reprint ed. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, n. d.

Balge, Richard D. "Exegesis of 2 Corinthians 9:1-7." Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly 85:3 (Summer 1988):220-29.

Barclay, William. The Letters to the Corinthians. 2nd ed. The Daily Study Bible. Edinburgh: Saint Andrew Press, 1962.

Barnett, Paul. The Second Epistle to the Corinthians. The New International Commentary on the New Testament series. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1997.

Barrett, C. K. A Commentary on the Second Epistle to the Corinthians. Harper New Testament Commentaries series. New York: Harper & Row, 1973.

Batey, Richard. "Paul's Interaction with the Corinthians." Journal of Biblical Literature 84 (1965):139-46.

Baxter, J. Sidlow. Explore the Book. 6 vols. London: Marshall, Morgan & Scott, 1965.

Broomall, Wick. "The Second Epistle to the Corinthians." In Wycliffe Bible Commentary, pp. 1261-82. Edited by Charles F. Pfeiffer and Everett F. Harrison. Chicago: Moody Press, 1962.

Brown, Perry C. "What Is the Meaning of Examine Yourselves' in 2 Corinthians 13:5?" Bibliotheca Sacra 154:614 (April-June 1997):175-88.

Bruce, F. F., ed. 1 and 2 Corinthians. New Century Bible series. London: Marshall, Morgan and Scott, Oliphants, 1971.

_____. Commentary on The Book of Acts. New International Commentary on the New Testament series. Reprint ed. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1984.

Chafer, Lewis Sperry. Systematic Theology. 8 vols. Dallas: Dallas Seminary Press, 1948.

Chitwood, Arlen L. Judgment Seat of Christ. Norman, OK. The Lamp Broadcast, Inc., 1986.

Constable, Thomas L. "Analysis of Bible Books--New Testament." Paper submitted for course 686 Analysis of Bible Books--New Testament. Dallas Theological Seminary, January 1968.

Dahms, John V. "Dying with Christ." Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 36:1 (March 1993):15-23.

Dalton, William J. "Is the Old Covenant Abrogated (2 Cor. 3:14)?" Australian Biblical Review 35 (1987):88-94.

Darby, John Nelson. Synopsis of the Books of the Bible. 5 vols. Revised ed. New York: Loizeaux Brothers Publishers, 1942.

Decker, Rodney J. "The Church's Relationship to the New Covenant." Bibliotheca Sacra 152:607 (July-September 1995):290-305; 608 (October-December 1995):431-56.

Dictionary of the Apostolic Church. Edited by James Hastings. 1915 ed. S. v. "Corinthians, Epistles to the," by G. H. Clayton.

Dictionary of the Bible. Edited by James Hastings. 1910 ed. S. v. "Corinthians, Second Epistle to the," by A. Robertson.

Dillow, Joseph C. The Reign of the Servant Kings. Miami Springs, Fl.: Schoettle Publishing Co., 1992.

Doty, W. G. Letters in Primitive Christianity. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1973.

Flanagan, James L. "The Relief Offering for the Saints in Jerusalem." Luther Rice Theological Journal 3 (Spring 1985):17-27.

Forbes, Christopher. "Comparison, Self-Praise and Irony: Paul's Boasting and the Conventions of Hellenistic Rhetoric." New Testament Studies 32:1 (January 1986):1-30.

Fung, Ronald Y. K. "The Nature of the Ministry according to Paul." Evangelical Quarterly 54 (1982):129-46.

Furnish, Victor Paul. II Corinthians. Anchor Bible series. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1984.

Gaebelein, Arno C. The Annotated Bible. 4 vols. Reprint ed. Chicago: Moody Press, and New York: Loizeaux Brothers, Inc., 1970.

Gaventa, Beverly R. "Apostle and Church in 2 Corinthians." In Pauline Theology. Vol. II: 1 & 2 Corinthians, pp. 182-99. Edited by David M. Hay. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993.

Gleason, Randall C. "Paul's Covenantal Contrasts in 2 Corinthians 3:1-11." Bibliotheca Sacra 154:613 (January-March 1997):61-79.

A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament. By C. H. Wilke. Revised by C. L. Wilibald Grimm. Translated, revised and enlarged by Joseph Henry Thayer, 1889.

Guthrie, Donald. New Testament Introduction. 3 vols. 2nd ed. London: Tyndale Press, 1966.

Harris, Gregory H. "Satan's Work as a Deceiver." Bibliotheca Sacra 156:622 (April-June 1999):190-202.

Harris, Murray J. "2 Corinthians." In Romans-Galatians. Vol. 10 of Expositor's Bible Commentary. 12 vols. Edited by Frank E. Gaebelein and J. D. Douglas. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1978.

Hay, David M. "The Shaping of Theology in 2 Corinthians: Convictions, Doubts, Warrants." In Pauline Theology. Vol. II: 1 & 2 Corinthians, pp. 135-55. Edited by David M. Hay. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993.

Hodge, Charles. An Exposition of the Second Epistle to the Corinthians. Thornapple Commentaries series. Robert Carter & Brothers, 1859; reprint ed. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1980.

Hodges, Zane C. Absolutely Free! A Biblical Reply to Lordship Salvation. Dallas: Redencion Viva, and Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, Academie Books, 1989.

_____. Grace in Eclipse. Dallas: Redencion Viva, 1985.

Hoyt, Samuel L. "The Judgment Seat of Christ and Unconfessed Sins." Bibliotheca Sacra 137:545 (January-March 1980):32-40.

_____. "The Negative Aspects of the Christian's Judgment." Bibliotheca Sacra 137:546 (April-June 1980):125-32.

Hughes, Philip Edgcumbe. Paul's Second Epistle to the Corinthians. The New International Commentary on the New Testament series. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1962.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Edited by James Orr. 1957 ed. S. v. "Corinthians, Second Epistle to the," by R. Dykes Shaw.

Ironside, Harry A. Addresses on the Second Epistle to the Corinthians. New York: Loizeaux Brothers, Publishers, n.d.

Kent, Homer A., Jr. A Heart Opened Wide. New Testament Studies series. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1982.

Kinnebrew, Jim. "The Gospel of Affluence." Mid-America Theological Journal 9:2 (Fall 1985):49-65.

Kraftchick, Steven J. "Death in Us, Life in You." In Pauline Theology. Vol. II: 1 & 2 Corinthians, pp. 156-81. Edited by David M. Hay. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993.

Lange, John Peter, ed. A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures. 12 vols. Reprint ed., Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1960. Vol. 10: Romans and Corinthians, by J. P. Lange, F. R. Fay, and Christian Friedrich Kling. Translated by J. F. Hurst, Daniel W. Poor, and Conway P. Wing.

Lenski, Richard C. H. The Interpretation of St. Paul's First and Second Epistles to the Corinthians. Reprint ed., Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1961.

Lieu, Judith M. "Grace to You and Peace': The Apostolic Greeting." Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester 68:1 (Autumn 1985):161-78.

Lindars, Barnabas. "The Sound of the Trumpet: Paul and Eschatology." Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester 67:2 (Spring 1985):766-82.

Lowery, David K. "2 Corinthians." In Bible Knowledge Commentary: New Testament pp. 551-86. Edited by John F. Walvoord and Roy B. Zuck. Wheaton: Scripture Press Publications, Victor Books, 1983.

_____. "A Theology of Paul's Missionary Epistles." In A Biblical Theology of the New Testament, pp. 243-97. Edited by Roy B. Zuck. Chicago: Moody Press, 1994.

MacArthur, John F., Jr. Faith Works: The Gospel According to the Apostles. Dallas: Word Publishing, 1993.

_____. The Gospel According to Jesus. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, Academie Books, 1988.

Machen, J. Greshem. The Origin of Paul's Religion. New York: Macmillan, 1921.

Martin, Ralph P. 2 Corinthians. Word Biblical Commentary series. Waco: Word Books, 1986.

_____. "The Setting of 2 Corinthians." Tyndale Bulletin 37 (1986):3-19.

Mason, Clarence E., Jr., "The Day of Our Lord Jesus Christ." Bibliotheca Sacra 125:500 (October-December 1968):352-59.

McCaughey, J. D. "The Glory of God in the Face of Jesus Christ." Australian Biblical Review 35 (1987):95-98.

Morgan, G. Campbell. The Corinthian Letters of Paul. New York: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1946.

_____. Living Messages of the Books of the Bible. 2 vols. New York: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1912.

Moulton, James Hope. A Grammar of the Greek New Testament. 4 vols. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark. 1908-76. Vol. 3 (1963): Syntax, by Nigel Turner.

Murphy-O'Connor, Jerome. "Being at Home in the Body We Are in Exile from the Lord' (2 Cor. 5:6b)." Revue Biblique 93:2 (April 1986):214-21.

_____. "Paul and Macedonia: The Connection Between 2 Corinthians 2.13 and 2.14." Journal for the Study of the New Testament 25 (October 1985):99- 103.

O'Neill, John. "The Absence of the In Christ' Theology in 2 Corinthians 5." Australian Biblical Review 35 (1987):99-106.

Phillips, J. B. The New Testament in Modern English. New York: Macmillan, 1958.

Plummer, Alfred. A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Second Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians. Reprint ed. The International Critical Commentary series. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1966.

Pyne, Robert A. "Antinomianism and Dispensationalism." Bibliotheca Sacra 153:610 (April-June 1996):141-54.

Robertson, Archibald Thomas. Word Pictures in the New Testament. 6 vols. Nashville: Broadman Press, 1931.

Ryrie, Charles C. "The End of the Law." Bibliotheca Sacra 124:495 (July-September 1967):243-44.

Sarles, Ken L. "A Theological Evaluation of the Prosperity Gospel." Bibliotheca Sacra 143:572 (October-December 1986):329-52.

Schaff, Philip. History of the Christian Church. 8 vols. 1858; 3rd rev. ed., Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1966.

Tasker, R. V. G. The Second Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians. The Tyndale New Testament Commentaries. London: Tyndale Press, 1964.

Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. Edited by Gerhard Kittel and Gerhard Friedrich. Translated and edited by Geoffrey W. Bromiley. 1964-74. S. v. "apostolos," by Karl Heinrich Rengstorf, 1 (1964):407-47.

Thompson, James W. "Ministry in the New Testament." Restoration Quarterly 27:3 (Third Quarter 1984):143-56.

Thorsell, Paul R. "The Spirit in the Present Age: Preliminary Fulfillment of the Predicted New Covenant According to Paul." Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 41:3 (September 1998):397-413.

van Unnik, W. C. "The Christian's Freedom of Speech in the New Testament." Bulletin of the John Rylands Library of the University of Manchester 44 (1961-62):466-88.

_____. "With Unveiled Face,' and Exegesis of 2 Corinthians iii 12-18." Novum Testamentum 6:2-3 (1963):153-69.

Wall, Joe L. Going for the Gold. Chicago: Moody Press, 1991.

Walvoord, John F. "The Church in Heaven." Bibliotheca Sacra 123:490 (April-June 1966):99-103.

_____, ed. Lewis Sperry Chafer's Systematic Theology. 2 vols. Abridged ed. Wheaton: Scripture Press Publications, Victor Books, 1988.

Ware, Bruce A. "The New Covenant and the People(s) of God." In Dispensationalism, Israel and the Church: The Search for Definition, pp. 68-97. Edited by Craig A. Blaising and Darrell L. Bock. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1992.

Webb, William J. "What Is the Unequal Yoke (hetepozygountes) in 2 Corinthians 6:14?" Bibliotheca Sacra 149:594 (April-June 1992):162-79.

_____. "Who Are the Unbelievers (apistoi) in 2 Corinthians 6:14?" Bibliotheca Sacra 149:593 (January-March 1992):27-44.

Wenham, John. "The Identification of Luke." Evangelical Quarterly 63:1 (1991):3-44.

Whiteley, D. E. H. The Theology of St. Paul. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1964.

Wiersbe, Warren W. Be Encouraged. BE Books. Wheaton: Scripture Press Publications, Victor Books, 1985.

Wilkin, Bob. "Test Yourselves to See If You Are in the Faith: Assurance Based on Our Works? 2 Corinthians 13:5." Grace Evangelical Society News 4:10 (October 1990):2.

Woodcock, Eldon. "The Seal of the Holy Spirit." Bibliotheca Sacra 155:618 (April-June 1998):139-63.

Wright, N. T. "On Becoming the Righteousness of God." In Pauline Theology. Vol. II: 1 & 2 Corinthians, pp. 200-208. Edited by David M. Hay. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993.

Copyright 2003 by Thomas L. Constable

Haydock: 2 Corinthians (Book Introduction)

THE SECOND

EPISTLE OF ST. PAUL, THE APOSTLE,

TO THE CORINTHIANS.

INTRODUCTION.

The subject and design of this second Epistle to the Corinthians, is much the same as of the former. He comforts and congratulates with those who were now reformed by his admonitions. He blames the faulty with apostolical liberty; and being forced to justify himself and his proceedings against the upstart false teachers, he gives an ample account of his sufferings, and also of the favours and graces, which God had bestowed upon him. This Epistle was written not long after the first, (an. 57. [in the year 57.]) some months before that to the Romans, from some place in Macedonia, perhaps from Philippi, as marked at the end of divers Greek copies, though it is observed, that those subscriptions are not much to be relied upon. (Witham) --- In this Epistle St. Paul comforts those who are now reformed by his admonitions to them in the former, and absolves the incestuous man on doing penance, whom he had before excommunicated for his crime. Hence he treats of true penance, and of the dignity of the ministers of the New Testament. He cautions the faithful against false teachers, and the society of infidels. He gives an account of his sufferings, and also of the favours and graces which God hath bestowed on him. (Challoner) --- St. Paul, not being able to come to the Corinthians as soon as he had promised, writes this Epistle to inform them, that it was not through inconstancy, but on account of several weighty reasons, which had hitherto hindered him. Several other reasons, likewise, compelled him to write. For during his absence, several false teachers of the Jews had come amongst them, teaching them that it was necessary to observe the law of Moses, in order to be saved. St. Paul, therefore, first excuses himself, by saying, that the afflictions and troubles he had met with, had hindered him from coming to them. He next orders the fornicator to be restored to favour; after which, he extols his apostleship, forming a comparison between the law of Christ, and of Moses, wherein he blames the false teachers. He then subjoins an exhortation to a pious and holy life, with liberality in their alms, after the example of the Macedonians. As the false teachers had been very industrious in establishing their own reputation, by detracting from that of St. Paul, he enumerates his own sufferings, and the favours he had received from God, shewing that he had much more reason to glory than they; and concludes by exhorting them to correct those faults with which they still remained infected. (Estius) --- This letter may be justly appreciated as a perfect masterpiece of that animated and solid eloquence, which all interpreters so much admire in St. Paul. (Bible de Vence)

====================

Gill: 2 Corinthians (Book Introduction)

INTRODUCTION TO 2 CORINTHIANS

This epistle, according to the subscription at the end of it, was written from Philippi of Macedonia; and though the subscriptions annexed to the epistles are not always to be depended on, yet it seems very likely that this was written from thence; for the apostle not finding Titus at Troas, as he expected, went into Macedonia, where he met with him, and had an account from him of the success of his first epistle; of the state and condition of the church, and of the temper and disposition of mind in which the members of it were, and which gave him great satisfaction; upon which he immediately wrote this second epistle, and sent it by the same person to them; see 2Co 2:12, 2Co 7:5. It is very probable it might be written the year after the former; and so it is placed by Dr. Lightfoot in the year 56, as the former is in the year 55; though some place this in the year 60, and the other in 59. The occasion of this epistle was partly to excuse his not coming to them according to promise, and to vindicate himself from the charge of unfaithfulness, levity, and inconstancy on that account; and partly, since what he had wrote about the incestuous person, had had a good effect both upon him and them, to direct them to take off the censure that had been laid upon him, and restore him to their communion, and comfort him; likewise to stir them up to finish the collection for the poor saints they had begun; as also to defend himself against the calumnies of the false teachers, who were very industrious to sink his character and credit in this church; which he does by observing the doctrines of the Gospel he preached, which were far more glorious than, and abundantly preferable to, the ministration of the law of Moses, which those men desired to be teachers of; as likewise the success of his ministry in every place; the many sufferings he had underwent for the sake of Christ, and his Gospel; the high favours and privileges he had received of the Lord, as well as the signs, wonders, and miracles done by him in proof of his apostleship; and in which are interspersed many things useful and instructive.

Gill: 2 Corinthians 3 (Chapter Introduction)

INTRODUCTION TO 2 CORINTHIANS 3

In this chapter the apostle clears himself from the charge of arrogance and self-commendation, and ascribes both the virtue and efficacy of his ministry, and his qualifications for it, to the Lord; and forms a comparison between the ministration of the Gospel, and the ministration of the law, showing the preferableness of the one to the other; and consequently how much more happy and comfortable the state and condition of the saints under the Gospel dispensation is, than under the legal one: on account of what the apostle had said in the latter part of the preceding chapter, concerning the excellency, usefulness, and success of the Gospel ministry, he foresaw an objection would arise; that he and his fellow ministers were proud and arrogant, and commended themselves, which was unseemly, and not agreeably to the character they bore; which objection he obviates, 2Co 3:1, by putting some questions, signifying that they were not guilty of vain boasting; nor did they need any commendations of their own, or others, nor any letters to recommend them, either from Corinth to other places, or thither: a practice which, he suggests, the false teachers made use of; and in 2Co 3:2 he gives the reason why they did not stand in need of such letters, because the members of the church at Corinth were their epistle or letter, declaring to all men the efficacy and success of their ministry among men; but lest he should be charged with arrogating to himself and others, he declares, 2Co 3:3 that though the Corinthians were their epistle, yet not so much theirs as Christ's; Christ was the author and subject, they only were instruments; the writing was not human, but the writing of the Spirit of God; and that not upon outward tables, such as the law was written upon, but upon the tables of men's hearts, which only God can reach; however, that they had been useful, successful, and instrumental in the conversion of souls, through the ministry of the word, that he was confident of, 2Co 3:4 though the sufficiency and ability to think, study, and preach, were not of themselves, and still less to make the word effectual for conversion and comfort, but of God, 2Co 3:5 wherefore he ascribes all fitness, worthiness, and ability to preach the Gospel, to the grace and power of God, by which they were made ministers of it; and hence he takes occasion to commend the excellency of the Gospel ministry above that of the law, which he does by observing their different names and effects; the Gospel is the New Testament or covenant, or an exhibition of the covenant of grace in a new form; the law is the Old Testament, or covenant, which is vanished away; which, though not expressed here, is in 2Co 3:14 the Gospel is spirit, the law the letter; the one gives life, and the other kills, 2Co 3:6 wherefore the apostle argues from the one to the other, that if there was a glory in the one which was only a ministration of death, as the law was, 2Co 3:7 then the Gospel, which was a ministration of spiritual things, and of the Spirit of God himself, must be more glorious, 2Co 3:8 and if that was glorious which was a ministration of condemnation, as the law was to guilty sinners; much more glorious must be the Gospel, which is a ministration of the righteousness of Christ, for the justification of them, 2Co 3:9 yea, such is the surpassing glory of the Gospel to the law, that even the glory of the law is quite lost in that of the Gospel, and appears to have none in comparison of that, 2Co 3:10 to which he adds another argument, taken from the abolition of the one, and the continuance of the other; that if there was a glory in that which is abolished, there must be a greater in that which continues, 2Co 3:11 and from hence the apostle proceeds to take notice of another difference between the law and the Gospel, the clearness of the one, and the obscurity of the other; the former is signified by the plainness of speech used by the preachers of it, 2Co 3:12 and the latter by the veil which was over Moses's face, when he delivered the law to the children of Israel; the end of which they could not look to, and which is a further proof of the obscurity of it, 2Co 3:13 as well as of the darkness of their minds; which still continues with the Jews in reading the law, and will do until it is taken away by Christ, 2Co 3:14 and that there is such a veil of darkness upon the hearts of the Jews, when reading the law of Moses; and that this continues to this day, is again asserted, 2Co 3:15 and an intimation given that there will be a conversion of them to the Lord, and then it will be removed from them, 2Co 3:16 and who that Lord is to whom they shall be turned, and by whom they shall have freedom from darkness and bondage, is declared, 2Co 3:17 and the happy condition of the saints under the Gospel dispensation, through the bright and clear light of it, is observed, 2Co 3:18 in which the Gospel is compared to a glass; the saints are represented as without a veil looking into it; through which an object is beheld, the glory of the Lord; the effect of which is a transformation of them into the same image by degrees; the author of which grace is the Spirit of the Lord.

College: 2 Corinthians (Book Introduction)

INTRODUCTION

Studying 2 Corinthians plunges the modern reader back to the real, tumultuous world of early Christianity. The simple ideals of sharing and goodwill described in Acts 2:42-47 seem to have little place among the diverse converts from this boomtown of Corinth where Paul chooses to anchor his Greek mission. Rather, this microcosm of the early church bickers and accuses, revels in disorder and confusion, reeks of unrenounced pagan practices, and uncritically pursues self-promotion and even disloyalty to Paul, its founder.

When we speak of restoring the NT church, the Corinthian church is not what we have in mind. But maybe this is where we should really start: a real community of believers struggling to understand and implement their Christian faith against the helter-skelter backdrop of values and principles they desired to leave behind. As we understand what Paul teaches this troubled church, we will learn badly needed principles to help bring to maturity our own, real churches which inherit the same struggle.

Second Corinthians stands in stark contrast to Paul's other NT writings in a number of ways. Other letters, like 1 Corinthians, Romans, Galatians, and Colossians are carefully ordered, easily outlined, logical, controlled, as Paul confidently responds to carefully gauged concerns. Methodically, he establishes crucial, theological principles as the basis for practical, behavioral appeals.

By contrast, 2 Corinthians is chaotic and disjointed. Digressions lead the reader far afield before returning to the point. So uneven is 2 Corinthians, that many scholars suggest it is a composite of four or five writings, even a number of conservative scholars admitting two. Intensity, emotion, defensiveness, and second-guessing rather than controlled reasoning bind this epistle together. We see Paul at his weakest, basest, most human. Yet seeing him work through the truth of the gospel in the midst of exasperating difficulties is enlightening.

To a certain extent, it is healthy for our lofty ideals of this giant to be punctured and brought down to reality, even as the Corinthian church does so for our view of the early church. Paul's relationship with the Corinthians at this historical juncture is ugly, and readers deserve to be warned about how disconcerting seeing this can be.

These features of 2 Corinthians make studying and understanding the text much more dependent than usual on grasping the historical circumstances behind and leading up to its writing. Without a clear grasp of the historic story, hopeless confusion will engulf efforts to interpret the text at a number of points.

So, study of 2 Corinthians must begin by seeking to understand the Corinth of Paul's day and Paul's relationship to the local church there before preceding to a reliable interpretation of the text.

THE CITY OF CORINTH

Fortunately, Corinth is a NT city we know a great deal about. It has been heavily excavated and was minutely described by classical writers like Strabo and Dio Chrysostom.

The city that Paul entered in A.D. 50 had been resurrected from the ashes of the old city burned to the ground by the Romans in 146 B.C. Having laid in ruins for 100 years, two years before his death in 44 B.C., Julius Caesar decreed that Corinth (and also Carthage) should be rebuilt. Although located just 60 miles from Athens on the narrow isthmus strategically joining the Greek mainland to the Peloponnesus, the new Corinth was built and organized as a Roman city. Its colonists were gleaned from freedmen, former slaves originating from Syria, Egypt, Judea, Greece, and from retiring Roman soldiers.

The city's layout and its buildings were Roman, as was its governmental organization and law. Its official language was Latin, although Greek was the common language for business and conversation. The people prized Roman articles, importing them in great quantities. In addition to the four magistrates elected each year and its city council, it was administrated by a proconsul appointed annually by the Roman senate.

Corinth's dominance over the five-mile wide isthmus insured economic vitality. Ships traveling between Italy and Asia Minor were happy to pay the fee to cross the isthmus rather than sail the extra 200 miles south around treacherous Cape Malae. Besides, Corinth had even constructed a grooved pavement, called the Diolkos, between the ports on either side of the isthmus on which smaller ships could be hauled in wheeled vehicles. For a larger ship, the goods were loaded on transport carts and reloaded onto another ship waiting at the other harbor.

Julius Caesar dreamed of increasing Corinth's stock by constructing a canal across the isthmus. Not until Nero, A.D. 67., was such a project begun. Actual completion, however was not achieved until modern times, in 1893.

With the two ports, Laechaeum, on the Corinthian Gulf, and Cenchraea, on the Saronic Gulf, Corinth thrived as a center for trade. The major land route between the Greek mainland and the Peloponnesus also went through it. Besides shipbuilding and repair, it hosted bronze, tile, and pottery factories, as well as the necessary warehousing for transportable goods. Corinth's market areas boasted hundreds of stalls filled with craftsmen plying their trade, locals selling merchandise and food, as well as visitors from throughout the empire hawking imported items. They even had places which sold drinks cooled by underground water systems. Paul himself, we know, took up a leather-working stall in this area for eighteen months (Acts 18:1-3).

New Corinth was an eclectic, international city from its inception. In Paul's day, it was a bustling, wide open, boomtown, with over 80,000 inhabitants, and growing every day. It had already outstripped Athens politically, replacing it as the capital of Achaia.

Corinth's prestige was further enhanced by its hosting of the Isthmian Games, second only in significance to the Olympics. Held every two years in Corinth since A.D. 3, these games drew thousands of tourists and lots of business. The city's most prestigious political official was the one responsible for administering the games, occupying a prominent year-round governmental office. The games were dedicated to the Greek sea god, Poseidon, and featured oratory, music, and drama, as well as athletic contests. A dramatic theater as well as a 20,000 seat stadium were used for these events.

Corinth's eclecticism revealed itself in an array of religious choices established by its multicultural inhabitants. Egyptians promoted the cults of Isis and Osiris. Isis was worshiped as a god for sailors because the myth tells of her enduring search on the seas for her betrayed and lost husband Osiris. Osiris is a god of afterlife, who after his death was resurrected to become head of the underworld.

Greeks and Romans honored Poseidon, god of the sea; Athena, goddess of war, the sea, cities and the arts; Aphrodite, goddess of love and fertility; Apollo, god of prophecy; Asklepios, god of healing; and emperors beginning with Julius Caesar. Prominent temples and statues are dedicated to all of these. Apollos often features prominently in colonized cities as an ode of good fortune. His famous Delphic oracle is only some 30 miles from Corinth. The much publicized report that Old Corinth's temple to Aphrodite housed over 1,000 sacred prostitutes is regarded as Athenian slander and is not so certain to still be functioning this way in Paul's day, although this does not mean to imply that Corinth was any more sexually pristine than any other seaport.

One of the busiest religious centers in Paul's day was the Asklepium. Comparable to a modern-day health club, people came here to bathe in its fountain, sleep (healing in their dreams), excercise, read, and dine (on sacrificial meat, cf. 1 Cor 8:10; 10:21). Replicas of body parts found in excavations were offered to the Asklepios by thankful beneficiaries of his healing.

Though not a god, Sisyphus, was considered one of the founding kings of ancient Corinth. Noted for his craftiness, in Greek mythology he was banished to Hades with the everlasting task of pushing a rock up a hill only to have it slip back down. For the Corinthian in Paul's day, he stands for successful cunning in business, but behind the temporary luster, perhaps, he signifies the emptiness of life's ambitions that lurked in the background of people's thoughts.

Judaism came with the early Jewish colonists and seems to have thrived. A dynamic synagogue certainly was functioning when Paul arrived, according to Acts 18:4-17. Also, a building inscription reading "Synagogue of the Hebrews" has been found by archaeologists along the Lechaeum road. Although the inscription is somewhat later than Paul's day, its location in the city center suggests the prominence of Judaism from the early days of New Corinth. Significant increases to the Jewish population likely occurred in A.D. 19 and in the late 40s when Tiberius and then Claudius expelled Jews from Rome. According to Acts 18:2, the latter purge is what brought Aquila and Priscilla and their tentmaking business to Corinth for the eighteen months Paul evangelized there. As Acts 18:8,17 indicate, the Jewish community probably had a certain amount of freedom to manage its own affairs and to appoint its own officials.

Due to Roman influence, Corinthians banded together into self-governing clubs and societies of 10 to 15 people which met in homes around the city. These clubs were delineated by individual trades or professions. Something like small unions, they provided vital social interaction and shared meals but even underwrote members' burial expenses from their kitty of dues. Although each had its sponsoring god, they were not religious in nature.

Most likely, the Corinthian church of Paul's day took on the pattern of these clubs as they met in various homes throughout the city. This helps explain the household factions decried in 1 Cor 1:10-12 and even the food-related problems of 1 Corinthians 8 and 11:17-34.

Corinth in the time of Paul was a city of wealth and prosperity. The families who had come a generation or two previously had worked hard. They had carved out successful lives by their own sweat and ingenuity. Like American immigrants, they were proud of their accomplishments, which they demonstrated in their proliferation of self-commending inscriptions around the city. But like the grandchildren of immigrants today, the Corinthians of Paul's day were noted for their superficial materialism and moral perversity. Such traits are epitomized by the fact that before the century was over, Corinth would become the first Greek city in the Roman Empire to hold bloodthirsty gladiatorial shows.

PAUL AND THE CORINTHIANS

Paul's rocky, seven-year relationship with the Corinthians begins in the fall of A.D. 50 as he enters Corinth on what becomes the last stop of his second missionary journey. Already on the road for a year, he had established churches in Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, and Athens, despite opposition from Gentiles, Jews, and intellectuals (Acts 16-17). As Acts 18 describes, he enters the din of Corinth alone but is quickly befriended by Aquila and Priscilla, who were probably already Christians when they came to Corinth from Rome. For eighteen months the three of them lived, worked, and spread the gospel together there, eventually joined by Silas and Timothy.

At first, Paul shared the gospel and fielded questions in the Jewish synagogue. It wasn't too long, however, before stiff opposition to his presence arose, and he was ejected. However, he took with him many new Christians from among the God-fearing Gentiles who attended the synagogue, as well as Jews including the head of the synagogue, Crispus. Boldly, they set up shop for the first church right next door in the home of Titius Justus. Presumably, they continued to meet there and in other homes around the city for the next eighteen months, since God had instructed Paul to remain in Corinth despite the risks of conflict.

Sparks did fly, and at one point the Jews pressed charges against Paul for breaking Jewish law before Gallio, the Roman proconsul. Quite rightly, Gallio rebuffed the Jewish accusations as being outside any Roman concern. Although this may seem like a relatively minor incident in the life of Paul, the mention of Gallio in Acts 18:14 emerges as the single most important event enabling us to date Paul's life with accuracy. The reason for this is that archaeologists have discovered a datable inscription about a boundary dispute from Emperor Claudius to Gallio which places Gallio's one-year term between A.D. 51 and 52. Anchored by Paul's encounter with Gallio being A.D. 51, the rest of Paul's life can be dated backward and forward from time periods provided in the Acts and his letters.

Upon leaving Corinth, Paul sailed to Syria, probably Antioch, before quickly setting out over land to revisit the previously established churches in Asia Minor and then settling in Ephesus for three years. While in Ephesus, he sent the Corinthians three letters and slipped across the Aegean Sea in a vessel for a brief, surprise visit.

The first letter, commonly known as the "previous letter," is mentioned in 1 Cor 5:9-11. Given the wild immorality of Corinth, it is not surprising that Paul emphasized separation from such people in this letter. However, it has never been found, although a few scholars believe 2 Cor 6:14-7:1 may have originally been part of it.

Next, Paul received a letter from the Corinthians asking various specific questions about Christian life and practice. He is also informed verbally from members of Chloe's household (1 Cor 1:11) about the factionalism that is hurting the church's witness. He responded with the letter we know of as 1 Corinthians. During this period, Timothy was dispatched to Corinth for a brief time (1 Cor 4:17; 16:10) as Paul's personal ambassador, perhaps to give further voice to Paul's teaching in 1 Corinthians or to other issues Paul anticipated. We have no indication as to how long Timothy stayed.

Paul's brief trip to Corinth in A.D. 54 and the letter on its heels upon his return are chief events which underlie Paul's writing of 2 Corinthians in A.D. 56. We don't know why Paul went. Maybe Timothy reported that Paul's personal presence was needed. Possibly, conservative agitators had followed Paul to Corinth as they previously had to Galatia and were stirring up trouble, causing the Corinthians to second-guess Paul's credibility (2 Cor 11:13). What we do know is that this trip, usually described as "the painful visit" (2 Cor 2:1), was a complete disaster. Paul left angry and humiliated. Apparently, he confronted the ringleader of the trouble (perhaps someone in the church who had been influenced by the outsiders) face to face but when the man insulted him, no one in the church came to Paul's defense.

Speculation regarding the accusations hurled at Paul include the illegitimacy of his authority over the Corinthians and his misuse of funds collected for the Jerusalem offering (1 Cor 16:1-4; 2 Cor 7:2; 8:11). This was not a theological issue so much as one of personal integrity. Paul speaks of his being hurt emotionally most by the fact that the church did not side with him (2 Cor 2:5-11).

Upon his return, Paul wrote a third letter to the Corinthians, "the severe letter" (2 Cor 2:4; 7:8). Although not existing today, as described in 2 Cor 2:4-11 and 7:5-13, it was undoubtedly the most emotional and strident of any of Paul's letters. Apparently, he unleashed his anger and disappointment, scolding the church for not supporting him and demanding that the majority of the church take charge and discipline the offender as well as apologize to him. The letter is so harsh that Paul seems genuinely afraid ("fears within" - 2 Cor 7:5) that it will drive the church farther away from him and from Christ. But he sees no choice; this situation can't be left like it is.

Titus received the formidable task of delivering this explosive letter into the charged atmosphere of the Corinthian church and carrying out its demands. Paul's anxieties over Titus's success seem to overwhelm him as he waits for news. Apparently, the arrangements with Titus were that they would meet in Troas after a set period of time, maybe as long as six months. Second Corinthians 2:12 tells us that Paul went by land up to Troas, probably in A.D. 55 but was crushed to find Titus was not there. Remaining for some time evangelizing, maybe a month or so, he crossed over to Macedonia, probably Philippi, desperate to find Titus there. Finally, Titus arrived with the great news that the Corinthians - or most of them - were back in the fold. Genuinely remorseful over their hurtful behavior toward Paul, they had, indeed, dealt with the offender and expressed their renewed devotion to him (2 Cor 7:7,11,12).

The letter we call 2 Corinthians historically comes as Paul's fourth letter to Corinth. Buoyed by Titus's positive report, Paul writes this highly emotional letter, sending it back with Titus (2 Cor 7:17), probably A.D. 56. The letter interacts over and over with the events of the Painful Visit and the Severe Letter. Paul gushes with joy over the Corinthians' response (2 Cor 7:7,13-16), even recommending that they lift the punishment on the person who offended him (2 Cor 2:7). However, the tone of the letter is extremely defensive as Paul squirms under pressure from the Corinthians (most likely as advised by Titus) to toot his own horn regarding his own apostolic credentials. Out of his love for them, but against his own convictions against boasting, he is willing to explain the superiority of his apostleship in terms the Corinthians seem to require. These terms - such as providing letters of recommendation (2 Cor 3:1) and lists of accomplishments (2 Cor 6:3-13; 11:16-12:10) - Paul regards as superficial and unnecessary (2 Cor 3:2-3; 10:7) and probably reflect the influence of the conservative agitators upon the Corinthians. Paul seems to know he must respond, however uncomfortable it is for him, in order to block any further inroads from these outsiders and thus reinforce his renewed relationship with the Corinthians.

Titus brought 2 Corinthians to Corinth armed with Paul's commendation within the letter to spur the church to complete its collection of the offering for the Jerusalem Christians (1 Cor 16:1-4; 2 Cor 8:10-24). Paul followed a few months later (2 Cor 12:14; Acts 20:3) and remained in Corinth three months. During this period, he wrote Romans, but we know nothing of his interaction with the Corinthian church. Presumably, he finalized the Corinthian offering, but he must have worked diligently to solidify this troubled church and contend personally with the outside agitators and their remaining pockets of influence. At any rate, once the various representatives from the Greek and Asian churches arrived in Corinth with their offerings (Acts 20:1-6), he tried to set sail with them to Syria but, discovering treachery from the Jewish community in Corinth, he and the others traveled first to Troas, and, then, set sail from there.

We have no certainty of further communication or visitation between Paul and the Corinthian church after this. Possibly, following release from his first Roman imprisonment, he returned to Corinth and other churches in Greece and Asia Minor, as the Pastoral epistles suggest (1 Tim. 1:3; 2 Tim. 4:20).

THE UNITY OF 2 CORINTHIANS

One may rightly comment that the literary unity of 2 Corinthians "cannot just be presupposed." Analyses which question whether various sections of 2 Corinthians are original to it have come long and hard during the past two centuries of critical scholarship. Second Corinthian's sharp shifts in content and uneven tone make it the most susceptible of all the NT books to patchwork theories despite the fact that none of the Greek manuscripts (dating back to the third century) give the slightest hint that 2 Corinthians was ever anything different than what we read today. Although the ebb and flow of research has sidelined many conjectures, questions still remain regarding some parts of 2 Corinthians. As many as nine sections of 2 Corinthians have been scrutinized. However, just five will be discussed here.

First, 2 Cor 2:14-7:4 has been noted as at one time existing separately from 2 Corinthians. Even a casual reader is jolted at the jump between the travelogue commentary in 2:12-13 and the military parade description of the gospel in 2:13-17 which opens a five-chapter philosophy of apostolic ministry. It is all the more noticeable when, beginning at 7:5, the travelogue picks up again and continues on until 7:16. However, upon closer perusal, scholars are increasingly reluctant to name this as part of a separate letter. Despite the abruptness between 2:13 and 2:14, the theme of human weakness and divine power in 2:12-17 connects to 1:8-10, and the theme of divine ownership connects 1:22 and 2:14. Despite the change of subject between 7:4 and 7:5, the verbal links supplied by "encouragement" (7:4,13), "joy" (7:4,7) and "troubles" (7:4,5) supply sturdy connections. Besides, the efforts to postulate yet another letter between 1 and 2 Corinthians or to connect this to the Severe Letter are unwarranted. More recent efforts to anaylze 2 Corinthians 1-7 through the eyes of Roman rhetoric as well as chiastic structure loudly confirm separation of 2:14-7:4 as ill-conceived. Certainly, it is a digression but not without purpose and point to the context as a whole.

Second, perhaps less obvious to the casual reader because it is such a short section is 2 Cor 6:14-7:1. Here, again, though, the careful reader observes an interruption between 6:13 ("Open wide your hearts also") and 7:2 ("Make room for us in your hearts"). Scholarly analysis of these six verses suggests that not only are they out of place, they don't sound like Paul, using six words he never uses elsewhere in his writings nor used by anyone else in the NT ( hapax legomenae ). Is this a snippet of something someone else said or wrote that Paul has adapted into his material, or is it something Paul wrote or spoke at another time and place that he decides to use here?

Despite some of the unusual language, Pauline themes do appear here: the church as the temple of God, the polarization of righteousness and unrighteousness as well as between light and dark. Also, plenty of characteristic Pauline language occurs: "living God" (2 Cor 3:3; 1 Thess 1:9), "unbeliever" (twelve other occurrences in 1 and 2 Cor), and "holiness" (Rom 1:4; 1 Thess 3:13). Although conclusions vary, many today incline toward this section being from Paul.

Eyeing the language of separation from unrighteousness, some have been tempted to conclude that 6:14-7:1 is part of the "previous" letter mentioned in 1 Cor 5:9. However, the point is explicitly different. Paul emphasizes that in the previous letter he urged separation from the immorality of believers not dissociation from unbelievers as emphasized in 6:14-7:1.

Most likely, then, Paul himself has inserted this pre-formed, self-contained unit of material from previous teaching, either oral or written, perhaps influenced by others. Interesting comparisons to Qumran materials as well as writings of Philo have been made. The placement exactly here in 2 Corinthians is so awkward as to be unlikely to come from anyone other than Paul. However, two points should be kept in mind. One is that Paul dictated this letter as he did all his letters. This fact enhances the potential for distraction, interruption, and loose digressions such as this. A second point is that although the section's relationship to the immediately previous verses is not obvious, as one backs up to 6:1 and reads of Paul's concern about receiving "God's grace in vain" or to 5:19 to see Paul's emphasis on people "no longer living for themselves but for him who died for them," Paul's emphasis on separation and holiness in 6:14-7:1 fits well.

Probably inconceivable to the casual reader is the suggestion that 2 Corinthians 8 and 2 Corinthians 9 both were not originally part of 2 Corinthians. Arguments regarding 2 Corinthians 8 - repetition of information about Titus (7:13-15; 8:16-17), presumption of knowledge about the two brothers coming with him (8:18,22), or even evidence that 2 Corinthians 8 as well as 2 Corinthians 9 are formal business letters - do not convince many. Arguments regarding 2 Corinthians 9, first proposed by Semler 200 years ago, that 2 Corinthians 9 was originally a letter sent to Christians outside Corinth, are more formidable, and give scholars more pause.

What pulls them up short is the language Paul uses to refer to the collection ("service") in 9:1, which, in Greek, reads like a first mention of the collection. In addition to that, the regional reference to Achaia in 9:2 and the repetition of information from chapter 8 in chapter 9 regarding the collection give added support to the idea of chapter 9 being originally independent.

On the other side of the question is the fact that Paul's reference to the collection in 9:1 is modified by ( men gar , "and for") which suggests a resumption of a previous subject perhaps after a brief pause in dictation. The repetition of details regarding the collection is probably emphatic, and the regional reference to Achaia seems unlikely to exclude Corinth. Tipping the scale against an independent chapter 9, as noted by Furnish, are two references in chapter 9 which presume information from chapter 8: the mention of the brothers (9:3; 8:18) and the emphasis on their completing the collection (9:4-5; 8:7-15).

Admittedly, this is a close call. However, the evidence does not demand that chapters 8 and 9 are two separate letters about the collection, one to Corinth, and one to Achaia. Rather, these are interdependent chapters in 2 Corinthians, chapter 8 dealing with the details of the collection project and chapter 9 emphasizing motivation for the project, as noted by Danker.

Fourth, without a doubt the most serious challenge to the unity of 2 Corinthians comes from chapters 10-13. As long ago as 1870, Hausrath broadcast his belief that in these chapters, he had discovered the missing "severe" letter to the Corinthians. No doubt, in chapters 10-13 Paul erupts into harsh tones of anger and disappointment which seem to undercut completely the exuberance and joy which he builds up to by chapters 7, 8, and 9.

But Hausrath looked closer and pointed to evidence that chapters 10-13 were written previous to chapters 1-9. Particularly he saw passages in chapters 1-9 written in the past tense which appear to allude to passages from chapters 10-13 written in future tenses, such as 1:23 which says that Paul "did not return" to them in order to spare them, corresponding to 13:2 in which Paul asserts that he "will not return" in order to spare them or when Paul says in 2:3-4 that he "wrote" them out of great distress and in 13:10 when he says "I write" so that I may not have to be harsh. Hausrath also contends that Paul's reference to Rome (west of Corinth) as "regions beyond you" in 2 Cor 10:16 makes much better sense if he is in Ephesus (east of Corinth), where he wrote the Severe Letter, rather than Macedonia (north of Corinth), where he wrote 2 Corinthians.

Criticism against Hausrath's identification of 2 Cor 10-13 with the "severe" letter has withered its persuasiveness among scholars. Primarily, chapters 10-13 do not contain something we know specifically was in the Severe Letter: Paul's demand that an individual who offended him be punished (2:5-6; 7:12). Also, chapters 10-13 promise a visit (12:14; 13:1), but the Severe Letter was sent in place of a Painful Visit (1:23; 2:1). Regarding "regions beyond you," the language need not be taken so literally and the Macedonian region should be recognized as much more culturally distinct from Achaia than it looks like on a map.

More appealing to scholars of all stripes, including many conservatives, is to view 2 Cor 10-13 as a separate, fifth letter, written after Titus returns with new, bad news after delivering 2 Corinthians 1-9. This position still takes into account Hausrath's future tense passages. It helps make sense of 2 Cor 12:18 which refers to Titus's visit in the past tense when it was in the planning stage in 2 Corinthians 7-9. Also, it explains the increased strident tones of chapters 10-13 as Paul's response to new, outside influences claiming some kind of rival apostolic authority to Paul's (11:13; 12:11) rather than to internal problems which seem to be his concern in chapters 1-9.

This way of viewing chapters 10-13 is attractive but is not demanded by the evidence. As Witherington points out, the past (aorist) tenses describing Titus's visit in 12:17-18 need not be real. Especially as Paul reaches the end of the book, they could well be epistolary (spoken from the standpoint of the audience reading the letter). The mention of the unnamed brother traveling with Titus does correspond with 2 Cor 8:18,22. Reading 12:17-18 this way opens up the very real possibility that Paul could have received new information about problems in Corinth before sending 2 Corinthians but after writing chapters 1-9. This could explain the gulf between chapters 10-13 as well as an entirely separate letter.

Other ways which account for the change of tone in chapter 10-13 have to do with how one reads the letter. Perhaps chapters 1-9 are directed to the majority of the church which has fallen into line with Paul after the Painful Visit, the Severe Letter, and Titus's hard work while chapters 10-13 are to the minority who are still under the sway of outside opposition to Paul. After all, 2 Cor 2:6 does speak of "the majority" which imposed discipline upon the offender named in the Severe Letter.

Perhaps, as a growing group of scholars are showing, Paul's heightened criticism of the Corinthians in chapters 10-13 concludes a calculated rhetorical plan employing counterattack ( synkrisis ) or strong emotional appeal ( peroratio ) to win his defense against the charges being leveled at him by the Corinthians. One must admit that Paul never relaxes from a defensive posture in 2 Corinthians from the beginning to the end. While Paul's harsh tones in chapters 10-13 following the lead up in chapters 7, 8, and 9 may seem abrupt, his concerns from early in the letter haven't really changed, just his emotionalism. The issue of his character raised in chapter 1 and of the legitimacy of his apostleship raised in chapter 3 remain the object of his defense in chapters 10-13.

The correspondence of these issues is enough to suggest that even though outside influence of "false apostles" (11:13) is not named earlier, they influence the minority of the Corinthian church and provide the ammunition against Paul observed in the earlier chapters. Who else would have brandished "letters of recommendation" (3:1)? Their earliest influences could even be in the background of Paul's problems associated with the Painful Visit.

As evident from 2 Cor 7:8-13, the offending individual merely became the pretext for the whole church failing to rally behind Paul until after the Severe Letter. Although Paul can be ecstatic that most of the church has recommitted themselves to him and to the gospel by the time he writes 2 Corinthians, nevertheless, pockets of opposition likely remain under the growing influence of the outside agitators. With chapters 10-13 Paul intends to level a decisive blow against this opposition not only to bring the remainder of the church back to the true gospel but also to shore up any lingering doubts from those who have pledged their loyalty.

Paul's transition to chapter 10 indeed is rocky but, as Danker points out, no more so than Phil 3 or Rom 9. In this commentary, therefore, we will treat 2 Corinthians as a unity and will treat chapters 10-13 as primarily aimed at responding to a vocal minority of the church who remain mesmerized by the outsiders' criticisms of Paul.

PAUL'S OPPONENTS

Second Corinthians resounds with the echo of outside voices filling the Corinthians' heads with notions geared to sever their relationship with Paul. Since Paul originally brought the gospel to Corinth and made it possible for people there to be reconciled with God through Christ and begin a vibrant church meeting in homes throughout the city, others have come to Corinth presenting themselves as superior in authority to the apostle Paul himself. Presuming the opponents in 2 Cor 10-13 and 1-9 are the same, they supposedly have letters of authentication from Jerusalem (3:1-3), Paul blasts them as "false apostles" (11:13) and sarcastically as "super apostles" in 12:11. Nevertheless, they have influenced and confused the Corinthians enough to force Paul to write 2 Corinthians and fill it with self-commendation regarding his integrity and his "superior" apostolic credentials over theirs. He does this because he feels he must in order to win the Corinthians back, but he finds doing so personally disturbing and repugnant.

Whereas Paul finds it difficult to boast about himself, self-commendation seems to be the chief characteristic of these outsiders. Clues from 2 Corinthians indicate that they were proud of their Jewish heritage (11:22), their "Christian" service (11:23), their oratorical skill (11:6), their self-confidence (1:15-17), and their charismatic experiences (12:12). They preached a different gospel than Paul's (11:4). They also accepted money from the Corinthians, unlike Paul who refused it (12:16). They may have viewed Paul's effort to collect money from the Corinthians for the Jerusalem Christians as cutting off their own purse strings and threatening their prosperity in Corinth.

Their heated, personalized efforts to undercut Paul sound like Paul's opposition in Galatians, commonly called Judaizers (Gal 4:17). However, no mention of the law or circumcision in 2 Corinthians clouds this identification and requires that, if these are the same people, they have changed their tune considerably since Galatians. The fact that they tout letters of recommendation - where else but from Jerusalem - makes it difficult to lay aside the picture of a band of renegade, conservative Jewish Christians who first followed Paul to Galatia and now to Corinth with the expressed purpose of replacing Paul's gospel and his authority to represent true Christianity (Gal 1:6-7).

It is going too far to say that their credentials were currently legitimate or that they were actual apostles since Acts 15:24 reports that a faction of Jewish Christians had gone out falsely representing the church to new, Gentile congregations. It is possible, though, that they do have apostolic credentials - perhaps even knew Jesus before his crucifixion - but now are misusing these credentials to subvert Paul's successful mission to Gentiles in Galatia and now also in Corinth and other churches as well.

The picture of these Corinthian opponents as ultraconservative Jewish Christians clashes with a considerable amount of the evidence which points to their Greek or even gnostic origins. Their connection to revelations and wonders, rhetorical skills, "worldly" wisdom, and just their overall egotistical posture must be reckoned with. Undermining at least the gnostic element is the positive use of "knowledge" in 2 Corinthians. Nevertheless, a typical result when these ingredients are combined emerges with a conclusion that they were "Hellenistic Jews who were propagating . . . a 'spiritual gnosticism.'"

However, it seems inconceivable that ultraconservative Jewish Christians coming out of Jerusalem could be pushing a gospel so infiltrated with Greek ideas as to be outside the bounds of Paul's own radicalized message which had stripped unnecessary Jewish elements. Could these Jewish agitators be so clever as to be able to manipulate the Corinthians against Paul by successfully incorporating elements from Greek culture into their opposition to Paul which they themselves don't believe? It doesn't seem likely, but then no identification satisfactorily combines the paradoxical elements of these opponents as currently gleaned from the information we have from 2 Corinthians and the first century. As one commentator astutely points out, any final resolution is also hampered considerably by the fact that 2 Corinthians provides no information about the doctrine or theology of these opponents. Most current discussion recognizes the limitations involved in this discussion and offers no more than conjectures as has been done here.

It's best, then, to keep in mind the characteristics of Paul's opponents available from reading 2 Corinthians without any adamant historical identification until better information becomes available. They were Jewish. They were Greek. They considered themselves Christians. They hated Paul. They hurt Paul, and he feared what more they could do. It was up to him to marshal all the strength and the skills he had to prevent them from doing any further damage. They had backed him into a corner, and he responds with ferocity and emotion in 2 Corinthians, compelled out of his deep love for the Corinthians and his commitment to true, saving Christianity and humble, self-sacrificing leadership.

RELEVANCE

Christians treat 2 Corinthians like the ugly twin sister of 1 Corinthians. First Corinthian's poignant theology about challenging issues attracts everyone's constant attention. Meanwhile, 2 Corinthians sits in the corner waiting for someone to ask it to dance. Yet, once we make some effort to get to know 2 Corinthians, we will be pleasantly surprised.

Today, as in the days of the early church, various outside forces threaten to sever people's loyalty to Christ and cut away at the fabric of the church. It might be a cult like Mormons or Jehovah's Witnesses. It might be cultural forces like the challenges of postmodernism or the mind-set of the so-called Generation X which questions absolutes like God and salvation in Christ alone. It might just be an obstinate person who envies the authority of the minister, elders, or deacons and questions their integrity and decision-making at every turn and who draws around him or her an anti-faction.

If you are someone who cares deeply about your local church and would do almost anything to maintain its success and its integrity as a body of Christian believers, then 2 Corinthians will speak to your heart and nourish your soul. You will relate to Paul's agony over this church , feel his compassion, and be engulfed by his intense emotion in this letter. You will take in the principles of genuine church leadership and apply them to your life responsibly to enable you to enrich the quality of your local church.

The comments which follow are intended to help you both to understand 2 Corinthians in its own historical context and to apply its key principles to your own personal context in the church today.

-College Press New Testament Commentary: with the NIV

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Aalen, S. "Glory." NIDNTT , 2:44-52.

Alexander, L.C.A. "Chronology of Paul." Dictionary of Paul and His Letters , pp. 115-123. Edited by Gerald Hawthorne, Ralph Martin, and Daniel Reid. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1993.

Andrews, Scott. "Too Weak Not to Lead: The Form and Function of 2 Cor __2Cor 11__11:23b-33." NTS 41 (1995): 263-276.

Bahr, Gordon. "The Subscription in the Pauline Letters." JBL 87 (1968): 27-41.

Baird, William. "Letters of Recommendation: A Study of 2 Cor 3:1-3." JBL 80 (1961): 166-172.

Baker, William R. "Did the Glory of Moses' Face Fade? A Re-examination of Katargew in 2 Corinthians 3:7-18." Forthcoming in BBR 10 (2000).

Barnett, Paul. The Second Epistle to the Corinthians . NICNT. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997.

Barrett, C.K. A Commentary on the Second Epistle to the Corinthians . Harper's New Testament Commentaries. New York: Harper & Row, 1973.

________________ . "Paul's Opponents in 2 Corinthians." NTS 17 (1971): 233-254.

________________ . The Second Epistle to the Corinthians . New York: Harper, 1973.

________________ . The Signs of an Apostle . London: Epworth, 1970.

Bartchy, S. Scott. First-Century Slavery and 1 Corinthians 7:21 . SBL Dissertation Series, no. 11. Missoula, Montana: Society of Biblical Teaching, 1973.

Bates, W.A. "The Integrity of II Corinthians." NTS 12 (1965): 56-69.

Batey, Richard. "Paul's Interaction with the Corinthians." JBL 84 (1965): 139-146.

Beale, G.K. "The Old Testament Background of Reconciliation in 2 Corinthians 5-7 and its Bearing on the Literary Problem of 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1." NTS 35 (1989): 550-581.

Beasley-Murray, George R. Baptism in the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1962.

Becher, O. "Faith." NIDNTT , 1: 588-592.

Beck, B.E. "Reflections on 2 Corinthians 5:11-6:2." Epworth Review (1994): 85-92.

Belleville, Linda L. 2 Corinthians . The IVP New Testament Commentary Series. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1996.

________________ . "A Letter of Apologetic Self-Commendation: 2 Cor 1:8-7:16." NovT 31 (1989): 142-163.

________________ . "Imitate Me as I Imitate Christ." In Patterns of Discipleship in the New Testament . Edited by Richard Longenecker. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996.

________________ . "Paul's Polemic and Theology of the Spirit in 2 Corinthians." CBQ 58 (1996): 281-304.

________________ . Reflections of Glory: Paul's Polemical Use of the Moses-Doxa Tradition in 2 Corinthians 3:1-18. JSNT Supplemental Series, no. 52, Sheffield: JSOT, 1991.

Best, Ernest. Second Corinthians . Interpretation Commentary. Louisville: John Knox, 1987.

Betz, Hans Dieter. "2 Cor 6:14-7:1: An Anti-Pauline Fragment?" JBL (1973): 88-108.

________________ . 2 Corinthians 8 and 9: A Commentary on Two Administrative Letters of the Apostle Paul. Hermeneia. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1985.

Beyreuther, E. "Like, Equal." NIDNTT , 2:497-500.

Beyreuther, E., and G. Finkenrith. "Joy." NIDNTT , 2:352-361.

Bieringer, B. "Der 2. Korintherbrief in den neuesten Kommentaren." Ephemerides Theologicale Lovanienses 67 (1991): 107-130.

Bientenhard, H., and J.A. Motyer. "Amen." NIDNTT , 1:97-101.

Bientenhard, H., and C. Brown. "Satan." NIDNTT , 3:468-473.

Blomberg, Craig. Interpreting the Parables . Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1990.

________________ . Neither Poverty nor Riches . Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999.

________________ . "The Structure of 2 Corinthians 1-7." Criswell Theological Revue 4 (1989): 3-20.

Breytenbach, Cilliars. "Paul's Proclamation and God's 'Thriambos' (Notes on 2 Cor 2:14-16b)." Neot 24 (1990): 257-271.

Brown, C. "Satan." NIDNTT , 3:468-473.

Bruce, F.F. Commentary on Galatians . NIGTC. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans. 1982.

________________ . "Paul and Jerusalem in Paul's Apostolic Strategy." TynBul 19 (1968): 3-25.

Buchanan, George Walter. "Paul and the Jews (II Corinthians 3:4-4:6 and Romans 11:7-10)." In When Jews and Christians Meet , pp. 141-161. Edited by Jacob I. Petuchowski. Albany, NY: State University of New York, 1958.

Bultmann, Rudolph. "DIKAIOSYNE THEOU." JBL 83 (1964): 12-16.

Burton, Ernest DeWitt. The Epistle to the Galatians . ICC. Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1921.

Campbell, J.Y. "'KOINWNIA' and its Cognates in the New Testament." JTS 49 (1948).

Cartledge, M.J. "A Model of Hermeneutical Method - An Exegetical Missiological Reflection upon Suffering in 2 Corinthians 4:7-15." Evangelical Review of Theology 17 (1993): 472-483.

Cassidy, Ronald. "Paul's Attitude to Death in II Corinthians 5:1-10." EvQ 43 (1971): 210-217.

Chevallier. "L'argumentation de Paul dans II Corinthiens 10 à 13." Revue d'Histoire et de Philosophie Religieuses 70 (1990): 3-15.

Collins, J.N. "The Mediatorial Aspect of Paul's Role as Diakonus ." AusBR 40 (1992): 34-44.

Conzelmann, Hans. "Paul's Doctrine of Justification: Theology of Anthropology?" In Theology of the Liberating Word , pp. 108-123. Edited by F. Herzog. Nashville: Abingdon, 1972.

Cook, Michael J. "The Tie that Binds: An Exposition of II Corinthians 3:12-4:6 and Romans 11:7-10." In When Jews and Christians Meet , pp. 121-135. Edited by Jacob I. Petuchowski. Albany, NY: State University of New York, 1988.

Cooper, John W. Body, Soul, and Life Everlasting: Biblical Anthropology and the Monism-Dualism Debate . Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1989.

Cottrell, Jack. Romans . The College Press NIV Commentary. 2 vols. Joplin, MO: College Press, 1996, 1998.

Craig, W.L. "Paul's Dilemma in 2 Corinthians 5:1-10: A 'Catch-22'?" NTS 34 (1988): 145-147.

Cranfield, C.E.B. "Minister and Congregation in the Light of II Corinthians 4:5-7." Int 19 (1965): 163-167.

________________ . "The Grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 8:1-9." Communio Viatorum 32 (1989): 105-109.

Dahl, Nils. "A Fragment and Its Context: 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1." In Studies in Paul , pp. 62-69. Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1977.

Danker, Frederick W. "Consolation in 2 Cor 5:1-10." Concordia Theological Monthly 39 (1968): 552-556.

________________ . II Corinthians . Augsburg Commentary on the New Testament. Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1989.

De Lorenz, L., ed. The Diakonia of the Spirit (2 Cor 4:7-7:4). Monographic Series of "Benedicta." Biblical Ecumenical Studies, no. 10. Rome: St. Paul's Abbey, 1989.

De Silva, D.A. "Measuring Penultimate against Ultimate Reality: An Investigation of the Integrity and Argumentation of 2 Corinthians." JSNT 52 (1903): 41-70.

________________ . "Meeting the Exigency of a Complex Rhetorical Situation: Paul's Strategy in 2 Corinthians 1 through 7." AUSS 34 (1996): 5-22.

________________ . "Recasting the Moment of Decision: 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1 in its Literary Context." AUSS 31 (1993): 3-16.

Deirsmann. Bible Studies . Translated by A. Grieve. Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1903.

Derrett, J.D.M. "Nai (2 Cor 1:19-20)." Filologia Nestestamentaria 4 (1991): 205-209.

Diessmann, Adolf. Bible Studies . Translated by A. Grieve. Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1903.

Dinkler, Erich. "Die Taufterminologie in 2 Kor 1:21f." Neotestamentica et Patristica , pp. 173-191. NovTSupp 6 (Leiden, 1962).

Duff, P.B. "Apostolic Suffering and the Language of Processions in 2 Corinthians 4:7-10." BTB 21 (1991): 158-165.

________________ . "2 Corinthians 1-7: Sidestepping the Division Hypothesis Dilemma." BTB 24 (1994): 16-26.

________________ . "Metaphor, Motif, and Meaning: The Rhetorical Strategy Behind the Image 'Led in Triumph' in 2 Corinthians 2:14." CBQ 53 (1991): 79-92.

________________ . "The Mind of the Redactor: 2 Cor 6:14-7:1 in Its Secondary Context." NovT 35 (1993): 160-180.

Dumbrell, William J. "Paul's Use of Exodus 34 in 2 Corinthians 3." In The God Who Is Rich in Mercy , pp. 179-194. Fest. D.B. Knox. Edited by Peter T. O'Brian and David G. Peterson. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1986.

Egan, R.B. "Lexical Evidence in Two Pauline Passages." NovT 19 (1977): 34-62.

Ellingworth, Paul. "Grammar, Meaning, and Verse Divisions in 2 Cor 11:16-29." BT 43 (1992): 245-246.

Ellis, E.E. "Christ Crucified." In Reconciliation and Hope: New Testament Essays on Atonement and Eschatology . Fest. Leon Morris. Edited by R. Banks. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans (1974): 69-75.

________________ . "Paul and His Co-Workers." NTS 17 (1970): 437-452.

________________ . "II Cor V.1-10 in Pauline Eschatology." NTS 6 (1960): 211-224.

Engels, Donald. Roman Corinth: An Alternative Model for the Classical City . Chicago: University of Chicago, 1990.

Erickson, R.J. "Flesh." DPL , pp. 303-305.

Erlemann, K. "Der Geist als ajrrabwn (2 Kor 5,5) in Kontext der Paulinschen Eschatologie." ZNW 83 (1992): 202-223.

Esser, H.H. "Grace." NIDNTT , 2:115-123.

________________ . "Mercy." NIDNTT , 2:593-298.

Everts, J.M. "Hope." DPL , pp. 414-417.

Fee, Gordon. "II Corinthians VI.14-VII.1 and Food Offered to Idols." NTS 23 (1977): 140-161.

________________ . "CARIS in II Corinthians I.15: Apostle's Parousia and Paul-Corinth Chronology." NTS 24 (1978): 533-538.

Filbeck, David. "Problems in Translating First Person Plural Pronouns in 2 Corinthians." BT 45 (1994): 401-410.

Fitzgerald, John T. Cracks in an Earthen Vessel: An Examination of the Catalogues of Hardships in the Corinthian Correspondence. SBL Dissertation Series, no. 99. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1988.

________________ . "Paul, the Ancient Epistolary Theorists, and 2 Corinthians 10-13." In Greeks, Romans, and Christians , pp. 190-200. Edited by D. Balch. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1990.

Fitzmyer, Joseph A. "Glory Reflected on the Face of Christ (2 Cor 3:7-4:6) and a Palestinian Jewish Motif." TS 42 (1981): 630-644.

________________ . "Qumran and the Interpolated Paragraph in 2 Cor 6:14-7:1." CBQ 23 (1961): 271-278.

Forbes, C. "Comparison, Self-Praise and Irony: Paul's Boasting and the Conventions of Hellenistic Rhetoric." NTS 32 (1986): 1-30.

Fredrickson, D. "Free Speech in Pauline Political Theology." WW 12 (1992): 345-351.

________________ . "Pentecost: Paul the Pastor in 2 Corinthians." WW 11 (1991): 208-214.

Fridrichsen, A. The Apostle and His Message . Uppsala: Lundequistska, 1947.

Furnish, Victor Paul. "Paul and the Corinthians." Int 52 (July, 1998): 229-245.

________________ . II Corinthians . Anchor Bible. New York: Doubleday, 1984.

Gallas, S. "Fünfmal vierzig weniger einen . . ." Die an Paulus Vollzogenen Synagogal Strafen Nach 2 Kor 11,24. ZNW 81 (1991): 178-191.

Georgi, D. The Opponents of Paul in Second Corinthians . Translated by N. Attridge. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1986.

Gill, David W.J. "In Search of the Social Elite in the Corinthian Church." TynBul 44 (1993): 323-337.

Gillman, John. "A Thematic Comparison: 1 Cor 15:50-57 and 2 Cor 5:1-5." JBL 107 (1988): 439-454.

Glasson, T.F. "2 Corinthians V.1-10 Versus Platonism." SJT 43 (1990): 145-155.

Gleason, Randall. "Paul's Covenantal Contrasts in 2 Cor 3:1-11." BSac 154 (1997): 61-79.

Gräbe, P.J. "The All-Surpassing Power of God through the Holy Spirit in the Midst of our Broken Earthly Existence: Perspectives on Paul's Use of DUNAMIS in 2 Corinthians." Neot 28 (1994): 147-156.

Grech, Prosper. "2 Corinthians 3,17 and the Pauline Doctrine of Conversion to the Holy Spirit." CBQ 17 (1955): 420-437.

Greenlee, J. Harold. Introduction to New Testament Textual Criticism . Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1964.

Guhrt, J. "Time." NIDNTT , 3:831.

Gundry, Robert. A Survey of the New Testament . Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994.

Gundry-Volf, J.M. "Conscience." DPL , 153-156.

Haarbeck, H., and H.G. Link. "lupevw." NIDNTT , 2:419-421.

Hafemann, S.J. "The Glory and Veil of Moses in 2 Cor 3:7-14: An Example of Paul's Contextual Exegesis of the OT - A Proposal." HBT 14 (1992): 31-49.

________________ . Paul, Moses, and the History of Israel . Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1996.

________________ . "Paul's Use of the Old Testament in 2 Corinthians." Int 52 (July, 1998): 246-257.

________________ . "Self-Commendation and Apostolic Legitimacy in 2 Corinthians: A Pauline Dialectic?" NTS 36 (1990): 66-88.

________________ . Suffering and Ministry in the Spirit: Paul's Defense of His Ministry in 2 Corinthians 2:14-3:3. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990. 21-95.

Hagge, H. "Die beiden überlieferen sendschreibendes Apostels Paulus an die Gemeinde zu Korinth." Jahrbucher für protestantische Theologie 2 (1876): 481-531.

Hahn, H.C., and Colin Brown. "Conscience." NIDNTT , 1:348-353.

________________ . "Openness, Frankness, Boldness." NIDNTT , 2:734-737.

Harder, G. "upovstasi"." NIDNTT , 1:710-713.

Harris, Murray J. "2 Corinthians 5:1-10: Watershed in Paul's Eschatology!" TynBul 22 (1971): 32-57.

________________ . "2 Corinthians." In Expositor's Bible Commentary, Vol. 10. Edited by Frank E. Gaebelein. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1976.

Harvey, A.E. Renewal through Suffering . Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1996.

Hausrath, Adolf. Der Vier-Capitalbrief des Paulus an die Korinther. Heidelberg: Bassermann, 1870.

Hayes, J.W. "Roman Pottery from the South Stoa at Corinth." Hesperia 42 (1973): 465-476.

Heckel, V. "Der Dorn im Fleisch. Die Krankheit des Paulus in 2 Kor 12,7 und Gal 4,13f 2:238." ZNW (1993): 65-92.

Heiny, Stephen. "2 Corinthians 2:14-4:6: The Motive for Metaphor." In SBL 1987 Sermon Papers , 1-21. Edited by Kent Harold Richards. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1987.

Hemer, Colin. "A Note on 2 Corinthians 1:9." TynBul 23 (1972): 103-107.

________________ . "Alexandrian Troas." TynBul 26 (1975): 82-94.

Hengel, Martin. The Son of God . Translated by John Bowden. London: SCM Press, 1976.

Hennecke, Edgar, ed. New Testament Apocrypha . 2 vols. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1963-1964.

Hess, K. "Serve." NIDNTT , 3:544-549.

Hickling, C.J.A. "The Sequence of Thought in II Corinthians, Chapter Three." NTS 21 (1975): 380-395.

Hock, Ronald F. "The Workshop as a Social Setting for Paul's Missionary Preaching." CBQ 41 (1979): 438-450.

________________ . "Paul's Tentmaking and the Problem of his Social Class." JBL 97 (1978): 555-564.

Hodgson, Robert. "Paul the Apostle and First Century Tribulation Lists." ZNW 74 (1983): 59-80.

Hoffman, E. "Hope, Expectation." NIDNTT , 2:238-244.

Howe, E.M. "Interpretations of Paul in the Acts of Paul and Thecla." Pauline Studies . Fest. F.F. Bruce. Edited by D.A. Hagner and M.J. Aawis. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1980.

Hubbard, Moyer. "Was Paul Out of His Mind? Re-reading 2 Corinthians 5.13." JSNT 70 (1998): 39-64.

Hughes, Philip E. Paul's Second Epistle to the Corinthians . NICNT. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1962.

Hurd, John. The Origin of I Corinthians . New York: Seabury, 1965.

Joubert, S.J. "Behind the Mask of Rhetoric: 2 Corinthians 8 and the Intra-textual Relation Between Paul and the Corinthians." Neot 26 (1992): 101-112.

Judge. E.A. "The Conflict of Educational Aims in NT Thought." Journal of Christian Education 9 (1966): 32-45.

________________ . "Paul's Boasting in Relation to Contemporary Professional Practice." AusBR 16 (1968): 37-50.

________________ . "The Social Identity of the First Christians: A Question of Method in Religious History." JRH 11 (1980): 214.

Käsemann, Ernst. "'The Righteousness of God' in Paul." In New Testament Questions of Today , pp. 168-193. Translated by W.J. Montague. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1969.

Kee, Doyle. "Who Were the 'Super-Apostles' of 2 Corinthians 10-13?" ResQ 23 (1980): 65-76.

Kerr, Alastair. "ajrrabw'n." JTS 39 (1988): 92-97.

Keyes, C.W. "The Greek Letter of Introduction." AJP 56 (1935): 28-44.

Kim, C.H. Forum and Structure of Greek Letters of Recommendation . Society of Biblical Literature Dissertation Series, no. 4. Missoula, Montana: Scholars Press, 1972.

Kim, Seyoon. The Origin of Paul's Gospel . Tübingen: Muhr, 1981. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1982.

Kistemaker, Simon J. II Corinthians . New Testament Commentary. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1997.

Klassen, William. "The Sacred Kiss in the NT: An Example of Social Boundary Lines." NTS 39 (1993): 122-135.

Koester, Helmut. "upostasi"." TDNT 8: 572-589.

Kramer, Werner. "Christ, Lord, Son of God." In Studies in Biblical Theology , no. 50. Translated by B. Hardy. London: SCM Press, 1966.

Kruse, Colin. "The Offender and the Offence in 2 Corinthians 2:5 and 7:12." EvQ 60 (1998): 129-139.

________________ . "The Relationship Between the Opposition to Paul Reflected in 2 Corinthians 1-7 and 10-13." EvQ 61 (1989): 195-202.

________________ . 2 Corinthians . Tyndale New Testament Commentaries, 2nd ser . Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1987.

Kurz, William. "2 Corinthians" Implied Readers and Canonical Implications." JSNT 62 (1996): 443-63.

Lambrecht, Jan. "'Reconcile Yourselves . . .': A Reading of 2 Cor 5.11-21." In The Diakonia of the Spirit. Edited by Lorenzo Lonenzi. Monograph Series of Benediction, vol. 10. Rome: St. Paul's Abbey, 1989.

________________ . Second Corinthians . Sacra Pagina. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1999.

________________ . "Strength in Weakness: A Reply to Scott B. Andrews' Exegesis of 2 Cor 11:23b-33." NTS 43 (1997): 285-290.

Lampe, G.W.H. "Church Discipline and the Interpretation of the Epistles to the Corinthians." In Church History and Interpretation , pp. 337-361. Edited by W.R. Farmer. Cambridge: Cambridge University, 1967.

Leary, T.J. "A Thorn in the Flesh - 2 Corinthians 12:7." JTS 43 (1992): 520-522.

Leivestad, Ragnar. "The Meekness and Gentleness of Christ: II Cor X.1." NTS 13 (1966): 156-164.

Lewis, J.P., ed. Interpreting 2 Corinthians 5:14-21. An Exercise in Hermeneutic Studies in the Bible and Early Christianity 17 . Lewiston, NY: Mellen, 1989.

Lincoln, Andrew. "Paul the Visionary: The Setting and Significance of the Rapture to Paradise in II Corinthians XII.1-10." NTS 25 (1979): 204-220.

Lofthouse, W. F. "'I' and 'We' in the Pauline Epistles." BT 6 (1955): 72-80.

Lorenzi, Lorenzo, ed. The Diakonia of the Spirit . Monograph Series of Benedictina, vol. 10. Rome: St. Paul's Abbey, 1989.

Loubser, J.A. "A New Look at Paradox and Irony in 2 Corinthans 10-13." Neot 26 (1992): 507-521.

Manson, T.W. "2 Cor 2:14-17: Suggestions Toward an Exegesis." In Studia Pauline . Fest. de Zwann. Haarlem: Bohm, 1953.

Marmorstein, A. The Old Rabbinic Doctrine of God. New York: KTAV, 1968.

Marshal, Peter. "A Metaphor of Shame: QRIABEUEIN in 2 Cor 2:14." NovT 25 (1983): 302-317.

________________ . "Invective: Paul and His Enemies in Corinth." In Perspectives on Languages and Test: Essays and Poems in Honor of Francis Anderson , pp. 358-373. Edited by Edgar W. Conrad and Edward G. Newry. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 1987.

Marshall, I.H. "The Meaning of Reconciliation." In Unity and Diversity in New Testament Theology . Fest. George E. Ladd. Edited by R. A. Guelich. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1978.

Martin, Ralph P. 2 Corinthians . Word Biblical Commentary. Waco, TX: Word, 1986.

________________ . "The Opponents of Paul in 2 Corinthians: An Old Issue Revisited." In Tradition and Interpretation in the New Testament . Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1987.

Maxfield, Valerie. The Military Decoration of the Roman Army . Los Angeles: University of California , 1981.

McCant, Jerry. "Paul's Thorn of Rejected Apostleship." NTS 34 (1988): 550-572.

Metzger, Bruce, ed. A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament . New York: United Bible Societies, 1971.

Morray-Jones, C.R.A. "Paradise Revisited (2 Cor 12:1-12): The Jewish Mystical Background of Paul's Apostolate. Part 1: The Jewish Sources." HTR 86 (2, 1993): 177-217.

________________ . "Paradise Revisited (2 Cor 12:1-12): The Jewish Mystical Background of Paul's Apostolate. Part 2: Paul's Heavenly Ascent and Its Significance." HTR 86 (3, 1993): 265-292.

Morris, Leon. The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross . Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1955.

________________ . The Epistle to the Romans . Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1988.

Moule, C.F.D. "St. Paul and Dualism: The Pauline Conception of Resurrection." NTS 13 (1965): 106-123.

Mullins, Terence. "Formulas in New Testament Epistles." JBL 91 (1972): 380-390.

Mundel, W. "uJpakouw." NIDNTT , 2:179-180.

Murphy-O'Conner, Jerome "Another Jesus (2 Cor 11:4)." RB 97 (1990): 238-251.

________________ . "'Being at Home in the Body We Are in Exile from the Lord' (2 Cor 5:6b)." RB 93 (1986): 214-221.

________________ . "The Corinth that Paul Saw." BA (Sept, 1984): 147-159.

________________ . "The Date of 2 Corinthians 10-13." RB 39 (1991): 31-43.

________________ . "Faith and Resurrection in 2 Cor 4:13-14." RB 95 (1988): 543-550.

________________ . "Paul and Gallio." JBL 112 (1993): 315-317.

________________ . Paul's Corinth: Texts and Archaeology. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1983.

________________ . "Philo and 2 Cor 6:14-7:1." RB 95 (1988): 55-69.

________________ . "PNEUMATIKOI and Judaizers in 2 Cor 2:14-4:6." AusBR 34 (1986): 42-58.

________________ . "Relating 2 Corinthians 6.14-7.1 to its Context." NTS 33 (1987): 272-275.

________________ . The Theology of the Second Letter to the Corinthians . New Testament Theology. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991.

Nickle, Keith. The Collection . Studies in Biblical Theology, no. 48. London: SCM Press, 1966.

Newmann, Matthias. "Ministry, Weakness, and Spirit in II Corinthians." Clergy Review 59 (1974): 647-660.

O'Collins, Gerald. "Power Made Perfect in Weakness: 2 Cor 12:9-10." CBQ 33 (1971): 528-537.

Olley, John. "A Precursor of the NRSV? 'Sons and Daughters' in 2 Cor 6.18." NTS 44 (1998): 204-212.

Olson, Stanley. "Epistolary Uses of Expressions of Self-Confidence." JBL 104 (1984): 585-597.

Osborne, Robert. "St. Paul's Silent Years." JBL 84 (1963): 59-65.

Osei-Bonsu. "Does 2 Cor 5.1-10 Teach the Reception of the Resurrection in Body at the Moment of Death?" JSNT 28 (1986): 81-101.

Oster, R.E. "Use, Misuse, and Neglect of Archaeological Evidence in Some Modern Works on 1 Corinthians." ZNW 83 (1992): 52-73.

Packer, J.I. "Abolish, Nullify, Reject." NIDNTT , 1:73-74.

Pate, C.M. Adam Christology as the Exegetical and Theological Substructure of 2 Corinthians 4:7-5:21. University Press of America, 1991.

Patte, Daniel. "A Structural Exegesis of 2 Corinthians 2:14-7:4 with Special Attention on 2:14-3:6 and 6:11-7:4." In SBL 1987 Seminar Papers , pp. 23-45. Edited by Kent Harold Richards. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1987.

Perriman, A.C. "Between Troas and Macedonia: 2 Cor 2:13-14." ExpTim 101 (1989): 39-41.

________________ . "Paul and the Parousia: 1 Corinthians 15.50-57 and 2 Corinthians 5:1-5." NTS 35 (1989): 512-521.

Peterson, Brian. "Conquest, Control, and the Cross: Paul's Self-Portrayal in 2 Corinthians 10-13." Int 52 (1998): 258-270.

Pierre, C.A. Conscience in the New Testament . SBJ 15. London: SCM, 1958.

Plummer, Alfred. A Critical & Exegetical Commentary on the Second Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians . ICC, 1st ser. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1915.

Quast, Kevin. Reading the Corinthian Correspondence: An Introduction . New York: Paulist, 1994.

Rensberger, David. "2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1 - A Fresh Examination." Studia Biblical Et Theologica 8 (1978): 25-49.

Roetzel, C.J. "'As Dying, and Behold We Live.' Death and Resurrection in Paul's Theology." Int 46 (1992): 5-18.

Schippers, R. "qliyi"." NIDNTT , 2:807-809.

________________ . "Seal." NIDNTT , 3:497-500.

Schlier, Heinrich. "ajmhn." TDNT , 1:335-338.

Schmithals, Walther. Gnosticism in Corinth: An Investigation of the Letters to the Corinthians . Translated by J.E. Steely. Nashville: Abingdon, 1971.

Scott, James M. 2 Corinthians . New International Biblical Commentary. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1998.

________________ . "The Triumph of God in 2 Cor 2.14: Additional Evidence of Merkabah Mysticism in Paul." NTS 42 (1996): 260-281.

________________ . "Use of Scripture in 2 Corinthians 6:16c-18 and Paul's Restoration Theology." JSNT 561 (1994): 73-99.

Segal, Alan. "Paul and Ecstasy." In SBL 1986 Seminar Papers , pp. 555-580. Altanta: Scholars Press, 1986.

Semler, Johann. Paraphrasis II epistolae ad Corinthios . Halle, 1776.

Singer, S. Authorised Daily Prayer Book. London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1925.

Spencer, Aida Besançon, and William David Spencer. 2 Corinthians . Bible Study Commentary. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1989.

Stählin, Gustav. "filew." TDNT , 9:113-171.

Stephenson, A.M.G. "A Defense of the Integrity of 2 Corinthians." In The Authorship and Intergirty of the New Testament , pp. 82-97. SPCK Theological Collections , 4. London: SPCK, 1965.

Stowers, S.K. "' Peri men gar ' and the Integrity of 2 Cor 8 and 9." NovT 32 (1990): 340-348.

Stuhlmacher, Peter. Gerechtigkeit Gottes bei Paulus . FRLANT 87. Goettingen: Vandenhoock and Ruprecht, 1966.

Sumney, Jerry L. Identifying Paul's Opponents: The Question of Method in 2 Corinthians . JSNTSupp , no. 40. Sheffield: JSOT, 1990.

Tasker, R.V.G. The Second Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians . Tyndale New Testament Commentaries. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1958.

Taylor, Justin. "The Ethnarch of King Aretus at Damascus: A Note on 2 Cor 11, 32-33." RB 99 (1992): 719-728.

Taylor, N.H. "The Composition and Chronology of Second Corinthians." JSNT 48 (1991): 67-87.

Thacker, Anthony. "Paul's Thorn in the Flesh." Epworth Revue 18 (1991): 67-69.

Theissen, G. "The Unity of the Church." Theology Digest 42 (1995): 117-126.

Thiselton, Anthony. "Flesh." NIDNTT , 3:671-682.

Thrall, Margaret. A Critical & Exegetical Commentary on the Second Epistle to the Corinthians . ICC, 2nd ser. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1994.

________________ . "2 Corinthians 1:12: aJgiovqhti or aJplovqhti." In Studies in New Testament Language and Text. NovTSupp 44. Edited by J.K. Elliott. Leiden: Brill (1976): 366-372.

________________ . "The Offender and the Offense: A Problem of Detection in 2 Corinthians." In Scripture: Meaning and Method , pp. 65-78. Edited by B. Thompson. Hull: Hull University Press, 1987.

________________ . "The Pauline Use of SUNEIDHSIS." NTS 14 (1967): 118-125.

________________ . "The Problem of II Cor VI.14-VII.1 in Some Recent Discussions." NTS 24 (1977): 132-148.

________________ . "Salvation Proclaimed in V. 2 Corinthians 5:18-21: Reconciliation with God." ExpTim 93 (1982): 226-230.

________________ . "A Second Thanksgiving Period in 2 Corinthians." JSNT 16 (1982): 101-124.

________________ . "Super-Apostles, Servants of Christ, and Servants of Satan." JSNT 6 (1980): 42-57.

Thurston, Bonnie Bowman. "2 Corinthians 2:14-16a: Christ's Incense." ResQ 29 (1987): 65-70.

Trocmé, E. "Le rempart de Damas: un faux pas de Paul?" Revue d'Histoire et de Philosophie Religieuses. Strasbourg, 69 (1989): 475-479.

Unnik, W.C. Van. "'With Unveiled Face' An Exegesis of 2 Corinthians III.12-15." NovT 2 (1963): 153-169.

________________ . "Tarsus or Jerusalem." Sparsa Collecta . NovTSupp 29 (1953): 259-327.

Vassiliades, P. "The Collection Revisited." Deltion Biblicokon Meleton 21 (1992): 42-48.

Ward, Roy Bower. "The Opponents of Paul." ResQ 10 (1967): 185-195.

Watson, Francis. "2 Cor x-xiii and Paul's Painful Letter to the Corinthians." JTS 35 (1984): 324-346.

Webb, W.J. Returning Home: New Covenant and Second Exodus as the Context for 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1. JSNT Supplement Series 85. Sheffield, UK: JSOT Press, 1993.

________________ . "Unequally Yoked Together with Unbelievers. Part 1 (of 2): Who are the Unbelievers (ajpistoi) in 2 Corinthians 6:14?" BSac 149 (1992): 27-44.

________________ . "What is the Unequal Yoke in 2 Corinthians 6:14?" BSac 149 (1992): 162-179.

Weiss, Johannes. Earliest Christianity . 2 vols. Translated by F.C. Grant. New York: Harper, 1959.

Wenham, David. The Parables of Jesus . Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1989.

Wenham, John. "Being 'Found' on the Last Day: New Light on 2 Peter 3.10 and 2 Cor 5.3." NTS 33 (1987): 477-429.

White, John L. "Introductory Formulae in the Body of Pauline Letters." JBL 96 (1971): 91-97.

Williamson, Lamar. "Led in Triumph." Int 22 (1968): 317-322.

Windisch, Hans. "Kaphleuw." TDNT , 3:603-605.

Wiseman, James, R. "Corinth and Rome I: 228 B.C.-A.D. 267." ANRW II, 7/1, 438-548.

________________ . The Land of the Ancient Corinthians . Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology, no. 50. Göteborg: Astrom, 1978.

Witherington, Ben III. Conflict and Community in Corinth: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary on 1 and 2 Corinthians . Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995.

Wong, Kasper. "'Lord' in 2 Corinthians 10:17." Louvain Studies 17 (1992): 243-253.

Wood, John. "Death at Work in Paul." EvQ 54 (1982): 151-155.

Woods, L. "Opposition to a Man and His Message: Paul's 'Thorn in the Flesh' (2 Cor 12:7)." AusBR 39 (1991): 44-53.

Wright, N.T. "On Becoming the Righteousness of God." In Pauline Theology 2:200-208. Edited by M. Hay. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1993.

Young, Brad. "The Ascension Motif of 2 Corinthians 12 in Jewish, Christian, and Gnostic Texts." Grace Theological Journal 9 (1988): 73-103.

Young, Francis, and David Ford. Meaning and Truth in 2 Corinthians . Edited by D. Balch. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1990.

Zeilinger, F. "Die Echtheit von 2 Cor 6:14-7:1." JBL 112 (1993): 71-80.

Zorn, Walter D. "The Messianic Use of Habakkuk 2:4a in Romans." Stone-Campbell Journal 1 (Fall, 1998): 213-231.

-College Press New Testament Commentary: with the NIV

ABBREVIATIONS

1 Clem 1 Clement

1QH The Thanksgiving Hymns (Dead Sea Scroll)

1QM The War Scroll (Dead Sea Scroll)

1QS Rule of the Community (Dead Sea Scroll)

2 Clem 2 Clement

AJP American Journal of Philology

ANRW Aufstieg und Niedergang der römishen Welt, ed. Temporini and Haase

AusBR Australian Biblical Review

AUSS Andrews University Seminary Studies

BA Biblical Archaeologist

BBR Bulletin for Biblical Research

BSac Bibliotheca Sacra

BT Bible Translator

BTB Biblical Theology Bulletin

CBQ Catholic Biblical Quarterly

CD The Damascus Document (Dead Sea Scroll)

DPL Dictionary of Paul and His Letters, ed. Hawthorne, Martin, and Reid

Ebr. De Ebrietate (Philo)

EvQ Evangelical Quarterly

ExpTim Expository Times

HBT Horizons in Biblical Theology

Heres Qui Rerum Divinarum Heres sit (Philo)

HTR Harvard Theological Review

ICC International Critical Commentary

Int Interpretation

JB Jerusalem Bible

JBL Journal of Biblical Literature

JRH Journal of Religious History

JSNT Journal for the Study of the New Testament

JSOT Journal for the Study of the Old Testament

JTS Journal of Theological Studies

LB Living Bible

NAB New American Bible

NASB New American Standard Bible

NEB New English Bible

Neot Neotestamentica

NICNT New International Commentary on the New Testament

NIDNTT New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology, ed. Brown

NIV New International Version

NLT New Living Translation

NovT Novum Testamentum

NovTSupp Novum Testamentum Supplements

NRSV New Revised Standard Version

NTS New Testament Studies

RB Revue Biblique

ResQ Restoration Quarterly

RSV Revised Standard Version

SCJ Stone-Campbell Journal

SJT Scottish Journal of Theology

Spec.Leg. Philo, De Specialibus Legibus

TDNT Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, ed. Kittel and Friedrich

TEV Today's English Version

T.Jos Testament of Joseph

T.Levi Testament of Levi

T.Naph Testament of Naphtali

TS Theological Studies

TynBul Tyndale Bulletin

WW Word and World

ZNW Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenshaft

-College Press New Testament Commentary: with the NIV

College: 2 Corinthians (Outline)

OUTLINE

I. OPENING - 1:1-2

II. THANKSGIVING - 1:3-11

A. GOD COMFORTS - 1:3-7

B. GOD DELIVERS - 1:8-11

III. DEFENSE OF INTEGRITY - 1:12-2:13

A. CLARITY SOUGHT - 1:12-14

B. SECOND TRAVEL ITINERARY EXPLAINED - 1:15-17

C. CANDOR DEMANDED - 1:18-22

D. THIRD TRAVEL ITINERARY DEFENDED - 1:23-2:4

E. THE OFFENDER FORGIVEN - 2:5-11

F. ACTUAL TRAVEL DESCRIBED - 2:12-13

IV. DEFENSE OF APOSTOLIC MINISTRY IN PRINCIPLE - 2:14-7:4

A. SUFFICIENT FOR MINISTRY - 2:14-3:6

1. The Aroma of Christ Spread - 2:14-17

2. A Living Letter of Recommendation Sent - 3:1-3

3. A Personal Reference Provided - 3:4-6

B. SUPERIOR TO THE OLD COVENANT - 3:7-18

1. Glory Unsurpassed 3:7-11

2. Glory Unobstructed 3:12-18

C. TENACIOUS DESPITE SHORTCOMINGS - 4:1-5:10

1. Christ Preached Plainly - 4:1-6

2. Hardships Overcome because of Jesus' Death - 4:7-12

3. Increasing Multitudes Brought to Life - 4:13-15

4. Driven by Unseen, Eternal Reward - 4:16-18

5. Confident in Eternal Home - 5:1-10

a) Permanent Home Guaranteed - 5:1-5

b) Pleasing the Lord Prioritizes Life - 5:6-10

D. PREACHING RECONCILIATION THROUGH CHRIST - 5:11-6:2

1. Motivated by Christ's Love - 5:11-15

2. Christ's Message of Reconciliation Delivered - 5:16-6:2

E. HARDSHIPS IN MINISTRY - 6:3-10

F. AN APPEAL FOR OPENNESS AND RECONCILIATION - 6:11-7:4

1. Paul's Heart Opened - 6:11-13

2. Holiness Demanded - 6:14-7:1

3. Paul's Trust Expressed - 7:2-4

V. ENCOURAGING NEWS: RELATIONSHIP FULLY RESTORED - 7:5-16

A. TITUS REPORTS LOVE FOR PAUL - 7:5-7

B. TRUE REPENTANCE DEMONSTRATES INNOCENCE - 7:8-13a

C. TITUS EXPRESSED DEEP AFFECTION - 7:13b-16

VI. PREPARATION FOR THE COLLECTION - 8:1-9:15

A. INCENTIVES TOWARD GENEROSITY - 8:1-15

1. Excel Like the Macedonians - 8:1-7

2. Give Like Christ - 8:8-9

3. Complete Your Offering - 8:10-12

4. Achieve Equity - 8:13-15

B. TITUS PLUS TWO OTHERS SENT TO CORINTH TO HELP - 8:16-9:5

1. Criticism to Be Thwarted - 8:16-21

2. Measure Up to Expectations - 8:22-24

3. Follow Through on What Was Begun - 9:1-5

C. MORE INCENTIVE TO BE GENEROUS - 9:6-15

1. God Will Be Generous - 9:6-11

2. God Will Be Praised - 9:12-15

VII. FINAL DEFENSE OF MINISTRY - 10:1-13:10

A. LAUNCH OF A MASSIVE COUNTERATTACK - 10:1-18

1. Powerful Weapons Employed - 10:1-6

2. Forceful Personal Presence Warned - 10:7-10

3. God's Expansion of the Gospel Boasted - 10:12-18

B. COMPARISON TO FALSE APOSTLES MADE - 11:1-15

1. True Message of Jesus Preached - 11:1-6

2. No Money Accepted - 11:7-12

3. The False Apostles Serve Satan - 11:13-15

C. BOASTING AS A "FOOL" - 11:16-33

1. Rationale Provided - 11:16-21a

2. Ancestry and Hardships Listed - 11:21b-29

3. Weakness Boasted - 11:30-33

D. MORE BOASTING - 12:1-10

1. A Vision Divulged - 12:1-6

2. An Irremovable Thorn Remains - 12:7-10

E. "BOASTING" RETROSPECTIVE - 12:11-13

F. PREPARATION FOR THE THIRD VISIT - 12:14-13:10

1. No Exploitation Tactics Employed - 12:14-18

2. More Trouble Feared - 12:19-21

3. Harsh Treatment for Sinners Warned - 13:1-4

4. Faith-testing Evidences Paul's Strength - 13:5-10

VIII. CLOSING REMARKS - 13:11-14

-College Press New Testament Commentary: with the NIV