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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
A CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL COMMENTARY
ON
THE SECOND EPISTLE OF ST PAUL TO THE CORINTHIANS
BY
ALFRED PLUMMER
Master of University College, Durham
EDINBURGH
T & T. CLARK LIMITED, 59 GEORGE STREET
All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of T. & T. Clark Ltd.
ISBN 0 567 05028 9
PREFACE
————
Since the volume on the First Epistle of St Paul to the Corinthians appeared, circumstances have arisen, some of which have affected the present volume, while others must affect volumes in this series which still remain unpublished.
The increase of episcopal work which had fallen to the lot of the Bishop of Exeter, and the ill-health from which he suffered for a considerable time, convinced the present writer that, in the interests of the Diocese and of the Bishop himself, he ought to offer to free the Bishop from the promise which he had kindly given of sharing with his former colleague the work of producing the present volume. This offer the Bishop, after much consideration, reluctantly accepted, and the commentary has been written without the advantage of his co-operation. The loss is great, but it is not quite total. The writer who has been left to do the work single-handed knows the Bishop’s mind about most of the important questions which are raised by this perplexing Epistle, and moreover he has had his article on it in Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible (i. pp. 491-498) to aid him. Readers who miss in the present volume qualities which they valued in its predecessor may find in the above statement an explanation of the difference.
The changes of circumstances which must affect the remaining volumes of this series are more grave. The deaths of Dr. Briggs in June 1913 and of Dr. Driver in February 1914 are a loss, not only to these commentaries, but to Christendom. Wherever learning, acute criticism, and sound judgment are appreciated, the loss of two such scholars within less than a year will be deeply deplored; and it is impossible for their surviving colleague among the original editors of the International Critical Commentary adequately to express his own personal loss. Dr. Briggs and he were almost exactly the same age, and a year or two ago Dr. Briggs expressed to him a doubt whether either of them would live to see the series completed. As regards one of the two persons concerned that doubt has been shown to be only too well grounded.
The survivor must leave it to others to decide whether there is room for any such commentary as the present volume, and (if there is) whether the volume in any particulars fills it. He has no new solutions to offer for any of the numerous problems which this Epistle presents. But he has endeavoured to show that in some cases there is one solution which is so reasonable in itself, and so much more probable than any other, that students who have no time to investigate every point for themselves may be allowed, without discussion, to assume this solution as the right one. There must, however, always remain a considerable number of questions to which no certain answer can be given, because certainty requires a knowledge of details respecting the Church of Corinth which we do not possess and are not likely to acquire. It is hoped that no difficulty of importance has been passed over in silence, and that no untenable explanation of a difficulty has been adopted.
Readers will do well to study the paraphrases prefixed to the sections before consulting the notes. No translations, however accurate, can give the full meaning of any Pauline Epistle, and this is specially true of 2 Corinthians. The only adequate method is to paraphrase; and great pains have been taken in both these volumes to make the paraphrases as luminous and exact as possible.
A. PLUMMER.
INTRODUCTION
————
§I. Authenticity
The evidence, both external and internal, for the genuineness of 2 Corinthians is so strong that a commentator might be excused for assuming it without discussion. In the present state of criticism there is no need to spend time in examining the captious and speculative objections which have been, during the last sixty years, urged against this and others of the four great Epistles of St Paul by a very small group of eccentric critics,* and various recent commentators not only abstain from doing so, but do not even think it worth while to give so much as a summary of the evidence in favour of the genuineness.
The external evidence does not begin quite so early as that for 1 Corinthians; for we may regard it as certain that the Second Epistle was unknown to Clement of Rome, who was so well acquainted with the First. Much of the Second would have served his purpose much better than the First Epistle; yet, frequently as he quotes the First, he nowhere exhibits any knowledge of the Second, for none of the five or six passages, in which some writers have thought that there may be an echo of something in 2 Corinthians, can be relied upon as showing this. Those who care to verify this statement may compare 2Co_1:5, 2Co_1:8:9, 2Co_1:10:3, 2Co_1:4, 2Co_1:10:13, 2Co_1:15, 2Co_1:16, 2Co_1:10:17, 2Co_1:10:18 respectively with Clem. 2:1, 16:2, 37:1, 1:3, 13:1, 30:6 Clement is writing on behalf of the Church of Rome to rebuke the Corinthians for rebelling against authority, and he tells them to “take up the Epistle of the blessed Paul the Apostle” and see how he rebukes them for party spirit. It would have been far more to the point to have referred to the Second Epistle in which St Paul rebukes them far more severely for rebellion. “Yet in the sixty-five chapters of Clement’s epistle there is not a single sentence which indicates that he had ever heard that the Corinthians had before his own time rebelled against those set over them, or that they had ever repented of their rebellion, though he tells the Corinthians that he has handled every argument” (Kennedy, The Second and Third Epistles to the Corinthians, p. 147). The absence of any clear quotation may be regarded as conclusive. “In the whole field of literature it would hardly be possible to adduce a stronger case of proof” (Rendall, The Epistles of St Paul to the Corinthians, p. 91). The inference is that 2 Corinthians in AD 96 was not known in the Church of Rome; it had not yet been circulated through the Churches.
On the other hand, Polycarp seems to show knowledge of both letters. See on 2Co_3:2, 2Co_4:14, 2Co_8:21. Irenaeus quotes from chapters 2., 3, 4, 5, 13, sometimes by name; in epistola secunda ad Corinthios (iv. xxviii. 3). Athenagoras and Theophilus of Antioch show knowledge of the Epistle. Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, and Cyprian quote it very frequently. It is named in the Muratorian Fragment, and Marcion accepted it.
Nearly all critics regard the internal evidence as conclusive. Even if the outside testimony were defective, the contents of the letter would completely reassure us.* It is so natural and so vivid; it so evidently deals with a number of details, well known to the writer and to the Corinthians, but not well known, and (in some cases) not particularly interesting, to outsiders; and so much of it refers to a temporary crisis, that it is utterly unlike the artificial product of a forger. What motive could there be for constructing such a fiction? And here one of the great obstacles to a clear understanding of the writer’s meaning becomes an argument for the genuineness of the letter; a forger would at least have taken pains to make his meaning clear to those whom he wished to have as readers. The obscure allusions and insinuations are natural enough, if they were written by one who knew all the circumstances, and knew that they were equally well known to those to whom he was writing. They are quite out of place in the composition of one who was imagining what the Apostle might have said to his Corinthian converts. The items of autobiography, which are among the most precious details in the Epistle, ring true and are not at all like fiction. Moreover, there are frequent links with the other three great Epistles, of St Paul, and it would be beyond the skill of any inventor to forge all these, to say nothing of the general agreement with the characteristic ideas of the Apostle. There is no letter which enables us to see so deeply into the workings of the writer’s mind and heart. Thankfulness, affection, anxiety, entreaty, and indignation come to the surface in successive waves, and the last of these is expressed with a severity and bitterness which can be best understood when we keep in mind his repeated assertion that the attacks on his character and authority have compelled him to break out in what must look like a hateful indulgence in self-praise and self-assertion (10:12, 11:1, 16, 12:1, 11). It is strange criticism that can see in all this the imagination of an anonymous inventor. See Bishop Robertson, Hastings, DB. i. p. 492; Massie, 1 and 2 Corinthians in The Century Bible, Php_4:5; Knowling, The Witness of the Epistles, ch. iii., and The Testimony of St Paul to Christ, lect. xxiv. and passim (see Index). With regard to the four great Epistles and 1 Thessalonians, B. W. Bacon says; “No doubt exists to-day among scientific critics regarding the authenticity of any one of them, for indeed 1 Corinthians is referred to in 96 AD as written by Paul to Corinth, and this and others of the group can be traced even further back as employed by Hebrews, 1 Peter, and James. Moreover, the impression of vivid feeling, of intense and close relation to objective fact, produced by the writings themselves is corroborated by the largely contemporary tradition of Acts, which shows just such combination of agreement in essentials and discrepancy in detail as we expect from honest witnesses” (Introd. to N.T. p. 56; see also p. 80).
§II. Occasion, Problems, and Probabilities
The familar comparison of the transition from the region of 1 Corinthians to that of 2 Corinthians, to the passage from the somewhat intricate paths of a carefully laid-out park to the obscurity of a pathless forest, gives one a fairly correct idea of the difference between the two Epistles. But it needs to be supplemented, and to some extent corrected. The forest is not only obscure, it is thick with roots which trip one up, and with “wait-a-bit” thorns, which continually arrest one’s progress. Moreover, it is not altogether pathless. Three main divisions (1-8, 8 and 9, 9-13) are as clear as any divisions in the First Epistle. It is when we endeavour to interpret numerous details in the main divisions, and to get them into an inteligible and consistent relation to one another and to the First Epistle, that we stumble and stick fast. Over and over again the Apostle seems to be alluding to something which his readers can understand; but we are not always certain that there is any allusion, and we can rarely be certain what the allusion is. For instance, he often states that he is not in the habit of doing, or that he has not done, such and such things. In some cases this may be a mere statement of fact ; he takes the Corinthians into his confidence and acquaints them with his personal conduct. But in some cases he may be alluding to the fact that, although he does not, yet his opponents do, act in this particular way; e.g. 1:12, 19, 2:17, 3:3, 5, 5:16, 10:2, 4, 8, 12, 15. In others he may be alluding to the fact that he has been accused of doing these things; e.g. 1:17, 24, 4:5, 5:13, 7:2, 11:7, 9, 16, 13:6. Or there may be allusion to both these points; e.g. 4:2, 10:15.
The immediate occasion of this perplexing, but most instructive letter is plain enough. Since the writing of 1 Corinthians, St Paul had had to deal with a very serious crisis in the Church of Corinth, in which his Apostolic authority had been opposed, questioned, and by some scornfully denied, and he had sent Titus to Corinth to deal with the difficulty and reduce the rebellious persons to submission (2:13, 7:6, 7, 13-15). About the success of this enterprise of Titus the Apostle was intensely anxious. He left Ephesus for Troas, hoping that Titus would return from Corinth and meet him there, and in Troas he found an opening for missionary work. The suspense at last became so intolerable that he threw up his work in Troas and crossed over to Macedonia, in order to meet Titus the sooner. Here he did meet Titus, whose report of the result of his mission to Corinth was so unexpectedly favourable that St Paul, in a fervour of thankfulness and affection, at once begins to dictate this letter, in order to make the reconciliation between himself and his Corinthian converts complete (1-7.), and stir them up to increased sympathy with their fellow-Christians in Palestine (8., 9.)*
Thus far we are upon sure ground; but there are at least a dozen questions arising out of this Epistle, or connected with it, respecting which great diversity of opinion exists. With regard to a few of them a decided answer may with confidence be given, in spite of diversity of view; but with regard to the remainder we can do no more than adopt what seems to us to be probable, while admitting that there is room for doubt. Not all of the questions are of equal importance, but hardly any of them can be set aside as trivial.
1. Did Timothy, who had been sent to Corinth before I Corinthians was written (see on 1Co_16:10), and was with St Paul when 2 Corinthians was written (2Co_1:1.), reach Corinth and was unsuccessful there? Or did he return to St Paul without having reached Corinth? If he reached Corinth, did he leave before 1 Corinthians arrived?
2. How long an interval was there between 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians? See on 2Co_8:10, 2Co_9:2.
3. Did the Apostle pay a visit, short and distressing, to Corinth before 2 Corinthians was written? If so,
4. Did this visit take place before or after 1 Corinthians?
5. Was there a letter (other than 1 Corinthians and the letter mentioned in 1Co_5:9) written by St Paul to Corinth before 2 Corinthians? In other words, Does the severe letter mentioned in 2Co_2:3, 2Co_2:4 and 7:8, 9 refer to 1 Corinthians? If it does not refer to 1 Corinthians but to some other letter, two questions arise;—
6. Was this severe letter before or after 1 Corinthians?
7. Is this letter wholly lost, or does part of it survive in 2 Cor. 10-13.?
8. Is the offender mentioned in 2Co_2:5-10 and 7:12 to be identified with the incestuous person of 1Co_5:1 f.? If not,
9. Who was the offender, and whom did he offend?
10. This offender was punished, not in accordance with a vote of the whole Church of Corinth, but only of a majority of the members (2Co_2:6). What was the punishment? and was it more severe, or less severe, than that which the minority proposed?
11. What was the nature of the opposition to St Paul at Corinth? Did it come from those who thought that he paid too much regard to the Law, or from those who thought that he paid too little?
12. Does part of the letter mentioned in 1Co_5:9 survive in 2Co_6:14-1, or is it wholly lost?
At least two of these questions can be answered with certainty; two others can be answered with confidence, if not with absolute certainty; and in the case of two others the probability is very decidedly on one side. With regard to the remaining six the probabilities are more evenly balanced. In each case the reader is referred to the notes on the passages in question for a discussion of the arguments ‘for’ and “against.’
5. It ought to be regarded as certain that 1 Corinthians cannot be the severe letter alluded to in 2Co_2:3, 2Co_2:4 and 7:8, 9.* Therefore St Paul wrote two letters to the Church of Corinth in addition to the two which have come down to us, viz. the one mentioned in 1Co_5:9 and this severe letter.
8. The offender mentioned in 2Co_2:5-10 and 7:12 is not the incestuous person of 1Co_5:1 f. The identification is untenable, and, like the identification of the sinner in Luk_7:37-39 with Mary Magdalen, it ought to be generally abandoned.*
3. It is almost certain that St Paul did pay a short and distressing visit to Corinth between his first stay there and the writing of 2 Corinthians (2:1, 12:14, 13:1).
9. It is almost certain that the offender in 2Co_5:5-10 and 7:12 is some one who had behaved in an outrageous manner to the Apostle. But, if Timothy reached Corinth, it is possible that he was the person who was outrageously treated.
7. It is probable that part of the severe letter of 2Co_2:3, 2Co_2:4 and 7:8, 9 survives in 2 Cor. 10-13.
12. It is probable that the letter mentioned in 1Co_5:9 is wholly lost. But it is not easy to determine
1. Whether Timothy failed to reach Corinth or reached Corinth and failed to effect any good there.
2. Whether the interval between 1 and 2 Corinthians was somewhat less than a year or somewhat less than two years.
4. Whether the distressing visit took place after or before 1 Corinthians.
6. Whether the severe letter was written after or before 1 Corinthians.
10. Whether the minority wished the offender to receive a more or a less severe punishment than that which was inflicted by the majority, and whether that punishment was excommunication.
11. Whether St Paul was opposed for having too little or too much regard for the Law.
In all these six cases the balance is perhaps in favour of the alternative which is stated first; but it is more easy to adopt a decided opinion than to convince others that it is right; e.g. in the volume on 1 Corinthians (pp. xxi-xxiv) reasons have been given for believing that the second visit of St Paul to Corinth†is an historical fact, and that it took place before the writing of 1 Corinthians; but Professor K. Lake (Earlier Epistles of St Paul, p. 152) has given strong reasons for believing that it took place between 1 and 2 Corinthians, an arrangement which has manifest advantages. How greatly opinions are divided on the subject will be seen from the following statement.
This intermediate visit is doubted or denied by Baur, Davidson, De Wette, Farrar, G. H. Gilbert, Heinrici, Hilgenfeld, Lange, Lewin, Lias, Paley, Ramsay, A. Robertson, Stanley.
It is placed before 1 Corinthians, and in most cases before the lost letter of 1Co_5:9, by Alford, Beet, J. H. Bernard, Bleek, Conybeare and Howson, Cornely, Denney, Findlay, Klö Hausrath, Lightfoot, McFadyen, Olshausen, Otto, Rä Redlich, Reuss, Sanday, Schmiedel, Waite, B. Weiss, Wieseler, Zahn.
It is placed after 1 Corinthians, and before the severe letter of 2Co_2:3, 2Co_2:4 and 7:8, 9, by Adeney, Bachmann, Barth, Bousset, Cone, Drescher, Ewald, Eylau, Godet, Hagge, Jacquier, Jü Kennedy, Krenkel, Lake, Mangold, Massie, Menzies, Moffatt, Pfleiderer, Rendall, Sabatier, Weiffenbach, Weizsä Allen and Grensted incline to this alternative, but doubtfully; so also D. Walker. Belser and Schä place the intermediate visit after 1 Corinthians, but they omit the intermediate letter, identifying the severe letter with 1 Corinthians. Vö regards the intermediate visit as a return to Corinth after a missionary excursion during the Apostle’s first stay in the city. His elaborate dissection of both Epistles, as consisting of Pauline material very freely edited on doctrinal grounds, does not merit consideration.
The problems respecting the intermediate letter will be most conveniently studied when the question respecting the integrity of the Epistle is discussed.
The following scheme as to the sequence of events connected with these two great Epistles covers the whole period of the Apostle’s work at Corinth. It is tentative, as all such schemes must be, and the more conjectural items are placed in square brackets. From what has been already stated it follows that no scheme which identifies the severe letter (2:3, 4, 7:8, 9) with 1 Corinthians, and which identifies the great offender (2:5-10, 7:12) with the incestuous man (1Co_5:1), can be right. St Paul wrote four letters to the Corinthian Church, two of which have come down to us, while two have partly or wholly perished; and there were two great offenders whom he required the Church to punish. This much may be treated as too firmly established to be open to reasonable doubt. A good deal of the accompanying scheme is generally admitted to be correct.
Possible Sequence of Events
1. St Paul spends ‘a year and six months’ at Corinth, ‘teaching the word of God’ (Act_18:11).
2. He leaves Corinth with Aquila and Priscilla and settles at Ephesus (Act_18:18, Act_18:19).
3. Apollos continues the work at Corinth, ‘powerfully confuting the Jews’ (Act_18:27, Act_18:28, Act_18:19:1), and returns to St Paul at Ephesus (1Co_16:12).
4. St Paul sends a letter [by Titus], now [wholly] lost, to Corinth condemning fornicators (1Co_5:9) [and announcing the plan mentioned 2Co_1:5, 2Co_1:16]. [A collection for the poor at Jerusalem is started by Titus.]
5. Bad news is brought from Corinth to Ephesus by members of Chloe’s household (1Co_1:11) [and also by Apollos (1Co_16:12)].
6. Timothy starts from Ephesus for Macedonia and Corinth, and reaches Macedonia (1Co_4:17, 1Co_4:16:10; Act_19:22; 2Co_1:1).
7. Letter of the Corinthians to St Paul (1Co_7:1) [brought by Fortunatus, Stephanas, and Achaicus (1Co_16:17)].
8. St Paul writes 1 Corinthians at or near Easter [and sends it by Titus and a brother; the collection for the poor is now organized (1Co_16:1; 2Co_8:6, 2Co_12:18), and Titus then returns to the Apostle at Ephesus].
9. [Timothy arrives at Corinth.] Fresh difficulties arise in the Corinthian Church; the Apostle’s authority is questioned, and by some is defied (2Co_10:7, 2Co_10:10, 2Co_10:11:23, 2Co_10:12:16, 2Co_10:17). [Timothy leaves, unable to deal with the crisis.]
10. St Paul hears of this [from Timothy] and pays a short visit to Corinth (2Co_2:1, 2Co_12:14, 2Co_13:1), during which he is grossly insulted by some Corinthian Christian (2Co_2:5-8, 2Co_7:12).*
11. St Paul sends Titus to Corinth with a severe letter (2:3, 9, 7:8-12), [the greater part of which is preserved in 2 Cor. 10-13.]. Titus is instructed [to press for the collection for the Palestinian Relief Fund and] to return to St Paul through Macedonia and Troas (2:12, 13, 7:5, 6).
12. [Longer stay in Ephesus having become perilous,] St Paul leaves Ephesus for Troas, and being intensely anxious about the effect of the severe letter, he leaves Troas for Macedonia, in order to meet Titus the sooner and get his report (2:12, 13).
13. He meets Titus in Macedonia and receives from him a most encouraging report as to the end of the grave crisis in Corinth (7:6-16).
14. He writes 2 Corinthians [1-9.] and sends it from Macedonia by Titus and two brethren (8:16-24).*
15. St Paul reaches Corinth, and during a stay of three months there (Act_19:21, Act_20:3) writes the Epistle to the Romans (see Sanday and Headlam, Romans, pp. xxxvi f.).
The most speculative portions of this scheme are those which are placed in square brackets in the sections numbered 4 and 9. That Titus was the bearer of the first letter written by the Apostle to Corinth, and that he then began to urge the Corinthians to raise money for the poor Christians in Judaea, is not improbable, but there is little evidence for either conjecture. That Timothy reached Corinth and was a failure there is possible, but the silence about his doing anything there is equally well explained by the hypothesis that he never got so far. If he reached Corinth and was contemptuously treated, he probably returned as quickly as possible to St Paul at Ephesus, and his report of the grave condition of things at Corinth would account for the Apostle’s decision to hurry across to Corinth himself. But the bad news from Corinth may easily have reached St Paul in some other way.
§III. Place, Date, and Contents
Both place and date can be fixed within narrow limits. The country was Macedonia (2:13, 7:5, 8:1, 9:2-4); and it is possible that the subscription of the Epistle, which is certainly early (B2, Syr-Pesh. Syr-Hark. Copt.), is correct in saying that the city was Philippi. It has already been shown (1 Corinthians, p. xxxiii.) that the First Epistle was probably written in the spring of AD 55, and it is probable that the Second Epistle was written in the autumn of the same year. In neither case, however, is the year quite certain. For the First Epistle nearly all modern writers allow some margin; Harnack, AD 50-53; C. H. Turner, 52-55; Ramsay, 53-56; Lightfoot, Lewin, and Wieseler, 54-57. For the Second Epistle, Harnack says 53, Turner 55, Ramsay 56, Lightfoot, Lewin, and Wieseler 57. There is no serious objection to assigning both Epistles to the same year, even for those who believe that between the two letters St Paul paid a brief visit to Corinth. In favourable weather that might be accomplished in less than three weeks. All the events enumerated above, 8-14, might take place in seven or eight months. But Jü and others think that we must place about a year and a half between the two Epistles.
With regard to the letter itself it is better to talk of “contents” rather than “plan.” Beyond the three clearly marked divisions (1-7; 8, 9; 10-13) there is not much evidence of plan. In these main divisions the Apostle seems to have dictated what he had to say just as his thoughts and feelings moved him, without much consideration of arrangement or logical sequence. We may conjecture that the last four chapters were dictated at one sitting, without much pause until the last chapter was reached. But between 7 and 8., and between 9 and 10 there were doubtless breaks of some duration, if not between 8 and 9; and it is not likely that the first seven chapters were dictated all at one time. Hence the rapid changes (as they seem to us) of topics and temper; but something more than a break in the time of dictating is required to account for the immense change from 9 to 10. The following analysis of the three main divisions is offered as a help to a study of the Epistle in detail. It is not meant to imply or suggest that the Apostle had any such scheme in his mind as he dictated the various paragraphs. As in the first Epistle, there is a mixture of precept and instruction with personal matter; but the proportion of the two elements is reversed. In 1 Corinthians the personal element is comparatively slight and appears incidentally. In 2 Corinthians the personal element is the main thing, especially in the first and last divisions; what is didactic, however important, is not the leading topic or series of topics. It is the Apostle’s conduct and authority that comes to the front throughout.
Epistolary Introduction, 1:1-11.
A. The Apostolic Salutation, 1:1, 2.
B. Preamble of Thanksgiving and Hope, 1:3-11.
I. Review of his recent Relations with the Corinthians, 1:12-7:16.
A. Defence of his Conduct with regard to his promised Visit and the great Offender, 1:12-2:17.
The postponement of the intended Visit, 1:12-2:4.
The Treatment of the great Offender and the Result of the severe Letter, 2:5-17.
B. The Glory of the Apostolic Office, 3:1-6:10.
The Superiority of the New Ministration to the Old, 3:1-11.
The great Boldness of the New Ministers, 3:12-4:6.
The Sufferings and Supports of an Apostle, 4:7-5:10.
The Life of an Apostle, 5:11-6:10.
C. The Restoration of Confidence between the Apostle and the Corinthians, 6:11-7:16.
Appeal of the reconciled Apostle to the Corinthians, 6:11-7:4.
The Reconciliation completed, 7:5-16.
II. The Collection for the poor Christians at Jerusalem, 8:1-9:15.
The Example of the Macedonian Churches, 8:1-7.
The Example of Christ, 8:8-15.
The new Mission to be entrusted to Titus and two others, 8:16-24.
Exhortation to Readiness, 9:1-5.
Exhortation to Liberality, 9:6-15.
III. Vindicating his Apostolic Authority; the great Invective, 10:1-13:10.
A. The Apostle’s Authority and the Area of his Mission, 10:1-18.
Reply to the Charge of Cowardice, 10:1-6.
Reply to the Charge of Weakness, 10:7-11.
The Area of his Mission includes Corinth, 10:12-18.
B. Glorying a Folly which has been forced upon him, 11:1-12:18.
The Reason for this Folly, 11:1-6.
Glorying about refusing Maintenance, 11:7-15.
Glorying about his Services and his Sufferings, 11:16-33.
Glorying about Revelations to his Soul and a Thorn for his Flesh, 12:1-10.
The Credentials of an Apostle; exceptional Signs and exceptional Love, 12:11-18.
C. Final Warnings in view of his approaching Visit, 12:19-13:10.
Concluding Exhortation, Salutation, and Benediction, 13:11-13.
These contents, however we may interpret them in detail, reveal a situation very different from that which is exhibited by the First Epistle. Even with regard to the features which are the same in both letters there is difference. The old relations between Apostle and converts may remain, but they have been, and perhaps still are, severely strained. Some of the old features have vanished and new features have appeared. The Apostle is no longer so serenely sure of the Corinthians, affection and loyalty. They had sometimes criticized him before, and had raised questions as to his being an Apostle (1Co_4:3, 1Co_4:9:1, 1Co_4:2); but now he has been openly insulted, defied, and laughed at, and his Apostleship has been denied. He says that self-Praise is no recommendation, but they say that he is always singing his own praises and asserting his own importance. Although we hear no more of the four factions of which St Paul speaks with disapproval in 1Co_1:12, 1Co_1:13, yet faction of a far more virulent kind is manifest, and it threatens the Church of Corinth with ruin. Corinth has been invaded by a band of fanatical Jewish Christians, who have a narrow and bigoted view of the spirit of the Gospel and an intense hatred of St Paul’s free interpretation of it. They did not attempt to enforce circumcision, as similar fanatics were endeavouring to do among the Galatians, for they probably saw that such attempts would have no success in Greece; but they did their utmost, by accusation and insinuation, to undermine and overthrow the influence of St Paul. We can measure the malignity of their attack by the vehemence of the Apostle’s language in repelling it, and indeed we have to attribute atrocious conduct to them in order to understand how he could regard as justifiable all the strong expressions which he uses. This applies specially to 11:13-15. See Menzies, ad loc., and McFadyen, pp. 247, 248.
§IV. Integrity
Among the many features in which 2 Corinthians differs from 1 Corinthians is that of structure. The First Epistle exhibits an evenness of style so complete that its unity, although disputed by a few eccentric critics, as Hagge and Vö is not open to serious question. A few words in the traditional text are wanting in authority, as ‘and in your spirit, which are God’s’ (6:20); and a few are open to suspicion, but not well-grounded suspicion, as possible glosses, as 14:34, 35, 15:56. But proposals to treat the Epistle which has come down to us in the familiar form as a conglomeration of several letters, or of portions of several letters, are not worthy of consideration. The same cannot be said of the Second Epistle. There is considerable probability that it is composite, and that chapters 1-9. are the greater part of a conciliatory letter, while chapters 10-13. are the greater part of a sharp and severe letter which was written before the conciliatory letter was sent; and there is a possibility that part of a third letter, written before either of the Epistles which have come down to us, is embedded in it (6:14-7:1). Moreover, doubts have been raised as to whether both 8 and 9 belong to the same letter, some critics regarding 9 as an intruder while a few regard 8 as the intruder. Nor is this all. The verses which tell of the Apostle’s escape from Damascus (11:32, 33) come so abruptly and prosaically in a passage of lofty feeling and language, that they also are suspected of being out of their original position. They may be a fragment from some other letter, or they may have been accidentally omitted from this letter and then reinserted in the wrong place. A less violent conjecture is that St Paul inserted them after the letter was finished, without caring whether they were quite in harmony with the context.
But the large majority of the critics who are inclined to adopt one or more of these hypotheses are agreed that all the passages in question, 6:14-7:1, 8, 9, 11:32, 33, and 10-13, were written by St Paul. This consensus is specially strong with regard to the last four chapters. There are a few wild critics who contend that not one of the Pauline Epistles is genuine, and their criticisms carry no weight. To accept Galatians, Romans, 1 Corinthians, and 2 Cor. 1-9 as by St Paul, and reject 2 Cor. 10-13 as spurious, would be an amazing result to reach by any kind of argument.
It must always be remembered that in every one of these four cases the doubts as to their being part of the Second Epistle, as St Paul dictated it, are based entirely on internal evidence. No MS., no version, and no patristic quotation supplies any evidence that the Epistle was ever in circulation anywhere with any one of these four portions omitted.
It will be convenient to take the four shorter passages first, in the order of their occurrence, reserving the more important question respecting the last four chapters for more detailed treatment after the other passages have been discussed.
1. The strength of the case against 6:14-7:1 lies in the facts that (1) the six verses violently interrupt the sequence of thought, and that (2), when they are removed, 7:2 fits admirably to 6:11-13. ‘My lips are unlocked to tell you everything; my heart stands wide open. There is no restraint in my feeling towards you; the restraint is in your own affections. But love should awaken love in return; let your heart be opened wide to receive me. Make room for me; I have never wronged any of you in any way.’ The connexion is excellent between παύθτ κὶὑεςand χρστ ἡᾶ, whereas it is difficult to see what the connexion is between 6:13 and 14, and between 7:1 and 2. These facts justify the statement that, in its present position, the passage “looks like an erratic boulder.” And, when it is pointed out that the letter mentioned in 1Co_5:9 dealt with the same subject as that which is treated in this passage, viz. careful abstention from the pollutions of heathendom, and that the strict charge given in 2Co_6:14 2Co_6:1 might be easily misunderstood in the way mentioned in 1Co_5:10, the suggestion that we have here a fragment of that lost letter becomes attractive. This view is accordingly adopted by Dobschü Franke, Hilgenfeld, Lisco, Moffatt, Sabatier, Von Soden, and Whitelaw. Others, with less probability, think that the original position of the passage was in 1Co_6. or 1 Cor. 10., an hypothesis which has the additional difficulty of there being no external evidence that it ever occupied that position. Consequently we have two great difficulties,—to account for its being universally omitted there and universally admitted here. Others again regard it as a fragment from another letter without attempting to define the original place. If the passage is an erratic boulder, the conjecture that it comes from the letter of 1Co_5:9 is the best that can be made as to its origin; Bacon (Intr. to N.T. p. 95) somewhat doubtfully inclines to it.
The least probable hypothesis is that these six verses are not by St Paul, but are an interpolation by another hand. The arguments used in support of this theory are not of great weight.* (a) We have in these six verses six words which St Paul uses nowhere else, and which are found nowhere else in N.T.; ἑεουονε, μτχ, σμώηι, Βλα, σναάει, μλσο. That fact counts for very little. The subject of intimacy with the heathen is rarely discussed by St Paul and this topic accounts for some of these six words: and when a writer, in order to vary his language, requires five different words to express ‘intimacy,’ he is likely to employ some that are less usual. Σμωο occurs in 1 Corinthians, and μτχ is frequent there, as also in Hebrews. (b) It is said that this stringent prohibition is inconsistent with 1Co_5:9 f. and 10:27 f. But that is not correct. There, the Apostle tolerates the idea of a Christian caring to accept a heathen’s invitation to dinner; here, he strictly forbids intimate combinations with heathen—a very different thing from an exceptional sharing of a meal. (c) It is urged that ‘defilement of flesh and spirit’ is not Pauline. St Paul treats ‘the flesh’ as the seat of sin and defilement, and ‘the spirit’ as the opponent of ‘the flesh.’ The latter statement is true of the Apostle’s common practice, when he is writing theologically. Here he is not doing so. In popular language ‘flesh and spirit’ is an expression which covers the whole of man’s nature. The Apostle says in conclusion that Christians must keep themselves free from what would defile them (as we might say) ‘body and soul.’ St Paul often uses ‘flesh’ in the sense of the weak physical part of man, without any idea of its being the seat of sin and opposed to the spirit (v. 5, 12:7; Gal_2:20, Gal_4:13). ‘That life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God’ (Gal_2:20), shows clearly that with St Paul ‘flesh’ is not always essentially sinful. See Gifford, Romans, in the Speaker’s Commentary, p. 50.
But all these hypotheses as to this passage being no part of our Epistle in its original form, labour under the grave difficulty that there is no MS. evidence to support them. How is it that all our witnesses have the passage, and have it in this place? A fragment of the letter mentioned 1Co_5:9 might easily survive; but how did it come to be inserted here? Why place it where it does not seem to fit? If it be supposed that a stray leaf from one letter has accidentally got among the leaves of another letter, then we have to suppose that the stray leaf chanced to begin and end with a complete sentence, and that, of the leaves between which it was erroneously inserted, one chanced to end with a complete sentence and the other to begin with one. Such a combination of chances is improbable.
It seems, therefore, safer to abide by the external evidence and regard the passage as being not only Paul’s, but as having been placed by him in this apparently unsuitable place. Abrupt digressions are more possible in dictating than in writing. While he was imploring the Corinthians to be as frank and affectionate towards him as he was towards them, he may have remembered that their refusal to comply with his demand that they should make no compromises with heathendom was one of the chief causes of the constraint which kept them apart from him. In that case he might there and then repeat his demand and the reasons for it, before going on with his tender appeal. Zahn (Intr. to N.T. i. p. 350) goes so far as to suggest that the connexions between 6:13 and 14 and between 7:1 and 2 are better than the connexion between 6:13 and 7:2. While Baljon, Clemen, Pfleiderer, and others favour the excision of the passage, Bachmann, Bousset, and Lietzmann regard the reasons for treating it as an interpolation as inadequate. Adeney (Biblical Intr. to N.T. p. 371) seems to think that the hypothesis does not need to be mentioned. Allen and Grensted (Intr. to the Books of N.T. p. 129) mention it without expressing any opinion of its merits. K. Lake (Earlier Epistles of St Paul, pp. 123, 162) says that, although “to some extent the very strongly supported theory which divides 2 Cor. 10-13. from 2 Cor. 1-9. lends strength to the much more doubtful hypothesis that 2Co_6:14-1 is an interpolation,” yet this hypothesis “from its nature can never be regarded as more than a probable guess.”
2. The proposal to separate ch. 8. from 1-7. has met with very little approval, and it may be safely rejected. The sequence is quite natural, and any change in tone is adequately accounted for by the change of subject. One does not ask favours in the same tone as that in which one claims rights.
3. Still less has the proposal of Semler to separate ch. 9. from ch. 8., and make the former a letter to the Christians of Achaia, found favour. The audacious theory of A. Halmel (Der zweite Korintherbrief des Apostles Paulus, Halle, 1904) needs little more than mention. He divides our Epistle into nine portions, of which the largest Isa_10:1-10, and this is supposed to be the second of three letters. The first letter contains 8., the last contains 9.* As will be shown in the notes, so far from there being a manifest break between 8. and 9., the division of the chapters is clumsily made. The first verses of 9. are linked to the end of 8. The one thing that is probable in this extreme theory is that 10:1-13:10 ought to be separated from 1-9. “The attempts to isolate 8. as a separate note (Hagge), written later than 9. (Baljon), or as part of the Intermediate Letter (Michelsen), break down for much the same reason as the cognate hypothesis that 9. itself was a subsequent letter sent to the Achaian churches (Semler). The unity of the situation presupposed in 8. and 9. is too well-marked to justify any separation of the chapters either from one another or from the letter 1-9., whose natural conclusion they furnish” (Moffatt).
4. The case of 11:32, 33 is somewhat similar to that of 6:14-7:1. We have a violent transition in the vein of thought; and if we omit the verses which produce this abrupt change, we have a good sequence of thought. But the two cases are very different. Here the transition is not nearly so violent as there; and, when the verses which seem to interrupt the flow of idea are omitted, we do not obtain so good a junction of thought and language as in the former case. Indeed, those who propose to excise the sentences which seem to cause a difficulty are not agreed as to how much ought to be cut out in order to make a good junction. Some would omit only 11:32, 33. Some would omit these two verses and the first half of 12:1; others, these two and the whole of 12:1. But it is by no means incredible that St Paul dictated just what has come down to us. No one always writes letters that are perfectly consecutive in thought. Certainly St Paul does not; and those who habitually dictate their letters are apt to make sudden digressions from which they return with equal suddenness. How often, when we read a letter over, we note that the omission of a sentence or two would have made it read more smoothly. It is possible that the story of the Apostle’s escape from Damascus had been embroidered, in order to make his descent in a basket laughable. Therefore, when he is recounting τ τςἀθνίςμυ he mentions it and solemnly declares that his account of what took place is the truth. It is, however, possible that in dictating he omitted the incident, and that, when he decided that it ought to be inserted, his amanuensis put it in the margin not quite in the best place. It would come better immediately after 11:23. Even if this passage stood alone, there would be no need to doubt that the event took place; and it is confirmed by Act_9:23-25.
The Last Four Chapters
5. We come now to the much larger, more important, and more interesting question, whether the four concluding chapters, 10-13., or at any rate 10:1-13:10, ought not to be separated from the first nine chapters and regarded as the main portion of a very different letter, which probably preceded the first nine chapters.
We may at once set aside the second alternative. If the theory is true in any shape, it must include the whole of the last chapter. To say that no one could write 13:10, and then immediately afterwards write v. 11, is dogmatic assumption. The sudden change of tone, so far from being incredible, is natural, especially in one who was so full of shifting emotions as St Paul. The most unwelcome task of denouncing malignant enemies and threatening impenitent offenders is accomplished. He will not utter another word in that strain. He ends with a few words of exhortation, a few words of affection, and his fullest benediction.
Moreover, if we assume that the whole of the last four chapters form one piece, viz. the middle and conclusion of a different letter, which had lost its beginning, we can more easily understand how this came to be joined to the main portion of another letter, which had lost its end. It is much less easy to understand how a large portion of a letter, without either beginning or end, came to be inserted between the main portion of another letter and its conclusion. As a conclusion, 13:11-13(14) belong to the last four chapters and not to the first nine. In the discussion which follows, that point is assumed. We are dealing with the supposed conjunction of a letter that has lost its conclusion with a letter that has lost its beginning, not with the insertion of a large fragment of one letter into a break near to the conclusion of another letter. See p. 385.
The hypothesis that 10-13. ought to be separated from 1-9. is almost always combined with the hypothesis that 10-13. is part of the severe letter to the Corinthians (2Co_2:3, 2Co_2:9, 2Co_2:7:8), as to the effect of which the Apostle was so anxious when he left Ephesus for Troas, and still more so when he left Troas for Macedonia in order to meet Titus as soon as possible and receive his report of the state of Corinth (2:12, 13, 7:6). This is a convenient place, therefore, for considering the problem of this severe “intermediate” letter. Although scholars of great eminence have declared that it is not impossible that 1 Corinthians is the letter which was written ‘out of much affliction and anguish of heart …with many tears’ (2Co_2:3), the sending of which he at one time regretted (7:8), that hypothesis may once for all be abandoned as untenable. On the other hand, we may well believe that much of 2 Cor. 10-13. was written in anguish, and that there are things in these scathing criticisms, especially in 10. and 11., which he sometimes regretted having written. As in the case of the intermediate visit, there is great difference of opinion respecting this intermediate letter.
Its existence is doubted or denied by Alford, Beet, J. H. Bernard, Conybeare and Howson, Denney, Lias, McFadyen, Meyer, B. Weiss, Zahn; in fact by all who would identify the letter of 2Co_2:3, 2Co_2:9 and 7:8 with 1 Corinthians.
It is regarded as wholly lost by Bachmann, Barth, Bleek, Bousset, Credner, Drummond, Ewald, Farrar, Findlay, Godet, Heinrici, Klö Jacquier, Jü Lietzmann, Menzies, Neander, Olshausen, Sabatier, Sanday, Weizsä Ziegler.
It is regarded as probably preserved in part in 2 Cor. 10-13. by Adeney, Bacon, Clemen, Cone, Cramer, Hausrath, Kennedy, Kö K. Lake, Lipsius, Lisco, McGiffert, Massie, Michelsen, Moffatt, Paulus, Peake, Pfleiderer, Rendall, Schmiedel, R. Scott, Seufert, Vö Von Soden, Wagenmann, Weisse. G. Milligan inclines to this view.
There is yet another theory respecting these four chapters. Drescher, Krenkel, and Weber regard them as constituting a separate letter, which, however, they place after 2 Cor. 1-9. So also in the main does Schnedermann.* The supposition is that, after 2 Cor. 1-9. had been despatched to Corinth, bad reports of the state of the Corinthian Church reached the Apostle, and that he then wrote and sent 10-13. Drescher places the intermediate visit between the sending of 1-9. and the sending of 10-13.
It is plain from these facts that there is a very large consensus of opinion in favour of there having been a severe letter of the Apostle to Corinth which cannot be identified with 1 Corinthians, and that among those who hold this opinion, which is doubtless correct, not a few favour the hypothesis that a great deal of this severe letter survives in 2 Cor. 10-13. Thus far, however, the case for the latter hypothesis is not a strong one. St Paul tells us that before writing 2 Cor. 1-9. he had in affliction and anguish written a letter to Corinth which was so severe that at times he wished that he had not sent it, and that for weeks he was intensely anxious about the result; and in 2 Cor. 10-13. there is a good deal that harmonizes with those statements. But there are stronger reasons for the identification than this general harmony. We have to take into account (1) the extraordinary change of tone which is manifest when we pass from 9. to 10.; (2) the apparent inconsistency between passages in 1-9. and passages in 10-13., which make it difficult to believe that statements so inconsistent can have been penned in one and the same letter; (3) the fact that there are passages in 1-9. which seem to refer to passages in 10-13., and therefore indicate that 10-13. was written and sent to Corinth before 1-9. was written; (4) the fact that 10:16 is expressed naturally, if the writer was in Ephesus, where the severe letter was written, but not naturally, if the writer was in Macedonia, where 1-9. was written. All these points added to the general harmony between 10-13. and the Apostle’s statements about his severe letter make a really strong case.
(1) The extraordinary change of tone which begins at 10:1 and continues to 13:10 is generally admitted, and is sometimes described in adequate language by those who nevertheless maintain the integrity of the whole Epistle. K. Lake, who surrenders the integrity, says tersely and truly enough; “There is not only no connexion between 2 Cor. 1-9 and 2 Cor. 10-13, but there is an absolute break between them. …There never has been, and indeed there never can be, a