By the time Paul wrote 2 Corinthians, his relationship with his addressees seems to have deteriorated, perhaps because of other teachers who influenced some Corinthians. In this letter, Paul defends his authority in a variety of ways. This defense might signal that others had called him inconsistent.
No longer encouraging or plainspoken, Paul deploys sarcasm and irony, accusing the Corinthians of inconsistency themselves because they yielded to the influence of these other teachers. Ask a Scholar. Sexual Ethics in the Bible Jennifer Knust on the contradictory evidence regarding procreation and sex in the Bible. HarperCollins Dictionary Israel. Direct and unreserved in speech; straightforward; sincere.
Instead of returning to Corinth, Paul sent Titus to Corinth. For this reason we have been comforted. And besides our comfort, we rejoiced even much more for the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by you all. Why: Paul wrote this letter to prepare for his coming to see them again 3rd visit , as he gathers a collection for the poor in Jerusalem.
Photo by freestocks. Contact us. This article has been read 14, times plus today. Find the podcast on:. Wednesday in the Word is the podcast about what the Bible means and how we know. To those who boast that they have the gift of tongues and are therefore in a position to exercise lordship over others, Paul writes that this particular gift, like all of the others, should be evaluated in terms of its usefulness in promoting the Christian way of life.
He does not condemn this gift for those who might find it useful, but he says that so far as he is concerned, it is better to speak a few words that will be understood by others than to speak at great length in an unknown tongue that is quite unintelligible to those who might hear it. Following the discussion of spiritual gifts is Paul's immortal hymn to Christian love, which is one of the great classics of Christian literature.
The hymn makes love the foundation for all Christian conduct. What wisdom was for the Greeks, love is for Christians: "And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. After the discourse on love, Paul discusses resurrection.
For him, the subject is of primary importance, for he considers resurrection the basis upon which the whole structure of Christianity rests. If Christ is not risen, then our hope is in vain.
Christ's resurrection is attested to by a large number of witnesses, of whom Paul counts himself one of the last. The significance of the resurrection, more than a vindication of the Messiahship of Jesus, assures us that what happened in the case of Jesus can and will happen to all those who believe in him. The resurrection of the righteous will be associated with the second coming of Christ: "For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.
When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: 'Death has been swallowed up in victory. Paul will stop at Corinth on his way to Jerusalem and take the gift with him.
The so-called "painful letter," which is found in Chapters 10—13 of 2 Corinthians, contains Paul's defense of himself and of his work to the charges made against him by his enemies, including the Jewish legalists who said that Paul was an impostor who had not been authorized by the proper authorities to work among the churches. The legalists supported their charge by pointing out that Paul had a "thorn in [his] flesh," some physical defect that, according to ancient Jewish regulations, would have barred a man from the priesthood.
They further maintained that Paul supported himself by doing manual labor rather than by accepting support from the members of the church.
This labor, in their judgment, was an admission on his part that he was not qualified to be supported in the way that was customary for duly authorized missionaries. The legalists also accused Paul of cowardice on the grounds that he was bold so long as he was writing letters, but he was very mild when present with the legalists in person. Other charges of a similar nature were made in an all-out attempt to discredit the religious work that Paul was doing. To all of these charges, Paul makes a vigorous reply.
He shows wherein the charges are false, and he recounts for the people at Corinth the many trials and hardships that he suffered for their sake and for the sake of the gospel. Although he apologizes for seeming to boast of his own attainments, he explains the necessity for doing so.
He indicates further that his greatest disappointment lies not in the fact that charges of this sort have been made against him but that the members of the Corinthian church have apparently been persuaded by them.
The first nine chapters of what is now called 2 Corinthians are a letter that appears to have been written some time after the "painful letter" was received and accepted by the church. This letter contains an expression of gratitude for the change that has taken place among the Corinthian believers. To us in the Western world, it is quite shocking to think of writing a letter under a false name—a name of a person with much greater reputation than the actual writer.
To us this would be blatant lying and a total scandal. In the ancient world, the attitude toward pseudepigraphal letters was somewhat different. There was 1 Enoch, which was clearly not written by Enoch. The Jews were not offended by this, as they assumed that everyone knew it was not by the actual person Enoch, for example, but it was written under his name to explain the nature of the letter and to draw attention to it.
Let us return to the question. The evidence points toward its being written in the middle of the second century. An official Roman Catholic source gives the date to be AD The contents reveal that it was written to oppose Gnostic thought. As far as I know, no serious student of the topic believes that this letter was written by Paul. The text of 3rd Corinthians was included in a larger document known as the Acts of Paul.
Many believe that this letter was written in response to a text known as the Letter of the Corinthians to Paul. This was a Gnostic document. We have many gnostic writings available to us, including the Gospel of Thomas and the Gosple of Judas.
0コメント