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Abingdon New Testament Commentaries: 2 Corinthians

Abingdon Press

Commentary

Introduction

Before Paul responded in an earlier letter to Corinthian questions about the offering (1 Cor 16:1-11), there was a long prehistory. Already in Gal 2:1, 2, and 6-10, Paul wrote of an agreement he made with the Jerusalem apostles to promote the offering for the Jerusalem "poor." In exchange for the endorsement of his Gentile mission by the "pillar apostles" (Peter, James, and John), Paul eagerly agreed to "remember the poor" in Jerusalem (Gal 2:10). More than a quid pro quo, this gesture had a strong eschatological warrant from the prophets who envisioned a procession of Gentiles with offerings brought and confessions made to Israel's God in the last days. Paul obviously saw in the conversion of Gentiles to the Jesus movement and their reception of the spirit being poured out on all flesh (Joel 2:28-29) a premonitory sign of the approaching end when Jew and Gentile would be gathered together as Abraham's children.

Since the Corinthians certainly knew about the offering, Paul hardly needed to describe or defend the project in his earlier letter (1 Cor 16:1-11). Nevertheless, his subsequent push to complete the project begun "last year" hints that the Corinthians were lukewarm and dilatory about the effort (2 Cor 8:10-11; Hurd 1965, 202). Their tepid response moved Paul to lay out a strategy for its completion. Embedded in this strategy was much more than a relief effort, though it was that; it was a witness to God's reconciling action that is either stated or implied throughout 2 Corinthians. Each Sunday they were to set aside what they could so that when he arrived a sizeable token would be ready (1 Cor 16:1-3).

His vigorous promotion of the collection, however, raised eyebrows. Being victimized by scam artists dressed up as teachers, the mostly poor Corinthians were rightfully suspicious. Might Paul be just another huckster breezing into town, collecting money for "the poor among the saints" hundreds of miles away in Jerusalem, and then lining his own pockets with ill-gotten gain? Did they suspect Paul of duplicity as he, on the one hand, refused their support with a claim to high-minded self-sufficiency while, on the other hand, was taking money from the Philippian church (Phil 4:15, 16, 19)? Were they simply insulted that he would accept gifts from Macedonia but refuse them from Corinth? The sting of those allegations lingered and provoked Paul's defiant defense of his integrity (1 Cor 9:3-17). With the later dispatch of Titus and "the brother who is famous among all the churches" to complete the offering, he hoped to fend off criticism and suspicion (2 Cor 8:16-19): "We intend that no one should blame us about this generous gift that we are administering, for we intend to do what is right not only in the Lord's sight but also in the sight of others" (2 Cor 8:20-21). When that effort failed, he still later protested vehemently: "Let it be assumed that I did not burden you. Nevertheless (you say) since I was crafty, I took you in by deceit" (2 Cor 12:16).

Paul invested so much energy and spiritual capital in the promotion of the offering because it carried such profound eschatological, symbolic, and social significance. In Romans 15:16, which closely followed 2 Corinthians 9, Paul invoked a classic priestly metaphor to describe the presentation of the "offering of the Gentiles" as "a priestly service of the gospel." While Paul nowhere appeals to Isaiah or Micah, as he might have done, as a warrant for this trip to Jerusalem as an eschatological pilgrimage of Gentiles, his characterization of this project as the "offering of the Gentiles" (Rom 15:16) is alive with scriptural overtones (Rom 15:9-12 echoing Ps 18:49; Deut 32:43; Ps 117, and Isa 2:2–3; 45:14; 60:5-7, 10-14; 11:10 and 52:15; Mic 4:1-2, 13). These passages invoke an eschatological drama whose scope and implications are breathtaking. As the axis mundi and core symbol of the religion of Israel, Jerusalem would open her gates to welcome a continuous procession of kings professing obeisance to Yahweh and pledging their ministrations. The Jesus people, Paul claimed, stood on the cusp of this grand eschatological reversal and joyous celebration. That time was pregnant with dread and possibility and inspired a revolutionary vision of a partnership and reciprocity between Jewish and Gentile followers of Jesus.

While the socio-economic dimension of this effort is clear, that alone hardly explains why the exclusive focus of this offering was the poor among the saints in Jerusalem. Most urban centers harbored significant numbers of poor, even desperately poor folk. These stark realities doubtless leapt out at Paul at every step along the way. While presumably a significant number of the Jesus people in Jerusalem were impoverished, it was the combination of their need and the apocalyptic vision of the gathering of God's people that suffused the offering with symbolic power and offered a dramatic sign of the arrival of the new age when believing Gentiles would be welcomed into God's elect, and Jew and Gentile would be placed on an equal footing.

An Appeal for Generosity (8:1-15)

When Paul penned or dictated 2 Cor 8 he opened it with a traditional salutation to open the door to the conversation to follow. Originally, it might have run something like, "Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy and Silvanus, our brothers, to the assembly of God which is in Corinth: Grace to you and peace from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ." Though one of the most stable elements of the letter, Paul always adapted it to fit his purpose for writing.

In all cases except Galatians a thanksgiving or blessing followed that alerted the addressees to the purpose of the letter and the key issues it would address. This precursor of the letter's agenda might have read, "I thank God always for the gifts of grace (charis) you have received from God in Jesus Christ, am thankful for your partnership in the gospel and your labors of love, and am persuaded that every gracious work begun in you will come to completion on the day of the Lord Jesus." The thanksgiving most often is positive and offers an ideal construction of their gifts and graces that may be in question. In the immediately preceding 1 Corinthians, for example, Paul thanks God that the Corinthians have been enriched in speech and knowledge (1 Cor 1:5-6), but later corrects expressions of those gifts that are sharply divisive. In this letter also the thanksgiving would have expressed not only praise for their gifts but also in that praise was implicit a fervent expectation that the Corinthians would complete the languishing offering project.

Since Paul's letters would only decades later be recognized as scriptural, a later editor who faced new challenges would have been free to excise these traditional epistolary elements to fit chapter 8 into the larger letter construct we know as 2 Corinthians. According to this admittedly hypothetical construction, what remains is the body of the letter transmitting Paul's request, his commendation of Titus and the "brothers," and his supporting exhortations.

Paul opens the letter with an appeal to the Corinthians to follow the example of the Macedonian churches and to complete their offering for the "saints" (in Jerusalem) as an act of piety, love, and solidarity. He introduces a Gentile coworker, Titus, and two anonymous "brothers" coming to complete the offering effort begun "last year" in Corinth, but whose completion lagged. Titus will lead the delegation, and the accompanying "brothers" will assist with the completion of the project and guarantee the integrity and honesty of the process.

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Macedonian Example of Generosity (8:1-7)

Paul often uses parakalo, "I appeal to you," (1 Cor 1:10) or one of its cognates to flag the opening of the body of a letter or to introduce new information. Here instead he uses a cognate, gnorizomen, "we want you to know" as he does elsewhere to open the body of the letter or make an important transition (2 Cor 8:1; see also Phlm 8-9; 2 Cor 1:8; Gal 1:11; 1 Thess 2:1; Phil 1:12). Paul appeals to the example of his favorite churches in Macedonia: "We want you to know (gnorizomen), brothers and sisters, about the grace of God that has been granted to the churches of Macedonia." Though impoverished and oppressed, their "ministry," i.e., gift (diakonia), was a tool of the "grace of God" (charin theou). Later we shall return to consider the agenda embedded in Paul's appeal.

The strong verbal ties of vv. 1-4 to 1 Cor 16:1-4 indicates some historical association (Mitchell 2005, 321-37). "Grace" (charin) stands for the collection in 8:1, 4, 6, 7, 19 and 1 Cor 16:3 (see NRSV textual note). In both passages the collection is for the "saints" (1 Cor 16:1; 2 Cor 8:4), and still later this "grace" will become a "priestly service" (leitourgia) in 2 Cor 9:1, 12-13 and Rom 15:16. These linguistic ties hardly guarantee that 2 Cor 8 followed immediately on the heels of 1 Cor 16, but shared concerns over the oversight of the offering process and the attempt in each to develop a protocol for the delivery of the offering strengthen that presupposition. When to these is added the evidence cited earlier that put the Titus mission of chapter 8 ahead of 12:17 and the "painful visit" of 2:1, then the case for placing 2 Cor 8 soon after 1 Cor 16 is strong indeed.

The long, rambling, overloaded sentence in vv. 1-5 starkly contrasts the abject poverty and open-handed generosity of the Macedonians. By lifting up the outpouring from the dirt poor Macedonians, did Paul intend to shame the Corinthians into action? What could Corinthian slaves give? Had the Corinthians used their mostly underclass or even destitute state to excuse a weak or tardy response? Was the Macedonian example a corrective? More likely Paul cited the Macedonian example less to shame the "affluent" than to give an example worthy of emulation (v. 3). There were indeed some persons of means in the Corinthian cell of converts, e.g., Phoebe, his patron in Cenchreae; Gaius, his host in Corinth; Erastus, the city treasurer; and Prisca and Aquila, Paul's co-workers (Rom 16:1, 3, 23), but by Paul's own admission "not many" were so advantaged (1 Cor 1:27). Paul's appeal is broad, and his hope is that all will participate in this good work to whatever degree they are able.

Consequently, Paul encouraged completion of the offering as an act of religious devotion (diakonia; NRSV: "ministry") and a shared gesture of care (koinonia; NRSV: "sharing"). No mere act of individual piety, the offering shared in God's great drama of salvation that linked in a common embrace the apostle and his "pagan" (Gentile) converts with the saints in Jerusalem and signaled the dawn of an incandescent new age after which nothing could ever again be the same.

Verse 5 voices the divine antecedent to the Macedonian participation in the offering: "they gave themselves first to the Lord and, by the will of God, to us." As a consequence of the self-giving of the Macedonian converts, Paul and his cohorts were able to dispatch Titus (v. 6) who "already made a beginning to complete this work of grace (charis) among you also" (AT). Was the "beginning" of Titus's work in Macedonia or Corinth? We can hardly know with certainty, but since the reference to it comes on the heels of the Macedonian example, and since Titus goes unmentioned in the list of founding missionaries in Corinth (Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, 2 Cor 1:19), this anticipated mission might have been Titus's first visit to Corinth. But in the end it makes little difference. Paul now sends him to lead a delegation to complete the offering that was already underway before he wrote 1 Cor 16:1-4, and he sent Titus to Corinth not only to bring the offering to completion but also to deal with Corinthian suspicions about himself and to deal with their tepid response to the offering appeal.

In v. 7 the introduction concludes with generous praise (captatio benevolentiae) to assure the good will of the recipients and to encourage their offering effort. In spite of his recent stinging rebuke of pretentious and arrogant converts (1 Cor 4:8-21; 5:2; 6:5; 11:17-22), he now commended the Corinthians (as in 1 Cor 1:5-7) for excelling "in everything" (en panti)—in faith (pistei), speech (logo), knowledge (gnosei), zeal or earnest commitment (spoude), and "your love for us" (agape, RSV). (There is strong manuscript support for reading "your love for us" [RSV] rather than "our love for you" [NRSV]. Although the NRSV translators went for the more difficult reading that is often preferable, the introductory clause in v. 7, "Now as you excel in everything...." seems to require reading "your love for us" to follow.) The order ascends serving as the base waiting for its capstone: "in order that you may excel in this grace (chariti) also" (v. 7).

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Without the benefit of an imperative, command, demand, or even an expression of want (NRSV adds "we want"), Paul ever so subtly forged a link between these named charismatic gifts, sometimes on display (1 Cor 12–13), and this very practical, earthy, charismatic act—namely the offering. Thus Paul gently proffered a test of their abounding excellence and the sincerity of their love. He asked them to make good on their pledge of "last year" to complete the collection project.

Paul's Appeal (8:8-9)

Paul seeks to persuade rather than command by lifting up the "zeal" (spoudes, NRSV: "earnestness") of the Macedonian assemblies to test the genuineness of the Corinthians' love (v. 8). Was this a tactful, diplomatic gesture inspired by Corinthian grumbling about his imperious manner (2 Cor 1:24)? The issue was complex, for Paul claimed to be an apostle of Christ, a claim that, if considered legitimate, made him an authority figure by definition. And yet there is another side as well. He referred to the Corinthians as his "beloved children" whom he sired (1 Cor 4:4), as babes whom he nursed (1 Cor 3:2), and as "brothers and sisters" in God's family (over 20 times in 1 Corinthians alone) with whom he was bonded. So, the balance was delicate. As an apostle of Christ, he represented his Lord's authority, and under that mandate he had threatened his misbehaving "children" with a switch (e.g., 1 Cor 4:20-21); he had uttered a curse on divisive and selfish converts (1 Cor 16:22); he had pronounced judgment on an egregious offender in Corinth from a distance (1 Cor 5:1-5); and he would soon warn that he would wage war against his harshest critics (10:3-6). So, even though Paul was capable of great acts of tenderness and care, some, we learn from 1:24, resented his highhandedness. That criticism, doubtless, stung and moved Paul to tread a fine line between tactful persuasion and urging obedience to the Lord's mandate.

Verse 9 is an ad hoc formulation wedding the gospel story and the Corinthian context. Let us listen: "For you know (ginoskete gar), don't you, the grace of our Lord Jesus ["Christ" absent from earliest mss], that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, in order that by his poverty you might become rich" (a modified version of the RSV translation). With ginoskete ("you know") Paul reminded his readers of what they once knew but were prone to forget (also 1 Thess 1:5; 2:1, 2, 11; 3:3, 4; 4:2; 5:2 with the synonym oida). The corporate memory was short, and Paul's reminder called the Corinthians back to their place as participants in the great cosmic drama. This creedal statement provides the theological grounding of and motivation for the offering project.

Some think v. 9 echoes Phil 2:6-11, an early hymn of the mythic descent of the preexistent Christ, who humbled himself, took the form of a slave, and became obedient unto death on a cross. God raised him up, so it continues, and set him at the right hand of power in a heavenly seat from whence he would rule and bring all to obedience. The resemblance, however, between that creedal statement and v. 9 is faint. Second Corinthians 8:9 lacks any reference to Christ's return to God's side from whence he will rule, and any juxtaposition of the rich Christ becoming poor in order that the destitute might become rich is wanting in Phil 2:6-11. Moreover, v. 9 is tied to the Corinthian context in an entirely different way than is the Philippian hymn, which calls for the imitation of Christ's humiliation. It is unlikely, therefore, that v. 9 was inspired by the marvelous hymn in Phil 2:6-11.

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Given the socio-economic status and religious pretensions of the Corinthians, the passage throbs with biting irony. Some, perhaps many, of the Corinthian poor proudly claim to be charismatically rich and therefore superior (1 Cor 4:8). Their new status as creatures of the end time effects a status reversal that is startling. Here, however, Paul links participation in Jesus' salvific act (richness) with the obligation to share in the offering project as a gracious act for the "poor." The emphasis is hardly on the imitation of Christ; it is on the "grace" (charin) of the Lord Jesus that motivates an anticipated "gracious act" of giving by the Corinthians.

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Excerpted from Abingdon New Testament Commentaries: 2 Corinthians by Calvin J. Roetzel. Copyright © 2007 Abingdon Press. Excerpted by permission of Abingdon Press.
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