Introduction to the Second Epistle to the Corinthians

PROOFS OF PAUL'S AUTHORSHIP.

There is no doubt of the authorship. The Epistle is quoted by Irenæus, Athenagoras, Clement of Alexandria, and Tertullian, all of them belonging to the second century. Its style is unmistakable, and it has undoubted connections with the life of Paul, with the church, and with the First Epistle.

TIME AND PLACE OF WRITING.

It appears from 2:13; 7:5; 8:1; 9:2, 4, that Paul wrote this letter while in Macedonia, to which he went from Ephesus. (See Acts 20:1.) The place cannot be determined more exactly. The time of this visit to Macedonia, within which the Epistle was written, was A. D. 58, the same year as that of the First Epistle.

OCCASION AND OBJECT OF THE LETTER.

We learn from 1 Cor. 16:10, that Paul had sent Timothy to Corinth, and was expecting his return; and from 2 Cor. 1:1, that he had returned, and was associated with Paul in the writing of this letter. And it appears from 2:13, that he had sent also Titus; and from 7:5 seq., that Titus had returned, bringing him tidings of the state of the church, and especially of the effect of the first letter. This furnishes the occasion of the Epistle, the apostle finding matter in these reports for a second letter. The accounts were partly encouraging, especially in regard to the submission of the church to the apostle's injunction respecting the incestuous member; but also, in regard to a part of the church, discouraging. The licentiousness among them had not wholly ceased. Nor were their divisions and strifes at an end. Indeed, the latter had entered on a new and dangerous phase. Instead of a slight defection from Paul, on account of the simplicity of his style, there is now an open revolt under the lead of his old enemies, the Judaizers. They did not, to be sure, attack his innovating doctrine. But they taunted him with his failure and fear to use his apostolic authority, and threw doubts on his possession of that which he had not the courage to use. They compared this weakness with the bravery, at a safe distance, of his letters. They even taunted him with his refusal to receive aid from the Corinthians, which they attributed to his lack of love for them. And they went so far as to put forward apostolic claims for their own leaders, who had the strength of self-assertion and of domineering that the apostle lacked.

Paul had also to defend himself against a charge of fickleness in not coming to Corinth, as he had promised in the First Epistle. He writes this Epistle, in fact, in order that they maybe prepared for his coming, and that he may not have to resort to unpleasant measures against them. And, in order to put them in the proper frame of mind towards him and is work, he places before them the greatness of the ministry entrusted to him, contrasting it with his own weakness and mortality, and makes them feel that in him they are dealing with an ambassador of Christ.

He has on his mind, moreover, the collection for the church at Jerusalem, on which he dwells more at length and more earnestly than elsewhere.

Owing to the mixed reports from the church, the first and last parts of the letter present a striking contrast. Paul is very strong in his feelings, and the tender and lofty strain of the first chapters, contrast strongly with the severe and impassioned outpouring of the close of the letter.