Second Corinthians
from a Messianic Jewish Perspective
To John and Jasmine Kumar, faithful servants of the Lord in America and in India. Their great sacrifice for the advancement of the Gospel, their enthusiasm for task at hand and their gracious spirit are a blessing to us all.
At a school in a small village, there was one girl who came early. She helped the teacher prepare the room for the day. The same girl would stay late – cleaning the board and dusting the erasers. During class, she was attentive. She sat close to the teacher, absorbing the lessons. One day when the other children were unruly and inattentive, the teacher used the girl as an example. “Why can’t you be like her? She listens. She works. She comes early. She stays late.” A boy blurted out from the rear of the room, “It isn’t fair for us to be like her.” The teacher thought that was strange and she wondered why. The boy was uncomfortable, wishing he hadn’t spoken. “She has an advantage,” he shrugged. “She is an orphan,” he almost whispered. The boy was right. The girl had an advantage. An advantage of knowing that school, as tedious as it was, was better than the orphanage. She knew that, and she appreciated what the others took for granted.
We, too, are orphans. Alone.
No name. No future. No hope.
Were it not for our adoption by God into His family, as His children, we would have no place to belong.
We sometimes forget that.
The Corinthians forgot that.
They had grown puffy in their achievements and divisive in their fellowship. They argued over different leaders, what were the greater gifts. They rebelled against Paul’s leadership. They were indifferent to sin and insensitive in worship. Paul defended his ministry and cautioned the Corinthians to remember to whom they belonged. Examine yourselves (13:5), Paul said: If anyone is united with Messiah, he is a new creation – the old has passed; look, what has come is fresh and new (5:17)!
Good reminder.
Not just for the Corinthians, but for us as well. For if we forget, we too will be like the students who did just enough to get by and never enough to show their thanks.1
Second Corinthians is the most personally revealing of all Paul’s letters. At the same time, it is perhaps the least familiar of all his inspired writings, often overlooked by individual believers, pastors and Messianic rabbis alike. The neglect of this wonderful letter is a huge loss to the Church, for it has much to offer. No one in ministry should ignore the riches of these insights. Paul’s godly character shines through as he interacts with the most troubled of his congregations. Its thirteen chapters reveal his humility; he described himself as a lowly clay pot (4:7), stressed by human weakness and inadequacy (3:5, 11:30, 12:5 and 9-10), and was reluctant to defend himself when attacked (11:1, 16-17 and 21, 12:11). Second Corinthians also reveals Paul’s passionate concern for his flock, both for their spiritual growth (3:18 and 7:1), and for their spiritual safety (11:2-4 and 29). His declaration: For what we are proclaiming is not ourselves, but the Messiah as Lord, with ourselves as slaves for you because of Yeshua (4:5), sums up his selfless concern for them.
Though it is an intensely intimate look at Paul, Second Corinthians nonetheless contains rich theological truth. Here the B’rit Chadashah receives its most complete account outside of the book of Romans. Paul presents important teaching on what happens to believers when we die (5:1-11). He discusses the doctrine of reconciliation, culminating in the fifteen Greek words of 5:21. Those words provide the most concise, yet profound summary of the substitutionary atonement of Yeshua Messiah to be found anywhere in Scripture. Similarly, 8:9 is a brief theological gem regarding Messiah that is of immense value to every believer.
Second Corinthians also has much to teach regarding the practical aspects of living the life of a believer. Paul discusses the principle of separating from unbelievers in dating and marriage (to see link click Bi – Do Not be Unequally Yoked with Unbelievers). Chapters 8 and 9 provide the most detailed teaching on giving in the B’rit Chadashah; Chapter 11 gives instruction on how to distinguish true servants of God from false apostles (11:7-15 and 20); and Chapter 12 reveals how God uses suffering in the lives of His children (12:5-10). This letter closes with a look at several important elements of the sanctification process (12:20 to 13:14).2
Historical Background: For information about the city of Corinth and Paul’s founding of the church there, see the commentary on First Corinthians Ag – Founding of the Church at Corinth.
Authorship: That Paul wrote this letter, as he twice claims (1:1 and 10:1), is almost universally accepted, even by critical scholars who deny that Paul wrote other B’rit Chadashah books attributed to him. It is impossible to imagine a motive for someone to forge such an emotional and highly personal letter. The vocabulary that is used is very similar to that of First Corinthians, and the correlation of the evidence from the book of Acts also proves Paul’s authorship. The external evidence also confirms that Paul wrote this letter. The Church father Polycarp quotes from it early in the second century, while later in that same century it was included in the Muratorian Canon, the oldest known list of the books of the B’rit Chadashah. Church fathers Clement of Alexandria, Iranaeus, and Tertullian also quote from Second Corinthians.
Date: For information about the date of Second Corinthians see Ae – Events Between First Corinthians and Second Corinthians.
The Use of the Complete Jewish Bible: Because I am writing this commentary on the book of Second Corinthians from a Jewish perspective, I will be using the Complete Jewish Bible unless otherwise indicated.
The use of ADONAI: Long before Yeshua’s day, the word ADONAI had, out of respect, been substituted in speaking and in reading aloud for God’s personal name, the four Hebrew letters yod-heh-vav-heh, variously written in English as YHVH. The Talmud (Pesachim 50a) made it a requirement not to pronounce the Tetragrammaton, meaning the four-letter name of the LORD, and this remains the rule in most modern Jewish settings. In deference to this tradition, which is unnecessary but harmless, I will be using ADONAI where YHVH is meant. In ancient times when the scribes were translating the Hebrew Scriptures, they revered the name of YHVH so much that they would use a quill to make one stroke of the name and then throw it away. Then they would make another stroke and throw that quill away until the name was completed. His name became so sacred to them that they started to substitute the phrase the Name, instead of writing or pronouncing His Name. Over centuries of doing this, the actual letters and pronunciation of His Name were lost. The closest we can come is YHVH, with no syllables. The pronunciation has been totally lost. Therefore, the name Yahweh is only a guess of what the original name sounded like. Both ADONAI and Ha’Shem are substitute names for YHVH. ADONAI is more of an affectionate name like daddy, while Ha’Shem is a more formal name like sir.
The use of TaNaKh: The Hebrew word TaNaKh is an acronym, based on the letters T (for “Torah”), N (for “Nevi’im,” the Prophets), and K (for “Ketuvim,” the Sacred Writings). It is the collection of the teachings of God to human beings in document form. The term “Old Covenant” implies that it is no longer valid, or at the very least outdated. Something old, to be either ignored or discarded. But Jesus Himself said: Don’t think I have come to abolish the Torah and the Prophets, I have not come to abolish but to complete (Matthew 5:17 CJB). I will be using the Hebrew acronym TaNaKh instead of the phrase the Old Testament, throughout this devotional commentary.
The Use of the phrase, “the righteous of the TaNaKh,” rather than using Old Testament saints: Messianic synagogues, and the Jewish messianic community in general, never use the phrase Old Testament saints. From a Jewish perspective, they prefer to use the phrase, “righteous of the TaNaKh.” Therefore, I will be using “the righteous of the TaNaKh,” rather than Old Testament saints throughout this devotional commentary.
Occasion and Purpose: At some point after the receipt of First Corinthians, conditions within the church deteriorated. They were a divided church to begin with (First Corinthians 1:12 and Second Corinthians 2:6-7), but the arrival of the false prophets (see Af – The Problem of the False Apostles) made it even more so. Therefore, Paul received the bad news, probably from Titus, that caused the apostle to make an unplanned visit back to Corinth to reinforce the effect of his first letter and prevent any further undermining of his authority through the subversive activities of those false prophets. But it was unsuccessful in reducing the level of opposition against him. During this visit Paul was personally attacked by one of the members (Second Corinthians 2:5 and 7:12). It was a painful visit for both Paul and his spiritual children in Corinth (see Ao – Paul’s Painful Visit).
To spare the Corinthians and himself from another painful visit, Paul wrote a “severe letter” (see Bl – The Effects of the Severe Letter) to them to arouse the discipline of the one who did the wrong. But it turned out that the majority of the Corinthian believers felt concern, remorse, and even apprehension over their behavior during the painful visit. They longed to see Paul again to assure him of their change of attitude. Therefore, when Titus arrived in Macedonia from Corinth in the summer of 56 AD with his welcomed report of the Corinthians responsiveness to the “severe letter.” On returning to Macedonia, Paul wrote Second Corinthians and sent the letter to Corinth in the fall of 56 AD with Titus and two unnamed colleagues who would help to complete the collection (8:6b, 16-24, 9:3-5).3
The Background of Isaiah 40-55: The key far eschatological text in the letter, Second Corinthians 6:2, is a quotation from the Septuagint (LXX), or the Greek TaNaKh, is an important passage within Isaiah 40-55, namely Isaiah 49:8-13. When examined in the LXX, the passage reveals a number of words – salvation, covenant, comfort, and lowly – that prove to be significant within the structure of Second Corinthians. Not only are individual words from this passage in Isaiah reproduced, but we also find some groupings of words in Second Corinthians: salvation and comfort in 1:6, and comfort and lowly in 7:6 and 10:1. This short passage in Isaiah LXX appears to have been the source of a number of ideas employed by the apostle in this letter.
The themes of a new creation and reconciliation, so prominent in Second Corinthians 5:17-21, appear to arise out of Isaiah’s twin themes of new creation and restoration. While there is no verbal equivalent to reconciliation in Isaiah, the prominent theme of restoration bears a similarity to it. Isra’el’s exile in Isaiah is similar to our own alienation from ADONAI. In Isaiah 43 the new creation and restoration are achieved by the ransom of people by a Kinsman Redeemer willing and able to pay the price of redemption (see the commentary on Isaiah Ht – I Have Created You, O Jacob: Fear Not, for I Have Redeemed You, You are Mine), by blotting out the sins of His people (see the commentary on Isaiah Hv – I Blot Out Your Transgressions for My Own Sake), themes that are expressed – as fulfilled in Yeshua Messiah – in Second Corinthians 5:17-21.
In Second Corinthians 5:20 to 6:2, Paul views himself (and, we presume, the other apostles) as Messiah’s ambassadors and God’s fellow-workers, encouraging the Corinthians to be reconciled to God, and, in the knowledge that this is the day of salvation, not to receive God’s grace in vain. But then, in a short space, Paul urges the Corinthians to be reconciled to him, and to open their hearts wide to him (6:11-13). Between 6:3-10 and 6:11-13, these two encouragements – the first related to God and the second related to himself – Paul applies to himself as a worker of God language that reminds us of the suffering Servant (see the commentary on Isaiah Hl – The Cone of Isaiah), found in Isaiah 40-55. As the apostle that the Corinthians are close to rejecting, Paul reminds them that he is the divinely “sent” messenger who announces that “now” is the day of salvation (see Bg – Living as a Servant) and that they must be reconciled to ADONAI through aligning themselves with the message brought by His apostle. The language of suffering as seen in an apostle (6:3-10) serves to legitimize Paul’s ministry because it was fulfilled in the vicarious sufferings of the true Servant of ADONAI, the Messiah, Yeshua (5:14-21).
It seems likely that Paul meditated on Isaiah 40-55 in the light of the crisis in Corinth and, as it were, prophesied from it, encouraging the Corinthians – in particular the rebellious factions – to align themselves with God’s day of salvation, which Paul had proclaimed.4
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