OCCASION
OCCASION
Historical Reconstruction
Paul first preached the gospel in Corinth during his second missionary journey (Acts 18). Supporting himself with his trade as a tentmaker or leatherworker, he lived with Aquila and Priscilla, who had recently moved to Corinth from Rome (Acts 18:1-3). As usual, Paul began his ministry by trying to convince all who attended the synagogue, Jews and Gentiles alike, that Jesus was the promised Messiah (v. 4). Once Timothy and Silas rejoined him, Paul’s ministry increased, possibly in part because they brought gifts from the Macedonian churches that freed him to devote more time to preaching (v. 5). As his ministry increased, so did the opposition. Paul was forced to move his ministry next door to the house of Titius Justus. So fruitful was his evangelism that not only many pagans but Crispus himself, the synagogue ruler, and his entire family believed in the Lord Jesus (vv. 7-8).
Only recently delivered from bruising punishment in Philippi (Acts 16), and having just barely escaped similar battering in Thessalonica and Berea (Acts 17), Paul approached Corinth "in weakness and fear, and with much trembling” (1 Cor. 2:3), but was encouraged by a dream in which the exalted Christ assured him of safety and much fruit (Acts 18:9-10). Paul stayed a year and a half, laying the only possible foundation, Jesus Christ himself (1 Cor. 3:10-11). After seeing the church well established, Paul left Corinth by ship (probably in the spring of A.D. 51: see discussion below in 9. 1 and 2 Corinthians, DATE), crossing the Aegean Sea with Priscilla and Aquila, whom he left in Ephesus while he headed for Jerusalem—hoping, perhaps (if we follow the Western text of Acts 18:21), to arrive there before the Feast (Passover or Pentecost). He did not remain long in Jerusalem but soon returned to his home church in Antioch and shortly after returned to Ephesus. There he began an enormously fruitful ministry of two and a half years (probably the autumn of 52 to the spring of 55); during that period he wrote 1 Corinthians.
Meanwhile, others had come to build on the foundation that Paul had laid in Corinth. Apollos worked there (1 Cor. 3:6), and probably Peter as well. 2 There is no evidence that these or other leaders had fostered a party spirit, consciously attempting to form a coterie of personal devotees. Nevertheless, doubtless owing to factors still to be examined, the spiritually immature Corinthians formed partisan groupings that claimed to follow this or that leader (1 Cor. 1:11). The church as a whole was less than satisfied with Paul’s leadership (1 Cor. 4:3, 15; 9:1-2), and the integrity of its life was marred by abuses at the Lord’s Table (11:17-34), at least one notorious case of immorality (5:1-5; cf. 6:12-20), public litigation among members (6:1-8), uncertainties about the place of marriage (ch. 7) and the propriety of eating food that had been offered to idols (ch. 8), infatuation with the more spectacular of the charismatic gifts without any profound commitment to mutual love (chs. 12-14), and a decidedly aberrant view of the resurrection (ch. 15).
How Paul first came to hear of some of these problems we cannot be sure, but apparently in response to a communication from them, he wrote them a letter (referred to in 1 Cor. 5:9), most of whose contents are lost, but which forbade association with immoral people. This letter, sometimes referred to as the previous letter, we may designate Corinthians A. Most scholars agree that it has not survived (though see discussion below). Perhaps the Corinthians had posed a question about church discipline, and Paul assumed this question as the context of his response, while in fact some of his readers took his response in the widest sense and thus misinterpreted him (1 Cor. 5:9-13).
At some point during his Ephesian ministry, Paul received reports from "some from Chloe’s household” (1 Cor. 1:11) about the ugly factionalism in Corinth. The three official delegates of the church—Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus (16:17)— brought not only the gift from the Corinthians but also the church’s letter and their own verbal reports, which together established Paul’s agenda as he wrote 1 Corinthians (which might be designated Corinthians B).
When Paul sent off 1 Corinthians, he fully intended to remain in Ephesus until Pentecost (probably A.D. 55), then cross the Aegean to Macedonia, visit the churches there, and travel south to Corinth, where he expected to remain "awhile, or even spend the winter” (1 Cor. 16:5-8). Meanwhile, he sent Timothy, exhorting the Corinthians to receive him warmly and "send him on his way in peace” (1 Cor. 16:10-11; cf. Acts 19:22) so that he could return to Paul, presumably with a report. After sending the letter, Paul changed his plans a little: he now proposed to visit Corinth twice, once on the way to Macedonia and once on the way back, intending to sail from Corinth to Judea (2 Cor. 1:15-16). On this return leg he hoped to collect considerable money from Macedonia and Achaia (including Corinth) for the relief of the believers in Jerusalem, who were suffering from famine and persecution.
When he formulated these plans, Paul apparently felt no urgency to get to Corinth. After all, he was in no hurry to leave Ephesus, since the "great door for effective work”
(1 Cor. 16:9) was still open for him there. But when Timothy arrived in Corinth, he found the situation beyond his ability to manage. Even 1 Corinthians, the apostle’s letter, had not had the good effect Paul had envisaged. Whether Timothy himself returned with a grim report, or Paul found out about the grim situation some other way, he abandoned any thought of further delay and immediately set out for Corinth. This turned into a distressing confrontation that Paul himself had warned the Corinthians they should avoid (1 Cor. 4:21)—a "painful visit,” to use Paul’s language (2 Cor. 2:1). We cannot determine whether or not Corinthians B (= 1 Corinthians) had helped the Corinthian believers resolve a number of matters, but it is quite clear that animus against Paul was still very strong and focused in one or two leaders whom the Corinthians either tacitly supported or refused to condemn. About the same time, and probably before the "painful visit,” the church had been invaded by some self-designated Christian leaders. Probably they called themselves apostles (2 Cor. 11:13-15) and carried letters of recommendation with them (cf. 2 Cor. 3:1-3). They were not apostles in the way Paul was, a witness of the resurrection with a personal commission from Christ to evangelize where Christ was not known; they were probably apostles in the general sense that they
were agents of others who had commissioned them. Probably they were in some sense Judaizers, 3 that is, those who were trying to bring the church more into line with Jewish piety and practice (see 2 Cor. 11:16ff.)—though doubtless they, like Paul, had also enjoyed considerable exposure to Hellenistic education and, unlike Paul, had absorbed more of the values of the Sophists than they realized (see further discussion below in the section The Character of Paul's Opponents).
From Paul’s perspective at the time, the "painful visit” was a complete fiasco. At least one of the opponents had attacked him in deeply insulting ways (2 Cor. 2:5-8, 10; 7:12); worse, the work of the gospel was in serious jeopardy. Why Paul left at this point is uncertain. Perhaps he hoped time would heal some of the wounds and bring the Corinthians to their senses; perhaps he had other pressing engagements. In any case, he resolved not to return immediately. This opened him up to the charge of being fickle, willing to change his commitments at a whim, even though the fundamental reason why he did not return was to spare them the pain of another confrontation (2 Cor. 1:16ff.).
But this did not mean Paul was prepared to let the situation slide. He sent them another letter, which we may designate Corinthians C. Written "out of great distress and anguish of heart and with many tears” (2 Cor. 2:4), this letter assured the Corinthians of Paul’s love for them but also laid down the standards he expected in the churches in his charge and sought to determine if they would meet those standards (2:9). For this reason, Corinthians C is sometimes called the "tearful letter” or the "severe letter.” Delivered by Titus (who may have been a more forceful person than Timothy), this letter demanded the punishment of the ringleader who had maligned and opposed Paul so maliciously (2:3-9; 7:8-12). In all probability this letter has also been lost. 4
Titus also had the responsibility to organize the collection for Jerusalem (2 Cor. 8:6). The fact that Paul could still expect the Corinthians to participate is evidence that he did not, despite the painful visit, regard the church as fundamentally apostate. He knew of their wealth and had boasted of their initial willingness not only to Titus (7:14) but also to the Macedonians (9:2). Probably he was afraid that some of the animus against him would degenerate into an unwillingness to cooperate in this financial assistance plan; probably he feared that the interlopers were by their strenuous demands for financial support (11:7, 12-20; 12:14) siphoning off funds that Paul felt should go to assist the poor believers in Jerusalem.
Meanwhile, Paul’s ministry in Ephesus was providing another set of dangers and challenges, a "deadly peril” such that he "despaired even of life,” feeling upon himself "the sentence of death” (2 Cor. 1:8-10). We know nothing of the details. Shortly after the Demetrius riot (Acts 19:23-20:1), however, Paul left Ephesus for Troas (2 Cor. 2:12,
13—"Troas” might refer either to the port city or to the Troad region in which it lay), where he hoped not only to preach the gospel but to meet Titus returning with news of Corinth. Only the first of these hopes was happily realized. On the one hand, he "found that the Lord had opened a door” for him (2 Cor. 2:12); on the other, as he wrote, "I still had no peace of mind, because I did not find my brother Titus there” (2 Cor. 2:13). So Paul left Troas and headed for Macedonia (2:13); apparently he had established a contingency plan to meet Titus there, should the meeting at Troas not take place. In Macedonia Paul pursued both his pastoral ministry (Acts 20:1-2) and his organizing of the collection for the Jerusalem believers (2 Cor. 8:1-4; 9:2). These churches were themselves facing "the most severe trial” and "extreme poverty” (8:2), owing not least to active persecution; but worse still, from Paul’s perspective, was that Titus had not yet shown up, so he still had no idea how his severe letter had been received in Corinth. "When we came into Macedonia, this body of ours had no rest, but we were harassed at every turn—conflicts on the outside, fears within” (7:5).
Titus soon arrived, and Paul’s distress rapidly changed to near euphoria (2 Cor. 7:67). Immediately after sending the severe letter, he had suffered second thoughts, fearing that he might hurt the Corinthians unduly; but with Titus’s encouraging report, Paul’s fear was displaced by joy. If his letter had wounded them, it was "only for a little while” (7:8). "Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret,” Paul observes, "but worldy sorrow brings death” (7:10). Indeed, Paul’s entire response, at least in 2 Corinthians 1-9, breathes an atmosphere of bruised relations that have recently eased. There is a noticeable sigh of relief that the worst is over.
That is what makes 2 Corinthians 10-13 so difficult to interpret: the tone in these chapters assumes that the situation in Corinth had become desperately dangerous yet again. Any further historical reconstruction is inextricably tied to questions about the integrity of the Corinthian epistles.