The Second Letter to the Corinthians

Corinth. The old Greek city was destroyed by the Romans in 146 BC and refounded as a Roman colony by Julius Caesar in 44 BC. In Paul's time it was the chief city of the province of Achaia. It stood on the narrow neck of land that joins northern and southern Greece, with a port on each sea: Lechaeum to the west, and Cenchreae to the east (Rom 16:1). Ships, soldiers, traders, former slaves, and people of many gods passed through it. The Isthmian Games were held nearby. Wealth and public honour counted for a great deal, and so did skilled speech. That helps us to see why a poor, plain-spoken, suffering apostle could look like a failure to some.

How the Church began there. Acts 18 tells that Paul came to Corinth, lodged with Aquila and Priscilla, worked at tent-making with them, preached in the synagogue and then next door to it, and stayed a year and six months (Acts 18:1 to 11). He was brought before the governor Gallio (Acts 18:12 to 17). An inscription found at Delphi names Gallio as proconsul. Historians use it to date his office to about 51 to 52, and it gives one of the firmest dates in Paul's life, if, as most think, this is the same Gallio.

What happened between the letters. We know this only from the letter itself, and part of the story has to be pieced together. It seems to run like this:

• Paul wrote what we call First Corinthians from Ephesus. He had already written an earlier letter (1 Cor 5:9).
• He made a short and painful visit (2:1; compare 12:14 and 13:1, which speak of a third visit to come). Someone there seems to have wronged him gravely (2:5 to 11; 7:12).
• He wrote a sharp letter "with many tears" (2:3 to 4; 7:8). This "tearful letter" seems to be lost, unless part of it survives in chapters 10 to 13, as some scholars suggest.
• He suffered a crushing danger in Asia, so that he "despaired of life itself" (1:8). What it was, he does not say.
• He looked for Titus at Troas, could not find him, and crossed to Macedonia, deeply anxious (2:12 to 13; 7:5). There Titus met him with good news: the Corinthians were sorry and longed to see him (7:6 to 16). Benedict XVI calls Titus the one who brought peace between Paul and that difficult community (General Audience, 13 December 2006).
• Paul then wrote this letter. Titus went back to finish the collection (8:6, 16 to 24).
• Paul probably came to Corinth afterwards, and it was probably there that he wrote to the Romans, saying that Achaia had shared gladly in the collection (Rom 15:26; Acts 20:2 to 3).

The rival preachers. Other Christian missionaries had come with letters of recommendation (3:1). They were Jewish Christians (11:22) and fine speakers, and Paul calls them with bitter irony "super-apostles" (11:5; 12:11). They seem to have charged money, boasted of visions, and looked down on Paul's weakness. We do not hear their own side, and scholars differ on who exactly they were. This was a quarrel among Christians about what an apostle is. It was never a dispute with the Jewish people, to whom Paul proudly says he belongs (11:22).

The collection. When the Apostles in Jerusalem received Paul, they asked him to remember the poor (Gal 2:10). He spent years gathering money from his Gentile Churches for the poor Christians of Jerusalem (1 Cor 16:1 to 4; Rom 15:25 to 28; Acts 24:17). Chapters 8 and 9 are his appeal to the Corinthians to finish what they began. To him it was far more than money: it was a sign that Jew and Gentile were one in Christ.

The Church's tradition. The letter names Paul as its author (1:1; 10:1), and it has always been received as his. The Council of Trent, listing the sacred books, names fourteen letters of Paul, two of them to the Corinthians. St Irenaeus, about 180, cites it by name as "the Second" letter to the Corinthians (Against Heresies 3.7.1). The New Testament letters are written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit (Dei Verbum 20), and God is their author, working through the human writer (Dei Verbum 11; Catechism 105 to 106).

A scholarly note. Almost no one doubts that Paul wrote this letter. The question is whether it was one letter from the start. The mood changes sharply at 10:1, from warm reconciliation to fierce self-defence. Chapters 8 and 9 both treat the collection, and each sounds like a fresh start. The short passage 6:14 to 7:1 seems to break the flow. So many scholars think that an editor, perhaps Paul or more probably someone after him, joined two or more of his letters. Others read it as a single letter written over some time, as new reports came in from Corinth. The USCCB introduction sets out both views. The Church has not decided the matter. It does not touch inspiration: the canonical text as we have it is the word of God (Dei Verbum 11).

Witness of the manuscripts. Papyrus 46, shown above and dated about 175 to 225, holds a collection of Paul's letters that includes this one in the form we know it. The picture shows the very passage on the thorn.

The letter has three large parts: the crisis and Paul's ministry (1 to 7), the collection (8 to 9), and the defence of his authority (10 to 13). The outline follows the USCCB introduction, with more detail added.

• God consoles, so that we may console. The God of mercies comforts us in order that we can comfort others (1:3 to 7; Catechism 2627). Suffering is not wasted in the Body of Christ.
• Christ is God's "Yes". All the promises of God find their "Yes" in him, and through him we say "Amen" (1:20; Catechism 1065).
• The seal of the Spirit. God anoints us, seals us, and gives the Spirit as a first installment (1:21 to 22). The Catechism applies this to Baptism and Confirmation (698, 1274, 1296).
• The New Covenant and the Old. Paul contrasts the ministry of Moses, written on stone, with the ministry of the Spirit, written on hearts (3:3 to 11). "The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life" (3:6) does not mean that the Old Testament is dead. The Catechism uses Paul's image of the veil to say that Christ opens the Old Testament to the Christian reader (702, 1094), and it also says plainly that the Old Covenant has never been revoked (121). This passage must be read together with Romans 9 to 11, and never as contempt for Israel or its Law.
• Weak vessels, strong God. The treasure is in clay jars so that the power may be seen to be God's (4:7; Catechism 1420). The same pattern runs from the first chapter to the last. Benedict XVI notes how Paul lists his trials, and his daily "anxiety for all the churches" (11:21 to 28; General Audience, 27 August 2008).
• After death and at the end. We have an eternal house from God (5:1). To be away from the body is to be at home with the Lord (5:8; Catechism 1005, 1021, 1681). We all must appear before the judgment seat of Christ (5:10). God who raised Jesus will raise us also (4:14; Catechism 989).
• Faith, not sight. "We walk by faith, not by sight" (5:7; Catechism 164). Faith holds firm even when experience seems to contradict it.
• Reconciliation. God took the first step. In Christ he was reconciling the world to himself, and he gave the Apostles the ministry of reconciliation (5:18 to 20). The Church reads here the root of the Sacrament of Penance: "Be reconciled to God" (Catechism 1424), a ministry entrusted to the Apostles and continued by bishops and priests (981, 1442, 1461). It is Christ who forgives through his minister.
• "He made him to be sin." The words of 5:21 are strong and need careful reading. Christ never sinned: he "knew no sin". The Catechism explains that he took our place in love, and did not suffer rejection as though he himself had sinned (602 to 603). St John Chrysostom, in substance, says that Christ was treated like a sinner and condemned, so that we might receive the righteousness of God.
• A new creation. Anyone in Christ is a new creation (5:17; Catechism 1214, 1265, 1999). This comes through Baptism and shows itself in a changed life.
• Giving. The motive is Christ himself, who "though he was rich" became poor for us (8:9; Catechism 517, 1351, 2407, 2546). Give as you have decided, not under pressure; God loves a cheerful giver (9:7). Paul calls the gift a leitourgia, a word that gave us "liturgy" (9:12; Catechism 1070). Benedict XVI draws the lesson that love for the poor is liturgy (General Audience, 1 October 2008).
• The true apostle. His letter of recommendation is the community itself (3:2). He does not lord it over them; he works with them for their joy (1:24). Benedict XVI quotes both lines (General Audience, 10 September 2008). Paul proved himself by what he endured for the Gospel, and not by display.
• Grace in weakness. Three times he begged to be rid of the thorn, and the Lord said no (12:7 to 9). The Catechism uses this for God's almighty power shown in weakness (268, 273), and for the sick: the most intense prayer does not always obtain healing, and suffering can be joined to Christ's (1508). No one knows what the thorn was. Guesses include illness, opposition and temptation, and the text does not say.
• The Trinity. The closing blessing, "the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit" (13:13), is among the earliest Trinitarian blessings we have. The Catechism quotes it (249, 734, 1109, 2627), and it is one of the greetings at the start of the Mass in the Latin rite.

• God's "Yes". The faithfulness of God has a human face (1:19 to 20).
• The image of God. The glory of God shines "in the face of Jesus Christ" (4:4, 6; Catechism 1701, 2583). To look on him is to be changed "from one degree of glory to another" (3:18).
• The one who died for all. "One has died for all", and he did so in order that we might live for him (5:14 to 15; Catechism 605, 616, 655). In him God reconciled the world (5:19; Catechism 433).
• The sinless one who took our place. He knew no sin, and yet he carried ours (5:21; Catechism 602 to 603).
• The rich one who became poor. This one verse (8:9) holds the Incarnation and the Cross together.
• Crucified in weakness, alive by God's power. "He was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God" (13:4; Catechism 648). His pattern becomes Paul's: "always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies" (4:10). Jesus is gentle and meek (10:1).
• The bridegroom. Paul has promised the Church to Christ as a bride (11:2; Catechism 796). Benedict XVI notes that Ephesians later develops this image (General Audience, 14 January 2009).
• The Lord who speaks and who is prayed to. Paul begs "the Lord" three times, and the risen Christ answers (12:8 to 9).

The Catechism draws on this letter often: the Amen, 1065; the seal of the Spirit, 698, 1274, 1296; the veil, 702, 1094; earthen vessels, 1420; death and being with the Lord, 1005, 1021, 1681; walking by faith, 164; the new creation, 1214, 1265, 1999; reconciliation, 981, 1424, 1442, 1461; "made him to be sin", 602; poverty and the poor, 517, 1351, 2407, 2546; liturgy, 1070; weakness and power, 268, 273, 1508; the Trinitarian blessing, 249, 734, 1109, 2627.

The Fathers, in substance. St Irenaeus takes up the thorn (Against Heresies 5.3.1): God lets us know our weakness so that we do not think too highly of ourselves, and we learn both what we are and what God is. St John Chrysostom preached thirty homilies on this letter. On "be reconciled to God" he remarks (Homily 11) that the injured one is the one who comes first asking for peace, and that the enmity is on our side and never on God's.

Benedict XVI gave twenty catecheses on St Paul in 2008 and 2009. He draws on this letter for Paul's sufferings (27 August 2008), for the marks of an apostle (10 September 2008), for the collection as liturgy (1 October 2008), for Titus at Corinth (13 December 2006), and for the Church as betrothed to Christ (14 January 2009).

In the liturgy.

• Latin. The Sunday second reading from the Seventh to the Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time of Year B (the next such year is 2027). Also 2 Cor 5:20 to 6:2 on Ash Wednesday every year; 2 Cor 13:11 to 13 on Trinity Sunday of Year A; 2 Cor 5:17 to 21 on the Fourth Sunday of Lent, Year C. On weekdays it is read in the Tenth and Eleventh Weeks of Ordinary Time, Year I.
• Syro-Malankara. In the calendar of readings for 2026 to 2027, as Epistle at the Holy Qurbono: 2 Cor 5:17 to 21 on the Fourth Sunday after Qyomtho; 2 Cor 6:14 to 18 on the Fifth Sunday after Pentecost; 2 Cor 12:1 to 10 on the Third Sunday after the Transfiguration. It is also read on many weekdays.
• Syro-Malabar. In the calendars of readings from 2025 to 2027, at the Holy Qurbana: 2 Cor 8:9 to 15 on the Third Sunday of the Great Fast; 2 Cor 13:5 to 10 on the Fourth Sunday of Resurrection; 2 Cor 4:7 to 18 on the Fifth Sunday of the Apostles; and 2 Cor 11:21b to 31 on a Friday of Denha kept for Sts Peter and Paul. Calendars vary by year.

Do not begin with the arguments. Begin with the man. Read 11:21 to 12:10 first, then go back to the start. The letter takes about an hour. Then read it slowly over nine days:

• Day 1: chapters 1 and 2. Notice how comfort comes in the middle of pain.
• Day 2: chapter 3. Read it with Exodus 34:29 to 35.
• Day 3: chapter 4. Which clay jar is yours?
• Day 4: chapter 5. Stop at "be reconciled to God". When did you last go to Confession?
• Day 5: chapters 6 and 7. Watch how a broken friendship is healed.
• Day 6: chapters 8 and 9. Think about your own giving.
• Day 7: chapters 10 and 11. Hear the pain under the irony.
• Day 8: chapter 12. Stay with verse 9.
• Day 9: chapter 13. Pray the last verse over the people you love.