Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 05.djvu/484

* CORINTHIANS. 414 COBINTHIANS. tlie doctrine of the resurrection (chap, xv.), and tlie collection for the saints in Jerusalem (chap, xvi. ) — possibly also the return of Apollos to woi-k among them (.vvi. 12). The second of the letters was written after Paul had left Epliesus, while he was on the journey from that city to Corinth, most likely in the spring or early summer of 55, from some of the Christian centres in Macedonia. It was occasioned by the report brought to the Apostle through Titus, to the efl'ect that the personal hostilitj' to the Apostle in the Church had given way to the spirit of general loyalty to his rule (chap. vii.). In this second letter there are passages which maice it impossible to avoid the im25ression that the Apostle made more visits to Corinth than are recorded in the Book of Acts, and that, in addition to the letter of prohibition referred to above, he wrote more letters to the Church than are distinctively pre- served in the New Testament. The jiassages re- ferring to the visit are the following: (ii. 1) "But I determined this for myself, that I would not come again to you with sorrow;" (xii. 21) '"Lest again when I come my God should humble me before you;" (xiii. 2, 3) "I have said be- forehand ... as when I was present the second time . . . that, if I come again, I will not spare." From these it is clear that the Apostle had made a visit to Corinth, which was of a sorrowful kind. This cannot possibly be the only previous visit of which we have record in the Acts — the visit in which he founded the Church; since, while at that time he was dis- couraged regarding his gospel work in Corinth, there had been no sorrow between him and his people, such as these passages necessarily imply. This inference is confirmed by the remaining passages: (xii. 14) "Behold, this is the third time I am ready to come to you;" (xiii, 1) "This is the third time I am coming to- you," from which it is clear that the visit which he was about to make was, to the Apostle, his third visit to this place. The passages referring to the letter are the following: (ii, 3. 4) "Out of nuich affliction and anguish of heart I wrote vmto you with many tears;" (vii. 8, 9-12) "For though I made you sorry with my Epistle, I do not regret it, . . . So although I wrote unto you, I wrote not for his cause that did the wrong, nor for his cause that suffered the wrong," etc., from which it is clear that the Apostle has in mind some other letter than that which we know as I. Corinthians; since, while I. Corinthians might be called a letter of censure, whose object was to shame its readers, it could not in any way be termed a letter of 'affliction' and 'anguish of heart' and 'many tears.' » ' The only reasonable explanation of these in- timations is to be found in the theoiy that, between the writing of the first and second canonical letters, Timothy, whom Paul had sent to Corinth at the time of the first letter, re- turned to Ephcsus with news of an urgent situ- ation in the Church — an outbreak evidently of personal hostility against the Apostle (see case of discipline referred to in ii. 5-11), in response to which Paul hurries across to Corinth by the direct sea route, but is unable to better the state of affairs (cf. xii. 21, as above, which is con- firmed by the estimate placed upon him by his opponents in x. 10: "His letters, they say, are > eighty and strong; but his bodily presence is weak, and his .sjjecch is of no account"), Ile- lurning to Epliesus, he writes to the Church in the fullness of his mortitication and grief a letter bearing upon his experience in this visit and upon the general situation in the Church, a letter which might easily have been one 'of many tears,' In such a ease, however, it is quite certain that we have a portion of this painful letter preserved in the last four chapters of our second Epistle (chaps, x.-xiii.). The evidence for this state- ment lies in the following facts: (1) Between chaps, i.-i.x. and chaps, x.-xiii. there is a marked and otherwi,se unaccountable difference in the feelings of the Apostle. The earlier chapters are full of cheer and satisfaction; the later of dis- satisfaction and distress. (2) Between these two groups of chapters there is, further, a marked and otherwise unintelligible difference in the condition of the Church's affairs. In the earliei" chapters the Church is manifestly loyal to the Apostle; in the later it is as manifestly disloyal, (3) Between these two groups of chapters there is a peculiar set of cross-refer- ences. It is found in the following passages: I. ( ii. 3 ) "ATid I icrote this very thing, lest when I came, I slioidd hare sorrow from them of whom I ought to rejoice" (xiii. 10) "For this cause I write these things while absent, that / niai/ not when present deal sharply," etc, II. (i, 23) "But I call God for a witness upon my soul, that to spare you / forhure to come to Corinth;" (xiii, 2) "I have said before- hand, and I do say beforehand. . . that, if / come again, I ivill not si>are." III. (ii. 9) "For to this end also did I irrite, that / nil(iht know the proof of you, whether ye .are obedient in all things;" (x, 6) " ■ being in readiness to avenge all disobedience, when your obedience shall he made full." From these passages it would appear ( 1 ) that the actions or states of feeling described in the later chapters as future are in the earlier chap- ters described as past; (2) that between the future references to these states and actions and the references to them that are past there had come over the situation to which they apply a change for the better. These two phenomena are rendered the more significant by the fact that the passages in the earlier chapters are all of them from a portion of the letter (i. 23- ii. 11) in which reference is made expressly to the painful letter (ii. 3, 4) and most probably to "the ex|)eriences of the sorrowful visit (ii. 5-11); while two of the three passages in the later chapters are from a portion of the letter (xiii, 1-10) in which reference is made specif- ically to a contemplated visit which has in it the possibilities of being one of unpleasantness be- tween the Apostle and his people. These internal evidences are confirmed by the fact that II. Corinthians does not seem to have been known as early in the post-Apostolic Church as I. Corinthians. This is especially evident from the fact that Clement of Rome, in writing to the Corinthian Church (a.d. 95), though there was in the situation of the Church that which would have made references on his part to II, Corinthians most apt and forceful, apparently confines all his references to the less applicable I, Corinthians. There seems to be no allusion to it before Polycarp's letter to the Philippian