CORINTHIANS, Second Epistle to the. 1. We have seen above that, when writing his first epistle to the Corinthians, Paul expected shortly to visit them, and had indeed formed a detailed plan of the journey. But we may safely infer from 2 Cor. i, 16, 16, 23, that Paul had not been at Corinth between the writing of the first and second epistles, so that we must place his second epistle very soon after the writing of the first epistle, probably on his arrival at Philippi. The place whence it was written was clearly not Ephesus (see chap, i, 8), but Macedonia (chap, vii, 5 ; viii, 1 ; ix, 2), whither the apostle went by way of Troas (chap, ii, 12), after waiting a short time in the latter place for the return of Titus (chap, ii, 18). The Vatican MS., the bulk of later MSS., and the old Syr. version, positive- ly assume Philippi as the exact place whence it was written ; that the bearers were Titus and his associ-
ates (Luke ?) is apparently substantiated by ehi^ t£. 23;ix,8,5.
The following coincidences will serve to rrtaMiiii this date : chap, i, 1, Timothy (who bad now reioiiied Paul by way of Corinth, 1 Cor. xvi, 10, 11) was xb Paul's company (Acts xx, 4) ; chap, i, 8, Paul had hrte- ly escaped death at Ephesus (Acts xix, 30); ckap. i, 15, 16, he had originally intended to go thrDogti Cte- inth to Macedonia, and return through Corinth to Jo- d»a, but, upon receipt of the information which caBed forth his first epistle, he had so far alta«d bis plan (chap, i, 17 ; 1 Cor. iv, 18, 19) as to determine to ftr^e the first of these visits to Corinth, and to make the second a longer one (1 Cor. xvi, 7), and he was ulti- mately compelled to pass throu^ Macedonia to Cor- inth, and return through Macedonia to Jenualea (Acts XX, 1-3) ; chap, ii, 12, 13, on his way to Macedo- nia, since writing the first epistle, he had (oocbed ai Troas (as usual, Acts xvi, 11 ; xx, 6), but did not stiy, on account of Titus's absence, who afterwards met li^ in Macedonia, with intelligence of the good effects ef his former letter (chap, vi, 5-15) ; chap, viii, 1 ; ix, 2, 4, he was now in Macedonia (Acts xx, 2) ; cb^ via, 6, 16-18, 22, 23, this letter was sent by "HtDs (oompaze mbscription) (Acts xx, 4) ; chap, viii, 10 ; ix, 2, Pad was collecting ftinds for the church at Jerusalem (Acts XX, 16), and had heard of the Corinthians* rendineas to contribute a year since, probably by ApoUoa, who had now returned to Ephesus (Acts xix, 1, compared with 1 Cor. xvi, 12). Finally, the mbtcr^ptUm exactly td- lies with these particulars ; comp. chap, viii, 13, 22. (See Conybeare and Howson's Lyt cmd EpMt$ ofSL PattZ,ii,97.)
2. From 2 Cor. ii, 1 ; xii, 14 ; xiii, 1, 2, many have inferred that before writing this epistle Paul had teia visited Corinth, and that one of these viaits had been after the church there had fallen into an evil state; and the second of these visits has been most pUoably assigned to the apostle's three years' stay at Epbeas. So Chrysostom and his followers, CBcumenius and Tfae- ophylact, and in recent times, MoUer (De trUms PtmH iiin, Basil, 1831), Anger (Rai, TVay. p. 70, sq.XWIeae- ler (Chronol. p. 239), and the majority of modem crit- ics. Olshausen adopts a still more complicated theoiy (CommenL iv, 124 sq., Am. ed.). We have seen abore that this visit did not take place between the two epis- tles, and as it cannot be assigned to the sobseqaent residence in Greece (Acts xx, 2, 3), those who think it occurred are obliged to suppose one not mentioned in the Acts. (See this position maintained by Alford, Comment, inN.T,y ii, proleg. 49 sq.) This expedient of interpolating an event in a continuous histocy is al- ways a doubtf^ one, and in this case seems excluded by the positive terms in which Paul's residenoe and labors are confined, during the whole time in questioa, to Ephesus (see Acts xix, 10, 22, compared with xx, 31). Nor is this hypothesis necessary ; the paasages that seem to imply an intended third visit, when care- fuUy examined, merely speak of a third istteniiom (rpt- Tov holfiotc (X^ iX^cZv, chap, xii, 14, and rpcrov Ifix^ fuUf chap, xiii, 1, do nai state two actual prior vists, at contended by Alford, CommerU, in loc ; see Home's h^ trod,, new ed., iv, 529) to visit tiiem, only one of whk^ had heretofore been successful (Acts xviii, 1 ; compu 2 Cor. i, 15) ; and, in like manner, the "second, condag to them in heaviness" and * 'humbling," instead of dep- recating a second such scene, simply intimates the poe- sibility of such a scene on bis second coming. (See Davidson's Introd. to N, T. ii, 213 sq.) This qoee- tion, however, does not affbct the dates assigned each epistle above, except so for as the supposed middle -visit may be taken as the occasion of one or both of them — a position which we have shown to be whoDy gratuitous and untenable. See Paul.
3. **0n arriving at Troas, Paul expected to meet Titus with intelligence fh)m Corinth of the state of things in that church. According to the common opin-