The hypothesis upon which we have interpreted this Epistle is not precisely that which is most commonly received. According to the more common view, the offender is the incestuous person of 1 Cor. v, and the message which proved so sharp but wholesome a med- icine was simpl}' the First Epistle. But this view does not account so satisfactorily for the whole tone of the
Epistle, and for the particular expressions relating to the offender ; nor does it find places so consistently for the missions of Timothy and Titus. It does not seem likely that Paul would have treated the sin of the man who took his father's wife as an offence against himself, nor that he would have spoken of it by preference as a wrong (ddiKia} done to another (supposed to be the fa- ther). The view we have adopted is said, in De Wette's Exegetisches Handhuch, to have been held, in whole or in part, by Bleek, Credner, Olshausen, and Neander. More recently it has been advocated with great force by Ewald, in his Sendschreiben des A. P. p. 223-232. The ordinary account is retained by Stanley, Alford, and Davidson, and with some hesitation by Conybeare and Howson. See Corinthians, Second Epistle
TO.
The particular nature of this Epistle, as an appeal to facts in favor of his own apostolic authority, leads to the mention of many interesting features of Paul's life. His summary, in xi, 23-28, of the hardships and dan- gers through which he had gone, may probably be re- ferred, as above suggested, to the period of his first la- bors at Tarsus. Of the particular facts stated in the following words, "Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one ; thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep" — we know only of one, the beating bj^ the magistrates at Philippi, from the Acts. The daily burden of "the care of all the churches" seems to implj' a wide and constant range of communication, b}^ visits, messengers, and letters, of which we have found it reasonable to assume exam- ples in his intercourse with the Church of Corinth. The mention of" visions and revelations of the Lord," and of the "thorn (or rather stake) in the flesh," side by side, is peculiarly' characteristic both of the mind and of the experiences of Paul. As an instance of the visions, he alludes to a trance which had befallen him fourteen j'ears before, in which he had been cauglit up into paradise, and had heard unspeakable words. Whether this vision may be identified with anj' that is recorded in the Acts must depend on chronological con- siderations ; but the very expressions of Paul in this place would rather lead us not to think of an occasion in which words that could be reported were spoken. We observe that he speaks with the deepest reverence of the privilege thus granted to him ; but he distinctly declines to ground anj'thing upon it as regards other men. Let them judge him, he says, not by any such pretensions, but by facts which were cognizable to them (xii, 1-6). He would not, even inwardly with himself, glory in visions and revelations without re- membering how the Lord had guarded him from being puffed up by them. A stake in the flesh (cncoXoi// r^ aapKt) was given him, a messenger of Satan to buffet him, lest he should be exalted above measure. The different interpretations which have prevailed of this (TKoAo)// have a certain historical significance. (1) Ro- man Catholic divines have inclined to understand by it strong sensual temptation. (2) Luther and his fol- lowers take it to mean temptation to unbelief. But neither of these would be " intirmities" in which Paul could "glory." (3) It is almost the unanimous opin- ion of modern divines — and the authority of the ancient fathers on the whole is in favor of it — that the crKciXoi// represents some vexatious bodily infirmity (see espe- ciallj' Stanley, ad luc). It is plainly what Paul refers to in Gal. iv, 14: " M}' temptation in my flesh ye de- spised not nor rejected." Tliis infirmitv distressed him so much that he besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from him. But the Lord answered," IM}' grace is sufficient for thee; for my strength is made perfect in weakness." AV'e are to understand therefore the affliction as remaining ; but Paul is more than re- signed under it, he even glories in it as a means of dis- playing more purely the power of Christ in him. That we are to understand the apostle, in accordance with
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this passage, as laboring under some degree of ill-health, is clear enough. But we must remember that his con- stitution was at least strong enough, as a matter of fact, to carry him through the hardships and anxieties and toils which he himself describes to us, and to sus- tain the pressure of the imprisonment at Cajsarea and in Kome. See Tiiorx in the Flesh.
After writing this Epistle, Paul travelled througli Macedonia (.4.D. 54), perhaps to the borders of lllyr- icum (Rom. xv, 19), and then carried out the inten- tion of which he had spoken so often, and arrived himself at ■Corinth. The narrative in the Acts tells us that "when he had gone over those parts (Macedonia), and had given them much exhortation, he came into Greece, and there abode three months" (xx, 2, 3). A.D. 55. There is onl}' one incident which we can connect with this visit to Greece, but that is a very important one — the writing of another great Epistle, addressed to the Church at Kome. That this was writ- ten at this time from Corinth appears from passages in the Ejnstle itself, and has never been doubted.