Under these circumstances we fall back on the prima facie case, which is that the Second Epistle to the Corinthians is an ens integrum, and we proceed to bring forward some of the positive data which point to its unity.
8. First, attention should be directed to passages in chaps. x.- xiii. which point back to passages in chaps. i.-ix. (a) In xi. 15 St. Paul writes that the false apostles, whom he calls Satan’s διάκονοι, are trying to pass themselves off as διάκονοι δικαιοσύνης, 7.6., as ἀπόστολοι Χριστοῦ (ver. 13). Now there is nothing in the context to suggest such a phrase as διάκονοι δικαιοσύνης, and it does not, as a matter of fact, occur in any other of St. Paul’s letters or in the N.T. outside this Epistle or in the LXX. The one passage which explains it is iii. 7-11, where the Ministry of the Old Covenant is declared to be less glorious than that of the New, and where 4 διακονία τῆς δικαιοσύνης is set over against ἡ διακονία τῆς κατακρίσεως. Unless the readers of xi. 15 were aware that St. Paul used the phrase “the ministry of Righteousness ” as descriptive of the ministry of the Gospel, the title διάκονοι δικαιοσύνης would have had no special mean- ing for them. Thus we conclude that the discussion of iii. 7-11 is presupposed by the use of the title in xi. 15. (Ὁ) The charge which his opponents brought against St. Paul at Corinth is thus described by him in xii. 16, ὑπάρχων πανοῦργος δόλῳ ὑμᾶς ἔλαβον. They had called him a πανοῦργος, “ἃ crafty man,” and suggested that his dealings in the matter of money were full of guile (δόλος). At iv. 2 he refers to the same charge, μὴ περιπατοῦντες ἐν πανουργίᾳ μηδὲ δολοῦντες τὸν λόγον τοῦ Θεοῦ. The meaning of the latter clause, “handling deceitfully the word of God,” is fixed by the parallel in ii. 17, καπηλεύοντες τὸν λόγον τοῦ Θεοῦ, which shows that the δόλος repudiated by him was crooked dealing in regard to money, “‘ making a traffic” of the Gospel. (ο) The passages just cited from the earlier part of the letter have other echoes in the later part. In ii. 17 those who make merchandise of the word of God at Corinth are ot πολλοὶ, and he speaks of his opponents again as πολλοί in xi. 18. His declaration in ii. 17 is that he preaches ἐξ εἰλικρινείας (cf. i. 12), and in iv. 2 that it is τῇ φανερώσει τῆς ἀληθείας ; so in xi. 6 he says of himself, ἐν παντὶ φανερώσαντες ἐν πᾶσιν eis ὑμᾶς. And, lastly, the asseveration of his sincerity in ti. 17, κατέναντι Θεοῦ ἐν Χριστῷ λαλοῦμεν, is repeated in xii. 19, the only other place where it occurs in his Epistles. (d) In x. 5 he speaks of bringing every thought into captivity, εἰς τὴν ὑπακοὴν τοῦ Χριστοῦ, and of his readiness to avenge all disobedience, ὅταν πληρωθῇ ὑμῶν ἡ ὑπακοή. Seven verses before, in ix. 13, he had written of the ὑποταγὴ τῆς ὁμολογίας ὑμῶν εἰς τὸ