The Revelation Is High, but the Thorn Remains

“Expedient” is sympherei, it is profitable, the word of 1 Corinthians 6:12 and 12:7. “Visions and revelations” were probably part of the rivals’ own credentials, which is why Paul feels pushed to answer in kind. “Of the Lord” can mean given by the Lord or about him.

Speaking of oneself as “a man” was a Jewish form of modesty; rabbis could say “that man” of themselves. Fourteen years before a letter of about AD 55 puts the vision around 41 or 42, in the quiet years Paul spent in Syria and Cilicia (Galatians 1:21). “Caught up” is harpazo, the verb of 1 Thessalonians 4:17, to snatch away.

The parenthesis of verse 2 comes again almost word for word. Some read verses 2 and 4 as two stages of one ascent, first the third heaven and then paradise; most take them as one experience told twice, the second time with the destination named.

“Paradise” is a Persian loanword for a walled garden or royal park, used in the Greek Old Testament for Eden and by Jesus of the place promised to the thief (Luke 23:43). “Unspeakable words” is arreta rhemata, a phrase used in the Greek mystery cults for sacred things initiates must never reveal.

The gap between “such an one” and “myself” lets Paul boast of the vision without boasting of himself: the man caught up is spoken of as though he were someone else. The weakness word of 11:30 returns at once.

“I will say the truth” means the boast would not be false even if it were foolish. “Forbear” is pheidomai, to spare, the verb of 1:23, “to spare you”: this time Paul spares them the telling. He wants to be judged by what is seen and heard of him, not by reports of visions.

“Thorn” is skolops, a stake or splinter, used of the sharpened stakes of a palisade as well as of thorns. “Buffet” is kolaphizo, to strike with the fist, the verb for the beating of Jesus in Mark 14:65. The Greek frames the verse with the same clause at the start and end, “lest I should be exalted above measure”.

“Thrice” recalls Jesus praying three times in Gethsemane that the cup might pass (Mark 14:35–41). “Besought” is parakaleo, the comfort word of chapter 1, here used of urgent pleading. “Depart” is aphistemi, to stand off, withdraw.

“He said” is a Greek perfect, eireken, an answer given once that still stands. “Rest upon” is episkenoo, to pitch a tent over, a word that recalls the glory filling the tabernacle and the Word who “dwelt”, eskenosen, among us (John 1:14).

“Take pleasure” is eudokeo, to be well pleased, the verb God speaks over Jesus at his baptism, “in whom I am well pleased” (Mark 1:11). The five nouns revisit the catalogues of 6:4 and 11:23–29. The closing paradox is eight words in Greek, hotan gar astheno, tote dynatos eimi.

“Ye have compelled me” lays the whole fool’s speech at the Corinthians’ door. “Commended” is synistemi, the recommending word of 3:1: they should have written his references themselves. “Though I be nothing” echoes 1 Corinthians 15:9–10, least of the apostles and yet what he is by grace.

“The signs of an apostle” sounds like a phrase from the rivals’ checklist. “Were wrought” is passive, so Paul does not say he did them: God did. Signs, wonders and mighty deeds are the same trio as Romans 15:19 and Hebrews 2:4.

“Inferior” is hessoomai, to be worsted, to come off second best. “Forgive me this wrong” is pure irony, using charizomai, the grace verb of 2:7 and 2:10, where Paul had asked them to forgive a man who really had wronged them.

“The third time” implies two earlier visits: the founding visit of Acts 18 and the painful one of 2:1. Greek and Roman law assumed fathers laid up inheritances for their heirs and not the reverse, so Paul’s maxim needed no argument.

“Spend and be spent” is dapanao and ekdapanao, to spend and to be spent out completely, a rising pair found together only here. The simple verb describes the woman who “had spent all that she had” on physicians in Mark 5:26.

“Be it so” concedes the point about direct support and turns to the insinuation that remained: that Paul took money by a back door, through the collection. “Crafty” is panourgos, the adjective of the serpent’s panourgia in 11:3; the smear cast Paul as the serpent.

“Make a gain” is pleonekteo, to take advantage, the verb of 2:11 and 7:2, “we have defrauded no man”. The Greek question expects the answer no, and “them whom I sent” covers every envoy Paul had ever sent to Corinth.

Which visit this is depends on how the letter was put together: if chapters 10 to 13 were written later, it is the mission of 8:16–22; if not, an earlier one. “Steps” is ichnos, footprints, the word of Romans 4:12, walking in the steps of Abraham’s faith.

“Think ye that we excuse ourselves” can also be read as a statement: “You have been thinking all along that we are defending ourselves.” “Excuse” is apologeomai, to make a defence in court, and Paul refuses to treat the Corinthians as the bench.

Eight vices, nearly all of them sins of speech and faction rather than of the body. “Whisperings” is psithyrismos, secret slander, a word that sounds like what it names; “swellings” is physiosis, being puffed up, the noun of the verb 1 Corinthians used six times. “Tumults” is the akatastasia of 1 Corinthians 14:33.

“Humble” is tapeinoo, to bring low, the word his critics used of his presence in 10:1. “Bewail” is pentheo, to mourn as for the dead, the verb of 1 Corinthians 5:2. “Have sinned already” is a Greek perfect: old sins, never repented, still standing.