2 Corinthians 13:2

I have said beforehand, and I do say beforehand, as when I was present the second time, so now, being absent, to them that have sinned heretofore, and to all the rest, that, if I come again, I will not spare.

The English Revised Version (1885) version in this place is inferior to the RSV, which gives the proper sense and should be read instead of this, the same being one of the exceptions to the general superiority of the English Revised Version. The labored and unnatural rendition in the E.R.V. was contrived as a conformity to the generally held opinions of scholars (until recent times) that there was no "second visit." The literal translation from the Greek makes it certain that there was a second visit.

The RSV rendition of 2 Corinthians 13:2 is as follows:

I warned those who sinned before and all the others, and I warn them now while absent, as I did when present on my second visit, and that if I come again I will not spare them.

This significant rendition makes it absolutely clear that Paul was just as much in charge of that "painful visit" as he proposed to be in charge of the proposed third visit, having given all of those sinners there a firm and vigorous warning.

If I come again ... does not imply any doubt as to Paul's return. As Clines said, "`If I come again' is not hypothetical but = `when I come again.'"[6] This idiom was used by Christ himself in John 14:3, where "if I go" means "when I go."

Regarding the long-established interpretation of the three visits spoken of here, Schoettgen and Clarke insisted that the three visits were: (1) Paul's establishing the Corinthian church; (2) the first epistle to the Corinthians; and (3) the present epistle, understood in the epistolary sense as already sent, and yet also identified as a visit Paul yet intended to make.[7] In close connection with that interpretation, Farrar and others understood the "three witnesses" of (1) to be the two canonical Corinthians plus the apostle himself.[8] As McGarvey said, "Such interpretations are fanciful."[9] Nevertheless, it was for the purpose of accommodating some of these fanciful views that the English Revised Version thus rendered the passage.

I will not spare ... This shows that "The apostolic churches were not independent democratic communities, vested with supreme authority over their own members. Paul could cast out of them whom he would."[10] Of course, apostolic authority was eventually succeeded by a government of independent congregations by scripturally appointed and qualified elders functioning under the authority of the Scriptures.

[6] David J. A. Clines, op. cit., p. 441.

[7] Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Holy Bible (New York: Carlton and Porter, 1829), Vol. VI, p. 372.

[8] F. W. Farrar, The Pulpit Commentary (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1950), Vol. 19,2Cor., p. 313.

[9] J. W. McGarvey, Second Epistle to the Corinthians (Cincinnati, Ohio: Standard Publishing Company, 1916), p. 240.

[10] Hodge as quoted by R. V. G. Tasker, The Second Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1958), p. 187.