2 Corinthians 10

PART THIRD.

THE MEASUREMENT OF ST. PAUL WITH HIS OPPOSERS IN CORINTH, 2 Corinthians 10:1 to 2 Corinthians 13:10.

This THIRD PART commences in a strain so new and strangely different from the immediately preceding style that some critics have conjectured that it is a separate epistle. Others suggest that the opening words indicate that whereas the previous part of the epistle was written by an amanuensis, now commences St. Paul’s own hand. And others think, finally, that it is an afterthought, subsequent to an interval in which new information arrived about his enemies in Corinth having produced an adverse revolution of feeling. But these speculations are each alike gratuitous. The real truth is, that the previous part of the epistle, however affectionate its tone, and however it seems to include the whole Church in its expressions of affection, does keep an eye upon the small adverse party in the background. On the contrary, in this Part Third Paul brings that party into the foreground; and while often severely dealing with the party as distinct from the loyal Church, does as often speak without so discriminating; and at other times, again, he speaks of the whole with the same affection as pervades the former part of the epistle. The solution of the whole difficulty is, that he intended that each man should appropriate what truly belonged to him.

The whole section has, amid much of subordinate meandering, a marked unity, and rises in a constant climax; the climax culminating in the menace of 2 Corinthians 13:1-10. After a series of preliminary allusions and replies, the apostle mounts into a high strain of defiant comparison; on which see our Introductory Note to 2 Corinthians 11:22.