Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, unto the church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints who are in all Achaia:
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Ambrosiaster
AD 400
Freed from all anxiety about the Corinthians, Paul confidently declares that he is an apostle of the Lord. In the first letter he said that he was “called an apostle,” though he was not approved of by those who had been lured away from his teaching. In order to affirm that his apostleship has been ratified, he adds that he has been made an apostle by the will of God. He writes in association with Timothy, from whom he has heard the good news of the changes which have taken place at Corinth, and he associates the people there with believers in other churches, in order to confirm to them that they have made progress. Commentary on Paul’s Epistles.
CONTENTS
He consoles the Corinthians, whom in the First Epistle he had sharply rebuked, and absolves the excommunicated fornicator, who was now penitent. He then proceeds to treat of true repentence, of the dignity of the ministers of the New Testament, of the duty of avoiding the company of unbelievers, of patience, of almsgiving for the poor saints at Jerusalem, of the duty of rejecting the false Apostles who set themselves up as rivals to S. Paul among the Corinthians, and depreciated him, and rendered it necessary for him to sing his own praises in self-defence. Then he threatens some of the Corinthians who still refused to submit to his apostolic authority. The whole Epistle may be said to be a defence and laudation of his apostleship. The Greek MSS, the Syriac, and the Latin Complutensian have a note at the end that it was written at Philippi in Macedonia, and sent by Titus and Luke. Baronius, however, thinks that it was written at Nicopolis, A.D58 , when the Apostle, after being...
Paul does not always mention other people besides himself in his salutations. I think that he does this when one of his associates is wellknown to the intended recipients. “With all the saints” is ambiguous. Either it means all the saints who were with Paul, or else it means all the saints who were at Corinth. .
St. Timothy, it appears, had been sent to Corinth to confirm the faithful in the doctrine which they had received from St. Paul. After he had fulfilled this commission, he returned to St. Paul, and gave him an account how they had behaved, and what good effects his first letter had produced. He styles him brother, to conciliate to him the esteem and respect of the Corinthians. This epistle is not merely addressed to the Corinthians, but to all Achaia, of which Corinth was the capital. (Estius)
Others think that Timothy had left Corinth before St. Paul's first epistle had arrived thither; and that this determined St. Paul to send Titus with another disciple thither. See 2 Corinthians xii. 18. From him St. Paul had the consolation to learn the happy effects produced by his first letter. See 2 Corinthians vi. 7. 11.
Why does Paul address the Christians of the entire province, and not merely those of the city? The reason, I think, is that they were all involved in a single, common problem and were therefore all in need of the same remedy.
Once more, Paul calls the Corinthians a church, in order to bind them together, and “saints,” implying that if anyone is impure he is not included in this greeting.
In his first epistle, Paul said that he would send Timothy with the letter, but now he associates Timothy with him. Why is this? Evidently Timothy had already accomplished his mission and returned to be with Paul. Having been for some time in Asia, they had crossed into Macedonia, from which he wrote this letter. By associating Timothy with himself, Paul increased respect for him and displayed his own great humility, since Timothy was far less well known than Paul. But love brings all things together.
It is meet to enquire, first, why to the former Epistle he adds a second: and what can be his reason for thus beginning with the mercies and consolation of God.
Why then does he add a second Epistle? Whereas in the first he had said, I will come to you, and will know not the word of them which are puffed up, but the power; 1 Corinthians 4:19 and again towards the end had promised the same in milder terms, thus, I will come unto you when I shall have passed through Macedonia; for I do pass through Macedonia; and it may be that I shall abide, or even winter with you; 1 Corinthians 16:5-6 yet now after along interval, he came not; but was still lingering and delaying even though the time appointed had passed away; the Spirit detaining him in other matters of far greater necessity than these. For this reason he had need to write a second Epistle, which he had not needed had he but a little out-tarried his time.
