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:
All Commentaries on 2 Corinthians 1:1 Go To 2 Corinthians 1
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
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 forced to leave Ephesus, where he wrote his First Epistle, after the uproar raised by Demetrius, left Timothy as Bishop of Ephesus, and came to Troas; then, not finding Titus there, he proceeded into Macedonia, and from thence into Greece; thence he sailed by the gean Sea and touched at Crete, where he left Titus. At length he came to Greece again, to Nicopolis, where he had determined to winter (Tit. iii12). Cf. Baronius, vol. i. p575. It is likely that he wrote this Epistle there in quietness, but the point cannot be decided certainly; for S. Paul, while travelling up and down through Asia, might have gone to and returned from Philippi, and might have stayed there long enough to write it. S. Luke , as is well known, does not record all the stoppages or all the journeyings of the Apostle. Cf. Acts xx.
SYNOPSIS OF THE CHAPTER
i. Paul shows, in order that he might console others, from what great tribulations in Asia the Lord had delivered him.
ii. He commends himself to the Corinthians (ver12), by a declaration of the sincerity of his heart and of his doctrine.
iii. He clears himself (ver17) from the charge of lightness and inconstancy induced by his not coming to them as he had promised, and at the same time affirms the sure and constant truth of his preaching.
