This is the third time I am coming to you. In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.
All Commentaries on 2 Corinthians 13:1 Go To 2 Corinthians 13
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
This is the third time I am coming to you. Or the third that I have purposed to come; and when I come it will be to punish those who are convicted, on the testimony of two or three witnesses, of having sinned, and of not having done penance.
In the mouth of two or three witnesses. Every accusation, every cause shall be settled on the deposition of two or three witnesses, so that the guilt that I shall punish may be sufficiently established. Others explain this to mean that the two or three witnesses are his three visits to Corinth, and they point to the reference to his three visits which immediately precedes this clause. I am one, he would then say; but coming to you a third time (xii14 , note), I shall have the authority of two or three witnesses (Maldonatus, Not, mss.). But this interpretation is too jejune. The lofty mind of the Apostle has in view something wider and higher than this; moreover, it seems foreign to his drift. He is quoting Deut. xix15 , the plain meaning of which, as applied here, is that when he comes to Judges , each accused person shall he condemned or acquitted on the evidence of two or three witnesses.
Although this law, in so far as it is part of the judicial law of the Old Testament, has been abrogated by Christ, yet in so far as it is part of the law of nature, it is still in force, and has been admitted by both Civil and Canon Law; for common-sense has taught all nations that it is only fair and fitting that no one should be condemned but on the testimony of two or three witnesses at least. One witness may easily be suborned or be deceived, but not so well two. S. Paul then accepts and follows this law in its literal meaning, as does Christ in S. Matthew 18:16.
