Translation & Sermon by
Nate Wilson for Christ The Redeemer Church, Manhattan, KS, 3 Aug.
2025
Underlined words in Scripture quotes indicate words that
are in common with the Greek text of 2 Cor. 1:7-11. Otherwise,
underlining indicates words to emphasize when reading this transcript
out loud.
So far in 2 Corinthians, Paul and Timothy have greeted the church in Corinth and begun praising God for being the father of mercies and the God of all comfort, recognizing that God will always provide comfort in accordance with the suffering which we endure for His sake, and recognizing that the stresses He puts us through are designed to give us the power to pass on to others the comfort which He provides to us. In verses 8-11 we will see that God not only comforts us in stress for us to help others but also to enhance our own relationship with God.
Read my translation of the passage, starting at
v.7:
So our hope concerning y’all is confirmed,
knowing that, even as y’all are partners of the sufferings, thus
y’all also are of the comfort. Now, we don’t want y’all to be
ignorant, brothers, concerning our distress which happened to us in
Asia: that we were weighed down to the extreme – beyond ability –
such that we despaired even of life. However, as for us we have had
the death-sentence in ourselves in order that we might not rely upon
ourselves, but rather upon God: the One who raises the dead, the One
who rescued us out of so distressing a death-threat (He also does
come to the rescue), into whom we have set hope that He will yet
come to the rescue. Y’all are also collaborating together on
behalf of us by means of prayer, in order that this gift from many
persons to us might be given-thanks-for by many on account of us.
“Asia” at that time was the name of the region we call Asia Minor, which is today the country of Turkey.
Why would Paul want the Corinthians to know that he had had a stressful experience there?
One reason might be to model to them how to live the Christian life, knowing that stress would come their way too, so Paul and Timothy are providing an example of relying on the Lord’s strength to endure difficult trials.
“He makes mention of the greatness and difficulty of his conflicts, that the glory of victory may thereby the more abundantly appear.” ~J. Calvin, 1546 AD
“He... tells them of his persuasion or stedfast hope that they should receive benefit by the troubles he and his companions... had met with.” ~M. Henry, 1714 AD
“Paul’s concern was not to provide a circumstantial account of the danger, but to magnify God’s grace in his deliverance from it.” ~G. Wilson, 1979 AD
Another reason probably has to do with the false apostles who had followed up on Paul’s ministry in Corinth by criticizing Paul and telling the Corinthians to follow them instead. A lot of 2 Corinthians is Paul writing rebuttals to the false accusations of those folks.
One of those false critiques was that Paul was just another religious hack; that he didn’t care anything about the Corinthians, only about their money, and that he didn’t really believe in all that stuff about Jesus.
Paul’s rebuttal to that slander is that he believed so strongly in Jesus (and cared so much for the churches) that he was willing to suffer persecution for preaching about Jesus. In fact, he had suffered severe persecution for Jesus and the church.
This proved he was not a hypocrite or a fake. It proved he really did love the church and really was worth listening to. Early church father John Chrysostom in his homily on this passage called it “a very high proof of love.”
So, what exactly was the “distress/trouble/affliction/hardship which came/happened to us in Asia”? We aren’t told for sure in the Bible, but we can make some inferences:
Ephesus was the main base of Paul’s ministry in Asia,
and Paul had already mentioned in 1 Corinthians 16:8-9 that he wanted to plant a church in Ephesus after he was done in Corinth, but that a church-planting venture in Ephesus would be hard: “For a great door and effectual is opened to me at Ephesus, and there are many adversaries.” (He called those “adversaries” in Ephesus “wild beasts” in 1 Cor. 15:32 – and also in Titus 1:12).
Acts 19:23ff describes a situation that Paul encountered in Ephesus where the idol-makers whipped the whole town of Ephesus into an uproar and got everybody chanting, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” for hours on end in the coliseum. When mobs are whipped into a frenzy like that, there’s no telling what kind of crazy violence they will commit.
In Romans 16:3-4, Paul mentions that “Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus... risked their own necks for my life…” So maybe it had something to do with that.
There are also other places in his letters to the Corinthians where Paul mentioned the threat of death:
1 Corinthians 15:31 “...I die daily”
2 Corinthians 11:23-26 “...in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often…” (NKJV)
In all these cases, Paul is speaking of his brushes with death in the many dangers that he faced as an apostle of Jesus Christ, such as
the time when the Jews were almost successful at killing him by stoning in Lystra (Acts 14),
or when a crowd almost tore him limb from limb at the temple in Jerusalem (Acts 21),
or when he almost drowned in a storm at sea (Acts 27).
Obviously these perils up to this point hadn’t actually killed him, since Paul was still alive and writing epistles, but the reason he was still alive was that God had preserved his life, not that the threats weren’t real.1
The stress of so many traumatic experiences was so hard on Paul that he confesses in 2 Corinthians 1:8 that it was more than he could handle, and at times he felt like giving up and dying.
If the Apostle Paul had moments when he gave in to despair – if the Apostle Paul struggled with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, then there should be no shame if you struggle with these things too. It’s okay to be honest and tell God or a brother or sister at church that you feel like what you are having to bear-up under is too hard.
But here’s the thing: it is at such points in life where you are forced to make a choice:
will I trust God and persevere in faith that “He will not tempt me beyond what I am able but make for me a way out that I may be able to bear up under it” (1 Cor. 10:13),
or will I rebel against God and say, “You failed me! You are not trustworthy. I hate You, and from here on out I will trust nobody but myself.”
It takes super-human faith to trust God in those times when you can’t see that He is doing you any good. But here in 2 Corinthians, Paul and Timothy model for us an even more amazing faith in God by, not merely trusting that God will “pull them through,” but by saying, in effect, “Everybody, look at us! We will show you the way forward. We haven’t seen the end-result yet of God’s deliverance, but we are so sure of it that we are going to hold ourselves up as examples of ministers of God and of what God will do.”
2 Corinthians 6:4 “But in all things we commend ourselves as ministers of God: in much patience, in tribulations, in needs, in distresses...” (NKJV)
2 Corinthians 4:8 “We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair...” (NKJV)
There are people who are watching you to see whether you really trust God or not when the rubber meets the road. Will you show them the way forward with faith in Jesus?
Hardships are not a function of random chance. They are part of the way God works with people in this world.
Also, crises do not happen to you because God hates you but because God loves you, and, as Hebrews 12 tells us, “He disciplines every child that He loves,” like any good father would do.
In 2 Corinthians 1:9, we read of a “sentence of death” – a “death-sentence” – which Paul and Timothy “have had in [them]selves.” Although there did seem to be a death warrant out on Paul (issued by the Jewish civil authorities in Jerusalem), I don’t think that is what Paul is talking about here, because he says that this death-sentence is “within ourselves” – it is something Paul and Timothy “feel” in their “hearts” (as the more paraphrastic English versions put it).
And, since the verb (“we have had”) is in the perfect tense in Greek, it speaks of an experience of death-sentencing which continues to affect the apostles’ thinking. One way it has affected their thinking is revealed in v.10 with another verb in the Greek perfect tense: “we have set our hope [in God to deliver us].” This stress steeled their resolve to keep trusting God to save.
This internal “death-sentence,” which results in trusting God instead of self, fits with what Jesus and Paul taught about “taking up your cross,” “losing your life,” “dying with Christ” “to sin,” and “no longer living for self,” but finding resurrection “life in Christ:”
Matthew 10:38-39 “...he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.” (NKJV)
Luke 9:23-24 “...If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.” (NKJV)
Romans 6:2-10 “...How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? ...For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him... For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.” (NKJV, cf. 7:6, Gal 2:19, 2Co. 5:14-15, 2Ti. 2:8-12)
Colossians 3:3 “For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” (NKJV)
A couple of 19th century English versions translate the word for “sentence” as “answer,” leading 19th century Bible commentator Talbot Chambers to write, “Again and again he [the Apostle] was compelled to ask the question, ‘what would be the end of the perils by which he was surrounded,’ but the answer invariably was ‘Death.’ This being the case he was permanently driven out of any self-trust, and compelled to rely upon God ‘who raiseth the dead,’ and who therefore could easily deliver his servants even when at the point to die. It is true that there is no such thing as implicit confidence in God until men renounce all confidence in themselves.”
So this is the death of the self – of the sin nature, not the death of your body and soul. It is not an escape from life in this world but rather a drawing of life from Jesus in which to live.
But it involves doing God’s will rather than what you want, and that means doing things that He commands you to do even when your flesh thinks it is uncomfortable, doing what God says even when your natural mind thinks it’s risky, and following Jesus even when it means other people will make fun of you for it.
For Paul and Timothy, it meant walking into Jewish synagogues and trying to talk Jews into becoming Christians, working all day in a leather-shop and then working all night to teach the Bible to foreigners, and it meant perilous sea-voyages in order to preach the gospel to the unreached.
For you it might look like giving up the dream of an academic degree or the dream of a successful blog or podcast in order to do the less-glamorous work of discipling children or others in the church, or it might mean letting go of a certain leisure activity or a certain luxury which has been siphoning away your time and money from something you know God wants you to do.
When you accept this kind of death to self, you change orientation from self to God, and God becomes the center and controller of your life.
2 Corinthians 10:12 “...they, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.” (NKJV)
Jeremiah 17:5 “...Cursed is the man who trusts in man And makes flesh his strength, Whose heart departs from the LORD.” (NKJV, cf. parable of the 2 men in the temple)
Proverbs 28:26 “He who trusts in his own heart is a fool, But whoever walks wisely will be delivered.” (NKJV)
John Calvin also noted that this “sentence of death” “was the remedy that God seasonably interposed” to guard Paul against “misdirected confidence and rashness.” Death to sin protects us from temptation to sin! “For as the flesh is proud, it does not willingly give way, and never ceases to be insolent until it has been constrained; nor are we brought to true submission, until we have been brought down by the mighty hand of God... the saints themselves have some remains of this disease adhering to them, and that for this reason they are often reduced to an extremity, that, stript of all self-confidence, they may learn humility: nay more, that this malady is so deeply rooted in the minds of men, that even the most advanced are not thoroughly purged from it, until God sets death before their eyes. And hence we may infer, how displeasing to God confidence in ourselves must be, when for the purpose of correcting it, it is necessary that we should be condemned to death.”
And when you accept the value of God’s eternal life over the value of your earthly life, you are able to lose your fear of physical death and trust more in God.
That’s how Job was able to say of God in Job 13:15 “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him...” (NKJV)
That’s how Abraham was able to obey God in offering up his only son. “...he believed God, who gives life to the dead...” (NKJV, Romans 4:17),
And that’s why Paul and Timothy were not afraid of the tumultuous times in which they lived, writing in 2 Corinthians 4:14 “...He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus, and will present us with you.” (NKJV)
At the end of verse 9 and throughout verse 10, Paul and Timothy use three relative clauses to describe the power and trustworthiness of God:
at the end of verse 9, God is described as “He who raises the dead,”
then at the beginning of v.10, He is further described as “He who delivers us from… death,”
and, at the end of verse 10, He is described as “He in whom we have set hope that He will yet deliver us.”
Taken together, these three statements are a powerful encouragement for us to trust God because of His power, His effectiveness, and His trustworthiness.
We’ve briefly looked at His power to raise the dead in v.9. What about His effectiveness?
The “great death” or “deadly peril” in verse 10 is generally considered to be the same crisis which verse 8 says the apostles had faced in Asia, and whatever it was, God had rescued them from it.
In the case of the raging mob of Artemis-worshippers in Ephesus, God had caused powerful political leaders (called Asiarchs) to become “friends” of Paul, and they protected him. Furthermore, God “confused” the crowd so that they couldn’t find Paul, and God also put a very wise “town-clerk” in office to talk the mob down and send them home peacefully before anybody got hurt. And so God delivered Paul from death.
In the case of the psychological “stress” and “dismay” mentioned in verse 8, God clearly delivered Paul from that too. The words of 2 Corinthians chapter 1 are not gloomy words of despair but confident words of hope! God delivered Paul from despair!
Or maybe it was some other dramatic deliverance about which we have less information: Paul does mention in 1 Corinthians 15:32 that he faced off against “wild beasts” at some point in Ephesus. We don’t know anything more about that, but obviously God delivered him, because Paul survived to write about it, even if we might wish he had written down more of that story!
God’s deliverances in the past should be remembered in order to keep us trusting in Him for the future. Paul and Timothy aren’t the only ones to model this2; David modeled it in the Psalms (like Psalm 18) and in the history books, like 1 Samuel 17:37 “...Yahweh, who rescued3 me from the control of the lion and from the control of the bear, He Himself will rescue me from the control of this Philistine...” (NAW)
Paul and Timothy encourage us that, since it is God’s character to come to the rescue of His people, we can depend on God to protect us in the future.
By the way, if your Bible uses the word “deliver,” it should be understood as a synonym for “rescue” (like a knight in shining armor), not as a synonym for what the United Parcel Service does with their delivery trucks.
Also, the Geneva and King James English versions read that God “delivers” in the present tense, whereas all the English Bibles translated since the 1800’s (after the Vaticanus manuscript was discovered) read that God “will deliver” in the future tense, but this variant makes little practical difference, because all the Greek manuscripts agree on the expectation of God’s deliverance in the future based on God’s deliverance in the past.
Do you struggle with the fear that God will disappoint you? Are you not sure if the crisis you are facing can be overcome? Go back and review how God rescued the children of Israel, how God rescued David, how God rescued Paul, what God has done in the history of your nation and your family and how God has preserved you, then keep drawing the line on into the future and remind yourself that God will keep you safe and ensure your ultimate salvation.
“[T]he Lord, by accomplishing in part what he has promised, bids us hope well as to what remains.” ~J. Calvin, 1546 AD
In verse 11, we are introduced to the surprising fact that other Christians helped God rescue Paul and Timothy! How can that be?
Paul says in verse 11 that through their prayers, the Christians in Corinth were “joining in/collaborating with/helping” the apostles in their ministry!
Every commentator I read interpreted the “gift/favor” as the deliverance of Paul from the threat of death, and all the contemporary English versions edit this verse to favor that interpretation.
I personally think that the original wording in Greek could possibly also refer to the collection of donations for poor Christians in Jerusalem4, but, the deliverance of the apostles from the threat of death fits the context well and makes good logical sense.
And whether the supplicatory prayer made by the church in Corinth was a means by which God delivered Paul and Timothy from imminent death or whether their prayer was a means by which God would provide aid to needy brothers and sisters in Christ in Jerusalem, the result would be “thanksgiving” to God, which is the beautiful end. Paul and Timothy wrote later on in 2 Corinthians 4:15 “For all things are for your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God.” (NKJV) That’s what everything in this life is all about; it is to end up in thanksgiving and praise to God.
But verse 11 here says that the Christians in Corinth, despite all their warts, had a hand in this work of God’s salvation: they were a praying church, and the things they prayed for resulted in “thanksgiving” to God.
Do you pray for the kind of things that will result in “many persons… giving thanks” to God?
Stretch your prayers beyond yourself and your family, and pray also for things that will affect “many people.”5
Prayer is a mighty ministry which God will use in His plan of saving the lost and preserving His church. You may not have the physical strength or the intellectual know-how, or the free time to do the kind of great exploits that get news articles written about them, but you can pray.
I think of old Anna in Luke 2:37-38. What could an 84-year-old widow-woman do?
That’s the kind of person we used to call an “invalid,” who, we think, should be tucked away safely in a nursing home and not allowed to be out and about.
But there she was, day-in-and-day-out for 84 years, in the temple praying and frequently fasting too6,
through Pompey’s conquest of Syria and Jerusalem,
through the rise of Julius Caesar and his conquest of Egypt,
the rise of the Edomite King Herod and his rebuilding of the temple,
all the while praying for Messiah to come. And then one day, lo and behold, Mary and Joseph walk by with 8-day-old Jesus, and Anna gets to see the answer to her decades of praying! And what did she do? She “gave thanks7 to the Lord”!
I have applied with mission agencies multiple times to try to become a missionary myself, but, every time, God has slammed the door in my face. Does that make me useless in God’s kingdom? No!
I expect that, when I get to heaven, I will find out what happened every time I led my children in prayer for God’s kingdom to come among unreached peoples and every time we prayed as a church for persecuted Christians around the world.
So many times it has felt like I’m not doing any good, just praying about things in this world, but I believe God uses every one of our prayers in some way to save the lost and to comfort His people.
And one day, in heaven, I will get to sit down with Christians from Yemen and Myanmar and Laos and Indonesia and China and North Korea and hear the whole back-story of how my prayers worked together with missionaries who were able to make it to them, and we will thank God and praise Him together forever!
Paul understood this strategic component of prayer in world evangelism, so, in at least half of his letters, he recruited churches to pray for him and for the spread of the gospel:
Romans 15:30-31 “Now I beg you, brethren, through the Lord Jesus Christ, and through the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in prayers8 to God for me, that I may be delivered from those in Judea who do not believe, and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints.” (NKJV, cf. Hebrews 13:18, Philemon 22)
Ephesians 6:18-19 “praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints - and for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel” (NKJV)
Philippians 1:19 “For I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ” (NKJV)
1 Thessalonians 5:25 “Brethren, pray4 for us.” (NKJV)
2 Thessalonians 3:1 “Finally, brethren, pray4 for us, that the word of the Lord may run swiftly and be glorified, just as it is with you.” (NKJV, Philemon 22)
James 5:16 says that “...the prayer of a righteous man has much strength when it is implemented.”
And in Acts 12:5 we read that “constant prayer4 offered by the church to God for Peter while he was in jail” was the context in which God sent an angel to release Peter from the prison.
Why is our prayer so effective? Peter answers in 1 Peter 3:12 “Because the Lord's eyes are on the righteous, and His ears are toward their request…” (NAW) God listens!
How about it? Will you pray big prayers that will result in “many people... giving thanks” to God for His salvation and His comfort?
“Let us then be diligent in coming together in supplication; and let us pray for one another, as they did for the Apostles. For so we both fulfill a commandment, and are anointed unto love… and... every good thing: and also learn to give thanks with more earnestness...” ~J. Chrysostom, c. 400 AD
ByzantineB |
NAW |
KJVC |
RheimsD |
MurdockE |
7 καὶ ἡ ἐλπὶς ἡμῶν βεβαία ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν· εἰδότες ὅτι ὥσπερF κοινωνοί ἐστε τῶν παθημάτων, οὕτω καὶ τῆς παρακλήσεως. |
7 So our hope concerning y’all is confirmed, knowing that, even as y’all are partners of the sufferings, thus y’all also are of the comfort. |
7 And our hope of you is stedfast, knowing, that as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so shall ye be also of the consolation. |
7 That our hope for you may be steadfast: knowing that as you are partakers of the sufferings, so shall you be also of the consolation. |
7
And our hope concerning
you is steadfast:
for we know, that |
8 Οὐ γὰρG θέλομεν ὑμᾶς ἀγνοεῖν, ἀδελφοί, ὑπὲρ τῆς θλίψεως ἡμῶν τῆς γενομένης ἡμῖνH ἐν τῇ ᾿Ασίᾳ, ὅτι καθ᾿ ὑπερβολὴνI ἐβαρήθημενJ ὑπὲρ δύναμινK, ὥστε ἐξαπορηθῆναιL ἡμᾶς καὶ τοῦ ζῆν· |
8 Now, we don’t want y’all to be ignorant, brothers, concerning our distress which happened to us in Asia: that we were weighed down to the extreme – beyond ability – such that we despaired even of life. |
8 For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life: |
8 For we would not have you ignorant, brethren, of our tribulation which came to us in Asia: that we were pressed out of measure above [ourM] strength, so that we were weary even of life. |
8
But, [my]
brethren, we X wish
you to X
know,
respecting
|
9 ἀλλὰO αὐτοὶ ἐν ἑαυτοῖςP τὸ ἀπόκριμαQ τοῦ θανάτου ἐσχήκαμενR, ἵνα μὴ πεποιθότες ὦμεν ἐφ᾿ ἑαυτοῖς, ἀλλ᾿ ἐπὶ τῷ Θεῷ τῷ ἐγείροντι τοὺς νεκρούς· |
9 However, as for us we have had the death-sentence in ourselves in order that we might not rely upon ourselves, but rather upon God: the One who raises the dead, |
9 But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead: |
9 But we had in ourselves the answer of death, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raiseth the dead. |
9
And we |
10 ὃς ἐκ τηλικούτουS θανάτουT ἐρρύσατο ἡμᾶς καὶ ῥύUεται, εἰς ὃν ἠλπίκαμεν ὅτι καὶ ἔτι ῥύσεται, |
10 the One who rescued us out of so distressing a death-threat (He also does come to the rescue), into whom we have set hope that He will yet come to the rescue. |
10 Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us; |
10 Who hath delivered and doth deliver us out of so great danger[s]: in whom we trust that he will yet also deliver [us], |
10 who rescued us from imminent death: X X and we hope that he will again rescue [us], |
11 συνυπουργούντωνV καὶ ὑμῶν ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν τῇ δεήσει, ἵνα ἐκ πολλῶν προσώπων τὸW εἰς ἡμᾶς χάρισμα διὰ πολλῶνX εὐχαριστηθῇ ὑπὲρ ἡμῶνY. |
11 Y’all are also collaborating together on behalf of us by means of prayer, in order that this gift from many persons to us might be given-thanks-for by many on account of us. |
11 Ye also helping together by prayer for us, that for the gift bestowed upon us [by the means] of many persons thanks may be given by many on our behalf. |
11
You helping
withal
in prayer for
us. That for this gift [obtained]
|
11
|
1“For whereas the Resurrection was a thing future, he showeth that it happeneth every day: for when [God] lifteth up again a man who is despaired of and hath been brought to the very gates of Hades, He showeth none other thing than a resurrection, snatching out of the very jaws of death him that had fallen into them: whence in the case of those despaired of and then restored either out of grievous sickness or insupportable trials, it is an ordinary way of speaking to say, We have seen a resurrection of the dead in his case.” ~Chrysostom, c.400 AD
2We see the same idea in other places in the New Testament, such as 2 Pet. 2:9 & 1 Tim. 4:10, 18.
3LXX ἐξείλατό, a synonym to Paul & Timothy’s ‘ρυομαι.
4cf. Chrysostom c. 400 AD: “‘He delivered us from those deaths,’ saith he, ‘ye also helping together by prayer;’ that is, praying all of you for us. For ‘the gift bestowed upon us,’ that is, our being saved, He was pleased to grant to you all, in order that many persons might give Him thanks, because that many also received the boon.” Calvin and Henry seem also to have agreed with this position, and G. Wilson and P. Hughes definitely agreed. A.T. Robertson surprisingly said it was too difficult to understand. It seems a bit abrupt for Paul to suddenly start talking about this financial gift here, but this gift for the poor is a major theme of the book (Viz. 2 Cor. 9:10-14).
5cf. Calvin: “[W]hile it is our duty to allow no favor from God to pass without rendering praise, it becomes us, nevertheless, more especially when our prayers have been favorably regarded by him, to acknowledge his mercy with thanksgiving (as he commands us to do in Psalm 50:15). Nor ought this to be merely where our own personal interest is concerned, but also where the welfare of the Church in general, or that of any one of our brethren is involved.”
6“...a widow of about eighty-four years, who did not depart from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day. And coming in that instant she gave thanks to the Lord, and spoke of Him to all those who looked for redemption in Jerusalem.” (NKJV)
7ἀνθωμολογεῖτο, somewhat synonymous with Paul’s word εὐχαριστέω
8προσευχαῖς, a synonym to Paul’s word in 2 Cor. 1:11 δεήσει
AWhen
a translation adds words not in the Greek text, but does not
indicate it has done so by the use of italics or greyed-out text, I
put the added words in [square brackets]. When one version chooses a
wording which is different from all the other translations, I
underline it. When a version chooses a translation which, in my
opinion, either departs too far from the root meaning of the Greek
word or departs too far from the grammar form of the original text,
I use strikeout. And when a version omits a word
which is in the original text, I insert an X. I also place an X at
the end of a word if the original word is plural but the English
translation is singular. I occasionally use colors to help the
reader see correlations between the various editions and versions
when there are more than two different translations of a given word.
NAW is my translation. My original chart includes annotated copies
of the NKJV, NASB, NIV, and ESV, but I erase them from the online
edition so as not to infringe on their copyrights.
BThis Greek New Testament is the 1904 "Patriarchal" edition of the Greek Orthodox Church. As published by E-Sword in 2016. The Robinson-Pierpont Byzantine majority text of the GNT and the Textus Receptus are very similar. The Westcott-Hort, Nestle-Aland, and UBS editions, however, are a slightly-different family of GNTs developed in the modern era, focusing on the few manuscripts which are older than the Byzantine manuscripts. Even so, the practical differences in the text between these two editing philosophies are minimal.
C1769 King James Version of the Holy Bible; public domain. As published by E-Sword in 2019.
DRheims New Testament first published by the English College at Rheims, A.D. 1582, Revised and Diligently Compared with the Latin Vulgate by Bishop Richard Challoner, Published in 1582, 1609, 1752. As published on E-Sword in 2016.
EJames Murdock, A Literal Translation from the Syriac Peshito Version, 1851, Robert Carter & Brothers, New York. Scanned and transcribed by Gary Cernava and published electronically by Janet Magierra at http://www.lightofword.org and published on E-Sword in 2023.
FHalf of the 12 manuscripts dating before the year 1,000 AD read with this word abbreviated to ως, The majority of Greek manuscripts follow the reading of a quarter of those 12 (including Ψ, 049, 1900, and a correction in Bezae) with ωσπερ, which is also the reading of the Textus Receptus and Patriarchal editions. The other quarter of the oldest-known manuscripts (including the oldest one, P46) omit this comparative word altogether. None of these variants change the meaning because there is a second comparative later in the verse which makes clear that the two phrases are compared.
GNIV and NLT followed the AGNT prompt that this conjunction should be translated merely as the beginning of a new sentence (L&N#91.1), but all other English versions (and the ancient Vulgate and the Peshitta) translated it as a causal conjunction.
HThis is the reading of the Byzantine majority of Greek manuscripts, of the Greek Orthodox Church editions, and of the Textus Receptus (and therefore of the Vulgate, Geneva, KJV, NKJV, and NASB), but it is not in the original handwriting of the five oldest-known manuscripts (although it is written in as a correction on two of them), and therefore the Peshitta, NIV, NET, ESV, and NLT rearranged the order of the words in their translations to attach “of us” to “came” instead of to “affliction” (where it it in all the Greek manuscripts) and arbitrarily changed the pronoun from the genitive case (which is in all the Greek manuscripts) to a dative case to make their alternative translation work. Nevertheless, it doesn’t change the meaning because it is a repeat of the first plural pronoun modifying the previous phrase (“affliction of us”), so it is natural to assume that this parallel phrase (“which happened”) is also describing “what happened to” the same “us,” whether or not “to us” is explicitly there (as it is in the majority of the Greek New Testament [GNT] manuscripts and early curated editions).
IThis phrase highlighted in dark red occurs only 5 other times in the Greek Bible: 4 Maccabees 3:18 (“however excessive”); Romans 7:13 (“exceedingly/utterly/beyond measure”); 1 Cor. 12:31 (“excellent”); 2 Cor. 4:17 (“exceeding/beyond comparison/outweighs”), and Gal. 1:13 (“beyond measure/intensely/violently”).
JThis
is the reading of the Byzantine Majority and Textus Receptus
and two of the 8
oldest-known Greek manuscripts (Bezae
and Miniscule #1), but 6 out of the 8 oldest-known Greek
manuscripts move this word two words later in the sentence. There is
no difference in meaning, however.
As to the meaning, it has to
do with “heaviness/weight,” and only occurs in 6 other places in
the Greek Bible: Exod. 7:14; Matt. 26:43; Lk. 9:32; 21:34; 2 Cor.
5:4; and 1 Tim. 5:16.
KHanna
cited A.T. Robertson’s Grammar saying that “‘υπερ
with the accusative has the notion of ‘beyond.’”
Hanna
also quotes from Burton’s Moods and
Tenses of New Testament Greek, saying,
“‘ωστε
with the infinitive is used to express a tendency realized in actual
result by implication (‘insomuch that we despaired …’)” AGNT
labeled it as “result” (L&N#89.52).
Peshitta
(followed by NASB,
NIV, ESV, NET, and NLT) added
a 1st
plural pronomial suffix “our,” which is not in any Greek or
Latin manuscript.
LThis
verb occurs in only two other places in the Greek Bible: Psalm 88:15
(as a translation of אָפוּנָה
"I am distracted/distraught/overcome/in
despair/helpless/despair") and 2 Cor. 4:8 “… we are
perplexed, but not in despair”)
The word translated “perplexed” in 2 Cor. 4:8, is the simpler
form of this word without the “ex-” prefix, occurring 20
times in the Greek Bible, and is the alpha-privative of
poreuomai.
“I have preferred to explain the word
ἐξαπορεῖσθαι, which is made use of by Paul, as
denoting a trembling anxiety, rather than render it, as
Erasmus has done by the word despair; because he simply
means, that he was hemmed in by the greatest difficulties, so that
no means of preserving life seemed to remain.” ~J. Calvin
(Pringle, Calvin’s English editor, defined it as “to be utterly
at a stand, not knowing how to proceed” cf. Psalm 88:8)
MThe Latin text does not actually have “our” here.
NLamsa’s translation of the Peshitta here is better: “oppressed.”
OAn unusual use of this word. AGNT labeled it with L&N Semantic Domain #91.2 (“a marker of transition, with a slightly adversative implication in some contexts... ‘and, yet’). The next use of this word in this verse has the standard meaning of “but rather.”
PThis phrase appears in two other places in the Greek Bible: 2 Cor. 10:12 (“measuring themselves by themselves”) and Romans 8:23 (“we ourselves groan within ourselves”).
QHapex Legomenon. M. Vincent, T. Chambers and the English Revised Version in the 19th Century (and ATR in the early 20th) advocated for translating it “answer,” but something convinced 20th and 21st Century English translators to revert back to the Geneva & KJV tradition of “sentence.” Burgesse is quoted by Pringle in a footnote to Calvin’s commentary: “The most genuine translation is sentence; for so Hesychius expounds the word κατακριςμα — ‘ψὢφο, whom Favorinus followeth verbatim in this, as in many other particulars. [...] The word then doth signifie a sentence passing upon him, that he must die. This he had received, but from whom? Not from God, for God delivered him; nor from the magistrate; there was no such decree that we read of against him. Therefore it was onely from his own feares, his own thoughts, which maketh him say — he had received it in himself. [...] God’s thoughts were other than Paul’s. Paul absolutely concluded he should die, but God had purposed the contrary.’”
R“[P]erfect
of echō, to have. And still have the vivid recollection of
that experience. For this lively dramatic use of the present perfect
indicative for a past experience see also eschēka in 2 Cor.
2:13.” ~ATR
This led Allo to suggest that Paul was referring
to his continuing “thorn in the flesh,” rather than to a
particular crisis in the past, but Allo’s hypothesis seems
unlikely to me.
SThis word occurs 3 more times in the GNT (Heb. 2:3; Jas. 3:4; Rev. 16:18) and 3 more times in the Maccabees (2 Ma. 12:3; 3 Ma. 3:9; 4 Ma. 16:4).
TThe oldest-known manuscript, P46, spells this word plural (as does the Vulgate), but no other manuscript does. Turner’s Grammar in 1963, commented that the plural form “may imply ways of dying, i.e. ‘deadly perils’” (which may be the source of the NIV & ESV wording). AGNT tags this word with L&N Semantic domain #23.117 “danger...likel[ihood]... of dying…” cf. NASB “so great a [peril of] death.”
UThis is the reading of the Byzantine majority of Greek manuscripts, of the traditional Greek Orthodox editions, and of the Textus Receptus, reflected in the Vulgate, and in the Geneva and KJV (“and doth deliver”), but 4 of the 6 oldest-known manuscripts (plus another 6 Byzantine-era manuscripts) add the letter sigma here, changing the tense from present tense to future tense, hence the NASB, NIV, and ESV “and will deliver,” but this makes the next phrase “and will yet deliver us” strangely redundant. Curiously, the Peshitta omits this middle phrase from the verse entirely, as do two of the 6 oldest-known manuscripts (Alexandrinus and the original Bezae – although there is a correction note in the Bezae which inserts the phrase in the present tense, matching the majority of manuscripts). The presence or absence of the phrase in the present tense does not necessarily change the general idea upon which all the manuscripts are agreed, which is, that God delivered in the past and will deliver in the future. Even commentators like Hughes (who rejected the traditional present tense reading) argued that the future tense in that place effectively was speaking of the present: “the attractive tense-sequence of past-present-future, must be rejected on the textual evidence now available... But... in this setting the [second clause] has a force equivalent to that of a present.”
VHapax Legomenon. The simpler form ‘upergw (without the syn- prefix) does not occur in the Greek Bible, but synergw (without the ‘upo- prefix) does occur 5x in the GNT (Mk. 16:20 – the Lord collaborated with the Apostles; Rom. 8:28 - God works together all things for good; 1 Cor. 16:16 – Paul’s co-laborer Stephanus; 2 Cor. 6:1 – Apostles are co-laborers with Christ; Jas. 2:22 – faith was collaborating with Abraham’s works) and 2x in the Apocrypha (1 Es. 7:2; 1 Ma. 12:1). The additional prefix here in 2 Cor. 1:11 emphasizes the team spirit in what was already good collaboration.
WThis is a simple definite article in Greek, matching “gift/favor,” but, a Greek definite article can be interpreted pronomially, so the Peshitta and Vulgate translated it “his gift” and I translated it “this gift.” Calvin, however interpreted it as an “adversative particle” such as “Notwithstanding” or “Nonetheless” (“En lieu de quelque article adversative qu’on appelle, comme Toutesfois ou Neantmoins;”)
XHanna connected “by many” with “the gift” (“the gift which reached us by the agency of many”) rather than with “might be thanked,” reasoning that “an anarthrous prepositional phrase generally modifies a verb rather than a noun.” All the standard English versions connect “by many” with “give thanks” (i.e. KJV “thanks may be given by many”). The Greek is ambiguous, and Moule’s Idiom Book of New Testament Greek notes that there are technical grammar irregularities in either interpretation.
Y“our” is the reading of the Textus Receptus Greek New Testament (GNT), the traditional Patriarchal GNT, and of the modern critical GNT editions (and therefore of all English versions), but a slim majority of Greek manuscripts read, with the change of one letter, “on your behalf” instead of “our,” and this variant is in about half of the oldest-known manuscripts as well, so it has been debated for a long time. This kind of variant is common and doesn’t substantially change the meaning, because the difference between “y’all” and “us” is merely in whether the author is including himself or not.
ZAll the English translations of this verse in the Peshitta make the word for “prayer” plural, but the word ܕ݁ܒ݂ܳܥܽܘܬ݂ܟ݂ܽܘܢ is labeled as singular at http://dukhrana.com/peshitta/analyze_verse.php?lang=en&verse=2Corinthians+1:11, matching the singularity of this word in all the Greek manuscripts.