Translation & Sermon by
Nate Wilson for Christ The Redeemer Church, Manhattan, KS, 26 October
2025
Underlined words in Scripture quotes indicate words that
are in common with the Greek text of the sermon passage. Otherwise,
underlining indicates words to emphasize when reading this transcript
out loud.
What is the “treasure” that we have in verse 7?
The verse before says that what we have is “the enlightenment of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ” – Jesus shows us the way to experience the glory of God! Being enlightened with that knowledge is quite a treasure!
Jesus Himself used this same Greek word for “treasure” to describe the same idea in Matthew 13:44 “[T]he kingdom of the heavens is like a treasure which had been hidden in the field which a man found, then... sells all of however much he possesses and buys that field.” (NAW)
And the Scriptures consistently equate knowledge with treasure:
Luke 6:45 “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.” (NKJV)
Colossians 2:1-3 “For I want you to know what a great conflict I have... that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, and attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” (NKJV)
Is
the “knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ” your
greatest treasure?
Is it what comes out of your heart when
your mouth speaks?
May God make it so for all of us!
What does he mean by having this treasure in “earthen vessels/jars of clay/ceramic pots”?1
This week, my son and I were replacing all the parts inside the tank of a bathroom toilet. As we worked, my son observed that every point of contact between the metal bolts and the porcelain tank had a rubber or pressboard washer between, and he asked me why that was. I pointed out that the toilet was just made of dirt/clay that had been formed into this shape and then dried. If a piece of metal pressed too hard against it, it would shatter. If you’ve ever connected a porcelain water tank onto a toilet, you know that you can’t just zip the first bolt in tight with an impact drill; you have to gently and gradually tighten all three bolts that hold it together so that you can get the pressure right on all sides without cracking the porcelain.
At the risk of offending you all by comparing you to a toilet, that is an example of what Paul and Timothy are talking about here. We are fragile vessels upon which powerful forces are operating.
God told Moses that he couldn’t see the face of God and live (Ex. 33:20); it would be too powerful a force for his physical body to survive being exposed to.
Likewise, our spiritual enemy, the Devil is far too powerful for us. As Martin Luther wrote about “the prince of darkness” in his hymn, “A Mighty Fortress,” “his craft and power are great and armed with cruel hate; on earth is not his equal.”
And here we are, in-between powers strong enough to blow us to bits. If we shatter into a million pieces, all we can say is, “Yeah, that’s about what we’d expect,” considering the forces we’re up against.
Job 10:9 “Remember, I pray, that You have made me like clay2...” (NKJV), recalling Genesis 2:7 “...the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground…”
And yet, clay jars, if sealed well, are wonderfully capable of preserving a message.
Right before the Chaldean army conquered Jerusalem, God told Jeremiah to buy some real estate in Jerusalem and “...put the [title deeds] in an earthen vessel, that they may last many days.” (Jer. 32:14, NKJV) Presumably, one of Jeremiah’s heirs was able to dig it back up after the 70 year exile and establish ownership of the farm. God ordained an earthen vessel to preserve an important document.
And, more recently, two-thousand-year-old Scrolls of the Old Testament have been found preserved in clay jars at Qumran near the Dead Sea.
If a simple clay pot can do that; you can carry the word of God in your heart and mind too, and you can deliver God’s word, well-preserved to others3.
But the Word of God is a power we cannot naturally manage. Psalm 29 reminds us “...Yahweh's voice has existed with power; Yahweh's voice has existed with majesty. Yahweh's voice broke cedars; Yahweh even broke in pieces the cedars of Lebanon.... Yahweh's voice has hewed the flame of fire. Yahweh's voice makes the wilderness writhe... and it strips forests bare, and in His temple, everyone says, ‘Glory!’” (NAW) Only the power of God makes us able to to be containers of His word.
What is the reason why we have this powerful treasure of the gospel of Jesus in such fragile containers? “...in order that the abundance/excellence/surpassing power might be of God and not out of ourselves.”
The only other place in the Bible that this phrase “excelling/surpassing power” occurs is 2 Corinthians 1:8-10 “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... into whom we have set hope that He will yet come to the rescue.” (NAW)
If a fine china teacup somehow got thrown into a clothes dryer while it was tumbling, you would naturally expect the teacup to be broken when you got it out. (You would be surprised if it weren’t!) But if, by some miracle it came out unscathed, it would be absurd to give all the credit to how strong your china was. No, if it survived banging around in that hot machine for an hour it’s probably because it was protected by something – perhaps a table cloth got wrapped around it.
Similarly, If anyone survives the beatings of life still carrying the good news of Jesus, it’s not because they are unusually-strong clay pots, it’s because the power of God protected them, and the Holy Spirit “sealed” them (2 Cor. 1:22). If anyone survives the beatings of this life still trusting Jesus to save them and telling other people about it, God is the one who should be glorified, because that isn’t natural.
And God usually sets things up that way so that we cannot (with integrity) claim any glory; we have to give all the glory to Him.
Remember how God set Gideon up? The Midianite army was invading with hundreds of thousands of troops, but in Judges chapter 7, God had Gideon whittle down the defending army to a mere 300 men, “...the LORD said to Gideon, ‘The people who are with you are too many for Me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel claim glory for itself against Me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’” (Judges 7:2, NKJV) So when Gideon whipped the Midianite army with only 300 men, he couldn’t brag about it, he could only say that God brought deliverance!
Similarly, when Paul entered the world-class city of Corinth with its giant temples to Greek gods and goddesses and saw all of the people stumbling around drunk in sexual promiscuity, he knew he didn’t have what it would take to establish a great church. He confessed in 1 Corinthians 2:3-5 “...as for me, I came to y'all in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, and my word and my preaching were not in persuasive words of human wisdom, but rather in a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, in order that your faith might not exist in the wisdom of men, but rather in the power of God.” (NAW)
Later on, when the false apostles swept into Corinth after Paul and “contemptuously described his bodily appearance as ‘weak’ and his speech as of ‘no account’ (10:10; cf. 10:1, 11:6, 12:7), hoping thereby to discredit his authority,” (Hughes) he turns their argument on its head, explaining that “his abject condition” is the very proof that it had to have been God working through him to establish that church! (Calvin)
“God has so ordered it that the weaker the vessels are, the stronger His power may appear to be, that the treasure… of gospel light and grace... itself should be valued the more.” ~Matthew Henry, 1714 AD
When your faith is in the power of God, then the frailties of your humanity cannot stand in the way of the feats of salvation that God wants to accomplish to bring glory and thanks to Himself.
“For both the greatness of the things given and the weakness of them that receive show His power… ‘For My power is made perfect in weakness’ (2 Cor. 12:9). And indeed in the Old [Testament]… He overthrew cities by trumpets; and afterwards, by a little and poor stripling (David) He turned to flight the whole army of barbarians. So then here also, sending forth twelve [disciples] only, He overcame the world [despite] those [being] persecuted [and] warred against… Let us then be amazed at the Power of God… [W]orship with us the invincible might of The Crucified, that ye may both escape the intolerable punishments, and obtain the everlasting kingdom…” ~J. Chrysostom, c. 400 AD
Meanwhile, “In this world you will have trouble,” said Jesus in John 16:33 (NIV), but...
Verses 8-9 tell us, in four synonymous phrases, that, although God will bring pressure to bear on us, it will never be too much.
“We are stressed/troubled/hard-pressed/afflicted on every side/in every way, but not distressed/crushed/constrained.”
The Greek words depict pressure coming from outside of us, from many different directions – from many different stressful circumstances4, pushing so hard that it threatens to squeeze us off-course5 (or to crush and collapse us), putting so much stress on us that it threatens to narrow our options down until we have no good options left6.
An illustration of this shows up in Judges 16:16, where the Greek translation uses the same two verbs from 2 Corinthians 4:8 to describe how Delilah “pressured” Samson to reveal the secret of his strength until he finally relented: “And it came to pass as she pressed him sore with her words continually, and straitened [whittled-down, constrained] him, that his spirit failed almost to death.” (Brenton)
When you start thinking that doing-what’s-right is getting too hard, and wondering if the stress will eventually break your health or your sanity, what do you do?
The weak-willed Samson gave-in to pressure, but not Paul and Timothy.
This certainly was not due to the apostles experiencing any less stress: 2 Corinthians 7:5 “For indeed, when we came to Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but we were troubled [stressed/pressured] on every side. Outside were conflicts, inside were fears.” (NKJV)
But all these stresses did not stop the apostles from continuing their mission to share the good news about Jesus around the world, because the power of God kept them from cracking under pressure:
2 Corinthians 1:4 God is “the One Who comforts us in all our stress in order for us to be empowered to comfort those in any stress, by means of the comfort by which we ourselves are being comforted by God” (NAW),
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 Corinth. 12:10 “Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (NKJV)
“We are not ‘hedged in’ nor ‘cooped up,’ because we can see help in God, and help from God, and have liberty of access to God.” ~M. Henry, 1714 AD
The second phrase in 2 Corinthians 4:8 is “perplexed, but not despairing”
In Greek, both verbs have the same root, so I translated it more literally “unable to proceed but not out of the proceedings.” A. T. Robertson translated it, “lost, but not lost out,” and P. E. Hughes translated it, “confused but not confounded.”
It makes me think of a driver in a traffic jam. They’re not moving forward, but they will patiently wait until they can move forward. They’re not going to give up on their destination and get out of the car and walk away and leave everything just because of a temporary setback.
The same root word is used in the Greek translation of Genesis 32:8, to describe the panic that Jacob felt when he returned to his homeland for the first time after having cheated his brother, and found out that his brother was marching toward him with 400 soldiers! If God hadn’t reassured Jacob that night, he would have fled!
This Greek word is also used to describe the condition of a person who has been robbed, in some cases literally,7 in other cases just figuratively – as in being mentally “at a loss,”8 so that’s where “perplexity” comes in as a translation.
But here, Paul contradicts what he wrote back in 2 Corinthians 1:8. There he said, “… we despaired [ἐξαπορηθῆναι] of life…” Here he says “… we are not despairing [οὐκ ἐξαπορούμενοι].” I suggest that this latter statement was intended to qualify his previous one – in other words, “OK, I was telling you how bad it was in Asia back in chapter one, but the truth is, we are still preaching the gospel, so it would be better to say, “we were at a loss/perplexed back then, but we haven’t reached the point of complete despair so as to be out-of-the-race altogether.”
Why? Because, as Paul stated in 1:10, “God rescued us, so we keep hoping in Him.” That’s why it didn’t reach the point of “game-over” for the Apostles, and that’s why it won’t be “game-over” for you. God will save you, and you will keep hoping in Him, and you will find new ways of obeying God’s call on your life.
Psalm 119:50 “This is my comfort in my affliction9, For Your word has given me life… 143 “Trouble and anguish have overtaken me, Yet Your commandments are my delights.” (NKJV)
V.9 continues with a 3rd phrase describing this: “persecuted, but not forsaken/abandoned.”
Persecution is a given for the Christian life:
Jesus said in Matthew 10:22 it’s a matter of “when-” not if, “... you will be hated by all on account of my name, but the one who has persevered into the end, this one will be saved. So, whenever they persecute y'all in this city, flee into the other…” (NAW)
And in Luke 21:12-13 “...they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons. You will be brought before kings and rulers for My name's sake10. But it will turn out for you as an occasion for testimony.” (NKJV, cf. John 15:20, 2 Tim. 3:12) Persecution should not stop Christians; it just gives Christians more opportunities to bear witness of Christ!
But this would be be insanity if it weren’t for the presence of God with us.
Hebrews 13:5-6 explains: that God “...Himself has said, ‘I shall never let go of you, neither shall I ever forsake you.’ Thus we have courage to say, ‘The Lord is a helper to me, so I will not be frightened by what man will do to me.’” (NAW)
Psalm 73:26 “My flesh and my heart fail; But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” (NKJV)
Romans 8:18 “For I consider that the sufferings11 of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us… 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? … Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” (NKJV)
The fourth and final phrase used to describe this situation of God’s sovereign control over the pressures upon us is that we are “cast/struck/thrown down, but not destroyed.”
Psalm 37:14-18 “Have wicked men unsheathed a sword and bent their bow in order to strike down someone who is lowly and needy – in order to butcher those whose way is right? It will be their own sword which enters into their heart, and their bows will be broken. It's better [to have] a little in the presence of the righteous than the wealth of many wicked men, because the arms of wicked men will be broken, and Yahweh upholds those who are righteous. Jehovah knows the days of those who have integrity, and their inheritance will exist for ever.” (NAW)
Proverbs 24:16 “For a righteous man may fall12 seven times And rise again, But the wicked shall fall by calamity.” (NKJV, cf. Psalm 37:24, Micah 7:8)
On his way to Corinth the first time, Paul had indeed been the victim of a crowd of rock-throwing Jews who “knocked him down” and left him for dead, although it turns out he had only been knocked unconscious, and, by the power of God, was able to get back up and keep going once he came-to! (Acts 14:19-20)
The Greek word translated “perish” is sometimes used to speak of physical death, and other times it refers to eternal damnation. Unless the Lord comes back in our lifetime, we will all die one way or another, but if our trust is in the Lord, we won’t fear death because it will usher us into the presence of the One who loves us the most, and we won’t fear damnation either, because He has paid for our sins on the cross!
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish [be destroyed], but have everlasting life.” (KJV)
As we saw earlier in 2 Corinthians 4:3-4 that those who are “perishing/being destroyed” are those who will not believe in Jesus, whose minds are blinded by Satan, and whose hearts have a veil over them which has not been lifted by the Holy Spirit.
I am reminded of what Paul wrote earlier in 1 Corinthians 10:13 “...God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tested above what you are able, but rather He will make together with the test also the way out for the ability to undergo [it].” (NAW)
“[T]hese things are permitted by God for our discipline, not our defeat,” said John Chrysostom a thousand six hundred years ago when he preached on this same passage. A few years later, he was driven out of his church in Constantinople “by unscrupulous enemies” and “hunted like a beast through the inhospitable wastes of Armenia, until, after enduring extreme torments of mind and body, he succumbed to his sufferings on 14 September, 407 [AD]. He too, though [persecuted/]hunted for Christ's sake, rejoiced in the knowledge of not being forsaken, as his dying words attest: ‘Glory to God for all things. Amen.’” (P. E. Hughes) He did not despair, he was not forsaken by God, and he did not perish, but got everlasting life. And you can have the same testimony!
Now, in the next two verses, Paul explains more of what is going on in these hardships and how they are connected to our relationship with Jesus.
The verb in v.10 for “carrying about” was used back in the Gospel of Mark 6:55 to describe people carrying sick folks on stretchers. Here it is carrying the νεκρωσιν του Ιησου – the necrotic-tissue of Jesus.
This is somewhat-figurative language referring to the persecution and hardships we endure in the world for following Christ, mirroring the persecution and hardships Christ endured when He lived on earth13.
“[Paul] employs the expression ‘the mortification of Jesus Christ’ to denote everything that rendered Him contemptible in the eyes of the world… [and likewise] the afflictions by which we are stirred up to meditate on the termination of the present life...” ~J. Calvin, 1546 AD14
“Paul says, in effect, ‘our body is constantly exposed to the same putting to death which Jesus suffered. The daily liability to a violent death is something, which we carry about with us.’” ~M. Vincent, 1886 AD
Indeed, later on in chapter 11 v.23, Paul will state that he was “in deaths often,” listing several times he almost died.
“For the same enmity which reached its culmination in the crucifixion of Jesus now pursues those whom he has chosen out of the world [John 15:18-21].” ~G. Wilson, 1979 AD
Jesus said in Luke 9:23 “that they who wish to come after Him must daily take up their cross and follow Him.” (P. E. Hughes)
The phrase in verse 11 “always being given over to death on account of Jesus” is parallel to the one in verse 10 “Always carrying around the dying of Jesus.” (ATR)
In Philippians, Paul pictures persecution and deprivation as “fellowship” with Jesus, because Jesus endured the same things too: Philippians 3:8-11 “...I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings15, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.” (NKJV, cf. 1 Cor. 6:20)
But this physical “putting to death whatever remains of our sinful nature” (Col. 3:5) and willingly suffering persecution out of faithfulness to Jesus, is not to earn favor with God, and it’s not to extinguish our existence; it is “in order that the life of Jesus might be manifested/revealed/brought to light in our body.”
2 Corinthians 1:9 “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.” (NAW)
2 Corinthians 13:4 “For though He was crucified in weakness, yet He lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in Him, but we shall live with Him by the power of God toward you.” (NKJV)
2 Timothy 1:9-10 “[God] has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began, but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel” (NKJV).
This death is for a purpose. That purpose is stated twice in verses 10 & 11: “so that the life of Jesus also may be brought to light in our body… in order that the life of Jesus also may be brought to light in our mortal flesh.”
“[B]y snatching us out of... perils… His life also may be manifested in our body… For His power [would] not [have] so appeared in our suffering no unpleasantness, as it is now shown in our suffering indeed, but without being overcome.” ~Chrysostom, 400 AD
And what is that “life of Jesus” which is revealed in our bodies when our fragile jars of clay come out of the “tumble-dryer” of hardship and persecution, unscathed?
“‘The life of Jesus’ can only mean the life which Jesus lives now at God's right hand… [eternal life which begins in this life, and] these repeated escapes of the Apostle, these restorations of his courage, are manifestations of that life…” ~James Denney, 1903 AD
“For the inextinguishable resurrection life of the Jesus who once died is demonstrated in the apostle’s many deliverances from the jaws of death… It is because Paul is a ‘living one’, i.e. one whose essential life is the eternal life of Jesus, that the deaths to which he is always being handed over serve to exhibit the triumph of that divine life.” ~G. Wilson, 1979 AD
This dying to self and receiving the life of Jesus and advancing His kingdom while enduring by His power all the hardships that come with it, this is what characterizes a Christian.
Verse 12 ties back to chapter one verses 5-7 “...the sufferings of the Anointed One are abounding among us, so our comfort also abounds through the Anointed One. So, whether we are distressed for the sake of y'all's comfort and salvation, or whether we are comforted on account of y'all's comfort (and salvation), the exertion is in the enduring of the same sufferings which also we are suffering. 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.” (NAW)
Here in chapter four, the terms “suffering” and “comfort” (from chapter 1) are intensified to “death” and “life,” but it’s the same idea that what the apostles suffered – and endured triumphantly – for the sake of Jesus and His church, is bringing comfort and life to the church16.
And so, at the end of the book in 2 Corinthians 13:9 they write, “...we are glad when we are weak and you are strong...” (NKJV)
“Through his endurance, the gospel had been brought to them, and by believing its word, they had passed from death to life. To see repentant sinners entering into newness of life in Christ makes every affliction borne for Jesus' sake and in His service a thousand times worth-while. And this is the joy of all Christian witness… [T]he life17 of which he is writing refers not to ease and freedom from suffering, but to the life of Jesus, resurrection life.” ~P. E. Hughes, 1962 AD18
Do you see yourself as a weak person, unable to do what most folks can do, and prone to sit back and not try to do much and indulge in self-pity because of your deficiencies? If you believe in Jesus, the Holy Spirit has put the light of the knowledge of God in the face of Christ into your frail body in order to show the greatness of His power. Will you turn away from your resentment toward God for making you weak, and step out in faith to share the Gospel, and seek to let God’s awesome power be demonstrated through you?
On the other hand, some of us see ourselves as strong, able to understand and do things better than most, and we don’t like to ask for help. This is pride, which God says He “hates” (Prov. 8:13). Will you humble yourself before God and seek for Him to work through you so you can give Him the glory for it?
And when suffering comes, due to you trying to obey God, this is not a good reason to stop obeying God or to stop trusting Him. God is giving you an opportunity to reveal to the world His power to save. Are you willing to obey Jesus and suffer for it in this world, in order to be a vessel through which God displays His life?
1 Corinthians 15:31 “Throughout the day I am dying. This is truly the boast I have in Christ Jesus our Lord concerning y'all.” (NAW)
Romans 8:36 “As it is written: ‘For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’” (NKJV)
Romans 6:9-12 “...Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.” (NKJV)
Romans 8:11 “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.” (NKJV)
2 Corinth. 5:4 “For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life.” (NKJV)
2 Corinthians 5:15 “and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.” (NKJV)
2 Corinthians 4:14 “knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus....” (NKJV)
2 Timothy 2:11 “This is a faithful saying: For if we died with Him, We shall also live with Him.” (NKJV)
Romans 7:4-6 “Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another-- to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.” (NKJV)
“Whatever condition the children of God may be in, in this world, they have a ‘but not’ to comfort themselves with; their case sometimes is bad, yea very bad, but not so bad as it might be. The apostle speaks of their sufferings as constant, and as a counterpart of the sufferings of Christ (2 Cor. 4:10). The sufferings of Christ were, after a sort, re-acted in the sufferings of Christians; thus did they bear about the dying of the Lord Jesus in their body, setting before the world the great example of a suffering Christ, that the life of Jesus might also be made manifest, that is, that people might see the power of Christ's resurrection, and the efficacy of grace in and from the living Jesus, manifested in and towards them…” ~M. Henry, 1714 AD
ByzantineB |
NAW |
KJVC |
RheimsD |
MurdockE |
7 ῎Εχομεν δὲ τὸν θησαυρὸν τοῦτον ἐν ὀστρακίνοις σκεύεσιν, ἵνα ἡ ὑπερβολὴ τῆς δυνάμεως ᾖ τοῦ ΘεοῦF καὶ μὴ ἐξ ἡμῶν, |
7 But we have this treasure in ceramic pots in order that the abundance of power might be of God and not out of ourselves. |
7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. |
7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency may be of the power of God and not of us. |
7
But we have this treasure in |
8 ἐν παντὶ θλιβόμενοι ἀλλ᾿ οὐH στενοχωρούμενοι, ἀπορούμενοιI ἀλλ᾿ οὐκ Jἐξαπορούμενοι, |
8 We are stressed in every way, but not constrained, unable to proceed, but not out of the process, |
8
We are
troubled
on every
side,
yet not distressed;
we are
perplexed,
but not |
8 In all thing[s] we suffer tribulation: but are not distressed. We are straitened: but are not destitute. |
8 And in every thing we are oppressed, but not suffocated; we are corrected, but not condemned; |
9 διωκόμενοι ἀλλ᾿ οὐκ ἐγκαταλειπόμενοι, καταβαλλόμενοι ἀλλ᾿ οὐκ ἀπολλύμενοι, |
9 persecuted, but not left behind, thrown down, but not destroyed. |
9 Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; |
9 We suffer persecution: but are not forsaken. We are cast down: but we perish not. |
9 we are persecuted, but not forsaken; we are prostrated, but perish not. |
10 πάντοτε τὴν νέκρωσινK τοῦ ΚυρίουL ᾿Ιησοῦ ἐν τῷM σώματι περιφέροντες, ἵνα καὶ ἡ ζωὴ τοῦN ᾿Ιησοῦ ἐν τῷ σώματιO ἡμῶν φανερωθῇ. |
10 Always carrying around the dead-state of [the Lord] Jesus in our body, in order that the life of Jesus might also be brought to light in our body. |
10 Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. |
10 Always bearing about in our body the mortification of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our bodie[s]. |
10 For we bear in our body, at all times, the dying of Jesus; that the life also of Jesus might be manifested in our body. |
11 ἀεὶ γὰρ ἡμεῖς Pοἱ ζῶντες εἰς θάνατον παραδιδόμεθα διὰ ᾿Ιησοῦν, ἵνα καὶ ἡ ζωὴ τοῦ ᾿Ιησοῦ φανερωθῇ ἐν τῇ θνητῇ σαρκὶQ ἡμῶν. |
11 For we the living are always being given over to death on account of Jesus, in order that the life of Jesus might also be brought to light in our death-prone flesh. |
11 For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. |
11 For we who live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake: that the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our mortal flesh. |
11
For |
12 ὥστε ὁ μὲνR θάνατος ἐν ἡμῖν ἐνεργεῖται, ἡ δὲ ζωὴ ἐν ὑμῖν. |
12 So then, death works in us, but the life is in y’all. |
12 So then death worketh in us, but life in you. |
12 So then death worketh in us: but life in you. |
12 Now therefore, in us death is active, but in you, life. |
1Bible commentators over the years have suggested a number of possible allusions, from Gideon’s pots that he shattered before attacking the Midianites (Chrysostom and several after him), to Corinthian ceramic oil lamps (Manson), to royal storage containers for melted-down gold (Vincent), to shipping containers for monetary tribute carried in Roman triumphal processions (Hughes), but I doubt Paul was thinking of any of those things in particular, partly because, in my opinion, none of them fit perfectly with Paul’s statement.
2The Greek translation of Job uses πηλίνας here and in 4:19 and 33:6 (which refers to clay while it’s still wet), but is a synonym for οστρακινοις (clay shapes that have been dried) in 2 Cor. 4:7.
3“[T]hat man acts a wicked part, who measures the dignity of the gospel by the person of the minister.” ~J. Calvin
4cf. Chrysostom: “What is, ‘on every side?’ In respect of our foes, in respect of our friends, in respect of necessaries, in respect of other needs, by them which be hostile, by them of our own household.”
5As population pressure “squeezed/constrained/στενοχωρεῖ” the tribes of Joseph out of the mountains of Ephraim (allotted to them by Joshua) eastward into the forested country of the Perrizites in the LXX of Joshua 17:15.
6From steno (“narrow/restricted”) and xwra (“empty space”). Some lexicographers interpreted this as collapsing the part that should be empty space, whereas others interpreted it as squeezing the object out of its rightful place into empty space. Pringle, Calvin’s English editor, cited commentaries on this word from Howe (“so compressed… but we can breathe well enough for all that”) and Bloomfield (“an army so… hemmed in… that there is left no hope of escape”). Geoffrey Wilson combined those two meanings in the figure of a “combatant” in a contest in which “God does not suffer him to be crushed into a corner” but gives him “room to manoeuvre.” Hughes applied it in a physical/spiritual duality: “[N]o matter how straitened his outward circumstances, his heart is not narrowed and confined, but enlarged and expanded by the liberating love of Christ (see 6:11f).”
7This was Calvin’s interpretation of this verse: “poverty,” but all the other commentators I consulted rendered it figuratively.
8Instances of the former being Lev. 25:47, Hos. 13:8, and 2 Mac. 8:20, and instances of the latter being Lk. 24:4, Jn. 13:22, and Acts 25:20.
9LXX=ταπεινώσει (“humility”), but it serves well as a synonym for θλιβόμενοι (“afflicted”) in 2 Cor. 4:8.
10In the book of Galatians (5:11, 6:12), Paul indicated that there would be no persecution if he would just circumcise his converts, implying that most of the persecution he faced came from Jews. A generation later, persecution from pagan Romans was the main challenge. Since then we have seen the rise of persecution from religious humanists, secular humanists, Muslims, Hindus, and others.
11παθήματα
12LXX=πεσεῖται a passive synonym to καταβαλλόμενοι used in 2 Cor. 4:9.
13An
alternative interpretation could refer to the physically-living but
spiritually-dead state which we all inherited from Adam after his
first sin, and which Jesus took upon Himself in order atone for our
sin (cf. “in the body” in 2 Cor. 5:6, Col. 1:21-22, and 1 Peter
2:24). Few commentators picked up on this idea, but there were a
couple:
W. E. Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New
Testament Words commented that “the sphere in which this
resurrection-life of Jesus is displayed is a body of ‘mortal
flesh’, i.e. a body in subjection to the power of death.”
“The
wicked, in the endurance of the afflictions of this present life,
share with Adam, but the elect have participation with the Son of
God, so that all those miseries that are in their own nature
accursed, are helpful to their salvation.” ~J. Calvin
14In a footnote, Pringle (Calvin’s English editor) added Beza’s commentary (“to denote that miserable condition of believers, and more especially of ministers... as though you should say a setting apart for slaughter… in a manner put to death… a condition which exposed every day to deaths...”) with the explanation, “[T]he apostles were, for the sake of Christ, subjected to humiliating and painful sufferings which gave them, in a manner, an outward conformity to their Divine Master in the violent death inflicted upon Him.”
15παθημάτων
16cf. Chrysostom: “Speaking no more of death in the strict sense, but of trials and of rest. ‘For we indeed,’ he says, ‘are in perils and trials, but ye in rest; reaping the life which is the fruit of these perils. And we indeed endure the dangerous, but ye enjoy the good things; for ye undergo not so great trials.’” P. Hughes agreed, citing Tasker, Allo, Plummer, Denney, Hodge, and Alfort in support, and G. Wilson agreed, citing Col. 1:24 in support. Calvin agreed that “life” and “death” is figurative here, but he was “out in left field,” thinking that Paul was using “irony” to “reprove” their desire for a “life… that is prosperous and agreeable” “without the cross” while he “was struggling with incessant hardships.” Henry saw the two circumstances as descriptive, but not connected, so he didn’t find any implications like other commentators did.
17The Greek word has the definite article “the” before it, lending weight to Hughes’ argument that “the life” is not just “life” in general, but specifically the eternal life of Christ.
18My father took a class on 2 Corinthians from Dr. Hughes in the late 1960’s at Columbia Seminary!
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.
FESV and NET Bible followed Vincent’s (and later Hughes’) assertion that this is a possessive genitive, rather than the traditional interpretation in all the other English versions of a genitive of source. While it is grammatically possible to interpret a genitive as a possessive, the context in this verse with the preposition “out of” (which the ESV incorrectly interpreted “to”) in the ensuing parallel statement, makes a possessive interpretation unlikely. The great 20th century New Testament Greek Grammarian A. T. Robertson took a rare stance of disagreement with Vincent: “It comes from God (tou theou, ablative)...”
GApparently, this word in the Peshitta ܒܡܐܢܐ can be either singular or plural. Lamsa translated it plural to coincide with the Greek, but, perhaps because “earthen” is singular in the Peshitta, Murdock and Etheridge translated it singular.
HBlass & Debrunner’s Grammar pointed out that it is unusual here for a participle to be negated by ου (instead of μη). Hanna explained that ου, however, is the “usual negative employed to denote a contrast with αλλα...”
IThese present participles are spelled middle/passive. Most English versions translate this participle passively (“are perplexed”) but the second more as a middle voice reflexive (“are in despair”), although the NET, ESV, and NLT translate it passively (“not driven to despair”). Turner’s Grammar interpreted it as middle voice with an intransitive meaning. However, it is an alpha-privative of poreuomai, which is deponent, so it could just as well be active.
JThis word occurs only two other places in the Greek Bible: Ps. 87:16 and 2 Cor. 1:8. The latter case is puzzling because Paul affirms there that he had “despaired,” but here he asseverates that he did not. Perhaps this latter statement is intended to qualify his previous one. 2 Cor. 1:8 “… we despaired [ἐξαπορηθῆναι] of life…” or it would be better to say, 2 Cor. 4:8 “we were at a loss, but didn’t reach the point of complete despair,” because we got back up again and are still conducting apostolic ministry.
KThe only other time this word is used in the Greek Bible is in Romans 4:19 “...the deadness of Sara's womb.”
LThis
is the reading of the majority of Greek manuscripts (the oldest
dating to the 6th century) and of the Greek Orthodox and
Textus Receptus editions of the GNT, thus “Lord”
accompanies “Jesus” in the Geneva, KJV, and NKJV. However, the
ancient Syriac, Latin, and Coptic Bible versions, all the English
versions since the mid-1800’s (excepting the few based on the
T.R.), and all the contemporary critical editions of the GNT follow
8 Greek manuscripts (including the 5 oldest-known ones dating from
the 3rd to the 5th century AD) which read
without the word “Lord.” (Note that “Lord” is not repeated
in the following phrase “life of Jesus.”) However, since Paul
calls Jesus “Lord” indisputably in 8 other places in 2 Cor.
(1:2, 3, 14; 4:5, 14; 8:9; 11:31; 13:14), this is not a theological
game-changer. It might simply be a Medieval editorial insertion to
remind the reader to be respectful even when speaking of the dying
of Jesus.
Concerning the genitive case of this phrase (whether
or not “Lord” is included in it), Pringle and Bloomfield,
following Grotius, interpreted it as a “genitive of likeness…
bearing about… sufferings like those of the Lord Jesus,”
but that seems to be stretching things a bit grammatically.
MFour Greek codices have been found dated between the 6th and 9th centuries which insert the first plural possessive pronoun here, and the ancient Peshitta, Vulgate, and Coptic versions all followed suite, thus the added pronoun “our” in the Geneva, NIV, NET, and NLT. However, since the Greek definite article can have the force of a possessive pronoun, and since there is an article here, this meaning could be inferred from the simpler Greek majority text itself. (In addition, the Peshitta and NLT also changed the Greek singular to plural “bodies,” but that doesn’t significantly change the meaning, since it is connected with the plural “our.”)
NTurner and Hanna noted how unusual it is in the Epistles for “Jesus” to take the definite article. They suggested that it almost has the force of “this,” referring back to the same Jesus who, in v.6, mediates the glory of God to us.
OThe Geneva, ESV, and NLT followed the plural (“bodies”) from the Vulgate (and Tichendorf, who followed the Sinaiticus) rather than the singular from all the other the Greek (and Syriac and Coptic) editions here.
PCalvin was quite alone in his objection to interpreting this articular participle as a substantive (“the living” or “who live”), and his assertion that it be translated temporally (“while we live”) is at variance with the grammar, as Calvin himself appears to have inadvertently admitted by translating it “the living” at the end of his argument against it!
QNIV,
NET, and NLT followed the Peshitta with “body,” instead of the
Greek (and Latin and Coptic) “flesh.”
“There
is no contempt for the
body either here or elsewhere in the New Testament, such as we find
in the idealism of the Greek philosophers and in the cognate dualism
of the Docetic (Gnostic) cult which threatened the Church in the
first century. The body is respected as coming from God's creative
hand, and therefore as an honourable and integral part of man as God
intended him to be.” ~P.
E. Hughes, 1962 AD
RThis is the reading of the majority of Greek manuscripts (the oldest dating to the 9th century) and of the Greek Orthodox and Textus Receptus editions of the GNT. However, all the contemporary critical editions of the GNT follow 18 manuscripts (including all 6 manuscripts dated before the 9th century AD) which read without the word, and the ancient Syriac, Coptic, and Latin versions do not have this word either. This word does not affect the English translation because it is untranslatable into English (unless one wants to render it with the cumbersome phrase “on the one hand”); the only thing it does is emphasize that the conjunction (which could possibly be construed additively “and”) is certainly contrastive (“but”), but the structure of the grammar and context already tend toward the same conclusion, so it makes no difference in meaning.