Translation & Sermon by
Nate Wilson for Christ The Redeemer Church, Manhattan, KS, 9 November
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.
Read my translation of the passage, starting at the last verse of chapter 4. 2 Corinthians 4:18 We are not keeping in our sights the things which are seen but rather the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are for a time, but the things which are unseen are eternal. For we know that whenever our earthly house of temporary-residence is undone, we have a building from God, a non-man-made, eternal house in the heavens, but indeed, in this one we groan, longing to be fully-clothed with our tenancy from heaven, for then indeed, we will be found not naked since we will be clothed. But indeed, we who are in the temporary residence groan while being weighted-down, on account of which we do not want to be unclothed, but rather fully-clothed, in order that proneness-to-death might be swallowed down by the life. Now, the One who fashioned us for this very thing is God, who gave to us the down-payment of the Spirit. We always have courage, therefore, and know that while we are at home in the body, we are away from home from the Lord’s [perspective]. For, it is by faith that we are walking, not by sight.
Verse 1 starts with the word “for,” which links it to the end of chapter 4. The reason why we know we have a home in heaven is “because” our gaze is fixed on Christ at the right hand of God, we are paying attention to Christ’s words to us, and He told us He is preparing a place for us in heaven, so we know it is there!
Two nights ago, I slept in a tent on a camp-out.
The tent comes with stakes which can be driven into the ground to hold the floor steady and poles that can hold up the roof.
It was a nice outing to spend some time outdoors and see and smell and feel the beautiful autumn weather (although last time I camped there, a thunderstorm blew down our tents and soaked us with rain!)
Tents aren’t made to be all that sturdy; they aren’t made to be a permanent dwelling. They’re made to be easily pitched and struck to offer temporary shelter. When I left camp yesterday, I just collapsed the roof poles, pulled out the ground stakes, rolled up my tent, and I was off to my real home.
After a night of camping, I had had enough of sleeping on hard earth in a flimsy tent with no heat or indoor plumbing. I packed my tent into the car, and I became a man on a mission to get back to my heated home where I could take a nice, hot shower and sleep on a nice, thick mattress!
But not even that house is permanent; it’s not my final destination. 2 Corinithians 5 tells Christians what we can expect at the end of our earthly life – what our permanent and eternal destination is, and it is glorious in heaven! Listen to what Paul and Timothy teach us about our destiny as followers of Jesus.
First off, they tell us that our flesh-and-bone body is temporary.
The Bible describes it as a tent which can be pitched and camped in, then taken down (cf. Isa. 38:12, LXX). Remember, Paul made tents for a living in Corinth, so the analogy of the tents he made to our temporal bodies would be very concrete.
This tent houses our eternal soul for now, but one day, it will “be dissolved/destroyed/torn down,” and, as Paul explained already in 1 Corinthians 15, our soul will then be re-invested with a body designed by God for eternal life: “The resurrection of the dead is... like this: sown in perishableness, raised in imperishableness; sown in dishonor, raised in glory; sown in weakness, raised in power; sown a soulish body, raised a spiritual body… [F]lesh and blood is not able to inherit God's kingdom, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable... we all will be made different, in an instant, in the glance of an eye, in the final bugle-call... the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be made different, for it is necessary for this perishibleness to invest itself in imperishableness, and this mortality to invest itself in immortality.” (1 Cor. 15:42-53, NAW)
Paul is also quoting Jesus’ own words. In Mark 14:58, Jesus said, “I will undo this man-made temple, and in three days, I will build another made without hands.” (NAW)
He was speaking of His own body, which God the Father raised from the dead and endued with the power to pass through locked doors, fly up into heaven, and who knows what all else!
Jesus was the “firstfruits,” the “firstborn from among the dead,” and the first to get a resurrection body,
but followers of Jesus will experience the same thing. Just as Jesus received in His resurrection a human body designed by God for eternal life, so shall we1, whenever He returns.
This “house” is described in 2 Corinthians 5:1 as “not-hand-made” (that is, made by God, not man-made), “eternal,” and “in the heavens.” The Bible elaborates on this in many places:
Job 19:26 “And after my skin is destroyed, this I know, That in my flesh I shall see God.” (NKJV)
Jesus said in John 14:2-3 “In My Father's house are many mansions2; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also,” and in Luke 20:36 “nor can they die anymore, for they are equal to the angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.” (NKJV)
The apostle Paul added in 1 Thessalonians 4:17 “... we shall always be with the Lord,” characterizing that life as one of “...glory, honor, and immortality” (in Romans 2:7), and explaining it in Colossians 1:5 as “...the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel.” (NKJV)
The Apostle Peter added in 1 Peter 1:3-5 “Blessed is God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, in accordance with His [having] a bunch of mercy, re-birthed us into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead into an imperishable and undefiled and unfading inheritance which has been preserved in the heavens for y'all's disposal - y'all who are protected by God's power through faith for the purpose of a prepared salvation to be revealed during the final time.” (NAW)
And the verb “have” is present tense – that heavenly body is already ours, even though the time to use it will be in the future3.
Several commentators I respect saw this passage as speaking to Paul’s attitude toward the intermediate state between when we die and the time when Jesus returns and clothes us in heavenly bodies4. I honestly don’t see it; it seems to me that the perspective is entirely from this body and this life, expressing a longing for the heavenly body and the heavenly life, with no substantial comment on the state between death and resurrection.
John Calvin remarked, “It is not certain, whether he means by this term a state of blessed immortality, which awaits believers after death, or the incorruptible and glorious body, such as it will be after the resurrection. In whichever of these senses it is taken, it will not be unsuitable; though I prefer to understand it as meaning, that the blessed condition of the soul after death is the commencement of this building, and the glory of the final resurrection is the consummation of it.”
But for now we “dwell in houses of clay” (Job 4:19) - “in this tent” (2 Peter 1:13); “we have this treasure in ceramic5 pots” (2 Cor. 4:7). But because we know that Jesus has secured for us this eternal future, “we don’t fault-out, even though our outer self is perishing” (2 Cor. 4:16, NAW).
Last week, I visited an elderly church member who shared with me how hard it is to watch a loved one suffer the diseases of old age, how it is like descending into hell to enter that locked memory care unit and see all those broken, suffering people wandering around.
I also noticed how he winced with pain because of the brokenness of his own physical body. He has lost the use of the fingers of his right hand, and the nerves are messed up in his other hand such that everything feels like sandpaper to the touch.
Whenever I feel like complaining because my back hurts, I think of how cheerfully he endures much worse, and it helps me not complain so much, but the truth is, we are groaning in these earthly bodies.
The Bible can can say it’s “lightweight” in comparison to “eternal glory,” and the Bible can say that our afflictions are “working out an eternal weight of glory,” and these things are true, but it doesn’t change the fact that things still hurt in this life and make us groan.
Paul and Timothy state in verse 2 that it is normal for Christians to “groan in our earthly” body; it’s normal to long for “our house/habitation/dwelling from heaven.”
The more you pay attention to the unseen kingdom of God, the more “eager” your “desire” will be for it. (That’s one reason why Jesus taught us to pray for His “kingdom to come”!)
And, it seems, in God’s providence, the older we get, the more we groan under the brokenness of our earthly bodies, and the easier it is to long for heaven!
Maybe it’s analagous to me, after I had gone tent-camping, when I was feeling achy from sleeping on the ground and yucky from not having had a shower, and I just wanted to go home to my real home!
Later Paul would write along the same lines in
Romans 7:24 “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?” (NKJV)
and Romans 8:22-23 “For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.” (NKJV)
I pray that this longing grows within all of you as the truth becomes more and more firmly impressed upon you that when Jesus returns, your “perishable,” “mortal” body will “put on “immortality” and “imperishableness” (1 Cor. 15:54)6.
And when that happens, you will no longer be vulnerable to exposure. You will be in a stormproof house, not a leaky tent anymore that gets old and breaks down.
In verse 3, Paul and Timothy compare our condition before we get that imperishable body from God, to being “naked.”
Once clothed with that “building from God, not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” - that “heavenly dwelling,” we will be decked out in the ultimate clothing, and will not be naked or exposed or vulnerable ever again!
It will be better than any fancy suit that any comic book superhero ever wore!
Jesus also mentioned it in Revelation 3:5ff “He who overcomes shall be clothed7 in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels… 18 I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.” (NKJV, cf. 16:15)
Those “white garments” are the righteousness of Christ which can be bought “without money and without cost” (in the words of Isa. 55) by all who come to Him for eternal life.
Isaiah 61:10 “I will be extremely glad in Yahweh; my soul will rejoice in my God, for he has caused me to be clothed in garments of salvation, with a cloak of righteousness He has covered me, like the bridegroom executes the office of a priest beautifully and like the bride puts on8 her instruments.” (NAW)
But for now, we are still living in this temporary world, in the paper-thin walls of this earthly tent with its tent poles that so easily collapse.
The “burden” mentioned in verse 4 is the same root-word for the “weighty burden” that Paul and Timothy experienced in Ephesus in chapter 1 verse 8: “...in Asia... we were burdened/ 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.” (2 Cor. 1:8-10, NAW)
And yet, that word for “weighty burden” is also the same root-word for the “far more exceeding weight of glory” (in chapter 4 verse 17) which “is being worked out” through our comparatively-lightweight burdens that make us groan temporarily now.
Also, remember how the verses before that in chapter 4 described this “mortality” – this “proneness-to-death” which will be “swallowed by life:” 2 Cor. 4:7-11 “But we have this treasure in ceramic pots in order that the abundance of power might be of God and not out of ourselves. We are stressed in every way, but not constrained, unable to proceed, but not out of the process, persecuted, but not left behind, thrown down, but not destroyed. 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. 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 [mortal] flesh.” (NAW)
Here in chapter 5 verse 4, we see more of how this proneness to death will be swallowed by life. It will involve the dissolution of our earthly body and the full and glorious putting-on of a new and better body custom-made by God for you!
This is what Paul had already written in 1 Corinthians 15:54 “and whenever this perishableness invests itself in imperishableness and this mortality invests itself in immortality, then the written word will come into being, ‘Death was swallowed down into victory.’” (NAW, cf. Rom. 8:11 )
- which is probably a quote from Isaiah 25:8 “He has swallowed up death for always; and Lord Yahweh will wipe away tears from all faces, and the shame of His people He will take away from over all the earth, for Yahweh has spoken.” (NAW)
This is the ending we have to look forward-to if we are God’s people.
We look forward to the time when death (the “last enemy”) is conquered completely, such that no one will ever die again (1 Cor. 15:26), and our “mortality” gets “swallowed up” in the consumation of eternal “life.”
Our temporary physical body will be undone, and God will equip our soul with an eternal, heavenly body which will be able to enjoy eternal life to the fullest, in ways we can only dream of, as Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 2:9-10 “... ‘What eye did not see, and ear did not hear, and [what] did not come upon the heart of mankind,’ what God prepared for those who love Him, God yet revealed to us through the Spirit…” (NAW)
So, you are not a random association of matter and energy moving aimlessly through the void. You are a special creation of a personal God Who calls you to walk in relationship with Him and Who makes plans for your life that are “bigger than anything you can ask or think” (Eph. 3:20).
“Therefore we do not fault-out, but rather, even though our outer person is decaying, the inner one is being renewed day by day, for the lightness of our stress currently fashions an eternal weight of glory in us beyond measure to the nth degree!” (2 Cor. 4:16-17, NAW) Even our current stresses are part of the “work” that God is doing to “prepare/ make us” for His purpose! It’s the same Greek word in both 4:17 and 5:5.
Ephesians 2:10 “For we are His workmanship, created9 in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” (NKJV, cf. Isa. 29:23)
And how do we know that God has such a plan and is really working it out in our lives? Believers in Jesus know it because He “gave to us the down-payment/earnest/pledge/guarantee of the Spirit.”
All the Greek manuscripts place the definite article (“the”) before the word “pledge” in verse 5 (“the pledge of the Spirit”), but for some reason, the 1971 edition of the New American Standard Bible changed it to an indefinite article (“a pledge”), and every English translation since then followed suit, but I’m going to buck that trend.
The Holy Spirit is THE down-payment sealing God’s ownership of those He bought with Christ’s blood
and is THE guarantee that more of God’s fellowship with us is yet to come.
We already read this back at the end of chapter 1: “Now, the One who confirms10 us together with y'all into the Anointed One – and the One who anointed us – is God. He is also also the One who sealed us and the One who gave the11 down-payment of the Spirit into our hearts.” (2 Corinthians 1:21-22, NAW, cf. Rom. 8:23 , 1 John 3:24)
Paul explains it more in the book of Ephesians. Ephesians 1:11-14 “In [Christ] also we were allotted, being predestined according to the purpose of the One who is working12 all things according to the counsel of His will, Resulting in us (the ones having first hoped in the Christ) being into praise of His glory, In whom also you having heard the word of the truth – the good news of your salvation, in whom also you having believed, were sealed in the Holy Spirit of the promise, Who is the13 down-payment of the inheritance of us into redemption of His possession into praise of His glory…. 4:30 the Holy Spirit of God in whom y'all were sealed unto the day of redemption.” (NAW)
That immortal body waiting in heaven for you, as well as your very soul itself, as well as the deposit of the Holy Spirit given to you is all part of God’s plan for your life which He has been working on since before He created the world (Eph. 1:4).
You haven’t come yet to the end of God’s plans for you. You haven’t seen anywhere near the fruition of them.
The fact that God has a good plan, and the fact that the Holy Spirit is with you mean that you have much more to look forward to as a Christian!
Most English versions interpret the end of verse 6 in terms of being “absent/away from the Lord,” but other scriptures are emphatic that we are never actually “away from” the Lord:
Matthew 28:20 Jesus said, “I am with you always,”
Psalm 139:7 David said, “where can I flee from Your presence? [Anywhere I go] You are with me”
Philippians 4:5 Paul said, “the Lord is near,”
2 John 1:3 John said, “the Lord is with you” (cf. 2 Cor. 13:14, 2 Thess 3:18, 2 Tim. 4:22),
so I suggest that the end of verse 6 means that “from the Lord’s [perspective], we are away from our [heavenly] home” while we are living in our earthly body. This allows for a more consistent translation of the two Greek participles for “being at home” and “being away from home.”
We have a decaying body right now on this earth, and we also have an imperishable body waiting for us in heaven, so we can be both “at home” and “not at home” at the same time, depending on whether we are looking at it from the perspective of ourselves on earth or the perspective of God in heaven.
But knowing these outcomes of heavenly life in a heavenly body in fellowship with the God of heaven, Paul and Timothy say, “we have courage/confidence/boldness14.”
This word for “courage/confidence” shows up in the apocrypha15 in the context of people courageously facing torture and death for their faith,
and it shows up again in Hebrews 13:5-6 “[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)
So, it is the kind of courage that says, “I’m not afraid of what man can do to me because the Lord is my ally. If people kill me for sharing the good news about Jesus, then it’s no great loss to me. I’ve got a better body in heaven and a life that will never end!”
Now, this does not mean we should be reckless.
Jesus said in Matthew 10:16 that we should “...be wise as serpents and harmless as doves,” so that means not taking unwise risks that God warns us against (for instance, in the Proverbs),
but it does mean we can take more risks than someone who believes that “you only go around once,”
and those risks we do take should be along the same lines of those the Apostles took to “go into all the world to make disciples” of Jesus Christ (Matt. 28:19).
Paul wrote later in Philippians 1:21-25 “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain... For I am hard pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ16, which is far better. Nevertheless to remain in the flesh is more needful for you. And being confident17 of this, I know that I shall remain and continue18 with you all for your progress and joy of faith” (NKJV)
Verse 7 doesn’t actually conclude the thought of Paul, but I am going to pause there.
Verse 7 reminds us, that all these glorious outcomes which believers in Jesus anticipate are not visible to the human eye. They are all taken “on faith.”
We haven’t actually seen them, but we believe they are truly our future (Heb. 11:1, 1 Pet. 1:8),
so that influences the risks we are willing to take – the steps outside of our comfort zone that we will be willing to make for the sake of the kingdom of God. “We walk by faith, not by sight.”
It’s the same thing that chapter four closed with: 2 Corinthians 4:18 “[W]e do not look at the things which are seen19, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” (NKJV)
So, let us “live on the basis of faith”20 (Heb. 10:38)
Believing that when Jesus returns, we will get a new, heavenly body, custom-made by God in which we will enjoy life forever with Him,
Let us groan with desire for that heavenly life – that heavenly home that will not leave us vulnerable to exposure,
Looking forward to life swallowing up all that remains of death,
Believing that God has a plan that He is working out for you for your good,
Enjoying the presence of the Holy Spirit, in the here-and-now, which God has deposited with you, while looking forward to being at home with Jesus in heaven,
AND taking godly risks to go into all the world and make disciples, knowing that Jesus “will be with you always, even until the end of the age.” (Matt. 28:20)
ByzantineB |
NAW |
KJVC |
RheimsD |
MurdockE |
CopticF |
1 Οἴδαμεν γὰρG ὅτι ἐὰνH ἡ ἐπίγειος ἡμῶν οἰκία τοῦ σκήνουςI καταλυθῇ, οἰκοδομὴν ἐκ Θεοῦ ἔχομεν, οἰκίαν ἀχειροποίητον αἰώνιον ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖςJ. |
1 For we know that whenever our earthly house of temporary-residence is undone, we have a building from God, a non-man-made, eternal house in the heavens, |
1 For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. |
1 For we know, if our earthly house of this habitation be dissolved, that we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in heavenX. |
1
For we know that, if our house
on earth—this
of the |
1
For we know that if ourB/theS house
of our dwelling-place
[which is onB/ ofS] the earth should
be [pulled
downB/
dissolvedS],
we have a building |
2 καὶL γὰρM ἐν τούτῳ στενάζομεν, τὸ οἰκητήριονN ἡμῶν τὸ ἐξ οὐρανοῦ ἐπενδύσασθαιO Pἐπιποθοῦντες, |
2 but indeed, in this one we groan, longing to be fully-clothed with our tenancy from heaven, |
2 For X in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: |
2 For in this also we groan, desiring to be clothed upon with our habitation that is from heaven. |
2
|
2 For [XB/alsoS] in this we groan, yearning to [clothe ourselvesB/be clothedS] with our dwelling-place which is the from the heaven: |
3 for then indeed, we will be found not naked since we will be clothed. |
3 If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. |
3 Yet so that we be found clothed, not naked. |
3 if indeed, when clothed, we shall not be found naked. |
3 then if we should [clothe ourselvesB/be clothedS] [they will not find usB/we will not be foundS] naked. |
|
4 καὶ γὰρ οἱ ὄντες ἐν τῷS σκήνει στενάζομεν, βαρούμενοι ἐφ᾿ ᾧT οὐ θέλομεν ἐκδύσασθαι, ἀλλ᾿ ἐπενδύσασθαι, ἵνα καταποθῇ τὸ θνητὸν ὑπὸ τῆς ζωῆς. |
4 But indeed, we who are in the temporary residence groan while being weighted-down, on account of which we do not want to be unclothed, but rather fully-clothed, in order that proneness-to-death might be swallowed down by the life. |
4
For X we that
are in this
tabernacle
do groan, being burdened: not |
4 For we also, who are in this tabernacle, do groan, being burthened; because X we would not be unclothed, but clothed upon, that that which is mortal may be swallowed up by life. |
4
For X |
4 For also we, namely theyB/ weS who are in this dwelling-place, groan, being burdened; not for that which we wish to [strip ourselvesB/ be strippedS] of [it], but to [clothe ourselves anewB/ be clothedS], that [that which diethB /the deathS] might be swallowed up by the life. |
5 ὁ δὲ Uκατεργασάμενος ἡμᾶς εἰς αὐτὸ τοῦτο Θεός, ὁ καὶV δοὺς ἡμῖν τὸνW ἀρραβῶνα τοῦ Πνεύματος. |
5 Now, the One who fashioned us for this very thing is God, who gave to us the down-payment of the Spirit. |
5 Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. |
5 Now he that maketh us for this very thing is God, who hath given us the pledge of the Spirit, |
5 And he that prepareth us for this Xthing, is God: who hath given us the earnest of [his] Spirit. |
5 But he who worked us for this X is God, who gave to us th[is]B/theS earnest of the spirit. |
6 Θαρροῦντες οὖν πάντοτε καὶY εἰδότες ὅτι ἐνδημοῦντεςZ ἐν τῷ σώματι ἐκδημοῦμεν ἀπὸAA τοῦ Κυρίου· |
6 We always have courage, therefore, and know that while we are at home in the body, we are away from home from the Lord’s [perspective]. |
6 Therefore we are always confident, X knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: |
6 Therefore having always confidence, X knowing that while we are X X in the body we are absent from the Lord. |
6 Therefore, because we know and are persuaded, that while we lodge in the body we sojourn away from our Lord |
6 Being assured [of heartS] X always, and knowing that [being hereB/ abidingS] in the body we are absent from the Lord; |
7 For, it is by faith that we are walking, not by sight. |
7 (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) |
7 (For we walk by faith [and] not by sight.) |
7 (for we walk by faith, [and] not by sight;) |
7
for we [walk |
1Chrysostom shied away from describing it as a new body, positing that it was a transformed body, “clothed over with incorruption.” Calvin said that he disagreed with Chrysostom on this point.
2Μοναὶ, more literally “residences,” cf. οἰκοδομὴν in 2 Cor. 5:1.
3A.T. Robertson’s argument, in his Grammar, that this present-tense verb should be interpreted as “futuristic” (a position also apparently held by Joseph Waite in his 1881 commentary) is undermined by his assertion in his Word Pictures that the present tense means, “We possess the title to it now by faith.” Vincent commented on this present tense: “The building from God is an actual possession in virtue of the believer's union with Christ. It is just as we say of a minor, before he comes into possession of his property...”
4For instance, Phillip Hughes: “The Apostle's language indicates that it is still his earnest desire to be alive at the time of Christ's return so that, without undergoing the interposition of death and the intermediate state, he may experience the instantaneous change (I Cor. 15:51f.) effected by the putting on of the abode from heaven over the earthly tent-dwelling.”
5ὀστρακίνοις, compare with ἐπίγειος in 2 Cor. 5:1.
61 Cor. 15:53-54 “for it is necessary for this perishibleness to invest itself in imperishableness, and this mortality to invest itself in immortality, and whenever this perishableness invests itself in imperishableness and this mortality invests itself in immortality, then the written word will come into being, ‘Death was drunk down into victory.’” (NAW)
7Περιβαλλω, a synonym to ενδύσασθαι in 2 Cor. 5.
8LXX κατεκόσμησέν, cf. ἐπενδύσασθαι in 2 Cor. 5:4.
9ποίημα, κτισθέντες, synonymous with κατεργασάμενος (“wrought/prepared/fashioned”) in 2 Cor. 5:5.
10Βεβαιῶν, synonymous with κατεργασάμενος (“wrought/prepared/fashioned”) in 5:5.
11All the English versions since the 1970’s (except the NLT) do the same thing here that they did in 5:5, changing the Greek definite article to an English indefinite article (“a pledge”).
12Ἐνεργοῦντος, a synonym to κατεργασάμενος (“wrought/prepared/fashioned”) in 2 Cor. 5:5.
13Here, there is no definite article in the Greek, but the Geneva, KJV, NKJV, NET, and ESV all insert a definite article in their English translation!
14Calvin commented that it is especially the earnest of the Spirit which inspires this confidence.
154 Mac. 13:11 & 17:4, as well as in the apocryphal addendum to Daniel 6:17 which is the same sort of context.
16τὸ ἀναλῦσαι καὶ σὺν Χριστῷ εἶναι, compare to 2 Cor. 5:6 ...ἐνδημοῦντες ἐν τῷ σώματι ἐκδημοῦμεν ἀπὸ τοῦ κυρίου.
17From πειθω, a synonym to Θαρροῦντες in 2 Cor. 5:6, though perhaps with a more intellectual than emotional emphasis in the boldness.
18μενῶ καὶ συμπαραμενῶ, cf. 2 Cor. 5:6 ...ἐνδημοῦντες ἐν τῷ σώματι...
19σκοπούντων ἡμῶν τὰ βλεπόμενα, compare to εἴδους in 2 Cor. 5:7
20ἐκ πίστεως ζήσεται, compare to διὰ πίστεως... περιπατοῦμεν in 2 Cor. 5:7.
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.
FThis is a conflation of the English translations of the Northern Bohairic and Southern Sahidic traditions published by Oxford Clarendon Press in 1905 and 1920 respectively, neither of which named the translator or editor. The beginnings and ends of multiple-word variants are marked out with square brackets, whereas single-word variations are merely marked by a forward-slash, and all are marked with a superscript “S” for Sahidic or “B” for Bohairic. The editor of the Sahidic compilation did not have manuscripts for 7b through the end of the chapter, and it does not appear that subsequently-discovered manuscripts have been translated into English, so variants in that section for that tradition are not listed.
GAGNT and most English versions translate causally “for” (Louw & Nida Semantic domain #89.23). The 1984 NIV went with “Now” (L&N#91.1), but changed it to “for” in their 2011 edition. (Verse 2 also starts with the same postpositive conjunction.)
HThird class conditional of uncertainty, probably referring to the uncertainty of when we will die.
IPerhaps Paul borrowed a phrase from the Apocryphal Wisdom 9:15, but Paul is not promoting the Gnostic dualism of physical and spiritual found in that source.
JAccording to P. Hughes, Ephraem, Herveius, Aquinas, Hodge, Stanley, and Tasker interpreted this heavenly body as heaven itself, but that does not fit the text which makes the heavenly body a counterpart to the earthly one.
KThe Aramaic Peshitta preserves the plural form “heavens” which is in Greek; it was the English translator who singularized it to “heaven.”
LFor some reason, the KJV, NKJV, NET and ESV dropped this conjunction out, even though it is in all the Greek manuscripts and all the ancient versions (which seemed to translate it “also” - L&N#89.93). Geneva translated it “therefore (L&N# 89.50a), RV/ASV/NASB translated it “indeed” (L&M 89.93a), and AGNT translated it “yet” (L&M#91.12).
MAGNT and most English versions translate causally “for” (Louw & Nida Semantic domain #89.23). The NLT dropped the word (L&N#91.1), and the NIV combined it with the kai and translated it “meanwhile” (which is not a meaning in Louw & Nida or Smith’s supplement to L&N, and this was kept in the 2011 edition). I went with “but” (L&N 9.124a in Smith’s Supplement)
NThe root of this word is oikos (“house” + terew = “to stay”?), this form is only found in the Greek Bible here, 2 Mac. 11:2, and Jude 1:6. A. T. Robertson commented that it is “used here of the spiritual body as the abode of the spirit.”
OThis passage (including v.4) is the only one in the Greek Bible with this double-prefixed verb. It occurs 146 times without the epi- prefix (mostly regarding “clothing,” so the additional prefix could be an intensifier – “completely/fully/ really” – or as the NKJV and ESV translate it the second time it appears in v.4 but not the first time it appears here, “further clothed”), 4x without the en- prefix (all related to “sunset”), and 29x without either prefix (also mostly describing sunset). Vincent noted in his Word Pictures that the noun form appears in John 21:7 as a “fisherman’s coat.”
PVincent noted that this participle is “explanatory” and also that “The compounded preposition ἐπί does not mark the intensity of the desire, but its direction.”
QThis is the reading of almost every manuscript (including the 4 oldest-known manuscripts from the 3rd-5th centuries AD), therefore it is also the reading of Tischendorf’s and Tregelles’ critical editions, but three uncials from the 7th-9th centuries AD and Chrysostom’s homily substitute the εκ- prefix for the εν- prefix, changing the meaning to the nonsensical (“for then, being unclothed, we will be found not naked”), Chrysostom rejected that reading, but, incomprehensibly, the Nestle-Aland and the UBS critical editions preferred that reading! Moulton’s Grammar attempted to explain it away by saying that we can ignore the meanings of prefixes, but that is really grasping at straws; nobody ignores the meanings of the prefixes in the next verse. Thankfully, not even the most progressive of English versions dared to accept this nonsense; they all go with the traditional reading (as the Latin, Syriac, and Coptic versions did before them).
RVincent
(1886): “The word was used by Greek writers of disembodied
spirits.” Plummer in the next decade and Robertson half a
century later agreed, but that doesn’t seem to me to be what Paul
is talking about.
J. Waite’s commentary in 1881 (and G. Vos
and P. Hughes a couple of generations later) suggested that Paul was
hoping not to experience the intermediate state of disembodiment,
but for Jesus to inaugurate the resurrection before Paul died, so
that “his assumption of the new body will be a superinvestment, a
process like that of putting on an upper garment.”
Geoffrey
Wilson noted in 1979 that, “This statement would also have special
point for those in Corinth who denied the resurrection of the body
[1 Cor 15.12]. These ‘gnostics’ maintained that the resurrection
was past already, apparently claiming that they had experienced it
in conversion or baptism [2 Tim 2.17, 18]. But to Paul who made no
dualistic distinction between the soul and the body, such a bodiless
existence held no attractions, and he implicitly condemns this
denial of the Christian hope by describing it as a condition of
‘nakedness.’” My rebuttal is that his groaning and longing are
while he is in this body, not over dying and being with the Lord
without a body.
SRobertson’s Grammar suggested that this definite article is anaphoric, referring to the same “tent” of v.1.
TThe
Textus Receptus edition of the Greek New Testament (GNT)
changed the relative pronoun ‘ω (“in
which”) to ειδη (a form of the verb for “seeing”). No
known Greek manuscript does this, but it did not make enough of a
change to the English translation of the KJV (which is a translation
of the Textus Receptus) for Scrivner to come up with
different text from the reading of all the Greek manuscripts when he
back-translated the KJV into Greek, so no harm done.
As for the
meaning, A.T. Robertson translated it “because” in his
Grammar, Moulton’s Grammar
= “in view of the fact,” and Moule’s Idiom Book = “inasmuch
as.”
UVincent noted that the prefix to this verb (kata-) is “indicating an accomplished fact.”
VThis is the reading of the majority of Greek manuscripts dating as far back as the 9th Century (one of the four 9th century uncials, although it is also the reading of corrections to a 7th and a 4th Century manuscript, but the time of the correction is not known), and thus is the reading of the Textus Receptus and Greek Orthodox editions of the Greek New Testament, and was passed on in the Geneva, KJV, NKJV, and NLT English versions, but this conjunction is not to be found in any of the ancient versions, or in the contemporary critical editions of the GNT, or in the contemporary English versions which follow them. This is because it is omitted in 9 manuscripts (including all five of the oldest-known ones, and all but one of the uncials dating from the 3rd to the 9th century).
WAll the Greek manuscripts place the definite article (“the”) before both “Spirit” and “pledge” (“the pledge of the Spirit”), but for some reason, the NASB changed the definite article before “pledge” to an indefinite article (“a pledge”) by 1971, and every English translation since then (even the NKJV!!) followed suit. (See footnotes on v.5 for more analysis of the inconsistencies of English translations where this Greek phrase occurs in chapter 1 with the definite article and in Ephesians 1 without the definite article.) Incidentally, the definite article before “Spirit” was interpreted by the Peshitta and NLT pronomially as “his Spirit,” which is a reasonable interpretation of a Greek definite article.
XThe Peshitta does have wording which matches the Greek “for this very thing,” but it just didn’t come through in Murdock’s English version. (Lamsa brought it out in his English translation, though.)
YThis conjunction is dropped out of the Vulgate, KJV, NKJV, and ESV. It is translated “and” in RV, ASV/NASB, NIV, NET, as a concessive in Geneva and NLT (“though”), and as a causal by Calvin (“because”).
ZThis passage (including verses 8 & 9) is the only one in the Greek Bible with this verb with the en- prefix or its opposite with the ek- prefix. It occurs, however with the apo- prefix in Jesus’ parables when a man “went abroad/to a foreign country” (Matt. 21:33, 25:14-15, Mark 12:1, Luke15:13 and 20:9), and with the epi- prefix to denote citizens or residents in Acts 2:10 & 17:21. The root is related to δεω (“to bind”), emoting boundaries, family bonds, and domains.
AAMost English versions interpret this preposition in terms of being away “from” (Louw & Nida Semantic domain #89.122) the Lord, but other scriptures are emphatic that we are never actually “away from” the Lord (viz. Matt. 28:20, Psalm 139:7, Phil 4:5, 2 Cor. 13:14, 2 Thess 3:18, 2 Tim. 4:22, 2 John 1:3), so I suggest it could mean concerning/with regard to/from the perspective of the Lord (L&N#90.23a in Smith’s Supplement). This allows for a more consistent translation of the word with the en- prefix (“at home”) and the ek- prefix (“away from home from [the perspective] of the Lord.”)
ABAGNT labeled this preposition with L&N#90.8 “by the instrumentality of,” but Turner’s Grammar interpreted it as “with” (indicating manner), which is not listed in L&N or Smith’s Supplement for δια.
ACVincent (following the old Latin commentators and followed by Robertson) argued that this should be translated “appearance” (species) rather than “sight.” Calvin seemed to appreciate “appearance” but wrote that “sight” would be easier to understand.