Translation & Sermon by
Nate Wilson for Christ The Redeemer Church, Manhattan, KS, 26 Apr
2026
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. Omitting greyed-out text should
reduce read-aloud time to about 40
minutes.
In chapters 8-9, Paul focused on making arrangements for the churches in Macedonia and Corinth to give a gift to the persecuted church in Jerusalem, but in chapter 10 he swings back to his concern, introduced in the earlier chapters of 2 Corinthians, of dealing with false teachers who were undermining his ministry.
Read my translation of the
passage:
Now I, Paul, urge y’all, in consideration of the
gentleness and graciousness of the Anointed One (I who am humble
with y’all in person, but courageous toward y’all when away), I
therefore plead that, when I arrive, I not [have] to be courageous
with the confidence with which I’m reckoning to venture upon some
who reckon us to be walking according to flesh. For, although we
walk around in flesh, it is not according to flesh that we do
combat, because the weapons of our combat are not fleshly but rather
are [made] powerful by God for taking down of strongholds: by us
taking down reckonings and every lofty thing that raises itself up
against the knowledge of God, and by us taking captive every thought
into the obedience of the Anointed One, and by us keeping in
readiness to execute justice against all disobedience, whenever
y’all’s obedience is fulfilled.
Verse 1 opens with a special request, based upon the meekness and gentleness of Christ.
Most English version translate “by,” as though Christ’s character were the means by which Paul exhorted, but I think rather this preposition gives us the reason for this request which he will articulate in verse 2.
The prophets foretold that the Messiah would be “meek/humble/gentle:”
Psalm 45:4 “...parade Your majesty on the basis of truth, humility, and righteousness. Then Your right hand will show you awesome things!” (NAW)
Isaiah 40:11 “...He will lead gently1.” ... 42:3 “a bruised reed He will not break, and a dim wick He will not extinguish; He will cause judgment to come out to truth.” (NAW)
And Jesus referred to Himself in the same terms:
Matt. 11:29 “Start taking my yoke upon yourselves and start learning from me, because I am gentle and humble in the heart, and you will find rest to your souls.” (NAW)
Matthew 21:5 “Y'all start telling the daughter of Zion, Look, your king comes to you meek and having been mounted upon a donkey and a colt, the foal of a donkey.” (NAW, cf. Zech. 9:9)
And throughout the epistles of Paul, James, and Peter, Christians are exhorted to embody this Christlike “meekness/gentleness/humility:”
It’s one of the fruits of the Spirit in Galat. 5:23, so it comes to us from God Himself.
“[H]umility… gentleness, and patience” are how we “walk worthy of our [Christian] calling” according to Ephesians 4:1-2 (NAW),
And “the new man … chosen by God…” in Colossians 3:12, is to put on “compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, [and] patience...”
Furthermore, Galatians 6:1 requires us to “restore” other sinners with “gentleness,”
And Paul’s instruction to Timothy was that an elder be “gentle not quarrelsome,” for “a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle2 ... in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance…” (1 Tim. 3:3 & 2 Tim. 2:24-25, NKJV)
Peter added that, while we must be ready to defend the faith, we must do it “with meekness/gentleness and respect...” (1 Pet. 3:15, NAW)
Paul also commanded Titus to teach the people in his church “to be peaceable, gentle, showing all humility to all men.” (Titus 3:2, NKJV)
And James commanded the church to “receive the word with meekness,” adding that, if you are “wise,” you will be “meek” and “gentle.” (James 1:21 & 3:13, 17, NAW)
This is Christ-like character in which we must walk.
“When we find ourselves tempted or inclined to be rough and severe towards any body, we should think of the meekness and gentleness of Christ, that appeared in him in the days of his flesh, in the design of his undertaking, and in all the acts of his grace towards poor souls.” ~Matthew Henry, 1714 AD
However, as 20th Century commentator Phillip Hughes noted, “The popular misconception that meekness and gentleness are incompatible with sternness is refuted by the example of Christ Himself, who not only could imperiously drive the grasping money-changers out of the temple with a scourge (Jn. 2:14ff.), but could also denounce false teachers and hypocrites in the severest possible terms (cf. 23). Such severity did not annul His gentleness; on the contrary, it was generated by the loving depths of His compassion for the lost… So, too, here Christlike meekness and gentleness must not be misunderstood as though they are incongruous with sternness in refuting the propaganda of false teachers...”
Paul characterizes himself as “humble/base/lowly/meek/timid with y’all in person/presence/ when face [to face] but bold toward you when away/absent.”
Paul was a non-resident pastor, so that’s why he was absent sometimes; he was out-of-town planting other churches.
Verse 10 explains that this accusation of a lack of integrity on Paul’s part was a criticism leveled at Paul by the false teachers who had showed up in Corinth after Paul had gone to Ephesus. 2 Corinthians 10:10 “‘For his letters,’ they say, ‘are weighty and powerful3, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible4.’” (NKJV, cf. 1 Cor. 4:10 “...we are weak but y’all are strong...”)
They dismissed the warnings in Paul’s letters to the Corinthians by saying, “Aww, that’s just Paul. He talks big smack in his letters, but he’s a pushover in person. Don’t let his letters get to you; just ignore them. He worries too much about idolatry and sexual immorality and greed – they’re just not that big a deal! He won’t really do anything about these things. He’s like a little yappy dog – ‘all bark and no bite.’ And he only barks from a safe distance!”
A pastor being gentle and patient with sinners with the aim of their redemption can look to outsiders like compromise, inconsistency, lack of courage, and therefore poor leadership. But these charges all stem from a misunderstanding of Christian leadership when applied to a a pastor who is following God’s character of “resisting the proud” but “giving grace to the humble” (James 4:6).
As long as a disciple is willing to be honest about his or her failings and willing to learn from you, you can extend grace to them and keep seeking for them to mature,
but as soon as someone in the position of a disciple stops being faithful, available, and teachable, then a faithful Christian leader will change tactics, just like God does, and draw hard lines and apply accountability strictly.
John Calvin commented, “[S]everity is sometimes necessary; but we must always set out with gentleness, and persevere in it, so long as the hearer shows himself tractable. Severity is the extreme remedy. ...For as men should be drawn, as far as is in our power, rather than driven, so, when mildness proves to be ineffective with those who are hard and refractory, it then becomes necessary to resort to rigour...”
Paul’s detractors in Corinth did not understand Biblical Christian leadership.
Paul has already hinted at this in 1 Corinthians 4:21 “What do y'all want: That I should come to y'all with a rod, or in love and spirit of gentleness?” (NAW) And he will warn them again in 2 Corinthians 13:2 that time for extending grace and benefit-of-the-doubt is over: “...I write to those who have sinned before, and to all the rest, that if I come again I will not spare...” (NKJV, cf. 1 Cor. 16:22)
Verse 2 reveals that these false teachers in Corinth “reckoned/thought/regarded/suspected” [Paul and Timothy] of walking in the flesh” – that all the apostles’ talk of God was a bluff – just a way to manipulate the Corinthians through religion in order to get money and power. But nothing could have been further from the truth concerning Paul and Timothy.
As Paul already said in 2 Corinthians 1:17 “...[W]as I using dishonor? Or is it according to the flesh that I want what I want, such that saying ‘Yes, yes!’ AND ‘No, no!’ might be the case with me?” (NAW) Paul didn’t just say what people wanted him to say in order to make himself popular.
He “regard[ed] no one according to the flesh” but was an “ambassador of Christ”(2 Cor. 5:16 & 20) and narrowed his focus say only what the Holy Spirit wanted him to say.
He says it plainly in Romans 8:4 “...[We] do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” (NKJV)
Paul knew that if this slander and false teaching was not halted by the Corinthians before his return, then he himself would have to put in the long hours of exhausting work, calling out these “super-apostles” and defending himself against false accusations and chasing down rumors and re-establishing his reputation before he could move forward positively with the kingdom work of finishing the establishment of a self-sustaining church in Corinth. It would be a huge drag on his ministry. So he pleads with the Corinthians to do what they can to deal with this problem, although, at the same time, he is making his own plans to deal with it if he has to, as we also see in chapter 13 v.10 “Therefore I write these things being absent, lest being present I should use sharpness, according to the authority which the Lord has given me for edification and not for destruction.” (NKJV, cf. 13:2)
Facilitating rumors against a pastor-elder creates a huge drag on his ministry and on the progress of the church.
Often, persons who assume that spiritual leaders are walking according to flesh are walking according to flesh themselves. They don’t understand spiritual motives because they are not mature in understanding how the Holy Spirit inspires holiness; they assume everybody thinks like they think.
I have occasionally made presentations in city hall and school board meetings where non-Christians simply could not get it through their heads that I actually believed in a supernatural God or that I actually believed our community would experience blessing by aligning its laws with God’s Word. That was so unimaginable to them that they assumed instead that I hated them and was just making up religious stories as a power-play against them. They assumed I was just as angry and deceitful and manipulative as they were. That’s only natural. Only God can break us out of that natural tendency and help us to see truth more absolutely.
I’ve seen the same problem between parishioners and church pastors. In that case, it is often simply the result of immaturity rather than of being a non-Christian.
When I was a know-it-all Christian college graduate, I spent a lot of time criticizing my church pastors, but now that I have been a church pastor myself for a couple of decades, I have discovered that my pastors had a lot more things to consider in their decisions than I realized as a young man. (It reminds me of the quote attributed to Mark Twain, “When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years.” Actually, of course, it wasn’t his parents who got so much smarter over time!)
Now, church leaders are still not perfect, and it is good to discuss issues with them thoughtfully, but please be careful about criticism, and especially avoid gossip.
To “walk around in flesh” (or, as the NIV periphrastically put it, to “live in the world”) in v.3 simply means that you are a human being. God created you with bones and muscles and skin, and it is part of God’s creative design for you to walk around in them. There’s nothing wrong with that; actually it is good.
But Paul says in verse 3 that the church is in a war which is not fought using our physical bodies. What is this war/combat that Paul is talking about?
Peter explained in his first epistle:
1 Peter 2:11 “Loved ones, I am offering an encouragement like [I would to] temporary residents and pilgrims, to keep yourselves away from the fleshly desires which are at war against your soul…” (NAW)
1 Peter 4:1-2 “Therefore, since Christ suffered for y'all in flesh, y'all also must start arming5 yourselves with the same resolution, because the one who has suffered in the flesh has been stopped from sin, in order to live6 the remainder of his time in flesh no longer in the lusts of men, but rather in the will of God.” (NAW)
So, the war is over our soul, the immaterial and eternal part of us that is the core of who we are, and it is a war between the will of God and the lusts of the flesh – between what God wants and what men-apart-from-God want, and to win it requires “suffering” – denying fleshly desire to rebel against God and sin.
Paul explained in his letters to Timothy that this war between the will of God and the will of Man must be fought by “teaching” the Bible:
1 Tim. 1:18 “This charge I commit to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may wage the good warfare...” (NKJV)
2 Timothy 2:1-3 “You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” (NKJV)
I have been criticized by multiple people lately for not joining the bandwagon of Christian Nationalism and organizing our church into a militia unit. One of the reasons why I have not jumped on that bandwagon is that it tends to emphasize the physical, fleshly areas of conflict while downplaying the spiritual conflict and relationship with God.
There are plenty of good things we can do on the physical and political front to make life in this world more stable and comfortable,
but we must believe God’s Word when He tells us that the war in which He has called the church to engage is essentially a spiritual one between God and those in rebellion against God, so it is in the spiritual battle for souls to trust God and worship Him that we must prioritize our efforts.
My observation as a student of history is that only when faith and obedience to God is widespread in culture can we actually and effectively achieve the secondary goals of social order, virtue, and prosperity which benefit our fleshly life in this world. (Decreases in poverty, crime, and war tend to come after spiritual awakenings, not before.)
We need to be like David, who saw the spiritual reality behind the political confrontations and said, for instance to Goliath in 1 Samuel 17:45, “...You are coming to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I am coming to you with the name of Yahweh Commander of armies, the God of the ranks of Israel, whom you have insulted.” (NAW) Physically, the problem was that Goliath’s weaponry weighed about as much as David’s whole body did, but spiritually the problem was that Goliath was insulting God and turning God’s people away from trust in God, so David began by addressing the spiritual problem and speaking Biblical truth before any physical battle was engaged.
Paul goes from the “war” in v.3 to the “weapons” in v.4. With what do we fight this war?
Like the main battle itself, our “weapons” are “not fleshly/carnal/worldly” – in other words, they are not physical weapons like guns, bombs, and knives; they are spiritual resources.
Paul had already mentioned back in 2 Corinthians 1:12 “...that in single-mindedness and integrity from God we conducted7 ourselves – not in fleshly wisdom but rather – in the grace of God in the world and even moreso toward y'all…” “Fleshly/worldly/carnal wisdom” – coming up with solutions the way the world does – apart from God is what NOT to try to use in this war.
2 Cor. 6:7 has already mentioned what to use: “using the word of truth, using the power of God, using the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left…” (NAW)
Ephesians 6:11-18 describes these spiritual weapons even more: “Put on the whole armor/ weaponry of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit...” (NKJV) Truth, righteousness, the gospel, faith, the word of God, and prayer are the spiritual weapons with which we fight the real war as a church!
1 Thess. 5:8 adds the weapon of “love” and the armor of “the hope of salvation” to that list, and Romans 13:10-14 explains “...love is the fulfillment of the law. And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.” (NKJV)
These spiritual armaments appropriate the power of God for real success in conquering strongholds.
Paul explained early on in 1 Corinthians 1 and 2 that he was bypassing worldly power to model using the power of God:
“For the word... of the cross... is the power of God...” (1 Cor. 1:18, NAW)
“...I came proclaiming to you God's mystery, not with preeminence of words or wisdom, for I did not decide to know anything among y'all except Jesus Christ – and Him having been crucified… in order that your faith might not exist in the wisdom of men, but rather in the power of God.” (1 Cor. 2:1-5, NAW)
“It is not that we are sufficient of ourselves to reckon anything as being from ourselves, but rather our sufficiency comes out of God...” (2 Cor. 3:5, NAW)
Paul uses the same words for “taking down a stronghold” as are used in the Septuagint of Proverbs 21:22 “A wise man assaults strong cities, and demolishes the fortress in which the ungodly trusted.” (NKJV) so perhaps he had that Proverb in mind when he wrote this verse to the Corinthians.
This Greek word for “stronghold” does not appear anywhere else in the Greek New Testament, but Paul explains what he means by the parallel phrase in the next verse – v.5.
In verses 5-6, three nominative masculine plural participles describe the three ways that “the weapons of our warfare... are [made] powerful by God for taking down strongholds.”
The first is “through us destroying/demolishing/casting down imaginations,”
the second is “by us taking captive every thought,”
and the third is “by us being ready to punish all disobedience.”
First, we “take down imaginations/speculations/arguments and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God.”
Paul is describing offensive warfare: dismantling false systems of thought which stand opposed to God’s truth.
“imaginations/speculations/arguments” is the same word used in verse 2 to describe the false apostles’ “thinking/reckoning/suspecting” that Paul “walked in the flesh” and therefore that Paul was to be dismissed by the Corinthians as nothing more than a petty religious huckster.
In Romans 1:21, Paul explains how people arrive at these false reckonings, “because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” (NKJV)
And Jesus explained in Matthew 15:19 that the source of all deeds is the thoughts of the heart, “For out of the heart come evil rationalizations, murders, adulterous affairs, sexual immoralities, thefts, false testimonies, and blasphemy...” (NAW) That’s why God calls us to confront evil at the thought-level before it turns into action, and why it is important to confront EVERY false reckoning.
This confrontation of wrong thinking by speaking God’s word was what the prophets did all along: Jeremiah 4:14 “O Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness, That you may be saved. How long shall your evil thoughts lodge within you?” (NKJV)
While there is “pretense” in them, as the NIV translates it, the Greek word hupswma has more to to with being “high/lofty” than with being “deceptive.”
Job used the same word to describe wicked men as the “top of a stalk of grain.”
These are prominent things, popular things, well-supported by public opinion, yet they have raised themselves up in opposition to the knowledge of God.
“This metaphor emphasizes the defiant and mutinous nature of sin: sinful man does not wish to know God; he wishes himself to be the self-sufficient centre of his universe.” ~P. E. Hughes
I’ve been reading The Technological Society, by 20th Century Christian philosopher and sociologist Jacques Ellul. It describes how the relentless drive of improving techniques will edge out everything in life which is inefficient. His predictions of the dehumanization of mankind, the elimination of freedom and religion, the rise of a worldwide police state, and the corruption of human communications and relationships are truly alarming, but they are all based on the materialistic, anti-God belief that doing things more efficiently with more advanced technology is the chief end of man. This idea must be resisted with the warm reality of God’s love, the enjoyment of which is the true “chief end of man,” but it will require the difficult, counter-cultural work of thinking through the truth and speaking it in the face of tremendous worldly opposition.
1 Timothy 6:20 “...Guard what was committed to your trust, avoiding the profane and idle babblings and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge...” (NKJV)
The “knowledge of God” is is generally understood subjectively as our knowledge about God.
Paul spoke of it earlier in 2 Corinthians 4:6 “For the God Who said, ‘Out of darkness light shall shine!’ is the One who shone into our hearts for enlightenment of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus the Anointed One.” (NAW)
and again in Philippians 3:8 “Yet indeed 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…” (NKJV)
John 17:3 “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” (NKJV) This is the knowledge God calls us to defend, the Biblical Gospel, not the secular concept of Western Civilization.
We should keep in mind, however, that it is God who is the power behind deposing false ideas, not our own human cleverness at arguing.
Psalm 18:27 “For You Yourself [Yahweh] will cause to save a lowly people, but haughty eyes You will bring low8.” (NAW)
Isaiah 2:11-12 “The high eyes of man shall be brought low, and the lofty pride of men shall be humbled9, and Yahweh alone will be exalted in that day. For Yahweh Commander of armies has a day against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up and it shall be brought low...” (NAW)
King Nebuchadnezzar admitted in Daniel 4:37 “….those who walk in pride [the King of Heaven] is able to put down10.” (NKJV)
And Mary sang it in her “Magnificat” in Luke 1:51 “...He has scattered the proud in the imagination11 of their hearts.” (NKJV)
1 Corinthians 1:19 for it has been written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise men, and the intelligence12 of the intelligent I will replace.’” (NAW)
God will do it, so when we speak, it must be in reliance upon Him and His timing.
So, “casting down imaginations” is the first of the three ways that “the weapons of our warfare... are [made] powerful by God for taking down strongholds.” I will have to save the second and third ways (of cognitive replacement and church discipline) for the next sermon, but for now,
We know what our attitude should be as we approach this war, and that is “the meekness and gentleness of Christ.”
We know what the nature of this war is: it is not fleshly but spiritual – a battle about how to think, and
We know what our weapons are for this fight – the word of God (specifically the Gospel) and faith in the power of God to overcome the hearts of people in rebellion against Him.
“We may here observe, What opposition is made against the gospel by the powers of sin and Satan in the hearts of men. Ignorance, prejudices, beloved lusts, are Satan's strong-holds in the souls of some; vain imaginations, carnal reasonings, and high thoughts, or proud conceits, in others, exalt themselves against the knowledge of God, that is, by these ways the devil endeavours to keep men from faith and obedience to the gospel, and secures his possession of the hearts of men, as his own house or property. But then observe, The conquest which the word of God gains. These strong-holds are pulled down by the gospel as the means, through the grace and power of God accompanying it as the principal efficient cause.” ~M. Henry
ByzantineB |
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MurdockE |
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1 ΑὐτὸςG δὲ ἐγὼ Παῦλος παρακαλῶ ὑμᾶς διὰH τῆς πρᾳότητοςI καὶ ἐπιεικείαςJ τοῦ Χριστοῦ, ὃς κατὰK πρόσωπον μὲν ταπεινὸςL ἐν ὑμῖν, ἀπὼνM δὲ θαρρῶ εἰς ὑμᾶς· |
1 Now I, Paul, urge y’all, in consideration of the gentleness and graciousness of the Anointed One (I who am humble with y’all in person, but courageous toward y’all when away), |
1 Now I Paul myself beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, who in presence am base among you, but being absent am bold toward you: |
1 Now I Paul, myself beseech you, by the mildness and modesty of Christ: who in presence indeed am lowly among you, but being absent am bold toward you. |
1 Now I, Paul, beseech you, by the mildness and gentleness of the Messiah, although I am mild towards you when present, but bold towards you when absent! |
1
But
I Paul X
beseech
you through
the meekness
and the fairness
of Christ, |
2 δέομαιN δὲ τὸ μὴ παρὼν θαρρῆσαιO τῇ πεποιθήσει ᾗ λογίζομαι τολμῆσαι ἐπί τινας τοὺς λογιζομένους ἡμᾶς ὡς κατὰ σάρκα περιπατοῦντας.P |
2 I therefore plead that, when I arrive, I not [have] to be courageous with the confidence with which I’m reckoning to venture upon some who reckon us to be walking according to flesh. |
2 But I beseech you, that I may not be bold when I am present with that confidence, wherewith I think to be bold against some, which think of us [as if] we walked according to the flesh. |
2 But I beseech [youQ], that I may not be bold when I am present with that confidence wherewith I am thought to be bold, against some who reckon us [as if] we walked according to the flesh. |
2
yet I beseech
[of youR]
that, when I |
2
but I pray [for meS]
to have firmness [of heartS], not being with [you], in
thisB/theS confidence, [thisB]
with which I think to
be bold against some, these who think
of us |
3 ᾿Εν σαρκὶ γὰρ Sπεριπατοῦντες οὐ κατὰ σάρκα στρατευόμεθα· |
3 For, although we walk around in flesh, it is not according to flesh that we do combat, |
3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: |
3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. |
3
For, although we walk in the flesh, |
3
For we walkedB/-ingS |
4 τὰ γὰρ ὅπλα τῆς στρατείας Tἡμῶν οὐ σαρκικὰU, ἀλλὰ δυνατὰ τῷ ΘεῷV πρὸςW καθαίρεσινX ὀχυρωμάτωνY· |
4 because the weapons of our combat are not fleshly but rather are [made] powerful by God for taking down of strongholds: |
4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to [the] pulling down of strong holds;) |
4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty to God, unto [the] pulling down of fortifications, |
4
For the arms
of our warfare
are not [those]
of the flesh, but [those
of the] power
|
4
For the weapons of [yB]our soldiering
are not carnal, but they are powers |
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KJV |
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Murdock |
Coptic |
λογισμοὺς καθαιροῦντες5 καὶ πᾶν ὕψωμα ἐπαιρόμενον κατὰ τῆς γνώσεως τοῦ Θεοῦ, καὶ Zαἰχμαλωτίζοντες πᾶν νόημαAA εἰς τὴν ὑπακοὴν τοῦ ΧριστοῦAB, |
5 by our taking down reckonings and every lofty thing that raises itself up against the knowledge of God, and by us taking captive every thought into the obedience of the Anointed One, |
5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; |
destroying counsels, 5 And every height that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God: and bringing into captivity every understanding unto the obedience of Christ: |
5 And we demolish imaginations, and every lofty thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and subjugate all reasoning[s] to obedience to the Messiah. |
5
{unto
aB/
we areS}
hurling
down of argumentsB/
thoughtsS
and all height[sB]
which risesS/ raiseX |
6 καὶ ἐν ἑτοίμῳ ἔχοντεςAC ἐκδικῆσαιAD πᾶσαν παρακοήν, ὅταν πληρωθῇ ὑμῶν ἡ ὑπακοή. |
6 and by us keeping in readiness to execute justice against all disobedience, whenever y’all’s obedience is fulfilled. |
6 And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled. |
6 And having in readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience shall be fulfilled. |
6
And we |
6
and |
1יְנַהֵל (LXX translated this “He will comfort” παρακαλέσει)
2ἤπιον, a synonym to πρᾳό/υτητος in 2 Cor. 10:1/
3βαρεῖαι καὶ ἰσχυραί, synonyms to θαρρῶ in v.1.
4παρουσία τοῦ σώματος ἀσθενὴς... ἐξουθενημένος – synonymous with κατὰ πρόσωπον μὲν ταπεινὸς in v.1.
5‘Οπλισασθε, a preparatory step to στρατευόμεθα (“war”) in 2 Cor. 10:3.
6βιῶσαι, a similar meaning to περιπατοῦντες in 2 Cor. 10:3.
7ἀνεστράφημεν, a synonym to περιπατοῦντες in 2 Cor. 10:3.
8Ταπεινῶσαι, a synonym to καθαιροῦντες in 2 Cor. 10:4.
9Ταπεινῶσαι, a synonym to καθαιροῦντες in 2 Cor. 10:4.
10Ταπεινῶσαι, a synonym to καθαιροῦντες in 2 Cor. 10:4.
11διανοίᾳ, a synonym to λογισμοὺς in 2 Cor. 10:4.
12σύνεσιν, roughly synonymous to λογισμοὺς in 2 Cor. 10:4.
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, UBS, and Tregelles 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 my 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 brackets, with a superscript “S” for Sahidic or “B” for Bohairic. The editor of the Sahidic compilation did not have manuscripts for some verses and I have not discovered a published English translation of the subsequently-discovered manuscripts, so variants in that section for that tradition are not listed.
GVincent quoted Meyer’s comment on this emphatic subject “I Paul myself:” “Paul boldly casts into the scales of his readers the weight of his own personality over against his calumniators”. Robertson added, “It may be that at this point he took the pen from the amanuensis and wrote himself as in Gal. 6:11.” Hughes saw in it a “tone of authority” yet also the “ring of affection.”
HMost English versions translate “by,” as though Christ’s character were the means by which Paul exhorted, but I think rather this is an instance of Louw & Nida semantic domain #89.26 (“on account of (reason)”). Moule, however, thought it meant “accompaniment” here.
IThis is the spelling of the majority of Greek manuscripts (the oldest being dated to the 5th and 6th centuries) and of the Greek Orthodox and Textus Receptus editions of the Greek New Testament. Contemporary critical editions of the GNT, however replace the first omicron with an upsilon, following 7 Greek manuscripts (most notably the 4th century Vaticanus). It is merely a difference in diphthong spelling conventions over the years. It makes no difference in meaning.
JThis and Acts 24:4 are the only noun forms of this root in the GNT, with two more instances in the LXX book of Daniel, but adjectival forms are found in Phil. 4:5, 1 Tim. 3:3, Tit. 3:2, Jas. 3:17, and 1 Pet. 2:18.
KL&N cite this as a unit #83.38 meaning “in person;” other English versions translate it “when” (67.33).
LVincent commented, “This is the only passage in the New Testament in which ταπεινός lowly, bears the contemptuous sense which attaches to it in classical usage…” He then quoted Farrar’s comment: “It was easy to satirize and misrepresent a depression of spirits, a humility of demeanor, which were either the direct results of some bodily affliction, or which the consciousness of this affliction had rendered habitual. We feel at once that this would be natural to the bowed and weak figure which Albrecht Durer has represented; but that it would be impossible to the imposing orator whom Raphael has placed on the steps of the Areopagus.”
MPaul was a non-resident pastor, cf. 1 Cor. 5:3 (“For I, being away in the body…”), 2 Cor. 10:11, & 13:2 & 10.
NVincent commented: “It is doubtful whether the two words [παρακαλῶ and δέομαι] can be strictly distinguished as indicating different degrees of feeling.”
OVincent: “Θαῤῥῆσαι does not so much emphasize fearlessness as the more positive quality of cheerful confidence in the presence of difficulty and danger... In classical Greek, the kindred noun θάρσος is sometimes, though not often, used in a bad sense, audacity...”
PVincent: “I pray you that you may not make it necessary for me to show, when I am present, that official peremptoriness which I am minded to show against those who charge me with unworthy motives.”
QThis “you” was inserted by Rheims in translation; it is not in the original Latin.
R“Of you” was inserted by Murdock in translation; it is not in the original Aramaic.
SAll English translations agree with Moule that this participle is concessive.
TOne Greek manuscript, the 12th century minuscule #1505, reads “your” instead of “our,” and the Bohairic Coptic versions supports that, but no other manuscript or version supports this variant.
U“The doctrines of the gospel and discipline of the church are the weapons of this warfare…” ~M. Henry
VThe dative case of this phrase has been translated all sorts of ways. The genitive rendering of the Coptic and Peshitta and NLT (“of God”) seems inadmissible. Vincent (“in God's sight”), RV & ASV (“before God”) and NKJV (“in God”) followed the Geneva and KJV’s locative interpretation “through God.” Robertson called it a “dative of personal interest (ethical dative)...as it looks to God.” Wycliffe, Matthew Henry, the NET, and I rendered it as instrumental (“by God”). The NASB, NIV, and ESV changed it to “divine.” Henry also tipped his hat in the direction of interpreting according to the Hebrew idiom of the superlative (“very powerful”).
WRobertson considered this preposition to denote the “fitness” of our weapons for this use, but Turner and Hanna more properly considered it to denote “purpose.”
XLit. “a take-down.” The only other places outside of this verse where this noun occurs are Exod. 23:24 (dismantle idols); 1 Ma. 3:43 (the broken condition of the Jews), and 2 Cor. 10:8 & 13:10 (Paul’s ministry to edify, not to tear down).
YThis is the only instance of his word in the GNT, but it is common in the OT (LXX). In Genesis it exclusively refers to a prison in Egypt. In one Psalm (1 Sam. 22) David calls God a “stronghold,” and in many other places the word refers to a fortified city. It is explained in the next verse. Vincent commented, “In its use here there may lie a reminiscence of the rock-forts on the coast of Paul's native Cilicia, which were pulled down by the Romans in their attacks on the Cilician pirates… The campaign against the Cilician pirates resulted in the reduction of a hundred and twenty strongholds and the capture of more than ten thousand prisoners… The military metaphor continues...”
ZThis is the standard word for “capture/take prisoner,” used mostly to refer to the Babylonian Exile in the LXX (1 Ki. 8:46; 2 Ki. 24:14; 2 Chr. 28:8, 17; 30:9, Ps. 70:1; 105:46, Lam. 1:1). In the GNT, it refers to the Roman capture of Jerusalem in 70 AD (Lk. 21:24), sin capturing Paul (Rom. 7:23) and false teachers taking gullible women captive (2 Tim. 3:6).
AAThis word appears only once outside of 2 Cor., and that is Phil. 4:7. In 2 Cor. it appears in 2:11; 3:14; 4:4; 10:5; 11:3. Interestingly, Paul speaks positively of this thinking only in 11:3.
ABThe only other verses in the entire Greek Bible with a form of this word for “obedience” and of the word “Christ” are Romans 15:18 & 1 Peter 1:2. Deissmann (St. Paul, p. 141) calls this “the mystic genitive.” Robertson commented in his Grammar that the literal “obedience of Christ” meant “obedience to Christ,” and in his Word Pictures “Paul aims to pull down the top-most perch of audacity in their reasonings against the knowledge of God... Paul is the most daring of thinkers, but he lays all his thoughts at the feet of Jesus.”
ACNowhere else in the Greek Bible is any form of εχω and ετοιμος even the same verse. The phrase εν ετοιμω occurs in the Greek Bible only in the apocrypha in 3 Maccabees 5:7/8 & 26. Robertson translated it “Holding in readiness.”
AD“Punish” is denoted by the Greek roots κολαζ- and τιμωρ- but this word has the Greek root for “just.”
AE“Disobedience” is a singular noun in every Greek manuscript, but it is a plural participle in the Peshitta.