Translation & Sermon by
Nate Wilson for Christ The Redeemer Church, Manhattan, KS, 3 May
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.
Y’all are looking at what’s on the surface. If someone has
entrusted himself to belong to the Anointed One, he should reckon
again concerning this of himself, because just as he belongs to the
Anointed One, so also we [belong to the Anointed One]. Yet even if I
were to brag any more concerning our authority (which the Lord has
given [to us] for edification and not for taking y’all down), I
would not be ashamed, lest I might seem as though I am frightening
you away through my letters, because “His letters,” someone
declares, “are oppressive and forceful, but the presence of his
body is weak and his word discredited.” Let such a person
reckon this, that such as we are in word through letters when we are
away, such persons we also will be in deed when we are alongside.
In verses 5-6, Paul lists three nominative masculine plural participles to 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.”
In the last sermon we looked at the first of these – the “taking down of imaginations/ speculations/arguments and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God” - appropriating the power of God and teaching the word of God to dismantle false systems of thought which stand opposed to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The second strategy is “taking captive every thought.” That’s where we start in now.
This addresses the battle front within our own minds whereas the first step addressed the battle front of the thinking going on in other people’s minds.
Paul is uniquely concerned with our thought-life in this letter. Of the six times in the entire Greek Bible that this word for “thought” occurs, five of them are in 2 Corinthians!
Notice what the other four instances in 2 Corinthians warn us about the kind of thoughts which are in opposition to God:
2 Corinthians 2:11 “...in order that we may not be gotten-the-best-of by Satan (for we are not ignorant of his thoughts).” (NAW) Satan is the leader of a class of spiritual beings whose thinking is in opposition to God and who are mobilizing human beings into opposition against God.
Followers of Judaism have joined that opposition against God according 2 Corinthians 3:14 “nevertheless, their minds were hardened. Indeed, to this day, the same veil remains upon the reading of the old covenant, not unveiled, because it is by the Anointed One that it is being put out of commission…” (NAW)
Followers of paganism have also joined that opposition against God according to 2 Corinthians 4:4 “in the case of whom the god of this age [Satan] blinded the minds of the unbelievers so that the enlightenment of the good news of the glory of the Anointed One – who is the image of God – will not shine into them.” (NAW)
And even people in Christian churches are in danger of joining that opposition against God, because Paul says in 2 Corinthians 11:3 “...I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.” (NKJV)
So taking (not just some thoughts but) every thought captive to the obedience of Christ is important!
How do we do that?
The Bible doesn’t describe this process anywhere else in the exact same words, but we do see the same words used in the Bible to describe the opposite process of:
false teachers taking “gullible women” “captive” in 2 Timothy 3:6, and
sin taking Christians captive in Romans 7:22-25 – which I will quote at some length due to its relevance: “For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind1, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God – through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.” (NKJV)
When a person is “taken captive,” they are overpowered by an enemy who puts limitations on their freedom, and then the enemy uses them to serve his own ends. So that’s what we need to do with every thought that comes through our brain: put limitations on its freedom and use it to serve Jesus Christ!
If you’re not used to doing this, it can be overwhelming at first to take on the role of gatekeeper to your own mind, but it is the strategy which God gives us here (through Paul’s example), and it is the way to freedom from bondage in your thought-life.
Every thought must be evaluated as to whether it serves Jesus Christ – whether it is in-keeping with the will of God revealed in the Bible, or not.
Every thought that passes this test is already captive to the obedience of Christ and can be allowed to proceed into action.
Every thought which does not pass this test must have limitations put on its freedom by being rejected from your thinking or by being made to serve Christ’s interests instead.
For instance, I was grading a student’s paper, and the student’s thesis was that fresh air promotes endorphin release, facilitates metabolism, and helps the brain to think more clearly. This prompted the thought in my mind, “I should take a break and walk around the block.” This thought had to be taken captive and evaluated as to whether it was in obedience to Christ. My evaluation took into account that it was probably the only exercise I could get that day, that it would give me joy (which is a fruit of the Spirit), that it might help my mind think more clearly for my pastoral work, and that I could pray (which is actually part of my job description) while I took that walk, so I decided in favor of the idea of taking a walk and let it proceed into action.
While on that walk, the cool breeze and the warm sun and the lush spring greenery were so refreshing that the thought came into my mind, “This is so enjoyable, let’s just spend the rest of the afternoon in a hammock once I finish my prayer-walk!” That thought also had to be taken captive. My evaluation took into account how many more hours I needed to prepare my sermon and my responsibility to provide-for and lead my family, so it had to get a thumbs-down and be dismissed from my mind. The verse that I used to support that resolve was 1 Peter 4:1 “Therefore, since Christ suffered for y'all in flesh, y'all also must start arming yourselves with the same resolution, because the one who has suffered in the flesh has been stopped from sin.” I needed that Scripture to help me resolve not to do what my flesh wanted to do and instead do what God had called me to do.
Sometimes the thought you have to capture doesn’t come from your own flesh but rather from the world:
I remember back in the 1980’s when Fleetwood Mac’s song “Tell Me Lies” was popular, and the song got stuck in my head because it was catchy, then one day, I realized with horror that I was singing a direct contradiction to the Ninth Commandment! So I fought back by creating a little chorus of my own in my head that went, “Tell no lies; tell no lies!”
Around that same time, one of my favorite Christian music artists, Charlie Peacock, did something similar. He wrote a song to combat the Beatle’s popular song, “Imagine there’s no heaven; it’s easy if you try…” Peacock sang, “I wanna live like Heaven is a real place; I wanna live like Heaven is a real place!”
Advertising companies will also try to put hooks into your brain, so you’ve got to evaluate their scripts and re-write them if they are not obedient to Christ.
Another reason why we must take thoughts captive is that the Devil is also able to put thoughts directly into your brain, yes even into the minds of Christians.
This is not the same as demon-possession; this is more like an adversary hiding by the side of the road and throwing snowballs at you as you walk by to see if he can make anything stick.
One of the most common ways I have experienced this is in attributing bad motives to other people. I’ll be minding my own business, when all of a sudden this thought occurs to me: “When so-and-so said what they said yesterday, they were purposefully trying to embarrass me in front of all my friends! I didn’t realize it at first, but that must have been what they were doing. How dare they! I’m never going to trust them again!” I have to take those thoughts captive, and tell my self that I can’t possibly know why someone did something unless they actually tell me why they did it. Furthermore, if this is a person God wants me to love, then if I proceed with the assumption that they said or did something out of bad motives, that’s going to lead my heart away from loving them, and that’s exactly what the Devil wants, so I need to suspend judgment, throw that thought out, and go clear the air with that person and hope that they were not actually trying to harm me.
1 Peter 1:1-2 Peter wrote that this “obedience” to Christ was God’s “goal” for those He “chose.” “To pilgrims… elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father in the holiness of the Spirit toward the goal of obedience and sprinkling of Jesus Christ's blood…” (NAW)
And in Romans, that “obedience” is focused on “trusting” Christ:
Romans 1:5 “...we received grace and apostleship, unto obedience of faith among all the nations...”
Romans 15:18-19 “For I will not dare to speak of any things save those which Christ wrought through me, for the obedience of the Gentiles... so that from Jerusalem, and round about even unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ...”
Romans 16:26 “...the preaching of Jesus Christ... made known unto all the nations unto obedience of faith...” (ASV)
In addition to taking down imaginations and taking captive every thought, Paul adds a third strategy in v.6 for “taking down strongholds,” and that is to “hold” “disobedience” accountable to “justice/vengeance/punishment.”
Paul has mentioned the obedience of the Corinthian church already twice in this letter:
once in 2 Corinthians 2:9 about his uncertainty as to whether they were obedient,
and once in 2 Corinthians 7:15 about Titus’ reassurance that they were obedient.
But this is the only place in the Bible where it speaks of “obedience... being fulfilled.” It appears that Paul wants the Corinthian church to obey his request in v.2 by engaging in the spiritual-mental war to uphold the Gospel (and therefore Paul’s legitimate spiritual ministry) and to reject the false teachers who cater to the flesh and focus on outward appearance and are not obedient in faith to Christ Jesus.
Once Paul sees that the church is doing that (perhaps from reports from Titus whom he sent ahead of him to Corinth), he plans to arrive and bring a reckoning to the false teachers (and to the followers of those false teachers) who “disobey” Paul’s exhortation.
The main form of “justice/punishment” available to a church leader is the exercise of the “keys of the kingdom” (Mat. 16:19) to determine whether the evidence indicates that a person is a Christian or not and therefore whether they can be considered a member of the church or not. In other words, Paul will excommunicate people who decide to follow the false apostles and who reject the core message that Paul preached – the good news that Jesus is God’s Anointed prophet, priest, and king for His people.
This is simply following what Jesus said in the Great Commission of Mark 16:15-16 “...Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.” (NKJV)
Hebrews 2:1-3 “On account of this, it is more abundantly necessary for us to keep holding on to the things we have heard in order that we might not drift aside. For, since the word spoken through messengers got confirmed, and every transgression and disobedience received a just payback, how would we ourselves escape after showing apathy for such a great salvation?” (NAW)
In verses 7-11, Paul gives the Corinthians several principles by which to wisely evaluate their spiritual leaders which will point them away from the false apostles toward the legitimacy of his own apostleship. The first is:
Verse 7 is complex, and there are differences among the English translations about how to handle all the complexities, for instance,
Regarding the first verb “look:”
The Geneva Bible and King James translations rendered it as a question (“Do ye look at the outward appearance?”),
The NASB and NIV followed the Peshitta in interpreting it as an indicative statement (“You are looking at what is superficial.”)
And the ESV followed the Vulgate in interpreting it imperatively, commanding the Corinthians (“Look at what’s right in front of your eyes!”)
All three are possible according to Greek grammar, but I prefer interpreting it as a statement.
There are also a couple of manuscript differences:
One where the majority of Greek manuscripts read “think again FROM himself,” whereas a few old manuscripts (followed by the Vulgate and Coptic Bibles) read “think again UPON himself,” and the NIV and ESV omitted this phrase entirely.
There is also a debate about whether or not the word “Christ” should be repeated at the end of the verse. The KJV reads “so also we are of Christ,” because the majority of Greek manuscripts read that way, but the contemporary versions read simply “so also are we,” because the repeated word “Christ” is not in any of the manuscripts from before the 9th century AD.
But despite the disagreements, the general idea comes through that it would be a mistake to judge Paul by a superficial analysis. Outwardly, he appears to be weak and mousy and unspiritual, but inwardly, he is very wise, and he has authority given him by Jesus Himself (Gal. 1:12).
Paul had some kind of physical handicap that he called his “thorn in the flesh” in chapter 12, and, although we don’t know exactly what it was, it must have made him appear less-than-impressive.
Physical descriptions of Paul that have survived indicate that he was bald, short, bow-legged, had a big nose, and one thick eyebrow all the way across his face. (Vincent)
There are also ministry philosophy choices Paul made which made him appear even less-impressive.
Back when he started the church in Corinth, he worked at Aquila and Prisca’s tent shop. He would be sewing pieces of leather together to make a tent when parishioners came to talk with their pastor. Paul would put down his sewing needle when they came in, wipe his greasy hands on his apron, and sit down on a bench to talk with them. In contrast, the auspicious super-apostles who came after Paul were probably much more impressive. They dressed in fine clothes and set up offices near the temples, with marble floors and padded couches you could sit on to speak with them when they had time for you. Paul’s approach didn’t feel very spiritual to a pagan in a great cosmopolitan city; it was too down-to-earth, but he chose a ministry strategy which followed the example of Jesus Himself.
20th Century commentator Phillip Hughes wrote, “Like so many who judge things according to the outward display of this world, Paul's opponents interpreted meekness as weakness, forbearance as cowardice, and gentleness as indecision...”
Paul says in v.7, “You think you’re devoted to the Messiah? Good for you! But if you think you are more devoted to the Messiah than we are, you’ve got another think coming! Jesus is the Messiah (or in Greek, the “Christ”) and we are devoted to Him, so we apostles are just as devoted to the Messiah as any Jewish zealot is! Look beyond the superficial appearance of these new apostles of Judaism (who don’t believe that Jesus is the Christ – the One anointed to be the Messiah) and follow me as I follow Jesus Christ (1 Cor . 11:1).
“...Yahweh said to Samuel, ‘Don't make observations based on his looks or based on his imposing height, because I have rejected him. For God doesn't see the way man sees; man only sees to the extent of the eyes, but God sees to the extent of the heart.’” (1 Sam. 16:7, NAW)
Jesus said, “Do not judge according to appearance2, but judge with righteous judgment.” (John 7:24, NKJV)
And Paul has already said in 2 Corinthians 5:12 “We are not endorsing ourselves again to y'all, but rather giving y'all a launching-point for celebration concerning us, in order that y'all might have something in opposition to those who are celebrating in the superficial, but not in the heart.” (NAW)
And in 1 Corinthians 14:37 “If someone seems to be a prophet or spiritual, he should keep acknowledging that what I am writing to y'all is a command from the Lord.” (NAW)
cf. 1 John 4:6 “WE are out of God; the one who knows God is listening to us; the one who is not out of God is not listening to us. Out of this we know the Spirit of Truth and the spirit of error.” (NAW)
Matthew Henry commented, “We must not, by the most charitable allowances we make to others who differ from us, cut ourselves off from Christ, nor deny our relation to him. For, There is room in Christ for many; and those who differ much from one another may yet be one in him. It would help to heal the differences that are among us if we would remember that, how confident soever we may be that we belong to Christ, yet, at the same time, we must allow that those who differ from us may belong to Christ too, and therefore should be treated accordingly. We must not think that we are the people, and that none belong to Christ but ourselves.”
The principle of not using outward appearances to evaluate spiritual influences on your life is still quite relevant today.
Heretics are able to craft very good-looking social media personas, carefully avoiding the important things about their lives and focusing on charisma, compelling speech, and empty promises.
Media tends to emphasize looks and de-emphasize personal relationships.
Superficial things like whether or not they have a winning smile, whether or not they wear a head covering, whether or not they have tattoos, or whether or not they can stir up emotions with a 5-second video clip are not adequate bases for determining whether such persons are a good spiritual influence or not.
The important thing is whether they are devoted to Jesus Christ, and that takes time and context to determine.
Be sure you know your teachers well because you will become like them.
The next principle Paul gives out for evaluating spiritual leaders is in...
The gospel is on the line here, since some folks associated with the church in Corinth have been listening to the false teachers’ superficial critiques of Paul and are now unsure whether to believe what Paul taught about Jesus.
Paul’s riposte in v.8 is that if he could brag some more about God giving him the authority to preach the gospel and to plant churches, he wouldn’t be ashamed to do so, because it would be true and it would be for the purpose of building up the church, not tearing it down. (And we’ll see that he actually does get into some of that boasting in the next chapter.)
But here is another principle of godly leadership: it uses authority to edify rather than to destroy.
I have seen pastors who tried to unify their parishioners and keep them under their authority through bad-mouthing all the other Christian churches and organizations not associated with them. This creates an environment of elitist pride among the membership and it also creates a fear of leaving, because, the minute you step out of that leader’s good graces, you know he will be telling the faithful who remain how bad you are.
I’ve also seen parents who never had anything good to say to their children, and husbands who never had a positive word to say to their wife. No matter how much their family members tried to please them, it was never good enough. Human traffickers also use that strategy to keep their victims in bondage to them. It is not Christian leadership.
There is a balance however, to be found here, because pastors are called to refute error and parents are not to settle for laziness in their children, but the Biblical pattern Paul sets in pastoring is to be oriented toward building up rather than tearing down – encouraging rather than discouraging, edifying rather than nit-picking, and serving rather than domineering. (Matt. 20:25-28)
I am thankful to have grown up under a pastor who was well-balanced in that regard.
I remember Reverend Barker preaching once against using tax money to build a gambling establishment, but I never heard him preach against another pastor in town.
When Campus Crusade came out with their Four Spiritual Laws evangelism tract, the “truly reformed” Presbyterians anathematized it and called it “The Four Spiritual Flaws,” but my pastor built trust with the leadership of Campus Crusade and helped them edit the original language of the booklet to be more Biblical, then he encouraged us to use it as one of the ways we could share the gospel.
He preached against secularization, but instead of preaching against secular schools, he started a Christian school, and now it is one of the largest in the country.
He didn’t preach gloom and doom about our civil government like many other pastors did. Instead, he encouraged our church to get involved in politics and be salt and light in the community as ambassadors of Christ.
In the last two chapters of 2 Corinthians, Paul reiterates this point that godly authority edifies rather than destroys:
2 Cor. 12:19 “...We speak before God in Christ. But we do all things, beloved, for your edification.” (NKJV, cf. 1:24)
2 Cor. 13:10 “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)
And he says in Ephesians 4:12 that God gave all pastors the task of “equipping of the saints to the work of service, to the construction [building up] of the body of Christ...” (NAW) so this strategy of edification is not just for Apostles, it is for every church leader.
Another principle for recognizing Godly leadership is...
Most of the time in the Greek Bible that this word in v.9 for “terrify/frighten away” is used, it is in the context of a foreign army running a community off their land so that they flee in terror.
Paul says that’s not what he’s trying to do with his hard-hitting letters. He is writing because he loves them and wants them to grow spiritually and be a healthy, joy-filled church instead of a bunch of selfish special-interest groups fighting it out with each other while they drown in the consequences of their addictive sins and heretical notions.
His adversaries, however, have put a completely different spin on this.
Verse 10 quotes what the false teachers had been saying about Paul, alleging that there was a lack of integrity between what he wrote and what he said in person.
“His letters are weighty/powerful/forceful/strong – one might even say “oppressive,” but in person, he doesn’t project the same kind of power and forcefulness, does he? He is puny; he obviously doesn’t lift weights or work out like a real man should. He hunches over and squints and looks like he should be in a nursing home instead of traveling and speaking like he does (Gal. 4:12), and when he does speak, you can barely hear him, and what you can hear of him, all he talks about is Jesus being crucified – nothing interesting or contemporary or relevant to us.” If that’s all you heard about Paul, you probably wouldn’t read his letters even if they were in the Bible!
The word translated “contemptible/of no account/discredited/amounts to nothing” is a compound of the Greek words for “out,” “not,” and “one.” “You can count him out, there is nothing to what he says, he has run out of anything worth saying; just disregard him,” they say.
Paul admits in the next chapter (in 2 Corinthians 11:6) that he was “not trained in formal rhetoric;” his professional training had been in theology in the cultural backwaters of Jerusalem, rather than in the prestigious schools of Athens.
Paul recognized that he did not exactly cut a swashbuckling, charismatic appearance, but much of it was by choice because, as the Apostle James put it, “God organizes Himself against arrogant men, but it is to lowly ones that He gives grace.” (James 4:6, NAW)
1 Corinthians 2:3 “And as for me, I came to y'all in weakness and in fear and in much trembling…” (NAW)
1 Cor. 1:17 “For Christ did not commission me to baptize, but rather to evangelize – and that not by sophistication of words, so that the cross of Christ would not be nullified.” (NAW)
But whatever Paul lacked in popular appeal, he did not lack in integrity, and he pushes back hard in verse 11 against what the false apostles had said about him in v.10: Whatever we are in our letters, that’s what we will also be in person, and we will be coming in person.
Paul adds in 2 Cor. 13:2 “...now being away, I am writing to those who have sinned before, as well as to all the rest, that whenever I come for the follow-up I will not spare.” (NAW)
We live in an age when civil leaders are protected by statutes of limitations as to what we are allowed to know about their personal lives, megachurch pastors are often protected from scrutiny by office staff and a professional distance from parishioners, and media influencers are protected behind their computers from ever having to interact personally with their followers, so it can be difficult to find out whether a spiritual leader has integrity or not, but it is important to find this out.
Too many popular Christian leaders over my lifetime have been exposed as frauds, but not before gaining a large and devoted following.
Too many Christian friends have become so disillusioned when the lack of integrity of their leaders was exposed that they ‘threw the baby out with the bathwater’ and left Christianity altogether.
As you select speakers and authors for your spiritual food, don’t choose based on how muscular they are, how attractive they are, how much they talk of current events, how intelligent they are, how many degrees they have, how popular they are, how great they are at communicating, how many books they have published, and how many shows they have been on, but rather chose based on how humble they are, how centered on Jesus and His word they are, and how much integrity they have between what they say and the way they live their daily lives.
(Now, if they happen to have some of those other fleshly characteristics, then that’s fine, popular appeal isn’t necessarily sinful, it’s just not the standard we should be using for judging the quality of a spiritual leader.)
Let’s take down fleshly/worldly strongholds by “casting down imaginations, taking captive every thought to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience.”
ByzantineB |
NAW |
KJVC |
RheimsD |
MurdockE |
CopticF |
λογισμοὺς καθαιροῦντες5 καὶ πᾶν ὕψωμα ἐπαιρόμενον κατὰ τῆς γνώσεως τοῦ Θεοῦ, καὶ Gαἰχμαλωτίζοντες πᾶν νόημαH εἰς τὴν ὑπακοὴν τοῦ ΧριστοῦI, |
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 ἔχοντεςJ ἐκδικῆσαιK 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 |
7 Τὰ κατὰ πρόσωπονM βλέπετεN. εἴ τιςO πέποιθεν ἑαυτῷ Χριστοῦ εἶναιP, τοῦτο λογιζέσθω πάλιν ἀφ᾿Q ἑαυτοῦ, ὅτι καθὼς αὐτὸς Χριστοῦ, οὕτω καὶ ἡμεῖς [ΧριστοῦR]. |
7 Y’all are looking at what’s on the surface. If someone has entrusted himself to belong to the Anointed One, he should reckon again concerning this of himself, because just as he belongs to the Anointed One, so also we [belong to the Anointed One]. |
7 Do ye look on things after the [outward] appearance [?] If any man trust to himself that he is Christ's, let him of himself think this again, that, as he is Christ's, even so are we Christ's. |
7 X See the things that are according to outward appearance. If any man trust to himself, that he is Christ's let him think this again with himself, that as he is Christ's, so are we also. |
7
Do ye look on [outward]
appearance[s]?
If any one is confident in himself that he is of the Messiah, let
him |
7
(Is it) that ye look at the things which are in [your] presence?
He who {trusteth that he isB/ |
8 ἐάν τε γὰρ [καὶ]S περισσότερόν τιT καυχήσωμαι περὶ τῆς ἐξουσίας ἡμῶνU, ἧς ἔδωκεν ὁ Κύριος [ἡμῖν]V εἰς οἰκοδομὴν καὶ οὐκ εἰς καθαίρεσινW ὑμῶν, οὐκ αἰσχυνθήσομαιX, |
8 Yet even if I were to brag any more concerning our authority (which the Lord has given [to us] for edification and not for taking y’all down), I would not be ashamed, |
8 For though I should boast somewhat more of our authority, which the Lord hath given us for edification, and not for your destruction, I should not be ashamed: |
8 For if also I should boast somewhat more of our power, which the Lord hath given us unto edification and not for your destruction, I should not be ashamed. |
8
For if I should glory
somewhat more,
in |
8
For if I should boast |
Byzantine |
NAW |
KJV |
Rheims |
Murdock |
Coptic |
9 ἵναY μὴ δόξω ὡς ἂνZ ἐκφοβεῖνAA ὑμᾶς διὰ τῶν ἐπιστολῶν. |
9 lest I might seem as though I am frightening you away through my letters, |
9 That I may not seem as if I would terrify you by X letters. |
9 [But] that I may not [be] thought as it were to terrify you by X epistles, |
9 [But I forbear,] lest I should [be] thought X to terrify you [terribly], by my epistles. |
9
[ButS] That IB/ |
10 ὅτι αἱ μὲν ἐπιστολαὶ, φησίAB, βαρεῖαιAC καὶ ἰσχυραί, ἡ δὲ παρουσία τοῦ σώματος ἀσθενὴς καὶ ὁ λόγος ἐξουθενημένος. |
10 because “His letters,” someone declares, “are oppressive and forceful, but the presence of his body is weak and his word discredited.” |
10
For his
letters, say |
10
(For his epistles indeed,
say |
10 For there are some who say, His epistles are weighty and forcible, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible. |
10 Because the epistles indeed said heS/XB are weighty and they are strong; but the presence of theB/hisS body is weak, and the word[s]B/ his speechS contemptible. |
11 τοῦτο λογιζέσθω ὁ τοιοῦτος, ὅτι οἷοί ἐσμεν τῷ λόγῳ δι᾿ ἐπιστολῶν ἀπόντες, τοιοῦτοι καὶ παρόντες τῷ ἔργῳ. |
11 Let such a person reckon this, that such as we are in word through letters when we are away, such persons we also will be in deed when we are alongside. |
11 Let such an one think this, that, such as we are in word by letters when we are absent, such will we be also in deed when we are present. |
11 Let such a one think this, that such as we are in word by epistles when absent, such also we will be indeedAD when present. |
11 [But] let him who [saith] so, consider this, that such as we are in our epistolary discourse, when absent, such also are we in action, when present. |
11
This [againB/ thereforeS] let such a one
think, that, according
as we are in theB/ourS word through
theB/ourS epistles, not being with
[you], this is |
1νοός, the source of the νόημα of 2 Cor. 10:5.
2Ὄψιν, which corresponds to πρόσωπον in 2 Cor. 10:7.
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, 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.
GThis 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).
HThis 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 the Philippians passage.
IThe 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” is an “objective genitive” meaning “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.”
JNowhere 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.”
K“Punish” is denoted by the Greek roots κολαζ- and τιμωρ- but this word has the Greek root for “just.”
L“Disobedience” is a singular noun in every Greek manuscript, but it is a plural participle in the Peshitta.
MThis prepositional phrase was in v.1, translated “in presence” (KJV)/“in person” (NAW)/“when face to face” (NAS/ NIV/ESV), but here “according to outward appearance” (KJV/NASB)/“on the surface” (NIV)/“before your eyes” (ESV).
NThis spelling in Greek can be either Imperative or Indicative. Peshitta, Coptic, Geneva, KJV, Robertson, NASB, and NIV interpreted it Indicatively as a criticism against superficiality among the Corinthian church, but the ESV followed the Vulgate (and G. Wilson and P. Hughes) in interpreting it Imperatively, commanding the Corinthians to look at what should be apparent. The Geneva and KJV turned it into a question, but there is no interrogative in the Greek. In any form, it can be understood as chiding the Corinthians. Calvin paraphrased, “You greatly esteem others who swell out with mighty airs of importance, while you look down upon me, because I have nothing of show and boasting… Whoever is desirous to be looked upon as a minister of Christ, must necessarily count me in along with himself... for whatever things he may have in himself, that make him worthy of such an honor, the same will he find in me.”
OP. E. Hughes’ commentary addresses at length the data on who these characters were.
PMoule’s Idiom Book notes that “to be” is the direct object of the verb πέποιθεν.
Q“Think again FROM himself” – this is the reading of the majority of Greek manuscripts (the oldest of which date to the 6th and 7th centuries) and of the Textus Receptus and Greek Orthodox editions of the Greek New Testament, as well as the ancient Peshitta. However, seven manuscripts (including the three oldest-known dating to the 3rd and 4th centuries) change one letter to read ἐφ’ (“UPON”), and that is the reading of the contemporary critical editions of the GNT, and that reading is supported by the ancient Vulgate and Coptic editions. The NIV and ESV omitted this word entirely. Since the exhortation is not to think about themselves but rather to think a certain thing about the apostles, so the majority reading seems more appropriate, but the minority reading does not sabotage the meaning.
RAlthough the majority of Greek manuscripts (followed the the Greek Orthodox and Textus Receptus editions) include “Christ” the second time here, the oldest Greek manuscript is 9th century. It is not present in 17 Greek manuscripts (including all five of the oldest-known), and it is not present in any of the ancient versions either (although the Sahidic Coptic tips its hat in that direction with “of Him” instead of “of Christ”) so all the contemporary critical editions of the GNT do not copy it over. P. E. Hughes commented, “It may well be, also, that those who pretended to the supposed advantage of being ‘of Christ’ had been the inaugurators and leaders of the “Christ-faction” in Corinth (I Cor. 1:12--‘I am of Christ’).”
STe gar kai is the reading of the majority of Greek Manuscripts (the oldest original of which is dated to the 9th century) and of the Greek Orthodox and Textus Receptus editions of the GNT, but te gar is the reading of the Nestle-Aland, USB, and Tischendorf editions of the GNT (following all 5 of the pre-9th century Greek manuscripts, and apparently supported by the Vulgate and Peshitta), and gar is the reading of the Tregelles edition of the GNT, following a dozen manuscripts (including a 3rd and 4th century one) and the Coptic versions. It boils down to how many conjunctions the text needs, and it doesn’t make a difference in the meaning.
TThe only other instance of this unusual phrase in the entire Greek Bible is in Luke 12:4 “...those who kill the body, and after that don’t have any more to do.”
UNIV follows the Peshitta and Coptic versions in dropping “our,” although the Peshitta merely re-positioned it to modify “Lord” instead of “authority.” No known Greek manuscript, however, drops out this word.
V“To us” is the reading of the majority of Greek manuscripts (although the oldest-known dates only to the 9th century) and of the Textus Receptus and Greek Orthodox editions of the GNT, and the ancient Vulgate, Peshitta, and Bohairic Coptic versions include it (although the Peshitta changed it to singular “me”), as do some English versions (Geneva, KJV, NKJV, NIV, NET). About 10 Greek manuscripts do not include this prepositional phrase, including all five of the pre-9th century ones. The Sahidic Coptic version supports the omission, as do some English versions (RV, ESV, ASV, NASB).
WThis is the same verb used in vs. 4-5 describing “taking down” “strongholds” and “imaginations.”
X“It was a sign of modesty, that he put himself into the number of those, whom he greatly excelled. At the same time, he was not disposed to show such modesty, as not to retain his authority unimpaired. He accordingly adds, that he has said less than his authority entitled him to say…” ~Calvin
YNormally introducing a purpose clause, this particle is translated “This” by the Geneva Bible, “That” by the KJV, RV, ASV, and Moule, “lest” by NKJV, “for” by NASB, and omitted by NIV, NET, ESV, and NLT. The Vulgate, Peshitta, and Coptic versions add a conjunction here, “But,” reflecting only a handful of Greek manuscripts from between 900-1500 AD.
ZRobertson’s Grammar says this particle should be translated “if,” and many English versions followed that. Moule, on the other hand, suggested the idiom means “so to speak.”
AAThis is the only instance of this verb in the Greek New Testament, but it appears many times in the LXX (Lev. 26:6; Job 7:14; 33:16; Mic. 4:4; Nah. 2:12; Zeph. 3:13; Ezek. 32:27; 34:28; 39:26) often to describe a foreign army running a community off of their land, so I think the ek- prefix implies “away,” as in “frighten away.” Robertson’s Grammar, however, claims that it is “causative,” as in, “cause to fear.”
ABThis verb is singular in every known Greek manuscript except for the Vaticanus, but the Geneva is about the only English version which rendered it singularly (cf. Blass & Debrunner “the imaginary opponent says”). The plural is found in the Vulgate, but it is singular in the Peshitta and Coptic versions. Robertson explained the singular as a way of expressing an “indefinite” subject. P. Hughes added that “The reference in the singular here... does not necessarily imply that Paul had only one adversary in mind at this point, for it becomes apparent from what he says later on that there was a plurality of these false teachers in Corinth (cf., for example, 11:13, 22).”
ACVincent: “In classical Greek, besides the physical sense of heavy, the word very generally implies something painful or oppressive. As applied to persons, severe, stern. In later Greek it has sometimes the meaning of grave or dignified, and by the later Greek rhetoricians it was applied to oratory, in the sense of impressive, as here.” In his Word Pictures, Robertson moderated Vincent by saying, “These adjectives can be uncomplimentary and mean ‘severe and violent’ instead of ‘impressive and vigorous.’ The adjectives bear either sense.”
ADThe Vulgate in facto is directly accurate to the Greek and should have been translated into English “in deed” rather than without the space, as Rheims did.