2 Corinthians

5 Episodes

2 Corinthians is one of Paul's most emotionally volatile and rhetorically fragmented letters, shaped by conflict, self-defense, and reconciliation attempts between Paul and the Corinthian assembly. Many scholars read it as a composite of multiple pieces of correspondence, which makes it a particularly revealing witness to the pressures, revisions, and personal stakes involved in early Christian letter writing.

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Why this book matters

2 Corinthians returns on the show as the Pauline letter where emotion, self-defense, and bodily weakness are hardest to separate. The hosts use it to explore Paul’s contested authority, his strange report of being caught up to the third heaven, the famous thorn in the flesh, and the broader way this letter turns suffering, humiliation, and fragility into rhetorical assets rather than liabilities. It often functions as the best place to see Paul improvising a theology of weakness under pressure.

It also matters because 2 Corinthians helps the show push against flattened pictures of both Paul and Christianity. Discussions of the letter regularly foreground its authenticity as one of the seven undisputed Pauline epistles while also emphasizing how unstable, situational, and self-protective Pauline discourse can be. The show returns to 2 Corinthians when it wants to talk about composite letters, apocalyptic experience, disability and stigma, and the way later Christians have often preferred triumphant readings of the New Testament over the weaker, stranger, and more vulnerable Paul preserved here.

Where to start

Start here for the strongest listening on 2 Corinthians.

Quotes from the Data

“The seven Pauline epistles that are considered authentic or genuine are First Thessalonians, First Corinthians and Second Corinthians, Galatians, Romans, Philippians, and Philemon.”

Dan McClellan Episode 35

“The place where we see [the word] rapture being used is in reference to Paul's reference in Second Corinthians 12:2. He says, I know someone who was caught up, snatched up to the third heaven, whether in the body or not. I, I don't know. And that is that verb rapio in the Vulgate.”

Dan McClellan Episode 71

“Paul talks about, in 2 Corinthians 12, he talks about this kind of thorn in the flesh, this angel of Satan which has been given to him, it's been put in his body and he keeps praying to God to take it away. And God doesn't take it away and he kind of makes peace with it and says, well, and actually incorporates it into his theology. Kind of plays into this paradox of, well, if it's here, it has to be here for a theological reason. So maybe, you know, there's strength in kind of weakness.”

Isaac Soon Episode 33

“Weakness is an important topic for Paul, and it's very wide-ranging. ... People are saying, you know, "This guy writes really angry letters, but when he's with us in person, he has such a weak body. Why should we listen to him?" And Paul, rather than saying, "Well, actually, I'm really strong," he actually doubles down on the weakness.”

Isaac Soon Episode 33

All episodes

Every episode currently tagged with 2 Corinthians.