2 Corinthians 5
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| 2 Corinthians 5 | |
|---|---|
 A folio of Papyrus 46 (written ca. AD 200), containing 2 Corinthians 11:33–12:9. This manuscript contains almost complete parts of the whole Pauline epistles. | |
| Book | Second Epistle to the Corinthians |
| Category | Pauline epistles |
| Christian Bible part | New Testament |
| Order in the Christian part | 8 |
2 Corinthians 5 is the fifth chapter of the Second Epistle to the Corinthians in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It was written by Paul the Apostle and Timothy (2 Corinthians 1:1) in Macedonia in 55–56 CE.[1]
The 18th-century theologian John Gill (1697-1771) summarises the contents of this chapter:
The apostle, in this chapter, enlarges upon the saints' comfortable assurance, expectation, and desire of the heavenly glory; discourses of the diligence and industry of himself and other Gospel ministers in preaching the word, with the reasons that induced them to it; and closes it with a commendation of the Gospel ministry from the important subject, sum, and substance of it.[2]
Textual witnesses
The original text was written in Koine Greek. This chapter is divided into 21 verses.
Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter are:[a]
- Papyrus 46 (c. AD 200)
- Codex Vaticanus (325–350)
- Codex Sinaiticus (330–360)
- Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus (c. 450)
- Codex Freerianus (c. 450; extant verses 8–10,17–18)
- Codex Claromontanus (c. 550).
Verse 1
- For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.[4]
"Our earthly house" refers to the body; similarly, Plato also calls the body Ancient Greek: γὴινον σκήνον, gēinon skēnov, "an earthly tabernacle", just as the Jews call the body a house or a "tabernacle".[5] Abarbinel paraphrases Isaiah 18:4 "my dwelling place, which is the body, for that is "the tabernacle of the soul"."[6]
The "house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens" can be interpreted as the "glorified body" (after the resurrection), or "the holy house" in the world to come,[7] which might be intended in Isaiah 56:5 or Proverbs 24:3.[2]
Verse 6
- So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord.[8]
Otto Paul (O. P.) Kretzmann notes that in the life of a Christian believer, "there is a yearning for home, a homesickness for heaven". Harold H. Buls comments that "this verse touches on the great paradox in the life of the Christian": although believers are homesick, they are cheerful; they long for heaven, but they are content.[9]
Verses 18-19
- 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.[10]
MacDonald suggests that the passage from 2 Corinthians 2:14 onwards, in which Paul defends his authority as an apostle, ends here at 2 Corinthians 5:19. She notes that the next section (verse 20 to 2 Corinthians 6:2) is "closely related" to the foregoing text, while also initiating "a new type of exhortation".[11]
See also
- Transfiguration of Jesus
- Related Bible parts: Isaiah 53, Romans 3, Romans 4, 2 Corinthians 4, Revelation 6