This section continues the theme of Paul’s earthly apostolic existence and his heavenly expectation. While this much-discussed passage is crucial for understanding Pauline eschatology, it admits of various interpretations, depending on which religious background is seen here (Jewish apocalyptic, Hellenistic dualism, or Gnosticism). The interpretation of the passage is also beset by the tensions within the text and by the question of its relation to 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18 and 1 Corinthians 15. In particular, there is some question as to when Paul thinks the transformation of the body takes place, whether during a person’s present life, at the time of one’s death, or at the Parousia. If, according to the present passage, the transformation of the body takes place at the time of death, then that would mean that Paul had changed his mind about the eschatological expectation expressed in 1 Corinthians 15, where the transformation is expected to take place at the Parousia. If, on the other hand, our passage is taken to refer exclusively to the transformation at the future resurrection at the time of the Parousia of Christ, then it is difficult fully to integrate the references in the text to death as the destruction of the earthly tent (2 Cor. 5:1) and being away from the body (v. 8). Furthermore, if the text is interpreted as an explication of the present process of death and renewal in 4:16–18, then that does not do justice to the fact that Paul must appeal to the future consummation to substantiate the expected goal of his present apostolic existence of suffering. In view of this knotty problem, it is not surprising that combined interpretations have been suggested. For example, the supposition that Paul speaks of dying in verse 1 and of the transformation at the Parousia in verses 2–4 leads to the idea of an “intermediate state,” whereby the “nakedness” is evaluated as a reason for fear or for hope. Very often, verse 3 is understood as a polemic against the expectation of liberation from the material body, which Paul’s gnostic opponents supposedly hold. In the midst of this confusion over Paul’s intention, we must be very careful to pay strict attention to the apostle’s own formulation, in order to avoid foisting an extrinsic system onto the text and asking questions that Paul did not ask in the time of an imminent expectation.
The passage can be divided into two sections: In verses 1–5 Paul describes his longing to dwell in heaven with a new, immortal body; in verses 6–10 this longing is further described in terms of intimate communion with Christ at the time of the consummation.
5:1 Paul commences the first section (vv. 1–5) with a statement that substantiates the idea in 4:17–18, that the expected heavenly glory far outweighs the momentary troubles on earth. At first, the first person plural (we) seems to refer not just to Paul but to believers in general, thus introducing a generally accepted, traditional Christian conviction (we know); however, the previous context always uses “we know” of the apostle’s personal knowledge, albeit a knowledge that has implications for the Corinthians (cf. 1:7; 4:13b–14). Therefore, if 4:7ff. has already been using the first person plural to refer exclusively to Paul, it seems reasonable to assume continuance here, although the apostle’s experience and hope are here, as often elsewhere, prototypical for all believers.
Yet how does Paul “know” that he has an eternal house in heaven? Is the source of his knowledge exclusively Jewish and/or Christian tradition? Or, has he received a special revelation? In answering these questions, it is well to remember that in 2 Corinthians Paul claims to have personal experience with the heavenly realm. As we have seen, the apostle refers to his Moses-like encounter with the throne-chariot of God (2:14) and his speech in the presence of God (2:17). He has seen the glory of God in the face of Christ (4:6), and he has been caught up to the third heaven or paradise (12:2–4). Yet, as we would expect, his own personal experience is often expressed in terms of traditional expectations.
The contrast here is between a transient tent and a permanent house, just as the tabernacle was to the temple (cf. 2 Sam. 7:2, 5–7). Paul knows that if his earthly tent (i.e., his mortal body) is destroyed, he has an eternal house in heaven. The present tense we have suggests that Paul already has the heavenly house in some sense, but that he occupies it sometime after death. This corresponds to the idea in verse 5 of the Spirit as a “deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.” In other words, just as Paul already has possession of the guarantee that promises full payment at a specific time in the future, so also he already has the eternal house prepared for him in heaven (cf. John 14:2; 2 Bar. 48:6; 5Q15). This thinking is typical of Paul’s notion of the “already” and the “not yet.” It is likely, therefore, that the “eternal house” is not referring to a continued bodily existence in heaven but rather to a kind of heavenly dwelling that is different from the individual’s resurrection body. According to 1 Corinthians 15:23, 52, the spiritual body is received at the Parousia—unless, of course, Paul’s thinking has undergone significant development since the writing of that passage (so M. Thrall). Furthermore, 2 Corinthians 5:8 contrasts being away from the earthly body with being “at home with the Lord,” rather than with receiving a new body.
The expression that Paul uses for his mortal body is not just the earthly tent (NIV) but rather “our earthly house of the tent.” The language is drawn from 1 Chronicles 9:23 LXX, which refers to the tabernacle as “the house of the tent” (cf. also 1 Chron. 6:17 LXX). Just as the tabernacle was the temporary dwelling of God from the time of the wilderness wanderings and until the building of a permanent temple in Jerusalem, so also Paul’s mortal body is merely temporary. In 1 Corinthians 6:19 Paul refers to the body as “the temple of the Holy Spirit within you.” It may also be significant for Paul’s metaphor that the glory of God filled the tabernacle (Exod. 40:34–35), for Paul is arguing in context for internal criteria for evaluating his apostleship.
The eternal house in heaven is not built by human hands. This term occurs elsewhere in connection with the temple (cf. Mark 14:58). The contrast here is between what humans make and what God makes (cf. Acts 7:48; 17:24). In Jewish tradition, the eschatological temple will be built either by God himself (Jub. 1:17; cf. 1:27; 11QTemple 29.8–10; Sib. Or. 5:420–425) or by his Messiah (Tg.Isa. 53:5). The Qumran community evidently understood itself as a sort of interim, spiritual temple, a “sanctuary of men,” until the eschatological temple could be built (cf. 4QFlor 1.2–7). Very likely, Mark 14:58 reflects a similar idea of a spiritual temple composed of Jesus and his followers. According to Matthew 12:6, Jesus says, possibly referring to himself, “Something greater than the temple is here” (cf. 12:41–42; Luke 11:31–32; John 2:19–21). Hence, when Paul refers to a house not made with hands, he evidently looks beyond believers as the present temple of the living God (2 Cor. 6:16) to the corresponding heavenly reality (cf. Gal. 4:26–27). The word oikos, house, is frequently used of the temple of God (cf. 1 Kgs. 7:31; Matt. 21:13; Mark 11:17; Luke 19:46; John 2:16; Acts 7:47, 49). Moreover, eternal house (oikos aiōnios; Heb. bēth ʿôlāmîm) is a common name for the (Solomonic!) temple in Jerusalem (e.g., Josephus, Ant. 8.107; Gen. Rab. 54:4; 99:1; Num. Rab. 9:26, 32, 42; 10:24; b. Yoma 44a, 53a, 67b; b. Sukka 5b; b. Soṭa 16a; b. Mak. 12a).
Paul evidently knows the heavenly temple through his prior merkabah experience (cf. T. Levi 3:4: the Great Glory dwells in the holy of holies in the third heaven). The fact that he holds open the possibility of an out-of-body experience during his ascent to the third heaven (cf. 2 Cor. 12:2–4) shows how he may have conceived of a bodiless existence in heaven before the resurrection at the Parousia.
5:2–3 Paul explicates and substantiates what he claims to know in verse 1 by means of two parallel statements (vv. 2–3 and v. 4), both introduced by kai gar, both speaking of his present groaning and his longing for the heavenly dwelling, and both alluding to OT texts as part of the substantiation. The metaphor is hopelessly mixed, since people do not clothe themselves with buildings. Moreover, Paul seems to shift the emphasis from the heavenly temple that he will enter if he dies before the Parousia, to the spiritual body that he expects to receive at the Parousia, for as the parallel to Romans 8:23 clearly shows, believers groan in their present travail, longing for the redemption of their bodies at the resurrection. This means that the “eternal house (oikia) not made with hands in the heavens” (2 Cor. 5:1), which Paul now “has” proleptically in the event of his death before the Parousia, is different from our heavenly dwelling (lit., “our dwelling which is from heaven”) with which Paul longs to be clothed at the Parousia. Even the words used to describe the two are different. Perhaps the apostle signals by this subtle shift in focus his earnest desire to live until the Parousia and so to avoid death altogether.
How should we understand this process of transformation at the Parousia? M. Himmelfarb argues that in Jewish apocalyptic and Hekhalot literature the ascent to heaven, conceived as a royal court and temple, involved transformation by a heavenly version of priestly investiture. The idea that there are special garments for the righteous after death is widespread in Jewish and Christian literature (cf. Zech. 3:4, 5; 1 En. 62:15–16; Apoc. Zeph. 8:3; 4 Ezra 2:39, 45; Apoc. Ab. 13:14; Rev. 3:4–5; 6:11; 7:9, 13, 14). When Paul speaks of a spiritual body for believers after death (1 Cor. 15:42–50), he seems to have in mind something similar to these heavenly garments. Indeed, his description of the transformation process at the resurrection (1 Cor. 15:51–54) explicitly refers to putting on new clothes: “For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality” (v. 53). Hence, the conception in 2 Corinthians 5:2 coincides to a certain extent with that in 1 Corinthians 15.
In 2 Corinthians 5:2, however, Paul is not concerned with the resurrection of all believers; he yearns to be clothed himself. As we have suggested (p. 102), Paul is open to the charge of fraud, since his body does not show any visible signs of having been transformed as a consequence of his heavenly ascents. His opponents could at least expect that his face would be charged with glory as Moses’ face was (cf. 3:7, 13). Instead, however, Paul’s appearance is quite unimpressive (cf. 10:10). Paul explains this fact by reiterating twice that he does not know whether his heavenly journeys were “in the body or out of the body” (12:2, 3). Ezekiel, for example, speaks of the Spirit of the Lord transporting him from place to place in visions, which may imply an “out-of-body” experience, although at one point he is picked up by a lock of his hair (cf. Ezek. 3:12, 14; 8:3; 11:1, 24). Of course, if Paul’s heavenly journeys were out-of-body experiences, that would account for the lack of perceptible transformation in the apostle’s physical constitution. Paul’s claim not to know, however, could also sound like the excuse of a charlatan. Therefore, Paul has a twofold motive for wishing to be transformed as soon as possible: (1) to end the process of his current suffering and dying, and (2) to stifle the critique of his opponents.
Meanwhile, Paul’s present condition (we groan) is an expression of the “not yet” of the eschatological consummation as a result of his having received the Spirit. In a progressively climatic series, Romans 8:22–27 attributes groaning first to the creation in general, then to believers, and finally to the Spirit. The creation groans because it has been subjected to futility as a result of the fall. Believers groan, despite the fact that they are a “new creation,” because in their present suffering the indwelling Spirit makes them conscious that their bodies have not yet been redeemed in the newness of resurrection. And the Spirit groans as a way of helping believers in their weakness and interceding for them before God. Like the groaning of the Israelites in Egypt (cf. Exod. 2:23b–24; 6:5–6), groaning is a precursor to redemption from bondage, albeit in this case a bondage to decay (cf. Rom. 8:21).
But what does Paul mean in his desire not to be found naked? While most commentators interpret “naked” either as “disembodied” or as “moral nakedness” or “shame,” there is another possibility if the allusion is to Ecclesiastes 5:14–15 LXX: “As he [sc. the rich man] came forth naked from his mother’s womb, he shall return back as he came, and he shall receive nothing for his labor, in order that it might go with him in his hand.” Seen in light of this passage, Paul does want to be found “naked” in the sense of being physically buried without receiving a reward for his apostolic suffering and labor. As he stated in 4:17, “our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.” If Paul were to die without attaining to the resurrection and receiving what he expects at the final judgment (cf. 5:10), his whole apostolic ministry will have been in vain, a striving after the wind. Furthermore, the transformation of his body is essential to authenticating him as an apostle who has encountered the merkabah. If this interpretation is correct, then 2 Corinthians 5:3 is not as tautological as it may at first seem. Paul is saying that he wants to receive his resurrection body so that he will not be found naked in the grave, having lived and died in vain, without recompense.
5:4 The second, parallel step in explicating and substantiating the apostle’s knowledge in verse 1 is given in verse 4, but it does not go much beyond what has already been stated in verses 2–3. The redundancy underscores the fervency of Paul’s eschatological expectation, not to mention its urgency in view of the situation in his mission field. The expression, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life, makes it clear that here, as in 1 Corinthians 15:53–54, Paul is thinking of the eschatological consummation at the Parousia. The allusion is to Isaiah 25:8, which is explicitly cited in 1 Corinthians 15:54. In the context of a vision of an eschatological banquet on Zion that includes “all peoples,” Isaiah 25:7–8a MT reads: “And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations; he will swallow up death forever.” The citation in 1 Corinthians 15:52, however, uses a proto-Theodotian version, which translates Isaiah 25:8a slightly differently: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” Hence, Paul yearns for the day of resurrection, when “the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence” (2 Cor. 4:14).
5:5 The theological reason that Paul can expect this future transformation of his body is given in verse 5: since God, according to his own purpose, has given believers the Spirit, they can expect the resurrection of their bodies at the Parousia. Romans 8:29 traces the process of transformation in terms of a sorites that progresses from divine predestination to conformity to the likeness of his son at the resurrection. Moreover, just as in Romans 8:23, where the Spirit is the “firstfruits” of the coming redemption of the body (cf. Rom. 8:11), the Spirit is here the deposit, which, in a binding way, promises and guarantees the rest of the expected payment (i.e., the resurrection of the body) within a specified period of time (cf. 2 Cor. 1:20). Paul’s confidence about his heavenly destination and his imminent expectation are based on an intimate knowledge of God’s ultimate purposes for his life and the inner working of the Spirit.
5:6 In verses 6–10, Paul’s longing for bodily transformation is further described in terms of a desire for more intimate communion with Christ at the time of the consummation, for while he is on earth, Paul is still distant from Christ who is in heaven, and so he looks forward to being with the Lord. Paul begins this section in verse 6 by drawing a hopeful inference (Therefore, oun) from the previous discussion, especially in view of his possession of the Spirit as a guarantee of the future resurrection. This verse reiterates what Paul states in verse 1: If his body dies, then he has a home in the heavenly temple. For the time being, however, we are away from the Lord (lit., “we are in exile from the Lord”). This statement has caused much consternation among Paul’s interpreters. How is it possible for a believer like Paul to be at home in the body and away from the Lord, as if life in the body is incompatible with life in Christ? Is not the apostle already “in Christ”? Has he not been reconciled with God (2 Cor. 5:19)? Is he not being progressively transformed into the image of Christ (3:18)? The problem is so acute that J. Murphy-O’Connor argues that Paul is not stating his own position but quoting his opponents’ point of view, which supposedly denied any importance to the body. Nevertheless, the problem is easily solved if we consider that it is not until the Parousia that believers, including Paul, are fully conformed to the likeness of the Son and finally take up residence with him, so that he becomes the firstborn “among many brothers” (Rom. 8:29; cf. Phil. 3:20–21). As Paul states in 1 Thessalonians 4:17, referring to being caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, “And so shall we be with the Lord forever.” In the interim, Paul, along with other believers, is “away from the Lord” in the sense that he does not yet dwell with Christ in heaven. This remains true for Paul even if he has gone on repeated heavenly journeys, for the apostle does not know whether they were in-body or out-of-body experiences (2 Cor. 12:2, 3), and in any case they certainly represent only temporary departures from his earthly existence. For the moment, therefore, Paul is truly “at home in the body” in the sense that that is his normal apostolic experience, and his body has not yet been fully redeemed from its bondage to decay (Rom. 8:23). Believers are never away from the Lord in the absolute sense, but, relatively speaking, there is more to experience in the future (cf. 1 Cor. 13:12).
5:7 Paul proceeds to give a reason (gar, untranslated NIV) for his confidence in the future resurrection of his body. The prepositional phrase by faith is positioned forward in the sentence for emphasis. As in Hebrews 11:1, where faith is defined as “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen,” with many examples of such faith being given in the subsequent context, Paul founds his confidence in his life of faith, which does not need already to see the outcome in order to believe that it will happen. He simply trusts in God. The meaning of sight here is similar to that in Numbers 12:8: “I [sc. God] will speak to him mouth to mouth, by sight, and not in riddles; and he has seen the glory of the Lord.” In both cases it denotes a visible form of the phenomenon (cf. 2 Cor. 2:17; 3:18; 4:6). Elsewhere, Paul equates speaking this “mouth to mouth” with seeing “face to face” in the eschatological consummation, a time when believers will no longer see in a mirror dimly (cf. 1 Cor. 13:12). Thus, 2 Corinthians 5:7 differentiates Paul’s present life in faith from his future existence in the consummated kingdom of God, when the Lord’s visible form will be manifest, and the apostle will no longer live in anguished exile from the Lord’s presence. Paul has already stated that he fixes his eyes “not on what is seen, but on what is unseen” (4:18), that is, on the eternal glory which far outweighs his current plight.
5:8 Paul again expresses here his earnest desire to be with the Lord. For the apostle, death (being away from the body) is preferable to life in the body, for it means being at home with the Lord. He realizes, however, that may be necessary for him to continue living in order to carry out God’s purposes (cf. Phil. 1:21–24).
5:9 Paul draws an inference (So, dio) from the fact that he has both the hope that he will dwell with the Lord and the knowledge that he must presently carry on in his mortal body. Paul does not put his own preferences first. Like the synoptic portrayal of Jesus in Gethsemane (Mark 14:36 par.; cf. John 12:27), Paul subordinates his own will to the will of God. To please God in all things is the apostle’s highest goal (cf. Rom. 12:1, 2; 14:18; Phil. 4:18; Col. 3:20). To bring praise and honor to God is Paul’s constant aim. The expression whether we are at home … or away corresponds to “whether we wake or sleep” (1 Thess. 5:10) and to “whether we live or die” (Rom. 14:8). These expressions describe the present life and the eschatological existence in the new body. Even Paul’s afterlife will be a life of dedication, service, and praise to God. This marks an unbroken continuity of purpose from present to future.
5:10 The reason that Paul endeavors to please God while in his mortal body is the coming eschatological judgment. The we all includes first and foremost Paul and all other believers, but it also points to a universal judgment, which he calls “the day of the Lord Jesus” (1:14). That believers are justified by faith in Christ does not mean that they are excused from the judgment according to their works (cf. Rom. 14:10, 12; 1 Cor. 3:12–15; 2 Cor. 11:15). The merciful God remains also a holy God; the reconciler is also the righteous judge.
Whereas Paul states here that “we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ (to bēma tou Christou),” he states in Romans 14:10 that “we must all stand before the judgment seat of God (to bēma tou theou).” As Martin Hengel argues, the explanation for this is that, since Christ has been seated at the right hand of God (cf. 1 Cor. 15:25; Rom. 8:34), God and Christ share the same throne-chariot (merkabah); hence they carry out activities either together or interchangeably (cf. 2 Cor. 5:19), including the eschatological judgment (cf. Rom. 2:6, 16; 14:10; 1 Cor. 3:13–15; 4:4–5).
We must remember that Paul claims to have seen the divine throne-chariot (cf. 2:14, 17; 4:6; 12:2–4), and that fact is very much at issue in the present section of his defense. He is open to the charge of being a fraud, since there are no visible signs of his having encountered the merkabah. Paul’s conclusion to the issue in this section is tantamount to a warning, similar to the one he gave in 1 Corinthians 4:3–5, that he should not be judged before the time. However, the one who claims to have the revelatory treasure of the merkabah vision in his mortal body is confident that the power of God is at work in him (cf. 2 Cor. 4:7).
The purpose of the appearance before the judgment seat is that believers may receive recompense for their conduct in the body, whether it be good or bad. Paul is motivated to please God both in order to receive a reward for his sufferings and labors (cf. 2 Cor. 5:3) and in order to avoid condemnation.
Additional Notes
5:1–10 This passage is fraught with exegetical difficulties. See, besides the commentaries, E. Earle Ellis, “The Structure of Pauline Eschatology (2 Corinthians 5:1–10),” in Paul and His Interpreters (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1961), pp. 35–48; Rudolf Bultmann, “Exegetische Probleme des zweiten Korintherbriefes,” in Exegetica. Aufsätze zur Erforschung des Neuen Testaments (ed. Erich Dinkler; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1967), pp. 298–322 (here pp. 298–312); J. Osei-Bonsu, “Does 2 Cor. 5:1–10 Teach the Reception of the Resurrection of the Body at the Moment of Death?” JSNT 28 (1986), pp. 81–101; T. Francis Glasson, “2 Corinthians 5:1–10 versus Platonism,” SJT 43 (1990), pp. 145–56; W.L. Craig, “Paul’s Dilemma in 2 Corinthians 5:1–10,” NTS 34 (1988), pp. 145–47; A. C. Perriman, “Paul and the Parousia: 1 Corinthians 15:50–7 and 2 Corinthians 5:1–5,” NTS 35 (1989), pp. 512–21.
On the supposed development in Pauline eschatology between the writing of 1 Thess. 4:13–18, 1 Cor. 15:51–52, and 2 Cor. 5:1–10, see Rainer Riesner, Die Frühzeit des Apostels Paulus. Studien zur Chronologie, Missionsstrategie und Theologie (WUNT 71; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1994), pp. 343–49.
5:1 The perishable tent (skēnos) here signifies Paul’s mortal earthly body. Cf. Wis. 9:15–16. Paul holds out the possibility (if) that he may die before the Parousia.
Cf. Craig R. Koester, The Dwelling of God: The Tabernacle in the Old Testament, Intertestamental Jewish Literature, and the New Testament (CBQMS 22; Washington, D.C.: Catholic Biblical Association of America, 1989).
The meaning of we have has been the subject of considerable debate. It has gone unnoticed, however, that in conditional sentences having ean (if) + the aorist subjunctive in the protasis and the present indicative of echō (have) in the apodosis, the latter expresses a possession that an individual already has had (or not had) all along (cf. 1 John 2:1; Matt. 5:46; John 6:53), not just reception immediately consequent upon the action of the protasis.
On the concept of the dwellings in the heavenly Jerusalem (John 14:2; cf. Michael Chyutin, “The New Jerusalem: Ideal City,” DSD 1 [1994], pp. 71–97).
On Mark 14:58, whose authenticity can scarcely be doubted, see E. P.Sanders, Jesus and Judaism (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1985), pp. 61, 364 nn. 2–3.
On the Qumran idea of the community as a spiritual temple, see Bertil Gärtner, The Temple and the Community in Qumran and the New Testament: A Comparative Study in the Temple Symbolism of Qumran Texts and the New Testament (SNTSMS 1; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1965), pp. 49–56. On Paul’s appropriation of the tradition of the community as temple, see on 2 Cor. 6:16.
On the correspondence between the heavenly and the earthly, the liturgy performed in the heavenly temple corresponds to the offerings in the earthly temple, which is a copy of the heavenly temple (cf. Isa. 6:1).
On the future eschatological temple that God himself would make, see 11QTemple 29.7–10; Jub. 1:17. Cf. Yigael Yadin, The Temple Scroll (3 vols.; Jerusalem: The Israel Exploration Society/The Institute of Archaeology of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem/The Shrine of the Book, 1983), vol. 1, pp. 182–87, vol. 2, p. 129; Daniel R. Schwartz, “The Three Temples of 4QFlorilegium,” RevQ 10 (1979), pp. 83–91.
Both Kings and Chronicles report that when Solomon dedicated the Jerusalem temple, he brought the tabernacle into the temple (cf. 1 Kgs. 8:4; 2 Chron. 5:5), where it remained (cf. 2 Chron. 29:5–7) until it was destroyed with the temple in 587 B.C. (cf. Ps. 74:7; Lam. 2:6–7). Perhaps our passage implies the apostle’s hope that the resurrected tabernacle of his body will be brought into the eternal heavenly temple built by God himself.
5:2 On clothed with our heavenly dwelling, cf., for example, 2 En. 22:7–10, where Enoch is transformed in the seventh heaven during a face-to-face encounter with the Lord. God initiates the process of transformation with the command, “Let Enoch join in and stand in front of my face forever” (v. 7). Then God commands Michael: “Take Enoch, and extract (him) from his earthly clothing. And anoint him with delightful oil, and put (him) into the clothes of my glory” (v. 8). This results in Enoch’s being transformed into an angel: “And I looked at myself, and I had become like one of his glorious ones, and there was no observable difference” (v. 10). Likewise, the patriarch Levi is instructed on his ascent to put on “the vestments of the priesthood, … the robe of truth, … and the turban for the head” (T. Levi 8:2). According to Exod. Rab. 42:3, God spread his garment (talito) over Moses. Cf. Martha Himmelfarb, Ascent to Heaven in Jewish and Christian Apocalypses (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993), pp. 29–46.
Note that in Josephus, Ant. 8.114, Solomon acknowledges in his prayer of dedication for the temple that “the whole vault of heaven and all its host is but a small dwelling (oikētērion)—how much less this poor Temple!” Earlier in the same context (Ant. 8.107) the temple was described as an “Eternal House” (oikos aiōnios). Likewise in 2 Cor. 5:1–2, the “eternal house (oikian aiōnion) in the heavens” is not necessarily the same as “our dwelling (oikētērion) which is from heaven.”
Pate (Adam Christology, pp. 121–23) suggests that the mixed metaphor “clothed with a building” can be explained as the overlap of three traditions here: the Jewish motif of the heavenly temple, the tradition of Christ’s body as equated with the temple of God’s presence (cf. Mark 14:58; John 1:14; 2:21), and the later Christian tradition in which all believers are seen to share in Christ’s resurrection as the temple of God (cf., e.g., 1 Cor. 3:16–17; 6:19–20; 15:50–55; 2 Cor. 6:16).
According to Gal. 3:26–27, believers, who are sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, have clothed themselves with Christ. In other words, they already participate by the indwelling Spirit in the sonship of the messianic Son of God (cf. Gal. 4:1–7). Believers already have within and around them the means by which they will be transformed in the future.
5:3 Pate argues that naked refers to Adam’s nakedness as a result of losing his glory, interpreted in 3 Bar. 4:16; 2 En. 22:8; 30:12; Gen. Rab. 20:12 in terms of a garment or “clothing” that was lost at the fall (Adam Christology, p. 115). This loss of glory is interpreted by Paul as being “bodiless” in 5:3 (ibid., p. 116). The believer is now naked of bodily glory, and it is this bodiless existence in the intermediate state that Paul fears (pp. 116, 125), longing instead in 5:2–3 for the manifestation of divine glory in his body that has already begun in his heart (p. 120). According to Paul’s understanding of Gen. 3:21, Adam’s nakedness (i.e., his glory-less state after the fall), was covered with human skin, so that all humanity must now live in a mortal, tent-like body (p. 120).
A few manuscripts have the variant reading “when we have undressed ourselves” or “when we have taken it off” (so NRSV), instead of the participle when we are clothed. This variant, however, is probably a later modification attempting to avoid the seemingly tautological statement that being clothed means not being naked. Following Rudolf Bultmann, supporters of the variant reading understand the text as Paul’s polemic against his alleged gnostic opponents, who yearn to strip themselves of the body and yet not be naked (cf. Mart. Isa. 4:17; Apoc. Mos. 31:1; 32:4). In response to this suggestion, we must recognize that the text does not show any particular evidence of this polemic, and the reading “when we are clothed” goes well with the preceding line. Furthermore, as we have seen, Pauline eschatology expects a bodily resurrection. On the textual problem in v. 3, see Bruce M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament (2d ed.; Stuttgart: United Bible Societies, 1994), p. 511.
5:5 Paul maintains an imminent expectation of the consummation throughout his correspondence (cf. 1 Thess. 2:19; 3:13; 4:13–5:11; Phil. 2:12–18; 3:20–21; Gal. 5:5; 6:7–10; 1 Cor. 15:20–58; Rom. 13:11–14; 14:10).
5:6 Cf. Jerome Murphy-O’Connor, “ ‘Being at Home in the Body We are in Exile from the Lord’ 2 Cor. 5:6b),” RB 93 (1986), pp. 214–21.
By stating that he knows he is at home in the body, Paul may also be addressing the accusation that he is “out of his mind” (cf. v. 13).
Pate argues that the “exile” described by Paul in 5:6–10 is based on Adam’s own exile in Gen. 3:24–25 (Adam Christology, p. 127).
Cf. C. Spicq, “ekdēmeō,” TLNT, vol. 1, pp. 453–54 (here 454): “The Pauline use of moving as a metaphor for death, expressed as a play on words, is clear: it is a matter of moving from one country to another, that is, moving out of here in order to move in elsewhere, leaving the body behind to gain heaven and see Christ. Here below, Christians are in exile ‘apart from the Lord.’ They live as exiles (ekdēmeō) so long as they dwell in this body, which is likened to a tent (skēnos—2 Cor. 5:1, 4—a symbol of nomadic life) because their citizenship is in heaven (Phil. 3:20).” Paul’s idea is very close to that of Philo at this point (e.g., On the Confusion of Tongues 78). The trials that Paul faces on earth are typical of one who is in exile in a foreign land (see further on 2 Cor. 11:23b–29).
5:10 Cf. Martin Hengel, “ ‘Setze dich zu meiner Rechten!’ Die Inthronisation Christi zur Rechten Gottes und Psalm 110,1,” in Le Trône de Dieu (ed. Marc Philonenko; WUNT 69; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1993), pp. 108–94 (here esp. pp. 142, 164). In light of Hengel’s argument, it is interesting to note that, according to Josephus (Ant. 13.84), Alexander Balas compelled his ally, the high priest Jonathan, when he came to Ptolemais, to take off his own garment and to put on a purple one, “making him sit with him on the judgment seat (bēma).”
The Greek word bēma (judgment seat) is rare in the LXX. Josephus describes the grand and glorious throne of Solomon as being “in the form of a tribunal (bēma), with six steps leading up to it” (Ant. 8.140; cf. 17.201).
In rabbinic literature, bēma is a loanword. Cf. Daniel Sperber, A Dictionary of Greek and Latin Legal Terms in Rabbinic Literature (Bar-Ilan University Institute for Lexicography: Dictionaries of Talmud, Midrash and Targum 1; Ramat-Gan: Bar-Ilan University Press, 1984), pp. 70–72. The normal term for the judgment seat of God is kissē’ dîn (“throne of judgment”). Cf. Gen. Rab. 93:11; Lev. Rab. 29:3, 4, 6, 9, 10.
Corinth itself had a bēma, or governor’s tribunal, in the forum. As Corinth was the capital of the province of Achaia, the governor and his staff were often present in the city on legal business. Paul was brought before Cornelius Gallio at this site in A.D. 51 by the Jewish community of Corinth (Acts 18:12). For a description of the bēma in Corinth see James Wiseman, “Corinth and Rome 1:228 B.C.–A.D. 267,” ANRW, 17.1, pp. 438–548 (here pp. 515–17).
One of the main difficulties with Rudolf Bultmann’s attempt to make anthropology and the gift of God’s declaration of acquittal the sole subject of Paul’s theology is that it caused him to demythologize the future aspects of Paul’s apocalyptic eschatology for the sake of the present. Hence, Bultmann’s position was unable to incorporate Paul’s statements concerning the final judgment according to one’s works, which believers must also endure (cf. 1 Thess. 3:13; 5:23; 1 Cor. 1:8; 2:12–15; 4:4–5), into his purely forensic theological scheme.
