In 2:14–4:6, the first step in his defense of the legitimacy of his apostolic claim, Paul repeatedly refers to heavenly realities he has known as an apostle: He has entered the heavenly throne room of God; he speaks in the presence of Christ; and he has seen the glory of God in the face of Christ (cf. 2:14, 17; 4:6). The emphasis in the previous section has thus been on the glory of Paul’s apostolic ministry. The problem is that Paul’s body does not manifest the glory of God in a tangible way. According to Jewish tradition, however, one who ascends to the merkabah is bodily transformed in the process into the likeness of the divine glory. Moses himself, to whom Paul has already alluded, had to veil his face because the Israelites could not bear the resplendent glory visible there (cf. 3:7, 13; Philo, On the Life of Moses 2.70; Pesiq. Rab. 10:6; Zohar 1.31b). Therefore, the question is this: If Paul has ascended to the throne-chariot of God in the highest heaven, and if greater glory attends Paul’s ministry than even that of Moses, why does Paul not have to wear a veil as Moses did (cf. 2 Cor. 3:13; 5:12)? According to Merkabah Rabbah, the face of one who ascends to the divine throne-chariot should shine (cf. Schäfer, 705, 706). Furthermore, according to Hekhatot Rabbati, the one who ascends to the divine throne-chariot becomes invincible and greater than all other humans (Schäfer, 84–85; cf. G. A. Wewers). So why does Paul’s suffering and dying body look so unimpressive (cf. 10:10)? Why does Paul have a “thorn in the flesh” (12:7)? Why, in short, is Paul’s glory so different from the glory of Moses?
In answer to these questions, which probably stem from Paul’s opponents and resonate in the Corinthian church, Paul emphasizes in 4:7–5:15 that a simultaneous process of destruction and reconstruction is currently taking place in his body, a process that will reach its completion only at the Parousia, when his mortal body will be transformed into immortality, and Christ will judge him on his merkabah throne for what he has done in the body. Paul thus contrasts his earthly suffering as an apostle to the heavenly prospects that he still earnestly awaits. Yet, while the verdict on Paul must await the final judgment, there is evidence even now of God’s power working through Paul in his mortal body (4:7). Ultimately, however, Paul rejects the opponents’ physical criterion for assessing the legitimacy of his apostleship and seeks instead to establish valid criteria (5:11–15). Hence, the present section forms a solid, second step in Paul’s defense strategy.
4:7 Having shown the transcendent power and glory of his apostleship in 2:14–4:6, Paul is careful not to claim personal credit for these things. Paul wants to avoid the appearance of self-commendation (3:1) and claims instead that his competence is from God (3:5). This treasure probably refers to the revelation of the glory of God in the face of Christ through which Paul received his apostolic commission (4:6). Paul has this revelatory treasure in jars of clay. It is difficult to know exactly why Paul has chosen this metaphor for his physical body (cf. b. Taʿan. 7a; Acts 9:15). In the ancient world, the most common vessels were earthenware. They were used for storing and transporting (of water, oil, grain, and olives), cooking, eating, drinking, and presenting offerings. They are found in every domestic excavation site and in graves, where they accompanied the deceased with provisions. Pottery vessels became the main type of containers in most Near Eastern cultures. Yet the vessels were fragile and their usual life spans were probably a few years at the most. Therefore, when Paul refers to his body as a clay jar, he may be regarding himself, on one level, as quite ordinary and transitory (cf. Lam. 4:2; Song Rab. 1:19: “Just as water does not keep well in a vessel of silver or gold but in the commonest of vessels, so the Torah resides only in one who makes himself like a vessel of earthenware”).
Paul’s metaphor, however, has a deeper significance: His body is a “jar of clay” because “the Lord God formed man (ʾādām) from the dust of the ground (ʾadāmāh)” (Gen. 2:7; cf. Ps. 103:14; Isa. 29:16; 45:9; Sir. 33:10, 13; 1QH 1.15; 3.21; 1QS 11.21–22). The Hebrew verb yāṣar here is most often used of a potter who “forms” a vessel out of clay (cf. Isa. 29:16; 41:25; Jer. 18:4, 6; 1 Chron. 4:23; Lam. 4:2). In the account of the curse, Genesis goes on to underscore the relationship of human beings to the soil: “You are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Gen. 3:19; cf. Ps. 104:29; Job 10:9; 17:16; 21:26; 34:15; Eccl. 3:20; cf. Schäfer, 973). Therefore, when Paul refers to his body as a clay jar, he regards himself as having a mortal human body.
Verse 7b goes on to give the purpose for which the revelatory treasure is contained in the clay jar of Paul’s mortal body. In the previous context, Paul has been careful not to claim any credit for the surpassing glory and power of his apostolic ministry (cf. 3:6, 10). In fact, the apostle strictly denies any sufficiency in and of himself (3:5). If his body fails to emanate this glory and power, that merely underscores the point, for while Paul considers himself to possess all-surpassing power, this power is not inherently Paul’s own; it is from God (v. 7b; cf. 6:7; 12:9; 12:12).
4:8–18 In this section, Paul elaborates on his “earthenware” apostolic experience by a series of antithetic statements designed to show that, despite the apostle’s suffering and dying, God is the source of power in his ministry. By the power of the death and resurrection of Jesus, God enables Paul to persevere in the midst of persecution; he makes Paul’s ministry of suffering to redound to the benefit of the Corinthians; and he gives Paul confidence in the future resurrection of the dead.
4:8–9 The section begins with a series of antitheses that express God’s providential preservation of Paul despite severe persecution. The Corinthians are well informed of Paul’s sufferings: In 1 Corinthians 4:11–13 he lists his apostolic trials and tribulations, and in 2 Corinthians 1:8–11 he describes his nearly fatal experience in Asia, which made him despair even of life. Yet, as we have seen, God comforts Paul in “all our troubles” (1:4), in the sense that he rescues the apostle from all his trials. Since the power of God is at work in his life, Paul can withstand persecution without being destroyed. Acts even records an incident in which Paul was stoned and left for dead, but he walked away from the scene (Acts 14:19–20). In all of these trials, Paul is not abandoned, that is, not forsaken by God (cf. in LXX Pss. 26:9; 36:25, 28, 33; 37:22; 70:9, 18; 118:8; 139:9). God always preserves him from destruction and death.
4:10–11 Paul explains the paradoxical result of his perseverance in persecution by the power of God. Paul considers all of the deprivations, efforts, and persecutions that he incurs in the course of his apostolic ministry as participation in the sufferings of Christ, including the cruciform death of Jesus itself (cf. 1:5). As the apostle states in Philippians 3:10–11, he shares in Christ’s sufferings and the power of his resurrection, “becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.” According to Galatians 3:1, before the Galatians’ very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. In all likelihood, this means that, through seeing the apostle and his sufferings, the Galatians saw in human form a revelation of the death of Jesus. This seems to be confirmed in Galatians 6:17, where Paul states that he bears on his body “the marks of Jesus,” referring to the wounds and scars that he received in the service of Christ. Paradoxically, however, Paul’s suffering shows the resurrection life of Jesus in his body. Sharing in Christ’s sufferings here and now is a prerequisite for sharing in his resurrection glory in the future (Rom. 8:17). In the present, however, Paul is constantly being delivered from demise, which is a revelation of the resurrection life of Jesus at work in Paul’s mortal body (cf. 1:9–10; 4:14). Hence, a simultaneous process of death and resurrection is currently taking place in Paul’s body.
4:12 There is another paradoxical result of Paul’s perseverance in persecution by the power of God: So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you. As Paul has already explained in the thanksgiving of 1:3–11, the persecution that he endures is for the benefit of the Corinthians. Hence Paul’s suffering is a special suffering related particularly to his apostolic ministry, since it mediates benefits to the churches that he founds. Among these benefits is the life-giving Spirit (cf. 3:6).
4:13–15 In this section, Paul elaborates on his hope of and confidence in the resurrection of the dead, again stressing the benefit to the Corinthians.
4:13 The apostle begins in verse 13 with a citation from Psalm 116:10 (115:1 LXX) in order to allude to the context of the psalm. The psalmist, who identifies himself as the Lord’s “servant,” speaks of his great humiliation (v. 1) and refers to the death of the Lord’s pious ones (v. 6). Evidently, the psalmist has been delivered from great persecution (v. 7), and he now, in accordance with vows given during the trial, seeks to render praise to God before the people in the house of the Lord (vv. 9–10). The psalmist believed that God could deliver him, and therefore he has spoken. Having been delivered from many perilous situations in the past and expecting to be delivered in a full and final way in the future, Paul likewise speaks in that same spirit as this psalm. We have already noted Paul’s use of psalmic form and content in the opening thanksgiving (cf. 2 Cor. 1:3–11).
4:14 Paul gives the reason he can speak with the same spirit of faith as Psalm 116:10: despite his present plight, Paul has an indomitable confidence in the resurrection of the dead, or, more particularly, in “the God who raises the dead” (2 Cor. 1:9–11). He describes this confidence by means of the early Christ creed, “God raised Jesus” (cf. Rom. 10:9; 1 Thess. 1:10; Acts 3:15; the participial construction used here is also found in Rom. 4:24; 8:11; Gal. 1:1). At the Parousia, the apostle will stand together with the Corinthians before God. This ties together with themes that Paul developed in the previous section (2:14–4:6), that Paul has often stood in the presence of God (cf. 2:14, 17; 4:6), and that believers are being transformed into the likeness of the Lord (3:18). Paul’s confidence and hope is that believers are just one step behind the risen Lord, who is “the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Cor. 15:20). In this sense, God will raise Paul up with Jesus. The christological context of the believer’s experience is quite pronounced (cf. 2 Cor. 4:10–11).
4:15 The reason (gar, untranslated NIV) that God will raise up Paul is ultimately doxological. On the one hand, Paul’s deliverance is for the benefit of the Corinthians (2 Cor. 1:3–7). On the other hand, Paul’s final deliverance is expected to result in overflowing thanksgiving to God (cf. 1:11). The culmination of the Pauline mission is that Jews and Gentiles would glorify God together for his mercy (cf. Rom. 15:5–13). In this way, the goal of the Pauline mission coincides with the general message of Isaiah.
4:16–18 In this section Paul draws a conclusion (Therefore, dio) from what he has said previously about his sharing in both the death and life of Jesus (vv. 10–12, 13–15), using the same antithetical style as previously. In the process, Paul reiterates what he has said in verse 1 (we do not lose heart), thus bringing closure to chapter 4.
4:16 The apostle begins in verse 16 with the conclusion itself and the substantiation for it. Paul contrasts the ongoing destructive and reconstructive processes that are simultaneously at work in his “outer man” and in his “inner man.” On the one hand, Paul’s suffering and sharing in the death of Jesus have him wasting away outwardly, that is, physically. In the context of degenerative processes, the term is used of rust’s eating into iron, of moths’ eating clothes, and of the bodies of starving persons. Paul has already referred in verse 7 to his body as a “jar of clay,” alluding to the original composition of human beings from the dust of the ground (Gen. 2:7) and to their subjugation to death and decomposition to dust after the curse (Gen. 3:19). The creation, too, has been subjected to futility and decay (Rom. 8:20). The mortal material out of which humans are made is the problem. Hence, in Romans 7:24 we find the anguished cry (perhaps of Adam after the fall), “Who will rescue me from this body of death?”
On the other hand, Paul’s sharing in the resurrection of Jesus causes him continually to be renewed. Paul has already described the transformation of believers (3:18; cf. Col. 3:9–10). In 2 Corinthians 5:17, he declares: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” Hence the renewal that Paul envisions is not just a matter of outer versus inner, but also of past versus present and future. The consummation of the renewal process takes place at the Parousia, when the bodies of believers will be redeemed (Rom. 8:23), that is, resurrected and conformed to the likeness of the Son of God (v. 29), and the whole creation “will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the sons of God” (v. 21).
Paul wants to stress against his opponents that the real test of his apostleship is not external glory, which is observably deficient at present, but rather the process of internal transformation (see further on 5:12). Given these values, the apostle does not lose heart, despite his hardships and their negative effect on his body.
4:17 Paul gives a second reason he does not lose heart: the weight of his current tribulation is relatively small compared to the immeasurably greater weight of glory that still awaits him. Paul thereby makes a play on the corresponding Hebrew word for glory (kābôd), which literally means “weight, heaviness.” Although Paul’s temporary and earthly suffering is actually quite excruciating in the sense of sharing in Christ’s sufferings (cf. 1:8–11), this suffering is light. It pales in comparison with the future eternal glory that he expects as a result of the present process of transformation. For Paul, sharing in Christ’s sufferings is the prerequisite to sharing in Christ’s glory (Rom. 8:17). In fact, suffering is a normal part of the Christian experience (Phil. 1:29), and especially so for the apostle. Paul already enjoys a substantial measure of glory through his apostleship (2 Cor. 3:7–18). The process of transformation into the visible likeness of the Lord has already begun (3:18). However, there is even more glory in store for him in the future, when he is given a resurrection body in the likeness of the glorious resurrection body of Jesus Christ himself (cf. 1 Cor. 15:43; Phil. 3:21).
4:18 Paul states here the result of his future expectation of glory on his present perspective. He does not lose heart (v. 16a) because he has his sights set on as yet intangible heavenly realities rather than on the tangible earthly vicissitudes and physical frailty that currently mark his outwardly being (“the external man” of v. 16). Paul has already had a foretaste of the coming glory through his experience of the merkabah (cf. 12:1–7). Looking beyond the transitory moment, Paul knows that the transformation taking place within him is eternal.
Additional Notes
4:7–5:15 On the bodily transfromation into the likeness of the divine glory cf. C. R. A. Morray-Jones, “Transformational Mysticism in the Apocalyptic-Merkabah Tradition,” JJS 43 (1992), pp. 1–31; M. Himmelfarb, “Revelation and Rapture: The Transformation of the Visionary in the Ascent Apocalypses,” in Mysteries and Revelations: Apocalyptic Studies since the Uppsala Colloquium (ed. John J. Collins and James H. Charlesworth; JSPSup 9; Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1991), pp. 79–90.
4:7 On treasure, Col. 2:3 refers to Christ as the one “in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (cf. 1 En. 46:3; Schäfer, 77 [“all the treasuries of wisdom” were opened to Moses on Sinai, including various aspects of the seventy languages of the seventy nations]). “This treasure” has also been understood as an allusion back to the “gospel” (cf. Thrall, Second Corinthians, vol. 1, pp. 321–22) or to the divine glory lost by Adam and being restored through the righteous suffering of Christ, the last Adam (C. Marvin Pate, Adam Christology as the Exegetical and Theological Substructure of 2 Corinthians 4:7–5:21 [Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1991], pp. 77–106). For Pate, therefore, 2 Cor. 4:16–5:4a is a “midrashic type of interpretation of Gen. 1–3” (ibid., p. 126). On this, see the review by Scott Hafemann, JBL 113 (1994), pp. 346–49.
On jars of clay see also 1QH 3.23–25; Apoc. Mos. 31:4.
According to Herodotus (3.96), Darius used to store (thēsaurizei) the tribute he had collected from the whole inhabited world by melting it down and pouring it into large earthen wine-jars (pithous keraminous), which served as molds; when the vessels were full, he would break them away and use the resulting ingots to mint new coins. Hence, the jars were merely of utilitarian value and had to be broken in order to complete their function.
If, as we have argued, 2 Cor. 2:14–4:6 is based on Israel’s salvation history and reflects the nation’s sin, exile, and restoration, then it may be significant to note that in Jewish tradition Israel’s story is seen as a direct parallel to Adam’s, so that “Israel’s sin and exile are a reiteration of Adam’s sin and exile” (Paul Morris, “Exiled from Eden: Jewish Interpretations of Genesis,” in A Walk in the Garden: Biblical, Iconographical and Literary Images of Eden [ed. Paul Morris and Deborah Sawyer; JSOTSup 136; Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1992], pp. 117–66 [p. 123]). Cf. Pesiq. Rab Kah. 15:1:1 (cf. also Gen. Rab. 3:9; 19:9).
On the verb yasar, see B. Otzen, “yasar,” TDOT, vol. 6, pp. 257–65.
4:8–9 On the tribulation catalogues in Rom. 8:35; 1 Cor. 4:10–13; 2 Cor. 4:8–9; 6:4–10; 11:23–33; 12:10; and Phil. 4:12, see Niels Willert, “The Catalogues of Hardships in the Pauline Correspondence: Background and Function,” in The New Testament and Hellenistic Judaism (ed. Peder Borgen and Søren Giversen; Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 1997), pp. 217–43.
The phrase that the NIV translates on every side (en panti) is literally translated “in everything” or “in every way,” and may apply to all four of the following antitheses. Compare the pleonastic use of pas (“all, every”) in 1:3, 4; 6:4; 7:5, 11, 16.
How can we explain the apparent tension between our text (perplexed, but not in despair) and 1:8, where the apostle states that he “despaired even of life” during his tribulation in Asia? Perhaps our passage reflects Paul’s normal response to various kinds of affliction, whereas the severity of the situation in Asia caused a momentary lapse.
4:10–11 On the death of Jesus, see J. Lambrecht, “The Nekrōsis of Jesus: Ministry and Suffering in 2 Cor. 4:7–15,” in Apôtre Paul. Personnalité, style et conception du ministère (ed. A. Vanhoye; BETL 73; Leuven: Leuven University Press, 1986), pp. 120–43.
Although for the most part v. 11 merely explains v. 10 in other words, it does add the idea that Paul is being given over to death. The same verb is used of Jesus’ being “given over” (cf. Rom. 4:25; 8:32; 1 Cor. 11:23; Gal. 2:20).
4:12 Steven J. Kraftchick argues that in 2 Corinthians the death and resurrection of Jesus is a “generative metaphor” (“Death in Us, Life in You: The Apostolic Medium,” in Hay, ed., Pauline Theology, pp. 156–81). Specifically, Kraftchick concludes that in 2 Corinthians “the structure by which terms such as death, life, the glory of God, and power are related to one another by the resurrection of Jesus from the dead is transferred by Paul to the terms of his ministry and by extension to the life of the Christian in the present time before the eschaton” (ibid., p. 164). See the response to this proposal by Beverly Roberts Gaventa, “Apostle and Church in 2 Corinthians: A Response to David M. Hay and Steven J. Kraftchick,” in Hay, ed., Pauline Theology, pp. 182–99 (here pp. 187–93).
This is the first explicit OT quote in 2 Corinthians (cf. also 6:2, 16, 17, 18; 8:15; 9:7, 9, 10; 10:17). Cf. D. Moody Smith, “The Pauline Literature,” in It Is Written: Scripture Citing Scripture: Essays in Honour of Barnabas Lindars (ed. D. A. Carson and H. G. M. Williamson; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), pp. 265–91, here p. 275: “In 2 Corinthians Paul’s use of the OT is if anything more incidental, and even casual, than in 1 Corinthians.” As we shall see, however, Scripture is much more fundamental to Paul’s argument than Smith suggests.
4:16 On diaphtheirein, see BAGD, p. 190.
How may we understand the contrast between inwardly and outwardly? H.-P. Rüger (“Hieronymus, die Rabbinen und Paulus. Zur Vorgeschichte des Begriffspaars ‘innerer und äußerer Mensch’,” ZNW 68 [1977] 132–37) suggests that, for the benefit of his readers in Corinth, Paul employs “the inner man” and “the outer man” as Hellenistic substitutes for the Jewish expressions “the good inclination” and “the evil inclination,” respectively. In that case, the renewal of the inner man Paul refers to in 2 Cor. 4:16 is none other than the work of the life-giving Spirit in the heart associated with the new covenant (cf. 3:6; Eph. 3:16). As we have seen on 2 Cor. 3:3, however, the evil inclination is usually understood in rabbinic sources to be at work in the heart. In fact, it is sometimes identified with the heart of stone that will be replaced by a heart of flesh in accordance with Ezek. 36:26 (Lev. Rab. 35:5; Song Rab. 6:26). The possibility that Paul has in view here a Jewish tradition seems to be underscored by his use of the expression day by day (lit., “day and day”), which is apparently a Hebraism meaning “each day” (cf. Esth. 2:11; 3:4 [translated kath’ hekastēn hēmeran in the LXX]; 11QPs. 27.6; 11QTemple 15.1; 17.12). For example, corresponding to the notion that “the evil inclination of a man grows in strength from day to day and seeks to kill him” (b. Sukka 52b) is the idea that in the future the Spirit of God will spread throughout the whole body in accordance with Ezek. 36:27 and not merely through one of the limbs as presently (Gen. Rab. 26:6).
The earliest clear use of the phrase “evil impulse” is found in the “Plea for Deliverance,” a hymnic text from Qumran (11QPsa 19.15–16) dated to the first century A.D. (for possibly earlier Qumran texts, see now Torleif Elgvin, “Admonition Texts from Qumran Cave 4,” in Methods of Investigation of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Khirbet Qumran Site: Present Realities and Future Prospects [ed. Michael O. Wise, et al.; Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 722; New York: The New York Academy of Sciences, 1994], pp. 179–94 [here 186–87]). Cf. also 2 Esdr. 4:30; 7:48, 92; Sir. 15:14–17.
According to W. D. Davies, Paul seems to connect the evil impulse to the flesh, whereas the rabbis do not (Jewish and Pauline Studies [4th ed.; Philadelphia: Fortress, 1984], p. 196). In light of 2 Cor. 4:7, where Paul refers to his body as a “jar of clay,” we may point out the frequent wordplay in rabbinic texts between God as potter (yōser) and the evil inclination (yeser) that he created in humans (cf. b. Ber. 61a; ʿErub. 18a; Exod. Rab. 46:4; Ruth Rab. 3:1).
C. M. Pate argues that the man of 2 Cor. 4:16 is an allusion to Gen. 1:26–28, associated with Ps. 8:5–6, so that the “outer man” refers to the believer’s existence under the decaying mortality inherited from Adam, whereas the “inner man” is the believer’s existence in the new age already inaugurated by Christ as the Last Adam, “an age characterized by the renewal of the image and glory of God in the heart of the believer (cf. 4:16 with 3:18; 4:4, 6)” (Adam Christology, p. 110; cf. p. 112).
4:17 On the use of kabôd in the sense of “weight,” see C. Westermann, “kbd,” TLOT, vol. 2, pp. 590–602, here p. 593.
