Paul and Timothy are dealing with the disruption caused by false apostles in the Church at Corinth. As a review, we know little about these “false apostles.” Here is what we do know. They:
were ethnically Jewish (11:22); brought letters of recommendation for themselves, which they used to sanction what they were doing (3:1); preached a different gospel (11:4); accepted financial support for their services (2:17); took advantage of the Corinthians (11:20); were outsiders who came to Corinth during Paul’s absence (10:13-18); and, were severely critical of Paul (6:8; 10:2, 10).
These false apostles were likely like the Judaizers in Galatia, who required Christians to be circumcised and embrace the ritual law of the Old Covenant.
Weak and Foolish: Introduction
These “super apostles” boasted in themselves. Now, Paul is going to turn boasting on its head. Paul does this by becoming the “fool” and exalting in weakness.
Read 2 Corinthians 11:16-18
- In verse 16, what does Paul feel compelled to do?
- In verse 17, what does Paul say such boasting, that is not according to whom?
- What then will Paul boast in, which is not according to the Lord?
Recall that Paul had insisted that the only legitimate boasting was “in the Lord” (1 Cor 10:17, 1 Cor 1:31). What he is about to do now is as in foolishness. Then why does Paul engage in such boasting? He explains that it is needed because many boast according to the flesh (2 Cor 11:18).
Read 2 Corinthians 11:19-21a
- In verse 19, what does Paul imply about the false apostles?
- What Paul implied in verse 19, becomes what in verse 20?
- What was the result of the Corinthians putting up with “fools”?
Excursus: Paul’s Use of Anaphora
In 2 Corinthians 11:20, Paul uses a figure of speech called an “anaphora,” which is a repetition of the same expression at the beginning of a series of successive statements. Paul does this by his use of ei tis (“when someone”) to introduce each of his five images in 2 Corinthians 11:20.
For y’all tolerate it:
- when someone enslaves you,
- when someone devours you,
- when someone takes hold of you,
- when someone exalts himself,
- when someone strikes y’all on the face.
Paul uses the personal pronoun “y’all” to open and close his anaphora.
The rhetorical device generally adds gravity to an argument, the repetition of sounds being like someone pounding the receiver with his words. Paul is doing rhetorically what the false apostles were doing with their doctrine and practices: striking them on the face.
———
- In verse 21a, what does Paul say that He and Timothy were too weak to do?
Weak and Foolish: The List of Hardships
Read 2 Corinthians 11:21b-22
- What credentials were these “super apostles” claiming in the superiority of what they taught and practiced?
- How did Paul and Timothy also meet that qualification?
Read 2 Corinthians 11:23-27
- If the false apostles were going to boast about how much they served Christ, what does Paul do?
- Although Paul does not directly say so, what does he imply about greatness for those who serve Christ?
What Paul implied, he now states overtly.
Read 2 Corinthians 11:28-29
- The strength that one has as a servant of Christ is in whom?
Weak and Foolish: The Escape from Damascus
Read 2 Corinthians 11:30-33
- If Paul is going to boast, what is his boasting going to show?
- What’s the point of showing his weakness?
Weak and Foolish: Being Snatched as Far as the Third Heaven
To make sense of this section, we must realize that Paul is boasting in weakness, not in his strength.
Read 2 Corinthians 12:1
“visions”: Greek optasia. Elsewhere, in the Septuagint and New Testament, optasia clearly refers to external appearances (for example, optasia refers to seeing sun and lightning in Sirach 43:2, 16). Referring the Zechariah, John the Baptizer’s father, Luke says that Zechariah had “seen an appearance” (the angel, Gabriel, whom Luke explicitly said had appeared to him, Luke 1:22; earlier in vs. 11). When Paul was defending himself before Herod to Agrippa, he said, “I was not disobedient to the heavenly apparition” (Acts 26:19). That referred to Jesus appearing to him (Acts 26: 16), which was not a “vision” that was experienced inwardly but an appearance from outside of Paul, since others also saw the light.
Thus, we learn that what was experienced here was not simply a “vision” in the mind, but something externally seen.
- By Paul boasting about “visions and revelations,” what does he imply that the false apostles had done that had snookered the Corinthians?
- If Paul is boasting in what shows his weakness, when then will his vision show?
Read 2 Corinthians 12:2-3
“up to the third heaven”: Paul uses a genitive, eos triptou, as far as the third heaven. The clear implication, especially since he is boasting in weakness, is that he only made it to the third heaven.
Excursus: Levels of Heaven
In Paul’s day, a number of texts existed in the Jewish community about those who had visions of going into heaven. Of these visions, the most dominant theme was that heaven had seven levels. Although more or fewer levels of heaven existed in these writings, they seem to be an expansion or contraction of a seven-level view of heaven (see Paula Gooder’s Only the Third Heaven, pg. 187).
What applies specifically to what Paul describes is the third level of heaven being “paradise.” This comes from the book of 2 Enoch, which only survives intact in a Slavonic translation, with a few surviving fragments in Coptic (Egypt).
2 Enoch describes the levels of heaven in this way (note: quotations are from Nyland’s translation):
Level 1: Angels who guard the “storehouse of the dew,” and “how they are made to open and shut.” (chapters 5-6)
Level 2: This was the place for the angels who rebelled against God, “renegades, who did not obey God’s commands, but took their own advice, and turned away with their prince….” (chapter 7).
Level 3: Enoch describes this level as:
…beauty of which has never been seen! I saw all the sweet flowering trees and saw their fruits, which were sweetly scented, and all the foods they bore which were sparkling with fragrant scents. In the midst of the trees that live there, in that place where the Lord rests when he goes [to] Paradise, there is a tree of indescribable beauty and fragrance, and embellished more than everything that exists [the Tree of Life?]. On every side it has a golden appearance and it is covered with a fiery golden red color, and carries produce from all types of fruits. Its roots are in the garden at the earth’s end. [chapter 8]
This place is prepared for the just, who put up with all sorts of offense from those who frustrate their lives. [chapter 9]
Level 4: “The rays of the light of the sun and the moon” (chapter 11).
Level 5: This level seems to be what we would call “Hell”:
I saw countless soldiers, called Watchers. They had human appearance, and their size was larger than that of big giants. Their faces were shriveled, and their mouths were continually silent. There is no service in the fifth heaven. I said to the people who were with me, “Who are these ones with very shriveled miserable faces and silent mouths, and why is there no service on this heaven?” They answered me, “These are the Watchers, who with their chief Satanail rejected the Lord of light, and after them are those who are held in the great darkness on the second heaven… [chapter 18]
Enoch also described this, but he did not specify a level, but simply called it “the northern side”:
There they showed me there a very dreadful place… cruel darkness and shadowy gloom. There is no light there, only murky fire constantly flaming high.
I said, “Alas, alas, how very dreadful is this place!”
Those people said to me, “Enoch, this place is prepared for those who dishonor God, those who on earth practice wrongdoing other than nature… They did not know their creator, and worshiped lifeless gods which cannot see or hear. [chapter 10] [Note this similar to what Paul write in Romans 1:18-29]
Level 6: Here, Enoch saw, “Seven bands of angels, very bright and splendid. Their faces shone more brightly than the sun… These are the archangels who are above angels” (chapter 19).
Level 7:
There I saw a very vast light, and fiery troops of great archangels, spiritual forces, and authorities, orders and administrations, cherubim and seraphim, thrones and many-eyed ones, nine regiments, the orbital stations of light. I became dreadfully afraid, and shook with great terror! Those people took me, and led me after them, and said to me, “Take heart, Enoch! Don’t be afraid!” They showed me the Lord afar off, sitting on his very high throne. [chapter 20]
The cherubim and seraphim stand about the throne, and the six-winged and many-eyed ones do not leave. They stand in the Lord’s presence doing what he wants, and they cover his whole throne, singing softly in the Lord’s presence, “Sacred, sacred, sacred, Lord Ruler of Sabaoth, the heavens and earth are full of your splendor!” [chapter 21]
———–
- What is the point of this “man in Christ” only making it to the third level of heaven?
Read 2 Corinthians 12:5-6
- Whom does Paul now reveal as the identity of this “man in Christ”?
- What does Paul say that only making it to the third heaven shows him to be?
Read 2 Corinthians 12:7-9a
- Whom did God use to keep Paul from getting “conceited”?
- What do we know of this thorn?
“pleaded”: the aorist form of the verb, parakaleo (come to my side to comfort me) suggests that Paul prayed once, repeating his petition three times.
“three times”: Paul petitioned the Lord “three times.” That corresponds to understanding that appears in the Scriptures that an action is brought to fullness and completion by its third occurrence. Implied in this three-fold completion is the Triune nature of God. See Exodus 23:14; Numbers 22:28, 24:10; 1 Samuel 3:8, 20:41; 1 Kings 18:34; Mark 14:30; John 21:14; Acts 10:16; and 2 Corinthians 12:14; 13:1.
- If God’ “grace is made perfect in weakness,” what does that imply for us in our salvation, and our lives, with God?
Read Galatians 4:13-15 and 6:11
- What may have been Paul’s thorn in the flesh?
Read 2 Corinthians 12:9b-10
- Why can Paul be okay with his weaknesses (even of only making it to the third heaven)?
- How can Paul be strong when he is weak?
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