The Jewish Annotated New Testament (268 page)

7
: Broken
clay jars
cannot be mended but must be discarded. The contrast with
treasure
demonstrates God’s power.

8
–9
: Catalogue of hardships formulated as antithetical pairs to show the incomparability of God’s glory. See 6.4–10; 11.23–27; 12.10; Rom 8.35,38–39; 1 Cor 4.11–13; Phil 4.12. Stoics used such catalogues to demonstrate their indifference to adversity; for Paul adversity demonstrates the vessels’ unworthiness and the overcoming of adversity documents divine power. Rabbinic Judaism carried the idea a step farther: the suffering of those God loves assures their greatest possible reward in the world-to-come (see, e.g.,
Sifre Deut
. 32.5–11;
b. Hor
. 11a).

10
–11
:
Carrying … the death of Jesus
, Jesus’ death is replicated in Paul’s bodily sufferings, with the result that
the life of Jesus may also be made visible;
cf. Gal 2.20.

13
: Ps 116.10.

4.16
–5.10
: Paul uses dualistic language to express the tension between present afflictions and ongoing renewal.

16
:
Lose heart
, see 4.1. The
outer nature
that is
wasting away
is that part that undergoes sufferings (vv. 8–9) and carries Jesus’ death (vv. 10–11). The
inner nature
is that part
being renewed
daily; cf. Rom 12.2.

18
:
Temporary
and
eternal
, a distinction familiar in Jewish eschatological thinking (see, e.g.,
b. Shabb
. 10a, 33b;
b. Ta’an
. 21a).

5.1
: Paul continues the temporary–permanent contrast with one between
earthly tent
, referring to the body (see Wis 9.15), and
building from God
, which is
eternal in the heavens
.

5
:
Guarantee
, see 1.22n.

6
–8
:
While … in the body
, see Phil 1.21,23; the body is a barrier to being fully with Christ. Rabbinic Judaism is more positive about bodily life. Again,
m. Avot
4.17 suggests the enigmatic relationship between bodily existence and eternal life: “Better is a single moment spent in penitence and good deeds in this world than the whole of the world-to-come. And better is a single moment of inner peace in the world-to-come than the whole of a lifetime spent in this world” (see above, 4.4).

10
: See Rom 14.10. Rabbinic sources also commonly speak of God’s seat, or throne, of judgment (see, e.g.,
b. Arak
. 10b,
Lev. Rab
. 29.3,4,6,9).

5.11
–21: Ministry of reconciliation. 11–13
: Paul recalls his relationship to the Corinthians.

11
:
Consciences
, a theme introduced at 1.12 and 4.2.

12
:
Commending
, see 3.1n.
Boast
, see 1.12n. and 3.12n.
Those who boast in outward appearance
may refer to opponents who advocated circumcision for non-Jewish church members. Early Jewish writings also distinguish between the content of one’s heart and outer appearances: “one whose inside is not as his outside may not enter the school house” (
b. Ber
. 28a).

13
: Paul’s opponents may have derided him for an apparent lack of ecstatic experiences (12.1,12); Paul answers by distinguishing between being
beside ourselves
(lit., “we are ecstatic”) and being
in our right mind
. The former concerns God; the latter concerns his ministry; cf. 1 Cor 14.2–5,18–19,27–28. Paul’s thinking parallels rabbinic Judaism’s generally negative attitude toward ecstatic experiences (
m. Hag
. 2.1;
b. Hag
. 14b) and recalls the rabbis’ focus upon leadership that promotes communal welfare (see, e.g.,
b. B. Kamma
80b;
b. Sanh
. 24b;
b. Arak
. 2b).

14
–15
:
Love of Christ
, Christ’s love for us.
Those who live … was raised
, Christ’s death enlivens all who will die, so that they owe their lives to him; Gal 2.19–20; Rom 7.4; 14.7–9. As the source of life, the Christ serves the role that Torah serves for the rabbis; one “eats its fruits in this world even as the principal remains for the world-to-come” (
m. Qidd
. 4.14).

17
: The reality of
anyone
being
in Christ
documents the onset of the
new creation
, the eschatological reversal of the primordial fall. The
old
way of looking from a human point of view
has passed
. For new creation, see Gal 6.15; Eph 2.15; 2 Pet 3.13; Rev 21.1; cf. Rom 8.19–21. Paul reflects on a common theme in Isa (43.18–19; see also 65.17; 66.22). Rabbinic Judaism, by contrast, reads Isaiah to mean that former things become secondary to new things. All history will be eclipsed, but not forgotten, at the end of time (
b. Ber
. 13a).

18
–19
: As a result of the Christ’s undoing the damage caused by Adam and Eve’s rebellion,
trespasses
are canceled (see Rom 4.8), and human beings are
reconciled
to God; Rom 5.10–11; Col 1.20. Rather than seeing human sinfulness as a result of Adam and Eve’s rebellion and so as reversible, the rabbis understood sin, and especially what they describe as an inclination toward sin, as an innate and necessary part of human nature (see, e.g.,
Gen. Rab
. 9.7).

21
:
Made him to be sin
, a difficult phrase that may refer to the Christ’s identification with humanity. The saints can be so embraced by God’s reconciliation that
we might become the righteousness of God;
see Rom 1.17; 3.5,21–22,25–26; 10.3 (twice); Phil 3.9; also Mt 6.33; Jas 1.20; 2 Pet 1.1.

6.1
–10: Summary of defense. 2
: Isa 49.8. Isaiah speaks of the end of the Babylonian exile, which began in 597 and 586 BCE and ended in 538 BCE with the edict of Cyrus permitting the Jewish people to return to Jerusalem.

4
–5
: Catalogue of hardships; see 4.8–9n.

6
–7
: Catalogue of virtues; see Gal 5.22–23; Phil 4.8.

8
–10
: These seven contrasting pairs,
impostors, and yet are true … having nothing, and yet possessing everything
, are not paradoxes to show the imperturbability of an ideal sage (as in Stoic philosophy) but antitheses answering charges against Paul. This is a summary of his self-defense that began in 2.14. From a human view (5.16), Paul and his co-workers might be accused of being
impostors, unknown
, etc., but in the context of the new creation (5.17), they are
true, known
, etc.

6.11
–7.4: Final appeal to the Corinthians. 6.11–13
:
Frankly
, see 1.12n.

6.14
–7.1
: An interruption of Paul’s appeal, since 7.2–4 more naturally follows 6.11–13. This passage contains many words used nowhere else by Paul; the stark dualism is also uncharacteristic of him.

14
:
Mismatched
, lit., “misyoked,” only here in the NT. The term may play upon the Tanakh’s restriction against yoking different kinds of animals or creating unnatural mixtures (Lev 19.19).
Partnership
(only here in the NT),
fellowship
, and
share
(v. 15) are synonyms meaning “association.”
Righteousness and lawlessness
, see Rom 6.19, where the second word is translated “iniquity.”
Light and darkness
(see Rom 2.19; 13.12; 1 Cor 4.5; 1 Thess 5.4–5) undergirds the imagery of 4.3–6, where the contrast between “believers” and
unbelievers
(v. 15) is also found. The metaphorical distinction between light and dark is familiar from ancient Judaism, notably from 1QM’s distinction of “sons of light” and “sons of darkness.”

15
:
Beliar
, Satan; see 2.11n.

16a
:
Temple of the living God
, see 1 Cor 3.16.
Living God
, a common early Jewish phrase (see, e.g., Deut 5.26).

16b
–18
: A chain of citations: Lev 26.12; Ezek 37.27; 2 Sam 7.14; Isa 52.11; Isa 43.6 indicating separation from defilement.

7.1
:
Body
and
spirit
are not in opposition here; contrast Gal 5.16–26. Like Paul, both the Tanakh and early rabbinic Judaism distinguish the physical body from the “soul” or “spirit,” viewed as the life force. Associated with respiration, the “soul” was understood to derive from God’s own “breath” (Gen 2.7). The rabbis see body and soul as closely connected and equally responsible for a person’s choices. At the eschaton, the reunited body and soul will be judged together (
b. Sanh
. 90b–91a).
Fear of God
(see 5.11), a common Jewish conception (e.g., Prov 1.7), understood as the underpinning of piety.

2
–4
: Resumption of appeal in 6.11–13.

3
:
Die … live
, Paul reverses the traditional declaration of friendship, “live … die,” to emphasize his bond with the Corinthians through identification with Christ.

4
:
Boast
, see 1.12–14n. and 3.12n.
Consolation … affliction
, see 1.3–7n.

7.5
–16: Resumption of travelogue (2.12–13). 6–8
:
God, who consoles the downcast
, the Talmud (
b. Ketub
. 8b) refers to God as “Lord of consolation,” who brings comfort to the bereaved.
Titus
(2.13n.) brought news that Paul’s
letter
(2.3–4n.) was received favorably; see 2.5–11.