In this entry I will focus on the lectionary reading passage 2 Corinthians 6:1-13.
In the letters dating from the 50s CE, Paul addresses a Christian community that he founded with assistance of Timothy, Priscilla, Aquila, and Phoebe. At that time, Corinth was a Greek metropolis of approximately 250,000, huge by the standards of that time. It was located by the isthmus running between Peloponnesus and the Greek mainland. To see a copyright-protected map of Corinth in relationship to other cities Paul visited, click on http://www.bible.org/assets/netbible/jp1.jpg.
Although the Romans had destroyed Corinth in 146 BCE for leading a rebellion, it was rebuilt in 44 BCE. According to NOAB, it was “a colony to which the Roman patricians sent surplus population from Rome itself, such as recently freed slaves, displaced peasants, and army veterans. Corinth quickly developed into a busy hub of east-west trade in the empire, and the center of Roman imperial culture in Greece” (NT 267).
As indicated in Acts 18:11, Paul organized gatherings in private homes in Corinth with the assistance of Timothy, Priscilla, Aquila, and Phoebe for approximately a year and a half (NT 267). The letters to the Corinthians are thus an indication of the leadership roles women took on in the early church, as well as the importance of what today are called house circles.
While I was living in Germany in 2006, on my way to watch friends compete in the German college debating championships, I met a young Iranian at a train station. Soccer’s World Cup was on, and I was thus able to recognize that the shirt he wore was an Iranian Jersey. As we talked about why we were living in Germany, Mahmoud, as he introduced himself, explained that he had been forced to immigrate after converting to Christianity.
Mahmoud described seeing American Christian programming on television, and writing the show to request a Bible in Persian. The organization he corresponded with sent him the Persian Bible, as well as music recordings. Mahmoud became a Christian and plugged himself into the underground Christian network in his home town, which, like Corinth in the 50s, organized through private gatherings in homes.
One night when Mahmoud hosted a Bible study at his house, he invited a Muslim friend, who made a video recording. The friend lived with his family; his father, upon finding this recording, turned it in to the police. Shortly later, officials arrived at Mahmoud’s house to arrest him, but he was not home at that time.
Mahmoud’s being away from his home during the arrest attempt possibly saved his life. In Iran, although it is not illegal to be a Christian, attempts to convert a Muslim, that is, actions that could be interpreted as proselytizing can be punished by execution. Mahmoud’s family told him to immediately leave for Turkey. Through Turkey he immigrated to Germany, where he found work at a carpet store. When I asked whether it was difficult for him to adjust to life in Germany, he seemed surprised; “Ich kann hier einfach beten,” he said, meaning, “I can simply pray here.”
Over the last days, I have been in touch with Iranian friends studying in Massachusetts who express frustration with the results of the election. They describe how Iranians are upset, both by the likelihood of a rigged voting process, and by the prospect of the leader least supportive of personal freedom and international peace efforts remaining in power.
Readers interested in reading an Iranian’s perspective on the election on Facebook can find commentary here: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/note.php?note_id=111235289609&id=33821&ref=share
Stories like Mahmoud’s remind me of the difficulties early communities must have faced in the Roman Empire. As records of early Christian martyrs indicate, religious activity perceived as a threat to political authority in the Roman Empire could have been punished by death, by crucifixion (Jesus, Peter), or as public entertainment (http://www.christianitytoday.com/ch/131christians/martyrs/perpetua.html)
2 Corinthians, because of its fragmentary structure, has been described as a collection of letters Paul wrote to the Corinthian Christian community in response to a crisis. The nature of the crisis is not clearly spelled out, as it would have already been known to the audience (NAB). In the introduction to 2 Corinthians, the editor(s) of the New American Bible write,
“The letter is remarkable for its rhetoric. Paul falls naturally into the style and argumentation of contemporary philosophic preachers, employing with ease the stock devices of the ‘diatribe.’ By a barrage of questions, by challenges both serious and ironic, by paradox heaped upon paradox, even by insults hurled at his opponents, he strives to awaken in his hearers a true sense of values and an appropriate response. All his argument centers on the destiny of Jesus, in which a paradoxical reversal of values is revealed. But Paul appeals to his own personal experience as well” (usccb.org).
The passage reads as follows, from the NIV:
1As God's fellow workers we urge you not to receive God's grace in vain. 2For he says,
"In the time of my favor I heard you,
and in the day of salvation I helped you." I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation.
The phrase “the time of God’s favor” is a reference to Isaiah 49:8 in the Septuagint, or the Greek translation of Hebrew Scripture. The editors of NAB note that this phrase is parallel to “on the day of salvation.”
3We put no stumbling block in anyone's path, so that our ministry will not be discredited. 4Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; 5in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger;
Paul makes an appeal to the Corinthians to see him as authentic, listing the suffering he has endured while trying to build up Christian communities and spread the Gospel. I once heard sermon in which the speaker explained how he would be afraid to face the trials Paul did, which included beatings and being imprisoned.
6in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; 7in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; 8through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; 9known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; 10sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.
This passage powerfully builds on the theme which the NOAB commentary call “affliction and consolation,” begun in the first chapter and elaborated throughout the book (NT 293-294). Paul take up a motif one could trace back to the Sermon on the Mount, as well as to the “Inappropriate Heroes” of Hebrew Scripture like Gideon, of power located in weakness: God uses human weakness to showcase divine strength.
11We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians, and opened wide our hearts to you. 12We are not withholding our affection from you, but you are withholding yours from us. 13As a fair exchange—I speak as to my children—open wide your hearts also.
Other lectionary passages for this week include 1 Samuel 17:(1a, 4-11, 19-23), 32-49; Psalm 9:9-20; Mark 4:35-41.
Sources:
Coogan, Michael, Ed. The New Oxford Annotated Bible (3rd ed). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.
New American Bible notes on 2 Corinthians. Published by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, and found on (http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/2corinthians/2corinthians6.htm).
Xenos Christian Fellowship notes on 2 Corinthians (www.xenos.org).
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