2 Korintus 3:2-3

3:2 You yourselves are our letter, ¹  written on our hearts, known and read by everyone, 3:3 revealing ²  that you are a letter of Christ, delivered by us, ³  written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on stone tablets ⁴  but on tablets of human hearts.

2 Korintus 9:1

Preparing the Gift

9:1 For it is not necessary ⁵  for me to write you about this service ⁶  to the saints,

2 Korintus 2:9

2:9 For this reason also I wrote you: ⁷  to test you to see ⁸  if you are obedient in everything.

2 Korintus 2:4

2:4 For out of great distress and anguish of heart I wrote to you with many tears, not to make you sad, but to let you know the love that I have especially for you. ⁹ 

2 Korintus 7:12

7:12 So then, even though I wrote to you, it was not on account of the one who did wrong, or on account of the one who was wronged, but to reveal to you your eagerness on our behalf ¹⁰  before God.

2 Korintus 8:15

8:15 as it is written: “The one who gathered ¹¹  much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little.” ¹² 

2 Korintus 1:13

1:13 For we do not write you anything other than what ¹³  you can read and also understand. But I hope that you will understand completely ¹⁴ 

2 Korintus 9:9

9:9 Just as it is written, “He ¹⁵  has scattered widely, he has given to the poor; his righteousness remains forever.” ¹⁶ 

2 Korintus 13:10

13:10 Because of this I am writing these things while absent, so that when I arrive ¹⁷  I may not have to deal harshly with you ¹⁸  by using my authority – the Lord gave it to me for building up, not for tearing down!

2 Korintus 2:3

2:3 And I wrote this very thing to you, ¹⁹  so that when I came ²⁰  I would not have sadness from those who ought to make me rejoice, since I am confident in you all that my joy would be yours.

2 Korintus 3:7

The Greater Glory of the Spirit’s Ministry

3:7 But if the ministry that produced death – carved in letters on stone tablets ²¹  – came with glory, so that the Israelites ²²  could not keep their eyes fixed on the face of Moses because of the glory of his face ²³  (a glory ²⁴  which was made ineffective), ²⁵ 

2 Korintus 4:13

4:13 But since we have the same spirit of faith as that shown in ²⁶  what has been written, “I believed; therefore I spoke,” ²⁷  we also believe, therefore we also speak.

2 Korintus 3:6

3:6 who made us adequate ²⁸  to be servants of a new covenant ²⁹  not based on the letter but on the Spirit, for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

2 Korintus 10:17

10:17 But the one who boasts must boast in the Lord. ³⁰ 

2 Korintus 3:15

3:15 But until this very day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their minds, ³¹ 

2 Korintus 7:8

7:8 For even if I made you sad ³²  by my letter, ³³  I do not regret having written it ³⁴  (even though I did regret it, ³⁵  for ³⁶  I see that my letter made you sad, ³⁷  though only for a short time).

2 Korintus 12:11

The Signs of an Apostle

12:11 I have become a fool. You yourselves forced me to do it, for I should have been commended by you. For I lack nothing in comparison ³⁸  to those “super-apostles,” even though I am nothing.

2 Korintus 10:11

10:11 Let such a person consider this: What we say ³⁹  by letters when we are absent, we also are in actions when we are present.

2 Korintus 13:1

Paul’s Third Visit to Corinth

13:1 This is the third time I am coming to visit ⁴⁰  you. By the testimony ⁴¹  of two or three witnesses every matter will be established. ⁴² 

[3:2]  ¹ tn That is, “letter of recommendation.”

[3:3]  ² tn Or “making plain.”

[3:3]  ³ tn Grk “cared for by us,” an expression that could refer either to the writing or the delivery of the letter (BDAG 229 s.v. διακονέω 1). Since the following phrase refers to the writing of the letter, and since the previous verse speaks of this “letter” being “written on our [Paul’s and his companions’] hearts” it is more probable that the phrase “cared for by us” refers to the delivery of the letter (in the person of Paul and his companions).

[3:3]  ⁴ sn An allusion to Exod 24:12; 31:18; 34:1; Deut 9:10-11.

[9:1]  ⁵ tn Or “it is superfluous.”

[9:1]  ⁶ tn Or “this ministry,” “this contribution.”

[2:9]  ⁷ tn The word “you” is not in the Greek text, but is implied (as an understood direct object).

[2:9]  ⁸ tn Grk “to know the proof of you,” that is, to know if the Corinthians’ obedience to Paul as an apostle was genuine (L&N 72.7).

[2:4]  ⁹ tn Or “the love that I have in great measure for you.”

[7:12]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “but in order that your eagerness on our behalf might be revealed to you.”

[8:15]  ¹¹ tn The word “gathered” is not in the Greek text, but is implied (so also for the second occurrence of the word later in the verse).

[8:15]  ¹² sn A quotation from Exod 16:18.

[1:13]  ¹³ tn Grk “than the things.”

[1:13]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “to the end,” a Greek idiom for “fully,” “totally,” “completely.”

[9:9]  ¹⁵ sn He in the quotation refers to the righteous person.

[9:9]  ¹⁶ sn A quotation from Ps 112:9.

[13:10]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “when I am present,” but in the context of Paul’s third (upcoming) visit to Corinth, this is better translated as “when I arrive.”

[13:10]  ¹⁸ tn The words “with you” are not in the Greek text, but are implied.

[2:3]  ¹⁹ tn The words “to you” are not in the Greek text but are implied.

[2:3]  ²⁰ sn So that when I came. Regarding this still future visit by Paul, see 2 Cor 12:14; 13:1.

[3:7]  ²¹ tn Grk “on stones”; but since this is clearly an allusion to the tablets of the Decalogue (see 2 Cor 3:3) the word “tablets” was supplied in the translation to make the connection clear.

[3:7]  ²² tn Grk “so that the sons of Israel.”

[3:7]  ²³ sn The glory of his face. When Moses came down from Mt. Sinai with the tablets of the Decalogue, the people were afraid to approach him because his face was so radiant (Exod 34:29-30).

[3:7]  ²⁴ tn The words “a glory” are not in the Greek text, but the reference to “glory” has been repeated from the previous clause for clarity.

[3:7]  ²⁵ tn Or “which was transitory.” Traditionally this phrase is translated as “which was fading away.” The verb καταργέω in the corpus Paulinum uniformly has the meaning “to render inoperative, ineffective”; the same nuance is appropriate here. The glory of Moses’ face was rendered ineffective by the veil Moses wore. For discussion of the meaning of this verb in this context, see S. J. Hafemann, Paul, Moses, and the History of Israel (WUNT 81), 301-13. A similar translation has been adopted in the two other occurrences of the verb in this paragraph in vv. 11 and 13.

[4:13]  ²⁶ tn Grk “spirit of faith according to.”

[4:13]  ²⁷ sn A quotation from Ps 116:10.

[3:6]  ²⁸ tn Or “competent.”

[3:6]  ²⁹ sn This new covenant is promised in Jer 31:31-34; 32:40.

[10:17]  ³⁰ tn The traditional translation (“let the one who boasts boast in the Lord”) can be understood as merely permissive by the English reader, but the Greek verb καυχάσθω (kaucasqw) is a third person imperative.

[10:17]  sn A quotation from Jer 9:24 (also quoted in 1 Cor 1:31).

[3:15]  ³¹ tn Grk “their heart.”

[7:8]  ³² tn Grk “if I grieved you.”

[7:8]  ³³ sn My letter. Paul is referring to the “severe” letter mentioned in 2 Cor 2:4.

[7:8]  ³⁴ tn Grk “I do not regret”; direct objects in Greek must often be supplied from the context. Here one could simply supply “it,” but since Paul is referring to the effects of his previous letter, clarity is improved if “having written it” is supplied.

[7:8]  ³⁵ tn Grk “I did regret”; the direct object “it” must be supplied from the context.

[7:8]  ³⁶ tc A few important mss (Ì^46c B D* it sa) lack γάρ (gar, “for”), while the majority of witnesses have it (א C D¹ F G Ψ 0243 33 1739 1881 Ï sy bo). Even though Ì^46* omits γάρ, it has the same sense (viz., a subordinate clause) because it reads the participle βλέπων (blepwn, “seeing”; the Vulgate does the same). A decision is difficult because although the overwhelming external evidence is on the side of the conjunction, the lack of γάρ is a significantly harder reading, for the whole clause is something of an anacoluthon. Without the conjunction, the sentence reads more harshly. This would fit with Paul’s “vehemence of spirit” (A. T. Robertson, A Grammar of the Greek New Testament, 435) that is found especially in 2 Corinthians and Galatians. However, the mss that omit the conjunction are prone to such tendencies at times. In this instance, the conjunction should probably stand.

[7:8]  ³⁷ tn Grk “my letter grieved you.”

[12:11]  ³⁸ tn Or “I am in no way inferior.”

[10:11]  ³⁹ tn Grk “what we are in word.”

[13:1]  ⁴⁰ tn The word “visit” is not in the Greek text, but is implied.

[13:1]  ⁴¹ tn Grk “By the mouth.”

[13:1]  ⁴² sn A quotation from Deut 19:15 (also quoted in Matt 18:16; 1 Tim 5:19).