2 Corinthians 1
The full text of 2 Corinthians 1 in the Trinity Bible Version — clear modern English, translated from the original Greek. Free to read.
1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the church of God in Corinth, together with all God's holy people throughout the whole of Achaia:
2 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort,
4 who comforts us in all our trouble, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.
5 For just as the sufferings of Christ overflow into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.
6 If we are troubled, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which works itself out as you patiently endure the same sufferings we also suffer.
7 And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in the sufferings, so also you share in the comfort.
8 We do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, of the trouble we went through in the province of Asia. We were crushed far beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life itself.
9 Indeed, in ourselves we felt the sentence of death. But this happened so that we would not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.
10 He has rescued us from such deadly peril, and he will rescue us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to rescue us,
11 as you also help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious gift granted to us through the prayers of many.
12 Now this is our boast: our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially toward you, with the holiness and sincerity that are from God, not by worldly wisdom but by God's grace.
13 For we do not write you anything you cannot read and understand. And I hope that you will understand fully,
14 as you have understood us in part, that you can boast of us just as we will boast of you in the day of our Lord Jesus.
15 Because I was confident of this, I planned to visit you first, so that you might benefit twice.
16 I planned to visit you on my way to Macedonia and to come back to you from Macedonia, and then to have you send me on my way to Judea.
17 Was I being careless when I planned this? Or do I make my plans the way the world does, ready to say 'Yes, yes' and 'No, no' in the same breath?
18 But as surely as God is faithful, our message to you is not 'Yes' and 'No'.
19 For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, by me and Silas and Timothy, was not 'Yes' and 'No', but in him it has always been 'Yes'.
20 For no matter how many promises God has made, they are 'Yes' in him. And so through him we say the 'Amen' to the glory of God.
21 Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us,
22 set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit guaranteeing what is to come.
23 I call God as my witness, and I stake my life on it, that it was to spare you that I did not return to Corinth.
24 Not that we lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy, because it is by faith that you stand firm.
Translation notes (7)
- 2 Corinthians 1:1a Achaia here denotes the Roman senatorial province encompassing southern Greece, of which Corinth was the administrative capital, not merely the small region of classical Achaea. Greek hagiois (ἁγίοις), 'holy ones', is rendered 'God's holy people'; the term designates all believers set apart to God, not a select class.
- 2 Corinthians 1:8a Paul never identifies this crisis; proposals include the Ephesian riot of Acts 19, an imprisonment, or a grave illness, but the letter leaves it unstated. Greek exaporethenai, 'to despair utterly', appears in the New Testament only here and in 2 Corinthians 4:8. Adelphoi, literally 'brothers', addresses the whole congregation and is rendered here as 'brothers and sisters'.
- 2 Corinthians 1:9a The Greek apokrima (ἀπόκριμα), 'official verdict', appears only here in the New Testament. In contemporary papyri and inscriptions it denotes an authoritative ruling handed down in response to a petition, so Paul describes the Asian ordeal as though a court had already pronounced death upon him, heightening the contrast with God who raises the dead.
- 2 Corinthians 1:12a Greek manuscripts divide here: hagiotēti (ἁγιότητι), 'holiness', appears in Papyrus 46 and Codices Sinaiticus and Vaticanus, while the Byzantine tradition, followed by the King James tradition, reads haplotēti (ἁπλότητι), 'simplicity'. This translation follows the earlier witnesses, though the paired word eilikrineia, 'sincerity', shows that either reading suits Paul's argument.
- 2 Corinthians 1:17a Greek elaphria (ἐλαφρία), 'lightness', denotes fickleness or vacillation, rendered here as 'careless'. The phrase kata sarka, literally 'according to the flesh', is rendered 'the way the world does'. The doubled 'Yes, yes' and 'No, no' echoes the wording of Jesus' teaching on oaths in Matthew 5:37, where a plain yes or no needs no reinforcement.
- 2 Corinthians 1:20a Greek to amēn (τὸ ἀμήν) carries the definite article, pointing to the congregation's formal response of assent. The word itself is a transliteration of the Hebrew amen, 'so be it', the affirmation spoken in synagogue and temple worship; Paul presents Christ as the ground on which that liturgical 'Yes' is uttered.
- 2 Corinthians 1:22a The Greek arrabon (ἀρραβών), 'down payment', is a commercial term for a first installment that legally obligates the payer to complete the purchase. A Semitic loanword, it appears in the Septuagint at Genesis 38:17-18 for the pledge Judah left with Tamar. The Spirit is thus not merely a promise of the inheritance to come but its first portion, guaranteeing full payment.
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