2 Corinthians 12: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Paul keeps boasting, but on his own terms: he tells of a man in Christ who was caught up to the third heaven and heard words no one is permitted to repeat, then turns instead to his weaknesses and to the thorn in his flesh that he asked the Lord three times to remove. He reports the answer he was given, that God's grace is enough and God's power is completed in weakness. He then defends his record with the Corinthians, saying he took no money from them and sent Titus who did the same, and closes with his fear of what he may find on a third visit: quarreling and disorder, and people who have not turned away from sin.

Claim by Claim

1. 12:1
   • Boasting is not profitable for the speaker.
   • The speaker will proceed to visions and revelations of the Lord.
2. 12:2
   • The speaker knows a man in Christ.
   • This happened fourteen years ago.
   • The speaker does not know whether the man was in the body.
   • The speaker does not know whether the man was out of the body.
   • God knows whether the man was in the body or out of it.
   • That man was caught up as far as the third heaven.
3. 12:3
   • The speaker knows such a man.
   • The speaker does not know whether it was in the body or apart from the body.
   • God knows whether it was in the body or apart from the body.
4. 12:4
   • The man was caught up into paradise.
   • He heard words that cannot be spoken.
   • It is not permitted for a man to utter those words.
5. 12:5
   • The speaker will boast about such a man.
   • The speaker will not boast about himself.
   • The speaker will boast only in his weaknesses.
6. 12:6
   • If the speaker wanted to boast, he would not be a fool.
   • The reason he would not be a fool is that he would be speaking the truth.
   • The speaker holds back from boasting.
   • He holds back so that no one will credit him with more than what that person sees in him or hears from him.
7. 12:7
   • The abundance of the revelations could have exalted the speaker above measure.
   • A thorn in the flesh was given to the speaker.
   • The thorn is a messenger of Satan.
   • The purpose of the thorn is to beat the speaker.
   • The purpose of the thorn is to keep the speaker from being exalted above measure.
8. 12:8
   • The speaker appealed to the Lord three times about this thing.
   • He asked that it depart from him.
9. 12:9
   • The Lord said to the speaker that his grace is sufficient for him.
   • The Lord said that his strength is made perfect in weakness.
   • The speaker will most gladly boast rather in his weaknesses.
   • He boasts in weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon him.
10. 12:10
    • The speaker takes pleasure in weaknesses.
    • The speaker takes pleasure in insults.
    • The speaker takes pleasure in hardships.
    • The speaker takes pleasure in persecutions.
    • The speaker takes pleasure in distresses.
    • He takes pleasure in these for Christ's sake.
    • When the speaker is weak, then he is strong.
11. 12:11
    • The speaker has become a fool in boasting.
    • The recipients compelled him to it.
    • The speaker ought to have been commended by the recipients.
    • The speaker is in nothing behind the very chiefest apostles.
    • The speaker is nothing.
12. 12:12
    • The signs of an apostle were performed among the recipients.
    • They were performed in all patient endurance.
    • They consisted of signs, wonders, and mighty works.
13. 12:13
    • The recipients were not inferior to the other churches in anything.
    • The one exception is that the speaker himself was not a financial burden to them.
    • The speaker asks them to forgive him this wrong.
14. 12:14
    • The speaker is ready to come to the recipients a third time.
    • He will not be a burden to them.
    • The speaker does not seek their possessions.
    • The speaker seeks the recipients themselves.
    • Children ought not to lay up savings for their parents.
    • Parents ought to lay up savings for their children.
15. 12:15
    • The speaker will very gladly spend what he has for the recipients.
    • The speaker will be spent himself for them.
    • He does this for their souls.
    • The more abundantly the speaker loves them, the less he is loved.
16. 12:16
    • The speaker did not burden the recipients.
    • The speaker states that, being crafty, he caught them with guile.
17. 12:17
    • The speaker asks whether he took advantage of the recipients through any of those he sent to them.
    • The implied answer is that he did not.
18. 12:18
    • The speaker urged Titus to go.
    • The speaker sent a brother along with Titus.
    • The speaker asks whether Titus took advantage of the recipients.
    • The implied answer is that Titus did not.
    • The speaker asks whether they did not walk in the same spirit.
    • The speaker asks whether they did not walk in the same steps.
19. 12:19
    • The recipients think that the speakers are making a defense to them.
    • The speakers speak before God in Christ.
    • The speakers call the recipients dearly beloved.
    • The speakers do all things for the recipients' edification.
20. 12:20
    • The speaker is afraid.
    • He fears that when he comes he will not find the recipients as he wishes.
    • He fears that he will be found by them to be such as they do not wish.
    • He fears there may be quarreling among them.
    • He fears there may be envy among them.
    • He fears there may be outbursts of anger among them.
    • He fears there may be rivalries among them.
    • He fears there may be slander among them.
    • He fears there may be whispering among them.
    • He fears there may be arrogance among them.
    • He fears there may be disorder among them.
21. 12:21
    • The speaker fears that when he comes again his God will humble him before the recipients.
    • He fears that he will mourn over many who have sinned previously.
    • Those many have not repented.
    • They have not repented of the uncleanness they committed.
    • They have not repented of the sexual immorality they committed.
    • They have not repented of the debauchery they committed.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

12:1

In the King James, "glory" as a verb means to boast or brag about oneself, not to give glory to God. Paul uses it that way all through chapters 10 to 12. "It is not expedient" means there is nothing to be gained by it. The phrase "visions and revelations of the Lord" is open in the Greek: it can mean visions given by the Lord, or visions in which the Lord was seen. The wording does not settle it.

12:2

"I knew a man in Christ" is Paul speaking about himself in the third person. Verse 7 gives it away, since the revelations turn out to be his own. Reporting an honor at arm's length, as though it happened to someone else, was a recognized way of mentioning it without appearing to claim it. "Caught up" translates a verb meaning snatched or seized away by force; the person is taken, not traveling by choice. Jewish writers of the period described heaven in stacked layers, some counting three and some seven. Here the third heaven appears to be the highest, since verse 4 identifies it with paradise.

12:4

"Paradise" comes through Greek from a Persian word for a walled garden or royal park. The Greek Old Testament used it for the garden of Eden, and by Paul's day it had come to name the place where the righteous dead are kept in God's presence. "Unspeakable words" does not mean shocking words; it means words that cannot be put into human speech. "Not lawful" here means not permitted, not forbidden by any written law.

12:5

"Infirmities" in the King James means weaknesses of any kind, including illness, exhaustion and lack of standing. It does not mean moral faults.

12:6

"I forbear" means I hold back, I stop short of doing it.

12:7

"A thorn in the flesh" translates a word meaning a sharp stake or splinter, something driven in. Paul never says what it was, and readers have guessed since ancient times: a chronic illness, trouble with his eyes, or persistent human opponents. "Buffet" means to punch with the fist, repeatedly. The clause "lest I should be exalted above measure" appears twice in the verse, which is how the Greek reads; the repetition is Paul's, not a printing error.

12:8

"Besought the Lord thrice" means three separate occasions of prayer, not three sentences. When Paul says "the Lord" he normally means Jesus, which is why the answer in the next verse speaks of the power of Christ.

12:9

"Grace" translates a Greek word meaning favor freely given by someone who owes the recipient nothing. "Made perfect" means brought to its full working or carried through to completion, not made morally flawless. "Rest upon me" renders a verb built on the word for a tent, so the picture is of a covering pitched over someone.

12:10

"Reproaches" means insults, "necessities" means hardships of want, and "distresses" translates a word for narrow places, the sense of being hemmed in with no room to move.

12:11

An apostle is literally one who is sent, a delegate carrying the authority of the person who sent him. "The very chiefest apostles" is sarcastic, and it is disputed whom Paul means: the rival teachers who had come to Corinth claiming superior standing, or the original Jerusalem leaders such as Peter and John, against whom the rivals measured him. The Greek leaves both readings open.

12:12

Signs, wonders and mighty deeds are three standard words for the same kind of event seen from different angles: a sign points beyond itself, a wonder astonishes those who see it, and a mighty deed is an act of power. "Wrought" means performed or worked. The Greek verb is passive, which leaves the doer unnamed rather than crediting Paul directly.

12:13

Paul supported himself by his trade at Corinth and refused payment from that congregation, while accepting support from others. His critics read this as proof he was not a genuine apostle, or that he did not care enough about the Corinthians to depend on them. "Forgive me this wrong" is sarcasm.

12:14

The visit Paul counts as his second is not recorded in Acts; he refers elsewhere in this letter to a painful trip between the two we know of. "Lay up" means to save up property, the ordinary duty of parents building an inheritance for their children. Paul is casting himself as the parent in the relationship.

12:15

"Spend and be spent" is accounting language: he will lay out his money and be used up himself in the same transaction. The last clause can be read in Greek either as a question or as a flat statement of fact.

12:16

Paul is repeating the accusation made against him, not confessing. The charge was that since he openly refused a salary, he must be taking money by some indirect route, most likely the relief fund he was collecting for the poor in Jerusalem. Verses 17 and 18 are his answer to it.

12:17

"Make a gain of you" translates a verb meaning to exploit someone for profit, with a suggestion of defrauding them.

12:18

Titus was a Greek coworker of Paul who had already visited Corinth on his behalf and was handling the collection for the poor in Jerusalem. The unnamed "brother" was a second delegate sent with him, standard practice so that no one could handle donated money alone.

12:19

"Excuse ourselves" translates the Greek word for mounting a formal defense, the kind a defendant makes in court; it is the word behind "apology" in its older sense of a reasoned defense. "Edifying" is a building term, meaning to build a structure up.

12:20

Several of these words have shifted since 1611. "Debates" meant quarrels and wrangling, not reasoned discussion. "Strifes" means rivalry between factions. "Backbitings" is open slander of absent people and "whisperings" is the same damage done quietly. "Swellings" means being puffed up with self-importance. "Tumults" means disorder or unrest, the breakdown of an orderly gathering.

12:21

"Bewail" means to mourn openly and audibly; the Greek word is used of grieving over the dead. The three terms at the end are distinct: "uncleanness" is impurity in general, "fornication" renders a broad Greek word covering sexual immorality of any kind, and "lasciviousness" translates a word for unrestrained indulgence carried on without regard for what anyone thinks.