Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
2 Corinthians 12:11-18, Not a burden: parents save for their children
Paul says the Corinthians forced him to play the fool; the signs of an apostle were done among them, and his only fault was not to burden them, since parents save up for their children, not children for their parents.
2 Corinthians 12:11-18, in every translation this tool compares.
Paul says the Corinthians forced him into this foolish boasting, when they should have been the ones speaking up for him, since he is in no way behind the so-called super-apostles and did the signs of an apostle among them. His only offense, he says with irony, was refusing to be a financial burden, and he will refuse again on his third visit, because parents provide for children, not the reverse. He denies that he or Titus exploited them through anyone he sent.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/patrons-and-benefactors\/","n":"Patrons, clients and benefactors","s":"Favors in the Roman world came with strings. A patron gave help and protection, the client paid it back in loyalty and public honor, and rulers who gave gifts to the public were hailed as benefactors.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/working-with-your-hands\/","n":"Manual work and the leisured class","s":"The well-to-do despised people who worked with their hands. A respectable teacher was expected to live on a patron, on fees or even on begging, so an apostle who made tents for his keep looked low class.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/the-household\/","n":"The household and its head","s":"A household gathered family, slaves, freed slaves and workers under one head, and it was expected to follow that head's religion. When the head turned to a new god, the house often came too.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/collection-for-jerusalem\/","n":"The collection for Jerusalem","s":"Paul gathered money from his mostly Gentile churches for the poor believers in Jerusalem, much as Jews everywhere sent the temple tax to the holy city.","r":""}
Many ancient writers held that self-praise was inoffensive only when one was compelled to it, and philosophers usually counted public speakers nobodies (Keener and his notes). Appealing to what the hearers had seen for themselves, as the orator Isocrates did, softened a boast (Keener and his notes), and the signs and wonders recall God's acts in Egypt (the cultural backgrounds notes). The well-to-do in the church wanted Paul to stop working and accept their support, to become their client, and his forgive me this wrong is irony (Keener and his notes). Calling himself their parent reverses the question of who depends on whom, since "Patrons viewed both their clients and their children as dependent members of their households" (the cultural backgrounds notes); Keener adds that Roman parents supported the children they acknowledged and helped young couples get established. People defending themselves sometimes demanded that their hearers show what wrong they had done (1 Samuel 12:3-5), and Paul's rivals may have questioned the integrity of the collection for Jerusalem as well as his refusal of support (Keener and his notes). Wright notes that Paul took nothing from Corinth while accepting help from Macedonia.
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on 2 Corinthians 12:11, 12:12, 12:13, 12:14-15 and 12:16-18
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on 2 Corinthians 12:11, 12:12, 12:13, 12:14 and 12:17-18
- N. T. Wright, Paul for Everyone: 2 Corinthians, comment on 2 Corinthians 11:7-15
