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 4:1-6, The god of this age
Paul renounces cunning and tampering with God's word; if his gospel is veiled, it is veiled to the perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, while God has made his light shine in believers' hearts.
2 Corinthians 4:1-6, in every translation this tool compares.
Paul says he does not give up, because God has given him this ministry, and he refuses trickery or distorting God's word, preferring to set out the truth openly. If anyone cannot see the good news, it is because the god of this age keeps unbelievers blind to it; who that god is is debated. Paul preaches Jesus as Lord, not himself, because the God who first called light out of darkness has shone in believers' hearts to show them his glory in Christ's face.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/orators-and-sophists\/","n":"Orators, rhetoric and boasting","s":"Public speaking was the great skill of the Greek city. Traveling orators performed for crowds and gathered paying students, audiences judged them on voice and gesture as well as argument, and the fans of rival speakers boasted of their own man against the rest.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/the-satan\/","n":"The satan, the tempter","s":"The accuser, tempter and deceiver of Jewish belief, seen as the power behind human and political evil. In the Gospels he tests Jesus and is the strong man Jesus binds, and John calls him the ruler of this world.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/powers-over-the-nations\/","n":"Rulers and powers over the nations","s":"Many Jews believed each nation had a spiritual ruler set over it, often hostile to God's people. Paul's rulers, authorities, powers and thrones belong to that picture.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/word-and-wisdom\/","n":"The Word and Wisdom","s":"Greek thinkers spoke of the logos, the reason that ordered the world, and Jewish teachers spoke of God's Word and Wisdom, through whom he made everything. John opens his Gospel with that language and then says the Word became flesh.","r":""}
Philosophers accused professional speakers of adulterating the truth like dishonest merchants (Keener and his notes). The cultural backgrounds notes say no Jewish source gives Satan the title god of this age, though Jewish writers did describe the Gentiles as ruled by Satan or by hostile angels, and Keener writes that most Jewish teachers held the nations to be ruled by spiritual powers under Satan's command. Who the god of this age is, is debated. The ESV and CSB Study Bibles take it as Satan, and Wright writes of the satan; Arnold agrees, setting the title beside John's prince of this world and calling Satan's authority real but not absolute. Heiser writes, "Nearly all scholars identify this figure as Satan," but points out that the name does not occur in the context and that the phrase may refer to God himself, who in the Greek version of Isaiah 6:9-10 blinds the eyes of those who do not believe. Christ as God's image fills the place Jewish tradition gave to Wisdom, a mirror of God's glory (Wisdom of Solomon 7:26) (Keener and his notes). God spoke light out of darkness in Genesis 1:3 (the cultural backgrounds notes).
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on 2 Corinthians 4:1-2, 4:3-4 and 4:6
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on 2 Corinthians 4:4 and 4:6
- ESV Study Bible, study note on 2 Corinthians 4:3-5
- CSB Study Bible, note on 2 Corinthians 4:4
- N. T. Wright, Paul for Everyone: 2 Corinthians, comment on 2 Corinthians 4:1-6
- Michael S. Heiser, The Unseen Realm, ch. 37, This Means War, Observations on Paul's Vocabulary
- Clinton E. Arnold, Powers of Darkness, ch. 6, What Are the Powers?, They Are Part of Satan's Kingdom
