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 4:7-18, Treasure in clay jars
Paul carries God's treasure in a clay jar, hard pressed but not crushed, carrying Jesus' dying in his body so that Jesus' life may show, while the outer self wastes away and the inner self is renewed day by day.
2 Corinthians 4:7-18, in every translation this tool compares.
Paul says the treasure of the gospel is held in fragile clay pots like him, so it is plain that the power comes from God. He lists his hardships in pairs, pressed hard yet never defeated, and says he carries Jesus' death in his body so that Jesus' life will show too. Because God raised Jesus and will raise them, he keeps going, knowing that the outer self is wearing out while the inner self is renewed daily, and that brief troubles are producing lasting glory.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/sages-and-philosophers\/","n":"Philosophers and their schools","s":"Stoics, Epicureans and other schools taught a whole way of life in lecture halls and marketplaces. A traveling teacher with a message about God would be heard, and judged, as one more philosopher.","r":""}
- {"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\/burial-and-mourning\/","n":"Burial and mourning","s":"Mourners came at once, the dead were buried the same day, wrapped in linen in rock tombs, and family carried the duty of burial. Pagan mourning, with little hope beyond a shadowy underworld, could be bleak.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/resurrection-of-the-dead\/","n":"The resurrection of the dead","s":"Most Jews, with the Pharisees, expected God to raise the dead to bodily life at the end of the age. The Sadducees denied it. Nobody expected one man to rise ahead of everyone else.","r":""}
Clay jars, unlike bronze ones, were cheap and thrown away when broken or made ritually impure, "an odd container for a rich treasure" (Keener); Corinth produced such fragile pottery, notably ceramic lamps (the cultural backgrounds notes). The ESV Study Bible calls jars of clay a common ancient metaphor for human weakness (Psalm 31:12), and Wright puts Paul's point in one line: "the messenger must be dispensable." Some Greek writers described the body as the soul's container, but Paul contrasts human frailty with God, not body with soul (Keener and his notes). Stoic philosophers listed their sufferings to show their contentment, while Jews pointed to the prophets and martyrs as models of endurance (Keener and his notes). Orators often hammered a point home with a series of contrasts, as in 4:8-9 (the cultural backgrounds notes). Keener notes that the word for carrying around was used of pallbearers. Many Platonists thought the body weighed down the soul, and Paul may play on the Hebrew word that means both weight and glory (Keener and his notes).
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on 2 Corinthians 4:7, 4:8-9, 4:10-12, 4:16 and 4:17-18
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on 2 Corinthians 4:7, 4:8-12 and 4:17
- ESV Study Bible, study note on 2 Corinthians 4:7
- N. T. Wright, Paul for Everyone: 2 Corinthians, comment on 2 Corinthians 4:7-12
