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 5:1-10, The tent and the judgment seat
Paul sets the earthly tent of the body against a building from God, longs to be clothed rather than found naked, names the Spirit as a down payment, and says that all must appear before the judgment seat of Christ.
2 Corinthians 5:1-10, in every translation this tool compares.
Paul compares the present body to a tent that will be taken down and the resurrection body to a permanent building from God. Groaning in this tent, he longs to be clothed with the new body instead of being left naked, so that life takes over what dies, and God has given the Spirit as a pledge of it. He would prefer to leave the body and live with the Lord, but either way his goal is to please him, since everyone will stand before Christ's judgment seat to answer for their life.
- {"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":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/seals-and-deposits\/","n":"Seals, down payments and deposits","s":"A seal pressed into wax showed who owned or witnessed a document or a jar of goods and proved that no one had opened it. A down payment was the first part of the price, paid as a pledge that the rest would follow. A deposit left in someone's keeping had to be guarded and returned.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/roman-trials-and-appeal\/","n":"Roman trials, the judgment seat and appeal","s":"A Roman governor heard a case only when someone brought a formal charge, questioned the accused himself, and gave sentence from the judgment seat. In Judea only Rome could put a man to death, and a Roman citizen could ask for his case to go to Caesar.","r":""}
Greek authors likened the body to a vessel, a dwelling or a tent, and frequently to a tomb, and some thought death a release; Paul's hope is not death but a resurrection body, a thought unintelligible to Greeks (Keener and his notes). The ESV Study Bible suggests the tent picture suited a tentmaker in Corinth, where tents were likely sold to sailors or used to house visitors to the Isthmian Games, and the Zondervan atlas also pictures Paul making tents for visitors to the games; Wright stresses that the hope is not to give up having a body. The ESV Study Bible reads nakedness as the state between death and resurrection. The judgment seat, the bema, was the raised tribunal from which the governor gave his decisions; Corinth's survives in the forum, and the Corinthians knew Paul had stood before it under Gallio (the cultural backgrounds notes; the ESV Study Bible; Keener). Keener and his notes add that Paul's main image is the biblical day of judgment. What that judgment decides is read differently: the CSB Study Bible says rewards, not destination, while the ESV Study Bible thinks both rewards and evidence of who is saved are in view.
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, introduction to 2 Corinthians 5:1-10, and on 5:1, 5:2-4 and 5:10
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on 2 Corinthians 5:1, 5:2-4 and 5:10
- ESV Study Bible, study notes on 2 Corinthians 5:1, 5:2-4 and 5:10
- CSB Study Bible, note on 2 Corinthians 5:9-10
- N. T. Wright, Paul for Everyone: 2 Corinthians, comment on 2 Corinthians 5:1-5
- Carl G. Rasmussen, Zondervan Atlas of the Bible, The Journeys of Paul, Paul's Second Missionary Journey
