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 7:2-16, Titus arrives and the letter that hurt
In Macedonia Paul is comforted by Titus's arrival and his news that the Corinthians grieved over Paul's harsh letter in a way that led to repentance, and that they received Titus with fear and trembling.
2 Corinthians 7:2-16, in every translation this tool compares.
Paul asks the Corinthians to make room for him in their affections and insists he has wronged no one. He describes arriving in Macedonia worn out by conflict and fear, until God cheered him with Titus's arrival and the news that the church missed him and was sorry. His severe letter had hurt them, but he no longer regrets it, because their grief led to real repentance, and Titus came back full of affection for them.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/letters-and-letter-carriers\/","n":"Letters, scribes and carriers","s":"Letters were usually dictated to scribes, carried by trusted travelers because there was no public post, and read aloud to the people they were sent to.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/sent-agent\/","n":"The one who is sent","s":"Jewish law held that a man's agent was as the man himself, backed by his authority as long as he represented him faithfully. How people treated the agent showed how they treated the one who sent him.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/hospitality\/","n":"Hospitality to travelers","s":"Taking in travelers was one of the great virtues of the ancient Mediterranean, above all among Jews. Messengers could travel light because they expected to be housed.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/friendship\/","n":"Friendship, and the friend of Caesar","s":"The ancient world prized friendship: loyalty to the death, goods held in common, secrets shared. The same word covered a patron and his dependents, and friend of Caesar was a title a governor could not afford to lose.","r":""}
Writers ending a digression often picked up where they had left off, and speakers softened their tone after harsh images (the cultural backgrounds notes). Greeks considered willingness to die with a friend the greatest expression of friendship, and letters between friends stressed affection and frank speech (Keener and his notes). Teachers of speaking and letter writing warned that open rebuke should be kept for extreme cases and mixed with praise, and moral teachers likened harsh words to a doctor's painful cure (Keener and his notes). Carson, Moo and Morris note that Paul had second thoughts after sending the severe letter, and that chapters 1-9 read like bruised relations recently eased, with a sigh of relief that the worst was over. Titus received hospitality, as local synagogue communities housed Jewish travelers (Keener and his notes), and he was a Gentile whom Paul had refused to have circumcised (Galatians 2:3; the Zondervan dictionary). Receiving Titus with such respect meant treating him as Paul's own representative (Keener and his notes). Boasting about one's friends, unlike praising oneself, was always thought acceptable (Keener and his notes).
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on 2 Corinthians 7:2-3, 7:5-7, 7:8-9, 7:13, 7:14 and 7:15-16
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on 2 Corinthians 7:2, 7:3, 7:4, 7:8-9, 7:13 and 7:14
- D. A. Carson, Douglas J. Moo and Leon Morris, An Introduction to the New Testament, ch. 9, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Occasion, Historical Reconstruction
- J. D. Douglas and Merrill C. Tenney, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary, entry Titus
