2 Corinthians

Antoinette Clark Wire is Robert S. Dollar Professor Emerita of New Testament Studies at San Francisco Theological Seminary and the Graduate Theological Union where she has taught since 1973. Dr. Wire is a graduate of Yale Divinity and Claremont Graduate School. Raised in China by missionary parents, she has lived her adult life largely in California. Barbara E. Reid, general editor of the Wisdom Commentary series, is a Dominican Sister of Grand Rapids, Michigan. She is the president of Catholic Theological Union and the first woman to hold the position. She has been a member of the CTU faculty since 1988 and also served as vice president and academic dean from 2009 to 2018. She holds a PhD in biblical studies from The Catholic University of America and was also president of the Catholic Biblical Association in 2014–2015. Mary Ann Beavis is professor emerita of religion and culture at St. Thomas More College (Saskatoon, Canada). She received MA degrees from the University of Manitoba and the University of Notre Dame; she holds a PhD from Cambridge University (UK). Her areas of interest and expertise include Christian origins, feminist biblical interpretation, Christianity and Goddess spirituality, and religion and popular culture. She is the author of several single-author and edited books as well as many peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and book reviews.

Contents
Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
List of Contributors x
Foreword: “Come Eat of My Bread . . . and Walk in the Ways of Wisdom”
Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza
Editor’s Introduction to Wisdom Commentary: “She Is a Breath of the Power of God” (Wis 7:25)
Barbara E. Reid, OP
 
Author’s Introduction: “Who Is Adequate for These Things?” (2 Cor 2:16)
   A Feminist Commentary?
   One Letter or Many?
   Where Are the Women in 2 Corinthians?
   What Can 2 Corinthians Mean Today?
   Who Is Writing to Whom, When, and Where? l
 
2 Corinthians 1:1-11 Paul Greets Corinth and Blesses God
   A Feminist Lens at Three Ranges on Paul’s Opening Greeting and Blessing
   The Broad View of All Bodies in Time and Space, Death and Life
   A Mid-Range Focus on the Political, Economic, and Social Context
   A Close-Up Focus on the Interaction of Paul and the Corinthians
 
2 Corinthians 1:12–2:11 Paul Explains His Long Absence
   A Feminist Lens at Three Ranges on Paul’s Defense of His Past Actions
   A Broad Focus on All Bodies in Space and Time, Flesh and Spirit
   A Mid-Range Focus on Social, Political, and Geographical Aspects of Paul’s Defense
   A Sharp Focus on the Interaction of Paul and the Corinthians
 
2 Corinthians 2:12–3:3 Paul Begins His Defense
   A Feminist Lens at Three Different Ranges
   Paul’s Persuasion within an Ecosystem of Time and Space, Life and Death
   A Mid-Range Focus on the Social and Political World of Paul’s Persuasion
   A Close-Up View of Paul’s Persuasion as Shaped by and Shaping the Corinthians
 
2 Corinthians 3:4-18 Transformed in God’s Glory as Was Moses
   A Feminist Lens at Three Ranges on Being Transformed in God’s Glory
   An Ecosystem of Life and Death, Glory and Obscurity, Time and Space
   The More Specific Social, Political, and Religious Context
   Focusing on Paul’s Interchange with the Corinthians
 
2 Corinthians 4:1-15 A Light out of Darkness, a Treasure in Clay
   A Feminist Lens at Three Ranges on a Treasure in Clay and a Light in Darkness
   A Broad Focus on All Bodies in the Tension between Light and Dark, Life and Death
   A Mid-Range Focus on the Social, Political, and Economic Setting
   A Sharp Focus on the Interaction between Paul and the Corinthians
 
2 Corinthians 4:16–5:10 At Home in the Body and/or at Home with the Lord
   A Feminist Lens at Three Ranges on Paul’s Interpretation of Life and Death
   Broad Focus on the Ecosystem Presupposed in What Is Seen and Unseen, in Death and Life
   A Mid-Range Focus on the Political, Social, and Economic Setting
   Focusing in on the Interaction of Paul and the Corinthians
 
2 Corinthians 5:11-21 A New Creation in Christ That Is Reconciliation
   A Feminist Lens at Three Ranges on Reconciling with God as a New Creation
   A Broad View of All Bodies Caught between Death and Life, Old and New
   A Mid-Range Focus on the Social, Political, and Economic Setting of Paul’s Argument
   A Close-up of Paul’s Interaction with the Corinthians, Especially the Women
 
2 Corinthians 6:1–7:4 Paul’s All-Out Appeal: Open Wide Your Hearts
   A Feminist Lens at Three Ranges on Paul’s All-Out Appeal to the Corinthians
   The Ecosystem Paul Presupposes of Trust and Distrust, Wide and Narrow
   The More Specific Focus on Paul’s Social, Political, and Economic Setting
   The Focus Sharpened onto This Interaction between Paul and the Corinthians
 
2 Corinthians 7:5-16 Titus’s Report and Paul’s Joy
   A Feminist Lens at Three Ranges on Paul’s Joy at Titus’s Report
   With a Broad Focus on All Reality in the Tension between Grief and Joy
   With Focus on the Social, Political, and Economic Context
   With Focus Narrowed to This Interaction of Paul and the Corinthians
 
2 Corinthians 8:1–9:15 A Culminating Appeal for the Jerusalem Poor
   A Feminist Lens at Three Ranges on Paul’s Appeal for the Jerusalem Collection
   The Ecosystem Assumed in Paul’s Collection Appeal
   The Social, Political, and Economic Contexts of Paul’s Collection for Jerusalem
   The Interaction of Paul and the Corinthians as Seen in His Collection Appeal
 
2 Corinthians 10:1–11:21a Paul’s Rebuttal of His Rivals’ Charges
   A Feminist Lens at Three Ranges on Paul’s Rebuttal to His Rivals’ Charges
   The Broad Ecosystem or Worldview Underlying Paul’s Rebuttal of Rivals
   The Social, Political, and Economic Context of Paul’s Rebuttal
   This Specific Interaction between Paul and the Corinthians
 
2 Corinthians 11:21b–12:13 Paul’s Defense of Himself as a Fool
   A Feminist Lens at Three Ranges on Paul’s Speech as a Fool
   The Political, Economic and Social Setting of Paul’s Speaking as a Fool
   The Broad Ecosystem or Cosmology That Paul Assumes in Speaking as a Fool
   Focusing in on the Interchange of the Corinthians and Paul Speaking as a Fool
 
2 Corinthians 12:14–13:13 Paul’s Plan to Come to Corinth
   A Feminist Lens at Three Ranges on Paul’s Preparing Corinth for His Arrival
   With Broad Focus on the Ecosystem, Worldview, or Theology That Paul Assumes
   On the Midrange Political, Social, and Economic Context
   Focusing on the Interaction between Paul and the Corinthians
 
Afterword
Works Cited
Index of Scripture References and Other Ancient Writings
Index of Subjects