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 Carroll Stuhlmueller, CP Distinguished Professor of New Testament Studies, and president emerita of Catholic Theological Union (the first woman who held 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 president of the Catholic Biblical Association in 2014–2015. Her most recent publications are Luke 1–9 and Luke 10–24, co-authored with Shelly Matthews (WCS 43A, 43B; Liturgical Press, 2021); and At the Table of Holy Wisdom: Global Hungers and Feminist Biblical Interpretation (Paulist, 2023).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.

• ContentsAcknowledgmentsList of AbbreviationsList of Contributors xForeword: “Come Eat of My Bread . . . and Walk in the Ways of Wisdom” Elisabeth Schüssler FiorenzaEditor’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 BlessingThe Broad View of All Bodies in Time and Space, Death and LifeA Mid-Range Focus on the Political, Economic, and Social ContextA 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 ActionsA Broad Focus on All Bodies in Space and Time, Flesh and SpiritA Mid-Range Focus on Social, Political, and Geographical Aspects of Paul’s DefenseA 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 RangesPaul’s Persuasion within an Ecosystem of Time and Space, Life and DeathA Mid-Range Focus on the Social and Political World of Paul’s PersuasionA 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 GloryAn Ecosystem of Life and Death, Glory and Obscurity, Time and SpaceThe More Specific Social, Political, and Religious ContextFocusing 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 DarknessA Broad Focus on All Bodies in the Tension between Light and Dark, Life and DeathA Mid-Range Focus on the Social, Political, and Economic SettingA 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 DeathBroad Focus on the Ecosystem Presupposed in What Is Seen and Unseen, in Death and LifeA Mid-Range Focus on the Political, Social, and Economic SettingFocusing 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 CreationA Broad View of All Bodies Caught between Death and Life, Old and NewA Mid-Range Focus on the Social, Political, and Economic Setting of Paul’s ArgumentA 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 CorinthiansThe Ecosystem Paul Presupposes of Trust and Distrust, Wide and NarrowThe More Specific Focus on Paul’s Social, Political, and Economic SettingThe 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 ReportWith a Broad Focus on All Reality in the Tension between Grief and JoyWith Focus on the Social, Political, and Economic ContextWith 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 CollectionThe Ecosystem Assumed in Paul’s Collection AppealThe Social, Political, and Economic Contexts of Paul’s Collection for JerusalemThe 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’ ChargesThe Broad Ecosystem or Worldview Underlying Paul’s Rebuttal of RivalsThe Social, Political, and Economic Context of Paul’s RebuttalThis 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 FoolThe Political, Economic and Social Setting of Paul’s Speaking as a FoolThe Broad Ecosystem or Cosmology That Paul Assumes in Speaking as a FoolFocusing 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 ArrivalWith Broad Focus on the Ecosystem, Worldview, or Theology That Paul AssumesOn the Midrange Political, Social, and Economic ContextFocusing on the Interaction between Paul and the Corinthians  AfterwordWorks CitedIndex of Scripture References and Other Ancient WritingsIndex of Subjects

"Wire offers a fresh interpretation of Second Corinthians from a historically informed and rhetorically sophisticated feminist perspective. In continuation of the brilliant and influential work she has done in her previous book on First Corinthians, The Corinthian Women Prophets, Wire provides here a careful analysis on Paul's use of rhetoric in Second Corinthians to see what the new epistolary exigency is like behind Second Corinthians, especially, concerning the women in the Corinthian church and to understand how Paul responds to it. The result is a coherent narrative of Paul's message in Second Corinthians that is properly situated against the immediate and particular epistolary situation in the Corinthian church as well as the larger sociocultural and political background of the gender dynamic in the first-century Roman imperial world."Eugene Eung-Chun Park, Dana and David Dornsife Professor of New Testament, San Francisco Theological Seminary