Reading 2 Corinthians

Second Corinthians offers us an account of Paul’s ongoing relationship with a church that was especially troubled. Before writing any of 2 Corinthians, Paul had already written three letters to this church to try to deal with questions and problems as they struggled to understand and live out the life of faith. When Paul writes the material in 2 Corinthians, he has to defend his claim to be an apostle in light of questions raised by some Corinthians and by rival teachers who have come to the city.

To try to win this church back, Paul will use every persuasive technique he can muster. He will cajole, plead, and scold; he will use irony and sarcasm; he will show compassion. He is willing to do whatever it takes to convince them that he is the authentic apostle because he sees the issues that are being debated as so central that, if the Corinthians do not return to recognizing him as their apostle, they may lose their relationship with God.


For more than three decades, Jerry Sumney has been recognized as a savvy interpreter of 2 Corinthians, and especially of St. Paul’s vigorous confrontation with his opponents in that complex document. With this perceptive new commentary, Sumney has placed all students of St. Paul even more firmly in his debt.

—John T. Fitzgerald

Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity

University of Notre Dame


Edited by Todd D. Still, Charles J. and Eleanor McLerran DeLancey Dean & William M. Hinson Professor of Christian Scriptures at Baylor University’s George W. Truett Theological Seminary, the Reading the New Testament commentary series presents cutting-edge biblical research in accessible language.


Jerry L. Sumney is professor of biblical studies at Lexington Theological Seminary in Lexington, Kentucky. He earned his BA from David Lipscomb University, MA from Harding University, and PhD from Southern Methodist University. The author of seven books and more than thirty articles, he also contributed to the New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, the Dictionary of the Later New Testament and Its Developments, and the Dictionary of Scripture and Ethics.