3rd Missionary Trip - Lorin

cally and emotionally. His experience at Ephesus described here went beyond adequate words to describe fully.
Thus he uses exceedingly intense language to stress the severity of what he experienced.
He goes on in v. 9 to further label the experience a τὸ ἀπόκριμα τοῦ θανάτου, sentence of death, handed
down to him that would terminate his earthly life. The cumulative impact of this was that Paul ἐξαπορηθῆναι ἡμᾶς
καὶ τοῦ ζῆν, despaired even of life. He pretty much lost hope of continuing to live. To be sure after his conversion,
plots to kill him had surfaced from time to time in ministry prior to reaching Ephesus. But nothing like this experience
had happened previously to push him so hard to the edge of loosing hope of living.
The intensity of the experience for Paul emotionally goes beyond what Luke alludes to in Acts 19:9 and
23-41. Many see the reference here in Second Corinthians to be linked to Paul’s earlier statement in 1 Cor. 15:32
to ἐθηριομάχησα ἐν Ἐφέσῳ, I fought with wild beasts in Ephesus. The question here is whether Paul means this
literally or figuratively? If literally, then he was placed in the gladiatorial ring to face wild beasts and somehow
survied. If figuratively, then he means that he faced death in such an extreme way that it was comparable to
facing the wild beasts in the arena. Probably the latter is what he intended, but there is no certainty about his
meaning. 153 Thus in conclusion we must say that a some point during the lengthy ministry in Ephesus the apostle
underwent an episode of extreme persecution that brought him close to death, and even convinced him that he
was going to die. For whatever his reasons, Luke chose not to include this episode in his narration of that ministry
in Acts nineteen.
Paul felt a strong need to reference this experience since he assumed the Corinthians had not heard
about it: Οὐ γὰρ θέλομεν ὑμᾶς ἀγνοεῖν, for we do not want you to be ignorant..., v. 8. 154 His motive for including it was
not to brag about surviving the experience. Instead, as he states in v. 9, ἵνα μὴ πεποιθότες ὦμεν ἐφʼ ἑαυτοῖς ἀλλʼ
ἐπὶ τῷ θεῷ τῷ ἐγείροντι τοὺς νεκρούς, in order that we might not have confidence in ourselves, but in the God who raises
the dead. Paul learned through this harsh experience to depend even more on God. Out of that spiritual growth
moment came also a physical rescue from death along with the conviction that more rescues would be coming
until the Lord was ready for Paul to enter Heaven (vv. 10-11). To share this with the Corinthians was important to
Paul, as an encouragement to them, and in soliciting their prayers of thanksgiving to God for this deliverance.
2 Cor 12:18
18 παρεκάλεσα Τίτον καὶ συναπέστειλα τὸν ἀδελφόν· μήτι ἐπλεονέκτησεν ὑμᾶς Τίτος; οὐ τῷ αὐτῷ πνεύματι
περιεπατήσαμεν; οὐ τοῖς αὐτοῖς ἴχνεσιν;
18 I urged Titus to go, and sent the brother with him. Titus did not take advantage of you, did he? Did we not
conduct ourselves with the same spirit? Did we not take the same steps?
Another of Paul’s associates is sent on a mission to Corinth. In this second letter written from Macedonia
to Corinth, Paul alludes to having sent Titus to Corinth from Ephesus. The context of Paul’s statements here
stress the integrity that both Paul and all of his associates exemplified in their relations to the church at Corinth.
Paul is here referring to what he had already said regarding Titus in 7:13b-15.
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155 Titus had been sent to Corinth
153 “Some allude to being forced to fight with wild animals as a punishment for an alleged or actual crime (Diodorus Siculus,
3.43.7 [first century BC]; Josephus, Wars 7.38; Ignatius, Letter to the Ephesians, 1:2; Letter to the Trallians, 10). However, Ignatius uses
the compound verb both literally (as above) and metaphorically: from Syria to Rome I fight with wild beasts, bound to ten leopards, that
is a detachment of soldiers (Ignatius, Letter to the Romans, 5:1).236 Luther and Calvin discuss in detail forms of persecution at Rome
which entailed battling with wild beasts, but these historically belong to a later date than around 54–55. 237 Weiss and Héring regard the
allusion as literal but also as merely hypothetical, which seems to reduce the force of an argument which rhetorically demands a climax
or peak. 238 On the other hand, Héring’s argument that as a Roman citizen Paul could not have been submitted to such a punishment
equally points in the direction of metaphor. The catalogue of sufferings in 2 Cor 11:23ff. also makes no mention of this experience. Even
if Weiss and Héring can overcome the grammatical problem of the indicative, most understand it as metaphor. Fee contends that it ‘must
be’ metaphor, while Collins sees a metaphorical allusion to the agōn motif as more probable than some hypothetical event. 239 Tertullian
regarded it as a metaphorical allusion to the tumult narrated in Acts 19. 240 R. E. Osborne and A. J. Malherbe consider alternatives and
conclude that metaphor is clearly used here. 241 Wolff compares the experience of Paul’s coming to this end of himself (or ‘receiving
a sentence of death’): ‘we even despaired of life’ (2 Cor 1:8–11). 242 In 1 Cor 16:9 Paul alludes to continuing opposition at Ephesus.”
[Anthony C. Thiselton, The First Epistle to the Corinthians: A Commentary on the Greek Text, New International Greek Testament Commentary
(Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans, 2000), 1251-52.]
154To be sure, Οὐ γὰρ θέλομεν ὑμᾶς ἀγνοεῖν is a rather standard discourse marker used by Paul to mark the beginning of a
new topic. But the cognitive meaning of the phrase clearly suggests that the Corinthians were not aware ὑπὲρ τῆς θλίψεως ἡμῶν τῆς
γενομένης ἐν τῇ Ἀσίᾳ, of his affliction that happened in Asia. Remember that this material was written from Macedonia after Paul had
left Ephesus and Asia, on his way to Corinth.
1552 Cor. 7:13b-15. In addition to our own consolation, we rejoiced still more at the joy of Titus, because his mind has been set
at rest by all of you. 14 For if I have been somewhat boastful about you to him, I was not disgraced; but just as everything we said to you
was true, so our boasting to Titus has proved true as well. 15 And his heart goes out all the more to you, as he remembers the obedience