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God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in proclaiming the gospel of his Son, that I remember you constantly,(A)

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Paul’s Change of Plan. 23 (A)But I call upon God as witness, on my life, that it is to spare you that I have not yet gone to Corinth.[a]

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Footnotes

  1. 1:23–24 I have not yet gone to Corinth: some suppose that Paul received word of some affair in Corinth, which he decided to regulate by letter even before the first of his projected visits (cf. 2 Cor 1:16). Others conjecture that he did pay the first visit, was offended there (cf. 2 Cor 2:5), returned to Ephesus, and sent a letter (2 Cor 2:3–9) in place of the second visit. The expressions to spare you (2 Cor 1:23) and work together for your joy (2 Cor 1:24) introduce the major themes of the next two paragraphs, which are remarkable for insistent repetition of key words and ideas. These form two clusters of terms in the English translation: (1) cheer, rejoice, encourage, joy; (2) pain, affliction, anguish. These clusters reappear when Paul resumes treatment of this subject in 2 Cor 7:5–16.

Nor, indeed, did we ever appear with flattering speech, as you know, or with a pretext for greed—God is witness—

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