2 Corinthians — Chapter 5
The dwelling from heaven
5:1
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
For we know that if our earthly tent-house is dismantled, we have a building from God, a house not made by hands, eternal in the heavens.
Textual & reception notes
Tent-house preserves the interwoven dwelling and tent imagery rather than identifying each image in the translation.
Reception (Tier A; direct commentary) — St John Chrysostom: The heavenly dwelling signifies the body renewed in incorruption. [Homily 10, on 2 Corinthians 5:1].
5:2
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
For indeed in this we groan, longing to put on over ourselves our dwelling from heaven,
Textual & reception notes
Reception (Tier A; direct commentary) — St John Chrysostom: The longing concerns incorruption, not a body descending literally from heaven. [Homily 10, on 2 Corinthians 5:2].
5:3
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
if indeed, having put it on, we shall not be found naked.
Textual & reception notes
Text [G]: The accessed participle is having put on, endysamenoi, not having taken off. The conditional qualification is retained; the image’s relation to nakedness remains an interpretive question.
Reception (Tier A; direct commentary) — St John Chrysostom: Resurrection alone does not guarantee the glory of the righteous. [Homily 10, on 2 Corinthians 5:3].
5:4
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
For indeed we who are in the tent groan, being burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed over, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.
Textual & reception notes
Reception (Tier A; direct commentary) — St John Chrysostom: Mortality is removed without abolishing the body's identity. [Homily 10, on 2 Corinthians 5:4].
5:5
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
Now the One who prepared us for this very thing is God, who gave us the pledge of the Spirit.
Textual & reception notes
Reception (Tier A; direct commentary) — St John Chrysostom: God intended immortality and gives the Spirit as its pledge. [Homily 10, on 2 Corinthians 5:5].
5:6
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
Therefore, always being confident, and knowing that while at home in the body we are away from the Lord—
Textual & reception notes
Reception (Tier A; direct commentary) — St John Chrysostom: Hope of the coming life sustains courage amid persecution. [Homily 10, on 2 Corinthians 5:6].
5:7
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
for we walk through faith, not through sight—
Textual & reception notes
Reception (Tier A; direct commentary) — St John Chrysostom: Faith gives knowledge that is not yet the clarity of sight. [Homily 10, on 2 Corinthians 5:7-8].
5:8
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
we are confident, and prefer rather to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.
Textual & reception notes
Reception (Tier A; direct commentary) — St John Chrysostom: Being with Christ surpasses even the benefit of incorruption. [Homily 10, on 2 Corinthians 5:7-8].
5:9
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
Therefore we also make it our aim, whether at home or away, to be pleasing to Him.
Textual & reception notes
Reception (Tier A; direct commentary) — St John Chrysostom: Pleasing God remains essential to the hope of life with Christ. [Homily 10, on 2 Corinthians 5:9].
5:10
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
For we must all be manifested before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive back what was done through the body, according to what he practiced, whether good or evil.
Textual & reception notes
Be manifested preserves phaneroō, more than merely arriving. Evil renders phaulos, morally bad or base in the contrast with good; it avoids implying merely a lack of usefulness.
Reception (Tier A; direct commentary) — St John Chrysostom: The body shares with the soul in judgment for earthly deeds. [Homily 10, on 2 Corinthians 5:10].
The ministry of reconciliation
5:11
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade people; but we have been made manifest to God, and I hope we have also been made manifest in your consciences.
Textual & reception notes
Reception (Tier A; direct commentary) — St John Chrysostom: Accountability motivates both integrity and the removal of damaging suspicion. [Homily 11, on 2 Corinthians 5:11].
5:12
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
We are not commending ourselves to you again, but giving you an opportunity to boast on our behalf, so that you may have an answer for those who boast in appearance and not in heart.
Textual & reception notes
Reception (Tier A; direct commentary) — St John Chrysostom: Paul's defense equips his hearers to answer superficial boasting. [Homily 11, on 2 Corinthians 5:12].
5:13
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
For if we were beside ourselves, it was for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you.
Textual & reception notes
Reception (Tier A; direct commentary) — St John Chrysostom: Apparent boasting serves God; restrained speech serves the hearers. [Homily 11, on 2 Corinthians 5:13].
5:14
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
For the love of Christ holds us fast, since we have judged this: that One died for all; therefore all died.
Textual & reception notes
The love of Christ is taken here as Christ’s love constraining the speakers, in connection with His death; love for Christ is another genitive interpretation.
Reception (Tier A; direct commentary) — St John Chrysostom: Christ's death manifests the love that impels apostolic ministry. [Homily 11, on 2 Corinthians 5:14].
5:15
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
And He died for all so that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for the One who died and was raised on their behalf.
Textual & reception notes
Reception (Tier A; direct commentary) — St John Chrysostom: Life received through Christ creates an obligation to live for him. [Homily 11, on 2 Corinthians 5:15].
5:16
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
So from now on we know no one according to the flesh. Even if we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we no longer know Him in that way.
Textual & reception notes
Reception (Tier A; direct commentary) — St John Chrysostom: Renewed life changes human judgments without denying Christ's flesh. [Homily 11, on 2 Corinthians 5:16].
5:17
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation. The old things passed away; look, new things have come to be.
Textual & reception notes
There is supplies the verbless new creation clause. The accessed text has new things have come to be without an added all before new.
Reception (Tier A; direct commentary) — St John Chrysostom: The new creation involves spiritual rebirth and a changed life. [Homily 11, on 2 Corinthians 5:17].
5:18
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
And all things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:
Textual & reception notes
Reception (Tier A; direct commentary) — St John Chrysostom: Reconciliation and its ministry originate in God's initiative. [Homily 11, on 2 Corinthians 5:18].
5:19
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and placing in us the word of reconciliation.
Textual & reception notes
God was in Christ reconciling preserves the sequence; in Christ can relate to God’s presence or to the reconciliation being accomplished. No claim that God became identical with the world is inserted.
Reception (Tier A; direct commentary) — St John Chrysostom: The offended God takes the initiative in seeking reconciliation. [Homily 11, on 2 Corinthians 5:19].
5:20
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
Therefore we serve as ambassadors on behalf of Christ, as God appeals through us. We beg on behalf of Christ: be reconciled to God.
Textual & reception notes
Reception (Tier A; direct commentary) — St John Chrysostom: The apostles convey God's reconciling appeal as Christ's ambassadors. [Homily 11, on 2 Corinthians 5:20].
5:21
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
The One who did not know sin, He made sin on our behalf, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.
Textual & reception notes
Sin renders hamartia, not sinner. Sin offering is a proposed sacrificial interpretation, but the translation retains the repeated word sin and the statement that He did not know sin.
Reception (Tier A; direct commentary) — St John Chrysostom: The sinless Christ undergoes punishment for the guilty. [Homily 11, on 2 Corinthians 5:21].