2 Corinthians setting & dates

The setting

Like 1 Corinthians, this letter is addressed to the church in the great Greek port city of Corinth, but Paul writes it from a different place and in different circumstances. Having left Ephesus after the riot there (Acts 19-20), Paul traveled north into Macedonia (the province in northern Greece that included cities such as Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea) and it was there, likely in one of those cities, that Titus finally met him with news from Corinth. Relieved and encouraged, Paul wrote 2 Corinthians from Macedonia and sent it ahead by Titus and others as he prepared to make his third visit to Corinth in the south.

The letter’s geography also reflects Paul’s wider mission and its burdens. He speaks of the deadly affliction he suffered “in Asia” (around Ephesus), of the churches of Macedonia whose sacrificial generosity he holds up as an example, and of the collection he is gathering for the impoverished believers in Jerusalem, far to the southeast. His travels crisscross the northeastern Mediterranean (Asia, Macedonia, Achaia (Corinth), and Judea) and his catalog of sufferings in chapter 11 (shipwrecks, journeys, dangers “in the city... in the wilderness... at sea”) maps the perilous world in which the gospel advanced. Behind the letter lies the constant movement of an apostle spending himself across the empire for the sake of the churches he had planted.

Where the letter went

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Timeline

• c. AD 55 - Paul writes 1 Corinthians from Ephesus; issues remain unresolved.
• A “painful visit” - Paul visits Corinth and is grieved by the church’s response.
• A “severe letter” - Paul writes a tearful letter (now lost), carried by Titus.
• c. AD 56 - Titus meets Paul in Macedonia with news of the church’s repentance; Paul writes 2 Corinthians.
• c. AD 57 - Paul makes his third visit to Corinth, from where he writes Romans.