An Atheist Explores the Bible Part 220: The Metaphysics of Christ, and why Christians smell like barbecue (2 Corinthians 1-5)

2 Corinthians 1-5
The Metaphysics of Christ, and why Christians smell like barbecue.

Welcome to another instalment of An Atheist Explores Sacred Texts (Bible version).

In this series I work my way chapter-by-chapter through the King James Bible, commenting on it from the point of view of the text as literature and mythology.

For more detail, see the introductory post http://bit.ly/2F8f9JT

For the online KJV I use, see here http://bit.ly/2m0zVUP

And now:

2 Corinthians 1

“Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.”

Dear Corinthians, Paul here. Sorry I didn’t come to you after my last letter but I had some trouble in Asia – sentenced to death and all that. Plus God told me not to for your own good.

That seem to be pretty much it for this chapter. I didn’t really follow the bit about “When I therefore was thus minded, did I use lightness? or the things that I purpose, do I purpose according to the flesh, that with me there should be yea yea, and nay nay?”, apart from Paul excusing himself for not visiting Corinth and saying that he didn’t make the choice lightly.

The opening salutations expound at some length about how God provides comfort for those suffering, and some contortions about how the suffering is like the suffering of Christ and therefore (?) this makes the comfort of God closer to Christians. Or something like that.

2 Corinthians 2

“For if I make you sorry, who is he then that maketh me glad, but the same which is made sorry by me?”

Paul evidently caused some offence with his last epistle to the Corinthians, because here he tries to explain that he was telling them what to do for their own good, and that he didn’t come to visit them in case his presence upset them or made them feel like he was being heavy-handed. He then digresses into how all Christians are a “sweet savour” to God and should all stick together and act as one. Really, that’s about it for this chapter. I think compared to the letter to Rome, 1 Corinthians was less heavy-handed, although one can see how it comes across as a bit pompous. Also, the last thing to be called a “sweet savour” to God was the smell of burning meat.

2 Corinthians 3

“Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men”

My but Paul loves to torture a metaphor. The Corinthians, apparently, are an epistle written in the “fleshy tables of the heart” with the “spirit of the living God” and administered by Paul. Not sure written to whom, perhaps themselves? However, Paul then goes on to say that letters and epistles are bad, because “the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life”. So they are sort of an epistle, but a better one because written in spirit and not writing? Okay… I think I’ve got that. Go on.

Paul then compares this to Moses’ laws written on stone, and how it’s easier (I think) for people to ignore these than it is something written in their hearts with spirit (“But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart”). Which .. again, okay, think I’ve got that.

The final line is interesting – “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord”; this implies that a believer can look in a mirror and see God (or Christ, perhaps. Which Lord?). Is this because God is in their hearts, or is it some kind of hubris going on here where they become God-like through their belief?

2 Corinthians 4

“In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.”

That’s me. But does this seem fair? And why would God decide that some people are not going to receive His message when the idea seemed to be to make it available to everyone and not just the Jews? Funny that Paul here should say that this is the will of God, and not some trick of Satan as one might expect (and often hears). When editing this, though, I note that Paul uses the term “god of this world” without a capital, whilst later on he uses capital-G “God”. Now, the KJV is not that consistent with its capital letters, but perhaps the case here is that Paul is referring to material concerns with the expression “god of this world”. I dunno, it’s not very clear.

Anyway, this is otherwise quite a mystical chapter, looking at how Paul deals more with the eternal realm than the temporal physical realm. The magic potency of Jesus’ death and resurrection, when experienced by a believer who, by believing, somehow partakes of the mystic energies of the Passion, provide a kind of spiritual bulwark against feeling despair and other bad thoughts, and also provides a mystical connection to the power of life after death.

This, to me, is the plainest explanation so far of the mystery cult aspect of Paul’s version of Christianity. The mystical powers of the Christ – spiritual courage and the chance of resurrection – are available to those who agree to the mysteries. It’s a good get-out clause as well; if these things don’t work for you, well, you never quite opened yourself up properly.

2 Corinthians 5

“For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.”

Paul continues on his expounding of the spiritual, and touches here on Gnostic ideals – the body, the “earthly tabernacle”, is a hindrance to the spirit within and Paul looks forward to the liberation of the spirit, when all will stand “naked” before God. But also Paul discusses how one who turns to Christ is “reborn” in spirit, so perhaps there are three stages according to his spiritualism – a lost creature simply of flesh, then of a renewed Christian spirit but still one encased in earthly material, and finally the freed soul given purely to God. Which seems to be getting a bit complicated to me. This is due to “To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation”, in other words … No, I’m lost here. I get the idea that Christ was a sin-offering, a scapegoat, a blood sacrifice of sufficient potency to absolve the entirety of humanity. But, apparently, only if you decide that you want to accept this absolution through a statement of belief. But then when the idea of God being in Christ gets mixed into the pot, the whole metaphysics gets muddied. Maybe Paul will explain further in the next chapter….