The usage of “poor/wealthy” terminology in reference to Christ in 2 Corinthians 8:9 is no surprise. Paul is coping with funds and this language suits fairly naturally into the dialogue. The one drawback is that Paul doesn’t clarify what he means by “Christ was poor, although he was wealthy.” Most exegetes interpret 2 Corinthians 8:9 within the mild of Philippians 2:6–8. Hans-Dieter Betz sees this as a should. He writes: “The ideas of wealth and poverty present in 2 Corinthians 8:9 are metaphorical, and should be interpreted by analogy to Philippians 2:6–11 and related passages.” (Betz, 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, 62. Emphasis added.)
It’s well-known that Philippians 2 is seen as a passage that offers with the incarnation of the Son of God, even when the referent of the relative pronoun originally of Philippians 2:6 is Christ Jesus (and never the pre-incarnate Son of God). Truthful sufficient, Philippians 2 asserts the humanity of Christ. The primary matter, although, is Christ’s humiliation (which will be seen as a mannequin for the church; Christ’s incarnation could be laborious to mimic.) As R. C. H. Lenski explains, Christ “entered this state [the state of humiliation] concurrently along with his incarnation, however the two shouldn’t be confused or made similar.” (Lenski, I and II Corinthians, 1138.)
Learn by the lenses of Philippians, 2 Corinthians 8:9 is seen as instructing that “though because the asarkos logos he previously abounded within the riches of a heavenly situation, by assuming human nature he entered right into a state of (earthly) poverty,” as Thayer, in his lexicon, confidently paraphrases the textual content. The incarnational studying is present in a few of the Church Fathers (Ambrosiaster and Chrysostom, for instance). It tends to be confirmed by fashionable translations, which usually put the riches of Christ earlier than his poverty. The ESV, for example, says, “although he was wealthy, but to your sake he turned poor.” Within the Greek textual content, although, the concessive participial clause (“although he was wealthy”) comes after the reference to Christ’s poverty and is thrown in nearly as an afterthought. My translation of two Corinthians 8:9 (within the forthcoming Concordia Commentary) goes as follows: “Now the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that to your sake he was extraordinarily poor, although being wealthy, so that you simply, by his poverty, would possibly grow to be wealthy.”
The Lutheran studying of two Corinthians 8:9 (and of Philippians 2:6–8) is a “non-incarnational” studying. That is the speculation, however what’s the observe? I made a decision to test it out and I used to be not upset. I examined two early Lutheran interpreters: Matthias Flacius Illyricus and Tilemann Heshusius.
Flacius has a brief paragraph in his Glossa Compendiaria, revealed in 1570: “Christ turned poor, whereas he miraculously lowered himself from the type of God into the type of a servant, and from probably the most simply by imputation he turned probably the most unjust, in order that we’d grow to be the righteousness of God in him.” In Flacius, the language of “type of God” and “type of a servant” evokes Philippians 2. The final a part of the quote is an echo of two Corinthians 5:21. But, there isn’t a direct reference to the incarnation.
Tilemann Heshusius, in his Latin commentary on 2 Corinthians (revealed in 1580), has an extended (and delightful!) remedy of two Corinthians 8:9:
Our Lord Jesus Christ was the richest of all. Since he was within the type of God, all issues have been topic below his toes. The Father gave all issues into the hand of the Son. The heavens and the earth are his. He himself based the world and all that’s in it. (Psalm 89) And but he lowered himself into poverty for the sake of our salvation, in order that he not solely had no place to put his head, but additionally turned cursed for us on the cross and like a worm. (Psalm 22) However from this we’re enriched. Due to the obedience of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who took the type of a servant and suffered dying in our place, God not solely gave us life, justice, the Holy Spirit, peace, but additionally heaven. He made us youngsters of God, heirs of the world, co-heirs with Christ, to whom God subjected all issues in heaven and on earth. The riches of the entire world belong to the believer, all issues belong to the Church: heaven and earth and all that’s in them. Since, then, Christ has earned and given a lot wealth to us by his poverty, it’s becoming that we should always embrace our brothers with honest charity, present that we’re youngsters of God, and contribute as a lot as we will to assist these in want. Thus we show our religion and imitate the instance of Christ’s love. Word the wealthy intertextuality at work right here. And Christ’s poverty is his turning into a curse for us. The language of incarnation is conspicuous by its absence.
