Deep Dive into 2 Corinthians 2:17 - Commercializing the Word of God

Selling Jesus

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In 2 Corinthians, Paul speaks of false apostles, the quote -unquote super -apostles, who, in comparison to Paul, charged for their preaching.

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See 2 Corinthians 11 -7 and 12 -13. The first indication in the epistle that the false apostles wrongly accepted money from the

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Corinthians is in 2 .17. But Bibles differ on how best to translate this verse.

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The ESV renders it as, In this article, we will argue that the best way to translate kapeleuontes in the phrase peddlers of God's word is with a word that carries the primary meaning of commercial action and intent, such as retailers, or merchants, or simply sellers.

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Paul is contrasting his own free ministry with the commercialized ministry of false teachers and using this distinction to show

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God's seal of authenticity on him as a true servant of Christ.

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In 2 Corinthians, Paul defends the dignity of his ministry, which is fraught with things most would find shameful, beatings, shipwrecks, missed itineraries, etc.

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In constructing this defense, he must compare himself to the false teachers of Corinth.

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In this particular verse, verse 2 .17, the many, in Greek, hoi poloi, may refer to false teachers in general, but most especially refers to those of Corinth.

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However, the same entity reappears in the next verse as, indicating that a particular group is in mind.

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This parallelism suggests that the phrase, the many, is rhetorical and disparaging, rather than numerical.

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With this remark, Paul intends to implicate his opponents, the false apostles.

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That said, the primary source of interest in this verse is the word translated by the ESV as, peddlers, which is, capeleuontes, from capeleuo.

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Now commentators and translations divide over recognizing this word as indicating an adulteration or commercialization of the gospel.

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Furthermore, they differ on whether or not this word necessarily implies a motive of profit.

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Thus, as we will see below, some translations add, quote -unquote, for profit to the verse because they believe it to be implicit information from the context that needs to be made explicit to the reader, even though the words for profit are not found in the

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Greek. Now what follows is a really nice chart in the actual article on the website. So if you head over to the link that we will provide in the description to this article, you can see the visual layout of how different translations, both historical and modern, deal with this verse in different ways.

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I'll try to summarize it here. So first, historical versions or translations.

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The Geneva translation has the phrase, to make merchandise of. And then when you get to the

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KJV and the ASV, they translate this as corrupt or corrupting.

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Now, all of these historical translations do not add this extra interpretation of for profit.

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When we get to modern literal translations, we have the ESV, as we already read, saying peddlers,

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NASB says peddling, NKJV peddling, ISV commercializing.

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None of them add for profit. Then we have modern translations with an explanatory gloss of for profit or something to that end.

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So we start with the CSB. It translates the verb as market, and then they add for profit.

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So they market the word of God for profit. NIV peddle the word of God for profit.

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BSB peddle the word of God for profit. NET hucksters who peddle the word of God for profit.

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NLT hucksters who preach for personal profit. And then CEV has from preaching

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God's message, try to get rich. Now it should be recognized at the outset that the word in question in Greek, kapeleuo, occurs only in 2

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Corinthians 2 .17 in all of the New Testament. The rarity of this word presents a challenge to interpreters because there are no biblical contexts with which to compare its use besides the

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Greek version of Isaiah 1 .22, which uses a nominal form of the word, which is kapeloi.

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In spite of this difficulty, there are good reasons to understand kapeleuo as referring to commerce and not explicitly to corruption.

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These reasons include the following, a careful lexical analysis of the extra -biblical and Septuagint's use of kapeleuo and its related forms, the wider context of 2

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Corinthians, a close look at what exactly Paul was being criticized for in terms of financial policy, a parallel passage in 1

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Thessalonians 2 through 5, and the objective nature of Paul's criticism.

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So let's look at each of these in turn. First a lexical study of kapeleuo.

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In spite of kapeleuo being a hypoxlegomenon within the New Testament, there is ample evidence that it primarily means to engage in market transactions.

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And for this reason, BDAG gives the fundamental meanings of trade -in, peddle, or huckster.

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Although some older versions translate the word as adulterate, there are compelling arguments not to go that direction.

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These arguments include a careful examination of two primary pieces of evidence.

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Number one, the antisophist polemic in the Greek classics and Hellenistic Judaism.

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Number two, the use of the word retailer, kapelos, in the Greek LXX of Isaiah 122.

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Now before discussing the evidence, it should be understood that the research of Hans Windisch from 1924 stands behind many of the mainstream arguments for understanding kapeleuo as to sell.

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Windisch did acknowledge the possible meaning of adulterate, but only as a secondary meaning.

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Now unfortunately, some who read his research misunderstood or misapplied it, and took the idea of adulteration as primary.

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But Scott Haifman, in his painstakingly thorough exegesis of 2

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Corinthians 2 .14 -3 .3, has shown that the idea of corruption is not inherent in the commercial sense of kapeleuo, but rather added to it.

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The antisophist polemic in the Greek classics boils down to the idea that Plato, who did not sell his teaching, criticized the sophists for doing so.

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For example, he writes, "...the sophist is really a sort of merchant or dealer, kapelos, in provisions on which a soul is nourished."

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Or for another example, he says, "...they are hawking, kapeleuontes, their doctrines about any odd purchaser who desires them, commending everything that they sell."

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Some interpreters have assumed that Plato looked down on them because they were selling corrupt teaching or watered -down philosophy, and so the meaning of kapeleuo must include the idea of corruption or adulteration.

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But a deeper understanding of Plato from more context leads to the conclusion that Plato was not critiquing the sophists for corrupting their message, but instead for claiming to sell what they did not have.

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For Plato, sophistry was a sham and its teachers were entertainers.

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What they sold was worthless. Furthermore, a careful reading of Plato's treatment of this issue shows that to sell one's instruction implied that what one had to teach was valuable enough to warrant its purchase.

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To sell one's teaching was in effect to make a positive claim concerning the worth of one's message.

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Thus, we cannot take Plato's use of kapeleuo as support for the idea that it implied corruption.

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Rather, the context of Plato's writing strengthens the conclusion that the word refers to the simple act of selling, and possibly the connotation of pretending to sell something that one doesn't really have.

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Now in Hellenistic Judaism, 2nd century BC, we find the word kapelos used by Jesus ben

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Sirach in Sirach 26 -29. This is what it says, A merchant will scarcely be delivered from wrongdoing, and a retailer, kapelos, will not be innocent of sin.

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This teaching is undoubtedly related to what Sirach says later in the next chapter in 27 1 -3.

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Let me read that. Many have sinned on account of cash, and he who seeks to increase will avert an eye.

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Between joints of stones a peg will be driven, and between selling and buying sin will be wedged.

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If one does not hold fast in fear of the Lord, quickly, with speed, his house will be overthrown.

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So, notice that in Sirach 26 -29, merchant, the Greek word emporos, is parallel to retailer, kapelos.

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Now, the lexicon BDAG defines emporos as one who travels by ship for business reasons, merchant.

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So, although Sirach rightly believes that the pursuit of money can cause one to sin, his use of the word kapelos gives no reason to conclude that it also carries the inherent meaning of adulteration of goods.

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The fact that merchants have historically fostered a bad reputation for themselves through dishonest dealings does not mean that the work of a merchant is primarily the work of corrupting things.

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And if we examine the works of both Lucian and Philostratus, we will arrive at the same conclusions.

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To be inherently suspect of watering things down in a certain culture does not change the definition of words like merchant, retailer, or wine seller.

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Now as a quick aside, there are a lot of footnotes in this article that I won't be reading, so if you want the full references, you can go to the website and check those out.

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Another important piece of historical evidence comes from the use of the related noun form kapelos in Isaiah 1 .22.

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Your silver has no value. Your taverners mix the wine with water.

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Before going further, it should be emphasized that the Greek version differs significantly from the

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Hebrew, which does not mention taverners or drink sellers. That said, notice that these kapeloi are the people who sell wine, but we only find out what else they are doing to that wine later on in the

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Greek verse. In other words, the noun form kapeloi here only identifies the merchants and then tells us that they are also watering down the wine.

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Kapeloi does not refer to the act itself of adulterating wine. As Hafeman writes, "...there

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is no evidence that this word group ever directly signified the idea of watering down, adulterating, or falsifying, or that these ideas were ever present as part of the wider semantic field of the verb."

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So while it may be understood why interpreters might be led to venture too far and impose the meaning of adulterate onto kapeloi because of the immediate context of Isaiah 122, that reading is tenuous at best.

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Although Paul was certainly concerned with the adulteration of God's word, you can see 2

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Corinthians 4 for example, this verse does not address it. Now as we continue to look at the evidence, let's turn to the wider context of 2

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Corinthians. The phrase, "...in the sight of God we speak in Christ," reappears albeit in a different verbal form later in the same letter in 2

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Corinthians 12 19. What is the issue in the context of chapter 12?

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Well, Paul continues to refuse to financially burden the Corinthians, 2

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Corinthians 12 13 -18. Twice, Paul has appealed to his speech being in the sight of God in Christ, emphasizing the sincerity of his message and lack of ulterior motives.

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If the commercial interpretation of 2 Corinthians 2 17 is correct, both of these appeals have been in precisely the same financial context.

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Now let's turn to the issue of criticism of Paul for his financial policy. Paul is not disparaged for the content of his gospel, but rather for the free giving of it, as seen in 2

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Corinthians 11 7, where he says, "...did I commit a sin because I preached God's gospel to you free of charge?"

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He says that in the sight of God, he speaks in Christ. In other words, he asserts his impunity before man as long as he has pleased

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God. He is not on trial before the Corinthians, but rather stands before a heavenly court where his only aim is to please the

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Lord. This indicates that there is some offense he is responding to. If Capello refers to corruption, then the

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Corinthians have been offended by the content of his preaching, because they find his truthful message displeasing and prefer an adulterated one.

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However, the contents of the letter do not sufficiently account for this interpretation.

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Even if the false apostles had been tampering with God's word to offer something more attractive, at what point do we see evidence that the

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Corinthians despise Paul because of the contents of his gospel? If on the other hand,

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Capello refers to commercialization, then the Corinthians have been offended because they find a free message displeasing and prefer the quote -unquote dignity of teachers who charge a fee.

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Indeed, reading the rest of 2 Corinthians, we see that this is precisely what has offended them.

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See 2 Corinthians 11, 5 -7. The commercial interpretation of 2 Corinthians 2 .17

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acknowledges Paul's need to respond to a past offense with a defense of his apostleship.

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Now, let's turn to another important piece of evidence, which is the parallel passage of 1

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Thessalonians 2, 3 -5. Paul writes something remarkably similar in this passage.

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Although he doesn't present his concerns in the same sequence, this passage helps shed more light on 2

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Corinthians 2 .17 as the following comparison demonstrates. And here once again, we have a chart of comparison that's hard to read aloud, but that you can see on the website.

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So we'll go section by section. First I'll read the section in 2 Corinthians 2 .17,

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and then I will read the corresponding parallel section from 1 Thessalonians 2, 3 -5.

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So first, First, for we are not like so many capeleontes of God's word.

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For we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed.

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And then, But as men of sincerity, and then parallel to that, For our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive.

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And then the phrase, As commissioned by God, in 2 Corinthians, finds its parallel in 2

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Thessalonians as, But just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel,

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And then 2 Corinthians, In the sight of God we speak in Christ. And in 2

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Thessalonians, So we speak, not to please man, but to please

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God who tests our hearts. God is witness. So the key issue in 1

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Thessalonians 2 is greed. If the similarity of these passages indicates a shared concern, it is natural to conclude that 2

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Corinthians 2 .17 is addressing the commercialization of the gospel over the corruption of the gospel as the primary concern.

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Now moving on to the final piece of evidence that we want to look at, it's the objective nature of Paul's criticism.

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Paul's directness in this verse demonstrates that his opponents accept payment for their preaching and teaching.

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So we should ask, how is Paul able confidently to attribute such negative motives to these men while expecting his own claim of sincerity to be accepted?

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If the false apostles are misusing scripture in a particular way, then the matter is subjective, and Paul's accusation jumps too quickly to a verdict.

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But if the accusation has to do with selling God's word, then the issue is already out in the open and objective.

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His opponents have accepted payment, whereas Paul has refused. Now beyond the concern between commercialization and corruption, many translations choose to elaborate on the motive behind the action, as we already saw, of profit.

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Does kapileuo imply a desire to profit? Of course, there is a normative sense in which anyone who sells, or even corrupts for that matter, has a desire to profit.

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Few would deny this. In fact, it is exactly for this reason that any word used for the commercialization of scripture will naturally carry tacit suggestions of a profit motive.

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The word peddling, the common word among many translations, does this sufficiently.

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Why add additional words transforming undertones to overtones?

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Adding an explicit reference to profit restricts Paul's condemnation to the motive itself, failing to unambiguously condemn the specific action that is actually forbidden in the

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Greek text. For example, does Paul wish to distinguish himself from all who would sell

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God's word, or only to distinguish himself from those who would sell God's word for profit?

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Is it actually wrong to sell God's word, or is it only wrong when the one who is doing so doesn't have his heart in the right place?

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Of course, Paul clearly answers these questions later in the same epistle. He wishes to distinguish himself from all who would sell

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God's word. He preaches free of charge, and he will continue to do so to distinguish himself from those who don't.

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Would Paul have been satisfied with the commercial practices of his opponents if they had charged less?

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Of course not. Would he have been sufficiently distinguished from them if he had simply charged less than they did?

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Of course not. Only a free proclamation of the gospel distinguishes itself from one that is offered at a price.

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When modern translations add a quote -unquote for -profit clause, are they providing themselves and others with a loophole to escape

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Paul's condemnation? Are they justifying themselves as non -profit organizations by adding for -profit to Paul's words?

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Only God knows their hearts and intentions. So in conclusion, there is something delightfully simple with the rendering of capeleuo provided by the

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ISV, commercializing. There is no attempt to suggest any motive.

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There is no restriction of this verse to those with underhanded practices, as words like peddlers or hucksters might imply.

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There is only an acknowledgment of the meaning of the word and the actual nature of the sin to engage in a reciprocal exchange that trades the word of God for something in return.

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To quote a larger portion, we are not commercializing God's word like so many others.

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Paul distinguished himself from the false apostles of Corinth not merely by having a right heart as he sold the gospel, but by refusing to sell it at all.

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There are indeed so many others who sell the message of Christ. May the church of God follow in the apostles' footsteps, offering that message at no charge at all.

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After all, when he did this, Paul was merely imitating his master, Christ.