The second Letter to the Corinthians was probably written
in the autumn of 56 A.D., the first Letter to them having been
sent in the spring of that year. But there are other letters of
which we have no clear account. One, lost to us, evidently
preceded the first Letter (1Co 5:9). In our "second" Letter we
find mention (2:2,4) of a severe communication which could not
but give pain. Can this have been our "first" to the Corinthians?
Some think not, in which case there must have been an
"intermediate" letter. This some students find in 2Co 10 1-8:1O.
If so, there must have been four letters. Some have thought that
in 2Co 6:14-7:1, and 8, 9, yet another is embedded, making
possibly five in all. The reader must form his own conclusions,
inasmuch as the evidence is almost entirely internal. On the
whole it would seem that our first Letter, conveyed by Titus, had
produced a good effect in the Corinthian Church, but that this
wore off, and that Titus returned to the Apostle in Ephesus with
such disquieting news that a visit of Paul just then to Corinth
would have been very embarrassing, alike for the Church and the
Apostle. Hence, instead of going, he writes a "painful" letter
and sends it by the same messenger, proceeding himself to Troas
and thence to Macedonia, where, in great tension of spirit, he
awaits the return of Titus. At last there comes a reassuring
account, the relief derived from which is so great that our
second Letter is written, with the double purpose of comforting
those who had been so sharply rebuked and of preventing the
recurrence of the evils which had called forth the remonstrance.
In this way both the tenderness and the severity of the present
Letter may be explained.