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Our hope for you is firm, for we know that as you share in the sufferings, you also share in the encouragement.[a]

We do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction that came to us in the province of Asia;[b] we were utterly weighed down beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life.(A) Indeed, we had accepted within ourselves the sentence of death,[c] that we might trust not in ourselves but in God who raises the dead.(B)

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Footnotes

  1. 1:7 You also share in the encouragement: the eschatological reversal of affliction and encouragement that Christians expect (cf. Mt 5:4; Lk 6:24) permits some present experience of reversal in the Corinthians’ case, as in Paul’s.
  2. 1:8 Asia: a Roman province in western Asia Minor, the capital of which was Ephesus.
  3. 1:9–10 The sentence of death: it is unclear whether Paul is alluding to a physical illness or to an external threat to life. The result of the situation was to produce an attitude of faith in God alone. God who raises the dead: rescue is the constant pattern of God’s activity; his final act of encouragement is the resurrection.

And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings,(A) so also you share in our comfort.

We do not want you to be uninformed,(B) brothers and sisters,[a] about the troubles we experienced(C) in the province of Asia.(D) We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God,(E) who raises the dead.(F)

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Footnotes

  1. 2 Corinthians 1:8 The Greek word for brothers and sisters (adelphoi) refers here to believers, both men and women, as part of God’s family; also in 8:1; 13:11.