I begin again with II Corinthians 8. I noticed (surprise, surprise) that I had made no comments on chapters 8-11. I must have read through these chapters while very tired, The notes you are about to read are fresh, taken from no notebook.

II Corinthians 8:16 Titus moves from Macedonia to Corinth.

9:6-10 Verses that apply to sowing and reaping.

10:4-5 Paul speaks of the spiritual weapons of war, against not only spiritual powers (verse 4), but intellectual agruments (verse 5).

10:9-10 It seems that Paul was accused of talking big but acting small. Here, he argues against it, almost threatening.

11:3 It is possible to be led away by even good intentions.

11:3,4 "...receiving another spirit..." The Greek phrasology here is the same as when one recieves the Holy Spirit. The verse is addressed to Christians.

11:16 Satan comes as an angel of light.

12:2 It is likely that Paul himself is the one who had the vision. It is he that fears boastfulness, and is using a third-person perspective to stave off pride or, at least, the appearance of pride. Verse seven illustrates that the vision was his own.

12:7 Many have pondered Paul's thorn.

12:9 Paul quotes Christ, but from outside the Gospels.

12:12 Things that mark an apostle: Signs, wonders, and miracles.

13:14 Paul illustrates in a vague, uncemented way, his belief in the Trinity.

As a side note, my efforts here include a chart that I'm compiling, that shows which church fathers quote which verses and where. It should help in determining the original context for the verses. So far, I've included some of St. Athanasius' work, St. Augustine's City of God, all of St. Patrick's work, including a psuedo-Patrick from around 700.

Continue in GALATIANS.

Something that I've noticed is that Paul is continually shifting his people around. I never realized how many times he uses the phrase, "I am sending...to you." In II Timothy 4, we find Paul giving a list of people that have left: Demas, Crescens and Titus. I've always assumed that all three simply gave up, but I never noticed that only Demas was definitely a quitter. The other two may have been sent elsewhere. In Titus, we find that Titus has been made the elder of Crete, when previously, he was in Dalmatia, and Paul is requesting his presence in Nicopolis.

Tychicus and Onesimus are also frequent movers. I'm thinking about adding in an appendix of where the various followers went to.