Skip to the text

2 Corinthians · World English Bible (Classic, with Deuterocanon)

2 Corinthians 4 World English Bible (Classic, with Deuterocanon)

Leer en español
About WEB
  • Protestant
  • OT: Masoretic Hebrew
  • NT: Majority (Byzantine) text
  • All books (ecumenical)
  • Formal (word for word)
  • 2020
  • Public domain

Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings

Notes on this text (1)

1 Therefore, seeing we have this ministry, even as we obtained mercy, we don’t faint. 2 But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by the manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. 3 Even if our Good News is veiled, it is veiled in those who are dying, 4 in whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the Good News of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not dawn on them. 5 For we don’t preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake, 6 seeing it is God who said, “Light will shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 7 But we have this treasure in clay vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God and not from ourselves. 8 We are pressed on every side, yet not crushed; perplexed, yet not to despair; 9 pursued, yet not forsaken; struck down, yet not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the putting to death of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11 For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus may be revealed in our mortal flesh. 12 So then death works in us, but life in you. 13 But having the same spirit of faith, according to that which is written, “I believed, and therefore I spoke.” We also believe, and therefore we also speak, 14 knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also through Jesus, and will present us with you. 15 For all things are for your sakes, that the grace, being multiplied through the many, may cause the thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God. 16 Therefore we don’t faint, but though our outward person is decaying, yet our inward person is renewed day by day. 17 For our light affliction, which is for the moment, works for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory, 18 while we don’t look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Cross references (18)

Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.

  1. 1 2 Thessalonians 3:13; Galatians 6:9; Ephesians 3:13; Revelation 2:3; Philippians 4:13
  2. 2 2 Corinthians 2:17; 1 Thessalonians 2:3–5; 2 Corinthians 5:11; 2 Corinthians 11:13–15; 1 Corinthians 4:5
  3. 3 1 Corinthians 1:18; 2 Corinthians 3:14; 2 Thessalonians 2:9–11; 2 Corinthians 2:15–16; Matthew 11:25
  4. 4 John 12:40; 2 Corinthians 3:14; Acts 26:18; Isaiah 6:10; 1 John 5:19
  5. 5 1 Thessalonians 2:5–6; 2 Corinthians 1:24; 1 Corinthians 1:23; Galatians 5:13; 2 Corinthians 5:14–15
  6. 6 Isaiah 60:2; Genesis 1:3; 1 Peter 2:9; 2 Peter 1:19; Ephesians 5:8
  7. 7 2 Corinthians 3:5–6; 2 Corinthians 5:1; Ephesians 2:8–9; 1 Corinthians 1:28; Colossians 2:3
  8. 8 James 1:2–4; Romans 8:35–37; 1 Peter 4:12–14; 2 Corinthians 12:10; Psalm 56:2–3
  9. 9 Isaiah 43:2; Micah 7:8; Psalm 37:24–25; Proverbs 24:16; Psalm 42:11
  10. 10 Romans 6:5; 2 Timothy 2:11; 1 Peter 4:13; Romans 6:8; Philippians 3:10–11
  11. 11 1 Corinthians 15:49; 1 Corinthians 15:53–54; Psalm 44:22; Romans 8:36; 1 Corinthians 15:31
  12. 12 2 Corinthians 13:9; 1 Corinthians 4:10; 1 John 3:16; Acts 20:24; Philippians 2:17
  13. 13 Psalm 116:10; Hebrews 11:1–40; 2 Corinthians 3:12; Proverbs 21:28; 1 Corinthians 12:9
  14. 14 Romans 8:11; 1 Thessalonians 4:14; 1 Corinthians 6:14; John 11:25–26; Jude 24
  15. 15 Romans 8:28; Ephesians 3:20–21; 2 Corinthians 9:11–12; Psalm 50:23; 2 Corinthians 1:11
  16. 16 Isaiah 40:31; Colossians 3:10; Isaiah 40:29; Romans 12:2; Psalm 73:26
  17. 17 Romans 8:18; 1 Peter 5:10; Romans 5:3–5; James 1:12; Hebrews 12:10–11
  18. 18 2 Corinthians 5:7; Romans 8:24–25; Hebrews 11:1; 1 John 2:16–17; 1 John 2:25

Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences

Articles and answers on this site that cite 2 Corinthians 4.

What the Fathers said

Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).

How these were chosen

“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).

  1. Commentary 4:1 John Chrysostom, Homilies on Second Corinthians (Homily VIII)

    Seeing he had uttered great things and had set himself and all the faithful before Moses, aware of the height and greatness of what he had said, observe how he moderates his tone again.

    Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 12 (1889)

  2. Quotes verse 4:4 Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies (Book III, Chapter VII)

    As to their affirming that Paul said plainly in the Second [Epistle] to the Corinthians, "In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not," and maintaining that there is indeed one god of this world, but another who is beyond all principality, and beginning, and power, we are not to blame if they, …

    Read in context · Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1 (1885)

  3. Quotes verse 4:16 Augustine of Hippo, The City of God (Book XIII, Chapters 21–23)

    … contrary, it so thoroughly adopts it, that even while a man is alive, and body and soul are united, it calls each of them singly by the name "man," speaking of the soul as the "inward man," and of the body as the "outward man," as if there were two men, though both together are indeed but one.

    Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 2 (1887)

  4. Quotes verse 4:17 John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew (Homily XVI)

    Hear, for instance, how of those passions Paul is ashamed, even after his deliverance from them, saying, "For what fruit had ye then in those things, whereof ye are now ashamed?" But virtue, even after his labor, he affirms to be light, calling the laboriousness of our affliction momentary and "light," and rejoicing in his sufferings, and glorying in his …

    Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 10 (1888)

  5. Quotes verse 4:4 Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures (Lecture VI)

    For it is Paul who saith, In whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest the light of the Gospel should shine unto them." But Archelaus made a good retort, saying, "Read a little before: But if our Gospel is veiled, it is veiled in them that are perishing.

    Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 7 (1894)