Margaret Thrall's Interpretation of 2 Corinthians 5:1-10

I have found Margaret Thrall's interpretation of 2 Corinthians 5:1-10 quite exemplary, from her commentary in the ICC (International Critical Commentary) series. The interpretation of the first few verses is a wonderful case study in the uncertainty of the original meaning and how naive it is to suggest that we can get our theology from the Bible alone. At the same time, I think Thrall, who used to teach in Bangor at the University of Wales, gives us a great example of trying to weigh the evidence objectively and dispassionately.

Her interpretation of these ten verses is 44 pages long, most of it on just the first verse, and I only want to catalog her treatment of a couple key words and phrases.

A. "If our earthly house of dwelling should be destroyed...
Here she catalogs three different interpretations for what this phrase connotes:

1. Paul refers to the material body as the dwelling-place of the soul.

2. This phrase refers to a human's total earthly existence.

3. There is an allusion here to temple symbolism.

She primarily goes with #1, with a possibility of some of #3: "Certainly Paul is not setting out to propound a strictly dualistic anthropology, but he has used dualistic language in 4.16, and whilst he does not desire freedom from corporeal existence as such, in v. 4 he seems to be saying that he finds his present bodily life burdensome" (361).

B. ... we have a domicile from God... an eternal house not made with hands in the heavens
After she concludes that Paul refers to death when he speaks of the destruction of our "earthly house of dwelling," she now turns to what this "house from God" might be. She catalogs nine different interpretations:

1. the individual resurrection body

2. a heavenly habitation (like a "mansion" in the misinterpretation of John)

3. an interim heavenly body between death and the resurrection

4. the inner person

5. the body of Christ in an ecclesiological sense

6. the heavenly temple

7. the resurrection body of Christ

8. the coming, future age

9. the heavenly dimension of our current existence

Thrall concludes the first option: "In itself it poses the fewest problems. This decision must, however, be seen as provisional, since we need also to consider how it would fit the remainder of the present verse and the section as a whole, and, in addition, to discuss the relationship between this understanding of 2 Cor. 5:1b and Paul's eschatological outlook in 1 Corinthians 15" (367-68).

C. "we have a domicile from God...
Next she discusses the present tense here, namely, the fact that "the natural way of understanding the time to which it refers is to suppose that it coincides with the time reference of καταλυθῇ: reception of the heavenly dwelling is immediately consequent upon the dissolution of the earthly house" (368). The problem with this interpretation is that in 1 Corinthians 15:23, "it is not at death that the resurrection body is bestowed but at the Parousia" (368).

She catalogs four suggested ways of resolving the problem:

1. Believers "have" the spiritual body already in the sense that it is already in the mind of God or in a closet in heaven (my wording).

2. This is proleptic language--something so certain in the future that we can say we already have it in the present.

3. The resurrection body will be received immediately after death.

4. There is no temporal connotation it is a statement of general truth.

Thrall concludes that 3 is the most natural reading, although she admits of the possibility of #4: "We may provisionally conclude that in 5.1 Paul may express his confidence that, should a believer die before the Parousia, he will at that moment come into possession of a permanent (αἰώνιον), spiritual (ἀχειροποίητον), and heavenly (ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς) form of existence. In view of the explicit contrast with the οἰκία τοῦ σκήνους, this must be seen as somatic existence, and hence as the σῶμα πνευματικόν" (370).

D. ... we will not be found naked.
Thrall mentions two basic possibilities for what Paul means here when he speaks of not wanting to be found naked but to be clothed.

1. "Naked" may refer to the soul stripped of its earthly body.

2. The image of nakedness may be used in a moral sense, as a metaphor of shame.

Because Thrall has found more likely in 5:1 the idea of being clothed with the resurrection body immediately at death, she goes with #2.

E. We are bold, wishing more to be away from our bodily home and at home with the Lord (5:8; by the way, these transations by the capital letters are mine rather than hers; the ICC comments on the Greek text, not on the English).

In the intervening verses, Thrall has argued that expressions like "taking off clothes" most likely refer to death (she goes through 5 options). So when she gets to this verse, she says, "Now, it would seem, he expresses a positive preference for departure from bodily existence and transition to the home with the Lord" (389).

Here is her conclusion: "We conclude, then, that it is, after all, death to which ἐκδημῆσαι ἐκ τοῦ σώματος refers. It is then natural to suppose that the ἐνδημῆσαι πρὸς τὸν κύριον follows immediately upon it. It is true that in 1 Th 4.17 it is at the Parousia that the believer goes to be with Christ, and that in 1 Cor 13.12 the vision 'face to face' ... belongs to the post-Parousia experience. But the present passage must first be interpreted in its own terms" (391).

She continues, "Also, it is not clear why Paul should express a preference for death followed by a period of 'sleep' for the spirit, which is the prospect envisaged in 1 Th 4.13 and 1 Cor 15.18. In Phil 1.23, moreover, departure from this life appears to be followed immediately by existence with Christ."

I am calling this the Thrall/Bruce interpretation of 2 Corinthians 5:1-10. It seems to imply that Paul underwent some transition in his thinking on this subject in the time between 1 and 2 Corinthians. In this scenario, Paul in 1 Thessalonians and 1 Corinthians saw the time between death and resurrection as a time of "sleep" waiting new embodiment at the time of Christ's return. But then in 2 Corinthians and then later in Philippians, Paul sees believers getting a resurrection body immediately at death (on 392 Thrall suggests maybe the transformation process now begins immediately at death and is radically accelerated by being in the Lord's presence).

Yesterday I looked at Romans 6-8 and didn't find anything that clearly contradicted this scenario, since in any case the resurrection body still awaits the parousia for those who are still alive. Only the dead would already have theirs, in this scenario.

In my opinion, however, some of Philippians is very hard to read on this scenario, on which I hope to post tomorrow.

P.S. Again, for those who do not have Logos software, can you see the Greek font above? Thanks Bob for following up. You don't have logos, right?