The Adversary and Its
Attending Servants and Dispensers
Comments on 2 Cor. 11:13-15
By Jonathan Mitchell
13. For such folks [are] false emissaries (pseudo-representatives) - fraudulent and deceitful workers - constantly changing their outward fashion and transforming themselves into emissaries of Christ (representatives of [the] Anointed One).
Here, he plainly categorizes such folks. They do not truly represent Christ, and they are
"fraudulent and deceitful workers."
Rather than BEING transformed by beholding Christ's glory (3:18, above) or by having their minds renewed (Rom. 12:2), these folks are
"transforming themselves" by "constantly changing their outward fashion."
Instead of imitating Christ, they became imitation emissaries. Jesus told his disciples,
"You yourselves did not choose Me, but to the contrary I, Myself, selected and picked out (or: chose) you folks and placed (or: set) you, to the end that you would (or: can; may) progressively lead and bring [situations] under control (or: humbly go your way) and would (or: can; should) be constantly bearing (bringing forth) fruit ..." (Jn. 15:16a).
Such folks, as Paul here describes, have chosen themselves and transformed themselves into a role that they have assumed. This is a word of caution, for everyone. Someone once said, "God has no volunteers." No, like with Paul, God apprehends us.
Paul addressed a similar situation in Gal. 2:4,
"Yet, through the led-in-at-the-side (or: smuggled-in) false brothers (or: = deceitful or lying fellow believers; or: = imitation members) - folks who entered alongside to spy out (to attentively look down and around, observe and take note of) our freedom which we continuously possess (constantly have and hold) within Christ Jesus, to the end that they will utterly enslave us (or: with a purpose that they shall proceed to bring us down into slavery)."
14. And no wonder ([it is] no marvel or cause for astonishment), for the adversary (opponent; satan) itself is repeatedly changing its form and outward fashion (transforming itself) into a messenger (person with a message) of light (or, as a passive: is from time to time being transformed and changed in its outward expression into an agent from, or that is, [the] Light).
Witherington (ibid p 449) suggests that Paul may be drawing on current Jewish literature in this rhetorical polemic against his opponents (who were obviously Jewish, as vs. 22, below, affirms) in the Corinthian community. In footnote 36 he cites Life of Adam and Eve, which is considered to date to the first Century AD. Its form is Midrashic and seems to represent Rabbinic traditions, but it exists now only in Greek and Latin MSS. Keep in mind that Paul also drew on Greek poets (e.g. Acts 17:28) to make his points. In 9:1 of this Jewish volume, we read:
"Then Satan was angry and transformed himself into the brightness of angels and went away to the Tigris River to Eve and found her weeping" (trans. by M.D. Johnson, The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, Vol.2, Hendrickson Pub. 2013 p 260).
If, in fact, Paul was alluding to this text, it does not mean that he was endorsing it as an ontological reality. Johnson instructs us that "it was familiar to early Christians" (ibid p 251), but we do not know what they thought of it. If it was considered to be a Jewish myth, then Paul may have used this imagery to further picture these "super-representatives" as false, fraudulent and deceptive - as were these fanciful tales. He gives this picture, to illustrate his point, without any explanation. In Titus 1:14 he gave this advice:
"not habitually holding to (having [a propensity] toward; heeding and clinging in the direction toward) Jewish myths (or: fictions; or, possibly: oral traditions) and to implanted goals (impartations of a finished product within; inward directives; commands) whose source and origin is people (or: human commandments) [thus] continually being twisted and turned away from the Truth (or: reality)." Cf 1 Tim. 1:4, 4:7; 2 Tim/ 4:4; 2 Pet. 1:16
So here arises a question: to whom or to what is Paul referring by this term "the adversary (opponent; satan)"? Paul designates the "false representatives" as being "its attending servants and dispensers," in the next verse. In vs. 19, below, he labels them as "senseless (foolish; idiotic; imprudent) people."
So is the "adversary" the fleshly wisdom of the first Adam? Or, is it the worm-infested "manna" (teaching; doctrines; the leaven of the Pharisees) from the past day of the old covenant
(e.g., "You have heard that is has been said... But I say unto you..." -- Mat. 5:38-39)?
Have not Paul's "opponents" been those who would bring the worn-out Law (Heb. 8:13) into the new creation with its new arrangement? Is it "the Sin," as Paul personified it in Rom. 7:8-20, or "the law of the Sin," and "the body of this Death," in Rom. 7:23-24? Is it
"the result of the thinking (mind-set; effect of the way of thinking; disposition; result of understanding and inclination; the minding; the opinion; the thought; the outlook) of the FLESH (= from the human condition or the System of culture and cultus; or: = Torah keeping) [is; brings] death.... [or] the result of the THINKING (disposition; thought processes; mind-set, outlook) of the FLESH (= attention to Torah boundary-markers, custom and cultus; or: = from the human condition) [is; brings] ENMITY, alienation and discord [streaming] into God (or: HOSTILITY unto, or active hatred with a view to, God)"? (Rom. 8:6a, 7a)
Duncan Heaster suggests:
"The individual Satan' in the singular referred to in vs. 14, can either be the Jewish system as a whole trying to give a Christian facade (an angel of light, i.e. a minister of Christ, the true light), or an individual leader of the Jewish system.... It needs to be recognized that Paul's writings very often allude to extant Jewish and Gentile literature, sometimes quoting verbatim from them, in order to correct popular ideas. Thus Paul quotes Aratus (Acts 17:28), Menander (1 Corinthians 15:33) and Epimenides (Titus 1:12) - he uses odd phrases out of these uninspired writings by way of illustration... much of the Biblical literature does this kind of thing" (The Real Devil, A Biblical Exploration).
Next, we must ask: how does this adversary
"repeatedly change its form and outward fashion (transform itself) into a messenger (person with a message) of light"?
To what is Paul referring, here? Is Paul reaching back to the Garden story (he cited Eve, in vs. 3) and does he thus have the "serpent" in mind, here?
The sphere of "transformation" is seen elsewhere in the Scriptures. If we recall correctly, it is always people that are being transformed, or who, in their deluded thinking, transform themselves. Observe that in vss. 13 and 15 Paul is referring to people "transforming themselves." In both cases, this is not a reality, but a deception. O'Rourke informs us:
"No OT text describes the devil under this guise, nor has any other explicit parallel of the description yet been found" (ibid p 288).
Paul may have in mind the Judean leadership, who would have been regarded by the masses as a repository of knowledge (light). They were indeed, corporately, "the adversary" of Christ. Cf 1 Cor. 3:17-21
Observe that this verse is set between vs. 13, where he describe the false representatives as "false emissaries (pseudo-representatives) - fraudulent and deceitful workers," and vs. 15 where they
"change their form and outward fashion as though [being] (or: are habitually transforming or transfiguring themselves [to be] like) attending servants of eschatological deliverance, justice and equity."
Paul is speaking about people who came in proclaiming a different Jesus, a different spirit and a different message of goodness (2 Cor. 11:4).
Notice, in the parenthetical expansion, that the present participle can also function as a "passive" voice, which means that the action is happening to the adversary, not by the adversary. We find another example of this in the apocalyptic (symbolic) vision in Rev. 20:1-7, where one of God's agents first chains and shuts up the adversary in the abyss, and then later (vs. 7) releases it so that it can deceive the nations in the four quarters of the Land (vs. 8). Both there, in the vision, and here, in Paul, we suggest that where we find the passive voice, it means that God is behind the action (as with Job 1 and 2).
Next, observe that the word Light is capitalized. My reason for doing this is that God can transform an adversary into an agent/messenger from the Light. Paul is a classic example of this. On the road to Damascus, before the Light of Jesus shined on him, he was an adversary of Christ (kicking at the goads). The Light, and the Voice, transformed him to be a sent-forth agent of the Light (Christ).
15. Therefore, [it is] no great thing if its attending servants and dispensers also repeatedly change their form and outward fashion, as though [being] (or: are habitually transforming or transfiguring themselves [to be] like) attending servants of eschatological deliverance, justice and equity (dispensers of the rightwised way pointed out; = ministers of the new covenant) - whose finish (or: end in view; finished product; attained goal; consummation; accomplished end) will proceed in being in accord with, along the line of, to the level of and corresponding to their works and actions (or: = their outcome will constantly be what they reap from their deeds).
An important thing to notice in the first clause is that these folks are not coming in the guise of satanism, or humanism, or of some other religion: they fashion themselves to be
"like attending servants of eschatological deliverance, justice and equity (dispensers of the rightwised way pointed out; = ministers of the new covenant)."
But they are representatives of "another Jesus" and "a different gospel." A counterfeit is crafted to look just like the real which it is trying to pass itself off as being. The Judaizers were doing exactly that, but they were children that were still in bondage (Gal. 4:25) which Paul compared to the then-present Jerusalem - the representative of the old covenant, in the form of Second Temple Judaism. Such folks were describe by Paul in Gal. 5:
3. Now I continue solemnly asserting (attesting; affirming; witnessing), again, to every person (or: human) proceeding to be circumcised, that he is, and continues being, a debtor (one under obligation) to do (to perform; to produce) the whole Law [= the entire Torah]!
4. You people who in union with (or: centered in; [remaining] within) Law continue being "liberated, rightwised and placed in covenant," were at once discharged (made inactive, idle, useless, unproductive and without effect; or: voided, nullified, exempted) away from Christ (or: [the] Anointing) - you folks fell out from the grace (or: fall from the midst of the favor)!
Sadly, the history of the majority of institutionalized Christianity shows that they did not heed Paul's words, here in Gal. 5.
Yet, let us consider Paul's rhetoric, here. In vs. 13, above, he termed them as being
"false emissaries (pseudo-representatives) - fraudulent and deceitful workers."
They were frauds. They only "changed their outward fashion" in order to
"transform themselves into emissaries of Christ" (vs. 13).
Only God can transform a person; He alone is "the One transforming [a person] to be completely other [than he or she was]" (2 Cor. 5:18). He alone is:
"the One bringing us into another place or state of being, changing us to correspond with other [perceptions and conceptions], altering us to be conformed to another [person], and changing us from enmity to friendship) in Himself (or: with Himself; by Himself; to Himself; for Himself), through Christ."
So their "change their form and outward fashion (habitually transforming or transfiguring themselves) as though [being] attending servants of justice and rightwised living" is a sham.
Dan Kaplan astutely points us to verses that elsewhere describe such folks as Paul has encountered: In Mat. 7:
15. "Constantly apply yourselves to holding off the false prophets - whatsoever ones that are habitually coming to you folks in clothing belonging to sheep (= disguised as sheep; pretending to have the covering or appearance of sheep), yet inside they are ravenous, savage wolves.
16. "You will come to be recognizing and fully knowing them from their fruits. People are not normally picking or gathering clusters of grapes from thorn bushes (prickly plants), nor ripe figs from thistles or briers.
In Acts 20:
29. "Now I myself have seen and am aware that, after (or: with) my spreading forth as dust and ashes (= going away, so as to be out of reach), heavy (burdensome and oppressive; fierce; vicious) wolves will enter into the midst of you folks - folks by habit not sparing (or: treating with tenderness or forbearance) the little flock,
30. "and men from among you yourselves (= from your own community) will of themselves proceed standing up, repeatedly speaking things having been thoroughly turned and twisted (things that are distorted and not straight), to progressively drag (or: draw; [D & p41 read: turn]) away the disciples behind (thus: after) themselves.
In 2 Pet. 2:1,
Eccl. 3:18
"It is on account of the sons of humanity that God minded to prove and manifest them - and that they might see that they were beasts, of themselves." Cf Ezk. 22:27-28; Zeph. 3:3-5
We suggest that the pronouncement
"whose finish (or: end in view; finished product; attained goal; consummation; accomplished end) will proceed in being in accord with, along the line of, to the level of and corresponding to their works and actions"
is basically a restatement of 1 Cor. 3:15-17, where the work of these folks will not survive God's Fire (i.e., His manifest presence as a Purifier of priests - Mal. 3:2-3), but Whose Fire will, in fact, cleanse and deliver them. Cf 5:10, above, where we all must be manifested so as to receive His decisions regarding our performances. Paul made reference to such folks (as describe here, in vs. 15) in Phil. 3:18-19,
"For you see - I was often telling you about them, yet now I am also presently weeping (lamenting) in saying it - many continue walking about (i.e., are living their lives) as enemies of the cross of the Christ, [Rev. 3:9] whose goal (eventual end; closing act; final stage; result; finished discharge) [is] ruin and loss (or: waste and destruction), whose god [is their] cavity (or: belly) and [whose] reputation (or: glory; opinion) resides within their shame (disgrace; embarrassment) - people continually thinking about (habitually being intent on; constantly minding) the things existing upon the earth (or: upon the Land; or: = folks whose minds are earthbound)." [Rom. 8:6-8; Hos. 4:7; 7:13]
We also have Paul referring to a specific person in 2 Tim. 4:14,
"Alexander the coppersmith (or: metalworker) displayed many bad (worthless; evil) things [in his behavior] to me - the Lord [= Yahweh or Christ] will continue awarding to him (or: giving back in him; paying back for him) corresponding to his works (down from his deeds and on the level of his actions)."
All corrective decisions will correspond to the worthless behavior that was done. In Rev. 20:13, we have the apocalyptic vision of a "judgment," and we see that:
"And they are judged (evaluated) according to their works (in correspondence with their actions; in line with their deeds)."
Judgment is not based upon who a person is or upon what they believe, but rather "along the line of, to the level of and corresponding to their works and actions." This is how we discipline our own children. But all judgment and discipline from God is done in accordance to His Being and character: with grace and mercy, and to redirect a person's behavior toward the Way pointed out.
Jonathan
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