2 Corinthians
Chapter 5
1 For we know that if our earthly dwelling, 1 a tent, should be destroyed, we have a building from God, a dwelling not made with hands, eternal in heaven.
因为我们知道：如果我们这地上帐棚式的寓所拆毁了，我们必由天主获得一所房舍，一所非人手所造，而永远在天上的寓所。
2 2 For in this tent we groan, longing to be further clothed with our heavenly habitation
诚然，我们在此叹息，因为我们切望套上那属天上的住所，
3 if indeed, when we have taken it off, 3 we shall not be found naked.
只要我们还穿著衣服，不是赤裸的。
4 For while we are in this tent we groan and are weighed down, because we do not wish to be unclothed 4 but to be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.
我们在这帐棚里的人，苦恼叹息，是由于我们不愿脱去衣服，而就套上另一层，为使这有死的为生命所吸收。
5 Now the one who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a first installment. 5
但那安排我们如此的，是天主，是他给我们赐下了圣神作抵押。
6 6 So we are always courageous, although we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord,
所以不论怎样，我们时常放心大胆，因为我们知道，我们几时住在这肉身内，就是与主远离──
7 for we walk by faith, not by sight.
因为我们现今只是凭信德往来，并非凭目睹──
8 Yet we are courageous, and we would rather leave the body and go home to the Lord.
我们放心大胆，是为更情愿出离肉身，与主同住。
9 Therefore, we aspire to please him, whether we are at home or away.
为此我们或住在或出离肉身，常专心以讨主的喜悦为光荣。
10 For we must all appear 7 before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive recompense, according to what he did in the body, whether good or evil.
因为我们众人都应出现在基督的审判台前，为使各人借他肉身所行的，或善或恶，领取相当的报应。
11 8 Therefore, since we know the fear of the Lord, we try to persuade others; but we are clearly apparent to God, and I hope we are also apparent to your consciousness.
我们既然知道主的可畏，遂尽力使人相信我们；我们在主前是显明的，我也盼望在你们的良心前也是显明的。
12 We are not commending ourselves to you again but giving you an opportunity to boast of us, so that you may have something to say to those who boast of external appearance rather than of the heart.
这并不是我们又向你们举荐自己，而是为给你们一个有为我们夸耀的机会，使你们有以对付那些只凭外貌，而不凭内心夸耀的人们，
13 For if we are out of our minds, 9 it is for God; if we are rational, it is for you.
因为如果说我们是发狂，那是为了天主；如果说我们是清醒，那是为了你们。
14 10 For the love of Christ impels us, once we have come to the conviction that one died for all; therefore, all have died.
因为基督的爱催迫着我们，因我们曾如此断定：既然一个人替众人死了；
15 He indeed died for all, so that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
那么众人就都死了；他替众人死，是为使活着的人不再为自己生活，而是为替他们死而复活了的那位生活。
16 Consequently, 11 from now on we regard no one according to the flesh; even if we once knew Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him so no longer.
所以我们从今以后，不再按人的看法认识谁了；纵使我们曾按人的看法认识过基督，但如今不再这样认识他了。
17 So whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come.
所以谁若在基督内，他就是一个新受造物，旧的已成过去，看，都成了新的。
18 12 And all this is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and given us the ministry of reconciliation,
这一切都是出于天主，他曾借基督使我们与他自己和好，并将这和好的职务赐给了我们：
19 namely, God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
这就是说：天主在基督内使世界与自己和好，不再追究他们的过犯，且将和好的话放在我们的口中。
20 So we are ambassadors for Christ, as if God were appealing through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
所以我们是代基督作大使了，好象是天主借着我们来劝勉世人。我们如今代基督请求你们：与天主和好罢！
21 13 For our sake he made him to be sin who did not know sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.
因为他曾使那不认识罪的，替我们成了罪，好叫我们在他内成为天主的正义。
Footnotes(注解)
1 [1] Our earthly dwelling: the same contrast is restated in the imagery of a dwelling. The language recalls Jesus' saying about the destruction of the temple and the construction of another building not made with hands (Mark 14:58), a prediction later applied to Jesus' own body (John 2:20).
2 [2-5] 2 Cor 5:2-3 and 4 are largely parallel in structure. We groan, longing: see the note on 2 Cor 5:5. Clothed with our heavenly habitation: Paul mixes his metaphors, adding the image of the garment to that of the building. Further clothed: the verb means strictly "to put one garment on over another." Paul may desire to put the resurrection body on over his mortal body, without dying; 2 Cor 5:2, 4 permit this meaning but do not impose it. Or perhaps he imagines the resurrection body as a garment put on over the Christ-garment first received in baptism (Gal 3:27) and preserved by moral behavior (Romans 13:12-14; Col 3:12; cf Matthew 22:11-13). Some support for this interpretation may be found in the context; cf the references to baptism (2 Cor 5:5), to judgment according to works (2 Cor 5:10), and to present renewal (2 Cor 4:16), an idea elsewhere combined with the image of "putting on" a new nature (Eph 4:22-24; Col 3:1-5, 9-10).
3 [3] When we have taken it off: the majority of witnesses read "when we have put it on," i.e., when we have been clothed (in the resurrection body), then we shall not be without a body (naked). This seems mere tautology, though some understand it to mean: whether we are "found" (by God at the judgment) clothed or naked depends upon whether we have preserved or lost our original investiture in Christ (cf the previous note). In this case to "put it on" does not refer to the resurrection body, but to keeping intact the Christ-garment of baptism. The translation follows the western reading (Codex Bezae, Tertullian), the sense of which is clear: to "take it off" is to shed our mortal body in death, after which we shall be clothed in the resurrection body and hence not "naked" (cf 1 Cor 15:51-53).
4 [4] We do not wish to be unclothed: a clear allusion to physical death (2 Cor 4:16; 5:1). Unlike the Greeks, who found dissolution of the body desirable (cf Socrates), Paul has a Jewish horror of it. He seems to be thinking of the "intermediate period," an interval between death and resurrection. Swallowed up by life: cf 1 Cor 15:54.
5 [5] God has created us for resurrected bodily life and already prepares us for it by the gift of the Spirit in baptism. The Spirit as a first installment: the striking parallel to 2 Cor 5:1-5 in Romans 8:17-30 describes Christians who have received the "firstfruits" (cf "first installment" here) of the Spirit as "groaning" (cf 2 Cor 5:2, 4 here) for the resurrection, the complete redemption of their bodies. In place of clothing and building, Romans 8 uses other images for the resurrection: adoption and conformity to the image of the Son.
6 [6-9] Tension between present and future is expressed by another spatial image, the metaphor of the country and its citizens. At present we are like citizens in exile or far away from home. The Lord is the distant homeland, believed in but unseen (2 Cor 5:7).
7 [10] We must all appear: the verb is ambiguous: we are scheduled to "appear" for judgment, at which we will be "revealed" as we are (cf 2 Cor 11; 2:14; 4:10-11).
8 [11-15] This paragraph is transitional. Paul sums up much that has gone before. Still playing on the term "appearance," he reasserts his transparency before God and the Corinthians, in contrast to the self-commendation, boasting, and preoccupation with externals that characterize some others (cf 2 Cor 1:12-14; 2:14; 3:1; 3:7-4:6). 2 Cor 5:14 recalls 2 Cor 3:7-4:6, and sums up 2 Cor 4:7-5:10.
9 [13] Out of our minds: this verse confirms that a concern for ecstasy and charismatic experience may lie behind the discussion about "glory" in 2 Cor 3:7-4:6. Paul also enjoys such experiences but, unlike others, does not make a public display of them or consider them ends in themselves. Rational: the Greek virtue sophrosyne, to which Paul alludes, implies reasonableness, moderation, good judgment, self-control.
10 [14-15] These verses echo 2 Cor 4:14 and resume the treatment of "life despite death" from 2 Cor 4:7-5:10.
11 [16-17] Consequently: the death of Christ described in 2 Cor 5:14-15 produces a whole new order (2 Cor 5:17) and a new mode of perception (2 Cor 5:16). According to the flesh: the natural mode of perception, characterized as "fleshly," is replaced by a mode of perception proper to the Spirit. Elsewhere Paul contrasts what Christ looks like according to the old criteria (weakness, powerlessness, folly, death) and according to the new (wisdom, power, life); cf 2 Cor 5:15.21; 1 Cor 1:17-3:3. Similarly, he describes the paradoxical nature of Christian existence, e.g., in 2 Cor 4:10-11, 14. A new creation: rabbis used this expression to describe the effect of the entrance of a proselyte or convert into Judaism or of the remission of sins on the Day of Atonement. The new order created in Christ is the new covenant (2 Cor 3:6).
12 [18-21] Paul attempts to explain the meaning of God's action by a variety of different categories; his attention keeps moving rapidly back and forth from God's act to his own ministry as well. Who has reconciled us to himself: i.e., he has brought all into oneness. Not counting their trespasses: the reconciliation is described as an act of justification (cf "righteousness," 2 Cor 5:21); this contrasts with the covenant that condemned (2 Cor 3:8). The ministry of reconciliation: Paul's role in the wider picture is described: entrusted with the message of reconciliation (2 Cor 5:19), he is Christ's ambassador, through whom God appeals (2 Cor 5:20a). In v 20b Paul acts in the capacity just described.
13 [21] This is a statement of God's purpose, expressed paradoxically in terms of sharing and exchange of attributes. As Christ became our righteousness (1 Cor 1:30), we become God's righteousness (cf 2 Cor 5:14-15).