2 Corinthians 13:1

2 Corinthians 13:1. This is the third time I am coming to you. It is surprising that in face of so explicit a statement, repeated at 2 Corinthians 13:2, and of the one at 2 Corinthians 12:14, Paley (Hor. Paul. iv. 11) and other excellent critics should maintain that the apostle paid only two visits to Corinth, It is true that we have no record of an intermediate visit between the first and the third, but that is no reason for distorting the natural sense of the apostle's own statement that he did pay two visits before this one.

At the mouth (on the testimony) of two witnesses or three shall every word be established. A judicial investigation of every charge, in such cases as referred to in 2 Corinthians 12:20-21, was to be held under his superintendence. The Jewish law in judicial cases was very strict, requiring at least two witnesses for the condemnation of any one (Numbers 35:30; Deuteronomy 17:6; Deuteronomy 19:15). Our Lord directed the same rule to be observed in the exercise of church discipline; and here the apostle intimates his resolution to proceed on this principle at Corinth.