Passage

2 Corinthians 5.7

Book: 2 Corinthians · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

5. Now he that wrought us for this very thing is God, who gave unto us the earnest of the Spirit. 6. Being therefore always of good courage, and knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord

7. (for we walk by faith, not by sight);

we are of good courage, I say, and are willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be at home with the Lord. 9. Wherefore also we make it our aim, whether at home or absent, to be well-pleasing unto him. (2 Corinthians 5:5-9, ASV)

WEB

5. Now he who made us for this very thing is God, who also gave to us the down payment of the Spirit. 6. Therefore we are always confident and know that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord;

7. for we walk by faith, not by sight.

We are courageous, I say, and are willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be at home with the Lord. 9. Therefore also we make it our aim, whether at home or absent, to be well pleasing to him. (2 Corinthians 5:5-9, WEB)

KJV

5. Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. 6. Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:

7. (For we walk by faith, not by sight:)

We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. 9. Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. ^{labour: or, endeavour} (2 Corinthians 5:5-9, KJV)

YLT

5. And He who did work us to this self-same thing [is] God, who also did give to us the earnest of the Spirit; 6. having courage, then, at all times, and knowing that being at home in the body, we are away from home from the Lord,

7. for through faith we walk, not through sight

we have courage, and are well pleased rather to be away from the home of the body, and to be at home with the Lord. 9. Wherefore also we are ambitious, whether at home or away from home, to be well pleasing to him, (2 Corinthians 5:5-9, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: Paul
Audience: the Corinthian church, in the defense of his ministry
Location: written from Macedonia
Time period: c. AD 55 to 56, after the painful visit and the severe letter

Theological reading

Five words in Greek, and one of the most over-read verses in the New Testament. Dia pisteōs gar peripatoumen, ou dia eidous, "for we walk by faith, not by sight."

What the verse is actually contrasting. The context is not epistemology in general but the present bodily condition versus the future one. Verse 6 says that while at home in the body we are absent from the Lord; verse 8 says we prefer to be absent from the body and at home with the Lord. The verse sits between them. The contrast is between the current mode of relation to a Lord not presently visible, and the future mode when He is.

The noun eidos is worth noticing. It means form, appearance, or the outward look of a thing, and it can mean the act of seeing but more often the thing seen. So the sense is closer to "not by what is presently in view" than to "not by evidence."

Why the common use is a misreading. The verse is routinely quoted to mean that Christian faith proceeds without evidence, or that asking for reasons is a failure of faith. That reading collides with the same author. Six chapters earlier in the same correspondence Paul argues the resurrection from a list of named witnesses (1 Corinthians 15:5-8). In Acts he reasons in synagogues and quotes pagan poets at the Areopagus. He is not describing an epistemology that dispenses with grounds; he is describing a present condition in which the object of hope is not yet in view.

The distinction that keeps this straight. Faith in the New Testament is trust directed toward a person on the basis of grounds, not assent without grounds. What this verse says is unavailable now is sight of the Lord, which is the same thing 1 Corinthians 13:12 says is deferred and Revelation 22:4 says is promised. It does not say testimony, argument, or evidence is unavailable. See Faith is Belief Without Evidence Objection Defeater and Faith and Reason.

Apologetic use. The verse is genuinely useful for a different purpose than it is usually put to: it concedes, in Scripture's own voice, that the present situation is one of non-sight. That concession is honest and it belongs in any serious treatment of divine hiddenness. See Divine Hiddenness Objection Defeater.

Key words

pistis (G4102), faith, trust; see G4102 - pistis.
eidos (G1491), form, outward appearance, the thing seen; not the general faculty of perception.
peripateō (G4043), to walk; the standard biblical idiom for the conduct of a whole life.
G4102 - pistis, pistis, Strong's G4102

Cross-references

1 Corinthians 13:12, the same deferred sight
Revelation 22:4, the promised face
John 20:29, the blessing on believing without seeing
1 Corinthians 15:5-8, the same author arguing from witnesses
Faith is Belief Without Evidence Objection Defeater, the misreading this verse invites
Hebrews 11:27, endurance as seeing Him who is unseen

Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Concepts:

Eschatology, via 2 Corinthians 5.6-8
New Heavens and New Earth, via 2 Corinthians 5.6-8
Resurrection of the Body, via 2 Corinthians 5.1-10

Lexicon:

G5590 - psyche, via 2 Corinthians 5.1-10

Passages:

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.