Passage

2 Corinthians 9.13

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV (ASV)

"11. ye being enriched in everything unto all liberality, which worketh through us thanksgiving to God. 12. For the ministration of this service not only filleth up the measure of the wants of the saints, but aboundeth also through many thanksgivings unto God;"

"13. seeing that through the proving of you by this ministration they glorify God for the obedience of your confession unto the gospel of Christ, and for the liberality of your contribution unto them and unto all;"

"14. while they themselves also, with supplication on your behalf, long after you by reason of the exceeding grace of God in you. 15. Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift." (2 Corinthians 9:11-15, ASV)

WEB (WEB)

"11. you being enriched in everything to all liberality, which produces through us thanksgiving to God. 12. For this service of giving that you perform not only makes up for lack among the saints, but abounds also through many givings of thanks to God;"

"13. seeing that through the proof given by this service, they glorify God for the obedience of your confession to the Good News of Christ, and for the liberality of your contribution to them and to all;"

"14. while they themselves also, with supplication on your behalf, yearn for you by reason of the exceeding grace of God in you. 15. Now thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift!" (2 Corinthians 9:11-15, WEB)

KJV (KJV)

"11. Being enriched in every thing to all bountifulness, which causeth through us thanksgiving to God. ^{bountifulness: or, liberality: Gr. simplicity} 12. For the administration of this service not only supplieth the want of the saints, but is abundant also by many thanksgivings unto God;"

"13. Whiles by the experiment of this ministration they glorify God for your professed subjection unto the gospel of Christ, and for your liberal distribution unto them, and unto all men;"

"14. And by their prayer for you, which long after you for the exceeding grace of God in you. 15. Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift." (2 Corinthians 9:11-15, KJV)

YLT (YLT)

"11. in every thing being enriched to all liberality, which doth work through us thanksgiving to God, 12. because the ministration of this service not only is supplying the wants of the saints, but is also abounding through many thanksgivings to God,"

"13. through the proof of this ministration glorifying God for the subjection of your confession to the good news of the Christ, and [for] the liberality of the fellowship to them and to all,"

"14. and by their supplication in your behalf, longing after you because of the exceeding grace of God upon you; 15. thanks also to God for His unspeakable gift!" (2 Corinthians 9:11-15, YLT)

Setting

Speaker: Paul (with Timothy, per 1:1)
Audience: the Corinthian church
Location: Paul writing from Macedonia (likely Philippi) c. AD 55-56
Time period: composed c. AD 55-56, between 1 Corinthians and Paul's third visit to Corinth
Narrative context: the climax of Paul's appeal for the Corinthians' participation in the Jerusalem collection (2 Cor 8-9), one of the great practical-applications of the gospel to inter-church economic-solidarity in the Pauline corpus. The Corinthians' generosity will prove (dokimē) the genuineness of their gospel-profession before the Jerusalem-saints, producing thanksgiving to God and confirming the unity of Pauline-Gentile and Jerusalem-Jewish Christianity.

Theological reading

2 Corinthians 9:13 is Paul's only deployment of homologia in the Corinthian correspondence and one of only six NT uses of the noun. The phrase "the obedience of your confession unto the gospel of Christ" (tēi hypotagēi tēs homologias hymōn eis to euaggelion tou Christou) is doing distinctive work: the confession is of the gospel, and the obedience (hypotagē) is of the confession. The grammar yields the structure: gospel → confession of the gospel → obedience of the confession. The Corinthians' generosity is not merely-incidental Christian charity; it is the visible obedience (hypotagē, submission, subordination) that the homologia of the gospel produces when the confession is real. The verse is theologically dense because it establishes that homologia is not merely-verbal but performative: a confession that does not issue in obedience to its content is not the NT homologia. James 2 makes the parallel argument about pistis (faith without works is dead); Paul here makes the parallel argument about homologia: confession that does not yield obedience to the gospel is not the confession the NT names. The verse also establishes the inter-church dimension of homologia: the Jerusalem-saints will "glorify God" (doxazontes ton Theon) for the Corinthians' confession-and-obedience, making the gift a catholic (whole-church) event of mutual-recognition across the Jewish-Gentile divide. The verse is foundational for the Pauline doctrine that authentic gospel-confession produces tangible-economic-solidarity within the body of Christ.

Key words

G3669 - homologia, homologia (Strong's G3669), your confession unto the gospel of Christ; the only Pauline use of the noun (the verbal homologeō recurs across the Pauline corpus).

Quoted in

G3669 - homologia

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.