Christ’s Wealth and Poverty (2 Cor 8:9) in Early Lutheran Writers

The use of “poor/rich” terminology in reference to Christ in 2 Corinthians 8:9 is not surprising. Paul is dealing with finances and this language fits quite naturally into the discussion. The only problem is that Paul does not explain what he means by “Christ was poor, even though he was rich.” Most exegetes interpret 2 Corinthians 8:9 in the light of Philippians 2:6–8. Hans-Dieter Betz sees this as a must. He writes: “The concepts of wealth and poverty found in 2 Corinthians 8:9 are metaphorical, and must be interpreted by analogy to Philippians 2:6–11 and similar passages.” (Betz, 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, 62. Emphasis added.)

It is well-known that Philippians 2 is seen as a passage that deals with the incarnation of the Son of God, even if the referent of the relative pronoun at the beginning of Philippians 2:6 is Christ Jesus (and not the pre-incarnate Son of God). Fair enough, Philippians 2 asserts the humanity of Christ. The main topic, though, is Christ’s humiliation (which can be seen as a model for the church; Christ’s incarnation would be hard to imitate.) As R. C. H. Lenski explains, Christ “entered this state [the state of humiliation] simultaneously with his incarnation, but the two should not be confused or made identical.” (Lenski, I and II Corinthians, 1138.)

Read through the lenses of Philippians, 2 Corinthians 8:9 is seen as teaching that “although as the asarkos logos he formerly abounded in the riches of a heavenly condition, by assuming human nature he entered into a state of (earthly) poverty,” as Thayer, in his lexicon, confidently paraphrases the text. The incarnational reading is found in some of the Church Fathers (Ambrosiaster and Chrysostom, for example). It tends to be confirmed by modern translations, which normally put the riches of Christ before his poverty. The ESV, for instance, says, “though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor.” In the Greek text, though, the concessive participial clause (“though he was rich”) comes after the reference to Christ’s poverty and is thrown in almost as an afterthought. My translation of 2 Corinthians 8:9 (in the forthcoming Concordia Commentary) goes as follows: “Now you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that for your sake he was extremely poor, though being rich, so that you, through his poverty, might become rich.”

The Lutheran reading of 2 Corinthians 8:9 (and of Philippians 2:6–8) is a “non-incarnational” reading. This is the theory, but what is the practice? I decided to check it out and I was not disappointed. I examined two early Lutheran interpreters: Matthias Flacius Illyricus and Tilemann Heshusius.

Flacius has a short paragraph in his Glossa Compendiaria, published in 1570: “Christ became poor, while he miraculously lowered himself from the form of God into the form of a servant, and from the most just by imputation he became the most unjust, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.” In Flacius, the language of “form of God” and “form of a servant” evokes Philippians 2. The last part of the quote is an echo of 2 Corinthians 5:21. Yet, there is no direct reference to the incarnation.

Tilemann Heshusius, in his Latin commentary on 2 Corinthians (published in 1580), has a longer (and beautiful!) treatment of 2 Corinthians 8:9:

Our Lord Jesus Christ was the richest of all. Since he was in the form of God, all things were subject under his feet. The Father gave all things into the hand of the Son. The heavens and the earth are his. He himself founded the world and all that is in it. (Psalm 89) And yet he lowered himself into poverty for the sake of our salvation, so that he not only had no place to lay his head, but also became cursed for us on the cross and like a worm. (Psalm 22) But from this we are enriched. Because of the obedience of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who took the form of a servant and suffered death in our place, God not only gave us life, justice, the Holy Spirit, peace, but also heaven. He made us children of God, heirs of the world, co-heirs with Christ, to whom God subjected all things in heaven and on earth. The riches of the whole world belong to the believer, all things belong to the Church: heaven and earth and all that is in them. Since, then, Christ has earned and given so much wealth to us through his poverty, it is fitting that we should embrace our brothers with sincere charity, show that we are children of God, and contribute as much as we can to help those in need. Thus we demonstrate our faith and imitate the example of Christ’s love. Note the rich intertextuality at work here. And Christ’s poverty is his becoming a curse for us. The language of incarnation is conspicuous by its absence.