For you know the generous act of our Lord
Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so
that by his poverty you might become rich. (2 Cor 8:9 NRSV)
Commenting
on this important Christological passage, Victor Paul Furnish wrote the
following:
It seems to be based on the kind of christological
affirmation present in the creedal fragment of 1 Tim 3:16 and in the hymn of
Phil 2:6-11. All three texts presume that Christ enjoyed of this doctrine see
Schweizer 1960:101-3, and 1959, especially 67-68). Thus, according to the hymn
of Phil 2, Christ divested himself of the outward signs of his deity as he
assumed human form and gave himself up to death (vv. 6-8; cf. Rom 15:3).
Similarly, in the present verse Paul characterizes the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ (a phrase familiar from the
Christian liturgy . . . ) as his divesting himself of riches become poor. There can be no question here of a
reference to the literal poverty of the historical Jesus (correctly, e.g.,
Craddock 1969:164-65; Seidensticker 1977:95; against Buchanan 1964, who—contrary
to his own intention—succeeds in showing only how futile it is to argue for a
literal interpretation). Paul is not speaking about the manner of Jesus’
earthly life, but about his incarnation and death as an act of grace. (Victor Paul Furnish, II Corinthians: A New Translation With
Introduction and Commentary [AB 39A; 2d ed.; New York: Doubleday, 1984], 417)
A very sound
exegesis of this passage was presented by Latter-day Saint apologist D. Charles
Pyle in his recent book, I Have Said Ye are Gods: Concepts Conducive to the Early Christian Doctrine of Deification in Patristic Literature and the Underlying Strata of the Greek New Testament (Revised and Supplemented) (CreateSpace, 2018) (see my post: Deification/Christification in 2 Corinthians 8:9).
