Preface A commentary on only two chapters of one of the letters of the apostle Paul requires special justification. The chapters 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, however, have not been arbitrarily selected from a given body of text. These chapters constitute the hinge on which everything else concerning 2 Cirinthians turns, one way or the other. Anyone who wishes to tackle the fundamental problems of this letter must first come to terms with the hypothesis of Johann Salomo Semler, published in 1776. This hypothesis