2 Corinthians 13:1 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

This is the third time I am coming to you Or, as some understand it, am preparing to come: see on 2 Corinthians 12:14. For in the Acts of the Apostles no mention is made of his being at Corinth more than once before this second epistle was written. It must be observed, however, that that history by no means contains all the apostle's transactions: and it is not improbable that, as Macknight supposes, during the eighteen months which passed from St. Paul's first coming to Corinth, to the insurrection in the proconsulship of Gallio, the apostle left Corinth for a while, and travelled through Laconia, Arcadia, and the other countries of the province of Achaia, where he converted many, (2 Corinthians 1:1,) having preached the gospel to them gratis, as at Corinth, (2 Corinthians 11:10,) and founded several churches, referred to 2 Corinthians 9:2, and called Achaia, that is, churches of Achaia. If therefore the apostle made the excursion here supposed, and spent some months in it, his return to Corinth would be his second visit; consequently, the coming spoken of in this verse was his coming the third time to them. In the mouth of two or three witnesses Agreeing in the attestation of any thing; shall every word be established I will hold that to be true which shall be so proved.