The trip to Judea mentioned here is the same trip referred to in 1 Cor 16.1-4, during which the money for the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem was to have been delivered. Corinth was south of the province of Macedonia, whose capital city was Thessalonica. Paul had planned to go to Corinth first, then north to Macedonia, and then back to Corinth, before sailing east for Judea.

The Greek verb translated as send … on in Revised Standard Version often has the additional meaning of helping someone on the journey with food, money, by arranging for travel companions and supplies (see also Rom 15.24, “to be sped on”). Since that meaning seems probable here, Good News Translation says “in order to get help from you.” In some languages it may be a good idea to make this a separate sentence: “In that way you could have helped me on my journey on to Judea.”

Translators should be careful to distinguish the spelling of Judea and Judah. “Judah” is usually an Old Testament term referring to the kingdom in the southern part of the Holy Land consisting of the tribal areas of Judah and Benjamin; the kingdom of Judah was created following the death of Solomon and the dissolution of the United Kingdom (1 Kgs 12ff). Sometimes reference to Judah is found in the New Testament in quotations or references to the Old Testament area. However, Judea is the Greek and Latin form of the term Judah, and this name came to have a more restricted sense referring to a much smaller area around Jerusalem, namely, a Roman province in the southern part of the Holy Land.

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellingworth, Paul. A Handbook on Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1993. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .