Fathers

2 Corinthians 4

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Therefore seeing we have this ministry, even as we obtained mercy, we don’t faint. But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by the manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. Even if our Good News is veiled, it is veiled in those who are dying, in whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the Good News of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not dawn on them. For we don’t preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake, seeing it is God who said, “Light will shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in clay vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves. We are pressed on every side, yet not crushed; perplexed, yet not to despair; pursued, yet not forsaken; struck down, yet not destroyed; always carrying in the body the putting to death of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus may be revealed in our mortal flesh. So then death works in us, but life in you. But having the same spirit of faith, according to that which is written, “I believed, and therefore I spoke.” We also believe, and therefore we also speak; knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and will present us with you. For all things are for your sakes, that the grace, being multiplied through the many, may cause the thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God. Therefore we don’t faint, but though our outward man is decaying, yet our inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is for the moment, works for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory, while we don’t look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

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What the Fathers say

2 Corinthians 4:4

Eastern Fathers

Theophylact of Ohrid

Among those who are perishing, he says, who are many and various, are also the unbelievers. It is they whose "the god of this age has blinded the minds." The Marcionites assert that this is said about the demiurge, whom they call just (see St. John Chrysostom, Homily 8), but not good, while the Manichaeans refer this to the devil, whom they also call the creator of the world. But neither the one nor the other is correct; rather, this is said about our God. …

Commentary on 2 Corinthians ↗

Irenaeus

As to their affirming that Paul said plainly in the Second [Epistle] to the Corinthians, "In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not," and maintaining that there is indeed one god of this world, but another who is beyond all principality, and beginning, and power, we are not to blame if they, who give out that they do themselves know mysteries beyond God, know not how to read Paul. …

Against Heresies Book III ↗

Lucius Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius

When, therefore, the number of men had begun to increase, God in His forethought, lest the devil, to whom from the beginning He had given power over the earth, should by his subtilty either corrupt or destroy men, as he had done at first, sent angels for the protection and improvement of the human race; and inasmuch as He had given these a free will, He enjoined them above all things not to defile themselves with contamination from the earth, and thus lose the dignity of their heavenly nature. …

The Divine Institutes, Book 2, Chapters XIII-XV ↗

Western Saints

Thomas Aquinas

The cause of this concealment is not on the part of the Gospel, but on account of their own guilt and malice; and this is what he adds: in their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers. This can be explained in three ways: in one way so that the god of this world, i.e. God, who is the Lord of this world and of all things by creation and nature: "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein" (Ps. …

Commentary on 2 Corinthians ↗