Jonathan B. Ensor revisits the scholarly consensus concerning Paul's intermediate visit to the Corinthians between his first and second epistles, re-evaluating the textual evidence and interpreting the event through a socio-historical lens. He focuses upon ancient trial by ordeal and exit in the context of communal conflict, shedding significant light upon the social behaviours involved in this event and its interpretation.

Beginning with a review of relational and social-spacial dynamics and sources of conflict, Ensor explores political displacement both in Corinth and Graeco-Roman antiquity, and in the ordeal of Paul's intermediate visit. Moving to discourses of displacement, Ensor discusses apostolic impotence and divine aid and Paul's return to Corinth and a final examination of campaigning for reconciliation and return; making a clear distinction between the contextual parameter of political displacement and its employment for interpreting Paul's autobiographical comments and his specific remarks on his impending return. Ensor concludes that Paul aimed both to reverse the judgments against him that emerged from the intermediate visit, and to undermine the evaluative structure of his detractors who viewed him as impotent, illegitimate, and displaced.