The role of St Paul's co-workers may be inferred in some measure from the designations or ‘titles’ given to them. When used of colleagues in the Christian mission, the term ‘brothers’ often means preachers although it may include travelling companions (συνεκδήμοι) and others who are not necessarily engaged in ‘religious’ functions. ‘Co-worker’ (συνεργός) also appears to have a rather broad connotation. But it refers most frequently to teachers and preachers, those who are deserving of esteem and of financial support. The designation διάκονος (‘minister’) emphasizes these functions even more. Some of the terms or their cognates – άπόστολος, διακονία – are specifically mentioned by Paul as charisms, gifts from the risen Christ.. In brief, Paul's co-workers were charismatically endowed persons. This kind of authorization was, of course, the presupposition of leadership in the early church quite apart from the meaning of the ‘titles’. However, with reference to the co-workers engaged in preaching and teaching, one may be more specific. They appear to belong to a category that the Apostle calls πνευματικοί, spiritual ones.

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Since the days of Pfleiderer II Cor. v. 1–10 has been commonly regarded as showing a hellenization of Paul's eschatology, or in today's language, a transition from a futurist to a realized (or inaugurated) eschatology. Paul's earliest view (I Thess. iv. 13 ff.) followed the ancient Jewish idea of physical resurrection at the last day; in I Cor. xv this is qualified by distinguishing between the σω̃μα ψυχıκóν and the σ̃ωμα πνευματıκóν; II Cor. v completes the process, viewing the transition in Greek fashion as occurring at death rather than at the parousia. Although W. D. Davies locates ‘the two diverse strains in Paul's conception of resurrection’ in (a hellenized) Judaism, the end result is the same: in contrast to I Cor. xv ‘resurrection’ in II Cor. v takes place at death. Some writers, following Pfleiderer, have contended that Paul, for a shorter or longer period, held both Jewish and Greek concepts ‘without any thought of their essential inconsistency’. Even scholars normally opposed to a Greek dualism in Pauline anthropology tend toward it when interpreting II Cor. v. 8. Thus, J. A. T. Robinson is content to equate ‘absent from the body’ with the ‘naked’ interim state. Also Cullmann, who has emphasized the temporal character of redemption focused upon the parousia, refers this verse to Paul's confidence concerning the intermediate state.

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