Schon häufiger ist beobachtet worden, daß ntl. Schriftsteller seltene Vokabeln oder Wendungen manchmal überraschend schon nach kurzem Abstand wiederholen: ‘Mit seinem Meister Paulus (s. Zahn, Einleitung in das N.T.. i, S. 363) und wohl sehr vielen Schriftstellern, — im N.T. geht am weitesten hierin Jakobus, — teilt Lukas die Gewohnheit, einmal ihm in den Griffel gekommene Ausdrücke bald darauf zu wiederholen, dann vielleicht selten oder nie wieder.’

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.

No one book has figured more prominently in the study of St Mark's Gospel in this century than W. Wrede's Das Messiasgeheimnis in den Evangelien, published in 1901. But whilst it has been widely agreed that Wrede focused attention upon a significant Marcan motif and one which to some extent shows the influence of a doctrinal interest, most scholars have rejected Wrede's solution of the secrecy problem.