Charles Ellicott Commentary 2 Corinthians 6:9

"as unknown, and [yet] well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed;" — 2 Corinthians 6:9 (ASV)

As unknown, and yet well known.—In the absence of fuller information as to what disparaging language had been used in reference to St. Paul, it is not easy to appreciate the precise force of the words thus used. Possibly, he had been spoken of as a man of “unknown” or obscure antecedents, and his answer to that taunt is, as in 2 Corinthians 1:13–14, that where he was known at all he was recognised as being what he indeed was.

He could show even to them, to some of them at least, whether it was not so. In dying, and, behold, we live we may trace a reference partly to the sentence of death which had, as it were, been passed upon him (2 Corinthians 1:9), partly to the malignant exultation with which that fact had been received, or was likely, he thought, to be received by those who hated him. We can picture them as saying, “His course will soon be over; he will not trouble us long;” and his answer to that imagined sneer is that he is still in full energy. What has befallen him has been a chastening and a discipline, but he is not yet, as they fondly thought, killed and delivered over to death.