Is there any substantive difference between the verbal reference "second Corinthians" and "two Corinthians"?

Question

Paul wrote two letters to the Corinthinians:

• The First Epistle to the Corinthians
• The Second Epistle to the Corinthians

In my experience, people use all kinds of colloquial language to refer to Chapters and verses inside these. For example:

"Two Corinthians Three Seventeen"

has the same semantic meaning as

"The Second Epistle to the Corinthians Chapter three verse seventeen."

It seems to me that the cultural style of reference has no correlation to knowledge of the Bible.

My question is: Is there any substantive difference between the verbal reference "second Corinthians" and "two Corinthians"?

Answer 1

There is absolutely no difference in meaning.

But there are regional conventions. Donald Trump was mocked for saying "Two Corinthians", but in Australia that is not just acceptable, but probably more common than "Second Corinthians". We would also say "One Samuel", "Two Kings", "Two Timothy" and "Three John". In fact, I think think it's almost slightly unnatural to say something like "Second Thessalonians" (it's certainly a mouthful), and I'd bet a lot of other Aussie Christians would too.