What was being done to the word of God by the false teachers Paul writes about in 2 Corinthians?

This text is from a letter written by David Gooding in 1998.

Now to come to the question that you raise regarding 2 Corinthians: what was being done at that time, either with or to the word of God by these men of whom Paul, by inspiration, writes? First of all, I do not think it is at all likely that these false teachers were getting hold of the manuscript copies of the New Testament and changing them. After all, at the time when Paul wrote 2 Corinthians there were very few manuscripts of the New Testament books in existence, and those that were in existence were not yet very widely circulated.

When Paul speaks of these false teachers corrupting the word of God, I take it to mean that they were perverting the message that the risen Lord had committed to his disciples to transmit. You get an example of that in Acts 15, where the false teachers who came from Judaea were preaching to the Christians at Antioch that, unless they were circumcised after the manner of the law of Moses, they could not be saved. They were corrupting the truth of God by their preaching of false doctrine; it was not by getting hold of the New Testament manuscripts and changing or rewriting them.

I myself suppose, therefore, that the false teachers whom Paul mentions in 2 Corinthians were doing the same thing. See also the first verses of the Epistle to the Galatians, where false preachers are spoken of as preaching, or bringing, another gospel; not changing the manuscripts of the New Testament.

When, therefore, you ask, what was being done at that time either with or to the word of God, I think you will find helpful explanations in Donald A. Carson's book From Triumphalism to Maturity, A New Exposition of 2 Corinthians 10-13, IVP, 1986. That, at least, will make a start. Or take some reliable commentary by a serious scholar on the whole of 2 Corinthians.

Yours very sincerely in Christ,