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  • From: rfellows AT intergate.ca
  • To: <corpus-paul AT franklin.metalab.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Offender or offenders? (2 Cor 2 & 7)
  • Date: Mon, 01 Jul 2002 21:17:53 -0700


Jeff,

thanks for the response.

>It's not conclusive, but I would think that the congregational action
>reflected in 2:5-11 was more likely administered to one member than
>to a group.

I don't agree. The punishment reflected in 2 Cor 2:5-11 is probably some form
of shunning, and this is exactly the sort of action that Paul asked the
Corinthians to take against GROUPS in 1 Corinthians. The judgement on the
individual in 1 Cor 5:1-8 is probably not of the same type as that reflected
in 2 Cor 2:5-11 since it seems to be a more permanent exclusion. On the
shunning of groups, see 1 Cor 5:9-13 and 1 Cor 15:33 (with 11:19).

In the 'previous' letter, and in 1 Corinthians, Paul asked the Corinthians
not to associate with a group of believers who took their doctrine of
Christian freedom to extremes. They ate and drank and indulged in
unacceptable (as Paul saw it) idolatrous and sexual practices, and were proud
of it. (see 1 Cor 5) At the core of this group, I believe, was a group of
Sophistic Christians who had come from Rome, but some of the native
Corinthians had come under their influence. I suggest that the core group
left Corinth as a result of 1 Corinthians, and that the Corinthians passed
judgement of some of their Corinthian supporters. These last are the
offenders of 2 Cor 2 & 7.

> Also, if the "one wronged" in 7:12 is Paul himself, then
>it's more natural to take "the wrongdoer" there as a reference to one
>individual; one would expect "the one wronged" to be balanced with
>the plural "those who wronged [me]" if it was in fact a group.

Good point, but it can be argued that it is unlikely that Paul is the "one
wronged" in 2 Cor 7:12. In 2 Cor 5:5 Paul takes the trouble to tell them that
he does not consider himself to be one grieved. It is unlikely that Paul
would undermine what he has said in 5:5 by referring to himself as the victim
in 7:12. For Paul (rhetorically at least) the Corinthians as a whole are the
victims of the offender(s).

A further argument for the plurality of the offenders comes from 2:3 where
Paul says, "I might not suffer pain from those who (WN) should have made me
rejoice". The relative pronoun is plural, and the people in question are
surely the offenders of 2:5-11. It seems that the offenders are introduced at
2:3, and not at 2:5 as I had previously suggested.

Richard Fellows
Winnipeg
Canada



  • Re: Offender or offenders? (2 Cor 2 & 7), rfellows, 07/02/2002

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