Corpus-Paul

["Stephen C. Carlson" <scarlson AT mindspring.com>]

At 08:17 PM 5/14/99, Brian Peterson wrote:
>If 2 Corinthians has been assembled from originally separate letters (and I 
>am inclined to think that 1-9 and 10-13 are such separate letters), then we 
>might wish that whoever edited and joined these letters would have shown 
>enough "appreciation" or "respect" for Paul's introductions & closings to 
>prevent their excision.  Nevertheless, there was a range of practice when 
>it came to preserving letters.  P. Vielhauer ("Geschichte der 
>urchristlichen Literatur, 1975) notes that while the letters of Plato and 
>Demosthenes were preserved with both their beginnings and endings 
>preserved, the letters of Isocrates had most of their beginnings and 
>endings omitted, and those of Pliny the Younger and Apollonius of Tyana 
>retain neither their beginnings nor their endings. If this was a practice 
>for preserving the letters of revered people, should we be surprised that 
>someone in the early church thought it acceptable to do the same to Paul's 
>letters?

What about the possibility that Paul himself edited and joined
separate letters to create 2 Cor. when when creating a core
collection of his letters?  If I can recall correctly, I believe
Trobisch suggested this possibility (at least of Paul's being
the first to collect his letters).

Stephen Carlson
--
Stephen C. Carlson                        mailto:scarlson AT mindspring.com
Synoptic Problem Home Page   http://www.mindspring.com/~scarlson/synopt/
"Poetry speaks of aspirations, and songs chant the words."  Shujing 2.35