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  • From: "Jim Hester" <hester AT jasper.uor.edu>
  • To: "Corpus-paul" <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Interpolation Solutions
  • Date: Mon, 07 Jun 1999 07:11:35 -0700


Bob MacDonald has raised the issue of multiple "authors" for one or more of
the pauline letters. Laying aside for the moment any comment on earlier
arguments dealing with rhetorical unity of a given letter or how claims of
interpolation beg the question of why an editor would redact a letter as we
have it, I want to make a couple of observations.

Martin Luther Stirewalt observed almost thirty years ago now that his study
had led him to believe that the "brothers" Paul referred to were the
carriers, not "authors", of the letters. That prompted me to conclude that
the inclusion of the names of others in the address of a letter was a form
of "recommendation" and that folks like Sosthenes delivered, and probably
read, the letters to the congregations. In a situation like that found in
Galatians, which is written to more than one church and may have had
multiple copies dispatched, the general reference to "brethern" may have
been a device to recommend the carrier without inserting his -- or her! --
name into the address.

The abrupt transitions in the letters can usually be accounted for by
appreciating the rhetoric of letters, but ISTM that the fact of the
production of letters the length of Paul's has to be taken into account as
well. For example, whereas the letters of Cicero were anywhere from 22 to
2530 words long, averaging 295 words; those of Seneca, 150 to 4130,
averaging 955; the seven undisputed letters of Paul run from 335 for
Philemon to 7111 words for Romans, averaging 3442 words with Philemon, 3959
without! It must have taken several days for Paul to have dictated and for
the secretary to have produced a final draft of the longer letters. What we
see as interpolations may have been nothing more than further elaboration in
the process of production of the final draft. For example, that is how I
see Gal 5:2-12, which I think Paul inserted into the letter after it had
been composed for him by some one else.

Group production, I seriously doubt it.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Jim Hester "Never be afraid to try something new.
736 Buckingham Drive Remember, amateurs built the ark.
Redlands, CA 92374 Professionals built the Titanic."
(909) 792-0533
hester AT uor.edu http://rhetjournal.uor.edu

----------
>From: "Bob MacDonald" <bobmacdonald AT home.com>
>To: "Corpus-paul" <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
>Subject: RE: Interpolation Solutions
>Date: Sun, Jun 6, 1999, 8:00 AM
>

>>>Nevertheless, I think the circumstantial weight of evidence for some
> interpolations, if presented skillfully and honestly, might be persuasive.<<
>
> Has anyone considered that some epistles might be disjointed or seem to have
> interpolations because as noted in the opening address of the letter, there
> is more than one author? E.g. is Galatians the work of one individual only?
> It is addressed from Paul and 'all the brothers who are with me'. Was he
> perhaps the leader but with many colleagues - any one of whom could have a
> revelation (about the two children, two covenants for instance) which would
> result in what might from our distance be seen as an interpolation. This
> letter at least does not bear the marks of a composition written in a quiet
> moment.
>
> One could imagine there was such a discussion, with ideas coming from
> several speakers (but not disorderly of course - except maybe for the
> expressions of dismay after 5:12). "Tertius, don't you dare take that out!"
>
> I pity the scribe.
>
>
> BobMacDonald AT home.com
> + + + Victoria, B.C., Canada + + +
> Catch the foxes for us,
> the little foxes that make havoc of the vineyards,
> for our vineyards are in flower. (Song 2.15)
>
> http://members.home.net/bobmacdonald/homepage.htm
>
>
>
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