Corpus-Paul

[Bob Schacht <Robert.Schacht AT NAU.EDU>]

At 11:57 AM 10/09/1999 -0400, Stephen C. Carlson wrote:
>
>I was reading Jerome the other day and I came across the following passage
>from Epista 120,11, in which Jerome seems to say that Paul was uncomfortable
>with eloquent Greek and therefore used Titus as an interpreter/translator
>just as Peter used Mark:... What basis, if any, is there for believing
that Paul's
>letters were written/translated by an aide?  Or, vice versa, what basis is
>there for believing that Paul himself composed the Greek of his letters?
>
>Stephen Carlson

Stephen,
Of course, the first and most obvious 'evidence' is Paul's explicit use of
an amanuensis (Romans 16:22), contra 1 Cor 16:21, 2 Cor 6:11, Col 4:18, & 2
Thess 3:17 (setting aside for the moment which letters are genuine.) But I
am sure that you are already familiar with that issue, and want to move
beyond it.

So I would rephrase the question as, "Is Romans 16:22 the basis for
Jerome's allegation, and if not, what is?"

The frequent insistence in the other letters that Paul wrote them himself
seems to imply that word had already gotten around that Paul was using an
amanuensis-- else why the insistence?

I see a bunch of possibilities here:
1. Jerome was jumping to conclusions on the basis of Romans 16:22 alone;
2. Paul's proficiency in written Greek improved during the course of his
missionary journeys. This would be more plausible if Romans were the
earliest of the letters, but I don't know anyone who thinks this is true.
3. The subscriptions insisting on being written in Paul's own hand are late
additions in reaction to rumors circulating after his letter to the Romans
had circulated.
4. Some of the letters do show what have been called marks of orality,
resulting in awkward Greek. There are passages in Romans where this
explanation has been attributed to the letter being a form of dictation.
Did Jerome misunderstand these to reflect on Paul's knowledge of Greek?

But of course Jerome was a polyglot, and could have formed his own
impressions directly from the Greek texts of Paul's letters as he received
them. I suspect this is what you are really asking.

So it might help if you would sharpen the focus of your question to avoid
unnecessary excursions into tangential matters.

Bob
Robert M. Schacht
Northern Arizona University
Robert.Schacht AT nau.edu