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corpus-paul - Re: Paul's boasting in 2 Cor 8&9

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  • From: Richard Fellows <rfellows AT intergate.bc.ca>
  • To: "Corpus-paul" <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Paul's boasting in 2 Cor 8&9
  • Date: Wed, 22 Dec 1999 10:50:19 -0800



Jim West wrote:
>Here's how I think it went. Paul was making his way towards Corinth- and en
>route writes chapters 1-7 of 2 Cor. Mid way he receives report that things
>have improved in his relations with them- and writes 8-9 to prepare them for
>the collection he will take when he arrives (cuz ya dont collect money from
>folk who are mad at ya, do ya?). As the journey continued, Paul again
>received word that the Corinthians were again angry about something or other
>he had done or left undone- so he writes the really harsh chapters 10-13.

I assume you meant to say that between the writing of 2 Cor 1-7 and 2 Cor
8-9 Paul received LESS optimistic news from Corinth. Then your
reconstruction does indeed solve the problems associated with Paul's
boasting. He would then have boasted to the Macedonians after receiving
good news from Titus, then after receiving bad news about the progress of
the collection he would have sent the brothers to Corinth to ensure that he
did not have to withdraw is earlier boasting. Your reconstruction does
explain the data about Paul's boasting, but only at the expense of the
additional assumptions that you have had to make. You have had to divide
8-9 from 1-7 (desperate measures), and you have had to invent an additional
messenger from Corinth. But it's hard to think of a better explanation
that is available to those who think that Titus was not Timothy.

My point is that when we take Titus to be Timothy we no longer have to
invent extra complications in order to explain the data. Victor Paul
Furnish recently described 1 and 2 Corinthians as a puzzle in which 'some
key pieces are missing, others do not fit perfectly, and still others have
to be fabricated in order to fill the gaps'. The Titus-Timothy hypothesis
is demonstrated by the fact that throughout the history of Paul's dealings
with the Corinthians it allows the pieces of the puzzle to fit together
where the two-person theory has to hypothesise gaps and invent missing
pieces to fill them. Then there are all the duplications produced by the
double vision of the two-person assumption.

>I am not convinced that the Titus=Timothy scenario is necessary. Who
>carried which of the above described letters to Corinth makes no difference
>to the content of those letters. Nor to their sequence.

Oh, but it does! I am proposing that Titus carried the tearful letter to
Corinth via Macedonia, and that 1 Corinthians was sent while he was en
route. This changes everything, and there is plenty with which to engage,
and I ask you (and others) to do so.

>There isnt much, then, to engage with. (or- with which to engage). I just
>dont think that the idea works or is even needed.

Richard Fellows
Vancouver






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