Corpus-Paul

[Paul Toseland <paul AT toseland.f9.co.uk>]

It is often assumed that Paul wrote his letters to be read out loud in
the congregation, and that he intended them to be understood and to
achieve their goal at a first reading.  However, since Paul makes such
extensive use not only of direct quotation from the LXX, but also of
allusions and echoes of the OT, it is questionable, to say the least,
whether his audiences would have been able to follow his arguments. Thus
in a recent article, Christopher D. Stanley asks,

'Is it possible that Paul might have misjudged the capacities of his
audience? To put the matter bluntly, did Paul's first century audiences
really understand his biblical quotations?' *

Stanley maintains that Paul's 'implied readers' are

'Christians who are (a) broadly familiar with the Greek text of the
Jewish Scriptures, (b) able to realize immediately how specific
quotations fit into the developing argument of his letter, and (c)
willing to accept his quotations as valid renderings of the
authoritative text.' (p 143)

He concludes, quite rightly, I think, that 'it seems highly unlikely
that many members of Paul's first century churches would have matched
the profile of the "implied readers" of Paul's quotations.' (p 144)

In my own research on 2 Corinthians, I have found that Paul usually
quotes from the LXX, but his arguments are frequently under girded by
echoes of the Hebrew Scriptures, and sometimes also of other Jewish
writings (in the case of 2 Cor 1-7, the Testaments of the Twelve
Patriarchs, especially the Testament of Reuben). All this goes so far
beyond anything that could reasonably be expected of even a well
educated audience that I find it impossible to believe that Paul
actually intended at least some of his letters to be understood and to
do their work at a first reading, or indeed to be fully comprehensible
without further information. In short, I am proposing that Paul intended
his letters not so much to be read, as to be studied. The role of his
courier was not merely to deliver the letter, but to lead study groups,
bringing out the intertextual effects and making known more fully the
apostle's mind. So the role of Titus, in the case of the 'Letter of
Tears'.

Any thoughts?


Paul Toseland

* "Pearls Before Swine": Did Paul's Audiences Understand His Biblical
Quotations", NovT 41.2 (1999), 124-44; the first quotation is from p
125.