Corpus-Paul

[Richard Fellows <rfellows AT intergate.ca>]

From 2 Cor 2.1; 12.14; 13.1-2 we know that Paul made a 'sorrowful' second
visit to Achaia. Now, Paul Toseland and I place Paul's sorrowful visit
before 1 Corinthians, but most scholars think this is unlikely because
there is no mention of it in 1 Corinthians. But the silence of 1
Corinthians is explicable if the sorrowful visit was to Athens rather than
Corinth.

I would like to propose the following:

Paul traveled from Ephesus to Athens where he learned that there was sexual
immorality in Corinth. He decided not to proceed to Corinth, but to send
them a letter instead. He sent this letter (the 'former' letter) from
Athens. It warned them not to associate with the sexually immoral. Paul
returned to Ephesus. Paul's failure to come to Corinth caused some arrogant
defiance in Corinth. Some inferred that Paul did not have the power to
assert his authority. Some rather assertive missionaries arrived in Corinth
and were preferred by the defiant Corinthians. Paul latter wrote 2 Cor
10-13 and 1 Corinthians and rebuked those arrogant defiant people (2 Cor
10.1-11; 11.20; 1 Cor 4.6-5.13).


I am assuming that 1 Corinthians (which does not mention the sorrowful
visit) was written to Corinth (1 Cor 1.1), but that 2 Cor 1-9 and 2 Cor
10-13 (which do) were written to Corinth and Achaia in general (2 Cor 1.1).

It is quite likely that news of sexual immorality in Corinth would have
reached Athens, since their reputation spread at least as far as Ephesus
(see 1 Cor 5.1). It is also likely, that having received such information,
Paul would choose not to proceed to Corinth. He may have wanted to spare
them, and in any case he did not approve of associating with the sexually
immoral (see 1 Cor 5.9-11).

I see the following advantages for the hypothesis that the sorrowful visit
was to Athens.

1. It is highly unlikely that the sorrowful visit was after 1 Corinthians,
for numerous reasons (see my own arguments in the archives, and those of
Paul Toseland at  http://www.toseland.f9.co.uk/paul/ccindex.htm). Yet 1
Corinthians makes no mention of the sorrowful visit.

2. Paul probably gave a warning about sexual immorality during his second
visit to Achaia (2 Cor 12.21-13.2). It is therefore economical to view the
'former' letter as that warning, or as part of Paul's response to his
sorrowful visit. Yet in Paul's discussion of sexual immorality there is no
hint of a visit to Corinth. There is, however, a hint in 1 Cor 4.18 of an
occasion in which Paul conspicuously failed to appear in Corinth. (1 Cor
4.18-21 belongs to Paul's discussion of sexual immorality and the tearful
letter because the arrogant appear again in 1 Cor 5.2,6). Therefore the
sorrowful visit may well have involved a failure to visit Corinth.

3. In 2 Cor 1.23 Paul singles out Corinth as the place to which he had not
returned. This makes sense if he had returned to another part of Achaia.

4. 1 Thess. 3.1 mentions a visit to Athens, which probably occurred during
Paul's second visit to Achaia. It makes no mention of Corinth.

Can anyone see any problems with this reconstruction?

Richard Fellows
rfellows AT intergate.ca
Vancouver