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  • From: "Vince Endris" <vince_endris AT hotmail.com>
  • To: corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: Corinthian Correspondence
  • Date: Sat, 10 Aug 2002 11:19:00 -0400


Corpus-Paul,

I am reading the letters to the Corinthians and am trying to put together some kind of order for them. This is what I have so far.

Paul goes to Corinth and starts a church from 50/51-52 (based on Gallio's proconcilship)

He writes a letter about reported PORNOS in the church and separation from those inside the church who are immoral (1 Cor. 5:9-13). While Paul says that his letter did not tell them to separate themselves from non-believers outside the church (since this would mean going out of the world), the Corinthians seem to have understood it to mean that. This indicates that 2 Cor. 6:14-7:1, in which Paul does tell them not to associate with any unbeliever, is part of that letter.

Upon receiving news from "Chloe's people" and Stephanas, Fortunatus and Achaicus in Ephesus, Paul writes another letter, 1 Cor., which addresses a number of topics, mainly division in the church and problems in worship services.

Though Paul mentioned in 1 Cor. that he wanted to wait until after he visited Macedonia to visit Corinth, he had to make a trip there earlier than expected. His travel plans were that he would go to Corinth, solve their problems, return to Ephesus, go to Macedonia, and then return to Corinth in order to pick up their collection for the Jerusalem church. The trip was due to someone in the congregation who was causing trouble - presumably making personal attacks on Paul (2 Cor. 2:5), and depending on when 2 Cor. 10-13 was written may have been due to the arrival of the "super-apostles".

This trip went badly for Paul, though, and when he returned to Ephesus he thought about returning to Corinth on his way to Macedonia. But instead, he thought it best to send Titus with a letter ("letter written in tears").

This letter did the trick and when Titus gave Paul the good news in Macedonia, he composed 2 Cor. 1-9(at least 1-7).

Though I would like to hear any comments or suggestions any of you might want to make about the above, my big problem is where to place 2 Cor. 10-13. I do not think that these chapters were originally a part of 2 Cor. This could not be the tearful letter since Titus seems to already have come and gone for Corinth (12:18). Also it was the tearful letter which brought the Corinthians to repentance and 2 Cor. is an answer to that. So 10-13 had to have been written after 2 Cor. My thoughts so far are that Paul wrote 2 Cor. 1-9 in response to the Corinthians repentance brought by the tearful letter. Upon his visit, Titus met these "super-apostles" and reported them to Paul. This lead to the writing of 10-13. In this case, the mention of Titus and "the brother sent with him (12:18)" going to Corinth would be the visit for the collection (8:17-24).

Vince Endris

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