Corpus-Paul

[Richard Fellows <rfellows AT intergate.ca>]

Kym,

in your two recent posts on the Crispus-Sosthenes hypothesis, and the
Titus-Timothy hypothesis  you continue to raise issues that have been dealt
with before. I feel that you are still playing catch-up, and need to read
the earlier threads so that you can move the debate forward. You should
also read my "Was Titus Timothy" (JSNT 2001). I also feel that you have
misrepresented my position on a number of questions.

However, you do raise one argument against the Titus-Timothy hypothesis
which deserves attention on-list.

>(3)    When Paul speaks in the first person plural, who is the other person/s
>who make up the *us*, *we*?
>7:5 – ‘But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted *us* by the coming of
>Titus’.
>7:13 – And besides *our* own comfort *we* rejoiced still more at the joy
>of Titus…
>8:6  - ‘Accordingly *we* have urged Titus…’
>The text shows that it is not Titus. It could be all of the believers in
>Macedonia, but most reasonably it is the *we* who sent the letter, Paul
>and Timothy. (RSV has ‘Timothy our brother’, which makes Timothy
>additional to the *our* whose brother he is; the Greek simply has
>‘Paul…and Timothy the brother’).

I feel this is a valid point, but the evidence is not strong. In principle
we could decide the Titus-Timothy question by examining Paul's selection of
the first person plural or singular. You suggest that use of 'I' and 'we'
in 2 Cor 7:5-8:6 supports the existence of Timothy as a distinct
individual. I would argue, however, that the use of 'I' and 'we' in 2 Cor 1
prefers the Titus-Timothy hypothesis. The evidence is mixed, and nowhere
decisive. Our purpose in hindered by the fact that Paul seems to have used
literary plurals. I'll quote Cranfield (Changes of Person and Number in
Paul's Epistles, Paul and Paulinism, Essays in honour of C.K.Barrett, ed by
M.D.Hooker and S.G.Wilson, p287)

"In 1 and 2 Corinthians there are quite a number of first person plurals
which it seems most natural to take as referring simply to Paul: for
example, .... 2 Cor 7:5-7 (note the combination of the plural and singular
of the first person pronoun in v. 7 and the continuation in the first
person singular in vv. 8ff); 7:12-8.8 (note the occurances of the first
person singular in 7:12, 14, 16; 8.3 and 8)"

A good reason to be cautious in interpreting the plurals in 2 Cor 7 is that
Paul does not use them consistently. In 7:5 Paul writes that God "comforted
us", and in 7:13 he writes, "we rejoiced", but in 7:4 he writes "I am
filled with consolation", an in 7:7, "I rejoiced still more", and in 7:16,
"I rejoice..". What is going on? Is Paul including companion(s) in some of
the verses, and excluding them from others? It's hard to see why he would
do that. More likely, he is switching between 'I' and 'we' for reasons of
style.

So, the plurals in the passages that you mention may well be literary
plurals. Even if they were real plurals, we would not then have to conclude
that they referred to Timothy: Paul may be thinking of other travelling
companions, co-workers in Ephesus, co-workers in Macedonia, or his team
generally.

Richard Fellows