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  • From: Richard Fellows <rfellows AT shaw.ca>
  • To: corpus-paul AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Corpus-Paul] 1.5 Cor
  • Date: Mon, 03 Feb 2003 22:16:05 -0800

David,

There is no place for the tearful letter between 1 Corinthians and 2
Corinthians. Consider, for example, how the travel plan of 2 Cor 1:15-16 was
made BEFORE 1 Corinthians (see 1 Cor 16:5-8). There is no evidence that Paul
abandoned his plans of 1 Cor 16.

Therefore we are left with only two possibilities:
1) the tearful letter was 1 Corinthians
2) the tearful letter was written before 1 Corinthians and was carried by
Titus-Timothy who arrived in Corinth after 1 Corinthians.

It is rather difficult to decide between these possibilities, and it doesn't
actually matter that much.

The commentators generally reject the identification of the tearful letter
as 1 Corinthians on the grounds that the supposed offender of 2 Cor 2 & 7
cannot be the offender of 1 Cor 5. However, this argument is very weak for
the following reasons:

a) There is no strong reason to believe that Paul had an individual offender
in mind in 2 Cor 2 (or ch. 7 for that matter). He uses the plural in 2 Cor
2:3-4, and when he writes in 2:5, "If anyone has caused grief..." he may be
talking generally about several people. This was his style. His use of the
singular "anyone" may be to underplay the seriousness of the earlier
situation which he is now reconciling.
b) Even if an individual is in view in 2 Cor 2 or 7 or both, it does not
follow that the tearful letter made reference to that individual. It may be
that an individual is singled out because the Corinthians themselves
identified the ringleader and turned on him. Alternatively it may be that
most of the leaders attacked in 1 Corinthians had left Corinth between the
writing of 1 Cor and 2 Cor, and that Paul is concerned in 2 Cor with the
punishment inflicted on the only one who remained behind. In this case the
ones who left may have infiltrated the church of Athens, which may be the
target audience of 2 Cor 10-13.

There are all sorts of viable hypotheses and combinations of hypotheses.
However, we can be sure that there was no letter written between 1 Cor and 2
Cor, and no intermediate visit at that time.

> So, which (if any) defective MSS that include
> 2 Cor do *not* include any of vv. 10:1 - 13:10,

There is no such manuscript.

Richard Fellows






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