Corpus-Paul

["Stephen C. Carlson" <scarlson AT mindspring.com>]

At 10:37 AM 10/22/03 -0500, Jeff Peterson wrote:
>On the other hand, the absence of any MS evidence for (e.g.) an edition 
>of 2 Cor lacking chaps. 10–13 seems to coun against the probability of 
>this specific proposal; it's difficult to imagine that an earlier 
>edition of the letter would have left no trace at all in the MS 
>tradition, and if it did it's almost unimaginable that (say) Origen 
>wouldn't have commented on it.

I'm picking up on "earlier edition of the letter ... in the MS
tradition," noting the singular "letter."  My understanding of
the MS tradition for Paul is that the Pauline letters circulated
in letter collections, not separately.  Once the letter collection
has been published, it is doubtful that the separate letters would
continue to be copied separately from much longer.  Trobisch,
based on analogous letter writers like Cicero, argues that often
the first edition of a letter collection is made during the author's
lifetime, and then augmented after the writer's death.  Accordingly,
Trobisch suggests that the first edition of Paul's letters with Rom.,
1 Cor., 2 Cor., and Gal., was made by Paul himself, right before his
final trip to Jerusalem.  If so, then whatever the pre-edition history
of 2 Cor. (and Trobisch thinks it was made of several letters), its
current form owes its origin to Paul.

>This doesn't render the critical 
>consensus on 2 Cor impossible, but it does mean that very strong 
>evidence for the presence of a seam between chaps. 9 and 10 is needed 
>to establish it. Scholars inclined to support the consensus are obliged 
>to engage very closely epistolographic and rhetorical analyses of 2 Cor 
>and other letters where partition has been proposed.

If they can partition Q, why not 2 Cor.?  ;-)

Stephen Carlson

--
Stephen C. Carlson                        mailto:scarlson AT mindspring.com
Synoptic Problem Home Page   http://www.mindspring.com/~scarlson/synopt/
"Poetry speaks of aspirations, and songs chant the words."  Shujing 2.35