The final compiler of the Corinthian correspondence did future readers a dis-service. Sure, one can still derive the Christology and the dogma. But what are obscured are the sub-plots, the back-stories.
Paul's trials and tribulations with the Corinthians involved nearly as much drama as a modern-day TV soap opera. But the jumbled nature of the received correspondence makes the drama harder to follow.
Most critical scholars recognize the Corinthian correspondence as a patchwork quilt of several letters stitched together, and many agree the correspondence is not entirely in chronological order. In my sparse collection of books about Paul, I have four books that attempt to reconstruct the letters and their sequence --- all four scholars have significantly different solutions.
In my analysis here, a verse or two, or a passage or two, might be placed differently, with reasonable arguments. But I believe the following solution accounts for the various sub-plots better than any other solution I have seen elsewhere, and this solution provides the means to better understand Paul --- and his human foibles.
I believe the Corinthian correspondence consists of four letters. And based on the received correspondence, I don’t believe there is adequate evidence of missing letters. For example, in 1 Corinthians 5:9-11, Paul is likely referring to issues he had just discussed in the letter he is writing at the time (Trobisch, 1994, p. 76-77), a form not uncommon in ancient letters.
For me, there are four primary keys for reconstructing the separate letters in chronological sequence. The keys are:
1) The ongoing issue of the man involved with his father's woman is threaded through the entire correspondence, starting with 1 Corinthians 5:1.
2) Paul's travels and his travel plans are also threaded through the correspondence. Many investigators see more than one visit by Paul to the congregation at Corinth. I believe Paul visited the group only one time, on his initial evangelization. A detailed analysis of Paul's visits and travel plans to Corinth would take another essay, but I believe the evidence in the letters is clear --- one visit.
I believe 2 Corinthians 2:1 is subject to mistranslation and misinterpretation, but the passage that seems to create the most confusion is 2 Corinthians 13:1-2. Some of the difficulty, in too many bibles, is due to poor translation. Here are two versions, first the NIV, then the King James;
The King James is somewhat better in these two verses."This will be my third visit to you …I already gave you a warning when I was with you the second time. I now repeat it while absent …" (2 Cor 13:1-2, NIV)
"This is the third time I am coming to you …I told you before, and foretell you, as if I were present the second time; and being absent now …" (2 Cor 13:1-2, KJ)
Paul's statement (my translation and emphasis) --- "This third time I AM coming to you" (2 Cor 13:1) --- means that this is the third time that Paul was PLANNING to make another visit. This may seem like special pleading, but a careful analyses of the correspondence supports this interpretation. Dr. David Trobisch has studied the letters of Paul extensively. Trobisch writes,
3) Paul's collection for the "saints" in Jerusalem figures prominently in the correspondence. Most of the blocks of text that have been cut-and-pasted by the final editor and placed out of chronological sequence are about the collection for Jerusalem (2 Cor chapters 8 and 9), and also about compensation (1 Cor chapter 9). Paul brings up the collection for Jerusalem near the end of every one of the first three of the four letters. In the fourth and last letter, it's obvious that he would set that effort aside."… his expression in 2 Cor 13:2 'as if I were with you a second time although I am absent now' is to be understood as a definite statement that he has been to Corinth only once." (Trobisch, 1994, p. 67).
4) The final correspondence from Paul consists of his response after a visit to the congregation from the "super apostles", other Jewish missionaries that the congregation liked better than Paul. Paul defends his own work and competence, and he rebuts the teachings of the competitors as best he could given the third-hand nature of his information.
We will probably never know who cut-and-pasted the received correspondence, nor why he decided on the order now found. I believe the editor of the received correspondence removed some opening greetings and closing words that would have been within the body of his resultant construction, leaving some of the four letters described here missing those features.
The on-going subplots woven throughout, not only provide a means to re-assemble the Corinthian correspondence, but also, I believe, lend evidence to the human element, to the authentic nature of the correspondence.
robert j.
Citation:
Trobisch, D., "Paul's Letter Collection --- Tracing the Origins", Fortress Press, Minneapolis, 1994.
