You are way ahead of me in this type of analysis. We are approaching the letters from quite different perspectives but I do not think either can be said to be right or wrong -- let's just see where they lead and how well the explanations pan out in the long run. I know my perspective at this stage still has many gaps to fill.Stuart wrote: ↑Thu Jun 03, 2021 1:17 pm
There are other clues that 5:3-4 is a redaction. Paul is no longer present in body. This implies he is dead, a figure of the past. The body is meeting in his spirit, and invoking the power of Jesus in Paul's absence, in order to perform the task which Paul simply executes in the Marcionite.
None of this touches on the midrashic rewrite point you make, but it strongly suggests it is pre-Catholic. It is Paul who has changed (died it seems). Interesting passage.
As for the "absent in body" reference, a point I have wondered about (again, from a quite different perspective from yours) is that is in part a cue to give scriptural authority to the letter form which is replacing the old model of law-giving. I'm open to the possibility that there was no literal church in Corinth (or any other church) which the author of the letter was addressing. So many possibilities. I simply don't know. I would be interested to return to the approach you are following when a more complete study is done. -- or do you have something more complete already?