Julian

Because of another discussion I am having on another board that involved 1st Corinthians and Johnny Scholar's post regarding the 500 witnesses being a possible later addition, I read and re-read 1 Corinthians.

It is abundantly clear that 1 Corinthians chapters 10 through 15 are not by Paul. Chapters 1 through 9 rambles on in the typical personal style of Paul but when we reach chapter 10 there is a sudden and obvious change in tone. It becomes cold, impersonal lists of bloviating, theological regurgitations completely lacking Pauline character. The final chapter (16) returns just as suddenly to the initial style of Paul.

I am sure that I am not the first to realize this and was wondering if anyone know of any good scholarly writings about this. I did a google search and found nothing useful right off the bat. Also, any thoughts by people on this board are, of course, welcome.

In the meantime, I shall continue my search.

Julian

Toto

See this old thread on Interpolations in the Pauline Letters by William O. Walker, Jr.

I have the book at home and will see what Walker says on that issue. I know that many scholars identify 1 Cor 13 as an interpolation.

Julian

According to your quoted list in your review, several sections of the chapters I listed are under suspicion according to Walker. I see no problems in tossing the whole section.

Nice book, by the way, at that price I am assuming that the pages are made from 24 karat gold leaf?

Julian

Toto

As I said, the economics of the publishing business escape me. I assume that the book is priced to extract the maximum amount from specialty libraries, and that most people will read a library copy. But the book is accessible to non-specialists. If I were a conspiracy theorist, I would assume that the price was meant to keep it out of the hands of the unsuspecting Christian, who might realize the shakey foundation of his faith.

neilgodfrey

To digress from those particular chapters, why even assume "the personal style of Paul" is itself a reliable testimony? Another pricey book I found of value is Patricia Rosenmeyer's "Ancient Epistolary Fictions"
http://www.litencyc.com/php/adpage.php?id=2117
(but you might be lucky to find an electronic version for free).

All those little personal touches and dashes -- even scattered across collections of letters -- that we take for granted as sure testimony of genuineness are found throughout ancient Greek fictional letters. They were the product of special rhetorical training and craft. -- One more reason not to take for granted the self-witness of such ancient texts. Genuineness first has to be demonstrated independently of the texts' own self-witness no matter how rhetorically persuasive that self-witness.

Toto

Amazon link for Epistolary Fiction $85 - but searchable online.

ebook for $55

First chapter free sample

Julian

Hmmm, interesting point. One that, unfortunately, leaves us with no baseline. I agree that such touches could easily have been added as part of the forgery however, considering the general ineptitude of christian forgers, I will assign a lower probablility to that occurence whilst keeping in mind the possibility.

While it is possible that all of 1 Corinthians is pseudepigraphical, there can be little doubt that the transition fron chapter 9 to chapter 10 shows a profound stylistic difference, whether from one forger to another or from Paul to a forger. 10 through 15 strikes me a being much later material seeing how it displays a greater level of theological sophistication.

Can anyone suggest criteria by which we could make a fair guess as to what is Pauline and what isn't? My suggestion would be evidence of simplistic or primitive theology/soteriology and demonstrated scantiness/lack of christology. The seems to be the current norm, right?

And how come all the books I would like to own are priced way out of my range? Grrr, grumble...

Julian