S.C.Carlson

I was just reading Kloppenborg's latest piece in JBL and this sentence reminded me of a point I forgot to bring up earlier:

Two years earlier (146 B.C.E.) Corinth was razed to the ground by L. Mummius after it had joined the Achaean confederacy against Rome (Strabo 8.6.23). It remained deserted until its refoundation as a Roman colony in 44 B.C.E.

This is corroborated by a primary witness, Cicero, who had travel to the area around Corinth in 77 or 79 BCE and talked of visiting its ruins (Tusc. 3.53 "perietinae").

Such a desolate status of Corinth when Aretas III had control of Damascus makes it unlikely that there would have been much of any community there at the time, much less a Christian community for a "Paul" to write to. This excludes 2 Cor. from being a contemporary 1st cen. BCE letter.

If it is a 1st cen. CE letter, however, then the reference to Aretas would have been understood to be that of Aretas IV, who, if he did not control Damascus outright for a brief period, was interested in doing so. If these references were metaphorical (I'm not exactly sure how), then they nonetheless presuppose the dating of Aretas IV who died in 40 CE.

In the scenario that 2 Cor. is a second century letter pretending to be earlier, it is more likely that it was pretending to be of the mid-first century CE with Aretas IV in mind, not of the first century BCE. After all, Corinth was still known to be a refounded Roman colony, while the exact hegemony of Aretas IV (or even III) was more obscure.

The imitation scenario raises the issue of where such a 2nd cen. imitator could have come up with the Aretas reference. Although the nature of Aretas IV's influence over Damascus indicated by 2 Cor 11:32 is not necessarily contradictory with Josephus, it nevertheless not an obvious reading (or misreading) of Josephus. This indicates that the author of 2 Cor 11:32 had some source for Aretas IV's influence in Damascus other than Josephus. Unfortunately, the history by Justus of Tiberias has not survived and it would have been nice to consult what it had to say. (Naturally, a mid-first-century Paul would have had a non-Josephan source for Aretas IV.)

spin

I'm sorry, I don't follow the point you are making. I can't see the relation between Corinth and Damascus. Perhaps Corinth was desolate in its context, but BJ 1.4.8 tells us that the people of Damascus invited Aretas to take power rather than a hated Ptolemy, ie Damascus at the time was apparently not in a desolate state.

Perhaps you could clarify what you mean.


spin

S.C.Carlson

2 Corinthians wasn't addressed to Damascus but to Corinth. The fact that Corinth wasn't quite populated at the time of Aretas III creates additional difficulties for that identification.

spin

Ding, dong. OK, now it makes sense. Thanks.


spin

andrewcriddle

It is probably not just the question of when Corinth was refounded.

The way Paul in his epistles to Corinth refers to Achaia and Macedonia as distinct regions, with Corinth a prominent place in Achaia, (see for example 2 Corinthians 9:1-2), is more likely if it is written after 27 BCE when Augustus appears to have split Southern Greece from Macedonian administrative control to establish or re-establish the province of Achaia with the refounded Corinth as its capital.

Andrew Criddle

S.C.Carlson

Good point. Thanks.

andrewcriddle

In the intersts of accuracy the above should be qualified.

the verb ALLHGOREW is used twice in 'On Style' by Demetrius. IMO this work should be dated no earlier than the middle of the 1st century CE and hence later than Philo. This used to be the general scholarly position.

However an increasing number of scholars probably the majority, now date 'On Style' much earlier maybe before 200 BCE, despite the fact that this involves 'On Style' using a number of words not found again for centuries.

If this is right then the verb ALLHGOREW would be one more example of a word used by Demetrius and then apparently not again until centuries later.

Andrew Criddle