Freethought & Rationalism Archive

stephan huller · 10-11-2011, 09:57 PM

I know I asked stupid questions sometimes but to me at least there are good grounds to believe that what we call '1 Corinthians' was actually the second epistle that the Apostle wrote to this Christian community. The idea came to me when I was reading Tertullian's On Modesty and the text is clearly referenced as 'the second' of the two epistles:

Quote:

We know plainly at this point, too, the suspicions which they raise. For, in fact, they suspect the Apostle Paul of having, in the second (Epistle) to the Corinthians, granted pardon to the self-same fornicator whom in the first he has publicly sentenced to be “surrendered to Satan, for the destruction of the flesh,”—impious heir as he was to his father’s wedlock; as if he subsequently erased his own words, writing: “But if any hath wholly saddened, he hath not wholly saddened me, but in part, lest I burden you all. Sufficient is such a chiding which is given by many; so that, on the contrary, ye should prefer to forgive and console, lest, perhaps, by more abundant sadness, such an one be devoured. For which reason, I pray you, confirm toward him affection. For to this end withal have I written, that I may learn a proof of you, that in all (things) ye are obedient to me. But if ye shall have forgiven any, so (do) I; for I, too, if I have forgiven ought, have forgiven in the person of Christ, lest we be overreached by Satan, since we are not ignorant of his injections.” [On Modesty 4]

I would probably have forgotten all about had I not noticed that the Apostle also happens to make reference to have already sent the community a letter. We see in 1 Cor 5.9:

Quote:

I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people

Indeed the present letter plainly comes in the middle of an already established correspondence with the community (cf. 1 Cor 7). So why is this letter called 'the first' letter to the Corinthians? As David Trobisch notes in his book on the Pauline Epistles the present order basically ranks the epistles in order of longest (Romans) to shortest (Philemon). The second letter became the first most likely because it is the longer of the two.

Mageth · 10-12-2011, 09:07 AM

Maybe it's for the same reason that the section of the book I'm reading that starts on page 10 is called "Chapter 1" and the section that starts on page 32 is called "Chapter 2"?

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10-12-2011, 09:07 AM	#2
Mageth Contributor Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: Deep in the heart of mother-lovin' Texas Posts: 29,689	Maybe it's for the same reason that the section of the book I'm reading that starts on page 10 is called "Chapter 1" and the section that starts on page 32 is called "Chapter 2"?

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