NT2213 The Pauline Tradition: 1 & 2 Corinthians
 Mary E. Hinkle
Associate Professor of New Testament
Luther Seminary
Fall 2004

Week 9 | Nov 1-7

newBlogging May Be Optional for You

Because you will be writing posts and replies to each other in activities for each of the next 5 weeks, blogging for the rest of the semester is optional. If you have kept up with the blog so far, you have "fulfilled all righteousness." Any further postings you make will be because you want to write about something. If you have not written at least 16 weblog entries, you still need to work during the next five weeks of class to fulfill that number.

To Do List for Week 9

  1. Read this web page and 2 Corinthians (the whole letter) in at least one English translation.
  2. Read "Yes and No?" a sermon by Prof. Richard Lischer of Duke Divinity School.
  3. In your role as a partner in the firm, "Conflict Consultants R Us," compose Memo #1 and reply to the first memos of your group members.
  4. Complete "Following Paul's Argument," exegetical workshop #2. It's in the Coursework section of MyLutherNet.
  5. Blog on a topic that occurred to you as you completed the work above. Remember to interact with course materials, including the Bible, as you blog. Suggestions for topics include:
    • The pros and cons of using personal pain as the occasion for theologizing.
    • A story about effective conflict mediation in a congregation or among a group of Christians.
    • A topic you thought of as you read 2 Corinithians in its entirety.
    • Examples of Paul doing theology from above and/or from below (see "The Role of Experience..." on this page.
  6. Reminder: The second part of the Module One exam, on famous passages in Paul's letters, is due by Nov. 12. Find details in the Coursework section of MyLutherNet.

Paul's School of Hard Knocks

In addition to their attempts to develop a pecking order among themselves, the Corinthians were also concerned about the rank and status of their founding apostle in comparison to later Christian missionaries who had made their way to Corinth and who had great credentials, transcripts, letters of recommendation and GRE scores from their past appointments (ok, I'm guessing about the transcripts and GRE scores, but the letters of recommendation are actually mentioned in 2 Cor. 3:1). 

Paul calls these people, hyperapostoloi, "super apostles." The trouble he is in with the Corinthians in 2 Cor 1 & 2 may be caused in part by what the super apostles have said about him and his trustworthiness. In 1 Cor. 10-12, he writes what may have originally been a separate, "tear-filled letter," taking up the challenge of comparison with those who are boasting in their superior teaching, presence and experience.

Introduction to 2 Corinthians

More than One Letter?

We know that Paul wrote the church at Corinth several times, and of his letters to them, 1 & 2 Corinthians survive. It is likely that more than one of Paul's letters is represented within 2 Corinthians. At those places where it seems more difficult than usual to follow Paul's argument, the knowledge that we are working with a letter that has been patched together from multiple letters is helpful. If you want to know more, a good place to start is with the introduction to 2 Corinthians in your study Bible, or the article on 2 Corinthians in the Anchor Bible Dictionary.

Pain as the Occasion for 2 Corinthians

In his introduction to 2 Corinthians in the Harper Collins Study Bible (p. 2165), John T. Fitzgerald catalogs the occasion for this letter (which I will refer to as one letter) as:

  • The arrival of Paul's opponents in Corinth
  • Paul's disastrous second visit to the city
  • Paul's estrangement from part of the Corinthian church
  • The continuing problem of sin and impenitence in Corinth (12:20-21)
  • The"letter of tears" (possibly folded into 2 Cor. as chs. 10-13)
  • The need for full reconciliation with both the church as a whole and Paul's offender (2:5-11, 7:12)
  • Titus's glowing report, and possibly other, more negative reports.

What a laundry list of reasons to write! Reading through the list, one gets a sense of the pain that occasions this letter. This week, we will focus on "Paul's hard knocks" in his relationship with the Corinthians. Next week, we will focus on how Paul speaks of the reconciliation won in Christ and made possible for him and the Corinthians, as well as the whole cosmos.

Big Issues in 2 Cor. 1-2 and 10-12

Christology

In 2 Corinthians, Paul can sometimes sound absorbed in his own troubles. He speaks of having so much anxiety because Titus had not yet returned with a report from Corinth that he could not rest or work (2:12-13). (Paul apparently hadn't read about being a self-differentiated leader!)

In the midst of all his anxiety, however, Paul is still able to get outside himself long enough to proclaim Christ to the Corinthians and to reflect on how the relationship that they and he have with Christ has the power to transform them and their estrangement from each other.

For example, in 1:8-22, Paul begins by talking about the report he has heard that people think he is vacillating about whether he will come and visit them. People have been accusing Paul of running hot and cold, or talking out of both sides of his mouth, as it were. Yes and no. No and yes. Paul takes this complaint, and from it, he moves to a proclamation of God's faithfulness in Christ. Notice the shift from Paul's self-defense to Paul's proclamation of Christ:

"For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I , was not 'Yes and No'; but in him it is always 'Yes.' For in him every one of God's promises is a 'Yes.' (1:19f.) 

The sermon by Richard Lischer posted this week works directly with this text.

The Transformation of Power and Status through the Cross

With the arrival of the super apostles in Corinth, Paul is in a very awkward position. Should he buy into the competition about status and try to beat the super apostles at their own game? Maybe, but if he does that, doesn't he risk selling out the message of the cross? (Remember 1 Cor. 1:28 - "God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are." This is hardly a word that the Corinthians and their looking-good-super-apostles want to hear.) 

It seems to me that 2 Corinthians 12, where Paul is probably speaking of his own ecstatic experience in the third heaven and where he is certainly speaking of his own "thorn in the flesh," is the compromise Paul strikes between playing the game of the super apostles and nonetheless proclaiming the Lord's word that, "my power is made perfect in weakness" (2 Cor. 12:9). As you read through 2 Corinthians 1-2 and 10-12, watch for the juxtaposition between boasting in human things and the transformation of power and status through the cross.

The Role of Experience in Paul's Theologizing

Sometimes in theology classes, teachers will talk about whether a particular writer's theology is done from below, meaning that we start with our own experience of the everyday world and reason from that "up" to statements about God, or from above, meaning that God initiates even our theologizing by revealing himself. That is, God starts the conversation, with the Word of the Scriptures and/or other special revelation that begins with God and travels "down" to us.

Paul might have seen this distinction as not an "either/or," but a "both/and." For instance, God's self-revelation in the Old Testament is vital to Paul's theology. (Think of the way he uses Abraham to argue that justification by faith is not a new but very old activity of God.) Paul is doing theology from above when he builds his theology on God's self-revelation in Scripture and in Christ Jesus. Yet he also theologizes from below. That is, he sifts through his experience—especially, in our biblical texts for this week, his difficult experience—trying to make sense of it in terms of what God is up to in the midst of the difficulties he faces.

As you read the passages from 2 Corinthians this week, think about your own way of building a theology. What role does first-hand experience play in your theology? What other resources have authority for you when you are trying to speak the truth about God? Scripture, tradition, experience, other things? This question could be a good blog topic.