We need only recall, at this
point, the close linguistic relationship between Paul’s text in 3:5–4:5 with
building contracts such as the one from Lebadeia (IG VII 3073). It comes as no
surprise that in such construction texts, too, we find “near matches” to Paul’s
saying in 4:6. In IG VII 3073, builders are charged repeatedly to perform the
work “exactly as it has been written above.” (E.g., IG VII 3973.74, 145,
151) Anyone “not doing the things written in the specifications” is “fined” or
“driven out of the job.” (IG VII 3073.15-21) If there is disagreement
between contractors “about any of the things written,” (IG VII 3973.41-4)
the commissioning authority adjudicates. Variants of the phrase καθὼς γέγραπται
appear more than a dozen times in the single Lebadeia building contract. As in
other cases, the formulas involving γέγραπται direct attention to the
stipulations and authority structure inscribed in the text. But only in the
case of the building inscriptions is the force of those stipulations focused so
strongly on the logic of evaluation with its sequellae of penalty or praise.
Therefore, given this precise focus on evaluation and its consequences and
given that ταῦτα directs us back toward the extended building metaphor in
3:5–4:5, we consider it prudent to explore the meaning of τὸ μὴ ὑπὲρ ἃ γέγραπται
within the dynamic field generated by the politics of construction. As it
happens, in such an interpretation we are able to give an account for the
source, referent, and function of the saying.
The source of Paul’s phrase
is the social experience of those on the building site. We contend that the
phrase μὴ ὑπὲρ ἃ γέγραπται could easily have been found on the lips of an
architect or building contractor directing subordinate laborers on the job. As
we argued earlier, evidence suggests that contractual stipulations, including
exact dimensions, specific quantities, and precise penalties were either
inscribed or posted at the work site. These may have served a role of
guaranteeing conformity to design and quality workmanship as far as the
architect, whom we presume was “functionally literate,” was concerned. They may
also have played a part in the legal network of accountability that allowed for
public “transparency” during inspection and payment. Certainly, they had a
commemorative function as well, joining the vast effort and expense involved in
public building to the named commissioners or patron(s). But what of the less
literate subcontractors and laborers? How were they guided on the job? They
were aware of such written stipulations, but we have difficulty conceiving of
them consulting a whitened board or inscribed slab in the course of their daily
work. Surely, they were otherwise dependent, not only on the tacit knowledge of
experience but also on the direct commands of those in authority over them. It
is not at all difficult to imagine an architect, seeing a stonecutter working a
stone with his chisel, crying out, “Not beyond what is written!” It would have
been a cry whose force was simultaneously to guide work in conformity with
design and to remind all within earshot of the social and economic consequences
of damaging stones or failing to meet demands of quality. By its very nature,
our hypothetical saying will have been ephemeral – the kind of clipped work
site banter or jargon familiar to anyone who has worked in or walked past a
construction zone; it would not have survived in our sources. So, too, the tone
of such a cry may have varied from playful to angry rebuke, depending on the
circumstances in which it was uttered.
If the politics of building
allows such a hypothesis regarding the source of Paul’s phrase, it also directs
us to a referent, namely, Paul’s gospel. On the lips of our imagined architect,
the words refer to the contract stipulations; those stipulations, as we have
seen, were mediated to the workers in the figure and authority of the architect
himself, as the one authorized by the commissioning patron. For Paul, the wise
architect, commissioned by his Lord, these words would then have been a cry
reminding the community of the revealed form and authority of his gospel. That
is, “the things written” refers not to 3:5–4:5 as a unit, but to that place in
which the architect most emphatically signaled his authority: 3:10–15.425
There, Paul claims that no other minister (not even Apollos, and certainly not
his adherent who is so critical of Paul) may build except on the foundation he
has laid, which is Jesus Christ. And those who build must take great care in
how they labor so that the superstructure rises securely from that foundation.
They are liable to the on-site inspections of the architect and, of course, to
the final judgment of their work on the day of approval.
With the building source and
gospel referent of Paul’s saying in view, we may appreciate its rhetorical
force in 4:6. In writing (so that it might be read and heard) τὸ μὴ ὑπὲρ ἃ γέγραπται,
Paul places an exclamation point on his apologetic tour de force in
3:5–4:5. In continuity with the reconstructed politics of building and
reconfigured logic of evaluation he has presented, Paul pauses to drive home
the authority of his gospel and ministry. As an architect to his work crew,
Paul reminds the Corinthian assembly of these things, resorting to the pattern
of the building metaphor once more. He does so by appealing, not to the
scriptures, nor to a timeless maxim or elite proverb, but to the banter of the
work site. To those “above” such a socioeconomic world of experience, it would
not have raised Paul in the scales of their rhetorical estimation. But if the
saying hit home, it could well have punctured pretensions and challenged the
criticisms issuing from the “Apollos party.” Which is to say, it would have
done precisely what the second ἵνα-clause suggests the saying was intended to
do. (Bradley J. Bitner, Paul's Political Strategy in 1 Corinthians 1-4:
Constitution and Covenants [Society for New Testament Studies Monograph
Series 163; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015], 297-99)
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