Tuesday, March 20, 2018

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible: 1 Corinthians 5:9 references a Missing Book




Paul’s first letter to Corinth dealt, at least in part, with the issue of associating with the sexually immoral (1 Cor. 5:9). This letter, usually referred to as Letter A or the “Previous Letter,” is almost certainly lost, although some scholars believe that a fragment is preserved in 6:14–7:1. In this letter Paul enjoined the Corinthians not to associate with sexually immoral members of the Christian community (cf. Eph. 5:3-7), but the Corinthians understood him to be commanding their social separation from immoral pagans. Paul clarifies his intended meaning and addresses a number of other issues in his second letter to Corinth, the canonical 1 Corinthians (Letter B). This letter, occasioned by an oral report about the Corinthian church from Chloe’s people (1 Cor. 1:11) as well as a letter from the Corinthians themselves (7:1), was written from Ephesus ca. 54 (1 Cor. 16:8). About the same time as Letter B, Paul sent Timothy to Corinth, anticipating that his co-worker would return in time to accompany him on a trip through Macedonia to Corinth (1 Cor. 4:17; 16:5-11). Precisely what happens following the dispatch of Timothy and Letter B is unclear, and all reconstructions of this later period of Paul’s contact with Corinth involve inference and conjecture. (Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible, S.V. "Corinthians, Second Letter To The")

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