2. The Jesus Tradition. This
category refers to a second feature virtually ignored by Walker, namely, Paul's
use of the tradition of Jesus' teachings. In fact, 1 Corinthians (outside chap.
13) has several examples of explicit references to the Jesus tradition, plus
some implicit allusions. Admittedly, any firm reconstruction of the early Jesus
tradition is fraught with difficulty, because the canonical gospels had not yet
reached written form (though an early text of the Q tradition may have already
existed). Nevertheless, the cases of 1 Corinthians 7:10-11 (similar to Mark
10:9, 11) and 1 Cor 9:4, 14 (echoing Luke 10:7) suggest that it is methodologically
unsound to exclude the possibility that some of Jesus' teachings may have
influenced Paul's writings. Although Paul presumably referred to oral traditions,
it is not inappropriate to make tentative proposals based on the surviving
evidence in the later canonical gospels.
13:2: pistin hōste orē methistanai
("faith so as to remove mountains"): this phrase echoes the Jesus
tradition preserved in Matt 17:20 and 21:21, though Paul takes the verb from
the LXX Isa 54:10 (see section II.C.1 above). Both Matt 17:20 and 21:2 have pistin
(faith) and tō orei toutō ("to this mountain"), plus a verb of
movement: Matt 17:20 has the imperative metaba ("move"), while
Matt 21:21 has arthēti ("be lifted up").
13 (kan psōmisō) panta ta
hyparchonta mou ("[and if I dole out[ all my possessions"): this
total giving up of possessions may be an echo of the Jesus tradition, as in
Luke 14:33: "Every one of you who does not take leave of all his own
possessions (pasin tois heautou hyparchousin) cannot be my
disciple." Similar teaching is given to the rich young ruler (Matt 19:21)
and is also addressed to a wider audience in Luke 12:33.
13:3 ean paradō to sōma mou
("if I hand over my body"): the vocabulary is reminiscent of Paul's
description of Jesus' paschal self-offering in his final meal and his death.
Earlier in 1 Corinthians, the Apostle refers to the tradition of the Last
Supper (11:23-24): "The Lord Jesus, on the night on which he was handed
over (paredideto), took bread, and having given thanks broke it and
said: This is my body (mou . . . to sōma) which is for you." The
Lucan parallel text in its long form has to sōma mou ("my
body," Luke 22:19) and paradidotai ("he is handed over,"
Luke 22:22). Paul employs similar language about Jesus' self-offering on the
cross in Gal 2:20 and Rom 4:24. There may also be an echo of LXX Isa 53:12 (see
section II.C.1 above).
13:13: meizōn de toutōn hē agrapē
("but the greatest of these is love"): in its comparative sense, the
exact phrase meizōn toutōn ("greater than these") occurs in
Mark 12:31, where Jesus says of the two great commandments on love (Deut 6:4-5
and Lev 19:18), "No other command is greater than these." If Mark
12:31 belongs to the early tradition of Jesus' teaching on love (abbreviated in
Matthew and Luke), then Paul's phrase meizōn toutōn may be an echo of
the dominical tradition. However, with rhetorical skill Paul plays on the
meaning of the Greek phrase, taking it in its superlative sense ("the
greatest of these").
If the canonical gospels accurately
preserve an early version of the Jesus tradition, then these four examples from
Jesus' sayings may well underlie Paul's teaching in 1 Corinthians 13, though
admittedly the Apostle has adapted the material to fit his present context. (Jeremy
Corley, "The Pauline
Authorship of 1 Corinthians 13," The Catholic Biblical Quarterly
66, no. 2 [April 2004]: 265-66)
