Friday, November 17, 2023

Timothy Milinovich on 1 Corinthians 4:6 and "beyond what is written"

  

The enigmatic line “beyond what is written” (4:6) likely refers to the Scripture passages in the complement A unit, 3:3-23, within the α‘ ring set (3:3-4:21). The passages from Job 51:13 and LXX Ps 93:11 in 1 Cor 3:20-21 support Paul’s paradoxical exhortation to become foolish in the new age so that the audience understand their communal identity and unity with true spiritual knowledge rather than causing divisions with their human conventional wisdom. These Scripture passages warn that those who try to be wise by human standards will be “caught up in their own craftiness,” and that they cannot outwit God or undo his re-ordering of the world with new spiritual wisdom by dividing his church over worthless concerns. Such people will be dealt with by God himself (3:19). (Timothy Milinovich, Beyond What is Written: The Performative Structure of 1 Corinthians [Eugene, Oreg.: Pickwick Publications, 2013], 71)

 

The opinion that “what is written” refers to the several citations of Scripture that Paul has given in the letter to this point is well-founded, and I would be inclined to agree with it. However, within the present context, it appears to me that the performative structure dictates for the audience to understand the particular Scripture references in the most immediate parallel unit (A, 3:4-23) as the proper point or referent. There is no question that the numerous Scripture citations with “what is written” are useful, and many concern the same issue of wisdom/foolishness as found in 1:29-31. However, the performative structure appears to hold 3:20-21 as a primary referent for “that which is written” for the Corinthians to beware in 4:6. (Ibid., 71 n. 27)