Sunday, December 10, 2023

R. F. Collins on 1 Corinthians 5:9 as a Reference to a Now-Lost Letter Paul Wrote to the Corinthians

  

The person who identified himself at the beginning of the first letter to the Corinthians as Paul, called an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, was obviously a “man of letters”. In this first letter to the Corinthians, he makes reference to a previous letter in which he had exhorted the Corinthians not to associate with immortal persons (5,9). . . . All indicates that Paul was self-consciously engaged in writing a letter he composed 1 Corinthians 5,9 mentions a letter which Paul had previously written. Parallel with that reference is 5,11, “now I am writing to you not (νυν δε εγραψα υμιν μη) to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother or sister who is sexually immortal or greedy, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or robber. Do not even eat with such a one”. The εγραψα of 5,11 is clearly an epistolary aorist. Paul’s νυν identifies the εγραψα as a reference to his present activity. His written remarks recapitulate what he has written in the people. Paul’s recapitulation emphasized the fact that he had found it necessary to address once again (the thrust of the νυν) a matter on which he had already spoken to the Corinthians (5,9). The purpose of at least the portion of Paul’s letter (5,1-13) is similar to that of his previous correspondence. (R. F. Collins, “Reflections on 1 Corinthians as a Hellenistic Letter,” in The Corinthian Correspondence, ed. R. Bieringer [Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium 125; Leuven: Leuven University Press, 1996], 39, 46)

 

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