Loading...Now that I’ve given a 50-word summary of the book of 2 Corinthians and a fuller discussion of its contents “in a nutshell,” I can turn to the questions of “Who, When, and Why.”
As with Romans and 1 Corinthians there is not a lot of debate about who wrote the letter: it is one of Paul’s undisputed epistles and there are no real doubts about its authorship among the majority of critical scholars.
As to when: the letter dates to some time not long after 1 Corinthians – maybe a matter of months? And so it too is usually dated to the mid 50s.
But the issue is complicated by the fact that we appear to have at least two letters that have been spliced together, and these were written at different times. They were written for very different reasons. And so to make sense of the “why” of 2 Corinthians, I’ve decided to give the play-by-play of the sequence of events that we can reconstruct of Paul’s history of the community – from the time he founded it to the time of his final surviving letter (or at least the final fragment embedded in 2 Cor. 1-9).
I am taking this from my textbook, The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings.
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Can we speculate about the identity of the “super apostles”? Might Acts contain veiled references to conflicts between Paul and Peter’s ministries, with stories like “Elymas” and “Simon Magus” subtly alluding to the super apostles Paul encountered?
I suppose it would be case to be made if they were located by Acts in Corinth. Paul doesn’t identify them almost certainly because the Corinthians knew who he was talking about. We, alas….
You said “…in which God’s enemy Satan is still active and in control.” The context here is Paul defending his apostleship against “super-apostles” (2 Cor 11:5, 13) who were Judaists (11:22). Wouldn’t the ‘Satan’ still active and in control have been the high priest, Jewish Sanhedrin or some other form of Jewish authority that was hostile to Paul and trying to infiltrate his assemblies and Judaize his converts?
And … “they (the apostles) are the chief opponents of the cosmic powers of evil who are in charge” What cosmic powers of evil? The rulers and authorities of Colossians 2:15 were Jewish rulers and authorities. In Ephesians 6:12, the Greek word for principalities / rulers refers to Jewish magistrates in Luke 12:11….Again, Jewish judges and authorities, the very people Paul referred to as Satan in 1 Thess 2:18, 2 Cor 11:14 and Romans 16:20.
Mr. Ehrman, I would like to ask something not related to 2 Corinthians – or one could argue loosely related, since we’re talking about God and Jesus here!
So, I’m reading Luke again and I just bumped into that passage in chapter 8, where Jesus heals that poor possessed fellow who had the legion living inside him. So, what caught my attention is the ending in which Jesus says:
“Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” So he went away, proclaiming throughout the city how much Jesus had done for him.
Luke 8:39 NRSV
I checked the same story in Mark and Matthew, and there’s not that high Christology there, Mark says Lord and Jesus, not God and Jesus; Matthew doesn’t cite that last bit (he also has 2 possessed people, which is kind of funny).
I was wondering if that’s an indication of Luke having a really high -the highest, I guess- Christology, equating Jesus to God. And I was also wondering if there are any textual variances there, because usually there are in such cases – maybe some later scribe wanted to exalt Jesus higher than the puny “Lord”?
Sorry for the extent.
I really don’t mean to be disrespectful to others, but, to tell you the truth, Paul has always seemed to me to be more than a little odd and not very persuasive with presenting evidence for his views. So, how in the world, did he then, and now, get so many to follow his views? Does it say “something” about people as “followers” in general? If so, what? Maybe something about gullibility or people seeing what they want to see? Moreover, do we have any clues about why Paul was seen as being “weak” and not a very good speaker? Did he have some sort of illness, maybe some sort of speech impediment, like a stutter, or some sort of “thorn in his side,” that he could not get rid of??? If so. what? His main argument seems to have been if you don’t agree with me then it is your fault, and you need more “faith.”
Why was Paul regularly beaten up? Who would do this?
`Bart wrote: “it is one of Paul’s undisputed epistles”.
I have a question about this. There would seem to be two issues here – did these epistles have the same author, and was that author Paul. Bart has given a clear and convincing explanation of why textual critics believe they had the same author, but why did that author have to be Paul? Paul is also described in Acts, but Acts was written decades later, and the author of Acts presumably had access to these epistles, so Acts may or may not provide independent corroboration. Is Paul mentioned in any other writings?
Dr. Ehrman,
I hope it’s okay to ask this question here.
Are you familiar with Simon Gathercole’s “The Alleged Anonymity of the Canonical Gospels”, (The Journal of Theological Studies. 69 (2): 447–476.) ?
I see many apologists using Gathercole’s paper to argue that the gospels were never circulated anonymously.
How should I respond to them and are there any scholars who engage with or reply to Gathercole’s arguments ?
Thanks so much for your time.
A little help here, if possible. I have Forged as a digital book on my Nook and cannot find either Simon Gathercole or ‘alleged anonymity’ or other search combinations that address how you discuss this specifically. I do find related references e.g. Chapter 1 Notes #14; Chapter 4 Notes #15, 16. I prefer digital books so I could look up references in any of your other books.
Note: I do agree that the gospel authors are not known and that so many other factors involved with knowing these authors argue against native Aramaic speakers who were not literate, writing far away from where they lived.
Sorry, I don’t know what we’re talking about. Did I say that I directly discussed Gathercole by name in the book? I’d be surprised if I did. But I did discuss the kinds of things he argues, I believe.
Can you summarize how Paul became such a prominent figure in Christianity? (I know you CAN, I just mean would you please…). I understand that he left a body of written letters that perhaps no other early missionary or proponent of the religion did (or at least that we have found). But to use a well worn phrase, “Who died and left Paul in charge?” He had a lot of opposition to his views from many directions as he was setting up his churches. Clearly he was not the only one who was engaged in this missionary activity. What were the main reasons that Paul became so important to later Christians, to the extent that his words essentially came to define the canon?
Dear Bart,
Excellent post – very interesting!
Do you think any of these super apostles could have been members of “the twelve”?
I doubt it. They appear to be extremely eloquent rhetorically effective speakers of Greek for one thing.
WHAT happened to the Jesus promised Comforter? Paraklētos (παράκλητος) John 14-16
son original 11 + Matthias when spoken Aramaic Jesus teaching’s in Aramaic are gone; taken over by St Paul, Koine proficient & Roman cardinals? Now we know why the Holy Spirit left- lost in translation!!
this st Paul vs super apostles bad mouthing & quarreling reminds me of the Tech bosses before the great tech bust 2001.
2) stick with the original 11 disciples + 1 Matthias as THE APOSTLES. & why else did St Paul labor more than them, because he wasn’t. the senior/executive management/leadership of an organization determines the current path & future of an organization.
&it seems the original 11 were on survival mode. James the brother, who neither walked with his brother ALL didn’t speak Koine Greek & seems ton Be lost what Jesus actually taught.
& we definitely can not have any semblance of Jesus’ community. Which pre-2003 living in Shanghai I noted this was more similar to life in Jesus time than in any time I lived in SF Bay Area
Re: Current related blog post “Secrets of the Third Heaven.” You said, “Many people thought that the heavenly realms were layered…” What is the assumption regarding Paul’s belief of the afterlife in light of these other “realms”? Heaven, levels of heaven, paradise on earth etc. are getting conflated and confusing.
Since he speaks of the “third heaven” he must have thought of them as layered; most people who thought that believed that the “higher” levels were closer to God. If Paul thought there were three layers, then he was in the hightest one.
I may be wrongly assuming Paul believed in a renewed earth as opposed to a heaven. I’ll search the blog for discussions on Paul’s afterlife beliefs before and after his conversion.
I think he did believe in a renewed earth. Heaven is for other beings than humans.