Third Epistle to the Corinthians
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The Third Epistle to the Corinthians is an early Christian text written by an unknown author claiming to be Paul the Apostle. It is also found in the Acts of Paul, and was framed as Paul's response to a letter of the Corinthians to Paul. The earliest extant copy is Papyrus Bodmer X, dating to the third century.[1] Originally written in Koine Greek, the letter survives in Greek, Coptic, Latin, and Armenian manuscripts.[2][1]
Content and theological background
The text is structured as an attempt to correct alleged misinterpretations of the earlier
Before the Bodmer X papyrus was discovered, it was generally assumed that 3 Corinthians had been written as part of the Acts of Paul. The Bodmer X version, however, is older than the oldest surviving copies of the Acts of Paul, and has only the Epistle of the Corinthians and Paul's response. It does not include the narrative introductions to each letter seen in later works or the rest of the Acts of Paul. Additionally, the correspondence does not entirely line up with the events described elsewhere: the correspondence indicates that heresy is a major problem in Corinth, while the narrative makes no such claim when Paul arrives in the city; Paul is instead pleased with the progress of the believers. Cleobius is presented as an arch-heretic stirring up trouble in the correspondence, yet in the narrative he is a spirit-filled Christian. This has caused most scholars to believe that the epistle predated the Acts of Paul, and the Acts of Paul was compiling and merging existing letters and stories rather than creating a single combined work.[3]
Authorship
Scholars do not accept the epistle's claimed authorship of Paul for a number of reasons. While the epistle contains a number of Pauline themes and similar phrasings taken from First and Second Corinthians, it varies from Paul in ways difficult to square with his authorship. Notably, Paul draws a sharp distinction in his undisputed letters between "flesh" (sarx) and "body" (soma). To Paul, flesh is the negative aspects of human sin and temptation that are left behind; but the body of Christians will be resurrected. In 3 Corinthians, however, flesh is given an unambiguous positive connotation: the flesh of believers will be resurrected, in contradiction to Paul's claim that "flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God" (1 Corinthians 15:50). The letter places no importance on the death of Jesus and omits any discussion of Jewish Law, popular themes for Paul to discuss, eschewing them for themes seen nowhere else in Paul's work such as the story of the bones of the prophet Elisha.[3]
Canonicity
In the
According to the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia:
The ancient Syrian (Edessene) Church revered as canonical a Third Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians, which is accompanied by a letter from the pastors of that Church, to which it is an answer. But about the beginning of the fifth century the Syrian Church fell under the influence of the Greek, and in consequence the spurious letter gradually lost its canonical status. It was taken up by the neighbouring Armenians and for centuries has formed a part of the Armenian New Testament. Latin and Greek writers are completely silent about this pseudograph, although Greek and Latin copies have been found. It was obviously suggested by the lost genuine Pauline letter referred to in I Cor. v, 9; vii, 1. It was composed by a presbyter about 160–170, and is a disguised attack on some of the leading errors of Gnosticism. This correspondence long had an independent circulation, but recently it has been proved that the document was incorporated into the Acts of St. Paul (q.v.).[8]
References
- ^ ISBN 978-0-56714-887-2.
- ISBN 978-90-429-0735-5.
- ^ ISBN 9780199928033.
- ^ The Canon Debate, McDonald & Sanders editors, 2002, page 492, citing as reference Bruce M. Metzger's Canon of the NT, pages 219, 223; cf. 7, 176, 182.
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2008-05-13. Retrieved 2008-05-13.
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: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ISBN 978-0-89236-640-8.
- ^ Canons & Recensions Of The Armenian Bible
- ^ George Joseph Reid (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. . In Herbermann, Charles (ed.).
External links
- English Translation of the Third Epistle to the Corinthians
- The full text of Third Epistle to the Corinthians at Wikisource, translation by M. R. James in the 1924 book The Apocryphal New Testament
- Hovhanessian, Vahan. Third Corinthians: Reclaiming Paul for Christian Orthodoxy. ISBN 0-8204-4527-4