2 Corinthians: The Sequel(s)

Sources: I. Howard Marshall et al., Exploring the New Testament: A Guide to the Letters and Revelation (IVP, 2002); Raymond E. Brown, The New Testament: an Introduction (Doubleday, 1997); Bart Ehrman, The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings, 3d ed. (Oxford, 2004); Richard Hays, The Conversion of the Imagination: Paul as Interpreter of Israel's Scripture (Eerdmans, 2005).

I. Is this a File, or a Folder?
Like no other Pauline letter, 2 Corinthians is discontinuous at several points:

6:14-7:1 looks like a digression, and has a less Pauline style.
10-13 has a different attitude toward its audience.
8-9 seem duplicative.

So some scholars read the letter as a compilation (Brown 548):

A. An earlier letter would precede 1 Corinthians (see 1 Cor 5:9). Perhaps containing 6:14-7:1?
B. 1 Corinthians would be next.
C. Paul's "tearful letter" (see 2 Cor 2:3-4, 7:8-9) would follow. Could this have included 10-13?
D. All, or chapters 1-9, of 2 Corinthians (perhaps without 6:14-7:1) would follow.
E. If the harsher 2 Corinthians 10-13 is a letter, it would follow a new disturbance. (Or is it C? See 2 Cor 13:1-2's threat of a third visit.)
(F. Then 8:1-24, to Corinth? Or does this one come before D?)
(G. Then 9:1-15, to Achaia?)

Without independent evidence for 2 Cor as a compilation, hypotheses are all we have.
Canonical criticism asks whether these hypotheses really help readers.

At what point do they take our focus off the texts themselves?
Scholars tend to find the (dis)unity they expect to see.
How should readers handle interpretive uncertainties and probabilities?
Each unit still falls within the full range of Paul's relations with the Corinthians. So a 'shuffled deck'?

II. Still Confronting the Powers
Paul is still trying to salvage the project (13:9).

He's defensive (e.g., 1:17-2:4, 3's 'letters') and trust has been strained,
but the community is still God's church (1:1) with a bond (1:3-7).
Paul insists on what Martin Luther called a theologia crucis rather than theologia gloriae.

2 Cor's classic and obscure passages all address the same Kingdom-world engagements as 1 Cor:

Dynamics	1 Corinthians	2 Corinthians
family structures	sexual mutuality 7:1-16, marriage and family are for devotion to God rather than legacy, security, power, or attraction 7:25-8:40	mixed marriages are forbidden fellowship 6:14-71
gender, sexual, marital relations	chastity 5:1-13, 6:15-7:9, head coverings 11:1-16, wives ask discreetly 14:33-36, "man up” (!) to the whole church 16:13	high sexual standards for faithfulness 12:21, church as Eve 11:1-6
class structures in a commercial colony	not many high status 1:26, Paul waives an apostle’s rights and privileges 9:1-18, including versus neglecting the hungry 11:17-34	Paul sacrifices his assets, dignity 11-12, pampered them 12:13
civil/political relations	litigating in civil courts 6:1-11	spiritual warfare against strongholds 10:3-6
spiritual hierarchies, factions	showy gifts below sacrificial apostleship, all ordered to serve love 12-14, the gospel rather than persons makes God’s temple 1:10-17, 3:1-4:21, hospitality comes before personal/cultural scruples 10:23-33	‘boastful’ folly, sacrifice, weakness for gospel 6 against status/charisma 10-13, jealousy of cunning rivals 11:1-6, signs and wonders only to edify 12:12
plural cultural philosophical legacies	the gospel’s foolishness 1:18-2:16, no prostitution 6:12-20, activity in idolatrous economy 8:1-13, risen bodies 15:12-19	bodily eternity 4:6-5:17, Kingdom power versus talk 13:3-4, test ourselves 13:5-8
society’s multicultural and religious practices	God’s operative grace 1:30, 6:11 resituates (un)circumcision 7:17-24 and idol-meat 8-9, avoiding it or eating before Lord’s Supper just to build up others 8-11, worshipping and gifting not from custom but to edify others 12-14	Mosaic covenant’s “ministry of death” (!) 3:7-8, gift of God’s righteousness 5:21, superapostles’ different (Judaized?) Jesus, gospel, spirit 11:4, 11:21-23
jostling ethnic identities and relations	contextual tolerance of (un)circumcision 7:17-24 and idol-meat to protect ethnic others 8-9, collection for Jerusalem 16:1-4	fundraising for Jerusalem out of joy, equality, freedom, generosity, mutual love rather than compulsion 8-9

Liturgy, idol-meat, temple prostitution, and tongues do not appear, but their underlying reasons do.

III. Paul's Undomesticated Gospel
This letter is where Paul really bares himself.
"The marks of Jesus" (Gal 6:17) are the true sign of apostleship (11:30, 12:5, 12:10).

Trust in Christ waits for eschatological transformation on the way of the cross, rather than assuming it (4:1-18).
This is what a personal relationship with Jesus Christ looks like: belonging, glorifying God in our bodies.
False "super-" apostleship assumes or runs after glory rather than receiving a share of the cross (11:5, 11:12-15).
Domesticated Christianity is false, world-captured 'superapostolicity.'

Living this way yields profoundly life-altering relationships.

Paul's power isn't ephemeral status but the cross' revolutionary power unfolding in a life of relationships. And it hurts!
The superapostles’ allure can't match this.
Close personal relationships are risky membership in a body's fellowship.
Paul may have lost the battles he faced, but his love passed the test and won the war.

An amazing send-off (13:11-13:14) assures that the right way is always at hand.