Overview

A fascinating study of a turbulent partnership For the apostle Paul and the Christian community in Corinth, what began as a warm partnership spiraled into suspicion and defensiveness. In Paul and the Corinthians: Reconstructing the Relationship and the Letters, distinguished scholar Paul B. Duff uses the biblical text to illuminate the dramatic arc of this fractured relationship--one marked by rival factions, questions of integrity, and emotional pleas written in ""distress and anguish of heart."" Engaging in detailed analysis of the Corinthian correspondence, Duff traces how divisions arose in the community Paul founded. As tensions escalated, Paul found himself walking a precarious line between competing factions--sometimes successfully, sometimes not. His attempts to address controversies and collect funds for Jerusalem believers only deepened the Corinthians' doubts about his authority and motives. The result? Two letters of defense, followed by a carefully crafted offer of reconciliation. This comprehensive study reconstructs the complete chronology of the relationship and also addresses a question scholars have long debated: why were Paul's multiple letters to the Corinthian Christians assembled into the puzzling document we now call 2 Corinthians? Duff offers fresh answers that illuminate both the historical relationship and the editorial decisions that shaped the biblical canon. Essential reading for New Testament scholars and anyone studying the Pauline corpus, Paul and the Corinthians provides a richly detailed account of Paul's complicated relationship with the Corinthians--and in so doing, offers valuable insight into how early Christian communities navigated conflict.

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9780802876812

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Reviews

""Paul's Corinthian correspondence provides a strikingly intimate window into the emergence and spread of the earliest Christ groups. But it is not a transparent window. With Paul and the Corinthians, Duff provides a clear and reliable guide to the contested exegetical and historical questions that cloud the study of the Corinthian letters. Duff's judicious surveys of previous scholarship make this volume an ideal starting point for new students of the letters. His fresh and compelling proposals regarding the role of Apollos and the chronology of 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 will demand the engagement of established scholars."" --Ryan S. Schellenberg, Methodist Theological School in Ohio ""In Paul and the Corinthians, Paul Duff brings his career-long investigation into the Corinthian correspondence to its ultimate fruition. Through judicious assessment of the evidence in these letters, he produces a coherent explanation for both their composition and canonization. This comprehensive synthesis of the Pauline mission and the Corinthian correspondence should inform all future studies of these letters."" --Troy W. Martin, Saint Xavier University ""This volume offers a comprehensive yet accessible survey of scholarly discussion, from the eighteenth century to the present, concerning the nature (partition theories) and extent (interpolations) of the Corinthian correspondence, together with a clear and up-to-date exploration of the letters' content. Duff provides students, pastors, and historians with a reliable guide to what remains one of the most important bodies of literary evidence from early Christianity."" --Clare K. Rothschild, Lewis University ""Even a cursory reading of 1 and 2 Corinthians reveals that Paul's relationship with various Jesus followers in Corinth was an ancient soap opera that significantly affected his work in both Asia Minor and Macedonia. Reconstructing the precise sequence of events in that historical drama is a difficult scholarly challenge, but in this deeply researched and thoughtfully argued new monograph, Paul Duff succeeds in offering an intriguing yet plausible scenario that merits serious consideration across interpretive lines."" --John T. Fitzgerald, University of Notre Dame ""Relying on the primary evidence of the apostle and the very best scholarship through the years, Paul B. Duff reconstructs the history of Paul's relations with the Corinthians. Thanks to Duff's decades of labor, we can take our seats in the Corinthian assemblies and hear those letters read afresh, especially the letters that would be combined and shaped into what we now have as 2 Corinthians."" --A. Andrew Das, Elmhurst University ""In this careful reconstruction of the history of Paul's turbulent relationship with the Corinthians, Paul B. Duff gives a compelling rationale for the sequence of historical events reflected in the letters that comprise the Corinthian correspondence. With astute but critical use of information from Acts, Duff substantiates his claims, explaining how and why he arrives at his conclusions and how they relate to the vast scholarship on this topic. Clearly written and convincingly argued, this compact volume is a resource for scholars and students that will have a lasting impact."" --William S. Campbell, University of Basel ""Duff's brilliant construction and analysis of the series of letters woven together into 2 Corinthians manages to make reading partition theory interesting. My imagination was constantly engaged by the many intriguing insights into Paul's and the Corinthians' potential personalities and perspectives. This volume details important new insights for interpreting this (these) letter(s) and the dynamic tensions with which Paul's Christ-oriented communities wrestled."" --Mark D. Nanos, author of The Mystery of Romans and Reading Paul Within Judaism ""Duff's new book is a clearly structured, accessible, and highly scholarly introduction to all the important aspects of research into the collection of letters which entered the New Testament canon as 1 and 2 Corinthians. It is a must read for anyone who wants to engage seriously with the life and work of Paul the Apostle in dialogue with the first believers in Christ in the Greek metropolis."" --Hermut Löhr, University of Bonn

Author Information

Paul B. Duff is professor emeritus in the department of world religions at George Washington University, where he taught for more than three decades. He is the author of Jesus Followers in the Roman Empire, Moses in Corinth: The Apologetic Context of 2 Corinthians 3, and Who Rides the Beast? Prophetic Rivalry and the Rhetoric of Crisis in the Churches of the Apocalypse.

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