3rd letter to the Corinthians

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The third letter to the Corinthians is a letter under the name Paul of Tarsus , which is classified as a pseudepigraphic text. It can also be found in the Acts of Paul and is given as Paul's answer to the letter of the Corinthians to Paul. The oldest surviving copy is Bodmer Papyrus X. Another copy is in the Codex Claromontanus .

In the west he was classified as not belonging to the biblical canon in the 4th century ; it is therefore part of the Apocrypha . In the East , in the Syrian Orthodox Church , it was considered canonical. Aphrahat (approx. 340) accepted it as canonical, obviously also Ephrem the Syrians († 373), who wrote a commentary on it.

Overall context

Third Corinthians was part of the Acts of Paul. The fragmentary Heidelberg papyrus shows that Paul is in Philippi . During this time men appear in Corinth who represent a docetical doctrine , whereupon the Corinthians send Threptus and Eutychus to Paul to deliver a letter. This is followed by the letter of the Corinthians to Paul in chapter 1, followed by a short interim report in chapter 2 about the delivery of the letter to Paul, who is in prison there. In chapter 3, Paul's answer is the third letter to the Corinthians. The text that follows is incomplete and contains fragments of a miracle story and has to somehow explain how Paul was released and traveled on to Corinth. For the scholars the question, which has not been fully clarified, arises as to whether the Pauline Acts built this originally independent correspondence into the story, which Papyrus Bodmer speaks for, or whether the letters were subsequently taken from the Pauline Acts, as indicated by the text witnesses with the interim report.

Lore

An introduction to the two letters can only be found in the Heidelberg Kopt Papyrus. 300 + 301 included. Chapters 1 and 3 are handed down in Greek in the Bodmer X papyrus without an interim report. The text of the letters with interim report has been handed down in Armenian and is contained in the Syrian commentary of Ephrem, as well as in the Armenian translation of the commentary. There are also about a handful of Latin witnesses. Some of them have the interim report, others don't. The letter of Paul breaks off prematurely in some manuscripts. The Hamburg papyrus P. Hamb. bil. 1 cannot add anything to 3rd Corinthians because of a gap.

See also

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bruce M. Metzger : Canon of the NT , pp. 219, 223; see. Pp. 7, 176, 182.
  2. ^ Wilhelm Schneemelcher : New Testament Apocrypha, Vol. 2, p. 208.