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A Conjectural Emendation Of 1 Cor 15:31–32: Or the Case of the Misplaced Lion Fight

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 June 2011

Dennis Ronald MacDonald
Dennis Ronald MacDonald
Affiliation:
Goshen College, Goshen, IN 46526
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Extract

Even though the text of 1 Cor 15:31–32 printed above agrees with all recent critical editions of the NT, it almost certainly is false to the autograph. The basis for this claim comes neither from new textual evidence nor from a more scientific analysis of the old evidence, but from conjecture prompted by internal problems in the passage which other methods have not yet solved. Before I make my case, however, I should mention the two points in these verses where the ancient versions differ. Some texts do not contain the ἀδελϕοί (“brothers”) in line 31b, and others expand it to ἀδελϕοί μου (“my brothers”) or to ἀδελϕοί ἡμῶν (“our brothers”). Because it is difficult to know which reading is best, the American Bible Society edition is wise to put ἀδελϕοί in brackets and to acknowledge the difficulty in the apparatus.

Type
Articles
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 73 , Issue 1-2 , April 1980 , pp. 265 - 277
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1980

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References

1 “A Plea for Conjectural Emendation in the New Testament, with a Coda on 1 Cor 4:6,” CBQ 34 (1974) 543–58.Google Scholar

2 Walker, W. O. Jr gives a good summary of the arguments and an extensive bibliography in “1 Corinthians 11:2–16 and Paul's Views Regarding Women,” JBL 94 (1975) 95, n. 6.Google Scholar

3 I have found no example of it used with καύχησις or καύχημα, and Paul uses the construction only in Rom 11:31 (τῳᵔ ὑμετρῳ λέει).. He uses it as a subjective adjective in 1 Cor 16:17; 2 Cor 8:8; and Gal 6:13.

4 1 Cor 9:15: τ καύχημά μου; 2 Cor 1:12: γρ καύχησις μωᵔν; 5:12: καυχήσεως ὑπρ υμωᵔν; 9:3; τ καύχημα μωᵔν τ ὑπρ ὑμωᵔν; Phil 1:26: τ καύχημα ὑμωᵔν.

5 Osborne, Robert E., “Paul and the Wild Beasts,” JBL 85 (1966) 229.Google Scholar

6 Ibid., 225, nn. 2 and 3.

7 “The Beasts at Ephesus,” JBL 87 (1968) 71–80.Google Scholar

8 Findlay, G. G., The Expositor's Greek Testament (ed. Nicoll, W. Robertson; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1956) 2. 932.Google Scholar

9 Weiss, Johannes, Der erste Korintherbrief (KEK 5; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1925) 365.Google Scholar

10 Conzelmann, Hans, 1 Corinthians (Hermeneia; ed. MacRae, George W.; Philadelphia: Fortress, 1975) 278.Google Scholar

11 In De baptismo (1.17; ca. 200) Tertullian refers to the Acts of Paul and says that its author was a presbyter in Asia Minor.

12 Commentary on Daniel 3.29 (GCS; 1. 176); translation mine.

13 For example, Vouaux, Léon, Les Acies de Paul el ses lettres apocryphes: introduction, traduction et commentaire (Les apocrypes du Nouveau Testament; ed. Bousquet, J. and Amann, E.; Paris: Letouzey et Ané, 1913) 24–27.Google Scholar

14 Canon Muratori does not mention the Acts of Paul. Vuaux has carefully collected patristic allusions to the Acts, and none of them come from the West, except for Hippolytus’ allusion to Paul and the lion (Actes, 24–69).

15 Rom. 5:2.

16 For a good introduction to the conservative nature of folk narrative see Thompson, Stith, The Folktale (Berkeley: University of California, 1977) 3–10Google Scholar. Fascinating examples of tale types persisting for millennia may be found in Lord, Albert B., The Singer of Tales (Harvard University Studies in Comparative Literature 24; Cambridge: Harvard University, 1960Google Scholar), and in Bynum, David E., The Daemon in the Wood: A Study of Oral Narrative Patterns (Milman Parry Collection Monograph Series 1; Cambridge: Harvard University, 1978).Google Scholar

17 Osborne, “Paul and the Wild Beasts,” 228. The inscription reads: λέο[ν]το ναγνοὺς λείχει σωτ/ηᵔρ[α τ]ν ὑπ ταυᵔρον.

18 “1 Corinthians 15:32,” Exp Tim 39 (1927–1928) 281–82.Google Scholar

19 Notice the similarities between the story of Androclus and Aesop's fable of the Lion and the Mouse, an oral tale written down six centuries before 1 Corinthians.

20 First edition published in 1949; reprint ed., London: Sphere, 1975.

21 See Georgi's, Dieter seminal treatment of 2 Corinthians in Die Gegner des Paulus im 2. Korintherbrief (WMANT 11; Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener, 1964).Google Scholar