From: Paul Toseland (paul@toseland.f9.co.uk)
Date: Wed Apr 05 2000 - 06:45:42 EDT
<x-charset iso-8859-1>Dear B-Greeks
My apologies for taking some time to respond on-list to the two replies I have had.
To recap, I suggested that the hUMWN reading in 2 Cor 6:11 might actually be right,
and that 6:11-13 should read like this:
TO STOMA hHMWN ANEWiGEN PROS hUMAS, KORINQIOI.
hH KARDIA hUMWN PEPLATUNTAI.
OU STENOCWREISQE EN hHMIN; STENOCWREISQE DE EN TOIS SPLAGCNOIS hUMWN, THN DE AUTHN
ANTIMISQIAN - hWS TEKNOIS LEGW.
PLATUNQHTE KAI hUMEIS!
If KAI in 6:13b does mean 'also', as Jason Hare has suggested, then a possible
translation might be:
Our mouth is open to you, Corinthians! Your heart has become enlarged. You are not
being crushed by
us; you are being crushed by your inward parts, the corresponding penalty! - I am
speaking as though to
children. You yourselves must also grow larger!
This Line of thought is motivated in part by the thought that in 6:11b Paul may
allude to Deut 11:16 LXX:
PROSEXE SEAUTWi MH PLATUNQHi hH KARDIA SOU KAI PARABHTE KAI LATREUSHTE QEOIS hETEROIS
KAI PROSKUNHSHTE AU0TOIS
ìTake care lest your heart become enlarged and you turn aside and serve other gods
and worship them.î
I would to suggest that 6:11-13 is not a simple appeal for the Corinthians'
affection. Rather, it has thrree components:
1. An apology for 6:3-10, and more: unlike the Isaianic Servant, Paul has spoken out
(to the Corinthians) concening his sufferings (6:11a, with an allusion to Isa 53:7
LXX, KAI AUTOS DIA TO KEKAKWSQAI OUK ANEWIGEI TO STOMA).
2. A rebuttal of the accusation that the Corinthans have suffered as a result of a
failure in his ministry (6:12-13ab).
3. An appeal to the Corinthians to 'grow up', that is, to 'perfect holiness in the
fear of God' (7:1); here I think Paul has in mind Ps 118:32 LXX, hODON ENTOLWN SOU
EDRAMON hOTAN EPLATUNAs THN KARDIAN MOU (ìI ran in the way of your commandments, when
you enlarged my heartî), and maybe also Isa 60:5 MT.
The STENOCWRIA of which the Corinthians are complaining is not due to any flaw in
Paul's ministry, but to their lust for idol meat. They are suffering 'the
corresponding penalty': divine dscipline, which he portrays as due to their enlarged
'heart'. Their 'inner parts' (the seat of their desire for idol meat) has become
greatly enlarged, and they are suffering pain in consequence! The answer is to "grow
up"; they themselves must get larger, to make room for their enlarged hearts. That
is, they must grow in godliness, and respond appropriately to the blessings of the
new covenant.
If this works syntactically, then it gives a very good connection of thought with
6:14-7:1, and 6:11-7:4ab may be seen to be a chiastic structure, centred on 6:14-7:1;
moreover, there is then a close structural parallel between the argument of 2 Cor
6:4-7:4ab and that of 2 Cor 11:23-12:21; details in Chapter 7 of my 'The Corinthian
Crisis', URL below.
Now I would like to respond briefly to two other points. Jason Hare wrote:
> >Most textual arguments are not over what "makes good
> >sense" and what doesn't. Most are over what the
> >evidence leads us to believe. In this case there are
> >three uncials (Aleph, B and 0243) that have the hUMWN
> >reading and all the others have hHMWN. Then there are
> >a few minuscules. However, the majority and all other
> >witnesses seem to read hHMWN. Perhaps this is the
> >reason for reading it that way.
> I am not sure that the weight of ms. evidence so clearly favours the hHMWN
> reading. Of the important 'constant witnesses' listed by NA26, hHMWN is read by
> p46 D F G Psi 0209, and hUMWN is read by Aleph B 0243, and also by 1881 2464 pc.
> It might be argued (as Carlton Winbery has suggested in a private mail - thanks
> again, Carlton) that the hUMWN reading is the result of the influence of the seond
> person in 6:11a. However, if the hUMWN reading is original, then I think that is
> absolutely inevitable that the hHMWN variant would arise at an early stage. There
> is a structural parallel between 6:11a amd 6:11b: In each case we have a noun with
> a possessive adjective in the first person plural, followed by an intransitive verb
> in the perfect active (Bieringer, NovT 1998):
TO STOMA hHMWN ANEWiGEN PROS hUMAS KORINTHIOI
hH KARDIA hUMWN PEPLATUNTAI
(The phrase PROS HUMAS, KORINTHIOI, which breaks into the structure, is therefore
given particular emphasis.)
Since hUMWN and hHMWN sound so similar, it is surely inevitable that in copying the
hUMWN of 6:11b would soon be assimilated to the hHMWN of 6:11a. Since hUMWN is very
definitely the more difficult reading, the question, "Does it make sense" is highly
relevant.
>The whole passage
>seems, rather than talking about eating too much or
>whatever, to deal with passion (hence SPLANCNA, which
>is most consistently used of emotion in the NT with
>only one exception [Judas' death]) in the inner parts
>and the heart.
True. On other hand, in the NT the only other occurrence of the verb STENOCWREW is
in 2 Cor 4:8, in
a catalogue of the apostleís own sufferings; and the cognate noun STENOCWRIA appears
only in 2 Cor
6:4, 12:10 and Rom 2:9, 8:35, in each case in parallel with QLIYIS. In 2
Corinthians, in each case, the term again describes the apostleís own sufferings.
Cf. 1:6, where Paul says that the Corithians endure the
same sufferings which he endures. Moreover, the only occurrence in the NT of
ANTIMISQIA is in Rom
1:27, in the sense "due penalty". As to SPLAGCNA, it is used in the NT and elsewhere
of the 'inner parts' understood as the seat of the emotions, as is KARDIA, but it is
nevertheless a reference to bodily parts.
Any further comments, anyone?
Thanks.
Paul Toseland
http://www.toseland.f9.co.uk/paul/ccindex.htm
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