2 Corinthians: A Social Identity Commentary

Philip Esler

• Publisher: T&T Clark
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9780567703330
• eBook ISBN: 9780567668745
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Studies

Philip F. Esler provides a comprehensive coverage of the issues in 2 Corinthians from the perspective of social identity, with a focus on Paul's leadership.

Esler enlists social identity theory-in critical dialogue with existing scholarship-to show how Paul sought to persuade the Corinthian Christ-followers to adopt certain views on four critical issues that had arisen in his relationship with them, with his discourse demonstrably reflecting the ancient Mediterranean culture they shared. Two introductory chapters set out those four issues, summarise the events reflected in 1 and 2 Corinthians, make an initial case for the integrity of the letter against partition theories, explain and defend the use of social identity theory in biblical interpretation, and describe the social identity approach to leadership. In the commentary, Esler explores how Paul re-establishes his leadership role by reconnecting with the Corinthians, urges their participation in the collection for Jerusalem, and defends his position against recently arrived opponents, all the while reinforcing his addressees' social identity as Christ-followers. Prominent features of the commentary fostered by its social identity perspective include its cumulative case for the letter's unity, for Paul's opponents being similar to those in Galatia, and for the interweaving of social and theological dimensions in the text.

Commentary: Part A

2 Corinthians 1-7: Paul re-establishes his leadership

3

Reconnecting with the Corinthians (1.1-22)

The Letter opening (1.1-2)

2 Corinthians 1.1 Ancient Greco-Roman letters almost always began by naming the sender, then his or her recipients and then sending a greeting and a wish for good health (Stowers 1986: 20). Here Paul follows this pattern but with very significant differences. In the first verse of the letter, Paul identifies as its senders himself, ‘an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God’, and Timothy, ‘his (lit. ‘the’) brother’. While Timothy, a close associate of Paul (Malina 2008), was probably with Paul when he dictated the letter and was known to its addressees, it is unlikely that he helped compose it, especially in view of the frequency with which Paul moves to the first-person singular in the letter. When Paul uses the first-person plural in this letter, ‘we’ or ‘us’, it is usually the ‘literary plural’ meaning ‘I’ or ‘me’, even though there are times when a genuine plural is in view, such as 1.19 (Paul, Silvanus and Timothy) and possibly 1.20 (the same group) and perhaps certain of the plurals in 2 Corinthians 3–6, where Paul speaks of the apostolic ministry more generally (Thrall 1994: 83, 105–7).

We are so familiar with the specifications of senders and addressees in ancient letter openings that we might read the rest of this letter without giving much thought as to what he is conveying in v. 1. That would be unfortunate here because the twenty-nine words of this verse in Greek are replete with vital information about the social identity of the Christ-followers of Corinth and Paul’s intention to exercise leadership over them. The critical feature is Paul’s self-designation. In Phil. 1.1, he describes the senders of the letter simply as ‘Paul and Timothy, slaves of Christ Jesus’. From the outset of 2 Corinthians, on the other hand, Paul is making an issue of his role and authority, which he sharply differentiates from those of Timothy: himself an apostle, the latter a brother. Moreover, Paul’s description of himself as ‘an apostle of Christ by the will of God (διὰ θελήματος θεοῦ)’ takes its place among the stronger self-designations in his letter openings. In 1 Cor. 1.1, he is more modest, saying he is ‘called (κλητός) (to be) an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God’, so the will of God is more closely connected with the call than with the status of apostle itself. In Rom. 1.1, he is ‘called (to be) an apostle, set apart for the Gospel of God’, with no mention of the will of God. Neither in 1 Thessalonians nor in Philemon does he make any such statement about his leadership role and warrant. Only in Galatians, a letter written – as here – in a context where his authority was clearly under challenge, do we find anything comparable when he says he is ‘an apostle not from men or through a man but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead’ (Gal. 1.1). The strong affirmation of the connection between his status as an apostle and the divine will at the very start of 2 Corinthians is not a matter of Paul identifying himself as an apostle ‘because that was who he was’ (Garland 1999: 49). Instead, it suggests that his authority and its warrant will be a central issue in the text of the letter, as indeed proves to be the case. Here we have the first indication that 2 Corinthians is a unified composition: Paul begins it knowing that he will later (including in chs 10–13) be defending his apostleship in the face of opposition from false apostles who claim to be superlative (11.5, 13; 12.11), even to the extent of his needing to insist that he demonstrated the signs of the apostle among the Corinthians (12.12). It appears that within the Christ-movement there were norms and practices that were associated with being an apostle; in other words, there was a sense of the prototypical apostle, even though it is evident in 2 Corinthians, in chs 10–13, in particular that precisely what those norms and practices were was hotly contested. That is, the Christ-group contains a subcategory of member known as ἀπόστολος, together with an understanding of prototypicality attached to it (Porter 2019: 12).

Paul then specifies as the letter’s addressees ‘the Christ-group (ἐκκλησία) of God in Corinth, with all the saints who are in the whole of Achaia’. In this commentary, ἐκκλησία, currently the subject of intense discussion (Trebilco 2011; van Kooten 2012; Park 2015; Korner 2017; Last 2018; Esler 2021c), is regularly translated as ‘Christ-group’ because it refers to a group (not to a meeting or an assembly) and because the Christ-movement was unique in using this word as a group designation. None of the thousands of voluntary associations – with which the Christ-groups were closely comparable (Kloppenborg 2019) – used this word as a group designation (Esler 2021c). The use of both ἐκκλησία and ἐκκλησία τοῦ θεοῦ probably dates back to the early years of the Greek-speaking branch of the movement in Judea, when it was subject to persecution, notably by Paul (Esler 2021c). It is worth noting that the expression ‘the assembly of God’ (ἐκκλησία τοῦ θεοῦ) in v. 1, of its very nature, conveys a sense of great privilege and worth. This is not just any group, but actually God’s own in Corinth.

Similarly, the members are ‘the saints’ (οἱ ἅγιοι), a rich expression that conveys divine election and possession, a distinct community, separation from outsiders and holiness, and thus defies adequate rendering in English (Harris 2005: 132). It is somewhat puzzling that the saints specified here are those in Achaia. Why does Paul feel the need to mention them here, especially when he does not do so in the address in 1 Cor. 1.2? The most probable answer is that he does so because in 2 Cor. 9.2 he will note that they have been enthusiastic about the collection, while in 2 Cor. 11.10 he will state that his boast will be heard ‘in the regions of Achaia’. Here we see one of the vital links Paul creates across the whole letter that are disregarded by those who favour partition theories.

‘Social identity’ is an identity possessed by an individual that derives from a sense of belonging to a particular group, a sense that carries with it cognitive implications (the recognition of belonging to the group, with its particular beliefs, norms and practices), emotional dimensions (covering positive or negative connotations of belonging) and evaluative dimensions (referring to attitudes held towards insiders and outsiders). For Paul to refer to the Corinthian Christ-followers as ‘the Christ-group of God in Corinth’ and as ‘the saints’ was likely to have triggered a whole range of very positive resonances in relation to these various components of the social identity the members each derived from belonging to it.

The contents of v. 1 also cohere closely with the letter being one in which Paul seeks to exercise leadership over these addressees, meaning to influence them in a manner that will augment their contribution to realizing group ideals. To be successful, Paul will need to persuade them to be, or to become, Christ-followers as he understands the meaning of the identity involved. To that extent, he will lead and they will follow. He needs to change how they understand him but also influence how they act in the world with a changed mind and understanding. He must build a relationship with them based upon their shared group identity. As noted in Chapter 2 of this volume, the social identity approach to social influence enabled John Turner to reformulate how a leader exercised power in a group. Turner viewed authority as ‘the power to control ingroup members because they are persuaded that it is right for a certain person to control them in certain matters’ (2005: 11). Paul’s assertion that he is an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God represents, in this context, the strongest imaginable basis for his having power, in some matters, to influence them to act in certain ways, that is, to have legitimate authority over them. By ‘this context’, I mean the particular group to whom he is writing in a particular place in a particular time, characterized by particular norms that will mean that this claim is likely to be accepted. He will thus have an influence, since, to quote Turner again, ‘Authority is based on ingroup norms that a person, role or group has the right to prescribe appropriate beliefs, attitudes or behaviour in certain areas’ (2005: 11). Yet Paul is leaving nothing to chance here, since he connects the source of his authority with the very nature of the group they are: just as his authority comes from God, so too are they God’s ἐκκλησία in Corinth (and Achaia). As God’s people, they should acknowledge Paul as an apostle of Christ Jesus by God’s will and respect the authority that flows from that status. The Corinthian Christ-followers are the salient group for Paul as he composes the letter; if he was indeed a Roman citizen (Acts 22.22-29; 25.10-12), his calling himself merely ‘Paul’ and failing to provide all three names to which such status entitled one (Thrall 1994: 79) indicate that the social identity derived from such a citizenship was quite irrelevant here. In short, the theme of Paul’s authority, an integral aspect of his capacity for influencing and hence for leadership within the context of a very distinctive group with its own characteristic psychological processes, is firmly established in the first verse of the letter.

2 Corinthians 1.2 The blessing in 2 Cor. 1.2, ‘Grace to you and peace from God our Father and Lord Jesus Christ’, has attracted attention in terms of an ‘apostolic greeting’ in existing scholarship (Lieu 1985). It also provides a rich seam of data for the approach being pursued here, even if our natural tendency might be to rush on to the text of the letter, so inured have we become to such a formula, with identical expressions appearing in Rom. 1.7, 1 Cor. 1.3, Gal. 1.3, Phil. 1.2 and Philemon 3, while 1 Thess. 1.1, Paul’s oldest extant letter, carries the briefer form, ‘Grace to you and peace’. Paul himself seems to have formulated this blessing (Lieu 1985: 167–70). He has probably adapted the first word, χάρις (‘grace’), from Greek culture (although in letter openings the verbal form χαίρειν was employed) and the second, εἰρήνη (‘peace’), from Judean tradition (Thrall 1994: 94–5). The words probably convey that God’s bestowal of his grace leads to peace. Χάρις is a major Pauline designator for the operation of divine gift recently explored by John Barclay (2015).

Some regard this expression as a prayer: ‘May grace and peace be yours from God’ (Harris 2005: 135). But this is an under-interpretation of what is said here. Paul is not just any Christ-follower praying to God to bestow grace and peace on other members of the movement. As an apostle of Christ Jesus by God’s will, he is in a very privileged position from his closeness to God that this status implies. By use of the formula, Paul impliedly designates himself as someone with an unparalleled capacity to effect a channelling of divine grace and peace in the direction of his addressees, even if he does not go so far as to suggest such a result will necessarily follow. This indicates that part of the role of apostle was to be a broker mediating mutual benefits between patron and clients.

Seen in this light, grace and peace here represent the first resources, but by no means the last, to be mentioned in the letter. But we must note that Paul is not saying divine grace and peace are his to bestow, nor even promising that he can ensure their delivery. For this reason, he is not seeking to exercise power on the basis of such a faculty, in the manner prescribed by the standard theory of power that Turner critiques. Yet he is establishing a context in which resources with a divine origin are part of the reality in which he and his addressees exist and comprise an incident of belonging to a group whose character and status are as exalted as he portrays the Christ-group in Corinth to be by virtue of their being ‘God’s’ (1.1). He is also staking a claim for his closeness to these resources. But as we will soon see, in this letter they figure in the play of social interactions between Paul and the Corinthians under God in a manner close to Turner’s approach to power, influence and leadership.

Comfort in affliction (1.3-7)

The next section of the letter is probably best defined as beginning at v. 3 and ending at v. 11. This delineation can be defended for reasons largel y tied to ancient epistolary form (Thrall 1994: 98–100), but is perhaps more firmly suggested by the content of the passage, in that Paul first outlines a partnership approach to comfort in affliction (vv. 3-7) and then offers a specific example to trigger that process (vv. 8-11).

2 Corinthians 1.3-4 Paul begins this section of the letter by invoking a blessing on God or – the distinction being rather inconsequential (Barrett 1973: 58) – making a statement about God, who is, in a striking parallel, both the father of ‘our Lord Jesus Christ’ and also ‘the father of mercies and the God of all comfort’ (παράκλησις; v. 3). But whereas this is the only occurrence of ‘mercies’ (οἰκτιρμοί) in the letter, the mention of comfort inaugurates a section of the text that is notable for its concentration of the words παράκλησις and παρακαλεῖν. Here they have the meaning of ‘comfort/consolation’, one of three broad areas of meaning for these words, the other two being ‘appeal/request’ and ‘encouragement/exhortation’, senses that also appear in 2 Corinthians. ¹

This meaning of ‘comfort’ is strikingly prominent in 2 Corinthians (Ehrensperger 2007: 101; Kaplan 2011). In 2 Cor. 1.3-7, the meaning ‘comfort/ consolation’ occurs via the verb (παρακαλεῖν) and the noun (παράκλησις). Paul uses the verb on thirty-eight occasions in his letters, with twelve, possibly thirteen (if we include the instance in 1 Cor. 4.13) of them meaning ‘to comfort, console’, and a full nine of those are in 2 Corinthians, five in 2 Cor. 1.4-7 and four in 2 Corinthians 7. He deploys the noun eighteen times, with the meaning of ‘comfort, consolation’ on ten occasions, and nine of those are in 2 Corinthians, of which six occur in 1 Cor. 1.3-7 and three in 2 Corinthians 7. In fact, 2 Cor. 1.3-7 ‘are the five verses of the New Testament with the highe...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Series
• Dedication
• Title
• Contents
• Series preface
• Preface and acknowledgements
• List of abbreviations
• Introduction
• Commentary: Part A 2 Corinthians 1-7: Paul re-establishes his leadership
• Commentary: Part B 2 Corinthians 8–9: The collection
• Commentary: Part C 2 Corinthians 10–13: Paul defends his leadership against his opponents and stiffens the Corinthians’ identity in Christ
• References
• Index of authors
• Index of ancient and biblical references
• Copyright