Tradition and Rhetoric in Paul’s Correspondence with the Corinthians

Edited By: Harm W. Hollander

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This collection of essays clarifies Paul’s letters to the Corinthians, exploring how he adapted Graeco-Roman ideas to defend himself and persuade his readers. The analyses produce new and surprising results for scholars, students, and all interested in the apostle Paul.

This collection of essays deals with a number of important words and passages in the apostle Paul’s letters to the Corinthians. It clarifies Paul’s ways…

This collection of essays deals with a number of important words and passages in the apostle Paul’s letters to the Corinthians. It clarifies Paul’s ways of defending himself against the attacks of some Corinthian Christians and his attempts to persuade his readers to keep on living according to the law of God. The analyses centre on answering two questions. First, what does Paul take from the ideas that were in vogue in his time, the Graeco-Roman, Hellenistic period? Secondly, what particular twist does he give to these traditional concepts and motifs in order to persuade his readers in Corinth effectively? The analyses produce a number of new and surprising results, and will appeal to New Testament scholars and students, clergymen, and all those interested in the ideas of the apostle Paul and in Christian belief and behaviour.

Harm W. Hollander was a Lecturer in New Testament Studies and Hellenistic Greek at the University of Leiden, the Netherlands, from 1991 until his retirement in 2012. His academic research interests are the interpretation of New Testament texts in general and the apostle Paul’s correspondence with the Corinthians in particular, as well as the interpretation of “The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs,” a Jewish-Christian writing from the second century C.E. He has authored a full commentary on 1 Corinthians (3 volumes; 1996-2007), and many articles on New Testament passages, which have been published in New Testament Studies, Novum Testamentum, Journal for the Study of the New Testament, Expository Times, and Bible Translator, among others. In addition, his publications include the books Joseph as an Ethical Model in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs (1981) and, with Marinus de Jonge, The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs: A Commentary (1985).