I think that the apparent contradiction is evident enough--but it is the
sort of contradiction of which one finds several in the Pauline
correspondence, and I think that most, if not all, of these apparent
contradictions are to be explained by the contextual differences of
correspondence to different groups. Nowhere are these differences more
striking than between Gal and 1 Cor, and I think that the reason is that in
Gal Paul is concerned to defend his gospel against what he believes,
rightly or wrongly, are Judaizers, while in 1 Cor he is concerned to
protect his gospel from a congregation that appears to be transforming it
into a Greek mystery religion. Consider, for instance, the ethical
parenesis in the two letters: in Gal Paul underscores "freedom from the
Law" because he believes that his opponents are pushing for observance of
the Mosaic Law, while in 1 Cor he is combatting a proto-gnostic doctrine
that those who have GNWSIS can do whatever they like because PANTA EXESTIN.
So: in Gal he emphasizes his independence from human authority and
underscores his dependence upon direct revelation from Christ (but it
should be noted that he also says in Gal that he checked with Jerusalem
authorities to see if he was "running right"); in 1 Cor however, his
concern is rather to combat a tendency in the Corinthian congregation to
stress independence of members from the "body of Christ" in such a fashion
that each believer relates directly to Christ above. But that runs counter
to Paul's insistence that the believer's relationship to Christ is BOTH
personal AND corporate; therefore he here insists that the gospel message
is a tradition shared by the whole church, and that the way the Corinthians
are tending to interpret it, denying the reality of resurrection, runs
counter to that clearly-fixed tradition. In sum, I think that pragmatic
considerations are sufficient to explain this apparent contradiction.
Incidentally, what's the URL for this Higher Criticism site? It sounds
interesting.
A fruitful New Year to all and sundry on B-Greek!
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University
One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO, USA 63130
(314) 935-4018
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cwc@oui.com
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/