“These Things Were Written for Us”

Abstract

The primary research question guiding this dissertation relates to the socially formative function of the Corinthian letters and the role that Paul’s reinterpretation of Scripture plays in shaping the Corinthians’ social identity. Because 1 Cor 10:1–22 and 2 Cor 3:1—4:6 offer Paul’s most sustained engagement with Old Testament texts, they provide the focus for analysis as two different interactions with the same broad exodus and wilderness narratives in two different social situations within the same correspondence. This analysis first requires sketching the hermeneutical foundation of scriptural interpretation as a socially embedded and socially formative enterprise in Second Temple Judaism. Building on this foundation, this study argues that in these two passages Paul finds in these scriptural narratives of Israel’s paradigmatic rebellion the resources for his socially creative interpretation of the Corinthians’ social situation, definition of their group identity, and shaping of their intergroup differentiation from outsiders and intragroup cohesiveness as a unified community. In order to demonstrate this, the study builds onto the theoretical categories and framework of Social Identity Theory by developing a robust interpretive model that identifies specific textual features that realize the cognitive, evaluative, emotional, behavioral, and temporal aspects of social identity. The values of this approach include treating the epistles as formative social correspondence, establishing a method by which to interpret the social data embedded in the text, and placing Paul within his Second Temple Jewish context as a socially creative interpreter of Scripture who aims to do something with the sacred texts. Paul’s socially creative maneuver in 1 Cor 10:1–22 is to address the idol food issue by establishing shared experiences between the wilderness generation and the Corinthians in order to interpret their situation as parallel with the deviant behavior of their forebears. In 2 Cor 3:1—4:6, Paul primarily addresses tensions between the Corinthians and himself by using the veiling and perception language of Exod 34 as a frame of reference for differentiating the ingroup from outgroups according to their sight or blindness, respectively, and by response to his ministry. This analysis challenges approaches to Paul’s use of Scripture that do not recognize the social function of Paul’s interpretations.