1 Cor 4.6 - Hellenistic Pedagogy

7/28/2019 1 Cor 4.6 - Hellenistic Pedagogy

1/8

First Corinthians 4:6and Hellenistic Pedagogy

RONALD L. TYLER

Pepperdine UniversityMalibu, CA90263

PAUL'S INJUNCTION in 1 Corinthians 4:6 not to go beyond what is written

is striking for its glimpse into Paul's pedagogy. My goal in this article is toaffirm what, I am convinced, is the most plausible interpretation and to give

the available supportive material for it.1

The Greektext reads S , literally "the 'not beyond

what is written.'"2

There is no main verb, and one's way of dealing with this

determines not only the resultant translation but the interpretation. The

sense is extremely difficult to grasp, as prevailing translations reveal.3

That

1

This study was originally presented as a research report at the Annual Meeting of theCatholic Biblical Association of America at the University of Notre Dame in 1990. Just prior

to presenting the paper I discovered that Benjamin Fiore and John Fitzgerald, in their doctoral

dissertations, had reached the conclusion I had reached. I benefited from speaking with each of

them at that meeting. I am glad that their workconfirmed my finding, and that mine supported

theirs. It is striking that we reached our conclusions from different vantage points.2

The neuter singular relative pronoun instead ofthe neuter plural is the only variant.3

Some translators indicate that Paul is referring to Scripture. In the following examples,

I italicize what represents & . The RSVreads, "I have applied all this to

myself and Apollos for your benefit, brethren, that you may learn by us to live according to

scripture, that none ofyou may be puffed up in favor ofone against another." Others stress Paul'sreference to a well-known saying. The NRSV renders v. 6 as "I have applied all this to Apollos

and myself for your benefit brothers and sisters so that you may learn through us the meaning


2/8

98 THE CATHOLIC BIBLICALQUARTERLY I 60, 1998

Paul is quoting something understandable to his hearers is evidenced by his

placing the neuter article before the quotation. Also, the general context

is clear, the vocative "brothers and sisters" () coupled with the

revealing that Paul is coming to a crucial juncture in his argument. Simply

put, he says that it is time they learn what he has been saying; then he cites

the four-word maxim.

In 1 Cor 4:6 Paul begins a new unit in which he applies the theology of

the cross, expounded in 1 Cor 1:18-2:6, by calling upon the Corinthians to

emulate his lifestyle in Christ, fortified by this theology. In 1 Cor 4:6 he

explains that he has used the earlier analogies regarding Apollos and himself

for their benefit, to help them. Two purpose clauses then follow, with the first

containing the problematic words. As the second purpose clause shows, all

that has preceded is meant to urge them not to be puffed up with false pride

and wisdom against one another. This is what is addressed in the paragraph

whose opening verse is 1 Cor 4:6.4

Careful observation of the context is crucial: Paul is trying to set before

his hearers the proper view of God and humankind. Their thinking of God

is not high enough, while their view ofthemselves is too high. This arrogance

has resulted in partisan spirit, as the Corinthians' emphasis on one teacher

over against another reveals. Therefore, when Paul writes in 4:6, "I have

applied all this to myself and Apollos for your benefit," he is referring back

to 3:5, "What then is Apollos? What is Paul?" He is trying to get the Corin

thians to learn to live "not beyond what is written" (4:6).

The intended ethical result of the maxim's application would be a reli

gious reorientation in which the proper view of people would replace the

Corinthians' mistaken one, a result to be achieved by placing God in his

rightful place in the life of the church. Beyond this, the hearers would stop

being puffed up in favor ofone minister against another, the potential divisions

myself on your account, so that you may take our case as an example, and learn to 'keep within

the rules, ' as they say, and may not be inflated with pride as you patronize one and flout the

other." Some, the NASB, for example, believe that Paul is referring to something written, "Now

these things, brethren, I have figurativelyapplied to myself and Apollos for your sakes, that in

us you might learn not to exceed what is written, in order that no one of you might become

arrogant in behalf of one against the other.*' The JBrepresents those who see this as a maxim

and translates: "Now in everything I have said here, brothers, I have taken Apollos and myself

as an example {remember the maxim: 'Keep to what is written '), it is not for you, so full of your

own importance, to go taking sides for one man against another." Moflatt believes it makes nosense whatever and simply omits it, "Now I have applied what has been said above to myself and

A ll t t h th t t t b ff d ith i l t h i t


3/8

FIRST CORINTHIANS 4:6 99

would stop, and God's wisdom would replace human reason. Interpreters

have often recognized that the Greek love ofreason seems to have influenced

God's wisdom revealed in the gospel, or to have taken its place. Byconsidering

what Paul has just said about himselfand Apollos, the hearers were to cease

thinking so highly of ministers and were not to take pride in one against

another. This is the thrust of chaps. 1-4.

Paul thinks in deeplyHebraic categories; yet he is also a product of his

Greekenvironment, and in order to communicate truths to the Corinthians

he has to use imagerywhich theycan understand. It is logical to assume that

in 4:6 Paul is citing a popular proverb well known in Corinth. While it is

possible that Paul is citing a rabbinic dictum of his own which the Corin

thians had learned from him and would recognize, evidence cannot be ad

duced for this. It is more likelythat S is a maxim which

theywould have known independentlyof Paul.5

The following six observa

tions demonstrate this.

1. It can be cogently argued that Paul is quoting a popular proverb. The

use of the neuter article to introduce a quotation can be amplyillustrated.6

Here, the article is the object of the verb , "learn," and it introduces

our difficult maxim, deliberately elliptical in form, with no verb expressed

after the negating .7This might be taken as a rejection of the notion that

Paul is referring to what he has just written, or to the OT in some sense, butif it be granted that he is quoting a popular proverb which itself refers to the

5

L. L. Welborn ("A Conciliatory Principle in 1 Cor. 4:6," NovT29 [1987]328) affirms that

& is "a proverbial saying which Paul had reason to believe would be known

to the Corinthians, whether from the surrounding culture or from their particular milieu."6

W. Bauer, Griechisch-deutsches Wrterbuch zu den Schriften des Neuen Testaments

und der frhchristlichen Literatur (6th ed., newly edited by Kurt Aland and Barbara Aland;

Berlin: de Gruyter, 1988) 1119. Examples in the NT include Matt 19:18; Luke 22:3; Gal 5:14;

Rom 13:9. Examples from the early Greek fathers' quotations from NT writings, the works ofJosephus, and classical literature are abundant. Nigel Turner (J. H. Moulton, A Grammar of

New Testament Greek 3: Syntax, by Nigel Turner [Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1963] 182) correctly

states that "as in classical Greek the neuter article may be prefixed to quoted words"; he gives

several examples in the NT, including 1 Cor 4:6, of which he writes, "unless we emend, it is best

taken as a quotation of a slogan." The neuter singular article's introductory function before a

proverb or slogan is also noted by C. Wordsworth, The New Testament of Our Lord and Savior

Jesus Christ: St. Paul's Epistles (5th ed.; London: Rivingtons, 1868) 93; B. L. Gildersleeve,

Syntax of Classical Greek from Homer to Demosthenes (2 vols.; New York: American Book

Co., 1900-1911) 1. 265; and Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (4 vols.;

Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1946) 3. 205. C. F. D. Moule (An Idiom Book of New TestamentGreek [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1959] 110-11) and C. F. G. Heinrici {Der erste

B i f di K i h [KEK 5 8 h d G i V d h k & R h 1896] 147) h


4/8

100 THE CATHOLIC BIBLICAL QUARTERLY I 60, 1998

OT, too much should not be made ofthis. Notice that the NIV and the NRSV

accept the notion of Paul's quoting a saying well known to his readers.

2. The use of similar constructions in classical literature makes it prob

able that the Corinthians would realize that Paul was quoting a proverb. Theelliptic omission of the verb after is commonly found in the Greekclas

sics.8

There are many ellipses in Paul's letters.9

Unfortunately, there is a

general tendency to smooth them out, as the manuscript tradition testifies.10

3. The citation of a popular proverb, a Pauline slogan, or a Corinthian

slogan is in keeping with Paul's general approach to the Corinthians. Paul's

approach is to use something they knew, something "off the street," as it

were, to underscore his point. An example would be 1 Cor 2:7 where Paul

contrasts a "secret and hidden" wisdom of God with esoteric and exotericdoctrines taught by philosophers.

4. Citation of a popular proverb is consistent with Paul's frequent use of

infant and childhood language in 1 Corinthians. In 1 Cor 3:1-2 Paul responds

to the Corinthians' criticism ofhis failure to give them more advanced teachings

by saying that he could not address them save as "babes in Christ" whom he

had to feed with milk rather than solid food. In 1 Cor 4:14-15 he informs

them that he writes to them as "beloved children," since he is their "father

in Christ" through the gospel. In 1 Cor 13:11 he chides them by saying,

"When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned

like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways."11

It is significant

that in applying a slogan to members of a church so fond of slogans Paul

treats them like children.

5. Paul is using a rhetorical form with which the Corinthians were fami

liar. Welborn observes that "it is striking how many of the metaphors and

images employed by political orators in depicting factious communities are

found in Paul's exhortation" in 1 Corinthians 1-4.12

As examples he indicates

8J. A. Hrtung {Lehre von den Partikeln der griechischen Sprache [2 vols.; Erlangen:

Palm & Enke, 1832] 2. 153) gives many other examples. H. Alford {The Greek Testament 2: The

Acts of the Apostles, the Epistles to the Romans andCorinthians [5th ed.; London: Rivingtons,

1865] 500) seems to be drawing from Hrtung.9

F. Blass and A. Debrunner {A Greek Grammar of the New Testament andOther Early

Christian Literature [Chicago: University ofChicago Press, 1961] 253-55) discusses ellipsis, with

numerous examples; see especially 480.5, on ellipses ofverbs, and 481, on freer ellipses which

occur "especially in letters, where the writer can count on the knowledge which the recipient

shares with himself and where he imitates ordinary speech."10 See C. Tischendorf, Novum Testamentum Graece (2 vols.; 8th ed.; Leipzig: Giesecke &

D i 1869 72) 2 475 f f ll li f i


5/8


Paul's use of Corinthian slogans, his calling the Corinthians "babies" needing

milk, not solid food, his architectural metaphor in 1 Cor 3:9-15, and his refer

ence to himself and Apollos as examples.

6. Commentators' observation that a similar rhetorical form is lackingin later rabbinic literature shows that commentators often repeat one another

without adequate documentation from ancient texts or archaeological data.

To what is Paul referring? What are the Corinthians probably supposed

to recognize? Paul refers to a pedagogical conception which his hearers would

recognize from their early education. They would recall their earliest expe

riences when, as children, they learned to write, and a person who could not

write would know the image from the pedagogy of the time.13 The reference

is to the instruction given to children learning to write letters ofthe alphabet.

A teacher would carefully write the letter, word, or sentence, and the pupilwould then meticulously copy the teacher's model or would trace over the

lines lightly drawn by the teacher. A teacher might direct a pupil's fingers

tracing over the light outline of letters already drawn. Pupils would go through

this rote copying many times before being able to draw the letters for them

selves. Throughout the process the pupil had to be careful not to go above

the line with some letters or to go below the line with others. One was neither

to fall short of the model given nor to go beyond it. Here are three examples

in which such pedagogical practice is described.The first, from one of Seneca's epistles to Lucilius, stems from about the

same time as 1 Corinthians.14

Boys study according to direction. Theirfingersare held and guided by othersso that they may follow the outlines of the letters; next, they are ordered toimitate a copy and base thereon a style of penmanship. Similarly the mind ishelped if it is taught according to direction. (Seneca Ep. 94.51)

15

The second example is from Plato's Protagoras, The context (Prt. 320-28)

is a characteristic speech in which Protagoras illustrates the Platonic doctrine

13Especially valuable from the studies of ancient education are those of W. Jaeger, Pal

deia: The Ideals of Greek Culture (3 vols.; 2d ed.; New York: Oxford University Press, 1945);

S. F. Bonner, Education in Ancient Rome, from the Elder Cato to the hunger Pliny (Berkeley:

University of California Press, 1977); H. I. Marrou, A History of Education in Antiquity

(Mentor Books MQ552; New York: New American Library, 1964); W. V. Harris, Ancient Literacy

(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1989). Since Harris is so conservative in his view

of the extent of literacy in antiquity, the series of responses in Mary Beard et al., Literacy in the

Roman World(Journal of Roman Archaeology Supplementary Series 3; Ann Arbor, MI: Journal of Roman Archaeology, 1991) serve as a balance.

14


6/8

102 THE CATHOLIC BIBLICAL QUARTERLY I 60, 1998

that virtue can be taught, both by individuals and by the state. In the course

of his speech he says of the sons of the rich that

when they are released from their schooling, the city next compels them to learn

the laws and to live according to them as after a pattern, that their conduct may

not be swayed by their own light fancies, but just as writing-masters first draw

letters in faint outline with the pen for their less advanced pupils, and then give

them the copy-book and make them write according to the guidance of their

lines, so the city sketches out for them the laws devised by good lawgivers of

yore, and constrains them to govern and be governed according to these. (Plato

Prt. 326D)16

In the third example, Quintilian, prior to 96 CE. , is talking about a child

learning the alphabet.

As soon as the child has begun to know the shapes of the various letters, it will

be no bad thing to have them cut as accurately as possible upon a board, su that

the pen may be guided along the grooves. Thus mistakes such as occur with wax

tablets will be rendered impossible; for the pen will be confined between the

edges of the letters and will be prevented from going astray. Further by increasing

the frequency and speed with which they follow these fixed outlines we shall give

steadiness to the fingers, and there will be no need to guide the child's hand with

our own. The art of writing well and quickly is not unimportant for our purpose,though it is generally disregarded by persons of quality. Writing is of the utmost

importance in the study which we have under consideration and by its means

alone can true and deeply rooted proficiency be obtained. But a sluggish pen

delays our thoughts, while an uninformed and illiterate hand cannot be deci

phered, a circumstance which necessitates another wearisome task, namely, the

dictation of what we have written to a copyist. We shall therefore at all times and

in all places, and above all when we are writing private letters to our friends, find

a gratification in the thought that we have not neglected even this accomplish

ment. (Quintilian Inst. 1.1.27-29)17

Using such imagery, immediately recognizable to the Corinthians, Paul

is telling the Corinthians to follow Apollos and himself as models: "Copy us,

imitate us, being careful, just as you were as children learning to write letters,

not to write above or below the lines."18

While Paul stresses a parity between

16 The translation is taken from Plato: Laches; Protagoras; Meno; Euthydemus, with an

English translation by W. R. M. Lamb (LCL; London: Heinemann; New York: Putnam's, 1924) 145.17 The translation is taken from The Institutio Oratoria of Quintilian, with an English

translation by H. E. Butler (4 vols.; LCL; London: Heinemann; New York: Putnam's, 1921-22) 1.


7/8


Apollos and himself, he makes it clear that he is their one and only father and

that his work is earlier than that of Apollos ("I planted, Apollos watered")

and thus, is greater in importance.

The Corinthians translate this into life by recalling the religious ABCswhich they learned from Paul and Apollos. Those teachings provide a theo-

centric emphasis which should correct the Corinthians' anthropocentric view

of Christianity. They should cease to be puffed in favor of one missionary

over another, and divisions in the church should not occur.19

This interpretation of 1 Cor 4:6 fits the context and the moment of the

relationship between teacher and student just as it does in the passages quoted

from Seneca, Plato, and Quintilian. The familiar image of not going above

or below the line when writing was available to them. It fits the theological,

ethical, and rhetorical context in which Paul develops his argument within

the total context of childhood language in 1 Corinthians. Finally, this inter

pretation satisfies.

19 Fiore (" 'Covert Allusion,'" 174 n. 24) affirms that "the advantage of seeing the phrase

in 1 Cor 4:6 in terms of a school exercise is that this preserves the rhetorical harmony of the

context and provides a parallel in usage as far as character imitation goes."


8/8

^ s

Copyright and Use:

As an ATLAS user, you may print, download, or send articles for individual use

according to fair use as defined by U.S. and international copyright law and as

otherwise authorized under your respective ATLAS subscriber agreement.

No content may be copied or emailed to multiple sites or publicly posted without the

copyright holder(s)' express written permission. Any use, decompiling,

reproduction, or distribution of this journal in excess of fair use provisions may be a

violation of copyright law.

This journal is made available to you through the ATLAS collection with permission

from the copyright holder(s). The copyright holder for an entire issue of a journal

typically is the journal owner, who also may own the copyright in each article. However,

for certain articles, the author of the article may maintain the copyright in the article.

Please contact the copyright holder(s) to request permission to use an article or specific

work for any use not covered by the fair use provisions of the copyright laws or covered

by your respective ATLAS subscriber agreement. For information regarding the

copyright holder(s), please refer to the copyright information in the journal, if available,

or contact ATLA to request contact information for the copyright holder(s).

About ATLAS:

The ATLA Serials (ATLAS) collection contains electronic versions of previously

published religion and theology journals reproduced with permission. The ATLAS

collection is owned and managed by the American Theological Library Association

(ATLA) and received initial funding from Lilly Endowment Inc.

The design and final form of this electronic document is the property of the American

Theological Library Association.

1 Cor 4.6 - Hellenistic Pedagogy

Documents

Transcript of 1 Cor 4.6 - Hellenistic Pedagogy