APOCRYPHAL EPISTLES TO THE CORINTHIANS. - A brief letter of the Corinthians and a somewhat longer reply of Paul (III Cor.), suggested, it seems, respectively by I Cor. 7:1 and 5:9.
In the name of the community, Stephen, together with other elders, informs Paul about the activity of certain Simon and Cleobius, who preach doctrines never heard from his mouth, contrary, indeed, to his teaching. They deny the authority of the prophets; the creation and universal dominion of God, to which they seem to oppose the angels in their relations with the world; the reality of the Incarnation of Christ and the resurrection of the flesh. So that the error may not take root, the writers call for a prompt intervention by Paul. He responds by refuting point by point the teaching of the false preachers. The thoughts and expressions are drawn, for the most part, from the Pauline letters.
The discovery of the Coptic text of the Acta Pauli by C. Schmidt (Acta Pauli aus der Heidelberger koptischen Papyrushandschrift Nr. 1 herausgegeben, Leipzig 1904; 2nd ed. ibid. 1905) has shown decisively that the two letters originally formed part of the Acta (v. PAOLO, ATTI APOCRIFI di). The fact that III Cor. was accepted, for a time, into the canon of the Syriac and Armenian Churches contributed to their being considered as separate texts and to their credit; hence St. Ephrem, along with the Pauline letters, also comments on these two, the first as a preamble to the second. The content, which has an antagonistic coloring, suggests placing the date of the Acts of Paul between 160 and 170. According to Tertullian (De Baptismo, 17: PL 1, 1328 ff.) they would be by an Asian priest, who, for this forgery inspired in him by love for the Apostle, was deprived of his dignity. Cf. St. Jerome, De Viris ill., 17: PL 23, 651.
Bibliography2 worksFor the Coptic text: C. Schmidt, op. cit. in the text: a German version of the Armenian text and two Latin recensions were published by P. V
BIBL.: For the Coptic text: C. Schmidt, op. cit. in the text: a German version of the Armenian text and two Latin recensions were published by P. Vetter, Der apokryphe dritte Korintherbrief, Vienna 1894; L. Vouaux, Les Actes de Paul et ses lettres apocryphes, Paris 1913, pp. 248-75, Latin text and French version: E. Hennecke, Neutestamentliche Apokryphen, 2nd ed., Tübingen 1924, p. 207 ff., (German version): M. R. James, The Apocryphal New Testament, Oxford 1924, p. 289 ff.: K. Pink, Die pseudopaulinischen Briefe I, in Biblica, 6 (1925), pp. 68-91: E. Amann, Apocryphes du Nouveau Testament, in DBs, I, col. 518 f.
Teodorico da Castel S. Pietro. “Corinti, epistole apocrife ai.” In Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. IV, coll. 556–557. Città del Vaticano: Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1950. https://azioneromana.com/article/corinti-epistole-apocrife-ai.
MLA
Teodorico da Castel S. Pietro. “Corinti, epistole apocrife ai.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. IV, Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1950, coll. 556–557. Azione Romana, https://azioneromana.com/article/corinti-epistole-apocrife-ai.
BibTeX
@incollection{ec4_corinti_epistole_apocrife_ai,
author = {Teodorico da Castel S. Pietro},
title = {Corinti, epistole apocrife ai},
booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica},
volume = {IV},
pages = {556--557},
note = {Cited by column},
publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico},
address = {Città del Vaticano},
year = {1950},
url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/corinti-epistole-apocrife-ai}
}
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