shreds. The re-copying process began almost diately, and each copy was made for the conveni church readers. It would be quite natural that two letters should be copied on the same papy and that ultimately they should lose their iden two separate letters. All the more is this likely i were parts of one or both letters which for some (as, for example, that they were too personal a timate), the church thought it better and more to omit from public reading. It is therefore not i able that such a welding of letters took place. The possible example in Rom. 16.

(b) Theories. Granted the possibility that the in 2 Corinthians two letters, or parts of two, the q at once arises, what letters are they? The letter fo chapters 1-9 of course identifies and locates itse was written from Macedonia after Titus' returr Corinth in the autumn of the year 56. But what letter in chapters 10-13? Two theories are sug (1) It is a letter of which nothing else is knowi It is the "lost letter," so-called, referred to by I 2 Cor. 2:4 and 7:8-12.

The former of the two theories is very simple an fairly satisfactory. The difficulty with it lies in certainty. When was such an unknown letter and under what circumstances and from what The answers are left to the merest guesswork.

The second theory has very much in its favo deserves very careful consideration. It solves man interesting problems; and, like all theories, it is o objections.

3. Is 2 Cor. 10-13 the "Lost Letter"?

(a) Identity of the "lost letter." Twice in 2 C ians Paul refers to a letter written by him to C

which caused sorrow to the writer and to the readers. The passages are 2:3-4 and 7:8-12. ferred to, along with the letter mentioned in 1 Cor. 5:9, It is usually reas a "lost letter." But a number of attempts have been made to find it, and to identify it either with I Corinthians, in whole or in part, or with a part of 2 Corinthians. There are certain severe passages in 1 Corinthians (chs. 5-6) which might possibly deserve such phrases as these applied to the "lost letter," viz., "out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you" (2 Cor. 2:4); or, "though I made you sorry with my epistle, I do not regret it" (2 Cor. 7:8). These phrases are applicable, if at all, to only a small part of 1 Corinthians.

Much more plausible is the discovery of this "lost letter" in 2 Cor. 10-13. The hypothesis takes this form. In chapters 10-13 we have not the whole, but a part of the letter which Paul wrote with "many tears," and which was sent to Corinth by Titus from Ephesus in the summer of 56. (See Order of Events between 1 and 2 Corinthians.) The most personal and possibly the severest part of the letter, that which referred to the offender and his punishment, is actually "lost." gone the introduction of the letter. There is no intimaWith it has tion of the beginning of a letter at 2 Cor. 10:1. But that part of the severe letter which was best adapted to reading in the church service, and least apt to give constant personal pain and mortification to individuals, is found in 2 Cor. 10-13.

(b) Arguments for identifying with chapters 10-13. The evidence in favor of this identification is purely internal. It is negative rather than positive; but it is fairly

conclusive.

(1) In the first place it answers to the brief references which Paul makes in chapters 1-9 to another letter. Suppose, for the sake of the argument, that chapters 10-13 are the letter to which he refers, and see how well

tain phrases fit it: "Out of much affliction and of heart I wrote unto you with many tears" (2: wrote... lest when I came I should have sorro them of whom I ought to rejoice" (2:3); "Th made you sorry with my epistle, I do not re though I did regret" (7:8). These all fit the to style of chapters 10-13.

(2) There are certain other general references if chapters 10-13 are the former letter, find in chapters their basis. For example, in 1:23 Paul "But I call God for a witness upon my soul spare you I forbare to come unto Corinth." W 13:2 he had written: "if I come again I will not

Much of chapters 10-13 is given to a kind of se mendation which Paul diffidently calls "gloryi "boasting" (11:5; 11:18; 12:1). In chapters several times refers to self-commendation: "Are ginning again to commend ourselves?" (3:1). not again commending ourselves unto you" (5:12) references multiply when the two parts of 2 Cori are read with this inverted order of sequence in m

(3) In the closing chapters Paul expresses hi lest" there be need of great severity at Corinth bed sin and unrepentance (11:3; 12:20-21). In the chapters he is "confident" and "encouraged" and forted" in his thought of the church at Corinth 9, II, 13, 16; 8:22). In the closing chapters Pa nifies his authority because he fears their disob (10:2-6; 8-11). In the earlier chapters he rej their obedience and loyalty (2:5-10; 7:11).

In the order in which these occur in 2 Corinthia are with difficulty reconciled. If the closing d were the earlier letter the change is most natural. disobedience the church has changed to obedience fear and misgiving Paul has changed to confider

(c) Objections. To the identification of 2 Cor. 10-13 with the letter referred to in 2:4 and 7:8 certain objections naturally present themselves. They must be given full weight.

(1) There is absolutely no external evidence for any such division of 2 Corinthians. In the earliest manuscripts which we have, and, so far as is known, in the manuscript copies used by the early church, the epistle stands just as it is, with no evidence of cleavage of any sort.

(2) "With many tears" does not seem a very true description of chapters 10-13. "Anguish of heart" there is, severity of tone and word, indignation, threat; but hardly "tears."

(3) It is implied in 1:23-2:4 that the severe letter took the place of an expected visit by Paul to Corinth, a visit which Paul decided would have been most unpleasant for all concerned. The letter, therefore, should explain Paul's failure to go to Corinth in person and should excuse him. There is no such excuse in chapters 10-13.

(4) It is made very plain in 2:5-11 and 7:12 that the severe letter had to do, at least in part, with certain individuals, he "that did the wrong" and he "that suffered the wrong. "There is no direct reference to these persons

in chapters 10-13.

In answer to the objections it may be said again that the hypothesis suggests only that we have in chapters 10-13 a part of the severe letter. The strictly personal matter was allowed to be "lost." It was too harrowing for public reading in church. The "lost" part might easily have cost Paul "many tears" in the writing, and it might have contained an explanation of his abandoned visit. That there is no external evidence for such a theory is significant but not conclusive.

As a working hypothesis it is quite satisfactory to think of chapters 10-13, and to read them as

of the letter which Titus carried to Corinth on sion of reconciliation, written several weeks or before chapters 1-9, and responsible, together w good judgment, wisdom and tact of Titus, for the in the Corinthians from disobedience and insult to ence and loyalty, and for the change in Paul from and apprehension to joy and comfort.

III. THE TROUBLE-MAKERS AT CORINTH

There were certain persons at Corinth who ha responsible for an enormous amount of trouble. they were and exactly what the trouble was it is sible to determine in detail or with full satisfacti was not necessary for Paul in writing to be specific his readers knew the precise meaning of each reference. Paul's short visit to Corinth had been serious occasion for him and for the church. were said and done that scorched and scarre probably none of the witnesses of those church ever forgot them. But the readers in these late find themselves very much in the dark. They : to a general knowledge of the times and to the ingenuity in piecing together the story.

A few facts seem assured. There was an ind and there was a group or party. The two as m makers may or may not have been connected. P they were.

In the first nine chapters it is the individual who prominently. In the last four chapters it is the If the last four chapters were part of an earlie than the first nine, this difference between the ind and the group forms one of the separating contras I. In chapters 1-9 an individual is twice mer not by name but by a very pointed reference. hath caused sorrow sufficient to such a one