PAUL AND THE RHETORIC OF REVERSAL: KERYGMATIC ...

(4.21). This threat is immediately followed by a specific instance of Corinthian
puffed-upness (5.1-2). Paul, though physically absent, has already passed
judgment on the man’s action as though he were present (5.3), and expects the
Corinthians to ratify his judgment. 121
Applying Epistolary Analysis, Belleville and Harvey concur that 4:14-21 forms the ending
of the “letter body” – although not as a separate epistle to which more has later been
added. Rather, in drawing the themes of chapters 1–4 to a conclusion, this section is said
to form a transition to an extended paraenetic section, from chapter 5. Similarly,
Ackerman asserts that chapters 5–14 form the paraenetic part of the letter:
After the imperative in 4:16, “Become imitators of me,” Paul gives the church
some practical advice, urging them to model his imitation of the divine paradox.
To do this, he uses a form of rhetoric called paraenesis. Paraenesis is exhortation
and was often used in the Greco-Roman world to address moral issues. 122
Regardless of whether the designation paraenesis is exactly appropriate, 123 this seems to
be an attentive reading of the movement of this section, as I suggested earlier. Indeed,
many of the conventional features of moral exhortation 124 included in chapters 5–14, such
as the terminology of moral persuasion, the use of examples, the call to imitation, and the
use of reminders and warnings, are anticipated in this brief transitionary section. The
Corinthians are summoned to imitate Paul, provided with the example and reminder of
Timothy, urged to respond, and provoked with a warning.
121 Hall, Unity, 33-34.
122 Ackerman, Lo, I Tell You a Mystery, 108.
123 See Malherbe’s distinctions in the footnote below. Wayne Meeks refers to the letter of
1 Corinthians as the “richest example of Christian paraenesis that survives from the first
century”. Wayne Meeks, The Moral World of the First Christians (London: SPCK,
1986), 130.
124 Abraham J. Malherbe writes, “The responsible teacher who adapted himself to the
conditions of his hearers knew a wide range of styles of persuasion and was sensitive to
how appropriate or inappropriate they were to any particular circumstance…. [Protrepsis,
Paraenesis and Diatribe] are related by the practicality of their aims, their unadorned
language, and the devices they use”. Malherbe goes on to illustrate devices such as
comparison, reminder, example, admonition and interlocution. Abraham J. Malherbe,
Moral Exhortation, A Greco-Roman Sourcebook (Philadelphia, Pa.: The Westminster
Press, 1986), 121.
106