Jan Lambrecht, «The Fool’s Speech and Its Context: Paul’s Particular Way of Arguing in 2 Cor 10–13», Vol. 82 (2001) 305-324

Paul’s particular way of arguing in 2 Cor 10–13 is visible in the Fool’s Speech (11,22–12,10) as well as in its context. The speech is interrupted more than once and there are shifts regarding the object of boasting. The introduction to the speech (11,1-21) is not straightforward and two brief retrospections (12,11a and 19a) should not go unnoticed. The major topic in this study, however, consists in the indication of three rings within the context of the Fool’s Speech: (1) 10,1 and 13,11 (moral exhortation); (2) 10,2-18 and 13,1-10 (Paul’s defense of his authority); (3) 11,5-12 and 12,11b-18 (Paul denies inferiority). Yet from the presence of these enveloping rings a strict concentric structure of 2 Cor 11–13 cannot be deduced. Special attention must also be given to 10,8.12-18 and 11,3-4.12-15.18-20. In these passages Paul, by comparing and attacking, seems to prepare his boasting as a fool in a more direct way.

        (7) In 10,18 one meets the motif of test and approval, which is dominant in chapter 13 (see 13,3.5-7)¹⁸.

        (8) ‘To belong to Christ’ in 10,7 recurs in the slightly different expressions of 13,5: to be living in the faith; Jesus Christ is in you (cf. 13,3: ‘Christ is speaking through [e)n] me’).

        Vocabulary. In view of the presence in both chapters of all these motifs, it should not surprise us that there is a similarity in their respective vocabularies as well: e.g., present and absent, power and powerful, authority and building up, ‘not for destruction’, letters or writing, faith and test¹⁹. Given these parallels, E.-B. Allo can justly affirm: ‘L’"apologie" des 4 chapitres font un tout très harmonique, où la fin rejoint le commencement’²⁰.

        Time dimension. Finally, in contrast to chapters 11–12, which contain Paul’s ‘foolish’ boasting only about what he was (and is) and all that he did and suffered in the past, chapter 10 as well as