Paul's Prophetic reconfiguration of his Diakonia in 2 Corinthans: reassessing the evidence in light of Second Temple Jewish perspectives on prophecy.

My project proposes to build upon an already existing research tradition of biblical studies on Pauls Corinthian correspondence at K.U.Leuven. In the First Letter to the Corinthians Paul was writing to a community divided by internal conflicts. However, within a relatively short period of time, between one and two years (sometime in the 50s of the Common Era), Paul had himself become implicated in a conflict with members of the Corinthian community. The Second Letter to the Corinthians displays Paul on the defensive, polemically and apologetically defending his apostolic ministry and seeking to win back the Corinthian community onto his side from opponents who were critical of Paul. My proposal delves into the question of how Paul understood his apostolic ministry. The high incidence of reference to terms like ministers and ministry in the epistle indicates that Paul was in debate with rivals on precisely this issue. My research project proposes to break new and original ground by applying insights on Pauls self-understanding of himself as a prophet, both in light of Old Testament prophets, but also in light of the evolving nature of prophecy prevalent in Pauls own time among contemporaneous Second Temple Jewish groups and authors.

Keywords:Diakonia, Apostolic ministry, Second Temple Judaism, Second Corinthians, Corinthian correspondence, Pauline studies, Prophecy, Greco-Roman Corinth

Disciplines:Theology and religious studies