This post is Claude.ai’s summary of Nongbri, Brent. “Cobbling Together 2 Corinthians.” Biblical Archaeology Review 52.3 (2026): 60–61.
Summary: Nongbri, “Cobbling Together 2 Corinthians”
Biblical Archaeology Review 52.3 (2026): 60–61
Thesis
Many New Testament scholars believe several of Paul’s letters are composite: “made up from parts of shorter letters that were sent on different occasions and only combined at some later point.” Nearly all of Paul’s letters have been subject to such “partition theories” at some point. 2 Corinthians is the one most often considered a combination of two or more letters. Nongbri’s conclusion is that partition is possible but not necessarily needed (Nongbri 2026).
The case for partition
- Supporters point to “literary seams,” meaning abrupt changes in tone or subject.
- The tone of 2 Corinthians 1–9 is generally warm. Chapters 10–13 are combative and sometimes sarcastic.
- Some say chapters 10–13 are the letter Paul mentions in 2 Cor 2:4: “I wrote you out of much distress and anguish of heart and with many tears” (NRSV). On this view, an earlier letter now stands after chapters 1–9.
- Others argue 6:14–7:1, which urges avoiding all contact with unbelievers, is a fragment of another letter, “perhaps even a letter by someone other than Paul.”
The test question
Nongbri asks whether things like this actually happened in antiquity: did people combine separate letters, and could they be jumbled out of chronological order?
What the manuscripts show
In all substantially preserved manuscripts, 2 Corinthians is “a seamless whole.” The earliest of these probably dates from 150 to 200 years after Paul, so the manuscripts do not settle the question.
Ancient analogies
- Pachomius. The letters of this fourth-century Egyptian monk survive in a Latin translation of 11 letters. Very early manuscripts found in Egypt divide them differently.
- A Greek parchment copy, probably made within a century of his death, does not divide between Latin letters 1 and 2.
- A Coptic papyrus has the second half of letter 11, then letter 10, then the first half of letter 11.
- So letters were combined, divided or reordered in transmission.
- Pasted rolls. Recipients sometimes archived letters by pasting them into a tomos synkollesimos (“pasted roll”). Letters were sometimes attached in the order received rather than written.
- Unreliable delivery. Outside official Roman administration there was no organized postal service. A letter sent days ago might arrive before one sent weeks ago.
Obstacles for partition
- Letters in a pasted roll still keep their opening and closing formulas. No surviving manuscript has an extra closing or opening formula between 2 Cor 9 and 10.
- When rolls were recopied, those formulas were sometimes abbreviated and sometimes lost altogether in the surviving examples.
- Theories that divide 2 Corinthians into more than two letters would need several of these processes, “all happening multiple times to a single collection.”
Evidence that cuts both ways
An Oxyrhynchus papyrus letter begins as a seemingly loving note from a husband to a wife, then turns into a sarcastic rebuke as it closes. It is the kind of sharp tonal change that might suggest two letters, if we did not have the original.
Conclusion
There are “reasonably good ancient analogies” for treating 2 Corinthians as composite. But partition theories “are possible, but they might not be necessary.” The more complicated they are, “the less likely they are to reflect the realities of ancient letter writing and archiving” (Nongbri 2026).
About the author: Brent Nongbri is Professor of History of Religions at the MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion, and Society in Oslo, and specializes in early Christian manuscripts.
