1 cor 7.21 - 22 - diatribe pattern

7/28/2019 1 Cor 7.21 - 22 - Diatribe Pattern

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A DI AT RI BE P A T T E R N IN 1 C O R . 7 :21-22 :

A N E W P E R S P E C T I V E O N P A U L ' S D I R E C T I O N S T O

S L A V E S

by

WILL DEMING

Portland, O R

In addressing the themes of circumcision and slavery in 1 Cor.

7:17-24, Paul utilizes as his framework a teaching on the equality

in Christ of Jews and Greeks, and slaves and freemen. Var iat ions

of this teaching also occur in Galatians, Romans, and elsewhere in

1 Corinthians.1

As many commentators have noted, however, 1

Cor. 7:17-24 distinguishes itself from these other instances in that

it employs what are considered hallmarks of the diatribe style.2

Thus, vv. 18 and 21 both move with a brisk, staccato phrasing, and

v. 18 introduces a hypothetical person into the discussion, while v.

21 employs the direct address of the second person singular. Accep

ting these stylistic observations as valid, the present article willattempt to move beyond them and demonstrate that in writing 1

Cor. 7:17-24 Paul not only cast his thoughts in a diatribal style, but

he also made use of a specific diatribal pattern What I mean by this

is that the arrangement of Paul's argument in these verses actually

conforms to a distinctive syntactical formula or pattern that we find

in other Hellenistic authors. When I have presented the evidence

for this conclusion, I will then explore its implications for inter

pre ting Pau l' s direct ions to slaves in 1 Cor. 7:21-22.

From an examination of several Hellenistic authors, I have

isolated a diatribal pattern on which Paul seems to depend in 1 Cor.

7:17-24. This pattern consists of two, and sometimes three,

elements. First, a statement of fact is given in the form of a

1I e , Gal 3 28, 5 6, 6 15, Rom 10 12, 1 Co r 12 13

2E g , Johannes Wei, Der erste Korintherbrief (MeyerK 5, Gottmgen

Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht , 1925) 184-85, Hans Conzelmann, 1 Corinthians

(Hermeneia, Philadelphia For tress, 1975) 5, 126, and Rudolf Bultmann, Der Stil

der paulimschen Predigt und die kynisch-stoische Diatribe ( F R L A N T 13, GottmgenVandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1910) 69 Oddly, Gordon D Fee, The First Epistle

to the Corinthians ( N I CN T Grand Rapids Mich William Eerdmans 1987)


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A DIATRIBE PATTERN IN 1 COR. 7 : 2 1 - 2 2 131

rhetorical question.3

This is often in the direct address of the second

person singular. Next, an imperative follows, the main purpose of

this imperative being to deny that the statement of fact has anysignificance for a person's life. Finally, an explanation is sometimes

added as to why the statement of fact should be treated with such

indifference.

The first instance of this pattern in Greek literature is the well-

known parallel from Teles, a Cynic philosopher of the third century

B.C.E. In his treatise On Self-Sufficiency we find three statements of

fact (as rhetorical questions) coupled with three imperatives. Th e

whole is then followed by a combined explanation:

You have grown old?do no t seek the things of a young man'

Agai n, you have become weak?do not seek to carry and submit your neck to

th e loads of a strong man'

Agai n, you have become destitute?do not seek the rich man's way of life '

Therefore, as I say, I do not see how circumstances themselves have anything

troublesome, not old age or poverty or lack of citizenship4

A second instance of this pattern is found in the first century

C.E., in the Jewish theologian Philo. In his treatise OnJoseph, Philo

describes this patriarch's rise to power in Egypt as a matter of

philosophical necessity. This "statesman/' he explains, must come

on the scene and give teachings as to the truth of things. Among

these teachings are eight examples of our diatribe pattern, numbers

three, four, and eight having all three elementsthe statement of

fact, the imperative, and the explanation:

This is another's?don't desire it1

This is yours?use it, not misusing it'

You have abundance?share' For the be auty of riches is not m purses, but in

aiding those in need

You have littl e? d on' t begru dg e the rich ' For no one would show compassion to

a slanderous pauper

You're famous and have received honors?don't brag'

Yo ur fortunes ar e lo wly? nonetheless , don' t let yo ur spirits fall'

3

There is some debate as to whether the statement of fact should be translated

as an inter rogative BD F 262 (494), for example, rema rks that while it cor

resp onds to a condition al protas is, it need not be rend ered as a question But this

overlooks the examples from Seneca (below), where the Latin syntax is clearly

interrogative4

Teles frag 2 10 65-80, tra ns Edw ard O' Neil , Teles (The Cynic Teacher)

(S BL TT 11 Mi l M t S h l P 1977) 11 t ti difi d


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132 WILL DEMING

All adva nces for you as you pl ann ed?b ewa re of ch an ge '

You st umble of ten?hope for success' For when things turn among men, they

tend toward their opposites5

Still other examples of this diatribe pattern appear in two Stoic

authors, in Seneca (in Latin) in the mid first century, and in

Epictetus in the early second century. In his tractate On Tranquillity

of the Mind, in admonishing a person to pursue virtue regardless of

outward circumstances, Seneca gives several examples of our pat

tern. The last two include the explanation:

Is he not perm it ted to be a soldier?let him seek public office'

Must he live in a private station?let him help his countrymen by his silent

support'Is it dangerous even to enter the forum?in private houses, at the public spec

tacles, at feasts let him show himself a good comrade, a faithful friend, a

temperate feaster'

Has he lost the duties of a citizen?let him exercise those of a man' The very

reason for our magnanimity in not shutting ourselves up within the walls of one

city, in going forth into intercourse with the whole earth and in claiming the

world as our country , was that we might have a wider field for ou r vi rtue

Is the tribunal closed to you, and are you barred from the rostrum and the

husti ngs?look how many broad stretching countries he open behind you, how

ma ny peoples ' Ne ver can you be blocked from any par t so large that a still larger

will not be left open to you6

Epictetus, finally, supplies us with three more examples. Like those

from Teles, the statement-imperative pairs here are followed by a

combined explanation:

Re me mb er that you must conduct yourself as in a banq uet Has something been

passed around down to you?reach out your hand and politely take some'

It goes on by?don't hold it back'

It hasn't come yet?don't set your desire on it at a distance, but stay put until

it is dow n by you '

Thus toward children, thus toward a wife, thus toward public office, thus toward

wealth, an d some da y you will be worthy of the banquet of the gods 7

Returning now to 1 Cor. 7, we can see that the diatribal pattern

used by Teles, Philo, Seneca, and Epictetus appears no less than

five times in this chapterin 7:18-19, 7:21-22, and 7:27. In 7:18-

19 we find two statements of fact and two imperatives followed by

a combined explanation:

5

Philo Dejos 144, cited by Henry St John Thackeray, The Relation of St Paul

to Contemporary Jewish Thought (London Macmillan, 1900) 2396 Sen De tranquillitate animi 4 3-4, tra ns J oh n W Basore, Seneca Moral Essays

(LCL, London William Heinemann/New York G Pu tm an 's Sons, 1932-35)

2 229 t ti difi d li htl


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A DIATRIBE PATTERN IN 1 COR. 7 : 2 1-2 2 133

Someone was called having been circumcised?let him not remove the circum

cision'

Someone has been called in an uncircumcised state?let him not be circumcised'

Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing, rather, keeping the commandments of God

A third statement of fact and a third imperative are found in v. 21a,

followed in v. 22 with an explanation. This time, however, v. 21b

interrupts the pattern with a qualification, the meaning of which we

will consider below:

You were called as a sla ve? don't let it concern you'

But if you can become free, rather use it

Fo r the slave who is called in the Lord is the Lord's freedman, likewise, the onecalled as a freeman is Christ's slave

Finally, two more instances of the pattern appear in 7:27, this time

without an explanation:

You are bound to a wi fe?don't seek release'

You ar e released from a wife? don't seek a wife'

This comparison of 1 Cor. 7:18-19, 21-22, and 27 with the

philosophical examples cited above leads to the conclusion that Paul

has used a relatively popular diatribe pattern to structure his material in these verses.

8Indeed, a closer inspection of 1 Cor. 7:21-22

reveals that Paul's interest in using this pattern has even prevented

him from finishing out his paradigm of Jew/Greek, slave/free, for

these verses lack the last part of that paradigm.9

This is because

Paul cannot very well add to v. 21a, "You were called as a

freeman?don't become a slave!" or "You were called as a

freeman?don't let it concern you! " , since the imperative in this

case would be nonsensical. All the same, v. 22b offers the explana

tion for this missing statement and imperative just as if they were

there, although the intervening qualification in v. 21b tends to

obscure this inconsistency.

8

Variations on this basic pattern may also be found in Posidippus,

Metrodorus, Sirach, and Plutarch, although, as variations, they have no

immediate bear ing on our analysis here For a discussion of these, see my forth

coming, Paul on Marriage andCelibacy (SNTSMS, Cambri dge Cambri dge Univer

sity Press, 1995) 161-649

See Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer, Critical and ExegeticalHandbook to the

Epistles to the Corinthians (Ed inb urg h and Clark, 1892) 1 218, Wei, Korin-therbrief 187, E Neuhaus ier, " R uf Gottes und Stand des Christen Bemerku ngen

zu 1 Kor 7 , " BZ s 3 (1959) 47, and Fee, First Epistle, 315, cf S Scott Bartchy,


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134 WILL DEMING

If, on the basis of this evidence, it is admissible to assume that

Paul has used a patterna predictable rhetorical structurein 1

Cor. 7:18-19, 21-22, and 27, then it is possible that this informationcan help to clarify his statement on slavery in 7:21b. As the many

studies on this verse attest, there are two camps of interpretation

and basically two lines of argumentation.1 0

On the one hand, many

scholars favor grammatical approaches, such as a syntactical

analysis of the phrases and ' et , or Paul' s

choice of the aorist as opposed to the present imperative of.

These scholars understand Paul as encouraging slaves to work

toward their manumission: "if indeed" slaves have the opportunity

to become free, they should use it. 1 1 On the other hand, there arescholars who interpret this verse based on their perception of the

Apostle's theology. They understand Paul as favoring the status

quo, either as a social conservative or from eschatological motiva

tions, and consequently interpret him as saying: "even if" slaves

have the opportunity to become free, they should use their present

state.1 2

To date, however, neither interpretation has prevailed, for

both have formidable shortcomings. The grammatical interpreta

tion rests entirely on general usage or analogy, while the alternative

argument involves the risky business of extrapolating from selected

principles of Pau l' s theology.13

1 0

For overviews, see Norbert Baume rt, Ehelosigkeit und Ehe im Herrn Eine

Neuinterpretation von 1 Kor 7(FB 47, Wurz bu rg Echter Verlag, 1984) 114-21, and

the comparative lists in Bartchy, , 6-7 Bart chy 's own inter

pretation falls into neit her cam p He unders tan ds Paul as inst ruct ing slaves to

make use of their Christian calling, rather than slavery or freedom {

, 120, 155-59, and "Slavery (Greco-Roman)" ABD 6 71) This inter

pretation is rightly dismissed as too contrived by Baumert, Ehelosigkeit und Ehe,

121, and Fee, First Epistle, 316 n 42, 317 nn 46 and 4811E g , Mar gar et E Thral l, GreekParticles in the New Testament Linguistic and

Exegetical Studies (NTTS 3, Grand Rapi ds, Mich Eer dman s, 1962) 78-82, and

Baumert, Ehelosigkeit und Ehe, 121-341 2

E g , Wei, Korintherbrief 187-88, Conze lmann, 1 Corinthians, 127, C Bar

rett, A Commentary on the First Epistle to the Corinthians ( H N T C , New York and

Evanston Har pe r and Row, 1968) 170-71, and E Neuhaus ier, " R u f Gottes, "

49-52, 59, see also Roland Gayer, Die Stellung des Sklaven in den pauhnischen

Gemeinden und bei Paulus (Ber n Lang, 1976) 212-22 Re the not ion of Paul 's social

conservatism, see Peter Brown, The Body and Society Men, Women and Sexual Renun

ciation in Early Christianity (New York Col umb ia Univer sity , 1988) 54-55, and cf

Wa yne A Me eks, The First Urban Christians The Social World of the Apostle Paul

(New Haven/London Yale University, 1983) 161-621 3

A variety of supporting arguments also exists, including an evaluation of the

f f th i 22 ( B tt Fi t E i tl 171 d F Fi t E i tl


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A DIATRIBE PATTERN IN 1 COR. 7 : 2 1 - 2 2 135

If we approach the interpretation of 7:21b from the perspective

of this present study, however, the realization that this half-verse

appears in the context of a recognizable pattern of argumentationopens up a new possibility. Let us consider the following. First, all

exegetes agree that 7:21b serves to qualify the imperative in 7:21a

in some manner, either to reinforce its mandate or to take exception

with it. And second, as I noted above, it is evident that the difficult

statement in 7:21b, "But if indeed/even if you can become free,

rather use it," is actually an addition to our pattern, intruding, as

it were, between the imperative in v. 21a and the explanation in v.

22. Seen in this light, the central question in the debate over 7:21b

may be reformulated as, How did Paul intend to alter the diatribal

pattern with this additionor, more pointedly: What impact vis--

vis the imperative in v. 21a did Paul mean to effect by "inserting"

v. 21b? To answer this question it will be necessary to inquire more

precisely into the role of the imperative in our diatribal pattern.

As I stated at the outset, the main purpose of the imperative is

to deny that the statement of fact, which begins the pattern, has any

significance for one's life. Accordingly, the imperative in 7:21a,

"don't let it concern you!", denies the significance of thepreceding statement, "You were called as a slave?" Precisely how

the imperative functions in this way, however, is something I left

unexplained, and consequently must now clarify. If we inspect

closely the examples that I have supplied above, it becomes evident

that the imperative in this diatribe pattern functions not so much

as a command, but as a rebuff. Its effectiveness lies in its demand

that a person do the very opposite of what he or she is inclined to

dowhether it be acting like a youth or detaining the meat

platternot in its prescription of an act that Teles, Philo, Seneca,or Epictetus holds to be particularly meritorious in itself. Its aim,

in other words, is not direction, but correction through re

direc tion; and it achieves this aim by means of a rhetorical "s la p

in the face."

If I am correct in understanding the imperative as a rebuff, then

in answering the question of how Paul intended to qualify the

overall context (e g , Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza, In Memory of Her [New YorkCrossroad, 1983] 221), and the assumption that 21 repe ats a pattern of

imperative-exception that Paul uses thr oug hou t the chap ter (e g , Ba rtchy,


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136 WILL DEMING

imperative in 7:21a through the addition of 7:21b, it seems that we

have two choices. Either Paul added 7:21b to turn up the volume,

so to speak, on an already shrill pattern of rhetoricemphasizingstill further the "slap" of the imperative; or he intended to mute

its shrillness, so as to avoid being led by this diatribal pattern into

saying something that he really did not mean.

While both options are theoretically possible, we should observe

that the former now characterizes Paul as more than just a sup

porter of the status quo. Indeed, such emphatic rhetoric would

betray him as something of an activist, vehemently opposing the

idea of manumission. This, however, is a stance toward slavery that

is not only without parallel among Paul's contemporaries, 14 but it

is also one that is difficult to reconcile with Phlm. 16, if, as some

scholars suggest, this passage is Paul 's at tempt to secure freedom

for the slave Onesimus.15 Beyond these considerations, moreover,

Paul's choice of the imperative in 7.21a may itself indicate that he

wishes to mitigate, not increase, the rhetorical impact of this verse.

If we survey the examples above, we will see that the imperative

in our diatribe pattern is always derived from some aspect of the

preceding statement of fact, and more often than not it directlycounters an imagined reversal of the statement of fact. Thus, for

example, Teles follows a statement about growing old with an

imperative against seeking to be young, and one about being poor

with an imperative against seeking wealth. Likewise, Philo follows

statements on fame and failure with imperatives on bragging and

success; Seneca juxtaposes statements and imperat ives that draw on

contrasting public and private endeavors; and Epictetus pairs

statements about things passing by and anticipation with

imperatives against holding them back and impatience.

What is true of these authors, fur thermore, is even more evident

in 1 Cor. 7. In 7:18 Paul follows sta tements about being circum

cised and being un-circumcised with imperatives that object to

removing or submitting to circumcision; and in 7:27 he follows

14For discussion and literature, see Bartchy, * 'Slavery," 6 69-72

15E g , J M G Barclay, "P au l, Phi lemon and the Dil emm a of Chri stian

Slave-Ownership," NTS37 (1991) 170-86, and Bartchy, "Phi lem on , Epistle t o , "

ABD 5 308 We mig ht also consider what Pau l has invested in this brief mentionof slavery, for his real concern in 1 Co r 7 is marr iage and celibacy, not slavery

or circumcision (see Fee, First Epistle, 307-8, and Deming, Paul, 157-59) Thi s is


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A DIATRIBE PATTERN IN 1 COR. 7 : 2 1 - 22 137

statements about being bound to a wife and being single with

imperatives against seeking release from a wife and seeking a wife.

When we come to 1 Cor. 7:21a, however, we find a very differentsituation. On the basis of these other examples we would expect

Paul to have written, "You were called as a slave?don't seek to

become free1" Instead, Paul does not draw the imperative directly

from the preceding statement of fact, but writes the less obvious

and much less pointed, "don't let it concern you!"1 6

The effect

of this is a softening of the imperative's rebuff. This deliberate

softening of the imperative, in turn, would seem to rule out the idea

that 7:21b is somehow an attempt to heighten the imperative's

impact.

This study has presented evidence that in 1 Cor. 7:21-22 Paul is

employing a well-known pattern of rhetoric. By examining other

examples of this pattern we have been able to determine that Paul

has altered this pattern in two ways: he has inserted v. 21b, and he

has used an imperatival clause in v. 21a that is somewhat less direct

than expected. In determining what impact Paul intended by these

changes, I suggest that if we are required to choose between aninterpretation of 7:21b as heightening the rhetorical pitch of the

imperative in 7:21a or one that sees 7:21b as an attempt to control

it, then, for several reasons, the latter alternative makes the best

sense of our text. O n this basis I conclude that 1 Cor. 7:21 should

be interpreted to mean that while Christ ian slaves should regard

their disenfranchised state as a matter of indifference, they should

not, as a consequence, forgo an opportunity to gain their freedom.

1 6

Also noted by Gre gor y W Dawes, " 'But if you can gain you r freedom' (1Corinthians 7 17-24)," CBQ 52 (1990) 691 In fact, the imperatival clause here

sounds more like something that draws on or anticipates the third element of our

diat riba l patte rn, the explanatio n (cf 7 19 and Teles [above]) Fee, First Epistle,

316, 317 50, argues th at the wor din g of the imperat ive in 7 21a reflects P au l' s

realization that slaves could do nothi ng to br ing about their release anyway If this

were true, " d o n ' t seek to becom e free '" would have been an impossible alter

native to what Paul wrote But Fee overlooks the fact that man umi ssi on was often

a "reward for faithful work" which "encouraged a slave to exercise self-discipline

and work hard", and that hard work also helped a slave accumulate for his or her

master the necessary funds to buy a youn ger replacemen t (Bartchy, "S la ve ry ,"

6 70, cf Daw es, " 'But if you can gain your freedo m,' " 693-94) Aside from

this, slaves could an d did run away No r can it be argued that Paul would not,

in this context, have forbidden slaves to run away since he considered this wrong

th d i 7 27 h d i h "b d b if " t t k


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1 cor 7.21 - 22 - diatribe pattern

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