Re-membering the New Covenant at Corinth: A different perspective on 2 Corinthians 3

Emmanuel Nathan's study is driven by the hermeneutical question of whether the covenantal contrasts in 2 Cor 3, in which Paul's use of 'new covenant' in 2 Cor 3:6 is set in stark polemical antithesis to an 'old covenant' (2 Cor 3:14), lie at the origin of the later Christian self-understanding as members of a new covenant that replaced the old. In other words, can Paul be said to be the founder of formative 'Christianity', even if one nuances the term 'Christianity' as a sect within the Judaisms of Paul's time? Using social memory theory, the author reframes the larger question of Paul's continuity or discontinuity with Judaism and seeks instead to examine the ways in which Paul refracted, redeployed, and reconfigured existing traditions in service of local needs, among them the formation and transformation of character among his community at Corinth.