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Paul’s Caricature of his Chief Rival as a Pompous Parasite in 2 Corinthians 11.20Department of Theology, Fordham University, 441 East Fordham Road, Bronx, NY 10458, USA, welborn{at}fordham.edu
2 Corinthians 11.20 has received too little discussion in the literature on Paul’s opponents at Corinth, and, surprisingly, even less notice in recent research on patron—client relations in the Pauline communities. This article argues that 2 Cor. 11.20 depicts the leading figure among Paul’s apostolic rivals as an instance of a social type so familiar and loathsome that he was a favorite subject of ridicule in comedy, mime, and satire: the parasite, specifically, the ‘august parasite’ (
Key Words: Paul’s opponents • parasites • comedy • patronage • friendship • social pathology
Journal for the Study of the New Testament, Vol. 32, No. 1,
39-56 (2009) |
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), who puts on airs and abuses his host and other guests. A composite portrait of this stock character is drawn from the comedies of Alexis, Antiphanes, Plautus and Terence, and from Lucian’s satirical defense of the parasitic art. Parallels to Paul’s vocabulary (
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