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Dr. Walker Responds to my Email re: 1 Cor. 15:3-11

In an earlier post, I posted an email from Dr. Price regarding which other scholars agree with his view that 1 Cor. 15:3-11 is an interpolation. One of the scholars he mentioned was Dr. W. Walker, who has indeed written a book entitled Interpolations in the Pauline Letters. So, I sent an email to Dr. Walker asking about his views on 1 Cor. 15:3-11.

Dr. Walker graciously agreed to let me post his response on my blog, but wanted me to make clear that because he has not looked into the matter in sufficient detail, he is not prepared at this point to argue that 1 Cor. 15:3-11 either is or is not an interpolation.

Here is the email:

Apart from reading Bob Price's article in the Journal of Higher
Criticism, I haven't really looked into the possibility that 1 Cor 15:3-11 might be an interpolation. I may have told Bob that I found his article more or less persuasive, but I am not prepared, on the basis of my own investigation of the matter, to identify the passage as an interpolation. Certainly, I have not written anything on the subject. In fact, so far as I am aware, Bob is the only one who has.

The passages that I myself have identified as likely interpolations are the following:

Rom 1:18-2:29
1 Cor 2:6-16
1 Cor 11:3-16
1 Cor 12:31b-14:1a
1 Cor 14:34-35
Gal 2:7b-8

In addition, I also regard the following passages as probable interpolations:

Rom 13:1-7
Rom 16:25-27
1 Cor 10:1-22
2 Cor 6:14-7:1
1 Thes 2:13-16

I am certainly open to the possibility that 1 Cor 15:3-11 might be an interpolation, and, at some point, I may decide to take a closer look at it.

Best wishes,

Bill Walker


Thanks to Dr. Price and Dr. Walker for their feedback.

And just for the record, I am skeptical of our ability to detect interpolations in the Pauline letters that leave no trace in the manuscript traditions or writings of the apostolic fathers.

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