Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 180:718 (Apr 2023)
Article: Periodical Reviews
Author: John A. Adair

BSac 180:718 (April-June 2023) p. 230

Periodical Reviews

By The Faculty And Staff Of Dallas Theological Seminary

John A. Adair

Editor

“Paul’s Escape from Damascus (2 Cor 11.32–3) and the corona muralis,” Matthew Pawlak, New Testament Studies 68.2 (2022): 172–87.

In 2 Corinthians 11:32–33 Paul describes his escape from Damascus through a window and down the city wall by means of a basket. In this well-written and well-argued article, Pawlak evaluates the suggestion that this passage is an intended allusion to the Roman military award the corona muralis, a crown in the shape of a wall originally awarded to a soldier who was first to surmount the wall of a city under siege. First suggested by Edwin Judge in 1966 and later developed by Victor Furnish in his commentary II Corinthians (1984), through this allusion Paul “portrays himself as the first one down the wall, his cowardly flight from danger providing an example of weakness” (172).

Pawlak notes that the parallel “has only been suggested on the basis of a handful of examples and has never been substantially developed” (173). In this article, he sets out to provide “the most definitive answer possible” as to whether or not the allusion exists (173).

Pawlak utilizes helpful principles from a communication theory known as relevance theory. This theory has been used effectively in biblical studies for some time now; however, it has not yet achieved wide acceptance. Relevance theory considers how communicators determine the most probable interpretation of an utterance/text in part by considering what interpretation is most optimally relevant and manages to use the least mental effort (173–74).

Essentially, Pawlak attempts to reconstruct the cognitive environment of Paul and the Corinthian readers and to consider whether there is sufficient evidence to conclude that the readers would be able to make the appropriate connection. Pawlak rigorously examines the data and discovers that crucial assumptions made by Judge and Furnish were incorrect. Judge incorrectly stated that this crown was the “finest military award” (175). Although Furnish was correct to note that there was a statue of the goddess Fortuna wearing the corona muralis in Corinth, when this crown is on the goddess its meaning is protection, not an indication of a conqueror of a walled city (174–75). Next, by the first century, such awards generally had lost their association with the actual original action accomplished (176). Pawlak acknowledges that Paul and some of the Corinthians could have known that this crown had the military wall meaning at one time but in no...