O Brother, Who Art Thou?

Abstract

The two unnamed brothers at the close of 2 Cor 8 have occasioned the speculation of scholars both ancient and modern, all of whom have sought to answer the question: why did Paul not name them? After reviewing and problematizing the standard explanations for this anonymizing, the author here argues that Paul excludes their names in an effort to present them as guarantors of the collection. His failure to name them suggests that they stand at some distance from Paul, that they are not part of his circle, and so can provide “non-Pauline” oversight for the Jerusalem collection. The article concludes by suggesting that the success of Paul’s anonymization explains why Paul did not mention the collection in 2 Cor 10–13, his last known correspondence with the Corinthians.