La dispositio di 1Cor 12–14: una proposta di composizione

This article examines the argumentative section of 1 Corinthians 12-14, focusing on the discursive dynamic of the individual literary units. In the history of exegesis, many scholars have presented its rhetorical dispositio. This paper aims at showing the relationship between the dispositiones of the rhetorical micro-units and identifying the rhetorical genre of the whole section. The argumentative system (from plural to singular and vice versa) recurs in all the discursive sections and it is very important to identify the rhetorical dispositio: 1 Cor 12:1-6 (Exordium: principium + insinuatio); 1 Cor 12:7 (Propositio); 1 Cor 12:8-31a (Argumentatio: vv. 8-11; 12-31a); 1 Cor 12:31b (Transitus); 1 Cor 13:1-3 (Exordium + propositio); 1 Cor 13:4-7 (Argumentatio = laudatio); 1 Cor 13:8-13 (Argumentatio = comparatio); 1 Cor 14:1a (Commoratio); 1 Cor 14:1bc (Propositio); 1 Cor 14:2-36 (Argumentatio: vv. 2-5; 6-19; 20-25; 26-36); 1 Cor 14:37-40 (Peroratio). The epideictic genre characterizes the whole section of 1 Corinthians 12-14.