2. The Jesus Tradition. This category refers to a second feature virtually ignored by Walker, namely, Paul's use of the tradition of Jesus' teachings. In fact, 1 Corinthians (outside chap. 13) has several examples of explicit references to the Jesus tradition, plus some implicit allusions. Admittedly, any firm reconstruction of the early Jesus tradition is fraught with difficulty, because the canonical gospels had not yet reached written form (though an early text of the Q tradition may have already existed). Nevertheless, the cases of 1 Corinthians 7:10-11 (similar to Mark 10:9, 11) and 1 Cor 9:4, 14 (echoing Luke 10:7) suggest that it is methodologically unsound to exclude the possibility that some of Jesus' teachings may have influenced Paul's writings. Although Paul presumably referred to oral traditions, it is not inappropriate to make tentative proposals based on the surviving evidence in the later canonical gospels.

13:2: pistin hōste orē methistanai ("faith so as to remove mountains"): this phrase echoes the Jesus tradition preserved in Matt 17:20 and 21:21, though Paul takes the verb from the LXX Isa 54:10 (see section II.C.1 above). Both Matt 17:20 and 21:2 have pistin (faith) and tō orei toutō ("to this mountain"), plus a verb of movement: Matt 17:20 has the imperative metaba ("move"), while Matt 21:21 has arthēti ("be lifted up").

13 (kan psōmisō) panta ta hyparchonta mou ("[and if I dole out[ all my possessions"): this total giving up of possessions may be an echo of the Jesus tradition, as in Luke 14:33: "Every one of you who does not take leave of all his own possessions (pasin tois heautou hyparchousin) cannot be my disciple." Similar teaching is gives to the rich young ruler (Matt 19:21) and is also addressed to a wider audience in Luke 12:33.

13:3 ean paradō to sōma mou ("if I hand over my body"): the vocabulary is reminiscent of Paul's description of Jesus' paschal self-offering in his final meal and his death. Earlier in 1 Corinthians, the Apostle refers to the tradition of the Last Supper (11:23-24): "The Lord Jesus, on the night on which he was handed over (paredideto), took bread, and having given thanks broke it and said: This is my body (mou . . . to sōma) which is for you." The Lucan parallel text in its long form has to sōma mou ("my body," Luke 22:19) and paradidotai ("he is handed over," Luke 22:22). Paul employs similar language about Jesus' self-offering on the cross in Gal 2:20 and Rom 4:24. There may also be an echo of LXX Isa 53:12 (see section II.C.1 above).

13:13: meizōn de toutōn hē agrapē ("but the greatest of these is love"): in its comparative sense, the exact phrase meizōn toutōn ("greater than these") occurs in Mark 12:31, where Jesus says of the two great commandments on love (Deut 6:4-5 and Lev 19:18), "No other command is greater than these." If Mark 12:31 belongs to the early tradition of Jesus' teaching on love (abbreviated in Matthew and Luke), then Paul's phrase meizōn toutōn may be an echo of the dominical tradition. However, with rhetorical skill Paul plays on the meaning of the Greek phrase, taking it in its superlative sense ("the greatest of these").

If the canonical gospels accurately preserve an early version of the Jesus tradition, then these four examples from Jesus' sayings may well underlie Paul's teaching in 1 Corinthians 13, though admittedly the Apostle has adapted the material to fit his present context.