The “Command of the Lord” in 1 Cor 14,37 43 understood as referring to a saying of Jesus (7). I will first give reasons for this view and then analyse different possible candidates of Jesus tradition to which Paul might allude. 1. Arguments from the Language Used The language Paul uses in 1 Cor 14,37 clearly points to a saying of Jesus and not to an apostolic exhortation. This is shown by the fact that he uses similar language in undisputed references to Jesus tradition in the same letter in 7,10 (paraggevllw ouk egw; alla; oJ kurio"), 7,25 (ejpitagh; kuriou) and 9,14 jj j v v (oJ kuvrio" dievtaxen) (8). Furthermore, in 1 Corinthians 7 Paul clearly distinguishes the commandments of the Lord, which are of unquestionable, absolute authority, from his own “opinion” (gnwvmh) which is not of the same authority (7,25.40; cf. 7,10.12). Although he claims to possess the Holy Spirit, thus adding weight to his view (7,40), and although elsewhere he claims that he himself speaks “in Christ” (2 Cor 2,17; 12,19) and that Christ speaks through him (2 Cor 13,3), he maintains a clear distinction between what was said “by the Lord” and what someone says “in the Lord”(9). Therefore Paul would hardly call his own opinion (however inspired and authoritative) a “command of the Lord”. For this reason we cannot compare 14,37 with 7,40 (10). Furthermore, his reference to the prophets and the “spiritual” in 14,37 is not on the same level as his claim to possess the Holy Spirit in 7,40. The latter serves to underline the authority of his own, inspired opinion, while in 14,37 he expects that those who claim to have the Spirit of Christ will by this Spirit recognise Christ’s own commandment and accept its authority (cf. 12,3 for the close connection of possessing the spirit and accepting Christ’s lordship). Finally, it is hard to understand why, in v. 38, Paul announces such severe judgement (11) if in v. 37 he only refers to his own inspiration by the risen Christ. This is very different from the way Paul speaks about his own opinion in chapter 7. For all these reasons it is most likely that in 1 Cor 14,37 Paul refers to a saying of Jesus. (7) In Paul, “Lord” always refers to Jesus, except in some citations from the Septuagint, see LINDEMANN, 1 Korinther, 322 and SCHRAGE, 1 Korinther, III, 460 with n. 559. (8) Cf. 1 Cor 11,23 (parevlabon ajpo; tou' kuriou); 1 Thess 4,15 (lovgo" kuriou). That 1 v v Thess 4,15 refers to a saying of Jesus has been widely questioned. But there are compelling reasons for this, see D. WENHAM, Paul – Follower of Jesus or Founder of Christianity? (Grand Rapids, MI 1995) 305-311, 332-333. (9) See B. GERHARDSSON, The Reliability of the Gospel Tradition (Peabody, MA 2001) 20: Paul “makes a clear distinction between his own words and those of the Lord. … we observe how Paul proceeds when he does not have a specific word from Jesus to support him. He then states without circumlocution that in such cases he cannot refer to any command of the Lord, but is simply providing his own opinion. These passages are embarrassing evidence against the common opinion that in the early church no distinction was made between what was said ‘by the Lord (himself)’ and what was said by some one [sic] else ‘in the Lord’ … In 1 Corinthians 7 we see how … Paul, at least on occasion, very clearly upheld the distinction between that which was said ‘by the Lord’ and that which was said ‘in the Lord’”. (10) Pace SCHRAGE, 1 Korinther, III, 460 and many others. (11) Here, “is not recognized”, does not merely mean, “not recognized as a prophet”, but the expression has the last judgement in view, see HAYS, 1 Corinthians, 244-245; GRUDEM, Gift, 52, especially n. 104 (with further references); SCHRAGE, 1 Korinther, III, 460-461; pace THISELTON, 1 Corinthians, 1165-1166; SENFT, 1 Corinthiens, 183-184.