Amongst the major Pauline letters 2 Corinthians is of especial interest because it is a continuation of earlier correspondence, in part no longer extant (the letter to which Paul refers in 1 Cor 5:9, and probably the Painful Letter of 2 Cor 2:3–4) and in part available to us in I Corinthians. The canonical 2 Corinthians itself appears to be a compilation of two or more letters. The existence of all these items of correspondence demonstrates the extraordinarily lively interaction between