The asyndetic formula, “faith, hope, love,” with which the passage comes to an end (13:13), is unique even in Pauline writing, but it is scarcely his creation here, because he has already used the threesome elsewhere in varied formulations (1 Thess 1:3; 5:8; Gal 5:5–6). J. Weiss thought that it was an inherited early Christian formula (1 Cor, 320), but there is no evidence of it before Paul’s use. After Paul, the threesome frequently occurs: Col 1:4–5; Eph 4:2–5; 1 Pet 1:3–8; Heb 6:10–12; Ep.Barn. 1.4; 11.8; Polycarp, Phil. 3.2–3 (see W. Weiss, “Glaube—Liebe—Hoffnung”).

Lietzmann (1 Cor, 67) and others, following Reitzenstein, cite a formula found in the writings of the philosopher Porphyry of Tyre (a.d. 232–305), who in his Ep. ad Marcellam 24 mentions:

tessara stoicheia malista kekratynthō peri theou: pistis, al≤theia, erōs, elpis. pisteusai gar dei, hoti monē sōtēria hē pros ton theon epistrophē, kai pisteusanta hōs eni malista spoudasai talēthē gnōnai peri autou, kai gnonta erasthēnai tou gnōsthentos, erasthenta de elpisin agathais trephein tēn psychēn dia biou. . . . stoicheia men oun tauta kai tosauta kekratynthō.

four first principles especially have been maintained about God: faith, truth, love, hope. For one must believe that one’s only salvation is in turning to God, and that the believer must make every effort possible to know the truth about him; and that the one who knows must be enamored of the One known, and the one who loves must nourish his soul during life with good hopes. . . . Let, then, these our principles be maintained. (ed. Nauck, 289)

From such evidence it is argued that Corinthians would have had a similar foursome, pistis, gnōsis (instead of alētheia), agapē (instead of erōs), and elpis, and that Paul would have stricken gnōsis, in order to fashion his threesome. A similar explanation was given by Bultmann, who even characterized gnōsis as Gnostic (TDNT, 1:710). Such an explanation, however, is problematic, because, though the parallel is interesting, there is no evidence of its use among contemporary Corinthian Christians—apart from such speculation. Paul has already used the threesome elsewhere (see above); and the late date of Porphyry’s four-element formula complicates the argument. Since this passage is not written in a polemical tone, why would Paul want to eliminate “knowledge” from such a formula when he has already mentioned it as a gift of the Spirit in 12:8 (Kümmel in Lietzmann, 1 Cor, 189)? The threesome seems to be employed as the counterpart of prophecy, tongues, and knowledge of 13:8; they will “end” or “be brought to nothing,” but “faith, hope, love remain.”