This discussion has a long history, especially in German scholarship. See most recently Oda Wischmeyer, Der höchste Weg. Das 13. Kapitel des 1. Korintherbriefes (Gütersloh, 1981). Cf. the presentation in Conzelmann, 217-20, who is especially enamored by some "parallels" that seem to him to suggest a "topos," i.e., a common scheme used by many authors to present what they believe is the "highest good." But the alleged parallels are of dubious value; praise of "virtue" or "eros" is not quite the same thing as an exhortation to αγάπη. At best they serve as "counterparallels." Equally difficult to sustain is the notion of Sanders that the passage in its present context is displaced, having been put here by a redactor ("First Corinthians 13," pp. 181-87).