The context for understanding the trajectory of the Pauline tradition is the trend from charismatic authority in the thought of Paul and the experience of early converts. The trajectory moves toward the institutions of apostolic legitimacy in the second generation. When one places the redaction of I Corinthians in this context, it reveals a conflict in the place of origin concerning authority vs. legitimacy. As a model for the redactional study, Bornkamm's hypothesis about the formation of II Corinthians is presented and refined. Then the partition hypotheses of Schmithals, Schenk and Suhl are examined, with particular reference to implicit redactional processes. A revised version of the 1956 Schmithals hypothesis is selected as most plausible, resulting in seven original Corinthian letters. A = 1 11:2-34; B = 11 6 14-7 1 + 1 6 12-20 + 1 9: 24-10 22 + 1 15 1-58 + 1 16 13-24; C = 1 1 1-6 11 + 17 1-8.13 + 19:19-23 + 1 10:23-11.1 + 1 12:1 31a + 1 14:1c 40+1 12.31b-13 13 + 1 16:1 12, D = 11 2: 14-6 13 + 11 7 2-4; E = 11 10:1-12.13 + 1 9 1-18 + 11 12 14-13 13, F = 11 9:1-15; G = 11 1:1-2: 13 + 11 7:5-8:24 The bearing of the original letters on the conflict over emergent Catholicism is analyzed, with the conclusion that Letter C contained materials highly useful to Gnostics. The other letters were more useful to conservatives, and were probably cited in support of developments in church organization, ethics and doctrine. The difficulty was that the opposition also had an undoubtedly genuine letter to counter every argument in favor of apostolic legitimacy. The hypothesis is that the predecessors of the Pastoral writers decided to cope with the frustrating impasse by co-opting the chief weapon from their opponents' arsenal. They took a copy of the offensive Letter C and fused it with their own most valuable resources, Letters A, B, and E, distributing the resultant canonical. I Corinthians as widely as their resources would permit in order to crowd out and replace the scattered copies of the original letters. The redactional theory is confirmed by a study of the six insertions of material into Letter C, each of which was motivated by the desire to refute explosive implications in Paul's formulations. The same motivation is visible in the interpolations of 1 Cor 1:2; 4:17d; 7:17b; 11:16; and 14:33b-36. The redactional inferences lead to a comprehensive summary of the concerns of the Pauline School, probably located in Ephesus. These results can be correlated with evidence that I Corinthians circulated widely as a separate letter before being included in a larger corpus.