http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Epistle_to_the_Corinthians
The Third Epistle to the Corinthians is believed to be a
pseudepigraphical text under the name of Paul of Tarsus. It
originally formed part of the Acts of Paul, from which it was later
detached, and was framed as Paul's response to the Epistle of the
Corinthians to Paul.
In the West it was not considered canonical in the 4th century AD,
becoming part of the New Testament apocrypha. In the East, Ephraem
of Syria apparently accepted it as canonical, for he wrote a
commentary on it, and the Doctrine of Addai includes it, however it
was not included in the Syriac Peshitta translation of the Bible
(but nor were 2-3 John, 2 Peter, Jude, or Revelation, which are
almost universally recognized as canonical). Although part of the
Oskan Armenian Bible of 1666, it is not found in the Zohrab
Armenian Bible of 1805 which follows the Vulgate canon and it is
not currently considered part of the Armenian Orthodox New
Testament [1]. It was not part of the canon list of Anania
Shirakatsi in the 7th century but is part of the canon lists of
Mechitar of Ayrivank` in the 13th and Gregory Tat`ew in the 14th
[2]. In 2000, Fr. Vahan Hovhanessian, Pastor of the Armenian Church
of Holy Martyrs in Bayside, New York, published his Fordham
University Ph.D. dissertation as Third Corinthians: Reclaiming Paul
for Christian Orthodoxy, ISBN 0-8204-4527-4.
The text is structured as an attempt to correct alleged
misinterpretations of the earlier First and Second Epistle to the
Corinthians of which the author (usually called "pseudo-Paul") has
become aware due to the (similarly dubious) Epistle of the
Corinthians to Paul. According to the preceding part of the Acts of
Paul, when the letter was written Paul was in prison, on account of
Stratonice, the wife of Apollophanes. In particular the epistle
seeks to correct the interpretation of the phrase "flesh and blood
cannot inherit the kingdom of God" by which some taught that the
resurrection of the dead could not be physical.
Gnostics were known for quoting this part of 1 Corinthians,
infuriating Christians such as Irenaeus who wished to claim that
the dead were physically, rather than spiritually, resurrected.
Irenaeus remarked "All heretics always quote this passage".
It is thought that the argument of the Gnostics won so much
ground that some orthodox Christians felt the need to forge 3
Corinthians to counter them.
