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First Letter to the Corinthians

St. Paul's first letter to Corinthians provides us with a fuller insight into the life of an early Christian community of the first generation than any other book of the New Testament. Through it we can glimpse both the strengths and the weaknesses of this small group in a great city of the ancient world, men and women who had accepted the good news of Christ and were now trying to realize in their lives the implications of their baptism. St. Paul, who had founded the community and continued to look after it as a father, responds both to questions addressed to him and to situations of which he had been informed. In doing so, he reveals much about himself, his teaching, and the way in which he conducted his work of apostleship. Some things are puzzling because we have the correspondence only in one direction. For the person studying this letter, it seems to raise as many questions as it answers, but without it our knowledge of church life in the middle of the first century would be much poorer.

St. Paul's Second Journey he established a Christian community in Corinth about the year 51. The city, a commercial crossroads, was a melting pot full of devotees of various pagan cults and marked by a measure of moral depravity not unusual in a great seaport. The Acts of the Apostles suggests that moderate success attended St. Paul's efforts among the Jews in Corinth at first, but that they soon turned against him (Acts 18:1-8). More fruitful was his year and a half spent among the Gentiles (Acts 18:11), which won to the faith many of the city's poor and underprivileged (1 Cor 1:26). After his departure the eloquent Apollos, an Alexandrian Jewish Christian, rendered great service to the community, expounding "from the scriptures that the Messiah is Jesus" (Acts 18:24-28).

While St. Paul was in Ephesus on his third journey (1 Cor 16:8; Acts 19:1-20), he received disquieting news about Corinth. The community there was displaying open factionalism, as certain members were identifying themselves exclusively with individual Christian leaders and interpreting Christian teaching as a superior wisdom for the initiated few (1 Cor 1:10-4:21). The community lacked the decisiveness to take appropriate action against one of its members who was living publicly in an incestuous union (1 Cor 5:1-13). Other members engaged in legal conflicts in pagan courts of law (1 Cor 6:1-11); still others may have participated in religious prostitution (1 Cor 6:12-20) or temple sacrifices (1 Cor 10:14-22).

The community's ills were reflected in its liturgy. In the celebration of the Eucharist certain members discriminated against others, drank too freely at the agape, or fellowship meal, and denied Christian social courtesies to the poor among the membership (1 Cor 11:17-22). Charisms such as ecstatic prayer, attributed freely to the impulse of the holy Spirit, were more highly prized than works of charity (1 Cor 13:1-2, 8), and were used at times in a disorderly way (1 Cor 14:1-40). Women appeared at the assembly without the customary head-covering (1 Cor 11:3-16), and perhaps were quarreling over their right to address the assembly (1 Cor 14:34-35).

Still other problems with which St. Paul had to deal concerned matters of conscience discussed among the faithful members of the community: the eating of meat that had been sacrificed to idols (1 Cor 8:1-13), the use of sex in marriage (1 Cor 7:1-7), and the attitude to be taken by the unmarried toward marriage in view of the possible proximity of Christ's second coming (1 Cor 7:25-40). There was also a doctrinal matter that called for St. Paul's attention, for some members of the community, despite their belief in the resurrection of Christ, were denying the possibility of general bodily resurrection.

To treat this wide spectrum of questions, St. Paul wrote this letter from Ephesus about the year 56. The majority of the Corinthian Christians may well have been quite faithful. St. Paul writes on their behalf to guard against the threats posed to the community by the views and conduct of various minorities. He writes with confidence in the authority of his apostolic mission, and he presumes that the Corinthians, despite their deficiencies, will recognize and accept it. On the other hand, he does not hesitate to exercise his authority as his judgment dictates in each situation, even going so far as to promise a direct confrontation with recalcitrants, should the abuses he scores remain uncorrected (1 Cor 4:18-21).

The letter illustrates well the mind and character of St. Paul. Although he is impelled to insist on his office as founder of the community, he recognizes that he is only one servant of God among many and generously acknowledges the labors of Apollos (1 Cor 3:5-8). He provides us in this letter with many valuable examples of his method of theological reflection and exposition. He always treats the questions at issue on the level of the purity of Christian teaching and conduct. Certain passages of the letter are of the greatest importance for the understanding of early Christian teaching on the Eucharist (1 Cor 10:14-22; 11:17-34) and on the resurrection of the body (1 Cor 15:1-58).

St. Paul's authorship of 1 Corinthians, apart from a few verses that some regard as later interpolations, has never been seriously questioned. Some scholars have proposed, however, that the letter as we have it contains portions of more than one original Pauline letter. We know that St. Paul wrote at least two other letters to Corinth (see 1 Cor 5:9; 2 Cor 2:3-4) in addition to the two that we now have; this theory holds that the additional letters are actually contained within the two canonical ones. Most commentators, however, find 1 Corinthians quite understandable as a single coherent work.

 

The principal divisions of thefirst letter to Corinthians are the following:

I. Address (1 Cor 1:1-9)
II. Disorders in the Corinthian Community (1 Cor 1:10-6:20)
A) Divisions in the Church (1 Cor 1:10-4:21)
B) Moral Disorders (1 Cor 5:1-6:20)
III. Answers to the Corinthians' Questions (1 Cor 7:1-11: 1)
A) Marriage and Virginity (1 Cor 7:1-40)
B) Offerings to Idols (1 Cor 8:1-11:1)
IV. Problems in Liturgical Assemblies (1 Cor 11:2-14:40)
A) A. Women's Headdresses (1 Cor 11:3-16)
B) The Lord's Supper (1 Cor 11:17-34)
C) Spiritual Gifts (1 Cor 12:1-14:40)
V. The Resurrection (1 Cor 15:1-58)
A) The Resurrection of Christ (1 Cor 15:1-11)
B) The Resurrection of the Dead (1 Cor 15:12-34)
C) The Manner of the Resurrection (1 Cor 15:35-58)
VI. Conclusion (1 Cor 16:1-24)

 

Key Themes

1. Since the church is the dwelling place of God's Spirit, the people who make up the church should work for unity by building each other up.
(1:10-4:21; (esp. 3:10-16; 14:12)
2. Christians should build up the church in four practical ways:
a) they should be sensitive to those of fragile faith.
    (8:1-9:18; 10:28, 33)
b) they should win unbelievers through culturally sensitive evangelism.
    (9:19-23; 10:27, 32-33)
c) they should conduct worship service in such a way that unbelievers present
    might come to faith.
    (14:16, 23-25)
d) their corporate worship should use spiritual gift not for personal display, or
    evaluating who has a better gift, but to build up the church.
    (11:2-16; 12:12-30; 14:1-35)
3. Sexual relations form a union between man and woman as profound as the union of the believers with Christ, and so sexual activity should be confined to marriage.
(5:1-13; 6:12-20; 7:5, 9, 36)
4. Baptism and the Lord's Supper are important, but both are subordinate the personal trust in the gospel and to living in the way that God commands.
(1:14-17; 10:1-5; 11:17-34; 15:29-34)
5. The bodily resurrection of Jesus (and of his followers) from the death is a critical component of Christian faith and practice.
(6:14; 15:1-58)

 

 
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