1 Corinthians, Lesson 1: Introduction

Author and Date

1 Corinthians identifies its writers as the Apostle Paul and Pastor Sosthenes, whose Hebrew name was Silas (1:1). Sosthenes would later become the Bishop of Caesarea. Sothenes assisted Paul and also served as his scribe. At the end of the letter, however, Paul wrote his “goodbye” in his own handwriting (16:21).

The letter testifies to its joint authorship by using the plural in many places, for example:

We preach Christ crucified (1:23),
We speak about God’s wisdom (2:6-7),
We have the Spirit that comes from God (2:12-13),
We are God’s co-workers (3:9),
We are fools because of Christ (5:10-13), where a plural “you” is then used to refer to the congregation, and
We preach Jesus’ resurrection from the dead (15:11-19).

However, 1^st Corinthians also uses “we” to refer to Paul and Sosthenes and the Christians at Corinth. This mostly takes place later in the letter, such as in chapters 8 and 10-13, and 15:49-52. We find a similar use of “us” to refer to Paul and Sosthenes, and at other times, also the Christians in Corinth.

Paul and Sosthenes wrote 1^st Corinthians in Ephesus around spring of 54 AD, during Paul’s third missionary journey (Acts 19:1-20:1).

Corinth

In the 1st century, Corinth had a reputation for being a sex-obsessed city. The temple of the Greek goddess, Aphrodite, the goddess of love, was on top of the Acrocorinth and prostitutes had reserved seats in the city’s theater. In the lingo of the day, the term “Corinthian girl” meant prostitute, and korinthiazesthai (“to Corinthianize”) meant to have illicit sex or promote the sex trade.

The culture of Corinth had a low value on human life, at least certain human lives. Abortion and the abandonment of babies was common (dropped off in a temple or left exposed to die), which was not unusual in Roman times. However, of all the Greek cities in the 1^st century, Corinth was singularly known for its enthusiastic adoption of gladiator fights to the death in the amphitheater there.

Corinth was also a city of many Greek gods and goddesses. Temples to Apollo, Athena, Dionysus, Zeus, Cybele, Isis, Serapis, Sisyphus, and Aphrodite, to name a few, dotted the landscape.

An estimated distribution of wealth within 1^st Century Corinth is as follows:

3 percent were wealthy,
6 percent could live comfortably (such as merchants and veterans),
64 percent were at near subsistence level, and
27 percent were the destitute.

The Corinthian Congregation

Acts 18:1-17 tells the beginning of the Corinthian congregation. Paul traveled to Corinth from Athens, where he met Aquila and Priscilla, a Jewish couple living there, who invited Paul to stay with them.

Paul began preaching and teaching on the Sabbath in the Jewish synagogue, where both Jews and Greeks (“God-fearers”) came to believe in Christ. After Sosthenes (Silas) and Timothy joined Paul, he could devote more time to teaching and preaching, and more people became Christian.

Leading Jews at the synagogue then began to oppose Paul. He moved to a home next to the synagogue, where “many Corinthians who heard Paul believed and were baptized” (Acts 18:8). Even the ruler of the synagogue joined the congregation, as did the city’s director of public works.

Like the economic distribution of Corinth, the Christian congregation there had a similar distribution. Some were wealthy (11:22), some poor (1:26), and others were slaves (7:21). The Corinthian congregation was mostly Gentile (8:7, 12:2) but also had some ethnic Jews (7:18-20).

With many poor as part of the congregation at Corinth, there were economic reasons to buy meat sacrificed to idols, which was cheaper to purchase. Also, the rampant sexual practices of the Corinthians would have had some influence on the Christians there. Even Greek religious practices in Corinth, which included people going into frenzies and making unintelligible utterances, would have affected religious life within the congregation there.

Issues Dealt with in 1 Corinthians

1 Corinthians dealt with specific problems that were disrupting the congregation there.

Factions (1:10-3:23),
Lawsuits (4:1-21, 6:1-8),
Sexual immorality (5:1-13; 6:9-7:40),
Eating meat sacrificed to idols (8:1-9:27)
The Lord’s Supper: its theology and practice (10:1-11:34),
Spiritual gifts (12:1-14:40), and
Resurrection life (15:1-15:58).

Literary Genres

Amid the differing subject matter of the letter, Paul and Sosthenes used various aspects of Greek rhetoric to help convey the points they were making.

Wordplay: Using similarities or differences in words to help convey a point.

The play on “for me” and “help me”: “all things are for me but not all things help me” (6:12).
Between “using” and “using up” (7:31)
The double meaning of “followed them,” pointing back to Israel’s wandering in the wilderness (10:4).
The plays on the words “discerning” and “judging,” both forms of the Greek krino when dealing with judging oneself before receiving the Lord’s Supper (11: 31-33).

Contrast: to emphasize differences.

“Words of eloquent wisdom” differentiated from the “word of the cross” (1:17-18),
human wisdom and power contrasted against God’s foolishness and weakness, which is the true wisdom and power (1:21-25), and
a list of vices (5:10-11, 6:9-10) contrasted against a list virtues (13:1-13), showing the difference between the pagan lifestyle and the idealized Christian lifestyle.

Diatribe: rhetoric in which one argues with an imaginary opponent (15:36-37).

Proverbs: Short phrases of popular wisdom, for example, “Bad company corrupts good morals” (15:33).

Metaphor: A figure of speech that identifies something as being the same as something else. For example: “You are God’s field, God’s building” (3:9) and “Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit” (6:19). Although the Corinthians were not literally a field or a temple, metaphor was used to help them understand the reality that God was dwelling in them, which was not metaphorical.

Rhetorical Question: A question that is asked to make a point, not elicit an answer.

“Don’t you know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you?” (3:16).
“Don’t you know that the saints will judge the world?” (6:2).
“Don’t you know that we [referring to all Christians] will judge angels? Then why not everyday matters?” (6:3).
“Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute between brothers?” (6:5).
“Don’t you know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?” (6:9).
“Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Should I then take Christ’s members and make them the members of a prostitute?” (6:15)
See also 6:16, 19; 7:16; 14: 6-9, 16.

1 Corinthians uses rhetorical questions to both compliment (what the hearer knows) and challenge (what he seems to have forgotten).

Chiasm: Using a repetition pattern for clarification or emphasis. Note: This section also serves as an outline for 1 Corinthians.

In 1 Corinthians, we find large chaisms using an A-B-A’ pattern, and a couple of A-B-A’ chiasms within a larger chiasm.

[1:1-9: Opening and greetings]

A 1:10-2:5 Unity within the congregation

. B 2:6-16 Wisdom of mature believers

A’ 3:1-23 Unity within the congregation

[Chapter 4: Excursus on Lawsuits]

A 5:1-13 Proper use of sexuality

. B 6:1-20 Christian use of secular courts

A’ 7:1-40 Proper use of sexuality (we find a chiasm within this larger chaism)

        A 7:1-16 Sex for those who are or had been married

.           B 7:17-24 Living within one’s vocation

        A’ 7:25-40 Sex for those not yet married

A 8:1-13 Dealing with food sacrificed to idols

. B 9:1-10:13 Paul (9:1-27) and the Old-Covenant Israelites (10:1-13) as examples

A’ 10:14-11:1 Dealing with food sacrificed to idols

[Chapter 11: Excursus on the Lord’s Supper]

A 12:1-31 Proper use of Spiritual gifts

        A 12:1-11 Spiritual gifts

.           B 12:12-16 The body with many members

        A’ 12:17-31 Spiritual gifts

. B 13:1-13 The greatest Spiritual gift: Love

A’ 14:1-40 Proper use of Spiritual gifts, focusing on prophecy and speaking in tongues

[Chapter 15: Excursus on Resurrection life]

[Chapter 16: Closing and farewells]

Opening and Greetings: 1 Corinthians 1:1-9

The letter of 1 Corinthians–by its length, style, and tone–distinguishes itself from much correspondence of that era. Private letters between family or friends often had a fuller opening and closing than letters involving business, administrative, or legal matters. Thus, the expanded greeting and thanksgiving we find 1 Corinthians shows us the personal, heartfelt nature of what Paul and Sosthenes wrote.

Read 1 Corinthians 1:1-3

In verse 1, how does Paul assert his credentials so the Corinthians were more willing to receive the letter?

Sosthenes was a co-writer. What does that say about him? (In other words, what is to keep the Corinthian Christians from saying: “Sosthenes isn’t an apostle; and since he also wrote 1 Corinthians, that means we don’t have to listen to anything in that letter because it may have not come from an Apostle.”)

What does that say about how the Greek kai, translated as “and,” is used in verse 1?

Are there any implications for the Church today and her pastors?

How is someone sanctified (made holy) to God? (vs. 2)

How does verse 2 reflect the catholicity of the Church?

What is the source of grace? (vs. 3)

Read 1 Corinthians 1:4-9

What is the tone of Paul’s (“I”) greeting?

What we may not notice, because we read a translation, is how this greeting plants “seeds” for future topics in 1 Corinthians.

For example:

1:5: “enriched in Him [Christ] in all speech [logos]” points forward to “the word [logos] of the cross” (1:18).
1:5: “enriched in… all knowledge” points forward to:
- “not all have this [proper] knowledge” (8:1, 7), so “the weaker person is destroyed” (8:11), and
- the “utterance of knowledge according to the Spirit” (12:8).
1:7: “not lacking in any spiritual gift” points forward to “each has his own [spiritual] gift” (7:7) and “there are a variety of gifts, but the same Spirit” (12:4, 9, 28, and 30-31).

What is the purpose of 1 Corinthians? (vs. 7)

Charisma: The Greek word for “spiritual gift.” It also means a gift that is freely given and/or a favor that is bestowed. Charisma is related to the Greek word charis, which means “grace.” Thus, the purpose of spiritual gifts falls in line with that of God’s grace, since He is behind the “spiritual gifts” that one has–and grace deals with salvation.

Charisma as spiritual gifts are first of all, gifts. That means that you cannot earn them or make them happen in your life. Second, the Holy Spirit gives such gifts as He sees fit, for the building up of the Church, which is always connected to salvation. We will study this more in 1 Corinthians 12-13.

Romans 12:6: According to the grace [charis] given to us, we have different gifts [charismata].