first epistle to the corinthians
The Church of God which sojourns at Rome, to the Church of God sojourning at Corinth, to them that are called and sanctified by the will of God, through our Lord Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, from Almighty God through Jesus Christ, be multiplied. Nine gifts of the Spirit are named, and their use is compared to the functioning of the various parts of the human body for the health of the whole. Chapter I.âThe salutation. Readers of later date will distinguish between the permanent principles laid down in the letter and their local and temporary application. The resurrection harvest will be followed by the eternal day of God, when God has brought all hostile forces in the universe into subjection beneath the feet of the risen and exalted Christ (15:20-28). There are a number of individual places which present features of special textual interest, like the phrase freely tr. The common time given for the epistleâs composition is at the end of the reign of Domitian (c. AD 96) and AD 140, most likely around 96. Welborn, "The preface to 1 Clement: the rhetorical situation and the traditional date", in Breytenbach and Welborn, p. 201. The authority with which the writer addresses his readers is that of the apostle of Christ whose spiritual children they were, the authority of one who claimed to have the mind of Christ and the Spirit of God (2:16; 7:40). Paul spoke ironically, not to make them feel ashamed, but to show them the best path to follow. Let them be assessed not in terms of their popularity but in terms of their faithfulness to Him who has commissioned them. 47:1 Take up the epistle of the blessed Paul the Apostle. colony such as Corinth were ipso facto Rom. law, then it could be propagated freely, unless it occasioned public disorder. Letter of Clement to the Corinthians. from Aquila and Prisca, well known in Corinth, and with a concluding benediction, the letter comes to an end (16:21-24). His authorship was attested by Clement of Rome as early as a.d. 96, and today practically all NT interpreters concur. From the beginnings of the Pauline corpus and the NT canon its place within the canon has been secure, not only in the Catholic church but also in such heretical bodies as the Valentinians and Marcionites. Paul set himself to deal in writing with this news, and had practically finished what he had to say when fresh news arrived. (No doubt there were some members of the church who considered it an embarrassing accretion to the Gospel and were quite content with the Gr. On Early Christian Writings. Greetings from Paul and Sosthenes (Acts 18:1â11; 2 Corinthians 1:1â2)1 Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes, . At the other extreme from the libertines addressed in the preceding paragraph were those who thought it best âfor a man not to touch a womanâ (7:1). The canonicity of 1 Corinthians was never an issue in the Church. colony with the official designation Laus Iulia Corinthus. He practiced self-discipline in order to win the prize which faithful service will receive on the day of review (9:1-27). was written by the apostle St. Paul toward the close of his nearly three-years stay at Ephesus, (Acts 19:10; 20:31) which, we learn from (1 Corinthians 16:8) probably terminated with the Pentecost of A.D. 57 or 58.The bearers were probably (according to the common subscription) Stephanas, Fortunatus and Achaicus. If (as is probable) Titius Justus is to be identified with the Gaius of 1 Corinthians 1:14 and Romans 16:23, then his full name, Gaius Titius Justus, marks him as a Rom. the verb korinthiazesthai (âto behave as they do in Corinthâ) denoted the more outrageous forms of wantonness and it was equally applicable to the new Corinth. 248ff.). means âplace of worshipâ (a sense established for Heb. The First Epistle to the Corinthians book. Paul answered their question about the way in which they should organize their contribution to the gift which all his Gentile churches were making to the Jerusalem church: let them set aside a sum of money week by week, and when he came to Corinth the money would be there, ready to be taken to Jerusalem by the churchâs accredited delegates (who might be accompanied by Paul himself, 16:1-4). He calls on the Corinthians to repent and to reinstate the leaders that they had deposed. The text of 1 Corinthians raises no major problems. [7], Scholars have proposed a range of dates, but most limit the possibilities to the last three decades of the 1st century,[8][9] and no later than AD 140. Another is the statement that when Paul reached Corinth he found there Aquila and Priscilla, who had recently come from Italy because of Claudiusâs edict expelling Jews from Rome (Acts 18:2)âan edict which on other grounds can be dated in a.d. 49 (the date ascribed to it by Orosius, History vii. consisted of those âfor whom Christ meant something like âGod, freedom, and immortality,â where âGodâ means a refined philosophical monotheism; âfreedomâ means emancipation from the Puritanical rigors of Palestinian barbarian authorities into the wider air of self-realization; and immortality means the sound Greek doctrine as opposed to the crude Jewish notion of the Resurrectionâ (T. W. Manson, Studies in the Gospels and Epistles [1962], p. 207). If it be asked what the nature of the resurrection body is, Paul replied that it will be a body adapted to its new environment, as the physical body is adapted to this earthly environment; it will be a âspiritual bodyâ whose wearers will share the glory of their risen Lord (15:35-50). Paul spent eighteen months in the city (Acts 18:11) prob. The lack of clearly recognized leaders in the Corinthian church meant that Paul had to give rulings on matters which would normally have been dealt with by local leaders or elders. This letter is lost (the view that part of it is preserved in 2 Cor 6:14-7:1 has little to commend it, since the latter passage deals with idolatry, not immorality). Or, to use a different figure, Paul laid the foundation and Apollos the upper courses but the building was Godâs. Paul was far from sharing the foolish notion of some later Christian ascetics that sex as such is undesirable. Paul planned to remain at Ephesus until the following Pentecost, making use of the wideopen Gospel opportunities at present presenting themselves; then he would pass through Macedonia and visit Corinth. Paul claimed that he had given no one any encouragement to name him as party leader; apart from his first half dozen converts in Corinth he had not even baptized any of them, in order to emphasize that believers are baptized into Christ, regardless of who baptizes them. Read this book using Google Play Books app on your PC, android, iOS devices. In the Marcionite order of the epistles 1 and 2 Corinthians together came second after Galatians (Galatians coming first for programmatic reasons); in the Muratorian list, 1 and 2 Corinthians together come first in the sequence of Pauline lettersâperhaps because if these two are counted as one (as they were in certain quarters in the 2nd cent.) The things which befit the present stage of spiritual immaturity will be outgrown when believers are glorified with Christ, but love will never be outgrown. 29b, 30, should be taken as an objection to Paulâs argument, but even this is awkward.) This work, written in Greek, was translated into at least three languages in ancient times: a Latin translation from the 2nd or 3rd century was found in an 11th-century manuscript in the seminary library of Namur, Belgium, and published by Germain Morin in 1894; a Syriac manuscript, now at Cambridge University, was found by Robert Lubbock Bensly in 1876, and translated by him into English in 1899; and a Coptic translation has survived in two papyrus copies, one published by C. Schmidt in 1908 and the other by F. Rösch in 1910.[18][19]. [11], The letter was occasioned by a dispute in Corinth, which had led to the removal from office of several presbyters. In 27 b.c. Accordingly, instead of dispatching the letter which he had just dictated (chs. 3. They might say âAll things are lawful for me,â or âFood is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food,â as though their physical life was religiously neutral. In classical times it was the chief commercial and maritime rival of Athens. This practice spread to other churches, and Christians translated the Greek work into Latin, Syriac, and other languages. Clemens Alexandrinus calls him an apostle. Yet the principle that ministry in the church must have as its object the spiritual welfare of the members should always be borne in mind, as also should the principle that the reputation of Christ and the Gospel is at stake in the public behavior of Christians. 1-4), Paul proceeded to dictate much more, dealing first with the serious state of the church as reported by his new visitors and then one by one with the questions raised in the Corinthiansâ letter (his answer to each question is introduced by the phrase, âNow concerningâ). 14:37). 47:3 Of a truth he charged you in the Spirit concerning himself and Cephas and Apollos, because that even then ye had made parties. Paul reminded them of the institution of the Supperâsomething that he had already âdeliveredâ to them as he, in turn, had first âreceivedâ it (the characteristic verbs of tradition are used). Its stylistic coherence suggests a single author. When a fire broke out and swept through one of those ancient cities, structures of durable material survived but wooden huts and the like went up in smoke. 28, 36). 3626f.). The church of God which sojourns at Rome, to the church of God sojourning at Corinth, to them that are called and sanctified by the will of God, through our Lord Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, from Almighty God through Jesus Christ, be multiplied. Consequently, when did Paul write his first letter to the Corinthians? These New Testament allusions are employed as authoritative sources which strengthen the letter's arguments to the Corinthian church. He had no complaint to make of Apollos, but of others, who used materials quite out of keeping with the foundation stone. The work is attributed to Clement I, the Bishop of Rome. The news that some Christians at Corinth were prosecuting others in pagan law courts was shocking in Paulâs eyes. Let them take their ordinary meals at home, and come to the Lordâs Supper in a proper state of spiritual preparation (11:17-34). The letter is a response to events in Corinth, where the congregation had deposed certain elders (presbyters). ; it is striking that the two Jerusalem leaders whom he met in the third year after his conversion (Peter and James) are the only two whom he named in 1 Corinthians 15:5ff. The âprophetâ should maintain his self-control and be equally able to speak or to refrain from speaking (14:29-32). âto live according to scriptureâ (4:6), which some (e.g. It must remain uncertain whether this is Sosthenes of Acts 18:17, the ruler of the synagogue who was beaten up by the bystanders after the Jewish leaders of Corinth had been rebuffed by Gallio (see # 3). As for the divorce question, the Lordâs ruling is binding on His people (cf. First Clement: Clement of Rome. Text, canonicity and authority. esp. Let a church meeting be held and sentence of excommunication pronounced; Paul, who had already passed this judgment on the man, would be with them in spirit, concurring in the sentence. As for prophecy, this does not require so much regulation, apart from the reminder that the âprophetsâ should speak one after another and not all together, and two or three utterances should suffice for one session. First Epistle to the Corinthians From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The First Epistle to the Corinthians, or the First Letter to the Corinthians, is a long letter written by the Apostle Paul to the church in Corinth. [13], Thomas J. Herron states that 1 Clement 41:2's statement of "Not in every place, brethren, are sacrifices offered continually, either in answer to prayer, or concerning sin and neglect, but in Jerusalem only; and even there the offering is not made in every place, but before the temple in the court of the altar, after that which is offered has been diligently examined by the high priest and the appointed ministers" would only make sense if the work was composed before the temple was destroyed in 70 CE. The church of Corinth, wrote Paul, need have no doubt on this score; it was the Lordâs âsealâ on his apostleship (9:2). Like 2 Peter, this epistle criticizes those who had doubts about the faith because the Second Coming hadn't yet occurred. On the other hand, there is no objection to accepting a pagan friendâs invitation and eating whatever is served at his table; but if an issue is made of food that has been dedicated to an idol, the Christian will safeguard his witness and show a helpful example to others. He explains that the Apostles had appointed ”bishops and deacons”, that they had given instructions on how to perpetuate the ministry, and that Christians were to obey their superiors. It should not be exercised in public unless an interpreter is available; otherwise, it should be used only for private edification (14:4f.). "Clement of Rome, St." Cross, F. L. Although ch. glossolalia and prophecy. If conduct of this kind were tolerated in the church, it would corrupt the whole fellowship as surely as a little leaven ferments the whole batch of dough. 476; vi. First Epistle To The Corinthians. The Gospel as summarized in 1 Corinthians 15:2ff., with its list of resurrection appearances, is clearly stated to be common ground for Paul and for such other preachers as the Twelve and James (15:11)âa statement which could have been readily refuted if it were questionable. Whatever the Corinthian Christians thought of their attainments, they were not sufficiently mature to be taught this higher wisdom; that they were still in spiritual infancy, requiring the âmilkâ of elementary teaching, was evident in the prevalence of party spirit among them. It is the hope of resurrection that encourages men and women to become Christians and receive baptism in order to be reunited with their friends who departed in Christ; the same hope emboldened Paul and his fellow apostles to endure the dangers of their calling (15:29-34). law. 2. The First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians - ÎοÏÎ¹Î½Î¸Î¯Î¿Ï Ï Î - follows his Letter to the Romans in the New Testament of the Bible. (Verse 29 is so difficult to construe in the context that it has been regarded as an intrusive gloss, but there is no textual evidence for this. it was refounded by Julius Caesar as a Rom. Let those members of the church who consider themselves to have a special endowment of the Spirit show that this is so by recognizing the authority with which Paul spoke. 47:2 What wrote he first unto you in the beginning of the Gospel? The difference between the Paul party and the Apollos party was at most one of emphasis; but the extremes of the other two parties, representing legalism on the one side and libertinism on the other, were regarded by Paul as deadly enemies of the Gospel, and in countering them he was obliged to fight simultaneously on two frontsâa fact which must never be forgotten in the study of his Corinthian correspondence. Would the teaching given by later visitors do the same? Above all else, love is the one thing needful. He would soon visit them in person; for the present, he would send Timothy to see them. law toward the Gospel: if the Gospel was a variety of a religion sanctioned by Rom. He therefore reminded them first of all of the centrality of the resurrection of Christ in the Gospel to which they owed their salvation (15:1-11, a paragraph important for many things, including the light it throws on apostolic tradition and its summary, the earliest one available, of the appearances of the risen Christ). Many of them were attracted by the more spectacular gifts, esp. No wonder that sickness and untimely death were rife among them! [10] 1 Clement is dated by some scholars to some time before AD 70. It is important to mark the care with which Paul distinguishes the Lordâs unambiguous ruling (v. 10) from his own judgment (vv. Turning now to the questions raised in the Corinthiansâ letter, Paul dealt first with marriage and divorce. The First Epistle of Clement (Ancient Greek: ÎλήμενÏÎ¿Ï ÏÏá½¸Ï ÎοÏÎ¹Î½Î¸Î¯Î¿Ï Ï, romanized: KlÄmentos pros Korinthious, lit. after the death and resurrection of Christ) is an early and indispensable source of information about the apostolic preaching. The sustained opposition to Paulâs activity in Corinth came to a peak shortly after Gallioâs arrival in the city as proconsul of Achaia. With greetings from Paulâs associates in the province of Asia, and esp. The fact that in a pagan city like Corinth most of the meat exposed for sale in the market was the flesh of animals that had been sacrificed to idols presented many converts from paganism with a problem of conscience. (However, some people think that they were Jesusâ cousins, or sons from aprevio⦠When he referred to the daily pressure of his âanxiety for all the churchesâ (2 Cor 11:28), his anxiety for the Corinthian church must have made a major contribution to that burden. The letter which was almost finished is resumed in ch. The cultivation of such gifts as glossolalia at Corinth does not appear to have constituted a problem in the other churches addressed by Paul; and 1 Corinthians cannot be used as a directory of public worship by churches in general. Apparently they celebrated the Eucharist at the end of their love feasts, but their conduct during those feasts and their condition at the end of them meant that they were in no fit state to take the Holy Supper whose significance they were denying in practice. Bibliography C. Hodge, Exposition of First Corinthians (1863; reprinted 1953); F. Godet, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, 2 volumes (1886; reprinted 1957); T. C. Edwards, Commentary on the First Epistle to the Corinthians (1897); G. G. Findlay, The First Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians (1900); J. Weiss, Der erste Korintherbrief (1910); H. L. Goudge, The First Epistle to the Corinthians3 (1911); A. Robertson and A. Plummer, Critical and Exegetical Commentary on First Corinthians (1911); E. B. Allo, Saint Paul: Première Ãpître aux Corinthiens (1935); J. Moffatt, The First Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians (1938); H. Lietzmann and W. G. Kummel, An die Korinther I-II4 (1949); F. W. Grosheide, The First Epistle to the Corinthians (1953); J. Héring, The First Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians (1962); T. W. Manson, Studies in the Gospels and Epistles (1962), 190-209; G. Deluz, A Companion to I Corinthians (1963); M. E. Thrall, I and II Corinthians, Cambridge Bible Commentary on the NEB (1965); J. C. Hurd, The Origin of I Corinthians (1965); A. Isaksson, Marriage and Ministry in the New Temple (1965); C. K. Barrett, The First Epistle to the Corinthians (1968); F. F. Bruce. New International Version (NIV), Encyclopedia of The Bible – First Epistle to the Corinthians. Similarly, it was best that widows should remain unmarried, but if they decided to remarry they were free to do so, âonly in the Lord.â In matters where he had received no commandment from the Lord, Paul would only express his own mind and leave his readers to decide for themselves, but he regarded his judgment as sound judgment, âand I think,â he added, âthat I have the Spirit of Godâ (7:39f.). They should be ashamed of themselves (1 Cor 6:1-8). congenial to their intellectual taste, the Christ party prob. (The citizens of a Rom. Paul and Apollos, for example, were only servants of Christ, each performing the duty assigned to him. But the body as well as the spirit had been redeemed by Christ; therefore God should be glorified in their bodily conduct. This deficiency, however, will be dealt with later; at present Paul singled out those features for which he could sincerely thank God, and he assured them that, as they waited for the revelation of Christ at His parousia, they could rely for their establishment on their faithful God, who has called them into the fellowship of His Son (1 Cor 1:1-9). The Namur Latin translation reveals its early date in several ways. 1 Clem. Besides, the impression made on outsiders who venture into Christian meetings must be considered; the sight and sound of a whole company engaged in glossolalia will suggest that they are all mad, whereas prophecyâthe proclamation of the mind of God in the power of the Spiritâwill produce inward conviction and a realization that God is present (14:23-25). The Salutation. Paulâs authorship of this epistle is widely accepted in the scholarly community, though it was not the first letter Paul wrote to the Corinthian people (see 1 Corinthians 5:9). Above all, this letter emphasizes the surpassing power and worth of the love of God in human life; Christianity may survive in the absence of many valuable things, but it will die if love is absent. During his stay in Corinth, in spite of sustained opposition, Paul laid the foundation of a large and gifted church, including both Jewish and Gentile converts. By a revelation previously uncommunicated Paul declared that the resurrection will take place when the last trumpet sounds, and in that moment believers still alive will be transformed from mortal beings into immortal ones. [1][2][3] The common time given for the epistle's composition is at the end of the reign of Domitian (c. AD 96). Based on internal evidence the letter was composed some time before AD 70. First Epistle to the Corinthians I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. The exercise of spiritual gifts in the church was a subject on which the Corinthians had asked for advice. Faith, hope and love form a heavenly triad of graces which endure for ever, but love is the greatest of the three. With Romans, 2 Corinthians and Galatians, it belongs to the four âcapitalâ epistles which provide the foundation of Pauline theology. the Delphian inscr. In âthe impending distressâ (v. 26) Christians with family responsibilities might find it more difficult to stand uncompromisingly for the faith than those who were free from such obligations. The First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians, probably written about 53â54 ce at Ephesus, Asia Minor, deals with problems that arose in the early years after Paulâs initial missionary visit (c. 50â51) to Corinth and his establishment there of a Christian community. But the resurrection of Christ was too well established to be overthrown, and it carried with it the resurrection of His people, just as the firstfruits presented to God on the first day of the week following Passover (Lev 23:9-11) guaranteed the coming harvest. He hoped to deal with them in greater detail when he was able to pay them a personal visit; meanwhile, he sent this letter (perhaps by the hand of Ste phanas, Fortunatus and Achaicus) and told them to expect a visit from Timothy soon after the receipt of the letter. This might be expected in unregenerate men; it was a work of the flesh and those in whom it was found could properly be described as âcarnalâ (3:1-4). There was no fault to be found with the foundation: Christ is the one true foundation. The First Epistle to the Corinthians: A Commentary on the Greek Text Liverpool Studies in European Regional Cultures Volume 7 of New international Greek Testament commentary: Author: Anthony C. Thiselton: Publisher: Wm. empire, and in fact it appears to have been accepted as such until it was reversed by imperial action in the next decade.
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