First Epistle to the Corinthians

Composition

Authorship

There is a consensus among historians and theologians that Paul is the author of the First Epistle to the Corinthians. The letter itself starts with "Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes, To the church of God in Corinth"; the precise role of Sosthenes is uncertain. The letter later refers to Paul in the first person singular, and the closing of the letter includes the line "I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand".

Date and Place of Composition

By comparing Acts of the Apostles 18:1–17 and the references to Ephesus in the Corinthian correspondence, scholars suggest that the letter was written during Paul's stay in Ephesus, which is usually dated as being in the range of 53–57 CE.

Anthony C. Thiselton suggests that it is possible that 1 Corinthians was written during Paul's first (brief) stay in Ephesus, at the end of his second journey, usually dated to early 54 CE. However, it is more likely that it was written during his extended stay in Ephesus, where he refers to sending Timothy to them.

Despite the attributed title "1 Corinthians", this letter was not the first written by Paul to the church in Corinth, only the first canonical letter. 1 Corinthians is the second known letter of four from Paul to the church in Corinth, as evidenced by Paul's mention of his previous letter in 1 Corinthians 5:9. The other two being what is called the Second Epistle to the Corinthians and a "tearful, severe" letter mentioned in 2 Corinthians 2:3–4. The apocryphal Third Epistle to the Corinthians, which is not contained in the canonical New Testament, is generally not believed by scholars to have been written by Paul, as the text claims.

Text

The letter is quoted or mentioned by the earliest of sources and is included in every ancient canon, including that of Marcion of Sinope. Some scholars point to the epistle's potentially embarrassing references to the existence of sexual immorality in the church as strengthening the case for the authenticity of the letter.

Surviving early manuscripts

The original manuscript of this book is lost, and the text of surviving manuscripts varies. The oldest manuscripts containing some or all of the text of this book include:

Papyrus 46 (AD 175–225)

Codex Vaticanus (AD 325–350)

Codex Sinaiticus (330–360)

Papyrus 123 (4th century)

Codex Alexandrinus (400–440)

Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus (~450)

Codex Freerianus (~450)

Codex Claromontanus (~550)

Codex Coislinianus (~550)

Papyrus 14 (6th century)

Papyrus 11 (7th century).

Later insertion in 6:20

The majority of early manuscripts end chapter 6 with the words δοξάσατε δὴ τὸν Θεὸν ἐν τῷ σώματι ὑμῶν, doxasate de ton theon en tō sōmati humōn, 'therefore glorify God in your body'. The Textus Receptus adds καὶ ἐν τῷ πνεύματι ὑμῶν, ἅτινά ἐστι τοῦ Θεοῦ, kai en to pneumati humōn, hatina esti tou theou, which the New King James Version translates as "and in your spirit, which are (i.e. body and spirit) God's". J. J. Lias, in the Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, notes that "these words are not found in many of the best MSS. and versions, and they somewhat weaken the force of the argument, which is intended to assert the dignity of the body. They were perhaps inserted by some who, missing the point of the Apostle's argument, thought that the worship of the spirit was unduly passed over."

Later insertion of 14:34–35

The most discussed textual integrity question in the letter concerns 1 Corinthians 14:34–35:

Women should be silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak but should be subordinate, as the law also says. If there is something they want to learn, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church.

The verses appear in every extant Greek manuscript, but a group of Western manuscripts places them after verse 40 instead: Codex Claromontanus (D), Codex Sangermanensis (E), Codex Augiensis (F), Codex Boernerianus (G) and the original hand of Minuscule 88, together with some Old Latin manuscripts and Ambrosiaster. Bruce M. Metzger notes that these manuscripts are not all independent of one another: Sangermanensis was copied from Claromontanus in the ninth or tenth century and is "of no independent value", while Boernerianus is "closely akin" in its type of text to Augiensis, both of them probably going back to a common archetype one or two generations earlier.

Joseph Fitzmyer reports that most commentators today treat them as a post-Pauline interpolation from the milieu that produced 1 Timothy 2:11–12 which some believe was not authored by Paul, and lists the view for Johannes Weiss, C. K. Barrett (hesitantly), Gordon Fee, Richard B. Hays, Wolfgang Schrage and Philip B. Payne among others. Fee, who argues the case at length, holds that suspicion arose on external grounds and that the transcriptional question comes first. Hays rests it rather on internal features: the passage stands against 1 Corinthians 11:5, where women pray and prophesy in the assembly; it addresses "the churches" at large, unlike the rest of a letter written to one congregation; and its unqualified appeal to "the law" is uncharacteristic of Paul. Payne has adduced the Latin Codex Fuldensis and scribal abbreviation in Vaticanus as early evidence that the passage was marked as an addition. Proponents differ over the extent of the addition: Hans Conzelmann took the unit to run from verse 33b to verse 36, while Fee and Hays hold that only verses 34 and 35 are text-critically suspect. Scholars such as Bart D. Ehrman also believe that the verses could possibly be interpolated. According to them, these passages interrupt the flow of Paul's argument.

Others defend the verses as Pauline. Raymond Collins judges the arguments for interpolation "not weighty": the Western manuscripts that move the passage are few and closely related, the oldest manuscripts carry it in its usual position, and six of its expressions recur nearby in the letter, among them the appeal to what "the law says" at 1 Corinthians 9:8; Anthony C. Thiselton endorses that assessment. Barrett observes that the dislocation admits of two explanations: copyists may have inserted a marginal note at different points, or they may have moved an original passage that interrupted the discussion of prophecy in order to smooth the text. E. Earle Ellis and Daniel B. Wallace argue that any such marginal note may have been written by Paul himself.

Unity

Some scholars have held that 1 Corinthians combines material from more than one letter; Johannes Weiss proposed such a division in 1910 and Walter Schmithals, in a series of writings from 1956, first divided the letter into two and later into as many as thirteen. On an analysis associated with Jean Héring, 1 Corinthians 10:1–22 takes a rigorist line on food sacrificed to idols that conflicts with the more permissive treatment at 1 Corinthians 8:1–13 and 1 Corinthians 10:23–11:1, and the passages are assigned to different letters. No manuscript attests any such division, although Barrett holds that this consideration carries no weight, since manuscripts cannot show the state of the text before publication.

Most commentators defend the letter's unity. Gordon Fee holds that the alleged contradictions are "invariably resolvable exegetically", the tension in the idol-food material arising because Paul addresses two related but distinct matters: attendance at sacrificial feasts in pagan shrines, which he forbids, and food bought in the market or served in a private house, which he permits. Fee also identifies a recurring "A-B-A" pattern of argument in the letter, in which a general theological perspective is followed by a digression and then by a specific response. Both Fee and Raymond F. Collins observe that the partition theories do not agree with one another; Collins notes that Weiss and Schmithals each changed their minds about how the letter should be divided, and concludes that "the language of the letter is such that it must be viewed as a single composition", citing sustained defences of unity by John C. Hurd, Helmut Merklein and Dieter Lührmann, and the rhetorical analysis of Margaret M. Mitchell. C. K. Barrett records the view that "no partition theory in regard to 1 Corinthians seems more probable than that Paul simply wrote the letter through, beginning with chapter i and finishing with chapter xvi", adding that the matter is "primarily a question for exegesis". Other scholars likewise argue for the unity of 1 Corinthians 8:1–11:1.

Structure

The epistle is generally divided into a number of sections. For example:

John Barclay argues for five main parts in addition to the opening salutation and thanksgiving, and the closing comments.

Robertson and Plummer divide the letter into two parts: one part (chapters 1–6) deals with issues raised by "Chloe's people" (see 1 Corinthians 1:11) and the other part (chapters 7-16) addresses issues raised by a delegation (see 1 Corinthians 7:1).

Daniel B. Wallace sets out six main sections:

Salutation (1:1–3) and thanksgiving (1:14–9)

Paul addresses the issue regarding challenges to his apostleship and defends the issue by claiming that it was given to him through a revelation from Christ. The salutation (the first section of the letter) reinforces the legitimacy of Paul's apostolic claim. The thanksgiving part of the letter is typical of Hellenistic letter writing. In a thanksgiving recitation, the writer thanks God for health, a safe journey, deliverance from danger, or good fortune.

In this letter, the thanksgiving "introduces charismata and gnosis, topics to which Paul will return and that he will discuss at greater length later in the letter".

Division in Corinth (1:10–4:21)

Facts of division

Causes of division

Cure for division

Immorality in Corinth (5:1–6:20)

Discipline an immoral Brother

Resolving personal disputes

Content

Some time before 2 Corinthians was written, Paul paid the church at Corinth a second visit to check some rising disorder, and wrote them a letter, now lost. The church had also been visited by Apollos, perhaps by Peter, and by some Jewish Christians who brought with them letters of commendation from Jerusalem.

Paul wrote 1 Corinthians letter to correct what he saw as erroneous views in the Corinthian church. Several sources informed Paul of conflicts within the church at Corinth: Apollos, a letter from the Corinthians, "those of Chloe", and finally Stephanas and his two friends who had visited Paul. Paul then wrote this letter to the Corinthians, urging uniformity of belief ("that ye all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you", 1:10) and expounding Christian doctrine. Titus and a brother whose name is not given were probably the bearers of the letter to the church at Corinth.

In general, divisions within the church at Corinth seem to be a problem, and Paul makes it a point to mention these conflicts in the beginning. Specifically, pagan roots still hold sway within their community. Paul wants to bring them back to what he sees as correct doctrine, stating that God has given him the opportunity to be a "skilled master builder" to lay the foundation and let others build upon it.

1 Corinthians 6:9–10 contains a notable condemnation of idolatry, thievery, drunkenness, slandering, swindling, adultery, and other acts considered immoral.

Later, Paul wrote about immorality in Corinth by discussing an immoral brother, how to resolve personal disputes, and sexual purity. Regarding marriage, Paul states that it is better for Christians to remain unmarried, but that if they lacked self-control, it is better to marry than "to burn (πυροῦσθαι) with passion". The epistle may include marriage as an apostolic practice in 1 Corinthians 9:5, "Do we not have the right to be accompanied by a believing wife, as do the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas (Peter)?" (In the last case, the letter concurs with Matthew 8:14, which mentions Peter having a mother-in-law and thus, by inference, a wife.) However, the Greek word for 'wife' is the same word for 'woman'. The Early Church Fathers, including Tertullian, Jerome, and Augustine state the Greek word is ambiguous and the women in 1 Corinthians 9:5 were women ministering to the Apostles as women ministered to Christ, and were not wives, and assert they left their "offices of marriage" to follow Christ. Paula Fredriksen, an American historian and scholar of early Christianity, regards this verse as evidence that women were embedded in the travelling missionary networks of early Christianity from the beginning.

"Through a glass, darkly"

1 Corinthians 13:12 contrasts seeing "in a mirror dimly" with seeing "face to face". The rendering "through a glass, darkly" originated in the 1560 Geneva Bible (without a comma) and was taken over by the 1611 King James Version, which added one; it has since become a common English expression and has supplied the titles of many works.

Women

1 Corinthians discusses the place of women more fully than any other letter attributed to Paul, and its statements range widely: from the reciprocal treatment of husband and wife in chapter 7, through the assumption that women pray and prophesy aloud in the assembly (1 Corinthians 11:5), to the direction that women keep silent (1 Corinthians 14:34–35). Scholars differ over how these fit together and over whether Paul's overall stance is better described as broadly egalitarian or as restrictive.

Women appear in the letter as active members of the Corinthian mission. Paul relies for his news of the community's divisions on the household of Chloe (1 Corinthians 1:11), and he closes by sending greetings from Prisca and Aquila, in whose house a church met (1 Corinthians 16:19). Witherington notes that Paul elsewhere in his letters names women among his coworkers, a fact he weighs against a reading of 14:34–35 as a blanket silencing.

In his instructions on marriage Paul addresses husband and wife in closely parallel terms. He directs spouses to give each other their conjugal due and states that "the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does; likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does" (1 Corinthians 7:4). Gordon Fee describes this as "the full mutuality of men and women in the marital issues" treated in the chapter. Raymond Collins observes that the parallel statements of verses 2 to 4 treat women and men alike, marked by the repeated "likewise" (ὁμοίως δὲ καί, homoiōs de kai, "and likewise also"), and concludes that "equality within the sexual relationship is the norm". Ben Witherington III argues that Paul organises the chapter around the conviction of Galatians 3:28 that there is "no male and female ... in Christ", applying it to questions of marriage, virginity, and celibacy. Craig Keener likewise reads Paul as adapting the conventions of his day "in the direction of mutuality".

Commentators set this reciprocity against the broadly patriarchal norms of Greco-Roman society, while cautioning that Paul was not without precedent. Collins notes that Paul's language "resonates with the moralists' discussion of sexuality" and echoes Stoic writers such as Hierocles and Antipater, for whom mutuality in marriage, including a shared claim on one another's body, was a recurring theme. Keener places Paul within this "particularly progressive stream" among his contemporaries, comparing him to the Stoic philosopher Musonius Rufus, rather than treating him as an isolated voice.

Agape

1 Corinthians 13 is one of many definitional sources for the original Greek word ἀγάπη, agape. In the original Greek, the word ἀγάπη, agape is used throughout chapter 13. This is translated into English as "charity" in the King James version; but the word "love" is preferred by most other translations, both earlier and more recent.

1 Corinthians 11:17–34 contains a condemnation of what the authors consider inappropriate behavior at Corinthian gatherings that appeared to be agape feasts.

Resurrection

After discussing his views on worshipping idols, Paul ends the letter with his views on resurrection and the Resurrection of Jesus.

Most scholars agree that Paul was reinforcing earlier tradition about resurrection noting that he describes the kerygma as "received".

For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures and that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.

It may be one of the earliest kerygmas about Jesus' death and resurrection.

Chapter 15 closes with an account of the nature of the resurrection, claiming that in the Last Judgement the dead will be raised and both the living and the dead transformed into "spiritual bodies" (verse 44).

Psalm 8 reference

1 Corinthians 15:27 refers to Psalm 8:6. Ephesians 1:22 also refers to this verse of Psalm 8.

Evil company corrupts good habits

1 Corinthians 15:33 contains the aphorism "evil company corrupts good habits", from classical Greek literature. According to the church historian Socrates of Constantinople it is taken from a Greek tragedy of Euripides, but modern scholarship, following Jerome, attributes it to the comedy Thaĩs by Menander, or Menander quoting Euripides. Hans Conzelmann remarks that the quotation was widely known. Whatever the proximate source, this quote does appear in one of the fragments of Euripides' works.

Baptism of the dead

1 Corinthians 15:29 argues it would be pointless to baptise the dead if people are not raised from the dead. This verse suggests that there existed a practice at Corinth whereby a living person would be baptized in the stead of some convert who had recently died. Teignmouth Shore, writing in Ellicott's Commentary for Modern Readers, notes that among the "numerous and ingenious conjectures" about this passage, the only tenable interpretation is that there existed a practice of baptising a living person to substitute those who had died before that sacrament could have been administered in Corinth, as also existed among the Marcionites in the second century, or still earlier than that, among a sect called "the Corinthians". The Jerusalem Bible states that "What this practice was is unknown. Paul does not say if he approved of it or not: he uses it merely for an ad hominem argument".

The Latter Day Saint movement interprets this passage to support the practice of baptism for the dead. This principle of vicarious work for the dead is an important work of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the dispensation of the fulness of times. This interpretation is rejected by other Christian denominations.

Commentaries

John Chrysostom, an early Church Father and archbishop of Constantinople, wrote a commentary on 1 Corinthians, formed by 44 homilies.