By Prof. A. Lopukhin
Founding of the Church in Corinth
Corinth, the main city of the Achaean region in southern Greece, was inhabited by numerous colonists, mainly Roman freed slaves, at the time of the emergence of Christianity. There were also quite a few Greeks and Jews there. When the Apostle Paul, during his second apostolic journey, arrived in Corinth, the city had about 700 thousand inhabitants – about 200 thousand free citizens and about 500 thousand slaves. Corinth owed such a large population to its favorable geographical position. It was located on the Isthmus of Corinth, which, connecting the Peloponnese with the Balkan Peninsula, separates two seas, the Aegean and the Ionian. Corinth had two ports – Cenchreae in the east and Lechaeum in the west. Therefore, it quickly became an important station in world trade between Asia and the West. At the top of the city citadel in Corinth stood a magnificent temple of Venus. Corinth united within itself all the means and achievements of the culture of that time – art workshops, rhetoric halls, schools of philosophers. According to an ancient historian, in Corinth you could not take a step down the street without meeting a sage. But hand in hand with the development of culture in Corinth, the corruption of morals also increased. This is evidenced by the fact that at that time debauched life was often called “Corinthian” (κορινθιάζειν), and “Corinthian feasts” and “Corinthian drunkards” were proverbial.
And so, under such social conditions in Corinth, i.e. with the external well-being that the population of Corinth enjoyed, on the one hand, and with the complete decline of morals, on the other, the Apostle Paul began to preach about Christ (in 52 AD).
At that time the apostle was about 50 years old. He came to Corinth alone and began to make a living by the same trade by which he had previously earned his living – making carpets and tent cloths. He soon found a Jewish family there who were engaged in the same trade. They were the husband and wife Aquila and Priscilla, who had recently come to Corinth, because as Jews they had been expelled from Rome by the edict of Claudius. Working together with them, Paul soon converted them to Christ, and both of them became his zealous collaborators in the work of spreading Christianity. According to his custom, the apostle Paul began to preach the Gospel to the Corinthian Jews in Corinth. He knew well that in the synagogue among his listeners there would also be proselytes from different strata of Corinthian society, so that the sermon in the synagogue served as a kind of bridge over which the preacher of the Gospel could pass to the pagan society. Understanding this perfectly, he was also aware of the difficulty of appearing before such demanding listeners as the Corinthians were then, and was anxious about the success of his work (1 Cor. 2:1), especially considering the failure he had just suffered in Athens. The apostle preached in the synagogue for several weeks. This time was enough for him to understand that the Jews as a whole would not convert to Christ, and therefore the apostle, together with a few believers from among the Jews and proselytes, transferred his activities to the house of a Jew who had converted to Christianity. There he preached mainly to pagans, and at the same time he did not resort to any external means to please them, neither to the art of eloquence, nor to the cunning devices of dialectic, but he showed them only the power of his conviction. Such preaching found followers, and a church arose in Corinth, composed partly of Jews, but mainly of Gentiles. Moreover, the majority of the Corinthians who believed were poor people, slaves, and uneducated. For about two years (Acts 18:11, 18), the apostle Paul continued his preaching activity in Corinth, supporting himself partly by his own labor and partly by the aid sent to him by the churches he had founded in Macedonia (2 Cor. 11:7–9, 2 Cor. 12:13–15). At that time, the proconsul of Achaia, Gallio, brother of the philosopher Seneca, an enlightened and good man, lived in Corinth. He showed himself to be just such when the Corinthian Jews began to complain about Paul. Gallio judged that their dispute with Paul concerned religion, and admitted that he could not interfere in this matter. Paul left Corinth around Pentecost 54 AD to go to Jerusalem and then to Antioch. However, he did not intend to stay long in Antioch. The goal of his aspirations was the then famous city of Asia Minor, Ephesus, where his collaborators Aquila and Priscilla had gone before him to prepare the ground for the work of the great apostle to the Gentiles.
External circumstances of the writing of the First Epistle to the Corinthians
No serious objections have been raised in biblical scholarship regarding the authenticity of our epistle. On the contrary, the evidence in favor of its authenticity is very convincing. These include the instructions of the author himself (1 Cor. 1:1), as well as the very tone in which it is written speaks of himself as the founder of the Corinthian Church (1 Cor. 4:15). In addition, the letter contains such a vivid and believable description of the life of the early Christian Church that only the Apostle Paul himself, who was very close to this Church, could have given. Finally, the letter contains many reproaches addressed to the Corinthian community, and it is unlikely that they would have accepted and preserved such a letter if they were not completely convinced of its authenticity. To these internal proofs of the authenticity of the letter are added external ones – namely, the testimonies of church tradition. Already at the end of the 1st century, Clement of Rome cited excerpts from this letter in his letter to the Corinthians (ch. XLVII). St. Ignatius in his letter to the Ephesians (ch. XVIII) repeats the words of the Apostle Paul contained in chapter 2 of the First Letter to the Corinthians. Similar quotes are found in Justin Martyr, in the Epistle to Diognetus, in St. Irenaeus, and other writers from the first centuries of Christianity.
The letter was undoubtedly written in Ephesus (1 Cor. 16:8–9), and precisely towards the end of the three-year stay (Acts 20:31) of the apostle Paul in that city. This last consideration is confirmed above all by the fact that at the time of sending the letter Apollos was with the apostle (1 Cor. 16:12). This learned Alexandrian Jew had been converted in Ephesus by Aquila and Priscilla shortly before the arrival of the apostle Paul (Acts 18:24–26), and then traveled to Achaia, where he preached, continuing the work of Paul. If he is now again with the apostle in Ephesus, it is evident that a considerable time has passed since the arrival of the apostle Paul in Ephesus. Furthermore, from the book of Acts we learn that the apostle Paul, after spending two years and three months in Ephesus, intended to head west, having previously gone to Jerusalem to testify to the church there of the love that the churches he had founded in Macedonia and Achaia felt for it. In order to prepare the Greek churches for the collection of offerings for the poor Christians in Jerusalem, who were to testify to this love, the apostle sent his co-workers Timothy and Erastus to Achaia and Macedonia (Acts 19:22). This fact coincides with what is said in the First Epistle to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 4:17; 16:10), and refers to the time shortly before the apostle’s departure from Ephesus. Finally, it is to this time, and not to later, that the writing of the epistle should be attributed, because in it the apostle freely disposes of himself and makes plans for future travels, while soon after the collection of the aforementioned alms and after its delivery to the leaders of the Jerusalem Church, the apostle was captured. Therefore, it can be considered that the First Epistle to the Corinthians was written around the spring of 57, shortly before Passover, to which there is a hint in chapter 5 (vv. 7 and 8).
Reason for writing the epistle
After the departure of the apostle Paul for Ephesus, divisions arose in the Corinthian church. When the Alexandrian teacher Apollos arrived in Corinth, his preaching led to the formation of a special party among the Corinthian Christians – namely the party of Apollos. This group consisted mainly of Jews, whom Apollos managed to attract to the Christian church through his interpretations of the Old Testament, finding in it the most convincing evidence that Jesus was truly the Messiah (Acts 18). This party was also joined by quite a few educated pagans, who did not like the simple preaching of the Apostle Paul, and who adopted Christianity from Apollos more with their minds than with their hearts. In addition to the party of Apollos, a party of “Petrites” or “Cyphines” also appeared in Corinth. There is no reason to suppose that the Apostle Peter himself was in Corinth or preached there. Most likely, this group was formed under the influence of the stories of Christians who arrived from Palestine about the great personality of the Apostle Peter. In the ideas of these newcomers, Peter was the prince of the apostles, and therefore if there was any disagreement between him and Paul, then, according to this party, Paul should yield to the primacy of Peter.
It is clear that the Corinthians, converted to Christianity by Paul himself, stood behind their teacher and also formed a separate party – the supporters of Paul. They wanted to believe only in what Paul had taught them, and they had a negative attitude towards the authority of Apollos and Peter. Finally, there were also such Christians who rejected all apostolic authority and adhered only to the name of Christ. They did not want to recognize any mediators between themselves and Christ, but to depend only on Him.
Thus, four parties were formed in the Corinthian church: those of Apollos, of Peter, of Paul and “of Christ”.
But that was not all. Other undesirable phenomena began to appear in the lives of the Corinthian Christians. When the initial strong impressions of the apostle Paul’s sermon, which called them to a complete renewal of their sinful lives, began to weaken, the Corinthian believers began to treat the strict requirements of evangelical morality too lightly. Misunderstanding the apostle’s teaching on the freedom of a Christian (1 Cor. 6:12; 10:23), the Corinthians began to consider as permissible for themselves even such things that were not allowed even among the pagans. The more prudent among the Corinthian Christians began to ask themselves what they should do with these unworthy fellow believers. Therefore, they turned to Paul with a letter in which they described all their difficulties, in addition to those already mentioned above. They asked him about the superiority of celibacy over married life, about the permissibility of eating meat sacrificed to idols (1 Cor. 7:1; 8:1), about the relative importance of the various spiritual gifts (1 Cor. 12:1). Finally, there were also people in Corinth who denied the truth of the universal resurrection, which, undoubtedly, was also communicated to the apostle Paul in the aforementioned epistle.
Plan of the Epistle and Content
Such were the circumstances in the life of the Corinthian church that prompted the apostle Paul to write the First Epistle to the Corinthians. It is natural that the diverse needs of the church in Corinth should also have affected the character of the epistle itself. It could be expected that the apostle would simply answer each of the questions posed in turn, without caring for a general composition. Meanwhile, it cannot be ignored that the First Epistle to the Corinthians, with all the variety of topics it deals with, is a complete work built according to a certain plan.
Since the apostle had first of all to restore his significantly fallen authority in Corinth, in order for his exhortations to be accepted by those to whom they were addressed, he devotes the first chapters of the epistle to the question of parties in Corinth. First, he speaks of the properties and essence of the Gospel; then of the position and tasks of the minister of the Gospel; and finally, he defines the normal relationship between believers and their teachers. Thus he eliminates the evil of partyism at its very root. Then the apostle passes on to questions affecting the moral life of the Christian community. First, he raises a question that in a certain sense also concerns the organization of the community, namely, the case of a Christian who allowed himself a gross violation of Christian moral discipline. Paul gives instructions on how such members of the Church should be treated. Four purely moral questions follow. Two of them, whether Christians have the right to litigate among themselves before pagan judges, and how the vice of intemperance should be viewed, the apostle decides quickly, relying on the very spirit of the Gospel. The other two, concerning the comparison of the value of marriage and celibacy, and concerning the permissibility of using meat sacrificed to idols as food, were much more difficult, because here the question of Christian freedom intervened. Paul devotes no little time and effort to resolving them. After them come the questions that concern religious life and worship meetings. The first of these again approaches the topic of Christian freedom – this is the question of the behavior of women in worship meetings. The second is about the behavior of Christians at the so-called love dinners (agape). The third and most difficult concerns the use of spiritual gifts, mainly the gift of “tongues” and the gift of prophecy.
Thus, in his epistle, the apostle moves from the external to the internal. At the end of the epistle, he considers the question that was of the greatest importance for the entire life of the Christian, namely, the resurrection of the dead, which some Corinthians doubted.
Therefore, the entire content of the epistle can be presented as follows: 1) A question about the Church – or about the church community (1 Cor. 1:10 – 4); 2) Five moral questions, and above all the question of church discipline (1 Cor. 5-10); 3) Three liturgical questions (1 Cor. 11-14); 4) A dogmatic question (1 Cor. 15).
Chapter 1, verses 1-9, constitute an introduction to the epistle, and chapter 17 contains a conclusion – instructions, various information and greetings.
In more detail, the content of the epistle can be presented as follows:
1. Introduction: address (1 Cor. 1:1–3); thanksgiving to God (1 Cor. 1:4–9).
2. Parties in the Corinthian church (1 Cor. 1:10–17).
3. Essence of the Gospel (1 Cor. 1:18 – 3:4).
4. True essence of the ministry of the Christian teacher (1 Cor. 3:5 – 4:5).
5. Arrogance as a cause of disorder in the Church (1 Cor. 4:6–21).
6. Church discipline (1 Cor. 5).
7. Legal cases between Christians (1 Cor. 6:1–11).
8. Intemperance (1 Cor. 6:12–20).
9. Marriage and celibacy (1 Cor. 7).
10. Use of meat sacrificed to idols and participation in pagan feasts (1 Cor. 8–10).
11. Women’s dress in worship (1 Cor. 11:1–16).
12. Disorders at love feasts (agape) (1 Cor. 11:17–34).
13. Spiritual gifts (1 Cor. 12–14).
14. The resurrection of the dead (1 Cor. 15).
15. Conclusion of the Epistle (1 Cor. 16).
Character of First Corinthians
First Corinthians, like the second, is a model of what we call an “epistle.” Its content can hardly be accommodated in the form of a treatise or a systematic discussion: it is precisely the form of an epistle – a letter written to specific people – that is uniquely suited to these outpourings with which the Apostle Paul addresses the Corinthian church he founded. Here we see all the characteristic features of a letter: exhortations, praises and reproofs addressed to the recipients; we feel that the Apostle writes as he would speak to the Corinthians in a personal meeting. We also find numerous hints or half-hints, typical of letters between close people – which remain almost incomprehensible to other readers.
But the First Epistle differs significantly from the Second in that in it the Apostle considers the needs of church life and various specific questions of church discipline, while in the Second Epistle he speaks primarily of his personal relations with the Corinthians and frankly reveals to them his inner experiences. And yet, in both the first and second epistles, Paul invariably emphasizes the importance of the external manifestations of church life for the inner spiritual state of the individual Christian, and in the second he subordinates personal experiences to the great, general Christian events and truths. It can be said that in both epistles we see the same Paul – in all the greatness of his apostolic spirit and piety.
The Epistles to the Corinthians occupy a special place among the other epistles of the apostle. Here the preacher of the only saving grace and of Christian freedom appears in the role of a church administrator, establishing order in church life. The bearer and preacher of personal, living Christianity presents himself as a defender of the church, community worldview. His speech in these epistles is also diverse: sometimes it recalls the dialectical courage and seriousness of the epistles to the Galatians and Romans, sometimes the simplicity and light sprawl of the pastoral epistles.
About the text of the epistle
The First Epistle to the Corinthians has been preserved in three main editions: Alexandrian (in the most ancient Greek manuscripts), Greco-Latin, or Western (in the Itala translation and among the Western Fathers), Syriac, or Byzantine (in the Syriac translation Peschito and among the Syriac Fathers – for example, Chrysostom and Theodoret). The so-called Textus receptus, on the basis of which the Slavic and Russian translations were made, follows in various places now one, now the other, now the third of these ancient textual traditions. In general, it should be noted that the text of the epistle contains relatively few controversial places: the textual variants here are significantly fewer than in other epistles.
The most famous manuscripts of the First Epistle to the Corinthians are: the Sinaitic and Vatican Codex (4th century); the Alexandrian Codex and the Codex of Ephraim (5th century); the Claremontonian and Coislician Codex (6th century); The Moscow Manuscript (9th century);
Interpretations on the First Epistle to the Corinthians
Among the patristic interpreters stand out: Ephrem the Syrian († 373); Ambrose († 375); John Chrysostom († 407); Theodore of Mopsuestia (not belonging to the Orthodox tradition; † 428); Theodoret of Cyrus († 458); Theophylact Bulgarian (11th century)
From the more recent Western literature, the commentaries of:
Olshausen (2 ed., 1840), de Wette (1840), Meyer (in 8 ed. – Heinrici, 1896), Hoffmann (1874), Edwards (Eng., 1885), Godet (first in French, then in German 1886–88), Cornely (Latin, 1886–92), W. Weiss (2 ed., 1902), Ramsay (Eng.), Bousset (in Schriften des Neuen Testaments by I. Weiss, 1907), Lietzmann (1907), Schlatter (1908) and the most scientifically sound work – Bachmann Ph. (2 ed., 1910).
From the Russian interpretations: Bishop Theophanes, Archbishop Nikanor (Kamensky). Also useful are the works of Prof. Golubev on 1 Cor., as well as the works of Rozanov, Ivanov and Archpriest Heraskov. Individual issues of the epistle are discussed in detail by St. M. P. Fiveysky (On Spiritual Gifts, dissertation, 1908), by Prof. N. N. Glubokovski (The Gospel of the Apostle Paul, 1905 and 1910, 2 volumes), by Prof. Bogdashevsky (in articles from the Proceedings of the Kiev Theological Academy and, 1909–1910), as well as in Lütgert’s study Freiheitspredigt und Schwärmergeister in Korinth (1908).
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First published in this link of The European Times.
