The Epistles to the Corinthians - Essay Example

The Epistles to the Corinthians Understanding the Bible often depends upon our understanding of the life and times of the people who wrote it. Limited to the language and knowledge of their time, it is often the case that people living in modern times dismiss much of what is said because it is felt the lessons no longer apply. After all, who cares about counting sheep in a flock when the majority of people have never seen a sheep outside of the petting zoo? However, the authors of the Bible generally understood that they were writing for history and that times would change, innovations would develop and the way we live our lives would undergo fundamental shifts away from what was known in their own time. Therefore, they tended to speak in metaphors and utilized a great deal of symbolism in their writings. Understanding who these people were allows us to begin deciphering some of the hidden innuendos, metaphors, symbolism and other aspects of writing that can illuminate the author’s intentions. Once the figurative language is deciphered, we can gain a great deal of insight into how these messages translate into our daily lives. Even a more general understanding of the elements of the individual books, such as the author, the intention and the major topics discussed, can provide us with a great deal of information and wisdom in helping us to live our lives in a more Biblical way. Examining these issues in the book of I Corinthians reveals … That the author of this book was the Apostle Paul has been fairly well established through comparisons with other books in the New Testament and with knowledge regarding Paul’s travels during this time period. “A comparison of Phil. 4:15; I Thess. 1:1; 2:2; 3: 1, 6; and 2 Cor. 11:9 enables us both to reproduce the itinerary of Paul’s first journey through Macedonia and Achaia, and to recover a number of other important facts concerning it” (Burton, 1895: 279). This proof is seen as somewhat unnecessary as Paul introduces himself at the beginning of the book, which was originally written in the form of a letter to the church. “Both 1 and 2 Corinthians were undoubtedly written by the Apostle Paul. He established the church in Corinth, and was the self-proclaimed ‘father’ of the Corinthian believers. Intrinsically, Paul designates himself as being the author in both epistles” (“The Epistles”, 2003). There is also evidence of Paul’s presence in Corinth in the book of Acts (18: 1-17). Finally, the early church kept these epistles in high esteem, attributing them to Paul while lingual experts have established that the letters are consistent with other documents known to have been written by Paul. According to Hillyer, both 1 and 2 Corinthians are “unmistakably Pauline in the tone and character of their teaching and in their vocabulary and style” (1970: 1051). Having established who wrote the book through the historical record and through linguistic and philosophic comparison, it is then possible to link the author’s motivations and life to the motivations and intended purposes of the book he undoubtedly wrote. Although Paul is considered to have been one of the most accessible of early church figures, he has nevertheless proven difficult to identify in terms of who he was as a man. Attempting to define Paul, author Victor Paul Furnish (1994) identifies two Pauls, one identified in his relation within the church and one identified in his historical context. Within the church, he is determined to be the apostle for the Gentiles as Colossians highlights his function as a missionary to them and as Ephesians grants them equal status with the Jews as beneficiaries of the promises of Christ (Beker, 1991: Chs. 3 & 4). Historically, there is evidence that Paul was a Pharisee prior to embarking upon his missionary work, but this provides less information than one might otherwise assume (Saldarini, 1988). “Precisely as a Jew, and subsequently as a Jewish Christian, he [Paul] was also very much a man of the Hellenistic age: apparently trained in the subjects that constituted the lower and middle levels of Hellenistic education, clearly at home among the socially elite of urban society, both willing and able to engage the religious and intellectual concerns of the non-Jewish world” (Furnish, 1994: 11). Combining these two viewpoints, Furnish indicates that Paul was a man of tremendous but practical conviction. He had a firm grasp on his faith and beliefs, but was cognizant of the need to adapt the message to suit the needs of the audience. He consistently placed his orations on the level of his opinion or interpretation rather than claiming an unique divine connection to the truth and was careful to demonstrate how he came to these conclusions as a means of meeting counterarguments to his theories and ideas. “The fact remains the Paul is the first Christian theologian of record, in that he sought to explicate the truth of the gospel, and to think through the implications of the Christian understanding of God that is intrinsic to its claims” (Furnish, 1994: 17). While Paul the man may never be well understood, it seems evident that he was a thinking man dedicated to the concept that Jews and Gentiles were capable of benefiting from the lessons of Christianity. The book now known as I Corinthians was actually the second letter that Paul wrote to the Corinthians after he had left the church he had founded there. It was written in direct response to issues that he was familiar with from that city from reports he had received after he’d sent a previous letter that has been lost to history. “Each of [Paul’s letters] had been shaped by his own situation and concerns as he wrote, and also by the situation and needs that he believed to obtain among those whom he addressed” (Furnish, 1994: 4). After he had sent the first letter, which is believed to have had something to do with warnings against associating with the sexually immoral residents for which Corinth was well-known, Paul evidently received several reports from friends and church members regarding division and sexual immorality among his former followers as well as letters on numerous other topics. “The Christians in Corinth were struggling with their environment. Surrounded by corruption and every conceivable sin, they felt the pressure to adapt. They knew they were free in Christ, but what did this freedom mean?” (Life Application Bible, 1 Cor. intro.). Thus, Paul’s response is part encouragement, part consolation, part admonishment and part instructional. The major topics covered in the book include issues of social relationships such as division, sexual immorality and marriage. In discussing unity, Paul urged the leaders of the Corinthian church to realize that the petty differences between them could only drive them further apart and thus reduce their ability to serve the Christian community. Instead, he argued, the leaders should put aside these differences and be “perfectly united in mind and thought” (1 Cor. 1:10). From issues of division and union, Paul moves into a remonstration regarding the sexual immorality for which the city was famous. “It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that does not occur even among pagans … And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have been filled with grief?” (1 Cor. 5:1-3). He is harsh in his judgment of the individual who would partake in such behavior, indicating that the individual do so such a thing should be removed from the fellowship in order to keep the rest of the congregation from partaking in similar behavior. “The church as Paul states elsewhere is intended to be the pure and spotless bride of Christ (Eph. 5: 25-27), therefore the evil person must be purged from the church (1 Cor. 5:13)” (“The Epistles”, 2003). Although he took a strong stance against sexual immorality, he advised the Corinthians to retain their present social position – if they were married, they should remain married but if they were unmarried, they should remain unmarried as a means of focusing more upon the Lord (“The Epistles”, 2003). Other issues dealt with in the book are lawsuits, Christian liberty, order of worship, and the resurrection. In terms of filing lawsuits, Paul felt believers should not go before ungodly adjudicators, but should instead settle their disputes among the elders of the fellowship. The reason for this was because when two Christians were seen by the non-Christian world to be fighting, it both illustrated how Christians were not as pure or as Godly as they professed, but also that they were unable to settle small matters on their own. His discussion regarding Christian liberty primarily deals with the question of eating food sacrificed to idols while the order of the church focused on the relation between God, Christ, husband and wife in that hierarchical order as it pertained to partaking of the Lord’s supper. Finally, he emphasizes the importance of the resurrection to the Christian faith. While the specifics of Paul’s message might no longer apply to the modern world, such as the specific names of various church leaders within Corinth almost 2000 years ago, the major themes remain very applicable today. Today’s America continues to struggle with division in almost every aspect of life and sexual immorality is at least as widespread today as it was in ancient Corinth. It is easy to fall into the trap of fulfilling our own needs at the expense of others or to encourage others to do something that feels wrong in their own hearts. While there remains a strong sense of gender-based hierarchy within Paul’s words, there is also a strong message that all members of society can gain benefit from participation in the church family if care is taken to ensure God and Christ are placed above all and worship is constructed so as to be harmonious and edifying for everyone. Finally, today’s postmodern society in which isolation and alienation are dominant, belief in the resurrection assures us that our lives have a true purpose and we will have eternity with Christ in the afterlife. Works Cited Beker, Christiaan. Heirs of Paul: Paul’s Legacy in the New Testament and in the Church Today. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress, 1991. Burton, Ernest D. “The Correspondence of the Apostle Paul with the Church in Corinth.” The Biblical World. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 1895, pp. 278-288. “The Epistles to the Corinthians.” New Testament Introductions. The Blue Letter Bible. (October 3, 2003). July 18, 2007. . Furnish, Victor Paul. “On Putting Paul in His Place.” Journal of Biblical Literature. Atlanta, GA: The Society of Biblical Literature, 1994. Hillyer, Norman. “1 and 2 Corinthians.” The New Bible Commentary. 3d ed. (ed. D. Guthrie and J. A. Motyer). Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1970. Life Application Bible. New International Version. Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 1991. Saldarini, Anthony J. Pharisees, Scribes and Sadducees in Palestinian Society: A Sociological Approach. Wilmington, DE: Glazier, 1988. Read More