1 Corinthians

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PAUL THE APOSTLE TO THE

CORINTHIANS

[1] [2]

[3] [4]

[5] [6]

[7] [8]

INTRODUCTION

The AUTHENTICITY of this Epistle is attested by

CLEMENT OF

ROME

[First Epistle to the Corinthians, 47], POLYCARP

[Epistle to the Philippians, 11], and IRENÆUS

[Against Heresies, 4.27.3]. The city to which it was sent was famed

for its wealth and commerce, which were chiefly due to its situation

between the Ionian and Ægean Seas on the isthmus connecting the

Peloponese with Greece. In Paul's time it was the capital of the

province Achaia and the seat of the Roman proconsul

(Ac 18:12).

The state of morals in it was notorious for debauchery, even in the

profligate heathen world; so much so that "to Corinthianize" was a

proverbial phrase for "to play the wanton"; hence arose dangers to the

purity of the Christian Church at Corinth. That Church was founded by

Paul on his first visit

(Ac 18:1-17).

He had been the instrument of converting many Gentiles

(1Co 12:2),

and some Jews

(Ac 18:8),

notwithstanding the vehement opposition of the countrymen of the latter

(Ac 18:5),

during the year and a half in which he sojourned there. The converts

were chiefly of the humbler classes

(1Co 1:26,

&c.). Crispus

(1Co 1:14;

Ac 18:8),

Erastus, and Gaius (Caius) were, however, men of rank

(Ro 16:23).

A variety of classes is also implied in

1Co 11:22.

The risk of contamination by contact with the surrounding corruptions,

and the temptation to a craving for Greek philosophy and rhetoric

(which Apollos' eloquent style rather tended to foster,

Ac 18:24,

&c.) in contrast to Paul's simple preaching of Christ crucified

(1Co 2:1,

&c.), as well as the

opposition of certain teachers to him, naturally caused him anxiety.

Emissaries from the Judaizers of Palestine boasted of "letters of

commendation" from Jerusalem, the metropolis of the faith. They did

not, it is true, insist on circumcision in refined Corinth, where the

attempt would have been hopeless, as they did among the simpler people

of Galatia; but they attacked the apostolic authority of Paul

(1Co 9:1, 2;

2Co 10:1, 7, 8),

some of them declaring themselves followers of Cephas, the chief

apostle, others boasting that they belonged to Christ Himself

(1Co 1:12;

2Co 10:7),

while they haughtily repudiated all subordinate teaching. Those persons

gave out themselves for apostles

(2Co 11:5, 13).

The ground taken by them was that Paul was not one of the Twelve, and

not an eye-witness of the Gospel facts, and durst not prove his

apostleship by claiming sustenance from the Christian Church. Another

section avowed themselves followers of Paul himself, but did so in a

party spirit, exalting the minister rather than Christ. The followers

of Apollos, again, unduly prized his Alexandrian learning and

eloquence, to the disparagement of the apostle, who studiously avoided

any deviation from Christian simplicity

(1Co 2:1-5).

In some of this last philosophizing party there may have arisen the

Antinomian tendency which tried to defend theoretically their own

practical immorality: hence their denial of the future resurrection,

and their adoption of the Epicurean motto, prevalent in heathen

Corinth, "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die"

(1Co 15:32).

Hence, perhaps, arose their connivance at the incestuous intercourse

kept up by one of the so-called Christian body with his stepmother

during his father's life. The household of Chloe informed Paul of many

other evils: such as contentions, divisions, and lawsuits brought

against brethren in heathen law courts by professing Christians; the

abuse of their spiritual gifts into occasions of display and

fanaticism; the interruption of public worship by simultaneous and

disorderly ministrations, and decorum violated by women speaking

unveiled (contrary to Oriental usage), and so usurping the office of

men, and even the holy communion desecrated by greediness and revelling

on the part of the communicants. Other messengers, also, came from

Corinth, consulting him on the subject of (1) the controversy about

meats offered to idols; (2) the disputes about celibacy and marriage;

(3) the due exercise of spiritual gifts in public worship; (4) the best

mode of making the collection which he had requested for the saints at

Jerusalem

(1Co 16:1,

&c.). Such were the circumstances which called forth the First Epistle

to the Corinthians, the most varied in its topics of all the

Epistles.

In

1Co 5:9,

"I wrote unto you in an Epistle not to company with fornicators," it is

implied that Paul had written a previous letter to the Corinthians (now

lost). Probably in it he had also enjoined them to make a contribution

for the poor saints at Jerusalem, whereupon they seem to have asked

directions as to the mode of doing so, to which he now replies

(1Co 16:2).

It also probably announced his intention of visiting them on way to

Macedonia, and again on his return from Macedonia

(2Co 1:15, 16),

which purpose he changed hearing the unfavorable report from Chloe's

household

(1Co 16:5-7),

for which he was charged with

(2Co 1:17).

In the first Epistle which we have, the subject of fornication is

alluded to only in a way, as if he were rather replying to an excuse

set up after rebuke in the matter, than introducing for the first time

[ALFORD]. Preceding this former letter, he seems

to have paid a second visit to Corinth. For in

2Co 12:4; 13:1,

he speaks of his intention of paying them a third visit,

implying he had already twice visited them. See on

2Co 2:1;

2Co 13:2;

also see on

2Co 1:15;

2Co 1:16.

It is hardly likely that during his three years' sojourn at Ephesus he

would have failed to revisit his Corinthian converts, which he could so

readily do by sea, there being constant maritime intercourse between

the two cities. This second visit was probably a short one

(compare

1Co 16:7);

and attended with pain and humiliation

(2Co 2:1; 12:21),

occasioned by the scandalous conduct of so many of his own converts.

His milder censures having then failed to produce reformation, he wrote

briefly directing them "not to company with fornicators." On their

misapprehending this injunction, he explained it more fully in the

Epistle, the first of the two extant

(1Co 5:9, 12).

That the second visit is not mentioned in Acts is no objection to its

having really taken place, as that book is fragmentary and omits other

leading incidents in Paul's life; for example, his visit to Arabia,

Syria, and Cilicia

(Ga 1:17-21).

The PLACE OF

WRITING is fixed to be Ephesus

(1Co 16:8).

The subscription in English Version, "From Philippi," has no

authority whatever, and probably arose from a mistaken translation of

1Co 16:5,

"For I am passing through Macedonia." At the time of writing

Paul implies

(1Co 16:8)

that he intended to leave Ephesus after Pentecost of that year.

He really did leave it about Pentecost (A.D. 57).

Compare

Ac 19:20.

The allusion to Passover imagery in connection with our Christian

Passover, Easter

(1Co 5:7),

makes it likely that the season was about Easter. Thus the date of the

Epistle is fixed with tolerable accuracy, about Easter, certainly

before Pentecost, in the third year of his residence at Ephesus, A.D. 57. For other arguments, see CONYBEARE and HOWSON'S Life and

Epistles of St. Paul.

The Epistle is written in the name of Sosthenes "[our] brother."

BIRKS supposes he is the same as the Sosthenes,

Ac 18:17,

who, he thinks, was converted subsequently to that occurrence. He bears

no part in the Epistle itself, the apostle in the very next verses

(1Co 1:4,

&c.) using the first person: so Timothy is introduced,

2Co 1:1.

The bearers of the Epistle were probably Stephanas, Fortunatus, and

Achaicus (see the subscription,

1Co 16:24),

whom he mentions

(1Co 16:17, 18)

as with him then, but who he implies are about to return back to

Corinth; and therefore he commends them to the regard of the

Corinthians.