The Books of the New Testament Part 13

In B.C. 146 the city was captured by the Roman general Mummius. It was left desolate until B.C. 46, when Julius Caesar refounded it as a Roman colony. The Romans called the whole of Greece the province of Achaia, and const.i.tuted Corinth the capital of it. While Athens was still the seat of the greatest university in the world, where lived most vigorously the glorious memories of bygone Greece, the government of the province was directed from Corinth. When St. Paul visited it, it was under a proconsul, Junius Gallio, the brother of the philosopher Seneca. The possession of two good harbours, and its position on the quickest route from Rome to the East, caused a rapid revival of Corinthian wealth and Corinthian manners. There was also a good deal of literary and philosophic culture. In the time of St. Paul the descendants of the original Roman colonists probably formed a small aristocracy among the ma.s.s of Greek dwellers at Corinth, and some settlements of various nationalities, including one of Jews, were living there. A few miles away, at the shrine of Poseidon, were held the athletic Isthmian games, and still by the sea-sh.o.r.e there grow the pine trees, such as furnished the quickly withering wreaths which were given to the victors in the race.

The Church of Corinth was founded by St. Paul on his second missionary journey, during his first visit to Europe. His stay at Corinth lasted for eighteen months. There is an account of it in Acts xviii. He laboured at tent-making, and found a home with a devout Jewish couple, Aquila and Priscilla. At first he preached in the synagogue, where he converted the ruler of the synagogue, Crispus. Being rejected by the Jews, he turned to the Gentiles, and held his meetings {135} in the house of Justus, a converted proselyte. The Jews prosecuted St. Paul before Gallio, who, however, dismissed the case with contemptuous indifference. The converts to Christianity were numerous. They were mostly Gentiles (1 Cor. xii. 2), but there were a few influential Jewish Christians and some Gentiles who had been proselytes of Judaism.

It is clear that the Church contained a few men of good birth and education (1 Cor. i. 26), but the majority were from the poorer cla.s.ses. The Corinthians as Christians were by no means entirely free from the characteristics which had marked them as citizens. They were ready to form cliques and quarrel in the name of Christ, and they still showed the same quarrelsome mood in the time of St. Clement. They found it hard to hate the sensuality which in their earlier days they had regarded as divine. They were puffed up with eloquence and philosophic speculation, and forgot that there is no "sweetness and light" comparable to the Gospel.

[Sidenote: Where and when written.]

This Epistle was written from Ephesus in the spring of A.D. 55. The note at the end of the Epistle to the effect that it was written "from Philippi," though ancient, is incorrect, and is due to a misunderstanding of xvi. 5.

When St. Paul left Corinth in April, A.D. 52, to go to Jerusalem, Apollos came to take his place, and preached with much success (Acts xviii. 27). St. Paul returned to Ephesus at the end of the summer of 52, and Apollos left Corinth and joined St. Paul. Soon some Judaizing teachers appeared at Corinth, and the apostle was obliged to go thither, though "in sorrow" (2 Cor. ii. 1; cf. 2 Cor. xii. 14; xiii.

1). After this disciplinary visit he returned to Ephesus, and sent the Corinthians a sharp letter, now lost, about the relations which they should have with open and notorious evil-livers (1 Cor. v. 9).

St. Paul's next news from Corinth caused him to write this letter.

Some members of Chloe's household told him of the development of factions there; and a letter was sent, perhaps {136} by the hands of Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus (xvi. 15-18), asking for advice about matters of grave importance, including litigation between Christians and an unseemly freedom in public wors.h.i.+p. Realizing the serious state of affairs, St. Paul determined to visit Corinth a third time, and sent Timothy as his representative to prepare for his coming (1 Cor. iv. 17, xvi. 10). After Timothy's departure he wrote this Epistle.

The above account a.s.sumes that St. Paul's _second visit_ to Corinth was paid before 1 Corinthians was written, but it is thought by some writers of repute that it was paid after 1 Corinthians was written and before 2 Corinthians.

[Sidenote Character and Contents.]

This Epistle, like each of the three other Epistles belonging to the same group, has a perfectly distinct character of its own. It expounds the doctrine of a crucified Christ as applied to social difficulties.

What Romans does as a theological treatise, and Galatians as a controversial admonition, and 2 Corinthians as a record of personal experience and vocation, this 1 Corinthians does as an instruction for influencing a corrupt urban life with the leaven of the gospel. It is very practical in tone, and the doctrine which it contains is not stated separately, but is throughout woven into the cords of the apostle's argument. There is nothing in the New Testament equal to this Epistle in its power of bringing us close to the difficulties of the Church in an ancient city. We seem to see the men and women who composed it--their eagerness for religious novelties, their debased surroundings, their anarchic divisions, their frail sense of moral responsibility. And a modern reader will probably lay the letter down with a conviction that our great modern cities have much to learn from the words written by St. Paul to Corinth, "the light of Greece."

The Epistle is very olderly in arrangement. It deals first with the report which St. Paul had received about the Corinthian Church (i.-vi.); then it answers various questions {137} which the Corinthians had submitted to him (vii.-xi. 1). Then follow directions based on the report and the questions.

The letter opens with a significant salutation and thanksgiving (i.

1-9). St. Paul then proceeds to rebuke the Corinthian _tendency to party spirit_. There were apparently four parties in the Church. The first a.s.serted that they were followers of _Paul_; the second preferred the rhetorical preaching of _Apollos_ to Paul's simplicity; the third--probably Judaizers--ranged themselves under the name of _Cephas_ as the leader of the original apostles; the fourth repudiated human leaders, and arrogantly named their clique that of _Christ_, thereby insinuating that the other parties were less Christian than themselves.

It is evident that all these four names were really used as party watchwords. St. Paul says that he has _transferred by a fiction_ (iv.

6) the action of the wranglers to himself and Apollos. He means by this, not that the Corinthians did not employ these names in their strife, but that he and Apollos were in no sense responsible for the strife. Some perplexity has been caused by the name of the Christ-party. It is thought by some that they were rigid Jewish Christians from Jerusalem (2 Cor. iii. 1; xi. 22). But it is more probable that they were only a body of Christians who protested against the parties named after human leaders, and saying, "We are the people,"

made a new party of their own.

St. Paul shows that this sectarian spirit is entirely alien to the whole principle and history of the Christian faith. That faith, though it is a wisdom which comes from G.o.d, does not lend itself to pride of intellect. It is deliberately content to be counted foolish by the world; its sign is the cross, its converts are the poor and insignificant Corinthians, its eloquence the unpolished speaking of the apostle himself. And as to their personal preferences for receiving spiritual benefits from one Christian teacher rather than another, this shows a complete misconception as to the source of the benefit and the position of the teacher. This is explained in iii. 1-iv. 5. All spiritual {138} increase comes from G.o.d. Christ is the Foundation.

Human teachers are not figure-heads of different schools, but the instruments and the stewards through whom G.o.d dispenses His gifts. It is not the duty of Christian teachers to put forward original ideas on religion.

Then the apostle, after referring to their ostentatious self-righteousness, pathetically shows the unfitness of pitting against one another teachers who share in an equality of forlorn dest.i.tution and contempt (iv. 6-13). He concludes this section with an affectionate but authoritative speech: he says that he has sent Timothy to Corinth, and hopes shortly to come himself (iv. 14-21).

The apostle proceeds with sharp decision to deal with _a case of incest_. The Corinthians had treated this gross offence almost with levity, but St. Paul declares that the offender shall be excommunicated and shall be punished by disease (v. 1-8). After explaining some advice of his earlier letter (v. 9-13), he goes on to rebuke a third abuse--_litigation_ between Christians in pagan law-courts. The love of law-suits was mischievous in itself, as involving a breach of Christian brotherhood. It was also scandalous in its effects, as exposing the bickerings of the disciples of Christ to the ridicule of unbelievers. A stern rebuke of vice follows (vi. 1-11). Then comes an indignant and lofty argument against fornication, which is a defilement of the temple of the Holy Ghost (vi. 12-20).

St. Paul now turns to the various questions that the Corinthians have asked him. He first gives some advice about _matrimony_, carefully distinguis.h.i.+ng between statements which he makes on his own authority, and rules laid down by Christ, and also between counsels of perfection and the obligations of ordinary Christians. It is excellent to lead a single life, but in view of prevailing sensuality, he recommends marriage as generally more prudent. He advises that when people do marry, there should be a fulfilment of conjugal duties except for {139} occasional devotion "unto prayer." One permanently important a.s.sertion in the apostle's teaching is that both marriage and celibacy imply a "gift from G.o.d." St. Paul would have had no sympathy with either any mediaeval depreciation of married life, or the modern English notion that a man has not "settled down" until he has married (vii. 1-40).

The next question is whether converts may eat _meat that has been offered to idols_. With strong common-sense, the apostle points out that there is here no alternative between essential right and wrong.

You may eat it, because an idol is nothing, but you must take care not to hurt the consciences of other Christians (viii.). You may eat anything that you buy in the market-place, but you must not attend an idolatrous feast in a temple, and if you are at a private house you must not eat food offered to idols if your attention has been directly called to its character (x. 23-32). St. Paul ill.u.s.trates his meaning by reference to his own self-denial--the policy he had at Corinth of exacting no payment for his ministry, his tactful caution, his severe self-control (ix.). The need of such self-control is proved by the fact that the ancient Jews, in spite of their high privileges, fell into carelessness and sin (x. 1-13). The Corinthians must not be like the Jews. The nature of the Eucharist warns them to be scrupulously careful about temple feasts. There cannot be a drinking of the chalice of Christ and of the cup of devils (x. 14-22).

Chapter xi. deals with _public wors.h.i.+p_. St. Paul gives directions for women to cover the head in church, and then comes a reference to the Holy Eucharist which is of extreme interest and importance. It was the custom for Christians to meet together before the Eucharist for a common meal called the Agape, which was intended to commemorate the Lord's Last Supper. St. Paul complains that this meal has been made an occasion of sin among the Corinthians: the richer people had overeaten themselves, while the poor were left hungry and ashamed. The apostle sets off the unfitness of {140} this conduct by a brief exposition of the Eucharist; the preliminary meal, so much misused by these ungracious and ungenerous Christians, was intended to be a preparation for the ineffable Feast, at which the Fare was the very Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, and at which His death was solemnly represented (xi.

2-34).

St. Paul deals next with _spiritual gifts_, saying that they come from G.o.d, and so give no ground for boasting, and that the exercise of them is only pleasing to G.o.d if it be joined with charity. After a sublime chapter on charity, he lays down some regulations for those who possessed these abnormal gifts, which, it is evident, were already the cause of disorders in the Church. The Corinthians, with their craving for the miraculous, tended to set a high value on speaking with tongues, but St. Paul upholds the superiority of the more intelligible and useful gift of prophecy (xii.-xiv.).

The Epistle concludes with a splendid argument for the reality of the _Resurrection_. It is directed against some false philosophy. St.

Paul claims for the fact of the resurrection of Christ the witness of Scripture, of many honest and intelligent Christians, and of himself.

Then he goes on to show to the Corinthian objectors what a denial of the resurrection of the dead involves. It means that Christ did not rise, that I am preaching deceit, that you are believing a lie, that the dead in Christ have no existence except as memories, that we who have foregone the pleasures of this life have done so in pursuit of a delusive phantom. But it cannot be so. Christ is really risen. And St. Paul pa.s.ses on to demonstrate the happy consequences which follow from this. The Resurrection is the earnest of all that Christ will do for man; and in the light of it Christian baptism for the sake of the dead[1] and Christian heroism have their meaning (xv. 1-34).

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In order to remove difficulties from the mind of an objector, St. Paul discusses the kind of body which we shall have at the Resurrection. He shows by a.n.a.logies from nature (a) that G.o.d is able to effect the transformation of a seed-grain into a new product, and can therefore transform us while retaining a connection between our present and future body; (b) that G.o.d is able to create a variety of embodiments, and can therefore give us a higher embodiment than we now possess.

There will be a spiritual body adapted to the spiritual world, as truly as our natural body is adapted to life in this world. Thus the gospel is truly a gospel for the body as well as for the spirit. Our whole personality will be saved, and nothing will be discarded (xv. 35-58).

St. Paul concludes with an order for the collection of alms on behalf of the faithful in Jerusalem, and says that he hopes to come soon to Corinth. After some personal matters, he characteristically appends with his own hand a curse on those who do not love the Lord, and a prayer and loving message for the faithful.

a.n.a.lYSIS

Salutation, thanksgiving (i. 1-9).

(1) Evils in the Church: i. 10-vi. 20.--Sectarianism. This is rebuked on the ground that all the apostles, etc., are working for one end, and all their power is G.o.d's. Christ is supreme over all (i. 10-iv. 21).

Incest. The Church is to deliver the sinner to Satan (the severest form of excommunication). St. Paul mentions a previous warning not to a.s.sociate with immoral Christians (v.).

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Going to law with a Christian in the pagan courts is rebuked. Warning against profligacy (vi.).

(2) Answers to a letter from the Corinthians: vii. 1-xi. 1.--Marriage and celibacy. It is well to avoid marriage. But the married must not separate. Under present circ.u.mstances, the apostle would prefer others to be unenc.u.mbered as he is (vii.).

Food offered to idols. Christian liberty (viii.). St. Paul's example in not claiming one's own rights (ix.). Danger of thinking that we stand. We are "one bread," and must seek each other's good (x.-xi. 1).

(3) Other evils in the Church: xi. 2-34.--Women to be covered. Conduct at the Eucharist and the Agape. An account of the inst.i.tution of the Eucharist.

(4) Answer to a question concerning spiritual gifts: xii.-xiv.--Unity in diversity (xii.). Charity the greatest gift (xiii.). Prophesying and tongues compared (xiv.).

(5) Vindication of the Resurrection: xv.--The evidence for Christ's resurrection.[2] The nature of our resurrection.

(6) Some directions and personal details: xvi.

[1] 1 Cor. xv. 29. This verse is very obscure. It has been interpreted as meaning that when a convert died before it was possible for him to be baptized, it was a custom of the Corinthians to allow a friend to undergo baptism in his stead. But perhaps it simply means being baptized for the sake of some dear one who was a sincere Christian, and begged that his or her surviving relatives would be baptized and meet him or her hereafter.

[2] It is important to notice that St. Paul, in writing of the death and resurrection of our Lord, gives powerful evidence in support of St.

John's a.s.sertion that our Lord died on Nisan 14 (see above, p. 29). In 1 Cor. v. 7, 8 he says, "Our Pa.s.sover also hath been sacrificed, even Christ: wherefore let us keep the feast"; and in 1 Cor. xv. 20 he calls Christ "the first-fruits of them that are asleep." Now, if Christ died on Nisan 14, when the Pa.s.sover lamb was sacrificed for a feast, and if He rose on Nisan 16, when the Pa.s.sover firstfruits were offered in the temple, this double comparison is exquisitely appropriate. But if the statement in John is false, St. Paul's comparison is forced and unnatural.

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CHAPTER XI

THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PAUL THE APOSTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS