Introduction

The founding of the Corinthian church

External circumstances surrounding the origin of the First Epistle to the Corinthians

The occasion for writing the epistle

The plan of the epistle. — Division by content

The character of the First Epistle to the Corinthians

On the text of the epistle

Commentaries on the First Epistle to the Corinthians

The founding of the Corinthian church

Corinth, the chief city of the province of Achaia in southern Greece, was populated in the era of Christianity’s emergence by numerous colonists, the greater part of them Roman freedmen. There were also many Greeks and Jews. When the Apostle Paul arrived in Corinth during his second apostolic journey, the city had a population of about 700,000 — roughly 200,000 free citizens and about 500,000 slaves. Corinth owed this great increase in population to its favorable geographical position. It was situated on the Isthmus of Corinth, which, connecting the Peloponnese with the Balkan Peninsula, divided two seas — the Aegean and the Ionian. It possessed two harbors — the Cenchreian to the east and the Lechaean to the west. It thereby quickly became a great hub of world trade between Asia and the West. On the heights of the city’s citadel stood the magnificent temple of Venus. Corinth contained all the resources and achievements of the culture of that age — artistic workshops, the halls of rhetoricians, the schools of philosophers. As one ancient historian put it, one could not take a single step down a Corinthian street without encountering a sage.

But side by side with the development of culture, moral corruption in Corinth grew increasingly worse. This is evidenced by the fact that at the time, a dissolute way of life was commonly called “Corinthian” (κορινθιάζειν), and Corinthian banquets and Corinthian drunkards had become proverbial.

And so, amid such social conditions in Corinth — that is, on the one hand, the outward prosperity enjoyed by its population, and on the other, the complete moral collapse — the Apostle Paul came forth to preach Christ (in the year 52).

At that time the apostle was about fifty years old. He came to Corinth alone and took up the same craft by which he had previously supported himself — the sewing of tent-cloths or coverings. He soon found there a Jewish family engaged in the same trade. These were the married couple Aquila and Priscilla, who had come to Corinth recently, having been expelled from Rome, as Jews, by the edict of Claudius. Working with them, Paul soon converted them to Christ, and they both became his zealous co-workers in spreading Christianity.

Following his custom, the Apostle Paul began in Corinth to preach the Gospel to the Corinthian Jews. In the Jewish synagogue — he knew this — proselytes from various classes of Corinthian society would be among his listeners, so that preaching in the synagogue served as a kind of bridge for the preacher of the Gospel into pagan society. Understanding this well, he also understood all the difficulty of appearing before such demanding listeners as the Corinthians of that time were, and he trembled for the success of his undertaking (1 Cor 2:1), especially in view of the failure he had just experienced in Athens.

The apostle preached in the synagogue for several weeks. This time was sufficient for him to understand that the Jews as a whole would not turn to Christ, and the apostle therefore, together with several who had come to believe from among the Jews and proselytes, moved his activity to the house of a Jew who had converted to Christianity. There he preached chiefly to pagans, making use of no external means to please his listeners — neither the art of eloquence nor the tricks of dialectic — displaying before them only the force of his own conviction. Such preaching found adherents, and in Corinth a Church arose, made up partly of Jews but chiefly of pagans. Nevertheless, the majority of the Corinthian converts were poor people, slaves, and the uneducated.

For about two years (Acts 18:11) the Apostle Paul continued his preaching activity in Corinth, living partly by his own labor and partly on the support sent to him by the churches of Macedonia that he had founded (2 Cor 11:7-9). At that time the proconsul of Achaia — Gallio, the brother of the philosopher Seneca, a man of culture and good character — resided in Corinth. He showed himself to be such when the Corinthian Jews began to bring complaints against Paul. Gallio found that their dispute with Paul concerned religion, and determined that he could not intervene in the matter. Paul left Corinth around Pentecost of the year 54, to go to Jerusalem and then to Antioch. However, he did not intend to remain long in Antioch. His aspiration at that time was the famous city of Asia Minor — Ephesus — to which his co-workers Aquila and Priscilla had gone before him, in order to prepare the ground somewhat for the activity of the great apostle to the Gentiles.

External circumstances surrounding the origin of the First Epistle to the Corinthians

No serious objections to the authenticity of our epistle have been raised in biblical scholarship. On the contrary, the evidence adduced in favor of the epistle’s authenticity is highly persuasive. This includes the indications of the epistle’s author himself (1 Cor 1:1), as well as the very tone of the discourse in which he speaks of himself as the founder of the Corinthian Church (1 Cor 4:15). Moreover, the epistle contains so vivid and credible a picture of the life of the early Christian Church as only the Apostle Paul himself — who stood in very close relation to that Church — could have drawn. Finally, the epistle contains numerous reproaches addressed to the Corinthian Church, and it is hardly likely that this Church would have felt it necessary to accept and preserve such an epistle without being fully convinced of its authenticity. — To these internal proofs of the epistle’s authenticity are added the external ones, namely the testimonies of church tradition. Already at the end of the 1st century, Clement of Rome cites extracts from this epistle in his epistle to the Corinthians (ch. XLVII). St. Ignatius in his epistle to the Ephesians (ch. XVIII) repeats the words of the Apostle Paul found in the second chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians. Similar repetitions are found in Justin Martyr, in the Epistle to Diognetus, in St. Irenaeus, and in other writers of the early centuries of Christianity.

The epistle was undoubtedly written in Ephesus (1 Cor 16:8-9), and specifically toward the end of the Apostle Paul’s three-year (Acts 20:31) stay in that city. This latter consideration is confirmed first of all by the fact that at the time of the epistle’s dispatch, Apollos was with the apostle (1 Cor 16:12). This learned Alexandrian Jew had been converted by Aquila and Priscilla in Ephesus shortly before the Apostle Paul’s arrival there (Acts 18:24-26), and had then traveled to Achaia where he preached, continuing Paul’s work. If he is now with the apostle in Ephesus, it is evident that considerable time had passed since the day of the Apostle Paul’s arrival in Ephesus. Furthermore, from the book of Acts we learn that the Apostle Paul, after two years and three months in Ephesus, resolved to set out for the west, first, however, visiting Jerusalem in order to testify before the church there of the love which the churches Paul had founded in Macedonia and Achaia bore toward it. In order to dispose the Greek churches toward gathering contributions for the poor Christians of Jerusalem — contributions that were to be a witness of this love — the apostle sends his co-workers Timothy and Erastus to Achaia and Macedonia (Acts 19:22), and this fact corresponds to what is mentioned in the First Epistle to the Corinthians (1 Cor 4:17): it falls at the time shortly before the apostle’s departure from Ephesus. Finally, the origin of the epistle must be assigned to this very period — and not to a later one — also because in the epistle the apostle freely makes his own arrangements and forms plans for future journeys, whereas shortly after the collection of the above-mentioned alms and its delivery to the leaders of the Jerusalem Church, the apostle was taken prisoner. — Thus it may be supposed that the First Epistle to the Corinthians was written around the spring of the year 57, shortly before Easter, to which there is an allusion in ch. V (vv. 7 and 8).

The occasion for writing the epistle

After the Apostle Paul’s departure to Ephesus, divisions appeared in the Corinthian Church. When the Alexandrian teacher Apollos arrived in Corinth, his preaching led to the formation of a distinct party among the Corinthian Christians — namely, the party of Apollos. This party was composed mainly of Jews whom Apollos had succeeded in drawing to the Christian Church by his exposition of the Old Testament, in which he found the most striking proofs that Jesus was truly the Messiah (Acts 18). A good number of educated pagans also joined this party — people who were not satisfied with the simple preaching of the Apostle Paul and who received Christianity from Apollos not so much through the heart as through the mind.

Besides the party of Apollos, the party of Peter, or of Cephas, appeared in Corinth. There is no basis for supposing that Peter himself was in Corinth and preached there. Most likely, this party was formed under the influence of accounts by Christians who had come from Palestine about the great person of the Apostle Peter. Peter, in the imagination of these newcomers, appeared as the prince of the apostles, and therefore if any disagreement arose between him and Paul, it was Paul who, in the opinion of this party, should yield precedence to Peter.

It is understandable, furthermore, that those Corinthians converted by Paul to Christianity stood by their teacher and also formed a distinct party of Paul’s adherents, who wished to believe only what Paul had taught and were dismissive of the authority of Apollos and Peter. Finally, there appeared among the Corinthian Christians those who rejected all apostolic authorities and held to only one head — Christ. They seemed to refuse to recognize any intermediary between themselves and Christ, wishing to depend on him alone. — Thus four parties were formed in the Corinthian Church: those of Apollos, of Peter, of Paul, and of Christ.

But this was not all. Other unwelcome phenomena began to appear in the life of the Corinthian Christians. When the first powerful impressions made upon the Corinthians by the Apostle Paul’s preaching — which had called on them to renew their sinful lives entirely — had subsided, the Corinthian Christians began to treat the strict demands of evangelical morality rather lightly. Misunderstanding the apostle’s teaching on Christian freedom (1 Cor 6:12), the Corinthians began to consider permissible things that were not permitted even among pagans. The most conscientious of the Corinthian Christians now raised the question of what to do with these unworthy fellow-believers, and therefore addressed Paul in a letter in which they described all their difficulties, apart from the one mentioned above. They asked him about the advantages of celibacy over marriage, about the permissibility of eating meat sacrificed to idols (1 Cor 7:1), and about the relative importance of spiritual gifts (1 Cor 12:1). Finally, in Corinth there appeared people who denied the truth of the universal resurrection, about which the Apostle Paul had doubtless also been informed in the above-mentioned letter.

The plan of the epistle. — Division by content

Such were the circumstances of the life of the Corinthian Church that moved the Apostle Paul to write the Corinthians the first epistle. Naturally, the variety of the Corinthian Church’s needs was bound to be reflected in the character of the epistle. One might have expected that the apostle would answer one question after another as posed to him, without concern for any overall plan of the epistle. Yet one cannot fail to notice that the First Epistle to the Corinthians, despite the great variety of questions discussed in it, presents an integral work written according to a definite plan.

Since the apostle’s most urgent task was to restore his considerably weakened authority in Corinth — so that all his exhortations would be accepted by those for whom they were intended — he devotes the first chapters of his epistle to the question of parties in Corinth. Here he first speaks of the nature and essence of the Gospel, then of the position and tasks of a servant of the Gospel, and finally defines the proper relationship between believers and their teachers. In this way he uproots the evil of partisanship at its very source. He then turns to questions concerning the moral life of the Christian community, and here he places first the question that in a certain respect bore on the organization of the community — namely, he examines the conduct of one Christian who had permitted himself the most extreme violation of Christian moral discipline, and gives guidance on how to deal with such members of the Christian community. He then resolves four purely ethical questions. Two of these — whether one may bring civil disputes before pagan judges, and how to view the vice of incontinence — the apostle resolves swiftly, on the basis of the very spirit of the Gospel. The other two — the question of the comparative value of marriage and celibacy and the permissibility of eating meat sacrificed to idols — were considerably more difficult to resolve, because the question of Christian freedom was involved, and the apostle devotes a great deal of time and effort to resolving these two questions. After these questions follow questions concerning religious life and liturgical assemblies. The first still has a connection with the question of Christian freedom — namely the question of the conduct of women in liturgical assemblies. The second — concerning the behavior of Christians at the love-feasts — and the third — the most difficult — concerning the use of spiritual gifts, chiefly the gift of tongues and the gift of prophecy.

Thus in his epistle the apostle moves from the outward to the inward. At the end of the epistle the apostle speaks of the question that held the greatest significance for the entire life of the Christian — namely the resurrection of the dead, in which some Corinthians had doubts. The entire content of the epistle may therefore be presented in the following form: 1) the question of the Church — or of the church community (1 Cor 1:10–1 Cor 4); 2) five moral questions, beginning with the question of church discipline (1 Cor 5-10); 3) three liturgical questions (1 Cor 11-14); and 4) a question from the realm of dogma (1 Cor 15).

Ch. I, vv. 1–9 forms the introduction to the epistle, and ch. XVI contains the conclusion — commissions, various news, and greetings.

A more detailed presentation of the content of the epistle may be given 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) The essence of the Gospel (1 Cor 1:18-3:4).

4) The true nature of the ministry of the Christian teacher of faith (1 Cor 3:5-4:5).

5) Arrogance as the cause of disorders in the church (1 Cor 4:6-21).

6) Church discipline (1 Cor 5).

7) Lawsuits (1 Cor 6:1-11).

8) Incontinence (1 Cor 6:12-20).

9) Marriage and celibacy (1 Cor 7).

10) The eating of meat sacrificed to idols and participation in pagan sacrificial meals (1 Cor 8-10).

11) The dress of women during worship (1 Cor 11:1-16).

12) Disorders at the love-feasts (1 Cor 11:17-34).

13) On spiritual gifts (1 Cor 12-14).

14) On the resurrection of the dead (1 Cor 15).

15) The conclusion of the epistle (1 Cor 16).

The character of the First Epistle to the Corinthians

The First Epistle to the Corinthians, as well as the second, is a model of what is called an “epistle.” What it contains cannot be imagined in the form of a treatise or essay: only the form of an epistle — understood as a letter — was appropriate for those outpourings with which the Apostle Paul addresses the Corinthian Church he had founded. Here we have before us all the characteristic features of a letter: exhortations, praises and rebukes directed at the recipients of the epistle — in short, it is evident that the apostle writes as he would speak with the Corinthians in a personal meeting. Finally, there are here many hints and half-hints of the kind usually made in letters between friends, which for other readers of those letters remain almost incomprehensible.

But the First Epistle differs considerably from the Second in that in the first the apostle speaks of the needs of the church’s life, of various specific points of church discipline, whereas in the second he speaks chiefly of his personal relations with the Corinthians and pours out his feelings before them. At the same time, however, in the First Epistle the apostle also points to the significance of the external facts of church life for the inner life of individuals, while in the second he places personal experiences in dependence on the great facts of supreme significance for all of Christianity. It may be said that in both the First and the Second Epistle we see one and 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 Paul. Here the preacher of the one saving grace and Christian freedom appears in the role of a church administrator, establishing order in the life of the church. The bearer and preacher of personal Christianity comes before us as the defender of a universal ecclesial worldview. His speech in these epistles is equally varied. It recalls now the dialectical boldness and gravity of the epistles to the Galatians and Romans, now the simplicity and a certain diffuseness of speech in the pastoral epistles.

On the text of the epistle

The First Epistle to the Corinthians has been preserved in three major recensions — the Alexandrian (the ancient manuscript), the Greco-Latin or Western (in the “Itala” translation and in the Western Fathers), and the Syriac or Byzantine (in the Syriac “Peshitta” translation and in the holy fathers of the Syrian Church, such as Chrysostom and Theodoret). The so-called “Textus Receptus,” from which the Slavonic and Russian translations of the epistle were made, follows now one, now another, now a third of the oldest texts at different points. On the whole, it must be noted that the text of the epistle presents the fewest disputed points: there are considerably fewer variants in this epistle than in others.

The most notable manuscripts of the First Epistle to the Corinthians are the following:

1) The Sinaitic and Vatican (from the 4th century).

2) The Alexandrian and the Codex of Ephrem (from the 5th century).

3) The Claromontanus and the Coislinianus (from the 6th century).

4) The Moscow (from the 9th century).

Commentaries on the First Epistle to the Corinthians

Patristic literature: Ephrem the Syrian (d. 373), Ambrosiaster (d. 375), John Chrysostom (d. 407), Theodore of Mopsuestia (not among the Orthodox interpreters, d. 428), Theodoret of Cyrrhus (d. 458), Theophylact of Bulgaria (11th century). — Of more recent Western literature, the following commentaries are outstanding: Olshausen (2nd ed., 1840), de Wette (1840), Meyer (in the 8th ed. by Heinrici, 1896), Hoffmann (1874), Edwards (in English, 1885), Godet (originally in French, and in 1886–88 in German), Cornely (in Latin, 1886–1892), B. Weiss (2nd ed., 1902), Ramsay (in English), Bousset (in Schriften d. N. T. von J. Weiss, 1907), Lietzmann (1907), Schlatter (1908), and the most scholarly work — Bachmann Ph. (2nd ed., 1910). — Of Russian commentaries: Bishop Theophan and Archbishop Nikanor (Kamensky). In addition, useful use may be made of the works of Prof. Golubev on the First Epistle to the Corinthians, and the aids of Rozanov, Ivanov, and Archpriest Kherakov. Separate questions from the Epistle to the Corinthians are thoroughly illuminated in the works of Priest M. P. Fiveysky: On Spiritual Gifts (dissertation, 1908), in Prof. N. N. Glubokovsky: The Gospel of the Apostle Paul (1905 and 1910, 2 vols.), in Prof. Bogdashevsky (in articles in the Proceedings of the Kiev Theological Academy, 1909 and 1910), and also in the work of Lütgert, Freiheitspredigt und Schwärmergeister in Korinth (1908).