Book of 1 Corinthians
Title: The letter is named for the city of Corinth, for that is where the church to whom it was written was located.
Except for personal epistles addressed to Timothy, Titus and Philemon, all Paul’s letters bore the name of the city where the church addressed existed.
Author – Date: As indicated in the first verse, the epistle was written by the Apostle Paul, whose authorship cannot be seriously questioned.
Pauline authorship has been universally accepted by the church since the first century, when 1 Corinthians was penned.
Internally, the apostle claimed to have written the epistle (1:1, 13;
Externally, this correspondence has been acknowledged as genuine since A.D. 95 by Clement of Rome, who was writing to the Corinthian church.
Other early Christian leaders who authenticated Paul as author include Ignatius (ca. A.D. 110), Polycarp (ca. A.D. 135), and Tertullian (ca. A.D. 200).
This epistle was most likely written in the first half of A.D. 55 from Ephesus
The apostle intended to remain on at Ephesus to complete his 3 year stay (Acts 20:31), until Pentecost (May/June), A.D. 55 (16:8).
Then he hoped to winter (A.D.
His departure for Corinth was anticipated even as he wrote (4:19; 11:34; 16:8).
Background – Setting: The city of Corinth was located in southern Greece, in what was the Roman province of Achaia, 45 miles west from Athens.
This lower part, the Peloponnesus, is connected to the rest of Greece by a 4 milewide isthmus, which is bounded on the east by the Saronic Gulf and on the west by the Gulf of Corinth.
Corinth is near the middle of the isthmus and is prominently situated on a high plateau.
For many centuries, all
Since travel by sea around the Peloponnesus involved a
Corinth understandably prospered as a major trade city, not only for most of Greece but for much of the Mediterranean area, including North Africa, Italy and Asia Minor.
A canal across the isthmus was begun by the emperor Nero during the first century A.D., but was not completed until near the end of the nineteenth century.
The Isthmian games, one of the two most famous athletic events of that day (the other being the Olympian games), was hosted by Corinth, causing more
Even by the pagan standards of its own culture, Corinth became so morally corrupt that its very name became synonymous with debauchery and moral depravity.
To “corinthianize” came to represent gross immorality and drunken debauchery.
In
Tragically, some of the worst sins were still found among some church members.
One of those sins, incest, was condemned even by most pagan Gentiles (5:1).
Like most ancient Greek cities, Corinth had an acropolis (literally “a high city”), which rose 2000 feet and was used both for defense and for worship.
The most prominent edifice on the acropolis was a temple to Aphrodite, which was the Greek goddess of love.
Some 1000 priestesses, who were “religious” prostitutes, lived and worked there and came down into the city in the evening to offer their services to male citizens and foreign visitors.
The church in Corinth was founded by Paul on his second missionary journey (Acts 18:1ff).
As usual, his ministry began in the synagogue, where he was assisted by two Jewish believers, Priscilla and Aquila, with whom he lived with for a while and who were fellow tradesmen.
Soon after that, Silas and Timothy joined them, and Paul began preaching even more intensely in the synagogue.
When most of the Jews resisted the gospel, he left the synagogue, but not before Crispus, the leader of the synagogue, his family and many other Corinthians were converted (Acts
After ministering in Corinth for over a year and a half (Acts 18:11), Paul was brought before a Roman tribunal by some of the Jewish leaders.
Because the charges were strictly religious and were not civil, the
Shortly thereafter, Paul took Priscilla and Aquila with him to Ephesus.
From there he returned to Israel (verses
Unable to fully break with the culture from which it came, the church at Corinth was exceptionally factional, showing its carnality and immaturity.
After the gifted Apollos had ministered in the church for some time, a group of his admirers established a clique and had little to do with the rest of the church.
Another group developed that was loyal to Paul, another claimed special allegiance to Peter (Cephas), still another to Christ alone (see
The most serious problem of the Corinthian church was worldliness, an unwillingness to divorce the culture around them.
Most of the believers could not consistently separate themselves from their old, selfish, immoral, and pagan ways.
It became necessary for Paul to write to correct this, as well as to command the faithful Christians not only to break fellowship with the disobedient and unrepentant members, but to put those members out of the church
Before he wrote this inspired letter, Paul had written the church other correspondence (see 5:9), which was also corrective in nature.
Because a copy of that letter has never been discovered, currently it is being referred to as “the lost epistle”.
There was another
Historical – Theological Themes: Although the major thrust of this epistle is corrective of behavior rather than of doctrine, Paul gives seminal teaching on many doctrines that directly relate to the matters of sin and righteousness.
In one way or another, wrong living always stems from wrong belief.
Sexual sins for example, including divorce, are inevitably related to disobeying God’s plan for marriage and the family
Proper worship is determined by such things as recognition of God’s holy character (3:17), the spiritual identity of the church
It is not possible for the church to be edified faithfully and effectively unless believers understand and exercise their spiritual gifts (12:1 – 14:40).
The importance of the doctrine of the resurrection, of course, cannot be overestimated because if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen.
And if Christ is not risen, then preaching is empty and so is faith
In addition to those themes, Paul deals briefly with God’s judgment of believers, the right understanding of which will produce right motives for godly living (see
The right understanding of idols and of false gods, in general, was to help the immature Corinthians think maturely about such things as eating meat that had been sacrificed to idols (see 8:1 – 11:1).
The right understanding and expression of genuine, godly love was mandatory to right use of the gifts and even to right knowledge about all the things of God
So, Paul deals with the cross, divine wisdom and human wisdom, the work of the Spirit in illumination, carnality, eternal rewards, the transformation of salvation, sanctification, the nature of Christ, union with Him, the divine role for women, marriage and divorce, Spirit baptism, indwelling and gifting, the unity of the church in one body, the theology of love, and the doctrine of resurrection.
All these establish foundational truth for godly behavior.
We are beginning one of the most important letters that Paul wrote to the churches he had begun.
The church at Corinth had been established on one of Paul's missionary journeys.
This was a very evil city.
The democratic way of life was foremost here, and debates were allowed on all subjects.
This perhaps was the reason Paul had an easy time being heard at first.
The city of Corinth was believed to be a city of approximately 600,000 people when this was written to them.
One of the outskirts of Corinth was Cenchrea, which was a seaport.
They were thought of as being one of the wealthiest cities of the area.
There was a mixture of nationalities here. Greeks and Romans made up most the people.
We will find in this book, as we do in many of Paul's writings that he deals with them within the confines of their customs.
He does not try to change their lifestyle.
He shows them that Christianity is for all people.
We will get into this a little more as we go along.
One thing that we must remember from the outset: There were no iron clad doctrines that were to be used in all of these churches.
We will see Paul trying to establish rules and regulations for each church that they could live with in the light of their customs.