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CORINTHIANS
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CORINTHIANS . EPISTLES TO THE, two books of the See also: Bible (New Testament). The two letters addressed to the See also:Christian See also:
1-8); or to the auto-See also: biographical utterances in which Paul explains that he was once a persecutor of Christians (1 Cor. xv. 9), mentions his See also:escape from See also:Damascus (2 Cor. Xi. 32 f.), describes his coming to Corinth (1 Cor. ff.), enumerates his sufferings for the See also:Gospel (2 Cor. xi. 16-31), tells of his visions (2 Cor. xii. 1-9). In the Corinthian epistles we collie in contact, as nowhere else, with the See also:man Paul and his daily life. The See also:history of Paul's relations with Corinth can be made out from the Acts and the Epistles with considerable clearness. The See also:chronology of Paul's life is not at any point surely determinable within a range of less than five years, but it must have been in the autumn of one of the years A.D. 49–53 (the usual chronology has fixed on A.D. 52) that the arrival of Paul in Corinth took See also:place as described in Acts xviii. r. In his so-called second missionary See also:journey Paul had been driven by irresistible inner impulses to push on into See also:Greece the missionary See also:work already begun in See also:Asia See also:Minor.First he preached in the See also: province of See also:Macedonia, where the work opened auspiciously at See also:Philippi, Thessalonica and Beroea; then, apparently driven out by the violent opposition of the See also:Jews, he moved on to See also:Achaea, and after rather unsuccessful attempts to secure converts among the philosophers of See also:Athens came to Corinth. This ancient See also:city, taken and destroyed by the Romans in 146 B.O., had been refounded by See also:Julius See also:Caesar as a See also:Roman See also:colony. in 46 B.C., settled with See also:Italian colonists, and made a See also:residence of the Roman See also:governor. Its situation on the See also:isthmus of Corinth made it a See also:stage on the greatest of the See also:trade routes between See also:Rome and the See also:East, and it was at this See also:time the commercial See also:capital of Greece. The traditions of licentiousness and sensuality associated with the See also:worship of See also:Aphrodite, which had given rise to the sinister word corinthianize, increased the natural tendencies of a See also:great city to wickedness and wanton luxury. Here, as in all great centres of trade and See also:industry, there was a See also:body of Jews, with a See also:synagogue. The conditions of life in Corinth—the See also:heathen surroundings, the temptations to See also:vice, the competition and disputes of trading life, the controversial arguments of Jews, the alertness of mind of a lively city See also:people, the haughty See also:temper of the inhabitants of the capital—all these are to be seen reflected in the See also:earnest paragraphs of Paul's two epistles. The See also:founding of the church in Corinth (cf. 1 Cor. iv. 15) and nearly everything important that we know of Paul's first visit there will be found, well told, in Acts xviii. 1-18, a passage for which, evidently, the writer of the history had excellent See also:sources of See also:information. Of the somewhat chastened spirit with which Paul came he himself tells in r Cor. ii. 1-5.His success was prompt and large, and in the See also: year and six months of his stay a vigorous church was gathered, including See also:Aquila and Priscilla, as well as Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, of whom we hear again in i Cor. i. 14; whether Sosthenes, who seems to have succeeded Crispus in his See also:office (Acts xviii. 17), was afterwards converted and became the Christian See also:brother mentioned in 1 Cor. i. r cannot be known. The church evidently consisted mainly of See also:Gentile converts, but with some Jews (1 Cor. x. 14, " flee from See also:idolatry "; xii. 2, " when ye were Gentiles vii. 18, was any man called being circumcised?"). The apostle's next See also:long stay was at See also:Ephesus, whither he seems to have gone in the course of the same year- in which he See also:left Corinth (A.D. 51—55) and where he stayed three years. Before he arrived at Ephesus Aquila and Priscilla, who had settled there, made the acquaintance of See also:Apollos, a See also:Jew from See also:Alexandria, well-educated and zealous, who with imperfect Christian know-ledge was See also:preaching the gospel of Jesus to his See also:fellow-countrymen in the synagogue. He presently went to Corinth and carried on Christian work there with success (Acts xviii. 24-28)." I planted, says Paul (1 Cor. iii. 6), " Apollos watered." From this point on our information comes from the epistles, of which the first was written from Ephesus before See also: Pentecost of the year in which Paul left that city, i.e. A.D. 54–58 (1 Cor. xvi. 8). It appears that the church See also:grew in See also:numbers, for Paul refers in 2 Cor. i. r to " See also:saints who are in all Achaea." Its membership was mostly of humble people (1 Cor. i. 26-29), but probably not exclusively so, for Crispus and Stephanas (who with his See also:household was able to render services that may well have been costly, r Cor. xvi. 15), See also:Gaius and See also:Erastus (Rom. xvi. 23), would appear to have been persons of substance. The references to See also:law-suits perhaps imply fairly prosperous traders, the See also:tone of the letters suggests considerable See also:education and a reasonable degree of See also:property on the See also:part of many (though not all) of the readers. The first need of the church for help from Paul seems to have grown out of the dangers from surrounding heathenism. In r Cor.V. 9 we read of a See also: letter in which Paul had directed the Christians " not to have See also:company with fornicators." This letter, so far as we know, opened the See also:correspondence which ' was maintained during the three years of Paul's stay in Ephesus, whence there was easy and frequent communication with Corinth. He refers to it in See also:order to explain the See also:injunction which had been (perhaps wilfully) misunderstood and exaggerated.) While at Ephesus Paul was visited by persons of the household of Chloe (1 Cor. i. 11), and by Stephanas with See also:Fortunatus and Achaicus (probably his slaves, xvi. I7). From them and from a letter (vii. 1), which was brought perhaps by Stephanas, he was able to gain the intimate knowledge which the epistles everywhere reveal. The letter from Corinth must have contained inquiries as to See also:practical conduct with regard to See also:marriage (vii. I), See also:meat offered to idols (viii. 1), and the " spiritual gifts " (xii. I), and may well have related to other matters, such as the collection of See also:money for See also:Jerusalem (xvi. 1), the visit of Apollos (xvi.12), the position of See also: women (xi. 2). Paul's reply includes many other topics. When it was sent, his trusted helper See also:Timothy had also started on his way (probably through Macedonia) to Corinth, to contribute there to the edification of the Christians (iv. 17, xvi. ro). The letter itself was doubtless sent by the See also:hand of returning Corinthians, possibly by the unnamed brethren referred to in xvi. 1, and was expected to arrive before Timothy. First Epistle.—The first epistle (in many respects the most systematic of all Paul's letters) is a See also:pastoral letter, dealing both with See also:positive evils that need correction, and with difficult questions of practice and of thought upon which See also:advice may be valued. Through it all there is a genial undercurrent of confidence in the See also:personal See also:loyalty of the Corinthian church to Paul, its founder and See also:father. We shall be aided to understand its contents by a brief See also:summary of the tendencies and conditions at Corinth which it reflects. First of all there was a lack of supreme devotion to the Cause itself, which led the Corinthians to forget that they were first, last and always Christians, and so to See also:form factions and parties. Of these there were distinguished at least three, attached to the names respectively of the founder Paul, of the learned Apollos, and of the great See also:pillar-apostle at Jerusalem, See also:Peter, besides, as many hold, a See also:fourth, which arrogantly claimed to be the party of Christ (i.12). What were the precise motives and principles of these parties cannot be determined. They do not in any See also: case seem to represent recognizable definite points of view 1 See also:Hilgenfeld, See also:
2 Cor. X. 10). The contrast between the Hellenic and Jewish types of thought may well have played a part also. Paul seems to be replying to such criticisms brought against him when he declares that he deliberately See also: chose to bring to Corinth not the " See also:wisdom of men " but the " See also:power of God " (i. 17, ii. 1-5), and informs them that he has a See also:store of wisdom for those who are ready for it (ii. 6). On the other hand the party of Cephas must have had Jewish-Christian leanings. A little later, in the second epistle, such a tendency is seen breaking out into violent opposition to Paul. The " Christ-party," if, as is probable, it existed, must also have been a party with a Judaizing turn (cf. 2 Cor.X. 7, xi. 22 f.), perhaps of a more extreme character. The danger of shattering the solid front of the Christian church against surrounding heathenism was keenly See also: felt by Paul, as nearly every one of his epistles testifies. How serious it was at Corinth is shown by the long passage (chaps. i.–iv.) in which he points out that sectarianism is a See also:mark not of See also:superior but of inferior maturity and devotion. Other difficulties arose from various causes. The influences of the heathen See also:world, from which most of the Corinthian Christians had come and to which their See also:friends and neighbours belonged, were always with them, and the problems created by these relations were very numerous. See also:Christianity had brought over and had even intensified the moral See also:code of Judaism, and, especially in the relations of the sexes, this brought a See also:strain upon the naturalistic impulses and See also:lower See also:standards of converts trained in a different See also:system. Again, there were law-suits in the See also:ordinary courts, a natural result of the frictions and strains of an See also:oriental trading community. To Paul this was abhorrent, and here too he urges a See also:complete break with their past. With regard to the social customs of meals at which meat that had been offered in heathen sacrifices was a part, and of feasts actually at heathen temples, doubtful questions arose. Was it a denial of the faith to eat such See also:food or not?Mixed marriages, too, had their problems; ought the believing wife to See also: separate herself? Ought the believing See also:husband to insist that his heathen wife stay with him against her will? And, further, in the case of slaves, does the consciousness of Christian manhood give a new See also:motive for trying to gain worldly freedom? In all these matters Paul gives sensible advice. There were clearly two See also:groups of Christians, the " weak," or scrupulous, whose principle was to abstain, and the " strong," or See also:free, who maintained that the morally insignificant must not usurp a place to which it has no right. Paul sides with neither, but follows two principles, one that the church and its members must be kept pure, the other that the moral welfare not only of the individual but of his See also:neighbour must be the controlling motive. Not due so much to heathen influences as to the natural tendencies of imperfect and passionate human nature were other conditions. The most striking incident here, and one which gave Paul much concern, was the case of a man who after his father's death had married his own stepmother (" the case of See also:incest "). That this was rare in the ancient world and generally abominated both by Jews and Greeks made it seem to Paul the more imperative that this stain on the Christian church should be removed. His See also:language shows his indignation and grief that the Corinthians themselves have not already taken the See also:matter in hand. Besides these troubles from heathenism there were questions of See also:asceticism; the See also:Greek reaction against See also:naturalism held that nature was vile and marriage wrong. Paul had a qualified tendency to asceticism, but he shows excellent See also:good sense in his discussion of these delicate matters.A different set of difficulties arose from the freedom into which Christianity had introduced persons from all classes of life. What degree of freedom was permissible to a Christian woman? How far must a woman of the lower classes who became a Christian subject herself to the restrictions of a higher class of society? Might a woman, as a free See also:
From the situation at Corinth we gain an See also: idea of what was taking place in many cities, but in the seething life of so great a capital with more rapid and varied development. Of strictly intellectual and theological problems or errors only one is treated systematically, although at many other points in the practical discussions we can detect the theoretical basis of the errors combated and the theological See also:foundations of Paul's own judgments. Questions about the resurrection, however, had appeared, of a rationalistic nature and evincing an Hellenic failure to understand the Jewish view. In his reply Paul shows that he too recognizes the significance of the Greek's difficulties and he presents a conception which, fortunately for the later Church, does some measure of See also:justice to the superior scientific insight of their attitude. Second Epistle.—After the despatch of First Corinthians there took place, it would appear, the See also:riot in the See also:theatre at Ephesus (Acts xix. 23 ff.), to which 2 Cor. i. 8 seems to refer. On leaving Ephesus Paul went to Troas (2 Cor. ii. 12), then to Macedonia, and from Macedonia (2 Cor. vii. 5, viii. r, ix. 2) he wrote Second Corinthians. This must have been in the autumn of one of the years A.D.54–58, nearly or quite a year after First Corinthians was written (cf. " a year ago," 2 Cor. viii. ro, ix. 2 and r Cor. xvi. 1-4). In the meantime there had been exciting developments in Paul's relations with Corinth, the course of which we can partly trace by the aid of the second epistle. These events explain the great difference in tone between the second epistle and the first. Several allusions in Second Corinthians show that Paul had already twice visited Corinth (2 Cor. ii. 1, xii. 14, xii. 21, xiii. 2). The second of these visits is not mentioned in Acts; it is referred to by Paul as having a painful character. The most natural See also: hypothesis is that, in consequence of a growing spirit of insubordination on the part of the Corinthians, Paul found it necessary to go to Corinth from Ephesus (probably by See also:sea See also:direct) at some time after First Corinthians was written. Of what happened on this visit, which the writer of Acts has naturally enough thought it unnecessary to mention, we seem to learn further from certain passages in the letter (2 Cor. ii. 5-11, vii. 9) which refer to some sort of an insult to Paul for which there has now been repentance and which the apostle heartily forgives. For the offender he entreats also the See also:pardon of the church. It may well be that the sad affair had to do with the See also:gross offender of the " case of incest " (1 Cor. v. 1-8), who with the support of his fellow Christians may have refused to conform to Paul's imperative commands. We may suppose an angry See also:scene, possibly an attack of Paul's bodily ailment (especially if the " See also:thorn in the flesh " be understood to be See also:epilepsy), the immediate See also:triumph of the adversaries, Paul's speedy departure in grief. If, as other scholars hold, the offender was not the same as in the first epistle, the See also:general picture of the visit will not have to be much changed. Besides making this visit it is probable that Paul also wrote to Corinth a letter, now lost, intended to secure the result of which the unfortunate visit had failed (ii. 3, 4, 9, vii. 8, 12).It, is, however, possible that the allusions merely refer to 1 Cor. v., in which case it is not necessary to assume this intermediate letter. The letter, if there was one, may have been sent by See also: Titus, whom Paul in any case commissioned to go to Corinth and try to mend matters. Paul describes his anxiety over this last resource in touching language (u. 12, 13). Disappointed that Titus did not meet him at Troas, he moved on to Macedonia, and there (vii. 5-9) was rejoiced by the coming of the See also:envoy with good See also:news of the complete return of the Corinthians to integrity and loyalty. Second Corinthians was Paul's response to this friendly attitude reported by Titus. It went by the hand of Titus, who was promptly sent back to complete the work he had so well begun (viii. 6, 16-24). In company with him (viii. 18) was sent a brother (unnamed) who had already been appointed as the representative of the churches to accompany Paul in carrying to Jerusalem the great collection of money now nearly completed. The greater part of the epistle consists of the outpouring of Paul's thankful and loving See also:heart (chaps. i.-vii.), together with directions and exhortations See also:relating to the collection.But the epistle contains evidence of another and a disagreeable side to the affairs of the Corinthian church. Especially the last four chapters, but also references in the earlier chapters, show that virulent personal opponents of Paul and his 'work had been exercising an evil activity. It is not easy to discover the precise relation of these persons to the parties at Corinth or to the See also: series of events which have just been sketched, but we can well under-stand that their presence and efforts played a large part in the history. We learn that Jewish Christians (xi. 22) had come to Corinth, doubtless from Jerusalem, with letters of recommendation (iii. 1). They urged their own claims as apostles (though not of the twelve), and set themselves up as superior to Paul (xi. 5, xii. II, v. 12, xi. 18). Paul calls them " false apostles" (xi.13-15), and declares that they preach " another Jesus, another Spirit, another Gospel " (xi. 4). That in Paul's See also: judgment his See also:influence with the Corinthian church depended on overthrowing the power of these disturbers of the See also:peace is plain, and this accounts for the strenuous, and occasionally violent, tone of his polemic in chapters x.-xiii. As we compare them with the Judaizers of See also:Galatia it seems that their polemic was less on the ground of principles and doctrines, and more a personal attack. Paul does not much argue, as he does in See also:Galatians, against the inclination of Gentile Christians to subject themselves to the Law (yet See also:note the contrast of the old veiled See also:covenant and the new open revelation, iii. 4-18, esp. iii. 6); he is engaged in personal See also:defence against charges of carnal motives (x. 2), perhaps even of See also:embezzlement (xii. 16-18), and also of fickleness (i. 12-ii. 4). When he ironically calls himself a " See also:fool " (xi.I, 16, 17, 19, 21, xii. 6-11), he is doubtless taking up their See also: term of abuse, and in many of the hard passages of this most difficult of all Paul's epistles we may suspect that See also:half-quoted flings of the enemy glimmer through his See also:retort. From 2 Cor. X. 7, xi. 22 it may be inferred that these Jewish Christians had something to do with the " Christ-party " of which we seem to hear in the first epistle. To the tact and firmness of Titus must be ascribed much of the successful issue of these dealings with the Corinthians. Paul spent the following See also:winter at Corinth (Acts xx. 2, 3); while there he wrote the Epistle to the Romans, which in its milder tone gives clear indication that the See also:day of violent controversy with Judaizing emissaries like those who came to Galatia had passed. There was indeed, as might have been expected, trouble from enemies among the Jews, but Paul escaped the danger, and with the money for the See also:mother church, the collection of which had so long lain near his heart, he was able to start for Jerusalem in the See also:spring of one of the years 55-59 (See PAUL). In later time (circ. A.D.95) we hear from the epistle of See also:
Other quotations from First Corinthians are found in Clement, See also: Ignatius, See also:Polycarp, See also:Athenagoras, See also:Theophilus, See also:Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, See also:Tertullian, while use of the epistle can probably be detected in See also:Hermas. Second Corinthians was, and still remains, less quotable, but it is probably used by Polycarp, perhaps by Ignatius, and by the presbyters known to Irenaeus, and it was freely used by Theophilus, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria and Tertullian. The only serious doubt of the genuineness of First and Second Corinthians has been that of the so-called Dutch school of critics, in the latter part of the 19th century, and forms a part of their See also:attempt (the first since that of See also:Baur) entirely to reconstruct the history of early Christianity. Their view that the Corinthian epistles are the product of a body of progressive Christians in the 2nd century, who ascribed to a legendary Paul the advanced views they had themselves See also:developed, has not commended itself to critics, and seems to be burdened by nearly all possible difficulties. The genuineness of both epistles is, in fact, amply attested not only by early writers, but by the surer See also:proof of complicated and consistent concreteness, with perfect See also:adaptation to all we know of Paul and of the passing circumstances of the earliest days of Christianity in Greece. For a writer a century later to have composed the Corinthian epistles and then success-fully passed them off as the work of Paul could be explained only by an hypothesis of See also:inspiration! It would have been as difficult as to forge a daily newspaper. It is to be observed that the two epistles are so intimately connected by their contents with Romans and Galatians that the four together support one another's genuineness. In Second Corinthians two important questions of integrity have been much discussed. (I) 2 Cor. Vi. 14-vii.I is a passage somewhat distinct from its context, and introduced by a seemingly abrupt break in the sequence of thought. It is, therefore, held by some (including G. Heinrici) to be an See also: interpolation by another writer, by others (as A. Hilgenfeld) to be a part of the letter referred to in Cor. v: 9. But the arguments against Pauline authorship are not convincing; there is after all a certain real connexion to be traced between the See also:section and vi. 1; and the resemblance to the substance of 1 Cor. v. 9 is natural in any case. (2) More important is the question as to 2 Cor. x.-xiii. Since J. S. See also:Semler (1776) it has been held by careful scholars that these chapters are written in a tone of excited irritation which is out of See also:accord with the genial tone of gratified See also:affection and confidence that pervades chaps. i.-ix. Hence such scholars as A.See also: Hausrath, R. A. See also:Lipsius, O. See also:Pfleiderer, P. W. Schmiedel, A. C. M'Giffert have adopted the view that these four chapters were not written as part of Second Corinthians, but, while unquestionably from Paul's hand, were from a separate letter (the " Vierkapitel-Brief "), probably the same as that supposed to be referred to in 2 Cor. ii. 3-9, vii. 8-12. This theory is, however, probably not correct, for while, on the one hand, it is based on an exaggeration of the See also:differences and a neglect of certain lines of connexion between the chaps. x.-xiii. and chaps. i.-ix., on the other hand the See also:identification supposed is made difficult by several facts. Thus these chapters contain no mention whatever of the offender of 2 Cor. ii.5-11, of whose case the intervening letter must have mainly treated; again, x. 1, 9, 10, 11 imply a previous See also:
463-467; Hennecke, Neutestamentliche Apokryphen, pp. 362-364, 378-380. B. See also: Weiss (1886, 3rd ed. 1897, Eng. trans. 1887) ; G. See also:Salmon (1887) ; A. Julicher (1894, 5th and 6th ed. 1906, Eng. trans. 1904) ; T. Zahn (1897-1899, 2nd ed. 1900); and the articles in the Bible dictionaries, especially those by A.See also:
On First Corinthians reference may be made to the works of T. See also:
1877–1879) and J. J. See also: Lias, in See also:Cambridge Greek Testament (1886–1892). F. W. Robertson's classic Sermons on St Paul's Epistles to the Corinthians (1859) should not be neglected. In See also:German there are commentaries of much value by G. Heinrici (188o–1887) and in Heinrici's revision of Meyer's Kommentar (8th ed., 1896-1900), and by P. W. Schmiedel in Hand-Commentar (1891, and ed. 1892). For further literature see Robertson's See also:art." Corinthians, First Epistle to the," in Hastings's Dictionary of the Bible. On early attestation see A. H. Charteris, Canonicity (188o), and the See also:
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