AUTHOR
1 Corinthians is, like Romans, one of the undisputed letters of the Apostle Paul. There is both internal and external evidence of Paul’s authorship of this letter. Internally, the letter itself claims Paul as author in 1 Corinthians 1:1-2 and 16:21. Externally, Paul’s authorship of this letter was acknowledged by Clement of Rome as early as 96 CE.
DATE
In Acts 18:12-16 we read…
While Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews of Corinth made a united attack on Paul and brought him to the place of judgment. “This man,” they charged, “is persuading the people to worship God in ways contrary to the law.”
Just as Paul was about to speak, Gallio said to them, “If you Jews were making a complaint about some misdemeanor or serious crime, it would be reasonable for me to listen to you. But since it involves questions about words and names and your own law—settle the matter yourselves. I will not be a judge of such things.” So, he drove them off. Then the crowd there turned on Sosthenes the synagogue leader and beat him in front of the proconsul; and Gallio showed no concern whatever.
The mention of Gallio in Acts 18 allows us to date the Corinthian correspondence rather precisely. The reason for this is because Gallio was a famous person. He lived from 5 BCE to 65 CE and he was the brother of Seneca who was the tutor of Nero.
Gallio’s tenure as proconsul in Corinth lasted from 51 to 52 CE. Therefore, Paul must have been in Corinth sometime during that same period. We know that Paul wrote his first letter to the Church at Corinth shortly after his first visit there. After Paul’s time in Corinth, Paul spent three years in Ephesus, and some scholars believe he wrote this letter to Corinth from Ephesus toward the end of his time there. (See 1 Corinthians 16:5-9 and Acts 20:31.) If this is correct, then the most probable date for 1 Corinthians is sometime no later than 55 CE.
Corinth was, in Paul’s time, the largest town in Greece. The town may have had a population of as many as 250,000 free persons and 400,000 slaves. Corinth was an important seaport, a garrison town, and a strategic road-junction. Corinth was also the capital of the Roman province of Achaia. As J. B. Phillips tells us, Corinth “would have been full of a cosmopolitan crowd, and even in those days was a byword for immorality, probably largely because of the highly organized worship of Venus (Aphrodite).”
THEMES
After leaving Corinth, Paul received reports from several sources about how the church at Corinth was doing. The church in Corinth was one that Paul planted and that was brand new. Some members from Chloe’s household informed Paul that factions had developed in the church. There were also moral irregularities. Sexual immorality plagued the church at Corinth from the beginning. Other Corinthian visitors brought a letter to Paul from the church that requested counsel on several subjects. Paul’s letter to the church sought to answer many of these questions.
In short, the theme of 1 Corinthians is that of problems in the local church, particularly problems of Christian conduct. Thus, the letter addresses the need for progressive growth in holiness on the part of the individual Christian. This letter reveals Paul’s pastoral heart.
This letter is still relevant to the church today, two thousand years later. Most of the questions addressed by Paul’s first letter to Corinth are questions we still ponder today. 1 Corinthians addresses the problems of immaturity, instability, divisions, jealousy, lawsuits among Christians, marital difficulties, sexual immorality, as well as the use and misuse of spiritual gifts. This letter also contains some of the most familiar and beloved chapters out of the entire Bible, in particular—1 Corinthians 13 (the love chapter) and 1 Corinthians 15 (the resurrection chapter).
Structure
- Introduction (1:1-9)
- Divisions in the Church (1:10-4:21)
- Moral and Ethical Disorders in the Life of the Church (5-6)
- Teaching on Marriage (7)
- Instruction regarding Questionable Practices (8:1-11:1)
- Teaching about Public Worship (11:2-14:40)
- Teaching about the Resurrection (15)
- Conclusion: Practical and Personal Matters (16)
Key Concept—The Gospel
There are many key concepts we could talk about from Paul’s first letter to the church at Corinth, but the most important one of all is certainly what Paul calls “the gospel” in 1 Corinthians 15…
Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.
For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.
For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God, I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. Whether then, it is I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.
Right at the beginning of chapter 15, Paul tells us he is going to give us a summary of the Gospel, the Good News about Jesus. We are accustomed, when we hear the word “Gospel”, to think of the Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. But the Good News related in those Gospels is really summarized here by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15, long before the Gospels were written. The Good News, according to Paul, has four parts to it:
- Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.
- He was buried.
- He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.
- He appeared.
Let’s examine each of these four parts of the good news and why each of them is so important…
Christ Died for Our Sins
What does this mean? Since we have already read Paul’s Letter to the Church at Rome, let’s borrow some from that to see what Paul means here. First, in Romans 3:23 Paul says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” The word “sin” literally means “to fall short of the mark”. It is like in archery. Suppose I take a bow and arrow and try to hit a target, but when I let my arrow fly, it falls short of the target altogether. That’s what Paul means by sin. Of course, in archery, if that happened, I would try again, and get closer to the target. But suppose I keep missing the target altogether, and in the end, realize that the target is an infinite distance away. That is, essentially, what Paul means by sin. It’s like God has created us to hit a certain target in life, but no matter how hard we try, we always fall short.
In archery there is no real penalty for falling short of the target. If I am competing against someone else, I lose. And maybe I decide I don’t want to shoot arrows anymore. But as Paul explains, the penalty for sin is greater. In Romans 6:23 Paul says, “The wages of sin is death.” But thankfully Romans 6:23 goes on to say, “But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
So, when we put these verses from Romans together with 1 Corinthians 15, we see that Christ died for our sins. He died our death for us so we could receive eternal life instead.
C. S. Lewis put it this way, “The central Christian belief is that Christ’s death has somehow put us right with God and given us a fresh start. Theories as to how it did this are another matter.”[1]
He Was Buried
The second important part of the Gospel is that Jesus was buried. You might wonder, “How is that good news?” I think Paul adds this part because it confirms that Jesus really died. If Jesus had not really died, then he could not have died in our place. That’s why the burial part is important.
He Was Raised
The third part of the good news is that Jesus was raised on the third day. He did not remain dead in the grave. He conquered death. And because Jesus conquered death, he can give us eternal life. Without his death and resurrection, there is no eternal life for us.
This whole idea of resurrection was not new with Jesus. Some Jews had come to believe in resurrection before Jesus’ time. The Pharisees were among those who held to this new belief. It tied in with the Jewish belief in two ages. There is this age and there is the age to come. In between there is the day of the Lord, the day of judgment. The Pharisees and some other Jews had come to believe that at the end of time, in the age to come, all the righteous dead would be raised. This belief is hinted at, for the first time, in the book of Daniel, the latest book of the Old Testament, written around 164 BCE. What no Jew believed before Jesus was that one person would be raised from the dead in the middle of time. But the whole idea of re-embodiment, along with a renewed heaven and earth, that was part and parcel of the new Jewish belief system.
He Appeared
The fourth part of the good news that Paul articulates here is that Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead. In other words, Jesus was seen in his new body. John’s Gospel suggests that at least one person, Mary Magdalene, touched him. This is reiterated in 1 John 1:1…
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.
Paul mentions quite a few people that Jesus appeared to in his resurrection body: Peter, the Twelve, and over five hundred brothers at the same time.
Got that? Here Paul is writing to the Corinthians in 55 CE, 25 years at most after Jesus’ death, and he is saying that Jesus rose from the dead and appeared to over five hundred of his followers at one time. Furthermore, Paul says that some of these followers are still alive, though some have died. In other words, some of the eyewitnesses of Jesus in his resurrection body were still walking around and could be interviewed. It’s as though Paul is saying, “If you don’t believe me, there are plenty of people who can confirm this crazy story.”
Then Paul says that Jesus “appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.” What does Paul mean by that? According to the book of Acts, it was much later that Jesus appeared to Paul, and that was more like a vision, rather than a face to face, bodily encounter. Paul calls himself the least of the apostles, and not even deserving of being called an apostle because he persecuted the church before his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus.
I really cannot conceive of anything more central to our Christian faith than this: the fact that in a matter of twenty-five years after Jesus’ death we have a written record of the claim that he was not dead but raised in a body. Now, some people say that the first Christians made up this story. But one must ask: whatever for? Why would they make up such a story? The fact that many of the first Christians, like Paul, gave up their lives because of their belief in the resurrection proves that they at least thought the story was true and that they did not make it up. As I noted in an earlier chapter, some people might die for something they think is true but really isn’t. But I have never met anyone who would give up their life for a story that they made up. That just doesn’t make sense. I think it makes much more sense to simply accept the resurrection of Jesus as a historical fact.
But then we must also ask the “So what?” question. So what? What difference does the resurrection of Jesus make?
Paul spends the rest of 1 Corinthians answering that question. I will leave you to read his answer on your own. But I would paraphrase that answer this way… Paul makes clear that Jesus’ resurrection guarantees our resurrection if we believe in Jesus… if we put our trust in Jesus. And not only that, but Jesus’ resurrection gives meaning to everything we do for him in this life. Paul ends 1 Corinthians by saying…
Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
The bottom line is this… if the resurrection of Jesus did not happen then our faith is futile, we are still in our sins, and there is no hope of seeing our loved ones who have died ever again. But if the resurrection of Jesus did happen then that changes everything.
The Very Reverend Harry H. Pritchett, Jr., former Dean of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, wrote this many years ago…
Once upon a time I had a young friend named Philip. Philip was born with Downs Syndrome. He was a pleasant child—happy, it seemed—but increasingly aware of the difference between himself and other children. Philip went to Sunday school at the Methodist church. His teacher, also a friend of mine, taught the third-grade class with Philip and nine other eight-year-old boys and girls.
You know eight-year-olds. And Philip, with his differences, was not readily accepted. But my teacher friend was creative, and he helped the group of eight-year-olds. They learned, they laughed, they played together. And they really cared about one another, even though eight-year-olds don’t say they care about one another out loud. My friend could see it. He knew it. He also knew that Philip was not really a part of that group. Philip did not choose, nor did he want to be different. He just was. And that was just the way things were.
My friend had a marvelous idea for his class the Sunday after Easter. You know those things that pantyhose come in—the containers that look like great big eggs—my friend had collected ten of them. The children loved it when he brought them into the room. Each child was to get one. It was a beautiful spring day, and the assignment was for each child to go outside, find a symbol for new life, put it into the egg, and bring it back to the classroom. They would then open and share their new life symbols and surprises one by one.
It was glorious. It was confusing. It was wild. They ran all around the church grounds, gathered their symbols, and returned to the classroom. They put all the eggs on a table, and then the teacher began to open them. All the children stood around the table.
He opened one, and there was a flower, and they ooh-ed and aah-ed. He opened another, and there was a little butterfly. “Beautiful,” the girls all said, since it is hard for eight-year-old boys to say “beautiful.” He opened another, and there was a rock. And as third graders will, some laughed, and some said, “That’s crazy! How’s a rock supposed to be like new life?” But the smart little boy who’d found it spoke up: “That’s mine. And I knew all of you would get flowers and buds and leaves and butterflies and stuff like that. So, I got a rock because I wanted to be different. And for me, that’s new life.” They all laughed.
My friend said something to himself about the profundity of eight-year-olds and opened the next one. There was nothing there. The other children, as eight-year-olds will, said, “That’s not fair—that’s stupid! Somebody didn’t do right.”
Then my friend felt a tug on his shirt, and he looked down. Philip was standing beside him. “It’s mine,” Philip said. “It’s mine.”
And the children said, “You don’t ever do things right, Philip. There’s nothing there!”
“I did so do it,” Philip said. “I did do it. It’s empty. The tomb is empty!”
There was silence, a very full silence. And for you people who don’t believe in miracles, I want to tell you that one happened that day last spring. From that time on, it was different. Philip suddenly became a part of that group of eight-year-old children. They took him in. He was set free from the tomb of his differentness.
Philip died last summer. His family had known since the time he was born that he wouldn’t live out a full life span. Many other things had been wrong with his tiny body. And so, late last July, with an infection that most normal children could have quickly shrugged off, Philip died. The mystery simply enveloped him.
At the funeral, nine eight-year-old children marched up to the altar, not with flowers to cover over the stark reality of death. Nine eight-year-olds, with their Sunday school teacher, marched right up to that altar, and laid on it an empty egg—an empty, old, discarded pantyhose egg.[2]
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