Will Vaus

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 turn

Today, we are continuing our journey along Route 66, and we are stopping off to visit the Gospel of John…   AUTHOR   First, we must ask and answer: why is this called “The Gospel of John”? As we learned in our study of the other Gospels over the past few weeks, the titles of the Gospels were not an original part of the text, but they reflect who the early church thought the authors of the Gospels were.   So, who is the John that the early church thought wrote this Gospel? As you may know, Jesus had a disciple named John. But the interesting thing is that John, the disciple, is never mentioned by name in this Gospel. That’s the first fact to take note of.   The second fact to notice is that this Gospel, unlike the other three Gospels, refers to “the disciple whom Jesus loved”. He is mentioned for the first time in John 13:23 where we read, “One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to him.” That is, next to Jesus. So, this disciple whom Jesus loved sat next to Jesus