First Epistle to the Corinthians: Difference between revisions

The '''First Epistle to the Corinthians'''{{Efn|The book is sometimes called the '''First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians''', or simply '''1 Corinthians'''.<ref>{{Cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=HiPouAEACAAJ |title= ESV Pew Bible |publisher = Crossway |year=2018 |isbn= 978-1-4335-6343-0 |location= Wheaton, IL |page =952 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210603093159/https://www.google.com/books/edition/ESV_Pew_Bible_Black/HiPouAEACAAJ |archive-date=June 3, 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref> It is most commonly abbreviated as "1 Cor."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Bible Book Abbreviations |url= https://www.logos.com/bible-book-abbreviations |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220421100743/https://www.logos.com/bible-book-abbreviations |archive-date= April 21, 2022 |access-date= April 21, 2022 |website= Logos Bible Software}}</ref>}} ({{lang-grc|Α΄ ᾽Επιστολὴ πρὸς Κορινθίους}}) is one of the [[Pauline epistles]], part of the [[New Testament]] of the [[Christian Bible]]. The [[epistle]] is attributed to [[Paul the Apostle]] and a co-author, [[Sosthenes]], and is addressed to the Christian church in [[Ancient Corinth|Corinth]].<ref>{{bibleverse|1 Corinthians|1:1–2}}</ref> Despite the name, it is not believed to be the first such letter. Scholars believe that Sosthenes was the [[amanuensis]] who wrote down the text of the letter at Paul's direction.<ref>Meyer [http://biblehub.com/commentaries/meyer/1_corinthians/1.htm 1 Corinthians], NT Commentary, Bible hub, accessed May 17, 2022</ref> It addresses various issues that had arisen in the Christian community at Corinth and is composed in a form of [[Koine Greek]].<ref>Kurt Aland, Barbara Aland 1995 The text of the New Testament: an introduction to the critical p. 52 "The New Testament was written in Koine Greek, the Greek of daily conversation. The fact that from the first all the New Testament writings were written in Greek is conclusively demonstrated by their citations from the Old Testament..."</ref>

Verses 34–35 are included in all extant manuscripts. Part of the reason for suspecting that this passage is an interpolation is that in several manuscripts in the Western tradition, it is placed at the end of chapter 14 instead of at its canonical location. This kind of variability is generally considered by textual critics to be a sign that a note, initially placed in the margins of the document, has been copied into the body of the text by a scribe.<ref name=barton>{{cite book |editor1=[[John Barton (theologian)|John Barton]] |editor2=[[John Muddiman]] |title= The Oxford Bible Commentary |year= 2001 |publisher= Oxford University Press |location= New York |isbn= 978-0-19-875500-5 |page=[https://archive.org/details/oxfordbiblecomme0000unse/page/1130 1130] |url=https://archive.org/details/oxfordbiblecomme0000unse |url-access=registration}}</ref> As E. Earle Ellis and Daniel B. Wallace note, however, a marginal note may well have been written by Paul himself. The loss of marginal arrows or other directional devices could explain why the scribe of the Western ''[[Vorlage]]'' placed it at the end of the chapter. The absence of an asterisk or obelisk in the margin of any manuscript – a common way of indicating doubt of authenticity – they argue, a strong argument that Paul wrote the passage and intended it in its traditional place.<ref name=":0">Daniel B. Wallace: [https://bible.org/article/textual-problem-1-corinthians-1434-35 The Textual Problem of 1 Corinthians 14:34-35] Bible.org, June 26th 2004.</ref> The passage has also been taken to contradict 11:5, where [[Women in the New Testament|women]] are described as praying and prophesying in church.<ref name=barton />

About the year AD 50, towards the end of his second missionary journey, Paul founded the church in Corinth before moving on to [[Ephesus]], a city on the west coast of today's Turkey, about {{convert|180290|mikm}} by sea from [[Ancient Corinth|Corinth]]. From there he traveled to [[Caesarea Maritima|Caesarea]] and [[Antioch]]. Paul returned to Ephesus on his third missionary journey and spent approximately three years there.<ref>{{bibleverse|Acts|19:8}}, {{bibleverse|Acts|19:10}}, {{bibleverse|Acts|20:31}}</ref> It was while staying in Ephesus that he received disconcerting news of the community in Corinth regarding jealousies, rivalry, and immoral behavior.<ref name=usccb>{{Cite web|url=https://bible.usccb.org/bible/1corinthians/0|title=1 Corinthians, The First Letter to the Corinthians &#124; USCCB|website=bible.usccb.org}}</ref> It also appears that, based on a letter the Corinthians sent Paul,<ref>See {{bibleverse|1 Corinthians|7:1}}</ref> the congregation was requesting clarification on a number of matters, such as marriage and the consumption of meat previously offered to idols.

Despite the attributed title "1 Corinthians,", this letter was not the first written by Paul to the church in Corinth, only the first canonical letter. 1 Corinthians is the second known letter of four from Paul to the church in Corinth, as evidenced by Paul's mention of his previous letter in 1 Corinthians 5:9.<ref name="ESV Study Bible">{{Cite book|chapter=Introduction to the Book of 2 Corinthians|title=ESV Study Bible|publisher=Crossway|date=2008|isbn=978-1433502415}}</ref> The other two being what is called the [[Second Epistle to the Corinthians]] and a "tearful, severe" letter mentioned in 2 Corinthians 2:3–4.<ref name="ESV Study Bible"/> The book called the [[Third Epistle to the Corinthians]] is generally not believed by scholars to have been written by Paul, as the text claims.

[[File:Codex Amiatinus (1 Cor 1,1-21).jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|1 Corinthians 1:1–21 in [[Codex Amiatinus]] from the 8th century.]]

[[File:Minuscule 223 (GA) f150v.jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|1 Corinthians 1:1–2a in [[Minuscule 223]] from the 14th century.]]

1 Corinthians 11:2-162–16 contains an admonishment that Christian women cover their hair while praying and that Christian men leave their heads uncovered while praying. These practices were [[countercultural]]; the surrounding pagan Greek women prayed unveiled and Jewish men prayed with their heads covered.<ref name="Payne2015">{{cite book |last1=Payne |first1=Philip Barton |title=Man and Woman, One in Christ: An Exegetical and Theological Study of Paul's Letters |date=5 May 2015 |publisher=Zondervan Academic |isbn=978-0-310-52532-5 |language=English |quote=Furthermore, Greek women, including women in prayer, were usually depicted without a garment covering the head. It does not make sense that Paul would assert something was disgraceful that in their culture was not considered disgraceful. Concerning Greek customs A. Oepke observes: […...] It is quite wrong [to assert] that Greek women were under some kind of compulsion to wear a veil. […...] Passages to the contrary are so numerous and unequivocally that they cannot be offset. […...] Empresses and goddesses, even those who maintain their dignity, like Hera and Demeter, are portrayed without veils.}}</ref><ref name="Shank1992">{{cite book |first=Tom|last=Shank |year=1992 |title="…Let...Let Her Be Veiled.": An in-depth study of 1 Corinthians 11:1-161–16 |publisher=Torch Publications|quote=The [male] Jews of this era worshipped and prayed with a covering called a tallith on their heads.|location=[[Eureka, Montana|Eureka]]|page=8}}</ref>

The [[King James Version]] of 1 Corinthians 11:10 reads "For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels." Other versions translate "power" as "authority". In many early biblical manuscripts (such as certain [[Vulgate|vg]], [[Bible translations into Coptic|cop{{sup|bo}}Coptic]], and [[Bible translations into Armenian|armArmenian]] manuscripts), is rendered with the word "veil" ({{lang-grc|κάλυμμα|kalumma|label=none}}) rather than the word "authority" ({{lang-grc|ἐξουσία|exousia|label=none}}); the [[Revised Standard Version]] reflects this, displaying 1 Corinthians 11:10<ref>{{bibleverse|1 Corinthians|11:10|RSV}}</ref> as follows: "That is why a woman ought to have a veil on her head, because of the angels."<ref name="Garland2003">{{cite book |last1=Garland |first1=David E. |title=1 Corinthians (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament) |date=1 November 2003 |publisher=[[Baker Academic]] |isbn=978-1-58558-322-5 |language=English}}</ref> Similarly, a scholarly footnote in the [[New American Bible]] notes that presence of the word "''authority'' ({{transliteration|grc|exousia}}) may possibly be due to mistranslation of an Aramaic word for ''veil''".<ref>{{cite book |title=The Catholic Study Bible |date=15 April 2016 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-19-026726-1 |language=en}}</ref> This mistranslation may be due to "the fact that in Aramaic the roots of the word ''power'' and ''veil'' are spelled the same."<ref name="Farrell">{{cite book |last1=Farrell |first1=Heather |title=Walking with the Women of the New Testament |date=2014 |publisher=Cedar Fort Publishing |isbn=978-1-4621-0872-5 |language=en |quote=...that the word translated in verses 5 and 13 as "uncovered" is ''akatakaluptos'' and means "unveiled" and the word translated in verse 6 as "covered" is ''katakalupto'' which means to "cover wholly, [or] veil.". The word ''power'' in verse 10 may have also been mistranslated because the fact that in Aramaic the roots of the word ''power'' and ''veil'' are spelled the same.}}</ref> The last-known living connection to the apostles, Irenaeus, penned verse 10 using the word "veil" ({{lang-grc|κάλυμμα|kalumma|label=none}}) instead of "authority" ({{lang-grc|ἐξουσία|exousia|label=none}}) in ''[[Against Heresies]]'', as did other Church Fathers in their writings, including [[Hippolytus of Rome|Hippolytus]], [[Origen]], [[Chrysostom]], [[Jerome]], [[Epiphanius of Salamis|Epiphanius]], [[Augustine]], and [[Bede]].<ref name="Garland2003"/><ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Williams |editor1-first=Frank |title=The Panarion of Epiphanius of Salamis: Book I (Sects 1-46) |date=2009 |publisher=[[Brill Academic Publishers]] |isbn=978-90-04-17017-9 |page=196 |language=en}}</ref>

This ordinance continued to be handed down after the apostolic era to the next generations of Christians; writing 150 years after Paul, the early Christian apologist [[Tertullian]] stated that the women of the church in Corinth—both virgins and married—practiced veiling, given that Paul the Apostle delivered the teaching to them: "the Corinthians themselves understood him in this manner. In fact, at this very day, the Corinthians do veil their virgins. What the apostles taught, their disciples approve."<ref name="Bercot2021">{{cite book |last1=Bercot |first1=David W. |title=Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs: A Reference Guide to More Than 700 Topics Discussed by the Early Church Fathers |date=18 April 2021 |publisher=Hendrickson Publishers |isbn=978-1-61970-168-7 |page=667 |language=en}}</ref> From the period of the early Church to the [[late modern period]], 1 Corinthians 11 was universally understood to enjoin the wearing of the headcovering throughout the day—a practice that has since waned in Western Europe but has continued in certain parts of the world, such as in the [[Middle East]], [[Eastern Europe]], [[Northern Africa]] and the [[Indian subcontinent]],<ref name="Hunt2014">{{cite book|last=Hunt|first=Margaret|title=Women in Eighteenth Century Europe|date=11 June 2014|publisher=Taylor & Francis|language=en |isbn=9781317883876|page=58|quote=Today many people associate rules about veiling and headscarves with the Muslim world, but in the eighteenth century they were common among Christians as well, in line with 1 Corinthians 11:4-134–13 which appears not only to prescribe headcoverings for any women who prays or goes to church, but explicitly to associate it with female subordination, which Islamic veiling traditions do not typically do. Many Christian women wore a head-covering all the time, and certainly when they went outside; those who did not would have been barred from church and likely harassed on the street. […...] Veils were, of course, required for Catholic nuns, and a veil that actually obscured the face was also a mark of elite status throughout most of Europe. Spanish noblewomen wore them well into the eighteenth century, and so did Venetian women, both elites and non-elites. Across Europe almost any woman who could afford them also wore them to travel.}}</ref><ref name="BalzaniBesnier2021">{{cite book |last1=Balzani |first1=Marzia |last2=Besnier |first2=Niko |title=Social and Cultural Anthropology for the 21st Century: Connected Worlds |date=29 November 2021 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-57178-0 |language=English |quote=Head covers are generally associated with Islam, but until recently Christian women in Mediterranean countries also covered their heads in public, and some still do, particularly in religious contexts such as attending mass.}}</ref><ref name="Hammond2018">{{cite book |last1=Hammond |first1=Laura C. |title=This Place Will Become Home: Refugee Repatriation to Ethiopia |date=6 August 2018 |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=978-1-5017-2725-2 |page=92 |language=English |quote=Inside her house a Christian woman usually did not cover hear head and only wore a ''netsela'' (ነጠላ, a shawl made from white, usually homespun cotton and often with a colorful banner woven into its edges) when working in the sun or going out of her compound.}}</ref><ref name="Ramdin2000">{{cite book |last1=Ramdin |first1=Ron |title=Arising from Bondage: A History of the Indo-Caribbean People |date=April 2000 |publisher=[[New York University Press]] |isbn=978-0-8147-7548-6 |page=222 |language=English |quote=As a mark of respect, Indian women were expected to cover their heads. And over the years, most rural Hindu, Muslim and Christian women have done so with the Orhni, a thin shawl-like head covering.}}</ref><ref name="Mitchell2007">{{cite book |last1=Mitchell |first1=Laurence |title=Serbia |date=2007 |publisher=Bradt Travel Guides |isbn=978-1-84162-203-3 |language=English |quote=Further north, in Vojvodina, some older Slovak women still regularly wear the headscarf, pleated skirt and embroidered apron that is their national dress. All across Serbia, as elsewhere in eastern Europe, many older women wear headscarves}}</ref><ref name="Walsh2019">{{cite book |last1=Walsh |first1=Harper |title=Saudi Arabia Undercover: Includes Bahrain, Bangkok and Cairo |date=1 November 2019 |publisher=Monsoon Books |isbn=978-1-912049-61-5 |language=English |quote=There are Christian women in the Middle East who cover their hair and heads daily. Some wear burkas too.}}</ref> as well as everywhere by [[Conservative Anabaptists]] (such as the [[Conservative Mennonites|Conservative Mennonite Churches]] and the [[Dunkard Brethren Church]]), who count veiling as being one of the [[ordinance (Christianity)|ordinances]] of the Church.<ref name="Hartzler2013">{{cite book |last1=Hartzler |first1=Rachel Nafziger |title=No Strings Attached: Boundary Lines in Pleasant Places: A History of Warren Street / Pleasant Oaks Mennonite Church |date=30 April 2013 |publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers |isbn=978-1-62189-635-7 |language=English}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Manual of Bible Doctrines|url=https://archive.org/details/manualofbibledoc00kauf|first=Daniel|last=Kauffman|date=1898|publisher=Mennonite Publishing Co.|location=[[Elkhart, Indiana|Elkhart]]|pages=160–168}}</ref> The early Church Father [[John Chrysostom]] explicates that 1 Corinthians 11 enjoins the continual wearing the headcovering by referencing Paul the Apostle's view that being shaven is always dishonourable and his pointing to the angels:<ref name="Schaff1889">{{cite book |last1=Schaff |first1=Philip |title=A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church: St. Chrysostom: Homilies on the Epistles of Paul to the Corinthians |date=1889 |publisher=The Christian Literature Company |page=152 |language=English}}</ref>

The kerygma has often been dated to no more than five years after Jesus' death by Biblical scholars,.{{efn|name="ancientcreed"}} though [[Bart Ehrman]] statesdissents, saying that "Among scholars I personally know, except for evangelicals, I don't now[''sic''] anyone who thinks this at all."<ref name="BE_dating">Bart Ehrman, as quoted at [https://lutherwasnotbornagaincom.wordpress.com/2019/12/19/bart-ehrman-most-scholars-doubt-the-early-creed-was-written-within-3-6-years-of-jesus-death/ Bart Ehrman: Most Scholars Doubt the Early Creed Was Written Within 3-6 Years of Jesus' Death]</ref>{{efn|Bart Ehrman: "Among scholars I personally know, except for evangelicals, I don't now anyone who thinks this at all. And for a good reason: Paul never says he got this creed from Peter and James three years after his conversion. Doesn't even suggest it."<ref name="BE_dating"/>}} [[Gerd Lüdemann]] however, maintains that "the elements in the tradition are to be dated to the first two years after the crucifixion of Jesus{{nbsp}}[...] not later than three years".<ref>{{cite book|title=The Resurrection of Jesus|author=Gerd Lüdemann|year=1994|page=38}}</ref>

For orthodox Christians, the resurrection, believed by them to be a physical resurrection, is the central event of the Christian faith. While the authenticity of line 6a and 7 is disputed, MacGregor argues that linguistic analysis suggests that the version received by Paul seems to have included verses 3b–6a and 7.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Kirk R. |last=MacGregor |title=1 Corinthians 15:3b–6a, 7 and the Bodily Resurrection of Jesus |journal=Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society |volume=49 |issue=2 |year=2006 |pages=225–34 |url=https://www.galaxie.com/article/10572}}</ref> According to Christian apolgist [[Gary R. Habermas]], in "Corinthians 15:3–8, Paul records an ancient oral tradition(s) that summarizes the content of the Christian gospel."<ref>{{cite book |title=To Everyone an Answer: A Case for the Christian Worldview |editor1=Francis J. Beckwith |editor-link=Francis J. Beckwith |editor2=William Lane Craig |editor2-link=William Lane Craig |editor3=J. P. Moreland |editor3-link=J. P. Moreland |publisher=InterVarsity Press |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-8308-7750-8 |page=182}}</ref> N.T Wright describes it as "the very early tradition that was common to all Christians."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://ntwrightpage.com/2016/04/05/early-traditions-and-the-origins-of-christianity/ |title=Early Traditions and the Origins of Christianity |author=N.T. Wright |date=5 April 2016 |author-link=N.T. Wright |publisher=NTWrightPage}}</ref>

In dissent from the majority view, [[Robert M. Price]],<ref name="Price1995">{{sfnpcite journal | first =Robert M. | last =Price | author-link =Robert M. Price | year =1995 | title =Apocryphal Apparitions: 1 Corinthians 15:3–11 as a Post-Pauline Interpolation | journal =Journal of Higher Criticism | volume =2 | issue =2 | pages =69–99| url =http://depts.drew.edu/jhc/rp1cor15.html}}</ref> [[Hermann Detering]],<ref>{{sfnpcite journal | last1 =Detering | first1 =Hermann | year =2003 | title =The Falsified Paul | journal =Journal of Higher Criticism | volume =10 | issue =2 | translator =Darrell Daughty | pages =3–199| url =https://vridar.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/FabricatedJHC.pdf}}</ref> [[John V. M. Sturdy]],<ref>{{sfnpcite book | last =Sturdy | first =John | year =2007}}{{sfnp |Loke|2020|p title ="SturdyRedrawing (2007,the pBoundaries: The Date of Early Christian Literature | publisher =Equinox Pub. Limited |page=64)"}}</ref> and David Oliver Smith<ref>{{sfnpcite book | last =Smith | first =David Oliver | year =2022 | title =The Pauline Letters: A Rhetorical Analysis | publisher =Wipf and Stock Publishers |ppage=176}}</ref> have each argued that 1 Corinthians 15:3–7 is a later [[Interpolation (manuscripts)|interpolation]]. According to Price, the text is not an early Christian creed written within five years of Jesus' death, nor did Paul write these verses. In his assessment, this was an [[Interpolation (manuscripts)|Interpolation]] possibly dating to the beginning of the 2nd century. Price states that "The pair of words in verse 3a, "received / delivered" (paralambanein / paradidonai) is, as has often been pointed out, technical language for the handing on of rabbinical tradition", so it would contradict Paul's account of his conversion given in Galatians 1:13–24, which explicitly says that Paul had been taught the gospel of Christ by Jesus himself, not by any other man.{{sfnp|Price|1995}}{{efn|Robert Jamieson, [[A. R. Fausset]], and [[David Brown (Free Church of Scotland)|David Brown]] (1871) comment: "which I ... received — from Christ Himself by special revelation (compare 1Co 11:23)."<ref>{{cite book |author=Robert Jamieson |author2=Andrew Robert Fausset |author3=David Brown |date=1871 |title=[[Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible]]}}</ref> {{bibleverse|1 Corinthians|11:23|KJV}}: "For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread..."}}

[[Image:Signorelli Resurrection.jpg|right|thumb|''Resurrection of the Flesh'' ({{c.|1500}}) by [[Luca Signorelli]] – based on 1 Corinthians 15:52: "the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." Chapel of San Brizio, Duomo[[Orvieto Cathedral]], OrvietoItaly ]]

1 Corinthians 515:29 argues it would be pointless to [[Baptism for the dead|baptise the dead]] if people are not raised from the dead. This verse suggests that there existed a practice at Corinth whereby a living person would be baptized in the stead of some convert who had recently died.<ref>{{Cite web |title=What does 1 Corinthians 15:29 mean? |url=https://www.bibleref.com/1-Corinthians/15/1-Corinthians-15-29.html |access-date=2023-01-18 |website=BibleRef.com}}</ref> Teignmouth Shore, writing in [[Charles Ellicott|Ellicott]]'s ''Commentary for Modern Readers'', notes that among the "numerous and ingenious conjectures" about this passage, the only tenable interpretation is that there existed a practice of baptising a living person to substitute those who had died before that sacrament could have been administered in Corinth, as also existed among the [[Marcionites]] in the second century, or still earlier than that, among a sect called "the Corinthians".<ref>Teignmouth Shore, [http://biblehub.com/commentaries/ellicott/1_corinthians/15.htm Ellicott's Commentary for Modern Readers] on 1 Corinthians 15, accessed 12 April 2017</ref> The [[Jerusalem Bible]] states that "What this practice was is unknown. Paul does not say if he approved of it or not: he uses it merely for an ''[[ad hominem]]'' argument".<ref>Jerusalem Bible (1966), note at 1 Corinthians 15:29</ref>

St. [[John Chrysostom#Writings|John Chrysostom]], bishop of Constantinople and Doctor of the Catholic Church, wrote a commentary on 1 Corinthians, formed by 44 homilies.<ref>{{cite web | publisher = Clerus | url = http://www.clerus.org/bibliaclerusonline/en/jp.htm | title = John Chrysostom's homilies on 1 Corinthians | language = en, la| archive-url = https://archive.today/2019.04.12-07353120190412073531/http://www.clerus.org/bibliaclerusonline/en/ddu.htm| archive-date = April 12, 2019| url-status = live | access-date = April 12, 2019}}</ref>