Interpretation of the 1st letter of the Holy Apostle Paul to the Corinthians

Founding of the Corinthian Church External circumstances of the origin of the first letter to the Corinthians Reason for writing a message Message plan. – Division by content The Character of 1 Corinthians Commentary on 1 Corinthians Chapter 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Corinth, the main city of the region of Achaia, in southern Greece, was inhabited during the era of the advent of Christianity by numerous colonists, mostly Roman freedmen. There were also many Greeks and Jews here. When Ap. Paul, during his second apostolic journey, arrived in Corinth, where there were about 700 thousand inhabitants - about 200 thousand free citizens and about 500 thousand slaves. Corinth owed this increase in population to its favorable geographical location. It was located on the Isthmus of Corinth, which, connecting the Peloponnese with the Balkan Peninsula, separated two seas - the Aegean and Ionian. He owned two harbors - Cenchreia to the east and Leheia to the west. Because of this, it quickly became a great station of world trade between Asia and the West. At the height of the city citadel of Corinth stood the magnificent Church of Venus. Corinth contained all the means and achievements of the culture of that time - art workshops, halls of rhetoricians, schools of philosophers. As one ancient historian put it, in Corinth one could not take a step down the street without meeting a sage. But hand in hand with the development of culture, the corruption of morals intensified in Corinth. This is evidenced by the fact that at that time immoral life was often called Corinthian (κορινθιάξειν), and Corinthian feasts and Corinthian drunkards became a proverb. And so, under such social conditions of Corinth, that is, with the external prosperity that the population of Corinth enjoyed, on the one hand, and with a complete decline in morals, on the other, Ap. preached here about Christ. Pavel (in 52). At this time the apostle was about 50 years old. He came to Corinth alone and began to engage here in the same craft by which he had previously earned his livelihood - sewing carpets or coverings for tents. He soon found a Jewish family here who was engaged in the same craft. These were the spouses - Aquila and Priscilla, who came to Corinth recently, having, like the Jews, been expelled from Rome by the edict of Claudius. Working with them, Paul soon converted them to Christ and they both became zealous collaborators in the spread of Christianity. According to his custom, Ap. Paul began preaching the Gospel to the Corinthian Jews in Corinth. In the Jewish synagogue - he knew this - his audience would also include proselytes from different classes of Corinthian society, so preaching in the synagogue served, so to speak, as a bridge for the preacher of the Gospel to cross into pagan society. Understanding this well, he also understood the difficulty of speaking before such demanding listeners as the Corinthians were at that time, and he trembled for the success of his business (1 Cor. 2:1), especially in view of the failure that he had just experienced in Athens. The apostle preached in the synagogue for several weeks. This time was enough for him to understand that the Jews - as a whole - would not turn to Christ, and Ap. Therefore, with several Jews and proselytes who believed, he transferred his activities to the house of a Jew who had converted to Christianity. Here he preached mainly to the pagans and at the same time did not resort to any external means to please his listeners - neither to the art of eloquence, nor to the tricks of dialectics, showing before them only the power of his conviction. Such preaching found adherents, and the Church arose in Corinth, formed partly from Jews, and mainly from pagans. However, most of the Corinthians who believed were poor people, slaves and uneducated. For about two years (Acts 18:11, 18) he continued his preaching work in Corinth. Paul, living partly by his own labor, and partly on benefits that were sent to him by the Churches of Macedonia that he founded (2 Cor. 11:7–9, 12:13–15). At that time, the proconsul of Achaia, Gallio, brother of the philosopher Seneca, an enlightened and kind man, lived in Corinth. This is how he showed himself when the Corinthian Jews began to complain to him about Paul. Gallio found that their dispute with Paul concerned religion, and admitted that he could not enter into this matter. Paul left Corinth around Pentecost 54 to go to Jerusalem and then to Antioch. However, he did not intend to stay in Antioch for long. The goal of his aspirations at that time was the glorious city of Asia Minor - Ephesus, where his colleagues - Aquila and Priscilla - had gone before him in order to somewhat prepare the ground for the activities of the great apostle of the pagans. No serious objections have been raised in biblical scholarship regarding the authenticity of our message. On the contrary, the evidence given in favor of the authenticity of the message is very convincing. This includes the instructions of the author of the letter (1 Cor. 1:1), and then the very tone of speech in which he speaks about himself as the founder of the Corinthian Church (1 Cor. 4:15). In addition, we have in the message such a living and plausible picture of the life of the primal Christian Church, which only the Apex himself could paint. Paul, who stood very close to this Church. Finally, the message contains many reproaches addressed to the Corinthian Church, and it is unlikely that this Church would have recognized the need to accept and preserve such a message without complete conviction of its authenticity. – These internal evidence of the authenticity of the message are also supplemented by external evidence, namely the evidence of church tradition. Already at the end of the 1st century. Clement of Rome gives excerpts from this letter in his letter to the Corinthians (chap. XLVII). St. Ignatius in his letter to the Ephesians (chapter XVIII) repeats the words of Apostle. Paul, contained in Chapter II. 1st last to the Corinthians. We find such repetitions in Justin the Martyr, in the letter to Diognetus, in St. Irenaeus and other writers of the first centuries of Christianity. The Epistle was written, undoubtedly, in Ephesus (1 Cor. 16:8–9) and precisely at the end of the three-year (Acts 20:31) stay of Ap. Paul in this city. This last consideration is confirmed primarily by the fact that at the time the letter was sent, Apollos was with the apostle (1 Cor. 16:12). This learned Alexandrian Jew was converted by Aquila and Priscilla in Ephesus shortly before Ap.'s arrival there. Paul (Acts 18:24–26), and then went to Achaia and preached there, continuing the work of Paul. If he is now with the apostle in Ephesus, then, obviously, from the day of the arrival of Ap. Quite a long time has passed since Paul arrived in Ephesus. Then, from the book. Acts we learn that Ap. Paul, after two years and three months of his stay in Ephesus, decided to go to the west, going first, however, to Jerusalem in order to testify to the church there about the love that the churches founded by Paul in Macedonia and Achaia had for it. In order to incite the Greek churches to collect donations for the poor Christians of Jerusalem, which were supposed to testify to this love, Apostle. sends his co-workers to Achaia and Macedonia - Timothy and Erastus (Acts 19:22), and this fact coincides with what is mentioned in 1 last. to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 4:17, 16:10): he falls for a time not long before the apostle departs from Ephesus. Finally, the origin of the message must be attributed to this particular time - and not to a later one - because in the message of Ap. freely disposes of himself and makes plans for future travels, while soon after the collection of the above-mentioned alms and after handing it over to the primates of the Jerusalem Church, the apostle was taken into bonds. - That. it can be assumed that the first letter to the Corinthians was written around the spring of 57, not long before Easter, which is hinted at in Chapter V. (vv. 7 and 8). Upon removal of Ap. Paul to Ephesus, divisions appeared in the Corinthian Church. When the Alexandrian teacher Apollos arrived in Corinth, his preaching led to the formation of a special party among Corinthian Christians - namely the party of Apollos. This party was composed mainly of Jews, whom Apollos managed to attract to the Christian Church with his interpretation of the Holy Testament, in which he looked for the most striking evidence that Jesus was truly the Messiah (Acts 18). This party was also joined by many educated pagans who did not like the simple preaching of Ap. Paul, and who accepted Christianity from Apollos not so much with their hearts as with their minds. In addition to Apollosova, the party of the Petrovs or Kifins appeared in Corinth. There is no evidence to suggest that Peter himself was and preached in Corinth. Most likely, this party was founded under the influence of the stories of Christians who came from Palestine about the great personality of Ap. Petra. Peter, in the minds of these strangers, was the prince of the apostles, and therefore if there was any disagreement between him and Paul, then Paul, in the opinion of this party, had to yield primacy to Peter. It is further clear that the Corinthians, converted by Paul to Christianity, stood for their teacher and also formed a special party of Paul’s followers who wanted to believe only what Paul taught and had a negative attitude towards the authorities of Apollos and Peter. Finally, among the Corinthian Christians there appeared those who rejected all apostolic authorities and adhered to only one head - Christ. It was as if they did not want to recognize any mediator between themselves and Christ; they wanted to depend only on Him alone. – Thus, four parties were formed in the Corinthian Church - Apollos, Peter, Paul and Christ. But this is not enough. Other undesirable phenomena began to appear in the life of the Corinthian Christians. When the first strong impressions made on the Corinthians by the sermon of St. Paul, who called on them to completely renew their sinful lives, the Corinthian Christians began to take the strict requirements of gospel morality quite easily. Misunderstanding the apostle's teaching about the freedom of a Christian (1 Cor. 6:12, 10:23), the Corinthians began to consider things permissible for themselves that were not allowed even among the pagans. The more well-meaning of the Corinthian Christians now wondered what to do with these unworthy fellow believers, and therefore they turned to Paul with a letter in which they described all their difficulties except the above. They asked him about the advantage of single life over marriage, about the permissibility of eating meat sacrificed to idols (1 Cor. 7:1, 8:1), about the comparative importance of spiritual gifts (1 Cor. 12:1). Finally, people appeared in Corinth who denied the truth of the general resurrection, which, no doubt, was also reported to the Apostle Paul in the above-mentioned letter. These were the circumstances of the life of the Corinthian Church that prompted the Apostle Paul to write his first letter to the Corinthians. Naturally, the diversity of the needs of the Corinthian Church should have been reflected in the nature of the message. One might have expected that the apostle would answer first one or the other of the questions put to him, without caring about the general plan of the message. Meanwhile, it is impossible not to notice that the first letter to the Corinthians, with all the variety of issues discussed in it, represents an integral work, written according to a well-known plan. Since, first of all, the apostle needed to restore his significantly fallen authority in Corinth, so that all his admonitions would be accepted by those for whom they were intended, he devotes the first chapters of his letter to the question of parties in Corinth. Here he, first of all, talks about the properties and essence of the Gospel, then about the position and tasks of the minister of the Gospel and, finally, defines the normal relationship between believers and their teachers. Thus he destroys the evil of partisanship at its very root. Then he turns to questions concerning the moral life of the Christian community and here, in the first place, he poses a question that in some respects related to the organization of the community, namely, he discusses the behavior of one Christian who allowed himself an extreme violation of Christian moral discipline, and gives instructions on how to deal with similar members of the Christian community. He then addresses four purely ethical questions. Two of them—whether it is possible to litigate your lawsuits before pagan judges and how to look at the vice of intemperance—the apostle quickly decides, based on the very spirit of the Gospel. The other two - the question of the comparative significance of marriage and celibacy and the permissibility of eating meat sacrificed to idols - were much more difficult to resolve, because the question of Christian freedom was mixed in here, and the apostle devotes a lot of time and labor to solving these two questions. These questions are followed by questions concerning religious life and worship gatherings. The first still has contact with the question of Christian freedom - this is precisely the question of the behavior of women in liturgical meetings. The second is about the behavior of Christians at love suppers, and the third, the most difficult, is about the use of spiritual gifts, mainly the gift of tongues and the gift of prophecy. Thus, in his message, Ap. goes from external to internal. At the end of the message of Ap. speaks of the issue that was of the greatest importance for the entire life of a Christian - namely, the resurrection of the dead, which some Corinthians doubted. The entire content of the message can therefore be presented in the following form: 1) the question of the Church - or church society (1 Cor. 1:10 - 1 Cor. 4); 2) five moral questions and, first of all, the question of church discipline (1 Cor. 5–10); 3) three liturgical questions (1 Cor. 11–14) and 4) a question from the field of dogma (1 Cor. 15). Ch. I, art. 1–9 is an introduction to the message, and Chapter XVI contains the conclusion - an instruction, various news and greetings. The contents of the message can be presented in more detail as follows: 1) Introduction: address (1 Cor. 1:1–3); thanks be to God (1 Cor. 1:4-9). 2) Parties in the Corinthian Church (1 Cor. 1:10–17). 3) The essence of the Gospel (1 Cor. 1:18–3:4). 4) The true essence of the ministry of a Christian teacher of faith (1 Cor. 3:5–4:5). 5) Arrogance as the cause of church turmoil (1 Cor. 4:6-21). 6) Church discipline (1 Cor. 5). 7) Processes (1 Cor. 6:1–11). 8) Intemperance (1 Cor. 6:12–20). 9) Marriage and celibacy (1 Cor. 7). 10) Eating meat sacrificed to idols and participating in pagan sacrificial meals (1 Cor. 8–10). 11) Women’s attire during worship (1 Cor. 11:1–16). 12) Disturbances at love suppers (1 Cor. 11:17–34). 13) About spiritual gifts (1 Cor. 12–14). 14) About the resurrection of the dead (1 Cor. 15). 15) Conclusion of the message (1 Cor. 16). 1 Corinthians, and also 2, is an example of what is called an “epistle.” What is contained in it cannot be imagined embodied in the form of a reasoning or a treatise: only the form of a message, understood in the sense of a letter, was suitable for those outpourings with which Ap addresses. Paul in the Corinthian Church he founded. Here we have before us all the characteristic features of the letter: exhortations, praises and censures addressed to the recipients of the message - in a word, it is clear that Ap. writes as he would have spoken to the Corinthians during a personal meeting with them. Finally, we find here many hints and half-hints, which are usually made in letters from friends and which remain almost incomprehensible to other readers of these letters. But the 1st message differs significantly from the 2nd in that it contains Ap. speaks about the needs of church life, about various individual points of church discipline, while in the 2nd he expands most of all about his personal relationships with the Corinthians and pours out his feelings before them. At the same time, however, Ap. in the 1st epistle he also points out the significance of the external facts of church life for the inner life of individuals, and in the second he makes personal experiences dependent on the great facts that have the highest significance for all Christianity. We can say that in both the 1st and 2nd epistles we see the same Paul in all the greatness of his apostolic spirit and piety. The Epistles to the Corinthians stand especially among the other Epistles of St. Pavel. Here the preacher of the one saving grace and Christian freedom appears in the role of a church administrator, establishing order in church life. The bearer and preacher of personal Christianity appears before us as a defender of the general church worldview. His speech in these messages is also varied. It recalls either the dialectical courage and seriousness of the Epistles to the Galatians and Romans, or the simplicity and some vagueness of the speech of the pastoral epistles. 1st last to Corinth. preserved in 3 most important editions - Alexandrian (ancient manuscript), Greco-Latin or Western (in the translation “Itala” and in the Western Fathers) and in the Syrian or Byzantine (in the Syrian translation “Peschito” and in the holy fathers of the Syrian Church, for example, Chrysostom and Theodoret). The so-called “Textus receptus”, from which the Slavic and Russian translations of the message were made, adheres in various places to one, then another, then the third of the most ancient texts. In general, it should be noted that the text of the message is least likely to present controversial points: there are significantly fewer options in this message than in others. The most famous manuscripts of the first letter to the Corinthians are: 1) Sinai and Vatican (from the 4th century). 2) Alexandrian and Codex Ephraim (from the 5th century). 3) Claromontonian and Koislikian (from the 6th century). 4) Moscow (from the 9th century). Comments on the 1st last. to the Corinthians Patristic literature: Ephraim the Syrian († 373), Ambrosiastes († 375), John Chrysostom († 407), Theodore of Mopsuet (not one of the Orthodox interpreters of † 428), Theodoret of Cyrrhus († 458) Theophylact of Bulgaria (11th century). – From the latest Western literature, interpretations are issued: Olshausen (2nd ed. 1840), de Wette (1840), Meyer (in the 8th ed. Heinrici 1896), Hoffmann (1874), Edwards (in English 1885), Godet (first in French, and in 1886–88 in German), Cornely (in lat. 1886–1892), W. Weiss (2nd ed. 1902), Ramsay (in English), Bousset (in Schriften d. N. T. von I. Weiss 1907), Lietzmann (1907), Schlatter (1908) and the most scientific work - Bachmann Ph. (2nd ed. 1910). – From Russian interpretations: bishop. Feofan, archbishop. Nikanor (Kamensky). In addition, you can usefully use the works of Prof. Golubeva: about the 1st last. to Corinth., manuals by Rozanov, Ivanov and others. Kheraskova. Selected questions from the last. to Corinth. covered in detail by St. M. P. Fiveysky: On spiritual gifts (dissertation 1908), by prof. N. N. Glubokovsky: Gospel of the Apostle. Pavel (1905 and 1910 – 2 volumes), by prof. Bogdashevsky (in the articles of the Labor. Kiev Spiritual Academy of 1909 and 1910), as well as in the work of Lütgert, Freiheitspredigt and Schwärmergeister in Korinth (1908). You might be interested in: