Body Language - Background to I Corinthians

The Corinthians were the among the very first to face the problems that have proved to be perennial for all Christian communities: how to live in holiness and freedom within the very real structures of the world in which they live. The community struggled to define its identity as the church of God in a complex and sophisticated urban setting.

Corinth : the city

Corinth is situated on a narrow neck of land in Greece with a harbor on each side of it. The east harbor faces across the sea to the Roman province of Asia and Ephesus. The west side faces Italy and ultimately, Rome. At its narrowest point it is only 6 miles across – and thus a major center for east-west international trade.

It is also favourably situated between northern and southern Greece – with the province of Achaia above (and then onto Macedonia), and the Peloponnese below. It was a bustling, busy, commercial business center, a major port city. Compared to it, Athens might have seemed like a sleepy university city, dreaming of its greater past.

Those who traded between Asia and the west usually preferred to use the two port facilities at Corinth rather than taking the longer, and potentially hazardous journey by sea around the Cape of Malea to the south, which took up to 6 days. If they used light cargo boats, the entire boat could be transported on rollers across land to the other port on the the road, the diolkos that linked the two harbours (the road is now a canal, serving the same purpose). Alternatively they could unload cargo at one port and reload it at the other. In either case, toll fees, or carriage fees swelled the coffers of Corinth and its officials.

Tourists flocked to the city, not least for the Isthmian games, held every 2 years, and second only to the Olympic games. They came from the furthest reaches of the Empire. The games drew huge crowds, a large percentage of whom were businesspersons, eager to purchase exotic goods and to ‘network’ and establish new business links. They brought money to buy goods, hire dockers, porters, accountants, guides, bodyguards, carpenters, cooks, housekeepers, managers, craftsmen and slaves. The money poured into Corinth.

Corinth ’s geographical location and the thriving trade it created led to the city’s self-sufficient, deeply competitive and entrepreneurial culture – marked by what we call today ‘consumerism.’ Two other factors added to this.

1. It had been resettled in 44 BC as a Roman colony. (It had been sacked by Rome in 146BC and left in ruins.) Julius Caesar resettled it as a colony for the veterans from his legions. It was initially resettled by Roman soldiers, Roman freed-persons and Roman slaves. It was soon swelled by entrepreneurial traders and businesspersons. As a Roman colony, loyalty to Rome was paramount. The well-ordered colony continued to attract immigrants hoping to make their fortune.

2. Corinth also enjoyed spectacular natural resources for the production of goods. The fountains offered a virtually limitless supply of water for domestic and commercial use. Clay, sandstone and limestone provided raw building materials.

The culture was one of self-promotion and the drive to succeed. It is no wonder that Paul arrived with “fear and trembling” (2:3) to preach the gospel of a humiliated, crucified Christ – it would be an affront to Corinthians who cherished success, and loved winners. He did not bring his high rhetorical skills, or cleverness (2:1), things highly valued in Corinth, but instead his ‘selling point’ was the crucified Christ (2:2) – the thing that nobody would want. No wonder that “the proclamation of the cross is, for their part, foolishness for those who are on their way to ruin,” even if it is “the power of God to us who are on the way of salvation.” (1:18)


Corinth was the capital of the province of Achaia. With a large transient population, both diverse trade and religious cults came to the city. Like most port cities, it enjoyed a reputation for sexual immorality. In fact, the city’s name became synonymous with that very thing, to the extent that a new verb was added to Greek vocabulary: korinthizomai – “to fornicate: to engage in sexual behavior outside of marriage.” With constant movement in and out of the city, attachment to particular pagan rituals and clubs became a necessary means of maintaining some form of social stability – a practice that would become a particular problem for early Christians.

The rhetorical style of speech valued in Corinth was different from the classical style of Cicero. The classical style was interested in communicating truth persuasively: the style valued in Corinth was more concerned with winning the argument than with the truth. It was about winning admiration for your skill, not your content. It was dramatic – relying on passion, volume and gesture – showpieces for their admirers. Truth is sacrificed to what the crowd wants to hear. Approval is sought for oneself – not for one’s message. Thus the value of one’s speech is determined by consumer choice. They were the mass media of their day – determining what is needed, what is important, what is hip, what is now.

Paul, in contrast, will not allow this in proclamation of the good news of Jesus. If the gospel is ‘tweaked’ based on audience response, then the gospel is emptied of content and power.


Corinth : the Christian community

Established by Paul (I Cor. 4:15). It was the perfect place to form a Christian community – from the hub of Corinth, the gospel could spread to every corner of the Empire.

When Paul arrived he would have seen the remnants of the booths and stands from the games of 49AD. When he returned in 51, the games would have been in full swing.

Paul came from Athens, accompanied by Priscilla and Aquila, who had recently been expelled from Rome with other Jews by Claudius (Acts 18:2). Paul joined them in making tents.

Paul preached in the synagogue – rejected there (Acts 18:6), Paul moved next door to the house of Titus Justus (18:7). He converted Crispus, leader of the synagogue (18:8; cf I Cor. 1:14), and stayed in Corinth for 18 months (Acts 18:11). During that time Paul was brought before the Proconsul Gallio, accused of teaching contrary to Torah. The Roman proconsul dismissed the case, and in retaliation, the men beat Sosthenes, a ruler of the synagogue (18:17), who is the co-writer of this letter (I Cor. 1:1).

Paul left, and took Priscilla and Aquila with him to Ephesus (18:18-21). There they met and taught Apollos (18:24-28), who returned to Corinth and worked with the fledgling church. He appears to have played a significant role in the life of the church (I Cor. 1:12; 3:4-7, 21-23; 4:6; 16:12).

The church had members from both Jewish and gentile backgrounds. The letter outlines the difficulties facing former pagans, but the primary symbolism by which the community understood its identity came from Torah, the Law of Moses (see esp. I Cor, 10:1-13).

The community had a mixed social background – rich and poor, high status and low status (I Cor. 1:26 (low) and I Cor. 1:11, 16; 16:15-17 (high)).

Many of the Corinthians’ faults and problems came from over-enthusiasm, not luke-warmness. They were impressed by the powers the Spirit gave them, but were more interested in exercising them than in understanding them. They were fascinated by the spectacular.

Stemming from this came a form of spiritual elitism, which infected the community. Some were so awed by their new knowledge and freedom and capacities for ecstatic speech that they considered themselves fully mature and perfect (2:6-3:4). They tended to judge each other and their spiritual mentors (4:1-5), while neglecting the demands for living that their calling made on them (5:1-6:20).

This spiritual elitism led to factionalism. They tended to define themselves by their differences rather than by their common life. They aligned themselves with different apostles, or even with Christ, implying they needed no teacher at all (1:12). Paul reminds them that “not many among you were influential, had wealth, or were of noble birth”: they would have lacked status in the wider culture. Suddenly, in this new family, the church, they saw the opportunity to gain the status that had been denied them before, by following one of the teachers who had great honor (Paul, Apollos, Cephas/Peter). This was the essence of their culture (the “honor/shame” culture of Graeco-Rome) – God had delivered them from that way of understanding their identity and worth, but by bringing it into the church, they were going right back to it.

Christians met in private homes (they had no public buildings), so the size of gatherings was limited to the size of the villas of the most affluent members, probably accommodating 30-50 people for a shared meal. There were likely, therefore, numerous separate house church gatherings in Corinth. Over time, each group may have developed different practices and even acknowledged different leaders, thus exacerbating the problem of factions.

Paul was faced with a massive task of resocialization – seeking to reshape the moral imaginations of these Gentile converts into patterns of life consonant with the God of Israel.

The content of the letter reveals how much of the prevailing culture the Christians in Corinth still carried over in their life together:

The proclamation of the cross could only have the effect of subverting and reversing the value system that dominated Corinthian culture. “We are fools…we are weak…we are the scum of the earth” (4:10,13) – this approach and value system is entirely at odds with the cultural expectation that competition and the high value of initiative and cleverness sent the “weakest” to the wall.

In Paul’s time many in Corinth were already suffering from a self-made-person-escapes-humble-origins syndrome. Paul’s self-humiliation, his assumption of a ‘servant role’ contradicted expected values in a city where social climbing was a major preoccupation.

It is no surprise that when they became Christians, many people in Corinth carried over attitudes of self-sufficiency and Corinthian pride. Many wanted and expected a “Corinthian” spirituality. When Paul spoke of “wisdom”, “knowledge”, “Spirit”, “spiritual”, “free” and “saved” they understood those words very differently than Paul intended, and so he spends time in the letter redefining the words in accordance with the gospel they have received (eg. 2:6-16; 8:1-2; 6:12 cf 10:23).

The Corinthian concern for autonomy led them to devalue the translocal character of Christian identity (i.e. it does not matter where you live!). Paul reminds them three times of this in a single verse (1:2). He challenges their self-sufficiency most strongly in 4:7-8. He quotes their slogans with dripping irony “We have been made rich!...We reign as kings!” and then says, “I wish we had become ‘kings’ with you”, instead of dying in the arena, and suffering all that Paul goes on to list in 4:9-13. He says this not to shame them, but to warn them (4:14).

The most well-known chapter – thirteen – is perfectly written for Corinth. Every attribute of love applies to the Corinthians in their cultural captivity.


Paul is concerned that their ground for joy, glory and “boasting” not be in their illusory claims to achievements and “success” judged in terms of competitive human comparisons: rather, if they glory, they are to glory in God (1:29-31; 3:21). The invitation to glory solely in God and in what God has given as sheer gift is another way of expressing the profound truth of justification by faith. In I Corinthians, this is not an abstract doctrine, but the ground of Christian identity that applies to every aspect of Christian life as it is lived out in the rough-and-tumble of the everyday church and the world.

What, or rather, who lies at the heart of Paul’s letter is Jesus. Paul names Jesus 9 times in the 9 verses of his greeting. He insists that the identity of the community must continue to be shaped by the story of Jesus. Paul also insists that Jesus Christ has defined the new cosmic situation in which we live and move – and that his self-sacrificial death defines the pattern for the life of the community.

This new life is grounded in the “already/not yet” tension of the Kingdom of God/heaven – new life in the Spirit has come, but not in its fullness. We live in the “in between” times.

Paul is writing to the church – not to scholars, or individual “spiritual” persons. We must read it as the church.

It seems that the gospel may generate problems, not solve them! For the word of the cross poses a challenge to the assumptions of Paul’s readers.

The Corinthian correspondence

There appear to have been at least 5 letters exchanged between Paul and the church in Corinth.

Possibly the most important thing to be gained from this correspondence is Paul’s close and careful concern for his communities, confirmed by his numerous visits to them.


What led to Paul writing this letter?

The report from Chloe’s people that there were numerous quarrels and divisions among them (1:11).

Problems developed around the maintenance of community boundaries: some in the church thought they could maintain existing associations and practices. Even after Paul’s first note warning them not to associate with immoral people (5:9), the situation was not resolved. Relations within the community were strained because of different approaches to moral behavior. Some wanted to ask Paul’s advice (7:1) – but this suggestion did not meet with unanimous approval. Why turn to Paul? What authority did he have? Was he one of the original apostles, like Cephas (Peter)? Was he a powerful preacher like Apollos? Why not turn to others for guidance?

Chloe’s letter revealed the divisions that existed in the community. Some were flagrantly sinning, some were initiating lawsuits against others; others were questioning Paul’s authority to teach them. So, in order to address all these concerns, Paul had first to reestablish his credibility as the spiritual ‘father’ of this community.

The outline of the letter appears to correspond to this sequence of events:

1:1-9 Greeting

1-4 Addresses the divisions and reminds them forcefully of his authority to teach them

5-6 Addresses problems reported: sexual immorality and litigation in pagan courts

7-14 Addresses the questions they wrote to him about: virginity and marriage, food offered to idols and problems in worship

15 He reflects theologically on the resurrection, which undergirds how he addresses the issues they face as a community

16 Raises his personal project: collection of money for the church in Jerusalem

Bibliography

Achtemeier, Paul J et al. Introducing the New Testament (Eerdmans, 2001)

DeSilva, David An Introduction to the new Testament (IVP, 2004)

Hays, Richard B. Interpretation Series: I Corinthians (John Knox Press, 1997)

Johnson, Luke Timothy The Writings of the new Testament (Fortress Press, 1999)

Thiselton, Anthony C. I Corinthians: A Shorter Exegetical & Pastoral Commentary

(Eerdman’s, 2006)

Witherington, Ben Conflict and Community in Corinth: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary

(Eerdman’s, 1995)

Wright, Tom Paul for Everyone: I Corinthians (SPCK, 2003)