Paul is answering his correspondence. He has two letters in hand. One is from the people around a woman named Chloe (1. 11), the other from the members of the Corinthian assembly (7. 1). Paul is writing from the Roman Province of Asia, from Ephesus, near Easter, 57 A.D. (16. 9: In any case I shall be staying at Ephesus until Pentecost...). There is obvious factional dissention in the Corinthian community, some believing themselves better than others because of a particular view they have of baptism (who you get your baptism from), the Christian ritual of initiation.
1: 1-9 Greeting and thanksgiving
1: 10—4: 21 Factions in Corinth The members are of inconsequential social status.
5: 1-13 Incest and sexual sin "I have been told as an undoubted fact that one of you is living with his father's wife."
6: 1-11
Taking cases before offical governmental courts: "How dare one of your members take up a complaint
against another in the law courts of the unjust instead of before the saints?"
6: 12-20 The claim that all things are lawful.
Do not fornicate.
7: 1-40 "It is a good thing for a man not to touch a woman." Don't get married. But if you are married, stay married.
"About remaining celibate, I have no directions from the Lord . . . ."
8—10 Problems with idolatrous practices in Corinth. "I have no desire to see you in communion with demons..."
11 Christian Worship. "A woman who will not wear a veil ought to have her hair cut off."
The nature of the communal meal.
12-14 Spiritual Gifts. Ch. 13:: If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am become
sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal.
15 The Resurrection of the Dead. "IF there is no resurrection of the dead, Christ himself cannot have been
raised, and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is useless and your believing it is useless . . ."
16 The Weekly Collection, for the Church in Jerusalem
John Paul Adams, CSUN
john.p.adams@csun.edu