we know that such opposition had been vanquished long before his death. It is full of minute references to the state of the Corinthian Church-being to a large extent the apostle's reply to a letter of inquiry from that Church,1 although it also deals with a number of evils and disorders among the converts, which had come to the apostle's knowledge through other channels.2 This last circumstance, as Paley points out in his Hora Paulina (iii. 1), is a token of reality, as it was not to be expected that the Corinthians should deliberately expose their own faults. At the same time their acknowledgment and preservation of the epistle, notwithstanding the aspersions which it casts on their early character as a Church, is a proof of its apostolic claims to their regard. It is worthy of remark, too, that it contains numerous references to Paul's movements, which would scarcely have been ventured on by an impostor; and a comparison of the epistle with the Book of Acts and other parts of the New Testament brings out many striking coincidences, which can best be accounted for on the supposition of its genuineness.* 1 vii. I: "Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote.' 2i. II: "For it hath been signified unto me concerning you, my brethren, by them which are of the household of Chloe, that there are contentions among you." v. I: "It is actually reported that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not even among the Gentiles, that one of you hath his father's wife." xi. 18: "For first of all, when ye come together in the church, I hear that divisions exist among you; and I partly believe it.' iv. 17-19: e.g. "For this cause have I sent unto you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, who shall put you in remembrance of my ways which be in Christ, even as I teach everywhere in every church. Now some are puffed up, as though I were not coming to you. 3 But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord Along with Paul Sosthenes is associated in the opening verse (possibly the converted "ruler of the synagogue")1 -who may have acted as the apostle's amanuensis. 2. The Readers. In "Unto the church of God which is at Corinth."2 the apostle's time Corinth was practically the capital of Greece. It had attained pre-eminence at a much earlier period, owing to its commercial advantages, but had been destroyed by the Roman conqueror about two hundred years before Paul's visit. After lying in ruins for a century, it was rebuilt by Julius Cæsar 46 B.C., and peopled by a Roman colony. This may account for the Roman names mentioned in the epistle.3 We have an allusion to the effects produced by the ravages of the conqueror on the various kinds of buildings, and also to the gladiatorial exhibitions.4 Situated at the foot of a great rock called Acrocorinthus about 2000 feet high, on the Isthmus (famous for its games) which connected the Peloponnesus with the main Paul purposed in the spirit, when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem, saying, After I have been there, I must also see Rome. And having sent into Macedonia two of them that ministered unto him, Timothy and Erastus, he himself stayed in Asia for a while," and 1 Tim. iv. 12: "Let no man despise thy youth.' It is to be observed that these words were addressed to Timothy while he was in Ephesus at a later period. (c.) i. 14-17: "I thank God that I baptized none of you, save Crispus and Gaius; lest any man should say that ye were baptized into my name. And I baptized also the household of Stephanas: besides, I know not whether I baptized any other. For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the Gospel," and xvi. 15: "Ye know the house of Stephanas, that it is the first fruits of Achaia, and that they have set themselves to minister unto the saints"; cf. Acts xviii. 7, 8: And he (i.e. Paul) departed thence, and went into the house of a certain man named Titus Justus, one that worshipped God, whose house joined hard to the synagogue (i.e. of Corinth). And Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord with all his house; and many of 2 i. 2. 4 iii. 12, 13: "But if any man buildeth on the foundation gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, stubble; each man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it is revealed in fire; and the fire itself shall prove each man's work of what sort it is." iv. 9: "For, I think, God hath set forth us the apostles last of all, as men doomed to death: for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men.' 5 ix. 24-27: "Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? Even so run, that ye may attain. And every man that striveth in the games is temperate in all things. Now they do it to receive a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, as not un land, and lying in the direct route between Ephesus and Rome, Corinth rapidly regained its former prosperity and became the chief emporium1 of Europe, with a population of more than half a million, drawn from many lands. It was so notorious for its profligacy-encouraged by its very worship that a "Corinthian life" was synonymous with luxury and licentiousness. At the same time, its inhabitants made such pretensions to philosophy and literary culture that "Corinthian words" was a phrase meaning polished and cultivated speech. In this great and busy centre Paul spent a year and a half or more in his second missionary journey—being the longest time he had ever yet laboured continuously in any city.2 He found a home in the house of Aquila and Priscilla, a Jewish couple who had recently come from Rome in consequence of the decree of Claudius, eminent for their generosity and devotion, and with them he wrought at his trade of tent-making.3 Beginning his ministry in the synagogue as usual, he was soon compelled by the opposition of the Jews to seek another place of meeting, which he found in the house of Justus, a converted proselyte. There he preached the Gospel, encouraged by a message from God in a vision, certainly; so fight I, as not beating the air: but I buffet my body, and bring it into bondage: lest by any means, after that I have preached to others, I myself should be rejected." 1 It had two harbours, Eastern and Western, named Cenchreæ and Lech æum. A few years after the apostle's visit Nero cut the first turf for a canal across the Isthmus; but the project was not carried out. 2 Acts xviii. II: "" 'And he dwelt there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them." xviii. 18: "And Paul, having tarried after this yet many days, took his leave of the brethren." 8 Acts xviii. 1-3: After these things he departed from Athens, and came to Corinth. And he found a certain Jew named Aquila, a man of Pontus by race, lately come from Italy, with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome: and he came unto them; and 19: and continued to do so with no small success notwithstanding an attempt of the Jews to invoke the civil power against him.1 His converts appear to have been chiefly drawn from the lower classes,2 but they were not free from the prevailing tendency to intellectual pride, accompanied with a proneness to sensual sin, equally characteristic of their city. The apostle speaks of having been with them "in weakness and in fear, and in much trembling "5 -possibly the result of his recent apparent failure at Athens. 3. Date and Place of Composition. It can be proved with tolerable certainty that the epistle was written from Ephesus about the spring of 57 or 58 A.D. From internal evidence we learn that it was written on the eve of a second visit to Corinth, which the apostle was about to pay after passing through Macedonia, having already sent Timothy in advance as his representative, apparently from Ephesus.8 When we turn to the Book of Acts we find that such a visit to Greece was paid by the apostle at the close of a sojourn of about three years at Ephesus, and it appears from xix. 21-23 that almost 1 Acts xviii. 4-18. 2 i. 26-29: 66 For behold your calling, brethren, how that not many wise after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called," &c. 3 e.g. i. 18-20: "For the word of the cross is to them that are perishing foolishness; but unto us which are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, will I reject. immediately before he left Ephesus he sent Timothy before him to Macedonia.1 Moreover, several expressions in the epistle plainly point to Ephesus as the place from which it emanated.2 As the apostle appears to have travelled for about a year after leaving Corinth on the first occasion (54 A.D.), previous to settling at Ephesus, his stay in the latter city may have extended to the beginning of 58 A.D. Several allusions to the seasons which occur in the epistle lead us to place its composition in the spring of 58 A.D. or of the preceding year, 3 4. Character and Contents. Of this epistle it has been fitly said that it is "a fragment which has no parallel in ecclesiastical history." It deals with a section of early Church history which exhibits the most marked and varied features. It sets the apostle vividly before us as a teacher and governor, confronted with the dangers and perplexities, the errors and corruptions to which the Corinthian Church was liable, planted as it was " gone through those parts, and had given 2 xvi. 8-10 (quoted p. 104, note 4 (b)); cf. Acts xix. 20-23 (quoted p. 104, note 4 (6)); xvi. 19: "The churches of Asia salute you. Aquila and Prisca salute you much in the Lord, with the church that is in their house"; cf. Acts xviii. 18, 19: "And Paul, having tarried after this yet many days, took his leave of the brethren, and sailed thence for Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila; having shorn his head in Cenchreæ: for he had a vow. And they came to Ephesus, and he left them there," and Acts xix. 1: "And it came to pass, that, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper country came to Ephesus, and found certain disciples," &c.; cf. 1 Cor. xv. 32: "If after the manner of men I fought with beasts at Ephesus, what doth it profit me? If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die." 3 v. 7, 8: Purge out the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, even as ye are unleavened. For our passover also hath been sacrificed, even Christ: wherefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." xvi. 6, 8: "But with you it may be that I shall abide, or even winter, that ye may set me forward on my journey whithersoever I go. But I will tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost." |