In New Testament times, modern-day Greece was divided into two Roman provinces- Macedonia and Achaia. Thessalonica was the capital of Macedonia; Corinth was the capital of Achaia. Corinth, one of the largest and most prosperous cities of the ancient world was about 50 miles away from Athens.
This first letter is most well known for its individual passages: the book that gets read at weddings (chapter 13) or the book about speaking in tongues (chapters 12 and 14). The book is filled with advice for general church issues- denominational politics, doctrinal disputes, liturgical preferences (very similar to today!). Although this is called the first letter to the church, we think that he may have written one more to the church prior to this one; so 1 Corinthians is actually the second letter and 2 Corinthians is sometimes seen as Paul's fourth letter to the church. The others have been lost.
Paul tackles some big themes in this letter: church unity, the crucified Christ, resurrection of the body, Christian freedom, the Lord's Supper, excommunication, sexuality, food sacrificed to idols, love, and spiritual gifts. This very practical letter (along with Romans, which is more theoretical) is one of his greatest works.
Paul likely wrote this letter with help from Sosthenes, an amanuensis (someone hired to write for someone else, a scribe). After writing and sending this letter, he visits Corinth again and ends up writing at least one other letter (some say maybe up to three other letters were written after this first one). He eventually returns again and spends quite a bit of time in Corinth; it is from here that he writes to the Roman Christians and warns "keep an eye on those who cause dissensions and offenses" (Romans 16:17), probably in reference to Corinth!
This will be an interesting but tough to follow read!
(source: Introducing the New Testament, Mark Allan Powell, 2009)
No comments:
Post a Comment