The Expositor's Bible Commentary - Abridged Edition: New Testament

Kenneth L. Barker, John R. Kohlenberger III

• Publisher: Zondervan Academic
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9780310254973
• eBook ISBN: 9780310555490
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Biography

All the verse-by-verse insights of the 12-volume Expositor's Bible Commentary - in 2 convenient volumes. When you want to dig more deeply into the meaning of God's Word, a good expository Bible commentary is ideal. You want more than a simple, one-volume commentary that just scratches the surface. But you don't want a time-consuming multi-volume set laden with fine points you can't use. The Expositor's Bible Commentary Abridged Edition is tailor-made for you. Based on the critically acclaimed Expositor's Bible Commentary used by pastors, students, and scholars across the world, this two-volume abridged edition offers you the full, penetrating, verse-by-verse commentary of the 12-volume series while leaving out needless technical details. Marshalling the knowledge of fifty-two top biblical scholars, it brings tremendous insight to your Bible studies. Covering the Old and New Testaments in separate volumes, this commentary features:

• Verse-by-verse exposition of the entire Bible
• 250 in-text charts, maps, tables, and pictures
• Goodrick/Kohlenberger numbers for cross-referencing the Zondervan NIV Exhaustive Concordance and other G/K-numbered resources

1 Corinthians

INTRODUCTION

1. Background

The ancient city of Corinth was located on the isthmus between Attica to the northeast and the Greek Peloponnesus to the south; it had controlling access to two seas—the Aegean to the east and the Ionian to the west. Its eastern port was Cenchrea, located on the Saronic Gulf (Ac 18:18; Ro 16:1), while its western harbor was at Lechaeum on the Corinthian Gulf. This proximity to the seas and its nearness to Athens, only forty-five miles to the northeast, gave Corinth a position of strategic commercial importance and military defense. It lay below the steep north side of the 1,800-foot high fortress rock, the Acrocorinth with its temple of Aphrodite. Thus located, the city received shipping from every major city on the Mediterranean. Instead of going around the south end of the Peloponnesus, ships often docked at the Isthmus and transported their cargoes by land vehicles from one sea to another; or if the ships were small, they were dragged the five miles across the isthmus. Today there is a canal running through the narrowest part of the isthmus near Corinth.

Corinth was a prosperous city. At the peak of its power and influence it probably had a free population of 200,000, plus half a million slaves in its navy and in its many colonies.

Julius Caesar had reestablished Corinth in 46 B.C. He populated it with Roman war veterans and freedmen. In the reign of Augustus (27 B.C. – A.D. 14) and his successors, the city was built on the pattern of a Roman city, with all remaining buildings reclaimed and new ones added in and around the old marketplace (the agora). It became the capital of the Roman province of Achaia (cf. Ac 18:1–2), which included all the Peloponnesus and most of the rest of Greece and Macedonia.

The celebration of the Isthmian games at the temple of Poseidon made a considerable contribution to Hellenic life. This temple was located about seven miles east of Corinth, not far from the eastern end of the isthmus. But with the games came an emphasis on luxury and profligacy, because the sanctuary of Poseidon was given over to the worship of the Corinthian Aphrodite, whose temple on the Acrocorinth was once purported to have had more than 1,000 female prostitutes in the pre-Roman era. The Greek language developed a verb, korinthiazomai, which meant “to live like a Corinthian in the practice of sexual immorality.”

Paul probably came to this important but immoral city in the fall of A.D. 50, after preaching the Gospel to the highly intellectual Athenians. He ministered there a year and a half (Ac 18:11) before he was brought by the Jews into court before the proconsul Gallio (v.12). That these were the dates of Paul’s stay at the city is established by comparing the reference to Gallio with a Gallio, proconsul of Achaia, mentioned on an inscription of the Emperor Claudius at Delphi, dated between January and August, A.D. 52. This Gallio took office on July 1, A.D. 51, and Paul had arrived in Corinth about a year earlier. Shortly after this court appearance, Paul left Corinth for Syria (v.18).

In the Corinthian church were both Jews and Gentiles (see 1Co 1). Some Gentile members had Latin names (e.g., Gaius, Fortunatus, Crispus, Justus, and Achaicus: 1:14; 16:17); so did some Jews (e.g., Aquila and Priscilla, Ac 18:1–4; Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, v.8). No doubt the greater part of the church was composed of native Greeks (cf. 1Co 1:20–24; 12:2).

The existence of a synagogue in Corinth (Ac 18:4–8) is confirmed by an inscribed lintel block with enough of the words remaining to make out the reading “Synagogue of the Hebrews.” The miserable nature of the inscription, which has no ornamentation, fits the social position of the Jewish people at Corinth with whom Paul was dealing (see 1Co 1:26).

Archaeologists have identified other buildings of the ancient city. An ornamented triumphal gateway, located at the south end of the Lechaeum Road, led into the agora. Around the market were a good many shops, numbers of which had individual wells, suggesting that much wine was made and drunk in the city (cf. Paul’s warning in 1Co 6:10). Located near the center of the marketplace was the bema, the judicial bench or tribunal platform. This was a speakers’ platform, and officials addressed audiences assembled there. It was to this place that the antagonistic Tews brought Paul before Gallio (Ac 18:12–17).

Besides its many temples and shrines, the city had two theaters to the north and west, one of which could seat 18,000 people. In a paved street at the east side of this theater was found a reused paving block with this inscription: “Erastus, the aedile [commissioner of public works], bore the expense of this pavement.” This Erastus may well have been the one who became Paul’s fellow worker (see Ac 19:22; Ro 16:23).

Besides his initial stay in Corinth as recorded in Ac 18, Paul’s contact with the Corinthians can be outlined as follows (see map on Paul’s interaction with the church at Corinth in the introduction to 2 Corinthians): At Ephesus (Ac 19) he apparently wrote the “previous letter” (1Co 5:9—now lost to us). Besides hearing of the Corinthians’ seeming misunderstanding of that letter, Paul had reports from Chloe’s household of disorders in the church there (1:11). He may also have received a delegation from Corinth (16:17) who presented him with questions from the congregation (cf. 7:1). As a result, he wrote 1 Corinthians. Paul then heard other unfavorable reports from the church and paid them a “painful visit” (2Co 2:1). This visit was no doubt necessary because the church had failed to act on Paul’s advice given in 1 Corinthians. Upon his return to Ephesus, he sent the church a “sorrowful letter” (2Co 2:4; 7:8–9), probably carried by Titus. From Ephesus Paul went to Macedonia, where he received from Titus an encouraging report (2Co 7:5–7). So he wrote 2 Corinthians, expressing his gratitude for the improvement. Later he spent the winter in Corinth (Ac 20:2–3) before departing for Jerusalem with the contribution for the poor among the Christians of Palestine. On the basis of this analysis of the events, we may conclude that Paul wrote the Corinthians four letters (two of which have been lost) and that he paid the church three visits.

Corinth In The Time of Paul

© 1985 The Zondervan Corporation

The city of Corinth, perched like a one-eyed Titan astride the narrow isthmus connecting the Greek mainland with the Peloponnese, was one of the dominant commercial centers of the Hellenic world as early as the eighth century B.C.

No city in Greece was more favorably situated for land and sea trade. With a high, strong citadel at its back, it lay between the Saronic Gulf and the Ionian Sea and ports at Lechaion and Cenchrea. A diolkos, or stone tramway for the overland transport of ships, linked the two seas. Crowning the Acrocorinth was the temple of Aphrodite, served, according to Strabo, by more than 1,000 pagan priestess-prostitutes.

By the time the gospel reached Corinth in the spring of A.D. 52, the city had a proud history of leadership in the Achaian League, and a spirit of revived Hellenism under Roman domination following the destruction of the city by Mummius in 146 B.C.

Paul’s lengthy stay in Corinth brought him directly in contact with the major monuments of the agora, many of which still survive. The fountain-house of the spring Peirene, the temple of Apollo, the macellum or meat market (I Co 10:25) and the theater, the bema (Ac 18:12), and the unimpressive synagogue all played a part in the experience of the apostle. An inscription from the theater names the city official Erastus, probably the friend of Paul mentioned in Ro 16:23.

2. Authorship, Date, Place of Origin, and Destination

Few doubt that Paul was the author of this letter. Not only does the letter itself clearly state this (1:1), but evidence from early church fathers universally confirms it. There is no question, therefore, of the canonicity of this letter; it was accepted almost immediately as God’s word. Paul himself makes the strong statement in 14:37, “If anybody thinks he is a prophet or spiritually gifted, let him acknowledge that what I am writing to you is the Lord’s command.”

Obviously, the letter was written some time subsequent to Paul’s first visit to Corinth from A.D. 50–52. Following his departure from the city, he sailed from Cenchrea, stopped at Ephesus briefly, visited the Jerusalem churches, and journeyed north to his home church at Antioch in Syria (Ac 18:18–23). After a stay there, he left on his third missionary journey, visiting the churches of Galatia and Phrygia (Ac 18:23), until he finally came to Ephesus (19:1), where he preached and taught for almost three years (19:10; 20:31)—from A.D. 53–56.

While at Ephesus, Paul heard of the Corinthians’ troubles and questions through reports from Chloe’s house (1Co 1: 11) and possibly through a delegation from Corinth (16:17). At this point he wrote this letter—toward the end of his stay there. (1) Paul specifically says he is writing from Ephesus (1Co 16:8–9, 19). (2) The letter was written subsequent to Apollos’s stay at the city (Ac 18:26, 27; 1Co 1:12) and after Timothy and Erastus had been sent by Paul from Ephesus to Macedonia (Ac 19:22) and Timothy had been sent on to Corinth (1Co 4:17). (3) The letter was written in late spring, because in 1Co 16:8 Paul intimates that it is a relatively short time to Pentecost, after which he intended to leave Ephesus. The time of writing is certainly before winter, for he plans to spend the winter with them (16:6). This all adds up to A.D. 56, about five years after his initial departure from Corinth in the fall of A.D. 51.

It is not fully clear who carried the letter to Corinth, but most likely Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus did, who according to 16:17, had arrived from Corinth and were with Paul. Since in 16:18 the apostle says that the Corinthian Christians should show respect for these men, it is logical to conclude that they were returning to Corinth with the letter.

3. Occasion and Purpose

First Corinthians is a source book of answers to church problems in the past and today. After the introductory material, Paul answers the theological and practical problems raised through the report from members of the household of Chloe (1Co 1:11)—reports about divisions, incest, adultery, Christians taking fellow Christians to court, and the misuse of Christian liberty (chs. 1–6). Following this, a letter came from the church (7:1), posing a number of questions and requiring Paul’s answer—questions about marriage, eating meat offered to heathen idols, disorderly public worship, spiritual gifts, and the resurrection (chs. 7–15). Finally, Paul wanted the Corinthians to participate in the offering he was taking for the Christians in Jerusalem (16:1–4). These things, together with Paul’s desire to send greetings to Corinth, were sufficient occasion for him to write the letter.

It may well be that Paul did not compose the whole letter at one time. He first wrote the response to reports that came through Chloe; then later, after receiving the letter from the Corinthians (7:1), he wrote the rest. That is likely why the expression and tone change in various parts of 1 Corinthians.

4. Theological Values

Several theological emphases stand out in 1 Corinthians, related to the daily living of Christians as well as to the corporate testimony of the worshiping church. For example, in ch. 15 Paul sets forth valid reasons for believing in the bodily resurrection of Christ and relates this to Christ’s second coming. In ch. 11 the doctrine of the Lord’s Supper is effectively taught, along with the admonition for Christians to take it seriously.

In chs. 5 and 6 Paul speaks forcefully against the incident of incest and adultery in the church and condemns all sexual immorality. Also in ch. 6 the thorny problem of believers’ taking other believers into secular court is faced and Christian arbitration suggested. The practical problem of whether Christians should marry and how they should conduct themselves in a married or unmarried state is adequately discussed in ch. 7. Christian liberty versus the responsibility of believers to their fellow Christians is clearly explained in chs. 8 and 10. In the area of ecclesiology, the subjects of Christian gifts and their use for the church, as well as orderly conduct in church services, are fully expounded in chs. 12–14.

EXPOSITION

I. Greetings (1:1–3)

1 Characteristically, Paul begins by naming himself and by identifying his position as an apostle of Jesus Christ. He stresses his apostleship because his authority has been challenged (cf. 1:12; 9:1–27). He makes it clear that he is an apostle by divine calling through God’s sovereign will (cf. Ac 9:15). The word “apostle” (GK 693) means “a sent one” and connotes a commissioned envoy.

Paul links Sosthenes to himself as a Christian brother; he was evidently one of the apostle’s special helpers and was presumably well known to the Corinthian church. It is possible that he was at one time a leader of the Corinthian synagogue (Ac 18:17). If so, he must have been subsequently converted and gone off to help Paul in his Ephesian ministry.

2 The believers in Corinth are designated as the “church [ekklesia; GK 1711] of God” (cf. also Ac 20:28; 2Co 1:1), a phrase that has OT associations, as in the expression “assembly [or congregation] of the Lord” (Nu 16:3; 20:4, Dt 23:1; 1Ch 28:8) and the “assembly of Israel” (Lev 16:17; Dt 31:30). For Paul, this church at Corinth was considered a part of the universal “church of God”; note his reference to Palestinian churches as also being a part of that same body (1Co 15:9; cf. 10:31–32). The apostle may have found it particularly useful in Corinth to distinguish the church from the secular ekklesia (assembly) of Greek cities, which was the gathering of the citizenry in a city-state to discuss and decide on matters of public interest (cf. Ac 19:39).

The Corinthian Christians are described as “sanctified” (GK 39), i.e., set apart and in a holy position before God because of their spiritual union with Jesus Christ. Paul goes on to emphasize that they are called to live as God’s holy people. They are on an equal footing with ...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• About the Editors
• Preface
• Pictures, Maps, and Charts
• Abbreviations
• Matthew: D. A. Carson
• Mark: Walter W. Wessel
• Luke: Walter L. Liefeld
• John: Merrill C. Tenney
• Acts: Richard N. Longenecker
• Romans: Everett F. Harrison
• 1 Corinthians: W. Harold Mare
• 2 Corinthians: Murray H. Harris
• Galatians: James Montgomery Boice
• Ephesians: A. Skevington Wood
• Philippians: Homer A. Kent, Jr.
• Colossians: Curtis Vaughan
• 1 Thessalonians: Robert L. Thomas
• 2 Thessalonians: Robert L. Thomas
• 1 Timothy: Ralph Earle
• 2 Timothy: Ralph Earle
• Titus: D. Edmond Hiebert
• Philemon: Arthur A. Rupprecht
• Hebrews: Leon Morris
• James: Donald W. Burdick
• 1 Peter: Edwin A. Blum
• 2 Peter: Edwin A. Blum
• 1 John: Glenn W. Barker
• 2 John: Glenn W. Barker
• 3 John: Glenn W. Barker
• Jude: Edwin A. Blum
• Revelation: Alan F. Johnson
• Index to Goodrick/Kohlenberger Numbers