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March 05, 202515. Speaking in Tongues in 1 Corinthians
Download: Speaking in Tongues in 1 Corinthians
1 Corinthians 12:7, 10; 13:1, 8-12; 14:2, 4, 6, 11, 13-19, 27-28
Acts 2:1-11; 10:44-46; 11:15-17; 19:6-7
Greco-Roman Background for Speaking in Tongues
We’ve looked at Corybantic male dancers, Bacchic female revelers, Sibyls, and oracles. The closest description to speaking in tongues we encountered was Lucan’s.
Oracle in a frenzy: “When she found it, first the wild frenzy overflowed through her foaming lips; she groaned and uttered loud inarticulate cries with panting breath; next, a dismal wailing filled the vast cave; and at last, when she was mastered, came the sound of articulate speech: “Roman, thou shalt have no part in the mighty ordeal and shalt escape the awful threats of war; and thou alone shalt stay at peace in a broad hollow of the Euboean coast.” Then Apollo closed up her throat and cut short her tale.”1 (Lucan, Civil War 5.190-197)
This doesn’t sound like she was speaking a foreign language. Rather she was groaning, crying, and panting.
Christopher Forbes: “[N]o convincing parallels whatsoever have been found within the traditions of Graeco-Roman religion, as they were known in the environment of the New Testament, whether it be at the level of terminology, phenomena or concept. …Revelatory speech in those periods was believed to take an archaic poetic form, not, as I have shown, a form analogous to foreign languages. The “interpretation” that some oracles were believed to need was at the level of metaphor and imagery, not the linguistic level.”2
Magic papyrus: “And take the mild with the honey and drink it before the rising of the sun, and there will be something divine in your heart. And take the falcon and set it up as a statue in a shrine made of juniper wood. And after you have crowned the shrine itself, make an offering of non-animal foods and have on hand some old wine. And before you recline, speak directly to the bird itself after you have made sacrifice to it, as you usually do, and say the prescribed spell: “A EE EEE IIII OOOOO YYYYYY OOOOOOO, come to me, Good Husbandman, Good Daimon, HARPON KNOUPHI BRINTANTEN SIPHRI BRISKYLMA AROUAZAR KRIPHI NIPOUMICHMOUMAOPH. Come to me, O holy Orion.…”3
(Papyri Graecae Magicae I.27-29)
Craig Keener: “[T]he magical papyri may offer the most concrete parallels for unintelligible speech. Yet the strings of nonsense syllables found in magical papyri are mostly from the third century or later; more decisively, they are incantations and invocations, not understood as genuine language, not revelatory, and not inviting “interpretations.” Appeal to gnostic and Montanist “tongues” would be anachronistic, but there are no clear parallels there anyway. Greco-Roman religion thus offers no sufficient explanation for “tongues”—as a phenomenon understood as inspired “languages”—such as we find it in our earliest Christian sources.”4
What Is Speaking in Tongues? (1 Corinthians 12:7, 10)
Speaking in tongues is a gift (1 Cor 12:4, 31).
Tongues are languages (cf. Liddell-Scott-Jones Lexicon).
These languages can be interpreted or translated.
Someone can have more than one language for speaking in tongues.
Thomas Schreiner: “Most scholars think that the gift in 1 Corinthians 12-14 differs from what we find in Acts, and many think that ‘ecstatic utterances’ are in view. Certainty is impossible, but I suggest that the gift is foreign languages, just as we see in Acts. …Tongues must be in some discernible code or language, even if the language is not known to humans. Since ecstatic speech cannot be interpreted or translated inasmuch as it consists of meaningless babbling and there is no discernible code, the word glossa points to some kind of language. Different kinds of tongues, then, points to the variety of languages.”5
Tongues in the Acts of the Apostles
Acts 2:1-11 Tongues were human languages. Foreigners understood them even though they were untranslated. The content of the speech was about God’s deeds of power. It was not a miracle of hearing but of speaking.
Acts 10:44-46; 11:15-17 Peter was surprised to see Gentiles speaking in tongues. He recognized what they were doing as the same phenomenon he had experienced on Pentecost and concluded that meant God had accepted them as members of the Church.
Acts 19:6-7 Luke employed the same Greek terminology here as on Pentecost or Cornelius’s house, which undermines the NRSV’s translation “speak in other languages” for Acts 2 while “speaking in tongues” for Acts 10 and 19. In other words, speaking in tongues is speaking in other languages.
If Luke described Paul’s missionary activity in Ephesus (Acts 19) as involving glossa (γλῶσσα), then we would expect different terminology in 1 Corinthians 12-14 if it was a different phenomenon.
Craig Keener: “[It] is virtually inconceivable that the two writers [Luke and Paul] would independently coin the same obscure phrase for two entirely different phenomena.”6
Thus, we’re on solid grounds to link the activity of tongues in Acts with that of 1 Corinthians while noting the change in context. Whereas in Acts tongues speaking happened at conversion, in 1 Corinthians it occurred as part of the weekly worship gathering.
Tongues of Angels
1 Corinthians 13:1 Paul mentions tongues of humans and of angels.
The gods spoke a different language: “Tell me, do you think Apollo speaks Attic or Doric? Or that men and gods have the same language? Yet the difference is so great that the Scamander river in Troy is called Xanthus by the gods …And after telling us that the river is called not Scamander but Xanthus by the gods, Homer himself proceeds to call it by this latter name in his verses, as though it were his privilege not only to mix the various dialectic forms of the Greeks freely, using now an Aeolic, now a Dorian, and now an Ionic form, but to employ even the Zeus dialect in the bargain.”7 (Dio Chrysostom, Discourses 10.23, 11.23)
In Jewish apocalyptic literature, we find two intriguing examples of speaking the language of angels.
Example 1: “Thousands of thousands and myriads of myriads of angels gave praise before me. I, myself, put on an angelic garment. I saw all of those angels praying. I, myself, prayed together with them, I knew their language, which they spoke with me.”8 (Apocalypse of Zephaniah 8.2-4)
Example 2: “48.1 Thus, when the one called Hemera arose, she wrapped around her own string just as her father said. 2 And she took on another heart— no longer minded toward earthly things— 3 but she spoke ecstatically in the angelic dialect, sending up a hymn to God in accord with the hymnic style of the angels. And as she spoke ecstatically, she allowed “The Spirit” to be inscribed on her garment. 49.1 Then Kasia bound hers on and had her heart changed so that she no longer regarded worldly things. 2 And her mouth took on the dialect of the archons and she praised God for the creation of the heights. 3 So, if anyone wishes to know “The Creation of the Heavens,” he will be able to find it in “The Hymns of Kasia.” 50.1 Then the other one also, named Amaltheia’s Horn, bound on her cord. And her mouth spoke ecstatically in the dialect of those on high, 2 since her heart also was changed, keeping aloof from worldly things. For she spoke in the dialect of the cherubim, glorifying the Master of virtues by exhibiting their splendor. 3 And finally whoever wishes to grasp a trace of “The Paternal Splendor” will find it written down in “The Prayers of Amaltheia’s Horn.”9 (Testament of Job 48.1-50.3)
Christopher Forbes: “What the Testament [of Job] does provide, however, is clear evidence that the concept of angelic languages as a mode of praise to God was an acceptable one within certain circles. As such it is our nearest parallel to glossolalia. …We have, then, within Judaism, only two substantial parallels for the concept that humans might, under inspiration, learn and use the languages of the angels for prayer. Neither of them is of demonstrably pre-Christian date.”10
In light of the parallels in the Apocalypse of Zephaniah and the Testament of Job as well as the commonsense argument of Dio Chrysostom that the gods presumably have their own language, it’s certainly plausible that at least some speaking in tongues is in the languages of the angels.
Tongues in the Assembly (1 Cor 14)
1 Corinthians 14:2, 4 Tongues are to God—prayer. No one understands them though they build up the speaker.
1 Corinthians 14:6, 11 Tongues sound like a foreign language, though they are not a learned foreign language.
1 Corinthians 14:13-19 While speaking in tongues, the speakers do not understand what they are saying. Speaking in tongues is primarily done in private (Jude 1:19-20; Eph 6:18-19).
1 Corinthians 14:27-28 Uninterpreted spoken tongues have no place in the weekly worship gathering though they are fine to be done silently.
Gordon Fee: “The following seem certain: (a) It is Spirit-inspired utterance; that is made explicit both in the present listing (vv. 7 and 11) and later (14:2). (b) The coming regulations for its use (14:27–28) make it clear that the speaker is not in “ecstasy” or “out of control.” Quite the opposite; the speakers must speak in turn, and they must remain silent if there is no one to interpret. (c) It is speech essentially unintelligible both to the speaker (14:14) and to other hearers (14:16). (d) It is speech directed basically toward God (14:2, 14–15, 28); one may assume, therefore, that what is “interpreted” is not speech directed toward others, but the “mysteries” spoken to God.
What is less certain is whether Paul also understood the phenomenon to be an actual language. In favor of such a view are (a) the term itself, (b) the need for “interpretation,” and (c) the evidence from the early narrative in Acts (2:5–11). In the final analysis, however, this question seems irrelevant. Paul’s whole argument is predicated on its unintelligibility to both speaker and hearer; he certainly does not envisage someone’s being present who would be able to understand it because it was also an earthly language. Moreover, his later use of earthly languages as an analogy (14:10–12) implies that it is not a known earthly language, since a thing is not usually identical with that to which it is analogous. Most likely, therefore, the key to Paul’s—and their—understanding lies in the term “the language of angels” to come (13:1, q.v.).”11
N. T. Wright: “Paul assumes that none of these gifts are given to everybody. ‘Do all speak in tongues?’, like the other questions, expects the answer ‘No.’ And, though Paul is always eager for God to do new things in the lives of people and communities, he sees no need to suggest that the ‘not all’ categories of verses 29 and 30 should be challenged, that everyone should, after all, be prophets, or teachers, or tongue-speakers, or whatever.”12
Tongues Ceased After the Apostolic Age
1 Corinthians 13:8-12 Paul says that tongues will end when the complete or perfect comes. Some argue that this has already happened.
John MacArthur: “In 1 Corinthians 13:8, Paul explained that “whether there are tongues, they will cease.” The Greek verb used in that verse (pauo) means “to cease permanently,” indicating that the gift of tongues would come to an end once and for all. … [W]hatever modern charismatics are doing, it is not the gift of languages. …The New Testament gift ceased after the apostolic age ended and has never returned. In 1 Corinthians 13:10, Paul noted that partial knowledge and partial prophecy would be done away with “when that which is perfect has come.” …[T]he believer’s entrance into the Lord’s presence best fits Paul’s use of “perfect” in 1 Corinthians 13:10. …[Paul] was making a point that specifically pertained to his first-century audience: when you Corinthian believers enter the glorified perfection of eternity in heaven, the spiritual gifts you now prize so highly will no longer be necessary.”13
Tongues Continued After the Apostolic Age
Irenaeus: “[T]he Apostle declares: We speak wisdom among the perfect. He calls those perfect who have received God’s Spirit and who speak with all the tongues through the Spirit, as he himself spoke. We, too, hear many brothers in the Church who possess the prophetic charisms, and speak with all the tongues through the Spirit, and bring out into the open secrets of men for the benefit of others, and declare the mysteries of God.”14 (Irenaeus, Against Heresies 5.6.1)
Tertullian (208-212 ad): “Let Marcion then exhibit, as gifts of his god, some prophets, such as have not spoken by human sense, but with the Spirit of God, such as have both predicted things to come, and have made manifest the secrets of the heart; let him produce a psalm, a vision, a prayer—only let it be by the Spirit, in an ecstasy, that is, in a rapture, whenever an interpretation of tongues has occurred to him; let him show to me also, that any woman of boastful tongue in his community has ever prophesied from amongst those specially holy sisters of his. Now all these signs (of spiritual gifts) are forthcoming from my side without any difficulty….” (Tertullian, Against Marcion 5.8)15
Novatian (250-255 ad): “This is He who places prophets in the Church, instructs teachers, directs tongues, gives powers and healings, does wonderful works, often discrimination of spirits, affords powers of government, suggests counsels, and orders and arranges whatever other gifts there are of charismata; and thus make the Lord’s Church everywhere, and in all, perfected and completed.”16 (Novation, On the Trinity 29)
Hilary of Poitiers (356-360 ad)
“For God hath set the same in the Church, first apostles, in whom is the word of wisdom; secondly prophets, in whom is the gift of knowledge thirdly teachers, in whom is the doctrine of faith; next mighty works, among which are the healing of diseases, the power to help, governments by the prophets, and gifts of either speaking or interpreting divers kinds of tongues. Clearly these are the Church’s agents of ministry and work of whom the body of Christ consists; and God has ordained them.”17 (Hilary, On the Trinity 8.33)
Apostolic Constitutions (375-380 ad)
“It is not therefore necessary that every one of the faithful should cast out demons, or raise the dead, or speak with tongues; but such a one only who is vouchsafed this gift, for some cause which may be advantage to the salvation of the unbelievers… God is pleased, as a wise steward of a family, to appoint miracles to be wrought, not by the power of men, but by His own will. Now we say these things, that those who have received such gifts may not exalt themselves against those who have not received them; such gifts, we mean, as are for the working of miracles. For otherwise there is no man who has believed in God through Christ, that has not received some spiritual gift….”18 (Apostolic Constitutions 8.1-2)
Ambrose (writing 381-382 ad): “See, God set apostles, and set prophets and teachers, gave the gift of healings, which you find above to be given by the Holy Spirit; gave divers kinds of tongues. But yet all are not apostles, all are not prophets, all are not teachers. Not all, says he, have the gift of healings, nor do all, says he, speak with tongues. For the whole of the divine gifts cannot exist in each several man; each, according to his capacity, receives that which he either desires or deserves.”19 (Ambrose, The Holy Spirit 2.150)
Tongues Ceased After the Fourth Century
John Chrysostom (late 4th cent.) “This whole place is very obscure: but the obscurity is produced by our ignorance of the facts referred to and by their cessation, being such as then used to occur but now no longer take place. And why do they not happen now? Why look now, the cause too of the obscurity hath produced us again another question: namely, why did they then happen, and now do so no more?”20 (John Chrysostom, Homilies on 1 Corinthians 29)
Christopher Forbes: “From the end of the fourth century onwards I have been able to find no clear suggestion of the continued practice of glossolalia within the church. Chrysostom’s view, which is also Augustine’s, becomes standard, and little more can be said. What we have seen, however, is that glossolalia appears to have been known in three widely separated areas over a period of more than three hundred and fifty years of the church’s life. In the light of this evidence, it becomes impossible to argue that glossolalia was a limited, anomalous phenomenon within the Apostolic generation. It was, on the contrary, a widespread and lasting (though far from universal) spiritual experience in the early formative centuries of Christianity.”21
Although the tracks run cold for a few centuries, we find scattered reports about speaking in tongues starting in the time of the Moravians (15th c.), Anabaptists (16th c.), the French Prophets (17th c.), early Quakers (17th c.), Mormons (19th c.). Then at the dawn of the 20th c., the Pentecostal movement began with William Seymour’s Azusa Street Revival. The movement steadily grew such that today more than one in every four Christians is charismatic (an estimated 644 million Christians).22
Bibliography
Fathers of the Third and Fourth Centuries: Lactantius, Venantius, Asterius, Victorinus, Dionysius, Apostolic Teaching and Constitutions, Homily, and Liturgies. Translated by William Whiston. Ante-Nicene Fathers, edited by Alexander Robertson and James Donaldson, vol. 7. Edinburgh, Scotland: T&T Clark, 1885.
“Global Pentecostalism.” Gordon Conwell. Accessed March 4, 2025. https://www.gordonconwell.edu/center-for-global-christianity/research/global-pentecostalism.
“Have Pentecostals Outgrown Their Name?”, Christianity Today, May 29, 2020. Accessed March 4, 2025. https://www.christianitytoday.com/2020/05/holy-spirit-empowered-christian-global-pentecostal-study/.
Ambrose. Selected Works and Letters. Translated by Henri de Romestin. Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers (2nd Series), edited by Philip Schaff, vol. 10. Edinburgh, Scotland: T&T Clark, 1890.
Betz, Hans Dieter. The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1986.
Charlesworth, James H. The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: Volumes 1 and 2. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1985.
Chrysostom, Dio. Discourses 1-11. Translated by J. W. Cohoon. Vol. 1. Loeb Classical Library, edited by E. H. Warmington. London, England: William Henemann, 1932.
Chrysostom, John. Homilies on First and Second Corinthians. Translated by T. W. Chambers. Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, edited by Philip Schaff, vol. 12. Edinburgh, Scotland: T&T Clark, 1886.
Fee, Gordon D. The First Epistle to the Corinthians, Revised Edition. New International Commentary on the New Testament, edited by Joel B. Green. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2014.
Forbes, Christopher. Prophecy and Inspired Speech in Early Christianity and Its Hellenistic Environment. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1997.
Irenaeus. St. Irenaeus of Lyons: Against Heresies (Books 4 and 5). Translated by Scott D. Moringiello. Mahwah, NJ: The Newman Press, 2024.
Keener, Craig S. Acts: An Exegetical Commentary. Vol. 1. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2014.
Lucan. The Civil War 1-10 (Pharsalia). Translated by J. D. Duff. Loeb Classical Library, edited by T. E. Page. London, England: William Heinemann, 1962.
MacArthur, John. Strange Fire: The Dangers of Offending the Holy Spirit with Counterfeit Worship. Nashville, TN: Nelson Books, 2013.
Novatian. Fathers of the Third Century: Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix. Translated by Robert Ernest Wallis. Ante-Nicene Fathers, edited by Alexander Robertson and James Donaldson, vol. 5. Edinburgh, Scotland: T&T Clark, 1885.
Potiers, Hilary of. Hilary of Potiers and John of Damascus. Translated by E. W. Watson. Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers (2nd Series), edited by Philip Schaff, vol. 9. Edinburgh, Scotland: T&T Clark, 1890.
Schreiner, Thomas R. 1 Corinthians. Vol. 7. Tyndale New Testament Commentaries, edited by Eckhard J. Schnabel. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2018.
Tertullian. Latin Christianity: Its Founder, Tertullian. Translated by S. Thelwall. Ante-Nicene Fathers, edited by Alexander Robertson and James Donaldson, vol. 3. Edinburgh, Scotland: T&T Clark, 1885.
Wright, N. T. Paul for Everyone: 1 Corinthians. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011.
Lucan, The Civil War 1-10 (Pharsalia), trans. J. D. Duff, Loeb Classical Library, ed. T. E. Page (London, England: William Heinemann, 1962), 253.
Christopher Forbes, Prophecy and Inspired Speech in Early Christianity and Its Hellenistic Environment (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1997), 316-17.
Hans Dieter Betz, The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1986), 3-4.
Craig S. Keener, Acts: An Exegetical Commentary, vol. 1 (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2014), 810-11.
Thomas R. Schreiner, 1 Corinthians, vol. 7, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries, ed. Eckhard J. Schnabel (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2018), 261-2.
Keener, 813.
Dio Chrysostom, Discourses 1-11, trans. J. W. Cohoon, vol. 1, Loeb Classical Library, ed. E. H. Warmington (London, England: William Henemann, 1932), 435, 63.
James H. Charlesworth, The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: Volumes 1 and 2 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1985).
Charlesworth.
Forbes, 185-87.
Gordon D. Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, Revised Edition, New International Commentary on the New Testament, ed. Joel B. Green (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2014), 662-3.
N. T. Wright, Paul for Everyone: 1 Corinthians (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011), 169.
John MacArthur, Strange Fire: The Dangers of Offending the Holy Spirit with Counterfeit Worship (Nashville, TN: Nelson Books, 2013), 148-9.
Irenaeus, St. Irenaeus of Lyons: Against Heresies (Books 4 and 5), trans. Scott D. Moringiello (Mahwah, NJ: The Newman Press, 2024), 138-9.
Tertullian, Latin Christianity: Its Founder, Tertullian, trans. S. Thelwall, Ante-Nicene Fathers, ed. Alexander Robertson and James Donaldson, vol. 3 (Edinburgh, Scotland: T&T Clark, 1885).
Novatian, Fathers of the Third Century: Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix, trans. Robert Ernest Wallis, Ante-Nicene Fathers, ed. Alexander Robertson and James Donaldson, vol. 5 (Edinburgh, Scotland: T&T Clark, 1885).
Hilary of Potiers, Hilary of Potiers and John of Damascus, trans. E. W. Watson, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers (2nd Series), ed. Philip Schaff, vol. 9 (Edinburgh, Scotland: T&T Clark, 1890).
Fathers of the Third and Fourth Centuries: Lactantius, Venantius, Asterius, Victorinus, Dionysius, Apostolic Teaching and Constitutions, Homily, and Liturgies, trans. William Whiston, Ante-Nicene Fathers, ed. Alexander Robertson and James Donaldson, vol. 7 (Edinburgh, Scotland: T&T Clark, 1885).
Ambrose, Selected Works and Letters, trans. Henri de Romestin, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers (2nd Series), ed. Philip Schaff, vol. 10 (Edinburgh, Scotland: T&T Clark, 1890).
John Chrysostom, Homilies on First and Second Corinthians, trans. T. W. Chambers, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, ed. Philip Schaff, vol. 12 (Edinburgh, Scotland: T&T Clark, 1886).
Forbes, 84.
“Global Pentecostalism,” Gordon Conwell, accessed March 4, 2025, https://www.gordonconwell.edu/center-for-global-christianity/research/global-pentecostalism. See also “Have Pentecostals Outgrown Their Name?,” Christianity Today, May 29, 2020, accessed March 4, 2025, https://www.christianitytoday.com/2020/05/holy-spirit-empowered-christian-global-pentecostal-study/.
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0 min
March 03, 2025 Fruit of the Spirit in Christ 8: The Gentleness of Christ
Some translations render the eighth fruit of the spirit as “gentleness”, while others as “meekness”. With Jesus, we see both manifested, with meekness as the most outstanding. Meekness is receptivity to God and the things of God. His words in the garden, “Not my will, but Yours be done”, are the bravest words ever spoken, the most loving human act ever performed, the ultimate expression of meekness.
The Greek word prautes encompasses two distinct meanings and can be translated as either “gentleness” or “meekness”.
Mark 14:32-34 He was very distressed, troubled, and deeply grieved to the point of death.
Matthew 26:39 “Yet not as I will, but as you will.”
Isaiah 50:4-9 God will help him endure the physical abuse, the suffering, and humiliation.
Isaiah 52:13-15
ESV Isaiah 52:14 As many were astonished at you–his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind–
REV Isaiah 52:14 Just as many were appalled at you (his appearance was marred beyond human resemblance, and his form beyond that of human beings).
Isaiah 53:1-12 Jesus knew what the “cup” meant.
Psalm 22:7-8, 16-19; 69:20-21
John 5:19 and 30 Jesus was always meek to the Father’s will.
Philippians 2:5-8 Be humble and meek like Jesus.
James 1:21; 3:13
Ephesians 4:1-3 Meek to others with boundaries
Galatians 6:1-11 Help others with gentleness
2 Timothy 2:22-26
1 Peter 3:15
The post Fruit of the Spirit in Christ 8: The Gentleness of Christ first appeared on Living Hope.
40 min
March 01, 202514. Inspiration and Divine Speech in 1 Corinthians
Download: Inspiration and Divine Speech in 1 Corinthians
1 Corinthians 12:4-11; 13:1-2; 14:2-4, 27-33
Divine Speech in 1 Corinthians
1 Corinthians 12:4-11 This list is a Christian perspective on how God’s spirit miraculously shows up (manifests) through those who are in Christ. Speech acts include utterances of wisdom, utterances of knowledge, prophecies, various kinds of speaking in tongues, interpretations of tongues, and, arguably, discerning of spirits.
In what follows, we’ll contrast the biblical understanding of inspiration and divine speech against the background of the Greco-Roman world.
Inspiration in the Greco-Roman World
The organ of divination: “For they who constructed us, remembering the injunction of their Father, when He enjoined upon them to make the mortal kind as good as they possibly could, rectified the vile part of us by thus establishing therein the organ of divination, that it might in some degree lay hold on truth. And that God gave unto man’s foolishness the gift of divination a sufficient token is this: no man achieves true and inspired divination when in his rational mind, but only when the power of his intelligence is fettered in sleep or when it is distraught by disease or by reason of some divine inspiration. …[T]he liver is such as we have stated and situated in the region we have described, for the sake of divination.”1 (Plato, Timaeus 71D-72B)
Gods speaking indirectly: “Do we wait for the immortal gods to converse with us in the forum, on the street, and in our homes? While they do not, of course, present themselves in person, they do diffuse their power far and wide—sometimes enclosing it in caverns of the earth and sometimes imparting it to human beings. The Pythian priestess at Delphi was inspired by the power of the earth and the Sibyl by that of nature.”2 (Cicero, On Divination36.79)
Muses inspiring great poetry: “In the same manner [as a magnet] the Muse inspires men [and women] herself, and then by means of these inspired persons the inspiration spreads to others, and holds them in a connected chain. For all the good epic poets utter all those fine poems not from art, but as inspired and possessed, and the good lyric poets likewise; just as the Corybantian worshippers do not dance when in their senses, so the lyric poets do not indite those fine songs in their senses, but when they have started on the melody and rhythm they begin to be frantic, and it is under possession—as the bacchants are possessed, and not in their senses. …[E]ach is able only to compose that to which the Muse has stirred him. …God takes away the mind of these men [and women] and uses them as his ministers, just as he does soothsayers and godly seers, in order that we who hear them may know that it is not they who utter these words of great price, when they are out of their wits, but that it is God himself who speaks and addresses us through them.”3 (Plato, Ion 533E-544D)
More on Muses: “Hesiod even gives their names when he writes: ‘Cleio, Euterpe, and Thaleia, Melpomene, Terpsichore and Erato, and Polymnia, Uania, Calliope too, of them all the most comely.’ To each of the Muses men assign her special aptitude for one of the branches of the liberal arts, such as poetry, song, pantomimic dancing, the round dance with music, the study of the stars, and the other liberal arts.”4 (Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 7.2-3)
Cybele and Ecstatic Dancing
Cybele’s Corybantian frenzied dancers: “They invented suitable names for the flute, and for the noise of the rattles, cymbals, and drums, and for the shouting, the Bakchic cries, and foot-stomping, as well as for the servants, choral dancers, and the attendants of the sacred rites. …Similar to these [rituals] are those among the Thracian…one holds in his hand the bombyx, the result of great effort with the turning lathe, and it fully fills the fingered melody, the call that brings on the madness. Another makes a loud sound with the bronze-bound …Because the Korybantes are ecstatic dancers, we say that those who are moved to frenzy are “korybantic.”5 (Strabo, Geography 10.3.16, 21)
Cybele’s castrated priests of Attis: “Insofar as metragyrtai were following Attis in castrating themselves, they were demonstrating their commitment to the Mother alone, in an excessive form of devotion. It is possible that this behaviour was stimulated by the experience of taking part in ecstatic rites in honour of the Mother. …Self-castration was clearly not expected of the crowds who took part in her festivals whether in Greek cities or even at Rome. The more universal experience of her worship was the music of pipes and horns and the noise of drums, tambourines and castanets.”6
Bacchus (Dionysus) and Ecstatic Prophecies
Manic prophecies: “The god [Dionysus] is also a prophet: for the ecstatic and the manic have mantic [prophetic] powers in large measure. When the god enters someone in force, he causes him in madness to predict the future.”7 (Euripides, Bacchae 298-301)
Fanatical tossings and prophecies: “Men, as if insane, with fanatical tossings of their bodies, would utter prophecies.”8 (Livy, History of Rome13)
A cult primarily for women: “Women are prominent among Dionysos’ devotees, indeed the civic cults are exclusively women’s. …The revelers forsook their homes and cities to gather at night in the wilderness, especially on mountains, to hold torches and dance to wild music, especially of the flute, drum, and cymbal. An important object of the ritual, induced through the music and dancing, was the attainment of ecstasy, which was understood in terms of coming under the power of the god himself. Not all participants, who were called “Mainades,” “Bakchai,” “Thyiades,” or similar titles, experienced this Dionysiac grace.”9
Nymphs Inspiring the Sibyls
Famous sibyls who prophesied: “There is a rock sticking up out of the earth at which the Delphians say the Sibyl Herophile stood to sing her oracles. I discovered that the earlier Sibyl was among the most ancient in the world; the Greeks say she was the daughter of Zeus and Lamia, daughter of Poseidon: they say she was the first woman to sing oracles and was named Sibyl by the Libyans. …The Delians record her Hymn to Apollo: in the verses she calls herself Artemis as well as Herophile, and then says she is Apollo’s sister, and again his daughter. She wrote all this when raving and possessed by the god; elsewhere in the oracles she said her mother was an immortal … Hyperochos of Cumae has written about the succeeding Sibyl who prophesied in the same way: how she came from Cumae in the Opician territory, and her name was Demo. …Then later than Demo there was a prophetic woman reared among the Jews beyond Palestine; her name was Sabbe. …Phaennis, daughter of the king of the Chaonians, and the Rock-pigeons at Dodona gave oracles from the god, but people never called them Sibyls. …They say Euklous was a Cypriot prophet, and Mousaios son of Antiophemos and Lykos son of Pandion were Athenians, and Bakis from Boiotia was possessed by the nymphs: I have read their prophecies.… These are the men and women down to my day who are said to have given oracles from the god; but in the long course of time there could still be as many again.”10 (Pausanias, Guide to Greece12)
A frightening account of Apollo possessing a sibyl: “Now carved out of the rocky flanks of Cumae lies an enormous cavern pierced by a hundred tunnels, a hundred mouths with as many voices rushing out, the Sibyl’s rapt replies. They had just gained the sacred sill when the virgin cries aloud: “Now is the time to ask your fate to speak! The god, look, the god!” So she cries before the entrance—suddenly all her features all her color changes, her braided hair flies loose and her breast heaves, her heart bursts with frenzy, she seem to rise in height, the ring of her voice no longer human—the breath, the power of god comes closer, closer. “Why so slow, Trojan Aeneas?” she shouts, “so slow to pray, to swear your vows? Not until you do will the great jaws of our spellbound house gape wide.” And with that command the prophetess fell silent. …[Aeneas prays to Apollo]. …But the Sibyl, still not broken in by Apollo, storms with a wild fury through her cave. And the more she tries to pitch the great god off her breast, the more his bridle exhausts her raving lips, overwhelming her untamed heart, bending her to his will. Now the hundred immense mouths of the house swing open, all on their own, and bear the Sibyl’s answers through the air.”11 (Virgil, Aeneid52-67, 93-99)
Oracles
Consulting an oracle involved approaching a temple or shrine, paying a fee, submitting your question, and awaiting an answer. Clergy took your question to the oracle who would summon an answer from a god in an inner chamber. The priests would turn that into poetry and write your answer down and give it to you.
One example comes from Zeno of Citium, the founder of Stoicism: “[W]hen he consulted an oracle about what he should do to live the best life, the god replied that he should have intercourse with the dead. Grasping the oracle’s meaning, he read the works of the ancients.”12 (Diogenes, Lives2)
Inspiration worked through the person’s abilities: “[E]ven if these verses [of the oracle of Delphi] be inferior to Homer’s, let us not believe that the god has composed them, but that he supplies the origin of the incitement, and then the prophetic priestesses are moved each in accordance with her natural faculties. … As a matter of fact, the voice is not that of a god, nor the utterance of it, nor the diction, nor the metre, but all these are the woman’s; he puts into her mind only the visions, and creates a light in her soul in regard to the future; for inspiration is precisely this.”13 (Plutarch, Moralia 397C, The Oracles at Delphi 7)
Limitations of inspiration: “Now this power cannot move to flight that which can only walk or run, nor move a lisp to clear speaking, nor a shrill thin voice to melodious utterance. …So in the same way it is impossible for the unlettered man who has never read verse to talk like a poet.”14 (Plutarch, Moralia 405BC, The Oracles at Delphi 22)
The god does not take control of the voice: “Certainly it is foolish and childish in the extreme to imagine that the god himself after the manner of ventriloquists (who used to be called ‘Eurycleis,’ but now ‘Pythones’) enters into the bodies of his prophets and prompts their utterances, employing their mouths and voices as instruments.”15 (Plutarch, Moralia 414E, Obsolescence of Oracles 9)
Those seeking inspiration must prepare mentally and physically: “It is not true, as Euripides says, that “The best of seers is he that guesses well;” no, the best of seers is the intelligent man, following the guidance of that in his soul…brought about by a temperament and disposition of the body as it is subjected to a change which we call inspiration. …[T]he prophetic current and breath is most divine and holy, whether it issue by itself through the air or come in the company of running waters; for when it is instilled into the body, it creates in souls an unaccustomed and unusual temperament, the peculiarity of which it is hard to describe with exactness, but analogy offers many comparisons. It is likely that by warmth and diffusion it opens up certain passages through which impressions of the future are transmitted, just as wine, when its fumes rise to the head, reveals many unusual movements and also words stored away and unperceived. …But I incline most to the opinion that the soul acquires towards the prophetic spirit a close and intimate connexion of the sort that vision has towards light, which possesses similar properties. For, although the eye has the power of vision, there is no function for it to perform without light; and so the prophetic power of the soul, like an eye, has need of something kindred to help to kindle it and stimulate it further.”16 (Plutarch, Moralia 432CDE, 433D, Obsolescence of Oracles 40, 42)
Scripture Parallels Involving Music
1 Samuel 10:5-6, 10-13 A band of prophets with harp, tambourine, flute, and lyre encounters Saul who prophecies
1 Samuel 19:20-24 When coming to capture Samuel, the spirit of God came upon Saul’s messengers with the result that they fell into a prophetic frenzy. Saul himself came, and he too fell into prophecy, stripping off his clothes, and lying naked all day and night.
1 Samuel 16:23 David’s lyre playing relieved Saul, causing the evil spirit to depart from him.
2 Kings 3:13-19 When the king requested a prophecy from Elisha, he requested a musician to play. While he was playing, the hand of Yahweh came upon him, and he prophesied.
The Oracle of Delphi
“Inspiration depended on both the earth exhaling a gas (ethylene?) and the oracle preparing herself: “I think, then, that the exhalation is not in the same state all the time, but that it has recurrent periods of weakness and strength. Of the proof on which I depend I have as witnesses many foreigners and all the officials and servants at the shrine. It is a fact that the room in which they seat those who would consult the god is filled, not frequently or with any regularity, but as it may chance from time to time, with a delightful fragrance coming on a current of air which bears it towards the worshippers, as if its source were in the holy of holies; [ἐκ πηγῆς τοῦ ἀδύτου = from the innermost spring] and it is like the odour which the most exquisite and costly perfumes send forth. …If this does not seem credible, you will at least all agree that the prophetic priestess herself is subjected to differing influences, varying from time to time, which affect that part of her soul with which the spirit of inspiration comes into association, and that she does not always keep one temperament, like a perfect concord, unchanged on every occasion. For many annoyances and disturbances of which she is conscious, and many more unperceived, lay hold upon her body and filter into her soul; and whenever she is replete with these, it is better that she should not go there and surrender herself to the control of the god, when she is not completely unhampered (as if she were a musical instrument, well strung and well tuned), but is in a state of emotion and instability.”17 (Plutarch, Moralia 437CD, Obsolescence of Oracles 50).
More on the mysterious breath in the cave: “They say that the oracle is in a hollow cave that is deep with a rather narrow mouth, and from which a divinely inspired breath rises up. A high tripod is placed over the mouth which the Pythia mounts and, receiving the breath, utters both metrical and unmetrical oracles, with the latter put into meter by certain poets who are in the service of the sanctuary. They say that the first Pythia was Phemonoe, and the prophetess and city were so-called from “to inquire” (pythesthai). …Greater honor resulted for the temple because of the oracle, for it obtained the reputation of being the most truthful of all.”18 (Strabo, Geography3.5-6)
Forced inspiration resulted in disastrous results: “Whenever, then, the imaginative and prophetic faculty is in a state of proper adjustment for attempering itself to the spirit as to a drug, inspiration in those who foretell the future is bound to come; and whenever the conditions are not thus, it is bound not to come, or when it does come to be misleading, abnormal, and confusing, as we know in the case of the priestess who died not so long ago. As it happened, a deputation from abroad had arrived to consult the oracle. The victim, it is said, remained unmoved and unaffected in any way by the first libations; but the priests, in their eagerness to please, went far beyond their wonted usage, and only after the victim had been subjected to a deluge and nearly drowned did it at last give in. What, then, was the result touching the priestess? She went down into the oracle unwillingly, they say, and halfheartedly; and at her first responses it was at once plain from the harshness of her voice that she was not responding properly; she was like a labouring ship and was filled with a mighty and baleful [κακοῦ] spirit. Finally she became hysterical and with a frightful shriek rushed towards the exit and threw herself down, with the result that not only the members of the deputation fled, but also the oracle-interpreter Nicander and those holy men that were present. However, after a little, they went in and took her up, still conscious; and she lived on for a few days.
It is for these reasons that they guard the chastity of the priestess, and keep her life free from all association and contact with strangers, and take the omens before the oracle, thinking that it is clear to the god when she has the temperament and disposition suitable to submit to the inspiration without harm to herself. The power of the spirit does not affect all persons nor the same persons always in the same way, but it only supplies an enkindling and an inception, as has been said, for them that are in a proper state to be affected and to undergo the change. The power comes from the gods and demigods, but, for all that, it is not unfailing nor imperishable nor ageless, lasting into that infinite time by which all things between earth and moon become wearied out, according to our reasoning.”19 (Plutarch, Moralia 438ABCD, Obsolescence of Oracles 51)
Example of the oracle seeing a vision: “And if any Greeks are present, let them approach in an order determined by lot, as is the custom; for I prophesy as the god guides me. [She goes into the temple. A moment later she comes out again, terrified, crawling on hands and knees like a baby. It is some time before she can speak.] Things truly fearful to speak of, fearful to behold with the eyes…they have taken away my strength and made me unable to stand upright, so that I run on my hands instead of making speed with my legs! …I am on my way to the inner shrine richly hung with wreaths, and there I see a man sitting at the navel-stone as a suppliant for purification, a man polluted in the eyes of the gods, his hands dripping blood, holding a newly-drawn sword.…”20 (Aeschylus, Eumenides 31-42)
Opinions about the Oracle at Delphi
Epicurus rejected all oracles: “Epicurus rejects all divination…and says, “No means of foretelling the future exists; but even if it did, we should regard what happens according to it as nothing to us.”21 (Diogenes, Lives 135)
Cicero thought the oracle at Delphi had ceased: “Why are the Delphic oracles (of which I have just given you examples) not uttered at the present time and have not been for a long time?”22 (Cicero, On Divination56.116)
Lucan was convinced it was still happening in the 60s AD: “Themis was then queen and mistress of the oracle; but, when Apollo saw that the huge chasm in the earth breathed forth divine truth, and that the ground gave out a wind that spoke, then he enshrined himself in the sacred caves, brooded over the holy place, and there became a prophet. …When this inspiration has found a harbour in a maiden’s bosom, it strikes the human soul of the priestess audibly, and unlocks her lips…For, if the god enters the bosom of any, untimely death is her penalty, or her reward, for having received him; because the human frame is broken up by the sting and surge of that frenzy, and the stroke from heaven shatters the brittle life. …Scared at last the maiden took refuge by the tripods; she drew near to the vast chasm and there stayed; and her bosom for the first time drew in the divine power, which the inspiration of the rock, still active after so many centuries forced upon her. At last Apollo mastered the breast of the Delphian priestess; as fully as ever in the past, he forced his way into her body, driving out her former thoughts, and bidding her human nature to come forth and leave her heart at his disposal. Frantic she careens about the cave, with her neck under possession; the fillets and garlands of Apollo, dislodged by her bristling hair, she whirls with tossing head through the void spaces of the temple; she scatters the tripods that impede her random course; she boils over with fierce fire, while enduring the wrath of Phoebus. …When she found it, first the wild frenzy overflowed through her foaming lips; she groaned and uttered loud inarticulate cries with panting breath; next, a dismal wailing filled the vast cave; and at last, when she was mastered, came the sound of articulate speech: “Roman, thou shalt have no part in the mighty ordeal and shalt escape the awful threats of war; and thou alone shalt stay at peace in a broad hollow of the Euboean coast.” Then Apollo closed up her throat and cut short her tale.”23 (Lucan, Civil War 81-85, 97-98, 161-174, 190-197)
Divine Speech in 1 Corinthians
1 Corinthians 13:1-2 Love is necessary for tongues or prophecy (or other speech manifestations of the spirit). Nobody in the Greco-Roman literature talks about love in the context of divine speech.
1 Corinthians 14:2-4 Prophecy is for upbuilding, encouragement, consolation, and building up the church.
1 Corinthians 14:27-33 Not only is there no frenzy or madness, but the spirit of the prophets is subject to the prophets. Christians can choose to start and stop when they like.

Bibliography
Aeschylus. Agamenmnon, Libation-Bearers, Eumenides. Translated by Alan H. Sommerstein. Vol. 2. Loeb Classical Library, edited by Jeffrey Henderson. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2008.
Bowden, Hugh. Mystery Cults in the Ancient World. London, England: Thames and Hudson, 2023.
Cassidy, William. “Dionysos, Ecstasy, and the Forbidden.” Historical Reflections (Winter 1991: 23-44.
Cicero. De Senectute, De Amicitia, De Divinatione. Translated by William Armistead Falconer. Vol. 20. Loeb Classical Library, edited by Jeffrey Henderson. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1923.
Euripides. Bacchae, Iphigenia at Aulis, Rhesus. Translated by David Kovacs. Vol. 6. Loeb Classical Library, edited by Jeffrey Henderson. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002.
Laertius, Diogenes. Lives of the Eminent Philosophers. Translated by Pamela Mensch. Edited by James Miller. New York, NY: Oxford, 2020.
Livy. History of Rome 38-39. Translated by Evan T. Sage. Vol. 11. Loeb Classical Library, edited by T. E. Page. London, England: William Heinemann, 1936.
Lucan. The Civil War 1-10 (Pharsalia). Translated by J. D. Duff. Loeb Classical Library, edited by T. E. Page. London, England: William Heinemann, 1962.
Pausanias. Guide to Greece. Translated by Peter Levi. Penguin Classics. London, UK: Penguin, 1979.
Plato. The Statesman, Philebus, Ion. Translated by W. R. M. Lamb Harold N. Fowler. Vol. 8. Loeb Classical Library, edited by G. P. Goold. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1925.
Plato. Timaeus, Critias, Cleitophon, Menexenus, Epistles. Translated by R. G. Bury. Vol. 9. Loeb Classical Library, edited by G. P. Goold. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1929.
Plutarch. Isis and Osiris; the E at Delphi; the Oracles at Delphi; the Obsolescence of Oracles. Translated by Frank Cole Babbitt. Vol. 5. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, 1962.
Sicily, Diodorus of. Library of History. Translated by C. H. Oldfather. Vol. 2. Loeb Classical Library, edited by E. H. Warmington. London, England: William Heinemann, 1935.
Strabo. The Geography. Translated by Duane W. Roller. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge, 2020.
Virgil. Aeneid. Translated by Robert Fagles. Penguin Classics. New York, NY: Penguin, 2006.
Plato, Timaeus, Critias, Cleitophon, Menexenus, Epistles, trans. R. G. Bury, vol. 9, Loeb Classical Library, ed. G. P. Goold (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1929), 187, 89.
Cicero, De Senectute, De Amicitia, De Divinatione, trans. William Armistead Falconer, vol. 20, Loeb Classical Library, ed. Jeffrey Henderson (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1923), 311.
Plato, The Statesman, Philebus, Ion, trans. W. R. M. Lamb Harold N. Fowler, vol. 8, Loeb Classical Library, ed. G. P. Goold (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1925), 421-3.
Diodorus of Sicily, Library of History, trans. C. H. Oldfather, vol. 2, Loeb Classical Library, ed. E. H. Warmington (London, England: William Heinemann, 1935), 363.
Strabo, The Geography, trans., Duane W. Roller (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge, 2020), 458, 60.
Hugh Bowden, Mystery Cults in the Ancient World (London, England: Thames and Hudson, 2023), 127-8.
Euripides, Bacchae, Iphigenia at Aulis, Rhesus, trans. David Kovacs, vol. 6, Loeb Classical Library, ed. Jeffrey Henderson (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002), 37.
Livy, History of Rome 38-39, trans. Evan T. Sage, vol. 11, Loeb Classical Library, ed. T. E. Page (London, England: William Heinemann, 1936), 255.
William Cassidy, “Dionysos, Ecstasy, and the Forbidden,” Historical Reflections (Winter 1991: 26.
Pausanias, Guide to Greece, trans. Peter Levi, Penguin Classics (London, UK: Penguin, 1979), 435-8.
Virgil, Aeneid, trans. Robert Fagles, Penguin Classics (New York, NY: Penguin, 2006), 184-5.
Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Eminent Philosophers, trans., Pamela Mensch (New York, NY: Oxford, 2020), 228.
Plutarch, Isis and Osiris; the E at Delphi; the Oracles at Delphi; the Obsolescence of Oracles, trans. Frank Cole Babbitt, vol. 5, Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, 1962), 397.
Plutarch, 319.
Plutarch, 377.
Plutarch, 469-75.
Plutarch, 495-97.
Strabo, 411-2.
Plutarch, 499-501.
Aeschylus, Agamenmnon, Libation-Bearers, Eumenides, trans. Alan H. Sommerstein, vol. 2, Loeb Classical Library, ed. Jeffrey Henderson (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2008), 359-61.
Laertius, 389.
Cicero, 503.
Lucan, The Civil War 1-10 (Pharsalia), trans. J. D. Duff, Loeb Classical Library, ed. T. E. Page (London, England: William Heinemann, 1962), 245, 51, 53.
The post 14. Inspiration and Divine Speech in 1 Corinthians first appeared on Living Hope.
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February 26, 202513. Communion in 1 Corinthians
Download: Communion in 1 Corinthians
1 Corinthians 11:17-34
Dining in the Ancient World
1 Corinthians 11:17-22 Paul criticized several behaviors, including divisiveness, unequal distribution of food and drink, and humiliating those who have nothing.
Seneca the Younger: “All is quiet within the schools of rhetoric and philosophy. But how crammed the kitchens are, and how many young people crowd around the stoves of the wastrels! …I exclude the throngs of bakers and waiters, who rush to bring in the dinner when the signal has been given. Ye gods, the number of people that just one belly keeps busy! In the case of those mushrooms, the gourmet poison, do you think that they are having no hidden effect on you, even if they have not yet done anything obvious? Do you really suppose that the ice you are eating during summer does not cause hardening of your liver? Do you really believe that those oysters, sluggish creatures fattened on mud, are not infecting you with any of their slimy heaviness? As regards imported garum, the costly rot of bad fish, do you really believe its salty decay will not give you heartburn? Do you think that those festering foods that are taken almost straight from the fire into the mouth are harmlessly extinguished in your intestines? How foul and unhealthy the ensuing belches are! How disgusted people are with themselves when they breathe out last night’s drunken binge! You can be sure that their intake is rotting rather than being digested.”1 (Seneca the Younger, Letters on Ethics 23-25)
Plutarch: “During the Isthmian games, the second time Sospis was exhibitor [president], I avoided the other banquets, at which he entertained a great many foreign visitors at once, and several times entertained all the citizens.”2 (Table-Talk 4.1)
Pseudo-Quintus Cicero: “Never to leave town is very rewarding; yet the gains from your personal attendance consist not merely in being at Rome and in the Forum, but in canvassing continuously, soliciting the same people many times, and, so far as possible, not letting anybody be in a position to say that he has not been canvassed by you—and thoroughly and diligently canvassed too. Next, generosity has a wide field. It is shown in the use of one’s private means, for although this cannot reach the masses, the masses like hearing it praised by your friends; it is shown in banquets, to which you and your friends should often convoke the people at large or tribe by tribe; also in rendering services, which you will widely advertise.…”3 (Pseudo-Quintus Cicero, Handbook of Electioneering 43-44)
Pliny the Younger: “I happened to be dining with a man—though no particular friend of his—whose elegant economy, as he called it, seemed to me a sort of stingy extravagance. The best dishes were set in front of himself and a select few, and cheap scraps of food before the rest of the company. He had even put the wine into tiny little flasks, divided into three categories, not with the idea of giving his guests and opportunity of choosing, but to make it impossible for them to refuse what they were given. One lot was intended for himself and for us, another for his lesser friends (all his friends are graded) and the third for us and our freedmen. My neighbour at table noticed this and asked me if I approved. I said I did not. ‘So what do you do?’ he asked. ‘I serve the same to everyone, for when I invite guests it is for a meal, not to make class distinctions; I have brought them as equals to the same table, so I give them the same treatment in everything.” “Even the freedmen?” “Of course, for then they are my fellow-diners, not freedmen.” “That must cost you a lot.” “On the contrary.” “How is that?” “Because my freedmen do not drink the sort of wine I do, but I drink theirs.” Believe me, if you restrain your greedy instincts it is no strain on your finances to share with several others the fare you have yourself.”4 (Pliny the Younger, Letters 6.1-5)
Martial: “[W]hy don’t I get the same dinner as you? You take oysters fattened in the Lucrine pool, I cut my mouth sucking a mussel. You have mushrooms, I take pig fungi. You set to with turbot, I with bream. A golden turtle dove fills you up with its outsize rump, I am served with a magpie that died in its cage. Why do I dine without you, Ponticus, when I’m dining with you? Let the disappearance of the dole count for something; let’s eat the same meal.”5 (Martial, Epigrams60)
Martial: “We drink from [clear] glass, you from murrine [colored glass], Ponticus. For why? A transparent cup would reveal two wines.”6 (Martial, Epigrams 85)
Juvenal: “Observe the size of that lobster: it marks out a platter reserved for my lord. Please note the asparagus garnish heaped high around it, the peacocking tail that looks down on the guests as it’s brought in, borne aloft by some tall waiter! But you get half an egg that’s stuffed with a single prawn, and served in a little saucer, like some funeral offering. Himself drizzles his fish with the finest oil, but your colourless boiled cabbage (poor you!) will have an aroma of the lamp; the stuff you’re offered as a dressing came to town in some sharp-prowed felucca. …Rub it on you, and poisonous snakes will give you a wide berth.”7 (Satires 80-91)
Housing Architecture
Villa east of the theater: part of the entertainment district with spacious courtyards
Villa near the Sicyonian gate: preserved Dionysus mosaic from the triclinium floor
Anaploga Villa: ½ mile SW of Corinth with triclinium (24 x 18 ft) and atrium (20 x 16 ft). The usable space of the atrium was diminished by 1/9th due to the impluvium, which collected rainwater and let in sun through the compluvium (opening in the roof).
9 – 15 could eat in the triclinium
30 – 40 could fit in the atrium
High-status guests would sit in the triclinium while everyone else would sit in the atrium. For Corinth, this would probably include Gaius, Crispus, Sosthenes, Titius Justus, Stephanas, Erastus, Priscilla, and Aquilla. Adding in wives would result in a total of 14 and likely overcrowded couches.
Calculating the Members of the Church
Acts
Priscilla the missionary (Acts 18.2)
Aquilla the tentmaker (Acts 18.2)
Titius Justus, house next to synagogue (Acts 18.7)
Crispus the synagogue benefactor (Acts 18.8)
Sosthenes the synagogue benefactor (Acts 18.17)
1 Corinthians (not including duplicates)
Gaius host of Paul and whole church (1 Cor 1.14; Rom 16.23))
Stephanas householder, delegate (1 Cor 1.16; 16.17)
Fortunatus, delegate (1 Cor 16.17)
Achaicus, delegate (1 Cor 16.17)
Romans (not including duplicates)8
Lucius (Rom 16.21)
Jason (Rom 16.21)
Sosipater (Rom 16.21)
Tertius the scribe (Rom 16.21)
Erastus the city treasurer (Rom 16.21)
Quartus (Rom 16.21)
The total = 5 + 4 + 6 = 15. If the 13 singles mentioned above had spouses, we get 28 individuals. Adding in another 3 more for Gaius, Crispus, and Stephanas to account for relatives, freedmen, and slaves we get 37 individuals. Adding in children and other unnamed individuals, we get a rough estimate between 50 and 100 people. Even 50 would be too many for most wealthy people’s houses. The result would be meeting in separate houses each week, which, in turn, enabled the possibilities of factions to develop over time (1 Cor 11:17-19).
Unequal Food Distribution, Drunkenness, and Status
1 Corinthians 11:20-22 Some are eating well while others are going hungry. Some are getting drunk while others have no wine. Paul sees this as humiliating those who have nothing.
The poor may even have to watch slaves carrying exotic and expensive cuisine through the atrium on the way to the triclinium. Alternatively, everyone could have brought their own food. Either way, the problem was the same.
Jerome Murphy-O’Connor: “The better-off, with their well-furnished picnic baskets, would not have wished to sit beside envious inferiors, whose body-language at least would have been expressive. And those with more leisure could have arranged to arrive early enough to secure the positions they preferred. It would be natural for them to congregate in one room.”9
The Lord’s Supper as a Unifying Event
1 Corinthians 10:16-17 Here we learn that there is one bread and one body. The meal should bring about unity not divisions and factions.
1 Corinthians 11:20-21 The way they are doing it invalidates it. Because of their behavior, they are not really eating the Lord’s supper.
Gerd Theissen: “The idea of ἴδιον δεῖπνον [one’s own supper] can first of all be defined in contrast with its opposite, κυριακὸν δεῖπνον (“the Lord’s supper”). ἴδιος and κυριακός refer to questions of ownership…[T]he words of institution have the added function of converting a private contribution into community property. For the words “this is my body for you,” spoken over the contribution of bread, have the practical meaning: This bread is here for all of you.”10
James Walters: “How would Paul’s instructions have impacted the influence that hosts could exert through meals? First, by sharply distinguishing the community meal from other meals, Paul is able to challenge the appropriateness of meal conventions that reinforced the host’s status and power in other settings. Second, by underscoring that Jesus himself is the host of the community meal, Paul rhetorically supplants the Corinthian hosts who might use meals to supplant him.”11
1 Corinthians 11:23-26 The Lord’s supper echoes the last supper when Jesus initiated the ritual meal.
James Walters: “[B]y connecting the meal with Jesus’ last supper Paul uses temporality to construct ekklesia [church] space on top of oikia [house] space. …Paul makes Jesus the host of the community meal—the very reason he calls it the “Lord’s Supper.” Thus it is not only the ‘codes’ that change when ekklesia space is constructed on top of oikia space, the host changes as well. …Paul’s exclamation, “You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons” (1 Cor. 10:21), indicates whose table Christ-followers gather around when they eat a meal in ekklesia space regardless of which oikia might be hosting the gathering. Moreover, the phrases “drink the cup of the Lord” and “partake of the table of the Lord” suggest that for Paul whatever food and drink might have been provided by those with relatively greater resources for the poorer members of the community should not highlight their generosity, but Christ’s.”12
1 Corinthians 11:27-32 Taking the Lord’s supper seriously involves rightly discerning one’s own heart before so as to partake in a worthy manner. Otherwise, judgement looms.
Steven Nemes: “The bread and the cup are a sharing in the body and blood of Jesus because they are the symbols of these. By accepting these items in the course of the eucharistic meal, a Christian appropriates the person and work of Jesus to him- or herself. The Christians who participate in this act together accomplish their unity through their declaration of loyalty and commitment to Jesus as a group. This meal also accomplishes a union between Jesus and the believer. But there is no reason to think that this union is anything more robust than that of mutual love. It is also noteworthy that the inappropriate or unworthy participation in the Eucharist can lead to harmful or even disastrous consequences. But this is not because the bread and wine of the meal really are the body and blood of Jesus. They are not magical items that harm those who misuse them, but rather are the symbols by which the person and work of Jesus are represented. It is the prerogative of God to punish those who profane that work by their abuse of its symbols.”13
1 Corinthians 11:33-34 Take care of your physical needs apart from the Lord’s supper. The point of communion is to do it together. Treat the lowly as family. Inconvenience yourself for the sake of others.
Bibliography
Cicero. Letters to Quintus and Brutus, Letter Fragments, Letter to Octavian, Invectives, Handbook of Electioneering. Translated by D. R. Shackleton Bailey. Vol. 28. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002.
Juvenal. The Sixteen Satires. Translated by Peter Green. 3rd ed. London, England: Penguin, 2004.
Martial. On the Spectacles, Epigrams 1-4. Translated by D. R. Shackleton Bailey. Vol. 1. Loeb Classical Library, edited by G. P. Goold. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993.
Murphy-O’Connor, Jerome. Keys to First Corinthians: Revisiting the Major Issues. Oxford, England: Oxford University, 2009.
Nemes, Steven. Eating Christ’s Flesh: A Case for Memorialism. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2023.
Plutarch. Moralia: Table-Talk 7-9; the Dialogue on Love. Translated by Jr. Edwin L. Minar. Vol. 9. Loeb Classical Library. London, UK: William Henemann, 1961.
Seneca, Lucius Annaeus. Letters on Ethics. Translated by A. A. Long Margaret Graver. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago, 2015.
Theissen, Gerd. The Social Setting of Pauline Christianity: Essays on Corinth. Translated by John H. Schütz. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock.
Walters, James C. “Paul and the Politics of Meals in Roman Corinth.” In Corinth in Context. Edited by Daniel N. Schowalter Steven J. Friesen, and James C. Walters. Leiden, NL: Brill, 2010.
Younger, Pliny the. Letters and Panegyrius. Translated by Betty Radice. Vol. 1. Loeb Classical Library, edited by Jeffrey Henderson. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1969.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Letters on Ethics, trans. A. A. Long Margaret Graver (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago, 2015), 524-5.
Plutarch, Moralia: Table-Talk 7-9; the Dialogue on Love, trans. Jr. Edwin L. Minar, vol. 9, Loeb Classical Library (London, UK: William Henemann, 1961), 143.
Cicero, Letters to Quintus and Brutus, Letter Fragments, Letter to Octavian, Invectives, Handbook of Electioneering, trans. D. R. Shackleton Bailey, vol. 28, Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002), 433-5.
Pliny the Younger, Letters and Panegyrius, trans. Betty Radice, vol. 1, Loeb Classical Library, ed. Jeffrey Henderson (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1969), 95-7.
Martial, On the Spectacles, Epigrams 1-4, trans. D. R. Shackleton Bailey, vol. 1, Loeb Classical Library, ed. G. P. Goold (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993), 245.
Martial, 347.
Juvenal, The Sixteen Satires, trans. Peter Green, 3rd ed. (London, England: Penguin, 2004), 31.
Asuming Romans was written from Corinth (Rom 16.1).
Jerome Murphy-O’Connor, Keys to First Corinthians: Revisiting the Major Issues (Oxford, England: Oxford University, 2009), 192.
Gerd Theissen, The Social Setting of Pauline Christianity: Essays on Corinth, trans. John H. Schütz (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock), 148.
James C. Walters, “Paul and the Politics of Meals in Roman Corinth,” in Corinth in Context, ed. Daniel N. Schowalter Steven J. Friesen, and James C. Walters (Leiden, NL: Brill, 2010), 359.
Walters, in Corinth in Context, 362-3.
Steven Nemes, Eating Christ’s Flesh: A Case for Memorialism (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2023), 88-9.
The post 13. Communion in 1 Corinthians first appeared on Living Hope.
0 min
February 24, 2025Fruit of the Spirit in Christ 7: The Kindness of God
How do humans define kindness?
How does humanism define kindness?
What is kindness in Hinduism?
What is kindness in Islam?
How does the Bible define kindness?
Kindness in the scriptures is acting in benevolence with no obligation to do so.
Kindness of God in the OT
Genesis 24:12
Joshua 2:12
Nehemiah 9:17
Isaiah 54:10
Jonah 4:2
God does not define kindness as just being nice.
Kindness of God in the NT
Luke 6:35
Romans 2:4
Romans 3:12
Romans 11:32
The kindness of Christ culminated on the cross.
The post Fruit of the Spirit in Christ 7: The Kindness of God first appeared on Living Hope.
37 min
February 22, 202512. Women in 1 Corinthians
Download: Women in 1 Corinthians
1 Corinthians 11:2-6, 10, 14-15; 14:34-36
Women in the City
Women attended the theater, went to the forum, and watched the games.
We have evidence from an inscription at Delphi mentioning three women who competed in 200 meter race in the Isthmian Games, including Tryphosa, Dionysia, and Hedea, who also won the war-chariot race in ad
Sometimes women became their own masters as when her father and husband had both died. This was probably the case for Junia Theodora and Phoebe.
Women had many limitations too. They could not vote or hold public office, and they had limited legal rights, depending on their fathers or husbands to enter contracts. Wealthier women of status led more restrictive lives, not going out in public unescorted. Elite women were to focus on running their estates, including managing their own families as well as freed persons and slaves. However, female slaves and freedwomen could work outside the home without any shame.
Standards for Christian Women in 1 Corinthians
Christian wives enjoyed a mutuality and fidelity from their husbands unparalleled in Roman society. They had authority over their husband’s bodies (7:4). As a result they did not compete with hetairai, the brothel, or female slaves in the household for the sexual attention of their husbands. Likewise Christian wives were obligated to be sexually faithful to their husbands.
Christian unmarried women (virgins) and widows were encouraged to remain single, though it was fine if they got married to a Christian (7:8-9, 25-26, 28). This opened up a new category for honorable women to choose singleness for Christ whether before every getting married or after their husbands died. Virgins and widows came to occupy esteemed roles in churches.
Headship and Head Coverings for Men
1 Corinthians 11:2-3 Husbands and wives are likely in view here. Some scholars like Wayne Gruden say “head” (kephale, κεφαλή) means authority over, others like Gordon Fee say it refers to source or origin, while others like Margaret MacDonald see it as a representative. The parallel in Ephesians 5:22-23 makes me think authority is the best option here.
1 Corinthians 11:4 Men who prayed or prophesied with their heads covered (capite velato) shamed their head (Christ).
Plutarch: “[I]t is more usual for women to go forth in public with their heads covered and men with their heads uncovered”1 (Plutarch, Moralia 267AB, Roman Questions 14)
Winter: “[M]en were depicted with the toga drawn over their head, the capite velato, while praying or offering up a libation to a god or gods. …Not all participants drew the toga over their heads, only those taking a leading part in a local pagan rite, i.e., sacrificing or praying. … [T]he social élite undertook this function.”2
David Gill: “The issue which Paul is dealing with here seems to be that members of the social élite within the church–the dunatoi and the eugeneis (1:26—were adopting a form of dress during worship which drew attention to their status in society. … Thus if men were to keep their heads uncovered whilst praying and prophesying it would help to emphasise the unity of the church. If they continued to wear the toga over their heads it would indicate that there was continuing inequality in the church; the uncovered head would restate that ‘the head of every man is Christ’ (v. 3).”3
Head Coverings for Women
1 Corinthians 11:5 Women (wives) praying or prophesying with their heads uncovered (capite aperto) shamed their heads (husbands).
Tacitus: “[O]n a specified day, with witnesses to seal the contract, a consul designate and the emperor’s wife should have met for the avowed purposes of legitimate marriage; that the woman should have listened to the words of the auspices, have assumed the veil, have sacrificed in the face of Heaven; that both should have dined with the guests, have kissed and embraced, and finally have spent the night in the licence of wedlock.”4
Cicero: “You put on the toga of manhood and promptly turned it into the badge of a harlot. You started out as a common whore. Your shame had a fixed price, and no mean one. But quite soon, along came Curio, who took you out of the prostitute’s trade, gave you a married lady’s robe [stolam] as it were, and settled you down in steady wedlock.”5 (Cicero, Philippic 44-45)
Horace: “What matter whether your partner is a married lady or a wench with a cloak [togata]? …I never insist, do I, on [someone]…descended from a mighty consul and veiled by a lady’s robe [stola]…So stop chasing married women or you may be sorry. You may well find the pain and hardship far outweigh any real pleasure. She may be decked in emeralds and snowy pearls, but that doesn’t give her a straighter leg or a softer thigh than Cerinthus boasts. And often the girl with the cloak [togata] is better still.”6 (Horace, Satire 2.62-3, 77-82)
Thomas McGinn: “As part of the established penalty, a woman convicted of adultery was to be publicly humiliated through open identification as a prostitute. This was mainly achieved by stipulating that the adultera damnata should wear the toga…In classical antiquity, you were what you wore.”7
Anthony Thiselton: The wearing of appropriate head covering (such as a hood) denoted respect and respectability. Within the semiotic clothing code of first-century Roman society (see above on Roland Barthes) “a veil or hood constituted a warning: it signified that the wearer was a respectable woman and that no man dare approach her,”e., as one potentially or actually sexually “available” (my italics).8
Judith Sebesta: “As the veil symbolised the husband’s authority over his wife, the omission of the veil by a married woman was a sign of her “withdrawing” herself from the marriage.9
Bruce Winter: “The very mention of the word ‘veil’ by Paul would automatically indicate to the Corinthians that the females under discussion in this passage were married. …The widow would no longer wear the marriage veil.”10
Women with Short Hair
1 Corinthians 11:6 Women (wives) who will not cover their heads should also cut their hair off.
Dio Chrysostom: “Cyprus too had its Demonassa, a woman gifted in both statesmanship and lawgiving. She gave the people of Cyprus the following three laws: a woman guilty of adultery shall have her hair cut off and be a harlot—her daughter became an adulteress, had her hair cut off according to the law, and practiced harlotry.…”11 (Dio Chrysostom, Discourse 3)
David Gill: “If women do not have their head covered, then they are seen to shame their head, that is to say their husband. …[I]f women in the church will not wear a veil, then they will be seen as dishonouring their husbands which might affect their place in society. If the wife insists on being unveiled then she might as well wear a sign of humiliation by having her hair cut. If she does not wish to bring such shame (αἰσχρον) to her husband, herself and her family then she should be veiled.”12
Because of the Angels
1 Corinthians 11:10 A woman (wife) should have authority over her head (a covering) because of the angels.
Option 1: Head coverings prevent sexually tempting angels.
Dale Martin: ”The bride [in a classical Greek wedding] unveils herself before the groom; she thus submits to his penetrating gaze; he and his family cross the household boundary by giving her gifts, thus making her a dependent of their household as she leaves that of her family. The usual term for “veil” is krēdemnon…In Homeric texts krēdemnon can refer to the stopper, seal, or cover of a wine jug. Since both medical writers, and it seems, popular opinion conceived of the uterus as an upside-down jug, krēdemnon could also connote the “closed” (in common opinion) uterus of a virgin; …For ancient Greeks, then, the veil (krēdemnon) not only symbolized but actually effected a protective barrier guarding the woman’s head and, by metanymic transfer, her genitals. …Paul fears that angels will be sexually tempted by the exposed women and may try to have relations with them.”13
Option 2: Messengers (angels) from curious wealthy people
Bruce Winter: “Augustus had legislated against the political activities of associations as soon as he had secured power, and all the emperors in the Julio-Claudian dynasty, apart from Gaius, remained highly suspicious of them.”14
Bruce Winter: “Those with civic status or wealth whose curiosity was aroused about the Christian faith would not go to any meeting without having a client or others first carry back reports of its activities. The treason trials under Tiberius had left an indelible fear on every Roman because guilty by association had had catastrophic consequences. …Paul states, the wife is under obligation to wear the sign of her marriage as she prays and prophesies because of what its absence signaled to the inquisitive outsiders—she portrayed herself as the promiscuous Roman wife, i.e., an unashamed adulteress.”15
Option 3: Retain proper etiquette because angels attend services
Fitzmyer: “Because of the (good) angels,” who are considered assisting at gatherings of public worship, as in Ps 138:1 (LXX: “…before angels shall I sing your praise”); cf. Tob 12:12; Rev 8:3, where an angel functions as a mediator of the prayers of holy people…These angels are explained further at times as cosmic guardians of the order of the world…or even as those addressed, when God said in Gen 1:26, “Let us make a human being” (as Philo held, De opificio mundi 24 §75, even though he never calls them angeloi, but rather God’s synergoi). …[T]he woman must have authority over her head and cover it, not only because she is in the presence of men, but because she is praying in the presence of God and His angels.”16
Evidence from Qumran indicates the Essenes though angels attend their worship services.17
Hair Length for Men and Women
1 Corinthians 11:14-15 Nature teaches that women have long hair and men have short hair.
Anthony Thiselton: “Pseudo-Phocylides, a hellenistic Jew who wrote between 30 BC and AD 40, advised parents, “Do not let locks grow on his head. Braid not his crown nor make cross-knots . . . long hair is not fit for men but for voluptuous women . . . because many rage for intercourse with a man” (Pseudo-Phocylides 210–14, my italics).18
Statues indicate men typically wore their hair short and women wore it long. Exceptions include statues of the gods with longer hair and portrayals of conquered barbarians portrayed with feminine long curly hair.
Women Remain Silent
1 Corinthians 14:34-36 Women should be silent and subordinate in the church service.
Some allege that these verses are not original to Paul (Gordon Fee) while most textual scholars recognize their inclusion due to the overwhelming manuscript evidence.19 Joseph Fitzmyer thinks Paul included them originally in the margin of his original letter to the Corinthians.
Paul can’t be saying women cannot speak during the worship service since he has already made provision for them to pray and prophesy in ch 11. There was some specific circumstance that prompted this instruction. Of course, the Corinthians knew what was going on, and Paul knew. However, for us, we are left to reconstruct the situation.
Option 1: Evaluating husbands’ prophecies (Winter), see v29
Option 2: Side talk due to a lack of understanding (Bailey)
Kenneth Bailey: “I have preached in village churches in Egypt…I preached in simple colloquial Arabic, but the women were often illiterate and the preacher was expected to preach for at least an hour—and we had problems. The women quickly passed the limit of their attention span. The children were seated with them and chatting inevitably broke out among the women. The chatting would at times become so loud that no one could hear the preacher. (These villages had no electricity and no sound amplification.) One of the senior elders would stand up and in a desperate voice shout, “Let the women be silent in the church!” and we would proceed. After about ten minutes the scene would repeat. … [W]hat can we imagine in Corinth in the days of Paul? Paul had just affirmed that the Corinthians were getting drunk at the Lord’s Supper and that the prophets and tongues speakers were all talking at once! It seems that some of the women gave up and started chatting. Who could blame them?”20
Option 3: Asking husbands clarifying questions (Keener, Schreiner)
Craig Keener: “What is almost certainly in view is that the women are interrupting the Scripture exposition with questions. This would have caused an affront to more conservative men or visitors to the church, and it would have also caused a disturbance to the service due to the nature of the questions.”21
Plutarch: “In all cases, then, silence is a safe adornment for the young man …but even if the remarks be none too agreeable, puts up with them, and waits for the speaker to pause, and, when the pause comes, does not at once interpose his objection, but, as Aeschines puts it, allows an interval to elapse, in case the speaker may desire to add something to what he has said, or to alter or unsay anything. But those who instantly interrupt with contradictions, neither hearing nor being heard, but talking while others talk, behave in an unseemly manner…It is quite necessary that in formulating questions the questioner should accommodate himself to… those matters “in which he is at his best”; not forcibly to divert one who is more concerned with the ethical side of philosophy, by plying him with questions in natural science or mathematics, or to drag the man who poses as an authority on natural science into passing judgement on the hypothetical propositions of logic… [T]hey are not willing to give themselves any trouble, but they give trouble to the speaker by repeatedly asking questions about the same things…For holding back the speaker on every possible occasion by their inane and superfluous questions, as in a company of persons travelling together, they impede the regular course of the lecture, which has to put up with halts and delays. ”22 (Plutarch, Moralia 39CD, 43BC, 48AB, On Listening to Lectures 4, 11, 18)
Paul offered two solutions to the disruptive behavior of women during the sermon. (1) Let the women remain silent (solved the short-term problem). (2) Let the women learn from their husbands (solved the long-term problem).
Craig Keener: “When Paul suggests that husbands should teach their wives at home, his point is not to belittle women’s ability to learn. To the contrary, Paul is advocating the most progressive view of his day: despite the possibility that she is less educated than himself, the husband should recognize his wife’s intellectual capability and therefore make himself responsible for her education, so they can discuss intellectual issue together.”23
Bibliography
Bailey, Kenneth E. Paul through Mediterranean Eyes. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2011.
Chrysostom, Dio. Discourses 61-80, Fragments, Letters. Translated by H. Lamar Crosby. Vol. 5. Loeb Classical Library. London, England: William Heinemann, 1951.
Cicero. Philippics 1-6. Translated by D. R. Shackleton Bailey. Loeb Classical Library. Cambrdige, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009.
Fitzmyer, Joseph A. First Corinthians. Vol. 32. The Anchor Yale Bible. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Gill, David W. J. “The Importance of Roman Portraiture for Head-Coverings in 1 Corinthians 11:2-16.” Tyndale Bulletin 41, no. 2 (1990): 245-60.
Horace. Satires and Epistles. Translated by Niall Rudd. London, England: Penguin, 2005.
Keener, Craig S. Paul, Women & Wives. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1992.
Martin, Dale B. The Corinthian Body. New Haven, CT: Yale University, 1995.
McGinn, Thomas A. J. Prostitution, Sexuality, and the Law in Ancient Rome. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2003.
Plutarch. Moralia 1a-86a. Translated by Frank Cole Babbitt. Vol. 1. Loeb Classical Library. London, England: William Henemann, 1928.
Plutarch. Moralia 263d-351b. Translated by Frank Cole Babbitt. Vol. 4. Loeb Classical Library. London, England: William Heinemann, 1962.
Sebesta, Judith L. “Symbolism in the Costume of the Roman Woman.” In The World of Roman Costume. Edited by Sebesta and Bonfante. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1994.
Tacitus, Cornelius. The Annals. Translated by John Jackson. Vol. 3. Loeb Classical Library. London, England: William Heinemann, 1951.
Thiselton, Anthony C. The First Epistle to the Corinthians: A Commentary on the Greek Text. Vol. 13. Nigtc. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2000.
Winter, Bruce. Roman Wives, Roman Widows: The Appearance of New Women and the Pauline Communities. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2003.
Winter, Bruce W. After Paul Left Corinth. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2001.
Plutarch, Moralia 263d-351b, trans. Frank Cole Babbitt, vol. 4, Loeb Classical Library (London, England: William Heinemann, 1962), 27.
Bruce W. Winter, After Paul Left Corinth (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2001), 122.
David W. J. Gill, “The Importance of Roman Portraiture for Head-Coverings in 1 Corinthians 11:2-16,” Tyndale Bulletin 41, no. 2 (1990): 250-1.
Cornelius Tacitus, The Annals, trans. John Jackson, vol. 3, Loeb Classical Library (London, England: William Heinemann, 1951), 295-7.
Cicero, Philippics 1-6, trans. D. R. Shackleton Bailey, Loeb Classical Library (Cambrdige, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009), 97.
Horace, Satires and Epistles, trans. Niall Rudd (London, England: Penguin, 2005), 9.
Thomas A. J. McGinn, Prostitution, Sexuality, and the Law in Ancient Rome (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2003), 156, 62.
Anthony C. Thiselton, The First Epistle to the Corinthians: A Commentary on the Greek Text, vol. 13, Nigtc (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2000), 828-9.
Judith L. Sebesta, “Symbolism in the Costume of the Roman Woman,” in The World of Roman Costume, ed. Sebesta and Bonfante (Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1994), 48.
Winter, 127.
Dio Chrysostom, Discourses 61-80, Fragments, Letters, trans. H. Lamar Crosby, vol. 5, Loeb Classical Library (London, England: William Heinemann, 1951), 47.
Gill 254, 6.
Dale B. Martin, The Corinthian Body (New Haven, CT: Yale University, 1995), 234, 43.
Bruce Winter, Roman Wives, Roman Widows: The Appearance of New Women and the Pauline Communities (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2003), 90.
Winter, 137-8.
Joseph A. Fitzmyer, First Corinthians, vol. 32, The Anchor Yale Bible (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press), 418-9.
Fitzmyer lists 1QSa 2.3-9; 1QM 7.4-6; 4 QMa 1-3.10; CD 15.15-17; 4QDb 17 i 6-8.
Thiselton, 825.
Codex Claromontanus (D, 6th cent.) and two of its descendants from the 9th cent. move vv34-35 to after v40. The theory is that these verses were in the margin and scribes worked them into the text in different places However, older, more accurate mss like P46 (2nd cent.), Codex Sinaiticus (א, 4th cent.), Vaticanus (B, 4th cent.), Alexandrinus (A, 5th cent.) and Ephraemi Rescriptus (C, 5th cent.) and most Byzantine mss. (maybe 500 total) have it in its normal place. We have no mss that omit vv34-35.
Kenneth E. Bailey, Paul through Mediterranean Eyes (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2011), 414-5.
Craig S. Keener, Paul, Women & Wives (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1992), 81.
Plutarch, Moralia 1a-86a, trans. Frank Cole Babbitt, vol. 1, Loeb Classical Library (London, England: William Henemann, 1928), 213-5, 33, 57.
Keener, 84.
The post 12. Women in 1 Corinthians first appeared on Living Hope.
0 min
February 20, 202511. Money and Benefaction in 1 Corinthians
Download: Money and Benefaction in 1 Corinthians
1 Corinthians 8:9-13; 9:1-27
Paul’s Example
1 Corinthians 8:9-13 Rather than eating idol food and bragging about it, the strong in the church should consider how their freedom affects the weak.
1 Corinthians 9:1-17 Paul turns the attention to his own privileges as a bonafide apostle. He could bring a wife along with him; he could get paid for his work. But he has given up those privileges.
Arguments to Pay Ministers
(1) Soldiers get their expenses paid for. (9:7)
(2) Vineyard farmers enjoy the fruits of their labor. (9:7)
(3) Shepherds get the milk from their flock. (9:7)
(4) Plowing oxen are not muzzled so they can graze. (9:8-10)
(5) Those who work in the temple service get their food from the sacrifices. (9:13)
Conclusion 1: We who have sown spiritual things among you should harvest material things. (9:11)
Conclusion 2: The Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel. (9:14)
And yet Paul said, “I would rather die than that”. (9:15)
Benefaction in Cities
Aristotle: “The magistracies of the highest rank, which ought to be in the hands of the governing body, should have expensive duties attached to them, and then the people will not desire them and will take no offense at the privileges of their rulers when they see that they pay a heavy fine for their dignity. It is fitting also that the magistrates on entering office should offer magnificent sacrifices or erect some public edifice, and then the people who participate in the entertainments, and see the city decorated with votive offerings and buildings, will not desire an alteration in the government, and the notables will have memorials of their munificence.”1 (Aristotle, Politics 6.7.31-40)
Arjan Zuiderhoek: “Hierarchies, however, are never self-evident, but have to be persuasively presented as such. Elites have to convince both themselves and those below them that their domination is not arbitrary, but that the existing order is somehow the natural state of things. The social hierarchy has to be shown to be morally justified in the sense that it accords with broadly shared beliefs about what is good and just. …The more privileged the position of the governing elite became, the more individual members had to give evidence of their moral superiority, and they had to do so in hard cash.”2
Apuleius: “His name was Thiasus and he came from Corinth, the capital of the province of Achaea. As one would expect of a man of his birth and rank, he had passed through the different graces of office to the quinquennial magistracy; and to honour the occasion in a suitably brilliant manner and by way of displaying his munificence to the full he had undertaken to provide a three-day gladiatorial show. So eager indeed was he for popularity that he had been as far afield as Thessaly to procure wild beasts and celebrated gladiators, and now that he had acquired and arranged all he needed he was preparing to return to Corinth.”3 (Apulius, The Golden Ass12)
Patron-Client Relationship
The patron was the superior who provided for his or her clients money, legal help, protection from someone, political support, business connections, or even just food. In return, clients were expected to provide loyalty, public recognition, voting support, and protection of the patron’s reputation in the city.
1 Corinthians 9:16-18 Here Paul sounds like his policy is never to take money from anyone so he can always offer the gospel without any payment.
Philippians 4:10-20 The church at Philippi repeatedly supported Paul financially, and he was quite happy to receive their help.
Junia Theodora of Corinth
Junia inscription (lines 22-31): “The people of Patara have decreed: Since Iunia Theodora, a Roman, living in Corinth, a woman of the greatest honour, living modestly, who is a friend of the Lycians, and has dedicated her life to earning the gratitude of all the Lycians, has bestowed numerous benefits also on many of our citizens; and, revealing the generosity of her nature, she does not cease, because of her goodwill, from offering hospitality to all the Lycians and receiving them in her own house and she continues particularly to act on behalf of our citizens in regard to any favour asked—so that the majority of our citizens have come before the Assembly to give testimony about her.”4
Junia inscription (lines 72-77): “Since Junia Theodora, a Roman, a benefactress of the greatest loyalty to the Lycian federation and our city has accomplished numerous . . . benefits for the federation and our city, and dwelling in the city of the Corinthians welcomes in her own house Lycian travellers and our citizens, . . . supplying them with everything . . . ; displaying her patronage [προστασια, prostasia] of those who are present….”5
Jerome Murphy-O’Connor: “Junia Theodora may have helped individuals financially, but her principal service to her fellow Lycians was twofold: she offered them hospitality and she facilitated relations with the administration “by assuring the friendship of the authorities” (line 52). Exports from Lycia had to go by sea, and it is no coincidence that the cities that honor Junia Theodora are the principal ports of western Lycia.”6
Phoebe of Cenchreae
Romans 16:1-2 Paul called Phoebe “our sister,” “deacon of the church at Cenchreae,” and “a benefactor [προστάτις, prostatis] of many and of myself.”
Jerome Murphy-O’Connor: “Phoebe was a benefactress on a less international scale than Junia Theodora, but her activities would have been very similar. The title given to her by Paul, prostatis (Rom 16:2), is a cognate of prostasia, which is used to describe the contribution of Junia Theodora (line 77). Phoebe hosted the assembly of the believers at Cenchreae. Her house would have been open to traveling Christians, whom she would help with advice, contacts, and, if necessary, intervention.”7
Paul received Phoebe’s benefaction, possibly even while he was living in Corinth. However, he couldn’t bring himself to receive money from the Corinthian élite.
Not Taking Money for Himself But…
2 Corinthians 11:7-9 Reflecting back on his time in Corinth, Paul noted that he did receive financial assistance from other churches.
He never tells the Corinthians specifically why he wouldn’t take their money. He certainly didn’t want to take on the traditional obligations of a client to any specific wealthy individual. He also may have perceived that receiving from one person would enable divisiveness as other elite Christians competed.
1 Corinthians 16:1-4 Still, Paul did want their money. He’s fully planning to go and pick it up and then bring it to Jerusalem for the poor there. Notice how far away chapters 9 and 16 are from each other. Paul didn’t want there to be a shred of doubt that this money was not for him.
Athletic Metaphors and the Isthmian Games
1 Corinthians 9:19-27 Paul revealed his modus operandi (mode of operating). He was always willing to give up privileges and inconvenience himself if it meant he could win people over in evangelism.
Paul employed the illustration of runners, athletes in training, and boxers. Such language must have resonated with the Corinthians who attended the Isthmian Games every two years.
Events included foot races, discus and javelin throwing, wrestling, boxing, pankration, chariot racing, horse racing, as well as competitions for musicians, poets, and orators.
Bibliography
Apuleius. The Golden Ass. Translated by E. J. Kenney. London, England: Penguin, 2004.
Aristotle. The Complete Works of Aristotle. Edited by Jonathan Barnes. Translated by Benjamin Jowett. Vol. 2. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1984.
Kearsley, R. A. “Women in Public Life in the Roman East: Iunia Theodora, Claudia Metrodora and Phoebe, Benefactress of Paul.” Tyndale Bulletin 50, no. 2 (Nov 1, 1999: 189-211.
Murphy-O’Connor, Jerome. St. Paul’s Corinth: Texts and Archeology. 3rd ed. Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 2002.
Zuiderhoek, Arjan. The Politics of Munificence in the Roman Empire: Citizens, Elites and Benefactors in Asia Minor. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
Aristotle, The Complete Works of Aristotle, ed. Jonathan Barnes, trans. Benjamin Jowett, vol. 2 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1984), 2097.
Arjan Zuiderhoek, The Politics of Munificence in the Roman Empire: Citizens, Elites and Benefactors in Asia Minor (New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2009), 116, 31.
Apuleius, The Golden Ass, trans. E. J. Kenney (London, England: Penguin, 2004), 289-90.
R. A Kearsley, “Women in Public Life in the Roman East: Iunia Theodora, Claudia Metrodora and Phoebe, Benefactress of Paul,” Tyndale Bulletin 50, no. 2 (Nov 1, 1999: 205.
Kearsley 207-8.
Jerome Murphy-O’Connor, St. Paul’s Corinth: Texts and Archeology, 3rd ed. (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 2002), 83.
Murphy-O’Connor, 84.
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February 18, 2025 Fruit of the Spirit in Christ 6: The Goodness of Christ
In the Bible, “good/goodness” is more than just describing someone or something as being helpful, nice, or pleasant. Rather, being “good” (i.e., having “goodness”) deals with having moral excellence, righteousness, and integrity.
“Goodness” is a quality that we are to seek to exhibit in our lives in abundance.
Romans 15:14
2 Thessalonians 1:11
Jesus was said to be heavily invested in doing “good”.
Acts 10:38
So then why did Jesus deny being “good”?
Mark 10:17-18
God is the only one who is truly good. All goodness points to God and reflects His character.
1 Chronicles 16:34
Psalms 34:8; 100:5; 107:1; 119:68; 145:7-9
Moses wanted to see God’s glory, and so God said He would have all His goodness pass in front of Him.
Exodus 33:19-20
What does it mean for us to be “good”?
Micah 6:6-8
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46 min
February 14, 202510. Christology in 1 Corinthians
Download:Christology in 1 Corinthians
1 Corinthians 3:22-23; 8:4-6; 11:3; 15:23-28
1 Corinthians has much to say about Christ
Christ is the domain in which we exist (1:2, 4, 9; 6:11, 15, 17; 7:14; 12:12, 27).
Christ’s death is the message of salvation (1:23-24; 2:2; 3:11; 5:7; 15:3-5).
Christ is whom we have communion with (10:16, 21).
Christ’s name has real spiritual authority and power (1:10; 5:3-4).
Christ is resurrected (15:12, 20, 23).
Christ is returning (1:7-8; 15:23, 57; 16:22).
God is greater than Christ
1 Corinthians 3:22-23; 11:3; 15:23-28
Christ is subordinate to God. This subordination is not temporary, but eternal. God has empowered Christ to rule, but once Christ returns and completes his mission, he will hand that power back to God.
Christ himself repeatedly taught the superiority of his Father and his obedient subordination to God (Mat 20:23; 26:39; Mark 10:18; 13:32; John 5:19, 30; 7:16; 8:28; 14:28; 17:3).
1 Corinthians 8:4-6
This text is all about the gods. How should Christians think of the gods? Are they real or fake? If fake, can’t we just go to their sacrifices and eat the meat?
Moyer Hubbard: “There were gods everywhere. Gods for travelers, gods for hunters, gods for sailors, gods for warriors, gods for lovers, gods for poets; gods to help with childbirth, gods to help with baking, gods to help with treachery, gods to protect the hinges of your doors…the list is endless. …The young woman in love could appeal to the goddess Peitho (Persuasion) to convince a hesitant suitor. The merchant selling his wares frequented the temple of Tyche (Success) to ensure that his business would thrive. The farmer fertilizing his field invoked Sterculius, the god presiding over the spreading of manure. Athletes flocked to Herakles (Hercules), the infirm to Asclepius, mariners to Poseidon (Neptune).”1
Splitting the Shema in 1 Corinthians 8:6
James Dunn: “[Paul] asserts that Christ the Lord also is one; thereby he splits the Shema (Deut. 6.4), the Jewish confession of monotheism, between God the Father and Christ the Lord in a way that has no earlier parallel.”2
Richard Hays: “V. 6 takes the extraordinarily bold step of identifying ‘the Lord Jesus Christ’ with ‘the Lord’ acclaimed in the Shema”3
T. Wright: “V. 6 functions as a Christian redefinition of the Jewish confession of faith, the Shema.”4
Richard Bauckham: “[V]erse 6 … incorporates Jesus Christ into the unique divine identity. … That Paul has here produced a Christian version of the Shema has now rightly been recognized quite widely…”5
1 Corinthians 8:6 is not the Shema.
Deuteronomy 6:4 (LXX)
Ἄκουε, Ισραηλ· κύριος ὁ θεὸς ἡμῶν κύριος εἷς ἐστιν·
Hear, O Israel: Lord (is) our God, Lord is one
1 Corinthians 8:6
ἀλλ’ ἡμῖν εἷς θεὸς ὁ πατὴρ ἐξ οὗ τὰ πάντα καὶ ἡμεῖς εἰς αὐτόν, καὶ εἷς κύριος Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς δι’ οὗ τὰ πάντα καὶ ἡμεῖς δι’ αὐτοῦ.
yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.
These two texts only have 3 words in common: Lord (κύριος), God (θεὸς) and one (εἷς). This “agreement” is limited to 12.5% (3 out of 24 words).
Paul was a Jew.
Wayne Meeks: “The affirmation that “God is one” is as basic to Pauline Christianity as it was to all Judaism (1 Thess. 1:9; Gal. 3:20; Rom. 3:30; Eph. 4:6; 1 Cor. 8:4, 6; cf. 1 Cor. 11:12; 15:28; 2 Cor. 5:18).”6
James McGrath: “That Paul could do this in passing, without explaining it or defending it, seems very unlikely indeed. The fact of the matter is that Paul does not say that there is one God who is both Father and Son; he says rather that there is one God and also one Lord. …The combination “one God and…” suggests that we are dealing with a paraphrase of the Shema with an additional affirmation added alongside it—otherwise we would surely have expected Paul to express himself differently. Theoretically, he could have written, “There is one God: the Father, from whom are all things, and the Son, through whom are all things.” This would have emphasized the oneness of God while including Jesus clearly within that one God. Instead, Paul uses a statement about one God, which itself is sufficient to reiterate the point of the Shema, and then goes further to talk about ‘one Lord.’”7
Andrew Perriman: “[T]he distinction appears to be introduced, in the first place, because Paul is about to speak quite emphatically both of one God and of one Lord in order to preclude conflicting loyalties. This is pointedly unlike the Shema with its single heis. The effect is not to fuse two identities in one but to dissociate, to create two distinct affirmations, anticipated in the preceding acknowledgement of many gods and many lords: not only is God the Father one but the Lord, Jesus Christ, also is one—two separate unities.”8
1 Corinthians 8:6 translation options
Using words of existence (ontology)
ESV: yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.
NIV: yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.
NLT: There is one God, the Father, by whom all things were created, and for whom we live. And there is one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things were created, and through whom we live.
Using words of movement (soteriology)
Jerome Murphy-O’Connor (1978): “For us one God, the Father, from whom (come) all things and towards whom we (go), and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom (come) all things and by whom we (go).9
David Garland (2003): But for us One God, the Father out of whom [come] all things and we [go] toward him and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom [come] all things and we [go to the Father] through him.10
Paul Gardner (2018): “Certainly for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and to whom we go, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we [come to God].”11
What does “all things” refer to?
Jerry Wierwille: “Paul’s use of “all things” varies depending upon the context. Among his uses are cosmological (1 Cor 15:27; Eph 3:9), soteriological (Rom 8:32; Eph 1:10-11, 23; 4:10; 2 Cor 4:15; 5:18), the differences between man and woman (1 Cor 11:12), spiritual gifts or empowerments (1 Cor 12:6), the course of world/life events (Rom 8:28; Col 4:7), reputation, status, and privileges (Phil 3:8), thoughts and intents (1 Cor 2:10, 15), and living creatures (1 Tim 6:13).”12
Jerome Murphy-O’Connor: “Paul uses ta panta most frequently in strictly soteriological contexts.”13
Usage depends on the verse itself and the context. None of the Roman gods claimed to be creators. Jupiter (Zeus) comes closest, but even he merely helped establish order from chaos. Philosophers talked about creation using their theories of emanations, mostly to prevent anyone from thinking the highest God got his hands dirty.
Jerome Murphy-O’Connor: “In this perspective the meaning of the verse can be summarized in the following paraphrase: From God come all things which enable us to return to him. All these things are given through Christ and in him we go to the Father.”14
New creation in 1 Corinthians 8:6
Much of the dispute is between creation or salvation. What if both are in view? Rather than saying Paul went from creation to salvation in the first half of 1 Cor 8:6 and then returned to creation before finally jumping back to salvation in the second half, what if he’s talking about salvation using the language of creation?
Andrew Perriman: “God clearly takes the initiative in the re-creative action, but it is “from him” (ex autou) that the Corinthians are “in Christ Jesus” (1 Cor 1:30). At the same time Christ is the agent of the transformation as “power of God and wisdom of God” (1:24; cf. 1:30). In a different context, but still with reference to the foolishness of the wisdom of this age, Paul asserts that “all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come–all are yours, and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s” (3:18-23). In other words, the “all things” of this new reality, which are quasi-cosmic in scope, are theirs through Indeed, those “called to be saints” in Corinth owe their very existence as such to him. This means that at least the second part of 1 Cor 8:6, but probably the whole verse, is a statement not about creation but about “new creation.””15
All things through Christ sounds like a mediator. See 1 Tim 2:5-6.
Bibliography
Bauckham, Richard. Jesus and the God of Israel. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2008.
Dunn, James D. G. Christology in the Making. 2nd ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1996.
Gardner, Paul. 1 Corinthians. Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament, edited by Clinton E. Arnold. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Academic, 2018.
Garland, David E. 1 Corinthians. Becnt, edited by Robert Yarbrough and Robert Stein. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2003.
Hays, Richard. First Corinthians. Louisville, KY: John Knox Press, 1997.
Hubbard, Moyer V. Christianity in the Greco-Roman World. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2010.
McGrath, James F. The Only True God: Early Christian Monotheism in Its Jewish Context. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2009.
Meeks, Wayne A. The First Urban Christians. 2nd ed. New Haven, CT: Yale University, 2003.
Murphy-O’Connor, Jerome. “Corinthians 8:6: Cosmology or Soteriology?”, Revue Biblique 85 (1978): 253-67.
Perriman, Andrew. In the Form of a God. Studies in Early Christology, edited by David Capes Michael Bird, and Scott Harrower. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2022.
Wierwille, Jerry. “One God, One Lord (1 Cor 8:6)–‘Christianized’ Shema or Soteriological Acclamation?” Paper presented at the Unitarian Christian Alliance, Windsor, England, July 26, 2024.
Wright, N. T. The Climax of the Covenant. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1993.
Moyer V. Hubbard, Christianity in the Greco-Roman World (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2010), 21-2.
James D. G. Dunn, Christology in the Making, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1996), 180.
Richard Hays, First Corinthians (Louisville, KY: John Knox Press, 1997), 140.
N. T. Wright, The Climax of the Covenant (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1993), 121.
Richard Bauckham, Jesus and the God of Israel (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2008), 211.
Wayne A. Meeks, The First Urban Christians, 2nd ed. (New Haven, CT: Yale University, 2003), 165.
James F. McGrath, The Only True God: Early Christian Monotheism in Its Jewish Context (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2009), 39-40.
Andrew Perriman, In the Form of a God, Studies in Early Christology, ed. David Capes Michael Bird, and Scott Harrower (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2022), 71.
Jerome Murphy-O’Connor, “Corinthians 8:6: Cosmology or Soteriology?,” Revue Biblique 85 (1978): 253.
David E. Garland, 1 Corinthians, Becnt, ed. Robert Yarbrough and Robert Stein (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2003), 375.
Paul Gardner, 1 Corinthians, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament, ed. Clinton E. Arnold (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Academic, 2018), 372.
Jerry Wierwille, “One God, One Lord (1 Cor 8:6)–‘Christianized’ Shema or Soteriological Acclamation?” (paper presented at the Unitarian Christian Alliance, Windsor, England, July 26, 2024), 6.
Murphy-O’Connor 68.
Murphy-O’Connor 265.
Perriman, 84-5.
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February 13, 20259. Food Sacrificed to Idols in 1 Corinthians
Download: Food Sacrificed to Idols
1 Corinthians 8:1-13; 10:14-11:1
Elite Christians with “Knowledge”
1 Corinthians 8:1-3 contains a Corinthian slogan, “all of us possess knowledge,” to which Paul responds
Paul Gardner: “We [the truly ‘spiritual people’ at Corinth] know that we all possess knowledge.” Being “puffed up” (φυσιόω) involves the flaunting of something for one’s own benefit or to stress one’s own status.”1
1 Corinthians 8:4 contains two more Corinthian slogans: “no idol in the world really exists” and “there is no God but one.” Like all of their slogans, these two have truth in them, but they were pressing them too far. It is true that idols aren’t gods, but mere statues. It is true that God is the only one over all. Still, Paul believed in other malevolent spiritual powers (Eph 6:12).
1 Corinthians 8:5-6 begins with Paul’s agreement that the gods who exist are “so-called gods,” but then he insists that they are quite real. Nevertheless, for Christians we have one God, the Father, and one Lord, Jesus Christ.
Gods in Corinth
Sisyphus
Isis
Serapis
Diana (Artemis)
Fortuna (Tyche)
Bacchus (Dionysus)
Mercury (Hermes)
Hercules (Heracles)
Minerva (Athena)
Venus (Aphrodite)
Ceres (Demeter) and Kore (Persephone)
Neptune (Poseidon)
Aesculapius (Asclepius)
Apollo
Jupiter (Zeus)
On the Temple of Ceres and Kore
Jorunn Økland: “Ritual dining by women worshippers was central to the cult. It was an activity that celebrated the fruits of the earth and female companionship, as well as one that promoted human fertility. Over 40 dining rooms from the Greek period have been excavated at the site in addition to a theater up the hillside. … Mummius’s sack of Corinth did not result in destruction of the sanctuary, but the period of the city’s abandonment did cause the buildings to deteriorate. … [W]e do not know how this Corinthian sanctuary was used during the two centuries after the official Greek cult finished and before the Roman refurbishment of the sanctuary some time after 77 ce. It is clear, nevertheless, that there was no clear break between the time of the city’s abandonment and the Early Roman period. Finds of pottery and kitchen vessels, for example, in addition to lamps, minor cultic vessels, and coins, indicate that the newcomers to Corinth joined existing activities and may have used the sanctuary’s pre-existing buildings when they resumed cult activity.”2
On the Temple of Aesculapius
Bronwen Wickkiser: “[I]ndividuals flocked to Asklepia in search of cures for maladies ranging from blindness, deafness, and paralysis to headaches, baldness, and insomnia. Here the sick would sleep, hoping to meet Asklepios in a dream whereby he would treat them with a medical procedure or prescribe a regimen for cure.”3
Murphy-O’Connor: “It is entirely probable that the wealthier members of Paul’s flock had been wont to repair to the Asclepion for recreation. It was probably the closest the city had to a country club with facilities for dining and swimming. It would have been natural to continue going there after conversion, because even though the converts no longer believed in the healing god, they still would have seen the value of the site.”4
Bronwen Wickkiser: “Asklepios typically treated chronic rather than fatal ailments and, according to mythic tradition, was prohibited by his grandfather Zeus from bringing individuals back to life. The Christian message about Jesus thus promised a type of cure that Asklepios could not; it promised a cure for death.”5
Other Gods in Corinth: lares, penates, Vesta (Hestia), geniuses
Imperial Persons Receiving Divine Honors
Julius Caesar (founder of Corinth)
Augustus (1st emperor)
Octavia (Augustus’s sister)
Gaius and Lucius (Augustus’s grandsons)
Tiberius (2nd emperor)
Livia (Augustus’s Wife, Tiberius’s mother)
Caligula (3rd emperor)
Claudius (4th emperor)
Julio-Claudian Family
Important Questions
Should Christians participate in ceremonies honoring gods?
Can Christians eat at a temple dining room if it’s not during a sacrifice?
Can Christians eat the meat from the animals sacrificed when it’s sold the next day in the meat market?
What if you’re at a dinner party and they serve you meat from an idol sacrifice? Should you always ask to find out?
1 Corinthians 8:7-13 Paul’s great concern is causing the weak to stumble by emboldening them to go against their consciences. In fact, that’s his only reason to forbid Christians from eating at temple dining rooms.
Anthony Thiselton: “Christians in Corinth who perhaps designated themselves as “the strong” (i.e., in knowledge and/or in social and economic influence) claimed that knowledge encouraged a more enlightened attitude toward taking part in festivals and meals in the precincts of pagan temples. …Knowledge informs us that “An idol has no real existence,’” for “There is no God but One’” (8.4). So Christians may on this basis maintain their business and social contacts.”6
Animal Sacrifices Described
Clint Burnett: “[O]fferings would have been offered for the benefit of the entire colony and performed in public view. Sacrifices of wine and incense would have been carried out without much work and need not have occurred on the imperial altars in the aforementioned places but before images, painted or statues, of Julio-Claudian divi, Octavia, Gaius Caesar, Lucius Caesar, and the reigning emperor’s genius set up anywhere in the colony. On the other hand, blood sacrifices would have occurred at the end of sacred processions… This means that imperial flamines would have led in procession local elites, musicians, and victimarii, or special slaves who killed the sacrificial animals, winding their way through the city to the altar that was being used for the ritual in question.
Once the imperial procession arrived at the altar, the imperial flamen would have washed his hands with water, burned incense, and poured a libation of wine to the Julio-Claudian divi, Octavia, Gaius Caesar, Lucius Caesar, or the emperor’s genius. These sacred rites completed, the imperial flamen would have poured wine and some special flour atop the sacrificial animal’s head as well as run his knife down the beast’s back. These acts functioned to transfer ownership of the bull or cow from the imperial flamen and thus Corinth’s populus to the object of sacrifice… At this point, the animal was supposed to nod its head, thereby giving consent to be slaughtered. Whereupon, the victimarius would have struck the animal on its head to stun it, cut its throat, and drained its blood.
Once the beast was dead, a special cultic official known in Latin as a haruspex would have inspected its entrails (liver, lungs, gall bladder, the peritoneum, and heart) to ensure that the [divus]…had accepted the offering. If no abnormalities were found, the object was believed to have been acceptable to the divine being to whom it was offered. After such confirmation, the entrails of the animal would have been boiled in a pot. This finished, the flamen would have dumped them, along with more wine and special flour, onto the fires of the altar where they would have been consumed. Finally, the remainder of the animal would have been divided among the participants and eaten near the imperial altar by the flamen and participants in the procession. …Any meat that was not consumed at such a sacrifice was taken to the macellum or “meat market” and sold (1 Cor 10:25).”7
1 Corinthians 9 is a chapter we’ll come back to later. In it Paul uses himself as an illustration of restraint in exercising his rights for the sake of others.
Demons, Idol Altars, and Communion
1 Corinthians 10:1-13 Paul points to the negative example of Israel participating in idol worship and the devastating results.
1 Corinthians 10:14-19 Those who participate in a religious meal are partakers in in the altar. Do not be partners with demons.
Paul Gardner: “For the apostle, these types of religious meals, the Lord’s Supper and pagan cult meals, are not mere “meals”—they are religious activities and are eaten in a context in which the presence of the divinity is assumed. These meals therefore speak of allegiance to the god being worshipped by his followers or subjects.”8
1 Corinthians 10:21-22 The word “partake” is koinonia (κοινωνία), which means fellowship, sharing, associating with, etc.
Idol Food at the Meat Market (Macellum)
1 Corinthians 10:23-11:1 Now we return to the slogan mentioned in 6:12, “All things are permitted.” Paul adds two constraints: do what is beneficial and what builds up others. Paul recognizes that the meat itself is not tainted, so Christians can eat it. But he doesn’t want them to eat it if it causes their brother or sister to stumble (other-regard).
Inscription from Corinth’s meat market: “Quintus Cornelius Secundus, son of [- – -], of the tribe of Aemilia, and his wife Maecia, daughter of [Quintus], his son [- – – Cornelius Secundus] Maecianus, his son Quintus Cornelius Secundus, his [daughter] Cornelia [Secunda, who is the wife of Quintus] Maecius Cleogenes the freedman of Quintus (Maecius), [built (?)] the meatmarket [- – -] along with [- – -] and facilities for fish [- – – – -]”9
Plutarch talks about attending a fancy dinner (writing about an experience he had between 70 and 90 a.d.): “Aristion’s cook made a hit with the dinner guests not only because of his general skill, but because the cock that he set before the diners, though it had just been slaughtered as a sacrifice to Heracles, was as tender as if it had been a day old. Aristion said that meat cures rapidly if, immediately upon killing, it is hung on a fig tree.”10 (Table-Talk 10.1)
Murphy-O’Connor: “About the only time that meat came on the market cheaply in Corinth (and elsewhere) was during the great pagan festivals. There were so many sacrifices in a short period that neither the participants nor the priests were able to eat all the meat. Typically, only the thigh bones were the god’s portion. The surplus meat found its way to the marketplace, but in such quantities that the price was forced down to a level that made meat accessible to the poor.”11
Bibliography
Burnett, D. Clint. Paul & Imperial Divine Honors. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2024.
Gardner, Paul. 1 Corinthians. Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament, edited by Clinton E. Arnold. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Academic, 2018.
Gill, David W. J. “The Meat-Market at Corinth (1 Corinthians 10:25).” Tyndale Bulletin 43, no. 2 (Nov 1, 1992): 389-93.
Kent, John Harvey. Corinth: The Inscriptions 1926-1950. Vol. 8. Princeton, NJ: American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 1966.
Murphy-O’Connor, Jerome. St. Paul’s Corinth: Texts and Archeology. 3rd ed. Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 2002.
Økland, Jorunn. “Ceres, Κορη, and Cultural Complexity.” In Corinth in Context. Edited by Schowalter Friesen, and Walters. Leiden: Brill, 2010.
Plutarch. Moralia: Table-Talk 1-6. Translated by Herbert B. Hoffleit Paul A. Clement. Vol. 8. Loeb Classical Library. London, UK: William Heinemann, 1969.
Thiselton, Anthony C. 1 Corinthians: A Shorter Exegetical & Pastoral Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2011.
Wickkiser, Bronwen L. “Asklepios in Greek and Roman Corinth.” In Corinth in Context. Edited by Schowalter Friesen, and Walters. Leiden: Brill, 2010.
Paul Gardner, 1 Corinthians, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament, ed. Clinton E. Arnold (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Academic, 2018), 369.
Jorunn Økland, “Ceres, Κορη, and Cultural Complexity,” in Corinth in Context, ed. Schowalter Friesen, and Walters (Leiden: Brill, 2010), 204, 07-8.
Bronwen L. Wickkiser, “Asklepios in Greek and Roman Corinth,” in Corinth in Context, ed. Schowalter Friesen, and Walters (Leiden: Brill, 2010), 37.
Jerome Murphy-O’Connor, St. Paul’s Corinth: Texts and Archeology, 3rd ed. (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 2002), 190.
Wickkiser, in Corinth in Context, 56.
Anthony C. Thiselton, 1 Corinthians: A Shorter Exegetical & Pastoral Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2011), 13.
D. Clint Burnett, Paul & Imperial Divine Honors (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2024), 330-1.
Gardner, 450.
David W. J. Gill, “The Meat-Market at Corinth (1 Corinthians 10:25),” Tyndale Bulletin 43, no. 2 (Nov 1, 1992): 390-1. See also the earlier translation: John Harvey Kent, Corinth: The Inscriptions 1926-1950, vol. 8 (Princeton, NJ: American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 1966), 127-8.
Plutarch, Moralia: Table-Talk 1-6, trans. Herbert B. Hoffleit Paul A. Clement, vol. 8, Loeb Classical Library (London, UK: William Heinemann, 1969), 511.
Murphy-O’Connor, 186.
The post 9. Food Sacrificed to Idols in 1 Corinthians first appeared on Living Hope.
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A weekly podcast featuring the engaging and life-changing Bible teachings of Sean Finnegan and the team at Living Hope International Ministries.

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LHIM Everything

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About LHIM Everything