What does 1 Corinthians tell us about Christ? After a brief survey of the main ideas about Christ in the epistle, we’ll turn our attention to understanding 1 Corinthians 8.6. This verse has been a lightning rod for speculating about Christ’s relationship to God. Scholars like N. T. Wright and Richard Bauckham have asserted that Read more about 593 1 Corinthians in Context 10: Christology[…]

Although often overlooked today, whether or not to eat food that had been sacrificed to idols was a major issue in first-century Christianity, especially in urban centers like Corinth. The city was teeming with temples, idols, and smaller shrines. Divinities abounded and devotees made offerings regularly from a little wine poured out at a home Read more about 592 1 Corinthians in Context 9: Food Sacrificed to Idols[…]

The Romans looked at families and marriage very differently than most of us do today. In this session we’ll cover arranged marriages, the double standard for adultery, and the new Roman Women who were breaking all the rules. This will put us in a good place to read chapter 7 of 1 Corinthians and see Read more about 591 1 Corinthians in Context 8: Marriage, Divorce, and Remmarriage[…]

How should Christians deal with internal disputes? As with so many other issues, the Christians in Corinth were failing to distinguish between the body of Christ and the world. Today we’ll consider what Paul wrote in the first half of 1 Corinthians chapter six. In order to get a handle on his instructions to the Read more about 590 1 Corinthians in Context 7: Lawsuits[…]

So often we default to categories of thought prevalent in our time and without realizing it, read them into the Bible. As it turns out, first-century people living in Corinth did not think about sexuality like we do at all. In today’s episode, I want to begin by focusing rather closely on 1 Corinthians 6.9, Read more about 589 1 Corinthians in Context 6: Homosexuality & Singleness[…]

Do you know what blows my mind? That with all the permissiveness and sinfulness of the Roman world, what the Corinthian Christians were doing shocked Paul. He said that the sexual immorality of one man among them was so bad that such was not even found among the gentiles. That’s quite an indictment! Today we’re Read more about 588 1 Corinthians in Context 5: Sexual Immorality[…]

Paul wrote extensively about worldly wisdom in 1 Corinthians. Due to the prevalence and esteem of philosophical schools, Paul probably felt a need to explain how Christianity measured up. In this lecture we’ll survey the five main philosophical options available to first-century Corinthians, including Platonism, Cynicism, Skepticism, Epicureanism and Stoicism. Then once we get a Read more about 587 1 Corinthians in Context 4: Philosophy & Wisdom[…]

Now that we’ve familiarized ourselves with the city of Corinth and Paul’s missionary activity there, we’re ready to dive into 1 Corinthians. As I mentioned previously, my strategy for this class is to focus on the major themes rather than covering every verse. Our first theme is the issue of divisiveness among the Christians at Read more about 586 1 Corinthians in Context 3: Factions & Status at Corinth[…]

How did Christianity come to Corinth in the first place? Although many times we are left speculating about how an ancient church got started, we have definitive knowledge about the Corinthian church from Luke, Paul’s traveling companion. In what follows we’ll work through Acts chapter 18 to see how Paul initially founded the church in Read more about 585 1 Corinthians in Context 2: Paul Founds the Church at Corinth[…]

Today we’re beginning something new. I’ve been working on this class on 1 Corinthians for months and months. I had taken classes on 1 Corinthians at Boston University twice. The first time we just read through the entire epistle in Greek. The second time was when we learned about what modern scholars said about Corinth. Read more about 584 1 Corinthians in Context 1: Corinth as the Context[…]