An annotated list of these versions appears in “Description of the Oriental Versions” at the end of this study.
Dionesius ibn al-Salibi, Kitab al-Durr al-Farid fi iafsir al-‘Ahd al-Jadid (The Book of Rare Pearls of Interpretation of the New Testament, 2 Volumes), edited and published by the monk ‘Abd al-Masih Dawlabani of the Syrian Orthodox Church (n.d., n.p.), introduction, p. 3.
Austen Henry Layard, Nineveh and Its Remains: With an account of a visit to the Chaldaean Christians of Kurdistan, and the Yezidis or Devil-worshippers; and an inquiry into the Manners and Arts of the Ancient Assyrians, Vol. I (New York: George Putnam, 1848), pp. 148-72, 203-24.
Bishr Ibn al-Sari, The Pauline Epistles, ed. and trans. Harvey Staal, CSCO Vol. 452-453 (Lovanii: In Aedibus Peeters, 1983).
Matta al-Miskin, al-Qiddis Bulus al-Rasul: Hayatuhu, Lahutuhu, A‘maluhu (Monastery of St. Maqar, wadi al-Natron, Box 2780, Cairo: Monastery of St. Maqar, 1992), p. 783.
Kenneth E. Bailey, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes (Downers Grove, Ill.: IVP Academic, 2008).
Eccles 2:12.
Robertson/Plummer, First Epistle.
Thiselton, First Epistle.
Aristotle, The “Art” of Rhetoric, trans. J. H. Freese (1926; reprint, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2006).
Thiselton, First Epistle, pp. 46-52.
Ibid., p. 47 n. 253.
Kenneth E. Bailey, “Inverted Parallelism and Encased Parables in Isaiah and Their Significance for Old and New Testament Translation and Interpretation,” in Literary Structure and Rhetorical Strategies in the Hebrew Bible, ed. L. J. de Regt et al. (Assen, The Netherlands: Van Gorcum, 1996), pp. 14-30; idem, “Parallelism in the New Testament—Needed: A New Bishop Lowth,” Technical Papers for the Bible Translator 26 ( July 1975): 333-38; Adele Berlin, “Parallelism,” in The Anchor Bible Dictionary, Volume 5 (New York: Doubleday, 1992), pp. 155-62; C. F. Burney, The Poetry of Our Lord (Oxford: Clarendon, 1925); Mitchell Dahood, “Pairs of Parallel Words in the Psalter and in Ugaritic,” in The Anchor Bible Psalms III 101-150 (New York: Doubleday, 1970), pp. 445-56; John Jebb, Sacred Literature (London: T. Cadell, 1820); James L. Kugel, The Idea of Biblical Poetry: Parallelism and Its History (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981); George Buchanan Gray, The Forms of Hebrew Poetry, Prolegomenon by David Noel Freedman (n.p.: KTAV Publishing House, 1972, c. 1915); Nils Lund, Chiasmus in the New Testament (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson: 1992, c. 1942).
Second Corinthians has no great “hymns” such as the hymn to the cross (1:17–2:2), the hymn to love (chap. 13) and the hymn to the resurrection (chap. 15).
The same designation of recipients appears in Colossians and in 1 and 2 Thessalonians.
Ambrosiaster, Commentaries on Romans and 1-2 Corinthians, trans. and ed. Gerald L. Bray (Downers Grove, Ill.: IVP Academic, 2009), p. 120.
Chrysostom, I Corinthians, pp. 3-4.
Bishr ibn al-Sari, Pauline Epistles.
Ibid., p. 51 n. 4.
John Calvin, The First Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1960), pp. 19-20.
For a more extensive discussion of this topic see Kenneth E. Bailey, “The Structure of I Corinthians and Paul’s Theological Method with special reference to 4:17,” Novum Testamentum 25, no. 2 (1983): 152-81.
Conzelmann, 1 Corinthians, p. 2.
Jean Hering, The First Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians (London: Epworth, 1962), pp. xiii-vx; W. Schmithals, Paul and the Gnostics (New York: Abingdon, 1972), pp. 245-53.
Barrett, First Epistle, pp. 14-17; Conzelmann, 1 Corinthians, pp. 2-3; Orr/Walther, I Corinthians, pp. 120-22.
Orr/Walther, I Corinthians, p. 122.
Barrett, First Epistle, p. 15.
Ibid., p. 17.
Hays, First Corinthians, p. 183.
Toward the end of the nineteenth century G. G. Findlay, in The Expositor’s Greek Testament, proposed a sixfold division of 1 Corinthians. With the exception of including 4:17-21 in his first section, his first five divisions are identical to my proposal for five essays. The internal structure of each essay, the relationships between essays and the theological method the essays exhibit Findlay did not observe. Yet, prior to the twentieth century debate, most of this suggested overall outline was noted. Cf. Findlay, First Epistle, p. 754. In 1889 F. L. Godet combined chapters 5-10 under the title “Five Moral Questions,” but otherwise his outline is identical to that of Findlay. Cf. F. L. Godet, Commentary on First Corinthians (1893; reprint, Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications, 1979), pp. 27-31.
Note the table of contents.
Bruce Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament (New York: United Bible Societies, 1971), p. 470. See M.-E. Bosmard et A. Lamouille, Le Texte Occidental des Actes des Apotres: Reconstitution et Rehabilitation (Paris: Editions Recherche sur les Civilisations, 1984), pp. 3-11; J. M. Wilson, The Acts of the Apostles: Translated from the Codex Bezae with an Introduction on its Lucan Origin and Importance (London: SPCK, 1924), pp. 1-37.
Paul’s letter may well have also overlapped with various Greek rhetorical styles. We will note a relationship between 1:17–2:2 and Pericles. However, as noted, a general investigation of Greek rhetoric as a background to the letter is beyond the scope of this study.
Thiselton, First Epistle, p. 1053.
Thomas L. Friedman, The World Is Flat (New York: Picador/Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2007), p. x.
Matta al-Miskin, al-Qiddis Bulus al-Rasul [Arabic: Saint Paul the Apostle] (Cairo: Al Maqar Monastery, 1992).
A full annotated list of these versions is available as a part of the bibliography.
For my study of the rhetoric of Isaiah 40–66, see www.shenango.org/Bailey/Isaiah.htm.
James Muilenburg, “Form Criticism and Beyond,” JBL 88 (1969): 8.
Robert Lowth, De sacra Poesi Hebraiorum (Oxford: n.p., 1753), ET Lectures on the Sacred Poetry of the Hebrews (London: n.p., 1787).
John Jebb, Sacred Literature; comprising a review of the principles of composition laid down by the late R. Lowth… in his Praelections and Isaiah: and an application of the principles so reviewed, to the illustration of the New Testament; in a series of critical observations on the style and structure of that Sacred volume (London: n.p., 1820).
Thomas Boys, A Key to the Book of Psalms (London: L.B. Steely and Sons, 1825); idem, Tactia Sacra, An attempt to develop and to exhibit to the eye by tabular arrangements a general rule of composition prevailing in the Holy Scriptures (London: T. Hamilton, 1824).
John Forbes, The Symmetrical Structure of Scripture; or, the principles of Scripture parallelism exemplified, in an analysis of the Decalogue, The Sermon on the Mount, and other passages of the Sacred writings (Edinburgh: n.p., 1854).
C. F. Burney, The Poetry of Our Lord (Oxford: Clarendon, 1925).
N. W. Lund, Chiasmus in the New Testament (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1942).
Albert Vanhoye, A Structured Translation of the Epistle to the Hebrews, trans. from the Greek and the French by James Swetnam (Rome: Pontifical Biblical Institute, 1964).
John Bligh, Galatians in Greek: A Structural Analysis of St. Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians (Detroit: University of Detroit Press, 1966).
K. E. Bailey, “The Structure of I Corinthians and Paul’s Theological Method with Special Reference to 4:17,” Novum Testamentum 25 (1983): 152-88.
Victor M. Wilson, Divine Symmetries: The Art of Biblical Rhetoric (Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1997).
Birger Gerhardsson, Memory and Manuscript: Oral Tradition and Written Transmission in Rabbinic Judaism and Early Christianity (Copenhagen: Ejanr Munksgaard, 1961), passim.
Cf. note 15.
James L. Kugel, The Idea of Biblical Poetry: Parallelism and Its History (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981).
Ibid., p. 58.
Cf. K. E. Bailey, “Methodology \1: Four Types of Literary Structures in the New Testament,” Poet and Peasant, A Literary Cultural Approach to the Parables in Luke (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1976), pp. 44-75. One rhetorical form that is common in 1 Cor, which is not described in the above essay, I have chosen to call “the encased parable.” (The word parable is used here in the Hebrew sense of mashal, which includes the simile, the metaphor and the parable.) This “encased parable” style is where a parable is encased in the middle of two or more matching blocks of material that are informed/illustrated/communicated/clarified by the parable.
With one change, N. W. Lund observed this same structure. See N. W. Lund, Chiasmus in the New Testament (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 1992, c. 1942), p. 45. I discovered Lund’s analysis some years after my own study of the passage.
I am concurring here with the translation offered by Frederick Moriarty, “Isaiah 1-39,” in The Jerome Biblical Commentary, vol. I (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1968), p. 278.
This final line is my own literal translation of the Hebrew. This translation dominates the Arabic versions.
A poetic reference to Israel that occurs only here and in Deut 32:15; 33:5; 33:26.
The Dead Sea Isaiah Scroll has a major break between Is 44:5 and 44:6 which unites Is 44:1-5 with what comes before it rather than what follows. See John C. Trever (photographer), Scrolls from Qumran Cave I: The Great Isaiah Scroll, The Order of the Community, The Pesher to Habakkuk (Jerusalem: The Albright Institute and the Shrine of the Book, 1972), pp. 88-89.
Not every listener catches Bach’s counterpoint.
For a full rhetorical analysis of Isaiah 40–66, see www.shenango.org/Bailey/Isaiah.htm.
Paul also composes an extended homily made up of three parts (with a climax in the center) in 11:17-34a and in 13:1-13.
K. E. Bailey, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes (Downers Grove, Ill.: IVP Academic, 2008), pp. 318-19.
Sometimes the “tunes” are available to us and yet recognized only by the trained ear. Professional musicians have told me that the sonata-allegro form in classical music is composed of: Introduction + Exposition + Development + Recapitulation + Coda. This is a “musical ring composition” that follows the A + B + C + B + A structure. I cannot hear it without help.
I hasten to add that some major voices in the study of 1 Corinthians have shown considerable interest in cases of extended parallelism. These include: Gordon Fee, First Epistle; Jerome Murphy-O’Connor, 1 Corinthians; and N. T. Wright, Resurrection.
This list is revised from Bailey, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes, pp. 16-18.
The same is true for Isaiah 43:25–44:5 noted above.
K. E. Bailey, “Recovering the Poetic Structure of I Corinthians i 17-ii 2: A Study in Text and Commentary,” Novum Testamentun 17 (October 1975): 265-96.
See Isaiah 47:1-7 in www.Shenango.org/Bailey/Isaiah.htm.
The work of Niles Lund is often flawed in this regard. See Niles Lund, Chiasmus in the New Testament (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 1992, c. 1942).
See 3:5-9; 4:8-13; 4:17–5:6; 7:25-31; 15:51-58.
BAGD, p. 294. In 2 Cor 1:22 Paul writes, “he has put his seal upon us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.” Those who bear the seal of God belong to God.
See Garland, I Corinthians, pp. 29-30; Thiselton, First Epistle, pp. 82-84.
BAGD, p. 163.
LSJ, Greek-English Lexicon, p. 689.
W. Bridgwater and S. Kurtz, eds., The Columbia Encyclopedia, 3rd ed. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1963), p. 102.
LSJ, Greek-English Lexicon, p. 689.
Chrysostom, First Corinthians, Hom. III, p. 11.
Bishr ibn al-Sari, Pauline Epistles, p. 52.
Andrew Walls, quoted from a public lecture given at the Overseas Ministries Study Center, New Haven, Conn., November 11, 2009.
Andrew Walls, “Eusebius Tries Again: Reconceiving the Study of Christian History,” International Bulletin of Missionary Research 24 (July 2000): 105-11.
For this section of this chapter see Kenneth E. Bailey, “Recovering the Poetic Structure of I Cor. i 17-ii 2,” Novum Testamentum 17, no. 4 (1975): 265-96.
On at least eight occasions in Is 40–66 there are homilies that are divided into three parts. These include 43:14-15; 44:21-28; 45:14-19; 49:1-7; 56:1-8; 58:9-14; 61:1-7; 66:17-25.
Dio Chrysostom, Discourses 8.5, quoted in Jerome Murphy-O’Connor, St. Paul’s Corinth (Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 2002), p. 100.
Ibid.
Rudolf Bultmann, “καυχαομαι” in TDNT, 3:648-649.
F. Blass and A. Debrunner, A Greek Grammar of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1961), p. 230 (#444). Cf. Bailey, “Recovering the Poetic Structure of I Cor. i 17-ii 2,” pp. 275-77.
The words te kai, following Greek usage, appear in the Greek text just after the first word in the list that it introduces.
It is God who grants righteousness. Sanctification comes through the Holy Spirit, and redemption is a result of the work of Christ. These three words have Trinitarian echoes.
Twenty-two of the Oriental versions chosen for this study maintain the present tense in this sentence. The only exception is the Bible Society (1993) version. The added phrase “among you” appears in: Syriac Peshitta; Vatican Arabic #13 (8th-9th cent); Mt Sinai 151 (867); Mt. Sinai Ar #73 (9th c.); Erpenius (1616); Paulist—Fakhoui (1964); New Jesuit (1969). The two Hebrew texts and the remaining 14 Arabic versions omit these words. See appendix II, plate A.
Shaye J. D. Cohen, From the Maccabees to the Mishnah (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2006), p. 11 (italics his).
Ben Sirach 38:24–39:11.
Anthony J. Saldarini, “Scribes,” in The Anchor Bible Dictionary (New York: Doubleday, 1992), 5:1014.
Aristotle, The “Art” of Rhetoric 1.3-5, trans. J. H. Freese (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2006), p. 49.
From a hymn titled “In the Cross of Christ I Glory” by John Bowring, 1849.
See figure 1.2\1 at the beginning of this chapter.
In this case the two themes in cameo 5 are inverted in cameo 9. Together the two create an AB-BA parallel.
Paul uses the “double-decker sandwich” format in 1:17–2:2 and also in 7:17-24; 9:12b-18; 14:1-12. In each case there are slight modifications of the format presented above. Chapter 1:1-9 is also a modified form of this style.
A2 in the center does not repeat and functions to join the two halves of the rhetorical structure.
See Is 55:8-9.
Garry Wills, Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992).
Ibid., p. 49.
Plato, “Menexenus,” in The Dialogues of Plato, trans. B. Jowett (New York: Random House, 1937), 2:775 (italics mine).
Ibid., p. 777.
Ibid.
Wills prints the entire oration by Pericles and also includes a shorter oration by Gorgias. Wills, Lincoln at Gettysburg, pp. 249-59.
Plato, “Menexenus,” 2:777 (italics mine).
In a revolutionary age, Jesus is presented as a revolutionary. In an age that turns “inclusivity” into an absolute, Jesus is proclaimed as the all-inclusive one. This is an old problem.
Wills, Lincoln at Gettysburg, p. 53.
Ibid., pp. 56-57.
Ibid., p. 261.
The father in the parable of the prodigal son runs down the road to find him and restore him to “life.” This is the wisest and most powerful thing he could have done (cf. Kenneth Bailey, The Cross and the Prodigal [Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2005]).
Pericles, quoted in Wills, Lincoln at Gettysburg, p. 256.
See Acts l7:22-34.
Acts 19:8-10.
In chapter 2:1 [figure 1.2\1] Paul affirms that he is proclaiming “the mystery of God.”
See 1 Cor 2:3-10; 3:1-19; 6:13-20; 9:1-12; 9:12b-18 (modified); 10:1-13; 10:23–11:1; 11:2-17; 12:31–14:1 (modified); 14:13-25; 15:21-34; 15:35-40 (modified).
Jerome Murphy-O’Connor, St. Paul’s Corinth: Texts and Archaeology (Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 2002), p. 26.
C. K. Barrett affirms this understanding of the text as an option, but then rejects it (see Barrett, First Epistle, p. 77).
My translation. Here and in the parallel line above it the Greek word anthropoi (men) appears.
We will observe a number of the negatives listed in the center of chapter 13 will surface as we proceed.
Literally, “giving them milk to drink.”
In stanza 1a and 1b I have chosen the text of the Armenian, Ethiopic and Syriac traditions (and the Textus Receptus along with some other early Greek texts) and have placed Paul before Apollos. With a great deal of strong early evidence, modern textual critics have understandably placed Apollos before Paul in these two lines. However the rhetorical form has never been considered (to my knowledge) as evidence for the text. Surely the tightness of the composition of these fourteen lines is strong evidence for the placing of Paul first in this text and thus restoring the order that appears, as noted, in the three Eastern language traditions. Apollos is mentioned at the end of 3:4. An early scribe may have been influenced by this and accidentally repeated Apollos first in verse 5.
John A. Bengel, Bengel’s New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 1981), 2:179.
For the rhetorical style of this text see figure 0.4 in the earlier discussion of prophetic homily rhetorical style.
Geza Vermes, “The Community Rule,” in The Dead Sea Scrolls in English (Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1973), p. 85.
Mishnah, Mo‘ed Yoma 5:2 (The Mishnah, trans. H. Danby [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980, c. 1933], p. 167).
For a discussion of the parable of the two builders in the light of this background, see Kenneth E. Bailey, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes (Downers Grove, Ill.: IVP Academic, 2008), pp. 321-31.
F. Josephus, The Wars of the Jews 5.5.3 (Loeb Classical Library, Paragraph 201).
Jerome Murphy-O’Connor, “Corinthian Bronze,” in St. Paul’s Corinth: Texts and Archaeology (Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 2002), pp. 199-218.
This same feature occurs twice in the parable of the prodigal son (Lk 15:11-32). The two prophetic rhetorical templates have a climactic center cameo that is divided into two parts (see Kenneth E. Bailey, Jacob and the Prodigal [Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2003], pp. 96-97).
Job 5:13.
Ps 94:11.
The Greek preposition here is HQ. The RSV translates it “by” while NRSV offers “through.” Both are possible.
Thiselton, First Epistle, pp. 352-56.
Ibid., p. 356 (italics his).
Chrysostom, 1 Corinthians, p. 64.
BAGD lists “servant, helper, assistant,” p. 842.
Shemuel Safrai, “The Synagogue,” The Jewish People in the First Century (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1976), 2:935-36.
Cf. Bailey, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes, pp. 397-403.
Paul is discussing “jealousy and strife,” not the sexual misconduct of 5:1-2, where judgment is required.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Meditations on the Cross (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1996), p. 60.
Ibid.
Aristotle, Ethica Nicomachea 1107b.22, 1123a.34.
BAGD, p. 647.
Orr/Walther, I Corinthians, p. 192 (italics theirs).
NRSV.
Bishr ibn al-Sari, Pauline Epistles, p. 59. Harvey Staal chose to vowel this name as Ibn al-Sirri (which never occurs as a name). The much preferred voweling is the well-known name Ibn al-Sari. Outside of any direct quotation, the correct voweling will appear.
G. Horner, The Coptic Version of the New Testament in the Northern Dialect (1898, 1905; reprint, Osnabruck: Otto Zeller, 1969), 3:138-39. For the classical Armenian I have examined Codex 212 of the Armenian Patriarchal Library, Antelias, Lebanon (dated 1293), folio 220 r.
Philoxenius Yusif, Metropolitan of Mardin, Muqaddes Ayrillirin Fihriste (Turkish and Syriac) (Mardin: Hikmet Basımevi, 1954), p. 87; Kitab al Risa’il (Arabic) (Schwair, Lebanon: Monastery of St. John, 1813), p. 167.
Harvey Staal, ed. and trans., Codex Sinai Arabic 151: Pauline Epistles, Part II, in Studies and Documents of the University of Utah (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1969), 15:121.
Anselm Schultz, Nachfolgen und Nachakmen, SANT, 6 (Munich: Lösel, 1962), pp. 309-10. (as noted in Conzelmann, 1 Corinthians, p. 92 nn. 15, 20).
Barrett, First Epistle, p. 117.
My translation. To highlight the parallels within and between cameos, I have been obliged to translate literally.
This format is also used in 7:26-31.
My translation.
My translation.
BAGD, p. 565.
These include Mt. Sinai 155 (9th cent.); Mt. Sinai 73 (9th cent.); Mt. Sinai 310 (10th cent.); Erpenius (1616); London Pollyglott (1657); Propagandist (1671); London Pollyglot rev. (1717); Shwair (1813); Martyn (1826); Shidiac (1851); Bustani-Van Dyck (1865); Jesuit (1880); Yusif Dawud (1899); Fakhouri (1964); New Jesuit (1969); Bible Society Arabic (1993); Hebrew (1817); Jerusalem (Bible Society). For the original texts, see appendix II, plate B.
Mishnah, Sanhedrin 7:4 (Danby, p. 391).
Thiselton, First Epistle, pp. 384-400.
Ibid., p. 387 (italics his).
Fee, First Epistle, pp. 196-214.
Ibid., pp. 213-14.
Midrash Rabbah, Leviticus 1-19, trans. J. Israelstam (London: Soncino Press 1983), p. 55.
NRSV.
LSJ, Greek-English Lexicon, p. 1659; G. W. H. Lampe, A Patristic Greek Lexicon (Oxford: Clarendon, 1961), p. 1300.
This is the translation chosen by Thiselton, First Epistle, p. 430.
NRSV.
Thiselton, First Epistle, pp. 430-31.
Fee, First Epistle, pp. 233-34; see also Dan 7:22; Wisdom of Solomon 3:8; Jubilees 24:29; Enoch 38:5, 95:3.
Fee, First Epistle, p. 233.
A quotation from Abraham Lincoln’s first inaugural address, March 1861.
Jean Hering, The First Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians, trans. A. W. Heathcote and P. J. Allcock (London: Epworth, 1962), p. 47.
This chapter is a revision of Kenneth E. Bailey, “Paul’s Theological Foundation for Human Sexuality: I Cor. 6:9-20 in the Light of Rhetorical Criticism,” Theological Review 3, no. 1 (1980): 27-41.
Thiselton, First Epistle, pp. 440-55; Robert Gagnon, The Bible and Homosexual Practice (Nashville: Abingdon, 2001), pp. 303-32.
John A. Bengel, Bengel’s New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 1981), 2:195; Bailey, “Paul’s Theological Foundation for Human Sexuality: I Cor. 6:9-20 in the Light of Rhetorical Criticism,” The Theological Review (Beirut) 3 (1980): 27-41.
John 10:1, 8 pairs “thieves and robbers” together (but one of the two Greek words is different).
The verb is an aorist middle. Thiselton argues that this is a “middle of personal interest,” and he translates it “you were washed clean” (Thiselton, First Epistle, p. 453).
Orr/Walther, I Corinthians, p. 201.
Hering, First Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians (London: Epworth, 1962), p. 45.
Orr/Walther, I Corinthians, p. 202.
Conzelmann, 1 Corinthians, p. 108.
Robertson/Plummer, First Epistle, p. 146.
Ibid.
Orr/Walther, I Corinthians, p. 202.
Robertson/Plummer, First Epistle, pp. 122-23.
Old Testament examples of an introduction attached to ring composition appear in Is 44:13-17 and Is 43:25–44:5. See above prelude, “Prophetic Homily Rhetorical Style and Its Interpretation.”
Rudolf Bultmann, Theology of the New Testament (London: SCM Press, 1952), p. 194.
Moffatt, First Epistle, p. 69.
Adolf Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1987), p. 329.
F. Büchsel, “αγοραζω, εξαγοραζω,” in TDNT, 1:124-25.
Conzelmann, 1 Corinthians, p. 113.
This shift from the written soft ה (h) to a the hard ח (ch) is very easy in the Hebrew script of the Talmuds. This is also the case in the script of the Isaiah scroll of the Dead Sea Scrolls (see E. M. Cross, David N. Freedman and James A. Sanders, eds., Scrolls from Qumran Cave I: The Great Isaiah Scroll From Photographs by John C. Trever [Jerusalem: Albright Institute and the Shrine of the Book, 1972]). Also the change from the soft ה to the hard ח was easy in the Hebrew script of the time of Amos (see the Lachish Ostraca of the early sixth century B.C. and other ancient Hebrew scripts in James B. Pritchard, ed., The Ancient Near East: An Anthology of Texts and Pictures [Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1958], plates 80-82).
Figure 2.3\1, cameos 5-6 (1 Cor 6:11).
E. Schweizer, “Dying and Rising with Christ,” New Testament Studies 14 (1967-1968): 6-8.
F. F. Bruce, 1 and 2 Corinthians (London: Oliphants, 1971), p. 65.
Conzelmann, 1 Corinthians, p. 112.
Ibid.
C. F. D. Moule, An Idiom-Book of New Testament Greek (Cambridge, Mass.: Cambridge University Press, 1968), pp. 196-97.
Barrett, First Epistle, p. 150.
John Calvin, The First Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, trans. J. W. Frazier, ed. David W. Torrance and T. F. Torrance (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1960), pp. 131-32.
Dean Alford, The Greek Testament (New York: Lee, Shephard & Dillingham, 1872), 2:518.
Conzelmann, 1 Corinthians, p. 111.
Jean Hering, The First Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians, trans. A. W. Heathcote and P. J. Allcock (London: Epworth, 1962), p. 46.
Against Calvin, First Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, p. 131.
D. S. Bailey, The Man-Woman Relation in Christian Thought (London: Longmans, 1959), pp. 9-10.
Conzelmann, 1 Corinthians, p. 112.
In an earlier essay on this text I traced a connection between this passage and Eph 2:11-22; 5:22-33. Cf. Kenneth E. Bailey, “Paul’s Theological Foundation for Human Sexuality: I Cor. 6:9-20 in the Light of Rhetorical Criticism,” The Theological Review 3 (1980): 27-41.
Hering, First Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians, p. 47.
Thiselton, First Epistle, p. 487. Thiselton presents a detailed and well-documented discussion of a wide range of themes that appear in this chapter (cf. ibid., pp. 484-605).
This verse is discussed briefly in the introduction above.
Syr. Pesh.; Vat. Ar. 13 (8th-9th cent.); Sin. Ar. 151 (867); Sin. Ar. 310; Martyn (1826); Yusif Dawud (1899); Heb. (1817), Heb. Jer.
Mt. Sinai 155; Mt. Sinai 73. For the full evidence from the Oriental versions, see appendix II, plate D.
Margaret D. Gibson, An Arabic Version of the Epistles of St Paul to the Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, Studia Sinaitica 11 (London: Cambridge University Press, 1894), p. 7. The second (Mt. Sinai No. 73) is also from the 9th century and its linguistic origin has yet to be identified.
Thiselton, First Epistle, p. 497. See also Moffat, First Epistle, p. 75.
Orr/Walther, I Corinthians, p. 205.
Ibid., pp. 205-6.
BAGD identifies “(de) very freq. as a transitional particle pure and simple, without any contrast intended, now, then,” p. 171.
This is one of the rare places in the New Testament where monogamy is assumed.
The denarius was a day’s wages for a working man. The woman has seven days’ pay deducted every week!
Orr/Walther, I Corinthians, pp. 209-10; see also Fee, First Epistle, pp. 287-88.
Orr/Walther, I Corinthians, p. 209.
Fee, First Epistle, pp. 287-88; LSJ, Greek-English Lexicon, p. 1990.
Ibn al-Sari (A.D. 867) translated a-gamos as “al-lathin laysa lahum nisa’” (those who have no wives). Vatican Arabic 13, folio 107v. gives the same translation. This language does not assume “unmarried virgins.”
My translation. This awkward English reflects the word order of the Greek sentence.
Fee sees chiasm in 1 Cor 7:12-14, however he is obliged to leave out much of the language in the three verses to do so (see Fee, First Epistle, p. 299 n. 14).
Mishnah, Tohoroth (Danby, pp. 714-32).
Orr/Walther, I Corinthians, p. 213.
Fee, First Epistle, pp. 300-302.
Ibid., p. 300.
Ibid., p. 302.
Thiselton, First Epistle, p. 530 (italics and bold print his).
Ibid., pp. 525-43.
My translation.
This is examined above under the discussion of the hymn to the cross in 1 Cor 1:17–2:2.
1 Cor 1:1-9; 1:17–2:2 (the “Counterpoint”); 7:17-24; 25-31; 9:12b-18; 14:1-12; 12b-36; 15:35-50.
My translation, following the Greek word order to exhibit the parallels in the passage.
1 Cor 1:1, 2a, 2b, 2c, 9, 24, 26.
Rom 11:29; 1 Cor 1:26; 7:20; Eph 1:18; 4:1,4: Phil 3:14; 2 Thess 1:11; 2 Tim 1:9; Heb 3:1; 2 Pet 1:10.
BAGD, p. 436.
Vat. Ar. 13 (8th-9th cent.); Mt. Sinai 151 (867); Mt. Sinai (9th cent.); Mt. Sinai 310 (10th cent.); London Polyglot (1657); London Polyglot rev. (1717); Shwair (1813); Shidiac (1851); Bustani-Van Dyck (1860); Bustani-Van Dyck (1865); Jesuit (1880).
Erpenius (1616); Propagandist (1671); Martyn (1826); New Jesuit (1969); Yusif Dawud (1899); Fakhouri (1964); Bible Society Arabic (1993). See appendix II, plate E.
See Thiselton, First Epistle, pp. 552-65; and Fee, First Epistle, pp. 308-22.
My translation.
Moffat, First Epistle, p. 93.
BAGD, p. 423.
LSJ, Greek-English Lexicon, p. 926.
Robertson/Plummer, First Epistle, p. 156.
This same A-B-A-B structure appears in Is 43:3-4.
Murphy-O’Connor, 1 Corinthians, p. 71.
Orr/Walther, I Corinthians, p. 223.
Murphy-O’Connor has noted the A-B-A pattern of the material. See Murphy-O’Connor, 1 Corinthians, p. 77.
Ibid.
Paul uses the Greek word “idol food” (eidolo-thutos) rather than the usual word “devoted food” (hiero-thutos). See LSJ, A Greek-English Lexicon, p. 483 and p. 821.
Here I am following a strong New Testament translation tradition in Hebrew, Syriac and Arabic.
Paul uses the Greek word “idol food” (eidolo-thutos) rather than the usual word “devoted food” (hiero-thutos). See LSJ, A Greek-English Lexicon, p. 483 and p. 821.
Jerome Murphy-O’Connor, St. Paul’s Corinth: Text and Archaeology (Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 2002), p. 26.
Ibid., pp. 24-25.
Lesslie Newbigin, public lecture, Crouther Hall, Selly Oak Colleges, Birmingham, England, October 1990.
The Hebrew “b” that appears in the text indicates agency in creation. The phrase “for he made it” strengthens this translation option.
William Holliday, A Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1971), p. 32.
These include: Peshitta Syriac; Sinai Arabic 151; Sinai Arabic 310; Euripides Arabic; The Modern Hebrew. See appendix II, plate F.
Findlay, First Epistle, p. 839.
Paul has already presented two homilies using this format (see 1 Cor 2:3-10a; 6:13-20).
My translation. This is an attempt to keep the lines in the original Greek cameo intact.
The Greek text literally reads “a sister wife.” That is, a wife who is “a sister,” meaning “a believer.”
My translation.
Kenneth Bailey, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes (Downers Grove, Ill.: IVP Academic, 2008), pp. 365-77.
The phrase in parenthesis may be a comment added to an earlier composition.
My translation. I have followed the order of the phrases in the Greek text.
Ben Sirach 38:24-34.
Shemuel Safrai, “Education and the Study of the Torah,” in The Jewish People in the First Century (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1976), 2:966.
Mishnah, ’Abot 1:17 (Danby, p. 447). This was repeated by R. Ishmael in ’Abot 4:5 (Danby, p. 453).
LSJ, Greek-English Lexicon, p. 1301.
The majority of the Arabic versions of the last one thousand years have preferred this latter translation. They often use bil-ahray, meaning “more specifically.”
See Lk 10:7.
Boasting will appear again in Paul’s discussion of love in 1 Cor 13.
In our discussion of 1 Cor 1:17–2:2 we noted “extra material” that was most likely added after the original hymn was composed. It is possible that the same is true here.
Here and in cameo 12 the Greek text reads “men.”
My literal translation of the Greek.
See the above prelude, “Prophetic Homily Rhetorical Style and Its Interpretation,” figure 0.4, p. 34.
My translation. See also 2 Cor 4:7-11; 6:3-10.
D. T. Niles, This Jesus… Whereof We Are Witnesses (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1965), pp. 24-25.
This pattern repeats with Charlemagne and with the Spanish conquistadores.
See the Arabic and Syriac versions.
BAGD, p. 774.
For original texts on the Isthmian games see Jerome Murphy-O’Connor, St. Paul’s Corinth: Texts and Archaeology (Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 2002), pp. 12-15, 100, 104-5.
Thiselton, First Epistle, p. 712.
Gulian Lansing, Egypt’s Princes (Philadelphia: William S. Rentoul, 1865), p. 8.
F. F. Bruce, Paul: Apostle of the Heart Set Free (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1977), p. 43.
Günther Bornkamm, Paul (New York: Harper & Row, 1971), p. 12.
Plutarch, quoted in Murphy-O’Connor, St. Paul’s Corinth, p. 101.
Thiselton, First Epistle, p. 714.
1 Cor 2:3-10a; 6:13-20; 9:1-12a; 12b-18; 11:2-16; 13:1–14:1 (with significant modification); 14:13-25; 15:21-28; 15:35-50 (with modification).
In our day, some Christian thinkers are struggling with the possibility of finding links between the gospel and the sacred past of Islam.
From a lecture delivered in my hearing by Professor Walls at the Overseas Ministries Study Center in New Haven, Connecticut, October 2009.
The same word occurs in the account of Joseph’s troubles with Potiphar’s wife (Gen 39:7-18).
Tosefta, Sotah 6:6 ( Jacob Neusner, translator, Tosefta, vol. III [New York: KTAV, 1979], p. 172).
Ibid.
G. Bertram, “παιζω,” in TDNT, 5:629-30.
Findlay, First Epistle, p. 862.
Ibid.
Ibid.
See 1 Thess 5:24 “the one who called you is faithful”; 2 Thess 3:3 reads, “The Lord (is) faithful.”
See “Prelude: Prophetic Homily Rhetorical Style and Its Interpretation,” figure 0.4.
Findlay, First Epistle, pp. 863-64; Murphy-O’Connor, 1 Corinthians, p. 97.
This is my literal translation of the Hebrew yashubib nefshi. The Arabic versions consistently use this language. Traditional English reads “he restores my soul” (NRSV).
We recall that Luke was a traveling companion of Paul. Cf. Kenneth E. Bailey, “The Parable of the Lost Sheep (15:4-7),” in Finding the Lost: Cultural Keys to Luke 15 (St. Louis: Concordia, 1992), pp. 63-92.
My translation.
The RSV reads “Consider the practice of Israel.” All of the twenty-two Hebrew, Syriac and Arabic versions consulted for this study translate this text with some form of “Israel according to the flesh.” These stretch from the fifth to the twentieth centuries (see appendix II, plate G).
The phrase ta ethne may be an ancient gloss. There is strong evidence for it and it is included [within brackets] in The Greek New Testament, ed. Kurt Aland et al. (New York: United Bible Societies, 1966), and appears in both the RSV and the NRSV.
See appendix II, plate G.
NRSV
See appendix II, plate H.
BAGD, p. 780.
LSJ, A Greek-English Lexicon, pp. 1686-87.
M. & M., p. 586.
Jerome Murphy-O’Connor, “Corinth,” in ABD, 1:1137-38.
Fortunately the NRSV corrected this error.
Barnabas, Paul’s first traveling companion, was identified by some early authors to be one of the seventy. See Jon Daniels, “Barnabas,” in ABD, 1:611. Did Barnabas tell Paul about Jesus’ instructions to the seventy? Did Paul learn it from the apostles?
I. Howard Marshall, The Gospel of Luke (Exeter, U.K.: Paternoster, 1978), p. 413.
English versions have often softened “praise” into “commend.” The Syriac, Arabic and Hebrew versions of the past sixteen hundred years have consistently maintained the word praise.
The Mishnah is a compilation of the sayings of 148 named Jewish rabbis from around 50 B.C. up to A.D. 200. Edited by Judah the Prince about A.D. 200, it is the earliest collection of such sayings.
Mishnah, ’Abot 1:1 (my translation).
Robert Jewett, Dating Paul’s Life (London: SCM Press, 1979).
The literature on this passage is enormous. Thiselton lists more than eighty recent articles on these verses alone. His extended discussion is profound and thorough, and is highly recommended to anyone seeking a technical presentation of the current debate. See Thiselton, First Epistle, pp. 799-848.
Paul had apparently endorsed this principle (see 6:12; 10:23).
Lightfoot, First Corinthians, pp. 231-41.
Mishnah, Ketubbot 6:6 (Danby, p. 255).
Thiselton, First Epistle, p. 801.
Dio Chrysostom, Discourses 8:5-10, quoted in Jerome Murphy-O’Connor, St. Paul’s Corinth: Texts and Archaeology (Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 2002), p. 100.
For an extended discussion of this word see Thiselton, First Epistle, pp. 812-22.
Lightfoot, 1 Corinthians, pp. 229-30.
The biblical word to know is the word used for the marital relationship. It implies intimate personal knowledge.
Babylonian Talmud, Berakot 14a.
John of Damascus (d. 750) visited Constantinople and was shocked at what he saw. “Women went about with uncovered heads and unveiled their limbs in a provocative and deliberately sensuous way. Young men grew effeminate and let their hair grow long” (quoted in William Dalrymple, From the Holy Mountain [New York: Henry Holt, 1997], p. 37; see also Kenneth E. Bailey, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes [Downers Grove, Ill.: IVP Academic, 2008], pp. 248-49).
BAGD, p. 669. Cf. LSJ, A Greek-English Lexicon, p. 1419.
Morna D. Hooker, “Authority on her Head: An examination of I Cor. XI.10,” New Testament Studies 10 (1963-1964): 412
Midrash Rabbah Genesis, 1.12.6 (London: Soncino Press, 1983), p. 92.
Is 43:16-19; 51:1-3; 65:20-23.
1 Cor 6:13-20; 9:1-12a; 9:12b-15; 10:1-13; 14:13-25; 15:24-28; 15:42-50.
1 Cor 1:17–2:2; 2:7-10; 11:17-34; 14:37-40; 15:1-11; 15:12-20.
The text exhibits some step parallelism, but the straight-line sequence appears to dominate.
Murphy-O’Connor, 1 Corinthians, p. 111.
See Kenneth E. Bailey, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes (Downers Grove, Ill.: IVP Academic, 2008), pp. 378-96.
Murphy-O’Connor, 1 Corinthians, p. 112.
Thiselton, First Epistle, pp. 848-99.
Joachim Jeremias, The Eucharistic Words of Jesus (New York: Scribner’s, 1966).
Murphy-O’Connor, 1 Corinthians, p. 112.
My translation. I have created an English word trying to catch the play on words in the Greek text.
See Is 42:1-4; 44:18-20; 48:17-22; 49:1-7; 50:5-8a; 50:8b-11; 51:4-7; 55:8-9; 58:2-9; 58:9c-14; 63:12b-14; 64:4-9; 65:20b-23; 66:1-6; 66:10-14. For the formatting of the above see www.shenango.org/Bailey.Isaiah.htm.
See Lk 7:36-50; 11:9-13; 18:18-30. See Kenneth E. Bailey, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes (Downers Grove, Ill.: IVP Academic, 2008), p. 240; Poet and Peasant: A Literary Cultural Approach to the Parables in Luke (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1976), p. 135; Through Peasant Eyes (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1983), pp. 157-58.
Ezekiel 36:16-36 is comparable to 1 Cor 12 in length and complexity. However the Ezekiel text does not have an extended metaphor/parable in the center.
My translation. I have attempted to reflect the Greek text by creating an English word.
These include Mt. Sinai 151 (867); Mt. Sinai 310 (10th cent.); Erpenius (1616); Propagandist (1671).
Mt. Sinai 73; London Polyglot (1657); Shidiac (1851); Bustani-Van Dyck (1851); Bustani-Van Dyck (1845-1860); Jesuit (1880). See appendix II, plate K.
O. S. Wintermute, trans., Jubilees 22:16, in The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, ed. James H. Charlesworth (New York: Doubleday, 1985), 2:98.
Col 1:27 speaks of the proclamation of the gospel among the Gentiles. It does not call those who believe “Gentiles.”
This text is built on Hos 2:1, 23 where the prophet gathers his family together and adopts his illegitimate children.
Both some idol worshipers and some Jews may have voiced this curse, claiming to be inspired by the Spirit to do so.
C. S. Lewis, Letters: C. S. Lewis and Don Giovanni Calabria (Ann Arbor, Mich.: Servant Books, 1988), p. 83.
Marianne M. Thompson, “Jesus Is Lord: How the Earliest Christian Confession Informs Our Proclamation in a Pluralistic Age,” published privately, 2002, p. 13.
My translation. I have created an English word trying to catch the play on words in the Greek.
Paul uses the same play on words in Col 1:29.
Aeschylus, quoted in Edith Hamilton, The Greek Way to Western Civilization (New York: Mentor Books, 1924), p. 44.
William Shakespeare, Hamlet, act 3, scene 1, line 47.
Paul mentions “Jews or Greeks, slaves or free” but makes no mention of “male or female” such as appears in Gal 3:28. However, the four categories of people he does mention are all either male or female, and so both genders are inevitably included.
Fee, First Epistle, p. 605.
To show the sole of the foot to anyone at any time is an intended insult across the Middle East.
The Midrash Rabbah, Genesis has an interesting account of a discussion between the mouth and the stomach shortly after death. The mouth says to the stomach, “All that I have robbed and taken with violence, I have put into thee.” Three days later the stomach bursts open and replies, “Here is all that thou didst rob and take with violence.” (Midrash Rabba, Genesis [London: Soncino, 1983], 2:995.) The account is attributed to Rabbi Bar Kappara, a 2nd/3rd century Palestinian rabbi. Paul’s parable is not a quarrel but rather affirmations of mutual dependency.
Quoted in Eliza Griswold, The Tenth Parallel: Dispatches from the Fault Line Between Christiantiy and Islam (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2010), p. vii.
These texts do not add a future-tense verb “to be.” Grammatically they could have done so. See appendix II, plate L.
James G. D. Dunn, Jesus and the Spirit (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1975), p. 252.
Ibid., p. 253.
Ibid. (italics his).
The theme of “love” has appeared directly or indirectly in many places thus far in the epistle. Prominent among them are 1 Cor 1:10-16; 2:9; 3:3; 4:14; 8:1, 11-12; 10:24, 28-29, 32-33; 12:26. Personal freedom and knowledge must be tempered by love.
My translation.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship (London: SCM Press, 1954), p. 127.
Note the bold print in figure 4.4\1 above.
Codex Vaticanus and the Latin Vulgate add 12:31a to chapter 13.
Peshitta, Lamsa.
Bishr ibn al-Sari, Sinai Arabic 151 (867) (English text), p. 79.
Ibid., n. 27.
Gibson, Mt. Sinai (9th cent.); Erpenius (1616); Propagandist (1671); Yusif Dawud (1899) among others.
BAGD, p. 316.
See appendix II, plate M.
In like manner 14:1 concludes chap. 13 and introduces chap. 14.
Gerhard Delling, “υπερβαλλω, υπερβαλλοντως, υπερβολη,” in TDNT, 8:521.
BAGD, p. 840.
Ibid. This option was overlooked by BAGD, p. 840.
LSJ Lexicon, p. 1861.
Moffat, First Epistle, p. 191.
Orr/Walther, I Corinthians, p. 288.
Jerome Murphy-O’Conner, St. Paul’s Corinth: Texts and Archeology (Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 2002), p. 218.
For a thorough discussion of the textual problem see Bruce Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament (New York: United Bible Societies, 1971), pp. 563-64.
Ibid., p. 563.
Miriam Griffin, “Nero,” in ABD, 4:1078 (see Tacitus, Annals 15:44; Suetonius, Nero 16.2).
Both the Nestle and the Bible Society Greek New Testaments have chosen this reading. See Kurt Aland, The Greek New Testament (New York: United Bible Societies, 1968), and Eberhard Nestle, ed., Novum Testamentum Graece (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelstiftung, 1979).
Granted, the last line in cameo 9 presents a transition to the positive and speaks of love “rejoicing in community when truth prevails.”
See 1 Cor 3:3; 4:6, 7; 5:6, 9-12; 8:1; 12:7; 14:12.
In the parable of the human body (12:15-25) the various parts of the body enter the drama and begin talking. Here love becomes an actor on stage with a “speaking part.”
J. Horst, “μακροθυμια,” in TDNT, 4:376.
BAGD, p. 846.
This word, as a verb, occurs only here in all of Greek literature. Paul may have created it.
Chrysostom, First Corinthians, 33.1, p. 195.
William Barclay, 1 Corinthians (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1975), p. 121.
Hays, First Corinthians, p. 226.
Lesslie Newbigin, The Open Secret (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1978), pp. 124-25.
Barrett, First Epistle, p. 303.
Peter Balakian, The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America’s Response (New York: HarperCollins, 2003).
Ilan Pappi, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (Oxford: Oneworld, 2008), pp. 86-198.
Elie Wiesel, Night, trans. Marion Wiesel (New York: Hill & Wang, 2006).
Ibid., p. 53.
Miroslav Volf, The End of Memory (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006).
Ibid., p. 42.
Ibid., p. 79.
Ibid., p. 201.
Ibid., p. 214.
Augustine, Confessions 6.8, quoted in Whitney Oates, ed., Basic Writings of Saint Augustine (New York: Random House, 1948), 1:82.
Thiselton, First Epistle, p. 1053.
LSJ, Greek-English Lexicon, p. 1626.
Orr/Walther, I Corinthians, p. 289.
Wilhelm Kasch, “στεγω,” in TDNT, 7:587.
Three of the oriental versions translate “covers all” (Martyn [1826]; Bustani-VD [MSS]; New Jesuit [1969]). The older Arabic versions are divided between “endures all” and “is patient with all.” See appendix II, plate N.
Among those that include this translation are Peshitta Syriac (4th-5th cent.); Mt. Sinai 151 (867); Mt. Sinai 155 (9th cent.); Mt. Sinai 310 (10th cent.); Erpenius (1616); Propagandist (1671); Bustani-Van Dyck (1865); Hebrew (1817). See appendix II, plate N.
Strabo, quoted in Murphy-O’Conner, St. Paul’s Corinth, p. 60.
Findlay, First Epistle, p. 900.
At last I will have a definitive solution to the Synoptic problem!
Findlay, First Epistle, p. 901.
Thiselton, First Epistle, p. 1074.
LSJ, Greek-English Lexicon, p. 440.
The text of this reflection was read at morning prayers at the Near East School of Theology in Beirut, Lebanon, in March 1984 by Miss Hanna Haddad. I acquired the text from her and have shortened it slightly.
This style of composing a homily in two parts appears in 1 Cor 1:1-9; 4:17–5:6; 7:17-24; 14:1-12; 15:21-34; 15:35-50.
My translation.
See 1 Cor 3:5-17; 7:17-24; 9:12-18; 14:26-36; 15:36-50; 15:51-58.
See also Kenneth E. Bailey, “The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector,” in Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes (Downers Grove, Ill.: IVP Academic, 2008), p. 344.
See 1 Cor 3:10-17 (modified); 9:1-12; 12:1-31 (cameos 10-14); 15:35-42 (in this case the list is not divided).
See Kenneth E. Bailey, Through Peasant Eyes (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1983), p. xviii.
BAGD, pp. 558-59.
My translation.
Findlay, First Epistle, p. 903. (Following the United Bible Society text, the verse has four cases of η εν.)
Amos twice uses the image of a trumpet/bugle (see Amos 2:2; 3:6).
Findlay, First Epistle, p. 904.
Jerome Murphy-O’Connor, St. Paul’s Corinth (Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 2002), p. 8.
See 1 Cor 2:3-10; 3:1-17; 6:13-20; 7:1-5; 9:1-12; 10:1-13; 14:13-25; 15:21-34.
See 1 Cor 6:13-20; 9:1-12; 10:1-13; 14:13-25; 15:21-28; 15:42-50. To this list we can add 1 Cor 15:1-11, where the center contains a quotation from the fixed apostolic tradition. It can be called the beginning of a New Testament Scripture.
For the Greek word idiotes I have chosen the NIV (margin) translation of “inquirer.”
Theodoret of Cyr, Commentary on the First Epistle to the Corinthians, quoted in Findlay, First Epistle, p. 907.
BAGD, p. 370.
Gordon Fee helpfully describes four stages in First Epistle, pp. 686-87. It is possible to see five distinct movements.
Ibid., p. 687.
Thiselton, First Epistle, p. 1129.
In Is 45:14 the Egyptians, the Ethiopians and the Sabeans make a similar confession.
Robertson/Plummer, First Epistle, pp. 316-17.
Thiselton, First Epistle, pp. 1120-26; Fee, First Epistle, pp. 679-85; Kistemaker, 1 Corinthians, pp. 500-502; Hays, First Corinthians, pp. 238-40.
Chrysostom, 1 Corinthians 36.2, quoted in 1-2 Corinthians, ed. Gerald Bray, Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1999), 7:142.
See 1 Cor 7:6-8 (modified); 7:32-35; 14:1-5; 14:26-33; 15:51-58 (modified).
See 1 Cor 3:17; 7:17 \1; 6:13-20; 9:12b-18 \1; 14:26-33; 15:35-50.
On the day of Pentecost Peter quoted from the prophecy of Joel. That quote affirms that the menservants and maidservants will receive the Spirit and prophesy (Acts 2:18).
BAGD, p. 185.
Bishr ibn al-Sari, Pauline Epistles, p. 84 n. 27.
This word carries the meaning of learning through instruction or obedience. BAGD, p. 490.
BAGD, p. 30.
Richard Bauckham, “On the Road with Jesus and His Disciples,” in Gospel Women: Studies of the Named Women in the Gospels (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002), pp. 110-21.
The synodical letter of the Council of Ephesus (A.D. 431) places Mary in Ephesus and claims that she lived, died and was buried there.
See Leonard Swidler, Biblical Affirmations of Women (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1979), p. 315.
Thiselton, First Epistle, pp. 1146-62.
Ben Witherington, Women in the Earliest Churches (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), p. 25.
Chrysostom, “Homily IX [I Timothy ii. 11-15],” in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1979), 13:435.
The outline suggested here is nearly identical to the outline proposed by N. T. Wright, Resurrection, p. 312.
I have opted to format the center as four cameos to facilitate a discussion of its parts.
See 3:18–4:7; 6:9-11; 7:17-20; 7:25-31 (two examples); 10:5-12; 13:4-7; 15:35-42. If we included the cases of A-B, A-B centers, and the collections of metaphors that occasionally appear, the list would be longer.
See 1 Cor 6:11; 7:12-13; 8:1-3a; 8:6; 11:4-5; 13:2b-3; 15:13, 14, 16-17. Each of these texts presents two sets of three.
BAGD, p. 427.
BAGD, pp. 588-89.
Wright, Resurrection, p. 319; see Hays, First Corinthians, pp. 257-58.
Wright, Resurrection, p. 320.
Kenneth E. Bailey, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes (Downers Grove, Ill.: IVP Academic, 2008), p. 228.
P. T. Forsyth, The Work of Christ (London: Independent Press, 1958), p. 100.
See Kenneth E. Bailey, The Cross and the Prodigal (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2005); Kenneth E. Bailey, Jacob and the Prodigal (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2003), pp. 95-117.
In a thoughtful study, George Carey presents the entire sweep of the history of the doctrine of the atonement. He argues convincingly for a limited view of substitution as a part of the overall doctrine of the atonement. See George Carey, The Gate of Glory (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1993), pp. 139-49.
See Kenneth E. Bailey, “Jesus Interprets His Own Cross,” DVD, www.cdbaby.com/cd/revdrbailey7 (13 half-hour lectures).
Thomas Friedman, The World Is Flat (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2007), p. x.
Miroslav Volf, The End of Memory: Remembering Rightly in a Violent World (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006), p. 117.
William Temple, Christus Veritas (London: Macmillan, 1954), p. 258.
Ibid., p. 259.
Ibid., p. 261.
Ibid., pp. 263-64.
Some of this type of chain-link composition appears in 11:28-32, as noted in the discussion.
See figure 0.1\1 in “Prelude: Prophetic Homily Rhetorical Style and Its Interpretation.”
In each case the hymn to the cross (1:17–2:2) and the hymn to the resurrection (15:12-20) appear as the second homily in their respective essays.
For a detailed scholarly discussion of this chapter, see Wright, Resurrection, pp. 312-61.
1 Cor 2:3-10; 3:1-17; 6:13-20; 9:1-12; 9:12b-18 (modified); 10:1-13; 10:23–11:1; 11:2-17; 12:31–14:1 (modified); 14:13-25; 15:21-34; 15:35-40 (modified).
1 Cor 6:13-20; 9:1-12a; 10:1-13; 14:13-25; 15:1-11; 15:21-28; 15:35-50.
KJV, NRSV.
Garland came to the same conclusion regarding the parallelism of these four lines. See Garland, 1 Corinthians, p. 706.
1 Tim 2:14 is a different problem. There the text claims that Adam was not deceived but Eve was.
Augustine, quoted in 1 Corinthians: Interpreted by Early Christian Commentators, trans. and ed. Judith L. Kovacs (Eerdmans: Grand Rapids, 2005), p. 351. See also Thiselton, First Epistle, p. 1227-28.; Robertson/Plummer, First Epistle, p. 353; Findlay, First Epistle, p. 926.
Thiselton, First Epistle, p. 1229.
Findlay, First Epistle, p. 927.
Barrett, First Epistle, p. 355.
Adolf Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1980, c. 1909), p. 371.
Ibid., pp. 371-72.
The three previous asides appear in 1:14-15; 10:13; 11:34b.
Robertson/Plummer, First Epistle, p. 359.
Thiselton, First Epistle, p. 1240.
Ibid., pp. 1242-48.
Findlay, First Epistle, p. 931.
Joachim Jeremias, Infant Baptism in the First Four Centuries (London: SCM Press, 1960), p. 36, 36 n. 3.
Thiselton, First Epistle, p. 1248.
Ibid., p. 1249.
Findlay, First Epistle, p. 932. This also fit popular Epicureanism.
Garland, 1 Corinthians, p. 721.
Menander, Thais, frag. 218, cited in Wright, Resurrection, p. 339.
The other three are: 1:14-16; 10:12; 11:34b.
Garland, 1 Corinthians, pp. 725-38; Fee, First Epistle, pp. 775-95; Kistemaker, 1 Corinthians, pp. 566-80; Wright, Resurrection, pp. 340-56; Thiselton, First Epistle, pp. 1275-92.
1 Cor 1:1-9; 7:25-31; 14:1-12.
See 1 Cor 6:13-20; 7:17-24; 9:12b-18; 15:21-28; 15:35-50. 1 Cor 15:58 concludes one discussion and begins a second unrelated topic.
Fee has chosen this option. See Fee, First Epistle, p. 783.
It is also possible to see these four cameos as a list that is interrupted, but in this case not in the center. This would incorporate the homily into the list of four homilies which include a collection of parables that are split in the center.
Wright, Resurrection, pp. 342-43.
My translation.
In like manner, no twenty-first-century Christian needs to worry lest cremation damage the “resurrection body.”
LSJ, Greek-English Lexicon, p. 1749.
LVTL, Lexicon, pp. 418-19.
Wright, Resurrection, p. 347.
Judith L. Kovacs, trans. and ed., 1 Corinthians: Interpreted by Early Christian Commentators (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005), p. 271 n. 21.
Wright, Resurrection, p. 348.
Bishr ibn al-Sari, Pauline Epistles, p. 85 with n. 46. (My translation with the assistance of Victor Makari of Egypt.)
Peshitta Syriac (5th cent.); Vat. Ar. (8th-9th cent.); Sinai 151 (867); Sinai 155 (9th cent.); Sinai 310 (10th cent.); Erpenius (1616); London Polyglot (1657); Propagandist (1671); Shwair (1813); Martyn (1826); Shidiac (1851); Bustani-Van Dyck (1860, 1865); Jesuit (1880); Yusif Dawud (1899); Fakhouri (1964); New Jesuit (1969); Jerusalem Hebrew (n.d.). See appendix II, plate P.
Chrysostom, quoted in 1 Corinthians: Interpreted by Early Christian Commentators, trans. and ed. Judith L. Kovacs (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005), p. 272.
Didymus of Alexandria, quoted in 1 Corinthians: Interpreted by Early Christian Commentators, trans. and ed. Judith L. Kovacs (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005), p. 271.
Wright, Resurrection, p. 356.
The epistle has four homilies composed of two sections, and twenty-nine homilies with one section each. Isaiah 40–66 has eight homilies that divide into three sections. These include 43:14-24; 44:21-28; 45:14-19; 49:1-7; 56:1-8; 58:9-14; 61:1-7; 65:17-25. See www.shenango.org/Bailey/Isaiah.htm.
Wright, Resurrection, pp. 356-57.
Thiselton, First Epistle, pp. 1293-95.
Kenneth E. Bailey, Through Peasant Eyes (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1983), pp. 88-90.
Wright, Resurrection, p. 358.
Robertson/Plummer, First Epistle, pp. 378-79.
For the others see 1:2, 7, 8, 10. The same words in different word orders appear in 1:9; 15:31.
Bill Frey, from a sermon preached at The Trinity School for Ministry, Ambridge, Penn. September 2001.
NRSV.
Keith Nickle, The Collection: A Study in Paul’s Strategy, Studies in Biblical Theology 48 (Naperville, Ill.: Allenson, 1966).
Robertson/Plummer, First Epistle, p. 386.
Findlay, First Epistle, p. 946.
Josephus, Antiquities 18.3.5, trans. William Whiston (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 1993), p. 481.
Fee, First Epistle, p. 819.
BAGD, p. 709.
Paul Barnett, Jesus and the Rise of Early Christianity (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2002), p. 335.
In the contemporary West there is a widespread mission-trip phenomenon. These efforts should be called “mission education trips.” Often they take no risks, medical or physical.
David Aikman, Jesus in Beijing (Washington: Regnery, 2003), p. 83.
Ibid., p. 84.
How many Western Christian “mission trips” follow this biblical precedent?
The KJV and the Greek text.
1 Cor 3:5-9; 10:14-22; 15:13-17. This has a precedent in Is 28:15, 18, as noted earlier.
1 Cor 5:9-11; 6:11; 6:13-14a; 7:36-37; 8:6; 11:4-5. This has a precedent in Is 55:10-11.
Cameos 7 and 8 are “greetings” from various people. I have numbered them with cameos 1-6 because together these eight cameos fall under the general topic of “concluding remarks.”
Richard Bauckham, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006).
Tarif Khalidi, ed. and trans., The Muslim Jesus: Sayings and Stories in Islamic Literature (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2001).
Hays, First Corinthians, pp. 291-92.
Under 13:5 there is an extended discussion of this first set of texts that can be read as opposites.
William Temple, Christus Veritas (London: Macmillan, 1954), p. 259.
All of the early copies of the New Testament have nodivisionsbetweenwords. The reader is obliged to make them. Scholars across the board agree that we are dealing with two words and both of the above divisions are possible.
For a technical discussion of the languages involved, see K. G. Kuhn, “μαραναθα,” in TDNT, 4:466-72.
Fee, First Epistle, p. 839; Moffat, First Epistle, p. 284; Thiselton, First Epistle, pp. 1349-53; Kistemaker, 1 Corinthians, p. 612; Hays, First Corinthians, pp. 292-93; Barrett, First Epistle, p. 397.
Findlay, First Epistle, p. 952; Orr/Walther, I Corinthians, p. 366.
John Chrysostom, 1 Corinthians, trans. and ed. Judith Kovacs (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005), p. 292.
Both Hebrew versions concur with the Syriac. See London 1817; Jerusalem (Bible Society).
Mt. Sinai 151 (867); Mt. Sinai 155 (9th cent.); Mt. Sinai 73 (9th cent.); Propagandist (1691); London Polyglot rev. (1717); Shidiac (1851); Martyn (1826); Bustani-Van Dyck (1865); Jesuit (1880); Yusif Dawud (1899); New Jesuit (1969).
Vat. Ar. 13 (8th-9th cent.); Mt. Sinai 310 (10th cent.); London Polyglot (1657); Shawair (1813); Bustani-Van Dyck (1845-1860, as a note); New Jesuit (1969, as a note).
Henry Martyn (1826); Shidiac (1851).
Fakhouri (1964); New Jesuit (1969); Bible Society Arabic (1993). See appendix II, plate Q.
Matthew Black, “The Maranatha Invocation and Jude 14, 15 (1 Enoch 1:9),” in Christ and Spirit in the New Testament: Studies in Honor of Charles Francis Digby Moule, ed. B. Lindars and S. S. Smalley (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1973), p. 196.
It is curious that appropriate deference is given in the literature to Matthew Black as an Aramaic scholar. But at the same time the fourth and fifth century translators of the Syriac Peshitta, whose first language was Syriac/Aramaic, are ignored.
K. G. Kuhn, “μαραναθα,” in TDNT, 4:470.
The Arabic qad ja’a (he has come) appears in Vat. Ar. 13 (8th-9th cent.); London Polyglot (1657); and Shawair (1813). This use of the particle (qad) carries overtones of “he has indeed come!”
Findlay, First Epistle, p. 734.
Some of the points of comparison between Amos and 1 Corinthians here examined are found in other Hebrew prophets. My contention is that the overlap between 1 Corinthians and Amos is more extensive.
Thiselton, First Epistle, pp. 23-24.
Amos 1:2 affirms that the Lord “roars.” He is thinking of the roar of a lion. This is evident from Amos 3:8.
Thiselton, First Epistle, pp. 2-3.
In Antioch of Pisidia Paul carried out the same dramatic action (Acts 13:51). In Lk 9:5 Jesus instructs his disciples, when rejected, to shake off the “dust of the feet.” This has to do with dust that arises from the feet and enters a person’s outer cloak. The rejected messenger is told to take the cloak off and shake it as he or she departs.
The RSV translates this word as “pagans.” The Greek word is ethne (Gentiles).
Some of the notations in this index are gleaned from T. H. Darlow and H. F. Moule, Polyglotts and Languages Other Than English, vol. II in Historical Catalogue of the Printed Editions of Holy Scripture in the Library of the British and Foreign Bible Society (New York: Kraus Reprint, 1964). See also Ignazio Guidi, “Le traduzione degle Evangelii in Arabo e in Etiopico,” Atti della Reale Accademia die Lincei, anno cclxxv [1888], pp. 5-37; Bruce M. Metzger, “A Survey of Recent Research on the Ancient Versions of the New Testament,” New Testament Studies 2 (1955/56): 1-16. A more complete bibliography is available from Kenneth E. Bailey, Poet and Peasant (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1980), pp. 218-19.