Introduction

A. AUTHORSHIP

Practically all New Testament scholars accept the Pauline authorship of I Corinthians. The nearly unanimous assignment of this letter to Paul is expressed by Robertson and Plummer as follows: “Both the external and the internal evidence for the Pauline authorship are so strong that those who attempt to show that the Apostle was not the writer succeed chiefly in proving their own incompetence as critics.”¹ Since there is general agreement, it is necessary to suggest only briefly the nature of the internal and external evidence for the Pauline authorship.

The internal evidence points to Paul as the author. The general form of the letter, with its opening greetings, the treatment of practical and doctrinal problems, and a warm benediction in closing, follows the familiar pattern in Paul’s Epistles. The style is also Pauline, combining courteous persuasion, passionate exhortation, direct confrontation, and brotherly affection. The language is also typical of Paul. Such phrases as “Jesus Christ our Lord,” “in Christ,” “the spiritual man,” “justified,” and “the body of Christ” are all Pauline expressions. Also the letter associates Paul with the Corinthian church in a way which is not at all flattering to the Corinthians. Thus the letter must have been an accurate description of the situation at Corinth or these people would not have permitted it to stand without refutation.

The external evidence also supports the Pauline authorship. In A.D. 95, Clement of Rome referred to I Corinthians as a letter from the Apostle Paul. This is “the earliest example in literature of a New Testament writer being quoted by name.”² The Muratorian canon, probably appearing at the end of the second century, lists I Corinthians as one of Paul’s letters.³ Tertullian, the father of Latin theology, in his Prescriptions Against Heretics, uses I Corinthians as a Pauline support for the doctrine of the resurrection.⁴ Origen, in a discussion of temptation, also quotes from I Corinthians, and quite naturally refers to Paul as the author.⁵

Paul’s authorship of I Corinthians stands above any serious challenge and may be accepted without reservation. In the words of a noted New Testament scholar and historian: “ … First Corinthians formed the beginning in the earliest collection of the Pauline epistles.”⁶

B. CITY OF CORINTH

Paul went to Corinth about A.D. 50⁷ to conduct an 18-month home missionary campaign. He found himself in a prosperous commercial center. Both land and sea traffic converged on Corinth. The city was built on a narrow neck of land which joined northern and southern Greece (see map 1). All traffic from north to south was funneled through the narrow strip of land dominated by Corinth. In addition, Corinth had natural seaport facilities and a strategic location that made it a thriving shipping center. Most east-west traffic came to the city either to save time or to avoid a long and dangerous journey around the treacherous waters of southern Greece. Cargo could be unloaded, dragged across the narrow, four-mile neck of land, reloaded, and sent out in a much shorter time than traveling several hundred miles around the southern tip of Greece.

About 200 years before Paul arrived in Corinth, a Roman general named Lucius Mummius had plundered and sacked the city in 146 B.C. Julius Caesar rebuilt it in 46 B.C. as a military outpost and as a commercial center of the empire. The city attracted merchants, vagabonds, fortune-hunters, and pleasure-seekers. One writer describes the population in these words:

The riff-raff of the world was there … Scoundrels who found life uncomfortable in their own towns drifted to Corinth. The busy port was notoriously more immoral than any other in the Roman Empire; and that tendency was encouraged because the temple of Venus (Aphrodite), the sensual Greek goddess, still held sway over the new Roman City.⁸

Here Paul again encountered the Greek mind, as he had in Athens. In Corinth, however, “the Greek intellect was not devoted to science, eloquence, or literature … but was given to gaiety and effeminate luxury.”⁹

The outstanding building of Corinth was the temple of Venus, “erected on its acropolis, and towering high above the city, as illustrative of the taste and the character of the Corinthians.”¹⁰ In Corinth, Christianity came into contact “with all that art could devise for the amusement of life; with all that was adapted to nourish the habits of voluptuousness, with all, refined or gross, that could minister to the pleasures of sense.”¹¹ Corinth was one of the most “luxurious, effeminate, ostentatious, and dissolute cities of the world.”¹² It was a place of exceptional immorality and open licentiousness which was encouraged by the worship of Aphrodite, with a thousand temple prostitutes. Recent excavations have discovered 33 taverns behind a colonnade only 100 feet long.¹³ The city contained a theatre with a seating capacity of 18,000 people.¹⁴

So notorious was the depravity of Corinth that the name of the city “had actually passed into the vocabulary of the Greek tongue; and the very word ‘to Corinthianize’ meant ‘to play the wanton.’“¹⁵ Today, except for seven Doric columns which are still standing, and some scattered ruins of masonry, there is nothing left of this once proud city except rubble.¹⁶ It does have a perpetual memorial in the letters that the Apostle Paul wrote to it.

C. THE CHURCH AT CORINTH

God’s grace is sufficient to redeem fully and to sustain continually. Many spiritual churches composed of devout and dedicated saints have attained a high degree of spirituality in sinful and unfavorable environments. But, unfortunately, the church at Corinth was not such a church, for “there were many complications in the attempt of the early Christians to separate themselves from sinful society.”¹⁷ The church at Corinth was a problem church. Paul, in this letter, was led “to denounce the sins which had polluted the Corinthian Church, and almost annulled its right to the name of Christian.”¹⁸

In writing to the Corinthians, Paul reminded them that they were set apart, “called to be saints” (1:2); he complimented those who were enriched in “utterance, and in all knowledge” (1:5); he commended them for their variety of gifts (1:7). But Paul also expressed some serious concern for them. He begged them to come to an agreement among themselves (1:10); he was distressed by the divisions among them (1:11). He drew a graphic picture of the inability of the natural man to understand spiritual concepts (1:18-26). He presented Christ as the supreme object of Christian loyalty and devotion (1:30-31). Paul made a detailed analysis of their spiritual state. And a sordid picture it was. The catalogue of charges that Paul leveled at the Corinthians ran the range from carnal divisions to a denial of the resurrection of Christ. A lesser soul than Paul would have abandoned the church in despair or condemned it in indignation. Paul did neither—he preached Christ to them.

Paul could boldly challenge the Corinthians because he had been God’s instrument in founding the church. His arrival in Corinth near the middle of the first century was not a matter of triumphant anticipation nor of confidence based on past success. He had escaped from Macedonia with his life in peril (Acts 17:13-14). From Thessalonica, in Macedonia, Paul had gone to Athens, where he met with little success among either Jews or Greeks (Acts 17:16-33). Leaving Athens, Paul traveled to Corinth (Acts 18:1), where he stayed for 18 months (Acts 18:11).

At Corinth, the cesspool of the ancient world, Paul was able to win a number of outstanding converts. First Aquila and Pris-cilla were convinced and converted. Timothy and Silas came from Macedonia to assist Paul, and soon Crispus, a ruler of a synagogue, was converted. His change of spiritual life was followed by several more conversions. Among these converts were some people of social stature, such as Titus Justus, whose home became a meeting place for the church. Aquila and Priscilla, already mentioned, were people of strong character and immense industry. There was also Gaius, “who was a man of means and great hospitality, entertaining Paul and the whole church.”¹⁹ Erastus, the city treasurer, became a convert. There may have been other men of stature, but as D. A. Hayes writes: “ … the majority of the church was made up of poor and uncultured people, some from the middle class and more from the slave population.”²⁰ After 18 months at Corinth, Paul went to Ephesus (Acts 18:19). He left behind one of the largest congregations of the Early Church.

D. OCCASION AND PURPOSE OF THE LETTER

After Paul left Corinth, the work of building and consolidating the thriving new church was given to Apollos (Acts 19:1). He was an Alexandrian Jew, an eloquent and learned man (Acts 18:24). He had served his apprenticeship at Ephesus and had preached with a marked fervency the baptism of John (Acts 18:25). In Ephesus his theological education was enhanced by the teaching of Aquila and Priscilla (Acts 18:26). Leaving Ephesus, Apollos had gone to Corinth. No doubt he returned to Ephesus to report on the conditions of the Corinthian church.

In the three years that had passed since Paul left Corinth, the church members had not developed well spiritually. The apostle had written a letter to the church earlier; in I Cor. 5:9 he writes: “I wrote you a letter not to associate with fornicators” (lit.). Apparently the original letter, called by scholars “The Previous Letter,” has been lost. Paul received information that the situation at Corinth was getting worse. He mentioned several sources of information.

1. Chloe’s people. In I Cor. 1:11, Paul states: “For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brethren” (RSV). This report was unsolicited and unauthorized, yet it was true. One writer refers to it as follows: “Both because the information is said to come from these persons rather than from the Corinthian Church … and because of the unfavourable nature of this news, it is safe to assume that these persons were not sent by the Corinthians to bring this news and that their report, therefore, was quite unofficial.”²¹ Deissmann suggests that Chloe may have been a woman of some financial means.²²

2. News of the situation at Corinth also came as a result of a visit of Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus to Ephesus (I Cor. 16:17).

3. The most direct news came from the church itself. The rapidly deteriorating condition alarmed some of the members and they sent a letter to Paul. In I Cor. 7:1 he wrote: “Concerning the questions about which you wrote to me …” (lit.). So a combination of factors caused the apostle to write a letter to the church. It was designed to deal with its problems and to point its members to a life of holiness in Christ.

In the letter from the Corinthians to Paul there were questions about marriage and celibacy, about food offered to idols, about public worship, and probably some about spiritual gifts. But Paul was also concerned about other problems which plagued this church, such as divisions, a quarrelsome spirit, sexual impurity, and an unchristian spirit. Paul wrote a letter presenting the truth that Christianity required a complete renovation of character and conduct—a new morality based on the redeeming power of Christ.

As Hurd has pointed out, “It can now be said that there is clear evidence that I Corinthians is the fourth stage in an exchange which took place between Paul and the Corinthian Church.”²³ These phases of Paul’s relationship to the church are as follows:

PHASE 1:	Paul’s first visit to Corinth and tne establishment of the church.
PHASE 2:	Paul’s “Previous Letter” to the church at Corinth.
PHASE 3:	This phase consisted of two parts. First was the information reported to Paul about Corinth by Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus and by Chloe’s people. In addition to the verbal reports of visitors from Corinth there was the letter written to Paul by the church itself. This letter requested him to advise them on some problems which had developed.
PHASE 4:	The writing of I Corinthians. In this first letter Paul dealt with the questions which the church had directed to him. But he went further, and discussed at length the more serious questions which had been called to his attention by the verbal reports about the situation at Corinth.

E. IMPORTANCE OF THE LETTER

The importance of I Corinthians is sharply in focus in the latter half of the twentieth century. Paul dealt with several problems that make the letter relevant today. The first of these is that he was dealing with a church in a secular, urban culture. Deissmann writes: “The cosmopolitan cities were especially his sphere of work. Paul the city-dweller evangelised in the great cities.”²⁴ Another writer says: “… unlike the rural character of contemporary Protestantism, the church of the New Testament was urban.”²⁵

A second reason for the relevance of I Corinthians is the current emphasis on ecumenism. No man possessed a more tolerant spirit than Paul and no man stressed the unity of the church more than he did. But Paul was also careful to base the unity of the church on the doctrine of Christ and the radical change which resulted from a redemptive relationship “in Christ.” A third reason that this letter is significant today is the current stress on a “new morality.” But Paul’s “new morality” came directly from a revelation that “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself.” A final reason for the contemporary meaning of I Corinthians is the rise of interest in the work of the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit. With these vital themes included in the general and specific teachings of this letter to all churches in all ages, the letter called I Corinthians is as relevant as this mornine’s sunrise.

F. DATE AND PLACE OF ORIGIN

The place of the writing is clearly indicated by Paul’s statement: “I will tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost” (I Cor. 16:8). The precise time at which Paul wrote to Corinth during his three-year ministry in Ephesus is not apparent. There is no indication that the church at Corinth was in any difficulty when Paul finished his ministry there. And a party of Apollos would not have developed during the time that Apollos was there, for certainly he did not consider himself a rival of Paul and Peter, much less of Christ! Time would be needed for the spirit of division and pride to develop.

Again, there is mention of a “previous letter” (I Cor. 5:9). Evidently this first letter was dispatched when the early signs of spiritual rebellion began to appear at Corinth.

Another important item in the dating of the letter is the fact that Gallio was proconsul of Achaia while Paul was in Corinth (Acts 18:12-16). An inscription mentioning a civil official named Gallio has been discovered at Delphi, on the opposite side of the narrow neck of land from Corinth. The inscription can be dated, and suggests that Gallio came to Corinth as proconsul in either A.D. 51 or 52.²⁶ When time is allowed for the occurrence of the events described in Acts 17 and 18, between Paul’s departure from Corinth and the time spent in Ephesus, it can be stated that the letter was written during the last year of Paul’s stay in Ephesus, or “somewhere about the mid-fifties.”²⁷ Thus the letter would be one of the apostle’s earlier writings.