Author
Paul is the undisputed author of this letter.
Date
This book was written around 53-54 AD.
Historical Setting
Corinth was a big city crossroads with lots of ethnicities and religions – a melting pot. There was a high population of freed slaves who came to make their fortune and they were highly independent people.
The letter was written while Paul was imprisoned in Ephesus. Paul wrote more to this community than any other. He alludes to several other letters that he wrote that have been lost. Also lost are the letters that the community wrote to him
Theology
The Corinthian community was divided into rival factions and Paul finds this an absurd and intolerable situation. At the beginning of the letter, he makes a plea for unity. Over and over, Paul exhorts the community to live up to the holy standards to which they have been called.
The Corinthians considered themselves to be “spiritual” people but Paul has to correct their notion of what that really means.
Items of Note
Manuscript trivia
There is a papyrus housed in the Chester Beatty Museum near Dublin, Ireland. Its scholarly title is P46 and it contains virtually the entire letter of 1 Corinthians minus a few verses. It dates to about 200 AD, approximately 150 years after Paul wrote the letter. This is the earliest manuscript of anything in the NT that we have. For comparison, the earliest manuscript of a gospel that we have dates to about the 4th century. Most of P46 resides in Ireland but some of its pages reside with the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor. Scholars are not sure where the manuscript came from. It appeared on the antiquities market in the 1930s and was sold to various people.
Letter
The genre of this book is that of a letter. An important thing to remember about letters is that they only give us one side of the story. Paul established his communities by living with them and teaching them over the course of months, or, as in the case of Corinth, perhaps years. When the letter was read in the assembly, it would have been heard and interpreted against the backdrop of all of Paul’s oral teaching. Paul did not repeat this oral teaching in the letter but it is altogether necessary for the interpretation of the letter. In Catholic understanding, we call this Tradition – the memory of the oral teaching, handed down through the generations and used to interpret Scripture.
Outline
1 Corinthians is such a long and influential book that it is split up over all three liturgical years. We read from it for 5-7 around January every year.
Year A: 1 Cor 1-4 – Part I: the factions
Year B: 1 Cor 5-11 Part II: problems of behavior; Q&A
Year C: 1 Cor 12-14 Part III: Problems of charisms and the response of love; plus 15-16 closing material