1 Corinthians

What kind of book this is

1 Corinthians is a letter — but a letter responding to specific problems. Unlike Romans, which is a sustained theological argument, 1 Corinthians moves through a list of issues raised by reports Paul has received (1:11, Chloe’s people have informed me) and by a letter the Corinthians had written to him (7:1, now concerning the matters about which you wrote).

The issues, in order of treatment:

1. Divisions over leaders (chapters 1-4)
2. A specific case of sexual immorality (chapter 5)
3. Lawsuits between believers (chapter 6:1-11)
4. Sexual ethics generally (6:12-20)
5. Marriage, singleness, divorce (chapter 7)
6. Food sacrificed to idols (chapters 8-10)
7. Worship practices: head coverings, Lord’s Supper (chapter 11)
8. Spiritual gifts (chapters 12-14, with 13 as the centre)
9. The resurrection (chapter 15)
10. The collection for Jerusalem and final greetings (chapter 16)

Composition is most often dated to spring 54-55 CE, written from Ephesus (16:8).

Authorship

Pauline authorship is undisputed. 1 Corinthians is one of the seven Hauptbriefe universally accepted as authentic. The letter contains numerous personal details (Paul’s whereabouts, his travel plans, named individuals) consistent with the wider Pauline corpus.

There may have been more than one Pauline letter to Corinth that has not survived. 1 Corinthians 5:9 refers to my previous letter; 2 Corinthians 2:3-4 refers to a severe letter that may or may not be 1 Corinthians. The Corinthian correspondence is more complex than the canonical two letters suggest.

The setting — Roman Corinth

Corinth was one of the major cities of the Roman world. Located on the isthmus connecting the Peloponnese to the Greek mainland, it controlled trade between two seas. It had been destroyed by Rome in 146 BCE and refounded as a Roman colony in 44 BCE — making the Corinth Paul wrote to a relatively new city, populated heavily by Roman freedmen, slaves, traders, and immigrants from across the empire.

The city was famously cosmopolitan and famously diverse in its religious practices. The temple of Aphrodite on the Acrocorinth contributed to Corinth’s reputation. The diversity of the church reflects the city: the letter addresses Jewish believers, Gentile believers, slaves, free, women, men, the well-to-do, the poor, those connected to Roman power, and those at the margins.

The most famous — 1 Corinthians 13 (the “love chapter”)

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no account of wrongs.” (1 Corinthians 13:4-5, BSB)

Read at more weddings in the Western world than almost any other passage. Almost every reading at almost every wedding misses the original setting.

The chapter is positioned within Paul’s discussion of spiritual gifts (chapters 12-14). Chapter 12 has argued that the diverse gifts in the body all matter; chapter 14 will argue that prophecy is more useful than tongues in public worship; chapter 13 is the bridge — naming love (Greek agapē) as the indispensable context within which all gifts function.

The Corinthian church was in conflict over spiritual gifts. Some members were boasting about their tongues; some were dismissing other gifts; some were creating divisions in worship. Paul writes the love chapter into that situation. Love is patient — because impatience was tearing the church apart. Love does not envy — because envy of each other’s gifts was operative. Love keeps no record of wrongs — because wrongs were being kept and rehearsed.

The chapter is not about romantic love. The Greek agapē is the word for intentional regard expressed in action — the kind of love a community can choose. See our /word/ entry on agape and our /passage/ entry on 1 Corinthians 13.

The chapter being read at weddings is not wrong, but it is reading the chapter against its original use. The qualities listed — patience, kindness, not envying, not boasting, bearing all things, enduring all things — are the qualities most needed when love is difficult, not when it is easy. They are calibrated to a community in conflict, which is why they apply so well to long-term marriage. See our /for/ entry on marriage in trouble.

The most misquoted — 1 Corinthians 10:13

“No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will provide an escape, so that you can stand up under it.” (1 Corinthians 10:13, BSB)

The popular misquote: God will not give you more than you can handle. This sentence is not in the Bible.

The actual verse is about peirasmos (πειρασμός) — temptation or moral testing — not about suffering. Paul is in the middle of a section on Israel’s wilderness failures (10:1-12) and his readers’ temptation to participate in idolatry through eating in pagan temples. The verse promises that the temptation to sin will not exceed the resources for resistance.

The verse makes no claim about suffering. Paul himself, in 2 Corinthians 1:8, says that he and his companions were under a burden far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. The same Paul who wrote 1 Corinthians 10:13 also wrote 2 Corinthians 1:8. Suffering can exceed human capacity in the New Testament; temptation, the verse claims, will be matched by an available ekbasis (way out, escape).

Conflating the two has been pastorally damaging. A grieving parent told God will not give you more than you can handle may hear that their grief, by definition, must be within their capacity — when the canon nowhere makes that claim. See our /entry/ on this misquotation.

Surprising content — baptism for the dead (1 Corinthians 15:29)

“Otherwise, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized for them?” (1 Corinthians 15:29, BSB)

Paul mentions a practice — baptism on behalf of the dead — apparently in passing, as a rhetorical argument for the resurrection. The practice is mentioned only here. No other New Testament text refers to it. No clear early Christian source describes what it involved.

Possibilities scholars have proposed: (1) a vicarious baptism by the living on behalf of dead Christians who had not been baptised; (2) a baptism by Christians influenced by the local mystery religions; (3) a ritual specific to one group within the Corinthian church. Paul does not commend or condemn the practice; he uses it as evidence that the Corinthians implicitly assume a resurrection (otherwise the practice would be meaningless).

The Latter-day Saints (Mormon) church practises a form of vicarious baptism for the dead based on this verse. The historical practice in 1st-century Corinth and the contemporary LDS practice are almost certainly different in form and theology, but both root in this single sentence.

Surprising content — 1 Corinthians 14:34-35

“the women are to be silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the Law also says. If they wish to inquire about something, they are to ask their own husbands at home; for it is dishonourable for a woman to speak in the church.” (1 Corinthians 14:34-35, BSB)

One of the most disputed passages in the New Testament. Multiple textual situations:

• Some manuscripts place these two verses after 14:40 rather than after 14:33
• The verses sit awkwardly in their context (chapter 14 is about prophecy and tongues, with the verses on women appearing as a parenthesis)
• The instruction conflicts with 1 Corinthians 11:5, where Paul assumes women are praying and prophesying in church (with their heads covered)

Several scholars have proposed that 14:34-35 are a non-Pauline interpolation — added to the text by a later copyist. The textual displacement (different manuscripts placing them in different positions) is unusual for non-interpolated text. Other scholars defend Pauline authorship and propose various contextual explanations (specific local situation, interruption by women, etc.).

The verses are in the canonical text. The textual situation is genuinely disputed. Both positions are documented in modern critical editions.

The resurrection chapter — 1 Corinthians 15

The longest sustained argument for the resurrection in the New Testament. Key elements:

• 15:3-7 — the earliest Christian creed: Christ died for our sins […] he was buried […] he was raised on the third day […] he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve […] then to more than five hundred brothers at the same time
• 15:12-19 — if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith
• 15:35-49 — the nature of the resurrection body
• 15:51-57 — we will all be changed […] death has been swallowed up in victory

The chapter contains some of Paul’s most concentrated theology. The creed in 15:3-7 is widely regarded as the oldest preserved Christian formula — likely repeated by Christians within five years of Jesus’s death.

Other key passages

• 1 Corinthians 1:18-31 — the foolishness of the cross; not many of you were wise, not many influential, not many of noble birth
• 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 — Paul’s vice list and the such were some of you statement
• 1 Corinthians 10:1-13 — Israel’s wilderness failures as warning
• 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 — the Lord’s Supper institution narrative — the earliest extended NT account
• 1 Corinthians 13 — the love chapter
• 1 Corinthians 15 — the resurrection chapter

Original language

Greek throughout. Paul’s vocabulary in 1 Corinthians is more practical and less abstract than in Romans. Key terms:

• Agapē (ἀγάπη) — love. The dominant term in chapter 13. See our /word/ entry.
• Pneumatikos (πνευματικός) — spiritual; pneumatika (the spiritual things) and charismata (gifts) are central in chapters 12-14
• Glōssa (γλῶσσα) — tongue, language. The basis of glossolalia — speaking in tongues
• Kephalē (κεφαλή) — head. In 11:3 (the head of every man is Christ) — the meaning is debated between authority over and source of

The kephalē debate

1 Corinthians 11:3 begins: the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God. The Greek kephalē (head) has two main proposed meanings in this context:

• Authority over — the traditional reading; head as ruler, as in the head of the household
• Source of — the reading some modern scholars defend; head as origin, as in the head of the river

Both senses are attested in ancient Greek usage. The choice between them substantially changes what the passage claims. Both readings have scholarly defenders. This entry documents the dispute.

Why this book matters

1 Corinthians is the most concrete pastoral letter in the New Testament. Where Romans is theological argument and Hebrews is sustained exposition, 1 Corinthians is Paul addressing real problems in a real church: who’s sleeping with whom, who’s suing whom, what to do about food laws, why women’s head coverings matter (or don’t), how to celebrate the Lord’s Supper without excluding the poor, what to do with people speaking in tongues no one can understand, whether the dead actually rise.

The letter has been the canonical text for thinking about Christian community life. Almost every pastoral situation a church faces today was already faced, in some form, by the Corinthian church Paul knew. The letter’s enduring usefulness has come from its specificity: it does not address abstract Christianity in general, but particular problems in particular community life — which is precisely what makes it transferable.