“How is it then, brethren? when ye come together, every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying.”Read the surrounding chapter
Time, place, and setting
- Time
- Paul wrote from Ephesus, probably in AD 54 or 55; the exact year is reconstructed. 5
- Place
- The letter addresses Corinth in Achaia. Ephesus, Macedonia and Jerusalem belong to its network of ministry, travel and relief. 1
- Setting
- Reports of division and a letter of questions prompt instruction about Christ, holiness, marriage, meals, worship, spiritual gifts and resurrection. 1
A map of the whole letter
The opening movement runs from grace and thanksgiving into division and leadership in chapters 1 to 4. Chapters 5 and 6 address holiness, judgment and the body; chapter 7 responds to marriage questions; chapters 8 to 10 consider food, conscience and allegiance. Chapter 11 brings prayer, prophecy and the Lord’s Supper into view, followed by gifts, love and gathered speech in chapters 12 to 14. Chapter 15 answers denial of resurrection, and chapter 16 closes with collection arrangements, travel and greetings. These movements are useful reading units, but their themes also cross the chapter boundaries. 1
Earlier letters and replies help explain the changes of subject. 6 The repeated now concerning introductions mark questions within this ongoing relationship. The opening’s grace and gifts return in later instructions, and the final love command recalls chapter 13. The corporate temple theme also links otherwise separated sections. 19 Corinth’s housing evidence suggests varied material circumstances. 16 That setting helps readers keep the poor, workers and hosts in view alongside teachers and speakers. Acts 18 and 19 supply the named Corinth and Ephesus contexts for Paul, Apollos, Aquila and Priscilla. 1
Chapters 1 to 4: Hear the challenge to boasting
Follow the thanksgiving through 1:9 before the appeal against quarrels. Paul’s questions about crucifixion and baptism confront the claim that a teacher can become the centre of the church’s identity. The cross discussion then answers the standards of wisdom and power by which the Corinthians may assess speakers. Chapter 2’s Spirit language leads into chapter 3’s painful charge of immaturity. Spiritual gifts and impressive speech have not prevented envy. The field, building and temple images locate workers in service to God, with Christ as foundation and God as the giver of growth. 1
A single Gnostic opponent theory cannot be assumed from these disputes. 7 Notice Paul’s language for Apollos and Cephas as well as the language of correction. His suffering fatherhood gains force against Roman paternal expectations. 10 Chapter 4’s irony contrasts the Corinthians’ imagined royalty with apostles who labour and endure dishonour. The cross unsettles judgments based on cultural prestige. 17 Jeremiah 9, Isaiah 29 and 40, Job 5 and Psalm 94 give context to the scriptural quotations about boasting and wisdom. Paul’s use of one saying from Job does not endorse every accusation made by Job’s friends. 1
Chapters 5 and 6: Trace holiness and belonging
The report about a father’s wife in chapter 5 should be heard with the congregation’s proud response. Paul calls for mourning and accountability, using leaven and Passover language to describe a renewed community. Exodus 12 supplies the festival setting, while Deuteronomy 22 names the prohibited relationship. The later distinction between insiders and outsiders clarifies the scope of the church’s responsibility. Chapter 6 then moves from lawsuits and defrauding to the reminder that believers have been washed, sanctified and justified. The body’s resurrection and union with Christ ground the call to glorify God bodily. 1
The Spirit’s sanctifying work belongs with his empowering activity. 9 Romans 6 and 8 and Galatians 5 provide further explicit contexts for new allegiance and life in the Spirit. Paul’s body language reaches beyond private conduct to the community, but the personal and corporate temple uses should still be distinguished. The letter directs believers toward truthful relations, holiness and care because they belong to Christ. The gospel announcement precedes and supports those responsibilities. It is the grace of God that makes the new life possible and gives the congregation a reason to turn from its earlier practices. 1
Chapter 7: Keep the cases and qualifications together
The chapter begins with matters the Corinthians wrote about and then differentiates husband and wife, unmarried people and widows, separating spouses, mixed marriages and virgins. Paul identifies when he recalls the Lord’s instruction and when he gives counsel for a situation not directly covered by that saying. His advice includes mutual consent, peace, the present distress and undivided attention to the Lord. The command to remain in a calling appears alongside language about obtaining freedom and being Christ’s servant; the historical institution of slavery should not be turned into a timeless command to preserve oppression. 1
Paul’s preference recognises that personal gifts differ. 8 Marriage contract language also illuminates the seriousness of the bond. 22 Matthew 19 and Mark 10 provide the Gospel contexts for Jesus’ teaching, and Deuteronomy 24 supplies the legal setting discussed there. The exact identity of the virgin relationship near the chapter’s end and the extent of release in verse 15 remain disputed. These questions should be studied alongside the chapter’s clear affirmations: marriage is not sin, spouses owe one another faithfulness, and a person’s usefulness to Christ is not determined by a single marital pattern. 1
Chapters 8 to 10: Follow knowledge into love
Chapter 8 begins with knowledge and immediately contrasts puffing up with love’s building up. Paul confesses one God and one Lord, then considers someone whose conscience remains tied to an idol. Chapter 9’s defence of apostolic rights is part of the reply: Paul can restrain a genuine right for the gospel. Chapter 10 warns through wilderness examples before distinguishing the Lord’s table, cultic meals, market buying and a neighbour’s invitation. Exodus 14, 16, 17 and 32, Numbers 14, 16, 21 and 25, and Deuteronomy 32 supply the named historical contexts. 1
Voluntary restraint links the food question with the leader disputes. 15 The meat market has support in Corinthian inscription evidence. 11 Its role helps readers distinguish ordinary purchase from deliberately identified sacrificial participation. The recurring questions concern another person’s good, the conscience of a fellow believer, allegiance to Christ and the glory of God. Verse 10:13 belongs in a warning against presumption and idolatry, followed by the command to flee idolatry. Its assurance of God’s faithfulness should be heard there rather than detached from the concrete choices that Paul places before the community. 1
Chapters 11 to 14: Read gifts through love
Chapter 11’s prayer and prophecy instructions precede the rebuke over the Supper. Keep the meal’s hunger, shame and division beside the received bread and cup tradition. Then follow chapter 12’s common Spirit, differing gifts and interdependent body into chapter 13. Love is more than the distribution of material goods. 3 Its patient and truthful character answers the competitive use of gifts. The love passage also advances the surrounding exhortation. 14 Chapter 14 then makes intelligibility, interpretation, learning and comfort the practical tests of gathered speech. 1
Order serves the congregation’s learning and encouragement. 4 Tongues remain valued, public interpretation is required and prophecy is weighed. Chapter 11’s women praying and prophesying must be kept in view when reading 14:34 to 35. Marital boundaries are one proposed historical explanation. 13 Public speaking conventions yield another disputed reconciliation. 20 The uncertainty should not hide the chapter’s repeated aim of edification. Acts 2, 10 and 19 and First Thessalonians 5 provide explicit contexts for the Spirit’s gifts, witness and discernment, while James 5 gives the church a setting for prayer with the sick. 1
Chapter 15: Follow the gospel into bodily hope
Read the received gospel and witness list in 15:1 to 11 before the questions beginning in verse 12. Paul’s last appearance and lowly apostolic status are distinct statements. 21 The argument then follows the consequences of denying resurrection, Christ as firstfruits, the destruction of death and the question about the kind of body raised. The seed illustration concerns transformation, and the spiritual body language belongs with the bodily resurrection already confessed. Genesis 2, Psalms 8 and 110, Isaiah 25 and Hosea 13 help readers hear the scriptural sequence. 1
Paul’s future hope depends upon Christ’s saving history. 12 The firstfruits image carries festival associations within that hope. 18 Luke 24 and John 20 give complete Gospel contexts for the risen Jesus and his witnesses, while First Thessalonians 4 and Second Corinthians 5 address hope amid death and grief. Verse 58 is the chapter’s practical conclusion: steadfast work has meaning because the Lord has overcome death. The collection and personal greetings in chapter 16 then show what such work can involve. The letter ends with grace and love, returning readers to the gifts received and the shared life those gifts are meant to strengthen. 1
Sources
Numbered references support the material above. Scripture quotations use the KJV.
- The Holy Bible, King James VersionKing James translators · 1611
1 Corinthians 1 to 16; Genesis 1, 2, 3; Exodus 12, 14, 16, 17, 32; Numbers 14, 16, 21, 25; Deuteronomy 22, 24, 25, 32; Job 5; Psalms 8, 24, 94, 110; Isaiah 25, 28, 29, 40, 64; Jeremiah 9; Hosea 13; Matthew 19, 26, 28; Mark 10, 14; Luke 22, 24; John 14, 15, 16, 20; Acts 2, 10, 15, 18, 19, 20; Romans 6, 8, 12, 14, 15; 2 Corinthians 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9; Galatians 3, 5; Ephesians 2, 4; 1 Thessalonians 4, 5; James 2, 5; Greek 1 Corinthians 14:3 and 14:26
View the source - A Greek English Lexicon of the New TestamentJoseph Henry Thayer
Complete historical entry 3619, edification and contextual uses in 1 Corinthians 14:3 and 14:26
View the source - The First Epistle to the Corinthians, Cambridge Bible for Schools and CollegesJ. J. Lias · 1896
Complete historical chapter 13 notes and host displayed stereotyped edition title 1896
View the source - Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New TestamentHeinrich August Wilhelm Meyer
Complete historical notes 1 Corinthians 14:26 to 33
View the source - Cornerstone Biblical Commentary, Volume 15, 1 and 2 CorinthiansWilliam Baker; Ralph P. Martin with Carl N. Toney · 2009
Printed pages 3 to 7, introduction, author, dating and occasion; title and copyright, PDF pages 4 to 5, 2009 edition.
View the source - Paul, the Corinthians and the Birth of Christian HermeneuticsMargaret M. Mitchell · 2010
Printed 5 to 8 official licensed excerpt
View the source - Wisdom and Knowledge in 1 CorinthiansE. Earle Ellis · 1974
Printed 83 to 85
View the source - Secular and Christian Responses to Corinthian Famines; 1 Corinthians 7:6 to 7: A Caveat and a Framework for the Sayings in 7:8 to 24Bruce W. Winter · 1989
Printed 94 to 96 and 99 to 102; Printed 62 to 65 (1997)
View the source - The Spirit of Prophecy and Pauline PneumatologyArchie Hui · 1999
Printed 108 to 110
View the source - The Use of the Father Image in Imperial Propaganda and 1 Corinthians 4:14 to 21Eva Maria Lassen · 1991
Printed 131 to 136
View the source - The Meat Market at Corinth, 1 Corinthians 10:25David W. J. Gill · 1992
Printed 390 to 393
View the source - On Raising Osiris in 1 Corinthians 15Nicholas Perrin · 2007
Printed 125 to 127
View the source - Gender Versus Marital Concerns: Does 1 Corinthians 11:2 to 16 Address the Issues of Male Female or Husband Wife?Preston T. Massey · 2013
Printed 252 to 255
View the source - Insights from Cicero on Paul’s Reasoning in 1 Corinthians 12 to 14: Love Sandwich or Five Course Meal?James Patrick · 2004
Printed 57 to 60
View the source - Divisions Over Leaders and Food Offered to Idols: The Parallel Thematic Structures of 1 Corinthians 4:6 to 21 and 8:1 to 11:1E. Coye Still III · 2004
Printed 36 to 39
View the source - Corinth in the First Century AD: The Search for Another ClassDirk Jongkind · 2001
Printed 145 to 147
View the source - Triune Beauty and the Ugly Cross: Towards a Theological AestheticJohn Mark Hart · 2015
Printed 297 to 299 and 302 to 304
View the source - Jewish Pilgrim Festivals and Calendar in Paul’s Ministry with the Gentile ChurchesJin K. Hwang · 2013
Printed 103 to 106
View the source - Temple and Holiness in 1 Corinthians 5Brian S. Rosner · 1991
Printed 141 to 144
View the source - Paul’s Conflicting Statements on Female Public Speaking, 1 Corinthians 11:5, and Silence, 1 Corinthians 14:34 to 35: A New SuggestionArmin D. Baum · 2014
Printed 248 to 250 and 271 to 273
View the source - 1 Corinthians 15:8: Paul the Last ApostlePeter R. Jones · 1985
Printed 7 to 9 and 11 to 14
View the source - 1 Corinthians 7 in the Light of the Graeco Roman Marriage and Divorce Papyri; 1 Corinthians 7 in the Light of the Jewish Greek and Aramaic Marriage and Divorce PapyriDavid Instone Brewer · 2001
Printed 103 to 105 and 113 to 115; Printed 240 to 242 (2001)
View the source