1 Corinthians

Scholars have commonly located the source of Paul’s analogy for the resurrection body in 1 Cor 15:39–49 in the enumerated creatures of Genesis 1. Some interpreters have suggested Sir 43:1–10 lies behind the reference to the variegated glory of the celestial bodies mentioned in 1 Cor 15:41. Paul seems to list each of the respective terrestrial creatures and their bodies in a hierarchical order, as he does with the celestial bodies, relating the resurrection body to the later. Rather than the eschatological egalitarianism presumed in some attempts to appropriate Pauline eschatology for theological purposes, this text suggests that Paul envisioned the imminent resurrection of the dead would result in a kind of celestial hierarchicalism, a point often overlooked by interpreters. In this paper, I will argue for an alternative source for the celestial hierarchicalism apparent in the formulation of Paul’s resurrection mythos in 1 Cor 15:41, namely, an apocalyptic reception of Exodus tradition rooted in the hierarchical ascent of the cosmic mountain in Exodus 24 and its later reception. As is the case for other apocalypticists before, contemporary with, and after Paul, this paper will provide further evidence that Paul's own particular construal of Jewish eschatological mythoi, while recognizable, would place him squarely alongside other Jewish contemporaries who operate at the fringes of their own tradition in the wider ancient Mediterranean religious landscape.

El Apóstol en 1Cor 7, partiendo de un posible eslogan que circulaba en esta comunidad «bien le está al hombre abstenerse de mujer» (v. 1), desarrolla el tema de la
sexualidad, del matrimonio y también de la renuncia al matrimonio, todo desde la perspectiva del evangelio de Jesús.
La sexualidad y el matrimonio son percibidos como un don de Dios, una gracia, un carisma, es decir, un regalo divino y, por tanto, no cabe una visión pesimista de estas realidades. Son algo bueno, querido por Dios, participan de la bondad de la creación.

This paper discusses the most controversial subject of sex within a spiritual setting, as the holy yoke presented itself among fertility cults of ancient pagan cultures. It presents a fine treatment of the subject with findings rarely traced in modern scholarship.

This is the first revised commentary I have used in the Word Biblical Commentary since Zondervan took over the series a few years ago. Martin’s original 2 Corinthians commentary was among the best commentaries on this difficult letter of Paul. Zondervan’s new updated edition of the commentary will remain one of the first off the shelf for me for many years to come.

There are a few cosmetic changes that make a great deal of sense. First, the introductory pages now use Arabic numerals rather Roman numerals. It was always frustrating in the old WBC series to cite pages by Roman numeral: citing page xxviii looks clumsy. Second, all of the excurses in the commentary are printed on gray pages making them easy to find. I noticed that some of the original excurses are not identified as such in this new addition. Rather, they are simply “notes” on particular issues. It appears the note is only a few pages and an excursus is several pages long. It appears the original commentary excurses are now called notes.

This commentary demonstrates that the Gospel of Mark is a result of a consistent, strictly sequential, hypertextual reworking of the contents of three of Paul’s letters: Galatians, First Corinthians and Philippians. Consequently, it shows that the Marcan Jesus narratively embodies the features of God’s Son who was revealed in the person, teaching, and course of life of Paul the Apostle. The analysis of the topographic and historical details of the Marcan Gospel reveals that they were mainly borrowed from the Septuagint and from the writings of Flavius Josephus. Other literary motifs were taken from various Jewish and Greek writings, including the works of Homer, Herodotus, and Plato. The Gospel of Mark should therefore be regarded as a strictly theological-ethopoeic work, rather than a biographic one.

In Chapter 10 verses 14-22 of Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians, we reach the
climactic rhetorical punchline of a long argument beginning at 8:1, about eating food offered to pagan idols and participating in pagan feasts. Directly following a section where Paul has compared the Corinthian church to Israel during the Exodus (10:1-13), here Paul compares eating at pagan feasts to the Israelites’ sacred meals during the Exodus. This passage has been interpreted in ways that have been uncharitable to people of other religions, but in correcting that overreaction, Christians should be careful to avoid diminishing the force of Paul’s rhetoric. Paul wants to inform the Corinthians that participating in pagan feasts is tantamount to idolatry and must not be engaged in by Christians. An analogous change in my own life would be to avoid similar situations such as Hollywood movies, pop music concerts, professional sports, etc.

Available at an affordable price through this link:
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1 Corinthians: New Covenant Commentary by B. J. Oropeza, engages with numerous recent scholars, primary sources, and is readable for scholars, students, and ministers alike. This pdf provides an excerpt from the commentary and an interview.

This article offers a critique of Stanley Porter’s note, published in ETL of 1991, on the translation of κολλώμενος in 1 Cor 6,12-20. Porter proposes to translate the verb as “to obligate oneself” instead of the more conventional “to join”, because it would better fit the single governing metaphor expressing economic subordination as expressed in v. 20 (“you were bought with a price”). In reply, it is suggested that Paul, in fact, uses three different metaphors in order to illustrate more clearly the new reality Christians are experiencing and the ethical implications of this reality. It is argued that each metaphor is operating on its own conceptual level, and fundamentally and uniquely defines its own terms. The three metaphors are briefly presented and their respective role in the pericope and in Paul’s rhetoric is assessed. It turns out that κολλώμενος is best translated as “to join,” expressing a state that “contains” the Christian as being in relation to God.

The recent scholarly tendency to dismiss the 'Gnostic Hypothesis' as a construct for contextualizing 1 Corinthians has not been distinguished by a strong engagement with either the ancient primary sources from Nag Hammadi or advances in the study of 'Gnosticism'. The implications these two bodies of knowledge could have for our understanding of 1 Corinthians can be deduced from the main argument of Michael A. Williams's Rethinking 'Gnosticism'. Although Williams's study offers powerful arguments against the use of 'Gnosticism' as a construct for classifying Christian groups of the rst four centuries, his work also discusses alternative and potentially more useful tools for comparing these groups with each other. Ironically, by helping us to think about early Christian groups not in terms of whether they were 'Gnostic' or 'non-Gnostic', but rather in terms of how much tension they experienced with their general sociocultural environment, Williams enables us to see that some of Paul's implied addressees in Corinth had very much in common with the authors of Nag Hammadi tractates like the Gospel of Philip.

Gordon Fee is one of the greatest New Testament scholars of the twentieth century. Fee was the general editor of the NICNT series from 1990 to 2012, when he was replaced by Joel Green. Under Fee’s guidance this venerable series has become one of the premier commentaries series. For example, the commentaries on Romans (Doug Moo), Hebrews (Gareth Lee Cockerill), Matthew (R. T. France), Luke (Joel Green) and James (Scot McKnight) are all among the best commentaries published in the last few years.

“Knowledge Puffs Up, but Love Builds Up” (1 Cor 8,1b)
Paul’s Rule of Community Life According to 1 Cor 8,1 – 11,1

Summary: The present paper focuses on the problem of eidōlothyta in 1 Cor 8:1 – 11:1. The author starts with a brief study of the socio-religious background of the issue debated in Corinth. The next step is the rhetorical analysis of the Pauline discourse in 1 Cor 8:1 – 11:1 divided into exordium (8:1-3), propositio (8:1b), argumentatio (8:4-13; 9; 10:1-22) and peroratio (10:23 – 11:1). In the thesis put forward by the apostle, love is given the status of the main component of community life (1 Cor 8:1b). In the name of love the “strong” in Corinth should give up their rights to participate in public meals at pagan temples (1 Cor 8,4-13). This way their “weak” brothers will not be tempted to turn back to idolatry. In 1 Cor 9 Paul presents himself as an example of self-denying love: for the sake of the Gospel he sacrificed his apostolic right to be maintained by the community. Finally, in 1 Cor 10:1-22 Paul interweaves the arguments based on the history of Israel in the desert and on the liturgical symbols to warn the “knowledgeable” that their self-assurance and lack of love can bring them to serving daemons, resulting ultimately in their destruction. In the last paragraph, the author exposes the three characteristics of Christian love as envisaged by Paul: it imitates Jesus, it shows concern for the community upbuilding, and it educates to mature freedom.   

Keywords: eidōlothyta, 1 Cor 8:1 – 11:1, rhetorical analysis, Christian love, community, freedom
Słowa klucze: eidōlothyta, 1 Kor 8,1 – 11,1, analiza retoryczna, miłość chrześcijańska, wspólnota, wolność

This article evaluates Paul’s language of death and resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15. Seeking first to understand the historical and cultural situation that necessitates Paul’s writing of this chapter, it then argues that the dual themes of death and resurrection, when properly understood, are meant to shape the Corinthians’ identity and motivate them toward genuine and lasting transformation in the present. In other words, the theology rich discussion about future resurrection is only the surface issue. This reading helps to better understand how 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 functions within the whole of Paul’s argument. An evaluation of this pericope shows how Paul puts himself forth as an example of one who has correctly embraced both the death and resurrection of Christ in the present. Christ’s sacrificial death and Paul’s embracing of this death would have been a shocking revelation to the Corinthians and the practical implication of this same call to those in today’s church may be equally as shocking to some. Nevertheless, Paul argues for the necessity of this deathly embrace so as to participate in Christ’s resurrection in the present and in the future.

This dissertation explores the Trinitarian concept of perichoresis as a means of demonstrating the relational life of God to be characterised by inclusion and integrity, before examining the Pauline Corinthian epistles, especially the image of the Body of Christ, as providing an ecclesiological model of participation in God. Finally this dissertation asks in what ways the shared life of the Church community can express the inclusion and integrity of God in the ways in which it relates to those who are vulnerable and marginalised, with particular attention paid to those people who are very young, i.e. children, those people who are disabled, and those people who are vulnerably sheltered, e.g. the homeless. In conclusion, this study claims that the perichoretic relationships of the Trinity subsist in self-giving love, which at once unites the Father, Son, and Spirit, and embraces diversity. At the heart of this inclusion and integrity is the paradox of the Cross, where the Spirit not only unites the Trinity in the face of separation and rejection, but also opens up relational spaces for humanity to enter in. The church starts to participate in and celebrate this cruciform embrace through the sharing of the Lord‟s Supper, where the members of the Body receive each other as gift in friendship through enabling participation for all, sharing in each other‟s stories, and celebrating their joy at sharing life together in Christ.

“At the feet of Gamaliel…” (Acts 22:3) Application of Jewish Exegesis in the 1 Corinthians

In the presented book, I have conducted research on the sources of Paul’s theology in the light of Judaism in his time, focusing mainly on Pharisees, but without neglecting other Judaic traditions of this period. These studies do not, however, focus on comparative studies of Paul’s theology and rabbinic theology, but rather on comparative studies in the field of hermeneutics. This includes methods of interpretation and presentation the text of the sacred Scriptures of Israel and the method of the construction of theological thought. This perspective is shown in the embodiment of the methods of rabbinic exegesis in 1 Corinthians, which also established the basis for further studies devoted to Corpus Paulinum.
The research in this paper is largely focused on the presentation and use of codified interpretation methods by Rabbi Hillel, which are connected to rabbinic tradition. Hillel, one of the most prominent figures of rabbinic Judaism, is represented by rabbinic sources as the founder of the exegetical school of Pharisees. In the pantheon of ancient rabbis, the pride of place also goes to Rabbi Gamaliel I (Elder), the grandson of Hillel, who is a bit younger than Hillel and is recognized as a mentor and master of the Apostle Paul. In this way, at least in the first frame, Paul seems to be the heir according to the tradition of the school of Hillel. While analyzing the sources, I examine the possibility of relation between Gamaliel and Hillel and the possible relationship they had with Paul. These studies lead to a better understanding of Paul in regard to the environment and the religious traditions of his time, enabling a better pinpoint of the source of his theology. These studies also give the opportunity to answer the question whether Apostle Paul can be bound to a particular school of theology, and whether or not he was a Hillelite.
The use Hillel’s hermeneutics in the exegetical study of the Paul’s texts gives a better understanding of many places in the Corpus Paulinum, in which the apostle constructs the thoughts in compliance with the rules learned in pharisaical school.
The choice of 1 Corinthians, as a work designed to show the relationship of Paul with hermeneutics of Judaism, was driven by several factors. The first of them is the certainty that 1 Corinthians is the oldest of the Great Letters of Paul and one of the oldest of his works in general, which allows a glimpse into the early thought process of one of the Apostle’s. Based on the results of this study I will be able to continue the work on the application of exegetical methodology in later writings and observe any possible changes. Secondly, the Church at Corinth is a community which consisted of not only pagans, but also Jews, giving Paul a number of possibilities to appeal to the text of Scripture and apply the proper exegetical methods. Finally, the letter is quite extensive (with its 16 chapters), which gives great opportunities to fully grasp the hermeneutic perspective.
The work consists of five main chapters: 1. Interpretation in Antiquity, 2. The hermeneutic of Rabbi Hillel, 3. Gamaliel and Paul; 4. The application of rabbinic exegesis in 1 Corinthians, 5. The theology of Paul in 1 Corinthians as a result of using Jewish methods of interpretation of Scripture.
The issue of ancient interpretation and its methodology is discussed in Chapter 1 of the dissertation. It concerns two cultural circles: Hellenism and Judaism, since not only do they impinge on each other, but also on the thought of the Apostle of Nations. I present the philosophical and legal methodology in the context of the Hellenistic philosophy. These are associated with the interpretation of the world and the texts of major importance for the Greek and Roman religion and philosophy, as well as Greek and Roman law. Within Judaism I point out many traditions which, in a specified way are related to the biblical message, and which are certified by midrashim, targums, pesher, as well as by the representatives of the Jewish literature of Alexandria (Septuagint, Aristobulus Peneas and Philo).
Chapter 2 of my dissertation focuses on the hermeneutics of Rabbi Hillel. I present in it the theory and examples of the use of seven middot included in the corpus hermeneuticum of Rabbi Hillel. Therefore, this chapter presents the methods of interpretation: 1. Qal wa-ḥomer (rmwxw lq); 2. Gezera szawa (hwwX hrzg); 3. Binjan ab mi-katub echad (dxa bwtkm ba !ynb); 4. Binjan ab mi-schne ketubim (mybwtk ynXm ba !ynb); 5. Kelal u-ferat u-ferat u-kelal (llkw jrpw jrpw llk); 6. Ke-joṣe bo be-maqom aḥer (rxa ~wqmb wb acwyk) and 7. Dabar ha-lamed me-‘injano (wnyny[m dmlh rbd).
In addition, Chapter 2 presents the rabbinic sources, the state of research into the methods of Hillel and the possible reasons for introduction of his hermeneutic in the area of Palestinian Judaism of the Second Temple period.
The extraction of the methodology of Hillel and placing it in a separate section is motivated by the fact that it is the first hermeneutical system in Judaism, and creates a very specific set. The Jewish exegetical methodology presented in Chapter 1 was “fished out” from the numerous textual evidence, where we can only read about it. Nowhere was it included in the terms of the theory of interpretation and never had it been codified. It is, however, an illustration of the thoughts and practices concerning the interpretation of the text. In addition, the description of the methods used in the interpretation of Hillel is placed in a separate section due to the fact that his theory of exegesis is the basis for the interpretation of Scripture in the circle of the Pharisees in which Paul grew up.
In Chapter 3, Gamaliel and Paul, I present the relationship between Gamaliel I and Paul, as well as its potential impact on Paul’s hermeneutic thoughts. Describing this issue in a separate chapter is extremely important and was done for several underlying reasons. First of all, the rabbinical literature leaves no certificate indicating that Gamaliel I was a member of the House of Hillel. Therefore, the work calls for special attention regarding this issue. Second of all, in none of his letters does Paul make a directly link to the person and the thought of Hillel. Thirdly, it is of significant importance to look at the perspective of the education system in the first century rabbinical schools, in order to shed more light on Paul’s studies “at the feet of Gamaliel” (Acts 22:3).
Chapter 4 shows the use of the methods of rabbinic exegesis in 1 Corinthians. The elements of interpretation of Scripture pointed out in it are strictly related to the methodology of Hillel, as they indicate the presence of other exegetical traditions of Judaism, which Paul was familiar with.
The final chapter (Chapter 5) is dedicated to the presentation of the synthesis of theological thoughts presented in 1 Corinthians. It is largely the result of Paul’s reinterpretation of the Bible of Israel, which he creates with the use of rabbinic exegetical workshop.
Presentation of the theological thought in the form of a concise synthesis of the theology of the letter is important, as it allows to show a full picture of the Paul’s thought. Illustrating the kerygma is important not only for the community of Corinth, but also for the one that can have its application in contemporary practical theology. This is this the moment in which exegesis fulfills its function in the extensive domain of theology.

If racism is America’s original sin, it is also one of America’s most pressing contemporary problems. Indeed, Edwards’ recent research suggests that even intentionally multi-racial congregations often reproduce and reinforce white hegemony rather than undermine it. In this article, I first bring Edwards’ sociological research into dialogue with the theological critiques of racism within the ecclesia raised by Jennings and Sanders. I then offer a theological interpretation of 1 Corinthians 11:17–12:26 from the social location of American multi-racial churches subject to and complicit with racism for the purpose of those churches’ missional embodiment of an alternative politics. I argue that Paul critiques the church for gathering in ways more Corinthian than Christian. The solution is for the church to rearrange its communal life together in line with the eschatological ‘logic of the cross’. Such a cruciform community affords greater honor within the ecclesia precisely to those who lack it in the broader culture. In the concluding section, I consider how contemporary multi-racial churches might live out this ‘militant, reconciling ecclesiology’ today.

This new volume in the Tyndale New Testament Commentary series replaces the 1958 commentary by Leon Morris, originally published by Eerdmans. This is the second replacement volume published since the New Testament Tyndale Commentary moved to IVP Academic a few years ago (Ian Paul, Revelation).

Schreiner is well known in evangelical circles. He is Professor of New Testament Interpretation at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and has served as president of the Evangelical Theological Society. In addition to numerous books and articles, Schreiner has contributed major commentaries on Romans (Baker, 1998, Second Edition, 2018) and Galatians (Zondervan, 2010) as well as New Testament Theology (Baker, 2008) and a Pauline theology, Paul, Apostle of God's Glory in Christ (IVP Academic 2006).

A good part of the social and economic life in Corinthians took place at the idolatrous temples. Some believers, being actively involved in the community life, allowed themselves to participate in the sacrificial acts of these temples, believing that they were not spiritually affected. Their arguement for attending these sacrifices were that the idols did not mean anything to them, and their Baptism and participating at the Lord’s Supper protected them against demonic attacks.
Apostole Paul provides a few arguements against this practice. In chapter 8, the arguements are made from the relational viewpoint. Those who are strong in their faith cannot be ignorant to the vulneribility of those who are weak. In chapter 10, which we refer to in this paper, the apostle's arguments are theological. Baptism and Lord's Supper can not be a substitute for obedience, and if we are united with the Lord by attending the Communion, it means that participation at the idolatrous tables unites the participant with the demon behind the altar. So, both the relational and the theological arguments are against the Corinthians' participation at the idolatrous meals.

W. Kosek, The covenant making in Ex 1-18 on the background of ancient Near East customs.
The article presents 6–element structure of the ancient Hittite covenant treaty in light of its connection with the 4-element ancient rite of the covenant making. Some examples of scholars’ works have been shown to illustrate difficulties in discovering the Hittite pattern of the treaty of the suzerainty covenant in the Holy Bible. The main aim of this article is to prove that the entirety of Ex 1-18 has the six–element structure of the Hittite covenant treaty. Ex 1–18 is the certificate of the covenant made (cut) by God and Israel in their passage between halves of the split waters of the Sea of Reeds.

This monograph is an entirely different work than the three-volume Apostasy in the New Testament Communities set. The latter is comprehensive of the entire New Testament. Paul and Apostasy covers a history of interpretation on Perseverance and Apostasy (from the first century to end of the 20th) and the exegesis focuses on 1 Corinthians, primarily 10:1-13. See contents below.

The present article offers a concise comparison between the Vatican Council’s and Saint Paul’s teaching on marriage. Starting with the constitutions Gaudium et spes and Lumen gentium, the author demonstrates the council’s personalist approach to the marriage partnership understood as both spiritual and physical community of life characterized by equality between man and woman. The marriage transcends the purely natural order being established by the Creator himself and guarded by his laws. The Council stresses its indissolubility and sacramental character which reflects the love of Christ toward the Church and involves the grace that consecrates the spouses and enables them to fulfill their parental obligations. In the next part, the author shows how the teaching of Saint Paul in 1 Cor 7 prepares the ground for the council’s theology of marriage. The point of departure are the problems which the Christian marriages face in Corinth and which are quite similar to the contemporary challenges. Paul, referring to the command of the Lord, promotes the indissolubility of the Christian marriage (7,10-11) and its personalist character, imposing mutual and equal obligations on men and women (1 Cor 7,3-6). In 1 Cor 7 one can spot the emerging sacramental theology of marriage. The apostle differentiates it from the pagan marriages (1 Cor 7,12-16) and describes as stipulated “in the Lord” (1 Cor 7,39). The purpose of marriage is the mutual sanctification of the spouses and their offspring (1 Cor 7,12-14). The sacramental vision of marriage emerging in Cor 7 will be further elaborated by the Pauline school in Eph 5,21-33.


Keywords: Vatican Council, Gaudium et spes, Lumen gentium, marriage, celibacy, sacrament, indissolubility, saint Paul, 1 Cor 7

Author: Alex Bearden
Publisher: CBE International

An unfortunate history of misinterpretation and abuse has surrounded 1 Corinthians 11:2-16. It has been taken out of context and used to suppress women’s involvement in the ministry of the church. The egalitarian interpretation, however, finally perceives this verse, not as a tool of oppression, but as one with a helpful cross-cultural message. At the outset of my paper I will disclose the three most prominent complementarian objections to an egalitarian interpretation: (1) the hierarchy Paul describes in v. 3 lays out a subordinating chain of command, (2) the word “authority” in verse 10 takes a passive meaning and thereby refers to the husband’s authority over the wife, and (3) that while women do not have to wear head coverings today they still need to pray and prophesy in a manner that is submissive to male leadership in the church.

This study surveys and evaluates several options for interpreting the puzzling phrase, "The 'not beyond what is written'" in 1 Cor 4:6. It concludes by suggesting this as a case of rhetorical ἀμφιβολία, a type of double entendre that has similarities with double coding.

All too often a small section of the Bible, say a verse or two, is used to justify or negate a contemporary viewpoint. Scant regard is given to the multiple contexts which inform these verses and help to bring understanding of what the verses likely meant when they were written. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians suffers particularly from this. The minutiae of two words that occur in a ‘vice list’ in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 are lifted out of context and used as a biblical appeal to make decisions about issues that have grabbed attention today. This offends any usual approach to literature. At a deeper, theological level it offends an understanding of the importance of the incarnation and the importance of history. The material reality and value of history is one of the great affirmations of the Judeo-Christian story. What must be rejected is the isolated focus on two words in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 (malakos and arsenokoites) that assumes that a dictionary study will yield the meaning in this literary and historical contexts. Modern scholarship recognises that words only have meaning in a specific context.

Therefore, if these verses of Paul’s letter, and the particular words in them, are to be understood meaningfully, they need to be set into two broad contexts. Firstly, there is the literary context of the larger section of the first letter to the Corinthians in which the verses occur. Secondly, there is the historical context which determines what meaning these verses could have in the time of their writing. Within these two broad fields are further levels of context. On the literary side, there is the rhetoric — the persuasive intent — of vice lists and their use in literature, that is, what are they designed to achieve as a response by those who read or hear them. There is also the structural context, that is the larger section of writing in which the vice list in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 occurs. This larger section is all about an address of a specific pastoral issue in the Corinthian community. On the historical side, there is a great need to be sensitive to issues of gender in the first century of our era. This means recognising the expectations placed upon the behaviour of freeborn males of high status. It also means recognising the Roman imperial context that values the assertion of power by a privileged few over the many others.

The larger literary unit within which the vice-list occurs is 1 Corinthians chapters five and six. This larger unit deals with a major pastoral and communal issue that has been reported to Paul, namely, incest. What Paul is concerned about is how the offender is to be characterised and managed and how the wider community is to consider the offender. This is the controlling context for the vice list. It is used as a means to draw out the general ethical significance of the specific offender and to instruct the community about how to understand this offence. The vice list operates within this framework, a framework that determines a behaviour as incest. It has nothing to do with either modern conceptions of homosexuality or ancient same-sex relationships. It judges the dishonour and violence of the incestuous male offender to be against the father/husband of the woman involved. Notably the woman is given little significance in the whole affair — this tallies with ancient concerns about the honour of freeborn males. Significantly however, Paul does not rest a decision in a legalistic application of a summary vice-list. He is concerned to correct another summary slogan used at Corinth: “all things are lawful”. For Paul, the freedom of the gospel is about freedom for the other person in the community and in society, whoever they may be. Incest has fractured this freedom. This accent on community service rather than a worried avoidance of vices is found in one other gospel text, the parable of the Pharisee and the Toll-Collector (Luke 18:9-14). Luke is writing to address the problem of a leadership that has drifted from the freedom and mercy of the good news to a reliance on righteous attainment. In this story, we have a gospel message that matches the intention of Paul’s writing.

This article examines the attested responses to the Great Famine by the Early Christians generally and the apostle Paul in particular. By doing so, it demonstrates that the collection was not a requirement of Peter, James and John, but was raised by the Corinthian, Macedonian, and Galatian churches themselves separately, and was first accepted by Paul, then taken up by Paul as his own project as he assumed leadership. Finally, it is proven by this article that the Jerusalem Donation, as it is called, raised by Paul and his Gentile churches, proved a great success, as it was welcomed by the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem far more warmly than has hitherto been acknowledged by some biblical scholars.

The article interprets Paul’s instruction for the Lord’s Supper according to 1 Corinthian's 10 and 11 within the context of early Christian traditions about the Eucharist. It is argued that the so-called “words of institution” were not part of early Christian communal meals in the first  and second centuries. Instead, they are an interpretation of the meaning and content of the meal as a remembrance and representation of Jesus Christ in the community.

Las limitaciones que el apóstol Pablo impone al ministerio de la mujer contradicen directamente a lo que la sociedad contemporánea define como la igualdad de género. Razón por la que el feminismo secular ignora lo que el Nuevo Testamento dice al respecto. Sin embargo, el feminismo evangélico, en su afán por adaptarse al estándar social sin rechazar las Escrituras, intenta ofrecer explicaciones afines a su contexto cultural. Las diferentes alternativas igualitarias ponen en tela de juicio la autoridad del texto sagrado, al negar la relevancia de 1 Corintios 14:34–35 en base a argumentos históricos y culturales. Lo que en definitiva conlleva a interpretaciones insatisfactorias. Sin embargo, la inerrancia e inspiración de las Escrituras no permiten que un determinado pasaje sea el resultado de la supuesta androginia o contexto cultural de un autor. Las palabras de 1 Corintios 14:34–35 son el producto de la acción divina, y por lo tanto tienen autoridad. Aunque uno comprenda que estos versículos puedan ser controvertidos, y contrarios a lo que el mundo occidental define como igualdad de género, no es razón suficiente para rechazarlos.