The First Epistle to the Corinthians (, ) is among the Pauline epistles in the New Testament. It was written to address various issues that had arisen in the Christian congregation at Corinth, such as divisions in the church; sexual immorality; directions on marriage, food sacrificed to idols, worship, and spiritual gifts; and the resurrection of Jesus.

Pauline authorship of this letter is undisputed, although certain passages are regarded as later interpolations to the text. Despite the traditional title, most scholars do not believe that it is the first of the letters that Paul wrote for the Corinthians, as at he refers back to an earlier letter. Sosthenes is mentioned in the incipit (). Many scholars believe he was a co-sender, although some do not exclude that he could have been an amanuensis.

Composition Authorship

According to the consensus among scholars, Paul is the author of this epistle. Paul names Sosthenes as co-sender in the opening greeting (), although the letter is written throughout in the first-person singular and his precise role is uncertain.. Paul does state that he himself wrote the greetings near the end of the letter.

Some scholars point to the potentially embarrassing references to practices of "sexual immorality" among the Corinthian saints as strengthening the case for the authenticity of the letter to the circumstances of its recipients.

Date and Place Some scholars, considering the Book of Acts and the references to Ephesus in the Corinthian correspondence, suggest that the letter was written during the time that Paul was staying in Ephesus, usually in the range of 53–57 CE.Corinthians, First Epistle to the, "The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia", Ed. James Orr, 1915.Pauline Chronology: His Life and Missionary Work, from Catholic Resources by Felix Just, S.J.

It may have been written during Paul's first, brief stay in Ephesus, at the end of his second journey around early 54 CE.Anthony C. Thiselton, The First Epistle to the Corinthians (Eerdmans, 2000), 31. However, it is more likely that it was written during his extended stay in Ephesus, where he states that he will send Timothy to them., C. K. Barrett connects the journeys of and with Paul's sending of Timothy and Erastus into Macedonia during that journey (), which he takes as a means of dating the letter.

Attestations Although the original Pauline manuscript, or autograph, has not survived, the text is preserved in several manuscripts (with textual variants), the earliest of which being Papyrus 46 (175–225 CE). It is copied in such codices as the Codex Vaticanus (325–350 CE), Codex Sinaiticus (330–360 CE), and Codex Alexandrinus (400–440 CE). It may have been included in the Apostolikon, the earliest attested canon of the New Testament which was sorted by Marcion of Sinope.

Other correspondences Although there are only two canonical epistles from Paul to Corinth, he himself acknowledges two other letters that he wrote to them: the Severe Letter between the two canonical epistles to the Corinthians, and the Warning Letter that precedes the first.

Paul indicates that at least some of his responses are to certain concerns made known to him by writings from the Corinthian saints,The first instance of a written concern from the Corinthians appears in though he also mentions issues brought to his attention by "Chloe's people."

The Third Epistle to the Corinthians was probably pseudepigraphic and not written by Paul despite the claims made in the text.

Text

Interpolations

Later insertion in 6:20 The majority of early manuscripts end chapter 6 with the words . The Textus Receptus adds , which the New King James Version translates as "and in your spirit, which are (i.e. body and spirit) God's". NKJV J. J. Lias, in the Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, notes that "these words are not found in many of the best MSS. and versions, and they somewhat weaken the force of the argument, which is intended to assert the dignity of the body. They were perhaps inserted by some who, missing the point of the Apostle's argument, thought that the worship of the spirit was unduly passed over."Lias, J. J., Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges on 1 Corinthians 6, accessed on 26 March 2017

Later insertion of 14:34–35 The most discussed textual integrity question in the letter concerns 1 Corinthians 14:34–35:

Manuscript evidence The verses appear in every extant Greek manuscript, but a group of Western manuscripts places them after verse 40 instead: Codex Claromontanus (D), Codex Sangermanensis (E), Codex Augiensis (F), Codex Boernerianus (G) and the original hand of Minuscule 88, together with some Old Latin manuscripts and Ambrosiaster. Bruce M. Metzger notes that these manuscripts are not all independent of one another: Sangermanensis was copied from Claromontanus in the ninth or tenth century and is "of no independent value", while Boernerianus is "closely akin" in its type of text to Augiensis, both of them probably going back to a common archetype one or two generations earlier.

Scholarly opinions Joseph Fitzmyer reports that most commentators today treat them as a post-Pauline interpolation from the milieu that produced which some believe was not authored by Paul, and lists the view for Johannes Weiss, C. K. Barrett (hesitantly), Gordon Fee, Richard B. Hays, Wolfgang Schrage and Philip B. Payne among others. Fee, who argues the case at length, holds that suspicion arose on external grounds and that the transcriptional question comes first. Hays rests it rather on internal features: the passage stands against , where women pray and prophesy in the assembly; it addresses "the churches" at large, unlike the rest of a letter written to one congregation; and its unqualified appeal to "the law" is uncharacteristic of Paul. Payne has adduced the Latin Codex Fuldensis and scribal abbreviation in Vaticanus as early evidence that the passage was marked as an addition. Proponents differ over the extent of the addition: Hans Conzelmann took the unit to run from verse 33b to verse 36, while Fee and Hays hold that only verses 34 and 35 are text-critically suspect. Scholars such as Bart D. Ehrman also believe that the verses could possibly be interpolated. According to them, these passages interrupt the flow of Paul's argument.

Others defend the verses as Pauline. Raymond Collins judges the arguments for interpolation "not weighty": the Western manuscripts that move the passage are few and closely related, the oldest manuscripts carry it in its usual position, and six of its expressions recur nearby in the letter, among them the appeal to what "the law says" at ; Anthony C. Thiselton endorses that assessment. Barrett observes that the dislocation admits of two explanations: copyists may have inserted a marginal note at different points, or they may have moved an original passage that interrupted the discussion of prophecy in order to smooth the text. E. Earle Ellis and Daniel B. Wallace argue that any such marginal note may have been written by Paul himself.Daniel B. Wallace: The Textual Problem of 1 Corinthians 14:34–35 Bible.org, June 26th 2004.

Fitzmyer distinguishes five main lines of interpretation of the passage. He and Collins prefer the reading on which verses 34 and 35 quote a restrictive position held by some Corinthian men, which Paul rebuts with the rhetorical questions of verse 36; Hays, Thiselton and David E. Garland reject it. Thiselton takes the silence to concern a particular kind of speech, and specifically a kind of interrogation during the weighing of prophecy, and not speech in general.

Unity Some scholars have held that 1 Corinthians combines material from more than one letter; Johannes Weiss proposed such a division in 1910 and Walter Schmithals, in a series of writings from 1956, first divided the letter into two and later into as many as thirteen. On an analysis associated with Jean Héring, takes a rigorist line on food sacrificed to idols that conflicts with the more permissive treatment at and , and the passages are assigned to different letters.Walter Schmithals, Gnosticism in Corinth (Nashville: Abingdon, 1971), 14, 92–95; Lamar Cope, "First Corinthians 8–10: Continuity or Contradiction?" Anglican Theological Review: Supplementary Series II. Christ and His Communities (Mar. 1990) 114–23. No manuscript attests any such division, although Barrett holds that this consideration carries no weight, since manuscripts cannot show the state of the text before publication.

Most commentators defend the letter's unity. Gordon Fee holds that the alleged contradictions are "invariably resolvable exegetically", the tension in the idol-food material arising because Paul addresses two related but distinct matters: attendance at sacrificial feasts in pagan shrines, which he forbids, and food bought in the market or served in a private house, which he permits. Fee also identifies a recurring "A-B-A" pattern of argument in the letter, in which a general theological perspective is followed by a digression and then by a specific response. Both Fee and Raymond F. Collins observe that the partition theories do not agree with one another; Collins notes that Weiss and Schmithals each changed their minds about how the letter should be divided, and concludes that "the language of the letter is such that it must be viewed as a single composition", citing sustained defences of unity by John C. Hurd, Helmut Merklein and Dieter Lührmann, and the rhetorical analysis of Margaret M. Mitchell. C. K. Barrett records the view that "no partition theory in regard to 1 Corinthians seems more probable than that Paul simply wrote the letter through, beginning with chapter i and finishing with chapter xvi", adding that the matter is "primarily a question for exegesis". Other scholars likewise argue for the unity of .Joop F. M. Smit, About the Idol Offerings (Leuven: Peeters, 2000); B. J. Oropeza, "Laying to Rest the Midrash," Biblica 79 (1998) 57–68.

Structure

The epistle is generally divided into a number of sections. For example: John Barclay argues for five main parts in addition to the opening salutation and thanksgiving, and the closing comments. Robertson and Plummer divide the letter into two parts: one part () deals with issues raised by "Chloe's people" (see ) and the other part (chapters 7-16) addresses issues raised by a delegation (see ). Daniel B. Wallace sets out six main sections:Wallace, D. B., 7. 1 Corinthians: Introduction, Argument, and Outline, from the series "New Testament: Introductions and Outlines", Bible.org, accessed on 4 February 2025

Salutation () and thanksgiving () Paul addresses the issue regarding challenges to his apostleship and defends the issue by claiming that it was given to him through a revelation from Christ. The salutation (the first section of the letter) reinforces the legitimacy of Paul's apostolic claim. The thanksgiving part of the letter is typical of Hellenistic letter writing. In a thanksgiving recitation, the writer thanks God for health, a safe journey, deliverance from danger, or good fortune. In this letter, the thanksgiving "introduces charismata and gnosis, topics to which Paul will return and that he will discuss at greater length later in the letter". Division in Corinth () Facts of division Causes of division Cure for division Immorality in Corinth () Discipline an immoral Brother Resolving personal disputes Sexual purity Difficulties in Corinth () Marriage Christian liberty Worship Doctrine of Resurrection () Closing ().

Content

Some time before 2 Corinthians was written, Paul paid the church at Corinth a second visit; to check some rising disorder,; and wrote them a letter, now lost. The church had also been visited by Apollos, perhaps by Peter, and by some Jewish Christians who brought with them letters of commendation from Jerusalem.; ; ;