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REL 103 - New Testament Survey
The following notes are provided as a supplement to the REL 103 course.
They are intended to supplement, not replace, the readings from the text book.
Comments or questions should be sent to: Dr. Rollinson.
1 Corinthians :
Although the Epistle in the Bible is called "First" Corinthians, there probably was an earlier letter, which was not saved, and has never been found. (see 1 Corinthians 5:9-11)
Paul wrote 1 Corinthians around AD 54, when he was at Ephesus (1 Corinthians 16:8), where messengers from Corinth had come to him with reports of various problems which the Christians in Corinth were having (1 Corinthians 1:11-12). After Paul left Corinth, Apollos also visited, and probably led the Church for a while, though he was with Paul in Ephesus at the time this Epistle was written (Acts 18:24 - 19:1, 1 Corinthians 1:12, 3:4-6 & 16:12), who was probably less well-grounded in the faith than was Paul. The Corinthian Christians were also very prone to be influenced by the Greek/Hellenistic world-view and ways of thinking. It seems that some of them were emphasising "knowledge" about God and Christ, or about angels and heavenly realms (similar to the practices of the Gnostics), rather than living as Christians. The Gnostics taught that one could learn - for a price - special incantations to control spiritual beings, or to get through check-points into heavenly places, or to become spiritually mature ("gnosis" is Greek for "knowledge").
Corinth was also a major sea-port, frequented by sailors from all over the Mediterranean, so there were many bars, brothels and prostitutes. On the top of the mountain overlooking the town there was a temple with "priestesses" who were allowed to go through the town soliciting sex as a (paid) worship service - if the man said yes, he paid her fee; if he said no, he had to pay a fine for insulting a priestess.
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