Yale Divinity School Dean Harold W. Attridge and Professor Emeritus David L. Bartlett discuss The First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians, Ch. 15. This is session 8 of 8 videos for the First Letter…
I’m not convinced by all that they say – but I found it an enjoyable watch – perhaps the series would be an interesting set of discussion starters for a Bible study group…
I want to explore something a little more that I’ve explored here before, related to the “denial of resurrection” in Corinth: To get you up to speed, I guess I’m wondering whether perhaps the problem was tripartite:
Paul responds by insisting that the life of the believer consists in living an ongoing death (i.e. the pattern of the cross), and looking ahead, with those who have died, to Christ’s future appearing, when the dead will be raised, and will finally share in Christ’s immortality.
Anyway, the further development is that I’ve been looking more into the question of whether point 1 above is reasonable: Is it reasonable to think that people thought of themselves as already having entered a sort of spiritual immortality. I had already noticed that the Epicureans thought that way – presently imperishable and immortal…
Epicurus: Letter to Menoeceus, 123 Firstly, think of God as an imperishable and blessed being. 125 Therefore death, the most fearsome of evils, is nothing to us, seeing as when we exist, death is not present; and when death is present, we do not exist. So death is nothing to those who are living or to those who have died, seeing as for the one, it is nothing, and for the other, they are nothing. 135 But you [the follower of Epicurus' ways] will live as a god among humans. For a person living amidst immortal goods is nothing like a mortal being. Plutarch: Against Epicurean Happiness, 1091b-c What great pleasure belongs to these people [the Epicureans], and what blessing they enjoy, rejoicing about their lack of suffering and grief and pain! Therefore, is it not fitting, on account of these things, also to think and to speak as they do speak, calling themselves imperishable and equal to gods…!And it has now struck me that Philo seems to envisage something similar – the possibility of entering imperishability/immortality in the present, in some sort of spiritual sense:
Philo: The Worse Attacks the Better, 48-49 For the soul from which the love of virtue and love of God have been removed has died to the life of virtue…. So then, the wise person, who seems to die to mortal life, lives the immortal life. But the worthless person, who lives in wickedness, dies to happiness. Philo: On Dreams, 2.253 Whoever, then, has the strength to leave behind war and fate, creation and mortality, and cross over to the uncreated, to the immortal, to free will, and to peace, might rightly be said to be the dwelling-place and city of God.Perhaps some in Corinth were acting as though something similar had been inaugurated for themselves – having become Christians, they had passed from “creation and mortality” to “the uncreated, to the immortal, to free will” – and thus were in a position to look down on those who had died: “There is no resurrection of the dead”.
Not long ago I posted an overview of 1 Corinthians chapters 1-4, suggesting that it represents a showdown between that which is of God, and that which is human: The Corinthians are called to choose between two models:
- The rulers of this age, who have visible wealth, wisdom, and power (and who crucified Christ, and are heading for destruction; or - The crucified Messiah, whose hidden wealth, wisdom, and power are embodied in the cruciform life of the apostles.Paul urges them to move from the former to the latter, calling the Corinthians to imitate himself. The following 10 chapters, I suggest, apply this to the ethical issues that are going on in the Christian assemblies of Roman Corinth. They spell out how to be crucified…
Chapters 5-7: The Cross Applied I: Your Body Belongs to the Lord Sexual Immorality and Greed A: 5:1-13: Sexual Immorality (the refusal to judge) B: 6:1-11: Greedy exploitation (an apparent inability to judge) A1: 6:12-7:40: Sexual Immorality, the body, marriage Chapters 8-14: The Cross Applied II: Discern the Body Knowledge and Rights A: 8:1-13: Meat offered to idols (using knowledge and rights to endanger weaker brothers & sisters) B: 9:1-27 Paul’s example/defence (foregoing rights for others & self) A1: 10:1-11:1: Meat offered to idols (foregoing rights for self and others) Tradition and Division A: 11:2-16: I praise you for keeping the traditions I passed on (public worship) B: 11:17-22: I do not praise you (in both v17 and v22) A1: 11:23-34: I passed on to you what I also received (tradition of Lord’s Supper) Gifts and Love A: 12:1-31: Gifts within the body (mutual interdependence) B: 12:31-13:13: Love A1: 14:1-40: Gifts (for ordered edification of the whole)
I think chapters 1-4 of 1 Corinthians is a showdown between that which is θεοῦ and that which is ἀνθρώπου:
The cross and human wisdom
1:10-12: Let there be unity rather than competitive division 1:13-17: The apostolic task is not baptism but proclamation of the gospel – not in words of human wisdom 1:18-25: Human wisdom fails before God – whose power is revealed in the cross 1:26-31: One should not boast in human status but, through Christ, in God 2:1-5: The basis for faith must not be human wisdom, but God’s power, revealed in Christ crucifiedThe Spirit and human capability
2:6-10: Human rulers fail to perceive the things of God; but God has revealed them to his own people by his Spirit 2:10-16: Those who lack God’s Spirit lack understanding; but those who have God’s Spirit have the mind of Christ 3:1-4: The Corinthians are not acting as Spritual people, but as those who are proudly humanDivine work and human authority
3:5-9: Paul and Apollos are co-workers of God 3:10-17: Those who build other than on the divinely-provided foundation will receive rejection by God 3:21-23: Boasting in humans has no place for those who are possessed by God 4:1-5: Human judgements about leaders are inconsequential; what matters is praise from GodDivinely ordained death and human boasting
4:6-7: Those who receive from God are in no position to compete and boast 4:8-13: The Corinthians are mistakenly acting as those who reign; the apostles are acting as those who die 4:14-21: The Corinthians are to imitate Paul: The kingdom of God is not a matter of speech, but of power
Another attempt at recreating the Temple of Apollo - again, Christoph’s work… and this imposing building overlooked the marketplace. Clearly, “religion” had a far more pervasive presence than in many of our present-day cities (eg Nottingham!). 1 Corinthians should be read, of course, with this in mind.
A little bird told me today that next month, one of the best commentators on 1 Corinthians will begin revising and updating his excellent commentary, engaging with recent scholarship and bringing the translation up to date. Sweet! I’m sure you can guess who it is…
For I handed on to you, as of foremost importance, that which I also received: That Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day [tē hēmera tē tritē] according to the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve, then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at once, of whom most remain alive to this day, but some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all of the apostles. And last of all, as to one who had been miscarried, he appeared also to me. (1 Cor 15:3-8)
He was raised on the third day according to the scriptures
Paul’s scriptures nowhere explicitly indicate that the Christ will die and be raised on the third day. However, there is certainly an established pattern whereby Israel, or its faithful representatives, undergo suffering and persecution and possible death before being vindicated by God. Many “Psalms of Lament” follow this pattern (such as Psalm 22 and Psalm 30), as well as Isaiah 53, narratives within Daniel and its additions (Sussana and Bel and the Dragon), and the book of Esther.
It may be that “the third day” was an idiom that indicated the expected end of a certain sequence. So Hosea 6:2 expresses that Israel will be “raised up” on the “third day”, after suffering for a while. Luke has Jesus using the same idiom to speak about the necessity of reaching Jerusalem: “I am casting out demons and conducting healings today and tomorrow; and on the third day I will reach the goal.” The “Gabriel Revelation” also seems to utilise the number 3 in relation to days, perhaps confirming its use as an idiom in first century Judaism:
Line 19: Holiness for Israel! In three days [lšlšt ymyn] you will know
Line 54: …three days… [šlšt ymyn]
Line 80: In three days [lšlvšt ymyn]… I, Gabriel
The context and meaning of these lines is hard to determine. It seems that the phrase “three days” is important in the 87 line Hebrew inscription; but beyond this, not much is certain. In none of the above instances, however, are three literal days envisaged.
So in what sense did Paul believe that “the scriptures” were being fulfilled with the resurrection of Jesus on the third day? In the sense that the scriptures envisaged the necessary vindication of the righteous representative of Israel. That’s my take on it anyway.
The metaphor of a multi-membered body was used by Plato, Aristotle, and many others, to depict a properly ordered and well-functioning society. So the image of the church as a body of interdependent members was not entirely Paul’s own invention in 1 Corinthians 12-14. But it’s interesting to see that for Paul, those parts of the body that appear most important are actually not to be over-valued:
If they were all one member, where would the body be? But in fact there are many members, but one body. And the eye is not able to say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” or the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” (1 Cor 12)
This is worth hearing in contrast to Philo’s use of the same imagery:
Philo: The Special Laws LXII, 340
Thus while each of the other bodily members [sōmatos merōn] is present for a suitable and absolutely necessary use – such as the feet for walking and running and the other activities for which feet are suited, and hands for doing things and giving and receiving – the eyes are, as it were, for the common good, enabling the successful operation of these members and all the others.
In fact, Paul’s point is echoed in a story by Aesop – via Dio Chrysostom:
Dio Chrysostom: Thirty-Third Discourse: The First Tarsic Discourse
But something must have happened to you like that which Aesop says was suffered by the eyes. For, although they supposed themselves to be the most worthy bodily parts, they observed that the mouth gained pleasure from most things, and especially, honey, which is the sweetest. So they became angry and blamed the human [of which they were part]. But when that human placed honey on them, they hurt and cried, and found it to be stinging and unpleasant.
So anyway, I’ve been pondering lately: Might Christian theologians be thought of as the “eyes” of the body? They are certainly “presentable”, to use Paul’s imagery, being in a position to debate and articulate the things that churches hold dear. And if this is the case - if academic theologians might be thought of as the “eyes” of the body - I wonder if we’re sometimes tempted to get carried away with Philo’s reasoning above (“the eyes are the most important”) rather than Paul’s reasoning (“the eyes are not independent”). Just a ponderance…
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