(I Cor 15); (Introduction 3/3): The Resurrection of Christ

  Posted Spring, 1995 to soc.religion.christian.bible-study

V. Preliminary Assumptions (based on previous study) Regarding I Corinthians.

A. Authorship: It seems very safe to assume Pauline authorship. There are questions involving the later insertion of individual verses by others, but none of these fall within I Cor. 15.

B. Integrity of the Letter: Some (few) scholars have suggested that I Corinthians is actually made up of two or more letters which were put together by an editor (as a number of scholars suggest for II Corinthians) Such " partition"  theories have not found widespread support. For reasons explained in F. below, I will consider the letter we have to be essentially the same as the one Paul wrote.

C. Historical Background: Paul founded the Corinthian church (3:10) during an eighteen month stay, probably in 50 - 51 C.E. (After the Christian Era) and had sent them at least one previous letter (5:9). He intends a future visit (4:19) and plans also to dispatch Timothy (4:17).

D. Time and Place of Composition: Written from Ephesus in Asia Minor (the west coast of modern day Turkey) sometime between 53 and 54 C.E.

E. Occasion: Paul is apparently responding to a visit he has received from members of the Corinthian Christian community (Chole's people in 1:11) and a letter delivered to him from Corinth (7.1). Most scholars believe that the sudden digression from topics and interruption of arguments noticed in the letter is the result of Paul responding to the various points in the Corinthians' correspondence to him in the order they are presented as well as to the composition of the letter over a period of time.

F. Theological background: There are three aspects of Paul's background that are necessary to understand if one is to understand his writings (Perrin, 1982, p.135).

He is a Jew and familiar with the rabbinical teachings regarding the Law and the Prophets. He is a man of the Hellenistic world, and uses categories of thought (e.g. divine man imagery, familiarity with Greek mystery religions, Stoic / Cynic argumentation such as the diatribe) that would be familiar to almost any educated person livinng in an urban center near th Mediterranean. And last, he is a follower of the same Jesus whose followers he once persecuted.

It is his attempt to express the significance of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ using the language of the rabbis and the Hellenistic world view and at times deliberately casting his statements in the language of his opponents that makes him such a controversial and difficult to understand figure.

Thanks to whoever has made it through all of the above. Please feel free to send any response to me personally at a190@lehigh.edu or to the news group.

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Bill Bekkenhuis

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