Jul 16 2009
Introduction to 1 Corinthians (Parts 4 & 5) by Father Chrales Callan
I posted this on my other blog, which contains everything found on this site and more.
4. Date and Place of Writing. From 1 Cor 16:8 it is clear that this letter was written at Ephesus; and from 1 Cor 16:5, where there is a question of a proximate visit to Macedonia, it is also clear that it was written toward the end of the Apostle’s sojourn in Ephesus on his third missionary journey, very probably in the spring of the year 57; for it was about this time that Timothy and Erastus were sent to Macedonia (Acts 19:22), just shortly before the tumult stirred up by Demetrius (Acts 19:23 ff.), following which St Paul left Asia. That the Epistle was written around Paschal time also seems very probable from the allusions in it to the Pasch, to unleavened bread (5:6-7; 15:20, 23; 16:15), and to the Resurrection of Christ (15:4, 12). Cornely thinks it was written in 58. The exact time depends on the date assigned to the close of St Paul’s stay in Ephesus on his third missionary journey, and since this cannot be fixed with entire certainty and precision, the date given for the writing of the Epistle can be only approximate.
The Epistle was probably carried to Corinth by the delegates who had come from there to Ephesus, namely Stephanus, Fortanatus and Achaicus. This is according to the note attached to the end of the letter in the Received Text. That Timothy could not have delivered the letter to the Corinthians, as some have said, seems evident from the fact that he had departed for Macedonia before it was completed.
5. Authenticity and Canonicity. The authenticity of this Epistle has been so universally accepted by critics of practically every school that it seems hardly necessary to cite arguments in proof of it. Even the German Rationalists of the Tubingen School admitted as genuine the Epistles to the Corinthians, the Romans and the Galatians. A few minor objections to 1 Corinthians have in recent times been raised by such Rationalists as Bruno Baur, Nabor, Pierson and Loman; but they are too insignificant to merit any serious attention. It will be sufficient, therefore, to give some of the principle proofs for its genuineness and canonicity.
(a) External proofs. This Epistle was certainly known to the earliest ecclesiastical writers. Clement of Rome, who was the friend and companion of St Paul (Phil 4:3), and later Bishop of Rome (Euseb., Hist. Eccl. 111. 4), in his first letter to the Corinthians (47:1-3) wrote about the year 98 as follows: “Take up the Epistle of the blessed Apostle Paul. What did he write to you at the time when the Gospel first began to be preached? Truly, under the inspiration of the Spirit, he wrote to you concerning himself and Cephas, and Apollo, because even the parties had been formed among you,” etc. Polycarp, the disciple of St John the Evangelist, in his letter to the Philippians (11:2) cites 1 Cor 6:2, attributing it directly to St Paul: “Do we not know that the saints shall judge the world, as Paul teaches.” The enumeration of the vices of the Philippians given by Polycarp in the same letter is exactly parallel with 1 Cor 6:9-10, and terminates with the very words of the Apostle: “They shall not possess the Kingdom of God.” In the Greek edition of the letters of St Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch (circa 98-117), there are many quotations from this Epistle. St Irenæus, Bishop of Lyons and a disciple of Polycarp, cites (Adv. Haer. 111. 11, 9; 18, 2) the Epistle over sixty times, often observing that it is the work of St Paul and was written to the Corinthians. Clement of Alexandria (Pædag. 1. 6) and Tertullian (De rusur. mort. 18) also cites 1 Corinthians a great number of times, and frequently by name. Many other authorities might be given in proof of the authorship of this Epistle, but it will be sufficient to add that it was also admitted as authentic by Basilides, Marcion and other heretics of the first centuries.
(b) Internal proofs. Even a casual examination of the nature and contents of the present Epistle shows beyond question that it was written by St Paul. Its historical facts and dogmatic teaching, its peculiarity of language and style, the manner in which it refers to the Old Testament, the characteristic way in which arguments are developed, beginning with general principles and coming to particular conclusions, the personal touches which it bears on every page,-all prove conclusively that it could not have been written by anybody except the Apostle Paul. Moreover, all that we otherwise known of St Paul and of Corinth we find to be in perfect agreement with the information furnished by this Epistle. As Charles Baur has said (Der Apostel Paulus, Stuttgart, 1845, vil. I, p. 260), “this letter is tis own guarantee of authenticity; for more than any other writing of the New Testament, it carries us to the living midst of the a Church in formation and gives us an inner view of the development of the new life called forth by Christianity.”
