Paul's first (existent) letter to the church in Corinth.
8
votes
3answers
667 views
What does “because of the angels” refer to in 1 Cor 11:10?
In 1 Cor 11:10, Paul writes regarding head coverings and headship:
That is why a wife ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels. (ESV)
I don't mean to get too deeply ...
4
votes
4answers
119 views
How should ἐκκλησίαις be translated in 1 Corinthians 14:34?
Though it has a couple different meanings, most often ἐκκλησία is translated as "church" in the NT. I'm wondering, though, whether its use in 1 Corinthians 14:34 might be distinguished from its use in ...
5
votes
2answers
77 views
Hosea 13:14 as quoted in 1 Corinthians 15
Hosea 13:14 reads in the ESV:
Shall I ransom them from the power of Sheol?
Shall I redeem them from Death?
O Death, where are your plagues?
O Sheol, where is your sting?
Compassion is ...
2
votes
1answer
29 views
Does Paul counsel against marriage or remarriage in 1 Corinthians 7:27b?
What situation is Paul addressing in 1 Corinthians 7:27b?
I think that in view of the present distress it is good for a person to remain as he is. Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be free. ...
8
votes
4answers
1k views
Has the meaning of “Love” changed enough to warrant substitutions in Bible translations?
The culturally accepted uses of the word "Love" seem to be a trite shadow of its biblical meaning. Common use of "Love" is now interchangeable with "Like," "Enjoy," or "Emotionally attachment" of ...
7
votes
5answers
423 views
What is the head covering referring to in 1 Corinthians 11:4-6?
There's a passage of text that has always confused me. I'm curious if there's any special historical context for this passage or if there's some understanding of these commands that I'm completely ...
2
votes
5answers
197 views
What is the referent of “body of Christ” in 1 Corinthians 11:29?
In 1 Corinthians 11:29 Paul warns about judgment on those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ:
So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy ...
4
votes
6answers
1k views
What is the “first resurrection”?
Finishing up the year in the Bible, I heard this passage:
Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been ...
1
vote
1answer
27 views
What constitutes “destroying God's temple” as in 1 Corinthians 3:17?
In 1 Corinthians 3:17, Paul warns, "If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple." (ESV)
This verse is often brought up often in ...
4
votes
2answers
170 views
Does Paul command the Corinthians to remain unmarried?
1 Corinthians seems pretty clear that remaining unmarried is the lifestyle that Paul prefers for Christians:
1 Corinthians 7:8 (NASB)
But I say to the unmarried and to widows that it is good for ...
8
votes
2answers
509 views
What happened to the 500 witnesses in 1 Corinthians 15?
This week I taught Sunday School from this text:
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was ...
6
votes
4answers
478 views
“the first day of the week” in 1 Corinthians 16:2
I heard somewhere that in 1 Corinthians 16:2
Upon the first [day] of the week let every one of you lay by him in
store, as [God] hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I
come
...
4
votes
4answers
196 views
1 Corinthians 13:12: “For now we see through a glass, darkly”
I heard that in the following verse:
1 Corinthians 13:12: For now we see through a glass, darkly
Paul was in fact using an illustration of a mirror. Can anyone, please, explain this? Is it true ...
3
votes
1answer
25 views
Who is it that “wills” in 1 Corinthians 12:11?
I'm not concerned with anything but what 1 Corinthians 12:11 and the immediate context states.
Greek text of Stephanus 1550:
πάντα δὲ ταῦτα ἐνεργεῖ τὸ ἓν καὶ τὸ αὐτὸ πνεῦμα διαιροῦν ἰδίᾳ ἑκάστῳ ...
9
votes
1answer
155 views
What does 1 Corinthians 9:27 literally say?
I'm used to reading the Bible in Finnish, so 1 Corinthians 9:27 seems very non-literal in most English translations. The Finnish 1992 translation is usually quite dynamic, but in this case it starts ...
2
votes
1answer
50 views
What does it mean when it is said that faith is given by the Holy Spirit? (1 Cor. 12:9)
1 Corinthians 12:9 (KJV)
To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit;
0
votes
1answer
42 views
Were the Corinthians sacrificing to idols?
When Paul writes in chapter 8 of 1 Corinthians: "So then, about eating food sacrificed to idols..." - what practice is he referring to?
On the one hand, it seems pretty obvious (despite the title of ...
11
votes
2answers
1k views
Does πορνεία mean premarital sex in 1 Corinthians 5-7?
I'm interested in this question because some liberal theologians insist that the Bible does not say anything about premarital sex*. To get a reasonable scope for the question, I limit this to just the ...
7
votes
1answer
138 views
Did the apostles travel with their wives?
I was doing some research for an answer and came across this verse:
This is my defense to those who would examine me. Do we not have the right to eat and drink? Do we not have the right to take ...
6
votes
1answer
61 views
Who is inclined to be argumentative?
In 1 Cor 11:16, St. Paul writes:
But if anyone is inclined to be argumentative, we do not have such a custom, nor do the churches of God. (1 Cor 11:16 NAB)
Is he negating everything he said ...
5
votes
3answers
106 views
Does Paul intend that what follows after 1 Corinthians 7:25a have less authority?
In some of Paul's writings, he maintains that his teachings have the authority of God the Father and Jesus Christ. But in 1st Corinthians 7:25, Paul specifically states that his next advice comes not ...
6
votes
3answers
116 views
Does the communion cup emphasize the vessel or the drink?
Paul's account of the institution of the Lord's supper mentions the cup, but not the contents of the cup:
For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the ...
8
votes
1answer
99 views
What is the intent of 1 Corinthians 11:19?
This verse is cited in support of the idea that differences of opinion among Christians is a good thing.
However on reading a different translation I got a little confused -
1 Corinthians 11:19 ...
6
votes
2answers
242 views
Is 1 Corinthians 11:19 intended as irony?
My question is about the following text:
But in the following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse. For, in the first place, ...
3
votes
1answer
249 views
What does Paul mean by 'Completeness' in 1 Corinthians 13:8-10?
1 Corinthians 13:8-10
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in ...
11
votes
1answer
197 views
Quotations in 1 Corinthians 6:13
I've noticed that in the 2011 NIV more of 1 Corinthians 6:13 is considered part of a quotation than in the 1984 version.
Obviously Greek did not use quotation marks—so what hints are there for ...
16
votes
3answers
493 views
What does the prohibition against women speaking in church in 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 mean?
In 1st Corinthians 14:34-35 (NASB), Paul says:
34The women are to keep silent in the churches; for they are not permitted to speak, but are to subject themselves, just as the Law also says. 35If ...
8
votes
2answers
519 views
Per 1 Cor 10:8, when did God kill 23,000 for sexual immorality?
I was going through 1 Corinthians 10, doing my best to not fixate on verse 13 until i knew the context :) when I read this:
8 We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did—and in ...
7
votes
2answers
116 views
What were the Corinthians doing when they “baptized on behalf of the dead”?
In the very center of an argument about the general resurrection, which the Corinthians questioned, Paul says:
Otherwise, what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead? If the dead ...
2
votes
1answer
1k views
Meaning of “sins against his body” in 1 Corinthians 6:18
Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.
1 Corinthians 6:18
Please help me to understand this. Why are ...
7
votes
1answer
113 views
Which experts believe Paul “lost” his arguments in 1st Corinthians.
I read on a layman's site about a theory that much of the "reconciliation" in 2nd Corinthians was actually Paul attempting to patch up his relationship with the Corinthian church after his ...
3
votes
3answers
738 views
What Scriptures is Paul referring to in 1 Cor 15:4
In 1 Cor, when Paul is laying out the the tradition of the resurrection to his readers, he lays out a tradition with his own testimony at the end.
1Cr 15:3-8 For I delivered to you as of first ...
4
votes
2answers
258 views
What's Paul (of Tarsus)'s view on the bodily resurrection?
In 1st Corinthians 15 Paul records the eyewitness accounts of Jesus' resurrection:
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance ...
5
votes
2answers
562 views
Is 1 Corinthians 14:33-35 an interpolation?
One of the answers to the question about what 1st Corinthians 14:34-35 means suggests that the passage is a later interpolation. From the quote by J.W. Wartick, included in the answer, there are ...
6
votes
1answer
53 views
1 Cor 7:21 Is there any justification to translate this “remain a slave”?
I'm an Englishman and so am used to seeing the verse from 1 Cor 7 translated something like this:
20 Each one should remain in the condition in which he was called.
21Were you a slave when ...
4
votes
1answer
83 views
Does 1 Cor 1:21 suggest preaching is foolish?
Contextually speaking, does 1 Corinthians 1:21 in the KJV suggest that preaching is a foolish thing?
For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the ...
2
votes
1answer
202 views
Why is the logic in 1 Cor 2:15 when Paul says “the spiritual person…is himself to be judged by no one”
14The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 15The spiritual person ...
2
votes
1answer
248 views
How should “ektroma ” be translated in 1 Corinthians 15:8?
Paul delivers his famous account of the death and resurrection of Jesus:
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the ...
2
votes
1answer
112 views
Disqualification in 1 Cor. 9
In 1 Cor. 9:27, Paul says:
But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. (ESV)
What is meant by being "disqualified"?
8
votes
1answer
165 views
How can we understand 1 Corinthians 12 without contradiction
To my reading, 1 Corinthians 12:4-30 could be summed up as: "Be content with the gifts/role God has given you because in his sight all the functions of the body of Christ are of equal importance".
...
