1 Corinthians 1:1–9 (LSB) Christ Is Undivided

In Greek, 1:1–3 is a single sentence. 1:4–8 is a single sentence. 1:9 is a short independent clause standing alone

• Corinth – There are three.
• 1. Classical, Greek Corinth — archaic and classical, destroyed 146 BC — is the city of Athenian comedy, the wealthy Aphrodite temple, and the verb “to Corinthianize.”
• 2. The Roman colony — refounded 44 BC — is Paul’s.
• **The interim, 146–44 BC, is no longer thought empty. Strabo says the site “remained deserted for a long time,” and that was the settled view. Sarah A. James (Corinth VII.7, 2018) argued from Panayia Field deposits, locally made post-146 wares, and 1,000+ reanalysed imports for continuous small-scale occupation. Consensus has moved her way.
• Caesar refounds it as Colonia Laus Iulia Corinthiensis. Ancient sources tie it to Caesar’s parallel resettlement of Carthage as one colonial programme.
• Strabo’s grim detail. The earliest colonists dug up the old graves and sold the terracottas and bronzes, flooding the Roman market with what buyers called necrocorinthia — “Corinthian grave goods” — until the supply gave out. Generally read as evidence that the colony’s first economy included looting the old city’s cemeteries.
• Folklore ** The thousand sacred prostitutes. The single ancient source is Strabo Geog. 8.6.20: “the temple of Aphrodite was so rich that it owned more than a thousand temple slaves, courtesans, whom both men and women had dedicated to the goddess.” Three features of that sentence: it is past tense; it sits in an account of Greek Corinth, destroyed 146 BC; and Strabo reports at second hand about a city he never saw. On the Acrocorinth of his own day (8.6.21) he says only that the summit “has a small temple” — naidion.
• Folklore ** The detail that the women “came down into the city at evening” has no ancient source at all — a devotional-commentary embellishment commonly traced to William Barclay.
• A large, wealthy, two-harbour transit city with ordinary commercial prostitution is enough to explain 6:15–16.
• 3. Pausanias’s Corinth — described in the 160s AD, roughly a century after Paul — held monuments Paul never saw.
• Acts 18:1–18 is the only connected narrative, and the letters supply almost none. 1 Cor 2:1–5 recalls arriving “in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling”; 3:6 “I planted, Apollos watered”; 4:15 claims as a father; 9 and 2 Cor 11:7–11 discuss refusing support; 1:14–16 names three baptisms.
• We know that he was planted the church over a year and a half.
• 4 Letters:
• A the previous letter (5:9);
• B 1 Corinthians;
• C the letter of tears;
• D 2 Corinthians.
• B and D survive.

1 Corinthians 1:1–3 (LSB) Grace to You and Peace

1 Paul, called as an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother, 2 To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, called as saints, with all who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours: 3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

• “Jesus Christ” is named nine times in nine verses — in every verse but v5.
• v1 apostle of Jesus Christ; v2 sanctified in Christ Jesus, and the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; v3 Grace and Peace fromthe Lord Jesus Christ; v4 Grace of God given in Christ Jesus; v6 the testimony/witness of Christ; v7 the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ; v8 the day of our Lord Jesus Christ; v9 the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
• “Called as an apostle … called as saints” – Paul’s own calling and the church’s share the same verb; shared Pauline salutation formula, nearly verbatim in Romans 1:1, 6–7:
• Romans 1:1, 6–7 (LSB) 1 Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, calledas an apostle, having been set apart for the gospel of God, 6 among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ; 7 to all who are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
• Called – AS saints - Important detail – to be is not in the text. The italics in your version might have it.
• Been sanctified, called as saints... two chapters before “you are still of the flesh” (3:1)
• To the church of God which is at Corinth – Assembly.
• Ekklēsia in ordinary Greek named the citizen assembly of a city, the body summoned to deliberate and vote; in the Septuagint it renders Hebrew qahal, the assembly of Israel, and ekklēsia kyriou is standard (Deut 23:2–4; 1 Chr 28:8; Mic 2:5).
• Gathered together for a purpose, AS the people of God, assembled together. Huge.

1 Corinthians 1:4–8 (LSB) I thank my God

4 I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus, 5 that in everything you were enriched in Him, in all word and all knowledge, 6 even as the witness about Christ was confirmed in you, 7 so that you are not lacking in any gift, eagerly awaiting the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, 8 who will also confirm you to the end, beyond reproach in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

• This next sentence is all one wonderful praise, Thanking GOD for what HE is doing and has done in this church.
• v4 Grace!
• V5 Enriched
• You may have noticed that Paul in v1 asserts an apostleship that ch. 9 shows was denied him.
• Interesting calls the Corinthians holy before describing behaviour he will call shameful; and thanks God for speech, knowledge, and gifts — the three things the letter spends most of its length correcting.
• v5 Word and Knowledge
• Paul thanks God that they are enriched in all speech and all knowledge and lack no gift.
• He then argues that he deliberately did not come with excellence of speech (2:1–5),
• that knowledge puffs up (8:1), and that the gifts are being exercised in a way that makes the assembly worse rather than better (14:23)
• logos and gnésis — speech and knowledge (v5) 1:17-2:5 – 8:1-13
• Confusion about marriage, celibacy, divorce, and betrothal (7).
• Disagreement over idol food and temple dining (8; 10:14–33).
• A dispute about head coverings (11:2–16).
• Theres an aspect of being born again I truly miss. The beginning. When everything was simple.

• V6 Witness of Christ Confirmed
• martyrion — testimony (v6) 2:1-5,
• Partisan alignment behind named figures (1:10–12, with the roll repeated at 3:4, 3:22, 4:6).
• A man cohabiting with his father’s wife, and a congregation that had not acted (5:1–5).
• Believers suing one another before civil courts (6:1–8).
• Resort to prostitutes defended on some principle (6:12–20).
• An assembly where some go hungry and others are drunk (11:17–34).
• v7 Not lacking in any gift
• and the charisma — gift (v7) 12:1-14:40
• Competitive ranking of gifts, tongues above the rest (12–14).
• v7 Eagerly awaiting the Revelation,
• apokalypsis — revelation (v7) 15:23-28
• And the claim by some that there is no resurrection of the dead (15:12).
• v8 Who will confirm you to the end
• v8 Beyond reproach in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ
• the day of our Lord (v8) 3:12-15- 4:5- 5:5
• V. 8 “the day of our Lord Jesus Christ” – Paul’s eschatological “day” formula elsewhere; cf. Philippians 1:6:
• Philippians 1:6 (LSB) 6 For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.
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1 Corinthians 1:8–9 (LSB) God Is Faithful

... 8 who will also confirm you to the end, beyond reproach in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

• V. 9 “God is faithful”. same phrase recurs later in this letter and elsewhere in Paul:
• 1 Corinthians 10:13 (LSB) 13 No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man, but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.
• 1 Thessalonians 5:23–24 (LSB) 23 Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 Faithful is He who calls you, who also will do it.
• V9 Called into Fellowshop
• koinonia — fellowship (v9) 10:16-22 – 12:12-27

Every verb whose subject is the Corinthians in 1:4–9 is passive or receptive.

They were enriched; the testimony was confirmed in them; they lack nothing; they are waiting; they will be confirmed; they were called.

They do nothing in these six verses, and the unit ends on God’s faithfulness rather than theirs.

In a letter about to spend sixteen chapters on what these people are doing wrong, the opening describes them entirely as recipients.