1 Corinthians
What does the cross do to a church obsessed with status?
Why this book matters
This is the most practical letter Paul wrote, because the Corinthian church was a mess: lawsuits, factions, sexual scandal, class snobbery at the communal meal, chaos in worship, and people denying the resurrection.
It contains chapter 13 — the love passage read at weddings — which was not written about romance at all. It was written to humiliate a congregation showing off its spiritual gifts.
It also contains the earliest written account of the resurrection, in chapter 15, quoting a creed that scholars widely date to within a few years of the crucifixion.
Who wrote it?
Most scholars agreePaul, around AD 53–55 from Ephesus, with Sosthenes named as co-sender. Undisputed authorship.
What kind of city was Corinth?
Most scholars agreeA rebuilt Roman colony, a port with two harbours, wealthy, transient and famously competitive. Its Isthmian games are behind Paul's athletic metaphors.
Archaeology has recovered the bema — the raised judgment platform mentioned in Acts 18 — and the meat market Paul discusses in chapter 10.
Why the letter exists
Two reasons, both stated in the text: a report from 'Chloe's people' about divisions, and a list of questions the church had sent him. From chapter 7 onward Paul is answering their mail point by point.
The earliest resurrection evidence
Most scholars agree1 Corinthians 15:3–7 uses formal handing-on language and rhythmic structure, marking it as a creed Paul received rather than composed. Most historians, including non-Christians, date its origin to within a few years of Jesus' death.
That matters because it means the resurrection claim is not a legend that developed over generations.
What to watch for
- The foolishness of the cross
God's power looks like weakness to a status culture.
- Unity over faction
'I follow Paul, I follow Apollos' — celebrity Christianity, first century edition.
- Freedom limited by love
You can be right and still be wrong to insist on it.
- The body
Sexuality, food and worship all treated as bodily, not merely spiritual, matters.
- Resurrection
Chapter 15 argues that if the dead are not raised, the whole faith collapses.
How this connects to the Bible
- Isaiah 29 — God frustrating the wisdom of the wise.
- Exodus 12 — Christ described as the Passover lamb.
- 2 Corinthians — the painful follow-up after this letter landed badly.
1 Corinthians takes a proud, fractured, gifted church and reorders it around a crucified Messiah and a bodily resurrection.
View sources
- The Corinth bema and Erastus inscriptions
- Gordon Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians (Eerdmans, rev. 2014)
- Gary Habermas & Michael Licona, The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus (2004)