Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
1 Corinthians 1:1-9, Grace to the church in Corinth
Paul and Sosthenes greet the church of God in Corinth and thank God that its members have been made rich in every kind of speech and knowledge as they wait for the Lord to be revealed.
1 Corinthians 1:1-9, in every translation this tool compares.
Paul writes with Sosthenes to the believers in Corinth, reminding them that God has set them apart and joined them to every church that calls on Jesus. He thanks God that they are rich in eloquence and knowledge and lack no spiritual gift while they wait for Christ's return. He assures them God will keep them firm to the end, because God is faithful.
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- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/roman-colony\/","n":"Roman colonies","s":"Cities refounded by Rome for its veterans and settlers, run on Roman law with Latin on their monuments. A colony was a small copy of Rome in the provinces, and its citizens were citizens of Rome.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/orators-and-sophists\/","n":"Orators, rhetoric and boasting","s":"Public speaking was the great skill of the Greek city. Traveling orators performed for crowds and gathered paying students, audiences judged them on voice and gesture as well as argument, and the fans of rival speakers boasted of their own man against the rest.","r":""}
Few question that Paul wrote it (Carson, Moo and Morris). Corinth sat on the isthmus between mainland Greece and the Peloponnese, with a port on each sea (Carson, Moo and Morris; the Zondervan atlas). Rome destroyed the old city in 146 BC; Julius Caesar refounded it as a colony in 44 BC (the CSB Study Bible; the atlas), and it became capital of Achaia, in 27 BC (the CSB Study Bible) or 29 BC (Carson, Moo and Morris). The settlers included freedmen from Rome and retired soldiers, and with no landed nobility "there arose an aristocracy of wealth" (Carson, Moo and Morris). Paul wrote from Ephesus, answering reports from Chloe's people and a letter the church sent with its delegates. Carson, Moo and Morris date it early in 55, or a year earlier; the cultural backgrounds notes say 55, Wright and Bird around 53, the ESV Study Bible 53 to 55 and the CSB Study Bible 56. Bailey reads the address to all who call on the Lord in every place as making this a letter for the whole church; many scholars read it as occasional, and some as several letters joined, a view Carson, Moo and Morris reject.
- CSB Study Bible, Introduction to 1 Corinthians, timeline
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, introduction to 1 Corinthians, Language
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, Quick Glance to 1 Corinthians
- ESV Study Bible, Introduction to 1 Corinthians, Date
- N. T. Wright and Michael F. Bird, The New Testament in Its World, ch. 21, 1 and 2 Corinthians
- Kenneth E. Bailey, Paul Through Mediterranean Eyes, Introduction
- D. A. Carson, Douglas J. Moo and Leon Morris, An Introduction to the New Testament, ch. 9, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Author, Destination, Occasion (Historical Reconstruction; The Integrity of 1 Corinthians) and Date
- Carl G. Rasmussen, Zondervan Atlas of the Bible, The Journeys of Paul, Paul's Second Missionary Journey
