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 1:10-17, I belong to Paul, I belong to Apollos
Told by Chloe's people that the church is splitting into camps behind Paul, Apollos, Cephas and Christ, Paul appeals for unity and asks whether Christ has been divided.
1 Corinthians 1:10-17, in every translation this tool compares.
Paul urges the believers to agree with one another and to let there be no divisions among them. Chloe's people have told him of quarrels: one says I belong to Paul, another to Apollos, another to Cephas, another to Christ. Paul asks whether Christ is divided or whether Paul was crucified for them, and is glad he baptized only a few of them, since Christ sent him to preach the good news, not with clever words that would empty the cross of its power.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/following-a-teacher\/","n":"Following a teacher","s":"A disciple walked behind his teacher, lived with him, learned his ways and carried his reputation. Jesus chose his own, which only radical teachers did.","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":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/house-churches\/","n":"House churches","s":"For their first three centuries Christians met in homes, the way some Jewish groups and private clubs did. A host with a large house gave the church its room, its table and often its protection.","r":""}
- {"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":""}
Chloe's people were probably agents of a businesswoman, slaves or freed persons of her household traveling between Corinth and Ephesus (Keener and his notes). The phrase I am of could be a slogan of political partisans, and students of rival teachers sometimes fought (the cultural backgrounds notes). Churches met in homes, and the size of homes split believers into several house churches, where divisions could grow (Keener). What the camps were is read several ways. Keener and his notes think only the Paul and Apollos parties were real; Carson, Moo and Morris think Peter probably worked in Corinth too, though "There is no evidence that these or other leaders had fostered a party spirit"; the ESV Study Bible suggests factions formed by who had baptized whom; Wright's biography sees a dispute over speaking style. Bailey reads the names as masks for ethnic groups in a Roman colony: "In Corinth the Romans were inevitably at the top of the pecking order", with Greeks second and Jews last. Carson, Moo and Morris add that the church was both divided against itself and, as Fee stresses, largely set against Paul.
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on 1 Corinthians 1:11, 1:12 and 1:14-15
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on 1 Corinthians 1:11 and 1:12
- Kenneth E. Bailey, Paul Through Mediterranean Eyes, section 1.1
- ESV Study Bible, study note on 1 Corinthians 1:12
- N. T. Wright, Paul: A Biography, ch. 10, Ephesus I
- D. A. Carson, Douglas J. Moo and Leon Morris, An Introduction to the New Testament, ch. 9, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Occasion, Historical Reconstruction, and The Character of Paul's Opponents in 1 and 2 Corinthians
