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 1:18-2:5, The foolishness of the cross
Paul sets the message of a crucified Messiah, folly to Greeks and a stumbling block to Jews, against the wisdom and eloquence Corinth admired, and reminds the believers that few of them were wise, powerful or well born.
1 Corinthians 1:18-2:5, in every translation this tool compares.
Paul admits that a crucified Messiah sounds like nonsense to those headed for ruin, yet to those being saved it is God's power. Jews want miraculous signs and Greeks want clever wisdom, but God chose what the world counts weak and foolish, and few of the Corinthians themselves were educated, influential or well born. Paul reminds them that he first came with no polished rhetoric, only weakness and fear, so that their trust would rest on God's power instead of human skill.
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- {"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\/honor-and-shame\/","n":"Honor before a crowd","s":"Public standing was the currency of the ancient Mediterranean. People competed for honor and dreaded being shamed in front of others.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/patrons-and-benefactors\/","n":"Patrons, clients and benefactors","s":"Favors in the Roman world came with strings. A patron gave help and protection, the client paid it back in loyalty and public honor, and rulers who gave gifts to the public were hailed as benefactors.","r":""}
The cross was reserved for slaves and rebel provincials, the opposite of the benefactors hailed as saviors (the cultural backgrounds notes; Keener); Jews counted anyone hanged on a stake accursed (Deuteronomy 21:23). In Corinth even most of the wealthy descended from freed persons (the cultural backgrounds notes; Keener), and Wright and Bird report a newer consensus that the church was socially mixed. A visiting orator gave a showcase speech, critics mocked weak delivery, and audiences ridiculed a speaker who trembled (the cultural backgrounds notes; Keener). Why Paul came in weakness and fear is read three ways. The cultural backgrounds article Rhetoric and Paul's Letters thinks his speaking fell short of Apollos's and of educated expectations, perhaps through humility or a Judean accent, though his letters show real rhetorical skill; Wright thinks Paul writes polished rhetoric here on purpose; Carson, Moo and Morris point to the beatings he had just escaped in Philippi, Thessalonica and Berea. Following Winter, they read chapters 1-4 against the Sophists, orators admired more for skill than for ideas, and they trace the Corinthians' wisdom to their pagan past rather than to Hellenistic Jewish wisdom speculation, the more common theory today.
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on 1 Corinthians 1:18, 1:26, 2:1 and 2:3, and article Rhetoric and Paul's Letters
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on 1 Corinthians 1:18 and 1:26-29, introduction to 2:1-5, and on 2:3
- N. T. Wright and Michael F. Bird, The New Testament in Its World, ch. 21, 1 and 2 Corinthians, The social location of the Corinthians
- N. T. Wright, Paul for Everyone: 1 Corinthians, comment on 1 Corinthians 1:18-25
- 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
