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 3:1-23, Milk, builders and God's temple
Paul calls the Corinthians infants still on milk, says he and Apollos are only servants, warns builders that fire will test their work, and reminds the church that it is God's temple and that all things are theirs.
1 Corinthians 3:1-23, in every translation this tool compares.
Paul tells the Corinthians that their rivalry, with some claiming Paul as their leader and others Apollos, shows they are still infants in the faith. He and Apollos are only workers in God's field, one planting and the other watering, and it is God who makes things grow. Christ is the only foundation, and a coming day of fire will test what each builder has put on it. The church is God's temple where his Spirit lives, so no one should boast about human leaders, since everything already belongs to them.
- {"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\/temple-and-courts\/","n":"The temple and its courts","s":"Herod's huge rebuilt temple in Jerusalem, believed to be God's dwelling, laid out in courts that kept Gentiles, women and Jewish men at set distances.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/sages-and-philosophers\/","n":"Philosophers and their schools","s":"Stoics, Epicureans and other schools taught a whole way of life in lecture halls and marketplaces. A traveling teacher with a message about God would be heard, and judged, as one more philosopher.","r":""}
Writers often compared beginners to babies who needed milk, and teachers expected students to start with the basics and then move on, so the image insulted people who thought themselves mature (Keener and his notes). A master builder directed a building project, and builders were not paid for shoddy work (Keener and his notes). Bailey notes that much of Roman Corinth was new building on the scorched ground of the city Rome burned in 146 BC, in a city famous for its bronze, whose metalworkers knew what survives fire. The Dead Sea Scrolls also pictured God's people as a temple, and almost everyone believed the gods avenged any violation of their temples (Keener and his notes); Wright's biography of Paul stresses that no first-century Jew used temple language as a mere illustration. Stoic and Cynic philosophers claimed that all things were theirs, since they were friends of the gods who owned everything, and the most extreme took it to mean they could use anything they liked (Keener and his notes).
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on 1 Corinthians 3:1-2, 3:10-11, 3:12-15 and 3:16-17, and introduction to 3:21-23
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on 1 Corinthians 3:1, 3:14-15, 3:17 and 3:21
- Kenneth E. Bailey, Paul Through Mediterranean Eyes, section 1.4
- N. T. Wright, Paul: A Biography, ch. 10, Ephesus I
