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 5:1-13, A man and his father's wife
A church member is living with his stepmother and the church is proud of itself. Paul tells them to hand the man over to Satan, clear out the old leaven as a household does before Passover, and not eat with a so-called brother who lives that way.
1 Corinthians 5:1-13, in every translation this tool compares.
Paul has heard that a man in the church is living with his stepmother, a union even pagans condemned, and that the church is proud of itself instead of grieving. He tells them to gather with his authority and hand the man over to Satan, with his final rescue as the hoped for result; what that handing over means is debated. Using the Passover custom of clearing out old yeast, he says a little sin spreads through the whole community, and they must not share meals with a believer who lives this way, while judging outsiders is God's business.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/sexual-morality-in-greek-cities\/","n":"Sex, wine and Greek city ways","s":"Greek and Roman men were expected to have sex outside marriage, with slaves or prostitutes, and the law allowed it. Jews and Christians called all of it porneia, sexual immorality; drunkenness at banquets and in taverns went with it, and the port of Corinth had an old name for it.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/synagogue\/","n":"The synagogue","s":"The local gathering place where Jews met on the Sabbath to pray and study Scripture. It was also a community center, run by people of standing.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/passover-pilgrims\/","n":"Passover and the pilgrim crowds","s":"The spring festival that retold God's rescue of Israel from Egypt. Jerusalem filled with pilgrims, and hopes of freedom ran high.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/eating-together\/","n":"Eating together","s":"Sharing a table made a bond of friendship, so who you ate with told everyone whose side you were on.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/the-satan\/","n":"The satan, the tempter","s":"The accuser, tempter and deceiver of Jewish belief, seen as the power behind human and political evil. In the Gospels he tests Jesus and is the strong man Jesus binds, and John calls him the ruler of this world.","r":""}
Relations with a stepmother counted as incest, abhorred everywhere in the Roman world, and since men often took much younger second wives, a stepmother might be near the son's age (Keener and his notes). Keener says Roman law punished incest with banishment to an island, while the CSB Study Bible says that for a son and stepmother it "was a capital crime in a Roman colony, calling for death or banishment." The man may have been a high-status member whose connections mattered to the church's standing (the cultural backgrounds notes). Handing over to Satan is read two ways. Keener compares pagan curse tablets that devoted a person to the gods of the underworld. Heiser reads it as putting the man back outside the holy ground of the church into Satan's domain, and Arnold, following Fee, agrees, doubting any literal delivery to Satan and stressing that the aim is restoration. Passover bread was unleavened (Keener and his notes), and Wright adds that leaven used as a picture almost always meant a corrupting influence. Carson, Moo and Morris suggest that the earlier letter of verse 9 answered a question about church discipline, and some read it in the widest sense.
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on 1 Corinthians 5:1, 5:2, 5:5, 5:7-8 and 5:11
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on 1 Corinthians 5:1, 5:2, 5:7 and 5:11
- CSB Study Bible, note on 1 Corinthians 5:1
- N. T. Wright, Paul for Everyone: 1 Corinthians, comment on 1 Corinthians 5:6-13
- Michael S. Heiser, The Unseen Realm, ch. 38, Choosing Sides
- Clinton E. Arnold, Powers of Darkness, ch. 9, The Influence of the Powers on Believers, As God's Tool of Discipline
- D. A. Carson, Douglas J. Moo and Leon Morris, An Introduction to the New Testament, ch. 9, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Occasion, Historical Reconstruction
