1 Corinthians 6:1-11, Lawsuits before unbelievers

Keener writes, "Like modern North American society, Roman society was extremely litigious." Judges came from the elite and favored their own, and social inferiors could not sue their betters (Keener and his notes); Wright and Bird take the cost of going to law to mean rich members suing poorer ones. Minority communities were expected to settle their own affairs, since public suits fed prejudice against them (Keener and his notes). A Roman decree for the Jews of Sardis, preserved by Josephus, says they had "a place of their own, wherein they determined their suits and controversies with one another." Wright notes that Corinth prided itself on its Roman legal status, and Bailey recalls Paul's own hearing before Gallio; the judgment seat at Corinth was excavated in 1935-37 (Price and House). Keener says Jewish traditions had the righteous judge the nations and so the angels believed to rule them, and Heiser reads verse 3 as believers displacing the divine beings set over the nations. What case lies behind the passage is disputed: Keener and Bailey suggest it grew out of the incest case of chapter 5, while the ESV Study Bible and the cultural backgrounds notes think of ordinary property disputes.