14
disfellowshiping if not corrected, emerges in 3:10: "Anyone who will not work [i.e., is
not willing to work] shall not eat"--with Robert Jewett, probably referring to the love
feast and Lord's Supper.
38
1 Corinthians
This letter presents a veritable potpourri of problems facing this immature
congregation. They have divided themselves into factions, focusing on human leaders
(chaps. 1-4), they have failed to deal with serious sexual sin in the camp (5:1-13, 6:12-
20), some are suing one another (6:1-11), there is a group promoting celibacy as
normative for all believers (chap. 7), "weaker" and "stronger" brothers and sisters
contend over idol meat, gender roles, the Lord's Supper and spiritual gifts (chaps. 8-14),
and some disbelieve the bodily resurrection of Christ (chap. 15). When one asks what, if
anything, unifies these disparate problems, a fair consensus among recent scholarship
replies: (1) alignments with rival house group leaders, themselves probably former well-
to-do patrons still insisting on the Greco-Roman customs of reciprocity; (2) divisions
among rich and poor more generally; (3) Hellenistic philosophical dualism, most recently
and locally promoted by the Sophists; and (4) a triumphalist spirit that drastically
misjudges the amount of spiritual maturity that the Corinthians have attained (see esp.
4:8).
39
All prove serious enough to require fairly direct and blunt confrontation.
2 Corinthians
Chapters 1-7 of Paul's second letter to Corinth suggest that major improvements
have been made on all of these fronts. But the last four chapters of the epistle point to a
new, external threat--the arrival of Judaizers on the scene. Not surprisingly, Paul's
38
Robert Jewett, Paul: The Apostle to America (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1994), 73-86.
39
See my 1 Corinthians (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994). More recently, cf. Bruce W. Winter, Philo and
Paul among the Sophists (Cambridge: CUP, 1997); Andrew D. Clarke, Serve the Community of the Church