1 Corinthians 1 is the first chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians in the

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Chri ...

of the Christian

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts ...

. It is authored by Paul the Apostle and Sosthenes in Ephesus, composed between 52–55 CE, and sent to the church in

Corinth Corinth ( ; el, Κόρινθος, Kórinthos, ) is the successor to an ancient city, and is a former municipality in Corinthia, Peloponnese (region), Peloponnese, which is located in south-central Greece. Since the 2011 local government refor ...

.Halley, Henry H. ''Halley's Bible Handbook'': an Abbreviated Bible Commentary. 23rd edition, Zondervan Publishing House. 1962.Holman Illustrated Bible Handbook. Holman Bible Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee. 2012.

Text

The original text was written in

Koine Greek Koine Greek (; Koine el, ἡ κοινὴ διάλεκτος, hē koinè diálektos, the common dialect; ), also known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek or New Testament Greek, was the common supra-reg ...

. This chapter is divided into 31 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter are: *

Codex Vaticanus The Codex Vaticanus ( The Vatican, Bibl. Vat., Vat. gr. 1209), designated by siglum B or 03 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), δ 1 ( von Soden), is a fourth-century Christian manuscript of a Greek Bible, containing the majority of the Greek Old ...

(AD 325–350) *

Codex Sinaiticus The Codex Sinaiticus ( Shelfmark: London, British Library, Add MS 43725), designated by siglum [Aleph] or 01 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts), δ 2 (in the von Soden numbering of New Testament manuscript ...

(330–360) *

Codex Alexandrinus The Codex Alexandrinus (London, British Library, Royal MS 1. D. V-VIII), designated by the siglum A or 02 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts), δ 4 (in the von Soden numbering of New Testament manuscripts), is a manu ...

(400–440) * Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus (~450; extant verses 3–31) *

Papyrus 14 Papyrus 14 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), α 1036 (in the Soden's numbering), signed by 𝔓14, is an early copy of the New Testament in Greek. It is a papyrus manuscript written in form of codex. The manuscript palaeographically has been a ...

(6th century; extant verses 25–27) *

Papyrus 11 Papyrus 11 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), signed by 𝔓11, is a copy of a part of the New Testament in Greek. It is a papyrus manuscript of the First Epistle to the Corinthians. It contains fragments 1 Corinthians 1:17-22; 2:9-12.14; 3:1-3,5 ...

(7th century; extant verses 17–22)

Old Testament references

* 1 Corinthians 1:19 references Isaiah 29:14Footnote in 1 Corinthians in

RSV RSV may refer to: Biology and medicine * Respiratory syncytial virus, causing respiratory disease * Rous sarcoma virus, causing cancer in chickens Road vehicles * Several :Aprilia motorcycles, Aprilia motorcycles, e.g.RSV4 * Minicar RSV, a US saf ...

Second Catholic Edition 2006 * 1 Corinthians 1:31 references Jeremiah 9:24

Opening greeting (1:1–3)

Verse 1

Most

English translations Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transla ...

refer to Sosthenes as "our brother", but the actual text reads , , which literally means "Sosthenes brother". "The salutation with my own hand—Paul's" in 1 Corinthians 16:21 suggests that the majority of the letter may have actually been scribed by someone else, and therefore many interpreters suggest that Sosthenes was the amanuensis of the Epistle. The address and greeting which open the Epistle conclude with the words "

Grace Grace may refer to: Places United States * Grace, Idaho, a city * Grace (CTA station), Chicago Transit Authority's Howard Line, Illinois * Little Goose Creek (Kentucky), location of Grace post office * Grace, Carroll County, Missouri, an uninco ...

be unto you, and peace".

Thanksgiving for Christ's total sufficiency (1:4–9)

In the section of thanksgiving, Paul usually signals the issues to be dealt later in the letter, but he can always give thanks because God's sufficiency can resolve all problem in the person of his Son,

Jesus Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

The divisiveness of idolizing Christian teachers (1:10–17a)

The disciples or pupils of a secular teacher must give exclusive loyalty to the teacher, and the Corinthians who were converted and baptized through the ministry of different teachers also perceived themselves in the secular way, that they engaged in quarrels over the merits of those teachers. Paul states this loyalty as idolatrous and wants them to follow the Messiah, not his servants.

Verse 12

*"Each of you says": Gill notes that Paul may have gotten the report from "the house of

Chloe Chloe (; ), also spelled Chloë, Chlöe, or Chloé, is a feminine name meaning "blooming" or "fertility" in Greek. The name ultimately derives, through Greek, from the Proto-Indo-European root ', which relates to the colors yellow and green. T ...

" regarding the schism among the church members. *"I am of Paul": Paul had been instrumental in the conversion and baptism of some members of the Corinthian church, as he was the first to lay the foundation of a Gospel church in this city. *"I am of Apollos": Apollos came to Corinth after Paul left. As an eloquent man with good knowledge of the Scriptures, he may have attracted many church members with his way of preaching. *"I am of Cephas" (or

Simon Peter ) (Simeon, Simon) , birth_date = , birth_place = Bethsaida, Gaulanitis, Syria, Roman Empire , death_date = Between AD 64–68 , death_place = probably Vatican Hill, Rome, Italia, Roman Empire , parents = John (or Jonah; Jona) , occupation ...

): Unlike Paul and Apollos, Peter was with Christ from the beginning, witnessing his miracles, hearing his doctrines, and having the apostleship. On these accounts, the church members highly valued him and the converted Jews among them, who still retained a regard to the ceremonies of the law, may have fixed on Peter as their minister. *"I am of Christ": taking Paul's words, some may have declared that they should not "be called by any other name than that of Christ". These people were "for Christ", not of Paul, Apollos, Cephas, or any other ministers of the word, but could still be "blame worthy" when they use Christ's name to deceive men or divide his interest.''John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible'', – 1 Corinthians 1:12
/ref> Some authorities to the contrary have suggested that the Christ of this passage is a copying error and for example the noted Jewish historian Graetz says that that person is really Chrestus of Suetonius in ''Claudius 25'' who provoked a "tumult" in Rome near the 49th year of the Christian era.

Boasting in the Lord and not in the educated elite (1:17b–31)

Orators or public speakers in the first century generally produce carefully crafted speeches to draw the attention or bewitch the hearers, based on the performance only, not the content, but Paul used none of the tricks ("with words of human wisdom", ) when he preach the gospel of Christ. Jesus sent Paul to preach the gospel, with its content "the cross of Christ", not to secure a personal following. Paul asks the Corinthians to reflect on the secular status or class of the messengers of God's wisdom, who are 'the foolish', whom secular society regarded as 'nobodies' as opposed to the 'elite' who in the first century were described as 'wise, influential in political sphere and well-born'.

The power of God

Paul speaks of the power of God in this letter (1 Corinthians 1:18, 25) and in his

letter to the Romans The Epistle to the Romans is the sixth book in the New Testament, and the longest of the thirteen Pauline epistles. Biblical scholars agree that it was composed by Paul the Apostle to explain that salvation is offered through the gospel of Jes ...

( Romans 1:16), mirroring Jesus' debates on the subject of the

resurrection Resurrection or anastasis is the concept of coming back to life after death. In a number of religions, a dying-and-rising god is a deity which dies and is resurrected. Reincarnation is a similar process hypothesized by other religions, whic ...

with the

Sadducees The Sadducees (; he, צְדוּקִים, Ṣədūqīm) were a socio- religious sect of Jewish people who were active in Judea during the Second Temple period, from the second century BCE through the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE. T ...

in the gospels, who he says "do not know the scriptures rthe power of God" (Matthew 22:29; Mark 12:24).

Verse 31

Other texts replace "glories" (KJV: "glorieth") with "boasts". Paul quotes from the

Septuagint The Greek Old Testament, or Septuagint (, ; from the la, septuaginta, lit=seventy; often abbreviated ''70''; in Roman numerals, LXX), is the earliest extant Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible. It includes several books beyond ...

version of Jeremiah 9:23–24 in the Old Testament, "abbreviating quite freely"Meyer's NT Commentary
on 1 Corinthians 1, accessed 13 March 2017 from the longer text:

References

Sources

* *

External links

* King James Bible - Wikisource
English Translation with Parallel Latin Vulgate''Online Bible'' at GospelHall.org
(ESV, KJV, Darby, American Standard Version, Bible in Basic English)
Multiple bible versions at ''Bible Gateway''
(NKJV, NIV, NRSV etc.) {{First Epistle to the Corinthians 01