Commentary

Salutation and Thanksgiving (1:1–9)

Like most Greco-Roman letters, Paul's letters usually begin with a threefold salutation followed by an opening thanksgiving. In the salutation the writers identify themselves, then name the addressees and offer greetings. The thanksgiving often is a prayer to god(s) for the well-being of the addressee(s). Also it often praises the addressees and attempts to elicit their goodwill. In prolonged rhetorical arguments such as Paul's letters, the thanksgiving can function as the introduction to the argument in the body of the letter, establishing major themes that the subsequent discussion amplifies. The expanded salutation and thanksgiving here suggest that Paul is anticipating the issues at stake in the Corinthian community.

Salutation (1:1–3)

In identifying himself more elaborately as "an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God" (v. 1), and not simply listing his own name along with those of co-writers, as in 1 Thess 1:1, Paul is already responding to the challenge to his authority among the Corinthians (cf. 3:1–4, 5–15; 4:1–20; 9; 15:8–10). Not yet limited to the twelve disciples, "apostle" was the title given to leaders of the expanding movement(s) who preached the gospel and founded communities. In connection with his own authority as an apostle, Paul is emphasizing a point with each of three terms, over against some Corinthians whose focus he finds problematic: he was "called" to his historic role, "by the will of God" who is accomplishing purposes through him, and his apostleship is "of Christ Jesus," whose lordship over the movement and its assemblies he is eager to assert repeatedly in the letter. Sosthenes is not necessarily the same as the officer of the Jewish synagogue in Corinth in Acts 18:17. Acts is not a trustworthy source for the existence of a Jewish "assembly" in Corinth because the author repeatedly stereotypes "the Jews" as attacking Paul and other apostles. If he had been a Jew in Corinth, Sosthenes must have joined the movement Paul started there and become a coworker in his subseqent ministry.

First Corinthians 1:2 is the most elaborate address of the genuine letters. Here Paul is already framing his argument to the Corinthians. The Greek term ekklesia, usually translated "church," has a basically political meaning. It was the standard term for the assembly of the citizens of the Greek city-state (polis). As a virtual synonym for "synagogue" (synagoge), ekklesia also had connotations of the assembly of Israel as a whole or that of its local village communities in the biblical tradition or both. Given its basically political meaning, the "assembly" that Paul had founded in Corinth constituted an alternative to the established assembly of the city of Corinth. Paul's Corinthian assembly, moreover, was part of an international network of assemblies, an expanding movement that Paul also called "the assembly." (The term assembly will thus be used instead of the NRSV's church in this commentary.) In a phrase peculiar to the Corinthian correspondence and aimed surely at the divisiveness he is about to discuss (cf. 1:10–13; 3:9, 21–23), Paul characterizes the Corinthian assembly as "of God" (contrast Gal 1:2; 1 Thess 1:1). By adding "together with all those who in every place" he attempts to expand the perspective of the Corinthians—who were focused on their own divisions—to the broader movement of all the assemblies.

"Called to be saints" (v. 2) introduces the hope of imminent fulfillment of a world of justice ruled by God. This hope, prominent in Jewish revelatory (apocalyptic) literature such as the book of Daniel (on "saints" see esp. Dan 7:18–27) and the Dead Sea Scrolls, is inherent in the ethical definition of the Corinthian assembly as "those who are sanctified" (cf. 1 Thess 4:3). In addition to the references in the formal phrases "an apostle of Christ Jesus" (v. 1) and "grace ... from ... the Lord Jesus" (v. 3), Paul adds references to an instrumental role of Christ Jesus as the agent of their sanctification and to Christ's political role as the exalted universal Lord (v. 2). This anticipates later assertions of the centrality of Christ as the focus of faith and the basis for unity (1:23–25; 3:22–23; 6:15; 8:6; 10:4, 16; 12:27; 15:20–28, 45–49; 16:22–24). In verse 3 Paul changes the traditional hellenistic greeting "rejoice" to "grace" and combines it with the traditional Jewish greeting "peace."

Thanksgiving (1:4–9)

The thanksgiving is even more pointedly oriented toward the Corinthian situation and the arguments Paul is about to make. In contrast with the faith, hope, love, and partnership in the gospel for which Paul offers thanks in 1 Thess 1:3 and Phil 1:5, 9, Paul focuses here on "speech" (logos), "knowledge" (gnosis), and "spiritual gifts" (charismata; vv. 5, 7), anticipating his critique of them later in the letter (1:18–2:4; 8; 12–14). Paul evaluates the Corinthians' spiritual gifts of speech and knowledge in this highly positive evaluation at the outset of the letter in order to elicit their positive disposition to the arguments that follow. Here, as throughout the letter, Paul addresses the assembly as a whole, even though it is divided. He never dignifies or blames any particular faction by naming specific people. The opening thanksgiving sets a tone for the whole letter by focusing on Christ, and especially on the full "revealing" of Christ as the world ruler on the day of his return.

"As you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ" (v. 7b) and the parallel relative clause (v. 8, a new sentence in NRSV) place the Corinthians' spiritual gifts in the context of the "day of [the] Lord." This is the typically Pauline orientation toward the imminent completion of the final events of history now underway (cf. 1 Thess 1:10; 2:12, 19; 3:13; 4:14–17; 5:23). Although Paul ordinarily speaks of the "return" or "coming" (parousia) of Christ, he may have used "revelation" (apokalypsis) in verse 7b to emphasize that the final or full revelation involved still-awaited future events, in contrast with the partial revelations of prophecy and knowledge already experienced by himself and the Corinthians. Paul is not addressing people who believed that expectations about the future had already come about, but people for whom the notion of world-transforming historical events would have been relatively new, strange, and difficult to understand. The relative clause in 1:8 (cf. 1 Thess 3:13) elaborates the anticipation of Christ's return, repeating a legal metaphor from verse 6: he will "confirm" ("guarantee"; NRSV: "strengthen") you (in whom the testimony of Christ has been confirmed) until the end, so that you will be "blameless" at the judgment that "the day of our Lord" will bring. In a play on the Greek term "blameless" (anegkletous, v. 9), Paul refers to the ultimate agent, God, by whom "you were called" (eklethete) and focuses not only on Christ again, but also on "the fellowship" (koinonia, "community") of Christ (v. 9), in transition to the main theme of the first major section of...