Although often overlooked today, whether or not to eat food that had been sacrificed to idols was a major issue in first-century Christianity, especially in urban centers like Corinth. The city was teeming with temples, idols, and smaller shrines. Divinities abounded and devotees made offerings regularly from a little wine poured out at a home Read more about 592 1 Corinthians in Context 9: Food Sacrificed to Idols[…]
Do you know what blows my mind? That with all the permissiveness and sinfulness of the Roman world, what the Corinthian Christians were doing shocked Paul. He said that the sexual immorality of one man among them was so bad that such was not even found among the gentiles. That’s quite an indictment! Today we’re Read more about 588 1 Corinthians in Context 5: Sexual Immorality[…]
Paul wrote extensively about worldly wisdom in 1 Corinthians. Due to the prevalence and esteem of philosophical schools, Paul probably felt a need to explain how Christianity measured up. In this lecture we’ll survey the five main philosophical options available to first-century Corinthians, including Platonism, Cynicism, Skepticism, Epicureanism and Stoicism. Then once we get a Read more about 587 1 Corinthians in Context 4: Philosophy & Wisdom[…]
How did Christianity come to Corinth in the first place? Although many times we are left speculating about how an ancient church got started, we have definitive knowledge about the Corinthian church from Luke, Paul’s traveling companion. In what follows we’ll work through Acts chapter 18 to see how Paul initially founded the church in Read more about 585 1 Corinthians in Context 2: Paul Founds the Church at Corinth[…]
Today we’re beginning something new. I’ve been working on this class on 1 Corinthians for months and months. I had taken classes on 1 Corinthians at Boston University twice. The first time we just read through the entire epistle in Greek. The second time was when we learned about what modern scholars said about Corinth. Read more about 584 1 Corinthians in Context 1: Corinth as the Context[…]
This is part 13 of the Read the Bible For Yourself. Before getting to the Church Epistles, we’ll begin with an overview of how letters were written, read, and performed. Then we’ll see how they are arranged in our Bibles. We’ll spend a good deal of time talking about occasion. Why did Paul write each Read more about 546 Read the Bible for Yourself 13: How to Read the Church Epistles[…]
This is part 4 of the Read the Bible For Yourself. Exegesis and application take work. Today you’ll learn how to grasp the content of scripture by asking the question, “What did this text mean to the original audience?” Looking for a book’s author, audience, occasion, and purpose will help you answer that question. Next, Read more about 534 Read the Bible for Yourself 4: How to Determine Content and Application[…]