Our study of Ephesians will start on February 22, 2009.

Meanwhile, some photos of the remains of Ephesus, recently visited by John and Alice Weicher, are posted in the Photos category.

Peter Combes

Paul asks for the affection of the Corinthians, complaining that he has affection for them, but it is not returned. Verses 6:14 thru 7:1 seem to break the flow of this argument, which resumes at 7:2, and presenting directions on mixed marriages that are not entirely compatible with his more detailed instructions in 1 Corinthians.  We had some sympathy with the commentators who believe that this section is a fragment that belongs to another letter, and has been edited in by a later copyist.  Paul refers to a "stern letter", and indeed apologizes for it ("I did not mean to make you grieve"). This letter does not appear to be I Corinthians. However, the beginning of chapter 10 is a very abrupt change of tone, and it has been suggested that this, too, belongs to another letter, perhaps the "stern letter" itself.

Another oddity is that Paul twice refers to a "brother" whom he is sending to Corinth, without giving his name.  Some have suggested that the name appeared in the original manuscript, but was removed when that person developed a bad reputation.  "Demas" who "deserted me and went to Thessalonica" (2 Tim 4:10) is one candidate.  In Chapter 10 (verses 4-6), Paul surprisingly threatens the Corinthians with supernatural "weapons" that he has at his disposal.

II Corinthians

This is a complicated letter, showing several sides of Paul’s turbulent personality.  At times it is so discontinuous that several commentators have thought that it consist of fragments from a number of different letters.

1.      Accused of breaking his word by not visiting Corinth when he promised. Paul launches into a long justification of his own integrity, rather than simply apologizing.

2.      He comes close to apologizing for his "stern" letter, which he "did not send to make you grieve."  We do not have the letter as such -- I Corinthians hardly fits the bill -- but some have suggested that an excerpt from it is contained in chapters 10 to 13.

3.    A long essay on the way Moses' face "shone" as he came down the mountain with the Ten Commandments is used to suggest that the Mosaic Law has become obsolete. Paul describes the law as a "ministry of death" -- a phrase hardly likely to endear him to the church in Jerusalem, whose leader, James, was famous for his obedience to the Law.

4.    What is the relationship of the soul to the body?  Paul talks of our "treasures in a clay pot", and also describes us as tent-dwellers longing to live in a heavenly house.  This may have been a local reference since tent "cities" were erected at Corinth every four years for the Isthmian Games.

5.    A major task of ambassadors was to “reconcile” conflicts between nations.  Paul uses this image for Christians – making their peace with God.

We reviewed the reconstruction of first Century Corinth.  We were a little puzzled by the Bema, but apparently this was the judgement hall, where Paul  faced the governor of Achaia, Gallio, brother of Seneca, Nero’s tutor.  Since the dates of Gallio’s posting are known, this gives one of the best data in calculating the chronology of Paul’s missions.

Six dense chapters conclude Paul’s  first letter to the Corinthians:

11.          Women and their place

Paul gives a somewhat confusing treatment of whether men and women should cut their hair and/or cover their heads.  At lease one commentator has suggested that Paul was getting his cultures mixed.  He tells men to cut their hair, yet it is observed in Acts that he did not cut his own  hair until he reached Cenchrae “because he had a vow”. 

12.          Spiritual gifts

C.S. Lewis has noted that some take the term “members” to mean that everybody in the church should be considered equal.  The image, however, is of members of the body, which have specialized functions.

13.          Love  The famous passage, quoted in many weddings --  “love suffereth not, and is kind….”   We noted that the Greek word is agape, which relates to neighborly love rather than sexual love.  Most translations nevertheless perpetuate the confusion by using the word “love”, an exception being the King James’ version, which uses “charity”, unfortunately a word that has also changed its meaning.              

14.          Prophecy and women

Paul’s injunction that women should keep silent in church of course jumps off the page to us today.  However, this cannot be a prohibition against their preaching in church, since Chapter 11 has detailed instructions as to how they should dress when “prophesying”  The word used for the prohibition is laleo, an onomatopoeic word meaning something like “chatter”.  Don’t let women  chatter during the sermons – if they have questions, they should save them up until they get home……

15.          Resurrection

Some Christian thinkers in Corinth had suggested that there was no such thing as a bodily resurrection.  Paul uses strong language against this, saying that if we are not raised, then Christ is not raised and we “of all men most to be pitied”.  But in fact Christ has been raised…….

16.          Collection and travel

Judaea was in economic difficulties in the late forties and early fifties.  Josephus reports that the harvest failed after the farms were abandoned to protest Caligula’s attempt to place his own statue in the temple.  When approving Paul’s mission to the Gentiles, the Jerusalem Council specifically asked him to “remember the poor” and Paul seems to have set up a collection for the Jerusalem church at each of the Gentile churches.  He gives his plans to visit the Corinthians again, but they were to be disappointed, as we shall see in II Corinthians.

Corinth commands the narrow isthmus between the Corinthian and Aegean seas. Crossing the isthmus afforded a valuable short cut from the East and north to routes to Rome, avoiding the dangerous route round Cape Matapan.  Today, a canal is used by shipping; in Paul’s day cargo was transshipped across the isthmus, and small ships were bodily carried across.  The rollers used for this can still be seen.  This major portage site thus developed a roaring international trade for longshoremen, warehouse men, and all the facilities need by a large port.  Famous among the many temples was the temple to Aphrodite on the Acrocorinth (“Corinth in the Sky”), with its 1,000 prostitutes.  Originally libeled by Aristophanes, Corinth was to keep its licentious reputation for nearly two millennia, as in the following quotation from Henry IV Part One:

PRINCE HENRY

With three or four loggerheads amongst three or four
score hogsheads. I have sounded the very
base-string of humility. Sirrah, I am sworn brother
to a leash of drawers; and can call them all by
their christen names, as Tom, Dick, and Francis.
They take it already upon their salvation, that
though I be but the prince of Wales, yet I am king
of courtesy; and tell me flatly I am no proud Jack,
like Falstaff, but a Corinthian, a lad of mettle, a
good boy, by the Lord, so they call me, and when I
am king of England, I shall command all the good
lads in Eastcheap.

Paul came here from Athens, where he had tried to convert the philosophers by eloquent wisdom (we have part of his speech in Acts 17) but apparently failed.  He came to Corinth in some distress and weakness (Audrey tells us that his symptoms suggest some form of epilepsy), determined to preach a simpler gospel  -- “Only Jesus Christ and him crucified”  Against the odds, Christianity flourished in this tough town, but problems soon emerged.  In I Corinthians, which appears to have been at least his second letter to Corinth (cf. I Cor: 5.9), Paul attempts to address some of these problems.

Many commentators believe that II Thessalonians is pseudepigraphic, that is to say that it was written by a different author from the one named.  Commentators note the apparent discrepancies in the eschatological approach from I Thessalonians, in which Paul says that the Second Coming will come at any moment, without warning, whereas II Thessalonians says that various events have to come first.

We looked at the dramatic “little apocalypse” in II Thessalonians which prophesies the arrival of the “Man of Sin” who will set himself up as God and sit in the Temple.  Since the Temple was effectively destroyed in 70 CE, we considered that the “Man of Sin” would have to be dated before then.  Three candidates were considered:

1.         Nero, who claimed divinity in his lifetime

2.         Gaius (“Caligula”) who also claimed divinity

3.       Vespasian

Nero did claim divine status, but was not particularly concerned with the temple, though it was during his reign that the temple was besieged and by Roman troops.  Vespasian ruled as emperor (and was ex officio deified) when his son Titus took the temple.  Sacrifices were made in the temple to the legionary standards – and extreme blasphemy for the Jews.

Gaius Caligula was the first Roman emperor to claim divinity in his lifetime.  In an ongoing dispute with the Jews, he ordered a statute of himself as Zeus to be set up in the temple.  Herod Agrippa I tried to dissuade him, and had some success unltil the general in charge of the operation asked that it be postponed.  Gaius advised the general to commit suicide, and insisted that the operation go ahead. This was only thwarted by the assassination of Gaius in 41 CE.

Could Gaius be the “Man of Sin” and Agrippa the shadowy force that was “restraining him”?   The difficulty is that the best date for Thessalonians is around 50 CE.  We hypothesized that the “little apocalypse” came  from an earlier document, contemporary with the Gaius crisis.  A similar passage occurs in Luke 13.

This is a blog set up by Peter Combes. It is intended to be used as an adjunct to the "Bible in Context" classes at Chevy Chase Presbyterian Church, to enable no-shows to catch-up, and to continue discussions started in class.