ARTICLES

Volume 46 - Issue 3

The Placement of Paul’s Composition of 1 Corinthians in Troas: A Fresh Approach

By Daryn Graham

Abstract

Paul wrote 1 Corinthians in Troas. This is the argument of this article, using Acts and 1 and 2 Corinthians as the main sources of information. By drawing upon primary sources and critical modern scholarship, it is argued that 1 Corinthians was not written by the apostle Paul in Ephesus, as is the main consensus, but in Troas to the north, after Paul had his vision of the man from Macedonia begging him to preach throughout Macedonia, from where Paul journeyed to Corinth, as he stated he would in 1 Corinthians, after which he then travelled to Ephesus, for the first time. It is concluded that before he embarked for Macedonia from Troas, Paul completed writing 1 Corinthians.

The majority of Bible commentators place the composition of 1 Corinthians in Ephesus. This widespread assumption draws on the tradition that many believe began with Theodoret of Cyrrhus (Syria) who lived AD 393–466, who simply stated, ‘I think he [Paul] wrote the first one [of the two biblical epistles] to the Corinthians in Ephesus.’1 Euthalius who lived in the fifth century, and Pseudo-Athanasius who lived sometime from the fourth to sixth century, followed his lead.2 Ebedjesu (d. 1318) tried to encapsulate European Medieval tradition and espoused that 1 Corinthians was written in Ephesus and delivered to Corinth by Timothy.3 1611 produced ‘The Authorised Version’ of The King James English Bible. A subscription added to 1 Corinthians assures the reader, based on evidence written by Euthalius, who is actually an otherwise unknown deacon from the fifth century, it was written in Philippi in Macedonia, and was delivered to the Corinthian church by Stephanus, Fortunatus, Achaicus, and Timotheus, the first three of whom the letter states visited the church beforehand.4

Hodge believed the letter was written just before his last trip to Corinth via Macedonia, on his way to Jerusalem, on an itinerary that did not include Ephesus between Corinth and Jerusalem.5 Thiselton has suggested the letter was written by Paul at the end of his first stay in Ephesus that lasted a few months.6 Garland provides no clear date for 1 Corinthians in his commentary, but in the same year of its publication Murphy-O’Connor promoted it was written in Ephesus, along with Paul’s letters to Galatia, Philippi, Colossae, and Philemon—although he expresses in the same pages that dating 1 Corinthians can be a complex matter.7 Keener also provides no clear date for 1 Corinthians in his brilliant and influential commentary on the Corinthian correspondence.8 Huntsman presumes it was written just after Paul’s first visit to Corinth, much as 2 Corinthians was.9 Elsewhere, articles by Keener and Morgan place no written work by Paul on 1 Corinthians in Troas, at all.10

This article demonstrates, using evidence from the Corinthian epistles and Acts that 1 Corinthians could very well have been written by Paul while he lived in Troas, just after his vision there, in which he saw a man from Macedonia begging him to journey west from Troas to Macedonia to preach the gospel—after which, Acts states, Paul got ready at once to leave for Macedonia (Acts 16:6–10). 1 Corinthians states the writer, Paul, was going to travel through Macedonia and then journey to Corinth, where the letter had been sent, before Paul had arrived in Macedonia. It is the argument of this article that 1 Corinthians was written before Paul left for Macedonia from Troas.11

Troas was known in Roman times by a full title, ‘Colonia Augusta Troadensium’.12 It was a coastal gateway port city for Europeans to Asia,13 and for Asians to Europe.14 Dreams and visions like the one Paul had were not unheard of in his times. Among god-fearing pagans, dreams sent by the gods appear in Pliny the Younger, Suetonius and Plutarch.15 Among Jews, Josephus and the Essenes of Qumran, took an interest in recounting and interpreting their own dreams and visions.16 Among early Christians, visionary dreams appear to the magi who worshipped Jesus, and to Joseph in Matthew 2:1–18. In fact, Paul himself had many visions and visionary dreams, which he interpreted and drew inspiration from, more than those recorded in his letters or Acts, just like the great Jewish prophet Daniel, who was given the gifts of vision and dream interpretation, and could interpret visions and dreams in response to his prayer (Dan 1:17; 2:19; 2 Cor 12:1–9).

1. The Origins of the Jerusalem Donation

Around the time Nero became emperor in AD 54, and probably drawing inspiration from the excitement of a new era, the church of Corinth responded to those in Jerusalem struggling and made voluntary requests on their own behalf to Paul, asking and demanding that they be allowed by him to help and support the church in Jerusalem financially.17 Paul would have prayed for something like it to happen, so would have many other Christians. Perhaps extensive letter exchange occurred between the Christians of Jerusalem, and those around Corinth, Macedonia and Galatia. The Gentile churches suffered, but the Jerusalem church suffered worse. Paul was a Jewish Christian, but a great espouser of Gentile Christianity. Augustine of Hippo temporarily assumed the community of goods failed, early on in his career. Later, he reconsidered the extant material—material that had not enlightened him earlier on in his career, because later on he became a great advocate of the community of goods.18 When he drew up his rules for his monastic order, Augustine endorsed the model of the community of goods to serve as the model for the finances of his monasteries, singularly and collectively.19

Still, some commentators have claimed it failed. These have argued that Christians in Jerusalem were only drawn from the poorer classes, and that the Sanhedrin’s hostility towards Christianity there took a toll financially, and also that these Christians’ hospitality towards missionaries used up resources excessively. However, the church at Jerusalem actually sent many missionaries out to other destinations. Still, these commentators propose that in every act of sharing the community of goods reduced what little capital it had, despite the fact that if they did share it amongst themselves they still would have possessed, and shared, that same capital. These also argue that money-making ventures by the Christians on account of these ‘facts’ rendered those ventures ‘null and void’.20 Thus, some scholars also believe the Jerusalem Church was made up of itinerant beggars.21 However, it was not until AD 54 that the Jerusalem Donation first came into being, after the long famine under Claudius had raged for up to nine years throughout the empire. Thus, the community of goods had acquitted itself well. Indeed, the Donation would not be carried to Jerusalem by Paul until AD 57, adding to the lustre of the community of goods, and its wise acquittal.22

Not long after the Corinthian church volunteered its donative request to Paul, in order to financially help the struggling Christians of Jerusalem, the believers of Macedonia likewise volunteered their own special request to Saint Paul so they could contribute some sort of monetary donation, as well. That’s why Paul says this in 2 Corinthians 8:1–4, 10:

And now, brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in the service to the Lord’s people [in Jerusalem]…. Last year you [the church in Corinth] were the first not only to give but also to have the desire to do so.

The enthusiasm continued to spread and expand, and before too long the churches featuring throughout Galatia also responded, sending out their own private request to Paul, perhaps as he stayed in Galatia just prior to his vision of the Macedonian man in Troas and his writing of 1 Corinthians, and his maritime trek west from Troas to Samothrace, so that they could also contribute some sort of monetary aid to their fellow Christians in Jerusalem and the wider Judean region. David J. Downs agrees that the seed of the ‘Jerusalem Donation’ was planted after Paul wrote his epistle to the Galatians prior to AD 53, yet before 1 Corinthians was completed and delivered.23

2. Galatians

In response, Paul addressed the Galatian churches first, at a time when some of their ambassadors were before him in Galatia no doubt presenting their special request to him, probably in both speech and writing. Unfortunately, Downs and others confusingly have pressed that Paul merely replied to the Galatians by letter, although during which timing most cannot find a majority consensus, although Downs has conceded that the Galatian churches were initially enthusiastic to contribute money, and did, but in the end contributed no money to the ‘Jerusalem Donation’ at all.24 Among these scholars, Georgi alternates between timing such a discarding letter to both before and/or after the completion of the Galatians epistle.25 Martyn questions whether Paul’s collection letter could have been quickly penned by the apostle to calm emotions after the deliverance of the biblical epistle to the Galatians.26 Downs, on the other hand, finds no solution as to when such an only hypothesised letter, if it ever existed, was written.27 Becker and Joubert argue in the seeming absence of evidence that the churches of Galatia carried out an independent collection, linked but unrelated to the ‘Jerusalem Donation’.28 However, Downs argues that since Romans 15:26 refers to Macedonia and Achaea together as contributors to the Jerusalem Donation collection, that this means they were the only provinces to contribute at all.29

3. Paul’s Addresses

Thereupon, Paul gave his addresses to the Corinthian and Macedonian church communities, most likely through these same Galatian ambassadors or their representatives among the Galatian Christians, endorsing their bids to contribute funds to the Gentile Galatian churches’ drive to bring aid to their Jewish Christian Judean brothers and sisters. Some biblical scholars have theorised that perhaps the question of the requirements of the collection made by Paul were initially broached to him by a lengthy letter full of repetitions of questions relating to the collection and other matters.30 In fact, Mitchell has warned against deriving all of Paul’s concerns towards the Corinthian church to the questions written down in a single letter from the Corinthian church.31 Moreover, adding to Mitchell’s point, De Boer and other critical analysers of the Corinthian correspondences also argue that 1 Corinthians was never a singular inclusive sequence of two separate letters, maintaining and sustaining that 1 Corinthians was instead, and always was, a single letter.32 Indeed, a brief reading of the epistle discloses that the ambassadors from Chloe’s household church breached certain several issues to Paul in person.33

While he was in Galatia, Paul orally instructed the churches how to go about raising funds for the Jerusalemite Christian believers, setting aside small amounts of money every first day of every week indefinitely in proportion to each person’s wage or income in each household. Paul then travelled to Troas where he wrote down for the Corinthian Christians in his first letter to them the same instructions. This is set forth clearly in 1 Corinthians 16:1–4, with the rider that when Paul eventually arrives in Corinth, no special church tithes and offerings collection was to ever be made to him to pass on to the Jerusalem church and the rest of the Judean household churches suffering from famine. Paul writes,

Now about the collection for the Lord’s people: Do what I told the Galatian churches to do. On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income, saving it up, so that when I come no collection will have to be made. Then, when I arrive, I will give letters of introduction to the men you approve and send them with your gift to Jerusalem. If it seems advisable for me to go also, they will accompany me. (1 Cor 16:1–4)

For Paul, a long slow series of Sunday collections was far more effective, gradually building up funds until the appropriate time for their final delivery. Notice too, that in the second last sentence of this passage, Paul writes that he intends to give ‘letters of introduction’ to approved Corinthian Christian adult males to be sent on to Jerusalem with their completed accumulated monetary ‘gift’. But there is no evidence they made it to Jerusalem at all. Instead Paul states that only if it might seem ‘advisable for me to go also’, would they accompany him. In the end, Paul only made a total of two more seaborne maritime odysseys to the west coast of Judea. There’s no evidence he took any donations from his Galatian, Corinthian, or Macedonian churches back to Jerusalem on his second last voyage in late AD 54 or early AD 55, although he might very well have sent something back. Still, the total amount would have been only very meagre, seeing that the Corinthian church only began saving up their donations after the receipt of the letter of 1 Corinthians in the midst of awful famine conditions there too. Even though some biographers of Paul place his visit to Corinth to around AD 50, more than likely Paul stayed in Corinth at this time for a year and a half from the beginning of AD 54 to roughly mid-AD 55 (Acts 18:11).34

To some, this seems like some simple, unadorned, mere errand.35 However, it’s rich in subtle information divulging some the kinds of conditions faced by the Corinthian Christians of the time, as well as the inside financial workings of the great Corinthian church itself. It also tells us exactly how the wider collection called the ‘Jerusalem Donation’ was carried out, serving as a lens through which we see the Corinthian microcosm expanding throughout the larger mandala-like kaleidoscopic macrocosm.36 What is abundantly clear is that Paul stipulated that on the first day of the week—most likely the day when the Corinthian church came together for worship37—over an undisclosed extended period, each person was to ‘set aside a sum of money in keeping with one’s income, saving it up’ throughout that week (1 Cor 16:1–2).38 This meant that men and women of all ages and financial, as well as physical and psychological capabilities contributed, if according to different degrees. 1 Corinthians 12:12–31 emphasises that the unification of the body of Christ, which is the universal Church of all believers, as a high priority. This included those of able-mindedness and any with physiological, intellectual, or other disabilities, or physical illness such as addiction or bodily ailments.39 Paul may also have contributed to the Donation himself, while at Corinth and elsewhere. Paul says that as he lived in Corinth he was not a burden, but was helped financially by his brothers (and sisters, no doubt) from Macedonia, most likely those who accompanied him (2 Cor 11:9–10). So it appears he did not accept a collection for himself while he lived there. Perhaps he also worked as a tentmaker, as he did in Thessalonica, earning money to support himself and others, and contribute to the fund for Jerusalem (2 Thess 3:9; cf. Acts 18:3).

This most certainly brought the Corinthian wider church together in fresh and new ways, which was Paul’s aim throughout his first Corinthian letter. Although Paul describes each person as a temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 6:19), he also calls the Corinthian community of believers the temple of God’s Spirit (3:16). Of course the implication is clear: ‘each person in Christ’, to paraphrase Nijay K. Gupta, is a temple of the Holy Spirit in themselves and part of a wider and greater worldwide and universal temple of God’s very own loving and communal Spirit.40

4. The Collection of the Jerusalem Donation

In order to make a contribution, each Christian had to donate a sum, no matter their financial institution of financial situation. In Roman eyes, money-changers acted as bankers, however in rudimentary form—accounts were savings accounts and credit accounts.41 In Plautus’s plays, bankers were expected to calculate the account statuses of clients of their own, although each banker was expected to keep his accounts records up-to-date. As long as client accounts stayed open, he did not have to repay overdrafts, but closing the account meant that the clients were expected to pay back all credited funds to the banker.42 Given the crediting nature of banking in Roman times, the funds for the Jerusalem Donation were saved in a home of each church community perhaps, on Sundays for safekeeping in each participating church’s treasury.43

Inside his churches, Paul intended to collect donated funds using specifically appointed collectors from Macedonian, Corinthian, and Galatian churches, and to bring them to one place, Ephesus, where Paul and his collectors would pass on the funds to Jerusalem (1 Cor 16:2–4; 2 Cor 8:19–21). In Roman times state businesses were conducted using tax-collectors. Private businesses were led by people, usually males, using their own personal networking and financial and lending arrangements.44

Donators were expected to contribute to each church treasury in current currency. Donations could also be converted into Judean currencies using money-changers in the eastern provinces, at the cost of a commissioners’ fee.45 For those unable to pay commissions throughout Macedonia, Corinth, and Galatia, money-changers at the far-away Jewish Temple in Jerusalem were equipped to change imperial and local currencies into Judean currency to buy food and other resources.46 Relevant were those money-changers’ and lenders’ ability to convert huge foreign totals to smaller coinage via exchange rate, allowing ease of distribution for Jerusalem church leaders to use their congregation, to ease the use of these coins to buy food for each person.47

5. We Come to Troas

In the discussion that follows, this article draws primarily on the biblical evidence itself. Notably, Paul repeatedly refers to the ‘door’ that God would open for him in Ephesus for effective missionary activity. The timing of Paul’s composition of 1 Corinthians, which states unequivocally that this ‘door’ was in ‘Ephesus’ (1 Cor 16:8–9), fits best within AD 54. Actually, the Corinthian ‘church’ did not consist of just one single group or building, but rather was a network and amalgamation of numerous household ‘church’ gatherers, that met under the banner, to use Paul’s own description, of ‘the church of God in Corinth’ (1:2). In fact, the word ‘church’ did not originally mean anything like a building, be it a cathedral, or a chapel, or even a shrine. In fact, it didn’t mean any physical building at all. The word normally rendered ‘church’ in English, ἐκκλησία in Greek, is a synonymn of συναγογή: both terms refer to a congregation that assembles and meets together, usually for religious gatherings. According to Paul, the great Corinthian Christian leader Stephanas hosted such a household church, as did a certain Chloe, both in Corinth (see 1 Cor 1:11, 16). In 1 Corinthians, Paul mentions that Stephanas was a supplier and refresher of the spiritual health of the ‘church’ of Corinth, and he also refers to other male Christian leaders: Fortunus and Achaicus. They also clearly ran household churches of their own, as well (1 Cor 16:17). Finally, but not exhaustively, the apostle Paul names and commends Phoebe the great deaconess of a household church in Cenchrae in his letter to the Romans (Rom 16:1). Without question there were also many other household churches that came under Corinth’s banner at the time also, because 2 Corinthians 1:1 goes much further than 1 Corinthians, labelling the ‘church of God in Corinth’ as that which belongs to Corinth as well as ‘all his [Jesus’s] holy people throughout Achaia’.

Paul writes this in 1 Corinthians 16:7–9:

For I do not want to see you now and make only a passing visit; I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits. But I will stay [ἐπιμενῶ] on at Ephesus until Pentecost, because a great door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many who oppose me.

Notice, Paul uses the future tense ἐπιμενῶ to describe his ‘stay’ as Ephesus. He clearly planned a short stay in Corinth, before travelling by the Aegean Sea to Ephesus, to stay for Pentecost. In other words, Paul’s intended ‘stay’ at Ephesus appears intended for a future date. This does not mean he was at Ephesus at the time of writing, but that he had planned to live there, sometime in the future. In New Testament times, writers did not use such accents in terms of punctuation as appears in this word ἐπιμενῶ—that did not happen until after classical times, and was not regularly used until Byzantine times and modern times. However, this punctuation, as appears in Greek versions of the Bible, was derived from pronunciation in ancient times, during which time this letter was written.48 Of course, as Schreiner points out, there was always the risk of a language barrier between Paul and later generations, and that Theodoret of Cyrrhus may have misunderstood in the fourth century AD that 1 Corinthians intended to state Paul was already staying in Ephesus while writing the letter (mistakenly reading the future ἐπιμενῶ as the present tense ἐπιμένω).49 In any event, given Deuteronomy 16:9 and Leviticus 23:16 state that Pentecost fell seven weeks after Passover, Paul must have left Ephesus sometime in late May, just after the Pentecost festival was celebrated there.50

Obviously Paul faced hardships at the outset of his eventual arrival, and stay, in Ephesus, well before the incident regarding the temple of Artemis. Consider Paul’s words to the Corinthian Christians:

We do not want you to be uniformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. (2 Cor 1:8)

That this was written well before the Artemis incident is evidenced by Paul’s insistence he had only not long earlier conducted himself well during his first visit to in Corinth (2 Cor 2:12); that he was pained to make ‘another’ visit, after this topical first visit (2 Cor 2:1–4), especially because of the painful nature of that previous visit both for himself, and the locals there; and that his earlier first trip into Macedonia and then into Corinth just before his seafaring journey to Ephesus, was still topically full of conflict and fears (2 Cor 7:5).

6. Pushing West

Arguably, one can arrive at the exact day, or days of the writing of 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians was written either on precisely the same night of Paul’s vision described below, or shortly after, throughout the next morning, or over the next few days and nights that followed, before he left Troas for Macedonia, and thence onto Corinth. Paul states unequivocally that this ‘door’ for himself in Ephesus had been opened and sent by the Lord while in Troas before his sojourn to Macedonia:

Now when I came to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ and found that the Lord had opened a door for me, I still had no peace of mind, because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I said goodbye to them and went to Macedonia. (2 Cor 2:12–13)

On his way to the province of Asia for the first time, Paul dreamed of heading to Ephesus, to use it as a base to visit other places, like Macedonia and Corinth, for instance—and also Rome, for in Romans 15:23 (written in AD 57) Paul states he had ‘longed for many years’ to visit the Christians of Rome. There were Jewish Christians in Rome following the first Pentecost after Jesus’s ascension, no doubt (cf. Acts 2:10). In 2 Corinthians, Paul outlined his purpose for his first planned itinerary. In it he states his original intention was to visit Corinth, then Macedonia, and then Corinth again, and then return by ship to Jerusalem. It was an ambitious plan, but it wasn’t as ambitious as his ideas, and his efforts, would eventually turn out to become. God had bigger plans for Paul, and in time so would Paul, in places like Corinth, Macedonia, and Ephesus—but they would be realised in ways Paul would never have expected—such was his success (2 Cor 1:16).

While he lived in Pisidian Antioch, on his first mission towards the west, ‘the word of God spread throughout the whole region’, on account of Paul and his associates there (Acts 13:49). Paul refers to a ‘previous letter’ to the Corinth believers in 1 Corinthians 5:9.51 As Freed notes, earlier letters between Paul and Corinth, as well as Silas, Timothy, and Corinth, are certainly permissible; and as Harrill hypothesises, not without reasoning, there may have been ‘an extended and complex history of correspondence’ between these for some years, in the build-up to the eventual writing of 1 Corinthians.52 Perhaps he wrote it in Pisidian Antioch. He certainly saw Ephesus key to his great ‘door’, already while there, for when he returned to Syrian Antioch from his mission to Cyprus, Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe, Paul told the Christian assembly there, God had opened a great door of faith for him. No doubt this was the same ‘door’ that God was opening up to him in Ephesus (1 Cor 16:7–9), and that the Lord continued to open to Paul while he was in Troas (2 Cor 2:12–13). As Acts 14:27–28 states,

On arriving there [Syrian Antioch], they [Paul and his associates] gathered the church together and reported all that God had done through them and how He had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles. And they stayed there a long time with the disciples.

In Acts 16:6–8, on his second missionary journey, Paul and his companions struggled to enter Asia, to preach there, and its neighbouring province Bithynia. They dallied in Phrygia, and then in Galatia, trying to get into Asia and Bithynia, but all in vain.53 The Holy Spirit kept them out of Asia—perhaps there was danger, and evidently the time had not yet come for gospel ministry there. Then Jesus kept them from entering Bithynia—a double wall. Again, the time had not yet come (Acts 16:6–7). Paul was pushing west, and in 2 Corinthians he states he planned to visit Corinth, then Macedonia, then Corinth again, and then planned to return to Jerusalem. History would have been altered. He might have planned to retire to Jerusalem, for good. Still, Paul was God’s chosen individual for his uniquely grand, and successfully extended missional role. He was not to retire (2 Cor 1:16).

Paul was arguably trying to reach Asia and Ephesus, its capital, and from there perhaps push west by sea to Corinth, and then onto Samothrace and Philippi in Macedonia, and then back to Corinth—probably all by boat considering all of the above cities were harbour cities—and then head back to Jerusalem by ship. Paul seems to have envisaged a sea-borne expeditionary mission, but as it turned out, Paul’s mission in these areas in would turn out to be mostly land-borne. This meant that they were longer-lasting, with more person-to-person contact, among larger populations (on land rather than sea), and with more friendships formed. This had far-reaching consequences for the immediate population, and following generations. World history was altered, and he introduced, because of this change in plans, new impressions and experiences of new Christian love, both individually and collectively. However, if Paul had not written this ‘previous letter’ to Corinth back when he tarried in Pisidian Antioch (1 Cor 5:9), perhaps it was at this point—when he could not enter either Asia or Bithynia. In that case, it was delivered sometime shortly before the letter we know as 1 Corinthians. Paul probably had deliberations with people from the west by letter and in person, in Pisidian Antioch and for a long time afterwards, before he arrived in Macedonia and Corinth, and later, Ephesus.

7. They Arrived in Troas

Soon after Paul and his friends bypassed Asia, Phrygia, and Mysia, they arrived in Troas. There, after an undisclosed time, Paul might have founded a church, according to Bruce.54 Paul also had a vision there. According to Acts 16:9, Paul saw a Macedonian man standing in front of him, begging him, saying ‘come over to Macedonia and help us.’ Immediately after Paul had this remarkable vision, he and his friends ‘got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them’ (16:10). This vision was the primary ‘positive guidance’ Paul had received from God to embark for Macedonia, from where he travelled to Corinth, by land.55 Titus isn’t mentioned as being present in the Acts account. Paul and his friends, without Titus, might have set sail for Samothrace in Macedonia to the west, the first port of call in Macedonia from east usually, the very night of the vision in the early hours of the morning before dawn, or shortly thereafter, in the hustle and bustle of people movement in those parts in those times, by ship. It was Paul’s definitive move to journey to, and arrive at Corinth, via Macedonia. This means that 1 Corinthians was posted to the church in Corinth that very night, or perhaps more likely shortly afterwards, a day or two later, just before he embarked on ship for Samothrace to fulfil this vision and journey to Macedonia, and visit Corinth afterwards. All the while, the letter we call 1 Corinthians sailed on board another ship, as postage, to what was one of the largest seafaring commercial cities in the entire Aegean. As Schreiner and Murphy-O’Connor point out, although Paul addressed the church of Corinth (1 Cor 1:2), this letter may have been formally received by Apollos, who conducted his own ministry in Corinth, and Achaia.56 According to Freed, it was written soon after the foundation of the Corinthian church by Paul, Silas and Timothy, somehow.57 Harrill places this foundation sometime in AD 51.58 However Acts demonstrates that at the first Pentecost festival in Jerusalem following Jesus’s ascension, there were locals from ‘every nation under heaven’ there, presumably including Greeks from Achaia, of which Corinth was the capital, and Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, and Crete, from which any believer in Jesus at any stage could have migrated to Corinth after that Pentecost, and founded a church there, or several, with local Corinthians and other Achaians (Acts 2:5, 9–11).

It is true that the remarks about the visit to Corinth via Macedonia appear at the end of the letter (1 Cor 16:5), suggesting that Paul may have written the earlier portion of the letter before his vision of the Macedonian man, while in Troas, or even before. However, it is likely that Paul’s first realisation of a definite mission to Macedonia and Corinth appeared only upon the timing of this vision—presumably, Paul had stayed in Troas up to that point in order to wait for an opening by God to enter Asia, and Ephesus. In any case, 1 Corinthians may have been written after some consideration by Paul, and deliberation between Paul and his associates, about the best route to take into Macedonia, and perhaps, the checking of boarding pass costs and ship departure and arrival times, by whatever means necessary and available. In any event, the letter was written with a sense of some immediacy, and falls into two neat parts, which may imply two main compositional sittings, according to Murphy-O’Connor (chs. 1–9, and 10–16).59 According to Welborn, the first part can be divided into three main sittings (1–6:11; 6:12–20; 7–9); and the second part also into three main sittings (10:1–22; 10:23–11:34; 12–16).60 However, these did not constitute separate letters, but rather parts of a constituent whole.61 Paul also seems to have interspersed several topics not necessarily otherwise contained throughout the rest of the letter, such as factions (1:10–12; 11:18–19), food offered to idols (8:1–13; 10:1–22), and travel plans (4:17–21; 16:5–9), with some abrupt transitions and changes of subject.62 In any event, Clement of Rome and Ignatius of Antioch both make attestations to the entirety of 1 Corinthians, revealing that this letter was written by Paul himself as a composite, unified whole.63 This evidence strongly suggests that the whole letter is one composite, authentic, whole work,64 forming a correspondence on reconciliation, within the Corinthian church, and with God.65

8. The Journey from Troas

In Acts 20:6 the journey from Philippi to Troas, the capital city of the Roman province of Macedonia, took just five days. From Troas to Samothrace, Luke gives no set timeframe for the sea-journey. From Samothrace to Neapolis, it took Paul just one day to reach. There is also no timeframe given for his journey from Neapolis to Philippi (Acts 16:11–12).66 However, it took Paul just five days to reach Troas from Philippi on his return journey (20:6), and given the prevailing western winds, it might have taken some days longer for Paul to reach Philippi from Troas.67 If 1 Corinthians was written by Paul shortly after his vision of the man from Macedonia in Troas, then the letter was journeying by a ship, which was perhaps island hopping, to Corinth, while Paul was sailing west to Macedonia aboard another ship that was hugging the coast (Acts 16:11–12).

One year later, Paul recounted the apparent confusion over his original intention to visit Corinth, before moving into Macedonia, and then back into Corinth, and then into Judea:

I wanted to visit you on my way to Macedonia and to come back to you from Macedonia, and then to have you send me on my way to Judea. Was I fickle when I intended to do this? (2 Cor 1:16–17)

Later, Paul also states this regarding his first visit to the Corinthian Christians:

Now this is our boast: our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially in our relations with you, with integrity and sincerity. We have done so, relying not on worldly wisdom but on God’s grace. (2 Cor 2:12)

This evidence demonstrates that Paul wrote 2 Corinthians either during his first stay in Ephesus, or mostly likely, early on during his second stay there when he faced mounting opposition in Asia. Despite Paul’s best efforts, his first visit to the Corinthian church, as referred to by 2 Corinthians, not 1 Corinthians, had its own consternations and misgivings, which were intermixed, no doubt, with successes. It was a ‘painful visit’ that grieved the locals at times, mostly because of his hard-hitting letter to them known as 1 Corinthians (2 Cor 2:1–3). The letter pained them with its advice, instructions and commands. Yet Paul explains that he wrote ‘not to cause you pain but to let you know the depths of my love for you’ so they would ‘share my joy’ (2 Cor 2:3–4).68

9. Looking Ahead

In any event, the original plan and itinerary to travel to Corinth first, and then to Macedonia, before returning to Corinth, and then retiring to Judea, as referred to in 2 Corinthians 1:16, came to nought. For when Paul had his vision at Troas, he decided resolutely to board a ship for Samothrace and thence enter Greece from Macedonia. In confirmation and fulfilment of his amended plans in 1 Corinthians 16:5–9, after his arrival in Macedonia first, and then Corinth second, Paul made his way to Ephesus. According to Acts 18:18–23, when Paul left Corinth, he made for Cenchreae, and then boarded ship for Ephesus, where he stayed for a short time and ‘reasoned with the Jews’, in a local synagogue, no doubt until the following Pentecost. The ‘door’ was starting to open. From Ephesus he sailed to Caesarea (Maritima), and from there he went by land to Jerusalem, Antioch (in Syria), Galatia and Phrygia, and then back to Ephesus for his second and longest stay (approximately two years and three months). The opened ‘door’ had swung wide. This itinerary also stands inverted to Paul’s last return to Jerusalem, as does his unfulfilled initial itinerary, showing that those plans were discarded dreams.

In regard to the itinerary of Paul’s last return, it differs from Paul’s earlier travels to Ephesus, confirming that 1 Corinthians could not have been written so late—for Paul never stayed in Ephesus at all on this last sojourn. According to Acts 20:1, after the riots in Ephesus in AD 57 over the loss of profits to the Artemis temple and its silversmiths on account of Christian conversions, Paul ‘sent for the other disciples and, after encouraging them, said goodbye and set out for Macedonia’ in accordance with his first plans. Then, Paul travelled to Achaea briefly, for three months, whether by ship or by land we are not told, where he spent time especially in Corinth and perhaps other places. Then, he decided not to sail directly for Antioch or Ephesus, but instead returned to Macedonia vexed, until he found passage from Philippi back to Troas, from where he went onwards by foot to Assos. From there he took a ship to Mitylene, and then ferried on to the Greek island of Chios, and then Samos, and then Miletus (Acts 20:13–16). Paul had sailed past Ephesus and its harbours, not surprisingly, without even docking at all, in his bid to reach Jerusalem before the approaching Pentecost festival, there. His next stop was the Grecian island of Kos, and then the islands of Rhodes and Cyprus, from where he travelled east by boat to the great Phoenician and Hellenistic city of Tyre—and then finally he reached Caesarea (21:1–8). Paul, attended by his retinue, made his way to the house of Mnason on its way to Jerusalem—before final arrival there (21:15–16). In Jerusalem, Paul famously gave a full story-length account of all of his missions to the Gentiles and their nations, amidst great and loud acclamation by Jesus’s younger brother James, and a large gathering of Jerusalemite and Judean church elders (21:17–19).

10. Onwards to Philippi

Sometime during or before his trip to Philippi from Neapolis, Samothrace and Troas, Paul was joined by Titus—as 2 Corinthians 7:6 states. However, Titus soon parted company from Paul, for he does not appear in the account of the visit to Philippi (Acts 16:11–40). There Paul and his associate, Silas, were beaten and locked in a Philippian prison after exorcising a spirit of divination from an enslaved girl. Silas and Paul then explained to the jailer that he should try to believe in Jesus to be saved, and that it was well worth his own household doing the same. Appreciative, to say the very least, he then washed all of Paul’s and Silas’ wounds personally, and ‘he and all his household were baptised’ (16:33). Paul and Silas were then escorted by the jailer himself into his own private home where they were fed a nourishing meal. He was so overwhelmed by the whole experience, but he and his entire household were so ‘filled with joy’ because they now believed ‘in God’ (16:34). The very next morning Paul and Silas were freed together.

Not surprisingly, after their gloomy but enlightening Philippian prison experiences, Paul and Silas re-joined their other compatriots and moved on to Amphipolis, Apollonia, and Thessalonica. There he taught to the locals in the one of the city’s synagogues that Jesus, was the Messiah the Law and the Prophets had pointed ahead to, and that his suffering and shame throughout his life and crucifixion were also in accordance with many of those very same scriptural indicators. This caused a near riot there, but Paul and his team escaped the clutches of their pursuers and that night Paul and Silas fled alone to Berea (Acts 17:1–10). They both began teaching in the only synagogue there too, this time together. According to 17:11, the Jews of Berea were ‘of more noble character than those in Thessalonica’, and they lovingly and happily embraced Paul and Silas and their teachings as they studied the Jewish Scriptures together and began to understand its messianic themes and indications. Many of them became Christians on the spot together with numbers of prominent local Greek women and men. Jealous and envious of Paul and Silas, and hateful towards their new Christian neighbours, the Thessalonians then conspired, agitated, and whipped up the crowds against them, to such an extent that Paul had to be hastily sent off to the coast and on to Athens, as Silas and Timothy hid out in Berea (17:13–15).

Writing a year later to the Corinthians, Paul reminisced on these hardships:

For when we came to Macedonia, we had no rest but we were harassed at every turn—conflicts on the outside, fears within. (2 Cor 7:5)

But he would not stay there forever.

11. Athens and Corinth

Paul’s helpers escorted him to Athens. There, he commanded Silas and Timothy to re-join him (Acts 17:15–16). After they were reunited (18:5), Paul wrote to the Corinthians about his time in Corinth with Silas and Timothy:

But as surely as God is faithful, our message to you is not ‘Yes’ and ‘No’. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us—by me [that is, Paul] and Silas and Timothy—was not ‘Yes’ and ‘No’, but in him it has always been ‘Yes’. (2 Cor 1:18–19)

During his stay in Athens, the central city of the ancient political state of classical Attica, Paul debated and discussed Jesus with local Jews and God-fearing Greeks in the city’s main synagogue and the infamous Areopagus, once home to the Athenian equivalent in the fifth century BC to Rome’s Senate, where membership was determined by elitism, wealth, familial contacts, and aristocratic paternal lineage. After spending much time reasoning with many interested minds philosophically, Paul then journeyed, freely and safely, to Corinth, where he was immediately met by his friend Aquila from Pontus, and his wife, companion, and co-worker, Priscilla (Acts 18:1–2). Paul lived in Corinth for a year and a half (18:11).

12. In Ephesus

Soon after, Paul, Aquila, Priscilla, and their other Christian brothers and sisters, set sail for Syria. Just prior to embarking Paul had all the hair on his head shaven at Cenchrae, a town on Corinth’s outskirts, perhaps even at the household church that Phoebe served (Rom 16:1), commemorating the fulfilment of a vow he had made according to traditional Jewish law (Acts 18:18. After embarkation, the team set sail and as stated, arrived at Ephesus. From there, Paul parted with Aquila and Priscilla, and spent many days reasoning in the main synagogue there with local Jews, teaching them about Jesus. The ‘door’ Paul had found in Ephesus was finally starting to open. From there he again set sail and the next stop was Caesarea on the Judean coast, and from there, as mentioned, Paul trekked overland to Jerusalem. After spending some time there, he fared north to Antioch in Syria (11:19–30). Happily encouraged by the Christian believers there, the apostle then journeyed north once again, encouraging and preaching to many Christians throughout Galatia and Phrygia. Then finally, after a long but important ground-breaking and pioneering roundabout detour, Paul entered Ephesus at long last for a long-term stay, where the ‘door’ he had expected to open for him for so long was opened, and where he appears to have most likely written 2 Corinthians—not 1 Corinthians, which as this article has shown on the basis of Acts 18:18–19:1, was most likely written earlier in Troas.

13. Conclusion

We have now argued that 1 Corinthians was written in Troas, with composition of it beginning very shortly after Paul’s vision of the man from Macedonia, there. It was written by Paul in perhaps six separate sittings, each taking hours to plan and fulfil. It was from Troas that Paul entered Macedonia, and Corinth, and it was from Corinth that Paul eventually entered Ephesus, completing a major mission in his career to walk through the door to the Gentiles there, that God had placed in front of him. Paul had dreamed of evangelising throughout Ephesus and Asia, perhaps for years, and from there evangelising Corinth, Macedonia, and even further abroad, perhaps for as long a time. Paul’s hopes for gospel ministry were realized in Ephesus and in Corinth, but not without struggle, and not without God’s help, and perfect timing.

This article has numerous ramifications. First, it seeks to demonstrate God’s and Paul’s intentions from a New Testament perspective. Paul had hoped to enter Ephesus for some time before his vision in Troas, but was hampered by God from doing so. Eventually, he entered it, and it became his marvelous door to the Gentiles, as he hoped it would be, but not without troubles, and not without added blessings beyond Paul’s wildest dreams both for himself, and his career. This teaches us that when we place God in control of our lives, he will see his plans through that include our dreams, hopes, and aspirations. We need to be patient, and we need to be prepared for added blessings.

In all, to understand Paul’s letters, we need to try to understand Paul. We need to seek out the historical person, who thought, and felt, and who dreamt one day of honouring his God to such an extent that he wanted a door to the Gentiles to open, so he could fulfill his commission to carry the gospel of his Lord Jesus Christ to the Gentile world at large. Paul was very much a human, like us, who needed to pray, to confide in the Lord Jesus, with whom he had a close relationship. As part as that close relationship, God answered his prayers, in ways he didn’t expect, but somehow suspected. Not all people are the same, and not all talents are the same. But God invested in the talents he gave to Paul and used them mightily, and so did Paul. We too, can take time to invest in our talents given to us by God, and use them, as God does, as wonderfully and powerfully and creatively as we can throughout this life, and into eternity, for our joy, and for others’, and for God’s. May we do so.


[1] Theodoret of Cyrrhus, Commentaries on the Epistles of St. Paul, 82 cols. 37B-40A.

[2] Euthalius, 85 col. 752D; Pseudo-Athanasius, Synopsis of Sacred Scripture 28 col. 416B.

[3] Nathaniel Lardner, The Works of Nathaniel Lardner, Vol. 4 (London: Joseph Ogle Robinson, 1829), 321; George Percy Badger, The Nestorians and Their Rituals, Vol. 2 (London: Joseph Master, 1852), 362–63.

[4] Alfred William Pollard, ed., The Holy Bible: A Facsimile in a Reduced Size of the Authorized Version Published in the Year 1611 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1911), comment at 1 Corinthians 16:17.

[5] Charles Hodge, An Exposition of 1 Corinthians, reprint ed. (Albany: Books for the Ages, 1997), 11.

[6] Anthony C. Thiselton, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, NIGTC (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000), 31.

[7] See throughout David E. Garland, 1 Corinthians, BECNT (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2003); Jerome Murphy-O’Connor, ‘1 and 2 Corinthians’, in The Cambridge Companion to St Paul, ed. James D. G. Dunn (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 75.

[8] See throughout Craig S. Keener, 1–2 Corinthians, NCBC (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005).

[9] Eric D. Huntsmans, ‘The Occasional Nature, Composition, and Structure of Paul’s Letters’, in How the New Testament Came to Be: The Thirty-Fifth Annual Sidney B. Sperry Symposium, ed. Kent P. Jackson and Frank J. Judd Jr (Salt Lake City: Deseret, 2006), 190–207.

[10] Craig S. Keener, ‘Paul’s Asian Mission to Europe—Acts 16:9’, Bible Background: Research and Commentary from Dr. Craig Keener, 5 November 2013, https://craigkeener.com/pauls-asian-mission-to-europe-acts-169/; Robert J. Morgan, ‘Supreme Lessons from Acts 16’, 28 June 2015, https://www.robertjmorgan.com/uncategorized/supreme-lessons-from-acts-16/.

[11] 1 Cor 16:5–9; Murphy-O’Connor, ‘1 and 2 Corinthians’, 86.

[12] CIL 3:39.

[13] Seneca, To Polybius on Consolation 4.46.1.

[14] Lysias, Orations 2.28.

[15] Pliny, Epistles 1.18.1–4; Suetonius, Augustus 91; Plutarch, Themistocles 30.

[16] Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 8.22–25, 125–129; 17.345–346, 350, 353; 4Q530 2:4–5, 11–12.

[17] Josef Hainz, Koinonia: ‘Kirche’ als Gemainschaft bei Paulus (Regensburg: Pustet, 1982), 123–51; John S. Kloppenborg, ‘Paul’s Collection for Jerusalem and the Financial Practices in Greek Cities’, in Paul and Economics: A Handbook, ed. Thomas R. Blanton IV and Raymond Pickett (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2017), 309.

[18] Augustine, Letter 82.11; F. W. Grosheide, Commentary on the First Epistle to the Corinthians (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1953), 397; F. F. Bruce, Commentary On Galatians, NIGTC (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1982), 128.

[19] Augustine, Sermon on Psalm 131 (132); Sermon on Psalm 132 (133); The Work of Monks 25, 32; T. J. V. Bavel, The Rule of Saint Augustine: Masculine and Feminine Versions (London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1984), 41–52.

[20] Philip E. Hughes, The Second Epistle to the Corinthians (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1962), 284; Margaret E. Thrall, The First and Second Letters of Paul to the Corinthians, CBC (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1965), 161; Raymond F. Collins, Second Corinthians, Paideia (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2013), 166.

[21] Murphy-O’Connor, ‘1 and 2 Corinthians’, 87–88.

[22] Daryn Graham, ‘The Apostle Paul and the Success of the Jerusalem Donation’, RTR 78 (2019): 117–40; Daryn Graham, ‘The Genesis of the Jerusalem Donation’, Themelios 45 (2020): 58–73.

[23] David J. Downs, The Offering of the Gentiles: Paul’s Collection for Jerusalem in Its Chronological, Cultural, and Cultic Contexts (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008), 40.

[24] David Horrell, ‘The Lord Commanded … But I Have Not Used: Exegetical and Hermeneutical Reflections on 1 Cor 9:14–15’, NTS 43 (1997): 587–603; Stephan Joubert, Paul as Benefactor: Reciprocity, Strategy, and Theological Reflection in Paul’s Collection, WUNT 2/124 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2000), 157; Downs, The Offering of the Gentiles, 41–43.

[25] Dieter Georgi, Remembering the Poor: The History of Paul’s Collection for Jerusalem (Nashville: Abingdon, 1992), 49.

[26] J. Louis Martyn, Galatians: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, AB 33A (New York: Doubleday, 1997), 226 n. 79; J. Louis Martyn, ‘A Tale of Two Churches’, in Theological Issues in the Letters of Saint Paul (Nashville: Abingdon, 1997), 25–36.

[27] Downs, The Offering of the Gentiles, 41.

[28] Jürgen Becker, Paul: Apostle to the Gentiles (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1993), 24–25; Joubert, Paul as Benefactor, 157. But, see also Alexander J. M. Wedderburn, ‘Paul’s Collection: Chronology and History’, NTS 48 (2002): 95–110.

[29] Downs, The Offering of the Gentiles, 42.

[30] Gerd Lüdemann, Paul: Apostle to the Gentiles: Studies in Chronology (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1984), 81–83; Downs, The Offering of the Gentiles, 40.

[31] Margaret M. Mitchell, ‘Concerning ΠΕΡΙ ΔΕ in 1 Corinthians’, NovT 31 (1989): 229–56.

[32] Martinus C. De Boer, ‘The Composition of 1 Corinthians’, NTS 40 (1994): 229–45.

[33] See, for example 1 Corinthians 1:11; Murphy-O’Connor, ‘1 and 2 Corinthians’, 75–76.

[34] Robert Jewett, A Chronology of Paul’s Life (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1979), 38–40; Jerome Murphy-O’Connor, Paul: A Critical Life (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996), 18–22; L. L. Welborn, ‘The Corinthian Correspondence’, in All Things to All Cultures: Paul Among Jews, Greeks, and Romans, ed. Mark Harding and Alanna Nobbs (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2013), 206; Karen Armstrong, St Paul: The Misunderstood Apostle (London: Atlantic, 2015), 63.

[35] Robert Jewett, ‘Romans’, in The Cambridge Companion to St. Paul, ed. James D. G. Dunn (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 104.

[36] F. F. Bruce, Paul: Apostle of the Free Spirit (Exeter: Paternoster, 1977), 151.

[37] On the matter of worship on the first day of the week in the early Church, see Justin Martyr, Apology 1.67.6. See also Leon Morris, 1 Corinthians, TNTC 7 (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1985), 227.

[38] Kenneth E. Bailey, Paul Through Mediterranean Eyes: Cultural Studies in 1 Corinthians (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2011), 483–85.

[39] Brian Brock, ‘Theologizing Inclusion: 1 Corinthians 12 and the Politics of the Body of Christ’, Journal of Religion, Disability and Health 15 (2011): 351–76.

[40] Nijay K. Gupta, ‘Which “Body” is a Temple (1 Corinthians 6:19)? Paul Beyond the Individual/Communal Divide’, CBQ 72 (2010): 521.

[41] Jean Andreau, Banking and Business in the Roman World (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 44.

[42] Plautus, Aulularia 526–31; Captivi 192–193; Curculio 371–374; Dominic Rathbone, Economic Rationalism and Rural Society in Third Century AD Egypt: The Heroninos Archive and the Appianus Estate (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), 328–29; Andreau, Banking and Business, 45.

[43] Morris, 1 Corinthians, 227–28.

[44] Andreau, Banking and Business, 20.

[45] Andreau, Banking and Business, 37.

[46] Andreau, Banking and Business, 32.

[47] Michael Grant, ‘The Pattern of Official Coinage in the Early Principate’, in Essays in Roman Coinage Presented to Harold Mattingly, ed. R. A. G. Carson and C. H. V. Sutherland (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1956), 96–112, esp. 102–12; Andreau, Banking and Business, 37.

[48] Donald J. Mastronarde, Introduction to Attic Greek, 2nd ed. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2013), 13.

[49] Thomas P. Schreiner, Interpreting the Pauline Epistles (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1990), 62.

[50] Armstrong, St Paul, 63.

[51] See Edwin D. Freed, The Apostle Paul and His Letters (London: Equinox, 2005), 64; Murphy-O’Connor, ‘1 and 2 Corinthians’, 75.

[52] Freed, The Apostle Paul and His Letters, 65; J. Albert Harrill, Paul the Apostle: His Life and Legacy in Their Roman Context (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), 15–16.

[53] Bruce, Paul, 216.

[54] Bruce, Paul, 218.

[55] Bruce, Paul, 218.

[56] Acts 18:27–19:1; 1 Corinthians 1:12; Schreiner, Interpreting the Pauline Epistles, 27; Murphy-O’Connor, ‘1 and 2 Corinthians’, 75.

[57] Freed, The Apostle Paul and His Letters, 65.

[58] Harrill, Paul the Apostle, 62.

[59] Murphy-O’Connor, ‘1 and 2 Corinthians’, 76, 86–88.

[60] Welborn, ‘The Corinthian Correspondence’, 214–30.

[61] Philip Vielhauer, Geschichte der urchristlichen Literatur (Berlin: de Gruyter, 1975), 141; Welborn, ‘The Corinthian Correspondence’, 212.

[62] Johannes Weiss, Der erste Korintherbrief (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1910), xxxix–xliii; Wolfgang Schenk, ‚Der 1. Korintherbrief als Briefsammlung’, ZNW 60 (1969): 219–43; Vielhauer, Geschichte der urchristlichen Literatur, 140–41; Robert Jewett, ‘The Redaction of 1 Corinthians and the Trajectory of the Pauline School’, JAAR 46 (1978): 389–444; Hans-Josef Klauck, 1. Korintherbrief (Würzburg: Echter, 1984); Welborn, ‘The Corinthian Correspondence’, 212.

[63] On Clement’s use of 1 Corinthians, see L. L. Welborn, ‘On the Date of First Clement’, BR 29 (1984): 29–54; L. L. Welborn, ‘Take Up the Epistle of the Blessed Paul the Apostle’, in Reading Communities, Reading Scripture: Essays in Honor of Daniel Patte, ed. Gary A. Phillips and Nicole Wilkinson Duran (Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 2002), 345–57. On Ignatius’s use of 1 Corinthians, see William R. Schoedel, Ignatius of Antioch: A Commentary on the Letters of Ignatius of Antioch (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1985), 9; Timothy D. Barnes, ‘The Date of Ignatius’, ExpT 120 (2009): 119–30. See also Freed, The Apostle Paul and His Letters, 64–65; Welborn, ‘The Corinthian Correspondence’, 211.

[64] J. Paul Sampley, Walking in Love: Moral Progress and Spiritual Growth with the Apostle Paul (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2016), 27.

[65] Margaret M. Mitchell, Paul and the Rhetoric of Reconciliation: An Exegetical Investigation of the language and Composition of 1 Corinthians, HUT (Tübingen: Mohr, 1991); L. L. Welborn, An End to Enmity: Paul and the ‘Wrongdoer’ of Second Corinthians (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2011); Welborn, ‘The Corinthian Correspondence’, 206.

[66] Bruce, Paul, 340; A. N. Wilson, Paul: The Mind of the Apostle (London: Sinclair-Stevenson, 1997), 135.

[67] Bruce, Paul, 340.

[68] Jerome Murphy-O’Connor, Paul: His Story (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), 62.

Daryn Graham

Daryn Graham is a PhD graduate from Macquarie University and lives in Sydney, Australia.

Other Articles in this Issue

This paper will outline the canon-conscious worldview of Ben Sira, highlight the major contents of his authoritative corpus of Jewish Writings, and describe his hermeneutical strategies...

Scholarly discussions concerning the nature of OT hope are arguably most passionate and divisive when the figure of the anointed one (often designated the messiah) is in view...

The book of Esther presents a challenge for many modern interpreters, since the book does not mention the name of God or his direct action...

Christians have long wrestled with how to read the Law in light of the work of Christ...