Paul and The Pauline Letters: 1 & 2 Corinthians

First Corinthians:An Introduction and Study Guide is an invaluable guidebook for Bible study groups,for parish classes on the Bible,for senior high school and college students,and for the general readers who want a clearer and more personal understanding of Saint Paul's first epistle to the Corinthians. In this book, author John J. Kilgallen presents the problems faced by the Corinthian community,Saint Paul's response to these issues, and the circumstances which nuanced the kinds of decisions and advice Saint Paul eventually offered to the community.At the same time, Rev. Kilgallen reveals how contemporary Saint Paul's message is for today's Christian. He defines ten major issues that structure Paul's letter.

One of the most exciting of Paul's letters, First Corinthians offers a vantage point from which modern readers can reflect on the diversity in Christian churches today. In First Corinthians, Raymond Collins explores that vantage point as well as the challenge Paul posed to the people of his time - and continues to pose in ours - to allow the gospel message to engage them in their daily lives.

One of the world's most respected Christian theologians, Anthony Thiselton here provides in-depth discussion of the language of 1 Corinthians, presents his own careful translation of the Greek, traces the main issues of interpretation from the church fathers to the present, and highlights topics of theological, ethical, and sociohistorical interest today, including ethics and "rights," marriage, divorce and remarriage, "headship," gender, prophecy, and many others.

Paul's first letter to the Corinthians was addressed originally to a fledgling mission church in Corinth. Paul's absence from the church had allowed serious problems to arise within the Corinthian community, but the problems that he addresses in this letter do not always seem based in explicitly theological ideas. The brilliance of Paul, though, is that he frames the issues in theological terms and reflects on them in the light of the gospel. Hays identifies and discusses the major theological themes of the letter, as well as issues such as community formation and the rethinking of inherited sociocultural norms and practices, and he offers Paul as a model for ministry.

La presente obra ,escrita originalmente en ingles,forma parte de la prestigiosa serie de comentarios biblicos publicados por William B.Eerdmans Publishing Company bajo el titulo general The New International Commentary On The New Testament.Representa el fruto maduro de largos anos de estudio de 1 Corintios.Se dirige primordialmente a pastores,profesores y estudiantes. Por esta razon trata ante todo de proporcionar una exposicion legible del texto escrito originalmente en griego; una exposicion que aclare para el lector comun la corriente de las ideas del apostol Pablo,su importancia teologica y el significado de las diversas partes de la carta paulina.Sin embargo,tambien toma en cuenta a la comunidad erudita en cuestiones neotestamentarias,de la cual su autor es un representante distinguido,muy reconocido especialmente por su vasto conocimiento de la critica textual y su capacidad exegetica.

Peter wrote that there are some things in Paul's letters that are hard to understand and readers of 2 Corinthians will agree. This small but useful Bible study should help to explain some of those hard things, by focusing on what is delightful and inspiring about the book.

Explaining 1 & 2 Corinthians passage by passage, Craig Keener uses a variety of ancient sources to demonstrate how Paul's arguments would have made sense to his 1st century readers.

Mitzi L. Minor's commentary on 2 Corinthians takes the reader deep into the thought world of Paul and his congregation at Corinth, exploring the social and theological tensions that shape Paul's relationship with the Corinthian Christians. His letter expresses his joy that prior severe correspondence had been positively received and addresses the issues that were tearing the church apart; for one, false teachers who were sowing discord and maligning Paul's character. Paul finds as well that many Corinthian Christians have repented of their rebellion, and he encourages them even as he seeks to vindicate his apostleship to those who challenged him. Minor encourages the reader imaginatively to enter the radically new ekklesia that was the earliest Church, not a body of like-minded and similarly stationed citizens, but a novel collective of diverse people and interests, never joined before, struggling together to discover the ways of God in a world completely overturned by the advent of Christ ... the primary goal of the Smyth & Helwys Bible Commentary series is to make available serious, credible biblical scholarship in an accessible and less intimidating format. A visual generation of believers deserves a commentary series that contains not only the all-important textual commentary on Scripture, but images, photographs, maps, works of fine art, and drawings that bring the text to life. Each volume of the Smyth & Helwys Bible Commentary series features a CD-ROM, which expands the uses and capabilities of the Commentary even more

Second Corinthians is the most personal and passionate letter of Paul's correspondence. Written in the midst of a severe crisis that profoundly affected his relationship with the Corinthian community, the letter exhibits the full range of the apostle's emotions, from expressions of tenderness and love to outbursts of anger and resentment toward those who questioned his ministry." "Focusing on the theological and rhetorical dimensions of this letter, and always attentive to its historical setting, Frank Matera provides a reading of 2 Corinthians that embraces the letter's literary integrity.

Second Corinthians is autobiographically and theologically highly significant.Paul defends himself in order to win back the Christians of Corinth and restore their mutual relationship.The letter is an ongoing reflection upon his apostleship;a ministry that is carried in clay vessels and characterized by countless sufferings and trials,but is also sincere in the sight of God and open to everyone's conscience.There is the daily pressure on Paul,his concern for all the churches(11:29).At great lenght he insists that the Corinthians complete the collection for the poor of Jerusalem.They should forgive and comfort the sorrowful wrongdoer in their midst.Paul exhorts the Christians to cleanse themselves from every defilement since they are the temple of God; he urges them to test themselves.

This volume contains seminal articles by an international team of Pauline specialists on 1 and 2 Corinthians. The book comprises four sections: Text and Traditions; Culture, Conflict and the Rhetoric of Paul; Theology in the Letters; and Sects, Polemic and the Apologetics of Paul.

The present book establishes the literary structure of 1 Cor 12-14 through the consideration of a multiplicity of literary indications and their convergence. The determination of the structure constitutes an important step in understanding both the logic of Paul's argumentation in general and the function of chap. 13 in particular. Moreover, this ap-proach sheds light on questions related to the authenticity of some sec-tions of 1 Cor 12-14. After a critical review of how recent scholars have construed the struc-ture of 1 Cor 12-14 (chaps. 1-2), the study examines those literary fea-tures of 1 Cor 12-14 that suggest a new way of viewing the structural organization of the text (chap. 3). Finally, the theological consequences to be derived from the adoption of the proposed structure are presented (chap. 4). The method employed here for uncovering the literary structure of the text through an objective and rigorous examination of its literary indications is that of Fr. Albert Vanhoye, S.J. The present work is therefore offered as a practical and detailed example of the method in question.

Part I. 2 Corinthians 1-7. The unity of Paul's narrative world in 2 Corinthians 1-7: N. Petersen's narrative-critical approach and the coherence of 2 Corinthians -- Mending a broken relationship: the social relations and the symbolic universe of 2 Corinthians 1-7 -- The scent of (mediated) revelation? Some remarks on faneroō with a particular focus on 2 Corinthians -- The letter and the spirit in 2 Cor 3,6 and Roman 2,29: an exercise in Pauline theologizing -- The eschatological setting of the New Covenant in 2 Cor 3:4-18 -- The Paul who wants to die: a close reading of 2 Cor 4,16-5,10 -- Dying and being raised for: shifts in the meaning of huper in 2 Cor 5:14-15 -- Identität im Wandel: Konkretionen zu den Abstracta "Neue Schöpfung" und "Gerechtigkeit Gottes" in 2 Kor 5,17.21 -- Fragmented theology in 2 Corinthians: the unsolved puzzle of 6:14-7:1 -- Paul's rhetoric of demarcation: separation from "unbelievers" (2 Cor 6:14-7:1) in the Corinthian conflict -- Turning to the Lord: vision, transformation and Paul's agenda in 2 Corinthians 1-8 -- Part II. 2 Corinthians 8-9. Stellung und Funktion von 2. Korinther 8-9 im literarischen Endtext: Anmerkungen zum Stand der literar-kritischen Diskussion -- "He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food": the Pauline characterization of God in 2 Corinthians 8-9 -- The poverty and wealth of the Macedonians: a grammatical and rhetorical analysis of 2 Cor 8:1-5 -- "Because he was rich he became poor": translation, exegesis and hermeneutics in the reading of 2 Cor 8.9 -- Paul's collection: debt theology transformed into an act of love among kin? -- Part III. 2 Corinthians 10-13. Paul and whip: a sign of inclusion or exclusion? -- Impermissiblity of impossibility? A re-examination of 2 Cor 12:4 -- Paul the 'paradoxical' parent: the politics of family beneficence in first-century context (2 Cor 12:14-16) -- "Fellowship with the Spirit": the evolution of a theological concepts in 2 Co 13,13?

This volume examines 1 Corinthians 1-4 within first-century politics, demonstrating the significance of Corinth's constitution to the interpretation of Paul's letter. Bradley J. Bitner shows that Paul carefully considered the Roman colonial context of Corinth, which underlay numerous ecclesial conflicts. Roman politics, however, cannot account for the entire shape of Paul's response.

Paul's instructions in 1 Corinthians 12-14 are re-evaluated against Hellenistic moral philosophy, especially Stoicism.

This study overturns the traditional interpretation of Paul's thinking on marriage and celibacy. By examining established theories about the main influences on his theology, and by reconstructing the Stoic and Cynic discourse on marriage that formed its context, it offers an illuminating reassessment of both Paul's understanding of marriage and his place in the history of Christian asceticism, and provides new information for discussions of Christian sexuality and feminist evaluations of the Bible.

Introduction -- Le "nous" paulinien -- Analyse de la structure et de l'argumentation de 2 Co 10-13 -- Synthèse historique et théologique.

Contents: Affliction and consolation (1:1-2:13) -- Triumph and captivity, sacrifice and sufficiency (2:14-17) -- Confidence and conviction (3:1-18) -- Not ourselves (4:1-15) -- Glory and hope (4:16-5:15) -- Ambassadors for Christ (5:16-6:13)

In Moses in Corinth, Paul Duff contends that the imagery focused on Moses in 2 Corinthians 3 functions as an integral part of Paul’s apologia, a defense created by the apostle to refute suspicions about his honesty and integrity.

The study argues that the issue of character (ethos) is the key to understanding Paul's argument in 2 Corinthians. Paul draws on the ethos of Jesus throughout the letter in order to defend his own way of being an apostle and to exhort the Corinthians to take on the character of Jesus.

Originally presented as the author's thesis (doctoral)--Pontificia Università Gregoriana, 2003.