African Bible College

Malawi Campus
Pauline Epistles

Exegetical Paper on 1 Corinthians 1:1-9

Prepared
By
Aubrey Chimadzuma

For:
Pastor Felix Nyika
25,May 2015
 HISTORICAL CULTURAL CONTEXUAL AND LEXICAL SYNTACTICAL ALYSIS OF

1 CORINTHIANS 7:1-9

Introduction

In Malawi and many countries there is an increase in marriage breakdown. We hear

many stories of divorces even among Christians. Some of the problems contributing to this

should have been avoided. Many people enter marriages without knowing what and how the married

couples should relate to each other concerning the authority over their bodies. 1 Corinthians 7:1-9 is the

passage that stipulates the issue of marriage conduct and it also talks about the issue of celibacy as being

the gift. This study will look into the five exegetical steps which include historical analysis, literary

context and genre, exegesis and exposition theological analysis and application and contextualization.

Historical Analysis

Corinth was a city that had been present for a long time in ancient times. The city was

located on the isthmus connecting the Pelloponese with the Greece. The city was ideally situated

to control the north south trade. Corinth provided a land link between the east and west and it lies

just a mile and half to the south of the port of Lechaeum and Chenchrea was just over seven

miles to the east on the Saronic Gulf. (Carson, Moo, p, 263). Corinth was a Wealthy city. In 146

B.C this ancient city was attacked and destroyed by the Romans and its citizens were killed and

some were taken into slavery. It became dysfunctional for some time, for the Roman might

prohibited rebuilding of the City.

A century later Corinth was rebuilt and became a roman colony when Julius Caesar

came to power as a Roman emperor. The city served as a seat for the proconsul and the capital of

the province of Achaia from 29 B.C. Many people from within the Roman Empire including a

few retired soldiers and many freedmen of lower status and some Jews and Greeks came to live

in the rebuilt city. (Moo,p, 263).

lived with Aquila a Jew. Aquila came to Corinth with his wife Priscilla from Italy after Claudius

had commanded all Jews to leave Rome. During this time these three earned their living by

making tents (Acts 18:1-4). On Sabbath’s he went to the synagogues trying to persuade the Jews

and Greeks that Jesus Christ was the promised Messiah. Paul’s ministry begun to grow when

Timothy and Silas came with their gifts from Macedonian churches, the gifts allowed and gave

Paul the freedom to concentrate on his ministry such that the ministry was moved to the next

door in the house of Titius Justus (Many pagans believed including Crispus who was the ruler of

the synagogue ( Acts 18:5; 7-8). As the church grew the oppositions also grew. Paul left Corinth

after the church had been well established, he was forced to leave Corinth because of the

enormous opposition of his work by the Jews. (Metiziger,1987).

When Paul left Corinth he left Priscilla and Aquila at Ephesus for they left along with

him and he proceeded to Jerusalem. In Jerusalem he did not spend much time, he later returned

to his home in Antioch where he also did not spend much time. From there he came to Ephesus

and started another ministry there where he lived for two and half years. During that time it is

when he wrote 1Corithians. (Moo, p 264).

Soon after Paul had left Corinth other preachers came in, these preachers were Apollos

and probably Peter. (1Cor, 3:6). The coming in of the other preachers was followed by the

divisions in the church where by some of the Christians would identify themselves with leaders.

It is not clear as to whether these preachers are the ones who nurtured the spirit of divisions. The

church had a number of problems that arose during this time of divisions. There were abuses at

the Lord’s Table, and some other misunderstandings regarding the public litigation among
members, the position of Marriage, food offered to idols, the issues concerning resurrection and

sexual immorality (1 Cor, 1:5).

The book of 1 Corinthians was one of Paul’s extant letters, canonical books which were

written to address these problems that arose in the Church. Paul heard of the situation in Corinth

from someone from the household of Chloe and he wrote the book of Corinthians in response to

these problems. The first letter that he wrote is not the one called 1 Corinthians because Paul

talked about the letter that he wrote advising the Christians in Corinth to stay away from immoral

people and that first letter is referred to as the previous letter (Moo, p 265) further evidence of

that letter is found in (1 Corinthians 5:9), but this letter did not survive and scholars agree (Moo,

p, 265). It is assumed that the Corinthians may have asked the question regarding church

discipline and Paul responds and some of the readers may have misunderstood him (1

Corinthians 5:9-13).

When Paul sent 1 Corinthians he wanted to be in Ephesus until Pentecost, after that he

planed of going to Macedonia to visit the churches and later leave for Corinth. Paul sent Timothy

to Corinth expecting him to returns with the report. After Timothy had left Paul changed his

plans and wanted to visit Corinth twice when going and coming from Macedonia with the aim of

collecting money from Macedonia and Achaia so that he can help the believers struck by famine

in Jerusalem. When Timothy arrived in Corinth he found the situation so bad that he could not

manage to handle it and the letter had no much effect to the Corinthians. So Paul changed his

plans again upon hearing this and headed for Corinth. This visit is called the painful visit (Moo,p

265). During that same time the church had been attacked by the group of the Judaizers. One of

the opponents had attacked Paul such that even the spread of the gospel was in danger. Paul left

and wrote another letter to them. He wrote it in great distress and with great anger. He assured
them of his love for them and set the standards which wanted the church to meet those standards.

This letter is also called the tearful letter.( Moo,P, 266).

Authorship

The book of Corinthians was written by Paul as the book claims in the opening verses of

both 1 and 2 Corinthian. These have always been regarded as the undisputable Pauline Corpus

and their authenticity is not doubted. Some few scholars have contested the claim based on 2

Corinthians in which the letter presents the changes in tone. There are internal and external

evidences supporting the Pauline authorship.

Internally we find the evidence where Paul refers to himself in many places of the letter

itself. (1:1, 12, 13; 3:4, 5 22; 16:21). The style of writing that begins with the salutation, address,

blessing and thanks giving at the beginning and greetings at the end of the letter is similar to

Paul’s other epistles. Reference to Acts and other Pauline epistles in other places match up with

names and topics that are discussed in this letter. (1 Corinthian 1:1 with Acts 18:17, 1 Cor 1;14

with Acts 18:8 and 1 Cor 16:19 with Acts 18:2-3)

Externally the book has been frequently quoted by some well-known theologians like

Clement of Rome, and Ignatius (Moo,). Few scholars argue against the Pauline authorship based

on the changes in tone that the letter presents between chapters in 2 Corinthians 1-9 and 2

Corinthians 10-13. The suggestion that some parts of the letter were just interpolations that were

written by someone in the Pauline school. Carson and Morris present four theories that explain

these disagreements over the place of 2 Corinthians.

The first theory asserts that Paul wrote 2 Corinthians 1-9 immediately he got the news

from Titus and sent it. Chapters 10-13 are said to have been part of 1 Corinthians the severe

letter. This explains the change of tone from a joyous mood (8-9), and the confidence that Paul
had in the people (7:16). The advocates for this stand back their stance from some of the

references found in 2 Corinthians 1-9 referring to statements that were made in chapters 10-13,

e.g 1:23/13:2, 2:3 and 13:10, 2:9 and 10:6, 4:2/12:16 and 7:2/12:17. Another idea is that in

chapter 10:16 Paul wrote that he was looking forward to preaching the gospel in the area beyond

you when he was in Greece; they say he should have written beyond us if he was in Greece. With

this a presupposition is made that he wrote while in Ephesus, this again presupposes that it was

written before chapters 1-9. This theory lacks evidence from Greek manuscripts supporting that 2

Corinthians terminated at the end of chapter 9. Paul must have said beyond you referring to the

country Greece for him was not one of them. Thirdly the letter does not contain a thing from the

severe letter.(Moo,268)

Another objection is that the whole book of 2 Corinthians was written at one time. The

differences in tone between chapters 1-9 and 10-13, Paul may have had sleepless nights before

writing the second part, or he might have been too emotional. Hughes says that the differences in

tone between these two parts are exaggerated. Hughes says that the comparisons can also be

drawn from other text e.g 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians 10-13 but no one suggests that these

belonged together at some point.(Moo,p 269-270)

The other view is that Paul wrote 2 Corinthians 1-9 and sent it, later he heard a different

report that that Timothy brought so he responded to that by writing 2 Corinthians 10-13. This

view was good as chapter 8:6 says that Titus was by then in Corinth for the collection and

12:17-18 is saying of that trip.

The final view suggests that Paul was happy with the report and that his severe letter did

not cause more damage. So he decided to complete the latter but he took some time, weeks

probably. Then he could have received the bad news before finishing it, he then begun
addressing that issue in chapters 10-13. This has also many objections for Paul would have torn

the letter after the news and start all over, another objection is that chapters 10-13 there is no

place where Paul says he received new news. (Moo, p279).

The book of Corinthians was one of Paul’s extant letters canonical books which were

addressed to the Corinthians Christians. Both 1 and 2 Corinthians were occasional letters, they

were written to address specific problems that were being faced by the Corinthians. So when

Paul heard of the situation in Corinth he responded by penning 1 Corinthian (Douglas,

Hilyer,Millard and Parker, 1982).

Date

Paul wrote 1 Corithians during his third missionary journey probably between A.D 56

and 57 during his third missionary journey. There are different views regarding the date, other

people think of the later date while others are for the former date, people get confused based on

Paul’s first visit to Corinth while others because of the Gallio’s hearing where Paul went for the

charges he was being accused of preaching a God centrally to their God. They think that the

Gallios hearing was during the 1st visit 52 A.D so Paul left after the hearing together with

Priscilla and Aquila. (Freedman 281).

Purpose

The purpose of the book of 1 Corinthians was mainly to address the issues of conduct and

to solve the problems that the people of Corinth regarded as so light but Paul viewed them as

great sins. Another reason why this book was written was to answer some issues concerning the

doctrines concerning the resurrection and finally to answer the questions that the Corinthians

asked Paul through a letter that they had written to him.

Literary Context
 The major sections of the books of 1 Corinthians in this paper have been segmented as

follows: Introduction (1 Cor 1:1-9). Divisions in the Church (1 Cor 1:10- 5:21), Incestousness in

the Church (1 Cor 5:1-12) Lawsuits among believers (1 Corinthians 6:1-10), Sexual immorality

(1 Corinthians 6:11-20), Marriage ( 1Corinthian 7:1-40), Meat sacrificed to idols(1 Corinthians

8:1-11), Disorders in public worship (1 Corinthians 11:2-14:40), The resurrection (1 Corinthians

15:1-58) and the conclusion (1 Corinthians 16:1-24). The passage under consideration uncovers

the idea that it was good during that time for Christians to keep themselves single, but if they

find it hard to continue as widows and widowers they may marry. It is preceded by the passage

in which Paul is addressing the issue of sexual immorality (1 Corinthians 6:1-20) and followed

by the passage that talks about sacrificing food to Idols (1 Corinthians 8:1-11).

Genre

Both 1 and 2 Corinthian is that of letters, epistles. Carson Mo and Morris assets that

writing letters was not a typical method for giving religious instructions among the Jews , but

they were chosen because of the fast growing of Christianity so these were chosen as a means

that would be easier to communicate to people in distant places. So letters were the best that

suited the demands, and they were also chosen because of their immediacy (p232). Paul wrote 1

Corinthians to give advice on conduct. After dealing with these problems he turns to the matter

that was written to him questioning about marriage, celibacy, food offered to idols, public

worship and spiritual gifts. The passage under consideration in this paper Paul seeks to address

the issues regarding Marriage.

Exegesis and exposition

The Corinthians wrote to Paul seeking advice on the various issues for the false prophets

had great influence on church member. There were some among these people who had much
respect for Paul. So they wrote to Paul and informed him of their doubts and their problems and

they desired Paul’s say on these things.

1 Corinthians 7:1- it is good for a man not to touch a woman. The word good here in Greek is

(kalon) this word has many meanings but in this passage Paul meant profitable, the word to

touch a woman is a euphemism for sexual intercourse, this word occurs nine times in the Greek

antiquity ranging across six centuries and in all those occurrences the word is used to mean

sexual intercourse. Therefore the sentence can be rephrased to mean “it is good for a man not to

have sexual relations with a woman (Fee, 1988) Paul was not teaching that marriage is bad, but

presented an idea that there are advantages when one is not married in relation to the service of

the Lord during that time. Hodges provides evidence supporting the idea that it is good because it

is based on divine foundation and therefore it is good (Hodges, 1994). In support for the idea that

Paul was not saying that marriage is bad is the passage in Genesis in which God said that it is not

good for a man to be alone and he made him a woman.(Genesis 2:18). The word to touch

(haptomai) in Greek, means to attach oneself to. From this we see that there is a better service

that one can give to God if he is not married and this service would be difficult if he or she is

married based on the conditions present in the city of Corinth. So to avoid fornication to

temptations it was important that people should marry and be able to end their sexual desires

with their wives or husbands. The type of relationship should be monogamous because it says

that each should have his wife or her own husband.

1 Corinthians 7:2 -Nevertheless, de (de) is a primary particle of adversative or continuative, it

can also be used to mean but, and, etc, the word fornications is translated as porneias, it is

concerned with adultery or incest (Hodges) the fornication being talked about here is that of

married people, a man or a woman going to the another person who is not your wife or husband
to have sexual relations with. Marriage was to be entered for the sake of society’s purity to avoid

the evils of sensual indulgencies as well as the crimes that were related to intercourse. So Paul

encouraged the people to get married for he saw that if they were not married they could fall, and

to avoid the evils that would come(p, 109) in the verse it says every man has his own wife and

every woman he own husband, this can easily be understood that it meant no man should remain

unmarried and every unmarried man without a wife cannot be pure, or that no man should

remain without a wife, or that every man should find himself a woman to marry, while on the

other hand it may mean that a married man should have one woman, the same with the woman to

have one husband that will not be share with anyone else. Hodges said,’’ there is an increase in

the worldly cares and anxiety connected with marriage, and therefore it may be expedient for

those single to whom freedom for such cares is especially important.(Hodges, 1994,p109) if it

would mean every man should marry then Paul would be contradicting himself. So it is

encouraging the married to stick to their partners only.

1 Corinthian 7:3- In this verse Paul is giving advice to the married people. It is more

advantageous to the single life provided that the individual is strong enough to keep temptation

from overcoming him than when he is married (Green, 1965). The word render in Greek is

(apodidomi) signifying an obligation discharge that both the married people have to give to a

friend in marriage. (Thomas,1996). From this verse we see the giving act happening, it means

that only those that are willing and ready to give what is due in marriage should marry. Those

that are not willing should not marry. It is wrong when married people deny each other of sex,

this is said because some people deny each other of sex in marriage, it should be understood that

is all about fifty-fifty. Everyone should be willing to give to the spouse. Halle asserts that in

many cultures women are treated as inferiors, even in the time of Paul women were treated as the
property of her husband and all authority should rest on the husband and is the one who is to

honor all that her husband requires and a man may do as he wishes . (Halle 1996).

1 Corinthian 7:4 – the word has power (exousiazei) means to exercise authority upon

something, so here Paul tries to explain in this verse that neither a man nor his wife has authority

over his or her own body but the wife has the power over the body of her husband and likewise

the man. In this case he refers that the body of the husband should belong to the wife and she is

the only one who has power over it. The husband is therefore not to abuse his body with other

activities like fornication, adultery, or any acts of uncleanness. Only the wife is to enjoy her

husband and fulfill his sexual desires. A man should seek sexual pleasure from his wife,

similarly the wife should do the same. Married people are indebted to each other over their sexes.

Green asserts that,” selfishness must not exist between married people, it must be removed from

their hearts and mind, the husband has the duty to fulfill towards the wife so as the wife towards

her husband. (Green, p 239). This verse may also be used to argue against polygamy for it would

be hard for someone with multiple partners to fulfill the obligation if all the partners would

require their partners body at the same time.

1Corithian 7:5- the word defraud (apostereo) means to deprive, or to keep back by fraud, the

words defraud is an inference to verse 2, it means therefore that the married should not deprive

each other of their bodies, giving a condition that except for a particular time when they are

dedicating to prayer they should not be having sex. Prayer ( deesis) the original meaning of

prayer (deomai) is “to lack” but there are a few traces to this in the LXX and none in the New

Testament, in the New Testament the word means “to ask” or “to seek”(Bromiley, 1985). The

word fasting is (nestis) which means “one who has not eaten” (p, 636) the deprivation should be

done when the two have agreed to do so. Paul is saying that the two have to agree and then come
together inoder to avoid temptation from the devil. The devil is always on the way looking for

people to devour as written in 1 Peter 5:8. Deprivation should be avoided for if it happens one

may be tempted and fall into fornication.

1 Corinthians 7:6- Paul in this verse is giving the peace of advice clarifying that it is not

a command. A command is always to be followed here Paul is being honest that the people are

not commanded by God that they should not touch a woman. A person has the right to do his or

her way if it is not a command. The word to command (antellomai) a command is mostly

associated with a ruler as the subject, the LXX use is often with the king as the subject, and the

subject or Moses, especially God. (p,232) after prayer the two should come together to avoid

falling into sin because of their lack of self-control, they may sin even after prayer. When a

command comes an individual is to follow it whether he or she likes it or not. In this verse we

see that Paul was honest to say that it was not a command“It shows that in other cases, where no

exception is made, he claimed to be inspired”. (Barnes), these few exceptions, which he

expressly makes, prove that in everywhere else he claimed to be under the influence of

inspiration.

1 Corinthians 7:7- it is the wish of Paul that all men were like him, here it is not clear that about

what he would want all people to be like him about, Green said that “Paul was not married when

he wrote the book, he further said that many scholars believe that Paul was once married because

Paul was once a member of the Sanhedrin (p, 1115) and that all members were married. So Paul

though unmarried he was able to overcome and not fall into sin of fornication. So by saying that

he wish all could be like him would mean two things first of all to be unmarried just as him in

that state without the wife, and it could also mean that they should be like him in terms of being

able to overcome temptations even though he was unmarried. Paul also agrees that people have
different gifts, some have special talents. Some people have the gift to remain unmarried and not

sin while others have not been blessed with that. So they should not be judged and people should

not be forced to be unmarried. Other people would have wanted to remain single after hearing

Paul and would misunderstand him and think that those that are married are wrong.

1 Corinthians 7:8 Paul gives the advice to specific people, the widows ,the unmarried, it is

difficult to tell which unmarried are being talked about in here, are they those whose wives died,

or girls and boys who have never married before. Here it is seen that the people talked about are

those who were once married because if it was talking about those never married before then in

verse 25 Paul would not be addressing them again. By addressing the virgins it shows that the

verse 8 is talking about the widows and widowers. (Morris, 1969). So Paul was addressing those

who were once married to stay unmarried, but he is not commanding them to do so. So they have

the right to marry or not to. They can marry if they see that they cannot manage to control

themselves if unmarried.

1Corithian 7:9 this verse says that they should remarry if they cannot manage to control

themselves, if they lacked the gift of continence if they cannot be protected against temptation or

if they are not strong enough to overcome the danger of sin to prevent them from bringing

reproach and scandal on the church they should marry in order to avoid burning with passion.(

kaio) to burn up,(Kamatizo)(Bromiley,1992) figuratively “means to suffer from fever” the verse

means then to avoid suffering from the fever of passion (thymos) which is said to be a strong

force, it may then denote a desire. So Paul is emphasizing that to avoid fornication due to having

strong desire for sex one should marry.

Theological Analysis
 First of all I have to make it clear that I am of the view of covenantal theology where we

see a pattern of God in dealing with human beings as being continuous from the old to the New

Testament. The passage under consideration 1 Corinthians 7:1-9 we see Paul addressing the

doctrine of marriage. This passage contributes to systematic theology for we see the continuation

of the story that marriage should be sacred, and this is also found in Hebrew 13: and in the Old

Testament we read Malachi 2:14 that a man who mistreats his wife will not be blessed agreeing

with the idea of providing a good service in love to your wife.

Another important point is that the passage deals with the body of Christ which is our

bodies. We are commanded to live as living sacrifices in honoring God with our bodies. We

understand that the temple is the place of worship. So Paul was trying to help the people come to

terms with what God commands us to offer our bodies as living sacrifices.

Another doctrine that I see here is the doctrine of Man. God created man in his image to

glorify him. The image of God is full therefore should express God’s characters such as love. It

has been discussed that a man and a woman should be ready to give and not to receive in

marriage. That’s the character of God for he says in Ephesians 5:25 that men should love their

wives just as Christ loves the church.

Application and Contextualization

One of the big problems that Malawi is facing is in the area of sexual relations. Many

married people within the church have extra marital affairs. Women are the most victims so if

men would realize that their bodies do not belong to themselves but their wives should be the

one to have total authority over their husband’s bodies. Then this problem will be defeated and

probably reduce the spread of sexually transmitted diseases

have been broken because of this problem, so it is of important that the church in Malawi realize

the danger of this as some of the acts of spouse’s involvement in extra marital sexual relations

are started within the home. This knowledge will help deal with the issues that could rise from

this area if people had not known of this.

There is big ignorance in Malawi about the conduct of Marriage. Many think that

marriage is about getting something out of marriage but marriage is all about giving (1

Corinthian 7:3-4.) for this to be realized then selfishness also has to be dealt with.

The sharing include shares of though and feelings as well as decisions and not only sex.

Finally we should realize that it is a gift for someone to remain unmarried and live

faithfully and pleasing to God. In other churches people are forced to remain unmarried even

though it is not their gift. Such people may be prone to the temptations, so it should be given to

all church members to have freedom to follow whatever gift they have been blessed with.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the passage has postulated the issue of celibacy, marriage is about giving,

sexual denial should not be tolerated in marriage, married people should realize that they should

only satisfy their spouse only, marrying and not marrying is a choice and people are not forced to

do either but make sure to honor God.

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