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Realized Eschatology at Corinth
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2009
Extract
C. K. Barrett, F. F. Bruce and E. Käsemann very briefly state, almost in passing, that difficulties at Corinth arose from an over-realized eschatology. In C. K. Barrett's words, the Corinthians were behaving ‘as if the age to come were already consummated…For them there is no “not yet” to qualify the “already” of realized eschatology.’ This claim, however, needs to be argued more closely, and objections to it considered, since it remains a matter of controversy. The most recent attack on this diagnosis of the situation at Corinth comes from E. Earle Ellis. He argues, firstly, that the error in I Cor. xv ‘offers doubtful support for an eschatological interpretation of I Cor. 4. 8’, and secondly, that it is unlikely that Paul would criticize the Corinthians ‘merely for appropriating an eschatological perspective that he himself has taught’.
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References
page 510 note 1 Barrett, C. K., A Commentary on the First Epistle to the Corinthians (London, 1968), p. 109.Google Scholar Cf. Bruce, F. F., 1 and 2 Corinthians (London, 1971), pp. 49–50Google Scholar; and Käsemann, E., New Testament Questions of Today (E.T. London, 1969) pp. 125–6.Google Scholar The case is not argued at all, however, in Barrett, C. K., ‘Christianity at Corinth’ in Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 46 (1963–4), 269–97Google Scholar; nor in the general introduction to his commentary, pp. 1–27.
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