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Realized Eschatology at Corinth

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

Anthony C. Thiselton
Anthony C. Thiselton
Affiliation:
Sheffield, England
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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’.

Type
Articles
Information
New Testament Studies , Volume 24 , Issue 4 , July 1978 , pp. 510 - 526
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1978

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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.

page 510 note 2 Ellis, E. Earle, ‘Christ Crucified’ in Banks, R. (ed.), Reconciliation and Hope. New Testament Essays in Atonement and Eschatology Presented to L. L. Morris (Exeter, 1974), pp. 73–4.Google Scholar

page 510 note 3 Pearson, Birger A., The Pneumatikos-Psychikos Terminology in I Corinthians (Society for Biblical Literature Dissertation Series 12, Montana, 1973), p. 15.Google Scholar

page 510 note 4 Schmithals, W., Gnosticism in Corinth. An Investigation of the Letters to the Corinthians (Nashville, N.Y., 1971), p. 156.Google Scholar

page 511 note 1 Munck, J., Paul and the Salvation of Mankind (E.T. London, 1959), p. 165.Google Scholar

page 511 note 2 Wilckens, Ulrich, Weisheit und Torheit. Eine exegetische-religionsgeschichtliche Untersuchung zu I Kor 1 und 2 (Tübingen, 1959; B.H.T. 26), p. IIGoogle Scholar; and Shires, H. M., The Eschatology of Paul in the Light of Modern Scholarship (Philadelphia, 1966), pp. 53–4.Google Scholar

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page 511 note 4 Hurd, J. C., The Origin of I Corinthians (London, 1965), pp. 273–88.Google Scholar

page 512 note 1 One of the few writers to suggest this, albeit briefly, is E. Käsemann, loc. cit.

page 512 note 2 Nock, A. D., St Paul (London, 1938), p. 174.Google Scholar

page 513 note 1 Wilckens, U., Weisheit and Torheit, pp. 56–60Google Scholar; Reitzenstein, R., Die hellenistischen Mysterienreligionen nach ihren Grundgedanken und Wirkungen (Berlin-Leipzig 1927), pp. 338–9Google Scholar; and Weiss, J., Earliest Christianity (E.T. New York, 1969), 2, 513.Google Scholar Cl. further Lietzmann, Hans, An die Korinther I–II (Tübingen, 1949 edn), p. 14.Google Scholar

page 513 note 2 Pearson, B. A., op. cit. p. 38.Google Scholar

page 514 note 1 Cf. Bruce, F. F., 1 and 2 Corinthians (London, 1971), p. 33Google Scholar; Moffatt, J., The First Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians (London, 1938), p. 10Google Scholar; Lietzmann, H., op. cit. pp. 6–7Google Scholar; and Schmithals, W., op. cit. pp. 199–206.Google Scholar

page 514 note 2 Cf. the warnings of Hurd, J. C., op. cit. pp. 105–6, chiefly in relation to Schmithals.Google Scholar

page 514 note 3 Schmithals, W., op. cit. p. 204.Google Scholar

page 515 note 1 Hurd, J. C., op. cit. p. 68.Google Scholar

page 515 note 2 Schweitzer, A., The Mysticism of Paul the Apostle (E.T. London, 1931), pp. 177–204.Google Scholar

page 516 note 1 Thiselton, A. C., ‘The Meaning of Σάρξ in I Corinthians 5. 5: a fresh approach in the light of logical and semantic factors’, Scottish Journal of Theology 26 (1973), 204–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 516 note 2 A convincing reconstruction of Paul's comments in the previous letter is given by Dahl, Nils A., ‘Paul and the Church of Corinth in I Cor. 1. 10–4. 21’ in Farmer, W. R., Moule, C. F. D. and Niebuhr, R. R. (eds.), Christian History and Interpretation: Studies Presented to John Knox (Cambridge University Press, 1967), p. 330.Google Scholar

page 516 note 3 Craig, C. T., ‘Exegesis of I Corinthians’ in The Interpreter's Bible x (New York, 1953), pp. 73–4. Cf.Google ScholarBruce, F. F., op. cit. pp. 62–3Google Scholar; Barrett, C. K., op. cit. pp. 144–8Google Scholar; and Lietzmann, H., op. cit. p. 27.Google Scholar

page 517 note 1 Barrett, C. K., op. cit. p. 148.Google Scholar

page 517 note 2 Harrisville, R. A., ‘The Concept of Newness in the New Testament’, J.B.L. 74 (1955), 75–6.Google Scholar

page 518 note 1 In addition to other sources cited, cf. Scroggs, R., ‘Paul and the Eschatological Woman’, Journal of the American Academy of Religion XL (1972), 283–303CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and the extensive literature cited in Walker, W. O., ‘I Corinthians 11. 2–16 and Paul's Views Regarding Women’, J.B.L. 94 (1975), 94 n. I.Google Scholar

page 518 note 2 Hurd, J. C., op. cit. pp. 164–5.Google Scholar

page 519 note 1 Käsemann, E., op. cit. pp. 117 and 126.Google Scholar

page 519 note 2 Schweitzer, A., op. cit. p. 194.Google Scholar

page 519 note 3 Käsemann, E., op. cit. p. 125.Google Scholar On the premature claim to ‘freedom’ in relation to x. 23–xi. I, see, further, Hinz, C., ‘“Bewahrung and Verkehrung der Freiheit in Christo”: Versuch einer Trans-formation von I. Kor. 10. 23–11. I (8. 1–10. 22)’ in Tröger, K.-W. (ed.), Gnosis and Neues Testament (Gütersloh and Berlin, 1973), pp. 405–22.Google Scholar

page 520 note 1 Walker, William O., ‘I Corinthians 11. 2–16 and Paul's Views Regarding Women’, loc. cit. PP. 94–110.Google Scholar

page 520 note 2 Ibid. p. 99.

page 520 note 3 Ibid. p. 104; cf. p. 106.

page 520 note 4 Ibid. p. 107.

page 521 note 1 On angels as guardians of the created order cf. Caird, G. B., Principalities and Powers: a Study in Pauline Theology (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1936), pp. 17–22.Google Scholar On the arguments as a whole cf. Bruce, F. F., op. cit. p. 103.Google Scholar

page 522 note 1 Moffatt, J., Love in the New Testament (London, 1929), p. 182.Google Scholar

page 522 note 2 Craig, C. T., loc. cit. p. 167.Google Scholar

page 523 note 1 Schmithals, W., op. cit. p. 172.Google Scholar

page 523 note 2 I have discussed the phenomenon of persuasive definition in relation to the Corinthians’ use of the term ‘spiritual’ in Thiselton, A. C., ‘The Meaning of Σάρξ in I Cor. 5. 5’, loc. cit. pp. 217–18.Google Scholar

page 524 note 1 Dahl, M. E., The Resurrection of the Body (London, 1962), pp. 98–100Google Scholaret passim.

page 525 note 1 Pfleiderer, O., Paulinism (E.T., 2 vols., London, 1877), I, 201.Google Scholar

page 525 note 2 E.g. Barrett, C. K., op. cit. p. 372Google Scholar; and Dahl, M. E., op. cit. pp. 81–2.Google Scholar

page 526 note 1 Schmithals, W., op. cit. p. 79Google Scholar (his italics).

page 526 note 2 Schmithals, W., ‘Die Korintherbriefe als Briefsammlung’ in Zeitschrf für die neutestametuliche Wissenschaft 64 (1973), 263–88.Google Scholar Cf. also Gnosticism in Corinth, pp. 87–113.