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Realized Eschatology at Corinth

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

Anthony C. Thiselton
Affiliation:
Sheffield, England

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
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. 4950Google 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

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

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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

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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. 1722.Google Scholar On the arguments as a whole cf. Bruce, F. F., op. cit. p. 103.Google Scholar

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