PAUL AND THE RHETORIC OF REVERSAL: KERYGMATIC ...

with much ancient and recent interpretation of the letter, although these historical and
theological perspectives are not always brought together. I suggest that this orientation is
evident in Paul’s encapsulation of all of the main issues in 1 Corinthians, including
divisions over leadership (chapters 1–4); proud acceptance of sexual immorality, greed,
and impurity (chapters 5–7); proud, exploitative intra-ecclesial one-upmanship (chapters
8–14); and effective denial of the need for future bodily resurrection (chapter 15).
Charles H. Talbert, amongst others, has suggested that it is not possible to reduce the
problems in Corinth to a single cause:
In 1 Corinthians one finds a number of factors behind the problems: for example,
overrealized eschatology (1 Cor 4;7;11;15); the effects of social stratification (1
Cor 8–10; 11); misunderstanding of Paul’s earlier letter (1 Cor 5); divisions due
to allegiance to different leaders growing in part out of the scattered character of
the various church groups or cells in Corinth; a carryover of Jewish norms that
were contrary to Christian practice (e.g., 1 Cor 14:34-36). It is impossible to
reduce all of the issues dealt with in 1 Corinthians to one cause like Gnosticism
or overrealized eschatology. 195
However, as I have suggested above, the issue is not simply the historical “factors behind
the problems” in Corinth, but Paul’s pastoral conception of what binds those problems
together. In the next chapter I will demonstrate how this unifying conception continues in
1 Corinthians 5–14; and in the subsequent chapter I will demonstrate how it continues in 1
Corinthians 15.
195 Charles H. Talbert, Reading Corinthians: A Literary and Theological Commentary (2 nd
ed.; Macon, Ga.: Smyth & Helwys, 2003), 10.
186