PAUL AND THE RHETORIC OF REVERSAL: KERYGMATIC ...

Indeed, Insawn Saw follows Mitchell 14 in pointing out that the final and climactic verse of 1
Corinthians 15 contextualises the whole chapter as a persuasion to spend the present in labour
(rather than despair or licentiousness):
Paul’s ultimate goal is not merely to give a correct teaching regarding the resurrection
of the dead, but to persuade the audience, the Corinthians, to continue in their work of
the Lord. 15
Gordon Fee 16 notes further that both major sections of the chapter (1-34; 35-58) end with an
ethical appeal. The position of Walter Schmithals 17 and others, then, certainly fits neatly with
this emphasis. Those who say “there is no resurrection of the dead” are rejecting hope for the
future of those who die, and therefore embracing licentious living in the present.
However, it is not clear that a morally lax emphasis on the present can only be explained by a
lack of belief in postmortality. As Winter points out, 18 such an attitude may be an expression
of belief in non-bodily postmortality (as is probably the case in the quotation from Philo
above). Alternatively, it may even be an expression of presumed inaugurated immortality, in
which the present is viewed no longer as a time for death, deprivation and labour, but for
freedom, feasting and unfettered fulfilment.
Furthermore, it is not clear how such an explanation of the situation in Corinth fits with Paul’s
apparent assumption in 6:14 that he may appeal to a common belief that God will raise “us”.
If a significant number of the Corinthians are committed to the idea that any sort of
resurrection is unthinkable, how could Paul have made such an appeal in chapter 6 without any
qualification?
14 Mitchell, Paul and the Rhetoric, 38; 290-91.
15 Insawn Saw, Paul’s Rhetoric in 1 Corinthians 15: An Analysis Utilizing the Theories of
Classical Rhetoric (Lewiston, N.Y.: Mellen, 1995), 5.
16 Fee, First Epistle, 716-7.
17 Schmithals, Gnosticism, 156.
18 Winter, After Paul, 98.
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