PAUL AND THE RHETORIC OF REVERSAL: KERYGMATIC ...

In chapters 8–14, the corrective of the cross is applied to issues concerning the
congregation’s presumptuous entertainment of sins related to interaction within the
ecclesial body:
Chapter 15
So the weak one is destroyed by your knowledge – this brother or sister, for
whom Christ died. And thus, sinning against brothers and sisters and damaging
their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food causes my
brother or sister to stumble, I will not eat meat ever again, in order that my
brother or sister might not stumble. (8:11-13)
Finally, chapter 15 bears the promise of reversal. It seems that, regardless of what was
actually going on in terms of the denial of resurrection in Corinth, Paul creatively hears
this denial of “the resurrection of the dead” as the ultimate refusal to accept the validity of
the dead (and thus, the validity of the crucified). He insists on the necessity of taking the
path that leads from death – or a deathly way of life – to God-given resurrection:
Christ has been raised from the dead as the firstfruits of those who have fallen
asleep. (15:21)
I die every day! (15:31)
Fool! That which you sow will not come to life unless it dies! (15:36)
For Paul there can be no attaining of glory or immortality apart from following the path of
the Christ, whose own death was followed by resurrection – a resurrection that ensures
both the future vindication of those who belong to him and the destruction of cosmic
“rulers”:
But each in their own turn: Christ the firstfruits, then those who belong to Christ,
at his coming. Then the end will come, when he will hand over the kingdom to
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