CORINTHIANS, EPISTLES TO THE.
I. First Epistle. (1) Genuineness. The testi mony of Christian antiquity is full and unanimous in ascribing this inspired production to the pen of the Apostle Paul.
The original form of this testimony need not be given here. It has been collected and presented by writers in the canon of the New Testament (See Charteris' Canonicity, pp. 222-232. \Vcstcott, On the Conon of the New Testament and Zahn, Cesch. des Neu.test. Kanons). Suffice it to say that the epistle comes down with every possible external attestation of genuineness that could have bitn demanded by the most rigid literary criti cism.
This external attestation is fully supported by the claims and marks of authorship to be found within the epistle. It reveals a perfectly consistent and intelligible historical situation; its allusions and undesigned coincidences, its style and type of thought all harmonize with the theory of Pauline origin.
Accordingly, even within the most rigid critical schools until quite recently and with very few and sporadic exceptions, the genuineness of 1st Corinthians was not called in question. The Tiibingen School placed it, with the Epistles to the Romans and Galatians and the Second to the Corinthians. within the nucleus of the undoubted Pauline writings. Bruno Bauer was the sole ex ception to this unanimity of opinion until 1882. Since that date a series of attacks have been made on the genuineness of this writing as well as on all of the others associated with it by the Tubingen critics. The source of these attacks is chiefly a Dutch School of Criticism consisting of Loman, Naber, Pierson, and Van Manen. The result of this hypercriticism would be the dissolution of the personality of Paul and the explanation of Paulin ism as a product of a form of evolution within Judaism. The arguments employed in support of the view are characterized as "wildly sub jective and arbitrary" and have been disallowed by the vast majority of scholars. An independent effort to cast doubt on the genuineness of all the writings ascribed to Paul, was made by R. Steck who undertook to base his view upon literary and historical data found in the Book of Acts and in the extra-canonical writings of the period. But
this effort, like that of the Dutch school, has met with no sufficient endorsement to entitle it to the attention of others than very narrow specialists, (See Steck, Per Galater brief midi seiner Echtheit untersucht; 1888. Lonian. Questrones Paulinae in Theo. Tid. t882-t886; Naber and Pierson, rer tsimilio; Van lrinen, Jahrbucher fuer Protest. Theo!. 1883-t887.) (2) Structure and Content. The construction of the epistle is like that of Paul's other writings. It begins with a greeting which is followed by a thanksgiving for the go9d which is in the church. It takes up next the questions of doctrine and life on which the church needs instructions and warnings. It concludes with particular com munications. Of these three sections, the first occupies i :1-9; the second, i :to; xv :58, and the third, xvi. The second and most extensive of the sections contains Paul's admonitions on the following subjects: Party spirit in the church at Corinth], i :to; iv:21, the moral scandal caused by the toleration of the incestuous offender, v: 1-13; litigation before the unrighteous, vi :1-1t; fornica tion, vi :12-20. At this point, the epistle becomes an answer to certain questions propounded to Paul by the church. The first of these questions referred to marriage, vii :1-4o; the second was concerning eating of the flesh of the victims sacrified to idols, and led the Apostle to state the great principle of Christian liberty, viii:x ; the next question was evidently about the idea of serv ices of worship and included minor questions as to covering the head by women, xi :1-16, as to love feasts and the Lord's Supper, xi :17-34, and as to abuses in speaking with tongues, xii :t ; xiv :4o. The next question was regarding the resurrection from the dead and leads to a thorough discussion of the subject from the Apostle's point of view, xv. The epistle then closes with some directions regarding the collection for the poor saints, per sonal allusions and the autograph benediction of the Apostle.