CORINTHIANS, FIRST EPISTLE TO THE. Corinth, " the ancient Paris," as it has been called, was one of the cities in which the Apostle Paul lived and laboured. He resided there in the house of Aquila and Priscilla, and with them pursued the trade of tent-making. In spite of opposition, Paul's mission to the Corinthians was fruitful in so far as he succeeded in establishing a Christian Church amongst them. The dangers, how ever, to which a Church planted in such an " intel lectual " atmosphere was exposed clearly caused the Apostle no little anxiety. None knew better than Paul that the claims of the intellect are very powerful until their weakness is demonstrated by the overpowering sense of divine intuition or inspiration. His own pre sence among the Corinthians was an inspiration. When he left them, as he was obliged to do after a time, the divine impulse had to be imparted by means of his written word and an ambassador (Timothy or Titus). Even the spoken word gives but a poor reflection of the light which has come by inspiration to a man like Paul. The written word probably reflects still less of it. And yet on this Paul had to depend largely for the strengthen ing of the faith of his Churches. He had to send letters, written in a hurry no doubt and when his mind was occupied with a number of different problems. After Paul's departure, the Church of Corinth seems to have suffered from divisions. It is a human weakness to form parties and to become attached to persons rather than to principles. In Christianity the essential thing is to have the mind of Christ or the Christ mind. " Where fore," Paul has to declare to the Corinthians, " let no one glory in men. For all things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas " (I. Corinthians iii. 21, 22). It would seem that it was at Ephesus, whither Paul had journeyed, that the Apostle received news of trouble at Corinth. It would also seem that three or four letters were sent to Corinth. In I. Corinthians v. 9 we read :
" I wrote unto you in my epistle to have no company with fornicators." This seems to refer to a letter, now lost (though II. Corinthians vi. 14-vii. 1 may be a frag ment of it; see next article), which was written before the letter now known as I. Corinthians. After this, Paul sent Timothy to Corinth. Then on receiving again an unsatisfactory report, he sent our I. Corinthians. " The genuineness of the Epistle has been almost univers ally admitted; it was regarded as axiomatic by the Ttibingen school, and is accepted by all but the hyper critics who deny the authenticity of all the Pauline Epistles " (A. S. Peake). Internally the Epistle bears unmistakable marks of Paul's genius, character, and experience. The external evidence is also good. Clement of Rome, writing to the Church of Corinth about 95 A.D. says: "Take up the Epistle of the blessed Apostle Paul. What did he write to you at the beginning of the preaching of the gospel? In truth it was under the inspiration of the Spirit that he wrote to you con cerning himself and Cephas and Apollos, because even then ye had formed parties." A verse of the Epistle is quoted by Polycarp with the words " as Paul teaches." The Epistle seems to have been used also by Ignatius. It is included in the list of Irenaeus and in the Mura torian Canon. Origen says that he had never heard of the genuineness of the Epistle being disputed. Clement of Alexandria refers to Paul's " Former Epistle to the Corinthians," and says that it contains the precept, " Brethren, be not children in mind." The Epistle treats in a very interesting way of a number of impor tant questions, such as the Lord's Supper (xi. 17-34), Spiritual Gifts (xii.-xiv.), the Resurrection (xv.). See R. J. Knowliug, The Witness of the Epistles, 1892; J. Massie, I. and II. Corinthians. in the "Century Bible"; J. A. M'Clymont, 1904; G. Currie Martin; Arthur S. Peake; J. Moffatt.