Although this contribution appears under the heading of the series, it is rather an introduction to 1 Corinthians, which is itself, as we hope to show, a fruitful contributor to the series. In fact, it is based upon what is written in the letter itself.
Chapter 1:7 states, “Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me,” which indicates that the apostle’s letter was, in part, a reply to a letter which the Corinthians had sent to him. This in itself, is an indication that his letter was not a forgery by some unknown person. That the writer should pretend to have received a letter from Corinth, without even reproducing it, and invented a fictitious answer to it, which deals with a great variety of domestic matters of doubts and inquiries, is unthinkable. There would be no point in such a forgery. The topics on which the apostle comments have been defined as “the rule of duty and prudence relative to entering to marriage, as applicable to virgins, to widows; the case of husbands married to unconverted wives, of wives having unconverted husbands; that case where the unconverted party chooses to separate; the effect which their conversion produced upon their prior state, (where he chooses to continue the union,) of circumcision, of slavery; the eating of things offered to idols; the joining in idolatrous sacrifices; the decorum to be observed in their religious assemblies, the order of speaking, the silence of women, the covering and uncovering of the head, as it became men, as it became women. These subjects, with their several subdivisions, are so particular, minute, and numerous, that though they be exactly agreeable to the circumstances of the persons to whom the letter was written, nothing, I believe, but the existence and reality of those circumstances could have suggested them to the writer’s thoughts.”
Another interesting fact arises from the nature of the questions addressed to the apostle. He had heard from other sources of things which are not, apparently, referred to in the letter to him. He had heard from Chloe’s household of the factions which existed in the Ecclesia, each faction claiming to be followers of a different apostle — Paul, Apollos, Cephas, and even some singling out Jesus himself.
It had also been reported that there was condoned fortification in the Ecclesia; that instead of settling disputes among themselves, they were taking each other before the courts of the day, that, “in coming together in the church, seemingly in connection with the Lord’s Supper, divisions were manifest. Apparently, as was the case when the Lord instituted the communion in the upper room, the service took place at the end of a meal. Those present brought food with them. There were cliques in the meeting, and the more prosperous “sets” were ready to share their meal with their friends, but not with their poorer fellow-members, who possibly had not been able to bring food for themselves. Some of the wealthier people were even drunk (1 Cor. 11:17-21). The apostle remarked that perhaps, matters were not quite so bad as had been reported to him, but said, “I partly believe it.”
Of those matters of which Paul had heard from other sources, nothing had been said in the letter sent to him. It is natural that the Corinthians should keep to the better side of their activities and ignore the grave faults to which the apostle refers. This again indicates the genuineness of the letter. A former would not have conceived such a situation.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One