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The Four: A Survey of the Gospels
Defending Constantine: The Twilight of an Empire and the Dawn of Christendom
From Behind the Veil: The Epistles of John
Deep Exegesis:The Mystery of Reading Scripture
1 & 2 Kings
Brazos Theological Commentary
The Promise Of His Appearing: An Exposition Of Second Peter
A Great Mystery: Fourteen Wedding Sermons
Deep Comedy: Trinity, Tragedy, And Hope In Western Literature
Miniatures & Morals: The Christian Novels of Jane Austen
The Priesthood of the Plebs: A Theology of Baptism
A Son To Me: An Exposition of 1 & 2 Samuel
From Silence to Song: The Davidic Liturgical Revolution
Ascent to Love: A Guide to Dante's Divine Comedy
Blessed Are the Hungry: Meditations on the Lord's Supper
A House For My Name: A Survey of the Old Testament
Heroes of the City of Man: A Christian Guide to Select Ancient Literature
Brightest Heaven of Invention: A Christian Guide To Six Shakespeare Plays
Wise Words: Family Stories That Bring the Proverbs to Life
The Kingdom and the Power: Rediscovering the Centrality of the Church
Given the high view of marriage and sexuality in Scripture, Paul’s instructions to the Corinthians are odd and out of character. Why would Paul think it good for everyone to be as he is?
Jeremiah 16 provides a clue. In verse 2, Yahweh instructs Jeremiah not to take a wife or raise children “in this place,” because Yahweh is bringing distress on the fathers, mothers, and children who are born in doomed Jerusalem: “They will die of deadly diseases, they will not be lamented or buried; they will be as dung on the surface of the ground and come to an end by sword and famine, and their carcasses will become food for the birds of the sky and for the beasts of the earth” (v. 4). In view of the present distress, Yahweh says, Jeremiah ought not marry or have children. Jeremiah would remain unmarried as a prophetic sign of Yahweh’s determination to withdraw peace from His bride (v. 5).
As Paul makes clear in various places, he is an apostle like Jeremiah, not only in being called from the womb but also in his singleness, a sign of the approaching doom on Jerusalem and Judaism.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Tuesday, July 27, 2010 at 2:09 pm
Paul instructs the Corinthians to defer to weaker brothers, avoiding, for example, meat sacrificed to idols out of concern for a weaker brother’s conscience.
But what happens when we apply a universality principle: What if everybody did? Wouldn’t that mean that the weak end up running the church?
Paul, it appears, doesn’t seem to be bothered by the possibility. That’s partly because he has confidence in the Spirit. But it also appears to be part of his program: The inferior members are accorded greater honor, since the superior members don’t need it (1 Corinthians 12:22-25).
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Tuesday, February 16, 2010 at 2:34 pm
Paul ends 1 Corinthians (16:22) with a neat chiastic sign-off. Anyone who does not love the Lord is declared “accursed” (anathema) and Paul follows this with the cry of maranatha (“the Lord comes”). Anath-ma/mar-anatha.
Substantively, it is a striking phrase. Anathema speaks a harsh word of judgment; maranatha is, as it were, the Bride’s cry for her Lord to come (cf. Revelation 22:17-20). It is, as it were, the last word of the Song of Songs (“Hurry, my beloved,” 8:14). Putting the two together highlights one aspect of the Bride’s hope: She longs for her Lord to whisk her away as love, but she also longs for her Lord to rescue her from all who “do not love the Lord.” Maranatha is a cry for judgment as much as a cry of love.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Wednesday, October 28, 2009 at 5:34 am
1 Corinthians 6:15-17: Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? May it never be. Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a harlot is one body with her? For He says, The two will become one flesh. But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him.
1 Corinthians 10:21-22: You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? We are not stronger than He, are we?
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Sunday, September 9, 2007 at 8:10 am
Paul also makes some observations that hint at aspects of a theology of music. He says or implies several things in 1 Corinthians 14:6-8. First, he introduces a musical analogy into a discussion of speech in the church, implying a parallel between music and language. That analogy becomes explicit as he returns to the argument about tongues in verse 9 – like an indistinct musical instrument, one who speaks in a tongue without being understood is only vibrating the air. We can put the analogy this way: A musical instrument is a lifeless speaker, and a speaker is a living instrument. Or: Language has musicality, and music has a linguistic character.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Monday, January 29, 2007 at 8:37 am
In 1 Corinthians 14:10-11, Paul supports a point about tongues and prophecy with a bit of linguistics. Meaning, he notes, functions within a linguistic community. Languages have significance (v 10), but only for those who know that significance (v 11). Language boundaries are community boundaries, so that if we speak a language that’s not understood we seem a “barbarian” (NASB; Greek, barbaros). Without common language, speakers remain barbarians to one another (v. 11).
Paul’s is a fairly simple observation, but it shows that Paul had some sense of the communal dimension of meaning. And it also raises the intriguing prospect that 1 Corinthians 14 might be plundered for more insights into language and meaning.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Monday, January 29, 2007 at 8:22 am
1 Corinthians 7:3-4: Let the husband fulfill his duty to his wife, and likewise also the wife to her husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does; and likewise also the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.
These days, Christianity is often characterized as misogynist, bigoted, or anti-feminist. The Apostle Paul, after all, warns women to be silent in the church, tells Timothy that women should not teach or have authority over men, and describes marriage in terms of husbandly headship and the wifely submission.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Sunday, August 20, 2006 at 8:16 am
Does the “foolishness of God” carry the connotation of “God playing the fool”? As in, God the jester? Is Paul saying that God the jester is wiser than the sages?
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Thursday, March 4, 2004 at 2:52 pm
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