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Gnosis in Corinth: I Corinthians 8. 1–6

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

Richard A. Horsley
Richard A. Horsley
Affiliation:
Boston, U.S.A.
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Extract

Scholars are gradually relinquishing the belief that the Corinthians were Gnostics. As a noted student of Gnosticism concludes, we find in Corinth ‘at most only the first tentative beginnings of what was later to develop into full-scale Gnosticism’. In fact, a kind of agnosticism has emerged with regard to the early Christian community in Corinth. ‘The position in Corinth cannot be reconstructed on the basis of the possibilities of the general history of religion.’ I suggest, however, that it is possible to determine with some degree of precision the nature and background of the ‘proto-Gnosticism’ in Corinth: Hellenistic Jewish religiosity focused on sophia and gnosis.

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Articles
Information
New Testament Studies , Volume 27 , Issue 1 , October 1980 , pp. 32 - 51
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1980

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References

1 Wilson, R. McL., ‘How Gnostic were the Corinthians?,’ N.T.S. 19 (1972–1973), 65–74.Google Scholar

2 Hans, Conzelmann, I Corinthians (Philadelphia, 1975), p. 15.Google Scholar

3 Hurd, J. C., The Origins of First Corinthians (London, 1965), pp. 67–8Google Scholar, has tabulated scholarly opinions; more briefly, Conzelmann, op. cit. p. 7 n. 54; see esp. Jeremias, J., ‘Zur Gedankenführung in den Paulinischen Briefen: (3) Die Briefzitate in I. Kor. 8, 1–13’, in Abba (Göttingen, 1966), pp. 273 f.Google Scholar

4 Conzelmann, op. cit. p. 7.

5 Op. cit p. 140.

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7 Op. cit. pp. 140–5.

8 Pearson, op. cit.; Hamerton-Kelly, op. cit. pp. 121–2; Horsley, ‘Wisdom of Word’ and ‘Pneumatikos vs. Psychikos’.

9 Bultmann, R., art. γινώσκω, T.W.N.T. 1, 692–6, 709.Google Scholar

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13 Bultmann, , T.W.N.T. 1, 702Google Scholar n. 60.

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17 Cf. Josephus, , Ap. II. 193Google Scholar; Philo, , Spec. Leg. 67Google Scholar; II Baruch 49.24.

18 General discussion by Cohen, Samuel S., ‘The Unity of God: A Study in Hellenistic and Rabbinic Theology,’ H.U.C.A. 26 (1955), 425–79.Google Scholar

19 As quoted in Hecataeus, ‘Histories’, in Eusebius, Praep. Ev. 690d: είς ταīς άλγθείαισν εις έστινθεός.

20 I Corinthians, p. 142.

21 On Hellenistic Jewish critique of false gods and idols see Eising, H., ‘Der Weisheitslehrer und die Götterbilder,’ Biblica 40 (1959), 373–408Google Scholar; Delling, G., ‘Josephus und die heidnischen Religionen’ Klio 43–45 (1965), 263–9Google Scholar; Paul, Wendland, ‘Die Therapeuten und die philosophische Schrift vom beschaulichen Leben,’ Jahrbuch für klassische Philol., suppl. Bd. 22 (1896), 693–772Google Scholar; and Die hellenistische-römische Kultur in ihren Beziehungen zu Judentum und Christentum (Tübingen, 1912), pp. 106 ff.Google Scholar, 140 ff.; Wolfson, , Philo 1, 3–17, 27–34.Google Scholar

22 This was a standard contention of ‘Jewish apologetics’ see generally Friedländer, M., Geschichte der jüdischen Apologetik (Zurich, 1903), pp. 77 ff.Google Scholar; Geffcken, Johannes, Zwei griechische Apologeten (Leipzig und Berlin, 1907)Google Scholar, esp. the introduction; Dalbert, P., Die Theologie der hellenistischjüdischen Missionsliteratur unter Ausschluβ von Philo und Josephus (Hamburg, 1954)Google Scholar; more imaginative recent treatment by Georgi, Dieter, Die Gegner des Paulus im 2. Korintherbrief W.M.A.N.T. 11 (Neukirchen, 1964), pp. 95 ff.Google Scholar; and see the sensible comments by Tcherikover, V., ‘Jewish Apologetic Literature Reconsidered,’ Eos 48 (1956), 169–93.Google Scholar

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24 Esp. III. 20–64; e.g neither the world nor heavenly bodies are gods, III. 23, 40, 51; deification of animals and of men is mere superstition, III. 39–41, 47, 49–50.

25 As in Geffcken, ‘Bilderstreit’, pp. 296 f.

26 Luck, Georg, Der Akademiker Antiochus Antiochus (Berne, 1953), esp. pp. 32 ff.Google Scholar

27 Bousset, Wilhelm, Die Religion des Judentums im späthellenistischen Zeitalter (4th ed., ed. Gressmann, H., Tübingen, 1966), pp. 304 f.Google Scholar

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29 Philo uses parts of this scheme also in Spec. Leg. I. 15–30; II. 255–6; Ebr. 107–10. He has in addition several arguments against false theology which do not seem to be developments of any of these other traditional critiques, but which differently develop the contrast of knowledge of the One true God with ignorance, false opinions, and false doctrines, as in Ebr. 43–5; virt. 178–80, 212–19; cf. Josephus, , Ant. 8. 343Google Scholar, x. 50; Ap. II. 252–4.

30 For a ‘Jewish’ attitude toward idols and other gods which is midway between Paul's and that of these Corinthians, see Trypho's comments in Justin, Martyr, Dialogue 55. 2.Google Scholar

31 On Jewish missionary activity, see Nock, A. D., Conversion (Oxford, 1933), pp. 77–9Google Scholar; and Georgi, Dieter, Die Gegner, pp. 83–107Google Scholar, and the earlier literature cited there.

32 Zeitlin, Solomon, ‘Proselytes and Proselytism during the Second Commonwealth and the Early Tannaitic Period’, in The Wolfson Jubilee Volume (Jerusalem, 1965), pp. 871–81Google Scholar, esp. 875–7.

33 For Philo's attitude, expressed in an already standardized form, see Spec. Leg. I. 51–4, 308–9; IV. 178; Virt. 102; Q.E. II. 2.

34 On the Hellenistic Jewish community and synagogue in Corinth, see Stern, M., ‘The Jewish Diaspora’, in The Jewish People in the First Century I, ed. Safrai, S. and Stern, M. et al. (Assen, 1974), p. 159Google Scholar; Corpus Inscriptionum Indaicarum no. 718; on the reliability of the traditions in Acts 18. 2–3, 7–8 regarding Aquila and Priscilla, the conversion of the ‘ruler of the synagogue’ Crispus and his household, and the split in the Corinthian synagogue, see Haenchen, E., The Acts of the Apostles (Oxford, 1971), pp. 537–9.Google Scholar

35 Might the λόγος σοφίας and the λόγος γνώσεως in I Cor. 12. 8 be reference to revelations ofjust such doctrines?

36 Hurd, Origins, chs. 3–5; Conzelmann, , I Corinthians, pp. 6–7, 14–16Google Scholar, etc.

37 That is, not on the basis of an already realized spiritual resurrection, as I have attempted to explain in ‘How can Some of You Say, “There is no Resurrection of the Dead”?: Spiritual Elitism in Corinth’, Novum Testamentum xx (1978), 203–31.Google Scholar

38 Ibid.; and ‘Pneumatikos vs. Psychikos’, H.T.R. LXIX (1976), 269–88.Google Scholar

39 One of the most prominent ways of conceiving of Sophia in Wisd. and Philo is as the spouse or life-mate of the sophos, as in Wisd. 8; Fug. 52; Spec. Leg. II. 29–31; Q.E. II. 3; Cher. 52; Vit. Cont. 64 ff. The separation of certain Corinthians from their spouses may well have arisen out of just such an understanding of their relation with Sophia.

40 Alētheia is here substituted for sophia, which is usually the land in which the sophos comes to dwell, as in Mig. 28–30, 45–6; Her. 313–15; Q.G. IV. 46–7; Q.E. II. 39.

41 For the way in which this whole set of contrasts (earthly-heavenly, mortal-immortal, corruptible-incorruptible) functioned in Philo and, probably, for the Corinthian pneurnasikoi as well, see my ‘Pneumatikos vs. Psychikos’.

42 There is little evidence that Philo practiced or encouraged others to practice sexual asceticism, but his ideological expressions certainly tend in that direction, as in Cher. 42–52 and Q.E. II. 3.

43 I Corinthians, p. 144.

44 Ibid. n. 49, for extensive literature on the background of this type of Christology in Jewish speculation on Sophia/Logos.

45 Helmut, Koester, review of Ulrich Wilckens, Weisheit und Torheit in Gnomon 33 (1961), 590–5.Google Scholar

46 ‘The Background of the Confessional Formula in I Kor 8: 6’, Z.N.W. LXIX (1978), 130–35.Google Scholar

47 Hans, von Soden, ‘Sakrament und Ethik bei Paulus’, in Marburger theologische Studien: Rudolf Otto Festgruss (Gotha, 1931), pp. 1–40.Google Scholar

48 I Corinthians, p. 15.

49 Reitzenstein, R., Die hellenistischen Mysterienreligionen (3rd ed.Leipzig, 1927), pp. 75–9, 333–96Google Scholar; Schmithals, Walter, Die Gnosis in Korinth (3rd ed.Göttingen, 1969)Google Scholar; Barrett, C. K., The First Epistle to the Corinthians (New York, 1968).Google Scholar

50 Conzelmann, , I Corinthians, p. 138.Google Scholar

51 Ibid. p. 138.

52 Bultmann, , T.W.N.T. 1, 709 f.Google Scholar; Niederwimmer, Kurt, ‘Erkennen und Lieben: Gedanken zum Verhältnis von Gnosis und Agape im ersten Korintherbrief,’ Kerygma und Dogma 11 (1965), 93–4.Google Scholar

53 Bultmann, R., Theology of the New Testament I (New York, 1951), 74.Google Scholar

54 Feuillet, A., Le Christ Sagesse de Dieu (Paris, 1966), pp. 82–5Google Scholar, who does not analyse I Corinthians in terms of a polemical context, suggests that when Paul implicitly identifies Christ with Wisdom in I Cor. 8. 6 it may be the first place such an identification is made.

55 Koester, Helmut, Gnomon 33 (1961), 594Google Scholar; and ‘The Structure and Criteria of Early Christian Beliefs’, in Koester, and Robinson, J. M., Trajectories through Early Christianity (Philadelphia, 1971), pp. 222 f.Google Scholar

56 Conzelmann, , I Corinthians, p. 15.Google Scholar

57 Koester, ‘GNOMAI DIAPHOROI’, p. 280.