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Neither Proof Text nor Proverb: The Instrumental Sense of διά and the Soteriological Function of Fire in 1 Corinthians 3.15

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 September 2013

Daniel Frayer-Griggs
Daniel Frayer-Griggs*
Affiliation:
Carlow University, 3333 5th Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA. email: [email protected].
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Abstract

According to the prevailing interpretation of 1 Cor 3.15, the phrase διὰ πυρός must be taken in the local sense, and the fire of vv. 13 and 15 plays no soteriological function. This article contests this reading, arguing that Paul's probable allusion to Mal 3 and his reference to the testing function of fire may imply refining as well. More importantly, it demonstrates that whereas the phrase διὰ πυρός is indeterminate and may take either the local or the instrumental sense, nearly every other instance of the construction σῴζω + διά + genitive in the relevant Greek literature has an instrumental sense.

Keywords

1 Corinthians 3.10-15Day of Judgmentδιάfireintertextualitysoteriology
Type
Articles
Information
New Testament Studies , Volume 59 , Issue 4 , October 2013 , pp. 517 - 534
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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References

1 On the history of the interpretation of this verse and the patristic origins of belief in purgatory, see Gnilka, Joachim, Ist 1 Kor. 3, 10-15 ein Schriftzeugnis für das Fegfeuer? Eine exegetisch-historische Untersuchung (Düsseldorf: Michael Triltsch, 1955)Google Scholar; Le Goff, Jacques, The Birth of Purgatory (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1984) 52-95Google Scholar; Thiselton, Anthony C., The First Epistle to the Corinthians: A Commentary on the Greek Text (NTGC; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000) 331-2.Google Scholar

2 See for instance, Henry, Matthew, An Exposition of the Old and New Testament (5 vols.; New York: Robert Carter & Brothers, 1856) 5.345Google Scholar: ‘On this passage of scripture the papists found their doctrine of purgatory, which is certainly hay and stubble: a doctrine never originally fetched from scripture, but invented in barbarous ages, to feed the avarice and ambition of the clergy’.

3 Michl, Johannes, ‘Gerichtsfeuer und Purgatorium zu 1 Kor 3,12-15’, Studiorum Paulinorum Congressus Internationalis Catholicus 1961 (Rome: Pontificio Istituto Biblico, 1963) 395-401Google Scholar; Townsend, John T., ‘1 Corinthians 3:15 and the School of Shammai’, HTR 61 (1968) 500-504.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4 Kuck, David W., Judgment and Community Conflict: Paul's use of Apocalyptic Judgment Language in 1 Corinthians 3:5-4:5 (Leiden: Brill, 1992) 181Google Scholar: ‘The fire is not said to purify or punish the persons themselves’.

5 Morris, Leon, The First Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians: An Introduction and Commentary (TNTC; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1958) 66Google Scholar: ‘The fire is, of course, a fire of testing, not one of purifying’. So also Barrett, C. K., A Commentary on the First Epistle to the Corinthians (BNTC; Peabody: Hendrickson, 1993) 89Google Scholar; Conzelmann, Hans, 1 Corinthians: A Commentary on the First Epistle to the Corinthians (Hermeneia; Philadelphia: Fortress, 1975) 77 n. 84Google Scholar; Fee, Gordon D., The First Epistle to the Corinthians (NICNT; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1987) 142Google Scholar; Yinger, Kent, Paul, Judaism, and Judgment according to Deeds (SNTSMS 105; Cambridge: Cambridge University, 1999) 217 n. 48.Google Scholar

6 Cf. Bietenhard, Hans, ‘Kennt das Neue Testament die Vorstellung vom Fegefeuer?’, TZ 3 (1947) 101–22, 104Google Scholar; Fee, Corinthians, 144; Hays, Richard B., First Corinthians (Interpretation; Louisville, KY: John Knox, 1997) 56Google Scholar; Lang, Friedrich, Die Briefe an die Korinther (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1986) 55Google Scholar; Lietzmann, Hans, An die Korinther I–II (HNT 9; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1949) 17Google Scholar; Thiselton, Corinthians, 315.

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9 Kirk, Alexander N., ‘Building with the Corinthians: Human Persons as the Building Materials of 1 Corinthians 3.12 and the “Work” of 3.13-15’, NTS 58 (2012) 549-70CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Kirk is elaborating on a view introduced to modern scholarship by Schlatter, Adolf, Paulus der Bote Jesu: eine Deutung seiner Briefe an die Korinther (Stuttgart: Calwer, 1934) 133.Google Scholar

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12 Kirk, ‘Building’, 558-9.

13 Kirk, ‘Building’, 560-2.

14 Kirk, ‘Building’, 565-6.

15 Beale, G. K., The Temple and the Church's Mission: A Biblical Theology of the Dwelling Place of God (NSBT; Downers Grove, IL: Apollos-InterVarsity, 2004) 247Google Scholar. Cf. Kuck, Judgment, 177-8; Wolff, Christian, Der erste Brief des Paulus an die Korinther (THNT; Leipzig: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 1996) 71-2.Google Scholar

16 Beale, Temple, 247.

17 Williams, H. H. Drake (The Wisdom of the Wise: The Presence and Function of Scripture within 1 Cor. 1:18-3:23 [Leiden: Brill, 2001] 259)Google Scholar believes that the allusion is to Isa 3.3, where the phrase σοφὸν ἀρχιτέκτονα is used. However, the additional presence of gold, silver, stones, and wood in Exod 35.31–33 and the lack of any other shared vocabulary in Isa 3.3, indicate a greater resonance with the Exodus allusion, further suggesting a link to temple (or tabernacle) imagery. The LXX of Isa 3.3 diverges significantly from the MT, which, instead of ‘skilled builders’, has והכם חרשים ‘skilled magicians’.

18 Beale, Temple, 248. Beale is followed by Ciampa, Roy E. and Rosner, Brian S., The First Letter to the Corinthians (PNTC; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans; Nottingham: Apollos, 2010) 151Google Scholar. See also Telford, William, The Barren Temple and the Withered Tree: A Redaction-Critical Analysis of the Cursing of the Fig-Tree Pericope in Mark's Gospel and its Relation to the Cleansing of the Temple Tradition (JSOTSS; Sheffield: JSOT, 1980) 208–12.Google Scholar

19 Cf. Gärtner, Bertil E., The Temple and the Community in Qumran and the New Testament: A Comparative Study in the Temple Symbolism of the Qumran Texts and the New Testament (SNTSMS 1; Cambridge: Cambridge University, 1965) 58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

20 Cf. Hogeterp, Albert L. A., Paul and God's Temple: A Historical Interpretation of Cultic Imagery in the Corinthian Correspondence (Leuven and Dudley, MA: Peeters, 2006) 281.Google Scholar

21 On L.A.B.'s depiction of Israel as a vineyard and the interpretation of God's domus as the temple, see Jacobson, Howard, A Commentary on Pseudo-Philo's Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum, with Latin Text and English Translation (2 vols.; Leiden: Brill, 1996) 1.497-500.Google Scholar

22 Peterson, Erik, ‘ἔργον in der Bedeutung “Bau” bei Paulus’, Biblica 22 (1941) 439-41, 440.Google Scholar

23 Conzelmann, 1 Corinthians, 76.

24 Fitzmyer, Joseph A., First Corinthians: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary (AYB; New Haven and London: Yale University, 2008) 197.Google Scholar

25 It may also be significant that both 1 Cor 3.13 and Mal 3.19 (MT) use ‘the day’ (היום = ἡ…ἡμέρα) absolutely to refer to ‘the Day of the LORD’; cf. Gerhard Delling, ‘ἡμέρα’, TDNT 2 (1964) 943-53, 952. The LXX has ἡμέρα κυρίου.

26 The καλάμη (‘stubble’) of LXX Mal 3.19 explains its presence in 1 Cor 3.13 more adequately than does the thesis of Ford, J. Massyngberde, ‘You are God's Sukkah (I Cor. III. 10-17)’, NTS 21 (1974) 139-42CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Ford argues that Paul's imagery derives from the construction of Sukkoth, for which hay and straw were used. She suggests they were adorned with tapestries embroidered with gold and silver thread and precious stones; however, such slender filaments of gold and silver thread fail to convey the sense of enduring strength that Paul seeks to communicate.

27 Cf. Ciampa and Rosner, Corinthians, 153; Proctor, J., ‘Fire in God's House: Influence of Malachi 3 in the NT’, JETS 36 (1993) 9-14, esp. 11-14Google Scholar; Williams, Wisdom, 264-5, 269-72.

28 Hays, Richard, Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul (New Haven and London: Yale University, 1989) 20Google Scholar. Cf. Allison, Dale C. Jr., The Intertextual Jesus: Scripture in Q (Harrisburg: Trinity Press International, 2000) 21Google Scholar: ‘An allusion is no end in itself but a suggestive element, a clue, an implied link to another text; it is a piece whose purpose is to summon what it has been subtracted from (cf. synecdoche). And it is up to readers to do the summoning.’

29 See the excursus on ‘The Cupellation of Silver’, in Holladay, William Lee, Jeremiah: A Commentary on the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah (2 vols.; Hermeneia; Philadelphia and Minneapolis: Fortress, 1986) 1.230–2.Google Scholar

30 Kuck, Judgment, 181.

31 Conzelmann, 1 Corinthians, 77. Johannes Weiss (Der erste Korintherbrief [Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1910] 83 n. 81) lists a number of texts that allegedly parallel v. 15: Strabo Geog. 3.5.11; Eur. Androm. 487; Elect. 1182; Liv. 20.35; LXX Amos 4.11; Zech 3.2; Ps 65.12; Jude 23. Kirk (‘Building’, 565–9) rightly notes how very distant these and other supposed parallels are.

32 BDAG, s.v. πῦρ. Cf. Jos. Ant. 17.264; Diodorus Siculus 1.57.7-8; Cynic Epistles Crates 6.

33 Kuck (Judgment, 184 n. 179) gives the impression that the instrumental use of this phrase is much rarer than it actually is: ‘The only instrumental use of διὰ πυρός I could find is in 4 Macc 9:9 (eternal punishment by means of fire)’.

34 The only exception is Spec. Laws 4.28.

35 Fishburne, Charles W., ‘1 Corinthians 3.10-15 and the Testament of Abraham’, NTS 17 (1970) 109-15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

36 Hollander, Harm W., ‘The Testing by Fire of the Builders' Works: 1 Corinthians 3.10-15’, NTS 40 (1994) 89-104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

37 Allison, Dale C., Testament of Abraham (CJL; Berlin and New York: de Gruyter, 2003) 291CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Kuck, Judgment, 184.

38 Cf. Allison, Testament of Abraham, 291.

39 McCabe, Elizabeth A., An Examination of the Isis Cult with Preliminary Exploration into New Testament Studies (Lanham: University Press of America, 2008) 77.Google Scholar

40 Porter, Stanley E., ‘What Does it Mean to Be “Saved by Childbirth” (1 Timothy 2:15)’, JSNT (1993) 87-102, esp. 95-7.Google Scholar

41 Cf. Tg. Neof. 1 on Gen 3.16; b. Ber. 17a; b. Sotah 21a.

42 While the verb διασῴζω may indicate the local reading, meaning ‘to bring safely through’, it may also mean ‘rescue without special feeling for the meaning of διά’ (BDAG, s.v., διασῴζω). Cf. 1 Clem. 9.4: ‘through him [Noah] the Master saved (διέσωσɛν) the living creatures that entered into the ark in harmony’.

43 A cogent defense of the instrumental sense of διά in this passage is presented by Satta, Ronald F., ‘“Baptism Doth Now Save Us”: An Exegetical Investigation of 1 Peter 3:20-21’, EvJ 25 (2007) 65-72, esp. 66-7.Google Scholar

44 France, R. T., ‘Exegesis in Practice: Two Examples’, New Testament Interpretation: Essays on Principles and Methods (ed. Marshall, I. H.; Exeter: Paternoster, 1977) 252-81, 273.Google Scholar

45 Cf. Herm. Vis. 3.3.5.

46 Barrett, Corinthians, 89.

47 Cf. Zeller, Dieter, Der erste Brief an die Korinther (KEK 5; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2010) 164Google Scholar. ‘Wahrscheinlich führt jedoch das ὡς nicht einen Vergleich ein (“gleichsam”), sondern präzisiert nach dem οὕτως die reale Art und Weise (vgl. 9,26; 2Kor 9,5; Eph 5,33; Jak 2,12; Herm sim IX 9,7)’.

48 Aristotle GA 734b 17-19: ‘It is clear by now that there is something which fashions the parts of the embryo, but that this agent is not by way of being (οὕτως δὲ ὡς) a definite individual thing’; Pseudo-Clement Hom. 17.18 (quoting Num 12.6-7): ‘If a prophet arise from amongst you, I shall make myself known to him through visions and dreams, but not so as (οὕτως δὲ ὡς) to my servant Moses’.

49 The argument is presented most persuasively by Milavec, Aaron, ‘The Saving Efficacy of the Burning Process in Didache 16:5’, The Didache in Context: Essays on its Text, History and Transmission (ed. Jefford, C.; Leiden: Brill, 1995) 131–55Google Scholar; cf. Draper, Jonathan, ‘The Jesus Tradition in the Didache’, Gospel Perspectives: The Jesus Tradition Outside the Gospels, vol. 5 (ed. Wenham, D.; Sheffield: JSOT, 1984) 282.Google Scholar

50 Note the striking similarities between 1 Cor 3.13–15, Did. 16.5, and Herm. Vis. 4.3.4: there is a fiery test (πῦρ [αὐτὸ] δοκιμάσɛι//πύρωσιν τῆς δοκιμασίας//δοκιμάζɛται διὰ τοῦ πυρός); some endure (μɛνɛῖ//ὑπομɛίναντɛς//μɛίναντɛς); and they will be saved/purified by the fire (σωθήσɛται…διὰ πυρός//σωθήσονται ὑπ᾽ αὐτοῦ τοῦ καταθέματος//ὑπ᾽αὐτῶν καθαρισθήσɛσθɛ).

51 Sanders, E. P., Judaism: Practice and Belief, 63 BCE–66CE (Philadelphia: Trinity Press International, 1992) 275Google Scholar; cf. BDAG, s.v., ζημιόω. Jay Shanor (‘Paul as Master Builder: Construction Terms in First Corinthians’, NTS 34 [1988] 461-71, esp. 469) notes that in some Greek temple inscriptions this term refers to the imposition of fines on incompetent builders. Some sort of penalty is in view beyond ‘the potential “dis-honor” (i.e. shame) of lost reward on the Day of Judgment’ (Herms, Ronald, ‘“Being Saved without Honor”: A Conceptual Link between 1 Corinthians 3 and 1 Enoch 50?’, JSNT 29 [2006] 187-210, 205).Google Scholar

52 So also Lietzmann, Korinther, 17: ‘Gemeint ist wohl, daß er nach einiger Strafe (ζημιωθήσɛται = ὥς διὰ πυρός) gerettet wird’.

53 Contra Konradt (Gericht, 268), the significance of this parallel is not diminished by the fact that ‘sowohl die Züchtigung (11,32) wie das “Verderben des Fleisches” (5,5) sind auf das irdische Leben bezogen und nicht endgerichtliche Akte’. As Sanders (Paul, the Law and the Jewish People [Minneapolis: Fortress, 1983] 108Google Scholar suggests, ‘faults unpunished in this world will be punished at the judgment. Further, punishment at the judgment brings atonement, just as do punishment and death in this world.’

54 Cf. Barrett, Corinthians, 126–7.

55 Cf. Héring, Jean, The First Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians (London: Epworth, 1962) 23Google Scholar: ‘Yet it is not a question of purifying fire (no purgatory!), but of one which destroys worthless material’.