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and to forbid all participation in idolothyta, after the precedent of Acts xv., would have been the simplest course to take; but Paul feels it necessary to ground the matter on fundamental principles. He will not acknowledge any dominion of the idol over ‘“‘the earth and its fulness” (x. 26); nor, on the other hand, is it right to prevent neighbourly intercourse between Christians and unbelievers (x. 27 ff.). But where the feast is held under the auspices of a heathen god and as the sequel to his sacrifice the case is altered; participation under these circumstances becomes an act of apostasy, and the feaster identifies himself with the idol as distinctly as in the Lord’s Supper he identifies himself with Christ (x. 16 ff.).
The working of the old leaven is patent in the denial of the resurrection of the dead made by some Corinthian Christians (xv.). Here the radical scepticism of the age opposed itself to the fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, upon which the whole weight of Christian faith and hope, and the entire Christian conception of the world and of destiny, rest as upon their fulcrum and rock of cer- tainty. The disbelief in bodily resurrection and the indifference to bodily sin manifested at Corinth had a common root. They may be traced to the false spiritualism, the contempt for physical nature, characteristic of the theosophy of the times, which gave rise a few years later to the Colossian heresy and was a chief factor in the development of Gnosticism. The teaching of chap. vi., that “your _ bodies are limbs of Christ,” and the command to “ glorify God in your bodies,” are aimed against the same philosophical assumptions that are combated in chap. xv.; the demand for bodily purity finds in the doctrine of the resurrection its indispensable support and counterpart.
No reference is made in the Epistle to Church officers of any kind. Submission to ‘‘the house of Stephanas,” and to others rendering like service, is enjoined in xvi. 15 f., but by way of volun- tary deference. So early as the first missionary journey in South Galatia Paul had assisted in the “appointing of elders in every Church” (Acts xiv. 23; cf. Acts xx. 17, 1 Thess. v. 12, Rom. xii. 8, Phil. i. 1). He had refrained from this step at Corinth for some specific reason—a reason lying, it may be supposed, in the demo- cratic spirit of the Church, which might have ill brooked official con- trol. In xii. 28 the Apostle alludes, however, to ‘‘ governments” as amongst the things which ‘God set [as part of a plan, Hort] in the Church”; and his promise to “εί in order other things” (beside the Lord’s Supper) when he comes (xi. 34) may cover the intention to remedy this defect, the consequences of which are painfully
apparent (xiv. 26-33, etc.).