1 Corinthians New Testament

Introduction to 1 Corinthians

Authorship

Paul is the author of this letter, and even critical scholars do not generally dispute this claim. Several very early Christian leaders confirmed Paul’s authorship of this book:[]

• Clement of Rome, To the Corinthians, 47:1

• Polycarp, To the Philippians, ch. 11

• Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 4, 27

• Clement of Alexandria, The Paedagogus 1, 6

• Tertullian, On the Prescription of Heretics, Ch. 33, 11:46

Archibald Robertson and Alfred Plummer write, “Both the external and the internal evidence for the Pauline authorship are so strong that those who attempt to show that the Apostle was not the writer succeed chiefly in proving their own incompetence as critics.”[] More recently, Carson and Moo write, “Paul is identified as the author in the opening verses of both epistles, and few have contested the claim.”[] Even critical scholar Hans Conzelmann writes, “The authenticity of the epistle is universally recognized.”[]

Date

Paul visited Corinth in roughly AD 50. We know this because he stood before the proconsul Gallio (Acts 18:12), whom we recognize and know from secular history. Archaeologists uncovered the famous “Gallio stone,” which dates the beginning of Gallio’s office to the early summer of AD 51.[]

When Paul wrote his letter to the Corinthians, this was obviously after he stood before Gallio, placing the date after AD 51. Moreover, Paul writes that he was still in Ephesus when he wrote 1 Corinthians (1 Cor. 16:8), after just planting the church there (Acts 18:18-21). Therefore, Paul probably wrote this letter sometime in between a two-and-a-half-year span, while he was at Ephesus from the autumn of 52 to the spring of 55 AD (Acts 19:10; 20:31). Thus, most NT scholars date this letter sometime in the late winter or early spring of 55 AD.[] Morris[] dates the book to the mid-fifties, and cites “wide agreement” on this amongst NT scholarship.