Bible Interpretation Essay

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Biblical Interpretation

The author of this report is to center and fixtate on a portion of the First Epistle to the Corinthians as written by Paul and analyze from a personal point of analysis as well as a scholarly one. The passage that will be used for this brief report is the first eleven verses of that first letter to the Corinthians. In that passage, Paul recites the resurrection and how it progressed from a procedural and chronological standpoint. He also makes it a point to assure people that they will be saved if they believe but they will fall if they do not. However, there is a little more complexity than just that when reviewing the passage. While being literal when engaging in biblical interpretations can be useful, there is also the use of metaphor and other literary devices and that needs to be recognized when assessing a passage of scripture.

Analysis

The fifteenth chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians has nearly sixty verses but the first eleven are very productive and filled with relevant content. There are three basic parts of the passage. The first part is a clear statement of what is required to secure passage to eternal life, that being faith in God and our salvation through the death of Jesus on the cross. The second part talks about the events and linear nature of the resurrection. Paul speaks about how Jesus presented himself to all of the different apostles and other people after he was risen. The bulk of the first eleven verses of the fifteenth chapter are dedicated to this. However, Paul also says quite a lot in the other three verses, those being the ninth, tenth and eleventh. Paul asserts that people who believe in God and hold Christian values true will be saved while those that do not will be lost. However, the third thing he states is a bit of an offshoot of the first part in that he reminds people of how evil and insidious he was when he went by the name of Saul. He goes so far as to suggest that he is not an apostle in the truest sense and that, at the very least, is at the bottom of the proverbial pecking order just because of his past even though he has redeemed himself since his transformation from Paul to Saul.

The sizeable middle part of the verses that speak of the timeline of the post-resurrection events is clearly a recitation and reminder to the people he speaks to that Jesus did indeed rise from the dead after he was killed on the cross. Rather than just give a simple reminder, he notes the resurrection and then one by one goes through the people he spoke to and appeared to after he rose. He also makes it a point to indicate that most of the witnesses to Jesus being alive after his death on the cross are still alive but he also concedes that some have passed or, as Paul put it, "went to sleep."

One major point that Paul makes in this passage, without stating it overtly, is that Jesus was a man, he did die on the cross and believing in all of the above is necessary. While the requirements are high, the grace of God can be extended to all that believe and this holds true even for a man like Paul that used to be among the worst that humanity has to offer. He drives the point home of needing to understand how and why we are saved in the third verse when he states that spreading the message of us being saved and how it came to be is of "first importance." Paul concedes in the eleventh verse that he has come a long way but that he would be nowhere were it not for God allowing him the chance in the first place. Absent that, he would be condemned because the resurrection and the ability to believe and have faith in a way that procures forgiveness and salvation would not have happened.

When it comes to scholarly review and research regarding 1st Corinthians, there are several names that immediately make themselves apparent. The first of those was Jeffrey Asher in his work that specifically related to the chapter in question. One example of Asher's viewpoints relate to the use of the word resurrection vs. that of transformation with Asher basically opting for the latter more so than the former (Asher, 2000, pp. 24-25).

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Further, Paul does not antagonize or attempt to raise the ire of those that would contradict what he said. Asher asserts this himself when he says that Paul does not address the theories of opponents in this manner. Rather, he strikes a tone that ius "didactic in style and pedagogical in tone" (Asher, 2000, pp. 31-32). However, Asher also notes that the speaking about of opponents and eschatology theory did not really pick up until the 1950's, it is something that is and should be looked at heavily (Asher, 2000, p. 32). Lastly, Asher talks about the fact that while Paul makes heavy mention of Christ's resurrection and what he did after he returned, he does not make any sort of concerted effort to prove that the resurrection happened in the first place. He simply states it as a matter of fact and this is presumed by many to be because there was not a lot of dissent or question about the matter. There seemed to be questions about the resurrection of the dead but not Christ in particular (Asher, 2000, p. 38).

The author of this repot focused on the New International Version (NIV) of the Bible. Indeed, another scholar's works consulted for this article, that being Gordon Fee, used an NIV version for his initial publishing of his work about First Corinthians when he issued it in the 1970's. Specifically, he used the 1978 edition of the book. He later became a bible translation committee member, so he is definitely more versed than most on how the original texts were interpreted and translated to English over the centuries. One interesting perspective that Fee offers is noted on page 438 when he makes mention of the aforementioned self-deprecation that Paul engages in regarding his standing as an apostle. Fee expands that to possibly mean that Paul questioning his status as an apostle basically does the same thing to the other apostles. Fee summarizes his point by stating that "if he is not a true apostle, then they are not truly 'in the Lord'" (Fee, 1987, p. 438).

However, this seems to be countered and quelled by something else Paul has said. Earlier in the first Corinthian letter, the questions about Paul's status actually come from someone else. Rather than defend his denunciations and deprecation of himself, he instead asserts that he has such rights to call himself an apostle even with his sordid history. He actually cycles through several reasons why he can claim himself as an apostle including the right to not work yet be supported and he also uses parallels from the Old Testament and his own personal life. One such Old Testament example was the mentioned of no record of right and wrongs as quoted from Zechariah (Fee, 1987, p. 708). The food and drink quip may irk some, but Paul himself admits that he does not try to please people (Pogoloff, 1992, p. 144).

However, not all of Paul's words in the fifteenth chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians was a summary of prior events. Part of predictions for the future included the aforementioned talk of secure passage to Heaven. However, there are other examples. One scholar went to far as to say that Christian prophecy is in "conflict" and "confusion" due to some fairly contradictory or at least different words for much the same thing. For example, there is talk of a prophetic "message," a prophetic "message" and a prophetic "confirmation" (Gillespie, 1978, p. 74).

Lastly, there should be a review that much of what is stated in the earlier part of Chapter 15 is a repudiation of some of the behavior and beliefs of the Corinthians. The recitation of the resurrection and the fact that some have died (or gone to sleep) is a direct shot across the proverbial bough of Corinthians who apparently already thought that resurrection had come and gone already. Paul clearly took the chance to chastise the incorrect thinking of the Corinthians while at the same thing making clear that he did not feel superior or above the other apostles. Indeed, Paul's focus is tamping down the "over-realized eschatology" that the Corinthians have apparently centered on in error. However, while the author of this report initially missed the slight swipe at the Corinthians that Paul took, it is most definitely there. Indeed, verse 12 of the chapter talks about how "some" have differing opinions (Tomlin, 1999, pp. 51-71)......

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