Exegesis of I Corinthians 13:8-12
8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.
The eternality of love is highlighted and established without question. However, in comparison prophecies and knowledge will “pass away,” tongues will “cease.” Linguistically there is no appreciable difference between “pass away” and “cease.” They are synonymous in function. It would seem that when one of these three gifts passes, they all should pass (in Eph. 2:20, Paul will note that the work of the New Testament prophets is foundational, again inviting the idea that the work should not be ongoing, though its effects should be felt in perpetuity).
The particulars may be fleeting and debatable, but that there is a temporal limitation is not up for debate. As MacArthur notes, “Significantly, though … scholars disagree … they all reach the same conclusion —namely, that the miraculous and revelatory gifts have ceased.”
9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
If they can now have knowledge without love, it’s not a very full knowledge of God. The emphasis here is not on what they know, but the miraculous process of knowing (the latter, actually, limits the former). They currently miraculously know and prophesy “in part,” because the source is not of themselves. And as they are now, they do not understand “all mysteries and all knowledge.” No prophet received an entire download of God’s truth at once (including the apostles). Revelation has always been a process by which God’s inspired messengers knew what they needed to know to convey to the people who needed to know it.
10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.
When ὁ τέλειος comes, the proc...
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...y, and George DeHoff as supporters of this view (214-216).
Concluding Thoughts
Perhaps the difficulty in shoe-horning I Corinthians 13:8-12 into one of these theological packages comes from the fact that Paul was not trying to outlaw tongue speaking (14:39), but he was trying to first bring order to the immediate chaos of the Corinthian church and, secondly, to move the Corinthians on to maturity (love).
There remain strengths and weaknesses with any one of the interpretations popularly developed by theologians and authors. However, within the context of I Corinthians, a strong case can be made for identifying ὁ τέλειος in line with the second listed theory. It simply works beautifully within the framework of I Corinthians.
Cessationism makes sense in the Christian assembly because there is no longer a need for miracles. They have been superseded by maturity/love.
Jerusalem or Zion, is where the church of Jesus Christ got their stard. But in apostolic time a different city came to overshadow Jerusalem in some respects. The city of Antioch, capital of the Roman province of Syria.
Paul approach the passages logically by connecting the indicative and the imperatives. Understanding God’s word commands indicative while obeying God’s word is imperative. Paul tells us in Romans 12:1 King James Version “12I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service”. (imperative)
The book of Romans was written by Paul. It is actually a letter that Paul wrote to the Romans telling them about his understanding of the Gospel. In this book his explains our sins and how we can achieve forgiveness through Christ. The most specific sin that he explains is that of judging one another. He helps address the problem of religious disagreements about different customs or religious convictions. These customs or religious convictions include the days on which people worship the Lord and the things that people will and will not eat. He wrote about the fact that we should not judge each other for God is going to judge us all in the end.
“ The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen, man’s. hand is not able to taste, his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report what my dream was!” If we compare this to the King James version (1611) of 1 Corinthians. 2: 9-10. We can see, to a large extent, that they are extremely similar.
At a certain point during a person’s illness, a doctor will say that there is just no more that can be done. Modern medicine, scientific technology, and healing techniques have done all they can, but tragically, the fate of the person looks grim, and death is rapidly approaching. It is then that people will hope for a miracle. Terri McFaddin, a minister, expresses the feelings of those seriously ill when saying that "We are living in desperate times where people are going to believe in things they can’t see because they can’t trust the things they can see. Miracles happen where natural resources end. One will walk into the realm of miracles when all natural resources have been exhausted." 4 When scientific reasoning and human knowledge have failed people and no cure can be found, that is when people will turn to their faith and hope for a miracle. They grip hope that is beyond reason and logic.5 Praise and worship leader Ron Kenoly says that more people are realizing that to be helped with the great problems they face, they need to go beyond the limits of reason and the abilities of man.6 Today the largest percentages of Americans in a decade profess the existence of God and miracles, according to a poll commissioned by the Pew Research Center.
Perhaps, just as the torrent will. inevitably diminish so will passion as it can only last a certain amount of time because we know nothing can last forever as long as life does not. eternal. The sacri The poem
In 1 Corinthians 12-14, Paul set out to address the issues of exclusivity and the divide among the converts of Corinth that has been caused because of spiritual gifts. Paul set a guideline to his converts in Corinth to create order and conduct during times of worship in 1 Corinthians 14:26-33. Doing so, Paul hoped that the divide that has been caused from those with special or “exclusive” spiritual gifts do not cause other believers to become jealous or envious. Paul’s guideline to the Corinthians showed the leadership that Paul had that allowed him to guide the Church to become Hellenistic in just one generation.
Talbert, Charles H. Ephesians and Colossians. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2007The New Interpreter's Bible: General Articles and Introduction, Commentary, and Reflections for Each Book of the Bible, Including the Apocryphal deuterocanonical Books. Vol. XI. Nashville: Abingdon Press, ©1994-2004.
The Church as a whole debates many concepts that are in the Bible, in both theology and in practice. One of these debates surrounds the gifts that are spoken of in the Bible. In one corner are those who believe that charismatic gifts are alive and well in the church today. The Continuationist view believes that the gifts have continued on through Biblical times and are still relevant for today. In the other corner are those who believe that particular gifts have ceased to be used in the modern church and that they were only given for a particular reason in Biblical times. This view is called the Cessationist. Today each view, and other views in between, and the practice of the gifts in the current culture will be examined for truth, validity, and application by searching through each view and holding fast to the scripture as the final word of authority.
Augustine’s interpretation of 2 Corinthians 3 describes a recurring theme to his work: in many cases, Augustine appears to believe that the figurative interpretation is by default the more powerful. Additionally, this idea introduces elements from outside the text. In order to decide whether something should be considered figurative or literal in situations within Scripture where there may be controversy, this method requires outside opinions to shape what is considered acceptable and what isn’t. A modern critique of Augustine and his contemporaries is that they use influences from outside of Scripture to interpret meaning, while espousing the divinity of Scripture.
Authority of Scripture reconciles the community with God and can transform our lives. To participate in the fuller blessing of understanding, it is important to view Scripture with historical and literary sensitivity, interpret theocentrically, ecclesially, and contextually. I realize each of these can be overwhelming to the average person who is seeking direction for a specific concern in their life. Therefore, Migliore reminds us, interpreting Scripture is practical engagement in the living of Christian faith, love, and hope in a still redeemed world. When we listen carefully to the voices of the past, from a worldwide culture, and guided by the Holy Spirit, we will open ourselves to those transformational opportunities.
Jesus and Paul are two crucial characters in the New Testament. They both depict the Gospel on which Christianity is based upon, but there is debate about rather these two versions of the Gospel are complementary. Scholars like George Shaw claim that Paul is “anti-Christian,” and he “produced a fantastic theology” (Shaw 415-416). On the other hand, I believe that even though Jesus and Paul may present the Gospel different at times, they are still advocating the same religion. Through the understanding of the Gospels and Paul’s letters it is clear that Jesus and Paul have the same underlining goals and values.
As with most other Pauline attributed documents, 1 Corinthians is believed to be a single document that addresses salient topics and rationalizes Paul’s view of faithfulness to Christ with Corinth citizens. The newly founded church of Corinth was in correspondence with Paul requesting his answers to questions they posed on topics ranging from marriage to the resurrection of the dead; the latter being one of the most highlighted in 1 Corinthians. Paul’s assurance of resurrection illustrates a concern for Corinth as he admonishes their disbelief in resurrection of the dead with a series of explanations as to why such doubt would render the faith of Christ “in vain”. Given the context of the time, Paul’s correspondence with Corinth clearly had an original intent of educating and admonishing Corinth on their views on resurrection. However, modern Christianity in its many forms has established an interpretation that slightly strays from its original inscription. Regardless, Paul’s letters not only shaped the ideals of Corinthians believers but influenced the Christian ideals of post mortem resurrection or eternal life as well.
When we look throughout the Bible we can see a consistent theme when there are things to be done: Man needs motivation. Various men rose to the occasion to motivate their brethren and in each case we see great love come forth. Love can do many things. This paper will address three things that love has done and can do. Love can build a temple, love can build a wall, and love can spread the Gospel.
Revelation refers primarily to God’s disclosure of truth trough words, acts, or any other means, but most fully in the person of Jesus Christ. It refers to the content of truth-the subject matter that is communicated to the prophet. “It is the content of the message communicated by God to His prophet in the process of inspiration.” (Roger Coon, Inspiration/Revelation: What It is and How it Works, Part I, 18)