40 Fun Facts About 1 Corinthians

Which prime minister read 1 Corinthians 13 at the Westminster Abbey funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales?

Tony Blair read the chapter's close, 'and now abideth faith, hope, love', at the 1997 service, and the Church of England calls the same chapter the most popular reading at its weddings.

Which event gets its earliest written account in 1 Corinthians 11, with the words 'do this in remembrance of me'?

The Last Supper is described here in the early 50s AD, before any Gospel was written, and Paul says he 'received from the Lord' the account of the bread and the cup.

Which 1741 oratorio sets lines from 1 Corinthians 15, including 'Behold, I tell you a mystery', in its final part?

Handel's Messiah draws the text of its final part largely from this chapter, compiled by Charles Jennens, and Brahms later set the same passage in his German Requiem.

Which word does the King James Version use throughout 1 Corinthians 13 where most translations say 'love'?

Charity translates the Greek agape, and the choice lives on in the 1662 Prayer Book collect built on the chapter: 'all our doings without charity are nothing worth'.

1 Corinthians 15 says the risen Christ appeared to more than how many 'brothers and sisters at the same time'?

Five hundred witnesses, 'most of whom are still living', is Paul's invitation to go and check, and the appearance has no parallel in any Gospel.

Which Greek comic playwright does Paul quote in 1 Corinthians 15 with the line 'Bad company corrupts good character'?

Menander's line comes from his lost play Thais, and the historian Socrates Scholasticus claimed the playwright had himself borrowed it from Euripides.

Which church still performs 'baptism for the dead', a practice 1 Corinthians 15:29 mentions without explaining?

The Latter-day Saints perform it only in dedicated temples, with living proxies standing in for ancestors, while scholars still argue over what the Corinthians themselves were doing.

Where does Paul say in 1 Corinthians 15 that he 'fought wild beasts', a line read literally or as a metaphor?

Ephesus is also where the letter was written: in the last chapter Paul says he will 'stay on' there 'until Pentecost' because 'a great door for effective work has opened'.

In 1 Corinthians 13:12, 'for now we see only a reflection' in what, 'then we shall see face to face'?

A mirror in Paul's day was polished bronze, and Corinth was famous for producing them, so the point is the indirectness of a reflection rather than its poor quality.

1 Corinthians 5 condemns a man 'sleeping with' whom, a sin 'of a kind that even pagans do not tolerate'?

His father's wife, presumably a stepmother, and Paul's anger is as much at the church's pride in tolerating it as at the man, whom he orders put out of the fellowship.

Who is named with Paul as co-sender in the opening verse of 1 Corinthians, described only as 'our brother'?

Sosthenes shares his name with a Corinthian synagogue leader beaten in front of the proconsul in Acts 18, and since Eusebius many have taken the two to be the same convert.

Which two men are the only Corinthians Paul says he personally baptized, apart from one household, in 1 Corinthians 1?

Crispus and Gaius are named so that 'no one can say that you were baptized in my name'; Acts 18 calls Crispus the synagogue leader, and Romans 16 calls Gaius host to 'the whole church'.

Whose 'household' informed Paul of the quarrels at Corinth, according to 1 Corinthians 1:11?

Chloe's people reported that the church had split into parties each claiming a favourite preacher, and Paul answers with 'Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you?'

Which couple, expelled from Rome under Claudius, greet the Corinthians 'warmly in the Lord' in 1 Corinthians 16?

Aquila and Priscilla had hosted Paul in Corinth after Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome, and by this letter they were with him again, along with 'the church that meets at their house'.

In 1 Corinthians 5, 'a little' of what works through 'the whole batch of dough', Paul's image for tolerated sin?

Yeast is the image, and Paul ties it to Passover — 'Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed' — so the church should be 'a new unleavened batch'.

What does 1 Corinthians 6 say believers who sue each other 'before the ungodly' have already been 'completely'?

Defeated is the verdict, and Paul's alternative is startling: 'Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated?'

What does 1 Corinthians 11 say 'the very nature of things' teaches is 'a disgrace' for a man?

Long hair on a man is the disgrace, while on a woman it 'is her glory', given 'as a covering', in an argument about head coverings that still divides churches.

What does 1 Corinthians 6:19 call the believer's body, just before reminding readers that 'you are not your own'?

The Spirit's temple is Paul's phrase — 'your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit' — and earlier in the letter he had already called the congregation as a whole 'God's temple'.

What does 1 Corinthians 7 say it is 'better to marry than to' do, advising those who 'cannot control themselves'?

Burn with passion is the NIV's rendering of a phrase older versions gave simply as 'to burn', and Paul frames the whole discussion as 'a concession, not a command'.

What status does Paul say he wishes 'all of you' shared, in 1 Corinthians 7's advice on marriage?

Unmarried 'as I do' is Paul's own state, and he adds that each person 'has your own gift from God', a line later tradition read as a gift of celibacy.

Which animal must not be muzzled 'while it is treading out the grain', a law 1 Corinthians 9 applies to preachers?

An ox is the subject of the rule from Deuteronomy 25, and Paul asks 'Is it about oxen that God is concerned?' to argue that 'those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel'.

Which festival beside Corinth, held for Poseidon every two years, crowned winners with celery and later pine?

The Isthmian Games drew athletes from all Greece to the sanctuary of Poseidon on the isthmus, and the 'crown that will not last' of 1 Corinthians 9 would have been a familiar sight to Paul's readers.

What does 1 Corinthians 10 say 'accompanied' Israel in the wilderness and 'was Christ'?

A spiritual rock, Paul says, from which they 'drank the same spiritual drink', reading the water-giving rock of Exodus 17 and Numbers 20 as Christ himself.

Which letter from Rome, written about AD 96, told the Corinthians to reinstate the presbyters they had deposed?

First Clement already tells the Corinthians to 'take up the epistle of the blessed Paul', which makes it one of the earliest witnesses that Paul's letter was being kept and read.

Given the earlier letter it mentions in 5:9, where does 1 Corinthians fall among Paul's known letters to Corinth?

The second of four is the scholars' count: a lost 'previous letter', this one, a lost 'severe' letter referred to in 2 Corinthians, and 2 Corinthians itself.

Where does 1 Corinthians 10 say believers may eat 'anything sold' without 'raising questions of conscience'?

The meat market is safe because, as Paul says quoting Psalm 24, everything in the world is the Lord's, but if a host announces that the meat was sacrificed, Paul says to leave it for the host's conscience.

Why, puzzlingly, does 1 Corinthians 11:10 say a woman 'ought to have authority over her own head'?

Because of the angels is all Paul offers, and John Chrysostom used the verse to argue that the covering should be worn continually, not only at prayer.

What does 1 Corinthians 11 complain happens at the Corinthians' shared meals while 'one person remains hungry'?

Another gets drunk, because the better-off were going ahead with 'private suppers' before the poor arrived, which is why Paul says their meetings 'do more harm than good'.

What does 1 Corinthians 11 blame for many Corinthians being 'weak and sick' and some having 'fallen asleep'?

Taking communion unworthily, 'without discerning the body', brings 'judgment' in Paul's view, and 'fallen asleep' is his usual way of saying died.

In 1 Corinthians 12's body metaphor, which part says 'Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body'?

The foot speaks first, then the ear complains it is not an eye, and Paul's answer is that God 'has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be'.

Without love, 1 Corinthians 13 says even speaking in 'the tongues of men' makes one 'a resounding gong' or what?

A clanging cymbal, or a 'tinkling cymbal' in the KJV, and some commentators think the 'gong' was really one of the bronze acoustic jars that amplified voices in Greek theatres.

Which teacher from Sinope, later branded a heretic, kept 1 Corinthians in a canon of just ten Pauline letters?

Marcion's ten letters, his Apostolikon, sat beside a shortened Gospel of Luke, and the fact that even a heretic's Bible kept 1 Corinthians is one reason no one doubts the letter is Paul's.

In 1 Corinthians 14, Paul would rather speak five intelligible words in church than how many 'words in a tongue'?

Ten thousand words in a tongue lose to five that instruct, even though Paul claims 'I speak in tongues more than all of you'.

How many people at most may speak in a tongue at one meeting, 'one at a time', under 1 Corinthians 14's rules?

Three at the most, each needing an interpreter, and 'if there is no interpreter, the speaker should keep quiet in the church', with prophets limited to 'two or three' as well.

Which lines of 1 Corinthians 14, ordering women to 'remain silent', do many scholars call a later insertion?

Verses 34–35 appear in every Greek manuscript, but a group of Western manuscripts moves them after verse 40, which for many scholars marks a marginal note that crept into the text.

Which household does 1 Corinthians 16 call 'the first converts in Achaia', to whom the church should 'submit'?

Stephanas had himself carried news to Paul, arriving with Fortunatus and Achaicus, and the name means 'crowned' in Greek.

On which day does 1 Corinthians 15's creed say Christ 'was raised', adding 'according to the Scriptures'?

The third day comes in a formula Paul says he 'received', which many scholars date to within a few years of the crucifixion, making it older than any Gospel.

Why does Paul call himself 'the least of the apostles' in 1 Corinthians 15, not even deserving the name?

His past as a persecutor of 'the church of God' is the reason Paul gives, before adding that by God's grace he 'worked harder than all of them'.

What does 1 Corinthians 15:26 call 'the last enemy to be destroyed', after all 'dominion, authority and power'?

Death is the last enemy, and Paul's sequence runs Christ first as 'the firstfruits', then 'those who belong to him', then 'the end', when the kingdom is handed over to God.

Which figure does 1 Corinthians 15 call 'the first man', set against Christ as 'the last' and 'a life-giving spirit'?

Adam, 'of the dust', is the pattern of mortal humanity here, while 'the second man is of heaven', a contrast Paul runs again in Romans 5.