| In 1 Corinthians Paul must deal with a community whose behavior, in his eyes, does not befit its status as a member of the body of Christ. Based on the evidence found in the letter, Paul apparently believes that a proper understanding of God's paradoxical wisdom revealed through the cross will remedy the Corinthians' problematic judgment and that this will, in turn, lead to proper behavior within the community. After a meditation on this wisdom in the first four chapters of the letter, Paul engages specific areas of concern and offers the Corinthians wise instruction in order to help them develop the eschatological discernment he expects from this baptized community.;Much ink has been spilled in wrestling with Paul's language found in 1 Cor 6:12-7:7. Using the tools of conceptual integration theory within a socio-rhetorical framework, this dissertation argues that Paul's teaching in 1 Cor 6:12-7:7 is best viewed as an example of early Christian didactic wisdom that wrestles with the proper use of the Christian body vis-a-vis sexual activity. In Paul's two pronged attack on the problem of porneia he first shows the Corinthians, using rhetographic argumentation, why it is the worst of all possible bodily sins and he then explains, using rhetological argumentation, how they can best avoid it. Paul's didactic wisdom teaching in this pericope, however, is always already energized by an apocalyptic worldview. Moreover, Paul's wisdom in 1 Cor 6:12-7:7 also employs priestly concerns about purity, holiness, and sacred space. Jewish didactic wisdom is concerned to teach people how to live a life of generative righteousness and is willing to use whatever resources necessary to achieve its goals. Paul, it seems, is most like a Hellenistic Jewish teacher of wisdom when he opens up the boundaries of his didactic discourse by blending his wisdom teaching with apocalyptic and priestly integration resources. How Paul blends these resources in light of his experience of the risen Christ represents the beginnings of a uniquely Christian wisdom culture. |
