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Class
Prep
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The Love Command in the Gospels, & Abuses in Corinth
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All of the gospels treat the love command as Jesus' central
teaching. This command is actually two commands,
and is not new; they are the long-standing Jewish mitzvot
or commands to love God with your whole heart, soul and
strength (Deut 6:5) and to love your neighbor as yourself
(Lev 19:18). What seems to be new is Jesus' interpretation
of these commands, namely that he extends the category of
"neighbor" to include sinners and enemies. As
you read the gospel texts, consider the following questions:
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- Assuming that Mark's gospel was written first, do the other gospel authors change the text or context of the love command?
- How are Luke's stories of the good Samaritan (see the picture
above) and Martha/Mary, which follow the love command, related
to the command?
- List any apocalyptic features you find in Mark 13.
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After Jesus' death, his disciples began to preach his death
and resurrection and his teachings in Judea, Samaria and
Galilee. One of their converts, Paul, became
a missionary himself, and considered it his role to take
the message of Jesus beyond the confines of Israel to Jews
in the diaspora and Gentiles in the Roman Empire. He
would preach in a community and then move on, maintaining
contact through letters or epistles. One of the
communities he helped to found was in the city of Corinth
on the Pelopponesian peninsula of Greece (the picture above
is a street in that city, with the Acrocorinth in the background).
The community broke into factions after he left, and his
first Letter to the Corinthians is his attempt to heal the
conflict. As you read the letter, consider the
following questions:
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- What problems is the community facing? Look particularly
in Chapters 1:10-17; 4:18; 5:1-2; 6:1, 12; 7:1, 25-28; 8:1; and
11:3-16, 18-22. Are there any problems to which
Paul makes repeated reference?
- How is the love command violated (use your list from
#4)? How does Paul advise the Corinthians
to love and not to love (see especially chapter 12)?
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- Assigned Readings
- Primary: Mark 12:28-34 par Matt 22:34-40 par
Luke 10:25-28 (then read Luke 10:29-42; Mark 10:1-16:8); 1 Corinthians
- Secondary: Online class prep
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- Further Reading
Castelli, Elizabeth A. "Disciplines of Difference: Asceticism and History in Paul." In Asceticism and the New Testament (ed. Vincent L. Wimbush and Leif E. Vaage; New York: Routledge, 1999) 171-85.
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--------. "Paul on Women and Gender." In Women and Christian Origins (ed. Ross Shepard Kraemer and Mary Rose D'Angelo; New York: Oxford University Press, 1999) 221-35.
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Corley, Kathleen E. Private Women, Public
Meals: Social Conflict in the Synoptic Tradition.
Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson, 1993.
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- Corrington-Streete, Gail P. "Sex, Spirit, and Control: Paul and the Corinthian Women." In Ritual, Power, and the Body: Historical Perspectives on the Representation of Greek Women (ed. C. Nadia Seremetakis; New York: Pella, 1993) 95-117.
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Cotter, Wendy. "Women's Authority Roles in Paul's Churches: Counter-cultural or Conventional?" Novum Testamentum 36 (1994) 350-72.
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D'Angelo, Mary Rose. "Veils, Virgins, and the
Tongues of Men and Angels: Women's Heads as Sexual Members
in Ancient Christianity." In Off with
Her Head! The Denial of Women's Identity in Myth, Religion
and Culture (ed. Howard Eilberg Schwartz and Wendy Doniger;
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995) 131-64.
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--------. "Reconstructing 'Real' Women in
Gospel Literature: The Case of Mary Magdalene." In
Women and Christian Origins, 105-128.
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--------. "(Re)Presentations of Women
in the Gospels: John and Mark." In Women
and Christian Origins, 129-49.
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- Gerhardsson, Birger. The Shema in the New Testament: Deut 6:4-5 in Significant Passages. Lund: Nova, 1996.
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Grant, Robert M. Paul in the Roman World: The Conflict
at Corinth. Louisville: Westminister John
Knox, 2001.
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- Keener, Craig S. Paul, Women and Wives: Marriage and Women's Ministry in the Letters of Paul. Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson, 1993.
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- Kittredge, Cynthia Briggs. "Corinthian Women
Prophets and Paul's Argumentation in 1 Corinthians." In
Paul and Politics: Ekklesia, Israel, Imperium, Interpretation. Essays
in Honor of Krister Stendahl (ed. Richard A. Horsley; Harrisburg,
Pennsylvania: Trinity Press International, 2000).
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MacDonald, Margaret Y. "Reading Real Women through the Undisputed Letters of Paul." In Women and Christian Origins, 199-220.
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--------. "Women Holy in Body and Spirit: The Social
Setting of 1 Corinthians 7." New Testament
Studies 36 (1990) 161-81.
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Martin, Dale. The Corinthian Body. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1995.
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--------. "Paul without Passion: On Paul's
Rejection of Desire in Sex and Marriage." In
Constructing Early Christian Families: Family as Social
Reality and Metaphor (ed. Halvor Moxnes; New York: Routledge,
1997) 201-215. Routledge, 1997) 201-215.
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Perkins, Pheme. Love Commands in the New Testament. New York: Paulist, 1982.
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Wire, Antoinette Clark. The Corinthian Women Prophets: A Reconstruction through Paul's Rhetoric. Minnepolis: Fortress, 1990.
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- Links
- The Corinth Computer Project - a computerized
architectural and topographical survey of the Roman colony of Corinth being built at the University of Pennsylvania.
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- Sources
- Photographs:
- Stained glass: C. Murphy, "The Samaritan tends to the
Wounded Jew (M-160)," detail from the Good Samaritan
/ Fall of Adam and Eve window," Notre Dame de Chartres,
Chartres, France, 1994.
- Corinth: C. Murphy, "Statue on Corinthian Street (K-082)," 1988.
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