Today, we’ve several more verses:

12) Παντα μοι εξεστιν, αλλα παντα ου συμφερει. Παντα μοι εξεστιν, αλλα ουκ εγω εξουσιασθησομαι υπο τινος.
13) τα βρωματα τῃ κοιλιᾳ και ἡ κοιλια τοις βρωμοσιν. ὁ δε θεος και ταυτην και ταυτα καταργεσει. το δε σωμα ου τῃ πορνεια αλλα τῳ κυριῳ, και ὁ κυριος τῳ σωματι.
14) ὁ δε θεος τον κυριον ἣγειρεν και ὐμας εξεγερεῖ δια της δυναμεως αυτου.
15) ουκ οιδατε οτι τα σωμα ὑμων μελη Χριστου εστιν; αρας οὗν τα μελη Χριστου ποιεσω πορνης μελη; μη γενοιτο.
16) η ουκ οιδατε οτι ὁ καλλωμενος τῃ πορνῃ ἓν σωμα; Εσονται, γαρ φησιν, ὁι δυο εις σαρκα μιαν.

Now, for a rough translation:
12) “All things are permissible,” but not all things are beneficial. “All things are permissible,” but I myself will not be mastered by anything!
13) “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food.” But God will destroy both of these! The body is not intended for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.
14) God raised the Lord, and he will raise us also through his power.
15) Don’t you know that your bodies are members of Christ’s body? Should I then take the members of Christ’s body and join them to the body of a prostitute? Absolutely not!
16) Or don’t you now that the one who joins himself to a prostitute becomes one body with her body? For it says, “the two will become one flesh.”

Some notes
12-13a) I love Paul’s quotations of the Corinthians slogans, and the force with which he corrects their thinking. The second correction in verse 12 is particularly forceful, where Paul uses the pronoun εγω when it’s not necessary. It’s for that reason I added the kinda awkward “myself.” Paul certainly wants the Corinthians to follow his example and not the example of those flaunting their “freedom in Christ.” Paul correction goes so far in verse 13 that he calls for God’s judgment.

13b) This is a puzzling piece to me, and I’m not quite sure how to interpret the datives. It’s not uncommon in Greek to leave the verb implicit, and Paul does it here. Usually the verb ειμι (to be) is implicit. Apparently the food saying had wider implication than simply justifying gluttony. It seems the Corinthians were using it in a general sense: my desire for an object justifies me fulfilling that desire. Thus, if I want sex, it’s okay for me to engage in temple prostitution (this is a common argument today, even if it’s left implicit). Paul can’t stand this, which is probably why he makes such a strong statement about “God destroying both of these.” Paul’s corrective here is that our bodies are not for πορνεια (same root word as prostitute, something like sexual immorality) but for Christ. He then throws in the extra little bit that I can’t completely wrap my head around: “και ὁ κυριος τῳ σοματι,” “and the Lord for the body.” Paul undoubtedly has his “church as the body of Christ” metaphor in mind here, and I think Paul is saying that Jesus’ intention is toward his Church. I’m not really sure how to unpack this further though. How exactly is the “Lord for the body” or “intended for the body?”

14) Paul links proper behavior with resurrection. Basically, our physical bodies matter for two reasons. One, the Lord was raised in a physical body. Two, God will raise us in physical bodies like he did for the Lord. Thus, what we do in our physical bodies now is extremely important, as they are part of God’s good creation.

15) The body metaphor comes out very clearly in this verse. I wasn’t really sure how to translate μελη.  Literally, it refers to a part of the body. I don’t like the word member since we don’t really use that to refer to a part of the body, but part didn’t sound right either. In characteristic fashion, Paul uses some argumentum ad absurdum. He makes a ridiculous deduction (we should join Christ with a prostitute!) to show the absurdity of the Corinthian behavior.

16) Paul continues his scolding of Corinthian sexual behavior, this time with a scriptural quotation. In Greek, the verb εσονται (will become) is split off from the rest of the quotation by the linking words γαρ φησιν (for it is said). By doing this, I believe Paul is emphasizing even more the ramifications of sexual immorality, the “oneness” of the two participants. In engaging with a prostitute, you are assuming her identity.

Next up are verses 17-20. I may do a summary of the whole chapter afterwards as well.

~alex

P.S. This passage does not serve to condemn the many who are tragically trapped and exploited in the sex trade every year. Paul makes it clear in verse 11 that some of the Corinthians had indeed come out of prostitution. The prostitution going on in this city was likely temple prostitution, which had a cultic, pagan quality to it. The end of sexual exploitation is something Christians are called to work for in the present, even if it won’t be ended entirely until the Lord returns.

Since I’m currently going with 4 verses a day, I actually got through verse 12, but I’ll delay that verse since it starts a new section.

9.) ἧ ουκ οιδατε ὃτι αδικοι θεου βασιλεαν ου κληρονομησουσιν; μη ανασθε, ουτε πορνοι ουτε ειδωλολατραι ουτε μοικοι ουτε μαλακοι ουτε αρσενοκοιται
10.) ουτε κλεπται ουτε πλεονεκται ου μεθευσοι ου λοιδοροι ουκ αρπαγες βασιλεαν θεου κληρονομησουσιν.
11.) και ταυτα τινες ἧτε, αλλα απελουσασθε, αλλα ἣγιασθητε, αλλα εδικαιωθητε εν τῳ οναματι του κυριου Ιεσου Χριστου, και εν τῳ πνευματι του θεου ἡμων.

Now for a rough translation:
9) Or don’t you know that the unrighteous will not inherit God’s kingdom? Do not be deceived! Neither those who practice sexual immorality, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, male prostitutes, nor homosexual offenders,
10) Nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor slanders, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
11) And you were some of these things, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God!

Notes:
In verse 9, I’m curious about the significance of the word order for θεου βασιλεαν versus βασιλεαν θεου. Both mean kingdom of God, and word order is much freer in Greek than in English. However, Paul inverts the normal word order with θεου βασιλεαν in verse 9 and then reverts back to the normal order in verse 10. Is Paul bringing special emphasis to God in bringing the word θεου forward in the sentence? I’ve asked the B-Greek mailing list and I’ll update later with some of their thoughts.

In verse 10, I’m puzzled as to why Paul reverts to ου… ου… ουκ for the last few items instead of keeping up the ουτε. Again, no difference in meaning, but it seems peculiar to someone new to Greek.

Verse 11 is my favorite of the group. The verse doesn’t exactly play nice with what I was taught concerning salvation and sanctification. I was always taught that sanctification followed salvation, and was an ongoing process through the believers life. Here, Paul says very clearly “you all were sanctified,” or “You all were made holy.” Sanctification does have an ongoing aspect, but Paul chooses here to focus on sanctification as an act which took place in the past. After all, how can you be a saint (which in the New Testament is synonymous with believer) if you have been made into one (sanctified). Απελουσασθε (you all were washed) probably refers to baptism, and one could argue on the basis of 1 Cor 12 that that is what Paul has in mind here.

The repetition of αλλα is also interesting. I don’t *think* that it’s grammatically necessary for Paul to repeat the αλλα, though I don’t know enough to say for sure. If my hunch is correct, then the repetition of αλλα serves to drive home the correction even harder. From what I’ve read from Steve Runge and Rick Brannan, αλλα is generally used as a corrective ‘but.’ It thus serves to say, it’s not this but that! Here, I think it’s serving to forcefully remind the Corinthians of both their previous way of life, and their baptism, sanctification, and justification, mostly so that they’ll start acting like appropriately. Repeating the ‘but’ would be awkward in English, but you get a similar effect by repeating the “you were,” which could be dropped.

Finally, I’m curious about the  εν τῳ …. εν τῳ … phrase at the end of verse 11. As is usually the case in Greek, εν is a remarkably flexible preposition. It often means ‘in’ with the sense of location. It can also mean ‘by.’ I was surprised to come across two εν’s because I was familiar with the NIV’s “in the name… by the Spirit of …” This verse definitely parallels with 1 Cor 12 where Paul speaks of being baptized “by (εν) one spirit into (εις) one body.” Once Accordance arrives, I’ll look for some more examples where εν and εις are used together to better understand what’s going on there.

Next up, verses 12-16!

~alex

Update: My post to the B-Greek board garnered several responses. It was agreed that this was a “marked” word order, which means that since the word order is unusual there’s some meaning to it. What it actually means is not that easy. Another interesting idea mentioned was that θεου modified αδικοι instead of βασιλεαν. This means that instead of:

“Don’t you know that the unrighteous will not inherit God’s kingdom?”

it would be translated something like this:

“Don’t you know that the unrighteous with respect to God will not inherit the kingdom?”

It’s a bit awkward to me to see it that way, but I guess it’s grammatically possible. The Greek genitive is extremely flexible in how you interpret it, so there’s probably other ways to understand the construction as well.