We’ll begin by reviewing what we’ve covered in this class before asking the question, “What happened after Paul sent 1 Corinthians?” Did the church receive his instruction? Did they reject it? How does 2 Corinthians fit in? We’ll take a look at the timeline to understand Paul’s three visits to Corinth and the three epistles he wrote them: 1 Corinthians, the severe letter (now lost), and 2 Corinthians. Then we’ll move through time to see how the church at Corinth continued to develop over the next one hundred years. Lastly, I’ll share some insights I’ve gained as I’ve come to appreciate Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians even more after studying this text so diligently. I hope you will enjoy this final episode of 1 Corinthians in Context.

Scriptures covered: 1 Cor 1:10-11; 5:1, 11; 6:1-2, 12, 18; 7:1, 10-11; 8:1; 10:19-20; 11:4-5, 17, 33-34; 12:1; 14:12; 15:12-13; 16:1-2

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—— Links ——

• See all the episodes in this class: 1 Corinthians in Context
• Check out Sean’s other classes here
• Get the transcript of this episode
• Support Restitutio by donating here
• Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF
• Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air
• Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library.
• Who is Sean Finnegan? Read his bio here
• Get Finnegan’s book, Kingdom Journey to learn about God’s kingdom coming on earth as well as the story of how Christianity lost this pearl of great price.

We’ll begin by surveying what 1 Corinthians tells us about the end times. Then we’ll consider why Paul spent so much time in chapter fifteen making a case for the resurrection of the saints when Christ returns. By examining tomb inscriptions and literary sources you’ll learn about the four major options for the afterlife in the Greco-Roman world: (1) non-existence, (2) ascension to the stars, (3) the Hades myth, and (4) reincarnation. My hope is you’ll come to see how radical and fresh the Judaeo-Christian idea of resurrection was to the people of Corinth and understand why Paul felt the need to expend so much effort convincing them of it.

Scriptures covered: 1 Corinthians 1:7-8; 3:12-13; 4:5; 5:5; 6:2-3, 9-10, 14; 11:26; 15:3-8, 12-14, 20-28, 35, 58; 16:22

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Listen on Apple Podcasts

—— Links ——

• See all the episodes in this class: 1 Corinthians in Context
• Check out Sean’s other classes here
• Get the transcript of this episode
• Support Restitutio by donating here
• Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF
• Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air
• Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library.
• Who is Sean Finnegan? Read his bio here
• Get Finnegan’s book, Kingdom Journey to learn about God’s kingdom coming on earth as well as the story of how Christianity lost this pearl of great price.

Today we’re going to look at chapters 12, 13, and 14 of 1 Corinthians as a unit. We’ll see that the body analogy in 12, the love poem in 13, and the repeated concern for upbuilding in 14 are all slightly different angles of approach to the same goal. When the Corinthian Christians were getting together to worship, it was chaos. People were talking over each other, eager to manifest the holy spirit. Rather than telling them to cease from divine speech in the assembly, Paul instead focused their attention on the priority for being considerate of one another. Actually, he was way more radical than that, but I don’t want to give everything away in this little intro. You’ll just have to keep listening if you want to know more.

Scriptures covered: 1 Corinthians 12:12-29; 13:1-13; 14:1-40

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Listen on Apple Podcasts

—— Links ——

• See all the episodes in this class: 1 Corinthians in Context
• Check out Sean’s other classes here
• Get the transcript of this episode
• Support Restitutio by donating here
• Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF
• Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air
• Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library.
• Who is Sean Finnegan? Read his bio here
• Get Finnegan’s book, Kingdom Journey to learn about God’s kingdom coming on earth as well as the story of how Christianity lost this pearl of great price.

Last time we looked at how Greco-Roman people talked about inspired speech. Today we turn to 1 Corinthians and the book of Acts to focus on speaking in tongues. We’ll consider the idea that tongues are angelic languages, how tongues relates to prayer, and how tongues differs from ecstatic speech. Lastly, we’ll dip our toes into the debate over whether tongues ceased with the apostles or not. Whether you personally speak in tongues or not, I think you’ll find the information in this episode helpful.

Scriptures covered: 1 Corinthians 12:7, 10; 13:1, 8-12; 14:2, 4, 6, 11, 13-19, 27-28; Acts 2:1-11; 10:44-46; 11:15-17; 19:6-7

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Listen on Apple Podcasts

—— Links ——

• See all the episodes in this class: 1 Corinthians in Context
• Check out Sean’s other classes here
• Get the transcript of this episode
• Support Restitutio by donating here
• Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF
• Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air
• Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library.
• Who is Sean Finnegan? Read his bio here
• Get Finnegan’s book, Kingdom Journey to learn about God’s kingdom coming on earth as well as the story of how Christianity lost this pearl of great price.

This episode is a deep dive into the world of prophetic utterances, frenzied manifestations, divine possession, and all other sorts of inspired speech that I could find in Greco-Roman literature. Honestly, I wasn’t thinking I would find much. I was wrong. This episode is probably the longest of the entire 1 Corinthians in Context class. Still, I wanted to keep it as one episode so you get the full survey of what kinds of divine speech ancient Mediterranean people knew about. Then, after going through all the data, we turn our attention to 1 Corinthians 12-14 to see how Christian spiritual experiences differed. My hope is that this background information will make this section of 1 Corinthians come alive for you.

Scriptures covered: 1 Corinthians 12:4-11; 13:1-2; 14:2-4, 27-33

Listen on Spotify

Listen on Apple Podcasts

—— Links ——

• See all the episodes in this class: 1 Corinthians in Context
• Check out Sean’s other classes here
• Get the transcript of this episode
• Support Restitutio by donating here
• Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF
• Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air
• Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library.
• Who is Sean Finnegan? Read his bio here
• Get Finnegan’s book, Kingdom Journey to learn about God’s kingdom coming on earth as well as the story of how Christianity lost this pearl of great price.

So much was going on at the communion meal in Corinth. Some people were overdoing it, even getting drunk, while others went hungry. In order to better understand Paul’s instructions in 1 Corinthians 11, we’ll take some time to consider how the Romans did meals. Then we’ll draw on archeological discoveries from Corinth to reconstruct what the meeting space would have been like for Christian gatherings. Lastly, we’ll see how strongly Paul rebuked their lack of unity and concern for those in need and see how he challenged them to think of the meal as a spiritual event with different rules than typical banquets.

Scriptures covered: 1 Corinthians 11:17-34

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Listen on Apple Podcasts

—— Links ——

• See all the episodes in this class: 1 Corinthians in Context
• Check out Sean’s other classes here
• Get the transcript of this episode
• Support Restitutio by donating here
• Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF
• Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air
• Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library.
• Who is Sean Finnegan? Read his bio here
• Get Finnegan’s book, Kingdom Journey to learn about God’s kingdom coming on earth as well as the story of how Christianity lost this pearl of great price.

What was life like for women in the Roman empire? How did Christianity challenge cultural norms about the role of women? In today’s episode we’ll see what life was like for a range of women from wealthy single benefactors to athletes to freedwomen and slaves. We’ll focus our attention on the head-coverings passage in 1 Corinthians 11 and see why men were covering their heads and women were uncovering them. Lastly, we’ll work through the options for interpreting Paul’s instruction for women to remain silent during church services.

Scriptures Covered: 1 Corinthians 11:2-6, 10, 14-15; 14:34-36

Listen on Spotify

Listen on Apple Podcasts

—— Links ——

• See all the episodes in this class: 1 Corinthians in Context
• Check out Sean’s other classes here
• Get the transcript of this episode
• Support Restitutio by donating here
• Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF
• Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air
• Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library.
• Who is Sean Finnegan? Read his bio here
• Get Finnegan’s book, Kingdom Journey to learn about God’s kingdom coming on earth as well as the story of how Christianity lost this pearl of great price.

1 Corinthians 9 is a fascinating chapter. Paul masterfully lays out five arguments for why ministers should be paid for their work before telling the church of Corinth that he has chosen not to make use of this right and that he never would. Why not? What was it about the situation in Corinth that made Paul leery of taking their money? In order to get at this question we’ll consider how benefaction functioned in Greco-Roman cities. We’ll also consider two significant patronesses: Junia Theodora and Phoebe of Cenchreae. My hope is that this episode will open your eyes to see how Paul deftly negotiated the issue of benefaction in his first-century context.

Scriptures Covered: 1 Corinthians 8:9-13; 9:1-27

Listen on Spotify

Listen on Apple Podcasts

—— Links ——

• See all the episodes in this class: 1 Corinthians in Context
• Check out Sean’s other classes here
• Get the transcript of this episode
• Support Restitutio by donating here
• Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF
• Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air
• Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library.
• Who is Sean Finnegan? Read his bio here
• Get Finnegan’s book, Kingdom Journey to learn about God’s kingdom coming on earth as well as the story of how Christianity lost this pearl of great price.