The Malady of the Christian Body: A Theological Exposition of Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, Volume 1 by Wannenwetsch Bernd & Brock Brian

Author:Wannenwetsch, Bernd & Brock, Brian
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cascade Books, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers
Published: 2016-11-29T16:00:00+00:00

Excursus: Familial Language as Political

There are divergent textual traditions of Matthew 18:15 that offer us an opportune illustration of the difference between perspectives that Paul is concerned with here. One tradition (the older and textually better-attested version) reads, “If your brother sins, go and tell him his faults.” A significant number of witnesses, however, feature the addition “if your brother sins against you.” This is no minor difference. The first version sets out a responsibility with broad political implications. In this perspective, every sin a brother may commit is considered a disruption of the common ethos and therefore affecting the whole community. The second version is more concerned with individual morality, in that the addition of “against you” sets up the situation as primarily a dispute between two private individuals. Within the scenario this moral rendering puts before us, a violation would take on political significance only under the condition of not being appropriately dealt with by the two individuals. Were it to become political eventually—that is, an issue to be dealt with by the “whole church” (Matt 18:17)—it could only be construed as a regrettable third-stage development—instead of being understood as an intrinsic aspect of all sin in the church.

However we negotiate these textual variants, Matthew 18 remains an indispensable background component of our account of Paul’s purpose in this chapter of 1 Corinthians. It now presses us to consider how we understand disputes between believers to be implicated in “sinning.” Paul’s approach has suggested that sin, whether against the body as a whole or more specifically against an individual member of the body, is always and immediately disruptive of wider social relations. The way in which those in Corinth seemed to have no qualms about dragging a brother or sister to court was thus already indicative of their lack of an ecclesial conscience. They were obviously happy to present the dispute in impersonal terms—as if a “thing,” πρᾶγμα (pragma [6:1]), could be taken to court without at the same time dragging a person there as well. The deepest problem that Paul discerns in lawsuits between Christians is that they constitute a denial of the existing relationship constitutive of Christ’s body, expressed by the term “brother.” Whereas the Corinthians seem to think they can have legal cases that are merely legal, Paul in effect reminds them that the involvement of brothers and sisters in those cases cannot but implicate the church.

The familial language employed here by Paul thus serves the purpose of emphasizing the bonds that characterize the Christian body, as Richard Hays comments: “Once again the NRSV’s effort to achieve inclusivity by using ‘believer,’ rather than ‘brother,’ loses the point that Paul regards the community of faith as God’s family. The Corinthians are shamefully taking family disputes out into the streets, as it were, thereby bringing the whole family into disrepute.”142 We note, however, that the way Hays emphasizes the role of the individual in making a matter public does not assume that sin is ineradicably political, but

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