The World of 1 Corinthians by Malcolm Matthew R.;

Author:Malcolm, Matthew R.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: REL006720, book
ISBN: 3116661
Publisher: Authentic Media
Published: 2012-07-01T00:00:00+00:00

Roman moralists praised self-control and sexual morality, condemning and ridiculing men who were perceived as (openly) licentious or effeminate.127 Seneca condemns the drunkenness and sexual indulgence that were possible for a licentious slave owner (cf. Philo, The Contemplative Life, 50–52):

Seneca: Epistles, 47.7128

Another slave, the wine server, must wrestle back his age to model feminine attire. He is not able to escape boyhood, but is called back to it. And though he has the body of a soldier, his face is kept smooth, and body hair plucked out from the roots. And he is kept on watch all night, divided between his lord’s drunkenness and lust. And in the bedroom he is a man, but at the banquet, he is a boy.

Attitudes to sex and the body in Roman Corinth, then, existed within a complex society and history that included a variety of perspectives such as admiration for the body, dismissal of the body, the disdain of public licentiousness, and opportunities for private indulgence.

Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?

Epictetus calls his hearers to act as though they carry God around in their bodies, affecting him with all of their actions (cf. Seneca, Epistles 41.1–2):

Epictetus: Discourses, 2.8.11–16129

But you are superior [to plants and animals]. You are a piece of God. You have in yourself a part of him. Why then are you ignorant of your relation-ality? Why do you not know where you came from? Do you not want to recall, when you eat, who you are as the eater, and to whom you are giving food? Or when you combine in intercourse, who it is that combines? When you are in company, when you exercise, when you discuss: do you not know that it is God you are feeding, God you are exercising? You are carrying around God, fool, and you are ignorant of it! Do you think I am talking about a god of gold or silver, who is external? You carry him within yourself, blemishing him without perceiving it with your unclean thoughts and dirty actions!

The Cross Applied I: Your Body Belongs to the Lord 73

The two of you will become one flesh This is a quotation of Genesis 2:24, following the Septuagint.

The one who unites himself to a prostitute

There were different types of commercial sex workers in the Greco-Roman world. Hetairas might live at the expense of a particular rich man for an indefinite period of time, or might regularly entertain at banquets. Prostitutes might host clients at their own dwellings, or seek clients at the agora or elsewhere in public.

The warning of Sirach 19:2 bears some similarity to Paul’s argument here:

Sirach 19:2130

Wine and women lead those with understanding astray, and the one who unites with prostitutes is reckless. Decay and worms will be such a person’s inheritance, and the reckless soul will be expelled. Those who entrust themselves to others hastily have shallow hearts, and those who sin will upset their own soul.

The one who is united to the Lord is one

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