RSV ~ 1 Corinthians 9 Notes

1 Cor 9:1-27 | ISB Notes

Paul portrays himself as a model for imitation (4:16; 11:1). Just as he waives certain apostolic rights to promote the gospel (9:4-6, 12, 18), so the strong in Corinth are challenged to relinquish certain liberties like the right to eat idol food in order to build up their weaker brethren (9:22). The issue of idol food remains uppermost in Paul’s mind here, as suggested by several examples that illustrate the right to eat (9:4, 7, 10, 13).

1 Cor 9:1 | ISB Notes

Am I not an apostle?: A rhetorical question to remind readers of Paul’s authority. His credentials are the same as every legitimate apostle, that is, he has seen and been commissioned by the risen Jesus (15:8; Acts 9:3-6; CCC 659, 857).

1 Cor 9:5 | ISB Notes

accompanied by a wife: This statement has been understood in different ways. (1) Paul may be stressing his right to be married to a Christian wife. His right to have and travel with a wife would then have included the right to receive living expenses for both spouses from the missionary churches that hosted them. Paul surrendered these privileges by living a celibate life (7:8) and by working as a tentmaker to support himself, instead of relying on material assistance from the Corinthians (9:6; Acts 18:1-3). (2) According to a prominent tradition among the Church Fathers, Paul speaks, not of marriage, but of his right to be helped by a traveling female assistant (the word translated “wife” can also be translated “woman”). Precedent for such an arrangement can be traced back to the ministry of Jesus (Lk 8:1-3). See note on 1 Cor 7:7. • The discipline of clerical celibacy was highly revered in the early Church and was required by the eleventh century for all men ordained in the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church. The celibacy requirement continues in the Latin Rite for deacons, priests, and bishops, although married men may be ordained to the permanent diaconate. The Eastern Rites of the Catholic Church continue to ordain married men to the priesthood and the diaconate (CCC 1579-80). Vatican II reaffirmed the validity of both traditions in 1965 (Presbyterorum Ordinis 16).

the other apostles: Other leaders in the early Church traveled either with their spouses or with a female assistant, including Jesus’ kinsmen (brethren, Gal 1:19) and Peter (Cephas, Mk 1:30). See note on Mt 12:46.

1 Cor 9:6 | ISB Notes

Barnabas: One of Paul’s earliest associates (Acts 4:36; 13:2).

working for a living: Paul often refused financial assistance from missionary churches even though he was entitled to it. He instead supported himself to avoid laying any burden or price on them for his apostolic work (9:18; 1 Thess 2:9).

Some argue that Paul believed idol food was actually contaminated by demonic influences and thus objectively dangerous (1 Cor 10:20-22). This would seem to move Paul into harmony with the Jerusalem Council, which forbade Gentile Christians to eat it, yet it fails to account for other statements at the beginning and end of his argument. How, for instance, could Paul say that the Corinthians were technically at “liberty” to eat it (1 Cor 8:9)? And why would he permit them to eat idol food that was sold in the marketplace, so long as no one else would be scandalized by it (1 Cor 10:23-30)? Paul could not have made such statements if he believed idol food was always and everywhere dangerous.

Others argue that the decree of the Jerusalem Council was primarily concerned about idolatry and not idol food per se, for the decree mandates abstinence from “what has been sacrificed to idols” (Acts 15:29). This view is true to an extent, but it remains a fact that the Council imposed an eating restriction on the Gentiles, not just a ban on false worship.

It is because these solutions prove unsatisfactory that we must look for another. It seems undeniable that Paul sees nothing intrinsically wrong with idol food that makes it objectively different from any other food that God has given us (1 Cor 8:8-9; 10:23-30). What concerns Paul in 1 Cor 8-10 is the danger of participating in conscious idolatry (1 Cor 10:14). The position of the Jerusalem Council, however, is more difficult to assess. According to many scholars, the apostles must have believed that idol food was contaminated with evil. This interpretation is understandable, given the firmness of the prohibition, but it is ultimately unfounded. Nowhere does the NT state that this is the theological rationale underlying the pastoral program of the Council. In fact, from the hindsight of Church history, we can state with certainty that the Council did not hold that eating food consecrated to idols was intrinsically sacrilegious. The Council of Florence declared in 1442 that the Apostolic Decree of Acts 15:22-29 was only a temporary restriction placed upon the Gentiles to encourage fellowship between Jewish and Gentile converts in the early Church. This restriction was lifted once these ethnic circumstances had changed. So the prohibition against idol food in the Apostolic Decree was a temporary rather than a timeless measure to help Gentiles make a clean break with their native pagan culture. Its goal was, not to promote a distinctively Christian diet, but to bring Gentile converts together with Jewish Christians into a single community of fellowship and life.

These clarifications help to demonstrate that Paul and the Jerusalem Council were not in conflict at the theological level. Paul’s theological assessment that idol food is technically harmless is essentially no different from that of the Jerusalem Decree, since the force of the decree was relaxed later in history when the ethnic situation that made it necessary was no longer a factor. Paul took a different pastoral approach, however, because he addressed a different pastoral situation from that envisioned by the Jerusalem Council. The reason Paul sometimes allows what the Council forbids is that the idol food controversy in Corinth was an intramural problem among Gentiles that had nothing to do with Jewish-Gentile relations in the early Christian community. In the end, it is the combined light of biblical exegesis and the Church’s dogmatic tradition that points the way toward a solution to this problem. It leads us to see that Paul had a much deeper insight into the issues underlying the Jerusalem Decree than many have recognized in modern times. « Back to 1 Corinthians 9:1.

1 Cor 9:9 | ISB Notes

You shall not muzzle an ox: A reference to Deut 25:4. • As Deuteronomy grants oxen the right to eat some of the grain that is processed by their work, so Christian laborers can rightly expect material support from the churches they tend to (1 Tim 5:18). This is one of many examples where Paul draws spiritual significance out of the OT that goes beyond the literal and historical meaning of the passage and applies it to a new situation in the Church (1 Cor 10:1-6; Gal 4:22-25; CCC 117).

1 Cor 9:13 | ISB Notes

temple service: Levitical priests who officiated in the Jerusalem Temple received portions of meat from various sacrifices, as well as 10 percent of the Israelites’ annual produce (Num 18:8-32; Deut 18:1-5). The analogy implies that ministers of the gospel also exercise a priestly ministry that entitles them to tangible assistance from the People of God (CCC 2122). .

1 Cor 9:14 | ISB Notes

the Lord commanded: Probably a reference to the saying in Lk 10:7, which Paul quotes verbatim in 1 Tim 5:18. See note on Lk 10:7.

1 Cor 9:16 | ISB Notes

Woe to me: Paul’s ministry is not volunteer work but a mission he received directly from Christ (Acts 9:15-16; Gal 1:1). The responsibility on his shoulders is so great that a frightening prospect of judgment awaits him if he abandons his assignment.

1 Cor 9:20 | ISB Notes

I became as a Jew: Paul continued to maintain certain Jewish traditions after becoming a Christian (Acts 16:3; 21:1726). Strictly speaking, this was unnecessary; yet Paul wanted to convert his kinsmen by removing whatever might turn them away from the gospel (1 Cor 10:32). Ethnically, Paul was an Israelite of the tribe of Benjamin (Rom 11:1; Phil 3:5).

1 Cor 9:22 | ISB Notes

all things to all men: Paul adapts himself to the needs and sensitivities of others. Without diluting the gospel message, he willingly sacrifices certain apostolic privileges that might hamper the effectiveness of his ministry to the world (9:20-21; CCC 24). His personal example should inspire the strong Corinthians to accommodate themselves to the weak (8:9-13).

1 Cor 9:24-27 | ISB Notes

Paul compares the spiritual life to athletic competition. Just as training the body is a necessary part of the quest for excellence, so believers are challenged to exert great effort in the battle against selfishness through the rigorous discipline of their bodies. This is all the more necessary since the stakes of the Christian life are far higher than any sporting event: to be disqualified (9:27) from this race is to forfeit the award of heaven itself (2 Tim 4:6-8).

1 Cor 9:25 | ISB Notes

a perishable wreath: Corinth hosted the popular Isthmian Games every other year, where winning athletes were crowned with wreaths made of pine or a species of wild celery called selinon. Paul stresses the contrast between this perishable award of dried vegetation and the imperishable crown of eternal life (1 Pet 5:4; Rev 2:10).