An Atheist Explores the Bible Part 217: Why Sourdough is Evil, Why You Shouldn’t Think Too Much, and a Masterclass in Passive-Aggression (1 Corinthians 1-5)

1 Corinthians 1-5
Why Sourdough is Evil, Why You Shouldn’t Think Too Much, and a Masterclass in Passive-Aggression.

Welcome to another instalment of An Atheist Explores Sacred Texts (Bible version).

In this series I work my way chapter-by-chapter through the King James Bible, commenting on it from the point of view of the text as literature and mythology.

For more detail, see the introductory post http://bit.ly/2F8f9JT

For the online KJV I use, see here http://bit.ly/2m0zVUP

And now:

1 Corinthians 1

“Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.”

The book opens with the usual preamble of a letter, Paul greets the Corinthians and passes on some blessings to them. I note that they are “of the house of Chloe”, which again suggests to me, like Phoebe in the last chapter, that a woman holds an important role in the early church.

Paul, however, soon gets on with some admonishment. It turns out that the Christians are already becoming sectarian, divided into groups following Paul, Cephas, Apollos and Christ. As well as wondering who Apollos and Cephas were, it seems odd, you’d think that they’d all be “for Christ” even if they then followed different teachings from different apostles, bishops or whatever term is the right one.

There’s an amusing part where Paul attempts to downplay his importance. I didn’t baptise anyone, he says. Well, apart from Crispus and Gaias. But no-one else. Oh, and the household of Stephanas. But that was absolutely it. It’s odd, also, because Jesus doesn’t baptise anyone to my recollection; there’s a whole section about how John baptised people with water but Jesus baptises with spirit, or something like that.

Anyway, after this Paul (unwittingly?) calls his followers (sorry, not *his* followers, he doesn’t do leading) stupid, by trying to make some point about not thinking about things too much, and that God is better and you are rubbish (“For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.”). Paul says that “For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:” – in other words, you are all “a basket of deplorables”, but then twists that to make it a good thing – let’s hate on the elite, God will never let them into heaven anyway. Or, “I love the poorly educated”.

Now, I can see, fair enough, that in that time and place there’s little support for the poor and down-trodden. To me, the better system would be to try to end the inequity, provide education and support, but Paul here makes it a virtue to be downtrodden and foolish.

1 Corinthians 2

“For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.”

Paul contrasts “natural” knowledge and wisdom with the revelatory style spiritual “wisdom” granted to the believer. It’s pretty typical mystery cult kind of thinking – only those who have their spiritual eyes open can see the true things that are hidden from the non-believer. To me, because I am this person “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned”, it seems like the Emperor’s New Clothes. Oh yes, says the believer, my spirit is open to great truths. How many actually feel no different and only say that because they feel peer pressure? I don’t know, I could be wrong and I’m missing out on all these universal truths. So why do I not feel particularly bothered?

1 Corinthians 3

“Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.”

Okay, I’m beginning to see what Paul is getting at here. Paul claims for himself, and Apollos, that they are merely providing the initial framework for faith. The foundations of a person’s belief is Jesus Christ, and Paul, and others, merely start the construction with their teachings. It comes down to the individual to complete the construction of their faith, and this, it seems, can be done however they see fit – “Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble”. This will then be “tried by fire” and whichever survives the fire is, er, the winner? Will be saved, anyway. Which suggests that whatever the metaphorical foundations of straw, wood, stubble etc. that people build their faith on are the weak ones, and, um, precious stones will be the best one of those to survive fire?

And if that metaphor wasn’t tortured enough, it wouldn’t be the Bible without a mixed tortured metaphor, and so at the beginning of the chapter Paul refers to the Corinthians as unweened children in their faith. This is typical mystery cult behaviour – work hard and you get to unlock the next level. At the moment the Corinthians aren’t Christianing hard enough, but if they do it properly they get to experience advanced Christianing.

1 Corinthians 4

“Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.”

This is a chapter chock full of passive-aggression. “Don’t worry about us apostles”, says Paul. We suffer for your sake. “We are fools for Christ's sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honourable, but we are despised”. But don’t worry about it, because “I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons I warn you”. No, no, don’t you worry about me, I suffer all this crap and you take the glory, I’m okay, I’m not complaining, I’m just saying.

Right. There’s also an admonishment not to judge things or examine things too closely because God will do that for you, or else it will become irrelevent before God. In other words, continuing the theme of the past few chapters about not thinking about things too much.

And then, hilariously, after spending ages diminishing the roles of the various teachers and apostles, Paul says “Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me”. So, the apostles are least in the sight of God, and it doesn’t matter who you follow because the words of men are worth nothing compared to God’s word and can only ever be an entry into faith. But follow me anyway.

1 Corinthians 5

“Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth”.

I use this quote not because, as I usually do, because it encapsulates the chapter well, but because “Leaven of Malice” is a good book by Roberston Davies, a comedy of manners about small-town spite, and part of his Salterton Trilogy.

But that’s a digression. Paul is annoyed at the Corinthians because of “fornication”, namely somebody “having” his father’s wife. (“Have” in the sense of marry or “know”, we don’t know). Well, that is weird and incestuous, even if that rather convoluted description means a step-mother and not a biological mother.

This evidently refers to an un-named individual rather than a practice in general, and Paul threatens to deliver “such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus”. A very Christian sort of threat.

But hang about, because Paul goes on further to say that although he puts a proscription on dealing too much with “the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters”, he recognises that to have no interaction with such people would make a Christian unable to go abroad in the world in daily life. However, adds Paul, if “a brother” is any of these things, they should be shunned.

Now, this seems counter to what Jesus was teaching about these people being the ones in most of need of salvation. Now Paul is advocating the opposite in the name of spiritual purity. The “leaven of malice” metaphor is another one of those biblical “yeast is evil” things, where the fornicators, drunkards etc. etc. are the “leaven” in the “lump” of the Christian fraternity, and should be avoided because the whole of Christianity should be like flatbread rather than sourdough. Obviously.