An Atheist Explores the Bible Part 218: The Christian Way to do Food and Sex, According to Paul (1 Corinthians 6-10)

1 Corinthians 6-10
The Christian Way to do Food and Sex, According to Paul.

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 6

“Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints?”

Paul, rather dangerously I think, tells the Corinthians that because “the saints”, by which I think he means Christians in general, will “judge the world” and “judge angels” that they have little right or need to become involved with earthly laws. I guess here he’s trying to persuade them not to become embroiled in suits against one another, but there’s a hint that he considers them to be above mortals laws as well.

The rest is mainly self-abnegatory stuff, ascetism in the name of religion. “[…] Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost”, he says, and so don’t defile the temple with fornication. Avoid harlots – becoming “one flesh” with a harlot is not like becoming “one spirit” with Christ. Paul has a go at “the effeminate”, and possibly his reference to “abusers of themselves with mankind” is another homophobic reference. Hang about, though. Where does Jesus say anything against “the effeminate”? I know it’s against Levitican law for a man to dress in women’s clothing, but there’s nothing in the prior Bible about being a bit camp. I suspect Paul of fulfilling Haggard’s Law here.

1 Corinthians 7

“Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman.”

Evidently the Corinthians wrote to Paul concerning marriage and/or relationships, and here he spells out his thoughts on the matter, which seem surprisingly egalitarian considering my memory was of him being against pretty much anything temporal.

To whit: If you want to marry, that’s fine. It’s better not to and to remain celibate, but if you can’t do that, at least get married. You can marry a non-believer and they have no obligations to convert; any children are automatically blessed because at least one parent is a believer, and if the non-believer leaves, well, no big loss. Ideally you should not divorce, but if you do, don’t remarry unless your ex is dead. Note that it’s unclear what the actual status of marriage is in legal terms. The word “divorce” is not actually used – Paul uses biblical terms like “put aside” or, simply, “leave”. It may be that the whole arrangement is merely a verbal and practical one, as it was for a long time.

Paul advises, however, that those who are unmarried have more time for spiritual matters and less time for temporal matters, particularly aimed at women. There’s some stuff about virgins and servants but its equally as equivocating.

1 Corinthians 8

“But meat commendeth us not to God: for neither, if we eat, are we the better; neither, if we eat not, are we the worse”

This short chapter almost sounds like Paul is advocating vegetarianism, but for two things. Firstly, although he is recommending against eating “meat”, bear in mind that “meat” in the KJV quite often refers to simply food of all kinds, particularly bread and fruit. Also, Paul is specifically talking about offerings to idols, and the eating thereof. Through some kind of convoluted logic, Paul asserts that (1) weak-minded men eat the food offered to idols. (2) by encouraging this, you are condemning the weak-minded person to a life without the spiritual truth of Christ, (3) therefore I won’t eat meat (and here, Paul also uses the term “flesh” making it more likely that he’s talking about actual meat meat) in case it encourages others to eat offerings and be damned. Yeah. Not sure that quite follows, but if it makes you happy.

1 Corinthians 9

“For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of: for necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!”

What do you get out of all this, somebody has evidently asked Paul. Well, he replies, some people might decide to take advantage of their position of leadership, but not me. I do it because I have to and knowing that I have preached the gospels is its own reward. And possibly some of that cake, please.

To do so, Paul says, he has become “all things to all men”, being a Jew to the Jews, weak to the weak, with and without (religious) law depending on his audience. He’s basically admitting to playing to his audience, which is fine if it gets the job done, I have no dispute with him over that. One assumes that his faith that he is doing the right thing over-rides any sense that he needs to be steadfast to himself; underneath he’s a showman and I guess he got results.

1 Corinthians 10

“The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?”

Again Paul makes a virtue of being an everyman trying to please the masses. Here, he compares the communion bread and wine with food sacrifices made to pagan gods, and decides that they aren’t the same because of the god to whom they are dedicated. His God is the true one and so it’s okay to drink metaphorical blood.

However, says Paul, if you end up being asked to dine with a pagan, just be polite and go along with it. Possibly this is meant to impress by example, or maybe it’s just an attempt not to rock the boat. Either way, Paul says don’t be too dogmatic in following rules in pursuit of your faith – God knows if you mean well or not.