Sunday, November 15, 2020

Tom Holland on 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

  

[T]he [proposed] allusion in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 [to] slave purchase, and that the Greek background in which the passage is normally set . . . refers not to slave purchase but to bride purchase. The reference to the temple is not in a Greek context but in an Hebraic one, but interestingly the temple is coupled throughout the New Testament with a bride figure (John 2; 1 Corinthians 6:15-20; Ephesians 2:19-20; cf. 5:25-33; Revelation 19:8). (Tom Holland, Contours of Pauline Theology: A Radical New Survey of the Influences on Paul’s Biblical Writings [Ross-shire, Scotland: Mentor, 2010], 119)

 

[In favour of] a corporate setting for [1 Cor 6:19-20 is that of] verse 19: ‘do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit?’ This is normally interpreted as a reference to the believer’s body being the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. But that interpretation overlooks the fact that sōma (body) is singular, whereas humon (your) is plural. It is their corporate body, themselves as a church, and not their individual bodies, that Paul is referring to as the temple of the Holy Spirit. Indeed, the traditional individualistic interpretation is contrary to all other usages of the concept of the living temple by New Testament writers. Elsewhere, this concept is always applied to the Church (1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19; 2 Corinthians 6:16; Revelation 21:3), never to the individual. The only occasion that is used of the individual is when it refers to Christ’s own body (Joh n2:19). All of this is supported by the use Paul makes of the definite article coupled with the singular for temple. Their ‘body’ is the temple of the Holy Spirit.

 

Finally, in support of a corporate setting, we can also note that in his closing statement, ‘you were bought with a price’ (v. 20), Paul uses the collective pronoun, not the singular. This marries with the rest of Paul’s statement regarding redemption, where the price paid is always for the church and never for the individual (Acts 20:28; Romans 3:24ff.; Galatians 3:13; Ephesians 1:7; 5:24; Colossians 1:13-14; see also Mark 10:45). (Ibid., 127)