Monday, September 5, 2022

Sin-pan Daniel Ho: the "washing" of 1 Corinthians 6:11 probably being a reference to water baptism

  

In 6:11 Christ is mentioned in a similar phrase to that found in 5:4: ἐν τῷ ὀνόματι τοῦ κυρίου Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ. Like the function of the ‘name of the Lord’ in 5:4, the phrase in 6:11 represents the presence of Jesus Christ himself. The words ‘you were washed, sanctified and justified’ also invite the Corinthian Christians to recall a common memory in which Jesus Christ had been present. The phrase probably refers to their baptismal experience. (Sin-pan Daniel Ho, Paul and the Creation of a Counter-Cultural Community: A Rhetorical Analysis of 1 Cor. 5:1–11:1 in Light of the Social Lives of the Corinthians [Library of New Testament Studies 509; London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2015], 174-75)