Homilies on First Corinthians 0

Corinth is at present the foremost city of Greece, and in ancient times it abounded in many worldly advantages, and above all others in its abundance of wealth.

For this reason one of the outside writers even called the place 'wealthy.'

For it lies on the Isthmus of the Peloponnese, and possessed great opportunity for commerce.

The city was also full of many rhetoricians and philosophers;

and one of the so-called Seven Sages was from this city.

These things, however, have not been said by us for the sake of vainglory, nor for a display of much learning;

(for what indeed is it to know these things?) but they contribute to our understanding of the theme of the Epistle.

Paul himself also suffered many things in this city, and Christ, appearing to him in it, says:

'because I have many people in this city.'

In this city too the demon came out, at whose exorcism by the Jews they suffered incurable harm from him;

in this city those who repented gathered together the books of the sorcerers and burned them, and the sum was found to be fifty thousand;

in this city too, in the time of Gallio the proconsul, Paul was beaten before the tribunal.

So then the devil, seeing a great and populous city that had laid hold of the truth, and one admirable for its wealth and wisdom and the head of Greece (for the affairs of the Athenians and Lacedaemonians were by now wretchedly disposed, their dominion having long since fallen away), and beholding that with great eagerness they had received the word of God — what does he do? He divides the people;

for he knew that even a kingdom, the mightiest of all, if divided against itself, will not stand.

And he had, as an occasion for this plot, the wealth and the wisdom of the inhabitants.

Hence some, forming factions among themselves and appointing themselves by their own hands, set themselves at the head of the multitude; and some attached themselves to these, others to those — to the one sort as being rich, to the other as being wise and more capable of teaching;

who indeed, taking them over, made it their ambition to say something forsooth beyond what the Apostle said;

which very thing, then, he was hinting at when he said:

'I could not speak to you as to spiritual persons.'

Clearly it was not owing to any lack in himself, but owing to their weakness, that their not hearing many things came to pass;

and this is the point he shows by the words, 'Apart from us you have become rich.'

And this was no small matter, but the most ruinous of all — that the Church should be torn asunder.

And besides these there was another sin ventured upon there: that a man who had had intercourse with his stepmother was not only not rebuked, but even gathered a following and afforded those about him occasion for pride;

'And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned.'

And after this again, certain of those forsooth more perfect, both tasting of things sacrificed to idols out of gluttony, and reclining at table in the idol-temples, were ruining everything.

Others again, having quarrels and contentions over money, were committing all their affairs to the tribunals of those outside.

And many long-haired men also went about among them, whom he even commands to be shorn.

There was yet another transgression, and no small one: that they ate by themselves in the churches, and did not share with those in need.

And after this they transgressed in yet another way, being greatly conceited over their spiritual gifts, and thence being jealously disposed toward one another — which very thing above all was tearing the Church apart.

And the doctrine concerning the resurrection also limped among them;

for some of them did not very firmly

believe that there was a resurrection of bodies, being still sick with the folly of the Greeks.

For indeed all these things were begotten of the folly that belongs to the outside philosophy, and this was the mother of the evils;

hence too they were divided, having learned this very thing from the philosophers.

For those men too set themselves against one another, each ever contradicting the other's tenets out of love of rule and vainglory, and striving to invent something beyond their predecessors.

And they suffered these things because they entrusted their affairs to human reasonings.

Now they wrote to him through Fortunatus and Stephanas and Achaicus, through whom he also writes back.

And this he made clear at the end of the Epistle — not, indeed, concerning all matters, but concerning marriage and virginity.

He himself, however, writes both about the things they wrote of and about the things they did not write of, having learned all their shortcomings with exactness.

And he sends Timothy also with the letter, knowing that although the letter has great force, the presence of the disciple too will bring them no small addition.

But since those who had divided the Church, being ashamed lest they should seem to have done this out of ambition, devised pretexts for their passion — namely, that they were forsooth teaching the more perfect things and were wiser than the rest —

Paul takes his stand first of all against this disease, checking the root of the evils and the dissension that had sprung up therefrom;

and he employs great boldness of speech.

For these too were his disciples, most of all men;

'If to others I am not an apostle, yet at least to you I am;

for the seal of my apostleship are you.'

And they were in a weaker condition than the rest;

wherefore he says, 'For I did not speak to you as to spiritual persons;

for you were not yet able, nay, nor even now are you able.'

And this he says, lest they should think that he says it concerning the time past.

'But not even now are you able.'

Nevertheless, it was not likely that all had been corrupted, but that there were among them some who were even exceedingly holy.

And this he made clear in the midst of the Epistle, saying:

'But to me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you,' and adding, 'These things I have applied in a figure to myself and Apollos.'

Since, then, all the evils were begotten of madness and of thinking that one knew something more, this above all else he pulls down, and beginning he says: