The First Christian Communities As seen through the Writings of Saint Paul.

St. Paul St. Paul was an extraordinary person who converted to Christianity after the death of Jesus. He travelled all over Palestine setting up new Christian communities. When he would leave one community to set up another he would keep in contact with them be writing them letters. These letters were compiled in a book in the New Testament called the ‘Letters of St. Paul.

How many communities were set up? Paul set up many Christian Communities 1. Philippi 2. Corinth 3. Thessalonica are examples of some of them. The syllabus requires us to study ONE community. We will look at CORINTH.

The Community of Corinth: Corinth, a seaport was situated in the southern tip of Macedonia, was a city of great importance in the ancient world.

Corinth It was a part of the Roman Empire and so it could be described as a melting pot for people of all sorts of pagan religions. It was a sea port so the town itself was incredibly wealthy

Ancient Corinth

Corinth: Initially, the Church at Corinth really struggled to understand itself. The society in Corinth was very focused on money and power. Christianity called for love, peace. The Chruch in Corinth reflected how the city itself was divided. Vs.

Corinth: The Christian Community at Corinth seems to also have been inspired by another preacher named Apollos. It seems that some people in the community aligned themselves with different leaders but Paul warned them that this could lead to difficulties in the future.

Problems at Corinth: 1. The community emerged from a largely Pagan environment. They still loved to sacrifice animals to pagan Idols. Some members of the community were sacndalised by this practice while others were happy to eat the meat. The latter saw themselves as more spiritually mature and looked down on those who ate the meat.

Problems at Corinth: This new Christian Community also had difficulties with their worship: 1. There were differences of opinion as to whether or not the same rules applied to Men and women over head dress at 2. There were divisions between the rich and the poor. At liturgical services the rich ate and drank in abundance while the poor ate nothing.

Problems at Corinth: 3. The members of the Community disagreed about the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Some members believed that some gifts were more important than others. This led to difference in status among members. All 3 difficulties would tell us that this new community was struggling with equality and unity.

Problems in Corinth: The Community also struggled with understanding the resurrection. Some members did not believe resurrection was possible. Paul pointed out that if they did not believe in resurrection of the dead then they could not believe in the resurrection of Jesus and belief in the resurrection of Jesus was a requirement of their faith.

Problems at Corinth: All in all the community at Corinth struggled in it’s early days but it did survive and eventually carried out the message of Jesus Christ.

To Summarise: The community consisted of a variety of cultures and traditions. Elitism and Rivalry were problems in the community Paul’s authority was questioned by some in the community who began to follow appollos There was a tendency to marginalise the poor in Corinth. The liturgical assemblies highlighted the divisions in the community.