Читать книгу 1 Corinthians - Luise Schottroff - Страница 28

Paul begins by quoting Scripture (Isa 29:14). For him, Scripture is not a formal authority that ends debate before it starts.⁷⁹ For him, as for other Jews, Scripture directly addresses his own present situation, providing instruction for the present (see on 10:1). Isa 29:14 says what happened through the resurrection of the Crucified One: God has set a limit to the »wisdom of the world,« this all-encompassing social and political power (see on 1:17). Paul speaks of this divine activity with strong words. What God does is destroy/apollymi and invalidate/nullify (atheteō; here Paul inserts a more destructive word than in Isa 29:14, krypsō/to hide) and expose as foolish/myopic (mōrainō). These words can be compared with katargeō, which describes the disempowering of all authorities and powers (2:6; 15:24, 26). He asks in 1:20, as after a radical political upheaval (making use of the language of Scripture⁸⁰): Where have they remained, the proponents of the wisdom of the world? They are the wise, the educated elite, the linguistically competent authorities (grammateus—in the Corinthian context, this is not a specific reference to the Jewish scribes; see Acts 19:35). They have the say in critical questions about the organization of the city’s life and commerce. Moreover, Paul uses the Greek word sydzētētēs to designate people who argue in public and in some contexts have the power to render decisions (see a scene of this kind in Acts 17:19, 20).⁸¹ Since the time of Augustus public speech was controlled.⁸² Tacitus reports about a discussion, probably from the year 75 CE, in which the decline of rhetoric is lamented: speech has lost the requisite libertas/freedom, and a rhetorical education leads to discussions only of topics far removed from reality.⁸³ Tacitus wrote this lament only at a later time, when he must have feared less repression.

1:21 In the first half of this verse, the interpretation of the prepositional phrase en tē sophia tou theou poses problems. Does it mean that God, on account of God’s wisdom, prevented knowledge? In 1:20 it says emōranen, God caused the foolishness. The en in 1:21a would in that case be interpreted as causal. Another interpretation understands the en as local. The world is surrounded by God’s wisdom, God’s creation, God’s Torah, and still doesn’t know God. This interpretation takes up the thoughts from Rom 1:18–31.⁸⁴ A definitive clarification is not possible. In 1:21b mōria/foolishness raises questions. Does the message about the cross seem stupid to those who find the way of the cross unnecessary (see 1:18)? In that case it would only be perceived to be foolish. Or is the message about the cross unwise/myopic/dumb/foolish? A look at 1:26–31 helps with the decision. Through the resurrection of the Crucified One, God takes sides on behalf of those who have been humiliated. They are taken for stupid—by those who, as much as possible, denied them chances for education. Actually, many cannot read and write. God had called many uneducated people in Corinth. Paul wants to make it clear that these calls have an inner connection with the resurrection of someone crucified. Therefore, he speaks about the mōria/foolishness of the proclamation. The choice of words is brought about by the negative assessment of the crucifixion (see 1:18). So now Paul takes this positively: yes, God is so foolish as to choose the humiliated, the crucified and the uneducated. So, Paul is playing rhetorically here (and in 1:25) with the word mōria/foolishness.

1:22–24 Paul uses here the conceptual pairing Ioudaioi and Hellēnes or Ioudaioi and ethnē. Who is meant by these designations, and how are they to be translated?

Ioudaios is at this time and far beyond⁸⁵ an ethnic-regional concept that must be translated by »Judean.«⁸⁶ This ethnic-regional concept includes the religious dimension. Like other ethnē/peoples, the Jewish people share, for example, land, blood ties, history, law, religion, custom. Josephus, Against Apion 1.6 can serve as an example from the pertinent sources:⁸⁷ The Jewish nation is comparable to other nations. The regional sense of the word is also preserved when Jewish people live far from the motherland. This is true of other peoples as well. This finding is consistent with Pauline usage, also in 1 Corinthians. Ioudaioi are an ethnos, even if this does not explicitly occur (but see, for example, John 11:48), for it is associated with being Jewish: circumcision (7:18), the law/nomos (7:19) and sacrifice/altar (10:18) in Jerusalem. The concept Israel kata sarka (10:18)/the Israel that actually exists, with the temple in Jerusalem, corresponds to the concept of the Jewish ethnos. The followers of Israel’s Messiah who are non-Jewish ally themselves fully with Israel’s God (see below the basic information on those who believe in the Messiah at 1:24), but they do not become Jews, as 1:24 shows. At that time there was no concept that defined a people with respect to a »religion.« A concept of religion that does not include the material-physical realm is modern.⁸⁸ For Paul and his time being Jewish entails a way of life, a history, the land of Judea and the God of Israel. The question of who is Ioudaios and who is not does not play an institutional role, either internally or externally.⁸⁹ Only the later fiscus Judaicus, a Roman tax meant to exploit and humiliate Jews, gives birth to Roman investigations about who is actually Jewish.⁹⁰ Now, how can the word Ioudaios be translated? »Judean« would be historically correct, since an English word like »Jew« and the concept of »Judaism« are primarily associated with a religion. The concepts of »Judaism« and »religion« in the modern sense do not exist at this time.⁹¹ However, the continuity of Jewish history over the centuries would be invisible today if the historically correct translation were used. Therefore, the translation »Jew« will continue to be used here. In the German context, with the history of the Shoah, the persecution and murder of millions of Jews by Germans, the continuity of the history of the Jewish people then and now must continue to be visible.⁹²

Hellēnes designates the Greek ethnos/people, in a way fully analogous to the concept of the Jewish people. Here in 1:22–24 Corinthian believers in the Messiah who deny the discipleship of the cross are especially in view, as 1:23 shows. What is said in 1:22 is not a generalized characterization of the Greek and Jewish peoples as such, as those who seek wisdom and »demand« signs, as the translation often puts it (on this, see below). No, it is about specific people and their objections to solidarity with one who has been crucified. A distinction needs to be made in these verses between what Paul has to say about specific people—or to them—and what the text reveals about presuppositions that go beyond the words themselves. First, about the presuppositions:

1. Paul uses the concepts Hellēnes and ethnē here and in 1 Cor 10:32; 12:13 analogously to the concept of the Jewish people. In the social context of that time, their meanings overlap, although the concepts are not coterminous. People who speak Greek are called Hellēnes even if, as here, it is to be assumed that Greek is the language in which they communicate with one another, even though they are not Greek ethnically.⁹³ From Rome’s perspective, ethnē are the peoples who have submitted or should submit themselves to the Roman Empire.⁹⁴ From a Jewish perspective, ethnē are the non-Jewish peoples who serve false gods and do not live according to the Torah. This Jewish usage is found in 1 Corinthians (5:1, 10:20 and 12:2).

Davina Lopez uses good arguments to show that in order to understand Paul’s gospel for the ethnē/Nations one needs to consider not only the Jewish perspective but also the Roman.⁹⁵ God’s call sends Paul to the Nations (Gal 1:16), who are ruled by Rome’s might. God has raised the Messiah to open the way of liberation for the people of Israel and the Nations. As God once sent Jeremiah as a prophet to the nations (Jer 1:5),⁹⁶ now Paul and other Jews and non-Jews are sent to the nations in the Roman Empire. By means of official Roman works of art Davina Lopez shows how the nations are portrayed in Roman propaganda as inferior, effeminate and threatening in order to impress upon the masses how wise and necessary their subjugation by the Romans is. Thus, the gospel for the nations is one of the presuppositions that can be recognized in 1 Cor 1:22–24 (see especially v. 24). The congregation in Corinth is made up of Jews and Greek-speaking people from the nations whom God called into fellowship with the crucified and raised Messiah.

2. The precise conflict that Paul addresses in 1 Cor 1:22–24 concerns solidarity with the Crucified One. There are Jews who are seeking signs that a person who has been crucified is actually the Messiah. The issue is not that Jewish people in general »demand« signs (as 1:22 is so frequently translated). It is also not the case that Paul is fundamentally opposed to signs (see Rom 15:19, for example). Rather, the resurrection of the Messiah by God is this sign (cf. Matt 12:38–42) that must be recognized. And yet, there are people who do not understand this and consider the crucifixion to be a victory for Roman might that God has not contradicted. Therefore, for them the crucifixion becomes a skandalon. Going the way of the cross appears to them merely as incriminating behavior that unnecessarily provokes Roman might (cf. John 11:48).

From today’s perspective, considering the threat Roman might posed for daily existence in Corinth, the fear these Jewish and non-Jewish followers of Jesus the Messiah had should be taken seriously.

Those called by God into the messianic fellowship (1:24) are for Paul without restriction part of the diverse peoples from whom they came. In that the Messiah, as the one who was crucified, reveals for them God’s power and wisdom, they not only affirm Christ’s resurrection in their heads but put it into effect in their lives.

1:25 With the resurrection of the Crucified One, God rendered »human« social structures null and void. Strength/power and wisdom happen in life through the resurrection brought about by God and not through success in a society built on violence (see also the basic information on »The Wisdom of this World«). »God’s foolishness …« refers to the crucifixion, but also to people (see 1:26–28). The genitive is a genitive of possession.