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A Critique of the ‘Curse/Death’ Interpretation of 1 Corinthians 5.1–8

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

James T. South
James T. South
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(PO Box 9245, Richmond, VA 23227, USA)
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Extract

There has been in recent years an upsurge of interest in the social description of early Christianity, particularly in the reconstruction of its ‘social world’. Any valid sociological analysis of early Christianity of necessity depends upon the exacting interpretation of the NT texts, since these constitute the necessary data for such studies. In many cases such exegetical ground-work has been done thoroughly and well, so that fruitful social studies can be conducted on the basis of the resulting data. Unfortunately, in the case of early Christian disciplinary practices, relatively little careful research has been done, and much of what has been done is, in the opinion of the present writer, seriously flawed. Social descriptions based upon this data are inevitably likewise flawed, and a distorted picture of early Christian communal life is the unfortunate result. The nature of early Christian discipline is obviously a problem of a social nature, but before serious sociological studies can be done, there must be a correction of the distortions which are currently prevalent in the scholarly consensus regarding this subject.

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Articles
Information
New Testament Studies , Volume 39 , Issue 4 , October 1993 , pp. 539 - 561
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

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References

1 For an analysis of the task of the social description of early Christianity, see Smith, J. Z., ‘The Social Description of Early Christianity’, Religious Studies Review 1 (1975) 19–25.Google Scholar

2 A thorough exegesis of 1 Cor 5.1–8 and other Pauline disciplinary texts is available in South, J. T., ‘Corrective Discipline in the Pauline Communities’, unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Virginia, 1989.Google Scholar

3 Baird points out that even some translations incline in this direction, as does the NEB: ‘This man is to be consigned to Satan for the destruction of the body.’ Baird, W., The Corinthian Church: A Biblical Approach to Urban Culture (New York and Nashville: Abingdon, 1964) 65.Google Scholar

4 Conzelmann, H., 1 Corinthians (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1975) 97.Google Scholar

5 ‘Consequently, when the fornicator in Corinth was consigned to Satan, this means that he was subjected to the most powerful curse. That he with this curse was thrust out of the community seems obvious’ (Forkman, G., The Limits of the Religious Community [Lund: CWK Gleerup, 1972] 144).Google Scholar

6 Barrett, C. K., The First Epistle to the Corinthians (New York: Harper & Row, 1968) 126–7.Google Scholar

7 Bruce, F. F., 1 and 2 Corinthians (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1971) 54–5.Google Scholar

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10 Godet, F., Commentary on St Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1889) 257.Google Scholar He does not explain what it is about Paul's language that suggests the length of the illness.

11 Havener, I., ‘A Curse for Salvation – 1 Corinthians 5:1–5’, in Sin, Salvation, and the Spirit (ed. Durken, D.; Collegeville, Minnesota: Liturgical, 1979) 340–1.Google Scholar

12 Derrett, J. D. M., ‘“Handing over to Satan”: an Explanation of 1 Cor. 5:1–7’, Revue internationale des droits de l'antiquité 26 (1979) 21.Google ScholarOrr, W. F. and Walther, J. A., I Corinthians (AB 32; Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1976) 186,Google Scholar are in sympathy with this view but stop short of accepting the ‘execution’ hypothesis with the same certainty as Derrett.

13 On Modesty 13–14. Tertullian does not suggest the use of a dynamic curse, but he argues vigorously that death is to be the end result of delivery to Satan.

14 Deissmann, A., Light from the Ancient East (New York and London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1911) 302.Google Scholar

15 This is the text as found in Preisendanz, K., Papyri Graecae Magicae: Die griechischen Zauberpapyri (Leipzig: Teubner, 1928) 5.335–6.Google Scholar All of the magical texts included in Preisendanz, plus fifty more, are now available in English in Betz, H. D., ed., The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1986).Google Scholar Betz's translation of the lines cited by Deissmann is, ‘Spirit of the dead, whoever you are, I give over NN to you, so that he may not do NN thing.’ (The former work is hereafter cited as PGM and the latter as Betz, Papyri.)

16 PGM 4.1247. Conzelmann, 97 n. 37.

17 Collins, A. Y., ‘The Function of “Excommunication” in Paul', HTR 73 (1980) 255–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar The texts she refers to are PGM 5.70–95, 5.174–80 and 5.185–210.

18 Betz, Papyri, xli.

19 1QS 2.5–6, 2.12–18, as translated in Brownlee, W. H., The Dead Sea Manual of Discipline: Translation and Notes (New Haven: The American Schools of Oriental Research, 1951) 10.Google Scholar

20 See the summary in Forkman, 90–2. Also, Kimmelman, R., ‘Birkat Ha-Minim and the Lack of Evidence for an Anti-Christian Jewish Prayer in Late Antiquity’, in Jewish and Christian Self-Definition, ed. by Sanders, E. P.et al. (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1981) 2.226–44,Google Scholar and Hare, D. R. A., The Theme of Jewish Persecution of Christians in the Gospel according to Matthew (Cambridge: Cambridge University, 1967).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

21 Forkman, 92–3. Also, Voorsanger, J. and Kohler, K., ‘Anathema’, The Jewish Encyclopedia (New York and London: Funk and Wagnalls, 1916) 1.559–60.Google Scholar

22 On the synagogue ban in John, see Martyn, J. L., History and Theology in the Fourth Gospel (Nashville: Abingdon, 1968; revised and enlarged, 1979) 37–62.Google Scholar

23 Exod 12.23; Josh 3.10, 7.25; Jer 2.30, etc.

24 In addition to 1 Cor 5.5 -1 Thess 5.3; 1 Tim 6.9; 2 Thess 1.9.

25 TDNT 5.169; Bruce, , 1 and 2 Corinthians, 55.Google Scholar

26 Actually he merely states the conclusion, after establishing the fact that curse/death formulae were part of the Jewish and pagan milieu with which Paul was familiar: ‘The formation in 1 Cor 5.5 must therefore be described as a solemn dynamic surrender to the power of evil, a “devotion”. It can be equated with the OT curses, with the birkat ha-minim of rabbinic Judaism, and with the above-mentioned pagan formulas’ (143).

27 Forkman, 22–8. Some of these situations include idolatry, bestiality, and sorcery (Exod 22.18–20); sacrificing one's children to a foreign god (Lev 20.2–5); necromancy and wizardry (Lev 20.27), etc.

28 A convenient designation for this phenomenon is ‘excommunication’, a term which appears frequently in the literature on this subject. However, because of the later ecclesiastical and dogmatic use of this term, it loses much of its value as a description of the practice of discipline in primitive Christianity. It is therefore avoided in this study, except for its use in quotations.

29 These include, among others, Allo, E. B., who calls the curse/death interpretation ‘une fantaisie d'exégèse d'auteurs protestants qui, depuis Bengel … tiennent que είς ὅλεθρον τ⋯ς σαρκός … équivaut à une sentence de mort’ (Saint Paul: Première Épître aux Corinthiens [2nd ed.; Paris: Lecoffre, 1956] 123).Google Scholar Also, Talbert, C. H., Reading Corinthians: A Literary and Theological Commentary on 1 and 2 Corinthians (New York: Crossroad, 1987) 13–16;Google ScholarFee, G. D., The First Epistle to the Corinthians (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1987) 210–14;Google ScholarRobertson, A. and Plummer, A., A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the First Epistle of St Paul to the Corinthians (2nd ed.; Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, reprinted 1978),Google Scholar who allow for physical suffering accompanying the exclusion (99–100); Morris, L., The First Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1958) 88;Google ScholarPfitzner, V. C., ‘Purified Community-Purified Sinner; Expulsion from the Community according to Matthew 18: 15–18 and 1 Corinthians 5:1–5’, AusBR 30 (1982) 46–7;Google ScholarVorgrimler, H., Buβe und Krankensalbung (Freiburg: Herder, 1978) 24–5.Google Scholar

30 Collins, 256.

31 Betz, Papyri, xli.

32 See the table in Betz, , Papyri, xxiii–xxv.Google Scholar

33 See the discussion in Forkman, 50–69, and the comments by Weinfeld, M., The Organizational Pattern and the Penal Code of the Qumran Sect: A Comparison with Guilds and Religious Associations of the Hellenistic-Roman Period (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1986) 48–9.Google Scholar

34 Mignard, J. E., ‘Jewish and Christian Cultic Discipline to the Middle of the Second Century’ (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Boston University, 1969) 191.Google Scholar

35 If, as seems likely, 1 Cor 11.30 refers to physical death (‘sleep’) and not spiritual death. Note that the two texts do not even employ the same terminology.

36 ‘The way in which Paul consigns a guilty man to Satan … does not offer an exact parallel, for Ananias and his wife are not killed in order that their πνε;μα may be saved in the Last Judgment!’ Haenchen, Ernst, The Acts of the Apostles: A Commentary (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1971) 239.Google Scholar

37 For agreement that ὅλεθρος may suggest expulsion rather than physical destruction, see Brown, Colin, ‘Destroy, perish, ruin’, The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology (ed. Brown, C.; Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1975) 1.466;Google ScholarFrame, J. E., The Epistles to the Thessalonians (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1912) 182;Google ScholarMorris, L., The First and Second Epistles to the Thessalonians (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1959) 153–4.Google Scholar

38 Forkman, 17.

39 ‘In addition to the literal meaning of this root … there is the metaphorical meaning to root out, eliminate, remove, excommunicate or destroy by violent act of man or nature. It is sometimes difficult in a given context to know whether the person(s) who is “cut off” is to be killed or only excommunicated’ (Smick, E. B., ‘’, Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament [ed. Harris, R. L. et al. ; Chicago: Moody, 1980] 1.456–7).Google Scholar See also Hasel, G., ‘’, Theologisches Wörterbuch zum Alten Testament (ed. by Botterweck, G.et al.; Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1982) 4.363,Google Scholar who says that in connection with the majority of offences the meaning of is excommunication or ban. Also, Holladay, W. L., A Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1971) 165,Google Scholar who offers ‘root out’, ‘eliminate’ as definitions of and says that in nifal it means ‘be excluded from the cultic community’ (165). Further evidence of this meaning of is the fact that the related noun means a writing or bill of divorce (Deut 24.1, 3; Isa 50.1; Jer 3.8).

40 Forkman, 19.

41 V. C. Pfitzner, ‘Purified Community’, 45.

42 Mignard, 191.

43 Fee, 208.

44 Collins, 258.

45 See, e.g., the discussion in Havener, 339–40, and Gundry, R. H., SOMA in Biblical Theology (Cambridge: Cambridge University, 1976) 142–3.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

46 Thiselton, A. C., ‘The Meaning of ΕΑΡΞ in 1 Corinthians 5.5: A Fresh Approach in the Light of Logical and Semantic Factors’, SJT 26 (1973) 214–15, and 204–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

47 Forkman, 145.

48 Collins, 257–5. See also the comments in Schweizer, E., ‘πνε;μα, etc.’, TDNT 6.435.Google Scholar

49 Cambier, J., ‘La chair et l'esprit en I Cor. V.5’, NTS 15 (1969) 228 and 230.CrossRefGoogle Scholar See also Sand, A., Der Begriff ‘Fleisch’ in dem paulinischen Hauptbriefen (Regensburg: Pustet, 1967) 143–5,Google Scholar and Reicke, B., ‘Body and Soul in the New Testament’, ST 19 (1965) 202–3.Google ScholarBarrett, C. K., Freedom and Obligation: A Study of the Epistle to the Galatians (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1985) 72–3,Google Scholar gives a good discussion of the import of σάρξ/πνε;μα in Paul, but continues to hold the curse/death view.

50 Talbert, 15–16.

51 Cambier, 230.

52 Cambier (230) points out that the four expressions are placed respectively in the four units of the pericope: (1) the explanation of the situation requiring action (vv. 1–2); (2) Paul's decision that the man must be expelled (vv. 3–5); (3) doctrinal reflection on the necessary action (vv. 6–8); and (4) the reference to the ‘previous letter’ and its intention. Talbert (15–16) calls παραδο;ναι τ σαταν a ‘synonym’ for the other three expressions and says that all four refer to expulsion.

53 Havener (341) recognizes that vv. 2, 7, and 13 indicate expulsion, but expulsion in connection with the death penalty. What he and others fail to take into account is that the death penalty makes expulsion superfluous.

54 G. Stählin, ‘ν;ν’, TDNT 4.1109, n. 32, takes the misunderstanding as ‘probably malicious’, i.e., those resisting Paul's authority were portraying him as hopelessly unrealistic and therefore unworthy of their submission.

55 Ringgren, H., ‘’, Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament (ed. Botterweck, G. J. and Ringgren, H.; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1975) 2.203–4.Google Scholar

56 Barrett, , First Corinthians, 133.Google Scholar

57 Fee, 211.

58 Conzelmann, 98.

59 Forkman, 144.

60 Collins, 259.

61 von Campenhausen, H., Ecclesiastical Authority and Spiritual Power in the Church of the First Three Centuries (Stanford, California: Stanford University, 1969) 134,Google Scholar n. 50. This is by no means a recent view, but was originally offered by Tertullian (On Modesty 13), who does not specifically identify the πνε;μα as the Holy Spirit, but implies this in the expression ‘that spirit which is accounted to exist in the church’.

62 Collins, 259.

63 MacArthur, S. D., ‘“Spirit” in Pauline Usage: 1 Corinthians 5:5’, Studia Biblica (1978) 3.251–2.Google Scholar

64 Sanhedrin, M. 6.2, cited in Barrett, First Corinthians, 126–7.Google Scholar For other examples of this argument, see Forkman, 143–6, 179; Goguel, M., The Primitive Church (New York: Macmillan, 1964) 234;Google ScholarHurd, J. C. Jr, The Origin of I Corinthians (Macon, Georgia; Mercer University, new edition, 1983) 137.Google Scholar

65 Barrett, , First Corinthians, 126–7Google Scholar. Also Lampe, G. W. H., ‘Church Discipline and the Interpretation of the Epistles to the Corinthians’, Christian History and Interpretation: Studies Presented to John Knox (Cambridge: Cambridge University, 1967):Google Scholar ‘We must therefore assume that the sentence of physical destruction was meant to produce repentance at some stage; for the death of the body cannot in itself be conducive to salvation’ (351).

66 Carlston, C. E., ‘Metanoia and Church Discipline in the New Testament’ (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, 1958) 193.Google Scholar

67 Morris, , First Corinthians, 88Google Scholar. Also Lampe, : ‘… it is unthinkable that victory over the “flesh”, in the ethical sense of the term, could be brought about by the agency of Satan’ (351).Google Scholar

68 ‘But that objection is equally true for the other view; since whatever the activity is, it is ultimately against Satan's own interests, given that the aim is the man's eschatological salvation’ (Fee, 213).

69 ‘That Satan's malignity should be (as one may say) overreached by God's wisdom and mercy … is nothing very wonderful …; hate is proverbially blind’ (Findlay, G. G., The Expositor’s Greek Testament: St Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians [Eerdmans, reprinted 1974] 809).Google Scholar

70 Holmberg, B., ‘Sociological versus Theological Analysis of the Question Concerning a Pauline Church Order’, Die Paulinische Literatur und Theologie, ed. by Pedersen, S. (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1980) 192–3,Google Scholar has properly warned that the situation at Corinth, due to the extent of unrest and disorder there, was not typical of a Pauline community. So we must be careful about assuming the church order there to be a model one. Still, Paul makes it clear in 5.9–11 that his instructions to expel an offending brother do not apply only to the specific case at hand. So we are not to regard the discipline described in 1 Cor 5.1–8 as an isolated or unique case.