--- title: "1 Corinthians" canonical: "https://paulineletters.com/explore/1-corinthians" published: "2026-07-28" updated: "2026-08-01" license: "https://paulineletters.com/explore/license" source: "Pauline Letters" --- # 1 Corinthians > 1 Corinthians should be read as a letter to a particular community before it is reduced to a collection of isolated quotations. **Why did Paul write 1 Corinthians, and what is debated about its setting or authorship?** First Corinthians is an undisputed letter of Paul, written from Ephesus about AD 54-55 to a fractured church he had founded. Reports from Chloe’s people and a list of questions from Corinth prompted it, and he answers factions, a sexual scandal, lawsuits, marriage, food offered to idols, worship, spiritual gifts, and the resurrection. - **Date:** c. AD 54–55 - **Written from:** Ephesus - **Authorship status:** Widely accepted as Pauline - **Setting confidence:** Ephesus, c. AD 54–55 (strong reconstruction) - **Key line:** 1 Corinthians 13:13 — “But now faith, hope, and love remain—these three. The greatest of these is love.” - **Earliest witness shown:** Papyrus 46, c. AD 200 ## Occasion and argument To a divided, gifted church at Corinth — on unity, love, and resurrection. First Corinthians answers a fractured community rather than a single abstract question. Reports associated with Chloe’s people describe rival slogans, status competition, a serious sexual scandal, and lawsuits among believers. Paul responds by placing the cross against Corinthian measures of wisdom and power. His appeal for unity does not erase difference; it asks every group to recognize that the church belongs to God rather than to its most admired teacher. The repeated phrase “now concerning” shows Paul working through questions the Corinthians had sent about marriage, food associated with idols, worship, spiritual gifts, and the collection for Jerusalem. His answers are pastoral arguments, not a loose rulebook. Knowledge is governed by love, freedom by responsibility for another person, and gifts by whether they build up the gathered community. The famous poem on love belongs inside that sustained correction of competitive worship. The guide places 1 Corinthians alongside the travel chronology because its names, plans, conflicts, and greetings belong to a living network. Its key line, 1 Corinthians 13:13, is read in that larger movement rather than presented as a detached slogan. ## Chronology and manuscript witness Resurrection is the letter’s culmination, not an appendix. Paul rehearses the received proclamation of Christ’s death, burial, appearances, and resurrection, then argues that the believers’ future bodily resurrection stands or falls with it. The image of firstfruits joins present grief to future hope, while the transformed body answers a community tempted to separate spiritual life from embodied faithfulness. The Ephesus setting is unusually visible. Paul says he will remain there until Pentecost, mentions many opponents and an open door for work, and describes plans involving Timothy and Apollos that fit the network narrated around Acts 18–19. The letter also refers to an earlier letter that has not survived, and Second Corinthians points toward further painful exchanges. First Corinthians is therefore one preserved moment in a longer, difficult relationship. Papyrus 46 (P46) is the witness pictured for this letter, dated c. AD 200 and associated with University of Michigan Library. Text shown. The image demonstrates textual survival in that manuscript tradition; it does not prove the proposed date or place of composition. ## Authorship and dating 1 Corinthians is widely regarded as an undisputed letter of Paul, written from Ephesus around AD 54–55 while he was planning further travel and responding to reports and questions from Corinth. ## Common questions ### When was 1 Corinthians written? About AD 54-55, from Ephesus, during the long stay Acts describes. Paul says he will remain at Ephesus until Pentecost and mentions plans involving Timothy and Apollos, which fits the network around Acts 18-19. The Gallio inscription anchors the surrounding chronology. ### Who wrote 1 Corinthians? Paul, with Sosthenes named alongside him in the greeting. This is one of the seven letters that virtually nobody disputes. Its style, argument and situation all match the undisputed group. ### Was there an earlier letter to Corinth? Yes, and it has not survived. Paul refers in this letter to something he had already written to them, and 2 Corinthians points to further painful exchanges afterwards. What survives is two moments in a longer and more difficult correspondence. ### What is 1 Corinthians about? A community pulling itself apart along lines of status, teacher-loyalty and knowledge. Paul sets the cross against Corinthian measures of wisdom and power, governs knowledge by love, and closes with the resurrection as the ground everything else stands on. --- Canonical: https://paulineletters.com/explore/1-corinthians