This study looks at the uses of the temple metaphor in 1 Cor 3:16-17 and 6:19 inlight of the so-called New Perspective on Paul. The aim of the study is to determine if one's interpretation may be dependent on whether the background material for the temple is taken from the Jewish or Greek-Roman world. The study looks at how the terms temple and holiness were generally understood in those contexts, and if the textual context related to the temple metaphor is dependent on a Jewish or Greek-Roman temple. The results of the study shows that while the terms temple and holiness were more or less equivalent in both contexts, a rhetorical analyze of the textual context of the temple metaphor in 3:16-17 is dependent on Greek-Roman temples, such as those in Corinth.

In First Corinthians, Paul tries to convince his readers to stay faithful to their congregation and to work together to achieve unity and solidarity within their Christian context. In 8:1 - 11:1, he warns them of the secular temptation to participate in polytheist temples and to take part in the pagan meals there. My main question in this essay is to examine what Paul means that the people in the congregation are ”one body”. How is that possible by sharing the one loaf? Christians share their unity in the worship of God and cannot, Paul asserts, at the same time accept invitations to dine in the pagan temple because that is the same thing as sharing the worship of pagans. Nevertheless, Paul is using the exact same model for unity - κοινωνία - that was the tradition of the ancient Hellenistic-Roman context. Throughout this essay, I will try to describe for the view of difficulties within a Christian context and how this unity is expressed in the community of Corinth in the light of the secular surroundings.

I 1 Kor 7 skriver Paulus om relationer, sex och äktenskap. Kapitlet präglas av att inkludera kvinnor i resonemangen och feministteologer som Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza har fokuserat på att förstå kvinnans roll i texten.1 Men vad händer om man läser texten utifrån att den är skriven av en man? Fredrik Ivarsson har visat hur Paulus använder en så kallad maskulinitetsretorik i 1 Kor 7 för att tala om etik i församlingen.2 1 Kor 7 berör även eskatologi. I samma utläggning om huruvida ogifta ska gifta sig skriver Paulus om den allt mer annalkande återkomsten av Kristus. Hur kan eskatologin i 1 Kor 7 förstås utifrån samma utgångspunkt som Ivarsson har, att Paulus språk och retorik formats av antikens kulturspecifika föreställningar av manlighet?

I denna uppsats undersöker jag vilka eskatologiska förväntningar som finns i Thessaloniki och Korinth församlingarna. Detta görs genom en argumentationsanalys av Paulus eskatologiska argumentationer utifrån ett uppståndelseperspektiv i 1 Thess 4:13-18, 1 Kor 15:20-28 och 1 Kor 15:45-49. För att också komma närmre argumentationen har jag kollat på strukturuppdelningen för att se vilka poänger som Paulus belyser. Slutligen har jag även kollat på översättningsproblematik för att komma närmre kontexten.

The central theme in 1 Cor 2:6-16 is wisdom and spirit, sophia and pneuma. The word wisdom occurs 16 times in 1 Cor 1-3, and this is the first time the concept is central in a passage in the New Testament. Paul is talking about the mysterious wisdom from God. He addresses the theme because Corinthians are obsessed with wisdom. There have been many theories about if Paul or the Corinthians have been influenced by Greek philosophical ideas, and to what extent. The theme of wisdom was central both in the Hellenistic philosophical tradition as well as in the Jewish sapiential tradition, and it is closely linked to pneuma. The sapiential book Wisdom of Solomon portrays Wisdom as a personification bordering to a hypostasis of God, as the guidance to a righteous life and even savior and the one who gives eternal life. The description of Wisdom seems synonymous with the Spirit of God, and the giver of both life, knowledge, and spiritual wisdom. Paul also claims that the Spirit of God is the one who reveals the wisdom from God. Considering these perspectives this thesis sought, through a thorough analysis of 1 Cor 2:6-16 and a broader analysis of Wisdom of Solomon, and a comparison between how they portrayed the concept of wisdom and spirit, to investigate if Paul was inspired by Wisdom of Solomon and if he drew an innovative picture of wisdom. It’s difficult to answer if Paul was directly inspired by this book in 1 Corinthians, or if the Corinthians were and he only responded to their misunderstanding of both the gospel and the concept of wisdom. Paul seems to have drawn an innovative picture of wisdom, but it was deeply rooted in the Jewish apocalyptical thought, which in turn was rooted in the Jewish sapiential tradition.