Sexual immorality is actually reported among you, and sexual immorality such as not even among the pagans, so as for one to have (the) wife of the father. And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, so that the (one) having done this deed might be taken out of your midst. For I, though being absent in body, now being present in spirit, have already judged the (one) having thus produced this, as being present, in the name of our Lord Jesus, of you having been gathered together and of me in spirit, with the power of the Lord Jesus, to deliver such a one to Satan for destruction of the flesh, so that (his) spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. (1 Corinthians 5:1-5)
Paul may have drawn on Job 2:6 to formulate the last verse above. For the most part, I had previously thought Paul was just telling the Corinthians to kick the man out of the congregation thereby losing, at least temporarily, the salvific benefits provided by the Christ. Paul concluded the issue here with this ---
... Do you not judge those within? … "Expel the evil out from among yourselves." (1 Cor 5:13).
But what was Paul’s intention, and how might the Corinthians --- steeped in their own cultural paradigms --- have perceived Paul’s words?
I have always been a little surprised at the strong response of the Corinthians to Paul’s demand here. The issue continues in the now composite letter we call 2 Corinthians. Here is how I think the on-going issue evolved ----
Paul heard back --- from his junior-partner who had delivered the letter 1 Corinthians --- that the Corinthians were upset about Paul’s demand. And they didn’t expel the man, but rather they might have already forgiven him. Paul had other priorities at this point-in-time (like the collection for the “saints”). Choosing his battles --- and trying hard to spin the narrative on the grief he had caused them by blaming the man and focusing on his own anguish --- Paul gave-in on his demand, and forgave the man too ---
For out of much affliction and anguish of heart, I wrote to you through many tears, not that you might be grieved, but that you might know the love that I have more abundantly toward you. But if anyone has caused grief, he has not grieved me, but in part, that I might not put it too severely, all of you. The punishment which (is) by the majority (is) sufficient to such a one, So instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. Therefore I exhort you to confirm love toward him … Now to whomever you forgive anything, I also do. (2 Cor 2:4-10)
Were the Corinthians grieved just because Paul demanded that they expel the man, or might they have perceived Paul’s demand as something much more severe? I think the cultural background can shed some light. In his 1927 work, Light From the Ancient East --- The New Testament Illustrated by Recently Discovered Texts of the Gaeco-Roman World, Deissmann places Paul’s demand in the context of an execration.
The technical language associated with these execrations --- common in antiquity --- were used to ---
“injure an enemy or punish an evil-doer consecrating him by incantation and tablet to the powers of darkness below” (Deissmann, p. 302 --- page numbers from 2004 edition).
Paul ---
… in the name of our Lord Jesus, of you having been gathered together and of me in spirit, with the power of the Lord Jesus, to deliver such a one to Satan for destruction of the flesh … (1 Cor 5:4-5)
A 4th C. CE London Magical Papyrus, of which Deissmann says, “its formulae are ancient” ---
“Daemon of the dead … I deliver unto thee (such a man) in order that …” (Deissmann p. 302)
And a much older 3rd C. BCE lead curse tablet ---
“I will bind her … in fellowship with Hecate, who is below the earth, and the Erinyes.” (Deissmann p. 303) ***
In the eyes of the Corinthians, Paul demanded a very serious and potentially powerful curse --- a gathering together to call on the power of the Lord Jesus to deliver the man to Satan for destruction of his flesh. Such things were likely taken very seriously.
A roguish rascal or not, apparently the Corinthinas were not prepared to go that far with their friend.
robert j
*** In Greek mythology Hecate (Hekate) was characterized in various ways, as are most ancient deities, but was seen by many as a deity of the lower world who sent demons from the lower world at night and dwelled at times with the souls of the dead. The Erinyes were the “Furies”, deities of vengeance and retribution for crimes against the natural order.