Literary Devices in Corinthians
Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Setting
Corinth. Cicero called it "the light of all of Greece," but the Greek poet Crinagoras described its citizens as "scoundrels" (source, p. 512). So which is it? Was Corinth a city of beauty and inspi...
Genre
1 and 2 Corinthians are epistles, which is just a fancy name for a letters. That means that what you're reading are two letters that Paul wrote a group of Christians in Corinth, right? Well, not ex...
What's Up With the Title?
The authors of New Testament books were pretty skimpy with their titles. So skimpy, in fact, that they didn't give us any. But later generations of Christians, who liked fancy names, figure they sh...
Trivia
Though they're not part of the Bible, there are actually two apocryphal books called The Epistle of the Corinthians to Paul and The Third Epistle to the Corinthians. One lists out all the crazy thi...
Sex Drugs And Violence Rating
First and Second Corinthians are pretty tame for the Bible. For starters, they're light on violence. Even though Paul gets pretty sassy with those false prophets, no fists fly. And drugs don't show...
Allusions
Song of Solomon by Toni MorrisonToni Morrison names one of her characters after Paul's letter—literally. First Corinthians Dead is named when her father picks a name from the Bible at random. Tha...