Paul's Judaism Reconsidered: The Issue of Cultic Imagery in the Corinthian Correspondence

The present study focuses on cultic imagery in the Corinthian correspondence as a test case to reconsider Paul’s relation to Judaism. Previous approaches of spiritualisation, substitution and direct comparison with Qumran Judaism do not stand up to scrutiny when they are applied to pre-70 Christianity, in particular to Paul. The rhetorical contexts of his statements about Judaism make it clear that Paul argued against a perverse understanding of a Jewish way of life rather than rejecting every sense of belonging to Jewish tradition. A survey of examples from Hellenistic-Jewish, Graeco-Roman, and Palestinian Jewish texts together with the exegesis of 1 Corinthians leads to the conclusion that Paul relied on Palestinian Jewish temple-theological traditions for some of his moral instructions. The apostle couched them in the language of Jewish cultic imagery, knowing that the Corinthian readers were familiar with Jewish traditions.