Sacrilege and temple imagery in 1 Corinthians

Abstract

Most scholars read Paul’s application of temple imagery to human beings within a Jewish context, which sometimes means dichotomising Jewish and Greco-Roman data. This leads to approaches that overlook signs of potential resonance between 1 Cor 3:16–17 and 1 Cor 6:19 and discussions of sacrilege in ancient literature. In this thesis, I will contend that Paul’s use of temple imagery in these two passages demonstrates coherence with a pattern common to ancient literature, and that recognizing this coherence clarifies the way the temple should be understood to function in its rhetorical context. I argue that a system of “major metaphysical pollution” lies beneath ancient discussions of sacrilege and I outline the causes, effects, terminology, and means of resolution associated with this system of pollution. I note distinctions between this system and discussions of moral pollution in the OT and consider how one would determine whether Paul’s temple imagery coheres with one system or the other. I also ask whether the logic of major metaphysical pollution is discernible in Josephus and Philo in order to determine whether this system is invoked by other first-century Jews and to understand how these Jews might use it. I then exegete both 1 Cor 3:16–17 and 1 Cor 6:19. In both cases, I attend to the position of the temple in its rhetorical context and compare Paul’s use of the temple with the logic of sacrilege and major metaphysical pollution. I show that the cause, effect, and resolution of threats against the temple in these passages from 1 Corinthians follow the logic of this pollution system. I then offer a new understanding of the temple in its context, based on these conclusions. I suggest that the appeal to the temple in these passages draws on major metaphysical pollution in order to warn the Corinthians to desist problematic behaviours by recasting them as sacrilegious.