Metaphors and Social Identity Formation in Paul’s Letters to the Corinthians

By Kar Yong Lim

Why did Paul frequently employ a diverse range of metaphors in his letters to the Corinthians? Was the choice of these metaphors a random act or a carefully crafted rhetorical strategy? Did the use of metaphors shape the worldview and behavior of the Christ-followers?
 
In this innovative work, Kar Yong Lim draws upon Conceptual Metaphor Theory and Social Identity Theory to answer these questions. Lim illustrates that Paul employs a cluster of metaphors--namely, sibling, familial, temple, and body metaphors--as cognitive tools that are central to how humans process information, construct reality, and shape group identity. Carefully chosen, these metaphors not only add colors to Paul's rhetorical strategy but also serve as a powerful tool of communication in shaping the thinking, governing the behavior, and constructing the social identity of the Corinthian Christ-followers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pickwick Publications
• Release date: May 5, 2017
• ISBN: 9781498282901

Kar Yong Lim

Kar Yong Lim is Lecturer in New Testament Studies and Director of Postgraduate Studies at Seminari Theoloji Malaysia (Malaysia Theological Seminary), Seremban, Malaysia.

Book preview

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Metaphors and Social Identity Formation in Paul’s Letters to the Corinthians

Kar Yong Lim

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METAPHORS AND SOCIAL IDENTITY FORMATION IN PAUL’S LETTERS TO THE CORINTHIANS

Copyright © 2017 Kar Yong Lim. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.

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paperback isbn: 978

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hardcover isbn: 978

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4982

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ebook isbn: 978

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Cataloging-in-Publication data:

Names: Lim, Kar Yong.

Title: Metaphors and social identity formation in Paul’s letters to the Corinthians / Kar Yong Lim.

Description: Eugene, OR : Pickwick Publications, 2017 | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: ISBN 978-1-4982-8289-5 (paperback) | ISBN 978-1-4982-8291-8 (hardcover) | ISBN 978-1-4982-8290-1 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Bible. Corinthians, 1st—Criticism, interpretation, etc. | Bible. Corinthians, 2nd—Criticism, interpretation, etc. | Metaphor in the Bible. | Group identity—Biblical teaching. | Identification (Religion)—Biblial teaching.

Classification: LCC BS2675.5 L4 2017 (print) | LCC BS2675.5 (ebook)

Manufactured in the U.S.A. 05/23/17

Table of Contents

Title Page

Permissions

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

Introduction

Part I

Chapter 1: Paul’s Use of Metaphors in the Corinthian Letters

Chapter 2: Reading Paul’s Metaphor through Social Identity Theory

Part II

Chapter 3: My Brothers and Sisters

Chapter 4: In Christ Jesus I became Your Father

Chapter 5: You are God’s Temple

Chapter 6: You are the Body of Christ

Part III

Chapter 7: Paul, Metaphors, and Social Identity Formation in the Corinthian Letters

Bibliography

Permissions

All Greek Scripture quotations are from Nestle-Aland, Novum Testamentum Graece, 28th Revised Edition, edited by Barbara and Kurt Aland, Johannes Karavidopoulos, Carlo M. Martini, and Bruce M. Metzger in cooperation with the Institute for New Testament Textual Research, Münster/Westphalia, © 2012 Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart. Used by permission.

Unless otherwise indicated, all English Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from The Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture quotations marked TNIV are taken from The Holy Bible, Today’s New International Version®, TNIV®. Copyright 2001, 2005 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture quotations marked ESV are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NET) are from the NET Bible® copyright ©1996-2016 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://netbible.com. All rights reserved.

Portions of chapter 5 have been previously published as Paul’s Use of Temple Imagery in the Corinthian Correspondence: The Creation of Christian Identity. In Reading Paul in Context: Explorations in Identity Formation: Essays in Honour of William S. Campbell, edited by Kathy Ehrensperger and J. Brian Tucker, 189-205. LNTS 428. London: T. & T. Clark, 2010. Used by kind permission of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.

Acknowledgments

Writing a book is never a lone enterprise carried out by the author, and more so if it has taken more than eight years to complete the project. I am deeply indebted to colleagues and students at Seminari Theoloji Malaysia (Malaysia Theological Seminary) who have been a constant source of encouragement and inspiration for me. Over the years, many friends (and there are too many to name) contributed financially to this project, and this enabled me to carry out research and writing at Trinity Theological College, Singapore; Tyndale House, Cambridge; and Ridley College, Melbourne. Coming from an under-resourced country, I deeply treasure the opportunity to work in these excellent libraries where many ideas were exchanged with colleagues from all over the world. In addition, the Evangelical Free Church of Malaysia awarded a bursary for my sabbatical in 2015. The trustees of the Theological Research Scheme also approved a special grant that funded the publication of this book. Thank you for all your generosity.

A number of friends volunteered to read earlier drafts of this manuscript. In particular, I would like to thank Dorothy Teoh, Su Ming, and Dr Yvonne Foo for their labour of love. Their comments, feedback, and suggestions to improve this book are greatly appreciated. Any shortcomings in this book remain my responsibility.

Finally, without the support of my family, this book would not have been written. Thank you for all your love, encouragement, and sacrifices for me and for the work of the kingdom.

The Twelfth Sunday after Trinity, 2016

Seremban, Malaysia

Abbreviations

AB Anchor Bible

AcBib Academia Biblica

ACCS Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture

AJA American Journal of Archaeology

AJPS Asian Journal of Pentecostal Studies

AnBib Analecta Biblica

ANTC Abingdon New Testament Commentaries

ANRW Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt: Geschichte und Kultur Roms im Spiegel der neueren Forschung. Part 2, Principat. Edited by Hildegard Temporini and Wolfgang Haase. Berlin: de Gruyter, 1972–

ASE Annalli di storia dell’ esegesi

BDAG Danker, Frederick W., Walter Bauer, William F. Arndt, and F. Wilbur Gingrich. Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. 3rd ed. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2000.

BECNT Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament

BETL Bibliotheca ephemeridum theologicarum lovaniensium

BiBh Bible Bhashyam

BibInt Biblical Interpretation

BibInt Biblical Interpretation Series

BJSP British Journal of Social Psychology

BTB Biblical Theology Bulletin

BTS Biblical Tools and Studies

BZNW Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft

CBET Contributions to Biblical Exegesis and Theology

CBNTS Coniectanea Biblica New Testament Series

CBQ Catholic Biblical Quarterly

Colloq Colloquium

ConC Concordia Commentary

COP Colloquium Oecumenicum Paulinum

CP Classical Philology

CSPESPT Cambridge Studies in Population, Economy and Society in Past Time

CTJ Calvin Theological Journal

CTR Criswell Theological Review

EC Early Christianity

ECIHC Early Christianity in Its Hellenistic Context.

ECL Early Christianity and Its Literature

EJSP European Journal of Social Psychology

EMSP European Monographs in Social Psychology

ERT Evangelical Review of Theology

ERSP European Review of Social Psychology

EvQ Evangelical Quarterly

FRLANT Forschungen zur Religion und Literatur des Alten und Neuen Testaments

FRC Family, Religion, and Culture

GCT Gender, Culture, and Theory

GTR Gender, Theory, and Religion

HBT Horizons in Biblical Theology

HTR Harvard Theological Review

HTS Harvard Theological Studies

IBC Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching

ICC International Critical Commentary

Int Interpretation

IJIR International Journal of Intercultural Relation

JAAR Journal of the American Academy of Religion

JBL Journal of Biblical Literature

JETS Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society

JRH Journal of Religious History

JSI Journal of Social Issues

JSNT Journal for the Study of the New Testament

JSNTSup Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement Series

JTS Journal of Theological Studies

LEC Library of Early Christianity

LNTS Library of New Testament Studies

LPS Library of Pauline Studies

LSJ Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, and Henry Stuart Jones. A Greek-English Lexicon. 9th ed. Oxford: Clarendon, 1996.

LTQ Lexington Theological Quarterly

NA28 Nestle-Aland, Novum Testamentum Graece 28th ed.

NCBC New Cambridge Bible Commentary

Neot Neotestamentica

NGTT Nederduitse gereformeerde teologiese tydskrif

NICNT The New International Commentary on the New Testament

NIGTC New International Greek Testament Commentary

NovT Novum Testamentum

NovTSup Supplements to Novum Testamentum

NSBT New Studies in Biblical Theology

NTM New Testament Monographs

NTR New Testament Readings

NTS New Testament Studies

PAST Pauline Studies

PBM Paternoster Biblical Monographs

PTMS Princeton Theological Monograph Series

PNTC Pillar New Testament Commentary

QJS Quarterly Journal of Speech

ResQ Restoration Quarterly

RevExp Review and Expositor

RivB Rivista biblica italiana

SBEC Studies in the Bible and Early Christianity

SBL Studies in Biblical Literature

SBLDS Society of Biblical Literature Dissertation Series

SBLMS Society of Biblical Literature Monograph Series

SBLStBL Society of Biblical Literature Studies in Biblical Literature

SBLSymS Society of Biblical Literature Symposium Series

SIHC Studies in the Intercultural History of Christianity

SNTSMS Society for New Testament Studies Monograph Series

SP Sacra Pagina

STAR Studies in Theology and Religion

StBibLit Studies in Biblical Literature (Lang)

TDNT Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. Edited by Gerhard Kittel and Gerhard Friedrich. Translated by Geoffrey W. Bromiley. 10 vols. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1974–2006

TENTS Texts and Editions for New Testament Study

TR Theology and Religion

TynBul Tyndale Bulletin

WBC Word Biblical Commentary

WUNT Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament

Introduction

Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose. (

1

Cor

1

:

10

)

And so, brothers and sisters, I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but rather as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for solid food. (

1

Cor

3

:

1

–

2

a)

Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple. (

1

Cor

3

:

16

–

17

)

For though you might have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers. Indeed, in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. (

1

Cor

4

:

15

)

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ . . . Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. (

1

Cor

12

:

12

,

27

)

Paul’s occasional letters written to various Christ-communities are primarily meant to persuade, correct, and shape the thinking and behavior of his audience so that they are rooted in his understanding of the gospel. To achieve this goal, he uses a variety of means including rhetorical strategy, emotional appeals, and references to Scripture in his letters. As part of his rhetorical strategy, the use of metaphors features frequently and prominently. This can be seen from a selection of verses taken from 1 Corinthians and highlighted above. In these verses, Paul utilizes a range of metaphors drawn from different aspects of human life and experience such as fictive kinship, religious building, and the human body.

Motivations and Aims of Investigation

Paul’s use of metaphors is intriguing. But this is not the only reason why I embarked on this investigation. My reasons are three-fold. First of all, I am fascinated by the literature, history, and the origins of the early Christ-movement, and the events and people that shaped it. I am intrigued by how Paul brought the gospel to the Mediterranean world and how this gospel, initially established on Jewish roots, would eventually take shape in a foreign, gentile world with a Hellenistic worldview that was markedly incompatible with the Jewish religious identity. I am also keen to examine how Paul not only proclaimed the gospel but continued to shape the gentile followers of this Christ-movement into a community of ἐκκλησία with its distinctive ethos and social identity within the Roman Empire, and how this laid the foundation for the beliefs, teachings, and ecclesiastical structures that guided subsequent followers, resulting in its growth into an established religion and institution.

Secondly, I am interested in exploring language as a means of communication. Paul’s primary means of communication with the predominantly gentile communities he founded is through letter writing. As a letter writer, Paul uses various techniques and rhetoric prevalent in the Greco-Roman conventions of his day. By employing various tools of rhetoric, irony, typologies, and using appeals based on ethos, pathos, and logos, Paul’s written communication would have impacted his audience. Of special interest in my investigation here is Paul’s use of metaphors, a powerful element in linguistics and ancient rhetoric. The use of metaphors not only adds color to Paul’s reasoning. It is also a powerful means to drive home what he is trying to reinforce through the teaching of his gospel and to correct the thinking of his audience—thinking that would eventually govern their behavior. This then raises a series of questions that I will attempt to address in this book: What is metaphor? Why did Paul frequently employ such a diverse range of metaphors in his letters? What was the function of metaphor in the Greco-Roman conventions of Paul’s day? Did Paul randomly choose these metaphors in his letters as some sort of ornamental linguistic tool that formed part of his rhetorical strategy? Or, did he carefully and deliberately select these metaphors in order to accomplish specific goals in his communication with the Corinthians? How would the recipients of his letters have reacted to these metaphors? Did the use of metaphors shape the worldview and behavior of the recipients? What role did metaphors play in the formation of Christian social identity?

This leads me to my final motivation. I am interested in the social relations of Pauline community. What did Paul do to shape this movement in its formative years? How did the first Christ-followers perceive themselves, and how did they see themselves in relation to their contemporaries outside the ἐκκλησία? In what ways did they still share the cultural heritage of their contemporaries and social world? How would the gospel shape their social identity as followers of Christ since the ἐκκλησία comprised people from different ethnic groups? What were some of the ways and means Paul used to establish and nurture these communities so that they became, within a few decades, a fast-growing movement that transcended geographical boundaries? By using metaphors such as brothers and sisters, temple, and body, how did Paul creatively shape and influence the way the recipients thought and interacted with one another as insiders, with outsiders, and in the formation of group identity?

The Starting Point: Paul’s Use of Metaphors and Formation of Social Identity in the Corinthian Letters

Of all the Christ-movements founded by Paul, the Corinthian congregation was the one that faced the most challenging issues, ranging from internal divisions, problematic behavioral traits such as sexual immorality, lawsuits among members of the community, and eating food sacrificed to idols. Other disturbing issues included abuse in the celebration of the Eucharist, chaos in the order of worship, and failed collection for the poor in Jerusalem. The Corinthian letters are, therefore, excellent candidates to examine how Paul attempted to resolve these issues and conflicts in the community.

Also, Paul probably spent the most time and energy on this Christ-movement, compared to other communities he founded. In terms of the number of visits he had with the Corinthians, there was the founding visit that lasted eighteen months (Acts 18:1); followed by the painful visit (2 Cor 2:1; 12:21); and potentially a third visit (2 Cor 12:14, 20–21; 13:1–2). In between these visits, there were other planned visits that did not materialize (see 1 Cor 16:2, 5 and 2 Cor 1:15–16, 23; 2:3). When it comes to Paul’s correspondence with the Corinthians, we have a series of at least four, if not more, letters between them over a period of time. Unfortunately, not all these letters survived. Apart from the two canonical letters known as 1 and 2 Corinthians, it has been widely established that there could be at least two other letters that did not survive: a letter written prior to the canonical 1 Corinthians generally known as the previous letter (1 Cor 5:9 and 11) and a severe letter or letter of tears (2 Cor 1:23—2:11 and 7:5–16) possibly written some time in between the canonical 1 and 2 Corinthians. As such, if we take the literary integrity of 2 Corinthians,¹ we could confidently establish that there are at least four correspondences between Paul and the Corinthians in the following chronological order: previous letter; 1 Corinthians; severe letter; and 2 Corinthians.²

The two canonical Corinthian letters written by Paul are evidence of a church that was afflicted by conflicts and tensions internally and externally—among the members of the Christ-movement; between the members and Paul; and among the members, Paul, and external parties opposed to Paul. The extent of the conflicts and tension is striking because it is at Corinth that Paul spent the second longest span of time throughout his active missionary career after Ephesus. Within that period of eighteen months (cf. Acts 18:1), Paul would have had ample opportunities to instruct the Christ-followers in his understanding of the gospel. Yet, despite this privilege and the benefit of prolonged instruction from Paul, this recalcitrant community failed to conform to the teaching of Paul’s gospel.

Another reason why I chose the Corinthian letters for my study is that Paul uses a variety of metaphors in these letters. A cursory reading of Paul’s letters to the Corinthians reveals a diverse range of metaphors, as I have highlighted earlier. These metaphors are drawn from the cultural background that the predominant Greco-Roman audience of Paul’s letters were familiar with. It is also significant and interesting to note that these metaphors were employed at strategic places in Paul’s argument contained in these two letters as he addressed a very difficult, conflict-ridden church.

Finally, the problems and conflicts of the Corinthian Christ-movement were not so much theological or doctrinal in nature. If examined carefully, these problems directly involved social relations in the community. In light of this, Bruce Winter suggests that the problem of the Corinthian church was not so much that it was in the world, but that too much of the social life of the Roman world was found within the community.³ If Winter is correct in his observation, then the Corinthian letters could profitably be used to examine how Paul attempted to create a distinctive social identity rooted in his gospel for the Christ-followers, by using a diverse range of metaphors in resolving the communal conflicts.

Plan for the Book

Part I of the book will comprise two chapters. I have already presented the issues and the motivations for my investigation in the introduction. In chapter 1 that follows, I will examine the meaning of metaphor and how it was understood in the days of Paul in terms of its function and rhetoric. By drawing insights from the Conceptual Theory of Metaphor, I will also explore how the meaning of metaphor is mirrored and embedded in Paul’s letters to the Corinthians, and what Paul hopes to achieve and accomplish by employing these metaphors. A brief review on how Paul’s use of metaphors has been researched and studied will also be given some attention. Moving on to chapter 2, I will briefly discuss the theory of social identity formation and explore how Paul uses these metaphors in social identity formation of the Corinthians.

Part II of the book will then examine in some depth a series of metaphors. In order to contain the size of this study, I will only consider metaphors that are used frequently throughout the Corinthian letters or that appear in high density and close proximity that are directly related to social relation and identity of the Corinthians. I will discuss metaphors related to fictive kinship in chapters 3 (sibling metaphor) and 4 (familial metaphors), temple metaphor in chapter 5, and body metaphor in Chapter 6. In these chapters, I will follow the same general procedure of discussing the usage of the metaphor in the Jewish (if relevant) and Greco-Roman contexts, the use of the metaphor by Paul and its social implication on the Corinthians, and the function of metaphors in the formation of social identity.

Finally, in Part III, I will bring together a synthesis of my findings and their implications in shaping the social identity formation of the Corinthians and our understanding of New Testament communities.

1. The literary integrity of

2

Corinthians has been subjected to intense debate. Comprehensive reviews of these issues exist elsewhere (see the introductory section of most commentaries on

2

Corinthians). Whatever position one takes concerning the integrity of

2

Corinthians, there is no serious objection that this letter is written after

1

Corinthians. As I have argued elsewhere, it makes better sense to take the unity of

2

Corinthians rather than treating it as a composite of several letters. See Lim, Sufferings of Christ,

28

–

29

; and Hall, Unity of the Corinthian Correspondence.

2. For further discussion on Paul’s visits and correspondences with the Corinthians, see Harris, Second Epistle to the Corinthians,

1

–

50

.

3. Winter, After Paul Left Corinth,

27

–

28

. Winter further argues that much of the conflicts and problems in the Corinthian church were directly related to the social ethics of the social world of Corinth.

Part I

1

Paul’s Use of Metaphors in the Corinthian Letters

Introduction

In his letters to the Corinthians, Paul skillfully uses metaphors¹ drawn from the social reality, cultural background, and symbolic universe of his predominantly Greco-Roman audience. He also creatively employs metaphors to instruct, rebuke, and build up these communities. Not only are metaphors central to Paul’s arguments, they are also a powerful tool of communication which enabled his audience to visualize things in new and different ways.

Referring to the recipients’ former pagan religious practices, Paul declared: Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple (1 Cor 3:16–17).

Paul also drew on architectural terminology to express his role as an apostle to those who would have been familiar with construction, having witnessed the rebuilding of the city of Corinth since 44 BCE: For we are God’s servants, working together; you are God’s field, God’s building. According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building on it. Each builder must choose with care how to build on it (1 Cor 3:9–10).

Paul also evoked the imagery of paterfamilias in addressing the Corinthians: I am not writing this to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you might have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers. Indeed, in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel (1 Cor 4:14–15).

Knowing that the Corinthians were familiar with the Isthmian Games held bi-annually near Corinth, Paul employed athlete imagery in speaking to them: Do you not know that in a race the runners all compete, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win it. Athletes exercise self-control in all things; they do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable one. So I do not run aimlessly, nor do I box as though beating the air; but I punish my body and enslave it, so that after proclaiming to others I myself should not be disqualified (1 Cor 9:24–27).

The patronage system was deeply entrenched in the Greco-Roman society, and Paul drew on the social convention of using letters of recommendation in 2 Corinthians: Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Surely we do not need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you or from you, do we? You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all; and you show that you are a letter of Christ, prepared by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts (2 Cor 3:1–3).

Finally, Paul also used imagery familiar to the Greco-Roman audience when he compared the Corinthian community to the function of a human body: Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot would say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,’ that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear would say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,’ that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose (1 Cor 12:14–18).

How do we make sense of these diverse metaphors that Paul used in his correspondence to the Corinthians? Are they merely random rhetorical tools he employed to drive home a point in his argument? Or was Paul’s use of metaphors a very calculated and deliberate attempt to convey the truth of the gospel in a deeper manner? Was there a wider agenda in Paul’s theological discourse when he used these metaphors in rebuking, exhorting, and encouraging the Christ-followers in Corinth?

Until the last decade, Paul’s use of metaphors has been largely downplayed by his interpreters. This is evident when one compares the number of studies dedicated to the investigation of metaphors to those on, say, Pauline theology. Even when studies on metaphors are being carried out, they are usually from the perspective of a particular theological framework that often discounts the social reality of these metaphors. Some examples of these include election, redemption, justification, reconciliation, and adoption where Paul’s theology has been largely perceived as the springboard from which to understand these metaphors. However, without a proper understanding of Paul’s use of imagery, it is impossible to arrive at a complete understanding of his message to his audience. Ian Paul has underscored this serious lack of proper interpretation of metaphor, and this is puzzling as metaphor is one of the most crucial areas on the whole of hermeneutics since so much of biblical theology hangs on metaphors.²

The thesis of this study is that Paul used metaphor not only to instruct, rebuke, and present a theological argument of his understanding of the various issues that confronted the community, but that his primary reason was to employ metaphor in the task of community building and social identity formation in Christ, one that was deeply rooted in the Scripture of Israel and the social conventions of the Greco-Roman world. As such, Paul’s use of these metaphors goes beyond a theological treatise. Metaphors are used to convey Paul’s understanding of what it means to be followers of Christ as demonstrated in the Corinthians’ communal existence as the living exegesis of the gospel of Christ.

Previous Studies on Paul’s Use of Metaphors

An earlier study of Paul’s metaphors is the 1964 publication of Herbert M. Gale.³ Gale expresses surprise that little treatment has been given to the investigation of the analogies of Paul. This lack of attention is even more pronounced since a number of Paul’s analogies have played an extremely important role in the formulation and expression of many of the most important Christian theological ideas and doctrines.⁴ As such, he sets out to explore Paul’s use of metaphors in the seven undisputed letters with the aim that these analogies can be employed justifiably as a basis for an understanding of the apostle’s theological thought.⁵ The primary aim of Gale’s investigation is directed at uncovering Paul’s theological thought through metaphors and not how they function in the understanding of the recipients of the letters.

Subsequent works by G. B. Caird⁶ and Peter W. Macky⁷ deal primarily with linguistic and interpretive issues concerning metaphors, and not specifically with their function in Paul’s letters. Anthony Byatt’s work covers a broad range of metaphors in the New Testament arranged in a thematic order.⁸ Byatt expounds on the meaning of individual figurative words or phrases found in the New Testament, and he is less concerned with how these metaphors contribute to the flow of argument within the wider discourse.

Since Gale’s work, the study of Paul’s use of imagery in his letters has gained significant attention and momentum, and more so in the last decade. Most of these recent studies focused on Paul’s use of a particular image, either in one of his letters or throughout the Pauline corpus, as reflected in the recent works of Aasgaard, Aus, Berge, Breytenbach, Burke, Byron, Finlan, Gaventa, Goodrich, Gupta, Harris, Hogeterp, Kim, Konsmo, Lanci, McNeel, Patterson, Rosner, and Tsang, amongst others.⁹ These studies, without doubt, contribute significantly to our understanding of metaphors in Paul’s thought and in his letters. What remains to be explored is how a cluster of metaphors as seen in the Corinthian letters could have functioned in Paul’s argument.

David J. Williams’ reference-type format approach remains one of the most comprehensive studies of metaphors, and provides extensive information on the socio-historical background drawn from both Jewish and Greco-Roman sources in illuminating Paul’s diverse use of metaphors.¹⁰ However, Williams’ treatment follows a thematic outline of Paul’s use of metaphors. Despite many strengths of this work, such thematic treatment often suffers from a major setback, in that how these metaphors function within a particular letter is insufficiently addressed or downplayed. In addition, Williams’ work is based upon the assumption that knowledge of the background sources is sufficient for interpreting the metaphors, without paying close attention to the context of Paul’s letters.

It was not until the recent publication by Raymond F. Collins that a serious attempt to trace Paul’s use of metaphors within his individual letters was pursued.¹¹ In his work, Collins investigates how Paul uses metaphors in each of the seven undisputed letters in order to clarify the gospel for a particular audience and persuade the various churches to whom he wrote his letters of the truth of his message.¹² Collins’ work is significant as it marks a departure from previous studies that focus on a singular metaphor within a letter or letters of Paul. Collins is less concerned with how the metaphor functions within Paul’s theological thought. His primary aim is to see how Paul’s choice of metaphor is directly related to the thrust of his argument within the individual letters and to the truth of his gospel. In this respect, Collins pays more attention to the occasional nature of Paul’s letter and the social location of the respective audiences. By assigning communicative effect to the metaphors, Collins successfully brings forward the argument that there is much more coherence in Paul’s diverse use of metaphors with regards to the presentation of the gospel in his individual letters. Collins’ approach is useful for my investigation and fits neatly with the approach I will use in this book. However, the limited length of his work means Collins was not able to direct his attention to fuller investigation