Moses and Christ in the Wilderness Narrative

Transformation of Religious Traditions in 1 Cor 10

Bibliographic Data

ID3262852
AuthorsSin Pan Ho (0000-0002-9776-9291, Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume14
Issue7
Pages906
Publication date2023-07-13
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueReligions (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2077-1444 • E-ISSN: 2077-1444
PublisherMDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.3390/rel14070906
OpenAlexW4384341835
LanguageEN
References cited11

Unlike Islam, Judaism and Christianity, religions in antiquity were non-confessional and lacked moral instructions for worshippers. Patron-client associations seemed to depict gods-worshipper relations in Paul's time. In this paper, I argue that Paul in 1 Cor 10:1-4 uses both his former religious traditions and those of the first audience, Jews and non-Jews, to convince them about his novel God-Christ patron-covenant theology. Paul abruptly introduced Moses (10:2), spiritual food/drink (10:3-4a) and Christ (10:4b) into the classic Jewish wandering story in the wilderness to delineate his anti-idol rhetoric throughout 1 Cor 10. Paul paradoxically warned the first audience against their idol-worshipping lifestyles by utilising and transforming Jewish Shema worship into a binitarian God-Christ covenantal relation, and idol-worship traditions to the only patron family god of the Christ-follower community. Paul's rhetorical purpose of (re)introducing the concept of God as Moses' God and Christ as an anti-idol polemic is a coherent theme throughout 1 Cor 10 and probably throughout 1 Cor 11-14

Art · Christianity · Confessional · Judaism · Literature · Narrative · Politics · Rhetoric · Rhetorical question · Theology · Wilderness · Worship · Archaeology and Historical Studies · Biblical Studies and Interpretation · Historical and Linguistic Studies · Law · Philosophy · Religious studies

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