Father Gavril Galev: Christian anthropology according to St. Paul in the Epistles to the Corinthians (Part I)
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Introduction
Man is not just a puzzle, but a secret. The puzzle can be solved –
sometimes it’s just a matter of information and communication.
We can only get closer to the secret, but not solve it.[1]
– Prof. Dr. Vladeta Jerotic
We live in a time when the terms human and human rights are mentioned more and more often, and we are less and less familiar with man and what his “rights” are. What is, or rather, who man is and what is his objective, meaning and purpose of his existence, has been an open question for centuries.
The topic we want to write about on the subject “Interpretation of I and II Corinthians” was chosen because nowadays, man is theoretically positioned in the center of the world, while in reality he is more and more decentralized and disoriented. This happens because the axis has been shifted, that is, the foundation on which the axis is positioned has been shifted, “for no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 3:11).
With his incarnation, the God-Man Jesus Christ shifts gravity and becomes the centre and criterion for mankind, therefore we would name our topic, more precisely as “Spiritual anthropology”,[2] or simply, Christian anthropology.
The ancient dualistic anthropology
During the time of St. Paul in Corinth, anthropological thought was strongly influenced by the Stoics, Epicureans, and academics. To understand St. Paul’s anthropology, it is first necessary to consider the dualistic anthropology of the Greeks, who make a clear distinction between the soul and the body, but, also even more the Hebrew’s frame of reference, “sarx” and “psyche” (body and soul). The two components of human nature denote the whole living person, not just as a part of it. [3]
According to Hellenic dualism, the body is opposed to the soul and is the coffin, grave or enemy of the soul. The body and the soul are considered to be two different opposing substances. The soul is eternal, and its birthplace is the ideal world. The body is temporary, material and it is the source of the sufferings and of the passions of the soul. The immortal soul is temporarily locked in a mortal body. [4]
St. Paul and his epistles to the Corinthians
St. Paul wrote four epistles to the Corinthians, of which only two have survived[5]. In his epistles to the Corinthians he deals with the problem of man, his social and ecclesial life, morality, gender, purpose and eschatology.
By vocation he was not a psychologist and does not give a specific psychosomatic definition for that which a man is, however from his epistles we can read that he was more than a psychologist. He was a complete spiritual father, a worthy knower of the human soul and its needs, not from a book, but through the inner experience of the Holy Spirit. Enlightened by the grace of the Holy Spirit and the wisdom, which is not of this world, but from God, he knew man from within. (1 Cor. 2: 11-13).
When St. Paul speaks of man, he always associates him with God, more precisely with the God-Man Jesus Christ, through Whom all things are, and through Whom we are alive (1 Cor. 8: 6). His anthropology is therefore strictly Christ-centered, as well as soteriological and eschatological. Saint Paul speaks of man, created in the image and likeness of God, of the sin and fall and his redemption, deification and ultimate salvation, i.e., oneness with God as the ultimate goal of human existence. To be continued…
Fr. Gavril Galev
Abbot of the monastery “St. Clement of Ohrid”,
Kinglake, Melbourne, Australia
20 / 06 / 2022
[1] Nahum Ilievski, Christians’ Identity (in Macedonian). Monastery of the Most Holy Theotokos Eleusa: Library of Eleusa, 2018, 177
[2] Ben Witherington, Conflict and Community in Corinth: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary on 1 and 2 Corinthians. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995, 126
[3] John S Romanides, “Original Sin According to St. Paul.” The Romans, http://www.romanity.org/htm/rom.10.en.original_sin_according_to_st._paul.01.htm#180 (accessed June 4, 2019)
[4] Ray S. Anderson, On Being Human, (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1982), 208
[5] Mark, Alen Powell, Introducting the new Testament: A Historical, Leiteratry, and Theological Survey Backer Pablishing Group, Singapore, 2009, 274
