Communion with Christ and Christian community in 1 Corinthians: a study of Paul's concept of Koinonia

Abstract

Although the concept of χοιυωυια occurs only twice in 1 Corinthians (1:9 and 10:16), each of these two occurrences appears to be highly significant not only for the context in each case but also generally with reference to the character of the Apostle's argumentation in this epistle. In the first passage, which has almost entirely been neglected so far in the many scholarly contributions to the subject of χοιυωυια, the term occurs in the summarizing climax of the letter-opening (1 Cor 1:1-9) which is remarkably packed with theological and christological statements and which is structured by a laudatory description of God's wonderful works in the Corinthians' lives in past (vvA-6) present (v.7a) and future (vv.7b-8). The basic message which Paul wants his addressees to comprehend right from the beginning and which - according to the epistolary I P function of these nine verses - reveals his approach to their many serious problems, culminates in the concept of χοιυωυια, in the salvific communion with Christ crucified, God's Son, their risen Lord, a communion into which they had been called once-for-alI and where God's faithfulness continually preserved them until the end. The other instance in 1 Cor 10:16 is not a Pauline formulation but a presumably catechetical tradition on the Lord's Supper which the Apostle quoted and employed as an argument in the course of his lengthy discussion of the problem of idol-meat (1 Cor 8:1-11:1). Because of the communion (χοιυωυια) with the body and blood of Christ, i.e. the inclusive involvement into Christ's death and resurrection as it is tangibly expressed in the celebration of the Eucharist, any other competing relationships and meal fellowships with idols are necessarily excluded. So, in both cases of χοιυωυια in 1 Corinthians the concept is not an ecclesiological term but rather emphasizes the communion with Christ as the constant constitutive condition of the Christians' individual and community life.