Thomas R. Schreiner, 1 Corinthians (TNTC)

Schreiner, Thomas R. 1 Corinthians. Tyndale New Testament Commentary. Downers Grove, Ill.: IVP Academic, 2018. xxxiv+337 pp. Pb. $25.00 Link to IVP Academic

This new volume in the Tyndale New Testament Commentary series replaces the 1958 commentary by Leon Morris, originally published by Eerdmans. This is the second replacement volume published since the New Testament Tyndale Commentary moved to IVP Academic a few years ago (Ian Paul, Revelation).

Schreiner is well known in evangelical circles. He is Professor of New Testament Interpretation at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and has served as president of the Evangelical Theological Society. In addition to numerous books and articles, Schreiner has contributed major commentaries on Romans (Baker, 1998, Second Edition, 2018) and Galatians (Zondervan, 2010) as well as New Testament Theology (Baker, 2008) and a Pauline theology, Paul, Apostle of God’s Glory in Christ (IVP Academic 2006).

The fifty-page introduction to the commentary introduces the city of Corinth and Paul’s initial ministry there according to the book of Acts. The authorship and date of the letter are not controversial and Schreiner assumes the traditional view Paul wrote the letter from Ephesus in the spring of AD 54, before the feast of Pentecost (1 Cor 16:8). There is only a brief paragraph dismissing any pre-history of the letter as irrelevant (p. 17). His discussion of the occasion of the letter likewise follows the traditional view the content of the letter is a response to reports from Paul’s associates and response to questions from the church itself. He briefly interacts with Margaret Mitchell’s study arguing the phrase “now about” (peri de) does not necessarily refer to a question from the church, but in the commentary he treats the phrase as introducing an answer to questions (p. 11).

About half of the introduction traces the major theological themes of 1 Corinthians. The first three of these themes are the members of the Trinity, although the section on the Holy Spirit naturally deals with the problem of spiritual gifts on 1 Corinthians, a topic so important it merits a larger discussion under a separate heading. His interest is the purpose of sign gifts (edification of the church), so he does not use this section to argue for or against the cessation of tongues (See his Spiritual Gifts: What They Are and Why They Matter, B&H Academic, 2018) for his view on this issue). Schreiner divides his section on the church into divisions and discipline, both key themes in the letter, but the section ought to be read along with his section on “living a new life” and on “food sacrificed to idols.” In both these sections Schreiner discusses how the individual Christian lives out a life is out of step with the culture Roman world of Corinth. Although he does not make this point as strongly as I would like, this seems to be the source of much of the problems in Corinth. He follows Eckhard Schnabel’s suggestion the letter concerns conflicts within the church (divisions, lawsuits, etc.) and compromises with the word (sexual sin, marriage, food sacrificed to idols, etc.).

The body of the commentary divides the letter into two major sections: addressing the problems in the church, 1:10-6:20) and answers to contemporary issues in the church (7:1-16:4). Each subsection has a brief section setting the context of the pericope followed by a verse-by-verse commentary. Given the length of 1 Corinthians, sometimes the commentary covers several verses in a single paragraph. Schreiner’s comments are on the English text although he occasionally refers to Greek in transliteration.

Following the commentary there is a brief section labeled theology. Here Schreiner often draws on parallel material in the Pauline letters as he comments on how the pericope contributes to Christian theology and practice. For example, on 1 Corinthians 7:1-7, he observes I Corinthians 7:1-7 is similar to Paul’s description of self-sacrificial love in Ephesians 5:22-29, guarding against “militaristic and rigid understanding of submission” (p. 158).

Because of the controversial nature of Paul’s comments on headship (11:2-16), Schreiner writes a longer section of commentary on 1 Corinthians 11:3, “the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God.” In his case Schreiner does interact with other commentaries (Garland, Ciampa and Rosner). He agrees there is a social and cultural dimension to Paul’s comments, but limiting this text to only the social and cultural dimensions may “blind us to the theological dimension of the text” (p. 223). Separating social and theological realties merge in remarkable ways, says Schreiner. He argues Paul has in mind women in general rather than just wives, although he later suggests a mediating position that Paul refers to both all woman and wives. The analogy to the Trinity is not an exact parallel, but it is a parallel (p. 227). In the theology section for this pericope, he concludes “the distinctions between the sexes must be preserved; thus there is no warrant for the notion that one’s gender is simply a social construct” (p. 238). With respect to the application to veiling women in a modern context, “each culture has to work out how the theological principle articulated works out in its particular circumstances” (p. 239)

Schreiner begins his discussion of the controversial passage in 14:34-35 by rejecting any attempt to dismiss the verses as secondary (contra Fee, 780-92). For Schreiner, some women in Corinth were asking disruptive or defiant questions; the shame is not that women were speaking but rather that they were disruptive (p. 298). He cites Plutarch as an example of what the ancient world expected from a woman in public.

There are only a few footnotes, often giving cross references or pointers to monographs focusing on some detail of the text. Unlike many contemporary commentaries, Schreiner does not cite other commentaries on 1 Corinthians, although he has certainly read them and benefited from a wide range of views. This is refreshing given the recent trend toward “commentaries on the commentaries.”

Conclusion. This new commentary on 1 Corinthians is a welcome update to the Tyndale New Testament Commentary series. Although the book is brief compared to other recent commentaries, Schreiner offers enough social and cultural background to illuminate some of the more difficult sections of the letter and draws conservative, evangelical applications to contemporary issues. This commentary will serve pastors, teachers, and students as they study this important Pauline letter to their congregations.

Other reviewed commentaries in third Tyndale series: