RT Article
T1 Between Imagination and Practice: Pauline Theology and Burying the Dead at Corinth
JF Novum Testamentum
VO 66
IS 1
SP 58
OP 79
A1 O'Connor, M. John-Patrick
LA English
PB Brill
YR 2024
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1876724498
AB In his now classic work, The First Urban Christians, Wayne Meeks asserts that “we have no evidence about the funeral practices of Pauline Christians.” In 1 Corinthians the best evidence we possess, according to Meeks, is an “enigmatic reference to ‘baptism for the dead’” (1 Cor 15:29). Recent research, however, has questioned Meeks’s disparaging conclusions about the evidence for Pauline Christian burial practices. The following article contributes to this discussion by examining Paul’s references to special garments and the afterlife (1 Thess 5:8; 1 Cor 15:53–54; 2 Cor 5:1–4). Later data indicates that eschatological clothing metaphors were taken literally in some early Jewish and Christian communities. Furthermore, developments in metaphor theory suggest that conceptual metaphors are often grounded in common experiences. This article contends that Paul’s metaphor for new garments at the resurrection may coincide with first-century funerary practices within Pauline communities.
K1 2 Cor 5:1–4
K1 1 Cor 15:53–54
K1 1 Cor 15:29
K1 Paul
K1 Metaphor
K1 clothing the dead
K1 burial rituals
DO 10.1163/15685365-bja10053