The Origins of the Corinthian Christ Group: Paul's Chord of Gods

by Stephen Ahearne-Kroll

Overview

The Origins of the Christ Movement in Corinth: Paul’s Chord of Gods argues that Paul’s language about his god (father, lord Jesus Christ and pneuma) would have been familiar to Corinthian gentiles as a small group of gods – a chord of gods. Worship of Paul’s chord of gods matches the common religious practice (in Theodore Schatzki’s sense) around the ancient Mediterranean and in Corinth and would have been familiar to the Corinthians. This religious practice could have formed the basis of attraction for the Corinthians to join Paul’s Christ group, served as a social engine for its growth among gentiles in Corinth and been a source of conflict with Paul that he tries to address in his letters to the Corinthians.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781399536301
Publisher:	Edinburgh University Press
Publication date:	02/28/2026
Series:	Edinburgh Studies in Religion in Antiquity
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.00(d)

About the Author

Stephen P. Ahearne-Kroll is the Sundet Family Chair in New Testament and Christian Studies at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN USA. He is the editor of The Oxford Handbook of the Synoptic Gospels (Oxford UniversityPress, 2023), author of the commentary on Mark in The Jerome Biblical Commentary for the Twenty-First Century (Bloomsbury Academic, 2022); coeditor with Paul A. Holloway and James A. Kelhoffer, of Women and Gender in Ancient Religion (Mohr Siebeck, 2010); and author of The Psalms of Lament in Mark’s Gospel (Cambridge UniversityPress, 2007). He has written on the role of memory in Asklepios sanctuaries and widely on the Gospel of Mark.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations

Preface and Acknowledgements

1. Introduction: Ancient Religion, Social Theory and Methodology

2. Chords of Gods Around the Mediterranean

3. Chords of Gods in Corinth

4. The Pneuma in Corinth

5. Genealogy, History, Mythology and Cult of Paul’s God(s)

6. Reimagining the Early Day’s of Paul’s Corinthians

7. Conclusion: A Chord of Gods as a ‘Tool for Rupture’

Appendix

Bibliography

Index

Editorial Reviews

The question is deceptively simple: When Paul came to Corinth introducing a new triad of divine beings—the god of Israel, his son Christ and the pneuma—how might the locals have understood this? Dismissing anachronistic notions of monotheism, Ahearne-Kroll offers a compelling new answer solidly grounded in ancient evidence.

Brent Nongbri