Judgment and Community Conflict: Paul's Use of Apocalyptic Judgment Language in 1 Corinthians 3:5-4:5

This study demonstrates that Paul in 1 Corinthians 3:5 — 4:5 is led by the rhetorical situation to emphasize God's final judgment as the affirmation of the individual Christian's work. Paul is not simply opposing his future eschatology to a Corinthian "realized" eschatology. Rather, he is teaching the Corinthians to adapt their inherited belief in a corporate judgment to new concerns within the community.
The exegetical study is set in the context of past scholarship on the questions of Paul...