Paul’s concern for “body” in 1 Corinthians 5, 6:12-20

In 1 Corinthians Paul demands a strong control of the body from the members of the church in Corinth. The main reason for Paul’s demand for a strong bodily control is because of his concern of pollution or impurity that can affect the Corinthian body (church). Throughout 1 Corinthians Paul takes on various subjects that have the potential to pollute the embodiment. Porneia, “sexual immorality”, is one such polluting agent that can contaminate the embodiment and spread widely its negative influences. In this thesis I will specifically look into Paul’s concern about keeping the body away from porneia “sexual immorality” as seen in chapters 5 and 6. I will argue that Paul viewed the “Corinthian body”1 as an entity that was polluted from within itself because of porneia and was concerned about the sustenance of the church. The thesis of this work is to argue that Paul considered the Corinthian “bodies” (both individual and group) as being at risk of spreading the polluting effects of porneia and to propose that the way to keep the “bodies” away from the polluting agent (porneia) would require each individual to know his/her “embodiment” and guard against contamination through the rituals of the community. [TRUNCATED