Ancient Corinth, Judge Judy, and Litigious Christians

What follows is an excerpt from season three, episode ten of the Blessed Hope Podcast which covers chapter six of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians.

Only Americans could love Judge Judy–the über-mom, as I call her, because of her uncanny ability to make grown men look like disobedient children. Yet I’m sure that if the Corinthians had the technology we have, they too would love Judge Judy. The public airing of personal grievances makes for great theater. This explains Judge Judy’s huge audience in contemporary America. Public quarreling and exposing one’s laundry before an audience was also popular in first century Corinth. To Paul’s chagrin, the Corinthians joined right in.

Roman courts of the first century distinguished between criminal trials and civil disputes. In chapter 6, it is clear that Paul is speaking of civil matters involving litigation (lawsuits or “small claims”),[1] not criminal matters (i.e., murder, assault, theft, etc.). Criminal trials were formal legal procedures and in many cases a jury was present.[2] In Corinth, common legal disputes were usually settled in large public buildings called basilicas which were part of the city’s agoura (marketplace). Whenever the court met to deal with a civil case, the public often gathered to take in the spectacle of well-known townsfolk accusing each other of all kinds of wrongdoing before the court, while a leading citizen appointed by a magistrate served as judge.[3]

Although the public airing of personal disputes could attract large audiences in cities like Corinth, Paul urges Christians not to participate. Christians are to settle their small-claim disputes against their brothers and sisters in the church based upon the wisdom and power of God as revealed in the cross of Christ and in the command to love one’s neighbor. Paul’s rationale is grounded in his eschatology–those who will one day judge the world need to learn to settle their disputes in a God-honoring manner, and not resort to a public spectacle like that found in the courts of Corinth.

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Paul’s anger at the church’s failure to discipline erring members (church discipline) might in some way be reflected in the fact that Corinthian Christians had become used to settling their disputes before civil magistrates rather than addressing the matter in the church. It is important to keep in mind that civil litigation of that period was often a matter of those with wealth and power using their influence to obtain a favorable verdict through favors received from “judges” or based upon their ability to hire skilled public speakers (rhetoricians) as prosecutors when a poorer defendant could not afford a skilled defense. Bribery of court officials was common.[4] As one writer points out, lawsuits of this period were often the means for one party to solve their grievances with others while further elevating their own social status at the expense of the reputation of the losing party.[5] A classical case of one upmanship, and something we might expect to find in the courts of Corinth, where public status and reputation was everything.

Witherington points out the significance of the ease of “gaming the system” in order to better understand Paul’s discussion in the balance of the chapter. “The importance of this for 1 Corinthians 6 is that at the very least one or both of the Christians going to court were probably well-to-do and hoping to exploit the judicial system to their advantage.”[6] This would fit with Paul’s sarcastic charge made in verses 4-6 of chapter 4, that the Corinthians were puffed up and fancied themselves to be rich. The issues Paul raises in chapter six then naturally flow out of his previous chastisement of this congregation.

Ever the realist, Paul knows full well that sinful people are going to have personal disputes with one another. The issue he raises in light of the Corinthian willingness to participate in this unjust system, is how should Christians settle disputes when they do arise? Paul is emphatic that any disputes of a personal nature (like that of a small claims court) arising among members of the Corinthian church must be settled within the church, and not in the civil courts outside the church.

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[1] Thiselton, 1 Corithinians, 419.

[2] Schreiner, 1 Corinthians, 117.

[3] The details of such court proceedings are spelled out in Witherington, A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary on 1 and 2 Corinthians, 162.

[4] Ciampa and Rosner, The First Letter to the Corinthians, 223.

[5] B. Linman, “Appoint the Despised as Judges, (1 Corinthians 6:4),” Tyndale Bulletin, 48:345-354.

[6] Witherington, Socio-Rhetorical Commentary on 1 and 2 Corinthians, 163-164.