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]

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