Texts in Conversation
Paul’s warning about the “destroying angel” in 1 Corinthians 10 echoes the Wisdom of Solomon that describes a divine agent of destruction. Paul’s reference follows an interpretive tradition that merged the Exodus destroyer with the wilderness plagues.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Wisdom of Solomon 18:20
Deuterocanon
21 Then a blameless man hurried to defend them. Bringing the shield of his own ministry, prayer and atoning incense, he set himself against the wrath and brought the disaster to an end, showing that he was your servant. 22 He overcame the destroyer not by bodily strength or force of arms, but with a word he subdued the punisher, appealing to the oaths and covenants made with the ancestors. 23 When the dead had already fallen in heaps on one another, he stood between and held back the wrath, and cut off its way to the living. 24 On his long robe was the whole world, the glory of the ancestors was engraved on the four rows of stones, and your majesty was on the diadem on his head. 25 Before these the destroyer gave way, and these he feared, for it was enough that they had only tasted the wrath.
1 Corinthians 10:10
New Testament
8 And let us not be immoral, as some of them were, and 23,000 died in a single day. 9 And let us not put Christ to the test, as some of them did, and were destroyed by snakes. 10 And do not complain, as some of them did, and were killed by the destroying angel. 11 These things happened to them as examples and were written for our instruction, on whom the ends of the ages have come.
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Notes and References
"... Paul’s command not to grumble in 1 Corinthians 10:10 may be informed by Korah’s rebellion, which involves grumbling (Numbers 16:11, 41) and provoking the Lord (16:30), and which links this story with Paul’s previous allusion to divine provocation and testing (Numbers 21:4–6; 25:10–12). Later rabbinic sources also viewed Korah’s rebellion against Moses and Aaron’s leadership as a prime example of grumbling and rebellion. Paul claims the rebels’ destruction is brought on by “the Destroyer,” presumably an angelic being that is not designated as such in Numbers 16. It seems that Paul, informed by the earlier context of Numbers 20, recalls the people’s complaint in 20:3 that includes a wish that they had died earlier in the destruction (ἀπώλεια) of their “kinsmen before the presence of the Lord.” This earlier event refers to Korah’s rebellion. The notion of the “Destroyer” causing this destruction may be an assumption Paul learned from an earlier midrash tradition, perhaps related to the destructive angel that strikes a plague on the Passover night in Exod 12:23 (compare 4 Maccabees 7:11; Hebrews 11:28). Wisdom of Solomon 18:20–25 retells Korah’s destruction and likewise connects it with a destroying angel, and so the association probably pre-dates and may have influenced Paul ..."
Baron, Lori
"Midrash" in Oropeza, Brisio J., and Steve Moyise (eds.) Exploring Intertextuality: Diverse Strategies for New Testament Interpretation of Texts
(pp. 99-120) Cascade Books, 2016
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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