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1 Corinthians

About this book
Chapter 3

1 So, brothers and sisters, I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but instead as people of the flesh,⁠ as infants in Christ. 2 I fed you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready. In fact, you are still not ready,⁠ 3 for you are still influenced by the flesh. For since there is still jealousy and dissension among you, are you not influenced by the flesh and behaving like unregenerate people? 4 For whenever someone says, “I am with Paul,” or “I am with Apollos,” are you not merely human? 5 What is Apollos, really? Or what is Paul? Servants through whom you came to believe, and each of us in the ministry the Lord gave us. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God caused it to grow. 7 So neither the one who plants counts for anything, nor the one who waters, but God who causes the growth. 8 The one who plants and the one who waters work as one, but each will receive his reward according to his work.⁠ 9 We are coworkers belonging to God. You are God’s field, God’s building. 10 According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master-builder I laid a foundation, but someone else builds on it. And each one must be careful how he builds. 11 For no one can lay any foundation other than what is being laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 If anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw, 13 each builder’s work will be plainly seen, for the Day will make it clear, because it will be revealed by fire. And the fire will test what kind of work each has done. 14 If what someone has built survives, he will receive a reward. 15 If someone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss. He himself will be saved, but only as through fire. 16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?⁠ 17 If someone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, which is what you are. 18 Guard against self-deception, each of you. If someone among you thinks he is wise in this age, let him become foolish so that he can become wise. 19 For the wisdom of this age is foolishness with God. As it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness.”⁠ 20 And again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.” 21 So then, no more boasting about mere mortals! For everything belongs to you, 22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future. Everything belongs to you, 23 and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.

Texts in conversation

Compare 1QS 8:4 and 1 Corinthians 3:16

Dead Sea Scrolls, Sectarian and Community Texts · New Testament

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Summary

The Dead Sea Scrolls Community Rule describes its members as a living temple built from people rather than stone. In 1 Corinthians, Paul uses similar language when believers are called God’s temple, suggesting that the community functions as a temple.

Passages

1QS 8:4

Dead Sea Scrolls, Sectarian and Community Texts · Community Rule
1 In the council of the community there shall be twelve men and three priests, perfect in all that has been revealed from all 2 the Torah, to practice truth and righteousness and justice and loving kindness and walking modestly, each with his fellow, 3 to keep faithfulness in the land with a steadfast inclination and a broken spirit, and to pay off iniquity by doing justice 4 and by the distress of refining, and to walk with all by the measure of truth and by the rule of the time. When these are in Israel, 5 the council of the community is established in truth, as an eternal planting, a holy house for Israel and a most holy 6 assembly for Aaron, true witnesses for judgment and chosen by his will, to atone for the land and to repay 7 the wicked their reward. It is the tested wall, the precious cornerstone;
160–100 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1QS

1 Corinthians 3:16

New Testament
16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? 17 If someone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, which is what you are. 18 Guard against self-deception, each of you. If someone among you thinks he is wise in this age, let him become foolish so that he can become wise. 19 For the wisdom of this age is foolishness with God. As it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness.” 20 And again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.” 21 So then, no more boasting about mere mortals! For everything belongs to you, 22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future. Everything belongs to you, 23 and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.
55–57 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Corinthians

References

"... Though not directly related to the purity issue like the ritual washing and the community meal, the following three passages (A: 1QS 8:1-4a; B: 1QS 8:4b-7; C: 1QS 9:3-6) suggest seeing the community as a Temple by indirectly raising the purity issue. First of all, it is required to decide whether 'the Community council' in A) indicates an 'inner council' within the community or whether it alludes to 'the community as a whole'. There are two texts (1QS 3:2; 1QSa 1:26-28) which demonstrate the preceding two different views, respectively. The above two texts show that the phrase, 'Community council' indicates either the inner group or the whole Community in the Qumran scrolls. It is not easy to determine which one is right. However, the most important clue to solve this problem can be given in 4QIsaiah Pesher which is parallel to 1 QS 8:4-7 in that the Community council is described as 'foundations' (line 5) of the Temple in both texts. 4QIsaiah 54:11-12 Pesher expresses the Community council as a foundation of Temple which is an inner group which consists of priests and some valuable lay people like a sapphire in the midst of stones. From this, it may be possible to conclude that the Community council in 1 QS 8 also indicates the inner group ..."
Pilchan Lee, The New Jerusalem in the Book of Revelation: A Study of Revelation 21–22 in the Light of Its Background in Jewish Tradition (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2001), 230–238.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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1QS 8:4 and 1 Corinthians 3:16

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