In the last issue of this article I began sharing ideas about Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, the third letter to be written and included in the canon of the New Testament (NT). Paul’s first letter attempted to address certain divisions in the community that were reported to him. He had already left the community.

There were divisions within the community between the “rich” and the “rest” (same old divisions that we still see today). The letter tells us that few were wealthy: “Not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.” But obviously some were. In this respect, the Christ-community in Corinth may have been an exception among Paul’s communities. It was mostly made up of urban workers, many of them God-fearers from the merchant and artisan classes. Some were prosperous enough to have become Paul’s patrons and benefactors. Although not from the super-wealthy class, they may have been what we might call “well-to-do.”

This conflict surfaces in chapter 11 and is the context for what Paul writes about the meaning of the common meal that he calls the “Lord’s supper.” This is actually the earliest reference about the special sacramental meal at the center of Christian worship.

It should be remembered that in the first century the Lord’s Supper was an actual meal. It was not just a piece of bread and a sip of wine. It was a full meal shared in common by the community. During this meal;, bread and wine would be prayed over and declared as the Body and Blood of Christ. What we now call the Divine Liturgy was part of a common meal in imitation of what happened at the original Last Supper.

We do not know how often, however, these early Christian communities shared this meal. It is thought that the community would have a common meal at least weekly, following the rhythm of the Sabbath. It may have been shared on a Sunday rather than on a Friday evening as in Jewish tradition.

It seems, however, that in Corinth the meal ceased to be a common meal. The wealthy would gather early for the meal. By the time the working people got to the meal, the wealth had already eaten and some, because there was also drinking of wine, were tipsy. They may have also served the best wine and best food to themselves before the others arrived. Such was common among the wealthy in the world at that time. This, of course, violated Paul’s understanding of the Church as the one “Body of Christ.” It is for this reason that Paul included in this first letter a condemnation of the practice of the wealthy.