LIT 340
Prof. G. Steinberg

Response Paper:  1 Corinthians, Philemon, and Revelation

Choose one of the following areas as the focus of your response paper:

1. Choose one or two episodes or images from Revelation.  What role does typology play in these episodes or images?  How do the episodes or images you've chosen relate to the ancient Hebrew writings of the Old Testament?  How are they similar to episodes or images in the Old Testament?  Why would the writer of Revelation want to echo or imitate the Old Testament episode or image?  How has the writer changed the Old Testament episode or image?  Why would the writer want to make the change(s)?  Which part(s) of the Old Testament does the writer seem to echo or imitate most?
2. Paul’s epistles (including 1 Corinthians and Philemon) are the earliest Christian texts to be written down.  Most of them were probably genuinely written by Paul (or, more accurately, dictated by Paul to a disciple who wrote them down – see 1 Corinthians 16:21-24 for a message that Paul apparently appended at the end of the letter in his own hand).  The letters dictated by Paul were revered and recopied and shared from Christian community to Christian community.  Given that these epistles are the earliest documentary evidence we have of early Christian culture and thinking, what do we learn from 1 Corinthians and Philemon about Christian culture, values, problems, and interests?  How did early Christians live?  What issues did they face?  How did they resolve problems as a community?  What were their guiding principles?
3. Paul is often taken to task for telling women that they should not speak in church.  What role do women seem to play among the early Christians?  How are women protrayed?  What seems to be Paul’s overall thinking when it comes to women in the church?

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