Instructions on Worship and Communal Meals

Wealthy Roman patrons host weekly evening gatherings inside sprawling stone villas. Working laborers and elite merchants crowd together into private dining rooms. A heavy smell of roasted meat and raw wine fills the enclosed Mediterranean air. Deep social fractures emerge rapidly across the marble floors during these communal meals.

Paul writes from Ephesus around 54 a.d. to the bustling port city of Corinth. The city sits on a narrow land bridge measuring roughly 4 miles across. A typical wealthy dining room holds only about nine reclining guests. Poorer members are forced to stand outside in courtyards measuring roughly 400 square feet.

The letter addresses sharp disputes over physical dress codes and shared meals. Paul instructs men and women to maintain distinct Roman hair length customs during public prayers. He then severely rebukes wealthy citizens for hoarding baked bread and fermented wine. Exhausted manual laborers arrive late from the docks and find nothing left to eat.

For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

Paul promises to organize the remaining practical matters upon his return to the city. The fragile community must examine their loyalties before sharing another common loaf. They prepare for his anticipated visit in the spring of 55 a.d.