Questions for Further Study:
1. Some scholars think that Paul is especially concerned about a whole group of women prophets who are praying with their heads uncovered, living as if they were already in the last days, and generally making life difficult for Paul. Do you see any evidence of such a designated sub-group in the Corinthian community?
2. The material about the Lord’s Supper in 11:23-25 is one of the few places where Paul draws on words attributed to Jesus himself. How is this important for Paul’s argument?
3. The suggestion that some of the Corinthians have become ill and others have died because of mistaken communion practices seems both harsh and strange to us. Are there ways to make a link between Paul’s kind of spiritual “realism” and our frequent division between spiritual matters and bodily consequences?
Questions for Discussion:
1. Do Paul’s distinctions between what is appropriate for a male and what is appropriate for a female provide any guidance for appropriate socialization in the church today—or is he simply hopelessly hierarchical?
2. Where are the specific places where class, economic and educational distinctions in our churches are evident today?
3. If you were to rethink the practice of the Lord’s Supper in your church on the basis of 1 Corinthians 11, what—if anything— would you do differently?