Abstract:
This contribution seeks to clarify how the category of eschatological equality in
1 Corinthians is to be ascertained. Is equality, in this instance, to be understood
as the annulment of status differences within the Christian congregation, or does it
belong to an eschatological plan of an ideal or utopic world? Is the new Christian
existence of the Corinthians conceived as real, as outwardly visible or as socially
perceivable? This study is aimed at understanding the theological construction
connected with these questions by interpreting the paradigmatic relation of the
status-designating pairs Ἰουδαῖοι and Ἕλληνες; ἐλεύθερος and δοῦλος; ἄνθρωπος/ἀνήρ, and
γυνή (or ἄρσεν and θῆλυ) within the Pauline argument.
