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1 and 2 Corinthians

  1. Lesson One
    Overview of 1 and 2 Corinthians (Skim 1 and 2 Corinthians)
    24 Activities
    |
    1 Assessment
  2. Lesson Two
    Holiness in the Context of Freedom (1 Corinthians 5–8, 10, 15)
    20 Activities
    |
    1 Assessment
  3. Lesson Three
    Unity and Order in the Context of Diversity (1 Corinthians 1–3, 11–14)
    19 Activities
  4. Lesson Four
    Paul's Apostleship (1 Corinthians 4, 9, 16, 2 Corinthians 1–7)
    19 Activities
    |
    3 Assessments
  5. Lesson Five
    Author and Audience (2 Corinthians 8–13)
    25 Activities
    |
    2 Assessments
  6. Course Wrap-Up
    Course Completion
    1 Activity
    |
    1 Assessment

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1 and 2 Corinthians Author and Audience (2 Corinthians 8–13) Behind | Plutarch’s Criticism of Boasting
Lesson 5, Activity 17

Behind | Plutarch’s Criticism of Boasting

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Paul wasn’t the only one in his time criticizing those who boasted. Take a look at this quotation from Plutarch, the ancient Greek author:

The unfortunate as well can boast and extol themselves with better grace than the fortunate. For the fortunate are felt to lay hands on glory, as it were, and take their pleasure of it in gratification of their pride, but the others, far removed from ambition by their plight, are looked upon as breasting ill-fortune, shoring up their courage, and eschewing all appeal to pity and all whining and self-abasement in adversity. And so, just as we regard those who strut on a walk and hold up their chin as fatuous and vain, but when in boxing or fighting men rise to their full height and hold the head erect, we applaud; so the man cast down by fortune, when he stands upright in fighting posture “like a boxer closing in,” using self-glorification to pass from a humbled and perilous state to an attitude of triumph and pride, strikes us not as offensive or bold, but as great and indomitable.
Plutarch, The Complete Works of Plutarch

This may also remind us of the concept of muscular Christianity we discussed earlier in the module. Paul turns this kind of boasting on its head, boasting instead in his weaknesses and suffering. He says things like, “I’m content with weakness, insult, hardship, persecution, calamities for the sake of Christ for when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Source: Plutarch, The Complete Works of Plutarch, 2013.

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