December 7, 2025

1 Corinthians 1:10-13 “I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, through the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all remain in the process of speaking the same thing, that there not continue being divisions among you, but that you remain in the process of being made complete in the same mind and the same judgment. For it has been made clear to me about you, my brothers and sisters, by those of Chloe’s household, that quarrels remain among you. Each of you is saying, ‘I remain in the process of taking my stand with Paul,’ or ‘I remain in the process of taking my stand with Apollos,’ or ‘I remain in the process of taking my stand with Cephas,’ or ‘I remain in the process of belonging to Christ.’ Has Christ been divided? Paul was not crucified for you, was he?”

This Passage is rendered and translated, not using any modern (or available) translation, but by using the best available linguistic translation techniques available, in order to put emphasis on the verb tenses and continuous action that was truly emphasized and implicated in the text itself.

            In the Corinthian Church, there was a problem; Paul uses words like διχασμοί (dichasmoi)- divisions, splits, fractures; Literal picture: tearing something into pieces. Paul is saying: You are tearing up the Body of Christ by anchoring your faith to personalities and traditions. λέγη (lege) – “You keep saying / you are in the habit of saying;” this isn’t one-time chatter, it’s an ongoing identity mentality. Paul was giving this instruction because the Church in Corinth was: spiritually immature, socially divided, obsessed with personalities, surrounded by philosophical schools where you chose ‘your teacher’ as your identity.

In Greek culture: every philosopher had his students, students defended ‘their guy,’ competing schools fought constantly, and this mindset had crept into the Church. So, when the Corinthians were saying they stood with Paul, Apollos, Peter, or Christ, they weren’t pointing out doctrinal differences, they were splitting into tribes, loyalties, traditions, and mentor pride; Paul’s whole point was to tell them to not attach their identities to human teachers: your loyalty is to Christ alone.

            The problem with the Corinthian Church is still a problem today; I constantly observe people, groups, and otherwise who are of the same mind and argument as the attendants of that Corinthian Church. Saying ‘my pastor never said that, so I don’t believe it: not unless he says it;’ ‘my denomination doesn’t teach that and I only follow what my denomination teaches;’ ‘my tradition doesn’t hold that view;’ ‘I don’t care what the manuscripts say, my favorite Bible versions doesn’t say that.’

   To this, I will propose the same question Paul proposed: is Christ divided? Paul tells Timothy, in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 that ‘All scripture is God-Breathed… that the man of God may be complete…’ Paul never says that: all Pastors are God-Breathed; all denominations are god-Breathed; all Church traditions are God-Breathed; Paul roots everything in the Word, not teachers.

        Matthew 15:6 “You nullify the Word of God for the sake of your tradition.” In other words: loyalty to teachers causes spiritual blindness and Jesus calls it sin; to add more to this, following a teacher rather than Christ is idolatry, and the mindset kills discernment. Hebrews 5:12–14 describes believers who refuse to grow because they depend too heavily on human teachers. Paul says, “You ought to be teachers by now;” people who say “my church never taught that” are stuck in perpetual spiritual childhood.

            So, what is the solution then? What’s to stop someone from saying ‘I’m not wrong, I follow Christ’ and with what shall we measure that statement? I will point us toward John 1:1 for this.  Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ Λόγος, καὶ ὁ Λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν Θεόν, καὶ Θεὸς ἦν ὁ Λόγος.

“In the beginning, the Word already existed in continuous action, and the Word was continually toward God, and the Word was continually God.” So, we see 3 truths: the word pre-exists creation and was in relationship with God, and the Word is God. In John 1:14, John reveals that, that same word became flesh: the eternal word is יֵשׁוּעַ Yēshuaʿ/Jesus.

  So, what am I saying? If all scripture is God-Breathed then it’s His word; and if the Word is God (as John stated) then it is Jesus; therefore, let us follow Jesus and his written word and nothing more.

            Does this mean that we no longer need a Church or Pastor? Heaven forbid; but what it does mean is that we need to follow Christ, and if we follow Christ, then it will be easy to know if we are in the right Church and under the right Pastor and Teachers. So, let us examine ourselves and determine, this night or day, who we follow and why we follow them, for no man was ever crucified for us: only Christ was.  

At Appalachian Post, all Faith & Life analysis follows a strict Sola Scriptura method grounded in the earliest manuscript evidence, the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek languages, and the historical context in which each passage was written. We allow Scripture to interpret Scripture, avoid denominational bias, and base every conclusion solely on what the biblical text itself says as preserved in sources such as the Dead Sea Scrolls, Septuagint Greek, and early New Testament manuscripts. Our aim is to present God’s Word faithfully, using original-language grammar, historical background, and manuscript accuracy, without personal opinion or modern cultural interpretation, so readers encounter Scripture as it was given, preserved, and understood by the earliest believers.

Sources

Primary Text & Manuscript Sources

• Greek New Testament (NA28)
• Greek New Testament (UBS5)
• Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (BHS)
• Leningrad Codex
• Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS)
• Codex Sinaiticus
• Codex Vaticanus
• Codex Alexandrinus
• Septuagint (LXX)

Lexicons & Dictionaries

• BDAG Greek Lexicon
• LSJ Classical Greek Lexicon
• BDB Hebrew Lexicon
• HALOT Hebrew & Aramaic Lexicon
• Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language & Linguistics (Brill)

Grammar & Syntax Sources

• Gesenius’ Hebrew Grammar
• Jouon-Muraoka Grammar of Biblical Hebrew
• Waltke & O’Connor: Biblical Hebrew Syntax
• Hebrew University Bible Project (HUBP)
• Critical Textual Apparatus (NA28 / UBS5)

Historical & Contextual Sources

• Second Temple Jewish Background Sources
• First-Century Greco-Roman Rhetorical Sources
• First-Century Greco-Roman Social Context Sources
• Ancient Near Eastern Linguistic Studies
• Historical Phonology of Hebrew
• Historical Phonology of Koine Greek