Abstract
Paul�s concern with identity, and in particular the identity of the believer in relation to Jesus Christ, is an important concern in his writings. In the midst of an important section dedicated to advice and instruction on marriage in his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul encouraged his audience in 1 Corinthians 7:17�24 to remain in the calling by, or position in, which they were called. Concerning these circumstances he refers to circumcision (1 Cor 7:18�19) and slavery (1 Cor 7:21�23) by name. These Pauline instructions are investigated against the backdrop of both the 1st century CE context and post-apartheid South Africa, where issues of identity and marginality rub shoulders with claims to ownership and entitlement, on the one hand, and issues of human dignity, on the other.
Highlights
Life-context in which interpretation takes placeThe 27th of April 1994 was the historical moment when South Africa formally changed from a minority-ruled apartheid-state into the modern democratic New South Africa, installing the iconic Nelson Mandela as the first democratically elected Black president of South Africa
The country at the southern tip of the African continent comprising a ‘rainbow people’, to use Desmond Tutu’s famous phrase, of indigenous people such as the Khoisan, southern moving tribes from further north on the continent, and initially Dutch and later British, French, German and other settlers, evolved into another phase of socio-political development. The former Dutch settlement that begun in 1652 and was reshaped into a British colony (1806) and later became an apartheid-state (1948) had its democratic awakening in 1994. It saw the country move into a post-liberation democratic dispensation that has brought about many changes, of which the transfer of power from a White minority to a Black majority was the most telling, but not necessarily the most decisive, moment
The ambiguous and relativising sentiments of 1 Corinthians 7:17–24 can neither be appropriated with simplistic appeals, nor be set aside with claims to a different context or ancient perspectives on humans and society
Summary
Life-context in which interpretation takes placeThe 27th of April 1994 was the historical moment when South Africa formally changed from a minority-ruled apartheid-state into the modern democratic New South Africa, installing the iconic Nelson Mandela as the first democratically elected Black president of South Africa.
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