Why must the incestuous man be expelled from the Corinthian EKKli.TJcr{a in 1 Corinthians 5? Paul Minear concedes concerning this passage that 'it may be easy to grasp the commands Paul gave, but it is far from easy to grasp the reasoning that lay behind these commands' .2 An important motif of exclusion from the community in the OT and early Judaism is temple and holiness; sinners were excluded to maintain the sanctity of God's temple. 3 Following a survey of the OT/Jewish evidence for this motif, 4 this short study considers whether one of the reasons Paul insists on the expulsion of the sinner in 1 Corinthians 5 is in order to restore the holiness of God's temple, the church.
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