A conciliatory principle in 1 Cor. 4:6

Few achievements of the scholarship of the past century compare with Heinrici's proof og the existence of discrete analogies between Greco-Roman religious associations and the earliest Gentile-Christian churches. The surprising concurrence of characteristic expressions in Paul's epistles and in the cultic inscriptions led Heinrici to the conclusion that these were kindred forms of life. His investigations cast light, in particular, upon the troubled history of the Corinthian community, whose conflicts, errors, and enthusiasms demonstrate it proximity to the Roam world. Nor did Heinrici's comparative approach fail to illuminate the thought of Paul himself; for without minimizing the apostle's originality, it is nevertheless clear that the influence of the rhetorical and political conventions of a Greek city in the imperial period.