It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not found even among pagans; for a man is living with his father’s wife. And you are arrogant! Should you not rather have mourned, so that he who has done this would have been removed from among you? (1Corinthians 5:1-2)

With the possible exception of Romans, all the letters of Paul are written in reaction to specific concerns and crises.

Corinth was a hothouse of concerns and crises.

At the beginning of the fifth chapter Paul addresses a specific concern. The Greek reads: tis echo pater gume. "Someone has his father's wife."

For Paul this is porneia - prostitution, harlotry, illicit sex. This is a term common to the translation of the Hebrew Bible used by Greek-speaking Jews throughout the ancient world. In this translation sex as a form of idol worship, sexual promiscuity, and acting as a whore in relationship to God are all condemned as porneia.

Some of those at Corinth - those who Paul perceives as arrogant, prideful, and puffed-up - have not condemned a sexual relationship between someone and his father's wife.

Given the language Paul has chosen, the relationship was probably not between a father's son and his biological mother. This was likely a marriage between a dead father's heir and a step-mother. In some Eastern Mediterranean cultures this was an occasional - if still unusual - means of preserving an estate. Greek, Roman, and Jewish traditions would have found such unions scandalous, as does Paul.

Above is Jesus with the Samaritan Woman at the Well (John 4:14-18). I am trying to identify the artist.