04_Romanov_391_co_415 30/10/15 13:10 Pagina 398 398 ANDREY ROMANOV 398 and complete cosmological process in which God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ participate as two individual but nonetheless co-working persons. In order to better characterize the dialectical tension between the unity and differences in the functions of God the Father and Jesus Christ, Paul depicts the nature of these functions. The key element here seems to be ei-j which is surprisingly used two times to qualify both God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. First of all, Paul’s use of ei-j stands in opposition to polloi, in v. 5 (“many gods and many lords”). It therefore strengthens the unity of God and the Lord in their relations with the created world against the “deities” of the Hellenistic world mentioned in v. 5. But this unity is remarkably balanced by the distinction: not “one God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ”, but separately “one God the Father” and “one Lord Jesus Christ”. This combination of two uses of ei-j excludes any possibility of fusing the two persons mentioned in v. 6 or of over- looking the significance of each of them. The opposition between ei-j and polloi, points to the unique character of the activity of God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul’s concern in 1 Cor 8,5-6a is to argue that in fact there is one God, not many. Paul does not, however, merely proclaim that God is one (which is said in v. 4; this will be discussed below); he justifies God’s oneness through the description of God’s functions. God the Father is the God (in contrast with the “so-called gods” in v. 5) because he executes the functions expressed in v. 6a. The other “gods” are able neither to create, nor to save. In v. 6a ei-j means “only”; God the Father is unique because he alone stands in certain relations with ta. pa,nta and h`mei/j. In other words, Paul uses evk- and eivj- prepositional phrases in order to indicate that God the Father is the only true God 26. The parallelism of the verse allows one to draw the same conclusion concerning Jesus Christ. He is opposed to the many “lords” of v. 5 as ei-j ku,rioj, and Paul justifies this oneness in the same way as he just did it for God the Father. Jesus Christ is the one Lord because 26 “The uniqueness of God is thus manifested in his role in creation and salvation”: A. DENAUX, “Theology and Christology in 1 Cor 8,4-6”, The Corinthian Correspondence (ed. R. BIERINGER) (BETL 125; Leuven 1996) 601. See also G.D. FEE, The First Epistle to the Corinthians (NICNT; Grand Rapids, MI 1987) 374.