LANDS AND PLACES
The city of Corinth during Paul’s time was one of the more important cities of the empire. Located about 50 miles west of Athens on the Isthmus of Corinth, it commanded two harbors, one on the Corinthian Gulf to the northwest at Lechaeum, and one on the Saronic Gulf on the southeast at Cenchrea. Due to its strategic location, Corinth was the gateway between Asia and Europe, with ships from these regions coming to one port or the other. It not only made Corinth an international crossroads for trade and commerce but also a melting pot in which the corruption of the world mingled together. Thus, the city had a reputation not only for its prosperity but also for immorality. The phrase “To live as a Corinthian” indicated that someone was indulging in a life of luxury and vice.
Corinth was also large, with an estimated 150,000 to 200,000 free citizens, making it larger than Athens. It also had a large slave population, perhaps nearing 460,000. The walls of Corinth extended around the city for six miles.
Archaeologists have found several major pagan sanctuaries in the ancient city. One was to Asclepius, the Greek god of medicine. The temple of Athena was one of the oldest in Greece and had been restored by the time Paul arrived. A newer one was devoted to the worship of the Roman emperor. The temple of Aphrodite was located on the Acrocorinth, the Upper Corinth, a rocky plateau overlooking the city. At one time, the shrine owned 1,000 temple slaves and prostitutes.
The ancient Olympic games took place at four sites near Corinth and probably brought in enormous income. A large forum area contained many commercial and civic buildings, shops, fountains, and public toilets. Northwest of the forum, a 14,000-seat theater had been renovated about five years before Paul entered the city. In the northeast corner of the theater area was a large stone plaza, the pavement of which a wealthy man named Erastus had paid for. Many scholars believe that he was the same Erastus spoken about by Paul as the city treasurer (Rom. 16:23).
The apostle Paul taught in the city for a year and a half (Acts 18:11), staying in the home of Titius Justus (v.7), a Gentile God-fearer who lived next door to the local synagogue. Crispus, the head of the synagogue, and his family believed Paul’s teaching and were baptized (v.8). Priscilla and Aquila, with whom Paul worked in their tent-making shop, had either done very well in their business in Corinth to have their own domus (private home), or they rented a high-ceilinged shop and added a second story that would have accommodated 10-20 people. Certainly, both Aquila and Priscilla were well-educated.
Paul’s letters to the Corinthian church dealt with not only theological issues but problems created by the city’s wealth, pervasive immorality, and conflict between social classes and religious factions within the church.