Corinth - an ancient "Deadwood"

Since we will be spending the next few weeks reading from Paul's letters to the Corinthians, I thought it might be interesting to learn a bit more about Corinth, itself.

Ancient Corinth was founded in the 10th Century BCE and was the largest city in ancient Greece. More importantly, Corinth was ancient Greece’s richest port. The Corinth Paul knew had been re-founded by Julius Caesar as a Roman colony in 44 BCE. Using Rome’s tried and true format for subduing conquered populations, the "new” Corinth was populated with conscripted Italian, Greek, Syrian, Egyptian and Judean freed slaves. Like Ancient Corinth, New Corinth thrived. It’s strategic location also brought thousands of settlers from all over the Mediterranean. Soon enormous personal wealth was to be found in the local ruling class, which was made up of self-made men and a surprising number of self-made women, as well.

Corinth was located directly south of the Corinthian Gulf, on the Peloponnesian side (southern Greece) of the Isthmus of Corinth. Two harbors accommodated the city's position of control over the isthmus between two seas. Lechaeum served the westward facing the Corinthian gulf, and Cenchreae functioned as the harbor on the eastward facing the Saronic Gulf.

The territory included quite a variety of terrain: the coastal plain, which was abundantly watered and fertile; relatively flat areas further from the coast, which were fairly well-watered; areas of arable sloping hills; and mountainous regions. The most famous Corinthian mountain was the Acrocorinth [standard link], which served as the city's citadel.

Corinth was known as an especially "wild” city and had a reputation for licentiousness. Paul was faced with a city that was used to coin one of the Greek words for "fornicate”, which was korinthiazomai ! This reputation was based, in part, on the ancient Greek historian Strabo's report that there were 1,000 sacred prostitutes in the temple of Aphrodite on the Acrocorinth, which was an 1,886-foot hill that rises above the City of Corinth to the south.

As Paul arrived at Corinth in 49 or 50 C.E., he would have seen lots of rock piles, ruins of ancient city walls. Rome had destroyed the old Corinth in 146 B.C.E. The city Paul entered was therefore young-- not even a century old. In 44 B.C.E. a decree of Julius Caesar had re-founded Corinth as a Roman colony.

While Paul stayed in Corinth, he met with Jewish refugees from Rome. Paul sought out two of them, Aquila and Priscilla (mentioned in a previous post from Acts), because they were tentmakers like him. He asked if they could work together as business associates. Aquila and Prisca also became key leaders of the young Christian church.

Around 150-200 followers of Christ were in Corinth at the time of Paul's writing his letters to them. Corinthian Christians lived in large, complex households and worshiped in house churches that reflected the city's diverse make-up.

You can see many more images and descriptions of Corinth at bibleplaces.com

The ruins of the temple of Apollo in modern Corinth