The City of Corinth and The Apostle Paul’s Initial Ministry There⤒🔗

Situated on a narrow neck of land that connects the Peloponnesus and the mainland of Greece, the city of Corinth was the crossroads for travel and commerce both north and south as well as east and west. With two separate seaports, Cenchrea on the side of the Aegean Sea and Lechaeum at the edge of the Gulf of Corinth to the west, the city was so strategically located that after the Romans destroyed it in 146 B.C., they found it necessary to rebuild on the same location a century later.¹

Indeed, back in 146 B.C. the ancient city of Corinth was burned to the ground by a Roman army because of its participation and leadership in the rebellion of the Achaian League, (a group composed of the principal city-states located in Achaia, on the southern peninsula of Greece). At that time, many of the citizens of Corinth were either killed or sold into slavery, and for a century thereafter the city lay derelict. But in the year 44 B.C., the city was re-founded on the orders of Julius Caesar, who sought to re-establish the strategic and economic potential of the site with a new colonial population made up of freedmen, (i.e. manumitted Roman slaves), army veterans, and former residents.

Because of its location, the city quickly regained its former prosperity. By the time it was visited by the Apostle Paul, Corinth was a city with a population well over half a million people. Under Caesar Augustus, in 29 B.C., Corinth was made the capital of the Roman province of Achaia.²

Corinth was a cosmopolitan city, boasting a widely diverse population: Jews came to engage in trade; Romans were there on official government business, or as descendants of the transplanted colonists; Greeks gravitated to the city from the surrounding countryside; and commerce brought the usual assortment of sailors, salesmen, bankers, and people from every corner of the Mediterranean world and beyond.

The city shared the common Greek love of philosophy and speculation, but it could not claim to be the home of any renowned philosopher or school of philosophy. Corinth was never famed for its contribution to the arts or philosophy, but it became infamous for vice and particularly licentiousness.³ Morally, the Corinthians were regarded as inferior, even according to the loose standards of the ancient pagan world. A major contributor to the city’s immoral lifestyle was the fact that Corinth housed the temple of Aphrodite, where at one time were lodged one thousand priestesses who were professional prostitutes. “To live as do the Corinthians” was a euphemism for the vilest kind of life.⁴ J.A. Davis maintains that the reputation given to Corinth as an especially immoral place seems to have been largely created by the envy of other Greek city-states.⁵ Be that as it may, the fact remains that Corinth, as a large cosmopolitan urban center, was steeped in the pagan licentiousness and immorality of the ancient world. Perhaps M. Tenney summarizes it best when he writes, “Wealth and dire poverty, beauty and wretchedness, culture and squalor rubbed elbows at Corinth.”⁶

The New Testament speaks of two of the Apostle Paul’s visits to the city of Corinth, recorded in Acts 18 and Acts 20:1-3. The first visit to Corinth was made during what we usually term Paul’s Second Missionary Journey. He arrived there after his visit to Athens, and at once preached in the local synagogue (Acts 18:4). Paul encountered such intense opposition from the Jews, however, that he was led to declare to them, “Your blood be upon your own heads; from now on I will go to the Gentiles” (Acts 18:6). The account given in Acts does indicate that there were some converts from among the Jews; but Paul’s main success was among the Gentile population of Corinth. Acts 18:8 testifies, “many...believed,” and Acts 18:10 records the LORD's assurance to Paul, “I have many people in this city.”

Paul spent eighteen months ministering in the city of Corinth (Acts 18:11); he then crossed by ship over to Ephesus. Subsequently, the apostle journeyed to Jerusalem and Antioch, re-visited the scenes of his earlier missionary endeavors throughout Asia Minor, and then returned to Ephesus, where he remained for two years (Acts 18:18-23; Acts 19:1). It is believed that he wrote the Epistle we now know as First Corinthians while staying in the city of Ephesus, about the year 55 A.D.⁷

Before moving on to our next topic, we would do well to say a word about the composition of the Corinthian congregation. As noted above, Paul’s gospel ministry was mainly blessed among the Gentile population of Corinth, although there were some Jewish converts. Thus, from the outset, there was a Jewish Christian minority within the church, among them, people who had formerly occupied influential positions in the Jewish community: Crispus, the former synagogue ruler, together with his entire household (Acts 18:8; 1 Cor. 1:14), and Sosthenes, his successor to synagogue leadership prior to his conversion to Christ (Acts 18:17; 1 Cor. 1:1).

Furthermore, though the truth of the apostle’s generalization in 1 Cor. 1:26 (“not many wise, not many mighty, not many noble were called,”) must be given its full weight, the Corinthian congregation seems to have had at least some socially, educationally, and economically privileged members. In addition to the influential Jewish members listed above, we might also note such individuals as Gaius, (whose means were sufficient to provide hospitality for the whole church), and Erastus, (the city treasurer, as we are informed from Romans 16:23).⁸ (Note: Scholars are in agreement that the Epistle to the Romans was written from Corinth; therefore, those whom Paul mentions as sending their greetings to the church in Rome were members of the Corinthian church.)

The Purpose and Theme of the Epistle of First Corinthians←⤒🔗

First Corinthians is the most varied in its content and style of all the Pauline epistles. The topics discussed range from schism to finance and from church decorum to the resurrection. Every literary device known to writing is employed in its pages: logic, sarcasm, entreaty, scolding, poetry, narration, exposition; in short, it is written in the same style as Paul would have used in carrying on a conversation with the elders of Corinth had he been present with them.⁹ One scholar remarks: This is the most businesslike of all Paul’s epistles. He has a number of subjects with which he intends to deal and he sets about them in a most orderly manner.¹⁰ But, as another scholar notes: Behind the discussion of every point is the tie of tender concern of the spiritual father for his children (cf. 1 Cor. 4:14-15). These Corinthians were problem children, and for that reason caused the Apostle Paul much concern and much grief, but they were his spiritual children and his love for them never failed.¹¹. Indeed, Paul’s relation to the Corinthian congregation was of a very close and personal character. He was the first to plant the gospel there (1 Cor. 3:6; 4:15), and he watched the growth of the church with great personal interest. The two epistles we possess are characterized by a spirit of intense personal concern on the part of the apostle for the Corinthian Christians.¹²

The writing of the Epistle of First Corinthians was occasioned by the disturbing report about the church communicated to the Apostle Paul by members of the household of Chloe (1 Cor. 1:11). Subsequent to their visit, the apostle received a delegation from the Corinthian congregation (1 Cor. 16:17), requesting his counsel on a number of questions confronting the church. In the first part of the Epistle the apostle immediately addresses the serious issues brought to his attention by those of the household of Chloe, (chapters 1-6; also note 11:2-34); then, in the latter part of the Epistle he proceeds to answer the questions communicated to him by the delegation sent by the church (chapters 7-16).

E. Harrison summarizes the message of the Epistle in these words: The greatest single overall emphasis seems to be on the unity of the local church as the body of Christ, which is brought out not only in connection with the discussion of the groups [i.e. the factions within the church], but also in relation to the Lord’s Supper and spiritual gifts. A corollary is the sanctity of the church as members of Christ, both corporately and individually, [note, especially, such passages as 1 Cor. 3:16-17 and 6:15-20].¹³ We may add, it is in this Epistle that the Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul most eloquently sets forth the supremacy of love as “the most excellent way,” which the Christian is called to follow (1 Cor. 12:31b-13:13).