Culture & Context: Corinth

Welcome to Culture and Context, a blog that will flesh out the context of the PATH journal and other content that we study here at True North.

It’s time to change gears in our thinking as we shift from the Old Testament and Deuteronomy, to the New Testament and 1 Corinthians. Moses was given a great gift by God- he was brought up onto Mt. Nebo, where God supernaturally showed him all of the Promised Land (which could not normally be seen in its entirety from the mountain) before he died. Their last moments together were a private time between Moses and the Lord, and God or His angels buried Moses in Moab; no human took part in the burial.

"So Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the LORD, 6  and he buried him in the valley in the land of Moab opposite Beth-peor; but no one knows the place of his burial to this day." - Deut. 34:5-6 

We are jumping from around 1400 BC (According Mandel, Moses died in 1406 BC) to the spring of AD 53, 54 or 55, while Paul was in Ephesus on his third missionary journey. We are also taking a big geographic leap from Israel, across the Mediterranean Sea and Aegean Sea to Greece and the city of Corinth.

And so we find ourselves in a new time and a new culture. Corinth was an ancient city, probably among one of the earliest cities ever built. Modern Corinth still exists in Greece, about three miles north of the ruins of the Corinth where the apostle Paul established a church. The ruins of old Corinth are Roman, displaying the strength of the Roman empire even in this Greek nation. The Roman city was known for a broad avenue that ran from the city gate into the market place. During the time of Paul, the population of Corinth was close to 700,000 people and it was a commercial and industrial center due to its location along trade routes and access to the Aegean Sea.

Corinth began as a Greek city until it was destroyed by the Roman military in 146 BC. It lay abandoned for 100 years until Julius Caesar rebuilt Corinth as a Roman city with distinctive marble temples and architecture. The population was a mixture of Italian and Greek, plus a large colony of Jews from the Diaspora.

A quick left turn- what’s a Diaspora? Diaspora is a Greek noun that means a sowing or scattering and is used in the Bible to refer to Jews who have been forced into exile. Diasporas are mentioned in the Old and New Testaments; the Jews were sent into exile when conquered by Assyria and Babylon, and Jews were exiled from Rome in the first century by the Roman emperor.

And now back to Corinth. Archaeologist discovered a doorway in the ruins of Corinth with an inscription that noted that it was a synagogue. They also discovered the judgment place in the center of the marketplace where Paul appeared before Gallio, the proconsul of Achaia. Other inscriptions place Gallio at Corinth no earlier than summer of AD 51, and since Paul appeared before him after being in Corinth for 18 months, Paul would have arrived in Corinth around the start of AD 50.

"And he stayed a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. 12  But when Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews made a united attack on Paul and brought him before the tribunal..." - Acts 18:11-12 (ESV)

Paul’s ministry to the city of Corinth is described in Acts 18- only seventeen verses for eighteen months. He met his good friends Priscilla and Aquilla in Corinth, and had the help of Timothy and Silas in working with hostile and stubborn Jews. He even lived next door to the synagogue with a man named Justus and converted Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue. After planting churches, Paul moved on to Syria and Ephesus, where he wrote his first letter to the church in Corinth.

It is widely believed that Paul wrote more than two letters to the Corinthian churches. We know from 1 Cor 5:9 that he had written at least one letter prior to 1 Corinthians: “ I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people.”

We also know that Paul had contact with people in Corinth:

"For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers" - 1 Cor. 1:11

"Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.” - 1 Cor. 7:1

Paul was concerned for the church in Corinth. He even revisited Corinth, although we do not have a scriptural record of it beyond the mention in 2 Cor. 12:14, where Paul wrote,

“Here for the third time I am ready to come to you. And I will not be a burden, for I seek not what is yours but you. For children are not obligated to save up for their parents, but parents for their children.”

If there was a third time, there was also a second time.

In 1 Corinthians, Paul was addressing a church that was divided by powerful people, and he urged them to unite to advance the gospel. He wanted them to stop trying to outdo one another and instead focus on building up the faith of the weak and witness to those who needed to hear the gospel. They needed to be sensitive to those with fragile or new faith, evangelize by living and worshiping in ways that would attract unbelievers, and use spiritual gifts only for the good of the church. Another key theme was about moral purity, because like most major cities, Corinth had its share of sexual immorality, prostitution and incest. Paul devoted all of chapter 15 to the truthfulness and importance of the resurrection of Jesus as the foundation of faith- the victory over sin and death.

After we finish 1 Corinthians, we’re heading back to the Old Testament and 1406 BC to pick up the story of the Jews as they enter the Promised Land under the leadership of Joshua. Get ready to conquer Canaan in just 25 to 30 years as we encounter God in dramatic and miraculous ways, and also learn what happens when you don’t properly fear the Lord.

Works-cited and Resources

• Adams, J. W., & Stamps, D. C. (2011). Fire Bible. Life Publishers International.

• Barclay, W. (2002). The Letters to the Corinthians (3rd ed.). Westminster John Knox Press.

• Crossway Bibles. (2008). The ESV Study Bible. Crossway Bibles.

• Elwell, W. A., & Comfort, P. W. (2001). In Tyndale Bible dictionary. Tyndale House Publishers.

• Logos Deluxe Map Set: The Biblical World

• Mandel, D. (2007). In The Ultimate Who’s Who in the Bible. Bridge-Logos.