1 Corinthians
by David W. J. Gill
■ AUTHOR: The apostle Paul and Sosthenes.
■ DATE: c. A.D. 55 (Paul writing from Ephesus).
■ OCCASION:
• To respond to information that there had been quarrels in the church.
• To prepare for a visit from Timothy and Paul himself.
■ KEY THEMES:
1. The impact of the Christian gospel on the life of the Christian.
2. The ordering of the local church.
Corinth was a major city in the eastern Peloponnese of Greece.1 It lay near the narrow isthmus that joined the Peloponnese to the mainland. The city lay at the foot of a mountain, Akrocorinth (elevation 1883 feet), which also served as a location for some of the cults of the city.
The City of Corinth
The history of the city of Corinth can be traced back to the earliest periods of Greek history. In the archaic period (6th cent. B.C.) it was ruled by the Kypselid family. During the Peloponnesian War (late 5th cent. B.C.) Corinth fought against Athens. During the second century B.C. Corinth joined other Greek states to fight against the domination of Rome, and in 146 B.C. the city was captured and razed to the ground by the Roman general Mummius. As a result, the city was left derelict for over a hundred years until Julius Caesar decided to found a colony, with the full Latin title of Colonia Laus Iulia Corinthienses, in 44 B.C. As Caesar was assassinated in March of that year, it seems likely that Mark Antony, Caesar’s co-consul, may have been responsible for implementing the legislation. Some of the Roman sources suggest that the colony was established with Italian freedmen, that is, former slaves, though they probably only formed a small part of the overall population. The geographer Strabo records some of the details of the colony at this time:
Now after Corinth had remained deserted for a long time, it was restored again, because of its favourable position, by the deified Caesar, who colonised it with people that belonged for the most part to the freedman class. And when these were removing the ruins and at the same time digging open the graves, they found numbers of terracotta reliefs, and also many bronze vessels. And since they admired the worksmanship they left no grave unransacked.2
CORINTH AND ITS ENVIRONS
■ Population: Approximately 100,000 (80,000 colony, 20,000 territorium).
■ Religion: Patron deity Aphrodite; major sanctuary of Poseidon at nearby Isthmia; numerous other deities worshiped.
■ Port city.
■ Seat of the Roman governor for the province of Achaia.
It is important to stress the lack of continuity between the Greek and Roman city. A number of buildings were demolished and the archaic temple in the heart of the town may have had its roof timbers removed. One of the famous descriptions of the ruined city occurs in a letter from Ser. Sulpicius to the Roman orator Cicero in 45 B.C.3 There are other references to individuals living among the ruins4, but the key point is that Corinth no longer existed as a political entity.
Corinth was one of a number of city-states (Gk. polis) in the Greek world. Her territory, the Corinthia, bordered on that of a number of other city-states. To the east along the isthmus that joined the Peloponnese to the Greek mainland was Megara. Northwards, along the coast of the Corinthian Gulf, was Sikyon. Along the southern side of the Corinthia was the Argolid, with cities such as Argos and Epidauros (where there was a major sanctuary for the healing-god Asklepios). Within the Corinthia were two main harbors, Lechaeum and Cenchreae, giving access respectively to the Corinthian Gulf (and Italy) and the Saronic Gulf and the eastern Mediterranean. These were some of the major harbors of the Mediterranean, rivaling those of Ostia (the port of Rome), Alexandria in Egypt, and Caesarea (the major port that gave access to Judea).
Corinth became the residence for the Roman governor of the senatorial province of Achaia, which was reestablished by Claudius in A.D. 44. Prior to that, the province had been combined with Macedonia as one of the military “imperial” provinces (see comments on 16:15). This administrative function allowed Corinth to become the leading city in the province. It seems to have attracted members of elite families to reside there, such as the Euryclids from Sparta. It also meant that individual cities would need to consult the governor at Corinth; thus, members of the Corinthian elite allowed themselves to be used as intermediaries or proxenoi. One of these proxenoi, L. Licinnius Anteros, was honored by the city of Methana near Troezen in A.D. 1/2.5
CORINTH
A Corinthian inscription with a list of victors in the Isthmian games.
The diolkos—a rock road that the Romans built enabling them to drag boats across the narrowest point of the isthmus.
The Acrocorinth with some of the ruins of ancient Corinth in the foreground.
View from the Lechaeum, Corinth’s western port, toward Corinth and the Acrocorinth.
The Spiritual Climate of the Area
The second-century A.D. Roman orator Favorinus of Arles (in the south of France) praised Corinth as a city “favoured by Aphrodite.”6 Certainly in the Hellenistic period before the sack of the city, the sanctuary of Aphrodite on the Acrocorinth had been a complex affair. Strabo, probably drawing on classical or Hellenistic historians of the city, noted that at this earlier time, “the temple of Aphrodite was so rich that it owned more than a thousand temple-slaves, courtesans, whom both men and women had dedicated to the goddess.”7 However, Strabo’s own visit to the Acrocorinth showed that the Roman temple was far more modest: “The summit has a small temple of Aphrodite.”8 Aphrodite or Venus (her Roman name) was seen as the ancestor of Julius Caesar, the founder of the Roman colony. Indeed in the Julian Forum at Rome, completed by Caesar’s adopted son Augustus, there was a temple to Venus Genetrix. A further temple of Aphrodite at Corinth appears to have been located on a terrace at the west end of the forum, as part of an inscription has been found that links the structure to Venus.9 The second-century A.D. travel writer Pausanias also noted that this part of the forum contained a statue of Aphrodite made by the sculptor Hermogenes of Kythera (an island off the south coast of the Peloponnese).10
The forum of Corinth today is dominated by the columns of a Greek temple of the Doric order of architecture, probably erected in the sixth century B.C. It survived the sack of the city and was adapted in the Roman period for a new type of cult. Some of the earlier cults of the Greek city may have been reestablished, though it is not clear how much continuity there was with cult practice of the second century B.C. The sanctuary of Demeter and Kore (Persephone) on the slopes of the Acrocorinth may not have been revived until the second century A.D.
The colony also housed the cult to the Roman emperors. This may have been focused on the temple that coins of the colony show was dedicated to the Gens Iulia (the Julian family); Julius Caesar was deified after his assassination in March 44 B.C. and his adopted son Augustus was able to enjoy the associated benefits of divinity.11
One of the most important cults of the Corinthia was that of Poseidon (Lat. Neptune), a god associated with the sea and earthquakes. His cult was located at Isthmia at the neck of the Corinthian isthmus. This sanctuary, with a temple to the god, was associated with one of the sets of Panhellenic games that attracted people to attend from all over the Greek world. Such games, like those at Olympia, Delphi, and Nemea, continued in the Roman period and became the model for the establishment of festivals in the cities of the Greek east. While the emperor Nero was taking part in the Isthmian games in November 67, he declared Greece to be free from taxes—a right later removed by the emperor Vespasian.12 The responsibility of the games had been transferred to nearby Sikyon after Corinth was sacked, but was restored to the colony some time after its foundation.
Eastern deities are known from Corinth, though it is not always easy to decide when in the Roman period they were introduced. Often the main source for information is Pausanias, writing some 120 years after the establishment of the church at Corinth. One of the most colorful accounts of the Egyptian deity Isis in the Corinthia is contained in the work of Lucius Apuleius, in his visions of the goddess at Cenchreae described in his work, The Golden Ass.13 Certainly the worship of Isis and Serapis can be traced back to the Hellenistic period, and Corinth, as a major port, would have been in contact with Egypt. A similar phenomenon for these Egyptian deities can be found on the island of Crete.14
The Introduction of Christianity to Corinth
The church had been established at Corinth after Paul’s visit to Macedonia and Athens (Acts 18). Paul possibly arrived at Corinth by sea, in which case he would have sailed from the Piraeus, the port of Athens, and arrived at Cenchrea, the eastern port of Corinth. The land route along the isthmus of Corinth was not an easy one. The date can be fixed by the mention of the presence of the Roman governor of the province of Achaia, L. Junius Gallio. An inscription from the sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi shows that he was governor in Greece when Claudius had obtained “tribunician power” twelve times and had been acclaimed emperor twenty-six times. From other inscriptions, these events place the Delphi inscription between the end of 51 and August 52 (when he was acclaimed emperor for the twenty-seventh time). An undated statue base, originally no doubt bearing a portrait of the governor, was erected in honor of Gallio at Plataia in Boiotia (central Greece). Paul stayed in the city for some eighteen months. Early members of the church included Priscilla and Aquila, who had been expelled from Rome by Emperor Claudius.
ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES
The remains of the harbor at Cenchrae. The partially submerged foundations are the remnants of a temple of Isis.
The forum at Corinth.
Issues in the Church at Corinth
It was perhaps at Corinth that Christianity came into contact with a city that was mainly Italian in culture and with a population that, officially at least, was Latin-speaking. It was to Corinth that those who had aspirations in the province of Achaia moved, and it had become fashionable to adopt Roman culture. Perhaps this accounts for the personal rivalry that becomes such an issue in 1 Corinthians. The ambitions and emphasis on status so clear in the colony were being transferred to the church community. Thus we also find issues of dress being used to make statements about positions in society. Even Paul’s role as preacher and apostle were questioned in the light of the expectation from the educated elite of what a good public orator should be like.15
The letter is a response to specific issues raised by the church as well as to more informal information that has reached Paul in the province of Asia. In chapter 7 Paul mentions “the matters you wrote about” (7:1), which perhaps include marriage (7:1), single people (7:25), food sacrificed to pagan gods (8:1), spiritual gifts (12:1), and a collection for God’s people (16:1). Paul writes to a dynamic church that is trying to find its feet in an alien culture.