Background to I Corinthians

The importance of Corinth as a city was enhanced by its location as a hub for travellers across Asia Minor and Europe. Because it hosted two harbors, Cenchreae on the eastern side of the isthmus connecting to Asia and Lechaeum the western link to Italy, it became known as the city on two seas. Although it was a small city, covering a mere four square kilometers, it provided the landing for ships travelling from both the east and the west as travellers made their way into the bigger and more significant cities further inland. Traffic through Corinth was consistently flowing, as did the revenue from the taxes. This made Corinth to be notably rich. Besides, the land was fertile with numerous springs and rivers Nemea and Longopotamus in the proximity. Towering over the city was the Acrocorinth, a hill elevated to 575m above sea level. Notably, the temple of Aphrodite Hoplismene was built on the summit of the Acrocorinth. A wall of over 10 kilometers enclosed the city and its mountain.

History

The history of the city has two clearly distinguishable periods. In the first period it was a Greek city that prospered during the most glorious years of Athens, around the 5th century B.C. It enjoyed great success and was well known for its ceramics, shipbuilding and architecture. Its greatly diversified and strong economy was well managed by the rich for centuries.

Athenian writers portrayed the Corinth of this time as a place where prostitution was rife. Greek writers Phileterus and Poliochus for example, wrote plays called Korinthiastes, meaning “The Whoremonger.” Plato on the other hand used the term “A Corinthian Girl” to mean a prostitute. In spite of this evidence, Corinth may not have been worse than any other Roman city of the ...

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...gical contribution that I Corinthians makes to the canon of scripture.

Works Cited

Betz, Hans Dieter and Margaret M. Mitchell. "Corinthians, First Epistle to the" Anchor Bible Dictionary. Ed. Noel Freedman. Vol. 1. New York: Doubleday, 1993.

Carson, D. A., and Douglas J. Moo. An introduction to the New Testament . 2nd ed. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 2005.

Fee, Gordon D.. The First Epistle to the Corinthians . Grand Rapids, Mich.: W.B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 1987.

Fitzmyer, Joseph A.. First Corinthians: a new translation with introduction and commentary. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008.

Garland, David E.. 1 Corinthians . Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Academic, 2003.

Martin, Ralph P.. 2 Corinthians . Waco, Tex.: Word Books, 1986

Murphy-O’Connor, J. "Corinth (Place)" Anchor Bible Dictionary. Ed. Noel Freedman. Vol. 1. New York: Doubleday, 1993.