Corinth
City · Corinth → Archaia Korinthos, Greece
A wealthy Roman colony set on the narrow isthmus, busy with trade and known for its vice. Paul stayed here a year and a half and founded a church he would write to again and again.
People
- Paul
- Priscilla
- Aquila
- Silas
- Timothy
- Crispus
At a glance
- Realm
- Roman province of Achaia
- Role
- Provincial capital, colony refounded 44 BC
- Peoples
- Romans, Greeks, and Jews
- First mention
- Acts 18 (Paul arrives)
The story
Corinth stood on the narrow neck of land that joins southern Greece to the mainland, with a harbour on either sea and a paved way, the diolkos, for dragging ships across the isthmus. Rome had destroyed the old Greek city in 146 BC, and Julius Caesar refounded it as a Roman colony a hundred years later, so the Corinth Paul knew was a young, brash, wealthy town, the capital of the province of Achaia. Its people were traders and freedmen gathered from across the empire, and its name was a byword for loose living, with the temple of Aphrodite on the height above.
Paul came to Corinth from Athens and found Aquila and Priscilla, tentmakers newly driven out of Rome, and stayed and worked with them. When he grew discouraged the Lord spoke to him in the night, saying He had many people in this city, so Paul stayed a year and a half teaching the word of God. Even Crispus the synagogue leader believed, and though the Jews dragged Paul before the proconsul Gallio the charge was thrown out, and the church of God in Corinth was planted, to whom Paul would later write his letters.