Welcome to the first official part of this new series! The purpose of this series of posts is to learn all about the churches mentioned in the New Testament, especially what they were like at the time and why Paul chose to write a letter to them. If you want to learn more about the background behind this series, read this series’ introduction post first, and then come back to learn about the first church.
The first church that is being covered is the church of Corinth, who actually has two of their letters from Paul in the Bible (1 Cor. 1:2, 2 Cor. 1:1). If you carefully observe Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians, there actually may have been more than just two letters written from Paul to the church in Corinth (1 Cor. 5:9). This is not surprising, considering how much time Paul invested in this church during and after his travels through Rome. However, only two letters made it into the completed Bible, and any other ones have been lost long before the full compilation of what we know to be the Bible.
First, we are going to cover Corinth as a city, and learn about that specific church. Then, we can take time digging into the books of 1st and 2nd Corinthians to understand why Paul wrote what he did to this church.
About Corinth
The city of Corinth was a city in Greece to the west of Athens, and it was located right on an isthmus, which is a narrow strip of land that connects two larger pieces of land. This is so important because it meant that Corinth was a city frequently visited by travelers and people trying to cross from one major city to another. Because of this, Corinth became a center of trading and creating that only grew in popularity as time went on. In addition, the city held the Isthmian games annually, which was a competition second only to the Olympics. This was a big event, and brought lots of people from all around to Corinth. In addition, this event could be the inspiration of what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27: “Do you know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.” The more you study the city of Corinth, the more you understand why Paul said what he did. I would encourage you to study more about Corinth separately and see if you can make connections between Corinthian life and Paul’s letters.
This city was under Greek rule for quite some time, but Rome had taken control of Corinth about five to ten years before Paul wrote his letters to the church. In addition, Paul’s first visit to Corinth happened shortly after Roman influence began. However, Paul still wrote his letters to that church in Greek, so the two cultures had been blending to create a unique culture in Corinth. Part of this is also due to the location of Corinth; being on an isthmus meant that this city was exposed to many different types of people, so the church in Corinth contained both Jews and Gentiles. At the time Paul had first come to Corinth to establish the church there, there was an interesting blend of Greek and Roman god worship at the time, especially with the Romans building new temples alongside existing Greek ones.
One notable thing that existed in Corinth was sexual immorality. Southwest of the city center, a monolithic rock called the “Acrocorinth” existed, and housed a temple for Aphrodite. This goddess of love was the chosen deity of the city of Corinth, and so people would often pray to her to protect the city and the people in it. Aphrodite was one of the most revered goddesses in the city of Corinth, and a common occurrence in this town was temple prostitution. Because Corinth was a hub for travelers, many people would come to this city during an arduous journey and come to Aphrodite’s temple to commit acts of sexual immorality in what was considered a place of “mystical union”. In summary, Corinth was a very prosperous and wealthy city, but was immoral and lost.
Paul’s Letters to Corinth
As previously mentioned, two of the letters that Paul wrote to the church in Corinth are present in the Bible. Before both of those letters, Paul went to Corinth for about a year and a half to spread the Gospel and start the church in Corinth. His initial journey to Corinth dates around 49-50 AD, with the first letter coming in around 54-55 AD and the second letter around 55-56 AD. The book of Acts actually records this visit of Paul’s, and scholars have used this passage, alongside other historical records and archaeological findings, to learn about what it was like in Corinth at the time.
“After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. And he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. And he went to see them, and because he was of the same trade he stayed with them and worked, for they were tentmakers by trade. And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and tried to persuade Jews and Greeks. When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with the word, testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus. And when they opposed and reviled him, he shook out his garments and said to them, ‘Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.’ And he left there and went to the house of a man named Titius Justus, a worshiper of God. His house was next door to the synagogue. Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord, together with his entire household. And many of the Corinthians hearing Paul believed and were baptized. And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, ‘Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.’ And he stayed a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.” (1 Corinthians 18:1-11)
While Paul was in Corinth for those eighteen months, he was able to learn a lot about Corinthian culture, and discovered the strengths and weaknesses of the Corinthian church. Because of this, he was able to write to that church about things that were specific and relevant to those people. As previously mentioned, the city of Corinth was filled with sexual immorality, which is a topic that Paul covered in both letters (1 Cor. 5:1-13, 2 Cor. 12:21). In both of these passages, Paul shows proof that he is aware of the sexual immorality happening around them, and even within the church. In addition, Paul speaks on topics such as divisions in the church (1 Cor. 1:10-17, 11:18), marriages (1 Cor. 7:1-16), and false apostles (2 Cor. 11:1-15), because these were all specific issues in the church of Corinth at the time.
One interesting thing to note about Paul’s letters is that he is writing to this specific audience, remembering what they already know about God, and clearly explaining the Gospel to them. Because Corinth was a church that had both Jew and Greek members, there were often quarrels about what carries from the Old to the New Testament. For example, in the Old Testament, Jews sacrificed animals as an atonement for sins, but Jesus’ death on the cross (which was a recent event at the time) caused lots of issues on whether or not animal sacrifices, as well as only eating certain animals, was relevant. Many of the Jewish members of the church in Corinth were familiar with the Old Testament commands concerning animal sacrifice, yet the Greeks had heard Jesus preach about being the final sacrifice and that there was no need for the previous Old Testament laws set by God, as explained in Hebrews 10.
Here, Paul was able to bring clarity to the issue, and show the church how to navigate this situation. He explains how food offered to idols is not a sin, and does not have any importance. However, he understands that the Jews have become used to the Old Testament laws, and notes that it is hard for them to switch this understanding. He explains to the Gentiles that even though eating food offered to idols is not bad, it might be hard for some to do, and says that “if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble” (1 Corinthians 8:13). In addition, Paul explains the resurrection of Jesus to the church of Corinth, to ensure that everyone has a full understanding of it. Remember: the people Paul is writing to did not have the complete compiled Bible like we do, so they had lots of questions about what exactly happened.
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This has been a really interesting topic to research, and it has been so fun digging deep into Corinthian history and learning more about it. This is definitely still not my forte, but using historical and archaeological sources to understand Paul’s letters definitely gives me a deeper understanding of the book, especially when studying it as a letter to a church. Thank you again for your continued support in my spiritual journey, and I cannot wait to continue in this series!
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