Corinth commands the narrow isthmus between the Corinthian and Aegean seas. Crossing the isthmus afforded a valuable short cut from the East and north to routes to Rome, avoiding the dangerous route round Cape Matapan.  Today, a canal is used by shipping; in Paul’s day cargo was transshipped across the isthmus, and small ships were bodily carried across.  The rollers used for this can still be seen.  This major portage site thus developed a roaring international trade for longshoremen, warehouse men, and all the facilities need by a large port.  Famous among the many temples was the temple to Aphrodite on the Acrocorinth (“Corinth in the Sky”), with its 1,000 prostitutes.  Originally libeled by Aristophanes, Corinth was to keep its licentious reputation for nearly two millennia, as in the following quotation from Henry IV Part One:

PRINCE HENRY

With three or four loggerheads amongst three or four
score hogsheads. I have sounded the very
base-string of humility. Sirrah, I am sworn brother
to a leash of drawers; and can call them all by
their christen names, as Tom, Dick, and Francis.
They take it already upon their salvation, that
though I be but the prince of Wales, yet I am king
of courtesy; and tell me flatly I am no proud Jack,
like Falstaff, but a Corinthian, a lad of mettle, a
good boy, by the Lord, so they call me, and when I
am king of England, I shall command all the good
lads in Eastcheap.

Paul came here from Athens, where he had tried to convert the philosophers by eloquent wisdom (we have part of his speech in Acts 17) but apparently failed.  He came to Corinth in some distress and weakness (Audrey tells us that his symptoms suggest some form of epilepsy), determined to preach a simpler gospel  -- “Only Jesus Christ and him crucified”  Against the odds, Christianity flourished in this tough town, but problems soon emerged.  In I Corinthians, which appears to have been at least his second letter to Corinth (cf. I Cor: 5.9), Paul attempts to address some of these problems.

Many commentators believe that II Thessalonians is pseudepigraphic, that is to say that it was written by a different author from the one named.  Commentators note the apparent discrepancies in the eschatological approach from I Thessalonians, in which Paul says that the Second Coming will come at any moment, without warning, whereas II Thessalonians says that various events have to come first.

We looked at the dramatic “little apocalypse” in II Thessalonians which prophesies the arrival of the “Man of Sin” who will set himself up as God and sit in the Temple.  Since the Temple was effectively destroyed in 70 CE, we considered that the “Man of Sin” would have to be dated before then.  Three candidates were considered:

1.         Nero, who claimed divinity in his lifetime

2.         Gaius (“Caligula”) who also claimed divinity

3.       Vespasian

Nero did claim divine status, but was not particularly concerned with the temple, though it was during his reign that the temple was besieged and by Roman troops.  Vespasian ruled as emperor (and was ex officio deified) when his son Titus took the temple.  Sacrifices were made in the temple to the legionary standards – and extreme blasphemy for the Jews.

Gaius Caligula was the first Roman emperor to claim divinity in his lifetime.  In an ongoing dispute with the Jews, he ordered a statute of himself as Zeus to be set up in the temple.  Herod Agrippa I tried to dissuade him, and had some success unltil the general in charge of the operation asked that it be postponed.  Gaius advised the general to commit suicide, and insisted that the operation go ahead. This was only thwarted by the assassination of Gaius in 41 CE.

Could Gaius be the “Man of Sin” and Agrippa the shadowy force that was “restraining him”?   The difficulty is that the best date for Thessalonians is around 50 CE.  We hypothesized that the “little apocalypse” came  from an earlier document, contemporary with the Gaius crisis.  A similar passage occurs in Luke 13.

This is a blog set up by Peter Combes. It is intended to be used as an adjunct to the "Bible in Context" classes at Chevy Chase Presbyterian Church, to enable no-shows to catch-up, and to continue discussions started in class.