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:
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.