Some facts about the city and church of Corinth
Once again, I'm using Gordon Fee's commentary on 1 Corinthians, and many background facts are coming from him. You can read the Wikipedia article about Corinth here.
Corinth is located in Greece, at a strategic point for commerce. It existed thousands of years ago and was a very, very wealthy city with a high standard of living. It also had a big temple to Aphrodite, the goddess of love, along with over 1000 prostitutes to help you to "worship" Aphrodite. There was a saying, to "act like a Corinthian." This basically meant that you slept around. The city was destroyed by the Romans in 146 B.C., and in 44 B.C., Julius Caesar re-formed it. It became wealthy again and, because of its commercially valuable location, it was well-connected to the rest of the world. Many different types of people lived there, people who brought their religious and philosophical traditions with them. Many different gods were worshiped there, and there were also other strange religious practices.
In Paul's day, Wikipedia notes, "it was noted for its wealth, and for the luxurious, immoral and vicious habits of the people." Fee says "All of this evidence together suggests that Paul's Corinth was at once the New York, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas of the ancient world" (p. 3).
The Corinthian church was probably a church made up mostly of ex-pagans, not ex-Jews, from Corinth. Fee argues that most of the church was probably of Gentile, not Jewish background, and I think he's right. So there were a number of people who had lived the promiscuous, immoral Greek lifestyle, who had experienced conversion to Christ, but had a lot of baggage left from their backgrounds. Despite the wealth of the city, there were a number of poor people and probably a number of middle class people there, and the church was mostly made up of these.
Fee sums up the church's situation by saying "Although they were the Christian church in Corinth, an inordinate amount of Corinth was yet in them, emerging in a number of attitudes and behaviors that required radical surgery without killing the patient. That is what 1 Corinthians attempts to do." (Fee p. 4)
Corinth is located in Greece, at a strategic point for commerce. It existed thousands of years ago and was a very, very wealthy city with a high standard of living. It also had a big temple to Aphrodite, the goddess of love, along with over 1000 prostitutes to help you to "worship" Aphrodite. There was a saying, to "act like a Corinthian." This basically meant that you slept around. The city was destroyed by the Romans in 146 B.C., and in 44 B.C., Julius Caesar re-formed it. It became wealthy again and, because of its commercially valuable location, it was well-connected to the rest of the world. Many different types of people lived there, people who brought their religious and philosophical traditions with them. Many different gods were worshiped there, and there were also other strange religious practices.
In Paul's day, Wikipedia notes, "it was noted for its wealth, and for the luxurious, immoral and vicious habits of the people." Fee says "All of this evidence together suggests that Paul's Corinth was at once the New York, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas of the ancient world" (p. 3).
The Corinthian church was probably a church made up mostly of ex-pagans, not ex-Jews, from Corinth. Fee argues that most of the church was probably of Gentile, not Jewish background, and I think he's right. So there were a number of people who had lived the promiscuous, immoral Greek lifestyle, who had experienced conversion to Christ, but had a lot of baggage left from their backgrounds. Despite the wealth of the city, there were a number of poor people and probably a number of middle class people there, and the church was mostly made up of these.
Fee sums up the church's situation by saying "Although they were the Christian church in Corinth, an inordinate amount of Corinth was yet in them, emerging in a number of attitudes and behaviors that required radical surgery without killing the patient. That is what 1 Corinthians attempts to do." (Fee p. 4)
posted by Rob | 9:34 AM
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